French frigate Trave (1812)

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History
French Navy EnsignFrance
Name: Trave
Namesake: Trave River
Builder: Amsterdam
Laid down: April 1811
Launched: 12 May 1812
History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Trave
Acquired: October 1813 by capture
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "14 Dec. Boat Service 1814" [1]
General characteristics [2][3]
Tons burthen: 1069 ​26⁄94 tons (bm)
Length:
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Sail plan: ship
Complement: 320 (at capture)
Armament:

The French frigate Trave was a Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched at Amsterdam in 1812. The Royal Navy took her into service as the troopship HMS Trave. She served in the Potomac and her boats participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne during the War of 1812. She was sold on 7 June 1821.

Capture

On 30 September Trave and Weser left the Texel to cruise the Western Islands. However, on 16 October, a gale dismasted both, and separated them. On 21 October, the frigate HMS Rippon, and the brigs HMS Royalist and HMS Scylla captured Weser.

Fortuitously, that same day the brig HMS Achates encountered Trave and the two exchanged fire that wounded two men aboard Trave. However, Trave was able to extricate herself from the engagement.

The next day Trave was less fortunate. On 23 October Andromache captured Trave after an engagement of only 15 minutes. Trave, although a new vessel, had lost her masts in a storm and was sailing under jury-rigged masts and so unable to maneuver. She was armed with twenty-eight French 18-pounder long guns and sixteen 18-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 321 men, almost all Dutch. Before she struck she had one man killed, and 28 men wounded, including her commander capitaine de frégate Jacob Van Maren, Chevalier de L'ordre Imperiale de la Reunion. Andromache had little damage and only two men wounded.[4] At the time of the capture the ketch HMS Gleaner was in sight,[5] though it is not clear what she could have added had the engagement lasted longer. More importantly, the frigate Eurotas was also in sight as Trave struck.[5]

HMS Trave

The Royal Navy took Trave into service as HMS Trave. Commander Rowland Money was appointed to command her in April. Between March and May she was at Portsmouth being fitted as a troopship and armed en flûte. He then carried elements of the 4th regiment of Foot from the Garonne river to North America.[6] Trave was part of a fleet of some dozen warships and several transports that was carrying Major-General Ross and some 2500 men from three regiments to invade North America. The naval commander was Rear-Admiral Pulteney Malcolm in Royal Oak. The fleet left on 2 June, stopped in at St Michels, in the Azores, and arrived at Bermuda 24 July. The fleet left on 4 August and by 20 August was in the Patuxent River.

The British, under the command of Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane then moved up the Patuxent on 20 August, preparing for a landing at Benedict. Money commanded one of the three divisions of boats carrying the fleet's marines and their artillery.[6] The United States's Secretary of the Navy Jones had ordered Commodore Joshua Barney to take his Chesapeake Bay Flotilla as far up the Patuxent as possible, to Queen Anne, and scuttle it if the British appeared. Leaving his barges with a skeleton crew under the command of Lieutenant Solomon Kireo Frazier to handle any destruction of the craft, Barney took the majority of his men to join the American Army commanded by General William Henry Winder. Frazier scuttled all but one of the vessels, which the British captured, of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla. In 1835 there was a payment of prize money to Trave's crew, and those of numerous other British vessels, for "the capture of the Chesapeake."[Note 1]

On 24 August the British moved towards Washington, DC. Money caught up with the army the evening before, bringing with him the naval brigade and the marine's artillery.[6] The British defeated the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg. They then entered Washington unopposed and set fire to many of the government buildings in what became known as the Burning of Washington.

On 30 August the British re-embarked on their vessels at Benedict, and on 9 September sailed to Baltimore. On 12 September Money commanded one of the naval brigades that landed at North Point. He apparently participated in the battle of North Point.[6]

From Baltimore Trave sailed to New Orleans where her boats participated in the battle of Lake Borgne.

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Main article: Battle of Lake Borgne

The British captured five gunboats and took them into service under the names Ambush (or Ambush No. 5), Firebrand, Destruction, Harlequin, and Eagle.[Note 2] In 1847 the Royal Navy issued a clasp (or bar) for the Naval General Service Medal]] marked "14 Dec. Boat Service 1814," to survivors of the battle who wanted to claim the clasp.

On 8 January 1815, during the battle of New Orleans, Money commanded the naval contingent in Lieutenant-colonel Thornton's brigade, which carried out a successful attack on the American position on the western bank of the Mississippi. Unfortunately, Money was severely wounded in the attack.[8]

Because Commander Money was badly wounded, Admiral Cochrane sent him home to Britain.[6] In March 1815 Commander William C.C. Kent (acting), or Captain John Boulton[9] took command of Trave. Commander John Codd replaced Kent on 13 June,[10] or 13 November 1815.[9]

Fate

Trave arrived at Plymouth in July 1816 and the Admiralty placed her in Ordinary. She was sold on 7 June 1821 to Mr. Holmes for £2,100 for breaking up.[3]

Notes, citations and references

Notes
  1. ↑ A first-class share was worth £3 18s 0d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 6d.,ref>The London Gazette: no. 19255. p. 644. 3 April 1835. The amounts were a dividend from the estate of the late agent Henry Abbott, who had gone bankrupt.
  2. ↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £34 12s 9¼d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 7s 10¾d.[7]
Citations
  1. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 20939. p. 247. 26 January 1849.
  2. ↑ Winfield and Roberts (2015), p.152.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Winfield (2008), p. 181.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 16795. p. 2138. 30 October.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The London Gazette: no. 16911. p. 1301. 25 June 1814.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Marshall (1830), Supplement, Part 4, pp.9-20.
  7. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 17730. p. 1561. 28 July 1821.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 16991. pp. 440–451. March 9, 1815.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Winfield (2014), p.149.
  10. ↑ Marshall (1830), Supplement, Part 4, p.292.
References
  • Marshall, John (1823-1835) Royal naval biography, or, Memoirs of the services of all the flag-officers, superannuated rear-admirals, retired-captains, post-captains, and commanders, whose names appeared on the Admiralty list of sea officers at the commencement of the present year 1823, or who have since been promoted ... (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown).
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  • Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042
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