HMS Monkey (1826)

Career
Name: HMS Monkey
Builder: McLean, Jamaica[1]
Acquired: June 1826[1]
Fate: Wrecked, May 1831[1]
General characteristics
Type:Schooner
Tons burthen:75 tons bm[2]
Complement:26[2]
Armament:1 × long 12-pounder gun[2]

HMS Monkey was a schooner of the British Royal Navy assigned to the West Indies squadron, launched 1826 and wrecked in 1831 near Tampico.[3]

Ship history

On 7 April 1829[4] Monkey captured the Spanish schooner Josefa, which was armed with one 12-pounder gun, had a crew of 21, and was carrying 206 slaves;[2] 79 men, 36 women, 48 boys and 43 girls. After her capture one female child was born, and one woman died.[5]

On 27 June 1829[4] she captured the Spanish slave ship Midas near Bimini.[6] The 360-ton Midas, which mounted four long 18-pounder and four medium 12-pounders, was taken in an action lasting 35 minutes. Of her crew of more than 50, one was killed and three wounded.[2] Nimble helped Monkey escort the ship to port. Midas had left Africa in April 1829 with 562 Africans, but only 369 were still alive when she was captured, and 72 more died (of "smallpox, diarrhea & scurvy") before Monkey and Nimble could take Midas into Havana.[6]

Also in 1829, Monkey captured the Spanish 16 gun brig Providencia after a 45 minute battle, during which three of the Providencia's crew were killed and four wounded. The Monkey found 400 African slaves aboard.[7]

Loss

Monkey was wrecked in 1831 near Tampico, Mexico. Her crew were rescued

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Harrison, Simon (2012). "British Unrated schooner 'Monkey' (1826)". Three Decks - Warships in the Age of Sail. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Clowes, W. Laird (1897). The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to Present (PDF). Vol.6. London: S. Low, Marston, Co. p. 268. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Davis, Peter. "HMS Monkey". Mid-Victorian RN vessels. Retrieved 19 November 2011.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The London Gazette: no. 18764. p. 8. 4 January 1831. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  5. ↑ "Correspondence with the British Commissioners at Sierra Leone, The Havana, Rio de Janeiro and Surinam, relating to the Slave Trade". London: R. G. Clarke. 1829. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Swanson, Gail (2005). Slave Ship Guerrero. West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania: Infinity Publishing. pp. 10–11, 130–131. ISBN 0-7414-2765-6.
  7. ↑ "Monthly Naval Register". The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine 1870 (3): 517. 1829. Retrieved 19 November 2011.