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HMS ''Piercer'' was a Royal Navy launched in 1804. She served against the French, Danes and Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars and was assigned to the Downs station. She participated in a number of operations in the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, and the North Sea. In 1814 the British government transferred ''Piercer'' to the Kingdom of Hanover for use as a guard ship. Hanover decommissioned her in 1850. ==British service== Lieutenant Thomas Carew commissioned ''Piercer'' in September 1804.〔 The next year she came under the command of Lieutenant John Sibrell, who had just transferred from the hired armed cutter ''Duchess of Cumberland'', and who sailed her amongst the Channel Islands. In June 1805 Lieutenant Carter assumed command,〔 apparently temporarily. On 3 August 1805, ''Piercer'' was in a squadron with , , , , and when they captured the ''Frederick Wilhelm''. At the time, Sibrell was in command of ''Piercer''. Then on 8 April 1806, ''Basilisk'' captured the ''Mercurius''. ''Piercer'' shared in the prize money by private agreement. In January 1807, Sibrell sailed ''Piercer'' for the North Sea.〔 On 15 October ''Piercer'', and were in company at the capture of the Danish bark ''Narbvalen''. ''Piercer'' shared by agreement in the proceeds of 's capture of the Danish ship ''Gamble Norge''. In November 1808 Sibrell captured the Danish vessels ''Catherina'' (4 November), and ''Speculation'' (6 November). During the Gunboat War, a flotilla of 25 Dano-Norwegian gunboats attacked a British convoy on 9 June 1809 off the island of Saltholm in Øresund Strait near Copenhagen. ''Piercer'' was one of the four British warships escorting the convoy. During the engagement the Danes captured 10 or 12 merchant vessels, as well as the gunbrig . (詳細はchasse marees, the ''Camilla'' and the ''Bonne Rencontre'', on 6 May 1810; ''Piercer'' and were in company. ''Piercer'' and the gun-brig were in company with ''Surveillante'' when on 23 June she captured the chasse marees ''Margaret'' and the ''Eclair''. On 12 September 1810, ''Piercer'' was in company with a squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Sir H.B. Neal when captured the chasse maree ''Sophie''. The vessels sharing in the prize included ''Caledonia'', ''Valiant'', , and the hired armed cutter ''Nimrod''. The next day, ''Piercer'' captured the French sloop ''Saint Pierre''. ''Piercer'' was part of a squadron under Captain James Newman-Newman in when the squadron captured the American vessel ''Beauty'' on 1 February 1811. Sibrell died in June and Lieutenant Joshua Kneeshaw assumed command.〔Winfield (2008), p.340.〕 On 14 August 1811 ''Piercer'' captured the chasse marees ''Marengo'' and ''Phillippe'', off the Sables d'Olonne. Two weeks later, ''Piercer'' was in company with when they captured the ''Catharina Augusta''. In December ''Piercer'' witnessed an unfortunate occurrence for the Royal Navy. On the 27th, and sent 120 men in six boats to attack a French convoy sailing along the shore in the Basque Roads. As the boats approached their quarry just south of the Chatillon Reef, the wind shifted, which permitted the convoy's escorts, three gun-brigs, an armed lugger and several pinnaces, to sally out and get between the British boats and their parent vessels. The French then attacked the boats, which tried to board their attackers. One British boat escaped, but a French gunboat captured ''Colossus''s barge. The other four British boats ran onshore where the French captured them and their crews.〔''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 27, pp.65-6.〕 The French account differs slightly, in that the brigs are reported as gunboats no.s 184, 186, and 191, and the other French attackers are ships' boats. Furthermore, M. Jacob, the commander of the French naval forces, states that he had anticipated the British attack and had made no overt response until the British boats were compromised. The French reported capturing 113 men, perhaps including five British sailors who were killed, two who died soon after, and several who were dangerously wounded.〔''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 27, pp.105-7.〕 When he saw the French attacking, Captain Lord William Stuart of ''Conquestador'' signaled ''Piercer'' to protect the British boats and sent her a boat with eighteen seamen and marines as reinforcements, but she was unable (or unwilling) to do so. The captured British sailors remained prisoners of war until the end of the war.〔Marshall (1835), Vol. 4, Part 2, pp.232-3.〕 On 10 September 1812 ''Piercer'' was in sight, and so shared in the prize money, when ''Arminde'' captured the chasse maree ''Civilité'. On 9 March 1813, ''Piercer'' recaptured the brig ''King George'', of 100 tons (bm) and five men, which had been captured while sailing from Dublin to Newport. By mid-1813, ''Piercer'' had been assigned to the Heligoland squadron commanded by Captain A. Farquhar in . On 10 July the squadron captured 19 boats on the rivers Elbe and Weser. ''Desiree'' arrived at Cuxhaven from Bremerlehe on 28 November to join the squadron gathered by ''Shamrock''. The British vessels had come to support the Russian troops under Colonel Alexander Radlinger, who were besieging the town. The squadron comprised , , ''Piercer'', , , and the gun-boats No.s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10. The two key positions were the French forts Napoleon and Phare. While the gunboats fired on Phare, the British landed a number of guns and established a battery of six 18-pounders, two 32-pounders, and two 6-pounders. Before the battery could start firing on the 30th, the French surrendered both forts. The French surrendered 26 heavy guns, two 13" mortars, and a blockhouse with a garrison of three hundred men and officers, all of whom became prisoners of war.〔 From late December 1813 Farquhar's squadron, comprising ''Desiree'', ''Hearty'', ''Blazer'', ''Piercer'', ''Shamrock'', ''Redbreast'', and eight gun-boats (the seven from Cuxhaven plus No. 12), supported Swedish forces under the command of General Baron de Boye against the Danes in the attack on the town and fortress of Glückstadt at the Elbe river during the War of the Sixth Coalition. The British arrived on 23 December and by 25 December had erected a battery of two 32-pounder guns. (They had landed six but the poor quality of the roads meant that only two were in place.) To support the bombardment on the next day, Farquhar sent in the gunboats and the brigs, whose armament he had reinforced with two 18-pounders each from ''Desiree''. The bombardment continued to the 28th. Glückstadt having failed to surrender, Farquhar established three more batteries, one of two 18-pounders, one of four 32-pounders, and one of the two 13" mortars captured at Cuxhaven. An English rocket brigade under Lieutenant Amherst Wright contributed to the bombardment. These batteries commenced bombarding the town on 1 January 1814, keeping it up for the next two days. On 4 January Farquhar sent in a flag of truce, and after negotiations, the governor surrendered on 5 January. British casualties overall were light and ''Piercer'' had none. Kneeshaw and ''Piercer'' brought the news back to Britain, arriving at the Admiralty on 12 January.〔 That same day the Admiralty promoted Kneeshaw to Commander and re-rated ''Piercer'' as a sloop, congruent with his rank.〔 On 15 July 1816 there was a first payment of £5000 in prize money to the navy for the capitulation of Glückstadt. The hired armed cutter ''Princess Augusta'', shared in the prize money. In appreciation of this operation the Swedish government awarded Kneeshaw, amongst others, a gold medal. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Gluckstadt 5 Jany. 1814" to all surviving claimants from the action. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Piercer (1804)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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