HMS Curlew (1812)

HMS Curlew (1812) was a Royal Navy Cruizer class brig-sloop built by (William) Good & Co., at Bridport and launched in 1812. She served with the Navy for only 10 years. During the War of 1812 she sailed from Halifax and captured several American privateers. Her greatest moment was her role in the 1819 British occupation of Ras al-Khaimah. Curlew was sold in 1822 in Bombay. She then had a 13 or so year career as an opium runner for James Matheson, one of the founders of the firm Jardine Matheson.

War of 1812
Commander Michael Head was appointed to Curlew on 27 June 1812 and commissioned her in July. She was still at Portsmouth on 31 July when the British authorities seized the American ships there and at Spithead on the outbreak of the War of 1812. She therefore shared, with numerous other vessels, in the subsequent prize money for these vessels: Belleville, Aeos, Janus, Ganges, and Leonidas.

Head sailed Curlew for North America on 28 August. On 31 October, Curlew was in company with HMS Shannon (1806), HMS Nymphe (1812) and HMS Tenedos (1812) when Shannon captured the privateer brig Thorn. Thorn was armed with eighteen long 9-pounders and had a crew of 140 men. Thorn, of Salem, was under the command of Captain T. Harper and was three weeks into her first cruise. Prior to being herself captured, Thorn had captured a brig carrying salt.

Next month, on 6 November, Curlew and the same squadron recaptured the brig Friendship. A privateer had captured her while she was sailing from Quebec to Tenerife.

Curlew was among the vessels that shared in the capture on 1 February 1813 of the ship Hebe. Hebe had been sailing from Smyrna to London.

In March 1813, Nymphe, HMS Hogue (1811) and Curlew sent in to Halifax a ship from Wiscasset, that had been bound for Saint Barts. On April 2, Curlew brought into Halifax the American letter of marquee Volante of 22 guns, or 14 guns, and 90 men. Actually, Volante was pierced for 22 guns but carried only ten 24-pounder carronades and four long 9-pounders, giving her a broadside roughly half that of Curlew's. Taking Volante involved an exchange of shots but no casualties were reported. Lloyd's List describes Volant, of Boston, as being of 550 tons bm, armed with twenty 24-pounders, and having a crew of 90 men. She had been sailing from Bayonne with a cargo of wine, silks, brandy, and the like.

Curlew captured the Sally on 24 April. She was of 143 tons burthen, out of Salem, and sailing to St Margaret's.

On 2 May the American frigates USS President (1800) and USS Congress (1799) fell in with Curlew. Fortunately, Head was able to out-sail them and she escaped. Nineteen days later, Curlew and the frigate Tenedos captured the American privateer schooner Enterprise, of four guns and 91 men, out of Salem. Enterprise had been on a four month-long cruise off Brazil but had not taken any prizes.

In July, Curlew captured three small schooners. She captured two on 7 July, the Swift, of 63 tons bm, from Cape cod to Ipswich, and the Two Brothers, 53 tons bm, from Kennebeck, and also sailing to Ipswich. Two days later Curlew captured the schooner Precilla, of 61 tons bm, sailing to Boston. Then almost a month later, on 7 August, Curlew captured the sloop Eunice. In between, on 8 July, Curlew was in sight when Hogue captured the Fanny.

In August 1813, Curlew and Nymphe captured three small prizes. On 12 August they took the fishing vessel The Gennet. Then five days later they captured the sloop Endeavor, sailing from Castine to Boston. In between, on 14 August, Nymphes yawl (armed with a carronade), and supported by Curlews boats, chased a schooner for eight hours off Cape Cod, in little wind, before they captured her. The schooner was the letter of marque Paragon, of 157 tons burthen, 20 men, and pierced for 16 guns but carrying four, two 12-pounders and two 9-pounders. Paragon, of Massachusetts, was under the command of Captain W. Weston.

On 9 April 1814 Curlew captured the brig Plutus. Then on 4 May she captured the Spanish brig Maria Francisca, which Victorious had earlier captured, as had HMS Diomede (1798). On 25 May Curlew recaptured the Ontario. That same day, together with HMS Martin (1809), she recaptured the brig Two Brothers. The next day, Curlew and Martin recaptured the brig Thomas and Sally.

On 28 May 1814 Curlew was in Halifax, having retaken and sent in the Ontario and other vessels. Commander Hugh Pearson assumed command in June after Head was promoted to post-captain on 7 June.

Post-war
Curlew arrived at Portsmouth on 24 June 1815. From November to January 1817 she was Chatham undergoing repairs. Between February and April 1818 she was fitted for sea. Commander William Walpole commissioned her for the East Indies.

On 8 May Curlew was at Mauritius. On 18 August 1819 Curlew was reported to be cruising in the Persian Gulf. By September she was in Bombay. On the way 15 large Joasmi Arab boats attacked her. After five hours of fighting she had sunk three and captured seven.

Rear Admiral King appointed Capt. Francis Augustus Collier of HMS Liverpool (1814) to command the naval portion of a joint navy-army punitive expedition against the pirates at Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. The naval force was to consist of Liverpool, HMS Eden (1814), Curlew, several East India Company cruisers, and a number of gun and mortar boats. Later several vessels belonging to the Sultan of Muscat joined them. On the army side, Major General Sir William Keir commanded some 5,000 troops in transports.

The punitive expedition anchored off Ras-al-Khaimah on 2 December, but waited for two days before landing the troops. Collier placed Walpole in charge of the gun boats and an armed pinnace to protect the landing, which was, however, unopposed. On 4 December Curlew approached the shore and from there fired on the town, but with little effect. On 8 December the Navy took three 24-pounders from Liverpool and brought them onshore. These were much more effective. When the troops entered the town on 9 December they found that the inhabitants had all fled. The siege cost the British five dead and 52 men wounded. The Arabs reportedly had lost a thousand dead.

The British then spent December and early January moving up and down the coast destroying forts and vessels. The capture and destruction of the fortifications and ships in the port was a massive blow for the Gulf pirates. The Royal Navy suffered no casualties during the action.

In December Commander George Gambier replaced Walpole who had received a promotion to Post-captain for his role in the attack on the pirates. Walpole returned to Britain as captain of HMS Seringpatam (1819). In April 1820 Lieutenant The Right Honourable Price Blackwood replaced Gambier. (Blackwood was promoted to Commander on 4 June 1821.) In November 1820 Curlew participated in another punitive expedition, but due to disagreement between Blackwood and Captain Thompson of the Army, a naval force did not accompany the army inland and so missed the debacle that followed. Later, Blackwood sailed Curlew to the China seas.

Mercantile service: opium running
On 28 December 1822, the Admiralty sold Curlew to James Matheson at Bombay for 15,100 rupees. He renamed her Jamesina.

Jamesina proceeded to run opium for more than a decade thereafter. The reason Matheson bought a naval vessel was that the opium merchants had found that their firepower was an effective deterrent to Chinese pirates and customs officials. Although the naval vessels were not designed to carry cargo, opium was compact. Crews were mixed. One report gives the Jamesina's crew in 1832 as consisting of 10 Europeans, 54 Indian lascars and four Chinese staff.

By the 1830s opium was the single most valuable commodity traded in the world. Though the trade was illegal, there was no shortage of suppliers. In 1830, the new steam tug Forbes towed Jamesina, carrying 840 chests of Bengal opium, from Calcutta to Singapore, from where Jamesina proceeded under sail. In 1833 Jamesina sold £330,000 worth of opium at Foochow, Amoy, Ningpo and other Chinese ports.

There are reports that in the mid-1930s Jardine-Matheson used Jamesina as a storeship for opium. It is not clear when and what her final disposition was.