Career
Merope was one of ten Crocus-class brig-sloops designed by the British navy for patrol and protection duties. They carried approximately 86 men, and were rated for fourteen cannons. Merope's keel was laid at Admiralty's Chatham Dockyard in November 1807. She was launched in July 1808 as the third of her class. Commander Michael Dod commissioned her in July 1808. He transferred to Monmouth, which he commissioned in the Downs anchorage in October.
Merope was recommissioned in 1810 under Commander John Houston, for the Leeward Islands station of the British fleet. In 1811 she was under the command of Commander Edward Flin, who sailed her for the Mediterranean on 5 March 1812.
Action at Tarragona
In January 1812 Merope was part of a squadron under Captain Edward Codrington in Blake operating along the north-east coast of Spain in support of Spanish forces during and after the siege of Tarragona (1811). They harassed the French with cannon fire and transported large numbers of reinforcements into the city by sea. Codrington left Merope and Sparrowhawk at Villa Nueva to assist General Joaquín Ibáñez Cuevas, Baron d'Eroles, who planned to march on Tarragona. Around 20 January during a battle for Villa Suca, French dragoons captured Flin, Commander James Pringle of Sparrowhawk, and Lieutenant Cattle of Blake while they were on the beach near Salon. The British officers escaped during the d'Eroles assault on Tarragona. [2] Blake came into Villa Nueva on 25 June and joined Merope in firing on French troops on the road to the west. The British vessels succeeded in disabling three wagons, forcing the French to abandon them. [2]
On 29 January Codrington sent Curacoa, Merope, and Rainbow to Mataró to assist the defenders there against a French force marching from Barcelona. The next day the three vessels observed a French force advancing on Mataró and fired on it near San Juan de Vilasar. [2] The British were not able to prevent the French from entering Mataró and partially occupied it. The French withdrew at daybreak on the following morning, escaping through some vineyards that were out of range of the British vessels and made their way to Arens de Mar (Arenys de Mar). [3]
Action off the Peninsula
In July 1812 Commander John Charles Gawen Roberts recommissioned Merope for patrolling the Spanish coast. Merope left Portsmouth on 23 July. She then served on Spain's east coast under the orders of Rear-admiral Hallowell supporting the army in Catalonia.
On 13 October 1812 she captured the San Antonio. [lower-alpha 1] Merope was one of seven British warships present at the Spanish capture of Tarragona on 19 August 1813. [lower-alpha 2]
Lieutenant William Benjamin Suckling, who received his promotion to Commander on 1 July 1814, recommissioned Merope for the Mediterranean. [lower-alpha 3]
She sailed to North America in 1815. On her return, in July the Admiralty placed her in ordinary.
HMS Devastation was an 8-gun British Royal Navy bomb vessel launched in 1803 at South Shields as the mercantile Intrepid. The Navy purchased her in 1804. She served in the English Channel, the Baltic, off the coast of Spain, and in the United States during the Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812, most notably at the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore in September 1814. The Navy sold her in 1816.
HMS Blake was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 August 1808 at Deptford and named in honour of Admiral Robert Blake.
Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1803 and took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. In the war on commerce during the Napoleonic Wars she was more protector than prize-taker, capturing many small privateers but few commercial prizes. She was also at the battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
HMS Inconstant was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had a successful career serving in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing three French warships during the French Revolutionary naval campaigns, Curieux, Unité, and the former British ship HMS Speedy.
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 Racehorse was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Hamilton & Breeds and launched in 1806 at Hastings. She served in the Channel, where she captured a small privateer, and in the East Indies, where she participated in the capture of Isle de France and the operations around it. She was wrecked in 1822.
HMS Ringdove was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Matthew Warren built at Brightlingsea and launched in 1806. She took some prizes and participated in three actions or campaigns that qualified her crew for clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. The Admiralty sold her in 1829 to Samuel Cunard, who would go on to found the Cunard Line.
HMS Brazen was a Bittern-class 28-gun Royal Navy ship sloop, launched in 1808.
HMS Redwing was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1806, she saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars, mostly in the Mediterranean, and afterwards served off the West Coast of Africa, acting to suppress the slave trade. She was lost at sea in 1827.
HMS Scylla was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The first to bear the name Scylla, she was launched in 1809 and broken up in 1846.
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 Minorca was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1805. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean and was broken up after an uneventful career.
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.
HMS Podargus was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She participated in one major battle during the Gunboat War between Britain and Denmark. After the war she served at Saint Helena for five or six years. On her return to Britain in 1820 she was laid up; she was finally sold in 1833.
HMS Apelles was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1808 and sold in 1816. During her service she grounded on the French coast and was in French hands for about a day before the British recaptured her. During her career she captured two French privateers.
HMS Crocus was the nameship of the Crocus-class brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1808 and had an almost completely uneventful career until she was sold in 1815. She then became a merchantman trading with the West Indies and the Mediterranean. She was last listed in 1823.
Milan was a French brig built at Saint Malo, from plans designed by François Pestel that had already served for Curieux in 1800 and for Palinure in 1804. She served in the French Navy for four years before HMS Surveillante and Seine captured her. She became HMS Achates in the Royal Navy and served until after the end of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Royalist was launched in 1807. She captured many privateers and letters of marque, most French, but also some from Denmark and the United States. Her crew twice were awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was instrumental in the capture of a French frigate. The Royal Navy sold her in 1819. She then became a whaler, making three complete voyages. She was condemned after a mishap while on her fourth.
HMS Spider was a brig-rigged Spanish sloop that the British Royal Navy captured in 1806 and took into service. She served in the Mediterranean and the West Indies and captured a small number of merchantmen. She was broken up in 1815.
HMS Muros was launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1809. She had a relatively uneventful career though she did participate in one major campaign. She was sold in 1822 for breaking up.
UK 