The third HMS ''Shannon'' was a 36-gun ''Perseverance''-class frigate of the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

built at

Frindsbury Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester ...

on the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a total distance ...

on the

Thames Estuary The Thames Estuary is where the River Thames meets the waters of the North Sea, in the south-east of Great Britain. Limits An estuary can be defined according to different criteria (e.g. tidal, geographical, navigational or in terms of salini ...

. She was completed on 3 September 1803 during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

. Her name was changed from ''Pallas'' to ''Shannon'' shortly before construction, traditionally an omen of bad luck for a ship. In her case, she was wrecked within three months of her being launched.

Wreck

She was attached to the Channel fleet and spent the next few months under her captain,

Edward Leveson-Gower Rear-Admiral Edward Leveson-Gower (8 May 1776 – 6 December 1853) was a British naval officer, the son of Admiral The Hon. John Leveson-Gower and Frances Boscawen. Naval and political career Leveson-Gower entered the Navy in 1791, and was pr ...

, on patrol off the Cape La Hogue searching for French coastal shipping and

privateers A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

attempting to slip out of the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

port of

Cherbourg Cherbourg (; , , ), nrf, Chèrbourg, ) is a former commune and subprefecture located at the northern end of the Cotentin peninsula in the northwestern French department of Manche. It was merged into the commune of Cherbourg-Octeville on 28 ...

. The 18-gun brig HMS ''Merlin'', under Edward Pelham Brenton, accompanied her. At 8pm on 10 December, just three months after she was completed, the ship was lost on

Tatihou Tatihou is an islet of Normandy in France with an area of . It is located to the east of the Cotentin peninsula just off the coast near Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. It is almost uninhabited, and is usually reached by amphibious craft although, being a ...

Island, near

Barfleur Barfleur () is a commune and fishing village in Manche, Normandy, northwestern France. History During the Middle Ages, Barfleur was one of the chief ports of embarkation for England. * 1066: A large medallion fixed to a rock in the har ...

, directly under an enemy battery. There was a heavy gale blowing and in the darkness, Leveson-Gower lost his position after losing sight of the Barfleur lighthouse. Assuming he had sea room, he attempted to wear around; a lee tide caught ''Shannon'' and crashed her straight onto the rocks. ''Merlin'' spotted land thanks to a bolt of lighting and was able to wear off in time. Efforts overnight to lighten ''Shannon'' succeeded in that eventually she floated, but she was so full of water that she grounded again and it was evident that she was lost. During these efforts, a French battery fired on ''Shannon'', striking her with some 60 shots and killing three men wounding eight. At 8:30p.m. ''Shannon'' struck. The surviving crew were able to scramble ashore unharmed, where the French troops garrisoning the battery above the wreck captured them. Some French fishing boats led by Ensign Lacroix took possession of ''Shannon'', and saw that her hull was so damaged that she would be impossible to refloat. ''Merlin'' stood back into shore on the 16th and at 11.30am dispatched two boats of marines and sailors to destroy ''Shannon'' to prevent the French from salvaging her guns and stores. Despite heavy fire from the island's batteries the boarders were able to burn and destroy the frigate without suffering a single casualty.

Aftermath

Edward Pelham Brenton was the younger brother of Captain

Jahleel Brenton Vice Admiral Sir Jahleel Brenton, 1st Baronet, KCB (22 August 1770 – 21 April 1844) was a British officer in the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Brenton was born in British America but his family re ...

, who was a captive at

Verdun Verdun (, , , ; official name before 1970 ''Verdun-sur-Meuse'') is a large city in the Meuse department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. Verdun is the biggest city in Meuse, although the capital ...

, where Leveson-Gower would join him in January 1804. About three and a quarter years after the loss of ''Shannon'', Leveson-Gower and his officers returned to England. There a court martial honorably acquitted them of all blame for the loss.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * James W.M., ''The Naval History of Great Britain, Vol. 3'', Conway, Great Britain: 2002 (originally published 1827). . * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shannon (1803) 1803 ships Ships built in England Maritime incidents in 1803 Frigates of the Royal Navy Shipwrecks in the English Channel