HMS Tigress (1808)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Tigress |
| Launched: | 1801 as Numa |
| Acquired: | Captured on 29 June 1808 |
| Renamed: | HMS Algerine on 21 April 1814 |
| Fate: | Sold on 29 January 1818 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 10-gun |
| Tons burthen: | 229 31/94 bm |
| Length: |
92 ft 9 in (28.3 m) (overall) 72 ft 9.75 in (22.2 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 24 ft 4 in (7.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 9 in (3.3 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Complement: | 50 |
HMS Tigress was a 12-gun gunbrig that the Royal Navy acquired by capture and later renamed Algerine. She was broken up in 1818.
Merchantman
She was originally launched around 1801 in Baltimore, Maryland, as the Numa. There is a record of her taking a half dozen Irish passengers to the United States in 1803.
She sailed in April 1808 from New York for Saint Barthélemy, which was then a Swedish colony, but arrived at Saint-Pierre, Martinique. There French merchants bought her and fitted her out as the letter-of-marque Pierre Cézar (equally Pierre César or Pierre Czar) and armed her with two 6-pounder guns and four 18-pounder carronades, though she was pierced for 18 guns.[1] On 29 May she sailed from Saint Pierre for L'Orient with a cargo of sugar, coffee, and cotton. One month later, on 29 June, the 40-gun frigate HMS Seine captured her after a four hour and twenty minute chase off the Spanish coast. Pierre Cézar was a fast sailer and her American mate claimed that the frigate would not have caught her had she not been overloaded.[2]
British service
The British bought Pierre Cézar for almost £2266 and took her into service as Tigress, HMS Tigress (1804) having been lost earlier that year to the Danes who captured her near Agerso in the Great Belt. The Navy fitted out Tigress at Plymouth, arming her with 14 12-pounder carronades and commissioning her in October that year under Lieutenant Robert Bones.
She spent some time on the West African coast between 1809 and 1812 as part of the nascent West Africa Squadron. During this time she was involved in an attack on the French colony in Senegal in July 1809, that aimed to curtail the activities of privateers. The attack resulted in the capture of the colony, which remained in British hands until 1817. The expedition's success was bought at the cost of the loss of 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Solebay, though Solebay's entire crew was saved.
Tigress returned to England at the end of July 1812 and in the autumn Lieutenant William Carnegie took command of her at Plymouth.
Algerine
Tigress went on to serve in the Baltic in 1813 under Lieutenant Robert Henderson. In 1814 the Navy converted Tigress to a 14-gun cutter and on 21 April 1814 renamed her HMS Algerine, HMS Algerine (1810) having been wrecked the previous year.
Algerine was recommissioned in August 1816 under her last commander, Lieutenant William Price. On 12 December, her boats, together with those of the revenue cutter Harpy, Lieutenant Hugh Anderson, picked up 110 kegs of spirits at sea. The London Gazette announced that on 15 August 1817 the monies due as a result of picking up these kegs of spirits at sea would shortly be ready for payment.[3]
Fate
Algerine finally was sold at Portsmouth for £450 on 29 January 1818.
References
- ↑ Chapelle (1967), 178.
- ↑ Chapelle (1967), 180.
- ↑ http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/17278/pages/1792
- Chapelle, Howard Irving (1967) The search for speed under sail, 1700-1855. (New York: Norton).
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
