HMS Guachapin (1801)
| History | |
|---|---|
.svg){kind=small} Spain
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| Name: | Guachapin |
| Captured: | 9 April 1800 |
 UK
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| Name: | HMS Guachapin |
| Acquired: | Early 1801 (by capture) |
| Commissioned: | February 1801 |
| Fate: | Wrecked 1811; salvaged and sold |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Spanish merchant brig |
| Tons burthen: | 176 tons (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 23 ft 1 in (7.04 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Armament: |
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HMS Guachapin was a brig, the former Spanish letter of marque Guachapin, which the British captured in 1800 and took into service with the Royal Navy in 1801. Under the British flag she captured a Spanish privateer larger and better-armed than herself. She also served at the captures of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Tobago, and St. Lucia, and of Surinam. She served at Antigua as a guard ship but was wrecked in 1811. She was then salved and sold.
Captain Charles Penrose of the third rate Sans Pareil captured Guachapin in the Leeward Islands. The London Gazette reports that on 9 April 1800, Sans Pareil captured the Spanish letter of marque trader Guakerpin, of 165 tons burthen (bm), ten guns and 38 men. She belonged to Saint Andero, and was sailing from there to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron, porter, and linens. The British took her into service and commissioned her in February 1801 under Commander Samuel Butcher.
Between 15 March and 7 April 1801, an expedition under Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge and Admiral Duckworth captured the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and St. Croix. Guachupin [sic] was listed among the vessels participating in the expedition and entitled to a share in the "proceeds of sundry articles of provisions, merchandise, stores, and property afloat" that had been captured.
Guachapin's greatest moment of glory came later that year on 18 August 1801. On that day Heureux was between Martinique and St. Lucia when she saw the Guachapin in an unequal fight against a Spanish letter of marque armed with 18 brass guns - 32 and 12-pounders. Heureux sailed up as fast as she could but even before she arrived the Spaniard had struck to Guachapin. The two-hour engagement had cost Guachapin three men killed and three wounded, and the Spaniard nearly the same. The Spaniard was the Theresa, under the command of an officer of the Spanish Navy, and had a crew of 120 men.
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Wikipedia