HMS Antelope (1802)

Last updated

HMS Antelope was a ship of the line in the Royal Navy launched in 1802 during the Napoleonic Wars.

Contents

Service history

She was designed by Sir John Henslow and built by Nicholas Diddams at Sheerness Dockyard. Her keel was laid in June 1790, but she took many years to complete, and was not launched until 10 November 1802. She had a nominal 50 guns and a huge crew of 350 men. [1]

Her first commander was Captain John Melhuish. Her first action was the blockade of Ostend in 1803.

In May 1804 she was the lead ship in a unsuccessful four-day attack on the French fleet under Ver Huell. [2]

On 8 December 1804, she made an unsuccessful attack on Fort Rouge, protecting Calais harbour.

In June 1805, she sailed for the East Indies and on her return in 1807 spent some time at the Cape of Good Hope. She spent most of 1808 in the Mediterranean and in June 1809 sailed over the Atlantic to serve off the Newfoundland coast, staying there until the very end of 1810 when she then escorted a trans-Atlantic convoy to Gibraltar, returning to Newfoundland in June 1812. [3]

On 21 December 1812, Admiral Butcher took command and began a period of intense action. Butcher was charged with protecting English shipping in the Great Belt, and was particularly successful in capturing the enemy's gun-boats and privateers. [4] For example:

On 1 March 1814, Butcher and HMS Antelope joined the fleet of Admiral William Young off the mouth of the Eastern Scheldt in the Netherlands. Antelope was sent with two other ships to reinforce the squadron of frigates in the Western Scheldt, but owing to the illness of one pilot and the desertion of the other, Antelope ran aground off Flushing. For 48 hours she lay exposed to continuous barrage of shells from enemy batteries on shore, but was (to the astonishment of the whole fleet) eventually able to free herself and escape.

In November 1814, she began an upgrade refit at Portsmouth Dockyard, partly repairing damage sustained at the Scheldt and partly as a cosmetic upgrade to serve as the official flagship for Admiral Butcher. The refit took 13 months but, beyond a single voyage to Quebec, Butcher made little use of the ship after 22 December 1815. [7] She was officially paid off in April 1819 and languished several years moored off the Thames Estuary before undergoing conversion to a prison ship from August to November 1823 at Chatham Docks. The ship remained seaworthy (unlike most of the "prison hulks" of the period). Her last main recorded task is transportation of prisoners to Bermuda in January 1824. As the ship was no longer in Royal Navy possession records then disappear.

It would appear that she remained moored off the coast of Bermuda from 1824 until July 1845 when she was broken up.

Notable officers

Through a mixture of coincidence and providence a long list of illustrious officers commanded or served on the Antelope:

Related Research Articles

HMS Sceptre was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, built by Dudman of Deptford after a design by Sir William Rule, and launched in December 1802 at Deptford. She served in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 before being broken up in 1821.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North America and West Indies Station</span> Military unit

The North America and West Indies Station was a formation or command of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy stationed in North American waters from 1745 to 1956, with main bases at the Imperial fortresses of Bermuda and Halifax, Nova Scotia. The North American Station was separate from the Jamaica Station until 1830 when the two combined to form the North America and West Indies Station. It was briefly abolished in 1907 before being restored in 1915. It was renamed the America and West Indies Station in 1926. It was commanded by Commanders-in-Chief whose titles changed with the changing of the formation's name, eventually by the Commander-in-Chief, America and West Indies Station.

HMS <i>Tonnant</i> 80-gun ship of the line

HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.

HMS <i>Britannia</i> (1762) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Britannia, also known as Old Ironsides, was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.

HMS <i>Euryalus</i> (1803) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate that saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period: Henry Blackwood, George Dundas and Charles Napier. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she continued on active service for a number of years, before spending more than two decades as a prison hulk. She ended her career in Gibraltar where, in 1860, she was sold for breaking up.

HMS Heron was originally the merchant vessel Jason, launched at Newcastle in 1803, that the Admiralty purchased in 1804 for the Royal Navy for use as 16-gun ship-sloop under the name HMS Heron. During the Napoleonic Wars she served as a convoy escort on the Leeward Islands station. Then in 1810 the Admiralty had her converted into a bomb vessel and renamed her HMS Volcano. As Volcano she served during the War of 1812, and in particular participated in the Battle of Baltimore. The Admiralty sold her in 1816. New owners returned her to mercantile service under her original name of Jason. She was wrecked in 1821.

HMS <i>Saturn</i> 74-gun Royal Navy ship of the line

HMS Saturn was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 November 1786 at Northam. The vessel served during the Napoleonic Wars with the Channel Fleet, taking part in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen. With the beginning of the War of 1812, Saturn was modified to become a frigate designed to take on large American vessels of that type. Saturn was deployed as part of the blockading squadron of New York City from 1814 to 1815. From 1825, the vessel was in harbour service and was broken up in 1868.

HMS <i>Monmouth</i> (1796) British ship of the line (1796–1834)

HMS Monmouth was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 April 1796 at Rotherhithe. She had been designed and laid down for the East India Company, but the Navy purchased her after the start of the French Revolutionary War. She served at the Battle of Camperdown and during the Napoleonic Wars. Hulked in 1815, she was broken up in 1834.

HMS <i>Belle Poule</i> (1806) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy that had been built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East. In 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.

HMS <i>Ethalion</i> (1802) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Ethalion was a Royal Navy 36-gun frigate, launched in 1802 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was eventually broken up in 1877.

HMS <i>Castor</i> (1785) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.

HMS <i>Favourite</i> (1794) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Favourite was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.

HMS <i>Adamant</i> (1780) British Portland-class fourth rate warship

HMS Adamant was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate warship of the British Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned thirty years.

During the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, there were two or three vessels known as His Majesty's hired armed cutter Active that served the British Royal Navy. The reason for the uncertainty in the number is that the size of the vessels raises the possibility that the first and second may have been the same vessel.

Five vessels of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Harlequin.

Vice-Admiral Samuel Butcher was an officer of the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS <i>Apelles</i> (1808) Warship

HMS Apelles was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1808 and sold in 1816. During her service she grounded on the French coast and was in French hands for about a day before the British recaptured her. During her career she captured two French privateers.

HMS <i>Hyaena</i> (1778)

HMS Hyaena was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post-ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as Hyène, and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Hyaena and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The shipowner Daniel Bennett purchased her and renamed her Recovery. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery and was broken up 1813.

HMS Cordelia was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop completed by the British Royal Navy in 1808. She served in home waters during the Napoleonic War, and subsequently in the Mediterranean and the West Indies.

<i>Perseverance</i>-class frigate Frigate class of the Royal Navy

The Perseverance-class frigate was a 36-gun, later 42-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate frigate class of twelve ships of the Royal Navy, constructed in two batches. Designed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir Edward Hunt the first iteration, consisting of four ships, was constructed as a rival to the similar Flora-class frigate. Strongly built ships, the Perseverance class provided favourable gunnery characteristics and was highly manoeuvrable, but bought these traits with a loss of speed. The name ship of the class, Perseverance, was ordered in 1779 and participated in the American Revolutionary War, but her three sister ships were constructed too late to take part. The class continued in service after the war, but soon became outdated.

References

  1. ↑ "British Fourth Rate ship of the line 'Antelope' (1802)".
  2. ↑ "Attack on Ver Huell\'s squadron, 16th May 1804 - 19th May 1804".
  3. ↑ "British Fourth Rate ship of the line 'Antelope' (1802)".
  4. ↑ London Gazette December 1813
  5. 1 2 "No. 16960". The London Gazette . 26 November 1814. p. 2346.
  6. ↑ "No. 17037". The London Gazette . 8 July 1815. p. 1366.
  7. ↑ London Gazette December 1815
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.