HMS Greyhound 30

H.M.S. Greyhound:
Rating: 5th-rate Frigate

Class: Renommee

Date of Commission: September 10th, 1816

Guns: 26

Crew: 264

Status: Laid up in ordinary and temporarily decommissioned.

History:
H.M.S. Greyhound was the Spanish 30-gun frigate Condesa under Capitán de Corbeta Sebastian Cortés, which was captured by Captain the Lord Nathaniel Blatchford while in command of the H.M.S. Banterer off Cuba on August 21 1816. She was later bought into the Service by the end of August, renamed, and commissioned to Captain Blatchford in September the same year. Following the reports of the various engagements and reconnaissance patrols conducted along the coast of north-western Cuba, it was decided by the Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station that the Greyhound should be stationed at Key West. The warships and merchantmen found in that area were usually much larger than the common 18-gun Royal Navy vessels crusing around Cuba, and it was supposed that the 26-gun Greyhound would seize or destroy said enemy ships more efficiently. She arrived at Key West on September 11, and captured a Spanish merchant brig as her first prize on her way there. The Greyhound is a weatherly and, above all, an extraordinary fast ship. Having just been bought into the Service, she was newly scraped and coppered before making her voyage to Key West, and Captain Blatchford spent considerable amounts of prize money on manilla cordage and new sailcloth. Her trim has been modified to squeeze every fathom of speed out of her, and she carries no quarterdeck guns for the same purpose. Upon taking command of her, Captain Blatchford brought with him most of the officers and able seamen from the Banterer, making sure that every gun had at least one veteran from his many cruises along the Cuban shores. Most of the men of her full complement of 280 were of variable experience and usefulness however, and the first two days after reaching Key West were spent training the ship's company in firing the great guns, hand-to-hand combat and boarding tactics. On September 13 and 14, the Greyhound conducted her first independent cruise as a Royal Navy man-of-war, and captured three Spanish merchantmen of various sizes and armament, one Spaniard only striking her colours after a very violent boarding action. This brought the crew together wonderfully, and whetted their appetite for more prize money.

During the night before September 15, while sailing along the Cuban shore towards Tumbado, the Greyhound was intercepted by a Spanish 38-gun Belle Poule frigate carrying 12-pounders. This was to be her first single ship action against another warship. It was by boarding across the forecastles of the two ships as they became entagled during tacking that the greyhounds were able to carry the enemy frigate, and force her to strike her colours. This did wonders to the crew's confidence in the ship and her captain, and made her captain very much attached to his ship and her crew. Any division between the old banterers and the new greyhounds dissipated, and the ship's company fought excellently in the actions on September 15. In these engagements, the Greyhound and H.M.S. Archer, under Captain Sir James Thomson, met with and captured three Spanish warships off Baja, one them a 50-gun Trincomalee frigate. A string of successful cruises followed, and Lord Blatchford was much honoured to receive the George Cross on October 1, for his significant number of victories and prizes since he arrived on the Barcos and Key West stations.

In the middle of November, the Greyhound made the voyage to Jamaica, there to be repaired and refitted at the Royal Dockyards in Port Royal by the famous shipwright Sir Nick Mickelson. Almost her entire outer hull, made of fir wood from when she first was built, was replaced by planks of the finest Bermuda cedar, adding increased strenght to her frame while still retaining her extraordinary speed. Other alterations were made to the ship's interior, ballast and rigging, increasing her speed even further. On November 19, the newly upgraded and rebuilt Greyhound returned to the Las Tortugas Station, and resumed her cruising along the shores of Cuba. The good fortune of her captain and crew continued well into the new year, and on February 19, 1817, she had captured over a dozen enemy merchantmen and warships, among them a French corvette and a pirate ship-rigged sloop of 18 guns.

I would not last, however, and her battered timbers required her to be drydocked for thorough repairs at the end of February. It was around this time that a complete reorganization of His Majesty's ships and vessels in the Caribbean was ordered from the Admiralty, causing the Greyhound to be temprorarily decomissioned and laid up in ordinary. Shortly after paying off the ship's crew, Lord Blatchford received the pleasant news that, partially because of his many succesful actions aboard the Greyhound, he had been elevated to the grand title of Earl of Stafford. Lord Blatchford therefore spent the following months in England overseeing his estates, hoping that the Greyhound would once again be used in the war with him as her captain.

British Captains:
1815-1816: Capitán de Corbeta Sebastian Cortés

1816-1817: Captain the Lord Stafford

1817-present: Laid up in ordinary

Excerpts from the Logbook (Player Versus Player):

 * September 1816


 * October 1816


 * November 1816


 * December 1816


 * January 1817


 * February 1817