page_title: HMS Racoon (1795)
section_title: Commander Austin Bissell
hierarchical_section_title: HMS Racoon (1795) / Napoleonic Wars / Commander Austin Bissell
caption_attribution_description: English: Capture of privateers Jeune Adele and Amelie by HMS Racoon, 1803. Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with white and with scratching out, on paper 13¾ x 18 in.
context_page_description: HMS Racoon was a brig-sloop built and launched in 1795. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and in the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. She had an active career under several captains, working essentially independently while capturing or destroying some 20 enemy privateers and naval vessels. Several of the captures involved engagements that resulted in casualties on Racoon as well as on her opponents. She was broken up early in 1806.
context_section_description: In 1803 Commander Austin Bissell took command of Racoon. Between 5 July 1803 and 10 July she captured or destroyed four French vessels:
  6 July: schooner at anchor in bay near Cape Rosa, sunk;
  7 July: Schooner Vertu, of two guns, carrying troops and provisions from Port-au-Prince, taken;
  7 July: Sloop  L'Ami des Colonies, of two guns, taken;
  9 July: Schooner run on shore and sunk in Barradier Bay.
  Then, within about a month Racoon participated in two single-ship actions. First, on 11 July 1803, Racoon was sailing between Guanaba and St. Domingo when she sighted a French naval brig anchored in Léogâne Roads. As Racoon sailed towards her Bissell saw that the French had springs on their cables and were ready to engage. At 2:45 p.m. Racoon anchored, also with springs, 30 yards from the brig. The two vessels exchanged fire for half an hour before the French vessel cut his cables and tried to sail away. Racoon followed and after about another 10 minutes of fire from Racoon, the French brig surrendered.
  The Frenchman was the Lodi, pierced for 20 guns but with only 10 mounted, and under the command of Capitaine de fregate M. Pierre Isaac Taupier. The French had lost one man killed and 13 or 14 men wounded; Racoon had only one man wounded.
  In August, Having received information that French privateers were operating out of Cuban ports, Bissell sailed along the east end of the Jamaican coast and then crossed to Santiago de Cuba. There he saw four schooners, which appeared to be armed. Within a few days Racoon was able to encounter three of them early in the morning. Racoon captured two after tedious chases, as they separated. They were the Deux Amis and the Trois Freres, both of three guns. Racoon was also able to drive the third, of two guns, on shore, where she was wrecked.
  The second notable action occurred on 17 August off the coast of Cuba. At 1 p.m. Racoon sighted a brig coming along shore and that met up with a schooner that had been avoiding the British all day. At 3 p.m. the two came up together, but Racoon held back. Then at 4:15 the brig hoisted French colours and opened fire on Racoon. Racoon and the brig exchanged broadsides, with Racoon's fire bringing down most of the brig's rigging. The brig ran on shore on the rocks in a small bay, where she struck her colours. After some maneuvering, Racoon fired a broadside from her other side to try to destroy the brig. After about half an hour, the brig raised her colours again. Racoon made several passes, firing on the brig, which lost her mainmast near sunset, and fell on her side. The brig sent her crew ashore in boats while Racoon watched all night. In the morning it was clear that the brig was a complete wreck, having lost her masts and being full of water. Bissell decided not to permit Racoon's master to take a boat and some men to the brig to burn her because there were too many armed men on shore who would fire on any boarding party. Also, Racoon had her two lieutenants and 42 men away in the prizes she had taken the previous month.
  The brig turned out to be the French navy's corvette Mutine, of eighteen 18-pounder guns. She had been full of men and had been sailing from Port-de-Paix to Santiago de Cuba. During the engagement, the schooner made her escape despite the efforts of Lieutenant Wright, in one of the prizes, to capture her. Mutine, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Reybaud, had sailed from Gibraltar and Malaga.
  Between 13 and 14 October Racoon captured four French schooners and a cutter. The schooners were the Jeune Adelle and Liza, plus two others whose names were not recorded. The cutter was the Amitie, of four guns and six swivel guns. All were mostly in ballast, but also carrying some dry goods or ironmongery. Jeune Adele and Amitie (or Amelie) were part of a group of three naval vessels, including the brig Petite Fille.
  On the afternoon of 13 October, Racoon had observed several vessels sail along the coast of Cuba and enter Cumberland Harbour before sunset. Bissell believed that they were French and part of the evacuation of Port-au-Prince. He a
caption: HMS Racoon capturing French schooner Jeune Adele and cutter Amelie, circle of William John Huggins
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