| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Nile |
| Namesake | Battle of the Nile |
| Acquired | November 1806 |
| Fate | Sold 1810 but then broken up 1811 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 166 20⁄94 (bm) |
| Propulsion | Sails |
| Complement | 55 |
| Armament | 12 × 12-pounder carronades |
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Nile on 3 November 1806. She was the hired armed cutter Nile. After a brief, undistinguished career, the Navy sold her in 1810 only to have to break her up in 1811.
Between 15 November 1806 and 13 January 1807 Nile was at Portsmouth undergoing repairs. Lieutenant James Lloyd had commissioned her in November 1806. [1]
On 12 February HMS Atalante was wrecked off the Île de Ré, near Rochefort. She had been cruising to watch enemy vessels in Rochefort when she hit the Grande Blanche rock. Despite attempts to lighten her that included cutting away her masts, she continued to founder. At daybreak three British vessels approached and took off the crew, enduring fire from shore batteries as they did so. The first was Nile, followed later by the frigates Penelope and Pomone. [2]
Lloyd proved a disappointment.
Lieutenant Lloyd always in his cabin — sea sick, I suppose, ... [Nile] has been no manner of use to Commodore Keats, nor will be to anyone, unless an officer who is a cutter sailor has the direction of her. Little Simmons of Plymouth would do it well.
Within 1807, Lieutenant Thomas Johnson, who had commanded the hired armed cutter Nile, replaced Lloyd. Unfortunately, Johnson was imprisoned for smuggling. [4]
Lieutenant Symons replaced Johnson for the Channel, [1] but on 4 December Symons sailed for the Mediterranean. [5] On 25 December 1807 she captured Industry. [6] At about the same time, Nile also detained, and sent into Dartmouth Æolus, Angel, master, which had been sailing from Caediz to St Petersburg. [7]
At end-April 1809 Symons brought Nile into Falmouth with dispatches from Lisbon and Seville. These were rushed overland to London. Nile then sailed to Plymouth. [8]
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" sold Nile on 18 October 1810. [9] However the purchaser withdrew from the sale. The Navy then broke her up at Plymouth in November 1811. [1]
HMS Daring was a 12-gun gun-brig of the Archer class of the British Royal Navy. She was launched in 1804 and served in the Channel and North Sea, capturing a number of merchant vessels. In 1813 she was serving on the West Africa Station when her crew had to scuttle her to prevent her capture.
HMS Atalante was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French Atalante, captured in 1797. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was wrecked in 1807.
HMS Jackdaw was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe built at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She had a relatively undistinguished career, with the low point being her capture by what some described as a Spanish "rowboat". British frigates recaptured Jackdaw the next day. She went on to serve as a tender at Plymouth before being sold in 1816.
HMS Magpie was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe of Newcastle built and launched on 17 May 1806. Like all her class, she was armed with four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had been in British service for less than a year when she grounded on the coast of France, which led to her capture. She then served in the French navy until 1828, including a few years as a prison ship.
HMS Capelin was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner carrying 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 1804. Like many of her class and the related Cuckoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
HMS Pilchard 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. She was commissioned under Lieutenant Samuel Crew in May 1804, launched in 1805, and completed at Plymouth in 1806. Although Pilchard was often near naval engagements, she seems not to have had to fire her cannons before she was laid up in 1812. Entries in Lloyd's Register indicate that she continued in mercantile trade from at least 1817 until 1833, under a variety of owners and masters, and as far afield as Africa and Valparaiso.
HMS Snapper 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 1804. She cruised for some seven years, sharing in several captures of merchant vessels and taking some herself, before a French privateer captured her.
HMS Whiting 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 1805. She was a participant at the Battle of Basque Roads. A French privateer captured her at the beginning of the War of 1812, shortly after the Americans had captured and released her in the first naval incident of the war.
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.
During the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, there were two or three vessels known as His Majesty's hired armed cutter Active that served the British Royal Navy. The reason for the uncertainty in the number is that the size of the vessels raises the possibility that the first and second may have been the same vessel.
HMS Firm was a 12-gun Archer-class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched on 2 July 1804. She served in the Channel, where she engaged in one action that would eventually result in her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. She grounded in 1811 and her crew had to destroy her before abandoning her.
HMS Alphea was built of Bermudan pencil cedar as a cutter and launched in 1804. Later she was converted to a schooner. She captured a number of small prizes before September 1813 when she blew up in a single-ship action with the loss of her entire crew.
The French schooner Impériale was a 3-gun mercantile schooner-aviso of the French Navy commissioned at Guadeloupe on 23 September 1805. The Royal Navy captured her on 24 May 1806 and named her HMS Vigilant. The Navy renamed her HMS Subtle on 20 November 1806. She wrecked at Bermuda on 20 October 1807.
HMS Crocodile was a 22-gun sixth-rate post-ship launched in South Shields in 1806. She was broken up at Portsmouth in October 1816.
HMS Vautour was 16-gun brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. The navy captured her from the French on the stocks in 1809 and commissioned her in 1810. She foundered in October 1813.
Two vessels named His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Adrian served the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars as hired armed vessels.
HMS Cockatrice was the fourth of the Alert-class British Royal Navy cutters. She was launched in 1781 and had an uneventful career until the Navy sold her in 1802. Private interests purchased her, lengthened her, and changed her rig to that of a brig. They hired her out to the Navy and she was in service as a hired armed brig from 1806 to 1808. She then returned to mercantile service until she was condemned at Lisbon in May 1816 as not worth repairing.
HMS Monkey was launched in 1801 at Rochester. She served in the Channel, North Sea, and the Baltic, and was wrecked in December 1810.
HMS Avenger was the collier Thames, launched in 1803, that the Royal Navy purchased in 1804 and renamed. During her service she captured a number of prizes. She also captured one French privateer and participated in the capture of the Danish island of Anholt. She wrecked at St Johns Newfoundland on 8 October 1812.
HMS Centinel, or HMS Sentinel, was launched as the mercantile Friendship in 1800. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1804. She then served in the North Sea until she wrecked in October 1812.
This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.