Hired armed cutter Hero

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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. [1] She was so successful that the Norwegian merchants offered a considerable reward for Hero's capture. [1]

Royal Navy Maritime warfare branch of the United Kingdoms military

The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years War against the Kingdom of France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the UK's armed services, it is known as the Senior Service.

Hired armed vessels vessel hired by the Royal Navy

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the British Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels. These were generally smaller vessels, often cutters and luggers, that the Navy used for duties ranging from carrying despatches and passengers to convoy escort, particularly in British coastal waters, and reconnaissance.

Cutter (boat) type of watercraft designed for speed

A cutter is generally a small to medium-sized vessel, depending on its role and definition. Historically, it was a smallish single- or double-masted, decked sailcraft designed for speed rather than capacity. As such, it was gaff-rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit of some length, with a mast sometimes set farther back than on a sloop. While historically a workboat, as used by harbor pilots, the military, and privateers, sailing cutters today are most commonly fore-and-aft rigged private yachts.

Contents

There was also an hired armed lugger Hero, and a number of British letters of marque that carried the name Hero, and that were cutters. None of the letter of marque cutters match the description of either hired armed cutter Hero.

Letter of marque

A letter of marque and reprisal was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a nation at war with the issuer. Once captured, the privateer could then bring the case of that prize before their own admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. A letter of marque and reprisal would include permission to cross an international border to effect a reprisal and was authorized by an issuing jurisdiction to conduct reprisal operations outside its borders.

The first hired armed cutter Hero

The first hired armed cutter Hero carried nine 12-pounder carronades and was of 77​90⁄94 tons (bm). She served the Royal Navy from 20 August 1804 to 3 February 1805. [2]

Carronade naval smooth-bore short-barrel cannon

A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy and first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon. Carronades were initially found to be very successful, but they eventually disappeared as naval artillery advanced, with the introduction of rifling and consequent change in the shape of the projectile, exploding shells replacing solid shot, and naval engagements being fought at longer ranges.

Builder's Old Measurement is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship based on length and maximum beam. It is expressed in "tons burden", and abbreviated "tons bm".

The second hired armed cutter Hero

The second hired armed cutter Hero carried ten 12-pounder carronades and was of 119​27⁄94 tons (bm). She served the Royal Navy from 4 May 1809 to 11 November 1811. [3]

Whilst under the command of Lieutenant John Reynolds, Hero commenced cruising in The Sleeve (Kattegat) in 1809. [1] On 14 November, three Danish sloops arrived at Leith, prizes to Talbot, the hired armed ship Charles, and Hero. [4]

Kattegat sea area between Denmark and Sweden

The Kattegat is a 30,000 km2 (12,000 sq mi) sea area bounded by the Jutlandic peninsula in the west, the Danish Straits islands of Denmark to the south and the provinces of Västergötland, Scania, Halland and Bohuslän in Sweden in the east. The Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Danish Straits. The sea area is a continuation of the Skagerrak and may be seen as a bay of the Baltic Sea or the North Sea or, as in traditional Scandinavian usage, neither of these.

HMS Talbot was a British Royal Navy 18-gun sloop-of-war built by James Heath & Sons, of East Teignmouth, and launched in 1807. Perhaps her greatest accomplishment was the reversal of the liberation of Iceland that the colorful, erratic, former Royal Navy seaman and privateer Jørgen Jørgensen had carried out. Talbot was sold in 1815 for mercantile service. She interspersed several voyages to Ceylon and India with three voyages as a whaler. She was last listed in 1831.

His Majesty's hired armed ship Charles served the Royal Navy from 17 May 1804 to 13 May 1814. She had a burthen of 309​2⁄94 tons (bm), and an armament of fourteen 18-pounder carronades. Prize money notices and other accounts referred to her interchangeably as the "hired armed brig", "hired armed ship", and "hired sloop".

Some of her first captures included:

During the period of the Napoleonic Wars, two vessels have served the British Royal Navy as His Majesty's Hired armed cutter Idas, named for Idas, a figure from Greek mythology.

In 1810 Reynolds discovered that Sälö Fjord, then little known to the British, was a good place of refuge during gales on the Swedish coast. He surveyed it and reported that it was busy. [1]

In April Hero captured:

On 21 October Hero captured Carl Frederick. [8] One month later, on 21 November 1810 Hero captured the Catharina Christiana. [9]

In early 1811 Hero met with more success in her prize-taking as she captured:

However, on 25 April 1811 Hero, while in the company of the Hired armed cutter Swan, encountered three Danish gunboats in The Sleeve. [12] [Note 2] Swan was forced to surrender but sank off Uddevalla, on the Swedish coast north of Gothenburg, almost immediately after the Danes boarded her. [12] The battle apparently also resulted in damage to Hero. [13] [Note 3] A frigate helped her into Vingo where she was repaired enough to sail to England for more complete repairs. [14] She arrived at Dover on 7 May.

Still, on 14 July she captured Margaretta, Ebenetzer, and Sophie. [15] On 13 October she captured Fortuna. [16] On 22 July Hero was in company when the gun-brig Urgent captured Trajen and Freden. [Note 4] Lastly, on 19 October she captured the Danish galliot Haabet. [18] She returned to Dover on 17 November from the Baltic having again been much damaged in an engagement with Danish gun boats.

Reynolds removed to the Nimble-class cutter Nimble early in 1812. [1] Nimble was wrecked in the Kattegat in October, near the Sälö Beacon, but with no loss of life. [19]

Post script

Reportedly, Hero spent from end 1812 to 1814 re-fitting at Sheerness. [20] If so, she was not on the rolls of the Royal Navy.

Hired armed lugger Hero

The hired armed lugger Hero served the Royal Navy in 1809 and is described as being of 40​13⁄94 tons burthen. [3]

British privateer cutter Hero

On 18 July 1812, the Baltimore schooner Falcon, of 172 tons, four guns and sixteen men, under the command of Captain John Wilson, was sailing from Boston to Bordeaux. [Note 5] Off the coast of France she encountered the "British cutter Hero", of five guns and 50 men. Hero sailed off after failing in three attempts during the two-hour running fight to board Falcon. This Hero may have been the cutter under the command of John Feaste, of 72 tons burthen, that sailed under a letter of marque dated 28 April 1812. (The letter further describes Hero as being armed with eight 3 and 6-pounder guns, and having a crew of 30 men. [22]

The next day the British privateer Dart, of six guns and 40 men, succeeded in capturing Falcon after a fight of over an hour in which Wilson and several of his men were wounded. Dart then took Falcon into Guernsey. [23] This may have been the cutter Dart, under the command of Thomas Guilbert, of 114 tons burthen, armed with six 4-pounder guns and with a letter of marque dated 20 May 1812. [22]

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Part of the money that accrued to Hero from this capture was from an abatement of duties on a cargo of deals (planks) from Fortuna.
  2. ↑ Anderson gives the day as 23 April, Winfield gives it as 24 April, and Gossett gives it as 25 April.
  3. ↑ Gossett has Hero being sunk, but does not report any court martial date.
  4. ↑ These two vessels yielded Reynolds a total of £16 3s 10d in prize money; an ordinary seaman received 15s 6d. [17]
  5. ↑ Cranwell and Crane state that Falcon had no commission as a letter of marque as she had left Baltimore for France months in advance of the outbreak of war. [21]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 The Gentleman's magazine, Volume 31, p.207
  2. ↑ Winfield (2008), p.394.
  3. 1 2 Winfield (2008), p.395.
  4. ↑ Lloyd's List, no.4408, - accessed 28 March 2015.
  5. 1 2 "No. 16536". The London Gazette . 29 October 1811. p. 2099.
  6. 1 2 3 "No. 16396". The London Gazette . 14 August 1810. p. 1229.
  7. 1 2 3 "No. 16446". The London Gazette . 22 January 1811. pp. 140–141.
  8. ↑ "No. 16493". The London Gazette . 4 June 1811. p. 1048.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "No. 16544". The London Gazette . 23 November 1811. p. 2268.
  10. ↑ "No. 16549". The London Gazette . 7 December 1811. p. 2369.
  11. ↑ "No. 16664". The London Gazette . 3 November 1812. p. 2221.
  12. 1 2 Gossett (1986), pp.78-9.
  13. ↑ Anderson (1910), p.344.
  14. ↑ Wandell (1915), p.369.
  15. ↑ "No. 16664". The London Gazette . 3 November 1812. p. 2222.
  16. ↑ "No. 16751". The London Gazette . 10 July 1813. p. 1365.
  17. ↑ "No. 16929". The London Gazette . 27 August 1814. p. 1740.
  18. ↑ "No. 16664". The London Gazette . 1 February 1812. p. 2221.
  19. ↑ Gossett (1986), p.85.
  20. ↑ Phillips, Michael - Ships of the Old Navy - Hero (1809)
  21. ↑ Cranwell and Crane (1940), p.381.
  22. 1 2 Letter of Marque, p.68 - accessed 25 July 2017.
  23. ↑ Maclay (2004), p.200.

References

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