HMS Weazel (1745)

History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Weazel
Builder:	James Taylor & John Randall, Rotherhithe
Launched:	22 May 1745 at Rotherhithe
Completed:	24 June 1745 at Deptford Dockyard
Acquired:	22 April 1745
Commissioned:	May 1745
In service:	1745–1749 1752–1756 1757–1764 1769-1779
Out of service:	1779
Honours and awards:	Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747)
Captured:	13 January 1779 by French frigate Boudeuse
General characteristics
Class and type:	16-gun ship-sloop
Tons burthen:	307  65⁄94 bm
Length:	94 ft 6.75 in (28.8 m) (gundeck) 76 ft 4.5 in (23.3 m) (keel)
Beam:	27 ft 6.25 in (8.4 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
Sail plan:	Ship rig
Complement:	110 (1745-1749) 125 (1749-1779)
Armament:	16 × 6-pounder guns 14 × ½-pdr swivel guns

HMS Weazel was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the Royal Navy, in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1745, she remained in British service until 1779 and captured a total of 11 enemy vessels. She was also present, but not actively engaged, at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747.

Weazel was captured by the French in 1779, and was later sold into private hands.

Construction

The vessel that would become Weazel was build by shipwrights James Taylor and John Randall of Rotherhithe, and was initially intended to be a private merchant craft. The Royal Navy purchased the half-built vessel on 22 April 1745 and hired Taylor and Randall to complete her for naval service. The fee for the vessel and her completion was £2,387, or the equivalent of £361,000 in 2015 terms.^[1]

Once ownership of the vessel had passed into Navy hands, Randall and Taylor were directed to complete her in accordance with an experimental design, as the Royal Navy's first three-masted ship rigged sloop. The quarterdeck was lengthened from the original plans in order to incorporate a mizzen mast, with the intention that the additional sails would enhance speed and maneuverability compared to the traditional two-masted snow rig sloop. This proved sufficiently successful that from 1756 ship rigging became the standard for all subsequent 14-gun and 16-gun sloops in Royal Navy hands.^[2]

As built, Weazel was 94 ft 6.75 in (28.8 m) long with a 76 ft 4.5 in (23.3 m) keel, a beam of 27 ft 6.25 in (8.3884 m), and a hold depth of 12 ft 0 in (3.7 m).^[2] She was constructed with eighteen broadside gunports and two bow chasers, although in practice she carried only sixteen cannons with the remaining ports left unused. Despite this, at the time of her launch she was the most heavily armed sloop in the Navy.^[3] Her designated complement was 110 officers and ratings from 1745 to 1749, rising to 125 thereafter.^[2]

Navy service

European waters

Waterfront at Deptford, where Weazel was commissioned for service in 1745.

Weazel was launched on 22 May 1745 and sailed to Deptford Dockyard for fitout and to take on armament and crew. She was formally commissioned on 24 June under Commander Thomas Craven, entering Royal Navy service at the height of the War of Austrian Succession which pitted coalitions broadly comprising France, Prussia and Spain, against Britain, the Hapsburg Monarchy and the Dutch Republic. Craven's orders were to take Weazel into the English Channel and the Downs to patrol for enemy privateers. The new-built sloop was swiftly in action, capturing the privateer Le Renard in the Channel on 23 November.^[4] In February 1746 Craven was replaced by Lieutenant Hugh Palliser, who immediately pressed Weazel back into active service. The 8-gun French privateer La Revanche was captured on 27 March, followed by La Charmante on 1 April.^[2][5] One further privateer narrowly avoided capture off Spithead in April when Weazel's approach was slowed by light winds. The French vessel escaped only after throwing its cannons overboard to increase its speed.^[6]

Further victories followed that year with Weazel capturing the privateers L'Epervier on 29 July, Le Delangle on 3 August and both La Fortune and La Jeantie on 8 October.^[2] Palliser was promoted to post-captain in November and assigned to the 70-gun ship of the line HMS Captain; his place on Weazel was taken by Commander Samuel Barrington. On 24 April 1747 Weazel was in company with HMS Lys when they encountered and defeated the privateers La Gorgonne and La Charlotte, which had been off the Dutch coast. These were Weazel's last victories in European waters. In May 1747 she was returned to port to prepare for reassignment to the Caribbean, as part of a squadron under Admiral Edward Hawke.^[2]

Final voyage

In 1779 Weazel was off the Caribbean island of St Eustatius when she was captured by the 32-gun French frigate Bodeuse.^[2] The French took their prize to the Antilles where she was disarmed and her guns transferred to Admiral d'Estaing's squadron. They then sold her at Guadeloupe in 1781.^[7]

References

Bibliography

• Demerliac, Alain (1996). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des navires français de 1774 à 1792. Éditions OMEGA. ISBN 2906381233. 
• McLaughlin, Ian (2014). The Sloop of War, 1650-1763. Seaforth. ISBN 9781848321878. 
• Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 9781844157006.