Qualla: HMS Diana (1807)

HMS Diana (1807): Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lieutenant William Kempthorne had just 26 officers and men when he sailed HMS Diana out of Bombay in May 1807. The vessel was so modestly sized that the Royal Navy could not decide whether to classify her as a brig or a cutter. Her origins were obscure even then -- acquired at Bombay under circumstances no one bothered to record in detail. What followed over the next three years was a career so improbably eventful that it reads like fiction: a pirate battle near Macao, a Dutch brig captured under a Javanese fort, a blockade of Canton, a desperate flight from French frigates through the Straits of Singapore, and a moonlit duel off the coast of Celebes.

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HMS Diana (1807): Blood in the Jolly Boat

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Diana's first action came quickly. On August 8, 1807, she intercepted Topaze, an American pirate schooner, near Macao. Kempthorne led the boarding from a jolly boat and was knocked overboard, badly wounded in the head and back by boarding pikes. Most officers would have retired t...

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HMS Diana (1807): Blockading Canton, Rescuing Pakenham

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Toward the end of 1808, Rear-Admiral Drury wanted to pressure the Chinese government into meeting British demands. He assembled a miniature squadron -- Diana, a prize brig, and the East India Company vessel Discovery -- and sent Kempthorne up the Pearl River to Canton. The tiny f...

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HMS Diana (1807): Guns Over the Side

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Near Pulo Aor, Diana and Discovery encountered two French frigates, including the Canonniere and a captured Royal Navy post ship. The French gave chase, driving the two British vessels toward the Straits of Singapore. Diana was hopelessly outgunned. Kempthorne made the ruthless c...

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HMS Diana (1807): The Duel at Manado

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

By September 1809, Diana had been re-armed and was prowling the waters off Celebes. On September 10, she sailed into Amurang Bay and spotted the Dutch 14-gun brig Zephyr anchored beneath a fort. Kempthorne sent boats in under cover of darkness, only to find the anchorage empty --...

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HMS Diana (1807): Reefs, Rumors, and a Delayed Promotion

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Diana's later career was less glamorous. She grounded on reefs south of Great Natuna Island -- reefs Kempthorne named the Diana Reefs, a modest form of cartographic immortality. In May 1810, she was surveyed and laid up at Rodrigues in the Indian Ocean. A mistaken entry in Steel'...

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