HMS Belette (1806)
HMS Belette (or Bellette) was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806.[1] During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit some rocks.
Baltic
Belette was commissioned in April 1806 under Cmdr. Richard Piercy for the North Sea.[1] Commander John Phillimore took command in September and sailed Belette in the English Channel and the Downs, taking part in Commodore Edward Owen's attack on Bolougne.[2] [3][4]
The Belette was occupied in early 1807 with conveying supplies to the besieged town of Kolberg, after which she was attached to Admiral James Gambier's fleet which returned to the Baltic to attack Copenhagen again in 1807.[2][3][4] Phillimore distinguished himself during the battle, particularly in an engagement at the end of August, when the Belette became becalmed off the Danish coast. Sixteen Danish gunboats attacked Belette, which sank three of them before boats from other British ships arrived and towed her clear.[2][4] Gambier rewarded Phillimore for his courage by giving him the honour of carrying Gambier's despatches to the Admiralty. As a result, Phillimore received a promotion to Post captain on 13 October; however he remained with Belette.[2][4]
In June 1807 Belette was off Suffolk when she tried to land a M. Bedezee, a Prussian envoy carrying some important despatches. The boat overturned a few hundred meters off shore and Bedezee drowned, as did a midshipman and three crewmen. Belette's Master's Mate and a crew man were saved, but the despatches were lost.[5]
Phillimore and Belette returned to the Baltic in late 1807.[1] He brought the British ambassador, Lord Hutchinson back to Britain in February 1808.[4] At some point while sailing to Gothenburg he encountered Danish Navy two-decker, but was able to escape by sailing into shallower waters.[2]
Caribbean
In February 1808 command then passed to George Sanders who sailed her on the North Sea station and then took her to the Leeward Islands.[1]
On 2 July 1808, some 70 miles S. E. of Barbados, Belette chased a French privateer schooner for 12 hours. When captured, she turned out to be the Jalouse, of four 12-pounder guns and crew of 75 men. On this cruise Jalouse had already taken the Mary and the Lark from Halifax and the General Green out of Surinam.
In August Belette captured the 14-gun French privateer Morne Fortunee, which was taken into the Royal Navy under the same name. On 23 August, after a chase of four hours, Bellette captured the French privateer schooner Confiance, of seven guns and 70 men, which was three days out from Cayenne. The Royal Navy took her into service as the 10-gun schooner Skipjack.
Then on 5 December Belette captured the French letter of marque brig Revanche, of six 12-pounder guns and 44 men. Revanche was taking provisions from Bordeaux to Guadeloupe when she encountered Belette. A successful privateer throughout the war, Revanche had intended to try her luck in the Leeward Islands while on her way.
In February 1809, Belette participated in the the combined naval and military assault and capture of the French-held island of Martinique.[1] This qualified those of her crew still alive in 1847 for the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "MARTINIQUE".
North Sea & Baltic
In 1810 Belette was under David Sloane. He sailed her in the Leeward Islands and then home waters in 1811. In 1812 he sailed her to the Baltic.[1]
Bellette was protecting the rear of a convoy off Romsø on the evening of 29 October. Mr James Turnbull, acting master of the sloop, boarded and captured a Danish rowboat with a lieutenant and 15 men armed with two 2-pounders and small arms. The Danes resisted and suffered five men badly wounded.
Loss
On 24 November Belette was leading Russian ships through the south-west passage of Anholt in the Kattegat when she went ashore on a sunken rock called "John" off Læsø.[6] Only five of her entire crew of 120 or so men and boys escaped drowning.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Winfield (2008), p.292.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 292.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Gentleman's Magazine. p. 652.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Phillimore, Sir John (1781-1840)". Dictionary of National Biography. 1892. p. 183.
- ↑ Burke, Edmund (1807) The Annual register of world events: a review of the year. (London: Longmans), Volume 49, p.447.
- ↑ Gossett (1986), p.86.
- "Obituary of Sir John Phillimore, RN". The Gentleman's Magazine. 168. London: F. Jefferies. 1840.
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London:Mansell). ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
- Laughton, J. K. (1896). Leslie Stephen. ed. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 45. Oxford University Press.
- Tracy, Nicholas (2006). Who's who in Nelson's Navy: 200 Naval Heroes. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-244-5.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
