HMS Vanguard (1787) - Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

In 1803, under the command of Captain James Walker, Vanguard was operating out of Jamaica on the Blockade of Saint-Domingue. On 30 June, Cumberland and her squadron under Captain Henry William Bayntun were between Jean-Rabel and St. Nichola Mole in the West Indies, having just parted with a convoy when they spotted a sail of what appeared to be a large French warship. Cumberland and Vanguard approached her and after a few shots from Vanguard the French vessel surrendered, having suffered two men badly wounded, and being greatly outgunned. She proved to be the frigate Creole, of 44 guns, primarily 18-pounders, under the command of Citizen Le Ballard. She had been sailing from Cape François to Port au Prince with General Morgan (the second in command of in San Domingo), his staff, and 530 soldiers on board, in addition to her crew of 150 men.

While the British were taking possession of Creole, a small French navy schooner, under the command of a lieutenant and sailing the same trajectory as Creole, sailed into the squadron and she too was seized. She had on board 100 bloodhounds from Cuba, which were "intended to accompany the Army serving against the Blacks."

On 2 July 1803, Bayntun's squadron captured the French privateer Superieure. Vanguard was the actual captor. The British took her into the Royal Navy as Superieure. The squadron also captured the privateer Poisson Vollant, which the Royal Navy also took into service.

About three weeks later, on 24 July, two French 74s, Duquesne and Duguay Trouin, and the frigate Guerrière put to sea from Cap-Français during a squall in an effort to evade Bellerophon, Elephant, Theseus, Tartar under Captain Perkins, and Vanguard, which were blockading the port. The French ships separated during the night but the British overtook Duquesne the following day and captured her after a short exchange of fire with Vanguard, which lost one man killed and one wounded. The prize was broken up on arrival in England after being damaged running on to the Morant Keys.

In September the French troops in northwest Saint Domingue were being closely pressed by the rebel slaves under General Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Captain Walker, off the Mole St. Nicholas, persuaded the General not to put the garrison of Saint-Marc to death but to march them to the Mole in safety where Vanguard would take possession of the shipping in the bay. The 850 men of the garrison, all very emaciated, were successfully evacuated, and the brig Papillon, pierced for 12 guns but only mounting 6, the brig Trois Amis, transport, and the schooner Mary Sally with 40 or 50 barrels of powder were brought out. The British took Papillon into service under her existing name. Then on 5 September Vanguard captured the French navy's schooner Courier de Nantes, of two guns and four swivel guns. She had a crew of 15 men under the command of an Enseigne de Vaisseau, and was carrying 30 barrels of flour to Saint-Marc.

Vanguard captured the American schooner Independence on 16 November. Six days later Vanguard took the two French schooners Rosalle, laden with saltpeter and lignum vitae, and St Rosario, in ballast.