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HMS Flying Fish (1803)

HMS Flying Fish was the American-built schooner Flying Fish, launched in 1801. She became the French privateer schooner Poisson Volant, which the British captured in 1803 in the West Indies and took into the Royal Navy.

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1326743338 · 2025-12-10T16:38:30Z
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Flying10 uses in this article captured7 uses in this article privateer5 uses in this article schooner5 uses in this article Lieutenant3 uses in this article British3 uses in this article French3 uses in this article Volant3 uses in this article Price3 uses in this article under3 uses in this article which3 uses in this article Republic2 uses in this article Captain2 uses in this article Firefly2 uses in this article Poisson2 uses in this article Nimrod2 uses in this article Royal2 uses in this article small2 uses in this article three2 uses in this article commissioned1 uses in this article

Overview

HMS Flying Fish was the American-built schooner Flying Fish, launched in 1801. She became the French privateer schooner Poisson Volant, which the British captured in 1803 in the West Indies and took into the Royal Navy. She captured a privateer and recaptured some small merchant vessels. She was renamed Firefly in 1807, but was lost with all hands when she foundered later that year.

Origins

Poissant Volant was the American schooner Flying Fish, built at Baltimore in 1801. She was then bought by the French.

Capture

In mid-1803, the squadron under Captain Henry William Bayntun, consisting of , , , , and captured Poisson Volant and Supérieure. The Royal Navy purchased her on 15 October 1803. The British commissioned her as Flying Fish under Lieutenant Clement Ives in June 1804.

Service

On 29 June captured the Dutch schooner Nimrod, three miles south of "Saint Cruz (Corosoa)". Captain Zacharia Mudge reported that Nimrod, of four guns, was one of two schooners that had engaged Flying Fish. By at least July, Flying Fish was under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Price. On 14 July she recaptured the Content, which the French privateer Republic (Republique) had captured the evening before off Black River. From the prisoners Price learned where he might intercept the privateer. The next day he encountered her and captured her after a five-hour chase. Republic was armed with one long gun and small arms, and had left St. Jago with a crew of 51 men. On her cruise she had taken three prizes. Another account reports that the privateer that Flying Fish captured had 37 men aboard her, and that Flying Fish succeeded in recapturing two of the privateer's prizes.

Between 1 March and 1 June 1805, Flying Fish recaptured the British ship Mary, which was carrying cargo of island produce.

Loss

In 1807 Flying Fish was renamed Firefly. On 17 November she struck a submerged rock off Curacao. Lieutenant Price and all his crew were lost.

References

*Footner, Geoffrey M. (1998) Tidewater Triumph: The Development and Worldwide Success of the Chesapeake Bay Pilot Schooner. (Naval Institute Press). * * *

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