HMS Forward (1805)

HMS Forward was a 12-gun gun-brig of the Archer class of the British Royal Navy.

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

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Forward
Ordered: June 1804
Builder: Joseph Todd, Berwick
Laid down: July 1804
Launched: January 1805
Commissioned: November 1804
Fate: Sold 14 December 1815
General characteristics
Class and type: Archer-class gun-brig
Tons burthen: 178​30⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 80 ft 0 in (24.38 m) (gundeck)
  • 65 ft 10 1⁄4 in (20.072 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 22 ft 6 3⁄4 in (6.877 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 5 in (2.87 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 50
Armament: 10 x 18-pounder carronades, and 2 chase guns

History

She was built under contract by Joseph Todd of Berwick and launched in January 1805.

On 23 April 1808, during the Gunboat War, Forward towed three boats from Daphne and two from Tartarus in an attack on ten laden vessels, moored at Fladstrand in Denmark. Despite coming under artillery and musket fire from a fortification, the vessels were successfully spirited away, with five men wounded in the action.[1]
On 19 November 1811 Forward commanded by Richard Bankes captured the merchant vessel Fortuna[2][3]

During the War of 1812, she was present off the Gulf Coast. The Forward and a transport were the last remaining vessels in the vicinity of the British Post at Prospect Bluff, and were used to spirit away the last of the garrison, whom were embarked on 16 May.[4] Edward Nicolls, Woodbine, and the Redstick Creek leader Josiah Francis, arrived at Amelia Island, in East Florida on 7 June 1815, where rumours circulated that the officers were seeking to either obtain British possession of Florida from Spain, or at least to arm and supply the Florida factions resisting American territorial expansion.[5] (In fact, Nicolls had been heading to the Bahamas, and had unintentionally ended up in Florida.[6])The Forward arrived in Bermuda, and disembarked her passengers on 28 June. Edward Nicolls embarked the brig HMS Forward on 29 June 'for passage to England', and disembarked at Portsmouth on 13 September 1815.[4]

Citations
  1. The Naval History of Great Britain. 5. London: Harding, Lepard & Co. 1826. p. 45.
  2. "No. 16688". The London Gazette. 2 January 1813. p. 36.
  3. "No. 16691". The London Gazette. 12 January 1813. p. 93.
  4. "Royal Marines on the Gulf Coast". Retrieved 3 June 2014. Extracted information from the muster of HMS Forward
  5. "War Events". Niles' Weekly Register. 8. 15 July 1815. p. 347. It is proper your excellency [the Governor of Georgia] should know that on the 7th inst. a brig and transport arrived at Amelia Island, with col. Nichols[sic], Captain Woodbine, an Indian Chief, and his son.
  6. Letter from Nicolls to Anthony St. John Baker, HM Chargé D'Affaires, Washington dated 12 June 1815, written at Amelia Island. This is within WO 1/143 folios 168-169, commencing on page 118 of 143 which can be downloaded for a fee from the UK National Archives website 'I had intended to write to you from the Bahamas ... but being obliged to put in here in distress'

References
  • Colledge, J. J. & Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
  • William James (naval historian) (1826). The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume V, 1808 – 1811.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
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