HMS Crane (1809)

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

HMS Crane was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1809.^[1] She had an unusually uneventful five-year career before she foundered in 1814.

Crane
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Crane
Ordered	5 November 1808
Builder	Josiah & Thomas Brindley, Frindsbury
Laid down	December 1808
Launched	27 September 1809
Fate	Foundered December 1813
General characteristics [1]
Type	Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tons burthen	385 55⁄94 bm
Length	100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) (overall) 77 ft 3+1⁄2 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam	30 ft 7+1⁄2 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold	12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Propulsion	Sails
Sail plan	Brig
Complement	121
Armament	16 × 32-pounder carronades + 2 × 6-pounder bow guns

She was commissioned in September 1809 under Cmdr. James Stuart for the Irish station.^[1] Stuart captured two American vessels, Asia of Boston and Washington of Marblehead, on their way home from Archangel. He brought the crews into Horta, in the Azores, and released them to John B. Dabney, the American consul, who repatriated them. It is not at all clear why Stuart had detained the Americans.^[2]

In August 1811 Commander William Haydon took temporary command and sailed her for the Leeward Islands on 29 September 1812.^[1] On 13 December 1812, she collided with the British merchant ship Robert Augustus, which was on a voyage from Barbados to Surinam; Robert Augustus sank without loss of life.^[3] Crane's next captain was Commander Thomas Forrest. In December 1813 Commander Robert Standly became her captain.^[1]

On 4 April 1814 Crane chased the American privateer Chasseur, of 14 guns and 135 men, off St Kitts, but was unable to capture her.^[4]

Crane was lost, presumed foundered with all hands, in September 1814 while en route from Bermuda to Canada.^[5][6]

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p. 301.
2. Abdo (2005), p. 60.
3. "Lloyd's Marine List – March 19, 1813". Caledonian Mercury. No. 14239. 25 March 1813.
4. Lloyd's List (20 May 1814).
5. Gosset (1986), p. 94.
6. Hepper (1994), p. 152.

References

• Abdo, Joseph C. (2005). On the Edge of History:the story of the Dabney family on the Island of Faial in the Azores archipelago. Lisbon, Portugal: Tenth Island Editions. ISBN 978-972-99858-0-5.
• 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 978-1-86176-246-7.