HMS Nova Scotia (1812)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Nova Scotia |
| Captured: | 17 October 1812 |
| Fate: | Sold for breaking up January 1820 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Gun-brig |
| Tonnage: | 214 57⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 24 ft 8 in (7.5 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 10 ft 4 in (3.1 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: | 75 |
| Armament: | 12 x 12-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder chase guns |
When HMS Maidstone and HMS Spartan captured the American privateer Rapid in 1812, the Royal Navy took her into service as the 14-gun gun-brig HMS Nova Scotia. She was renamed HMS Ferret in 1813 and sold in 1820.
Rapid, of Portland, Maine, had two commanders, Captain W. Crabtree and Captain J. Weeks, during her career as a privateer. Rapid captured one ship, the Experience, and two brigs. The Experience's cargo was valued at US$250,000.
The owners of one brig ransomed her and Rapid sent the other, the St. Andrews, of eight guns and sailing in ballast, into Portland. Another report has Rapid capturing a barque St Andrews, of eight guns, that she sent into Portland. The ransomed vessel may have been the schooner Mary, of St Thomas, which Rapid ransomed as Rapid could not spare the men for a prize crew.Rapid apparently also captured the brig Pursuit, sailing from Poole to St. Andrews and the brig Tay, sailing from Dundee for Pictou, New Brunswick. Rapid sent both into Portland. Lastly, Rapid captured and burnt a British New Providence privateer, the Searcher, of one gun and twenty men.
On 17 October 1812, Maidstone and Spartan, part of the squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren, were in company when Maidstone captured Rapid on the Saint George's Bank. Rapid was armed with 14 cannon – twelve carronades of various sizes and two long 6-pounder guns – but her crew had thrown eight of her cannons overboard to lighten her during the nine-hour chase. She had a crew of 84 men and was three days out of Portland. Her backers had provisioned her for a three-month cruise, first off the Azores, Madeira and the Cape Verde Islands, and then off Cayenne and Bermuda.
The British commissioned her in Halifax in November 1812 as HMS Nova Scotia under Lieutenant Bartholomew Kent, who sailed her to Britain. She was fitted at Plymouth between 7 July and 30 September 1813 and renamed Ferret. She was commissioned again in June or July of that year under Commander William Ramsden.
In May 1814 Ferret was at St Helena under Commander James Stirling. Stirling commissioned Ferret rapidly on Napoleon's return to France from Elba, and received praise for the speed with which he accomplished the task. On 19 July 1815, Ferret was in company with Havannah, Sealark, Rhin, Menelaus, and Fly when they captured the French vessels Fortune, Papillon, Marie Graty, Marie Victorine, Cannoniere, and Printemis. The attack took place at Courageux Bay, near Brest on the coast of Brittany, and during the action Ferret was able to prevent the escape of a French man-of-war brig that she forced ashore. The action cost Ferret one man. Apparently, this cutting out expedition was the last of the war.
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Wikipedia