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FAVORITE
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Built in 1794, Rotherhithe.
Renamed in 1807.
Hulk in 1813. |
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- 1794 C. WHITE.
- 1795 James Athol WOOD, 09/1795, Channel West Indies.
FAVORITE assisted in quelling the insurrections which had been raging in St. Vincent and Grenada, when the slaves joined with the French part of the island under the leadership of Victor Hugues. She destroyed three French privateers in the Gulf of Paria which had long been engaged in running supplies to the latter island. Subsequently she captured an enemy cruiser which had once been a Liverpool letter of marque, and from her obtained the private night signal. This enabled Capt. WOOD to catch her two consorts before daybreak. - FAVORITE was with Capt. OTWAY in MERMAID off Labaye in Grenada when some English troops in a blockhouse were cut off by an enemy battery covering the beach. Seamen and marines were landed and, covered by the fire from the ships, the battery was stormed and taken. Shortly afterwards Capt. WOOD superintended the landing of several thousand troops, from the Buffs and the 8th. regiment, newly arrived from England, near the same place. When two ships appeared flying English colours, but actually loaded with French reinforcements from St. Lucia, the British general panicked, and ordered immediate re-embarkation. Capt. OTWAY refused to comply. His ships had landed the troops at great risk, the East Indiaman PONTSBORN had been lost, and they must stay and fight it out. He personally ordered an artillery officer in charge of some field pieces to open fire on the French ships,forcing them to cut and run out to sea with their soldiers still on board. FAVORITE pursued them but had to give up the chase when she lost her fore-top-mast. The troops then charged the enemy on Pilot Hill and gained a decisive victory.
The British position proved to be untenable against the enemy cannon so FAVORITE remained off the coast and followed the troops as they retreated to Sauteur. At daylight on 1 March 1796 Capt. WOOD, seeing the enemy take possession of Pilot Hill, worked through the intricate channel and anchored off Sauteur in the afternoon with the armed transport SALLY. He commandeered two large sloops lying at Isle Ronde and, by the evening, brought off between 1100 and 1200 troops and their followers, which he landed safely at St. Georges the following morning. - In September Capts. OTWAY and WOOD urged Sir Hugh CHRISTIAN, then about to leave for London, to point out to the government that the Spanish settlement of Trinidad represented an easy and important target, as did the Dutch at Surinam.
On 5 January 1797 Sir Ralph Abercrombie arrived at Martinique in the ARETHUSA and Capt. WOOD was pleased to find that, although he had no specific instructions, the general agreed with him. The next day Capt. WOOD received orders from Rear Ad. HARVEY to inspect the defences of Trinidad.
FAVORITE sent an officer ashore in a small sailing boat, which had been blackened to resemble a canoe, with orders to conceal himself on a small island and observe the shipping. He found three two-decked ships in Shagaramus (?Chaguanas) Bay. The FAVORITE's boat rowed round them several times in the night and Capt. WOOD concluded that they kept an indifferent lookout. The only battery appeared to be one with four guns on the east point of Parsang's Island, or Gaspar Grande, at the entrance to Shagaramus Bay. An 80-gun ship and a frigate were lying abreast of Port d'Espagne. There appeared to be about 1,000 troops on the island, with only 600 effective. - The invasion of Trinidad on 14 February 1797, following a plan submitted by Capt. WOOD, was entirely successful and he was promoted to the SAN DAMASO (74) the only line-of-battle ship taken. The other warships were all burnt by the Spaniards to avoid capture.
- 1797 S. FOWELL, 05/1797. J. HANSON, 07/1797.
- 1798 Lord CAMELFORD, 01/1798. West Indies.
Lord CAMELFORD shot Lieut. Charles PETERSON of the PERDRIX (22), at Antigua on 13 January 1798 with a pistol taken from Act. Lieut. Clement MILWARD. - 1799 Portsmouth.
- 1800 Jos. WESTBEACH, North Sea.
Off Flamborough Head on the 15 January 1801 he gave chase to a cutter close in shore and captured her after seven hours. She was the privateer VOYAGEUR of Dunkirk, armed with fourteen carriage guns and commanded by Egide Colbert. She had been out from Ostend for four days and had captured the CAMILLA of Sunderland the day before.
At half past ten on the morning of the 12 March Capt. WESTBEACH gave chase to a lugger off Scarborough which he continued until he lost sight of her in the evening. He then chased a sail to windward and captured the French privateer schooner OPTIMISTE of Dunkirk, commanded by Jean Baptiste Corenwinder and armed with 14 carriage guns. He took his prize into Yarmouth. - Some 25 miles off Spurn Head on the evening of the 17 April 1801, he captured the French privateer lugger L'ANTECHRIST after a four hour chase. She was armed with fourteen guns, nine and four pounders.
Henry Alexandre Scorffery and his crew of 60 were 15 days out of Dunkirk and had captured the ship BROTHERLY LOVE of South Shields bound for London which Capt. WESTBEACH recaptured. He took the lugger into Yarmouth. - 1804 Charles FOOTE, Channel.
On the 12 December 1804 he came across two French privateer luggers in the act of boarding a barque, having already captured a brig which they had in their possession. The two luggers separated and fled as soon as they sighted FAVORITE so he made a signal to a cutter in the distance, which he believed to be the COUNTESS OF ELGIN, to go after the two merchant prizes while he chased after one of the luggers. He captured her after three hours and she proved to be the RACCROCHEUSE commanded by Jaques Broquant and mounting fourteen 4-pounders and carrying a crew of 36 men. She was one day out of St. Valery en Caux. The other lugger, ADOLPHE, threw all her guns overboard to enable her to escape back to the same port. - 1805 John DAVIE, 12/1805, sailed for Africa on 20 September.
On 18 December he was ordered by Capt. MAXWELL of ARAB to go in search of a privateer reported off the Loss Islands.(off Conakry, Guinea) There he learnt that the privateer was in the River Pongas but, owing to the shallowness of the water and his inaccurate charts it took three days of sweeping and towing before he reached the mouth of the river on the afternoon of the 28th. and found the privateer under sail and working her way out.
As soon as she approached within half gun-shot Capt. DAVIE opened fire with his bow guns forcing her to shorten sail. To his surprise the privateer then hauled athwart and raked FAVORITE. Capt. DAVIE replied by loffing up and giving him a broadside. The action continued for twenty minutes, costing the lives of the captain of the privateer and ten of his crew, with twenty five others badly wounded. In FAVORITE the only casualty was was a passenger, Lieut. Odlum of the Royal Africa Corps, who was slightly wounded. The privateer was LE GENERAL BLANCHARD, mounting 16 guns and manned with 130 French and Spaniards. Among Capt. DAVIE's officers were Lieuts. PARSONS and INGRAM and Mr SOADY, the master. - Nine days later on 6 January 1806, FAVORITE was captured by a French squadron consisting of one 80-gun ship, two frigates and a brig. The French commander placed his prisoners in a captured English merchant brig and Cdr. DAVIE signed an agreement that either the same number of French prisoners of equal rank would be exchanged for them on their arrival in Engand or DAVIE and his companions would surrender themselves in France. The exchange was effected during the summer and DAVIE was exonerated of any blame for the loss of his ship at the subsequent court martial.
- FAVORITE was recaptured by Capt. Thomas COCHRANE in JASON on 28 January 1807. For her future history see GOREE.
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