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ESPOIR
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(18) |
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Built in 1804, Dover (Cruizer class).
Broken up in 1821. |
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- 1805 Joseph EDMONDS.
On 22 June 1805 she retook the British ship HANNAH and the salvage money paid was 101.0.7 for the captain, 11.4.6 for commissioned officers, 5.12.3. for warrant officers and 2.11.9 for petty officers.
On 8 April 1807 ESPOIR joined Lord COLLINGWOOD in Cadiz with dispatches from Vice-Ad. DUCKWORTH detailing the activities of the squadron in the Dardanelles. - 1808 Henry HOPE.
On 26 April Lieut. William Henry HIGGS was ordered by Lord COLLINGWOOD to act as commander until HOPE took over. Mediterranean. - 1809 Robert MITFORD. Mediterranean.
Rear-Ad. MARTIN left Milazzo near Messina on 11 June 1809 in CANOPUS with SPARTIATE, WARRIOR,CYANE and ESPOIR in company. PHILOMEL was detached at the same time with four transports to land troops on the coast of Calabria.
On the 15th. the squadron was joined by a nearly 100 vessels from Palermo and on the 24th. they all anchored to the north of the islands of Ischia and Procida.
The following day a landing was made on Ischia and the island occupied except for one castle which held out until 1 July. Procida capitulated the same evening.
CYANE and ESPOIR with some Sicilian gunboats had been stationed to the southward of the islands and on the morning of the 20th. they were signalled to intercept a flotilla of 47 gunboats coming south from Gaeta and prevent them entering the Bay of Naples. They were brought to action by the British and Sicilian gunboats supported by CYANE and ESPOIR and 18 enemy gunboats were taken and 4 destroyed. - On 27 June CYANE and ESPOIR were in action with an Italian 40-gun frigate sailing from Baia into Naples under the protection of batteries along the shore.
- SUCCESS and ESPOIR were off Castiglone on 4 April 1810 and observed three vessels being loaded on the beach. The boats of ESPOIR, under Lieut. Robert OLIVER and master's mate George Lewis COATES, joined those of SUCCESS to try and destroy them. Three boats were swamped on a sunken reef about a musket-shot offshore and two seamen from ESPOIR, James DARLEY and James WINKEWORTH, gunner's mate, were drowned. Since all their ammunition was wet, the officers and men swam to the beach with cutlasses in their mouths and drove back the enemy who were firing on them with two long 6-pounders. The guns were spiked and two of the vessels, which were loaded with oil, were stove in. With great difficulty they launched the swamped boats and returned aboard. Marine private Philip METZ was also killed in the attack.
- A few days later SUCCESS and ESPOIR destroyed two laden sloops in the Bay of Naples. One, the SANTA ROSA, was laden with rope, the other was carrying herring.
- On 25 April 1810 SPARTAN, SUCCESS and ESPOIR attacked four square-rigged vessels and a number of feluccas anchored under a castle at Terracina. MITFORD went in to take soundings before the frigates closed and commenced a cannonade, then the boats of the squadron boarded and brought out four prizes.
- From 14 April to 7 July 1813 ESPOIR was again under the temporary command of Lieut. HIGGS until Robert Cavendish SPENCER took over.
- In August 1813 SPENCER suggested to Captain USSHER of UNDAUNTED that an attack could be mounted on the small port of Cassis, half way between Toulon and Marseilles. ESPOIR was left to blockade the vessels behind the mole while USSHER went to fetch REDWING, 200 marines and boats from the battleships.
On 8 August ESPOIR and REDWING were placed on either side of the mole head within 50 yards of the town to cover the landings. The batteries around the harbour were destroyed and all the vessels inside either brought out or burnt. - 1814 R. RUSSELL, 01/1814, to America.
- 1815 Jamaica.
- 1816 Norwich DUFF, 15/06/1814, Halifax Station.
ESPOIR formed part of the naval force in the Chesapeake and joined the expedition assembling in the West Indies for an attack on New Orleans.
After the war she performed fishery protection duties off Labrador and in the Bay of Fundy until relieved in August 1816. She paid off at Portsmouth in October 1816 and Cdr. DUFF was appointed to BEAVER. - 1817-1818 Portsmouth.
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