HMS Cruizer (often Cruiser) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been ordered to her design. She had an eventful wartime career, mostly in the North Sea, English Channel and the Baltic, and captured some 15 privateers and warships, and many merchant vessels. She also participated in several actions. She was laid up in 1813 and the Commissioners of the Navy sold her for breaking in 1819.
Design Cruizer was a prototype brig-rigged sloop-of-war designed in 1796 by Sir William Rule, the Surveyor of the Navy. Her hull was identical to the Snake-class ship-sloop, but she carried a pair of square-rigged masts instead of the three masts fitted in the Snake class. The original design had an armament of eighteen 6-pounder long guns but it was soon decided to replace the broadside weapons with sixteen 32-pounder carronades, leaving two 6-pounders as chase guns. The net effect was to increase the broadside weight of shot massively, at the cost of reducing her broadside's effective range. This mix became the pattern for all the other, later members of her class.
Construction Cruizer was ordered by the Admiralty on 19 December 1796 to be built in the commercial yard of Stephen Teague at Ipswich. She was laid down in February 1797 and launched on 20 December the same year.
Service history Commander Charles Wollaston commissioned her in February 1798 for the North Sea.
North Sea (1798 – 1800) On 27 March 1798 Cruizer captured the French privateer lugger Jupiter after a three-hour chase. Jupiter had eight guns and a crew of 36 men. She was 14 days into her cruise from Boulogne.
On 4 and 5 May Cruizer was among the vessels that captured 12 outward-bound Greenland ships. The other vessels included the hired armed cutters Fox, and Marshall Cobourg, and , though most were much larger and included , , , , , among others. Cruizer shared with , , and the hired armed cutter Rose in the proceeds from the capture on 13 May of the Houismon, Welfart, and Ouldst Kendt.
Then on 19 May, Cruizer was six or seven leagues SE by S off Lowestoff when she encountered two French privateer luggers. During the chase one lost her main and foremast and struck. Cruizer continued in chase of the other until 5 pm when it became clear that the quarry was gaining, and Wollaston was losing sight of the lugger that had struck. He therefore gave up the chase and returned to the first lugger. She was Chasseur, from Honfleur, and had been out eight days without taking anything. She was armed with four 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 48 men. The lugger that escaped was Dragon, of four 6-pounder guns. The two luggers had left Honfleur together and were going to cruise the Dogger Bank.
In August Cruizer captured the Dutch Greenlandsmen Fortuna, Jacob Sroertjes, master, and Endraght, Claas Boertjes, master.
Cruizer shared with , , and the hired armed cutter Courier in the proceeds from the capture on 16 April 1799 of the Prussian hoy Dolphin. That same day Cruizer captured Commerce, Christiansen, master. Cruizer was a part of Admiral Lord Duncan's fleet on 21 April and shared in the proceeds of the capture of Harmonie.
Cruizer shared with , and the hired armed cutters Fox and Hazard in the proceeds of the capture on 24 April 1799 of the Swedish brig Neptunus. Two days later, Scorpion and Cruizer captured Adelaide, Bose, late master.
On 12 May Cruizer captured Vrow Etje, Meertens, master. Cruizer shared the proceeds with and . Four days later Cruizer captured Reformator, Scheepens, master.
Also between 8 March and 12 May, Cruizer captured several other small Dutch vessels.
On 21 May Cruiser was south of St Abb's Head when at 11 am she sighted two luggers further south. Wollaston set off after them, but the weather was too unsettled for him to keep them continually in sight. Still, by correctly estimating where they were headed he was able to catch up by 4:30, only to have a sudden gust of wind take away Cruizers main-top-gallant-mast. Cruizer was not able to catch up with them again until 9 p.m. Wollaston was not able to close and lost sight of them again. However, at daylight, as Cruizer was about two or three leagues off Scarborough Castle, Wollaston again sighted one of the luggers about eight miles away. After a six-hour chase, Cruizer captured the privateer, which turned out to be Deux Freres, Captain Jacques Bellet, 14 guns (12 of which she had thrown overboard during the chase), and 50 men. She was from Calais and had been cruising since 16 April. Captain Bellet informed Wollaston that the second lugger was Tipoo Sahib, of 12 guns. Tipoo Sahib had thrown all her guns and her boat overboard during the chase and had gone either to France or Norway. Wollaston decided that as 26 of his crew were away in prizes, and he had 50 prisoners on board, that he would come into Yarmouth to land the prisoners before returning to his station.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 2, p.244.
Cruizer continued operating in the North Sea, capturing the privateer Courageux on 13 July after a chase of three hours. Courageaux carried 14 guns and a crew of 47 men. She was six weeks out of Dunkirk. During her cruise she had captured four vessels, one of which Cruizer had recaptured the evening before.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 2, p.343. On 25 August Cruizer captured Catharina Magdalena, Ahrens, master.
Cruizer captured the 14-gun French privateer Perseverant on 23 March 1800. Cruizer had been boarding two brigs when she sighted a suspicious sail to the east. Cruizer gave chase and after five hours succeeded in capturing the French privateer cutter Perseverant. Perseverant was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 47 men under the command of Captain Delattre. Wollaston described her as "a remarkably fine Vessel, copper-bottomed, and has captured an amazing Number of Vessels in the North Sea." On this cruise, Perseverant was 20 days out of Dunkirk, having stopped at the Texel for two days, but had not captured anything.
Two days later Cruizer captured the 14-gun Filibustier. Cruizer had been boarding a brig from Bremen, whose master reported that three hours earlier a French privateer steering to the NE had hailed him. Cruizer immediately set of in chase and by eight-thirty had caught up with and captured the privateer. Flibustier had a crew of 54 men under the command of Captain Cany. She was only one day out of Dunkirk and had captured nothing.
Wollaston sent both Perseverant and Flibustier into Yarmouth.
On 22 May Cruizer and captured Maria Charlotta, Backendorff, master.
In August, Cruizer detained Elizabeth, J. M. Farrer, master. Elizabeth was bound for Amsterdam and carried 25 hogsheads of sugar. Then on 18 September Cruizer captured Vertrouwen, Simons, master.
Copenhagen (1801)
In January 1801 Commander James Brisbane recommissioned Cruizer. On 23 February she recaptured Aberdeen Packet, of Aberdeen, and Harriot, of Sunderland.
Cruizer was then assigned to Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's expedition to the Baltic, which had as its objective to compel the Danes to abandon the League of Armed Neutrality. In March Cruizer sailed with Parker's fleet from Yarmouth roads for Copenhagen.
On 30 March, prior to the battle, the boats and masters of and Cruizer placed buoys to mark the narrow channel between Saltholm and Middelgrund ("the Middle Ground" shoal), part of the waterway of Øresund between Copenhagen and Malmö. Brisbane impressed his immediate superior, Vice Admiral Nelson, with this work, and was promoted to post captain after the subsequent battle of Copenhagen.Brisbane, Sir James, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, J. K. Laughton, Retrieved 13 July 2008 In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen" to all surviving claimants from the action.
In April, Commander John Hancock took command of Cruizer for the North Sea station. Cruizer, , and shared in the proceeds of the capture on 1 October of Antonius, and the capture the next day of Jonge Jacob.
Blockade of the Netherlands (1803 – 1806) Together with Jalouse and Immortalité, Cruizer captured two French armed vessels, the schooner Inabordable and the brig Commode on 14 June 1803 after they had run aground under the guns of a shore battery for protection. After about an hour's firing by the batteries, the British sloops, and the French gun-vessels, the boats were able to take possession and refloat the two gun-vessels. Each of the French gun-vessels was armed with three 24-pounder guns and one 8-pounder gun. Later reports described the two French vessels as gun-brigs, and gave their names as Inabordable, and Mechanté. The Royal Navy did not take either into service.
Chiffonne, , and Cruizer shared in the capture of Flore on 5 August 1803. The same three vessels shared the salvage money arising from the recapture on the same day of Margaret, Robert Lacs, master.
Boats from Cruizer and Rattler cut out the 4-gun cutter Colombe from Sluis on the night of 8 March 1804. Unfortunately Colombe grounded and when the cutting-out party was unable to free her, they set her on fire to prevent her recapture.Naval Chronicle, Vol. 14, p.345.
Later that month Cruizer and Rattler were anchored off Blankenberge; 13 armed vessels carried troops from the shore with the intention of boarding, but they were beaten back until the shallow water and the guns of the Ostend batteries prevented further chase.
Later in 1804 Cruizer was used as the inshore vessel in the blockade of Flushing, and as part of her duties she was required to report the movements of vessels in and around the harbour to the officer in command of the operation, Captain Sir Sidney Smith of Antelope. On 15 May 1804 Cruizer reported 22 vessels sailing from Ostend. By morning it was apparent that a flotilla of 59 vessels, comprising prams, schooners, and schuyts, had sailed from Flushing and was making its way along the shallow coastal waters to Ostend. Cruizer and Rattler attacked that afternoon, just as the wind changed and forced the Dutch vessels to turn back for Flushing. The frigates Penelope and Antelope attacked the leading vessels, and Aimable was sent to assist Cruizer and Rattler in dealing with the rearmost vessels. The British were surrounded by a host of small vessels, and operating in shallow water. The engagement lasted six hours, and Cruizer lost one man killed and three wounded. Much damage was done to the Flushing flotilla, although more sailors were killed in trying to destroy the grounded vessels over the next few days than were lost in the engagement.Age of Nelson Antelope, Rattler, and Cruizer shared in the proceeds of the capture on 16 May of Dutch schuyt No. 98.
Cruizer captured the French privateer Contre Amiral Magon on 16 October 1804 after a chase of 100 miles. The gun-brig , the hired armed brig Ann, and cutter Florence were also in company but fell behind in the chase. The French brig, under the command of Captain Blauckman, surrendered without a fight after Cruizer sent three warning shots from her 32-pounder carronades. She was quite new and on her first cruise. She was pierced for 18 guns but mounted 17: fourteen 6-pounder guns, two 18-pounder carronades, and one 9-pounder gun. Her crew of 84 men consisted of Frenchmen, Danes, Swedes, and Americans. Of the 67 men aboard, 19 being away in prizes, seven of the Americans promptly joined the crew of Cruizer.