"Some recent articles on this blog have dealt with inshore-operations of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. Characterised by aggressive daring, they were critical in hampering – and often paralysing – the coastal traffic of every maritime nation controlled or occupied by the French. As such they are the inspiration of so much naval fiction. It is however easy to forget the price paid in human misery and this article deals with one of the most pathetic of such instances and a humble heroine who deserves to be remembered with honour.
HMS Swallow entered service in 1805, yet another of the Cruizer-class vessels that feature so prominently in so many inshore-operations. Of 386 tons, and 100-feet long, she was armed with massive firepower for her size – sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder long guns. Her crew was officially 121 but, as told later in this article, she was carrying at least two other people. In July 1812 she was to be involved in a vicious encounter with a French brig-corvette Reynard off Frejus, on the Mediterranean coast. Under the command of Commander Edward Reynolds Sibley (Circa 1775 – 1842), Swallow was part of a small British squadron consisting in addition of the "74" ship-of-the-line" HMS America and the Frigate HMS Curacoa, and together they had driven a French convoy from Genoa to seek shelter in shallow waters and under shore batteries – a scenario that must have been monotonously familiar during the period. The larger British ships drew too much to go inshore, leaving the Swallow to reconnoitre.
On 16 July two French vessels came out to engage the Swallow – the Renard, armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two long 6-pounders, and the schooner Goéland, with twelve long-guns, probably 6-pounders. The brief reference in Wikipedia describes the action that followed "sanguine but inconclusive" and so too it must have been considered in various official accounts also, just another small and all-but-forgotten engagement in a larger conflict. A more detailed account however in a book by the 19th-century Admiral Edward Giffard brings the savagery of the encounter to life and tells of the human cost in poignant detail…"
Full article here
link
Amicalement
Armand
paints brigs for the British fleet.
