HMS Grasshopper (1813)

HMS Grasshopper was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built at Portsmouth Dockyard by Master Shipwright Nicholas Diddams and launched in 1813, and was the second ship of the class to bear the name; the first Grasshopper had been stranded at Texel and surrendered to the Batavian Republic on Christmas Day 1811.

Service

From 1814 she served in the Mediterranean before spending 1816 and 1817 in Portsmouth. From 1818 she was assigned to the North America Station, being based at Halifax and Newfoundland.^[1] During this time she was commanded by Commander David Buchan, and in her he carried out an assignment from the Governor, Sir Charles Hamilton, to return the native woman Demasduwit to her people, the Beothuks. Although she died of tuberculosis before the mission could be accomplished, he transported her body to a Beothuk camp by ascending the Exploits River in January 1820. Seeing signs of the Beothuk, but meeting none, they left her body and possessions in a tent by Red Indian Lake and returned to Grasshopper by the end of February.^[2] In 1822 she returned to Portsmouth and was converted to a ship-sloop before returning in 1823 to Halifax. In 1827 she was in Woolwich Dockyard, presumably for another refit.^[1]

From 1827 to 1830 Grasshopper served on the West Indies Station, based in Jamaica, and in 1832 she returned to Portsmouth.^[1]

Fate

Grasshopper was sold to Thomas Ward on 30 May 1832.^[3]

Citations

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475. 
• Winfield, Rif; Lyon, David (2004). The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy 1815–1889. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-032-6. OCLC 52620555.