From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other ships with the same name, see
USS Cyane
.
USS
Cyane
|
History
|
United Kingdom
|
Name
| Cyane
|
Ordered
| 30 January 1805
|
Laid down
| August 1805
|
Launched
| 14 October 1806
|
Commissioned
| March 1807
|
Fate
| Captured by
USS
Constitution
, 20 February 1815
|
United States
|
Name
| Cyane
|
Acquired
| Captured 20 February 1815
|
Commissioned
| 1815
|
Decommissioned
| 1827
|
Fate
| Broken up, 1836
|
General characteristics
|
Class and type
| Banterer
-class
sixth-rate
[1]
[2]
|
Tonnage
| 539
|
Length
| 118 ft 2 in (36.02 m)
|
Beam
| 32 ft 0.5 in (9.766 m)
|
Depth
| 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
|
Propulsion
| Sail
|
Complement
| 180 officers and enlisted (in USN service)
|
Armament
|
- 32 guns:
- 4 × 12 pdr (5.4 kg) guns
- 20 × 32 pdr (15 kg)
carronades
- 8 × 18 pdr (8.2 kg) carronades
|
Cyane
was a
Royal Navy
sailing
Banterer
-class
sixth-rate
ship of 22 guns, built in 1806 at
Topsham
, near
Exeter
,
England
. She was ordered in January 1805 as
HMS
Columbine
and was renamed
Cyane
on 6 December of that year.
Under Captain
Thomas Staines
she captured the Spanish
privateer
Medusa
in 1808 which was the last ship captured by the British before
Spain
turned against
Napoleon
. In May 1809 she was badly damaged during a battle with French
gunboats
and the French frigate
Ceres
.
She was captured with
HMS
Levant
on 20 February 1815 by
USS
Constitution
after a 40-minute night engagement
off
Madeira
. With
Constitution
'
s second lieutenant Hoffman as
prize master
, she successfully escaped recapture by a pursuing British squadron on 12 March and arrived in America on 10 April. She was adjudicated by a
prize court
and purchased by the Navy and renamed USS
Cyane
.
Cyane
cruised off the west coast of
Africa
from 1819?1820 and in the
West Indies
from 1820?1821 protecting the
Liberian
colony and suppressing piracy and the slave trade. In this regard she was a predecessor to the
Africa Squadron
. She cruised in the
Mediterranean
1824?1825, and on the
Brazil Station
1826?1827. Laid up at
Philadelphia Navy Yard
, she sank in 1835 and was raised and broken up the following year.
[3]
The April/May 1983 issue of
American Heritage
magazine carried an article "What it was like to be Shot up by Old Ironsides" concerning the discovery of three pages of HMS
Cyane
'
s logbook from 13 to 20 February 1815, with a transcription of 20 February 1815 battle.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]