HMS Ballahoo (1804)
Encyclopedia
HMS Ballahoo (also Balahou, Ballahou or Ballahon) was the first of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
's Ballahoo-class schooner
Ballahoo class schooner
The Ballahoo class was a Royal Navy class of eighteen 4-gun schooners built under contract in Bermuda during the Napoleonic War. The class was an attempt by the Admiralty to harness the expertise of Bermudian shipbuilders who were renowned for their fast-sailing craft...
s, vessels of four 12-pounder carronade
Carronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...
s and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda
Bermuda
Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...
, and she was launched in 1804. She patrolled primarily in the Leeward Islands, taking several small prizes, before an American privateer captured her in 1814 during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
.
Service
She was commissioned in January 1804 under Lieutenant William Shephard. In September Lieutenant Stannard Eaton Travers took over. He was appointed to Ballahoo immediately after receiving his commission on 23 September 1804. When she was ordered to Halifax in February 1805 Admiral Sir John T. Duckworth transferred him to the frigate .Command then transferred to Lieutenant H.N. Bowen, who was killed in 1806. Lieutenant James Murray replaced Bowen.
On 27 February the sloop and the brig captured the brig Altrevido, Nicbola Valpardo, Master. Ballahoo shared by agreement in the prize money due Express.
On 4 August 1807, Ballahoo was in company with the schooner , of 10 guns, when they encountered the French letter of marque
Letter of marque
In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
Rhone some five or six leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
N by E of Tobago
Tobago
Tobago is the smaller of the two main islands that make up the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is located in the southern Caribbean, northeast of the island of Trinidad and southeast of Grenada. The island lies outside the hurricane belt...
. After a running fight of several hours, they captured her. In the fight Rhone suffered two dead and five wounded out of her crew of 26; the British had no casualties. Rhone, under the command of Francis Goureu, was of 90 tons (bm
Builder's Old Measurement
Builder's Old Measurement is the method of calculating the size or cargo capacity of a ship used in England from approximately 1720 to 1849. It estimated the tonnage of a ship based on length and maximum beam...
), mounted six long 6-pounder guns, and was 10 days out from Martinique, having captured nothing.
On 20 August Ballahoo's boats, with the assistance of the 1-gun privateer Maria that Port d'Espagne had taken, destroyed a small privateer in the Bay of San Juan
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan , officially Municipio de la Ciudad Capital San Juan Bautista , is the capital and most populous municipality in Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 395,326 making it the 46th-largest city under the jurisdiction of...
. On 12 September Ballahoo assisted Port d'Espagne in capturing another small privateer, the Rosario, in the same bay. The Rosario also was armed with one gun, and had a crew of 34, all of whom escaped on shore. In October Ballahou was in North American waters and in the Leeward Islands.
In 1808 her commander was Lieutenant George Mills. On 3 July, whilst Ballahoo was cruising with the ship-sloop and the schooner between the islands of Anguilla
Anguilla
Anguilla is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Saint Martin...
and Saint Martin
Saint Martin
Saint Martin is an island in the northeast Caribbean, approximately east of Puerto Rico. The 87 km2 island is divided roughly 60/40 between France and the Kingdom of the Netherlands ; however, the Dutch side has the larger population. It is one of the smallest sea islands divided between...
, the small squadron attempted an attack on St. Martin with a view to reducing the number of havens available to French privateers, but unfortunately the opposition proved stronger than intelligence had suggested.
The attack turned into a disaster. A landing party of 38 seamen and marines from all three vessels, under Lieutenant Spearing of Subtle, succeeded in capturing a lower battery with few losses and spiking six guns. An attack on the upper fort failed, with Spearing being killed a few feet from the French ramparts. When the British withdrew to their boats the French captured them. In all, the British lost seven killed and 30 wounded, all the dead and most of the wounded being from Subtle. The French lost one man wounded.
Not surprisingly, French and British accounts differ substantially in several places. Crofton's account reports that the British landing party consisted of 153 men, and a French account talks of 200 men, all of whom were killed or captured, including Mills of Ballahoo. (The total establishment of the three British vessels amounted to about 190 men.) Crofton negotiated a truce under which he was able to reclaim all the prisoners who could be moved. Crofton claimed that the French had been forewarned and had 900 men in the fort. The French claimed the fort had a garrison of 28 regulars and 15 militia men. That the French permitted their British prisoners to leave is more consistent with the French figures on their numbers than the British. Crofton reported that the French buried the English dead with full military honors with both the fort and the British firing salutes.
In January and February 1810 Ballahoo, under Mills, participated in the capture of Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the [Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all all still surviving participants of that campaign. At some point Express and Ballahoo captured the sloop Endeavour.
Capture
In 1810 Lieutenant Norfolk King took command. On 29 April 1814, the American 5-gun privateer Perry captured Ballahoo off South Carolina. Apparently the chase took about an hour, including a fight of about 10 minutes. There was no report of casualties on either side. The Americans took her into the port of Wilmington, North CarolinaWilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...
. At the time of the capture, Ballahoo had two of her cannon stored below deck to lower her center of gravity in bad weather, and a crew of thirteen men. The Perrys five guns included one long 18 or 24-pounder on a pivot, and she had a crew of 80.