HMS Widgeon (1806)

HMS Widgeon was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner built by William Wheaton at Brixham and launched in 1806.[1] Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.

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

History
UK
Name: HMS Widgeon
Ordered: 11 December 1805
Builder: William Wheaton, Brixham
Laid down: March 1806
Launched: 19 June 1806
Fate: Wrecked 20 April 1808
General characteristics [1]
Class and type: Cuckoo-class schooner
Tonnage: 75​35⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 56 ft 3 in (17.1 m) (overall)
  • 42 ft 4 1⁄4 in (12.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 6 in (5.6 m)
Draught:
  • Unladen: 4 ft 0 in (1.2 m)
  • Laden: 7 ft 9 in (2.4 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 6 in (2.6 m)
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 20
Armament: 4 x 12-pounder carronades

She was commissioned in 1807 under Lieutenant William Morgan for the North Sea. In 1808 she came under the command of Lieutenant George Elliot.[1]

Widgeon was on the Scottish coast helping to assemble a convoy for America when she received orders to proceed to Banff to notify the ships waiting there that the convoy was about to depart.[2] She arrived there on 18 April 1808 and the next day sent a boat into the port. Widgeon then remained four to five miles offshore while waiting for her boat to return.[2]

During a heavy snowstorm on 20 April, at 2:30am she ran into a reef two miles to the northwest of Banff.[3] Her crew threw shot overboard and fired guns of distress. However, there was a heavy swell and she filled with water within 10 minutes. Although she soon was bilged, her crew took to the boats and were saved.[3][4]

The subsequent court martial on her loss sentenced Widgeon's pilot, Alexander Layell, to six months incarceration in the Marshalsea Prison and to be fined all pay due to him.[2] Elliot had ordered Layell to remain at least four miles from shore throughout the night. Instead, Layell had gone below, leaving a bosun's mate in charge, who had let Widgeon drift towards the shore.[2]

Citations and references

Citations

  1. Winfield (2008), p. 361.
  2. Hepper (1994), p. 123.
  3. Gosset (1986), p. 64.
  4. Grocott (1997), p. 256.

References

  • Gosset, William Patrick (1986). The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900. Mansell. ISBN 0-7201-1816-6.
  • Grocott, Terence (1997). Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras. London: Chatham. ISBN 1861760302.
  • Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650–1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.
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