His Majesty'sHired armedcutterPrincess Augusta served theRoyal Navy from 12 July 1803 to 2 May 1814. She was armed with eight 4-pounder guns, had a complement of 26 men, and was of 7056⁄94 tons (bm).[1] She participated in severalsingle ship actions and took several prizes before the Navy returned her to her owners near the end of theNapoleonic Wars.
In 1803 Lieutenant Isaac William Scott[2] took command ofPrincess Augusta for the North Sea. In the second week of September she delivered orders from LordKeith to warships offHellevoetsluis,Texel and theElbe.
On 20 September, 45 miles northeast of Texel, she encountered two schooners that bore down on her and opened fire, killing two ofPrincess Augusta's crew and mortally wounding Scott.[3] The two schooners were Dutch:Union, under Lieutenant Commander St. Faust, of 12 guns and 70 men, andWraak, under Lieutenant Commander Doudet, of eight guns and 50 men. The Dutch attempted to board but were unable to do so.[4] Eventually, they sailed off. In addition to the two men killed in the initial broadside,Princess Augusta had suffered three wounded, including Scott, who died the next morning.[4] Command devolved on her Master, Joseph Thomas, who made for Dover. The tide was against them and they were unable to land until the afternoon of 23 September.Wraak reportedly lost one man killed and several wounded.[4] (Seven years later Thomas would be in command of theHired armed cutterQueen Charlotte when he would participate in another, bloodier, but equally successful fight against great odds.[5])[a]
Later, someone signing himself "De Faust" wrote a letter to theDelft Courant claiming,inter alia, thatUnie (Union) had carried only four small guns when he had put to flightPrincess Augusta, of fourteen 8-pounder guns. He further asserted that only her sailing off had prevented him from boarding her.[7]
On 13 June 1804, while under the command of Lieutenant John Tracey,Princess Augusta, with a crew of only 25 men,[8] encountered a 14-gun French privateer offHuntcliff.[9] Initially,Princess Augusta took the brig for a collier, but the brig's crowded decks signalled that she was a privateer.[8] During the four-hour engagementPrincess Augusta took several shot near the water line and sustained extensive damage to her rigging. Still, she suffered only three men wounded, though one desperately. The French vessel veered off on the approach of two schooners manned withSea Fencibles fromRedcar.[9] The French privateer reportedly was under the command of a notorious pirate known as "Blackman".[10]
Towards the end of 1806Princess Augusta captured several vessels. These wereNeptunus (4 November),Onverwaght andVrow Johanna (20 November), andKitty (11 December).[11] She also capturedMorganstern, a fishing vessel, on 11 December.[12]
On 27 January 1807, while 45 miles offLowestoft,Princess Augusta sighted a French privateer cutter and chased her for three hours.[13] Tracey was eventually able to get alongside and after firing some guns and small arms into her, shestruck. She wasJena, commanded by Captain Francis Capelle, of four guns and 30 men.[13] She also had a great number of small arms on board. She was 12 days out of Flushing and had made two captures. The next dayPrincess Augusta recapturedJena's prizes,Sophia andCourieur, one of them a Prussian ship, laden with timber and bound to London.[13][14] Later that year Tracey transferred to the brigLinnet.[15]
On 19 February 1807Carrier chased the French privateer cutterChasseur into the hands ofAriadne.[16] At the time,Carrier was also in company with the hired armed cuttersPrincess Augusta, under the command of Lieutenant John Jenkins, andPrincess of Wales.[17]
AsCarrier was returning to her station, together withPrincess Augusta, at 9 a.m. she sighted a suspicious sail tenleagues from Goree. After a chase of five hours she caught up with the French privateerschoonerRagotin.[16]Ragotin, under the command of Jaques Jappie, carried eight guns, which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and a crew of 29 men. She was eight days out of Dunkirk, on her first cruise, and had not made any captures.[16]
By June 1807Princess Augusta was under the command of Lieutenant Robert Jordan. On 2 June she capturedFrau Barbara andFrau Gerina. On 26 July she capturedGoede Hoope. Then on 10 October she re-captured the Cadiz Packet. On 19 November, she re-capturedSunneside.[18] Lastly, on 30 December, she was under the command of Lieutenant Andrew McCulloch when she recaptured the Swedish brigFrederica.[19]
On 15 February 1808,Princess Augusta capturedJohanna.[20]
While cruising some 40 miles north-west of theTexel on the evening of 5 MarchPrincess Augusta encountered a French privateer cutter. After chasing her for 24 hours McCulloch drove her on shore at Katwick (Katwijk-aan-Zee nearThe Hague). As the winds were too strong to deploy the boats, he took the cutter in as close as possible and exchanged fire. By the evening of 8 March the weather moderated. The boats went in under a heavy small arms fire from the shore and destroyed the French boat. Fishermen told McCulloch that the privateer wasDunkerquois, of Dunkirk, mounting four 3-pounders and with a crew of 45 men. She was formerly the Revenue cutterNimble ofDeal.[21]
On 7 AprilPrincess Augusta recaptured thegaliotAurora.[19] Four days later,Princess Augusta and the hired armed cutterAlert recapturedLouisa,Vier Gebrooders,Twee Gebrooders, andMusche.[22] The brigSafeguard shared in the capture ofMusche.[23]
On 17 July, in company withAlert,Princess Augusta capturedFemme Fama,Deux Freres, andHilkje Maria.[24]Princess Augusta was in company with the gun-brigRichmond andSkylark when they captured the Dutch fishing vesselsMeernia,Johanna, andStadt Olderberg on 20 August 1808.[25] Next,Princess Augusta captured the Swedish shipMidas on 10 November 1808.[20]
On 21 July 1811, while still under McCulloch's command, she capturedVrow Geertje, aliasLa Femme Gertrude,Le Vrow Jantje,La Marguerita,Drey Gebroadrs, andVry Gewaagt.[26]
Ten days later, on 1 August,Princess Augusta andAlert were part of a small squadron cruising off the coast between the Texel and the Elbe.[27][28] The squadron was under the command of Captain Charles Sibthorpe Hawtayne of the 32-gun frigateQuebec. The other vessels of the squadron were the 16-gun brigRaven, Commander George G. Lennock, and the gun-brigsExertion andRedbreast, Lieutenants James Murray and SirGeorge Mouat Keith, baronet. The squadron received intelligence from earlier captures of four Danish gun brigs lying at anchor at the island ofNordeney, and Hawtayne sent in acutting-out party of 10 boats.[27] Each Danish vessel had a crew of 25 men.[27]
The Danes were ready, and fired on the boats as they approached. The British immediately boarded and carried the first vessel but the other three resisted longer.[27]
Princess Augusta had one man killed and one wounded.[27] The pilot to the expedition, James Muggeridge ofPrincess Augusta, was among the wounded. He was a volunteer and so not entitled to any disability pension, but fortunately his wound was minor.[28] In all, the British lost four killed and 14 wounded. The Danes lost two men killed and ten men wounded.[27] In 1847 the Admiralty issued theNaval General Service Medal with clasp "2 Aug. Boat Service 1811" to the surviving claimants from this action.[29]
On 10 March 1812,Princess Augusta was in company withHMS Acquilon,Raven, andProspero at the capture of the American brigJohn.[30]
On 9 April,Princess Augusta was in company withLeveret when they captured the Danish vesselsFrau Catherina Elizabeth andEmanuel.[31]
On 23 May 1813,Princess Augusta was in company withCalliope,Urgent,Drake andHearty when they captured the Danish vesselsJonge Greenwoldt,Hoffnung 1 and 2, and another vessel, name unknown.[b]
On 10 July,Princess Augusta was part of a squadron that captured eight small vessels in the Elbe and Weser. The squadron includedDesiree, under Captain Arthur Farquhar, who was the overall commander,Calliope,Brev Drageren,Shamrock,Thrasher and gunboats.[33][c] On 3 AugustPrincess Augusta captured five small vessels calledevers.[35]
On 3 August 1813Princess Augusta andRedbreast captured five small vessels called "ewers".[36][d]
On 5 January 1814Princess Augusta was part of Farquhar's squadron, comprisingDesiree,Hearty,Blazer,Piercer,Shamrock,Redbreast, and eight gun-boats, at the capitulation of the town and fortress ofGluckstadt during theWar of the Sixth Coalition. On 15 July 1816 there was a first payment of £5000 in prize money to the navy.[e]
Princess Augusta spent the remainder of her service with the Royal Navy apparently cruising uneventfully, in that there is no record of any actions, and escorting convoys. In May 1814, near the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the Admiralty returned her to her owners.[39]