- Source: HMS Growler (1797)
HMS Growler was a Courser-class gun-brig built for the British Royal Navy at Northfleet and launched in 1797 as GB No. 26; she was renamed Growler on 7 August the same year.
Lieutenant William Wall commissioned Growler in May. In August Lieutenant John Hollingsworth replaced Wall.
Capture: The French privateers Espiègle and Rusé captured Growler off Dungeness on 21 December 1797. Growler was escorting a convoy in the Channel on a moonless night when the two privateers approached. They mistook her for a merchantman, ran close on either side and called on her to surrender. The officer of the watch, taken by surprise, fired a gun. Both privateers immediately came alongside and threw grapnels on to her. The British managed to cut the grapnels on one side the privateer on that side fell away, and fired a broadside before again coming alongside. The privateers sent boarding parties over the side. Lieutenant Hollingsworth was shot and died in the ensuing struggle. The British were then forced to strike.
In 1799 a court martial honourably acquitted Growler's master of her loss.
French Navy: The French Navy purchased Growler in November 1798 and retained her name.
Recapture: The British found Growler in a very decayed state on 1 August 1809 at Veere on the island of Walcheren at the beginning of the Walcheren Campaign.
Notes
Citations
References
Demerliac, Alain (1999). La Marine de la Révolution: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1792 à 1799 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 9782906381247. OCLC 492783890.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French Warships in the Age of Sail 1786–1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-204-2.
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- HMS Growler (1797)
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- List of naval battles
- William IV
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