HMS Milbrook (1798)
HMS "Milbrook" (or "Millbrook") was one of six vessels built to an experimental design by Sir Samuel Bentham. After the Royal Navy took her into service in her decade-long career she took part in one notable single-ship action and captured several privateers and other vessels, all off the coast of Spain and Portugal. She was wrecked off the coast of Portugal in 1808. Design. Hobbs & Hellyer built six vessels to Bentham's design. "Milbrook" was a somewhat smaller version of his "Dart"-class vessels ( and ), and of another schooner, . Bentham's designs featured little sheer, negative  tumblehome, a large-breadth to length ratio with structural bulkheads, and sliding keels. They were also virtually double-ended. Career. French Revolutionary Wars. Lieutenant Matthew Smith commissioned "Milbrook" in December 1798. She was re-rated as a gunvessel in 1799. In February 1800 Smith wrote that the Barrack-master-general (General Oliver de Lancey) had ordered that she continue to serve the board he headed because she was "extremely fast, in all weathers a good sea-boat, tight as a bottle." Still, she received coppering at Portsmouth in April 1800. "Milbrook" was part of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren's  squadron and so entitled to share in the proceeds from the squadron's cutting out of the French privateer "Guêppe" on 30 August from Vigo Bay. A violent gust of wind drove the frigate on shore on 6 September in Vigo Bay. There was no loss of life, due in large part to "Milbrook", which rescued many survivors. "Stag"s officers blew "Stag" up to prevent the French salvaging anything useful, and her crew were distributed amongst the fleet. On 26 September "Milbrook" captured the American brig "Atlas", while "Atlas" was sailing between Vigo and Seville. Some two weeks later, on  13 October, "Milbrook" engaged a French privateer in a notable but ultimately indecisive action. "Milbrook" was lying becalmed off Oporto when she sighted a strange sail, apparently a French 36-gun frigate. Smith was escorting two brigs of the Newfoundland fleet and there were other vessels, possibly of that fleet, in the offing. To protect the merchantmen "Milbrook" sailed to intercept the enemy vessel. The action began at 8 a.m. and lasted until nearly 10 a.m., in almost complete calm, until the French vessel struck. However, "Milbrook"s rigging was so badly cut and her boats holed, that she was unable  to take possession of her prize; seeing this, when a light breeze came up the French vessel used her sails and sweeps to escape. In the action "Milbrook" had ten of her carronades dismounted, and had 12 men (out of a crew of 47) wounded. At one point "Milbrook" had only three carronades firing as she used her sweeps to change her position and had to endure the raking fire from her opponent for 15 minutes. "Milbrook" was so damaged that she had to be towed into the Tagus. Later accounts reveal that the French vessel was the privateer "Bellone , of Bordeaux. The reports credit Milbrook" with having her carronades fixed on the non-recoil principle (i.e., fixed to the vessel so that the vessel absorbs the recoil and the cannons did not have to be run out before firing again), enabling "Milbrook" to fire 11 broadsides before the French vessel could fire three. "Bellone" had to put into Vigo and reports from there suggested that she had suffered 20 men killed, and her first and second captains and 45 men wounded, out of a crew of 220-260 men. "Bellone" had been armed with twenty-four 8-pounder guns  and six or eight 36-pounder carronades. As a reward for his gallantry Smith received promotion to Commander. Also, the British factory of Oporto voted him their thanks, and presented him with a piece of silver plate worth £50. Smith was still in command, and off Spain, on 19 December when "Milbrook" captured the Spanish privateer lugger "Barcelo". At some point in 1800, "Milbrook" shared with and "Loire" in the capture of "Francoise", and recapture of "Princess Charlotte". In February 1801 Lieutenant Mauritius Adolphus Newton de Starck, who signed his name as Newton Starck, replaced Smith in command of  Milbrook. On 15 September "Milbrook" was off Cape Montego when she sighted a Spanish privateer. After a long chase, "Milbrook" captured "Baptista", of eight guns, which was carrying a valuable cargo of English prize butter from Vigo to Seville. On 6 September "Milbrook" was at Plymouth awaiting carry dispatches to Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez, and the garrison at Gibraltar. Two days later "Milbrook" left for Portsmouth, on her way to the fleet off Cadiz. "Milbrook" returned to Portsmouth from Lisbon on 22 August 1802. She was paid off and Starck recommissioned her on 31 October in Portsmouth. Napoleonic wars . By July 1803 "Milbrook" had assumed her station off Dunkirk in company with and . On 11 August "Milbrook" convoyed 50 vessels from Portsmouth to the Downs. August–September she was in pursuit of a strange vessel when she grounded on Kentish Knocke. She lay there for some seven hours with the sea breaking over her before she was able to free herself. Subsequently, J. Helby, foreman of shipwrights, wrote that she had survived without any damage shocks that would bilge most other vessels. On 28 October 1803, "Milbrook" and were off Dunkirk when they pursued and drove on shore the  French privateer lugger "Sept Freres". "Sept Freres" was armed with two guns and had a crew of 30 men under the command of Citizen Pollet. "Milbrook" anchored close to the lugger and came under fire from some field guns on shore. Though she took some hits, the British suffered no casualties. Head money was finally paid in May 1827. On 28 March 1804 "Milbrook" and Starck sailed with a number of other vessels for the Boulogne station. Lieutenant John C. Carpenter was appointed to "Milbrook" on 30 April, and in May replaced Starck. On 3 June "Milbrook" and an armed  ship sailed from Portsmouth to cruise off Calais. She returned to Deal on 22 July, having lost cables and anchors. "Milbrook" arrived at Portsmouth from the Downs on 24 August. she sailed on 17 September with the gun-brigs and to escort the Newfoundland fleet to Poole, where would relieve them. On 6 May 1805 "Milbrook" captured the Spanish privateer lugger "Travela", of three guns and 40 men, off Oporto. "Travela" had the day before captured a brig carrying wine from Oporto. Carpenter suspected that "Travela" had sent the brig to Vigo, so he sailed there. On the morning of  9 May he intercepted the British brig "Stork" in the Bayona Islands (Baiona) outside Vigo. "Stork", which was carrying salt, had been part of the Newfoundland convoy when the 12-gun Spanish privateer brig "Fenix" had captured her a month earlier. The vessel "Travela" had captured may have been "Constantia", Luftman, master, which had just left Oporto for Belfast. In early June the Portuguese vessel "Rosalie", which "Milbrook" had detained as "Rosalie" was sailing from Lisbon to Nantes, arrived in Plymouth. On 18 May 1806, "Milbrook" was escorting "John", Lothringen, master, from Lisbon to Oporto when they encountered a French  74-gun ship and a frigate off the Berlengas (known to the British as the Burlings). The French vessels captured "John", but "Milbrook" escaped. In September Carpenter resigned from "Milbrook", and Lieutenant James Leach replaced him in command. On 30 August 1807, "Milbrook" recaptured the brig "Badger", of Dublin. A little over two weeks later, on, 17 September, "Milbrook", in company with the letter of marque "Ceres", captured the Danish brig "Kraben". "Kraben" was condemned to the Crown. On 26 October, Tsar Alexander I of Russia declared war on Great Britain. The official news did not arrive there until 2  December, at which time the British declared an embargo on all Russian vessels in British ports. "Milbrook" was one of some 70 vessels that shared in the seizure of the 44-gun Russian frigate "Speshnoy" (Speshnyy), then in Portsmouth harbour. The British seized the Russian storeship "Wilhelmina" ("Vilghemina") at the same time. The Russian vessels were carrying the payroll for Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin's squadron in the Mediterranean. The British consul at Oporto, and the factory both wrote letters of thanks to Leach for his services to the British trade with Oporto and the factory gave him a piece  of plate worth £50. Fate. "Milbrook" arrived off Berlenga Grande Island in the Berlengas — known traditionally to the British as "the Burlings" — in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Portugal on 24 March 1808 and anchored. While she was changing to a better position a squall struck her and drove her onto a reef. Her crew hauled her off and into clear water where she rode out the night. However, at 8 a.m. on 25 March, her cable fasteners gave way and she was again driven on the rocks, where she bilged. She quickly fell on her side  and was lost. The crew was saved. At the subsequent court martial the letters from Oporto were read into evidence, and the court martial not only exonerated Leach but "deemed his conduct highly meritorious and praiseworthy". His officers and crew presented him with a sword worth 50 guineas as a token of their esteem. He next captained the hired armed lugger "Black Joke" on a special service to the Spanish coast before taking command of the bomb vessel on the Downs station.