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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1943 - Mutsu – On 8 June 1943, while at Hashirajima fleet anchorage, the Japanese battleship suffered an internal explosion and sank.
At the time 113 flying cadets and 40 instructors from the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group were aboard for familiarization. The magazine of her No. 3 turret exploded destroying the adjacent structure of the ship and cutting her in half. A massive influx of water into the machinery spaces caused the 150-meter (490 ft) forward section of the ship to capsize starboard and sink almost immediately. The 45-meter (148 ft) stern section upended and floated until about 02:00 hrs on 9 June before sinking a few hundred feet south of the main wreck. Of 1,474 crew and visitors aboard, 1,121 were killed in the explosion.



Mutsu was the second and last Nagato-class dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) at the end of World War I. It was named after the province, In 1923 she carried supplies for the survivors of the Great Kantō earthquake. The ship was modernized in 1934–1936 with improvements to her armour and machinery, and a rebuilt superstructure in the pagoda mast style.

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Other than participating in the Battle of Midway and the Battle of the Eastern Solomons in 1942, where she did not see any significant combat, Mutsu spent most of the first year of the Pacific War in training. She returned to Japan in early 1943. That June, one of her aft magazines detonated while she was at anchor, sinking the ship with the loss of 1,121 crew and visitors. The IJN investigation into the cause of her loss concluded that it was the work of a disgruntled crew member. The navy dispersed the survivors in an attempt to conceal the sinking in the interest of morale in Japan. Much of the wreck was scrapped after the war, but some artefacts and relics are on display in Japan, and a small portion of the ship remains where it was sunk.

Loss
On 8 June 1943, Mutsu was moored in the Hashirajima fleet anchorage, with 113 flying cadets and 40 instructors from the Tsuchiura Naval Air Group aboard for familiarisation. At 12:13 the magazine of her No. 3 turret exploded, destroying the adjacent structure of the ship and cutting her in half. A massive influx of water into the machinery spaces caused the 150-metre (490 ft) forward section of the ship to capsize to starboard and sink almost immediately. The 45-metre (148 ft) stern section upended and remained floating until about 02:00 hours on 9 June before sinking, coming to rest a few hundred feet south of the main wreck at coordinates 33°58′N 132°24′ECoordinates:
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33°58′N 132°24′E.

The nearby Fusō immediately launched two boats which, together with the destroyers Tamanami and Wakatsuki and the cruisers Tatsuta and Mogami, rescued 353 survivors from the 1,474 crew members and visitors aboard Mutsu; 1,121 men were killed in the explosion. Only 13 of the visiting aviators were among the survivors.

After the explosion, as the rescue operations commenced, the fleet was alerted and the area was searched for Allied submarines, but no traces were found. To avert the potential damage to morale from the loss of a battleship so soon after the string of recent setbacks in the war effort, Mutsu's destruction was declared a state secret. Mass cremations of recovered bodies began almost immediately after the sinking. Captain Teruhiko Miyoshi's body was recovered by divers on 17 June, but his wife was not officially notified until 6 January 1944. Both he and his second in command, Captain Koro Oono, were posthumously promoted to rear admiral, as was normal practice. To further prevent rumours from spreading, healthy and recovered survivors were reassigned to various garrisons in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the survivors were sent to Truk in the Caroline Islands and assigned to the 41st Guard Force. Another 150 were sent to Saipan in the Mariana Islands, where most were killed in 1944 during the battle for the island.

At the time of the explosion, Mutsu's magazine contained some 16-inch Type 3 "Sanshikidan" incendiary shrapnel anti-aircraft shells, which had caused a fire at the Sagami arsenal several years earlier due to improper storage. Because they might have been the cause of the explosion, the minister of the navy, Admiral Shimada Shigetaro, immediately ordered the removal of Type 3 shells from all IJN ships carrying them, until the conclusion of the investigation into the loss.

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Investigation into the loss
A commission led by Admiral Kōichi Shiozawa was convened three days after the sinking to investigate the loss. The commission considered several possible causes:
  • Sabotage by enemy secret agents. Given the heavy security at the anchorage and lack of claims of responsibility by the Allies, this could be discounted.
  • Sabotage by a disgruntled crewman. While no individual was named in the commission's final report, its conclusion was that the cause of the explosion was most likely a crewman in No. 3 turret who had recently been accused of theft and was believed to be suicidal.
  • A midget or fleet submarine attack. Extensive searches immediately following the sinking had failed to detect any enemy submarine, and the Allies had made no attempt at claiming the enormous propaganda value of sinking a capital ship in her home anchorage; consequently, this possibility was quickly discounted. Eyewitnesses also spoke of a reddish-brown fireball, which indicated a magazine explosion; this was confirmed during exploration of the wreck by divers.
  • Accidental explosion within a magazine. While the Mutsu carried many projectiles, immediate suspicion focused on the Type 3 anti-aircraft shell as it was believed to have caused a fire before the war at the Sagami arsenal. Known as "sanshiki-dan", these were fired by the main armament and contained 900 to 1,200 25 mm diameter steel tubes (depending upon sources), each containing an incendiary charge. Tests were conducted at Kamegakubi Naval Proving Ground on several shells salvaged from No. 3 turret and on shells from the previous and succeeding manufacturing batches. Using a specially built model of the Mutsu's No. 3 turret, the experiments were unable to induce the shells to explode under normal conditions.
The commission issued its preliminary conclusions on 25 June, well before the divers had completed their investigation of the wreck, and concluded that the explosion was the result of a disgruntled seaman. Historian Mike Williams put forward an alternative theory of fire:

A number of observers noted smoke coming from the vicinity of No. 3 turret and the aircraft area just forward of it, just before the explosion. Compared with other nations' warships in wartime service, Japanese battleships contained a large amount of flammable materials including wooden decking, furniture, and insulation, as well as cotton and wool bedding. Although she had been modernized in the 1930s, some of the Mutsu's original electrical wiring may have remained in use. While fire in the secure magazines was a very remote possibility, a fire in an area adjacent to the No. 3 magazine could have raised the temperature to a level sufficient to ignite the highly sensitive black-powder primers stored in the magazine and thus cause the explosion.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1945 - Ashigara – On 8 June 1945 the Japanese cruiser left Batavia for Singapore with 1,600 troops aboard escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze.
In the Bangka Strait the two ships were attacked by the Allied submarines USS Blueback, HMS Trenchant and HMS Stygian. Kamikaze attacked Trenchant with gunfire forcing her to submerge and then with depth charges, but Trenchant fired eight torpedoes at Ashigara. Ashigara was hit five times and capsized. Kamikaze rescued 400 troops and 853 crew.



The Action of 8 June 1945, sometimes called the Sinking of Ashigara was a naval action that resulted in the sinking of the heavy cruiser Ashigara of the Imperial Japanese Navy by the British Royal Navy submarine HMS Trenchant. Ashigara was transporting Japanese troops from Indonesia for the defence of Singapore, and the sinking resulted in a heavy loss of life.

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Japanese Myōkō-class heavy cruiser Ashigara

Background
Ashigara departed Batavia (present-day Jakarta) on 7 June 1945 for Singapore with 1,600 troops and 480 tons of supplies on board to reinforce the defence of that city.[2] She was escorted by the destroyer Kamikaze, which had survived the Japanese defeat in the Malacca Strait. Their planned route was north from Batavia, then NNW through the Bangka Strait between Sumatra and Bangka Island, then north to Singapore.

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Blueback observed their departure but was unable to maneuver into an attack position. Blueback's contact report was passed on to HMS Trenchant, under the command of Cdr Arthur Hezlet. In company with the submarine HMS Stygian (Lt G. C. Clarabut), Trenchant took up position on the northern approaches of Bangka Strait - Trenchant just inside the strait, south of Hendrik Klippen Shoal, while Stygian patrolled north of the shoal. Both submarines were on the surface. To get into position, Trenchant had to negotiate a minefield laid earlier by the Royal Netherlands Navysubmarine HNLMS O 19.

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Ashigara in drydock at Singapore, December 1942

The action
On 8 June 1945 at 0423, Kamikaze was spotted by Trenchant, which in turn was spotted by the Japanese destroyer at 0436. Kamikaze began firing her guns at Trenchant, and the submarine fired a single torpedo from her stern tubes; however, both ships missed each other and also lost contact. Trenchantimmediately sent a contact report to Stygian, reporting that she had been detected by the destroyer, then changed position to east of the shoal and dived at 0702. Hezlet spotted Kamikaze again at 0955 heading north, but disappearing from sight at 1030.

Stygian saw star shells fired by Kamikaze at 0439 during the short engagement with Trenchant, and also received the contact report. She remained north of the shoal, judging correctly that Trenchant was clear of the enemy, since there was no further gunfire, and no depth charge detonations had been heard, then dived at 0722. At 1015 she spotted Kamikaze heading north, along with patrolling Japanese aircraft. At 1050, after Kamikaze changed course back to the south, Stygian fired two torpedoes at her at a range of 800 yd (730 m), but the destroyer spotted the torpedo tracks and took evasive action, causing both torpedoes to miss. Kamikaze counterattacked the submarine with depth charges, causing minor damage to Stygian, but then lost contact, with depth-charge explosions becoming more and more distant.

Aboard Trenchant, Hezlet now spotted the masts and upper works of Ashigara through his periscope at 1148, bearing 177 degrees at a range of 12,000 yd (6.8 mi; 11 km), heading northwest on a course of 330 degrees at a speed of 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h). Trenchant did not close the range, assuming that Ashigara would come closer to her by taking the more open water east of the shoal (closer to Bangka Island), but instead the heavy cruiser chose to pass through the very restricted water west of the shoal, closer to the Sumatra coast. It soon became clear to Hezlet that he could not reach a firing position closer to Ashigara than 4,000 yd (3,700 m), almost at the maximum range of his torpedoes.

At such a distance, Hezlet had to quickly make precise calculations before his chance of an attack disappeared. At 1209 Trenchant fired a full bow salvo of eight torpedoes from abaft the cruiser's starboard beam at a range of 4,700 yd (4,300 m) aimed individually from a quarter of length ahead to a quarter of a length astern. Because of the Sumatran shoreline to port Ashigara could only change course to starboard 20 degrees and increased speed to 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h) in an attempt to comb the torpedo tracks. However, this was not enough to evade the attack, and after three minutes five torpedoes struck Ashigara on the starboard side, causing severe damage and setting her on fire. Trenchant's company queued to view through the search periscope, but the periscope attracted fire from Ashigara's anti-aircraft guns. Hezlet then turned Trenchant to bring her stern tubes to bear and fired two more torpedoes at 1224, but missed. Torpedoes fired by Ashigara at Trenchant's periscope missed, but a fire caused by the first hits had spread rapidly through Ashigara causing a huge pall of smoke to obscure Hezlet's view.

Kamikaze had returned to the area and dropped three patterns of depth charges, but these were no closer than 3 mi (2.6 nmi; 4.8 km) from Trenchant. Ashigara capsized to starboard at 1239, and Kamikaze picked up survivors, assisted by two local vessels. Trenchant remained submerged and escaped to the north of Bangka Strait, returning to Subic Bay, Philippines on 20 June 1945, followed by Stygian on 27 June 1945.

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HMS Trenchant flying the Jolly Roger after sinking Ashigara

Aftermath
Losses in the sinking were heavy; out of 1,600 troops, only 400 were saved, while 850 of her crew were rescued, including Captain Miura. Ashigara had been the last remaining major Japanese warship in the area after the cruiser Haguro was sunk the previous month by British destroyers. After her sinking, the 10th Area Fleet based out of Singapore was left with Kamikaze as its only significant surface ship.

The sinking of Ashigara earned Hezlet a bar to his DSO and the U.S. Legion of Merit. HMS Trenchant flew the Jolly Roger as a tribute to her success when she reached her base at Trincomalee. Tactically it was one of the most brilliant submarine attacks of the war in terms of range.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1967 - USS Liberty - On 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War, the United States Navy technical research ship USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats while in international waters.
Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members, wounded 171 crew members and severely damaged the ship which was subsequently scrapped.



The USS Liberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship, USS Liberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. The combined air and sea attack killed 34 crew members (naval officers, seamen, two marines, and one civilian), wounded 171 crew members, and severely damaged the ship. At the time, the ship was in international waters north of the Sinai Peninsula, about 25.5 nmi (29.3 mi; 47.2 km) northwest from the Egyptian city of Arish.

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Damaged USS Liberty one day (9 June 1967) after attack

Israel apologized for the attack, saying that the USS Liberty had been attacked in error after being mistaken for an Egyptian ship. Both the Israeli and U.S. governments conducted inquiries and issued reports that concluded the attack was a mistake due to Israeli confusion about the ship's identity.[6]Others, including survivors of the attack, have rejected these conclusions and maintain that the attack was deliberate.

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Liberty turns to evade Israeli torpedo boats

In May 1968, the Israeli government paid US$3.32 million (equivalent to US$23.9 million in 2018) to the U.S. government in compensation for the families of the 34 men killed in the attack. In March 1969, Israel paid a further $3.57 million ($24.4 million in 2018) to the men who had been wounded. In December 1980, it agreed to pay $6 million ($18.2 million in 2018) as the final settlement for material damage to Liberty itself plus 13 years of interest

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The 6th Fleet flagship, USS Little Rock standing by Liberty



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 8 June


1535 - Battle of Bornholm, 8th June 1535




1681 - Action of 1681/06/08, 8th June 1681

At the south of the Isle of Sapienza , the Fort against 6 ships of Tripoli : Lune , Dragon, Cheval Blanc of 50 guns each and 3 others
Retrait of the ships to the Isle of Chio



1708 - Wager's Action was a naval confrontation on 8 June 1708 N.S (28 May O.S.), between a British squadron under Charles Wager and the Spanish treasure fleet, as part of the War of Spanish Succession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wager's_Action


1762 – Launch of HMS Emerald, a Niger-class frigate

The Niger-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1757 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were an improvement on his 1756 design for the 32-gun Southampton-class frigates.

Slade's design was approved in September 1757, on which date four ships were approved to be built to these plans - three by contract and a fourth in a royal dockyard. Seven more ships were ordered to the same design between 1759 and 1762 - three more to be built by contract and four in royal dockyards. Stag and Quebec were both reduced to 28-gun sixth rates in 1778, but were then restored to 32-gun fifth rates in 1779.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Alarm (1758), Aeolus (1758), Montreal (1761), Niger (1759), Quebec (1760), Stag (1758), and Winchelsea (1764), all 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigates. The plan includes alterations, dated 1769, to the main channels and deadeyes



1789 – Launch of Aquilon, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy

Aquilon was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
She served off Italy in Vice-Admiral Brueys' squadron under Captain Antoine-René Thévenard, and took part in the Battle of the Nile, where she fought HMS Vanguard, HMS Minotaur and HMS Theseus. She was captured and recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Aboukir.

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Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Aquilon (1789), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.



1794 - June 8 - French vs British near Jersey

HMS Crescent
(36), Cptn. James Saumarez, HMS Druid (32), Cptn. Ellison, and HMS Eurydice (24), Cptn. Francis Cole, engaged French squadron off the West coast of Guernsey..

On 8 June 1794, Eurydice, along with the 36-gun Crescent, the 32-gun Druid and six smaller vessels, all under the command of Sir James Saumarez were sent from Plymouth to reconnoitre the French coast. Off the north-west coast of Guernsey they encountered the two 50-gun French razees – Scévola and Brutus – the two 36-gun frigates Danaé and Félicité, and a 14-gun brig. Saumarez ordered Eurydice, his slowest ship, into port to avoid her capture and then lured the French ships into range of Guernsey's shore-based guns. He then turned across the line of the French ships and through a narrow passage between the rocks, which enabled him to escape. A memorial plaque at Castle Cornet in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, depicts the encounter.



1795 - June 8 and 9 - British vs French near Belle Isle

HMS Kingfisher
(18) engaged a French convoy.

HMS Kingfisher was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy which saw service during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.



1796 - First day of 4 day campaign by HMS Arethusa (38), Cptn. Thomas Wolley, with three frigates, two sloops and army units capturing island of St. Vincent.

HMS Arethusa
was a 38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built at Bristol in 1781. She served in three wars and made a number of notable captures before she was broken up in 1815.



1813 Boats of HMS Elizabeth (74), Cptn. Leveson Gower, and HMS Eagle (74), Cptn. Charles Rowley, defeated troops at Omago.

HMS Elizabeth
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 May 1807 at Blackwall

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building 'Magnificent' (1806), 'Valiant' (1807), 'Elizabeth' (1807), 'Cumberland' (1807), and 'Venerable' (1808), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers, similar to the 'Repulse' (1803), 'Sceptre' (1802), and 'Eagle' (1804)

HMS Eagle was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 February 1804 at Northfleet.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Sceptre' (1802), 'Repulse' (1803) and 'Eagle' (1804), and with modifications for 'Belleisle' (1819), 'Malabar' (1818) and 'Talavera' (1818), all 74-gun, Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793 to 1813]





1856 – A group of 194 Pitcairn Islanders, descendants of the mutineers of HMS Bounty, arrives at Norfolk Island, commencing the Third Settlement of the Island.

European settlement
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The mutineers turning Bligh and part of the officers and crew adrift from the Bounty, 29 April 1789
Further information: HMS Bounty and Mutiny on the Bounty

In 1790, nine of the mutineers from the Bounty, along with the native Tahitian men and women who were with them (six men, eleven women, and a baby girl), settled on Pitcairn Island and set fire to the Bounty. The wreck is still visible underwater in Bounty Bay, discovered in 1957 by National Geographic explorer Luis Marden. Although the settlers survived by farming and fishing, the initial period of settlement was marked by serious tensions among them. Alcoholism, murder, disease and other ills took the lives of most mutineers and Tahitian men. John Adams and Ned Young turned to the scriptures, using the ship's Bible as their guide for a new and peaceful society. Young eventually died of an asthmatic infection.

Ducie Island was rediscovered in 1791 by Royal Navy captain Edwards aboard HMS Pandora, while searching for the Bounty mutineers. He named it after Francis Reynolds-Moreton, 3rd Baron Ducie, also a captain in the Royal Navy.

The Pitcairn islanders reported it was not until 27 December 1795 that the first ship since the Bounty was seen from the island, but it did not approach the land and they could not make out the nationality. A second ship appeared in 1801, but made no attempt to communicate with them. A third came sufficiently near to see their house, but did not try to send a boat on shore. Finally, the American sealing ship Topaz, under Mayhew Folger, became the first to visit the island, when the crew spent 10 hours on Pitcairn in February 1808.

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A view of Pitcairn's Island, South Seas, 1814, J. Shillibeer

A report of Folger's discovery was forwarded to the Admiralty, mentioning the mutineers and giving a more precise location of the island: 25°02′S 130°00′W. However, this was not known to Sir Thomas Staines, who commanded a Royal Navy flotilla of two ships, the (HMS Briton and HMS Tagus), which found the island at 25°04′S 130°25′W (by meridian observation) on 17 September 1814. Staines sent a party ashore and wrote a detailed report for the Admiralty. By that time, only one mutineer, John Adams, remained alive. He was granted amnesty for his part in the mutiny.

Henderson Island was rediscovered on 17 January 1819 by British Captain James Henderson of the British East India Company ship Hercules. Captain Henry King, sailing on the Elizabeth, landed on 2 March to find the king's colours already flying. His crew scratched the name of their ship into a tree. Oeno Island was discovered on 26 January 1824 by American captain George Worth aboard the whaler Oeno.

In 1832 a Church Missionary Society missionary, Joshua Hill, arrived. He reported that by March 1833, he had founded a Temperance Society to combat drunkenness, a "Maundy Thursday Society", a monthly prayer meeting, a juvenile society, a Peace Society and a school.



1917 - Sequana – On 8 June, the troopship sailing between Dakar and Bordeaux was torpedoed and sunk 5 miles from the Île d'Yeu by SM UC-72 ( Imperial German Navy) with the loss of 207 lives. Most casualties were Senegalese soldiers



1943 - TBF aircraft from USS Bogue (ACV 9) damage German submarine (U 758) west by south of the Canary Islands


1943 - USS Finback (SS 230) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks auxiliary minelayer Kahoku Maru about 100 miles north of Palau.


1943 - Antoniotto Usodimare – On 8 June 1942 the Italian destroyer, while escorting a convoy from Naples to Tripoli, was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Alagi in a friendly fire incident. The destroyer immediately broke in two and sank in a few minutes off Cape Bon. 141 of the 306 people aboard (including a small group of naval officers and ratings on passage) were killed.




1944 - Kazagumo – On 8 June 1944, while escorting Myōkō and Haguro from Davao to support Biak troop transport operations, the Japanese destroyer Kazagumo was torpedoed and sunk by USS Hake at the mouth of Davao Gulf. Of 228 crew, 95 were killed.

Kazagumo (風雲) was a Yūgumo-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means "Wind and Clouds".

Japanese_destroyer_Kazagumo_on_28_March_1942.jpg



1944 - USS Rich – On 8 June 1944, in support of the Normandy invasion, the US destroyer escort was sunk after striking mines. After the detonation of a mine off her starboard side that caused no damage, a second mine exploded beneath her and blew off her stern. Shortly after a third mine exploded wrecking the forward section of the ship. Of her crew 91 were killed outright or died of wounds after their rescue. Rich was the only US destroyer escort lost in the invasion force.

USS Rich (DE-695)
was a Buckley-class destroyer escort, the first United States Navy ship named in honor of Lieutenant (j.g.) Ralph M. Rich (1916–1942) who was awarded the Navy Cross for his leadership as a fighter pilot off Enterprise during the Battle of Midway.

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USS Rich, left, shortly before being mined, 1944



1944 - Harusame – On 8 June 1944, while on an assignment to evacuate troops from Biak, the Japanese destroyer Harusame was attacked and sunk by USAAF B-25 bombers about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of Manokwari, New Guinea. Of the 226 crew aboard, 74 were killed.

Harusame (春雨, Spring Rain)[1] was the sixth of ten Shiratsuyu-class destroyers, and was built for the Imperial Japanese Navy under the "Circle One" Program (Maru Ichi Keikaku).[2] This vessel should not be confused with the earlier Russo-Japanese War-period Harusame-class torpedo boat destroyer with the same name.

Harusame_II.jpg

 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1667 – The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English battleships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent.
It lasts for five days and results in the worst ever defeat of the Royal Navy.

Part I


The Raid on the Medway, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War in June 1667, was a successful attack conducted by the Dutch navy on English battleships laid up in the fleet anchorages off Chatham Dockyard and Gillingham in the county of Kent. At the time, the fortress of Upnor Castle and a barrier chain called the "Gillingham Line" were supposed to protect the English ships.

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The Dutch, under nominal command of Willem Joseph van Ghent and Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, over several days bombarded and captured the town of Sheerness, sailed up the Thames estuary to Gravesend, then sailed into the River Medway to Chatham and Gillingham, where they engaged fortifications with cannon fire, burned or captured three capital ships and ten more ships of the line, and captured and towed away the flagship of the English fleet, HMS Royal Charles.

Politically, the raid was disastrous for King Charles' war plans and led to a quick end to the war and a favourable peace for the Dutch. It was one of the worst defeats in the Royal Navy's history, and one of the worst suffered by the British military. Horace George Franks called it the "most serious defeat it has ever had in its home waters."

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Attack on the Medway, June 1667, by Van Soest

Prelude
Further information: Second Anglo-Dutch War
In 1667 Charles II's active fleet was in a reduced state due to recent expenditure restrictions, with the remaining "big ships" laid up. The Dutch seized this opportunity to attack the English. They had made earlier plans for such an attack in 1666 after the Four Days Battle but were prevented from carrying them out by their defeat in the St James's Day Battle. The mastermind behind the plan was the leading Dutch politician Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt. His brother Cornelis de Witt accompanied the fleet to supervise. Peace negotiations had already been in progress at Breda since March, but Charles had been procrastinating over the signing of peace, hoping to improve his position through secret French assistance. Based on these assumptions De Witt thought it best to end the war quickly with a clear victory, thereby ensuring a more advantageous settlement for the Dutch Republic. Most Dutch flag officers had strong doubts about the feasibility of such a daring attack, fearing the treacherous shoals in the Thames estuary, but they obeyed orders nevertheless. The Dutch made use of two English pilots who had defected, one a dissenter named Robert Holland, the other a smuggler who had fled English justice.

The raid
The Dutch approach

On 17 May the squadron of the Admiralty of Rotterdam with De Ruyter sailed to the Texel to join those of Amsterdam and the Northern Quarter. Hearing that the squadron of Frisia was not yet ready because of recruiting problems (impressment being forbidden in the Republic), he left for the Schooneveld off the Dutch coast to join the squadron of Zealand that, however, suffered from similar problems. De Ruyter then departed for the Thames on 4 June (Old Style used by the English, the Dutch at the time were officially using New Style dates) with 62 frigates or ships-of-the-line, about fifteen lighter ships and twelve fireships, when the wind turned to the east. The fleet was reorganised into three squadrons: the first was commanded by De Ruyter himself, with as Vice-Admiral Johan de Liefde and Rear-Admiral Jan Jansse van Nes; the second was commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Aert Jansse van Nes with as Vice-Admiral Enno Doedes Star and Rear-Admiral Willem van der Zaan; the third was commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Baron Willem Joseph van Ghent with Lieutenant-Admiral Jan van Meppel in subcommand and as Vice-Admirals Isaac Sweers and Volckert Schram and as Rear-Admirals David Vlugh and Jan Gideonsz Verburgh. The third squadron thus effectively had a second set of commanders; this was done to use these as flag officers of a special frigate landing force, to be formed on arrival and to be headed by Colonel and Lieutenant-Admiral Van Ghent, on the frigate Agatha. Baron Van Ghent was in fact the real commander of the expedition and had done all the operational planning, as he had been the former commander of the Dutch Marine Corps (the first corps in history to be specialised in amphibious operations) that now was headed by the Englishman Colonel Thomas Dolman.

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Map showing the events

On 6 June a fog bank was blown away and revealed the Dutch task force, sailing into the mouth of the Thames. On 7 June Cornelis de Witt revealed his secret instructions from the States General, written on 20 May, in the presence of all commanders. There were so many objections, while De Ruyter's only substantial contribution to the discussion was "bevelen zijn bevelen" ("orders are orders"), that Cornelis, after retiring to his cabin late in the night, wrote in his daily report he did not feel at all sure that he would be obeyed. The next day it transpired however that most officers were in for a bit of adventure; they had just given their professional opinion for the record so they could blame the politicians should the whole enterprise end in disaster. That day an attempt was made to capture a fleet of twenty English merchantmen seen higher up the Thames in the direction of London, but this failed as these fled to the west, beyond Gravesend.

The attack caught the English unawares. No serious preparations had been made for such an eventuality, although there had been ample warning from the extensive English spy network. Most frigates were assembled in squadrons at Harwich and in Scotland, leaving the London area to be protected by only a small number of active ships, most of them prizes taken earlier in the war from the Dutch. As a further measure of economy, on 24 March the Duke of York had ordered the discharge of most of the crews of the prize vessels, leaving only three guard ships at the Medway; in compensation the crew of one of them, the frigate Unity (the first ship to be captured from the Dutch in 1665, from the privateer Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest) was raised from forty to sixty; also the number of fireships was increased from one to three. Additionally thirty large sloops were to be prepared to row any ship to safety in case of an emergency. Sir William Coventry declared that a Dutch landing near London was very unlikely; at most the Dutch, to bolster their morale, would launch a token attack at some medium-sized and exposed target like Harwich, which place therefore had been strongly fortified in the spring. There was no clear line of command with most responsible authorities giving hasty orders without bothering to co-ordinate them first.

As a result, there was much confusion. Charles did not take matters into his own hands, deferring mostly to the opinion of others. English morale was low. Not having been paid for months or even years, most sailors and soldiers were less than enthusiastic to risk their lives. England had only a small army and the few available units were dispersed as Dutch intentions were unclear. This explains why no effective countermeasures were taken though it took the Dutch about five days to reach Chatham, slowly manoeuvring through the shoals, leaving the heavier vessels behind as a covering force. They could only advance in jumps when the tide was favourable.

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The Battle of Chatham by Willem van der Stoop. Skokloster castle, Sweden.

After raising the alarm on 6 June at Chatham Dockyard, Commissioner Peter Pett seems not to have taken any further action until 9 June when, late in the afternoon, a fleet of about thirty Dutch ships was sighted in the Thames off Sheerness. At this point the Commissioner immediately sought assistance from the Admiralty, sending a pessimistic message to the Navy Board, lamenting the absence of Navy senior officials whose help and advice he believed he needed. The thirty ships were those of Van Ghent's squadron of frigates. The Dutch fleet carried about a thousand marines and landing parties were dispatched to Canvey Island in Essex and opposite on the Kent side at Sheerness. These men had strict orders by Cornelis de Witt not to plunder, as the Dutch wanted to shame the English whose troops had sacked Terschelling during Holmes's Bonfire in August 1666. Nevertheless, the crew of Captain Jan van Brakel could not control themselves. They were driven off by English militia, and found themselves under threat of severe punishment upon returning to the Dutch fleet. Van Brakel offered to lead the attack the next day to avoid the penalty.

The King ordered the Earl of Oxford on 8 June to mobilise the militia of all counties around London; also all available barges should be used to lay a ship's bridge across the Lower Thames, so that the English cavalry could quickly switch positions from one bank to the other. Sir Edward Spragge, the Vice-Admiral, learned on 9 June that a Dutch raiding party had come ashore on the Isle of Grain (a peninsula where the river Medway in Kent, meets the River Thames). Musketeers from the Sheerness garrison opposite were sent to investigate.

Only in the afternoon of 10 June did the King instruct Admiral George Monck, Duke of Albemarle to go to Chatham to take charge of matters, a full three days later ordering Admiral Prince Rupert to organise the defences at Woolwich. Albemarle went first to Gravesend where he noted to his dismay that there and at Tilbury only a few guns were present, too few to halt a possible Dutch advance upon the Thames. To prevent such a disaster, he ordered all available artillery from the capital to be positioned at Gravesend. On 11 June (Old Style) he went to Chatham, expecting the place to be well prepared for an attack. Two members of the Navy Board, Sir John Mennes and Lord Henry Brouncker, had already travelled there on the same day. When Albemarle arrived, however, he found only twelve of the eight hundred dockyard men expected and these in a state of panic; of the thirty sloops only ten were present, the other twenty having been used to evacuate the personal possessions of several officials, such as Pett's ship models. No munitions or powder were available and the six-inch thick iron chain that blocked the Medway had not yet been protected by batteries. This chain system had been built during the English Civil War to repel a possible attack by the Royalist fleet, replacing earlier versions, the first dating back to 1585. Albemarle immediately ordered the artillery to be moved from Gravesend to Chatham, which would take a day.

The attack
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A picture by Willem Schellincks of the raid. The view is from the south. On the left Upnor Castle is silhouetted against the flames; on the opposite side of the river more to the front the burning dockyard of Chatham. To the north the conflagration near the chain is shown and on the horizon the ruins of Sheerness Fort are still smoking

The Dutch fleet arrived at the Isle of Sheppey on 10 June, and launched an attack on the incomplete Garrison Point Fort. Captain Jan van Brakel in Vrede, ("peace") followed by two other men-of-war, sailed as close to the fort as possible to engage it with cannon fire. Sir Edward Spragge was in command of the ships at anchor in the Medway and those off Sheerness, but the only ship able to defend against the Dutch was the frigate Unity, which was stationed off the fort.

Unity was supported by a number of ketches and fireships at Garrison Point, and by the fort, where sixteen guns had been hastily placed. Unity fired one broadside, but then, when attacked by a Dutch fireship, she withdrew up the Medway, followed by the English fireships and ketches. The Dutch fired on the fort; two men were hit. It then transpired that no surgeon was available and most of the soldiers of the Scottish garrison now deserted. Seven remained, but their position became untenable when some 800 Dutch marines landed about a mile away. With Sheerness thus lost, its guns being captured by the Dutch and the building blown up, Spragge sailed up river for Chatham on his yacht Henrietta. Many officers were now assembled there: Spragge himself, the next day also Monck and several men of the admiralty board. All gave orders countermanding those of the others so that utter confusion reigned.

As his artillery would not arrive soon, Monck on the 11th ordered a squadron of cavalry and a company of soldiers to reinforce Upnor Castle. River defences were hastily improvised with blockships sunk, and the chain across the river was guarded by light batteries. Pett proposed that several big and smaller ships be sunk to block the Musselbank channel in front of the chain. This way the large Golden Phoenix and House of Sweden (the former VOC – ships Gulden Phenix and Huis van Swieten) and Welcome and Leicester were lost and the smaller Constant John, Unicorn and John and Sarah; when this was shown by Spragge to be insufficient, personally sounding the depth of a second channel despite the assurances by Pett, they were joined by Barbados Merchant, Dolphin, Edward and Eve, Hind and Fortune. To do this the men first intended for the warships to be protected were used, so the most valuable ships were basically without crews. These blockships were placed in a rather easterly position, on the line Upchurch – Stoke, and could not be covered by fire. Monck then decided also to sink blockships in Upnor Reach near Upnor Castle, presenting another barrier to the Dutch should they break through the chain at Gillingham. The defensive chain placed across the river had at its lowest point been lying practically nine feet (about three metres) under the water between its stages, owing to its weight, so it was still possible for light ships to pass it. Attempts were made to raise it by placing stages under it closer to the shore.

The positions of Charles V and Matthias (former Dutch merchantmen Carolus Quintus and Geldersche Ruyter), just above the chain were adjusted to enable them to bring their broadsides to bear upon it. Monmouth was also moored above the chain, positioned so that she could bring her guns to bear on the space between Charles V and Matthias. The frigate Marmaduke and Norway Merchant were sunk above the chain; the large Sancta Maria (former VOC-ship Slot van Honingen of 70 cannon) foundered while being moved for the same purpose. Pett also informed Monck that Royal Charles had to be moved upriver. He had been ordered by the Duke of York on 27 March to do this, but as yet had not complied. Monck at first refused to make available some of his small number of sloops, as they were needed to move supplies; when he at last found the captain of Matthias willing to assist, Pett answered that it was too late as he was busy sinking the blockships and there was no pilot to be found daring to take such a risk anyway. Meanwhile, the first Dutch frigates to arrive had already begun to move the Edward and Eve away, clearing a channel by nightfall.

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"Burning English ships" by Jan van Leyden. Shown are the events near Gillingham: in the middle Royal Charles is taken; on the right Pro Patria and Schiedam set Matthias and Charles V alight

Van Ghent's squadron now advanced up the Medway on 12 June, attacking the English defences at the chain. First Unity was taken by Van Brakel by assault. Then the fireship Pro Patria under commander Jan Daniëlsz van Rijn broke through the chain (or sailed over it according to some historians, distrusting the more spectacular traditional version of events), the stages of which were soon after destroyed by Dutch engineers commanded by Rear-Admiral David Vlugh. She then destroyed Matthias by fire. The fireships Catharina and Schiedam attacked Charles V; Catharina under commander Hendrik Hendriksz was sunk by the shore batteries but Schiedam under commander Gerrit Andriesz Mak set Charles V alight; the crew was captured by Van Brakel. Royal Charles, with only thirty cannon aboard and abandoned by her skeleton crew when they saw Matthias burn, was then captured by the Irishman Thomas Tobiasz, the flag captain of Vice-Admiral Johan de Liefde, and carried off to the Netherlands despite an unfavourable tide. This was made possible by lowering her draft by bringing her into a slight tilt. The jack was struck while a trumpeter played "Joan's placket is torn". Only Monmouth escaped. Seeing the disaster Monck ordered all sixteen remaining warships further up to be sunk to prevent them from being captured, making for a total of about thirty ships deliberately sunk by the English themselves. As Andrew Marvell satirised:

Of all our navy none should now survive,But that the ships themselves were taught to dive

On 13 June, the whole of the Thames side as far up as London was in a panic – some spread the rumour that the Dutch were in the process of transporting a French army from Dunkirk for a full-scale invasion – and many wealthy citizens fled the city, taking their most valuable possessions with them. The Dutch continued their advance into the Chatham docks with the fireships Delft, Rotterdam, Draak, Wapen van Londen, Gouden Appel and Princess, under English fire from Upnor Castle and from three shore batteries. A number of Dutch frigates suppressed the English fire, themselves suffering about forty casualties in dead and wounded. Three of the finest and heaviest vessels in the navy, already sunk to prevent capture, now perished by fire: first Loyal London, set alight by Rotterdam under commander Cornelis Jacobsz van der Hoeven; then Royal James and finally Royal Oak, that withstood attempts by two fireships but was burnt by a third. The English crews abandoned their half-flooded ships, mostly without a fight, a notable exception being army Captain Archibald Douglas, of the Scots Foot, who personally refused to abandon Royal Oak and perished in the flames. Monmouth again escaped. The raid thus cost the English four of their remaining eight ships with more than 75 cannon. Three of the four largest "big ships" of the navy were lost. The remaining "big ship", Royal Sovereign (the former Sovereign of the Seas rebuilt as a two-decker), was preserved due to her being at Portsmouth at the time. De Ruyter now joined Van Ghent's squadron in person.




 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1667 – The Raid on the Medway - Part II


Account by Samuel Pepys

Portrait of Samuel Pepys by J. Hayls

The diary of Samuel Pepys, as secretary of the Navy Board, is very often cited in descriptions of the raid, as it gives direct information about the attitude of the policy makers in this period and of the psychological impact of the attack.

Pepys at first seems to accept the consensus that the Dutch would not dare to launch an expedition against the London area; still on 18 April he writes: "(...)then to the office, where the news is strong that not only the Dutch cannot set out a fleete this year, but that the French will not, and that he [ Louis XIV ] hath given the answer to the Dutch Embassador, saying that he is for the King of England's having an honourable peace, which, if true, is the best news we have had a good while." At that moment De Ruyter had already been on De Zeven Provinciën for a week. Nevertheless, he is aware of the preparations at Chatham, writing on 23 March: "At the office all the morning, where Sir W. Pen [sic] come, being returned from Chatham, from considering the means of fortifying the river Medway, by a chain at the stakes, and ships laid there with guns to keep the enemy from coming up to burn our ships; all our care now being to fortify ourselves against their invading us." Also he is the next day present at the meeting where the details are given: "All their care they now take is to fortify themselves, and are not ashamed of it: for when by and by my Lord Arlington come in with letters, and seeing the King and Duke of York give us and the officers of the Ordnance directions in this matter, he did move that we might do it as privately as we could, that it might not come into the Dutch Gazette presently, as the King's and Duke of York's going down the other day to Sheerenesse was, the week after, in the Harlem Gazette. The King and Duke of York both laughed at it, and made no matter, but said, 'Let us be safe, and let them talk, for there is nothing will trouble them more, nor will prevent their coming more, than to hear that we are fortifying ourselves'."

Only on 3 June does Pepys become aware that the Dutch are out in force: "the Dutch are known to be abroad with eighty sail of ships of war, and twenty fire-ships; and the French come into the Channell with twenty sail of men-of-war, and five fireships, while we have not a ship at sea to do them any hurt with; but are calling in all we can, while our Embassadors are treating at Bredah; and the Dutch look upon them as come to beg peace, and use them accordingly; and all this through the negligence of our Prince, who hath power, if he would, to master all these with the money and men that he hath had the command of, and may now have, if he would mind his business."

Not until 10 June does Pepys understand that the Thames is the target: "News brought us that, the Dutch are come up as high as the Nore; and more pressing orders for fireships." The next day a growing sense of panic becomes apparent: "Up, and more letters still from Sir W. Coventry about more fire-ships, and so Sir W. Batten and I to the office, where Bruncker come to us, who is just now going to Chatham upon a desire of Commissioner Pett's, who is in a very fearful stink for fear of the Dutch, and desires help for God and the King and kingdom's sake. So Bruncker goes down, and Sir J. Minnes also, from Gravesend. This morning Pett writes us word that Sheernesse is lost last night, after two or three hours' dispute. The enemy hath possessed himself of that place; which is very sad, and puts us into great fears of Chatham." In the morning of the 12th he is reassured by the measures taken by Monck: "(...) met Sir W. Coventry's boy; and there in his letter find that the Dutch had made no motion since their taking Sheernesse; and the Duke of Albemarle writes that all is safe as to the great ships against any assault, the boom and chaine being so fortified; which put my heart into great joy." Soon, however, this confidence is shattered: "(...)his clerk, Powell, do tell me that ill newes is come to Court of the Dutch breaking the Chaine at Chatham; which struck me to the heart. And to White Hall to hear the truth of it; and there, going up the back-stairs, I did hear some lacquies speaking of sad newes come to Court, saying, that hardly anybody in the Court but do look as if he cried(...)."

Pepys immediately draws the conclusion that this will mean the end of Charles's regime and that a revolution is inevitable: "All our hearts do now ake; for the newes is true, that the Dutch have broke the chaine and burned our ships, and particularly "The Royal Charles", other particulars I know not, but most sad to be sure. And, the truth is, I do fear so much that the whole kingdom is undone, that I do this night resolve to study with my father and wife what to do with the little that I have in money by me(...).

On the 13th, the countermeasures proposed only increase his fears and make him decide to take his family and capital to safety: "No sooner up but hear the sad newes confirmed of the Royall Charles being taken by them, and now in fitting by them – which Pett should have carried up higher by our several orders, and deserves, therefore, to be hanged for not doing it – and turning several others; and that another fleete is come up into the Hope. Upon which newes the King and Duke of York have been below [London Bridge] since four o'clock in the morning, to command the sinking of ships at Barking-Creeke, and other places, to stop their coming up higher: which put me into such a fear, that I presently resolved of my father's and wife's going into the country; and, at two hours' warning, they did go by the coach this day, with about £1300 in gold in their night-bag." The entire city is in a state of panic: "(...)never were people so dejected as they are in the City all over at this day; and do talk most loudly, even treason; as, that we are bought and sold — that we are betrayed by the Papists, and others, about the King; cry out that the office of the Ordnance hath been so backward as no powder to have been at Chatham nor Upnor Castle till such a time, and the carriages all broken; that Legg is a Papist; that Upnor, the old good castle built by Queen Elizabeth, should be lately slighted; that the ships at Chatham should not be carried up higher. They look upon us as lost, and remove their families and rich goods in the City; and do think verily that the French, being come down with his army to Dunkirke, it is to invade us, and that we shall be invaded." Then even worse news is brought: "Late at night comes Mr. Hudson, the cooper, my neighbour, and tells me that he come from Chatham this evening at five o'clock, and saw this afternoon "The Royal James," "Oake," and "London," burnt by the enemy with their fire-ships: that two or three men-of-war come up with them, and made no more of Upnor Castle's shooting, than of a fly(...)."

On the 14th more details become known of the events the previous day, showing the morale of the sailors: "[he] did hear many Englishmen aboard the Dutch ships speaking to one another in English, and that they did cry and say: We did heretofore fight for tickets; now we fight for dollars! and did ask how such and such a one did, and would commend themselves to them: which is a sad consideration", and the mood of the people towards Charles "they did in open streets yesterday at Westminster, cry, 'A Parliament! a Parliament!'; and I do believe it will cost blood to answer for these miscarriages."

The Dutch withdraw

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A copy of the Sea Triumph depicting Cornelis de Witt

As he expected a stiffening English resistance, Cornelis de Witt on 14 June decided to forego a further penetration and withdraw, towing Royal Charles along as a war trophy; Unity also was removed with a prize crew. This decision saved the scuttled capital ships Royal Katherine, Unicorn, Victory and St George. However, Dutch sailors rowed to any English ship they could reach to set her on fire. One boat even re-entered the docks to make sure nothing was left above the waterline of the English vessels Royal Oak, Royal James and Loyal London; another burned the merchantman Slot van Honingen. By chance, the shore facilities of Chatham Dockyard escaped destruction as no Dutch vessels reached her docks; the survival of these docks ensured the Royal Navy could repair her sunken ships. English villages were plundered – by their own troops.

The Dutch fleet, after celebrating by collectively thanking God for "a great victory in a just war in self-defence" tried to repeat its success by attacking several other ports on the English east coast but was repelled each time. On 27 June an attempt to enter the Thames beyond Gravesend was called off when it became known that the river was blocked by blockships and five fireships awaited the Dutch attack. On 2 July a Dutch marine force landed near Woodbridge north of Harwich and successfully prevented Landguard Fort from being reinforced but a direct assault on the fort by 1500 marines was beaten off by the garrison. On 3 July an attack on Osley Bay failed. On 21 July Julian calendar peace was signed.

But still, Samuel Pepys notes in his diary on 19 July 1667: "The Dutch fleete are in great squadrons everywhere still about Harwich, and were lately at Portsmouth; and the last letters say at Plymouth, and now gone to Dartmouth to destroy our Streights' fleete lately got in thither; but God knows whether they can do it any hurt, or no, but it was pretty news come the other day so fast, of the Dutch fleets being in so many places, that Sir W. Batten at table cried, By God, says he, I think the Devil shits Dutchmen."

And on 29 July 1667: "Thus in all things, in wisdom, courage, force, knowledge of our own streams, and success, the Dutch have the best of us, and do end the war with victory on their side".

Aftermath
Wharf official John Norman estimated the damage caused by the raid at about £20,000, apart from the replacement costs of the four lost capital ships; the total loss of the Royal Navy must have been close to £200,000. Pett was made a scapegoat, bailed at £5,000 and deprived of his office while those who had ignored his earlier warnings quietly escaped any blame. Royal James, Royal Oak and Loyal London were in the end salvaged and rebuilt, but at great cost and when the City of London refused to share in it, Charles had the name of the latter ship changed to a simple London. For a few years the English fleet was handicapped by its losses during the raid, but by around 1670 a new building programme had restored the English Navy to its former power.

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Royal Charles stern piece at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

The Raid on the Medway was a serious blow to the reputation of the English crown. Charles felt personally offended by the fact the Dutch had attacked while he had laid up his fleet and peace negotiations were in progress, conveniently forgetting he himself had not negotiated in good faith. His resentment was one of the causes of the Third Anglo-Dutch War as it made him enter into the secret Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV of France. In the 19th century, nationalistic British writers expanded on this theme by suggesting it had been the Dutch who had sued for peace after their defeats in 1666 – although in fact these had made them, if anything, more belligerent – and that only by treacherously attacking the English had they nevertheless been able to gain a victory; a typical example of this is When London burned, written by the novelist G. A. Henty in 1895. In the short term, the Lord Chancellor, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was made the scapegoat, impeached and forced into exile.

Total losses for the Dutch were eight spent fireships and about fifty casualties. In the Republic the populace was jubilant after the victory; many festivities were held, repeated when the fleet returned in October, the various admirals being hailed as heroes. They were rewarded by a flood of eulogies and given honorary golden chains and pensions by the States General and the lesser States of the Provinces; De Ruyter, Cornelis de Witt and Van Ghent were honoured by precious enamelled golden chalices made by Nicolaes Lockeman, depicting the events. Cornelis de Witt had a large "Sea Triumph" painted, with himself as the main subject, which was displayed in the townhall of Dordt. This triumphalism by De Witt's States faction caused resentment with the rivalling Orangist faction; when the States regime lost its power during the rampjaar of 1672, Cornelis's head was to be ceremoniously carved out from the painting, after Charles had for some years insisted the picture would be removed.

Royal Charles, her draft too deep to be of use in the shallow Dutch waters, was permanently drydocked near Hellevoetsluis as a tourist attraction, with day trips being organised for large parties, often of foreign state guests. After vehement protests by Charles that this insulted his honour, the official visits were ended and Royal Charles was eventually scrapped in 1672; however, part of her transom, bearing the coat of arms with the Lion and Unicorn and the Royal inscription Dieu et mon droit, was preserved because Charles earlier had demanded its removal and it has since 1883 been put on display in the cellar of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

On 14 March 2012 the transom was transported to England on board the Royal Netherlands Navy patrol ship Holland, accompanied by the then Dutch crown prince Willem-Alexander, where it was put on display, in commodate, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich as part of the Royal River: Power, Pageantry and the Thames exhibition held on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II.


 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1667 – The Raid on the Medway - Part III - HMS Royal Charles (1655) captured


Royal Charles was an 80-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy. She was built by Peter Pett and launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1655, for the navy of the Commonwealth of England. She was originally called Naseby, named in honour of Sir Thomas Fairfax's decisive 1645 victory over the Royalist forces during the English Civil Wars. She was ordered in 1654 as one of a programme of four second rates, intended to carry 60 guns each. However, she was altered during construction to mount a complete battery of guns along the upper deck (compared with the partial battery on this deck of her intended sisters, on which there were no gunports in the waist along this deck), and so was reclassed as a first rate.

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Royal Charles off Hellevoetsluis, captured by the Dutch after the Raid on the Medway, June 1667. Jeronymus van Diest (II).

In the run-up to the Restoration of the monarchy in May (June, New Style) of 1660, she was anchored in The Downs off Deal, where her laurel-crowned figurehead of Oliver Cromwell was removed before sailing to the Dutch Republic at the head of the fleet sent to bring King Charles II back to England, captained by Sir Edward Montagu and still under her Parliamentary name. On arrival in Scheveningen she was renamed HMS Royal Charles and took Charles and his entourage (including Samuel Pepys) on board, landing them at Dover.

Under her new name, she thus joined the Royal Navy, which formally came into being in 1660. At 1,229 tons, Naseby was larger than Sovereign of the Seas, the first three-deck ship of the line, built by Phineas Pett, Peter's father. Unlike Sovereign of the Seas, which was in service from 1637 to 1697, Naseby was to enjoy only twelve years in service.

As Royal Charles she took part in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1665, she fought in the Battle of Lowestoft under the command of the Lord High Admiral, James Stuart, Duke of York, her captain being Sir William Penn. During that battle she probably destroyed the Dutch flagship Eendracht. In 1666, she participated in two further actions, the Four Days Battle and the defeat of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in the St. James's Day Battle off the North Foreland.

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Dutch in the Medway. Capture of the Royal Charles June 1667 (PAF4520)

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The painting Dutch attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667 shows the captured Royal Charles, right of centre

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The stern piece preserved at Amsterdam

In 1667, flagging English national morale was further depressed by the Raid on the Medway in which a Dutch fleet invaded the Thames and Medway rivers and on 12 June captured the uncommissioned Royal Charles, removing her with great skill to Hellevoetsluis in the United Provinces. The Dutch did not take her into naval service because it was considered that she drew too much water for general use on the Dutch coast. Instead the Royal Charles was permanently drydocked near Hellevoetsluis as a tourist attraction, with day trips being organised for large parties, often of foreign state guests. After vehement protests by Charles that this insulted his honour, the official visits were ended when she was auctioned for scrap in 1673.

The wooden carving showing the royal arms, originally placed on the ship's transom, was, however, preserved. After remaining at Hellevoetsluis for a while, it was brought to a naval shipbuilding yard in Rotterdam in the nineteenth century, and in 1855 was transferred to the Dutch navy's model collection. It is now on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which took most of the naval collection in the 1880s.

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Scale: 1:48. Full hull model made in the Navy Board style, thought to be the 'Naseby' (1655), an 80-86 gun ship, three-decker ship of the line. The hull shape is typical of that of a 17th century warship with a fair amount of sheer and tumblehome. The model is partly decked, rigged and made plank on frame. The hull is left unplanked below the waterline, and the framing system is typical of that of the Navy Board style, with floor timbers spanning the keel transversely and futtocks scarphed above. Along the sides of the hull are paired open mainwales painted black. The stern is round tucked and decorated with elaborate stern carvings. The stern carving features the cross of St. George with a belt bearing the Commonwealth motto ‘Pax quaeritur bello’ (peace is sought by war). The model is square rigged, with a sprit sail, sprit topsail and the mizzen mast is rigged with a bonaventure sail. The model was made by Robert Spence in 1943 using contemporary drawings of the ship combined with her recorded dimensions. In addition, the lines were taken from an English three-decker model of similar date in the Maritime Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. The original full-sized ship measured 161 feet in length by 42 feet in the beam and 1000 tons burden, the ‘Naseby’ was built in Woolwich Dockyard and named to commemorate the Parliamentary victory of 1645 during the English Civil War. The ‘Naseby’ was renamed 'Royal Charles' by Charles II, after the ship was used to transport him back to England from Dutch exile at his Restoration in 1660. The ‘Royal Charles’ was the flagship in the many actions against the Dutch fleet but in 1667 was seized by the Dutch in their famous raid on the Medway and taken back to Holland before eventually being broken up in 1673. The post-1660 English royal arms from the stern of the full-sized ship are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, having been retained as a trophy when the vessel was broken up in 1673


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This etching, signed and dated '1911' by the artist, shows Charles II and Pepys in the aft of a boat, with the stern of the 'Royal Charles' behind. Charles, on the left, and Pepys on the right, are both shown from the front, both hatted. Charles has his right hand on a cane. The scene depicted is the final stage of the voyage of Charles II back to England. Pepys accompanied Lord Sandwich on the 'Naseby' to Holland to convey the King back to England to restore the Monarchy. The 'Naseby', and 80-gun ship launched in 1655 , with its Civil War connotations, was renamed the 'Royal Charles' in 1660 in honour of the new king. Interestingly, the ship depicted is in fact a smaller two-decker, shown with a square-tuck stern, although the model of the 'Naseby' (SLR0001) made by Robert Spence in 1943 has a round-tuck stern

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An unsigned drawing by the Elder, viewed from before the starboard beam. It is inscribed ‘de nasby [? London written over] / nu de carolus’ (The Naseby, now the Charles). This drawing is an offset, probably not in reverse since no entering port is shown. The offset has been rubbed on the back, worked up rapidly and not very accurately with a pencil and a little wash. The ‘Naseby’ was the flagship of the Restoration squadron in 1660, and the original drawing was no doubt made at this time, with the offset being taken soon afterwards. There is a drawing of the ‘Royal Charles’ viewed from the starboard quarter in the Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1753 – Launch of French Algonquin, a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was launched from Québec City in (New France), on 9 June 1753 and placed into service on 8 January 1754.


The Algonquin was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was launched from Québec City in (New France), on 9 June 1753 and placed into service on 8 January 1754.

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In 1755, she was placed into service for the transportation of nine companies of the régiment de la Reine who embarked in Brest on 14 April 1755. The 74-gun ship was armed en flûte with 24 guns to allow for more room for the soldiers. The ship was commanded by Captain Jean Baptiste François de La Villéon. The regiment was also reduced to 360 soldiers. Algonquin was part of the naval squadron that left for Canada. She became separated from the other ships after the departure on 29 May, because of heavy fog at sea.

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Un vaisseau en construction à Québec au milieu du XVIIIème siècle. Anse du Cul-de-Sac vue depuis la Pointe de Lévy. Détail d'une gravure d'époque.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1772 - HMS Gaspee schooner, Lt. William Dudingston, burned at Namquid Point, Narragansett Bay by American colonists from Providence, Rhode Island.


The Gaspee Affair was a significant event in the lead-up to the American Revolution. HMS Gaspee[1] was a British customs schooner that had been enforcing the Navigation Acts in and around Newport, Rhode Islandin 1772. It ran aground in shallow water while chasing the packet ship Hannah on June 9 near Gaspee Point in Warwick, Rhode Island. A group of men led by Abraham Whipple and John Brown attacked, boarded, and torched the ship.

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The event increased hostilities between the American colonists and British officials, following the Boston Massacre in 1770. British officials in Rhode Island wanted to increase their control over trade—legitimate trade as well as smuggling—in order to increase their revenue from the small colony. But Rhode Islanders increasingly protested the Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts, and other British impositions that had clashed with the colony's history of rum manufacturing, maritime trade, and slave trading.

This event and others in Narragansett Bay marked the first acts of violent uprising against the British crown's authority in America, preceding the Boston Tea Party by more than a year and moving the Thirteen Coloniesas a whole toward the war for independence.

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Burning of HMS Gaspee

Background

The customs service had a history of strong resistance in the Thirteen Colonies in the eighteenth century. Britain was at war during much of this period and was not in a strategic position to risk antagonizing its overseas colonies. Several successive ministries implemented new policies following Britain's victory in the Seven Years' War in an attempt to increase control within the colonies and to recoup the cost of the war from them. To that end, the Admiralty purchased six Marblehead sloops and schooners and gave them Anglicized French names based on their recent acquisitions in Canada, removing the French accents from St John, St Lawrence, Chaleur, Hope, Magdalen, and Gaspee.

Parliament argued that the revenue was necessary in order to bolster military and naval defensive positions along the borders of their far-flung empire—but also to pay the debt which England had incurred in pursuing the war against France. These changes included deputizing the Royal Navy's sea officers to enforce customs laws in American ports. The enforcements became increasingly intrusive and aggressive in Narragansett Bay; Rhode Islanders finally responded by attacking HMS St John in 1764, and they burned the customs ship HMS Liberty in 1768 on Goat Island in Newport harbor.

In early 1772, Lieutenant William Dudingston sailed HMS Gaspee into Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay to force customs collection and mandatory inspection of cargo. He arrived in Rhode Island in February and met with Governor Joseph Wanton. Soon after he began patrolling Narragansett Bay, Gaspee stopped and inspected the sloop Fortune on February 17 and seized 12 hogsheads of undeclared rum. Dudingston sent Fortune and the seized rum to Boston, believing that any seized items left in a Rhode Island port would be reclaimed by the colonists.

But this overbold move of sending Fortune to Boston brought outrage within the Rhode Island colony, because Dudingston had taken upon himself the authority to determine where trial should take place concerning this seizure, completely superseding the authority of Governor Wanton by doing so. Furthermore, it was a direct violation of the Rhode Island Royal Charter of 1663 to hold a trial outside of Rhode Island on an arrest that took place within the Colony.

After this, Dudingston and his crew became increasingly aggressive in their searches, boardings, and seizures, even going so far as to stop merchants who were on shore and force searches of their wares. Public resentment and outrage continued to escalate against Gaspee in particular and against the British in general. On March 21, Rhode Island Deputy Governor Darius Sessions wrote to Governor Wanton regarding Lieutenant Dudingston, and he requested that the basis of Dudingston's authority be examined. In the letter, Sessions includes the opinion of Chief Justice Stephen Hopkins, who argues that "no commander of any vessel has any right to use any authority in the Body of the Colony without previously applying to the Governor and showing his warrant for so doing." Wanton wrote to Dudingston the next day, demanding that he "produce me your commission and instructions, if any you have, which was your duty to have done when you first came within the jurisdiction of this Colony." Dudingston returned a rude reply to the Governor, refusing to leave his ship or to acknowledge Wanton's elected authority within Rhode Island.

The incident
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From an old engraving

On June 9, Gaspee gave chase to the packet ship Hannah, but Gaspee ran aground in shallow water on the northwestern side of the bay on what is now Gaspee Point. Her crew were unable to free her and Dudingston decided to wait for high tide, which would possibly set the vessel afloat. Before that could happen, however, a band of Providence men led by John Brown decided to act on the "opportunity offered of putting an end to the trouble and vexation she daily caused." They rowed out to the ship and boarded her at the break of dawn on June 10. The crew put up a feeble resistance in which Lieutenant Dudingston was shot and wounded, and the Providence men burned the ship to the waterline. Joseph Bucklin was the man who shot Lt. Dudingston; other men who participated included Brown's brother Joseph of Providence, Simeon Potter of Bristol, and Robert Wickes of Warwick. Most of the men involved were also members of the Sons of Liberty.

Previous attacks by the colonists on British naval vessels had gone unpunished. In one case, a customs yacht was actually destroyed by fire with no administrative response. But in 1772, the Admiralty would not ignore the destruction of one of its military vessels on station. The American Department consulted the Solicitor and Attorneys General, who investigated and advised the Privy Council on the legal and constitutional options available. The Crown turned to a centuries-old institution of investigation: the Royal Commission of Inquiry, made up of the chiefs of the supreme courts of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, the judge of the vice-admiralty of Boston, and Governor Joseph Wanton of Rhode Island.

The Dockyard Act passed in April demanded that anyone suspected of burning British ships should be extradited and tried in England; however, the Gaspee raiders were charged with treason. The task of the commission was to determine which colonists had sufficient evidence against them to warrant shipping them to England for trial. The Commission was unable to obtain sufficient evidence and declared their inability to deal with the case.

Nonetheless, colonial Whigs were alarmed at the prospect of Americans being sent to England for trial, and a committee of correspondence was formed in Boston to consult on the crisis. In Virginia, the House of Burgesses was so alarmed that they also formed an inter-colonial committee of correspondence to consult with similar committees throughout the Thirteen Colonies. The Rev. John Allen preached a sermon at the Second Baptist Church in Boston which utilized the Gaspee affair to warn listeners about greedy monarchs, corrupt judges, and conspiracies in the London government. This sermon was printed seven different times in four colonial cities, becoming one of the most popular pamphlets of Colonial America.[20] This pamphlet and editorials by numerous colonial newspaper editors awoke colonial Whigs from a lull of inactivity in 1772, thus inaugurating a series of conflicts that culminated in the Battles of Lexington and Concord.

Aftermath and legacy
The British called for the apprehension and trial of the people responsible for shooting Dudingston and destroying the Gaspee. Rhode Island Governor Wanton and Deputy Governor Sessions echoed those British sentiments, though they lacked enthusiasm for punishing their fellow Rhode Islanders. A British midshipman from Gaspee described the attackers as "merchants and masters of vessels, who were at my bureau reading and examining my papers." Admiral Montagu wrote to Governor Wanton on July 8, nearly a month after the burning of the schooner, and utilized the account of Aaron Briggs, an indentured servant claiming to have participated in the June 9 burning. Montagu identified five Rhode Islanders, in varying levels of detail, whom he wanted Governor Wanton to investigate and bring to justice: John Brown, Joseph Brown, Simeon Potter, Dr. Weeks, and Richmond.

Governor Wanton responded to this demand by examining the claims made by Aaron Briggs. Samuel Tompkins and Samuel Thurston, the proprietors of the Prudence Island farm where Briggs worked, gave testimony challenging his account of June 9. Both men stated that Briggs had been present at work the evening of June 9 and early in the morning on June 10. Additionally, Wanton received further evidence from two other indentured servants working with Briggs, and both stated that Briggs had been present throughout the night in question. Thus, Wanton believed that Briggs was no more than an imposter. Dudingston and Montagu challenged Wanton's assertions, Montagu saying that "it is clear to me from many corroborating circumstances, that he is no imposter."

Pawtuxet Village commemorates the Gaspee affair each year with Gaspee Days. This festival includes arts and crafts and races, but the highlight is the Gaspee Days parade, which features burning the Gaspee in effigy and a Revolutionary War battle reenactment, among other entertainments.

Gaspee Point is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There is also a plaque in the front of a parking lot on South Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island identifying the location of the Sabin Tavern, where the plot was planned to burn the Gaspee.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1796 - HMS Southampton (32), Cptn. James Macnamara, cut out French corvette Utile (24) from Hyeres Bay


Utile was a gabarre of the French Royal Navy, launched in 1784. The British captured her in the Mediterranean in 1796 and she served briefly there before being laid up in 1797 and sold in 1798.

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French service and capture
Utile was launched in early 1784 at Bayonne. In August 1793 an Anglo-Spanish force captured Toulon and Royalist forces turned over to them the French naval vessels in the port. When the Anglo-Spanish force had to leave in December, they took with them the best vessels and tried to burn the remainder.

In November and December 1794 she was at Toulon undergoing repairs and refitting. She was to be renamed Zibeline in 1795, but apparently she retained her original name.

Around midday of 9 June 1796, Admiral John Jervis, Commander-in-Chief of the British Fleet in the Mediterranean, called Captain James Macnamara of the frigate Southampton on board his ship Victory, and pointed out a French corvette that was working her way up among the Hyères islands. Jervis then directed Macnamara "to make a Dash at her". Macnamara immediately set out, sailing the Grande Passe, or passage between the islands of Porquerolles and Port-cros.

That evening Southampton captured Utile by boarding, with Lieutenant Charles Lydiard at the head of the boarding party. Utile was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns and was under the protection of a battery. She had a crew of 136 men under the command of Citizen François Veza. The French put up a resistance during which they suffered eight killed, including Veza, and 17 wounded; Southampton had one man killed. It was not until early the next morning that Southampton and Utile were finally able to get out of range of the guns of Fort de Brégançon.

Gorgon, Courageaux, and the hired armed cutter Fox were in company at the time, and with the British fleet outside Toulon. They shared with Southampton in the proceeds of the capture, as did Barfleur, Bombay Castle, Egmont, and St George.

British service and fate
The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Utile and commissioned her in July 1796 under Commander Lydiard, whose promotion was dated 22 July. Lydiard sailed her in the Adriatic as a convoy escort before returning to Britain in 1797.

Utile arrived in Portsmouth on 21 August 1797 and was laid up. She was immediately offered for sale, with the terms of sale including her copper sheathing and the proviso that the buyer post a bond of £2000 that he would break her up within a year. She was sold on 7 June 1798 at Portsmouth for £610


A typical Gabare like the Utile was the Le Gros Ventre, monographie available by ancre

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HMS Southampton was the name ship of the 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served for more than half a century until wrecked in 1812.

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George III in HMS Southampton reviewing the fleet off Plymouth, 18 August 1789

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In 1772, Southampton – at the time commanded by the capable John MacBride, destined for a distinguished naval career – was sent to Elsinore, Denmark, to take on board and convey to exile in Germany the British Princess Caroline Matilda, George III's sister, who had been deposed from her position as Queen of Denmark due to her affair with the social reformer Johan Struensee.

On 3 August 1780, Southampton captured the French privateer lugger Comte de Maurepas, of 12 guns and 80 men, under the command of Joseph Le Cluck. She had on board Mr. Andrew Stuart, Surgeon's Mate of HMS Speedwell, "as a ransomer." She had suffered shot holes between wind and water and sank shortly thereafter. Southampton shared the head money award with Buffalo, Thetis, and Alarm.

On 10 June 1796, Southampton captured the French corvette Utile at Hyères Roads, by boarding. Utile was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns and was under the protection of a battery. She had a crew of 136 men under the command of Citizen François Veza. The French put up a resistance during which they suffered eight killed, including Veza, and 17 wounded; Southampton had one man killed. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Utile. Gorgon, Courageux, and the hired armed cutter Fox were in company at the time, and with the British fleet outside Toulon. They shared with Southampton in the proceeds of the capture, as did Barfleur, Bombay Castle, Egmont, and St George.

Lloyd's List reported that she and the sloop Brazen had run aground and lost their masts on the coast of Mississippi during a great hurricane on 19 and 20 August 1812, but that the crews were saved. Neither vessel was lost though.

On 22 November, Southampton, under the command of Captain James Lucas Yeo, captured the American brig USS Vixen. Vixen was armed with twelve 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder bow chasers, and had a crew of 130 men under the command of Captain George Reed. She had been out five weeks but had not captured anything.

Fate
A strong westerly current wrecked Southampton and Vixen on an uncharted submerged rock off Conception Island in the Crooked Island Passage of the Bahamas on 27 November. No lives were lost

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The Southampton-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1756 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were the first 'true' fifth-rate frigates produced to the new single-deck concept (that is, without any gunports on the lower deck). They were, however, designed with sweep ports (for rowing) along the lower deck.

Unlike the contemporary sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns, which were derived from French designs by Slade, the Southampton class were fully British-designed. Unlike the French models, these ships had considerably more height on the lower deck, and were originally intended to work their cables here.

A total of four ships were built in oak during the Seven Years’ War, all ordered from private shipyards. The initial design was approved on 12 March 1756, and provided for a ship of 648 37/94 tons burthen, and the contract with Robert Inwood to build the prototype reflected this. On 25 May the design was modified by Slade to lengthen the ship on the lower deck by 3 inches, and along the keel by 10½ inches, thus raising the tonnage to 652 51/94 burthen; on the same date, the name Southampton was approved for the prototype, and two further ships were ordered to be built to this design, with a fourth vessel being ordered one week later.

Ships in class
  • Southampton
    • Ordered: 12 March 1756
    • Built by: Robert Inwood, Rotherhithe.
    • Keel laid: April 1756
    • Launched: 5 May 1757
    • Completed: 19 June 1757 at Deptford Dockyard.
    • Fate: Wrecked in the Bahamas on 27 November 1812.
  • Minerva
    • Ordered: 25 May 1756
    • Built by: John Quallet, Rotherhithe.
    • Keel laid: 1 June 1756
    • Launched: 17 January 1759
    • Completed: 3 March 1759 at Deptford Dockyard.
    • Fate: Captured by the French on 22 August 1778. Retaken on 4 January 1781 and renamed Recovery 20 April 1781. Sold at Deptford Dockyard 30 December 1784.
  • Vestal
    • Ordered: 25 May 1756
    • Built by: John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich.
    • Keel laid: June 1756
    • Launched: 17 June 1757
    • Completed: 17 August 1757 at the builder's shipyard.
    • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in June 1775.
  • Diana
    • Ordered: 1 June 1756
    • Built by: Robert Batson, Limehouse.
    • Keel laid: June 1756
    • Launched: 30 August 1757
    • Completed: 12 September 1757 at Deptford Dockyard.
    • Fate: Sold at Deptford Dockyard on 16 May 1793.

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Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the elevation and plan for the steering apparatus as fitted to Southampton (1757), a 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigate; to an invention of Captain Lawson (Seniority, 21 October 1810, no ship assigned [Steel's Navy List, March 1811]). Signed Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, March 1803 - January 1823]



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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1799 - Boats of HMS Success (32), Cptn. Shuldham Peard, cut out Belle Aurore.


In May 1799 Captain Shuldham Peard took command of Success, and was sent to serve in the Mediterranean. On 9 June of that year, Success was off Cap de Creus, when Peard spotted a polacca to the north-west. He gave chase, but the vessel took refuge in the harbour of El Port de la Selva, so he sent in his boats to cut her out. After a fierce action, in which Success suffered three killed and nine badly wounded, she proved to be the Bella Aurora, sailing from Genoa to Barcelona with a cargo of cotton, silk and rice, and armed with 10 guns, all 9- or 6-pounders. In his report Peard pointed out that the attack had been carried out in broad daylight by only 43 men against a vessel crewed by 113, protected by boarding netting, and supported from the shore by a small gun battery and a large number of men with muskets. Subsequently, in 1847, a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal marked "9 June 1799" awarded to any surviving members of the action who applied for it. Shortly after, Success was one of the fleet, part of which fought the action of 18 June 1799, in which three French frigates and two brigs were captured.

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HMS Success was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy launched in 1781, which served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French captured her in the Mediterranean on 13 February 1801, but she was recaptured by the British on 2 September. She continued to serve in the Mediterranean until 1811, and in North America until hulked in 1814, then serving as a prison ship and powder hulk, before being broken up in 1820.

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Success destroys the Santa Catalina, 16 March 1782



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1800 - Action of 1800/06/09, 9th June 1800
On June 9th 1800, the HMS Kangaroo, 18, Commander George Christopher Pulling, and HMS Speedy, 14, Commander Lord Cochrane, attacked a Spanish convoy off Oropeso, under the shelter of a Spanish battery, sank a 20-gun xebec and three gunboats, and captured three merchant brigs.



The next morning (9th June) Speedy found the convoy sheltering under the guns of a battery at Oropeso. The battery consisted of a large, square tower armed with some 12 guns. The escorts consisted of a xebec of 20 guns, and three gunboats. Cochrane anchored offshore and wanted to wait until night to send in a cutting out party. However, Kangaroo arrived and Pulling, as the senior commander, decided to wait until the next morning.

On the morning of the 9th, the two British vessels anchored within gunshot and by mid-afternoon had sunk the xebec and two gunboats. A felucca of 12 guns and two more gunboats joined the defenders.

By 6:30pm the fire from the Spanish defenders slackened and Kangaroo came in close to the tower, silencing its fire by 7pm. At the same time, Speedy engaged the felucca and the surviving gunboats, which then fled. The British continued to undergo small arms fire from the shore until midnight, at which time the boats from the two brigs went in and brought out three Spanish brigs carrying wine, rice, and bread. Cochrane then went in with the boats for a second try, but the British found that all their quarry were either sunk or driven ashore. The next day Kangaroo and Speedy sailed for Menorca with their prizes; Pulling stated that they had expended all their ammunition, otherwise they would have reduced the tower as well. This was not an idle boast as Pulling wrote his report while anchored some 250 yards from the shore and 500 from the town. Speedy had expended some 1400 shot and had less than a broadside left. In the action Kangaroo lost a midshipman killed, and five seamen severely, and two lieutenants and three seamen slightly wounded; Speedy had no casualties.

Cochrane also recounted that several of the cannon aboard Kangaroo were fitted on the non-recoil principle. During the action several of these burst their breechings, i.e., came loose. One endangered Kangaroo by bounding down the hatchway into the hold.


HMS Kangaroo was British Royal Navy 18-gun brig-sloop of the Diligence class, launched in 1795 at Rotherhithe, England. She served in Home Waters and the Mediterranean until she was sold in 1802.

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HMS Speedy was a 14-gun Speedy-class brig of the British Royal Navy. Built during the last years of the American War of Independence, she served with distinction during the French Revolutionary Wars.

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HMS Speedy falling in with the wreck of HMS Queen Charlotte, 21 March 1800



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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1801 - HMS Meleager (32), Cptn. Thomas Bladen Capel, wrecked on the Triangles, Gulf of Mexico.


HMS Meleager was a 32-gun frigate that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Career
Admiral Sir Charles Tyler took command of Meleager in 1790.

In 1793 Lieutenant Thomas Masterman Hardy served aboard her. Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the capture, on 5 August 1793, cf the Prince Royal of Sweden.

Meleager was part of the fleet under Lord Hood that occupied Toulon in August 1793. With HMS Courageux, Robust, Tartar and Egmont, she covered the landing, on 27 August, of 1500 troops sent to remove the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port. Once the forts were secure, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line which had just arrived, sailed into the harbour.

On 16 November she and Romulus captured the French gunboat Ca Ira.

In 1794 Sir George Cockburn commanded her. In early 1794 she was among the British vessels present when Sir David Dundas captured the town of San Fiorenzo (San Fiurenzu) in the Gulf of St. Florent in Corsica. There the British found the French frigate Minerve on 19 February 1794, and were able to refloat her. They then took her into service as a 38-gun frigate under the name St Fiorenzo. Meleager shared in the prize money for both St Fiorenzo and for the naval stores captured in the town.

In April Juno captured the Mars (3 April) and Aurora (15 April) in the presence of Courageux, Berwick, St George, and Meleager.

Next, she took part in the Battle of Genoa (14 March 1795), and the fight at Hyeres (12 May 1795). Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the prize money for the Ça Ira, Censeur, and Expedition (formerly Speedy), captured during or after the raid on Genoa. The British returned Speedy to service. Around this time Meleager was among the vessels that shared in the capture of the Genoese vessel Fortuna and the tartane Concezione. They also captured the Genoese and Venetian polacres and luggers Madona del Grazzie e Consolazione, Volante de Dio, Madona del Grazzie de Padua, Buena Forte and another small vessel.

In 1796, Meleager was part of a squadron off the coast of Genoa under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson. Nelson, in Agamemnon, led Meleager, Blanche (32 guns), Diadem (64 guns) and the 16-gun brig-sloop Speedy.

On 31 May 1796, the squadron chased six French vessels that Nelson believed were bringing supplies from Toulon, to be landed at St. Piere d'Acena, for the Siege of Mantua. The vessels took shelter under the guns of a battery. Meleager then led Agamemnon and the rest of the Nelson's squadron in close where the boats of the squadron could capture the French vessels, which they did. In the action, Agamemnon had one man killed and two men wounded, and Blanche had one man wounded. The French prizes consisted of two warships and five transports:
  • ketch Genie of three 18-pounders, four swivel guns and 60 men;
  • gunboat Numero Douzel of one 18-pounder, four swivels and 30 men;
  • brig Bonne-Mere of 250 tons burthen, transporting brass 24-pounder guns, 13" mortars and gun-carriages;
  • ketch Verge de Consolation of 120 tons, transporting brass guns, mortars, shells and gun-carriages;
  • ketch Jean Baptiste of 100 tons, carrying brandy and some bread;
  • ketch of unknown name of 100 tons, carrying Austrian prisoners; and
  • ketch St. Anne de Paix, of 70 tons, transporting wheelbarrows and entrenching tools. The British destroyed the vessel.
On 24 December 1796, Meleager, Niger, Lively and Fortune captured the Spanish vessel Mejor Amigo.[14] On 2 January 1797, the same vessels plus Raven captured Nostra Senora de la Misericordia. That same day the same vessels captured the French privateer Fodroyant, for which head money was paid in August 1801.

Also in early 1797, Meleager was in company with these British vessels and some others when they captured the Spanish ship San Francisco, which was sold in Lisbon. On 30 January Meleager was among the eleven vessels that shared in the capture of the Purissima Conception.

Then on 25 February, Meleager, under Captain Charles Ogle, and Thalia captured the Spanish ship Santa Catalina. At some point Meleager captured the Spanish ships St. Natalia and Cartada, alias Cubana. In May 1798, Meleager received the net proceeds of an insurance of ₤3000 on the Spanish ship Teresa, which she had captured on 21 February 1797.

Meleager transferred to the Jamaica station, where she served in the squadron under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker. In June 1799 she captured a Spanish settee carrying sugar from Vera Cruz to Cadiz. On 23 and 24 July Meleager was in company with Greyhound when they captured the Spanish vessels Virgin D'Regla, Jesus Maria, and Jose.

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Between end-July and end-October 1799 Meleager and Greyhound captured five more Spanish vessels:
  • ship Santa Anna, of 12 guns, 24 men, 320 tons, sailing from Havana to Vera Cruz with a cargo of wine, wax, tar and the like;
  • cutter Vecourso, of two guns, 12 men and 50 tons, sailing from Nantz to Vera Cruz with a cargo of steel, bale goods and the like.
  • brig Animas sailing from Havana to Vera Cruz with a cargo of brandy, bales, etc.
  • schooner Saint Juan Baptiste sailing from Cadiz to Vera Cruz with a cargo of wine and cloth.
  • settee Saint Miguel y la Virgin de Regla sailing from Cadiz to Vera Cruz with a cargo of paper, oil, etc.
Alone, Meleager also captured a Dutch schooner sailing from Jaquemel to Curacoa with a cargo of coffee.

Between end-October 1799 and 20 February 1800, Meleager took a number of prizes:
  • Dutch schooner Minette of ten men and 40 tons, sailing with coffee from Jaquemel to Curacoa;
  • Danish schooner Hazard, of 12 men and 40 tons, sailing from Aux Cayes to St Thomas with coffee; and
  • French schooner Virgin, of 30 tons, sailing from Aux Cayes to St Thomas with coffee and rum.
Meleager destroyed a number of the quite small vessels sailing from Aux Cayes to St Thomas:
  • French schooner of ten tons with rum;
  • French boat with rum;
  • French sloop with rum;
  • French schooner with coffee; and
  • Spanish schooner, of 40 tons, sailing in ballast.
Then she took as prizes:
  • Spanish schooner, of 50 tons, sailing in ballast; and
  • Spanish Schooner Aimable Marie, of 22 men, 110 tons, sailing from Cadiz to Vera Cruz with bale goods.
Together with Crescent she captured:
  • Spanish vessel St. Francisco, sailing from Cuba to St. Martha with bale goods;
  • Spanish vessel Nostra Senora de los Dolores, sailing from Porto Bello to Carthagena with tobacco and copper; and
  • Spanish vessel Nostra Senora del Carmen, sailing from St. Domingo to Carthagena with naval stores.
Between 28 February and 20 May, Meleager captured two small vessels:
  • Spanish xebec Pacaro; and
  • Spanish brig Maiste, sailing from Vera Cruz with copper, hides, and soap.
Between 20 May and 3 August 1800, Meleager captured further vessels. First, she detained the American ship Gadson, which was sailing from Porto Cavello to Charleston with indigo, coffee, and tobacco. Then with Crescent and Nimrod she took a Spanish feluccasailing from Havana to Vera Cruz and a Spanish xebec sailing from Campeachy to Havana.

Next, Meleager took four more vessels:
  • American ship Diana, sailing from Vera Cruz to New York, with cochineal and sugar;
  • English schooner Flora, sailing from Vera Cruz with specie;
  • Spanish schooner Bella Johannah, sailing from Campeachy to Porto Cavello with Mahogany;
  • American brig Leopard, sailing from Boston to Havana with iron.
Captain John Perkins was made post-captain in Meleager in 1800 on the Jamaica station but less than a year later, in 1801, she came under the command of Thomas Bladen Capel.

Fate
On 9 June 1801 Capel and Meleager were cruising Bahia del Campeche in the Gulf of Mexico when just before midnight lookouts spotted breakers ahead.[28] Even though the helmsman tried to turn her, Meleager ran hard onto a reef. Despite their best efforts, the crew could neither pull Meleager off the reef nor could the pumps keep up with the water coming in. The crew put provisions in the boats and then abandoned ship before she sank. The boats sailed to Vera Cruz. Here, in mid-July, Apollo picked the crew up. The subsequent court martial ruled that the wreck was due to the charts on Meleager being greatly in error with respect to the location of the Triangles Shoal on which she had run aground.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1808 - Action off Saltholm, 9th June 1808
21 Danish gunboats and 12 mortar shallops, under Cmdr Johan C. Krieger, engages a British escorted convoy in the southern part of the Sound. HMS Turbulent (12) and 11 merchant ships are captured.




The Battle of Saltholm was fought on 9 June 1808 during the Gunboat War. Danish and Norwegian ships attacked a British convoy off the island of Saltholm in Øresund Strait near Copenhagen.

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The convoy of 70 British merchant vessels left Malmö Roads under the escort of three Royal Navy brigs and one bomb vessel. The brigs were HMS Turbulent of 12 guns, the 14-gun Piercer and the 12-gun HMS Charger. The bomb was HMS Thunder.

The Danes and the Norwegian assembled twenty-one gunboats and seven mortar boats for the attack. Once the Dano-Norwegian force attacked, the battle was over within twenty minutes.

Turbulent, under the command of Lieutenant George Wood, was bringing up the rear. She and Thunder engaged while the remaining ships attempted to flee. This proved difficult as the wind was very calm, which allowed the Danish and Norwegians to row up to and board several of the British vessels. Turbulent was finally dismasted, which forced her to strike. Still, her resistance enabled most of the merchant fleet to escape. The Dano-Norwegian force captured 12 or 13 merchant vessels, plus Turbulent. Thunder escaped with some damage.

Postscripts
The subsequent court-martial of Lieutenant Wood for the loss of his ship acquitted him of all charges.

Although the Danish gunboats were active, this convoy was the only one to suffer a large loss. Still, the loss of the 12 ships led the British north country merchants to publish a protest in Hull.




HMS Turbulent was a Confounder-class 12-gun gun-brig in the Royal Navy. She was the first ship to bear this name. Built at Dartmouth, Devon by Tanner, she was launched on 17 July 1805. The Danes captured her in 1808. She was sold in 1814.

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Service and capture
She was commissioned in September 1805 under Lieutenant Thomas Osmer for the Downs. On 14 September 1806 she was in company with Urgent when they captured the Romeo. They sent Romeo, Curran, master, into Dover. romeo had been sailing from Virginia to Rotterdam.

In 1807 Lieutenant John Nops replaced Osmer. On 4 June 1807 Turbulent captured the American schooner Charles. Also in June, Turbulent detained and sent into The Downs the Mount Etna, of Boston, which had been sailing from to Amsterdam. In early July Turbulent detained and sent into the Downs the Danish vessel Providence, Richelsen, master. Then on 7 September Turbulent was among the vessels present at the seizure of the Danish fleet at Copenhagen.

In 1808 Lieutenant George Wood replaced Nops. Under Wood, Turbulent captured three vessels in mid-April: Vier Goschevestern (12 April), Emanuel (13 April) and Enigheden (14 April). On 28 April four Danish ketches, carrying wine and deals, prizes to Turbulent, arrived at Sheerness.

Turbulent had served for only three years in all before she bore the brunt of a Danish attack whilst on escort duty during the Gunboat War. On 9 June, Turbulent, under Lieutenant George Wood, was one of the escorts for a convoy of 70 merchantmen. (The others were the bomb-vessel Thunder, Captain James Caulfield, 12-gun gun-brig Charger, Lieutenant John Aitkin Blow, and 14-gun gun-brig Piercer, Lieutenant John Sibrell). In the late afternoon the convoy became becalmed off the Danish island of Saltholm, lying between Copenhagen and Malmo Bay.

In the Battle of Saltholm, a large force of 21 Danish gunboats and 7 mortar boats came out from Copenhagen to attack the convoy. Only Turbulent, which was bringing up the rear, and Thunder were in a position to resist and after 10 minutes of an exchange of fire, Turbulent had lost her main-top-mast and had had three men wounded. Turbulent's resistance saved most of the convoy but the Danes boarded and took her and also 12 merchantmen. Thunder was able to hold off her attackers and they retired with their prizes. The subsequent court martial honorably acquitted Lieutenant Wood for the loss of his ship.

Although the Danish gunboats were active, this convoy was the only one to suffer a large loss. Still, the loss of the 12 ships led the British north country merchants to publish a protest in Hull. The report in Lloyd's List suggests that the Danes captured well more than 12 merchantmen, once one includes Swedish vessels. The same report also mentions the capture of Turbulent and Tickler, though actually the capture of Tickler by four Danish gunboats occurred five days earlier, on 4 June.

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HMS Turbulent captured by a Danish gunboat during the Gunboat War on 9 June 1808

Fate
The Danes took Turbulent into the Danish navy under the same name. She was sold out of service in 1814 to the broker Herlew, presumably after the Treaty of Kiel ended the War.

Lloyd's List reported in March 1816 that the Danish brig Turbulent, of Copenhagen, which had been sailing from St Croix, had been seen at Landskrona, surrounded by ice.


 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1930 – Launch of Black Douglas (later teQuest, Aquarius, Aquarius W; now El Boughaz I), a three-masted staysail auxiliary schooner built for Robert C. Roebling (great-grandson of John A. Roebling and grand-nephew of Washington Roebling) at the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine.
Designed by renowned New York City naval architects H.J. Gielow & Co., she is one of the largest steel-hulled schooners ever built.



The Black Douglas (later teQuest, Aquarius, Aquarius W; now El Boughaz I) is a three-masted staysail auxiliary schooner built for Robert C. Roebling (great-grandson of John A. Roebling and grand-nephew of Washington Roebling) at the Bath Iron Works of Bath, Maine, and launched on 9 June 1930. Designed by renowned New York City naval architects H.J. Gielow & Co., she is one of the largest steel-hulled schooners ever built.

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The ship undertook a variety of functions during her first three and a half decades: private yacht for the Roebling family, patrol vessel in United States Navy service during World War II (as a "patrol yacht – coastal"; PYc-45), and research vessel for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service plying the Pacific from Alaska to Baja California.

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She was bought at auction by Louis Black of Santa Monica, California, to be used as a treasure hunter in the Caribbean. Black sailed the ship through the Panama Canal and then spent eight years treasure hunting in the Turks and Caicos. He eventually sold the ship to Capt. George Stoll, who turned her into a second Flint School school ship. The school closed in 1981 and she was sold, and in 1982–1983 was reconditoned at the Abeking & Rasmussen shipyard in Lemwerder, Germany, serving as a template for the first generation of super yachts. She is currently owned by King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

She was launched with a 325-hp Cooper-Bessemer marine diesel engine, later replaced by a 600-hp (@600 RPM) model from San Francisco's Enterprise Engine & Foundry Company. She now is equipped with twin 290-hp Volvo Pentas. She has flown the flags of the United States, Panama, the Cayman Islands, the United Kingdom, and Morocco (current).

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1940 – Launch of Roma, named after two previous ships and the city of Rome, was the third Vittorio Veneto-class battleship of Italy's Regia Marina (Royal Navy).


Roma, named after two previous ships and the city of Rome, was the third Vittorio Veneto-class battleship of Italy's Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The construction of both Roma and her sister ship Impero was due to rising tensions around the world and the navy's fear that only two Vittorio Venetos, even in company with older pre-First World War battleships, would not be enough to counter the British and French Mediterranean Fleets. As Roma was laid down almost four years after the first two ships of the class, some small improvements were made to the design, including additional freeboard added to the bow.

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Roma was commissioned into the Regia Marina on 14 June 1942, but a severe fuel shortage in Italy at that time prevented her from being deployed; instead, along with her sister ships Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, she was used to bolster the anti-aircraft defenses of various Italian cities. In this role, she was severely damaged twice in June 1943, from bomber raids on La Spezia. After repairs in Genoa through all of July and part of August, Roma was deployed as the flagship of Admiral Carlo Bergamini in a large battle group that eventually comprised the three Vittorio Venetos, eight cruisers and eight destroyers. The battle group was scheduled to attack the Allied ships approaching Salerno to invade Italy (Operation "Avalanche") on 9 September 1943, but the news of the 8 September 1943 armistice with the Allies led to the operation being cancelled. The Italian fleet was instead ordered to sail to La Maddalena (Sardinia) and subsequently to Malta to surrender to the Allies.

While the force was in the Strait of Bonifacio, Dornier Do 217s of the German Luftwaffe's specialist wing KG 100—armed with Fritz X radio-controlled bombs—sighted the force. The first attack failed, but the second dealt Italia (ex-Littorio) and Roma much damage. The hit on Roma caused water to flood two boiler rooms and the aft engine room, leaving the ship to limp along with two propellers, reduced power, and arc-induced fires in the stern of the ship. Shortly thereafter, another bomb slammed into the ship and detonated within the forward engine room, causing catastrophic flooding and the explosion of the #2 main turret's magazines, throwing the turret itself into the sea. Sinking by the bow and listing to starboard, Roma capsized and broke in two, carrying 1,393 men—including Bergamini—down with her.

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Background
For additional information, see Littorio-class battleship
The Italian leader Benito Mussolini did not authorize any large naval rearmament until 1933. Once he did, two old battleships of the Conte di Cavour class were sent to be modernized in the same year, and Vittorio Veneto and Littorio were laid down in 1934. In May 1935, the Italian Naval Ministry began preparing for a five-year naval building program that would include four battleships, three aircraft carriers, four cruisers, fifty-four submarines, and forty smaller ships. In December 1935, Admiral Domenico Cavagnari proposed to Mussolini that, among other things, two more battleships of the Littorio class be built to attempt to counter a possible Franco-British alliance—if the two countries combined forces, they would easily outnumber the Italian fleet. Mussolini postponed his decision, but later authorized planning for the two ships in January 1937. In December, they were approved and money was allocated for them; they were named Roma and Impero ("Empire").

Laid down nearly four years after Vittorio Veneto and Littorio, Roma was able to incorporate a few design improvements. Her bow was noticeably redesigned to give Roma additional freeboard; partway into construction, it was modified on the basis of experience with Vittorio Veneto so that it had had a finer end at the waterline. She was also equipped with thirty-two rather than twenty-four 20 mm (0.79 in)/65 caliber Breda guns.

Description
Main article: Littorio-class battleship
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CG rendering of Roma

Roma
was 240.68 meters (789.6 ft) long overall and had a beam of 32.82 m (107.7 ft) and a draft of 9.6 m (31 ft). She was designed with a standard displacement of 40,992 long tons (41,650 t), a violation of the 35,000-long-ton (36,000 t) restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty; at full combat loading, she displaced 45,485 long tons (46,215 t). The ship was powered by four Belluzo geared steam turbines rated at 128,000 shaft horsepower (95,000 kW). Steam was provided by eight oil-fired Yarrow boilers. The engines provided a top speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) and a range of 3,920 mi (6,310 km; 3,410 nmi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). Roma had a crew of 1,830 to 1,950 if she had been completed.

Roma's main armament consisted of nine 381-millimeter (15.0 in) 50-caliber Model 1934 guns in three triple turrets; two turrets were placed forward in a superfiring arrangement and the third was located aft. Her secondary anti-surface armament consisted of twelve 152 mm (6.0 in) /55 Model 1934/35 guns in four triple turrets amidships. These were supplemented by four 120 mm (4.7 in) /40 Model 1891/92 guns in single mounts; these guns were old weapons and were primarily intended to fire star shells. Roma was equipped with an anti-aircraft battery that comprised twelve 90 mm (3.5 in) /50 Model 1938 guns in single mounts, twenty 37 mm (1.5 in) /54 guns in eight twin and four single mounts, and sixteen 20 mm (0.79 in) /65 guns in eight twin mounts.

The ship was protected by a main armored belt that was 280 mm (11 in) with a second layer of steel that was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick. The main deck was 162 mm (6.4 in) thick in the central area of the ship and reduced to 45 mm (1.8 in) in less critical areas. The main battery turrets were 350 mm (14 in) thick and the lower turret structure was housed in barbettes that were also 350 mm thick. The secondary turrets had 280 mm thick faces and the conning tower had 260 mm (10 in) thick sides. Roma was fitted with a catapult on her stern and equipped with three IMAM Ro.43 reconnaissance float planes or Reggiane Re.2000 fighters

Service history
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Roma being launched, June 9, 1940

Roma's keel was laid by the Italian shipbuilder Cantieri Riuniti dell'Adriatico on 18 September 1938, and she was launched on 9 June 1940. After just over two years of fitting-out, the new battleship was commissioned into the Regia Marina on 14 June 1942. She arrived in the major naval base of Taranto on 21 August, and was assigned to the Ninth Naval Division. Although Roma took part in training exercises and was moved to various bases including Taranto, Naples, and La Spezia, in the next year, she did not go on any combat missions as the Italian Navy was desperately short of fuel. In fact, by the end of 1942, the only combat-ready battleships in the navy were the three Vittorio Venetos because the fuel shortage had caused the four modernized battleships to be removed from service. When combined with a lack of capable vessels to escort the capital ships, the combat potential of the Italian Navy was virtually non-existent.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 June 1944 - Battle of Ushant - Allied 10th destroyer flotilla (UK/Canadian/Polish ships) engage and defeat remnants of the German 8th destroyer flotilla off Brittany


The Battle of Ushant, also known as the Battle of Brittany, occurred on the early morning of 9 June 1944 and was an engagement between German and Allied destroyer flotillas off the coast of Brittany. The action came shortly after the initial Allied landings in Normandy. After a confused engagement during the night the Allies sank one of the German destroyers and forced another ashore, where she was wrecked.

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Crew members of HMS Tartar display their torn White Ensign

Background
On 6 June 1944, the day of the first landings in Normandy, the remnants of the German 8th destroyer flotilla, consisting of the Type 36A Z24 and Z32, and the ZH1 (formerly the Dutch destroyer Gerard Callenburgh) were ordered by Vizeadmiral Theodor Krancke to sail from the Gironde estuary to Brest. The order was intercepted by the British which detailed Canadian Bristol Beaufighters from RAF Coastal Command to attack the German ships as they sailed through the Bay of Biscay. In the ensuing raid, the destroyer Z32 was slightly damaged. The German ships made port at Brest, where Z24 and Z32 had their anti-aircraft armament increased. They then put to sea again on 8 June in company with the Flottentorpedoboot 1939 class torpedo boat T24, the sole survivor of the 4th torpedo boat flotilla, bound for Cherbourg under the command of Theodor von Bechtolsheim, where they would reinforce German positions.

The Allied forces learned of the German intentions through Ultra intercepts, and detailed the 10th Destroyer Flotilla to intercept the German ships as they sailed up the English Channel. The 10th Destroyer Flotilla was at this time under the overall command of Captain Basil Jones, who had his flag aboard the Tribal-class destroyer HMS Tartar. With him were HMS Ashanti, Eskimo and Javelin, the Canadian ships HMCS Haida and Huron, and the Polish vessels ORP Piorun and ORP Błyskawica. Jones decided to split his flotilla in two; the 19th Division consisted of the Eskimo, Javelin, Piorun and Błyskawica, the 20th Division consisted of Tartar, Ashanti, Huron and Haida.

Engagement
The British flotilla were moving westward down the Channel when the German ships were detected by radar just after 01:00 on 9 June. Jones turned his force to meet the Germans, who were by now 30 miles east-northeast of the Ile de Batz. The two flotillas clashed intermittently thereafter, exchanging gunfire and salvoes of torpedoes. Tartar was struck several times, but was able to put out fires and restore her speed. ZH1was then engaged by both Tartar and Ashanti, with Ashanti launching two torpedoes at point-blank range. One struck ZH1, blowing off her bows. With the ship crippled, her captain, Klaus Barckow gave the order to abandon ship, then scuttled her with depth charges at 02:40. Barckow was among the 39 killed. Twenty-eight managed to reach France, the remaining 140 were picked up by the British.

Haida and Huron had meanwhile been pursuing Z24 and T24 until the German ships ran into a British minefield. The Canadians attempted to detour around it, but eventually lost the Germans. Z24 and T24 regrouped, with the intention of returning to engage the British, but finding they were not being followed, they left the area. Haida and Huron returned to the scene and came across von Bechtolsheim's Z32, which had received a heavy pounding and lost contact with the rest of the Germans. There was some confusion over establishing each other's identity, but when the Canadians discovered she was a German ship they opened fire. Von Bechtolsheim fled at high speed, but Z32, having sustained heavy damage, was driven ashore on the Ile de Batz and wrecked.

Surviving ships
Two destroyers from the battle survive as museum ships today. HMCS Haida in Hamilton, Ontario, and ORP Błyskawica in Gdynia, Poland.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 9 June


1762 – British forces begin the Siege of Havana and capture the city during the Seven Years' War.


The Siege of Havana was a military action from March to August 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War. British forces besieged and captured the city of Havana, which at the time was an important Spanish naval base in the Caribbean, and dealt a serious blow to the Spanish Navy. Havana was subsequently returned to Spain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war.

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The British fleet closing in on Havana in 1762. Painting by Dominic Serres

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The Captured Spanish Fleet at Havana, August–September 1762, by Dominic Serres

On 14 August the British entered the city. They had obtained possession of the most important harbour in the Spanish West Indies along with military equipment, 1,828,116 Spanish pesos and merchandise valued around 1,000,000 Spanish pesos. Furthermore, they had seized 20% of the ships of the line of the Spanish Navy, namely Aquilón (74), Conquistador (74), Reina (70), San Antonio (64), Tigre (70), San Jenaro (60), África (70), América (60), Infante (74) and Soberano (74), together with 3 frigates, 9 smaller vessels including the Marte (18) commanded by Domingo de Bonechea and some armed vessels belonging to trading companies (Compañía de La Habana and Compañía de Caracas). Furthermore, two new almost-completed ships of the line were seized in the dockyards - San Carlos (80) and Santiago (60 or 80).
During the siege the British had lost 2,764 killed, wounded, captured or deserted, but by 18 October also had lost 4,708 dead from sickness. One of the most depleted brigades was transferred to North America where it lost a further 360 men within a month of arrival. Three ships of the line were lost either as a direct result of Spanish gunfire or severe damage received which would cause their demise later. Shortly after the siege HMS Stirling Castle was declared unserviceable and was stripped and scuttled. HMS Marlborough sank in the Atlantic due to extensive damage received during the siege, and HMS Temple was lost while returning to Britain for repairs.
On their return to Spain Prado and Hevia were court-martialed and convicted.
The loss of Havana and Western Cuba was a serious blow to Spain. Not only were the financial losses considerable, the loss in prestige was even greater. This defeat, together with the conquest of Manila by the British one and a half months later, meant the loss of both the capitals of the Spanish West Indies and the Spanish East Indies. This confirmed British naval supremacy, and showed the fragility of the Spanish Empire. Just as the earlier War of Jenkins' Ear had forced the British government into a thorough review of its military, this war forced the Spanish government into undertaking a similar process.



1795 HMS Mosquito captured a privateer.

On 9 June 1795, Mosquito captured the French privateer sloop Rasoir national. after a seven-hour long engagement. The privateer was armed with six guns and had a crew of 40 men. Lieutenant M'Farlane, was killed early during the action. The next day Mosquito recaptured the privateer's prize, a Spanish brig that had been sailing from Havana to Cartagena with a cargo of flour. Mosquito had sustained substantial damage in the engagement and her master was unable to proceed to Mole St. Nicholas, as per orders, but instead was able to reach Providence with both the privateer and the recaptured brig

HMS Musquito (or Mosquito) was a 4-gun schooner, previously the French privateer Vénus. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793, and purchased her in 1794. Because there was already a Venus in service, the navy changed her name to Musquito. During her brief service Musquito captured an armed vessel that appears to have out-gunned her.



1808 - The Atalante was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. She was acquired by France in 1801 and commissioned in the French Navy, being renamed to Atlas in 1803, serving in Santo Domingo and taking part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre. She was captured 9 June 1808 in Vigo at the outbreak of the Peninsular War.

The Atalante was a 74-gun ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. She was acquired by France in 1801 and commissioned in the French Navy, being renamed to Atlas in 1803, serving in Santo Domingo and taking part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre. She was captured in Vigo at the outbreak of the Peninsular War.



1808 – Launch of French Tonnerre was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy

Tonnerre was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Started in 1794, she remained under construction until 1808. Under Captain de la Roncière, she joined the Rochefort squadron in February 1809.
At the Battle of the Basque Roads, she was beached on 12 April. Her crew then scuttled her by fire to avoid her capture.

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


1811 – Launch of French Trident was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

The Trident was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
On 13 February 1814, she was part of Julien Cosmao's squadron which was intercepted off Toulon by a British blockade. The Romulus, at the rear, managed to hold off the British ships.
In 1823, during the Spanish expedition, she took part in the bombardment of Cadiz, along with Centaure. In 1827, at the Battle of Navarino, she silenced coastal defences with the Sirène.
She took part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830. In 1831, the served as flagship of the Toulon squadron under Rear-admiral Baron Hugon, and took part in the Battle of the Tagus under Captain Casy, reaching Lisbon.
In 1854, she took part in the Crimean War, and was used as a troop ship the next year in the Black Sea.
She was struck on 24 November 1857 and was used as a barracks hulk from 1857 to 1869.
She was eventually broken up in 1879.



1811 – Launch of French Illustre was an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.

The Illustre was an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.
She was given to Holland with the Treaty of Fontainebleau of 1814.

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The Robuste, sister-ship of the Illustre

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


1811 – Launch of French Mont Saint-Bernard was an 82-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line of the French Navy.

Mont Saint-Bernard was an 82-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line of the French Navy.
On 20 April 1814, after the abdication of Napoleon at the end of the War of the Sixth Coalition, she was handed over to the Austrians, who burnt her.

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Ship of the line Mont Saint Bernard fitted with Ship Camels, external ballast to sail over shallow waters



1813 - During the War of 1812, the frigate, USS President, commanded by John Rodgers, is en route between the Azores and England when it begins a series of captures of British vessels that include the brig Kitty, the packet brig Duke of Montrose, the brig Maria, and the schooner Falcon

USS President
was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns. George Washington named her to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. She was launched in April 1800 from a shipyard in New York City. President was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so President and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Forman Cheeseman, and later Christian Bergh were in charge of her construction. Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to engage in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.

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On 16 May 1811, President was at the center of the Little Belt Affair; her crew mistakenly identified HMS Little Belt as HMS Guerriere, which had impressed an American seaman. The ships exchanged cannon fire for several minutes. Subsequent U.S. and Royal Navy investigations placed responsibility for the attack on each other without a resolution. The incident contributed to tensions between the U.S. and Great Britain that led to the War of 1812.

During the war, President made several extended cruises, patrolling as far away as the English Channel and Norway; she captured the armed schooner HMS Highflyer and numerous merchant ships. In January 1815, after having been blockaded in New York for a year by the Royal Navy, President attempted to run the blockade, and was chased by a blockading squadron. During the chase, she was engaged and crippled by the frigate HMS Endymion off the coast of the city. The British squadron captured President soon after, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President until she was broken up in 1818. President's design was copied and used to build the next HMS President in 1829.



1828 - June 9 (May 26 OS) - Russians defeat Turks near Braila (Russo-Turkish War)



1869 - Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie, orders the construction of the first torpedo station on Goat Island, Newport, R.I. Cmdr. Edmund O. Matthews is the first Commanding Officer. During the establishment, the station experiments with torpedoes and trained sailors in the use of the weapons.


1882 - The Office of Naval Records of the War of the Rebellion (which later becomes part of the Naval History and Heritage Command) is established. The office is placed under the direction of James R. Soley, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the 1890s.


1944 - Tanikaze – On 9 June 1944 the Japanese destroyer was torpedoed and sunk by USS Harder in Sibutu Passage, near Tawitawi, 90 nautical miles (170 km) southwest of Basilan. It was reported that 114 crew were killed and 126 survivors were rescued by Urakaze. Urakaze was sunk five months later by Sealion with all hands including several survivors from Tanikaze.


Tanikaze (谷風, Valley Wind) was one of 19 Kagerō-class destroyers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy during the 1930s.

On 9 June 1944, Tanikaze was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Harder in Sibutu Passage near Tawitawi, 90 miles (140 km) southwest of Basilan (05°42′N 120°41′E). 114 crew members were killed, while 126 survivors, including her commander Lieutenant Commander Shunsaku Ikeda (池田 周作) (who died two days later), were rescued by the destroyer Urakaze, which five months later would be sunk by the submarine USS Sealion with all hands, including all survivors from Tanikaze

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Tanikaze_(1940)


1945 - Coordinated submarine attack group, TG.17.21, commanded by Cmdr. Earl T. Hydeman on flagship USS Sea Dog, begins operations off the northwest coast of Honshu, sinking three subs, while TG.17.23 off Korea sinks a freighter and transport ship.


1959 – The USS George Washington is launched. It is the first nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.


USS George Washington (SSBN-598)
was the United States's first operational ballistic missile submarine. It was the lead ship of her class of nuclear ballistic missile submarines, was the third United States Navy ship of the name, in honor of George Washington (1732–1799), first President of the United States, and the first of that name to be purpose-built as a warship.

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2017 – Launch of Symphony of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International.[8] As of 2019 it is the largest passenger ship in the world by gross tonnage, at 228,021 GT, surpassing her sister Harmony of the Seas

Symphony of the Seas is an Oasis-class cruise ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. As of 2019 it is the largest passenger ship in the world by gross tonnage, at 228,021 GT, surpassing her sister Harmony of the Seas.
Symphony of the Seas was built in the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint Nazaire, France. She is the fourth ship in its Oasis-class series.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 June 1647 - Battle of Puerto de Cavite - Spanish defeat Dutch attack near Manila
Twelve Dutch ships besieged Puerto de Cavite, the home of the Manila galleons
The Spaniards and Filipinos defended the port with artillery fire and sank the Dutch flagship. Subsequently the Dutch left with the Spaniards and Filipinos still maintaining control over the port.



The naval Battle of Puerto de Cavite (Filipino: Labanan sa Puerto ng Cavite; Spanish: Batalla de Puerto de Cavite) took place on 10 June 1647 during the Eighty Years' War between a Spanish fleet and a Dutch fleet in Puerto de Cavite, an important Spanish port in Manila Bay, Philippines in which the Dutch were defeated.

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Battle
Twelve Dutch ships besieged Puerto de Cavite, the home of the Manila galleons, on 10 June. The Spaniards and Filipinos defended the port with artillery fire and sank the Dutch flagship. Subsequently, the Dutch left with the Spaniards and Filipinos still maintaining control over the port. This came at a great cost since Porta Vaga, a Spanish stone fort that defended the area, was destroyed. The Dutch then went on to harass the Manila Bay area until the war's end in 1648 with the Treaty of Münster.

Port
The port, Puerto de Cavite, was one of many important Spanish naval possessions in Manila Bay in the Captaincy General of the Philippines, and facilitated the Manila galleons trade between the Philippines and New Spain (present day Mexico). Puerto de Cavite is located in present-day Cavite City.




 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10 June 1666 – Launch of HMS Loyal London, an 80-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Deptford Dockyard


Loyal London was an 80-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 June 1666 at Deptford Dockyard with a burthen of 1,236 tons. She was established with 80 guns comprising 22 cannon-of-seven, 4 demi-cannon, 26 culverins and 28 demi-culverins; in July 1666 this was raised to 92 guns, comprising 7 cannon-of-seven, 19 demi-cannon, 28 culverins, 26 12-pounders and 12 demi-culverins.

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The building of the Loyal London, by Frank Henry Mason

The Loyal London was destroyed by fire on 14 June 1667, during a Dutch raid on Chatham. A quantity of her timbers were salvaged on 15 July, and were transported to Deptford for reuse in construction of the 96-gun first rate London.

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A portrait of the English 96-gun, first-rate ship ‘London’, which was built in 1670 and rebuilt in 1706. It is identifiable as this vessel from the similarity of the ports, the latrine in the main chains and the lack of an entering port on the starboard side to a drawing of the same ship in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam (441). The drawing is probably based on a faint offset, lightly worked up in wash, much in the manner of Van de Velde the Younger. Robinson, however, suggests that the latter’s involvement is probably confined to a few touches with pen and brown ink, and dates the drawing to 1676 on the basis of its similarity in execution to a drawing of the ‘Charles’ of that year (PAJ2300), also attributed by him primarily to the Elder.



 
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