HMS Eclair (1801)
Encyclopedia
HMS Eclair was a French schooner captured in 1801. The British took her into service under her French name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronade
s. In 1804 she engaged in a noteworthy, albeit indecisive single ship action with the 22-gun French privateer Grande Decide. In 1809 she was renamed Pickle. In December 1812 she and three other small British vessels engaged the French 40-gun frigate Gloire in another noteworthy and indecisive action. She was sold in 1818.
, they observed a convoy of French coasters, escorted by an armed schooner, sailing towards Vieux-Fort, Guadeloupe. At midnight Garland, accompanied by two boats from each of the three ships, under the command of Lieutenants Kenneth Mackenzie and Francis Peachey, attempted to capture or destroy the convoy. The vessels, however, except one, succeeded in getting under the guns of Basse-terre. One vessel, which had anchored near Vieux-Fort, they boarded and brought off under a heavy but apparently harmless cannonade.
Two days later, in the afternoon, the British observed the French schooner Éclair, of four long 4-pounders, twenty 1½ pounder brass swivels, and 45 men, the escort of the convoy in question, put into Trois-Rivières
, and anchor under the protection of one principal battery and two smaller flanking ones. Lieutenants Mackenzie, of Daphne, and Peachey, of Cyane, volunteered to attempt cutting her out. For this purpose Mackenzie, with 25 seamen and marines, went on board the Garland. The next day, which was as early as the breeze would permit, Garland ran alongside Éclair and Lieutenants Mackenzie and Peachey, with 30 men, boarded and carried the French schooner in the face of the batteries.
The British lost one seaman and one marine killed, and a sergeant of marines and two seamen wounded. Éclair lost one seaman killed, two drowned, and her captain, first and second lieutenants, and six men wounded.
Éclair was of 145 tons burthen bm
. Although she carried only four guns, she was pierced for 12 and was large enough to carry that many cannon. The schooner had recently sailed from Rochefort and was going to Pointe Petre to complete her armament of twelve 6-pounders and 20 brass swivels. The British took her into service under her existing name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronade
s. Mackenzie became Eclair's first commander.
and Saint Martin
, led by Rear-Admiral Duckworth
and Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge. On 20 March, after the capture of St Bartholomew, Duckworth sent and Eclair to investigate ten vessels that were approaching. Although it took a while, the ten vessels proved to be as Duckworth expected, troopships from England that, following Duckworth's orders, had landed their sick and the women and children at Barbados before joining him. These reinforcements enabled Duckworth to attack St. Martin on 24 March.
In 1803 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant William Carr, in the West Indies. On 6 August she was off Dominica when she chased two row-boat privateers from Guadaloupe until she was becalmed. She was able to capture one of them, which was the government sloop of the island. Eclairs jolly-boat, with only six men aboard, including Eclairs master and a young midshipman, attacked the second rowboat, which had 16 well-armed men aboard. The British succeeded in capturing their quarry within a few minutes, after killing her commander and one man, and wounding three, without sustaining any casualties of their own.
In August Eclair captured two vessels. On 14 August she captured the Spanish armed schooner Maria, which was carrying provisions, silks and gunpowder. Then on 29 August Eclair captured the Swedish ship Little John and her cargo of sugar and cotton.
On 10 February 1804 Eclair was 200 miles north of Tortola, returning from having escorted a packet
on 5 February, when she pursued and caught up with a strange vessel. The two ships engaged for three-quarters of an hour, exchanging broadsides and small arms fire. However, when it became clear that Carr was preparing to attempt to board, the French vessel ceased firing and sailed away to the north. Eclair attempted to pursue but she had lost too much of her rigging in the action. Her casualties were one marine killed and four seamen wounded. The French vessel turned out to have been the privateer Grande Decide, Captain Mathieu Goy, of 22 long 8-pounders and a complement, including 80 soldiers, of about 220 men. John William Norie wrote, "This may be considered as one of the most brilliant and gallant exploits in naval history."
On 5 March Eclair sighted a schooner sailing towards La Hayes, Guadeloupe, where she could shelter under the guns of the battery there. Eclairs master, Mr John Salmon, and the surgeon, Mr John B. Douglas, and 10 men volunteered to take a boat and form a boarding party. As their boat entered the harbour both the vessel and the battery opened fire on them. Still, they managed to board and capture schooner in ten minutes. In capturing her they killed five of her crew of 50, and wounded ten while suffering no casualties of their own. The wounded included the captain and four men that jumped overboard. The battery continued to fire on the boarding party as they towed and rowed out their prize using sweeps. The schooner turned out to be the privateer Rose, which was armed with one long brass 9-pounder gun and had provisions for a three-month cruise having only just set out.
On 25 June 1804, Eclair captured a Swedish galliot carrying French passengers and property. In August Eclair captured the French sloop Try again, which was carrying provisions. In December 1804 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Beckett.
In 1805, Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant George James Evelyn, in the Leeward Islands. On 5 April he recaptured the English ship Heroine, from London, and her cargo of dry goods. Eclair and shared in the capture, on 25 November, of the schooner, Henrietta Adelaide.
On 9 June 1807, off Point Cedar, the Eclairs cutter, with six men under the command of a midshipman, captured a Spanish armed rowboat. After an hour's heavy fighting the ten-man crew of the rowboat escaped ashore. On 20 July Eclair was in company with and when they captured Comet.
Also in 1807, Eclair encountered the French three-masted privateer schooner Felicité. Evelyn captured her prize, and then brought the privateer to action. During the engagement Eclair had one man killed and four wounded, including Evelyn, before Felicité was able to escape.
Almost a year later, on 20 June 1808, Eclair again captured a rowboat privateer, the Franchise. She had 23 men on board, armed with small arms. On 27 November, Eclair captured the Fair American. On the same day she and captured the Ocean.
On 30 January 1809, Eclair assisted with the landing of British troops at Bay Robert, Basse Terre
. The naval force there was under the command of Captain Philip Beaver
of . In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. On 8 February 1809, Evelyn assumed command of .The notice in the London Gazette does not list Eclair among the vessels whose crews qualified for the medal. However, other, fuller accounts do.
having been recently lost, and the Cruizer-class
brig-sloop having been launched and commissioned in 1807, and commissioned her under Lieutenant Goodwin. However, by June she was under the perhaps temporary command of Lieutenant J.G.(?) Evelyn, who on 11 June sailed for Portugal.There is some doubt about this. By February 1809, Lieutenant George James Evelyn was already captain of Lieutenant Andrew Crawford was appointed to succeed Goodwin, who would die in late 1809 or early 1810 in the Royal Hospital, Plymouth. Crawford may have taken command in early 1810.
On 15 April 1810 Pickle, under Crawford's command, captured the French brig Hypolite Chery and her cargo. A few weeks later, on 9 May, Pickle, , and were in company when Nonpareil captured the French navy brig Canoniere (or No. 176). On 7 July 1810, Pickle sailed for the Davis Strait
, the northern arm of the Labrador Sea
.
In 1811 Pickle came under the command of Lieutenant William Figg. During the night of 17 December 1812 Pickle and the 18-gun ship-sloop were becalmed off the Lizard
with six merchantmen. At dawn they found that they were also in company with the French 40-gun frigate Gloire. When a wind came up the Frenchman made all sail to escape pursued by the British ships, who were joined later by the 12-gun brig-sloop and 4-gun schooner . In the exchange of fire Albacore suffered one man killed and six or seven wounded before she pulled back. Eventually, the frigate managed to outrun the four small vessels. In the engagement Landrail did not actually fire her guns. As James put it, “for the Landrail to have fired her 12-pounders would have been a farce.”
On 11 April 1813, Pickle captured the French sloop Marie Joseph, Laurent Le Breton, master. Pickle was in company when the cutter captured the French sloop Les Amis on 18 March 1814.
Carronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...
s. In 1804 she engaged in a noteworthy, albeit indecisive single ship action with the 22-gun French privateer Grande Decide. In 1809 she was renamed Pickle. In December 1812 she and three other small British vessels engaged the French 40-gun frigate Gloire in another noteworthy and indecisive action. She was sold in 1818.
Capture
On 15 January, while the 20-gun post-ship , Captain Richard Matson, 18-gun ship-sloops and , Captains Henry Matson and James Nash, and schooner-tender Garland, were at an anchor in the harbour of the SaintesÎles des Saintes
The Îles des Saintes , also called simply Les Saintes , is a small archipelago of French Antilles located in the South of Basse-Terre Island, on the West of Marie-Galante and in the North of Dominica in the arc of Lesser Antilles...
, they observed a convoy of French coasters, escorted by an armed schooner, sailing towards Vieux-Fort, Guadeloupe. At midnight Garland, accompanied by two boats from each of the three ships, under the command of Lieutenants Kenneth Mackenzie and Francis Peachey, attempted to capture or destroy the convoy. The vessels, however, except one, succeeded in getting under the guns of Basse-terre. One vessel, which had anchored near Vieux-Fort, they boarded and brought off under a heavy but apparently harmless cannonade.
Two days later, in the afternoon, the British observed the French schooner Éclair, of four long 4-pounders, twenty 1½ pounder brass swivels, and 45 men, the escort of the convoy in question, put into Trois-Rivières
Canton of Trois-Rivières
The Canton of Trois-Rivières is a canton in the Arrondissement of Basse-Terre on the island of Guadeloupe.-Municipalities:The canton includes 2 communes:*Trois-Rivières*Vieux-Fort-See also:*Cantons of Guadeloupe*Communes of Guadeloupe...
, and anchor under the protection of one principal battery and two smaller flanking ones. Lieutenants Mackenzie, of Daphne, and Peachey, of Cyane, volunteered to attempt cutting her out. For this purpose Mackenzie, with 25 seamen and marines, went on board the Garland. The next day, which was as early as the breeze would permit, Garland ran alongside Éclair and Lieutenants Mackenzie and Peachey, with 30 men, boarded and carried the French schooner in the face of the batteries.
The British lost one seaman and one marine killed, and a sergeant of marines and two seamen wounded. Éclair lost one seaman killed, two drowned, and her captain, first and second lieutenants, and six men wounded.
Éclair was of 145 tons burthen bm
Builder's Old Measurement
Builder's Old Measurement is the method of calculating the size or cargo capacity of a ship used in England from approximately 1720 to 1849. It estimated the tonnage of a ship based on length and maximum beam...
. Although she carried only four guns, she was pierced for 12 and was large enough to carry that many cannon. The schooner had recently sailed from Rochefort and was going to Pointe Petre to complete her armament of twelve 6-pounders and 20 brass swivels. The British took her into service under her existing name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronade
Carronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...
s. Mackenzie became Eclair's first commander.
HMS Eclair
In March 1801 Eclair took part in the attack on the islands of St BartholomewSaint Barthélemy
Saint Barthélemy , officially the Territorial collectivity of Saint Barthélemy , is an overseas collectivity of France. Often abbreviated to Saint-Barth in French, or St. Barts in English, the indigenous people called the island Ouanalao...
and Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
, led by Rear-Admiral Duckworth
John Thomas Duckworth
Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1st Baronet, GCB was a British naval officer, serving during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as the Governor of Newfoundland during the War of 1812, and a member of the British House of Commons during his...
and Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge. On 20 March, after the capture of St Bartholomew, Duckworth sent and Eclair to investigate ten vessels that were approaching. Although it took a while, the ten vessels proved to be as Duckworth expected, troopships from England that, following Duckworth's orders, had landed their sick and the women and children at Barbados before joining him. These reinforcements enabled Duckworth to attack St. Martin on 24 March.
In 1803 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant William Carr, in the West Indies. On 6 August she was off Dominica when she chased two row-boat privateers from Guadaloupe until she was becalmed. She was able to capture one of them, which was the government sloop of the island. Eclairs jolly-boat, with only six men aboard, including Eclairs master and a young midshipman, attacked the second rowboat, which had 16 well-armed men aboard. The British succeeded in capturing their quarry within a few minutes, after killing her commander and one man, and wounding three, without sustaining any casualties of their own.
In August Eclair captured two vessels. On 14 August she captured the Spanish armed schooner Maria, which was carrying provisions, silks and gunpowder. Then on 29 August Eclair captured the Swedish ship Little John and her cargo of sugar and cotton.
On 10 February 1804 Eclair was 200 miles north of Tortola, returning from having escorted a packet
Packet ship
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...
on 5 February, when she pursued and caught up with a strange vessel. The two ships engaged for three-quarters of an hour, exchanging broadsides and small arms fire. However, when it became clear that Carr was preparing to attempt to board, the French vessel ceased firing and sailed away to the north. Eclair attempted to pursue but she had lost too much of her rigging in the action. Her casualties were one marine killed and four seamen wounded. The French vessel turned out to have been the privateer Grande Decide, Captain Mathieu Goy, of 22 long 8-pounders and a complement, including 80 soldiers, of about 220 men. John William Norie wrote, "This may be considered as one of the most brilliant and gallant exploits in naval history."
On 5 March Eclair sighted a schooner sailing towards La Hayes, Guadeloupe, where she could shelter under the guns of the battery there. Eclairs master, Mr John Salmon, and the surgeon, Mr John B. Douglas, and 10 men volunteered to take a boat and form a boarding party. As their boat entered the harbour both the vessel and the battery opened fire on them. Still, they managed to board and capture schooner in ten minutes. In capturing her they killed five of her crew of 50, and wounded ten while suffering no casualties of their own. The wounded included the captain and four men that jumped overboard. The battery continued to fire on the boarding party as they towed and rowed out their prize using sweeps. The schooner turned out to be the privateer Rose, which was armed with one long brass 9-pounder gun and had provisions for a three-month cruise having only just set out.
On 25 June 1804, Eclair captured a Swedish galliot carrying French passengers and property. In August Eclair captured the French sloop Try again, which was carrying provisions. In December 1804 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Beckett.
In 1805, Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant George James Evelyn, in the Leeward Islands. On 5 April he recaptured the English ship Heroine, from London, and her cargo of dry goods. Eclair and shared in the capture, on 25 November, of the schooner, Henrietta Adelaide.
On 9 June 1807, off Point Cedar, the Eclairs cutter, with six men under the command of a midshipman, captured a Spanish armed rowboat. After an hour's heavy fighting the ten-man crew of the rowboat escaped ashore. On 20 July Eclair was in company with and when they captured Comet.
Also in 1807, Eclair encountered the French three-masted privateer schooner Felicité. Evelyn captured her prize, and then brought the privateer to action. During the engagement Eclair had one man killed and four wounded, including Evelyn, before Felicité was able to escape.
Almost a year later, on 20 June 1808, Eclair again captured a rowboat privateer, the Franchise. She had 23 men on board, armed with small arms. On 27 November, Eclair captured the Fair American. On the same day she and captured the Ocean.
On 30 January 1809, Eclair assisted with the landing of British troops at Bay Robert, Basse Terre
Basse-Terre Island
Basse-Terre Island is the name of the western-half of Guadeloupe proper, in the Lesser Antilles. It is separated from the other half of Guadeloupe proper, Grande-Terre, by a narrow sea channel called the Rivière Salée ....
. The naval force there was under the command of Captain Philip Beaver
Philip Beaver
Philip Beaver was an officer of the Royal Navy, serving during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries...
of . In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. On 8 February 1809, Evelyn assumed command of .The notice in the London Gazette does not list Eclair among the vessels whose crews qualified for the medal. However, other, fuller accounts do.
HMS Pickle
In May 1809 the Admiralty renamed her Pickle, the famous schooner PickleHMS Pickle (1800)
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting. of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as an armed tender on the Jamaica Station...
having been recently lost, and the Cruizer-class
Cruizer class brig-sloop
The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging...
brig-sloop having been launched and commissioned in 1807, and commissioned her under Lieutenant Goodwin. However, by June she was under the perhaps temporary command of Lieutenant J.G.(?) Evelyn, who on 11 June sailed for Portugal.There is some doubt about this. By February 1809, Lieutenant George James Evelyn was already captain of Lieutenant Andrew Crawford was appointed to succeed Goodwin, who would die in late 1809 or early 1810 in the Royal Hospital, Plymouth. Crawford may have taken command in early 1810.
On 15 April 1810 Pickle, under Crawford's command, captured the French brig Hypolite Chery and her cargo. A few weeks later, on 9 May, Pickle, , and were in company when Nonpareil captured the French navy brig Canoniere (or No. 176). On 7 July 1810, Pickle sailed for the Davis Strait
Davis Strait
Davis Strait is a northern arm of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Nunavut, Canada's Baffin Island. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis , who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage....
, the northern arm of the Labrador Sea
Labrador Sea
The Labrador Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean between the Labrador Peninsula and Greenland. The sea is flanked by continental shelves to the southwest, northwest, and northeast. It connects to the north with Baffin Bay through the Davis Strait...
.
In 1811 Pickle came under the command of Lieutenant William Figg. During the night of 17 December 1812 Pickle and the 18-gun ship-sloop were becalmed off the Lizard
The Lizard
The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....
with six merchantmen. At dawn they found that they were also in company with the French 40-gun frigate Gloire. When a wind came up the Frenchman made all sail to escape pursued by the British ships, who were joined later by the 12-gun brig-sloop and 4-gun schooner . In the exchange of fire Albacore suffered one man killed and six or seven wounded before she pulled back. Eventually, the frigate managed to outrun the four small vessels. In the engagement Landrail did not actually fire her guns. As James put it, “for the Landrail to have fired her 12-pounders would have been a farce.”
On 11 April 1813, Pickle captured the French sloop Marie Joseph, Laurent Le Breton, master. Pickle was in company when the cutter captured the French sloop Les Amis on 18 March 1814.