| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | Betsey |
| Owner | R.Leigh & Co. (1798) |
| Launched | 1791, Bermuda |
| Captured | 3 June 1798 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen | 142 (bm) |
| Complement |
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| Armament |
|
Betsey was launched in Bermuda in 1791. She never appeared in Lloyd's Register. On 11 April 1793 Captain William Doyle acquired a letter of marque. The size of her crew indicates that the intent was to sail her as a privateer. Lloyd's List for 1793 and 1794 makes no mention of a privateer Betsey.
Because Betsey is a common name and she did not appear in Lloyd's Register it had not yet been possible to discover what she did between 1793 and 1798.
Captain Daniel Hayward acquired a letter of marque on 13 March 1798. Two weeks later, on 27 March 1798, Captain James Barrow acquired a letter of marque. Barrow, or Hayward, sailed from Liverpool on 22 April 1798, bound for the Windward Coast. Betsey was a slave ship, engaged in the triangular trade in enslaved people. However, the French captured Betsey before she had embarked any slaves.
Lloyd's List reported that on 3 June, the French frigate Convention had captured Betsey, Hayward, master, off the coast of Africa. Betsey had been on her way from Liverpool to Africa.
Notes
- There is no record of a French frigate with the name Convention. The 74-gun Sceptre bore the name Convention between 1792 and 1800.
- Hayward died on 6 March 1800 while on his second voyage on the slave ship Active.
Citations
- ^ Williams (1897), p. 682.
- ^ Trans Atlantic Slave Trade Database – Betsey voyage #80352.
- ^ "Letter of Marque, p.52 – Retrieved 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
- "The Marine List". Lloyd's List. No. 3032. 18 September 1798.
- Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 86.
- Behrendt (1990), p. 157.
References
- Behrendt, Stephen D. (1990). "The Captains in the British slave trade from 1785 to 1807" (PDF). Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire. 140.
- Williams, Gomer (1897). History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque: With an Account of the Liverpool Slave Trade. W. Heinemann.
- Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.