USRC James Madison (1807)
| History | |
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.png){kind=small} United States
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| Name: | USRC James Madison |
| Namesake: | James Madison |
| Ordered: | 26 June 1807 |
| Launched: | c.1807 |
| Commissioned: | 1807 |
| Refit: | 1811 |
| Captured: | 22 August 1812 |
| Notes: | Contrary to some reports, she did not become HMS Alban; that was the American vessel William Bayard. |
 United Kingdom
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| Owner: | Lord Belmore, of Enniskillen |
| Acquired: | 16 June 1813, by purchase |
| Renamed: | Osprey |
| Homeport: | Killybegs, Donegal |
| Fate: | Sold 1819 |
.svg){kind=small} Kingdom of the two Sicilies
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| Owner: | Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies |
| Acquired: | 1819 by purchase |
| Homeport: | Naples |
| Fate: | Unknown |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: |
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| Length: | 86 ft 3 in (26.3 m) |
| Beam: | 22 ft 10 in (7.0 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 7 ft 11 in (2.4 m) |
| Sail plan: | Schooner; later brig |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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The USRC James Madison was a schooner launched in 1807 at Baltimore for service with the United States Revenue-Marine. During the first months of the War of 1812 she captured several merchant vessels, but in August 1812 HMS Barbadoes captured her. Lord Belmore, of Enniskillen, bought her and converted her to a privateer brig named Osprey. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 she became a yacht for a family trip to the eastern Mediterranean. In 1819, at the end of the trip, Bellmore sold her to Ferdinand I, King of Naples; her ultimate fate is unknown.
On 26 June 1807, the Treasury Department of the United states authorized the Baltimore customs collector to build the cutter James Madison. She was completed in 1808. James Madison then sailed from Baltimore on 18 January 1809 to Savannah, Georgia, to take up station there.
George Brooks became First mate of James Madison on 17 September 1810, and master on 19 December 1811.
After the outbreak of the War of 1812 in June, on 5 July, James Madison detained the British schooner Wade at Amelia Island, which at that time belonged to Spanish Florida. Wade's actual captors were US Navy gunboats and Wade was carrying pineapples, turtles and 20,000 dollars in specie.Lloyd's List reported that American gunboats in St Mary's River had taken the Wade, Johnson, master, and another vessel, Pindar, master, from Nassau and carrying specie.
Brooks expanded the size of James Madison's crew to some 70 officers and men. He also had them armed, using borrowed funds. The size of her crew was anomalously large for a Revenue Marine vessel, suggesting that Brooks had intended to engage in privateering.
On 17 July 1812 Brooks declared that James Madison would sail from Charleston to intercept six British merchant vessels reported to be sailing up the coast from Jamaica without a naval escort. Six days later he succeeded in capturing the British brig Shamrock, May, master, of 300 tons bm, six guns, and a crew of 15 men. She had been sailing from London to Amelia Island with a cargo of arms and ammunition. Then on 1 August James Madison captured the brig Santa Rosa. James Madison sent Santa Rosa, which was sailing under Spanish colours, into Savannah.
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Wikipedia