HMS Falcon (1802)

''Diadem'' was a sloop launched in 1798. The Admiralty renamed her HMS ''Falcon'' after purchasing her in 1801 to avoid confusion with the pre-existing third rate . ''Falcon'' served in the north Atlantic and the Channel, and then in Danish waters during the Gunboat War. She was sold in 1816. Her new owner renamed her ''Duke of Wellington'' and sailed her to the Indies under a license from the British East India Company. She was wrecked in 1820 at Batavia.

HMS

1801 to 1806

Commander James Nash commissioned ''Falcon'' in February 1801. On 14 August she escorted the East Indiaman from St Helena back to the United Kingdom.

Commander James Nash's replacement, in 1802, was Commander Henry M. Ommaney, who sailed her to Newfoundland.

Near Newfoundland, ''Falcon'' captured two prizes – ''Caroline'' on 17 July 1803, and on 28 July the apparently British-built ''Mercure''.

Commander George Sanders took over command in Newfoundland February 1804. Early in 1804 ''Falcon'' was refitting in Plymouth, before going on to serve in the Channel, where she engaged shore batteries at Le Havre. ''Falcon'' was also awarded prize money for the recapture, on 3 November, of the sloop ''John and Thomas''.

''Falcon'' then operated in the North Sea. On 10 June 1805, ''Falcon'', with ''Chiffonne'', ''Clinker'', and ''Frances'' chased a French convoy for nine hours until the convoy took shelter under the guns of Fécamp. The convoy consisted of two corvettes (''Foudre'' under ''capitaine de vaisseau'' Jacques-Felix-Emmanuel Hemelin, and ''Audacieuse'', under Lieutenant Dominique Roquebert), four large gunvessels and eight others, and 14 transports. The British suffered some casualties from gunfire from shore batteries, with ''Falcon'' suffering four men wounded and some damage to her rigging. In company with ''Chiffonne'', , and the hired armed cutter ''Frances'', ''Falcon'' was involved in the capture of ''Zeeluft'' on 20 June 1805, and also shared in prize money from the cargoes of another two vessels captured that year.

1807: Danzig and Copenhagen

At the ultimately unsuccessful British defence of Danzig in April 1807, ''Falcon'' was involved in bringing reinforcements and the Russian General Nikolay Kamensky to the area. Volunteers from ''Falcon'' went on board the hired armed ship ''Sally'', which then entered the relatively shallow waters at the mouth of the Vistula to take the battle to the French.

On 28 August 1807, in company with the sloop , ''Falcon'' captured the Danish ship ''Martha'' for which prize money was awarded nearly four years later.

On 7 September, ''Falcon'' was one of the 126 ships officially listed as being at the surrender at Copenhagen. She later shared in the prize money allotted for the capture of the Danish fleet.

1808: Zealand Point, Endelave and Tunø

Commander George A. Creyke took command in 1808. On 22 March 1808 ''Falcon'' was among the smaller British warships at the battle of Zealand Point. She watched from a safe distance and recorded the course of the battle in her logbook.Logbook of HMS Falcon held at National Archives, Kew, London – reference ADM51/4446

In late April, under orders from Captain Donald Campbell of the third rate , Lieutenant John Price, acting captain of ''Falcon'', took her northward to the west of Samsø to search for enemy boats capable of carrying troops from mainland Jutland to Zealand or Skåne. ''Falcon'' destroyed eight "pretty large boats .. with troops nearby" on the island of Endelave, six boats on Tunø on 29 April, and 13 others in the waters between Samsø and Aarhus, all before 15 May.

The Danes were fortifying the harbour complex to the east of Samsø, with its outlying islands of Kyholm and Lindholm. During the night of 7 May, ''Falcon'' sent in a cutting-out party in her boats. The British captured two boats each loaded with thirteen-inch mortars and associated equipment, including 400 mortar shells. Lieutenant Price recorded that one of these boats ran aground and had to be burned; he destroyed the other boat after removing the mortar.

On 3 June ''Falcon'' sent in her boats to make a further raid on Endelave.

Disposal

In 1810 ''Falcon'' was at Sheerness, where she was fitted as a military depot and hospital ship. From 1812 on ''Falcon'' was in ordinary. On 14 May 1816 the Navy Office invited tenders for the purchase of numerous ships, including "lying at Sheerness,... ''Falcon'' sloop, of 368 tons". She was sold there, for £800, on 31 July.

''Duke of Wellington''

Short & Co. purchased ''Diadem'' in 1816 and renamed her ''Duke of Wellington''. She appears in ''Lloyd's Register'' (''LR'')) at London with Woodcock, master, and Short, owner. Her place of launch is "River", i.e., the Thames, and her year of launch is 1798. She appears in ''Lloyd's Register'' of 1818 among the vessels that the British East India Company had licensed to trade with the Indies. The list shows her with Howard, master, and having sailed for Bombay on 17 November 1817. Both ''Lloyd's Register'' and the ''Register of Shipping'' (''RS'') show her master as J. Howard, but ''LR'' shows her trade as London—Rio de Janeiro, while the ''Register'' shows it as London—Botany Bay. This discrepancy continues in the 1819, 1820, and 1821 volumes of both publications. ''Duke of Wellington'' is no longer listed in the 1822 volume of ''Lloyd's''; she does not leave the ''Register'' until the 1824 volume.

Fate

''Lloyd's List'' reported on 11 August 1820 that ''Duke of Wellington'', formerly Stout, master, had been driven ashore at Batavia by a gale in early February 1820, and that accounts from 31 March were that she was to be sold there.''Lloyd's List'' №5516.
/ref> On 2 June 1820 ''Duke of Wellington'' was sold at a public auction for 8,000 rupees for breaking up. The proceeds of the auction were for the account of the European Orphan Chamber.

Notes

Citations

References

*
* *Hahnemann S. & Roepstorff M. Endelave og den engelske fregat published by Skjern, Gullanders Book Press (2000) se
this link
(Det Kgl. Bibliotek) ("Endelave and the British Warship" )
*
* Nielsen, J.P. (1946) ''Samsøs Historie samt Tunøs Historie''. (The History of Samsø and Tunø ).
*
*

Further Information and Background Reading

* Tim Voelcker: Admiral Saumarez versus Napoleon - The Baltic 1807 - 1812 : Boydell Press

{{DEFAULTSORT:Falcon (1802)
Battles of the Gunboat War
1808 in Denmark
Ships built on the River Thames
1798 ships
Sloops of the Royal Navy