HMS Minorca (1805)

History
UK
Name:	HMS Minorca
Ordered:	24 October and 7 November 1803
Builder:	Josiah & Thomas Brindley, King's Lynn
Laid down:	May 1804
Launched:	14 June 1805
Fate:	Broken up in 1814
General characteristics [1]
Type:	Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tonnage:	385 (bm)
Length:	100 ft 2 in (30.53 m) (gundeck) 77 ft 4 ^1⁄2 in (23.584 m) (keel)
Beam:	30 ft 8 in (9.35 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Sail plan:	Brig rigged
Complement:	121
Armament:	16 × 32-pounder carronades 2 × 6-pounder bow guns

HMS Minorca was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1805. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean and was sold in 1814 after an uneventful career.

Career

Commander Henry Duncan commissioned Minorca in August 1805 and then sailed her for the Mediterranean. In April 1806 Commander Granville George Waldegrave replaced Duncan.^[1]

On 23 December Minorca captured a Spanish merchant vessel. As Minorca was entering the Straits of Gibraltar on her way to join her station at Gibraltar, 11 privateers came out to reconnoitre her. Waldegrave immediately gave chase, causing them to disperse, though the largest one attempted to separate Minorca from her prize. After a two-hour chase, Waldegrave was able to capture the largest, the Nuestra Señora del Carmen (alias Caridad). She was armed with two 12-pounder guns, two 4-pounder guns, and two large swivel guns; she had a crew of 35 men. Minorca also captured a Spanish felucca, the packet boat on the Tangiers to Tarifa route, together with the mail that she was carrying.^[2]

Minorca then served off Cadiz in 1807, with Commander Phipps Hornby replacing Waldegrave in March. She sailed home at the end of the year.^[1]

On 12 April 1808, Minorca and her class-mate HMS Redwing captured the American ship Hope.^[3] Minorca sailed for the Mediterranean on 3 August 1808.

In 1810 Lieutenant Thomas Everard (acting) assumed command and was still in command on 12 May when Minorca captured the French polacca Friedland.^[4] Although Commander Ralph Randolph Wormley was appointed to command in February,^[1] he clearly did not assume command until later.

On 4 June Minorca, with Wormley in command, captured the French privateer felucca Sans Peur. She was armed with one long gun and two swivel guns. She and her crew of 39 men had been out of Genoa for 35 days but had captured nothing.^[5]

In September Minorca was in company with Captain Charles Bullen and his frigate Volontaire as they reconnoitred the Spanish east coast towards the Medes Islands, which they had not yet visited.^[6]

On 2 January 1813, Minorca and Crocus captured the San Nicolo.^{[Note 1]}

Fate

Minorca was broken up at Portsmouth in May 1814.^[1]

Footnotes

Notes

1. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £265 18s 8d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £7 10s 0d. Some costs were allocated equitably and were to be deducted at time of payment.^[7]

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), pp.293.
2. The London Gazette: no. 15996. p. 125. 31 January 1807.
3. The London Gazette: no. 16456. p. 319. 16 February 1811.
4. The London Gazette: no. 16661. p. 2150. 24 October 1812.
5. The London Gazette: no. 16395. p. 1205. 11 August 1810.
6. The London Gazette: no. 16427. pp. 1860–1861. 11 August 1810.
7. The London Gazette: no. 17090. p. 2481. 12 December 1815.

References

• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.