HMS Lutine (1779) - Service in Northern Europe

Service in Northern Europe

The loss of the Lutine occurred during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars, in which an Anglo-Russian army landed in the Batavian Republic (now the Netherlands), which had been occupied by the French since 1795. (The French had captured the Dutch fleet the previous year in a cavalry charge over the frozen polders.) Admiral Duncan had heavily defeated the Dutch fleet in 1797 at the Battle of Camperdown and the remainder of the Dutch fleet was captured on 30 August 1799 by the Duke of York.

During this period Lutine served as an escort, guiding transports in and out of the shoal waters around North Holland.

In October 1799 she was employed in carrying about £1,200,000 (equivalent to £81,176,969 in 2007) in bullion and coin from Yarmouth to Cuxhaven in order to provide Hamburg banks with funds in order to prevent a stock market crash and possibly also, for paying troops in North Holland. In the evening of 9 October 1799, during a heavy north-westerly gale, the ship under Captain Lancelot Skynner, having made unexpected leeway, was drawn by the tidal stream flowing into the Waddenzee, onto a sandbank off the island of Terschelling, near Texel. There, she became a total loss. All but one of her 240-odd passengers and crew perished in the breaking seas.

The loss was reported by Captain Portlock commander of the British squadron at Vlieland, who wrote to the Admiralty in London on 10 October:

Sir, It is with extreme pain that I have to state to you the melancholy fate of H.M.S. Lutine, which ship ran on to the outer bank of the Fly Island passage on the night of the 9th inst. in a heavy gale of wind from the NNW, and I am much afraid the crew with the exception of one man, who was saved on a part of the wreck, have perished. This man, when taken up, was almost exhausted. He is at present tolerably recovered, and relates that the Lutine left Yarmouth Roads on the morning of the 9th inst. bound for the Texel, and that she had on board a considerable quantity of money. The wind blowing strong from the NNW, and the lee tide coming on, rendered it impossible with Schowts or other boats to go out to aid her until daylight in the morning, and at that time nothing was to be seen but parts of the wreck. I shall use every endeavour to save what I can from the wreck, but from the situation she is lying in, I am afraid little will be recovered.

Three officers, including Captain Skynner, were apparently buried in the Vlieland churchyard, and around two hundred others were buried in a mass grave near the Brandaris lighthouse in Terschelling. No memorials mark these graves.

Captain Lancelot Skynner came from Easton on the Hill, near Stamford, England, where his father was the curate for many years. Plaques on the rectory and in the church commemorate this and Captain Skynner.

The failure of the gold to arrive precipitated the very crisis that it had been designed to prevent.