HMS Raven was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Perry, Wells and Green at Blackwall Yard and launched in 1804.

[1] Based on his experience in the Straits of Gibraltar with Weazel he suggested some modifications to existing vessels that would make them more successful in that area.

Weazel, with Layman in command, had been wrecked on 1 March 1804 when a gale drove her near Cabritta Point in Gibraltar Bay and smashed to pieces, with the loss of one man killed.

He closed the two foremost ports and replaced their guns with a single 68-pounder carronade that he mounted on a traverse carriage (i.e., pivot-mounted) immediately before the foremast in a way that it could fire over the gunwales.

[a] On 21 January 1805 Raven sailed to join Lord Nelson's squadron with dispatches for him and for Sir John Orde off Cadiz.

[2] He assumed that Raven was well offshore and retired, leaving instructions that the watch should throw the lead every half hour.

[2] At daylight Layman discovered that Raven was close inshore with Spanish warships at anchor off Cadiz on the one side and batteries in a fort at Santa Catalina on the other.

[3][4] The court-martial minutes include a note by an Admiralty official that, "Their Lordships are of the opinion that Captain Layman is not a fit person to be entrusted with the command of one of H.M.'s ships.

The court-martial board judged that the master, John Edwards, had been negligent in not taking regular soundings and in not monitoring Raven's movements.