HMS Dictator (1783)

At the "Reduction of Trinidad" in 1797 Dictator participated in the later stages, not having arrived until 18 February, the prize money awarded reflecting this late arrival.{{London Gazette|issue=15084|page=1144|date=27 November 1798}}

On 8 March 1801, whilst disembarking the army at the Battle of Aboukir during the French campaign in Egypt, one seaman was killed and a midshipman, Edward Robinson, fatally wounded.{{London Gazette|issue=15362|page=497|date=5 May 1801}}

Prize money for the capture of enemy ships was usually shared with other warships in the squadron between 1801 and 1806.{{London Gazette|issue=15618|page=1187|date=6 September 1803}}{{London Gazette|issue=15847|page=1237|date=28 September 1803}}{{London Gazette|issue=16054|page=1049|date=8 August 1807}}{{London Gazette|issue=15434|page=1466|date=8 December 1801}}{{London Gazette|issue=15434|page=1466|date=30 August 1800}}{{London Gazette|issue=15999|page=179|date=10 February 1807}}

Because Dictator served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.{{efn|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.{{London Gazette|page=633 |issue=17915|date=3 April 1823}}}}

File:Capt. Lieutenant J. J. Suensen, med 6 Canon-Chalouper under sin Commando.jpg

In the late summer of 1807, Dictator was part of Admiral Gambier's fleet in the Øresund at the Battle of Copenhagen where she shared prize money with some 126 other British naval ships.{{London Gazette|issue=16275|page=1103|date=11 July 1809}} She was again in Danish Waters the following year, in Admiral Hood's squadron of four ships-of-the-lineVoelcker p54Log Book of HMS Prometheus 20 May 1808: National Archives, Kew ref ADM51/1962 together with some smaller vessels, tasked with maintaining the blockade between Jutland and Zealand. Her captain, Donald Campbell, ordered the sloop {{HMS|Falcon|1802|6}} to proceed on her successful patrols to Samsø, Tunø and Endelave.{{London Gazette|issue=16152|page=862|date=7 June 1808}}

In August 1809 Dictator was tasked with the occupation of the Pea Islands to the east of Bornholm but ran aground en route and had to be towed back to Karlskrona for repairs.Voelcker p103

In early July 1810, during the Gunboat War with Denmark-Norway, Dictator, in company with {{HMS |Edgar|1779|2}} and {{HMS |Alonzo|1801|2}}, sighted three Danish gunboats commanded by Lieutenant Peter Nicolay Skibsted, who had captured {{HMS|Grinder|1809|2}} in April of that year. The gunboats (Husaren, Løberen, and Flink) sought refuge in Grenå, on eastern Jutland, where a company of soldiers and their field guns could provide cover. However, the British mounted a cutting out expedition of some 200 men in ten ships' boats after midnight on 7 July, capturing the three gunboats.{{London Gazette |issue= 16393|page=1162| date= 4 August 1810}}Naval Chronicle. Vol 14, pp. 255–6{{London Gazette| issue= 16578|page=385 | date =25 February 1812}}{{efn|Skibsted spent a year as a prisoner of war in England. On his return to Denmark he underwent a court martial for the loss of his vessels and was found guilty.Topsøe-Jensen and Marquard (1935), Vol 2 pp. 519–20.}}

[[File:Battle of Lyngør.jpg|thumb|

HMS Dictator (1783) in the foreground, with British marines sailing ashore, in the process of sinking the Najaden (1811), in the left background.]]

In 1812 Dictator led a small squadron consisting of three brigs, the 18-gun {{sclass|Cruizer|brig-sloop}} Calypso, 14-gun brig-sloop Podargus and the 14-gun gun brig Flamer. On 7 July they encountered the Danish-Norwegian vessels Najaden, a frigate finished in 1811 in part with parts salvaged from a ship-of-the-line destroyed in earlier battles, and three brigs, Kiel, Lolland and Samsøe. Najaden was under the command of Danish naval officer Hans Peter Holm (1772–1812){{citation | url = http://www.snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Hans_Peter_Holm/utdypning | contribution = Hans Peter Holm | first = Steinar | last = Sandvold | place = NO | title = Store norske leksikon | date = 29 June 2022 | language = Norwegian}}. In the subsequent Battle of Lyngør Dictator destroyed Najaden and the British took Laaland and Kiel as prizes but had to abandon them after the two vessels grounded. The action cost Dictator five killed and 24 wounded. In 1847 the surviving British participants were authorized to apply for the clasp "Off Mardoe 6 July 1812" to the Naval General Service Medal.

{{main|Battle of Lyngør}}

Under the rules of prize-money, the troopship Dictator shared in the proceeds of the capture of the American vessels in the Battle of Lake Borgne on 14 December 1814.{{efn|

'Notice is hereby given to the officers and companies of His Majesty's ships

Aetna,

Alceste,

Anaconda,

Armide,

Asia,

Bedford,

Belle Poule,

Borer,

Bucephalus,

Calliope,

Carron,

Cydnus,

Dictator,

{{HMS|Diomede|1798|2}},

Dover,

Fox,

Gorgon,

Herald,

Hydra,

Meteor,

Norge,

Nymphe,

Pigmy,

Ramillies,

Royal Oak,

Seahorse,

Shelburne,

Sophie,

{{HMS|Thames|1805|2}},

Thistle,

Tonnant,

Trave,

Volcano,

and Weser,

that they will be paid their respective proportions of prize money.'

{{London Gazette|page=1561|issue=17730|date=28 July 1821}}|group=Note}} HMS Dictator was one of several troopships among Admiral Alexander Cochrane's fleet moored off New Orleans at the start of 1815.{{cite web|title=Battles fought in Alabama/Old Southwest, Units Participating and Casualties|url=http://alabamatrailswar1812.com/muster.htm/|accessdate=1 February 2013|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130819194103/http://alabamatrailswar1812.com/muster.htm|archivedate=19 August 2013}}

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{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• Lavery, Brian (1983) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press. {{ISBN|0-85177-252-8}}.
• T. A. Topsøe-Jensen og Emil Marquard (1935) "Officerer i den dansk-norske Søetat 1660–1814 og den danske Søetat 1814–1932" (in Danish).
• Voelcker, Tim (2008) Admiral Saumarez versus Napoleon : The Baltic 1807–1812 Boydell Press. {{ISBN|978-1-84383-431-1}}.

{{refend}}

• {{Commons category-inline|HMS Dictator (ship, 1783)}}

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Category:Ships of the line of the Royal Navy

Category:Inflexible-class ships of the line

Category:1783 ships

Category:War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom