HMS Wasp (1800)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France
|
|
| Name: | Guèpe |
| Builder: | Bordeaux |
| Launched: | 1798 |
| Captured: | 29 August 1800, by the Royal Navy |
 UK
|
|
| Name: | HMS Wasp |
| Acquired: | 29 August 1800 |
| Fate: | Sold on 17 April 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 18-gun sloop |
| Tons burthen: | 298 2⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
|
| Beam: | 25 ft 11 in (7.9 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 105 |
| Armament: | 16 x 24-pounder carronades + 2 x 9-pounder chase guns |
HMS Wasp was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French privateer Guèpe, captured in 1800. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was sold out of the service in 1811.
Guèpe was a brig built at Bordeaux in 1798 that operated against British shipping in the Atlantic. On 29 August 1800 the vessels of the British blockading squadron, which was under the command of Sir John Warren, sent their boats into the harbour at Vigo to attack and cut her out.
The party went in and, after a 15-minute fight, captured the Guêpe and towed her out. She had a flush deck and was pierced for 20 guns but carried eighteen 9-pounders. She and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.
A prize crew took Guêpe back to Portsmouth where the Admiralty fitted her out between October 1800 and August 1801. During this time she was re-rigged.
Now named HMS Wasp she was commissioned in July 1801 under Commander Charles Bullen, and sent to Sierra Leone at the end of the year. At Freetown, Bullen landed guns and sailors to reinforce soldiers and militias composed of free blacks resettled from Nova Scotia and Jamaica (the Maroons), who were engaged in a campaign against the local Temne people. After the Temne signed a peace treaty in December and the situation had settled down, in March 1802 Wasp sailed from Sierra Leone. She sailed to the West Indies where she was paid off in July.
Wasp recommissioned again in May 1803 under Commander Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, and on 19 July that year captured the privateer Despoir. Despoir was a lugger, pierced for 10 guns but only mounting two. She had a crew of 28 men under the command of Jean Delaballe. She was three days out of Hodierne and had made no captures. At the time Seahorse was in company with Wasp.
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Wikipedia