HMS Ferret was a 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...

 Cruizer-class brig-sloop

Cruizer class brig-sloop

The Cruizer class was an 18-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops were the same as ship-sloops except for their rigging...

 built by Benjamin Tanner at Dartmouth and launched in 1806, 19 months late. She served on the Jamaica, Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, and Leith

Leith

-South Leith v. North Leith:Up until the late 16th century Leith , comprised two separate towns on either side of the river....

 (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...

) stations during which time she took three privateers as prizes before she was wrecked in 1813.

Service

She was commissioned in March 1806 under Commander George Cadogan. On 21 June he sailed for the Leeward Islands. In early 1807 Lieutenant John Bowker may have briefly commanded Ferret before being promoted to commander and captain of .}

Commander George Gustavus Lennock then took command of Ferret in Jamaica. On 23 August 1807, Ferret, in company with Lark

HMS Lark (1794)

HMS Lark was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, built in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action...

, captured the French privateer schooner Mosquito, out of Santo Domingo. She had eight guns and a crew of 58 men, and had been cruising for some time without success.

Commander Samuel John Pechell took command of Ferret on 23 March 1808 on the Jamaica station. In April he sailed her for the Halifax

City of Halifax

Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

 station. On 16 June 1808 he received a promotion to post-captain

Post-Captain

Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:...

.

From June 1808 she was under Commander Richard Walter Wales.Later, Wales would be captain of Ferret's sister ship Epervier

HMS Epervier (1812)

HMS Epervier was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy built by Ross at Rochester, England, and launched on 2 December 1812. The USS Peacock captured her in 1814 and took her into service...

 when she fell victim to Peacock

USS Peacock (1813)

The first USS Peacock was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.Peacock was authorized by Act of Congress 3 March 1813, laid down 9 July 1813 by Adam & Noah Brown at the New York Navy Yard, and launched 19 September 1813. She served in the War of 1812, capturing twenty ships...

. On 26 October Ferret chased a French privateer schooner for four hours before Ferret was able to take her. The schooner was the Becune, and she was armed with one long 9-pounder gun amidships and two 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 carried a crew of 38 men. She was ten days out of Martinique and had made one capture.

In March 1809, Ferret and captured three French schooners. They were the June Rose (3 March), Rivals (12 March), and Duguay-Trouin

French ship Duguay-Trouin

Ten vessels of the French Navy have been named Duguay-Trouin in honour of René Duguay-Trouin; among them:* Duguay-Trouin , a 74-gun ship of the line...

 (30 March). Duguay Trouin was a letter of marque

Letter of marque

In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...

 schooner. She was commissioned in April in the Royal Navy to carry eight guns. She then served in Sir John Borlase Warren

John Borlase Warren

Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet , was an English admiral, politician and diplomat. Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, he was the son and heir of John Borlase Warren of Stapleford and Little Marlow...

's squadron as .

Between November 1811 and February 1812 Ferret underwent repairs at Portsmouth, with Commander Francis Alexander Halliday assuming command in December 1811.

Fate

On 6 January 1813 Ferret left Leith and sailed for Portsmouth. The next evening she grounded and bilged near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

Newbiggin-by-the-Sea

Newbiggin-by-the-Sea is a small town in Northumberland, England, lying on the North Sea coast. Once an important port for shipping grain and a coal mining town, it is still a small fishing port making use of traditional coble boats.- History :...

 (Northumberland

Northumberland

Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...

), due to the inattention and ignorance of her pilot. The pilot, Robert Muckle, was barred from ever serving as a pilot again and was sentenced to three months in the Marshalsea

Marshalsea

The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...

 prison. The court martial reprimanded the Master, Charles Lupton, for failing to keep a reckoning of her position and sentenced him to the loss of one year's seniority.

Her crew was saved and ten days later she was abandoned as a wreck. One boat from Ferret took advantage of the opportunity to desert. A press gang

Impress

Impress or Impression may refer to:*OpenOffice.org Impress, a presentation program included in the OpenOffice.org office suite.*Lotus Impress a WYSIWYG editor for Lotus 1-2-3.*OfficeMax ImPress Print & Document Services, a division of OfficeMax, Inc...

 picked up three of the deserters, who received sentences of 100 lashes on their bare backs with a cat o' nine tails

Cat o' nine tails

The cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to the cat, is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, notably in the Royal Navy and Army of the United Kingdom, and also as a judicial punishment in Britain and some other...

.