| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Spider |
| Acquired | 1806 by purchase of a prize |
| Fate | Broken up 1815 |
| General characteristics [1] | |
| Tons burthen | 269 (bm) |
| Complement | 85 |
| Armament | 14 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 ×6-pounder chase guns |
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.
On 4 April 1806 HMS Renommee came upon a Spanish naval brig anchored under Fort Callcretes on the Cape de Gatte. Renommee was able to capture the brig despite coming under fire from the brig, shore batteries, and two gun boats. The captured brig was the Vigilante, armed with twelve 12-pounder long guns and six short 24-pounder guns. She had a crew of 109 men under the command of Teniento de Navio Don Joseph Julian. British casualties amounted to two men wounded; Spanish casualties were one man killed and three men wounded. Vigilante's main mast went overboard shortly after the engagement ended, and her foremast almost did. Renommee therefore took her under tow and brought her into port. [2]
The Royal Navy took Vigilante into service as HMS Spider. Lieutenant William Oliver commissioned her in 1808. [1] He was already her commander by that time as on 17 July 1807 he had captured Frederica Johanna and on 10 September Trende Broder. [3] Around 1808 Spider carried Lieutenant Donat Henchy O'Brien to Malta.
On 10 May 1810 Hope, Butler, master, arrived in Malta. She had been sailing from Portsmouth when she was captured, but Spider had recaptured her. [4]
Commander Frank (or Francis) Gore Wilcock (or Willock) took command of Spider in 1812, while she was still in the Mediterranean. He sailed her to the West Indies. [1] On 29 June 1812 Spider captured Mary, sailing to America with a cargo of sugar, rum, coffee, and molasses. [5] On 22 September Spider captured the American ship Charles the Twelfth. [lower-alpha 1]
On 20 March 1813 William, Cunningham, master, was on her way from St John's New Brunswick, to Barbados when the United States privateer General Armstrong captured William within sight of Barbados. General Armstrong took William into Puerto Rico. Spider, Captain Willock, claimed her there. The authorities gave William up and she arrived at St Thomas's on 19 April. [7] (The actual date of William's release was 9 April. [lower-alpha 2]
On 18 June Spider captured Flora and on 15 July Spider captured Ann. [10]
In late 1813 the Admiralty ordered her to St John's, Antigua, to serve as a guard and receiving ship. [1]
Lieutenant Robert Caulfield took command of Spider in November 1814 for the North American station. However, she returned to the West Indies in 1815. [1]
On 10 February 1815 Spider took and sent into Antigua Amelia, Salomon, master, which had been sailing from Guadeloupe to Halifax. [11]
Spider was broken up in 1815 at Antigua. [1]
HMS Chanticleer was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy. Chanticleer was launched on 26 July 1808. She served in European waters in the Napoleonic Wars and was paid off and laid up at Sheerness in July 1816. She was chosen for an 1828 scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Her poor condition on her return meant that the Admiralty replaced her for the second voyage in 1831 with another Cherokee-class brig, Beagle, which subsequently became famous because of the association with Charles Darwin. Chanticleer then spent 15 years as a customs watch ship at Burnham-on-Crouch and was broken up in 1871.
HMS Spartan was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate, launched at Rochester in 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she was active in the Adriatic and in the Ionian Islands. She then moved to the American coast during the War of 1812, where she captured a number of small vessels, including a US Revenue Cutter and a privateer, the Dart. She then returned to the Mediterranean, where she remained for a few years. She went on to serve off the American coast again, and in the Caribbean, before being broken up in 1822.
HMS Eclipse was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1807. She served off Portugal and then in the Indian Ocean at the capture of the Île de France. Shortly thereafter she captured Tamatave. She was sold for mercantile service in 1815. She traded with India until 1823. Then between 1823 and 1845 she made seven voyages as a whaler.
HMS Recruit was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Sandwich, Kent. She is best known for an act of pique by Commander Warwick Lake, who marooned a seaman, and for an inconclusive but hard-fought ship action under Commander Charles John Napier against the French corvette Diligente. She captured a number of American vessels as prizes during the War of 1812 before being laid up in 1815 and sold for breaking up in 1822.
HMS Musquito. was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John Preston at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1804. She was commissioned in October 1804 under Commander Samuel Jackson. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and Jackson supervised the first successful rocket attack in Europe at Boulogne in 1806. After the war she served off Africa and captured some slavers. She was broken up in 1822, having been laid up since 1818.
HMS Brazen was a 28-gun Royal Navy Bittern-class ship sloop, launched in 1808.
The Républicaine française was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, of the Galathée class. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796. The Navy fitted her as a troopship in 1800, but both as a troopship, and earlier as a frigate, she captured several small Spanish and French privateers. She was broken up in 1810.
HMS Canso was the American letter of marque schooner Lottery, launched in 1811, that a British squadron captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took Lottery into service as HMS Canso and she served during the War of 1812 and briefly thereafter. The navy sold her in 1816.
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 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.
HMS Atalante was an 18-cannon sloop-of-war launched in 1808, and ordered in 1806, from Bermuda. However, the ship was wrecked on 10 November 1813, caused by fog off Halifax, Nova Scotia.
HMS Juniper was launched at Bermuda in 1809 for the British Royal Navy. She participated in one campaign for which her crew was awarded the Naval General Service Medal (1847) with clasp "San Sebastian". She also participated in the capture of several merchant ships. The Navy sold her in 1814.
HMS Barbadoes was a 16-gun vessel, the American Herald, captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Barbadoes She captured a number of merchantmen and privateers before she was paid-off in May 1816. In 1814–1815 she also captured three Spanish and French slave ships carrying over 1100 enslaved people. Barbadoes became a powder ship in Jamaica that was later wrecked with her remains being sold.
Général Pérignon was a brig launched at Saint-Malo in February 1804 as a privateer. She captured numerous British merchant vessels over several cruises. In January 1810 the British Royal Navy captured her. She was sold in March 1810 and became a coaster sailing between Plymouth and London under her original name, or as Intention. She was last listed in 1816.
HMS Sharpshooter was launched in 1805. She operated in the Channel, often from the Channel Islands. She participated in two actions and captured a small number of merchant vessels. She was sold and broken up in 1816.
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.
HMS Growler was a Archer-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy and launched in 1804. She captured several French privateers and one Danish privateer, and took part in two actions that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She was sold in 1815.
HMS Cracker was a later Archer-class gun brig, launched in 1804. She participated in several actions and captured two small French privateers. She was sold for breaking up in 1816.
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. John's, Newfoundland on 8 October 1812.