HMS Selby (1798)

HMS Selby was the mercantile Selby built in 1791 at Whitby. She was a North Sea and Baltic trader until the British Royal Navy purchased her in 1798. Selby's purchase was one of a number of purchases of armed ships or ship-sloops where the Navy's intent was to use them as convoy escorts. Selby was at the raid on Dunkirk, though she played no real role. The Navy sold her in 1801. She then returned to being a merchantman. She is last listed in 1810, trading between London and Jamaica.

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

History
Great Britain
Name: Selby
Namesake: Selby
Owner: Woodcock
Builder: Whitby
Launched: 1791
Fate: Sold 1798
Great Britain
Name: HMS Selby
Acquired: 1798 by purchase
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Capture of the Desiree"[1]
Fate: Sold 1801
United Kingdom
Name: Selby
Acquired: 1801 by purchase
Fate: Last listed in 1810
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen: 348,[3] 354, or 363[4] bm
Length:
  • 100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) (overall)
  • 83 ft 1 1⁄28 in (25.3 m) (keel)
Beam: 29 ft 3 1⁄2 in (8.9 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 7 1⁄2 in (3.8 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Ship-sloop
Complement: 90
Armament:
  • 1798:6 × 4-pounder guns[5]
  • HMS:32 x 32-pounder carronades (Upper deck)

Merchantman

Selby first appears in published British registries in the 1793 volume of Lloyd's Register. Her master is Woodhouse, and her owner is Woodcock. Her trade is Liverpool to Ostend.[4]

Selby still appears in the 1799 volume of Lloyd's Register, which presumably went to press before her sale to the Navy. Her master is Thompson, and she is sailing between Riga and Portsmouth.[5]

The Navy purchased Selby in 1798. Between 5 April and 3 May she was at Perry & Co., Blackwall, undergoing fitting-out. Commander Thomas Palmer commissioned Selby in May 1798 at Sheerness. Then on 16 July she moved to Woolwich Dockyard for further work.[2]

Selby was at the Nore when at 7:30 in the morning of 3 May 1800 Palmer shot himself. A brief obituary in the Naval Chronicle reported, "the unfortunate death ... of Captain Palmer, of the Selby sloop of war, who shot himself in a fit of insanity; which circumstance, however deplorable, will tend, in the eyes of his friends, to lessen the calamity."[6]

At some point Commander William Compton took command of Selby and he was her captain between 27 June and 8 July 1800, when Selby participated in the raid on Dunkirk. This was an operation to capture the French frigate Désirée from Dunkerque harbour and burn other vessels. Contrary winds and a succession of unfavourable tides afforded no opportunity of making the attack until 7 July.[7]

Captain Inman, of Andromeda, was in charge of the operation. He sent HMS Dart, under Patrick Campbell, against the easternmost vessel, and loosed his four fireships, Comet, Falcon, Rosario, and Wasp against the westernmost vessels. Dart captured Désirée on 8 July. Even though their captains remained on the fireships until the four were engulfed in flames, the three frigates that were their targets cut their cables and escaped down the Inner Channel within the Braak Sand. There one briefly ran aground but her crew got her off again. Inman had kept Selby back, intending that if any French vessels ran aground she could come up and throw carcasses aboard them He stated that his plan had been an error in that if Selby had been forward he was sure that she could have captured that vessel.[8]

Désirée was subsequently purchased into the Service. The officers and crews of many British vessels, Rosario among them, shared in the proceeds of the capture.[7] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Capture of the Desiree" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 19 Mar 1801 Selby recaptured Freedom, James Holden, master, that a French privateer had previously taken.[9]

The "Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy" offered Selby, of 348 tons and copper-fastened, for sale at Sheerness on 16 December 1801.[3] She sold on that day for £1850.[2]

Merchantman

Selby appears in Lloyd's Register (LR) for 1802 with Thompson, master, and Woodcock, owner.[10] On 12 April 1804, Selby, Peters, master, Cox & Co. owners, ran aground at Margate on her way to Jamaica.[11] Selby was last listed in the Register of Shipping in 1810 with D. Peters, master, Higgins, owner, and trade London—Jamaica.[12]

Citations and references

Citations

  1. "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 238.
  2. Winfield (2008), p. 268.
  3. "No. 15434". The London Gazette. 8 December 1801. p. 1463.
  4. Lloyd's Register (1793), Seq.№S515.
  5. Lloyd's Register (1799), Seq.№S137.
  6. Naval Chronicle, Vol. 3, p.420.
  7. "No. 15297". The London Gazette. 27 September 1800. p. 1123.
  8. "No. 15274". The London Gazette. 5 July 1800. pp. 782–784.
  9. "No. 15380". The London Gazette. 27 June 1801. p. 721.
  10. LR: Seq. №S255.
  11. Lloyd's List, №4445.
  12. Register of Shipping (1810), Seq.S289.

References

  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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