HMS Malta (1800 schooner)

History
Spain
Name: Malta
Launched: 1797 in the United States of America
Acquired: Unknown
Captured: by the Royal Navy in 1800
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Malta
Acquired: By capture 1800
Renamed: HMS Gozo in December 1800
Honours and
awards:
Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate: Sold 1804
General characteristics [2]
Type: 10-gun schooner
Tons burthen: 162 994 (bm)
Length:
  • 80 ft 5 in (24.5 m) (overall);
  • 64 ft 11 in (19.8 m) (keel)
Beam: 21 ft 8 in (6.6 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
Complement: 50 in British service
Armament: 10 × 4-pounder guns

HMS Malta was the Spanish 10-gun schooner Malta, built and launched in the United States of America in 1797. The British captured her in 1800. After the Royal Navy captured the French ship-of-the-line Guillaume Tell and renamed her HMS Malta, the Admiralty renamed the schooner Gozo in December 1800 after the Maltese island of Gozo.[Note 1]

Malta was one of six British warships in sight on 8 January 1801 when HMS Penelope captured the French bombard St. Roche. She was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delfth (sic) cloth, and various other merchandise from Marseilles to Alexandria.[3]

Then on 8 March the "Malta schooner", Entreprenante, and the gun-vessel Negresse protected the right flank during the landing of troops in Aboukir Bay.[4] Cruelle protected the left flank, together with the cutter Janissary and the gun-vessel Dangereuse.[4]

Because Gozo served in the fleet under Admiral Lord Keith in the Egyptian campaign between 8 March and 2 September, she is listed amongst the vessels whose crews qualified for the NGSM with clasp "Egypt".[Note 2]

On 9 June Gozo (misspelled as Gogo) captured the chasse maree Trompeuse, which was sailing to Ancona.[6]

Gozo was sold in 1804.[2]

Footnotes

Notes

  1. Winfield awards the capture to HMS Thames.[2] Unfortunately, there is no mention in the London Gazette of the capture, or for that matter of the capture of any Spanish schooner with the name Malta.
  2. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.[5]

Citations

  1. "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
  2. 1 2 3 Winfield (2008), p.356.
  3. "No. 15358". The London Gazette. 25 April 1801. p. 447.
  4. 1 2 "No. 15362". The London Gazette. 5 May 1801. pp. 496–498.
  5. "No. 17915". The London Gazette. 3 April 1823. p. 633.
  6. "No. 15428". The London Gazette. 17 November 1801. p. 1386.

References


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