Bermuda | |
History | |
---|---|
United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Bermuda |
Ordered | 1803 |
Launched | 1805 |
Fate | Wrecked on 22 April 1808 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Bermuda-class sloop |
Tons burthen | 399 (bm) |
Length | 107 ft (32.6 m) |
Beam | 29 ft 11 in (9.12 m) |
Draught | 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Complement | 121 |
Armament | 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder bow chasers |
HMS Bermuda was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy.
Bermuda was built in Bermuda of Bermuda cedar in 1805, as the lead ship of her class. The Bermudas were modified versions of the Dasher-class sloop of 1797, and eventually consisted of six ships. She was launched in 1805, and commissioned in October that year under the command of William Henry Byam, who transferred from Busy, which was then on the North America Station. [2] Bermuda only spent three years in service before being wrecked on Memory Rock in the area known as Little Bahamas Bank, Bahamas on 22 April 1808.
Bermuda was searching for a rich Portuguese ship when she hit a reef during the night. Next morning Byam sighted a ship aground about five miles away. She proved to be Concepcion, the vessel they were looking for Bermuda could not be freed from the reef, but Conception could be. Byam and his crew captured the Portuguese ship, which they sailed on 26 April to New Providence, arriving on 4 May. Before they sailed they left a lieutenant, a midshipman, and six seamen to guard the stores. (Five men also took the opportunity to desert in Bermuda's jolly boat.) Rescuers returned to the wreck, salvaging what they could, before abandoning the wreck on 3 June. The court martial attributed the loss to an excessively strong current. [3]
Captain Byam went on to command HMS Opossum. [2]
Seven commissioned ships of the British Royal Navy have been named Bermuda and given the prefix HMS, after the British Overseas Territory and former Imperial fortress of Bermuda. Two other vessels operated by the Royal Navy that were not commissioned warships were also named Bermuda.
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as a tender on the Jamaica station. Pickle was at the Battle of Trafalgar, and though she was too small to take part in the fighting, Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain. She also participated in a notable single-ship action when she captured the French privateer Favorite in 1807. Pickle was wrecked in 1808, but without loss of life.
HMS Apollo, the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns. She was the name ship of the Apollo-class frigates. Apollo was launched in 1799, and wrecked with heavy loss of life in 1804.
HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate Narcissus-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic Sea before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.
The Royal Navy purchased the Newcastle collier Ramillies in June 1804 and commissioned her as HMS Proselyte in September 1804, having converted her to a 28-gun sixth rate in July and August. Between 1806 and 1808 she was converted to a bomb vessel. She was crushed by ice and abandoned in 1808 at the island of Anholt while acting as a lightvessel.
HMS Raven was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall Yard and launched in 1804. Although she embodied some interesting innovations tailored for service in the area of the Straits of Gibraltar, she was wrecked before she got on station and never tested them. Her captain, the innovator, was the subject of a miscarriage of justice at his court martial for the loss of the ship from which his career never recovered.
HMS Halcyon (1813) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Edward Larking & William Spong built at King's Lynn and launched in 1813. She had one of the shortest lives of any vessel of her class.
HMS Crane was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1809. She had an unusually uneventful five-year career before she foundered in 1814.
HMS Herring was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804. She spent most of her career in North American waters though she did spend two years sailing between Britain and Spain before returning to North America where she foundered in 1813.
HMS Haddock was a Royal Navy schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1805.
On Thursday 21st inst launched off the stocks at Mr Isaac Skinner's shipyard his Majesty's Schooner "Haddock". The above schooner is said to be the completest vessel ever built in Bermuda
HMS Orpheus was a 32–gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1780, and served for more than a quarter of a century, before she was wrecked in 1807.
HMS Placentia was the name-ship of her two vessel class, with both vessels being launched in 1789. John Henslow designed the small sloops for coastal patrol duties off Newfoundland. She was wrecked in 1794.
HMS Claudia was an Adonis-class schooner of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War. She was built at Bermuda using Bermudan cedar and completed in 1806. She was commissioned under Lieutenant Anthony Bliss William Lord in March 1806.
HMS Zenobia was a schooner of the Adonis class of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War. She was built and completed at Bermuda using Bermuda cedar in 1806 and commissioned under Lieutenant Archibald Hamilton. She sailed for Norfolk, Virginia, on 22 October 1806.
HMS Electra was a British Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched on 23 January 1806. She was wrecked in 1808.
The French schooner Impériale was a 3-gun mercantile schooner-aviso of the French Navy commissioned at Guadeloupe on 23 September 1805. The Royal Navy captured her on 24 May 1806 and named her HMS Vigilant. The Navy renamed her HMS Subtle on 20 November 1806. She wrecked at Bermuda on 20 October 1807.
HMS Busy was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured one French privateer and numerous small merchantmen, but spent most of her career escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She foundered in 1807 while serving on the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station.
HMS Wild Boar was a brig-sloop launched in 1808. She was wrecked in 1810.
HMS Wolf was a Merlin-class sloop launched at Dartmouth in 1804. She captured or destroyed four small Spanish or French privateers before she was wrecked on 4 September 1806 in the Bahamas.
HMS Fly was launched in 1805. In 1807 she participated in one major naval campaign. She was wrecked on 28 February 1812 at Anholt Island in the Kattegat.