HMS Scorpion was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by John King at Dover and launched in 1803.
Scorpion had a long and active career during the Napoleonic Wars, earning her crews three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal when the Admiralty authorized it in 1847, two for single-ship actions.
[1] On 15 December the sloop Jane, Dedwith, master, was sailing from Liverpool to Cork when she ran foul of Scorpion near St David's Head and foundered.
On 25 March 1804 Rear-Admiral Edward Thornbrough detached Scorpion to reconnoiter the Vlie Passage to the Texel.
That night Hardinge led five boats, three from Scorpion and two from Beaver, with about 60 officers and men, including Pelly, to attack Atalanta, which was under the command of Captain Carp.
[13] Lloyd's List reported that Scorpion was in company with the sloop Lynx and the gun-brig Censor, and that together they captured 10 vessels that were sailing from Riga to Embden carrying masts.
[14] On 2 August Scorpion, with the hired armed cutter Lord Nelson in company, captured the Prussian vessel Ignatius.
[15] Ignatius, or Ignatus, Bakker, master, was carrying masts from Riga when Scorpion detained her and sent her into Yarmouth.
[17] She was also carrying M. Jean Saint-Faust who was traveling to Curaçao to assume command of the naval forces of the Batavian Republic.
[18] Scorpion shared in the prize money for the Dorothea Elizabeth, which a squadron of eleven ships under the command of Admiral Russel had captured on 14 May.
[19] Carteret received a promotion to post-captain on 22 January 1806, but Scorpion had just sailed to the Leeward Islands station and so it was some time before notification caught up with him.
While on the Leeward Islands station, he shadowed Admiral Willaumez's squadron, coming close enough at one point to draw several cannon shots.
[18] In July 1806 Carteret helped Captain Kenneth McKenzie of Carysfort save 65 deeply laden merchantmen at St. Kitts from destruction.
After waiting some month in Barbados he received news that Scorpion was back at Plymouth and he sailed to join her.
[23] Lieutenant Daniel Callaway of Pickle ran alongside the French vessel and his crew boarded and captured her.
[24] Capturing her took a long chase and a 45-minute running fight during which the privateer lost several of crew killed; Scorpion had no casualties.
On 28 July while now under the command of Stanfell and with Dryad in company, she captured the Danish ship Trende Sostre and Hannah.
[29] Because Scorpion was abroad, two-thirds of the prize money for Marianne and Carl von Plessen was paid to Greenwich Hospital.
[31] Lastly, on 12 October Scorpion captured the Danish ship Gerhard while Saturn and Swiftsure were in sight.
Scorpion was about 100 miles south of Cape Clear and Stanfell had disguised her as a merchantman to lure privateers.
That evening Stanfell succeeded in enticing the French privateer ketch Glaneuse to come within pistol range.
Stanfell had obtained information from Glaneuse that enabled him to capture the privateer ketch Glâneur after a chase of 12 hours.
In the fight, United Brothers had lost two men killed, one being her commander Lieutenant William McKenzie, and one man wounded.
[1] On 19 July 1809 Scorpion recaptured the American schooner Lucy, which a French privateer had captured off the Pearl Rock.
[40] At the end of 1809 Scorpion formed part of the squadron off Guadeloupe under Captain Volant Vashon Ballard of Blonde.
The boat parties reached the French vessel despite cross-fire from the batteries and in the face of small arms fire from men on the beach.
On 11 January 1810, Captain Vollant Ballard detached Stanfell to attempt to cut out a French brig anchored near the shore.
[43] The action lasted for two to two-and-a-half hours, with Scorpion exposed to fire from the shore, before Oreste, which had been dismasted, struck her colours at 1:30am on 12 January.
Stanfell and a detachment of seamen served ashore with the 2nd division of the army under Brigadier General Harcourt.