HMS Fort Diamond
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| History | |
|---|---|
 United Kingdom | |
| Name | HMS Fort Diamond |
| Namesake | Diamond Rock |
| Owner | Royal Navy |
| Commissioned | 1804 |
| Out of service | 23 June 1804 |
| Fate | Captured |
| General characteristics | |
| Class & type | sloop |
| Complement | 30 |
HMS Fort Diamond was a six-gun sloop (or cutter), commissioned in 1804 in Martinique. Her origins are unknown.[1] She captured one French privateer before being lost to a French boarding party in June 1804.
Fort Diamond's primary function was as a tender to the newly established British position at Diamond Rock (nominally commissioned as HMS Diamond Rock). She had a crew of 30 men, volunteers from the 36-gun Fifth Rate Emerald, under the command of Emerald's first lieutenant, Thomas Forest.[2]
On the morning of 13 March 1804, Fort Diamond sailed around the Pearl Rock to attack a French privateer schooner. The schooner, unable to sail into the port of Saint-Pierre, Martinique, had anchored close to a shore battery at Ceron, outside the port.[2]
Emerald created a diversion to distract the battery, sending her boats in another direction. While this was underway Pandour arrived and contributed two boats to the diversion.[2]
Forest's tactic was simply to run Fort Diamond into the privateer at a rate of about nine knots. As Fort Diamond bore down on them, the schooner's crew fired a broadside and discharged some small arms before all 50 or 60 crewmen jumped overboard and swam ashore.[1] (The shore battery, not entirely distracted, also fired on Fort Diamond.) The impact of Fort Diamond hitting the privateer broke the chain that anchored the privateer to shore; the boarding party then cut two cables to free her. Fort Diamond's casualties amounted to two men wounded. The privateer turned out to be the Mosambique, armed with ten 18-pounder carronades, though she was pierced for 14 cannon. She was from Guadeloupe, provisioned for a three-month cruise and was under the command of Citizen Vallentes.[2]
Captain James O'Bryan of Emerald reported that she "seems calculated for the King's Service."[2] The Royal Navy took her into service as Mosambique, but sold her in 1810.