HMS Charlotte was a mercantile schooner purchased by the Royal Navy in 1797 and commissioned in 1798. In her brief military career in the Caribbean she captured two small enemy privateers before she herself fell prey to a French privateer. The British recaptured her a little more than a year later but then broke her up in 1799 rather than recommissioning her.

Cruising

The Royal Navy armed Charlotte with eight 6-pounder guns and gave her a crew of 60 men. There are no records of any of her dimensions. She was commissioned under Lieutenant John Williams.

On 29 May Charlotte captured the French schooner Mort, off Dominica. Mort was armed with four guns and had a crew of 36 men. She had not made any captures since leaving Guadeloupe.

On 9 September Charlotte captured the Dutch privateer Esle Andeneming, of Surinam. Esle Andeneming was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 38 men. She was provisioned for a three-month cruise and was nineteen days out, not having captured anything, when Charlotte captured her off the Demerary river.

Capture

Lieutenant John Thicknesse replaced Williams. Shortly thereafter, on 16 October 1798 the French 14-gun privateer Enfant Prodigue

HMS Saint Lucia (1803)

HMS Saint Lucia was a brig-sloop, the former French privateer schooner Enfant Prodigue, which the British captured in 1803 and took into service with the Royal Navy...

 captured Charlotte off Cap Français or Cape François

Cap-Haïtien

Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...

, Hispaniola. Charlotte suffered one man wounded before she struck her colours. A second, smaller schooner and two large armed launches supported Enfant Prodigue in the attack on Charlotte, which suffered considerable damage. Her main boom topping lift and all the braces had been shot away. One gun had been dismounted and two others disabled by broken breeches, leaving her with only five guns to continue the action. Surrounded by the enemy and unable to manoeuvre, Thicknesse was forced to surrender. Charlottes low casualty rate was a consequence of the French tactic of firing high to disable rigging. The subsequent court-martial honourably acquitted him of any fault.

Recapture

The French renamed her Vengeur and employed her as a privateer. However, on 24 November 1799, recaptured her, and captured three other privateers as well, off Cape Triburon as the four French vessels were becalmed while on their way from Cape François

Cap-Haïtien

Cap-Haïtien is a city of about 190,000 people on the north coast of Haiti and capital of the Department of Nord...

 to Jacquemel

Jacmel

Jacmel, also known by its indigenous Taíno name of Yaquimel, is a town in southern Haiti founded in 1698. It is the capital of the department of Sud-Est and has an estimated population of 40,000, while the municipality of Jacmel had a population of 137,966 at the 2003 Census.The buildings are...

. shared in the capture.