HMS Little Belt (1807)
HMS Little Belt, at right, and the USS President fire upon each other
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| History | |
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 Denmark
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| Name: | Lillebælt |
| Namesake: | The Little Belt strait off Jutland |
| Builder: | Fugelsang at the Royal Shipyard, Copenhagen |
| Launched: | 31 August 1801 |
| In service: | February 1802 |
| Captured: | Captured by British at the Battle of Copenhagen on 7 September 1807 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Little Belt |
| Acquired: | Captured at the Battle of Copenhagen on 7 September 1807 |
| Commissioned: | April 1808 |
| Fate: | Sold in 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 20-gun post ship |
| Tons burthen: | 460 5⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 116 ft 4 in (35.5 m) (overall); 94 ft 0 in (28.7 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 4 in (9.2 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 5 1⁄2 in (3.8 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
Danish service: 20 x 30-pounder carronades + 2 x 8-pounder chase guns British service: 18 x 32-pounder carronades + 2 x 9-pounder chase guns |
Danish service: 20 x 30-pounder carronades + 2 x 8-pounder chase guns
Lillebælt was a Danish 22-gun warship launched in 1801. The Danes surrendered her to the Royal Navy in 1807 and she became the 20-gun post ship HMS Little Belt. In a single-ship action in 1811 while the United States of America was at peace with Great Britain, USS President fired on Little Belt, ostensibly believing her to be HMS Guerriere, which had recently abducted a sailor from USS Spitfire. This action was the eponymous "Little Belt Affair". Her captain at the time, Arthur Batt Bingham, maintained that the Americans fired first and that although his vessel had suffered heavy casualties he had not at any time surrendered. She was broken up in 1811.
She was built in 1801 to a design by P.C. Hohlenberg as the 460-ton Danish 22-gun let fregat (light frigate or corvette) Lillebælt. She was among the vessels that the British seized after the Battle of Copenhagen on 7 September 1807. She then sailed in convoy with the Cruizer-class brig-sloop Calypso to Britain, arriving on 24 October at Woolwich. She was fitted there until 14 May 1809.
The Royal Navy commissioned her under the anglicised version of her name and placed under the command of John Crispo. By 1808 she was off the African coast, but later returned to Britain.
In May 1809 she recaptured and sent into Portsmouth the Swedish ship Neptunus, which had been taken while sailing from Alicante. Then on 23 June Little Belt sailed for North America. Around this time the Royal Navy rescinded a decision to rename her Espion.
On 27 September 1810 Wolverine had been in pursuit of a French brig when Rhin joined the chase and after two and a half hours captured the quarry off the Lizard. The French vessel was the privateer San Joseph, of Saint Malo, under the command of a Joseph Wittevronghel, a Dane. San Joseph was one year old, about 100 tons burthen (bm), and armed with 14 guns though she was pierced for 16. She had only been out one day when the British captured her and had taken nothing. Little Belt had been in company with Wolverine during the chase.
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Wikipedia