HMS Suffolk and HMS Braave information (Napoleonic Wars)

[silicondale]

Augustus Dalby's service record identifies him as Master of HMS Suffolk in 1808.

The nearest HMS Suffolk identification I can find was launched 1765 and broken up in 1803. However, TNA records include pay-book entries for sailors who served on HMS Suffolk in 1808 and 1809.

Is there any online source of information on this ship which presumably replaces the earlier one?

It is possible that HMS Suffolk played a supporting role in the capture of the French frigate La Thetis by HMS Amethyst in an action on 10th November 1808. Would be really good to find confirmation of this.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_10_November_1808

Many thanks for any help with this.

Augustus was also Master of HMS Brave or Braave from 1809 to 1814. I have a similar problem with this one. HMS Braave fits the handwritten record better but it was just a prison hulk. I doubt if it would have needed a Master!

[tonepad]

"HMS Suffolk - 1805
Originally named HMS Sultan, this ship was launched at Harwich, Essex in December 1775. She was a full rigged, Royal Oak class, 74-gun third rate ship of the line of 1,614 tons burthen. Converted to a prison ship in 1797, she was renamed HMS Suffolk in 1805, before being sold & broken up in 1816."

https://www.planetsuffolk.com/shipsnamedsuffolk.htm#835598970

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sultan_(1775)


Tony

[silicondale]

Thanks for this, Tony - one that I had overlooked. However, if a prison ship by 1808, does this mean she was permanently in port? Why would she then need a Master (Augustus Dalby) and sailors (from the records at TNA)? Would she actually have gone to sea to receive prisoners from a naval engagement?

[tonepad]

If a Prison Ship was an HMS, then it was still owned and administered by the Admiralty, and therefore need a Master and RN Crew.

If the ship was moored away from land, sailors would have to ferry people and provisions from the shore.

Maintenance would be needed, ship's carpenter and his team.

etc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_ship


Tony

[silicondale]

Many thanks - yes, that makes sense. Augustus Dalby's active service as Master was on four different ships between 1801 and 1806 (I have copies of some of the logs) when his service record shows he was admitted to Haslar Hospital (with unidentified injuries). He then served on HMS Suffolk in 1808 before going to sea again for 10 months on HMS Owen Glendower in 1809. His final 4 years of naval service 1809-1814 were as Master on HMS Braave, another prison ship. He went on to live a long and prosperous retirement in Cornwall, including periods of service in the coastguard, HM Customs, and pilotage, dying in St Ives in 1853.