History | |
---|---|
Name | Duke of York |
Commissioned | 23 June 1803 |
Decommissioned | 24 September 1810 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Type | Cutter |
Tons burthen | 8227⁄94 (bm) |
Armament | 8 × 4-pounder guns |
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Duke of York served the British Royal Navy from 23 June 1803 to 24 September 1810.
In July 1803 she sent into Portsmouth the American vessel Eagle, from New York bound for Amsterdam, [2] and Galatea, which had been sailing from Bordeaux to Bremen. [3] In August she sent in Young Jane, from Roxborough for France. [2] The next month Duke of York sent Syren, Desrege, master, into Falmouth. Syren had been sailing from Barcelona to Guernsey. [4]
In October 1804, Duke of York brought into Cowes 200 casks of spirits that she had retrieved off the Needles.
In 1807 Duke of York was under the command of Lieutenant A. Mott. On 15 October, under the command of Lieutenant J. Forbes and while in company with the revenue cutters Fox and Seagull, she captured the French privateer Friedland. (Prize money was due to be paid in 1809.) [5]
In March 1810 she sent Hanna, Bantzen, master, sailing from Trequeir, into Weymouth. [6]
In May Lieutenant Elphinstone replaced Lieutenant Richard Bankes in command of Duke of York. Bankes transferred to take command of the gun-brig HMS Forward on the Leith station. [lower-alpha 1]
Steel's Navy List reported that Duke of York in 1811 was under the command of Lieutenant T. Banks in Guernsey. This is after she was reported returned to her owners, but another source still has her listed as under commission under Lieutenant Banks as late as 1813-14. [8]
Notes
Citations
References
USS Syren was a brig of the United States Navy built at Philadelphia in 1803. She served during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812 until the Royal Navy captured her in 1814. The British never commissioned her but apparently used her for a year or so as a lazaretto, or a prison vessel. She then disappears from records.
HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was broken up in 1858.
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.
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.
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.
Two vessels served the British Royal Navy as His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Hero. Under the command of Lieutenant John Reynolds, the second hired armed cutter Hero captured some 30 merchantmen during the Gunboat War before the Royal Navy returned her to her owners. She was so successful that the Norwegian merchants offered a considerable reward for Hero's capture.
The Royal Navy used several vessels that were described as His Majesty's hired armed cutter King George. Some of these may have been the same vessel on repeat contract.
HMS Basilisk was a Bloodhound-class gun-brig built by Randall in Rotherhithe and launched in 1801. She served briefly at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, with most of her service occurring during the Napoleonic Wars protecting convoys from privateers, conducting close-inshore surveillance and taking enemy coastal shipping. She was sold for breaking in 1815.
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.
His Majesty's hired armed ship Charles served the Royal Navy from 17 May 1804 to 13 May 1814. Prize money notices and other accounts referred to her interchangeably as the "hired armed brig", "hired armed ship", and "hired sloop".
Two vessels named His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Adrian served the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars as hired armed vessels.
His Majesty's hired armed cutter Duke of Clarence, named for William Henry, Duke of Clarence, served the British Royal Navy under two contracts, one during the French Revolutionary Wars, and one at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. She was lost on 25 November 1804, but without loss of life.
During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, the British Royal Navy twice employed a vessel named His Majesty's hired armed cutter Albion, though these are probably the same vessel:
HMS Jackal was a Bloodhound-class brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801. She captured a number of small prizes in the Channel, including one armed sloop, before she was lost in 1807.
Violet was a lugger that the British Royal Navy acquired from the Commissioners of Customs in 1806. She made some small captures before she was broken up in 1812.
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 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.
Badger was launched in 1803. She served as an Excise Cutter, a hired armed cutter serving the British Royal Navy, and then as a merchant vessel. She was last listed in 1822.
HMS Albacore was launched in 1804 in Bristol. She participated in two notable actions. The British Royal Navy sold her in 1815 and she became a merchantman, sailing out of Guernsey. She was lost on 12 October 1821 while sailing from Buenos Aires to Barbados.
Fowey was launched in 1798. She spent a little more than a year-and-a-half as a hired armed cutter for the British Royal Navy. She was sold in 1800 and became a privateer. Her fate is currently obscure.