HMS Tartar (1801)

HMS ''Tartar'' was a 32-gun fifth-rate ''Narcissus''-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.

Jamaica station

Captain James Walker commissioned ''Tartar'' in July 1801. She sailed for Jamaica in October.

In June 1802 Captain Charles Inglis took command. On 30 August 1802 ''Tartar'' was among the British warships sharing in the capture of the French tartane ''Concezione''.

In 1803 Captain John Perkins succeeded Inglis. ''Tartar'' was in Captain John Loring's squadron at the Blockade of Saint-Domingue when captured the 74-gun on 25 July off Saint-Domingue. ''Tartar'' outsailed her larger companions and kept ''Duquesne'' engaged until came up, at which point ''Duquesne'' surrendered.National Archives, Kew: ADM 51/1447 Captains' logs Tartar 16 April 1802 – 30 April 1804

As the British warships and their prize were sailing between the two islands of St. Domingo and Tortudo, near Port-au-Paix, they met up with the French schooner ''Oiseaux''. She was armed with 16 guns and her crew of 60 men was under the command of ''Lieutenant de Vaisseau'' Druault. Loring ordered ''Vanguard'' and ''Tartar'' to escort ''Duquesne'' and ''Oiseau'' to Port Royal.

Between 20 November and 4 December 1803 ''Tartar'' was in company with Captain Loring's squadron when the squadron captured the French frigates , , and ''Vertu'', the brig , and the schooner ''Découverte''. All five were taken into British service. ''Surveillante'' had on board at her surrender General Rochambeau the commander of the French forces on Saint-Domingue. On 1 December the squadron detained the ''Hiram'' for a breach of the blockade of Cape Francois.

In 1803 and 1804 Perkins escorted Edward Corbet to Haiti. Corbet had been appointed to liaise with Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the new governor general and later first Emperor of Haiti. These missions were often less than successful.

In 1804 ''Tartar'' was on the Jamaica Station under Captain Keith Maxwell, who had received promotion to post-captain on 1 May. Around this time ''Tartar'' grounded in Murray's Roads, Bermuda. The tiny 4-gun schooner came to ''Tartar''s assistance, temporarily salvaging the main deck guns and bower anchor.

On 31 July ''Tartar'' sighted a schooner. Maxwell set off to prevent the schooner from entering the narrow and intricate channel between the island of Saona and San Domingo where it would be difficult for him to pursue. As ''Tartar'' got closer he saw that the schooner was using her sweeps to aid her. Her behaviour made Maxwell suspect that his quarry was a privateer so he pursued her until neither vessel could progress farther. At that point, Maxwell was unable to get ''Tartar'' into a position from which she could use her broadside. Instead, he sent in a cutting out party in three boats. As the boats set out, their quarry fired a gun, hoisted French colours, and then opened fire on the boats. The schooner was not able to deter the attack and the British captured her with no more casualties than two men wounded. The French lost nine killed and six wounded, as well as three missing, presumed drowned when they tried to swim to shore. Maxwell sent the wounded to San Domingo under flag of truce, but kept the other Frenchmen prisoners, there being no English prisoners available for exchange. The privateer was ''Hirondelle'', under the command of Captain La Place. She was armed with ten 4-pounder guns and had been out of San Domingo for two days. She had been active during the French Revolutionary Wars and for the past two years also, having frequently escaped pursuit due to her speed.

At the end of 1804, Captain Edward Hawker joined ''Tartar'' from and sailed her from Jamaica to the Halifax station. On 9 January 1805 ''Tartar'', in company with ''Surveillante'', captured the Spanish ship ''Batidor.''

In May 1805, ''Tartar'' dragged her anchors and drifted onto a reef, resulting in serious damage. As there were no dockyard facilities in Bermuda that could handle a large frigate, five shipwrights from Halifax volunteered to sail to Bermuda to try to refloat and repair the ship. They arrived on 7 June on board and began work on 9 June. The repairs took 6 weeks and ''Tartar'' sailed from Bermuda on 28 July in the company of . They arrived back in Halifax on 5 August 1805.

On 6 May 1806 ''Tartar'' captured the American brig ''Romulus''. Then on 9 June ''Tartar'' and the 10-gun cutter captured the , of 18 guns and 104 men, which was under the command of Captain Crozier. ''Observateur'' had sailed from Cayenne on 13 May with the brig-of-war ''Argus'', with provisions for a four-month cruise but had not captured anything. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS ''Observateur''.

On 23 August ''Tartar'' captured the Charlestown packet. Later in the year Captain Hawker exchanged with Captain Stephen Poyntz of and ''Tartar'' returned to England under reduced masts as a consequence of damage she had sustained in a hurricane.

''Tartar'' was paid off in October 1807. Then between October and April 1808 she underwent repairs, which cost £18,700.

Gunboat War

In October 1807, Captain George Bettesworth took command while ''Tartar'' was fitting out at Deptford for service in the Baltic. This was early in the Gunboat War between Britain and Denmark-Norway.

In what became known as the Battle of Alvøen, ''Tartar'' sailed to attack the Dutch frigate ''Guelderland'', of thirty-six 6 and 12-pounder guns, which had been reported to be in Bergen being repaired. ''Guederland'' had been escorting a small convoy to Batavia but then had to deviate to deal with a leak that she had developed.

''Tartar'' left Leith roads on 10 May 1808 and arrived off Bergen on the 12th, but heavy fog prevented her from getting closer until three days later. Unfortunately, by the time ''Tartar'' arrived, ''Guelderland'' had sailed more than a week earlier. Bettesworth nevertheless decided to send his boats into the harbour to cut out some merchant vessels and three privateers that were there. When the boats encountered heavy fire and discovered that a heavy chain protected the ships in the harbour, they and Bettesworth returned to ''Tartar''. However, as ''Tartar'' tried to withdraw, she came attack from the schooner ''Odin'' and between three and six gunboats (accounts differ). Cannon fire from the Norwegians killed Bettesworth and a midshipman, Henry FitzHugh, early in the action. A further twelve men were wounded before ''Tartar'' was able to complete her withdrawal. The Norwegians lost four men, and a gunboat.

Captain Joseph Baker replaced Bettesworth in May. On 3 November ''Tartar'' was escorting a convoy in the Naze of Norway. She was twelve leagues off Bovenbergen (Bovbjerg, Jutland) when she sighted a sloop that after a chase of three hours she captured. The sloop was the Danish privateer ''Naargske Gutten'', of seven 6 and 4-pounder guns and 36 men. She was quite new and only one day out from Christiansand, without having made any captures. Six days later ''Tartar'' was in company with when they captured ''Jonge Minert''.

On 27 July 1808, ''Tartar'' was in company with when ''Cygnet'' captured the Dutch privateer ''Christiana''. ''Cygnet'' chased the privateer brig for nine hours before she could capture her. ''Christiana'' was a former British merchant brig now armed with twelve 12-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounder guns, and had a crew of 60 men. She had provisions for a one-month cruise and had sailed three days earlier from Christiana to intercept the homeward-bound Greenland-men off the north of Shetland.

Between 11 and 16 March 1809, ''Tartar'', , and captured sundry Danish vessels in the Baltic. On 13 March ''Tartar'' captured the Danish privateer ''Falcon'', while ''Ranger'' and ''Rose'' shared by agreement.

Three days later ''Tartar'' captured ''Kron Prince Frederick''. She was carrying a cargo of spices that the British East India Company sold.

''Tartar'' shared with , , and in the capture on 8 April of ''Vergnugen'' and ''Gustaff''. The next day the same four warships captured ''Caroline'', and ''Tartar'', apparently alone, captured ''St Johannes''.

Then on 10 and 11 April, ''Tartar'' was in company with ''Orion'', ''Superb'' and ''Cruizer'' when they captured the Danish sloop ''Brigetta'' and the Prussian galiot ''Erwartnung''. At the end of the month, on 30 April, ''Tartar'' captured ''Charlotte'', with ''Superb'', , ''Vanguard'', , ''Constant'', , and being in sight. That same day ''Tartar'', ''Superb'' and ''Constant'' captured ''Maria Dorothea''.

On 15 May 1809, Baker and ''Tartar'' chased a Danish privateer sloop near Felixberg on the coast of Courland. The sloop was armed with two 12-pounders on slides and two long 4-pounders, and carried a crew of 24. Her crew ran her ashore and then left her, taking their muskets up behind some sand hills where some local civilians joined them. Baker, concerned that the schooner might harm British trade, sent in his boats to bring her out or destroy her. The British cutting out party boarded the privateer, without loss despite the small arms fire from the beach, got her off the shore, and turned her guns on the beach. While the boarding party was securing the vessel, one of the men fortunately discovered a lighted candle set in a powder cartridge in the magazine and extinguished it when it had only a half an inch to burn. The privateer's magazine contained about a hundredweight of powder; had it exploded it would have killed the boarding party. The prize crew then brought the sloop off. The privateer was probably ''Felix''.

On 28 October 1809 captured ''Destrigheiden'', ''Rinaldine'', and a sloop, name unknown, while in the company of ''Tartar'' and . By agreement, Commander John Willoughby Marshall of ''Lynx'' and Baker of ''Tartar'' pooled their share of the prize money with that due Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter, the commander of ''Cheerful''.

On 13 April 1810 ''Tartar'' captured Crown Sloop ''No. 9''. Then four days later ''Tartar'' and were in sight when captured ''Enighied''.

''Tartar'' and were in company when they captured ''Twende Broders'' on 31 July. ''Tartar'' then captured ''Anna Maria Elizabeth'' and ''Enigheit'' on 6 and 7 August with ''Emanuel'' and ''Eliza Maria'' following on 11 and 10 August.

Battle of Anholt

At the beginning of February 1811 Captain Maurice of the Royal Navy warned Vice Admiral Sir James Saumarez that the Danes were planning an attack on the island of Anholt, on which there was a small British garrison of which Maurice was the commander. Maurice received further confirmation of the attack on 8 March. Saumarez ordered ''Tartar'' and ''Sheldrake'' to sail to Anholt to provide support. They left Yarmouth on 20 March and anchored off the north end of the island on 26 March.

The next day the British garrison sighted the invasion force off the south side of the island. Maurice marched to meet them with a battery of howitzers and 200 infantry, but was not able to forestall a landing. He therefore pulled back to prepared positions and alerted ''Tartar'' and ''Sheldrake'' that the enemy was on shore. The two vessels immediately set sail, with ''Tartar'' going around one side of the island and ''Sheldrake'' the other. However, the shoals forced ''Tartar'' to swing wide, delaying her by many hours.

The Danes, who had eighteen heavy gunboats for support, had landed more than 1000 troops in the darkness and fog. They were poorly equipped and their attack was uncoordinated, with the result that the British batteries at Fort Yorke (the British base) and Massareenes stopped the assault. Gunfire from ''Tartar'' and ''Sheldrake'' forced the gunboats to move off westwards.

The gunboats made their escape over the reefs while the ships had to sail around the outside. ''Tartar'' chased three gunboats towards Læsø but found herself in shoal water as night approached and gave up the chase. On the way back ''Tartar'' captured two Danish transports that she had passed while chasing the gunboats; one of them had 22 soldiers on board, with a considerable quantity of ammunition, shells, and the like, while the other contained provisions. ''Sheldrake'' managed to capture two gunboats.

About half of the Danish invasion force managed to board fourteen gunboats on the western side of Anholt and make their escape that way. The Battle of Anholt cost the British only two killed and 30 wounded. The Danes lost their commander, three other officers, and 50 men killed. The British captured, besides the wounded, five captains, nine lieutenants, and 504 rank and file, as well as three pieces of artillery, 500 muskets, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. In addition, ''Sheldrake''s two captured gunboats resulted in another two lieutenants of the Danish Navy and 119 men falling prisoner.

The Danish troops came from the 2nd Battalion of Jutland Sharp Shooters, 4th Battalion 2d Regiment Jutland Jagers, and the 4th Battalion 1st Regiment Jutland Infantry. Maurice sent a flag of truce to Jutland offering to release the prisoners on their parole not to serve until exchanged. Baker proposed that if the Danish authorities agreed to these terms, that he would take all the prisoners to Randers

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