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LARK (16) Built in 1794, Northfleet.
Lost in 1809.

  • 1794 Josias ROWLEY.

    LARK was attached to the squadron under Commodore PAYNE which escorted Princess Caroline of Brunswick to England in 1795.
  • 1795 W. OGILVY, 09/1795.
  • 1798 Lieut. Hugh COOK, West Indies.
    He was superseded by an officer selected by Sir Hyde PARKER, John Wentworth LORING, 09/1778, West Indies.
    (confirmed 04/1799)
  • Off Cuba on the 14 March 1800 he saw a privateer schooner in shore and sent Lieut. LANE off to bring her out.
    The enemy had fortified the two heights forming the entrance to a bay where the schooner was lying and they were able to drive the boats back, shooting Lieut. LANE through the heart.
    Lieut. PASLEY was then landed with a party of men some 10 miles down the coast to march round and attack the privateers in the rear and when Capt. LORING repeated the frontal attack he found the schooner already in English hands.
    Armed with two carriage guns and small arms, she was one of those which had long infested the coast of Jamaica. She was not worth bringing out so Capt. LORING destroyed her.
    Between the 9 and 20 March LARK destroyed six vessels.
  • When Cdr. James KATON (pro.
    tem.
    in command of CUMBERLAND) arrived in Jamaica in April 1801 with Sir Robert CALDER in April 1801 he was appointed by Lord Hugh SEYMOUR to LARK, then off the Havana.
  • In May 1801 LARK was dismasted in a hurricane and had to refit at Port Royal.
    Cdr. KATON removed to CARNATIC in July.
  • Lieut. JOHNSTONE (act.
    captain), All through the afternoon of the 13 September 1801 LARK chased a Spanish privateer schooner along the Cuban shore until, at dark, she took refuge within the Portillo Reefs.
    Lieut. PASLEY, midshipman M'CLOUD were sent off in the yawl and the cutter with 16 men in each and they found the enemy waiting for them with one 9-pounder and two 4s.
    Several men were wounded in each boat but they boarded and carried her after a severe fight in which 21 of the enemy were killed out of 45 and 6 wounded.
  • She proved to be the ESPERANCE of Santiago (St. Jago), commanded by Joseph Callie who was among the wounded.
    Since she came out on the 18 August she had taken the ELIZA sloop and BETSEY brig of Kingston.
    LARK lost John JONES, the coxswain of the cutter, who was killed early in the action.
    Mr M'CLOUD and 12 seamen were wounded.
    Lieut. JOHNSTONE landed his prisoners at Port Antonio in the temporary care of Major Cod of the 60th. regiment while his wounded were looked after by the army surgeon.
    He then returned to his station after promising to collect the prisoners on his way to Port Royal.
  • 1802 E. P. BRENTON, Jamaica.
    LARK left Jamaica for England on the 4 July 1802. She spoke with a number of vessels during her crossing including the BRISTOL of Bristol homeward bound with cargo off Cape Antonio on the 8th. and transports with the 29th. regiment of foot for Halifax on the 5 August.
    On the 15 August, two days before she reached Plymouth, she encountered the brig JANE in great distress and Capt. BRENTON was able to supply her with water and provisions.
    LARK spent the night of the 17th. in Plymouth before sailing to Woolwich to be paid off.
  • 1803 I. TOWER, off Flushing.
  • 1805 Frederick LANGFORD, Portsmouth.
    for West Africa.
    When he was in Port Praya, St. Jago (Porto Praia, Sao Tiago, Cape Verde Is) at the end of January 1805, Capt. LANGFORD received news of a Spanish merchant cruiser off the Bay of Senegal.
    He found her at anchor, and after capture proved to be the Spanish schooner CAMERARA, pierced for 16 guns but with only two on board, and laden with wine.
    Formerly French, she had been used as a privateer at Cayenne by Victor Hughes and was now to have been presented to Hughes by the Governor of Senegal to harass British trade on the African side of the Atlantic.
    On 29 May 1805 LARK took the French brig CECILE.
  • At the end of 1806 LARK was escorting the African convoy which was attacked by a French squadron consisting of five sail of the line and three frigates.
    LARK escaped but nine vessels were captured.
  • 1807 Robert NICHOLAS, Portsmouth for the West Indies.
    On 1 January 1807 a Spanish schooner LARK was chasing capsized due to the press of sail she was carrying.
    All her crew were drowned before LARK could reach the spot.
    On the 27 January she captured the Spanish vessels POSTILLON (3), and CARMEN (5), after a chase of fourteen hours, they were two guarda costa schooners bound for Porto Bello from Carthagena.
  • With these vessels in company they fell in with a convoy of small vessels escorted by two gunboats and an armed schooner on the 1 February.
    The vessels of the convoy were soon driven ashore but their escorts took refuge under a 4-gun battery in a creek of Zispsta Bay.
    Capt. NICHOLAS soon silenced the battery and went in with the whole of his crew, except for 20 in the prizes.
    The Spaniards rowed out to meet them but fled when the boats closed.
    They captured one of the enemy after a desperate fight in which three men and Capt. NICHOLAS were wounded out of the sixteen who boarded.
    Unfortunately the pilot ran the POSTILLON and CARMEN ashore and Lieut. BULL had to burn them.
    Mr POUND, the purser, and two more men were added to the wounded.
  • On the 23 August LARK and FERRET captured the French national schooner MOSQUITO from Santo Domingo of 8 guns and 58 men.
  • In the summer of 1809 LARK took part in the short blockade of the city of San Domingo until the surrender of the French garrison to Major-General Carmichael and the general commanding the Spanish troops.
  • LARK was upset in a gale and foundered off Cape Causada, San Domingo, on the 8 August 1809. All lost


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