HMS Speedy (1782)

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

HMS Speedy was a 14-gun brig of the British Royal Navy. Built at Dover, Kent, Speedy spent most of the interwar years serving off the British coast. Transferred to the Mediterranean after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, she spent the rest of her career there under a number of notable commanders, winning fame for herself in various engagements and often against heavy odds. George Eyre lost her to a superior French force on 9 June 1794. She was soon retaken, and re-entered service under Hugh Downman, who captured a number of privateers between 1795 and 1799 and fought off an attack by the large French privateer Papillon on 3 February 1798. His successor, Jahleel Brenton, fought a number of actions against Spanish forces off Gibraltar. Her last captain, Lord Cochrane, forced the surrender of a much larger Spanish warship, the Gamo. Speedy was finally captured by a powerful French squadron in 1801 and donated to the Papal Navy by Napoleon the following year. She spent five years with them under the name San Paolo, but was struck around 1806. Some of Speedy's exploits under Cochrane were used in the plot of the novel Master and Commander, part of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series, though the ship described by O'Brian matches only Speedy's spar dimensions and armament, and is named HMS Sophie. #18th_century #age_of_sail #brig #HMS #jack_aubrey #nautical #navy #royal_navy #sail #sailing_ship #ship #sophie #speedy #thomas_cochrane