Naval career
The Navy purchased Selby in 1798. Between 5 April and 3 May she was at Perry & Co., Blackwall, undergoing fitting-out. Commander Thomas Palmer commissioned Selby in May 1798 at Sheerness. She moved to Woolwich Dockyard on 16 July for further work.
Selby was anchored at the Nore when, at 7:30 in the morning of 3 May 1800, Palmer shot himself. A brief obituary in the Naval Chronicle reported, "the unfortunate death ... of Captain Palmer, of the Selby sloop of war, who shot himself in a fit of insanity; which circumstance, however deplorable, will tend, in the eyes of his friends, to lessen the calamity." [6]
At some point, Commander William Compton took command of Selby and he was her captain between 27 June and 8 July 1800, when Selby participated in the raid on Dunkirk. This was an operation to capture the French frigate Désirée from Dunkerque harbour and burn other vessels. Contrary winds and a succession of unfavourable tides afforded no opportunity of making the attack until 7 July. [7]
Captain Inman of Andromeda was in charge of the operation. He sent HMS Dart, under Patrick Campbell, against the easternmost vessel, and loosed his four fireships, Comet, Falcon, Rosario, and Wasp against the westernmost vessels. Dart captured Désirée on 8 July. Even though their captains remained on the fireships until the four were engulfed in flames, the three frigates that were being targeted cut their cables and escaped down the Inner Channel within the Braak Sand, where one frigate briefly ran aground but her crew got her off again. Inman had kept Selby back, intending that if any French vessels ran aground she could come up and throw carcasses aboard them. He stated that his plan had been in error because if Selby had been forward he was sure that she could have captured that vessel. [8]
Désirée was subsequently purchased into the Royal Navy. The officers and crews of many British vessels, Rosario among them, shared in the proceeds of the capture. [7] In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Capture of the Desiree" to all surviving claimants from the action.
On 19 March 1801, Selby recaptured Freedom, James Holden, master, which a French privateer had previously taken. [9]
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered Selby, of 348 tons and copper-fastened, for sale at Sheerness on 16 December 1801. [3] She sold on that day for £1850.
Merchantman
Selby appeared in Lloyd's Register for 1802 with Thompson, master, and Woodcock, owner. [10] On 12 April 1804, Selby, Peters, master, Cox & Co. owners, ran aground at Margate on her way to Jamaica. [11]
Between 19 and 22 February 1807, numerous British vessels were driven ashore in France. Selby, of 250 tons and 14 men was one of the vessels driven ashore between Havre and Dunkirk. [12] Two of her 14 crew were lost. (There is no other Selby listed in LR.)
Selby was last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1810 with D. Peters, master, Higgins, owner, and trade London—Jamaica. [13]
Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Firebrand.
HMS Meteor was a bomb vessel of the Royal Navy. She was previously the West Indiaman Sarah Ann, launched at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1800 that the Admiralty purchased in October 1803. She conducted bombardments at Havre de Grâce, the Dardanelles, and Rosas Bay, on the Spanish coast. She was sold in 1811. she then returned to mercantile service under her original name, Sarah Ann. She continued to trade, primarily across the North Atlantic. She was last listed in 1863 with stale data.
The Raid on Dunkirk of 7 July 1800 was an attack by a British Royal Navy force on the well-defended French anchorage of Dunkirk in the English Channel during the French Revolutionary Wars. French naval forces had been blockaded in their harbours during the conflict, and often the only method of attacking them was through fireships or "cutting-out" expeditions, in which boats would carry boarding parties into the harbour at night, seize ships at anchor and bring them out. The attack on Dunkirk was a combination of both of these types of operation, aimed at a powerful French frigate squadron at anchor in Dunkirk harbour. The assault made use of a variety of experimental weaponry, some of which was tested in combat for the first time with mixed success.
The Royal Navy used several vessels that were described as His Majesty's hired armed cutter King George. Some of these may have been the same vessel on repeat contract.
Diadem was a sloop launched in 1798. The Admiralty renamed her HMS Falcon after purchasing her in 1801 to avoid confusion with the pre-existing third rate Diadem. Falcon served in the north Atlantic and the Channel, and then in Danish waters during the Gunboat War. She was sold in 1816. Her new owner renamed her Duke of Wellington and sailed her to the Indies under a license from the British East India Company. She was wrecked in 1820 at Batavia.
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Shark on the stocks in 1775. She was launched in 1776, and in 1778 converted to a fireship and renamed HMS Salamander. The Navy sold her in 1783. She then became the mercantile Salamander. In the 1780s she was in the northern whale fishery. In 1791 she transported convicts to Australia. She then became a whaling ship in the southern whale fishery for a number of years, before becoming a general transport and then a slave ship. In 1804 the French captured her, but the Royal Navy recaptured her. Although she is last listed in 1811, she does not appear in Lloyd's List (LL) ship arrival and departure (SAD) data after 1804.
Prévoyante was the second of two flûtes built to a design by Raymond-Antoine Haran. She was launched in May 1793 at Bayonne. The British frigates HMS Thetis and HMS Hussar captured Prévoyante in 1795 and the British took her into the Royal Navy after first converting her to a fifth rate. She served as a frigate until 1800, when she underwent reconversion back to a store ship. As a store ship she sailed to the Mediterranean, Cape of Good Hope, and Quebec. She was sold for breaking up in July 1819.
London Packet was a merchant vessel launched on the Thames in 1791. She served the Royal Navy as a Hired armed ship from 31 March 1793 to at least 30 September 1800, and despite some records, apparently for a year or more beyond that. She then returned to sailing as a merchant man until an American privateer captured her in May 1814.
HMS Rosario, previously the Spanish ship Nuestra Senora Del Rosario, was a brig the British Royal Navy captured off Cadiz in 1797 and took her into service. The British converted her to a fireship and expended her in 1800 in an attack at Dunkirk Roads.
HMS Curlew was the mercantile sloop Leander, launched at South Shields in 1800. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 and named her Curlew as there was already a HMS Leander in service, and the Curlew name was available. Curlew was a sloop of 16 guns. The Navy sold her in 1810 and she returned to mercantile service as Leander. On her first voyage to the West Indies a French privateer captured her in a single-ship action; she was lost shortly thereafter.
Rolla was a French brig launched in 1801 or 1803, that came into British hands in 1804. She became a privateer and then a slaver, but before she took any slaves the French Navy captured her. The British Royal Navy recaptured her and took her into service as HMS Rolla. She served in Sir Home Riggs Popham's attack on Buenos Aires. She returned to Britain in December 1807 and was laid up. The Admiralty sold her in 1810 and she became a merchant vessel. She was last listed in 1826, and may have been lost on the coast of Brazil in 1825.
Crescent was launched at Rotherhithe in 1790. She initially traded with the Levant, particularly Smyrna. After the outbreak of war with France she may have tried her hand as a privateer. In 1796–1798 she made a voyage to the East Indies, almost surely on behalf of the British East India Company (EIC). A French privateer captured her but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. In 1802-1804 she made one voyage as a slave ship carrying slaves from West Africa to Jamaica. In 1805 she became a whaler. She was lost in 1807 off Patagonia while homeward bound from her first whaling voyage.
Norfolk was built in France in 1784 under a different name. The British captured her c. 1800 and she made some voyages as a West Indiaman. She also made a cruise as a privateer. Between 1803 and 1808 she served the Royal Navy as an armed defense and hired armed ship on the Leith Station. She spent her time escorting convoys in the North Sea and captured one French privateer. After her naval service, between 1808 and 1814 Norfolk was a London-based transport. From 1814 to 1820 she made four voyages as a whaler in the Southern Whale Fishery. She was last listed in 1823.
HMS Autumn was launched at Shields in 1800 as a merchantman. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1801. The Navy sold her in 1815 and she returned to mercantile service. She was lost in 1818.
HMS Bonetta was launched in 1798 as the merchantman Adamant. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803. She had a relatively unremarkable career escorting convoys in the North Sea and Channel before she was laid up in 1807 and sold in 1810. Her new owners in 1810 returned her name to Adamant. In 1816 she carried the first free settlers to Hobart in Van Diemen's Land. From there she sailed to engage in whaling. She was last reported at Timor in 1818.
Duchess of Portland was launched at Bristol in 1783. She was primarily a West Indiaman but made one voyage as a slave ship and two as a whaler in the British Southern Whale Fishery. The US Navy captured her in 1812 and burnt her.
Resolution was launched at Liverpool in 1776 as the West Indiaman Thomas Hall; she was renamed in 1779. Then between 1791 and 1804 Revolution made some six voyages as a whaler. On one voyage, in 1793, a French frigate captured her, but Resolution was re-captured. In 1804 a new owner returned her to the West Indies trade. She does not appear to have sailed after early 1805.
Harriot (or Harriott}was launched in Liverpool in 1786. For many years she was a West Indiaman, sailing between Liverpool and Barbados. In 1796 a French frigate captured her, but the British Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She became a slave ship. At the beginning of her of her first slave trading voyage a French privateer captured her, and again the Royal Navy quickly recaptured her. She made five slave trading voyages in all. Thereafter she traded with South America. She was last listed in 1814 with stale data.
Agreeable was launched at Bermuda in 1786, probably under a different name. French owners acquired her at some point and sailed her as Agréable. In 1793 the British captured her. Subsequently, she made six voyages as a slave ship between 1793 and 1808, alternating between slave trading and sailing as a regular West Indiaman. French privateers captured her between the second and third, and the third and fourth, but each time the British Royal Navy recaptured her. In the case of the second capture she was in French hands long enough for them to send her out as a privateer. She herself captured an American vessel in 1808 as she was returning to Liverpool from her last slave voyage. After the end of British participation in the slave trade Agreeable traded more widely, particularly to South America. She was condemned at Buenos Aires in 1814 after running aground in the River Plate. She was repaired and continue to sail to Brazil until she returned to Liverpool in June 1819.
HMS Thrasher was launched in 1804 at Brightlingsea, or Colchester as the merchant vessel Adamant. The British Royal Navy purchased her in June 1804, renamed her, and fitted her out as a gunbrig. She captured numerous small merchant vessels, most of them Dutch or Danish. After the Navy sold her in 1814, she returned to mercantile service under her original name of Adamant. She made a voyage to Malta in 1815 and was wrecked as she was returning to London.
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