HMS Speedwell (1815)

HMS Speedwell was a 5-gun schooner purchased in 1815 and sold in 1834.

In his confessions before being executed on 11 January 1830 in the military fortress at La Puerta de Terra, San Fernando, a few miles south of Cadiz, the pirate Nicholas Fernandez, recalled an incident:- ''We arrived at the coast of Cuba and learned that His Majesty’s schooner ‘Speedwell’ accompanied by several barges from other vessels of war, was engaged in securing a key near Cayo Romano off the north Coast of Cuba where a number of pirates had secreted themselves in the woods. Some small craft which the pirates used in other cruises, were captured by the barges … it was expected the pirates would be hunted from their lurking places.''