HMS Express (1815)

HMS Express was the American merchant vessel Achilles, launched in 1809 in America. Her owners in 1813 renamed her Anna Maria.[2] In 1814 she served the British Royal Navy in North American waters as an advice boat. In 1815 the Royal Navy commissioned her as HMS Express, a ship's tender serving in the Mediterranean. In 1816 she was at the bombardment of Algiers. The Navy sold her at Malta in 1827.

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Express.

History
United States
Name: Achilles
Launched: 1809
Renamed: Anna Maria (1813)
Fate: Captured c.1813-14
UK
Name: HMS Anna Maria
Acquired: c.1814 by capture
Honours and
awards:		 Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814"[1]
Fate: Sold 1815 to the Admiralty
UK
Name: HMS Express
Acquired: May 1815 by purchase of a prize
Fate: Sold 1827
General characteristics [2]
Tons burthen: 92​27⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 64 ft 6 1⁄2 in (19.7 m) (overall)
  • 53 ft 6 3⁄8 in (16.3 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 0 in (5.5 m)
Depth of hold: 7 ft 1 in (2.2 m)
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 26
Armament: 4 x 12-pounder carronades

HMS Anna Maria

It is not clear when the Royal Navy captured Anna Maria. On 27 November 1813 HMS Plantagenet captured the "Sloop Anna Maria, of 7 men and 60 tons, from Philadelphia, bound to New York".[3] This is the most likely candidate from among the several Anna Marias whose capture was announced in the London Gazette.

Anna Maria participated in the expedition up the Potomac (August–September 1814). On 17 August Euryalus, bomb vessels Devastation, Aetna, and Meteor, the rocket ship Erebus, and the dispatch boat Anna-Maria were detached under Captain Gordon of Seahorse to sail up the Potomac River and bombard Fort Washington, about ten or twelve miles below the capital.

Later Euryalus contributed a boat armed with a howitzer to assist Meteor, Fairy, Anna Maria, and a gunboat taken in prize in their unsuccessful attempt to stop the Americans from adding guns to a battery that would impede the British withdrawal.[4][Note 1] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814" to all surviving claimants from the campaign; the listing of the vessels qualifying gives the name of Anna Maria's commander as "Jackson".

Anna Maria also shared in the prize money for the schooner Mary and the goods from the transports Lloyd and Abeona, captured in the Chesapeake between 29 November and 19 December 1814.[Note 2]

HMS Express

The Admiralty purchased Anna Maria in May of 1815.[2] She was then commissioned in June as HMS Express under the command of Lieutenant E. Garrett. Thereafter she served in the Mediterranean as a tender.[9]

Express was at the bombardment of Algiers on 27 August 1816.[10][Note 3]

From September 1821 Express served as a tender to Revenge with Mate James Gordon as her commander.[11] From March to July 1824 she was at the blockade of Algiers.[12] Lloyd's List reported that on 29 February, The Express Ship of War, one of the English Squadron blockading Algiers, arrived at Marseilles.[13] Gordon left Express on 27 June 1826, on his promotion to Lieutenant.[11]

Fate

The Royal Navy sold Express on 26 July 1827 at Malta.[2]

Notes, citations and references

Notes

  1. A first-class share of the prize money for the campaign was worth £183 9s 1¾d; a sixth-class share was worth £1 19s 3½d.[5] For a second and final payment, the respective amounts were £42 13s 10¾d and 9s 1¾d.[6] For the capture of the Chesapeake in August, there was a separate award of £2 6s 3d and 6d, respectively.[7]
  2. A first-class share of the prize money was worth £26 15s 10½d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth 6s 1½d.[8]
  3. She is not among the vessels whose crews qualified for the NGSM with clasp Algiers that the Admiralty authorized in 1847.[1] However, as a tender, all of her crew would have been drawn from the vessel she was serving and would have qualified in that capacity.

Citations

  1. "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 245.
  2. Winfield (2008), p. 371.
  3. "No. 16865". The London Gazette. 8 March 1814. pp. 511–512.
  4. "No. 16947". The London Gazette. 17 October 1814. pp. 2080–2082.
  5. "No. 17305". The London Gazette. 15 November 1817. p. 2316.
  6. "No. 17482". The London Gazette. 1 June 1819. p. 955.
  7. "No. 19255". The London Gazette. 3 April 1835. p. 644.
  8. "No. 17376". The London Gazette. 7 July 1818. p. 1224.
  9. "NMM, vessel ID 366550" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol vi. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  10. Anon. (1941), p. 332, Fn. 1.
  11. O'Byrne (1849), p. 408.
  12. Blofeld (1844), p. 372.
  13. Lloyd's List №5889.

References

  • Anon. "By a Friend of the National Maritime Museum" (1941) "The Battle of Algiers", Mariner's mirror (October 1941), Vol. 27, pp. 324–338.
  • Blofeld, John Harcourt (1844) Algeria, Past and Present. (T.C. Newby).
  • O’Byrne, William R. (1849) A naval biographical dictionary: comprising the life and services of every living officer in Her Majesty's navy, from the rank of admiral of the fleet to that of lieutenant, inclusive. (London: J. Murray), vol. 1.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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