A wartime lack of building materials meant that Minerva and her class were built to the outdated 50-year-old design of the Richmond class, and were thus smaller than many contemporary frigates.[2]
Service history
From February 1806 Minerva served under Captain George Collier in the English Channel.[1] On 27 April she took the 14-gun Spanish privateer La Finisterre with HMS Conflict.[3]Minerva then took part in a number of small-boat operations on the coast, including taking an 8-gun fort and cutting out 5 Spanish coasters on 22 June.[4] For this action her First Lieutenant, William Mulcaster, received a sword of £50 value from Lloyd's Patriotic Fund.[5] On 11 July of the same year, her barge successfully took the 1-gun luggerLa Buena Dicha after a chase of nearly 40 miles around Guarda.[6]
On 29 October while reconnoitering the approaches to Pontevedra, Minerva cut out 2 chasse marées from Porto Novo, and 2 days later her barge took a Spanish lugger which had sailed from Avilés.[7] Staying active, Captain Collier led the ship's cutter and barge to take a 24-pounder gun-boat and 30 men on 2 October, still in the vicinity of Pontevedra.[7]
Alongside HMS Amazon she recaptured the schooner Jackdaw off the Cape Verde islands on 17 February 1807; Jackdaw had been captured only the day before.[1] In October 1807 Minerva was serving alongside HMS Naiad and HMS Phoenix, sharing in Naiad's prize of the ship Vigilante.[8] By the end of the year Captain Richard Hawkins had assumed command.[1] On 17–18 March 1808, Minerva captured the Spanish ships La Purissima Consecion, La Caroline, and a lugger.[9]
Minerva continued serving off the Spanish and French coasts, taking the 8-gun privateer La Joséphine on 23 September 1808. La Joséphine overset in a gale as she was captured, and Minerva was only able to save 16 of the 50-man crew.[10] In October 1808 she took the 14-gun L'Améthyste and on 14 April 1809 the Danish brig Edward.[11] By August 1809 Minerva was serving off Ushant and took the Carl Ludwig alongside HMS Dreadnought, HMS Gibraltar, HMS Tonnant, and HMS Snapper on 2 August.[12] She took another ship, the chasse marée Le Bienfaisant, on 10 August.[13]Minerva continued this run of successful captures into October, taking the French ships L'Emerance and L'Emulation on 3 and 12 October respectively and the chasse marée La Victoire 8 days later.[14]
By 3 December 1810 Minerva was part of the joint expedition of Vice-Admiral Sir Albemarle Bertie and Major-General John Abercrombie which successfully capturedIsle de France.[15] On 28 December she detained the ship Mary while in company with HMS Royal Oak and HMS Valiant.[16] She sailed for Newfoundland on 6 May 1811, participating in convoy duties from North America to the West Indies between 1812 and 1813.[10]
French frigate L'Artimise
On 18 August 1808, Minerva possibly destroyed the French 40-gun frigate L'Artimise near Brest.[17]The London Gazette shows that head money was paid to the crew on 5 March 1811, while chroniclers in 1828 describe elements of the Brest blockading squadron chasing her ashore.[18][19] However, there is no concrete evidence of such a ship existing on the French establishment. The previous Artémise was destroyed at the Battle of the Nile in 1787. William O'Byrne suggests it was a new ship that Charles Dashwood fought in 1801, however, William James could find no evidence of the existence of a L'Artémise apart from Dashwood's engagement and her reported destruction by Minerva in 1808.[20][21] Thus, while it is assured that Minerva destroyed a ship by running it ashore on 18 August 1808, the identity of that ship is unknown.
^James, Naval History of Great Britain Vol. 3, pp. 147-8.
References
Clowes, William Laird (1898) The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to 1900 Volume Five. Sampson Low, Marston and Company. ISBN1-86176-014-0
James, William (1859) The Naval History of Great Britain, Volume 3. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-1-108-02167-8
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