Captain Who's What?

Captain John Schank was a brilliant Nelsonian captain who devised what was then called 'oddities' in the Royal Navy. His Q Ship was a converted collier called the "Rattler" 286 tons which was purchased in 1798 and refitted to his designs.
The "Wolverine" as she was renamed was equipped with three keels like a modern yacht which retracted up into the hull, and was armed with five small carronades on deck with a further six 24pdr carronades on a 'hidden' gun deck below. These six were mounted on unique transverse tracks connecting the two gun ports on either side so although she only had six guns they could fire a six gun broadside to either port or starboard. A further two gun ports pointing straight forward were armed with a pair of long 18pdrs.
Because she looked and was rigged like a collier she presented what appeared to be an easy target for the French Privateers in the channel but proved to be anything but!!
If she bit off more than she could chew, Schank simply pulled up the keels and headed off into shallow water where the larger ships couldn't follow!
There is a hull model of the Wolverine in the Nat Maritime Museum, not a big ship but so innovative she was over 120 years ahead of her time (WW1 Q-Ships)!
She'd make a lovely model.

Unfortunately you're probably right
But it was a nice thought!

Best Wishes Mr T

Hi Saintsman123

It would be great if the magazines have mentioned old 'Schanky's Surprise' I got the details out of one of my old reference books "Nelson against Napoleon" in the Caxton Pictorial Histories series which I bought years ago from a Plymouth discount bookshop. I have no idea unfortunately if they are still in print or available. They are marked at £30 each although I think they were about £9.99 at the time.
These are fantastic books for any ship modeller, full of contempory drawings and even admiralty hull plans (although admittedly reproduced fairly small). There are five volumes in the set:
Fleet, Battle and Blockade - The French Revolutionary War 1793-1797
The Victory of Sea Power - Winning the Napoleonic War 1806-1810
The Naval War of 1812
and perhaps the most useful because its the only one I didn't find..
The Campaign of Trafalgar 1803-1805.

I can remember one hilarious account in one of these books of another Q-ship who's captain made a habit (and a fortune) out of sacking enemy ports. He would sail in under false colours and attack the shipping in the harbour then sail back out to sea until he was out of sight of land where he would strip all the spars and rigging down, rebuilding them in a different fashion and then repaint the hull adding or removing bulkheads until the ship looked completely different and then after a couple of weeks he sailed back to the same enemy port and repeated the whole episode! Now that's class!!