HMS Recruit was an 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloop built under contract for the Royal Navy by Thomas Hills at his shipyard in Sandwich. She was to become infamous in her day for an incident which ended up costing her commander his career in the Royal Navy.
Designed by Sir William Rule, Co-Surveyor of the Navy, the Cruizer class was the most numerous class of warship built by the Royal Navy during the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, with 106 vessels being built in seven 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 only having two masts, made them more vulnerable to being crippled by damage to masts, spars and rigging. In addition, the 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.
A sloop like HMS Recruit would have a "Master and Commander", abbreviated to "Commander", appointed in command rather than an officer with the rank of Captain. At the time, the rank of Commander did not exist as it does today. It was a position rather than a formal rank and an officer commanding an unrated vessel had a substantive rank of Lieutenant and was appointed as her Master and Commander. An officer in the post of Master and Commander would be paid substantially more than a Lieutenant's wages and would also receive the lions share of any prize or head money earned by the ship and her crew. The appointment originally combined the positions of Commanding Officer and Sailing Master, but towards the middle of the 18th century, the Navy Board began to appoint Sailing Masters into Sloops, freeing up the commander to concentrate on commanding the vessel. If a war ended and an unrated vessel's commanding officer was laid off, he would receive half-pay based on his substantive rank of Lieutenant. If he was successful or at least proved himself to be competent, he would usually be promoted to Captain or "Posted" either while still in command of the vessel, or would be promoted and appointed as a Captain on another, rated ship. Unrated vessels therefore tended to be commanded by ambitious, well-connected young men anxious to prove themselves.
HMS Recruit was a member of the fourth batch, ordered by Barham's Board, so called because Charles Middleton, First Baron Middleton of Barham Court and Teston in the County of Kent, was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time. She was one of a pair contracted from Thomas Hills, the other being HMS Royalist. The Navy Board contract for the construction of HMS Recruit was signed on 27th January 1806. Her keel was laid sometime in April and she was launched, her hull fully complete, on 31st August 1806. On completion, HMS Recruit was a vessel of 382 tons. She was 100ft long on her main deck and 30ft 6in wide across her beam. She was armed with 16 x 32pdr carronades on her broadside and 2 x 6pdr long guns in her bows. She was manned by a crew of 121 officers, men and boys. The vessel commissioned in March 1807 under Commander George Acklom. He had previously served as a lieutenant aboard the 98 gun 2nd rate ship of the line HMS Neptune and had been rewarded with command of HMS Recruit for his actions aboard that ship during the Battle of Trafalgar.
Cruizer Class PlansOrlop and Berth or Lower Deck Plans:
Sheer Plan and Lines:
A nice drawing of the sail plan of a Cruizer class brig-sloop. HMS Recruit would have been identical:
A model of HMS Teazer, another Cruizer class brig-sloop. HMS Recruit would have been identical:
Commander Acklom was only to command HMS Recruit until July 1807 when he left the ship and was replaced by Commander the Honourable Warwick Lake. Commander Lake was well connected. He was the heir to the Viscountcy Lake of Delhi and Laswari and of Ashton Clinton in Buckinghamshire.
In September 1807, HMS Recruit sailed to the Caribbean with a convoy. Among her crew when she arrived in the Caribbean was a young Cornishman, the 17 year-old Gunners Mate Robert Jeffrey. Robert Jeffrey was originally from Fowey where he had trained as a blacksmith. He moved to Polperro and joined a privateer, the Lord Nelson, as a Gunners Mate. The reason for this was that the Gunner and his Mates aboard ships of the time were the only trained metal-workers and as such were responsible not only for the maintenance and repair of all the ships weapons, but also the metal fixtures and fittings. As a trained blacksmith, the role of Gunners Mate was an obvious choice for the young man. Such was the shortage of men in the Royal Navy at the time that ships had taken to stopping and boarding merchantmen and privateers and pressing men into service and so it was with Robert Jeffrey. The Lord Nelson was stopped in the English Channel by HMS Recruit and Jeffrey was among those pressed into service.
Commander Lake had an unfortunate reputation for inflicting particularly harsh punishments on his men for the most trivial offences. At the time, an appointment like Master and Commander in a vessel like HMS Recruit was an opportunity for ambitious young men to prove themselves. Potentially thousands of miles from the nearest higher authority, commanders could either lead their men through courage and example or force them to do their bidding by fear and Warwick Lake appeared to be one of the latter. The Admiralty had tried to curb the excesses of the latter type of commander by specifying punishments for crimes in the Articles of War - the set of laws by which discipline in the Royal Navy was enforced. On 13th December 1807, Robert Jeffrey was caught having stolen a quart of beer from the Midshipman's stores. What Commander Lake should have done was to demote Jeffrey and have him flogged with the Cat o' Nine Tails and be done with it, as per the Articles of War. In a furious rage, Lake decided to maroon the unfortunate Jeffrey on the island of Sombrero, a lifeless, rocky desert island in the Caribbean south of the British Virgin Islands, with nothing but the clothes he stood in. In doing so, he exceeded his authority under the Articles of War and effectively condemned the young man to certain death, something he had no authority to do. Commander Lake ordered that Robert Jeffrey have a label with "Thief" written on it sowed to his clothes. As he was being rowed from HMS Recruit to the island, Jeffrey cried out to his shipmates "
In the name of God, what am I to do?". Taking pity on the young man, his shipmates in the boat gave him a knife, some shoes and a handkerchief, but having to obey their commander for fear of the consequences if they didn't, had to leave him there. Robert Jeffrey soon found that he shared the island with only birds and lizards, there is no vegetation, no cover from the pitiless Caribbean sun and only stagnant pools for water. Jeffrey knew that if he was going to live, he had to try to attract the attention of passing ships.
On 29th January 1808, HMS Recruit arrived at Carlisle Bay, Barbados and Commander Lake went aboard the flagship, HMS York (74) in order to pay his respects to the Commander-in-Chief, Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane. An incident like the marooning of Robert Jeffrey was bound not to be a secret for long and so it was that news of it reached Rear-Admiral Cochrane. He immediately summoned Commander Lake to the flagship. Personally, I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall (or rather, bulkhead) during that interview. Whatever was said was enough to make Commander Lake weigh anchor and return to Sombrero as fast as he could. HMS Recruit departed Barbados on 1st February 1808 and arrived at Sombrero on the 11th. On arrival, the island was searched, but no sign of Jeffrey was found. on 17th February, HMS Recruit arrived back at Carlisle Bay and Commander Lake had to report to the Rear-Admiral that he had returned empty-handed.<br /><br /><br />In fact, Robert Jeffrey had survived on Sombrero Island for nine days and was picked up by the American schooner Adam, out of Marblehead, Massachussetts.
On 13th June 1808, Rear-Admiral Cochrane convened a board of inquiry aboard HMS York in which the marooning of Robert Jeffrey was to be investigated. After hearing testimony from HMS Recruit's officers and no doubt some of her men and reading documents such as the vessel's Punishment Book, the Board found that Commander the Honourable Warwick Lake, Master and Commander in HMS Recruit was not fit to command for reasons of health and he was ordered to be returned to the UK as sick. His place as Master and Commander in HMS Recruit was taken by Charles John Napier. His previous appointment had been as Master and Commander in the 18 gun brig-sloop HMS Pultusk. That vessel had previously been the French brig-corvette Austerlitz, built in the USA for the French Navy and had been taken by HMS Circe (32) in 1805.
For his part, Warwick Lake returned to the UK on 13th August 1808. Lake was Posted, or promoted to Captain on 23rd September 1808 and took command of the 64 gun, Third Rate ship of the line HMS Intrepid in December 1808. He then took command of the old 44-gun two-decker HMS Ulysses in March 1809. News of the marooning of Robert Jeffrey reached the Admiralty and they ordered an investigation. On 14th July 1809, HMS Recruit's sister-brig, HMS Frolic arrived at Sombrero Island. She had been sent by the Admiralty to survey the island and assess the chances of survival of anyone who might be stranded or marooned there. After receiving the report, the Admiralty decided that Captain Lake should face a Court Martial. The Court Martial was held aboard HMS Gladiator (44) in Portsmouth and Warwick Lake was found guilty of a charge of attempted murder. The Court Martial Board were aware of Lake's background and wealth and this alone saved him from the hangman. Captain Warwick Lake was stripped of his command and was dismissed from the Royal Navy on 6th February 1810. Although the Royal Navy had not tried to cover up the incident, they didn't exactly make it public either, but news of the incident reached Parliament and the case was taken up by none other than Samuel Whitbread MP. News of the incident had led to concerns in Parliament about the punishments handed out by commanders in the Royal Navy and Samuel Whitbread was one of a number of politicians seeking to do something about it. He wrote to Zephania Job in Polperro, Cornwall, seeking any information about Robert Jeffery's fate. Zephania Job was a rich, powerful and influential man, who had grown wealthy from the lucrative Cornish smuggling trade to the point where he pretty much owned it and everyone involved in it. Using his extensive influence and web of contacts, he traced Jeffrey to Marblehead, where he had settled and resumed his trade as a blacksmith. Using the information provided by Job, Samuel Whitbread arranged for Robert Jeffrey to be repatriated to the UK, where news of the incident had received widespread publicity. On arrival at Portsmouth, Jeffrey was met by Warwick Lake's lawyer while waiting to meet Samuel Whitbread. Lake's lawyer paid him hush money totalling £600. Robert Jeffrey returned to Polperro, where he settled and married. He died of Consumption or Tuberculosis at the age of 26. His story is told in the book "Marooned - the story of Jeffrey the Sailor" by James Derriman, ISBN 0-85937-356-B. After his disgrace, Warwick Lake purchased a commission in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and in 1836 inherited his father's title and became 3rd Viscount Lake. In the same year, he became Royal Agent for Van Diemans Land in Tasmania. He died in 1848 without an heir and his title reverted to the Crown.
Meanwhile, back in the Caribbean, HMS Recruit was employed in patrolling near the French-held island of Martinique. At 6am on 6th September 1808, she sighted the French brig-corvette Diligente of 18 guns. The Diligente was the sole survivor of a group of three brig-corvettes which had left Lorient with cargoes of flour for the French garrison on Martinique. The group, also comprised of the 16 gun vessels Espiegle and Sylphe had run into the British 18 gun ship-sloop HMS Comet on the 11th August and had been involved in an action in which HMS Comet had taken the Sylphe. On 18th August, the remaining two vessels had come across the British 38 gun frigate HMS Sibylle and in the action which followed, HMS Sibylle had taken the Espiegle. On sighting the French vessel, HMS Recruit made all sail and gave chase. At 07:30, HMS Recruit fired two shots at the Diligente and hoisted her colours, signifying an intention to fight. At 08:15, the Diligente changed tack and a few minutes later hoisted her colours. Now headed directly for each other, the two vessels passed each other within a pistol-shot at 08:30, exchanging broadside fire as they passed. Commander Napier was wounded in the opening broadside, having his leg broken by a ball from the French vessel which narrowly missed him. Determined to lead his men personally, Napier remained on the main deck despite his injury. Both vessels turned around and passed each other at close range again, exchanging broadside fire as they passed. This time, the Diligente attempted to manoeuvre around HMS Recruit's stern, with potentially devastating consequences. Commander Napier ordered that his vessel follow the Frenchman around and brought the French vessel to close action with her port-side (left hand side) guns. At 09:20, Mr Moses de Willets, HMS Recruit's Second Lieutenant, received a mortal wound. The two vessels continued to manoeuvre, each attempting to gain the advantage, but remaining broadside to broadside, continuing to fire into each other at virtually poiint-blank range until 11:30, when HMS Recruit's main mast was hit close to the deck and fell over the stern. This left HMS Recruit crippled. While some of her men were trying to cut away the wreckage of her main mast, Commander Napier ordered the remainder to board the Diligente and fight it out, hand-to-hand on the Frenchman's deck. Each time they attempted to board, the Diligente sheered off. With HMS Recruit disabled and unable to manoeuvre, the Diligente passed astern of her and raked her through the stern. As the Diligente completed the move and came alongside, HMS Recruit returned fire. Nevertheless, the Diligente sailed around HMS Recruit's bow and raked her again. The battered British vessel continued to return fire and as the Diligente came alongside again, intending to board and take her, a lucky shot from HMS Recruit caused an explosion in the Dilgente's stern, destroying her quarter-boat, which was packed with men. This pursuaded the Frenchman to change his mind, and turn and run before the wind. Aboard HMS Recruit, Commander Napier set his men to repairing rigging and remounting some of her carronades which had been knocked over in the action. By 2pm, HMS Recruit was ready to go again and headed in chase of the Diligente. On seeing the battered and bruised British vessel closing the range to continue the fight, the Diligente set more sail. By 16:00, HMS Recruit's men had set up a jury main mast and managed to set sails on it and again, attempted to close the range and bring the French vessel to action. Despite this, the Diligente continued to open the range and by 19:30, had disappeared out of sight. In the action, HMS Recruit had lost six men killed and 23 wounded. Of the 23 wouned men, half were to die of their injuries later, including Mr de Willets. Commander Napier had received a compound fracture, the bone protruding from the flesh. The Diligente's losses are unknown, but suffice to state they must have been serious for her commander to have got away with fleeing the scene at a time when he could have taken HMS Recruit. Despite her losses, the Diligente managed to reach Martinique without further incident.
On 10th September, HMS Recruit dropped anchor in Carlisle Bay, Barbados, where she was fitted with a new main mast.
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, who by now had shifted his command flag to the 98-gun Second Rate ship of the line 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 Recruit, Rear-Admiral Cochrane's force also comprised HMS Pompee (80), HMS Belle Isle (74), HMS York (74), HMS Captain (74), HMS Intrepid (64). In addition to these ships of the line, there was HMS Ulysses (44), the frigates HMS Acasta (40), HMS Ethalion (38), HMS Penelope (36), HMS Pique (36), HMS Cleopatra (32), HMS Circe (32) and HMS Eurydice (24). There were also the ship-sloops HMS Surinam (18), HMS Cherub (18), HMS Hazard (16), HMS Star (16), HMS Stork (16), the brig-sloops HMS Demerara (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). 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 from HMS Recruit's earlier action 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 (18) 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 D'Haultport. HMS Pompee fired two broadsides into the D'Haultport without effect and the French ship continued on without returning fire. At 22:15, Commander Napier 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 the 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 the 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 the 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 Recruitss place off the 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.
HMS Recruit takes on the D'Haultport:
For his skill and courage in the action, Commander Napier was given command of the D'Haultport and promoted to Acting-Captain. Shortly afterward however, he was put in command of HMS Jason (32) with orders to return to the UK. On his return, his promotion to captain was confirmed by the Admiralty, but despite his protests, he was laid off and beached on half pay. He was not to receive another appointment until 1811, when he was given command of HMS Thames (32). He was knighted in 1815 and in 1847, was Commander-in-chief Channel Fleet. Promoted to Vice-Admiral in 1853, he died in 1860 aged 74.
On 14th June 1809, Napier's place in command of HMS Recruit was taken by Commander Sir James Murray. His previous appointment had been as a lieutenant in command of the 16 gun armed cutter HMS Seaflower. In June 1810, he was replaced by John Cookseley, who remained in command until he in turn was replaced by Commander Humphrey Fleming Senhouse who had orders to take the vessel back to the UK. HMS Recruit was then engaged in trans-Atlantic convoy escort duty. On 30th November 1811, she sent the merchant vessel Ranger into Plymouth. Ranger had been captured by a French privateer and recaptured by HMS Recruit off the Isles of Scilly.
In July 1812 after years of escalating tensions, the United States declared war on Britain and this added a new dimension to the war. The Royal Navy was forced to further stretch it's resources in order to bring the eastern coast of America under a blockade.
In early 1813, HMS Recruit was patrolling off Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia when she became trapped in ice. By the time she became free, half her crew were sick with malnutrition and scurvy; she had run out of fresh vegetables and fruit and her crew were forced to live on a diet of ships biscuit and salt beef. In May 1813, when Lieutenant George Richard Pechell replaced Commander Senhouse and took her to sea, he had been unable to replace her sick crew members and HMS Recruit sailed with only 60 men out of a complement of 120 aboard. Commander Senhouse had been ordered to take command of the then-famous HMS Shannon and return her to the UK after her famous victory over the USS Chesapeake. That didn't stop her from taking the American privateer schooner King George on 18th August.
HMS Recruit spent the rest of her active service career engaged in the blockade of the American east coast ports. On 2nd November 1813, HMS Recruit drove ashore the American privateer schooner Inca of 6 guns. On 4th January 1814, she captured the American merchant ship Mary Ann. In February 1814, Commander Thomas Sykes took command and on 10th August, she captured the American merchant ship Federalist. Commander John Lawrence took command. He was to be HMS Recruit's last commander.
On February 18th 1815, the war with the Americans was ended by the Treaty of Ghent. The war against the French had ended the previous year and with the outbreak of peace, the Royal Navy looked to reduce the size of the fleet. On 12th December 1814, HMS Recruit had arrived at Plymouth with a convoy from Halifax, Nova Scotia. On 13th June 1815, HMS Recruit paid off into the Ordinary at Plymouth. Her guns, stores, yards, sails and rigging were all removed and her hatches were sealed shut.
On 7th August 1822, HMS Recruit was sold at Plymouth for £1,050 to Mr R Forbes and was broken up.
