HMS Termagant (1796)

HMS Termagant was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1796 and performed convoy duty during the French Revolutionary Wars, shuttling between The Nore and Riga under Commander David Lloyd in mid-1797 in the company of HMS Clyde.[3]

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Termagant.
History
UK
Name: HMS Termagant
Ordered: 24 January 1795
Builder: John Dudman, Deptford
Laid down: May 1795
Launched: 23 April 1796
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate: Sold for breaking up on 3 February 1819
General characteristics [2]
Class and type:
  • 18-gun Bittern-class sloop (as designed)
  • Re-classed as 20-gun sixth rate in late 1811
Tons burthen: 427​3⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 110 ft 2 in (33.58 m) (gundeck)
  • 90 ft 8 1⁄2 in (27.648 m) (keel)
Beam: 29 ft 9 in (9.07 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 6 in (2.59 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 121
Armament:
  • As built
  • Gundeck: 18 ×  6-pounder guns
  • QD: 6 ×  12-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 ×  12-pounder carronades
  • After rearmament
  • Gundeck: 18 ×  32-pounder carronades
  • QD: 6 ×  12-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 ×  12-pounder carronades + 2 ×  6-pounder guns

On 1 September 1800, Termagant, Captain Skipsey, captured the French Navy polacca Capricieuse some 30 leagues west of Corsica after a two-hour chase. Capricieuse was armed with six guns and had a crew of 68 men under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Gandserrand. She was three days out of Toulon and was sailing to Egypt with 350 stands of arms, shot, a French general, and a Chef de Bataillon. She was also carrying dispatches, which however she was able to destroy before the British boarded her.[4][Note 1]

Three days later and some 10 leagues away, Termagant captured the privateer General Holtz, of two guns and 26 men. Skipsey scuttled and sank the privateer.[4]

On 12 January 1801, Termagant, Captain Skipsey, and Port Mahon, Captain Buchanan, captured the French Navy's half-xebec Guerrier. Guerrier was sailing from Toulon to Alexandria, Egypt, with a cargo of arms and ammunition.[6][Note 2]

Because Termagant served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants.[Note 3]

In May 1812, Termagant, Captain Gawen William Rowan-Hamilton, Hyacinth, and Basilisk, supported Spanish guerrillas on the coast of Grenada. Termagant destroyed the castle at Nerja on 20 May. The British squadron then supported a guerrilla offensive against Almuñécar. On 24 May with Hyacinth and Basilisk, Termagant took a French privateer of two guns and 30 or 40 men under the castle. The British squadron bombarded the castle, breaching the walls. The French then retreated to Grenada.[9] Termagant's only casualty was one man wounded.[10] Prize money for the "capture of a brass gun and the destruction of a French privateer, name unknown" was payable in March 1836.[Note 4]

Fate

Termagant was sold out of service in 1819.

Notes, citations, and references
Notes
  1. Capricieuse was the tartane or aviso Caramagnole, launched at Toulon in July 1793 and renamed Capricieuse on 30 May 1795. She had originally been armed with two 12-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, and had an official complement of 35 men.[5]
  2. French records indicate that Toulon Dockyard had built the 4-gun Guerrier in 1800, and that she was commissioned there on 23 September 1800.[5] When captured she was in the Eastern Mediterranean and under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Vallat.[7]
  3. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.[8]
  4. A first-class share was worth £23 18s 6d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 5s 7½d.[11]
Citations
  1. "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
  2. Winfield. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817. p. 236.
  3. Barney, John. "North Sea and Baltic Convoy 1793-1814: As Experienced by Merchant Masters Employed by Michael Henley and Son". Mariner's Mirror. 95 (4). doi:10.1080/00253359.2009.10657115.
  4. "No. 15304". The London Gazette. 21 October 1800. p. 1206.
  5. Winfield and Roberts (2015 p. 296.
  6. "No. 15358". The London Gazette. 25 April 1801. p. 447.
  7. Fonds Marine, p.246.
  8. "No. 17915". The London Gazette. 3 April 1823. p. 633.
  9. James (1837), Vol. 6, pp.63-4.
  10. "No. 16619". The London Gazette. 30 June 1812. p. 1279.
  11. "No. 19362". The London Gazette. 4 March 1836. p. 435.
References
  • Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations; divisions et stations navales; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome premier : BB4 1 à 209 (1790-1804)
  • Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
  • Winfield, Rif & Stephen S Roberts (2015) French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786 - 1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. (Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 9781848322042
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