HMS Cruizer (1797)
| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom
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| Name: | HMS Cruizer |
| Ordered: | 19 December 1796 |
| Builder: | Stephen Teague of Ipswich |
| Laid down: | February 1797 |
| Launched: | 20 December 1797 |
| Honours and awards: |
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| Fate: | Sold for breaking 3 February 1819 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Cruizer-class brig-sloop |
| Type: | Rated for 18 guns |
| Tonnage: | 382 41⁄94 (bm) |
| Length: |
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| Beam: | 30 ft 6 in (9.3 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m) |
| Sail plan: | Brig rigged |
| Complement: | 121 |
| Armament: |
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HMS Cruizer (often Cruiser) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Stephen Teague of Ipswich and launched in 1797. She was the first ship of the class, but there was a gap of 5 years between her launch and the ordering of the next batch in October 1803; by 1815 a total of 105 other vessels had been ordered to her design. She had an eventful wartime career, mostly in the North Sea, English Channel and the Baltic, and captured some 15 privateers and warships, and many merchant vessels. She also participated in several actions. She was laid up in 1813 and the Commissioners of the Navy sold her for breaking in 1819.
Cruizer was a prototype brig-rigged sloop-of-war designed in 1796 by Sir William Rule, the Surveyor of the Navy. Her hull was identical to the Snake-class ship-sloop, but she carried a pair of square-rigged masts instead of the three masts fitted in the Snake class. The original design had an armament of eighteen 6-pounder long guns but it was soon decided to replace the broadside weapons with sixteen 32-pounder carronades, leaving two 6-pounders as chase guns. The net effect was to increase the broadside weight of shot massively, at the cost of reducing her broadside's effective range. This mix became the pattern for all the other, later members of her class.
Cruizer was ordered by the Admiralty on 19 December 1796 to be built in the commercial yard of Stephen Teague at Ipswich. She was laid down in February 1797 and launched on 20 December the same year.
Commander Charles Wollaston commissioned her in February 1798 for the North Sea.
On 27 March 1798 Cruizer captured the French privateer lugger Jupiter after a three-hour chase. Jupiter had eight guns and a crew of 36 men. She was 14 days into her cruise from Boulogne.
On 4 and 5 May Cruizer was among the vessels that captured 12 outward-bound Greenland ships. The other vessels included the hired armed cutters Fox, and Marshall Cobourg, and Jalouse, though most were much larger and included Monmouth, Glatton, Ganges, Director, America, among others.Cruizer shared with Apollo, Lutine, and the hired armed cutter Rose in the proceeds from the capture on 13 May of the Houismon, Welfart, and Ouldst Kendt.
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