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HMS Druid (1783)
Encyclopedia
HMS Druid was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth-rate
frigate of the Royal Navy
, launched in 1783 at Bristol
. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars
and the Napoleonic Wars
, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Phillip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship. She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.
. He was succeeded the following year by Captain George Byron, who commanded her off Land's End
. Captain Joseph Ellison replaced Byron in 1785, and remained in command for the next ten years. Druid served as a Royal escort between 1785 and 1788, returning to service in 1791 after a period paid off and under refit.
Druid and the smugglers On 31 January 1788 a boat belonging to Druid captured the smuggler's lugger Revenge in Cawsand Bay
. The lugger, under the command of a Henry Carter, belonged to Guernsey and was bringing in alcohol and other prohibited goods. Before Druids boat could board the lugger, the smugglers fired on it. In the subsequent action, the smugglers killed one of Druids crew and wounded seven. By the time the boarding party reached the lugger, the master and ten crewmen had fled. The British Government offered a pardon to any smuggler, other than the master, giving information leading to the arrest of two other smugglers, and also offered a reward of ₤200 to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of two or more smugglers.
in April 1792 and, with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, returned to operate in home waters. At some point in 1793 she was in company with when they captured the French merchant vessels Vaudrieul and Diare. Druid herself also captured the Dauphin. In June she captured the French 12-gun privateer Esperance in the English Channel. In early 1794, Druid was in company with , , and when Flora captured the French sloop Viper. Viper was a new sloop of 18 guns and was captured outside of Havre de Grace.
Also in 1794, Druid was part of a frigate squadron that escaped from the 50-gun French Scévola
and Brutus
.
In 1795 Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds
replaced Ellison, but was himself replaced the same year by Captain Richard King
. King convoyed merchant ships to and from Portugal
until early 1797, when Druid participated in the operations against the French Expédition d'Irlande
. On 7 January she helped and capture the Ville de Lorient. Ville de Lorient was a frigate, armed en flute
, i.e., she had reduced armament to permit her to serve as a transport. She was carrying 400 hussars to join the rebels in Ireland, together with weapons and supplies.
Druid also shared with and in the capture of the French privateer Eclair. Unicorn was the actual captor. Eclair was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men.
King then moved to another ship, with command of Druid transferring to Captain (acting) Edward Codrington
. Druid was paid off in March 1797.
On 5 November 1796 Druid was in company with , and when they captured the Spanish ship Adriana.
Druid was fitted out as a 16-gun troopship
between February and April 1798 under the command of Commander Edward Abthrorpe. On 14 May she sailed from Margate to take part in Sir Home Popham's failed attack on Ostend
. The British troops landed and destroyed some sluices and locks to block gunboats and transports at Flushing
from joining an invasion of Britain. However, high surf prevented the retrieval of the troops, and the landing party suffered 60 men dead and wounded, and 1134 captured. The captives included John MacKellar of the frigate and his boat crew. The sluices were repaired within weeks.
Druid sailed to the Mediterranean in 1801 to support operations in Egypt, before sailing to the West Indies the following year. Druid came under the command of Commander Charles Ross in 1802, returning to Britain later that year to be paid off.
without having made any captures. She was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 127 men. Druid sent Prince Murat into Plymouth.
On 1 May 1806 Druid chased the French brig corvette
Pandour, bound for France from Senegal, 160 miles into Rear Admiral Charles Stirling
's squadron where she was brought to; Druid had to share the prize money with Stirling's entire squadron and so earnt relatively little for the long chase. Pandour was under the command of M. Malingre and had a crew of 114 men. She had been armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns, but her crew had thrown two of the guns overboard during the chase. Stirling instructed Broke to bring her into Plymouth, where they arrived on 9 May.
About the same time Druid chased a large frigate into the Passage du Raz, near Brest. She was probably the Topaze. Due to missed communication between Druid and , Topaze escaped.
Next, Broke caught up with the Guernsey privateer Providence with a view to pressing
some of her crew. However, when he heard how she had held off a French privateer off Bilbao, he did not take any of Providences crew. During this cruise Druid captured a neutral vessel with a Prussian cargo, which made her a legitimate prize. Then Broke chased the Guernsey privateer cutter Hope for some 76 hours before he was able to catch her and impress some seamen from her. Lastly, he sailed Druid northwest of Ireland to intercept the returning Greenland whalers. He was able to impress 12-20 seamen from the whalers to add to Druids crew.
Broke was then appointed to in June 1806 but his replacement, Captain John R. Bennett, came aboard Druid on 31 August. Therefore, when Druid captured the Swanen on 2 July, she was still under Broke's command.Because she was at sea, Broke did not actually join Shannon until 14 September.
Captain Donald H. Mackay then replaced Bennet. On 14 February 1808, Druid captured the Danish brig Catharina.
Captain Sir William Bolton took command later in 1808. On 19 March 1809 Druid captured the schooner Belle Hortense. On 25 June Druid captured the French private ship of war Jenny and her cargo.
On 13 November Druid captured the French navy brig Basque, armed with 16 guns with a crew of 112 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseaux Liscourt. She had been sailing from Bayonne to Guadaloupe, with flour and other stores.
On 23 November Druid brought a French brig, that may or may not have been the Basque, into Cork. Druid had sighted three strange sails at night. There being no wind, Bolton sent out three boats, admonishing the officers to take care and to attack if any of the vessels should be a French warship. Unfortunately, the officers did not heed the warning and went in seriatim, with their quarry killing or capturing their crews. Bolton was unaware of what had happened. The French vessel then took to her sweeps. Next morning Bolton followed her with his sweeps, but again lost her that night. By chance, on the second morning he encountered her again, and this time there was enough of a breeze that he could catch her after a chase. When he did, the newspaper accounts report that he found that she was a large privateer. He also was able to recover those of his men who had been taken prisoner. Apparently, Druid had lost 10 men killed and wounded, in addition to the 17 prisoners that he recovered. The two brigs that had been with the French vessel on the first night had long escaped.
In August 1810 Captain Sir John Lewis assumed command, sailing Druid for the Mediterranean on 28 August. In May 1811 Captain John Searle took command, followed the next month by Captain Abel Ferris.
Fifth-rate
In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...
frigate 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...
, launched in 1783 at Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. She served in the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and 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...
, capturing numerous small prizes. One of her commanders, Captain Phillip Broke, described Druid as a "point of honour ship", i.e., a ship too large to run but too small to fight. He and his biographer's view was that it was a disgrace to use a ship like her as a warship. She was broken up in 1813, after a thirty-year career.
Career
Druid entered service in 1783 under the command of Captain John MacBrideJohn MacBride (Royal Navy officer)
John MacBride was an officer of the Royal Navy and a politician who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral of the Blue.MacBride entered the navy after serving on merchant vessels and...
. He was succeeded the following year by Captain George Byron, who commanded her off Land's End
Land's End
Land's End is a headland and small settlement in west Cornwall, England, within the United Kingdom. It is located on the Penwith peninsula approximately eight miles west-southwest of Penzance....
. Captain Joseph Ellison replaced Byron in 1785, and remained in command for the next ten years. Druid served as a Royal escort between 1785 and 1788, returning to service in 1791 after a period paid off and under refit.
Druid and the smugglers On 31 January 1788 a boat belonging to Druid captured the smuggler's lugger Revenge in Cawsand Bay
Cawsand Bay
Cawsand Bay is a bay on the south-east coast of Cornwall, United Kingdom.The bay takes its name from the village of Cawsand at , to the north-east of the Rame Peninsula...
. The lugger, under the command of a Henry Carter, belonged to Guernsey and was bringing in alcohol and other prohibited goods. Before Druids boat could board the lugger, the smugglers fired on it. In the subsequent action, the smugglers killed one of Druids crew and wounded seven. By the time the boarding party reached the lugger, the master and ten crewmen had fled. The British Government offered a pardon to any smuggler, other than the master, giving information leading to the arrest of two other smugglers, and also offered a reward of ₤200 to anyone providing information leading to the arrest of two or more smugglers.
French Revolutionary wars
Druid sailed to JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
in April 1792 and, with the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, returned to operate in home waters. At some point in 1793 she was in company with when they captured the French merchant vessels Vaudrieul and Diare. Druid herself also captured the Dauphin. In June she captured the French 12-gun privateer Esperance in the English Channel. In early 1794, Druid was in company with , , and when Flora captured the French sloop Viper. Viper was a new sloop of 18 guns and was captured outside of Havre de Grace.
Also in 1794, Druid was part of a frigate squadron that escaped from the 50-gun French Scévola
French ship Illustre (1781)
The Illustre was a 74-gun Magnanime class ship of the line of the French Navy.She took part in the campaigns of Suffren before staying in Brest between 1788 and 1791. She was razeed into a 44-gun frigate in 1793....
and Brutus
French ship Diadème (1756)
The Diadème was the lead ship of the Diadème class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.On 17 March 1757, along with the 64-gun Éveillé, she captured HMS Greenwich, commanded by Captain Robert Roddam, off Saint-Domingue....
.
In 1795 Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds
Robert Carthew Reynolds
Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds was a long serving and widely respected officer of the British Royal Navy who served in four separate major wars in a 52 year career...
replaced Ellison, but was himself replaced the same year by Captain Richard King
Sir Richard King, 2nd Baronet
Vice Admiral Sir Richard King, 2nd Baronet KCB was an officer in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, who fought with distinction at the battle of Trafalgar despite being amongst the youngest captains present.King was the son of Sir Richard King, 1st Baronet, a...
. King convoyed merchant ships to and from Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
until early 1797, when Druid participated in the operations against the French Expédition d'Irlande
Expédition d'Irlande
The Expédition d'Irlande was an unsuccessful attempt by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule...
. On 7 January she helped and capture the Ville de Lorient. Ville de Lorient was a frigate, armed en flute
En flûte
Arming a ship en flûte means removing some or all of the artillery. Since ships have a limited amount of cargo space, they may be armed en flûte to make room for other cargo, such as troops and ammunition...
, i.e., she had reduced armament to permit her to serve as a transport. She was carrying 400 hussars to join the rebels in Ireland, together with weapons and supplies.
Druid also shared with and in the capture of the French privateer Eclair. Unicorn was the actual captor. Eclair was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men.
King then moved to another ship, with command of Druid transferring to Captain (acting) Edward Codrington
Edward Codrington
Admiral Sir Edward Codrington GCB RN was a British admiral, hero of the Battle of Trafalgar and the Battle of Navarino.-Early life and career:...
. Druid was paid off in March 1797.
On 5 November 1796 Druid was in company with , and when they captured the Spanish ship Adriana.
Druid was fitted out as a 16-gun troopship
Troopship
A troopship is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime...
between February and April 1798 under the command of Commander Edward Abthrorpe. On 14 May she sailed from Margate to take part in Sir Home Popham's failed attack on Ostend
Ostend
Ostend is a Belgian city and municipality located in the Flemish province of West Flanders. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke , Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the largest on the Belgian coast....
. The British troops landed and destroyed some sluices and locks to block gunboats and transports at Flushing
Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
from joining an invasion of Britain. However, high surf prevented the retrieval of the troops, and the landing party suffered 60 men dead and wounded, and 1134 captured. The captives included John MacKellar of the frigate and his boat crew. The sluices were repaired within weeks.
Druid sailed to the Mediterranean in 1801 to support operations in Egypt, before sailing to the West Indies the following year. Druid came under the command of Commander Charles Ross in 1802, returning to Britain later that year to be paid off.
Napoleonic Wars
A period of repair and refit began in 1804 which saw her returning to service as a 32-gun fifth rate in April 1805 under the command of Captain Philip Broke. Druid operated from Ireland and soon afterwards captured the privateer Prince Murat on 2 February 1806 after a chase of 90 miles. Prince Murat, under the command of M. Rine Murin, was five days out of LorientLorient
Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...
without having made any captures. She was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 127 men. Druid sent Prince Murat into Plymouth.
On 1 May 1806 Druid chased the French brig corvette
Corvette
A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or fast attack craft , although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role...
Pandour, bound for France from Senegal, 160 miles into Rear Admiral Charles Stirling
Charles Stirling
Sir Charles Stirling was a vice-admiral in the Royal Navy.-Early life and career:Charles Stirling was born in London on 28 April 1760 and baptised at St. Albans on 15 May. The son of Admiral Sir Walter Stirling, he was born into a family with a long and proud naval tradition. Stirling joined the...
's squadron where she was brought to; Druid had to share the prize money with Stirling's entire squadron and so earnt relatively little for the long chase. Pandour was under the command of M. Malingre and had a crew of 114 men. She had been armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns, but her crew had thrown two of the guns overboard during the chase. Stirling instructed Broke to bring her into Plymouth, where they arrived on 9 May.
About the same time Druid chased a large frigate into the Passage du Raz, near Brest. She was probably the Topaze. Due to missed communication between Druid and , Topaze escaped.
Next, Broke caught up with the Guernsey privateer Providence with a view to pressing
Press gang
Press gang may refer to:*Impressment, the practice of 'pressing' men into military service*Press Gang, the British children's television series...
some of her crew. However, when he heard how she had held off a French privateer off Bilbao, he did not take any of Providences crew. During this cruise Druid captured a neutral vessel with a Prussian cargo, which made her a legitimate prize. Then Broke chased the Guernsey privateer cutter Hope for some 76 hours before he was able to catch her and impress some seamen from her. Lastly, he sailed Druid northwest of Ireland to intercept the returning Greenland whalers. He was able to impress 12-20 seamen from the whalers to add to Druids crew.
Broke was then appointed to in June 1806 but his replacement, Captain John R. Bennett, came aboard Druid on 31 August. Therefore, when Druid captured the Swanen on 2 July, she was still under Broke's command.Because she was at sea, Broke did not actually join Shannon until 14 September.
Captain Donald H. Mackay then replaced Bennet. On 14 February 1808, Druid captured the Danish brig Catharina.
Captain Sir William Bolton took command later in 1808. On 19 March 1809 Druid captured the schooner Belle Hortense. On 25 June Druid captured the French private ship of war Jenny and her cargo.
On 13 November Druid captured the French navy brig Basque, armed with 16 guns with a crew of 112 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseaux Liscourt. She had been sailing from Bayonne to Guadaloupe, with flour and other stores.
On 23 November Druid brought a French brig, that may or may not have been the Basque, into Cork. Druid had sighted three strange sails at night. There being no wind, Bolton sent out three boats, admonishing the officers to take care and to attack if any of the vessels should be a French warship. Unfortunately, the officers did not heed the warning and went in seriatim, with their quarry killing or capturing their crews. Bolton was unaware of what had happened. The French vessel then took to her sweeps. Next morning Bolton followed her with his sweeps, but again lost her that night. By chance, on the second morning he encountered her again, and this time there was enough of a breeze that he could catch her after a chase. When he did, the newspaper accounts report that he found that she was a large privateer. He also was able to recover those of his men who had been taken prisoner. Apparently, Druid had lost 10 men killed and wounded, in addition to the 17 prisoners that he recovered. The two brigs that had been with the French vessel on the first night had long escaped.
In August 1810 Captain Sir John Lewis assumed command, sailing Druid for the Mediterranean on 28 August. In May 1811 Captain John Searle took command, followed the next month by Captain Abel Ferris.