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CHALLENGER
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Built in 1806, Blackwall.
Broken up in 1811. |
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- 1807 William Barnham RIDER, off Havre Sheerness.
- 1808 Ditto, Downs.
- 1809 With Rear-Ad. STRACHAN in the West Scheldt during August.
- 1810 Ditto, West Indies.
Capt. RIDER lost his commission after a court martial at Portsmouth on 20 November 1810 for returning home with dispatches from the Lieut. Governor of Curacao without the authority of the naval C. in C. at Jamaica. (He was restored in March 1811.) - 1811 Goddard BLENNERHASSETT, Channel.
CHALLENGER was taken by a French frigate and an armed storeship off Ile de Batz near Roscoff, in a fog, on 12 March 1811. After his return from captivity Capt. BLENNERHASSETT was acquitted by a court martial which decided the loss was due to the fore top-masts being shot away and praised for his efforts to regain the British squadron off St. Malo. - CHALLENGER was bought off the French by an American living in Paris named Preble.
During the war with America she was commissioned as an American privateer and named the TRUE BLOODED YANKEE but sailed out of the French ports of Brest, Morlaix and l'Orient, with a crew said to be mainly British. On a cruise in the St. George's Channel and the Irish Sea she captured the FAME of Belfast, the GEORGE from Kinsale, the MARGARET of Hull and four other vessels between Holyhead and the Skerries. The MARGARET was recaptured and taken into Plymouth. - During one cruise lasting 37 days she captured 27 vessels, held an island on the coast of Ireland for six days and burnt seven vessels in a harbour in Scotland. Later she took part in a cruise with the privateer BUNKER HILL and returned to France laden with booty including 12,000 pounds weight of raw silk and 18 bales of Turkish carpets.
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