HMS Childers (1778)

French batteries firing at Childers off Brest (1793); National Maritime Museum
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Childers
Ordered:	30 September 1777
Builder:	James Mentone & Son, Limehouse
Laid down:	3 April 1778
Launched:	7 September 1778
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Childers 14 March 1808"
Fate:	Taken to pieces in February 1811
General characteristics
Class and type:	Childers-class brig-sloop
Tons burthen:	206  15⁄94 (bm)
Length:	79 ft 0 in (24.1 m) (gundeck) 60 ft 9 1⁄2 in (18.5 m) (keel)
Beam:	25 ft 3 in (7.7 m)
Depth of hold:	10 ft 11 3⁄4 in (3.3 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Two masted brig-rigged
Complement:	80
Armament:	10 × 4-pounder guns (increased to 14 guns by 1793) + 12 x ½-pounder swivel guns Later:14 x 12-pounder carronades

HMS Childers was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.

James Mentone, a notable builder of fast vessels at Limehouse, built Childers, one of only two vessels he built for the navy. Although the design was nominally attributed to the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir John Williams, it was approved beforehand on 16 July 1778 as "adopted from a current merchant ship design" and was probably prepared by Mentone before Williams adapted it to meet Admiralty needs. The lines and hull form were those normally found in cutters rather than in the conventional ship-rigged sloops with three masts then prevalent in British naval service. She was initially described as simply a "brig", but was re-registered and established as a sloop on 6 August 1779.

Launched in September 1778, she was commissioned in October under Commander William Peacock.

After the Admiral Rodney's victory at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, Childers, under the command of Captain M'Bride, brought back the dispatches to Britain. However, although she left ten days before Hyaena, which was carrying the duplicates, Hyaena arrived two days earlier.