HMS Turbulent (1805)
| HMS Turbulent captured by a Danish gunboat during the Gunboat War on 9 June 1808 HMS Turbulent captured by a Danish gunboat during the Gunboat War on 9 June 1808 | |
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Builder: | Tanner, Dartmouth, Devon |
| Launched: | 17 July 1805 |
| Fate: | Captured, 9 June 1808 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 181 tons |
| Complement: | 50 |
| Armament: | 12 guns |
HMS Turbulent was a Confounder class 12-gun gun-brig in the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to bear this name. Built at Dartmouth, Devon by Tanner, she was launched on 17 July 1805.
She had served for only three years before she bore the brunt of a Danish attack whilst on escort duty during the Gunboat War. On 9 June, Turbulent, under Lieutenant George Wood, was one of the escorts for a convoy of seventy merchantmen. (The others were the bomb-vessel Thunder, 12-gun gun-brig Charger, and 14-gun gun-brig Piercer. In the late afternoon the convoy was becalmed off the Danish island of Saltholm, lying between Copenhagen and Malmo Bay. A large force of 21 Danish gunboats and 7 mortar boats came out from Copenhagen to attack the convoy. Only Turbulent and Thunder were in a position to resist and after 10 minutes of an exchange of fire, Turbulent had lost her main-top-mast. Turbulent managed to save many of the convoy's merchantmen but the Danes boarded and took her and also 12 merchantmen. The subsequent court martial honorably acquitted Lieut. Wood.
The Danes took Turbulent into the Danish navy under the same name. She was sold out of service in 1814, presumably after the Treaty of Kiel ended the War.
