HMS Malta (1800 schooner)

History
Spain
Name:	Malta
Launched:	1797 in the United States of America
Acquired:	Unknown
Captured:	by the Royal Navy in 1800
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Malta
Acquired:	By capture 1800
Renamed:	HMS Gozo in December 1800
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Egypt"[1]
Fate:	Sold 1804
General characteristics [2]
Type:	10-gun schooner
Tons burthen:	162  ^9⁄94 (bm)
Length:	80 ft 5 in (24.5 m) (overall); 64 ft 11 in (19.8 m) (keel)
Beam:	21 ft 8 in (6.6 m)
Depth of hold:	12 ft 0 in (3.7 m)
Complement:	50 in British service
Armament:	10 × 4-pounder guns

HMS Malta was the Spanish 10-gun schooner Malta, built and launched in the United States of America in 1797. The British captured her in 1800. After the Royal Navy captured the French ship-of-the-line Guillaume Tell and renamed her HMS  Malta, the Admiralty renamed the schooner Gozo in December 1800 after the Maltese island of Gozo.^{[Note 1]}

Malta was one of six British warships in sight on 8 January 1801 when HMS Penelope captured the French bombard St. Roche. She was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delfth (sic) cloth, and various other merchandise from Marseilles to Alexandria.^[3]

Then on 8 March the "Malta schooner", Entreprenante, and the gun-vessel Negresse protected the right flank during the landing of troops in Aboukir Bay.^[4] Cruelle protected the left flank, together with the cutter Janissary and the gun-vessel Dangereuse.^[4]

Because Gozo served in the fleet under Admiral Lord Keith in the Egyptian campaign between 8 March and 2 September, she is listed amongst the vessels whose crews qualified for the NGSM with clasp "Egypt".^{[Note 2]}

On 9 June Gozo (misspelled as Gogo) captured the chasse maree Trompeuse, which was sailing to Ancona.^[6]

Gozo was sold in 1804.^[2]

Footnotes

Notes

1. Winfield awards the capture to HMS Thames.^[2] Unfortunately, there is no mention in the London Gazette of the capture, or for that matter of the capture of any Spanish schooner with the name Malta.
2. A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.^[5]

Citations

1. The London Gazette: no. 21077. pp. 791–792. 15 March 1850.
2. Winfield (2008), p.356.
3. The London Gazette: no. 15358. p. 447. 25 April 1801.
4. The London Gazette: no. 15362. pp. 496–498. 5 May 1801.
5. The London Gazette: no. 17915. p. 633. 3 April 1823.
6. The London Gazette: no. 15428. p. 1386. 17 November 1801.

References

• Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.