Name HMS Blossom Laid down February 1806 Construction started February 1806 | Ordered 19 November 1805 Completed 21 April 1807 Launched 10 December 1806 | |
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Builder Robert Guillaume, Northam Reclassified Exploration ship in 1825
Survey ship in 1829
Hulked in 1833 | ||
HMS Blossom was an 18-gun Cormorant-class sloop-of-war. She was built in 1806 and is best known for the 1825–1828 expedition under Captain Beechey to the Pacific Ocean. She explored as far north as Point Barrow, Alaska, the furthest point into the Arctic any non-Inuit had been at the time. She was finally broken up in 1848.
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Napoleonic Wars
On 26 February 1808 Blossom was in company with Eclipse when they captured the Sally and Hetty, William Fleming, Master. Blossom was in company with Jamaica when they recaptured the American brig Iris.
In the mid-morning of 23 February 1812, Blossom was five leagues off Cabrera when a strange schooner sailed towards her, mistaking her for a merchantman. When the schooner realized her mistake a five-hour chase followed before Blossom was able to capture the schooner Jean Bart. Jean Bart was of 147.5 tons (bm) and had been launched in Marseilles only five weeks earlier. She was armed with five 12 and two 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 106 men under the command of Jean Francis Coulome. She had made no captures but within the previous five days her excellent sailing had enabled her to evade two British frigates and a brig.
On 18 August 1812, shortly after the outbreak of war with America, Blossom and Hyacinth were in sight when the letter of marque Sir Alexander Ball captured the American ship Grace Ann Green.
Post-war
Blossom was re-rated as a 24-gun sixth rate in February 1817. Between July 1824 and August 1825, she was at Deptford and Woolwich being converted to serve as an exploration ship in "icy seas". In January 1825 Commander Frederick Beechey commissioned her for exploration of the Pacific Northwest.
In 1917 a copper plate was discovered in the Bonin Islands, inscribed with a message claiming the islands as a British possession:
HBM Ship Blossom Capt F. W. Beechey took possession of this Group of Islands in the Name of and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty George the IV on the 14th June 1827.
Blossom was paid off in May 1828. Between April and August 1829 she was at woolwich being fitted as a survey ship. In May Richard Owen recommissioned her for the Jamaica station. she remained there until some point in 1832. While she was there the 1-gun schooner Monkey served as Blossom's ship's tender until Monkey wrecked in 1831. The Navy then purchased a second schooner to function as a tender for Blossom, and renamed the tender Monkey. The Navy sold Monkey after Blossom returned to Britain in 1832.
Fate
Blossom was hulked as a lazarette at Sheerness in January 1833, and was broken up at Chatham in August 1848.