Qualla: HMS Spencer (1795)

HMS Spencer (1795): Introduction

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

She had three names and served three masters, and in the end none of them could save her. The vessel that began life as the civilian Sir Charles Grey -- named for a British general who conquered half the Caribbean -- was purchased by the Royal Navy in Bermuda in 1795, rechristened HMS Spencer, and sent to patrol waters she already knew as a privateer and hired armed vessel. Five years later, to avoid confusion with a newly launched seventy-four-gun ship of the line, the Navy renamed her again: HMS Lilly. Under that name she would fight, be captured, fight again under a French flag, and finally cease to exist in a catastrophic explosion witnessed by the very ship that would one day tell her story.

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HMS Spencer (1795): Bermuda Beginnings

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Captain Francis Pender arrived at Bermuda on 11 August 1795 and promptly purchased two vessels for the Navy. One became Spencer, the former Sir Charles Grey, a privateer that had already served as a hired armed vessel for the Crown. She was named for Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey, ...

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HMS Spencer (1795): Patrols and Prizes

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Spencer earned her keep early. On 4 May 1796, sailing in company with Esperance and Bonetta, she spotted a suspicious vessel and gave chase while her companions pursued two others. Spencer sailed south-southeast, the other ships southwest by west, and they lost sight of each othe...

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HMS Spencer (1795): A Fight She Could Not Win

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Off the coast of Georgia on the afternoon of 14 July 1804, Lilly sighted two vessels. She sailed toward them, but by sunset could only make out a ship towing a smaller prize. In the morning, the larger vessel dropped her tow and bore down to engage. What followed was methodical a...

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HMS Spencer (1795): The Fox Renamed

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The French fitted Lilly out as a privateer and renamed her General Ernouf, after Jean Augustin Ernouf, the governor of Guadeloupe. Under commander Giraud Lapointe, she returned to the same waters as a hunter. In July 1804, she twice encountered the British letter of marque Britan...

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HMS Spencer (1795): The Explosion

Fri, 06 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

That second life ended on 20 March 1805. HMS Renard -- another captured French privateer serving the Royal Navy -- sighted General Ernouf to the northwest and gave chase. General Ernouf shortened sail and prepared to fight. At 2:20 in the afternoon, Renard opened fire. Thirty-fiv...

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