HEROINA is given as a the ex French built vessel BRAAK, owned by Patrick Pozos, Other sources suppose she is built in Spain, and her owner given as Patrick Lynch in Buenos Aires, and he named her TOMAS GUIDO in honour of a prominent patriot.
Lynch bought her with the intention to use her as a privateer, and he solicited the government of the United Provinces of the River Plate for a Letter of Marque. This was granted to him but he was requested to rename the vessel, apparently THOMAS GUIDO this name was refused by the State, he was a honest and distinguished man, but he was still alive and in service.
Lynch renamed her in HEROINA, most probably was she at that time the largest privateer to fly the flag of the United Provinces.
Displacement 475 tons, dim. 43 x 7 x 6.55m, mean draught 3.15m.
Crew around 200 men as warship, 42 were seamen released from prison, the government supplied a detachment of soldiers. Officers and some of the crew were American or British, while the rest of the crew mainly was from Argentina.
Armament from 30 till 34 guns.
The history of this frigate is always linked with the name of her commander David Jewett. He was born in the United States in 1784, and acted as a privateer for the US during its “War of 1812”, had retired from the U.S. Navy and applied to the River Plate authorities for letters permitting him to harass Spanish shipping.
He arrived in 1815 in Buenos Aires.
When this were obtained he sailed in the brigantine INVINCIBLE of which he the owner was. The next two years up to 1818 he captured four merchant vessels.
1820 Was he appointed command of the frigate HEROINA which was commissioned as warship on 15 January 1820. Her status was strange, for as well as being a privateer; she was also a regular ship of war, a unit of the navy of the United Provinces
20 January he sailed for Los Pesos.
The cruise was dogged with ill-luck and indiscipline.
The second-in-command Lt. Adams died at sea, shortly thereafter she ran in bad weather and the water casks in the hold became damaged and leaky, with the result that they lost most of the fresh water.
It was found that the poor condition, and slow speed under full sail of the vessel made her unsuitable as a privateer.
The HEROINA headed then to Trinidad to replenish her water supply, at that time it was a barren and volcanic island, uninhabited. Not much water was found. (The Argentinean sources do not mention that the crew landed at Trinidad.)
From Trinidad she sailed for the Cap Verde, where the HEROINA was careened and repaired. From there they headed north, most probably with the intention to harness the Spanish and Portuguese shipping on their own coast.
27 July a ship was sighted and a shot fired to order her to heave too, but she ignored the warning shot.
When in hauling distance, he ordered the ship to heave too, and send one of their officers on board the HEROINA, he received a broadside as reply, after Jewett ordered Lt. Edwards to open fire, after the sound of the guns faded away, cries were heard on board the other vessel, then for a few minutes all was quit before she began firing again, but after a broadside from the HEROINA she surrendered. She was the Portuguese CARLOTA (22 gun). Lt. Edwards went on board and took possession of her, Jewett decide to keep the CARLOTA with hem.
Then there was an outbreak of scurvy in the Portuguese prize CARLOTA and later on board the HEROINA, due to poor provision and fresh food. Some of the crew plotted a mutiny, but Jewett was informed before, and his troops were alert, and the mutiny plans were subdued, the ringleader James Thomas was executed.
In the vicinity of Madeira, the two ships were running in bad weather, and a mutiny on board the CARLOTA had to be put down, and more cases of scurvy happened.
Then they were running in bad weather again, separating the HEROINA from her prize the CARLOTA, during the storm the HEROINA was seriously damaged. The CARLOTE was never heard of seen of again.
He headed for the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), some 80 of his crew were either dead or sick before he arrived in October 1820 at Puerto Soledad (formerly Port Louis), the one time Spanish capital of the group of islands.
On arrival he found 50 British and American sealing vessels, whose presence had not been authorized by either the Spanish or the Authorities at Buenos Aires. One of this vessels was the JANE under command of Captain Weddell. Capt. Weddell reported that the HEROINA was in a bad condition, that the crew was undisciplined, and that Jewett slept with a pistol in his belt.
After the HEROINA dropt her anchor, the order was given to put the sick men on shore in tents, only a handful were fit to do some work, and the storm damage could only be repaired after the men had recuperated.
06 November 1820 he raised the blue and white flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate, and a 21 gun salute was fired from the HEROINA. Jewett told the sealers that their activities were unauthorised.
The government in Buenos Aires was interested in the lucrative seal hunting, and want to protect it.
Jewett who was ill asked for his relief, when he wrote his dispatches to the government in Buenos Aires.
An English ship took his dispatches, and some soldiers on board the HEROINA who were mutinous to Buenos Aires.
The American schooner RAMPART (Argentine sources give the ships name as REMPERT) underway from Callao, Peru for Cadiz, put into Puerto Soledad early 1822, Jewett seized her because she had Spanish owned cargo no board.
The RAMPART was despatched with a prize crew on board to Buenos Aires, where she became the object of a long altercation between the government and the US consul Mr. Forbes, Mr Forbes protested vigorously the capture of the schooner.
End March the Dutch brig DOS HERMANOS (two brothers, and when it was a Dutch brig her name most probably was TWEE GEBROEDERS.) arrived in Puerto Soledad, with on board Jewett relief, Captain Mason and some reinforcements and stores.
The HEROINA thereafter left the Malvinas in April, and the sealers paid little attention to his warnings.
Mason’s intention was to head for the Orient, but adverse weather forced him to alter his course northwards.
14 June 1821 in the latitude of Rio de Janeiro she sighted the Spanish Naval brig MAIPU (18 guns) and 103 men crew. After a short battle the MAIPU surrendered, Mason put his first lieutenant Lapham an American in command of the prize. (The MAIPU before was a Chilean privateer and captured by two Spanish vessels).
Together the two vessels cruised off the Brazilian coast the next three weeks before their next prize was captured. She was the Portuguese VISCONDERA DO RIO SECO (12 guns), a trader-slaver bound for Africa, with a cargo mostly of tobacco. She was taken without much fight.
The three vessels sailed to the island of St Vincente in the Cape Verde group, where the cargo of the VISCONDERA DO RIO SECO was transferred to the British vessel HUNTER, which was chartered by Mason, to transport her cargo to Buenos Aires.
Thereafter the VISCONDERA DO RIO SECO was stripped of her guns, stores, sails, topmast, rigging etc., and the bare hull was sold.
The two vessels left St Vincente, and on 8 August a sail was sighted. The MAIPU hoisted the British ensign and altered course to investigate. Apparently the stranger took no heed of the warning shots fired by the MAIPU, and when that vessel came close, she fired on her and the MAIPU found she had a fight on her hands. Her opponent was the Portuguese warship PROVIDENCIA armed with at least 22 guns.
The MAIPU coming out of the battle the worst, but when the HEROINA arrived the Portuguese naval ship broke off the battle and escaped.
After this battle the two ships sailed to Boa Vista, one of the Cape Verde group.
On arrival a boat was lowered and sent off to request for permission to enter harbour for repair and careen the HEROINA. But when nearing port she was fired on from the fort, and Mason as stated had to oblige the fort to admit him. This accident is not mentioned in any detail.
But the fact that the fort fired on and the PROVIDENCIA did give battle, induced Mason into believing that Portugal and Argentina were still at war.
After the HEROINA got permission to enter port, she was repaired and careened, and while this was in progress the MAIPU sailed to San Antonio to replenish the water supply. Cape Verde a very dry island group with only a few islands were water freely is available.
After this the two ships sailed north to cruise on the coast of Portugal and Spain to obstruct the shipping there.
In the vicinity of Madeira she were running in a storm, in which the two ships became parted, after five days of searching for the HEROINA and not finding her the MAIPU set course for Buenos Aires, on the 13th she captured the ship MARIA CAROLINA.
The HEROINA sailed for Gibraltar for repair, while she remained there she was kept under surveillance by the Portuguese frigate PÉROLA (44 guns). (Argentine sources give PEARL.)
In the evening of 19 March 1822 the HEROINA sailed out, panic broke out on board the PÉROLA to get the vessel underway her anchor cable was cut, and she chased after the HEROINA.
Nine o’clock the next morning she was right behind the HEROINA, she fired some guns, most probably place on her foredeck, or veered of her course, the shots were direct hits.
After an hour she was close, and could fire a broadside, after which the HEROINA struck her colours. Not a mention is made of the HEROINA fired a single shot, and of her capture little is recorded.
There is a version which was handed down for many years that Mason thought the ship behind him was a merchant ship, and that he was caught unawares.
The HEROINA was taken to Lisbon and there condemned as a prize and sold.
For his action the Portuguese commander Captain Marçal de Ataide Barahona, was made a knight of the Portuguese Military Order of the Tower and of the Sword, of Valour, Loyalty and Merit
Till so far the fate of the HEROINA is not known.
Mason and the rest of his crew were taken prisoners, and taken to the prison ship SAO SEBASTIAO, where Mason spent the next two years.
After his release he returned to Buenos Aires and commanded various vessels of war during the conflict with Brazil, which broke out in 1826.
Log Book April 1978/8 gives: and most probably it is speculative?
The HEROINA -Captain Mason constantly referred to her as the HEROINE and it is possible that he had spelt the name the English way.
She is stated to have been the BRAAK ex Dutch MINERVA captured at Texel on 28 August 1799 and taken into the Royal Navy as HMS BRAAK, she was sold out of service in Deptford in 1802.
Her tonnage is given as 613 ton (bm), dim. 116.6 x 34.8 x 10.6ft. (35.53 x 10.60 x 3.23m.) Her beam is much more as given by other sources, length depends on length of gun-deck, keel-length or length overall, most sources differ, it can be her, but a difference in 3 meter beam is not possible, or one source is not correct with her beam.
Log Book February 79/6:
Mr A van Mazijk got the following information from the Office of the Maritime History of the Dutch Naval Staff:
The MINERVA was a frigate of the Admiralty of Zeeland, launched in 1787 at Vlissingen (Flushing), with a length of 130 feet (Amsterdam feet) and a beam of 36 5/11 feet.
She carried 24 to 26 guns.
Complement 150.
(An Amsterdam foot is equal to 0.283 meters.)
23 March 1793 took part in the expedition to Bath (Rilland –Bath in the Dutch province Zeeland?), at that time there was a fort on the River Scheldt.
11 October 1797 did she belong to the Dutch fleet engaged in the Battle of Kamperduin (Camperdown).
August 1799 was she at Nieuwendiep (near Den Helder) and on the 28th the squadron under which the MINERVA was taken over by the British squadron of Mitchell, without any fight.
The squadron was taken to the United Kingdom, and the MINERVA was taken over by the Royal Navy as HMS BRAAK.
Argentina 1976 6p sg1514, scott?
Source: Watercraft Philately 1978/14. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jewett http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroina Partly copied from Log Book October 1977 and January 1978 an article written by Mr. E.J.Hogan. Info on Log Book was supplied to my by Mr. Mario Rosner, he did give also some additional info from Argentinean sources.