HMS Surinam (1805)
HMS Surinam was a Cruizer class brig-sloop built by Obadiah Ayles at Topsham (Exeter) and launched in 1805.[1] She captured only two prizes during her twenty-year career and was at only one battle before she was broken up in 1825.
Service
In March 1805 Cmdr. Alexander Shippard commissioned Surinam for the Channel and then the Mediterranean. He was promoted to Post-captain on 22 January 1806. Her next captain was Cmdr. H. Higman, but only briefly. Cmdr. John Lake replaced him in February 1806.[1] On 11 December while Surinam was off Belle Île, lightning hit, killing two men, destroying a mast and damaging her badly.
In 1807 she was attached to Admiral Lord Gardner’s fleet off southern Ireland. Surinam left the fleet for Plymouth on 15 November and two days later, some 40 miles north of Ushant she encountered a French privateer. After a ten-hour chase Surinam captured the French vessel, which turned out to be the Admiral Dacrés, Jean Michel, master, armed with fourteen long 6-pounders and carrying 76 men. She had sailed from St Malo the day before on her first cruise.[2]
On 15 December 1808 Surinam sailed for the Leeward Islands.[1] She was at the capture of Martinique in February 1809. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "MARTINIQUE" to all naval survivors of that campaign.
In 1811, under Cmdr A. Hedge, she was in Suriname. The next year, under Cmdr. John Watt, she was on the coast of Guyana. On 27 July 1812 she captured the merchantman General Hamilton. Watt died in September 1813 in the Leeward Islands.[1]
In 1814 she returned to Britain. From October 1815 she was in Ordinary at Sheerness.[1]
On 18 November 1820 Cmdr. William Mackenzie Godfrey took command and sailed for the West Indies. He was promoted to Post-captain on 19 July 1822 and Cmdr. Alfred Matthews replaced him. Cmdr. James Crole succeeded him from April 1823. By 1825 Surinam was back at Chatham.[1]
Fate
On 20 July 1825 Surinam was sold at Chatham for ₤1,450 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.
