HMS Tartar (1801)

HMS Tartar was a 32-gun fifth-rate Narcissus-class frigate of the Royal Navy, built at Frindsbury and launched in 1801. She captured privateers on the Jamaica station and fought in the Gunboat War and elsewhere in the Baltic before being lost to grounding off Estonia in 1811.

Jamaica station

Captain James Walker commissioned Tartar in July 1801. She sailed for Jamaica in October.

In June 1802 Captain Charles Inglis took command. On 30 August 1802 Tartar was among the British warships sharing in the capture of the French tartane Concezione.

In 1803 Captain John Perkins succeeded Inglis.Tartar was in Captain John Loring's squadron at the Blockade of Saint-Domingue when Vanguard captured the 74-gun Duquesne on 25 July off Saint-Domingue. Tartar outsailed her larger companions and kept Duquesne engaged until Bellerophon came up, at which point Duquesne surrendered.

As the British warships and their prize were sailing between the two islands of St. Domingo and Tortudo, near Port-au-Paix, they met up with the French schooner Oiseaux. She was armed with 16 guns and her crew of 60 men was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Druault. Loring ordered Vanguard and Tartar to escort Duquesne and Oiseau to Port Royal.

HMS Tartar

HMS Tartar has been the name of more than one ship of the British Royal Navy, and may refer to:

HMS Tartar (1756)

HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The ship was designed by Sir Thomas Slade and based on the Lyme of 1748, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."

The ship was first commissioned in March 1756 under Captain John Lockhart, and earned a reputation as a fast sailer during service in the English Channel. She made many captures of French ships during the Seven Years' War, including 4 in 1756 and 7 the following year. During the peace that followed, the ship sailed to Barbados carrying a timekeeper built by John Harrison, as a part of a series of experiments used to determine longitude at sea. She also served in the American Revolutionary War, capturing the Spanish Santa Margarita of 28 guns off Cape Finisterre on 11 November 1779.

She went on to see further service during the French Revolutionary War. On 14 December the French frigate Minerve captured off the island of Ivica the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, Tartar recaptured the Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica.

HMS Tartar (1907)

HMS Tartar was a Tribal class destroyer of the Royal Navy launched in 1907 and sold in 1921. During the First World War she served in the North Sea and the English Channel with the 6th Destroyer Flotilla.

Construction and design

HMS Tartar was ordered from the Southampton shipbuilder John I. Thornycroft & Company under the 1905–06 shipbuilding programme for the Royal Navy, one of five Tribal class destroyers ordered under that programme. The Tribals derived from a requirement by the First Sea Lord "Jackie" Fisher, for a steam turbine powered, oil-fueled destroyer capable of at least 33 knots (61 km/h; 38 mph). Armament was specified as three 12 pounder (3 inch, 76 mm) 12 cwt guns and two 18 inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes. While the Admiralty laid down the basic requirements, the details of the design of individual ships was left to the builders, although the builder's designs did need to be approved by the Director of Naval Construction before orders were placed. This meant that individual ships of the class differed significantly from each other.