HMS Snipe (1801)

HMS Snipe was a gun-brig and the first Royal Navy ship to bear the name Snipe. Her grounding in 1807 inspired the invention of the Manby Mortar, an important development in maritime lifesaving equipment.

HMS Snipe was a gun-brig of the Bloodhound class, designed by Sir John Henslow. Snipe and nine other similar vessels were ordered on 7 January 1801, the draught was approved three days later, and all were being built by the end of the month. She was built by Balthazar and Edward Adams of Bucklers Hard and was launched on 2 May 1801.

On 18 February 1807, HMS Snipe ran aground during a storm 50 yards off shore at Gorleston, south of Great Yarmouth, with a total of 67 people drowned, including French prisoners of war, women and children. The wreck was witnessed by George William Manby. Following this tragedy, Manby experimented with mortars, and so invented the Manby Mortar, later developed into the breeches buoy, that fired a thin rope from shore into the rigging of a ship in distress. A strong rope, attached to the thin one, could be pulled aboard the ship.

Snipe became a mooring lighter in 1815. She was broken up in May 1846. A second Royal Navy ship bearing the name HMS Snipe was launched in 1828.

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