Hired armed cutter Swan
Encyclopedia
During the French Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels
, one of which was the Hired armed
cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches and performed reconnaissance.
s - and 12946/94 tons burthen (bm
).
There was an earlier Swan of 130 tons burthen and fourteen 4-pounder guns under the command of Francis Sarmen that received a Letter of Marque
on 25 February 1793.
against the Batavian Republic
under Vice Admiral Andrew Mitchell
and Lieutenant General Ralph Abercromby
. On 28 August Swan, together with the Hired cutter Active
, participated in the capture of the Dutch hulks Drotchterland and Brooderschap, and the ships Helder, Venus, Minerva, and Hector, in the Nieuwe Diep, in Holland. Swan was also among the vessels sharing in the proceeds from the surrender of the Dutch fleet in the Vlieter Incident
. On 23 November 1799 Lieutenant-General Sir James Pulteney, second in command of the expedition, was on board Swan supervising the embarkation of the British and Russian troops.
On 12 September there came in to Plymouth the Prussian galliot Vrouw Hildegarde. She had been sailing from Bordeaux to Hamburg with a cargo of brandy and wine wne Swan captured her.
On 26 February 1800, under Lieutenant Henry Stanley, Swan was on the Irish station. Here she captured the Uligeride Mercarius (Flying Mercurius), of Bremen, which she had detained while on passage to Bordeaux.
On 1 March 1801, while under the command of Acting Lieutenant John Luckraft, Swan captured the French privateer Vengeur in the Channel, one league
southwest of Praule Point. Vengeur was under the command of M. Le Roy, mounted two large swivels
and had a crew of 17 men, one of whom was wounded. She was ten days out of St Malo but had taken nothing. Luckraft further reported on behalf of the owners that due to the bad weather he had had the misfortune to lose one of their cutter's best boats boarding the privateer.
Swan was under the command of Lieutenant Philip Browne from 26 February to 17 March 1802. During this period Swan intercepted and seized several notorious smugglers. Browne then transferred to the gun-brig in May.
On 4 July 1802 orders were received at Portsmouth for Swan, among a number of other vessels including Bulldog and Serpent, to be put in commission. Serpent may have been an ex-Dutch hoy
of 4 guns, purchased in 1794 and sold in 1802. Bulldog may have been Bulldog, which had been a powder hulk in Portsmouth since 1801, and which was broken up in 1829. As neither this Serpent nor Bulldog appear to have been recommissioned, this Swan may also have not, in which case she would not be the second Swan.
s and 11927/94 tons burthen (bm) that served the Royal Navy from 6 August 1803 to 21 October 1803 and again from 3 August 1807 until her capture by the Danes on 24 April 1811 during the Gunboat War
.Anderson gives the day as 23 April, Winfield gives it as 24 April, and Gossett gives it as 25 April.
On 26 October 1803 Swan sailed in company with four transports from Portsmouth to Plymouth. There they were to pick up troops for Cork. An agent for the Royal Navy, Captain Watson, accompanied them.
Under the command of Lieutenant William Richard Wallace she recaptured the Jane on 25 January 1805. The next day she captured the Flip (or Vlieg), a Danish privateer of 18 men that had captured the Jane. On 19 March salvage arising from the recapture of Jane was due to be paid at Yarmouth, and on 28 May prize monies resulting from the capture of Flip were due to be paid on board.
On 10 May 1805 San was part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Thomas McNamara Russell
when the squadron captured the Dorothea Elizabeth. On 24 August 1807, Swan captured the Haabet, Joost, Master.
During Swans second contract she was under the command of Lieutenant Mark Robinson Lucas. On 24 May 1808 she found herself in action off the island of Bornholm
with a Danish cutter-rigged vessel. Swan had been carrying despatches when she had spotted the Danish vessel and lured her out. After a chase of about two hours, Swan was in a position to open fire. After about 20 minutes the Danish cutter exploded. Swan suffered no casualties despite coming under fire both from the Danish vessel and the batteries on Bornholm. The fire from the batteries and the sighting of Danish boats approaching forced Wallace to withdraw without being able to make efforts to rescue survivors. The Danish cutter appeared to be of about 120 tons, to have mounted eight or ten guns, and apparently was full of men. The Danish cutter turned out to be the privateer Habet.
Four days later Swan captured the Danish brigs Emanuel and Aall. In 1809 Lucas removed from Swan. On 15 November 1808 Swan captured the Anna Dorothea.
While still under the command of Lucas, Swan captured the Constantine Pawlowitz on 4 August 1809. In December 1809 Swan captured the Friendschaff (5 December), Neptunus and St. Johanna (10 December).
One year later, On 4 August 1810, Swan was under the command of Edward Mourilyan , owhen she captured the Juliana Carolina. On 25 August Swan brought in to Hano Bay, Sweden, where Vice-Admiral Sir James
Saumarez and his flagship then were, a Danish privateer rowboat with 11 men, one of whom had been killed and another wounded in attempting to make their escape. Swan also brought in a galiot
that she had recaptured.
On 6 January 1811 Swan was in Yarmouth for repairs, having had to cut away masts during a gale. On 19 April 1811, Swan captured the Baron Rhanizen Lhen and the Bellona. That same day she captured the Lykkern Prove, Peterson, Master.
On 24 April 1811, Swan and hired armed cutter Hero
anchored off Kungsholm; at 3am the next morning they saw three Danish gunboats in The Sleeve (Sunningesund), approaching them. The two British cutters cut their cables and attempted to escape. Shots from one of the gunboats damaged Swan and one resulted in the wetting of her powder magazine
, As the wind died off, the gunboats concentrated on Swan, forcing her surrender. The Danes boarded her but were able to retrieve little before Swan sank off Uddevalla
, on the Swedish coast north of Gothenburg
. The fight cost Swan two men killed and one wounded. The same battle apparently also resulted in the damaging of the Hero.Gossett has Hero being sunk, but does not report any court date. All other reports have Hero damaged, but continuing to serve until November 1811.
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...
the Admiralty also made use of hired armed vessels
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...
, one of which was 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...
cutter Swan. Actually there were two such cutters, but the descriptions of these vessels and the dates of their service are such that they may well represent one vessel under successive contracts. The vessel or vessels cruised, blockaded, carried despatches and performed reconnaissance.
First hired armed cutter
Swan The first Swan was launched in 1797 and served the Royal Navy from 1 July 1799 to 24 October 1801. She was a cutter of 14 guns - twelve 4-pounders and two 9-pounder carronadeCarronade
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 12946/94 tons burthen (bm
Builder's Old Measurement
Builder's Old Measurement is the method of calculating the size or cargo capacity of a ship used in England from approximately 1720 to 1849. It estimated the tonnage of a ship based on length and maximum beam...
).
There was an earlier Swan of 130 tons burthen and fourteen 4-pounder guns under the command of Francis Sarmen that received a Letter of Marque
Letter of marque
In the days of fighting sail, a Letter of Marque and Reprisal was a government licence authorizing a person to attack and capture enemy vessels, and bring them before admiralty courts for condemnation and sale...
on 25 February 1793.
Naval service
From 13 August to October 1799 Swan was employed on the disastrous Anglo-Russian expeditionAnglo-Russian Invasion of Holland
The Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland refers to the campaign of 27 August to 19 November 1799 during the War of the Second Coalition, in which an expeditionary force of British and Russian troops invaded the North-Holland peninsula in the Batavian Republic...
against the Batavian Republic
Batavian Republic
The Batavian Republic was the successor of the Republic of the United Netherlands. It was proclaimed on January 19, 1795, and ended on June 5, 1806, with the accession of Louis Bonaparte to the throne of the Kingdom of Holland....
under Vice Admiral Andrew Mitchell
Andrew Mitchell
The Right Honourable Andrew John Bower Mitchell MP is a British Conservative Party politician and the Member of Parliament for Sutton Coldfield...
and Lieutenant General Ralph Abercromby
Ralph Abercromby
Sir Ralph Abercromby was a Scottish soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was noted for his services during the Napoleonic Wars, and served as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland.He twice served as MP for Clackmannanshire and Kinross-shire, and was...
. On 28 August Swan, together with the Hired cutter Active
Hired armed cutter Active
During the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, there were two or three vessels known as the hired armed cutter Active that served the Royal Navy...
, participated in the capture of the Dutch hulks Drotchterland and Brooderschap, and the ships Helder, Venus, Minerva, and Hector, in the Nieuwe Diep, in Holland. Swan was also among the vessels sharing in the proceeds from the surrender of the Dutch fleet in the Vlieter Incident
Vlieter Incident
The Vlieter incident was the surrender without a fight of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, during the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland to the British navy on a sandbank near the Channel known as De Vlieter, near Wieringen, on August 30,...
. On 23 November 1799 Lieutenant-General Sir James Pulteney, second in command of the expedition, was on board Swan supervising the embarkation of the British and Russian troops.
On 12 September there came in to Plymouth the Prussian galliot Vrouw Hildegarde. She had been sailing from Bordeaux to Hamburg with a cargo of brandy and wine wne Swan captured her.
On 26 February 1800, under Lieutenant Henry Stanley, Swan was on the Irish station. Here she captured the Uligeride Mercarius (Flying Mercurius), of Bremen, which she had detained while on passage to Bordeaux.
On 1 March 1801, while under the command of Acting Lieutenant John Luckraft, Swan captured the French privateer Vengeur in the Channel, one league
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
southwest of Praule Point. Vengeur was under the command of M. Le Roy, mounted two large swivels
Swivel gun
The term swivel gun usually refers to a small cannon, mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that rotated along their axes to allow the shooter to...
and had a crew of 17 men, one of whom was wounded. She was ten days out of St Malo but had taken nothing. Luckraft further reported on behalf of the owners that due to the bad weather he had had the misfortune to lose one of their cutter's best boats boarding the privateer.
Swan was under the command of Lieutenant Philip Browne from 26 February to 17 March 1802. During this period Swan intercepted and seized several notorious smugglers. Browne then transferred to the gun-brig in May.
Prize money
On 18 May 1802 there was an announcement in the press that the proceeds arising from the capture of the Uligeride Mercarius would be due for payment at Dartmouth, or on Swans next arrival there. On 24 February 1802 prize money resulting from the capture of the Drotchterland, Brooderschap, Helder, Venus, Minerva, and Hector was due to be paid. Lastly, between 17 November and 30 December, prize money resulting from the expedition to Holland was due for payment.On 4 July 1802 orders were received at Portsmouth for Swan, among a number of other vessels including Bulldog and Serpent, to be put in commission. Serpent may have been an ex-Dutch hoy
Hoy (boat)
A hoy was a small sloop-rigged coasting ship or a heavy barge used for freight, usually displacing about 60 tons. The word derives from the Middle Dutch hoey. In 1495, one of the Paston Letters included the phrase, An hoye of Dorderycht , in such a way as to indicate that such contact was then...
of 4 guns, purchased in 1794 and sold in 1802. Bulldog may have been Bulldog, which had been a powder hulk in Portsmouth since 1801, and which was broken up in 1829. As neither this Serpent nor Bulldog appear to have been recommissioned, this Swan may also have not, in which case she would not be the second Swan.
Second hired armed cutter
Swan The second Swan was a cutter of ten 12-pounder carronadeCarronade
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 11927/94 tons burthen (bm) that served the Royal Navy from 6 August 1803 to 21 October 1803 and again from 3 August 1807 until her capture by the Danes on 24 April 1811 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...
.Anderson gives the day as 23 April, Winfield gives it as 24 April, and Gossett gives it as 25 April.
On 26 October 1803 Swan sailed in company with four transports from Portsmouth to Plymouth. There they were to pick up troops for Cork. An agent for the Royal Navy, Captain Watson, accompanied them.
Under the command of Lieutenant William Richard Wallace she recaptured the Jane on 25 January 1805. The next day she captured the Flip (or Vlieg), a Danish privateer of 18 men that had captured the Jane. On 19 March salvage arising from the recapture of Jane was due to be paid at Yarmouth, and on 28 May prize monies resulting from the capture of Flip were due to be paid on board.
On 10 May 1805 San was part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Thomas McNamara Russell
Thomas McNamara Russell
Vice-Admiral Thomas McNamara Russell was an admiral in the Royal Navy. Russell's naval career spanned the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic War....
when the squadron captured the Dorothea Elizabeth. On 24 August 1807, Swan captured the Haabet, Joost, Master.
During Swans second contract she was under the command of Lieutenant Mark Robinson Lucas. On 24 May 1808 she found herself in action off the island of Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
with a Danish cutter-rigged vessel. Swan had been carrying despatches when she had spotted the Danish vessel and lured her out. After a chase of about two hours, Swan was in a position to open fire. After about 20 minutes the Danish cutter exploded. Swan suffered no casualties despite coming under fire both from the Danish vessel and the batteries on Bornholm. The fire from the batteries and the sighting of Danish boats approaching forced Wallace to withdraw without being able to make efforts to rescue survivors. The Danish cutter appeared to be of about 120 tons, to have mounted eight or ten guns, and apparently was full of men. The Danish cutter turned out to be the privateer Habet.
Four days later Swan captured the Danish brigs Emanuel and Aall. In 1809 Lucas removed from Swan. On 15 November 1808 Swan captured the Anna Dorothea.
While still under the command of Lucas, Swan captured the Constantine Pawlowitz on 4 August 1809. In December 1809 Swan captured the Friendschaff (5 December), Neptunus and St. Johanna (10 December).
One year later, On 4 August 1810, Swan was under the command of Edward Mourilyan , owhen she captured the Juliana Carolina. On 25 August Swan brought in to Hano Bay, Sweden, where Vice-Admiral Sir James
Saumarez and his flagship then were, a Danish privateer rowboat with 11 men, one of whom had been killed and another wounded in attempting to make their escape. Swan also brought in a galiot
Galiot
Galiots were types of ships from the Age of Sail.In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of small galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion...
that she had recaptured.
On 6 January 1811 Swan was in Yarmouth for repairs, having had to cut away masts during a gale. On 19 April 1811, Swan captured the Baron Rhanizen Lhen and the Bellona. That same day she captured the Lykkern Prove, Peterson, Master.
On 24 April 1811, Swan and hired armed cutter Hero
Hired armed cutter Hero
Two vessels served the Royal Navy as the Hired armed cutter Hero. Under the command of Lieutenant John Reynolds, the second hired armed cutter Hero captured some 30 merchantmen during the Gunboat War before the Royal Navy returned her to her owners...
anchored off Kungsholm; at 3am the next morning they saw three Danish gunboats in The Sleeve (Sunningesund), approaching them. The two British cutters cut their cables and attempted to escape. Shots from one of the gunboats damaged Swan and one resulted in the wetting of her powder magazine
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
, As the wind died off, the gunboats concentrated on Swan, forcing her surrender. The Danes boarded her but were able to retrieve little before Swan sank off Uddevalla
Uddevalla
Uddevalla is a city and the seat of Uddevalla Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden with 30,513 inhabitants in 2005.It is located at the bay Byfjorden, of the south-eastern part of the sea known as Skagerrak...
, on the Swedish coast north of Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
. The fight cost Swan two men killed and one wounded. The same battle apparently also resulted in the damaging of the Hero.Gossett has Hero being sunk, but does not report any court date. All other reports have Hero damaged, but continuing to serve until November 1811.