In 1772 Intrepid sailed to the Dutch East Indies. The ship's master on this journey was John Hunter, later an admiral and the second Governor of New South Wales.[2]
Intrepid and Chichester captured the advice-brig Serin off San Domingo on 31 July 1794.[3] The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Serin.
In February 1796, Intrepid was patrolling near Cap-François looking for reinforcements expected from Cork when she encountered a French corvette. After a chase of ten hours, the corvette ran ashore in a cove to the east of Porto Plata, where her crew abandoned her, enabling the British to retrieve her. She turned out to be Perçante, armed with twenty 9-pounder guns and six brass 2-pounders, with a crew of 200 men under the command of Citoyen Jacque Clement Tourtellet. She had left La Rochelle on 6 December 1795 under orders from the Minister of Marine and Colonies not to communicate with any vessel on the way.[4] The British took her into service as the sixth-rate HMS Jamaica. Musquito must have been in company or in sight as she shared in the proceeds of the capture.[5]
Hargood remained and Intrepid remained in China until the Peace of Amiens in 1802, defending Macau at the Macau Incident of January 1799.
On 4 April 1801, Intrepid captured Chance. The prize agent failed and what prize money could be recovered from his estate was not paid until 1828.[a]
Napoleonic Wars
In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta, invaded and captured the islands.[7]Intrepid was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.[b]
Fate
The Navy fitted Intrepid as a receiving ship in May 1810. She then went into Ordinary until 1815.[1]
On 26 March 1828, the "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered for sale at Plymouth "Intrepid, of 50 guns and 1374 tons".[9] The Navy sold Intrepid for £3,030 on that day to D. Beatson.[1]
Notes
^A first-class share was worth £96 0s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 5s.[6]
^The prize agent for a number of the vessels involved, Henry Abbott, went bankrupt. In May 1835 there was a final payment of a dividend from his estate. A first-class share was worth 10s 2+3⁄4d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 1d. Seventh-class (landsmen) and eighth-class (boys) shares were fractions of a penny, too small to pay.[8]
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Great Britain
