In his letter dated 3 December 1822 the Attorney General of the High Court wrote to the chief constable at Flushing to be one's guard for Gran Columbian warships arriving in his territory. The minister of Justice was informed that representatives of Gran Columbia bought 3 vessels at London. One of those vessels was pierced for 18 guns, the other two for 16 guns. They had left the river Thames with destination Antwerp, Netherlands (at that moment Belgium was part of the Dutch kingdom!) to get their armament. Strangely enough they didn't arrived at that port so it was unknown where they were. Five days later the chief constable wrote back that he still haven't seen anything, but that could be caused by the storm. According to the De Jong the three ships belonged to Barclay and Hering at London and destined to strengthen the blockade off Puerto Cabello. He wrote that the attorney criminal 3 December wrote that the 'privateers' probably went to a Swedish harbour. Earlier in August that same year was the New York lying at Antwerp waiting for her guns. Her owner was the American Jones (of the British-American company Barrow and Jones), but probably in service of Gran Columbia. She was expected to serve as a privateer. The New York was together with the New Orleans bought in England and which were the former Sapphire and Musquito of the Royal Navy.
Colledge mentioned that the brig-sloop Musquito, built 1804 was sold to a certain Mr T. King on 7 May 1822 and the sloop Sapphire, built 1806 to Manlove 18 April 1822. There are documents dealing with above-mentioned ships in Dutch archives, but I have still to translate them.
Another ship, which served in the Gran Columbian navy, was the Esperanza y Fortuna, which was original a Dutch East Indiaman and even fitted out for war purposes on the Dutch naval yard at Flushing!
Sources
Rechterlijke Archieven Province Zealand 1796-1838 no. 1473 (Het Zeeuws Archief).
J.J. Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy: an historical Index.
Th.P.M. de Jong. Nederland en Latijns-Amerika.
