HMS Havannah was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was launched in 1811 and was one of twenty-seven s. She was cut down to a 24-gun sixth rate in 1845, converted to a training ship in 1860, and sold for breaking up in 1905.
War service
Havannahs first captain was George Cadogan, who commissioned her into the Channel Fleet. Havannah was rapidly involved in operations against French coastal shipping off the Channel Islands.
On 6 September 1811, the boats of Havannah, under the command of her first lieutenant, William Hamley, landed a party that spiked the three 12-pounder guns of a battery on the south-west side of the Penmarks. They then brought out several coasting vessels that had taken refuge under the guns, all without taking any losses. Schooner Aimable Fanny, laden with wine and brandy, and several chasse marees: St. Jean, laden with salt; Petit Jean Baptiste, laden with wine and brandy; Buonaparte, laden with wine and brandy; Voltigeur, laden with wine and brandy; and lastly, one of unknown name, laden with wine and brandy, dismantled and set on fire but later extinguished.
On 25 December Havannah sailed for the Mediterranean. In 1812, Cadogan took Havannah to join the squadron operating in the Adriatic from the island of Lissa. On 24 April 1812 , and Havannah landed Lieutenant-colonel George Duncan Robertson, his staff and a garrison at Port St. George on Lissa. The British had defeated a French naval force on 13 March at the Battle of Lissa and wanted to establish a base there with Robertson as its first Governor.
In early 1813 Havannah was detached to the Northern Italian coast where she conducted a five-month campaign against the shipping and shore facilities of Vasto and its environs. On 6 January 1813 Havannahs boats cut out Gunboat No. 8, armed with one long 24-pounder gun. She had a crew of 35 men under the command of M. Joseph Floreus, enseigne de vaisseau. Despite meeting a superior force and coming under small arms fire from the shore, the boats, under Lieutenant Hamley, captured the gunboat and three merchant vessels, their original target, as well. The British had one man killed and two men wounded in the operation. In May 1821, prize money for the gunboat, the three merchant vessels St Antonio No. 1, St Antonio No. 2 and St Antonio No. 3 was awarded, as well as prize money for two other vessels taken that day, Madona del Rosario and the settee Euphemia. On 14 January Havannah and captured two small trabaccolos.
Three weeks later, on 7 February, Havannah destroyed four gunboats at Manfredonia. In numerous actions, she seized dozens of ships and destroyed coastal batteries. For instance, on 22 March 1813 the ship's boats captured at Vasto one trabaccolo, armed with three 9-pounder guns and destroyed another. Then on 26 March, her boats brought out five armed trabacolos and five feluccas laden with salt that had been run up on the beach near the town of Fortore. In both actions the enemy lost at least one man killed, while the British had only two men wounded in all. In May 1821 prize money for ten trabaccolos, one parenza, five feluccas, and their cargoes, captured between 22 March and 5 May, was paid.
On 18 July, while off Manfredonia, Havannah, with the sloop , attacked a small convoy and captured or destroyed all the vessels. They captured one Neapolitan gunboat armed with one 18-pounder gun, and burnt another. They also destroyed a pinnace armed with one 6-pounder gun. Lastly, they captured two trabaccolos armed with three guns each and laden with salt, and destroyed two others of the same strength and cargo.
In November 1813, Havannah was attached to Thomas Fremantle's squadron that blockaded and besieged Trieste. She was then detached to take the port of Zara with the assistance of (or Weazle). Cadogan used the ships' guns to establish batteries armed with two 32-pounder carronades, eight 18-pounder guns and seven long 12-pounder guns. He then attacked the city and captured it with the aid of some Austrian troops. In all, they captured 110 guns and 18 howitzers, 350 men, 100 dismounted guns and 12 gunboats. Cadogan was later instructed to hand over all prizes and spoils of war to the Austrians. (This order cost the crews of Havannah and Weazle an estimated £300,000 in prize money.) The Emperor of Austria, however, awarded Lieutenant Hamley the Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold for his services at Zara.
On 9 December Havannah and Weazel destroyed 17 gunboats.