HMS Eling (1798)

Last updated

HMS Eling (1796).jpg
Plans for HMS Eling, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London [1]
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
NameHMS Eling
BuilderHobbs & Hellyer, Redbridge
Laid down1796
Acquired1798 by purchase
CommissionedJuly 1798
Honours and
awards		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801"
FateBroken up 1814
General characteristics [2]
TypeExperimental design
Tons burthen148 (bm)
Length
  • 80 ft 0 in (24.4 m) (overall)
  • 56 ft 7+1⁄2 in (17.3 m) (keel)
Beam22 ft 2 in (6.8 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 6 in (3.5 m)
Sail planSchooner
Complement50
Armament12 x 18-pounder carronades + 2 x 12-pounder carronades

HMS Eling was one of six vessels built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham. It is not known when she was launched, though it may have been in 1796. After the Admiralty purchased her in 1798 for the Royal Navy she took part in several campaigns and captured a privateer and other vessels. She was broken up in 1814 after several years in ordinary.

Contents

Design

Hobbs & Hellyer built six vessels to Bentham's design. Eling was the name ship of a two-vessel class of schooners, and she and her class mate Redbridge were the smallest of the six vessels, smaller even than the other two schooners, Milbrook and Netley. The design featured a large-breadth to length ratio with structural bulkheads, and sliding keels. The vessels were also virtually double-ended. [2]

French Revolutionary wars

Lieutenant William Peake commissioned her in July 1798. Under his command, Eling took part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799. On 28 August 1799, the fleet captured several Dutch hulks and ships in the New Diep, in Holland. Eling was not listed among the vessels qualifying to share in the prize money. [3] However, Eling was present at the subsequent Vlieter Incident on 30 August. [4] In discussing the utility of the "non-recoil principle" of fixing carronades to the deck, James mentions that during the Vlieter Incident Eling fired some 400 shots from her aftermost carronade without sustaining the slightest damage to even a pane of glass in the cabin skylight, or injury to anyone. [5]

On 12 March 1801 Eling sailed with the British fleet under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker and was at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801). She shared in the head money for the battle, [6] but was not listed among the vessels whose crews qualified for the clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847. This is strange as prior to the battle she participated in taking soundings of the Hollander Deep, and after the battle Captain Robert Otway boarded Eling to sail to HDMS Holsteen to arrange her surrender. [7] Though Eling does not appear on the list, [8] members of her crew are known to have received the medal. Then on 8 June a midshipman and some crew members of Eling on shore in Copenhagen got involved in some altercation, but although it resulted in an exchange of letters between the Danish Adjutant General and Admiral Lord Nelson, nothing more seems to have come of this. [9]

In August 1801 Eling had rejoined Suamarez who was blockading Cadiz after the Battle of Algeciras Bay. Eling had been part of a squadron cruising off Ireland that the Admiralty sent south to reinforce Saumarez. [10]

Napoleonic wars

In 1803 Eling was on the Guernsey station and under the command of Lieutenant William Archbold.

On the afternoon of 13 June Archbold encountered the French privateer lugger Espeigle some five or six leagues NNW of Cap Fréhel. Espeigle was a small, open privateer lugger with a crew of 12 men armed with small arms. She had been out of Saint-Malo for 18 days without taking anything. Eling captured Espiegle after a chase of about an hour. Eling was short-handed, being 17 men below complement, so Archbold decided to take Espeigle into port. However, as a tow rope was being passed to Espeigle, she got under Eling's bow and Eling sank her. [11] [12]

Between 13 and 15 September 1803 Eling joined a squadron under Rear-Admiral James Saumarez. Saumarez, in Cerberus, commanded a small squadron comprising the sloops of war Charwell and Kite, the schooner Eling, the cutter Carteret, and the bomb vessels Sulphur and Terror. [13] The squadron massed for a bombardment of the port of Granville where there were some gunboats moored. The squadron bombarded the port several times over the next two days. On 15 September, as Cerberus was withdrawing, she grounded. For the three hours it took to refloat her nine gunboats harried her, but without effect. [13] When the rest of the squadron, came up they drove the gunboats away. The British retired with no information on what, if anything, the bombardment had achieved. [13]

Eling then cruised in the Channel. She suffered so much damage from the winter weather that Saumarez ordered her to return to Plymouth for a refit. Before she did so she called at Jersey and Guernsey for dispatches. [14] She was paid off in 1804 and recommissioned.

Fate

In 1807 Eling went into ordinary at Portsmouth. The Admiralty sold her there in May 1814 for breaking up. [2]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Eling (1796), Redbridge (1796) | Royal Museums Greenwich".
  2. 1 2 3 Winfield (2008), p. 385.
  3. ↑ "No. 15453". The London Gazette . 13 February 1802. p. 158.
  4. ↑ "No. 15533". The London Gazette . 16 November 1802. p. 1213.
  5. ↑ James (1837), Vol. 2, p. 483.
  6. ↑ "No. 15487". The London Gazette . 8 June 1802. p. 600.
  7. ↑ Ralfe (1820), pp. 14–5.
  8. ↑ "No. 20939". The London Gazette . 26 January 1849. pp. 239–240.
  9. ↑ Pettigrew and Nelson (1849), Vol. 2, pp.92-3.
  10. ↑ Ross (1838), p. 14.
  11. ↑ "No. 15593". The London Gazette . 14 June 1803. p. 712.
  12. ↑ Lloyd's List, no. 4360, - accessed 10 October 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 "No. 15622". The London Gazette . 20 September 1803. pp. 1272–1273.
  14. ↑ The Paisley magazine (1828), pp.300-1.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Galatea</i> (1794) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Galatea was a fifth-rate 32-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy that George Parsons built at Bursledon and launched in 1794. Before she was broken up in 1809 she captured numerous prizes and participated in a number of actions, first in the Channel and off Ireland (1794–1803), and then in the Caribbean (1802–1809), including one that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal.

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 <i>Glatton</i> (1795) British ship of the line (1792–1830)

HMS Glatton was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. Wells & Co. of Blackwell launched her on 29 November 1792 for the British East India Company (EIC) as the East Indiaman Glatton. The Royal Navy bought her in 1795 and converted her into a warship. Glatton was unusual in that for a time she was the only ship-of-the-line that the Royal Navy had armed exclusively with carronades. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and as a transport for convicts to Australia. She then returned to naval service in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty converted her to a water depot at Sheerness. In 1830 the Admiralty converted Glatton to a breakwater and sank her at Harwich.

HMS <i>Hannibal</i> (1786) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Hannibal was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1786, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal. She is best known for having taken part in the Algeciras Campaign, and for having run aground during the First Battle of Algeciras on 5 July 1801, which resulted in her capture. She then served in the French Navy until she was broken up in 1824.

HMS <i>Révolutionnaire</i> (1794) Frigate of the Royal Navy

Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.

French frigate <i>Cléopâtre</i> (1781) 32-gun Vénus class frigate of the French Navy

Cléopâtre was a 32-gun Vénus class frigate of the French Navy. She was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, and had a coppered hull. She was launched in 1781, and the British captured her in 1793. She then served the Royal Navy as HMS Oiseau until she was broken up in 1816.

HMS <i>Tartar</i> (1801) Narcissus-class frigate

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.

HMS Cynthia was a ship sloop of unusual design which launched in 1796. She took part in one medal-worthy boat action and participated in captures of a number of merchant vessels. She was present at two notable occasions, the surrender of the Dutch fleet in the Vlieter Incident and the capture of Alexandria, and her crew participated in two land attacks on forts. She was broken up in 1809.

HMS Calpe was the former 14-gun polacca San José of the Spanish Navy, originally built in 1796 in Greece. The British captured her in 1800 and commissioned her as a sloop-of-war. She served at the Battle of Algeciras Bay before the Navy sold her in 1802. She underwent repairs and reappeared as a merchantman in the 1805 registers; however, she wrecked at the Dardanelles in 1805.

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches and performed reconnaissance.

His Majesty's hired armed cutter Courier appears twice in the records of the British Royal Navy. The size and armament suggests that both contracts could represent the same vessel, but other information indicates that the second Courier had been captured from the French in the West Indies. On the first contract the captain and crew were awarded clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, one for a boat action and one for a single ship action in which they distinguished themselves.

HMS <i>Cruizer</i> (1797) Sloop of the Royal Navy

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 <i>Circe</i> (1785) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Circe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1785 but not completed or commissioned until 1790. She then served in the English Channel on the blockade of French ports before she was wrecked in 1803.

Hired armed lugger <i>Valiant</i>

His Majesty's hired armed lugger Valiant served the Royal Navy on a contract from 5 May 1794 to 10 November 1801. She was of 109 90⁄94 tons (bm), and was armed with eleven 3-pounder guns.

HMS <i>Childers</i> (1778) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.

The Royal Navy employed two vessels designated as His Majesty's Hired armed vessel Sir Thomas Pasley during the French Revolutionary Wars. The two vessels were named for Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley. The vessels are also sometimes described as cutters, but more generally as brigs. The Spanish captured the first Sir Thomas Pasley. The second had a brief, but highly productive, career that later led to her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. After she was returned to her owners in March 1802, she may have been wrecked in the Mediterranean that same year.

HMS Milbrook was one of six vessels built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham. After the Royal Navy took her into service in her decade-long career she took part in one notable single-ship action and captured several privateers and other vessels, all off the coast of Spain and Portugal. She was wrecked off the coast of Portugal in 1808.

HMS <i>Redbridge</i> (1798) British schooner-rigged gunboat

HMS Redbridge was one of four schooner-rigged gunboats built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham. Her launch date is unknown, but the Admiralty purchased her in April 1798. She had a short, relatively uneventful career before the French captured her in 1803. The French Navy sold her in January 1814.

HMS <i>Dart</i> (1796) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Dart was one of two sloops built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham and launched in 1796. She served the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary wars and the early part of the Napoleonic wars before being sold in 1809 for breaking up.

HMS Cracker was an Acute-class gunbrig, launched in 1797. She was sold in 1802.

References

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.