Talk:Kitty (1800 ship)
Latest comment: 12 years ago by Acad Ronin in topic Ship or Ships?
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Ship or Ships?
editAccording the cited source "Letters of marque against France 1793-1815" ([1]), several Kitty's were hired by the RN and reading this article I suspect that it conflates more than one. To begin with it states in the first paragraph; Kitty served the Royal Navy only from 17 May 1804 to 17 January 1805, then goes on to describe several actions taking place afterwards. Secondly the size of the crew (100) seems disproportionate for the size of the ship (166 tons).
The source lists the following Kitty's:
Ref No. Type Commander Tons Guns Men Date of warrant ADM 7/328 ? Brown, William 145 10 x 4 35 1793 February 28 ADM 7/328 Ship Mount, John 366 20 x 9 45 1794 January 13 ADM 7/328 Ship Heron, John 146 12 x 4 15 1794 April 28 ADM 7/328 Ship Walker, George 366 20 x 9 45 1796 March 5 ADM 7/328 Ship Bachope, James 310 16 x 9 25 1797 May 4 ADM 7/328 Ship Pince, Robert 366 24 x 6&9 35 1799 April 6 ADM 7/328 Ship Murdock, William 366 22 x 9&12 30 1800 July 16 ADM 7/649 Ship McDonald, Alexander 366 12 x 9&12 50 1803 August 9 ADM 7/649 Ship Musgrave, Thomas 320 22 x 9&18&24 + 6 swivels 100 1805 February 5 ADM 7/649 Ship Murdock, William 395 22 x 9 77 1806 October 15 ADM 7/649 Ship McBride, Duncan 305 12 x 6 25 1808 December 6 ADM 7/649 Brig Roach, John 116 10 x 6 18 1812 October 2
- The Letter of Marque website lists letters of marque, but only one of these, the vessel captained by Musgrave, was, as far as we know, hired by the Royal Navy. The information on the hiring is from Winfield. The other letters of marque were not hired. After her contract was up, Kitty continued to sail, under Musgrave, as a private man of war, ie, under a letter of marque, but not referred to as a letter of marque. The crew size is not abnormal. As a privateer/private man of war, she expected to capture prizes, which would necessitate prize crews. The rest of the Kittys above seem more likely to be letters of marque, i.e., armed merchant vessels with the right to take prizes should they run across the opportunity. To give you an idea of the disparity, look at the Battle of La Guaira (1812), which I have been working on. The privateer Saratoga, of 16 guns and 140 men, captured the British letter of marque Rachel, of 12 guns and 36 men. The 166 bm is a mistake; Winfield gives the tons burthen as 310.Acad Ronin (talk) 12:28, 17 February 2012 (UTC)