HMS Porgey (1807)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Porgey |
| Ordered: | 11 December 1805 |
| Builder: | Goodrich & Co. (prime contractor), Bermuda |
| Laid down: | 1806 |
| Launched: | May 1807 |
| Fate: | Burnt to avoid capture 14 June 1810 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Ballahoo-class schooner |
| Tonnage: | 70 41/94 bm |
| Length: |
55 ft 2 in (16.81 m) (overall) 40 ft 10.5 in (12.5 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 18 ft 0 in (5.49 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 0 in (2.74 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Schooner |
| Complement: | 20 |
| Armament: | 4 x 12-pounder carronades |
HMS Porgey (1807) was a Royal Navy Ballahoo-class schooner of 4 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1804.[1] Like many of her class and the related Cuckoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
Contents
Service
She was commissioned in 1807 under Lieut. Elmes Steele. In June of that year she was in the Bay of Fundy. While there she pursued smugglers and impressed sailors in Passamaquoddy Bay on the border between the United States and the British province of New Brunswick in what is now Canada. Porgey's commander, (acting) Lieutenant James (or John) Flintoph, seems to have landed himself in considerable legal trouble as a result and soon after left the service.[2][Note 1] In Passamaquoddy, Maine, in June he fired on the town, endangering children playing on the green, searched shipping in the harbour, impressed some sailors, and shot away the rigging of a schooner at anchor.[3]
In 1809 she was in the North Sea. Between December 1809 and March 1810 she was in Sheerness undergoing repairs. In 1809 she came under the command of Lieut. Hugh Gould. [1]
Fate
On 4 June 1810 Porgey grounded under enemy fire in the Scheldt estuary while going to the assistance of the hired armed cutter Idas. After the rescue of her crew, the British burnt her to avoid her capture.[4][Note 2]
Note
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Winfield (2008), p.359.
- ↑ State papers and publick documents of the United States, from the accession of George Washington to the presidency, exhibiting a complete view of our foreign relations since that time ... (1819), (Boston:Thomas B. Wait), p.13 & 16-7.
- ↑ Smith (1980), p.563.
- ↑ Gossett (1986), p.75.
References
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London:Mansell). ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
- Smith, Joshua M. (2007) Borderland Smuggling: Patriots, Loyalists, and Smuggling in the Northeast, 1783-1820 (Gainesville: University Press of Florida).
- Smith, Page (1980) The shaping of America: a people's history of the young Republic. (McGraw-Hill).
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
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