Clio in 1824
History
United Kingdom
Name	HMSClio
Namesake	Clio
Builder	James Betts,Mistleythorn
Launched	10 January 1807
Commissioned	February 1807
Decommissioned	1816
Recommissioned	February 1823
Decommissioned	1845
Fate	Broken up, 1845
General characteristics[1]
Class & type	Cruizer-classbrig-sloop
Tons burthen	38935⁄94 (bm )
Length	Overall: 100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) Keel: 77 ft 8 in (23.7 m)
Beam	30 ft 9 in (9.4 m)
Depth of hold	13 ft 11 in (4.2 m)
Sail plan	Brig
Complement	121
Armament	16 × 32-poundercarronades + 2 × 6-pounderbow guns

HMSClio was aCruizer-classbrig-sloop of theRoyal Navy, launched at James Betts' shipyard inMistleythorn inEssex on 10 January 1807.^[1] Her establishment was 71 officers and men, 24 boys and 20 marines. She served in the Baltic during theNapoleonic Wars, accomplished there-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833, and participated in theFirst Opium War. She was broken up in 1845.

In February 1807 Commander Thomas Folliott Baugh commissioned her and sailed her to theLeith Station on theNorth Sea.^[1] Here he succeeded in taking several prizes, but not until 1808.

The first appears to have been theHelyra, Hook, master, from Bergen, whichClio sent into Leith in July.^[2] Then on 21 September 1808, while she was cruising offFleckoro,Clio captured a small Danish privateer armed with six guns and carrying a crew of eleven men.^[3] The captured vessel arrived at Leith on 12 October.^[4]

On 7 December she captured theVrouw Heltya.^[5]

On 30 March 1808, during theGunboat War,Clio enteredTórshavn, the capital of theFaroe Islands, and briefly captured the fort at Skansin. The fort surrendered without firing a shot as the landing party approached. The landing party spiked the fort's eight 18-pounder guns and took all the smaller guns and weapons before leaving. Shortly after, on 6 May, a German privateer who had assumed the name "Baron von Hompesch" plundered the defenceless city and seized the property of the Danish Crown Monopoly. The Admiralty Prize Court, however, refused to condemn it as a lawful prize.^[6] Later, after theJørgen Jørgensen affair (see alsoHMSTalbot), Britain declared the Faroese, the Icelanders, and the settlers in Greenland as "stranger friends" who were to be left in peace.

After this adventureClio captured some more Danish vessels. On 10 August she captured theVrou Sophia.^[7] On 1 September she captured theJunge Jacob and theWilhelmina Frederica.^[8] On 21 September she captured two more, names unknown, which she sent in to Gothenburg.^[9]

More small prizes followed in 1809. On 23 February 1809,Clio took five Danish vessels.^[10] Another account has her capturing seven Danish privateers and arriving at Whitby with one of them on 26 February.^[11]

She detained an American vessel that was sailing fromHambro to Petersburg and sent her into Leith, where the vessel arrived on 23 May.^[12] On 7 September she captured the Danish galliotProvidentia and on 14 September the sloopSpeculation.^[13] On 7 November she, withChilders in company, captured Danish schooner No. 32.^[14] Then on 15 and 16 November she captured the Danish vesselsThree Children,Perlin,St Ola, andFine Smaakin.^[14] One of these may have been the vessel that arrived at Leith on the 17th.^[15] Two more Danish vessels arrived at Leith on 5 December.^[16]

Baugh was promoted toPost-captain on 21 October 1810. While temporarily under the command of Lieutenant M.J. Popplewell (acting), she captured theHenrietta on 3 December.^[17] That same day she was in company whenPyramus captured the Danish vesselFanoe.^[18]

Baugh's replacement was Commander William Farrington.^[1] He too captured small prizes. On 12 March 1811,Clio, withEgeria in company, captured the Danish brigKrabbes Minde. Then on 5 May she captured Danish Crown schooner No. 51.^[19] On 11 May two Danish vessels arrived at Leith that the frigateAlexandria andClio had captured.^[20]

Unknown to the British, Danish CaptainHans Peter Holm had returned toEgersund (SW Norway) withLolland and four other brigs.^[21][22] On 1 May 1811,^[23] the British sent four boats fromClio,Belette, andCherokee,^[24] into the western end of the sound, expecting to capture some shipping or do other mischief. The circumstances of locality and wind did not permit the Danish brigs to enter the sound from the further end, but Holm sent the Danish ships’ boats under Lieutenant Niels Gerhardt Langemach,^[25] up the sound to oppose the British. Some of the Danes landed to set an ambush from the cliff tops, whilst the armed boats were hidden behind askerry. As the British rowed boldly in, they met unexpected fire from howitzers and muskets; they immediately withdrew, with the Danish boats in pursuit. The Danes captured one of the British boats and her crew of an officer and 17 men, who had come fromBelette, and would have captured more but for the confusion that an explosion of a powder keg on one of the Danish boats caused. This enabled the remaining British boats to reach the protection of their squadron.

Clio's primary occupation was escorting convoys to and from the Baltic. Still, on 12 April 1812,Clio andEthalion captured theOpsloe.^[26]Clio was also in sight whenEthalion captured theUnitas andGunilde Maria that same day.^[27] On 25 September she was in company, together with the gun-brigBruizer, whenHamadryad recaptured the galliotExpedition.^[28]

On 7 October,Clio captured the Danish sloopSorenen.^[29] About a week later, on 13 or 14 October 1812 in the Baltic, off Hermeren, boats fromClio andHamdryad captured the French privateer luggerPilotin, which was carrying four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 31 men. Three Danish luggers, each mounting two guns, came out fromRødby to supportPilotin but retreated when the British boats advanced towards them.^[30] On the same day they recaptured the Swedish schoonerJohannes.^[31]

On 23 OctoberClio,Oberon andChanticleer detained theJonge Henrick. The next day,Clio andOberon captured the Danish privateerWegvusende. The same vessels were also involved in the capture of the privateerStafeten on 24 December.^[32]

On 17 NovemberClio captured the Dutch vesselHoffnung and three days later the Danish galliotCecilia. She captured another Danish galliot, theDorothea Elizabeth, on 9 December.^[33] She also captured theGode Hensight on 2 December. On 27 December a third galliot fell prey – theOprigtig Wenskab.^[34]

On 2 February 1813 she captured the Danish sloopJunge Jacob,^[34] from and of Bergen. She arrived at Aberdeen on 9 February.Junge Jacob had been sailing from North Bergen to the Mediterranean.^[35]

The capture of another privateer punctuated the captures of merchantmen.Clio sent in to Leith a small Danish privateer cutter of three (or four) guns and 22 men that she had taken on 22 October off Hiteroe. The privateer had not yet captured anything.^[36][37]

From 1816 to 1822Clio was at Chatham, first inordinary and then being fitted for sea. In February 1823 she was commissioned under Commander Charles Strangways for theNore.^[1]

From 1826 to early 1827 her captain was Commander Robert Aitchinson, and she performed anti-smuggling patrols in the North Sea. Then in April 1827 Commander Robert Deans took command.^[1]Clio was at the Nore and from 1828 to 1829 at Cork. Between December 1829 and July 1830 she was at Plymouth being fitted as aship sloop.^[1]

From 30 April 1830 to 17 June 1833Clio was under Commander John James Onslow. Around 19 July 1830 she sailed for South America, and on 15 December she was inRio de Janeiro. Next, on 2 January 1833,Clio participated in there-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands. Onslow arrived atLuis Vernet's settlement atPort Louis to request that the Argentine authorities replace the flag of theUnited Provinces of the River Plate with the British one and leave the islands. Lieutenant-Colonel José María Pinedo, of the schoonerSarandi considered resisting, but as most of his crew were British, thought better of it and sailed on 5 January.^[38]

In July 1833Clio was in Portsmouth to be fitted as a 16-gun brig again.^[1] In 1835 she was at Portsmouth for refitting, but by 2 August she was in Lisbon, on her way with a small squadron forThe Gambia to settle some unrest in the area. She was in theGambia by 2 September and then sailed to joinStag andTweed. By NovemberClio was on the south coast of Spain. She sailed to Tarragona in June 1836. By 18 May 1839 she was in Portsmouth.

Hydra towedLily into Portsmouth on 23 May 1839 to be paid off. Commander Deare and almost all his officers transferred fromClio to recommissionLily. CommanderStephen Grenville Fremantle was appointed to take overClio.

Clio sailed for South America in May 1839 and was in theRio Plata on 13 January 1841. She spent most of the year cruising out ofMontevideo and Rio de Janeiro. On 27 June she captured the slaver shipFelix Vincedor (orFeliz Vencedor);^[39] prize money was paid on 31 August 1844. On 12 May a boat under Lieutenant Cox, with 12 men captured a slaver in thePiumas Islands with 300 slaves aboard. However, some seven boats with a dozen men apiece sortied and re-captured the slaver, burning it after having landed the slaves.^[40] A week later, while Cox was taking water at Campos, some of the slavers took him and his men prisoner after wounding four seamen. Shortly thereafter the Brazilians released their British captives.^[41] At the end of September she leftSimon's Bay for the East Indies. On 6 November Fremantle was promoted to Acting Captain and appointed toSouthampton.Clio's new captain was Commander Edward Norwich Troubridge.^[42]

Late in 1841Clio sailed to China for theFirst Opium War. On 12 December 1841 she struck a rock (Clio Rock), just west of Pak-Leak Island, nearMacao.

On 13 June 1842,Clio anchored offWoosung. On 16 June, after the defences at the mouth of the river were sounded and buoyed, the British bombarded the works on both sides of the river as part of the commencement of operations againstShanghai.Clio then participated in the expedition up theYangtze River, to the end of hostilities and signing of theTreaty of Nanking on 29 August. Troubridge's replacement as captain ofClio from 30 December 1842 was CommanderJames Fitzjames.

Clio was broken up at Portsmouth in 1845.^[1]

• Bethell, Leslie (2009).The abolition of the Brazilian slave trade Britain, Brazil and the slave trade question, 1807–1869. Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-0-521-10113-4.OCLC 930681070.
• Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969].Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy from the 15th Century to the Present (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing.ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.OCLC 67375475.
• Harvey, Arnold D. (1992)Collision of empires : Britain in three world wars, 1793–1945. (London: Hambledon).ISBN 978-1-85285-078-4
• Marshall, John (1835)."Deans, Robert" .Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 4, part 2. London: Longman and Company.
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• Thomas, Hugh (1999).The slave trade : the story of the Atlantic slave trade, 1440–1870. Simon & Schuster.ISBN 978-0-684-83565-5.OCLC 461428672.
• Winfield, Rif (2008).British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth.ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
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• Laurio Hedelvio Destéfani (1982).The Malvinas, the South Georgias, and the South Sandwich Islands, the conflict with Britain. Edipress.ISBN 978-950-01-6904-2.

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