HMS Hussar

Ten ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Hussar, after the hussar.

• The first Hussar was a 28-gun sixth-rate launched in 1757 and captured by the French in 1762 after running aground off Cape François, Hispaniola due to the negligence of the pilot and the master.^[1]
• The second Hussar was a 28-gun sixth-rate launched in 1763 and wrecked on 24 November 1779 while trying to negotiate the Hell Gate passage near New York City. Hussar settled to the bottom, with her masts above water, on the Bronx (north) side of the channel shore. Rumors that she was carrying thousands of pounds in gold coin have never been confirmed, and repeated attempts to salvage the wreck have proven unsuccessful.^[2]
• The third Hussar was an American galley captured in 1778 and sold 1786. This Hussar may be the same Hussar galley built in Philadelphia during the 1777-1778 British occupation on the orders of Captain Sir Andrew Hammond to the Loyalists. It was used during the Battle of Red Bank and at Fort Mifflin under Lord Cornwallis.
• The fourth Hussar was the Massachusetts Navy's 26-gun sixth-rate Protector captured in 1780 and sold 1783.
• The fifth Hussar was a 28-gun sixth-rate launched in 1784 and wrecked on 27 December 1796 when a strong storm drove her onshore about 15 miles west of the Île de Batz.^[3]
• The sixth Hussar was a 14-gun sloop, originally the French privateer Hussard, captured in 1798 and sold 1800.
• The seventh Hussar was a 38-gun fifth-rate launched in 1799 and wrecked on 8 February 1804 by grounding on a reef near the Île de Sein. Her crew burnt her and most escaped in fishing vessels commandeered from the islanders.^[4]
• The eighth Hussar was a 46-gun ^[5] fifth-rate launched 1807 and destroyed in 1861 while being used as a target.
• The ninth Hussar was a torpedo gunboat in service from 1894 to 1920.
• The tenth Hussar was a minesweeper launched in 1934 and accidentally sunk in 1944 off Normandy by Royal Air Force aircraft.

Citations

1. Hepper (1994), pp.45-6.
2. New York Times, Sept 4,2013, p. A17.
3. Hepper (1994), p.82.
4. Hepper (1994), p.104.
5. Belcher's Almanack, 1830, p.58.

References

• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8. OCLC 67375475.
• Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN 0-948864-30-3.