HMS Brev Drageren (also Brevdrageren) was the Danish let brigger (light brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

) Brevdrageren, which was one of the many vessels the Danes surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen

Battle of Copenhagen (1807)

The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

 in 1807. She was involved in two notable actions while in British service before she was sold in 1825.

Danish origins

Brevdrageren was built at Nyholm Dockyard to a design by F.C.H. Hohlenberg and launched in 1801. She was the name-ship of a two-vessel class, and both she and her sister Fama

HMS Fama (1808)

HMS Fama was the Danish brig Fama, of fourteen guns, built in 1802, which the British captured in 1808. She was wrecked in 1809.-Danish origins:Fama was built in Copenhagen to a design by F.C.H. Hohlenberg...

 had distinctive pinched or "pink" sterns, that is, sterns that were rounded rather than the more normal square stern. Another vessel, Fehmern, was built similarly to Brevdrageren and her sister, but was slightly heavier. These vessels were much smaller than the heavy brigs designed for combat and the Danes used them as despatch vessels; Brevdrageren in Danish means "Despatch" or "Letter Carrier".

Her official Danish armament was eight 4-pounder guns and four 12-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. Alternatively, she may have carried two 6-pounder guns, and sixteen 12-pounder carronades, since accounts differ.

British service

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...

 surveyed Brev Drageren and refitted her at Chatham. She was commissioned under Lieutenant J. S. A. Dennis. In 1809 the Navy considered renaming her Cockatrice but that plan fell through. Command then passed to a Lieutenant Charles C. Dobson, who was later court martialed for an "unnatural crime" committed in September 1809 while in command.

On 24 August 1809, , was in company with the schooner , the gun-vessel and two boats detached from Brev Drageren and . Together they captured property at Harlinger Zyl, together with a Danish privateer and a mutt in ballast.

Escape from three Danish Brigs, 1811

In 1810 Lieutenant Thomas Barker Devon took command of Brev Drageren. On 31 July 1811, Brev Drageren and were cruising together in Long Sound, Norway, when they encountered and engaged three Danish brigs. The Danes had 54 guns and 480 men, against the British 22 guns and 107 men;The Naval Chronicle gives the Danish strength as 60 guns (all long 18-pounders), and 550 men. outnumbered and outgunned, the British vessels took flight.

The next day Brev Drageren unsuccessfully re-engaged first one and then two of the brigs. In the inconclusive engagement each British vessel sustained one man killed, and Brev Drageren also had three wounded. In the second day’s fight, Algerine sent a boat and sweeps to Brev Drageren, which helped her escape the Danes, though not until after her crew had rowed for 30 hours. The Danes reported capturing two two cargo ships (galleases) that Brev Drageren had been escorting.

Capture of Prizes off the Ems, 1812

During 1812 Brev Drageren was stationed at Heligoland

Heligoland

Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

, which the British had captured in 1807. Here she made several minor captures. One capture was of a French privateer lugger and another was an armed customs-house vessel that Brev Drageren cut out from Delfzijl

Delfzijl

Delfzijl is a municipality and city in the northeast of the Netherlands. It is situated on the left bank of the river Ems estuary, which forms the border with Germany.-Population centres:...

 at the mouth of the river Ems. The second of these may have been a Danish privateer of one long gun and four swivel guns

Swivel gun

The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...

 that the boats of and Brev Drageren, under the command of Sub-Lieutenant George Anderson of Brev Drageren, cut out.

Between 18 and 25 March she captured Jeune Nicholas, Trois Freres, Vrow Johanna, Deux Freres, and the cargo Gerrit Peter Kripisz. Prize money was paid on 25 May 1813.

Operations in the Elbe, 1813

On 14 March 1813 Lieutenant Francis Banks, of the gun-brig Blazer, who commanded the small British force stationed off the island of Heligoland

Heligoland

Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

, received information that the Russian Army had entered Hamburg and that the French at Cuxhaven were in some distress. He took Brev Drageren and proceeded to the river Elbe

Elbe

The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...

 to intercept any fleeing French vessels. Early in the morning he found two abandoned gun-vessels that he destroyed. Then the British found that the French were destroying their flotilla of 20 large gun schuyts. The next day, by invitation from the shore, Banks landed with 32 troops that he had embarked at Heligoland and took possession of the batteries of Cuxhaven. On 17 March he agreed a treaty with the civil authorities that the British flag should be hoisted in conjunction with the colours of Hamburg. The Russians agreed that they would deliver all the military stores they captured to the two British vessels.

Brev Drageren and Blazer shared in the prize money

Prize money

Prize money has a distinct meaning in warfare, especially naval warfare, where it was a monetary reward paid out to the crew of a ship for capturing an enemy vessel...

 for the Ever Pascal, Deux Freres, Vrow Elizabeth, and stores at Cuxhaven and St. Cricq that they captured on 17 March.

On 21 March 1813, Devon took eight men and his 12-year old brother, Midshipman Frederick Devon, in Brev Dragerens gig

Captain's Gig

The captain's gig is a boat used on naval ships as the captain's private taxi. It is a catchall phrase for this type of craft and over the years it has gradually increased in size, changed with the advent of new technologies for locomotion, and been crafted from increasingly more durable...

. William Dunbar, Master of Blazer, took 11 men in Blazers cutter. Together the two boats went up river in search of a privateer reported to be in the area. Off the Danish port of Brunsbuttel

Brunsbüttel

Brunsbüttel is a town in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany that lies on the mouth of the Elbe river, near the North Sea. It is the location of the western entrance to the Kiel Canal, the eastern entrance being located at Kiel-Holtenau...

 they sighted two boats, one of which hailed them, ran up Danish colours and opened fire, fortunately over the heads of the British. Devon boarded the gunboat in the smoke of her second broadside, and possibly the explosion of some cartridges on her deck, and captured her. Blazers cutter came up and together the British sailors succeeded in imprisoning the Danish crew below deck. The gunboat turned out to be the Jonge-Troutman. She was under the command of Lieutenant Lutkin, had a crew of 25 men and carried two 18-pounders and three 12-pounders. Dunbar and the cutter then turned their attention to the second gunboat, the Liebe, and captured her too. She was under the command of Lieutenant Writt and had the same establishment as the Jonge-Troutman. The British suffered no casualties and the Danes suffered two wounded.

Admiral Young, the commander-in-chief of the British navy in the area, wrote to Devon, asking him to convey to his men the Admiralty's approbations of their conduct. He acknowledged that "gun-boats make but bad prizes" and therefore pledged that his share of any prize money should be distributed to the crews of the boats.

In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 March Boat Service 1813" to all surviving claimants of the action. There were three claimants. Frederick Devon was one. The other two went to Thomas Davies, then Assistant Surgeon of Brev Drageren and James Whiteman, then a Private in the Royal Marines

Royal Marines

The Corps of Her Majesty's Royal Marines, commonly just referred to as the Royal Marines , are the marine corps and amphibious infantry of the United Kingdom and, along with the Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary, form the Naval Service...

, stationed on Blazer.

On 4 May Devon received a promotion to commander. Brev Drageren was re-rated as a sloop-of-war

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 so that he could continue in command.

Operations in the Ems, 1813

Then on 10 July 1813 Brev Drageren was part of a squadron that captured eight small vessels in the Elbe and Weser. The squadron included , Calliope, , , the hired armed cutter Princess Augusta

Hired armed cutter Princess Augusta

The Hired armed cutter Princess Augusta served the Royal Navy from 12 July 1803 to 2 May 1814. She was armed with eight 4-pounder guns, had a complement of 26 men, and was of 70 tons burthen...

 and gunboats.

In August Brev Drageren was in company with when they captured the Danish droits Haabet and Evers, No. 73 and 123, on the 13th and 14th.

In October 1813 Captain Arthur Farquhar, of the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Desiree, arrived at Heligoland to assume command of the British naval forces there, including Brev Drageren. Brev Drageren, together with two gun-vessels, blockaded Delfzijl, which the French had fortified, by anchoring just outside the range of the French batteries. In this way she contained 17 armed vessels in the port. Devon also assisted in repelling numerous French sorties. Nevertheless, the French held out until the Allies occupied Paris in April 1814.

Devon came into conflict with the Prussian authorities when he prevented them from seizing spars in the custody of a British government agent. This resulted in Brev Drageren being recalled to England in July, though no blame attached to Devon

Fate

Being unfit for further service, Brev Drageren was hulked as a tender in 1815. On 6 January 1817 the Thames River police took her over for use as a depot. In July 1818 she became a prison ship and served in that capacity until 1820, when she became an Army depot ship. On 24 September 1825 the Navy listed her as available for sale. On 13 October 1825 Joshua Crystall bought Brev Drageren for breaking up.

external links

• Phillips, Michael - Ships of the Old Navy - Brevdrageren (1807).