HMS Proselyte (1804)
The Royal Navy purchased the Newcastle collier Ramillies in June 1804 and commissioned her as HMS Proselyte in September 1804, having converted her to a 28-gun sixth rate in July and August. She carried 24 9-pounders and 4 6-pounders. She was wrecked, but with no loss of life, in 1808.
Contents
Service
Proselyte was commissioned under Capt. George Hardinge in September 1804.[1] Capt. George Sayer was appointed to command her in January 1805.[1] Early in 1805 she escorted a convoy of 150 merchant vessels and three regiments of infantry safely to Barbados past the ships of the Rochefort squadron which were at sea searching for them. Sayer moved to Galatea in July and Capt. John Woolcombe took command, sailing her back to Portsmouth in November. When Proselyte arrived at Portsmouth she was paid off into Ordinary. Between December 1806 and April 1808 the Navy converted her to a bomb vessel,[1] with 8 guns and 2 mortars.
She was recommissioned in February 1808 under the command of Henry James Lyford and sailed to the Baltic.[1] During the Gunboat War, on 9 November 1808 she was ordered to station herself off the island of Anholt in the Kattegat to carry a light for the safety of convoys passing. (At the outbreak of the war the Danes had closed their lighthouse on Anholt.)
Fate
Proselyte got caught in the ice on 5 December and was wrecked at the outer end of the Anholt reef. The ice forced her onto her starboard beam, forcing her crew to abandon her. They then walked, with great difficulty but no losses, eight miles to Anholt Island.[2]
Post script
Proselyte's loss led the British to send a squadron in May consisting of Standard, Owen Glendower and some smaller vessels to seize Anholt and restore the lighthouse.
References
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London: Mansell). ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.]]
