HMS Highflyer (1813)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States
|
|
| Name: | Highflyer |
| Launched: | 1811 |
| Fate: | Captured by HMS Poictiers (1809) on 9 January 1813, commissioned as HMS Highflyer. |
 Great Britain
|
|
| Name: | HMS Highflyer |
| Commissioned: | 1813 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "28 April Boat Service 1813" |
| Fate: | Captured by USS President (1800) on 23 September 1813, not taken into service. |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Schooner |
| Tons burthen: | 144 41⁄94 (bm); 138 by American calculation |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 8 ft 0 in (2.44 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 72 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: |
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HMS Highflyer was originally an American privateer schooner built in 1811. As a privateer she took several British vessels as prizes. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813. She then participated in several raids on the Chesapeake and coastal Virginia before the Americans recaptured her later in 1813.
Highflyer was built in Dorchester County, Maryland in 1811, and operated out of Baltimore. She was originally set up for six long nine-pounder cannon. She apparently sailed with one long 12-pounder and four 9-pounder carronades.
Under Captain John Gavet, on 21 July 1812 she captured the British merchantman Jamaica, with seven guns and 21 men, and the Diana. The next day, she captured the Mary Ann, with 12 guns and 18 men. On 26 August, she sent into Baltimore the schooner Harriet, of four guns, which had been sailing from New Providence to Havana. On her second cruise, under Captain Jeremiah Grant, she captured the brig Porgie, sailing from Antigua, and the brig Burchall, traveling from Barbados to Demerara, plus a number of coasting vessels operating among islands of the West Indies. She also took the brig Fernando, which was, however, retaken. Lastly, she sent into Charleston the ten-gun brig Active.
On 9 January 1813 Poictiers, under Captain John Poo Beresford, with Acasta assisting, captured Highflyer. She was armed with five guns and had a crew of 72 men when the British captured her on her way back from the West Indies. The Admiralty took Highflyer into service with the Royal Navy as an eight-gun schooner, still under her original name.
The Royal Navy commissioned her under Lieutenant Theophilus Lewis, and initially employed Highflyer in the Chesapeake as a tender to Sir John Borlase Warren's San Domingo. On 13 April 1813, Warren's squadron, consisting of Highflyer, and more importantly San Domingo, Marlborough, Maidstone, Statira , Fantome, and Mohawk, pursued four schooners into the Rappahannock River. The British sent boats 15 miles upriver before capturing their prey. The British took three of the schooners into service. The six-gun Chesapeake schooner Lynx became Mosquidobit. Of the three Baltimore schooners, the Racer became Shelburne; the Dolphin retained her name; lastly, it is not clear what became of Arab, which with Dolphin, put up some resistance. Dolphin had been on a privateering cruise; consequently she carried 100 men and 12 guns.
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Wikipedia