HMS Wasp was an 18-gun sloop

Sloop-of-war

In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...

 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 was formerly the French privateer Guèpe, captured in 1800. She served with the British 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...

, and was sold out of the service in 1811.

Capture

Guèpe was a brig

Brig

A brig is a sailing vessel with two square-rigged masts. During the Age of Sail, brigs were seen as fast and manoeuvrable and were used as both naval warships and merchant vessels. They were especially popular in the 18th and early 19th centuries...

 built at Bordeaux

Bordeaux

Bordeaux is a port city on the Garonne River in the Gironde department in southwestern France.The Bordeaux-Arcachon-Libourne metropolitan area, has a population of 1,010,000 and constitutes the sixth-largest urban area in France. It is the capital of the Aquitaine region, as well as the prefecture...

 in 1798 that operated against British shipping in the Atlantic. On 29 August 1800 the vessels of the British blockading squadron, which was under the command of Sir John Warren, sent their boats into the harbour at Vigo

Vigo

Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...

 to attack and cut her out.

The party went in and, after a 15-minute fight, captured the Guêpe and towed her out. She had a flush deck and was pierced for 20 guns but carried eighteen 9-pounders. She and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

A prize crew took Guêpe back to Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 where the Admiralty fitted her out between October 1800 and August 1801. During this time she was re-rigged.

British career

Now named HMS Wasp she was commissioned in July 1801 under Commander Charles Bullen

Charles Bullen

Sir Charles Bullen GCB GCH was a highly efficient and successful naval officer who served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and distinguished himself at the Glorious First of June, the battle of Camperdown and the battle of Trafalgar.-Career:Born in Newcastle in...

, and sent to Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

 at the end of the year. She sailed from there to the West Indies, and was paid off in July 1802.

Wasp recommissioned again in May 1803 under Commander Frederick William Aylmer, and on 19 July that year captured the privateer Despoir. Despoir was a lugger, pierced for 10 guns but only mounting two. She had a crew of 28 men under the command of Jean Delaballe. She was three days out of Hodierne

Audierne

Audierne is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France.The town lies on a peninsula at the mouth of the Goyen river and for centuries was a fishing village, with a wide sandy beach. Visitors can take a boat from Audierne's port of Esquibien to the Île de Sein.The...

 and had made no captures. At the time was in company with Wasp.

Aylmer sailed to the Mediterranean in June 1804. In August Wasp captured a Spanish lugger and sloop. The French privateer Venus recaptured these vessels, only to be herself captured by several East Indiamen, notably the Eliza Ann. Venus had five crewmen from Wasp on board as prisoners.

On 12 and 16 January 1805, Wasp, under Alymer, captured the Spanish brigs Minerva and Carmen, and their cargoes. About two weeks later, on 21 February, Wasp captured the Spanish ship Victoria, and her cargo.

Aylmer was succeeded by Lieutenant Joseph Packwood in an acting capacity, and he by Commander John Simpson, also in 1805. Wasp was with Sir John Orde's

Sir John Orde, 1st Baronet

Sir John Orde, 1st Baronet was the third son of John Orde, of Morpeth, Northumberland, and the brother of Thomas Orde-Powlett, 1st Baron Bolton...

 squadron patrolling off Cadiz

Cádiz

Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....

, and had a narrow escape from a French squadron in August 1805.

On 12 December, , and Wasp left Cork, escorting a convoy of 23 merchant vessels. Four days later the convoy encountered a French squadron consisting of five ships of the line and four sailing frigates, as well as nine other vessels that were too far away for assessment. The letter writer to the Naval Chronicle surmised that the distant vessels were the Africa squadron that had escorted and that the French had captured. On this occasion, the British warships and six merchant vessels went one way and the rest went another way. The French chased the warships and the six for a day, ignored the 17, and eventually gave up their pursuit. Boadicea then shadowed the French while Wasp went back to French and Spanish coasts to alert the British warships there. and her six charges encountered the French squadron again the next day, but after a desultory pursuit the French sailed off.

Lieutenant Buckland Sterling Bluett of {HMS|Scorpion|1803|2}} received promotion to Commander and took over command of Wasp in 1806. He then sailed to the Leeward Islands

Leeward Islands

The Leeward Islands are a group of islands in the West Indies. They are the northern islands of the Lesser Antilles chain. As a group they start east of Puerto Rico and reach southward to Dominica. They are situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean...

. On 24 May she came across the former British cutter , which had been taken by mutineer

Mutineer

Mutineer is an album by American singer/songwriter Warren Zevon, released in 1995. .-Track listing:All tracks composed by Warren Zevon, except where indicated.#"Seminole Bingo" – 3:10...

s four days earlier and delivered to the French, who had immediately commissioned her under the name Napoléon and sent her out to capture some merchant vessels at Roseau

Roseau

-Architecture:The central district of Roseau is tightly packed with small and large houses and even larger modern concrete structures. There is little green or open space situated within the city, and this is even more so today, as many of the courtyards which was once commonplace within the city...

. Wasp retook the cutter, which had on board 73 men under the command of Vincent Gautier, two of whom were killed before she surrendered.

In 1807 Commander William Parkinson took command. Wasp returned to Britain later that year under the command of Commander John Haswell.

Fate

Wasp was laid up at Deptford

Deptford

Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...

in May 1809. She was offered for sale on 13 December 1810, and was sold there on 17 May 1811.