.gif)
HMS Volage (1807)
Encyclopedia
HMS Volage was a Laurel-class
Laurel class post ship
The Laurel-class sailing sixth rates were a series of six post ships built to an 1805 design by Sir John Henslow. The first three were launched in 1806, two more in 1807, and the last in 1812...
sixth-rate
Sixth-rate
Sixth rate was the designation used by the Royal Navy for small warships mounting between 20 and 24 nine-pounder guns on a single deck, sometimes with guns on the upper works and sometimes without.-Rating:...
post-ship of 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...
. She served during the Napoleonic War, capturing four privateers and participating in the Battle of Lissa (1811)
Battle of Lissa (1811)
The Battle of Lissa was a naval action fought between a British frigate squadron and a substantially larger squadron of French and Venetian frigates and smaller ships on 13 March 1811 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars...
. She was sold in 1818.
Career
The Volage was built by Richard Chapman, of BidefordBideford
Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...
, and was launched on 23 March 1807. She was sent to the Mediterranean in October 1807, soon after commissioning in May 1807 under Captain Philip Rosenhagen. On 6 November she was off Galita Island when she captured the French cutter Succès, of ten guns and 59 men, under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Bourdé Villehuet. According to her captain, Succès had sailed from Toulon three days earlier on a cruise; Rosenhagen suspected that she was actually carrying despatches that Villehuet had had time to destroy. She may have been in British service as the Sussex. Earlier, in May, had chased and engaged Requin for some 88 hours and 369 miles before having to give up the chase when Requin was able to gain the protection of the guns of Fort Goleta in Tunis Bay.
The next year, on 28 July 1808, Volage captured the French brig Requin just north of Corsica after a chase of nine hours during which Requin threw her boats, boom, and anchors overboard. Requin was only 14 months old, armed with 16 guns, though pierced for 18, and had a crew of 108 men under the command of Capitaine-de-Fregate Bérar, a Member of the Legion of Honour. She had just left Ajaccio where she had delivered prizes that she had taken on her way from Algiers to Toulon. Rosenhagen took his prisoners into Malta before returning to his station. A French account reports that Requin endured two-and-a-half hours of fire, returning three broadsides, before surrendering to the English frigate Volage, of 40 guns.
Earlier, in May, had chased and engaged Requin for some 88 hours and 369 miles before having to give up the chase when Requin was able to gain the protection of the guns of Fort Goleta in the bay of Tunis. The British took Requin into service as .
Almost a year later, Volage captured two more privateers. On 6 September 1809 she captured the Annunciate, of two guns and 40 men. Then on 20 September, Volage captured the Jason, of six guns and 69 men.
In June 1810, boats from Volage and from , under the command of Captain John Duff Markland of Bustard, entered a port a few miles south of Cortone
Crotone
Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Ionian Sea. Founded circa 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Croton , it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1994 it became the capital of the newly established...
. There they destroyed 25 vessels carrying stores and provisions for Joachim Murat
Joachim Murat
Joachim-Napoléon Murat , Marshal of France and Grand Admiral or Admiral of France, 1st Prince Murat, was Grand Duke of Berg from 1806 to 1808 and then King of Naples from 1808 to 1815...
's army in Sicily.
In 1810 Captain Phipps Hornby
Phipps Hornby
Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, GCB was a prominent and experienced British Royal Navy officer of the nineteenth century. Hornby served on frigates throughout most of his wartime experience, which included witnessing the Nore Mutiny first hand aged 12 in 1797...
took command and she served in the Adriatic, fighting at the Battle of Lissa and driving off a much larger French ship during the action. The action cost Volage 13 men killed and 33 wounded. Volage was badly cut-up in the battle. On 2 June she sailed from Malta for England in company with and the prizes from the battle. She carried with her Lord Byron as a passenger.
In 1847 the Admiralty awarded all surviving claimants from the action the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Lissa".
Following this victory, Volage came briefly under the command of Arthur Bingham in February 1812, or so. She then was sent to the East Indies under Captain Donald Hugh Mackay. She was carrying Sir Evan Nepean
Evan Nepean
Sir Evan Nepean, 1st Baronet PC was a British politician and colonial administrator.-Early career:...
, who was taking up his post as governor in Bombay, and escorting three cartel ships. On the way she arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 24 June. She then served under the orders of Sir Samuel Hood in the Eastern Archipelago and the China seas. In June 1813, Volage was under the command of Captain Samuel Leslie when her sailors took part in the capture of the pirate settlement at Sambas
Sultanate of Sambas
Sambas was a traditional state in Indonesia in modern Borneo.-History:At first governed by governors, Sambas became kingdom in 1609 with the descendant of Sepudak. She married one of her daughters to a descendant of the Sultan of Brunei...
, in Borneo. There they helped capture five batteries, one after another, in half an hour. Then in September Volage participated in the operations in support of the restoration of the Sultan of Palembang
Palembang
Palembang is the capital city of the South Sumatra province in Indonesia. Palembang is one of the oldest cities in Indonesia, and has a history of being a capital of a maritime empire. Located on the Musi River banks on the east coast of southern Sumatra island, it has an area of 400.61 square...
. Leslie left Volage on 1 January 1814. Then for while she came under the command of her 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...
(acting captain) John Allen.
In March Vollage next came under the command of Captain Joseph Drury, followed by Captain Charles Biddulph in April. However he died in April 1815. In February 1816 she came under the command of Captain Johnathan Bartholomew Hoar Curran, who sailed her back to Britain.