HMS Brev Drageren (1807)

Career (Denmark)	Danish Navy Ensign
Name:	Brevdrageren
Builder:	Nyholm Dockyard
Launched:	1801
Fate:	Surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen
Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Brev Drageren
Acquired:	Captured from Denmark 7 September 1807
Commissioned:	1808
Fate:	Hulked as a tender in 1815 Thames River police depot 6 Jan 1817 Prison ship July 1818 Army depot ship 1820 Sold for breaking 13 October 1825
General characteristics
Class and type:	Brevdageren-class light brig
Tons burthen:	181
Sail plan:	Brig
Complement:	In Danish Navy service: 57 In Royal Navy service: 60
Armament:	In Royal Navy service: Two 6-pounder guns Ten 18-pounder carronades

HMS Brev Drageren (also Brevdageren) was the Danish let brigger (light brig) Brevdrageren, which was one of the many vessels the Danes surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was involved in two notable actions while in British service and was sold in 1825.

Danish origins

Brevdrageren was built at Nyholm Dockyard to a design by F.C.H. Hohlenberg and launched in 1801. She was the name-ship of a two-vessel class of light brigs, and both she and her sister Fama had distinctive pinched or "pink" sterns, that is, rounded instead of the more normal square stern. Another vessel, Fehmern, was built similarly to Brevdrageren and her sister, but was slightly heavier. These vessels were much smaller than the heavy brigs designed for combat, and the Danes used them as despatch vessels; Brevdrageren in Danish means "Despatch" or "Letter Carrier".

Her official Danish armament was eight 4-pounder guns and four 12-pounder carronades. Alternatively, she may have carried two 6-pounders guns, and sixteen 12-pounder carronades, since accounts differ. Her establishment was 57 men.

British service

The Royal Navy surveyed Brev Drageren and refitted her at Chatham with two 6-pounder guns and ten 18-pounder carronades. In British service her establishment was 60 men. She was commissioned under Lieutenant J S Dennis. In 1809 the Navy considered renaming her Cockatrice but that plan fell through. Command then passed to a Lieutenant Dobson, who was later tried at court martial for an "unnatural crime" committed in September 1809 while in command.

Escape from three Danish Brigs, 1811

In 1810 Lieutenant Thomas Barker Devon took command of Brev Drageren. On 31 July 1811, Brev Drageren and HMS Algerine were cruising together in Long Sound, Norway, when they encountered and engaged three Danish brigs: the 20-gun Langeland, the 18-gun Lügum, and the 16-gun Kiel. The Danes had 54 guns and 480 men, against the British 22 guns and 107 men; outnumbered and outgunned, the British vessels took flight. The next day Brev Drageren unsuccessfully re-engaged first one and then two of the brigs. In the inconclusive engagement each British vessel sustained one man killed, and Brev Drageren also had three wounded. In the second day’s fight, Algerine sent a boat and sweeps to Brev Drageren, which helped her escape the Danes, though not until after her crew had rowed for 30 hours.

Capture of Prizes off the Ems, 1812

During 1812 Brev Drageren made a number of small captures including a French privateer lugger and an armed vessel that she cut out from Delfzijl in the Ems river. Between 18 and 25 March she captured Jeune Nicholas, Trois Freres, Vrow Johanna, Deux Freres, and the cargo Gerrit Peter Kripisz. Prize money was paid on 25 May 1813.

Operations in the Elbe, 1813

On 14 March 1813 Lieutenant Francis Banks, of the gun-brig Blazer, who commanded the small British force stationed off the island of Heligoland, received information that the Russian Army had entered Hamburg, and the French at Cuxhaven were in some distress. He took Brevdrageren and proceeded to the river Elbe to intercept any fleeing French vessels. Early the morning they found two of the gun-vessels abandoned and destroyed them. Then they found the French destroying their flotilla of 20 large gun schuyts. The next day, by invitation from the shore, Banks landed with a detachment of 32 troops that he had embarked at Heligoland and took possession of the batteries of Cuxhaven. On 17 March he agreed a treaty with the civil authorities that the British flag should be hoisted in conjunction with the colours of Hamburg. The Russians agreed that all the military stores captured should be delivered to the two British vessels.

On 21 March 1813, Devon took eight men and his 12-year old brother, Midshipman Frederick Devon, in Brev Drageren's gig. William Dunbar, Master of Blazer, took 11 men in Blazer's cutter. Together the two boats went up river in search of a privateer reported to be in the area. Off the Danish port of Brunsbuttel they sighted two boats, one of which hailed them, ran up Danish colours and opened fire, fortunately over the heads of the British. Devon boarded the gunboat in the smoke of her second broadside, and possibly the explosion of some cartridges on her deck, and captured her. Blazer's cutter came up and together the British sailors succeeded in imprisoning the Danish crew below deck. The gunboat turned out to be the Jonge-Troutman. She was under the command of Lieutenant Lutkin, had a crew of 25 men and carried two 18-pounders and three 12-pounders. Dunbar and the cutter then turned their attention to the second gunboat, the Liebe, and captured her too. She was under the command of Lieutenant Writt and had the same establishment as the Jonge-Troutman. The British suffered no casualties and the Danes suffered two wounded.

Admiral Young, the commander-in-chief of the British navy in the area, apologized to the men of the cutting out expedition for the fact that gunboats made bad prizes. He therefore stipulated that his share of any prize money be distributed amongst the boat's crews in appreciation of their conduct. On 4 May Devon received a promotion to commander. Brev Drageren was re-rated as a sloop-of-war so that he could continue in command.

Operations in the Ems, 1813

In October 1813 Captain Arthur Farquhar, of the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Desiree, arrived at Heligoland, and assumed the command of the British naval force on that station. Brev Drageren was attached to Farquhar's squadron at Heligoland and operating off the North German coast. At the mouth of the Ems she took part in the blockade of Delfzijl, which the French had fortified. Brev Drageren anchored just outside the range of the enemy batteries and contained 17 armed vessels during the siege, which lasted until the occupation of Paris in April 1814. Brev Drageren returned to England in July.

Fate

Being unfit for further service, Brev Drageren was hulked as a tender in 1815. On 6 Jan 1817 the Thames River police took her over for use as a depot. In July 1818 she became a prison ship and served in that capacity until 1820, when she became an Army depot ship. On 13 October 1825 Joshua Crystall bought her for breaking up.

References

• Tancred, George and John Murray, Colonel of Polmaise (1891) Historical record of medals and honorary distinctions conferred on the British Navy, Army and auxiliary forces from the earliest period. London.
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.