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Mercury, 1779
Type: 6th rate ; Armament 28
Disposal date or year : 1814
Notes:
6 Jan 1798 Mercury and others captured the French privateer Benjamin on the Lisbon station.
15 Jan 1798 captured the French privateer Trois Soeurs on the Lisbon station.
25 Jan 1798 captured the French privateer Constance on the Lisbon station.
5 Feb 1800 captured the French privateer Egyptienne.
5 Apr 1800 a court martial was held on board the Gladiator, on Mr. John Hopgood, Boatswain of the Mercury, for absenting himself without leave. Having been found guilty he was sentenced to be dismissed from his present post and to serve in the Navy as the Lords of the Admiralty shall direct.
25 Feb 1801 sighted the French squadron bound for Egypt off the island of Toro.
6 Jan 1801 ship's boats captured 15 vessels from a convoy of 20 in the gulf of Lyons as follows:
the Genoese Ships La Rhone, laden with. Salt, Brandy, Wine, and Fruit, from Cette bound to Marseilles and the St. John, laden with Wine, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the French Brigs Le Maria Josephine, laden with Brandy, Wheat, and Sugar, from Cette bound to Marseilles : Le Solide, laden with Brandy and Wheat, from Cette bound to Marseilles : Le Cberi, laden with Salt, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the Genoese Brig St. Carola, laden with Wine and Brandy, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the Genoese Bombard Compte de Grasse, laden with Wheat and Stock Fish : and St. Andre, laden with Wheat and Sugar, both from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the French Bomb La Paste, laden with Wine and Brandy, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the French Settees La Bone, laden with Wine, from Cette bound to Marseilles : and Le Republican, laden with Wine, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
the French Tartans La Croisette, laden with Wheat : St. Ivado Pierre, laden with Wheat and Staves, : La Rosaria, laden with Wine and Bread : and La Madona, laden with Wheat, from Cette bound to Marseilles.
20 Jan 1801 captured French 20-gun ship-corvette Sans-Pareille.
25 May 1801 captured a small vessel just out of Ancona, and attempted to re-capture the late British bomb-vessel Bulldog, which was subsequently recaptured in Sep 1801
23 Jun 1801 captured the pirate tartan Tigre.
May 1805 With Vice Admiral Sir John Orde.
4 Apr 1808 with a small squadron, including the ship's boats, involved in an attack on a Spanish convoy abreast of the town of Rota.
1 Apr 1809 ship's boats cut out the gun-boat Léda from the port of Rovigno.
23 Apr 1809 Spartan, Amphion, and Mercury, cruising off the town of Pesaro, with the ships' boats, briefly captured the town and brought off 13 deeply laden vessels and destroyed the military installations.
2 May 1809 Spartan and Mercury chased two vessels into the port of Cesenatico : with the ships' boats, brought off 12 vessels and destroyed the military installations.
15 May 1809 cannonaded the town of Rotti, near Manfredonia, following which the ship's boats landed and destroyed seven trabaccolos which had been hauled on shore.
7 Sep 1809 ship's boats entered the harbour of Barletta, near Manfredonia, and boarded and carried the French national schooner Pugliése.
Portsmouth 21 Jan 1810 Arrived with convoy from the Mediterranean.
Cowes Roads 11 Apr 1811 Sailed for Lisbon.
Plymouth 14 Apr 1811 Arrived : to embark troops for Lisbon.
Portsmouth 28 Jul 1811 Sailed with convoys for Lisbon, the Cape and South Seas.
Falmouth 2 Aug 1811 Arrived with a convoy of transports, put in by unfavorable winds.
Falmouth 9 Aug 1811 Sailed for Portugal with troops in transports.
Falmouth 13 Sep 1811 Is reported to have arrived at Lisbon with convoy, having sailed some 36 days previously.
Plymouth Dock 23 Sep 1811 Arrived from Lisbon, with a convoy and anchored in the Sound.
Plymouth Dock 2 Oct 1811 Sailed for Portsmouth.
Portsmouth 5 Jan 1812 Sailed with the West India convoy.
St. Thomas 3 Jul 1813 Sailed with a convoy.
Deal 19 Aug 1813 Sailed for the river.
6th of January 1801
On the 6th of January the British 28-gun frigate Mercury, Captain Thomas Rogers, cruising in the gulf of Lyons, fell in, with a convoy of about 20 sail of vessels, bound from Cette to Marseilles, under the escort of two or three French gun-boats. The weather being nearly calm, Captain Rogers despatched his boats (but how commanded does not appear in the gazette-letter) to attack the convoy ; 15 of which, including two ships and four brigs, and all deeply laden with brandy, sugar, corn, wine, oil, and other merchandise, were brought off with very little resistance and no loss, the gun-boats having all fled upon the Mercury's approach.
20th of January 1801
On the 20th, the island of Sardinia bearing east-south-east, distant 40 leagues, and the wind blowing fresh, the Mercury fell in with, and after a nine hours' chase captured, without loss or resistance, the French 20-gun ship-corvette Sans-Pareille, of 18 brass 8-pounders and two brass 36-pounder carronades, and (the London Gazette says, " fifteen," but the French captain's deposition in the prize-court) 155 men, commanded by Lieutenant Gabriel Renaud, from Toulon the day preceding, bound to Alexandria, with a full cargo of shot, arms, medicines, and supplies of every kind, for the French army. Although described as quite a new vessel, and well-found with stores of every description, the prize does not appear to have been added to the British navy.
25th of May 1801
The British 28-gun frigate Mercury, Captain Thomas Rogers, having on the 25th of May, while cruising in the Adriatic, captured a small vessel just out of Ancona, received intelligence that the late British bomb-vessel Bulldog, which, about three months before, under the command of Captain Barrington Dacres, had entered the port unapprized of its being in possession of the French, was lying in the mole, laden with supplies for the French army in Egypt, and ready for sea. Captain Rogers immediately made sail for Ancona, with the determination of attempting to cut out the Bulldog; and, soon after dark the same evening, the Mercury anchored off the mole. At 10 h. 30 m. P. M. the boats of the latter, under the orders of Lieutenant William Mather, quitted the frigate ; and, at about midnight, surprised and carried the Bulldog, without even having been hailed by the sentinels on the mole, to which, while the ship was riding with three cables ahead, her stern had been secured by the two ends of a bower cable. The seamen presently cut all the cables, and the boats began to tow away their prize ; but the alarm had now spread, and the British became exposed to a heavy fire of cannon and musketry from the mole.
As there was a favourable light breeze, and the sails were set, the Bulldog, in rather less than an hour, got without the reach of the batteries. Unfortunately, however, the wind died away to a perfect calm, and the current carried the prize along the coast close to the shore ; from which a crowd of boats, some of them gun-boats, came out to attack her. Having the hatchways to guard, to prevent the French crew from rising, and being without a sufficient force to resist the gun-boats, which were fast approaching, and had already several times raked the ship, Lieutenant Mather reluctantly abandoned his prize; but not until he had made three ineffectual attempts to set her on fire.
The loss of the British on this occasion amounted to one seaman and one marine killed, and four seamen wounded. That of the French on board the Bulldog is stated to have been 20 in killed, wounded, and drowned. As soon as she descried the prize standing out of the mole, the Mercury weighed and steered towards her; but the calm so retarded the progress of the frigate, that the Bulldog was towed back to her former station at the mole long before the Mercury could get near her. The Bulldog afterwards succeeded in putting to sea, but was taken on her passage to Egypt by the 24-gun ship Champion, Captain Lord William Stuart.
23d of June 1801
On the 23d of June, in the morning, the British 18-gun brig-sloop Corso, Captain William Ricketts, chased among the rocks in the small islands of Tremiti, lying in the gulf of Venice, and inhabited by a few renegadoes only, a pirate tartan, the Tigre, of eight 6 and 12 pounders and a crew of 60 French and Italians. Upon the appearance of the Mercury soon afterwards, the pirate landed the greater part of her crew; who, with a 4-pounder and musketry, posted themselves upon a hill to defend their vessel, which lay aground close to them with hawsers fast to the shore.
Being resolved to make an effort to stop the further career of this band of robbers, Captain Rogers despatched upon that service the boats of the frigate and brig, under the orders of Lieutenant William Mather, assisted by Lieutenant Wilson of the marines. Notwithstanding that they were exposed to a smart fire of cannon and musketry, both from the vessel and the hill, the boats gallantly rowed in ; and while Lieutenant Mather with the seamen boarded the Tigre, Lieutenant Wilson with the marines landed to drive away the banditti from the hill : the Mercury and Corso, at the same time overawed the pirates by occasionally firing such of their guns as would bear. The marines succeeded in their object without the loss of a man, and took several prisoners ; and the seamen, with equal good fortune, hove the tartan off the rocks and brought her out, together with a quantity of plunder, consisting of bales of cotton and other goods, which the Tigre had taken from vessels of different nations.