Qualla: Action of 3 February 1812

Action of 3 February 1812: Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Yates, Public domain. At six in the morning on February 3, 1812, Captain Sir James Lucas Yeo stood on the quarterdeck of HMS Southampton and watched a 44-gun frigate riding at anchor south of Gonave Island. The ship was the Heureuse Reunion, flagship of what had been Haiti's navy -- until its crew defected to a regional warlord weeks earlier. At her helm was a French privateer named Gaspard, answerable to no recognized government, commanding a vessel powerful enough to threaten merchant shipping across the Caribbean. Yeo sent a boat to demand Gaspard's commissioning papers. Three minutes later, the answer came back: Gaspard would not submit. If the British wanted a fight, they should fire their bow chasers and make it official.

Image: Thomas Yates | Public domain

Action of 3 February 1812: An Island Divided Against Itself

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit gravure anonyme, Public domain. Haiti in 1812 was a country in fragments. The revolution that had expelled the French in 1804 produced the first independent Black republic in the Western Hemisphere, but independence did not bring stability. Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the revolution's leader, was assassina...

Image: gravure anonyme | Public domain

Action of 3 February 1812: A Frigate with a Complicated Past

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Yates, Public domain. The Heureuse Reunion had not always flown Haitian colors. She began her career as the French frigate Felicite, part of a squadron that tried to resupply Guadeloupe -- France's last Caribbean colony -- in 1809. When Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane's British blockading squadron...

Image: Thomas Yates | Public domain

Action of 3 February 1812: Seventy-Five Minutes at Dawn

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Yates, Public domain. The bow chasers of HMS Southampton barked at 6:30 in the morning, followed seconds later by a full broadside. Gaspard's plan was to close the distance and board -- the Heureuse Reunion carried a larger crew, and hand-to-hand combat would favor numbers over discipline. But Yeo was...

Image: Thomas Yates | Public domain

Action of 3 February 1812: The Aftermath on Two Shores

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Yates, Public domain. Yeo landed most of his prisoners on the nearby shore, then sailed to Port-au-Prince to offload the rest and rig temporary jury masts on the captured frigate. He retained twenty prisoners for trial at Port Royal, Jamaica. When the Heureuse Reunion arrived in Jamaica, Yeo's superio...

Image: Thomas Yates | Public domain