As bomb vessel: 8 x 24-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder guns + 10-inch mortar + 13-inch mortar
The Bombardment of Fort McHenry, showing Royal Navy bomb vessels in action, including HMS Meteor (ex-Starr)
HMS Starr was a 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Tanner, of Dartmouth, to plans by Sir William Rule, and launched in July 1805. As a sloop she served on convoy duty, though she also participated in the invasion of Martinique in early 1809. She was rebuilt as a bomb vessel in May 1812 and renamed Meteor. As Meteor she served in the Baltic and then off the United States, participating in attacks on up the Potomac and on Baltimore and New Orleans. She was sold in October 1816.
She was commissioned in October 1805 under Commander John Simpson.[3] On 3 January 1806 she recaptured the ships Argo and Adventure, and shared in the recapture of the Good Intent.[4]Starr was off Villa de Conde, Portugal, when she intercepted the vessels, which had been taken from a convoy that Mercury had been escorting from Newfoundland to Portugal, and both of which had been carrying cargoes of fish. Starr sighted Good Intent and signaled Mercury, which recaptured her too.[5][6] On 5 February, Curieux captured the Baltidore, which was the privateer that had captured Good Intent.[5]
Starr escorted a convoy to Newfoundland in August 1807 and another to the Leeward Islands in 1808. While briefly under Commander Francis Augustus Collier, she participated in the capture of Martinique in February 1809 where she landed in command of a detachment of seamen and marines.[7] In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign.
Meteor, plan of the 1812 rebuild
Between November 1811 and May 1812, Starr was rebuilt as a bomb vessel. She was then recommissioned, possibly in February 1812, as Meteor under Commander Peter Fisher. Her predecessor under the name Meteor, had been a bomb vessel too and had been sold in November.
Fisher sailed Meteor to the Baltic.[3] There, she participated in operations against Zuid-Beveland, at the siege of Danzic, and at the blockade of the Scheldt. At Danzig, Meteor joined Swedish and Russian gunboats in an attack on the French garrison.[8]Meteor pressed the attack, coming in close under the shore batteries and the bombardment damaged many houses, both directly and through subsequent fires. The allies succeeded in capturing a point, which would enable them to close the city to resupply by sea even without maintaining a naval blockade. One Russian gunboat was sunk and in all, the allies lost about 200 men. The Duke of Wurtemburg mentioned Fisher's intrepidity to Tsar Alexander.[8]
War of 1812
On 12 August 1812, Mars and Meteor captured the American vessels Cuba, Caliban, Cygnet, Edward, Galen, and Halcyon.[lower-alpha 1]
Meteor was part of a squadron that on 2 June 1814 sailed from the Garonne, carrying 2500 troops under the command of Major General Ross to invade the United States.[10]
On 19 February 1814 Samuel Roberts took command of Meteor. He then sailed her from the Garonne to North America as an escort to a detachment of troops under Major-General Ross.[11]
Meteor participated in the expedition up the Potomac (August–September 1814). On 17 August Euryalus, bombs Devastation, Aetna, and Meteor, the rocket shipErebus, and the dispatch boatAnna-Maria were detached under Captain Gordon of Seahorse to sail up the Potomac River and bombard Fort Washington, about ten or twelve miles below the capital. The force withdrew between 1 and 5 September, having accomplished their mission and having captured numerous small American vessels. Meteor suffered two seamen severely wounded during the withdrawal operation.[12][lower-alpha 2]
In winter 1814 Meteor also took part in the naval expedition in the prelude that led to the Battle of New Orleans. On 8 December 1814, two US gunboats fired on Sophie, Armide and the sixth-rate frigate Seahorse while they were passing the chain of small islands that runs parallel to the shore between Mobile and Lake Borgne.[14]
Between 12 and 15 December 1814, Captain Lockyer of Sophie led a flotilla of some 42 boats, barges, launches - armed with a carronade apiece - and three unarmed gigs to attack the US gunboats. Lockyer drew his flotilla from the fleet that was massing against New Orleans, including the 74-gun Third RateTonnant, Armide, Seahorse, Manly, and Meteor.
Lockyer deployed the boats in three divisions, of which he led one. Captain Montresor of the gun-brig Manly commanded the second, and Captain Roberts of Meteor commanded the third.[14] After rowing for 36 hours, the British met the Americans at St. Joseph's Island.[14] On 13 December 1814, the British attacked the one-gun schooner USSSea Horse. On the morning of the 14th, the British engaged the Americans in a short, violent battle.
The British captured the entire American force, including the tender USSAlligator, captured by Roberts,[lower-alpha 3] and five gunboats. The British lost 17 men killed and 77 wounded; Meteor had three men wounded, including one severely. Anaconda then evacuated the wounded. In 1821 the survivors of the flotilla shared in the distribution of head-money arising from the capture of the American gun-boats and sundry bales of cotton.[15] In 1847 the Admiralty issued a clasp (or bar) marked "14 Dec. Boat Service 1814" to survivors of the boat service who claimed the clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. [lower-alpha 4]
Thereafter two bomb vessels were dispatched up the Mississippi to attack Fort St. Philip, along with Thistle, Herald, and Pigmy, to create a diversion.[16] Although Aetna and Meteor were mentioned, the latter vessel was HMSVolcano,[17] as Meteor's captain was elsewhere, and played an active role in the Battle of New Orleans. When Lieutenant Colonel Thornton stormed (and subsequently captured) a redoubt on the right bank of the Mississippi, Roberts commanded three gun vessels that protected the troops' right flank. Earlier, Roberts had kept the boats together that ferried the troops across the river for the attack.[18][19][20]
Next, Meteor and Aetna were at the siege of Fort Bowyer in February 1815, the final engagement on the Gulf Coast.[21]
Fate
On 13 June Captain Samuel Roberts received a promotion to post-captain.[22] That month command passed to Commander Daniel Roberts. On 16 October 1816 Meteor was sold at Deptford to Mr Mellish for £1,450.[3]
Notes
↑ Prize money was payable in November 1815. A first-class share amounted to £360 2s 3d; a sixth-class share, the amount allotted to an ordinary seaman, was worth £3 11s 7d.[9] For an ordinary seaman this would amount to some three months' wages.
↑ Prize money was awarded for the capture of Alexandria, Virginia, and the shipping there. A first-class share was worth £183 9s1+3⁄4d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £1 19s 3+1⁄2d.[13]
↑ Lockyer's despatch to Cochrane dated 18 December 1814, reproduced in "No. 16991". The London Gazette. 9 March 1815. pp.446–449. 'Observing also, as we approached the flotilla, an armed sloop endeavouring to join them, Captain Roberts, who volunteered to take her with part of his division, succeeded in cutting her off and capturing her without much opposition. About ten o'clock, having closed to within long gun-shot, I directed the boats to come to.'
↑ The 'Names of Ships for which Claims have been proved' are as follows: warships Tonnant, Norge, Royal Oak, Ramillies, Bedford, Armide, Cydnus, Trave, Seahorse, Sophie, and Meteor; troopships Gorgon, Diomede, Alceste, and Belle Poule.[1]
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Aetna was the mercantile Success launched in 1803 at Littlehampton. The Admiralty purchased her in 1803 for conversion into a Royal Navy bomb vessel. Aetna participated in the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807 and the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809. Later, she participated in the attack on Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore and the bombardment of Fort Washington, Maryland in 1814, during the War of 1812. The Navy sold her in 1816 and she returned to mercantile service under her original name. She sailed to Calcutta, to Rio de Janeiro, and more locally until she was wrecked in 1823.
HMS Erebus was originally built as a Royal Navy fireship, but served as a sloop and was re-rated as such in March 1808. She served in the Baltic during the Gunboat and Anglo-Russian Wars, where in 1809 she was briefly converted to a fireship, and then served in the War of 1812. In 1814 she was converted to a rocket vessel to fire Congreve rockets. While serving off America, Erebus participated in the sack of Alexandria, Virginia, and launched the rockets that bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore on 13 September 1814. In March 1815, off Georgia, she fired the second-to-the-last-shot of the war. She was laid up in 1816 and sold for breaking up in 1819.
HMS Royal Oak was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 March 1809 at Dudman's yard at Deptford Wharf. Her first commanding officer was Captain Pulteney Malcolm.
HMS Bedford was a Royal Navy 74-gun third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 27 October 1775 at Woolwich.
HMS Herald was an 18-gun ship-sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1806 at Littlehampton. In 1810 she was reclassed as a 20-gun sixth rate ship, and again re-rated as 24 guns in 1817, just before she was broken up.
HMS Sophie was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. During the War of 1812 Sophie participated in the economic war against American trade, capturing or destroying numerous small merchant vessels, and in an unsuccessful attack on Fort Bowyer, Alabama. Later, she moved to the East Indies where she served in the First Anglo-Burmese War. The Admiralty sold Sophie in 1825.
HMS Manly was a 12-gun Bold-class gun-brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1812. She served in the War of 1812, her boats participating in the Battle of Lake Borgne. She was sold in 1833.
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.
Armide was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1804 at Rochefort. She served briefly in the French Navy before the Royal Navy captured her in 1806. She went on to serve in the Royal Navy until 1815 when she was broken up.
The Battle of Lake Borgne was a coastal engagement between the Royal Navy and the U.S. Navy in the American South theatre of the War of 1812. It occurred on December 14, 1814 on Lake Borgne. The British victory allowed them to disembark their troops unhindered nine days later and to launch an offensive upon New Orleans on land.
HMS Fairy (1812) was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by William Taylor at Bideford and launched in 1812. She escorted convoys during the War of 1812 and participated in the Raid on Alexandria, the Royal Navy’s incursion up the Potomac in 1814. She was broken up in 1821.
HMS Borer was a 14-gun Bold-class gun-brig built by Tyson & Blake at Bursledon. She was launched in 1812 and sold off in 1815.
The French frigate Trave was a Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched at Amsterdam in 1812. After the Royal Navy captured her in 1813 in the North Sea, it took her into service as the troopship HMS Trave. She served in the Potomac and her boats participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne during the War of 1812. She was sold on 7 June 1821.
HMS Thistle was a 12-gun Bold-class gun-brig built by Mary Ross at Rochester, Kent. She was launched in 1812 and broken up at Portsmouth in July 1823.
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 Pigmy was a Pigmy-class 10-gun schooner of the Royal Navy. She was launched in February 1810. She served on the North Sea and North American stations before she was sold in 1823.
HMS Nymphe was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1812 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was a Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.
HDMS Norge was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy ship-of-the-line, built to a design by F. C. H. Hohlenberg. The British Royal Navy seized her in 1807, together with the rest of the Danish fleet after the second battle of Copenhagen. She served off Spain, in the editerranean, and in the North Sea. Then in 181
HMS Thames was a 32-gun fifth-rate Thames-class frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1805 at Chatham.
Fraser, Edward; Carr-Laughton, LG (1930). The Royal Marine Artillery, 1804-1923, vol. 1, 1804-1859. Vol.1. Royal United Service Institution. OCLC867865704.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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