HMS Carron (1813)

HMS Carron was a 20-gun Cyrus-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1813 by Edward Adams, at Bucklers Hard in Hampshire. She was wrecked in 1820.

Career
Carron was first commissioned in January 1814 under Captain Robert Cavendish Spencer (a son of George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer). At Bermuda, on 4 July 1814, the Carron and HMS Hermes (1811) embarked a company-strength force of Royal Marines, commanded by Edward Nicolls, for deployment on the Gulf Coast. They arrived at the mouth of the Apalachicola River on 14 August 1814. The vessels then took part in the unsuccessful British attack on Fort Bowyer on 15 September 1814 in which Hermes was lost. For much of the autumn, the Carron was at Pensacola, until General Andrew Jackson's numerically superior forces expelled the British at the start of November 1814.

Shortly thereafter, Carron made two lucrative captures when on 29 November she captured the schooners Hirondelle and Dos Amigos. For Spencer, the prize money was worth several years' pay. For an ordinary seaman, the money was worth a half to three-quarter's of a year's pay.

Next, Carron participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne on 14 December in the run up to the Battle of New Orleans. In 1821 the survivors of the British flotilla shared in the distribution of head-money arising from the capture of five American gun-boats and sundry bales of cotton.

Lieutenant James B. Tathnell then became her acting temporary commander in 1814. Sir Alexander Cochrane appointed Captain Spencer to command HMS Cydnus (1813) in April 1815, as her Captain had passed away, as a reward for Spencer's efforts in Louisiana and Florida. Captain Nicholas Pateshall commanded Carron from April 1815 until she was paid off in August 1816 at Portsmouth. Carron was recommissioned in May 1818 under Commander John Furneaux, for service in the East Indies.

Fate
She was wrecked on 6 July 1820 six miles north of the Black Pagoda, which was 30 miles north of Puri. Carron had been sailing south from the Sandheads, for Madras when she grounded at 3 am while her crew thought she was 60 miles off the coast. Despite all efforts to free her, she quickly took on water, lost her boats and broke apart. In the morning, the survivors found that she was only a quarter of a mile offshore. Those who could made it ashore; in all, she lost a lieutenant of artillery, the master, and 19 crewmen to drowning. The court martial board blamed a strong, unexpected current for the loss.

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