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DISPATCH (18) Built in 1804, Falmouth (Cruizer class).
Broken up in 1811.

  • 1805 Edward HAWKINS, Plymouth.
    While serving with Sir Thomas LOUIS's squadron she accepted the surrender of the French 40-gun frigate PRESIDENTE on 27 September 1806.
  • On 10, 11 and 12 February 1807 Capt. HAWKINS faced a court martial on board GLADIATOR at Portsmouth.
    An anonymous letter which proved to have been written by Thomas THOMPSON, late master of DISPATCH, charged him with the wilful murder of seaman William DAVIE, a sick person, by negligence and inattention between 9 and 25 December 1805.
    The captain brought evidence to show that DAVIE was a skulker who was being treated for venereal disease by the surgeon but had been dosing himself with quack medicines.
    Character witnesses said that Capt. HAWKINS behaviour was always marked with humanity and gentleness.
    The court decided that the charges were malicious and scandalous and he was acquitted.
  • 1807 James LILLICRAP.
    In the spring of 1807 DISPATCH convoyed a fleet of transports carrying two divisions of the King's German Legion from the Downs to the island of Rugen off the German Baltic coast where the French were besieging Stralsund, then the capital of Swedish Pomerania. She remained off the coast with a small squadron under Capt. LILLICRAP to protect the troops and, with ROSAMOND, cover the eventual evacuation of King Gustavus in a Swedish frigate.
    On one occasion DISPATCH, MUTINE and CENSOR fired broadsides at the French outposts near Griefswald.
    On 21 August DISPATCH escorted the last troops to leave Rugen to Kioge Bay in Zealand to join the rest of the army which had landed five days earlier to prepare for the attack on Copenhagen
  • When DISPATCH joined Ad. GAMBIER off Copenhagen Capt. LILLICRAP was ordered to mount four long 18-pounders and join the inshore squadron as senior commander under Capt. PUGET.
    The sloop was then engaged with the enemy gunboat flotillas nearly every day.
    On 31 August the armed transport CHARLES was blown up close to her by a shell from the Danish battery at Three Crowns with the loss of 10 killed and 21 wounded.
  • Although many commanders received promotion Capt. LILLICRAP did not receive post rank for another three years and DISPATCH sailed for Jamaica.
    On the night of 2 October 1808, while off Nevis with a convoy of merchantmen he captured a small French privateer schooner DORADE armed with one brass gun and carrying 20 men and retook a captured British merchant ship.
    While on the station he visited the interior of Haiti.
    Capt. LILLICRAP was promoted to post captain on 21/10/10, the fifth anniversary of Trafalgar but did not receive official notification until March 1811.
    He sailed for home in NAIAD.
  • 1811 James ABERDOUR, Jamaica.
    DISPATCH was home again by October when she was sold for breaking up.


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