History
Batavian Navy EnsignBatavian Republic
NameProserpine
BuilderAmsterdam
Launched1801
Captured1805
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Amsterdam
Acquired5 May 1804 by capture
FateSold 1815
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen849 (bm)
Length
  • Overall:140 ft 8 in (42.9 m)
  • Keel:113 ft 6 in (34.6 m)
Beam37 ft 6 in (11.4 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 11 in (3.6 m)
Complement85 (as storeship)
Armament
  • Upper deck: 20 × 24-pounder carronades
  • QD: 2 × 24-pounder carronades

Proserpine was launched at Amsterdam in 1801 as a 32-gun frigate. The Royal Navy captured her in May 1804 at the capture of Surinam and took her into service as HMS Amsterdam. She sailed to England where she became a guard and storeship at Cork. She was sold in 1815.

Capture

The British captured Surinam from the Dutch on 5 May 1804. The Batavian flotilla that the British captured was under the command of naval Captain H. 0. Bloys Van Trestong, captain of Proserpine.[2] The other naval vessels were the corvette Pilades,[3] the schooner George (10 guns), and seven gunboats.[4]

Prize money in the amount of £32,000 was paid in March 1808 to the officers and crew of the Royal Navy vessels involved in the capture of the colony of Surinam.[5]

Royal Navy

In December 1804, Amsterdam recaptured Horatio, of Liverpool, Lawson, master, that a French privateer had captured as Horatio was sailing from Africa to the West Indies with a cargo of slaves. Horatio was taken into Demerara, where she landed 114 slaves. The report in the London Gazette gives the slave ship's name as Lord Nelson.[6] A report in Lloyd's List (LL) gave the vessel's name as Horatio, and also mentioned that the privateer had removed 160 of her people.[7] A later report revealed that the privateer had taken out 160 of her slaves, along with her crew, excepting the carpenter, boatswain, and one or two seamen.[8]

In May Captain Ferris was in command of Amsterdam and on 5 May she sailed from Antigua for England. She arrived at Spithead on 13 June and then went into Portsmouth Harbour. She was laid up in Ordinary there on 2 July. Her crew were distributed to HMS Namur and Royal William.[8]

Between May and August 1806 Amsterdam underwent fitting as a storeship for Cork. Commander Alexander Innes commissioned her in May as a guardship at Cork. In June 1807 Commander Edward W. Hoare replaced Innes.[1]

Amsterdam shared with Trent and the ship's tender Cecilia in the proceeds of the detention on 31 August 1807 of the Danish vessels Aurora and Brothers.[9] Given that Trent was a hospital ship at Cork, the detention was certainly the work of Cecilia.[lower-alpha 1]

In September 1809 Commander William Morce assumed command of Amsterdam. In May 1811 she was at Plymouth being fitted as a receiving ship. Between 1812 and 1814 she was in Ordinary at Plymouth.[1]

Fate

Amsterdam was sold at Plymouth on 9 August 1815 for £1,150.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ Cecilia was a hired armed schooner of 18669⁄94 tons (bm) and eight 12-pounder carronades.[10]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Winfield (2008), p. 215.
  2. ↑ Verhandelingen en Berigten..., (1852),Vol. 12, p.624.
  3. ↑ "No. 15712". The London Gazette. 16 June 1804. p. 758.
  4. ↑ Naval Chronicle, vol. 14, p.346.
  5. ↑ "No. 16121". The London Gazette. 20 February 1808. pp. 273–274.
  6. ↑ "No. 15794". The London Gazette. 2 April 1805. p. 436.
  7. ↑ LL №4192.
  8. 1 2 Naval Database: Amsterdam (1804).
  9. ↑ "No. 16799". The London Gazette. 6 November 1813. p. 2174.
  10. ↑ Winfield (2008), p. 394.

References

  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
  • Verhandelingen en Berigten Betrekkelijk het Zeewezen, Zeevaartkunde, de Hydrographie, de Koloniën, (1852), Vol. 12.
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