HMS Centaur (1797) - Service in The West Indies

Service in The West Indies

Late in 1802, Centaur sailed to the West Indies where she joined Vice Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth's squadron in Jamaica. When Commodore Sir Samuel Hood arrived to take command in the Leeward Islands, he raised his pennant in Centaur.

On 26 June 1803 Centaur participated in the capture of Saint Lucia and its citadel, Morne Fortunée; three days later the expedition took Tobago from the French. The fleet went on to capture the Dutch islands.

On 21 August 1803, Centaur and Netley captured the American ship Fame and her cargo of flour and corn. Then on 31 August Centaur detained the Dutch ship Good Hope, which was carrying wine and cordage.

On 20 September the British seized Demerara. The corvette Hippomenes, which was acting as a guard ship at Fort Stabroek, where she looked after the Governor's maritime affairs and served as harbour master for visiting ships, was the only vessel belonging to the Batavian Republic there and was included in the terms of capitulation. The British took her into service as HMS Hippomenes.

In September Hood also received the assignment to blockade the bays of Fort Royal and Saint Pierre, Martinique. On 22 October Centaur captured the French privateer Vigilante. She was armed with two guns and had a crew of 37 men. The pursuit took seven hours.

Centaur was sailing past Cap des Salinés, Martinique, early in the morning of 26 November when a battery fired at her. Hood had Maxwell anchor in Petite Anse d'Arlette. Then a landing party made up of Centaur's marines and about 40 sailors destroyed the battery. They also threw its six 24-pounders over the cliff. The militia guarding the battery had a brass 2-pounder gun but fled without putting up any resistance even though the landing party had to climb a steep, narrow path. Unfortunately, the premature explosion of the battery's magazine cost Centaur one man killed, and three officers and six men wounded, the only casualties from the operation. Then Centaur discovered another battery, this one armed with two 42-pounders and a 32-pounder, between the Grande and Petite Anse d'Arlette. The French abandoned the battery when a landing party approached. Once again, Centaur's men threw the guns over the cliff and destroyed a barracks and the ammunition stored there.

Centaur was anchored in Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, when on the morning of 1 December she sighted a schooner towing a sloop. The pair were about six miles away and Hood believed that they were on their way to St. Pierre. He therefore instructed Maxwell to take Centaur in pursuit. Their prey did not initially notice them, but when they did, the schooner let go her tow and the vessels separated. After a pursuit that extended over 24 leagues, Centaur captured the schooner. She turned out to be the privateer Ma Sophie, out of Guadeloupe. She had a crew of 46 men and had had eight guns that she had thrown overboard during the chase in an attempt to increase her speed. When Ma Sophie and the sloop separated, Centaur sent the Sarah, an advice boat, after the sloop, which she captured..

Hood decided to use Sophie as a tender to Centaur. Lieutenant William Donnett became her captain with the task of monitoring the channel between Martinique and Diamond Rock, a basalt island south of Fort-de-France, the main port of Martinique, for enemy vessels. Subsequently, Donnett and Sophie frequently visited the Rock to gather both the thick, broad-leaved grass that the crew could weave into sailors' hats, and a spinach-like plant called callaloo. Callaloo, when boiled and served daily, kept the crews of Centaur and Sophie from scurvy and was a nice addition to a menu too long dominated by salt beef.

In late 1803 and early 1804, Centaur, under Captain Murray Maxwell, established several batteries on Diamond Rock. To ease its administration vis-à-vis the Admiralty, The British commissioned the rock as HMS Diamond Rock. Hood garrisoned it with two lieutenants and 120 men under the command of Lieutenant James Wilkes Maurice, his first lieutenant. Unfortunately, at some point during this period and for an unknown reason, Sophie blew up, killing all but one man of her crew. (Diamond Rock fell to an overwhelming French attack on 3 June 1805.)

On 3 February, Centaur sent her boats to cut out the French 18-gun brig-corvette Curieux from the Carénage, under the guns of Fort Edward at Fort-Royal harbour, Martinique. In the fight, the French lost 40 men killed and wounded, and the British had nine men wounded, including all three officers leading the cutting out party. The British took Curieux into the navy as HMS Curieux. Her original commander was Lieutenant Robert Carthew Reynolds, who had led the cutting-out party, but he died of the wounds he had received in the attack. His replacement as her commander was Lieutenant George Bettesworth of Centaur, also a member of the cutting-out party.

On 25 April 1804, Centaur arrived off the Surinam River after a three-week voyage from Barbados. Her flotilla consisted of Pandour, Serapis and Alligator, all three en flute, Hippomenes, Drake, the 10-gun schooner Unique, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green. The British proposed surrender terms that the Dutch governor rejected. As an initial step in the campaign, Centaur sent her boats to capture the battery of Friderici. The landing party captured the battery at the cost of four men killed and three wounded. The Dutch surrendered on 5 May and Hood made Captain Conway Shipley of Hippomenes post-captain and appointed him to Centaur. (One day earlier the Admiralty had promoted Shipley into the ex-French 28-gun frigate Sagesse; he later assumed command of her at Jamaica.) Hood next appointed Captain William Richardson of the 28-gun frigate Alligator to command Centaur and the Admiralty confirmed his appointment on 27 September. The British captured two Dutch men-of-war, the 32-gun frigate Proserpine, which they took into service as Amsterdam, and the 18-gun corvette Pylades, which they took into service as Surinam. The British also captured the George, a schooner of 10 guns, and three merchant vessels.

On 30 July 1804, Centaur sent her boats into Basseterre Roads, Guadeloupe, where they cut out a schooner of unknown name and of two guns, as well as the privateer Elizabeth, which was pierced for 12 guns but mounting six. She had a crew of 65, most of whom were either killed, drowned, or swam ashore. The boats achieved these captures despite a complete lack of wind and under heavy grape and small arms fire from the batteries and troops that lined the beach. The boats had one man killed and five wounded, and brought out two wounded prisoners. Shipley described Elizabeth as "the fastest sailing Privateer out of Guadaioupe, and has been uncommonly fortunate this War."

Centaur also recaptured another Elizabeth, this one of Liverpool, that the Decidé had captured while Elizabeth was sailing from the coast of Africa with a cargo of slaves. Centaur detained, on suspicion, the "Grecian" ship St. Nicholas, which was carrying produce from Guadeloupe. Centaur also recaptured the schooner Betsey, which had been sailing in ballast. Then in December, Centaur recaptured the English ship Admiral Peckenham, which was carrying produce. Centaur sailed to England in the spring of 1805, before returning to the Leeward Islands.

A year later, on 29 July 1805, Centaur, under Captain Henry Whitby, in company with a squadron under Captain De Courcy, was sailing from Jamaica to join Nelson, when the squadron encountered a hurricane. The storm threw Centaur's masts overboard, carried away her rudder and smashed and sent all her boats overboard. Leaks that had started when Centaur had run ground some weeks before worsened substantially. The crew, especially the marines, labored at her pumps. For sixteen hours they were barely able to offset the water coming in. On the second day of the storm, a huge wave almost brought the first-rate St George crashing into Centaur.

As the hurricane lessened and the seas became a little calmer, the crew was able to get a sail under Centaur, and use her hawsers to lash it to her, much reducing the leaks and bracing her shattered frame. To help keep Centaur afloat, the crew also threw all but a dozen or so guns overboard. The 74-gun third rate HMS Eagle was then able to tow Centaur into Halifax. There Commissioner John Inglefield, who had been captain of the previous Centaur when she foundered after the Atlantic hurricane of 16–17 September 1782, greeted her.

At Halifax, Centaur was put on her side for repairs. At that time it was discovered that "14 feet of false keel was found off from the fore foot aft, which occasioned the leak."

Captain Whitby married Catherine Dorothea Inglefield, the commissioner's youngest daughter, around the end of 1805. Whitby wanted to stay in Halifax so he made an exchange into the 50-gun fourth rate HMS Leander. Captain John Talbot of Leander took command of Centaur on 5 December and sailed her home. Because of the damage she had suffered, Centaur missed joining Nelson and therefore being at the Battle of Trafalgar.