HMS Hazard was a 16 gun, unrated ship-sloop of the Cormorant Class built under Navy Board contract for the Royal Navy by Thomas and Josiah Brindley at the Quarry House Shipyard on the banks of the River Medway at Frindsbury.
The Quarry House Shipyard was the largest commercial shipyard on the Medway and HMS Hazard was the first ship to be built by the Brindleys for the Royal Navy after they took over the lease on the Yard. The Brindleys were to go on to build another 19 ships for the Royal Navy over the course of 20 years between 1794 and 1814, including the famous large frigate HMS Shannon.
The term "Sloop-of-War" was used to describe an ocean-going warship carrying less than the 20 guns required for her to be included in the Royal Navys rating system. Because they were unrated, sloops were usually commanded by an officer with a substantive rank of Lieutenant, appointed to the post of Master and Commander in her. This position was abbreviated to "Commander", although the rank of Commander did not yet exist as such. The position of Master and Commander initially combined the roles of Sailing Master and Commanding Officer but from the mid-18th Century, the Navy Board began to appoint Saining Masters into Sloops-of-War. An officer in such a position in a sloop was paid substantially more than a Lieutenant's wages and received the lions share of any prize or head money earned by the vessel and her crew. If he was successfulor at least competent, a Commander would be "Posted", or promoted to Captain and given command of a rated vessel, oror he might be promoted to Captain while still in command of the sloop. If a war should end and he was laid off before he was posted, unless he was lucky or well-connected enough to get a peacetime command appointmnt, a Commander would revert to his substantive rank of Lieutenant and receive half-pay accordingly.
A ship-sloop was so called because she was ship-rigged, that is that she had three masts with square sails fitted on all three masts. Ship-sloops of the Cormorant Class looked like miniature frigates with their gundecks partially enclosed aft by a quarterdeck and forward by a forecastle.
The Cormorant Class of ship-sloops was a group of 30 vessels designed jointly by Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow, Surveyors of the Navy and were built in two batches. HMS Hazard was one of seven ships of the first batch, four of which were built in Kent shipyards. The main difference between the two batches was that the first batch carried 6pdr long guns on their gundecks, while the second batch carried 32pdr carronades instead. Although this gave the batch 2 ships a much heavier broadside, the batch 1 ships had a higher rate of fire over a longer range and their gunnery was more accurate.
The contract for the construction of HMS Hazard was signed between the Navy Board and the Brindleys on 18th February 1793, sixteen days after France had declared war on Great Britain, starting the French Revolutionary War. Once the Navy Board Courier had delivered the 1:48 scale draft to the Quarry House shipyard, the shipwrights expanded the drawings to full-size in chalk on the Mould Loft floor. These drawings were then used by the shipwights to make moulds which were used to mark out and cut the timbers to be used in the new ship's construction. The first keel section was laid on the slipway at the Quarry House Yard in May 1793 and HMS Hazard was launched into the River Medway, her hull fully complete, on Monday 3rd March 1794. Immediately after launch, she was towed the mile or so downstream to the great Royal Dockyard at Chatham, where she was dry-docked and her lower hull was sheathed in copper. This task complete, the ship was undocked and moored in the River Medway while her guns, masts and rigging were all fitted. On 8th June 1794, HMS Hazard was commissioned with Mr John Loring as Master and Commander. Her construction at Brindleys had cost £4,618, while coppering and fitting her out at Chatham Royal Dockyard added a further £4,117 to the bill.
On completion, HMS Hazard was a ship of 425 tons. She was 108ft 4in long on her gundeck and 90ft 6in long at the keel. She was 29ft 9in wide across her beams and she drew 7ft of water at her bow and 11ft of water at the rudder. Her hold, (the space between the Orlop, the lowest deck and her bottom) was 9ft deep. She was armed with 16 x 6pdr long guns on her gundeck with 6 x 12pdr carronades on her quarterdeck with two more on her forecastle. In addition to these, she was fitted with a dozen half-pounder swivel guns fitted to her upper deck handrails and in her fighting tops. A swivel gun looked like a small cannon on a swivel and was essentially an anti-personnel weapon. Loaded with musket balls or bits of iron and glass, it had an effect like a shotgun, only much bigger. No wonder the sailors nicknamed them "Daisycutters". She was manned by a crew of 125 officers, men and boys.
Cormorant Class PlansQuarterdeck, Forecastle and Upper or Gundeck plans, Inboard Profile and Plan:
The drawings in green mark the alterations made to the design for the batch 2 ships.
Orlop Plan:
Lower, or Berth Deck Plan:
Framing Plan:
Upper Hull planking plan:
Sheer Plan and Lines:
A painting of HMS Blossom. HMS Blossom was a batch 2 ship, but the main difference between her and HMS Hazard was the fact that HMS Blossom carried 32pdr carronades on her gundeck, while HMS Hazard, a batch 1 ship, carried 6pdr long guns instead.
HMS Hazard was Commander Loring's second appointment in command. His previous appointment had been as Master and Commander in the 14-gun fireship HMS Conflagration. He wasn't in command of HMS Hazard for long. He was replaced on 21st October 1794 by Commander Robert Dudley Oliver. Loring was posted in 1795 and was appointed to command the 12pdr armed 32 gun ex-Dutch frigate HMS Proselyte in October 1796. HMS Hazard was Commander Oliver's first command, a position he held until 30th April 1796, when he was posted and appointed to command the 64 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Nonsuch. His replacement as Master and Commander in HMS Hazard was Mr Alexander Ruddach and the ship was also his first command appointment. Under Commander Ruddach, the ship was assigned to the Irish Station, operating out of Cork. Under Commander Ruddach, the ship and her crew had their first taste of action when after a chase of 8 hours, she captured the French privateer brig Le Terrible with 14 guns and 106 men out of Brest, off Cape Clear Island. The new year of 1797 got off to a good start when on New Years Day, HMS Hazard took the French privateer ship La Musette of 22 guns and 106 men. Towards the end of March, the Commander-in-Chief, Irish Station, Vice Admiral Sir Robert Kingsmill, 1st Baronet Kingsmill, received intelligence that a French vessel had been seen near the Skellocks, now known as the Skellig Islands, off the coast of County Kerry. HMS Hazard was sent to investigate and on 1st April discovered and chased the French privateer brig Le Hardi of 18 8pdr long guns and 130 men. After a chase lasting seven hours in which the French vessel lost both her topmasts, Le Hardi surrendered to HMS Hazard without firing a shot.
In July 1797, Commander Ruddach was promoted and was replaced as Master and Commander in HMS Hazard by Mr William Butterfield. HMS Hazard was Butterfield's first command appointment. He had been appointed Master and Commander in HMS Hazard as a reward for his bravery and initiative in the action between HMS Mars (74) and the French 74 gun ship L'Hercule. Butterfield had been First Lieutenant in HMS Mars and had taken command of the ship when his captain, Captain Alexander Hood had received a musket ball which had severed his femoral artery early on in the action. Eventually, HMS Mars and her crew led by Lieutenant Butterfield forced L'Hercule to surrender and tragically, Captain Hood died of his injury shortly after the French ship had surrendered. Butterfield wasn't to wait long for his first success in his new appointment. On 7th August, HMS Hazard recaptured the American Snow Two Brothers, which had been taken by a French privateer on the 4th. Once the French prize crew were taken prisoner, the American captain gave Commander Butterfield some intelligence regarding the possible whereabouts of the French privateer, which convinced Butterfied to set off in search of her. At noon on 12th August, HMS Hazard sighted and gave chase to what turned out to be a French armed ship, Le Neptune. Le Neptune was pierced for 20 guns but was only carrying ten guns, long 6pdrs. By 4pm, HMS Hazard had closed to within firing range,at which point Le Neptune hoisted her French colours, signifying an intention to fight, and opened fire. It soon turned out that in addition to her crew of 53 men, Le Neptune was carrying 270 troops. Under cover of heavy musket fire, the French made several attempts to board HMS Hazard and overwhelm her crew with their vastly superior numbers. These attempts were repelled by HMS Hazard's crew with the French suffering heavy losses. After a fight lasting an hour and fifty minutes, the French ship struck her colours in surrender. In the action, HMS Hazard had received a number of shots in her hull and her rigging had been damaged. HMS Hazard had suffered casualties of six men wounded, but the enemy had suffered between 20 and 30 killed and wounded. All the while the action was ongoing, a French privateer, probably the one which had taken the Two Brothers, was in sight. This made for an uncomfortable situation for Commander Butterfield, He and his men had taken over 300 prisoners with their prize, which needed a much larger than normal prize crew to keep the French prisoners subdued. This left Commander Butterfield with 100 men and boys with which to man his own ship and the last thing he needed was a fight with a heavily armed and manned French privateer when he was so short-handed. Luckily, after Le Neptune surrendered, the privateer made off.
On 18th July 1801, Lieutenant John Alexander Douglas of HMS Hazard was found guilty by a Court Martial aboard HMS Gladiator in Portsmouth Harbour of being Absent Without Leave. He was ordered to be dismissed from His Majesty's Service. Shortly after, Commander Butterfield was posted and was appointed to command the 80 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Foudroyant.
In June 1802, HMS Hazard entered the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth for a short refit, which lasted until August. By this time, the French Revolutionary War was over, having been ended by the Treaty of Amiens, signed between the warring nations the previous March. In June 1802, Mr Robert Jenner Neve was appointed as Master and Commander in HMS Hazard. She was his first command appointment.
On 18th May 1803, the peace ended and the Napoleonic War began. HMS Hazard was assigned to the Channel Fleet and was employed on the blockade of the Northern Spanish ports of Vigo and Corunna. While the ship was employed on this blockade, a rumour began to spread around the fleet that she had been taken by the French. Firstly that she had been taken by four ships of the line and that soon changed to four frigates. None of it was true; the ship was present when the 74 gun ship of the line HMS Minotaur took the French frigate Franchise on 28th May 1803. HMS Hazard and her crew became very successful in their blockading duties, capturing many blockade runners and privateers. The prize money from these captures would have made most of her crew relatively wealthy when they eventually paid off.
Towards the end of 1803, HMS Hazard was redeployed from Spain to the Northern French coast and her good luck in enforcing the blockade followed her and she continued to make captures off Quiberon, Bordeaux and Rochefort. In 1804, the ship was stationed off the Cornish coast in order to protect British merchant shipping from French privateers who would prey on shipping using the bays of the southern Cornish coast to shelter from bad weather.
In January 1806, Commander Neve was posted and was replaced in HMS Hazard by Commander Charles Dilkes. HMS Hazard was his second command, his first was the 18 gun ship-sloop HMS Dasher. On 25th April, the ship inadvertently came to the rescue of the famous Captain the Lord Cochrane in the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Pallas. Lord Cochrane had been ordered by Vice-Admiral Thornborough, commanding the squadron blockading Rochefort, to carry out a close reconnaisance of the enemy forces around the Ile D'Aix. This he duly did and counted five ships of the line, including a three-decker, plus five frigates, a ship-corvette and three brig-corvettes. Shortly afterwards, the French dispatched the 18pdr armed 40 gun frigate La Minerve and the three brig-corvettes to chase off HMS Pallas. The French, expecting Cochrane to turn and run were shocked to discover that he had every intention of taking them all on. As they approached the British ship, the French opened fire, but spotted sails in the distance which turned out to be the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Iris, HMS Hazard and a topsail cutter. The French, believing this to be the vanguard of a larger force, withdrew back to the Ile D'Aix and the cover of the shore batteries there.
In September 1807, an incident occurred aboard the ship which serves to highlight the differences in social attitudes between then and now, which was to have tragic and brutal consequences for one of the parties involved. The ship's First Lieutenant, Mr William Berry was caught committing buggery with one of the ship's boys, Thomas Gibbs. If he had been an ordinary sailor, Berry would likely have been charged with a much lesser offence such as drunkenness or filthiness and would have been flogged and the incident forgotten as long as it didn't happen again. Commanding Officers hated Courts Martial, for a number of reasons. Firstly there was the inconvenience of it all, what with having to gather witness statements and the whole business of the Court Martial itself. Secondly, it made the Commanding Officer look bad - it gave the appearance that he was unable to enforce discipline on his own ship. Only Mr Berry wasn't a common seaman. Not only was he an Officer, but he was the second in command of the ship and the Commander's right hand man. Commander Dilkes had no choice but to bring the matter to the attention of the Port Admiral at Portsmouth. On 2nd October, the Court Martial was held aboard HMS Gladiator in Portsmouth Harbour and Berry was duly found guilty and was sentenced to death. Homosexuality was, at the time, a capital offence and the Court Martial Board had no alternative but to pass the death sentence. On 19th October 1807, Berry was hanged from the fore-yard of HMS Hazard. To make things worse, the hanging went wrong when the noose became twisted under Berry's chin and despite having a 32lb shot tied around his ankles, it took a full 15 minutes for the unfortunate Lieutenant Berry to die by strangulation. Lieutenant William Berry was one of only two officers hanged for buggery during the whole period of the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Hazard sailed for the West Indies on 16th November 1807. Once there, she joined the squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane. At the end of 1808, Commander Dilkes was posted and was appointed in command of the flagship, the 98 gun Second Rate ship of the line HMS Neptune. His place was taken by Commander Hugh Cameron. HMS Hazard was his second command appointment. His first had been as Master and Commander in the gun-brig HMS Achates of ten guns.
At 07:00 on 22nd January 1809, HMS Hazard was patrolling off Guadeloupe when her lookouts sighted a ship and a schooner standing in for the land. On realising they had been spotted, the two vessels parted with the schooner standing out to sea, seemingly inviting the British sloop to give chase. Commander Cameron had different ideas and instead headed after the ship, which turned out to be the 18pdr armed 40-gun French frigate Topaze. Topaze had left Brest the previous month headed for Cayenne in modern day French Guyana but had found the port blockaded to the degree where she was unable to evade it and had headed to Guadeloupe instead. At 9am, the 12pdr-armed 32-gun frigate HMS Cleopatra came into sight, as did the 18pdr-armed 38-gun frigate HMS Jason. Faced with a superior force, the Topaze had no alternative but to head closer inshore and the French frigate anchored under a small shore battery close to Pointe Noire. After being delayed by fickle winds, at about 14:30, HMS Cleopatra began to work inshore towards the enemy frigate so that by 16:30, she was within 200 yards of the shore and half a musket-shot from the Topaze. Topaze opened fire on HMS Cleopatra and as soon as she had anchored off the French ship's starboard bow, HMS Cleopatra began to return fire. Very quickly, HMS Cleopatra shot away one of the French ship's anchor cables so that she swung bows-on to the British frigate, which then began to mercilessly rake the French ship. Unable to bring any more than her bow guns to bear, after about 40 minutes of firing and after HMS Jason had joined in while HMS Hazard bombarded the shore battery, the Topaze hauled down her colours in surrender at about 17:20. HMS Hazard suffered no damage or casualties, neither did HMS Jason. HMS Cleopatra suffered two dead and one wounded and some damage to her rigging. The Topaze suffered a number of hits to her lower hull and casualties of 12 dead and 14 wounded. Topaze was taken into the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Alcmene, as there was already an HMS Topaze in service.
Between 28th January and 24th February 1809, HMS Hazard participated in the capture of the French-held island of Martinique. By the end of 1808, the British were planning to exploit the total dominance of the worlds oceans earned by the string of major naval victories they had won since the start of post-revolution wars against the French in 1793. They had decided that they were going to take Martinique. The plan for Martinique involved an amphibious operation commanded by Rear-Admiral Cochrane, still flying his command flag in HMS Neptune. The invasion force was comprised of 44 ships and 10,000 soldiers under the command of Lieutenant General George Beckwith. In addition to HMS Neptune and HMS Hazard, Rear-Admiral Cochrane's force also comprised the ex-French HMS Pompee (80), the ex-French HMS Belle Isle (74), HMS York (74), HMS Captain (74), HMS Intrepid (64). In addition to these ships of the line, there was also the 44 gun two-decker HMS Ulysses, the 18pdr armed frigates HMS Acasta (40), HMS Ethalion (38), HMS Penelope (36), HMS Pique (36), the 12pdr armed frigates HMS Cleopatra (32), HMS Circe (32) and the 9pdr armed post-ship HMS Eurydice (24). There were also the ship-sloops HMS Surinam (18), HMS Cherub (18), HMS Star (16), HMS Stork (16), the brig-sloops HMS Demerara (18), HMS Recruit (18), HMS Wolverine (16), HMS Amaranthe (16), HMS Fawn (16), the cutter HMS Liberty (14), the gun-brigs HMS Haughty (12) and HMS Swinger (12) and the armed schooners HMS Port D'Espangne (14), HMS Superieure (14), HMS Eclair (12), HMS Bacchus (10) and HMS Express (6).<br /><br /><br />This force departed Barbados on 28th January 1809 and arrived off Martinique two days later. The colony was defended by about 2,400 regular troops and 2,500 militia. The defences were commanded by the French Vice-Admiral Villaret Joyeuse, the same officer who commanded the French fleet defeated by Lord Howe at the Battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794. The various shore batteries had a total of 280 guns. In the harbour at Fort Royal lay the large frigate Amphitrite (40) which had arrived from Cherbourg. In addition to this, the Diligente lay off St. Pierre and at Marin Bay lay the ex-HMS Carnation (18), taken on 3rd October 1808.
On 30th January 1809, 3,000 men under Major-General Fredrick Maitland were landed at Pointe St Luce under the supervision of Captain William Fahie in HMS Belle Isle. A further 600 men under Major Henderson were landed at Cape Solomon. When the French defenders spotted Major-General Maitland's force, they burned the Carnation. In addition to these landings, 6,500 men under Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost landed at Baie Robert, on the northern coast of the island. The campaign proceeded rapidly and on 24th February, the last defenders at Fort Desaix surrendered to the victorious British.
Early in February 1809, the French dispatched a force under the command of Commodore Amable-Gilles Trude, on a mission to resupply the garrison at Martinique. His force comprised the ships of the line Courageux (74), Polonais (74) and D'Haultpout (74). These ships were escorting the en-flute frigates Felicite and Furieuse. The term en-flute meant a warship with some of it's armament removed to make room for cargo. Trude's force arrived in the Leeward Islands on 29th March and found that Martinique had already fallen. He anchored his small force off the Iles des Saintes off Guadeloupe, where they were spotted by patrolling British warships. Cochrane knew that he couldn't allow Trude's squadron to stay in the area. He ordered that men and heavy guns be landed on the islands to drive the French out to sea, where they could be pursued and brought to action. Operations on the islands commenced on 14th April 1809 and by 20:00 that day, fire from the guns landed by the British had the desired effect and Troude ordered his ships to weigh anchor and put to sea. This had been seen by HMS Hazard and reported to the blockading squadron which comprised of the flagship, HMS Neptune plus HMS York, HMS Pompee, HMS Polyphemus (64) and HMS Recruit. By 10pm, HMS Pompee and HMS Recruit had caught up with the rear-most French ship, the 74 gun ship of the line D'Haultport. HMS Pompee fired two broadsides into D'Haultport without effect and the French ship continued on without returning fire. At 22:15, Commander Charles Napier of HMS Recruit managed to manoeuvre his vessel under the stern of the D'Haultport and opened fire. Napier was displaying a level of courage bordering on the insane. The D'Haultport was after all, almost six times the size of his vessel and was several orders of magnitude more powerful. At 30 minutes past midnight, HMS Neptune got close enough to open fire and her broadside killed one and wounded four of D'Haultport's men. At 4am, HMS Recruit got close enough to fire another broadside into the French ship. HMS Pompee opened fire from long range with her bow-chasers and throughout the night, HMS Recruit continued to harass the French ship. At 10:45, the French ship's commander decided to do something about HMS Recruit's fire, so briefly turned his ship into the wind and fired a full broadside at the relatively tiny British vessel. This damaged HMS Recruit's rigging on the port side, but did no significant damage and caused no casualties. Napier was not intimidated by this and as soon as D'Haultport had resumed her course, he continued with his attacks, pulling up to the Frenchman's stern and letting them have two broadsides through the stern. This continued throughout the day, with HMS Pompee joining in the running battle while she was able to. By daybreak on the 16th April, HMS Recruit had been forced to drop astern of D'Haultport as a result of the damage to her rigging. In the meantime, the chase had been joined by HMS Latona, an 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate and HMS Castor, a 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate. HMS Castor took HMS Recruit's place off D'Haultport's stern and continued to harass the larger French ship until HMS Pompee closed the range sufficiently to bring her to action properly. The harassing from HMS Recruit and then HMS Castor had slowed the French ship enough for HMS Pompee to come alongside and batter her into surrender.
On 17th October, HMS Hazard was operating in company with the 18 gun brig-sloop HMS Pelorus. The two sloops were patrolling off Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, when they spotted a French privateer schooner lying under the guns of the shore battery at Sainte Marie. Commander Cameron, as the senior commander ordered a boat action with the boats from both sloops. The boats were under the orders of Lieutenants James Robertson and Edward Flinn, First Lieutenants of each vessel, assisted by Mr Midshipman John S. Brisbane and Mr Midshipman Hugh Hunter and Mr William Fergusson, Boatswain, all from HMS Hazard and Mr Midshipman Eleazer Scott from HMS Pelorus and the mission was to capture or destroy the enemy vessel. Covering fire was to be provided by both sloops as necessary. As the boats approached the shore, they came under heavy fire with grapeshot from the battery and from the enemy vessel. The fire from the battery was soon silenced by fire from the two sloops and the fire from the privateer stopped when the enemy abandoned her as soon as the British came aboard. They found the schooner to be armed with one long 18pdr gun on a traversing mount, plus two swivel guns. Finding the vessel secure to the shore with chains and impossible to free her, Lieutenant Robinson decided to destroy her, so he and his men set fire to the enemy vessel. This was despite coming under musket fire from the beach less than ten yards away in addition to two field pieces. The enemy vessel exploded when the fire reached her magazine. The operation was not without loss to the British. Six seamen had been killed and Mr Flinn and Mr Fergusson had been badly burned by the explosion. In addition, a further seven seamen had been wounded, mostly by the enemy's grape shot and musketry.
By December 1809, HMS Hazard was part of a squadron led by Captain Voland Vashon Ballard in the 18pdr armed 38 gun frigate HMS Blonde. In addition to HMS Blonde and HMS Hazard, the squadron also comprised the 12pdr armed 23 gun frigate HMS Castor, the 16 gun ship-sloop HMS Cygnet, the 18 gun brig-sloop HMS Scorpion and the 16 gun brig-sloop HMS Ringdove. 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 Ballard's force to anchor. These were quickly 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 engage 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 squadron's boats, under the command of Commander Cameron 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.
Commander Cameron's replacement was Commander William Elliot, formerly of HMS Pultusk.
In early 1810, HMS Hazard participated in the invasion of Guadeloupe. While leading the fleet into Anse la Basque, her crew spotted a French schooner, under the guns of the shore battery, which had been set on fire by her crew to prevent her from falling into British hands. Identified as La Mouche, HMS Hazard's First Lieutenant, Mr James Robertson led a boarding party whic boarded the burning enemy vessel and despite coming under fire from the shore, the intense heat of the fire and the fact that part of the vessels upper deck had already collapsed, Robertson and his men managed not only to bring the schooner out, but also to seize her signal book, which contained all the signals and codes used by France and her allies.
Later in 1810, Commander Elliot received orders to return to the UK in HMS Hazard. On 16th October 1810, Elliot was posted, but did not receive another command appointment until December 1812, when he was appointed to command the 22 gun sixth-rate post-ship HMS Crocodile. His replacement as Master and Commander in HMS Hazard was Mr John Cookesley and HMS Hazard was his first appointment in command.
The rest of HMS Hazard's career saw her on convoy duty, escorting convoys from the UK to Newfoundland and the West Indies and back. The outbreak of war with the United States in July 1812 brought successes against American privateers and blockade runners once the Royal Navy imposed a blockade of the American East Coast. The Napoleonic War was ended by the Treaty of Fontainebleu signed on 11th April 1814. The war against the USA was ended by the Treaty of Ghent, signed on Christmas Eve 1814, but not ratified by the US Congress until February the following year. HMS Hazard remained in service until she was sold at Portsmouth to Mr Spratley for £1,010 on 30th October 1817.
