HMS Badger was a Dutch hoy, one of some 19 that the Admiralty purchased for the Royal Navy in 1794 after France's declaration of war in 1793. The intent was to create quickly a class of gun-vessels for operations in coastal and shallow waters. Of all the hoys, she had probably the most distinguished career in that she helped fend off two French attacks on the Îles Saint-Marcouf, and participated in the capture of several French vessels. The Navy sold her in 1802.
Badger was fitted out at Deptford between April and 25 May 1794, with Lieutenant Lewis Mortlock commissioning her in April. In 1795 Captain Sir Sidney Smith seized the uninhabited Îles Saint-Marcouf, which lie 3.5 nautical miles (6.5km) off Ravenoville on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy.[3] Smith constructed barracks and gun batteries and manned the islands with 500 sailors and Royal Marines, including a large proportion of men unfit for ship-board service, described as "invalids".[4] Smith supported the islands with several gunvessels, including Badger, Hawke, and Shark, and the floating batterySandfly. Lieutenant Charles Papps Price assumed command of Badger in August 1795, with Mortlock moving to command of the newly captured and commissioned Crachefeu. For administrative purposes, the Navy rated Badger a sloop-of-war, and technically gave Price command of both the Saint-Marcouf islands.
Price was an unpopular officer who had repeatedly been passed over for promotion. He apparently spent most of his time on the islands with a prostitute he had brought from Portsmouth.[5]
On 7 September 1795 the French mounted an attack with 17 large boats filled with men. They retreated in confusion after coming under fire from the redoubts the British had erected on East Island and from the gunvessels,[6] among them the hoys Badger, Serpent, Hawk, and Sandfly.
On 28 December 1796, Badger and Sandfly captured Rebekah.[7] Next year, on 21 February 1797, Badger, Sandfly, and the hired armedcuttersChampion and Fly captured Souris.[8]Souris was a chasse-maree of 16 guns.[9] Unlike her sister-ship Eclair, which the British had captured in 1795, the Royal Navy did not take Souris into service.[lower-alpha 1]
Near the end of the year, on 12 November 1797, Badger and Sandfly captured the French vessels Eole and Solide Michael.[11] One week later Badger captured Morgonstern.[12]
On the night of 6 May 1798 the French approached the islands with a large number of armed troop-carrying barges and some brigs to provide covering fire, as well as 5-6,000 troops. They then launched their attack at dawn. The West Island's batteries, under Lieutenant Price, were ready and inflicted devastating damage on the light invasion craft.[13] Despite severe casualties the French barges continued their approach until they were within musket range, 50 yards (46m). The garrison of Royal Marines opened fire and the artillery crews switched to canister shot. Six or seven boats sank with their entire crews and troops, and others were heavily damaged.[13][14] Losses were so high that the French called off the attack; even so, the return journey carried the barges past East Island, which was under the command of Lieutenant Richard Bourne of Sandfly and mounted a battery that inflicted additional severe losses.[13][lower-alpha 2]
British casualties were light. For his efforts, Price received promotion to Commander.[2] Nearly five decades later the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Isles St. Marcou" upon application to the three still-living British claimants from the battle.
On 8 July 1799, Badger captured four French vessels: Pierre de Issigny, Fortunee, St. Pierre de Grandcamp, and Amitie.[15]
What was Badger's last capture occurred on 15 September 1800 when Price sighted a French long cutter some four miles off the West Island. He sent Lieutenant M'Cullen of the Royal Marines with 24 picked men in Badger's ten-oared galley and six-oared cutter to catch the French vessel. He also signaled the gun-brig Sparkler to provide covering fire. Sparkler drew the fire of two shore batteries, one of two 24-pounder guns and one of two 12-pounder guns, while the boats went in to cut out the French vessel. The French crew ran their boat on shore and cut her masts and rigging. Nevertheless, the British towed her off despite heavy small-arms fire from the shore. The prize was the privateer rowboat Victoire, mounting four swivel guns, 26 oars, and having a crew of at least 40 men, under the command of Captain Barier. Price described her as "quite new... the completest Boat for the Service of the Islands that possibly could be constructed." The only British casualty was Badger's gunners mate, who took a musket ball to the shoulder.[16][lower-alpha 3]
Fate
Badger was paid off in May 1802 and was sold later that year.[2]
Notes
↑ Souris, was built in 1785 in southern Brittany to assist in harbour construction at Cherbourg. Between October 1793 and January 1794, the French Navy converted her into a gun-vessel, originally of three 18 or 24-pounder guns, and commissioned her in February.[10]
↑ Although a number of records report that the British captured the gunvessel Flibustier,[2] the letters from the action make no mention of this.[13] Law's history of the battle, the most thorough account, also makes no mention of this.
↑ Victoire was a 49-tonne privateer from Dunkirk commissioned in 1798 under a Captain Terragno, with 18 men and 2 guns. Later in 1798 she was under Gaspard Malo. In 1799 she was under Ensign Jean-Louis Fromentin (from Dieppe) with 30 men. In 1800, under Étienne Commette (from Agde), with 24 to 40 men and 2 to 4 guns. Later in 1800, she cruised under Léonard-Louis Lerlière, with 24 to 40 men and 2 to 4 guns. HMS Badger, of 3 guns, captured her in July 1800.[17]
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1800, presumably having foundered.
HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.
HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
HMS Mermaid was a 32-gun Active-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1784 and broken up in 1815. During the French Revolutionary Wars she served in the West Indies, the Channel, and the Mediterranean. During the Napoleonic Wars she first served in the Americas, but from early 1811 on, she was armed en flute and served as a troopship until she was broken up.
The Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf was an engagement fought off the Îles Saint-Marcouf near the Cotentin peninsula on the Normandy coast of France in May 1798 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Dislodging a British garrison on the islands was the main objective for French forces. The garrison allowed the islands to serve as a resupply base for Royal Navy ships patrolling northern French waters. Apart from expelling the British, the French sought to test new equipment and tactics, which had allegedly been developed with an intention of invading Britain.
HMS Sandfly was a Musquito-class floating battery of the Royal Navy. The two-vessel class was intended to defend the Îles Saint-Marcouf (Marcou) situated off the Normandy coast. During her brief career Sandfly shared in the capture of one privateer and participated in a battle that would earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. The Peace of Amiens returned the islets to France in May 1802; Sandfly was paid off in June 1802 and broken up in 1803.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Telemachus served the Royal Navy from 17 June 1795 until 15 January 1801. She was of 1285⁄95 tons (bm), and carried fourteen 4-pounder guns. During her five and a half years of service to the Royal Navy she captured eight French privateers as well as many merchant vessels.
HMS Shark was a former Dutch hoy that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. In 1795 her crew mutinied and handed her over to the French.
HMS Serpent was a former Dutch hoy that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. She was paid off in 1796 and was sold around 1802.
HMS Hawke was a former Dutch hoy, one of 19, that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. She seems to have participated in only one engagement against the French and was sold in 1796.
HMS Kangaroo was British Royal Navy 18-gun brig-sloop of the Diligence class, launched in 1795 at Deptford, England. She served in Home Waters and the Mediterranean Sea until she was sold in 1802.
His Majesty's hired armed vessel Aristocrat served the Royal Navy, twice, as a lugger from 1794 to 1798, and as a brig from 1799 to 1801. She served with the Jersey-based Channel Islands flotilla under Commodore Philippe d'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon. As a lugger she participated in two notable engagements, the second of which won for her crew the Naval General Service Medal, awarded some 50 years later. As a brig, she captured two privateers.
HMS Dolphin was 10-gun cutter that served the Royal Navy from 1793 to 1802, first as a hired armed cutter, and then after the Navy purchased her, as HMS Dolphin. During her almost decade of service Dolphin patrolled the English Channel protecting British trade by capturing French privateers and recapturing their prizes.
HMS Diligence was the name ship of her class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1795 and lost in 1800. She spent her brief career on the Jamaica station where she captured four armed vessels, one of them after a short engagement, and many small Spanish and French merchant vessels in the Caribbean inter-island and coastal trade.
HMSEmerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate that Sir William Rule designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.
Jalouse was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class brig-corvette of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. The Royal Navy captured her in May 1797 and took her into service under her existing name. In British service she served primarily on the North Sea station where she captured three small French privateers, and many Dutch merchant vessels. She also participated with other British warships in two or three major cutting-out expeditions. She was broken up in 1807.
HMS Sparkler was an Acute-class gunvessel launched in 1797 as GB No.7 and renamed HMS Sparkler in August 1797. She served the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Navy sold her in 1802. She became a merchantman. In 1813 a French privateer captured her but the Royal Navy recaptured her shortly thereafter. She was wrecked in February 1814.
Between 1793 and 1805, five cutters served the British Royal Navy as hired armed vessels under the designation HM hired cutter Rose:
HMS Stag was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1790 and work began in March 1792 at Chatham Docks. Completed in August 1794, Stag spent much of her service in home waters, where she worked to protect British shipping from French privateers. In an action on 22 August 1795, Stag engaged, and forced the surrender of, the Dutch frigate Alliante, and took part in the chase that ended with the capture of Bonne Citoyenne by HMS Phaeton on 10 March 1796.
References
Barrow, John (1848). The life and correspondence of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith. Vol.1. Bentley.
Gardiner, Robert (1997). Nelson Against Napoleon: from the Nile to Copenhagen, 1798-1801. Chatham. ISBN978-1-86176-026-5.
James, William (2002) [1827]. The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 2, 1797—1799. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-906-9.
Laws, Lt. Col. M.E.S. (1948). "The Defence of St. Marcouf"(PDF). Journal of the Royal Artillery. 4 (75): 298–307.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2.
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