HMS Sprightly (1778)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Sprightly.
Career (UK)
Name: HMS Sprightly
Builder: Thomas King, Dover
Launched: 4 August 1778
Fate: Captured in 1801
General characteristics [1]
Class and type:Cutter
Tons burthen:15062⁄94 bm
Length:66 ft (20 m) (overall); 48 ft 6 in (14.8 m)
Beam:24 ft (7.32 m)
Depth of hold:10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:Sails
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Armament:Initially: 10 x  3-pounder guns + 12 x  1⁄2-pound swivel guns
Later:12 x  12-pounder carronades

HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her in the Mediterranean, off the Andulasian coast in 1801.

Career

Sprightly shared with the frigate Amphitrite, sloop Fairy, and the cutters Griffin, Flying Fish, and Wells, in the capture on 24 May 1779 of the French privateers Dunkerque and Prince de Robcq, which had "eight ransomers" aboard.[2]

In October 1794 Lieutenant Robert Jump assumed command of Sprightly. In January 1799 he sailed her for Jamaica.[1] Later that year Sprightly and the brigSpitfire captured the brig Gute Hoffnung.[3]

Fate

Sprightly was on her way to Gibraltar with dispatches when she had the misfortune to encounter a French squadron under Admiral Ganteaume about 40 miles south-west of Cape de Gata. During one of his expeditions, Ganteaume had called his squadron to a halt there. After a two-hour chase, Sprightly struck to the 74-gun Dix-août on 10 February 1801. The French scuttled their prey.[4]

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Winfield (2008), pp.352.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 12070. p. 5. 16 November 1779.
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 15214. p. 1310. 17 December 1799.
  4. ↑ Hepper (1994), p,97.

References