Francis B. Gamble: How He Ended Up on the Captured HMS Alert and was Captured

I was more than a little bit confused in the last post when the source said that Francis B. Gamble was captured on the British ship Alert, a prize of the USS Essex and that he was made prisoner and eventually exchanged.  

So, I looked up further information on it.

From Wikipedia.

USS Essex

The ship was a 32 or 36 gun U.S. frigate that was in the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War and the War of 1812.  The British captured her in  1814 and she then became the HMS Essex and served the British Navy until sold at public auction in 1837.

When  the War of 1812 broke out, the Essex was commanded by Captain David Porter (the father of later Civil War Admirals David Dixon Porter, and adoptive son David G. Farragut) made a successful cruise southward.  On 11 July, she attacked a British convoy and captured one of them.  On 13 August she engaged and captured the HMS Alert.  

(This would be when Francis Gamble ended up on the Alert which evidently was recaptured by the British when he was aboard it.)

By the time the Essex returned to Boston, it had taken, she had captured ten prizes.

--Brock-Perry

Francis B. Gamble

From records of officers and men on New Jersey in wars 1791-1815" by New Jersey Adjutant General's Office.

Another one of the Gamble Boys.

GAMBLE, FRANCIS B.

Midshipman, May 18, 1809

Ordered to Frigate "Essex,"  Captain David Porter, North Atlantic Squadron February 5, 1812.

Captured with British ship "Alert," a prize of the "Essex," and sent to Halifax, N.S., August 1812

Exchanged and returned to duty, October 17, 1813

Ordered to sloop-of-war at Navy Yard Boston, Mass., December 21, 1813;

Ordered to duty  on Lake Champlain, 1814.

Ordered to New York, N.Y., for duty with Captain David Porter, November 17, 1814;

Lieutenant December 19, 1814, and remained on station until the close of the war, 1815.

(For subsequent and continued record, see War with Algiers."

--Brock-Perry