HMS Halifax (1797)

HMS Halifax was the French privateer brig Marie that the Royal Navy captured in November 1797 and took into service. The Navy sold her in 1801 and she became the merchantman Halifax. She sailed between Portsmouth and Newfoundland and was last listed in 1808.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Halifax.

Inboard profile of HMS Halifax, by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard]; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
History
French Navy EnsignFrance
NameMarie
BuilderCaribbean
Commissioned1797
Captured15 July 1800
Great Britain
NameHMS Mary
Acquired1797 by capture
RenamedHMS Halifax
FateSold 1801
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
NameHalifax
Acquired1801 by purchase
FateLast listed in 1808
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen13655⁄94, or 139 bm)
Length
  • Overall:71 ft 0 in (21.6 m)
  • Keel:55 ft 1+1⁄2 in (16.8 m)
Beam21 ft 7 in (6.6 m)
Depth of hold9 ft 8 in (2.9 m)
Complement
  • French privateer: 60
  • RN service:55
Armament
  • French privateer: 14 guns
  • RN service: 12 × 12-pounder carronades

French privateer

Marie was a privateer brig from an unknown home port in the Caribbean.[2]

HMS Jason, Captain Charles Stirling, captured the French privateer brig Marie off Belle Isle on 21 November 1797. Marie was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 60 men.[3]

Royal Navy

Marie arrived in Plymouth on 8 December 1797 and was laid up. Between December 1801 and July 1801 she underwent fitting for sea. The Admiralty initially named her HMS Mary, but renamed her HMS Halifax prior to her commissioning.[1]

Lieutenant J. Scott commissioned Halifax in 1801. On 22 November it was reported at Plymouth that Halifax, Lieutenant J. Scott, had departed for Bantry Bay on 1 November, but had not arrived there by the 12th. As she had been out in the hurricanes on 1 and 2 November it was feared that she might have been lost.[4] She was deleted from the Navy list that same year.[1]

Mercantile service

Halifax was not lost but instead appeared in the Register of Shipping (RS) in 1802. The entry described her as a prize taken in 1797, and reported that she had undergone repairs in 1801.[5]

Year Master Owner Trade Source
1802 C.Goffe[lower-alpha 1]
J.Randel		 B.Lester Portsmouth–Newfoundland RS; repairs 1801
1808 J.Randall Lester & Co. Portsmouth–Newfoundland LR

Fate

Halifax was last listed in Lloyd's Register in 1808.

Notes
  1. The identification of her master as Goffe is probably an error. In 1801 a Halifax, Goff, master and owner, of 138 tons, launched in Hull in 1769, came into Poole on 21 January 1801 a complete wreck. While sailing from Newfoundland she had encountered a storm on 1 January 1801 and had been so damaged that a French privateer, encountering Halifax would have nothing to do with her, instead advising Halifax to make her way to port as best she could.[6] Halifax underwent repairs in 1801.[7]

Citations
  1. Winfield (2008), p. 337.
  2. Demerliac (1999), p. 305, n°2857.
  3. "No. 14071". The London Gazette. 5 December 1797. p. 1160.
  4. Naval Chronicle, Vol. 6, p.432,
  5. RS (1802), seq.No.H19.
  6. "Multiple News Items", 23 January 1801, Morning Post (London, England) Issue: 10101.
  7. Lloyd's Register (1801), seq.No.H21.

References
  • Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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