HMS Calliope was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808. She operated primarily in the North Sea where she captured numerous small merchant vessels and one French privateer. She also was present at the battle of Lake Borgne, near New Orleans. She was broken up in 1829.
Calliope was commissioned in September 1808 under Commander John M'Kerlie.[1]
In August–September 1809 Calliope took part in the ill-fated Walcheren Campaign.[2] In particular, she was at the capture of Flushing on 15 August.[3]
On 5 January 1809 Calliope was in company with Pigeon off Kingsgate Point near Margate. That evening the two vessels were off Flushing when a heavy gale and snowstorm parted them. Pigeon grounded and was lost, though almost her entire crew survived.[4]
Calliope and Prospero shared in the proceeds of the capture on 7 March 1810 of the Danish vessels Aggershuns and Anna Mette Catharina.[5]
On 13 March Calliope captured the Danish vessels Ellen Sophia, Wagrein, and Hoffnung, and on 12 April Sprinkhorn, and Oppreissring.[6]
Calliope and Britomart shared in the proceeds of the capture on 2 September of the Danish vessels Goede Verwagting and Frou Esje.[7]
On 25 October 1810 Calliope was at 54°47′N2°46′E / 54.783°N 2.767°E / 54.783; 2.767 when she sighted an enemy vessel sailing towards her. The approaching enemy had apparently mistaken Calliope for a merchant brig; at the enemy came up to about three miles away, she realized her mistake, at which point M'Kerlie gave chase. Eventually Calliope caught up with her quarry and succeeded in bringing down her mainmast; with the loss of rigging and sails the quarry had to strike. The enemy vessel was the schooner Comtesse d'Hambourg, of eight 12-pounder carronades, six 8-pounder guns, and 51 men. She was seven days out of Dunkirk, but had not captured anything. M'Kerlie reported that Calliope had had three men wounded.[3]Comtesse d'Hambourg had no casualties; her crew had fired her guns and then taken refuge below decks.[lower-alpha 1]
On 12 March 1811 Calliope captured the Danish brig Silenus.[9]
On 9 September Callioppe captured the Dutch dogger Morgenstar.[10]
On 10 July 1813 Calliope was part of a squadron that captured eight small vessels in the Elbe and Weser. The squadron included Desiree, Brev Drageren, Shamrock, Thrasher, Princess Augusta, and gunboats.[12][lower-alpha 3]
On 27 October Calliope was under the command of Commander John M'Kerlie, and in company with Thrasher. The shared in the proceeds of the capture on that day of Frou Magaretha.[lower-alpha 4]
Also on 27 October Calliope and Brevdrageren captured the Danish sloop Einzigheit.[15]
Between 10 July and 31 December 1813 the squadron of which Calliope was a part succeeded in capturing 19 vessels.[lower-alpha 5]
Commander John Codd was appointed to Calliope on 6 December 1813, replacing M'Kerlie. Calliope remained on the North Sea station.[17]
In April 1815 Commander Henry Thompson replaced Codd. Then in September 1815 Commander Alexander Maconochie replaced Thompson, but Calliope was laid up that month.[1]
Post-war
Calliope underwent repairs at Portsmouth between July and December 1820. Then between April and June 1822 Calliope underwent fitting to serve as a tender to HMSApollo.[1] In 1825 Calliope became a tender to HMYRoyal George, and was under the command of Lieutenant John Powney. While captain of Calliope, he conveyed the Mexican chargé d'affaires, Senor Rocafuerte, with a treaty of commerce, from England to New Spain. The government of the republic rewarded Powney with a table service of plate. He brought home from thence a freight of considerable value, arriving back in England on 27 April 1827.[20]
In spring 1827, Calliope was found unfit for further service. Lieutenant Powney was lent, with the crew of Royal George, to the Royal yacht Royal Sovereign. On 26 June 1827 Powney received a promotion to the rank of commander.[20]
Fate
Calliope was broken up at Portsmouth on 13 August 1829.[1]
Notes
↑ Comtesse d'Hambourg was a privateer schooner that had been commissioned at Hamburg circa October 1810.[8]
↑ The prize money for an ordinary seaman was 17s 9d.[11]
↑ The prize money for an ordinary seaman for the eight small vessels was 15s 9+3⁄4d.[13]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £23 3s 6+1⁄2d; a sixth-class share of the prize money, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 9s 1+1⁄2d.[14]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £80 10s 9d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 0s 6d.[16]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £34 12s9+1⁄4d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 7s 10+3⁄4d.[18]
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 Weazel was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in her crews earning three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, was decommissioned in 1815, and was sold for breaking in 1825.
HMS Herald was an 18-gun ship-sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Littlehampton. In 1810 she was reclassed as a 20-gun sixth rate ship, and again re-rated as 24 guns in 1817, just before she was broken up.
HMS Recruit was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Sandwich, Kent. She is best known for an act of pique by Commander Warwick Lake, who marooned a seaman, and for an inconclusive but hard-fought ship action under Commander Charles John Napier against the French corvette Diligente. She captured a number of American vessels as prizes during the War of 1812 before being laid up in 1815 and sold for breaking up in 1822.
HMS Sabrina was an 18-gun Royal Navy ship-sloop of the Cormorant-class, launched in 1806 at Southampton. She seems to have had a surprisingly uneventful career before the Admiralty sold her in 1816.
HMS Belette was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit a rock off Læsø.
HMS Cruizer was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been ordered to her design. She had an eventful wartime career, mostly in the North Sea, English Channel and the Baltic, and captured some 15 privateers and warships, and many merchant vessels. She also participated in several actions. She was laid up in 1813 and the Commissioners of the Navy sold her for breaking in 1819.
HMS Piercer was a Royal Navy Archer-class gun-brig launched in 1804. She served against the French, Danes and Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars and was assigned to the Downs station. She participated in a number of operations in the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, and the North Sea. In 1814 the British government transferred Piercer to the Kingdom of Hanover for use as a guard ship. Hanover decommissioned her in 1850.
HMS Lightning was launched in 1806 as a Thais-class fireship. Like the other members of her class she was quickly converted to a sloop. She participated in the second Battle of Copenhagen, captured a number of small prizes, and was sold in 1816.
HMS Patriot was a Dutch schuyt that the Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service. She captured several enemy vessels before she was converted to a water vessel in 1813. The Admiralty sold her in 1815.
HMS Paulina was a British Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in December 1805 for cruising. She had a relatively uneventful career before she was sold in 1816.
HMS Imogen was a Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in July 1805. She served primarily in the Adriatic campaign before the Navy sold her in 1817.
HMS Moselle was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the North American station. She was sold in 1815.
HMS Rover was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop laid down in 1804 but not launched until 1808. She served in the North Sea, off the north coast of Spain, in the Channel, and on the North American station. She captured two letters-of-marque and numerous merchant vessels before being laid-up in 1815. She then sat unused until she was sold in 1828. She became a whaler that made four voyages to the British southern whale fishery between 1830 and 1848. She was last listed in 1848.
The French brig Carlotta was a brig-rigged corvetta-cannoniera or, corvetta-brig, of 10 guns, launched in 1807 at Venice as Fiamma that served the French Navy as Carlotta. HMS Belle Poule captured her in 1810 and the British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Carlotta. She was wrecked in 1812.
HMS Thais was built for the British Royal Navy in 1806 and was the name-vessel of her class of fire ships. Between 1811 and 1813 she served in the West Africa Squadron, which was attempting to suppress the slave trade. During this service she captured several slave traders and an American privateer. She made one voyage to the East Indies. Thais was sold in 1818. She then became a merchantman. She was last listed in 1826.
HMS Saint Christopher was the French privateer Mohawk, launched in 1805, that the Royal Navy captured in 1806. The citizens of Saint Kitts, purchased her and donated her to the Royal Navy. She was broken up at Antigua in 1811.
HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Thrasher was launched in 1804 at Brightlingsea, or Colchester as the merchant vessel Adamant. The British Royal Navy purchased her in June 1804, renamed her, and fitted her out as a gunbrig. She captured numerous small merchant vessels, most of them Dutch or Danish. After the Navy sold her in 1814, she returned to mercantile service under her original name of Adamant. She made a voyage to Malta in 1815 and was wrecked as she was returning to London.
HMS Mercurius was launched at Copenhagen in 1806 for the Dano-Norwegian navy under the name HDMS Mercurius. The British captured her at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) and took her into service as HMS Mercurius. She spent her entire British career successfully escorting convoys to the White Sea, the Baltic, and every part of the North Sea. She was sold in November 1815 after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
References
Demerliac, Alain (2003). La Marine du Consulat et du Premier Empire: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1800 à 1815 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN9782903179304. OCLC492784876.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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