HMS Tartar (1801) - Gunboat War

Gunboat War

In October, Captain George Bettesworth took command while Tartar was fitting out at Deptford for service in the Baltic. This was early in the Gunboat War between Britain and Denmark-Norway.

In what became known as the Battle of Alvøen, Tartar sailed to attack the Dutch frigate Guelderland, of thirty-six 6 and 12-pounder guns, which had been reported to be in Bergen being repaired. Guederland had been escorting a small convoy to Batavia but then had to deviate to deal with a leak that she had developed.

Tartar left Leith roads on 10 May 1807 and arrived off Bergen on the 12th, but heavy fog prevented her from getting closer until three days later. Unfortunately, by the time Tartar arrived, Guelderland had sailed more than a week earlier. Bettesworth nevertheless decided to send his boats into the harbour to cut out some merchant vessels and three privateers that were there. When the boats encountered heavy fire and discovered that a heavy chain protected the ships in the harbour, they and Bettesworth returned to Tartar. However, as Tartar tried to withdraw, she came attack from the schooner Odin and between three and six gunboats (accounts differ). Cannon fire from the Norwegians killed Bettesworth and a midshipman, Henry FitzHugh, early in the action. A further twelve men were wounded before Tartar was able to complete her withdrawal. The Danes lost four men, and a gunboat.

Captain Joseph Baker replaced Bettesworth in May. On 3 November Tartar was escorting a convoy in the Naze of Norway. She was twelve leagues off Bovenbergen (Bovbjerg, Jutland) when she sighted a sloop that after a chase of three hours she captured. The sloop was the Danish privateer Naargske Gutten, of seven 6 and 4-pounder guns and 36 men. She was quite new and only one day out from Christiansand, without having made any captures. Six days later Tartar was in company with Constant when they captured the Jonge Minert.

On 27 July 1808, Tartar was in company with Cygnet when Cygnet captured the Dutch privateer Christiana. Cygnet chased the privateer brig for nine hours before she could capture her. Christiana was a former British merchant brig now armed with twelve 12-pounder carronades and two long 9-pounder guns, and had a crew of 60 men. She had provisions for a one-month cruise and had sailed three days earlier from Christiana to intercept the homeward-bound Greenland-men off the north of Shetland.

Between 11 and 16 March 1809, Tartar, Ranger, and Rose captured sundry Danish vessels in the Baltic. On 13 March Tartar captured the Danish privateer Falcon, while Ranger and Rose shared by agreement.

Three days later Tartar captured the Kron Prince Frederick. She was carrying a cargo of spices that the Honourable East India Company sold.

Tartar shared with Orion, Superb, and Cruizer in the capture on 8 April of the Vergnugen and Gustaff. The next day the same four warships captured the Caroline, and Tartar, apparently alone, captured the St Johannes.

Then on 10 and 11 April, Tartar was in company with Orion, Superb and Cruizer when they captured the Danish sloop Brigetta and the Prussian galiot Erwartnung. At the end of the month, on 30 April, Tartar captured the Charlotte, with Superb, Stately, Vanguard, Allart, Constant, Monkey, and Urgent being in sight. That same day Tartar, Superb and Constant captured the Maria Dorothea.

On 15 May 1809, Baker and Tartar chased a Danish privateer sloop near Felixberg on the coast of Courland. The sloop was armed with two 12-pounders on slides and two long 4-pounders, and carried a crew of 24. Her crew ran her ashore and then left her, taking their muskets up behind some sandhills where some local civilians joined them. Baker, concerned that the schooner might harm British trade, sent in his boats to bring her out or destroy her. The British cutting out party boarded the privateer, without loss despite the small arms fire from the beach, got her off the shore, and turned her guns on the beach. While the boarding party was securing the vessel, one of the men fortunately discovered a lighted candle set in a powder cartridge in the magazine and extinguished it when it had only a half an inch to burn. The privateer's magazine contained about a hundredweight of powder; had it exploded it would have killed the boarding party. The prize crew then brought the sloop off. The privateer was probably the Felix.

On 28 October 1809 Cheerful captured the Destrigheiden, the Rinaldine and a sloop, name unknown, while in the company of Tartar and Lynx. By agreement, Commander John Willoughby Marshall of Lynx and Baker of Tartar pooled their share of the prize money with that due Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter, the commander of the Cheerful.

On 13 April 1810 Tartar captured Crown Sloop No. 9. Then four days later Tartar and Nightingale were in sight when Mercurius captured the Enighied.

Tartar and Raleigh were in company when they captured the Twende Broders on 31 July. Tartar then captured the Anna Maria Elizabeth and Enigheit on 6 and 7 August with the Emanuel and Eliza Maria following on 11 and 10 August.