HMS Turbulent captured by a Danish gunboat during the Gunboat War on 9 June 1808 | |
History | |
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United Kingdom | |
Name | HMS Turbulent |
Ordered | 20 November 1804 |
Builder | Tanner, Dartmouth, Devon |
Laid down | February 1805 |
Launched | 17 July 1805 |
Fate | Captured, 9 June 1808 |
Denmark & Norway | |
Name | HDMS The Turbulent |
Captured | 9 June 1808 |
Fate | Sold 1814 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Tons burthen | 18124⁄94 (bm) |
Length |
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Beam | 22 ft 1 in (6.7 m) |
Draft |
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Depth of hold | 11 ft 0 in (3.4 m) |
Complement |
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Armament |
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HMS Turbulent was a Confounder-class 12-gun gun-brig in the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to bear this name. Built at Dartmouth, Devon by Tanner, she was launched on 17 July 1805. The Danes captured her in 1808. She was sold in 1814.
Turbulent was commissioned in September 1805 under Lieutenant Thomas Osmer for the Downs. [1] On 14 September 1806 she was in company with Urgent when they captured the Romeo. [2] They sent Romeo, Curran, master, into Dover. Romeo had been sailing from Virginia to Rotterdam. [3]
In 1807 Lieutenant John Nops replaced Osmer. On 4 June 1807 Turbulent captured the American schooner Charles. [4] Also in June, Turbulent detained and sent into The Downs the Mount Etna, of Boston, which had been sailing from to Amsterdam. [5]
In early July Turbulent detained and sent into the Downs the Danish vessel Providence, Richelsen, master. [6]
Then on 7 September Turbulent was among the vessels present at the seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. [7]
In 1808 Lieutenant George Wood replaced Nops. [1] Under Wood, Turbulent captured three vessels in mid-April: Vier Goschevestern (12 April), Emanuel (13 April) and Enigheden (14 April). [8] On 28 April four Danish ketches, carrying wine and deals, prizes to Turbulent, arrived at Sheerness. [9]
Turbulent had served for only three years in all before she bore the brunt of a Danish attack whilst on escort duty during the Gunboat War. On 9 June, Turbulent, under Lieutenant George Wood, was one of the escorts for a convoy of 70 merchantmen. (The others were the bomb-vessel Thunder, Captain James Caulfield, 12-gun gun-brig Charger, Lieutenant John Aitkin Blow, and 14-gun gun-brig Piercer, Lieutenant John Sibrell). In the late afternoon the convoy became becalmed off the Danish island of Saltholm, lying between Copenhagen and Malmo Bay. [10]
In the Battle of Saltholm, a large force of 21 Danish gunboats and 7 mortar boats came out from Copenhagen to attack the convoy. [10] Only Turbulent, which was bringing up the rear, and Thunder were in a position to resist and after 10 minutes of an exchange of fire, Turbulent had lost her main-top-mast and had had three men wounded. Turbulent's resistance saved most of the convoy but the Danes boarded and took her and also 12 merchantmen. Thunder was able to hold off her attackers and they retired with their prizes. [10] The subsequent court martial honorably acquitted Lieutenant Wood for the loss of his ship. [10]
Although the Danish gunboats were active, this convoy was the only one to suffer a large loss. Still, the loss of the 12 ships led the British north country merchants to publish a protest in Hull. [11] The report in Lloyd's List suggested that the Danes captured well more than 12 merchantmen, once one includes Swedish vessels. The same report also mentioned the capture of Turbulent and Tickler, though actually the capture of Tickler by four Danish gunboats occurred five days earlier, on 4 June. [12]
The Danes took Turbulent into the Danish navy under the same name. [13] She was sold out of service in 1814 to the broker Herlew, [14] presumably after the Treaty of Kiel ended the War.
Lloyd's List reported in March 1816 that the Danish brig Turbulent, of Copenhagen, which had been sailing from St Croix, had been seen at Landskrona, surrounded by ice. [15]
The Gunboat War was a naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and Great Britain supported by Sweden during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the materially superior Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.
The Sirène was a 40-gun Coquille class frigate of the French Navy. She took part in a number of campaigns and actions before she was badly damaged in a battle on 22 March 1808. Refloated after being beached to avoid capture, she was hulked. Sirène was broken up in 1825.
HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop. She was built at Deptford Wharf between 1804 and 1805, and launched in 1805. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, most notably at the Battle of Lyngør, which effectively ended the Gunboat War. Calypso was broken up in March 1821.
HMS Belette was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit a rock off Læsø.
HMS Leveret was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built at Dover, England, and launched in 1806. She was wrecked in 1807.
The Battle of Saltholm was fought on 9 June 1808 during the Gunboat War. Danish and Norwegian ships attacked a British convoy off the island of Saltholm in Øresund Strait near Copenhagen.
HMS Seagull was the name vessel for the Seagull class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 1 July 1805 and saw active service under the British flag in Danish waters until 19 June 1808 when Dano-Norwegian forces sank her. The Danes raised her and refitted her for service in the Dano-Norwegian Navy, which she served until the end of the English Wars in 1814. She then was transferred to the Norwegians. She was finally decommissioned in 1817.
Grinder was a gunboat serving as a tender, rather than a commissioned warship, to HMS Anholt, the British garrison on the island of Anholt during the Gunboat War. Grinder's origins are obscure, but the Danes captured her in 1810 and the British recaptured her in 1811. She was sold in 1832.
HMS Piercer was a Royal Navy Archer-class gun-brig launched in 1804. She served against the French, Danes and Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars and was assigned to the Downs station. She participated in a number of operations in the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, and the North Sea. In 1814 the British government transferred Piercer to the Kingdom of Hanover for use as a guard ship. Hanover decommissioned her in 1850.
HMS Barbara was an Adonis class schooner of the Royal Navy and launched in 1806. A French privateer captured her in 1807 and she became the French privateer Pératy. The Royal Navy recaptured her in 1808. She was paid off in June 1814 and sold in February 1815.
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 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 Attack was launched in 1804 as a later Archer-class gunbrig. Danish gunboats captured Attack in August 1812.
HMS Pluto was a 14-gun fire ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1782. Pluto was converted to a sloop in 1793. She spent the period of the French Revolutionary Wars on the Newfoundland station where she captured a French naval vessel. During the Napoleonic Wars Pluto was stationed in the Channel. There she detained numerous merchant vessels trading with France or elsewhere. Pluto was laid up in 1809 and sold in 1817 into mercantile service. The mercantile Pluto ran aground near Margate on 31 August 1817 and filled with water.
Malvina was a privateer brig from Nantes commissioned circa 1807. The Royal Navy captured her in 1808.
Beaver was launched in 1796 at Liverpool. She made seven complete voyages as a slave ship in the triangular trade in enslaved persons. She was captured and retaken once, in 1804, and captured a second time in 1807, during her eighth voyage.
HMS Tickler was a cutter built at Dover in 1798 as the mercantile Lord Duncan. Between October 1798 and October 1801 she served the Royal Navy as the hired armed cutter Lord Duncan. Lord Duncan captured or recaptured several vessels, including one privateer. The Navy purchased Lord Duncan in October 1808 and renamed her HMS Tickler. It sold her in 1816.
HMS Tickler was launched in August 1808 at Brightlingsea as a later Archer-class gunbrig. She served in the Channel and the Baltic until the Danes captured her in 1808 during the Gunboat War. They sold her in 1815. From 1815 to 1852 she sailed as Frederikke Louise, first as a merchantman and then from 1843 to 1851 as a sealer.
HMS Tickler was launched in 1794 as a Conquest-class gunbrig. She was sold in 1802.
HMS Dexterous was a later Archer-class gunbrig launched at Buckler's Hard in 1805. Between 1805 and 1807, Dexterous was operating out of Gibraltar, where she captured two small armed vessels, one naval and one a privateer. Thereafter Dexterous operated in the Channel, where she recaptured several British merchant vessels that French privateers had captured. The Navy sold Dexterous in 1816.