HMS Wasp (1800)
| Career (France) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | Guèpe |
| Builder: | Bordeaux |
| Launched: | 1798 |
| Captured: | 29 August 1800, by the Royal Navy |
| Career (UK) |  |
| Name: | HMS Wasp |
| Acquired: | 29 August 1800 |
| Fate: | Sold on 17 April 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 18-gun sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 298 2/94 bm |
| Length: |
101 ft 9 in (31.0 m) (overall) 83 ft 5 in (25.4 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 25 ft 11 in (7.9 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 105 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Wasp was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French privateer Guèpe, captured in 1800. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was sold out of the service in 1811.
Career
Guèpe was a brig built at Bordeaux in 1798, and which operated against British shipping in the Atlantic.[1] On 29 August 1800 while in harbour at Vigo she was attacked and cut out by boats sent from the British blockading squadron, which was under the command of Sir John Warren.[1][2] She was taken back to Portsmouth and fitted out there between October 1800 and August 1801. During this time she was re-rigged.[1]
Now named HMS Wasp she was commissioned in July 1801 under Commander Charles Bullen, and sent to Sierra Leone at the end of the year.[1] She sailed from there to the West Indies, and was paid off in July 1802. Wasp recommissioned again in May 1803 under Commander Frederick Aylmer, and on 19 July that year captured the 2-gun privateer Despoir.[1] Aylmer sailed to the Mediterranean in June 1804, and was succeeded shortly after by Lieutenant Joseph Packwood in an acting capacity, and he by Commander John Simpson in 1805.[1] Wasp was with Sir John Orde's squadron patrolling off Cadiz, and had a narrow escape from a French squadron in August 1805.[1]
Commander Buckland Bluett took over command of Wasp in 1806 and sailed to the Leeward Islands. On 24 May she came across the former British cutter HMS Dominica, which had been taken by mutineers four days earlier and delivered to the French under the name Napoléon.[1] Wasp retook the cutter. In 1807 Commander William Parkinson took command, and Wasp returned to Britain later that year under the command of Commander John Haswell.[1] She was laid up at Deptford in May 1809, and was sold there on 17 May 1811.[1][2]
Notes
References
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1794–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
