HMS Weazel (1805)
| History | |
|---|---|
 UK
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| Name: | HMS Weazel |
| Ordered: | 7 November 1803 |
| Builder: | Thomas Owen, Topsham |
| Laid down: | February 1804 |
| Launched: | January 1805 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Sold for breaking 1525 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cruizer-class brig-sloop |
| Tonnage: | 382 41⁄94 bm |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig rigged |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: | 16 x 32-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder bow guns |
HMS Weazel (frequently spelt Weazle, and occasionally Weasel) was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in her crews earning three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, was decommissioned in 1815, and was sold for breaking in 1825.
Weazel entered service in 1805, under the command of Commander Peter Parker. Parker had been promoted to Master and Commander on 8 May 1804. On 21 August, Parker sailed Weazle to Cadiz, where he joined the British fleet under Lord Nelson. Weazle and Euryalus, under Captain Henry Blackwood, watched the port for the exit of the Franco-Spanish fleet, and signaled to Nelson when they did. Much to Parker's disappointment, Nelson dispatched Weazle to bring back five British ships of the line that Nelson had sent up the straights of Gibraltar to water, and whose absence, and the consequent weakness of the English fleet, Nelson had hoped would draw the enemy out. Weazel therefore missed the battle of Trafalgar.
Admiral Collingwood appointed John Clavell, with a commission dated to 22 October 1805, the day after Trafalgar, in which Clavell had been wounded, to take command of Weasel. (Clavell never fully recovered from his wound.) Weazel first monitored the Spanish fleet at Cartagena, Spain. She then patrolled Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Madeira, looking for Spanish privateers and men-of-war; subsequently she was stationed between Cape Spartel and Larache. From there Weazel transferred to the coast of Catalonia, where she captured the Spanish privateer Secondo Cornelo, of eight guns, though pierced for 20, and also about 15 coasting vessels.
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