HMS Mullett (1807)

Last updated

History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Mullett
Ordered11 December 1805
BuilderGoodrich & Co. (prime contractor), Bermuda
Laid down1806
LaunchedMay 1807
FateSold 15 December 1814
General characteristics [1]
Type Ballahoo-class schooner
Tons burthen70 41⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 55 ft 2 in (16.8 m) (overall)
  • 40 ft 10+1⁄2 in (12.5 m) (keel)
Beam18 ft 0 in (5.5 m)
Depth of hold9 ft 0 in (2.7 m)
Sail planSchooner
Complement20
Armament4 x 12-pounder carronades

HMS Mullett was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1807. [1] Mullett had an apparently useful and completely uneventful career until she was sold at the end of 1814.

Contents

Service

She was commissioned under Lieutenant Martin Guise for Halifax and the West Indies. [1] In 1808 Lieutenant Abraham Brown assumed command. On 22 February 1808 she captured the American ship Thames. [2] At the same time she also detained the American brig Columbia, which resulted in the incurring of some expenses that were deducted from the prize money. [lower-alpha 1]

On 7 April Mullet encountered a squadron of six French ships of the line at 31°0′N69°0′W / 31.000°N 69.000°W / 31.000; -69.000 , steering WNW. Mullett shadowed them for three hours. At the time it was believed that they were the vessels that had left Rochefort on 17 January. [4]

In 1809 Lieutenant Robert Standly replaced Brown. [1] In May 1810 she was in home waters under Lieutenant John Geary. Between September and October she was under repair at Plymouth. [1] Between 9 and 11 November Geary faced a court martial. The charges were that he had not done his utmost to execute the orders of Sir Robert Calder in proceeding with the mails for Surinam, Berbice and Demerara. Instead, he had twice returned to port. He argued in his defence that his crew had been too sickly for him to proceed. The court's sentence was that he be severely reprimanded. [5] [lower-alpha 2] In 1810, Mullett was distressed and another vessel took out the Suriname mails.{{sfnp}Pawlyn|2003|p=104}}

In 1811 she was under Lieutenant Hugh Andersen in the Channel, and then in the next year under Lieutenant Thomas Evans surveying the Irish Sea. [1] In 1813 she was under Lieutenant John Neale and then in 1814 under Lieutenant Josiah Thompson, who sailed her on the North Coast of Spain.

Fate

She was sold at Plymouth for £390 on 15 December 1814. [1]

Post script

In January 1819, the London Gazette reported that Parliament had voted a grant to all those who had served under the command of Lord Viscount Keith in 1812, between 1812 and 1814, and in the Gironde. Mullet was listed among the vessels that had served under Keith in 1813 and 1814. [lower-alpha 3]

Notes

  1. ↑ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £293 14s 6d; a fifth-class share, i.e., the share of a seaman, was worth £10 17s 7d. [3]
  2. ↑ In 1818 Geary, now first lieutenant of Phaeton, would again face a court martial. This time the charge would be that he had hidden two deserters from a British Army band on board Phaeton. He would again be severely reprimanded, and this time dismissed from his ship.
  3. ↑ The money was paid in three tranches. For someone participating in the first through third tranches, a first-class share was worth £256 5s 9d; a sixth-class share was worth £4 6s 10d. For someone participating only in the second and third tranches a first-class share was worth £202 6s 8d; a sixth-class share was worth £5 0s 5d. [6]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Winfield (2008), p. 360.
  2. ↑ "No. 17527". The London Gazette . 23 October 1819. p. 1872.
  3. ↑ "No. 17534". The London Gazette . 13 November 1819. p. 2020.
  4. ↑ Lloyd's List , №4244. Accessed 23 October 2016.
  5. ↑ Naval Chronicle, Vol. 24, p.434.
  6. ↑ "No. 17864". The London Gazette . 26 October 1822. p. 1752.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Phaeton</i> (1782) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Phaeton was a 38-gun, Minerva-class fifth rate of Britain's Royal Navy. This frigate was most noted for her intrusion into Nagasaki harbour in 1808. John Smallshaw built Phaeton in Liverpool between 1780 and 1782. She participated in numerous engagements during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars during which service she captured many prizes. Francis Beaufort, inventor of the Beaufort Wind-Scale, was a lieutenant on Phaeton when he distinguished himself during a successful cutting out expedition. Phaeton sailed to the Pacific in 1805, and returned in 1812. She was finally sold on 26 March 1828.

HMS <i>Fantome</i> (1810)

HMS Fantome was an 18-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally a French privateer brig named Fantôme, which the British captured in 1810 and commissioned into British service. Fantome saw extensive action in the War of 1812 until she was lost in a shipwreck at Prospect, Nova Scotia, near Halifax in 1814.

HMS <i>Havannah</i> (1811) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Havannah was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was launched in 1811 and was one of twenty-seven Apollo-class frigates. She was cut down to a 24-gun sixth rate in 1845, converted to a training ship in 1860, and sold for breaking up in 1905.

HMS <i>Porcupine</i> (1807)

HMS Porcupine was a Royal Navy Banterer-class post ship of 24 guns, launched in 1807. She served extensively and relatively independently in the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars, with her boats performing many cutting out expeditions, one of which earned for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold for breaking up in 1816 but instead became the mercantile Windsor Castle. She was finally sold for breaking up in 1826 at Mauritius.

USS Frolic was a sloop-of-war that served in the United States Navy in 1814. The British captured her later that year and she served in the Royal Navy in the Channel and the North Sea until she was broken up in 1819.

HMS Cydnus was one of eight Royal Navy 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rates. This frigate was built in 1813 at Blackwall Yard, London, and broken up in 1816.

Grecian was an American schooner launched in 1812. During the War of 1812 she received a letter of marque. The Royal Navy captured her on 5 February 1814 and took her into service as HMS Grecian. She was sold in 1822. In 1823 she became a merchantman. In 1824 the Chilean Navy captured her, but she escaped, and thereafter may have served for a time as a Spanish privateer. After the end of the Peruvian War of Independence she apparently returned to more conventional pursuits and was probably lost in 1829 though she was still listed in 1830 as sailing between London and Lima.

French frigate <i>Junon</i> (1786)

Junon was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy.

HMS <i>Sealark</i> (1811)

HMS Sealark was the American schooner Fly, launched in 1801 or 1811, that HMS Scylla captured in 1811. The Royal Navy took her into service as a 10-gun schooner. She participated in one notable single-ship action in 1812 that in 1847 the Admiralty recognized with a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold in 1820.

HMS <i>Rover</i> (1808) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

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.

HMS <i>Podargus</i> (1808) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

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 Gleaner was the mercantile ketch Gleaner, launched in 1802. She served the Royal Navy as the "hired ketch Gleaner" from 12 July 1808 until the Navy purchased her in 1809. Initially she served as a light vessel and survey vessel. From early 1811 to August 1811 she served in the Mediterranean, where she captured an Ottoman vessel. She then became a yard lighter and a light vessel again. Then in 1812 she was on the North American station where she participated in the capture of several merchant vessels. Next she returned to the Mediterranean where she captured a privateer. Finally, she served off the north coast of Spain where she was wrecked on 2 March 1814.

HMS Saracen was launched in 1812 at Portsmouth for the British Royal Navy. She had an active, though brief, naval career during which she captured a number of enemy-held islands and enemy vessels. The navy sold her in 1819 and new owners employed her as a whaler for two voyages between 1819 and 1826. She was apparently wrecked in 1828 off the coast of Chile, but with little or no loss of life.

HMS Express was the American merchant vessel Achilles, launched in 1809 in America. Her owners in 1813 renamed her Anna Maria. In 1814 she served the British Royal Navy in North American waters as an advice boat. In 1815 the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS Express, a ship's tender serving in the Mediterranean. In 1816 she was at the bombardment of Algiers. The Navy sold her at Malta in 1827.

HMS Challenger was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched at Redbridge, Southampton, in 1813. She participated in the capture of a French privateer and then sailed to the East Indies. She was laid up in 1819 and sold in 1824.

HMS <i>Wanderer</i> (1806) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Wanderer was a Cormorant-class ship-sloop launched in 1806 for the Royal Navy. The Royal Navy sold her in 1817. She made one voyage between 1817 and 1820 as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She then sailed between Plymouth and North America until October 1827 when her crew had to abandon her at sea because she was waterlogged.

Little Catherine was launched in 1801 at Bermuda, probably under another name. She was condemned in prize in May 1809 at Barbados and entered British registry that year. At that time she traded between Liverpool and Africa. In 1813 she became a temporary packet sailing for the Post Office Packet Service from Falmouth, Cornwall. In 1813 the French Navy captured her and abandoned her after taking off her crew. The Royal Navy recovered her three days later. In 1814 an American privateer captured her but the Royal Navy recaptured her within two weeks. Her owner refused to pay salvage and turned her over to the Post Office which returned her to use as a Falmouth packet but renamed her Blucher, in honour of Prince Blucher who had helped defeat Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. The government sold Blucher in 1823. New owners returned her to the name Little Catherine and she continued to sail widely until she was last listed in 1845, having been sold to a Chinese owner. She was wrecked in October 1847.

HMS Nimble was a new cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1813. The Navy sold her in 1816.

HMS Dwarf was a Decoy-class cutter launched in 1810. She participated in the capture of a French privateer and in operations in the Gironde. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she captured some smuggling vessels. She was wrecked in March 1824.

HMS Lyra was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched at Deptford in 1808 for the Royal Navy. In 1809 she was one of the vessels that participated in the Battle of Basque Roads. Thereafter, she captured numerous small prizes. Between 1812 and 1814 she served off the Spanish coast. In 1816 Lyra sailed to China as escort to a diplomatic mission. The Navy sold her in 1818. She then became a whaler. Between 1819 and 1833 she made five voyages in the southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1833.

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.