HMS Scorpion (1803)
Encyclopedia
HMS Scorpion 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 John King at Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
and launched in 1803. She was the first of the class to be built since the launching of 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...
in 1797. Scorpion had a long and active career during 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...
, earning her crews three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal when the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
authorized it in 1847, two for single-ship actions. She also took a number of prizes. Scorpion was sold in 1819.
Service history
Scorpion was commissioned in November 1803 under Commander George Nicholas HardingeGeorge Nicholas Hardinge
George Nicholas Hardinge was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Possessing an ability to endear himself to senior officers through his intellect and good manners, he served under several important naval commanders, whose patronage allowed...
for the Channel and the Downs. Her first medal action took place between 28 March and 3 April.
Capture of the brig Atalanta
On 25 March 1804 Rear-Admiral Edward ThornbroughEdward Thornbrough
Admiral Sir Edward Thornbrough, GCB was a senior, long-serving veteran officer of the British Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. He saw action in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, being wounded several times and...
detached Scorpion to reconnoiter the Vlie Passage to the Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
. There he saw two Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
national brigs
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...
at anchor, the closest being Atalanta. She mounted sixteen long 12-pounders and had had 76 men on board.Atalanta had been built in 1796 at Vlissingen and was a sister ship to , which the British had captured in the West Indies in 1803 (Winfield 2008, p.273). The two sister ships were named for Atalanta
Atalanta
Atalanta is a character in Greek mythology.-Legend:Atalanta was the daughter of Iasus , a Boeotian or an Arcadian princess . She is often described as a goddess. Apollodorus is the only one who gives an account of Atalanta’s birth and upbringing...
and Hippomenes
Hippomenes
In Greek mythology, Hippomenes , also known as Melanion, was the husband of Atalanta.- Overview :When men who were struck by Atalanta's beauty watched her run through the forest, she became angry and told them "I will race anyone who wants to marry me! Whoever is so swift that he can outrun me will...
, two lovers from Greek mythology.
On 31 March the 14-gun ship-sloop , under Commander Charles Pelly (or Pelley), arrived. That night Hardinge led five boats, three from Scorpion and two from Beaver, with about 60 officers and men, including Pelly, to attack Atalanta, which was under the command of Captain Carp. Hardinge was first on deck. The decks were slippery after rain and he fell as he tackled a mate of the watch but he recovered and killed the mate. Hardinge then engaged Carp, who disarmed Hardinge; Woodward Williams, Scorpion's master, saved Hardinge, who then called on Carp to surrender. Carp kept on fighting until the British killed him. This necessity greatly distressed Hardinge, who admired Carp’s courage.
The Dutch finally surrendered after having lost their captain and three other men killed, and twelve officers and men wounded. All the British casualties were Scorpions; she had five wounded, including Williams and Lieutenant Buckland Bluett. The British put forty of the Dutch into irons below deck and prepared to capture the other brig. However, a gale
Gale
A gale is a very strong wind. There are conflicting definitions of how strong a wind must be to be considered a gale. The U.S. government's National Weather Service defines a gale as 34–47 knots of sustained surface winds. Forecasters typically issue gale warnings when winds of this strength are...
came up and at daybreak they saw that the gale had moved the vessels too far apart.
The gale lasted three days and until it passed it prevented the British from bringing Atalanta out. Eventually, the British sailed Atalanta back to Britain but did not take her into service.
On 2 May Hardinge buried Captain Carp with full military honours. Hardinge also freed the Dutch officers for the ceremony, one of whom performed a eulogy, and hoisted the Dutch colours. Thornbrough, under a flag of truce, sent Captain Carp's servant with Carp's effects to Batavian
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
Admiral Killkert for forwarding to Carp's relations.
Hardinge was promoted 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:...
and given the command of Proselyte
HMS Proselyte (1804)
The Royal Navy purchased the Newcastle collier Ramillies in June 1804 and commissioned her as HMS Proselyte in September 1804, having converted her to a 28-gun sixth rate in July and August. She carried 24 9-pounders and 4 6-pounders. She was wrecked, but with no loss of life, in...
.Actually, he never took command of Proselyte. Instead, after some travails, he became captain of , on which he had served some 15 years earlier as a midshipman. The Patriotic Society awarded a sword worth 100 guineas to both Hardinge and Pelly. Bluett was promoted to Commander and the command of . He was one of the three lieutenants who also received a sword worth 50 guineas. In 1847 tge Admiralty authorized the award of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Scorpion 31 March 1804" and "Beaver 31 March 1804", to any surviving claimants.Four former crewmen on Scorpion came forward to claim their medal and clasp. There were no claimants from Beaver.
On 28 March Scorpion detained the brig Charlotte, for which she received prize money.
Capture of the privateer Eer
Commander Philip Carteret replaced Hardinge as captain of Scorpion in 1804. On 8 July Carteret captured five ships: Juno, Vrow Hermine, Anna Pieter Brouer, General Von Blucher, and Vrow Margaretha. On 2 August Scorpion, with the hired armed cutter Lord NelsonHired armed cutter Lord Nelson
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Royal Navy used several vessels that bore the designation hired armed cutter Lord Nelson, all named for Lord Horatio Nelson.-First Hired armed cutter Lord Nelson:...
in company, captured the Prussian vessel Ignatius.
Then on 11 April 1805, Scorpion, in company with the hired armed brig Providence and sloop Thames, captured the Dutch 12-gun privateer Eer (also known as De Eer, D'Eer or Honneur).Prize money for the capture was paid shortly after 11 November 1805. She was carrying 1000 stands of arms, two 12-pounder field pieces, two mortars, uniforms for 1000 men, tents, and the like. She was also carrying M. Jean Saint-Faust who was traveling to Curaçao
Curaçao
Curaçao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The Country of Curaçao , which includes the main island plus the small, uninhabited island of Klein Curaçao , is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands...
to assume command of the naval forces of the Batavian Republic.
Scorpion shared in the prize money for the Dorothea Elizabeth, which a squadron of eleven ships under the command of Admiral Russel had captured on 14 May.
Willaumez's squadron and protection of trade off St Kitts
Carteret received a promotion to post-captainPost-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:...
on 22 January 1806, but Scorpion had just sailed to the Leeward Islands station and so it was some time before notification caught up with him. While on the Leward Islands station, he shadowed Admiral Willaumez's
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez was a French sailor and admiral of the First French Empire....
squadron, coming close enough at one point to draw several cannon shots.
In July 1806 Carteret helped Captain Kenneth McKenzie of Carysfort
HMS Carysfort (1766)
HMS Carysfort was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned over forty years....
save sixty-five deeply laden merchantmen at St. Kitts from destruction. Carteret sent a letter warning McKenzie that a French squadron under Admiral Willaumez
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez was a French sailor and admiral of the First French Empire....
had arrived at Martinique. Carysfort and the armed storeship Dolphin sailed leeward with their charges and so escaped the French, who had sailed from Fort Royal on 1 July. The French squadron succeeded in capturing three merchantmen at Monserrat and another three and a brig at Nevis; the fort on Brimstone Hill (St. Kitt's) and a battery on the beach protected nine others that had missed the convoy, though the French did attack them.
Commander Francis Stanfell had been appointed to command Scorpion on Carteret's promotion. However, he did not succeed in catching up with her until 1807. When Stanfell got to Barbados he found out that she had sailed to the North America station. After waiting some month in Barbados he received news that Scorpion was back at Plymouth and he sailed to join her.
Action against privateers on the Home Station
On 3 January 1807 Scorpion, still under the command of Carteret, was chasing a cutter some 15 miles south of The LizardThe Lizard
The Lizard is a peninsula in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The most southerly point of the British mainland is near Lizard Point at ....
. Pickle
HMS Pickle (1800)
HMS Pickle was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting. of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as an armed tender on the Jamaica Station...
came on the scene, made all sail, and succeeded in catching up with the quarry, with whom she exchanged two broadsides. Lieutenant Daniel Callaway of Pickle ran alongside the French vessel and his crew boarded and captured her. The French vessel was the privateer Favorite, of 14 guns and 70 men under the command of M. E. J. Boutruche. She was only two months old and had left Cherbourg two days before.
Out of her crew of 70 men, Favorite had lost one man killed and two wounded. Pickle had suffered two men severely wounded and one man slightly wounded.The Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Pickle 3 Jany. 1807" for this action. When Scorpion caught up she took off the 69 prisoners, who she then landed at Falmouth.
Later that year Scorpion captured three French privateers while on the Home station. On 16 February it was the Bougainville, some 12 miles south-west of the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
. She had 16 guns and 93 men and was 23 days out of Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
. Capturing her took a long chase and a 45 minute running fight during which the privateer lost several of crew killed; Scorpion had no casualties. A seaman's share of the bounty money was ₤3 5s
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
4¾d.
Before she captured the other two privateers, Scorpion captured several merchant vessels. On 28 July while now under the command of Stanfell and with in company, she captured the Danish ship Trende Sostre and the Hannah. Then one month later, on 28 August, still with Dryad in company, she captured the Hanna, and the Flora. On 4 September Scorpion captured the Carl Von Plessen. On 12 September Scorpion captured the Marianne. Because Scorpion was abroad, two-thirds of the prize money for Marianne and Carl von Plessen was paid to Greenwich Hospital.
On 18 September Scorpion was in company when Sir Edward Hughes captured the Christle. Also on that day, Scorpion was in company with when Scorpion captured the Nicholini. Lastly, on 12 October Scorpion captured the Danish ship Gerhard while and were in sight.
Then on 21 November it was the turn of the second privateer, the Glaneuse, to fall to Scorpion. Scorpion was about 100 miles south of Cape Clear and Stanfell had disguised her as disguised as a merchantman to lure privateers. That evening Stanfell in enticing the French privateer ketch Glaneuse to come within pistol range. Glaneuse was under the command of Louis Joseph Guinian, and carried 16 guns and 80 men. She was a new vessel, on her first cruise and ten days out of Saint-Malo. She had already taken two vessels: one was the ship Alfred bound for Poole from Newfoundland and the other was a Portuguese schooner that the privateer schooner Alarm had detained.
Lastly, on 3 December it was the privateer Glâneurs turn. Stanfell had obtained information from Glaneuse that enabled him to capture the privateer ketch Glâneur after a chase of 12 hours. She was under the command of M. Jaquel Fabre and had 10 guns and a crew of 60 men. She was 6 days out of Brest and had already taken two vessels: one was the brig Horatio, master David Mill, from London to Mogadore, and the other was the Portuguese Gloria, from Oporto to London. Glâneur had been preying on shipping for two years and had been the most successful privateer out of Saint-Malo. British vessels had repeatedly chased her but she had repeatedly escaped by "superiority of sailing".
On 9 December 1806, Glâneur had captured 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...
tender United Brothers, of four guns. In the fight, United Brothers had lost two men killed, one being her commander Lieutenant William McKenzie, and one man wounded.
On this cruise Glâneur had captured two vessels. One was the brig Horatio, David Mill, Master, which had been sailing from London to Mogadore. The other was the Portuguese ship Gloria, which had been sailing from Oporto to London.
On 24 December, Scorpion recaptured the Portuguese vessel Conde de Peniche.
Boat actions on the Leeward Islands station
Scorpion sailed to the Leeward Islands in 1807 and then returned home in 1808. She made at least one cruise to the coast of Portugal. On 24 May 1808 she captured the Maria. Scorpion sailed again for the Leeward Island on 3 April 1809.At the end of 1809 she formed part of the squadron off Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe...
under Captain Volant Vashon Ballard
Volant Vashon Ballard
Volant Vashon Ballard CB was a Rear-Admiral of the Royal Navy. He served as a midshipman with George Vancouver on his voyage to the north-west coast of America.-Early career:...
of Blonde. On 25 September Blonde, Facon and Scorpion sent their boats after an enemy vessel making for Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre
Basse-Terre is the prefecture of Guadeloupe, an overseas region and department of France located in the Lesser Antilles...
.Winfield (2008) has no record of any French or British naval vessel with the name Facon. Vashon Ballard names her in his letter reporting the action and so it is unlikely he made a mistake. She may have been a French privateer or letter-of-marque that the British had captured in the area and taken into service temporarily. To escape her pursuers, their quarry ran herself ashore in a bay between two batteries. The boat parties reached the French vessel despite cross-fire from the batteries and in the face of small arms fire from men on the beach. However, the British were unable to get the French vessel off. Instead, as she was bilged, they simply left.London Gazette, Issue 16339, 3 February 1810 British casualties amounted to two men wounded from Blonde, one of whom lost an arm and the other of whom later died.
On 15 December Scorpion sailed from Basseterre with a small squadron in search of a French squadron reported to be in the area. In subsequent days two sloops and two frigates joined the squadron. One of the sloops was Ringdove
HMS Ringdove (1806)
HMS Ringdove was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop that Matthew Warren built at Brightlingsea and launched in 1806. She took some prizes and participated in three actions or campaigns that qualified her crew for clasps to the Naval General Service Medal...
, a sister-ship to Scorpion. Though a part of the squadron, Scorpion apparently missed out on the Action of 17 December 1809
Roquebert's expedition to the Caribbean
Roquebert's expedition to the Caribbean, was an unsuccessful operation by a French naval squadron to transport supplies to Guadeloupe in December 1809 at the height of the Napoleonic Wars. Over the previous year, British Royal Navy squadrons had isolated and defeated the French Caribbean colonies...
in which a British squadron, first under Vashon Ballard and then under Captain Samuel James Ballard
Samuel James Ballard
Samuel James Ballard was a Vice-Admiral in the Royal Navy, baptised 28 March 1765 at St Thomas, Portsmouth, the son of Samuel Ballard, a burgess and chandler of Portsmouth, and Lydia née Flint daughter of James Flint of Epsom in Surrey.-Naval career:Ballard entered the navy in December 1776, under...
, destroyed two French frigates.
Capture of the brig Oreste
On 11 January 1810, Captain Vollant Ballard detached Stanfell to attempt to cut out a French brig anchored near the shore. At about 9pm Scorpion spotted the brig Oreste, of sixteen guns, clearing the north point of the bay. Stanfell set off in pursuit. During the chase Scorpions crew had to use her sweeps before she could close with Oreste at about 11:30pm. The action lasted for two to two-and-a-half hours, with Scorpion exposed to fire from the shore, before Oreste, which had been dismasted, struck her colours at 1:30am on 12 January. At this point a barge from Blonde arrived and assisted in the capture.Scorpion had four men wounded during the action; the French losses were two killed and ten wounded, including her captain. The Oreste was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two long 12-pounders and carried a crew of 110 men.Oreste had been built to a design by Notaire Granville and was launched at Le Havre in 1805. She had sailed from Bordeaux for Guadeloupe on 18 November 1809. She was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Monnier and was bound for France with a lieutenant-colonel and two other army officers and the captains and other officers from two French frigates as passengers. In addition to Blonde, Thetis and Pultusk also shared in the prize money by agreement.This last account may be an error as later prize money announcements make no mention of Pultusk and Thetis.
Oreste was a new vessel so the Royal Navy took took into service as Wellington. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Scorpion 12 Jany. 1810" to the survivors of the action.
Guadeloupe
Scorpion took part in the attack on GuadeloupeInvasion of Guadeloupe (1810)
The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British amphibious operation fought between 28 January and 6 February 1810 over control of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was the final remaining French colony in the Americas, following the systematic invasion and capture...
at the end of January 1810. Stanfell and a detachment of seamen served ashore with the 2nd division of the army under Brigadier General Harcourt. The French capitulated on 6 February and Scorpion then left for England on 10 February with Admiral Alexander Cochrane
Alexander Cochrane
Admiral Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane GCB RN was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars.-Naval career:...
’s dispatches; Stanfell arrived at the Admiralty Office on 15 March. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe".
Late career
Commander the Honorable John Gore took command in April 1810 and returned Scorpion to the Leeward Islands. While she was sailing to the windward of Martinique, she encountered a heavy squall. The squall broke some of her masts and swept three seamen overboard. Gore saw them struggling and jumped into the sea to rescue them. He succeeded in rescuing two; the third man was exhausted from battling the waves and drowned.Ironically, Gore drowned on 18 February 1812, off the coast of Africa. A seaman had fallen overboard and Gore again jumped in to save the man. The ship's boats attempted to save him but one swamped before it could come to the rescue, and he capsized a second trying to climb in. The cutter was able to rescue the men from the second boat, but Gore and the seaman he had tried to save were already lost.
Commander Robert Giles took command on 12 March 1812 on the Leeward Islands station. On 29 March 1813 Scorpion captured the Gustavus. On 8 May 1813 Scorpion sailed with a convoy to England that reached Plymouth on 28 June.
Fate
Scorpion was laid up at Sheerness in July 1813. She was sold there to G.F. Young for £1,100 on 3 February 1819.External site
- http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1992 Phillips, Michael: Ships of the old Navy