HMS Centaur (1797) - The Channel and Eastern Atlantic

The Channel and Eastern Atlantic

In 1806, Centaur was under the command of Captain W. H. Webley and also served as flagship for Captain Sir Samuel Hood, who was acting as Commodore of the squadron off Rochefort. On 16 July, boats from each of the squadron's line-of-battle ships and Indefatigable and Iris engaged in a cutting out expedition on two corvettes and a convoy in the Garonne. Lieutenant Edward Reynolds Sibley, Centaur's First Lieutenant, was badly wounded in the successful attack on the largest corvette, the five-year old Caesar. Caesar was armed with eighteen guns and had a complement of 86 men, under the command of Monsieur Louis Francois Hector Fourre, lieutenant de vaisseau. One man from Centaur was killed and seven, including Sibley, were wounded. The other French vessels escaped up the river and the British boats that followed them, unsuccessfully, suffered heavy casualties. In addition to the losses from Centaur, the British had five men killed, 29 wounded, and 21 missing, most of whom were apparently taken prisoner.

During the Action of 25 September 1806, Centaur captured Armide, and assisted in the capture of Infatigable, Gloire and Minerve. The British took all of them into the Royal Navy under their existing names. Centaur lost three men killed and three wounded. In addition, a musket ball shattered Hood's arm, which had to be amputated. The wound forced Hood to quit the deck and leave the ship in the charge of Lieutenant William Case.

Towards the end of 1806, Hood received orders to join a secret expedition at the Cape Verde Islands. However, the expedition sailed before Centaur arrived. Hood then took a squadron under his command to cruise between Madeira and the Canaries.