The French cutter ''Espion'' was a cutter launched in 1781. The British captured her and took her in 1782 into the
Royal Navy as HMS ''Espion''. The Royal Navy sold her in 1783.
French service
''Espion'' was one of the last of the ''Levrette''-class cutters of Royal French Navy, built by Jacques and Daniel Denys at Dunkirk, and launched on 22 June 1781. On 7 December she and ''Sagittaire'' sailed as escorts to a convoy of ten transports taking supplies to the fleet of Admiral
de Grasse at
Martinique. The convoy arrived safely in January and from there sailed to bring shells to the forces under
François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé, which were
Basseterre, the chief port and capital of
St Kitts.
On 24 January 1782 she encountered a British fleet under Admiral Sir
Samuel Hood, which was sailing to try to relieve St Kitts. The
sixth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
captured ''Espion'' near
Nevis. Her captain was the
Knight of Malta
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), officially the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta ( it, Sovrano Militare Ordine Ospedaliero di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme, di Rodi e di Malta; ...
''Lieutenant de Vaiseau Chevalier'' de Montluc de la Bourdonnaye. Hood described her as a large cutter, seven months old, and armed with sixteen 6-pounder guns.
Hood sailed on to Basseterre but the delay occasioned in capturing ''Espion'' gave de Grasse time to get out to sea. Although Hood was unable to relieve the siege, he was able to goad de Grasse into three futile attacks on the British fleet on 25 and 26 January. These attacks cost the British 172 men killed and 244 wounded; the French evacuated some 1000 wounded to
Sint Eustatius
Sint Eustatius (, ), also known locally as Statia (), is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality (officially " public body") of the Netherlands.
The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, so ...
.
[Cust (1858), Vol. 3, pp. 316–318.] Hood then sailed away to Barbados. The
Brimstone Hill redoubt at St Kitts surrendered on 13 February. Hood and Admiral
George Rodney then met and defeated de Grasse at the
Battle of the Saintes in early-April.
Fate
The British took ''Espion'' into service under her existing name and commissioned her on 24 January under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Sevell Shivers. She then sailed for Britain in September 1782.
The Admiralty sold ''Espion'' in April 1783.
Notes
Citations
References
*Cust, Sir Edward (1858) ''Annals of the wars of the eighteenth century: compiled from the most authentic histories of the period''. Volume 3. (Mitchell's military library).
*
*Dunmore, John (2007) ''Where fate beckons: the life of Jean-François de la Pérouse''. (University of Alaska Press).
*Gardiner, Asa Bird (1905) ''The order of the Cincinnati in France: ("lórdre de Cincinnatus"): its organization and history, with the military or naval records of the French members who became such by reason of qualifying service in the army or navy of France or of the United States in the War of Revolution for American Independence''. (Rhode Island State Society of Cincinnati).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espion (1781)
Cutters of the Royal Navy
1781 ships
Ships of the French Navy
Ships built in France
Captured ships