HMS Phipps (1808)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
|
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| Name: | HMS Phipps |
| Launched: | 1807 |
| Acquired: | 1808 |
| Fate: | Broken up 1812 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 14-gun schooner |
| Tons burthen: | 212 (bm) |
| Sail plan: | Schooner |
| Armament: | 14 guns |
HMS Phipps was the Dutch privateer Two Lydias, launched in 1807, that the British Royal Navy captured in 1808 and took into service as HMS Phipps. Phipps captured two privateers, took part in a notable action, and her crew was subjected to mercury poisoning. She was sold for breaking up in 1812.
Commander Christopher Bell commissioned Phipps in Jamaica in January 1808. On 12 April, Phipps captured the Heywood.Phipps sent Heywood, M'Intosh, master, which had been sailing to Liverpool from Haiti, into Jamaica. On 15 June Phipps captured the Rolla, Thompson, master, which had been sailing from Malta to Haiti, and sent her into Jamaica, where she arrived on 19 June. On 19 June Phipps captured the American vessel Alert, Davidson, master, which had been sailing from Cuba to Alexandria, and sent her too into Jamaica.
Phipps arrived at Portsmouth on 10 October. There she was coppered and fitted.
On 4 February 1809, Phipps returned to Portsmouth after she was dismasted in a gale while escorting a convoy from Cork to the West Indies. Between February and May 1809 Phipps was converted from a schooner to a sloop. Then on 19 May she sailed for Portugal.
On 4 March 1810 she was off Cadiz when a storm damaged a number of Spanish and French vessels. Phipps and the 74-gun third-rate Triumph captured the Spanish vessel Purisima Concepcion, which had been wrecked on the tidal flats of the San Pietro River. She was carrying quicksilver, 130 tons of which the British removed and stored aboard the two vessels. The quicksilver was in kidskin bladders, which started leaking, either because of water damage or attempts by the crew to steal what they thought was silver. As a result, mercury vapor proceeded to disseminate throughout both vessels, causing extensive mercury poisoning among the crew, and killing animals aboard the vessels. Both went to Gibraltar where they underwent cleaning. In the case of the Phipps, the cleaning included boring a hole through the bottom of her hull to let the quicksilver drain out.
Just before midnight on 15 November 1810 Bell chased a French privateer lugger so close inshore off Calais that, after firing some grape-shot into her, he had to let her go. However, having previously noticed two other luggers to windward and decided to try to come up on them unnoticed by beating along the shore. The pilot, Mr Richard Sickett, undertook the task and by about 5 o'clock in the morning Phipps was close enough to start an action with one of the luggers. For a quarter of an hour the lugger's crew fired small arms at Phipps and tried to run her ashore. Bell decided that as the water was only three and a half fathoms deep, the only way to capture the lugger was by boarding. Lieutenant Robert Tryon led the boarding party. The lugger surrendered after a few minutes fighting during which a seaman was killed and Tryon was dangerously wounded. Tyson died eight weeks later in London of complications from his wounds, which were the result of his being hit by a cannonball accidentally discharged from Phipps.
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Wikipedia