HMS Liverpool (1814)

HMS Liverpool was a Royal Navy Endymion-class frigate frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate. She was built by Wigram, Wells and Green and launched at Woolwich on 21 February 1814. She was built of pitch-pine, which made for speedy construction at the expense of durability.

Her major service was on the East Indies Station from where in 1819 she led the successful attack on the pirates based in Ras al-Khaimah. She was sold in 1822 but continued to operate in the Persian Gulf for an indefinite period thereafter.

Service
Liverpool was commissioned under Captain Arthur Farquhar in May 1814. Her first commission was very brief, though. She escorted convoys to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec. She then served at the Cape Station before returning to Deptford to be paid off on 3 April 1816. First, though, she captured the French schooner Circonstance on 21 October 1815. Circonstance was carrying 67 slaves.

In 1817 Liverpool was laid up at Deptford. Then in 1818, the Liverpool was re-commissioned under Captain Francis Augustus Collier.

He sailed her to join the East Indies Station, sailing via Mauritius and Trincomalee. While at Port Louis she captured four slave vessels. In the middle of 1819 she captured the Deux Amis (29 July), Constance (17 August) and Jenny (24 August). Bounty money was paid for the freed slaves.

Rear Admiral King appointed Captain Collier of Liverpool to command the naval portion of a joint navy-army punitive expedition against the pirates at Ras al-Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. The naval force consisted of Liverpool, HMS Eden (1814), HMS Curlew (1812), and a number of gun and mortar boats. The Bombay Marine of the East India Company contributed six armed vessels: the 16-gun Teignmouth under the command of Captain Hall, the senior captain, the 16-gun Benares, the 14-gun Aurora, the 14-gun Nautilus, the 12-gun Ariel and the 12-gun Vestal. Later several vessels belonging to the Sultan of Muscat joined the expedition. On the army side, Major General Sir William Keir commanded some 5,000 troops in transports.

The punitive expedition anchored off Ras-al-Khaimah on 2 December but waited for two days before landing the troops. Collier placed Captain Walpole of Curlew in charge of the gun boats and an armed pinnace to protect the landing, which was, however, unopposed. On 4 December Curlew approached the shore and from there fired on the town, but with little effect. On 8 December the Navy took three 24-pounders from Liverpool and brought them onshore. These were much more effective. When the troops entered the town on 9 December they found that the inhabitants had all fled. The siege cost the British five dead and 52 men wounded. The Arabs reportedly had lost a thousand dead.

The British then spent December and early January moving up and down the coast destroying forts and vessels. The capture and destruction of the fortifications and ships in the port was a massive blow for the Gulf pirates. The Royal Navy suffered no casualties during the action.

Fate
Liverpool carried on serving in the East Indies Station and made a trip to China under Collier. Collier then transferred to HMS Seringapatam (1819), a newly built vessel, and brought her home, arriving on 16 October 1820. Liverpool returned to the Persian Gulf in August 1821, where she lost a number of her crew to the heat. She was paid off at Bombay in January 1822. Liverpool's captain, officers and crew then transferred to the newly built HMS Ganges (1821) and sailed her back to Spithead, arriving on 6 October 1822.

Liverpool was sold at Bombay on 16 April 1822 for £3,780. The buyer apparently was a Persian prince who wanted to use her to suppress piracy in the Gulf.