HMS Tartar (1801) - Jamaica Station

Jamaica Station

Captain James Walker commissioned Tartar in July 1801. She sailed for Jamaica in October.

In June 1802 Captain Charles Inglis took command. On 30 August 1802 Tartar was among the British warships sharing in the capture of the French tartane Concezione.

In 1803 Captain John Perkins succeeded Inglis. Tartar was in Captain John Loring's squadron at the Blockade of Saint-Domingue when Vanguard captured the 74-gun Duquesne on 25 July off Saint-Domingue. Tartar outsailed her larger companions and kept the Duquesne engaged until Bellerophon came up and Duquesne surrendered.

As the British warships and their prize were sailing between the two islands of St. Domingo and Tortudo, near Port-au-Paix, they met up with the French schooner Oiseaux. She was armed with 16 guns and her crew of 60 men was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Druault. Loring ordered Vanguard and Tartar to escort Duquesne and Oiseaux to Port Royal.

Between 20 November and 4 December 1803 Tartar was in company with Captain Loring's squadron when the squadron captured the French ships of war Decouverte, Clorinde, Surveillante, Vertu, and Cerf. Surveillante and Clorinde were bought into British service. Surveillante had on board at her surrender General Rochambeau the commander of the French forces on Saint-Domingue. On 1 December the squadron detained the Hiram for a breach of the blockade of Cape Francois.

In 1803 and 1804 Perkins escorted Edward Corbet to Haiti. Corbet had been appointed to liaise with Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the new governor general and later first Emperor of Haiti. These missions were often less than successful.

In 1804 Tartar was on the Jamaica Station under Captain Keith Maxwell, who had received promotion to post-captain on 1 May. On 31 July she sighted a schooner. Maxwell set off to prevent the schooner from entering the narrow and intricate channel between the island of Saona and San Domingo where it would be difficult for him to pursue. As Tartar got closer he saw that the schooner was using her sweeps to aid her. Her behaviour made Maxwell suspect that his quarry was a privateer so he pursued her until neither vessel could progress farther. At that point, Maxwell was unable to get Tartar into a position from which she could use her broadside. Instead, he sent in a cutting out party in three boats. As the boats set out, their quarry fired a gun, hoisted French colours, and then opened fire on the boats. The schooner was not able to deter the attack and the British captured her with no more casualties than two men wounded. The French lost nine killed and six wounded, as well as three missing, presumed drowned when they tried to swim to shore. Maxwell sent the wounded to San Domingo under flag of truce, but kept the other Frenchmen prisoners, there being no English prisoners available for exchange. The privateer was the Hirondelle, under the command of Captain La Place. She was armed with ten 4-pounder guns and had been out of San Domingo for two days. She had been active during the French Revolutionary Wars and for the past two years also, having frequently escaped pursuit due to her speed.

At the end of 1804, Captain Edward Hawker joined Tartar from Theseus and sailed her from Jamaica to the Halifax station. On 9 January 1805 Tartar, in company with Surveillante, captured the Spanish ship Batidor.

On 6 May 1806 Tartar captured the American brig Romulus. Then on 9 June Tartar and the 10-gun cutter Bacchus captured the French navy corvette Observateur, of 18 guns and 104 men, which was under the command of Captain Crozier. Observateur had sailed from Cayenne on 13 May with the brig-of-war Argus, with provisions for a four-month cruise but had not captured anything.

On 23 August Tartar captured the Charlestown packet. Later in the year Captain Hawker exchanged with Captain Stephen Poyntz of Melampus and Tartar returned to England under reduced masts as a consequence of damage she had sustained in a hurricane.

Tartar was paid off in October 1807. Then between October and April 1808 she underwent repairs, which cost £18,700.