HMS Tartar (1801)
Encyclopedia
HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate
frigate of the Royal Navy
, built at Frindsbury
and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War
and elsewhere in the Baltic before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.
commissioned Tartar in July 1801. She sailed for Jamaica in October.
In June 1802 Captain Charles Inglis
took command. On 30 August 1802 Tartar was among the British warships sharing in the capture of the French tartane
Concezione.
In 1803 Captain John Perkins
succeeded Inglis. Tartar was in Captain John Loring's squadron when captured the 74-gun Duquesne
on 25 July off Saint-Domingue
. Tartar outsailed her larger companions and kept the Duquesne engaged until came up and Duquesne surrendered.
As the British warships and their prize were sailing between the two islands of St. Domingo and Tortudo
, near Port-au-Paix
, they met up with the French schooner Oiseaux. She was armed with 16 guns and her crew of 60 men was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Druault. Loring ordered Vanguard and Tartar to escort Duquesne and Oiseaux to Port Royal.
Between 20 November and 4 December 1803 Tartar was in company with Captain Loring's squadron when the squadron captured the French ships of war Decouverte, Clorinde
, Surveillante
, Vertu, and Cerf. Surveillante and Clorinde were bought into British service. Surveillante had on board at her surrender General Rochambeau
the commander of the French forces on Saint-Domingue
. On 1 December the squadron detained the Hiram for a breach of the blockade of Cape Francois.
In 1803 and 1804 Perkins escorted Edward Corbet to Haiti. Corbet had been appointed to liaise with Jean-Jacques Dessalines
, the new governor general and later first Emperor of Haiti. These missions were often less than successful.
In 1804 Tartar was on the Jamaica Station under Captain Keith Maxwell, who had received promotion to post-captain
on 1 May. On 31 July she sighted a schooner. Maxwell set off to prevent the schooner from entering the narrow and intricate channel between the island of Saona and San Domingo
where it would be difficult for him to pursue. As Tartar got closer he saw that the schooner was using her sweeps to aid her. Her behaviour made Maxwell suspect that his quarry was a privateer so he pursued her until neither vessel could progress farther. At that point, Maxwell was unable to get Tartar into a position from which she could use her broadside. Instead, he sent in a cutting out party in three boats. As the boats set out, their quarry fired a gun, hoisted French colours, and then opened fire on the boats. The schooner was not able to deter the attack and the British captured her with no more casualties than two men wounded. The French lost nine killed and six wounded, as well as three missing, presumed drowned when they tried to swim to shore. Maxwell sent the wounded to San Domingo under flag of truce, but kept the other Frenchmen prisoners, there being no English prisoners available for exchange. The privateer was the Hirondelle, under the command of Captain La Place. She was armed with ten 4-pounder guns and had been out of San Domingo for two days. She had been active during the French Revolutionary Wars
and for the past two years also, having frequently escaped pursuit due to her speed.
At the end of 1804, Captain Edward Hawker joined Tartar from and sailed her from Jamaica to the Halifax station. On 9 January 1805 Tartar, in company with Surveillante
, captured the Spanish ship Batidor.
On 6 May 1806 Tartar captured the American brig Romulus. Then on 9 June Tartar and the 10-gun cutter captured the French navy corvette Observateur, of 18 guns and 104 men, which was under the command of Captain Crozier. Observateur had sailed from Cayenne on 13 May with the brig-of-war Argus, with provisions for a four-month cruise but had not captured anything.
On 23 August Tartar captured the Charlestown packet
. Later in the year Captain Hawker exchanged with Captain Stephen Poyntz of and Tartar returned to England under reduced masts as a consequence of damage she had sustained in a hurricane.
Tartar was paid off in October 1807. Then between October and April 1808 she underwent repairs, which cost £
18,700.
took command while Tartar was fitting out at Deptford for service in the Baltic. This was early in the Gunboat War
between Britain and Denmark-Norway.
In what became known as the Battle of Alvøen
, Tartar sailed to attack the Dutch frigate Guelderland, of thirty-six 6 and 12-pounder guns, which had been reported to be in Bergen being repaired. Guederland had been escorting a small convoy to Batavia but then had to deviate to deal with a leak that she had developed.
Tartar left Leith roads on 10 May 1807 and arrived off Bergen on the 12th, but heavy fog prevented her from getting closer until three days later. Unfortunately, by the time Tartar arrived, Guelderland had sailed more than a week earlier. Bettesworth nevertheless decided to send his boats into the harbour to cut out some merchant vessels and three privateers that were there. When the boats encountered heavy fire and discovered that a heavy chain protected the ships in the harbour, they and Bettesworth returned to Tartar. However, as Tartar tried to withdraw, she came attack from the schooner Odin and between three and six gunboats (accounts differ). Cannon fire from the Norwegians killed Bettesworth and a midshipman, Henry FitzHugh, early in the action. A further twelve men were wounded before Tartar was able to complete her withdrawal. The Danes lost four men, and a gunboat.
Captain Joseph Baker
replaced Bettesworth in May. On 3 November Tartar was escorting a convoy in the Naze of Norway. She was twelve leagues
off Bovenbergen (Bovbjerg, Jutland) when she sighted a sloop that after a chase of three hours she captured. The sloop was the Danish privateer Naargske Gutten, of seven 6 and 4-pounder guns and 36 men. She was quite new and only one day out from Christiansand, without having made any captures. Six days later Tartar was in company with when they captured the Jonge Minert.
On 27 July 1808, Tartar was in company with when Cygnet captured the Dutch privateer Christiana. Cygnet chased the privateer brig for nine hours before she could capture her. Christiana was a former British merchant brig now armed with twelve 12-pounder carronade
s and two long 9-pounder guns, and had a crew of 60 men. She had provisions for a one-month cruise and had sailed three days earlier from Christiana
to intercept the homeward-bound Greenland-men off the north of Shetland.
Between 11 and 16 March 1809, Tartar, , and captured sundry Danish vessels in the Baltic. On 13 March Tartar captured the Danish privateer Falcon, while Ranger and Rose shared by agreement.
Three days later Tartar captured the Kron Prince Frederick. She was carrying a cargo of spices that the Honourable East India Company sold.
Tartar shared with , , and in the capture on 8 April of the Vergnugen and Gustaff. The next day the same four warships captured the Caroline, and Tartar, apparently alone, captured the St Johannes.
Then on 10 and 11 April, Tartar was in company with Orion, Superb and Cruizer when they captured the Danish sloop Brigetta and the Prussian galiot
Erwartnung. At the end of the month, on 30 April, Tartar captured the Charlotte, with Superb, , Vanguard, , Constant, , and being in sight. That same day Tartar, Superb and Constant captured the Maria Dorothea.
On 15 May 1809, Baker and Tartar chased a Danish privateer sloop near Felixberg
on the coast of Courland
. The sloop was armed with two 12-pounders on slides and two long 4-pounders, and carried a crew of 24. Her crew ran her ashore and then left her, taking their muskets up behind some sandhills where some local civilians joined them. Baker, concerned that the schooner might harm British trade, sent in his boats to bring her out or destroy her. The British cutting out party boarded the privateer, without loss despite the small arms fire from the beach, got her off the shore, and turned her guns on the beach. While the boarding party was securing the vessel, one of the men fortunately discovered a lighted candle set in a powder cartridge in the magazine and extinguished it when it had only a half an inch to burn. The privateer's magazine
contained about a hundredweight of powder; had it exploded it would have killed the boarding party.Baker considered this artifice a "dishonourable Mode of Warfare". The prize crew then brought the sloop off. The privateer was probably the Felix.
On 28 October 1809 captured the Destrigheiden, the Rinaldine and a sloop, name unknown, while in the company of Tartar and . By agreement, Commander John Willoughby Marshall of Lynx and Baker of Tartar pooled their share of the prize money with that due Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter, the commander of the Cheerful.
On 13 April 1810 Tartar captured Crown Sloop No. 9. Then four days later Tartar and were in sight when captured the Enighied.
Tartar and were in company when they captured the Twende Broders on 31 July. Tartar then captured the Anna Maria Elizabeth and Enigheit on 6 and 7 August with the Emanuel and Eliza Maria following on 11 and 10 August.
of the Royal Navy
warned Vice Admiral Sir James Saumarez that the Danes were planning an attack on the island of Anholt
, on which there was a small British garrison of which Maurice was the commander. Maurice received further confirmation of the attack on 8 March. Saumarez ordered Tartar and Sheldrake to sail to Anholt to provide support. They left Yarmouth on 20 March and anchored off the north end of the island on 26 March.
The next day the British garrison sighted the invasion force off the south side of the island. Maurice marched to meet them with a battery of howitzers and 200 infantry, but was not able to forestall a landing. He therefore pulled back to prepared positions and alerted Tartar and Sheldrake that the enemy was on shore. The two vessels immediately set sail, with Tartar going around one side of the island and Sheldrake the other. However, the shoals forced Tartar to swing wide, delaying her by many hours.
The Danes, who had eighteen heavy gunboats for support, had landed more than 1000 troops in the darkness and fog. They were poorly equipped and their attack was uncoordinated, with the result that the British batteries at Fort Yorke (the British base) and Massareenes stopped the assault. Gunfire from Tartar and Sheldrake forced the gunboats to move off westwards.
The gunboats made their escape over the reefs while the ships had to sail around the outside. Tartar chased three gunboats towards Læsø
but found herself in shoal water as night approached and gave up the chase. On the way back Tartar captured two Danish transports that she had passed while chasing the gunboats; one of them had 22 soldiers on board, with a considerable quantity of ammunition, shells and the like, while the other contained provisions. Sheldrake managed to capture two gunboats.
About half of the Danish invasion force managed to board fourteen gunboats on the western side of Anholt and make their escape that way. The Battle of Anholt
cost the British only two killed and 30 wounded. The Danes lost their commander, three other officers, and 50 men killed. The British took, besides the wounded, five captains, nine lieutenants, and 504 rank and file as prisoners, as well as three pieces of artillery, 500 muskets, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. In addition, Sheldrakes two captured gunboats resulted in another two lieutenants of the Danish Navy and 119 men falling prisoner.
The Danish troops came from the 2nd Battalion of Jutland Sharp Shooters, 4th Battalion 2d Regiment Jutland Jagers and the 4th Battalion lst Regiment Jutland Infantry. Maurice sent a flag of truce to Jutland offering to release the prisoners on their parole not to serve until exchanged. Baker proposed that if the Danish authorities agreed to these terms, that he would take all the prisoners to Randers
to exchange for the officers and crew of the sloop which had wrecked off Jutland on 13 February 1811.
Because the Admiralty had declared the island of Anholt a vessel, "HMS Anholt", for administrative purposes, Tartar shared with her and Sheldrake in the head money for the battle and for gunboats No.1 and No. 7, which Sheldrake had taken. HMS Anholt also had a schooner, the Anholt, as a tender. She had been cruising looking for enemy vessels but had returned in time to take part in the battle. All four vessels, i.e., including the island HMS Anholt, also shared in the money for the ordnance stores captured. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Anholt 27 March 1811" to the remaining British survivors of the battle.
Tartar and captured St. Helena (4 June), St. Johannes (5 June), St. Alexa (26 June), and the packet of Abo (4 July). On 17 June they captured the Commerce. A month later, on 27 July 1811, Tartar and Ethalion were in sight when captured the St Ivan. In June and July the two warships also captured the Danish galiots Nos. 7 and 9, the St. Peter and St. Simeon, and the sloop Expressen.
off the coast of Estonia and sprang a leak. Her crew was able to refloat her but she continued to fill with water. Baker then ran her ashore on 21 August at Kahar Islet, midway between Dagö Island and the Isle of Worms; he later burned her to prevent her capture.
Ethalion rescued all her crew, who then were re-assigned to other ships on the Baltic station. A court martial on 23 October honorably acquitted Captain Baker, his officers and crew of Tartars loss.
Curiously, there are prize money notices crediting Tartar and Ethalion with the capture on 11 September of the Primus.
that Tartar had captured was laying stranded at Montrose
. The river had carried her and deposited her on the beach. A strong tide then lifted her, causing her to drift out to sea where she was dashed to pieces on the Ness (probably Scurdie Ness).
Fifth-rate
In Britain's Royal Navy during the classic age of fighting sail, a fifth rate was the penultimate class of warships in a hierarchal system of six "ratings" based on size and firepower.-Rating:...
frigate of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, built at Frindsbury
Frindsbury
Frindsbury is part of the Medway Towns conurbation in Kent, southern England. It lies on the opposite side of the River Medway to Rochester, and at various times in its history has been considered fully or partially part of the City of Rochester. Frindsbury refers to both a parish and a manor....
and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War
Gunboat War
The Gunboat War was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy...
and elsewhere in the Baltic before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.
Jamaica station
Captain James WalkerJames Walker (Royal Navy officer)
James Walker CB, CavTe was an officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of Rear-Admiral....
commissioned Tartar in July 1801. She sailed for Jamaica in October.
In June 1802 Captain Charles Inglis
Charles Inglis (d. 1833)
Charles Inglis was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of post-captain....
took command. On 30 August 1802 Tartar was among the British warships sharing in the capture of the French tartane
Tartane
A Tartane or tartan was a small ship used both as a fishing ship and for coastal trading in the Mediterranean. They were in use for over 300 years until the late 19th century. A tartane had a single mast on which was rigged a large lateen sail, and with a bowsprit and fore-sail. When the wind was...
Concezione.
In 1803 Captain John Perkins
John Perkins (Royal Navy officer)
Captain John Perkins, Royal Navy was a British naval officer.Perkins, nicknamed Jack Punch, was the first black commissioned officer in the Royal Navy. He rose from obscurity to be one of the most successful ship captains of the Georgian navy...
succeeded Inglis. Tartar was in Captain John Loring's squadron when captured the 74-gun Duquesne
French ship Duquesne (1787)
The Duquesne was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.It directed in 1793, under captain Vence, an important convoy of Levant then escaped the hostile monitoring from a squadron Anglo-Spanish....
on 25 July off Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
. Tartar outsailed her larger companions and kept the Duquesne engaged until came up and Duquesne surrendered.
As the British warships and their prize were sailing between the two islands of St. Domingo and Tortudo
Tortuga Island
Tortuga Island may refer to:* Dry Tortugas group of islands in the Florida Keys* La Tortuga Island in Venezuela* Tortuga * Isla Tortuga, in Baja California Sur, Mexico...
, near Port-au-Paix
Port-de-Paix
Port-de-Paix is a city and the capital of the département of Nord-Ouest in Haïti on the Atlantic coast. It has a population of 250,000 ....
, they met up with the French schooner Oiseaux. She was armed with 16 guns and her crew of 60 men was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Druault. Loring ordered Vanguard and Tartar to escort Duquesne and Oiseaux to Port Royal.
Between 20 November and 4 December 1803 Tartar was in company with Captain Loring's squadron when the squadron captured the French ships of war Decouverte, Clorinde
French frigate Clorinde (1801)
The Clorinde was a 44-gun Uranie class frigate of the French Navy.She was laid down as Havraise in 1796, and was renamed to Clorinde before her commissioning in Nantes. In 1801, she was under Emmanuel Halgan....
, Surveillante
French frigate Surveillante (1802)
The Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38 gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned...
, Vertu, and Cerf. Surveillante and Clorinde were bought into British service. Surveillante had on board at her surrender General Rochambeau
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau
Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau was a French soldier, the son of Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau....
the commander of the French forces on Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue
The labour for these plantations was provided by an estimated 790,000 African slaves . Between 1764 and 1771, the average annual importation of slaves varied between 10,000-15,000; by 1786 it was about 28,000, and from 1787 onward, the colony received more than 40,000 slaves a year...
. On 1 December the squadron detained the Hiram for a breach of the blockade of Cape Francois.
In 1803 and 1804 Perkins escorted Edward Corbet to Haiti. Corbet had been appointed to liaise with Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines
Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1801 constitution. Initially regarded as Governor-General, Dessalines later named himself Emperor Jacques I of Haiti...
, the new governor general and later first Emperor of Haiti. These missions were often less than successful.
In 1804 Tartar was on the Jamaica Station under Captain Keith Maxwell, who had 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:...
on 1 May. On 31 July she sighted a schooner. Maxwell set off to prevent the schooner from entering the narrow and intricate channel between the island of Saona and San Domingo
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
where it would be difficult for him to pursue. As Tartar got closer he saw that the schooner was using her sweeps to aid her. Her behaviour made Maxwell suspect that his quarry was a privateer so he pursued her until neither vessel could progress farther. At that point, Maxwell was unable to get Tartar into a position from which she could use her broadside. Instead, he sent in a cutting out party in three boats. As the boats set out, their quarry fired a gun, hoisted French colours, and then opened fire on the boats. The schooner was not able to deter the attack and the British captured her with no more casualties than two men wounded. The French lost nine killed and six wounded, as well as three missing, presumed drowned when they tried to swim to shore. Maxwell sent the wounded to San Domingo under flag of truce, but kept the other Frenchmen prisoners, there being no English prisoners available for exchange. The privateer was the Hirondelle, under the command of Captain La Place. She was armed with ten 4-pounder guns and had been out of San Domingo for two days. She had been active during the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and for the past two years also, having frequently escaped pursuit due to her speed.
At the end of 1804, Captain Edward Hawker joined Tartar from and sailed her from Jamaica to the Halifax station. On 9 January 1805 Tartar, in company with Surveillante
French frigate Surveillante (1802)
The Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38 gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned...
, captured the Spanish ship Batidor.
On 6 May 1806 Tartar captured the American brig Romulus. Then on 9 June Tartar and the 10-gun cutter captured the French navy corvette Observateur, of 18 guns and 104 men, which was under the command of Captain Crozier. Observateur had sailed from Cayenne on 13 May with the brig-of-war Argus, with provisions for a four-month cruise but had not captured anything.
On 23 August Tartar captured the Charlestown packet
Packet ship
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...
. Later in the year Captain Hawker exchanged with Captain Stephen Poyntz of and Tartar returned to England under reduced masts as a consequence of damage she had sustained in a hurricane.
Tartar was paid off in October 1807. Then between October and April 1808 she underwent repairs, which cost £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
18,700.
Gunboat War
In October, Captain George BettesworthGeorge Edmund Byron Bettesworth
George Edmund Byron Bettesworth was a British Naval Officer. During his service he participated in a notable single ship action, and had been wounded 24 times, which is probably a record.-HMS Phoebe:...
took command while Tartar was fitting out at Deptford for service in the Baltic. This was early in the Gunboat War
Gunboat War
The Gunboat War was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy...
between Britain and Denmark-Norway.
In what became known as the Battle of Alvøen
Battle of Alvøen
The Battle of Alvøen was a sea battle of the Gunboat War between Denmark-Norway and the United Kingdom. It was fought on 16 May 1808 in Vatlestraumen, outside Bergen in Norway, between the British frigate HMS Tartar and a Norwegian force consisting of four kanonjolles and one kanonsjalupps .The...
, Tartar sailed to attack the Dutch frigate Guelderland, of thirty-six 6 and 12-pounder guns, which had been reported to be in Bergen being repaired. Guederland had been escorting a small convoy to Batavia but then had to deviate to deal with a leak that she had developed.
Tartar left Leith roads on 10 May 1807 and arrived off Bergen on the 12th, but heavy fog prevented her from getting closer until three days later. Unfortunately, by the time Tartar arrived, Guelderland had sailed more than a week earlier. Bettesworth nevertheless decided to send his boats into the harbour to cut out some merchant vessels and three privateers that were there. When the boats encountered heavy fire and discovered that a heavy chain protected the ships in the harbour, they and Bettesworth returned to Tartar. However, as Tartar tried to withdraw, she came attack from the schooner Odin and between three and six gunboats (accounts differ). Cannon fire from the Norwegians killed Bettesworth and a midshipman, Henry FitzHugh, early in the action. A further twelve men were wounded before Tartar was able to complete her withdrawal. The Danes lost four men, and a gunboat.
Captain Joseph Baker
Joseph Baker (captain)
Joseph Baker was an officer in the Royal Navy, best known for his role in the mapping of the Pacific Northwest Coast of America during the Vancouver Expedition of 1791-1795. Mt. Baker is named after him.-Voyaging with Vancouver:...
replaced Bettesworth in May. On 3 November Tartar was escorting a convoy in the Naze of Norway. She was twelve leagues
League (unit)
A league is a unit of length . It was long common in Europe and Latin America, but it is no longer an official unit in any nation. The league originally referred to the distance a person or a horse could walk in an hour...
off Bovenbergen (Bovbjerg, Jutland) when she sighted a sloop that after a chase of three hours she captured. The sloop was the Danish privateer Naargske Gutten, of seven 6 and 4-pounder guns and 36 men. She was quite new and only one day out from Christiansand, without having made any captures. Six days later Tartar was in company with when they captured the Jonge Minert.
On 27 July 1808, Tartar was in company with when Cygnet captured the Dutch privateer Christiana. Cygnet chased the privateer brig for nine hours before she could capture her. Christiana was a former British merchant brig now armed with twelve 12-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 and two long 9-pounder guns, and had a crew of 60 men. She had provisions for a one-month cruise and had sailed three days earlier from Christiana
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
to intercept the homeward-bound Greenland-men off the north of Shetland.
Between 11 and 16 March 1809, Tartar, , and captured sundry Danish vessels in the Baltic. On 13 March Tartar captured the Danish privateer Falcon, while Ranger and Rose shared by agreement.
Three days later Tartar captured the Kron Prince Frederick. She was carrying a cargo of spices that the Honourable East India Company sold.
Tartar shared with , , and in the capture on 8 April of the Vergnugen and Gustaff. The next day the same four warships captured the Caroline, and Tartar, apparently alone, captured the St Johannes.
Then on 10 and 11 April, Tartar was in company with Orion, Superb and Cruizer when they captured the Danish sloop Brigetta and the Prussian 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...
Erwartnung. At the end of the month, on 30 April, Tartar captured the Charlotte, with Superb, , Vanguard, , Constant, , and being in sight. That same day Tartar, Superb and Constant captured the Maria Dorothea.
On 15 May 1809, Baker and Tartar chased a Danish privateer sloop near Felixberg
Jurkalne
Jūrkalne is a village in Latvia. Its former German name was Feliksberg .Jūrkalne was the birthplace of Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, the Jewish ethnologist and musicologist....
on the coast of Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
. The sloop was armed with two 12-pounders on slides and two long 4-pounders, and carried a crew of 24. Her crew ran her ashore and then left her, taking their muskets up behind some sandhills where some local civilians joined them. Baker, concerned that the schooner might harm British trade, sent in his boats to bring her out or destroy her. The British cutting out party boarded the privateer, without loss despite the small arms fire from the beach, got her off the shore, and turned her guns on the beach. While the boarding party was securing the vessel, one of the men fortunately discovered a lighted candle set in a powder cartridge in the magazine and extinguished it when it had only a half an inch to burn. The privateer's magazine
Magazine (artillery)
Magazine is the name for an item or place within which ammunition is stored. It is taken from the Arabic word "makahazin" meaning "warehouse".-Ammunition storage areas:...
contained about a hundredweight of powder; had it exploded it would have killed the boarding party.Baker considered this artifice a "dishonourable Mode of Warfare". The prize crew then brought the sloop off. The privateer was probably the Felix.
On 28 October 1809 captured the Destrigheiden, the Rinaldine and a sloop, name unknown, while in the company of Tartar and . By agreement, Commander John Willoughby Marshall of Lynx and Baker of Tartar pooled their share of the prize money with that due Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter, the commander of the Cheerful.
On 13 April 1810 Tartar captured Crown Sloop No. 9. Then four days later Tartar and were in sight when captured the Enighied.
Tartar and were in company when they captured the Twende Broders on 31 July. Tartar then captured the Anna Maria Elizabeth and Enigheit on 6 and 7 August with the Emanuel and Eliza Maria following on 11 and 10 August.
Battle of Anholt
At the beginning of February 1811 Captain MauriceJames Wilkes Maurice
Vice-Admiral James Wilkes Maurice was an officer of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
warned Vice Admiral Sir James Saumarez that the Danes were planning an attack on the island of Anholt
Anholt (Denmark)
Anholt is a Danish island in the Kattegat, midway between Jutland and Sweden, with 171 permanent residents as of 1 January 2010. It is seven miles long and about four miles wide at its widest and covers an area of 21,75 km². Anholt is part of Norddjurs municipality in Region Midtjylland...
, on which there was a small British garrison of which Maurice was the commander. Maurice received further confirmation of the attack on 8 March. Saumarez ordered Tartar and Sheldrake to sail to Anholt to provide support. They left Yarmouth on 20 March and anchored off the north end of the island on 26 March.
The next day the British garrison sighted the invasion force off the south side of the island. Maurice marched to meet them with a battery of howitzers and 200 infantry, but was not able to forestall a landing. He therefore pulled back to prepared positions and alerted Tartar and Sheldrake that the enemy was on shore. The two vessels immediately set sail, with Tartar going around one side of the island and Sheldrake the other. However, the shoals forced Tartar to swing wide, delaying her by many hours.
The Danes, who had eighteen heavy gunboats for support, had landed more than 1000 troops in the darkness and fog. They were poorly equipped and their attack was uncoordinated, with the result that the British batteries at Fort Yorke (the British base) and Massareenes stopped the assault. Gunfire from Tartar and Sheldrake forced the gunboats to move off westwards.
The gunboats made their escape over the reefs while the ships had to sail around the outside. Tartar chased three gunboats towards Læsø
Læsø
Læsø is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Læsø is also the name of the municipality on that island...
but found herself in shoal water as night approached and gave up the chase. On the way back Tartar captured two Danish transports that she had passed while chasing the gunboats; one of them had 22 soldiers on board, with a considerable quantity of ammunition, shells and the like, while the other contained provisions. Sheldrake managed to capture two gunboats.
About half of the Danish invasion force managed to board fourteen gunboats on the western side of Anholt and make their escape that way. The Battle of Anholt
Battle of Anholt
The Battle of Anholt occurred during the Gunboat War, a war between the United Kingdom and Denmark-Norway. It was an attempt by the Danes to recapture Anholt, a small Danish island off the coast of Jutland, which the British had captured in 1809...
cost the British only two killed and 30 wounded. The Danes lost their commander, three other officers, and 50 men killed. The British took, besides the wounded, five captains, nine lieutenants, and 504 rank and file as prisoners, as well as three pieces of artillery, 500 muskets, and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. In addition, Sheldrakes two captured gunboats resulted in another two lieutenants of the Danish Navy and 119 men falling prisoner.
The Danish troops came from the 2nd Battalion of Jutland Sharp Shooters, 4th Battalion 2d Regiment Jutland Jagers and the 4th Battalion lst Regiment Jutland Infantry. Maurice sent a flag of truce to Jutland offering to release the prisoners on their parole not to serve until exchanged. Baker proposed that if the Danish authorities agreed to these terms, that he would take all the prisoners to Randers
Randers
Randers is a city in Randers municipality on the Jutland peninsula in central Denmark. It is Denmark's sixth-largest city, with a population of 60,656 . Randers city is the main town of the municipality and the site of its municipal council.-Overview:Randers municipality has 94,750 inhabitants...
to exchange for the officers and crew of the sloop which had wrecked off Jutland on 13 February 1811.
Because the Admiralty had declared the island of Anholt a vessel, "HMS Anholt", for administrative purposes, Tartar shared with her and Sheldrake in the head money for the battle and for gunboats No.1 and No. 7, which Sheldrake had taken. HMS Anholt also had a schooner, the Anholt, as a tender. She had been cruising looking for enemy vessels but had returned in time to take part in the battle. All four vessels, i.e., including the island HMS Anholt, also shared in the money for the ordnance stores captured. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Anholt 27 March 1811" to the remaining British survivors of the battle.
Tartar and captured St. Helena (4 June), St. Johannes (5 June), St. Alexa (26 June), and the packet of Abo (4 July). On 17 June they captured the Commerce. A month later, on 27 July 1811, Tartar and Ethalion were in sight when captured the St Ivan. In June and July the two warships also captured the Danish galiots Nos. 7 and 9, the St. Peter and St. Simeon, and the sloop Expressen.
Fate
Tartar grounded on 18 August 1811 on Dagö IslandHiiumaa
Hiiumaa is the second largest island belonging to Estonia. It is located in the Baltic Sea, north of the island of Saaremaa, a part of the West Estonian archipelago. Its largest town is Kärdla.-Name:...
off the coast of Estonia and sprang a leak. Her crew was able to refloat her but she continued to fill with water. Baker then ran her ashore on 21 August at Kahar Islet, midway between Dagö Island and the Isle of Worms; he later burned her to prevent her capture.
Ethalion rescued all her crew, who then were re-assigned to other ships on the Baltic station. A court martial on 23 October honorably acquitted Captain Baker, his officers and crew of Tartars loss.
Curiously, there are prize money notices crediting Tartar and Ethalion with the capture on 11 September of the Primus.
Post script
On the Sunday prior to 6 November, a Russian galiotGaliot
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...
that Tartar had captured was laying stranded at Montrose
Montrose, Angus
Montrose is a coastal resort town and former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. It is situated 38 miles north of Dundee between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers...
. The river had carried her and deposited her on the beach. A strong tide then lifted her, causing her to drift out to sea where she was dashed to pieces on the Ness (probably Scurdie Ness).