HMS Grenada (1804)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
|
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| Name: | Harmonie |
| Launched: | 1800 |
| Captured: | November 1803 |
| History | |
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Grenada |
| Acquired: | By gift |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up December 1810 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 141 (bm) |
| Length: | 71 ft 6 in (21.8 m) (overall) |
| Beam: | 21 ft 11 in (6.7 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 8 ft 2 in (2.5 m) |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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HMS Grenada was the French schooner Harmonie, launched in 1800 and armed at Cayenne in 1803 as a privateer. Boats of a squadron of the British Royal Navy cut her out from the harbour of Le Marin, Martinique, on 16 November 1803. The citizens of Grenada purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy, which commissioned her in 1804 as HMS Grenada. She was later converted to a brig. She captured nine small French privateers before being sold for breaking up in 1810.
Around November, HMS Saint Lucia recaptured the brig Earl St. Vincent, which had been sailing from Dublin to Barbados, and a Swedish schooner. The French privateer Harmonie, of Martinique, had captured the brig and the schooner three days earlier. Saint Lucia was unable to capture the privateer, which escaped by throwing her guns overboard and sawing down her gunwales.
On 14 November Harmonie entered the harbour at Le Marin, together with a prize that she had taken. Captain Thomas Graves, in the 74-gun Third Rate Blenheim, determined to cut her out. He beat around Diamond Rock but was not able to get into position until the 16th. He then decided to put 60 seamen in four boats, and 60 marines into another four. The seamen were to go into the harbour to cut out Harmonie, while the marines were to attack a battery of nine guns at Fort Dunkirk on the starboard side of the bay to block French reinforcements from massing there. Drake arrived on the scene and Graves had Captain William Ferris lead the seamen in the attack, together with 16 men from her. Drake towed the cutting out party, whilst the hired armed cutter Swift towed the marines. The two parties set out at 11p.m., and at 3a.m. the two attacks succeeded. The marines captured the fort, which was only guarded by 15 men, who they took prisoner. They spiked six 24-pounder guns and three 18-pounders, and blew up the magazine. The cutting out party met with resistance from Harmonie and suffered the only British casualties. Hermione, of eight guns, had had a crew of 66 men under the command of Citizen Noyer at the start of the British attack. Some 12 escaped overboard and some may have drowned. Two were killed and 14 wounded. Blenheim had one man killed and two wounded, and Drake had three wounded, one dangerously so.
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Wikipedia