Naval/Maritime History 22nd of March - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1573 – The Battle of Haarlemmermeer was a naval engagement during the early stages of the Dutch War of Independence.
Spanish under Bossu defeat Sea Beggars



The Battle of Haarlemmermeer was a naval engagement fought on 26 May 1573, during the early stages of the Dutch War of Independence. It was fought on the waters of the Haarlemmermeer – a large lake which at the time was a prominent feature of North Holland (it would be drained in the 19th century).

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Battle of Haarlemmermeer circa 1621 by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom, oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum.

A Spanish fleet and a fleet belonging to the city of Amsterdam (at the time still loyal to Spain), commanded by the Count of Bossu, fought a fleet of rebellious Dutch Geuzen, commanded by Marinus Brandt, who were trying to break the Siege of Haarlem. After several hours of fight, the Geuzen were forced to retreat.

Trivia
Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is situated in what used to be the Haarlemmermeer.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1603 - Battle of Sluis
Dutch under Joos de Moor beat back Spanish under Frederik Spinola



The Battle of Sluis was a naval battle during the Eighty Years' War in which a Spanish squadron commanded by the Italian captain Federico Spinola tried to break through a blockade of Sluis by Dutch ships under the command of Joos de Moor. After about two hours of fighting the heavily damaged Spanish ships returned to Sluis; Federico Spinola was killed during the action.

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Battle of Sluis, from the Legermuseum, Delft


Joos de Moor (1548 or 1558 – 18 February 1618) was a Dutch Vice Admiral of Zeeland from the 16th century. In 1603 in the Battle of Sluis he defeated a Spanish fleet under Admiral Federico Spinola. He was the son of Jan de Moor [nl], first vice-admiral of Zeeland. He was married to Dina Crins (ca. 1562–1583), Janneken Ingels (ca. 1564–1604), and Catarina Struvingts (ca 1563-1613). He died at Vlissingen and is buried in the St James the Great Church.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joos_de_Moor
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1646 - Venetians defeat Turkish attempt to break their blockade of the Dardanelles.


This battle took place on 26 May 1646 at the mouth of the Dardanelles Strait. The Ottoman fleet under Kapudan Pasha Kara Musa Pasha, tried to defeat the Venetian fleet, under Tommaso Morosini, that was blockading the Dardanelles. After seven hours, the Ottoman fleet withdrew back into the Strait. Several Turkish ships were damaged, but none lost.

Ships involved
Venice[

  • 7 sailing ships
Turkey
  • 5 galleasses
  • 75 galleys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_26_May_1646
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=1024
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1658 – Launch of Richard, a 70-gun second-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Commonwealth of England, built by the Master Shipwright Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard,


The Richard was a 70-gun second-rate ship of the line of the navy of the Commonwealth of England, built by the Master Shipwright Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched in 1658. She was named after Richard Cromwell, to honour his appointment as the Protector in succession to his late father Oliver Cromwell.

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After the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, her name was changed to HMS Royal James, and she was re-registered as a first rate ship of the line in the Royal Navy. This involved adding gunports in the waist on the upper deck, where previously she had carried no guns, and consequently her rating was raised to 82 guns.

She took part in all three major naval battles of the Second Dutch War. At the Battle of Lowestoft on 3 June 1665, she was the flagship of Prince Rupert, a role she reprised a year later during the Four Days Battle on 4 June 1666. She also took part in the St James's Day Fight on 25 July 1666.

She was present at the raid on the Medway in 1667, where first she was sunk to prevent capture, and then those parts above water burnt by the Dutch fireships.

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The Battle of Lowestoft, 13 June 1665, showing Royal Charles and the Eendracht by Hendrik van Minderhout, painted c. 1665

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Four Days' Battle


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1742 – Launch of HMS Medway, a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Rotherhithe,


HMS
Medway
was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Rotherhithe, and launched on 26 May 1742.

Medway was scuttled in 1748.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Dragon (1736), Weymouth (1736), and with alterations for Nottingham (1745), Medway (1742), and Dreadnought (1742), all 1733 Establishment 60-gun Third (later Fourth) Rate, two-decker

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model suggested to be the 'Medway' (1742), a 60-gun two-decker ship of the line, built in 'bread and butter' construction and finished in the Georgian style. Model is partially decked, rigged (circa 1763) and fully equipped including anchors and all associated gear, the whole model mounted on its original veneered baseboard. Built by Elias Bird of Rotherhithe, the 'Medway’ had a gun deck length of 144 feet by 42 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 1080 burden. It spent the early part of its career as part of a small fleet patrolling the Indian Ocean and took part in an indecisive action against the French Squadron off the Coromandel Coast in 1746. The 'Medway’ was eventually sunk as part of a breakwater in Trincomalee in 1749

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Scale 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a ship's longboat, said to be from the 'Medway' (1742) (SLR0328), built plank on frame in the Navy Board style. The model is partially planked and equipped with a large windlass amidships for use when handling the anchors. It is mounted on its original veneered baseboard. Another model, SLR0330, shows the ‘Medway’ longboat rigged and fully planked. The longboat was generally the largest boat carried on board ship and could either be pulled or sailed. It was used for carrying personnel and stores as well as mooring and anchors work. When carried on board, the longboat was stowed in the waist between the fore and main masts lashed on the spare topmasts and spars. It was hoisted in and out by means of the large block and tackles rigged to the lower fore and main yards

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a ship's longboat, from the Medway (1742) (SLR0328), built in the Georgian style. The model is fully planked (carved from the solid), equipped and rigged and shows a large windlass amidships which was used for laying and retrieving the mother ship's anchors. Another model, SLR0329, shows the Medway longboat unrigged and in frame


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Medway_(1742)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1758 - Action of 26 May 1758
HMS Dolphin (24), Captain Benjamin Marlow, and HMS Solebay (28), Captain Robert Craig, engage Marechal de Belleisle (44), François Thurot.


Action of 26 May 1758

One of the most interesting of the actions was a brush between the Solebay, '28, Captain Robert Craig, and Dolphin, '24, Captain Benjamin Marlow, and Thurot's ship, the Marechal du Belleisle, the armament of which he had increased to 44 guns by cutting a few extra ports on the lower deck. The vessel was thus no longer a frigate proper; on the other hand she was not a two-decked ship at all comparable to the English 44's. Perhaps the only other instance of a ship being similarly armed is that of Paul Jones's Bonhomme Richard.

In the Belleisle's case, however, the change seems to have been beneficial, and Thurot is credited with having made a number of prizes before he was brought to action by the Dolphin and Solebay on May 26th.

The Dolphin was first in action; but, having the slings of her main-yard shot away, she dropped astern; and the Solebay came up and in her turn occupied the Frenchman's attention while the Dolphin was getting her main-yard up. In due time the Dolphin again got close; but, about three and a half hours from the beginning of the action, the Belleisle wore and made sail away. Both the British frigates were much damaged aloft, and, probably, even if they had not been they would have stood no chance against Thurot in sailing.


HMS Dolphin was a 24-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1751, she was used as a survey ship from 1764 and made two circumnavigations of the world under the successive commands of John Byron and Samuel Wallis. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the world twice. She remained in service until she was paid off in September 1776, and she was broken up in early 1777.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for the 1745 Est 24-gun ships; Arundel (1745), Queenborough (1748), Fowey (1749), Sphinx (1748), Hind (1749), Dolphin (1751), prepared by the Mater Shipwright of Deptford, Chatham, Woolwich, Portsmouth and Sheerness and approved by Sir John Norris and other Flag Offices

HMS Solebay (1742) was a 20-gun sixth rate launched in 1742. She was captured by the French in 1744, recaptured by the British in 1746 and was sold into mercantile service in 1763.

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Maréchal de Belleisle was a 46-gun fourth rate frigate of the French Navy built in 1757. Captained by François Thurot she was captured in 1760.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1785 – Launch of HMS Castor, a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy


HMS Castor
was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.

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Print by Thomas Whitcombe depicting HMS Carysfortretaking Castor from the French on 29 May 1794

Construction and commissioning
Castor was ordered on 30 January 1782 and laid down in January the following year at the yards of the shipbuilder Joseph Graham, of Harwich. She was launched on 26 May 1785 and completed by July the following year. The ship was then laid up in ordinary at Chatham Dockyard.

Career
Early years

Castor spent nearly five years in ordinary until the Spanish Armament of 1790 caused her to be fitted out at Chatham between June and August 1790 for the sum of £2,795. She commissioned in July that year under Captain John S. Smith, but the easing of international tensions caused Castor to be paid offlater that year.[3] The rising tensions with France immediately prior to the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars led the Admiralty to again prepare Castor for active service. She was fitted at Chatham between February and April 1793 for £4,066, recommissioning that February under Captain Thomas Troubridge.

French Revolutionary Wars and capture
Further information: Frigate action of 29 May 1794
Troubridge sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 May 1793, where in June she and HMS Mermaid captured a 14-gun privateer. Castor was then part of Admiral Hood's fleet at Toulon. While Castor was escorting a convoy back to Britain, on 9 May 1794 a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly chased and captured her off Cape Clear. A French prize crew then sailed her back towards France. Twenty days later, on 29 May, Francis Laforey's HMS Carysfort sighted Castor off Land's End and recaptured her. Castor was re-registered as a naval ship on 6 November and recommissioned in January 1795 under Captain Rowley Bulteel. Bulteel took her to the Mediterranean in May 1795, but paid her off in September 1796.

Castor underwent a refit at Plymouth between November 1798 and March 1799, recommissioning under Captain Edward Leveson Gower. In March 1799 a quantity of the gunpowder stores were accidentally ignited, causing severe injury to one of Castor's midshipmen. The injured man having been replaced, Captain Gower sailed Castor to Newfoundland in April 1799, but by December that year Castor was on the Spanish coast when she captured the 2-gun privateer Santa Levivate y Aninimus off Oporto on Christmas Day 1799. Captain David Lloyd took command of Castor in 1801, but he was soon succeeded by Captain Bernard Hale who sailed for the West Indies in April 1801. Hale died in 1802; his successor Captain Richard Peacocke continued to command Castor in the West Indies.

West Indies and Caribbean
Castor returned home, and was fitted out as a guardship for Liverpool between August and October 1803. She came initially under the command of Captain Edward Brace, but by April 1805 she had been moved to Sheerness, where she recommissioned under Captain Joseph Baker.[3] She spent between 1806 and 1809 undergoing a repair and refit, before she came under the command of Captain William Roberts. On 27 March 1808 her boats, along with those of HMS Ulysses, HMS Hippomenes and HMS Morne Fortunee made an unsuccessful attempt to cut out the 16-gun French Griffon from Port Marin, Martinique.

In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Castor was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands. Castor was next involved in the chase on 16 and 17 April 1809 of the 74-gun French ship of the line Hautpoult off Puerto Rico.

Mediterranean and final years
Captain Charles Dilkes took command in October 1810, and Castor spent 1811 and 1812 on the Leeward Islands and Jamaica stations. She moved to the Mediterranean in late 1812, and on 22 June 1813 captured the 2-gun privateer Fortune off the Catalan coast. She captured two other privateers, the one gun Heureux and Minute (or Minuit), off Barcelona on 22 or 25 January 1814.

Fate
Castor was finally laid up in August 1815 in Portsmouth at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. The Admiralty sold her for breaking up on 22 July 1819 to G. Bailey for the sum of £2,650.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Castor_(1785)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1796 - Lord Hawkesbury, launched in America in 1781, captured and wrecked


Lord Hawkesbury was launched in America in 1781, probably under another name. She entered Lloyd's Register in 1787. She made six voyages as a whaler and was lost on the seventh after a squadron of French naval vessels had captured her.

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Career
Lord Hawkesbury first appeared in Lloyd's Register in 1787. Her master was T. Delano, her owner A. & B. Champion, and her trade London-Southern Fishery.

1st whaling voyage (1787–1788): Captain Thomas Delano sailed from England on 7 September 1787, bound for South Georgia. He returned on 12 September 1788 with 35 tuns of sperm oil, eight tuns of whale oil, and four hundredweight (cwt) of whale bone (baleen).

Lord Hawkesbury, Henry Delano, master, may have made an earlier seal hunting voyage to South Georgia. One report has her there in 1786.

2nd whaling voyage (1788–1789): Captain Delano sailed from England on 14 November 1788. He hunted whales in the Atlantic and returned on 25 August 1789 with 34 tuns of sperm oil and reportedly "the first parcel of ambergris 'by any English whaler'".

3rd whaling voyage (1789–1790): Captain Joshua Coffin sailed from England on 15 October 1789. He hunted whales in the Atlantic and returned to England on 6 December 1790. Lord Hawkesbury brought 76 tons sperm oil and headmatter, and 360 ounces of ambergris, which sold at £19 6s per ounce.

4th whaling voyage (1791–1792): Captain Barnabas Gardner sailed from England on 16 February 1791. He too hunted for whales in the Atlantic and returned to England on 27 April 1792.

The Champions sold Lord Hawkesbury to Daniel Bennett, a leading shipowner of whalers sailing the Southern Whale Fishery.

See also: List of ships owned by Daniel Bennett & Son
5th whaling voyage (1792–1793): Captain William Wilkinson sailed from England on 8 September 1792, bound for the Atlantic and the west coast of Africa. He returned on 4 October 1793. Lord Hawkesbury brought back 55 tuns of sperm oil, 60 tuns of whale oil, 40 cwt of whale bone.

6th whaling voyage (1794): Captain Mackay (or Henry Mackie), sailed from England on 21 January 1794, bound for Walvis Bay. He returned on 29 November with eight tuns of sperm oil, 110 tuns of whale oil, and 75 cwt of whale bone.

Capture and loss
Lord Hawkesbury set out on a seventh voyage under Captain Mackay. She was lost on 26 May 1796 near the Cape of Good Hope.

Lord Hawkesbury stopped at Rio de Janeiro in March 1796. Some of the crew had scurvy, and she was in need of refreshments, and calefaction. She was sailing for the whaling grounds at Walvis Baywhen on 15 May 1796 at 31°S 8°E she encountered a squadron of four large French frigates. These were:
They were part of a larger force under Admiral Sercey. He had taken his force on to Île de France but had left the four frigates to patrol between St Helena and the Cape to intercept and capture East Indiamen of the British East India Company (EIC).

The French pillaged Lord Hawkesbury and put a prize crew on board her consisting of an officer and 13 seamen. They took of almost all of her crew, leaving only two sailors, David Liang and Robert Morrow, and a boy to help the prize crew sail her to Île de France.

On 26 May Lord Hawkesbury was off the east coast of Africa with Morrow at the helm. The French were not paying attention and Morrow succeeded in running her aground Zoetendal's Vlei (34°43′S 20°8′E), east of Simon's Bay. Although she was wrecked, there were no casualties and Morrow, Liang, and the boy left the Frenchmen in the custody of local Boers. The Englishmen then walked to Cape Town, arriving there on 4 June.

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This painting has the alternative title 'Ships of the East India Company at Sea' but was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1803 as 'The Hindostan, G. Millet[t], commander, and senior officer of eighteen sail of East Indiamen, with the signal to wear, sternmost and leewardmost ships first'. (That is, for the fleet to alter course to the opposite tack, in the sequence indicated, with the wind astern.) It is believed to represent the convoy under George Millett, as commodore, during their return voyage from China early in 1802. The 'Hindostan', in the centre, was a large East Indiaman of 1248 tons, built in 1796 to replace a previous vessel of the same name that had been sold to the Navy. The new 'Hindostan' undertook three voyages in the service of the Company, the last being the one illustrated. On 11 January 1803, at the start of a fourth voyage, she was lost during a heavy gale on Margate Sands with up to thirty of her crew. Eleven of the other vessels in the convoy depicted here are known to have reached their moorings in England between 11 and 14 July 1802: the 'Lord Hawkesbury', 'Worcester', 'Boddam', 'Fort William', 'Airly Castle', 'Lord Duncan', 'Ocean', 'Henry Addington', 'Carnatic', 'Hope' and 'Windham'. The other ships have not been identified but are also presumed to have done so. Pocock placed considerable importance on accuracy and he referred to annotated drawings and sketch plans in the production of his oil paintings. He was born and brought up in Bristol and went to sea at the age of seventeen, rising to be the master of several merchant vessels. Although he only took up painting as a profession in his early forties, he became extremely successful, receiving commissions from naval commanders anxious to have accurate portrayals of actions and ships. By the age of eighty Pocock had recorded nearly forty years of maritime history, demonstrating a meticulous understanding of shipping and rigging with close attention to detail. The painting is signed and dated 1803


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'The East Indiaman General Goddard capturing Dutch East Indiamen, June 1795'. This painting depicts an engagement that took place off St Helena on 11 June 1795, during the war with France. Also shown are the East India Company packet 'Swallow', commanded by William Clifton, and the Royal Naval 3rd- rate ship ' Sceptre', captained by William Essington. The 'General Goddard', 755 tons was an important ship in the history of the east India Company fleet. The vessel was built to replace or 'on the bottom of' the 'Royal (Saint) George' by Randall, Brent and Sons in 1781. It was originally owned by William Money. During 1795 it was commanded by William Taylor Money. The General Goddard was the first vessel to be part-owned, in 1788, by Robert Wigram the future owner of Blackwall Yard and the leading ship husbandman of the period. The incident depicted in the painting took place during the return leg of the vessel's fifth voyage for the company, also known as the Cape Expedition, and which resulted in the capture of nine Dutch East Indiamen. The General Goddard and the seven other East India ships that eventually made up the homeward bound convoy reached their moorings between the 16 and 19 October 1795. The other vessels were the 'Asia', 'Essex', 'Manship', 'Airly Castle', 'Lord Hawkesbury', 'Busbridge' and the 'Earl of Wycombe'. The National Maritime Museum also holds a commonplace book that belonged to Commander Henry Upton, Fourth Officer on the General Goddard between 1793 and 1795. Following the action depicted Upton was detached in the 'Dordwyk' as prize master. The commonplace book includes orders relating to that activity, (UPN/7) see also (UPN/12)


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1804 – Launch of HMS Dispatch (also Despatch), a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Richard Symons & Co. at Falmouth and launched in 1804.


HMS Dispatch
(also Despatch) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Richard Symons & Co. at Falmouth and launched in 1804. Dispatch was instrumental in the capture of a 40-gun French frigate and was active at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She also sailed on the Jamaica station. She was broken up relatively early, in 1811.

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Initial service
She was commissioned in May 1804 under Commander Edward Hawkins for the Channel and cruising. She then joined a squadron under Captain Thomas Dundas in Naiad.

On 25 October, Hawkins sighted two strange vessels some five or six leagues off Pointe du Raz. Dispatch captured both, which proved to be the French gun-vessels No. 345 and No. 353. Each was armed with two brass guns, one a 32-pounder and the other a 6-pounder. Each had a crew of 20 soldiers. They had left Brest for Odierne (or Dandiorne) but the wind had blown them out to sea. Conquest arrived on the scene and then the British sighted two more gun-vessels. Dispatch captured one, No. 371, armed like the two already captured, but with a crew of 22. Hawkins thought it too dangerous to try to send the three gun-vessels to England so he sank them after having removed the guns.

At daylight 27 November 1804 while Naiad was off Brest, she saw some small vessels open musket fire on boats belonging to Aigle that were chasing them. (Aigle had two seamen wounded, one dangerously.) Naiad gave chase and captured French gun-vessels Nos. 361 and 369. They each mounted one long brass 4 pounder gun and one short 12-pounder and had on board a lieutenant from the 63rd infantry regiment, 36 privates and six seamen. They had sailed with fourteen others from Dandiorne to Brest. Captain Thomas Dundas of Naiad ordered Hawkins and Dispatch to take the gunboats and prisoners in to Plymouth.

On 28 April 1805 Dispatch capture the Spanish vessel of war, Nostra Senora del Anparo, alias Espadarte. Late in the year Dispatch captured a number of merchantmen: Desir de la Paix (30 September), Genevieve (7 October), Louise (15 October), and Spadron (31 October).

French frigate Président
On 27 September 1806 Dispatch was part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis that included Canopus and Blanche. The squadron captured the French 40-gun French frigate Président, with Dispatch playing a critical role.

Louis's squadron had sailed to the Bay of Biscay to await the return of Admiral Willaumez from the Caribbean. On spotting the Président, the squadron gave chase but the ships of the line were not fast enough to catch her. However, Dispatch was able to get within firing range. Dispatch proceeded to harry Président with her forward guns, forcing Président to turn towards Blanche. Seeing Président turn, Louis ordered Canopus to fire, even though the range was extreme. Realizing that the rest of the British squadron would arrive shortly, Président struck, surrendering to Dispatch. Président had suffered only minor damage and neither side suffered any casualties. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President. Hawkins had been made post-captain two days prior to the action.

A few weeks after this action, Dispatch captured two French merchantmen. One of the ships carried sardines and was of so little value that Dispatch promptly scuttled her. The larger ship carried brandy, coffee and some guns, so he sent her back to England with a prize crew.

Between 10 and 12 February 1807 Hawkins faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth. The charges, which had "aroused an unusual degree of interest", stemmed from when he had commanded Dispatch. Thomas Thompson, who had been master of Dispatch, had written an initially anonymous letter charging Hawkins with having willfully murdered a seaman, William Davie. Davie had been ill and Thompson charged that Hawkins's negligence and inattention between 9 and 25 December 1805 had brought about Davie's death. Hawkins advanced evidence that Davie was a skulker and under a surgeon's treatment for venereal disease, while also resorting to quack medicines. Character witnesses attested that Hawkins's behaviour was "always marked with humanity and gentleness"; the court declared the charges to be "scandalous and malicious" and acquitted Hawkins.

Baltic and Copenhagen
In 1807 Dispatch sailed under Commander James Lillicrap for the North Sea, and was at Copenhagen in August. In the spring she convoyed a fleet of transports carrying two divisions of the King's German Legion from the Downs to the island of Rügen off the German Baltic coast where the French were besieging Stralsund, then the capital of Swedish Pomerania.[9] She remained off the coast with a small squadron under Lillicrap to protect the troops. With the assistance of Rosamond, Dispatch covered the eventual evacuation of King Gustavus in a Swedish frigate.

While still on the station, Dispatch, her sister ship Mutine, and Censor fired broadsides at the French outposts near Greifswald. On 21 August Dispatch escorted the last troops to leave Rugen to Kioge Bay in Zealand to join the rest of the army, which had landed five days earlier to prepare for the attack on Copenhagen.[9]

Dispatch was one of six British warships that shared in the capture on 23 August of the Danish vessel Speculation.

When Dispatch joined Admiral James Gambier off Copenhagen, Lillicrap was ordered to mount four long 18-pounders to give Dispatch a greater capability to fight the Danish gunboats. Lillicrap was also to join the inshore squadron as the senior commander under Captain Puget. Dispatch found herself engaging Danish gunboats almost daily. In the general promotion that followed in the capture of the Danish fleet, 17 commanders junior to Lillicrap received promotion; Lillicrap, despite recommendations, did not.

Dispatch sailed for Jamaica on 29 February 1808. In June she recaptured Grinder, Ferguson, master. Grinder had been sailing from Jamaica to the Indian Coast when the French privateer Duguay Trouinhad captured her on 7 June off Port Royal. Grinder was taken back to Jamaica.

On the night of 2 October, while off Nevis with a convoy of merchantmen, Dispatch captured the small 1-gun French privateer schooner Dorade, which had a crew of 20 men and mounted one brass gun. Dispatch later retook a captured British merchant ship.

While on the Jamaica station Lillicrap visited Haiti where he spent time with the two contending Haitian chiefs, Henri Christophe and Christophe’s co-conspirator and rival, Alexandre Pétion. Christophe would in 1811 become the King of Haiti, and with him Lillicrap visited the Citadelle Laferrière. Lillicrap was promoted to post-captain on 21 October 1810, but did not receive official notification until March 1811, at which time he sailed for home in Naiad. He would then have to wait until January 1815 for his next command (Hyperion).

In November 1810 Dispatch was under Commander James Aberdouor. She left Negril on 20 May 1811 with a convoy for England and arrived at Portsmouth 24 July from Jamaica and St. George's Channel.

Fate
Dispatch was paid off in September 1811. She was broken up at Plymouth that same month.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dispatch_(1804)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1807 – Launch of the Tonquin, a 290-ton American merchant ship initially operated by Fanning & Coles and later by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC), a subsidiary of the American Fur Company (AFC).


The Tonquin was a 290-ton American merchant ship initially operated by Fanning & Coles and later by the Pacific Fur Company (PFC), a subsidiary of the American Fur Company (AFC). Its first commander was Edmund Fanning, who sailed to the Qing Empire for valuable Chinese trade goods in 1807. The vessel was outfitted for another journey to China and then was sold to German-American entrepreneur John Jacob Astor. Included within his intricate plans to assume control over portions of the lucrative North American fur trade, the ship was intended to establish and supply trading outposts on the Pacific Northwest coast. Valuable animal furs purchased and trapped in the region would then be shipped to China, where consumer demand was high for particular pelts.

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The Tonquin left New York City for the Columbia River in late 1810. From there the vessel sailed across the Atlantic Ocean until reaching the Falkland Islands in December. Captain Jonathan Thorn marooned eight PFC employees there, though they were secured the same day after other men threatened to kill Thorn. After passing Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, the Tonquin visited the Kingdom of Hawaii in February 1811. Sorely needed fresh produce and animal products were purchased and 24 Native Hawaiian Kanakas hired after holding negotiations with Kamehameha I and Kalanimoku. The Tonquin finally reached the Columbia River on 22 March 1811. In the subsequent days, attempts to find a safe route over the Columbia Bar killed eight men.

Work began in May 1811 on the sole trading post founded by the Tonquin, Fort Astoria, on the present-day Oregon coast. After construction was completed, the ship departed with a majority of the trade goods and general provisions from the fort, intending to trade them with indigenous tribes on the coast of Vancouver Island. When the crew began bartering with Tla-o-qui-aht natives at Clayoquot Sound in June, a dispute arose due to Captain Thorn's poor treatment of an elder. All but four members of the crew were killed by armed Tla-o-qui-aht led by chief Wickaninnish. The survivors intentionally detonated the ship's powder magazine, and the Tonquin was destroyed and sunk. Joseachal, a Quinault interpreter previously hired by Thorn, was the sole crew member to survive the entire incident and return to Fort Astoria. While there, he held several conversations with Duncan McDougall and gave the only detailed account of how the Tonquin was destroyed.

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The Tonquin being attacked off the shore of Vancouver Island in 1811.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonquin_(1807)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1808 – Launch of HMS Brazen, a Bittern-class 28-gun Royal Navy ship sloop


HMS
Brazen
was a Bittern-class 28-gun Royal Navy ship sloop, launched in 1808.

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Though she served during the Napoleonic Wars, she appears to have missed any combat whatsoever and to have taken few prizes in that conflict. However, in the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom she captured Beaver and Warren in the Gulf of Mexico, but Warren was wrecked on Grand Gosier Island, near New Orleans, in a hurricane. Brazen suffered severe damage in the hurricane and, after local repair, was recalled to England for a survey.

After the survey she escorted convoys to Canada and back and recaptured Daphne. She then carried the Duke of Brunswick to Holland and patrolled the Irish Sea until her return to the West Indies Station. In 1815, she carried the news of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, to British troops that had captured Fort Bowyer and assisted in carrying them to England. After the war she took part in surveys of the Venezuelan coast and patrolled the Gulf of Mexico, capturing several prizes.

In the 1820s she served with the West Africa Squadron working to suppress the slave trade. In this service she captured numerous slavers and liberated over 2,000 slaves. Brazen ended her career as a floating chapel and was broken up in 1848.

j4238.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half-breadth for Termagant (1796), Bittern (1796), Cyane (1796), Plover (1796), Brazen (cancelled 1799) and Brazen (1808) all 18-gun Ship Sloops. The plan includes alterations in 1798 for Brazen (cancelled 1799). Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813]

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Plover (1796) and with later alterations for Brazen (cancelled 1799) and Brazen (1808), all 18-gun Ship Sloops. Initialled by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813]




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Brazen_(1808)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1808 – Launch of HMS Podargus, a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy.


HMS
Podargus
was a Crocus-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She participated in one major battle during the Gunboat War between Britain and Denmark. After the war she served at Saint Helena for five or six years. On her return to Britain in 1820 she was laid up; she was finally sold in 1833.

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Career
Commander William Hellard commissioned Podargus in September 1808 for the Downs. On 15 August 1809, Podargus's master and a master's mate arrived at the French prisoner-of-war prison at Verdun. The master's mate escaped in 1813, but it is not clear how the men came to be captured.

On 19 August 1809 Podargus captured the Fortuna. Three days later she recaptured the Margaretha. Alphea was in sight for the recapture of the Margretha. Podargus also carried Major General Broderick and his suite to Corunna.

Commander John Lloyd recommissioned Podargus in November 1810. On 2 December Podargus was on station off Boulogne when her crew retrieved an abandoned, swamped Dutch boat. The boat had to be over-turned to bring her on board Podargus, but even so, money was found aboard her, amounting to 13 gold guineas, four half-guineas, and some silver French coins. Then in October 1811 Commander John Bradley replaced Lloyd.

Commander William Robilliard commissioned Podargus in November 1811 for the Baltic. On 4 October 1812 Podargus captured the Danish sloop Speculation and shared the prize money with Persian, Erebus, Woodlark and Plover by agreement. Then on 17 October Persian and Erebuswere again in company with Podargus when Podargus captured the Danish vessels Anna Maria, Twende Brodre, and two market-boats. Next month, on 11 November Podargus captured Syerstadt, with Persian and Erebus in company.

Napoleonic Wars
Main article: Battle of Lyngør

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Battle of Lyngør

In 1812, during the Gunboat War, the British saw an opportunity to enforce the blockade and break the back of Dano-Norwegian seapower. They therefore sent a small squadron consisting of the 64-gun Third Rate ship-of-the-line Dictator (Captain James Patteson Stewart), and three brigs, the 18-gun Cruizer class brig-sloopCalypso (Commander Weir), Podargus, and the 14-gun gun-brig Flamer (Lieutenant Thomas England), to seek out the Danes. On 6 July 1812, the squadron was off the island of Merdø on the coast of Norway, when the squadron sighted and chased a Danish squadron.

Robilliard and Podargus led the British attack because she had a man onboard who had sailed in those waters some time ago; nevertheless, she grounded. During the subsequent Battle of Lyngør Flamer stayed with her to protect her. However, Dictator and Calypso succeeded in destroying the new, 40-gun frigate Najaden and badly damaging the 18-gun brigs Laaland, Samsøe, and Kiel, as well as a number of gunboats. The British captured and tried to take out Laaland and Kiel but abandoned them when they grounded. The British did not set fire to either as the Norwegian vessels still had their crews and wounded aboard.

The action cost Dictator five killed and 24 wounded, Calypso three killed, one wounded and two missing, Podargus nine wounded, and Flamer one killed and one wounded. Najaden lost 133 dead and 82 wounded and the Danes acknowledged losing some 300 men killed and wounded overall.

Commander Weir received immediate promotion to post-captain; Robilliard received his promotion on 14 December; Dictator's first lieutenant, William Buchanan, received promotion to commander. In 1847 the surviving British participants were authorized to apply for the clasp "Off Mardoe 6 July 1812" to the Naval General Service Medal.

Several days later the British sent the cutter Nimble to reconnoiter the situation. Nimble reported seeing four vessels at Christiansand, two of 18 guns and two of 16 guns. Nimble also saw numerous gunboats about. The Battle of Lyngør effectively ended the Gunboat War.

Commander George Rennie replaced Robilliard in January 1813. Podargus then served under Viscount Keith in the Channel and in the Royal Navy's Bordeaux operations.

On 21 March 1814, Rear-admiral Penrose, in the 74-gun Egmont, anchored in the Gironde with a squadron that included Podargus. On 2 April the boats of Porcupine captured one gun-brig, six gun-boats, one armed schooner, three chasse-marées, and an imperial barge. They burned one gun-brig, two gun-boats, and one chasse-marée. The squadron shared the subsequent prize money. Two days later, the 74-gun Centaur joined Egmont to prepare for to attack the French 74-gun Régulus, three brig-corvettes, other vessels lying near her, and the batteries that protected them. Before the British could launch their attack, the French burnt Régulus and the other vessels.

Between June and August 1814, Podargus was under the temporary command of Commander Houston Stewart. Commander James Wallis then recommissioned her.

On 9 July 1815, Podargus captured the French vessel Deux Amis.

Post-war
Wallis sailed Podargus to St. Helena. Napoleon Bonapart, though denying any involvement in Captain Wright's death, apparently was quite angry at Wallis being appointed to St Helena, viewing the appointment as a deliberate British provocation.

In April 1817, the transport brig Emu, belonging to the Cape Town Dockyard, was the first European vessel to enter the Knysna. She struck a rock, now known as Emu Rock, and was holed. Her crew ran Emu ashore to prevent her sinking. In late April Podargus arrived to render assistance. After surveying the area, Wallis sailed Podargus into the Knysna and retrieved Emu's cargo.

Commander Henry John Rous recommissioned Podargus at St Helena in November 1817.

In January 1819, while Podargus was still at St Helena, the London Gazette reported that Parliament had voted a grant to all those who had served under the command of Admiral Viscount Keith in 1812, between 1812 and 1814, and in the Gironde. Podargus was listed among the vessels that had served under Keith in 1813 and 1814. She had also served under Kieth in the Gironde.

Lieutenant James Webb Cairnes was appointed to replace Rous in 1818, however, he did not take command until 1819. Cairnes had been first lieutenant of Conqueror. Rous was still in command of Podargus when he wrote a letter on 29 March 1819 to Admiral Robert Plampin, extolling the virtues of Hout Bay, 14 miles from Cape Town, as the site of a dockyard.

Fate
By 1820 Podargus was back in Britain and laid up in ordinary at Portsmouth. The Admiralty offered her for sale on 7 August 1833, still at Portsmouth. She was sold on that day to Mr. John Small Sedger, Rotherhithe, for £510 for breaking up.

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inboard works, expansion of Date: NMM, Progress Book, volume 7, folio 205, states that 'Podargus' was fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1808, repaired at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1809, and had defects repaired at Plymouth Dockyard in 1810

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outboard works, expansion of Date: NMM, Progress Book, volume 7, folio 205, states that 'Podargus' was fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1808, repaired at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1809, and had defects repaired at Plymouth Dockyard in 1810

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deck fastening (ZAZ4918)


The Crocus-class brig-sloops were a class of sloop-of-war built for the Royal Navy, and were the only Royal Navy brig-sloops ever designed rated for 14 guns. The class was designed by the Surveyors of the Navy (Sir William Rule and Sir John Henslow) jointly, and approved on 28 March 1807. Unlike the vast majority of other British brig-sloops built for the Royal Navy in this wartime period, which were built by contractors, construction of the Crocusclass was confined to the Admiralty's own dockyards. One vessel was ordered from each of the Royal Dockyards (except Sheerness) on 30 March; four more were ordered in 1808 and a final unit in 1810. All the ships of the class survived the Napoleonic Wars and were broken up between 1815 and 1815.

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Vessels
In the following table, the Crocus-class brig-sloops are listed in the order in which they were ordered.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Podargus_(1808)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1811 – HMS Alacrity (18), Nisbet Palmer, captured by French corvette Abeille (20) off Bastia, Corsica.


On May 26th, off Corsica, the Alacrity, 18, Commander Nesbit Palmer, chased the Abeille, 20, Lieutenant A. E. A. de Mackau. The British brig mounted sixteen 32-pr. carronades and two long 6-prs.; the French, twenty 24-pr. carronades. The Alacrity had on board 100, and the Abeille 130, men and boys; so that the forces were almost equally matched.

The Frenchman shortened sail and awaited the attack; and, after about three quarters of an hour's hot action, the Alacrity struck, having lost 5 killed, including Lieutenant Thomas Gwynne Rees, and 13 wounded. The Abeille, which lost 7 killed and 12 wounded, seems to have been much more ably handled than her antagonist; but that by no means wholly explains the result.

Palmer, early in the fight, received a wound, not in itself serious, in the hand, and went below, leaving the command to Rees, who fought the ship most gallantly until he was severely wounded, and who, even then, sat on a carronade slide, and encouraged his men until he was killed. There was no other Lieutenant on board; and when the Master, and the Master's Mate had been wounded, the command was assumed by Boatswain James Flaxman, who, though himself wounded, "did his best, until Palmer sent up word from below that the colours were to be struck. No sooner, however, had he done this than, apparently repenting, he rushed on deck, and, pistol in hand, threatened to blow out the brains of any man who should attempt to execute the order. A little later, nevertheless, the colours were struck by the Gunner, while Flaxman's attention was otherwise engaged. Fortunately, perhaps, for himself, Commander Nesbit Palmer's slight wound induced lockjaw, from which he died ere any inquiry could be held concerning the manner in which he had lost his sloop.


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Capture of HMS Alacrity


HMS Alacrity was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by William Rowe at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She served in the Baltic and was at the capture of Copenhagen in 1807. She captured a large privateer before herself falling victim to a French man-of-war in 1811 in an action in which her captain failed to distinguish himself. She then served in the French navy until she was broken up in 1822.

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British service and capture
Alacrity was commissioned in February 1807 under Commander William Croft for the Baltic Station. On 22 August Alacrity and Sybille captured the Danish merchant vessel Elizabeth. She was then at the siege of Copenhagen. In September, Commander Nisbit Palmer assumed command, replacing Croft, who received promotion to post-captain in October. On 23 October Alacrity and Sybille captured the Bornembaum.

On 14 December Alacrity captured the French privateer Friedland in Home waters after a two-hour chase. Friedland was out of Dunkirk and armed with 14 guns. She was under the command of Francis Louis Beens who did not surrender until after he had lost one of his men killed. This was her second cruise and during the two days she had been out she had captured a Swedish galiot sailing from Stockholm to Plymouth with a cargo of iron and tar.

On 10 September 1810, Alacrity captured the French privateer Trois Frères, which had a crew of 73 men.

Early in May 1811 Alacrity took possession of a Greek vessel and sent her into Malta. This entailed sending a prize crew consisting of Alacrity's second lieutenant (Alexander Martin) and thirteen men.

On 26 May 1811, Alacrity encountered the French brig-of-war Abeille, of twenty 24-pounder carronades, off Bastia, Corsica. After an action that lasted about half an hour, during which Abeille outmaneuvered Alacrity, Alacrity struck. French accounts give her casualties as 15 killed and 20 wounded, including her captain. British accounts give her casualties as four dead and 18 wounded, including four fatally. Abeille suffered seven dead and 15 wounded.

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Capture of Alacrity by Abeille, under Armand-Mackau, on 26 May 1811. Engraving by Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio.

The fight might well have gone the other way. Alacrity had a broadside of 262 pounds vs. 240 pounds for Abeille. Alacrity had also suffered fewer casualties than Abeille. However, Palmer retired to his cabin with a hand wound early in the action; once Alacrity had lost all her leadership with her officers dead, wounded or absent, this was enough to demoralize most of her crew. For his role, the French promoted the French captain, Ange René Armand-Mackau, to the rank of lieutenant de vaisseau. He was also inducted into the Legion of Honour.

Within a month of the battle Palmer died of tetanus from his otherwise minor wound. The court martial of the survivors on 30 May 1814 attributed the loss to the lack of leadership. It acquitted all the survivors and commended the boatswain, James Flaxman, who had remained on deck though wounded and had attempted to rally the crew to Alacrity's defence.

French service
On 1 July 1811 she was commissioned at Toulon by lieutenant de vaisseux de Mackau. In 1812 she was at Elba and in 1815 at Gênes. On 1 July 1815 she was laid up at Toulon. In August 1822 Alacrity was beached at a shipyard in Toulon for refitting. On 20 August the shipyard received an order to cease further work as she was in such bad shape that there was no point in continuing. On 28 August breaking up commenced.

Postscript
On 7 February 1814 Lieutenant de Mackau received a promotion to capitaine de corvette. Soon afterwards he was made a Baron of the French Empire. He was later promoted to capitaine de frégate and on 1 September 1819, to capitaine de vaisseau.


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https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=837
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1815 – Launch of Hercule, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


Hercule was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

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Her keel was laid down in Toulon in 1812 as Kremlin. During her construction, she was renamed Provence during the Bourbon Restoration, Hercule briefly during the Hundred Days, when she was launched, and back to Provence from July 1815.

She was commissioned after 12 years, in 1827, but sustained heavy damage when she collided with the Scipion which was returning from the Battle of Navarino, and had to return to Toulon for repairs.

After the "fan incident", she sailed for Algiers to attempt talks, arriving on 3 August 1829. In July 1830, she was the flagship of Vice-admiral Duperré for the Invasion of Algiers in 1830. On 17 July 1830, she was renamed Alger to celebrate the capitulation of the city.

In 1831, Alger took part in the Battle of the Tagus, under Captain Jacques Leblanc, and later in the Crimean war, bombarding Sevastopol.

From 1855, she was used as a hospital hulk, and was eventually broken up in 1881.

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The Provence during the invasion of Algiers in 1830, by Lebreton.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Hercule_(1815)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1903 – Launch of SMS Elsass, the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the German Imperial Navy.


SMS Elsass
was the second of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Braunschweig class in the German Imperial Navy. She was laid down in May 1901, launched in May 1903, and commissioned in November 1904, though an accident during sea trials delayed her completion until May 1905. She was named for the German province of Elsass, now the French region of Alsace. Her sister ships were Braunschweig, Hessen, Preussen and Lothringen. The ship was armed with a battery of four 28 cm (11 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Like all other pre-dreadnoughts built at the turn of the century, Elsass was quickly made obsolete by the launching of the revolutionary HMS Dreadnought in 1906; as a result, her career as a frontline battleship was cut short.

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The ship served in II Squadron of the German fleet after commissioning, and during this period, she was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. Surpassed by new dreadnought battleships, Elsass was decommissioned in 1913, though she was reactivated a year later following the outbreak of World War I and assigned to the VI Battle Squadron. Elsass saw action in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In August 1915, she participated in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga, during which she engaged the Russian battleship Slava. In 1916, she was placed in reserve because of crew shortages and the threat of British submarines operating in the Baltic, and she spent the remainder of the war as a training ship.

She was retained after the war under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, and was modernized in 1923–1924. Elsass served in the Reichsmarine with the surface fleet until 1930, conducting training operations and visits to foreign ports as she had earlier in her career. In 1930, she was again placed in reserve, and the following year she was stricken from the naval register. Elsass was used for a short time as a hulk in Wilhelmshaven. The outdated battleship was sold to Norddeutscher Lloyd in late 1935 and was broken up for scrap the following year.


Design
Main article: Braunschweig-class battleship
Braunschweig_class_linedrawing.png
Line-drawing of the Braunschweig class

With the passage of the Second Naval Law under the direction of Vizeadmiral (Vice Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz in 1900, funding was allocated for a new class of battleships, to succeed the Wittelsbach-class ships authorized under the 1898 Naval Law. By this time, Krupp, the supplier of naval artillery to the Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) had developed quick-firing, 28-centimeter (11 in) guns; the largest guns that had previously incorporated the technology were the 24 cm (9.4 in) guns mounted on the Wittelsbachs. The Design Department of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office) adopted these guns for the new battleships, along with an increase from 15 cm (5.9 in) to 17 cm (6.7 in) for the secondary battery, owing to the increased threat from torpedo boats as torpedoes became more effective. The British battleship HMS Dreadnought—armed with ten 12-inch (30.5 cm) guns—was commissioned in December 1906, just a year after Elsass entered service. Dreadnought's revolutionary design rendered every capital ship of the German navy obsolete, including Elsass.

Elsass was 127.7 m (419 ft 0 in) long overall and had a beam of 22.2 m (72 ft 10 in) and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 7 in) forward. At full load, she displaced 14,394 t (14,167 long tons; 15,867 short tons). Her crew consisted of 35 officers and 708 enlisted men. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by eight naval and six cylindrical boilers, and all of which burned coal. Elsass's powerplant was rated at 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW), which generated a designed top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). She could steam 5,200 nautical miles (9,600 km; 6,000 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Elsass's armament consisted of a main battery of four 28 cm (11 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets, one fore and one aft of the central superstructure.[8] Her secondary armament was composed of fourteen 17 cm (6.7 inch) SK L/40 guns and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/35 quick-firing guns. Her armament was further increased by six 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, all mounted submerged in the hull. One tube was in the bow, two were on each broadside, and the final tube was in the stern. Elsass was protected with Krupp armor. Her armored belt was 110 to 250 millimeters (4.3 to 9.8 in) thick, with the heavier armor in the central portion that protected her magazines and machinery spaces, and the thinner plating at either end of the hull. Her deck was 40 mm (1.6 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm of armor plating.

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Tea dispensing on the ship lying in front of Travemünde (1908)

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The Braunschweig-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) built in the early 1900s. They were the first class of battleships authorized under the Second Naval Law, a major naval expansion program. The class comprised five ships—Braunschweig, Elsass, Hessen, Preussen, and Lothringen—and they were an improvement over the preceding Wittelsbach class. The Braunschweigs mounted a more powerful armament of 28 cm (11 in) and 17 cm (6.7 in) guns (compared to 24 cm (9.4 in) and 15 cm (5.9 in) guns of the Wittelsbachs). Less than two years after the first members of the class entered service, the ships were rendered obsolescent by the British all-big-gun battleship Dreadnought, which curtailed their careers.

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Preussen in 1907

During their early careers, the five ships served in II Battle Squadron, with Preussen its flagship. The fleet was occupied primarily with routine peacetime training and foreign visits. In 1912, Braunschweig was placed in reserve and she was joined the following year by Elsass. Lothringen and Hessen were slated to be decommissioned in 1914, but the outbreak of World War I in July 1914 prevented this and they remained in service with the High Seas Fleet. They and Preussen took part in the fleet operations in the first two years of the war, while Braunschweig and Elsass went to the Baltic with IV Battle Squadron, where they eventually saw combat with the Russian battleship Slava during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915. Hessen took part in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and saw limited combat with British battlecruisers late in the battle. All five of the ships were withdrawn from service starting in 1916, thereafter being used in subsidiary roles, including as barracks and training ships.

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After the war, the five Braunschweig's were among the vessels that the new Reichsmarine was permitted to retain by the Treaty of Versailles. Lothringen and Preussen were converted into parent ships for minesweepers to clear the minefields in the North Sea that had been laid during the war, but the other three were modernized in the early 1920s and served with the fleet into the 1930s. Braunschweig and Elsass were eventually stricken from the register in 1931, and along with Lothringen and Elsass were thereafter broken up. Hessen remained in service until late 1934, when she was decommissioned and converted into a radio-controlled target ship, a role she filled through World War II. Ceded as a war prize to the Soviet Union, she was commissioned as Tsel and used as a target until 1960 when she was scrapped.

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Members of the Braunschweig and Deutschland classes of II Battle Squadron in the North Sea



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1908 – Launch of SMS Emden ("His Majesty's Ship Emden"), the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine)


SMS
Emden
("His Majesty's Ship Emden")[a] was the second and final member of the Dresden class of light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy (Kaiserliche Marine). Named for the town of Emden, she was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Dockyard) in Danzig in 1906. Her hull was launched in May 1908, and completed in July 1909. She had one sister ship, Dresden. Like the preceding Königsberg-class cruisers, Emden was armed with ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two torpedo tubes.

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Emden spent the majority of her career overseas in the German East Asia Squadron, based in Tsingtao, in the Kiautschou Bay concession in China. In 1913, she came under the command of Karl von Müller, who would captain the ship during World War I. At the outbreak of hostilities, Emden captured a Russian steamer and converted her into the commerce raider Cormoran. Emden rejoined the East Asia Squadron, after which she was detached for independent raiding in the Indian Ocean. The cruiser spent nearly two months operating in the region, and captured nearly two dozen ships. On October 28, 1914, Emden launched a surprise attack on Penang; in the resulting Battle of Penang, she sank the Russian cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet.

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Müller then took Emden to raid the Cocos Islands, where he landed a contingent of sailors to destroy British facilities. There, Emden was attacked by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney on 9 November 1914. The more powerful Australian ship quickly inflicted serious damage and forced Müller to run his ship aground to prevent her from sinking. Out of a crew of 376, 133 were killed in the battle. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner; the landing party, led by Hellmuth von Mücke, commandeered an old schooner and eventually returned to Germany. Emden's wreck was quickly destroyed by wave action, and was broken up for scrap in the 1950s.


Design
Dresden_class_cruiser_diagrams_Janes_1914.jpg
Line-drawing of the Dresden class
Main article: Dresden class cruiser

Emden was 118.3 meters (388 ft 1 in) long overall and had a beam of 13.5 m (44 ft 3 in) and a draft of 5.53 m (18 ft 2 in) forward. She displaced 4,268 t (4,201 long tons) at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two triple-expansion steam engines, designed to give 13,315 indicated horsepower (9,929 kW) for a top speed of 23.5 knots(43.5 km/h; 27.0 mph). The engines were powered by twelve coal-fired Marine-type water-tube boilers and drove a pair of screw propellers. Emden carried up to 860 tonnes (850 long tons) of coal, which gave her a range of 3,760 nautical miles (6,960 km; 4,330 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph). She had a crew of 18 officers and 343 enlisted men. Emden was the last German cruiser to be equipped with triple-expansion engines; all subsequent cruisers used the more powerful steam turbines.

The ship was armed with ten 10.5 cm SK L/40 guns in single mounts. Two were placed side by side forward on the forecastle, six were located amidships, three on either side, and two were placed side by side aft. The guns could engage targets out to 12,200 m (40,000 ft). They were supplied with 1,500 rounds of ammunition, for 150 shells per gun. She carried a secondary battery of eight 5.2 cm (2.0 in) SK L/55 guns, also in single mounts. She was also equipped with two 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes with four torpedoes, mounted in the hull below the waterline. She was also fitted to carry fifty naval mines. The ship was protected by an armored deck that was up to 80 mm (3.1 in) thick. The conning tower had 100 mm (3.9 in) thick sides, and the guns were protected by 50 mm (2.0 in) thick shields

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Emden, beached on North Keeling Island


The Dresden class was a pair of light cruisers built for the Imperial German Navy in the early part of the 20th century. The class comprised SMS Dresden, the lead ship, and SMS Emden. Both ships were laid down in 1906; Dresden was launched in 1907, and Emden followed in 1908. They entered service in 1908 and 1909, respectively. The design for the ships was an incremental improvement over the preceding Königsberg class, being slightly larger and slightly faster, but with the same primary armament of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns. Dresden and Emden were powered by steam turbines and triple expansion engines, respectively, as part of continued experiments with the new turbine technology.

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Both ships served extensively on foreign stations; Emden was assigned to the East Asia Squadron from her commissioning, and Dresden was sent to Caribbean waters in 1913. Dresden was due to return to Germany for periodic maintenance shortly before the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but this became impossible with the onset of hostilities. She therefore operated as a commerce raider, before linking up with Vizeadmiral Maximilian von Spee's East Asia Squadron. Dresden thereafter participated in the Battle of Coronel in November 1914 and the Battle of the Falkland Islands the following December. She was the only German vessel to escape destruction at the latter engagement, and she remained at large for several more months. Dresden finally put into the Chilean island of Más a Tierra in March 1915 owing to worn-out engines. A pair of British cruisers violated Chilean neutrality and attacked Dresden while she lay at anchor; the Germans scuttled their ship to prevent her capture.

Emden, meanwhile, had been detached from the East Asia Squadron to pursue an independent commerce raiding campaign in the Indian Ocean. She captured or sank numerous Entente vessels, including the steamer Ryazan, which was converted into the auxiliary cruiser Cormoran. In September 1914, Emden raided Penang and caught the Russian protected cruiser Zhemchug and the French destroyer Mousquet and quickly destroyed both ships. Shortly thereafter, Emden was caught by the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney off the Cocos Islands and forced to beach after a ferocious engagement.

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SMS Dresden transiting the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal

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One of Emden's 10.5 cm guns, preserved in Sydney, Australia


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1908 – Launch of USS Michigan (BB-27), a South Carolina-class battleship, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 26th state.


USS Michigan (BB-27)
, a South Carolina-class battleship, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 26th state. She was the second member of her class, the first dreadnought battleships built for the US Navy. She was laid down in December 1906, launched in May 1908; sponsored by Mrs. F. W. Brooks, daughter of Secretary of the Navy Truman Newberry; and commissioned into the fleet 4 January 1910. Michigan and South Carolina were armed with a main battery of eight 12-inch (305 mm) guns in superfiring twin gun turrets; they were the first dreadnoughts to feature this arrangement.

1280px-Photograph_of_the_Battleship_USS_Michigan_-_NARA_-_19-N-13573.jpg

Michigan spent her career in the Atlantic Fleet. She frequently cruised the east coast of the United States and the Caribbean Sea, and in April 1914 took part in the United States occupation of Veracruz during the Mexican Civil War. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Michigan was employed as a convoy escort and training ship for the rapidly expanding wartime navy. In January 1918, her forward cage mast collapsed in heavy seas, killing six men. In 1919, she ferried soldiers back from Europe. The ship conducted training cruises in 1920 and 1921, but her career was cut short by the Washington Naval Treaty signed in February 1922, which mandated the disposal of Michigan and South Carolina. Michigan was decommissioned in February 1923 and broken up for scrap the following year.


Design
Main article: South Carolina-class battleship
Brassey's1912_South-Carolina.png
Line-drawing of the South Carolina class

Michigan was 452 ft 9 in (138 m) long overall and had a beam of 80 ft 3 in (24 m) and a draft of 24 ft 6 in (7 m). She displaced 16,000 long tons (16,257 t) as designed and up to 17,617 long tons (17,900 t) at full combat load. The ship was powered by two-shaft vertical triple-expansion engines rated at 16,500 ihp (12,304 kW) and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 18.5 kn (34 km/h; 21 mph). The ship had a cruising range of 5,000 nmi (9,260 km; 5,754 mi) at a speed of 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 869 officers and men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of eight 12-inch (305 mm)/45[a] caliber Mark 5 guns in four twin gun turrets on the centerline, which were placed in two superfiring pairsforward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of twenty-two 3-inch (76 mm)/50 guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull. As was standard for capital ships of the period, she carried a pair of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

Michigan's main armored belt was 12 in (305 mm) thick over the magazines, 10 in (254 mm) over the machinery spaces, and 8 in (203 mm) elsewhere. The armored deck was 1.5 to 2.5 in (38 to 64 mm) thick. The gun turrets had 12 inch thick faces, while the supporting barbettes had 10 inch thick armor plating. Ten inch thick armor also protected the casemate guns. The conning tower had 12 inch thick sides.

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USS_Michigan_(BB-27)_1918.jpg


The South Carolina-class battleships, also known as the Michigan class, were built during the first decade of the twentieth century for the United States Navy. Named South Carolina and Michigan, they were the first American dreadnoughts—powerful warships whose capabilities far outstripped those of the world's older battleships.

In the opening years of the twentieth century, the prevailing theory of naval combat was that battles would continue to be fought at relatively close range using many small, fast-firing guns. As such, each of the ships in the United States' previous battleship class (the Connecticut class) had many medium-sized weapons alongside four large guns. This paradigm, however, was soon to be subverted, as American naval theorists proposed that a ship mounting a homogeneous battery of large guns would be more effective in battle.

As their ideas began to enjoy wider acceptance, the US Congress authorized the country's Navy to construct two small 16,000-long-ton (16,000 t) battleships. This displacement was roughly the same size as the Connecticut class and at least 2,000 long tons (2,000 t) smaller than the foreign standard. A solution was found in an ambitious design drawn up by Rear Admiral Washington L. Capps, the chief of the navy's Bureau of Construction and Repair; it traded heavy armament and relatively thick armor—both favored by naval theorists—for speed.

With their superfiring main armament, press accounts billed South Carolina and Michigan, alongside the British HMS Dreadnought, as heralding a new epoch in warship design. Both, however, were soon surpassed by ever-larger and stronger super-dreadnoughts. The class's low top speed of about 18.5 knots (21.3 mph; 34.3 km/h), as compared to the 21-knot (24 mph; 39 km/h) standard of later American battleships, relegated them to serving with older, obsolete battleships during the First World War. After the end of the conflict and the signing of the Washington Naval Treaty, both South Carolinas were scrapped.

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A 12-inch (305 mm)/45 caliber Mark 5 gunon Connecticut. The same guns were utilized on the South Carolinas.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1941 - last battle of the German battleship Bismarck
Later on 25 May Admiral Lütjens, apparently unaware that he had lost his pursuers, broke radio silence to send a coded message to Germany.
This allowed the British to triangulate the approximate position of the Bismarck and aircraft were dispatched to hunt for the German battleship. She was rediscovered in the late morning of 26 May by a Catalina flying boat from No. 209 Squadron RAF and subsequently shadowed by aircraft from Force H steaming north from Gibraltar.



For some time, Bismarck remained under long-distance observation by the British. At about 03:00 on 25 May, she took advantage of her opponents' zig-zagging to double back on her own wake; Bismarck made a nearly 270° turn to starboard, and as a result her pursuers lost sight of the battleship, thus enabling her to head for German naval bases in France unnoticed. Contact was lost for four hours, but the Germans did not know this. For reasons that are still unclear, Admiral Günther Lütjens transmitted a 30-minute radio message to HQ, which was intercepted, thereby giving the British time to work out roughly where he was heading. However, a plotting error made onboard King George V, now in pursuit of the Germans, incorrectly calculated Bismarck's position and caused the chase to veer too far to the north. Bismarck was therefore able to make good time on 25/26 May in her unhindered passage towards France and protective air cover and destroyer escort. By now, however, fuel was becoming a major concern to both sides.

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Five aircrew from HMS Ark Royal who were decorated for their part in the Bismarck attack, photographed in front of a Swordfish bomber

The British had a stroke of luck on 26 May. In mid-morning a Coastal Command Catalina reconnaissance aircraft from 209 Squadron RAF, which had flown over the Atlantic from its base on Lough Erne in Northern Ireland across the Donegal Corridor, a small corridor secretly provided by the Irish government, piloted by British Flying Officer Dennis Briggs and co-piloted by US Navy observer Ensign Leonard B. Smith, USNR, Smith was at the controls when he spotted Bismarck (via a trailing oil slick from the ship's damaged fuel tank) and reported her position to the Admiralty. From then on, the German ship's position was known to the British, although the enemy would have to be slowed significantly if heavy units hoped to engage outside the range of German land-based aircraft. All British hopes were now pinned on Force H, whose main units were the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, the battlecruiser HMS Renown and the light cruiser HMS Sheffield. This battle group, commanded by Admiral James Somerville, had been diverted north from Gibraltar.

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Map of Operation "Rheinübung" and Royal Navy operations against the battleship Bismarck

Night of 26/27 May
At dusk that evening, and in atrocious weather conditions, Swordfish from Ark Royal launched an attack. The first wave mistakenly targeted Sheffield which had been detached from Force H under orders to close and shadow Bismarck. Although precious time was lost by this incident, it proved beneficial to the British in that the magnetic detonators on the torpedoes used against Sheffield were seen to be defective and for the following attack on Bismarck were replaced by those designed to explode on contact. Despite the lateness of the day, it was decided to try again. The attack commenced in near darkness at around 21:00 but once again the Swordfish torpedo bombers found Bismarck with their ASV II radars. A hit by a single torpedo from a Swordfish, hitting her port side, jammed Bismarck's rudder and steering gear 12° to port. This resulted in her being, initially, able to steam only in a large circle. Repair efforts by the crew to free the rudder failed. Bismarck attempted to steer by alternating the power of her three propeller shafts, which, in the prevailing force 8 wind and sea state, resulted in the ship being forced to sail towards King George V and Rodney, two British battleships that had been pursuing Bismarck from the west. At 23:40 on 26 May, Admiral Lütjens delivered to Group West, the German command base, the signal "Ship unmanoeuvrable. We will fight to the last shell. Long live the Führer."

Throughout that night, Bismarck was the target of intermittent torpedo attacks by the Tribal-class destroyers HMS Cossack, Sikh, Maori and Zulu, and the Polish destroyer ORP Piorun. Neither side scored a hit, but the constant worrying tactics of the British helped wear down the morale of the Germans and deepened the fatigue of an already exhausted crew.



..... to be continued .....


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_battle_of_the_battleship_Bismarck
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 May 1954 - Catapult explosion on USS Bennington


At 06:11 on 26 May 1954, while cruising off Narragansett Bay, the fluid in one of her catapults leaked out and was detonated by the flames of a jet causing the forward part of the flight deck to explode, setting off a series of secondary explosions which killed 103 crewmen, predominantly among the senior NCO's of the crew and injured 201 others.Bennington proceeded under her own power to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, to land her injured. This tragedy caused the Navy to switch from hydraulic catapults to steam catapults for launching aircraft. A monument to the sailors who died in this tragic event was erected near the southwest corner of Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.


USS Bennington (CV/CVA/CVS-20) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the second US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Bennington (Vermont). Bennington was commissioned in August 1944, and served in several of the later campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning three battle stars. Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an Antisubmarine Aircraft Carrier (CVS). In her second career, she spent most of her time in the Pacific, earning five battle stars for action during the Vietnam War. She served as the recovery ship for the Apollo 4 space mission.

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She was decommissioned in 1970, and sold to be scrapped in India in 1994.

Construction and commissioning

The ship was laid down on 15 December 1942 by the New York Navy Yard, and launched on 28 February 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Melvin J. Maas, wife of Congressman Maas of Minnesota. Bennington was commissioned on 6 August 1944, with Captain J. B. Sykes in command.

World War II
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Bennington in her original configuration, 1944.

On 15 December, Bennington got underway from New York and transited the Panama Canal on the 21st. The carrier arrived at Pearl Harbor on 8 January 1945 and then proceeded to Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands, where she joined Task Group 58.1 on 8 February. Operating out of Ulithi, she took part in the strikes against the Japanese home islands (16 – 17 February and 25 February), Volcano Islands (18 February – 4 March), Okinawa (1 March), and the raids in support of the Okinawa campaign (18 March – 11 June). On 7 April, Bennington's planes participated in the attacks on the Japanese task force moving through the East China Sea toward Okinawa, which resulted in the sinking of the battleship Yamato, light cruiser Yahagi, and four destroyers. On 5 June, the carrier was damaged by a typhoon off Okinawa and retired to Leyte for repairs, arriving on 12 June. Her repairs completed, Bennington left Leyte on 1 July, and from 10 July – 15 August took part in the aerial raids on the Japanese home islands.

She continued operations in the western Pacific, supporting the occupation of Japan until 21 October. On 2 September, her planes participated in the mass flight over Missouriand Tokyo during the surrender ceremonies. Bennington arrived at San Francisco on 7 November, and early in March 1946 transited the Panama Canal en route to Norfolk, Virginia. Following pre-inactivation overhaul, she went out of commission in reserve at Norfolk on 8 November 1946.

Post-war
USS_Bennington_(CVA-20)_underway_circa_1954.jpg
Bennington in 1954, following her SCB-27A conversion.

The carrier began modernization at New York Naval Shipyard on 30 October 1950 and was recommissioned as CVA-20 on 13 November 1952. In this period, Bennington was the recipient of over 11 million man-hours during her SCB-27A conversion. Her deck was extended 43 ft (13 m) in length and was widened by 8 ft (2.4 m). The point was to modernize the ship to be able to launch jet aircraft. She also had the 5 in (130 mm) guns removed from the flight deck, which were replaced by smaller 3 in (76 mm) guns.

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Modernized attack carrier USS Bennington (CVA-20), 1956–57.

On 13 November, Captain David. B. Young took command of Bennington in a ceremony attended by more than 1,400, including the Secretary of the Navy Dan A. Kimball and Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter who said the Bennington was "the most modern carrier in our fleet today."

Marine Air Group 14 (MAG-14), under the command of Colonel W.R. Campbell, USMC reported for duty on Bennington on 13 February 1953, and Bennington set off for the waters off Florida to conduct carrier qualifications. The first trap was made on Bennington since her recommissioning by Lieutenant Colonel T.W. Furlow in his AD Skyraider. Furlow was the commanding officer of Marine Attack Squadron 211 (VMA-211). The first jet aircraft to land on Bennington occurred on 18 February by Major Carl E. Schmitt in an F9F-5 Cougar. When the qualifications were over, Bennington headed for Guantanamo Bay Naval Base where she underwent 11 weeks of shakedown training.

Her shakedown lasted until May 1953, when she returned to Norfolk for final fleet preparations. On 27 April, a downcomer tube in Boiler Room One slipped loose which caused an explosion that killed 11 men, and seriously wounded four others. From 14 May 1953 – 27 May 1954, she operated along the eastern seaboard; made a midshipman cruise to Halifax, Nova Scotia; and a cruise in the Mediterranean.

Catapult explosion
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A memorial to the victims of the explosion was erected at Fort Adamson May 26, 2004.

At 06:11 on 26 May 1954, while cruising off Narragansett Bay, the fluid in one of her catapults leaked out and was detonated by the flames of a jet, causing the forward part of the flight deck to explode. A series of secondary explosions occurred, killing 103 crewmen (predominantly senior NCO's) and injuring 201 others. Bennington proceeded under her own power to Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, to land her injured. This tragedy caused the Navy to switch from hydraulic catapults to steam catapults for launching aircraft. A monument to the sailors who died in this tragic event was erected near the southwest corner of Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.

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Moving to New York Naval Shipyard for repairs, she was completely rebuilt from 12 June 1954 – 19 March 1955. On 22 April, the Secretary of the Navy came aboard and presented medals and letters of commendation to 178 of her crew in recognition of their heroism on 26 May 1954. As of 1 August 1955, she was part of Carrier Division 2, along with Lake Champlain. Bennington returned to operations with the United States Atlantic Fleet (including a two-month shake-down cruise to Guantanamo Bay with ATG-201) until departing Mayport, Florida for the Pacific on 8 September. She steamed by way of Cape Horn and arrived at San Diego one month later. The carrier then served with the Pacific Fleet making two Far Eastern cruises.

The 1955–56 air wing was Air Task Group 201, composed of VF-13, flying F9F-6, VA-36 (The US Navy's first operational light jet Attack Squadron) flying F9F-5; VA-105. flying AD-6, VC (later VFAW)4, flying F2H3, VC (Later VAAW)33, flying AD-5N. This deployment represented the Fleet evaluation of the combination of the angled deck and the mirror landing system, which reduced the US Navy's Carrier Landing Accident rate by 75%. During 1956 the ship was administratively part of Carrier Division Five, though operationally directed at times by Carrier Division One.

The 1956–57 air wing consisted of one squadron each of the following: FJ3 Fury, F2H Banshee, F9F Cougar fighters, AD-6 Skyraider, AD-5N Skyraider, and AD-5W attack aircraft, AJ2 Savage bombers, and F9F-8P photo reconnaissance planes.

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Incident in Sydney
On 7 May 1957, while docked in Sydney for Coral Sea Day celebrations, ten University of Sydney students dressed as pirates boarded the aircraft carrier in the early morning hours undetected. While some began soliciting donations from the Navy crew for a local charity, others entered the bridge. The public address system was turned on. "Now hear this!" announced Paul Lennon, a medical student. "The U.S.S. Bennington has been captured by Sydney University pirates!" Alarms for general quarters, atomic and chemical attacks were sounded, rousing the crew from their bunks.[6] Marines escorted the students off the ship. No charges were filed.

The 1964 Flood of Humboldt and Del Norte
The Bennington was dispatched to Eureka, in Humboldt County, California, during the Christmas flood of 1964 to provide disaster relief from severe flooding with water levels that exceeded thirty feet. The Bennington remained offshore in heavy seas and the twenty Marine helicopters she carried were invaluable in providing assistance and supplies to the stricken residents.

ASW operations

LTV XC-142A trials on Bennington, 1966


Bennington's ship's insignia, 1959

She was redesignated as an ASW support carrier CVS-20 on 30 June 1959, and was on hand for the 1960 Laotian Crisis. She also had three tours of duty – between 1965 and 1968 – in the Vietnam War.

As an ASW carrier, her air wing consisted of two squadrons of S-2F Trackers, a squadron of Sikorsky SH-34s ASW helicopters which were replaced in 1964 by SH-3A Sea Kings in that role. Airborne early warning was first provided by EA-1Es modified for the AEW role, these were upgraded in 1965 to the E-1 Tracer which is built on the same frame as the S-2 Tracker. In 1964–1965, a detachment of A-4B Skyhawks were also embarked.

On 18 May 1966, while cruising off of San Diego, California, Bennington hosted the experimental LTV XC-142A as it executed 44 short takeoffs and landings and six vertical takeoffs and landings, the ship steaming at various speeds to generate different velocities of wind-over-the-deck.

She was the prime recovery vessel for the unmanned Apollo 4 mission and on 9 November 1967 recovered the spacecraft which had splashed down 10 mi (16 km) from the ship.

Disposal
Bennington was decommissioned on 15 January 1970, stricken on 20 September 1989, and sold for scrap on 12 January 1994, being subsequently towed across the Pacific for scrapping in India.



 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 26 May


1660 - between May 26 and June 12 - Slight skirmish between Venetians and Turks


1697 – Launch of HMS Exeter, a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard


HMS Exeter
was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Portsmouth Dockyard on 26 May 1697.
She was involved in repeated actions against the French, in 1702 off Newfoundland, and in 1705 when she captured the frigate Thétis. She was in the Mediterranean in 1711, and at the Battle of Quiberon Bay. She was rebuilt according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Plymouth, and relaunched on 19 March 1744. She was at the Siege of Pondicherry in 1748. Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood briefly served aboard her.
Exeter continued to serve until 1763, when she was broken up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Exeter_(1697)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Exeter_(1697


1703 – Launch of french Nymphe, 26 guns, design by Philippe Cochois, launched 26 May 1703 at Le Havre – deleted 1719.


1811 - Action of 1811/05/26 - HMS Pilot (18), John Toup Nicholas, destroyed and captured a number of vessels at Stongoli.

On May 26th 1811, Commander John Toup Nicolas, of the Pilot, 18, found four settees drawn up on the beach midway between Neto and Lipuda, in the gulf of Taranto, and sent in his boats, under Lieutenants Alexander Campbell, and Francis Charles Annesley, to bring them off. Although covered by the fire of about 150 troops, three of the craft were captured, and one was destroyed, only 1 person being wounded on the British side.

HMS Pilot (1807) was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop launched in 1807 and sold in 1828. She became a whaler, making five whale fishing voyages between 1830 and 1842; she was last listed in 1844.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=860


1811 - Action at Sabiona, 26th May 1811


Boats of the HMS Sabine sloop (18), George Price, captured privateers Guardia De Via, Canari and Madina in the roadstead at Chipiona.

On the evening of May 26th 1811, the Sabine, 16, Commander George Price, detached her five boats, under Lieutenants William Usherwood and Patrick Finugane, to attempt to cut out five 2-gun French privateers from the harbour of Sabiona, on the Cadiz station. Although the enemy lay under a battery, each boat boarded and carried a prize without loss; but, during a subsequent successful effort on the part of the French to drag two of the vessels ashore, a Marine was wounded. The three other privateers were brought off. Though Lieutenant Usherwood received high praise for this exploit, he was not made a Commander until July 22nd, 1830.

HMS Sabine was the French 16-gun Sylphe-class brig Requin that HMS Volage captured on 28 July 1808 in the Mediterranean; she was sold in 1818.

j4340.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail and longitudinal half-breadth for Sabine (captured 1808), a captured French brig, as taken off at Sheerness Dockyard, prior to fitting as an 18-gun brig. The plan includes a table of mast and yard dimensions. Signed by George Parkin [Master Shipwright, Sheerness Dockyard, 1806-1813]

j4339.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper deck and lower deck with after platform for Sabine (captured 1808), a captured French brig, as taken off at Sheerness Dockyard, prior to fitting as an 18-gun brig. The reverse of the plan states the ship was Italian, although this may be because she was captured off Monaco. Signed by George Parkin [Master Shipwright, Sheerness Dockyard, 1806-1813]


https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=907


1812 – Launch of French Ems, a Pallas class frigate




1828 – Launch of Royal Admiral, a 414-ton timber three-masted barque, built at King's Lynn, England in 1828 and used as a merchant ship.

Royal Admiral was a 414-ton timber three-masted barque, built at King's Lynn, England in 1828[3] and used as a merchant ship. Royal Admiral first served for trade to India. She subsequently sailed to Australia on four occasions carrying convicts, from Portsmouth to Port Jackson in 1830, from Dublin to Port Jackson in 1833 and 1834, and from Woolwich to Hobart Town in 1842.

Career
On her first convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon S. Rutherford, she departed Portsmouth on 5 July 1830 and arrived in Sydney on 8 November 1830. She embarked 193 male convicts; there were four convict deaths en route.
For her second convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon Andrew Henderson, Royal Admiral departed Dublin, Ireland on 4 or 5 June 1833, and arrived in Sydney on 26 October. She embarked 220 male convicts, five of whom died en route.
On her third convict voyage, under the command of David Fotheringham and surgeon J. Osborne, Royal Admiral departed Dublin on 27 September 1834 and arrived in Sydney on 22 January 1835. She embarked 203 male convict and had two convict deaths en route.
Royal Admiral also sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall on 26 September 1837 with 112 pioneering settlers bound for Port Adelaide, South Australia, arriving 18 January 1838. A notable passenger on this voyage was Henry Inman who was to become the founding commander of the South Australian Police Force.

Fate
Royal Admiral was shipwrecked on the coast of India on 26 July 1844. She was under the command of Captain Garbutt, and sailing from Newport to Aden, when she wrecked upon the Prong, near Colaba light-house. Materials were saved, but ship and cargo were lost. The 1844 volume of Lloyd's Register shows her master as G. Weakner, her owner as Bottomly, and her trade Newport—Aden. The entry has the notations "Wrecked" against her name.



1840 – Death of Sidney Smith, English admiral and politician (b. 1764)

Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith, GCB, GCTE, KmstkSO, FRS (21 June 1764 – 26 May 1840) was a British naval officer. Serving in the American and French revolutionary wars, he later rose to the rank of admiral.Napoleon Bonaparte, reminiscing later in his life, said of him: "That man made me miss my destiny"

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Smith_(Royal_Navy_officer)


1846 – Launch of HMS Sidon was a first-class paddle frigate designed by Sir Charles Napier.

HMS Sidon
was a first-class paddle frigate designed by Sir Charles Napier. Her name commemorated his attack on the port of Sidon in 1840 during the Syrian War. Her keel was laid down on 26 May 1845 at Deptford Dockyard, and she was launched on 26 May 1846. She had a fairly short career for a warship, but it included the rescue of the crew of the sinking Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation vessel Ariel on 28 May 1848, and a trip up the Nile that same year, when her passengers included the explorer and botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. She served in the Black Sea during the Crimean War, 1854-55 under the command of Captain George Goldsmith. In April 1854, in company with HMS Firebrand (Captain William Houston Stewart), she blockaded the coast from Kavarna to the mouths of the River Danube. In September, during the actual Allied invasion of the Crimea, she was assigned to escorting the French troop transports, and assisted the French line-of-battleship Algiers, which had gone aground in Eupatoria Bay. She was then sent to monitor Russian movements around Odessa, and on 4 October attacked a marching column of 12,000 men on their way to the Crimea. On this occasion she was hit in the funnel by a Russian rocket. She was sold for breaking up on 15 July 1864 to Castle and Beech.

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H.M. Steam Ship Sidon (PAH0937)

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68-pounder gun and crew on Sidon, off Sebastopol during the Crimean War



1943 - USS Saury (SS 189) attacks a Japanese convoy south of Kyushu and sinks transport Kagi Maru, about 10 miles north of the Nansei Shoto. Also on this date, USS Whale (SS 239) sinks Japanese gunboat Shoei Maru (which is transporting men of the Guam Base Detachment) about 17 miles north-northwest of Rota, Mariana Islands.


1944 - USS England (DE 635) sinks its fifth Japanese submarine in a week, (RO 108), 110 miles northeast of Manus.
 
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