Hired armed cutter Diligent

The Royal Navy employed one Hired armed cutter Diligent (or Diligente) during the French Revolutionary Wars. She was a small vessel, of 44 tons burthen (bm) and six 2-pounder guns, and she served from 27 February 1793 to 1 November 1801.^[1]

Diligent recaptured the Myrmidon.^[2] Myrmidon had been sailing from Newcastle with a cargo of lumber when a privateer captured her. Diligent sent her into Sheerness, where Myrmidon arrived around 14 July 1797.^[3]

Diligent, under the command of Mr. Matthew Randall, was in the fleet under Admiral Lord Duncan at the Battle of Camperdown on 11 October. Diligent's role was to stand off the larboard or lee division and repeat signals.^[4] After the battle, as a member of the fleet even though she did not participate in the combat, she was entitled to share in the £120,000 in prize money for the sale of the Dutch ships captured then.^[5] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General service Medal with clasp "Camperdown" to any surviving claimants from the action. Diligent's officers and crew qualified.^{[6][Note 1]}

On 24 October 1798 Sirius took two Dutch ships, the Waakzaamheid and the Furie in the Texel. The sloop Martin, Diligent, and several other vessels shared in the proceeds of the capture.^[9][10]

At some point, Diligent, still under Randall's command, recaptured the William and Freedom.^[11]

In 1799 Diligent, under the command of Thomas Dawson, was on the Downs and North Sea station.^[12]

Diligente was among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the galiot Neptunus on 29 March 1799.^[13]

Diligent participated in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in the naval part of the expedition under the command of Vice-admiral Admiral Archibal Dickson Andrew Mitchell. On 27 August, Diligent participated in the capture of three Dutch vessels.^[14] Three days later, Diligent was among the British vessels at the Vlieter Incident, and therefore shared in the prize money for it too.^[15]

The sloop Inspector and Diligent detained the Indian Chief, and some neutral vessels, on 30 August 1800.^{[Note 2]}

On 15 December 1800, Admiral Archibald Dickson at Yarmouth Roads, sent Shannon, Bittern, the hired armed lugger Phoenix, and hired armed cutter Drake on a cruise to protect the homeward-bound Baltic fleet from French privateers, one having been reported off Scarborough. He stated in a letter that he intended to augment the patrol with the Inspector and the cutters Hazard and Diligent when they arrived.^{[17][Note 3]}

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

1. Steel gives the name of Diligent's commander at Camperdown as Lieutenant Thomas Dawson, as does Norie, but the medal announcement unambiguously name Mr. Randall as her commander. Dawson does show up in later announcements.^[7][8]
2. Prize money for some bales of linen on Indian Chief, net of costs for the detained neutral vessels, amounted to £1 11s 6d for a seaman.^[16]
3. Dickson's letter refers to the Diligence, but there is no record of a hired cutter Diligence.

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p.387.
2. The London Gazette: no. 14054. p. 979. 10 October 1797.
3. Lloyd's List, no. 2939, - accessed 12 February 2014.
4. Duncan (1898), p.212.
5. The London Gazette: no. 14089. p. 120. 6 February 1798.
6. The London Gazette: no. 20939. p. 237. 26 January 1849.
7. Steel (1801), p. 27.
8. Norie (1827), p.54.
9. The London Gazette: no. 15505. p. 848. 10 August 1802.
10. The London Gazette: no. 15462. p. 281. 16 March 1802.
11. The London Gazette: no. 15326. p. 41. 6 January 1801.
12. Naval Chronicle, Vol. 1, p.264.
13. The London Gazette: no. 15405. p. 1111. 8 September 1801.
14. The London Gazette: no. 15820. p. 851. 29 December 1805.
15. The London Gazette: no. 15533. p. 1213. 16 November 1802.
16. The London Gazette: no. 15844. p. 1194. 17 September 1805.
17. Naval Chronicle, Vol. 4, p. 513.

References

• Duncan, Robert Adam Philips Haldane, 3rd Earl of Camperdown (1898) Admiral Duncan. (Longmans, Green, and Company).
• Norie, J. W. (1842) The naval gazetteer, biographer, and chronologist : containing a history of the late wars, from their commencement in 1793 to their conclusion in 1801; and from their re-commencement in 1803 to their final conclusion in 1815; and continued, as to the biographical part, to the present time. (London, C. Wilson).
• Steel, David (1801) Steel's Naval Remembrancer: From the Commencement of the War in 1793 to the End of the Year 1800.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.