Naval/Maritime History 19th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19 September 1785 - Launch of French Fougueux, 74 gun Téméraire class Ship of the Line at Lorient


Fougueux was a Téméraire class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Lorient from 1784 to 1785 by engineer Segondat.


Belleisle 15 minutes past Noon. Octr 21st 1805. Fougueux. Belleisle. Indomptable. Santa Ana. Royal Sovereign (PAD5707)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109858.html#EeiAeDTRD0VxEGo6.99


Ship history
In 1796, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande under Esprit-Tranquille Maistral.

She took part in the Battle of Trafalgar, firing the first shot of the battle upon HMS Royal Sovereign. She later attempted to come to the aid of the Redoutable by engaging HMS Temeraire. After badly damaging the Fougueux with broadsides, Temeraire's first-lieutenant, Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, led a boarding party onto Fougueux, entering the French ship via her main deck ports and chains. The French tried to defend the decks port by port, but were steadily overwhelmed. Fougueux's captain, Louis Alexis Baudoin, had suffered a fatal wound earlier in the fighting, leaving Commander François Bazin in charge. On learning that nearly all of the officers were dead or wounded and that most of the guns were out of action, Bazin surrendered the ship to Kennedy.


This is a small replica of the painting that Huggins executed for King William IV in 1837, when it was also exhibited at the British Institution. It shows the position of the fleets at 4.30 on the evening of 21 October in a rising gale. Huggins had already done a pair of large paintings of Trafalgar for the King, shown at Exeter Hall in 1834. The prime version of this one, which is chronologically the middle of the three subjects, seems to have been a separate commission. It has now emerged that it is an oil copy, with very slight variations, of a watercolour by Lieutenant Paul Harris Nicolas (1790-1860), who served as a 2nd lieutenant on the 74-gun 'Belleisle' at Trafalgar and was also a younger brother of (Sir) Nicholas Harris Nicolas, later editor of Nelson's dispatches. Inscriptions along the lower edge of the watercolour's frame identify the ships shown: to the left in stern view in the distance the French 'Redoutable', 74, lashed alongside the British 'Temeraire', 98, with the 'Fougueux' 74, on the latter's right but hidden by the dismasted hulk of the 'Santa Ana', 112, taken by the 'Royal Sovereign', Collingwood's 100-gun flagship. This is the principal subject in port-bow view, centre left, with only her foremast standing. To her right are Rear-Admiral Dumanoir and four French ships escaping southward, with 'Victory' in distant starboard-quarter view. An unnamed captured French ship is next, in stern view slightly to port with only mainmast standing, then the bow of the 'Santisima Trinidad', 130, in starboard view with the stern (in port-quarter view) of the 'Nepture' 98 beyond and the 'Leviathan', 74, at the far right edge of the composition. Nicolas is known to have done at least one other watercolour of the battle, showing the situation of the 'Belleisle' at 1.00 p.m. but the dates of execution are not known. He became full lieutenant in July 1808, served at Basque Roads in 1810 and went onto half-pay in September 1814. He lived to receive the Naval General Sevice medal and also wrote a history of the Royal Marines.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12034.html#eFF9cFB7BDOjkuPD.99

According to the report of Captain Lucas of the Redoutable,

“the Fougueux, which, having fought against several of the enemy's ships, had been left by them without having lowered her flag. She was dismasted and unrigged, and floating an unmanageable hulk. On fouling the group of ships she was boarded by the Temeraire. The Fougueux was, however, beyond making serious resistance. Her brave captain, Baudouin, though, even then made an effort, but in vain. He was killed at the outset, and his second in command was wounded at the same moment; whereupon some men of the Temeraire sprang on board and took possession.”

On the day after the battle a severe storm battered the surviving ships. Fougueux was driven ashore near Torre Bermeja on the coast of Spain and was wrecked. Only 25 men aboard, British prize crew and French prisoners, survived


Hand-coloured aquatint and etching inscribed above: "From a painting in the possession of Sir E. Harvey" (Sir Eliot Harvey was captain of the Temeraire), and below: "Situation of the Temeraire at half past 3pm October 21st 1805". The picture shows the Temeraire in action against the Fougueux and the Redoutable during the Battle of Trafalgar. The Redoutable lost her main and mizzen masts; her main falling on the after-part of the Temeraire. Both the Fougueux and the Redoutable were taken, and, by the point in the battle depicted, both ships had ceased any resistance. Earlier in the action, both Fougueux and Redoutable had been lashed to Temeraire (see W. Laird Clowes 'The Royal Navy - a History' Vol. 5, pp.146-7). The ships are shown with Redoutable, her main and mizzen masts down, in the right centre of the picture, while Temeraire is in the centre and Fougueux on her port side in the centre left. The frigate on the left probably represents the Sirius arriving, having received a signal to take Temeraire in tow (see 'Great Sea Fights', Vol. 2, pp. 220, 314; pub. Navy Records Society, 1900).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109879.html#cBpl1WTgloPWq7sp.99



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Fougueux_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19 September 1807 – Launch of HMS Sultan, a 74 gun Fame-class ship of the line


HMS Sultan was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 19 September 1807 at Deptford Wharf.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for 'Illustrious' (1803), 'Albion' (1802), 'Hero' (1803), 'Marlborough' (1807), 'York' (1807), 'Hannibal' (1810), 'Sultan' (1807), and 'Royal Oak' (1809), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The alterations relating to the catheads and forecastle beams refer to 'Hannibal' (1810), and to 'Victorious' (1808) of the 'Swiftsure' class (1800). Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80824.html#b67hj7lFYmfKR1E8.99



On 10 October 1814 Sultan was escorting some transports when Baring wrecked at haven. Sultan's boats, and those of Shamrock, were able to rescue the crew and all the troops, save five men. The troops consisted of 200 men from the 40th Regiment of Foot.

Sultan became a receiving ship in 1860, and was broken up in 1864.


The Fame-class ships of the line were a class of four 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Henslow. After the name-ship of the class was ordered in October 1799, the design was slightly altered before the next three ships were ordered in February 1800. A second batch of five ships was ordered in 1805 to a slightly further modified version of the original draught.

Ships
First batch

• HMS Fame

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 15 October 1799
Laid down: 22 January 1802
Launched: 8 October 1805
Fate: Broken up, 1817

• HMS Albion

Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laid down: June 1800
Launched: 17 June 1802
Fate: Broken up, 1836

• HMS Hero

Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laid down: August 1800
Launched: 18 August 1803
Fate: Wrecked, 1811


The wreck of HMS Hero in the Texel, 25 December 1811

• HMS Illustrious

Builder: Randall & Brent, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laiddown: February 1801
Launched: 3 September 1803
Fate: Broken up, 1868


HMS Illustrious heading out of Table Bay (Thomas Whitcombe, cira 1811)

Second batch

• HMS Marlborough

Builder: Mrs Barnard, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: August 1805
Launched: 22 June 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1835

• HMS York

Builder: Brent, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: August 1805
Launched: 7 July 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1854


The HMS York was one of the second batch of Fame-class ships of the line.

• HMS Sultan

Builder: Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: December 1805
Launched: 19 September 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1864

• HMS Hannibal

Builder: Adams, Bucklers Hard
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: December 1805
Launched: May 1810
Fate: Broken up, 1833

• HMS Royal Oak

Builder: Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: June 1806
Launched: 4 March 1809
Fate: Broken up, 1850



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sultan_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fame-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19 September 1813 – Launch of USS Peacock, sloop of the war


USS Peacock was a sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the War of 1812.

The Peacock was authorized by Act of Congress 3 March 1813, laid down 9 July 1813, by Adam and Noah Brown at the New York Navy Yard, and launched 19 September 1813. She served in the War of 1812, capturing twenty ships. Subsequently, she served in the Mediterranean Squadron, and in the "Mosquito Fleet" suppressing Caribbean piracy. She patrolled the South American coast during the colonial wars of independence. She was decommissioned in 1827 and broken up in 1828 to be rebuilt as the USS Peacock (1828), intended as an exploration ship. She sailed as part of the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838. The Peacock ran aground and broke up on the Columbia Bar without loss of life in 1841.


The US Navy sloop USS Peacock was stuck in the ice in January 1840, shortly after the first confirmed sighting of the Antarctic continent by a US Navy ship. She was lost on the Columbia river in July 1841.

War of 1812
During the War of 1812, the Peacock made three cruises under the command of Master Commandant Lewis Warrington. Departing New York 12 March 1814, she sailed with supplies to the naval station at St. Mary's, Georgia. Off Cape Canaveral, Florida 29 April, she captured her an enemy warship, the British brig HMS Epervier, which the Peacock sent to Savannah, and which the United States Navy took into service as the USS Epervier.


USS Peacock captures HMS Epervier, 29 April 1814.

See also: Capture of HMS Epervier
The Peacock departed Savannah on 4 June on her second cruise; proceeding to the Grand Banks and along the coasts of Ireland and Spain, she returned via the West Indies to New York. She captured 14 enemy vessels of various sizes during this journey. On 14 August the Peacock captured the William, Whiteway, master, of Bristol, and scuttled her.

The Peacock departed New York 23 January 1815 with the Hornet and Tom Bowline and rounded the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, where she captured three valuable prizes.

Last action of the War of 1812
Main article: Capture of East India Company ship Nautilus
On 30 June she captured the 16-gun brig Nautilus, which was under the command of Lieutenant Charles Boyce of the Bombay Marine of the British East India Company in the Straits of Sunda, in the final naval action of the war. Boyce informed Warrington that the war had ended. Warrington suspected a ruse and ordered Boyce to surrender. When Boyce refused, Warrington opened fire, killing one seaman, two European invalids, and three lascars, wounding Boyce severely, as well as mortally wounding the first lieutenant, and also wounding five lascars. American casualties amounted to some four or five men wounded. When Boyce provided documents proving that the Treaty of Ghent ending the war had been ratified, Warrington released his victims, though at no point did he in any way inquire about the Boyce's condition or that of any of the injured on the Nautilus. The Peacock returned to New York on 30 October. A court of inquiry in Boston a year later exonerated Warrington of all blame. In his report on the incident, Warrington reported that the British casualties had only been lascars.


Battle between "U.S.S. Peacock" and the British warship "Epervier" off Cape Canaveral, Florida


Post-war
The Peacock left New York on 13 June 1816, bound for France, with the Honorable Albert Gallatin and party aboard. After pulling into Havre de Grâce 2 July, she proceeded to join the Mediterranean Squadron. But for a year of Mediterranean–United States—and return transits, 15 November 1818 – 17 November 1819, the sloop remained with this squadron until 8 May 1821, when she departed for home; she then went into ordinary at the Washington Navy Yard 10 July.

Fighting pirates
Pirates were ravaging West Indian shipping in the 1820s and on 3 June 1822, the Peacock became flagship of Commodore David Porter’s West India Squadron, that rooted out the pirates. The Peacock served in the expedition that included the Revenue Marine schooner Louisiana and the British schooner HMS Speedwell. The trio broke up a pirate establishment at Bahia Honda Key , 28–30 September capturing four vessels. They burnt two and prize crews took the other two to New Orleans. Eighteen of the captured pirate crew members were sent to New Orleans for trial. The Peacock captured the schooner Pilot on 10 April 1823 and another sloop 16 April. In September, "malignant fever" necessitated a recess from activities, and the Peacock pulled into Norfolk, Virginia on 28 November.

South Pacific coast and Hawaiʻi
In July 1823, the sloop was involved in the Battle of Lake Maracaibo and Mr. Peter Storms decided to join the Independentist cause, who won their independence on 3 August. Later, in March 1824, the sloop proceeded to the Pacific and for some months cruised along the west coast of South America, where the colonies were struggling for independence. In September 1825, the Peacock under the command of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, sailed to the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi, where a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation was negotiated. From 24 July 1826 until 6 January 1827, the sloop visited other Pacific islands to protect American commerce and the whaling industry. Returning to South America from Hawaii, the ship was struck by a whale, suffering serious damage. Nevertheless, she reached Callao, from which she departed 25 June for New York.

USS Peacock (1828)


A sketch of the USS Peacock during the Wilkes Expedition in 1838.

the Peacock returned to New York in October 1827 to be decommissioned, broken up and rebuilt in 1828 for a planned expedition of exploration. Her size and configuration stayed about the same, but her guns were reduced to ten: eight long 24-pounders and two long 9-pounders. When plans for the exploratory voyage stalled in Congress, she re-entered regular service in the West Indies from 1829–31. Following refit, both the Peacock and the newly commissioned Boxer, a 10-gun schooner, were ordered to assist the frigate Potomac, which had just sailed on the first Sumatran Expedition. The two ships were also charged with diplomatic missions. Boxer left Boston Harbor about the middle of February 1832, with orders to proceed to Liberia and from thence to join the Peacock off the coast of Brazil; The Peacock sailed on 8 March 1832 under Commander David Geisinger.

Diplomatic missions
The Peacock conveyed Mr. Francis Baylies and family to the United Provinces of the River Plate (Argentina) to assume the post of United States chargé d’affaires in the wake of the USS Lexington raid on the Falkland Islands in 1831. On arrival both the British line-of-battle ship Plantagenet and H. B. M. frigate Druid complimented her flag by playing Hail, Columbia. Also aboard was President Andrew Jackson's "special confidential agent" Edmund Roberts in the official status of Captain's clerk.

25 June 1832, having left orders for the Boxer to follow to Bencoolen, the Peacock departed war-stricken Montevideo for the Cape of Good Hope. After taking water at Tristan da Cunha and rounding the Cape, then trying to keep about latitude 38° or 39°, on 9 or 10 August a sea of uncommon height and volume struck the ship, and threw her nearly on her beam ends, completely overwhelmed the gig in the starboard-quarter, crushed it into atoms in a moment, and buried the first three ratlines of the mizen-shrouds under water.

Picking up the southeast trade wind around (16°00′N 102°00′E,) on 28 August 1832, the Peacock sailed to Bencoolen where the Dutch Resident reported that the Potomac had completed her mission. Under orders to gather information before going to Cochin-China, The Peacock sailed for Manila by way of Long Island and 'Crokatoa' (Krakatoa), where hot springs found on the eastern side of the islands one hundred and fifty feet from the shore boiled furiously up, through many fathoms of water. Her chronometers proving useless, the Peacock threaded the Sunda Strait by dead reckoning. Diarrhoea and dysentery prevailed among the crew from Angier to Manila; after a fortnight there, cholera struck despite the overall cleanliness of the ship. The Peacock lost seven crewmen, and many who did recover died later in the voyage of other diseases. No new case of cholera occurred after 2 November 1833 while the Peacock was under way for Macao. Within two leagues of the Lemma or Ladrone islands, she took aboard a pilot after settling on a fee of thirteen dollars and a bottle of rum.

After six weeks in the vicinity of Canton City, China, with the onset of the winter northeast monsoon and no sign of the Boxer, the Peacock sailed from Lintin Island in the Pearl River estuary for the bay of Turan (modern Danang) as best for access to Hué, capital of Cochin-China – her task was to explore the possibilities of expanding trade with the kingdom. Contrary winds from the northwest rather than the expected northeast quarter, coupled with a strong southward current, caused her to lose ground on every tack until, on 6 January 1833, she entered what enquiries disclosed to be the Vung-lam harbour of Phu Yen province.

On 8 February, Roberts having failed to gain permission to proceed to Hué due to miscommunication, the Peacock weighed anchor for the gulf of Siam, where on the 18th she anchored about 15 miles (24 km) from the mouth of the river Menam at 13°26′N 100°33′E, as was ascertained by frequent lunar observations and by four chronometers.

On 20 March 1833 Roberts concluded the Siamese-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the minister representing King Rama III, and the Peacock departed on 5 April to call on Singapore, where she stayed between 1 and 11 May.

On 29 August in the Red Sea, while bound to Mocha, the Peacock encountered the Nautilus, the same brig the Peacock had attacked after the end of the War of 1812 with Great Britain. The Nautilus was sailing to Surat as escort to four brigs crowded with mussulmanpilgrims returning from Mecca. This time the Peacock did not attack the Nautilus.

Arriving 13 September off Muscat, Roberts concluded a treaty with Sultan Said bin Sultan, and departed on 7 October 1833. On the voyage from Muscat to Mozambique, Roberts omitted the particulars of each day, but stated that what he had written served "to show the absolute necessity of having first-rate chronometers, or the lunar observations carefully attended to; and never omitted to be taken when practicable."

The Peacock returned Roberts to Rio de Janeiro on 17 January 1834, where on 1 March 1834 he boarded the Lexington to return to Boston.

Return mission
On 23 April 1835, the Peacock, under the command of C. K. Stribling, and accompanied by the U.S. Schooner Enterprise, Lieutenant Commanding A. S. Campbell, departed New York Harbor. Roberts was once again aboard the Peacock, and the two vessels were under the command of Commodore Edmund P. Kennedy. The mission first sailed to Brazil, then round the Cape of Good Hope to Zanzibar, for Roberts to return ratifications of the two treaties.

Masirah incident
On 21 September 1835 at 2 am southeast of Masirah Island about four hundred miles from Muscat, Peacock grounded on a coral reef in about 2 1/4 fathoms. Mr. Roberts, and six men under the command of Passed Midshipman William Rogers, left in a small boat to effect a rescue. The crew hove overboard 11 of 22 guns, re-floated the ship on the 23rd, and repelled Arab marauders before making sail the next day. On the 28th the Peacock was off Muscat when she encountered the sloop-of-war Sultan under the Muscat flag, and under the command of Mr. Taylor. Said bin Sultan later recovered the guns that had been thrown overboard and shipped them to Roberts free of charge. The Peacock later obtained this letter

I certify that during the period I have navigated the Arabian coast, and been employed in the trigonometrical survey of the same, now executing by order of the Bombay government, that I have ever found it necessary to be careful to take nocturnal as well as diurnal observations, as frequent as possible, owing to the rapidity and fickleness of the currents, which, in some parts, I have found running at the rate of three and four knots an hour, and I have known the Palinurus set between forty and fifty miles dead in shore, in a dead calm, during the night.
It is owing to such currents, that I conceive the United States ship of war Peacock run aground, as have many British ships in previous years, on and near the same spot; when at the changes of the monsoons, and sometimes at the full and change, you have such thick weather, as to prevent the necessary observations being taken with accuracy and the navigator standing on with confidence as to his position, and with no land in sight, finds himself to his sorrow, often wrong, owing to a deceitful and imperceptible current, which has set him with rapidity upon it. The position of Mazeira Island, is laid down by Owen many miles too much to the westward.
Given under my hand this 10th day of November, 1835.
S. B. Haines. Commander of the Honourable East India Company's surveying brig Palinurus. To sailing master,
John Weems, U. S. Navy.​

A second attempt at negotiation with Cochin-China failed as Roberts fell desperately ill of dysentery; he withdrew to Macao where he died 12 June 1836. William Ruschenberger, M.D., (1807–1895) commissioned on this voyage, and gives an account of it up until 27 October 1837 when the Peacock anchors opposite the city of Norfolk, Virginia, after an absence of more than two years and a half.

Exploration expedition and fate


The Peacock after hitting the bar of the Columbia River.

The Peacock joined the United States Exploring Expedition in 1838, where she did good service before getting stuck on a bar of the Columbia River in Oregon. She broke up on 17–19 July 1841 after all the crew and much of the scientific data had been taken off, though Titian Peale lost most of his notes


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Peacock_(1813)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_HMS_Epervier

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19 September 1898 – Launch of Japanese armored cruiser Izumo


Izumo (出雲, sometimes transliterated Idzumo) was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in Britain. She often served as a flagship and participated in most of the naval battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. The ship was lightly damaged during the Battle off Ulsan and the Battle of Tsushima. Izumo was ordered to protect Japanese citizens and interests in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution and was still there when World War I began in 1914.


Izumo in Shanghai, 1937

She was then tasked to search for German commerce raiders and protect Allied shipping off the western coasts of North and Central America. The ship assisted the armored cruiser Asama in early 1915 when she struck a rock off Baja California. In 1917, Izumo became the flagship of the Japanese squadron deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. After the war, she sailed to Great Britain to take control of some ex-German submarines and then escorted them part of the way back to Japan.

The ship spent most of the 1920s as a training ship for naval cadets and became flagship of the IJN's China forces in 1932 during the First Shanghai Incident. Izumo participated in the Battle of Shanghai five years later and was not damaged, despite repeated aerial attacks. The ship played a minor role in the Pacific War, supporting Japanese forces during Philippines Campaign until she struck a mine. She returned to Japan in 1943 and again became a training ship for naval cadets. Izumo was sunk by American carrier aircraft during the attack on Kure in July 1945. Her wreck was refloated and scrapped in 1947.

Background and description
The 1896 Naval Expansion Plan was made after the First Sino-Japanese War and included four armored cruisers in addition to four more battleships, all of which had to be ordered from British shipyards as Japan lacked the capability to build them itself. Further consideration of the Russian building program caused the IJN to believe that the battleships ordered under the original plan would not be sufficient to counter the Imperial Russian Navy. Budgetary limitations prevented ordering more battleships and the IJN decided to expand the number of more affordable armored cruisers to be ordered from four to six ships. The revised plan is commonly known as the "Six-Six Fleet". Unlike most of their contemporaries which were designed for commerce raiding or to defend colonies and trade routes, Izumo and her half-sisters were intended as fleet scouts and to be employed in the battleline.


Left plan, elevation and half section of the Izumo class from Jane's Fighting Ships, 1904

The ship was 132.28 meters (434 ft 0 in) long overall and 121.92 meters (400 ft 0 in) between perpendiculars. She had a beam of 20.94 meters (68 ft 8 in) and had an average draft of 7.26 meters (23 ft 10 in). Izumodisplaced 9,503 metric tons (9,353 long tons) at normal load and 10,305 metric tons (10,142 long tons) at deep load. The ship had a metacentric height of 0.88 meters (2 ft 11 in). Her crew consisted of 672 officers and enlisted men.



Izumo had two 4-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller shaft. Steam for the engines was provided by 24 Belleville boilers and the engines were rated at a total of 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,800 kW). The ship had a designed speed of 20.75 knots (38.43 km/h; 23.88 mph) and reached 21.74 knots (40.26 km/h; 25.02 mph) during her sea trials from 16,078 ihp (11,989 kW). She carried up to 1,527 long tons (1,551 t) of coal and could steam for 7,000 nautical miles (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The main armament for all of the "Six-Six Fleet" armored cruisers was four eight-inch guns in twin-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure. The secondary armament consisted of 14 Elswick Ordnance Company"Pattern Z" quick-firing (QF), 6-inch (152 mm) guns. Only four of these guns were not mounted in armored casemates on the main and upper decks and their mounts on the upper deck were protected by gun shields. Izumo was also equipped with a dozen QF 12-pounder 12-cwt guns and eight QF 2.5-pounder Yamauchi guns as close-range defense against torpedo boats. The ship was equipped with four submerged 457 mm (18.0 in) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside.

All of the "Six-Six Fleet" armored cruisers used the same armor scheme with some minor differences. The waterline belt of Krupp cemented armor ran the full length of the ship and its thickness varied from 178 millimeters (7.0 in) amidships to 89 millimeters (3.5 in) at the bow and stern. It had a height of 2.13 meters (7 ft 0 in), of which 1.39 meters (4 ft 7 in) was normally underwater. The upper strake of belt armor was 127 millimeters (5.0 in) thick and extended from the upper edge of the waterline belt to the main deck. It extended 51.18 meters (167 ft 11 in) from the forward to the rear barbette. The Izumo class had oblique 127 mm armored bulkheads that closed off the ends of the central armored citadel.

The barbettes, gun turrets and the front of the casemates were all 6 inches thick while the sides and rear of the casemates were protected by 51 millimeters (2.0 in) of armor. The deck was 63 millimeters (2.5 in) thick and the armor protecting the conning tower was 356 millimeters (14.0 in) in thickness.

Construction and career


Izumo at anchor in 1902

The contract for Izumo, named after the eponymous province, was signed on 24 September 1897 with Armstrong Whitworth. The ship was laid down at their shipyard in Elswick on 14 May 1898 and launched on 19 September. She was completed on 25 September 1900 and departed for Japan on 2 October under the command of Captain Inoue Toshio, who had been appointed to supervise her construction and bring her back to Japan on 29 September 1899. Izumo arrived in Yokosuka on 8 December and Inoue was confirmed in his command.


Izumo at anchor in the Huangpu River, Shanghai, 1932. The armored cruiser USS Rochester is anchored to the left.


A detailed description of her history you can find on wikipedia........


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Izumo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumo-class_cruiser

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
19 September 1941 – Launch of japanese Taiyo, escort carrier of the Taiyo-class


The Japanese aircraft carrier Taiyō (大鷹, "Big Eagle") was the lead ship of her class of three escort carriers. She was originally built as Kasuga Maru (春日丸), the last of three Nitta Maru class of passenger-cargo liners built in Japan during the late 1930s. The ship was requisitioned by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in early 1941 and was converted into an escort carrier. Taiyō was initially used to transport aircraft to distant air bases and for training, but was later used to escort convoys of merchant ships between Japan and Singapore. The ship was torpedoed twice by American submarines with negligible to moderate damage before she was sunk in mid-1944 with heavy loss of life.


Imperial Japanese Navy's aircraft carrier, Taiyo in habor at Yokosuka, Japan

Civilian background and configuration

Sister ship Nitta Maru in passenger service, 1940

The Nitta Maru-class ships were intended to upgrade NYK's passenger service to Europe and it was reported that Nitta Maru was the first ship to be fully air conditioned in the passenger quarters. The IJN subsidized all three Nitta Maru-class ships for possible conversion into auxiliary aircraft carriers. Kasuga Maru was the last ship of her class and was built by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. at their Nagasaki shipyard for Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK). She was laid down on 6 January 1940 as yard number 752 and launched on 19 September 1940. Sources are contradictory regarding when the conversion occurred and if the ship was completed before the conversion began. Jentschura, Jung and Mickel state that Kasuga Maru was towed to Sasebo Naval Arsenal for conversion on 1 May 1941., Stille, however, and Watts & Gordon say the conversion began while the ship was under construction. This is indirectly supported by the allocation of a new yard number, 888, to the ship. Tully, on the other hand, says that she was requisitioned on 10 February 1941 and was used as a transport until the conversion began on 1 May.

If Kasuga Maru was completed as a passenger liner, the 17,163-gross register ton (GRT) vessel would have had a length of 170.0 meters (557.8 ft), a beam of 22.5 meters (73.8 ft) and a depth of hold of 12.4 meters (40.7 ft). She would have had a net tonnage of 9,397 and a cargo capacity of 11,800 tons. The Nitta Maru class had accommodation for 285 passengers (127 first class, 88 second and 70 third).

The Nitta Maru class was powered by two sets of geared steam turbines made by the shipbuilder, each driving one propeller shaft, using steam produced by four water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of 25,200 shaft horsepower (18,800 kW)[4] that gave them an average speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph)[3] and a maximum speed of 22.2 knots (41.1 km/h; 25.5 mph).

Conversion and description
Kasuga Maru's conversion was completed at Sasebo Naval Arsenal on 2[6] or 5[5] or 15 September 1941. The Taiyō-class carriers had a flush-decked configuration that displaced 18,116 metric tons (17,830 long tons) at standard load and 20,321 metric tons (20,000 long tons) at normal load. They had an overall length of 180.2 meters (591 ft 4 in), a beam of 22.5 meters (73 ft 10 in) and a draft of 7.7 meters (25 ft 5 in).The flight deck was 172.0 meters (564 ft 3 in) long and 23.5 meters (77 ft) wide and no arresting gear was fitted. The ships had a single hangar, approximately 91.4 meters (300 ft) long, served by two centreline aircraft lifts, each 12.0 by 13.0 meters (39.4 ft × 42.7 ft). Unlike her sister ships, Kasuga Maru could accommodate 23 aircraft, plus 4 spares.


Sister ship Nitta Maru in passenger service, 1940

The changes made during the conversion limited the ship to a speed of 21.4 knots (39.6 km/h; 24.6 mph). She carried 2,290 metric tons (2,250 long tons) of fuel oil that gave her a range of 8,500 nautical miles(15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Kasuga Maru's crew numbered 747 officers and ratings.

The ship was equipped with six 12-centimeter (4.7 in) 10th Year Type anti-aircraft (AA) guns in single mounts on sponsons along the sides of the hull. Her light AA consisted of eight license-built 25-millimeter (1.0 in) Type 96 light AA guns in four twin mounts, also in sponsons along the sides of the hull. In early 1943, the 25 mm twin mounts were replaced by triple mounts and additional 25 mm guns were added. Taiyō had a total of 22 guns plus 5 license-built 13.2 mm (0.5 in) Type 93 anti-aircraft machineguns. The ship also received a Type 13 air-search radar in a retractable installation on the flight deck at that time.[5] In July 1944, the 12-centimeter guns were replaced by two twin mounts for 12.7 cm (5.0 in) Type 89 dual-purpose guns and the light AA armament was augmented to a total of sixty-four 25-millimeter guns and ten 13.2-millimeter machine guns.

Career
Before the start of the Pacific War on 7 December 1941, Kasuga Maru had made two voyages to Formosa and Palau, including one ferrying Mitsubishi A5M (Allied reporting name: "Claude") fighters to Palau just days before the beginning of the war. In between transport missions, the ship trained naval aviators. Shortly after Kasuga Maru arrived at Rabaul on 11 April, the harbor was bombed twice, although the ship was not damaged in the attacks. On 14 July, she was assigned to the Combined Fleet, together with her sister, Un'yō. Upon receiving news of the American landings on Guadalcanal on 7 August, Kasuga Maru and the battleship Yamato, escorted by a pair of destroyers, together with the 2nd and 3rd Fleets sailed from the Inland Sea bound for Truk. On 27 August, the carrier was detached from the main body and sent to deliver aircraft to Taroa Island in the Marshalls. She arrived two days later and then departed on 30 August for Truk. The following day, Kasuga Maru was formally renamed Taiyō (大鷹, “goshawk”).

After arriving in Truk on 4 September, the ship was sent to Palau, Davao City, and Kavieng. En route to Truk, she was torpedoed by the submarine USS Trout on 28 September 1942. Taiyō was hit once, killing 13 crewmen, but was able to continue to Truk for emergency repairs. She left for Japan on 4 October for permanent repairs that were not completed until the 26th. The ship then resumed ferrying aircraft from Japan to Truk and Kavieng on 1 November. In February–March 1943, she was accompanied by Un'yō. The following month, Un'yō was replaced by Chūyō. En route to Truk, she was again torpedoed by an American submarine; this time, however, the four torpedoes fired by USS Tunny on 9 April failed to explode. Taiyō and Chūyō, escorted by two destroyers departed Truk, bound for Yokosuka, Japan, on 16 April. After another voyage to Truk and Mako, Formosa, the ship was briefly refitted at Sasebo. While returning from Truk on 6 September, Taiyō was unsuccessfully attacked by USS Pike. Almost three weeks later, the ship was torpedoed by USS Cabrilla. The hit wrecked her starboard propeller and temporarily knocked out power so she had to be towed to Yokosuka by Chūyō. Repairs began once she arrived and lasted until 11 November.


USS Rasher (SS/SSR/AGSS/IXSS-269), a Gato-class submarine,

In December 1943, Taiyō was assigned to the Grand Escort Command and she began a lengthy refit at Yokohama that completed on 4 April 1944. On the 29th, the ship was assigned to the First Surface Escort Unit and she escorted Convoy HI-61 from Japan to Singapore, via Manila. Upon arrival at her destination on 18 May, Taiyō was tasked to escort Convoy HI-62 home. After arriving on 8 June, the ship was assigned to carry aircraft to Manila, departing on 12 July. En route, she joined up with the escort of Convoy HI-69 and arrived there on the 20th. Taiyō then escorted a convoy to Formosa and then back to Japan. On 10 August, the ship escorted Convoy HI-71 to Singapore, via Mako and Manila. Eight days later, off Cape Bolinao, Luzon, Taiyō was hit in the stern by a torpedo fired by USS Rasher. The hit caused the carrier's aft avgas tank to explode, and Taiyō sank in 28 minutes later at coordinates 18°10′N 120°22′ECoordinates:

18°10′N 120°22′E. The number of passengers aboard is unknown, but 350–400 was common practice at that time. Coupled with the 400-odd survivors rescued and the authorized complement of 834, that suggests that approximately 790 passengers and crew were lost in the sinking


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Taiyō
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Rasher

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 19 September


1560 – Birth of Thomas Cavendish, English naval explorer, led the third expedition to circumnavigate the globe (d. 1592)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Cavendish


1700 - HMS Carlisle (1698 - 48), Cptn. Francis Dove, blew up by an unknown accident in the Downs while the captain was on shore. All the crew on board were lost.

HMS (His/Her Majesty's Ship) Carlisle was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Plymouth Dockyard in 1698.
It was accidentally blown up in 1700.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Carlisle_(1698)


1796 - Launch of French Cornelie, 40 gun Virgine-class frigate

The Cornélie was a 40-Gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy.
In April 1799, along with Vengeance and Sémillante, she fought against HMS St Fiorenzo and Amelia.
On 4 August 1803 Cornélie sortied from Toulon as part of a squadron of four frigates and some corvettes. Cornélie captured the schooner HMS Redbreast and the water transport that Redbreast was escorting from Malta to Admiral Nelson's fleet.
She took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre and in the Battle of Trafalgar.
On 14 June 1808, The Spanish captured a French squadron at Cádiz that included Cornélie. The Spaniards then brought her into Spanish service as Cornelia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Cornélie_(1797)


1823 – Launch of HMS Lightning, first steamship in military conflict

The sixth HMS Lightning (1823), launched in 1823, was a paddle steamer. She served initially as a packet ship, but was later converted into an oceanographic survey vessel. She was used by Charles Wyville Thomson and William Benjamin Carpenter to survey the north Atlantic in 1868.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lightning_(1823)


1862 - The side-wheel ram USS Queen of the West (1854) exchanges sharp fire with Confederate infantry and artillery above Bolivar, Miss., while escorting two troop transports.

US Ram Queen of the West, a sidewheel steamer built at Cincinnati, Ohio in 1854, was purchased by the United States Department of War in 1862 and fitted out as a ram for Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr.'s Ram Fleetwhich operated on the Mississippi River in the U.S. Civil War in conjunction with the Western Flotilla.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Queen_of_the_West_(1854)


1883 – Launch of USS Monadnock (BM-3), a monitor of the Amphitrite class

The second USS Monadnock was an iron-hulled, twin-screw, double-turreted monitor of the Amphitrite class in the United States Navy which saw service in the Spanish–American War.

On June 23, 1874, in response to the Virginius Incident, President Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson ordered the Monadnock laid down (scrapped and reconstructed) contracted by Phineas Burgess at the Continental Iron Works, Vallejo, California; launched 19 September 1883; completed at Mare Island Navy Yard; and commissioned there 20 February 1896, Captain George W. Sumner in command, Lt. Cdr. Edward D. Taussig, executive officer.


The USS Monadnock crossing the Pacific Ocean during the Spanish–American War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monadnock_(BM-3)


1898 – Launch of SMS Jaguar, Gunboat of the Iltis—class

SMS Jaguar was the second member of the Iltis class of gunboats built for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) in the late 1890s and early 1900s, for overseas service in the German colonial empire. Other ships of the class are SMS Iltis, SMS Luchs, SMS Tiger, SMS Eber and SMS Panther.



https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Jaguar


1915 – SS Athinai, passenger steamer burnt and sunk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Athinai_(1908)


1957 - Bathyscaphe Trieste, in a dive sponsored by the Office of Naval Research in the Mediterranean, reaches a record depth of two miles. Three years later, Trieste would set a new record of seven miles on Jan. 23, 1960.

Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe, which with its crew of two reached a record maximum depth of about 10,911 metres (35,797 ft), in the deepest known part of the Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (son of the boat's designer Auguste Piccard) and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh achieved the goal of Project Nekton.



Trieste was the first manned vessel to have reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathyscaphe_Trieste


1981 - The brasilian river passenger ship Sobral Santor sunk on the Amazonas, 300 people lost their life

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1519 – Ferdinand Magellan sets sail from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain with about 270 men on his expedition to circumnavigate the globe.


Background: Spanish search for a westward route to Asia
Christopher Columbus's voyages to the West (1492–1503) had the goal of reaching the Indies and to establish direct commercial relations between Spain and the Asian kingdoms. The Spanish soon realized that the lands of the Americas were not a part of Asia, but a new continent. The 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas reserved for Portugal the eastern routes that went around Africa, and Vasco da Gama and the Portuguese arrived in India in 1498.

Castile (Spain) urgently needed to find a new commercial route to Asia. After the Junta de Toro conference of 1505, the Spanish Crown commissioned expeditions to discover a route to the west. Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached the Pacific Ocean in 1513 after crossing the Isthmus of Panama, and Juan Díaz de Solís died in Río de la Plata in 1516 while exploring South America in the service of Spain.

Funding and preparation
In October 1517 in Seville, Magellan contacted Juan de Aranda, Factor of the Casa de Contratación. Following the arrival of his partner Rui Faleiro, and with the support of Aranda, they presented their project to the Spanish king, Charles I, future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Magellan's project, if successful, would realize Columbus' plan of a spice route by sailing west without damaging relations with the Portuguese. The idea was in tune with the times and had already been discussed after Balboa's discovery of the Pacific. On 22 March 1518 the king named Magellan and Faleiro captains so that they could travel in search of the Spice Islands in July. He raised them to the rank of Commander of the Order of Santiago. The king granted them:

• Monopoly of the discovered route for a period of ten years.
• Their appointment as governors of the lands and islands found, with 5% of the resulting net gains.
• A fifth of the gains of the travel.
• The right to levy one thousand ducats on upcoming trips, paying only 5% on the remainder.
• Granting of an island for each one, apart from the six richest, from which they would receive a fifteenth.

The expedition was funded largely by the Spanish Crown, which provided ships carrying supplies for two years of travel. Expert cartographer Jorge Reinel and Diogo Ribeiro, a Portuguese who had started working for Charles V in 1518 as a cartographer at the Casa de Contratación, took part in the development of the maps to be used in the travel. Several problems arose during the preparation of the trip, including lack of money, the king of Portugal trying to stop them, Magellan and other Portuguese incurring suspicion from the Spanish, and the difficult nature of Faleiro. Finally, thanks to the tenacity of Magellan, the expedition was ready. Through the bishop Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca they obtained the participation of merchant Christopher de Haro, who provided a quarter of the funds and goods to barter.

Fleet


Victoria, the sole ship of Magellan's fleet to complete the circumnavigation. Detail from a map by Ortelius, 1590.

The fleet provided by King Charles V included five ships:

• The flagship Trinidad (110 tons, crew 55), under Magellan's command
• San Antonio (120 tons; crew 60) commanded by Juan de Cartagena
• Concepción (90 tons, crew 45) commanded by Gaspar de Quesada
• Santiago (75 tons, crew 32) commanded by João Serrão
• Victoria (85 tons, crew 43), named after the church of Santa Maria de la Victoria de Triana, where Magellan took an oath of allegiance to Charles V; commanded by Luis Mendoza.

Crew
The crew of about 270 included men from several nations, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Greece, England and France. Spanish authorities were wary of Magellan, so that they almost prevented him from sailing, switching his mostly Portuguese crew to mostly men of Spain. It included about 40 Portuguese, among them Magellan's brother-in-law Duarte Barbosa, João Serrão, a relative of Francisco Serrão, Estêvão Gomes and Magellan's indentured servant Enrique of Malacca. Faleiro, who had planned to accompany the voyage, withdrew prior to boarding. Juan Sebastián Elcano, a Spanish merchant ship captain settled at Seville, embarked seeking the king's pardon for previous misdeeds. Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian scholar and traveller, asked to be on the voyage, accepting the title of "supernumerary" and a modest salary. He became a strict assistant of Magellan and kept an accurate journal. The only other sailor to report the voyage would be Francisco Albo, who kept a formal logbook. Juan de Cartagena was named Inspector General of the expedition, responsible for its financial and trading operations.


The Nao Victoria Replica in the Nao Victoria Museum, Punta Arenas, Chile

Departure and crossing of the Atlantic
On 10 August 1519, the five ships under Magellan's command left Seville and descended the Guadalquivir River to reach the Atlantic Ocean at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, at the mouth of the river. There they remained more than five weeks. Finally they set sail on 20 September 1519 and left Spain.

King Manuel I ordered a Portuguese naval detachment to pursue Magellan, but the explorer evaded them. After stopping at the Canary Islands, Magellan arrived at Cape Verde, where he set course for Cape St. Augustine in Brazil. On 27 November the expedition crossed the equator; on 6 December the crew sighted South America.

On 13 December anchored near present-day Rio de Janeiro. There the crew was resupplied, but bad conditions caused them to delay. Afterwards, they continued to sail south along South America's east coast, looking for the strait that Magellan believed would lead to the Spice Islands. The fleet reached Río de la Plata in early February, 1520.

For overwintering, Magellan established a temporary settlement called Puerto San Julian on March 30, 1520. On Easter, a mutiny broke out involving three of the five ship captains. Magellan took quick and decisive action. Luis de Mendoza, the captain of Victoria, was killed by a party sent by Magellan, and the ship was recovered. After Concepción's anchor cable had been secretly cut by his forces, the ship drifted towards the well-armed Trinidad, and Concepcion's captain de Quesada and his inner circle surrendered. Juan de Cartagena, the head of the mutineers on the San Antonio, subsequently gave up. Antonio Pigafetta reported that Gaspar Quesada, the captain of Concepción, and other mutineers were executed, while Juan de Cartagena, the captain of San Antonio, and a priest named Padre Sanchez de la Reina were marooned on the coast. Most of the men, including Juan Sebastián Elcano, were needed and forgiven. Reportedly those killed were drawn and quartered and impaled on the coast; years later, their bones were found by Sir Francis Drake.

Passage into the Pacific


The Strait of Magellan cuts through the southern tip of South America connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

The journey resumed. The help of Duarte Barbosa was crucial in facing the riot in Puerto San Julian; Magellan appointed him as captain of the Victoria. The Santiago was sent down the coast on a scouting expedition and was wrecked in a sudden storm. All of its crew survived and made it safely to shore. Two of them returned overland to inform Magellan of what had happened, and to bring rescue to their comrades. After this experience, Magellan decided to wait for a few weeks more before resuming the voyage with the four remaining ships.

At 52°S latitude on 21 October 1520, the fleet reached Cape Virgenes and concluded they had found the passage, because the waters were brine and deep inland. Four ships began an arduous trip through the 373-mile (600 km) long passage that Magellan called the Estrecho (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travelled through it on 1 November or All Saints' Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan. He first assigned Concepcion and San Antonio to explore the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gómez, deserted and headed back to Spain on 20 November. On 28 November, the three remaining ships entered the South Pacific. Magellan named the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness. Magellan and his crew were the first Europeans to reach Tierra del Fuego just east of the Pacific side of the strait.

Death in the Philippines
Heading northwest, the crew reached the equator on 13 February 1521. On 6 March they reached the Marianas and Guam. Pigafetta described the "lateen sail" used by the inhabitants of Guam, hence the name "Island of Sails", but he also writes the inhabitants "entered the ships and stole whatever they could lay their hands on", including "the small boat that was fastened to the poop of the flagship." "Those people are poor, but ingenious and very thievish, on account of which we called those three islands the islands of Ladroni."

On 16 March Magellan reached the island of Homonhon in the Philippines, with 150 crew left. Members of his expedition became the first Europeans to reach the Philippine archipelago.

Magellan relied on Enrique, his Malay servant and interpreter, to communicate with the native tribes. He had been indentured by Magellan in 1511 after the colonization of Malacca, and had accompanied him through later adventures. They traded gifts with Rajah Siaiu of Mazaua who guided them to Cebu on 7 April.

Rajah Humabon of Cebu was friendly towards Magellan and the Spaniards; both he and his queen Hara Amihan were baptized as Christians and were given the image of the Holy Child (later known as Santo Niño de Cebu) which along with a cross (Magellan's Cross) symbolizes the Christianization of the Philippines. Afterward, Rajah Humabon and his ally Datu Zula convinced Magellan to kill their enemy, Datu Lapu-Lapu, on Mactan. Magellan wanted to convert Lapu-Lapu to Christianity, as he had Humabon, but Lapu-Lapu rejected that. On the morning of 27 April 1521, Magellan sailed to Mactan with a small attack force. During the resulting battle against Lapu-Lapu's troops, Magellan was struck by a bamboo spear, and later surrounded and finished off with other weapons.

Pigafetta and Ginés de Mafra provided written documents of the events culminating in Magellan's death:

When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other eleven men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred people. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with exceeding loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly... Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... A native hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the native's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all hurled themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off.​

Magellan provided in his will that Enrique, his interpreter, was to be freed upon his death. But after the battle, the remaining ships' masters refused to free the Malay. Enrique escaped his indenture on 1 May with the aid of Rajah Humabon, amid the deaths of almost 30 crewmen.

Pigafetta had been jotting down words in both Butuanon and Cebuano languages – which he started at Mazaua on 29 March and his list grew to a total of 145 words. He continued communications with indigenous peoples during the rest of the voyage.

"Nothing of Magellan's body survived, that afternoon the grieving rajah-king, hoping to recover his remains, offered Mactan's victorious chief a handsome ransom of copper and iron for them but Datu Lapulapu refused. He intended to keep the body as a war trophy. Since his wife and child died in Seville before any member of the expedition could return to Spain, it seemed that every evidence of Ferdinand Magellan's existence had vanished from the earth."​

Return


The Magellan–Elcano voyage. Victoria, one of the original five ships, circumnavigated the globe, finishing 16 months after Magellan's death.

The casualties suffered in the Philippines left the expedition with too few men to sail all three of the remaining ships. Consequently, on 2 May they abandoned and burned Concepción. Reduced to Trinidad and Victoria, the expedition fled westward to Palawan. They left that island on 21 June and were guided to Brunei, Borneo, by Moro pilots, who could navigate the shallow seas. They anchored off the Brunei breakwater for 35 days, where Pigafetta, an Italian from Vicenza, recorded the splendour of Rajah Siripada's court (gold, two pearls the size of hens' eggs, porcelain from China, eyeglasses from Europe etc.). In addition, Brunei boasted tame elephants and an armament of 62 cannons, more than five times the armament of Magellan's ships. Brunei people were not interested in the Spanish cargo of cloves, but these proved more valuable than gold upon the return to Spain.

When reaching the Maluku Islands (the Spice Islands) on 6 November, the total crew numbered 115. They traded with the Sultan of Tidore, a rival of the Sultan of Ternate, who was the ally of the Portuguese.

The two remaining ships, laden with valuable spices, tried to return to Spain by sailing westwards. However, as they left the Spice Islands, the Trinidad began to take on water. The crew tried to discover and repair the leak, but failed. They concluded that Trinidad would need to spend considerable time being overhauled, but the small Victoria was not large enough to accommodate all the surviving crew. As a result, Victoria with some of the crew sailed west for Spain. Several weeks later, Trinidad departed and tried to return to Spain via the Pacific route. This attempt failed. Trinidad was captured by the Portuguese and was eventually wrecked in a storm while at anchor under Portuguese control.

Victoria set sail via the Indian Ocean route home on 21 December, commanded by Juan Sebastián Elcano. By 6 May 1522 the Victoria rounded the Cape of Good Hope, with only rice for rations. Twenty crewmen died of starvation before Elcano put into Cape Verde, a Portuguese holding, where he abandoned 13 more crew on 9 July in fear of losing his cargo of 26 tons of spices (cloves and cinnamon). On 6 September 1522, Elcano and the remaining crew of Magellan's voyage arrived in Spain aboard the Victoria, almost exactly three years after the fleet of five ships had departed. Magellan had not intended to circumnavigate the world, but rather had intended only to find a secure route through which the Spanish ships could navigate to the Spice Islands. After Magellan's death, Elcano decided to push westward, thereby completing the first known voyage around the entire Earth.

Maximilianus Transylvanus interviewed some of the surviving members of the expedition when they presented themselves to the Spanish court at Valladolid in the autumn of 1522. He wrote the first account of the voyage, which was published in 1523. Pigafetta's account was not published until 1525, and was not published in its entirety until 1800. This was the Italian transcription by Carlo Amoretti of what is now called the "Ambrosiana codex." The expedition eked out a small profit, but the crew was not paid full wages.

Four crewmen of the original 55 on Trinidad finally returned to Spain in 1522; 51 had died in war or from disease. In total, approximately 232 sailors of assorted nationalities died on the expedition around the world with Magellan.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Magellan–Elcano_circumnavigation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1715 – Re-Launch of HMS Royal George


HMS Royal Charles was a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed and built by Sir Anthony Deane at Portsmouth Dockyard, where she was launched and completed by his successor as Master Shipwright, Daniel Furzer, in March 1673. She was one of only three Royal Navy ships to be equipped with the Rupertinoe naval gun.


HMS Royal Charles

She was Prince Rupert of the Rhine's flagship at the Battles of Schooneveld; two naval battles of the Franco-Dutch War, fought off the coast of the Netherlands on 7 June and 14 June 1673 against the fleet of the United Provinces, commanded by Michiel de Ruyter.

She was rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard between 1691 and 1693, and renamed HMS Queen on 27 January 1693. The Queen became the flagship of Sir George Rooke and was captained by James Wishart. She was broken up completely and rebuilt for a second time at Woolwich, relaunching on 20 September 1715, and renamed once more, this time as HMS Royal George. In reality it was a complete new ship.

The much-rebuilt Royal George was renamed HMS Royal Anne in 1756, and was broken up in 1767.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Royal George (1715), a 100-gun, First Rate, three-decker. The Royal George was rebuilt from the Queen (1693) at Chatham Dockyard, having her keel laid in May 1709 and being launched in September 1715. The plan gives the dimensions as 171ft 9in on the gun deck, 139ft 7in lenght of keel for tonnage, 49ft 3in extreme breadth, 19ft 6in depth in hold, and 1801 burthen tons. In 1735 she underwent a great repair, completed in 1737 before she was commissioned into service for the first time in 1741, when it joined Admiral Norris's Fleet. Because of this, it is possible that the ship looked quite different to this design. Notable alterations by this period included raising the height of the channels. In 1756 she was renamed the 'Royal Anne' upon the launched of a new 100-gun 'Royal George' that year.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/79837.html#9OxaUb624bXAIwjm.99

General characteristics as built 1673 (as HMS Royal Charles)
Class and type: 100-gun first-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1443 (bm)
Length:136 ft (41 m) (keel)
Beam:44 ft 8 in (13.61 m)
Depth of hold:18 ft 3 in (5.56 m)
Armament: 100 guns of various weights of shot
Broadside Weight = 968.5 Imperial Pound ( 439.2151 kg)

General characteristics after 1693 rebuild (as HMS Queen)
Class and type: 100-gun first-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:1657 92⁄94 (bm)
Length:170 ft 6 in (51.97 m) (gundeck)
Beam:47 ft 7 in (14.50 m)
Depth of hold:18 ft (5.5 m)
Armament: 100 guns of various weights of shot
Broadside Weight = 966 Imperial Pound ( 438.081 kg)

General characteristics after 1715 rebuild (as Royal George and HMS Royal Anne from 1756)
Class and type: 100-gun first-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen:1800 84⁄94 (bm)
Length:171 ft 9 in (52.35 m) (gundeck)
Beam:49 ft 3 in (15.01 m)
Depth of hold:19 ft 6 in (5.94 m)
Armament: 100 guns of various weights of shot
Broadside Weight = 842 Imperial Pound ( 381.847 kg)



Van de Velde the Elder has adopted a high viewpoint in this detailed ‘pen painting’ showing the First Battle of Schooneveld, during the Third Dutch War, 1672-74. Although he was present at the battle, the painting was produced eleven years after the event from drawings made at the time. The battle took place in the Schooneveld, a narrow basin at the mouth of the River Schelde, between the Dutch fleet under Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in the 'Zeven Provincien', 80 guns, and the English and French Allied fleets. These were led by Prince Rupert in the 'Royal Charles', 96 guns, and the Comte d'Estrées in 'La Reine'. Early in 1673 the Test Act had forced the Duke of York, as a Roman Catholic, to relinquish the command of the fleet. Consequently Prince Rupert assumed command under the King. The Allied objective was to bring the Dutch to action and either defeat them or blockade their coast to cover the landing of an Allied army. In this action the Allied fleet had superiority in fire-power, with seventy-nine English ships against fifty-two Dutch. Prince Rupert sent a mixed squadron towards the Dutch anchorage to tempt de Ruyter out. De Ruyter chased the Allied forces back to their fleet and battle commenced at noon, lasting for nine hours. Overall, one Dutch ship was captured and then recaptured and the Dutch 'Deventer', 70 guns, sank at anchor on the night after the battle: the French lost two ships and the English none, although their loss of life was heavier than the Dutch. Van de Velde's painting shows the action at about four o'clock in the afternoon and the profusion of ships taking part. They can be partly identified by a key written in Italian, which accompanies the picture but is only partly legible. The main engagements are shown taking place in the middle distance. The English ketch to the front right is marked as the boat from which Van de Velde was sketching (11). This was the first battle that he observed and recorded from the English side. The painting is signed and dated 'W V Velde f.1684/oudt. 73 Jaren', lower left. He also produced a painting of the Second Battle of Schooneveld [BHC0306]. Born in Leiden, van de Velde moved to Amsterdam with his two sons Adriaen and Willem, who were also painters. With Willem, the older son, he formed a working partnership specializing in marine subjects which lasted to his own death. Willem the Elder was primarily a draughtsman who spent his career drawing ships and is believed to be one of the earliest artists to accompany fleets into action to record these events. He did this officially with the Dutch fleet from 1653. The resultant works, known as grisaille drawings or more accurately as pen-paintings ('penschilderingen'), were done in pen and ink on prepared lead-white panels or canvases. This technique enabled van de Velde's work to be full of detail and show his knowledge of shipping. He originally applied a cross-hatching technique to show darkness and shadow but from the 1650s increasingly used a brush to indicate shadow, clouds or waves. By 1673 father and son had moved to England, working for both Charles II and his brother James, Duke of York. They became the founders of the English school of marine painting. A great deal is known about him thanks to a list of his depictions of naval battles compiled in January 1678 by Captain Christopher Gunman. The action of the battle is carefully condensed into Van de Velde’s composition. In the left background there are mostly English ships of the red squadron. Prince Rupert and his squadron are shown moving towards the right and engaged with the squadron of Cornelis Tromp, in the 'Gouden Leeuw'. The recognizable English ships include the 'London' with a flag at the fore, marked '6' on the key, and ahead of this is 'La Reine' marked with a 'd' on the white flag at the fore. Astern of the 'Royal Charles' is the 'Charles' with a flag at the mizzen (c). Further away with their flags showing above the English ships are the 'Golden Leeuw', which has a striped flag at the fore (5), the 'Pacificatie' with a striped flag at the fore (6). Leading Tromp's squadron and closely engaged with 'La Reine' is the 'Hollandia', with a flag at the mizzen (7). Dutch ships recognizable in the left distance are the 'Eendracht', with a flag at the main (3), and the 'Maagd van Dordrecht' with a flag at the mizzen (4). In the centre moving in the same direction are the squadrons of de Ruyter and d'Estrées. On the right, moving from right to left, are the squadrons of Sir Edward Spragge in the 'Prince' in the middle-distance and Banckaert, to the left, in 'Walcheren', 68 guns, which is marked '8' on the flag at the main. The 'Prince' (g) is shown awaiting the attack of de Ruyter and Banckert, who are in the centre of the picture moving towards Spragge's blue squadron in an attempt to cut it off from the rest of the Allied fleet. The 'Zeven Provincien' is marked '1' and astern of the 'Prince' is the 'St Andrew' with the flag at the fore (h)'. The rear-admiral of the blue squadron, Lord Ossory, is more in the foreground and to the left in the 'St Michael', engaged at long distance with de Ruyter. Other Dutch ships are recognizable between de Ruyter and Banckaert are the 'Vrijheid (2) and the 'Zierikzee' (9). The 'Orgueilleux' is shown close ahead of de Ruyter (e). In the foreground on the left is a French snow and, passing her, an English snow. On the right is a French fire-ship (13), burning to the water's edge and just beyond this a French fire-ship (12) is sinking. On the extreme right an English yacht is passing an English royal yacht (14) under sail to starboard.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11797.html#FtlEXDfmv5FloBem.99


The Rupertinoe was an advanced naval gun designed by, and named after, Prince Rupert of the Rhine in the 17th century. The name is actually a mis transcription of the words "Rupert inv" found on one of the cannon.


Rupertinoe naval gun

Naval warfare in the Restoration period placed an emphasis on naval firepower; as one writer has put it, warships had evolved into "floating artillery emplacements". The Rupertinoe gun was a response to this challenge. Designed by Prince Rupert, an experienced naval commander and senior admiral of the Royal Navy, the gun was intended for use against the Dutch during the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

The Rupertinoe was a high specification, annealed and lathe produced gun made - experimentally - at Rupert's foundry at Windsor Castle reflecting Rupert's scientific interests in metallurgy—he was the third founding member of the Royal Society. Unfortunately the high cost of the gun—three times the price of a regular weapon—meant that by the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-4) only three ships had been equipped with it: the Royal Charles, the Royal James and the Royal Oak. Later guns were produced in the Weald by John Browne and his son but led to their financial downfall. The guns cost £60 per ton as Rupert received a royalty of £20 per ton and as there were no perceived advantages purchase was soon discontinued. The cost of the gun led to a fraud investigation by the Naval Commissioner Samuel Pepys, although no evidence to support the claim was discovered

an exact drawing of this gun you can find here:
http://www.historicalartillery.ch/plaene.html



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Charles_(1673)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_George_(1715)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=8
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=6027
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=6028
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Schooneveld
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert_of_the_Rhine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupertinoe

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1759 – Launch of HMS Milford, a 28 gun Coventry-class frigate


HMS Milford was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Milford by Richard Chitty and launched in 1759. She was sold for breaking at Woolwich on 17 May 1785



Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half breadth for Argo (1758), Active (1758), Aquilon (1758), Milfrord (1759), and later in 1758 for Guadeloupe (1763), and in 1764 for Carysfort (1766), then in 1782 for Laurel (cancelled 1783 and not built), and Hind (1785)a 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates.

Construction
In sailing qualities Milford was broadly comparable with French frigates of equivalent size, but with a shorter and sturdier hull and greater weight in her broadside guns. She was also comparatively broad-beamed with ample space for provisions and the ship's mess, and incorporating a large magazine for powder and round shot. Taken together, these characteristics would enable Milford to remain at sea for long periods without resupply. She was also built with broad and heavy masts, which balanced the weight of her hull, improved stability in rough weather and made her capable of carrying a greater quantity of sail. The disadvantages of this comparatively heavy design were a decline in manoeuvrability and slower speed when sailing in light winds.



Her designated complement was 200, comprising two commissioned officers – a captain and a lieutenant – overseeing 40 warrant and petty officers, 91 naval ratings, 38 Marines and 29 servants and other ranks.[5]Among these other ranks were four positions reserved for widow's men – fictitious crew members whose pay was intended to be reallocated to the families of sailors who died at sea.


Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the quarterdeck, forecastle, upper deck, lower deck, and fore & aft platforms for Milford (1759), a 28-gun Sixth Rate Frigate, as taken off at Chatham in November 1775 when fitting for foreign service. Initialled by Israel Pownoll [Master Shipwright, Chatham Dockyard, 1775-1779].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/83229.html#rYbXvcEE0EarHOf8.99

Service History
On 6 June 1776, Milford captured the American privateer Yankee Hero, a 14-gun, single-deck sloop, after a two-hour battle. The Americans had believed they were chasing a merchantman, but reversed course when they came close enough to recognize the British ship of war. Milford gave chase and caught up to the much smaller ship after about an hour, firing only bow chasers until she was able to come along and give a full broadside. Yankee Hero's sails were shredded and almost half her crew incapacitated. Her commander, Captain James Tracy ordered the surrender when they were no longer able to either fight or flee. Four or five of Yankee Hero's crew were killed and twelve or thirteen wounded, including the captain.

Milford stands out as the British vessel that engaged the first American armed vessel, the USS Cabot (1775). In the Battle off Yarmouth (1777), under the command of Captain Joseph Olney, Cabot stood out of Bostonweeks before on 23 March 1777 the vessel encountered HMS Milford (32). The vastly more powerful British ship chased Cabot and forced her ashore in Nova Scotia. While Cabot's captain and crew escaped into the woods unharmed, the British were later able to get the brig off, and refitted her for service in the Royal Navy.

On 15 March 1779, the British warships Apollo, Porcupine, and Milford captured the French privateer cutter Tapageur. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

On 2 October 1779, Jupiter captured two French cutters, Mutin and Pilote, each of 14 guns and 120 men. The Royal Navy took both into service essentially under their existing names. Jupiter shared the prize money with Apollo, Crescent, and Milford.



The Coventry-class frigates were 28-gun sixth rate frigates of the Royal Navy, principally in service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. They were designed in 1756 by Britain's Surveyor of the Navy, Sir Thomas Slade, and were largely modeled on HMS Tartar, which was regarded as an exemplar among small frigates due to its speed and maneuverability. The 1750s were a period of considerable experimentation in ship design, and Slade authorized individual builders to make "such alterations withinboard as may be judged necessary" in final construction.

A total of twelve Coventry-class frigates were built in oak during the Seven Years' War. Eleven of these were ordered from private shipyards and built over the relatively short period of three years; the twelfth was completed following the close of the War in a royal dockyard after its original contractor became bankrupt.

A variant was designed for building with fir hulls rather than oak; five vessels were built to this design, all in Royal Dockyards. these five vessels differed in external appearance to the oak-built frigates, as they had a square tuck stern. The use of fir instead of oak increased the speed of construction but reduced the frigate's durability over time.

More than a quarter-century after the design was produced, two further oak-built ships to this design were ordered to be built by contract in October 1782. One of these was cancelled a year later, when the builder became bankrupt.

• Coventry class 28-gun sixth rates 1757-85; designed by Thomas Slade based on the Tartar of Lowestoffe class above, so a further modification of the Lyme class.
  • HMS Coventry 1757 - taken by the French in the Bay of Bengal 1783.
  • HMS Lizard 1757 - hulked as hospital ship at Sheerness 1800, sold 1828.
  • HMS Liverpool 1758 - wrecked on Long Island 1778.
  • HMS Maidstone 1758 - broken up 1794.
  • HMS Active 1758 - taken by the French off San Domingo 1778.
  • HMS Levant 1758 - broken up 1780.
  • HMS Cerberus 1758 - abandoned and burnt at Rhode Island 1778.
  • HMS Aquilon 1758 - sold 1776.
  • HMS Griffin 1758 - wrecked on the shoals off Barbuda 1761.
  • HMS Argo 1758 - broken up 1776.
  • HMS Milford 1759 - sold 1785.
  • HMS Guadeloupe 1763 - scuttled at Yorktown to prevent capture 1781.
  • HMS Carysfort 1766 - sold 1813.
• 
  fir built Coventry class - due to the nature of the pine wood (fir or pine cannot be bent in tight angles), the design had to be fitted with a square tuck (i.e. flat) stern.
  • HMS Boreas 1757 - sold 1770.
  • HMS Hussar 1757 - stranded on the south coast of Cuba and taken by France 1762.
  • HMS Shannon 1757 - broken up 1765.
  • HMS Trent 1757 - sold 1764.
  • HMS Actaeon 1757 - sold 1766.
• 
  modified Coventry class slightly modified (8½ inch greater width) revival of the Coventry design.
  • HMS Hind 1785 - broken up 1811.
  • HMS Laurel - cancelled 1783.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Milford_(1759)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry-class_frigate

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1766 - Launch of HMS Magnificent, a 74-gun Ramillies-class third-rate ship of the line


HMS Magnificent was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 20 September 1766 at Deptford Dockyard. She was one of the Ramillies-class built to update the Navy and replace ships lost following the Seven Years' War. She served through two wars before her loss during blockade duty off the French coast.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Ramillies' (1763); 'Terrible' (1762); 'Russell' (1764); 'Invincible' (1765); 'Magnificent' (1766); 'Prince of Wales' (1765); 'Marlborough' (1767); 'Robust' (1764), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Note the pencil annotations of chain channels and gunports. An annotation on the reverse states that the class was similar to the 'Superb' (1760), specifically mentioning 'Monarch', 'Magnificent', and Marlborough'.

On 21 December 1779, HMS Magnificent with the 74-gun ships HMS Suffolk and HMS Vengeance, and the 64-gun HMS Stirling Castle under Rear-Admiral Joshua Rowley, fell in with the 32-gun French frigates Fortunee and Blanche and the 28-gun Elise, when off Guadeloupe. The French ships were in bad order; their crews were excessively weak; and thus they could not escape the vastly superior British force. The Blanchewas overtaken and captured on the evening of the 21st; the Fortunes, by throwing her quarter-deck guns overboard, kept away a little longer, but was captured at last in the early morning of 22 December, an hour before the Elise.

Her war service in the American War of Independence was conducted with Rodney's fleet in the Caribbean, where she served in the battles off Grenada in 1779, Martinique in 1780 and the Saintes in 1782. Her duties during the Napoleonic Wars mainly consisted of blockade duties off the French coast, but between 1798 and 1800, the ship had received a complete overhaul designed to extend her service life and improve her ability at performing the close blockade.



Magnificent came under the command of Captain John Giffard on 23 February 1801 upon his transfer from HMS Active. On 9 April 1802, the 8th West India Regiment revolted in Dominica. They killed three officers, imprisoned the others and took over Fort Shirley. On the following day, HMS Magnificent, which was anchored in Prince Rupert's Bay under Captain John Giffard's command[2] sent a party of marines ashore to restore order. The mutineers fired upon the Magnificent with no effect. On 12 April, Governor Cochrane entered Fort Shirley with the Royal Scots Regiment and the 68th Regiment of Foot. The rebels were drawn up on the Upper Battery of Fort Shirley with three of their officers as prisoners and presented arms to the other troops. They obeyed Cochrane's command to ground their arms but refused his order to step forward. The mutineers picked up their arms and fired a volley. Shots were returned, followed by a bayonet charge that broke their ranks and a close range fire fight ensued. Those mutineers who tried to escape over the precipice to the sea were exposed to grape-shot and canister fire from Magnificent. The 74-gun Excellent, the frigate Severn, and the sloop Gaiete assisted Magnificent, also supplying marines.


Loss of the Magnificent by John Christian Schetky

On the morning of 25 March 1804, during her duties blockading the French port of Brest, she struck an uncharted reef close to the Black Rocks that bordered the port and rapidly began to founder. The remaining ships of the blockading squadron closed in and removed most of the crew, the remainder of whom took to boats as the ship sank at 10.30am, just an hour and a half after she struck the reef. Although all her crew survived, a boat carrying 86 men became diverted from the main group and was washed ashore on the French coast, where the men remained in captivity for ten years. The captain, William Jervis, was later reported to have lost £1500 in lost property on board the wreck


The Ramillies-class ships of the line were a class of nine 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Design
The draught for the Ramillies class was very similar to that of the Bellona class and subsequent Arrogant class, with the only real differences to be found in the shape of the underwater hull. There were two distinct sub-groups; four ships were built in the Royal Dockyards to the original design, approved on 25 April 1760 – although the name-ship Ramillies had originally been ordered as a Bellona-class unit. Slade subsequently amended his design for the ships which were to be built by commercial contractors – this modified design, with slightly amended dimensions, being approved on 13 January 1761.

Ships
First group
Dockyard-built ships:

• HMS Ramillies

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Laid down: 25 August 1760
Launched: 25 April 1763
Completed: November 1763
Fate: Abandoned and burned off Newfoundland, 21 September 1782.


Loss of HMS Ramillies, September 1782: before the storm breaks

• HMS Monarch

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 22 November 1760
Laid down: 2 June 1761
Launched: 20 July 1765
Completed: 24 September 1765
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, March 1813

• HMS Magnificent

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: 15 April 1762
Launched: 20 September 1767
Completed: September 1778
Fate: Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804.

• HMS Marlborough

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 4 December 1762
Laid down: 3 June 1763
Launched: 26 August 1767
Completed: 1 December 1767
Fate: Wrecked off Belle Île, 4 November 1800

Second (modified) group
Contract-built ships:

• HMS Terrible

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich

Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: February 1761
Launched: 4 September 1762
Completed: 18 December 1762
Fate: Burned following the Battle of Chesapeake, 11 September 1781

• HMS Russell

Builder: Thomas West, Deptford
Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: June 1761
Launched: 10 November 1764
Completed: 6 January 1765 at Woolwich Dockyard
Fate: Sold out of the service in the East Indies, 1811

• HMS Invincible

Builder: John and William Wells, Deptford
Ordered: 12 October 1761
Laid down: December 1761
Launched: 9 March 1765
Completed: February 1777 at Chatham Dockyard.
Fate: Wrecked off Yarmouth, 16 March 1801

• HMS Robust

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: February 1762
Launched: 25 October 1764
Completed: 10 December 1764
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth, January 1817

• HMS Prince of Wales

Builder: Henry Bird and Roger Fisher, Milford Haven
Ordered: 16 December 1762
Laid down: March 1762
Launched: 4 June 1765
Completed: 22 December 1770 at Plymouth Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Plymouth, August 1783



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Magnificent_(1766)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramillies-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1778 – Birth of Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian admiral, cartographer, and explorer (d. 1852)


Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (Russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич (фон) Беллинсга́узен, Faddey Faddeyevich (von) Bellinsgauzen; 20 September [O.S. 9 September] 1778 – 25 January [O.S. 13 January] 1852), a Baltic German naval officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, cartographer and explorer, ultimately rose to the rank of admiral. He participated in the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe and subsequently became a leader of another circumnavigation expedition that discovered the continent of Antarctica.


Faddey Bellingshausen (1778-1952), Russian Admiral and explorer, discoverer of Antarctica. Lithography by U. Schzeibach (У. Шзейбах)

Bellingshausen started his service in the Baltic Fleet, and after distinguishing himself joined the First Russian circumnavigation of the Earth in 1803-1806, serving on the merchant ship Nadezhda under the captaincy of Adam Johann von Krusenstern. After the journey he published a collection of maps of the newly explored areas and islands of the Pacific Ocean. Subsequently, he commanded several ships of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets.


Nadezdha, on which Bellingshausen served under captain Krusenstern during the first Russian circumnavigation.

As a prominent cartographer, Bellingshausen was appointed to command the Russian circumnavigation of the globe in 1819-1821, intended to explore the Southern Ocean and to find land in the proximity of the South Pole. Mikhail Lazarev prepared the expedition and was made Bellingshausen's second-in-command and the captain of the sloop Mirny, while Bellingshausen himself commanded the sloop Vostok. During this expedition Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica on 27 January 1820 (New Style). They circumnavigated the continent twice and never lost each other from view. Thus they disproved Captain Cook's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice-fields. The expedition discovered and named Peter I Island, Zavodovski, Leskov and Visokoi Islands, the Antarctic Peninsula and Alexander Island (Alexander Coast), and made other discoveries in the tropical waters of the Pacific.


The First Russian Antarctic expedition 1819-1821.

Made counter admiral on his return, Bellingshausen participated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829. Promoted to vice-admiral, he again served in the Baltic Fleet in 1830s, and from 1839 he was the military governor of Kronstadt, where he died. In 1831 he published the book on his Antarctic travels, called Double Investigation of the Southern Polar Ocean and the Voyage Around the World (Двукратные изыскания в южнополярном океане и плавание вокруг света). Russians remember him as one of their greatest admirals and explorers. Multiple geographical features and locations in the Antarctic, named in honor of Bellingshausen, commemorate his role in the exploration of the southern polar region.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Gottlieb_von_Bellingshausen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadezhda_(1802_Russian_ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1799 - HMS Rattlesnake (1799 - 16) and armed storeship HMS Camel (1782 - 26) engaged French frigate Preneuse (1794 - 46) in Algoa Bay - Action known also as Battle of Algoa Bay


Background
In 1796 British Royal Navy dominance in the East Indies during the French Revolutionary Wars was challenged by the arrival of a squadron of six French Navy frigates, commanded by Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey. Among these ships was the new 40-gun frigate Preneuse, commanded by Captain Jean-Matthieu-Adrien Lhermitte. Preneuse had not sailed from France with Sercey, instead passing independently through the Atlantic and uniting with the squadron at Port Louis on Île de France. Sercey deployed his squadron to the Dutch East Indies, but suffered frustration at the Action of 9 September 1796 and the Bali Strait Incident of January 1797 and subsequently returned to the base at Port Louis. There the squadron began to fracture, with a succession of ships sent back to France or detached on independent missions.


Algoa Bay, 20–21 September 1799. French frigate Preneuse against HMS Camel and the privateer Surprise

Preneuse separated in March 1798, carrying messages of support and 86 military volunteers for the Tipu Sultan of the Kingdom of Mysore, an enemy of the British in Southern India who sought to form an alliance with France. Lhermitte's instructions emphasised subtlety in the operation, but on 20 April he attacked the British port of Tellicherry and seized the East Indiaman merchant ships Woodcot and Raymond. This alerted the British to Preneuse's mission and although the reinforcements were landed safely at Mangalore on 24 April, diplomatic relations between the British and Mysore collapsed, leading to the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War the following year in which Tipu Sultan was killed and his kingdom absorbed into British India.

Lhermitte then sailed to rejoin Sercey and the corvette Brûle-Gueule at Batavia in the Dutch East Indies for a planned junction with an allied Spanish squadron at Manila. This combined force then attacked an East India Company convoy gathering in the Pearl River in January 1799, but in the ensuing Macau Incident they were driven off by the Royal Navy escort squadron. Dispirited, Sercey returned westwards to Île de France, narrowly avoiding an unequal battle with a large British squadron blockading the port. On arrival he discovered that Preneuse and Brûle-Gueule were the only ships remaining of his original command, the others having returned to France or been lost in battle.

Battle of Algoa Bay


Affaire de la Preneuse, L. Garneray, 1837

In September 1799 Sercey dispersed his remaining ships. Brûle-Gueule was sent back to France on 26 September carrying condemned political prisoners; the corvette was eventually wrecked on the Pointe du Raz with heavy loss of life. Preneuse was ordered to operate against British trade off the coast of Southeast Africa, sailing from Port Louis on 4 August. Lhermitte focused his efforts on the Mozambique Channel and the approaches to the British Cape Colony and on 20 September encountered a squadron anchored in Algoa Bay comprising the 24-gun naval storeship HMS Camel, the 16-gun HMS Rattlesnake (1791) and the schooner Surprise, the former ships lying with their masts and rigging removed. This force was supporting an expeditionary army under General Francis Dundas fighting the Third Xhosa War. Camel was laden with military supplies but neither ship was prepared for battle, with a 30 of Camel's sailors and 15 from Rattlesnake trapped on shore by the surf.

Lhermitte approached the anchored ships at 18:00, flying false Danish colours, and anchored nearby. A ship's boat from Camel approached the new arrival, rapidly realising that Preneuse was a hostile frigate and returning to their ship. Lieutenant William Fothergill, the most senior officer with the convoy, fired warning shots close to the frigate, which Lhermitte ignored. Both British ships then prepared for action. At 20:30, Preneuse began to approach Rattlesnake and Fothergill opened fire immediately, joined by Camel. Lhermitte returned fire, focusing its broadside on Camel. By midnight Camel had taken several shot in the hull causing widespread flooding, and the crew ceased firing to man the pumps. Lhermitte apparently believed that Camel had abandoned the fight and he switched fire towards Rattlesnake, the engagement continuing until 03:30 at which point Lhermitte slipped his anchor and pulled out of range. Remaining in the bay until 10:00 before standing out to sea. British losses were two killed and twelve wounded, both Camel and Rattlesnake badly damaged. It was later reported in French sources that Lhermitte believed the schooner Surprise to be a well armed naval brig, prompting his withdrawal. Preneuse's loss in the action was around 40 killed and wounded, and the frigate was reported to be badly damaged; messages to this effect were hastily sent to the commander at the Cape, Captain George Losack who sent the 50-gun HMS Jupiter in pursuit.


Destruction of the Preneuse

On 9 October after spending the night with the convoy in Algoa Bay, Jupiter discovered Preneuse at 34°41′S 27°54′E and gave chase. The sea was turbulent due to a strong gale from the northwest and the chase continued into the evening before Captain William Granger was able to fire ranging shot at the French ship. Lhermitte responded with his sternchasers. Granger rapidly gained on the damaged Preneuse but the state of the sea made it impossible for him to safely open his lower deck gunports and a long-range duel continued at high speed throughout the night and much of the following two days. At 14:00 on 10 October Granger was finally close enough to bring Lhermitte to action, but found that with his 24-pounder guns unusable he was restricted to his upper deck 12-pounder guns, which were no match for Lhermitte's main battery. As a result, the rigging on Jupiter was rapidly shot away and the British ship fell back for urgent repairs and Preneuse was able to take the opportunity to escape. Granger returned to Table Bay on 16 October.



The Ships:

HMS Rattlesnake (1791), a 16-gun sloop in service from 1791 until sold in 1814.

HMS Mediator was a Roebuck-class 44-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was built and served during the American War of Independence, but was reduced to a storeship and renamed HMS Camel in 1788. She spent the French Revolutionary and part of the Napoleonic Wars in this capacity before being broken up in 1810.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Mediator (1782), a 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-decker, as built at Northam by Mr Raymond.

Built as the revival of a design that had fallen out of favour as naval architecture developed, Mediator was intended to operate in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. Her first significant action was fought off the European coastline however, when her captain, James Luttrell attacked and defeated an American and French convoy off Ferrol, taking two ships as prizes. Resisting an attempt by his prisoners to seize his ship, Luttrell returned home to public applause and praise from King George III. Mediator's next commander, Cuthbert Collingwood, was a close friend of Horatio Nelson, and served with him in the West Indies. There he helped Nelson to enforce the Navigation Acts, causing controversy with the local civil and naval authorities. In 1788 she left front-line service for good, and was converted into a storeship, being renamed HMS Camel.

Camel saw important service in the French Revolutionary Wars, making several voyages to the fleets in the Mediterranean and serving under several officers who would becoming prominent in the navy. She also made trips further afield, returning to the West Indies on occasion, as well as making voyages to the Cape of Good Hope to deliver supplies to the armies there. While making one such trip, she was attacked at anchor by a powerful French frigate. Her crew, together with that of a sloop also anchored in the bay, mounted a strong defence, and despite being damaged, forced the French ship to withdraw. She spent her last days making voyages to the various hotspots around the globe, before being finally withdrawn from service and broken up in 1810.


HMS 'Mediator' engaging French and American vessels, 11-12 December 1782


HMS Mediator in action, 12 December 1782 (BHC0702)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12194.html#92XV30R2QR6ytAhB.99

Design and construction
Small two-decked warships, usually classed as fourth rates had largely fallen out of favour by the second half of the eighteenth century, and by the end of the century even the smaller third rates of 64 guns were being phased out. The American War of Independence led to a revival in the concept of the smaller two decked designs, as their shallow draught but comparably heavy armament compared to frigates, made them suitable for coastal warfare in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. The Roebuck class was a revival of a 1769 design by Sir Thomas Slade, with nineteen ships ordered to the design during the war, and classed as fifth rates, but not as frigates, as they carried their main armament on two decks, rather than one. Mediator was ordered from the commercial shipbuilder Thomas Raymond, of Northam, on 3 December 1779. She was laid down there in July 1780 and was launched on 30 March 1782.

Mediator was then taken into Portsmouth Dockyard on 7 April that year for fitting out and having her bottom copper sheathed. The work was completed by 15 June, Mediator having cost £12,133.4.5d to build, with a further £137.15.1d spent on extra works, which together with the costs for fitting her for service came to a total of £22,412.12.0d. She was commissioned in April under the command of Captain James Luttrell.

Storeship
This marked the end of Mediator's role as a front-line fighting ship. The Admiralty made the decision in an order dated 19 December 1787 to have her undergo a large repair and refit to repurpose her as a storeship. Her sister ship HMS Janus was also chosen to undergo the same process. Mediator was refitted between January 1788 and July 1789 for the sum of £11,658. Both her and Janus were renamed on 3 March 1788 to fit their latest role, with Mediator being renamed Camel and Janus being renamed Dromedary. The guns on Camel's lower gundeck were removed, leaving her with twenty 9-pounder guns on her upper deck and four 6-pounder guns were fitted onto her quarterdeck.

Camel did not return immediately to service, but was briefly recommissioned during the Russian Armament in April 1791, under Commander Charles Patton. When the period of tension passed without breaking into open war, Camel was paid off in September that year. The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars was the next opportunity for active service, and Camel was recommissioned in February 1793 under Commander Benjamin Hallowell, who took her out to the Mediterranean in May that year to join the fleet under Admiral Lord Hood. Hallowell was promoted to post-captain on 30 August 1793, shortly after his arrival, and became acting captain of the 74-gun HMS Robust. Camel remained in the Mediterranean until her return to England in April 1794, at which time Commander Joseph Short became her captain. Short's command lasted from May 1794 until January 1795, with Commander Edward Rotheram taking over on 27 January 1795. Rotheram sailed Camel back to the Mediterranean in February, and after serving with the fleet on this station, was back in England by summer the following year. Commander William Haggit replaced Rotheram at Woolwich in July 1796, though was in turn superseded by Commander Thomas Caulfield in November that year, as Camel returned for another stint in the Mediterranean.

Commander John Lee was captain of Camel by July 1797, during which time she was serving on the Lisbon station. She returned to England in June 1798, after which she made two voyages to the Cape of Good Hope, the first in October 1798 and the second in May 1799.


The Preneuse was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She served as a commerce raider at Île de France.

In 1795, Preneuse was stationned at Rochefort under Captain Larcher. She was then transferred to the Indian Ocean station, commanded by Rear-Admiral Sercey. In 1796, she was a Mauritius under Captain Ravenel, at Port-Nord-Ouest.

In March 1798, under Lhermitte, she ferried ambassadors from Mysore sent by Tippu Sultan to île de France to request help against the British. Near Tellicherry, Preneuse found two East Indiamen, Raymond and Woodcot at Tellicherry; she attacked and captured both on 20 April, after a one-hour battle. She left the diplomatic mission at Mangalore, and sailed to Batavia.

She was soon joined by the 22-gun corvette Brûle-Gueule, which ferried Rear-Admiral Sercey. The squadron sailed to Surabaya, where a settlement was established. A small mutiny broke out when Preneuse crew refused to let go of the British flags captured at Tellicherry; Lhermitte had personally to confront the mutineers with his sabre to re-establish discipline. He then had a firing squad execute five of the mutineers.

After a short stay at Surabaya, Preneuse and Brûle-Gueule sailed for a three-month cruise, capturing 40 British merchantmen and participating in the Macau Incident. After returning to Subaraya, Sercey set his flag on Preneuse and the squadron sailed for île de France.

They arrived in May 1799, encountering the British blockade composed of three ships of the line, one frigate and one brig. The French ships reached Rivière Noire District, where they were joined by a number of coastal ships offering assistance. Preneuse and Brûle-Gueule anchored in the bay. They sent seven 18-pounders ashore and the French built an improvised fort to guard the entrance of the bay; it sustained a 3-week siege before the British retreated.

In August 1799, Preneuse departed for a patrol near Cape of Good Hope and Madagascar. On 4 September, she fought against five British ships. In September, she fought against a 64-gun ship of the line.

Preneuse also attempted to supply arms to the Graaff Reinet Republic of Adriaan van Jaarsveld. On the 20th, she sailed into Algoa Bay under Danish colours, when 16-gun ship-sloop HMS Rattlesnake recognised her. Preneuse exchanged cannon fire with Rattlesnake and the armed store ship Camel, before retreating.

On 9 October 1799, as Preneuse neared Good Hope, the 54-gun HMS Jupiter encountered her and gave chase. After 22 hours, Jupiter gained on Preneuse, and the two vessels exchanged fire. Preneuse managed to outmaneuver Jupiter and rake her; the British then retreated to avoid being boarded, and managed to escape.


Affaire de la Preneuse Jupiter vs Preneuse



Combat et destruction de la Fregate la Preneuse, dans la Baye du Tombeau a l' Ile de France, 11 Dec 1799 (PAD5632)

On 11 December 1799, as she returned to Île de France, Preneuse encountered the 74-gun HMS Tremendous, under Captain John Osborn, off Port Louis. Tremendous gave chase. As Preneuse closed to the land, the 50-gun HMS Adamant, under Captain William Hotham, cut her escape route. While Preneuse was attempting to sail under the protection of the coastal forts at Baie-du-Tombeau, erratic winds drove her ashore. The British closed in and battered Preneuse, which Lhermitte then deemed lost. He had the crew abandon ship, while he stayed behind with his officers, struck the colours and scuttled the frigate. British boats attempted to recover Preneuse, but she came under fire from the coastal batteries and they abandoned the attempt.

The British took Preneuse's officers to Adamant, where Commodore Botham treated them with courtesy. He released Lhermitte on parole the next day.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Louis#Battle_of_Algoa_Bay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mediator_(1782)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Preneuse_(1795)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1807 – Launch of French Pultusk, a 74-gun Pluton class Ship of the Line at Antwerp


Pultusk was a Pluton sub-class of the Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Ordered on 24 April 1804 as Audacieux, the ship was one of the ships built in the various shipyards captured by the First French Empire in Holland and Italy in a crash programme to replenish the ranks of the French Navy. She took her definitive name Pultusk on 21 February 1807, though the order might not have been implemented until 14 May.

She was commissioned on 21 September 1807 and was part of the Escault squadron under Admiral Missiessy. She was ceded to Holland on 1 August 1814 under the Treaty of Paris, and entered Dutch service as Waterloo.


Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Pultusk (1807), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.

Pluton class – A revised design for Téméraire class, by Jacques-Noël Sané, described officially as "the small model" specially introduced to be constructed at shipyards outside France itself (the first pair were built at Toulon) where they lacked the depth of water required to launch 74s of the Téméraire Class

Small Variant (Pluton group – 24 ships launched)


Rivoli, fitted with the camels that allowed her to cross the shallow banks before Venice harbour.

Starting with the prototypes Pluton and Borée in 1803, a smaller version of the Téméraire class, officially named petit modèle, was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards, primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp. The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline, 180 feet 1 inch on the deck, and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth. The depth of hull was 9 inches less than that in the "regular" Téméraire design.

• Pluton

Launched: 17 January 1805
Fate: Captured by the Spanish at Cadiz in June 1808.

• Borée

Launched: 27 June 1805
Fate: Condemned at Toulon in 1827.

• Two more 74s to the "petit modèle" design were ordered in June 1803, one at Marseille and the other at Bordeaux, but these were not built.
• Génois

Launched: 17 August 1805
Fate: Condemned at Rochefort in August 1821, and broken up there by October 1821.

• Royal Hollandais

Fate: Captured on the stocks after the fall of Flushing during the Walcheren Campaign in 1809. Frames taken to England, where she was assembled and launched as HMS Chatham in 1812.

• Commerce de Lyon

Launched: 9 April 1807
Fate: Condemned at Brest in February 1819, and broken up there in December 1819.

• Charlemagne

Launched: 8 April 1807
Fate: Ceded to the new Dutch Navy, 1 August 1814, renamed Nassau.

• Anversois, renamed Éole in August 1814, then Anversois in March 1815 and back to Éole in July 1815.

Launched: 7 June 1807
Fate: Condemned at Brest in February 1819 and broken up there in December 1819.

• Duguesclin

Launched: 20 June 1807
Fate: Condemned at Lorient in June 1818, and broken up there in January 1820.

• César

Launched: 1807
Fate:

• Ville de Berlin, renamed Thésée before launch, renamed Atlas after 1814.

Launched: 1807
Fate: Condemned 1819, hulked.

• Pultusk, originally Audacieux, renamed before launch.

Launched: 1807
Fate:

• Dantzig, named Illustre before launching, and renamed Achille in 1814 during the First Restoration. In 1815, during the Hundred Days, reverted to Dantzig, but returned to Achille on the Second Restoration.

Launched: 1807
Fate: Struck, 1815.

• Albanais

Launched: 2 October 1808
Fate: Struck, 1814.

• Breslaw (originally named Superbe, but renamed before launching)

Launched: 3 May 1808
Fate: Struck, 1836.

• Dalmate, renamed Hector in 1814 during the First Restoration. In 1815, during the Hundred Days, reverted to Dalmate, but returned to Hector on the Second Restoration.

Launched: 21 August 1808
Fate: Struck, 1819.

• Rivoli

Launched: 6 September 1810
Fate: Captured by HMS Victorious in the Action of 22 February 1812. Served as HMS Rivoli until broken up in 1819.

• Montebello

Launched: not launched

• Mont Saint-Bernard

Launched: 1811
Fate: Struck, 1814.

• Régénérateur

Launched: 1811
Fate: Struck, 1814.

• Audacieux

Launched: 1815
Fate: Abandoned in 1813, completed by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• Castiglione

Launched: 1812
Fate: Struck, 1814.

• Polyphème

Launched: July 1817
Fate: Abandoned in 1813, completed by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• Royal Italien

Launched: 1812
Fate: Struck, 1814.

• Couronne

Launched: 1817
Fate: Abandoned in 1813, completed by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• Piet Hein

Launched: 1817
Fate: Abandoned in 1813, completed by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands.

• Montenotte

Launched: 1815
Fate: Completed by Lombardy–Venetia.

• Arcole

Launched: not launched - cancelled

• Lombardo

Launched: not launched - cancelled

• Semmering

Launched: not launched - cancelled

• Citoyen

Launched: not launched - cancelled


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Pultusk_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1839 – Death of Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet, English admiral (b. 1769)


Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, 1st Baronet, GCB (5 April 1769 – 20 September 1839) was a Royal Navy officer. He took part in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in February 1797, the Battle of the Nile in August 1798 and the Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801 during the French Revolutionary Wars. He served as flag captain to Admiral Lord Nelson, and commanded HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805 during the Napoleonic Wars. Nelson was shot as he paced the decks with Hardy, and as he lay dying, Nelson's famous remark of "Kiss me, Hardy" was directed at him. Hardy went on to become First Naval Lord in November 1830 and in that capacity refused to become a Member of Parliament and encouraged the introduction of steam warships.


Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy - from the painting by Robert Evans, at Greenwich Hospital.

Early life
Born the second son of Joseph Hardy and Nanny Hardy (née Masterman) at Kingston Russell House in Long Bredy (or according to some sources in Winterborne St Martin), Hardy joined the navy with his entry aboard the brig HMS Helena on 30 November 1781 as a captain's servant, but left her in April 1782 to attend Crewkerne Grammar School. During his time at school his name was carried on the books of the sixth-rate HMS Seaford and the third-rate HMS Carnatic.

Mediterranean and Nelson
Hardy joined the fifth-rate HMS Hebe on 5 February 1790 as a midshipman; he later transferred to the sixth-rate HMS Tisiphone under Captain Anthony Hunt, and then followed Hunt to the sixth-rate HMS Amphitrite in May 1793, going out to the Mediterranean in her. Hardy served off Marseilles and Toulon and was commissioned second lieutenant of the fifth-rate HMS Meleager under Captain Charles Tyler on 10 November 1793.

Command of Meleager passed to Captain George Cockburn in June 1794; Cockburn took command of the fifth-rate HMS Minerve in August 1796 and Hardy went with him, swiftly rising to the rank of first lieutenant. Horatio Nelson, then a commodore, moved his broad pennant to the Minerve in December 1796. While en route to Gibraltar, in the action of 19 December 1796, Minerve and her consort, the fifth-rate HMS Blanche, engaged two Spanish frigates and forced the Santa Sabina to surrender. Lieutenants Hardy and Culverhouse were sent aboard the Santa Sabina with a prize crew, and the three ships continued on towards Gibraltar. Before the night was out, Nelson ran into the Spanish fleet and only managed to get away when Hardy drew the Spanish away from Minerve and fought until being dismasted and captured. Hardy and Culverhouse were almost immediately exchanged for the captain of the Santa Sabina, Don Jacobo Stuart, and were able to rejoin Minerve at Gibraltar on 9 February 1797.

Three days later Minerve left Gibraltar to join the main fleet off the south-east coast of Spain under Sir John Jervis. With two enemy ships pursuing him, Cockburn ordered more sail. During this operation, a topman fell overboard. The ship hove to and a boat with Hardy in it was lowered to search for the missing mariner. As the enemy ships were closing fast, Cockburn thought it prudent to withdraw, but Nelson overruled him crying "By God, I'll not lose Hardy, back that mizzen topsail!" This confused the Spaniards who checked their own progress, allowing Hardy to return to his ship and make good his escape.

Command and the Nile
Hardy remained with Minerve until May 1797 when, following a successful cutting out expedition of which he was in charge, he was promoted to master and commander of the newly captured corvette HMS Mutine. Under Hardy's command, Mutine joined a squadron under Captain Thomas Troubridge which met up with Nelson off Toulon in June 1798, located Napoleon Bonaparte in Egypt and destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. Afterwards, Nelson's flag captain, Edward Berry was sent home with dispatches and Hardy was promoted to captain of Nelson's flagship, HMS Vanguard, in his place on 2 October 1798.

HMS Vanguard carried King Ferdinand IV and the British ambassador Sir William Hamilton and his wife Emma from Naples to safety in Sicily in December 1798: Hardy did not altogether approve of Lady Hamilton who had once tried to intervene on behalf of a boat's crew – Hardy had the crew flogged twice, once for the original offence and again for petitioning the lady. Nelson transferred his flag to the third-rate HMS Foudroyant on 8 June 1799, taking Hardy with him. In June 1799, the main fleet, led by Foudroyant, landed marines at Naples to assist with the overthrow of the Parthenopean Republic so allowing Ferdinand's kingdom to be re-established. Hardy handed over command of Foudroyant to Sir Edward Berry on 13 October 1799, transferred to the fifth-rate HMS Princess Charlotte and returned to England.


Blue plaque commemorating the former use of the Church Hall at Crewkerne as Crewkerne Grammar School where Hardy was a pupil

Baltic and Copenhagen
After a year ashore, Hardy went to Plymouth Dock in December 1800 to take command of the first-rate HMS San Josef, which had just been refitted. He transferred to the second-rate HMS St George and became Nelson's flag captain once more in February 1801. Nelson was appointed second in command of the Baltic fleet, which had been sent to force the Danes to withdraw from the League of Armed Neutrality. On the night of 1 April 1801, Hardy was sent in a boat to take soundings around the anchored Danish fleet. Hardy's ship drew too much water and so took no part in the Battle of Copenhagen the following day, though his work proved to be of great value. The only two ships that went aground, the third-rates HMS Agamemnon and HMS Bellona, were taken in by local pilots and did not follow Hardy's recommended route. Hardy stayed on as flag captain to the new fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Charles Pole, until August 1801 when he took command of the fourth-rate HMS Isis.

Mediterranean and West Indies Campaign
In July 1802, Hardy was appointed to the fifth-rate HMS Amphion which after taking the new British ambassador to Lisbon, returned to Portsmouth. Nelson was in Portsmouth, as he was due to hoist his flag in the first-rate HMS Victory in May 1803, but on finding the ship not ready for him, transferred his flag to the Amphion and set sail for the Mediterranean. Nelson and Hardy finally transferred to Victory off Toulon on 31 July 1803. Nelson's fleet continued to blockade Toulon until April 1805, when the French escaped and were pursued to the West Indies and back. After a brief stop at Spithead between 20 August and 14 September 1805, they set sail for Cadiz arriving on 29 September 1805. George Murray, Nelson's captain of the fleet, was obliged to remain in England and Hardy unofficially replaced him in addition to serving as flag captain.

Trafalgar


The Battle of Trafalgar by J. M. W. Turner (oil on canvas, 1822–1824) shows the last three letters of the famous signal, "England expects that every man will do his duty" flying from Victory.

As Victory approached the enemy line on the morning of 21 October 1805, Hardy urged Nelson to transfer to another ship to avoid the inevitable melee, but Nelson refused. Victory, leading the weather column, came under heavy fire in the opening stages of the Battle of Trafalgar. At one point, a splinter took the buckle from Hardy's shoe, to which Nelson remarked, "This is too warm work Hardy, to last for long". Hardy was with Nelson when he was shot and, towards the end of the battle, as Nelson lay below dying, the two had a number of conversations together. Hardy was able to tell Nelson that 14 or 15 enemy ships had struck their flags: Nelson replied that he had "bargained for 20". In their last conversation, Nelson reminded Hardy to anchor the fleet. Nelson went on to say "take care of my dear Lady Hamilton, Hardy, take care of poor Lady Hamilton" and then when the moment came for the two men to part for the last time, Nelson then very close to death, asked Hardy to kiss him. Hardy kissed him on the cheek; "Now I am satisfied," said Nelson, "Thank God I have done my duty". Hardy stood up and then having spent a few moments looking down silently at his friend, knelt and kissed him again on the forehead. "Who is that?" asked Nelson, now barely able to see. "It is Hardy" Hardy replied. "God bless you Hardy" was Nelson's last response. Victory was towed to Gibraltar, arriving on 28 October 1805, where she underwent major repairs, before setting set sail for England on 4 November 1805 and arriving at Portsmouth on 5 December 1805. There Nelson's body was transferred to the Sheerness Commissioner, Sir George Grey, 1st Baronet's yacht Chatham to proceed to Greenwich. Hardy carried one of the banners at Nelson's funeral procession on 9 January 1806.


A photogravure after the painting, ‘Nelson’s Last Signal at Trafalgar’, by Thomas Davidson. Nelson is shown in the centre of the image standing on the deck of the ‘Victory’. He gestures towards the ship’s captain, Thomas Hardy, with Captain Blackwood of the ‘Euryalus’ looking on. His secretary, John Scott is also identifiable in the foreground on the right. On the left, sailors prepare to hoist the flags of Nelson’s famous signal to the fleet.


The scene in the cockpit on the 'Victory', 100 guns, as Nelson lay dying during the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson reclines full-length facing to the left, covered by a sheet, leaving only his head, left shoulder and arm visible, with his uniform coat discarded at his feet. His portrait was painted from a posthumous sketch of the body that Devis made on board the 'Victory' on its return to England in December 1805. Devis also made life sketches of those attending Nelson at his death, and incorporated them into this death scene. In the centre at the back, the 'Victory's' Captain, Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, stands over Nelson, his right hand on the ship's knee against which Nelson reclines. He stands full-length to left, in captain's (over three years) undress uniform, 1795-1812, his lower limbs masked by the surgeon, William Beatty, and Nelson's steward, William Chevallier (Nelson's spelling, though also sometimes Chevalier or Chevailler). Hardy leans over them gazing down on Nelson, his cocked hat in his left hand. The ship's chaplain, Dr Alexander Scott rubs Nelson's chest. Walter Burke, the Purser supports Nelson's pillow immediately to his left and is shown half-length to the left, half behind Chevallier and wearing a brown coat and red waistcoat. Chevailler is shown half-length to right in a white shirt, and is on Nelson's left side. He looks towards the doctor and is partly masked by him. Beatty is shown full-length facing left in profile kneeling beside the dying Nelson and feeling his pulse. He is in surgeon's uniform, 1803-25, with blue breeches and hessian boots. On the left of the picture are Lieutenant John Yule and Midshipman Edward Collingwood who is shown head and shoulders to the left, mainly obscured by the figure in front of him. He helps a sailor to handle some captured flags. Since he was a volunteer he has no uniform, but wears a midshipman's coat without the patch. Gaetano Spedillo, Nelson's Neapolitan valet, is shown full-length in profile to the right, in a brown coat and holding a glass in his left hand. His lower limbs are obscured by a figure in the foreground of the left of the painting of the group around the dying Nelson. On the right are Lieutenant George Miller Bligh and Assistant Surgeon Neil Smith. Bligh is half hidden by a marine in the foreground. He is shown half-length seated, facing to the left, apparently dazed from a wound in his head, wearing a lieutenant's full-dress coat, 1787-1812, with his left hand on the wound in his side. Looking towards the dying Nelson, in the right background, stands the ship's carpenter, William Bunce, slightly masked by Smith and Bligh. He is almost full-length to the left in profile wearing a warrant officer's uniform, natural coloured breeches and holds his hat in his right hand. Painted two years after the event, this complex painting concentrates on the human response of the men involved in this important event in the life of the nation. To evoke this, the artist has incorporated portraiture with the imagery of Renaissance religious painting, bathing Nelson in a golden light.

Later commands
Hardy was created a baronet on 29 January 1806 and was given command of the third-rate HMS Triumph on the North American Station in May 1806. While in Nova Scotia, he married Anna Louisa Berkeley, the daughter of his commander-in-chief, Sir George Cranfield Berkeley. When Admiral Berkeley was sent to Lisbon, Hardy went with him as his flag captain in the second-rate HMS Barfleur. Hardy was made a commodore in the Portuguese Navy in 1811.

In August 1812, Hardy was given command of the third-rate HMS Ramillies and was sent back to North America at the outbreak of the War of 1812. On 11 July 1814, Hardy in his flagship, assisted by Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Pilkington, led four other warships and several transports carrying 2,000 men of the 102nd Regiment of Foot and a company of Royal Artillery against Fort Sullivan in Eastport, Maine. The American defending force of 70 regulars and 250 militiamen gave up without a fight. Hardy and Pilkington issued a proclamation making it clear Great Britain considered Eastport and the several nearby islands to be British territory. Townspeople were required to take an oath of allegiance to the crown or leave. Two thirds of the inhabitants took the oath, while 500 departed. For the few weeks he remained at the place, Hardy became a favourite of the locals, gaining great respect and popularity. However, Hardy's next venture, the 9–11 August bombardment of Stonington, Connecticut was a defeat; Royal Navy cannonading set 20 buildings on fire while killing a horse and a goose, while reports indicate the sizeable American defending force killed 21 and wounded 50 British attackers. Hardy was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815.

Hardy was given command of the royal yacht HMS Princess Augusta in July 1816 and, then having been promoted to commodore, became Commander-in-Chief on the South America Station, hoisting his broad pennant in third-rate HMS Superb in August 1819, with a mission to prevent the Spanish from interfering in the newly emerging republics of Mexico, Colombia and Argentina.

Flag rank

The grave of Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy, Greenwich Hospital Cemetery, London (telephoto)

Promoted to rear admiral on 27 May 1825, Hardy hoisted his flag aboard the third-rate HMS Wellesley and escorted 4,000 British troops to Lisbon, where they helped to quell a revolution by the eight-year-old queen's uncle in December 1826. He was subsequently given command of an experimental squadron in the Channel, moving his flag from the fifth-rate HMS Sybille to the sixth-rate HMS Pyramus before going ashore for the last time on 21 October 1827.

Hardy became First Naval Lord in the Grey ministry in November 1830 and was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 13 September 1831. As first Naval Lord he refused to become a Member of Parliament and encouraged the introduction of steam warships. He resigned in August 1834 to become Governor of Greenwich Hospital. Hardy was promoted to vice admiral on 10 January 1837.

He died at Greenwich on 20 September 1839. He is buried in the officers vault in Greenwich Hospital Cemetery, just west of National Maritime Museum. The grave lies in the enclosed railed area of the now mainly cleared graveyard, which now serves as a pocket park. The baronetcy became extinct on his death.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Thomas_Hardy,_1st_Baronet

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1874 – Launch of armored frigate / turret ship SMS Friedrich der Große of german Kaiserliche Marine


SMS Friedrich der Grosse  (or Große ) was an armored frigate of the German Kaiserliche Marine. She was the second of three Preussen-class ironclads, in addition to her two sister-ships Preussen and Grosser Kurfürst. Named for Frederick the Great, she was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in 1871 and completed in 1877. Her main battery of four 26 cm (10 in) guns was mounted pair of twin gun turrets amidships.


German turret ship SMS Friedrich der Grosse, photographed in 1887 with torpedo nets and reduced rig.

Friedrich der Grosse served with the fleet from her commissioning until 1896, though she was frequently placed in reserve throughout her career. The ship was a regular participant in the annual fleet training maneuvers conducted with the exception of the mid-1880s, when she was temporarily replaced by newer vessels. She participated in several cruises in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, often escorting Kaiser Wilhelm II on official state visits. The ship was removed from active service in 1896, after which she was used in secondary roles until 1919, when she was stricken from the naval register and sold to a scrapyard. Friedrich der Grosse was broken up for scrap the following year.

Construction


Line-drawing of Friedrich der Grosse

Friedrich der Grosse was ordered by the Imperial Navy from the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel; her keel was laid in 1871 under construction number 1. The ship was launched on 20 September 1874 and commissioned into the German fleet on 22 November 1877. Although laid down a year before her sister Preussen, Friedrich der Grosse was not completed until a year after; this was because she was built at a newly established and inexperienced Imperial Dockyard, while Preussen was built by AG Vulcan, an experienced private shipbuilder. The ship cost the German government 7,303,000 gold marks.

The ship was 96.59 meters (316.9 ft) long overall and had a beam of 16.30 m (53.5 ft) and a draft of 7.12 m (23.4 ft) forward. Friedrich der Grosse was powered by one 3-cylinder single expansion steam engine, which was supplied with steam by six coal-fired transverse trunk boilers. The ship's top speed was 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), at 4,998 indicated horsepower (3,727 kW). She was also equipped with a full ship rig. Her standard complement consisted of 46 officers and 454 enlisted men.

She was armed with four 26 cm (10.2 in) L/22 guns mounted in a pair of gun turrets placed amidships. As built, the ship was also equipped with two 17 cm (6.7 in) L/25 chase guns. After being rebuilt in 1888–1890, her armament was increased by six and later ten 8.8 cm (3.5 in) L/30 quick-firing guns, a pair of machine guns, and five 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes, all placed in the ship's hull below the waterline.[4] Preussen's armor was made of wrought iron and backed with teak. The armored belt was arrayed in two strakes. The upper strake was 203 mm (8.0 in) thick; the lower strake ranged in thickness from 102 to 229 mm (4.0 to 9.0 in). Both were backed with 234 to 260 mm (9.2 to 10.2 in) of teak. The gun turrets were protected by 203 to 254 mm (8.0 to 10.0 in) armor on the sides, backed by 260 mm of teak.

Service history


Friedrich der Grosse under construction

After her commissioning in November 1877, Friedrich der Grosse served with the fleet. In April 1878, Friedrich der Grosse was reactivated to participate in the annual summer fleet maneuvers, under the command of Rear Admiral Carl Ferdinand Batsch. Her newly commissioned sister-ship, Grosser Kurfürst, joined the squadron shortly before maneuvers were scheduled to begin. At the time, Friedrich der Grosse suffered from mechanical problems, and on 22 May, she ran aground off Nyborg while steaming from Kiel to Wilhelmshaven. The ship suffered serious damage to her hull, which, coupled with her chronic engine problems, forced her to miss the fleet maneuvers. While the squadron steamed in the English Channel on 31 May, the armored frigate König Wilhelm accidentally rammed Grosser Kurfürst; the latter quickly sank with the loss of 276 men.

In the aftermath of the loss of Grosser Kurfürst, the Navy canceled the summer 1878 maneuvers. Apart from the small ironclad Hansa, all armored warships were put in reserve until the following year. In May 1879, the armored squadron was reactivated, under the command of Rear Admiral Franz Kinderling. Friedrich der Grosse and Preussen were joined by the older ironclads Friedrich Carl and Kronprinz; the squadron remained in the Baltic for the majority of the training period. Kinderling took his four ships out into the North Sea in June for a visit to Norway. The four ships returned to Kiel in September, when the squadron was disbanded for the winter.

In the spring of 1880, the squadron was again reestablished. The new armored corvette Sachsen replaced Kronprinz in the squadron that year. Wilhelm von Wickede, a former Austrian naval officer, replaced Kinderling as the squadron commander. In June, the Italian frigate Cristoforo Colombo visited the armored squadron in Kiel. Again, the squadron remained in the Baltic for the summer cruise, with the exception of a short visit to Wilhelmshaven and Cuxhaven in August. The summer cruise in 1881 followed the same pattern as the year previous, though Kronprinz returned in place of Sachsen, which was plagued with engine problems. Wickede again served as the commander. In July, the ships hosted a visit by the British reserve squadron, which by this time included the first British ironclad, HMS Warrior. Preussen and the rest of the squadron visited Danzig in September during a meeting between Kaiser Wilhelm I and the Russian Tsar Alexander III.

The 1882 summer cruise included the same four ironclads from the previous year, and was again commanded by Wickede, who had by then been promoted to Rear Admiral. Friedrich der Grosse was kept in reserve during the annual summer maneuvers starting in 1883, as new ships, including the rest of the Sachsen-class ironclads entered service. The ship was reactivated in July 1888 to participate in a tour of the Baltic for the newly enthroned Kaiser Wilhelm II. The voyage included visits to St. Petersburg, Stockholm, and Copenhagen. They met Tsar Alexander III and the Swedish King Oscar II, who inspected the German warships and conferred decorations on the senior officers.

In August 1889, Friedrich der Grosse participated in Kaiser Wilhelm II's visit to Great Britain. The ship was assigned to the II Division, along with her sister Preussen and the central battery ironclads Kaiser and Deutschland, under command of Rear Admiral Friedrich Hollmann. The fleet then conducted maneuvers in the North Sea before returning to Germany. Friedrich der Grosse and the rest of the II Division became the training squadron for the fleet in 1889–1890, the first year the Kaiserliche Marine maintained a year-round ironclad force. The squadron escorted Wilhelm II's imperial yacht to the Mediterranean; the voyage included state visits to Italy and the Ottoman Empire. The squadron remained in the Mediterranean until April 1890, when it returned to Germany.

Friedrich der Grosse participated in the ceremonial transfer of the island of Helgoland from British to German control in the summer of 1890. She was present during the fleet maneuvers in September, where the entire eight-ship armored squadron simulated a Russian fleet blockading Kiel. The II Division, including Friedrich der Grosse, served as the training squadron in the winter of 1890–1891. The squadron again cruised the Mediterranean, under the command of Rear Admiral Wilhelm Schröder. Friedrich der Grosse again saw service in the II Division in the winter of 1891–1892 and the 1892 maneuvers, under the command of Rear Admiral Hans Koester.

The ship participated in the 1893 maneuvers, which included a simulation of a French naval attack in the North Sea. The following year, Friedrich der Grosse, König Wilhelm, and Deutschland joined the new battleship Brandenburg as re-designated II Division of the Maneuver Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Otto von Diederichs. The ships simulated a Russian attack on Germany's Baltic coast in the 1894 maneuvers. She was reduced to a harbor ship on 16 November 1896. The ship was stricken from the active register on 21 May 1906, after which she was used as a coal hulk for torpedo boats. Friedrich der Grosse served in this capacity until after the end of World War I; she was removed from the naval register on 27 January 1919. She was sold to shipbreakers and broken up for scrap the following year in Rönnebeck.


The Preussen class of armored frigates was a class of three ships built for the German Imperial Navy in the early 1870s.
The lead ship, Preussen, was laid down in 1871 and launched in 1873.
Friedrich der Grosse also was laid down in 1871 and launched in 1874.
Grosser Kurfürst, although the first to be laid down, in 1869, was the last to be completed, launched in 1875.
The ships served in the fleet starting in 1876, when Preussen was commissioned.

Grosser Kurfürst was lost in 1878 during maneuvers shortly after her commissioning, when a pair of small sailing boats crossed the bows of Grosser Kurfürst and König Wilhelm, which caused both ships to undertake emergency maneuvers. In the confusion, König Wilhelm collided with Grosser Kurfürst, causing the latter to sink. Both Preussen and Friedrich der Grosse served in the fleet until the 1890s, when they were relegated to secondary duties, including serving as harbor ships, and later as coal hulks. The ships were eventually scrapped following the end of World War I, in 1919 and 1920, respectively.


SMS Grosser Kurfurst under sail


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Friedrich_der_Grosse_(1874)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preussen-class_ironclad

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1899 - Launch of Ocean liner SS Rhein, later USS Susquehanna


USS Susquehanna (ID-3016) was a transport for the United States Navy during World War I. She was the second U.S. Navy ship to be named for the Susquehanna River. Before the war she operated at SS Rhein, an ocean liner for North German Lloyd. She was the lead ship of her class of three ocean liners. After the end of World War I, the ship operated briefly in passenger service as SS Susquehanna. Laid up in 1922, Susquehanna was sold to Japanese ship breakers in 1928 and scrapped.


USS Susquehanna (ID-3016) was underway

History
SS Rhein was launched on 20 September 1899 by Blohm & Voss of Hamburg, Germany, for North German Lloyd. The ship was 152.70 metres (501 ft 0 in) long between perpendiculars (158.50 metres (520 ft 0 in) overall) was 58 feet 1 inch (17.70 m) abeam, and had a draft of 8.5 metres (28 ft). The ship's two quadruple-expansion steam engines turned her twin screw propellers that drove her at speeds of 13 to 14 knots (24 to 26 km/h).

Rhein sailed from Bremen to New York on 9 December 1899 for her maiden voyage, and began regular Bremen–Baltimore service in May 1900. Later that same year, Rhein served as a transport carrying German Empire troops as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance intended to put down the Boxer Rebellion in China. From September to November 1901, Rhein sailed on a Bremen – Suez Canal – Australia route.


1913 photo of Austrian Jewish immigrants on board SS Rhein arriving in Philadelphia

Returning to North Atlantic sailings at the end of 1901, Rhein sailed from Bremen variously to New York, Baltimore, or Philadelphia through 1914. She began what would become her last voyage for North German Lloyd on 16 July 1914 when she left Bremen bound for Baltimore, and was in that port when Germany declared war in early August. As a neutral in the war at that time, the United States interned the liner and her sister ship Neckar, which was also in Baltimore. The two sisters would remain idle in Baltimore for almost three years.


Photo of Allen Reed, Captain of the USS Susquehanna taken during WW I, Aboard USS Susquehanna – formerly the Rhein

After the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, Rhein, along with all other German ships interned in American ports, was seized by U.S. authorities. Initially handed over to the United States Shipping Board (USSB), she was later transferred to the U.S. Navy to effect repairs caused by neglect and sabotage by her German crew. The ship was overhauled, reconditioned, fitted out as a transport, and commissioned as USS Susquehanna at Norfolk, Virginia, on 5 September 1917. USS Susquehanna sailed from New York on her first voyage with troops on 14 December 1917, under the Command of Captain Zachariah H. Madison with Commander Allen B. Reed, Executive Officer. Subsequently, Commander Reed relieved Captain Madison of command on 22 August 1918. Both Commanding Officers were awarded the Navy Cross in 1920 for the hazardous duty of commanding the troop ship through waters that were mined and patrolled by German U-boats.


Photo of ship in convoy with the USS Susquehanna (possible Lincoln), taken from the Susquehanna

On 29 May 1918, Susquehanna, escorted by three American and one French destroyer, got underway from Brest, , France, with troopships Rijndam, President Lincoln and Antigone for the return voyage to the U.S. At sundown on 30 May 1918, having passed through the so-called "danger zone" of submarine activity, the destroyers left the convoy to proceed alone. At about 09:00 on 31 May 1918, President Lincoln, with Commander Percy Foote, in command, was struck by three torpedoes from the German submarine U-90, and sank about 20 minutes later. Of the 715 people aboard, 26 men were lost with the ship, and a Lieutenant Edward Isaacs was taken aboard U–90 as prisoner. Survivors were rescued from lifeboats late that night by destroyers Warrington and Smith. They were taken to France, arriving at Brest on 2 June. The President Lincoln at 33,000 tons, was the largest U.S. Naval vessel to be lost in World War I.


Soldiers in passage aboard the USS Susquehanna (ID 3016)


Sailors airing laundry on the USS Susquehanna


US Navy ship crew aboard the USS Susquehanna


USS Susquehanna taking on coal


Deck hands goofing off, USS Susquehanna


Crew of Susquehanna at the stern guns


Photo from the deck of the USS Susquehanna of the Saint Nazaire Basin and dock

Susquehanna was attached to the Cruiser and Transport Force and made eight round trips to Europe before the Armistice, transporting 18,348 troops. After the Armistice, she made seven more voyages to France and returned 15,537 passengers to the United States. In addition to the initial voyage from New York, Susquehanna's voyages were from Newport , Virginia to Brest, France and to Saint-Nazaire, France. Susquehanna was placed out of commission on 27 August 1919 and turned over to the USSB.

The ship was chartered to the United States Mail Steamship Company (U.S. Mail Line) and began passenger service from New York to Bremen in August 1920. When the U.S. Mail Line ran into financial difficulties, SS Susquehanna, along with the other six former German vessels the company had chartered, was seized in April 1921 by the USSB, and later placed with the newly formed United States Lines. Beginning in April 1922, Susquehanna sailed on a New York – Plymouth – Cherbourg – Bremen route. Laid up in September 1922 after completing five roundtrips for United States Lines, the ship was sold in November 1928 to Japanese interests for scrapping.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Susquehanna_(ID-3016)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1906 – The Cunard Line's RMS Mauretania is launched at Newcastle upon Tyne, England.


RMS Mauretania was an ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by Wigham Richardson and Swan Hunter for the British Cunard Line, launched on the afternoon of 20 September 1906. She was the world's largest ship until the completion of RMS Olympic in 1911, as well as the fastest until Bremen's maiden voyage in 1929. Mauretania became a favourite among her passengers. She captured the Eastbound Blue Ribandon her maiden return voyage in December 1907, then claimed the Westbound Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing during her 1909 season. She held both speed records for 20 years.


Mauretania on her sea trials, passing Castle Wemyssand the Station Clock Tower on the Measured Mile, Skelmorlie, November 1907

The ship's name was taken from the ancient Roman province of Mauretania on the northwest African coast, not the modern Mauritania to the south. Similar nomenclature was also employed by Mauretania's running mate Lusitania, which was named after the Roman province directly north of Mauretania, across the Strait of Gibraltar in Portugal. Mauretania remained in service until 1934 when Cunard White Star retired her; scrapping commenced in 1935.

Overview:
In 1897 the German liner SS Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the largest and fastest ship in the world. With a speed of 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph), she captured the Blue Riband from Cunard Line's Campania and Lucania. Germany came to dominate the Atlantic, and by 1906 they had five four-funnel superliners in service, four of them owned by North German Lloyd and part of the so-called "Kaiser class".

At around the same time the American financier J. P. Morgan's International Mercantile Marine Co. was attempting to monopolise the shipping trade, and had already acquired Britain's other major transatlantic line, White Star.


RMS Mauretania on its Tyneside builder's ways prior to launch in 1906

In the face of these threats the Cunard Line was determined to regain the prestige of dominance in ocean travel not only for the company, but also for the United Kingdom. By 1902, Cunard Line and the British government reached an agreement to build two superliners, Lusitania and Mauretania, with a guaranteed service speed of no less than 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). The British government was to loan £2,600,000 (£252 million in 2015) for the construction of the ships, at an interest rate of 2.75%, to be paid back over twenty years, with a stipulation that the ships could be converted to armed merchant cruisers if needed. Further funding was acquired when the Admiralty arranged for Cunard to be paid an additional per year to their mail subsidy.

Design and construction


Workmen standing below Mauretania's original three-bladed propellers in dry dock


Mauretania after being launched, 20 September 1906

Mauretania and Lusitania were both designed by Cunard naval architect Leonard Peskett, with Swan Hunter and John Brown working from plans for an ocean greyhound with a stipulated service speed of twenty-four knots in moderate weather, as per the terms of her mail subsidy contract. Peskett's original configuration for the ships in 1902 was a three-funnel design, when reciprocating engines were destined to be the powerplant. A giant model of the ships appeared in Shipbuilder's magazine in this configuration. Cunard decided to change power plants to Parson's new turbine technology, and the ship's design was again modified when Peskett added a fourth funnel to the ship's profile. Construction of the vessel finally began with the laying of the keel in August 1904.

In 1906, Mauretania was launched by the Duchess of Roxburghe. At the time of her launch, she was the largest moving structure ever built, and slightly larger in gross tonnage than Lusitania. The main visual differences between Mauretania and Lusitania were that Mauretania was five feet longer and had different vents. Mauretania also had two extra stages of turbine blades in her forward turbines, making her slightly faster than Lusitania. Mauretania and Lusitania were the only ships with direct-drive steam turbinesto hold the Blue Riband; in later ships, reduction-geared turbines were mainly used. Mauretania's usage of the steam turbine was the largest application yet of the then-new technology, developed by Charles Algernon Parsons. During speed trials, these engines caused significant vibration at high speeds; in response, Mauretania received strengthening members aft and redesigned propellers before entering service, which reduced vibration.

Mauretania was designed to suit Edwardian tastes. The ship's interior was designed by Harold Peto, architect, and her public rooms were fitted out by two notable London design houses – Ch. Mellier & Sons and Turner and Lord, with twenty-eight different types of wood, along with marble, tapestries, and other furnishings such as the stunning octagon table in the smoking room. Wood panelling for her first class public rooms was supposedly carved by three hundred craftsmen from Palestine but this seems unlikely, unnecessary and was probably executed by the yard or subcontracted, as were the majority of the second and third class areas. The multi-level first-class dining saloon of straw oak was decorated in Francis I style and topped by a large dome skylight. A series of elevators, then a rare new feature for liners, with grilles composed of the relatively new lightweight aluminum, were installed next to Mauretania's walnut grand staircase. A new feature was the Verandah Café on the boat deck, where passengers were served beverages in a weather-protected environment, although this was enclosed within a year as it proved unrealistic.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Mauretania_(1906)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1906 - Launch of RMS Adriatic


RMS Adriatic was an ocean liner of the White Star Line. She was the fourth of a quartet of ships measuring over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four. The ship was the only one of the four which was never the world's largest ship; however, she was the fastest of the Big Four. Adriatic was the first ocean liner to have an indoor swimming pool and a Turkish bath.



She was built by Harland and Wolff and was launched on 20 September 1906 (the same day as the Cunard Line's Mauretania). She set off on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City on 8 May 1907 under the command of Captain Edward Smith. She was changed to the Southampton run after her maiden voyage and inaugurated White Star's Southampton service. She was the first White Star liner to use the newly constructed dock in Southampton, named the White Star Dock (it was renamed in 1922 to the Ocean Dock). She ran this route until 1911 when Olympic replaced her; Adriatic then returned to the Liverpool run. Adriatic sailed from Liverpool on 18 April 1912 and arrived in New York on 27 April 1912. Some of Titanic's rescued passengers and crew travelled back to Britain aboard her, departing New York on 2 May 1912. The passengers included White Star Line chairman J. Bruce Ismay and Millvina Dean, the disaster's youngest and last survivor.

During World War I, Adriatic served as a troopship and survived the war without incident. After the war ended, she returned to passenger service. In 1928, she was converted to a "cabin-class" ship. In 1933, she was withdrawn from the North Atlantic route and was converted into cruising.



Following the successful 1933 "Peace Cruise" in the Baltic by Calgaric, in 1934 the British Boy Scouts and Girl Guides chartered her for a similar cruise in the Mediterranean, under the command of Commander C.P. Freeman, R.D.. Adriatic sailed from Liverpool on 29 March 1934, and called at Gibraltar, Villefranche, Malta, Algiers, and Lisbon.

Adriatic left Liverpool for the last time on 19 December 1934, her longest voyage ever, to be scrapped at Onomichi, Japan, in 1935.


The Big Four were a quartet of 20,000 ton ocean liners built by Harland & Wolff shipyard for the White Star Line in the early 20th century to be the largest and most luxurious ships afloat. The group consisted of the following ships, ordered by the years they were launched:

• RMS Celtic (1901)
• RMS Cedric (1902)
• RMS Baltic (1903)
• RMS Adriatic (1906)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Adriatic_(1906)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Four_(White_Star_Line)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1908 - Star of Bengal struck the rocks near the shore of Coronation Island and sunk, killing approximately 110 of 138 people aboard.


The Star of Bengal was an iron three-masted 1,877 GT merchant sailing vessel built in Belfast in 1874 by Harland and Wolff Industries, the shipyard that later constructed the Titanic. Although built towards the decline of the Age of Sail, the Star of Bengal was successfully operated for 24 years by the British trading company J.P. Corry & Co. The ship was mainly used on London-Calcutta trading route, but also made a few voyages to Australian and American ports.

By 1898, following the formative change in the shipping industry, J.P. Corry switched to steam vessels and sold its sailing fleet. On the other hand, merchant shipping along the United States Pacific Coast was experiencing a boom triggered by Klondike and Nome gold rushes which intensified the colonization of the Pacific Northwest, and spiked the demand for both passenger and cargo shipping in the area. As a result, the Star of Bengal was purchased by a San Francisco trading company J.J. Smith & Co. and, along with many other old European vessels, was taken around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean. J.J. Smith conducted an overhaul of the ship and re-rigged her from a full-rigged ship to a barque, aiming to decrease costs of her operations.


Star of Bengal (ship) Ship: Star of Bengal Rig: Three-masted bark Hull: Iron Launched: 1874 Out of service: 1908 Builder: Harland & Wolff, Belfast Dimensions: 262.8’ x 40.2’ x 23.5’ Tonnage: 1694 tons

J.J. Smith operated the Star of Bengal for 7 more years, mainly for grain and coal trade. As the steamships were pushing sailing vessels out of business, the trading company could no longer operated her for profit, and in 1905, the Star of Bengal was sold to Alaska Packers' Association. This company was in business of canning Alaskan salmon, using its sailing ships for a single voyage a year: a spring sail from San Francisco to one of its Alaskan canneries with seasonal workers and supplies, followed by a return trip in early fall with the workers and a load of canned salmon.

On September 20, 1908, in the beginning of her return trip from Fort Wrangell to San Francisco, the Star of Bengal was in tow into the open sea when she encountered a storm. The ship struck the rocks near the shore of Coronation Island and sunk, killing approximately 110 of 138 people aboard. The Star of Bengal's captain, Nicholas Wagner, who survived the wreck, publicly blamed the tugboats' captains for the event, but after months of federal investigation, nobody was held responsible. As of 2015, the wreck of the Star of Bengal remains in the top five worst maritime disasters in Alaskan history.

Later, captain Wagner's daughter, Joan Lowell pursued acting and literary careers, which led to the Star of Bengal's portrayals in fiction. The Cradle of the Deep, the third best-selling book of 1929, contains an embellished account of the wreck. A melodramatic play Star of Bengal written by Thompson Buchanan and produced by Christopher Morley is set on the ship.


Specifications
The Star of Bengal was built by the shipbuilder Harland and Wolff Industries in Belfast, Ireland in 1873–1874. 1873–1874 were the years when the construction of three-masted iron ships reached its zenith, and during these years, the shipbuilding industry produced a series of fastest ships in this category, the Star of Bengal being one of them.

Initially constructed as two-decks three-masted full-rigged ship, in 1898 the Star of Bengal was re-rigged as a barque. Her gross tonnage was 1877, net tonnage 1694, tonnage under deck 1684. She was 262.8 feet (80.1 m) long, 40.2 feet (12.3 m) wide and 23.5 feet (7.2 m) deep, and designed to be operated by a crew of seventeen. The ship could load 2,530 long tons (2,570 t) of deadweight cargo on a draught of 21 feet 3 inches (6.48 m).

The Star of Bengal had 9-inch-deep (230 mm) bar keel. Her poop deck was 64 feet (20 m) long, forecastle 42 feet (13 m) long. The ship's moulded depth was 25 feet 3 inches (7.70 m) with freeboard of 5 feet 2.5 inches (158.8 cm). She was originally constructed with 3 cemented bulkheads, but after her overhaul in 1898, only one bulkhead remained in service. Overall, the ship's hull required 200 long tons (200 t) of stiffening.

Wreck
Background


The Star of Bengal's final voyage

In the season of 1908, the Star of Bengal sailed from San Francisco on April 22, arriving at Fort Wrangell on May 5. She was loaded with supplies for Wrangell cannery, including the fuel for the season, and had 146 people on board, 110 of which were "Oriental" seasonal workers. Because maneuvering a sailing vessel through a maze of small islands and narrow straits is too risky, the last 90 miles (140 km) of the voyage, from Warren Island to Fort Wrangell, the Star of Bengal was tugged by the 172 GT 250-hp Chilkat, an Alaska Packers' Association's steamboat. That summer Wrangell cannery yielded 52,000 cases of salmon which were loaded on the ship while she was moored next to the cannery for the season.

The return trip began on September 19 with 137 or 138 people on board. This time, the tug Chilkat was unavailable to take the Star of Bengal into the open sea, so on the company's orders, she was towed by two smaller steamboats – the 80 GT 90-hp Hattie Gage and the 115 GT 225-hp Kayak, neither of which was large enough to perform the operation individually or even designed for vessel towing. The Kayak's draft was too shallow, so when towing a vessel she ran a risk of her propeller and rudder being not submerged deep enough for effective operation, especially in rough weather. The Hattie Gage's aft was not equipped with proper bitts, so 6-inch-thick (15 cm) and 750-foot-long (230 m) hawser had to be tied directly to her mast. Both tugs were also owned by Alaska Packers' Association.

The Hattie Gage was under command of Captain Erwin Ferrar[note 6] who had 35 years of experience at sea, including 13 seasons in Alaska. The Kayak was under command of Captain Patrick Hamilton who recently obtained his captain license after 10 years of experience at see as mate and boatswain. Together with captain Wagner of the Star of Bengal, the captains decided to proceed with the tow, as the weather was calm. Captain Ferrar was placed in charge of the operation. The small flotilla left Fort Wrangell at 8:20 a.m. making about 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) and planning to reach the open sea at Warren Island in 12 to 18 hours. The vessels passed point Baker at 3:50 p.m., and reached the 5.8-mile-wide (9.3 km) strait between Coronation Island and Warren Island at 10:00 p.m. By that time, the wind has strengthened, and the visibility was poor due to rain, mist, and darkness. The lookouts on both tugs could no longer see the Star of Bengal which was 250 yards (230 m) behind them.



The events of September 20, 1908
The loss of control
By midnight, the flotilla was on its final leg between Warren Island and Coronation Island, and the captains of both tugboats became concerned with the freshening southeast headwind. The vessels were making very little forward progress and getting closer to Coronation Island than expected.[85] In poor visibility, the crews of all three ships relied on lead lines to ascertain their positions with respect to land. As the wind continued to strengthen, by 1:00 a.m. captain Farrar and captain Hamilton, whose tugboats were moving 100 feet (30 m) from each other, negotiated a turn, aimed to jibe the Star of Bengal, i.e. to pull her through the wind and change her tack from port to starboard.

Meanwhile, the Star of Bengal's crew also became concerned, but could neither see the tugboats, nor communicate with them. At 1:45 a.m. the Hattie Gage blew a series of whistles, signaling the maneuver which was heard on the Star of Bengal. However, as the tugs started the turn, the Kayak's rudder proved ineffective in the rough weather, and she failed to turn into the wind. For some time, the tugs worked against each other, their combined effort overpowering the Star of Bengal's rudder and preventing her from making the turn to safety.[88] Aware of the looming danger, the Star of Bengal's first mate begged captain Wagner to sever the Kayak's hawser which was dragging the ship in the wrong direction, but the captain refused, as the maritime law prohibited such action on the part of the vessel in tow.

At one point, the tugs succeeded turning the Star of Bengal on the starboard tack, but she immediately reverted to the port tack[89] when either due to a sudden change in direction of the wind or due to an error on part of the Star of Bengal's crew, her sails were filled aback. This resulted in a more dangerous situation, pushing all three vessels towards the rocky shore of Coronation island. The two tugs continued to struggle to pull the Star of Bengal out of danger, but the ships continued to drift leeward. Both tugs started to experience mechanical problems with their boilers due to overloading, and the Hattie Gage also developed structural problems with her mast mounting. At 3:50 a.m. the Star of Bengal dropped her anchors in 17 fathoms (102 ft; 31 m) of water. Pulled into less than 10 fathoms (60 ft; 18 m) of water and occasionally as close as 100 feet (30 m) to the land, the tugs finally severed the hawsers at 4:00 a.m., steamed out of danger, and found shelter from still strengthening wind 12 miles (19 km) away, behind Warren Island.

The sinking

The ship anchored in danger

The breeches buoy debacle

Artistic representations based on eyewitness accounts (by Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

With the dawn, the Star of Bengal's crew realized how dangerous the ship's position was, just 100 yards (91 m) from the rocky beach of Coronation Island, barely held by her anchors amidst the storm. By 7:00 a.m., the wind turned into gale, reaching 60 miles per hour (97 km/h). With no tugs in sight, the crew started preparing for the worst. All men aboard received life-preservers, however most of the Chinese passengers did not put them on. Captain Wagner called for volunteers who would attempt to reach the shore in a lifeboat to secure a line on the shore in order to evacuate the passengers with a breeches buoy. The crew dumped oil into the sea to calm down the waves, but the first attempt to lower a lifeboat failed, as it immediately smashed into pieces.

The second attempt to lower the boat was successful, and manned by four volunteers, the boat reached the shore and broke into pieces on the impact with the rocky beach. All four men survived the crash, and by 9:00 a.m. they managed to secure a rope from the Star of Bengal to a tree. The donkey boiler was used to keep the rope strained. However, as another volunteer was climbing along the rope with the breeches buoy, the ship's anchors finally gave in to the storm. The rope became unstable and unsuitable for evacuation, and the volunteer was slingshot 60 feet (18 m) into the air and killed as he landed on the ship's deck. At 9:32 a.m. the ship struck the rocks. During the next 54 minutes, the ship's hull broke in three pieces, and she sank at 55°49′30″N 134°17′0″W with just her mizzen topmast visible above water.

Passengers and crew found themselves in 40 °F (4 °C) water surrounded by the wooden cases of canned salmon and the steel empty fuel drums from the ship's hold. The dangerous mishmash frenzied by the storm was almost impossible to swim through. Depending on the exact number of passengers aboard the Star of Bengal, 110 or 111 people died in the wreck, and 27 people survived. The beach was soon covered by dead bodies, many mutilated by the ship's cargo, and many drowned in the powerful undertow. The 27 survivors included the four volunteers and captain Wagner who was pulled unconscious from the water by the crew members

The survivors used the leftovers of fuel to make fire and stay warm.They made an extensive search for survivors, buried white corpses, leaving "Oriental" corpses behind covered by ship's sails. The survivors were picked up by the Kayak, which found them the next day. The US government cable ship Burnside arrived at the scene of the wreck later and her crew buried the remaining corpses in a mass grave. With the high number of casualties, as of 2015, the wreck is in top 5 marine disasters in the history of Alaska.

The aftermath
The wreck of the Star of Bengal was described as "one of the worst disasters" of the Pacific coast. Due to the high number of casualties, as of 2015, the wreck of the Star of Bengal in top 5 marine disasters in the history of Alaska. Both, the ship and her cargo were declared total loss.The cost of the cargo was estimated at $227,000, bringing the total value of hull and cargo to $330,000, which was the largest maritime loss in Alaska waters at the time. The ship and her cargo was insured at Lloyd's which limited the losses of Alaska Packers' Association. The Association made volunteer donations to the families of the lost of more than $16,000 in total, which was considered generous at the time.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_Bengal

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1910 – The ocean liner SS France, later known as the "Versailles of the Atlantic", is launched.


SS France was a French ocean liner which sailed for the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, colloquially known as CGT or the "French Line". She was later christened Versailles of the Atlantic, a reference to her décor which reflected the famous palace outside Paris. Ordered in 1908, she was introduced into the Transatlantic route in April 1912, just a week after the sinking of RMS Titanic, and was the only French liner among the famous "four stackers". France quickly became one of the most popular ships in the Atlantic. Serving as a hospital ship during World War I, France would have a career spanning two decades. Her overall success encouraged CGT to create even larger liners in the future.




15th infantry fighters returning aboard SS France in 1917


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_France_(1910)