HMS Zebra was an unrated, Frigate-built, 6pdr-armed, ship-rigged Sloop of War built under Navy Board contract by William Cleverley in Gravesend. The ship was the lead vessel of a group of three Sloops of War designed by Mr Edward Hunt, Co-Surveyor of the Navy. Of the three, two were built in Kent shipyards. The other Kent-built ship was HMS Bulldog, built by Henry Ladd at his shipyard on Beach Street in Dover. The third vessel was HMS Ariel, built in Liverpool.
The term 'Sloop of War' was applied to any ocean-going general purpose warship which carried less than the 20 guns required for it to be included in the Royal Navy's Rating system. They tended to be commanded by officers in the position of 'Master and Commander' rather than an officer with the rank of Captain. Abbreviated to 'Commander', the position wasn't a formal rank as it is today and the officer in the position was originally expected to combine the roles of Sailing Master and Commanding Officer. In the mid-18th Century however, the Navy Board started to appoint Sailing Masters into Sloops of War to free up the Commander's time to concentrate on actually commanding the vessel and her crew. The Commander actually held a substantive rank of Lieutenant, which meant that if a war ended and he was unlucky or not well connected enough to be 'Posted' or promoted to Captain beforehand, he would be laid off on half-pay based on his substantive rank. Sloops of War therefore tended to be commanded by well connected, ambitious young men anxious to prove themselves. The Master and Commander however, was paid a substantially higher salary when he was in post than a Lieutenant and was also entitled to the lions share of any prize or head money won by his vessel and crew.
The contract for the construction of HMS Zebra was signed at the offices of the Navy Board in London on the 6th August 1778 and the first keel section was laid in Gravesend in October of the same year. HMS Zebra was the first vessel William Cleverley had successfully tendered to the Navy Board for and he would have been aware that future such contracts would have depended on how well he and his men performed on this one. The first payment, to enable him to buy the materials needed to commence the project and hire the shipwrights and other tradesmen, would have been made up front. Further payments were made as the project hit the milestones defined in the contract. To ensure that Mr Cleverley and his men did not use sub-standard materials or produce less than the required levels of workmanship, the Navy Board would send overseers into his yard to inspect the materials used and to inspect the workmanship. There was a lot riding on the contract for HMS Zebra; William Cleverley had opened the first shipyard in Gravesend and it would remain the only shipyard in the area for eight years until Thomas Pitcher opened a shipyard a little further up the River Thames in Northfleet eight years later.
At the time HMS Zebra was ordered and built, the Nation was at war with France over the French intervention in the American War of Independence, which had been being fought since 1775.
On the 11th August 1780, Mr John Bourchier was appointed Master and Commander in HMS Zebra and on the 31st, the ship was launched with all due ceremony, her hull complete, into the River Thames.
Mr John Bourchier had passed his examination for Lieutenant in 1771 aged 24 and had first been made Master and Commander in HMS Druid (16) in 1777, so was already an experienced commander when he received his appointment to HMS Zebra.
Immediately after her launch, HMS Zebra was taken to the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich, where she was dry-docked and her lower hull sheathed in copper. Once this was completed, she was refloated and secured to a mooring buoy off the Dockyard and was fitted with her guns, masts and rigging. The ship was declared complete at Woolwich on the 11th November 1780. While his ship was in the Dockyard at Woolwich, Mr Bourchier was busy recruiting his crew. He would have been assisted in commissioning and preparing HMS Zebra for sea by the two Lieutenants appointed by the Admiralty and the senior Warrant Officers, including the Standing Officers, who were appointed by the Navy Board. The Lieutenants were ranked in order of seniority, based on the dates on which they had passed their Examinations. All the ship's Lieutenants were in effect, commanders in waiting, gaining experience, seniority and making the connections they would need in order to be noticed by more senior officers and gain a command of their own. The most important of these was the First Lieutenant. He was second in command and organised the day to day organisation of the ship and her crew.
The Standing Officers were the men who would remain with the ship whether or not she was in commission and who were the ship's main artificers. They were:
The Boatswain - He was in charge of the maintenance, operation and repair of the vessel's boats as well as the masts and rigging and reported to the First Lieutenant. He was assisted when the vessel was in commission by a single Boatswain's Mate. Amongst the duties of HMS Zebra's sole Boatswains Mate was the administering of any floggings ordered by the Commander.
The Carpenter - A fully qualified shipwright, he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the hull, frames and decks. He answered to the First Lieutenant and was assisted by a single Carpenters Mate when HMS Zebra was in commission.
The Gunner - He was in charge of the operation, maintenance and repairs of the vessel's main guns, the training of the gun crews, the distribution in action of gunpowder and shot and training any Midshipmen-in-Ordinary in the arts of gunnery. He was assisted by a single Gunners Mate when the vessel was in commission and reported to the First Lieutenant.
The Purser - He answered to the Commander and was responsible for the purchase and distribution of all HMS Zebra's stores and supplies.
The Cook - His role is self-explanatory, but in addition to being responsible to the First Lieutenant for the preparation and distribution of the vessel's stocks of victuals, he was also in charge of HMS Zebra's complement of servants for the Commander, the commissioned officers and those warrant officers entitled to them.
The other senior warrant officers, only appointed into HMS Zebra when she was in commission were:
The Sailing Master - He was in charge of the day to day sailing and navigation of the vessel as well as the stowage of stores in the hold to ensure the optimum trim for manoeuvring and sailing and reported directly to the Commander. The Sailing Master was a qualified ship's Master and when not employed by the Royal Navy, would be able to find work in the Merchant service as a commander in his own right. In a Sloop of War like HMS Zebra, he was assisted by a single Masters Mate, who himself was qualified to serve in the Merchant Service as a ship's Mate. The vessel's steering was controlled by a single Quartermaster.
The Surgeon - He answered to the Commander and was responsible for the healthcare of the whole crew from the Commander downwards. Although not a Doctor, a Surgeon had to complete a seven-year apprenticeship overseen by the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons before he would be able to practice his trade unsupervised. He was assisted by a single Assistant Surgeon, who himself was a part-qualified Surgeon.
The following, lesser Warrant Officers were appointed by the Commander on the recommendation of the First Lieutenant having first applied for the posts and presented their credentials.
The Armourer - Answerable to the Gunner, he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the vessels stocks of small arms and bladed weapons. A qualified Blacksmith, he could also manufacture new bladed weapons and fabricate metal parts of the vessel as and where required.
The Caulker - Answerable to the Carpenter, he was responsible for ensuring that the hull and decks remained watertight.
The Sailmaker - Answerable to the Boatswain, he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the vessels sails as well as the storage of spare sails and the vessel's stock of flags.
The Ropemaker. Answerable to the Boatswain and responsible for the storage and manufacture when needed of new cordage.
The Master at Arms. Answerable to the First Lieutenant, he was in effect, the vessel's policeman and was responsible for the day-to-day enforcement of discipline in the vessel and was assisted by a single Ship's Corporal (not related to the military rank of the same name).
Sloops of War were required to embark a small contingent of Marines and HMS Zebra was no exception. HMS Zebra's complement of Marines would have consisted of a Sergeant in command, assisted by a Corporal, with 13 Marine Privates. These men came aboard as a pre-existing unit. The Marines lived in a screened off part of the Berth Deck, located beneath the Gundeck known as the Marine Barracks and the Non-Commissioned Officers commanding the detachment had the same status in the ship as a Petty Officer.
A Sloop of War like HMS Zebra had two Midshipmen. These young men were, in effect commanders in training and were appointed into the vessel by the local commander-in-chief. Their role was to assist the Lieutenants in their day to day duties and the most senior of them was in charge of HMS Zebra's signals.
In addition to appointed Midshipmen, HMS Zebra may also have carried Midshipmen-in-Ordinary. These young men, in their early teens or younger, were also known as Quarterdeck Boys or "Gentleman Volunteers". They were on the vessels books as Commander's servants and were paid the same rate as an Able Seaman. They were appointed by the Commander himself and were officers in training. They were usually relatives of the Commander, or were related to people to Commander either owed a favour to or was doing a favour for. They wore the uniform and performed the duties of a Midshipman and were accomodated in the Midshipmen's berth. The commander of a warship was entitled to have four servants per rounded hundred of her Company, so HMS Zebra may have carried up to four, depending on how many servants the Commander actually required.
The rest of the HMS Zebra's Company was made up of Petty Officers in charge of specific parts of the vessel, Able Seamen able to perform any tasks asked of them without supervision, Ordinary Seamen with some experience of the sea and Landsmen, those with no experience whatsoever. Landsmen were the unskilled labourers on any vessel and were regarded by the rest of the Company as being the lowest form of life until they had proved themselves. In time of war, the majority of the men would have come from the Receiving Ships at the Nore or in the City of London, where they would have been held after being rounded up by the dreaded Press Gangs.
There were also children amongst HMS Zebra's Company and they were employed as servants, Powder Monkeys running gunpowder cartridges from the Magazine to the guns when she was in action and as Nippers in the tight, confined space of the Cable Tier when the vessel weighed anchor.
Zebra Class PlansDeck Plans. Note the amendments in green. These are for the changes made to the ship during her later conversion to a Bomb Vessel:
Inboard Profile and Plan as originally built:
Framing Plan:
Sheer Plan and Lines with stern details:
On completion, HMS Zebra was a ship of 314 tons. She was 98ft long along the gundeck and 80ft 1in along the keel. The ship was 27ft 5in wide across her beams. She was armed with 16 x 6pdr long guns on her gundeck with a dozen half-pounder anti-personnel swivel guns fitted to her forecastle and quarterdeck handrails and in her fighting tops. She was manned by a total crew of 125 seamen, officers, boys and Marines.
On commissioning, HMS Zebra was assigned to The Downs, the area where the North Sea meets the English Channel and was more than likely based out of the great anchorage of the same name off Deal. It didn't take long for Mr Bourchier and his new ship to get into the action. On the 10th February 1781, HMS Zebra was patrolling off Beachy Head in company with the 12pdr-armed, 32-gun Frigate HMS Juno when they captured the French privateer Revenge (or La Revanche) of 18 guns. Prize money for HMS Zebra's share of the capture was paid aboard the ship on her arrival at The Downs and at the French Horn Tavern at Crutched Friars in London on the first Thursday in every month for three years afterwards.
The successes continued into the spring. On the 10th May 1781, in company with the armed cutters HMS Flying Fish (10) and HMS Busy (10), HMS Zebra recaptured the merchant vessels Industry and Jenny, for which salvage was paid on their return to Deal and at the Recalls at the Castle Tavern in Mark Lane, London on the first Thursday in every month for three years afterward. Both the recaptured vessels were sent into Dover.
On 10th February 1782, Commander Bouchier received orders to take his ship to the West Indies and to place himself under the orders of Vice-Admiral Sir George Rodney, the Commander-in-Chief. By this stage, the war ashore in North America had been lost. The French had sent one of their best commanders, Vice-Admiral Francois Joseph Paul, Compte de Grasse to support operations in North America and he had inflicted a defeat on Vice-Admiral Thomas Graves in the Battle of Chesapeake Bay in September of 1781. This defeat had led directly to the surrender of the bulk of the British Army in North America at the Seige of Yorktown, which had left the British position ashore in North America untenable. The Compte de Grasse had then taken his fleet to the Caribbean with the intention of driving the British out. After two attempts to capture the British-held island of St Lucia were frustrated by the weather, De Grasse had taken the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis. He had achieved this despite being outmanoeuvred and driven away by Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood in the Battle of Frigate Bay, fought off St. Kitts in January of 1782. De Grasse's next target was Jamaica, the richest British possession in the Caribbean. Shortly after his tactical victory at Frigate Bay, Hood had met reinforcements sent from the UK and had handed over command in the West Indies to Vice-Admiral Rodney, who was returning from the UK after having had to temporarily give up his command due to ill health.
After the capture of St. Kitts and Nevis, De Grasse had returned to the French base at Martinique to refit and resupply his ships. Rodney had gained intelligence about De Grasse's intentions and had sent his fleet's Frigates to watch the French at Martinique. HMS Zebra's role at this time would have been to run errands for the fleet and to maintain communications between Rodney's fleet and the Frigates watching Martinique.
On 7th April 1782, De Grasse set out from Martinique with 35 ships of the line with a convoy of 100 transport ships with the intention of meeting up with a Spanish squadron of 12 more ships of the line and 15,000 soldiers and launching the operation against Jamaica.
News of the French departure reached Rodney the following day and the entire British fleet left St Lucia in search of the French. HMS Zebra had been assigned to the British Vanguard Division, commanded by Rear-Admiral Hood and was tasked with repeating signals between Rodney in the fleet flagship HMS Formidable (98) and Hood in HMS Barfleur (98). After only a day, the French were sighted. Surprised at the sheer speed of the British fleet, the Compte de Grasse ordered the convoy to head to Guadeloupe while he covered them with his fleet. Hood decided to attack as soon as he could. Commanding the Vanguard Division of Rodney's fleet, Hood and his force of 12 ships of the line fought an inconclusive action against the French in which both sides suffered damage. This encounter saw Captain William Bayne of HMS Alfred (74) killed in action and HMS Royal Oak (74) and HMS Montagu (74) both damaged.
The next two days saw the British follow parallel to the French, but with both sides keeping their distance as they made repairs. On 12th April, Hood's vanguard force was still making its repairs, so Rodney ordered Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Samuel Drake and his Rear Division to take the lead. The two fleets were passing through the passage between the Iles des Saintes and the northern end of the island of Dominica. By 07:40, HMS Marlborough (74) of Drake's division was leading the fleet and was approaching the centre of the French line. It looked as though the action was going to be a typical fleet action of the time, with both fleets in lines of battle, sailing in opposite directions along each others lines. At about 8am however, as HMS Formidable was engaging the mighty French flagship, the Ville de Paris of 104 guns, the wind changed, throwing the French into confusion. This confusion enabled Rodney's fleet, starting with HMS Formidable, to sail straight through the French line of battle, raking enemy ships through their bows and sterns and inflicting terrible damage and casualties. By 13:30, HMS Barfleur had come up and had begun a gunnery duel with the French flagship. This went on until about 16:00 when the Ville de Paris, having suffered horrific casualties, struck her colours and surrendered to HMS Barfleur. The French admiral was the only unhurt officer aboard the Ville de Paris, which had had over 400 of her crew killed. In fact, the casualty figures for the Ville de Paris alone were more than those for the entire British fleet. It is estimated that French casualties in the Battle of the Saintes came to more than 3,000 killed or wounded and more than 5,000 captured. The British suffered 243 killed and 816 wounded across the fleet. The British had not lost any ships and had captured four French ships of the line and another, the Cesar of 74 guns had blown up after having caught fire.
The remains of the shattered French fleet withdrew towards Guadeloupe. On 17th, Rodney sent Hood in the Vanguard Division after the retreating French ships and Hood's force caught up with them in the Mona Passage, between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Hood had been sent after he had criticised Rodney for not having pursued the retreating French immediately after the Battle of the Saintes and completing his rout of the enemy. The only ships of Hood's force to actually engage the enemy at the Battle of Mona Passage were the 74 gun ship HMS Valiant, which vastly outgunned and captured the French 64 gun ships Caton and Jason, while the 74 gun ship HMS Magnificent captured the French frigate Aimable of 32 guns.
HMS Zebra would not have taken any part in the fighting during the Battle of the Saintes, so suffered no damage or casualties. A small Sloop of War was far too fragile to get involved and would have been instantly smashed to matchsticks if she had received a broadside from a ship of the line. She was active instead in repeating signals, rescuing men from the water and towing any damaged ships out of the action. There was an unwritten rule that ships of the line do not fire upon Frigates or Sloops of War unless first fired upon, so it would have been fairly safe for a small vessel like HMS Zebra to enter the combat zone to perform a rescue or recover a badly damaged ship of the line.
The fleets at the Battle of the Saintes:
The moment of victory. In this painting by Thomas Whitcombe, the French flagship, the mighty Ville de Paris of 104 guns (centre-right) strikes her colours in surrender to HMS Barfleur (centre):
The day after the Battle of the Saintes, Commander Bouchier was Posted, or promoted to Captain and was appointed in command of the ex-French ship L'Hector (74), captured in the Battle. Mr Bouchier's promotion to Captain was confirmed by the Admiralty on the 21st February 1783 and in the meantime, he took the now HMS Hector back to the UK, where she was repaired and refitted for British service. His active service career came to an end on the 5th September 1782 when HMS Hector, still under his command, engaged a pair of French frigates, L'Aigle and La Gloire off Long Island. L'Aigle was a 40-gun Heavy Frigate, mounting 24pdr long guns on her gundeck, while La Gloire was a 12pdr-armed Frigate of 32 guns. After a hard-fought battle fought over two days, the two French frigates left the scene after they spotted an oncoming British convoy escorted by another British ship of the line, but not before they had battered HMS Hector to a floating, dismasted ruin. During the battle, HMS Hector had had her stern crossed a number of times by L'Aigle and had been raked through it. Captain Bouchier had been badly wounded in the fight and after he recovered from his wounds, never went to sea again and was pensioned off after the war. He was appointed Captain of the Greenwich Hospital on the 27th December 1800 and was promoted to Lieutenant-Governor of the Hospital on Christmas Day 1805. He died in-post on the 30th December 1808.
Mr Bouchier's replacement in HMS Zebra was Mr Edward Longcroft and HMS Zebra was his first command appointment. He had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 2nd October 1778.
On the 28th June 1782, in company with the ex-Dutch HMS Princess Caroline (44), HMS Zebra captured the French privateer Le Tartare of 24 guns. Prize money was to be collected from No.11 Savage Gardens, London, from the 18th August 1785 and on the first Thursday in every month for three years afterwards.
On the 19th January 1783, HMS Zebra captured the American brig Providence. Mr Longcroft was replaced in command by Mr Edward Packenham on the 9th April 1783. Mr Packenham had previously commanded the armed schooner HMS Viper and had first passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 17th July 1777. Mr Longcroft wasn't the only officer replaced at the time. The day before Mr Packenham took command, Mr Henry William Bayntun was appointed as Lieutenant in the ship. He was to go on to command HMS Leviathan (74) in the Battle of Trafalgar twenty-two years later.
Despite the end of the war in 1784, HMS Zebra remained in the West Indies until the end of 1785. In January of 1786, HMS Zebra entered the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich for repairs.
The repairs, which included having the ship's lower hull re-coppered, lasted until March of 1787 when the ship recommissioned under Commander Charles Boyles. Mr Boyles had passed his Examination on the 10th October 1777 and had first held a command appointment in 1783 when he had been appointed Master and Commander in the storeship Dauphine. He had held that post for a week until he had been appointed into the ex-American 14-gun ship-sloop HMS Barbadoes. He held that command until the end of the war when he paid off HMS Barbadoes at Deptford. The ship commissioned under Mr Boyles for service in the English Channel on the 9th March 1787, where she would have been engaged in patrolling, assisting the Revenue Service in running down smugglers and combatting the ever-present risk of piracy. Mr Boyles was replaced in command of HMS Zebra on the 27th March 1790 by Mr Robert Allaster Forbes. Mr Boyles had been appointed to command the 18pdr-carronade armed 14-gun fireship HMS Vulcan for the Spanish Armaments Crisis, while Mr Forbes' previous appointment had been in HMS Vulcan's sister-ship HMS Alecto.
After a brief refit at the Plymouth Royal Dockyard between April and May of 1789, HMS Zebra sailed for the Mediterranean on the 22nd November 1790. When she did sail, she was under a new commander, Mr William Browne. Mr Forbes had been Posted, or promoted to Captain and had been appointed into the 12pdr-armed, 32-gun Frigate HMS Southampton. During the refit, HMS Zebra's armament was slightly increased with the addition of a pair of 4pdr long guns on her forecastle.
By April of 1793, HMS Zebra was back in the Woolwich Royal Dockyard undergoing repairs and a refit. By this time, the country was at war with the French again. The French Revolution of July 1789 had seen the Absolute Monarchy which had ruled France for centuries replaced with a Constitutional Monarchy not unlike our own. King Louis XVI had not taken this laying down and after the Revolution, the country teetered on the brink of civil war, with fighting actually breaking out in some parts of France. In December 1792, the King and Queen had attempted to leave Paris and join with forces fighting on their behalf and had been caught. Imprisoned, they were tried for high treason and executed and the French Monarchy was abolished altogether. In protest, the British expelled the French Ambassador and on 1st February 1793, France had declared war on Great Britain and the French Revolutionary War had begun.
On the 12th June 1793, Mr Robert Faulknor was appointed in command. Mr Faulknor came from one of the leading naval dynasties of the day. He had been born in 1763 and had first entered the Royal Navy at the age of 11. Unlike the vast majority of his brother officers who entered the Service as Midshipman in Ordinary, exploiting some family connection, he had entered through the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth. He had served two years at the Academy before being appointed as Midshipman in HMS Isis (50) in March of 1777. He had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 12th December 1780 and his appointment prior to HMS Zebra had been in command of the 14-gun, 18pdr carronade-armed fireship HMS Pluto.
On the 26th November 1793, HMS Zebra sailed for the West Indies and Mr Fauknor was told to place himself and his ship under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis, the Commander-in-Chief on the Leeward Islands Station. Vice-Admiral Jervis flew his command flag in the 98-gun Second Rate ship of the line HMS Boyne. In addition to HMS Boyne and HMS Zebra, Vice-Admiral Jervis had the following vessels under his command:
The Third Rate ships of the line HMS Vengeance and HMS Irresistible (both of 74 guns), HMS Asia and HMS Veteran (both of 64 guns), the Frigates HMS Beaulieu (18pdr, 40 guns), the ex-Spanish HMS Santa Margarita (12pdr, 36 guns), HMS Blonde, HMS Solebay, HMS Quebec, HMS Ceres, HMS Winchelsea (all 12pdr-armed ships of 32 guns), HMS Rose (9pdr, 28 guns), the 16 gun ship sloops HMS Nautilus, HMS Rattlesnake and HMS Avenger, the bomb-vessel HMS Vesuvius and the store ships HMS Dromedary and HMS Woolwich. In addition to the naval forces, Jervis was also had at his disposal the force of soldiers under Sir Charles Grey. The General had 7,000 men under his command.
On 2nd February 1794, Jervis and his fleet left Barbados and sailed to French-held Martinique, with the intention of taking that island from the French. As a result of the ongoing chaos within the French government, Martinique was thinly defended. General the Compte de Rochambeau (the same man largely responsible for the Franco-American victory on the mainland during the American War of Independence) commanded a force of about 600 men, of whom only about 200 were regular troops, the rest were local militia. In addition to this, there were only two French warships at Martinique, the frigate Bienvenue (32) at Port Royal and an unknown corvette of 18 guns at St Pierre. Had the island been properly garrisoned, it would have been nigh on impregnable as there was no shortage of forts and batteries for the British force to overcome. In order to divide the enemy forces, the British troops were landed at three points on the island, each a considerable distance from the other. Because of the shortage of defenders, the British campaign proceeded rapidly and by 16th March, the whole island was under British control, except for Fort St. Louis, Fort Bourbon and Fort Royal. Up to that point, the British had suffered losses of 71 killed, 193 wounded and 3 missing in action. The seamen of the fleet were not idle and provided valuable assistance to the army. A division of 200 seamen led by Lieutenant Thomas Ropers and Lieutenant William Cordon Rutherford stormed an enemy strongpoint at Monte Mathurine armed only with pistols and pikes. A further division of 300 seamen and marines landed at the Cul de sac Cohee with a 24pdr long gun and two mortars taken out of HMS Vesuvius. This division was led by Captain Eliab Harvey of HMS Santa Margarita, Captain William Hancock Kelly of HMS Solebay, Captain the Lord Garlies of HMS Quebec. The captains were assisted by Lieutenants Isaac Wooley, Joshua Bowley Watson, Thomas Harrison, James Carthew, Alexander Wilmot Schomberg and John W Taylor-Dixon, together with Lieutenant Walter Tremenhere of the Royal Marines. They had been tasked with moving the heavy guns five miles from the landing point to the summit of Mount Sourriere. This was a truly Herculean task and they accomplished it in three days. On the way, the men had to cut a road a mile long through a thick forest, build a bridge over a river capable of supporting the three-ton 24 pounder gun and then levelling the banks of another river, removing several huge boulders standing in their way. In addition to this, the larger ship's boats had been converted to gunboats by fitting them with heavy guns taken from the ships. The seamen of the fleet also built a battery on Point Carriere overlooking the harbour at Fort Royal with more heavy guns taken from the ships. The gunboat force came under the command of Mr Richard Bowen, Fourth Lieutenant in HMS Boyne. At noon on 17th March, Lieutenant Bowen launched an attack on the Bienvenue frigate, laying in the harbour at Fort Royal. As soon as his force was seen entering the harbour, French troops opened an incessant musket-fire from the walls of Fort Royal and the guns on the Bienvenue opened fire on them with grapeshot. Despite this, Lieutenant Bowen's force came alongside the French frigate and boarded her. There was little opposition, the majority of the French crew having fled ashore on sighting the British force's approach. Unfortunately, the Bienvenue was trapped on a lee shore and unable to set any sail and still coming under intense musket-fire from the fort, Lieutenant Bowen was forced to abandon his prize but left with 22 French prisoners taken from the frigate. On the way back to HMS Boyne, Lieutenant Bowen and his force came under musket fire which claimed the lives of three of his men and wounded five. The success of Lieutenant Bowen's raid on the Bienvenue prompted an all-out British assault on Fort-Royal on the 20th March. HMS Asia and HMS Zebra were ordered to enter the harbour in readiness to bombard the fort and to provide covering fire for a force of up to 1,200 seamen in boats commanded by Captain Nugent of HMS Veteran and Captain Edward Riou of HMS Rose, who were tasked with attacking the fort from the seaward side. The force of seamen stormed the fort and Captain Nugent personally hauled down the enemy's colours and hoisted the Union Flag in their place, signifying that the fort had fallen. As a reward for his courage and leadership and with the consent of General Grey, Jervis gave Captain Nugent command of the fort. The taking of Fort Royal pursuaded the Compte de Rochambeau to begin surrender negotiations. These concluded on the 22nd March, with the surrender of the remaining French garrison on Martinique. The Royal Navy's casualties in the taking of Martinique came to Captain James Milne of HMS Avenger and 13 seamen killed, Captain Sandford Tatham of HMS Dromedary, Lieutenant Thomas Henry Wilson and Lieutenant Thomas Clarke, a Surgeon and 24 seamen wounded. The Bienvenue was taken into the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Undaunted. Commander Faulknor of HMS Zebra was Posted and given command of her and Lieutenant Bowen, as a reward for his actions in the earlier raid on the ship was appointed Master and Commander in Faulknor's place in HMS Zebra.
HMS Zebra (foreground) and HMS Asia (background) land their boats and men for the assault on Fort Louis while giving covering fire. Painted in 1795 by William Anderson:
Jervis' next target was the French-held island of St Lucia. Again, this island was sparsely defended. On 31st March, the fleet left Martinique having left a garrison of troops under Lieutenant-General Prescott and a small squadron of ships under Commodore Thompson to defend Martinique should it be necessary. After arriving at St Lucia the next day, troops were again landed in three different and widely seperated positions to divide the enemy defenders. The British troops were landed without opposition and in a campaign lasting three days, captured the island without loss. In the storming of the redoubt at Morne Fortunee, the enemy suffered losses of two officers and 30 men. The sole survivor of the French garrison of 33 men was taken prisoner. A small British garrison was left behind under Colonel Sir Charles Gordon and the rest of the soldiers and Jervis' fleet returned to Martinique, arriving there on 5th March 1794.
After spending two days preparing for the next assault, Jervis and his fleet including HMS Zebra left Martinique early in the morning of the 8th March bound for the French-held island of Guadeloupe. After arriving on the 10th March, a strong party of seamen, marines and soldiers landed under the shore battery at about 01:00 on the 11th. They were covered in this by the guns on HMS Winchelsea, which had anchored about 50 yards from the battery At daylight, HMS Winchelsea opened fire on the battery and very soon, silenced it's guns. The only casualty in this operation was Lord Garlies, captain of HMS Winchelsea, who received a slight wound.
On 12th March, a party of seamen led by the now Captain Faulknor assisted the army in storming the fort atop an almost vertical slope at Fleur d'Epee. They scaled the hill under a rain of musket-fire and grapeshot, took the parapet, fought their way to the gates of the fort and opened them, admitting another force of seamen. After this, the French garrison at Fort St. Louis, the town of Pointe-a-Pietre and a new French battery on the islet of Islot-a-Cochon all fled by boat to the town of Basseterre. In the meantime, Jervis dispatched HMS Quebec, HMS Ceres, HMS Rose and one of the sloops to attack the Isles des Saintes, adjacent to Guadeloupe. These three islands were taken by a force of seamen and marines without loss. The French garrison on Guadeloupe surrendered on the 20th March. After leaving behind a small garrison, Jervis and the fleet left Guadeloupe and returned to Martinique.
Mr Bowen was only in command of HMS Zebra for a month before he was Posted and appointed to command the 12pdr-armed 32-gun Frigate HMS Terpsichore on the 22nd April 1794. He was replaced for a day by Lieutenant Lancelot Skynner before Mr George Vaughan was appointed Master and Commander on the 23rd.
The situation in that part of the Caribbean remained quiet until the morning of the 3rd June 1794, when a force of nine French ships arrived at Guadeloupe and began landing troops at the village of Gosier. They quickly overwhelmed the small British garrison left behind on the island. On 5th June, the news reached Vice-Admiral Jervis in HMS Boyne, which was lying at the island of St. Christopher in company with HMS Veteran, HMS Winchelsea and HMS Nautilus. Also aboard HMS Boyne was Sir Charles Grey. Jervis reacted immediately, dispatching HMS Winchelsea to Antigua and HMS Nautilus to Martinique to pick up troops, while he set sail for Guadeloupe in HMS Boyne in company with HMS Veteran. In the afternoon of the 7th June, the two ships arrived off Guadeloupe and were quickly joined by HMS Vanguard (74 - she had replaced HMS Irresistible which had been sent to Jamaica) and HMS Vengeance. Sir Charles Grey landed immediately at Basseterre, while Jervis in HMS Boyne with HMS Vengeance, HMS Vanguard and HMS Veteran made their way to Gosier. Once there, covered by the guns of HMS Winchelsea and HMS Solebay, they landed troops and about 1,200 seamen under the command of Captains Lewis Robertson of HMS Veteran and Charles Sawyer of HMS Vanguard. Encountering no opposition, they took control of Gosier. Between 25th June and the end of the month, several indecisive skirmishes took place between the French and British forces. On 2nd July, the British launched an assault on Pointe-a-Pietre, which was repulsed by the French. The failure of this attack led to the abandonment of a planned assault on Fleur d'Epee. The failure led to the British withdrawal from the greater part of Guadeloupe and the two forces pretty much left each other alone until the end of September 1794, when the French were reinforced on the 27th by a strong force arriving from France. These reinforcements drove the British out of the rest of the island and on 7th October, the last British outpost at Berville surrendered.
On the 30th November 1794 while patrolling off St. Lucia, HMS Zebra captured the French Schooner Carmagnol of ten guns and 35 men. The French vessel was escorted into Fort Royal, arriving in company with HMS Zebra on the 4th December.
On the 10th October 1795, HMS Zebra was in sight when the Frigate HMS Mermaid (12pdr, 32 guns) captured the French Brig Le Brutus of ten guns. Four days later, HMS Zebra was also in sight when HMS Mermaid captured the large French Lugger Le Republicain of 18 guns. By agreement between the commanders, HMS Zebra's Company was paid a share of the prize money for both vessels.
The capture of Le Brutus by HMS Mermaid:
On the 12th September 1796, HMS Zebra by now under the command of Mr John Hurst, captured the French privateer Schooner La Victoire of six guns, four swivels and 65 men between Trinidad and Tobago.
When the war had broken out in 1793, Spain had been allied with the British, but following the Spanish defeat by the French in the War of the Pyranees, Spain had been forced to sign the Treaty of Basel and had been allied with the French against the British since 1796. This made Spanish possessions fair game and since the British were already taken French and Dutch colonies in the region, it made sense to Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, now commanding the Army in the West Indies that Spanish possessions be included in the list of targets. Accordingly, on 12th February 1797, HMS Zebra was part of a squadron of four ships of the line, with another Sloop of War and a Bomb Vessel, commanded by Rear-Admiral Henry Harvey flying his command flag in the 98-gun Second Rate ship of the line HMS Prince of Wales. This squadron departed from Port Royal on Martinique and arrived at a rendezvous off the island of Carinacou where they were joined by another ship of the line, two more Frigates and three more Sloops of War, plus the transport ships carrying the troops required for the invasion. Harvey's force now comprised of HMS Prince of Wales (98, flagship), the Third Rate ships of the line
HMS Invincible, HMS Vengeance and HMS Bellona (all of 74 guns), HMS Scipio of 64 guns, with the Frigates HMS Arethusa (18pdr, 38), HMS Alarm (12pdr, 32), the sloops of war HMS Favourite (ship-sloop, 16 guns, 6pdr-armed), HMS Zebra, HMS Zephyr (brig-sloop, 14 guns, 6pdr-armed), ex-French HMS Thorn (ship-sloop, 16 guns, 6pdr-armed) and the ex-French HMS Victorieuse (brig-sloop, 16 guns, 24pdr carronade-armed), plus the bomb vessel HMS Terror. The whole force arrived off Trinidad in the morning of the 16th and headed for the Gulf of Paria. As the force passed through the Boca Channel, they sighted a squadron of Spanish ships of the line and a frigate anchored in the Chaguaramus Bay. The Spanish force comprised the 80-gun ship San Vincente, the Arrogante, Gallardo and San Damaso (all of 74 guns), plus the frigate Santa Cecilia of 34 guns. The Spanish ships all appeared to be ready for sea, so Rear-Admiral Harvey decided to take no further action that day. He sent the transport ships with HMS Arethusa, HMS Zebra and HMS Thorn further into the Gulf, to a distance about five miles from Port of Spain, out of harms way, while HMS Victorieuse, HMS Alarm and HMS Favourite were to patrol between the transport ships and Port of Spain in order to prevent any vessels escaping from the port. The ships of the line, with HMS Terror anchored within range of the enemy ships of the line and the powerful shore battery on Gaspergrande Island, should the enemy squadron attempt to escape during the night. Lookouts on the British ships were instructed to keep a sharp lookout, but at about 02:00 on the 17th February, were shocked to see one of the Spanish ships burst into flames, followed quickly by three more. All four ships burned fiercely all night until daybreak.
The Spanish ships burn off Port of Spain by Nicholas Pocock:
The following morning, on finding that the San Damaso had escaped the flames, men from the squadron went in boats and took the ship without a fight and brought her out. When the British soldiers, Marines and seamen landed, they found that the Spanish had already abandoned the shore batteries and later that day, the Spanish surrendered without a fight. The San Damaso was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS San Damaso and was fitted out as a prison hulk at Portsmouth and was used in that role until 1816, when she was broken up there. Trinidad became a British possession and remained so until the island became part of the Crown Colony of Trinidad and Tobago in 1882 and gained independence from the UK in 1962.
Abercrombie then set his sights on the Spanish posession of Puerto Rico and after making the necessary arrangements for the security of Trinidad, the squadron set sail on the 8th April. After stopping off at St. Kitts to pick up pilots and guides plus the ship-sloops HMS Fury (6pdr-armed, 16 guns) and HMS Beaver (6pdr-armed, 14 guns), the squadron and the transport ships arrived off Congrejos Point on the 17th and the following day, the troops were landed. After laying seige to the main town and port, San Juan, they found it to be too heavily defended and too well fortified. After a bombardment of several days, General Abercrombie decided that it was not worth the potential cost and on 30th April, gave orders that the force was to be evacuated. The abortive attack on Puerto Rico had cost the British a total of 225 men killed, wounded or taken prisoner by the Spanish.
By April of 1798, HMS Zebra had returned to the UK. She paid off at Deptford and entered the Royal Dockyard to undergo a conversion to a Bomb Vessel. Bomb Vessels were usually purpose-built, using frame timbers of a size usually found in a ship of the line. This was in order for the frame and structure of the vessel to be able to absorb the enormous recoil forces generated by the massive mortars they carried. Earlier Bomb Vessels were usually Ketch-rigged, with a main mast fitted amidships in front of a smaller mizzen mast. This was in order to enable the mortars, usually fixed to fire dead ahead, a clear field of fire. The problem was that square-rigged ketches were slow, cumbersome and difficult to handle. The solution was found by placing the mortars on rotating mounts, enabing them to fire over the broadside rather than over the bows. In turn, this enabled later Bomb Vessels to be ship-rigged with three masts, making them much more seaworthy and less difficult to sail and manoeuvre. The conversion still required the ship to be fitted with large reinforcing timbers under the mortar beds. The additional timbers reduced the useful internal volume of the ship, especially on the berth deck located below the gundeck. On completion of the work in June of 1798, HMS Zebra recommissioned for the North Sea under Mr Thomas Sparke and was reclassified as a Bomb Vessel of 8 guns. As such, the ship was armed with 1 x 13in mortar, 1 x 11in mortar and 8 x 6pdr long guns. In her new configuration, the ship was manned by a crew of 67 officers, seamen and boys.
Inboard Profile and Plan of HMS Zebra after her conversion to a Bomb Vessel. Note the additional reinforcements shown in green on the plan:
The North Sea Fleet at the time the ship recommissioned was under the overall command of Admiral Sir Adam Duncan, the victor of the bloody Battle of Camperdown, fought against the Dutch in the North Sea during October of 1797. By August of 1799, the North Sea Fleet was still under Duncan's command and had the bulk of the Dutch fleet blockaded in Texel, with other ships bottled up in Amsterdam and in the Meuse Estuary. In the meantime, Britain had entered into a treaty with the Russians and the two nations had agreed that they would invade Holland. The Russians had agreed to supply 17,500 men, six ships of the line, 5 en-flute armed frigates and two transport ships. In return for this, the British had agreed to pay the Russians £88,000 up front for the soldiers, followed by £44,000 per month. For the ships, the British had agreed to pay the Russians £58,976. 10s up front for the first three months use, followed by £19,642. 10s per month following the expiry of the first three months term. On 13th August, the invasion force departed from the Margate Roads and the Downs. The Naval element of the task force comprised the Russian 74-gun ship Ratvison, the Russian 66-gun ship Mistislov, HMS Ardent, HMS Monmouth, HMS Belliqueux, HMS America, HMS Veteran, and the ex-Dutch HMS Overyssel (all of 64 guns), the entirely carronade-armed HMS Glatton (54), HMS Isis, HMS Romney (both of 50 guns) and the Frigates HMS Melpomene, HMS Shannon, HMS Latona, HMS Juno and HMS Lutine, plus supporting vessels including HMS Zebra. The force was commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell flying his command flag in HMS Isis. On 15th August, Admiral Duncan arrived in HMS Kent (74) and took overall command of the operation. On arrival off the Dutch coast and after having been delayed by bad weather, the British attempted to negotiate the surrender of the Dutch fleet under Admiral Samuel Story. The Dutch Admiral was having none of it and advised the British that the Dutch would defend their ships should the British try to take them. Mindful of the bloodbath at the Battle of Camperdown, the British were reluctant to use force against the Dutch fleet unless there was no other alternative.
By 30th August, the Anglo-Russian force ashore had taken sufficient ground to enable the British to take the Dutch naval base at Texel and to that end, at 5am, Vice-Admiral Mitchell and his ships got underway, standing along the narrow and intricate channel of the Vlieter towards the Dutch squadron guarding the entrance. This squadron, of 8 two-deckers and frigates was anchored in line ahead. On the way in, Vice-Admiral Mitchell sent the 18 gun ship-sloop HMS Victor ahead with a summons for Admiral Story to come aboard HMS Isis and negotiate a Dutch surrender. HMS Victor was met by boats under a flag of truce with two Dutch captains, Captain Van de Capell and Captain De Yong. They returned to the flagship with the two Dutchmen. After speaking with the two Dutch officers, Mitchell ordered his ships to anchor in sight of the Dutch fleet. The Dutch captains conveyed Mitchell's ultimatum to Admiral Story with a message that he had an hour to surrender or face the consequences. Within the hour, the two Dutch officers returned. Admiral Story had decided to surrender. In fact what had happened was that on sighting the British force bearing down on them, the Dutch crews had mutinied as one and had refused point blank to fight. The British it seems, were not the only ones mindful of the Camperdown bloodbath. This refusal to fight left Admiral Story with no alternative but to surrender in what is now known as the Vlieter Incident. The Dutch ships were escorted to Sheerness by HMS Ardent, HMS Glatton, HMS Belliqueux, HMS Monmouth and the two Russian ships.
By October of 1799, the expedition had failed. The Dutch had been reinforced by the arrival of crack troops from France and had managed to defeat the Anglo-Russian force.
On the 3rd December 1799, Mr Sparke was replaced in command of HMS Zebra by Mr Edward Snyd Clay. Mr Clay had first passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 19th March 1794 and HMS Zebra was his first command appointment. Mr Sparke was Posted with effect from the day he left HMS Zebra but there are no records of his recieving any more sea-going appointments.
In early 1800, a sequence of events began which was to indirectly lead to the next major action in the war. In time of war, the British had always insisted on the right to stop and search neutral ships at sea for contraband and war materials. The Dutch Navy had ceased to be an effective force after the Battle of Camperdown and the Vlieter Incident. As a result of this, Britain's erstwhile ally Russia had joined together with other, neutral northern nations to try to force the British to give up this right. On 25th July 1800, a small British squadron which included the 20 gun ship-sloop HMS Arrow and the 28 gun frigate HMS Nemesis encountered the large 40 gun Danish frigate Freya, which was escorting a convoy of six vessels through the English Channel, near the Goodwin Sands. In accordance with the age-old British tradition of stopping and searching neutral vessels, Captain Thomas Baker of HMS Nemesis hailed the Freya and informed the Danes of his intention to send a boat around each vessel in turn and conduct a brief search. The Danish captain, Captain Krabbe responded to the effect that the Freya would fire on the British boat if they attempted to board any of the vessels under his protection. The British duly put their boat into the water and the Danes duly carried out their threat. In the action which followed, the Freya was forced to surrender after having suffered 2 men killed and five wounded. The Danish convoy was escorted to the Downs and anchored there. In an attempt to diffuse the situation, the Commander-in-Chief at the Downs, Vice-Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge ordered that the Danish vessels be allowed to continue flying their own colours. This incident and another similar incident in the Mediterranean had threatened to open a major rift between Britain and Denmark. It was vitally important for Britain to maintain good relations with neutral Denmark, since Denmark controlled the Kattegat, that narrow passage from the North Sea into the Baltic.
In order to pacify the Danes and to intimidate them in case Plan A, diplomacy, failed, the British sent Lord Whitworth, previously Ambassador to the Imperial Court in Russia and Britains leading diplomat to Copenhagen to negotiate a settlement to the growing dispute before it erupted into an armed conflict. In order to reinforce Lord Whitworth's position, the British sent a squadron comprising four ships of the line, HMS Monarch (74), HMS Polyphemus, HMS Veteran and HMS Ardent (all of 64 guns), HMS Glatton (mentioned earlier), HMS Isis, HMS Romney the ex-Dutch HMS Waakzamheid and HMS Martin(all of 50 guns), with the bomb vessels HMS Sulphur, HMS Volcano, HMS Hecla and HMS Zebra and the gun-brigs HMS Swinger, HMS Boxer, HMS Furious, HMS Griper and HMS Haughty. The force was commanded by Vice-Admiral Archibald Dickson, who flew his command flag in HMS Monarch. On 29th August and agreement was reached whereby the British would pay for repairs to the Freya and the other Danish ships, that the right of the British to stop and search neutral vessels at sea would be discussed at another time and that Danish vessels would only sail in convoy in the Mediterranean for protection against Algerine corsairs. With the signing of the agreement, Dickson returned to Yarmouth with his force. That would have been the end of the matter had the pro-British Tzarina of Russia, Catherine II, not fallen ill and died. She was succeeded by her son Paul, who was a fan of Napoleon Bonaparte and was itching to find an excuse to start a war against the British. Tzar Paul took offence at the attack on the Freya and at the presence of a British squadron in the Baltic Sea. He ordered his army and navy to be mobilised for war and ordered that all British property in his dominions be seized. About 3 weeks afterward however, he changed his mind and on 22nd September, ordered that all seized British property be returned to its owners.
In the meantime, news reached Tzar Paul that the British had refused to hand Malta back to the Knights of St John after having driven the French from the islands back in 1797. This enraged the Tzar who had been promised control of the islands by the French. On 5th November, his order to seize all British shipping in Russian ports was reinstated. In the December, the Tzar proposed a confederation of Armed Neutrality which was to comprise Russia, Sweden and Denmark. If allowed to take form, this would mean the British could potentially face an additional opponent possessing a total of over 100 ships of the line as well as the combined fleets of Spain and France. The British decided to meet this new menace in kind and a fleet began to be assembled at Yarmouth, to be led by Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker with no less an officer than Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson as his second-in-command. In early March, HMS Zebra joined this fleet and prepared to sail to Denmark. With Parker flying his command flag in the Second Rate ship of the line HMS London (98) and Nelson flying his in HMS St. George (98) and accompanied by 18 more ships of the line, with 4 frigates plus sloops-of-war, bomb vessels and gun-brigs, the fleet departed Yarmouth on 12th March 1801. Parker had orders to neutralise the fortifications at Copenhagen and the Danish fleet should last minute negotiations fail. Parker's plan was that Nelson would lead the attack squadron, comprising of the shallower-draughted and smaller ships of the line, while Parker held back with the bigger ships. Nelson shifted his command flag to the 74 gun ship HMS Elephant.
The Danish fleet consisted of 24 ships of the line, anchored off the fortifications of Copenhagen and Nelson and his force of 12 ships of the line were required to neutralise these before troops could be landed to assault the fortifications. In the morning of the 2nd April 1801, Nelson's force made its way slowly up the Skaw, but suffered losses when first, the 64 gun ship HMS Agamemnon, then the 74 gun ships HMS Bellona and HMS Russell ran aground. Battle was joined at 10:05 when the Danish shore batteries opened fire. For the first half an hour, the leading British ships, HMS Ardent, HMS Polyphemus, HMS Edgar (74), HMS Isis (50) and HMS Monarch bore the brunt of the fire from the Danish batteries both ashore and afloat. HMS Isis was the most severely damaged and had to be rescued by HMS Polyphemus.
View of the Battle of Copenhagen. HMS Zebra is one of the vessels to the south of the Middle Ground, kept there in preparation to move up and bombard the forts and other defences of Copenhagen should it be necessary:
It is a commonly believed myth that when Vice-Admiral Parker had the signal to discontinue the action hoisted, Nelson appeared to deliberately disobey his superior. In fact, Nelson and Parker had already agreed that since his division would not be involved in the fighting, Parker would have a better overall view of what was going on than Nelson would. They agreed that when Parker felt that the Danes were beaten, he would signal Nelson to that effect, but as the commander of the strike force, Nelson would have the final say as to when to bring the action to a stop.
After about 11:30, the rest of Nelson's force, HMS Glatton (54), HMS Elephant, HMS Ganges (74), HMS Defiance (74) and the frigates joined in the action relieving the pressure. At 16:00, a ceasefire was negotiated. The Danes had suffered heavy losses. The Danish flagship had blown up, killing 250 men. In all, it is estimated that Danish losses were about 1800 men killed, captured or wounded. The British losses came to about 250 men. The Danish fleet had been beaten into submission and the day after the battle, the Danes surrendered.
Due to the Danish surrender, HMS Zebra was not involved in the fighting in the Battle of Copenhagen, so suffered no damage or casualties.
On the 12th April 1801, HMS Zebra left Copenhagen with the fleet and headed into the Baltic Sea to prevent the now-hostile Russians threatening Britain's trade and interests in the region.
HMS Zebra remained in the Baltic with the fleet for a couple of months and returned, arriving off Great Yarmouth on the 19th July 1801. Four days later, the ship arrived in the Downs.
At the time that HMS Zebra arrived off Deal, the country was in the grip of another invasion scare. Despite the Royal Navy's successes thus far in the war, news had reached London that the French were preparing an invasion fleet of flat-bottomed boats, gun-brigs and barges in the area around Boulogne. The Government knew that the threat of invasion was not really credible at this stage, because to get the vast army needed to conquer Britain across the English Channel, the French needed hundreds of such craft, for which there wasn't the room in Boulogne and the surrounding area. In addition to this, there was the small matter of wresting control of the Channel from the British for long enough to actually get the fleet across the sea without suffering an unacceptable number of losses. Indeed, the French had been making diplomatic advances to the British since 1799, but the Government of William Pitt the Younger and his Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville had adopted a hard-line stance against Bonaparte and had rejected his peace overtures out of hand. In February 1801 however, the Pitt administration fell and was replaced by a more accommodating government led by Henry Addington and the new Government had indicated that it would be more receptive to French peace proposals. The whole point of the invasion threat from the French point of view was to try to intimidate the new Government into accepting less advantageous peace terms.
Nevertheless, something had to be done to reassure an anxious public. Throughout 1801, Vice-Admiral the Honourable Sir William Cornwallis had organised defences, bands of Sea Fencibles (the Napoleonic equivalent of a kind of maritime Home Guard under Naval control, using fishing boats, coastal merchant ships and the like where needed) and local militias had been raised and armed, parades had been held in coastal towns and the great and the good of society were anxious to display their patriotism by either raising bands of Sea Fencibles or local militias at their own expense or by joining them. At the time, the threatened area was covered by three seperate Naval Commands: The North Sea Fleet, the Nore and the Downs, all of which had their own commanders. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Admiral Sir John Jervis, the Earl St. Vincent, wanted an anti-invasion force which would cover all three areas, under a single commander with his own ships, separate from those commands in order to avoid demarkation disputes and with the authority to take overall command of Sea Fencible units from Beachy Head to Orfordness and use them as he saw fit. Lord St. Vincent had a man in mind, someone who had already amply demonstrated his ability to think 'out of the box' and to pull victory from the jaws of defeat, someone who was already an 'A' list celebrity in his own right. His name was Vice-Admiral of the Blue, Sir Horatio, the Viscount Nelson.
Nelson himself was none too keen on taking up the appointment. After his very recent success at the First Battle of Copenhagen, he had wanted to settle down to a life of domestic bliss in his newly acquired mansion at Merton Place with his mistress, Emma Hamilton, who had recently given birth to a daughter. He was in constant pain because of his badly damaged right eye in which he was now completely blind and being at sea in the colder waters around the UK seemed to give him a cough he couldn't seem to shake. When at sea, he was also chronically seasick. His friend and mentor Lord St. Vincent had pursuaded him to take the appointment, which Nelson knew to be politically motivated, by offering him the post of Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterranean when the current incumbent, Vice-Admiral Lord Keith relinquished the role.
Lord Nelson had arrived at Sheerness on 27th April 1801 to take up his new appointment after travelling by coach from the Admiralty in London. He was expecting to raise his command flag in the 18pdr-armed 38 gun frigate HMS Amazon, but that ship was unavailable so he based himself aboard the ex-French, 12pdr-armed 32 gun frigate HMS Unité instead. Shortly afterward, Nelson made his way by coach to Deal, where he established himself in the ex-Dutch 68 gun ship of the line HMS Leyden, at anchor in the Downs, stopping at Faversham to inspect the Sea Fencibles there on the way.
In the early summer of 1801, Nelson had received correspondence from Lord St. Vincent which suggested that the public would be much reassured if the invasion fleet gathering at Boulogne was destroyed and that Nelson should plan and lead the attack. Nelson agreed and on 30th July 1801, moved his command flag to the Frigate HMS Medusa (18pdr, 32), at the time anchored in the Downs off Deal and began to make preparations for the proposed assault.
The French had received news of Nelson's arrival in the Downs, guessed that an attack was imminent and had made preparations accordingly. The French had moored a line of 24 vessels, gun-brigs, flat-boats and a schooner across the approaches to Boulogne and had prepared batteries ashore to repel the anticipated attack. In the evening of 3rd August 1801, Nelson in HMS Medusa arrived off the port in company with a force of 28 gunboats and five bomb-vessels with their tenders including HMS Zebra and the following morning began a bombardment of the French defensive line. Nelson knew that the bombardment was likely to be ineffective, so after firing for about 800 rounds over 16 hours, the British retired back to the Downs. Nelson reported that a gun-brig and three flat-boats were sunk and several others driven ashore by the bombardment, while the French admitted only to losing two gunboats. This encounter pursuaded Nelson that the apparent French plans for an invasion were a bluff, but despite this, he decided to attack again but was aware that the French would have reinforced their defenses following the first attack. The French, under Admiral Latouche-Trevelle had indeed reinforced their defensive line, with three battalions of soldiers and had rigged boarding nets on all of their vessels.
On the 6th August, HMS Zebra in company with the other Bomb Vessels, HMS Volcano, HMS Hecla, HMS Sulphur and HMS Discovery arrived back in the Downs. Nelson was to make another attempt against the French invasion fleet on the 15th August, but this was driven off with heavy casualties. HMS Zebra took no part in the second raid, having left the Downs bound for Sheerness on the 7th August arriving on the 11th. The ship spent the rest of the war operating in the North Sea and English Channel conducting patrols and occasional bombardments of targets of opportunity on the French coast. The war was ended by the Treaty of Amiens, signed on the 23rd March 1802. On the 29th April 1802, Mr Clay was Posted. It's not clear whether or not HMS Zebra was laid up during the interlude between the wars known as the Peace of Amiens, but on the 18th May 1803, the British declared a resumption of war against France and her allies.
Between March and May of 1803, HMS Zebra underwent a refit at Woolwich Royal Dockyard. It may be that this was just preparing the ship for sea after a period in the Ordinary. What is clear is that during April of 1803, HMS Zebra recommissioned for the Downs with Mr William Beauchamp-Proctor appointed as Master and Commander. On the 20th July 1804, HMS Zebra in company with the hired armed cutter Favourite captured the Shepherdess. Nine days later, they captured Le Postilion.
On the 22nd October 1803 while escorting aconvoy to Guernsey, HMS Zebra ran aground on the Shingles near the Needles on the Isle of Wight. She lay there for a few tides before being refloated with no damage. On the 4th November 1803, Mr Clarke the Sailing Master faced a Court Martial charged with repeated drunkenness. Found guilty, he was dismissed from the Royal Navy.
By the summer of 1804, HMS Zebra had been reassigned to a squadron commanded by Captain Robert Dudley Oliver in the ex-French 18pdr-armed 38 gun frigate HMS Melpomene, tasked with mounting an attack on the French port of Le Havre, where a considerable number of French privateers were based. In addition to HMS Melpomene and HMS Zebra, the squadron also comprised the 50-gun Fourth Rate ship of the line HMS Trusty, the 9pdr-armed 20-gun post-ship HMS Ariadne, the 24pdr-armed razee Heavy Frigate HMS Magnanime, the 6pdr-armed 16-gun ship-sloops HMS Merlin amd HMS Favourite, the bomb vessels HMS Meteor, HMS Explosion and HMS Hecla, the 18pdr carronade-armed gun-brig HMS Locust of 12 guns, the 18pdr carronade-armed Fireship HMS Pluto of 14 guns and the hired armed cutters King George, Countess of Elgin, Hope and Nancy.
On 28th July, Captain Oliver wrote to his immediate superior, Admiral George Elphinstone, the First Viscount Keith, Commander-in-Chief in the North Sea, as follows:
Melpomene,
Off Havre,
July 28, 1804
My Lord,
Since my letter to your lordship of 17th instant, we had very light and variable winds fo three days, which were succeeded by a gale from the northward, when the bombs had some difficulty to keep clear of the shore. Yesterday, the wind having got to the SW, I stood in with the squadron and at eleven, made the signal for the bombs to try their range; they placed themselves with the utmost precision immediatly off the Pier Heads and at a quarter past Eleven, began a most tremendous fire of shells and carcasses which was continued without intermission for an hour and a half; in a very few minutes, the town was observed to be on fire and as the pier was very full of vessels, it is impossible, but they must have suffered considerably. The vessels which had been outside the pier during the bombardment of the 16th were so much annoyed as to retire, some into the pier, some up the river, one of them was towed on shore under the batteries and has since been taken to pieces. The enemy's mortar batteries have been very considerably increased since the attack on the 16th, although the fire from them on the bombs was as great as I will venture to say, was ever experienced, they being considerably within the range, yet it is with the most inexpressible pleasure I acquaint your lordship that not a man has been hurt. S shell passed through the mizzen staysail of the Zebra, another carried away the spare topsail yard of the Merlin and two chain-plates and grazed her side; and a forty-two pound shot cut the spare topmast and some other spars and lodged in the booms of the Hecla; that is all the damage done. It is impossible for me to find words to express my admiration of the conduct of the captains Sykes, James, Paul and Beauchamp and the other officers and crews of the bombs for the able manner in which they placed and managed their vessels; and also to the officers and men of the Royal Artillery embarked on board of them for the judicious manner in which they fired the shells.
Some luggers came out of the pier during the bombardment, but were made to keep a respectful distance by the vicinity of the Merlin, Pluto, Locust and the cutters, which were always ready to give assistance where wanted, as were the other ships in the squadron in the situations assigned to them.
I have the honour to be, &c,
ROB. DUDLEY OLIVER
On 31st July, in company with the squadron, HMS Zebra captured the French ship Papillon.
Captain Oliver wrote again to describe further attacks on the 1st and 2nd August, as follows:
Melpomene
Off Havre
Aug 2. 1804
My Lord,
The wind having changed yesterday to the NE, I determined to make another attack on the numerous vessels in Havre Pier, as well as those which were moored outside, amounting to twenty-eight brigs and as many luggers and stood in with the squadron. At Half-past Seven PM, the bombs were well placed off the pier heads when they began a well-directed fire, which was kept up with great spirit for an hour and a half. The town was very soon observed to be on fire in two places and seven brigs which were on the outside of the pier found it very necessary to move: one lost her mainmast. As the wind came more off the land and a strong ebb tide setting out, I ordered the bombs to discontinue firing. At half past nine, we anchored with the squadron about five miles from the light houses. As the Explosion had fired away all her shells and the Zebra most of her powder, I had them supplied from the Meteor and at half past five this morning, got under weigh and stood in with the squadron again. Before eight, the bombs took up their position near the pier heads and kept up a constant fire for near three hours with shells and carcasses. So many shells burst on and about the piers that the ene,y's fire was observed to slacken considerably and it was evident that they were in the greatest confusion. Some brigs and luggers got under weigh and came out to endeavour to annoy the bombs, but all the other vessels and ships of the squadron were so weel placed as to give chace to them immediately and with was only by cutting away their boats, which were astern and retreating very speedily into shoal water that they escaped, but not before they had run the gauntlet of all the ships and cutters and were vert closely engaged for a considerable time by the Merlin, Favourite, Locust gun-brig and Hope cutter and on this occasion, I feel particularly indebted to the exertions of Captains Brenton and Foot and Lieutenants Lake and Dobbin, whose vessels were very often during the Action in very shoal water with a falling tide, indeed nothing but the bad sailing of the Merlin prevented Captain Brenton from cutting off the sternmost brig.
The Locust lost her main topmast but I have not heard of any other loss. The conduct of captains Sykes, James, Paul and Beauchamp, commanding the bombs on both these occasions was highly meritorious and although their ships were frequently struck, it gives me great pleasure to add that no lives have been lost. What damage may have been done to the enemy by near five hundred shells and carcasses thrown into the town and bason last evening it is impossible to calculate, but I may without vanity say that if the exertions of the enemy's flotilla be not much greater on our shore than on their own, we have little to dread from them.
I cannot conclude without expressing my obligations to every officer and man employed in this squadron.
I am &c.
R. DUDLEY OLIVER
Shortly after the Bombardment of Le Havre, Mr Beachamp-Proctor was appointed to command the 32pdr carronade-armed Brig-Sloop HMS Saracen and was replaced by Mr William Standway Parkinson. Mr Parkinson had passed his Examination for Lieutenant on the 14th May 1794 and HMS Zebra was his first command appointment.
In the summer of 1807, HMS Zebra was part of the fleet sent to the Baltic under Admiral Sir James Gambier. Despite their defeat at the hands of Nelson at the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1800, the Danes still had a powerful navy. Denmark and Norway were, at the time, a unified kingdom and their navy was more than capable of closing the Kattegat and blocking access to the Baltic Sea. In Britain, the demand for timber for the construction and repair of both warships and merchant ships had outstripped supply by an order of magnitude, so the British were dependant on timber being imported from the Baltic region. After December 1806 when Britains ally Prussia had been defeated by the French, Denmark was looking increasingly vulnerable to attack and invasion by the French. The British government had no wish to go to war with Denmark, so they tried to persuade the Danes to enter into a secret alliance with both Britain and Sweden. Denmark was determined to preserve it's neutrality, so refused the offer. On 14th July 1807, the King gave his permission to send a naval force of 22 ships of the line to the Kattegat to keep a close watch on the Danish fleet and be ready to act swiftly if necessary. On 18th July, the British sent a representative to Denmark to try to persuade the Danes to hand over their fleet. On the same day, the Admiralty ordered that a force of 50 transport ships and warships including HMS Zebra to be gathered and to sail to the Kattegat. The force was to be commanded by Admiral Sir James Gambier.
Admiral Sir James Gambier was an evangelical Methodist who actively disapproved of the hard-drinking, hard-living lifestyle of many of the sailors of the Royal Navy. As a result, his nickname amongst the fleet was 'Dismal Jimmy'.
On the night of the 21st/22nd July 1807, intelligence reached the British that Napoleon had tried to persuade Tsar Alexander I of Russia to enter into an alliance with Denmark against the British. In response, the British made an offer to the Danes. In return for a Treaty of Alliance, the British would offer the Danes the protection of the 21 ships in the Kattegat and a subsidy towards the upkeep of a standing army. The British promised to return the Danish ships once the war was over. On 31st July 1807, Napoleon ordered his Foreign Minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord to tell the Danish to prepare for war against Britain or face invasion. Despite all this, Denmark still refused to give up their neutrality. On 15th August, the British gave up trying to persuade the Danes to hand over their fleet. The die was cast. On 12th August, the Danish frigate Fredriksvaern sailed from the Danish naval base at Elsinor bound for Norway. Admiral Gambier sent HMS Defence (74) and HMS Comus (22) after her and on the 15th, HMS Comus engaged and captured the Danish ship. On 16th August, the British army landed at Vedbaek near Copenhagen and began an artillery bombardment of the city. The British force was commanded by General Sir Arthur wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington). The Danish army was sent to attack the British force. On 29th August, Wellesley defeated the Danes at the Battle of Koge.
The British then issued a Proclamation demanding the handover of the Danish fleet, which was refused. By 2nd September, Copenhagen was encircled by Wellesley's force.
On 22nd and 31st August the Danes attempted to drive off the force of gun brigs and bomb vessels assembling off Copenhagen, but both attacks were repelled. On 1st September, the Danish Commander-in-Chief, Major-General Peiman was summoned to see Admiral Gambier and General the Lord Cathcart to surrender the Danish fleet. In return, the two British Commanders-in-Chief promised to return both the Danish ships and any other captured Danish property after the war. This was met with a firm 'No'.
On 2nd September at 7:30pm, the British opened fire on Copenhagen with everything they had.
The Bombardment of Copenhagen:
The bombardment continued from 2nd September to the 5th and destroyed some 30% of the city, killing about 2000 civilians. On 5th September, the Danes had had enough and offered to surrender. The surrender document was signed by all parties on 7th September. In the surrender agreement, Denmark agreed to hand to the British their entire navy, consisting of 18 ships of the line, 11 frigates, 2 ship-sloops, 7 brig-sloops, 2 gun-brigs, an armed schooner and 26 gunboats. The British army occupied Copenhagen and destroyed three 74 gun ships of the line then under construction. For their part British agreed to occupy Copenhagen for no more than six weeks. On 21st October 1807, the last British troops left Copenhagen and the fleet returned to the UK. Despite this, Britain and Denmark remained at war until 1814.
The Bombardment of Copenhagen, also known as the Second Battle of Copenhagen was controversial at the time. The British, after all, had attacked a neutral country without provocation, causing many civilian casualties. The British government's view was that the attack was a necessary evil and was carried out in order to defend British interests in preventing the Danes, for whatever reason, from interfering with British trade in the Baltic Sea.
In May of 1809, HMS Zebra was decommissioned and laid up at Deptford. By this time, the ship was almost thirty years old and had been in more or less continuous service the whole time. She lay at Deptford until the 13th August 1812 when she was sold.
