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IRIS
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(32) |
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Built in 1783, Deptford.
Trinity House in 1803. |
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- 1793 Capt. George LUMSDAINE.
IRIS had 5 men killed and about 30 wounded in the first action of the war with a French naval ship on 13 May 1793 after she gave chase to a strange sail about 6 leagues from Gibraltar. Her opponent escaped when IRIS lost her fore and mizzen lower-masts and her main top-mast. Lieut. A. Bennet was wounded in the right thigh. Thought at the time to be the French MEDEE, the enemy ship was identified by William James in Vol. I, p.100, of his Naval History as the CITOYENNE FRANCAISE (32).
Captain LUMSDAINE later removed to POLYPHEMUS. - 1794 Capt. William HARGOOD, North Sea.
- On 14 February 1795 he sailed for the coast of Africa, on his return he was appointed to LEOPARD,50.
- 1799 Capt. G. BRISAC. Sheerness.
- 1800 Baltic convoy.
- The Dutch frigate AMBUSCADE sank in the channel to the Nore as she left Sheerness on 9 July 1801. Most of her people were rescued, save for five men, two women and a child, and put on board IRIS to await further orders.
- 1802 Capt. ATKINS, Chatham. IRIS arrived in Portsmouth on 21 May from Lymington, where she landed Dutch seamen who had been paid off at Chatham, and sailed back to the eastwards on 21 May.
- 1803 Under repair at Woolwich. Capt. CLARKE.
She sailed from Portsmouth on 21 June 1803 bound for the South Seas. She had driven during the bad weather of the previous night and ran foul of and damaged, but not materially, two or three vessels in the harbour. - 1805 Capt. Thomas LAVIE, Channel.
- On the evening of 15 July 1806 one boat from each of the line-of-battle ship in Sir Samuel HOOD's squadron off Rochefort, plus three each from IRIS and INDEFATIGABE, carried out an attack on two French corvettes, and a convoy, in the entrance of the Garonne. They were all under the command of Lieut. SIBLEY of CENTAUR. The western breeze which sprang up as the boats left INDEFATIGABLE hindered their approach and also allowed all the vessels to escape up the river while the brig CAESAR (18) was captured. The enemy, with 86 men on board, were expecting them and losses were high - six killed, thirty-six wounded and the people in REVENGE's boat taken prisoner. IRIS suffered least, having only one able seaman, William TAYLOR wounded by a shot lodged in his arm.
- The prize was brought out under fire from batteries and the late British TEAZER brig. The boats were so severely damaged that, except for INDEFATIGABLE's launch and IRIS's cutter, they had to be cut adrift from the brig.
- The remaining boats came from CENTAUR, CONQUEROR, PRINCE OF WALES, REVENGE, POLYPHEMUS and MONARCH.
- 1807 Capt. John TOWER, Irish station.
- IRIS was renamed SOLEBAY in 1809.
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