American Privateer Hyder Ali

I couple posts ago, I wrote that the HMS Boxer's cannons were placed on the privateer Hyder Ali which went on what appears to be just one cruise with a little bit of success, not much, before it was captured by a British frigate HMS Owen  Glendour.

From Three Decks.org.

HYDER ALI

I also thought this was kind of a strange name for an American ship.  Sounded more Middle Eastern.

12 guns of American registry.  Captured May 1814.

Fifty-man crew under command of  Captain (privateer) R. Thorndike.

Taken by Owen Glendower.

367 tons, twelve 18-odr. carronades, two long 18-pdrs., some from the captured HMS Boxer.

There is a report saying that when captured, the Hyder Ali had 30 men after a ten-hour chase near the Nicobar Islands.  Before the capture, the Hyder Ali had been chased for 3 days by HMS  Salsette, but got away.

The Nicobar Islands are over by Southeast Asia by the Indian Ocean.

--Brock-Perry

HMS Boxer-- Part 5: Later Career

Initially the Boxer was used to defend  Portland harbor.  After the war, she became a merchant ship for several years.  The HMS Boxer evidently did not become the USS Boxer as a commissioned U.S. ship.  There was another USS Boxer, a 14-gun brig constructed by C, and D. Churchill of Middleton, Connecticut and commissioned in 185 under Lt. John Porter.)

Her first voyage as one was in April 1815, under Captain William McLellan, Jr.  (1776-1844).  She sailed to Havana, New York, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Marseilles and back to New York before returning to Portland in early  1816.

Subsequent  shorter cruises under McLellan, Hall or William Merrill took her along the coast or to the West Indies.

Around 1818, William Merrill sold her to a Portuguese  firm that used her as a mail packet between Portuguese  Cape Verde and Lisbon.

Merrill reported in 1825, that  he passed the Boxer leaving Praia at dusk as he entered the harbor as he entered the harbor on his vessel, the John, .

It is thought that the Boxer was eventually lost off the coast of  Brazil.

--Brock-Perry

Timeline of Captain Gwinn's Life-- Part 1: 1791 to 1823

 From the John Gwinn Papers, Library of Congress.

1791, June 11  Born in Taneytown, Maryland

1809   Appointed midshipman

           Duty on John Adams (frigate)

1814   Duty on Frolic  (sloop of war), West India Squadron

           Prisoner of War, Halifax, Nova Scotia

1815   Duty on Boxer (brig), Mediterranean Squadron

1817   Duty on the Hornet (sloop of war), European Station

1819   Duty on the Independence (ship of the line) 

1823   Married  Caroline S. Lynch

--Brock-Perry

John Gwinn Papers-- Part 2: His Navy Career

John Gwinn's Life

1791, June 11   Born in Taneytown, Maryland

1809   Appointed midshipman.  Duty on frigate John Adams

1814   Duty in sloop-of-war Frolic, West India Squadron  Prisoner of war, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

1815   Duty  on Boxer (brig) Mediterranean Squadron. 

1817  Duty on the USS Hornet (sloop-of-war)   European Squadron

1819  Duty on USS  Independence (ship of the line)

1823   Married Caroline S. Lynch

--Brock-Perry