HMS Watchful (1804)
The Royal Navy purchased the mercantile brig Jane in 1804 and renamed her HMS Watchful. Jane had been launched in 1795 at Norfolk. In 1805 she participated in several actions against French and Dutch vessels on their way to Boulogne. Watchful also participated in the siege of Cadiz in 1810–1811. The Navy sold her in 1814. Career Jane was one of 10 mercantile vessels that the Navy purchased in 1804 and armed to supplement the 20 that it was having built. Lieutenant James Marshall commissioned Watchful in June 1804. On 29 January 1805, a French flotilla consisting of 17 brigs, three schooners, four sloops, a dogger, and six luggers arrived at Boulogne from the west. exchanged fire with them but they were too close to shore to capture. One lugger lost her foremast and was able to capture her after a brief exchange of fire; the lugger went into the Downs with . A subsequent prize money notice named the lugger as Gunboat No. 337 (or No. 317); Watchful and Immortalite shared in the capture. Early on the morning of 24 April and Watchful sighted a flotilla of 27 vessels under Dutch colours coming around Cape Grisnez and approaching Boulogne