Naval/Maritime History 27th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 December 1905 – Launch of Greek Lemnos, sometimes spelled Limnos (Greek: Θ/Κ Λήμνος), a 13,000 ton Mississippi-class battleship


Lemnos, sometimes spelled Limnos (Greek: Θ/Κ Λήμνος), was a 13,000 ton Mississippi-class battleship originally built by the United States Navy in 1904–1908. As Idaho, she was purchased by the Greek Navy in 1914 and renamed Lemnos, along with her sister Mississippi, renamed Kilkis. Lemnos was named for the Battle of Lemnos, a crucial engagement of the First Balkan War. Armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm) guns, Lemnos and her sister were the most powerful vessels in the Greek fleet.

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Greek battleship Lemnos and torpedo boat Dafni at Constantinople (today İstanbul) 1919.

The ship saw limited action during World War I. Greece's pro-German monarch, Constantine I opted to remain neutral until October 1916, when pressure from the Triple Ententeforced him to abdicate in favor of a pro-Entente government. For the remainder of the war, Lemnos operated solely as a harbor defense ship. In the aftermath of World War I, she saw service during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922. During the war with Turkey, Lemnos supported Greek landings in Turkey and participated in the final Greek sea-borne withdrawal in 1922. She remained in service until 1932, when she was used as a barracks ship and subsequently disarmed. During the German invasion of Greece in 1941, she and her sister were sunk in Salamis by German Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers. The two ships were ultimately raised and broken up for scrap after the end of the war.

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Design
Main article: Mississippi-class battleship
Lemnos was 382 feet (116 m) long overall and had a beam of 77 ft (23 m) and a draft of 24 ft 8 in (7.52 m). She displaced 13,000 metric tons (13,000 long tons; 14,000 short tons) as designed and up to 14,465 t (14,237 long tons; 15,945 short tons) at full combat load. The ship was powered by two-shaft vertical triple expansion engines and eight coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers rated at 10,000 indicated horsepower (7,500 kW) and a top speed of 17 knots (20 mph; 31 km/h). Lattice masts were installed in 1909. She had a crew of 744 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 12 in (305 mm) L/45 guns in two twin turrets, one on each end of the superstructure. Eight 8 in (203 mm) L/45 guns were mounted in four twin turrets, two on each side of the vessel amidships. The secondary battery was rounded out with eight 7 in (178 mm) L/45 guns mounted individually in casemates along the length of the hull. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of twelve 3 in (76 mm) L/50 guns, six 3-pounder guns and two 1-pounder guns. The ship's armament system was completed by two 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in her hull.[1] Lemnos and Kilkis were the most powerful vessels in the Greek Navy.

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Service history
See also: USS Idaho (BB-24)
Laid down on 12 May 1904, the ship was launched on 9 December 1905 and commissioned into the United States Navy on 1 April 1908 as USS Idaho. Greece became engaged in a naval arms race with the Ottoman Empire at the time; in 1910 the Ottomans had purchased a pair of German pre-dreadnoughts (renamed Barbaros Hayreddin and Turgut Reis) and ordered dreadnought battleships from Britain in 1911 and 1914. The Greek Navy ordered the dreadnought Salamis from Germany in 1913 and the dreadnought Basileus Konstantinos from France. As a stop-gap measure, the Greeks purchased Mississippi and Idaho from the US Navy, for the sum of $12,535,276.58, on 30 June 1914. The two ships were transferred to the Greek Navy in Newport News, Virginia the following month, Idaho and Mississippi becoming Lemnos and Kilkis, respectively. Lemnos and Kilkisquickly left the United States after their transfer in July 1914, due to the rising tensions in Europe following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria the previous month.

At the outbreak of World War I in at the end of the month, Greece's pro-German monarch, Constantine I, decided to remain neutral. The Entente powers landed troops in Salonika in 1915, which was a source of tension between France and Greece. Ultimately, the French seized the Greek Navy on 19 October 1916 (see Noemvriana and National Schism).[8]Lemnos was reduced to a skeleton crew and had the breech blocks for her guns removed to render them inoperable. All ammunition and torpedoes were also removed. Ultimately, a pro-Entente government under Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos replaced Constantine and declared war on the Central Powers. Lemnos, however, did not see active service with Greece's new allies,[8] and instead was used solely for harbor defense until the end of the war.

After the end of World War I, Lemnos joined the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and served with the Crimean Expedition. There, she aided the White Russians against the Communists. In April 1919, Lemnos was present in Kaffa Bay, where she provided gunfire support to the Volunteer Army. On 22 April, aerial reconnaissance reported that the Red Army was massing in the town of Vladislovovka; Lemnos and the British light cruiser HMS Caradoc bombarded the town, forcing the Soviet forces to withdraw. She then saw service during the Greco-Turkish War, where she supported landings to seize Ottoman territory. The Ottoman Navy had been interned by the Allies after the end of World War I, and so provided no opposition to the Greek Navy's activities.

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Kilkis and Lemnos sunk after German air attack, 1941.

In February 1921, Lemnos was stationed in Smyrna to support the occupation of the city. Operations came to a close in September 1922 when the Greek Army was forced to evacuate Smyrna by sea, along with a sizable number of civilians from Asia Minor. The fleet transported a total of 250,000 soldiers and civilians during the evacuation. Lemnos departed Smyrna on the evening of 8 September with her sister Kilkis. While en route from Smyrna to mainland Greece, Captain Dimitrios Fokas, the commander of Lemnos, formed a Revolutionary Committee with Nikolaos Plastiras and Stylianos Gonatas, two colonels who supported Venizelos, who had been ousted in 1920. The men launched the 11 September 1922 Revolution, and other vessels in the fleet mutinied in support of the coup. King Constantine I was forced to abdicate in favor of his son, George II.

In 1932, Lemnos was placed in inactive reserve; sections of her armor plate was removed to build fortifications on the island of Aegina. She was disarmed in 1937 and thereafter used as a barracks ship. On 28 October 1940, Italy invaded Greece, initiating the Greco-Italian War as part of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's expansionist ambitions. The Greek army quickly defeated the Italians and pushed them back to Albania. Less than two weeks later, the Italian fleet was badly damaged in the British Raid on Taranto, which significantly reduced the threat the Italian Regia Marina posed to the Greek fleet. Lemnos remained out of service, but spare guns from she and Kilkis were employed as coastal batteries throughout Greece. On 6 April 1941, the German Wehrmacht invaded Greece to support its Italian ally in the stalemated conflict. The hulk of Lemnos was bombed in Salamis Naval Base by Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers on 23 April. The ship was beached to prevent her from sinking; her wreck was broken up after the end of the war.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_battleship_Lemnos
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 December 1996 - Alexandria was a cargo-carrying three-masted schooner built in 1929 sunk


Alexandria was a cargo-carrying three-masted schooner built in 1929. Originally named Yngve, she was built at Björkenäs, Sweden, and fitted with a 58 H.P. auxiliary oil engine.

Type: Three-masted topsail schooner
Length: 125 ft (38 m) (sparred)
Beam: 22 ft (6.7 m)
Height: 85 ft (26 m)
Draft: 9 ft 2 in (2.79 m)

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Around 1937 her Rigging was changed to ketch. In 1939, she was sold and renamed Lindö. She operated in Baltic waters as a coastal trader until 1975 when she crossed the Atlantic to New York City. In early 1976, she was rebuilt and rerigged as a three-masted topsail schooner, her original rig. She took part in Operation Sail that July, and a similar event at Boston in 1980. In 1984, she was acquired by the Alexandria Seaport Foundation a non profit corporation in Alexandria, Virginia, and renamed Alexandria.

The foundation kept her as a live museum in Alexandria and sailed her as a goodwill ambassador for the city of Alexandria. She participated in several races and tall ship reunions sailing as far north as Boston and as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. During this time she was rigged with bowsprit, jib-boom, foremast, mainmast and mizzenmast, all three mastsfitted with topmasts and gaffs for the gaff sails and the fore topmast fitted with three yards for the topsails. The sails were four headsails, three gaff sails and three gaff topsails (one on each mast), upper and lower square topsails on the foremast, a staysail between the fore and main masts and another staysail between the main and mizzen masts.

The ship was used in the 1980 movie "The Island" (as the Lindö) starring Michael Caine. In the movie, the ship is extensively featured in a scene where the ship is captured by pirates, the ship's crew is killed, and the ship sunk. The Lindö is easily recognizable because of its distinctive red sails. IMDB


In fall 1993, in New Orleans, she was a prop in the making of the film Interview with the Vampire. She then spent the winter in New Orleans and was sailed back to Alexandria the following spring. In early 1996, a survey reported that the ship was not seaworthy and would require extensive and expensive repairs to get her back into good condition. The Alexandria Seaport Foundation did not have the means to repair her and in fall 1996 the ship was sold to Yale Iverson, a lawyer from Iowa. The new owner ignored warnings against taking the ship out in the Atlantic in bad weather and, after taking in water all night, on 9 December 1996, at around 6:30am, Alexandria sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. The crew of seven were rescued by the Coast Guard, five of them right away and two after 6½ hours in the water.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_(schooner)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 9 December


1707 - HMS Margate (1694 - 24), ex-HMS Jersey, one of the Maidstone Group 24-gun sixth rate, wrecked off Cartagena

HMS Jersey (1694), a sixth-rate commissioned in 1694

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=4941


1789 – Launch of Spanish Asia 64 (launched 9 December 1789 at Havana) - Mutinied and handed over to Mexico 1825, BU 1830


1806 - HMS Adder Gun Brig (12), Lt. Molyneux Shuldham, driven aground on the French coast and captured.

HMS Adder (1805) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1805 but captured by French forces the following year having run aground on the French coast.


1809 - HMS Redpole (10), Colin M'Donald, captured Grand Rodeur (16), Cptn. J. G. Huret, south of Beachy Head.

HMS Redpole (1808), a Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1808 and sunk in August 1828 in action with the pirate ship Congress off Cape Frio


1938 - A prototype shipboard radar, XAF, designed and built by the Naval Research Laboratory, is installed on USS New York (BB-34). Installation on U.S. Navy vessels begins in 1940 and proves fruitful in detecting the enemy in World War II.


1941 – World War II: The American 19th Bombardment Group attacks Japanese ships off the coast of Vigan, Luzon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19th_Operations_Group


1944 - USS Charles F. Hughes (DD 428) and USS Madison (DD 425) bombard German coast artillery positions and troop concentrations along the Franco-Italian border.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1665 – The Royal Netherlands Marine Corps is founded by Johan de Witt and Michiel de Ruyter


The Korps Mariniers is the elite amphibious infantry component of the Royal Netherlands Navy. Their motto is Qua Patet Orbis ("As Far As The World Extends").

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History
The Corps was founded on 10 December 1665 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War by the Prime Minister of the Dutch Republic, Johan de Witt, and Admiral Michiel de Ruyter as the Regiment de Marine. Its leader was Willem Joseph van Ghent. The Dutch had successfully used ordinary soldiers in ships at sea in the First Anglo-Dutch War. It was the fifth European Marine unit formed, being preceded by the Spain's Infantería de Armada (1537), the Portuguese Marine Corps (1610), France's Troupes de marine (1622), and the English Royal Marines (1664). Like Britain, the Netherlands has had several periods when its Marines were disbanded. The Netherlands itself was under French occupation or control from 1810 until 1813. A new Marine unit was raised on 20 March 1801 during the time of the Batavian Republic and on 14 August 1806 the Korps Koninklijke Grenadiers van de Marine was raised under King Louis Bonaparte. The modern Korps Mariniers dates from 1814, receiving its current name in 1817.

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The Raid on Chatham, the first action of the Dutch marines in 1667

In 1667, led by van Ghent, then an admiral, and their new commander, the Englishman Colonel Thomas Dolman, the Regiment de Marine played a prominent part in the large Dutch raid, the "Raid on the Medway" on England (10–14 June). The Korps' battle honour "Chatham" is one of the few ever won on British soil by a foreign unit. The July 2nd attack on Landguard fort near Harwich, performed by 1,500 Mariniers after landing at Woodrich was beaten off by the fort's garrison.

The Mariniers also fought in the Franco-Dutch War/Third Anglo-Dutch War. On June 29, 1672, after serving in the naval Battle of Solebay (7 June), two-thirds of the Marines were withdrawn from the fleet and formed into a brigade in order to stiffen the inefficient and largely mercenary army in anticipation of an English invasion. They returned to their ships in time to help stop an English invasion by defeating a combined English and French force at the naval Battle of Kijkduin (Battle of Texel) on 21 August 1673. Led by Gerolf van Isselmuyden, they served in the land battle of Seneffe against the French in 1674.

Dutch support of American independence led to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, where the Mariniers served at Dogger Bank.

In 1704, Netherlands Marines were part of a combined English-Dutch force under Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt that captured Gibraltar and defended it successfully shortly afterwards. They would combine with the British again for the bombardment of Algiers in 1816.

The Korps Mariniers served in some of the operations of the Netherlands in the Dutch East Indies colony. The Netherlands took a slow approach to conquering the entire colony and operations consolidating their rule lasted from the 1850s until shortly before World War I. The battle honours from the Aceh War (1873–1913) and Bali date from this time.

In World War II, a Korps Mariniers unit in Rotterdam preparing to ship out to the Dutch East Indies successfully defended the bridges across the Maas, preventing German paratroopers in the center of the city from rendezvousing with conventional German infantry. The Germans ended the stalemate by bombing Rotterdam. The threat of an attack by marines caused its German captain to scuttle the Antilla in Aruba in 1940.

When the surrender was declared and the Dutch soldiers came out of their positions, the German commander who was expecting a full battalion of men was stunned to see only a few Dutch Marines emerge in their black uniforms. He ordered his men to salute them out of respect for their bravery and determination and labeled them Zwarte duivels (The Black Devils).


Marine Corps monument in Rotterdam

Some Mariniers later joined the Princess Irene Brigade to fight against the Germans. They distinguished themselves in combat near the Dutch city of Tilburg in the autumn of 1944.

Starting in 1943, the United States Marine Corps trained and equipped a new brigade, the Mariniersbrigade, of the Korps Mariniers at Camp Lejeune and Camp Davis in North Carolina in preparation for amphibious landings against the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies. The Japanese surrendered before such landings were needed, but the Mariniersbrigade, fully trained and equipped, left North Carolina in six transports in 1945 and fought against the Indonesians in their National Revolution for independence. It was part of the A Division, which was itself commanded by a Korps Mariniers officer. It was disbanded in 1949.

The Dutch kept Western New Guinea after the Indonesian National Revolution and the Korps Mariniers served there until 1962 when it was granted independence. The same year it was invaded and incorporated into Indonesia.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands_Marine_Corps
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1748 – Launch of HMS Lyme, a 28-gun, sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Lyme was a 28-gun, sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Originally ordered as a 24 gun ship to the draft of the French privateer Tyger. The sixth vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name, Lyme, as well as Unicorn, which was a near-sister, were the first true frigates built for the Royal Navy. They were actually completed with 28 guns including the four smaller weapons on the quarterdeck, but the latter were not included in the ship's official establishment until 22 September 1756. The two ships differed in detail, Unicorn having a beakhead bow, a unicorn figurehead, two-light quarter galleries and only five pairs of quarterdeck gunports, while Lyme had a round bow, a lion figurehead, three-light quarter galleries and six pairs of quarterdeck gunports.

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan with stern board and decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead and decoration, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Lyme' (1748), a 28-gun Sixth Rate Frigate based on the lines of 'Tigre' [Tiger], a captured French Privateer. Reverse: A plan showing the upper deck for 'Lyme' (1748), a 28-gun Sixth Rate Frigate.

Class and type: Lyme-class frigate
Tons burthen: 586 76⁄94 (bm)
Length: 117 ft 10 in (35.92 m)
Beam: 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m) (2 inches more than designed)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 10 in (3.00 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 160 men (raised to 180 on 22 September 1756, and then to 200 on 11 November 1756)
Armament:

Lyme was named on 2 August 1748, and commissioned in September 1748 under Captain Charles Proby, while still building in Deptford Dockyard under the direction of Master Shipwright John Holland. After her launch, she was fitted out there, finally sailing when completed on 8 February 1752. Her total initial cost had been £12,282.0.1d (including fitting out costs). She sailed for the Mediterranean in May 1749. Returning home, she was fitted out at Portsmouth Dockyard from December 1750 to March 1751 (at a cost of £389.6.9d) for bearing the new ambassador to Tripoli out to the Mediterranean.

After her first commission finished in 1752, she was surveyed on 1 July 1753, and then underwent a small repair and was fitted out at Plymouth Dockyard (under Admiralty Order on 4 December 1753, for a total cost of £1,519.6.3d) in February to March 1754. She was recommissioned under Captain Samuel Faulkner, but some months later he was replaced by Captain Edward Vernon, under whom the Lyme joined the Western Squadron based in Plymouth. In March 1758 she was under Captain James Baker, in the Mediterranean to 1759.

Back home, and under Vernon's command again, she was surveyed again on 7 June 1760, and then underwent a small repair and was fitted out at Chatham Dockyard (for a total cost of £4,211.6.4d) in May to August 1760, before sailing for the Baltic.

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Inboard profile plan NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 381, states that an Admiralty Order dated 2 August 1748 was issued to call the new ship 'Lyme'. She was begun at Deptford Dockyard on 24 September 1747 and launched on 10 December 1748. The 'Lyme' sailed on 8 February 1749 having been fitted at a total cost of £12,282.0s.1d.

The Lyme class were a class of two 24-gun sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. They served during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War.

They were built to the draught of a French privateer named Le Tygre, which had been captured earlier in 1747. They were initially rated as 24-gun ships, in spite of having four 3-pdr guns mounted on the quarterdeck, as well as the twenty-four 9-pdr guns forming their primary battery on the upper deck. However, in 1756 they were re-classed as 28-gun ships. They are normally seen as the first true sailing frigates to be built for the Royal Navy.

Ships in class

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Inboard profile plan NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 381, states that an Admiralty Order dated 2 August 1748 was issued to call the new ship 'Lyme'. She was begun at Deptford Dockyard on 24 September 1747 and launched on 10 December 1748. The 'Lyme' sailed on 8 February 1749 having been fitted at a total cost of £12,282.0s.1d.

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Inboard profile plan NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 381, states that an Admiralty Order dated 2 August 1748 was issued to call the new ship 'Lyme'. She was begun at Deptford Dockyard on 24 September 1747 and launched on 10 December 1748. The 'Lyme' sailed on 8 February 1749 having been fitted at a total cost of £12,282.0s.1d.

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Inboard profile plan NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 381, states that an Admiralty Order dated 2 August 1748 was issued to call the new ship 'Lyme'. She was begun at Deptford Dockyard on 24 September 1747 and launched on 10 December 1748. The 'Lyme' sailed on 8 February 1749 having been fitted at a total cost of £12,282.0s.1d.

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Lines & Profile (ZAZ0351)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lyme_(1748)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-327533;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1768 – Launch of HMS Raisonnable (sometimes spelt Raisonable), a 64-gun third rate ship of the line


HMS Raisonnable (sometimes spelt Raisonable) was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent-class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with quarter gallery decoration, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for building Ardent (1764) at Hull, and later for Raisonnable (1768), both 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771], and John Clevland [Secretary to the Admiralty].

General characteristics
Class and type: Ardent class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1386
Length: 160 ft (49 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 500 officers and men
Armament:
  • 64 guns:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24 pdrs
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs
  • Quarterdeck: 10 × 4 pdrs
  • Forecastle: 2 × 9 pdrs

Service history
At the request of Nelson's father, Suckling entered the young Horatio Nelson as midshipman into the ship's books, though Nelson did not embark until a couple of months after this (it was not uncommon practise to rate sons of relatives or friends several months before they entered the ship, though Admiralty orders expressly forbade this), on 15 March 1771. Raisonnable had been in the process of commissioning at this time, in response to an expected conflict with Spain. However, the war never developed, and Raisonnable remained in the Medway as a guard ship. At this time, Suckling took command of the 74-gun HMS Triumph, and took Nelson with him.

The ship re-commissioned on 25 May 1771 under Captain Henry St. John, a mere 10 days since paying off as a guard ship, and joined the Channel Fleet. St John was succeeded by Captain Thomas Greaves on 23 January 1773, and Raisonnable paid off at Plymouth on 23 September 1775.

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Scale: 1:48. A ship plan showing the inboard profile for 'Raisonnable' (1768), a 64-gun Third Rate two-decker, building at Chatham Dockyard. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].

American Revolutionary War
She was again re-commissioned on 25 February 1776 under Captain Thomas Fitzherbert, and despatched to the North American Station. In July 1778, Raisonnable formed part of Lord Howe's squadron, which was lying off Sandy Hook. The French Admiral d'Estaing was nearby with a large fleet, and the two opposing sides were only prevented from engaging in battle by the weather and sea conditions, which forced the two fleets to disperse.

Captain Henry Evans took command of Raisonnable on 5 December 1778, and in May of the following year, took part in an assault on Hampton Roads, as part of Commodore Sir George Collier's squadron. On 1 June Raisonnable was in action on the Hudson River, during which two forts were captured. In August, with Collier embarked, Raisonnable sailed to Penobscot, where British forces were under heavy siege. Immediately after arriving, Collier's squadron of 7 ships engaged a rebel fleet of 41 vessels, of which 2 were captured, and the rest were either sunk or destroyed to prevent capture.

In January 1780, Raisonnable was part of Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot's squadron which took part in the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, although Raisonnable, along with the 5 other third rates in the squadron, was sent back to New York before the siege began. Captain Evans left the ship on 14 May 1780.

Captain Sir Digby Dent assumed the command on 30 August, and returned the ship to England. Dent transferred to Repulse on 16 December, and Raisonnable paid off in January the following year. On 11 May 1781 she went into dock, during which time she had her bottom coppered. She was re-launched on 14 January 1782 and placed under the command of Captain Smith Child on 15 May, until 29 August when he shifted to HMS Europa.

She was commissioned again on 8 January 1782 under Captain Lord Hervey, but brought back to Chatham in August for decommissioning. Her crew were to be discharged to other vessels, but there were delays in finalising their departures and they became mutinous. Captain Hervey made an unsuccessful appeal to the crew to return to their stations, and then had the ringleaders of the mutiny arrested at gunpont. The mutiny promptly collapsed, and Raisonnable was sailed to Sheerness Dockyard where she was placed under guard. Four mutineers were sentenced to death for their part in the uprising.

The American war at this stage was coming to an end, and Raisonnable was no longer required by the Navy, and so was laid up in ordinary - a state in which she remained for some ten years.

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the framing plan (disposition) for 'Nassau' (1785), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, building at Bristol by Mr James Martin Hilhouse. Initialled by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784].

French Revolutionary War
When war with France broke out in 1793, Raisonnable, along with many other vessels, was brought out of ordinary, and made ready for service once more. On 31 January she was re-commissioned under Captain James, Lord Cranstoun. She joined with the Channel Fleet in April, but was back in dock, in Portsmouth this time, on 14 January 1794. She put to sea again in March, but returned to dock in Portsmouth in September so as her copper might be replaced. She once more re-joined the Channel Fleet on 1 November, and remained on active service until 14 October 1796, when she was docked at Plymouth for re-coppering. She returned to duty in January 1797, and during 1799, Captain Charles Boyles took over the command, and left the ship again, when Raisonnable returned to Chatham on 21 January 1800, for HMS Saturn. She was dry docked on 2 April for re-coppering and other repairs, and sailed again on 19 August.

Captain John Dilkes became Raisonnable's commanding officer on 21 January 1801, and the ship joined the North Sea Squadron. 1801 saw the creation of an alliance between Denmark, Norway, Prussia and Russia, which cut Britain off from the supplies relied upon from the Baltic. Raisonnable joined Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's fleet sent to attack the Danes at Copenhagen. On 2 April, she took part in the Battle of Copenhagen. After the battle, she was attached to a squadron under Captain George Murray in the Edgar, which included one of Raisonnable's sister ships, HMS Agamemnon, to watch the Swedish Navy at Karlskrona. Once the situation in the Baltic was resolved, Raisonnable returned to the North Sea, before paying off.

When the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802, Raisonnable was docked at Chatham in July and her copper repaired. She was on station at Sheerness once again by the end of December.

Napoleonic Wars
War broke out again with France in March 1803, and Raisonnable was by this time under the command of Captain William Hotham. She joined Admiral William Cornwallis and the Channel Fleet, and participated in the blockade of Brest.

On 11 November 1804, Glatton, together with Eagle, Majestic, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, shared in the capture of the Upstalsboom, H.L. De Haase, Master.

In September Hotham was replaced by Captain Robert Barton, who was himself replaced in April 1805 by Captain Josias Rowley.

In July 1805, she was with Admiral Sir Robert Calder's squadron off Ferrol, when they fell in with the combined Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Villeneuve, and took part in the ensuing Battle of Cape Finisterre.

Raisonnable remained on blockade duty until sailing from Cork in late 1805 with Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham's squadron, consisting of 9 vessels, including another of Raisonnable's sister ships, Belliqueux, for the Cape of Good Hope. The following campaign saw British troops drive the Dutch out of Cape Town, and the subsequent peace terms handed the Cape dependencies to the British crown. In April 1806, after receiving news that the people of Buenos Aires were unhappy with Spanish rule, and would welcome the British, Popham sailed with his squadron to the Río de la Plata. Popham was replaced by Rear Admiral Murray, and following a disastrous second attempt to take Buenos Aires, Raisonnable returned to the Cape.

In 1809, Captain Rowley commanded a squadron that blockaded Mauritius (the Isle of France) and Réunion (the Isle of Bourbon). On 20 September, Rowley, commanding the squadron from HMS Nereide, succeeded in taking the town of Saint-Paul, the batteries, a 40-gun frigate Caroline, a 16-gun brig, and 2 merchantmen, as well as rescuing 2 ships of the Honourable East India Company (Streatham and Europe). Captain Rowley transferred to HMS Boadicea during March 1810, and Captain John Hatley took over the command, paying the ship off in Chatham at the end of July.

Fate
In November 1810, Raisonnable was hulked and converted into a receiving ship, and towed to Sheerness. In March 1815, she was finally broken up.

Fiction
HMS Raisonnable is mentioned in Patrick O'Brian's The Mauritius Command, the fourth novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series.
HMS Raisonnable is mentioned in Dewey Lambdin's Hostile Shores, the nineteenth novel in the Alan Lewrie series.
HMS Raisonnable is mentioned in Bernard Cornwell's The Fort in her role as part of the British relief fleet during the Penobscot Expedition.

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The second, but fourth in order of events, in a series of ten drawings (PAF5871–PAF5874, PAF5876, PAF5880–PAF5881 and PAF5883–PAF5885) of mainly lesser-known incidents in Nelson's career, apparently intended for a set of engravings. Pocock's own numbered description of the subject in a letter of 2 June 1810 (see below) is: '2. The "Agamemnon" cutting out a Convoy of Vessells (with Implements for the Siege of Mantua) in Oneglia Bay.' This suggests that its received title of 'The “Agamemnon” cuts out French vessels from the Bays of Alassio and Laigueglia' is probably a later mistake. During Nelson's patrols on the French and Italian rivieras at this time, he took a French corvette at Alassio in July 1795; mounted a boat attack at Oneglia that August and cut out four vessels from Finale in April 1796. However, the number of ships shown including a bomb vessel, which is seen in stern view, immediately left of 'Agamemnon' and Pocock's identification, strongly suggest this is an incident on 1 June 1796 at Port Maurice – then in France – when Nelson cut out a French bomb, a brig and three ketches. Port Maurice, which finally became Italian as Porto Maurizio in 1815, is next to Oneglia and both are now part of the Italian city of Imperia. For the rather complex circumstances of the commission of these ten drawings, and Pocock's related letters, see 'View of St Eustatius with the "Boreas"' (PAF5871). Signed by the artist and dated in the lower left. Exhibited: NMM Pocock exhib. (1975) no. 47.

The Ardent-class ships of the line were a class of seven 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Design
Slade based the design of the Ardent class on the captured French ship Fougueux.

Ships
Builder: Blades, Hull
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Launched: 13 August 1764
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1784
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 11 January 1763
Launched: 10 December 1768
Fate: Broken up, 1815
Builder: Adams, Bucklers Hard
Ordered: 8 April 1777
Launched: 10 April 1781
Fate: Wrecked, 1809
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 19 February 1778
Launched: 5 June 1780
Fate: Broken up, 1816
Builder: Raymond, Northam
Ordered: 10 December 1778
Launched: 27 December 1784
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Adams, Bucklers Hard
Ordered: 3 August 1780
Launched: July 1784
Fate: Broken up, 1816
Builder: Hilhouse, Bristol
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Launched: 28 September 1785
Fate: Wrecked, 1799

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary block design model of the 64-gun, two-decker ship of the line ‘Indefatigable’ (1784). The number ‘2’ is painted on the base. The hull is painted white below the waterline and the locations of the gun ports and chain plates are painted on the side. The figurehead is in the form of a solid block. The ‘Indefatigable’ was built at Buckler’s Hard by Adams and designed by Sir T. Slade. It measured 160 feet along the gun deck by 44 feet in the beam, displacing 1384 tons. In 1794 it was reduced to a fifth rate and subsequently commissioned to patrol the Channel, capturing a number of French privateers in 1795–1800. In 1805 it took part in the blockade of Brest and in 1812–15 it was stationed in South America. It was broken up in 1816 at Sheerness.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Raisonnable_(1768)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardent-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1772 – Launch of French Éveillé, a 64-gun Artésien class ship of the line, at Brest


The Artésien class was a type of 64-gun ships of the line of the French Navy. A highly detailed and accurate model of Artésien, lead ship of the class, was part of the Trianon model collection and is now on display at Paris naval museum.

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Plan of the Protée (1772)

Artésien class of five ships to design by Joseph-Louis Ollivier.

Artésien 64 (launched 7 March 1765 at Brest)
Roland 64 (launched 14 February 1771 at Brest)
Alexandre 64 (launched 28 February 1771 at Brest) – captured 1782
Protée 64 (launched 10 November 1772 at Brest) – captured by the British in February 1780 and added to the RN as HMS Prothee, BU 1815
Éveillé 64 (launched 10 December 1772 at Brest)


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Model of the Artésien made at the construction of the ship on request by the captain, chevalier d'Oisy ; sent to Versailles upon a suggestion by Oisy and orders of Count de Choiseul, minister of the Navy; used by Nicolas Ozanne to instruct the heirs of the Throne; put on display with the Trianon Collection to illustrate pre-Empire ships; rigging put at the stop for a diorama where she was hauling a boat back aboard, model made in 1878 by Charles Hamelin and now lost, upon orders from admiral Pâris.


A wonderful detailed MONOGRAPHIE DE L'ARTESIEN Vaisseau 64 canons 1764 is available from ancre
drawings by Jacques FICHANT

https://ancre.fr/en/monograph/48-monographie-de-l-artesien-vaisseau-64-canons-1764.html

Photos taken from ancre
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A ,odel of the 64-gun Third Rate Ship of the lIne L´ARTESIEN built by Pierre Blanc in scale 1:48 based on a monographie from Gerard Delacroix about the Le Fleuron published at ancre
https://ancre.fr/en/monograph/55-monographie-du-fleuron-vaisseau-de-64-canons-1729.html




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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artésien-class_ship_of_the_line
 

Attachments

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1800 - Action of 10 December 1800


The Action of 10 December 1800 was a minor engagement of the Napoleonic Wars in which the Spanish privateer gunboat San Francisco Javier, alias Poderoso, under Don Miguel Villalba, captured a hired brig of the Royal Navy commanded by Lieutenant Charles Niven (or Nevin).

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Spanish Gun-boat circa 1800

On 20 December the British hired armed brig Sir Thomas Pasley (or Admiral Pasley, or Pasley), left Plymouth, England with despatches for Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Malta. After calling at Lisbon, Sir Thomas Pasley was off Ceuta when on 10 December a Spanish gunboat approached using sails and sweeps.

At the time of the engagement Pasley was armed with two 6-pounder guns and fourteen 12-pounder carronades. She had a crew of 45 men.

The Spanish gunboat, which was armed with one long 24-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, placed herself astern of Pasley and proceeded to fire on the brig. The wind died down, preventing Pasley from maneuvering to bring her two 6-pounder bow-chasers to bear. The British tried to move the guns to the stern, but the carronades left them no space in which to place the guns. The British sailors were left to respond to the Spanish cannon fire with no more than small arms fire.

Spanish boarding parties took the brig at the third attempt, having shot away the British halyard during the skirmish. Niven had been wounded in three places, and the master was also badly wounded. In addition, the British had lost three other sailors killed and six more wounded. The Spaniards took their prize to Ceuta, and then Algeciras.

Niven faced a court-martial for the loss of his ship and was honourably and deservedly acquitted.


Hired armed vessel Sir Thomas Pasley
The Royal Navy employed two vessels designated as His Majesty's Hired armed vessel Sir Thomas Pasley during the French Revolutionary Wars. The two vessels were named for Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley. The vessels are also sometimes described as cutters, but more generally as brigs. The Spanish captured the first Sir Thomas Pasley. The second had a brief, but highly productive, career that later led to her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. After she was returned to her owners in March 1802, she may have been wrecked in the Mediterranean that same year.
Records of their service are far from complete and even their name is ambiguous as contemporary records refer to them interchangeably as Admiral Pasley, Pasley, and Sir Thomas Pasley. (The National Maritime Museum's database has all three names, with considerable overlap in the service notes.) Sometimes the vessel is referred to as Paisley, Admiral Paisley, or Sir Thomas Paisley.

First Sir Thomas Pasley
One account describes this vessel as the hired brig Pasley, of 204 83⁄94 tons burthen (bm), and armed with two 6-pounder bow chasers and twelve 12-pounder carronades. she served the Royal Navy from 18 September 1800 to 9 December 1800.
She had a crew of 44 men and boys under the command of Lieutenant Charles Niven, or Nevin. She left Plymouth on 17 October with despatches for Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Tetuan Bay. She returned to Plymouth on 10 November in a remarkably quick round trip. She then left again on 22 November with despatches for Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Malta. Flora was to have carried the dispatches but she had grounded in The Hamoaze.
On 10 December Pasley was off Ceuta when one, or perhaps two, Spanish gunboats engaged her. Spanish sources report that the attacker was the Spanish gunboat San Francisco Javier, alias Poderoso, from Cadiz. Poderoso was armed with one 24-pounder and two 6-pounder guns, and under the command of Miguel Villalba. All accounts agree that a gunboat sat on Pasley's stern and proceeded to fire on her with the gunboat's long gun. The lack of wind prevented Pasley from turning to bring her two bow chasers into action. The location of the carronades thwarted attempts to bring the guns to the stern. (Had Pasley not had to rush to carry the dispatches to Gibraltar, she would have been modified at Plymouth to enable the guns to be moved to the stern when necessary.)
Main article: Action of 10 December 1800
After a two-hour resistance, Nevin struck. He had been wounded three times, and the master had been wounded as well. In all, Pasley suffered three men killed and eight wounded of her crew of 45 men. The court martial of Nevin absolved him of any culpability. The Spanish took Pasley into Ceutaand then Algeciras. Nevin wrote from Algeciras on 10 December briefly describing the action and reporting that he and his wounded men were recovering rapidly.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_10_December_1800
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hired_armed_vessel_Sir_Thomas_Pasley
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1803 - HMS Shannon (1803 - 36), Cptn. Edward Leverson Gower, wrecked near La Hogue and burnt to avoid capture.


The third HMS Shannon was a 36-gun Perseverance class frigate of the British Royal Navy built at Frindsbury on the River Medway on the Thames Estuary. She was completed on 3 September 1803 during the Napoleonic Wars. Her name was changed from Pallas to Shannon shortly before construction, traditionally an omen of bad luck for a ship. In her case, she was wrecked within three months of her being launched.

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No.3 Shannon on shore near Cape Barfleur Dec 17 1803 (PAD8897)

Type: 36-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 881 28⁄98 bm
Length:
  • 137 ft 1 1⁄2 in (41.8 m) (overall);
  • 113 ft 4 3⁄8 in (34.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 38 ft 2 3⁄4 in (11.7 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 5 1⁄4 in (4.1 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Complement :264
Armament:
  • Upperdeck:26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD:2 x 9-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc:2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades


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Lines (ZAZ2795)

Wreck
She was attached to the Channel fleet and spent the next few months under her captain, Edward Leveson-Gower, on patrol off the Cape La Hogue searching for French coastal shipping and privateers attempting to slip out of the Normandy port of Cherbourg. The 18-gun brig HMS Merlin, under Edward Pelham Brenton, accompanied her.

At 8pm on 10 December, just three months after she was completed, the ship was lost on Tatihou Island, near Barfleur, directly under an enemy battery. There was a heavy gale blowing and in the darkness, Leveson-Gower lost his position after losing sight of the Barfleur lighthouse. Assuming he had sea room, he attempted to wear around; a lee tide caught Shannon and crashed her straight onto the rocks. Merlin spotted land thanks to a bolt of lighting and was able to wear off in time.

Efforts overnight to lighten Shannon succeeded in that eventually she floated, but she was so full of water that she grounded again and it was evident that she was lost. During these efforts, a French battery fired on Shannon, striking her with some 60 shots and killing three men wounding eight. At 8:30p.m. Shannon struck. The surviving crew were able to scramble ashore unharmed, where the French troops garrisoning the battery above the wreck captured them. Some French fishing boats led by Ensign Lacroix took possession of Shannon, and saw that her hull was so damaged that she would be impossible to refloat.

Merlin stood back into shore on the 16th and at 11.30am dispatched two boats of marines and sailors to destroy Shannon to prevent the French from salvaging her guns and stores. Despite heavy fire from the island's batteries the boarders were able to burn and destroy the frigate without suffering a single casualty.

Aftermath
Edward Pelham Brenton was the younger brother of Captain Jahleel Brenton, who was a captive at Verdun, where Leveson-Gower would join him in January 1804. About three and a quarter years after the loss of Shannon, Leveson-Gower and his officers returned to England. There a court martial honorably acquitted them of all blame for the loss.


Perseverance class 36-gun fifth rates 1803-11 (a revival of the class of 1781-83 - see above)
teak-built Perseverance class - same as above but built from teak wood in Bombay dockyard.
Salsette was the first vessel the Bombay Dockyard built for the Royal Navy. As such, there were apparently many defects in her construction, which led the Navy to demand that the dockyard stick more closely to the design plans in the future.

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Frame (ZAZ2796)

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Inboard profile plan (ZAZ2885)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Shannon_(1803)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-347805;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1808 - HMS Jupiter (1778 - 50), Cptn. Henry Edward Reginald Baker, wrecked on reef of rocks in Vigo Bay.


HMS Jupiter was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth-rate ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned thirty years. She was also one of the fastest ships in the Royal Navy as shown by her attempt to capture the cutter Eclipse under Nathaniel Fanning.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern decoration and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard profile and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Isis (1774), a 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker, as completed at Chatham Dockyard. The plan was later proposed (and approved) for building Jupiter (1778) and Leander (1780). Signed by John William [Surveyor of the Navy, 1767-1784].

Class and type: 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate
Tons burthen: 1061 30⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 146 ft 1 1⁄2 in (44.5 m) (overall)
  • 119 ft 8 in (36.5 m) (keel)
Beam: 40 ft 10 in (12.4 m)
Depth of hold: 17 ft 6 in (5.3 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 350
Armament:
  • Lower deck: 22 x 24-pounder guns
  • Upper deck: 22 x 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 x 6-pounder guns


Built in Rotherhithe, she was launched in 1778. Her trial copper sheathed hull featured the new technical breakthrough of protecting her iron bolts by the application of thick paper between the copper plates and the hull. This innovation she trialled successfully.

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Naval battle off the coast of Lisbon, 20 October 1778. The French vessel Triton against the British ship Jupiterand the frigate Medea.

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Galrie Histque de Versaille. Combat du vaisseau francais le Triton contre le vaisseau anglais le Jupiter et la frigate anglaise la Medee (20 Octobre 1778) (PAF4639)

On 1 April 1779 she assisted Delight after Delight captured the French 20-gun privateer Jean Bart. On 20 October, she fought an indecisive action with the French ship Triton.

On 2 October 1779, Jupiter captured two French cutters, each of 14 guns and 120 men. The Royal Navy took both into service essentially under their existing names. One was Mutin, under the command of Chevalier de Roquefeiul. She was pierced for 16 guns but carried 14, either 4 or 6-pounders. The other was Pilote, under the command of Chevalier de Clonard. She carried the same armament as Mutine (or Mutin). The cutters surrendered after an engagement that left Mutin dismasted. Jupiter shared the prize money with HMS Glory 1763 and HMS Apollo (1805), Crescent, and Milford.

Jupiter fought at the battle of Porto Praya in 1781 and the Battle of Muizenberg in 1795, winning the battle honour 'Cape of Good Hope' for the latter. In 1799 Jupiter battled a French frigate in the aftermath of the Battle of Algoa Bay.

On 25 April 1799 Jupiter, Adamant, and Tremendous recaptured Chance as she lay at anchor under the guns of the battery at Connonies-Point, Île de France. The French frigate Forte had captured Chance, which was carrying a cargo of rice, in Balasore Roads. The squadron also recaptured another ship that a French privateer had captured in the Bay of Bengal. Lastly, after the French had driven the American ship Pacific onshore at River Noir, Adamant, Jupiter, and Tremendous came on the scene and sent in their boats, which removed much of Pacific's cargo of bale goods and sugar. The British then set Pacific on fire.

On 17 September 1801 she arrived at Cape Town from Rio de Janeiro, together with Hindostan and Euphrosyne, after a voyage of about a month. Lion had escorted a convoy of East Indiamen bound for China to Rio, together with Hindostan. They had arrived there on 1 August. Captain George Losack, of Jupiter, decided to accompany the convoy eastward until they were unlikely to encounter some Spanish and French vessels known to be cruising off Brazil.

Jupiter shared with Diomede, Hindostan, and Braave in the capture of the Union on 27 May 1803.

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Portland class (Williams)
  • Portland 50 (1770) – sold 1817
  • Bristol 50 (1775) – broken up 1810
  • Renown 50 (1774) – broken up 1794
  • Isis 50 (1774) – broken up 1810
  • Leopard 50 (1790) – wrecked 1814 near the Isle of Anacosti in the Saint Lawrence River due to the disobedience and neglect of the officer of the watch
  • Hannibal 50 (1779) – captured by France 1782
  • Jupiter 50 (1778) – wrecked 1808, with no loss of life, in Vigo Bay
  • Leander 50 (1780) – captured by France 1798, captured by Russia 1799, returned to Britain, converted to hospital ship 1806, renamed Hygeia 1813, sold 1817
  • Adamant 50 (1780) – broken up 1814
  • Assistance 50 (1781) – wrecked 1802 on the outer banks of the northern part of Dunkirk Dyke due to the ignorance of her pilot, but with no loss of life due to the help of a Flemish pilot boat
  • Europa 50 (1783) – sold 1814

A very detailed History of the HMS Leopard you can find here in SOS:
with drawings, models, paintings etc.

https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...4-50-gun-ship-portland-class.1988/#post-31679


and a detailed Book Review you can find here:

The 50-Gun ship
by Rif Winfield



https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...lete-history-by-rif-winfield.1983/#post-31635



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jupiter_(1778)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-322473;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=J
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1843 - Launch of USS Princeton, the first steam ship with screw propeller
In 1844, its guns explode during a demonstration and kill Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and several others.



The first USS Princeton was a screw steam warship in the United States Navy. Commanded by Captain Robert F. Stockton, Princeton was launched on September 5, 1843. (some sources tells 10th December)

The ship's reputation in the Navy never recovered from a devastating incident early in her service. On February 28, 1844, during a Potomac River pleasure cruise for dignitaries that included a demonstration of her two heavy guns, one gun exploded killing six people, including Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer, and other high-ranking federal officials. President John Tyler, who was aboard but below decks, was not injured.

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Early history
Princeton was laid down on October 20, 1842, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a 700 long tons (710 t) corvette. The designer of the ship and main supervisor of construction was the Swedish inventor John Ericsson, who later designed the USS Monitor. The construction was partly supervised by Captain Stockton who had secured the political support for the construction of the ship. The ship was named after Princeton, New Jersey, site of an American victory in the Revolutionary Warand hometown of the prominent Stockton family. The ship was christened with a bottle of American whiskey and launched on September 5, 1843. It was ordered commissioned on September 9, 1843, with Captain Stockton in command.

Princeton made a trial trip in the Delaware River on October 12, 1843. She departed Philadelphia on October 17 for a sea trial, proceeded to New York, where she engaged in a speed contest with the British steamer SS Great Western, besting her handily, and thence returned to Philadelphia on October 20 to finish outfitting. On November 22, Captain Stockton reported "Princeton will be ready for sea in a week." On November 28, he dressed ship and received visitors on board for inspection. On November 30, she towed the USS Raritan down the Delaware and later returned to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Princeton sailed on January 1, 1844, for New York, where she received her two big guns, named Peacemaker and Oregon. Princetonwas sent to Washington, D.C., in late January, arriving on February 13. Washingtonians displayed great interest in the ship and her guns. She made trial trips with passengers on board down the Potomac River on February 16, 18, and 20, during which the Peacemaker was fired several times. The Tyler administration promoted the ship as part of its campaign for naval expansion and Congress adjourned for February 20 so that members could tour the ship. Former President John Quincy Adams, now a congressman and skeptical of both territorial expansion and the armaments required to support it, said the Navy welcomed politicians "to fire their souls with patriotic ardor for a naval war".

Displacement: 954 long tons (969 t)
Length: 164 ft (50 m)Beam:30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Draft: 17 ft (5.2 m)
Propulsion: Sail and steam
Speed: 7 kn (8.1 mph; 13 km/h)
Complement: 166 officers and enlisted
Armament: 2 × 12 in (300 mm) smoothbore guns, 12 × 42 pdr (19 kg) carronades


Design
The machinery

Princeton included the very first screw propellers powered by an engine mounted entirely below the waterline to avoid the vulnerability of paddle wheels and higher engines to gunfire. Her two vibrating lever engines were built by Merrick & Towne, and designed by Ericsson. They burned hard coaland drove a six-bladed screw 14 ft (4.3 m) in diameter. The engine was small enough to be below the waterline. Ericsson also designed the ship's collapsible funnel, an improved range-finder, and recoil systems for the main guns.

The guns

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US Steam Ship 'Princeton' and "US Ship 'Raritan'

Twelve 42-pound (19 kg) carronades were mounted within the ship's iron hull. Ericsson had designed the ship to mount one long gun, named the Oregon, built in England using modern technology to fire 225-pound (102 kg) 12 in (300 mm) diameter shot. Captain Stockton wanted his ship to carry two long guns and had the second, named Peacemaker, built in Philadelphia. The two guns fired identical shot, but the Peacemaker was built with older forging technology creating a larger gun of more impressive appearance, but lower strength.[8] Both guns were mounted onto the Princeton. Though the Oregon had undergone intensive testing and had been reinforced to prevent cracks detrimental to the integrity of the cannon, Stockton rushed the Peacemaker and mounted it without much testing. According to Kilner, the Peacemaker was "fired only five times before certifying it as accurate and fully proofed."

The Oregon, originally named The Orator, was a smooth bore muzzle loader (ML) made out of wrought iron and was capable of firing a shot 5 mi (8.0 km) using a 50 lb (23 kg) charge. It was manufactured at the Mersey Iron Works in Liverpool, England, and shipped to the U.S. in 1841. The design was revolutionary in that it used the "built-up construction" of placing red-hot iron hoops around the breech-end of the weapon, which pre-tensioned the gun and greatly increased the charge the breech could withstand.

The Peacemaker was another 12 in (300 mm) muzzle loader made by Hogg and DeLamater of New York City, under the designs and direction of Captain Stockton. Attempting to copy the Oregon, but not understanding the importance of Ericsson's hoop construction, Stockton instead heavily reinforced it at the breech simply by making the metal of the gun thicker, ending up with a weight of more than 27,000 lb (12,000 kg). This produced a gun that had the typical weakness of a wrought iron gun, the breech being unable to withstand the transverse forces of the charge. This meant it was almost certain to burst at some point.

1844 Peacemaker accident

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Contemporary Currier & Ives lithograph depicting the explosion

President Tyler hosted a public reception for Stockton in the East Room of the White House on February 27, 1844. On February 28, USS Princeton departed Alexandria, Virginia, on a pleasure and demonstration cruise down the Potomac with President John Tyler, members of his Cabinet, former First Lady Dolley Madison, Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, and approximately four hundred guests on board. Captain Stockton decided to fire the larger of her two long guns, Peacemaker, to impress his guests. Peacemaker was fired three times on the trip downriver and was loaded to fire a salute to George Washington as the ship passed Mount Vernon on the return trip. The guests aboard viewed the first set of firings and then retired below decks for lunch and refreshments.

Secretary Gilmer urged those aboard to view a final shot with the Peacemaker. When Captain Stockton pulled the firing lanyard, the gun burst. Its left side had failed, spraying hot metal across the deck and shrapnel into the crowd. Instantly killed were Navy Secretary Gilmer; Secretary of State Upshur; Captain Beverley Kennon, who was Chief of the Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repairs; Virgil Maxcy, a Maryland attorney with decades of experience as a state and federal officeholder; David Gardiner, a New York lawyer and politician; and the President's valet, a black slave named Armistead. Another sixteen to twenty people were injured, including several members of the ship's crew, Senator Benton, and Captain Stockton. The President was below decks and not injured.

U.S.S.-Princeton.png

Aftermath
Rather than ascribe responsibility for the explosion to individuals, Tyler wrote to Congress the next day that the disaster "must be set down as one of the casualties which, to a greater or lesser degree, attend upon every service, and which are invariably incident to the temporal affairs of mankind". He said it should not be allowed to impact their positive assessment of Stockton and his improvements in ship construction.

Plans to construct more ships modeled on the Princeton were promptly scrapped, but Tyler won Congressional approval for the construction of a single gun on the dimensions of the Peacemaker, which was fired once and never mounted. A Court of Inquiry investigated the cause of the explosion and found that all those involved had taken appropriate precautions. At Stockton's request, the Committee on Science and Arts of the Franklin Institute conducted its own inquiry, which criticized many details of the manufacturing process, as well as the use of welded band for reinforcement rather than the shrinking technique used on the Oregon. Ericsson, whom Stockton had originally paid $1,150 for designing and outfitting the Princeton, sought another $15,000 for his additional efforts and expertise. He sued Stockton for payment and won in court, but the funds were never appropriated. Stockton went on to serve as Military Governor of California and a United States Senator from New Jersey. Ericsson had a distinguished career in naval design and is best known for his work on the USS Monitor, the U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship.

To succeed Gilmer as Secretary of the Navy, Tyler appointed John Y. Mason, another Virginian. As his new Secretary of State, Tyler named John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, like his predecessor an advocate of states rights, nullification of federal law by states, the annexation of Texas, and its admission into the union as a slave state. But where Gilmer and Upshur had supported annexation as a national cause, Calhoun recast the political discussion. To Tyler's frustration, he promoted the annexation of Texas while "directly, unambiguously, and full-throatedly celebrating slavery and celebrating sectional advantage", that is, the importance of Texas to the longterm survival of slavery in the United States. Upshur was about to win Senate approval of a treaty annexing Texas when he died. Under Calhoun annexation was delayed and became a principal issue in the presidential election of 1844.

Julia Gardiner, who was below deck on the Princeton when her father David died in the Peacemaker explosion, became First Lady of the United States four months later. She had declined President Tyler's marriage proposal a year earlier, and sometime in 1843 they agreed they would marry but set no date. The President had lost his first wife in September 1842, and at the time of the explosion he was almost 54. Julia was not yet 24. She later explained that her father's death changed her feelings for the President: "After I lost my father I felt differently toward the President. He seemed to fill the place and to be more agreeable in every way than any younger man ever was or could be." Because he had been widowed less than two years and her father had died so recently, they married in the presence of just a few family members in New York City on June 26, 1844. A public announcement followed the ceremony. They had seven children before Tyler died in 1862, and his wife never remarried. In 1888, Julia Gardiner told journalist Nelly Bly that at the moment of the Peacemaker explosion "I fainted and did not revive until someone was carrying me off the boat, and I struggled so that I almost knocked us both off the gangplank". She said she later learned that President Tyler was her rescuer. Some historians question her account.

The Peacemaker disaster prompted a reexamination of the process used to manufacture cannons. This led to the development of new techniques that produced cannons that were stronger and more structurally sound, such as the system pioneered by Thomas Rodman.

Later history
During construction and in the years following, Stockton attempted to claim complete credit for the design and construction of Princeton.


USS Princeton Bell at Stockton St. and Bayard Ln. in Princeton, NJ

Princeton was employed with the Home Squadron from 1845 to 1847. She later served in the Mediterranean from August 17, 1847, to June 24, 1849. Upon her return from Europe, she was surveyed and found to be in need of 68,000 dollars ($2 million in present-day terms) in repairs to return her to complete order. The price was deemed unacceptable and a second survey was ordered. She was condemned due to her decaying timber and broken up at the Boston Navy Yard that October and November.

Legacy
In 1851, her "Ericsson semi-cylinder" design engines, and some usable timbers, were incorporated in the construction of the second Princeton.

The Oregon is on display inside the main gate of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

The ship's bell was displayed during the 1907 Jamestown Exposition. It was later installed in the porch of Princeton University's Thomson Hall, which was constructed as a private residence in 1825 by Robert Stockton's father Richard. It is currently on outside display at the Princeton Battle Monument, near Princeton's borough hall.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Princeton_(1843)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86162.htm
 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1888 - Seiki (清輝 Pure Brightness), a screw sloop in the early Imperial Japanese Navy, sank


Seiki (清輝 Pure Brightness) was a screw sloop in the early Imperial Japanese Navy, and was the first vessel built by the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal after its acquisition by the Meiji government. It was one of the first domestically-produced warships in Japan.

IJN_sroop_of_war_SEIKI_around_1878.jpg

Displacement: 897 long tons (911 t)
Length: 62.17 m (204 ft 0 in)
Beam: 9.14 m (30 ft 0 in)
Draft: 3.96 m (13 ft 0 in)
Propulsion:
  • horizontally mounted reciprocating steam engine
  • , 443 hp (330 kW)
  • 2 boilers, 1 shaft
Sail plan: bark-rigged sloop
Speed :9.5 knots (10.9 mph; 17.6 km/h)
Complement: 167
Armament:

Background
Seiki was designed as a wooden-hulled three-masted bark-rigged sloop with a coal-fired triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine with three cylinders and two cylindrical boilers driving a single screw. Her hull was made largely of native keyaki wood. She was laid down at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal on 20 June 1873 under the direction of Léonce Verny, a French naval engineer initially hired by the Tokugawa shogunate, who stayed on as a foreign advisor to the early Meiji government as chief administrator and constructor of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. She was launched on 5 May 1875, with Emperor Meiji personally attending the launching ceremony. She was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy on 21 June 1876.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the Japanese screw sloop ‘Seiki’ (1875) fully rigged with sails and mounted on a modern wooden baseboard. This highly detailed model is complete with numerous fittings including companion ladders and lifebuoys rigged on the hull, a full set of armament and anchor gear, and a set of five boats rigged from davits. The full suit of sails is stitched from individual cloths and includes reef points, cringles and boltropes. A majority of the metals fittings have been silvered, in the style of European builders’ models. The ‘Seiki’, meaning ‘clear light’, was designed and built with the assistance of the French at the Imperial Dockyard, Yokosuka, and launched in 1875. Its wooden hull measured 200 feet in length by 30 feet in the beam and a displacement tonnage of 897. It was powered by a three cylinder reciprocating steam engine with a top speed of 9½ knots. The German company Krupp produced her main armament of breech loading guns, whilst the single 6-pounder gun was a British Armstrong. The ‘Seiki’ was the first Japanese warship to visit the British Isles in 1878, but later in December 1888, she went aground in the Fuji river and became a total constructive loss. This model is one of a set of six Japanese warship models that were presented in 1910 to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, by the Japanese Government ‘as a token of their sincere gratitude for the kindness and courtesy which the Japanese Constructors and Engineers have experienced at the hands of the authorities of the Royal Naval College on the occasion of their studies here’. (see also models ‘Aki’ SLR1377, ‘Kurama’ SLR1378, ‘Takao’ SLR1182, ‘Niitaka’ SLR1334, ‘Mogami’ SLR1384)


Operational history
Lieutenant Commander Inoue Yoshika oversaw the completion of Seiki and was both her chief outfitting officer and first captain. Soon after completion, in November 1878, Inoue took Seiki to Europe, marking the first long-distance voyage by a domestically-produced Japanese warship. Along the way, Seiki passed through the Suez Canal and made port calls at Constantinople and London, among other places, and was hailed in the western press as the first Japanese-built and Japanese-crewed warship to make such a voyage. Inoue successfully completed the mission, returning to Japan in August 1879. At around 0200 hours on 7 December 1888, Seiki ran aground in Suruga Bay near the mouth of the Fuji River at position (35°07′N 138°40′E). She was unable to free herself, and broke up and sank at 1400 hours on 10 December 1888


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_corvette_Seiki
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/67026.html
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1917 - SMS Wien ("His Majesty's Ship Vienna"), one of three Monarch-class coastal defense ships, was struck by two torpedoes and sank in less than five minutes


SMS Wien ("His Majesty's Ship Vienna") was one of three Monarch-class coastal defense ships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After her commissioning, the ship participated in an international blockade of Crete during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. Wien and the two other Monarch-class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. They formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class predreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned for annual summer training exercises. After the start of World War I, Wien was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.

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The division was sent to Cattaro in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin and French artillery that was bombarding the port and they remained there until mid-1917. Wien and her sister Budapest were sent to Trieste in August 1917 and bombarded Italian fortifications in the Gulf of Trieste. On the night of 9–10 December, while Wien and Budapest were at anchor in Trieste, two Italian torpedo boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected and fired several torpedoes at the two ships. Budapest was not hit, but Wien was struck by two torpedoes and sank in less than five minutes with the loss of 46 of her crew. The wreck was salvaged sometime during the 1920s by the Italians.

Description and construction
Main article: Monarch-class coastal defense ship

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Right elevation and plan of the Monarch' class; the shaded area is armored

At only 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) maximum displacement, the Monarch class was less than half the size of the battleships of other major navies at the time and were officially designated as coast defense ships. The Austro-Hungarian government believed that the role of its navy was solely to defend her coast.

Wien had an overall length of 99.22 meters (325 ft 6 in), a beam of 17 meters (55 ft 9 in) and a draft of 6.4 meters (21 ft 0 in). Her two 4-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines produced a total of 8,500 indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) using steam from five cylindrical boilers. These gave the ship a maximum speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph). Wien's maximum load of 500 metric tons (490 LT) of coal gave her a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). She was manned by 26 officers and 397 enlisted men, a total of 423 personnel.

The armament of the Monarch class consisted of four 240-millimeter (9.4 in) Krupp K/94 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships carried 80 rounds for each gun. Their secondary armament was six 150-millimeter (5.9 in) Škoda guns located in casemates in the superstructure. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by ten quick-firing (QF) 47 mm (1.9 in) Škoda guns and four 47-millimeter QF Hotchkiss guns. The ships also mounted two 450-millimeter (18 in) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside. Each torpedo tube was provided with two torpedoes. After 1917 refits one Škoda 7 cm K16 anti-aircraft gun was installed.

The ship's nickel-steel waterline armor belt was 120–270 millimeters (4.7–10.6 in) thick and the gun turrets were protected by 250 millimeters (9.8 in) of armor. The casemates had 80 millimeters (3.1 in) thick sides while the conning tower had 220 millimeters (8.7 in) of armor. Wien's deck armor was 40 millimeters (1.6 in) thick.

The Monarch-class ships were ordered in May 1892 with Budapest and Wien to be built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste. Both ships were laid down on 16 February 1893, the first ships in the class to be laid down. Wien was launched on 7 July 1895 by Countess Kielmannsegg, wife of the Governor of Lower Austria, and commissioned on 13 May 1897.

Service history
Peace time


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SMS Wien circa 1898

After her commissioning, Wien took part in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee International Fleet Review at Spithead on 26 June 1897, as well as an international blockade of Crete during the Greco-Turkish War of 1897. She was back at Pola on 16 April 1898. Wien and her sisters formed the Navy's 1st Capital Ship Division (I. Schwere Division) in 1899 and the division made a training cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean where they made port visits in Greece, Lebanon, Turkey and Malta later that year. In early 1902 they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Corfu, and Albania. The ship was fitted with a Siemens-Braun radio early the following year. The ships of the division were inspected by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, in March 1903 at Gravosa. Shortly afterwards, Wien, Budapest, the battleship Habsburg and the destroyer Magnet made a cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean. Wien served as flagship of the division until she was posted at Salonica, Greece on 13 May to support Austro-Hungarian interests there after several terrorist acts against Austro-Hungarian citizens. She returned to Pola on 10 June and resumed her assignment as flagship. In 1904, the Monarch-class ships formed the 2nd Capital Ship Division and they took part in the 1904 cruise of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas as well as training exercises in which the three Habsburg-class battleships engaged the Budapest and her sisters in simulated combat. Those maneuvers marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In 1905, Wien made a cruise of the Levant and visited ports in Greece, Turkey, Egypt and Albania. Later that summer, the ship ran aground during a night exercise off Meleda Island; it took two tries by Budapest and Habsburg to pull her off. She had to be dry-docked for repairs.

The Monarchs were relegated to the newly formed Reserve Squadron on 1 January 1906 and were only recommissioned for the annual summer exercises. They participated in a fleet review by Archduke Franz Ferdinand in September conducted in the Koločepski Channel near Šipan. The ships were briefly recommissioned at the beginning of 1913 as the 4th Division after the start of the Second Balkan War, but were decommissioned again on 10 March.

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World War I

Map of the upper Adriatic Sea

With the beginning of World War I the three Monarchs were recommissioned as the 5th Division. They were sent down to the Cattaro in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen bombarding the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it. Budapest and her sisters arrived on 13 August, but their guns could not elevate sufficiently enough to engage all of the enemy artillery, which was reinforced by eight French guns on 19 October. The battleship Radetzky was summoned to deal with the guns two days later and she managed to knock out several French guns and forced the others to be withdrawn by 27 October. The Monarchs remained at Cattaro until mid-1917 to deter any further attacks. In August, Budapest and Wien were transferred to Trieste to serve as guard ships against Italian commando raids. Each ship was fitted with a 66-millimeter (2.6 in) anti-aircraft gun after their arrival on 26 August to counter constant Italian air attacks. Wien was damaged by a near miss on 5 September and both ships withdrew to Pola on 12 September.

They returned to Trieste on 30 October and sortied into the Gulf of Trieste on 16 November to attack Italian coastal defenses at Cortellazzo, near the mouth of the Piave River. Budapest and Wien opened fire at 10:35 at a range of about 9–10 kilometers (5.6–6.2 mi) and knocked out most of the Italian guns after about a half-hour. Their bombardment was interrupted by several unsuccessful Italian air attacks before a more coordinated attack was made by five MAS torpedo boats and five aircraft around 13:30. This was also unsuccessful and the last Italian coast defense gun was knocked out an hour later. Wien was hit seven times in the superstructure and only lightly damaged; none of her crewmen were wounded.


Stern section of Wien at the Museo Storico Navale, Venice

Anxious to revenge themselves against the Austro-Hungarians, the Regia Marina (Royal Italian Navy) made plans for a sneak attack on the two ships in their berths in the Bay of Muggia, near Trieste, by MAS launches. On the night of 9/10 December, two MAS boats managed to penetrate the harbor defenses undetected, and fired torpedoes at Wien and Budapest at 02:32. The torpedoes fired at Budapest missed, but Wien was hit by two torpedoes fired by MAS 9, commanded by Lieutenant (tenente di vascello) Luigi Rizzo, that blew a hole 10.5-meter (34 ft) wide abreast the boiler rooms. All of the watertight doors were open on board the Wien and the ship capsized in five minutes despite an attempt to counter her growing list by flooding the trim tanks on the opposite side. The attack killed 46 members of the crew. Both Italian boats escaped without being detected and Rizzo was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor.

Wien was buried in the mud of the harbor bottom at a depth of 16.5 meters (54 ft) and salvage of the ship was ordered on 14 December. That same day the navy convened a court-martial of Vice Admiral Alfred Freiherr von Koudelka, commander of the naval district, the captains of both ships, and the commander of the naval defenses of Trieste. On 16 January 1918, the court convicted all four individuals for failing to take all possible precautions to protect the ships and failing to ensure that the precautions were taken. As punishment the court recommended that Koudelka and the two ship captains be retired and the commander of the naval defenses of Trieste to be returned to his former reserve status. Emperor Karl approved the recommendations on 23 January.

The navy ordered that the salvage of Wien be stopped on 7 June and the wreck was ultimately salvaged by the Italians sometime during the 1920s. A section of the ship's stern is on display at the Museo Storico Navale in Venice.


The Monarch class was a class of three coastal defence ships, built by Austria-Hungary at the end of the 19th century. The Monarchs were the first ships of their type to utilize turrets.
The class comprised three ships: SMS Monarch, SMS Wien, and SMS Budapest, each armed with four 240 mm (9 in) L/40 guns in two turrets and capable of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) at full speed. Budapest was fitted with slightly more modern and powerful engines, giving her a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph).

Monarch was launched on 9 May 1895, Wien on 7 July 1895, and Budapest just over a year later on 24 July 1896. The ships saw very little service during World War I in the V Division of the Austro-Hungarian fleet. Budapest and Wien took part in the bombardment of Italian positions along the Adriatic coast in 1915 and 1917, but the three battleships went largely inactive for the remainder of war.

In 1917, Wien was struck by Italian torpedoes and sank in her home port of Trieste. The remaining two ships were ceded to Great Britain following the end of the war and were scrapped between 1920 and 1922.

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Austro-Hungarian Monarch-class battleship battleship SMS Budapest (1896). 1:50 scale model at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien.

Construction
In the 1890s the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of two obsolescent ironclads, SMS Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf and SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie. By 1893, sufficient funds were available to build three replacement ships, but the Hungarian and Austrian parliaments authorized only the construction of a smaller class of coastal defense ships, as Austro-Hungarian naval policy at that time was primarily concerned with coastal defense. The three new ships—Budapest, Wien, and Monarch—weighed about 5,600 tonnes (5,512 long tons), half the size of the battleships of other navies. Budapest was fitted with more powerful engines than her sister ships, giving her a higher top speed. Budapest and Wien were built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino yards in Trieste, and Monarch was constructed at the Naval Arsenal in Pula.

The first ship of the class, Wien, was laid down on 16 February 1893. She was launched on 7 July 1895, about a month after Monarch. Despite this, Wien was the first ship of the new class to be commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy, on 13 May 1897. The second ship of the class, Monarch, was laid down on 31 July 1893, launched on 9 May 1895, and was commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy on 11 May 1898. Budapest was the third and final ship of the class. She was laid down on the same day as Wien, on 16 February 1893, and launched from the Naval Arsenal in Pula on 24 July 1896. She was commissioned on 12 May 1898, a day after Monarch.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wien
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch-class_coastal_defense_ship
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1928 - RMS Celtic, an ocean liner owned by the White Star Line, ran aground


RMS Celtic was an ocean liner owned by the White Star Line. The first ship larger than the SS Great Eastern in gross tonnage (it was also 9 feet (2.7 m) longer), Celtic was the first of a quartet of ships over 20,000 tons, dubbed The Big Four.

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History
Launch


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RMS Celtic under construction

Celtic was launched on 4 April 1901 from the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast, and set off on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York City on 26 July.

She and her three sisters proved to be immensely popular with travelers, particularly immigrants. During the infamous 1904 Rate War she set the record for the highest number of passengers carried in a single crossing in White Star's history. She arrived in New York on 16 September fully booked with 2,957 passengers on board.

At the beginning of the First World War, Celtic was converted into an armed merchant cruiser; however since the vessel had a high fuel consumption it was decided to convert her into a troop ship in January 1916 when she was used to carry soldiers to Egypt. She was put back on the transatlantic route in March 1916.

Mine and torpedoing incidents
In 1917, Celtic struck a mine off the Isle of Man. Seventeen people on board were killed, but the Celtic survived. A number of passengers were rescued by the London and North Western Railway ship Slieve Bawn. Celtic was towed to Peel Bay and repaired in Belfast. In March 1918, U-Boat UB-77 torpedoed Celtic in the Irish Sea. Six people on board were killed, but again Celtic remained afloat. Eventually the damaged vessel was towed to Liverpool and repaired again.

Post-World War I collisions
After the war, Celtic was involved in two collisions. The first incident occurred in 1925 while in the Mersey, when she accidentally rammed the Coast Line’s ship Hampshire Coast. Both vessels suffered only minor damage. The second collision took place on 29 January 1927, when Celtic was rammed in thick fog by the American Diamond Lines' Anaconda off Fire Island.

Final demise
Early on 10 December 1928, Celtic became stranded on the Cow and Calf rocks, adjacent to Roches Point as she approached Cobh with more than 200 passengers aboard. The Ballycotton Lifeboat T.P.Hearne 2, along with tugs, a destroyer and local life-saving teams, arrived. Tenders from Cobh disembarked the passengers. Seven thousand tons of cargo were scattered. A salvage team from Cox and Danks was provided to attempt recovery, but several men died after a hold loaded with grain and flooded with seawater was found to have filled with toxic fumes; due to structural failures it was judged the ship could not be moved or salvaged, and was abandoned to the insurance company who declared the ship to be a total loss. Celticwas completely dismantled for scrap by 1933.

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Celtic stranded on rocks.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Celtic_(1901)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya.


The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a naval engagement in the Second World War, part of the war in the Pacific, that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang, where the Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 10 December 1941. In Japanese, the engagement was referred to as the Naval Battle of Malaya (マレー沖海戦 Marē-oki kaisen).

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Prince of Wales (left, front) and Repulse (left, behind) under attack by Japanese aircraft. The HMS Express in the foreground

The objective of Force Z, which consisted of one battleship, one battlecruiser and four destroyers, was to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet north of Malaya. The task force sailed without air support. Although the British had a close encounter with Japanese heavy surface units, the force failed to find and destroy the main convoy. On their return to Singapore they were attacked in open waters and sunk by long-range torpedo bombers. The commander of Force Z, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, failed to call for air support in favour of maintaining radio silence.

With the attack on Pearl Harbor only a few days earlier, the Malayan engagement illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against even the heaviest of naval assets if they were without air cover. This added to the importance for the Allies of the four USN aircraft carriers in the Pacific. The sinking of the two ships severely weakened the British Eastern Fleet in Singapore, and the Japanese invasion fleet was only engaged by submarines until the Battle off Endau on 27 January 1942.


The Japanese air attack


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Japanese aerial photo of the initial attack on Prince of Wales (top) and Repulse. A short, thick plume of black smoke can be seen emanating from Repulse, which has just been hit by a bomb and surrounded by at least six near misses. Prince of Wales can be seen to be manoeuvring. The white smoke is from the funnels as the ships attempt to increase speed.

At 0050 morning, 10 December, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips had received a report from Palliser of Japanese landings at Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaya, halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu; Phillips headed in that general direction, without however signalling Palliser his intentions (which would have revealed his position). Palliser failed to anticipate this and request air cover over Kuantan from Sembawang's F2As. As it turned out, not until a radio message was sent by Repulse an hour after the first Japanese attack were RAF aircraft dispatched. At 0515, objects were spotted on the horizon; thinking they were the invasion force, Force Z turned towards them. It turned out to be a trawler towing barges. At 0630, Repulse reported seeing an aircraft shadowing the ships. At 0718, Prince of Wales catapulted off a Supermarine Walrus reconnaissance aircraft; it flew to Kuantan, saw nothing, reported back to Prince of Wales, and flew to Singapore. Express was sent to investigate the area, finding nothing. Phillips was unaware that a large force of Japanese land-based bombers were looking for his ships, but not having anticipated his detour to Kuantan were searching much farther south. At around 1000 Tenedos, having been detached from the main force the previous day and now about 140 miles southeast of Force Z, began signalling she was being attacked by Japanese aircraft. The attack was carried out by nine Mitsubishi G3M 'Nell' twin-engine medium bombers from the Genzan Air Corps, 22nd Air Flotilla, based at Saigon, each armed with one 500 kg (1,100 lb) armour-piercing bomb. They mistook the destroyer for a battleship and wasted their ordnance without scoring a hit. At 1015, a scout plane to the north of most of the Japanese aircraft piloted by Ensign Masato Hoashi spotted Force Z and sent out a message detailing their exact position.

The remaining Japanese planes converged upon the retreating British task force. The planes had spread out to search for the British warships, so they arrived over the target in small groups. With fuel running short, the Japanese attacked as they arrived rather than forming into a large force for a co-ordinated strike. The first wave of Japanese planes, comprising eight Nell bombers from the Mihoro Air Corps, attacked at 1113, concentrating solely on Repulse. Besides seven near misses by 250 kg (550 lb) bombs, they scored just one hit, which penetrated the hangar and the upper deck and exploded in the marine mess area. The bomb caused no serious damage and relatively few casualties, and Repulse continued on at 25 kts (46 km/h, 29 mph), still in fighting trim. Five of the eight bombers were damaged by anti-aircraft fire, and two were forced to return to base.

At around 1140, 17 Nell torpedo bombers (two squadrons from the Genzan Air Group) approached the two capital ships. Eight concentrated on Repulse, while nine attacked Prince of Wales, sending eight torpedoes speeding towards the flagship (one plane aborted its run on Prince of Wales and peeled off and attacked Repulse). One Nell was shot down and three more were damaged by the Prince of Wales anti-aircraft fire during this attack. This first wave of torpedo attackers however managed only one, ultimately catastrophic, torpedo hit on Prince of Wales (and none on Repulse), right where her outer port propeller shaft exited the hull (some historical accounts state there were two hits in this attack, but an extensive 2007 survey of the hull of the wreck by divers proved there was only one). Turning at maximum revolutions, the shaft twisted and ruptured the glands that prevented sea water entering the ship via the broad shaft tunnel's interior bulkheads. The flagship promptly took in 2,400 tons of water and her speed dropped to 16 kts (30 km/h, 18 mph). Testimony from Lt Wildish, in command of 'B' Engine Room, indicated the shaft was stopped successfully, but upon restarting the shaft, water rushed in through the damaged shaft passage, flooding B Engine Room and forcing its evacuation. Also flooded from this hit were the long shaft passage itself, 'Y' Action Machinery Room, the port Diesel Dynamo Room, 'Y' Boiler Room, the Central Auxiliary Machinery Room, and a number of other compartments aft.

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The crew of the sinking Prince of Wales abandoning ship to the destroyer Express. Moments later, the list on Prince of Wales suddenly increased and Express had to withdraw. Observe the barrels of the 5.25 in guns, which were unable to depress low enough to engage attackers due to the list.

The single torpedo hit had devastating further effects. First, it caused an 11.5-degree list to port, resulting in the starboard 5.25-inch anti-aircraft turrets being unable to depress low enough to engage the attackers. Furthermore, power to Prince of Wales' aft 5.25 inch dual-purpose turrets was cut, leaving her unable to effectively counter further attacks. Power loss to her pumps meant an inability to pump out the in-rushing flood water faster than it was entering the breached hull. The torpedo damage also denied her much of her auxiliary electrical power, vital for internal communications, ventilation, steering gear, and pumps, and for training and elevation of the 5.25-inch and 2-pounder gun mounts. All but S1 and S2 5.25 inch turrets were almost unmanageable, a factor compounded by the list, rendering their crews unable even to drag them round manually using chains. The crews also had difficulty bringing the heavy 2-pounder mountings into manual operation. The extensive internal flooding and shaft damage caused the shutting down of the inboard port propeller shaft, leaving the ship under the power of only the starboard engines and able to make just 15 knots at best. With her electric steering unresponsive, the ship was virtually unmanageable.

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A schematic of the torpedo damage to the stern of HMS Prince of Wales, 10 December 1941 is shown as if the ship was upright (that is, the wreck is upside down and this image is sometimes seen 'reversed').

Another torpedo attack was carried out by 26 Betty bombers of the Kanoya Air Group at approximately 1220, and Prince of Wales was hit by another three torpedoes on her starboard side (some historical accounts state four hits, but the 2007 survey of the hull showed there had been only three); one at the very bow, one opposite B main gun turret, and one abaft Y turret which not only punctured the hull but bent the outer starboard propeller shaft inboard and over the inner shaft, stopping it instantly.

At the same time as this last torpedo attack developed against Prince of Wales, planes from the Kanoya Air Group also attacked Repulse from both starboard and port. Repulse, which had dodged 19 torpedoes so far, was caught in this Japanese pincer attack and was hit on the port side by one torpedo. Within minutes, further attacks resulted in at least three more torpedoes striking Repulse. Repulse did not have the anti-torpedo blisters her sister Renown had received, and also did not have a modern battleship's internal waterproof compartmentalisation and subdivision. She had been hit seriously then, and Captain William Tennant soon ordered the crew overboard; Repulse listed heavily to port over a period of about six minutes and finally rolled over, settled by the head, and sank at 1233 with heavy casualties.

Prince of Wales was now under power by only one propeller shaft but was still able to fire at a high-level bombing attack which developed at 1241 hours, although only with S1 and S2 5.25 inch turrets. Although most of the bombs straddled her, one bomb penetrated her deck amidships. This bomb penetrated the upper deck and exploded amongst the wounded gathered in the Cinema Flat beneath, causing extensive casualties. Soon Prince of Wales started to capsize to port (even though she had taken more torpedo hits to starboard) and HMS Express came alongside to take off the wounded and non-fighting crew. The order to abandon ship was then given and soon after Prince of Wales rolled over to port, settled by the head, and sank at 1318. As she rolled over, she scraped Express, lying close alongside taking off survivors, with her bilge keel, and very nearly took the destroyer down with her. The rumbling sound of the attacks was heard in Singapore.

Survivors_in_water.jpg
Survivors from Prince of Wales and Repulse in the water as a destroyer moves in for the rescue.

The Japanese had achieved eight torpedo hits, four each on Prince of Wales and Repulse, out of 49 torpedoes, while losing only three aircraft during the attack itself (one Nell torpedo bomber from the Genzan Air Group and two Betty torpedo bombers from the Kanoya Air Group) and a fourth plane was so badly damaged that it crashed on landing. A recent survey of the two wrecks confirmed that there were only four torpedo hits on Prince of Wales; and could only confirm two hits on Repulse, as the amidships area where the other two hits were reported was buried beneath the seabed. The Explorer's Club ‘Expedition "Job 74", an underwater survey by divers, was completed on 11 June 2007 (see external link below).

The air cover assigned to Force Z, ten Buffalo fighters of No. 453 Squadron RAAF, arrived over the battlefield at 1318, just as Prince of Wales sank. They encountered a scouting aircraft piloted by Ensign Masato Hoashi, who had discovered Force Z earlier, but it managed to escape the Buffaloes and returned to confirm the sinkings. Had it been shot down, the Japanese might have assumed that the two ships had survived the attack, and struck again.

After the action
Destroyers Electra and Vampire moved in to rescue survivors of Repulse, while Express rescued those from the Prince of Wales. 840 sailors were lost: 513 in Repulse and 327 in Prince Of Wales. After they were rescued, some survivors of the Repulse manned action stations to free Electra sailors to rescue more survivors. In particular, Repulse gunners manned 'X' and 'Y' 4.7-inch (120 mm) mounts, and Repulse's dentist assisted Electra's medical teams with the wounded. In total nearly 1,000 survivors of Repulse were rescued, 571 by Electra. Vampire picked up nine officers, 213 ratings, and one civilian war correspondent from Repulse, and two sailors from Prince of Wales.

Of the high-ranking officers on Prince of Wales, Admiral Phillips and Captain John Leach chose to go down with their ship, and the senior survivor was Lt Cdr A. G. Skipwith, the ship's First Lieutenant, who was rescued by Express. Captain William Tennant of Repulse was rescued by Vampire.

According to the London Gazette report by Flt Lt Vigors:

It was obvious that the three destroyers were going to take hours to pick up those hundreds of men clinging to bits of wreckage and swimming around in the filthy, oily water. Above all this, the threat of another bombing and machine-gun attack was imminent. Every one of those men must have realised that. Yet as I flew around, every man waved and put up his thumb as I flew over him. After an hour, lack of petrol forced me to leave, but during that hour I had seen many men in dire danger waving, cheering and joking, as if they were holiday-makers at Brighton waving at a low-flying aircraft. It shook me, for here was something above human nature.

On the way back to Singapore with the survivors, Express passed Stronghold and the four American destroyers heading north. Express signalled the action was over, but the ships proceeded to search the area for more survivors. None were found. While returning to Singapore from this search, Edsallboarded the fishing trawler sighted by Force Z that morning. The trawler was identified as Shofu Fu Maru, and was taken to Singapore, where the Japanese crew was interned.

While the Japanese bombers were returning to their airfields in French Indochina, a second wave was being prepared for another attack on Force Z. They had not been given accurate information on the progress of the battle. The attack was called off as soon as they received confirmed reports of the sinkings from Ensign Hoashi.

The next day, Lt Haruki Iki flew to the site of the battle, dropping two wreaths of flowers into the sea to honour combatants from both sides who had died in the battle. One was for the fellow members of his Kanoya Air Group, while the other was for the British sailors whose display of bravery in defence of the ships had gained them the utmost admiration from all pilots in his squadron.

Effects of the sinking

The bell raised from Prince of Wales
The morning after the battle, Prime Minister Winston Churchill received a phone call at his bedside from Sir Dudley Pound, the First Sea Lord.

“Pound: Prime Minister, I have to report to you that the Prince of Wales and the Repulse have both been sunk by the Japanese – we think by aircraft. Tom Phillips is drowned.
Churchill: Are you sure it's true?
Pound: There is no doubt at all.
Churchill hangs up
In all the war, I never received a more direct shock... As I turned over and twisted in bed the full horror of the news sank in upon me. There were no British or American ships in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific except the American survivors of Pearl Harbor, who were hastening back to California. Across this vast expanse of waters, Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.


Churchill delivered news of the sinking to the House of Commons before noon on 11 December, which was followed by a full review of the situation in Malaya the next day. Singapore had essentially been reduced to a land base after both capital ships were lost. The Eastern Fleet would spend the remainder of the invasion withdrawing their vessels to Ceylon and the Dutch East Indies. They were not reinforced by battleships until March 1942, with the arrival of HMS Warspite and four Revenge-class battleships. Although all five battleships survived the Indian Ocean raid, their service in the Pacific was uneventful and they were later withdrawn to East Africa and the Mediterranean.

The Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships actively defending themselves to be sunk solely by air power while steaming in the open sea. Both of them were relatively fast ships compared to the slower US battleships that were caught at anchor at Pearl Harbor. Furthermore, Prince of Wales was a new battleship with passive and active anti-aircraft defences against contemporary aircraft, being equipped with the advanced High Angle Control System although it was largely inoperable during the battle.

Combined with the earlier raid on Pearl Harbor, this left the Allies with only four operational capital ships in the Pacific Theatre: three aircraft carriers, USS Enterprise, USS Lexington, and USS Saratoga, and one operational battleship, USS Colorado. However, these events did prompt the Allies and the US Navy in particular to realise the potency of aircraft, and their carriers would be instrumental in the counterattack. The Genzan Air Groups would attempt a torpedo attack on USS Lexington on 20 February 1942, losing seventeen aircraft to the carrier's combat air patrol and anti-aircraft guns.




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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya. - PART II - The ships



HMS Prince of Wales
was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait against the German battleship Bismarck, operations escorting convoys in the Mediterranean, and her final action and sinking in the Pacific in December 1941.

Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock, being attacked and damaged by German aircraft. Her brief but storied career ended 10 December 1941, when Prince of Walesand battlecruiser HMS Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.

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Construction
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was drawn up in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35,000 tons. These restrictions were extended in 1930 through the Treaty of London, however, by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had withdrawn from both of these treaties, and the British became concerned about a lack of modern battleships within their navy. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the King George V class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the King George Vs were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the 14-inch (356 mm) guns prescribed under these instruments. They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty, and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in 1937.

Prince of Wales was originally named King Edward VIII but upon the abdication of Edward VIII the ship was renamed even before she had been laid down. This occurred at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead on 1 January 1937, although it was not until 3 May 1939 that she was launched. She was still fitting out when war was declared in September, causing her construction schedule, and that of her sister, King George V, to be accelerated. Nevertheless, the late delivery of gun mountings caused delays in her outfitting.

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Prince of Wales off Newfoundland, 10–12 August 1941, after bringing Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Atlantic Charter Conference

During early August 1940, while she was still being outfitted and was in a semi-complete state, Prince of Wales was attacked by German aircraft. One bomb fell between the ship and a wet basin wall, narrowly missing a 100-ton dockside crane, and exploded underwater below the bilge keel. The explosion took place about six feet from the ship's port side in the vicinity of the after group of 5.25-inch guns. Buckling of the shell plating took place over a distance of 20 to 30 feet (9.1 m), rivets were sprung and considerable flooding took place in the port outboard compartments in the area of damage, causing a ten-degree port list. The flooding was severe, due to the fact that final compartment air tests had not yet been made and the ship did not have her pumping system in operation.

The water was pumped out through the joint efforts of a local fire company and the shipyard, and Prince of Wales was later dry docked for permanent repairs. This damage and the problem with the delivery of her main guns and turrets delayed her completion. As the war progressed there was an urgent need for capital ships, and so her completion was advanced by postponing compartment air tests, ventilation tests and a thorough testing of her bilge, ballast and fuel-oil systems.

Far East
Main article: Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
On 25 October Prince of Wales and a destroyer escort left home waters bound for Singapore, there to rendezvous with the battlecruiser Repulse and the aircraft carrier Indomitable. Indomitable however ran aground off Jamaica a few days later and was unable to proceed. Calling at Freetown and Cape Town South Africa to refuel and generate publicity, Prince of Wales also stopped in Mauritius and the Maldive Islands. Prince of Wales reached Colombo, Ceylon, on 28 November, joining Repulse the next day. On 2 December the fleet docked in Singapore. Prince of Wales then became the flagship of Force Z, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Tom Phillips.

Japanese troop-convoys were first sighted on 6 December. Two days later, Japanese aircraft raided Singapore; although the Prince of Wales's anti-aircraft batteries opened fire, they scored no hits and had no effect on the Japanese aircraft. A signal was received from the Admiralty in London ordering the British squadron to commence hostilities, and that evening, confident that a protective air umbrella would be provided by the RAF presence in the region, Admiral Phillips set sail. Force Z at this time comprised the battleship Prince of Wales, the battlecruiser Repulse, and the destroyers Electra, Express, Tenedos and HMAS Vampire.

The object of the sortie was to attack Japanese transports at Kota Bharu, but in the afternoon of 9 December the Japanese submarine I-65 spotted the British ships, and in the evening they were detected by Japanese aerial reconnaissance. By this time it had been made clear that no RAF fighter support would be forthcoming. At midnight a signal was received that Japanese forces were landing at Kuantan in Malaya. Force Z was diverted to investigate. At 02:11 on 10 December the force was again sighted by a Japanese submarine and at 08:00 arrived off Kuantan, only to discover that the reported landings were a diversion.

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Prince of Wales in first torpedo attack

At 11:00 that morning the first Japanese air attack began. Eight Type 96 "Nell" bombers dropped their bombs close to Repulse, one passing through the hangar roof and exploding on the 1-inch plating of the main deck below. The second attack force, comprising seventeen "Nells" armed with torpedoes, arrived at 11:30, divided into two attack formations. Despite reports to the contrary, Prince of Wales was struck by only one torpedo, although this was enough to prove fatal. Meanwhile, Repulse avoided the seven torpedoes aimed at her, as well as bombs dropped by six other "Nells" a few minutes later.

The torpedo struck Prince of Wales on the port side aft, abaft "Y" Turret, wrecking the outer propeller shaft on that side and destroying bulkheads to one degree or another along the shaft all the way to B Engine Room. This caused rapid uncontrollable flooding and put the entire electrical system in the after part of the ship out of action. Lacking effective damage control, she soon took on a heavy list.

A third torpedo attack developed against Repulse and once again she avoided taking any hits.

A fourth attack, conducted by torpedo-carrying Type 1 "Bettys", developed. This one scored hits on Repulse and she sank at 12:33. Six aircraft from this wave also attacked Prince of Wales, hitting her with three torpedoes causing further damage and flooding. Finally, a 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) bomb hit Prince of Wales's catapult deck, penetrated to the main deck, where it exploded, causing many casualties in the makeshift aid centre in the Cinema Flat. Several other bombs from this attack scored very 'near misses', indenting the hull, popping rivets and causing hull plates to 'split' along the seams and intensifying the flooding. At 13:15 the order to abandon ship was given, and at 13:20 Prince of Wales capsized and sank; Vice-Admiral Phillips and Captain Leach were among the 327 fatalities.

Aftermath

The ship's bell on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool

Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by naval air power on the open sea (albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft), a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was to play in naval warfare thereafter. It is often pointed out, however, that contributing factors to the sinking of Prince of Wales were her surface-scanning radars being inoperable, depriving Force Z of one of its most potent early-warning devices and the critical early damage she sustained from the first torpedo. Another factor which led to Prince of Wales's demise was the loss of dynamos, depriving Prince of Wales of many of her electric pumps. Further electrical failures left parts of the ship in total darkness, and added to the difficulties of her damage repair parties as they attempted to counter the flooding. The sinking was the subject of an inquiry chaired by Mr. Justice Bucknill, but the true causes of the ship's loss were only established when divers examined the wreck after the war. The Director of Naval Construction's report on the sinking claimed that the ship's anti-aircraft guns could have "inflicted heavy casualties before torpedoes were dropped, if not preventing the successful conclusion of attack had crews been more adequately trained in their operation.


HMS Repulse was a Renown-class battlecruiser of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. Originally laid down as an improved version of the Revenge-class battleships, her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war because she would not be ready in a timely manner. Admiral Lord Fisher, upon becoming First Sea Lord, gained approval to restart her construction as a battlecruiser that could be built and enter service quickly. The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt, quickly produced an entirely new design to meet Admiral Lord Fisher's requirements and the builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months. They did not quite meet that ambitious goal, but the ship was delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Repulse, and her sister HMS Renown, were the world's fastest capital ships upon completion.

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Repulse participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917; the only combat she saw during the war. She was reconstructed twice between the wars; the 1920s reconstruction increased her armour protection and made lesser improvements, while the 1930s reconstruction was much more thorough. Repulse accompanied the battlecruiser HMS Hood during the Special Service Squadron's round-the-world cruise in 1923–24 and protected international shipping during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–39.

The ship spent the first months of the Second World War hunting for German raiders and blockade runners. She participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940 and searched for the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. Repulse escorted a troop convoy around the Cape of Good Hope from August to October 1941 and was transferred to East Indies Command. She was assigned in November to Force Z which was supposed to deter Japanese aggression against British possessions in the Far East. Repulse and her consort Prince of Wales were eventually sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941 when they attempted to intercept landings in British Malaya.

Design and description
Admiral Lord Fisher first presented his requirements for the new ships to the Director of Naval Construction (DNC) on 18 December 1914, before the ships had even been approved. He wanted a long, high, flared bow, like that on the pre-dreadnought HMS Renown, but higher, four 15-inch guns in two twin turrets, an anti-torpedo boat armament of twenty 4-inch (102 mm) guns mounted high up and protected by gun shields only, speed of 32 knots using oil fuel, and armour on the scale of the battlecruiser Indefatigable. Within a few days, however, Fisher increased the number of guns to six and added two torpedo tubes. Minor revisions in the initial estimate were made until 26 December and a preliminary design was completed on 30 December.

During the following week the DNC's department examined the material delivered for the two battleships and decided what could be used in the new design. The usable material was transferred to the builders who had received enough information from the DNC's department to lay the keels of both ships on 25 January 1915, well before the altered contracts were completed on 10 March!

Repulse had an overall length of 794 feet 2.5 inches (242.1 m), a beam of 89 feet 11.5 inches (27.4 m), and a maximum draught of 29 feet 9 inches (9.1 m). She displaced 26,854 long tons (27,285 t) at normal load and 31,592 long tons (32,099 t) at deep load. The Brown-Curtis direct-drive steam turbines were designed to produce 112,000 shaft horsepower (84,000 kW), which would propel the ship at 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph). However, during trials in 1916, Repulse's turbines provided 118,913 shp (88,673 kW), allowing her to reach a speed of 31.73 knots (58.76 km/h; 36.51 mph). The ship normally carried 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) of fuel oil, but had a maximum capacity of 4,289 long tons (4,358 t). At full capacity, she could steam at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) for 4,000 nautical miles (7,410 km; 4,600 mi).

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The ship mounted six 42-calibre BL 15-inch Mk I guns in three twin hydraulically powered gun turrets, designated 'A', 'B', and 'Y' from front to rear. Her secondary armament consisted of 17 BL 4-inch Mark IX guns, fitted in five triple and two single mounts. Repulse mounted a pair of QF 3-inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft guns mounted on the shelter deck abreast the rear funnel. She mounted two submerged tubes for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedoes, one on each side forward of 'A' barbette.

Repulse's waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour measured 6 inches (152 mm) thick amidships. Her gun turrets were 7–9 inches (178–229 mm) thick with roofs were 4.25 inches (108 mm) thick. As designed the high-tensile-steel decks ranged from 0.75 to 1.5 inches (19 to 38 mm) in thickness. After the Battle of Jutland in 1916, while the ship was still completing, an extra inch of high-tensile steel was added on the main deck over the magazines. Repulse was fitted with a shallow anti-torpedo bulge integral to the hull which was intended to explode the torpedo before it hit the hull proper and vent the underwater explosion to the surface rather than into the ship.

Despite these additions, the ship was still felt to be too vulnerable to plunging fire and Repulse was refitted in Rosyth between 10 November 1916 and 29 January 1917 with additional horizontal armour, weighing approximately 504 long tons (512 t), added to the decks over the magazines and over the steering gear. Repulse was the first capital ship fitted with a flying-off platform when an experimental one was fitted on 'B' turret in the autumn of 1917. Squadron Leader Frederick Rutland took off in a Sopwith Pup on 1 October. Another platform was built on 'Y' turret and Rutland successfully took off from it on 8 October. One fighter and a reconnaissance aircraft were normally carried

The wreck
The wreck site was designated as a 'Protected Place' in 2002 under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, 60 years after her sinking. Survivors described five torpedo hits on Repulse, four on the port side and one on the starboard side. The four portside hits purportedly were: two amidship, one abreast of the rear turret and one near the propellers. The starboard side hit was amidships. A 2007 diving expedition could confirm only two of the hits by examination of the wreck: the portside hit near the propellers and the starboard hit amidship. Unfortunately, at the time of the expedition, the portside midships section of the wreck was buried in the ocean floor thus the claimed hits there could not be confirmed. However, the area abreast of the port rear turret was accessible though and no sign whatsoever of a torpedo hit - as described by survivors - was found to be there.



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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Prince_of_Wales_(53)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Repulse_(1916)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 December 1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near British Malaya - Death of Admiral Sir Thomas Spencer Vaughan "Tom" Phillips


Admiral Sir Thomas Spencer Vaughan "Tom" Phillips GBE, KCB, DSO (19 February 1888 – 10 December 1941) was a Royal Navy officer during the First and Second World Wars. He was nicknamed "Tom Thumb", due to his short stature. He is best known for his command of Force Z during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, where he went down with his flagship, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales. Phillips was one of the highest ranking Allied officers killed in battle during World War II


Tom-phillips.jpg

Force Z
Phillips was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the China Station in late 1941, an action which raised some controversy in the higher echelons of the Royal Navy, where he was considered a "desk admiral". He was appointed acting admiral, and he took to sea on 25 October 1941 en route to his headquarters in Singapore. He traveled with a naval detachment then designated as Force G, consisting of his flagship, the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales, together with the veteran Great War-era battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and the four destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Encounter, and HMS Jupiter.

The deployment of the ships was a decision made by Winston Churchill. He was firmly warned against it by the First Sea Lord, Sir Dudley Pound, and later by his friend, Field Marshal Jan Smuts, PM of South Africa, who prophesied the fate of the capital ships, when he addressed the crew of HMS Repulse just before she left Durban for Singapore.

It was intended that the new aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable would also travel out to Singapore, but she ran aground on her maiden voyage in the West Indies, and was not ready to sail from England with the other ships. Phillips and the vessels arrived in Singapore on 2 December 1941, where they were re-designated Force Z. Without a formal declaration of war, the Japanese landed in Malaya on 8 December 1941, on the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbor (on the other side of the International Date Line). The Japanese, by striking at three points almost simultaneously, hoped to attract all available land-based fighters of the Royal Air Force and leave Phillips without air cover when they were ready for him; and he steamed right into this trap.

The earlier grounding of the carrier HMS Indomitable left the capital ships without naval air cover. Phillips had long held the opinion that aircraft were no threat to surface ships, and so he took Force Z, consisting of HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Repulse, and four destroyers (HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMAS Vampire and HMS Tenedos) to intercept the Japanese without air cover. That decision has been discussed ever since. Task Force Z sailed from Singapore at 17:35 on 8 December. Admiral Phillips left his chief of staff, Rear Admiral Arthur Palliser, at the command post ashore. Phillips used HMS Prince of Wales as his flagship.

Phillips hoped to intercept any further Japanese convoys to prevent the landing of more troops. He signaled his fleet upon departure, "We are out looking for trouble, and no doubt we shall find it. We hope to surprise the enemy transports tomorrow and we expect to meet the Japanese battleship Kongo."

Shortly after midnight, Phillips' chief of staff radioed that the Royal Air Force was so pressed by giving ground support to land operations that the Admiral could expect no air cover off Singora. Japanese heavy bombers were already in southern Indochina, and General Douglas MacArthur had been asked to send General Lewis H. Brereton's B-17 Flying Fortresses to attack their bases. By this time, the Japanese invasion force was already well established in the peninsular section of Thailand, which had already surrendered. At Kota Bharu within British Malaya, there was bitter fighting in a series of rear guard actions fought desperately by British and native troops. But by the time the British warships arrived, their opportunity had passed; the vulnerable transports were already returning to base. Admiral Phillips did not realize this.

IWM_FE_487_Admirals_Phillips_and_Palliser.jpg
Admiral Sir Tom Phillips (right), commander of Force Z, and his deputy, Rear Admiral Arthur Palliser, on the quayside at Singapore naval base, 2 December 1941.

Task Force Z steamed north, leaving the Anambas Islands to port. At 06:29 on 9 December, Phllips received word that destroyer Vampire had sighted an enemy plane. He was entering the Japanese air radius without air cover, but he still hoped to surprise a Japanese convoy at Singora. The task force sailed on to a position 150 miles south of Indochina and 250 miles east of the Malay Peninsula.

At 14:15, the Japanese submarine I-65 under command of Lieutenant Commander Harada Hakue reported sighting "two enemy battleships, course 240, speed 14 knots." I-65 surfaced and started a tail chase, but a sudden squall cloaked the British ships. While Harada continued the chase, a Kawanishi E7K "Alf" from the Japanese cruiser Kinu buzzed the I-65, mistaking it for an enemy submarine. Harada ordered a crash-dive. When the I-65 surfaced 30 minutes later, the contact with Phillips' force had been lost.

At 18:30, when the weather cleared and three Japanese naval reconnaissance planes were sighted from the flagship, Phillips realized that his position was precarious and untenable. Reluctantly, he reversed course to return to Singapore at high speed. As Phillips steamed south, dispatches from Singapore portrayed impending doom on the shores of Malaya. The British Army was falling back fast. Shortly before midnight on 9 December, word came through of an enemy landing at Kuantan, halfway between Kota Bharu and Singapore. Phillips, in view of the imminent danger to Singapore, decided to strike at Kuantan.

At dawn on 10 December, an unidentified plane was sighted about 60 miles off Kuantan. Phillips continued on his course while launching a reconnaissance plane from Prince of Wales. The reconnaissance plane found no evidence of the enemy. The destroyer Express steamed ahead to reconnoiter the harbor of Kuantan, found it deserted, and closed with the flagship again at 08:35. Phillips had not yet realized that his intelligence from Singapore was faulty, and he continued to search for a nonexistent surface enemy, first to the northward and then to the eastward.

Ten Brewster Buffalo fighters of No. 453 Squadron RAAF at RAF Sembawang were allocated to Force Z. They were designated the Fleet Defence Squadron for this task, with Flight Lieutenant Tim Vigors given the radio procedures used by Force Z. After the war, Vigors remained bitter towards Admiral Phillips for his failure to call for air support. Phillips decided not to ask the Royal Australian Air Force for an air screen because he considered it more important to maintain radio silence. At about 1020 on December 10, a Japanese plane was sighted shadowing Prince of Wales. The crews immediately assumed anti-aircraft stations.

At 11:00, by which time the sea was brilliantly sunlit, nine Japanese planes were sighted at an altitude 10,000 feet. They flew in single file along the length of the 32,000-ton battle cruiser Repulse. A bomb hit the catapult deck and exploded in the hangar, setting a fire below decks.

At 11:15, Captain William Tennant of Repulse radioed the RAAF for help. At 11:40, the Prince of Wales was attacked by torpedo bombers. She was hit astern, knocking out her propellers and rudder. Several waves of torpedo bombers swooped in on the Repulse.The Prince of Wales signaled, asking whether she had been hit. The Repulse replied, "We have avoided 19 torpedoes till now, thanks to Providence." Australian air protection was still not on hand at 12:20 p.m. CBS reporter Cecil Brown, who was on board the Repulse, described the battle:

"Stand by for barrage," comes over the ship's communication system. One plane is circling around. It's now at 300 or 400 yards, approaching us from the port side. It's coming closer headon, and I see a torpedo drop. A watcher shouts, "Stand by for torpedo", and the tin fish is streaking directly for us.
Some one says: "This one's got us."
The torpedo struck the side on which I was standing, about twenty yards astern of my position. It felt like the ship had crashed into a well-rooted dock. It threw me four feet across the deck, but I did not fall, and I did not feel any explosion—just this very great jar.
Almost immediately, it seemed, we began to list, and less than a minute later there was another jar of the same kind and same force, except that it was almost precisely the same spot on the starboard.
After the first torpedo, the communications system coolly announced: 'Blow up your lifebelts.' I was in this process when the second torpedo struck, and the settling ship and crazy angle were so apparent that I didn't continue blowing the belt.
The communications system announced: "Prepare to abandon ship. May God be with you."​
Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese air attack on 10 December 1941 by 86 Japanese bombers and torpedo bombers from the 22nd Air Flotilla based at Saigon. The destroyers saved 2,081 of the 2,921 crew on the stricken capital ships, but 326 sailors were lost. Prince of Wales Captain John Leach and Philips went down with their ship. As the old battlecruiser and her consort, the modern battleship sank, the RAAF planes finally appeared.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Phillips_(Royal_Navy_officer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Leach_(Royal_Navy_officer)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 10 December


1677 – Capture of dutch Défenseur 54, 3rd Rang (ex-Dutch East India Company Beschermer) – Wrecked 11 May 1678 on Îles Aves


1692 – Launch of French Saint Louis 64, later 58 guns at Le Havre – sold 1712

Saint Louis Class, designed by Joseph Andrault, built by Philippe Cochois and Pierre Chaillé.
Saint Louis 64, later 58 guns (launched 10 December 1692 at Le Havre) – sold 1712
Éole 64, later 58 guns (launched 23 February 1693 at Le Havre) – sold 1710


1768 – Launch of Spanish San Julián 74 at Ferrol - Captured by Britain and recaptured at the Battle of Cape Santa Maria, 1780, wrecked 1780


1803 - HMS Avenger Sloop (16), Francis Jackson Snell, lost running on sand bank at the mouth of the River Jade, Heligoland.

HMS Avenger was a sloop, previously the civilian vessel Elizabeth, launched in 1801 at Bridlington. The British Royal Navy purchased her in 1803 and commissioned her in October under Commander Francis Snell. but she foundered in Heligoland Bight, off the Weser, on 5 December; the crew were saved.

Avenger had been stationed off the German coast to blockade the Elbe River. She took on board a pilot who proceeded, with confidence, to steer her south despite soundings indicating shallowing water. After she grounded attempts were made to get her off, but they failed. Fishing vessels came up and took off the crew.

The court-martial on 18 January 1804 at Sheerness, acquitted Commander Snell, his officers, and his crew of the loss of their vessel, but reprimanded the pilot for his ignorance. As the pilot had disappeared soon after landing, this presumably was not a problem for him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Avenger_(1803)


1810 - HMS Rosario (10), Booty Harvey, captured French privateer lugger Mamelouck (16), Nobez Lawrence, off Dungeness.

HMS Rosario was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1808. She served during the Napoleonic Wars and participated in one engagement that earned her crew the NGSM. She was sold in 1832.

She was commissioned in March 1809, under commander Booty Harvey, for service in home waters. On 10 December 1810, she engaged two French privateers in the English Channel. To avoid being captured, Harvey ran alongside one of the luggers, which he boarded and captured. This was the lugger Mamelouck of 16 guns, under the command of Norbez Lawrence. The other lugger engaged Rosario on the starboard side but then was able to outrun Rosario, which had lost her jib-boom during the boarding, and escape. Mamelouck had seven of her crew of 45 men wounded. Rosario had five men wounded, two severely. Mamelouck was only nine hours out of Boulogne and had not had captured anything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rosario_(1808)


1861 – Launch of first USS Mahaska was a wooden, double-ender, sidewheel steamer

The first USS Mahaska was a wooden, double-ender, sidewheel steamer of the third rate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Ioway Chief Mahaska.

300px-Ussmahaskaharpers.jpg
USS Mahaska shelling the Rebels at Harrison's Landing, 1 July 1862

Mahaska was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, for $130,001.68; launched 10 December 1861 and commissioned 5 May 1862, Lt. Norman H. Farquhar in command.
Mahaska sailed from Portsmouth 15 May 1862, reporting shortly thereafter for duty in the rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay. On 20 June she engaged the Confederate batteries along the Appomattox River and on 1 November destroyed entrenchments at West Point, Virginia. Continuing her patrols into the next year, she captured the schooner General Taylor in Chesapeake Bay 20 February 1863. Moving south later in the year, she joined in the blockade of Charleston and participated in the attacks on the forts and batteries in that harbor: Fort Wagner, 8 and 18 August; Morris Island, 13 to 17, and 20 August; and Fort Sumter, 21 August 1863. The following year she took part in the joint expedition against Jacksonville, Florida, 5 February to 4 April, remaining on picket and patrol duty in the St. Johns River until 16 August when she returned to Charleston, South Carolina. She then steamed north to Boston, Massachusetts for overhaul.
Overhaul completed 16 January 1865, Mahaska returned to Florida waters, capturing the schooner Delia, near Bayport, 17 February. After the end of the Civil War, the steamer continued to cruise in southern waters until decommissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 12 September 1868. She was sold 20 November 1868 to John Dole of Boston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Mahaska_(1861)


1863 - Hooghly was a full-rigged merchant ship built on the Thames, England, and launched in 1819, sank

Hooghly was a full-rigged merchant ship built on the Thames, England, and launched in 1819. She made two voyages under charter to the British East India Company (EIC), four voyages transporting convicts from England and Ireland to Australia, as well as voyages transporting emigrants to South Australia between 1839-1856. Around 1858 she was re-rigged as a barque. She sank off Algiers in 1863.

While on a voyage to Cork, Ireland, from Constantinople, Hooghly foundered off Algiers on 10 December 1863. After the crew safely abandoned her the British steamship Ida rescued them, landing them at Gibraltar five days later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooghly_(1819_ship)


1941 - SBD aircraft from USS Enterprise (CV 6) attack and sink the Japanese submarine I-70 north of Hawaiian Islands. A participant in the Pearl Harbor attack, I-70 is the first major Japanese combatant ship sunk during World War II.

Enterprise was at sea on the morning of 7 December 1941 and received a radio message from Pearl Harbor, reporting that the base was under attack. The next evening, Enterprise, screened by six of her Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters, put into Pearl Harbor for fuel and supplies (VADM Halsey ordered every able bodied man on board to help rearm and refuel the Enterprise, the entire 24 hour process took only 7 hours). The aircraft were fired on by anti-aircraft defenses, and one pilot radioed in, reporting that his aircraft was an American aircraft. She sailed early the next morning to patrol against possible additional attacks in the Hawaiian Islands. Although the group encountered no surface ships, Enterprise aircraft sank Japanese submarine I-70 at 23°45′N 155°35′W on 10 December 1941.

During the last two weeks of December 1941, Enterprise and her group steamed west of Hawaii to cover the islands while two other carrier groups made a belated attempt to relieve Wake Island. After a brief layover at Pearl Harbor, the Enterprise group sailed on 11 January, protecting convoys reinforcing Samoa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CV-6)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 December 1785 - Launch of HMS Majestic, a 74-gun Canada-class third rate ship of the line launched on 11 December 1785 at Deptford.


HMS Majestic was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line launched on 11 December 1785 at Deptford. She fought at the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ships Tonnant and Heureux, helping to force their surrenders. She was captained by George Blagdon Westcott, who was killed in the battle.

Tonnant_LeBreton_PX8975.jpg
The Tonnant at the Battle of the Nile, by Louis Lebreton. HMS Majestic is seen in the background.

Class and type: Canada class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1623 (bm)
Length: 170 ft (52 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 46 ft 9 in (14.25 m)
Depth of hold: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Sail plan:Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • As third rate:
  • Gundeck (GD): 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck (UG): 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
  • As fourth rate:
  • GD: 28 × 42-pounder carronades
  • UG: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 12-pounder guns

large.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Majestic (1785), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Deptford by William Barnard. After her launch Majestic went to Deptford Dockyard between 11 and 24 February 1785, and then to Woolwich Dockyard between 24 February and 28 May 1785.

On 22 February 1799, Majestic was in sight when Espoir, under the command of Captain James Sanders, captured the Spanish 14-gun xebec Africa some three leagues from Marbello on the Spanish coast. Captain Cuthbert, of Majestic, transmitted Sanders's letter, adding his own endorsement extolling "the meritorious Conduct of Captain Sanders and his Ship's Company on the Occasion." Espoir and Majestic shared the prize money for the xebec, whose full name was Nostra Senora de Africa.

On 4 April, Majestic and Transfer destroyed a French privateer of unknown name. Head money was paid in 1828, almost 30 years later.

On 11 November 1804, Glatton, together with Eagle, Majestic, Princess of Orange, Raisonable, Africiane, Inspector, Beaver, and the hired armed vessels Swift and Agnes, shared in the capture of the Upstalsboom, H.L. De Haase, Master.

On 4 September 1807, Majestic, flagship of Admiral Thomas Macnamara Russell anchored off Heligoland, effecting the capitulation of the island to the British.

Majestic was razeed into a 58-gun fourth-rate frigate in 1813.

On 34 February 1814 Majestic encountered the French frigates Terpsichore and Atalante, a 20-gun ship, and an apparently unarmed brig. Majestic was able to catch up with and engage the stern-most of the French vessels. After an engagement lasting two and a half hours, the frigate struck. She turned out to be the Terpsichore, of 44 guns and 320 men, under the command of "capitaine de frigate Breton Francois de Sire". In the action, Terpsichore lost three men killed, six wounded, and two drowned as the prisoners were being transported to Majestic; British casualties were nil. Because of the weather and the approach of night, Majestic was unable to pursue the other three French vessels, which therefore escaped. The Royal Navynamed Terpsichore HMS Modeste, but never commissioned her.

On 22 May 1814 Majestic recaptured the former British naval schooner Dominica, which the American privateer Decatur had captured the year before.[9] At the time of her recapture, Dominica was sailing under a letter of marque, had a crew of 38 men, and was armed with four 6-pounder guns.

Majestic was broken up in 1816 after a stranding.

large (1).jpg
Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Thunderer' (1783), 'Terrible' (1785), 'Venerable' (1784), 'Victorious' (1785), 'Theseus' (1786), 'Ramillies' (1785), and 'Hannibal' (1786), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The plan also records alterations dated January 1813 for cutting down 74-gun Third Rates to Frigates, relating specifically to 'Majestic' (1785), 'Resolution' (1770), and 'Culloden' (1783), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Only the 'Majestic' was cut down to a 58-gun Fourth Rate, as the other two were broken up in 1813.

The Canada class ships of the line were a series of four 74-gun third rates designed for the Royal Navy by William Bateley. The name ship of the class was launched in 1765.

Design
During this period in British naval architecture, the 74-gun third rates were divided into two distinct groupings: the 'large' and 'common' classes. The Canada class ships belonged to the latter grouping, carrying 18-pounder guns on their upper gun decks, as opposed to the 24-pounders of the large class.

Service
HMS Captain, made famous for Nelson's actions at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, belonged to this class of ships.

large (2).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration for Canada (1765), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker.

Ships
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Launched: 17 September 1765
Fate: Broken up, 1834
Builder: Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 23 August 1781
Launched: 11 December 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1816
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 2 October 1782
Launched: 1 June 1787
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Launched: 26 January 1787
Fate: Burned and broken up, 1813

large (3).jpg
An incident during the French Revolutionary War, 1793-1802. At the beginning of 1797, the British Admiral Sir John Jervis, with 11 sail of the line, lay in the Tagus, while a Spanish fleet of 27 sail of the line lay at Cartagena. The Spanish intended to join the French fleet at Brest, while Sir John's aim was to prevent this. He prepared to rendezvous with Rear-Admiral William Parker off Cape St Vincent. Admiral Don Jose de Cordova left Cartagena with the Spanish fleet on 1 February for Brest via Cadiz but was blown off course by the fierce Levanter wind. This pushed the Spanish out into the Atlantic until the wind swung north-west on the 13th, by which time they were close to the British fleet. At 2.30 am on the morning of the 14th Jervis learnt from a Portuguese frigate that the Spanish fleet was 35 miles to windward. When sighted, the Spanish were in two divisions, which the British passed between on the opposite tack, and then turned in succession to follow the weather division. It was then that Commodore Nelson made his famous decision. His ship, the 'Captain', 74 guns, was the third from last in the line and it was clear to him that, if he followed the line and turned in succession, he would never catch up with the enemy. He therefore turned out of line to cut off the Spanish and on a signal from Jervis was followed and supported by Captain Collingwood's 'Excellent', 74 guns, the last ship in the line. The painting shows the 'Captain', the Spanish ships 'San Nicolas', 80 guns and the 'San Josef', 112 guns, occupying the foreground, all in starboard-quarter view. To the left and nearest is the 'Captain', her fore-topmast over her starboard side and her port bow up against the 'San Nicolas's' starboard quarter. Aboard the 'San Nicolas', her pendant is shown coming down and a sailor on the poop is hauling down her ensign. Her mizzen mast is shot away and may be represented by the spar shown floating in the left foreground. Her bowsprit is caught up in the 'San Josef's' starboard main shrouds beyond and to the right. In both the left and right background are ships in action, in starboard-quarter view. The painting records the manoeuvre, which became known as 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First-Rates'. Pocock placed considerable importance on accuracy and referred to annotated drawings and sketch plans in the production of his oil paintings. He was born and brought up in Bristol, went to sea at the age of 17 and rose to command several merchant ships. 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 80, Pocock had recorded nearly forty years of maritime history, demonstrating a meticulous understanding of shipping and rigging with close attention to detail. Pocock devoted much of his later years to illustrating Nelson's sea battles. This was the last in the series of six paintings for a two-volume 'Life of Nelson', begun shortly after Nelson's death in 1805 by Clarke and McArthur, and published in 1809. The paintings were engraved by James Fittler and reproduced in the biography with lengthy explanatory texts. The painting is signed and dated 'NP 1808'.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Majestic_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-328247;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 December 1799 - Battle of Port Louis
HMS Tremendous and HMS Adamant (50), Cptn. William Hotham, drove ashore French frigate Preneuse (44), Cptn. L'Hermite, ashore about three miles from Port Louis, Mauritius. She struck and was boarded and set on fire by the ships boats. Shortly afterwards she blew up.



The Battle of Port Louis was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars, fought on 11 December 1799 at the mouth of the Tombeau River near Port Louis on the French Indian Ocean island of Île de France, later known as Mauritius. Preneuse had originally been part of a powerful squadron of six frigates sent to the Indian Ocean in 1796 under the command of Contre-amiral Pierre César Charles de Sercey, but the squadron dispersed in 1798 and by the summer of 1799 Preneuse was the only significant French warship remaining in the region. The battle was the culmination of a three-month raiding cruise by the 40-gun French Navy frigate Preneuse, commanded by Captain Jean-Matthieu-Adrien Lhermitte. Ordered to raid British commerce in the Mozambique Channel, Lhermitte's cruise had been eventful, with an inconclusive encounter with a squadron of small British warships in Algoa Bay on 20 September and an engagement with the 50-gun HMS Jupiter during heavy weather on 9–11 October.

Preneuse-lhermitte5.jpg
Destruction of the Preneuse

Returning to Île de France in December, Lhermitte steered for Port Louis but was intercepted by the British blockade squadron, comprising the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Tremendous and the 50-gun HMS Adamant. Unable to reach safety, Lhermitte evaded pursuit long enough to drive Preneuse onto a beach at the mouth of the Tombeau. After a brief exchange of fire the wrecked frigate was surrendered and British boarding parties in ship's boats rowed inshore to Preneuse, removed the survivors and burnt the remains. Watching from the shore as the last of his command burned on the beach, Sercey subsequently retired from military service.


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

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

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

Battle of Algoa Bay

Preneuse_5248.jpg
Affaire de la Preneuse, L. Garneray, 1837

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

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

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

Sjøslag_i_Lagoa-bukten,_Madagaskar,_21.-22._sept._1799.jpg
Algoa Bay, 20–21 September 1799. French frigate Preneuse against HMS Camel and the privateer Surprise

Chase off Port Louis
Lhermitte had little subsequent success, and Preneuse returned to Port Louis in early December 1799. The entrance to the port was blockaded by the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Tremendous under Captain John Osborn (Royal Navy officer) and the 50-gun HMS Adamant under Captain William Hotham. These ships had been sent specifically to intercept Preneuse, arriving at Port Louis on 7 December and successfully intercepting the merchant French vessels Benjamin and Bienfaitand the Spanish Nuestra Señora del Carmen. Four days later they sighted the approaching frigate and chased it northeast, Adamant pressing so close that Lhermitte could not escape and was forced to drive the frigate on shore at the mouth of the Tombeau River within range of a large shore battery.

At 15:00 Lhermitte ordered the masts on Preneuse to be cut away and the frigate and battery then opened fire on Adamant, which was carefully sailing through the coastal shoals in an effort to engage the beached French ship. For more than two hours Hotham's ship worked its way inshore until at 17:30 it was well positioned to open fire, unleashing its broadside on the wrecked Preneuse. By 17:45 it was clear that further resistance was futile and Lhermitte struck his colours. Preneuse had surrendered, but was likely damaged beyond repair.

Hotham and Osborn discussed the situation and determined to destroy the wreck to deny it to the French. To this end, three cutters were gathered and a boarding party under Lieutenant Edward Grey sent in to attack Preneuse at 20:00. This party came under fire from the batteries but was able to successfully access the battered French frigate at 21:00, finding that only the officers and a handful of sailors remained, the others having been given the opportunity to escape to the shore in boats rather than become prisoners of war. Among the captives was Lhermitte, who was permitted to bring his personal baggage with him before he was brought to the British squadron as a prisoner. Grey then set the wrecked ship alight before returning to Adamant, having executed his orders without losing a single man.

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

Aftermath
As Preneuse had gone ashore near Port Louis, Sercey had come to observe the engagement and therefore witnessed the destruction of the last of his squadron of 1796. A commander without a command he subsequently took ship back to France and there retired from his commission, later returning to his family and settling on Île de France. The action temporarily left the French with no naval forces in the East Indies at all, although raiding cruises by privateers still posed a considerable threat to the British Indian Ocean trade routes. The only subsequent reinforcement to arrive in the region during the war was the frigate Chiffone was intercepted and captured at the Battle of Mahé shortly after arrival in 1801, although substantial reinforcements did reach Île de France before the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803.

Lhermitte subsequently came under criticism from historians for his failure to inflict greater damage on the light force in Algoa Bay: William James described it as "a somewhat discreditable action". Granger was also heavily criticised for his performance in the action on 11 October: William Laird Clowes considered that "No explanation of the Jupiter's failure can be given", while James wrote of the action with Jupiter that "Undoubtedly it was a cause of triumph to Captain L'Hermite and well calculated to wipe away the disgrace incurred by Preneuse at Algoa bay"


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

Class and type: Preneuse class frigate
Displacement: 721 tonnes
Length: 47.8 m (157 ft)
Beam: 11.9 m (39 ft)
Draught: 5.8 m (19 ft)
Complement: 300 men
Armament: 28 × 18-pounder long guns + 12 × 8-pounder long guns

large (5).jpg
lines & profile It is likely that these plans show her prior to her refit. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 712, states that 'Africaine' (the only one sistership of the Preneuse) was refitted at Deptford Dockyard between 17 February 1802 and 17 February 1803.

Career
In 1795, Preneuse was stationned at Rochefort under Captain Larcher. She was then transferred to the Indian Ocean station, commanded by Rear-Admiral Sercey.

In 1796, she was a Mauritius under Captain Ravenel, at Port-Nord-Ouest.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Port_Louis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Preneuse_(1795)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-289602;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
 
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