HMS Recruit (1829)

HMS Recruit was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. Completed in 1831, she was lost with all hands in the North Atlantic the following year.

Description

The Cherokee-class brig-sloops were designed by Henry Peake, they were nicknamed 'coffin brigs' for the large number that either wrecked or foundered in service, but modern analysis has not revealed any obvious design faults. They were probably sailed beyond their capabilities by inexperienced captains tasked to perform arduous and risky duties. Whatever their faults, they were nimble; quick to change tack and, with a smaller crew, more economical to run. Recruit displaced and measured long at the gundeck. She had a beam of, a depth of hold of, a deep draught of and a tonnage of 231 tons burthen. The ships had a complement of 52 men when fully manned, but only 33 as a packet ship. The armament of the Cherokee class consisted of ten muzzle-loading, smoothbore guns: eight carronades and two guns positioned in the bow for use as chase guns.

Construction and career

Recruit was ordered on 25 March 1823 and laid down in February 1825 at Portsmouth Dockyard. The ship was launched on 17 August 1829 and was fitted out from March to 18 August 1831. She was commissioned on 1 July 1831. On 29 May 1832, she sailed from Falmouth, bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Hodges, RN. She disappeared without trace, presumed foundered in the Atlantic Ocean with the death of all aboard.