HMS Electra (1808)

HMS Electra was a 16-gun brig-sloop. She was built by the Enterprise Ethéart, Saint-Malo, as the French Curieux-class brig Espiègle and launched in 1804. She was armed in 1807 at Saint Servan.[2] The British frigate Sybille captured her on 16 August 1808. There was already an Espiegle in the Royal Navy so the Navy took the vessel they had just captured into service as HMS Electra, her predecessor Electra having been wrecked in March. Electra captured one American privateer before she was sold in 1816.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Electra.

History
France
NameEspiègle
Ordered6 June 1803
BuilderEnterprise Ethéart, Saint-Malo
Laid downJuly 1803
Launched12 July 1804
Captured16 August 1808
United Kingdom
NameHMS Electra
NamesakeElectra
Acquiredby capture, 16 August 1808
CommissionedFebruary 1812
Decommissioned1815
FateSold, 17 June 1816
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeCurieux-class brig
Displacement290 tons[1]
Tons burthen314 79⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 93 ft 3 in (28.42 m) (overall);
  • 74 ft 6+5⁄8 in (22.723 m) (keel)
Beam28 ft 2+1⁄8 in (8.588 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Complement94 (French service)
Armament14 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder guns (British service)

French service

She sailed from Lorient on 15 August 1808 under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Maujouan, and in the company of Diligente and Sylphe. The three ships were sailing across the Bay of Biscay en route to Martinique to deliver supplies when they encountered Comet, under Captain Cuthbert Featherstone Daly, on 17 August. Comet soon captured Sylphe but the other two escaped. The next day Captain Clotworthy Upton in Sybille captured Espiègle.[2] Diligente, though, escaped.[3]

British service

Electra was only commissioned in February 1812 under Commander William Gregory and spent most of her brief career escorting convoys to and from Newfoundland. She sailed for Newfoundland both on 27 April 1812 and on 17 March 1813.[4] She did make one capture.

On 7 July 1813 Electra captured a U.S. privateer near Newfoundland after a six-hour chase. She was the schooner Growler, pierced for 14 guns but carrying only one long 24-pounder gun and four 18-pounder guns. She had a crew of 60 men.[5] Growler, under Captain N. Lindsey, had had a relatively successful cruise having taken the ship Arabella, a brig, the schooner Prince of Wales, and the brig Ann.[6][lower-alpha 1]

Commander Thomas Walbeoff Cecil took command in June 1814, but died of yellow fever in October in the West Indies.[8] (On 28 April 1814, then Lieutenant Cecil of Argo had killed Captain Hassard Stackpole, of Statira, in a duel.[lower-alpha 2] Earlier, Cecil had served under Stackpole in Tonnant, and the duel grew out of that experience.[10]) Cecil died of yellow fever at Port Royal on 24 October 1814.

Fate

Cecil's replacement, Commander Richard Lewin, paid Electra off in 1815. On 17 June 1816 the Commissioners of the Navy offered her for sale at Deptford.[11] She was sold there for £800 on 11 July 1816.[1]

Notes
  1. The prize money for Gregory was £64 5s, and for an ordinary seaman on Electra it was £1 4s 9d.[7]
  2. The Naval Chronicle, carried correspondence pertaining to the duel.[9]

Citations
  1. Winfield & Roberts (2015), p. 215.
  2. Roche (2005), p. 182.
  3. "No. 161791". The London Gazette. 3 September 1808. p. 1214.
  4. "NMM, vessel ID 366138" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol i. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  5. "No. 16761". The London Gazette. 7 August 1813. p. 1558.
  6. Maclay (1899), p. 336.
  7. "No. 16990". The London Gazette. 7 March 1815. p. 425.
  8. Winfield (2008), p. 318.
  9. Naval Chronicle, Vol. 32 (Jul-Dec 1814), pp.57-8 and pp.411-2.
  10. Boys (1831), pp. 9–73.
  11. "No. 17147". The London Gazette. 22 June 1816. p. 1188.

References
  • Boys, Edward (1831). Narrative of a Captivity and Adventures in France and Flanders between the years MDCCCIII AND MDCCCIX. London: J.F. Dove.
  • Maclay, Edgar Stanton (2004) [1899]. A History of American Privateers.
  • Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. ISBN 978-2-9525917-0-6. OCLC 165892922.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
  • Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.

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