HMS Childers (1778)

HMS ''Childers'' was a brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, initially armed with 10 carriage guns which were later increased to 14 guns. The first brig-sloop to be built for the Navy, she was ordered from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She had an active career in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous French privateers and during the Gunboat War participated in a noteworthy single-ship action. The navy withdrew her from service at the beginning of 1811, at which time she was broken up.

Construction and commissioning

James Mentone, a notable builder of fast vessels at Limehouse, built ''Childers'', one of only two vessels he built for the navy. Although the design was nominally attributed to the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir John Williams, it was approved beforehand on 16 July 1778 as "adopted from a current merchant ship design" and was probably prepared by Mentone before Williams adapted it to meet Admiralty needs. The lines and hull form were those normally found in cutters rather than in the conventional ship-rigged sloops with three masts then prevalent in British naval service. She was initially described as simply a "brig", but was re-registered and established as a sloop on 6 August 1779.

Launched in September 1778, she was commissioned in October under Commander William Peacock.

After the Admiral Rodney's victory at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, ''Childers'', under the command of Captain M'Bride, brought back the dispatches to Britain. However, although she left ten days before , which was carrying the duplicates, ''Hyaena'' arrived two days earlier.

French Revolutionary War

Commander Robert Barlow recommissioned ''Childers'' in January 1791. At this time she was employed in the suppression of smuggling.

In 1793 ''Childers'' was involved in what became known as the ''Childers'' Incident at the start of the French Revolutionary Wars. ''Childers'' was the first British warship to be involved in hostilities with the Revolutionary French regime. On 2 January 1793, she was sailing the roadstead of Brest when the forts there fired on her, though only one shot struck her. The 48-pound shot hit a gun and split into three parts, but did not cause any casualties. France did not declare war on Britain until 1 February.

''Childers'' captured the French privateer ''Patriote'' off the Graveline on 15 February. One month later, on 14 March she destroyed the French privateer ''Triton''.

In June 1793 Commander Joshua Mullock took command of ''Childers''. Commander Robert Warburton replaced Mullock in March 1794.

In March 1795 the newly promoted Commander Richard Dacres assumed command of ''Childers''. , , , ''Childers'', and the gun-brigs and shared in the proceeds of the capture on 6 July of the ''Latitia''. In August Dacres and ''Childers'' sailed "with the squadron which was sent to convoy the transports to Quiberon Bay".

On 8 September 1795 ''Childers'' rejoined Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith in ''Diamond'' off the Rock Douvre, about eight leagues S by SW from Saint Martin's Point, Guernsey. On his way, Dacres captured the French Coast guard cutter ''Vigilant'' (or ''Vigilante''), of six guns, in the Bay of Saint Brieux. This was on 3 September. The day before, ''Diamond'' had destroyed the French corvette ''Assemblee Nationale'', and as part of Smith's squadron, ''Childers'' shared in the head money for the corvette.

Dacres was promoted to post captain and command of on 31 October. In December Command Stephen Poyntz assumed command of ''Childers''.

On 10 April 1796 ''Diamond'', , ''Childers'', ''Camilla'', and ''Syren'' captured ''Smuka Piga''. Nineteen days later, , ''Diamond'', , ''Syren'', ''Magicienne'', and ''Camilla'', were together when ''Acquilon'' captured ''Mary''. ''Childers'' shared in the prize money by agreement with ''Acquilon''.

On 16 September ''Childers'' captured the French privateer ''Bon Esperence'', off Cape Barfleur. ''Bon Esperence'', of two swivel guns and 23 men, was three days out of Cherbourg and had captured the sloop ''Mary Ann'', of Queenborough, sailing from Plymouth to London and Woolwich with naval stores and ordnance. Shortly thereafter, ''Childers'' was able to recapture the ''Mary Ann''. Poyntz sent both ''Bon Esperence'' and ''Mary Ann'' into Portsmouth under escort by the cutter . Towards the end of the month, on the 28th, ''Childers'' captured the ship ''Anna Louisa''.

and drove a French navy corvette ashore near Barfleur on 13 November. However the British were not able to get close enough to assure her destruction. Then the next morning, ''Melampus'' and ''Childers'' chased the corvette ''Etna'' as she departed Le Havre. ''Melampus'' came within range around 15:30. ''Etna'' resisted for two hours before striking her colours as ''Childers'' joined the battle. ''Etna'' was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 137 men under the command of Citizen Joseph La Coudrais. The prisoners stated that both corvettes were carrying military and naval stores and that the corvette that had run ashore was the ''Etonnant''. Both were new ships on their first cruise. The Royal Navy took ''Etna'' into service as the 20-gun post ship HMS ''Cormorant''. In February 1797 the government made an advance prize money payment of £8000 to the officers and crews of ''Melampus'' and ''Childers''.

Commander James O'Brien (or O'Bryen) was appointed captain of ''Childers'' on 5 December, and took command in January 1797. On 11 May ''Childers'', in company with , , and the hired armed lugger ''Duke of York'', captured the ''Nouvelle Eugénie''. She was a razee privateer of 16 guns and carried a crew of 120 men. She was four days out of Nantes on a 30-day cruise, but had taken no prizes.

, , , ''Melpomene'', and ''Childers'' shared in the proceeds of the capture on 10 September 1797 of ''Tordenskiold''.

''Childers'' brought into Portsmouth on 28 October the French privateer schooner ''Furet'', pierced for 14 guns but carrying only four 4-pounders, and having a crew of 50 men. ''Childers'' had been in company with the frigate when they captured the remarkably fast sailing ''Furet'' four days earlier as she was sailing between ÃŽle de Batz and Alreverak her way back to Tregnier. The privateer had been out three weeks and had made only one capture before herself falling prey to the British.

Then on 11 January 1798, ''Childers'' was in company with ''Indefatigable'' and when they captured the French privateer schooner ''Vengeur'', of 12 guns and 72 men. She was quite new and only eight days out of Ostend without having made any captures. Sir Edward Pellew, of ''Indefatigable'', sent her into Falmouth.

Between 15 October 1797 and 27 May 1798, ''Childers'' captured another privateer, a merchant vessel, and recaptured two merchant vessels as well. The privateer was ''Tartare'', and the merchant vessel was ''Twee Gysberts''. The recaptured ships were ''Racehorse'' and ''Helen''.

On 4 August was under the command of Lieutenant René-Guillaume Raffi (or Raffy) and anchored in the port of Corréjou or Corigiou. Here the boats of and ''Childers'' cut her out. British casualties were one man killed, one missing and four wounded. The French casualties were 16 wounded, several mortally. The attack took place at night and in bad weather. To get ''Aventurier'' out of the port took two hours because of the weather conditions and took place under fire from the forts that protected the port. All-in-all, the operation was a daring and arduous one. The subsequent court martial of Lieutenant Raffi, who had been wounded at the start of the attack on his vessel, acquitted him for the loss. She was brought into British service as HMS ''Aventurier''.

In March 1799 Commander James Coutts Crawford assumed command of ''Childers''. On 4 May ''Childers'' and the frigate arrived at the Bay of Cadiz and notified Vice-Admiral Lord Keith, commander of the British fleet there, that the French fleet had sailed from Brest and that the Spanish fleet had sailed from Ferrol. The next day the French fleet arrived off Cadiz and Keith sailed to meet them. However no engagement developed and Keith sailed into Gibraltar on 9 May. In the meantime, ''Childers'' had arrived at Gibraltar on the 4th. Lord St Vincent gathered his forces with a view to pursuing the French, who had traversed the Straits of Gibraltar on the 5th.

''Childers'' returned to Plymouth. On 8 October she escorted " "East India store ship" from Plymouth to The Downs.

came into Falmouth on 25 March 1800. She had struck a rock in the Penmarks and had taken on a great deal of water. On her way to port she had encountered ''Childers'', which assisted ''Agamemnon'' and accompanied her into port. The ''Lady Nelson'' came into Plymouth the next day with a cargo of fruit. A French privateer had captured her, but ''Childers'' had recaptured her.

On 26 April, ''Diamond'' and ''Childers'' captured the French brig ''St Charles''. Five days later, ''Childers'' and were in sight when the gun-vessel recaptured the brig ''Adventure'', of London, while . That same day they also recaptured ''Amy''.

On 24 October, ''Childers'' captured the Spanish privateer lugger ''Diligenté''. ''Diligenté'' was armed with two 4-pounder guns and four swivel guns, and had a crew of 30 men. She was three days out of Vigo and had taken no prizes.

''Childers'' came into Portsmouth in February 1801. She had left Lisbon three weeks earlier, escorting 12 merchant vessels and transports. As she went into Portsmouth the convoy sailed on to the Downs.

Seven plus months later, on 11 September, ''Childers'' captured the French brig ''Sally''. ''Childers'' shared the proceeds with and .

Crawford received promotion to post-captain on 29 April 1802. Commander John Delafons replaced Crawford briefly as he took command in July, and she was paid off in November.

When Earl St Vincent and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty in the Commissioners' yacht visited Plymouth on an inspection tour on 27 August, and ''Childers'' fired a salute. The two vessels then moved to Cawsand Bay to remain there for the duration of the visit. They were still there on 5 September.

Napoleonic Wars

Commander (or Lt.) Sir William Bolton commissioned ''Childers'' in August 1803 for the Mediterranean. On 4 September ''Childers'' came into Plymouth from the Hamoaze where she had been refitting. Then on 7 September ''Childers'' sailed from Plymouth to join a convoy that was assembling at Portsmouth for the Mediterranean. On 22 September, 1803 she was damaged in a storm between Gibraltar and the Barbary shore losing her top mast, she requested assistance of, and received aide by, USS Constitution, who towed her for 5-6 leagues before casting her off to proceed to Gibraltar.

, , and ''Childers'' shared in the proceeds of the capture on 14 January 1804 of the ''St. Gieuseppe e L'Allanza''. On 24 August and ''Childers'' captured the ''Venscab''.

In August 1805, Commander John Lake took command of ''Childers''. In an enclosure to a letter dated 7 October 1805, Admiral Lord Nelson wrote, " Jalouse, Childers, and Merlin being unfit for the service of this Country, are ordered home with the first Convoy to be repaired".

Still, on 24 December, while serving in the squadron under Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood, she detained the Ragusan ship ''Terpsichore'', of 280 tons (bm), which was carrying a cargo of sugar, coffee, and the like from Isle de France (Mauritius), to Leghorn.

Lake's replacement in March 1806 was Commander Thomas Innes. Innes and ''Childers'' captured the Danish vessels ''Johanna Seegmond'' and ''Else Christiana'' on 26 October 1807.

On 8 April 1805, during his captivity in France, William Henry Dillon had been promoted to commander, and on obtaining his release in September 1807 he took the command of ''Childers'' in early 1808.

In January ''Childers'' lay in Leith roads, waiting to escort vessels trading with Gothenburg. The local merchants, however, rejected her protection, put off by her small size and weak armament, which they felt would not enable her to protect them from the privateers in the North Sea. ''Childers'' therefore sailed for the Baltic alone, to do what she could to annoy the enemies.

In her, late in the afternoon of 14 March 1808, Dillon was sailing towards the south-west the coast of Norway when he sighted a sail. He set out in pursuit and chased the vessel into the small port of Midbe (possibly Midtre Kalvekilen). The local inhabitants sent out boats to retrieve the quarry's cargo, but these dispersed when ''Childers''s boats arrived to cut her out. The party from ''Childers'' retrieved the galiot together with her cargo of oil and fish, and despite small arms fire from the shore and rocks heaved down on them from a precipice above where her crew had abandoned the galiot. As the cutting out party returned with the galiot, Dillon observed a large brig sailing out from Hitteroe (probably Flekkefjord), towards ''Childers'', with the apparent intent of recapturing the prize.''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 19, pp.282-4.

An engagement of some three hours duration developed as the Danish brig hugged the coast. The vessels exchanged broadsides and at one point the Danish brig caught fire forward. Dillon eventually was able to lure the brig out to about three miles off shore. At about 11pm ''Childers'' was able to fire a broadside at close range, after which the Dane broke off the engagement and headed back towards Norway. The brig's cannon fire had holed ''Childers'' and she had five feet of water in her hold. The crew manned the pumps but Dillon was afraid that she might sink and was not in a position to pursue. He therefore returned to Leith, together with the galiot. (She was probably the ''Christina''.)

The Danish vessel was the brig , of eighteen 18-pounder guns and two 6-pounder stern chasers. ''Childers'', by contrast, had sixteen 12-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder bow chasers. Her crew numbered only about 65 men and boys (including some nine or so on the prize), well short of her establishment of 84; ''Lougen'' had a crew of 160.William James, ''Naval History of Great Britain'' Vol V, pp.27-30.

''Childers'' lost two men killed and nine wounded, among them Dillon, who was severely wounded in both legs. Dillon received promotion to post captain, with date 21 March 1808, and the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund presented him a sword valued at one hundred guineas in acknowledgement of his gallant conduct. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Childers 14 March 1808" to the four surviving claimants from the action.

Commander Joseph Packwood replaced the wounded Dillon on ''Childers'', which remained based on the Leith station. On the morning of 19 October, ''Childers'' was 15 leagues off Kinnaird Head when she sighted two sails. She gave chase and after about an hour and a half recaptured the sloop ''Lord Nelson'', in ballast, which a privateer, the second sail that had been sighted, had captured a little earlier that morning. Packwood then set out after the privateer, which she captured in about another hour and a half. The privateer was the Danish sloop ''Frernskernstern''. ''Frernskernstern'' was armed with four 4-pounder guns and two swivels, and had a crew of 22 men. She had left her home port of Stavanger on the 15th and had been off the Scottish coast for two days but ''Lord Nelson'' was her only capture.

On 7 November , in company with ''Childers'', captured Danish schooner No. 32. Then on 16 August 1809 she was in company with at the capture of the Danish vessel ''Transport No 52''.

''Childers'' recaptured ''Anna'' on 8 April 1809. Eleven days later, ''Childers'' and captured the Danish galliot ''Emannuel''.

On 5 July ''Childers'' captured ''Hoop'' and ''Nordscandia''. Towards the end of the month, on 30 July, ''Childers'' captured the Danish galliot ''Amelia''. Nine days later, on 8 August, ''Childers'', captured the Danish privateer ''Den For Agetede Hensight''. Then, ''Childers'' captured ''Flundrun'' and ''Aurora'' on 10 and 11 November. The next day ''Childers'' was in sight when (or ''Ned Elven'') captured ''Susanna Catharina''. ''Childers'' also shared by agreement in ''Nid Elven''s capture of ''Wohlfarth'', and ''Hans Barend'' on 19 November.

During 1809, Commander Francis Nott commanded ''Childers'' temporarily.

One 1 April 1810, ''Childers'' captured the Prussian galliot ''Anna Maria''. She then captured the fishing doggers ''Zeemeuw'', ''Mercure'', ''Johanna'', ''Christine'', and ''Pappenburg'' on 15 July. Lastly, ''Childers'' captured ''Neptunus'' on 31 October.

Between December 1810 and January 1811, the officers and crew of ''Childers'' presented the master, George Wilson, an inscribed sword. Wilson had jumped into the sea at the risk of his own life to rescue a seaman who had fallen from the fore-yard-arm and was sinking.''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 25, p.69.

Fate

''Childers'' was finally paid off from service in January 1811 and broken up in the following month. Packwood was promoted to post captain on 14 February 1811.

Notes

Citations

References

*Clarke, James Stanier and John McArthur (1840 & 2010) ''The Life and Services of Horatio Viscount Nelson: From His Lordship's Manuscripts''. (Cambridge University Press).
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*Nicolas, Sir Nicholas Harris (1846) ''The Dispatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson, with Notes''. (Colburn)
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External links

HMS Childers. Painting in collection of National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

The Swallow. An example of a 14 gun brig of the period

{{DEFAULTSORT:Childers (1778)
1778 ships
Brig-sloops of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Limehouse
Naval ships of the Gunboat War
Ships in art