HMS Porcupine ( 1807 ) HMS " Porcupine " was a Royal Navy " Banterer " - class post ship of 24 guns , launched in 1807 . She served extensively and relatively independently in the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars , with her boats performing many cutting out expeditions , one of which earned for her crew the Naval General Service Medal . She was sold for breaking up in 1816 . Design . " Porcupine " was rated a 24 - gun ship and the original plan was that she would mount that number of long 9 - pounders on her main deck plus two 6 - pounder guns on her forecastle . She also carried ten 24 - pounder carronades on her quarter - deck and forecastle . By the time that Captain the Honorable Henry Duncan commissioned her in March 1807 , the Admiralty had added two brass howitzers to her armament , while exchanging her 9 - pounders for 32 - pounder carronades . Her complement was increased by twenty to 175 officers , men and boys . Service . " Porcupine " entered service in March 1807 , operating in the Mediterranean Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars under the command of Captain Henry Duncan . Detached to serve on independent command in the Adriatic Campaign , " Porcupine " fought numerous minor actions with shore batteries and coastal merchant ships . Adriatic . On 23 September 1807 , she captured the " Fortuna " . Then on 7 October " Porcupine " chased a trabaccolo into the harbour of Zupaino on Šipan ( Giuppana ) , the largest of the Elaphiti Islands . That evening Duncan sent his boats , under the command of Lieutenant George Price , with Lieutenant Francis Smith , into the harbour where they captured and brought out the trabaccolo , which was the Venetian gunboat " Safo " . She was armed with a 24 - pounder gun and some swivel gun s , and had a crew of some 50 men , all under the command of " Enseigne de vaisseau " Anthonio Ghega . She was well moored to the shore and was expecting an attack . Even so , once the British arrived , most of the crew jumped overboard . " Safo " belonged to a division of gunboats deployed to protect the coast and had been sent out from Ragusa ( Dubrovnik ) three days earlier . Also , before entering the harbour , the British captured a guard boat with one 4 - pounder swivel gun . Despite the resistance , the " Porcupine " had only two men wounded . Between 23 September and 23 November , " Porcupine " captured some 40 enemy vessels , most of which were carrying grain and wine between Ragusa and Catero ( Kotor ) . Duncan received intelligence that the French were going to fortify the island of Curzola . He therefore kept " Porcupine " between the island and Ragusa . On 27 November Lieutenant Price in the cutter captured two small vessels sailing from Ragusa ; small arms fire from the shore wounded one man . Two days later Price went into the harbour of Zuliano where he destroyed several small vessels and wine in warehouses that was intended for French troops . He brought out the only vessel afloat , a trabaccolo carrying a cargo of wool . As he was leaving the port another trabaccolo approached and before " Porucpine " could intercept it , Price had captured it too . She was sailing from Ragusa to Curzola with military stores , including two 6½ " brass mortar s , two 5½ " brass howitzers , four new carriages for 18 - pounder guns , together with material for constructing a shore battery as well as shot and shell . Duncan was able to get the guns and most of the stores on to " Porcupine " before a gale came up , which forced him to destroy the two trabaccolos . " Porcupine " s next exploit occurred on 7 January 1808 . After a chase of eight hours , " Porcupine " captured the French transport " Saint Nicolo " . She was armed with two guns , had a crew of 16 sailors , and also had on board 31 soldiers from the 6th Regiment of the Line . She was 36 hours out of Tarento . Finding out from the prize that another vessel had left four hour earlier , Duncan set out to find her in the channel between Paxos and Corfu . He was successful in intercepting his quarry , which turned out to be the " Madonna del Carmine " . She was armed with six guns , had a crew of 20 men , and was carrying 33 soldiers , also from the 6th Regiment . Both vessels were on their first voyage and were carrying cargoes of grain and gunpowder for the garrison at Corfu . Western Mediterranean . Next , Duncan was ordered to cruise in the Western Mediterranean off Naples and continued his successful operations against coastal shipping . Following the outbreak of the Peninsular War , Duncan was ordered to take the Duke of Orléans to Cadiz . Duncan refused and was subject to disparaging comments about his age , although he was later proven correct in his assessment . In June 1808 , Robert Elliott was appointed to replace Duncan ; however , some months elapsed before he was able to do so . On 23 June a French vessel exited Civitavechia and tried to elude " Porcupine " . However , " Porcupine " succeeded in running her ashore between two towers , each armed with two cannons . Lieutenant Price took in the boats and succeeded in destroying her , without suffering any casualties and despite heavy fire from the towers . The vessel was from Ischia and was sailing with a cargo of wine . Two days later , " Porcupine " was off the island of Monte Christo when a daylight she encountered a French schooner . After an 11 - hour chase , " Porcupine " succeeded in capturing her about four leagues south of Bastia . The French crew abandoned their vessel and escaped before " Porcupine " could take possession of her . She was the " Nouvelle Enterprise " , three weeks old , pierced for 14 guns but only mounting six . She was 24 hours out of Leghorn and was carrying bale goods for Scala Nova in Turkey . However , on 9 July Duncan spotted an enemy merchant vessel , and her escorts , two gunboats , each armed with a 24 - pounder gun , all sailing along the coast . " Porcupine " was becalmed off Monte Circello , Romania so Duncan sent in her boats . After rowing eight hours in the heat , the boats succeeded in driving the merchant vessel on shore and the gunboats to take shelter under the guns of two shore batteries at Port d ' Anzo ( Anzio ) . Three more French vessels arrived and succeeded in getting into the harbour . One of the vessels was a large polacca of six guns , and she anchored a little further out than the other vessels . That evening Duncan sent in the boats again to cut her out . The polacca , which had a crew of some 20 - 30 men , was expecting an attack and had tied her to the beach . French soldiers were on the beach , and the polcacca was within close range of the batteries , a tower , and the gunboats . Still , the British succeeded in capturing her and getting her out to sea , though it took them about an hour and twenty minutes to do so . The polacca had been sailing from Hieres Bay to Naples with a cargo of salt . In the attack , the British suffered eight men wounded , including Lieutenant Price , who was severely injured in his head and leg . He received a promotion to commander for this and earlier achievements in some 30 boat actions . In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp " 10 July Boat Service 1808 " to all surviving claimants from the action . On 10 July , " Porcupine " captured the " Madona de Rosario " . Eleven days later , " Porcupine " ran a French polacca ashore near Monte Circello . Lieutenant Smith took in the boats and destroyed the polacca , which was of about 200 tons burthen ( bm ) and which had been carrying a cargo of iron hoops and staves . The cutting out expedition suffered no casualties though it came under fire from a tower with two guns located no more than a pistol - shot away . After dark on 8 August , " Porcupine " , still under the command of Duncan , had her cutter and jolly boat under Lieutenant Francis Smith cut out a vessel she had run ashore on the island of Pianosa . The cutting out party was successful , bringing out the " Concepcion " , which was armed with four guns . She had been lying within 30 yards of a tower and a shore battery of six guns . She was also defended by soldiers on the beach and one of her guns which she had landed . She had been carrying bale goods from Genoa to Cyprus . The action cost " Porcupine " one man killed , and a lieutenant and eight men severely wounded , with three men later dying of their wounds . Smith might have received a promotion for this and prior actions but Duncan ' s letter to Admiral Collingwood was lost and the duplicate arrived only after Collingwood had died in March 1810 . Channel . By 14 July 1810 , Elliot had assumed command of " Porcupine " . On that day the sailing master for " Porcupine " impressed an American sailor , Isaac Clark , from the " Jane " out of Norfolk , Virginia . Elliott tore up the seaman ' s protection ( a document attesting to his being an American citizen and so exempt from British impressment ) , declaring the man an Englishman . Over the next few weeks Elliott had Clark whipped three times ( each time consisting 24 lashes ) when Clark refused to go on duty , and held in irons on bread and water . After nine weeks Clark surrendered . He served on " Porcupine " for two and a half years , being wounded in an engagement with a French frigate . Eventually he was transferred to and then to a hospital due to ongoing problems with his wound . There the American consul was able to get him released and discharged , a copy of the protection having been forwarded from Salem , Massachusetts . Clark further testified that there were seven Americans aboard " Porcupine " , three of whom had agreed to serve . In 1811 , " Porcupine " was ordered to sail to Brazil and returned to Portsmouth . She was at Portsmouth on 31 July 1812 when the British authorities seized the American ships there and at Spithead on the outbreak of the War of 1812 . She therefore shared , with numerous other vessels , in the subsequent prize money for these vessels : " Belleville " , " Aeos " , " Janus " , " Ganges " , and " Leonidas " . " Porcupine " later joined the squadron off Bordeaux , assisting the British advance during the Peninsular War . " Porcupine " , while under command of Captain John Goode and carrying the flag of Rear - Admiral Charles Penrose , through early 1814 operated against French coastal positions and squadrons . On the morning of 23 February 1814 , she and the other vessels of Penrose ' s flotilla assisted the British Army in its crossing of the Ardour river , near Bayonne . In this service two of " Porcupine " s seamen drowned , as did some others from the flotilla when boats overturned crossing the bar on the coast . On 2 April Captain Goode , who had ascended the Gironde above Pouillac , sent " Porcupine " s boats , under the orders of Lieutenant Robert Graham Dunlop , to pursue a French flotilla that was proceeding down from Blaye to Tallemont . As the British boats approached them , the French flotilla ran on shore under the cover of about 200 troops from Blaye who lined the beach . Dunlop landed with a party of seamen and marines and drove the French off . The landing party remained until the tide allowed them to take away most of the French vessels . The British captured a gun - brig , six gun - boats , one armed schooner , three chasse - marée s , and an imperial barge , and burned a gun - brig , two gun - boats , and a chasse - marée . Total British casualties were two seamen missing and 14 seamen and marines wounded . " Porcupine " returned to Plymouth from Bordeaux on 6 September 1814 . On 4 November she sailed to the Coast of Africa and thence to the Cape of Good Hope before coming back to Sierra Leone on 29 April 1815 . Fate . On 16 October 1815 " Porcupine " arrived at Deal and sailed for the river to be paid off . She arrived at Woolwich on 6 November and was paid off and laid up in ordinary . Although there were some plans for her to serve on the South America station , she never sailed again . " Porcupine " was sold at Woolwich Dockyard in April 1816 for breaking up .