HMS Wagtail (1806)

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Career (UK) Royal Navy Ensign
Name: HMS Wagtail
Ordered: 11 December 1805
Builder: James Lovewell, Great Yarmouth
Laid down: February 1806
Launched: 12 April 1806
Fate: Wrecked 13 February 1807
General characteristics
Class and type: Cuckoo-class schooner
Tonnage: 75 1/94 bm
Length: 56 ft 4 in (17.17 m) (overall)
42 ft 4.125 in (12.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 3 in (5.56 m)
Draught:
  • Unladen: 5 ft 1.5 in (1.562 m)
  • Laden: 7 ft 6.5 in (2.299 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 5 in (2.57 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 20
Armament: 4 x 12-pounder Carronades

HMS Wagtail (1806) was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of 4 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by James Lovewell at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806.[1] Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.

She was commissioned in 1806 under Lieut. William Cullis.[1] She was wrecked 13 February 1807 at Vila Franca do Campo, São Miguel in the Azores, three hours after her sister ship Woodcock was wrecked, and near Woodcock's water-logged remains.[2] Both vessels had been anchored in the shelter of an islet off the town when a gale came up. Because of the storm they were unable to clear the land. Wagtail lost one man of the 18 men in her crew.[2]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Winfield (2008), p.361.
  2. 2.0 2.1 Gossett (1986), pp.56-7).
  • Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. (London:Mansell).ISBN 0-7201-1816-6
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.