HMS Wanderer (1806)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Wanderer |
| Ordered: | 19 November 1805 |
| Builder: | James Betts, Mistleythorn |
| Laid down: | February 1806 |
| Launched: | 29 September 1806 |
| Fate: | Sold 1817 |
 United Kingdom
|
|
| Name: | Wanderer |
| Port of registry: | London |
| Acquired: | 1817 by purchase |
| Honours and awards: |
Naval General service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" |
| Fate: | Lost October 1827 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Cormorant-class ship-sloop |
| Tonnage: | 43071⁄94, or 450 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 29 ft 9 in (9.1 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 0 1⁄2 in (2.756 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Ship-sloop |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Wanderer was a Cormorant-class ship-sloop launched in 1806 for the British Royal Navy. The Royal Navy sold her in 1817. She made one voyage between 1817 and 1820 as a whaler. She then sailed between Plymouth and North America until October 1827 when her crew had to abandon her at sea because she was waterlogged.
Wanderer was commissioned in December 1806 under Commander Edward Crofton. She was designated for the North Sea Station in 1807.
Wanderer, Exertion, and Explosion were to join Admiral Thomas McNamara Russell in capturing the island of Heligoland. All three arrived on 6 September, the day of the formal acceptance by both sides of the articles of capitulation. Then on 24 October Wanderer recaptured Nancy.
On 3 July 1808, Wanderer was cruising with the schooners Subtle and Balllahoo, between the islands of Anguilla and Saint Martin. The small squadron attempted an attack on St. Martin with a view to reducing the number of havens available to French privateers, but unfortunately the opposition proved stronger than intelligence had suggested.
The attack was a debacle. A landing party of 38 seamen and marines from all three vessels, under Lieutenant George A. Spearing, captain of Subtle, succeeded in capturing a lower battery with few losses and spiking six guns. An attack on the upper fort failed, with Spearing being killed a few feet from the French ramparts. When the British withdrew to their boats the French captured them. In all, the British lost seven killed and 30 wounded, all the dead and most of the wounded being from Subtle. The French lost one man wounded.
Not surprisingly, French and British accounts differ substantially in several places. Crofton's account reports that the British landing party consisted of 153 men, and a French account talks of 200 men, all of whom were killed or captured, including Lieutenant George Mills, captain of Ballahoo. (The total establishment of the three British vessels amounted to about 190 men.) Crofton negotiated a truce under which he was able to reclaim all the prisoners who could be moved. Crofton claimed that the French had been forewarned and had 900 men in the fort. The French claimed the fort had a garrison of 28 regulars and 15 militia men. That the French permitted their British prisoners to leave is more consistent with the French figures on their numbers than the British. Crofton reported that the French buried the English dead with full military honors with both the fort and the British firing salutes.
...
Wikipedia