HMS Serpent (1794)

HMS Serpent was a former Dutch hoy that the British Admiralty purchased in 1794 for service with the Royal Navy. She was paid off in 1796 and was sold around 1802.

Service
The Admiralty had Hawke fitted out between April 1794 and April 1795 at Woolwich, commissioning her in April 1794 under Lieutenant John Sewell. Lieutenant Hery Hicks took command in 1795 and joined Admiral Sir Sidney Smith’s squadron.

Smith assigned all his gunvessels to the defence of the Îles Saint-Marcouf, which are some three and a half miles from the French coast and about nine miles south-east of Cape La Hogue, and which consist of two islands, West and East. The gunvessels and the shore batteries and redoubts the British erected on the islands were initially under the overall command of Lieutenant Henry Hicks of HMS Hawke (1794), and then under Lieutenant Charles Papps Price in HMS Badger (1794).

On 7 September the French mounted an attack with 17 large boats filled with men. They retreated in confusion after coming under fire from the redoubts the British had erected on East Island and from the gunvessels, among them the hoys Badger, HMS Shark (1794) and Hawke, and the Musquito-class floating battery HMS Sandfly (1794). Subsequently, material from Serpent was used to build a battery.

Fate
Serpent was paid off in 1796. She was sold around 1802.