Built as a gunbrig for convoy and patrol duty by Jabez Bailey, Ipswich for the Royal Navy.
June 1804 ordered, and keel laid down.
October 1804 launched under the name HMS DARING.
Tonnage 178 ton (bm), dim. 80.2 x 22.6 x 9.5ft. (draught)
Armament 10 – 18pdrs. and 2 – chase guns.
Crew 50.
18 October 1804 completed.
Fitted out at Chatham and commissioned November 1804 under command of Lieut. Charles Ormsby.
Used in the Channel fleet.
1806 Under command of Lieut. George Hayes, in the North Sea and Channel.
August 1809 under command Sir Home Popham, she took sounding in the Western Schelde.
December 1810 under command of Lieut. Thomas Allen.
1811 Under command of Lieut. Campbell
The same year when fitting out at Sheerness under command of Lieut. William R. Pascoe.
June 1811 commissioned again and under command of Pascoe sailed for the West African station on 10 March 1812.
27 January 1813 the DARING mistook the French RUBIS (40 guns) for an English frigate, and send her Master across to talk to her. As he approached the RUBIS he realized their mistake and made an unsuccessful attempt to escape, in the meantime warning the DARING who set immediately more sail, and managed to beach her at Tamare, one of the Isles de Los, near Sierra Leone.
After she was beached set at fire by her own crew, to avoid being captured.
Capt Pascoe and most of the crew arrived the next day at Sierra Leone river, while the Master and the boat crew arrived a few days later with a cartel boat (cartel is a name given to a boat to move prisoners or injures that are going to be exchanged by the ones of the adversary. The boat must have a distinctive sign and its route must be known. Finally, must not be armed, nor attacked, nor captured during the trip.)
Source: http://www.cronab.demon.co.uk/D1.HTM The Lost Ships of the Royal Navy 1793-1900 by Gosset.
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817 by Winfield.