HMS Pelorus (1808)
HMS Pelorus, as a ship-sloop, ca. 1830
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 United Kingdom
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| Class and type: | Cruizer class brig-sloop |
| Name: | HMS Pelorus |
| Builder: | Itchenor, England |
| Launched: | 25 June 1808 |
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| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 384 60⁄94(bm) |
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| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m) |
| Complement: | 121 |
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HMS Pelorus was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. She was built in Itchenor, England and launched on 25 June 1808. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. On anti-slavery patrol off West Africa, she captured four slavers and freed some 1350 slaves. She charted parts of Australia and New Zealand and participated in the First Opium War (1839–1842) before becoming a merchantman and wrecking in 1844 while transporting opium to China.
Pelorus was commissioned in July 1808 under Commander the Honourable James William King, and sailed for the Leeward Islands on 15 December. In January 1809 Commander Thomas Huskisson was appointed commander of Pelorus, but did not find out until May. Therefore he was not her commander at the capture of Martinique in February. (Some accounts have her under the command of Captain Francis Augustus Collier; however, he was commander of Starr.) Under Huskinson she then took part in enforcing the blockade of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to any surviving crewmen from that campaign that wished to claim it.
On 16 October Pelorus and Hazard were in company when they came upon the French privateer schooner Général Ernouf moored under the guns of the battery of St. Marie on the east coast of the southern part of Guadeloupe. Hazard and Pelorus attempted to send in a cutting out party during the night, but the boats could not find a channel. The British went in again in the daylight despite fire from the battery and the schooner's long 18-pounder pivot-gun and two swivels. Fire from Hazard and Pelorus silenced the batteries but as the British came alongside the French crew, an estimated 80-100 men, fled ashore. There two field guns joined them in firing on the cutting-out party. Because the schooner was aground and chained to the shore the boarding party could not bring her out; instead, they set fire to her. However, a premature explosion injured some of them. In all, Hazard lost three men killed and four wounded; Pelorus lost three killed and five wounded.
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