HMS Bold was a 14-gun Archer-class gun-brig 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...

 built at Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard

Blackwall Yard was a shipyard on the Thames at Blackwall, London, engaged in ship building and later ship repairs for over 350 years. The yard closed in 1987...

.

Service

Bold was commissioned under Lieutenant James Ides Short, for the Nore. Lieutenant James Agassiz replaced him in October 1801, and then in June 1802, Lieutenant William Chivers replaced Agassiz.

On 18 October 1804, Bold was 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 Ann

Hired armed brig Ann

There were two, and possibly three, hired armed brigs that shared the name Ann . The first participated in an engagement in 1807 that would earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She is sometimes referred to in sources as the hired armed cutter Ann or the hired armed brig Anne...

 and cutter Florence and the brig-sloop Cruizer

HMS Cruizer (1797)

HMS Cruizer was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been...

 when Cruizer captured the 17-gun privateer Contre-Amiral Magon in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

. Actually, Cruizer left Bold, Ann and Florence behind during the pursuit and they played no part in the capture.

On 15 March 1805 Bold was in company with Cruizer and when they captured the Industria. On the last day of March Bold and Ann captured the Neptunus. On 3 August, Bold was in a squadron with Blazer, , , , and when they captured the Frederick Wilhelm.

On 1 October 1806 Bold captured the Conceicas e Almas.

Lieutenant William Slaughter took command in 1805; Then at some point in 1806 Lieutenant William Chivers resumed command.

On 29 May 1810 boats from Bold, , , and , all under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Radford, attacked several French armed vessels in the Vlie

Vlie

The Vlie or Vliestroom is the seaway between the Dutch islands of Vlieland, to its southwest, and Terschelling, to its northeast. The Vlie was the estuary of the river IJssel in medieval times...

. They drove ashore and burned a French lugger

Lugger

A lugger is a class of boats, widely used as traditional fishing boats, particularly off the coasts of France, Scotland and England. It is a small sailing vessel with lugsails set on two or more masts and perhaps lug topsails.-Defining the rig:...

 of six guns and 26 men, and captured and brought out another lugger of 12 guns and 42 men, a French privateer schuyt of four guns, a Dutch gunboat and a small row boat. The British had no casualties; the French lost one man killed and three wounded.

Fate

Bold ran aground near Yarmouth, Isle of Wight

Yarmouth, Isle of Wight

Yarmouth is a port and civil parish in the western part of the Isle of Wight, off the southern coast of mainland England. The town is named for its location at the mouth of the small Western Yar river...

 in a gale on 6 January 1811 but the crew was saved. She was broken up at Sheerness

Sheerness

Sheerness is a town located beside the mouth of the River Medway on the northwest corner of the Isle of Sheppey in north Kent, England. With a population of 12,000 it is the largest town on the island....

in April that year.