HMS St Lawrence was a 14-gun schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 of 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...

. She had been built in 1808 in St. Michels, Talbot County, Maryland

Talbot County, Maryland

-2010:Whereas according to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau:*81.4% White*12.8% Black*0.2% Native American*1.2% Asian*0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander*1.6% Two or more races*2.7% Other races*5.5% Hispanic or Latino -2000:...

 for Thomas Tennant and sold to Philadelphians in 1810. During the War of 1812

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

 she was the American privateer

Privateer

A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...

 Atlas. The British captured her in 1813 and renamed her St Lawrence. The American privateer Chasseur

Chasseur (ship)

Chasseur was a Baltimore clipper commanded by Captain Thomas Boyle, a American privateer. She sailed from Fells Point in Baltimore, where she had been launched from Thomas Kemp's shipyard in 1812...

 recaptured her in 1815.

Privateer

The Atlas had a home port of Philadelphia and took to sea early in the war under the command of Captain David Maffitt. She was armed with 12 short 9-pounders and one long 9-pounder, and had a crew of 104 men. In July 1812, she cleared the Capes of the Delaware, and when two days out she took the brig Tulip, Captain Monk, just out from New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. On 5 August Atlas captured the Pursuit, of 450 tons, carrying 16 guns and a crew of 35 men, and the Planter, of 280 tons, carrying 12 12-pounders and a crew of 15 men. Both ships were thirty days out from Surinam, bound for London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, with a cargo of coffee, cotton, cocoa, and six hundred hogsheads of sugar. Atlas, which had sailed between the two vessels and fired broadsides from both sides, had been damaged in the fighting before the two vessels struck. Still, Atlas and her two prizes made it safely back to Philadelphia.

On a cruise early in the summer of 1813, Atlas took shelter in Ocracoke Inlet

Ocracoke Inlet

Ocracoke Inlet is an estuary located in the Outer Banks, North Carolina, United States that separates Ocracoke Island and Portsmouth Island. It connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Pamlico Sound. It is the southern terminus of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It is the northern terminus of the...

, North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, where she found the 18-gun privateer Anaconda, out of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Captain Nathaniel Shaler commanding. Here, on 12 July, a British squadron under Rear Admiral Sir George Cockburn

George Cockburn

Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Cockburn, 10th Baronet GCB was a British naval commander of the late 18th through the mid-19th centuries. He held important commands during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and eventually rose to become Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord.-Naval...

, that included HMS Highflyer

HMS Highflyer (1813)

HMS Highflyer was originally an American privateer schooner built in 1811. As a privateer she took several British vessels as prizes. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813...

, herself a former American privateer, captured the two vessels. The British took both vessels into service, the Anaconda as , and Atlas as HMS St Lawrence.

British service

Her first British commander was Lieutenant David Boyd and he served on her until 1 October 1814, when he became acting commander of the sloop Alban, which too was a former American privateer, the William Bayard.

In June 1814 St Lawrence, was part of a squadron under Captain Robert Barrie

Robert Barrie

Sir Robert Barrie KCB, KCH was a British officer of the Royal Navy noted for his service in the War of 1812....

 of the 74-gun Third Rate

Third-rate

In the British Royal Navy, a third rate was a ship of the line which from the 1720s mounted between 64 and 80 guns, typically built with two gun decks . Years of experience proved that the third rate ships embodied the best compromise between sailing ability , firepower, and cost...

 . The British chased Joshua Barney

Joshua Barney

Joshua Barney was a commodore in the United States Navy, born in Baltimore, Maryland, who served in the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.-Revolutionary War:...

's Chesapeake Bay Flotilla

Chesapeake Bay Flotilla

For two years the United States had been fighting with Great Britain during War of 1812. The British fleet was marauding the Chesapeake Bay when Joshua Barney, a naval officer of the American Revolutionary War, assembled a motley collection of barges and gunboats known generally as the Chesapeake...

 of 18 gunboats, barges and the like up the Patuxent River

Patuxent River

The Patuxent River is a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay in the state of Maryland. There are three main river drainages for central Maryland: the Potomac River to the west passing through Washington D.C., the Patapsco River to the northeast passing through Baltimore, and the Patuxent River between...

. On 26 June, the Americans scuttled 16 of the remaining vessels of the flotilla, with the British capturing one.

St Lawrence shared with a number of other British warships in the capture, on 2 July 1814, of the schooner Little Tom. Then 12 days later, St Lawrence shared in the capture of the schooners William, Eliza, Union, and Emmeline.

In January 1815 Lieutenant James E. Gordon took command. On 26 February 1815, just off Havana

Havana

Havana is the capital city, province, major port, and leading commercial centre of Cuba. The city proper has a population of 2.1 million inhabitants, and it spans a total of — making it the largest city in the Caribbean region, and the most populous...

, he encountered the privateer brig Chasseur

Chasseur (ship)

Chasseur was a Baltimore clipper commanded by Captain Thomas Boyle, a American privateer. She sailed from Fells Point in Baltimore, where she had been launched from Thomas Kemp's shipyard in 1812...

, out of Baltimore and under the command of Captain Thomas Boyle

Thomas Boyle

Thomas Boyle was one of the most successful Baltimore privateer captains during the War of 1812. He also served briefly in the United States Navy during the war.-Biography:...

.

Chasseur carried 14 guns and 102 men, while St Lawrence carried 14 guns and 76 men, though the St Lawrences broadside was much heavier. The intense action lasted only about 15 minutes, during which St Lawrence suffered six men killed and 18 wounded, several of them mortally. (According to American accounts, the English had 15 killed and 25 wounded.) The Chasseur had five killed and eight wounded, including Boyle. Both vessels were badly damaged. Captain Boyle made a cartel of St Lawrence and sent her and her crew into Havana as his prize.

Fate

HMS Acasta

HMS Acasta (1797)

HMS Acasta was a 40-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate. She saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, as well as the War of 1812. Although she never took part in any notable single-ship actions nor saw action in a major battle though she was at the Battle of San Domingo, she...

 recaptured St Lawrence in March. The British sailed St Lawrence to Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

 where an Admiralty Court

Admiralty court

Admiralty courts, also known as maritime courts, are courts exercising jurisdiction over all maritime contracts, torts, injuries and offences.- Admiralty Courts in England and Wales :...

ruled that as the capture took place after the treaty of peace, in accordance with the terms of peace she was to be returned to the United States as a legitimate prize of war.