HMS Saracen (1804)

HMS Saracen was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Perry, Green & Wells at Blackwall Yard and launched in 1804. She had a relatively short and uneventful career before she was broken up at Chatham in 1812.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Saracen.

History
United Kingdom
Name: HMS Saracen
Namesake: Saracen
Builder: Perry, Green & Wells, Blackwall Yard
Launched: 1804
Commissioned: August 1804
Fate: Broken up, May 1812
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tons burthen: 385​5⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 100 ft 2 in (30.53 m) (gundeck);
  • 77 ft 6 in (23.62 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 6 3⁄4 in (9.315 m)
Draught:
  • Unladen:5 ft 6 in (1.68 m);
  • Laden:12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 121
Armament: 16 × 32-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder bow guns

Service

Saracen was commissioned in August 1804 under Commander William Proctor for the Irish station. In February 1805 Commander James Prevost took command and by May 1805 she was cruising the Channel.[1]

By 3 January 1806 she was with Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron at Saint Helena. Nine days later she sailed to Madeira to gain intelligence of Vice Admiral Leissègues's squadron. By 28 December she was back at Falmouth.

During the summer of 1807 Saracen was in the Rio Plata with Sir Home Popham's forces. From there she brought home the naval and military dispatches after the surrender of the British forces by General Whitelocke on 5 July.[2]

She sailed for the Mediterranean on 15 November and in 1808 was off Cadiz. Saracen brought back to Great Britain a copy of the treaty for the peace of the Dardanelles signed on 6 January 1809 with the Ottoman Empire.[3]

On 13 March 1809, Commander Buckland Stirling Bluett took command. (He had received his promotion to Commander in 1804 when as a lieutenant in Saracen's sister ship, Scorpion, he had participated in the boat action under her captain, Commander George Nicholas Hardinge, that captured the Dutch brig Atalante.) On 10 May Bluett sailed Saracen for Jamaica.

On 12 October 1810 Saracen took her one prize when she captured the French privateer Caroline off Cuba. Caroline had one gun, a crew of 42 men, and had not made any captures.[4][5]

Fate

Saracen was broken up at Chatham in May 1812.[1] On 14 July Bluett took command of a sister ship, Childers, then lying at Portsmouth.

Citations
  1. Winfield (2008), p. 294.
  2. The gentleman's magazine, and historical chronicle, Volume 77, Part 2, p. 870.
  3. Adair (1845), p. 113.
  4. "No. 16434". The London Gazette. 11 December 1810. p. 1978.
  5. O'Byrne (1849), p. 93.

References
  • Adair, Sir Robert (1845) The Negotiations for the peace of the Dardanelles in 1808-1809..., being a sequel to the "Memoir of his mission to Vienna in 1806". (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans), Vol. 1.
  • O'Bryne, William R. (1849) A naval biographical dictionary: comprising the life and services ... (London: J. Murray), Volume 1.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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