HMS Anacreon (1799)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
|
|
| Name: | Anacréon |
| Builder: | Naval shipyard at Dunkerque (Dunkirk) |
| Laid down: | 22 September 1797 |
| Launched: | 1798 |
| Captured: | 22 June 1799 |
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Anacreon |
| Namesake: | Greek poet Anacreon |
| Acquired: | 22 June 1799 (by capture) |
| Fate: | Sold late 1802 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ship-sloop |
| Tonnage: | 150 89⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 21 ft 8 in (6.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 0 in (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Anacreon was a French privateer that the Royal Navy captured in 1799 and took into service. She had a brief career in which she took some minor prizes and engaged two enemy vessels in an inconclusive action before she was sold in December 1802.
Anacréon was built in 1798 at Dunkirk by the brother of her first commander, Jean Blankeman, reportedly to a design by Louis-Jean-Baptiste Bretocq.
In August Anacréon was commissioned under ensigne de vaisseau Blanckman for the Irish campaign, the French support of Irish revolts against the British. She left Dunkirk on 4 September 1798 and on 16 September she delivered the Irish rebel Napper Tandy, General Rae, and some seventy compatriots to the island of Arranmore, northwest of Donegal. The rebels occupied the island of Rutland but discovered that the rebellion they were to join had failed. Anacréon then took her passengers to Bergen. They had wanted to return to Dunkirk, but Blanckman preferred to engage in privateering in the North Sea.
On the way Anacreon captured two British vessels, Langton, which the British recaptured the next day, and Tom, which Anacreon brought with her to Bergen. The two British merchant vessels had been in company when on 19 September they encountered Anacréon, which gave chase. Langton was armed only with a swivel gun, which she fired before surrendering. Tom was armed with eight 9-pounder guns and two 12-pounders and resisted until Anacréon grappled her and boarded. The next day they encountered a British sloop of war. Blanchman ordered the prize crew he had put on board Langton to set fire to her; the one British crew member still on board Langton, a ship's boy, had hid the tinder and so the prize crew did not set the fire. They returned to Anacréon, leaving Inspector to recapture Langton.
On 23 December, Anacréon, Captain Blankman, captured the brigantine Aurora, in the North Sea while she was sailing from Riga to Lisbon. The French took Aurora into North Bergen. James Sime, the late master of Aurora, reported in February 1799 that while he was in Bergen, the crew of Anacréon blackened her sails with coal dust to disguise her as a collier. He described her as a brig of 15 guns and with a crew of 100 men. He also reported that another privateer, the cutter-rigged Perseverance, of ten guns and 45 men, had left to cruise the North Sea the day after Anacréon left.
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Wikipedia