HMS Harpy (1796)
HMS "Harpy" was a Royal Navy "Diligence"-class brig-sloop, launched in 1796 and sold in 1817. She was the longest lived vessel of her class, and the most widely travelled. She served in both the battle of Copenhagen and the British invasion of Java, took part in several actions, one of which won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured numerous privateers. The Navy sold her in 1817. French Revolutionary Wars. Commander Henry Bazely commission "Harpy" in April 1796, for The Downs. "Harpy" belonged to the squadron that on 20 August  captured "Augustic" and recaptured "Nelly". Consequently "Harpy" was entitled to share in the prize money. On 25 December, "Harpy" captured "Hoop", Pronck, master. "Harpy" was in company with the hired armed cutter "Hind". also shared in the proceeds of the capture. On 3 February 1797 "Harpy" was off Dungeness Point when she fell in with the hired armed cutter "Lion", which was in the process of detaining a sloop that had been trailing a convoy. The sloop turned out to be the French privateer "Requin", of Dieppe, which had a crew of 20 men armed with small arms. "Lion" was  in company with hired armed cutter "Dolphin". The next day "Harpy" recaptured "Liberty", of Newcastle, which had been a prize to "Requin". "Harpy" took both into Portsmouth. Also in February, "Harpy" captured the privateer "Cotentin". On 8 May, "Harpy" captured the Russian hoy "Leyden and Fourcoing". "Harpy" was in company with and . Eight days later "Harpy" captured "Goede Hope"; "Harpy" was in company with the hired armed cutter "Princess of Wales". Then on 26 May "Harpy" recaptured "Friendship". "Friendship" had been sailing from Southampton to Leith and "Harpy" took her into Dover. A biography of Bazely reports that in May  Harpy drove a French brig of eighteen 9-pounder guns and a cutter of 14 guns on shore near Dieppe. Furthermore, in connection with that action, "Harpy" fired on the buildings of the port, damaging several, including particularly the Customs House. On 20 June "Harpy" captured the French privateer "Espérance". "Espérance" was a rowboat, armed with 10 swivel guns and having a crew of 32 men, and the capture took place of the coast of France. The same biography of Bazeley reports that "Harpy" had captured two privateers, one of four guns and the other a rowboat, and recaptured two  coasting vessels. The description of the rowboat matches that of "Esperance", suggesting that the privateer of four guns may have been "Cotentin". In May 1798 "Harpy" participated in Sir Home Riggs Popham's expedition to Ostend to destroy the sluice gates of the Ostend-Bruge Canal. "Harpy" led the smaller vessels that were to lie as beacons N. W. of Ostend. The expedition landed 1,300 troops under Major General Coote. The army contingent blew up the locks and gates of the canal, but due to unfavourable winds preventing re-embarkation, Coote and the men under his command were then forced  to surrender. "Harpy" recaptured the ship "Pleaaden" in October. On 20 May 1799 "Harpy" and "Suffisante" were in sight when "Savage" captured the ship "Johanna Maria". On 3 June "Babet" was in company with "Harpy" when they captured "John". Then on 24 June they captured the ship "Weloverdagt". Early in the morning of 5 February 1800, the sloops and "Harpy" left Saint Aubin's Bay, where they were attached to the Jersey squadron under the command of Captain Philippe d'Auvergne, (Prince of Bouillon), and reconnoitered the coast around Saint-Malo. In late morning they were some five or six miles  from Cap Fréhel when they sighted a large vessel, which turned out to be a French frigate. The sloops were able to lure the frigate away from the coast and an action developed that lasted from 1pm to 2:45pm before the French vessel sailed away. The sloops had a lot of damage to their rigging but once this was repaired they set out in pursuit. At 4pm they encountered the British frigate"Loire", the sixth-rate post ship , and the ship-sloop , which joined the chase. That evening, after a close action of more than two hours, "Loire" succeeded  in getting the 42-gun French frigate "Pallas" to strike. "Pallas" was on her maiden voyage and the Royal Navy took her into service as . The next day, "Danae" was able to capture a French naval cutter. The British vessels suffered some casualties. "Fairy" had four men killed and seven wounded, among them her captain. "Harpy" had one man killed and three wounded. "Loire" had two men killed and 17 wounded, one of them mortally. Lastly, "Railleur" had two men killed and four wounded. Captain James Newman Newman of "Loire" did not report the French casualties. The action resulted in  promotions to post captain for both Captain Joshua Sidney Horton of "Fairy" and for Bazely. Horton was promoted on 18 February, but Bazely was not promoted until 8 April due to some ambiguity about "Harpy"s role in the capture of "Pallas". In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service medal with clasps "Fairy" and "Harpy" to the surviving claimants from the action. Captain William Birchall, of the troopship "Hebe" replaced Bazely on "Harpy". Two French privateers, each of 14 guns and 90 men, captured the "Constitution" on 9 January 1801 off the Isle of Portland. "Constitution" was a hired  cutter of twelve 4-pounder guns and 40 men, under the command of Lieutenant W.H. Faulknor. That same evening "Harpy" and the revenue cutter "Greyhound" recaptured "Constitution". On 2 April 1801, "Harpy" was in Admiral Lord Nelson's division at the battle of Copenhagen. She apparently was not involved in the actual fighting as she suffered no casualties. Commander Charles Boys replaced Birchall, but shortly thereafter "Harpy" was paid off. Napoleonic Wars. Commander Edmund Heywood recommissioned "Harpy" in August 1803 for the North Sea. On 21 October 1803 Captain Robert Honyman of sighted a convoy off Boulogne of six French  sloops, some armed, under the escort of a gun-brig. He sent "Harpy" and to pursue them but the winds were uncooperative and the squadron was unable to engage. However, the hired armed cutter "Admiral Mitchell" was able to come up and attack the convoy. After two and a half hours of cannonading, "Admiral Mitchell" succeeded in driving one sloop and the brig, which was armed with twelve 32-pounder guns, on the rocks. "Admiral Mitchell" had one gun dismounted, suffered damage to her mast and rigging, and had five men wounded, two seriously. "Harpy" intercepted a small French convoy  on 12 March 1804 that was sailing from Calais to Boulogne. "Harpy" was able to capture two transports and their escort, a gunboat named "Penriche" armed with two guns, and send them into The Downs. A later report referred to "Penriche" as French Gun Boat No. 1. The two transports were Schuyt No. 23, and Schuyt No. 24. "Harpy" shared the capture with . In the evening of 20 July there were more than 80 French brigs and luggers in the roads of Boulogne. As the weather worsened, a number of the vessels set sail. Captain Owen of signaled to "Harpy , , and to close with the vessels, which they did. also joined the operation. Although most of the French vessels escaped, the British were able to drive a handful on shore. On 26 August Immortalite", "Harpy", , and "Constitution" attacked a French flotilla of 60 brigs and luggers off Cape Gris Nez. The British vessels were within range of shore batteries that fired on them. A 13" shell fell into "Constitution", falling through the deck and hull without exploding. Water started coming in faster than the pumps could handle and her crew abandoned her; the other vessels in the squadron rescued them . A shell hit "Harpy" too, also without exploding. It killed a seaman as it hit, and the crew speculated that his blood had extinguished the fuse. Another account had the shell breaking a beam, which tore out the fuse. When the shell came to rest, a seaman picked it up and plunged it into a bucket. Some shots hit "Immortalite", wounding four men. The British succeeded in driving some vessels ashore, but the great bulk of the flotilla reached Boulogne. The British squadron engaged in some small skirmishes over the next two days, but without notable results. On 29 January  1805 a French flotilla consisting of 17 brigs, three schooners, four sloops, a dogger, and six luggers arrived at Boulogne from the west. "Immortalite" exchanged fire with them but they were too close to shore to capture. One lugger lost her foremast and "Harpy" was able to capture her after a brief exchange of fire. Owen sent the lugger to the Downs with . A subsequent prize money notice named the lugger as Gunboat No. 337 (or No. 317); and "Immortlaite" shared in the capture. Early on the morning of 24 April and "Watchful" sighted a flotilla of 27 vessels under  Dutch colours coming around Cape Grisnez and approaching Boulogne from the east. The two brigs engaged, giving the squadron under command of Captain Robert Honyman in time to join the action. "Gallant" received four shot between wind and water and had to sail back to Britain to effect repairs; she had no casualties. "Watchful" captured one of the vessels. Honyman led the rest of his squadron, consisting of , "Harpy", , "Bruiser", "Archer", , , , and , in chase. After an engagement of about two hours the British succeeded in capturing seven schuyts (including the one that "Watchful" had captured earlier). All were from 25  to 28 tons burthen, six were armed with from two to three guns and howitzers ranging from 6 to 24-pounders, and were carrying troops from Dunkirk to Ambleteuse. Most were under the command of army officers. One, No. 3, was a transport. British casualties amounted only to one man wounded. "Archer", in a separate letter, reported capturing two more schuyts similarly armed and manned. A number of other British vessels in the squadron under Admiral B. Douglas also shared in the prize money because they were part of the blockading force, even though they were not present; however, the  head money for the crews of the armed schuyts accrued only to the actual captors, including "Harpy". In January 1806 Commander George Mowbray assumed command of "Harpy" However, she was paid-off into ordinary at Portsmouth in 1807. She then underwent some repairs between April and July 1809, with commander George Blamey recommissioning her in May. "Harpy" participated in the unsuccessful Walcheren Expedition, which took place between 30 July and 19 August 1809. She was part of a squadron of smaller vessels under Sir Home Riggs Popham that pushed up the West Scheld to place buoys in the channel to  guide the large ships, but saw no action. Blamey apparently also commanded a battery on shore, manned by seamen, that fired on Flushing. Prize money was paid in October 1812 to the naval vessels, customs house vessels, and Sea Fencibles. After the evacuation of Walcheren, "Harpy" sailed with a convoy to Halifax, leaving on 13 May 1810. She then brought 150 troops back with her and took them to Lisbon. In October 1810, "Harpy" detained and sent into Falmouth "Aurora", Rohly, master, of Ostend. Blamey received promotion to post captain on 21 October. Commander Edward A'Court took command in November  and sailed "Harpy" for the Cape of Good Hope on 2 January 1811. Commander Henderson Bain was appointed to command "Harpy" on 29 March 1811 at the Cape of Good Hope. That same day, the newly promoted Lieutenant Henry Cavendish Hore joined "Harpy". "Harpy" then participated in the British invasion of Java commanded by Admiral Stopford. Hore received a knee wound while commanding a detachment ashore in the storming of Fort Cornelis. Prize money for the capture of Java was payable in July 1816. On 26 January 1812 Bain became acting captain of . Lieutenant Henry Cavendish Hore moved with Bain  to "Lion" as her first lieutenant. During Bain's absence, Lieutenant Samuel Hore commanded "Harpy". He was Admiral Stopford's Flag Lieutenant, and Stopford appointed him to "Harpy" to replace Bain. On 28 January Stopford sent "Hardy" to Isle de France to replace . "Harpy" captured "James", which was sailing from Batavia to Philadelphia; "James" arrived at the Cape of Good Hope on 21 January 1813. and "Harpy" captured the American ship "Rose" on 3 February. She was carrying tea and 8907 Spanish dollars (worth approximately £2226). Bain returned to command of "Harpy" a few weeks before he received promotion  to post captain on 6 April 1813. Commander Thomas Griffith Allen replaced Bain that month. However, he died on 26 (or 28) September 1814, at Port Louis. Command devolved on Lieutenant William Lambert, "Harpy"s first lieutenant. Earlier, in July, Lambert had led her boats in the rescue, at great risk, of the crew of the schooner "Eugenie", which had wrecked on Sandy Island (near Mauritius) on 19 April. During the rescue the master and a seaman from "Harpy" drowned when their boat overturned. After Allen's death, Robert Townsend Farquhar, governor of Mauritius, wrote to Lambert, pressing on him the  importance of maintaining "Harpy"s highly successful anti-slavery mission. In February 1815, Commander George Tyler took command of "Harpy". On 16 November 1815 "Harpy" captured the French schooner "Jeune Victor", which was carrying 55 slaves. "Victor" was sailing from Madagascar to the Mauritius when "Harpy" captured her and sent her into the Cape of Good Hope. The account in "Lloyd's List" further describes "Victor" as having 64 slaves on board. Fate. The Commissioners of the Navy first offered "Harpy" for sale at Deptford on 3 April 1817. They sold her on 10 September to a Mr. Kilsby for £ 710. Notes, citations, and references. Notes Citations References