HMS Minorca (1805)
{{short description|Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Minorca}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2017}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=COLUMBINE 1806 RMG J5090.png |Ship caption=Minorca }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|UKGBI|civil}} |Ship name=HMS Minorca |Ship namesake=Menorca |Ship ordered=24 October and 7 November 1803 |Ship builder=Josiah & Thomas Brindley, King's Lynn |Ship laid down=May 1804 |Ship launched=14 June 1805 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Sold c.1814 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption={{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=293}} |Ship class= |Ship type=Cruizer-class brig-sloop |Ship tons burthen= 385 (bm) |Ship length=*{{convert|100|ft|2|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (gundeck)
|Ship beam={{convert|30|ft|8|in|m|1 | abbr=on}}
|Ship draught= |Ship hold depth={{convert|12|ft|9|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan=Brig rigged |Ship complement=121 |Ship armament=*16 × 32-pounder carronades
|Ship notes= }} |
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 broken up after an uneventful career.
Career
Commander Henry Duncan commissioned Minorca in August 1805 and then sailed her for the Mediterranean. Duncan received promotion to post captain on 16 January 1806, but was not actually replaced until 19 April.United Service Magazine, (1835), p.574. Commander Granville George Waldegrave replaced Duncan.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=293}}
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.{{London Gazette|issue=15996|page=125|date=31 January 1807}}
Minorca then served off Cadiz in 1807, with Commander Phipps Hornby replacing Waldegrave in March. She sailed home at the end of the year.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=293}}
On 12 April 1808, Minorca and her class-mate {{HMS|Redwing|1806|6}} captured the American ship Hope.{{London Gazette|issue=16456|date=16 February 1811|page=319}} 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.{{London Gazette|issue=16661|date=24 October 1812|page=2150}} Although Commander Ralph Randolph Wormley was appointed to command on 16 February,{{sfnp|Marshall|1829|p=325}} 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.{{London Gazette|issue=16395|page=1205|date=11 August 1810}}
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.{{London Gazette|issue=16427|pages=1860–1861|date=11 August 1810}}
On 4 June 1811 Minorca recaptured Manchester and sent her into Malta, where she arrived five days later. Manchester, of and for New York, had been coming from Sicily when a French privateer captured her on 1 June off Sardinia.{{cite news|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735025?urlappend=%3Bseq=135|title=The Marine List|work=Lloyd's List|issue=4587|date=9 August 1811|hdl=2027/uc1.c2735025?urlappend=%3Bseq=135 |access-date=11 April 2020}}
On 22 January 1812 Minorca recaptured Providence Increase, Berryman, master. She had been sailing from Malta when a French privateer captured her on 17 January. Providence Increase returned to Malta on 17 February.{{cite news|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735025?urlappend=%3Bseq=283
|title=The Marine List|work=Lloyd's List|issue=4659|date=24 April 1812|hdl=2027/uc1.c2735025?urlappend=%3Bseq=283 |access-date=11 April 2020}}
On 2 January 1813, Minorca and {{HMS|Crocus|1808|2}} captured San Nicolo.{{efn|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.{{London Gazette|issue=17090|page=2481|date=12 December 1815}}}}
Wormley received promotion to post captain on 7 June 1814.{{sfnp|Marshall|1829|p=325}}
Fate
Minorca was broken up at Portsmouth in May 1814.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=293}}
Notes
{{notelist}}
Citations
{{reflist|30em}}
References
- {{cite RNB1823 |wstitle=Wormley, Ralph Randolph |volume=sup |part=3 |page=325}}
- {{cite book |first=Rif|last=Winfield|title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates|publisher=Seaforth Publishing|year=2008|isbn=978-1-86176-246-7}}
{{Cruizer class brig-sloop}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Minorca (1805)}}