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CAMBRIAN
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(40) |
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Built in 1797, Burlesdon.
Later 38-gun.
Wrecked in 1828. |
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- Capt. Sir T. Williams, 04/1797. Capt. Arthur K. LEGGE, 05/1797, Channel.
In March 1800 CAMBRIAN was in Plymouth awaiting orders having returned from the coast of France on 26 February with the arms and money destined for the Chouans. She sailed with sealed orders on 4 April in company with FISGARD and sent the letter of marque schooner EMILIE, laden with wine and oil, into Plymouth on 3 May.
On 5 May they captured the French national brig DRAGON of 10 guns and 72 men, commanded by Lieut. Lachurie. She was two days out of Rochefort and bound for Guadeloupe with dispatches. She arrived in Plymouth on the 12th. - CAMBRIAN returned to Plymouth from the coast of Spain on 17 June after being relieved by Capt. CURZON in INDEFATIGABLE. She sailed again on a cruise on 10 July.
In October she undertook a 10 week cruise, returning on 22 December. - On 5 April 1801 CAMBRIAN recaptured the letter of marque NANCY of London which had been taken on the 2nd by the French privateer BRAVE.
On the morning of 6 April Capt. HOOD of VENERABLE sent Capt. LEGGE in chase of a suspicious vessel. She turned out to be the French privateer lugger AUDACIEUX of 14 guns and 50 men commanded by S. B. Candeau. She had left Bordeaux on 30 March and had taken only one vessel, an American. - 1803 Capt. BRADLEY, Halifax.
While on passage to Bermuda he captured two French privateers.
The schooner TISON, Joseph Kastique, from Guadeloupe was taken on 22 March after a chase of 25 hours.
Her six 12 and 9-pounders were thrown overboard in her efforts to escape.
The schooner ALEXANDRE (8), Charles la Marque, was taken on the 26th. - 1805 Capt. John Poo BERESFORD, Halifax.
On 13 June 1805, while CAMBRIAN was to the east of Bermuda, Lieut. George PIGOT in her launch boarded the Spanish privateer schooner MARIA.
He was immediately followed by Lieut. George Alfred CROFTON in the barge and enemy was soon carried.
MARIA was armed with 14 guns and carried a crew of 60.
CAMBRIAN lost 2 men killed and 2 wounded. - After a chase of 24 hours the French privateer schooner MATILDA was captured on 3 July. She mounted twenty 9-pounders and carried a crew of 95 men. She surrendered in shoal water and her people were only saved from certain drowning by the exertions of Lieut. PIGOT in one of the boats.
The privateer had captured the English letter-of-marque CLYDE, bound for Liverpool. - MATILDA was manned as a tender under the command of Lieut. PIGOT and he sailed for the St. Mary's river where they had information of two ships and a schooner.
On 7 July he made his way 12 miles up the river under fire from militia men on the bank until he found a ship, a brig and a schooner lashed in line across the stream.
He engaged them for a hour until MATILDA grounded and he had to resort to his boats.
The ship was taken and her eight 6-pounders and six swivels were first used to force the enemy to abandon the other two vessels and were then turned on the militia.
The whole proceedings were watched by some hundreds of Americans on the northern bank. - Two men were killed, David MACKINTOSH, seaman, and William Lewington, marine.
Lieut. PIGOT was wounded three times by musket balls, twice in the head and once in the leg, Mr LAWSON, master's mate, and Mr MITCHELL, midshipman were severely wounded.
Eleven other seamen and marines were wounded.
Mr Thomas GRIFFINHOOFE, midshipman, took part in the attack and came through unscathed.
Twenty-five Spaniards and five Americans were killed and twenty-two wounded.
Mr MITCHELL was the youngest son of Vice Ad. Sir Andrew MITCHELL who was C-in-C Halifax. - The ship was the GOLDEN GROVE and the brig CERES, of London, taken by the schooner, a Spanish privateer of six guns and fifty men.
- 1807 James DEANS (act.) Fitting out at Sheerness.
- 1808 Capt. Francis William FANE, Mediterranean.
On 5 September 1810 CAMBRIAN sailed from Tarragona with two xebecs under convoy to attack the castle of Las Medas.
One carried General Doyle and 60 Spanish soldiers and the other cannon.
On the 6th. they were joined by the Spanish frigate FLORA but two days later discovered that an attack on the castle was out of the question since the enemy occupied all the coast.
The Spanish soldiers and the marines from both frigates landed near Bega on the 10th., destroyed a battery of four 24-pounders, and captured 36 French soldiers. - CAMBRIAN's boats assisted the Spaniards in an attack on Palamos on the 14th.
The launch was sunk and two men wounded but the remainder assisted in forcing the French position.
The prisoners and captured cannons were embarked on the vessels in the bay and CAMBRIAN sailed with them to Tarragona on the 17th., arriving two days later. - On 12 December 1810 CAMBRIAN joined KENT, Capt. Thomas ROGERS, AJAX, SPARROWHAWK and MINSTREL off Palamos where a French convoy taking supplies to Barcelona had taken shelter.
The enemy vessels were: a 14-gun national ketch, two xebecs and eight merchant vessels.
They were covered by two 24-pounders and a 13 inch mortar. - Capt. FANE led the landing force of 350 seamen and 250 marines ashore on the afternoon of the following day and, taking the town from the rear, soon occupied and destroyed the batteries.
All the vessels were destroyed save two which were brought out.
Unfortunately the men retired through the town to the mole instead of to the beach where CAMBRIAN, SPARROWHAWK and MINSTREL were waiting to cover them and the boats came under heavy fire from the French who had occupied the walls and houses.
The launches with carronades and the two mortar boats of CAMBRIAN did their best to cover them but the casualties, which up to now had been slight, were very heavy.
CAMBRIAN lost 2 officers, 3 seamen and 1 marine killed.
(The total losses were 33 killed and 88 wounded.) - Capt. FANE was taken prisoner at Palamos and Sir Charles COTTON appointed Capt. Charles BULLEN out of VOLONTAIRE to command CAMBRIAN.
In the spring he was senior officer off the coast of Catalonia.
The Spaniards captured Figueras on 10 April when the half-starved Italian garrison, disgusted by the treatment they received from the French, opened the gates and the Spaniards rushed in, putting 200 Frenchmen to the sword CAMBRIAN and VOLONTAIRE took possession of St. Philon and Palamos on the 12th. and 14th.
The guns were embarked and the batteries destroyed.
Also on the 14th. the boats of CAMBRIAN, under Lieut. Matthew CONOLLY, cut out a settee laden with grain from under the batteries on the Medas islands without a man being hurt. - CAMBRIAN then sailed for Cadaques where she captured 19 merchant vessels; 6 of which, being laden with grain and wine, were sent to Tarragona for the use of the garrison.
At Selva, Capt. BULLEN was wounded whilst in a battery ashore. - The squadron off Catalonia was reinforced and came under the orders of Capt. CODRINGTON until the fall of Tarragona in June 1811.
CAMBRIAN carried the bad news to Sir Charles COTTON. - CAMBRIAN re-fitted at Gibraltar then returned home from Malta in October with French prisoners under convoy. She paid off at Plymouth in December.
- 1812 Out of commission at Plymouth.
- 1815 Hamoaze.
- 1820 Capt. Gawen William HAMILTON, 07/1820, Mediterranean.
After he conveyed Lord Strangford to Constantinople, Vice Ad. MOORE appointed him senior officer in the eastern Mediterranean.
With ROSE, ZEBRA and CAMELEON under his command he fought a thankless battle against pirates in the seas around Greece.
In January 1824 CAMBRIAN was sent to Tunis to demand the ratification of a treaty with Great Britain. She then returned home and was put out of commission.
After they were paid the crew cheered Capt. HAMILTON and his officers and received cheers in return. - CAMBRIAN was re-commissioned in July 1824, Capt. HAMILTON was re-appointed to her and she returned to the Mediterranean.
- On 31 January 1825 CAMBRIAN and SERINGAPATAM saw two pirate vessels chasing an Ionian vessel in the Negropont Channel.
Lieut. MARSHAM, first of CAMBRIAN, went off in one of CAMBRIAN's boats with a Greek interpreter to request them to come down to HM
ships for examination.
When they refused more boats were sent in support from CAMBRIAN and SERINGAPATAM and they were fired on by the pirates which each had one gun.
The pirate vessels were then boarded and carried after a desperate resistance in which most of the pirates were killed or wounded.
The British lost 6 killed and 13 wounded. - Shortly afterwards CAMBRIAN struck on a rock off the island of Skaitho and the damage obliged her to go to Malta to be hove down.
- Her boats under Lieut. Thomas GREGORY captured a pirate bombard and burnt a mistico at the island of Tino on 27 July 1826 and in September another bombard was taken and a vessel destroyed at the island of Andros by her marines.
Other pirates with valuable merchandise were captured by CAMBRIAN and ROSE. - CAMBRIAN entered Navarino Bay with the combined fleets under Vice Ad. CODRINGTON on the afternoon of 20 October 1827.
CAMBRIAN, GLASGOW and TALBOT were directed to take station next to the French frigate L'ARMIDE, alongside the outermost Turkish frigate.
CAMBRIAN lost only one man killed and one wounded. - CAMBRIAN, ISIS, RATTLESNAKE, ZEBRA, CAMELEON and two French corvettes anchored off the fort at Grabusa (or Carabousa), a small island about a mile off Akra Vouxa, the north-west point of Crete.
There were 14 Greek vessels lying in the port with two merchantmen, one Austrian and one Ionian, which had been taken there by pirates.
When demands that the pirates should be surrendered were rejected the squadron opened fire and destroyed several of them. - As the squadron retired ISIS struck CAMBRIAN on the quarter and caused her to fall broadside on to rocks in the narrow channel and she was broken up by the strong swell.
In a court martial at Malta Capt. HAMILT
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