HMS Snake was a British Royal Navy ship launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.
Snake was the sole vessel of her class. Her designer was Sir William Rule. He produced two designs, one for a ship-sloop (Snake), and one for a brig-sloop (Cruizer) that differed only in their rigging. His designs were in competition with those of John Henslow, who produced the ship-sloop Echo and the brig-sloop Busy. Rule's brig-sloop design won. The Admiralty ultimately ordered 106 Cruizer-class brig-sloops. In 1811, the Navy converted Snake to a brig-sloop, making her indistinguishable from the Cruizer-class brig-sloops.[citation needed]
Career
Snake was commissioned in February 1798 under Commander John Mason Lewis for cruising and convoy duty.[2]
On the morning of 10 November 1799 Eurydice was some three leagues (14km) south-east of Beachy Head, when she sighted a schooner and a brig. The schooner made off as soon as she saw the ship and the brig hove to and hoisted her ensign upside down. The brig Diana, which had been carrying a cargo of coal from Sunderland, informed Eurydice that Diana had repelled an attack by a French privateer, suffering one man badly wounded while doing so. Eurydice sent over a boat and her surgeon, Mr. Pardie, had to amputate the arm of the wounded man on Diana. Eurydice then set off in chase. At around 11a.m. Snake came up and joined the chase. Halfway through the afternoon Eurydice came nearly within gunshot of the privateer which bore up and tried to cross Snake. Snake thwarted the attempt and the privateer then lowered her sails, enabling Snake to send over a boarding party. The schooner was Hirondelle, of fourteen 3 and 4-pounder guns, with a crew of 50 men under the command of Pierre Merie Dugerdin. Hirondelle had left Calais the previous day and had not made any captures.[3][4] She was under the command of Jean Fresson.[5]
On 3 February 1800 Snake sailed from Spithead with Melpomene and Magnanime. They were escorts to the convoy of some 150 ships to African and the East Indies.[6]Snake parted from the convoy on 25 March in a terrible storm. She was not heard from for so long that it was believed that she had been lost. However, on 14 October she returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Africa. She brought at prize with her.[7]
This was almost certainly the brig Less Amis that Snake captured on 13 September 1800.[8]
Snake went into dock in November.[9] Captain Lewis received a promotion to post captain on 1 January 1801.[10][11] Commander Charles Tinling assumed command in January 1801.[2]Snake was one of the vessels that sailed from Spithead on 17 January 1801 for undeclared stations to transmit orders that the Royal Navy at that station was to detain all Swedish and Danish vessels.[12] She returned on 26 January.[13]
Commander William Roberts replaced Tinling, who had been promoted to post captain. On 23 February Roberts sailed Snake as escort to a convoy for West Africa. However, contrary winds forced her to return to St Helen's. She was assigned to the Africa station.[14]
The French frigate Guerriere was initially trapped in harbour by the blockade of Saint-Domingue. She was with the 74-gun Duguay-Trouin on 24 July 1803, when a British ship sighted Duguay-Trouin off Cape Picolet. The 74-gun HMSElephant gave chase, and the two ships exchanged several broadsides. Snake appeared on the north-west quarter, but Elephant, either because of the appearance of Guerrière to windward, or for another unexplained reason, failed to maintain her position alongside Duguay-Trouin. Consequently, both French ships were able to escape. However, Duquesne, a 74-gun armed en flûte, was captured.
On 10 November Snake chased a French privateer all day. In trying to evade him after dark the privateer grounded on Rocky Point near the east end of Jamaica. The quarry was Esperance. Snake captured her 60 crew members and took them into Port Royal.[15][lower-alpha 1]
The London Morning Post reported on 12 November 1803 that Snake had detained 12 vessels, most of which were American. They were bound from Jérémie to Cape François and Snake sent them into Port Royal.[citation needed]
In the spring of 1804 Commander Roberts commanded a small force based at New Providence in the Bahamas.[17]
Lloyd's List reported on 20 August 1805 that a French privateer had captured the American brig Angel, Spih, master, as Angel was sailing from St Domingo to Philadelphia. Snake recaptured Angel, which came into Port Royal, Jamaica.[18]
Between March and August 1807 Snake underwent a Middling Repair at Chatham. In July Commander Thomas Young recommissioned her for the Leith Station. In August Snake was at the Nore and so was among the vessels that benefited from the proceeds of the Danish vessels detained there.[19] The vessels Printz Frederick, Freden, Elizabeth, Vrow Anna, Margdretha, Anna Elizabeth, and Cecilia were detained between the 26 and 29 August, and Cupido was detained on 1 September.[20]
On 15 October Snake was in company with Piercer and Leyden at the capture of the Danish brig Narhvalen and so later shared in the proceeds.[21]
Between April and May 1809 Snake was at Sheerness being converted from a sloop to a brig.[1]
On 24 June 1809 Snake and Fancy were in company and so later shared in the proceeds from the capture of the Danish galliotCatherina.[22]
On 21 July the brig Johanna Catherina, a prize to Snake, arrived at Leith.[23][24]
On 22 July 1809, the Snake and Fancy approached the town of Hammerfest in Norway. Before reaching Hammerfest, the two vessels had looted the village of Hasvik.[25] The following battle between Hammerfest's two two-cannon batteries and the Royal Navy warships with a combined number of thirty-two cannon between them was unusually intense and did not end until the Norwegian cannons had run out of gunpowder after about 90 minutes of combat. Both warships had suffered a number of cannonball hits and had at least one fatal casualty; a sailor who was buried at the local cemetery. During the battle, the local populace evacuated the town, and Snake and Fancy remained in the town for eight days after the Norwegian defenders withdrew. The crews sacked the empty town before withdrawing.[citation needed]
Lloyd's List reported on 1 August that Fortuna had arrived at Aberdeen. Snake had captured her off North Cape.[26]
On 8 August, Snake captured a Danish galliot, name unknown. The sales proceeds were remitted from Gothenburg.[27]
Also on 8 August three Danish vessels arrived at Leith. They were prizes to Nightingale, Snake, and Naiad.[28] One may have been the Danish privateer schooner Roland, which Snake had captured the day before.[29][30]
On 30 August Frederick of Oldenburgh, from Archangel, came into Leith. The Danes had captured her, and Snake had recaptured her.[31] A later prize money announcement makes clearer that Snake had recaptured the galliot Oldenburg, Carl Frederick Janvaril-Veer, master.[32]
Lloyd's List reported on 15 September that Snake had captured a Danish privateer of 12 guns and 78 men and brought her into Leith.[33] This may have been Christiana that Snake captured off Bergen.[1] On 12 October Snake captured the Danish galliot Frue Mette.[34]
On 25 October Snake and Briseis were in company at the recapture of Ulrica Wilhelmina.[36]
In November Commander William Hellard replaced Commander Young. Snake continued to serve on the Leith Station.[1]
On 18 April 1811 a Danish schooner with a cargo of grain arrived at Leith. She was a prize to Snake.[37] On 8 May Snake captured a Danish sloop of unknown name.[38]
Snake was at Lerwick on 5 November. She had saved men from a prize belonging to HMSTartar. On the Sunday prior to 6 November, a Russian galiot that Tartar had captured was laying stranded at Montrose. The river had carried her and deposited her on the beach. A strong tide then lifted her, causing her to drift out to sea where she was dashed to pieces on the Ness (probably Scurdie Ness).[39]
Hellard received promotion to post captain on 12 August 1812,[40] and Commander George Robbin took command of Snake for the Jamaica station.[1]Snake was among the vessels benefiting from the seizure on 12 August of the American vessels Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet, shortly after the commencement of the War of 1812.[41]
On 1 December Snake captured Twende Sostre, Winther, master, on 21 January 1813 Splied, Pederson, master.[42] Commander Robbin died while on the Jamaica station.[43]
From 16 February 1814 to October 1815 Commander Joseph Gape was in command of Snake.,[44] She made one more capture, that of the smuggling luggerFox on 11 May 1815.[lower-alpha 2]
Fate
The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered for sale on 18 April 1816, lying at Sheerness, the "Snake brig, of 386 tons".[46] She sold there on that day for £820.[1]
Notes
↑ Head money was paid in 1825. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £87 12s1+1⁄2d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 13s 8+3⁄4d.[16]
↑ A first-class share was worth £3 13s; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 6+1⁄4d.[45]
HMS Naiad was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was built by Hall and Co. at Limehouse on the Thames, launched in 1797, and commissioned in 1798. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and her last actions occurred in 1824–5. She was paid off in 1826. She then served for many years in Latin America as a coal depot, first for the Royal Navy and then for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was broken up in 1898, 101 years after her launching.
HMS Clio was a 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 Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate Narcissus-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic Sea before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.
HMS Hazard was a 16-gun Royal Navy Cormorant-class ship-sloop built by Josiah & Thomas Brindley at Frindsbury, Kent, and launched in 1794. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars and throughout the Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes, and participated in a notable ship action against the French frigate Topaze, as well as in several other actions and campaigns, three of which earned her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. Hazard was sold in 1817.
HMS Spitfire was a Tisiphone-class fireship of the Royal Navy. She served during the years of peace following the end of the American War of Independence, and by the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, had been reclassified as a 14-gun sloop-of-war. Spitfire went on to serve under a number of notable commanders during a successful career that saw her capture a considerable number of French privateers and small naval vessels. She spent most of her career in Home waters, though during the later part of her life she sailed further afield, to the British stations in North America and West Africa. She survived the Napoleonic Wars and was eventually sold in 1825 after a period spent laid up.
HMS Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Gravesend. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on USRC Eagle. She was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars took numerous prizes, mostly merchant vessels but also including some privateers. She was also at the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was sold in April 1813. She then became the whaler Recovery. She made 12 whaling voyages in the southern whale fishery, the last one ending in 1843, at which time her owner had her broken up.
HMS Persian was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Daniel List and launched at Cowes in 1809. She captured two privateers before she wrecked in 1813.
HMS Scorpion was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1803. She was the first of the class to be built since the launching of Cruizer in 1797. Scorpion had a long and active career during the Napoleonic Wars, earning her crews three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal when the Admiralty authorized it in 1847, two for single-ship actions. She also took a number of prizes. Scorpion was sold in 1819.
HMS Basilisk was a Bloodhound-class gun-brig built by Randall in Rotherhithe and launched in 1801. She served briefly at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, with most of her service occurring during the Napoleonic Wars protecting convoys from privateers, conducting close-inshore surveillance and taking enemy coastal shipping. She was sold for breaking in 1815.
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 Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.
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 Renard was the French privateer Renard, launched in 1797, that Cerberus captured in the Channel that same year. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name and she participated in some notable engagements on the Jamaica station before the Navy sold her in 1809.
HMS Briseis was a 10-gun Cherokee- class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808 at Upnor, on the River Medway. She participated in one notable single ship action before she wrecked in 1816.
His Majesty's hired armed ship Charles served the Royal Navy from 17 May 1804 to 13 May 1814. Prize money notices and other accounts referred to her interchangeably as the "hired armed brig", "hired armed ship", and "hired sloop".
HMS Pert was the French privateer Bonaparte, a ship built in the United States that HMS Cyane captured in November 1804. The Royal Navy took Bonaparte into service as HMS Pert. Pert was wrecked off the coast of what is now Venezuela in October 1807.
HMS Cherokee was the lead ship of her class of 10-gun brig-sloops of the British Royal Navy. She saw service during the Napoleonic Wars. In 1810 she participated in an engagement that resulted in her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. The Navy sold Cherokee in 1828. She then became a merchantman trading between Liverpool and Africa. Cherokee was wrecked in August 1831 returning to England from Africa.
HMS Earnest was launched at Leith in 1805 as one of 48 later Archer-class gun brigs for the British Royal Navy. During her naval career Earnest captured five small privateers and numerous merchant vessels. In 1816 the Admiralty sold her and she became the merchantman Earnest. She continued to sail and was last listed in 1850.
HMS Argus was launched in 1798 at Bordeaux as Argus. She became a privateer that the British Royal Navy (RN) captured in 1799. She served from April 1803 until she was broken up in April 1811.
HMS Tweed was launched in 1807. On the Jamaica station she captured two small privateers and several merchant vessels. On the North Sea station she captured one small privateers and several merchant vessels. She was wrecked on 5 November 1813 with the loss of more than half her crew.
References
Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 A 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN2-906381-24-1.
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