HMS Electra (1808)

HMS Electra was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was built by the Enterprise Ethéart at (St Malo) as the French Curieux class brig Espiègle and launched in 1804. She was armed in 1807 at Saint Servan.[1] The British frigate Sybille captured her on 16 August 1808. There was already an Espiegle in the Royal Navy so the Navy took the vessel they had just captured into service as HMS Electra. Electra was sold in 1816.

Contents

French service

She sailed from Lorient on 15 August 1807 under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Maujouan and in the company of Diligente and Sylphe. The three ships were sailing across the Bay of Biscay en route to Martinique when they encountered Comet, under Captain Cuthbert Featherstone Daly, on 17 August 1808. Comet soon captured Sylphe but the other two escaped. The next day Captain Clotworthy Upton in Sybille captured Espiègle.[1] Diligente, though, escaped.[2]

British service

In British service she carried fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder guns.[3]

Electra was only commissioned in February 1812 under Commander William Gregory and spent most of her brief career escorting convoys to and from Newfoundland. She did make one capture.

On 7 July 1813 Electra captured a U.S. privateer near Newfoundland after a six-hour chase. She was the schooner Growler, pierced for 14 guns but carrying only one long 24-pounder gun and four 18-pounder guns. She had a crew of 60 men.[4] Growler, under Captain N. Lindsey, had had a relatively successful cruise having taken the ship Arabella, a brig, the schooner Prince of Wales, and the brig Ann.[5][Note 1]

Commander Thomas Walbeoff Cecil took command in June 1814 but died of yellow fever in October in the West Indies.[3] (On 28 April 1814, then Lieutenant Cecil of Argo had killed Captain Hassard Stackpole, of Statira, in a duel.[Note 2] Earlier, Cecil had served under Stackpole in Tonnant, and the duel grew out of that experience.[8]) Cecil died of yellow fever at Port Royal on 24 October 1814.

Fate

Cecil's replacement, Commander Richard Lewin, paid Electra off in 1815. On 17 June 1816 the Commissioners of the Navy offered her for sale at Deptford.[9] She was sold there for ₤800 on 11 July 1816.[3]

Note

  1. ^ The prize money for Gregory was ₤64 5s, and for an ordinary seaman on Electra it was ₤1 4s 9d.[6]
  2. ^ The Naval Chronicle, carries correspondence pertaining to the duel.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b Roche (2005), p.182.
  2. ^ London Gazette: no. 161791. p. 1214. 3 September 1808.
  3. ^ a b c Winfield (2008), p.318.
  4. ^ London Gazette: no. 16761. p. 1558. 7 August 1813.
  5. ^ Maclay (1899;2004), p.336.
  6. ^ London Gazette: no. 16990. p. 425. 7 March 1815.
  7. ^ Naval Chronicle, Vol. 32 (Jul-Dec 1814), pp.57-8 and pp.411-2.
  8. ^ Boys (1831), pp.69-73.
  9. ^ London Gazette: no. 17147. p. 1188. 22 June 1816.

External links