HMS Growler (1797)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Growler.

History
Great Britain
Name	GB No. 26
Ordered	7 February 1797
Builder	Thomas Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid down	February 1797
Launched	10 April 1797
Renamed	HMS Growler
Captured	21 December 1797
France
Name	Growler
Acquired	November 1798 by purchase of a prize
Fate	Seized 1 August 1809
General characteristics [1] [2]
Class & type	Courser-class gun-brig
Tons burthen	16852⁄94 (bm)
Length	Overall: 76 ft 2 in (23.22 m) Keel: 62 ft 4+3⁄8 in (19.009 m)
Beam	22 ft 6+1⁄2 in (6.871 m)
Depth of hold	8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Sail plan	Brig
Complement	Royal Navy:50 French Navy:37-–47 men
Armament	Royal Navy:10 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 24-pounder chase guns French Navy:2 × 32-pounder carronades forward + 10 × 16-pounder carronades + 2 × 8-pounder guns

HMS Growler was a Courser-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy at Northfleet and launched in 1797 as GB No. 26; she was renamed Growler on 7 August the same year.

Lieutenant William Wall commissioned Growler in May. In August Lieutenant John Hollingsworth replaced Wall.

Capture: The French privateers Espiègle and Rusé captured Growler off Dungeness on 21 December 1797. Growler was escorting a convoy in the Channel on a moonless night when the two privateers approached. They mistook her for a merchantman, ran close on either side and called on her to surrender. The officer of the watch, taken by surprise, fired a gun. Both privateers immediately came alongside and threw grapnels on to her. The British managed to cut the grapnels on one side the privateer on that side fell away, and fired a broadside before again coming alongside. The privateers sent boarding parties over the side. Lieutenant Hollingsworth was shot and died in the ensuing struggle. The British were then forced to strike. ^{[3] [Note 1] [Note 2]}

In 1799 a court martial honourably acquitted Growler's master of her loss. ^[6]

French Navy: The French Navy purchased Growler in November 1798 and retained her name.

Recapture: The British found Growler in a very decayed state on 1 August 1809 at Veere on the island of Walcheren at the beginning of the Walcheren Campaign. ^[2]

Notes

1. • Espiègle was a privateer from Boulogne commissioned in December 1797 under Jean-Pierre-Antoine Duchenne, with 80 men and tn 3-pounder guns. She was under Jean-Augustin Huret from late 1799 with 34 men. Damaged in combat on 20 March 1800. ^[4]

2. Rusé was a 70-ton privateer lugger from Boulogne, built to specifications from Jacques-Oudart "Bucaille" Fourmentin. First cruise from November 1796 to February 1797 under Bucaille, with 75 men and 10 guns (two 12-pounders and ten 3 or 4-pounders). Another cruise from Dunkirk from November to December 1797 under Bucaille with 8 guns. She made two further in 1798 and 1799 under Pierre Audibert, until HMS Kite captured Rusé on 18 May 1799. ^[5]

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p. 333.
2. Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 280.
3. Hepper (1994), p. 85.
4. Demerliac (1999), p. 228, n°1863.
5. Demerliac (1999), p. 227, n°1851.
6. "Naval and Military Journal" . 2 December 1799, Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph(Leeds, England) issue: 8.

References

• Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN   9782906381247. OCLC   492783890.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN   0-948864-30-3.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN   978-1-86176-246-7.
• Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN   978-1-84832-204-2.