Name HMS Doterel Beam 30 ft 8 in (9.35 m) Launched 6 October 1808 | Tons burthen 386 ⁄94 (bm) Depth of hold 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m) | |
Class and type Cruizer class brig-sloop Length 100 ft 2 in (30.53 m) (overall)
77 ft 2 ⁄4 in (23.527 m) (keel) | ||
HMS Doterel was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Launched on 6 October 1808, she saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. In February 1809 she took part in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne, then in April the Battle of Basque Roads.
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Construction
Doterel was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop designed by William Rule and built at Bursledon by John Scott and Richard Blake. She was 102 ft 2 in (31.14 m) along the gun deck, 77 ft 2 1⁄4 in (23.527 m) at the keel, and had a beam of 30 ft 8 in (9.35 m). With a depth in the hold of 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m), she was 386 11⁄94 (bm). Ordered on 31 December 1807, her keel was laid down in April 1808 and she was launched 6 October that same year. She was immediately taken to Portsmouth to be fitted out which finished on 3 December. Designed to take a complement of 121 men, her armament consisted of a main battery of sixteen 32-pounder carronades with two 6-pound long guns for bow chasers.
Career
Doterel was first commissioned under Commander Anthony Abdy in October 1808. By February 1809 she was in the Basque Roads and had become attached to a squadron under Robert Stopford when on 27th of that month she took part in the Battle of Les Sables-d'Olonne.
Stopford in the 80-gun Caesar had been accompanied by the seventy-fours Defiance and Donegal, and the 36-gun frigates Emerald, Amethyst and Naiad, when he had chased a French force comprising eight ships of the line and two frigates, into the Pertuis d'Antioche. Stopford immediately sent Naiad to appraise Admiral James Gambier of the situation but Naiad had not gone too far when she signalled that there were three other vessels to the north-west. Stoppard ordered Amethyst and Emerald to remain while he and the rest of the squadron set off in pursuit.
When daylight came, the vessels sighted by Naiad were revealed to be the three French frigates, Calypso, Italienne and Sybille, being chased by Doterel and the 36-gun frigate Amelia. Doterel and Amelia had drawn so close to Sybille, the nearest French ship, that her two companions shortened sail in preparation for battle but on seeing Stopford's approaching squadron, all three French ships took off with Doterel and Amelia in close pursuit. At 10:00 the French frigates arrived at Sable d'Olonne where they anchored with springs, in the shallow water beneath the town's batteries. Caeser, Donegal, Defiance and Amelia stood in and engaged. Two of the French frigates were obliged to cut their cables and run ashore in order to escape before the British were forced to withdraw by the falling tide. However, all three French frigates were destroyed in the action.
Doterel was part of Gambier's fleet when it fought the Battle of the Basque Roads in April 1809. The French ships were anchored under the protection of the powerful batteries on the Isle d'Aix when on 11 April Lord Cochrane led an attacking force of fireships and explosive vessels. At this time, Doterel was employed in a passive role, providing a diversion to the east of the island with the brigs Beagle, Conflict and Growler, and the 36-gun frigate Emerald. The fireships were a partial success; the French, having suspected such an attack, had rigged a boom across the channel but this was breached by one of the explosive vessels. The French cut their cables and drifted on to the shoals. Later on 13 April, Doterel, Foxhound and Redpole, carrying letters from Gambier, arrived in the Maumossen Passage where Cochrane had retired from attacking the grounded French fleet due to the falling tide.
In October 1810 Doterel was commissioned for service in the West Indies, and in December command passed to William Westcott Daniel. Daniel was still in command in early October 1812, when Doterel was back in home waters, part of a squadron under Alexander Cochrane. On 4 October, she and the British sloop Raven chased down a 10-gun French privateer, Leonore, off the Isles of Scilly. In 1814, she served on the North American Station in the war against the United States, capturing the 14-gun American privateer Dominica on 22 May. In January 1815, Doterel was part of an invasion force under George Cockburn, which looted St Simons and its neighbouring islands in Georgia, carrying away cotton and freeing slaves who were later resettled on Bermuda. In August 1815 she returned to England where she was laid up at Chatham.
Doterel was recommissioned in February 1818 and served out of Cork under Lieutenant John Gore. On 16 November 1820, Doterel seized the American schooner Volunteer.
William Hendry assumed command in July 1821 and sailed for Halifax on the North American Station. In July 1822, Richard Hoare took command. Hoare spent just over three years in charge before he was superseded by Henry Edwards in August 1825. Doterel's last commander was William Hamilton who arrived on board in August 1826.
Fate
The Admiralty found Doterel to be in such a defective state, she was ordered to be laid up in Bermuda on 4 April 1827, where she was used as a residence for workmen there. On 28 August 1848, Doterel was ordered to be broken up but the order was not carried out until some seven years after.