HMS Pickle was a 10-gun Bermuda sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, one of several vessels seized when the Dutch island of Curaçao was surrendered to Captain William Frederick Watkins of HMS Néréide in 1800, and was purchased by Lord Hugh Seymour in January 1801 as an armed tender and renamed Pickle in 1802.

Service

In 1803 Pickle was attached to Admiral William Cornwallis' Inshore Squadron, where she was used to recconoitre enemy harbours during the blockade of Brest, Rochefort, and Lorient. On 25 March 1804 Pickle went to the assistance of HMS Magnificent, which had run on to a shoal off Brest, and assisted in the rescue of her crew.

On 9 October 1805, commanded by Lieutenant John Richards Lapenotiere, Pickle was sent with HMS Weazle to assist Captain Henry Blackwood in watching the coast off Cádiz, and to provide reconnaissance services for the fleet. Pickle managed to sail close enough to the coast to provide an exact count of the enemy warships in Cadiz harbour.

Battle of Trafalgar

During the Battle of Trafalgar, Pickle and the other small vessels were kept well back from the fighting, since a single broadside from a ship of the line would have sunk her instantly. Pickle herself was stationed to the north-west of the weather line, where Nelson was leading HMS Victory into battle. In the later stages of the battle, Pickle and three other vessels went to the rescue of the crew of the French ship, Achille, which caught fire and subsequently exploded.

Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain, arriving at Falmouth on 4 November 1805, having been chosen to carry the dispatches of Vice Admiral Collingwood who had assumed command after the death of Nelson. After arriving in Falmouth Lapenotiere took a coach to London to deliver the dispatches to the Admiralty, receiving a promotion to Commander for his service.

To this day the Royal Navy's petty officers have an annual Pickle Night dinner, as do many private clubs in the Commonwealth of Nations. The historic and epic 1805 voyage and journey were commemorated in 2005, the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar, by the New Trafalgar Dispatch and the Trafalgar Way.

Pickle struck a shoal at Cádiz and was lost in 1808.

References

• David Howarth, Trafalgar: The Nelson Touch (Atheneum, 1969).

External links

• HMS 'Pickle' replica