HMS Dispatch (1804)

Career (UK)
Name:	HMS Despatch or Despatch
Ordered:	27 November 1802
Builder:	Richard Symons & Co., Falmouth
Laid down:	April 1803
Launched:	26 May 1804
Fate:	Broken up September 1811
General characteristics
Type:	Cruizer class brig-sloop
Tonnage:	382 42/94 bm
Length:	00 ft 0 in (0 m) (overall) 77 ft 3.5 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Brig
Complement:	121
Armament:	16 x 32-pounder carronades 2 x 6-pounder bow guns

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Despatch.

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Dispatch.

HMS Dispatch (1804) (also Despatch) was a Royal Navy Cruizer class brig-sloop built by Richard Symons & Co. at Falmouth and launched in 1804. Dispatch was instrumental in the capture of a 40-gun French frigate and was active at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807). She also sailed on the Jamaica station. She was broken up relatively early, in 1811.

Initial service

She was commissioned in May 1804 under Cmdr. Edward Hawkins for the Channel and cruising. She then joined a squadron under Capt. Thomas Dundas in Naiad.

At daylight 27 November 1804 while Naiad was off Brest, Dundas saw some small vessels open musket fire on boats belonging to Aigle, wounding two seamen. He gave chase and captured Gun-boats Nos. 361 and 369. They each mounted one long brass 4 pounder gun and one short 12-pounder and had on board a lieutenant from the 63rd. infantry regiment, 36 privates and six seamen. They had sailed with fourteen others from Dandiorne to Brest. Dundas ordered Hawkins and Dispatch to take them in to Plymouth.

President

On 27 September 1806 Dispatch was part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis that included Canopus and Blanche. The squadron captured the French 40-gun French frigate Président, with Dispatch playing a critical role.

Louis's squadron had sailed to the Bay of Biscay to await the return of Admiral Willaumez from the Caribbean. On spotting the Président, the squadron gave chase but the ships of the line were not fast enough to catch her. However, Dispatch was able to get within firing range. Dispatch proceeded to harry the Président with her forward guns, forcing Président to turn towards Blanche. Seeing the Président turn, Louis ordered Canopus to fire, even though the range was extreme. Realizing that the rest of the British squadron would arrive shortly, Président struck, surrendering to Dispatch. The Président had suffered only minor damage and neither side suffered any casualties. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President. Hawkins had been made Post-captain two days prior to the action.

A few weeks after this action, Dispatch captured two French merchantmen. One of the ships carried sardines and was of so little value that Dispatch promptly scuttled her. The larger ship carried brandy, coffee and some guns and was sent back to England with a prize crew.

Between 10 and 12 February 1807 Capt. Hawkins faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth on charges stemming from the time of his command of Dispatch. An anonymous letter, which proved to have been written by Thomas Thompson, late master of Dispatch, charged him with the willful murder of seaman William Davie, a sick person, by negligence and inattention between 9 and 25 December 1805. Hawkins brought evidence to show that Davie was a skulker who was being treated for venereal disease by the surgeon but had been dosing himself with quack medicines. Character witnesses said that Hawkins behaviour was always marked with humanity and gentleness. The court decided that the charges were malicious and scandalous and acquitted Hawkins.

Baltic and Copenhagen

In 1807 Dispatch sailed under Cmdr. James Lillicrap for the North Sea, and was at Copenhagen in August. In the spring she convoyed a fleet of transports carrying two divisions of the King's German Legion from the Downs to the island of Rügen off the German Baltic coast where the French were besieging Stralsund, then the capital of Swedish Pomerania. She remained off the coast with a small squadron under Lillicrap to protect the troops and, with Rosamond, to cover the eventual evacuation of King Gustavus in a Swedish frigate.

On one occasion Dispatch, her sister ship Mutine, and Censor, fired broadsides at the French outposts near Griefswald. On 21 August Dispatch escorted the last troops to leave Rugen to Kioge Bay in Zealand to join the rest of the army, which had landed five days earlier to prepare for the attack on Copenhagen When Dispatch joined Admiral James Gambier off Copenhagen Lillicrap was ordered to mount four long 18-pounders and join the inshore squadron as senior commander under Capt. Puget. Dispatch then engaged enemy gunboat flotillas nearly every day. On 31 August a shell from the Danish battery at Three Crowns blew up the armed transport Charles, killing 10 men and wounding 21. In the general promotion that followed in the capture of the Danish fleet, 17 commanders junior to Lillicrap received promotion; Lillicrap, despite recommendations, did not.

Dispatch sailed for Jamaica on 29 February 1808. On the night of 2 October, while off Nevis with a convoy of merchantmen she captured the small 1-gun French privateer schooner Dorade, which had a crew of 20 men, and retook a captured British merchant ship.

While on the station Lillicrap visited the interior of Haiti. He spent some time with Henri Christophe, who would in 1811 become the King of Haiti, and with him visited the Citadelle Laferrière. He also met Christophe’s co-conspirator and rival, Alexandre Pétion. Lillicrap was promoted to Post-captain on 21 October 1810 but did not receive official notification until March 1811, at which time he sailed for home in Naiad.

In November 1810 Dispatch was under Cmdr. James Aberdouor. She left Negril on 20 May 1811 with a convoy for England and arrived at Portsmouth 24 July from Jamaica and St. George's Channel.

Fate

Dispatch was paid off in September 1811. She was broken up at Plymouth that same month.

References

• James, William (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV.. 4. R. Bentley. 
• Marshall, John ( 1823-1835) Royal naval biography, or, Memoirs of the services of all the flag-officers, superannuated rear-admirals, retired-captains, post-captains, and commanders, whose names appeared on the Admiralty list of sea officers at the commencement of the present year 1823, or who have since been promoted ... (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown).
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461. 

External links

• The Boatswain's Call An article exploring the life and service of HMS Dispatch's boatswain