HMS Weazel (sometimes spelt Weazle and Weasel) 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...

 18-gun , launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon

Topsham, Devon

Topsham is a suburb of Exeter in the county of Devon, England, on the east side of the River Exe, immediately north of its confluence with the River Clyst and the former's estuary, between Exeter and Exmouth. Although village-sized, with a current population of around 5,023, it was designated a...

. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars, was decommissioned in 1815 and was sold for breaking in 1825.

Service

Weazel entered service in 1805, under the command of Commander Peter Parker

Sir Peter Parker, 2nd Baronet

Captain Sir Peter Parker, 2nd Baronet was an English naval officer, the son of Vice-Admiral Christopher Parker and Augusta Byron....

 in the Mediterranean. In 1806 command passed John Clavell, who operated off Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 before serving in the Adriatic Sea

Adriatic Sea

The Adriatic Sea is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges...

 and off Corfu

Corfu

Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...

 at the start of the Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814

Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814

The Adriatic campaign was a minor theatre of war during the Napoleonic Wars in which a succession of small British Royal Navy squadrons and independent cruisers harried the combined naval forces of the First French Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Illyrian Provinces and the Kingdom of Naples...

. Clavell was visiting Corfu when word arrived that the island had been been transferred from Russian control to France in the Treaty of Tilsit. Escaping from the newly arrived French garrison, Weasel captured or destroyed a number of French transports before bringing the news back to Malta

Malta

Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...

.

In 1808, Henry Prescott took command off Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

 and Weazel took part in coastal opartions off Italy and in hunting privateers in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1811 command passed to John Strutt Peyton, who took Weazel to the Aegean Sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

, operating off Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

. In 1812, Weazel, commanded now by John William Andrew, moved to the Adriatic again, and joined the ship of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

 HMS Victorious

HMS Victorious (1808)

HMS Victorious was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Bucklers Hard on 20 October 1808, just five years after the previous had been broken up....

. Together the ships watched Venice

Venice

Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...

 harbour and observed the completion and departure of the French ship of the line Rivoli

French ship Rivoli (1810)

The Rivoli was a Téméraire class ship of the line of the French Navy.Rivoli was built in Venice, whose harbour was too shallow for a 74 to exit. To allow her to depart, a system of external ballasts, known as Chameaux , was added to improved her Buoyancy...

. In the Action of 22 February 1812

Action of 22 February 1812

The Battle of Pirano on 22 February 1812 was a minor naval action of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of the town of Piran in Adriatic Sea. The French Rivoli, named for Napoleon's victory 15 years earlier, had been...

, Victorious and Weazel chased and defeated Rivoli and her escorts, Weazel holding off the small ships guarding Rivoli and destroying one, while Victorious defeated and captured the French ship of the line.

Weazel remained in the Adriatic into 1813, assisting George Cadogan

George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan

Admiral George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan KMT, CB was a prominent British Royal Navy officer and politician of the mid-nineteenth century who first gained notoriety for his service in the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars in command of...

 in HMS Havannah

HMS Havannah (1811)

HMS Havannah was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was launched at the Liverpool yard of Wilson & Co. in 1811 and was one of twenty-seven Apollo-class frigates...

in his raiding campaign on the Italian coast. At the end of the campaign in early 1814, Weazel returned to Britain.

External links

• Ships of the Old Navy