HMS Galgo was the mercantile Garland, which the British Admiralty bought in 1801. She had a brief career in the Channel before she was laid-up in ordinary. She was refitted as a rocket ship in 1809, the Royal Navy's (and almost certainly the world's) first, and served as such but without distinction in the unsuccessful Walcheren Campaign.[2][lower-alpha 1] She then was laid-up again before she was sold in 1814.
The Royal Navy commissioned Galgo in February 1801 under Commander Richard Hawkins, for the Downs.[1] They named her Galgo, there being a Garland in service and Galgo having been lost a few months earlier. She spent February to March fitting out at Deptford. In August, Hawkins came into the Downs from Ostend and reported to Admiral Lord Nelson that the number of boats there and their size was such that they did not pose any threat of a French invasion.[3] Then on 28 April 1802, Hawkins received promotion to post captain.[4]
In May 1802 Commander Michael Dod (or Dodd) took command, for the North Sea. However, this was just after the Treaty of Amiens had ended the war with France. On 29 July 1802, Dod sailed Galgo from Portsmouth for Newfoundland.[5] She returned to Portsmouth on 26 November.[6]
Four months later, on 17 March 1803, Galgo came into Plymouth having lost her foremast in a violent gale of wind in Mount's Bay a few days earlier. Atalante went to retrieve and tow her. As she arrived she signaled that she needed assistance and boats came out to warp her in to the harbour so that she might effect repairs.[7] By 30 March Galgo had a new mast and she sailed between St Nicholas's Island and Cornwall before anchoring in Cawsand Bay.[8]
In mid-June 1803, after the resumption of war with France, Galgo sent into Plymouth a Dutch galliot that she had detained.[9] In Spring 1804, Galgo joined Sir Sidney Smith's squadron off Helvoet, Flushing, and Ostende.
In May 1804, Galgo and Inspector cooperated in an unsuccessful attempt to cutout the pramVille d'Anvers from Ostend.[10] then on 23 June, Galgo and Inspector observed 26 schuyts coming from Ostend and going towards Flushing. They proceeded to keep up a running fire on these vessels for about two hours, while enduring fire from shore batteries. Eventually, the two British vessels hauled off, fearful of running aground on the Stroom sand, having succeeded in driving only one Dutch vessel aground, but having sustained no casualties themselves.[11]
In January 1805 Galgo escorted three praams from Hull, where they had been built, to Portsmouth, where they were to be fitted out.[12] Thereafter, she was apparently laid up in ordinary at Sheerness.
1814 depiction of rockets being fired
Between April 1808 and May 1809 she was being fitted at Woolwich for the defense of Gibraltar Bay.[1] However, instead of being sent there, she was further fitted between May and July 1809 at Deptford,[1] but apparently as a rocket ship to fire Congreve rockets. Congreve had Galgo fitted with 21 scuttles (angled tubes) on her between deck, firing out through broadside ports. To prevent the rockets's exhaust from entering the vessel he had the scuttles fitted with iron shutters.[13] (Congreve developed an improved design later that he had fitted to Erebus.)
Galgo arrived late to the unsuccessful Walcheren Expedition, which took place between 30 July and 9 August 1809. She missed the bombardment of Ramakins. On 13 August she was part of a squadron under Sir Home Riggs Popham that pushed up the West Scheld, but saw no action.[14] This is the only mention of Galgo in dispatches from the campaign published in the London Gazette. Clearly, Galgo's part in the campaign was minimal, though she may have fired her rockets at the bombardment of Flushing. Still, she was among the myriad vessels listed as qualifying for the prize money from the campaign.[15]
Galgo returned to Portsmouth in December 1809. In February 1810 Galgo was again laid up at Woolwich. There, between February and April 1814, she was fitted as a receiving ship for Gravesend.[1]
Fate
The Admiralty offered Galgo for sale on 23 February 1814.[16] She was sold for £1,320 on 9 June 1814.[1]
Congreve, William (1827). A treatise on the general principles, powers, and facility of application of the Congreve Rocket system, as compared with artillery: Illustr. by pl. of the principal exercises and cases of actual service: With a demonstration of the comparative economy of the system. Longman.
Nelson, Viscount Horatio Nelson, ed. (1845). The dispatches and letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson: with notes. Vol.1. H. Colburn.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
Winter, Frank H. (1990). 1st Golden Age of Rocketry. Smithsonian. ISBN9780874749878.
Related Research Articles
HMS Erebus was originally built as a Royal Navy fireship, but served as a sloop and was re-rated as such in March 1808. She served in the Baltic during the Gunboat and Anglo-Russian Wars, where in 1809 she was briefly converted to a fireship, and then served in the War of 1812. In 1814 she was converted to a rocket vessel to fire Congreve rockets. While serving off America, Erebus participated in the sack of Alexandria, Virginia, and launched the rockets that bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore on 13 September 1814. In March 1815, off Georgia, she fired the second-to-the-last-shot of the war. She was laid up in 1816 and sold for breaking up in 1819.
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.
HMS Venus was the name ship of the 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and served for more than half a century until 1809. She was reduced from 36 to 32 guns in 1792. She was sold in 1822.
HMS Pandora was launched in 1806. She captured two privateers before she was wrecked in February 1811 off the coast of Jutland.
Perçante was a 20-gun ship-corvette of the French Navy, built at Bayonne and launched in 1795. The British captured her in 1796 and took her into the Royal Navy under the name HMS Jamaica. They rated her as a sixth-rate 26-gun frigate. She served during both the French Revolutionary Wars and part of the Napoleonic Wars, during which she captured some privateers and participated in a boat attack. The Admiralty had her laid up in 1810 and sold her in 1814.
HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.
HMS Crocus was the nameship of the Crocus-class brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1808 and had an almost completely uneventful career until she was sold in 1815. She then became a merchantman trading with the West Indies and the Mediterranean. She was last listed in 1823.
HMS Harpy was a Royal Navy Diligence-class brig-sloop, launched in 1796 and sold in 1817. She was the longest lived vessel of her class, and the most widely travelled. She served in both the battle of Copenhagen and the British invasion of Java, took part in several actions, one of which won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured numerous privateers. The Navy sold her in 1817.
HMS Merlin was launched in 1801 in South Shields as the collier Hercules. In July 1803, with the resumption of war with France, the Admiralty purchased her. She was one of about 20 such vessels that the navy would then employ primarily for convoy escort duties. She served on active duty until 1810, capturing one small privateer. She then served as a receiving ship until 1836 when the navy sold her for breaking up.
Nettuno was a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice and launched in June 1807. HMS Unite captured her a year later off Zara. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Cretan. She served in the Mediterranean. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1831 she made five voyages as a whaler.
HMS Magnet was the former French privateer San Joseph or San Josepho, built in 1807, that the British captured in 1809. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Magnet. She disappeared, presumed to have foundered with all hands, while sailing to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August or September 1812.
HMS Calliope was a Cherokee-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808. She operated primarily in the North Sea where she captured numerous small merchant vessels and one French privateer. She also was present at the battle of Lake Borgne, near New Orleans. She was broken up in 1829.
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.
HMS Inspector was launched in 1801 at Mistley as the mercantile Amity. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 and laid her up in 1808 before selling her in 1810. She then returned to mercantile service. Between 1818 and 1825 she made four voyages as a whaler. She returned to mercantile service and was last listed in 1833 as being at Falmouth.
HMS Spey was a sixth rate post ship, launched for the Royal Navy in 1814 towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars. She had a short naval career, serving on the St Helena and Malta stations. While on the Malta Station in 1819, she was instrumental in the apprehension of a British pirate vessel.
HMS Lavinia was a 44-gun frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1806 at Milford Haven, she served during the Napoleonic Wars and took part in the Walcheren Campaign in 1809. She was serving as a hulk in Plymouth harbour in 1868 where she was later sunk in a collision with a German steamship.
HMS Cracker was a later Archer-class gun brig, launched in 1804. She participated in several actions and captured two small French privateers. She was sold for breaking up in 1816.
Berwick Packet was a smack launched at Berwick in 1798. She sailed for some years for the Old Ship Company, of Berwick in the packet trade between London and Berwick. After a change of ownership and homeport around 1806, Berwick Packet traded more widely. In 1808 she repelled an attack by a French privateer. Then in 1809 Berwick Packet served briefly as a transport in a naval campaign. She then returned to mercantile trade until she was wrecked in November 1827 on a voyage from the Baltic.
HMS Nymphe was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1812 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was a Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.
HDMS Norge was a Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy ship-of-the-line, built to a design by F. C. H. Hohlenberg. The British Royal Navy seized her in 1807, together with the rest of the Danish fleet after the second battle of Copenhagen. She served off Spain, in the editerranean, and in the North Sea. Then in 181
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
UK 
