The British invasion of Surinam took place in 1804, during the Napoleonic Wars.
Preparations edit
The invasion force left Barbados on 3 April and comprised Commodore Samuel Hood's flagship HMS Centaur, Emerald, the 44-gun heavy frigates Pandour and Serapis, the 28-gun sixth-rate Alligator, the 12-gun schooner Unique, the 12-gun corvette Hippomenes, and the 8-gun Drake, together with 2,000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green.
Invasion edit
The expedition arrived off Surinam on 25 April after a twenty-two-day journey.[1][2] The sloop Hippomenes, a transport and a further three armed vessels, landed Brigadier-General Frederick Maitland and 700 troops at Warapee Creek on the night of 30 April. The following night, O'Bryen was ordered to assist Brigadier-General Hughes in the taking of Braam's Point. A sandbar initially prevented Emerald from entering the Surinam River but O'Bryen forced her across on the rising tide, with Pandour and Drake following. Anchoring close by, the three British ships quickly put the Dutch battery of 18-pounders out of action and captured the fort without loss of life.[1][3]
Citations edit
- ^ a b "No. 15712". The London Gazette. 19 June 1804. pp. 761–762.
- ^ James (Vol III) pp. 288–289
- ^ James (Vol. III) p. 289
References edit
- Clowes, William Laird (1997) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume V. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-014-0.
- Fortescue, John (1910). A History of the British Army. Vol. 5. London: Macmillan and Co. OCLC 650331461.
- Howard, Martin R. (2015). Death Before Glory - The British Soldier in the West Indies in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars 1793-1815. Barnsley: Pen and Sword. ISBN 978-1-78159-341-7.
- James, William (1827). The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume III, 1800–1805. London: Conway Martime Press. ISBN 0-85177-907-7.
- Jones, Stephen; Stainer Clarke, James; Jones, John (1803). The Naval Chronicle, Volume X. J. Gold. OCLC 1049883833.
- Southey, Thomas (1827). Chronological History of the West Indies. Vol. 3. London: Longman. OCLC 14936431.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley: Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.