HMS Woodcock 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...

 Cuckoo-class

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...

 schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

 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. Crane & Holmes built and launched her at Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth

Great Yarmouth, often known to locals as Yarmouth, is a coastal town in Norfolk, England. It is at the mouth of the River Yare, east of Norwich.It has been a seaside resort since 1760, and is the gateway from the Norfolk Broads to the sea...

 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 Isaac Charles Smith Collett. She was wrecked 13 February 1807 at Vila Franca do Campo

Vila Franca do Campo

Vila Franca do Campo is a town and a municipality in the southern part of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores...

, São Miguel

São Miguel Island

São Miguel Island , nicknamed "The Green Island", is the largest and most populous island in the Portuguese Azores archipelago. The island covers and has around 140,000 inhabitants, 45,000 of these people located in the largest city in the archipelago: Ponta Delgada.-History:In 1427, São Miguel...

 in the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

. She and her sister ship had anchored there when a gale came up. Because of the storm it was impossible to clear the land and at 5pm Collett ran her ashore after her anchors had parted and water was continuously washing over her. Lines were passed to the shore and all her crew made it safely to land. Wagtail was wrecked three hours latter.