HMS Zebra (1780)

HMS ''Zebra'' was a 16-gun (later 18-gun) ''Zebra''-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars, she was converted into a bomb vessel in 1798. In this capacity she took part in attacks on French ports, and was present at both battles of Copenhagen. The Navy sold her in 1812.

American Revolution

''Zebra'' was built to a design by Edward Hunt, and launched and commissioned in August 1780 under Commander John Bourchier. She then served in the Downs Squadron during the closing stages of the American Revolutionary War. On 10 February 1781 she was in company with when they captured the American privateer ''Revenge''.

Then around 10 May she was in company with the sloop and the cutters and when they recaptured the ''Industry'', Chew, master, and the ''Jenny'', Dane, master. ''Zebra'' sent them into Dover.

''Zebra'' sailed for Jamaica on 10 February 1782. On 14 April 1782 ''Zebra'' was with Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, the commander-in chief of the Leeward Islands station, at the Battle of the Saintes. She was in Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood's division. During fleet engagements, only large ships-of-the-line of over 50 guns traditionally took part in the battles and the small ''Zebra'' did not participate in a battle. Smaller vessels like ''Zebra'' would be used to relay messages, tow damaged ships out of the line or rescue seaman.

On 28 June ''Zebra'', under the command of Commander John Loncraft, was in company with when they captured the American privateer ''Tartar''. Late in 1782 ''Zebra'' and escorted a fleet from Georgia "with the principal inhabitants, their Negroes, and their Effects" to Jamaica.

On 19 January 1783 ''Zebra'' captured the brig ''Providence'' on the Leeward Islands. Commander E. Pakenham took command in April 1783 in the Leeward Islands. She returned from the West Indies to the UK after 1783.

From January to October 1786 she underwent repairs at Woolwich. Commander C. Boyles commissioned her 1787. Then between April and May 1789 she underwent fitting for service it the Channel. ''Zebra'' was recommissioned in August under Commander the Honourable Robert Forbes. In November 1790 she came under the command of Commander William Brown and sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 November. From April to July 1793 she was back at Woolwich for repairs.

French Revolutionary Wars

Sloop

In June 1793 Commander Robert Faulknor recommissioned ''Zebra''. He sailed her for the Leeward Islands on 26 November.

In 1794, ''Zebra'' participated in the capture of Martinique by the expeditionary force under the command of Admiral Sir John Jervis and Lieutenant General Sir Charles Grey.

In February 1794 the English attacked Martinique. By 20 March, only Fort Bourbon and Fort Royal still held out. Jervis ordered the third rate ship of the line (64 guns), and the ''Zebra'' to take Fort Saint Louis. ''Asia'' was unable to get close, and so Commander Faulknor went in without ''Asia''s help. Despite facing heavy fire, Faulknor ran ''Zebra'' close under the walls. He and his ship's company then used ''Zebra''s boats to land. The British stormed the fort and captured it. ''Zebra'' lost only her pilot killed and four men wounded. Meanwhile the boats of the British fleet captured Fort Royal and two days later Fort Bourbon capitulated.

Jervis promoted Faulknor to post-captain and gave him command of the French 28-gun sixth-rate frigate ''Bienvenue'', which the British had captured at Fort Royal and which Jervis renamed in Faulknor's honour. In 1847, the feat earned the remaining survivors of ''Zebra''s crew the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Zebra 17 March 1794". The crew also qualified for the clasp "17 Mar. Boat Service 1794" for the capture of the French frigate ''Bienvenue'' and other vessels in Fort Royal Bay.

In March Commander Richard Bowen replaced Faulknor, only to be replaced in April by Lieutenant Lancelot Skynner. Commander George Vaughn replaced Skynner within the month. On 14 April 1794 ''Zebra'' was present at the capture of Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe.

''Zebra'' returned to Fort Royal on 4 December with the French schooner ''Carmagnols'', which she had taken on 30 November off Saint Lucia. ''Carmangnole'' had a crew of 35 men and was armed with 10 guns. French records show that ''Carmagnole'' was a schooner that the French Navy had commissioned in 1793 at Guadeloupe. ''Zebra'' had taken her after having run her ashore on La Désirade.

The captures of Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia yielded prize money for the captains and crews of the vessels involved, and for the army units.

Early in 1795, ''Zebra'', under Captain Skinner, supported the British Army in suppressing an insurrection by the indigenous Caribs on St Vincent. Then captured the 10-gun ''Brutus'' off Grenada on 10 October 1795, followed by the 18-gun French corvette ''Républicaine'' on 14 October 1795. ''Zebra'', under the command of Commander Norborne Thompson, shared in the prize money by agreement.

In January 1796, Commander David M'Iver assumed command. Shortly thereafter, and ''Zebra'' captured a privateer and recaptured two schooners. On 12 September ''Zebra'', under Commander John Hurst, captured the ''Victoire'' between Grenada and Tobago. ''Victoire'' was armed with six guns and had a crew of 65 men. She was eight days out of Guadeloupe and had captured a sloop from Barbados with a cargo of provisions for Martinique. had recaptured the sloop off Marie-Galante. At some point ''Zebra'' captured the Spanish ship ''Santa Maria Magdalena''.

Early in 1797 Admiral Henry Harvey sent ''Zebra'' to Tobago to gather a detachment of troops. ''Zebra'' then rendezvoused with Harvey and his flotilla at the island of Carriacou, in the Grenadines, for the invasion of Trinidad. The flotilla sailed from Carriacou on 15 February and arrived off Port of Spain on the 16th. At Port of Spain they found a Spanish squadron consisting of four ships of the line and a frigate, all under the command of Rear-Admiral Don Sebastian Ruiz de Apodaca. Harvey sent ''Zebra'' and some of the other smaller ships to protect the transports and anchored his own ships of the line opposite the Spanish squadron. At 2am on 17 February the British discovered that four of the five Spanish vessels were on fire; they were able to capture the 74-gun ''San Domaso'' but the others were destroyed. Later that morning General Sir Ralph Abercrombie landed the troops. The Governor of Trinidad, José Maria Chacón, surrendered the next day. ''Zebra'' shared with the rest of the flotilla in the allocation of £40,000 for the proceeds of the ships taken at Trinidad and of the property found on the island.

Hurst died in March 1797. It is not clear who sailed ''Zebra'' back to Britain for paying off and laying up.

Bomb vessel

Between March and April 1798, Wells & Co. converted ''Zebra'' to a bomb vessel at a cost of £4,319. She then spent April through June at Deptford Dockyard undergoing a full conversion, which cost £7,392. Commander Thomas Sparke recommissioned her in April.

On 28 August 1799 ''Zebra'' was with the British fleet that captured the Dutch hulks ''Drotchterland'' and ''Brooderschap'', and the ships ''Helder'', ''Venus'', ''Minerva'', and ''Hector'', in the Nieuwe Diep, in Holland. The capture of these vessels was part of the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland and preceded by two days the Vlieter Incident in which a large part of the navy of the Batavian Republic, commanded by Rear-Admiral Samuel Story, surrendered to the British navy on a sandbank near the Channel known as ''De Vlieter'', near Wieringen. ''Zebra'' was also among the vessels sharing in the prize money from the Dutch vessels of the Vlieter Incident.

In December 1799 ''Zebra'' was under Commander Edward Sneyd Clay in the North Sea. ''Zebra''s, next major campaign was the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. She suffered no casualties. In 1847, ''Zebra''s surviving crew qualified to receive the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Copenhagen 1801".

Napoleonic Wars

Between March and May 1803 ''Zebra'' underwent another fitting out at Woolwich. Commander William Beauchamp-Proctor was appointed to command of her in April 1803.

On 20 July 1804, ''Zebra'' was in the company of hired armed cutter ''Favorite'' and some other vessels when ''Zebra'' captured ''Shepherdess''. Nine days later, ''Zebra'', captured ''Postillion''.

In July and August 1804 ''Zebra'' participated in the squadron under Captain Robert Dudley Oliver in at the bombardment of French vessels at Le Havre. The bomb vessels' shells and carcasses set the town on fire on 23 July. On 1 August, the vessels kept a continuous fire for three hours. Still, it is not clear that the bombardment did much damage to the French flotilla. On 31 July the squadron did capture the French vessel ''Papillon''.

''Zebra'' was recommissioned in August 1804 under Commander William Parkinson. Lieutenant George Harris replaced him in 1805. His replacement, in March 1806, was Commander Thomas Whinyates. Under Whinyates ''Zebra'' was on the North Sea station. Commander William Bowles took over in 1807.

''Zebra'' then returned to Copenhagen for the second battle of Copenhagen in 1807. ''Zebra'' joined the "Advanced Squadron", which was protecting the batteries the British were building to support their attack on the city. On 17 August, the bomb vessels opened fire on the city's flotilla of row boats whose fire was harassing the left of the British line. ''Zebra'' was one of several vessels sharing in the capture of the Danish merchant vessel ''Sally'' on 22 August. ''Zebra'' was one of six British warships that shared in the capture on 23 August of the Danish vessel ''Speculation''.

On 2 September, the bomb vessels joined the land-based mortar batteries in bombarding Copenhagen. The bombardment set the town on fire and the Danes finally asked for an armistice on 5 September. The prize money for Copenhagen to an ordinary seaman was £3 8s.

On 20 June 1808, ''Zebra'' was in the Baltic, under the command of Thomas R. Toker, when she captured the Danish sloop ''Emenzius''. Commander George Trollope took command in January 1809.

Fate

''Zebra'' was laid up in May 1809 at Deptford. She was put up for sale on 13 August 1812. She was sold there at that time.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zebra (1780)
Sloops of the Royal Navy
Bomb vessels of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Gravesend
1780 ships