Diamond (1798 ship)
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image= |Ship image size= |Ship caption= }} {{Infobox ship career |Ship country=Great Britain |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|civil}} |Ship yard number= |Ship name=Diamond |Ship namesake= |Ship owner=*1800:Beatson & Co. |Ship builder=Patrick Beatson, Quebec{{sfnp|Wallace|1929|p=78}} |Ship laid down= |Ship launched=1798 |Ship captured=October 1805 |Ship notes=Clayton has some discrepant information re Diamond{{'}}s career as a whaler,{{sfnp|Clayton|2014|pp=97-98}} but the information in the other sources is more compelling and consistent across sources. }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header=title |Ship country=France |Ship flag=File:Civil and Naval Ensign of France.svg |Ship name=Diamant |Ship namesake= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= |Ship acquired=October 1805 By capture |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned=January 1809 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship captured= |Ship reinstated= |Ship fate=Decommissioned 1809 |Ship honours= |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Ship type=Full-rigged ship |Ship tons burthen=*443, or 468, or 512, or 521{{sfnp|Wallace|1929|p=78}} (bm)
|Ship length={{cvt|119|ft|0|in|m|1|abbr=on}}{{sfnp|Wallace|1929|p=78}} |Ship beam= |Ship draught= |Ship propulsion=Sail |Ship speed= |Ship armament=*1801:16 × 9-pounder guns |Ship notes=Two decks{{sfnp|Wallace|1929|p=78}} }} |
Diamond was launched in 1798 at Quebec. French privateers captured her three times, the third time retaining her. In between she sailed as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved people. Her third capture occurred while she was on a whaling voyage. Her last voyage took her from Île de France to Bordeaux where she was decommissioned in January 1809.
British career
Diamond was the first 500-ton (bm) vessel built at Quebec since the British occupation.{{efn|One source gives her launch year as 1799 rather than 1798.{{sfnp|Wallace|1929|p=78}}}}
Diamond entered Lloyd's Register in 1800 with Anderson, master, Beatson, owner, and trade London-Halifax.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015065522479?urlappend=%3Bseq=109 Lloyd's Register (1800), Seq. №276.]
The French privateer Grand Décidé captured "The Diamond Transport, from Halifax to Portsmouth" around end-October 1800.Lloyd's List [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c3049070?urlappend=%3Bseq=431 7 November 1800, №4100.]{{efn|Fisgard captured Grand Décidé around 20 October.{{London Gazette|issue=15304|page=1206|date=21 October 1800}}}} On 1 November the Royal Navy Cutter Viper recaptured Diamond.{{London Gazette|issue=15526|page=1126|date=23 October 1802}} Viper sent Diamond into Falmouth, where she arrived on 3 November.
In 1801 Diamond{{'}}s ownership changed. The entry in the online copy of Lloyd's Register is illegible, but the entry in the 1802 issue shows her master as Clark, her owner as Parry & Co., and her trade as London-Africa.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005680551?urlappend=%3Bseq=109 Lloyd's Register (1802), Seq. №98.]
On 24 August 1801 Captain James Clark received a letter of marque.Letter of Marque,[http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709083440/http://www.1812privateers.org/Great%20Britain/marque1793-1815.htm |date=2015-07-09 }} - accessed 14 May 2011. Diamond then made two under Clark{{'}}s command transporting enslaved people.
1st voyage transporting enslaved people (1801–1802): Diamond left London on 31 August 1801. In 1801, 147 vessels sailed from English ports, bound for Africa to acquire and transport enslaved people; 23 of these vessels sailed from London.{{sfnp|Williams|1897|p=680}}
Diamond then delivered 391 captives to Trinidad, where she arrived on 1 March 1802. She returned to London on 13 June.[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/80989/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Diamond voyage #80989.]
2nd voyage transporting enslaved people (1802–1803): Diamond left London on 13 September 1802. In 1802, 155 vessels sailed from English ports, bound for Africa to acquire and transport enslaved people; 30 of these vessels sailed from London.{{sfnp|Williams|1897|p=680}}
Diamond arrived at Havana, Cuba, on 1 April 1803. There she landed 389 captives.[https://www.slavevoyages.org/voyage/80990/variables Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Diamond voyage #80990.] As Diamond was returning from Havana on 9 August she encountered the French privateer {{HMS|Bellona|1806|2}},{{sfnp|Demerliac|2003|p=282 |loc=np.2237}} which took her captive. However, {{HMS|Goliath|1781|6}} recaptured Diamond on the 12th and sent her into The Downs.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735021?urlappend=%3Bseq=142 Lloyd's List 23 August 1800, №4378.] A few days later Diamond ran on shore a few miles below Gravesend and bilged.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735021?urlappend=%3Bseq=145 Lloyd's List 30 August 1800, №4380.] Diamond arrived back in London on 31 August.
Next, Diamond became a whaling ship for J. Hill & Co., with destination the South Seas.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005667111?urlappend=%3Bseq=129 Lloyd's Register (1805), Seq. №113.] Captain Mark Munro (or Monro) received a letter of marque on 31 August 1804, and sailed her from Britain on 17 September 1804 with destination Isle of Desolation. She was at Desolation on 25 February 1805.[https://whalinghistory.org/bv/voyages/ British Southern Whale Fishery Database – voyages: Diamond.] She was also reported to have been "all well" there on 5 May.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735022?urlappend=%3Bseq=169 Lloyd's List 8 October 1805, №4260.]
On 10 November, the French privateer Napoléon{{sfnp|Demerliac|2003|p=265 |loc=no.2031}} captured Diamond in the Mozambique Channel, after a three-day chase.{{sfnp|Cunat|1857 |p=418}} Then on 10 December Napoléon captured {{ship||Hercules|1801 ship|2}}. The capture occurred off Cape Agulhas as Hercules was returning to England from Bombay, and Napoléon sent her into Port Louis. At her capture, Hercules was carrying a cargo of cotton.{{sfnp|Austen|1935|pp=99-100}}{{efn|Napoléon was under the command of Captain Malo le Nouvel. She was armed with 30 guns and had a crew of 180 men.{{sfnp|Austen|1935|pp=99-100}} {{HMS|Narcissus|1801|6}} captured Napoleon on 25 December.}} In November 1805, Napoléon brought the prisoners from Hercules and from Diamond into the Cape Colony, then in Dutch hands.{{sfnp|Austen|1935|pp=99-100}} There Alex Tennant, resident in the Cape, arranged at his own expense for the prisoners to be sent to St Helena.Records of the Cape Colony from February 1793 (1901), Government of the Cape Colony; pp.404-12. The Danish ship Beshriermerin arrived at St Helena on 6 January 1806 with the British crews.[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735022?urlappend=%3Bseq=254 Lloyd's List 4 March 1806, №4302.]
French career
The French renamed Diamond Diamant.{{sfnp|Austen|1935|pp=99-100}} An ambiguous report has "The Napoleon, prize of the Diamant, consignees of the Lenouvelle brothers, three masted vessel, of about 400 tons, copper-lined, to be sold 5 April [1806] by notary Guérin."{{sfnp|Piat|2007|p=138}}
At Île de France the French commissioned Diamant in September 1808 under the command of Captain Joseph Potier "en guerre et en marchandises", that is an armed merchantman that was also authorised to take prizes should the opportunity arise. In mid-October, Diamant left Mauritius, bound for Lorient. She arrived in Quiberon Bay in the evening of 21 January 1809 and ran into the British blockade; a frigate gave chase, but Potier managed to escape by throwing his artillery overboard.{{sfnp|Cunat|1857|p=418}} Diamant arrived off Bordeaux on the 23rd, where a storm forced Potier to cut down her masts to save the ship; he finally arrived in Bordeaux harbour on the 25th.{{sfnp|Cunat|1857|p=418}} She was decommissioned after her arrival at Bordeaux in January 1809.{{sfnp|Demerliac|2003}}
Notes
{{Notelist}}
Citations
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite book |last=Austen |first=Harold Chomley Mansfield |year=1935 |title=Sea Fights and Corsairs of the Indian Ocean: Being the Naval History of Mauritius from 1715 to 1810 |location=Port Louis, Mauritius |publisher=R.W. Brooks}}
- {{cite book |last1=Clayton |first1=Jane M |year=2014 |title=Ships employed in the South Sea Whale Fishery from Britain: 1775–1815: An alphabetical list of ships |publisher=Berforts Group |isbn=9781908616524}}
- {{cite book|title=La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 à 1815 |last=Demerliac |first=Alain|year=2003 |publisher=Éditions Ancre |language=fr |isbn=9782903179304 |oclc=492784876 }}
- {{cite book|title=Saint-Malo illustré par ses marins|first=Charles|last=Cunat|author-link=Charles Cunat|publisher=Imprimerie de F. Péalat|year=1857|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1koAAAAYAAJ|language=fr}}
- {{cite book|title=Pirates and Corsairs in Mauritius |first=Denis|last=Piat |translator-last1=North-Coombes |translator-first1=Mervyn | publisher=Christian le Comte |year=2007|isbn=978-99949-905-3-5 }}
- {{cite book|last=Wallace |first=Frederick William |year=1929 |title=Record of Canadian shipping: a list of square-rigged vessels, mainly 500 tons and over, built in the eastern provinces of British North America from the year 1786 to 1920}}
- {{cite book |last=Williams |first=Gomer |year=1897 |title=History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade |publisher=W. Heinemann}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond (1798 ship)}}
Category:Age of Sail merchant ships