HMS Alban was one of twelve s of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 and was launched in 1805. She served during the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

. During the Gunboat War

Gunboat War

The Gunboat War was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy...

 she took part in two engagements with Danish gunboats, during the second of which the Danes captured her. The British recaptured her seven months later, but she was wrecked in 1812.

Design

Like the rest of her class, Alban was made of Bermudan or pencil cedar

Juniperus bermudiana

Juniperus bermudiana is a species of juniper endemic to Bermuda. This species is most commonly known as Bermuda cedar although, like most "cedars" it is not a true cedar ; a more botanically accurate name would be Bermuda juniper, but this term is extremely rare.It is an evergreen tree growing up...

 and to a design copied from that of the Lady Hammond, a Bermudan sloop. The Admiralty ordered the class as cutters, but they were completed as schooners. Even so, most references to Alban refer to her as a cutter. She had a crew of 35 men and carried an armament of ten 18-pounder carronade

Carronade

The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. 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...

s.

Initial service

She was commissioned in May 1805 under Lieutenant James Stone. On 27 July she was under the command of Lieutenant Henry Wier and in company with the hired armed

Hired armed vessels

right|thumb|250px|Armed cutter, etching in the [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]]During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels...

 brig Colpoys, , , and when they captured nine French chasse marees. On 27 October she recaptured the Favourite.

On 17 January 1808 Alban captured the American ship Active. Then on 8 April she sailed for Rio de Janeiro.

Gunboat War

In 1809 Alban sailed to the Baltic. On 5 November she captured the Prussian sloop Gute Bothe.

On 23 May 1810 Alban was in company with and the hired armed

Hired armed vessels

right|thumb|250px|Armed cutter, etching in the [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]]During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels...

 cutter, Princess of Wales, when they encountered seven Danish gunboat

Gunboat

A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies.-History:...

s off the Skaw

Skaw

Skaw is a tiny settlement on the Shetland island of Unst. It is located north of Haroldswick on a peninsula in the northeast corner of the island, and is the most northerly settlement in the United Kingdom...

. In the subsequent engagement one gunboat blew up and the British succeeded in damaging and dispersing the other six.

On 13 June 1810, Alban captured the Regina Doreatha. Almost two weeks later, on 13 June, she captured the Danish galliot Catharina Augusta. Weir was promoted to the command of on 28 June 1810, but he was still captain of Alban on 12 July when she captured another Danish galliot, the Caroline. At some point command transferred to Lieutenant Samuel Thomas.

On 12 September 1810, Alban was off Læsø

Læsø

Læsø is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality on that island...

 island when she saw six Danish gunboats coming towards her from the direction of the Skaw. Wind conditions were calm so Alban had to resort to her sweeps to try to escape the Danes. She was unsuccessful and by early afternoon an engagement had commenced. After about three hours, a cannon shot took off the back of Thomas's skull. His second in command, Midshipman Alexander Hutchinson, continued the resistance for another hour, but then struck. Alban had lost two men killed (including Thomas), and had three wounded, out of a crew of some 25. She also had five feet of water in her hold, and her rigging and sails were entirely shot away. The subsequent court martial honourably acquitted Hutchinson and the surviving officers and men, and recommended Hutchinson for promotion. The Danish gunboat flotilla was under the command of Lieutenant Jørgen Conrad de Falsen

Jørgen Conrad de Falsen

Jørgen Conrad de Falsen was a Danish naval officer who, despite being plagued by ill health, saw duty throughout the Gunboat War with Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, and who rose eventually to the rank of rear admiral...

.

Danish service

The Alban was under the command of Lieutenant Thøger Emil Rosenørn when she encountered on 11 May 1811 near the Shetland Islands.Rosenørn had been the captain of when the British captured her a Nyborg in 1808. Rifleman chased The Alban for twelve hours before she succeeded in capturing the Dane. She was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 58 men. She was three days out of Farsund

Farsund

is a town and municipality in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway.The town of Farsund was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 , although already recognized as a trading center in 1795...

, Norway, but had not captured anything.

According to Danish sources, Rosenørn fought bravely and when he saw that defeat was inevitable, he hacked away rigging and created holes in the hull before he surrendered. Even so, The Alban did not sink and the British took her back into service as Alban.

British service and loss

The Admiralty had Alban fitted at Sheerness between July and November 1811. She was recommissioned in October under Lieutenant William Sturges Key.

Alban was wrecked on 18 December 1812 at Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh

Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the River Alde, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts where freshly caught fish are sold daily, and the Aldeburgh Yacht Club...

, Suffolk. There were only two survivors, a seaman and a woman. She had had a crew of 56 men, and there were three women and two children aboard. Extant accounts report that it is not at all clear why there was such a loss of life as after she grounded the surf did not destroy her and townspeople were eventually able to reach her.