HMS Fantome (1810)

HMS "Fantome" was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. Originally a French privateer brig named "Le Fantome", she was captured by HMS "Melampus" in June 1810 and commissioned into British naval service. [Nova Scotia Museum On the Rocks Shipwreck Database http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/wrecks/wrecks/shipwrecks.asp?ID=1604] "Fantome" sank near the village of Prospect, Nova Scotia on 24 November 1814. The brig was escorting a convoy from British-occupied Castine, Maine to Halifax, Nova Scotia during the War of 1812. Two schooners from the convoy were lost at the same location and two other vessels from the convoy went aground elsewhere on the same night. No lives were lost when the ships sank. Some treasure hunters have claimed the convoy which the "Fantome" was escorting was laden with goods taken from the White House during the British raid on Washington, DC. However "Fantome" played no part in the Washington raid and most historians feel the convoy was carrying goods and customs revenue from Castine. [Young, G.F.W "HMS "Fantome" and the British Raid on Washington August 1814" "Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society Journal" Vol. 10, pp. 132-145.] The site of "Fantome's" loss is marked today by an inscription on a large granite boulder near the wreck site at Prospect.

References

External links

* [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article329590.ece David Usborne, "British warship sunk during war with US may hold lost treasures of White House" "The Independent" Nov. 27, 2005]