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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1818 – Launch of HMS Sprightly and HMS Racer, both were 6-gun Nightingale-class cutters built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s



HMS
Sprightly
was a 6-gun Nightingale-class cutter built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. She was wrecked off the Isle of Portland in 1821.

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Description
Sprightly had a length at the gundeck of 67 feet (20.4 m) and 52 feet 7 inches (16.0 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 22 feet 5 inches (6.8 m), a draught of about 10 feet 5 inches (3.2 m) and a depth of hold of 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 m). The ship's tonnage was 140 tons burthen. The Nightingale class was armed with two 6-pounder cannon and four 6-pounder carronades. The ships had a crew of 34 officers and ratings.

Construction and career
Sprightly, the fourth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered in 1817, laid down in October 1817 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 3 June 1818. She was completed on 18 January 1820 at Plymouth Dockyard.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail and midship framing, and longitudinal half-breadth for Revenue Cutters to be built at Pater [Pembroke Dockyard]: possibly Racer (1818); Sprightly (1818) both Revenue Cutters, and also possibly for Speedy (1828) and Snipe (1828) both 6-gun Cutter Tenders all built at Pembroke Dockyard. Signed Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]


HMS Racer was a 6-gun Nightingale-class cutter built for the Royal Navy in 1818. She was broken up in 1830.

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Description
Racer had a length at the gundeck of 63 feet 9 inches (19.4 m) and 47 feet (14.3 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 22 feet 2 inches (6.8 m), a draught of about 10 feet 5 inches (3.2 m) and a depth of hold of 9 feet 6 inches (2.9 m). The ship's tonnage was 122 tons burthen. The Nightingale class was armed with two 6-pounder cannon and four 6-pounder carronades. The ships had a crew of 34 officers and ratings.

Construction and career
Racer, the third ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered in 1817, laid down in August 1817 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 4 April 1818. She was completed on 31 September 1819 at Plymouth Dockyard.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sprightly_(1818)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1853 - HMS Investigator was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition.
She made two voyages to the Arctic and had to be abandoned on 3rd June 1853 after becoming trapped in the ice.


HMS
Investigator
was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She made two voyages to the Arctic and had to be abandoned in 1853 after becoming trapped in the ice. Her wreckage was found in July 2010 on Banks Island, in the Beaufort Sea. She was the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

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HMS Enterprise (left) and HMS Investigator (right)

Construction and purchase
Built at Scotts of Greenock on the Firth of Clyde and running 422 tonnes, Investigator was purchased by the Admiralty in February 1848 and was fitted for Arctic exploration by R. & H. Green at Blackwall Yard on the River Thames.

She was strengthened for Arctic service by William M. Rice, Master Shipwright of Woolwich Dockyard. She was extensively strengthened with timber (teak, English oak, Canadian elm) and 5⁄16 inch (8 mm) steel plating. Ten pairs of iron diagonal riders were set in the hold, with ten pairs of diagonal plates on the sides of the vessel between decks. To cope with snow and ice loads, the upper decks were doubled with 3-inch (76 mm) firplanking. Preston's Patent Ventilating Illuminators were installed to improve light and ventilation. Sylvester's Warming Apparatus, a modern stove system capable of warming the entire ship, was also employed with good results. The same or similar device had been used by William Edward Parry in 1821 to prevent condensation and aerate the lowest deck.

Career
Main article: McClure Arctic Expedition
Later in 1848, she accompanied Enterprise on James Clark Ross's expedition to find the missing Sir John Franklin. Also aboard Investigator on this expedition was the naturalist Edward Adams. She was commanded for the return voyage by Robert McClure, but became trapped in the ice, and was abandoned on 3 June 1853 in Mercy Bay, where she had been stuck for nearly three years. The following year, she was inspected by crews of Resolute, still frozen in, and reported to be in fair condition despite having taken on some water during the summer thaw.

Legacy
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Sledge party leaving HMS Investigator in Mercy Bay under the command of Lieutenant Gurney Cresswell, April 15, 1853.

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HMS Investigator, Baring (Banks) Island, 20 August 1851

Unlike the loss of Erebus and Terror, the events surrounding Investigator's abandonment are not a mystery. McClure provided an official account of the journey, and the ship's surgeon Alexander Armstrong published an unofficial account in 1857. However, the location of the wreckage was not known for over 150 years because of difficulties reaching the area, which is inhospitable and often covered in ice.

Oral traditions of the Inuit tell stories of the ship. The abandoned ship was a source of copper and iron for the indigenous people in the area; metal nails were missing from smaller boats on the shore when they were discovered. One Inuit account from 1910 noted that "one year she had still been on the beach and the next year she was gone without a trace". When Canadian anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson reached Mercy Bay in 1915 during his voyage to the Arctic, he failed to find her remains. After meeting the Inuit who made pilgrimages to the wreckage, he suggested a link between the Investigator's stranding and the absence of muskoxen on Banks Island. He speculated that the Inuit had killed off the animals during their journeys to and from the wreckage over the 40 years since abandonment. The muskoxen have since repopulated the island and now number nearly 50,000.

Discovery of wreckage
The [...] discovery [...] happened almost too quickly for dramatic effect, perhaps befitting an archeological dig that is experiencing such an incredible streak of good luck on the water, on land and with the weather; the team is pinching itself in disbelief.
—Don Martin, National Post
In July 2010, a team of Parks Canada scientists, archaeologists, and surveyors began searching for the sunken Investigator in Mercy Bay at the northern tip of Aulavik National Park. It was the first expedition to search for the ship. The team arrived on Banks Island in the Beaufort Sea on 22 July and began a sonar scan of the area three days later. The ship was detected in the scan 15 minutes later. In order to confirm the discovery, the team made more than a dozen sweeps of the area over the next hour. Its remains were discovered on the shores of the island with the deck of the ship about eight metres below the surface. According to Ifan Thomas, a superintendent with Parks Canada, the ship was found "sitting upright in silt; the three masts have been removed, probably by ice". The cold arctic water prevented the outer deck from deteriorating quickly. There are no plans to raise the ship's remains, although the team will send a remotely operated underwater vehicle to take photos of the underwater portion of the ship.

A team of six Parks Canada archaeologists, led by Marc-André Bernier, scheduled dives on Investigator site for 15 days beginning on 10 July 2011 to gather detailed photographic documentation and mapping of the wreck. This was the first human contact with the wreck, which lies partially buried in silt 150 meters off the north shore of Banks Island.







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Investigator_(1848)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1897 – Launch of Hougomont, a four-masted steel barque built in Greenock, Scotland in 1897 by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co.


Hougomont was the name of a four-masted steel barque built in Greenock, Scotland in 1897 by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. In 1924 she was purchased by Gustav Erikson's shipping company in Mariehamn, Åland, Finland. She was used for transport and schooling ship for young sailors until 1932 when a squall completely broke her rig on the Southern Ocean and she was sunk as breakwater near the town of Stenhouse Bay in South Australia. ' Hougomont had a crew of 24 men. The name "Hougomont" is derived from Château d'Hougoumont where the Battle of Waterloo was fought. While seaworthy she sailed to Peru, Florida, Canada, Australia, England, Ireland, and Sweden among other destinations. She had two sister ships, Nivelle (stranded in 1906) and Archibald Russell.

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Hougomont docked in an unidentified port circa 1900 (State Library of South Australia PRG 1373-15-80)

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History
Hougomont was unfortunate and damaged on several occasions while at sea

In March 1903 she ran aground at Allonby on the Cumbrian coast. She was bound for Liverpool from San Francisco and had been driven off course by heavy weather. Her cargo included 32,000 cases of tinned pears and 24,000 cases of salmon, which the villagers of Allonby 'harvested' from the shore.

In 1910 nine men were washed overboard when a rogue wave hit her stern in a hurricane. Five of the men were washed back on board by the next wave, but the remaining four were never seen again. In November 1927 her rig sustained damage in the Bay of Biscay, and she took refuge at the port of Lisbon, Portugal, where she was repaired in order to continue her voyage to Melbourne, Australia. In 1931 several of her sails were torn to shreds in a storm near Cape Horn.

On 20 April 1932 at 01:00 she was dismasted by a squall in a storm in the Southern Ocean 950 kilometres (590 miles) south of Cape Borda in South Australia. She was at the time on her 111th day at sea, carrying deadweight, on her way to a port in Spencer Gulf, west of Adelaide, Australia. The wreckage of the damaged rig battered the ship severely and it took the crew 30 hours to free her from it. She was coincidentally spotted by a steamer that wirelessly telegraphed about the distress to Adelaide, and the steam tug Wato was sent to assist. However, by the time Wato had reached Hougomont, Hougomont′s crew had managed to build a jury rig and she was sailing slowly forward. Her captain, Ragnar Lindholm, refused all offers of assistance from the tug as he wanted to avoid salvage fees.

Nineteen days later, on 8 May 1932, she reached the anchorage immediately off Semaphore in Adelaide. It was estimated that she was damaged beyond repair, so everything valuable on her was removed and shipped to Mariehamn on Herzogin Cecilie in December 1932. She was sold to the Waratah Gypsum Company for scuttling as a breakwater. In January 1933, Wato towed her to Stenhouse Bay for scuttling. She was scuttled there on 8 January 1933.

Today she lies 9 metres (30 feet) underwater in Stenhouse Bay. Her stern and prow are still standing somewhat upright, but most of her hull has collapsed. Her figurehead, a blonde lady dressed in a white gown, is displayed in Åland Maritime Museum in Mariehamn.[8]The wreck site is officially located at 35°16′52.81″S 136°56′40.99″ECoordinates:
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35°16′52.81″S 136°56′40.99″E.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1940 – World War II: The Battle of Dunkirk ends with a German victory and with Allied forces in full retreat.


The Battle of Dunkirk (French: Bataille de Dunkerque) was fought in Dunkirk (Dunkerque), France, during the Second World War, between the Allies and Nazi Germany. As the Allies were losing the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defence and evacuation to Britain of British and other Allied forces in Europe from 26 May to 4 June 1940.

After the Phoney War, the Battle of France began in earnest on 10 May 1940. To the east, the German Army Group B invaded the Netherlands and advanced westward. In response, the Supreme Allied Commander—French General Maurice Gamelin—initiated "Plan D" and entered Belgium to engage the Germans in the Netherlands. The plan relied heavily on the Maginot Line fortifications along the German–French border, but German forces had already crossed through most of the Netherlands before the French forces arrived. Gamelin instead committed the forces under his command, three mechanised armies, the French First and Seventh Armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), to the River Dyle. On 14 May, German Army Group A burst through the Ardennes and advanced rapidly to the west toward Sedan, then turned northward to the English Channel, using Generalfeldmarschall Erich von Manstein's plan Sichelschnitt under the German strategy Fall Gelb, effectively flanking the Allied forces.

A series of Allied counter-attacks—including the Battle of Arras—failed to sever the German spearhead, which reached the coast on 20 May, separating the BEF near Armentières, the French First Army, and the Belgian Army further to the north from the majority of French troops south of the German penetration. After reaching the Channel, the German forces swung north along the coast, threatening to capture the ports and trap the British and French before they could evacuate to Britain.

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In one of the most debated decisions of the war, the Germans halted their advance on Dunkirk. Contrary to popular belief, what became known as the "Halt Order" did not originate with Adolf Hitler. Generalobersten(Colonel-Generals) Gerd von Rundstedt and Günther von Kluge suggested that the German forces around the Dunkirk pocket should cease their advance on the port and consolidate to avoid an Allied breakout. Hitler sanctioned the order on 24 May with the support of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht. The army was to halt for three days, which gave the Allies sufficient time to organise the Dunkirk evacuation and build a defensive line. While more than 330,000 Allied troops were rescued, British and French military forces nonetheless sustained heavy casualties and were forced to abandon nearly all their equipment. The British Expeditionary Force alone lost some 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign.


The Dunkirk evacuation, code-named Operation Dynamo, also known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The operation commenced after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week long Battle of France. In a speech to the House of Commons, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called this "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his "we shall fight on the beaches" speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".

After Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, France and the British Empire declared war on Germany and imposed an economic blockade. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was sent to help defend France. After the Phoney War of October 1939 to April 1940, Germany invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and France on 10 May 1940. Three of their panzer corps attacked through the Ardennes and drove northwest to the English Channel. By 21 May German forces had trapped the BEF, the remains of the Belgian forces, and three French field armies along the northern coast of France. The commander of the BEF, GeneralViscount Gort, immediately saw evacuation across the Channel as the best course of action, and began planning a withdrawal to Dunkirk, the closest good port.

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Late on 23 May, a halt order was issued by Generaloberst Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group A. Adolf Hitler approved the order the next day and had the German High Command send confirmation to the front. Destroying the trapped BEF, French, and Belgian armies was left to the Luftwaffe until the order was rescinded on 26 May. This gave trapped Allied forces time to construct defensive works and pull back large numbers of troops to fight the Battle of Dunkirk. From 28 to 31 May, in the Siege of Lille, the remaining 40,000 men of the once-formidable French First Army fought a delaying action against seven German divisions, including three armoured divisions.

On the first day only 7,669 Allied soldiers were evacuated, but by the end of the eighth day, 338,226 of them had been rescued by a hastily assembled fleet of over 800 boats. Many troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 39 British Royal Navy destroyers, four Royal Canadian Navy destroyers,[4] at least three French destroyers, and a variety of civilian merchant ships, while others had to wade out from the beaches, waiting for hours in shoulder-deep water. Some were ferried to the larger ships by what came to be known as the Little Ships of Dunkirk, a flotilla of hundreds of merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft, yachts, and lifeboats called into service from Britain. The BEF lost 68,000 soldiers during the French campaign and had to abandon nearly all of its tanks, vehicles, and equipment. In his speech to the House of Commons on 4 June, Churchill reminded the country that "we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations."

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Aftermath

Troops evacuated from Dunkirk, Dover, 31 May 1940

Battle of Dunkirk memorial

Following the events at Dunkirk, the German forces regrouped before commencing operation Fall Rot, a renewed assault southward, starting on 5 June. Although the French soldiers who had been evacuated at Dunkirk returned to France a few hours later to stop the German advance and two fresh British divisions had begun moving to France in an attempt to form a Second BEF, the decision was taken on 14 June to withdraw all the remaining British troops, an evacuation called Operation Ariel. By 25 June, almost 192,000 Allied personnel, 144,000 of them British, had been evacuated through various French ports. Although the French Army fought on, German troops entered Paris on 14 June. The French government was forced to negotiate an armistice at Compiègne on 22 June.

The loss of materiel on the beaches was huge. The British Army left enough equipment behind to fit out about eight to ten divisions.[citation needed] Discarded in France were, among other things, huge supplies of ammunition, 880 field guns, 310 guns of large calibre, some 500 anti-aircraft guns, about 850 anti-tank guns, 11,000 machine guns, nearly 700 tanks, 20,000 motorcycles and 45,000 motor cars and lorries. Army equipment available at home was only just sufficient to equip two divisions.[citation needed] The British Army needed months to re-supply properly, and some planned introductions of new equipment were halted while industrial resources concentrated on making good the losses. Officers told troops falling back from Dunkirk to burn or otherwise disable their trucks (so as not to let them benefit the advancing German forces). The shortage of army vehicles after Dunkirk was so severe that the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) was reduced to retrieving and refurbishing obsolete buses and coaches from British scrapyards to press them into use as troop transports.[according to whom?] Some of these antique workhorses were still in use as late as the North African campaign of 1942.

On 2 June, the Dean of St Paul's, Walter Matthews, was the first to call the evacuation the "Miracle of Dunkirk".

It was remembered that the Archbishop of Canterbury had announced that the Day of National Prayer might well be a turning point, and it was obvious to many that God had answered the nation's collective prayer with the 'miracle of Dunkirk'. The evidence of God's intervention was clear for those who wished to see it; papers had written of calm seas and the high mist which interfered with the accuracy of German bombers.
A marble memorial to the battle stands at Dunkirk. The French inscription is translated as: "To the glorious memory of the pilots, mariners, and soldiers of the French and Allied armies who sacrificed themselves in the Battle of Dunkirk, May–June 1940."

The missing dead of the BEF are commemorated on the Dunkirk Memorial.

"Dunkirk Spirit"
Further information: Little ships of Dunkirk
British press later exploited the successful evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940, and particularly the role of the "Dunkirk little ships", very effectively. Many of them were private vessels such as fishing boats and pleasure cruisers, but commercial vessels such as ferries also contributed to the force, including a number from as far away as the Isle of Man and Glasgow. These smaller vessels—guided by naval craft across the Channel from the Thames Estuary and from Dover—assisted in the official evacuation. Being able to move closer into the beachfront shallows than larger craft, the "little ships" acted as shuttles to and from the larger ships, lifting troops who were queuing in the water, many waiting shoulder-deep in water for hours. The term "Dunkirk Spirit" refers to the solidarity of the British people in times of adversity.

The Little Ships of Dunkirk were about 850 private boats that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk during the Second World War.





 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1969 – Melbourne–Evans collision: off the coast of South Vietnam, the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Frank E. Evans in half.
USS Frank E. Evans – On 3 June 1969, while operating as a plane guard for the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne in the SEATO training exercise Sea Spirit, the destroyer crossed the bows of the carrier and was rammed and sunk.
Of the 273 aboard Evans, 74 died.
The handling of the inquiry into the collision was seen as detrimental to United States–Australia relations.



The MelbourneEvans collision was a collision between the light aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the destroyer USS Frank E. Evans of the United States Navy (USN). On 3 June 1969, the two ships were participating in SEATO exercise Sea Spirit in the South China Sea. Around 3:00 am, when ordered to a new escort station, Evans sailed under Melbourne's bow, where she was cut in two. Seventy-four of Evans's crew were killed.

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A joint RAN–USN board of inquiry was held to establish the events of the collision and the responsibility of those involved. This inquiry, which was believed by the Australians to be biased against them, found that both ships were at fault for the collision. Four officers (the captains of Melbourne and Evans, plus the two junior officers in control of Evans at the time of the collision) were court-martialled based on the results of the inquiry; while the three USN officers were charged, the RAN officer was cleared of wrongdoing.

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The stern section of USS Frank E. Evans on the morning after the collision. USS Everett F. Larson(right) is moving in to salvage the remains of the abandoned destroyer.

Ships
Main articles: HMAS Melbourne (R21) and USS Frank E. Evans (DD-754)

HMAS Melbourne was the lead ship of the Majestic class of aircraft carriers. She was laid down for the Royal Navy on 15 April 1943, but construction was stopped at the end of World War II. She was sold to the Royal Australian Navy in 1948, along with sister shipHMAS Sydney, but was heavily upgraded while construction was completed and did not enter service until the end of 1955. In 1964, Melbourne was involved in a collision with the Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager, sinking the smaller ship and killing 81 of her crew and one civilian dockyard worker.

USS Frank E. Evans was an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer. She was laid down on 21 April 1944, and commissioned into the United States Navy on 3 February 1945. She served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, and earned 11 battle stars.

Lead up
Melbourne's commanding officer during the SEATO exercise was Captain John Phillip Stevenson. Rear Admiral John Crabb, the Flag Officer Commanding Australian Fleet, was also embarked on the carrier. During Sea Spirit, Melbourne was assigned five escorts: the US destroyers Everett F. Larson, Frank E. Evans and James E. Kyes, and the frigates HMNZS Blackpool and HMS Cleopatra. Stevenson held a dinner for the five escort captains at the start of the exercise, during which he recounted the events of the MelbourneVoyager collision, emphasised the need for caution when operating near the carrier, and provided written instructions on how to avoid such a situation developing again. Additionally, during the lead-up to the exercise, Admiral Crabb had strongly warned that all repositioning manoeuvres performed by the escorts had to commence with a turn away from Melbourne.

Despite these warnings, a near-miss occurred in the early hours of 31 May when Larson turned toward the carrier after being ordered to the plane guard station. Subsequent action narrowly prevented a collision. The escorts were again warned about the dangers of operating near the carrier and informed of Stevenson's expectations, while the minimum distance between carrier and escorts was increased from 2,000 to 3,000 yd (1,800 to 2,700 m).

Collision
On the night of 2–3 June, Melbourne and her escorts were involved in anti-submarine training exercises. In preparation for launching a Grumman S-2 Tracker aircraft, Stevenson ordered Evans to the plane guard station, reminded the destroyer of Melbourne's course, and instructed the carrier's navigational lights to be brought to full brilliance. This was the fourth time that Evans had been asked to assume this station that night, and the previous three manoeuvres had been without incident. Evans was positioned on Melbourne's port bow, but began the manoeuvre by turning starboard, towards the carrier. A radio message was sent from Melbourne to Evans's bridge and Combat Information Centre, warning the destroyer that she was on a collision course, which Evans acknowledged. Seeing the destroyer take no action and on a course to place herself under Melbourne's bow, Stevenson ordered the carrier hard to port, signalling the turn by both radio and siren blasts. At approximately the same time, Evans turned hard to starboard to avoid the approaching carrier. It is uncertain which ship began to manoeuvre first, but each ship's bridge crew claimed that they were informed of the other ship's turn after they commenced their own. After having narrowly passed in front of Melbourne, the turns quickly placed Evans back in the carrier's path. Melbourne hit Evans amidships at 3:15 am, cutting the destroyer in two.

Animation of a carrier and a destroyer. The carrier is travelling in a straight, downward-sloped line across the frame. The destroyer starts near the bottom of the frame, turns in a clockwise arc to travel up the frame past the oncoming carrier, then turns sharply back into the carrier's path.

The paths taken by HMAS Melbourne and USS Frank E. Evans in the minutes leading up to the collision

Melbourne stopped immediately after the collision and deployed her boats, liferafts and lifebuoys, before carefully manoeuvring alongside the stern section of Evans. Sailors from both ships used mooring lines to lash the two ships together, allowing Melbourne to evacuate the survivors in that section. The bow section sank quickly; the majority of those killed were believed to have been trapped within. Members of Melbourne's crew dived into the water to rescue overboard survivors close to the carrier, while the carrier's boats and helicopters collected those farther out. Clothing, blankets and beer were provided to survivors from the carrier's stores, some RAN sailors offered their own uniforms, and the ship's band was instructed to set up on the flight deck to entertain and distract the USN personnel. All of the survivors were located within 12 minutes of the collision and rescued before half an hour had passed, although the search continued for 15 more hours.

Seventy-four of the 273 crew on Evans were killed. It was later learned that Evans's commanding officer—Commander Albert S. McLemore—was asleep in his quarters at the time of the incident, and charge of the vessel was held by Lieutenants Ronald Ramsey and James Hopson; the former had failed the qualification exam to stand watch, while the latter was at sea for the first time.

Post-collision events
Following the evacuation of Evans's stern, the section was cast off while the carrier moved away to avoid damage, but against expectation, it failed to sink. The stern was recovered and towed by fleet tug USS Tawasa to Subic Bay, arriving there on 9 June. After being stripped for parts, the hulk was decommissioned on 1 July, and was later sunk when used for target practice.

Melbourne travelled to Singapore, arriving on 6 June, where she received temporary repairs to her bow. The carrier departed on 27 June, and arrived in Sydney on 9 July, where she remained until November docked at Cockatoo Island Dockyard for repairs and installation of the new bow.

817 Squadron RAN—which was responsible for the Westland Wessex helicopters embarked on Melbourne at the time of the collision—later received a USN Meritorious Unit Commendation for its rescue efforts. Five other decorations were presented to Australian personnel in relation to the rescue of Evans's crew: one George Medal, one Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), one Air Force Cross, and two British Empire Medals.[20] Fifteen additional commendations for gallantry were awarded by the Australian Naval Board.

Joint board of inquiry
A joint RAN–USN board of inquiry was established to investigate the incident, following the passing of special regulations allowing the presence of Australian personnel at a U.S. inquiry. The board was in session for over 100 hours between 9 June and 14 July, with 79 witnesses interviewed: 48 USN, 28 RAN, and three from other navies.

The board was made up of six officers. The RAN representatives were Rear Admiral David Stevenson (no relation to Melbourne's Captain Stevenson), Captain Ken Shards, and Captain John Davidson. The USN officers were Captains S. L. Rusk and C. B. Anderson. Presiding over the board was USN Rear Admiral Jerome King: considered to be an unwise posting as he was the commanding officer of both the forces involved in the SEATO exercise and the fleet unit Evans normally belonged to, and was seen during the inquiry to be biased against Captain Stevenson and other RAN personnel. King's attitude, performance, and conflict of interest were criticised by the Australians present at the inquiry and the press, and his handling of the inquiry was seen as detrimental to relations between the two countries.

Despite admissions by members of the USN, given privately to personnel in other navies, that the incident was entirely the fault of Evans, significant attempts were made to reduce the U.S. destroyer's culpability and place at least partial blame for the incident on Melbourne. At the beginning of the inquiry, King banned one of the RAN legal advisers from attending, even as an observer. He regularly intervened for American witnesses, but failed to do so on similar matters for the Australians. Testimony on the collision and the subsequent rescue operation was to be given separately, and although requests by American personnel to give both sets of testimony at the same time in order to return to their duties were regularly granted, the same request made by Stevenson was denied by King. Testimony of members of the RAN had to be given under oath, and witnesses faced intense questioning from King, despite the same conditions not applying to USN personnel. There was also a heavy focus on the adequacy of Melbourne's navigational lighting. Mentions of the near miss with Larson were interrupted with the instruction that those details could be recounted at a later time, but the matter was never raised by the board.

The unanimous decision of the board was that although Evans was partially at fault for the collision, Melbourne had contributed by not taking evasive action sooner, even though doing this would have been a direct contravention of international sea regulations, which stated that in the lead-up to a collision, the larger ship was required to maintain course and speed. The report was inconsistent in several areas with the evidence given at the inquiry, including the falsity that Melbourne's navigational lights took significant time to come to full brilliance. Several facts were also edited out of the transcripts of the inquiry.





 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 June 1978 – Launch of HNLMS Piet Hein (F811), a frigate of the Kortenaer class, which was converted and relaunched in 2011 as the private superyacht Yas


HNLMS Piet Hein (F811)
(Dutch: Hr.Ms. Piet Hein) was a frigate of the Kortenaer class. The ship was in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy from 1981 to 1998. The frigate was named after Dutch naval hero Piet Pieterszoon Hein. The ship's radio call sign was "PAVM".

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Dutch service history
HNLMS Piet Hein was built at KM de Schelde in Vlissingen. The keel laying took place on 28 April 1977 and the launching on 3 June 1978. The ship was put into service on 14 April 1981.

On 8 February 1982, the ship, with the frigates Tromp, Callenburgh, Van Speijk, the destroyer Overijssel and the replenishment ship Zuiderkruis, departed from Den Helder for a trip to the United States to show the flag and for 200 years diplomatic relations. The ships returned to Den Helder on 19 May 1982.

In 1998 the vessel was decommissioned and was sold to the United Arab Emirates Navy.

United Arab Emirates service history
The ship was commissioned on 27 June 1998 to the United Arab Emirates Navy where the vessel was renamed Al Emirat. Al Emirat was decommissioned in 2008. Construction work started in 2009 to rebuild the ship into a yacht named Yas.



Yas is a private superyacht rebuilt by ADMShipyards of Abu Dhabi, launched in 2011 and delivered in 2015.[1] At 141 metres (463 ft) in length she is one of the largest motor yachts in the world.

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Yas in port in Barcelona, 2015.

Named Swift141 during development, Yas is based on the hull of a former navy frigate. HNLMS Piet Hein, a Kortenaer-class frigate of the Royal Netherlands Navy was launched in 1978 and sold to the United Arab Emirates Navy where she was operated under the name Al Emirat. A second frigate of the same class is undergoing a similar conversion: HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen, renamed Abu Dhabi and Swift135.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 3 June


1653 – End of Battle of the Gabbard, 2nd June 1653 - 3rd June 1653




1676 - May 25 and 26/June 3 and 4 - Dutch/Danish fleet under Niels Iuel defeat Swedes under Baron Creutz between Bornholm and Rugen in the Baltic Sea



1692 May 27-June 3 Barfleur and La Hougue - Decisive defeat of French by English and Dutch in the War of the Grand Alliance



1695 – Launch of HMS Newark was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Hull



1754 – Launch of French Améthyste, (30-gun design by Mathurin-Louis Geoffroy, with 26 x 8-pounder guns – launched 3 June 1754 at Brest) – found unfit for service, condemned and hulked 1763, dismantled 1771.


1761 - Occupation of Dominica, 3rd June 1761 - 7th June 1761




1780 – Launch of HMS Orpheus was a 32–gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy



1785 - The order is given to sell the last ship remaining in the Continental Navy, the frigate USS Alliance. No other Navy ships are authorized until 1794.



1790 - June 3 and 4 (May 23 and 24 OS) - Russo-Swedish War (1788–90) - Action off Kronstadt - Indecisive action between the battlefleets.

Battle of Krasnaya Gorka
, 3rd June 1790



1799 – Launch of USS Maryland was a sloop in the United States Navy.



1800 - French brig Albanaise (or Albannese) (1790) was captured by the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean and took her into service as HMS Albanaise.



1832, June 3 – HMS Speedwell captures the slaver 300 tons brig Aquila off Cuba and rescued 600 slaves



1864 A wooden-hulled, sidewheel gunboat - USS Water Witch - used in Gulf blockading squadron, captured by CSN gunboat fleet in Ossabaw Sound, 1st Lt. Thomas P. Pelot in command.



1864 – Launch of Duke of Roxburgh was launched in 1828 at Newcastle upon Tyne.



1942 - The Japanese start a two-day attack at Dutch Harbor, Aleutian Islands, Alaska, in an attempt to distract America from the Midway Island invasion. During the two-day invasion, 43 Americans die.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1565 - Action of 4 June 1565


This battle took place on 4 June 1565 between an Allied fleet of 33 Danish and Lübecker ships, under Trolle, and a Swedish fleet of perhaps 49 ships, under Klas Horn. Afterward, the Danes retired to Køge Bay, south of Copenhagen, where Trolle died of his wounds on 25 June. His Second, Jørgen Brahe, died of fever on 28 June.

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Ships involved
Denmark/Lübeck

  • Jegermesther 90 (flag)
  • Merkurius (Second in command Jørgen Brahe)
  • Svenske Jomfru (Erik Rud)
  • 30 others
Sweden[edit]
  • St Erik 90 (flag)
  • Finska Svan 82
  • Svenska Hektor 87 (Per Bagge)
  • Herkules 81
  • Engel 49
  • Pelikan
  • Troilus 44 (Shenk)
  • Fuchs (ex-Lübecker)?
  • 41 or so others


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1629 - dutch East Indiaman Batavia wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos off the coast of Western Australia


Batavia ([baːˈtaːviaː] (About this soundlisten)) was the flagship of the Dutch East India Company. It was built in Amsterdam, Dutch Republic, in 1628. Batavia sailed on her maiden voyage for the capital of the Dutch East Indies, Batavia.

The ship wrecked on the Houtman Abrolhos off the coast of Western Australia. The wreck killed approximately 40 of its 341 passengers. A mutiny amongst the survivors led to a massacre.

The Western Australian Museum's Shipwreck Galleries in Fremantle displays relics recovered from the wreckage.

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Mutiny on the Batavia
Voyage
On 27 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies, to obtain spices. It sailed under commander and opperman(upper- or senior merchant) Francisco Pelsaert, with Ariaen Jacobsz serving as skipper. These two had previously encountered each other in Surat, India. Some animosity had developed between them in Surat after Jacobsz became drunk and insulted Pelsaert in front of other merchants, leading to a public dressing-down for Jacobsz by Pelsaert. Also on board was the onderkoopman (under- or junior merchant) Jeronimus Cornelisz, a bankrupt pharmacist from Haarlem who was fleeing the Netherlands, in fear of arrest because of his heretical beliefs associated with the painter Johannes van der Beeck, also known as Torrentius.

During the voyage, Jacobsz and Cornelisz conceived a plan to take the ship, which would allow them to start a new life somewhere, using the huge supply of trade gold and silver on board. After leaving the Cape of Good Hope, where they had stopped for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course, and away from the rest of the fleet. Jacobsz and Cornelisz had already gathered a small group of men around them and arranged an incident from which the mutiny was to ensue. This involved molesting a high-ranking young female passenger, Lucretia Jans, in order to provoke Pelsaert into disciplining the crew. They hoped to paint his discipline as unfair and recruit more members out of sympathy. However, the woman was able to identify her attackers. The mutineers were then forced to wait until Pelsaert made arrests, but he never acted, as he was suffering from an unknown illness.

Shipwreck

Shipwreck location

Batavia's Graveyard, now known as Beacon Island, in the Wallabi Group, Abrolhos Islands

On 4 June 1629, the ship struck Morning Reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos off the Western Australian coast. Of the 322 aboard, most of the passengers and crew managed to get ashore, although 40 people drowned. The survivors, including all the women and children, were then transferred to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl.

An initial survey of the islands found no fresh water and only limited food (sea lions and birds). Pelsaert realised the dire situation and decided to search for water on the mainland. A group consisting of Captain Jacobsz, Francisco Pelsaert, senior officers, a few crew members, and some passengers left the wreck site in a nine metres (30 ft) longboat (a replica of which has also been made), in search of drinking water. After an unsuccessful search for water on the mainland, they abandoned the other survivors and headed north in a danger-fraught voyage to the city of Batavia, now known as Jakarta.

En route they made further forays onto the mainland in search of fresh water. In his journal, Pelsaert states that on 15 June 1629, they sailed through a channel between a reef and the coast, finding an opening around midday at a latitude guessed to be about 23 degrees south where they were able to land, and water was found.

The group spent the night on land. Pelsaert commented on the vast number of termite mounds in the vicinity and the plague of flies that afflicted them. Drake-Brockman suggested this location is approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Point Cloates where water has subsequently been located. Pelsaert states that they continued north with the intention of finding the 'river of Jacob Remmessens', identified first in 1622, but owing to the wind were unable to land. Drake-Brockman suggests that this location is to be identified with Yardie Creek.

It was not until the longboat reached the island of Nusa Kambangan in Indonesia that Pelsaert and the others found more water. The journey took 33 days, with everyone surviving. After their arrival in Batavia, the boatswain, Jan Evertsz, was arrested and executed for negligence and "outrageous behavior" before the loss of the ship (he was suspected to have been involved). Jacobsz was also arrested for negligence, although his position in the potential mutiny was not guessed by Pelsaert.

Batavia's Governor General, Jan Coen, immediately gave Pelsaert command of the Sardam to rescue the other survivors, as well as to attempt to salvage riches from the Batavia's wreck. He arrived at the islands two months after leaving Batavia, only to discover that a bloody mutiny had taken place among the survivors, reducing their numbers by at least a hundred.

Murders

Wiebbe Hayes Stone Fort on West Wallabi Island

Jeronimus Cornelisz was left in charge of the survivors. He made plans to hijack any rescue ship that might return and use the vessel to seek another safe haven. Cornelisz made far-fetched plans to start a new kingdom, using the gold and silver from the wrecked Batavia. However, to carry out this plan, he first needed to eliminate possible opponents.

Cornelisz's first deliberate act was to have all weapons and food supplies commandeered and placed under his control. He then moved a group of soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, to nearby West Wallabi Island, under the false pretense of searching for water. They were told to light signal fires when they found water and they would then be rescued. Convinced that they would be unsuccessful, he then left them there to die, taking complete control of the situation.

Cornelisz never committed any of the murders himself, although he tried and failed to poison a baby (who was eventually strangled). Instead, he coerced others into doing it for him, usually under the pretense that the victim had committed a crime such as theft. It has been suggested that Cornelisz sought "novelty and stimulation" after having ordered numerous murders by ordering more "perverse atrocities".

The mutineers had originally murdered to save themselves but eventually they began to kill for pleasure or out of habit. Cornelisz planned to reduce the island's population to around 45 so that their supplies would last as long as possible. He also feared that many of the survivors remained loyal to the VOC. In total, his followers murdered at least 110 men, women, and children.

Rescue
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Image plate of Hayes' soldiers and Cornelisz's mutineers racing to the rescue ship in separate boats

Although Cornelisz had left the soldiers, led by Wiebbe Hayes, to die, they had in fact found good sources of water and food on their islands. Initially, they were unaware of the barbarity taking place on the other islands and sent pre-arranged smoke signals announcing their finds. However, they soon learned of the massacres from survivors fleeing Cornelisz' island. In response, the soldiers devised makeshift weapons from materials washed up from the wreck. They also set a watch so that they were ready for the mutineers, and built a small fort out of limestone and coral blocks.

Cornelisz seized on the news of water on the other island, as his own supply was dwindling and the continued survival of the soldiers threatened his own success. He went with his men to try to defeat the soldiers marooned on West Wallabi Island. However, the trained soldiers were by now much better fed than the mutineers and easily defeated them in several battles, eventually taking Cornelisz hostage. The mutineers who escaped regrouped under soldier Wouter Loos and tried again, this time employing muskets to besiege Hayes' fort and almost defeating the soldiers.

But Wiebbe Hayes' men prevailed again, just as Pelsaert arrived. A race to the rescue ship ensued between Cornelisz's men and the soldiers. Wiebbe Hayes reached the ship first and was able to present his side of the story to Pelsaert. After a short battle, the combined force captured all of the mutineers.

Aftermath

Male, aged about 35–39, with a gashed skull, broken shoulder blade and a missing right foot

Pelsaert decided to conduct a trial on the islands, because the Sardam on the return voyage to Batavia would have been overcrowded with survivors and prisoners. After a brief trial, the worst offenders were taken to Seal Island and executed. Cornelisz and several of the major mutineers had both hands chopped off before being hung.

Wouter Loos and a cabin boy, Jan Pelgrom de Bye, considered only minor offenders, were marooned on mainland Australia, never to be heard of again. This unwittingly made them the first Europeans to have permanently lived on the Australian continent. This location is now thought to be Whitecarra Creek near Kalbarri, though another suggestion is that nearby Port Gregory was the place. Reports of unusually light-skinned Aborigines in the area by later British settlers have been suggested as evidence that the two men might have been adopted into a local Aboriginal clan. However, numerous other European shipwreck survivors, such as those from the wreck of the Zuytdorp in the same region in 1712, may also have had such contact with Indigenous inhabitants, making it now impossible to determine whether the Batavia crew members were responsible.

The remaining mutineers were taken to Batavia for trial. Five were hanged, while several others were flogged, keelhauled or dropped from the yardarm on the later voyage back home. Cornelisz's second in command, Jacop Pietersz, was broken on the wheel, the most severe punishment available at the time. Captain Jacobsz, despite being tortured, did not confess to his part in planning the mutiny and escaped execution due to lack of evidence. What finally became of him is unknown. It is suspected that he died in prison in Batavia. A board of inquiry decided that Pelsaert had exercised a lack of authority and was therefore partly responsible for what had happened. His financial assets were seized, and he died within a year.

On the other hand, the common soldier Wiebbe Hayes was hailed a hero. He was promoted to sergeant, which increased his salary, while those who had been under his command were promoted to the rank of corporal. Of the original 332 people on board the Batavia, only 122 made it to the port of Batavia.

The Sardam eventually sailed home with most of the treasure previous housed on the Batavia aboard. Of the 12 treasure chests that were originally on board the Batavia, 10 were recovered and taken aboard the Sardam.

Wreck
Batavia_Timbers.jpg
Batavia's stern

Surveying the north-west coast of the Abrolhos Islands for the British Admiralty in April 1840, Captain John Lort Stokes reported that "the beams of a large vessel were discovered", assumed to be the Zeewijk, "on the south west point of an island", reminding them that since Zeewijk's crew "reported having seen a wreck of a ship on this part, there is little doubt that the remains were those of the Batavia".

In the 1950s, historian Henrietta Drake-Brockman argued from extensive archival research, that the wreck must lie in the Wallabi Group of islands. The wreck was first sighted in 1963 by lobster fisherman David Johnson. Many artifacts were salvaged in the 1970s, including port-side stern timbers, cannons and an anchor. To facilitate the monitoring and any future treatment, the hull timbers were erected on a steel frame. Its design—and that of a stone arch, also recovered—was such that individual components could be easily removed.

In 1972, the Dutch government transferred rights to Dutch shipwrecks in its waters to the Australian government. Excavated items are on display at the Western Australian Museum's various locations, though the majority of cannons and anchors have been left in situ. The wreck remains one of the premier diving sites on the West Australian coast.

Treasure

Rijksdaalder silver coins recovered from the wreck site

The Batavia carried a considerable amount of treasure. Each ship in the Batavia class carried an estimated 250,000 guilders in twelve wooden chests, each containing about 8000 silver coins. This money was intended for the purchase of spices and other commodities in Java. The bulk of these coins were silver rijksdaalder produced by the individual Dutch states, with the remainder being mostly made up of similar coins produced by German cities such as Hamburg. Each of these silver coins was equal to 2.5 guilders, hence approximately 12 x 8000 = 96000 coins. Displays of the largely heavily corroded coins are on show at the Fremantle Western Australia Shipwrecks Museum, and at the Museum of Geraldton (Western Australia Museum), along with other artifacts from the wreck. These coins are derived from the two chests Pelsaert failed to salvage. Coins continue to be recovered by divers.

Pelsaert was instructed to recover as much of the money as possible on his return to the Abrolhos Islands, using divers ‘to try if it is possible to salvage all the money’ [and] ‘the casket of jewels that before your departure was already saved on the small island’ (for the jewels, see below). Recovery of the money was far from easy. Pelsaert reported difficulties in pulling up heavy chests (e.g., 27 October 1629 when a chest had to be marked with a buoy for later recovery). On November 9 he recorded sending four money chests to the Sardam, and three the next day but then abandoned further recovery work. By November 13, Pelsaert recorded that ten money chests had been recovered (about 80,000 coins), leaving two lost since there had been twelve loaded originally. One was jammed under a cannon, and one had been broken open by the mutineers.

The Batavia's treasure also included special items being carried by Pelsaert for sale to the Mogul Court in India where he had intended to travel on to. There were four jewel bags, stated to be worth about 60,000 guilders, and an early-fourth-century Roman cameo, as well as numerous other items either now displayed in Fremantle and Geraldton, or recovered by Pelsaert. The Gemma Constantina Batavia cameo depicts the emperor Constantine I and is considered probably to have been made at his court to commemorate the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312. The cameo was, in 1628, the property of an Amsterdam jeweler called Gaspar Boudaen, on whose behalf Pelsaert was carrying it. Boudaen had added a gold frame with jewels.

The cameo was removed from the wreck to Beacon Island where it formed part of Cornelisz's loot. It was recovered by Pelsaert after the mutiny was over. It was not sold in India and returned to Holland in 1656. The cameo was at the Royal Penningkabinet at Leiden in Holland from 1823 until 2004, but is now at the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden). In 2017 it returned to Western Australia for the first time since 1629, and was displayed in Fremantle at the Western Australia Maritime Museum until the 23rd of April, 2017.

Replica
A Batavia ship replica was built from 1985 to 1995, using the same material and methods utilized in the early 17th century. Its design was based on contemporary accounts, recovered wreckage, and other contemporary ships such as Vasa.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1666 - Four Days Battle - The Fourth Day


Fourth Day
Early next morning five more ships (the Convertine, Sancta Maria, Centurion, Kent and Hampshire) and another fireship (Happy Entrance), joined the English fleet; as against these, six of the most damaged ships were sent home for repair. Thus enforced with 23 'fresh' ships and so numbering in between 60 and 65 men-of-war and six fireships, the English attacked in line on the fourth day with Sir Christopher Myngs now in charge of the van, Rupert of the center, and Monk of the rear squadron. But the Dutch, now to the southwest and reduced to 68 ships (and some six or seven fireships), had the weather gauge and also attacked aggressively.

De Ruyter had tried to impress on his flag officers that the fight of that day would be decisive for the entire war. The English attack, vulnerable from a leeward position, faltered. De Ruyter had planned to disrupt the English line by breaking it in three places, cutting off parts of the English fleet before dealing with the rest. Vice Admiral Johan de Liefde on the Ridderschap van Holland and Myngs on HMS Victory began a close quarters duel; two musket balls hit Myngs, fatally wounding him; he died on his return to London. The English regrouped trying to break free to the south by executing four passes in opposite tack, but Tromp and Van Nes surrounded them. Monck then wore to the north. Tromp's squadron was routed, the Landman burnt by a fireship. Van Nes was forced to withdraw.

De Ruyter, more anxious than at any other moment in the battle and fearing the fight lost, raised the red flag and sailed past Rupert to attack Monck from behind. When Rupert tried to do the same to him, three shots in quick succession dismasted his HMS Royal Jamesand the entire squadron of the green withdrew from the battle to the south, protecting and towing the flagship. Nothing now prevented De Ruyter from attacking Monck and the English main force was routed, many of the English ships were short on powder after three days of fighting. The Dutch boarded and captured four stragglers: Wassenaar captured HMS Clove Tree (the former VOC-ship Nagelboom), and the Frisian Rear-Admiral Hendrik Brunsvelt captured HMS Convertine, the entangled HMS Essex and HMS Black Bull; Black Bulllater sank.

De Ruyter seeing the English fleet escape in a dense fog decided to break off the pursuit. His own fleet was heavily damaged too; his logbook only speaks of a fear for the English shoals. The deeply religious De Ruyter interpreted the sudden unseasonal fog bank as a sign from God, "that He merely wanted the enemy humbled for his pride but preserved from utter destruction".

Aftermath
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Abraham Storck: "The Four Days' Battle" Greenwich, National Maritime Museum

The biggest sea battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War and in the age of sail was a Dutch victory. However, the outcome is sometimes described as inconclusive, because both sides initially claimed victory.

Immediately after the battle the English captains of Rupert's squadron, not having seen the final outcome, claimed De Ruyter had retreated first, then normally seen as an acknowledgement of the superiority of the enemy fleet. Though the Dutch fleet was eventually forced to end the pursuit, they had managed to cripple the English fleet, and lost only four smaller ships themselves as the Spieghel refused to sink and was repaired.

Around 1,800 English sailors were taken prisoner and transported to Holland. Many subsequently took service in the Dutch fleet against England. Those that refused to do so remained in Dutch prisons for the following two years.

Two months later the recuperated English fleet challenged the Dutch fleet again, now much more successfully at North Foreland in the St. James's Day Battle. This proved to be a partial victory as the Dutch fleet wasn't destroyed. The enormous costs of repair after both battles depleted the English treasury, so the Four Days' Battle is usually seen as both a tactical and important strategic victory for the Dutch.

Popular culture
The Four Days' Battle is dramatized in the Dutch film Michiel de Ruyter (2015), although it is not clear which phase of the battle is shown.



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Portrait of the ‘Victory’ viewed from slightly before the starboard beam, laid up to a single port bow mooring or her port anchor, showing only the lower masts and the mizzen topmast and yard standing. On the broadside the ship mounts thirteen guns on the gun deck, twelve on the middle deck, seven on the upper deck and three on the quarter deck. The ship is accurately drawn except for a slight muddle around the quarter. The work may be based on an offset and the inscribed date ‘de ficteri 1672’ copied in pencil (top right) and in Indian ink ‘d: fictori 1672’ (top left) is probably that of the drawing. However the ship is not shown as she would have been laid up in winter and may have been drawn as late as March 1673. The signature ‘W.V.V.J.’ in brown ink may also be some years later. The flick of pencil to represent reflection under the quarter is unusual for the younger van de Velde

HMS Victory (1620)
Victory was a great ship of the English Navy, launched in 1620 and in active service during the seventeenth century's Anglo-Dutch Wars. After an seventy-year naval career, she was broken up at Woolwich Dockyard in 1691 and her timbers reused in other vessels.

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Naval career
Victory was designed by naval architect Phineas Pett and built by shipwright Andrew Burrell at Deptford Dockyard. She was launched as a 42-gun vessel with 270 crew, on 10 October 1620.

The ship was first commissioned in 1621 to join a fleet under Admiral Robert Mansell, which was cruising the Mediterranean to hunt for Algerian pirates. The fleet returned to English waters in the autumn of 1621, and Victory was assigned to patrol the English Channel throughout the winter, in order to protect merchant shipping making the crossing from the continent.

In May 1622 she was named as flagship to the Earl of Oxford, who had committed to clear pirates from the seas around Dunkirk. The mission ended in failure, no pirates being encountered in the entire cruise along the Dunkirk shores.

Victory was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Kettleby for the abortive attack on La Rochelle in 1627. During the First Anglo-Dutch War, under the command of Lionel Lane, she took part in the Battles of Dover(19 May 1652), Dungeness (29 November 1652), Portland (18 February), the Gabbard (2 June 1653 – 3 June 1653) and Texel (31 July 1653). By 1660 she was armed with 56 guns.

Second Dutch War
By 1665, Victory had been reduced to ordinary status at Chatham Dockyard, and in 1666 she was rebuilt there by Phineas Pett II as an 82-gun second-rate ship of the line.[2] Recommissioned under Sir Christopher Myngs, she took part in the Four Days Battle of 1666 (where Myngs was killed), and on 25 July 1666 in the St. James's Day Battle under Sir Edward Spragge.

Spragge was assigned to command the Blue Squadron in the English rear. Victory was therefore too far to the south to take part in the early stages of the battle, and was one of the vessels cut off from the centre by the arrival of the Dutch rear commanded by Cornelius Tromp. Spragge's and Tromp's forces were vigorously engaged from the afternoon of the first day, with Victory coming to the aid of the dismasted HMS Loyal London when that vessel caught fire in the midst of battle. Two of Victory's crew distinguished themselves during the fight. Her second in command, the eighteen year old John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, earned Spragge's commendation for rowing messages across to another English vessel while under heavy cannon and musket fire. Meanwhile, the ship's chaplain, Reverend Speed, abandoned the cockpit where he had been offering last rites to the wounded, and instead took his turn loading and firing the cannons. A song invented by the crew after the battle described Speed as "praying like a Christian while fighting like a Turk."

The Dutch blockade being broken, Victory returned to the Thames for repair. In June the Dutch fleet returned, taking the English by surprise in the Raid on the Medway; the defenceless and half-repaired Victory was hastily towed close to shore and sunk in mud to prevent the Dutch from seizing or burning her. The scuttling worsened her condition, and despite refloating and extensive refitting, was not declared seaworthy until 1668.

Third Dutch War
During the Third Dutch War she participated in the Battle of Solebay (on 28 May 1672 under Lord Ossory), the two Battles of Schooneveld (on 28 May and 4 June 1673 under Sir William Jennens), and the Battle of Texel (on 11 August 1673, still under Jennens). By 1685 her armament had been reduced to 80 guns.

She was broken up in 1691 at Woolwich Dockyard

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An early portrait of ‘Victory’ viewed from the port quarter, approximately dated by the subject and style. It is a clear and detailed unsigned pencil drawing that may have been traced from a rougher one done from the life. Although it is possible that it is a careful drawing by the Elder, intended to be used in the Greenwich grisaille of the battle of Scheveningen (1655), the neat drawing of the decoration, especially the quarter figures, suggests it is an early work by the Younger. The poor drawing, which makes the gundeck ports appear to run up too much in relation to the waterline, would be characteristic of an early work by him. On the tafferel, only the harp of the Commonwealth arms is depicted with full length figures on each side. Twice above, are two angels holding a garland. The Prince of Wales’s feathers are shown both on the quarter-gallery and above it. There was no large early Stuart ship in the Restoration squadron, so that it is unlikely that the incompleteness of the Commonwealth arms has any connexion with the Restoration. The drawing probably depicts one of the large second-rates, such as the ‘Triumph’, 64-guns, or ‘Victory’, 56-guns, which was only slightly smaller than ‘Triumph’ and in some lists, is given as 64-guns. The prominence of the garlands would suggest either ship, but the feathers would apply only to the ‘Victory’, which was one of the ships built for the Prince of Wales



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1719 - Battle of Osel Island - Russians defeat Swedes under Wrangel


The Battle of Osel Island took place on May 24, 1719 (O.S.), during the Great Northern War. It was fought near the island of Saaremaa (Ösel). It led to a victory for the Russian captain Naum Senyavin, whose forces captured three enemy vessels, sustaining as few as eighteen casualties. It was the first Russian naval victory which did not involve ramming or boarding actions.

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Aleksey Bogolyubov. Battle of Oesel


Ships involved
Russia

  • Devonshire 52
  • Portsmouth 52
  • Raphail 52
  • Uriil 52
  • Varachail 52
  • Hyagudiil 52
  • Natalia 18
Sweden
  • Wachtmeister 52 - Captured
  • Karlskrona Vapen 30 - Captured
  • Bernhardus 10 - Captured





 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1742 - Action of 4th June 1742, 4th June 1742 – HMS Rose


Description

On June 4th, 1742, among the Bahamas, Captain Thomas Frankland, of the HMS Rose, fell in with, and chased, four ships, which showed British colours. He chased under the same, and, overhauling them, fired a gun. The chase then hoisted the Spanish flag, and fought him furiously, using all sorts of missiles, from broadsides of shot to poisoned arrows. Frankland, however, held his fire for the fourth ship, a snow, which seemed the strongest, giving the others only a few guns as they chanced to bear. The first three sheered off badly hulled.

"I then endeavoured," says Frankland, "to lay the sime aboard, which she shunned with the utmost caution, maintaining a warm fire till I had torn her almost to rags, the commander having determined rather to sink than strike, for reasons you'll hereafter lie sensible of: but in about four hours the people, in opposition to the captain, hauled down the colours."

The prize mounted ten carriage' guns, as many swivels, and had a crew of over eighty men.The captain is Juan de Leon Fandino. . . . He is the man that commanded the guard of coast out of the Havana that took Jenkins when his ears were cut oft'. . . . Not but such a desperado with his crew of Indians, Mulattoes and Xegroes could have acted as he did, for we were at least two hours within pistol shot of him keeping a constant fire.


HMS Rose (1740) was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and sold in 1755.



 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1753 – Launch of HMS Chichester, a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard to the standard draught for 70-gun ships as specified in the 1745 Establishment amended in 1750


HMS
Chichester
was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard to the standard draught for 70-gun ships as specified in the 1745 Establishment amended in 1750, and launched on 4 June 1753.

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Chichester and Intrepid captured the advice-brig Serin off San Domingo on 31 July 1794. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Serin

Because Chichester served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

Chichester served until 1803, when she was broken up.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some inboard detail, and longituinal half-breadth for 'Chichester' (1753), a modified 1745 Establishment 68-gun (later 64-gun) Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Joseph Allin [Surveyor of the Navy, 1749-1755]

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Scale: 1:72. A contemporary full hull model of the ‘Chichester’ (circa 1706), an 80-gun two-decker second-rate ship of the line, built plank on frame in the Navy Board style. The model is decked, equipped and mounted on a modern wooden display baseboard. The model has suffered some damage over time. The decking and bulwark rails were restored during the early 1970s. The royal monogram ‘AR’ is inscribed in the decoration on the stern galleries. The ‘Chichester’ was a rebuild of an earlier 80-gun ship of the same name and was eventually launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1706. Measuring 155 feet along the gun deck by 43 feet in the beam, it had a tonnage of 1278 burden. When re-built from the earlier two-decker, the ‘Chichester’ had its 80-gun armament rearranged on three decks with the upper deck guns still disposed as they had been on the quarterdeck and forecastle of the earlier two-deckers (see the ‘Boyne’ SLR0006).
The ‘Chichester’ had a fairly uneventful career, taking part in the battle of Toulon in 1744 and later, in 1753, it was re-built as a 74-gun two-decker



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1795 – Launch of HMS Dryad, a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery.


HMS Dryad
was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1805 when she captured the French frigate Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Dryad was broken up at Portsmouth in 1860.

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Launch and the loss of Captain Forbes (1795)
Launched on 4 June 1795, Dryad was commissioned under Captain the Hon. Robert Allaster Cam Forbes (2nd son of Lord Forbes), who had previously been the captain of Southampton at the Glorious First of June. The brand new frigate may have been a reward for his services, but he did not live long to enjoy it; The Edinburgh Magazine reported his death (by drowning) as: "7 Oct, off the coast of Norway, the Honourable Capt. Robert Forbes, commander of his Majesty's ship Dryad".

.....read about her intensive career in wikipedia ......


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Capture of La Proserpine - June 13th 1796 (PAD5501)


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1804 – Launch of French Président, a 40-gun frigate of the Gloire class in the French Navy, built to an 1802 design by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait.


Président was a 40-gun frigate of the Gloire class in the French Navy, built to an 1802 design by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. She served with the French Navy from her completion in 1804 until late 1806 when the Royal Navy captured her. Thereafter, she served as HMS President. In 1815 the Navy renamed her Piemontaise, but then broke her up in December.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline with some decoration detail, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for President (captured 1806), a captured French Frigate, as fitted as a 36-gun Frigate for service off the Cape of Good Hope. The plan illustrates the movement of the foremast further forward per Navy Board Order dated 4 September 1810. The plan was used as the basis for the 'Seringapatam' class of 1813. Signed by Joseph Tucker [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1802-1813]


French service
Originally ordered under the name Minerve, the frigate was renamed as Président on 24 December 1803.

She took part in L'Hermite's expedition, which led to her capture. Before she was captured, on 6 January 1806 she helped capture the 16-gun sloop HMS Favourite.

Capture
In June 1806, Captain Thomas George Shortland took command of HMS Canopus. She was the flagship for a squadron under Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Louis. On 27 September, they fell in with Président, Capt. Gallier Labrosse, south of the Isles of Scilly, near Belle Île. Président had been sailing with the ship of the line Régulus, frigate Cybèle and corvette Surveillant, but had separated from them on 20 August.

Louis's squadron had sailed to the Bay of Biscay to await the return of Admiral Willaumez from the Caribbean Sea. On spotting Président, the squadron gave chase but the ships of the line were not fast enough to catch her. However, an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop attached to the squadron, Dispatch, Captain Edward Hawkins, was able to get within firing range. Dispatch proceeded to harry Président with her forward guns, forcing Président to turn towards the nearest British frigate, HMS Blanche, under Captain Sir Thomas Lavie. Seeing Président turn, Louis ordered Canopus to fire, even though the range was extreme. Realizing that the rest of the British squadron would arrive shortly, Labrosse struck his colours to Dispatch. Président had suffered only minor damage and there were no casualties on either side in the action.

The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President (dropping the accent over the 'e' in her name). The frigate's design was much admired and she served as the model for a number of later frigates, notably the Seringapatam class in the Royal Navy.

Cruising
In December 1807, she was commissioned under the command of Captain Adam Mackenzie, sailing for South America on 7 May 1808 after completion conversion for British service at Plymouth. Mackenzie commanded her until 1810, apart from a brief period in 1809, when Captain Charles Schomberg temporarily commanded her off Brazil while Mackenzie temporarily commanded Bedford.

In 1810 Captain Samuel Warren took command and on 31 December sailed her for the Cape of Good Hope and thence to the East Indies. In the East Indies she took part in the operations in Java and the rest of the Dutch East Indies. In 1811, President was attached to the squadron of Admiral Robert Stopford that captured Java. On 31 August the frigates Nisus, President, Phoebe, and Hesper were detached to take the seaport of Cheribon. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java" to all remaining survivors of the campaign.

Returning to the UK in late 1812 or early 1813, President then served from May 1813 in the Irish Sea, first under Captain Francis Mason, then from April 1814 under Captain Archibald Duff.

On 21 March 1814, President was in company with the brig-sloop Bacchus and the gun-brig Constant off Finisterre as they escorted a fleet from Cork to Portugal.

Fate
In August 1815, the Royal Navy renamed her HMS Piedmontaise but broke her up in December of that same year.


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Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck, and fore, middle and after platforms for President (captured 1806), a captured French Frigate, as fitted as a 36-gun Frigate for service off the Cape of Good Hope. The plan illustrates the movement of the foremast further forward per Navy Board Order dated 4 September 1810. Signed by Joseph Tucker [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1802-1813]


Gloire class, (40-gun design of 1802 by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait, with 28 x 18-pounder and 12 x 8-pounder guns).

The Gloire-class frigate was a type of 18-pounder 40-gun frigate, designed by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait in 1802. They were built on the specifications of the Seine-class frigate Pensée (sometimes also called Junon class).

Gloire, (launched 20 July 1803 at Basse-Indre) – captured by the British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Gloire.
Président, (launched 4 June 1804 at Basse-Indre) – captured by the British Navy 1806, becoming HMS President.
Topaze, (launched 1 March 1805 at Basse-Indre) – captured by the British Navy 1809, becoming HMS Alcmene.
Vénus, (launched 5 April 1806 at Le Havre) – captured by the British Navy 1810, becoming HMS Nereide.
Junon, (launched 16 August 1806 at Le Havre) – captured by the British Navy 1809, becoming HMS Junon.
Calypso, (launched 9 January 1807 at Lorient) – severely damaged 1809, sold 1813 or 1814.
Amazone, (launched 20 July 1807 at Le Havre) – burnt by the British Navy 1811.




 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1805 - Boats of HMS Loire (40), Cptn. Frederick Maitland, destroyed a battery and fort at Muros Bay, took the privateer Confiance and burnt privateer Belier .


Confiance, launched in 1797, was a privateer corvette from Bordeaux, famous for being Robert Surcouf's ship during the capture of the British East India Company's East Indiaman Kent. The British Royal Navy captured Confiance in 1805, took her into service under her existing name, and sold her in 1810. Before she was sold, Confiance took part in two notable actions.

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Capture of Kent by Confiance. Painting by Ambroise Louis Garneray.

French service
Completed in Bordeaux in November 1797, Confiance capsized at her launch and had to be refloated. On 3 February 1799 Confiance captured Echo as Echo was sailing from the Cape of Good Hope for London. Confiance sent Echo to France. 1799 Confiance was commissioned under Aurnaud Taudin in May 1799.

On 24 December 1799, Confiance encountered the American ship Atlantic and the British East India Company "extra ship" (chartered ship) Eliza Annnear the Sandheads in the Bay of Bengal. The engagement was inconclusive both that day and the next morning. Confiance broke off the action and sailed away early on Christmas morning.

In May 1800, Confiance was recommissioned in Île de France and her command was awarded to Robert Surcouf, with a complement of 23 officers and 190 men, and an armament of six 8-pounder long guns, sixteen 6-pounders and two 36-pounder obusiers de vaisseau. On 7 October, she encountered the East Indiaman Kent and captured her after a fierce battle; an 81-man prize crew under Joachim Drieux brought Kent to Île de France (Mauritius), where she was sold for 30,900 piastres.

In 1801, Confiance had her crew reduced to 89 men and sailed en aventurier to La Rochelle, loaded with colonial goods for her return to France. According to one source Confiance sailed "à l'aventure"; she was a letter of marque, a vessel that was primarily a merchantman, but with the legal authorization to attack targets of opportunity. On the journey, Surcouf still managed to capture a number of ships, notably the Portuguese Ebre, with eighteen 12-pounder carronades and a 60-man crew; he released her against a ransom of 10,000 piastres and after exchanging her great mast for that of Confiance. After her arrival in France, Confiance was commissioned as a merchantman under Paul Castanet from May 1802.

Capture
By late 1803, she served in Muros, Spain, under Captain Roque and later under Papin. On 4 June 1805, HMS Loire attacked the town of Muros, in Spain, and captured Confiance, as well as her consort Bélier. Loire had six men wounded in the landing party that captured a fort, a battery, and the two vessels, and nine men wounded on Loire by fire from the batteries before the British could capture them. The Spaniards lost 12 men killed, including the commander of the fort and Confiance's 2nd captain, and 30 men wounded, including most of Confiance's officers. Captain Frederick Maitland, of Loire, reported that Confiance was a "very fit Ship for His Majesty's Service; is reckoned to sail excessively fast; was to have gone to Sea in a few Days, bound to India, with a Complement of 300 men". Maitland burnt Bélier, which he described as also fitting for sea, "supposed to be destined to cruise to Westward of Cape Clear."

The action led to promotion to Commander for Lieutenant James Lucas Yeo, who commanded the cutting out party. Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded a sword worth 150 guineas to Maitland, and two swords, each worth 50 guineas, to lieutenants Yeo and Mallock.

HMS Confiance
The British commissioned Confiance into the Royal Navy in June as an 18-gun sloop under the newly promoted Commander James Yeo, and for the Channel. (Confiance kept her status as a sloop until 1807, when the Admiralty re-rated her as a sixth rate. She remained at Plymouth from 19 June to 14 March 1806 undergoing fitting out.)

Confiance shared with Hero, Iris, and Révolutionnaire in the proceeds from the recapture on 11 January 1807 of the schooner Monarch.

On 18 August, as Confiance was sailing to Oporto, Yeo received information that the Reitrada, a small Spanish privateer lugger that had been active along the coast of Portugal, was anchored at La Guardia. Yeo sent in a cutting out party in Confiance's boats. They captured the lugger, which was armed with one 12 and two 4-pounder guns, and had a crew of 30 men. The Spaniards had one man killed, several wounded, and the rest of the crew jumped overboard. The privateer had sheltered under the guns of two forts, which fired on the boats as they came in. One fort was armed with four 24-pounder guns and the other with six 18-pounder guns; there were also 150 troops. Despite the Spaniards' fire, the British sustained no casualties.

Confiance sailed to Portugal on 16 January 1808. The French had captured Lisbon and the Royal Navy was maintaining a blockade in the Tagus where the onset of the Anglo-Russian War had trapped a squadron of Russian ships under the command of Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin. Confiance was off the Tagus when on 13 February she sent her cutter and jolly boat, with 15 men under the command of Master's Mate R. Trist, to row picket because of rumours that Senyavin was about to leave. Trist observed a French gun-vessel anchored under the guns of Fort San Pedro, between Fort Belem and Fort Julian. He immediately attacked, capturing Gunboat #1, which was armed with one 24-pounder gun and two 6-pounder carronades. She had 100 stands of arms aboard, and a crew of 50 men under the command of ensign de vaisseau Gandolphe. The British suffered no casualties; the French had three men killed and nine wounded. Trist, who had passed his exams for Lieutenant a year earlier, received promotion to that rank for his feat. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "13 Feb. Boat Service 1808" to all surviving claimants from the action.

Confiance next sailed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On 14 January 1809 Confiance captured Cayenne.

Main article: Portuguese conquest of French Guiana
Yeo received permission from the commander-in-chief of the Royal Navy's Brazil station, Admiral Sir Sidney Smith to mount an operation against the French. Yeo took Confiance, two armed Portuguese brigs, an unarmed Portuguese brig, a Portuguese cutter, and 4-500 Portuguese soldiers, and sailed to Oyapoc, in French Guiana, which they captured on 8 December 1808.{{refn|The Portuguese vessels were the Voador (24 guns), Vingança (18 guns), Infanta don Pedro, and Leio. A week later they captured Appruagoc (or Appruague).

Emboldened by the ease of their victories, Yeo and the Portuguese commander then decided to attack Cayenne. They captured three forts and defeated the French forces under the command of Victor Hugues, the French governor. British casualties were only one man killed and 23 men wounded.

On 13 January 1809, while Yeo was on shore with three-quarters of Confiance's crew, seamen and marines, the French frigate Topaze approached Cayenne. She was carrying flour and was under orders to avoid combat, but the British did not know that. Midshipman G. Yeo, Yeo's younger brother, another midshipman, the remaining 25 men of the crew, and 20 local Negroes that the two midshipmen induced to join them, set sail towards Topaze. Topaze, judging from the sloop's boldness that she had company that would be forthcoming, turned away. A few days later HMS Cleopatra captured Topaze.

King George knighted James Yeo in 1810 for his victory. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Confiance 14 Jany. 1809" to all surviving claimants from the operation.

Fate
The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Confiance Sloop, 560 [Tons Burthen]", lying at Deptford, for sale on 22 December 1810. She sold on that day.[4] She appears to have sailed as a merchantman at least until 1816.


Loire was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. She was captured following the Battle of Tory Island by a Royal Navy frigate squadron and subsequently taken into British service as HMS Loire.

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Capture of Loire

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The Anson taking the Loire, 18 October 1798

 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1833 – Launch of Ann McKim, one of the first true clipper ships.
The opening of new Treaty ports in the East in the early 1840s eased an access of the US merchants to China, which demanded the ships that could move cargo faster than then-traditional slow-moving, high-capacity merchant ships.



Ann McKim was one of the first true clipper ships. The opening of new Treaty ports in the East in the early 1840s eased an access of the US merchants to China, which demanded the ships that could move cargo faster than then-traditional slow-moving, high-capacity merchant ships. The Ann McKim was one of the ships that had answered the demand in the early years and sailed between New York and China in 1840-1842, until newer and faster cargo-carriers, such as the nearly 600-ton clipper Houqua, the 598-ton China packet Helena, Witch of the Wave, and Rainbow, with the last two built expressly to outperform the Ann McKim started dominating the shipping world of the US-China trade and the Ann McKim was shifted back to the South American trade routes

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History
Ann McKim was built in Baltimore, Maryland by James Williamson in partnership with Samuel Kennard[5] on a commission of "the wealthy sea-dog and merchant," Honorable Issac McKim and named after his wife, Ann. She was designed to have a small cargo capacity that made her much faster that the regular cargo ships of her time. Her launch was attended by thousands of spectators as she was hailed by a local newspaper as "the most masterly and beautiful specimen of the naval architecture" of the shipyards of Baltimore, if not any other city in the union. Although, she was a matter of pride and admiration for the public and surely for her owner, she had never brought significant profit to Mr. Isaac McKim due to her small cargo capacity. She was more of a pet-ship for a wealthy merchant than anything else.

In 1838, after the death of Isaac McKim and five years in the China trade she was sold to Howland & Aspinwall, New York, the company known for owning other famous clippers, such as Rainbow and Sea Witch. Under new owner she was commanded by Captain Perry and was put into the Canton trade. The ship was heavily used and brought some profit to the owners as she was superior in speed over the other vessels engaged in that line of trade at that time.

The Ann McKim was sold to Valparaiso, Chile in 1847 and sailed under the Chilean flag for five years between Valparaiso and San Francisco. Although, there is some accounts that she sailed as an Ecuadorean under Captain Van Pelt, before being registered as a Chilean vessel in December 1949. She was advertised for sale in Daily Alta California from January to August 1950, but evidently couldn't find a buyer and on 2 September 1851 she cleared Port of San Francisco, leaving the North American waters for the very last time with Van Pelt as her captain. She was mentioned once again for sale in the issue of Daily Alta California dated 18 February 1852 and later that year the Baltimore legend was dismantled at Valparaiso.

Design
Ann McKim was a Baltimore clipper, measuring 143 feet in length, making her "easily the largest merchantman of her day...and...by far the handsomest." William M. Williamson, a notable authority on sailing ships at the time, described her as "a thing of beauty." She had three sail yards and royal stunsails. Her square raking stern and the heavy after-drag were the common features of Baltimore clippers then. She was also distinguished by her long, easy waterlines with low freeboard and a V-shaped hull. Her length-to-width ratio of over 5:1 corresponded to an extreme clipper. The bow was round in contrast with the sharp bows of the later clippers. Her bow was decorated with a figurehead in a shape of a woman. She had sloping keel—another feature that was not present in true clippers. The frame was made of live oak. The hull was covered with imported red copper, adding $9,000 to her total cost. (The use of copper was probably related to the fact that Isaac McKim Isaac owned a copper rolling and refining mill.) The decks were of teak and the her rails, hatch coamings, and skylights were finished with Spanish mahogany. The finest materials used in her construction were personally selected by Captain James Curtis. She also had twelve brass guns mounted on her together with brass capstan heads and bells.[8] The figurehead was design after the wife of the owner, Mrs. Ann McKim.

The total amount paid by Isaac McKim for the Ann McKim was reported as $50,000, which is probably an exaggeration given the compassion with the similar ships built at the time. Kennard & Williamson sent thirty one bill to Isaac McKim, amounting $11,981.66, which could be all related to Ann McKim.

Voyages
She was ready to her maiden voyage on 30 August 1833 under the command of Captain Walker. She brought 3,500 barrels of floor to Callao, Peru on the 3rd of December, after a passage of 95 days. The Ann McKim remained on the South American coast for some time, and it was not until the April 1934 when she sailed back to Cape Henry in 72 days and was once more lying in the port of Baltimore on 16 June 1834. In 1837 she set one of her records on the South American trade, sailing in just 59 days from Valparaiso to the Virginia Capes of Chesapeake Bay and in 42 days from off Cape Horn to Chesapeake Bay.

In 1838 she made the passage from Coquimbo, Chile to Baltimore in 60 days and in 53 days from Valparaiso to Baltimore, establishing a new record of her career on this route. The same year she sailed under Captain Martin's command to China and back home in 150 days, arriving to New York on 23 November 1840. On her second voyage she reached China in 92 days and the return trip lasted 88 days. In 1842, she set in a new record of 79 days, sailing from New York via Java Head to Anyer, Indonesia. Her return trip home to New York in 1843 was 96 days. As the faster clippers started dominating the routes to and from China the Ann McKim wasn't able to compete with them and was brought back to South America. She was sold at Valparaiso to a Chilean owners in 1847.

Under the Chilean flag, she arrived to San Francisco on 19 January 1849 from Valparaiso, touching at Guayaquil, Ecuador on the 24th of December 1948. This voyage lasted 51 days (51 days at sea from Valparaiso; 29 days from Guayaquil). Her next voyage from San Francisco to Valparaiso was a chocking one as Captain Van Pelt didn't stock enough water on the ship and ten of her passengers suffered from dehydration upon her arrival to the destination on 10 October 1849.

In 1850, she arrived to San Francisco on 29 January from Valparaiso in just 42 days and then sailed from San Francisco back to Valparaiso in 47 days, arriving to the destination on the 16th of April.

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Daily Alta California, Volume 1, Number 27, 30 January 1850 — Advertising the McKim for sale.

As it was mentioned above (History) she left San Francisco on 2 September 1851 and arrived to Valparaiso on 8 November after 57 days at sea, that was as her last known passage.

Legacy
Although the Ann McKim was the first large clipper ship ever constructed, it is not to say that she opened the clipper ship era, or even that she directly influenced shipbuilders, since no other ship was built like her. She may have suggested the clipper design in vessels of ship rig. Ann McKim was rather a transitional vessel, which did, however, influence the building of Rainbow in 1845, the first extreme clipper ship. Rainbow's design was formulated by John W. Griffiths after he, very impressed with the speed of the Ann McKim, studied her blueprints. On the same note: the terms Baltimore clipper and clipper ship should not be confused. The former term is refereed to the clippers with a displacement between 50 and 200 tons built in Chesapeake Bay in the late 18th century and the latter is to the much larger clippers of the 1840s from New York with a displacement often ten times of what was the Baltimore clippers.

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A model of Ann McKim in Addison Gallery of American Art.

In 1986, the Ann McKim was induced in the fifth class of seafarers and ships by the National Maritime Hall of Fame at the American Merchant Marine Museum.

Paintings
One of the earliest appearances of the Ann McKim in print was a lithograph of master mariner and ship model maker E. Armitage McCann, circa 1920s.

Ann McKim appeared on a few paintings of Montague Dawson. Most notable are The "Ann McKim" leaving Foochow for Home, circa 1960, sold at Christie's for $116,550 in 2013 and White Squall - Clipper Ship "Ann Mckim", sold for $68,500 to a private collector from Virginia in 2014.

She was also painted by the American painter John W. Schmidt in 1977, showing her at sea in the morning light.

She was printed with five sails per mast by Charles J A Wilson on Ann McKim of Baltimore - First American Clipper.

She also appeared on a collection of ceramic serving platters by Wedgwood, Josiah & Sons Inc., circa 1938.[



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1849 - Battle of Heligoland
The Danish corvette Valkyrien, Andreas Polder, and the paddle steamer Gejser, Lt. Cmdr Jørgen P. F. Wulff, of the North Sea Squadron engages 3 Schleswig-Holstein naval paddle steamers, under Rear Ad. Bromme off Heligoland.



The first Battle of Heligoland took place on 4 June 1849 during the First Schleswig War and pitted the fledgling Reichsflotte (Imperial Fleet) against the Royal Danish Navy, which had blocked German naval trade in North Sea and Baltic Sea since early 1848. The outcome was inconclusive, with no casualties, and the blockade went on. It remained the only battle of the German fleet

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RMS Britannia before being converted to SMS Barbarossa, Brommy's flagship

The events
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The German bight with Helgoland and the traditional trading routes

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The German Corvette SMS Hamburg

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The Danish Corvettes Gejser and Valkyrien being pursued by ships of the Schleswig-Holstein Navy

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The German Corvette SMS Lübeck

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The Danish Corvette Valkyrien fighting with Schleswig-Holstein ships in 1849

At the outbreak of the First Schleswig War, the Danes instituted a blockade, stopping all German trade in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. This prompted the German parliament at Frankfurt to form a new all-German navy. The Germans had to build a fleet from scratch, buying ships abroad and converting them, and hiring foreign officers (British, Belgian) to lead native veteran merchant mariners.

After about a year of preparation, on 4 June, German Admiral Karl Rudolf Brommy left Bremerhaven with the steam frigate SMS Barbarossa (formerly RMS Britannia) and the smaller steam corvettes Lübeck (1844) and Hamburg (1841) in order to disperse the Danish ships which were guarding the mouth of Weser River. The Danish forces present that day were inferior and retreated, but Brommy managed to cut off[3] the sailing corvette Valkyrien which under captain Andreas Polder sought refuge near the island of Heligoland which at the time belonged to the United Kingdom. The British, while being neutral, had made clear beforehand that a German Navy was not welcome and might be treated as pirates.

Ships of both sides fired some shots, with no effect. When the German approached the island's three-mile zone, the British forces fired warning shots towards them, while allowing the Danish corvette to stay close. Brommy, not willing to draw the Royal Navy into the war, stayed at a distance while the Danish captain Polder was waiting for the arrival of reinforcements from the Danish main fleet. When the modern steamer Gejser, under Kaptajnløjtnant(captain lieutenant) Jørgen Peter Frederik Wulff, came into sight, Brommy retreated, fearing further Danish reinforcements. The Danes followed the Germans to the mouth of the Elbe near Cuxhaven before resuming the blockade.

It was the first and the last excursion of the small fleet under the black-red-gold Flag of Germany.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Heligoland_(1849)
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1855 - Major Henry C. Wayne departs New York aboard the USS Supply to procure camels to establish the U.S. Camel Corps.


The United States Camel Corps was a mid-19th-century experiment by the United States Army in using camels as pack animals in the Southwestern United States. While the camels proved to be hardy and well suited to travel through the region, the Army declined to adopt them for military use. The Civil War interfered with the experiment and it was eventually abandoned; the animals were sold at auction.

Origin
In 1836, Major George H. Crosman, United States Army, who was convinced from his experiences in the Indian wars in Florida that camels would be useful as beasts of burden, encouraged the War Department to use camels for transportation. In 1848 or earlier, Major Henry C. Wayne conducted a more detailed study and recommended importation of camels to the War Department. Wayne's opinions agreed with those of then Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. Davis was unsuccessful until he was appointed as Secretary of War in 1853. When US forces were required to operate in arid and desert regions, the President and Congress began to take the idea seriously. Newly appointed as Secretary of War by President Franklin Pierce, Davis found the Army needed to improve transportation in the southwestern US, which he and most observers thought a great desert. In his annual report for 1854, Davis wrote, "I again invite attention to the advantages to be anticipated from the use of camels and dromedaries for military and other purposes...." On March 3, 1855, the US Congress appropriated $30,000 for the project.

In later years, Edward Fitzgerald Beale reportedly told his son, Truxtun, that the idea of using camels came to him when he was exploring Death Valley with Kit Carson. Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of War, sympathized with Beale, and Beale persuaded his friend and kinsman Lieutenant David Dixon Porter to apply for command of the expedition to acquire the camels. The account is not supported by Beale's diaries or papers.

Acquisition
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Drawing of loading a camel

Major Wayne was assigned to procure the camels. On June 4, 1855, Wayne departed New York City on board the USS Supply, under the command of then Lieutenant David Dixon Porter. After arriving in the Mediterranean Sea, Wayne and Porter began procuring camels. Stops included Goletta (Tunisia), Malta, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. They acquired 33 animals (19 females and 14 males), including two Bactrian, 29 dromedary, one dromedary calf, and one booghdee (a cross between a male Bactrian and a female dromedary). The two officers also acquired pack saddles and covers, being certain that proper saddles could not be purchased in the United States. Wayne and Porter hired five camel drivers, some Arab and some Turkish, and on February 15, 1856, USS Supply set sail for Texas.} Porter established strict rules for the care, watering, and feeding of the animals in his charge; no experiments were conducted regarding how long a camel could survive without water. During the crossing, one male camel died, but two calves were born and survived the trip. On May 14, 1856, 34 camels (a net gain of one) were safely unloaded at Indianola, Texas. All the animals were in better health than when the vessel sailed for the United States. On Davis's orders, Porter sailed again for Egypt to acquire more camels. While Porter was on the second voyage, Wayne marched the camels from the first voyage to Camp Verde, Texas, by way of San Antonio, Texas. On February 10, 1857, USS Supply returned with a herd of 41 camels. During the second expedition, Porter hired "nine men and a boy," including Hiogo Alli. While Porter was on his second mission, five camels from the first herd died. The newly acquired animals joined the first herd at Camp Verde, which had been officially designated as the camel station. The Army had seventy camels.

Use in the Southwest
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Camel at Drum Barracks, San Pedro, California (1863 or earlier)

Wayne attempted a breeding program for the camels, but his plans were put aside when Secretary Davis wrote that the animals were to be tested to determine if they could be used to accomplish a military objective.

In 1857, James Buchanan became President, John B. Floyd succeeded Davis as Secretary of War, and Wayne, who was reassigned to duties with the Quartermaster General in Washington, DC, was replaced by Captain Innis N. Palmer. Also in 1857, in response to a citizen petition to establish a road connecting the East and West, Congress authorized a contract to survey a wagon road along the 35th parallel from Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory, to the Colorado River on what is now the Arizona/California border. Former Navy lieutenant Edward Fitzgerald Beale won the contract and learned afterward that Secretary Floyd required him to take 25 camels with him. The first part of the trip required traveling from Camp Verde through San Antonio; Fort Davis, Texas; El Paso, Texas; and Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory, to Fort Defiance. The expedition left San Antonio on June 25, 1857, and 25 pack camels accompanied a train of mule-drawn wagons. Each camel carried a load of 600 pounds. Beale wrote very favorably about the camels' endurance and packing abilities. Among his comments was that he would rather have one camel than four mules. Beale's comments led Floyd to report to Congress that camels had proved to be successful as a mode of transportation and to recommend that Congress authorize the purchase of an additional 1000 animals. Congress did not act. Beale and his party reached the Colorado River on October 26, 1857. After crossing into California, Beale used the camels for various purposes on his ranch near Bakersfield. Beale offered to keep the Army's camels on his property, but Union Secretary of War Edwin Stanton rejected the offer.

On March 25, 1859, Secretary Floyd directed reconnaissance of the area between the Pecos River and the Rio Grande using the camels still available in Texas. Lieutenant William E. Echols of the Army Topographical Engineers was assigned to conduct the reconnaissance. Lieutenant Edward L. Hartz commanded the escort. The train included 24 camels and 24 mules. It set out in May 1859. The expedition arrived at Camp Hudson on May 18. The group remained at Camp Hudson for five days and then departed for Fort Stockton, Texas, arriving on June 12. On June 15, the expedition set out for the mouth of Independence Creek to test the camels' ability to survive without water. The distance traveled was about 85 miles at four miles per hour. The camels showed no desire for water during the trip, but were watered upon arrival. The party then set out on a 114-mile, four-day journey to Fort Davis near the Rio Grande. During this segment of the journey, one of the camels was bitten on its leg by a rattlesnake; the wound was treated and the animal suffered no ill effects. Upon reaching Fort Davis, the horses and mules were distressed, but the camels were not. After a three-day rest, the expedition returned directly to Fort Stockton. Hartz wrote that "the superiority of the camel for military purposes in the badly-watered sections of the country seems to be well established."

Another reconnaissance began July 11, 1859, from Fort Stockton to San Vicente, Texas, arriving July 18. The expedition traveled roughly 24 miles per day for seven days over extremely rough terrain. After camping one night in San Vicente, the party returned to Fort Stockton, arriving July 28.

Robert E. Lee had first seen the camels in 1857. On May 31, 1860, Lee, who was still a U.S. Army officer and temporary commander of the Department of Texas, ordered Echols on another reconnaissance between Camp Hudson and Fort Davis; part of Echols's mission was to locate a site for a camp near the Comanche. The train consisted of 20 camels, of which only one was a male, and 25 mules. On June 24, the expedition, which was joined by an infantry escort commanded by Lieutenant J. H. Holman, marched from Camp Hudson toward the Pecos River. The camels again performed better than the mules did. As the march continued through extremely dry country, Echols feared for the lives of his men and the animals. On the fifth day, the party reached San Francisco Creek, a tributary of the Rio Grande, with almost no water left. Three mules died on this leg of the journey; all of the camels survived. After resting for a day at a waterhole, Echols led his command to Fort Davis. Echols decided that one man and nine mules had to be left at Davis because they were unable to continue. On July 17, the expedition arrived at Presidio del Norte near the Rio Grande. Echols found what he believed to be a suitable location for a camp. The expedition returned through Fort Stockton to Camp Hudson, arriving in early August. The detachment was released to its home post and the camels were returned to Camp Verde. Lee wrote to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper "...of camels whose endurance, docility and sagacity will not fail to attract attention of the Secretary of War, and but for whose reliable services the reconnaissance would have failed." The reconnaissance ordered by Lee was the last long-range use of the camels before the outbreak of the Civil War.

Aftermath
Early in the Civil War, an attempt was made to use the camels to carry mail between Fort Mohave, New Mexico Territory, on the Colorado River and New San Pedro, California, but the attempt was unsuccessful after the commanders of both posts objected. Later in the war, the Army had no further interest in the animals and they were sold at auction in 1864. The last of the animals from California was reportedly seen in Arizona in 1891.

In spring 1861, Camp Verde fell into Confederate hands until recaptured in 1865. The Confederate commander issued a receipt to the United States for 12 mules, 80 camels and two Egyptian camel drivers. There were reports of the animals' being used to transport baggage, but there was no evidence of their being assigned to Confederate units. When Union troops reoccupied Camp Verde, there were estimated to be more than 100 camels at the camp, but there may have been others roaming the countryside. In 1866, the Government was able to round up 66 camels, which it sold to Bethel Coopwood. The U.S. Army's camel experiment was complete. The last year a camel was seen in the vicinity of Camp Verde was 1875; the animal's fate is unknown.

Among the reasons the camel experiment failed was that it was supported by Jefferson Davis, who left the United States to become President of the Confederate States of America. The U.S. Army was a horse-and-mule organization whose soldiers did not have the skills to control a foreign asset.

One of the male animals at Fort Tejon was killed by another male during rutting season. Lieutenant Sylvester Mowry forwarded the dead animal's bones to the Smithsonian Institution, where they were placed on display.

One of the few camel drivers whose name survives was Hi Jolly. He lived out his life in the United States. After his death in 1902, he was buried in Quartzsite, Arizona. His grave is marked by a pyramid-shaped monument topped with a metal profile of a camel.


The first USS Supply was a ship-rigged sailing vessel which served as a stores ship in the United States Navy. She saw service in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 June 1861 - SS Canadian was a British passenger ship which struck an iceberg and sank in the Strait of Belle Isle 4 nautical miles north of Cape Bauld while she was travelling from Quebec, Canada to Liverpool, United Kingdom.


SS Canadian
was a British passenger ship which struck an iceberg and sank in the Strait of Belle Isle 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) north of Cape Bauld(51°30′N 55°30′WCoordinates:
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51°30′N 55°30′W) while she was travelling from Quebec, Canada to Liverpool, United Kingdom.


Construction
SS Canadian was constructed in 1860 at the Robert Steele & Co. shipyard in Greenock, United Kingdom. She was completed in 1860 and named Canadian, she sailed for Allan Line from 1860 until her demise in 1861. The ship was 86.9 metres (285 ft 1 in) long, with a beam of 10.4 metres (34 ft 1 in) and was assessed at 1.926 GRT. She had one 2 cyl. Compound engine driving a single screw propeller.

Sinking
On 4 June 1861, SS Canadian sailed from Quebec, Canada to Liverpool, United Kingdom with 60 crew and 241 passengers on board under the command of Captain Graham.

When the Canadian sailed through the Strait of Belle Isle, ice and thick weather started to form and the captain ordered to slow the ship down to 5 knots while passing through the ice. At 11:50 AM the Canadian struck an iceberg which was largely hidden underwater. The collision fatally damaged the ship and the ship's 3 compartments were flooded quickly. Since the collision was at such a low speed and most passengers were preparing for lunch, nobody really noticed anything was wrong until passengers noticed that the crew in order of the captain were preparing the lifeboats to be lowered. Since the ship was sinking quickly, the crew needed to work very fast in order to evacuate everyone. Every lifeboat was lowered safely except lifeboat number 8 which capsized when being lowered killing at least 30 people. The ship sank beneath the freezing ice filled waters a half hour after striking the iceberg. Some passengers and crew didn't make it into a lifeboat and went down with the ship, in total 35 people perished in the disaster. Amongst those who perished was mail officer James Panton, who is considered to be one of the heroes during the sinking. He managed to guide many people to the lifeboats and even saved some of his mail bags. He also gave up his seat in a lifeboat for a female passenger. Mr. Panton was last seen hanging by a rope over the side of the ship as it went down. The 266 survivors were soon picked up by 4 French fishing vessels and taken to Quirpon Bay.

Wreck
Canadian sank 4 nautical miles (7.4 km) north of Cape Bauld, Canada (51°30′N 55°30′W).



 
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