HMS Badger (1794)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Badger |
| Acquired: | by purchase under Admiralty Order 3 February 1794 |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Isles St. Marcou" |
| Fate: | Sold 1802 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Hoy |
| Tonnage: | 59 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 14 ft 4 in (4.37 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | sloop |
| Complement: | 30 |
| Armament: | 1 × 24-pounder gun + 3 × 32-pounder carronades + |
HMS Badger was a Dutch hoy, one of some 19 that the Admiralty purchased for the Royal Navy in 1794 after France's declaration of war in 1793. The intent was to create quickly a class of gun-vessels for operations in coastal and shallow waters. Of all the hoys, she had probably the most distinguished career in that she helped fend off two French attacks on the Îles Saint-Marcouf, and participated in the capture of several French vessels. She was sold in 1802.
Badger was fitted out at Deptford between April and 25 May 1794, with Lieutenant Lewis Mortlock commissioning her in April. In 1795 Captain Sir Sidney Smith seized the uninhabited Îles Saint-Marcouf, which lie 3.5 nautical miles (6.5 km) off Ravenoville on the Cotentin peninsula in Normandy. Smith constructed barracks and gun batteries and manned the islands with 500 sailors and Royal Marines, including a large proportion of men unfit for ship-board service, described as "invalids". Smith supported the islands with several gunvessels, including Badger, Hawke, and Shark, and the floating battery Sandfly. Lieutenant Charles Papps Price assumed command of Badger in August 1795, with Mortlock moving to command of the newly captured and commissioned Crachefeu. For administrative purposes, the Navy rated Badger a sloop-of-war, and technically gave Price command of both the Saint-Marcouf islands.
Price was an unpopular officer who had repeatedly been passed over for promotion. He apparently spent most of his time on the islands with a prostitute he had brought from Portsmouth.
On 7 September 1795 the French mounted an attack with 17 large boats filled with men. They retreated in confusion after coming under fire from the redoubts the British had erected on East Island and from the gunvessels, among them the hoys Badger, Serpent, Hawk, and Sandfly.
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