HMS Moselle (1804)

HMS Moselle in Charleston Bay 1813
History
UK
Name:	HMS Moselle
Ordered:	7 November 1803
Builder:	John King, Dover
Laid down:	March 1804
Launched:	October 1804
Fate:	Sold 1815
General characteristics
Type:	Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tonnage:	385 (bm)
Length:	100 ft 1 1⁄2 in (30.5 m) (gundeck) 77 ft 6 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 7 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Sail plan:	Brig rigged
Complement:	121
Armament:	16 × 32-pounder carronades 2 × 6-pounder bow guns

HMS Moselle was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the North American station. She was sold in 1815.

Commander Robert Simpson commissioned her in December 1804 for the Downs. Commander John Surnam Carden replaced Simpson on 21 December 1804.Moselle shared with Penelope and Boadicea in the proceeds of the Jonge Obyna, Smidt, master, on 13 June. That same day they also captured the Sophia. The final payment for Jonge Obyna and Sophia did not get paid out until June 1817.

After Admiral Lord Nelson defeated the French and Spanish fleets at the battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, Moselle was at the blockade of Cadiz. On 25 November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, which was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods.Moselle shared the prize money with ten other British warships.

In the aftermath of Trafalgar, four French frigates and the brig Furet took refuge at Cadiz, where they remained into February 1806. To try to lure them out, Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood pulled his ships-of-the-line ten leagues out to sea, leaving only the frigate Hydra, under the Captain George Mundy, and Moselle in close blockade. On 23 February a strong easterly wind drove the British off their station, which led the French commander, Captain Louis-Charles-Auguste Delamarre de Lamellerie, to seize the opportunity to escape. On the evening of 26 February Hydra and Moselle were three leagues west of the Cadiz lighthouse when they sighted the French vessels. Mundy began firing rockets and alarm guns to alert Collingwood, while sailing parallel to the escaping French squadron. Mundy then sent Carden in Moselle to try locate the British fleet. On the morning of 27 February Moselle reached Collingwood, who dispatched three frigates to try to catch the French. In the meantime, Hydra had managed to isolate the French brig from her companions, and after a two-hour chase, captured Furet. The French frigates did not come to their brig's aid, and after firing a pro forma broadside, Furet surrendered. Under the rules of prize-money, Moselle shared in the proceeds of the capture of Furet. During the next six months, Lamellerie's frigate squadron cruised the Atlantic, visiting Senegal, Cayenne and the West Indies, but failed significantly to disrupt British trade.