HMS Zebra (1780)
| 300px Capture of Fort Saint Louis, Martinique, 1794, with HMS Zebra in the foreground and HMS Asia in the background, as depicted by William Anderson | |
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Zebra |
| Ordered: | 6 August 1779 |
| Builder: | William Clevely, Gravesend |
| Laid down: | October 1779 |
| Launched: | 31 August 1780 |
| Completed: | By November 1780 |
| Reclassified: | Bomb vessel in 1800 |
| Fate: | Sold on 13 August 1812 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Zebra-class sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 314 bm |
| Length: |
98 ft (30 m) (overall) 80 ft (24.40 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 27.5 ft (8.4 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 13 ft 4 in (4.06 m) |
| Complement: |
125 as sloop 67 as bomb vessel |
| Armament: |
As sloop:
As bomb vessel:
|
| Honours and awards: |
Participated in:
|
HMS Zebra was an 18-gun Zebra-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars she was converted into a bomb vessel. In this capacity she took part in attacks on French ports, and was present at both battles of Copenhagen.
Contents
Sloop
In 1794, Zebra participated in the capture of Martinique by the expeditionary force under the command of Admiral Sir John Jervis and Lieutenant General Sir Charles Grey. In February 1794, the English attacked Martinique. By 20 March, only Fort Bourbon and Fort Royal still held out. Jervis ordered the third rate ship of the line HMS Asia (64 guns), and the Zebra to take Fort Saint Louis. Asia was unable to get close, and so Commander Robert Faulknor of Zebra volunteered to undertake the capture without the help of the larger vessel. Despite facing heavy fire, he ran his sloop close under the walls. He and his ship's company used Zebra's boats to land. The British stormed the fort and captured it. Meanwhile the boats of the British fleet captured Fort Royal and two days later Fort Bourbon capitulated. Jervis promoted Faulknor to post-captain and gave him command of the French 28-gun sixth-rate frigate Bienvenue, which the British had captured at Fort Royal and which Jervis renamed HMS Undaunted in Faulknor's honour.[1] In 1847, the feat earned the remaining survivors the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "ZEBRA 17 MARCH 1794".
HMS Mermaid and Zebra captured the 10-gun Brutus off Grenada on 10 October 1795, followed by the 18-gun French schooner Républicaine on 14 October 1795.
Bomb vessel
Zebra was converted to a Bomb vessel in 1800. In this capacity, she participated in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. In July and August 1804 Zebra participated in the squadron under Captain Robert Dudley Oliver in HMS Melpomene at the bombardment of French vessels at Le Havre. The bomb vessels' shells and carcasses set the town on fire on 23 July. On 1 August, the vessels kept a continuous fire for three hours. Still, it is not clear that the bombardment did much damage to the French flotilla.[2]
Zebra also participated in the second battle of Copenhagen in 1807. Zebra joined the squadron that was protecting the batteries the British were building to support their attack on the city. On 17 August, the bomb vessels opened fire on the city's flotilla of row boats that were firing on the left of the British line. On 2 September, the bomb vessels joined the land-based mortar batteries in bombarding Copenhagen. The bombardment set the town on fire and the Danes finally asked for an armistice on 5 September.
Zebra was sold in 1812.
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.
