HMS Dryad (1795)

HMS ''Dryad'' was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1796 when she captured the French frigate ''Proserpine'', an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. ''Dryad'' was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.

French Revolutionary Wars

Launch and the loss of Captain Forbes (1795)

Built by William Barnard at Deptford and launched on 4 June 1795, ''Dryad'' was commissioned under Captain the Hon. Robert Allaster Cam Forbes (2nd son of Lord Forbes), who had previously been the captain of at the Glorious First of June. The brand new frigate may have been a reward for his services, but he did not live long to enjoy it; ''The Edinburgh Magazine'' reported his death (by drowning) as: "7 Oct, off the coast of Norway, the Honourable Capt. Robert Forbes, commander of his Majesty's ship Dryad".

The capture of ''Proserpine'' (1796)

Forbes' successor, Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk, 3rd son of the Duke of St Albans, took command in December 1795. ''Dryad'' was then stationed off the coast of Ireland. On 2 May 1796, while ''Dryad'' was under acting Commander John Pullin, she captured the 14-gun cutter some 16 or 17 leagues off The Lizard. ''Abeille'' was three days out of Brest and had not taken anything. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

Earlier, ''Dryad'' had taken a large smuggling cutter, which was carrying a cargo of spirits, and sent her to Plymouth. , , and the hired armed cutter ''Fox'' shared in the capture.

On 13 June ''Dryad'' captured the French frigate ''Proserpine'' after a 45-minute action 12 leagues off Cape Clear Island. William James wrote in his ''Naval History of Great Britain'':

''Proserpine'' suffered 30 were killed and 45 wounded out of her complement of 348 men, while ''Dryad'' lost two killed and seven wounded. The Royal Navy already had a , and so the Admiralty renamed ''Proserpine'' ''Amelia'' in bringing her into the service. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Dryad 13 June 1796" to the five surviving claimants from her crew who had participated in the action.

''Dryad'' and Beauclerk followed this with the capture or destruction of five more French privateers. On 16 October she captured the French privateer ''Vantour'' after a six-hour chase. ''Vautour'' was armed with seven 4-pounder guns and two 12-pounder carronades. She was of 130 tons burthen, with a crew of 78 men. She had sailed from Morlaiz on 13 October and not taken anything.

The next year, on 19 August 1797, ''Dryad'' captured the French privateer ''Éclair''. ''Éclair'' was armed with ten 4-pounder and four 8-pounder guns. She had a crew of 108 men and had sailed from L'Orient on 11 August, and had not taken anything.

Then on 9 September ''Dryad'' sank the 12-gun French privateer ''Cornélie''. The brig caught fire but because of the state of the seas, ''Dryad'' was only able to save some 17 men of her crew of 90 or so men. ''Cornelie'' was 16 days out of Nantz and had only captured one ship, a Dane.

On 10 October ''Doris'' and ''Dryad'' captured the French privateer ship ''Brune'' after a chase of 40 leagues. She was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 180 men. ''Brune'' was out of Bordeaux and had taken two British ships: on 17 September the brig ''Industry'', which had been sailing from Newfoundland to Lisbon, and on 9 October the brig ''Commerce'', which had been sailing in ballast from Greenock to Oporto.

Lastly, on 4 February 1798 ''Dryad'' captured the 16-gun privateer ''Mars'' 20 leagues off Cape Clear. ''Mars'' was pierced for 20 guns but carried twelve 12-pounders, two 18-pounders, and two 12-pounder carronades. She also had a crew of 222 men. She was 49 days out of Nantes but had not captured anything.

The Irish Station and Captain Mansfield (1799 - 1801)

In December 1798 Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield was appointed in command. According to the memoirs of one of his midshipmen, Mansfield's wife and two unruly children were living onboard ''Dryad'' at Portsmouth, his wife dressing in her own version of a naval officer's uniform. She was apparently well liked, despite her eccentric dress, since she did not interfere with the ship's business.

On 7 July 1799, ''Dryad'' was in company with the 44-gun frigate and when ''Revolutionaire'' captured the French privateer ''Determiné''. The same three British ships also captured the French brig ''Hyppolite''.

''Dryad'' sailed for Cork, escorting a convoy. Several of the vessels picked up convicts and political prisoners at Cork for transport to Australia. ''Dryad'' escorted ''Friendship'' and ''Minerva'' well into the Atlantic, but then left them on 14 September. On 19 September 1799, she and ''Revolutionnaire'' captured the ''Cères'', a French letter of marque en route from Bordeaux to the Caribbean. Also, at some point ''Dryad'' recaptured the British ship ''Albion''. ''Albion'' had been sailing from Jamaica with a cargo of rum and sugar when the French privateer ''Brieve'' captured her.

''The Times'' reported on 6 January 1800 that

''Dryad'' was based at Cork for several months during 1800, in Admiral Lord Gardner's fleet; Gardner's son Valentine commenced his naval career in ''Dryad'' under Mansfield. At the beginning of April 1800, ''Dryad'' spent several days assisting ''Revolutionnaire'', which had lost her rudder in a hurricane in the Atlantic. ''Dryad'' had lost her fore-yard and the two ships assisted each other towards Cork when an off-shore gale. However, another change in the wind meant that they could neither weather the Scilly Isles nor return to Cork and they drifted up the St George's Channel. On 16 April ''Dryad'' tried to tow ''Revolutionnaire'' off the Waterford rocks, but the cable broke. Fortunately another change of wind enabled ''Revolutionnaire'' to avoid the rocks and both ships finally arrived at Milford Haven on 19 April in a "most distressed state".

Capture of ''Premier Consul'' and HMS ''Ulla Fersen''

West of Ireland on 5 March 1801 ''Dryad'' captured the French privateer ''Premier Consul'' of St Malo after a 3-hour chase. ''Premier Consul'' was pierced for 24 guns but was armed with fourteen 9-pounders. She had a crew of 150 men. She was 21 days out of Saint Malo and had captured a Portuguese schooner sailing from Lisbon to Ireland.

The ''Portsmouth Telegraph'' reported on 16 March 1801: The Swedish frigate was HMS ''Ulla Fersen'', of 18 guns. ''Dryad'' returned from the Irish Station to Portsmouth on 18 March with both ''Premier Consul'' and ''Ulla Fersen'' as prizes. The Admiralty took ''Premier Consul'' into service as HMS ''Scout'', but she foundered within a year with the loss of her entire crew. The British returned ''Ulla Fersen'' to the Swedes after negotiations.

The Peace of Amiens (1802 - 1803)

After the United Kingdom signed the Treaty of Amiens with the French Republic in March 1802, Mansfield arrived back in Portsmouth on 9 June in ''Dryad'' carrying Admiral Lord Gardner and bearing his flag. Captain Robert Williams was appointed to ''Dryad'', joining her almost immediately. ''Dryad'' cruised off Portland suppressing smuggling. In February 1803 Williams left to become captain of the third rate 74-gun . War with France broke out again in May 1803.

Napoleonic Wars

On 28 July 1803, ''Dryad'', under Captain John Giffard, recaptured ''Adventure''.

Return to the Irish Station (1804-1808)

''Dryad'' had the honour of returning Admiral Lord Gardner to his command at Cork in 1804. She remained on the Irish Station, but at the end of the year Captain Giffard left the ship due to ill health. His replacement, in January 1805, was Captain (later Admiral Sir) Adam Drummond. On 2 November off Ferrol ''Dryad'', in company with , encountered four French ships-of-the-line under Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley that had escaped from the Battle of Trafalgar. ''Dryad'' and ''Boadicea'' tried to entice the French into the path of a Royal Navy squadron. Although ''Dryad'' and ''Boadicea'' lost the French ships of the line, a squadron under the command of Sir Richard Strachan had seen the rocket signals the frigates had launched. In the subsequent Battle of Cape Ortegal, the British captured ''Formidable'', ''Scipion'', ''Duguay-Trouin'', and ''Mont Blanc''. Unfortunately, having lost the French squadron, neither ''Boadicea'' nor ''Dryad'' shared in the benefits that their actions had made possible.

On 13 February 1805, captured ''Fortuna''. ''Dryad'' submitted a claim to share in the prize money. On 22 February, captured ''St Jose'' and ''Dryad'' shared in the prize by agreement with ''Euryalus''.

In October or early November, as was returning from Port Jackson to London a Spanish privateer captured her, but ''Dryad'' recaptured her and sent her into Waterford.

On 15 May 1807, ''Dryad'' was under the command of Captain Adam Drummond and in company with and . The three vessels were some twenty leagues off Scilly when ''Amethyst'' spotted and captured a strange sail. The captured vessel turned out to be the French privateer schooner ''Josephine''. ''Josephine'' was armed with four 2-pounder guns and had a crew of 45 men, ten of whom she had put on board ''Jane'', which had been sailing from Lisbon when ''Josephine'' captured her. ''Josephine'' had sailed from the Ile de Batz on 2 April.

In July 1807 Captain William Price Cumby took pro tempore command of ''Dryad'', and during a three-month cruise on the Irish Station took several valuable prizes. Captain Drummond returned to the ship, and on 22 March 1808 he captured the French privateer ''Rennair'' (or ''Rennois''). She was pierced for 18 guns but only mounted twelve 6-pounders and two 12-pounder carronades. She had a crew of 95 men, half of whom were Danes. She was a new vessel, 12 days into her first cruise, with provisions and stores for three months. When ''Rennair'' was captured she had taken only one prize, a Portuguese schooner carrying a cargo of salt for Cork.

Then on 4 September, ''Dryad'' and captured the Danish brig ''Inge Berg Maria''.

Next, on 18 September 1807, ''Dryad'', in company with ''Viginie'', captured ''Jomsrue Ellen'', Jensin, master. Then on 27 September 1807 ''Dryad'' captured ''Nimrod'', H. Nicholayson, master. (The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS ''Netley''.) On 22 September, ''Dryad'' captured the Danish ship ''Carl''. Four days later ''Dryad'' captured ''Garde Haab''.

Lastly, on 15 November 1808, ''Dryad'' captured the ''Unie''.

The Walcheren Expedition (1809)

Captain Edward Galwey took command in 1809, and remained captain of ''Dryad'' until the end of the Napoleonic Wars. On 28 July ''Dryad'' sailed with a large fleet from the Downs. This fleet, and the troops they carried, formed part of the Walcheren Expedition, the aim of which was to demolish the dockyards and arsenals at Antwerp, Terneuzen, and Flushing.

On 11 August ''Dryad'' formed part of a squadron of frigates directed to sound and buoy the Sloe Strait in preparation for the attack on Flushing, which fell on 15 August. In forcing the West Scheld, the British ships were under fire from shore batteries for two hours, during which time they suffered two men killed and nine wounded; ''Dryad'' had no casualties. Prize money was paid in 1812. The expedition ended in failure, mostly due to malaria decimating the expeditionary force, which withdrew by September.

The Home Station (1809 - 1814)

Between 1809 and 1814 ''Dryad'' served on the Home Station, including the north coast of Spain under the orders of Commodore Sir Robert Mends. On 6 February 1810 she and recaptured ''Dobridge'' and ''Hercules''.

In late June and early July ''Dryad'' was part of a British squadron that destroyed all the French batteries (except for Castro) on the Spanish coast from St. Sebastian (a fortified town in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa at the bottom of the Bay of Biscay) to St. Andero. Landing parties destroyed one hundred heavy guns and essentially denuded that coast of its defences, all without suffering any casualties. On 31 October, ''Dryad'' recaptured ''Americana''. The French privateer ''Charles'' had captured ''Americana'', Fousica, master, on 26 October as ''Americana'' was sailing from Bahia to London. After ''Dryad'' recaptured ''Americana'', ''Americana'' then arrived at Plymouth on 9 November.

The year 1811 was busy. ''Dryad''s list of prizes includes:
*American ship ''Matilda'' (28 January; in sight of and );
*American schooner ''Two Sisters'', with a cargo of fish;
*''Post Boy'' (17 March);
*French schooner ''La Balam'' (22 March);
*the recapture of ''Nancy'' (14 April);
* chasse marees ''St. Jean'', ''St. Francois'', and ''Louise'' (10 and 12 July);
*chasse marees ''Deux Amis'', ''Marie'', and ''Jean Baptiste'' (5 September; ''Dryad'' sharing with four other vessels); and
*an unnamed French brig (9 October).

''Dryad'' docked in Plymouth during October. However, by January 1812 she was again sending prizes in:
*''Spy'' from New York (27 January);
*''Prudentia'' (31 January);
*''Don Roderick'' (16 February); and
*''Purse'' (29 May).

On 15 May ''Dryad'' and captured the French schooner ''Hirondelle''.

On 26 May 1812, , and ''Dryad'' shared in the capture of ''General Gates''. ''Armide'' also shared by agreement.

''Dryad'' was employed on less glamorous tasks as well - during August 1812 she conveyed bullocks to the Channel Fleet, a filthy and unpleasant mission. On 23 December 1812 Captain Galway drove a French brig of 22 guns ashore on the Île d'Yeu, which wrecked her. ''Dryad'' took several hits in her hull and foremast from shots fired by shore batteries but suffered no casualties.

On 6 January 1813, ''Dryad'' captured the American schooner ''Rossie'' from Baltimore, which arrived in Plymouth on 17 January 1813. Eight ships of the Royal Navy were in sight, as was ''Chance''. Then six days later, ''Dryad'' was among the 11 vessels that shared in the recapture of the schooner ''Industry''. The next day, ''Dryad'' captured the American ship ''Porcupine'', of 330 tons burthen. ''Porcupine'' was armed with four guns and carried a crew of 13 men. She was sailing from New York to Bordeaux with a cargo of cotton and potash. The privateer ''Chance'' was again in sight and so again shared in the prize money.

Capture of ''Clorinde'' (1814)

While returning from Newfoundland in company with the 16-gun brig-sloop , on 26 February ''Dryad'' came across the damaged French frigate ''Clorinde'', which had attempted to escape after a hard-fought battle the previous day. ''Eurotas'' had twenty men and officers killed and forty wounded; the French estimated their losses at 120 men. Captain John Phillimore of ''Eurotas'' was among those listed as severely wounded. ''Clorinde'' was under the command of Captain Dennis Legard, mounted forty-four guns and four brass swivel guns in each top, and had had a crew of 360 men.

In his letter of report, Phillimore observed that the approach of ''Dryad'' and ''Achates'' was ''"to the great mortification of every one on board"'', because ''Eurotas'' had spent all night setting up a jury-rig, and the Prize Rules meant that all ships in sight shared in the prize money. After a single cannon shot, ''Clorinde'' surrendered to ''Dryad'', which towed her into Portsmouth. The Royal Navy took ''Clorinde'' into service as .

Post-war

''Dryad'' was decommissioned on her return with ''Clorinde'', and although in 1816 she was fitted for a voyage to Jamaica, the plan was canceled. She remained out of commission at Sheerness until 1825.

The Mediterranean (1825-1830)

''Dryad'' was recommissioned in August 1825 under Captain Hon. Robert Rodney (4th son of George Rodney, 2nd Baron Rodney) at Sheerness for service in the Mediterranean. Less than a year later, on 20 July 1826, Rodney died while in command of the frigate. His successor was Captain The Hon. George Crofton (son of Sir Edward Crofton, 2nd Baronet). The ship visited Gibraltar, Valletta and Aegina between July 1827 and June 1828.

The Preventative Squadron (1830-1832)

By November 1829 ''Dryad'' was recommissioning in Plymouth for foreign service. Captain John Hayes joined her in May 1830 and she sailed for the coast of Africa on 29 September 1830, with Captain Hayes serving as Commodore on that station, a station with a well-deserved reputation for killing sailors by disease. and , both captured ex-slave ships, were tenders to ''Dryad'', and between November 1830 and March 1832, they accounted for 11 out of the 13 slavers the squadron captured. Despite the hardships, the West Africa Squadron carried out a determined effort to stop the slave trade, a task that increasing international co-operation gradually more effective.

''Dryad''s visits to Ascension Island brought welcome relief to the crew from the torrid climate of West Africa, as well as fresh provisions and time ashore for recreation. It also gave them time to water, refit and paint her. ''Dryad'' carried out hydrography, too. In 1832 ''The Nautical Magazine'' recorded one such occasion:

On 21 or 22 February 1831 ''Black Joke'' captured a slaver with 300 slaves on board. This was probably the Spanish schooner ''Primeira''. At the time ''Black Joke'' was acting as a tender to ''Dryad''.
On 20 April, ''Black Joke'' captured the ''Marinerito''. On 19 July, ''Fair Rosamond'' captured the Spanish slave schooner ''Potosi''. On 10 September ''Fair Rosamond'' and ''Black Joke'' captured the Spanish slave vessels ''Regulo'' and ''Rapido''.

On 15 February 1832, ''Black Joke'' captured Spanish schooner ''Frasquita'', alias ''Centilla''. This vessel too yielded bounty money for the slaves on board her.

''Dryad''s voyage home started in The Gambia on 31 May 1832, and after a short stop in the Azores at the beginning of July, she arrived in Portsmouth on 25 July. On 11 August she sailed for Cork, Ireland, and returned to Portsmouth on 29 August.

Fate

''Dryad'' was taken out of commission for the last time on 13 September 1832 and she then became a receiving ship at Portsmouth. She was broken up in 1862.

Commanding officers

Notes

Citations

References

*
* Daly, Gavin (2007) "English Smugglers, the Channel, and the Napoleonic Wars, 1800-1814". ''Journal of British Studies'' 46 (1), pp. 30–46.
*
* James, William (1837) ''The Naval History of Great Britain, 1793 - 1820''. (London:R. Bentley), Volumes II and VI.
*

External links

Phillips, Michael - ''Ships of the Old Navy'' - HMS ''Dryad''

Further reading

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryad (1795)
Frigates of the Royal Navy
1795 ships
Ships of the West Africa Squadron
Ships built in Deptford