HMS Cambrian was a Royal Navy 40-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was built and launched at Bursledon in 1797 and served in the English Channel, off North America, and in the Mediterranean. She was briefly flagship of both Admiral Mark Milbanke and Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell during her career, and was present at the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian was wrecked off the coast of Grabusa in 1828.
Design Ordered on 30 April 1795, Cambrian was designed by Sir John Henslow and built by George Parsons of Bursledon. She represented the first attempt to design a frigate that would carry 24-pounder guns and was one of several designs the Admiralty ordered to find a counter to French 24-pounder frigates. For her design, Henslow essentially simply scaled-up an earlier design. However, she was still too small to carry 24-pounder long guns comfortably and so the Admiralty replaced these first with lighter 24-pounders (in April 1799) and then with 18-pounders in 1805.
French Revolutionary Wars She was first commissioned in April 1797 under Captain Thomas Williams on the Irish station. Then under Captain Arthur Legge she served in the Channel, where she captured a number of French privateers.
On 11 January 1798, in company with and Childers, she captured the French privateer schooner Vengeur. Vengeur was a new vessel of 12 guns and 72 men. She was eight days out of Ostend but had taken no prizes. Pellew sent her into Falmouth.
Five days later, in the evening of 16 January, Sir Edward Pellew's squadron captured the French privateer Inconcevable. She was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 55 men. She was 10 days out of Dunkirk and had taken nothing. Prize money was paid to Indefatigable, Cambrian and .
On 28 January, Indefatigable and Cambrian captured the privateer Heureuse Nouvelle. She was armed with 22 guns and had a crew of 130 men. She was 36 days out of Brest and during that time had capture only one ship, a large American vessel named Providence, which had a cargo of cotton and sugar. The hired armed cutter also shared in the capture. Pellew sent Cambrian in pursuit of Providence, and that same day Cambrian and Indefatigable recaptured her.
On 27 March 1798, Cambrian captured Cæsar, a French privateer ship of 16 guns and 80 men. She was from Saint-Malo and 35 days out of Brest. Six days earlier, Cambrian and had recaptured William Pen of Philadelphia. Then three days after capturing Cæsar, Cambrian captured Pont de Lodi, which was also French privateer ship, and which carried 16 guns and 102 men. Pont de Lodi was five days out of Bordeaux, on her maiden cruise, and had not yet captured anything.
Near the end of the year, on 8 December, Cambrian captured the French privateer brig Cantabre. Cantabre, which was armed with 14 guns and which carried a crew of 60 men, was, according to Legge, "quite new... on her first Cruize, and a very fine Vessel." Four days later, Cambrian recaptured Dorothea, a Danish brig sailing from Amsterdam to Tangiers with a cargo of bale goods. Three days earlier the French privateer brig Rusée, of Bayonne had captured her in Lat. 42 Deg. 30 Min, North.
Around 20 January 1799, Cambrian encountered a tremendous gale in the Channel, with thunder and lightning. A fireball hit her forecastle, killing two men and wounding seventeen, of whom two were struck blind, and one of whom became "raving mad". All aboard expected immediate destruction.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 1, p.339.
Some months later, on 9 March, , , , and Cambrian captured the French merchant ship Victoire.
On 9 October 1799, Cambrian was among the several vessels that shared in the capture of the Spanish brig Nostra Senora de la Solidad. Then on 23 October, Cambrian recaptured Sarah. Cambrian also shared in the capture of the Spanish brig San Joachim by Triton.
Ten days later, Cambrian was in company with off the entrance to the Garonne when they spotted two vessels, which they immediately chased. Stag captured one, the letter of marque Heureux Premier, which was armed with 10 brass 6-pounder guns, and which was sailing from Cayenne to Bordeaux with a cargo of red dye, cotton, cocoa, coffee, and sugar. Cambrian sailed after the second vessel, a privateer of 26 guns, but apparently did not succeed in capturing her. Stag did share the prize money for Heureux Premier with Cambrian.
At the end of the month, on 30 October, the American ship Sally came into Plymouth. Cambrian had recaptured her after Sally had been captured by the French privateer Vengeance, of 20 guns and 160 men.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 2, p.541. Cambrian sailed in pursuit of Vengeance, but did not succeed in capturing her.
On 23 April 1800, Cambrian and were in company when they captured the French schooner Emelie. Four days later the two vessels were still in company when Fisgard captured the French privateer Dragon. Then on 5 May Cambrian and Fisgard captured the French brig corvette Dragon, pierced for 14 guns but armed with 10, and with a crew of 72 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Lachurie. She was two days out of Rochefort with dispatches for Guadeloupe.
Eleven months later, on 5 April 1801, Cambrian recaptured the letter of marque , which the French privateer Braave had captured three days earlier. Cambrian shared the prize money with and . The next day Cambrian captured the French privateer lugger Audacieux. Audacieux was armed with 14 guns and carried a crew of 50 men under the command of S.B. Ant. Candeau. Audacieux had left Bordeaux on 30 March and while at sea had captured one vessel, an American. Cambrian also shared the prize money for Audacieux with Venerable and Superb.
Lastly, on 28 July Cambrian captured the Danish ship Kron Prinz. In November 1804 there was a distribution of a £7000 advance on the prize money for her cargo. As captain, Legge would have been entitled to one-quarter of the prize money, an amount equal to some four years of salary. In May 1802 Captain William Bradley replaced Legge. That same month Cambrian came to serve as flagship to Admiral Mark Milbanke and later (July to March 1803) Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell while on the North America and West Indies Station.
Napoleonic Wars
In March 1804, Cambrian was under the command of Captain William Bradley and on her way to Bermuda when she captured two French privateers. On 22 March she captured the schooner Tison after a chase of 25 hours. Tison had been armed with six 9 and 12-pounder guns, which she threw overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 59 men under the command of Joseph Kastique, and had been out of Guadaloupe for 11 days buy had not captured anything. Four days later Cambrian captured the schooner Alexander (or Alexandre), which was armed with eight guns and had a crew of 68 men under the command of Charles La Marque. She had been cruising for 11 days but had not taken anything. Head money was paid in June 1827.
In October 1804 Cambrian came under the command of Captain John Beresford. From June to November 1804, Cambrian and had blockaded two French frigates in the port of New York. In November, the French vessels succeeded in escaping.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 13, p.64. The two were the Président and the other was supposedly the Revolutionnaire.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 13, p.161.
Then in May 1805, Cambrian transferred to the Halifax station, where she harassed French and Spanish shipping and captured several privateers and merchantmen. On 13 June her boats, under the command of Lieutenant George Pigot, boarded and captured the Spanish privateer schooner Maria, of 14 guns and 60 men. Somewhat uncharacteristically for privateers, the Spanish resisted, with the result that Cambrian sustained casualties of two dead and two wounded.
Next, Cambrian captured the French privateer schooner Matilda on 3 July, after a chase of 22 hours. Matilda, of 200 tons (BM), was armed with twenty 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 95 men. She surrendered in shoal water and if not for the efforts of Lieutenant Pigot in one of Cambrians boats, Matildas entire crew might have been lost. Matilda had earlier captured the letter of marque Clyde, which had been on her way to Liverpool. Prior to her capture by Cambrian, Matilda had evaded capture by Heron.
Boat service Then on 7 July Lieutenant Pigot again distinguished himself. He arrived off the harbour the day before and took the Matilda twelve miles up the St Marys River to attack three vessels reported to be there. All long the way militia and riflemen fired on Matilda. Eventually the British reached the vessels, which were lashed in a line cross the river. They consisted of a Spanish privateer schooner and her two prizes, the ship and the British brig Ceres, which the Spanish privateer had captured some two months earlier. The Spaniards had armed Golden Grove with eight 6-pounder guns and six swivels, and given a crew of 50 men. The brig too was armed with swivels and small arms. The Spanish schooner carried six guns and a crew of 70 men.
Pigot engaged the vessels for an hour, and after Matilda had grounded, took his crew in her boats and captured Golden Grove. The British then captured the other two vessels. Lastly, Pigot fired on a group of 100 militia and a field gun, dispersing them. The British had two men killed, and 14 wounded, including Pigot, who had received two bullet wounds to his head and one to a leg. Spanish casualties were reportedly 25 men killed (including five Americans) and 22 men wounded. A crowd of Americans on the Georgia side of the river watched the entire battle. Pigot was unable to extricate himself and his prizes from the river until 21 July, but during the entire period he remained in command except when he was getting his wounds dressed. For his efforts Pigot received a promotion to commander, and the Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded him a medal and a plate worth £50.Long (1895), pp. 421-2 & 435.
Cambrian arrived at Bermuda on 4 August, in company with Golden Grove, Ceres, and the privateer Matilda.
On 1 November, Cambrian captured Adeline.
Leander affair In 1806, Cambrian came under the command of Captain John Nairne (acting). While under his command she, along with Leander and the ship-sloop , was engaged in searching American vessels coming from foreign ports, for enemy property and contraband.James (1837), Vol. 4, p.236. This gave rise to the so-called Leander affair with the result that on 14 June President Thomas Jefferson issued a proclamation ordering Leander, Driver, and Cambrian immediately to quit US waters and forbidding them ever to return. He extended the same prohibition to all vessels that their respective captains might command.Draft of Proclamation concerning "Leander" - Thomas Jefferson, The Works of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 10 (Correspondence and Papers 1803-1807) , Ed. Paul Leicester Ford, Federal Edition (New York and London, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904-5). On 26 April, the day after the affair, Leander, Cambrian, and Driver captured the American ship Aurora.
Cambrian continued to cruise, including sailing to Charlestown to lift a blockade of the port by three French privateers.Ralfe (1828), p.6. Later, Nairne sailed Cambrian back to Britain in order to be a witness at the court martial of Captain Henry Whitby of Leander for the murder of John Pierce, the American supposedly killed by a shot from Leander, which was the substance of the affair. (Whitby was acquitted.) Between April and June 1807 Cambrian was at Portsmouth, refitting.
Copenhagen Captain the Honourable Charles Paget took command in May 1807. Cambrian then participated in the Expedition to Copenhagen. In October her captain was James Deans (acting), while Paget took up Admiral Gambier's offer to let him return to Britain in with the duplicate despatches announcing Denmark's capitulation.Paget & Paget (1896), Vol. 2, pp.352-3. Paget later resumed command. On 14 January 1808, Cambrian was under Paget's command when she captured the French ship Aeleon.