Vautour (1797 ship)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
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| Name: | Vautour |
| Namesake: | Vulture |
| Builder: | Bourmaud Brothers, Nantes |
| Launched: | 1797 |
| Commissioned: | December 1797 |
| Captured: | 15 January 1800 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Vulture |
| Owner: | Mather & Co. |
| Acquired: | 1802 by purchase |
| Fate: | Captured 1809; no longer listed in 1810 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tonnage: | 300 tons (French; "of load") |
| Tons burthen: | 312, or 320, (bm) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: |
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| Armament: |
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Vautour was a French privateer launched in 1797 at Nantes that made three privateering voyages. The Royal Navy captured her in 1800 during her fourth cruise. Private owners acquired her prior to late 1801 and employed her as the whaler Vulture (English for vautour) in the South Seas whale fisheries between 1801 and 1809. A Spanish privateer captured her in 1809.
Vautour was a copper-sheathed corvette that Jacques François commissioned in December 1797. She then cruised from December 1797 to May 1798. Her second cruise was under Joachim Barbier from January 1799 to February 1799, and the third from March 1799 to May under Jacques Moreau. Her last cruise took place under Mathurin (?) Leroy, until her capture.
At daybreak on 15 January 1800, HMS Apollo sighted a vessel that proceeded to attempt to evade closer scrutiny. After a short chase Apollo recaptured Lady Harwood, which had been part of the convoy that Apollo was escorting, but which had gotten separated on 1 January at the onset of gale. On 13 January Vautour, of 20 guns, had captured her.
At 11a.m. on 15 January 1800, the frigate HMS Caroline was at 37°45′N 13°8′W / 37.750°N 13.133°W when she sighted a strange vessel worth further examination as the vessel was bearing down on the brig Flora, of London, and another ship. Had Caroline not arrived on the scene they would have become prizes to the French vessel; as it was, they proceeded on their ways.
Caroline gave chase and at 8p.m. was able to come alongside her quarry, which immediately struck without firing a shot. The quarry was Vulture, a privateer of Nantes, out 38 days. She was pierced for 22 guns, and carried four 12-pounder guns, two 36-pounder carronades (probably obusier de vaisseau), and sixteen 6-pounder guns, two of which she had thrown overboard to lighten her during the chase. She had a crew at capture of 137 men under the command of Citizen Bazill Aug. Ene Laray. Her captors described her as "a remarkably fast Sailer".
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Wikipedia