A fir built 18 gun brig-sloop (two square rigged masts), one of eight Albatross Class, built by Perry of Blackwall, launched 29 August 1795, 96 feet long by 30 feet, 6 inches, 365 tons builders measurement.   She was armed with sixteen 32 pdr carronades and two 6 pdr bowchasers.

• 1795                 conveyed troops from the Cape to Algoa Bay (Port Elizabeth)
• 1795-1796     Surveyed off the west coast on South Africa
• 20 December 1796     Took the Privateer Cutter Le Coup d’Essai (2) off the Isle of Wight and recaptured the brig Ann
• 13 March 1798            took the Danish Mathilda Maria en route from Copenhagen to Tranquebar (Coromandel Coast of India) with wine, beef, pork, etc., off Ile de France (Mauritius)
• 12 May 1798   took a French ship, 40 to 50 tons burthen, as a prize off the east coast of Mauritius
• 1801 Portsmouth
• 1802     sold for breaking up

On the 3 November 1801 Capt. GARDNER appeared before a court martial on board GLADIATOR in Portsmouth Harbour charged by surgeon William LIND with tyrannical behaviour towards his officers, having traded in slaves off Madagascar and having plundered a French prisoner. After examining the officers and crew of STAR, the court decided that the charges were ill founded and malicious and the captain was honourably acquitted. 

15 November 1942         Ordinary Seaman David Oribine, V-8627, RCNVR of HMCS STAR was posted to HMS QUEBEC, the Combined Training Centre for amphibious operations, at Inveraray, Scotland. Following his participation in Operation TORCH, the invasion of North Africa, on 8 November 1942, he and various other Canadian landing craft crew were returning to Glasgow in the Troop Transport ETTRICK, when it was torpedoed and sunk off Gibraltar by U-155. The majority of the over three hundred crew and passengers were rescued but OS Oribine and twenty-three others were not.

ETTRICK was built as a troop transport with a capacity of 1,344 troops. Managed by P & O, she was intended to rotate battalions of the British Indian Army to and from India.

Sailors, wannabe sailors, friends of sailors and all interested are invited to attend the monthly meeting of the Hamilton Area Group of the Naval Association of Canada.

Wednesday, 27 November 2019 at 12:00, in the Wardroom at HMCS STAR. The cost is $15.00. Reservations required. Contact Neil Bell at rcnr@rogers.com for information or reservations.

Our guest speaker will be Cdr (Ret’d) Fraser M. McKee, author of The Canadian Naval Chronicle 1939-1945, speaking about Canadian participation in Operation CHARIOT, the Raid on St. Nazaire.