HMS Dispatch (1804)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | HMS Despatch or Despatch |
| Ordered: | 27 November 1802 |
| Builder: | Richard Symons & Co., Falmouth |
| Laid down: | April 1803 |
| Launched: | 26 May 1804 |
| Fate: | Broken up September 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cruizer class brig-sloop |
| Tonnage: | 382 42⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig rigged |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: | 16 x 32-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder bow guns |
HMS Dispatch (also Despatch) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Richard Symons & Co. at Falmouth and launched in 1804.Dispatch was instrumental in the capture of a 40-gun French frigate and was active at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She also sailed on the Jamaica station. She was broken up relatively early, in 1811.
She was commissioned in May 1804 under Commander Edward Hawkins for the Channel and cruising. She then joined a squadron under Captain Thomas Dundas in Naiad.
On 25 October, Hawkins sighted two strange vessels some five or six leagues off Pointe du Raz. Dispatch captured both, which proved to be the French gun-vessels No. 345 and No. 353. Each was armed with two brass guns, one a 32-pounder and the other a 6-pounder. Each had a crew of 20 soldiers. They had left Brest for Odierne (or Dandiorne) but the wind had blown them out to sea. Conquest arrived on the scene and then the British sighted two more gun-vessels. Dispatch captured one, No. 371, armed like the two already captured, but with a crew of 22. Hawkins thought it too dangerous to try to send the three gun-vessels to England so he sank them after having removed the guns.
At daylight 27 November 1804 while Naiad was off Brest, she saw some small vessels open musket fire on boats belonging to Aigle that were chasing them. (Aigle had two seamen wounded, one dangerously.) Naiad gave chase and captured French gun-vessels Nos. 361 and 369. They each mounted one long brass 4 pounder gun and one short 12-pounder and had on board a lieutenant from the 63rd infantry regiment, 36 privates and six seamen. They had sailed with fourteen others from Dandiorne to Brest. Captain Thomas Dundas of Naiad ordered Hawkins and Dispatch to take the gunboats and prisoners in to Plymouth.
On 28 April 1805 Dispatch capture the Spanish vessel of war, Nostra Senora del Anparo, alias Espadarte. Late in the year Dispatch captured a number of merchantmen: Desir de la Paix (30 September), Genevieve (7 October), Louise (15 October), and Spadron (31 October).
...
Wikipedia