HMS Polecat was the Pennsylvania privateer Navarro, Captain William Keeler, which HMS Orpheus captured in March 1782.[1] Between her commissioning on 18 July 1781 under Captain Woolman Sutton and her capture, Navarro captured two British vessels and recaptured one American vessel.[1] One vessel that Navarro captured was Rebecca, M'Fadzean, master, which was sailing from Jamaica to London when Navarro captured Rebecca at 44°00′N26°50′W / 44.000°N 26.833°W / 44.000; -26.833, north of the Azores.[2][a]
The Royal Navy purchased Navarre at Boston for £1097 3s 5d and took her into service as the 14-gun brig-sloop HMS Polecat. She was initially under the command of Lieutenant Edmund Nagle,[4] but Lieutenant the Honourable Patrick Napier succeeded him.[5][6] Two French frigates chased her off the coast of Virginia on 31 July 1782; Émeraude effected the actual capture.[7]Polecat was taken into York River, Virginia about 13 August.[1] Her subsequent disposition is unknown.[8]
Notes
^Rebecca, M'Fadz'n, master, Clark & Co., owner, of 280 tons (bm), had been launched in 1775 at Philadelphia.[3]
Citations
^ abcd[1][usurped] Granville Hough – American War of Independence at Sea: Navarro.
Clowes, W. Laird, et al. (1897-1903) The royal navy: a history from the earliest times to the present. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co.; London : S. Low, Marston and Co.).
Demerliac, Alain (1996). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 à 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN9782906381230. OCLC468324725.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Marshall, John (1823). "Nagle, Edmund" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 1. London: Longman and company. p. 277–278.
Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN978-1844157006.