HMS Scout (1804)
HMS Scout was a Cruizer class brig-sloop built by Peter Atkinson & Co. at Hull and launched in 1804.[1] She participated in a number of actions and captured several privateers in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars. She was broken up in 1827.
Napoleonic Wars
In 1805 Scout was in Portsmouth, under Commander D.H. Mackay, preparing for foreign service. On 4 October she sailed from Spithead with Melpomene, Unite and Moselle as escort to a Gibraltar convoy of 33 merchantmen. Scout left the convoy on 13 October with three ships for Oporto.
On the morning of 27 March 1807, Scout, under Commander William Raitt, was off Cadiz when she sighted a Spanish felucca privateer that anchored under Cape Plata an hour later. It took Scout some hours to get within gun-shot, at which time the privateer fired at Scout using bow guns, two long 24-pounders. Scout fired back and after ten minutes the felucca cut and ran onshore. Some of Scout's shots had pierced the felucca and she was soon full of water and lying on her side. The surf was too high for Scout's boats to go in but by next day the felucca was a total wreck. Later Raitt found out that the felucca was the Admiral, out of Tarifa, under the command of Sebastian Boralta. In addition to her bow guns the felucca also mounted six 12-pounder carronades and two 18-pounders, and had had a crew of 100 men.[2]
Some two months later, in the evening of 21 May, Raitt observed some vessels coming round Cape Trafalgar, obviously intending to pass through the Straits during the dark. He ordered his boats, joined by those of Morgiana, to cut out the Spanish vessels. Under heavy fire on a very clear night, they brought out San Francisco Settaro, alias Determinada.[3] She was a Spanish privateer, armed with one long 18 pounder and two carriage guns, bound for Algeciras from Cadiz. The British lost two men killed in the cutting out expedition.
On 13 June Scout and her sister-ship Redwing captured the Spanish privateer De Bonne Vassallio, of three guns and 42 men.[3] Eight days later, while off Lagos in the Algarve, Major General Spencer, on board her, wrote his dispatch to Viscount Castlereagh describing the Spanish insurrection and the surrender of the French at Cadiz.
Scout spent the summer of 1809 off the south coast of France. On the morning of 14 June Raitt sighted a convoy of 14 vessels under the protection of two gunboats rounding Cape Croisette, south of Marseilles. He made all sail in chase of them but by the afternoon the wind dropped. He therefore sent off his boats. Seven off the convoy made for a small harbour some 10 miles east of the Cape. followed by Scout's boats, which came under grape and musket fire from a shore battery. A landing party stormed and captured the battery, spiked the guns and carried off the 7 vessels with loss of 1 killed and 5 wounded.[4] The prizes were laden with wool, grain, leather, flour and cheese. Raitt had to destroy two of them after removing their cargoes; he sent the others into Port Mahon.
Scout's seamen and marines made a similar attack on a battery at Carry-le-Rouet, 20 miles west of Marseilles on 15 July.[4] The landing party carried the fort without loss and spiked the guns spiked. They killed five of the enemy and captured seven.
In October 1809, a major squadron, under Rear Admiral George Martin, of Admiral Lord Collingwood's fleet chased an enemy convoy off the south of France. They succeeded in driving two ships of the line, Robuste and Lion ashore near Frontignan where their crews burnt them. Also, the third ship of the line, Boree, and a frigate ran on shore at the entrance to Cette. The transports they were escorting took refuge in the Bay of Rosas under the protection of an armed storeship (18 guns), two bombards and a xebec, eleven vessels in all. On 30 October boats of Tigre, Cumberland, Volontaire, Apollo, Topaz, Philomel, Scout and Tuscan, were sent in to bring them out. By the following morning all the enemy vessels had been burnt or brought off. Some of the British boats took heavy casualties but neither Scout nor her sister-ship Philomel suffered any losses.
On the morning of 1 May 1811, Scout, under Commander Alexander Renton Sharpe, joined the frigates Unite and Pomone off Sagone Bay on the east coast of Corsica. Three enemy ships were anchored under the protection of a battery with 4 guns and a mortar, a gun in a tower (possibly the Torra di Sagone), and some 200 troops with field guns on the heights above. The vessels were the 13-gun Girafe, the 14-gun Nourrice, and a merchantman. Sharpe offered to command a landing party but, in view of the strong force ashore and there being no wind, Captain Robert Barrie in Pomone decided to tow his ships to within grape-shot range of the enemy. The action lasted for one and a half hours without break. Then two of the French ships, which were loaded with wood for the naval arsenal at Toulon, blew up. Sparks from one set fire to the battery which also blew up. Scout had three men wounded.[5]
Scout left Gibraltar for home in October 1811 but she was put back by westerly winds and a squall carrying away her main boom.[5] She sailed again after repairs.
In January 1813 Commander James A. Murray took over Scout. On 17 February Scout captured the French privateer Fortune off Cagliari in the Strait of Bonifacio. Fortune was armed with three guns and carried 36 men; she was three days out of Tunis.
Post-war and fate
In 1815 Scout was in Spithead. In July, Lieut. Hellard of Scout faced a court martial, charged with having threatened to shoot or drown a seaman who had deserted her, if the seaman ever returned, and with disrespect to Murray. The courtmartial board severely reprimanded Hellard and moved his name to the bottom of the lieutenant's list.
In 1816 to 1817 Scout was in Deptford. In April 1818 she sailed for the Mediterranean under Cmdr. William Ramsden. By October 1821 she was under Cmdr. John Theed, and at Chatham.[1]
In June 1822 Cmdr. James Wigston took command of Scout and sailed her to the West Indies. She suffered damage from stranding in May 1823 in the Gulf of Mexico.[1]
Fate
Scout was paid off in 1825. She was sold on 11 July 1827 for ₤1,010 to John Small Sedger for breaking up.[1]
References
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
