HMS Minerva (1805)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Minerva.

HMS Minerva off Finisterre Bay, 22 June 1806
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Minerva
Ordered12 July 1804
BuilderDeptford Dockyard
Cost£15,017
Laid downAugust 1804
Launched25 October 1805
CommissionedNovember 1805
FateBroken up February 1815
General characteristics [1]
Class and type32-gun fifth rate Thames-class frigate
Tons burthen659 bm
Length
  • 127 ft (39 m) (overall)
  • 107 ft (33 m) (keel)
Beam34 ft 0.5 in (10.376 m)
Depth of hold11 ft 3.5 in (3.442 m)
Complement220
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 x 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 8 x 24-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 4 x 24-pounder carronades

HMS Minerva was a 32-gun fifth-rate Thames-class frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1805 at Deptford. Her namesake was the Roman goddess Minerva.

A wartime lack of building materials meant that Minerva and her class were built to the outdated 50-year-old design of the Richmond class, and were thus smaller than many contemporary frigates.[2]

Service history[edit]

From February 1806 Minerva served under Captain George Collier in the English Channel.[1] On 27 April she took the 14-gun Spanish privateer La Finisterre with HMS Conflict.[3] Minerva then took part in a number of small-boat operations on the coast, including taking an 8-gun fort and cutting out 5 Spanish coasters on 22 June.[4] For this action her First Lieutenant, William Mulcaster, received a sword of £50 value from Lloyd's Patriotic Fund.[5] On 11 July of the same year, her barge successfully took the 1-gun lugger La Buena Dicha after a chase of nearly 40 miles around Guarda.[6]

On 29 October while reconnoitering the approaches to Pontevedra, Minerva cut out 2 chasse marées from Porto Novo, and 2 days later her barge took a Spanish lugger which had sailed from Avilés.[7] Staying active, Captain Collier led the ship's cutter and barge to take a 24-pounder gun-boat and 30 men on 2 October, still in the vicinity of Pontevedra.[7]

Alongside HMS Amazon she recaptured the schooner Jackdaw off the Cape Verde islands on 17 February 1807; Jackdaw had been captured only the day before.[1] In October 1807 Minerva was serving alongside HMS Naiad and HMS Phoenix, sharing in Naiad's prize of the ship Vigilante.[8] By the end of the year Captain Richard Hawkins had assumed command.[1] On 17–18 March 1808, Minerva captured the Spanish ships La Purissima Consecion, La Caroline, and a lugger.[9]

Minerva continued serving off the Spanish and French coasts, taking the 8-gun privateer La Joséphine on 23 September 1808. La Joséphine overset in a gale as she was captured, and Minerva was only able to save 16 of the 50-man crew.[10] In October 1808 she took the 14-gun L'Améthyste and on 14 April 1809 the Danish brig Edward.[11] By August 1809 Minerva was serving off Ushant and took the Carl Ludwig alongside HMS Dreadnought, HMS Gibraltar, HMS Tonnant, and HMS Snapper on 2 August.[12] She took another ship, the chasse marée Le Bienfaisant, on 10 August.[13] Minerva continued this run of successful captures into October, taking the French ships L'Emerance and L'Emulation on 3 and 12 October respectively and the chasse marée La Victoire 8 days later.[14]

By 3 December 1810 Minerva was part of the joint expedition of Vice-Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie and Major-General John Abercrombie which successfully captured Isle de France.[15] On 28 December she detained the ship Mary while in company with HMS Royal Oak and HMS Valiant.[16] She sailed for Newfoundland on 6 May 1811, participating in convoy duties from North America to the West Indies between 1812 and 1813.[10]

French frigate L'Artimise[edit]

On 18 August 1808, Minerva possibly destroyed the French 40-gun frigate L'Artimise near Brest.[17] The London Gazette shows that head money was paid to the crew on 5 March 1811, while chroniclers in 1828 describe elements of the Brest blockading squadron chasing her ashore.[18][19] However, there is no concrete evidence of such a ship existing on the French establishment. The previous Artémise was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in 1787. William O'Byrne suggests it was a new ship that Charles Dashwood fought in 1801, however, William James could find no evidence of the existence of a L'Artémise apart from Dashwood's engagement and her reported destruction by Minerva in 1808.[20][21] Thus, while it is assured that Minerva destroyed a ship by running it ashore on 18 August 1808, the identity of that ship is unknown.

Fate[edit]

In 1814 Minerva was put in ordinary at Sheerness and was broken up there in February 1815.[17]

Citations[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d Winfield, British Warships, p. 497.
  2. ^ Winfield, British Warships, p. 494.
  3. ^ "No. 15915". The London Gazette. 3 May 1806. p. 556.
  4. ^ Laird Clowes, The Royal Navy vol. 5, p.384.
  5. ^ "A Fine Lloyd's Patriotic Sword". Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  6. ^ "No. 15941". The London Gazette. 29 July 1806. p. 951.
  7. ^ a b "No. 15967". The London Gazette. 18 October 1806. p. 1378.
  8. ^ "No. 16234". The London Gazette. 3 March 1809. p. 296.
  9. ^ "No. 16187". The London Gazette. 27 September 1808. p. 1341.
  10. ^ a b Michael Phillips. Minerva (32) (1805). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
  11. ^ "No. 16382". The London Gazette. 26 June 1810. p. 946.
  12. ^ "No. 16512". The London Gazette. 10 August 1811. p. 1576.
  13. ^ "No. 16383". The London Gazette. 30 June 1810. p. 967.
  14. ^ "No. 16461". The London Gazette. 5 March 1811. p. 433.
  15. ^ "No. 16938". The London Gazette. 24 September 1814. p. 1923.
  16. ^ "No. 16760". The London Gazette. 3 August 1813. p. 1540.
  17. ^ a b Winfield, British Warships, p. 498.
  18. ^ "No. 16461". The London Gazette. 5 March 1811. p. 432.
  19. ^ Urban, The Gentleman's Magazine, p. 413.
  20. ^ O'Byrne (1849), p. 263.
  21. ^ James, Naval History of Great Britain Vol. 3, pp. 147-8.

References[edit]

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