HMS Crane (1809)

HMS Crane was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1809.[1] She had an unusually uneventful five-year career before she foundered in 1814.

History
UK
Name: HMS Crane
Ordered: 5 November 1808
Builder: Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury
Laid down: December 1808
Launched: 27 September 1809
Fate: Foundered December 1813
General characteristics [1]
Type: Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tonnage: 385 ​55⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) (overall)
  • 77 ft 3 1⁄2 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 7 1⁄2 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 121
Armament: 16 x 32-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder bow guns
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Crane.

She was commissioned in September 1809 under Cmdr. James Stuart for the Irish station.[1] Stuart captured two American vessels, Asia of Boston and Washington of Marblehead, on their way home from Archangel. He brought the crews into Horta, in the Azores, and released them to John B. Dabney, the American consul, who repatriated them. It is not at all clear why Stuart had detained the Americans.[2]

In August 1811 Commander William Haydon took temporary command and sailed her for the Leeward Islands on 29 September 1812.[1] On 13 December 1812, she collided with the British merchant ship Robert Augustus, which was on a voyage from Barbados to Surinam; Robert Augustus sank without loss of life.[3] Crane's next captain was Commander Thomas Forrest. In December 1813 Commander Robert Standly became her captain.[1]

On 4 April 1814 Crane chased the American privateer Chasseur, of 14 guns and 135 men, off St Kitts, but was unable to capture her.[4]

Crane was lost, presumed foundered with all hands, in September 1814 while en route from Bermuda to Canada.[5][6]

Citations and references

Citations

  1. Winfield (2008), p. 301.
  2. Abdo (2005), p. 60.
  3. "Lloyd's Marine List – March 19, 1813". Caledonian Mercury (14239). 25 March 1813.
  4. Lloyd's List (20 May 1814).
  5. Gosset (1986), p. 94.
  6. Hepper (1994), p. 152.

References

  • Abdo, Joseph C. (2005). On the Edge of History:the story of the Dabney family on the Island of Faial in the Azores archipelago. Lisbon, Portugal: Tenth Island Editions. ISBN 978-972-99858-0-5.
  • Gosset, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
  • Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras. London: Chatham. ISBN 1861760302.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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