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CYANE
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(22) |
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Built in 1806, Topsham.
Taken in 1815. |
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She was rated a 22-gun ship and mounted that number of long 9-pounders on her main deck. However she was also armed with eight 18-pounders and two long 6-pounders on her quarter-deck and forecastle. - 1807 Capt. Thomas STAINES, 03/1807.
He added two brass howitzers to her armament and exchanged her 9-pounders for 32-pound carronades. He also increased her complement by twenty to 175 officers, men and boys.
CYANE took part in the operations off Copenhagen in September 1807 and after the capitulation of the Danish navy she was employed in the blockade of Zealand.
On 30 November she sailed from Helsinburgh in company with VANGUARD escorting a convoy of merchant ships home to England.
In February 1808 she sailed for the Mediterranean where her boats captured eight merchantmen before, on 22 May, Capt. STAINES captured the last Spanish vessel to be taken before Spain threw in her lot against the French.She was the letter of marque MEDUSA, of 12 guns and 80 men which he took while cruising off Majorca.
On 3 June 1808 Capt. STAINES was invited to Palma Bay to meet the patriotic Junta on the island of Majorca and, after talking with a deputation, he hastened to inform Rear Ad. THORNBROUGH who sent APOLLO to open negotiations. - Until the following spring CYANE was employed assisting patriots on the south coast of Spain. She then came under the orders of Rear Ad. MARTIN who was responsible for the defence of Sicily and on 8 May 1809 she captured a bombard and drove another vessel ashore near Naples.
On the 10th. CYANE and ALCESTE attacked a French convoy at Terracina and sank two gunboats, and, on the 14th. and 15th., they raided a depot near Monte Circello and brought off a large quantity of timber.
Two days later Capt. STAINES, leaving his detachment of seamen and marines some distance off, captured a Martello tower mounting two heavy guns by pretending to the garrison that powder had been laid to blow them up.
When the French soldiers dithered he fired a musket through the keyhole and they all came tumbling out.
Another tower was captured in the same way. - On 11 June the admiral sailed from Milazzo in N. W. Sicily in CANOPUS with SPARTIATE, WARRIOR, CYANE and ESPOIR and more than 130 sail of transports and gunboats.
His intention was to enter the Gulf of St. Euphemia and divert the attention of the enemy from Lower Calabria where PHILOMEL and four transports were to land two regiments of infantry to destroy shore batteries.
It remained calm for several days until, on the 15th., they were joined by nearly 100 sail of transports, ALCESTE and two Sicilian frigates from Palermo.
While WARRIOR and SUCCESS covered the capture of the islands of Ischia and Procida on the 25th., CYANE and ESPOIR with twelve Sicilian gunboats were detached to the southward to cruise between Procida and Point Miseno to hinder reinforcements reaching the islands.
On the 24th. Capt. STAINES drove 12 gunboats into the Bay of Pozzuoli and cut out two polacres from under different batteries, one containing troops to reinforce Procida. - The following morning a 42-gun frigate, a 28-gun corvette and the division of gunboats attempted to come out of the bay and force their way to Naples but were driven back by CYANE and her squadron.
On the 26th. CYANE sustained the fire of two heavy batteries for two hours and received 23 large shot in her hull. She lost two men killed, Daniel YOUNG, captain of the main-top and John EVANS, boy 2nd class, one, David JONES, master's mate, mortally wounded and six slightly wounded.
Later fifteen French soldiers at a battery on Point Mesino surrendered to CYANE's boats and their guns were destroyed. - On the morning of the 27th. CYANE was becalmed under a battery of eight 42-pounders, two ten inch mortars and two howitzers.
After two hours Capt. STAINES led a landing party which spiked the guns, threw one of the mortars into the sea, and returned without loss.
On the evening of the same day CYANE left her boats and swept up to attack the enemy frigate which was supported by batteries and gunboats as she made her way into Naples, and for an hour and a half she was alone within half pistol-shot ESPOIR and the gunboats were too far astern to help her. Capt, STAINES had to break off the action when CYANE's powder was exhausted and both vessels were getting too close to the mole at Naples.
Capt. STAINES and Lieuts. James HALL and John FERRIOR were wounded in the action, the first two dangerously so, and the ship was fought in the later stages by the master, Mr Joseph MILLER. The captain lost his left arm out of the socket (for which he later received a pension of 300 per annum) and was wounded in the side, Mr HALL was wounded in the thigh and arm and, although expected to recover, he died at his home in Scarington, Notts, the following summer.
Samuel JONES, seaman, and William BERRY, marine, were killed and, apart from those above, John TAYLOR, midshipman, and 16 men were wounded. All CYANE's masts and yards were damaged by large shot and 19 balls went through the hull; 26 others were found lodged in the sides. Lord COLLINGWOOD, acknowledging the gallantry of CYANE's people in their three days of battle, ordered her home for a refit. - Capt. STAINES returned on 16 October and was knighted on 6 December. He was appointed to HAMADRYAD in April 1810
- 1811 Capt. F. A. COLLIER, off Cherbourg. Later in the year she was in the Mediterranean.
- 1812 Capt. Thomas FORREST, West Indies.
- 1814 Ditto Madeira. Later in the year Capt. Gordon FALCON, to Halifax.
- 1815 Ditto, Cork for Newfoundland.
- On 20 February 1815 CYANE and LEVANT were about 100 miles east of Madeira.
At about one o'clock in the afternoon CYANE tacked towards a strange vessel and challenged her, when she received no reply she assumed the other to be an American frigate, so made haste towards LEVANT.
The frigate was the USS CONSTITUTION which had left Boston on 11 December 1814.
Just after 6 o'clock CYANE got on the CONSTITUTION's port bow and LEVANT on the port quarter and all three ships fired broadsides. The action continued for about half an hour during which time CYANE's masts and rigging were so badly damaged that she became unmanageable. When CONSTITUTION ranged alongside her CYANE, with four killed, 13 wounded and five feet of water in the hold, lowered her colours and fired a gun to leeward. The Americans put a Lieut. Hoffman and a prize crew on board and left her to go in pursuit of LEVANT which managed to fire a broadside into CONSTITUTION but was soon overhauled and captured.
The Americans took their prisoners to St. Jago (Santiago) in the Cape Verde Is. and landed them there, but left in a hurry when British ships were reported, she and LEVANT taking one course and CYANE another. Capt. Sir George COLLIER in LEANDER caught sight of them off Porto Praya on the 11th. and succeeded in recapturing LEVANT.
CYANE arrived in the North River on 10 April and anchored near the USS CONSTELLATION. - A court martial assembled on board AKBAR at Halifax on 28 June 1815 to consider the conduct of the officers and crew of CYANE. It found that no blame could be ascribed to Capt. FALCON or his crew since they had come up against the superior force of seventeen long 24-pounders which were no match for CYANE's carronades, and they were honourably acquitted. The court also praised the crew who, with the exception of John FREDERICK, John VARLEY and Thomas FITZGERALD, resisted the severe pressures of the Americans to wean them from their allegience.
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