Name HMS Forward Builder Joseph Todd, Berwick Commissioned November 1804 Construction started July 1804 | Ordered June 1804 Laid down July 1804 Fate Sold 14 December 1815 Launched January 1805 | |
HMS Forward was a 12-gun gun-brig of the Archer class of the British Royal Navy.
History
She was built under contract by Joseph Todd of Berwick and launched in January 1805.
On 23 April 1808, during the Gunboat War, the Forward towed three boats from the Daphne and two from the Tartarus, in an attack on ten laden vessels, moored at Fladstrand in Denmark. Despite coming under artillery and musket fire from a fortification, the vessels were successfully spirited away, with five men wounded in the action.
On 19 November 1811 Forward commanded by Richard Bankes captured the merchant vessel Fortuna
During the War of 1812, she was present off the Gulf Coast. The Forward and a transport were the last remaining vessels in the vicinity of the British Post at Prospect Bluff, and were used to spirit away the last of the garrison, whom were embarked on 16 May. Edward Nicolls, Woodbine, and the Redstick Creek leader Josiah Francis, arrived at Amelia Island, in East Florida on 7 June 1815, where rumours circulated that the officers were seeking to either obtain British possession of Florida from Spain, or at least to arm and supply the Florida factions resisting American territorial expansion. (In fact, Nicolls had been heading to the Bahamas, and had unintentionally ended up in Florida.)The Forward arrived in Bermuda, and disembarked her passengers on 28 June. Edward Nicolls embarked the brig HMS Forward on 29 June 'for passage to England', and disembarked at Portsmouth on 13 September 1815.