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The ArchivesShipsHMS Swallow

HMS Swallow

The Royal Navy warship 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.

Launchedby 1718/19Toin service after 1722Also writtenthe Swallow

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.2,6

The second was the killing. On 10 February 1722, a date the dispatch and the other period papers write as 1721 because the English legal year then turned on 25 March, 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.1,3,5

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.4

Ogle was rewarded for the action, and later accounts have him knighted for it, the first naval officer so honoured for a fight against pirates.

What came to Ogle for the action is not settled. The knighthood, and his being the first naval officer so honoured for a fight against pirates, rest on later accounts; no document of the award has been found.

What the evidence does not settle

Swallow's ship records

  • The Swallow's captains' log and pay book survive undigitisedVery likely
  • The commission date rests on a captains' log beginning March 1718/19

Ogle's knighthood

  • Ogle's knighthood is reported in literature without documentary proofConfirmed

Each line is one question with its own grade, taken from the register where a claim carries it. Nothing here is graded as a whole.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The date of Roberts's death, 10 February 1722, is Old Style, the English legal year then turning on 25 March, so that period papers including Ogle's dispatch write the year as 1721 and the Archive gives it as 1722 (Old Style 1721/2). Confirmed Directly supported by the record. 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
  2. HMS Swallow, under Captain Chaloner Ogle, took the Ranger on 5 February 1722; her captain James Skyrme lost a leg in the action. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. 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'
  3. 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. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Official dispatch and trial print: Ogle's dispatch, read verbatim in the Gazette and the 1723 pamphlet
  4. 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. Very likely Strong evidence, short of proof. 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
  5. Roberts was killed in the action against HMS Swallow off Cape Lopez on 10 February 1722. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Official dispatch and printed trial record: Ogle's own dispatch, printed verbatim in London Gazette 6091 and reprinted in the 1723 trial record: 'The Captain, whose Name was Roberts, was killed'. Date is Old Style (1721/2).
  6. On 5 February 1722 the Swallow took the pirates' consort the Ranger; her commander Skyrme had a leg shot off. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Official dispatch: Ogle's dispatch (London Gazette 6091), printed verbatim. The 5 February action preceded the 10 February action in which Roberts was killed.
  7. 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. Likely More likely than not on the evidence we have. Interpretive characterisation of the corpus: London Gazette 6091, the 1723 trial record, and Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea (1735). The strength is concentrated at the end of the story; the early career rests far more on Johnson.