HMS Whiting (1805)
Encyclopedia
HMS Whiting 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...
(a type of vessel often described as a Bermuda sloop
Bermuda sloop
The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts, which are then referred to as schooners...
) 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...
, and she was launched in 1805. She was a participant at the Battle of Basque Roads but was captured by a French privateer at the beginning of the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
after having been taken and released by the Americans in the first naval action of the war.
Napoleonic Wars
In 1805 Whiting was under the command of Lieutenant John Orkney at HalifaxCity of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
on her way to Portsmouth for completion, which took place between 26 April and 19 May 1806.
Whiting was commissioned in June 1806 under Lieutenant George Roach for the North Sea. Even so, Whiting was still or again under the command of Orkney when on 29 November she captured the Spanish lugger Felicided. Orkney had also destroyed another vessel after transferring a small quantity of hides to the Felicidad.
On 7 September 1807 Whiting was part of the fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...
.
In January 1808 Lieutenant Henry Wildey assumed command. On 30 June Whiting was in attendance when her sister ship Capelin
HMS Capelin (1804)
HMS Capelin was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of 4 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...
hit the Parquette Rock off Brest, France
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...
and sank.
At the beginning of March 1809 Whiting joined the fleet assembling for an attack on the French fleet in the Basque Roads. William Congreve, who had arrived with a transport, fitted Whiting and the two the hired armed
Hired armed vessels
right|thumb|250px|Armed cutter, etching in the [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]]During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels...
cutters Nimrod
Hired armed cutter Nimrod
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels, one of which was the hired armed cutter Nimrod. Three such vessels are recorded, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one...
and King George
Hired armed cutter King George
The Royal Navy used several vessels that were described as the hired armed cutter King George. Some of these may have been the same vessel on repeat contract.-First hired armed cutter King George:...
with rockets
Congreve rocket
The Congreve Rocket was a British military weapon designed and developed by Sir William Congreve in 1804.The rocket was developed by the British Royal Arsenal following the experiences of the Second, Third and Fourth Mysore Wars. The wars fought between the British East India Company and the...
. On 11 April the three vessels took up a position near the Boyart (see Fort Boyard
Fort Boyard
Fort Boyard is a fort located between the Île-d'Aix and the Île d'Oléron in the Pertuis d'Antioche straits, on the west coast of France. Though a fort on Boyard bank was suggested as early as the 17th century, it was not until the 1800s under Napoleon Bonaparte that work began.-Layout:Fort...
) Shoal while fireships made a night attack on the French ships. The next day all three, together with a number of other vessels, opened fire upon the French ships Océan
French ship Océan (1790)
Océan was a 118-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class.She was ordered as États de Bourgogne and was launched at Brest in 1790...
, Régulus
French ship Régulus (1805)
The Régulus was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.From 25 May 1801, her armament was upgraded to sport between 80 and 86 guns....
, and the frigate Indienne, as those ships lay aground. The first two eventually escaped, and the last was one of four eventually destroyed, though by her own crew some days later to avoid capture. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Basque Roads 1809" to all surviving British participants in the battle.
On 13 April Whiting sailed for Portugal. For the next few years she sailed in the Channel, to the west, and to the coast of Spain going as far as Cadiz and Gibraltar. Wildey was promoted to Commander on 3 May 1810.
On 20 December 1811 Whiting left Plymouth for Padstow
Padstow
Padstow is a town, civil parish and fishing port on the north coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town is situated on the west bank of the River Camel estuary approximately five miles northwest of Wadebridge, ten miles northwest of Bodmin and ten miles northeast of Newquay...
, to assist the gun brig Bloodhound, which had run on shore near there.
In 1812 Lieutenant Lewis Maxey assumed command of Whiting. On 1 May he sailed for the Americas.
War of 1812
Whiting did not survive the opening months of the War of 1812. Having sailed from Plymouth, she entered Hampton RoadsHampton Roads
Hampton Roads is the name for both a body of water and the Norfolk–Virginia Beach metropolitan area which surrounds it in southeastern Virginia, United States...
on 8 July 1812 with despatches for the American government, and lowered her anchor. Unfortunately war had been declared about two weeks earlier. As Maxey was being rowed ashore, the American privateer Dash, under Captain Garroway, was leaving port and captured her. Dash had one large gun on a pivot, and a crew of 80. Not only were a third of Whitings crew in her boat, the rest were not at the guns as they were unaware that Britain and the United States were now at war.
This could have been the first naval capture of the war. However, Whiting was carrying official dispatches for the American government, which ordered her release. Instead, the first capture by either side was the British capture of USS Nautilus
USS Nautilus (1799)
Nautilus was a schooner launched in 1799. The United States Navy purchased her in May 1803, renaming her the USS Nautilus; she thus became the first ship to bear that name. She served in the First Barbary War. She was altered to a brigantine. The British captured Nautilus early in the War of 1812...
on 16 July.
In mid-August, the US Revenue Cutter Gallatin led Whiting out to the Hampton Roads and turned over to Maxey her crew “at the place where they were taken”. The Americans then ordered Maxey to quit American waters with all possible speed.