HMS Hazard (1794) - French Revolutionary Wars

French Revolutionary Wars

She entered service in 1794 under Commander John Loring. Command passed rapidly, first to Commander Robert Dudley Oliver the following year and then to Commander Alexander Ruddach in 1796, who sailed her from Cork on the Irish station.

Under Ruddach she captured the French privateer Terrible on 16 July off Cape Clear Island. Hazard chased the brig for eight hours before she was able to capture Terrible. She carried 14 guns and a crew of 106 men. She was six days out of Brest but had not taken any prizes.

Then on New Year's Day 1797 Hazard took the privateer Musette about 30 leagues west of Cape Clear. Musette was armed with 22 guns and carried a crew of 150 men. She had taken two vessels, one of which was the Abbey, of Liverpool. She had been sailing from Lisbon to Liverpool when Musette captured her. However, Daphne had recaptured the Abbey and brought her in.

Late in March, Vice-Admiral Lord Kingsmill received intelligence that a French cruiser had been seen off the Skellocks on the coast of Ireland. Kingsmill dispatched Hazard on 28 March, and on 1 April she found the French vessel. After a chase of seven hours, Hazard caught her quarry, but only because the privateer had lost both topmasts. The privateer was the brig Hardi, of 18 guns and 130 men. Hardi had been built at Cowes, about two years earlier, for the Spaniards. Hardi had left Brest on 17 March and during her cruise had escaped two British frigates that had chased her. She had captured only one prize, a small Portuguese vessel of little value. On 8 June Hazard captured the Danish brig Barbara.

Commander William Butterfield took command in July 1798. On 7 August he captured the American snow Two Brothers that a French privateer had taken three days earlier. The master of the snow gave Butterfield information that led Butterfield to try to find her. On 12 August he encountered a French privateer of 24 guns and gave chase. The chase lasted two days before the French vessel jettisoned her guns and escaped. As she escaped, Butterfield sighted another vessel that seemed suspicious and approached her.

The new quarry turned out to be the French warship Neptune with a crew of 53 and 270 soldiers on board, sailing from Île de France to Bordeaux. She was pierced for 20 guns but only carried 10. In the ensuing two-hour engagement, Neptune fought all ten guns on one side while the soldiers fired their muskets. She also attempted to board Hazard. Eventually Neptune surrendered after she had suffered 20 to 30 killed and wounded; Hazard had 6 men wounded. During the fight Hazard saw a French privateer in the distance that declined to get involved. As she returned to port with Neptune, Hazard saw a French privateer with an English prize, the Britannia, in tow, and directed a British frigate to the scene.

In 1800 and 1801, Hazard was employed on the convoy route between Britain and Newfoundland and subsequently between Britain and Belfast. On 18 July 1801 a court martial on board Gladiator tried Lieutenant John Alexander Douglas of Hazard for being absent without leave. The charges were proved and the board ordered him to be dismissed from the Navy.

Between June and August 1802 Hazard was fitted at Portsmouth. Commander Robert I. Neave (or Neve) commissioned her in June 1802, for the Channel.

On 25 August 1802 Constance and Hazard received orders to collect Dutch troops from Lymington and take them to Cuxhaven. They sailed two days later and passed through Spithead on their way to the Elbe, reaching there on 31 August. During the Peace of Amiens, Hazard convoyed Dutch soldiers from Britain back to the Continent.