HMS Heureux (1800)
Encyclopedia
Heureux was a 22-gun French privateer brig that the British captured in 1800. She served with the Royal Navy
as the 22-gun post ship
HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
off Bordeaux on 5 March 1800. Heureux, of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook Phoebe for an East Indiaman, and approached her. Heureux did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. She then wore upon the Phoebes weather bow and hauled to the wind on the same tack. Heureux opened fire in an attempt to disable Phoebes masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby enable Heureux to escape. Phoebe's broadside, however, was too powerful and Heureux was forced to strike her colours. Phoebe had three seamen killed, or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. Heureux had 18 men killed and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs.
She had been out 42 days but had only taken one prize, a small Portuguese sloop with a cargo of wine. The sloop had been blown out to sea while on her way from Limerick to Galway. Heureux had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth as a prize on 25 March 1800.
Barlow described Heureux as "the most complete most complete flush deck ship I have ever seen, copper fastened, highly finished and of large dimensions". Furthermore, "she will be considered as a most desirable ship for His Majesty's Service."
bought Heureux and she completed her fitting out in November. She was armed with two 9-pounder guns at her bow and twenty 32-pounder carronade
s for her broadsides. Captain Loftus Bland commissioned her in August 1800 under her existing name. She sailed for the Leeward Islands
in February 1801.
Three months after her arrival, on 28 May, some 80 leagues
to windward of Barbados, Heureux chased down and captured the 16-gun French sloop Egypte
from Guadeloupe. The chase lasted 16 hours while Egypte kept up a running fight for three hours during which she neither inflicted nor suffered any casualties. Bland reported that Egypte was said to be the fastest vessel out of Guadeloupe. She and her crew of 103 men had sailed 13 days earlier but had made no captures.
On 16 August, Heureux was between Martinique and St. Lucia when she saw the brig in an unequal fight against a Spanish letter of marque
armed with eighteen brass 32 and 12-pounder guns. Heureux sailed up as fast as she could but even before she arrived the Spaniard had struck to Guachapin. The two-hour engagement had cost Guachapin two men killed and three wounded, and the Spaniard nearly the same. The Spaniard was the Theresa, under the command of an officer of the Spanish Navy, and had a crew of 120 men.
One year later, on 10 August 1803, Heureux and Emerald captured the Dutch ship Surinam Planter, which was sailing from Surinam to Amsterdam. Her cargo consisted of 922 hogshead
s of sugar, 342 bales of cotton, and 70,000 lbs. of coffee.
On 23 September 1803 Heureux represented the Royal Navy at the capture of the Batavian Republic
's colony at Berbice
. The British captured the schooner Serpent, as well many arms, troops and the like.
Heureux then captured the French privateer and blockade runner Flibustier (or Flebustier) 40 leagues
from Barbados
on 26 February 1804. Although pierced for 14 guns, Flibustier was armed with six French 6-pounders. She had 68 men on board, was new and had provisions for a long cruise from Guadeloupe but apparently had made no captures. On 25 June 25 Heureux recaptured the English ship Esther, which was carrying a cargo of coals and potatoes. In September Heureux recaptured the English ship Salamander, a Guineaman.
Then on 9 December Heureux, now under Captain George Younghusband, captured the Spanish merchant ship San Sebastian, laden with wine. Four days later Heureux captured the Santo Christo, which was carrying military stores and merchandise.
On 31 May 1805, off Cape Nicola Mole
, Heureux captured the French felucca
privateer Desiree. Desiree was armed with one carriage gun and had a crew of 40 men.
On 28 December Heureux and Kingfisher
captured the Spanish merchant brig Solidad, which was taking brandy and wine from Cadiz to Vera Cruz. Early in the new year, on 15 January 1806, Heureux captured the Spanish letter of marque
Amelia about four miles off Trinidad. Amelia was armed with eight 6-pounder guns and carried a crew of 40 men. She was carrying a valuable cargo of dry goods and wine from A Coruña
to Cumaná
, Venezuela
.
On 15 February, Heureux captured the French privateer Bellone after a short chase. Bellone carried fourteen 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 117 men. She had on board $8000, which was her owner's share of a prize that she had carried into Cayenne. Four days later Heureux captured the French privateer Bocune after an eight-hour chase. Bocune carried three guns and a crew of 60 men.
On 8 March Heureux captured the privateer Huron, off Barbados. Huron carried sixteen 18-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounder guns. As Heureux pulled alongside, Huron opened fire but return fire from Heureux soon silenced her. Huron lost her captain, second lieutenant and two other men killed, and seven men wounded; Heureux had no casualties.
Heureux took her last prize on 30 March. Agamemnon
was 56 miles north of Barbados when she saw two strange sails. As she got closer she saw that they were Heureux chasing a schooner. Agamemnon maneuvered to cut off the schooner and both British ships came alongside the prize, with Heureux taking possession. The prize turned out to be the French privateer Dame Ernouf, of sixteen 6-pounder guns, all of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and one 12-pounder gun. She also had a crew of 115 men. Dame Ernouf was 14 days out of Guadeloupe but had made no captures.
Heureux was ordered to transfer her position from the West Indies to Halifax, Nova Scotia
in the spring of 1806. She failed to arrive in Halifax, and despite a search, she and her crew had disappeared without trace somewhere along the U.S. seaboard. She was presumed lost in June 1806 with all hands, that is, about 155 crew.
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...
as the 22-gun post ship
Post ship
Post ship was a designation used in the Royal Navy during the Age of Sail to describe a ship of the sixth-rate that was smaller than a frigate , but by virtue of being a rated ship , had to have as its captain a post captain rather than a lieutenant or commander...
HMS Heureux. She captured numerous French and Spanish privateers and merchant vessels in the Caribbean before she was lost at sea in 1806. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
French privateer
The frigate , commanded by Captain Robert Barlow, captured the privateer Heureux in the English ChannelEnglish Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
off Bordeaux on 5 March 1800. Heureux, of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook Phoebe for an East Indiaman, and approached her. Heureux did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. She then wore upon the Phoebes weather bow and hauled to the wind on the same tack. Heureux opened fire in an attempt to disable Phoebes masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby enable Heureux to escape. Phoebe's broadside, however, was too powerful and Heureux was forced to strike her colours. Phoebe had three seamen killed, or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. Heureux had 18 men killed and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs.
She had been out 42 days but had only taken one prize, a small Portuguese sloop with a cargo of wine. The sloop had been blown out to sea while on her way from Limerick to Galway. Heureux had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth as a prize on 25 March 1800.
Barlow described Heureux as "the most complete most complete flush deck ship I have ever seen, copper fastened, highly finished and of large dimensions". Furthermore, "she will be considered as a most desirable ship for His Majesty's Service."
British service
The AdmiraltyAdmiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
bought Heureux and she completed her fitting out in November. She was armed with two 9-pounder guns at her bow and twenty 32-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 for her broadsides. Captain Loftus Bland commissioned her in August 1800 under her existing name. She sailed for the Leeward Islands
Leeward Islands
The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...
in February 1801.
Three months after her arrival, on 28 May, some 80 leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
to windward of Barbados, Heureux chased down and captured the 16-gun French sloop Egypte
Egyptienne (ship)
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Egyptienne or Egypt, which commemorated Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, was a popular name for French vessels, including naval vessels and privateers...
from Guadeloupe. The chase lasted 16 hours while Egypte kept up a running fight for three hours during which she neither inflicted nor suffered any casualties. Bland reported that Egypte was said to be the fastest vessel out of Guadeloupe. She and her crew of 103 men had sailed 13 days earlier but had made no captures.
On 16 August, Heureux was between Martinique and St. Lucia when she saw the brig in an unequal fight against a Spanish letter of marque
Letter of marque
In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
armed with eighteen brass 32 and 12-pounder guns. Heureux sailed up as fast as she could but even before she arrived the Spaniard had struck to Guachapin. The two-hour engagement had cost Guachapin two men killed and three wounded, and the Spaniard nearly the same. The Spaniard was the Theresa, under the command of an officer of the Spanish Navy, and had a crew of 120 men.
One year later, on 10 August 1803, Heureux and Emerald captured the Dutch ship Surinam Planter, which was sailing from Surinam to Amsterdam. Her cargo consisted of 922 hogshead
Hogshead
A hogshead is a large cask of liquid . More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either Imperial units or U.S. customary units, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages such as wine, ale, or cider....
s of sugar, 342 bales of cotton, and 70,000 lbs. of coffee.
On 23 September 1803 Heureux represented the Royal Navy at the capture of the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
's colony at Berbice
Berbice
Berbice is a region along the Berbice River in Guyana, which was between 1627 and 1815 a colony of the Netherlands. After having been ceded to the United Kingdom in the latter year, it was merged with Essequibo and Demerara to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831...
. The British captured the schooner Serpent, as well many arms, troops and the like.
Heureux then captured the French privateer and blockade runner Flibustier (or Flebustier) 40 leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
from Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
on 26 February 1804. Although pierced for 14 guns, Flibustier was armed with six French 6-pounders. She had 68 men on board, was new and had provisions for a long cruise from Guadeloupe but apparently had made no captures. On 25 June 25 Heureux recaptured the English ship Esther, which was carrying a cargo of coals and potatoes. In September Heureux recaptured the English ship Salamander, a Guineaman.
Then on 9 December Heureux, now under Captain George Younghusband, captured the Spanish merchant ship San Sebastian, laden with wine. Four days later Heureux captured the Santo Christo, which was carrying military stores and merchandise.
On 31 May 1805, off Cape Nicola Mole
Môle Saint-Nicolas
Môle-Saint-Nicolas is a town in the Republic of Haiti. It is the chief town of the Môle-Saint-Nicolas Arrondissement in the department of Nord-Ouest...
, Heureux captured the French felucca
Felucca
A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt, Sudan, and also in Iraq. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails....
privateer Desiree. Desiree was armed with one carriage gun and had a crew of 40 men.
On 28 December Heureux and Kingfisher
HMS Kingfisher (1804)
HMS Kingfisher was a Royal Navy 18-gun Merlin-class ship sloop, built by John King and launched in 1804 at Dover. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, first in the Caribbean and then in the Mediterranean before being broken up in 11816.-Caribbean:Kingfisher was commissioned under Commander...
captured the Spanish merchant brig Solidad, which was taking brandy and wine from Cadiz to Vera Cruz. Early in the new year, on 15 January 1806, Heureux captured the Spanish letter of marque
Letter of marque
In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
Amelia about four miles off Trinidad. Amelia was armed with eight 6-pounder guns and carried a crew of 40 men. She was carrying a valuable cargo of dry goods and wine from A Coruña
A Coruña
A Coruña or La Coruña is a city and municipality of Galicia, Spain. It is the second-largest city in the autonomous community and seventeenth overall in the country...
to Cumaná
Cumaná
Cumaná is the capital of Venezuela's Sucre State. It is located 402 km east of Caracas. It was the first settlement founded by Europeans in the mainland America, in 1501 by Franciscan friars, but due to successful attacks by the indigenous people, it had to be refounded several times...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
.
On 15 February, Heureux captured the French privateer Bellone after a short chase. Bellone carried fourteen 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 117 men. She had on board $8000, which was her owner's share of a prize that she had carried into Cayenne. Four days later Heureux captured the French privateer Bocune after an eight-hour chase. Bocune carried three guns and a crew of 60 men.
On 8 March Heureux captured the privateer Huron, off Barbados. Huron carried sixteen 18-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounder guns. As Heureux pulled alongside, Huron opened fire but return fire from Heureux soon silenced her. Huron lost her captain, second lieutenant and two other men killed, and seven men wounded; Heureux had no casualties.
Heureux took her last prize on 30 March. Agamemnon
HMS Agamemnon (1781)
HMS Agamemnon was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and fought in many of the major naval battles of those conflicts...
was 56 miles north of Barbados when she saw two strange sails. As she got closer she saw that they were Heureux chasing a schooner. Agamemnon maneuvered to cut off the schooner and both British ships came alongside the prize, with Heureux taking possession. The prize turned out to be the French privateer Dame Ernouf, of sixteen 6-pounder guns, all of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and one 12-pounder gun. She also had a crew of 115 men. Dame Ernouf was 14 days out of Guadeloupe but had made no captures.
Fate
In March 1806 Captain John Morrison was assigned to replace Younghusband. (Because Edward Berry of Agamemnon wrote the letter reporting the capture of Dame Ernouf, it is not clear whether Morrison replaced Younghusband before or after her capture.)Heureux was ordered to transfer her position from the West Indies to Halifax, Nova Scotia
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
in the spring of 1806. She failed to arrive in Halifax, and despite a search, she and her crew had disappeared without trace somewhere along the U.S. seaboard. She was presumed lost in June 1806 with all hands, that is, about 155 crew.
External links
- http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1137 Michael Phillips - Ships of the Old Navy