L'Invention

A four-masted wooden ship built in 1801 by Thibault, Bordeaux. Her dimensions were 44,80×8,22 meters [147'×27'] and tonnage 486 44/94 GRT and c440 NRT. Rigged with royal sails.

1801 May: Launched at the shipyard of Thibault, Bordeaux, for his own use as a privateer. Originally armed with 24 six-pounder and two twelve-pounder guns and had a crew of 210 men.
1801 July 21: Taken by the HM ships Immortalité, Captain Hotham, in company with Aretusa, at 43°03' N, 11°42' W, off Cape Ortegal.
1801 May: Bought at auction by Carteret Priaulx & Co., Guernsey, and was re-rigged to a three-masted ship. The armament was reduced to 12 12-punders and four nine punders. Captain Peter Tardif was given command of the ship. It seems that she was issued with a Letter of Marque before she began sailing for her know owners, although she did not act as a privateer.
The crew consisted of the Master Peter Tardif, Guernsey, two mates, 21 seamen, five boys, and three idlers.
1802 [?] January 13 — February 15: Sailed from Falmouth to Napels.
1802 [?] April 7 — May 14: Sailed from Gibraltar to Virginia.
1802 [?] June 22 — July 31: Sailed from Norfolk, VA, to Leghorn.
1802 [?] September 12 — October 26: Sailed from Leghorn to New York.
1802 [?] November 29 — January 8: Sailed from Norfolk, VA, to Leghorn.
1803 [?] June 13 — July 3: Sailed from Guernsey to St. John's.
1805 January 6: Captured the Spanish vessel Polaire Aquilla on voyage from Cartagena to Barcelona.
1805 January 21: Issued with a Letter of Marque.
1805 April: Sold.
1810 September: Wrecked at the entrance to Rio de la Plata.

Sources

Bill of Sale, 1801.
anon.: Capture of the L'Invention.
Naval Chronicle Vol. 7 (1802), pp 1.
Hatch, N.G.: Capture of L'Invention.
Sea Breezes Vol. VIII (1926), p 190.
Hotham, Henry: Letter from Capt. Henry Hotham, Esq. To the Hon. Admiral Cornwallis.
The Naval Gazette, 1801.
Howard, G.F.: Early Nineteenth-Century Four-Masted Vessels.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 56 (1970), p 325.
James, William: The Naval History of Great Britain from the declaration of war by France … 1793, to the accession of George IV … 1820, with an account of the origin and progressive increase of the British Navy; illustrated, from the commencement of the year 1793, by a series of tabular abstracts.
London, 1822-1824. Vol. 3. p 152.
Laws, M.E.S.: Freak Ships of Long Ago.
Sea Breezes Vol. 4 (1947), p 130-132, ill.
Raban, Peter: The First 'Modern' Four-Masted Ships.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 82 (1996), p 224.
Santi-Mazzini, Giovanni: The First 'Modern' Four-Masted Ships.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 81 (1995), p 477, ill.
Sarres, John W.: The Ship Invention 1801-1805 and Her Prize.
Report and Transactions of La Société Guernesiaise Vol. XXII (1988), pp 466-476.
Tardif, G.G.: An Old Four Poster. Smart work by L'Invention.
Sea Breezes Vol. VIII (1926), p 101-102, ill.
Timewell, H.C.: Guernsey Privateers.
The Mariner's Mirror Vol. 56 (1970), pp 199-218, 2 plates.
Toczko, Nobert F. & Chapelle, Howard I.: Privateer L'Invention.
Nautical Research Journal Vol. 12, Brooklyn, 1962. pp 28-29, ill.

Updated 1999-03-11 by Lars Bruzelius.

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