HMS Magpie 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....

 that William Rowe of Newcastle built and launched on 17 May 1806. Like all her class, she was armed with 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 had a crew of 20. She had been in British service for less than a year when she grounded on the coast of France, which led to her capture. She then served in the French navy until about 1828, including a few years as a prison ship

Prison ship

A prison ship, historically sometimes called a prison hulk, is a vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies. This practice was popular with the British government in the 18th and 19th centuries....

.

Capture

Lieutenant Edward Johnson commissioned her in 1806. Fleeing a storm she attempted to anchor near Les Sept Îsles on the coast of Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

. This proved impossible and she took shelter in a bay near Perros

Perros-Guirec

Perros-Guirec is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Perros-Guirec are called perrosiens.-Tourism:...

. When Magpie anchored, she grounded. When French troops approached in boats she surrendered. They took her and her crew captive on 18 February 1807.

French service

The French took her into service as Magpye and commissioned her at Brest

Brest, France

Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

 under lieutenant de vaisseau Arnous-Dessaulsays.Roche (2005; p. 292) refers to her as a schooner of 14 cannons, which perhaps is an error for 4 cannons. By 1809, she was carrying messages for Admiral Willaumez

Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez

Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez was a French sailor and admiral of the First French Empire....

 when on 21 February he attempted to escape Brest with a large French fleet. The British blockade squadron drove them to shelter under the Île d'Aix. Lieut. Arnous commanded Magpie for 38 months before removing to the corvette Echo. His biographer avers that during this time Magpie escorted convoys in the Channel and had numerous engagements with the British without, however, suffering any harm or casualties.

On 19 June 1811, Captain Proteau took command of the 17th coastal team at Brest with Magpie as his "flag" ship. On 17 August he became commander of the 3rd squadron of the Imperial coastal flotilla at Boulogne, including the 17th team. He removed to the pram

Pram (ship)

A pram or pramm describes a type of shallow-draught flat-bottomed ship.They were used in Europe during the 18th century, particularly in the Baltic Sea during the Great Northern War and Napoleonic Wars, as the pram's shallow draught allowed it to approach the shore. They typically carried 10-20...

 Ville-de-Rouen. The flotilla was laid up in March 1812.

On 26 July 1814 the French changed her name to Colombe. During the Hundred Days

Hundred Days

The Hundred Days, sometimes known as the Hundred Days of Napoleon or Napoleon's Hundred Days for specificity, marked the period between Emperor Napoleon I of France's return from exile on Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815...

 her name reverted to Magpye, only to revert to Colombe on 15 July 1815. She was paid off on 20 August but recommissioned 5 April 1816 for Senegal.

Around 1820 she participated at Brest in trials of three new types of rudder. In 1821 she may have been engaged in fisheries protection. In December 1823 she sailed from Lorient

Lorient

Lorient, or L'Orient, is a commune and a seaport in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France.-History:At the beginning of the 17th century, merchants who were trading with India had established warehouses in Port-Louis...

 to Rochefort

Rochefort, Charente-Maritime

Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...

 under the command of enseigne de vaisseaux Dagorne, and arrived in January 1824. A French Parliamentary report from 1826 notes that she is mentioned in the national accounts for 1824 as being laid up at Rochefort

Rochefort, Charente-Maritime

Rochefort is a commune in southwestern France, a port on the Charente estuary. It is a sub-prefecture of the Charente-Maritime department.-History:...

with a two-man crew.