HM Trial Cutter- Vanguard

The ‘Trial’ was built by Thomas Dusterville of Plymouth to the designs of Captain John Schank (Ordered on 1st December 1788). It measured 65 feet in length by 21 feet in the beam and had a tonnage of 123 burden. She had a complement of 45. The hull was fitted with three of Captain Schank’s sliding keels, which give the shallow hull directional stability when under sail.

On 28 June 1793, Trial took a privateer from St Marlo, the 14-gun ‘Le Feret’. In 1797 Trial captured the privateer brig ‘Le Courier de la Mer’. In 1798 whilst keeping watch on the invasion flotilla at Le Havre, in company with a frigate and a bomb vessel, her ability to sail close inshore was useful in a brief action with the 36-gun frigate ‘La Confiance’ and the 20-gun corvette ‘La Vesuve’. The former was beached, deserted and later burnt by a boat action; the corvette was driven ashore but refloated and escaped when superior forces drove off the British squadron. The Trial was hulked in 1810 and became a depot ship at Waterford. She was still in service in the 1840’s, at Callao in Peru as a coal depot, and sold in 1848 – a very long service career for such a vessel.

When first commissioned in 1790, Trial’s main armament was 8 x 3 Pounder carriage guns. In 1793, 4 x 12 Pounder carronades were added. It is with these extra guns that the kit is modelled on, giving her 12 guns in total. Trial was fitted with stocks for swivel guns on the gunwale, but research suggests that these were never once used during her long career, so no swivel guns have been included. It is important to note that once carronades were added to a ship’s armament, the need for swivel guns was completely negated, as carronades did the same job, but much more effectively.