HMS Phoebe (1795) - War of 1812

War of 1812

On 9 April 1812 Phoebe sailed with a convoy for Quebec. She returned to Deal on 2 August. On 30 September she was in Plymouth, having brought dispatches from Halifax. She then underwent a refit.

In late December 1812, Phoebe captured two American schooners. One was the Vengeance, an American letter of marquee 12-gun schooner from New York, bound to Bordeaux, laden with sugar and coffee. Vengeance arrived in Plymouth on 8 January. The Royal Navy took Vengeance into service as Telegraph. Vengeance was closely followed by Hunter, a privateer schooner, of 14 guns and 100 men. The capture of Hunter occurred on 23 December after a chase during which she threw 12 of her guns overboard.

A few days later, Phoebe was sailing off the Azores in the company of the 74-gun third rate HMS Elephant, under the command of Francis Austen, the brother of the acclaimed novelist Jane Austen, together with Hermes (1811). On 27 December they captured the American privateer schooner Swordfish of Gloucester, John Evans, master. Swordfish was 16 days out of Boston and had a crew of 82 men, and originally twelve 6-pounder guns. However, she had thrown 10 overboard during the chase, which took 11 hours and covered more than 100 miles.

On 18 March 1813 Phoebe left Portsmouth with a convoy for Brazil and the East Indies. On 6 July Phoebe, the sloop-of-war Cherub, and Racoon sailed from Rio de Janeiro around Cape Horn to the Juan Fernández Islands. There, Racoon continued on to the fur trading outpost of Fort Astoria. Phoebe and Cherub remained to search for the 36-gun USS Essex. Hillyar was under orders to capture the Essex "at all costs".