HMS Lynx (1794)
Encyclopedia
HMS Lynx was a 16-gun ship-rigged sloop of the Cormorant class
Cormorant class ship-sloop
The Cormorant class were built as a 16-gun class of ship-sloops for the Royal Navy, although an extra 2 guns were added soon after completion.-Design:...

 in the 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...

, launched in 1794 at Gravesend
Gravesend, Kent
Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, on the south bank of the Thames, opposite Tilbury in Essex. It is the administrative town of the Borough of Gravesham and, because of its geographical position, has always had an important role to play in the history and communications of this part of...

. In 1795 she was the cause of an international incident when she fired on the USRC Eagle
USRC Eagle
USRC Eagle was one of the first ten cutters operated by the United States' Revenue Cutter Service .The Eagle has been often misidentified as the cutter Pickering, which was in fact not launched until 1798 . Eagle was built in Savannah, Georgia for service in that state's waters...

. She was at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, and during the French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...

 and 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...

 took numerous prizes, mostly merchant vessels but also including some privateers. She was also at the second Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was sold in 1812.

French Revolutionary War

Lynx was commissioned in April 1794 under Commander Charles Vinicombe Penrose
Charles Penrose (Royal Navy officer)
Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Vinicombe Penrose KCB KCMG was a Royal Navy officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet.-Naval career:...

 on 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. Penrose 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:...

 on 7 October 1794 and Commander Charles Rowley replaced Penrose in November.

On 17 November 1794, Lynx recaptured the Amphrite. Cleopatra
HMS Cleopatra (1779)
HMS Cleopatra was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had a long career, seeing service during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During the latter wars she fought two notable engagements with larger French opponents...

 shared in the reward. By agreement, these vessels also shared the prize money with and .

On 31 January 1795, Rear-Admiral George Murray
George Murray (MP)
Vice Admiral George Murray was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He was the third son of the Jacobite general Lord George Murray.-Naval career:...

, the commander-in-chief on the North America station, sent Lynx, under the command of John Poo Beresford
Sir John Beresford, 1st Baronet
Admiral Sir John Poo Beresford, 1st Baronet, GCH was an officer in the Royal Navy who rose to the rank of Second Sea Lord. He was a Tory politician in the United Kingdom.-Naval career:...

, and the newly-captured former French warship Esperance
HMS Esperance (1795)
Built as the British privateer Ellis, she was captured by the French, then the Spanish. After returning to French ownership, she became the French corvette Esperance. The Royal Navy captured her in 1795 and took her into service as HMS Esperance. In her brief military career, Esperance changed...

 on a cruise out of Halifax. On 1 March the two vessels captured the Cocarde Nationale (or National Cockade), a privateer from Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the second largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It was made the county seat of Charleston County in 1901 when Charleston County was founded. The city's original name was Charles Towne in 1670, and it moved to its present location from a location on the west bank of the...

, of 14 guns, six swivels
Swivel gun
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...

 and 80 men. Esperance and Lynx recaptured the ship Norfolk, of Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...

, and the brig George, of Workington
Workington
Workington is a town, civil parish and port on the west coast of Cumbria, England, at the mouth of the River Derwent. Lying within the Borough of Allerdale, Workington is southwest of Carlisle, west of Cockermouth, and southwest of Maryport...

.

Lynx and Eagle

The United States Coast Guard records that in 1795, Lynx, under the command of Beresford, fired a shot across the bow of the United states revenue Cutter Eagle
USRC Eagle
USRC Eagle was one of the first ten cutters operated by the United States' Revenue Cutter Service .The Eagle has been often misidentified as the cutter Pickering, which was in fact not launched until 1798 . Eagle was built in Savannah, Georgia for service in that state's waters...

. Hendrick Fischer, Eagle's acting captain, attempted to heave-to, but he had on board Senator Pierce Butler, from South Carolina, who ordered him to sail on. Lynx then began to fire continuously as Eagle sailed towards the shoal
Shoal
Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...

 waters on the north point of Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island
Jekyll Island is an island off the coast of the U.S. state of Georgia, in Glynn County; it is one of the Sea Islands and one of the Golden Isles of Georgia. The city of Brunswick, Georgia, the Marshes of Glynn, and several other islands, including the larger St. Simons Island, are nearby...

. As Lynx drew too much water to continue the chase, Beresford sent his pinnace
Pinnace (ship's boat)
As a ship's boat the pinnace is a light boat, propelled by sails or oars, formerly used as a "tender" for guiding merchant and war vessels. In modern parlance, pinnace has come to mean a boat associated with some kind of larger vessel, that doesn't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions...

 and cutter in pursuit, under the command of Lieutenant Alexander Skene, who four year later would command Lynx. The British quickly overtook the 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....

 and came on board, demanding to know why it hadn't come about in response to the shots. After learning the schooner was in fact a revenue vessel of the U.S. government, Skene and his men returned to Lynx.

In the ensuing international political furor, Beresford stated that Lynx had been beyond the 12 mile limit and noted that the schooner was not flying any flag. The Eagle had not in fact flown the national ensign; for unexplained reasons it was instead stored in the captain's cabin. Eagle did apparently display some sort of small pennant
Pennant (commissioning)
The commissioning pennant is a pennant flown from the masthead of a warship. The history of flying a commissioning pennant dates back to the days of chivalry with their trail pendants being flown from the mastheads of ships they commanded...

 that was not visible to Lynx. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard history of Eagle represents the only record of the incident.

Prize taking

On 9 June 1795 Lynx captured the Bedford, which had some bullion amongst her cargo. Rowley was apparently again her captain. On 3 July Commander Robert Hall was appointed to command Lynx, but apparently the Admiralty did not confirm the appointment until January 1796.

In August 1795 Commander Thomas Tireman took command of Lynx.

On 24 February 1796, Lynx captured the Hannah. Commander John Rennie replaced Tireman in February 1797. Then in October Hall replaced Rennie and finally took command.

On 13 June 1798, Lynx captured the French privateer Isabelle, of two guns and 30 men. Two weeks later, she captured the Mentor, also a French privateer, of 14 six-pounders and 79 men. During the chase, Mentor threw six of her guns overboard to lighten her and thus, albeit insufficiently, improve her speed. Both privateers had set out from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

 to cruise the coast of the United States. Around this time Lynx captured the privateer Solide. The merchants of St. Johns
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...

 sent Hall a letter of appreciation for the protection this capture gave to the colony.

On 6 July Lynx captured the American ship Pegasus. Four days later Lynx recaptured the American ship Liberty, from Philadelphia and bound for Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, which a French privateer had captured on 4 July, a few hours after Liberty had left the Delaware River
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...

. On 8 August Lynx recaptured the Friendship.

On 17 September 1799 Lynx captured the brigantine Columbia. In October, Commander Alexander Skene took over command of Lynx.

On 31 August 1800 Lynx captured the Vernang. Then on 8 September she captured the Vrow Neltje. The gun-vessel Swinger shared in the capture of Vrow Neltje.

In June 1801 Lynx returned to Britain from Copenhagen carrying Captain John F. Devonshire and dispatches. She does not appear to have participated in the Battle of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1801)
The Battle of Copenhagen was an engagement which saw a British fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker fight and strategically defeat a Danish-Norwegian fleet anchored just off Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson led the main attack. He famously disobeyed Parker's...

 in April as her name does not appear in the list of vessels whose crews qualified to share in the prize money stemming from the battle, nor in the list of vessels whose crew qualified for the Naval General Service Medal for the battle.

Shortly thereafter, on 15 April, Lynx captured the Dutch vessels Charlottenburg and Lucchesine. Then on 31 July Lynx and Jalouse captured the Brockmerlust, with the capture of the Neptunus following on 1 August. The next day Jalouse and Linx captured the Vrow Caterine. On 8 August Lynx and Squirrel
HMS Squirrel (1785)
HMS Squirrel was a Royal Navy 24-gun sixth rate, built in 1785 and broken up in 1817....

 captured the Vryheid. Eight days later, Lynx and Driver captured the Prosperitas. On 6 September Lynx, Jalouse, Squirrel and Driver shared in the capture of three vessels, Snelle, Jager, and Engestede. Six days later, Lynx, Driver and Aeolus
HMS Aeolus (1801)
HMS Aeolus was a 32-gun Amphion-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1801 and served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812....

 shared in the capture of the Cygnet. The next day Lynx and Driver captured the Jussrow Harmyna. On 17 September Lynx, Pylades, and Kite recaptured the Pursuit. On 11 November Lynx and Driver captured the Norden.
Commander John Willoughby Marshall took command of Lynx in June 1802.

Napoleonic Wars

On 23 May 1803, Lynx and Immortalite captured the French ship Paix. A year later, on 10 May 1804, Lynx and Ethalion
HMS Ethalion (1802)
HMS Ethalion was a Royal Navy 36-gun frigate, launched in 1802 at Woolwich Dockyard.-Service:Ethalion entered service in 1807 under Captain Charles Stuart, operating in the North Sea. In May 1804 she captured the 16-gun Dutch brig Union off Bergen...

 captured the Union.

In July 1804 Lynx took numerous prizes. She took the Four Brothers and Nike (or Nilea) on 10 July, the Jonge Pieter Casper Piersberg on 12 July, and the brigs Jonge Jan and Jacobus Zeeper on 30 July.

In April 1806 Lynx captured several Prussian vessels. These were the Electrum, Romulus, Goode Intentie, and the Vrow Mazka, on the 15th, 21st, and 26th. Earlier, in company with Texel and Nightingale, Lynx captured the Prussian ship Einigkeit on 6 April. They also captured the Jonge Ebeling, Freundschaft, and Morgenstern off Lieth
Lieth
Lieth is a municipality in the district of Dithmarschen, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany....

.

On 21 April 1807, Lynx recaptured the brig Providence, Edward Fox, Master. Then on 20 April Lynx captured another Prussian vessel, the Fortuna. Lynx, 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...

 cutter
Cutter
A cutter may refer to several types of nautical vessels. When used in the context of sailing vessels, a cutter is a small single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. The cutter features a mast set farther back than on a sloop...

 Lord Kieth, and Resolution
HMS Resolution (1770)
HMS Resolution was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1770 at Deptford Dockyard.She participated in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780, the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, and the Battle of the Saintes in 1782.Resolution was broken up in 1813....

 shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Danish merchant-vessel Adjutor, on 6 August. Eight days later Lynx, Resolution and Ariel shared in the capture of the Aurora.

Lynx shared with Ariadne in the capture of the Catharina Frederika on 3 June. That same day the two British ships also captured the Philip. On 13 July they captured the Jussrouw Antje. The gun-brig shared with Lynx the capture, on 7 May, of the Rebecca and the Jonge Tobias. Lynx also shared in the prize money for captures at Heligoland
Heligoland
Heligoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea.Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea...

 on 5 September in connection with the surrender of the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

.

On 22 March 1808, Lynx, Falcon
HMS FALCON (1802)
Launched in 1801 as Diadem, the Whitby-built vessel was renamed HMS Falcon on purchase in 1802 to avoid confusion with the pre-existing third rate . Falcon was a sloop with an armament of fourteen 24-pounders on her main gundeck and two 18-pounders on the quarterdeck, a crew of 75, and a burthen ...

 and Quebec were present at the Battle of Zealand Point
Battle of Zealand Point
The Battle of Zealand Point was a naval battle of the English Wars and the Gunboat War. It was fought off Zealand Point by ships of the Danish and British navies on 22 March 1808 and was a British victory.-Prelude:...

, though they did not actually take part in the battle, during which the ships-of-the-line Stately
HMS Stately (1784)
HMS Stately was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 December 1784 at Northam.-Operational life:She was converted for use a troopship in 1799, but was reverted to a fully armed warship once war resumed after the end of the Treaty of Amiens.-Battle of Zealand...

 and Nassau
HDMS Holsteen
HolsteenThis ship's name appears as Holsteen or Holsten in Danish records, and as Holstein in English. She was renamed Nassau in 1805 was a 60-gun ship of the line in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. She was commissioned in 1775 and the British Royal Navy captured her in the Battle at Copenhagen...

 succeeded in destroying the Danish 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...

 Prins Christian Frederik. In May, Lynx shared with Salsette
HMS Salsette (1805)
HMS Salsette was a Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of a nominal 36 guns, launched in 1805. The East India Company built her for the Royal Navy at the Company’s dockyards in Bombay...

 in the capture of a schuyt. While sailing in company with the gun-brig Snipe, Lynx captured the Jagten Sophia Cecilia on 12 July. On 16 November Lynx captured three vessels: Neptune, Resolution, and Elizabeth. In December, Lynx captured the Achir, Kairn, Elizabeth, Haabert, Spimgeren, Venus, St. Andreas, Nicholay, and Ann, on the 11th, 13th, 14th, and 15th of December.

On 30 April 1809 Vanguard
HMS Vanguard (1787)
HMS Vanguard was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 March 1787 at Deptford. She was the sixth vessel to bear the name....

, in company with Lynx and Tartar
HMS Tartar (1801)
HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.-Jamaica station:Captain James Walker...

, captured the Charlotte.

On 12 August, Commander John Willoughby Marshall and the Lynx, in the company of the gun-brig Monkey under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Fitzgerald, discovered three Danish lugger
Lugger
A lugger is a class of boats, widely used as traditional fishing boats, particularly off the coasts of France, Scotland and England. It is a small sailing vessel with lugsails set on two or more masts and perhaps lug topsails.-Defining the rig:...

s off the Danish coast. The water was too shallow for Lynx, so Marshall sent Monkey and boats from Lynx in to cut them out. The largest of the luggers, which had four guns and four howitzers, opened fire on Monkey before all three luggers ran ashore once Monkey and the launch's 18-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...

 returned fire. The British refloated the luggers and brought them out the next day, having taken no casualties. In their haste to quit the vessel, the Danes failed to fire the fuse on a cask of gunpowder they had left by the fireplace on the largest lugger. Marshall thought the Danes' behaviour in leaving the explosive device disgraceful.

The largest lugger was the Captain Japen (or Captain Jassen). She had had a crew of 45 men, who had fled, and during the engagement she had thrown two of her howitzers overboard. The second lugger, name unknown, had four guns and a crew of 20. The third lugger was the Speculation, of three guns and 19 men. Her crew too had thrown two guns overboard. At the end of the month, on 27 August, Lynx captured a Danish sloop that also bore the name Speculation.

On 28 October 1809 Cheerful captured the Destrigheiden, the Rinaldine and a sloop, name unknown, while in the company of Tartar and Lynx. By agreement, Marshall and Commander Joseph Baker of Tartar pooled their share of the prize money with that due Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter, the commander of the Cheerful.

Vanguard and Plantagenet
HMS Plantagenet (1801)
HMS Plantagenet was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 October 1801 at Woolwich. She was designed by Sir William Rule as one of the 'large class' 74s, and was the only ship built to her draught...

 were in company with Lynx on 2 November when they captured the Ornen and another vessel. Lynx was again in company with Vanguard on 4 November when they captured the Frende Broder. Five days later Lynx captured the Danish sloops St. Ole and Sterkadder.

On 29 and 30 April Lynx, the gun-brig Flamer and the frigate Fisgard captured three privateers. On the 29th they captured the Juliana off Wismar
Wismar
Wismar , is a small port and Hanseatic League town in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea, in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,about 45 km due east of Lübeck, and 30 km due north of Schwerin. Its natural harbour, located in the Bay of Wismar is well-protected by a promontory. The...

. Juliana had six guns but a crew of only 23 men. The next day they captured Ziska off Trindelen. She armed with six guns and had a crew of 40 men. At the same time they captured the Omen, of one gun.

On 30 May 1810, Lynx and Flamer captured the Danish vessel Hercules. By agreement, the British vessels shared the proceeds with Fisgard. The three vessels also shared in Fisgards capture of the French privateer Furet, of two guns, off Warnemünde
Warnemünde
Warnemünde is a sea resort and northmost district of Rostock in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, situated on the Baltic Sea in the northeast of Germany at the estuary of the river Warnow.- History :...

. Lynx again shared by agreement with Fisgard in the proceeds of the recapture of the Margaretha Catarina and the James Cook on 10 June. Fisgard also shared by agreement her portion with Flamer, as well as the proceeds of the capture of the Gopa on 22 June.

On 9 July 1810, Lynx captured the Danish sloop Wanderingsmannen. The Flamer shared in the prize.

In October Commander Thomas Percival took command. Then on 20 December Lynx captured the Fortuna. Two days later, Lynx came across the derelict Providence at sea. Lynx took possession and in 1811 received salvage money for the vessel.

Fate

Lynx was laid up at Deptford in May 1811. She was sold there for ₤1330 on 24 April 1813.
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