HMS Alban (1806)

Career (United Kingdom)
Name: HMS Alban
Owner: Royal Navy
Launched: 1805
Commissioned: May 1805
Out of service: 12 September 1810
Fate: Captured
Career (Denmark)
Name: Alban
Owner: Royal Danish Navy
Acquired: 12 September 1810
Out of service: 11 May 1811
Fate: Captured
Career (United Kingdom)
Name: HMS Alban
Owner: Royal Navy
Acquired: 11 May 1811
Commissioned: October 1811
Fate: Wrecked, 18 December 1812
General characteristics
Class and type: Adonis-class schooner
Tons burthen: 110 75⁄94 (bm)
Length: 68 ft 2 in (20.78 m) (overall);50 ft 4 58 in (15.357 m) (keel)
Beam: 20 ft 4 in (6.20 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Complement: 35
Armament: 10 x 18-pounder carronades

HMS Alban was one of twelve Adonis-class schooners of the Royal Navy and was launched in 1805. She served during the Napoleonic Wars. During the Gunboat War she took part in two engagements with Danish gunboats, during the second of which the Danes captured her. The British recaptured her seven months later, but she was wrecked in 1812.

Contents

Design

Like the rest of her class, Alban was made of Bermudan or pencil cedar and to a design copied from that of the Lady Hammond, a Bermudan sloop.[1] The Admiralty ordered the class as cutters, but they were completed as schooners.[1] Even so, most references to Alban refer to her as a cutter. She had a crew of 35 men and carried an armament of ten 18-pounder carronades.

Initial service

She was commissioned in May 1805 under Lieutenant James Stone.[1] On 27 July she was under the command of Lieutenant Henry Wier and in company with the hired armed brig Colpoys, Hazard, Conflict, and Growler when they captured nine French chasse marees.[2] On 27 October she recaptured the Favourite.[3]

On 17 January 1808 Alban captured the American ship Active.[4] Then on 8 April she sailed for Rio de Janeiro.[5]

Gunboat War

In 1809 Alban sailed to the Baltic. On 5 November she captured the Prussian sloop Gute Bothe.[6]

On 23 May 1810 Alban was in company with Raleigh and the hired armed cutter, Princess of Wales, when they encountered seven Danish gunboats off the Skaw. In the subsequent engagement one gunboat blew up and the British succeeded in damaging and dispersing the other six.[7]

On 13 June 1810, Alban captured the Regina Doreatha.[8] Almost two weeks later, on 13 June, she captured the Danish galliot Catharina Augusta.[9] Weir was promoted to the command of Calypso on 28 June 1810, but he was still captain of Alban on 12 July when she captured another Danish galliot, the Caroline.[10] At some point command transferred to Lieutenant Samuel Thomas.

On 12 September 1810, Alban was off Læsø island when she saw six Danish gunboats coming towards her from the direction of the Skaw.[11] Wind conditions were calm so Alban had to resort to her sweeps to try to escape the Danes. She was unsuccessful and by early afternoon an engagement had commenced. After about three hours, a cannon shot took off the back of Thomas's skull.[12] His second in command, Midshipman Alexander Hutchinson, continued the resistance for another hour, but then struck. Alban had lost two men killed (including Thomas), and had three wounded,[11] out of a crew of some 25.[12] She also had five feet of water in her hold, and her rigging and sails were entirely shot away. The subsequent court martial honourably acquitted Hutchinson and the surviving officers and men, and recommended Hutchinson for promotion.[12] The Danish gunboat flotilla was under the command of Lieutenant Jørgen Conrad de Falsen.

Danish service

The Alban was under the command of Lieutenant Thøger Emil Rosenørn when she encountered Rifleman on 11 May 1811 near the Shetland Islands.[13][Note 1] Rifleman chased The Alban for twelve hours before she succeeded in capturing the Dane.[13] She was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 58 men.[Note 2] She was three days out of Farsund, Norway, but had not captured anything.[15]

According to Danish sources, Rosenørn fought bravely and when he saw that defeat was inevitable, he hacked away rigging and created holes in the hull before he surrendered.[Note 3] Even so, The Alban did not sink and the British took her back into service as Alban.

British service and loss

The Admiralty had Alban fitted at Sheerness between July and November 1811. She was recommissioned in October under Lieutenant William Sturges Key.[1]

Alban was wrecked on 18 December 1812 at Aldeburgh, Suffolk. There were only two survivors, a seaman and a woman.[16] She had had a crew of 56 men, and there were three women and two children aboard. Extant accounts report that it is not at all clear why there was such a loss of life as after she grounded the surf did not destroy her and townspeople were eventually able to reach her.[17]

Notes

  1. ^ Rosenørn had been the captain of Salorman when the British captured her a Nyborg in 1808.
  2. ^ Danish records report her official complement as 38 men. They also show her armament as consisting of ten 18-pounder carronades and two 12-pounder carronades.[14]
  3. ^ Translation from the Danish website: [1].

References

Citations
  1. ^ a b c d Winfield (2008), p. 360.
  2. ^ London Gazette: no. 16139. p. 573. 23 April 1808.
  3. ^ London Gazette: no. 16128. p. 391. 15 March 1808.
  4. ^ London Gazette: no. 16400. p. 1313. 28 August 1810.
  5. ^ "NMM, vessel ID 379609". Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. http://www.nmm.ac.uk/upload/pdf/Warship_Histories_Vessels_v.pdf. Retrieved 30 July 2011. 
  6. ^ London Gazette: no. 16561. p. 73. 11 January 1812.
  7. ^ London Gazette: no. 16375. p. 806. 2 June 1810.
  8. ^ London Gazette: no. 16400. p. 1313. 28 August 1810.
  9. ^ London Gazette: no. 16582. p. 477. 10 March 1812.
  10. ^ London Gazette: no. 16636. p. 1681. 18 August 1812.
  11. ^ a b Hepper (1994), p. 133.
  12. ^ a b c Naval Chronicle, Vol. 25, p. 133.
  13. ^ a b Anderson 91910), p. 344.
  14. ^ Orlogsmusset (Naval Museum) [2] -accessed 23 April 2011
  15. ^ London Gazette: no. 16486. p. 921. 18 May 1811.
  16. ^ Hepper (1994), p. 144.
  17. ^ Grocott (1997), pp. 348-9.
Bibliography

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales License, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project