HMS Pigeon (1806)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Pigeon |
| Ordered: | 11 December 1805 |
| Builder: | Custance & Stone, Great Yarmouth |
| Laid down: | February 1806 |
| Launched: | 26 April 1806 |
| Fate: | Wrecked 5 January 1809 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cuckoo-class schooner |
| Tonnage: | 75 1/94 bm |
| Length: |
56 ft 2 in (17.12 m) (overall) 42 ft 4.125 in (12.9 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 18 ft 3 in (5.56 m) |
| Draught: |
|
| Depth of hold: | 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Schooner |
| Complement: | 20 |
| Armament: | 4 x 12-pounder carronades |
HMS Pigeon (1806) was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of 4 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Custance & Stone built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806.[1] Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
She was commissioned in June 1806 under Lieut. Richard Cox.[1] She was wrecked off Kingsgate Point near Margate on 15 January 1809.[2] At 5pm while cruising with Calliope off Flushing the two vessels parted company in a heavy gale and snowstorm. She sighted a light that her crew took to be the North Sand Head but 15 minutes later she grounded. The grounding parted her rudder post and within minutes the water was above her hold and the sea was breaking over her. The crew lashed themselves to the rigging and awaited the dawn. Two of her crew died of exposure during the night; the rest were saved the next morning.[2][3]
References
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London:Mansell).ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
- Grocott, Terence (1997) Shipwrecks of the revolutionary & Napoleonic eras (Chatham). ISBN 1-86176-030-2
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
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