#selima and azor

[acrossthewavesoftime]

My Most Esteemed Friend:

I’m newly obsessed with HMS Rainbow, which spent most of 1777 cruising the Maine and Atlantic Canadian coasts and performing daring feats of navigation up and down some of Maine’s tidal rivers. Do you have any information at the tips of your fingers about this vessel? Or about her captain (who appears to be called “Sir George” colloquially around these parts)?

Yours,

PW

My Equally Eſteem'd Friend,

No problem! I have to admit though that the first thing my somewhat weary brain came up with when I read your ask last night was "HMS Rainbow? Sounds like the perfect antagonist for the second series of that new pirate show everybody who watched it is now obsessed with!"

Joking aside, I am a great deal more knowledgeable when it comes to the very beginning of the war, but finding 'your' ship and her captain was surprisingly easy!

HMS Rainbow was a fifth-rate ship armed with 20 18-pounders on the lower and 22 9-pounders on the upper gun deck as well as two additional 6-pounders arming the forecastle.

A perfect example nominal determinism, Rainbow, launched in 1747, had a colourful history by the time she was sold in 1802, having served in North America, off the African coast, in Western Europe and the Mediterranean.

One aspect of her service record that struck me personally was the taking of the French privateer Le Comte de Noailles in 1748-- dear @nordleuchten, do we know anything about in how far (if at all) La Fayette's in-laws were involved in privateering?

As for her captain in 1777, the man you are looking for is Sir George Collier (1732-1795), who commanded HMS Rainbow between late December 1775 and early April 1779.

London Chronicle, 23-25 January 1776, giving the news of HMS Rainbow being fitted out for her voyage to the North American Station under Captain Sir George Collier. NDAR vol. 3, p. 533.

T. Blood and Joyce Gold, posthumous portrait of Admiral Sir George Collier, print, 1814. In the collection of the National Maritime Museum.

Collier appears to have been the most senior captain on that part of the coastline and although I don't think he was ever made a commodore, served as the local coordinator in charge of other Royal Navy vessels.

I've done a quick search for his name in a couple of the relevant volumes of the NDAR, and it appears the Americans really, really didn't like him:

Independent Chronicle, Boston, dated 19 June 1777. NDAR vol. 9, p. 142.

Calling British naval officers pirates is, as far as I have seen, a rather common narrative; however referring to them as "poor, simple, harmless" is not. Interestingly, Collier had taken the frigate USS Hancock (32) eleven days earlier (for Collier's account of the taking, see e.g. NDAR vol. 9 p. 279 f.). One wonders if the editors belittled Collier in order to boost morale after a smarting defeat at sea.

I think by going through the relevant volumes (I've only skipped through two concerning the year 1777) of the NDAR you'll probably find quite some information on his exploits on the Maine coastline!

As I said, my detailed knowledge of the captains on the North American station fizzes out after 1776, but it appears he must have been quite a character, whose talents exceeded the nautical sphere: Collier was a published author and playwright, gaining some fame with his play Selima and Azor, which was inspired by the tale of the Beauty and the Beast, but, likely to appeal to the fashionable taste for Turquerie at the time, re-imagines the story in Persia (or rather, the idea of Persia of a British individual who has never been there). The play premiered on Drury Lane in 1776 and was repeated in different theatres over the next couple of decades. The script linked above is connected to a 1784 production by the Theatre Royal with the famous actress Sophia Baddeley as the female lead. The British museum is in possession of a drawing depicting the actress Mrs. Atkins in the role of Selima in 1805, testimony of the play's continued popularity.

Engraving by an unknown artist: Priscilla Kemble, née Hopkins (who would have been a distant relation to Margaret Kemble-Gage by marriage if I'm not mistaken) as Selima in a 1778 production of the play. In the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

Other than that, he also wrote an account of his travels in Continental Europe, which were published by his granddaughter around the middle of the 19th century unde the title France on the Eve of the Great Revolution. France, Holland, and the Netherlands, a Century Ago.

The National Maritime Museum also appears to be in possession of a manuscript titled The War in America by Adm Sir George Collier, which has however, alas, not been digitised and is dated to 1776, thus predating his Maine exploits you are interested in.

I hope I could help you a little bit- if you find anything interesting about Collier in your research, I would be quite curious- only, of course, if you feel comfortable sharing it.

I am, &c.

R.