HMS Snapper (1805)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Snapper |
| Ordered: | 23 June 1803 |
| Builder: | Goodrich & Co. (prime contractor), Bermuda |
| Laid down: | 1803 |
| Launched: | 1805 |
| Captured: | By French lugger Rapace on 14 July 1811 |
| Fate: | Unknown |
| 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 Snapper (1805) 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] She cruised for some seven years before a French privateer captured her.
Service
In May 1804 she was commissioned under Lieut. George Honey at Jamaica, and then on the Halifax station. In October 1806 she sailed in the Channel under Lieut. William Champion.[1]
On 13 April 1808 Sub Lieutenant James Young was court martialed aboard the Salvador del Mundo at Plymouth. The charge was conduct unbecoming in that he indulged in smoking in the galley with the people and permitted liberties derogatory to the character of an officer. He was also charged with absenting himself without leave during a gale and returning in a state of intoxication. The court martial severely reprimanded him.[2]
In 1809 she was under Lieut. William Jenkins.[1]
On 7 September 1810 she spotted a ship among the rocks on the west side of Ushant. She notified the Second Rate Dreadnought, which attempted a cutting out expedition. The British succeeded in taking the Spanish merchant brig, the Maria-Antonia, which had been taken by a French privateer. However, the success was bought at a cost of six dead, 31 wounded and six missing, as well as two ship’s boats, as a result of an ambush by a large party of French troops with two field guns on a cliff overlooking the anchorage.[3]
Fate
Lieut. Henry Thrakston took command of Snapper in January 1811. On 14 July the French lugger Rapace captured her off Les Sables-d'Olonne.[1][4]
References
- Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London:Mansell).ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
- James, William (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV.. V. R. Bentley.
- Phillips, Michael. [1] Ships of the Old Navy - Snapper (1805).
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
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