HMS Rattler (1783)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Rattler.

Plans for HMS Rattler
History
Great Britain
NameRattler
Ordered28 December 1781
BuilderFrancis S. Willson, Sandgate[1]
Laid downMarch 1782
Launched22 March 1783
CompletedBy 21 July 1783 at Chatham
CommissionedApril 1784
ReinstatedOctober 1789
FateSold out of service 1792
Great Britain
NameRattler
Owner
  • 1792: Enderby & Sons
  • 1795:Charles John Wheeler et al.
  • 1798:Sinclair Halcrow
  • 1800:Thomas Wilson
Acquired1792 by purchase
FateWrecked June 1830
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeEcho-class sloop
Tons burthen317,[2] or 34148⁄94, or 343[3][4] bm
Length
  • Overall: 101 ft 4 in (30.9 m)
  • Keel: 83 ft 4+1⁄2 in (25.4 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 10 in (3.9 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planship-rigged
Complement
  • Royal Navy:125
  • Mercantile service
    • 1797:30
    • 1800:30
Armament
  • Royal Navy
    • Upper deck: 16 × 6-pounder guns
    • QD: 4 × 12-pounder carronades[3]
    • Fc: 2 × 12-pounder carronades[3]
  • Mercantile service
    • 1797: 14 × 6&4-pounder guns[3]
    • 1800: 10 × 6-pounder + 4 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades[4][3]
  • 1805: 8 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Rattler was a 16-gun Echo-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Launched in March 1783, she saw service in the Leeward Islands and Nova Scotia before being paid off in 1792 and sold to whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons. She made two voyages as a whaler and two as a slave ship transporting enslaved people, before she was condemned in 1802 in the Americas as unseaworthy. She returned to service though, sailing as a whaler in the northern whale fishery, sailing out of Leith. She continued whaling until ice crushed her in June 1830.

  1. ^ a b Winfield (2007), p. 287.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference LR1792 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c d e "Letter of Marque, p.83 - accessed 25 July 2017" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2016. Retrieved 27 October 2018.
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference RS1802 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).