The French brig Albanaise (or Albannese) was launched in 1790. In June 1800 the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 captured her in the Mediterranean and took her into service as HMS Albanaise. In November her crew mutinied, took command of the vessel, and sailed her to Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish.

French service

Albanaise was a tartane

Tartane

A Tartane or tartan was a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading in the Mediterranean. They were in use for over 300 years until the late 19th century. A tartane had a single mast on which was rigged a large lateen sail, and with a bowsprit and fore-sail. When the wind was...

 built for the purpose of transporting lumber for ship-building from Albania and Italy. However the project was abandoned and she was employed as an ordinary transport. In late 1792 she served as a powder magazine

Magazine (artillery)

Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...

 for four small frigates converted into bomb vessel

Bomb vessel

A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannon —although bomb vessels carried a few cannon for self-defence—but rather mortars mounted forward near the bow and elevated to a high angle, and projecting their fire in a...

s. She then served out of Agde

Agde

Agde is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. It is the Mediterranean port of the Canal du Midi.-Location:Agde is located on the river Hérault, 4 km from the Mediterranean Sea, and 750 km from Paris...

 and Sète

Sète

Sète is a commune in the Hérault department in Languedoc-Roussillon in southern France. Its inhabitants are called Sétois....

 under Enseigne de vaisseaux Bernard.

In 1795 the French Navy converted her to a gun boat. Then in February 1799 the French converted her to a brig.

Capture

On 4 June 1800 and captured Albanaise. She was sailing from Toulon with provisions for Genoa when she encountered the Port Mahon, which initiated the chase about 35 miles west of Corsica. The chase lasted until early evening when Phoenix came up as Albanaise was just six miles out of Port Fino on Elba. Lieutenant Etiénne J. (or S.) P. Rolland fired two broadsides and then struck. (A subsequent court martial exonerated Rolland of the loss of his vessel.) shared in the capture, as did a number of other vessels in the squadron blockading Genoa.

The British took her into service as HMS Albanaise and commissioned her under the command of Lieutenant Francis Newcombe.

Service

On 20 September she captured the Spanish vessel Virgen del Rosario. Then on 9 October she cleared the trabaccolo

Trabaccolo

The Trabaccoló, Trabaccalo, or Trabakul, is a type of Adriatic Sea sailing coaster. The name comes from the word trabacca, which means tent, which in turn recalls the vessel's sails. The trabaccoló was a typical Venetian boat-form that dates back to the first half of the 15th Century, and which...

 Santa Maria, which was carrying linseed from Barré to Ferraro.

Mutiny

However in November the crew of Albanaise mutinied while she was escorting a small convoy of seven merchantmen that were carrying cattle and barley from Arzew

Arzew

Arzew or Arzeu is a port city in Algeria, from Oran. It is the capital of Arzew District, Oran Province.-Antiquity:Like the rest of North Africa, the site of modern-day Arzew was originally inhabited by the Berbers...

 for the garrison at Gibraltar. On 22 November she had captured a small Spanish vessel and taken her eight-man crew board, while putting five men aboard the prize, including master's mate John Terrel as commander. Newcombe then took special precautions, worried about the possibility of the prisoners conspiring against their captors.

Newcombe was awakened by noises at midnight and on discovering the mutiny, was able to shoot Hugh Keenan, one of the mutineers, dead. He would have shot the ringleader, Jacob Godfrey, but his pistol misfired. The mutineers then overpowered him and tied him up. The mutineers also restrained the other officers and loyal crew. The next day the mutineers took Albanaise into Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish.

Courts martial

The court martial of Newcombe and his officers for their conduct during the mutiny took place on 7 June 1801 on board off Alexandria. The court acquitted Newcombe and his officers, judging that the crew (many of whom were foreigners), had risen and overpowered the officers or restrained them and that the gunner, Mr. Lewyn, was to be especially commended for having resisted until wounded. The court gave its opinion that Lieutenant William Prosser Kent was unfit to hold a commission in the Navy because he refused, “from mistaken religious motives”, to give his evidence under oath. It further stated that it had reason to believe that Master’s Mate John Tyroll (or Tyrell), although away in a prize at the time of the mutiny, knew of the plan and had not given warning. The court recommended further investigation into the crewmen Alexander M’Kiever and Thomas Parsons, who had been seen armed.

Godfrey was hanged in January 1802. Four crewmen were tried on in Portsmouth on 18 June 1802. Tyroll was acquitted, the only evidence against him being an ambiguous statement by Godfrey and hearsay from another mutineer who was never caught. Furthermore, his conduct in the year after the mutiny, when he had been transferred from vessel to vessel, had been exemplary as he participated in some 30 boat and other actions. The other three, Parsons, M’Keiver and J. Marriott, had returned from Malaga with Newcombe. The court martial board ordered that all three were to forfeit all pay and were to be incarcerated for three months in the Marshalsea

Marshalsea

The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...

. In addition, M’Keiver received 50 lashes and Marriott 100.

The British also captured several of the mutineers. Three more were tried on 27 September 1802 aboard . The court martial acquitted one man and sentenced another to 300 lashes. The court judged a third man, Patrick (or Henry) Kennedy, to have been a ringleader and ordered him tried separately. He was tried on 5 October and was sentenced to be hanged. He was hanged aboard on 16 October.

See also

• List of ships captured in the 18th century
• List of ships captured in the 19th century
• Glossary of nautical terms
  Glossary of nautical terms
  This is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, many date from the 17th-19th century. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms, :Category:Nautical terms, and Nautical metaphors in English.- A :...