HMS Redwing (1806)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Redwing |
| Ordered: | 24 January 1806 |
| Builder: | Matthew Warren, Brightlingsea |
| Launched: | 30 August 1806 |
| Commissioned: | October 1806 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Foundered, 1827 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cruizer-class brig-sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 383 46⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) (overall); 77 ft 3 1⁄2 in (23.6 m) |
| Beam: | 30 ft 6 1⁄2 in (9.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 10 in (3.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Redwing was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1806, she saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars, mostly in the Mediterranean, and afterwards served off the West Coast of Africa, acting to suppress the slave trade. She was lost at sea in 1827.
Redwing was built by Matthew Warren at Brightlingsea, Essex, and launched on 30 August 1806. She was commissioned in October 1806 under Commander Thomas Ussher, and on 31 January 1807, sailed for the Mediterranean. There she was stationed in the Strait of Gibraltar, and operated in company with Scout and Morgiana to clear the area of enemy vessels. The Commander in Chief, Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood, in a letter to William Marsden, dated 24 May 1807, praised their effectiveness, noting that "within this Fortnight past they have taken and destroyed Eighteen of the Enemy's Vessels". One of these may have been the mistico Tiger, which Redwing intercepted as she was sailing from Cadiz to Algeciras. Redwing sent her into Gibraltar.
Numerous captures and actions followed.
At the end of the month, Redwing engaged in another medal-winning action. She chased a mistico and two feluccas into the Bay of Bolonia (Tarifa). There her quarry took shelter under a shore battery of six 24-pounder guns. Ussher brought Redwing to anchor within point-blank range of the battery, using her broadsides to silence its guns. A cutting-out party under Lieutenant Ferguson then destroyed the mistico and extracted the feluccas. Ussher and Ferguson, with a landing party of 40 men, then captured the battery and spiked its guns. This, and his previous actions, led to Ussher's promotion to post captain. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the NGSM with clasp "Redwing 31 May 1808" to the five surviving claimants from the action.
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