On This Day 30 November

[Coog]

On 30 November 1806 the 18-gun brig-sloop HMS Wolverine, under the command of Commander Francis Augustus Collier, fired on a British merchant vessel engaged in lawful trade. At 10pm, HMS Dart, under Commander Joseph Spear, and Wolverine came upon a ship that they suspected was a French privateer and that kept up a running fight until morning, only surrendering after her captain and several of her crew had been wounded, of whom six later died. The vessel turned out to be the British 24-gun slaver Mary, out of Liverpool, under Captain Hugh Crow. He had thought that the two vessels chasing him in the dark were French privateers out of Cayenne and was determined not to surrender his vessel without a fight. Commander Spear gave him a letter of praise for his determined resistance and the fight became something of a sensation; on his return home Crow received honour, glory and a substantial reward for his gallantry. Many slaves on board the Mary were killed or injured.

This was not the first such incident in which Wolverine was involved. In November 1805 Wolverine, then under the command of Commander John Smith, and the 36-gun frigate HMS Amethyst encountered each other off the coast of Madeira. After a series of ambiguous and misinterpreted moves by the other, the two captains mistook each other for enemies and opened fire. Both vessels survived and the two captains proceeded to exchange mutually recriminatory letters.

[David Manley]

Meanwhile,

1803 - HMShips Bellerophon and Hercule engaged the French during their evacuation of San Domingo. The French vessels Cerf, Clorinde, Semillante and Vertu were captured.

1808 - Cochrane's defence of Fort Trinidad during the French siege of Rosas, defending against general Pino's 5th Division of Reille's army.

1811 - HMS Rover captured the French privateer Compte reginaud (the former British Vincejo) in the South West Approaches 9approx. 250 miles SW of the Scillies)

1816 (tech) - the first trials of syphon-fitted water tanks for the storage of water in ships, replacing casks (which were henceforth reserved for emergency water supplies and spirits)