HMS Proselyte (1796)
| History | |
|---|---|
  Dutch Republic;Batavian Republic
|
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| Name: | Jason or Iazon |
| Builder: | Paulus van Zwinjndregt, Rotterdam |
| Launched: | 1770 |
| Fate: | Surrendered by mutineers 1796 |
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Proselyte |
| Acquired: | 1796 by capture |
| Fate: | Wrecked 1801 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | frigate |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 35 ft 8 in (10.87 m) |
| Draught: | 37' (Dutch) |
| Depth of hold: |
|
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Complement: |
|
| Armament: | |
HMS Proselyte was a 32-gun Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate. She was the former Dutch 36-gun frigate Jason, built in 1770 at Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her crew mutinied and turned her over to the British in 1796. She then served the Royal Navy until she wrecked in 1801.
In 1796 Jason, under the command of Captain Gerardus Donckum, was part of a Dutch squadron that had sailed from Texel in February. She encountered difficulties and had to put into Drontheim, Norway for a refit. On 31 May 1796, Jason captured and sank the British merchant ship Maryann, which was on a voyage from Nevis to Greenock, Renfrewshire.
Following this action, political disagreement and bad treatment aboard led some of Jason's crew to mutiny. They locked the captain and his followers below deck, and sailed into Greenock on 8 June. Captain John K. Pulling, of the 18-gun brig-sloop Penguin, accepted the mutineers' surrender there. When Jason surrendered she had more than 200 men aboard, so a "great party" from the Sutherland Fencibles marched from Glasgow to Greenock to take possession of the frigate.
The Admiralty commissioned Jason as the 32-gun frigate Proselyte, and appointed Captain John Loring in September 1796 to command her. In British service she carried twenty-six 12-pounder guns and six 6-pounders. Shortly after her commissioning, on 20 February 1797, she sailed for Jamaica.
On 4 June Proselyte captured the French privateer Liberté on the West Indies station. Liberté was armed with six guns but had only 13 men aboard her when Proselyte captured her as the rest of the privateer's crew were away in captured vessels.
George Fowke received his promotion to Post-captain on 9 July 1798 and in December took command of Proselyte.Proselyte was part of the British fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell that constituted the naval part of the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland in August 1799. On 8 August the British captured the Dutch hulks Drotchterland and Brooderschap, and the ships Helder, Venus, Minerva, and Hector, in the New Diep. So many vessels, or rather their crews, shared in the prize money that the share of an ordinary seaman was only 6s 8d. This amounted to about five days' wages. Proselyte was also present for the surrender of the vessels of the Batavian Republic in the Vlieter Incident. The surrender occasioned a further distribution of prize money but the London Gazette did not publish any amounts.
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Wikipedia