HMS Barbuda (1780)

History
Massachusetts
Name:	Charming Sally
Captured:	c.1779
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Barbuda
Acquired:	1800 by purchase
Commissioned:	11 December 1780
Captured:	February 1782
France
Name:	Barboude
Operator:	French Navy
Acquired:	1782 by capture
Fate:	Sold 1786
France
Name:	Inabordable
Operator:	Private parties
Acquired:	1786 by purchase
Fate:	Sold May 1793
France
Name:	Légère
Operator:	French Navy
Acquired:	1793 by purchase
Captured:	June 1796
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Legere
Acquired:	June 1796 by capture and subsequent purchase
Commissioned:	November 1797
Fate:	Wrecked February 1801
General characteristics
Displacement:	600 tons (French; Légère)
Tons burthen:	HMS Barbuda:319 (bm) HMS Legere: 453  17⁄94 (bm)
Length:	116 ft 2 1⁄2 in (35.4 m) (gundeck) 94 ft 8 in (28.9 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 0 in (9.1 m)
Depth of hold:	9 ft 7 1⁄2 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan:	Sloop
Complement:	Légère Originally: 236 At capture: 168 HMS Legere:121
Armament:	HMS Barbuda Gundeck: 4 × 9-pounder + 12-pounder guns Barboude: 20 × 9-pounder (French) + 6 × 6-pounder (French) Inabordable: 16 × 6-pounder + 4 × 4-pounder guns Légère At capture: 22 × 9-pounder guns HMS Legere Upper deck (UD): 16 × 6-pounder guns QD: 6 × 12-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 12-pounder carronades Later UD: 16 × 18-pounder carronades QD: 6 × 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 × 6-pounder chase guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades
Notes:	The discrepancy in burthen between HMS Barbuda on the one hand, and HMS Legere on the other is large, and unexplained. French records for the burthen equivalent for Barboude and Légère are consistent with the burthen for Barbuda.

HMS Barbuda was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1780 after having brielfly served as an American privateer. Barbuda was one of the two sloops that captured Demerara and Essequibo in 1781, but the French Navy captured her there in 1782 and took her into service as Barboude. The French Navy sold her to private owners in 1786, and she served briefly as a privateer in early 1793 before the French Navy purchased her again and named her Légère. She served them until mid-1796 when the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service as HMS Legere. She was wrecked off the coast of Colombia, without loss of life, in February 1801.

British records state that HMS Barbuda was the Massachusetts vessel Charming Sally. HMS Boreas sent Charming Sally into English Harbour, Antigua in November 1780. Charming Sally does not appear to have belonged to the Massachusetts Naval Militia. Nor was she the Massachusetts privateer Charming Sally that participated in the disastrous, for the Americans, Penobscot Expedition and whose crew had to scuttle her on 14 August 1779 to prevent the British capturing her. The name Barbuda suggests that the vessel was captured in the West Indies. It is also suggestive of a name other than Charming Sally, one that was either that of an existing British warship, or one honouring an American leader or battle victory.

The Royal Navy commissioned Barbuda on 11 December 1780 under Commander Francis Pender.

On 27 February 1781 Barbuda and HMS Surprize, which Admiral Lord Rodney had sent from St Eustatius, appeared at Demerara. In March, the sloops accepted the surrender of "Colony of Demarary and the River Essequebo". Shortly before they arrived, six British privateers had raided Essequibo and Demerara, captured sixteen Dutch ships, and forced the de facto surrender of the colonies. When Barbuda and Surprize arrived there were still four vessels (two Dutch and two American) at Demerara, and 11 vessels (Dutch and Spanish) at Essequibo.

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Wikipedia