Career
Captain Thomas Burton commissioned Wild Boar in October 1808.
On 12 April 1809, Wild Boar captured Verite. [2]
On 13 May Burton sailed Wild Boar for Portugal.
Lloyd's List reported on 23 May that Wildboar had detained and sent into Falmouth Gustaff, Trent, master, which had been sailing from Bordeaux. [3]
While Wild Boar was on the Lisbon station she captured a French schooner carrying some staff officers from Ferrol to Bayonne. She returned from the Tagus to land at Falmouth an army officer with dispatches.
Fate
Commander Villiers Francis Hatton was appointed to Wild Boar at the beginning of 1810 but before he could take command she was wrecked on 15 February on the Runnel Stone, Isles of Scilly. Lloyd's List reported on 20 February that Wildboar had left Falmouth on the 15th with dispatches for Lisbon. [5]
The courtmartial of Burton and his crew took place on 23 March. It found that Wild Boar had been sailing from Falmouth to Cork and was passing between Scilly and the mainland when she struck in fine weather on the Runnelstone. She took on water so quickly most of the crew had to jump into the sea.
Earl of Uxbridge fortuitously and fortunately was in sight and came to Wild Boar's rescue. [lower-alpha 1] Even so, 12 men drowned.
The court martial exonerated Burton and blamed the loss on the incompetence of the master. It also described the master's behaviour as reprehensible; when she struck he had jumped into the jolly boat and made off. The court martial ordered him dis-rated, to serve only as a seaman.
Captain Burton went on to commission the new sloop HMS Primrose.
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as a tender on the Jamaica station. Pickle was at the Battle of Trafalgar, and though she was too small to take part in the fighting, Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain. She also participated in a notable single-ship action when she captured the French privateer Favorite in 1807. Pickle was wrecked in 1808, but without loss of life.
HMS Apollo, the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns. She was the name ship of the Apollo-class frigates. Apollo was launched in 1799, and wrecked with heavy loss of life in 1804.
HMS Meleager was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and wrecked on 30 July 1808 off Jamaica. During her brief career she captured two armed vessels and two merchantmen on the Jamaica station. She was named after Meleager, who could have been a Macedonian officer of distinction in the service of Alexander the Great, or a Meleager a character from Greek mythology.
HMS Bermuda was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy.
His Majesty's hired armed lugger Black Joke was a lugger of ten 12-pounder carronades and 10892⁄94 tons burthen that entered into the service of the Royal Navy on 22 May 1808.
His Majesty's hired armed ship Harlequin served the British Royal Navy from 2 July 1804 until she was wrecked on 7 December 1809. She was of 18537⁄94 tons (bm), and she carried an armament of ten 6-pounder guns, eight 12-pounder carronades, and two swivel guns. During her service with the Royal Navy Harlequin captured a number of prizes. In 1809, she was wrecked near Newhaven as she was escorting a convoy in the Channel.
HMS Phipps was the Dutch privateer Two Lydias, launched in 1807, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service as HMS Phipps. Phipps captured two privateers, took part in a notable action, and her crew was subjected to mercury poisoning. She was sold for breaking up in 1812.
The French schooner Impériale was a 3-gun mercantile schooner-aviso of the French Navy commissioned at Guadeloupe on 23 September 1805. The Royal Navy captured her on 24 May 1806 and named her HMS Vigilant. The Navy renamed her HMS Subtle on 20 November 1806. She wrecked at Bermuda on 20 October 1807.
HMS Gleaner was the mercantile ketch Gleaner, launched in 1802. She served the Royal Navy as the "hired ketch Gleaner" from 12 July 1808 until the Navy purchased her in 1809. Initially she served as a light vessel and survey vessel. From early 1811 to August 1811 she served in the Mediterranean, where she captured an Ottoman vessel. She then became a yard lighter and a light vessel again. Then in 1812 she was on the North American station where she participated in the capture of several merchant vessels. Next she returned to the Mediterranean where she captured a privateer. Finally, she served off the north coast of Spain where she was wrecked on 2 March 1814.
HMS Vautour was 16-gun brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. The navy captured her from the French on the stocks in 1809 and commissioned her in 1810. She foundered in October 1813.
Serpent was a French navy brig of the Palinure class, launched in 1807 at Paimbeouf (Nantes) as Rivolli, but renamed. HMS Acasta captured her in 1808 in the Caribbean and the British Royal Navy took her into service there as HMS Pert but renamed her Asp. The navy disposed of her in 1814. She then made five voyages as a whaler, and wrecked in December 1828 on her sixth voyage.
The British Royal Navy purchased HMS Nile on 3 November 1806. She was the hired armed cutter Nile. After a brief, undistinguished career, the Navy sold her in 1810 only to have to break her up in 1811.
HMS Shamrock was a schooner built at Bermuda in 1808 of Bermuda cedar. She was built for the Royal Navy and was the name-ship of her class of 10-gun schooners. She was wrecked in 1811.
HMS Acteon, was the brig Actéon, launched in France in 1804 as the second of the two-ship Lynx-class. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1805 but laid her up. The Navy finally commissioned her in 1809. She was at the British invasion of Île de France and later served in the Channel, the North Sea, the Baltic, and the Chesapeake. She was broken up in 1816.
HMS Rapide was a British schooner of unknown name that the French captured in 1806. The French Navy took her into service as Villaret, but renamed her Rapide. She then became the model for a class of advice boats (avisos). The British Royal Navy captured her in 1808 in the West Indies and took her into service as the ship's tender Rapide. She was lost in 1814.
HMS Thistle was a Shamrock-class schooner launched at Bermuda on 27 February 1802. She participated in one notable single ship action that resulted in the Admiralty awarding her crew the Naval General service Medal (NGSM). She was wrecked on 6 March 1811.
HMS Comet was launched in 1807 as a Thais-class fireship of the Royal Navy. In 1808 the class were re-rated as sloops, and in 1811 they were re-rated as 20-gun sixth rates. Comet participated in one action that resulted in her crew being awarded the Naval General Service Medal, and some other actions and captures. The Navy sold her in 1815. In 1816 she became an East Indiaman, sailing under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She sailed between the United Kingdom and Ceylon. It was on one of these journeys that she was wrecked on Cole House Point on the River Thames on 9 August 1828.
HMS Parthian was launched at Deptford in 1808. During the Napoleonic Wars she captured one important French privateer, and several Danish, Dutch, and French merchantmen. After the war, Parthian captured a pirate schooner near Vera Cruz. Parthian was wrecked off Alexandria on 15 May 1828.
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 Johns Newfoundland on 8 October 1812.
HMS Dart was a mercantile cutter that the Royal Navy purchased on the stocks in 1810. She spent her career carrying dispatches and mails. She foundered without a trace in 1813.
United Kingdom
