HMS Crane (1806)
Encyclopedia
HMS Crane was a Royal Navy
Cuckoo-class schooner
of four 12-pounder carronade
s and a crew of 20. She was built by Custance & Stone at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooner
s, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
She was commissioned in 1806 under Lieutenant John Cameron for the North Sea. In 1808 she was under a Lieutenant Mitchell, and then under Lieutenant Joseph Tindale.
At 7:30pm on 25 October 1808 she was driven from her anchorage at Plymouth. She dropped a second anchor. By 4am she was near shore and got under way to make for the Sound. She returned three hours later to find an anchorage but a squall hit her as she went about. She let go an anchor but struck a rock off Plymouth Hoe
. She fired her guns to signal distress, which brought out several boats from the dockyard. With some assistance she was refloated but she went aground again. She sank in deeper water with her starboard gunwhale just clearing the surface. Boats picked up all her crew from the water. She was later broken up.
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...
Cuckoo-class schooner
Cuckoo class schooner
The Cuckoo class was a class of twelve 4-gun schooners of the Royal Navy, built by contract in English shipyards during the Napoleonic War. They followed the design of the Bermuda-designed and built Ballahoo-class schooners, and more particularly, that of Haddock. The Admiralty ordered all twelve...
of 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 and a crew of 20. She was built by Custance & Stone at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooner
Ballahoo class schooner
The Ballahoo class was a Royal Navy class of eighteen 4-gun schooners built under contract in Bermuda during the Napoleonic War. The class was an attempt by the Admiralty to harness the expertise of Bermudian shipbuilders who were renowned for their fast-sailing craft...
s, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
She was commissioned in 1806 under Lieutenant John Cameron for the North Sea. In 1808 she was under a Lieutenant Mitchell, and then under Lieutenant Joseph Tindale.
At 7:30pm on 25 October 1808 she was driven from her anchorage at Plymouth. She dropped a second anchor. By 4am she was near shore and got under way to make for the Sound. She returned three hours later to find an anchorage but a squall hit her as she went about. She let go an anchor but struck a rock off Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe
Plymouth Hoe, referred to locally as the Hoe, is a large south facing open public space in the English coastal city of Plymouth. The Hoe is adjacent to and above the low limestone cliffs that form the seafront and it commands views of Plymouth Sound, Drake's Island, and across the Hamoaze to Mount...
. She fired her guns to signal distress, which brought out several boats from the dockyard. With some assistance she was refloated but she went aground again. She sank in deeper water with her starboard gunwhale just clearing the surface. Boats picked up all her crew from the water. She was later broken up.