The choice of name for a captured ship must have depended much on the personalities involved in the decision, as well as the circumstances of the capture. Perhaps there was more leeway when ships were taken into service on a foreign station. In some cases the choice seems remarkably unimaginative, as in "Beaver's Prize" (the American privateer 'Oliver Cromwell' captured in 1778), although the name does an admirable job in giving full credit to the officers and crew of the Beaver, and does have a certain ring to it.
Sometimes the propaganda value of a name seems to have been squandered, as with the French privateer 'Premier Consul' captured by the Dryad (Capt Mansfield, of course) in 1801. I would have thought that 'Le Premier Consul' captured and in the service of the Royal Navy might have generated some consternation among the French, but I suppose there may have been some reluctance by British seamen to serve in a ship of that name. She was renamed 'Scout', and I am still searching for some hidden meaning in that name change! In fact the name 'Scout' seems to have been for the benefit of Captain Henry Duncan who had just lost his previous sloop 'Scout', wrecked off the Isle of Wight, and who was then given command of the newly acquired 'Scout'.
It is commonly said that it is a traditional sailor's superstition that it is unlucky to rename a ship, and even more unlucky to rename a ship after one that has been lost. However I have seen no evidence that this superstition existed in Napoleonic times, and if it did, the Admiralty certainly ignored it. It seems to be a tradition that has grown more recently. In this case however, fate responded to the temptation, and this 'Scout' proved even more unlucky for Captain Duncan than the previous 'Scout', and he was lost along with the ship and all hands off Newfoundland the following year.
Perhaps I should also mention that the renamed "Beaver's Prize" was also lost in a hurricane in 1780.
_________________ Tony
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