HMS Boreas (1806)

History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Boreas
Ordered:	30 January 1805
Builder:	Stone, Great Yarmouth
Laid down:	June 1805
Launched:	2 June 1806
Completed:	16 November 1806 at Chatham Dockyard
Fate:	Wrecked November 1807
General characteristics [1]
Class & type:	22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship
Tons burthen:	526^26⁄94 (bm)
Length:	118 ft 0 in (36.0 m) (overall)
Beam:	31 ft 7 ^3⁄4 in (9.6 m)
Depth of hold:	10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Complement:	155
Armament:	As built: Upper deck (UD): 22 x 9-pounder guns QD: 6 x 24-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 6-pounder chase guns + 2 x 24-pounder carronades Later rearmed: UD: 22 x 32-pounder carronades QD: 6 x 18-pounder carronades Fc: 2 x 6-pounder chase guns + 2 x 18-pounder carronades

HMS Boreas was a Laurel-class 22-gun post ship launched in 1806. She wrecked off the coast of Guernsey on 28 November 1807 with the loss of most of her crew of 154 men.

The Royal Navy commissioned her under the command of Captain Robert Scott. On 2 October 1807 she captured, after a four-hour chase, the French privateer schooner Victoire. The privateer had a crew of 28 men and was armed with swivel guns and small arms. She had sailed from Morlaix the day before and had already captured an American brig, which Boreas recaptured.^[2] On 8 October Boreas and Brilliant captured the Danish ships St Hans and Montreal.^[3][4]

As Boreas was approaching Guernsey she struck the Requiers rock. After efforts to save her failed, Scott ordered the crew to abandon ship. He sent some men ahead in boats that landed at Hanois Point, but strong seas, and the desertion of many of the men prevented the boats from going back to rescue the remaining men. Boreas eventually sank, with only her rigging remaining above water. Next morning boats dispatched by Admiral James Saumarez, commander of the Royal Navy Channel Islands squadron and himself a Guernsey native, rescued thirty men. In all, 120 persons drowned, including Scott. Twenty-six of the survivors took advantage of the situation to desert.^[5]

Post script

The sinking added greatly to the call to construct a lighthouse,^[6] which resulted in Les Hanois Lighthouse being erected in 1860-62.

Fort Grey on Guernsey is now a shipwreck museum and holds one of the cannon from Boreas that points towards the reef where she sank.

Citations

1. Winfield (2008), p.236.
2. The London Gazette: no. 16077. p. 1380. 17 October 1807.
3. The London Gazette: no. 16292. p. 1372. 26 August 1809.
4. The London Gazette: no. 16294. p. 1424. 2 September 1809.
5. Hepper (1994), p. 121.
6. "100 men lost: HMS Boreas, 28 November 1807".

References

• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.