HMS Pilchard 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...

 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...

 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. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda

Bermuda

Bermuda is a British overseas territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. Located off the east coast of the United States, its nearest landmass is Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. It is about south of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and northeast of Miami, Florida...

. She was commissioned under Lieutenant Samuel Crew in May 1804, launched in 1805, and completed at Plymouth in 1806. Although Pilchard was often near naval engagements, she seems not to have had to fire her cannons before she was laid up in 1812.

Service

On 16 July she was in Sir Samuel Hood's squadron off Rochefort when the boats from that squadron captured the 16-gun brig Caesar.

She was apparently still part of the squadron at the Action of 25 September 1806

Action of 25 September 1806

The Action of 25 September 1806 was a naval battle fought during the Napoleonic Wars off the French Biscay port of Rochefort. A French convoy of five frigates and two corvettes, sailing to the French West Indies with supplies and reinforcements, was intercepted by a British squadron of six ships of...

 though she took no part in the engagement. The action resulted in the capture of four French frigates, Armide

French frigate Armide (1804)

Armide was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1804 at Rochefort. She served briefly in the French navy before the British captured her in 1806. She went on to serve in the British Navy until 1815 when she was broken up.-French service:She took part in...

, Gloire

French frigate Gloire (1803)

Gloire was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy.She took part in Allemand's expedition of 1805. On 18 July, she captured and burnt a Prussian cutter to maintain the secrecy of the movements of the fleet, in spite of the neutrality of Prussia at the time...

 , Infatigable

French frigate Infatigable (1800)

Infatigable was a 40-gun Valeureuse class frigate of the French Navy. She took part in Allemand's expedition of 1805.In the Action of 25 September 1806, she and Gloire, Minerve and Armide were captured by a four-ship squadron under Samuel Hood.She was taken into Royal Navy service as HMS...

 and Minerve.

On 26 October Pilchard was in sight of the gun brig Rapid as she captured the brig Conductor.

In 1807 Lieutenant Clement Ives took command, only to be replaced the next year by the returning Lieutenant Crew. Pilchard was in the North Sea in 1809. Lieutenant William R. Dore took command that year. On 23 March Dore and Pilchard captured the chasse maree Fannie. Pilchard and her sister schooner Porgey

HMS Porgey (1807)

HMS Porgey was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804...

 and half-sister schooner Cuckoo

HMS Cuckoo (1806)

HMS Cuckoo was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by James Lovewell at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806...

 were at the unsuccessful Walcheren Expedition, which took place between 30 July and 9 August 1809.

Lieutenant William Hewitt (or Hewett) replaced Dore in 1810.

Fate

From 1812 Pilchard was in ordinary

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

at Sheerness. She was sold there on 23 February 1813. The sale may have fallen through though as the Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy advertised her for sale at Sheerness on 3 February 1814.