The Hirondelle, a 14-gun brig, had been originally a French privateer.
She was taken by the boats of the Tartar in the year 1804, when
attempting to escape from that vessel through a narrow and intricate
channel between the islands of Saona and St. Domingo. The Tartar
finding from the depth of the water that she could not come up with
the schooner, despatched three of her boats under the command of
Lieutenant Henry Muller, assisted by Lieutenant Nicholas Lockyer and
several midshipmen, all volunteers, to endeavour to bring her out. The
instant the boats put off, the Hirondelle hoisted her colours, fired a
gun, and warped her broadside towards them. As they advanced, the
privateer opened a fire from her great guns, and as they drew nearer,
from her small arms also. In spite of this, and of a strong breeze
directly on the bows of the boats, Lieutenant Muller intrepidly pulled
up to the privateer, and after a short but obstinate resistance, he
boarded and carried her, with the loss only of one seaman, and one
marine wounded.'[12]
Such was the first introduction of the Hirondelle into the British
navy. Her career in it was of short duration, and its conclusion
fearfully sudden and disastrous, as the following account, given by
the survivors, will show.
On the 22nd of February, 1808, the Hirondelle, commanded by Lieutenant
Joseph Kidd, sailed from Malta, bound to Tunis, with dispatches on
board. On Wednesday evening they steered a course towards Cape Bon,
but unfortunately they got within the action of the strong current
that sets eastward along the Barbary Coast, so that, instead of making
the Cape as she intended, the brig fell some few leagues short of it
to the eastward, and run aground. As soon as the alarm was given, all
hands were turned up; the night was so dark it was impossible to
ascertain the exact position of the ship, but they distinctly heard
the breakers on the shore. Every effort was made to bring the vessel
up, by endeavouring to anchor, but without effect; while this was
going on, the cutter had been manned with ten or twelve men, and she
might have been the means of saving many lives, but she was no sooner
lowered, than the people rushed into her in such numbers that she was
almost immediately swamped, and all who were on board her perished,
except one man, who regained the deck of the Hirondelle. The commander
now saw that the loss of his ship was inevitable, and he therefore
desired his crew to provide for their own safety. The order was
scarcely uttered, no one had had time to act upon it, when suddenly
the brig gave a lurch and went down; the sea washed over her, and of
all her men, four only were left to tell the sad tale. Happily for
them they were clinging to the wreck, and so escaped the fate of their
companions who were swept overboard; and by aid of some of the spars
they succeeded in gaining the shore.
This account is necessarily brief: so short a time elapsed between the
unexpected striking of the ship and her going to pieces, that there is
no incident to relate. The commander and officers of the Hirondelle
seem to have done all in their power to extricate her from her
unfortunate position; indeed, it would appear that had they attended
less anxiously to the preservation of the ship, many lives might have
been saved.