HMS Scorpion was a Cruizer Class brig-rigged sloop of war built under contract for the Royal Navy by Thomas King at his shipyard on Beach Street in Dover.
Designed by William Rule, the Cruizer class was the most numerous class of warship built for the Royal Navy during the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with 106 vessels being built in eight batches between 1797 and 1815. They were also the second-most numerous class of sailing warship built by any navy at any time after the slightly smaller Cherokee Class brig-sloops, also built for the Royal Navy. The Cruizer class brig-sloops featured a narrower than normal (for the time) hull, which, combined with their fine, almost clipper-like bows, gave them a good turn of speed. They were very seaworthy vessels for their time and despite their small size, were true ocean-going warships. Their brig-rig (with two, rather than three masts) and carronade armament meant that they only required small crews, which was a god-send for the Royal Navy which at the time was desperately short of men despite the efforts of the Impressment Service. Their armament of carronades gave them a ferocious short-range broadside. In fact, the weight of broadside they could fire was slightly heavier than that of the nominal armament of an 18 pdr armed 36 gun frigate. All that firepower was delivered on a hull half the size of the frigate and manned only a third of the crew. The downside to this was that their brig rig in only having two masts, made them more vulnerable to being crippled by damage to masts, spars and rigging. In addition, the comparatively short range of their carronades made them vulnerable to being picked off at range by the long guns fitted to enemy frigates.
The term "sloop of war" was used to classify an ocean-going warship which carried less than the 20 guns required for the vessel to be rated under the Royal Navy's rating system. The first batch of Cruizer class vessels was to have comprised of four vessels of which only one was to have been built in a Kent shipyard, by Thomas Pitcher at his Northfleet shipyard. The order for that vessel was cancelled before construction began. Of the intended four vessels, two were ship-rigged, with three masts and the other two, including the one to have been built in Northfleet, were to be brig-rigged with two masts. This was so that the Royal Navy could assess the performance of the two types. In the end, the two ship-rigged vessels became known as the Snake class, which apart from their different arrangement of masts, rigging and sails, were identical to their cousins of the Cruizer class.
HMS Scorpion was a member of the second batch, ordered by what is known as the St. Vincent Board, so called because Admiral Sir John Jervis, the Earl St. Vincent was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time. She was the first of the 19 batch 2 vessels to be completed. She was ordered from John King on 27th November 1802 and was to be the first of five vessels of that batch ordered from him. Her keel was laid in January 1803 and she was launched into the English Channel, her hull complete, on 17th October. After her launch, HMS Scorpion was towed to the Royal Dockyard at Sheerness where she was coppered and fitted with her guns, masts and rigging. HMS Scorpion was commissioned in November 1803 with Mr George Nicholas Hardinge appointed to be her Master and Commander. HMS Scorpion was his second appointment in command, his first had been as Master and Commander in the 8 gun bomb vessel HMS Terror. At the time he took command of HMS Scorpion, Hardinge had been 22 years old.
On completion, HMS Scorpion was a vessel of 383 tons. She was 100 feet long on her main deck, 77ft 3in long at the keel and 30ft 7in wide across her beam. Her hold below the lower deck was 12ft 9in deep. She drew 6ft of water at the bow and 11ft at the rudder. She was armed with 16 x 32pdr carronades on her broadsides and 2 x 6pdr long guns in her bows. Like all her sisters, she had a pair of empty gunports over her stern, each of which could be filled with either a carronade or one of her long guns. If you look at the lines and sheer plan below, you will see a small square port beside each gunport. This port was for a sweep, or large oar, to be run out when the vessel needed, for example, to work out of a harbour in adverse winds, or manoeuvre when becalmed. She was manned by a crew of 121 officers, men and boys.
Cruizer Class PlansSheer plan and lines:
Lower and main deck plans:
A fine model of HMS Teazer. Also a Cruizer class brig-sloop, HMS Scorpion was identical:
A watercolour of a Cruizer class brig-sloop. Notice the figures below the driver boom, near the stern of the vessel. This gives an idea of her size:
On 8th January 1804, HMS Scorpion completed fitting out at Sheerness and was assigned to the North Sea fleet, then commanded by Vice-Admiral the Lord Keith. She was engaged in patrolling the North Sea, hunting for French and Batavian (Dutch) privateers, scouting and running errands for the fleet. She was part of a squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Edward Thornborough. On 25th March 1804, HMS Scorpion was ordered to carry out a reconnaisance of the Vlie Passage which leads to the island of Texel in modern day Holland. Arriving there on 28th March, HMS Scorpion spotted two Dutch brig-corvettes at anchor, the nearest one being the Atalante armed with 16 x 12pdr long guns. Commander Hardinge hatched a plan to cut out the enemy vessel, but because of the shoals and sandbars, it would have to be a boat action. He was prevented from launching his attack by adverse winds. On 31st march, just as the conditions became right for the attack, HMS Scorpion was joined by the 14-gun ship-sloop HMS Beaver. Her commander, Mr Charles Pelly, asked if he could join the attack and Commander Hardinge agreed. He had decided he was going to lead the attack personally and at 9:30pm, three boats from HMS Scorpion and two from HMS Beaver with about 60 men set out from HMS Scorpion. The tide in their favour, the five boats arrived at their target two hours after they had departed. They found that the Atalante had rigged her boarding nets and that her crew was ready for the attack. Undeterred, Commander Hardinge was the first to jump aboard the enemy vessel, quickly supported by the others. Such was the ferocity of the British attack, that the majority of the Dutch crew promptly left their stations and fled below. Recovering from the shock of the suddenness of the attack, the Dutch sailors below attempted to force open the hatches as the British sailors were trying to secure them and only gave up when the officer commanding them was severely wounded. Commander Hardinge told of the action in a private letter, a tale of bravery and chivalry:
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The decks were slippery in consequence of rain; so that grappling with my first opponent, a mate of the watch, I fell, but on recovering my position, fought him on equal terms and killed him. I then engaged the captain, as brave a man as any service ever boasted: he had almost killed one of my seamen. To my shame be it spoken, he disarmed me and was on the point of killing me, when a seaman of mine came up and rescued me at the peril of his own life, and enabled me to recover my sword. At this time, all the men were come from the boats and were in possession of the deck. Two were going to fall on the captain at once. I ran up and held them back and then adjured him to accept quarter. With inflexible heroism, he distained the gift, kept us at bay and compelled us to kill him. He fell, covered with honourable wounds."
The person who saved Hardinge was actually HMS Scorpion's Sailing Master, Mr Woodward Williams. He was one of the wounded in the action. In addition to Mr Williams, the wounded included the First Lieutenant, Mr Buckland Stering Bluett, Mr Midshipman Edmund Jones and two seamen. There were no British fatalities in the attack. The Dutch crew of the Atalante, in addition to their commander, also suffered three seamen killed, their First Lieutenant, two other officers and 8 seamen were badly wounded.
The next problem to face Commander Hardinge and his men was that of a rising gale, which had caught them on a lee shore and prevented them from leaving the enemy anchorage. At daybreak the next day, they found that the other enemy vessel which Hardinge had also planned to cut out, was too far away to effect an attack. All they could do was to spend the next 48 hours riding out the storm, which swept away two of their boats and swamped another two. Two days after the attack, the Dutch captain was buried at sea, in Commander Hardinge's own words:
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He was buried with all the Naval honours in my power to bestow upon him. During the ceremony of his internment, the English colours disappeared and the Dutch hoisted in their place. All the Dutch prisoners were liberated; one of them delivered an elogé upon the hero they had lost and we fired three volleys over him as he descended into the deep."
A change in the wind allowed the British to escape with their prize, but despite more favourable winds, it still took Commander Hardinge and his men three days to return to their own vessel.
On returning to the squadron, Rear-Admiral Thornborough arranged for the late Dutch captain's servant to return home under a flag of truce with his effects, so that they could be returned to his family. For his bravery and skill in seizing a fine enemy warship from inside one of their own anchorages, Commander Hardinge was Posted, or promoted to Captain. This was not without it's down-side though. In April 1804, Hardinge was replaced in command of HMS Scorpion by Commander Phillip Carteret. His previous appointment had been in command of the ex-French 20 gun post-ship HMS Bonne Citoyenne. In September 1804, Captain Hardinge was appointed to command the 22 gun post ship HMS Proselyte. This was an appointment he hated. HMS Proselyte was a converted Newcastle collier and compared to the fast, manoeuvrable HMS Scorpion was a slow plodder, permanently assigned to convoy duty, a task which a young, dashing officer like Charles Hardinge would have found tedious at the best of times. Captain Charles Nicholas Hardinge was eventually appointed to command the ex-Spanish 36 gun frigate HMS San Fiorenzo and on 8th March 1808, a month short of his 27th birthday, he was killed in action during the taking of the French 46 gun frigate Piedmontaise off Ceylon.
In the spring of 1805, the French naval officer Commodore Jean-Jacques de Saint Faust, temporarily out of favour following the failure of his mission to launch a diversionary attack on the Shetland and Orkney Islands, had been entrusted with a special mission in the Carribean. He had been ordered to take an armed schooner of the Batavian Privateer Company, De Eer, also known as L'Honneur to Curacao. He had been forbidden from taking any prizes on the way out, but once his mission was complete, he could harrass British shipping and take prizes on the way back. Dawn on the 11th April 1805 saw HMS Scorpion operating off the Dutch coast in company with the 14 gun hired armed brig Providence and the 10 gun hired armed ship Thames. The two hired vessels sighted and chased De Eer, which turned and fled, only to encounter HMS Scorpion off Terschelling, to which she promptly surrendered. Saint-Faust attempted to disguise himself as a seaman, but somehow, was found out. An attempt to throw their orders and dispatches overboard was also unsuccessful, when, insufficiently weighted, they were recovered by the British. On examining the cargo hold of De Eer, HMS Scorpions men found that the vessel was loaded with 1000 stands of muskets, 2 x 12pdr field guns, 2 mortars and uniforms and tents for 1000 men. HMS Scorpion took De Eer into Yarmouth, from where Saint-Faust was taken to the prison hulks off Sheerness to spend the rest of the war.
On 22nd January 1806, Commander Carteret was promoted to Captain. On 16th February 1807, HMS Scorpion captured the 16 gun French privateer Le Bougainville. Later in 1807, Captain Carteret was appointed to command the 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate HMS Naiad and was replaced in HMS Scorpion by Commander Francis Stanfell. His previous appointment had been as Master and Commander in the armed transport ship HMS Gorgon. This vessel had originally been built as a 5th rate 44 gun two-decker, a type of ship which even when launched in 1785 was hopelessly obsolete. HMS Gorgon had had her lower gundeck guns removed and had been converted into a transport ship immediately after she was completed. Commander Stanfell had his first success when on 21st November 1807, HMS Scorpion captured the 16 gun French privateer brig La Glaneuse. This success was followed a couple of weeks later when HMS Scorpion captured the French privateer cutter Le Glaneur of 10 guns on 3rd December.
On 3rd April 1809, HMS Scorpion sailed for the Caribbean. On 26th August, HMS Scorpion captured a small French privateer schooner, armed with a single gun.
On 16th December 1809, HMS Scorpion, in company with the 16 gun brig-sloop HMS Ringdove joined a squadron off Basseterre, on French-held Guadeloupe. The squadron was commanded by Captain Voland Vashon Ballard in the 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate HMS Blonde. In addition to those three vessels, Captain Ballard's squadron also comprised the 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate HMS Thetis, the 16 gun ship sloop HMS Cygnet and the 16 gun ship-sloop HMS Hazard. The squadron was further joined the following day by the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Castor. On the 15th, the squadron had fallen in with the 16 gun ex-French brig-sloop HMS Observateur. On the 13th, HMS Observateur had been in company with the 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate HMS Junon, when the two vessels had been attacked by a force of four French frigates. The French force had been comprised of the 40 gun frigates Renommee and Chlorinde and two en-flute armed, former 40 gun frigates Seine and Loire. When it had become clear that HMS Junon had been overwhelmed by the French and taken, HMS Observateur had left the scene and had gone looking for Ballards force to warn them about the French force loose in the area. What Commander Wetherall of HMS Observateur didn't know was that HMS Junon had fought her opponents until she could fight no more and had been so badly damaged in the action that the French had decided she was beyond repair and had set her on fire. He assumed that HMS Junon had been taken by the enemy, so warned Captain Ballard that the enemy force was now comprised of five large frigates. When HMS Castor joined the squadron, her commander, Captain William Roberts was able to pass on more intelligence. He advised Captain Ballard that two days before joining the squadron, on 15th December, his ship had recaptured the merchant ship Ariel, out of Liverpool, which had been taken on 4th December by the Renommee and the three other French ships. Shortly after recapturing the Ariel, HMS Castor had been chased by the French ships, but had escaped. On the day that HMS Scorpion joined the squadron, Captain Ballard dispatched the two ship-sloops to carry out a reconnaisance of Basseterre. At daybreak the following day, 17th December, the squadron was almost abreast of Basseterre when they sighted two strange sails. These were quickly identified as being the Loire and the Seine and the squadron immedately gave chase. The two enemy ships made their way into a cove at Arise la Basque, where they anchored at around 10am. The ships anchored with their broadsides pointing seaward and were protected by batteries ashore on each point of the cove. By 2:40pm, HMS Ringdove was becalmed and had drifted under the guns of one of the batteries, which opened fire. After a shot had passed right through her hull, her commander, Commander George Dowers immediately ordered a boat attack on the battery. At 2:55pm, Commander Dowers and his men landed and by 3pm, they had captured the battery. He and his his men worked fast. By 3:15, they had spiked the guns, destroyed the earthworks and had blown up the magazine. By 4pm, they had returned to their ship without having suffered any casualties.
Captain Ballard meanwhile had decide that the squadron was going to destroy the enemy ships and the remaining shore batteries. To that end, Ballard sent the 12 gun armed schooner HMS Elizabeth into the cove with HMS Blonde covering in order to find suitable places for Ballards force to anchor. These were quicky found and the two ships left the cove. That evening, the squadron was joined by the 36 gun frigate HMS Freija. On the 18th, the squadron was joined by the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Sceptre. Seeing the increasing size of the British squadron anchored off the bay, the French sent a flag of truce. This was dismissed by Captain Ballard. Ballard immediately put his plan of attack into action. HMS Thetis and HMS Blonde entered the bay and anchored abreast the two enemy en-flute frigates and engaged them, while HMS Sceptre and HMS Freija entered the bay and began a bombardment of the remaining shore battery. The sloops and the armed schooner were to take the boats of the squadron in tow and tow them into the bay, where the sailors would land and storm the fort. In the light winds, HMS Thetis and HMS Blonde had difficulty in manoeuvring into position and at 2:25pm, the fort opened fire on the two British frigates and at 2:40, the enemy frigates also opened fire. HMS Blonde was the first to get into position, she anchored and opened fire on the frigate nearest to her. At 3:20pm, one of her anchor cables was shot away. Shortly afterward, HMS Thetis had got into position and had opened fire on her opponent. By 3:30, HMS Blonde had dismasted her opponent and the enemy frigate surrendered shortly afterwards. HMS Blonde then adjusted her position and began to fire at the other enemy ship, while HMS Thetis did the same and turned her fire on the fort. At 4:20pm, the other frigate also surrendered. At the same time, the first of the frigates was seen to be on fire. At 5:10pm, HMS Thetis and HMS Blonde cut their anchor cables and left the bay. At 5:20pm, the first frigate blew up and burning wreckage fell on the second frigate and set fire to her. At about this time, the squadrons boats, under the command of Commander Hugh Cameron of HMS Hazard landed under heavy enemy fire. They quickly stormed the fort. Unfortunately, Commander Cameron was wounded by musket fire as he hauled down the French colours in the fort and as he was stepping into his boat to return to HMS Hazard, he was killed by grapeshot. It is not known what casualties were suffered by the men of HMS Scorpion during their participation in the raid.
By 11th January 1810, the squadron was once more off Basseterre. The squadron had sighted a French brig-corvette lying at anchor near the shore in Basseterre Bay. Captain Ballard ordered that HMS Scorpion should cut out the enemy vessel. At 9pm, as she was closing with the shore, HMS Scorpion's lookouts sighted the enemy vessel, under way and standing out to sea. HMS Scorpion then made all sail in pursuit, but was forced to run out and use her sweeps when the wind died off. At 11pm, HMS Scorpion opened fire with her 6pdr bow chasers and by 11pm, she had brought the French vessel to action. HMS Scorpion engaged in a running fight against the enemy brig, now identified as the 16 gun brig-corvette Oreste. This continued until 01:30 on the 12th January, when her rigging and sails cut to pieces, the Oreste surrendered. At the moment that the Oreste surrendered, HMS Blonde came up and assisted HMS Scorpion's men in taking possession of their prize. HMS Scorpion was damaged in her masts and rigging and had received several shots into her hull. Four men had been wounded in the action. The Oreste was a fine prize of 312 tons, armed with 14 x 24pdr carronades and 2 x 6pdr long guns. In addition to her crew of 110 men and boys, she was carrying 20 or so passengers which included a Lieutenant-Colonel and several other officers of the French army in addition to the captains and surviving officers of the two frigates destroyed earlier at Arise la Basque Bay. The Oreste was taking into the Royal Navy and renamed to HMS Wellington. The Oreste had suffered two killed and ten wounded in her fight against HMS Scorpion.
In mid-January 1810, two powerful 40 gun French frigates managed to evade the blockade of Cherbourg, the Néréide and the Astrée. The Néréide sailed across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, carrying troops and supplies for the French garrison on Guadeloupe. What Captain Jean-Francois Lemaresquier of the Néréide didn't know was that by the time he arrived at his destination, Guadeloupe had fallen to the British. In the small hours of the morning of the 9th February 1810, Captain Lemaresquier sent a boat ashore with an officer to arrange a pilot to take his ship into the harbour at Basseterre. The boat did not return and at daybreak the French captain realised why. The harbour was full of British warships. The French ship weighed anchor and sailed away under full sail. The British however, had seen the Néréide and HMS Scorpion was one of a number of British ships which set off in pursuit. The other ships were the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Alfred, HMS Blonde, HMS Thetis, the 18pdr armed 36 gun frigate HMS Melampus and HMS Castor. HMS Alfred peeled off from the force to investigate a suspected french frigate in the bay at Arise la Basque, but this turned out to be the 18 gun ship-sloop HMS Star. The other vessels continued their pursuit of the Néréide. Over the course of the rest of the day and the following night, the Néréide left her pursuers behind and once she had lost them, made a course to head back to France.
After her return to Basseterre, HMS Scorpion was ordered to carry Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane's dispatches and the news of the capture of Guadeloupe back to the UK.
On her return to England in March 1810, Commander Stanfell was promoted to Captain and appointed to command the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Druid. He was to command three more frigates after HMS Druid and his final command before leaving the Royal Navy in 1820 was the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Conqueror. Stanfell was replaced in command of HMS Scorpion by Commander John Gore. She was his first appointment as Master and Commander. Commander John Gore remained in HMS Scorpion until March 1812, when he was appointed to command HMS Scorpion's sister-brig HMS Saracen. He was replaced by Commander Robert Giles.
On 18th June 1812, the United States of America declared war on Britain; the results of years of increasing tensions between the two nations. HMS Scorpion was assigned back to the Caribbean and spent her time engaged in escorting convoys across the Atlantic Ocean and back, in addition to the more dangerous run from the Caribbean to Halifax, Nova Scotia and back. Despite the war, HMS Scorpion's time on this station was uneventful.
The Napoleonic War was ended by the Treaty of Fontainebleu, signed on 11th April 1814. The War against the Americans was to drag on until it was finally ended on 18th February 1815. HMS Scorpion was laid up in the Ordinary at Sheerness in July 1813. She was sold to Mr G F Young at Sheerness on 3rd February 1819.
