HM hired armed lugger Cockchafer
HM hired armed lugger Cockchafer was a hired armed vessel, possibly actually a shallop, that served the Royal Navy from 6 May 1794 to her loss on 2 November 1801. Career On 8 June 1794 Cockchafer played a small, ignoble part in a striking encounter between a frigate squadron under the Guernseyman Captain Sir James Saumarez, and a larger, stronger French squadron. On 6 June, Saumarez received an order from Admiral Macbride to take frigates and , the 24-gun post ship , and six cutters and luggers (Cockchafer and Valiant among them), to Guernsey and Jersey, and then to reconnoiter the French coast around Cancale and Saint Malo for signs of the French fleet. The squadron sailed on 7 June and on 8 June they were some leagues northwest of Guernsey when Saumarez sighted six sails in the distance. He did not think they were French, but he sent Valiant to investigate. As Valiant approached, the vessels hoisted French colours and fired on her. The French squadron sailed between the cutters and luggers on the one side and the three British ships on the other, so the small vessels fled back to Plymouth. Valiant was the first to arrive at