HMS Banterer 18

H.M.S. Banterer:
Rating: 6th-rate Post Ship

Class: Rattlesnake

Date of Commission: July 5th, 1816

Guns: 18

Crew: 120

Status: Cruising from the West Cuba Station.

History:
The Banterer was temporarily commissioned as a post ship to Lord Nathaniel Blatchford on July 5th 1816, and ordered to proceed to the newly established Barcos Station on the Isle of Youth, off south-western Cuba. Upon reaching her destination she was to hamper and disrupt the enemy shipping off the Cuban coast. The Banterer is a fast and weatherly ship-rigged vessel, with precious little room in her for her full complement of 141 men. Upon Lord Blatchford's insistance on taking aboard a full royal marines force of one marine per gun, hammocks had to be slung on the open deck, and marine officers had to berth in the forward captain's cabin. This, coupled with limited space for provisions and shot, severely hampers the number of days the Banterer can spend on the oceans before revictualling.



She first saw action the day after reaching Barcos, when on July 6th she, in concert with H.M.S. Marlin and H.M.S. Peregrine under the Captains the Lord Davis and Lord Collister, engaged and captured a Spanish 30-gun 9-pounder frigate off the north-western coast of Cuba.

After the first week of the cruise, Lord Blatchford and his banterers had captured several Spanish traders, along with one 16-gun brig, with a total worth of £ 750 000 in prize money. This knit the crew together wonderfully, each man of the relatively small ship's company receiving a small fortune with their share. This also appealed to their sense of justice, as several of them had friends and family that had served on ships seized during the Spanish raids off British Honduras earlier this year, and they knew that every penny was taken out of a Spaniard's pocket. This also greatly improved the somewhat meager finances connected to Lord Blatchford's estates back in England, propelling him upwards in financial and political circles.

By the middle of August 1816 the Banterer had captured eighteen Spanish merchantmen as prizes during her many cruises north of the Isle of Youth, and along the north-western shores of Cuba. This enabled her captain to spend considerable sums of money on upgrades and modifications to her rigging, hull and guns, everything paid for by the Kingdom of Spain. Although Lord Blatchford captured another 30-gun frigate while accompanied by Sir James Thomson in H.M.S. Molly on August 13th, he longed for a fair fight against a warship of the same class as the Banterer, proving that the ship and her crew could fight other ships than just merchantmen, and would not shy away from a chance at glory. His chance came during the days of the 15th, 16th and 17th August. The Spaniards, no doubt in reaction to the increased presence of British cruisers in the area, began patrolling the northern coast of the Isle of Youth with warships. During the aforementioned dates, the Banterer went into single-ship actions with a 20-gun Niagara brig, a 20-gun Mercury brig and a 18-gun Navy Brig of the Spanish Navy, sinking the first and capturing the two latter. These actions, fought honourably and with very few losses among the banterers, semented her captain's love for his ship. This display of potential reached a new peak on August 21st, when the Banterer, unsupported, overtook a Spanish 30-gun Renommee frigate and promtly boarded and carried her. Lord Blatchford would later receive the Distinguished Service Order for these engagements, an honour much cherished by the Banterer's crew.

The Banterer was active on the station at the end of August 1816, when the Island of Youth, and the nearly entire southern coast of Cuba, was occupied by the Royal Navy. This agitated the local Spanish merchantmen to such a degree that several of them began hurridly moving their goods and resources to neutral Barcos. Knowing that British cruisers would be present in the area, the merchantmen sailed in convoys, often supported by Spanish, and even French, warships. Their activity also attracted pirates to the area, and in addition to the various merchantmen that the Banterer managed to seize, she also engaged a 22-gun Snow brig flying the black flag on August 29th, capturing her after a violent boarding action.

By the end of September 1816, Lord Blatchford was commissioned the H.M.S. Greyhound, the very same ship that he captured off Cuba on August 21st, and took with him almost the entire ship's company. The Banterer was then drydocked in order to give her extensive repairs, and after several months it was decided by the Admiralty that she was to be temporarily decommissioned and laid up in ordinary. Upon Lord Blatchford's return to the Caribbean in 1819 however, she was once again put into commission and ordered to her old cruising ground with him as her captain.

British Captains:
1813-1816: Captain John Roddington

1816-1817: Captain the Lord Trentham

1817-1819: Laid up in ordinary

1819-present: Captain the Lord Stafford

Excerpts from the Logbook (Player Versus Player):

 * July 1816
 * August 1816
 * September 1816
 * July 1819