HMS Grinder (1809)
A Danish gunboat (similar in size and type to Grinder)
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| History | |
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 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Grinder |
| Builder: | Unknown |
| Captured: | 13 April 1810 by Danish gunboats |
 Denmark—Norway
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| Name: | Prise No.5 |
| Acquired: | 13 April 1810 |
| Captured: | 5 July 1811 by HMS Sheldrake |
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United Kingdom
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| Name: | Grinder |
| Fate: | Sold 22 August 1832 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 41 bm |
| Complement: | 34 (British service) |
| Armament: | |
Grinder was a gunboat serving as a tender, rather than a commissioned warship, to HMS Anholt, the British garrison on the island of Anholt during the Gunboat War. Grinder's origins are obscure, but the Danes captured her in 1810 and the British recaptured her in 1811. She was sold in 1832.
On 18 May 1809, the 74-gun third rate HMS Standard, under Captain Askew Hollis, led in a squadron that also included the frigate Owen Glendower, and the four smaller ships Avenger, Ranger, Rose and Snipe. Together they captured the island. A landing party of seamen and marines under the command of Captain William Selby of Owen Glendower, with the assistance of Captain Edward Nicolls of the Standard's marines, landed. The Danish garrison of 170 men put up a sharp but ineffectual resistance that killed one British marine and wounded two; the garrison then surrendered. The British took immediate possession of the island.
In 1810 Captain Nicolls, now Governor of Anholt, was concerned about reports of a Danish force gathering in Jutland to retake Anholt. He therefore ordered boats off Anholt to maintain a watch over Randers Fjord and Grenå whenever the wind was fair. To this end he re-launched "GB Grinder", which had overwintered on the island. Nicolls gave Grinder a crew made up of 30 seamen and marines from the island's garrison and captained by Master's Mate Thomas Hester. Nicolls also assigned Grinder the mission of intercepting trade along the shore.
Grinder captured a Danish trading sloop "on the Swedish coast" on 17 March. On the following day Nicolls sent her "to look into the harbour of Harrup", where she discovered a number of small Danish trading vessels and proceeded to capture five of them "...in sight of the enemies flotilla of gunboats". Reportedly, these six were among 12 merchantmen that she had captured.
On 13 April 1810 Grinder was pursuing two small ships when Senior Lieutenant Peter Nicolay Skibsted, who with four Danish gunboats was convoying eight transport ships from Udbyhøj (at the mouth of the Randers Fjord, Jutland) to Samsø, spotted her. He immediately concealed his gunboats behind the transports, thus tricking Grinder into drawing closer. As soon as Hester noticed the stratagem, he tried to escape, but Skibsted was successful in the next 90 minutes in rowing up to him, and after a few shots were exchanged, forcing Hester to surrender. The muster rolls for HMS Anholt record Hester and 27 men as "discharged - prisoner in Denmark" on 17 April 1810. One man was recorded as having died.
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Wikipedia