HMS Spitfire (1793)

HMS Spitfire was the French 6-gun privateer schooner Poulette, launched in 1793, that the Royal Navy captured that same year. Lieutenant John Perkins commissioned her in April.[1] Under Perkins she was part of Commodore John Ford's squadron at Jamaica. She was lost with all hands off Saint-Domingue, Hispaniola, in February 1794.

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

History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Spitfire
Launched1793
AcquiredBy capture 1793
FateLost 1794
General characteristics [1]
Typeschooner
Tons burthen6060⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 59 ft 4 in (18.1 m) (overall);
  • 53 ft 0 in (16.2 m) (keel)
Beam14 ft 8 in (4.5 m)
Depth of hold5 ft 4 in (1.6 m)
Complement40; later 35
Armament4 × 3-pounder guns

French privateer

Poulette was a privateer from an unknown home port operating in the Caribbean in 1793.[2]

HMS Spitfire

Spitfire was one of five vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 17 July of the Lady Walterstasse, a Droit of Admiralty.[3]

In September 1793 at the request of French Royalists Commodore Ford's squadron attacked Saint-Domingue and Jérémie in the Caribbean.[4] Ford sent the frigates Penelope, Iphigenia, and Hermione, plus Spitfire, to the north side of the island where on 23 September 1793 the British captured four merchant vessels at L'Islet, and on the 29th seven at Flamande Bay. Also on the 23rd, the squadron directly under Ford captured Môle-Saint-Nicolas, where they captured amongst other vessels a schooner belonging to the French Navy named Convention Nationale; the British took her into service under her earlier name as HMS Marie Antoinette; Ford gave command of her to Perkins.[5]

Lieutenant T.W. Rich replaced Perkins.[1] On 12 February 1794 Spitfire capsized off Santo Domingo with the loss of her entire crew.[6] Another account has her capsizing in the Mona Passage, off Santo Domingo, with the sloop Saucy Tom, Edmonson, master, rescuing four crew members after they had spent four hours in the water.[7][8]

Citations
  1. Winfield (2008), p. 355.
  2. Demerliac (1999), p. 304, n°2841.
  3. "No. 15249". The London Gazette. 19 April 1800. p. 379.
  4. Clowes (1897–1903), Volume 4, p. 214.
  5. "No. 13600". The London Gazette. 10 December 1793. p. 1096.
  6. Hepper (1994), p. 76.
  7. "(untitled)". The Times. No. 2967. London. 19 April 1794. col C, p. 2.
  8. Grocott (1997), p. 7.

References
  • Clowes, W. Laird, et al. (1897–1903) The royal navy: a history from the earliest times to the present. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.; London: S. Low, Marston and Co.).
  • Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-24-1.
  • Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras. London: Chatham. ISBN 1861760302.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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