HMS Curlew (1812)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Curlew.

HMS Curlew (1812) was a Royal Navy Cruizer class brig-sloop built by (William) Good & Co, at Bridport and launched in 1812. She served with the Navy for only 10 years. During the War of 1812 she sailed from Halfax and captured several American privateers. Her greatest moment was her role in the 1819 British attack on Ras al-Khaimah. Curlew was sold in 1822 in Bombay. She then had a 13 or so year career as an opium runner for James Matheson, one of the founders of the firm Jardine Matheson.

War of 1812

Cmdr. Michael Head was appointed to Curlew on 27 June 1812 and commissioned her in July. He sailed her for North America on 28 August. On 31 October, Curlew, in company with Shannon, Nymphe and Tenedos captured the privateer brig Thorn. She was armed with eighteen long 9-pounders and had a crew of 140 men. Thorn was on her first cruise, three weeks out of Marblehead. Next month, on 6 November, Curlew recaptured the brig Friendship. A privateer had captured her while she was sailing from Quebec to Tenerife.

In March 1813, Nympe, Hogue and Curlew sent in to Halifax a ship from Wiscasset, that had been bound for Saint Barts. On April 2, Curlew brought into Halifax the American letter of marquee Volante of 22 guns, or 14 guns, and 90 men. Actually, Volante was pierced for 22 guns but carried 10 24-pounder carronades and four long 9-pounders, giving her a broadside roughly half that of Curlew's. Taking Volante involved an exchange of shots but no casualties were reported.

On 2 May 1813 the American frigates President and Congress fell in with Curlew. Fortunately, Head was able to outsail them and she escaped. Later that month, on the 21st, she and the frigate Tenedos captured a U.S. privateer, the 4 gun schooner Enterprise, with 91 men.

On 28 May 1814 Curlew was in Halifax, having retaken and sent in the Ontario and other vessels. Cmdr. Hugh Pearson assumed command in June after Head was promoted to Post-captain on 7 June. She arrived at Portsmouth on 24 Jun 1815. From November to January 1817 she was Chatham undergoing repairs. Between February and April 1818 she was fitted for sea. Cmdr. William Walpole commissioned her for the East Indies.

East Indies

On 8 May Curlew was at Mauritius. On 18 Aug 1819 Curlew was reported to be cruising in the Persian Gulf. By September she was in Bombay. On the way 15 large Joasmi Arab boats attacked her. After five hours of fighting she had sunk three and captured seven.

Rear Ad. King appointed Capt. Francis Augustus Collier of Liverpool to command the naval portion of a joint navy-army expedition against the pirates at Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. The naval force was to consist of Liverpool, HMS Eden, Curlew, several East India Company cruisers, and a number of gun and mortar boats. They were later joined by several vessels belonging to the Sultan of Muscat. On the army side, Major General Sir William Keir commanded 3-4,000 troops troops in transports.

The punitive expedition anchored off Ras-al-Khaimah on 2 December and two days later debarked the troops. Walpole commanded the gun boats and an armed pinnace, which covered the landing. Curlew stood in near the shore and opened her fire on the town. When it was found that 12 and 18-pounders produced no effect on the walls, the navy landed three 24-pounders from Liverpool on the 8th. The following day the troops were able to enter a deserted town. The British then spent December and early January moving up and down the coast destroying forts and vessels. The capture and destruction of the fortifications and ships in the port was a massive blow for the Gulf pirates. The Royal Navy suffered no casualties during the action.

In December Cmdr. George Gambier replaced Walpole who had received a promotion to Post-captain for his role in the attack on the pirates. Walpole returned to Britain as captain of Seringpatam. In April 1820 Lieut. The Right Honourable Price Blackwood replaced Gambier. (Blackwood was promoted to Commander on 4 June 1821.) In November 1820 Curlew participated in another punitive expedition, but due to disagreement between Blackwood and Captain Thompson of the Army, a naval force did not accompany the army inland and so missed the debacle that followed. Later, Blackwood sailed Curlew to the China seas.

On 28 December 1822 Curlew was sold to James Matheson at Bombay for 15,100 rupees. He renamed her Jamesina.

Opium running

Jamesina proceeded to run opium for more than a decade thereafter. The reason Matheson bought a naval vessel was that the opium merchants had found that their firepower was an effective deterrent to Chinese pirates and customs officials. Although the naval vessels were not designed to carry cargo, opium was compact. Crews were mixed. One report gives the Jamesina's crew in 1832 as consisting of 10 Europeans, 54 Indian lascars and four Chinese staff.

By the 1830s opium was the single most valuable commodity traded in the world. Though the trade was illegal, there was no shortage of suppliers. In 1830, the new steam tug Forbes towed Curlew, carrying 840 chests of Bengal opium, from Calcutta to Singapore, from where Curlew proceeded under sail. In 1833 Jamesina sold £330,000 worth of opium at Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo and other Chinese ports.

There are reports that in the mid-1930s Jardine-Matheson used Jamesina as a storeship for opium. It is not clear when and what her final disposition was.

Reference

• Akins, Thomas Beamish (1895) History of Halifax city. (Halifax, Nova Scotia).
• Booth, Martin (1999) Opium: a history. (New York: St. Martin's Griffin). ISBN 9780312206673
• Janin, Hunt (1999) The India-China opium trade in the nineteenth century. (Jefferson, NC [u.a.]: McFarland & Co.). ISBN 978-0786407156
• Kienast, Evabeth Miller & John Phillip Felt (2009) Lewis Coolidge and the voyage of the Amethyst, 1806-1811. (Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press). ISBN 978-1570038167
• Low, Charles Rathbone (1877) History of the Indian navy. (1613-1863). (London: R. Bentley & son).
• Murdoch, Beamish (1865-67) A history of Nova-Scotia, or Acadie. (Halifax, N.S.: J. Barnes).
• White, Barbara-Sue (1994) Turbans and Traders: Hong Kong's Indian Communities. (Oxford Univ. Press – East Asia). ISBN 978-0195852875
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.