HMS Racoon (1808)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Racoon |
| Ordered: | 19 October 1805 |
| Builder: | John Preston, Great Yarmouth |
| Laid down: | March 1806 |
| Launched: | 30 March 1808 |
| Commissioned: | June 1808 |
| Reclassified: | Convict prison ship in 1819 |
| Fate: | Sold 1838 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cormorant class sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 425 88⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 29 ft 8 1⁄2 in (9.1 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Racoon, sometimes spelled HMS Raccoon, was an 18-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant Class of the Royal Navy. She was built by John Preston, of Great Yarmouth, and launched on 30 March 1808. She sailed as far as Fort Astoria on the Columbia River. She became a hospital ship in 1819 and finally was sold in 1838.
Her first commander was Commander James Welsh, under whom she was sent to operate off the African coast. He sailed her to Jamaica on 16 June 1809, but died there in November. His replacement was Commander William Black. returning to Portsmouth in 1812.
On 14 January 1813 Racoon captured the Hope, which the enemy recaptured. Still, a £25,000 insurance payment was payable to Racoon.
Racoon sailed from Rio de Janeiro on 6 July 1813 in company with HMS Phoebe and HMS Cherub, sailing around Cape Horn to the Juan Fernandez Islands.
The Royal Navy had been under pressure from the Montreal based North West Company, who were agitating for them to capture the base of their rival, the Pacific Fur Company. At this point Phoebe and Cherub were detached to search for the USS Essex, with Racoon continuing on. While sailing to the Columbia River an accident during gunnery exercises killed eight and wounded 20.
Before the Racoon arrived at their proposed destination of the fur trading outpost of Fort Astoria, the North West Company had completed a deal with the Pacific Fur Company that since British ships would be imminently arriving to "take and destroy everything American on the Northwest coast," that they would purchase the assets, for a third of their value. Black arrived to find the matter already settled, though he went through a ceremony of possession and renamed the facility Fort George.
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