Action of 15 January 1782

The action of 15 January 1782 was a minor naval engagement that occurred near the island of Jamaica during the American Revolutionary War. A Royal Naval frigate, HMS Fox, intercepted and engaged two Spanish merchant frigates, one of 26 guns and the other of 20.[3][4][2][5]

Action of 15 January 1782
Part of American Revolutionary War
Date15 January 1782
Location
off Jamaica
Result British victory
Belligerents
 Great Britain Spain Spain
Commanders and leaders
Thomas Windsor Unknown
Strength
1 frigate 2 armed merchant frigates
Casualties and losses
2 killed
7 wounded[1]		 Both captured[2]
41 killed & wounded
205 captured

Fox was a 32-gun Active-class fifth-rate frigate commanded by Captain Thomas Windsor from 1781. While on a cruise near Jamaica, he saw two sail and then went to intercept; they were two small Spanish frigates and thus Windsor showed his colours.[1]

The Spanish armed merchantmen, 26-gun Socorro Guipuzcoano and 20-gun Dama Vizcaína, tried to escape, but Fox overhauled them both. They engaged Fox for nearly an hour before finally striking the colors. Fox had one boatswain and one seaman killed, and seven others wounded.[1]

The two Spanish ships had been bound to Havana, Cuba, from San Sebastián, Spain. The prizes were carried into Jamaica and the prize money was distributed accordingly, making Windsor and his crew rich men.[5] For his action, Windsor was promoted and went on to command HMS Lowestoffe on 31 January.[6]

Liverpool investors purchased one of the two prizes, named her Nancy, and sailed her to England. There she became the slave ship Golden Age.[7]

Citations
  1. Beatson, Robert (1804). Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain: From the Year 1727, to the Present Time Volume 5. J. Strachan & P. Hill, Edinburgh. p. 536.
  2. Southey, Thomas (1827). Chronological History of the West Indies: In Three Volumes, Volume 2. Longman. p. 540.
  3. Gaceta de Madrid - N. 1-52, p. 500
  4. Garay, p. 131.
  5. Boswell, James (1782). The Scots Magazine, Volume 44. Sands, Brymer, Murray and Cochran. p. 163.
  6. Winfield p. 190
  7. Lovejoy (2018), pp. 34–35.

References
  • Clowes, William Laird (2003). The Royal Navy: v. 4: A History - From the Earliest Times to 1900. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1861760128.
  • Gaceta de Madrid (in Spanish). 1781.
  • Garay Unibaso, Francisco (1987). Francisco Garay Unibaso: Correos marítimos españoles: Correos marítimos españoles a la América Española (Yndias Occidentales) de 1514 a 1827 (in Spanish). Ediciones Mensajero.
  • Lovejoy, Henry B. (2018). Prieto: Yorùbá Kingship in Colonial Cuba during the Age of Revolutions. UNC Press. ISBN 9781469645384.
  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 9781844157006.
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