HMS Mosquidobit (sometimes Musquedobet or Musquidobit) was the Chesapeake-built six-gun schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 Lynx

Lynx (tall ship)

Lynx is a square topsail schooner based in Newport Beach, California. She is an interpretation of an American letter of marque vessel of the same name from 1812...

 that the British 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...

 captured and took into service in 1813. She was sold into commercial service in 1820 and nothing is known of her subsequent fate.

Lynx

Owner-investors James Williams, Amos Williams and Levi Hollingsworth commissioned the noted shipbuilder Thomas Kemp to build them a schooner. Lynx was built at Fells Point, Baltimore during the opening days of 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...

. She was commissioned on 14 July under captain Elisha Taylor.

Lynx was a bit larger than the typical swift pilot boats after which Kemp modeled her. Kemp had increased her size to 97 feet (29.6 m) long by 24 feet (7.3 m) wide and 225 tons burthen (bm). She was fitted out as a trader though she carried a crew of 40 men and was armed with six 12-pounder long guns. She cost a little under $10,000.

Lynx was a 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...

. That is, she was an armed merchantman with the warrant to take as prizes enemy merchantmen during the normal course of business, should the opportunity arise. As a merchantman, her crew received a regular wage; they did not depend on prizes for their income.

Lynx served as a merchantman for less than a year. She made one voyage, to Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

, France, and returned with a cargo of luxury goods. She was waiting with three other schooners to run the British blockade for a second voyage when the British captured her.

Battle of Rappahannock River

On 13 April 1813, Sir John Borlase Warren

John Borlase Warren

Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet , was an English admiral, politician and diplomat. Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, he was the son and heir of John Borlase Warren of Stapleford and Little Marlow...

's squadron, consisting of San Domingo

HMS San Domingo (1809)

HMS San Domingo was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 March 1809 at Woolwich.On 13 April 1813, Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, consisting of his flagship, San Domingo, and , , , , Mohawk, and pursued four schooners into the Rappahannock...

, Marlborough

HMS Marlborough (1807)

HMS Marlborough was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 June 1807 at Deptford. In 1808, she helped escort the Portuguese royal family in its flight from Portugal to Brazil.Marlborough was broken up in 1835....

, Maidstone, Statira, Fantome, Mohawk

USS Viper (1806)

USS Viper – commissioned as USS Ferret – was a brig serving the United States Navy during the early days of the republic. Viper was assigned to enforce the Embargo Act of 1807 along the U.S. East Coast. During the War of 1812, while cruising in the Caribbean, she was captured by the more heavily...

 and Highflyer

HMS Highflyer (1813)

HMS Highflyer was originally an American privateer schooner built in 1811. As a privateer she took several British vessels as prizes. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813...

 blockaded four schooners in the Rappahannock River

Rappahannock River

The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length. It traverses the entire northern part of the state, from the Blue Ridge Mountains in the west, across the Piedmont, to the Chesapeake Bay, south of the Potomac River.An important river in American...

. The British sent a cutting out expedition in boats 15 miles upriver to capture the schooners at anchor. The attacking British boats carried 105 men led by Lt. James Polkinghorne while the crews of the schooners numbered 160 in all.

Lynx and Arab quickly surrendered at the beginning of the attack.. Racer put up more resistance. The last schooner to be taken was the Dolphin, which had been on a privateering cruise and consequently carried 100 men and 12 guns. Under her captain, W.S. Stafford, she fought for about two hours before she struck. Stafford placed his losses at six killed and ten wounded. American newspapers reported that the British lost 19 killed and forty wounded. However, Polkinghorne's official report at the time gave his losses as two killed and 11 wounded.

The British took three of the schooners into service. Lynx became Mosquidobit. Racer, of six guns, became ; retained her name. Lastly, it is not clear what became of Arab, of seven guns, which too had put up some resistance.

British service

The Admiralty bought Lynx for ₤1,933 11s

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

 5d (amended figure) and the British named her for the town of Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia

Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia

Musquodoboit Harbour is a Canadian rural community in Nova Scotia's Halifax Regional Municipality.The community is situated on the Eastern Shore at the mouth of the Musquodoboit River. the community lies 45 kilometres east of downtown Halifax...

, commissioning her under Lieutenant John Murray. Mosquidobit joined the British fleet blockading the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay

Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...

 at Lynnhaven Bay (just inside the Virginia Capes). She was subsequently stationed in Nova Scotia. On 30 March 1814 she arrived in Portsmouth.

Fate

From September 1815 she was under the command of James (or Joseph) Giffiths until 1817. Eventually Mosquidobit sailed to Deptford, England where her lines were taken off (surveyed and recorded) on May 10, 1816. She then sailed out of Cork on the Irish station where she served on anti-smuggling duties.

On 9 December 1818 she sent into Dublin the Dutch cutter Thetis, of Flushing. Mosquidobit had encountered her off the Irish Coast and captured her after a long pursuit. Almost a year later, on 8 December 1819, Mosquidobit received a reward from the Custom-House, Dublin, for the second largest number of smugglers taken on the coast of Ireland, in the year ending 1 Oct 1819.

She was paid-off in July 1819 but then reportedly served in the Mediterranean, sailing between Toulon and Marseilles. By 1820, she had been decommissioned and on 13 January 1820, a Mr. Rundle purchased her for ₤410 and placed her in private service. Nothing more is known of her.

Commemoration

A full scale sailing replica of this schooner, the tall ship Lynx

Lynx (tall ship)

Lynx is a square topsail schooner based in Newport Beach, California. She is an interpretation of an American letter of marque vessel of the same name from 1812...

, was built at Rockport, Maine

Rockport, Maine

Rockport is a town in Knox County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,209 at the 2000 census. Rockport is a popular tourist destination and art colony.-History:...

 in 2001 and now operates in California. A model of the schooner as HMS Musquidobit is on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a Canadian maritime museum located in downtown Halifax, Nova Scotia.The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic is a member institution of the Nova Scotia Museum and is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada with a collection of over 30,000 artifacts...

 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

External links

• Phillips, Michael. Ships of the old Navy. http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1139