“HMS Snake (1797)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

HMS Snake was launched in 1797 as the only member of her class of brig-sloops. She captured or destroyed two French privateers and one Danish privateer. She also captured numerous small merchantmen, but spent time escorting convoys to and from the West Indies. She was sold in 1816.

Design

Snake was the sole vessel of her class. Her designer was Sir William Rule. He produced two designs, one for a ship-sloop (Snake), and one for a brig-sloop ({{HMS|Cruizer|1797|2}}) that differed only in their rigging. His designs were in competition with those of John Henslow, who produced the ship-sloop {{HMS|Echo|1797|2}} and the brig-sloop {{HMS|Busy|1797|2}}. Rule's brig-sloop design won. The Admiralty ultimately ordered 106 Cruizer-class brig-sloops. In 1811, the Navy converted Snake to a brig-sloop, making her indistinguishable from the Cruizer-class brig-sloops.

Career

On the morning of 10 November 1799 Eurydice was some three leagues south-east of Beachy Head, when she sighted a schooner and a brig. The schooner made off as soon as she saw the ship and the brig hove to and hoisted her ensign upside down. The brig Diana, which had been carrying a cargo of coal from Sunderland, informed Eurydice that Diana had repelled an attack by a French privateer, suffering one man badly wounded while doing so. Eurydice sent over a boat and her surgeon, Mr. Pardie, had to amputate the arm of the wounded man on Diana. Eurydice then set off in chase. At around 11a.m. Snake came up and joined the chase. Halfway through the afternoon Eurydice came nearly within gunshot of the privateer which bore up and tried to cross Snake. Snake thwarted the attempt and the privateer then lowered her sails, enabling Snake to send over a boarding party. The schooner was Hirondelle, of fourteen 3 and 4-pounder guns, with a crew of 50 men under the command of Pierre Merie Dugerdin. Hirondelle had left Calais the previous day and had not made any captures.^[2] She was under the command of Jean Fresson.^[3]

On 3 February 1800 Snake sailed from Spithead with {{HMS|Melpomene|1794|2}} and {{HMS|Magnanime|1780|2}}. They were escorts to the convoy of some 150 ships to African and the East Indies.^[4] Snake parted from the convoy on 25 March in a terrible storm. She was not heard from for so long that it was believed that she had been lost. However, on 14 October she returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Africa. She brought at prize with her.^[5]

This was almost surely the brig Less Amis that Snake captured on 13 September 1800.^[6]

Commander William Roberts replaced Tinling, who had been promoted to post captain. On 23 February Roberts sailed Snake as escort to a convoy for West Africa. However, contrary winds forced her to return to St Helen's. She was assigned to the Africa station.^[12]

The French frigate {{HMS|Guerriere|1806|2}} was initially trapped in harbour by the Blockade of Saint-Domingue. She was with the 74-gun Duguay-Trouin on 24 July 1803, when a British ship sighted Duguay-Truin off Cape Picolet. The 74-gun {{HMS|Elephant|1786|6}} gave chase, and the two ships exchanged several broadsides. Snake appeared on the north-west quarter, but Elephant, either because of the appearance of Guerrière to windward, or for another unexplained reason, failed to maintain her position alongside Duguay-Trouin. Consequently, both French ships were able to escape. However, Duquesne, a 74-gun armed en flûte, was captured.

On 10 November Snake chased a French privateer all day. In trying to evade him after dark the privateer grounded on Rocky Point near the east end of Jamaica. The quarry was Esperance. Snake captured her 60 crew members and took them into Port Royal.^[13]{{refn|Head money was paid in 1825. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £87 12s 1½d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 13s 8¾d.^[14]|group=Note}}

The London Morning Post reported on 12 November 1803 that Snake had detained 12 vessels, most of which were American. They were bound from Jérémie to Cape François and Snake sent them into Port Royal.

In the spring of 1804 Commander Roberts commanded a small force based at New Providence in the Bahamas.^[15]

Between March and August 1807 Snake underwent a Middling Repair at Chatham. In July Commander Thomas Young recommissioned her for the Leith Station. In August Snake was at the Nore and so was among the vessels that benefited from the proceeds of the Danish vessels detained there.^[17] The vessels Printz Frederick, Freden, Elizabeth, Vrow Anna, Margdretha, Anna Elizabeth, and Cecilia were detained between the 26 and 29 August, and Cupido was detained on 1 September.^[18]

On 15 October Snake was in company with {{HMS|Piercer|1804|2}} and {{HMS|Leyden|1799|2}} at the capture of the Danish brig Narhvalen and so later shared in the proceeds.^[19]

Between April and May 1809 Snake was at Sheerness being converted from a sloop to a brig.^[1]

On 24 June 1809 Snake and {{HMS|Fancy|1806|2}} were in company and so later shared in the proceeds from the capture of the Danish galliot Catherina.^[20]

On 21 July the brig Johanna Catherina, a prize to Snake, arrived at Leith.^[21]^[22]

On 22 July Snake and Fancy attacked the town of Hammerfest. Before reaching Hammerfest, the British vessels had looted the village of Hasvik, laying waste to the small fishing community. The battle between Hammerfest's two two-cannon batteries and the British warships with a total of 32 cannon was surprisingly intense and did not end before the Norwegian cannons had run out of gunpowder after about 90 minutes of combat. Both attacking warships had suffered a number of cannonball hits and had at least one fatal casualty; a sailor who was buried at the local cemetery. During the battle, the local populace had been able to escape with most of the town's goods, but the raiding warships still stayed in the good port of Hammerfest for eight days. During their stay the Royal Navy sailors looted all they could get their hands on, including the church donation box and some of the church's silver.

On 8 August, Snake captured a Danish galliot, name unknown. The sales proceeds were remitted from Gothenburg.^[24]

Also on 8 August three Danish vessels arrived at Leith. They were prizes to {{HMS|Nightingale|1805|2}}, Snake, and {{HMS|Naiad|1797|2}}.^[25] One may have been the Danish privateer schooner Roland, which Snake had captured the day before.^[26]^[27]

On 30 August Frederick of Oldenburgh, from Archangel, came into Leith. The Danes had captured her, and Snake had recaptured her.^[28] A later prize money announcement makes clearer that Snake had recaptured the galliot Oldenburg, Carl Frederick Janvaril-Veer, master.^[29]

On 25 October Snake and {{HMS|Briseis|1808|2}} were in company at the recapture of Ulrica Wilhelmina.^[33]

In November Commander William Hellard replaced Commander Young. Snake continued to serve on the Leith Station.^[1]

On 18 April 1811 a Danish schooner with a cargo of grain arrived at Leith. She was a prize to Snake.^[34] On 8 May Snake captured a Danish sloop of unknown name.^[35]

Hellard received promotion to post captain on 12 August 1812,^[37] and Commander George Robbin took command of Snake for the Jamaica station.^[1] Snake was among the vessels benefiting from the seizure on 12 August of the American vessels Cuba, Caliban, Edward, Galen, Halcyon, and Cygnet, shortly after the commencement of the War of 1812.^[38]

On 1 December Snake captured Twende Sostre, Winther, master, on 21 January 1813 Splied, Pederson, master.^[39] Commander Robbin died while on the Jamaica station.^[40]

From 16 February 1814 to October 1815 Commander Joseph Gape was in command of Snake.,^[41] She made one more capture, that of the smuggling lugger Fox on 11 May 1815.{{refn|A first-class share was worth £3 13s; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 6¼d.^[42]|group=Note}}

Fate

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered for sale on 18 April 1816, lying at Sheerness, the "Snake brig, of 386 tons".^[43] She sold there on that day for £820.^[1]

Notes, citations, and references

1. ^¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸Winfield (2008), p.264-5.
2. ^{{London Gazette|date=12 November 1799|issue=15203|page=1168}}
3. ^Demerliac (2004), n°1778, p.221.
4. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 3, p.155.
5. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 4, p.345.
6. ^{{London Gazette|date=1 May 1804|issue=15698|page=563}}
7. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 4, p.524.
8. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 4, p.347.
9. ^Marshall (1824), Vol. 2, p..324.
10. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 5, p.96.
11. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 5, p.183.
12. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 5, p.552.
13. ^{{London Gazette|date=24 January 1804|issue=15669|page=111}}
14. ^{{London Gazette|date=30 August 1825|issue=18171|page=1588}}
15. ^{{London Gazette|date=29 May 1804|issue=15706|page=676}}
16. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735022?urlappend=%3Bseq=141 Lloyd's List №4245.]
17. ^{{London Gazette|date=27 July 1811|issue=16508|page=1461}}
18. ^{{London Gazette|date=17 August 1811|issue=16514|page=1623}}
19. ^{{London Gazette|date=19 May 1810|issue=16371|page=733}}
20. ^{{London Gazette|date=9 June 1810|issue=16377|page=848}}
21. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735024?urlappend=%3Bseq=127 Lloyd's List №4374.]
22. ^{{London Gazette|date=24 February 1810|issue=16345|page=290}}
23. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735024?urlappend=%3Bseq=129 Lloyd's List №4375.]
24. ^{{London Gazette|date=10 January 1809|issue=16217|page=51}}
25. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735024?urlappend=%3Bseq=135 Lloyd's List]] №4378.]
26. ^{{London Gazette|date=10 January 1810|issue=16341|page=223}}
27. ^{{London Gazette|date=6 August 1811|issue=16511|page=1553}}
28. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735024?urlappend=%3Bseq=149 Lloyd's List №4385.]
29. ^{{London Gazette|date=28 November 1809|issue=16320|page=1913}}
30. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735024?urlappend=%3Bseq=155 Lloyd's List №4388.]
31. ^{{London Gazette|date=29 May 1810|issue=16374|page=782}}
32. ^{{London Gazette|date=12 October 1811|issue=16530|page=1996}}
33. ^{{London Gazette|date=12 March 1811|issue=16463|page=485}}
34. ^[https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735025?urlappend=%3Bseq=73 Lloyd's List №4556.]
35. ^{{London Gazette|date=21 September 1813|issue=16779|page=1903}}
36. ^The Times, 8 November 1811, p.3.
37. ^Marshall (1829), Supplement, Part 3, p.108.
38. ^{{London Gazette|date=21 October 1815|issue=17072|page=2129}}
39. ^{{London Gazette|date=13 July 1813|issue=16752|page=1385}}
40. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 31, p.439.
41. ^Marshall (1833), Vol. 4, p.151.
42. ^{{London Gazette|date=7 May 1822|issue=17815|page=759–60}}
43. ^{{London Gazette|date=9 April 1816|issue=17126|page=666}}