HMS Alligator

Three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Alligator, after the marine reptile, the alligator. A fourth ship was planned but later cancelled:

• HMS Alligator (1780) was a 14-gun sloop launched in 1780. In April 1782 she was at Accra, in company with Leander when they destroyed a French storeship and captured several forts.^[1] On her way back to Britain on 26 June she encountered a French frigate off the Scilly Isles and a chase ensued and eventually a two-hour action in which she had three men killed and her captain and eleven others wounded. Eventually she struck to the Fée.^[2] Between 1782-83 she was known as Alligator No.2. In October 1783 she became the packet ship Courrier de New-York, operating out of Lorient, and took up the Lorient-New York route in December. She was transferred to the Régie de Paquebots in May 1787 and used on the Le Havre-New York and Le Havre-Antilles routes. As a packet ship she had a crew of 47 men and was armed with sixteen 6-pounder guns.^[3] She was put up for sale in December 1788 and in January 1789 she was sold at Havre to Sr. Ruellen.^[4] In 1794 she was renamed Alligator.
• HMS Alligator (1787) was a 28-gun Sixth Rate launched in 1787 and sold in 1814.
• HMS Alligator (1821) was a 28-gun sixth rate launched in 1821, on harbour service from 1846 and sold in 1865.
• HMS Alligator was to have been a wooden screw corvette. She was laid down in 1860, but cancelled in 1863.

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 12312. p. 4. 9 July 1782.
2. Hepper (1994), p.68.
3. Demerliac (1996), p.75, #476.
4. Demerliac (1996), p.219, #2214.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.