History
Great Britain
NameGB No. 26
Ordered7 February 1797
BuilderThomas Pitcher, Northfleet
Laid downFebruary 1797
Launched10 April 1797
RenamedHMS Growler
Captured21 December 1797
French Navy EnsignFrance
NameGrowler
AcquiredNovember 1798 by purchase of a prize
FateSeized 1 August 1809
General characteristics [1][2]
Class and typeCourser-class gun-brig
Tons burthen16852⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • Overall: 76 ft 2 in (23.22 m)
  • Keel: 62 ft 4+3⁄8 in (19.009 m)
Beam22 ft 6+1⁄2 in (6.871 m)
Depth of hold8 ft 3 in (2.51 m)
Sail planBrig
Complement
  • Royal Navy:50
  • French Navy:37-–47 men
Armament
  • Royal Navy:10 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 24-pounder chase guns
  • French Navy:2 × 32-pounder carronades forward + 10 × 16-pounder carronades + 2 × 8-pounder guns

HMS Growler was a Courser-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy at Northfleet and launched in 1797 as GB No. 26; she was renamed Growler on 7 August the same year.

Lieutenant William Wall commissioned Growler in May. In August Lieutenant John Hollingsworth replaced Wall.

Capture: The French privateers Espiègle and Rusé captured Growler off Dungeness on 21 December 1797. Growler was escorting a convoy in the Channel on a moonless night when the two privateers approached. They mistook her for a merchantman, ran close on either side and called on her to surrender. The officer of the watch, taken by surprise, fired a gun. Both privateers immediately came alongside and threw grapnels on to her. The British managed to cut the grapnels on one side the privateer on that side fell away, and fired a broadside before again coming alongside. The privateers sent boarding parties over the side. Lieutenant Hollingsworth was shot and died in the ensuing struggle. The British were then forced to strike.[3][Note 1][Note 2]

In 1799 a court martial honourably acquitted Growler's master of her loss.[6]

French Navy: The French Navy purchased Growler in November 1798 and retained her name.

Recapture: The British found Growler in a very decayed state on 1 August 1809 at Veere on the island of Walcheren at the beginning of the Walcheren Campaign.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑
    • Espiègle was a privateer from Boulogne commissioned in December 1797 under Jean-Pierre-Antoine Duchenne, with 80 men and tn 3-pounder guns. She was under Jean-Augustin Huret from late 1799 with 34 men. Damaged in combat on 20 March 1800.[4]
  2. ↑ Rusé was a 70-ton privateer lugger from Boulogne, built to specifications from Jacques-Oudart "Bucaille" Fourmentin. First cruise from November 1796 to February 1797 under Bucaille, with 75 men and 10 guns (two 12-pounders and ten 3 or 4-pounders). Another cruise from Dunkirk from November to December 1797 under Bucaille with 8 guns. She made two further in 1798 and 1799 under Pierre Audibert, until HMS Kite captured Rusé on 18 May 1799.[5]

Citations

  1. ↑ Winfield (2008), p. 333.
  2. 1 2 Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 280.
  3. ↑ Hepper (1994), p. 85.
  4. ↑ Demerliac (1999), p. 228, n°1863.
  5. ↑ Demerliac (1999), p. 227, n°1851.
  6. ↑ "Naval and Military Journal" . 2 December 1799, Hampshire/Portsmouth Telegraph(Leeds, England) issue: 8.

References

  • Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
  • Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.
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