Battalion (1795 ship)

History
Great Britain
Name| Battalion
Builder| John Barry[1]
Launched| 1795, Whitby
Captured| 1797
Fate| Last listed 1797
General characteristics
Tons burthen| 200,[2] or 211,[1] or 212[3] (bm)
Complement| 18[3]
Armament| 10 × 9-pounder guns[3]

Battalion was launched at Whitby in 1795. She traded with the Baltic and then in 1796 became a Liverpool-based West Indiaman. A French privateer captured her in 1797 in a single ship action as Battalion was outbound on her first voyage to Jamaica. The Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She was last listed in Lloyd's Register (LR) in 1797.

Battalion first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1795.[2]

Year  | Master  | Owner  | Trade  | Source

|
|
|
|

1797  | T.Banks  | J.Atty  | London–Gothenburg  | LR
1797  | T.Banks
Thomas Oxton  | J.Atty
Litt & Co.  | London–Gothenburg
Liverpool–Jamaica  | LR

Battalion was sold to Liverpool in 1796.[1] Her new owners sailed her as a West Indiaman.

Captain Thomas Oxton acquired a letter of marque on 4 January 1797.[3] On 29 January Battalion, Oxton, master, was sailing from Liverpool to Jamaica when the French privateer Jeune Emilie captured her at 45°53′N 10°30′W﻿ / ﻿45.883°N 10.500°W﻿ / 45.883; -10.500, after an engagement between the two vessels of three-quarters of an hour. Jeune Emilie was armed with 10 guns and eight swivel guns, and had a crew of 80 men.[4][a]

On 11 February HMS Triton took the 10-gun privateer brig Jeune Emilie, which was forty days out of Saint-Malo and had taken the sloop Friendship as well as the 10-gun letter of marque Battalion.[9][10] Triton captured Jeune Émilie at 49°10′N 12°24′W﻿ / ﻿49.167°N 12.400°W﻿ / 49.167; -12.400.[8]

Battalion was sold for Livres 93,249,[8] about £stg3800.

## Notes

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1. ^ Jeune Émilie was a 60-ton (bm) brigantine built in the USA and commissioned as a privateer in Saint Malo in February 1793. She was under Jacqus Dupuy-Fromy with 69 men and 12 carriage guns (five 4-pounders and seven 3-pounders), plus 12 swivel guns. She was decommissioned in April 1793.[5] The French government requisitioned her prior to July 1794 and commissioned her.The French Navy renamed her Isolé in May 1795, but reverted to Jeune Émilie in 1796.[6][7] In 1796 the Navy returned her to her owners. They commissioned her as a privateer in 1796 under A. Le Bedel, with 60 to 62 men and 16 guns.[5] Le Bedel was an experienced captain. He had been second captain of Jeune Émilie in 1793 and had taken command of her when Dupuy-Fromy fell ill.[8]

## Citations

[edit]

1. ^ a b c Weatherill (1908), p. 95.
2. ^ a b LR (1795), Seq.No.B466.
3. ^ a b c d "Letter of Marque, p.52 – Retrieved 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
4. ^ "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 2899\. 17 February 1797. hdl:2027/uc1.c3049069.
5. ^ a b Demerliac (1999), p. 242, no.2046.
6. ^ Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 297.
7. ^ Demerliac (1999), p. 189, 1408.
8. ^ a b c Crowhurst (1989), p. 92.
9. ^ "No. 13980". The London Gazette. 14 February 1797. p. 157.
10. ^ Schomberg (1802), p. 122.

## References

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* Crowhurst, P. (1989). The French War on Trade: Privateering, 1793–1815. Studies in naval history. Ashgate Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-85967-804-9.
* Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
* Schomberg, Isaac (1802). Naval Chronology, Or an Historical Summary of Naval and Maritime Events from the Time of the Romans, to the Treaty of Peace 1802: With an Appendix. London: T. Egerton.
* Weatherill, Richard (1908). The ancient port of Whitby and its shipping. Whitby: Horne and Son.
* Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.