Name HMS Banterer Laid down August 1805 Commissioned May 1807 Launched 24 February 1807 | Ordered 30 January 1805 Completed 12 July 1807 Construction started August 1805 Builder South Shields | |
Out of service Wrecked 29 October 1808 | ||
HMS Banterer was a Royal Navy Banterer-class sixth-rate post-ship of 24 guns, built in 1805-07 at South Shields, England. She was ordered in January 1805 as HMS Banter but her name was lengthened to Banterer on 9 August of that year.
She was rated a 24-gun ship and was intended to mount that number of long 9-pounders on her main deck. However she also carried eight 24-pounder carronades and two long 6-pounders on her quarter-deck and forecastle. By the time that Captain Alexander Cary took command in May 1807, the Admiralty added two brass howitzers to her armament, while exchanging her 9-pounders for 32-pounder carronades. Her complement was increased by twenty to 175 officers, men and boys.
Captain Alexander Shippard (or Sheppard) commissioned Banterer in May 1807. Later that year she participated in the battle of Copenhagen.
Subsequently she returned to England. Banterer then sailed with a convoy for Halifax, Nova Scotia on 13 February 1808; later that year, on 29 October, she was wrecked in the Saint Lawrence River, near Point Mille Vache.
The court-martial for Sheppard and his officers and crew took place on Tourterelle between 28 and 30 January 1809 at St. George's Harbour, Bermuda. The court martial dismissed Lieutenant Stephen C. McCurdy from the Navy for having neglected his responsibilities during the third watch. It also severely reprimanded the acting master, Robert Clegram for culpable negligence in failing to pass on to the officer who relieved him Sheppard's instructions concerning certain safety precautions. The court martial acquitted Sheppard, his other officers and crew, and the pilot of the loss.