HMS Harrier (1804)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
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| Name: | HMS Harrier |
| Ordered: | 23 May 1804 |
| Builder: | (Mrs.) Francis Barnard & Sons, Deptford |
| Laid down: | June 1804 |
| Launched: | 22 August 1804 |
| Fate: | Lost, presumed foundered March 1809 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cruizer-class brig-sloop |
| Tonnage: | 383 {{|mall> 32⁄94}} (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 30 ft 6 1⁄2 in (9.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Harrier was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1804. She took part in several notable actions before she was lost, presumed foundered, in March 1809.
Harrier was commissioned in November 1804 under Commander William Woodridge, who sailed her for the East Indies on 24 December 1804. In 1805 Commander Edward Ratsey replaced Woodridge.
On 2 August 1805, Harrier fought the 40-gun Sémillante, Captain Léonard-Bernard Motard, in the San Bernardino Strait off San Jacinto, Philippines, together with the Phaeton, under Captain John Wood. After exchanges of fire first with Harrier and then with Phaeton, Sémillante took refuge under the guns of a shore battery. Unable to dislodge her, the two British vessels eventually sailed off, each having suffered two men wounded. Sémillante was reported to have suffered 13 killed and 36 wounded. After resupplying at San Jacinto, Sémillante intended to sail for Mexico in March 1805 to fetch specie for the Philippines; the encounter with Phaeton and Harrier foiled the plan. Motard returned to the Indian Ocean, operating for the next three years against British shipping from Île de France.
In 1806 Lieutenant Edward Troubridge took command. On 4 July Harrier was in company with Greyhound, under the command of Captain Edward Elphinstone, when they captured and destroyed the Dutch East India Company’s brig Christian Elizabeth. She was armed with eight guns and carried a crew of 80 men. Christian Elizabeth was sheltering under the guns of Fort Manado.
Greyhound and Harrier then sailed across the Molucca Sea to the island of Tidon in the Celebes. There, on 6 July, they captured another enemy ship, Belgica. She was armed with 12 guns and had a crew of 32 men.
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