History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | Chaser |
Launched | 1778, East Indies |
Fate | Sold 1 January 1781 |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Chaser |
Acquired | 1 January 1781 by purchase |
Captured | 14 February 1782 |
France | |
Name | Chasseur |
Acquired | 14 February 1782 by capture |
Captured | 15 January 1783 |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Chaser |
Acquired | 15 January 1783 by capture |
Fate | Sold 28 August 1784 |
Great Britain | |
Name | Chaser |
Acquired | 1784 by purchase |
Fate | Wrecked late 1795 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Tons burthen | 320, or 350, or 374 (bm) |
Length | 99 ft 0 in (30.2 m) |
Beam | 76 ft 9 in (23.4 m) |
Depth of hold | 28 ft 0 in (8.5 m) |
Sail plan | Sloop |
Complement | 125 (Navy) |
Armament | 14 × 6–pounder guns (Navy) |
Chaser (or Chacer) was built in the East Indies in 1778. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1781 and commissioned her as HMS Chaser. A French frigate captured her in 1782 but the Royal Navy recaptured her in 1783 and took her back into service. She was present at a major battle and then sailed to England where the Navy sold her in 1784. As the mercantile Chaser she made five or six voyages as a whaler in the British northern whale fishery and then two to the southern whale fishery. On her way home from the second a French privateer captured her, but some of her crew recaptured her. Next, she began trading with Honduras but was wrecked in late 1795 as she was returning from there to London.
Chaser's career prior to her purchase by the Royal Navy is obscure. At least one source conjectures that she was the French privateer Chasseur, built 1781 at Bordeaux,[1] but this is highly implausible, given that the records of the Royal Navy show it purchasing Chaser on 1 January 1781. Also, one source on French naval vessels, which Chaser briefly became, makes no mention of such an origin.[2]
Chaser first appeared in online issues of Lloyd's Register (LR), in 1786.[12]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1786 | R.Lawson | Smith & Co. | London–Greenland | LR; damages repaired 1785 |
Chaser was sailing as a whaler to the northern whale fishery.
Year | Master | Where | Wales |
---|---|---|---|
1785 | Lawson | Greenland | 3 |
1787 | Lawson | Greenland | 3 |
1788 | Lawson | Greenland | 7 |
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1789 | R.Lawson Smith |
Smith & Co. | London–Greenland | LR; ; damages repaired 1787 & 1789 |
Year | Master | Where | Wales |
---|---|---|---|
1789 | Smith | Greenland | 3 |
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1791 | Smith W.Lloyd |
Smith Fiott & Co. |
London–Greenland London–Southern Fishery |
LR; damages repaired 1787 & 1789 |
In 1790-91 a new owner moved Chaser from the northern whale fishery to the southern.
1st southern whale voyage (1791–1792): She sailed from Gravesend on 16 February 1791 for the South Seas. On 28 August she was at Delagoa Bay.[13] On 3 February 1792, Lucy, Bayne, master, was at the Cape of Good Hope, together with Lucy, Spy, and several other whalers.[14] On 28 February she was again at Delagoa Bay, with seven whales.[13] On 8 April she sailed for London from Saldanha Bay with 225 tuns of whale oil.[15] Lloyd's List reported in June that Chacer was at St Helena. She returned to London on 6 July.[13]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1792 | W.Lloyd C.Clark |
Fist & Co. | London–Southern Fishery | LR; damages repaired 1787 & 1789 |
2nd southern whale voyage (1792–1794): On 24 October 1792 Chaser, Clark(e), master, sailed for the South Seas from the Downs, bound for the Pacific Ocean.[13] In January 1793 she was at Rio de Janeiro. He then sailed around Cape Horn to the coast of the Pacific.[16] He returned and in June 1794 Lloyd's List reported that Chacer had been at St Helena.[13]
Captain Clark decided to return to London by sailing around Great Britain and coming down from the north to avoid the encountering a privateer in the Channel.[17] Instead, on 19 July a French privateer of 18 guns, from Lorient, captured Chacer. The privateer put a prize crew on Chaser, but left some of the crew on board. The second mate and three men recaptured her on the 27th and brought her into Peterhead.[18][17] She arrived at Gravesend on 30 September. She had brought back 116 tuns of sperm oil, 114 tuns of whale oil, and 70 cwt of whale bone.[13]
Year | Master | Owner | Trade | Source & notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
1795 | C.Clark W.Downes |
Fist & Co. Miles & Co. |
London–Southern Fishery London–Honduras |
LR; damages repaired 1787 & 1789 |
1796 | W.Downes | Miles & Co. | London–Honduras | LR; damages repaired 1787 & 1789 |
Chaser, Downs, master, sailed from Gravesend on 13 April 1795, bound for Honduras. Lloyd's List reported in November that she had arrived at Honduras. The next report, in February 1796, was that Chacer had been wrecked in Honduras Bay whilst on a voyage from British Honduras to London. Her crew had been saved.[19]