Maritime record KSS 152 - Wreck of the HMS Fairy

1840 wreck of British gun brig, also described as a brig sloop, which capsized and foundered off Kessingland after leaving Harwich for Great Yarmouth. Constructed of wood, she was a sailing vessel.
Status: Casualty

'A sloop-rigged gun brig of the famous Cherokee class of which 115 were laid down between 1807 and 1830. Sister ship of the well known man o'war BEAGLE, the FAIRY was commissioned as a survey vessel for the Hydrographer in 1831. Ordered by the Admiralty to Great Yarmouth to witness the operation of a new dredging device invented by Captain Manby, the FAIRY left Harwich on the 12th November and was last seen heading north. By nightfall a severe easterly gale was raging, during which the FAIRY disappeared. A short piece in the Times newspaper of 20.11.1840 reported that a Yarmouth fishing smack had seen a three-masted man o' war founder, and heard the cries of her crew, but were unable to assist due to heavy seas. The Admiralty despatched the paddle steamer SALAMANDER to Norway to search the coast in case she was there, but returned without news. Various items of floating wreckage were then reported on 14.11 off the Brown Banks, some of which bore broad arrow markings and were eventually identified as coming from the FAIRY. The wreck has never been located.' (1)

HMS FAIRY sailed from Harwich and disappeared. (2)

Employed in surveying the English east coast, when she foundered in a gale with all hands. She apparently sailed from her archorage off Orford about midnight on 12th November, and was seen by Southwold fishermen the next morning in poor weather under reefed topsails and staysails. One local fisherman sailed through wreckage offKessingland later that day, and various items of wreckage identified as coming from the FAIRY were washed ashore on the Suffolk coast over the next few weeks. (3)

FAIRY sailed from Harwich and was not heard of again. (4)

She was a Cherokee Class vessel, sloop-rigged, and undertook general duties until DEC-1831 when she was commissioned as a survey vessel. En route to Great Yarmouth on 12-NOV-1840 she encountered an easterly gale; a fishing smack reportedly saw her founder but was unable to assist her and she was not heard of again. The fishing smack EBENEZER reportedly picked up an oar bearing the broad arrow along with a grating the same colour as the FAIRY near Brown Banks on the morning of the 14-NOV-1840. Further wreckage was washed ashore on Corton Beach in Norfolk near Christmas, including papers and sections of the decking. An advertisement promising a reward for anyone knowing the exact position of the presumed wreck was placed in national and eastern county newspapers in JAN-1841. (6)

As a result one Benjamin Butcher, a fisherman, stated: "at 11am on the 13-NOV being about 5 miles from Kissingland church, bore WNW, I passed a great many papers and a lug-sail of a gig." On 03-FEB-1841, John Dale, master of the collier brig ALPHA stated: "that on the 13-NOV-1840 at 10am he saw a war-like vessel between Eastness and Southwold go over on her broadside, right herself and then sink like a stone in 17 fathoms due to bad weather." In JUN-1841 two steamships were employed to sweep for the wreck but without success. (6)

Ordered: 1823 (4)
Keel laid: July 1824 (4)
Launched: 25 April 1825 (4)
Built: 1826 (1)(3)(4)(5)
Where Built: Chatham Dockyard (1)(3)(4)
Owner: Royal Navy [all sources]
Commanding Officer: Capt. William Hewett RN (1)(3)
Master: Captain's brother-in-law (6)
Midshipman: Hewett, Captain Hewett's eldest son (6)
Crew: 45 (1)
Crew Lost: 45 (1)
Armament: 8 x 18pdr carronades (3)(1); 10 cannon (4)

Date of Loss Qualifier: Actual date of loss

Additional sources not yet checked:
Great Shipwrecks, Nelson, 1880 p629;
Times: 20-NOV-1840 and 15-DEC-1840;
Memories of Hydrography, Dawson, Vol.1 1750 - 1830, Vol 2 1830 -1855
Marine Cartography In Britain, Robinson 1855
Nautical Magazine Vol. X 1841 p72 116/130 & Vol.VI 1837 p105-8;
PRO Kew ADM.(Index) No.12187
Essex Standard 27.11.1840
Scientist and the Sea, M. Deacon 1971
North Sea Sailing Directions Vol 3, NP 54
(The original documents of Captain W. Hewett RN are held by the Hydrographic Department, Taunton)