HMS Spider

HMS Spider (1887), an early model of torpedo gunboat.

Spider has been the name of a number of vessels of the British Royal Navy;

• Spider (1782), formerly the privateer Victoire built at Dunkirk earlier that year, a schooner that Stag captured off the Irish coast on 18 June 1782 after a chase of 11 hours. At the time, she was armed with two 8-pounder and fourteen 6-pounder guns (six of which she threw over-board during the chase), and had a crew of 91 men.^[1] In Royal Navy service she captured a number of French privateers around the British coast.^[2] In British service she was armed with twelve 4-pounder guns. Because Spider served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.^[3] She was sold at Malta in 1806.^[4]
• Spider, formerly Vigilante, a brig-rigged sloop captured on 4 April 1806 by HMS Renomee and which served in the Royal Navy for the remainder of the Napoleonic Wars.^[5]
• Spider, a six-gun schooner built at Chatham in 1835 to a design by Sir Robert Seppings, which served in South America before becoming an engine fitters' vessel at Plymouth in 1855. Dimensions: Length Overall: 80' 2" x Breadth: 23' 3" x Depth: 9' 10"^[6]
• Spider, a wooden gunboat built on the Tyne by T W Smith in 1856, which later served in South America and South Africa. Dimensions: Length Overall: 106' x Breadth: 22' x Depth: 8' ^[7]
• Spider, a torpedo gunboat built at Devonport in 1887.^[8]
• HMS Spider, a coastal destroyer renamed "TB 5" in 1906.^[9]
• Spider, formerly Francisco Antonio Quarto, purchased at Gibraltar in 1941 and used as a degaussing vessel.^[10]

See also

At least two hired armed vessels also bore the name Spider:

• hired armed lugger Spider
• Hired armed cutter Spider served on contract between 9 July 1803 and 8 December 1804. She had a burthen of 114 {{small>¹⁄₉₄}} tons (bm) and was armed with ten 12-pounder carronades.^[11] She may have been the brig Spider, of 113 tons (bm) and fourteen 12 and 2-pounder guns, that had received a letter of marque on 29 January 1801 under Captain John Friend.^[12]

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 12308. pp. 3–4. 25 June 1782.
2. "NMM, vessel ID 376182" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
3. The London Gazette: no. 21077. pp. 791–792. 15 March 1850.
4. Demerliac (1996), p.198, #1989.
5. "NMM, vessel ID 376183" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
6. "NMM, vessel ID 376185" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
7. "NMM, vessel ID 376186" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
8. "NMM, vessel ID 376187" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
9. "NMM, vessel ID 376179" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
10. "NMM, vessel ID 376181" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol x. National Maritime Museum. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
11. Winfield (2008), p.391.
12. Letters of Marque

References

• Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN 2-906381-23-3
• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-246-1.

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