History | |
---|---|
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Wasp |
Acquired | By purchase (Admiralty Order 3 February 1794) |
Fate | Sold 22 November 1802 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Hoy |
Tons burthen | 63 (bm) |
Length |
|
Beam | 14 ft 6+1⁄4 in (4.4 m) |
Depth of hold | 6 ft 5 in (2.0 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | sloop |
Complement | 30 |
Armament | 1 × 24-pounder gun + 3 × 32-pounder carronades |
HMS Wasp was a 4-gun gun-vessel, formerly a Dutch hoy, purchased on 7 March 1794. She was fitted out at Woolwich between March and June 1794, and commissioned under Lieutenant George Hollwell. She was paid off in April 1795. Lieutenant John Wheatley recommissioned her in June. He paid her off in 1796. In September Lieutenant William Heppel recommissioned her. In February 1801 Lieutenant William Holmes replaced Heppel. [1]
Although some records indicate that Wasp was sold at Sheerness on 22 November 1801, that actual year appears to be 1802. The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Wasp Gun-Vessel" for sale on 22 November 1802. [2]
HMS Zebra was a 16-gun Zebra-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars, she was converted into a bomb vessel in 1798. In this capacity she took part in attacks on French ports, and was present at both battles of Copenhagen. The Navy sold her in 1812.
HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
HMS Atalante was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French Atalante, captured in 1797. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was wrecked in 1807.
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During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches and performed reconnaissance.
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HMS Incendiary was an 8-gun fireship of the Royal Navy. She was present at a number of major battles during the French Revolutionary Wars, and captured, or participated in the capture, of several armed vessels. In January 1801 she was in the Gulf of Cadiz where she encountered Admiral Ganteume's squadron. The 80-gun French Navy ship of the line Indivisible received the credit for the actual capture.
Salamine was originally the Spanish Navy's Infante 18-gun brig, built in 1787 at Cadiz. The French Navy captured her at Toulon in December 1793 and recommissioned her; they renamed her on 10 May 1798 as Salamine, for the battle of Salamis. On 18 June 1799, HMS Emerald captured her and she was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Salamine. She served briefly in the Mediterranean, where she captured two French privateers and several merchant vessels before the Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens ended the war with France.
HMS Scorpion was a Dutch hoy that the Admiralty purchased in 1794. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in March 1794 under Lieutenant Thomas Crocker for the Channel Islands. She and several of her sister ships, formed part of a short-lived squadron under Philippe d'Auvergne at Jersey.
HMS Bravo was a 16-gun Firm-class floating battery of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794. The two-vessel class was intended to operate in shallow waters. Bravo spent her brief, uneventful service life as the flagship for Commodore Philippe d'Auvergne's flotilla at Jersey. After the Peace of Amiens Bravo was paid off in March 1802; she was sold in 1803.
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HMS Cockatrice was the fourth of the Alert-class British Royal Navy cutters. She was launched in 1781 and had an uneventful career until the Navy sold her in 1802. Private interests purchased her, lengthened her, and changed her rig to that of a brig. They hired her out to the Navy and she was in service as a hired armed brig from 1806 to 1808. She then returned to mercantile service until she was condemned at Lisbon in May 1816 as not worth repairing.
HMS Ferret was a Dutch hoy that the Admiralty purchased in 1794 for use as a gun-boat. It sold her in May 1802.
HMS Romulus was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Flora class, built for the Royal Navy and launched in September 1785. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, Romulus was despatched to the Mediterranean where she joined a fleet under Admiral Lord Hood, initially blockading, and later occupying, the port of Toulon. She played an active role during the withdrawal in December, providing covering fire while HMS Robust and HMS Leviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.
HMS Princess was the Dutch East Indiaman Williamstadt en Boetzlaar that the British Royal Navy captured on 18 August 1795 at the Capitulation of Saldanha Bay. The Royal Navy initially rated her a 28-gun sixth rate. She quickly became a receiving ship, a guard ship, and a floating battery. The Navy sold her in 1816.
HMS Ferret was a Dutch hoy of the same name that the Admiralty purchased in 1794 for use as a gun-boat. It sold her in May 1802.
HMS Wolf was a 4-gun gunvessel, originally a Dutch hoy that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. She was broken up in 1803.
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