HMS Salsette (or Salcette) was a Perseverance-class fifth-rate

Fifth-rate

In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...

 frigate of a nominal 36 guns, launched in 1805. The East India Company

East India Company

The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...

 built her for 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...

 at the Company’s dockyards in Bombay. She was the Navy’s first teak-built ship.

She served in the Indies, the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Home Station, taking several prizes and seeing a limited amount of action. She did participate in a single-ship action

Single-ship action

A single ship action is a naval engagement fought between two warships of opposing sides, excluding submarine engagements; called so because there is a single ship on each side...

 in the Baltic that was notable for the other, much smaller, vessel’s heroism. Salsette was laid up after the end of the 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...

 but then went on to serve in a number of support functions until the Admiralty had her broken up in 1874.

Naming

Built and launched as HMS Pitt, she was renamed to Salsette on 19 February 1807. She is not to be confused with her sister ship Doris, which was named Salsette prior to her acquisition by the Royal Navy, which renamed her Pitt. This Pitt became Doris on 26 October 1807. For a while the Navy had two frigates with the same name.

Salsette received her name from Salsette Island

Salsette Island

Salsette Island is an island in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Mumbai and the city of Thane lie on this island, making it the 14th most populous island and the fourth most densely populated island in the world, after Migingo Island in Kenya, Ap Lei Chau in Hong Kong,...

 in Maharashtra state on India's west coast. The metropolis of Bombay

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

 and the city of Thane

Thane

Thane , is a city in Maharashtra, India, part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, northeastern suburb of Mumbai at the head of the Thane Creek. It is the administrative headquarters of Thane district. On 16 April 1853, G.I.P...

 lie on this island.

Construction

Salsette was the first vessel the Bombay Dockyard built for the Royal Navy. As such, there were apparently many defects in her construction, which led the Navy to demand that the dockyard stick more closely to the design plans in the future.

Initial service

In 1805 the Royal Navy commissioned Salsette (as Pitt) at Bombay under Captain Walter Bathurst for the East Indies and she participated in the blockade of Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

 in 1805-6.

On 20 or 26 January Salsette chased a French prize and suffered one man killed and extensive damage to her hull by cannon fire from a fort on Pointe aux Cannoniere.

In 1806 she came under the command of Captain James G. Vashon. In February 1807 Captain George Waldegrave assumed command. Salsette left Madras on 29 September 1807 and arrived in Portsmouth in early 1808, having brought with her Lord William Bentinck, the late governor of Madras. At Portsmouth she underwent repairs from January 1808 to 17 March and then sailed to the Baltic.

Baltic

Salsette was in the Baltic during the Gunboat War

Gunboat War

The Gunboat War was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy...

 and the Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812)

Anglo-Russian War (1807-1812)

The Anglo-Russian War occurred during the Napoleonic Wars. Hostilities were limited primarily to a small number of naval actions in the Baltic, though there were also attacks in the Barents Sea...

. During this time she was under the command of Captain Walter Bathurst again.

On 30 April 1808, Salsette captured a Danish privateer after a chase of five hours off Moen island

Møn

-Location:Møn is located just off the south-eastern tip of Zealand from which it is separated by the waters of the Hølen strait between Kalvehave and the island of Nyord, at the northern end of Møn. Further south is Stege Bugt...

. The privateer was the Krathesminde (or Kratbesminde), She had left Copenhagen five days previously but had made no captures. She was armed with eight guns and she had a crew of 31 men, under the command of her master Christian Oxholm. On 21 May Salsette captured a sloop of unknown name. That same month Salsette also shared with in the capture of a schuyt.

On 2 June Salsette and , together with the boats of Centaur

HMS Centaur (1797)

HMS Centaur was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 March 1797 at Woolwich. She served as Sir Samuel Hood's flagship in the Leeward Islands and the Channel. During her 22-year career Centaur saw action in the Mediterranean, the Channel, the West Indies, and the Baltic, fighting...

 and captured four Ruffian vessels that were carrying corn. They also captured the boat Humbug. Three days later Salsette and Centaur captured the Johanna.

On 23 June Bathurst and Salsette chased a Russian sloop-of-war to Revel’

Tallinn

Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...

. He did not capture her, but he did capture a galliot anchored outside the port. As Bathurst was securing the prize, lookouts spotted a Russian cutter off Norgen island

Naissaar

Naissaar is an island northwest of Tallinn in Estonia. The island covers an area of 18.6 km². It is 13-14 km long and 6 km wide, and lies about 8.5 km from the mainland. The highest point on the island is Kunilamägi, which is 27 meters above sea-level. The island consists predominantly of...

, which defends Revel’ from the sea.

Salsette set out in pursuit and eventually captured the cutter after having lost one man killed in a four-hour running fight. The cutter turned out to be the Opyt (aka Apith), armed with fourteen 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 carrying a crew of 63 men. In the pursuit and engagement the cutter had lost four men killed and eight wounded, including her commander, before she struck. Opyt When her commander, Lieutenant Gavril C. Nevelskoy (also Novelski), tendered his sword, Bathurst returned it to him in recognition of his and his crew’s heroic resistance. Bathurst then landed all the survivors near Libawa

Liepaja

Liepāja ; ), is a republican city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea directly at 21°E. It is the largest city in the Kurzeme Region of Latvia, the third largest city in Latvia after Riga and Daugavpils and an important ice-free port...

. The British took Opyt into service as Baltic

Russian cutter Opyt (1806)

The Russian cutter Opyt was launched in 1806. The British 44-gun frigate Salsette captured Opyt in 1808 in the Baltic during the Anglo-Russian War after her captain and crew put up a heroic resistance. The Admiralty took her into service as HMS Baltic...

.

On 20 August Salsette joined the British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez

James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez

Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez , GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras.-Early life:...

, which was blockading Rager Vik

Paldiski

Paldiski is a town and Baltic Sea port situated on the Pakri peninsula of north-western Estonia. Originally a Swedish settlement known as Rågervik, it became a Russian naval base in the 18th century. The Russians renamed it Балтийский Порт Paldiski is a town and Baltic Sea port situated on the...

 (Ragerswik or Rogerswick or Russian: Baltiyskiy) where the Russian fleet was sheltering after the British 74-gun third rates Implacable and Centaur had destroyed the Russian 74-gun Vsevolod

Russian ship Vsevolod (1796)

The Russian ship Vsevolod was a 74-gun ship of the line launched in 1796. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic until the British 74-gun third rates Implacable and Centaur destroyed her in 1808 during the Anglo-Russian War .-Service:On 3 July 1798 Vsevolod was at Arkhangel’sk, serving as...

. Baltics initial task was to land the prisoners that Implacable had taken from Vsevolod.

Saumarez wanted to attack the fleet and ordered Baltic and to be prepared as fireships. However, reconnaissance by Salsette, among other vessels, revealed that the Russians had stretched a chain across the entrance to the harbor, precluding an attack by fireships. Saumarez then abandoned the plan.

During the winter of 1808-09, Salsette was escorting a convoy of some 12 merchantmen, together with Magnet, , and two Swedish naval vessels, when ice in the Baltic trapped the convoy. Most of the vessels, save Salsette, were lost, and Salsette herself could not return to port for some two months. Salsettes first Lieutenant

First Lieutenant

First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...

 at the time, Lieutenant Henderson, many years later wrote to Jamsetjee Bomanjee reporting that she had survived due to the quality of her teak hull.

Continuing active service

On 29 July 1809 Salsette escorted the vessels carrying the troops of Lieutenant-General Sir John Hope across the Channel where they were to participate in the Walcheren Expedition. She herself carried the left wing of the 28th Regiment of Foot

28th (North Gloucestershire) Regiment of Foot

The 28th Regiment of Foot was a British infantry regiment from 1782 to 1881.For their conduct at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801 the 28th were given the unique honour of wearing a badge on both the front and rear of their head dress.. They served throughout the Peninsula War including the battles...

. In the Stone Deeps Rear Admiral Sir Richard Keats boarded Salsette. Then Sir Home Popham in Sabrina

HMS Sabrina (1806)

HMS Sabrina was an 18-gun Royal Navy ship-sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1806 at Southampton and sold in 1816.-Design:The Cormorant class was designed by Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow as 16-gun ship-sloops...

 led the division to the Roompot.

In 1810 Salsette sailed to Malta. On the way she captured a French brig off the island of Marettimo. She then proceeded to Smyrna, where Lord Byron cadged a ride to Constantinople. While she was at the Dardanelles, on 3 May a Lieutenant Ekenhead of her Marines and Lord Byron swam the Hellespont from Abydos to Sestos, that is, from the European to the Asian side. Although the Hellespont at that point was only about a mile wide, strong currents forced the two swimmers to cover about four miles, which took them both a little more than an hour.

Salsette sailed from Constantinople to Toulon to join the blockade there, and then in November to Malta where Bathurst removed to the 74-gun Fame

HMS Fame (1805)

HMS Fame was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard. She was constructed on the same building slip as was , her keel having been ordered to be laid down on it immediately after the other ship's launch on 26 March 1800...

 and Captain Henry Montressor took command of Salsette. His successors included William Bertie (who drowned in December 1810), Commander John Hollingsworth and in 1811, Captain Henry Hope.

On 29 June 1811 she captured the slaver Expedition off Mauritius. The prize crew took the ship and the slaves on her to the Portuguese colony of Goa because selling slaves was illegal in British India, but not in Goa. Salsette shared the prize money with the crews of and .

On 21 April 1812, Salsette captured the French privateer Comète in the Mediterranean. She carried two 18-pounder guns and had a crew of 45 men. The head money (a per head bounty for each of the 45 men captured) was not paid until 1831.

In September Salsette was at Smyrna where she took on board the explorer and antiquarian William Ouseley

William Ouseley

Sir William Ouseley , was a British Orientalist.-Early life:Ouseley was born in Monmouthshire, the eldest son of Captain Ralph Ouseley and his wife Elizabeth . He was tutored at home in the company of his brother, Gore and his cousin, Gideon Ouseley. All three had notable careers...

. They sailed back to Britain via the Greek isles, Toulon, and Alicante.

Then on 14 October 1812 Salsette captured the three-masted lugger Mercure off the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

.Ouseley reports that she was the former Marie Louise of Cherbourg. This vessel carried 16 guns and had a crew of 70, and Salsette took her into Portsmouth.

In December 1812 Captain John Bowen assumed command and on 25 April 1813 Salsette proceeded to Madras, convoying East Indiamen sailing there. In May 1814 she unsuccessfully pursued the American privateer Hyder Ally, which Owen Glendower

HMS Owen Glendower (1808)

HMS Owen Glendower was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate Apollo class frigate launched in 1808 and disposed of in 1884...

 captured a few days later. On 27 November 1814 Salsette saved the Cornwallis, of Calcutta. A severe gale had dis-masted Cornwallis and Salsette had brought her into Trincomalee

Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...

. The Vice Admiralty Court awarded Salsette 7.5% of the value of the vessel and her cargo, which were estimated at upwards of £90,000 sterling

Pound sterling

The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...

.

In 1816 Salsette escorted a convoy back to Britain. On 12 May, Salsette stopped at St Helena en route, which gave Bowen the opportunity to be presented to the Emperor Napoleon. She arrived in Plymouth in June 1816 to pay off.

Post-war career and fate

Salsette was laid up at Portsmouth. The Admiralty had her housed over in November 1823 but she remained there 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....

. In July 1831 she was fitted as a lazaretto

Lazaretto

A lazaretto or lazaret is a quarantine station for maritime travellers. Lazarets can be ships permanently at anchor, isolated islands, or mainland buildings. Until 1908, lazarets were also used for disinfecting postal items, usually by fumigation...

for Hull. In October 1835 she was fitted as a receiving ship at Woolwich. On 7 September 1869 the Admiralty ordered her moved to Sheerness. Salsette was broken up on 20 March 1874 at Chatham.