Diamond (1798 ship)

History
Great Britain
Name: Diamond
Owner:
  • 1800:Beatson & Co.[1]
  • 1801:Parry & Co.[2]
  • 1805:J. Hill & Co.[3]
Launched: 1798, Quebec
Captured: October 1805
Notes: Clayton has some discrepant information re Diamond's career as a whaler,[4] but the information in the other sources is more compelling and consistent across sources.
France
Name: Diamant
Acquired: October 1805 By capture
Decommissioned: January 1809
General characteristics
Type: Full-rigged ship
Tons burthen:
Propulsion: Sail
Complement:
Armament:
  • 1801:16 × 9-pounder guns[5]
  • 1804:14 × 9-pounder guns[5]
  • 1808:18 × 9-pounder guns[6]

Diamond was launched in 1798 at Quebec. French privateers captured her three times, the third time retaining her. In between she carried slaves. Her third capture occurred while she was on a whaling voyage. Her last voyage took her from Île de France to Bordeaux where she was decommissioned in January 1809.

British career

Diamond enters Lloyd's Register in 1800 with Anderson, master, Beatson, owner, and trade London-Halifax.[1]

The French privateer Grand Décidé captured "The Diamond Transport, from Halifax to Portsmouth" around end-October 1800.[7][Note 1] On 1 November the Royal Navy Cutter Viper recaptured Diamond.[9] Viper sent Diamond into Falmouth.[7]

In 1801 Diamond's ownership changed. The entry in Lloyd's Register is illegible, but the entry in the 1802 issue shows her master as Clark, her owner as Parry & Co., and her trade as London-Africa.[2]

On 24 August 1801 Captain James Clark received a letter of marque.[5] Diamond then made two slave trading voyages under Clark. In 1802 Diamond delivered slaves to Trinidad. Then in 1803 she delivered a cargo to Cuba.[10] As Diamond was returning from Havana on 9 August she encountered the French privateer Bellona,[11] which took her captive. However, HMS Goliath recaptured Diamond on the 12th and sent her into The Downs.[12] A few days later Diamond ran on shore a few miles below Gravesend and bilged.[13]

Next, Diamond became a whaling ship for J. Hill & Co. with destination the South Seas.[3] Captain Mark Munro (or Monro) received a letter of marque on 31 August 1804,[5] and sailed her from Britain on 17 September 1804 with destination Isle of Desolation. She was at Desolation on 25 February 1805.[14] She was also reported to have been "all well" there on 5 May.[15]

On 10 November, the French privateer Napoléon[16] captured Diamond in the Mosambique Channel,[17] after a three-day chase.[18] Then on 10 December Napoléon captured Hercules.[17] The capture occurred off Cape Agulhas as Hercules was returning to England from Bombay, and Napoléon sent her into Port Louis. At her capture, Hercules was carrying a cargo of cotton.[19][Note 2]. In November 1805, Napoléon brought the prisoners from Hercules and from Diamond into the Cape Colony, then in Dutch hands.[19] There Alex Tennant, resident in the Cape, arranged at his own expense for the prisoners to be sent to St Helena.[20] The Danish ship Beshriermerin arrived at St Helena on 6 January 1806 with the British crews.[17]

French career

The French renamed Diamond Diamant.[19] An ambiguous report has "The Napoleon, prize of the Diamant, consignees of the Lenouvelle brothers, three masted vessel, of about 400 tons, copper-lined, to be sold 5 April [1806] by notary Guérin."[21]

At Île de France the French commissioned in September 1808 under the command of Captain Joseph Potier "en guerre et en marchandises", that is an armed merchantman that was also authorised to take prizes should the opportunity arise. In mid-October, Diamant left Mauritius, bound for Lorient. She arrived in Quiberon Bay in the evening of 21 January 1809 and ran into the British blockade; a frigate gave chase, but Potier managed to escape by throwing his artillery overboard.[18] Diamant arrived off Bordeaux on the 23rd, where a storm forced Potier to cut down her masts to save the ship; he finally arrived in Bordeau harbour on the 25th.[18] She was decommissioned after her arrival at Bordeaux in January 1809.[6]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Fisgard captured Grand Décidé around 20 October.[8]
  2. ↑ Napoléon was under the command of Captain Malo le Nouvel. She was armed with 30 guns and had a crew of 180 men.[19] HMS Narcissus captured Napoleon on 25 December.[17]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Lloyd's Register (1800), Seq. №276.
  2. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1802), Seq. №98.
  3. 1 2 Lloyd's Register (1805), Seq. №113.
  4. ↑ Clayton (2014), pp.97-98.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Letter of Marque, - accessed 14 May 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 Demerliac (1804), №2829, p.329.
  7. 1 2 Lloyd's List №4100.
  8. ↑ "No. 15304". The London Gazette. 21 October 1800. p. 1206.
  9. ↑ "No. 15526". The London Gazette. 23 October 1802. p. 1126.
  10. ↑ Thomas Cozens: London Slave Ship Voyages Database
  11. ↑ Demerliac (2004), n°2237, p.282.
  12. ↑ Lloyd's List №4378.
  13. ↑ Lloyd's List №4380.
  14. ↑ Jones, A.G. E.; Dale Chatwin; and Rhys Richards. BSWF Database – voyages: Diamond.
  15. ↑ Lloyd's List №4260.
  16. ↑ Demerliac, 1800-1815, n°2031 p.265
  17. 1 2 3 4 Lloyd's List №4302.
  18. 1 2 3 Cunat (1853, p.418.
  19. 1 2 3 4 Austen (1935), pp.99-100.
  20. ↑ Records of the Cape Colony from February 1793 (1901), Government of the Cape Colony; pp.404-12.
  21. ↑ Piat (2007), p. 138.

References

  • Austen, Harold Chomley Mansfield (1935) Sea Fights and Corsairs of the Indian Ocean: Being the Naval History of Mauritius from 1715 to 1810. (Port Louis, Mauritius:R.W. Brooks).
  • Clayton, Jane M. (2014) Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775-1815: An alphabetical list of ships. (Berforts Group). ISBN 978-1908616524
  • Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 A 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-903179-30-1.
  • Cunat, Charles (1857). Saint-Malo illustré par ses marins (in French). Imprimerie de F. Péalat.
  • Piat, Denis (trans: Mervyn North-Coombes) (2007) Pirates and Corsairs in Mauritius. (Christian le Comte). ISBN 978-99949-905-3-5
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