HMS ''Stag'' was a 32-gun

fifth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower. Rating The rating system in the Royal N ...

frigate built for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. She was ordered in 1790 and work began in March 1792 at

Chatham Docks Medway Ports, incorporating the Port of Sheerness and Chatham Docks is part of Peel Ports, the second largest port group in the United Kingdom. The Ports authority is also responsible for the harbour, pilotage and conservancy matters for of ...

. Completed in August 1794, ''Stag'' spent much of her service in home waters, where she worked to protect British shipping from French privateers. In an action on 22 August 1795, ''Stag'' engaged, and forced the surrender of, the Dutch frigate ''Alliante'', and took part in the chase that ended with the capture of by on 10 March 1796. In March 1800, ''Stag'' joined

John Borlase Warren Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet (2 September 1753 – 27 February 1822) was a British Royal Navy officer, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807. Naval career Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamsh ...

's squadron and took part in the unsuccessful

Ferrol Expedition The Ferrol Expedition (or Battle of Brión) took place on 25 and 26 August 1800, and was an unsuccessful British attempt to capture Ferrol from Spain. Ferrol was a major Spanish naval base with a shipyard for shipbuilding and dry dock for rep ...

that August. At the end of the month, she was in a detachment under Samuel Hood that captured an 18-gun French privateer, ''Gueppe'', in a cutting-out expedition in the Narrows of

Redondela Redondela is a town in the province of Pontevedra, Galicia, northwestern Spain. The most famous icons of the village are its two major railway viaducts built in the nineteenth century. Due to these infrastructures Redondela is known under the nic ...

. On 6 September ''Stag'' was in

Vigo Vigo ( , , , ) is a city and Municipalities in Spain, municipality in the province of Pontevedra, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Penins ...

bay where she was caught in a violent storm and driven ashore. Her crew and provisions were removed and she was set on fire the following day.

Construction and armament

HMS ''Stag'' was a 32-gun,

frigate of the Pallas class. Designed by John Henslow, she was ordered by the

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong * Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral * Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings *Admiralty, Tr ...

on 9 December 1790 and her

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

, of was

laid down Laying the keel or laying down is the formal recognition of the start of a ship's construction. It is often marked with a ceremony attended by dignitaries from the shipbuilding company and the ultimate owners of the ship. Keel laying is one o ...

in March 1792 at

Chatham Dockyard Chatham Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard located on the River Medway in Kent. Established in Chatham in the mid-16th century, the dockyard subsequently expanded into neighbouring Gillingham (at its most extensive, in the early 20th century, ...

. The original shipwright, John Nelson, died a year later and was replaced by Thomas Pollard. The cost of construction and first fitting was £21,397.0.0. As built, ''Stag'' was along the

gun deck The term gun deck used to refer to a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides. The term is generally applied to decks enclosed under a roof; smaller and unrated vessels carried their guns o ...

, had a

beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy *Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy **Laser beam *Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...

of and a depth in the hold of . She was 792

tons burthen Builder's Old Measurement (BOM, bm, OM, and o.m.) is the method used in England from approximately 1650 to 1849 for calculating the cargo capacity of a ship. It is a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity. It estimated the tonnage of a ship bas ...

and

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between and .Winfield p.142 As a

frigate, ''Stag'' was designed to carry a main battery of twenty-six guns on the upper deck with a secondary armament of four guns and four

carronade A carronade is a short, smoothbore, cast-iron cannon which was used by the Royal Navy. It was first produced by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, and was used from the mid-18th century to the mid-19th century. Its main func ...

s on the

quarterdeck The quarterdeck is a raised deck behind the main mast of a sailing ship. Traditionally it was where the captain commanded his vessel and where the ship's colours were kept. This led to its use as the main ceremonial and reception area on bo ...

and two guns and two carronades on the

forecastle The forecastle ( ; contracted as fo'c'sle or fo'c's'le) is the upper deck of a sailing ship forward of the foremast, or, historically, the forward part of a ship with the sailors' living quarters. Related to the latter meaning is the phrase " be ...

. Initially intended for a crew of 257, this was reduced to 254 from 1796.

Career

''Stag'' was launched on 28 June 1794, and commissioned by Captain Joseph Yorke in July. Following her fitting out, completed on 16 August, she served on the Irish Station and then the

Channel Channel, channels, channeling, etc., may refer to: Geography * Channel (geography), in physical geography, a landform consisting of the outline (banks) of the path of a narrow body of water. Australia * Channel Country, region of outback Austral ...

. In August 1795, she captured the Dutch frigate ''Alliante'' in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

Action of 22 August 1795

Defeat of the Dutch Fleet off Egero, 22 August 1795

On 12 August, ''Stag'' joined a small squadron comprising HMS ''Isis'', 50 guns, HMS ''Reunion'', 36 guns, and ''Vestal''. On the 22nd, the squadron was cruising off the coast of Norway when at around 13:00, it spotted two ships and a cutter to

windward Windward () and leeward () are terms used to describe the direction of the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e. towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point of reference ...

and heading towards shore on a

larboard Port and starboard are nautical terms for watercraft and aircraft, referring respectively to the left and right sides of the vessel, when aboard and facing the bow (front). Vessels with bilateral symmetry have left and right halves which are ...

tack. These ships proved to be the 36-gun frigates, ''Alliantie'' and ''Argo'', and the 16-gun cutter, ''Vlugheld''.James (p.292) A favourable wind change allowed ''Stag'' to overhaul the rear most ship, ''Alliantie'', and bring her to action at about 16:15 while the remaining British ships engaged in a running battle with ''Argo'' and ''Vlugheld''. After an hour's fighting, ''Stag'' managed to force the surrender of her larger opponent but ''Argo'', despite suffering much damage, and ''Vlugheld'' escaped into port at 17:30. The engagement left ''Stag'' with four men killed and 13 wounded. A prize crew under ''Stag's'' first lieutenant, Patrick Tonyn, took ''Alliantie'' to

The Nore The Nore is a long bank of sand and silt running along the south-centre of the final narrowing of the Thames Estuary, England. Its south-west is the very narrow Nore Sand. Just short of the Nore's easternmost point where it fades into the cha ...

. She was subsequently purchased by the

and entered the Royal Navy as the frigate, HMS ''Alliance''.Winfield p.210 ''Stag's'' share of the prize money for the ship and stores was £1,741.04.07d.

Capture of ''Bonne Citoyenne''

Early in 1796, ''Stag'' was cruising with , and , and shared in the prize money for the recapture of a British merchant vessel on 25 February, and the capture of the 20-gun naval corvette, on 10 March. Bonne Citoyenne was part of a French force bound for Mauritius. Badly damaged and separated from the others by a storm in the Bay of Biscay, she was chased by the British frigate squadron and eventually overhauled by ''Phaeton'' to which she surrendered to after a few shots.

Fight against privateering

On 12 February 1797, ''Stag'' captured three privateers and retook a captured British merchant vessel, ''Swallow''. While off the Isles of

Scilly The Isles of Scilly (; kw, Syllan, ', or ) is an archipelago off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. One of the islands, St Agnes, is the most southerly point in Britain, being over further south than the most southerly point of the ...

on 21 February 1797, ''Stag'' captured the 14-gun brig, ''Appocrate'' and destroyed the cutter ''Hirondelle''. The following day, she recaptured the British merchantman, ''Sarah'' and arrived at

Spithead Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds except those from the southeast. It receives its name from the Spit, a sandbank stretching south from the Hampshire ...

on 2 March. ''Stag'' took more privateers and their prizes in September. At the end of the month, she destroyed a 4-gun French lugger near

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

. On 7 October, while in the company of and , she captured ''Decouverte'', a French vessel of 18 guns, recaptured a Portuguese brig on 11 October and a British vessel a few days later. She fought privateers on her station for a further two years, including the a 20-gun ''Hirondelle'', with ''Phaeton'' and , on 20 November 1798 and a 10-gun vessel, ''Ressource'', with ''Phaeton'' in December. ''Stag'' was again with ''Phaeton'' on 24 November, when they captured the French privateer, ''Resolu'', a brig of 18 guns. ''Resolu'' was travelling with two prizes, ''General Wolfe'' from

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

and an American sloop which had been on its way from

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts to

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. ''Stag'' sailed off after the latter and eventually recaptured her. On the night of 26 December, ''Stag'' was anchored in

Cawsand Bay Cawsand Bay is a bay on the southeast coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The bay takes its name from the village of Cawsand at , to the northeast of the Rame Peninsula. Cawsand Bay is oriented north–south, opening eastward into Plymo ...

when she was visited by four customs officers, one of whom appeared to be seriously injured but on closer inspection by the ship's surgeon was revealed to be dead. Acting on information they had received, the revenue men had taken a boat out to Penlee Point where they discovered a large sloop and several smaller vessels. On being challenged, the smugglers exchanged fire with the revenue men before sailing off. On 9 October the following year, she was in a squadron of six vessels that took the Spanish brig, ''Nostra Senora de la Solidad'', then, on 16 October, she and captured a Spanish

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

. Her last recorded action against privateers in the Channel, occurred on 19 of that month, when, with ''Cambrian'', she captured the 10-gun, ''Heureux''. The two British frigates were off the entrance to the

Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – a ...

when they spotted and chased two enemy vessels. ''Stag'' captured ''Heureux'' while ''Cambrian'' sailed after the second, a privateer of 26 guns, which eventually escaped.

Later service and fate

In March 1800, ''Stag'' came under the command of Captain Robert Winthrop. Part of

's squadron, she took part in

that August. At the end of the month, ''Stag'' was in a detachment under Samuel Hood that captured a French privateer, ''Gueppe'', in a cutting-out expedition. ''Gueppe'', a flush-deck ship of 300 tons and carrying 18 guns, was initially in the harbour at

but, when the British force entered the bay on 29 August, was moved to near the Narrows of

where she anchored below a shore battery. Hood selected two boats from ''Stag'', , , , and , four boats from , with additional boats from , , and ''Impetueux'' to take part in the action. The boats left at 21:00 and arrived alongside their quarry at 00:40 the following morning. Despite fierce resistance, ''Gueppe'' was taken within 15 minutes of boarding, after having 25 of her crew killed and forty wounded. On 6 September ''Stag'' was in Vigo bay where she was caught in a violent storm and driven ashore. Her crew and provisions were removed and she was set on fire the following day.Ward p.530

Prizes

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Stag (1794) Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy 1794 ships Ships built in Kent