HMS Alacrity (1806)
Encyclopedia
HMS Alacrity was a built by William Row at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She served in the Baltic and was at the capture of Copenhagen in 1807. She captured a large privateer before herself falling victim to a French man-of-war in 1811 in an action in which her captain failed to distinguish himself. She then served in the French navy until she was broken up in 1822.

British service and capture

Alacrity was commissioned in February 1807 under Commander William Croft for the Baltic Station. On 22 August Alacrity and Sybille captured the Danish merchant vessel Elizabeth. She was then at the siege of Copenhagen
Battle of Copenhagen (1807)
The Second Battle of Copenhagen was a British preemptive attack on Copenhagen, targeting the civilian population in order to seize the Dano-Norwegian fleet and in turn originate the term to Copenhagenize.-Background:Despite the defeat and loss of many ships in the first Battle of Copenhagen in...

. In September, Commander Nisbit Palmer assumed command, replacing Croft, who received promotion to post-captain
Post-Captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:...

 in October. On 23 October Alacrity and Sybille captured the Bornembaum.

On 14 December Alacrity captured the French privateer Friedland in Home waters after a two-hour chase. Friedland was out of Dunkirk and armed with 14 guns. She was under the command of Francis Louis Beens who did not surrender until after he had lost one of his men killed. This was her second cruise and during the two days she had been out she had captured a Swedish galiot
Galiot
Galiots were types of ships from the Age of Sail.In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of small galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion...

 sailing from Stockholm to Plymouth with a cargo of iron and tar.

On 10 September 1810, Alacrity captured the French privateer Trois Freres, which had a crew of 73 men.

Early in May 1811 Alacrity took possession of a Greek vessel and sent her into Malta. This entailed sending a prize crew consisting of Alacrity’s second lieutenant and thirteen men.

On 26 May 1811, Alacrity encountered the French brig-of-war Abeille, of twenty 24-pounder carronade
Carronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...

s, off Bastia
Bastia
Bastia is a commune in the Haute-Corse department of France located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Cap Corse. It is also the second-largest city in Corsica after Ajaccio and the capital of the department....

, Corsica. After an action that lasted about half an hour, during which Abeille outmaneuvered Alacrity, Alacrity struck. French accounts give her casualties as 15 killed and 20 wounded, including her captain. British accounts give her casualties as four dead and 18 wounded, including four fatally. Abeille suffered seven dead and 15 wounded.

The fight might well have gone the other way. Alacrity had a broadside of 262 pounds vs. 240 pounds for Abeille. Alacrity had also suffered fewer casualties than Abeille. However, Palmer retired to his cabin with a hand wound early in the action; once Alacrity had lost all her leadership with her officers dead, wounded or absent, this was enough to demoralize most of her crew.)

For his role, the French promoted the French captain, Ange-René de Mackau to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau. He was also inducted into the Legion of Honour.

Probably fortunately for Palmer, within a month of the battle he died of tetanus from his otherwise minor wound. The court martial of the survivors on 30 May 1814 attributed the loss to the lack of leadership. It acquitted all the survivors and commended the boatswain, James Flaxman, who had remained on deck though wounded and had attempted to rally the crew to Alacritys defence.

French service

On 1 July 1811 she was commissioned by Lieutenant de Vaisseux de Mackau. In 1812 she was at Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...

 and in 1815 at Gênes. On 1 July 1815 she was laid up at Toulon. In August 1822 Alacrity was beached at a shipyard in Toulon for refitting. On 20 August the shipyard received an order to cease further work as she was in such bad shape that there was no point in continuing. On 28 August breaking up commenced.

Post script

On 7 February 1814 Lieutenant de Mackau received a promotion to capitaine de corvette. Soon afterwards he was made a Baron of the French Empire. He was later promoted to capitaine de frégate and on 1 September 1819, to capitaine de vaisseau.
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