HMS Favourite (1794)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Favourite |
| Ordered: | 18 February 1793 |
| Builder: | Randall & Brent, Rotherhithe |
| Laid down: | April 1793 |
| Launched: | 1 February 1794 |
| Completed: | By 14 May 1794 |
| Captured: | By the French on 6 January 1806 |
 France
|
|
| Name: | Favorite |
| Acquired: | 6 January 1806 by capture |
| Captured: | 27 January 1807, by the Royal Navy |
|
UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Goree |
| Acquired: | 27 January 1807 |
| Reclassified: | Prison ship in 1813/14 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinque" |
| Fate: | Broken up in 1817 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 426 88⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 29 ft 9 in (9.1 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Sloop |
| Complement: |
|
| Armament: |
|
HMS Favourite (or Favorite) was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.
Favourite was commissioned in March 1794 under Commander Charles White. In September of the next year Commander James Athol Wood took command and sailed her for the Leeward Islands.
Favourite's first task was to assist in the quelling of insurrections on Grenada and St. Vincent. In support of these operations, Captain Robert Otway of Mermaid had Wood patrol the waters to intercept vessels carrying provisions to the insurgents.
On 5 February 1796 Favourite captured two French privateers and ran one ashore within the Bocas Islands between Trinidad and Venezuela. The largest privateer was the Général Rigaud, of eight guns and 45 men, mostly Italians and Spaniards. The second privateer was the packet ship Hind, which the Général Rigaud had taken off St. Vincent's. Her crew escaped before Favourite could take possession. The vessel that ran ashore was the Banan.
Less than a month later, on 1 March, Favourite, the armed transport Sally, and two large sloops that Wood commandeered, evacuated 11-1200 British troops from Sauteurs, where an insurgent force had trapped them. The next day Woods delivered the troops safely to St. George's.
A week later, on 9 March, Favourite encountered three vessels windward of Grenada. They were two French privateer schooners, one of 10 guns and one of 12, and a ship of 14 guns. After an all-day chase, Favourite was able to capture the ship without a fight; the two schooners escaped. The ship turned out to be the Susanna, of Liverpool, which the privateers had captured a few days earlier and manned to also serve as a privateer. In all, Favourite ended up with 70 prisoners. Wood distributed most of them in two or three-man groups to the transports and merchant vessels of a convoy heading for Britain. The officers he put aboard Charlotte.
...
Wikipedia