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HMS Swallow

Also recorded as: the Swallow

Launched: In commission by 1718/19 (Captains' log run begins March 1718/19) To: Continued in service after 1722

The Royal Navy fourth-rate under Captain Chaloner Ogle that hunted Roberts's squadron off West Africa. She took the Ranger on 5 February 1722 and, on 10 February, engaged the Royal Fortune in the action in which Roberts was killed.

No image of the Swallow is yet on display here; she is exhibited through the paper record alone.

The Swallow is the ship that ended the Pirate War, and she did it in two actions five days apart. She was a Royal Navy fourth-rate under Captain Chaloner Ogle, working the Guinea coast with her consort the Weymouth to hunt Roberts's squadron.

The first action was a decoy. On 5 February 1722, at daylight off Cape Lopez, Ogle sighted three ships at anchor under the cape and drew one of them off in a chase. It "proved to be the French Ship they had taken out of Whydah Road", the Ranger, and Ogle took her. Her captain, in the dispatch's words, "was Skyrm, who had a Leg shot off". That is the 5 February taking, and it stripped Roberts of one ship before the Swallow doubled back.

The second was the killing. On 10 February the Swallow returned to the two ships still at anchor, "Roberts in the 40 Gun Ship, and the other 24 Gun Ship they had that Morning quitted for the Prize". In the morning engagement the Swallow's broadside brought down the Royal Fortune's mainmast, and Roberts was killed. The dispatch gives no cause of death, only the fact of it. The pirate ship was taken and her people carried to Cape Coast Castle for trial.

What the Swallow carries in the paper record is uneven. Her captains' log survives at The National Archives as ADM 51/954, and the pay book that stands in for a lost muster is ADM 33/308, but neither is digitised, and the Swallow master's log has a gap over the battle date, so the continuous masters' record across 10 February 1722 is the Weymouth's, ADM 52/316. Ogle's own manuscript dispatch is probably filed in ADM 1/2242, but the catalogue describes that piece only at volume level, so its presence there is inference. What reaches a reader now is the printed dispatch in the Gazette and the reprint in the trial pamphlet.

One aftermath belongs in the popular story but not yet in the documented record. Ogle was rewarded for the action, and the wider literature has him knighted for it, the first naval officer so honoured for a fight against pirates. That reward is real in the secondary accounts, but no documentary basis for it is yet in evidence here, so the Archives leaves it as an open item rather than stating it as fact. The record is firm on the two actions and thin on what came to the victor.

Connections

Evidence behind this record

  • Roberts was killed in the action against HMS Swallow off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722. Official dispatch and printed trial record: Ogle's own dispatch, printed verbatim in London Gazette 6091 (SRC-ROB-212) and reprinted in the 1723 trial record (SRC-ROB-005): 'The Captain, whose Name was Roberts, was killed'. Date is Old Style (1721/2).
  • On 5 February 1722 the Swallow took the pirates' consort the Ranger; her commander Skyrme had a leg shot off. Official dispatch: Ogle's dispatch (London Gazette 6091, SRC-ROB-212), printed verbatim. The 5 February action preceded the 10 February action in which Roberts was killed.
  • The destruction of Roberts and the trial of his crew is carried by three independent period witnesses converging on one week: the captor's official dispatch, a printed sworn trial record, and an eyewitness participant memoir. Probable Interpretive characterisation of the corpus: London Gazette 6091 (SRC-ROB-212), the 1723 trial record (SRC-ROB-005), and Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea (1735) (SRC-ROB-004). The strength is concentrated at the end of the story; the early career rests far more on Johnson.
  • He was killed in action against HMS Swallow (Captain Chaloner Ogle) off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722. Official dispatch and trial print: Ogle's dispatch, read verbatim in London Gazette issue 6091 and reprinted in the 1723 pamphlet: 'The Captain, whose Name was Roberts, was killed'; the date is Old Style 1721/2
  • HMS Swallow, under Captain Chaloner Ogle, took the Ranger on 5 February 1722; her captain James Skyrme lost a leg in the action. Official dispatch: Ogle's dispatch, London Gazette issue 6091: the ship taken 'proved to be the French Ship they had taken out of Whydah Road ... the Captain's Name was Skyrm, who had a Leg shot off'
  • On 10 February 1722 the Swallow returned and engaged the Royal Fortune; her broadside brought down the pirate's mainmast and Roberts was killed early in the action. Official dispatch and trial print: Ogle's dispatch, read verbatim in the Gazette and the 1723 pamphlet
  • The Swallow's captains' log (ADM 51/954) and pay book (ADM 33/308) survive at The National Archives but are not digitised; no ADM 36 muster book survives for the 1718 to 1723 voyage. Archive catalogue: TNA Discovery catalogue; the Swallow master's log has a gap over the battle date, so the Weymouth masters' log (ADM 52/316) is the continuous record across 10 February 1722

Open research

The Swallow's captains' log (ADM 51/954) and pay book (ADM 33/308) survive at The National Archives but are not digitised; the Swallow master's log run has a gap over the battle date, so ADM 52/316 (Weymouth) is the continuous masters' record across 10 February 1722. Ogle was rewarded after the action; the honour (a knighthood) is carried in the wider literature but no documentary basis for it is yet in evidence, and it is left as an open item rather than asserted.