HMS Thais (1806)
| History | |
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| Name: | HMS Thais |
| Ordered: | 1 October 1805 |
| Builder: | Benjamin Tanner, Dartmouth |
| Laid down: | October 1805 |
| Launched: | 19 August 1806 |
| Out of service: | June 1815 |
| Fate: | Sold 1818 |
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | Thais |
| Owner: | Brown & Co. |
| Acquired: | 1818, by purchase |
| Fate: | Last listed in 1826 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Thais-class fireship |
| Tons burthen: | 431 7⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: | 108 ft 9 in (33.1 m) (overall); 90 ft 9 5⁄8 in (27.7 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 29 ft 10 1⁄2 in (9.1 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 0 in (2.7 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sail |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Thais was built for the British Royal Navy in 1806 and was the name-vessel of her class of fireships. Between 1811 and 1813 she served in the West Africa Squadron, which was attempting to suppress the slave trade. During this service she captured several slave traders and an American privateer. She made one voyage to the East Indies. Thais was sold in 1818. She then became a merchantman. She was last listed in 1826.
John Henslow designed the Thais class as 18-gun fireships, with a design close to that of the Tisiphone class of sloops. The Royal Navy used the class as sloops and re-rated them as such in March 1808. In early 1811 most of the class, including Thais, were re-rated as post ships.
Commander Isaac Ferrieres commissioned Thais in June 1807 as a fireship.Thais was among the naval vessels at Plymouth on 27 and 28 August 1807 and so shared in the proceeds arising from the detention of the Danish vessels Elizabeth, Tiesco, and Aurora, in the run-up to the Gunboat War with Denmark. Ferrieres sailed Thais on 9 September for the West Indies. There she participated in the capture of the Danish West Indies during December.
By February 1808 Thais was back at Plymouth and undergoing refitting as a sloop, a process that took into April. On 21 January 1809 Thais was at Cape Town. There Admiral Bertie, admiral in charge of the Cape of Good Hope Station, sent her out to look for Diana, which had been reported damaged, and for the East Indiamen Experiment, Glory, and Lord Nelson, which were overdue. It turned out that the three East Indiamen had foundered without a trace. Later in 1809 Thais served in the North Sea. In August Thais was part of a squadron under the command of Sir Home Riggs Popham in the Scheldt during the Walcheren Campaign. On 23 May 1810 she escorted a convoy to the Mediterranean.
In November 1810 Commander Edward Scobell assumed command. On 14 December Thais left Gibraltar as an escort to a convoy for Britain.
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Wikipedia