HMS Daphne (1806)

HMS ''Daphne'' was launched at Topsham, England in 1806. During her naval career ''Daphne'' operated primarily in the Baltic where she took part in one notable cutting-out expedition, and captured one small privateer and numerous small Danish merchant vessels. In 1816 the Admiralty sold her after the end of the Napoleonic Wars and she became a merchant ship, while retaining the name ''Daphne''. She made one voyage to Australia in 1819 transporting convicts. Thereafter she traded with India and was last listed in 1824.

Naval career

Captain Francis Mason commissioned ''Daphne'' in July 1806 and sailed her for the River Plate on 7 July There she took part in Commodore Home Riggs Popham's ill-fated expedition to capture Buenos Aires. On 6 January 1807 ''Daphne'' was in company with and at the capture of ''Ann'', Dennison, master. ''Daphne'' had one man lightly wounded at the capture of Montevideo on 3 February 1807. She returned to England in December 1807.

She then served in the Baltic during the Gunboat War. On 23 April 1808 boats from ''Daphne'' and , supported by the brig , drove ashore a Dano-Norwegian convoy at Flodstrand, near The Skaw on 22 April. The convoy was taking supplies for the relief of Norway as a result of food shortages that had occurred there after the British had begun their blockade between Denmark and Norway in 1807. The British went in under heavy fire from the shore and a castle there and brought out five brigs, three galliots, a schooner and a sloop (totalling some 870 tons burthen), for the loss of five men wounded, four on ''Daphne'' and one on ''Tartarus''. In November there was a preliminary disbursement of £10,000 in prize money for the captured vessels. On 20 May ''Daphne'' and ''Tartarus'' captured the Danish brig ''Fisken''.

''Daphne'' and (or ) were in company on 23 June at the capture of the Danish vessels ''Roland'', ''Twin Brothers'' (''Twee Broeders''), and ''Seaman'' (''Samen'').

On 4 August ''Daphne'' captured ''Karen Refine''. Four days later ''Daphne'' captured the Danish naval schooner ''Acutif'' (or ''Actif''), and drove on shore a cutter of four guns. ''Acutif'', which was under the command of Second Lieutenant Evert Andersen, was pierced for 12 guns but had only eight long 3-pounders mounted. She threw two of them overboard during the six-hour chase before she struck. She and the cutter had left Christiansand three days earlier.

Captain William Roberts took command in August 1808. On 30 August ''Daphne'' and captured a Danish vessel of unknown name. Prize money was paid in March 1819.

On 18 September ''Daphne'' captured the ketch ''Drooning Margaretha''. Between 18 September and 5 October, in addition to ''Drooning Magaretha'', ''Daphne'' captured the galliots ''Good Hope'', ''Hofnung'', ''Elizabet Katherine'', and three boats laden with grain.

Captain Philip Pipon replaced Roberts later in September.

On 21 July 1810 ''Daphne'' captured ''Good Hofnung'' and ''Pluto''. Then on 3 August ''Daphne'' and were in company at the capture of the Danish vessels ''De Freed'' and ''Elizabeth''. Then on 27 September ''Daphne'' and shared in the capture of the Danish schooner ''Toujours Fidele''.

On 28 May 1811 ''Daphne'' captured ''Anna Margaretha Dorothea''. On 7 June ''Daphne'' captured ''Nije Prowe''. ''Daphne'', , , and were in company on 7 July at the capture of ''Die Hoffnung''. ''Daphne'' and ''Urgent'' were in company on 11 July at the capture of Danish Transport №38.

Between 27 March and 8 April 1812, captured ''Hans Ulrick'', ''Eolus'', ''Neptunus'', ''Thygessen'', ''Falken'', ''Enighed'', ''Caroline'', and ''Enigheden''. ''Plover'' shared the proceeds with ''Daphne'', ''Pyramus'', and ''Raleigh'' by prior agreement. On 21 April ''Daphne'' captured ''Catherina''.

In March 1813 Captain James Green assumed command. ''Daphne'' then served as the flagship for Rear-Admiral Sir George Hope in the Baltic.

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered "Daphne, of 22 guns and 540 tons", lying at Deptford, for sale on 11 January 1816. ''Daphne'' was sold at Deptford on 15 February 1816 for £2,300.

Merchant career

''Daphne'' appears in ''Lloyd's Register'' of 1816 with Appelby, master, Blanshard, owner, and trade London–Île de France.''Lloyd's Register'' (1816), Supple. pages Seq.№D22.
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''Daphne'' left Port Jackson on 3 June 1818 bound for Calcutta.

Captain Hugh Mattison and surgeon Robert Armstrong sailed from Cork, Ireland on 28 May 1819, bound for Sydney, New South Wales. ''Daphne'' sailed via Teneriffe, arriving on 21 September 1819. Despite the stop in Teneriffe, the voyage took only 116 days. She had embarked some 180 male prisoners and 178 disembarked in Sydney. Men from the 46th, 48th, and 87th Regiments of Foot provided the guard detachment under the command of Captain Brooke. On 14 October 1819 ''Daphne'' sailed from Port Jackson for Bengal.

''Lloyd's Register'' for 1821 shows ''Daphne''s master changing from Matteson to Chatfield. Her trade became London–India or London–Madras.

In mid-1821 in the Atlantic ''Daphne'', which was on her way to Madras, encountered the merchant ship , which was on her way to Bombay. The weather being dead calm, Captain Greig spent a day on ''Daphne'' and had a "Most excellent dinner". On 22 July 1821 ''Blendan Hall'' was wrecked at Inaccessible Island, leaving her passengers and crew marooned for some six months.

On 16 May 1822 ''Daphne'', Arthur A. Chatfield, master, H. Blanshard, owner, sailed to Madras. On her way on 27 August ''Daphne'', Captain Chatfield, passed through the "Collomandous Channel" (), in the Maldives, proving that though narrow, it was navigable.) By 10 September she was in Madras Roads.

A report on 28 August 1823 from a vessel arrived at Cowes stated that the vessel had fallen in with ''Daphne'' sailing from Batavia to Cowes. ''Daphne'' had damage to her sails and having "strained much by a heavy gale of wind off the Cape of Good Hope" that lasted 32 days.

''Daphne'' is last listed in ''Lloyd's Register'' in 1823,''Lloyd's Register'' (1823), Seq.№D31.
/ref> and in the ''Register of Shipping'' in 1824.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Daphne (1806)
1806 ships
Post ships of the Royal Navy
Ships built on the River Exe
Banterer-class post ships
Age of Sail merchant ships of England
Convict ships to New South Wales
Naval ships of the Gunboat War