Fast sailboats of old gave the Royal Navy fits trying to catch her and one in particular had to be captured at anchor, armed, and renamed the Black Joke and then used to sail down and capture her sister ship. They were slave traders that the Royal Navy could not catch at sea.
Indeed,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Black_Joke_(1827) is a fascinating story of the Royal Navy in the early 19th century. I can quite imagine it inspiring stories like CS Forester’s Hornblower!
