HMS Landrail (1806)
Introduction '''HMS ''Landrail''''' was a ''Cuckoo''-class schooner built by Thomas Sutton at Ringmore, Teignmouth. Like all her class she carried four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20.She had a relatively uneventful career during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 until 1814 when she was taken in a notable action, and then retaken. She was sold in approximately 1818.
Service The first mention of her service occurred in 1812 when she operated in the Channel under the command of Lieutenant John Hill.On the afternoon of 18 December 1812 ''Landrail'' chased the French 40-gun frigate ''Gloire'' in company with the 18-gun ship-sloop , the 12-gun schooner ''Pickle'' and the 12-gun brig-sloop . ''Albacore'' and ''Pickle'' had found themselves close to the much larger French ship off The Lizard at daybreak in light winds. In the exchange of fire ''Albacore'' suffered one man killed and six or seven wounded before she pulled back. ''Borer'' and ''Landrail'' closed to assist, but ''Gloire'' managed to outrun her pursuers. In the engagement ''Landrail'' did not actually fire her guns. As James put it, "for the Landrail to have fired her 12-pounders would have been a farce. "In 1813 ''Landrail'' performed a number of duties, including accompanying a convoy to the Baltic and carrying dispatches to Heligoland. On 17 June ''Landrail'' captured the Danish sloop ''Resolutionen'', C. P. Albech, Master. Then some months later, on 13 November, she captured the Danish vessel ''Hoffnung''.On 6 January 1814 ''Landrail'' arrived at the Isles of Scilly where she was put under quarantine. She brought with her the ship ''Duck'', bound from Newfoundland to Portugal, which also carried the crews of a number of merchant vessels that two French frigates had captured. On 22 March she arrived at Falmouth from Bordeaux with a French officer with dispatches. On 21 June Lieutenant Robert Daniel Lancaster took command.
Capture and recapture On 12 July ''Landrail'' was in the Channel, on her way to Gibraltar with dispatches when she encountered the American privateer ''Syren'' under Captain J.D. Daniels. ''Syren'' carried seven cannons, one long 12 on a travelling (pivoting) carriage, four long 6-pounders and two 18-pounder carronades, and a crew of 50 men. This gave her a broadside of 42 pounds, compared to ''Landrail'' s 24 pounds, and a crew two and a half times larger. ''Syren'' had had a successful cruise, capturing six British vessels, and she gave chase. Lancaster attempted to escape, keeping up a running fight of a little over an hour, and a close action of 40 minutes. During the action, one of ''Landrail''s engaged carronades was disabled. She turned, so as to be able to use the two on her other broadside. ''Landrail'' and ''Syren'' ended up close together with the muzzles of their guns touching. Eventually ''Landrail'', out of small-arms ammunition, with the breechings of her carronades carried away, struck. She had suffered five, or seven men wounded. Her sails were riddled with shot-holes and her hull had taken many hits.  '' Syren'' had three men killed and 15 wounded. Some American reports give the ''Syren''’s losses as only three men wounded. On 28 August, the ''Cruizer''-class brig-sloop , under the command of Lieutenant Richard Crawford (acting Commander), recaptured ''Landrail'' while she was on her way to the United States. ''Wasp'' took ''Landrail'' into Halifax.However, the officers and crew of ''Landrail'' remained in captivity in the US. ''Syren'' returned to the United States but as she approached the Delaware River the British blockading ships gave chase. To escape the boats of  and , on 16 November ''Syren'' ran ashore under Cape May. Her crew set her on fire before making their escape.In late 1814 or early 1815, while on the Halifax station under Lieutenant (Gustavus) Robert Rochfort, ''Landrail'' successfully repulsed a force of five American privateers. The American vessels were the 10-gun ''Charles Stewart'' of Boston, the 4-gun ''Cumberland'' of Portland, the 4-gun ''Fame'' of Thomastown, the sloop ''Jefferson'' of Salem, and a schooner, name and armament unknown. ''Landrail'' was on her way to join a convoy to Castine, Maine, then in British possession. The fight lasted some two hours though there is no report of casualties on ''Landrail''. Reportedly, the American privateers did suffer a number of killed and wounded.
Fate ''Landrail'' was paid off October 1816.She was sold in or about 1818.
Postscript ''Landrail''’s flag went to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis where it hangs with a number of other captured flags.===Coincidence===On 11 July 1896, almost exactly 92 years after the first ''Landrail''s capture by ''Syren'', the torpedo gunboat  rammed and sank the clipper merchant ship ''Siren''. ''Siren'' was a large four-masted vessel carrying a cargo of wool and tallow from Sydney to Britain. The accident occurred on a clear night, some thirty miles from Portland Bill. There were no lives lost on either vessel and ''Landrail'' herself suffered trifling damage. The owners of ''Siren'' put their loss at £86,529.
Notes
Citations
References *Allen, Joseph (1846) ''The New Navy List and General Records of the Services of Officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines''. (London: Parker, Furnival, and Parker, Military Library, Whitehall). * * *James, William (1817) ''A full and correct account of the chief naval occurrences of the late war between Great Britain and the United States of America''. (London: T. Egerton). ** *Owen, Douglas (1914) ''Ocean Trade and Shipping''. (Cambridge: Cambridge University). *Snider, G.H.J. (1928) ''Under the Red Jack: Privateers of the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the War of 1812''. (London: Martin Hopkinson & Co.). * *Washburn, Harold Connett (United States Naval Academy; 1913) ''Illustrated case inscriptions from the official catalogue of the trophy flags of the United States Navy''. (Baltimore, Md. : The Lord Baltimore Press). *