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ANTELOPE
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(50) |
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Built in 1802, Sheerness.
Broken up in 1845. |
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- 1803 Commodore Sir Sidney SMITH, at Hoseley Bay in June.
He sent a letter to the cabinet complaining about 'the naked state of the coast of Suffolk' and on 20 June he was ordered to sea immediately, accompanied by RAISONNABLE, and cruise between the Hague and Egmont ap Zee to meet Rear Ad. THORNBOROUGH and observe invasion preparations at Dunkirk. Three days later Ad. KEITH wrote to SMITH complaining that he had received no reports of SMITH's activities. SMITH replied on 5 August with a report on the state of the defences along the Suffolk coast. He seems to have offended most of his superiors by his conduct and at the beginning of September ANTELOPE was ordered to cruise off the Texel. "Two months will quieten him. " remarked TROUBRIDGE. - On 29 September Lieut. John Martin HANCHETT took ANTELOPE's launch, barge and 6-oared cutter to reconnoitre the enemy fleet in the Texel. At daylight they were pursued by two schooners and five rowing gun vessels and, when the latter became separated, he attacked and sank one before the cutters could reach them.
- Lieut, HANCHETT in the pinnace and Lieut. (act.) William DALYELL in the cutter went inshore at night on 24 October and drove sixteen vessels on shore. The tide left them dry so only one could be brought off, three were burnt and the rest damaged as much as possible. The boats drove 65 schuyts ashore under the Scheveling battery on 28 October and brought off two, and on the 30th. 3 schuyts which had run aground were destroyed by the barge in the Vlie passage.
Messrs HANCHETT, DALYELL and BOURNE (a midshipman) landed with 25 men on the island of Rottum on 2 November and chased the French troops across the island where they escaped in boats. - On the 17th. the same three officers with 11 men took the EXPERIMENT schuyt from Yarmouth to the coast of Zealand. Gale force winds blew them into shoal water in the Roompot and they ran ashore on the S. W. end of the island of Goree. At low water they found themselves nearly a mile from the shore. The enemy tried without success to take possession for three days but, after 5 men had deserted, the remainder set the schuyt on fire and tried to escape in her boat. When this sprang a leak they tried to commandeer a vessel off Schouwen but were forced to surrender as prisoners of war.
On the 17th. day under strict guard at Zierick-Zee the three officers managed to escape and, by pretending to be shipwrecked Americans, reached Rotterdam. Here Lieut. HANCHETT was helped by a Scotsman to get to a Mr Brown at Emden in Prussia where a passage was procured for him in an American vessel. The other two young men, Mr DAYELL was 19 years old, followed along the same route but fell in with a man engaged in smuggling Germans to England who borrowed nearly all their money before putting them in an inn of bad repute. Here they were arrested and with their companion charged with what was, at France's insistence, now a capital offence.
Mr Brown managed to persuade the burgomasters that the two had no knowledge of the other's activities and they put on board a galliot which delivered them to ANTELOPE at Yarmouth. - Messrs. HANCHETT and DALYELL were back in action on 18 March 1804 when they brought out four Dutch vessels from Zierick-Zee. On the 31st. Lieuts. HANCHETT, BOXER, BARBER and DALYELL with Mr HAWKINS of MAGICIENNE, boarded the Dutch national galliot CHRIK, mounting two long 18-pounders and four sixes, with 94 men. Fifteen of the attackers were killed and many, including Messrs. BOXER and BARBER were wounded.
- In May 1804 Sir Sidney SMITH reported to Ad. KEITH that the French flotilla at Flushing had sailed on the 16th. and, despite the efforts of his squadron, had joined with the flotilla at Ostend. CRUIZER and RATTLER, (with Messrs BUDD and DALYELL of ANTELOPE acting in the absence of two lieutenants) supported by AIMABLE, attacked the French line of 59 praams, schooners and schuyts. PENELOPE, hampered by the shoal water worked up as close as she could, while ANTELOPE, navigated by Mr LEWIS, the master, and Messrs NUNN and WEBB, pilots, went round the Stroom Sand to cut off the van. ANTELOPE and PENELOPE, under constant fire from shore artillery, engaged the long line for four hours and drove a number of the enemy on shore. Lieut. STOKES and act. Lieut. SLESSER directed the fire on the lower and main decks.
The squadron lost 13 killed and 32 wounded, ANTELOPE's share being 2 seamen and 1 marine wounded. - The following day another letter from SMITH, who was becoming ill with lack of rest, pleaded for a relief from blockade duty. He was promised Capt. Henry BAZELY who then commanded ANTELOPE between May and November.
- On the evening of 8 December 1804 Capt. Home POPHAM in ANTELOPE organised an attack on Fort Rouge, a wooden fort on the sands off Boulogne, using carcasses and the SUSANNAH explosion vessel. Act. Lieut. BARTHOLOMEW of ANTELOPE was unable to fetch the fort but Lieut. STEWART of MONARCH was able to damage the westward side of the fort with the explosion vessel.
- Capt. Henry BAZELY obtained permanent command of ANTELOPE in August 1805 and shortly after she hoisted the broad pennant of Commodore SMITH off Boulogne.
During the night of 30 September 1805 two long galleys, with other boats, manned by volunteers from ANTELOPE, UTRECHT and some other ships entered Boulogne harbour and set carcasses adrift among the shipping.
From December she served as a private ship off the Texel and escorting the trade to and from St. Helena. - ANTELOPE sailed from St. Helena on 7 September 1806 escorting the SURAT CASTLE and DORSETSHIRE which had arrived from Penang on 6 August. They had spent the month waiting for the arrival of the WARREN HASTINGS before learning that she had been captured by the French privateer ANACHREON. The convoy, including eight whalers, arrived in the Downs on 27 October.
- George MELVIN, a seaman from ANTELOPE, was tried by court martial at Portsmouth on 20 February 1807 for desertion. He was sentenced to receive 300 lashes.
- In November 1807 Capt. BAZELY, troubled by a wound he had received in action with the PALLAS frigate back in February 1800, resigned his command.
- 1808 Capt. Edward GALWAY, St. Helena.
- 1811 Capt. CARPENTER. Flagship of Ad. Sir J. DUCKWORTH, Newfoundland.
On 22 November Henry PORTER, John FIGG, William CODLIN, William ROWLAND and John WOOD, seamen of ANTELOPE, were tried for deserting with a boat at Pitt's Harbour, on the coast of Labrador. The charge being part proved they were each sentenced to receive 200 lashes. - 1813 Capt. Samuel BUTCHER. Baltic.
During the summer ANTELOPE was very active against Danish vessels which were attempting to molest the British trade going through the Great Belt.
On the 11th. October the ship captured the privateer KERA VENNER and her boats under Lieut. ROBERTSON took two row-boat privateers. One of the row-boats was manned from ANTELOPE and, on the 24th., captured the schooner ELEONORA armed with 3 carriage guns and 2 swivels and carrying 37 men, together with a lugger in company. The following day the row-boats under Lieut. Massy Hutchinson HERBERT took a Danish government sloop rigged vessel with two 6-pounders and 14 men and, on the 30th., another government vessel with one 4-pounder and 15 men. On one of these occasions Lieut. HERBERT was saved from injury from a sword blow to the head by a silk handkerchief inside his hat. - On 1 March 1814 ANTELOPE, with a Russian frigate and the RESOLUTION hired cutter, forced the channel between Flushing and Cadsand. She received several shot from the chain of batteries on both sides of the Hondt and had a few men badly wounded including the Dutch pilot. The RESOLUTION, which had been taking soundings ahead, had her gaff-top-sail sheet shot away and fell astern. The marks could no longer be seen when a thick fog came down while they were off Breskins and ANTELOPE was about to anchor when she grounded between two spits of sand on the tail of the Hoogplaat. For the following 41 hours she remained fast within range of the enemy's mortar batteries before the return of the tide and she was got off with assistance from the NYMPHEN frigate and the CRETAN and BANTERER sloops.
- On 8 July 1814, with a convoy of 121 sail, consisting of merchantmen and transports with troops, stores and ammunition, bound for Halifax, Newfoundland and BERMUDA, Capt. BUTCHER put into Bearhaven in Bantry Bay. The weather was squally and unsettled so he went to visit his wife and family at Killarney for the first time in two years and delayed re-sailing until the 17th. although the ships were reported ready on the 13th.
- Charges were later brought against him on the instigation of Lloyds and his trial started on 8 February 1815. It lasted eight days and at the end the court sentenced him to be only reprimanded.
- In October 1814 while ANTELOPE was at Quebec, her first lieutenant, Mr Massy Hutchinson HERBERT, volunteered to take command of the party of seamen going to Lake Ontario.
- 1815 Capt. George SAYER (2), 08/1815, fitting out at Portsmouth as the flagship of Rear Ad. John HARVEY in the West Indies. She was put out of commission in April 1819.
- 1820 Troopship at Chatham.
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