Active service as Manly
She was commissioned in May 1804 under Lieutenant George Mackay. In 1805 she cruised off Boulogne.
Manly shared with HMS Autumn and the gun-brigs Biter and Pincher, in the salvage money for George which they retook in February 1805. It was believed that George had been sailing from Bristol to London when a French privateer had captured her and taken her into Boulogne, where her cargo was landed. Autumn and the brigs recaptured George as she was on her way to Calais and they sent her into Dover. [2]
Capture: British account
In January 1806, while under the command of Lieutenant Martin White, she grounded off Rysum, in the River Ems, East Friesland. When White went ashore to supervise attempts to pull her off, a party of Dutchmen from a schuyt landed and captured him.Manly's master, William Golding, then decided to surrender her to Dutch gun-boats. The subsequent court martial stripped Golding of his rank for conduct unbecoming an officer and ordered him to serve a two-year term as a seaman. The board also reprimanded White for not having lightened Manly before trying to pull her off.
Capture: Dutch account
The Dutch Naval Department held a meeting on 31 December 1805 during which it discussed a report from 25 December by First Lieutenant IJsbrands of the gunboat Vos, who commanded the Dutch vessels serving off Delfzijl. On December IJsbrands had encountered a boat from the galley Noodweer off the Knock that reported that they had approached a brig that had run ashore. It was flying an American flag but appeared to be British. The brig had detained L. Abrahams, the Noodweer's pilot. [5]
IJsbrands sailed back to Delfzijl where he gathered reinforcements from the Noodweer. He then sailed towards the reported location of the brig. On the way he met a boat carrying Lieutenant Martin White, boatswain Peter Graij, gunner James Robinson and sailors Robert Telford and John Wilcolf, whom he arrested and sent to Delfzijl. First though, White requested that he be allowed to retrieve his clothes and money. However, as Vos approached the brig, the British crew fired on her. [5]
At Delfzijl IJsbrands mustered three galleys and on 21 December sent them to deal with the brig. Due to contrary winds the galleys did not reach the brig until 22 December. At that time they discovered that she was the Manly, but that there was no trace of the crew. [5]
Dutch service
To date, no records of her service under the Batavian Republic have emerged.
On 1 January 1809, the 10-gun brig Onyx, with 75 men under Commander Charles Gill, recaptured Manly from the Dutch. [6] Manly and another brig had sailed from the Texel intending to intercept British merchant vessels trading with Heligoland. [7]
The action took two and a half hours, during which the British suffered three wounded, one of whom died later. Manly, which had 94 men, suffered five killed and six wounded. She was under the command of Captain-Lieutenant J.W. Heneyman (or Heeneman) of the Dutch Navy. During her cruise she had taken one small prize, a vessel sailing from Embden to England with a cargo of oats. [7] Manley [sic] arrived in the Humber on 6 January. [8]
The action won a promotion to post-captain for Commander Gill. Lieutenant Edward William Garrett, first of the Onyx, received promotion to the rank of commander. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Onyx 1 Jany. 1809" to all surviving claimants from the action. [11]
British service as Manly
Manly underwent fitting at Sheerness between February and August 1809. She was recommissioned in June under Lieutenant Thomas Greenwood.
On the night of 29 May 1810, the boats of Desiree, Britomart, Quebec and Bold went into the Vlie to cut out several vessels there. They drove a French lugger of six guns and 26 men ashore, where she was burnt. They then brought out four prizes: a French lugger of 12 guns and 42 men, a French privateer schuyt of four guns and 17 men, a Dutch gun boat and a small row boat. The British suffered no casualties; the enemy lost one man killed and three wounded. [12]
On 17 August 1811 Manly sailed from Sheerness with a convoy for the Baltic under Lieutenant Richard William Simmonds. On 2 September 1811, she was cruising off Arendal on the Norwegian coast in the company of Chanticleer when they encountered three Danish 18-gun-brigs.
Capture: British account
The Danes engaged Chanticleer until she escaped them. They then turned their attention to Manly. The Danes concentrated their fire on her, cutting her spars and rigging to pieces. Surrounded, with only six guns left, and having lost one man killed and three wounded, Manly was forced to strike.Chanticleer maintained a course away from the action and made good her escape.
A court martial on 6 January 1812 "most honourably acquitted" Lieutenant Simmonds. [Note 1]
Capture: Danish account
At 0200hrs on 2 September Alsen (Senior Lieutenant M. Lütken), Lolland (Captain Hans Peter Holm), and Samsø (Senior Lieutenant Ridder Frederick Grodtschilling) were sailing westward along the coast off Randøerne, some 30 miles SE of Arendal, when they sighted two strange vessels that by their night signals appeared to be enemy. [16] The Danes set out in pursuit, with Samsø, which was closest, sailing for the nearest of the enemy vessels with Alsen and Lolland following. However, their quarry turned south-east, and Samsø and Alsen followed. Lolland then set off after the second ship.
By 0340hrs Lolland had caught up with her. Combat began at 0445hrs and at 0540hrs Lolland succeeded in crossing behind her quarry, which then struck at 0555hrs. Lolland sent a prize crew over that brought back Lieutenant Simmonds.
Meanwhile, at 0345hrs Alsen had come within firing range of the ship that Samsø was chasing and there followed a running fight which persevered as well as the rough seas would allow. Samsø had already broken off her chase when Grodtschilling realized the British vessel was too fast for him; Grodtschilling sailed to join and support Lolland. By 0500hrs Alsen's quarry had gained such a lead on the Alsen that Lütken too gave up the pursuit and turned to join Lolland.
Samsø and Alsen came up at 0630hrs and Holm requested that they help man the prize. Holm reported that Lolland had lost one man killed but had had no wounded; neither of the other two Danish vessels had sustained any casualties. Lolland had slight damage to her rigging and sails, but none to her hull; the other two Danish vessels reported negligible damage.
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.
The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
HMS Clio was Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched at James Betts' shipyard in Mistleythorn in Essex on 10 January 1807. Her establishment was 71 officers and men, 24 boys and 20 marines. She served in the Baltic during the Napoleonic Wars, accomplished the re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833, and participated in the First Opium War. She was broken up in 1845.
HMS Chanticleer was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy. Chanticleer was launched on 26 July 1808. She served in European waters in the Napoleonic Wars and was paid off and laid up at Sheerness in July 1816. She was chosen for an 1828 scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Her poor condition on her return meant that the Admiralty replaced her for the second voyage in 1831 with another Cherokee-class brig, Beagle, which subsequently became famous because of the association with Charles Darwin. Chanticleer then spent 15 years as a customs watch ship at Burnham-on-Crouch and was broken up in 1871.
HMS Oberon was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class built at Kingston upon Hull and launched in 1805. She was constructed at the James Shepheard Shipyard, Sutton.
HMS Algerine was a Pigmy–class 10-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She was launched in March 1810. She served in the North Sea and then transferred to the West Indies, where she was wrecked in 1813.
HMS Brev Drageren was the Danish let briggerBrevdrageren, which was one of the many vessels the Danes surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was involved in two notable actions while in British service before she was sold in 1825.
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.
His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Princess Augusta served the Royal Navy from 12 July 1803 to 2 May 1814. She was armed with eight 4-pounder guns, had a complement of 26 men, and was of 7056⁄94 tons (bm). She participated in several single ship actions and took several prizes before the Navy returned her to her owners near the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Nemesis was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1795 at Smyrna, but in 1796 a squadron led by Barfleur brought her out of the neutral port of Tunis. Throughout her career she served under a number of commanders who would go on to have distinguished careers. She was converted to a troopship in 1812 and was sold in 1814.
HMS Seagull was the name vessel for the Seagull class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 1 July 1805 and saw active service under the British flag in Danish waters until 19 June 1808 when Dano-Norwegian forces sank her. The Danes raised her and refitted her for service in the Dano-Norwegian Navy, which she served until the end of the English Wars in 1814. She then was transferred to the Norwegians. She was finally decommissioned in 1817.
Grinder was a gunboat serving as a tender, rather than a commissioned warship, to HMS Anholt, the British garrison on the island of Anholt during the Gunboat War. Grinder's origins are obscure, but the Danes captured her in 1810 and the British recaptured her in 1811. She was sold in 1832.
Hans Peter Holm was a Danish naval officer who commanded vessels of the Dano-Norwegian Navy in several actions. He commanded several naval vessels during the Gunboat War. His most important action occurred in 1812 at the Battle of Lyngør when a British squadron, led by the British ship-of-the-line HMS Dictator, destroyed his vessel, HDMS Najaden. Holm sustained wounds in the battle but survived, only to drown in an accident shortly afterwards.
HDMS Lolland was launched in March 1810. She served in at least four major engagements during the Gunboat War before she was transferred to the Norwegian navy after the Treaty of Kiel brought about the separation of Norway from Denmark in 1814. Lolland continued to serve with the Norwegian Navy until sold in 1847.
HDMS Allart, a brig launched at Copenhagen in June 1807, was amongst the ships taken by the British after the second Battle of Copenhagen. In British service, she was recaptured by Danish-Norwegian gunboats after venturing too close inshore. Her subsequent service was in the Dano-Norwegian Navy's Norwegian Brig Division, which harried enemy frigates and convoys in Norwegian waters. On the separation of Denmark from Norway in 1814, Allart transferred to the Norwegian navy, who sold her in 1825.
HMS Barbara was an Adonis class schooner of the Royal Navy and launched in 1806. A French privateer captured her in 1807 and she became the French privateer Pératy. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1808. She was paid off in June 1814 and sold in February 1815.
HMS Redbreast was an Archer-class brig of the British Royal Navy. She captured some small merchant vessels and privateers. She also participated in two actions that would in 1847 earn her surviving crew members clasps to the Naval General service Medal (NGSM). The Navy transferred in 1816 to His Majesty's Customs. She was finally sold in 1850.
HMS Decoy was launched in 1810. She participated in the capture of several small French privateers, captured or recaptured a number of merchant vessels, and captured a number of smuggling vessels. The French captured her in 1814.
HMS Nimble was the name vessel of a two-vessel class of cutters built at Cowes in 1811 for the Royal Navy. Lieutenant John Reynolds commissioned her in 1812.
HMS Attack was launched in 1804 as a later Archer-class gunbrig. Danish gunboats captured Attack in August 1812.
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