HMS Redwing (1806)
HMS "Redwing" was a of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1806, she saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars, mostly in the Mediterranean, and afterwards served off the West Coast of Africa, acting to suppress the slave trade. She was lost at sea in 1827. The Mediterranean in wartime. "Redwing" was built by Matthew Warren at Brightlingsea, Essex, and launched on 30 August 1806. She was commissioned in October 1806 under Commander Thomas Ussher, and on 31 January 1807, sailed for the Mediterranean. There she was stationed in the Strait of Gibraltar, and operated in company  with and to clear the area of enemy vessels. The Commander in Chief, Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood, in a letter to William Marsden, dated 24 May 1807, praised their effectiveness, noting that "within this Fortnight past they have taken and destroyed Eighteen of the Enemy's Vessels". One of these may have been the mistico "Tiger", which "Redwing" intercepted as she was sailing from Cadiz to Algeciras. "Redwing" sent her into Gibraltar. Numerous captures and actions followed. At the end of the month, "Redwing" engaged in another medal-winning action. She chased a mistico and two feluccas into the Bay  of Bolonia (Tarifa). There her quarry took shelter under a shore battery of six 24-pounder guns. Ussher brought "Redwing" to anchor within point-blank range of the battery, using her broadsides to silence its guns. A cutting-out party under Lieutenant Ferguson then destroyed the mistico and extracted the feluccas. Ussher and Ferguson, with a landing party of 40 men, then captured the battery and spiked its guns. This, and his previous actions, led to Ussher's promotion to post captain. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the NGSM with clasp "Redwing 31 May 1808" to the five surviving claimants  from the action. Commander Edward Augustus Down then took command of "Redwing" in August and sailed her to the Mediterranean on 23 September 1808. Command of "Redwing" passed to Commander Sir John Gordon Sinclair in August 1812 and she operated off the south coast of France, taking part in numerous operations: Post-war. In August 1814, Commander Thomas Young was appointed to command "Redwing". She was paid off in 1815. By 1817 she was laid up at Deptford, but was recommissioned in 1818 under C. Simeon. By August of that year she was under the command of Commander Frederick Hunn  at Saint Helena, and commissioned in November 1820 under the command of the Honourable George Rolle Walpole Trefusis. From February 1824 she was under the command of Adolphus FitzClarence at the Nore until paid off in January 1825. West Africa. In January 1825 Commander Douglas Clavering, who in 1823 in had led a scientific expedition to Svalbard and Greenland, was appointed captain of "Redwing", and assigned to the West Africa Squadron, engaged in the suppression of the slave trade. She made several captures: Disappearance and fate. "Redwing" sailed from Sierra Leone in June 1827 and was never seen again. Wreckage  washed ashore in November near Mataceney suggested that lightning had started a fire that destroyed her. Notes, citations, and references. Notes Citations References