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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30th of December

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1778 – Launch of French Héros, 74 gun Annibal class – designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb, at Toulon
Héros was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, known mostly for being the flagship of Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez during the Anglo-French War.
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1794 - HMS Blanche (1786 - 32), Cptn. Robert Faulknor, silenced a fort at the island of Desirade and captured French national schooner (8)
HMS Blanche
was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was ordered towards the end of the American War of Independence, but only briefly saw service before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She enjoyed a number of successful cruises against privateers in the West Indies, before coming under the command of Captain Robert Faulknor. He took the Blanche into battle against a superior opponent and after a hard-fought battle, forced the surrender of the French frigate Pique. Faulknor was among those killed on the Blanche. She subsequently served in the Mediterranean, where she had the misfortune of forcing a large Spanish frigate to surrender, but was unable to secure the prize, which then escaped. Returning to British waters she was converted to a storeship and then a troopship, but did not serve for long before being wrecked off the Texel in 1799.
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1796 - Collapse of the French expedition to Ireland
The French expedition to Ireland, known in French as the Expédition d'Irlande ("Expedition to Ireland"), was an unsuccessful attempt by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule. The French intended to land a large expeditionary force in Ireland during the winter of 1796–1797 which would join with the United Irishmen and drive the British out of Ireland. The French anticipated that this would be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness, and was also intended to possibly be the first stage of an eventual invasion of Britain itself. To this end, the French Directory gathered a force of approximately 15,000 soldiers at Brest under General Lazare Hoche during late 1796, in readiness for a major landing at Bantry Bay in December.
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1915 - HMS Natal, a Warrior-class armoured cruiser, was sunk by an internal explosion near Cromarty with the loss of at least 390 crewmen and civilians.
HMS Natal
was a Warrior-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She escorted the royal yacht in 1911–1912 for the newly crowned King George V's trip to India to attend the Delhi Durbar. During World War I the ship was assigned to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron of the Grand Fleet, but did not participate in any battles. Natal was sunk by an internal explosion near Cromarty on 30 December 1915 with the loss of at least 390 crewmen and civilians. Most of her wreck was slowly salvaged over the decades until the remnants were demolished in the 1970s so they were no longer a hazard to navigation. The remains of her wreck are designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as a war grave.
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1915 - SS Persia was torpedoed and sunk without warning by German U-boat U-38, killing 343 of the 519 aboard
SS Persia
was a P&O passenger liner, built in 1900 by Caird & Company, Inverclyde, Greenock, Scotland. It was torpedoed and sunk without warning on 30 December 1915, by German U-boat U-38.
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1917 - HMT Aragon, Britain's first defensively armed merchant ship ("DAMS"), was sank by German submarine in the Mediterranean, killing 610 of the personnel aboard
HMT Aragon
, originally RMS Aragon, was a 9,588 GRT transatlantic Royal Mail Ship that served as a troop ship in the First World War. She was built in Ireland in 1905 and was the first of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company's fleet of "A-liners" that worked regular routes between Southampton and South American ports including Buenos Aires.
In 1913 Aragon became Britain's first defensively armed merchant ship ("DAMS") of modern times. In the First World War she served as a troop ship, taking part in the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. In 1917 a German submarine sank her in the Mediterranean, killing 610 of the personnel aboard.
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2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.
The MV Senopati Nusantara was an Indonesian ferry that sank in a storm on December 30, 2006. The Japanese-made ship was a scheduled passenger liner from the port of Kumaiin Central Kalimantan (Borneo) to Tanjung Emas port in Semarang, East Java. About 40 km (25 mi) off Mandalika Island, the ship sank during a violent storm in the Java Sea. At least 400–500 people are thought to have drowned.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
31st of December

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1491 – Birth of Jacques Cartier, French navigator and explorer (d. 1557)
Jacques Cartier
(French pronunciation: [ʒak kaʁtje]; Breton: Jakez Karter; December 31, 1491 – September 1, 1557) was a Breton explorer who claimed what is now Canada for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map[1] the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec City) and at Hochelaga (Montreal Island)
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1748 - HMS Wolf (14), Cptn. Veachel, wrecked on the coast of Ireland in high winds.
HMS Wolf
was a 14-gun snow-rigged sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1742 as the first of three Wolf class sloops constructed for action against Spanish privateers during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
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1788 – french Vénus, 38 guns Hébé class, (design by Jacques-Noël Sané) – wrecked 31 December 1788 in the Indian Ocean.
Vénus was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy.
In the summer of 1782, Vénus operated as a transport between Rochefort and Île de Ré. She served in Martinique during the American War of Independence.
From 1785 to 1788, Vénus undertook a scientific expedition in the Indian Ocean, under Captain de Rossily.
Vénus was wrecked in a storm on her way back to France, on 31 December 1788

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La "Vénus" : frégate de 18, de l'ingénieur Sané, 1782, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1979 (ISBN 2-903-179-01-8) was the first monographie Jean Boudriot in cooperation with Hubert Berti published in 1979. This monographie contents a small booklet plus 13 plans.


1862 - USS Monitor founders in a storm off Cape Hatteras, NC
USS Monitor
was an iron-hulled steamship. Built during the American Civil War, she was the first ironclad warship commissioned by the Union Navy. Monitor is most famous for her central role in the Battle of Hampton Roads on 9 March 1862, where, under the command of Lieutenant John Worden, she fought the casemate ironclad CSS Virginia (built on the hull of the former steam frigate USS Merrimack) to a standstill. The unique design of the ship, distinguished by its revolving turret which was designed by American inventor Theodore Timby, was quickly duplicated and established the monitor type of warship.
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1876 - Harvest Queen was a packet ship of the Black Ball Line built in 1854, by William H. Webb, which sank in a collision with the steamer Adriatic in 1876.
Harvest Queen was a packet ship of the Black Ball Line built in 1854, by William H. Webb, which sank in a collision with the steamer Adriatic in 1876.
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1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea
The Battle of the Barents Sea was a World War II naval engagement on 31 December 1942 between warships of the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) and British ships escorting convoy JW 51B to Kola Inlet in the USSR. The action took place in the Barents Sea north of North Cape, Norway. The German raiders' failure to inflict significant losses on the convoy infuriated Hitler, who ordered that German naval strategy would concentrate on the U-boat fleet rather than surface ships.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1st of January

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1660 - Samuel Pepys began to keep a diary. He recorded his daily life for almost ten years.
Samuel Pepys
FRS (/piːps/ PEEPS; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an administrator of the navy of England and Member of Parliament who is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade while still a relatively young man. Pepys had no maritime experience, but he rose to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II and King James II through patronage, hard work, and his talent for administration. His influence and reforms at the Admiralty were important in the early professionalisation of the Royal Navy.
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1761 - Loss of HMS Newcastle (1750 - 50), HMS Duc D'Aquitaine (1754 - 64), HMS Sunderland (1724 - 60), HMS Protector (1749 - 44) and HMS Queenborough (1747 - 24) in a cyclone in the East Indies.
HMS Newcastle
was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1750 and in active service during the Seven Years' War against France. Principally engaged in defending British settlements in India, she was wrecked in a storm off Pondicherry in January 1761.
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1776 – American Revolutionary War: Norfolk, Virginia is burned by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action.
The Burning of Norfolk was an incident that occurred on January 1, 1776, during the American Revolutionary War. British Royal Navy ships in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia began shelling the town, and landing parties came ashore to burn specific properties. The town, whose significantly Tory (Loyalist) population had fled, was occupied by Whig (Revolutionary)forces from Virginia and North Carolina. Although these forces worked to drive off the landing parties, they did nothing to impede the progress of the flames, and began burning and looting Tory properties.
After three days, most of the town had been destroyed, principally by the action of the Whig forces. The destruction was completed by Whig forces in early February to deny use of even the remnants to the British. Norfolk was the last significant foothold of British authority in Virginia; after raiding Virginia's coastal areas for a time, its last Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, left for good in August 1776.
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1800 - Action of 1 January 1800
The Action of 1 January 1800 was a naval battle of the Quasi-War that took place off the coast of present-day Haiti, near the island of Gonâve in the Bight of Léogâne. The battle was fought between an American convoy of four merchant vessels escorted by the United States naval schooner USS Experiment, and a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitians known as picaroons.
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1822 – Launch of HMS Samarang, a 28-gun, teak, Atholl-class sixth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Cochin in 1822 by the East India Company.
HMS Samarang
was a 28-gun, teak, Atholl-class sixth rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched at Cochin in 1822 by the East India Company.
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1863 - The Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle of the American Civil War,
The Battle of Galveston was a naval and land battle of the American Civil War, when Confederate forces under Major Gen. John B. Magruder expelled occupying Union troops from the city of Galveston, Texas on January 1, 1863.
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1908 - The british schooner Nimrod left under command of Ernest Shackleton the harbor of Lyttelton. for the Nimrod-expedition to find the the magnetic South Pole
The Nimrod Expedition of 1907–09, otherwise known as the British Antarctic Expedition, was the first of three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Ernest Shackleton. Its main target, among a range of geographical and scientific objectives, was to be first to the South Pole. This was not attained, but the expedition's southern march reached a Farthest South latitude of 88° 23' S, just 97.5 nautical miles (180.6 km; 112.2 mi) from the pole. This was by far the longest southern polar journey to that date and a record convergence on either Pole.[a] A separate group led by Welsh Australian geology professor Edgeworth David reached the estimated location of the South Magnetic Pole, and the expedition also achieved the first ascent of Mount Erebus, Antarctica's second highest volcano.
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The expedition's ship Nimrod departing for the South Pole

1915 - HMS Formidable, lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships, was torpedoed by german U-24 and sunk
HMS Formidable
, the third of four ships of that name to serve in the Royal Navy, was the lead ship of her class of pre-dreadnought battleships. The ship was laid down in March 1898, was launched in November that year, and was completed in September 1901. Formidable served initially with the Mediterranean Fleet, transferring to the Channel Fleet in 1908. In 1912, she was assigned to the 5th Battle Squadron, which was stationed at Nore.
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Painting of HMS Formidable, Sept. 1898

1919 - His Majesty's Yacht Iolaire, ex Admiralty yacht Amalthaea of 1881, whose sinking on 1 January 1919 in the Minch -
one of the worst maritime disasters in United Kingdom waters during the 20th century. At least 201 men perished of the 283 aboard.
His Majesty's Yacht Iolaire
(Scottish Gaelic for "Eagle") was the Admiralty yacht Amalthaea of 1881, renamed in 1918, whose sinking on 1 January 1919 in the Minch was one of the worst maritime disasters in United Kingdom waters during the 20th century.
At least 201 men perished of the 283 aboard.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2nd of January

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1689 - HMS Sedgemoor (1687 - 50) was driven ashore and wrecked at South Foreland, Kent
HMS Sedgemoor
was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1687.
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1779 – Launch of HMS Sibyl, a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Sibyl
was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Sibyl was first commissioned in October 1778 under the command of Captain Thomas Pasley.
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1780 - The Affair of Fielding and Bylandt
British squadron under Commodore Charles Fielding exacted the right to search a Dutch convoy escorted by a squadron under Rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt. A brief naval engagement took place off the Isle of Wight. The commotion this incident caused in the Republic would eventually lead to the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.

The affair of Fielding and Bylandt was a brief naval engagement off the Isle of Wight on 31 December 1779 between a Royal Navy squadron, commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding, and a naval squadron of the Dutch Republic, commanded by rear-admiral Lodewijk van Bylandt, escorting a Dutch convoy. The Dutch and British were not yet at war, but the British wished to inspect the Dutch merchantmen for what they considered contraband destined for France, then engaged in the American War of Independence. Bylandt attempted to avoid the engagement by offering the ships' manifests, but when Fielding insisted on a physical inspection, Bylandt put up a brief show of force, before striking his colours. The British then seized the Dutch merchantmen and conducted them as prizes to Portsmouth, followed by the Dutch squadron. The incident worsened the diplomatic relations between Great Britain and the Dutch Republic almost to breaking point. It also contributed to the formation of the First League of Armed Neutrality to which the Dutch acceded in December, 1780. To prevent their receiving assistance from other members of that League, Britain declared the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War shortly afterwards.
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1783 - Action of 2 January 1783
The Action of 2 January 1783 was a minor naval battle that took place in the Caribbean during the last stages of the American War of Independence. Severe fighting between a Royal Navy frigate HMS Magicienne and a French frigate Sibylle went on for nearly two hours but in that time both frigates were reduced to a wreck.
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Action between HMS Magicienne and La Sibylle, 2 January 1783 by Robert Dodd

1793 - The Childers Incident marked the opening shots between British and French forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, the first phase of a 23-year-long war between the two countries.
The Childers Incident of 2 January 1793 marked the opening shots between British and French forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, the first phase of a 23-year-long war between the two countries. Following the French Revolution of 1789, diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the French Republic had steadily deteriorated and France was in political and social turmoil. One of the strongest hotbeds of republican activity was the principal Atlantic naval base of the French Navy at Brest in Brittany, the scene of a significant mutiny in 1790.
On 2 January a small British warship, the 14-gun brig HMS Childers under Commander Robert Barlow, was ordered to enter the Roadstead of Brest to reconnoitre the state of readiness of the French fleet. As Childers entered the Goulet de Brest, the vessel came under fire from French batteries flying the tricolour. Although Barlow clearly identified his brig as a neutral British vessel the fire continued until he was able to withdraw. Although Childers had been struck by a 48 lb (22 kg) cannonball, none of the crew were wounded. The incident was of itself inconsequential, with minimal damage and no casualties on either side, but it marked a symbolic moment in the deterioration of relations between Britain and France in the approach to war, which broke out on 1 February 1793.
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1809 - HMS Imperieuse (38), Thomas Cochrane, captured French cutter Gauloise (7), lugger Julie (5) and 11 supply vessels laden with wheat at Cadaques, just north of the Bay of Rosas
HMS Imperieuse was a 38-gun fifth-rate, previously the Spanish ship Medea (1797). She was captured in 1804 and taken into service as HMS Iphigenia but renamed Imperieuse in 1805, placed on harbour service in 1818, and sold in 1838.
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lines & profile NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 329 states that 'Imperieuse' (1804) arrived at Plymouth Dockyard in October 1804

1921 - SS Santa Isabel (1915), a Spanish cargo liner which sank in a storm in 1921
On the night of January 2nd, 1921, the Spanish passenger ship SANTA ISABEL, en route from A Coruña to Villagarcia with general cargo, 84 crew and 187 passengers, was navigating in bad weather with heavy rains, reducing the visibility to nearly zero. She struck the 'Bajos de Pegar' (Pegar Shoal), 200 metres from Isla de Sálvora and started sinking very fast. Only 27 crew and 29 passengers were saved. The ship was subsequently salvaged in situ and only a few pieces of her remain.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2 January 1779 – Launch of HMS Sibyl, a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Sibyl
was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The Sibyl was first commissioned in October 1778 under the command of Captain Thomas Pasley.

Class and type: 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 599 20⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 120 ft 7 in (36.75 m) (overall)
  • 99 ft 7 5⁄8 in (30.369 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 7 1⁄2 in (10.2 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 200 officers and men
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades
  • 12 × swivel guns
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Monarch (left), Sybil (right) and Panther (right background) take the Dutch ship Mars (centre)

In 1783 Sibyl, Captain Vashon, was in company with HMS Alarm and Tobago when they encountered the American frigate Alliance, which was escorting USS Duc de Lauzun. An inconclusive engagement developed between Sibyl and Alliance that proved to be the last battle of the American Revolutionary War. Alarm and Tobago neither participated in the engagement nor captured Duc de Lauzun. Sibyl was renamed Garland in 1795.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile plan for the Enterprize Class 1770: Enterprize (1774), Siren (1773), Fox (1773), Surprize (1774), Acteon (1775), Medea (1778), Serpine (1777), Andromeda (1777), Aurora (1777), Sibyl (1779), Brilliant (1779), Pomona (1778), Crescent (1779), Nemesis (1780), Resource (1778), Mercury (1779), Cyclops (1779), Vestal (1779), Laurel (1779), Pegasus (1779), and with modifications, written in green ink, for Hussar (1784), Rose (1783), Dido (1784), Thisbe (1783), Alligator (1787), Circe (1783), Lapwing (1785), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates building at various Royal and private yards. The reverse of the plan shows a section through the deck for the after Bitts as they appear face on, from upper deck to keel.

Loss
In February 1798 Captain J. C. Searle sailed Garland for the Cape of Good Hope. There Captain James Athol Wood replaced him.

Wood received information that a large French ship was anchored off Port Dauphiné, Madagascar. He sailed Garland to investigate but as she approached the vessel on 26 July, Garland struck a rock and sank before she could be run onshore. Still, the crew was able to take to the boats. Wood then decided to capture the French ship, which turned out to be a merchantman armed with 24 guns and carrying a crew of 150 men. The French crew had run their ship onshore at Garland's approach and abandoned her. However, when they saw Garland run onshore, they tried to retrieve their own vessel. Wood and his boats had the wind and reached the merchantman first. Wood was able to convince the natives to hand most of the Frenchmen over to the British. It was five months before Star arrived to rescue Wood, his crew, and his prisoners. Star took the prisoners to Île de France. Wood and his men returned to the Cape in their prize, a small boat of 15 tons burthen that they had built, and some small vessels that were prizes to the Cape squadron.

Wood returned to England, where on 15 December 1798 he and his officers were acquitted at the court martial for the loss of their ship.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth as proposed and approved for building Siren [Syren] (1773) and Fox (1773), and later for building Enterprize (1773), and Surprize (1774), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. The plan includes a table of the mast and yard dimensions. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].

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A painting showing a model of the frigate 'Enterprise' in starboard-quarter view. It has been depicted fixed to a table base, with a label on the side that reads 'Enterprise 28 Guns 200 Men'. The finely detailed painting was part of a commission of twelve perspective paintings, each of a different class, ordered by King George III. Each was accompanied by a memorandum describing the improvements in design that had been introduced since 1745. The work of producing these perspectives from the original Navy Board plans of the ships was divided between two draughtsmen, Joseph Williams and J. Binmer, whilst Joseph Marshall painted all the pictures. Their task was completed in August 1775. The model of the 'Enterprise' is positioned in a corner of a room, implied by the decorated wall behind featuring classical figures, and a wall frieze. The painting is signed and dated 'J Marshall pt. 1777'.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sibyl_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Sibyl_1779
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-310573;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=E
Dear UWE. Thanks so much for all your work on the daily Maritime history section. I am reading most of it everyday; it is amazing, and I am learning a lot. This hobby is not just about building model ships to a high degree of detail, but about the history of those ships, and concurrent world history. This particular post is important to all of us who are building CAF's HMS Enterprise(z)e. Now I understand the historical importance of these Frigates, the last class of 28 guns. Frigates are my favorite class of warships from the age of sail. There is a little book called "THE FRIGATES An account of the lighter warships of the Napoleonic wars" by James Henderson CBE, Leo Cooper, London 1994. The book is short, but delightful reading of the most famous (British) Frigate actions in history. I highly recommend this book. I will take a picture of it when I can and post it or send it to you.
 
Dear UWE. Thanks so much for all your work on the daily Maritime history section. I am reading most of it everyday; it is amazing, and I am learning a lot. This hobby is not just about building model ships to a high degree of detail, but about the history of those ships, and concurrent world history. This particular post is important to all of us who are building CAF's HMS Enterprise(z)e. Now I understand the historical importance of these Frigates, the last class of 28 guns. Frigates are my favorite class of warships from the age of sail. There is a little book called "THE FRIGATES An account of the lighter warships of the Napoleonic wars" by James Henderson CBE, Leo Cooper, London 1994. The book is short, but delightful reading of the most famous (British) Frigate actions in history. I highly recommend this book. I will take a picture of it when I can and post it or send it to you.
Hallo Alex,
many many thanks for your kind words - meaning a lot for me, due to the fact, that not often somebody is replying here
-> for the most, it is somehow reading like a newspaper every morning - in moment appr. 3.500 people (members and guests) are clicking / viewing this topic every day......
Here is the book. Short, can be read a section at a time, very readable and enjoyable. lots of illustrations.
I bought it years ago when I was reading the Patrick O'Brian series...Highly recommend this book. The publisher is Leo Cooper, London, 1994.
and many thanks for mentioning this book - Sounds very interesting, so I will order it ......
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3rd of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1695 - Start of a 2 day capture of the HMS Nonsuch (1668 – 36) and HMS Falcon (1694 – 38) by the French La Francois (1687 – 50) near Isles of Scilly.
HMS Nonsuch
was a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was an experimental fast-sailing design, built by the renowned shipwright Anthony Deane according to proposals by the Dutch naval officer Laurens van Heemskirk, who became her first captain. She was launched in December 1668, and commissioned the same day under van Heemskirk. In 1669 she was reclassed as a 42-gun Fourth rate, being commanded from 9 April by Captain Sir John Holmes.
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1794 – Launch of HMS Artois, the leadship of the Artois class, a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow,
The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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1794 – Launch of French Républicaine française, a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, of the Galathée class.
The Républicaine française was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, of the Galathée class. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796. The Navy fitted her as a troopship in 1800, but both as a troopship, and earlier as a frigate, she captured several small Spanish and French privateers. She was broken up in 1810.
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1807 - HMS Pickle schooner, Lt. Moses Cannadey, captured privateer cutter Favorite (14), E. J. Boutruche, off the Lizard.
HMS Pickle
was a topsail schooner of the Royal Navy. She was originally a civilian vessel named Sting, of six guns, that Lord Hugh Seymour purchased to use as a tender on the Jamaica station. Pickle was at the Battle of Trafalgar, and though she was too small to take part in the fighting, Pickle was the first ship to bring the news of Nelson's victory to Great Britain. She also participated in a notable single-ship action when she captured the French privateer Favorite in 1807. Pickle was wrecked in 1808, but without loss of life. In 1995 five replica Baltic packet schooners were constructed at the Grumant & Askold shipyard in Russia. One, named "Alevtina & Tuy", was in 2005 renamed "Schooner Pickle", although not a replica of HMS Pickle, to represent the 1805 vessel for the 200-year Trafalgar celebration. Retaining her adopted name, she is berthed in Hull Marina on the Humber. The vessel, owned by Historic Motor and Sail (https://historicmotorandsail.org.uk) is kept as a representation of the original Pickle and can be seen at ports throughout the East coast of England during the summer months.
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1854 - Launch of Lightning , clipper ship, one of the last really large clippers to be built in the United States
Lightning was a clipper ship, one of the last really large clippers to be built in the United States. She was built by Donald McKay for James Baines of the Black Ball Line, Liverpool, for the Australia trade.
It has been said that Lightning was the most extreme example of a type of ship classified as an extreme clipper.
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1870 – Launch of The eighth HMS Vanguard of the British Royal Navy was an Audacious-class central battery ironclad battleship, launched in 1870.
The eighth HMS Vanguard of the British Royal Navy was an Audacious-class central battery ironclad battleship, launched in 1870.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4th of January

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1749 - John Jervis (later Earl of St Vincent) joined the navy as an Able Seaman on HMS Gloucester (50)
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC (9 January 1735 – 14 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.
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1781 - HMS Courageux (74) and HMS Valiant (74) took French frigate Minerve (32) in the Channel.
Courageux was a heavy 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1753. She was captured by the Royal Navy in 1761 and taken into service as HMS Courageux. In 1778, she joined the Channel Fleet and later, was part of the squadron commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding, that controversially captured a Dutch convoy on 31 December 1779, in what became known as the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt. On 4 January 1781, Courageux was west of Ushant, when she recaptured Minerva in a close range action that lasted more than an hour. The following Spring, Courageux joined the convoy, under George Darby, which successfully relieved the besieged Gibraltar.
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1795 - HMS Blanche (1786 - 32), Cptn. Robert Faulkner, captured french Pique (1795 - 38) off Dominica.
HMS Blanche
was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was ordered towards the end of the American War of Independence, but only briefly saw service before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She enjoyed a number of successful cruises against privateers in the West Indies, before coming under the command of Captain Robert Faulknor. He took the Blanche into battle against a superior opponent and after a hard-fought battle, forced the surrender of the French frigate Pique. Faulknor was among those killed on the Blanche. She subsequently served in the Mediterranean, where she had the misfortune of forcing a large Spanish frigate to surrender, but was unable to secure the prize, which then escaped. Returning to British waters she was converted to a storeship and then a troopship, but did not serve for long before being wrecked off the Texel in 1799.
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1799 - HMS Wolverine (1798 - 16), Cptn. Lewes Mortlock (Killed in Action), engaged French luggers Ruse and Furet.
HMS Wolverine
(or Wolverene, or Woolverene), was a Royal Navy 14-gun brig-sloop, formerly the civilian collier Rattler that the Admiralty purchased in 1798 and converted into a brig sloop, but armed experimentally. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and participated in one action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. A French privateer captured and sank Wolverine on 21 March 1804 whilst she was on convoy duty.
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1852 - RMS Amazon, a wooden three-masted barque, paddle steamer and Royal Mail Ship, kept fire, exploded and sunk on her maiden voyage
RMS Amazon
was a wooden three-masted barque, paddle steamer and Royal Mail Ship of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. She was one of a set of five sister ships built at the beginning of the 1850s for RMSP's routes between Southampton and the Caribbean.
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1910 - USS Michigan, the first U.S. dreadnought battleship, is commissioned.
USS Michigan (BB-27)
, a South Carolina-class battleship, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the 26th state. She was the second member of her class, the first dreadnought battleships built for the US Navy. She was laid down in December 1906, launched in May 1908; sponsored by Mrs. F. W. Brooks, daughter of Secretary of the Navy Truman Newberry; and commissioned into the fleet 4 January 1910. Michigan and South Carolina were armed with a main battery of eight 12-inch (305 mm) guns in superfiring twin gun turrets; they were the first dreadnoughts to feature this arrangement.
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1918 - Storebror , ex Afon Alaw, a four-masted sailing ship which served from 1891 until 1918, was sank by German surface raider SMS Wolf
Afon Alaw was a four-masted sailing ship which served from 1891 until 1918. She had a sister ship, Afon Cefni. Afon Alaw was built by Alexander Stephen and Sons at their yard in Glasgow for Hughes & Co based at Menai Bridge in Anglesey. The vessel was named for a river in Anglesey. The vessel remained in British service until 1915, moving between three owners before being sold to a Norwegian company which renamed the vessel Storebror. Norway was neutral during World War I, however the German surface raider SMS Wolf did not want its position known and sank Storebror on 4 January 1918 to prevent the Norwegian ship from disclosing it.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5th of January

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1797 - French expedition to Ireland - HMS Polyphemus outran and captured the french frigate Tartu, of 44 guns and 625 men (including troops), after four hours of intermittent combat.
The first French ships to return to Brest arrived on 1 January, including Bouvet's flagship Immortalité accompanied by Indomptable, Redoutable, Patriote, Mucius, Fougueux and some smaller ships. They had avoided any contact with British warships and had been able to make good speed in a period of relatively calm weather. During the following days, the French ships that had gathered off the Shannon limped home, all badly damaged due to the increasingly rough seas and high winds.
Several ships did not return to France at all, including the frigate Surveillante, which was scuttled in Bantry Bay on 2 January; many of those aboard, including General Julien Mermet and 600 cavalrymen, were rescued by boats from the remaining French fleet while others scrambled ashore to become prisoners of war.
On 5 January, HMS Polyphemus outran and captured the french frigate Tartu, of 44 guns and 625 men (including troops), after four hours of intermittent combat. The Royal Navy later took her into service as HMS Uranie. Polyphemus also captured another transport, but the weather being bad and night falling, she did not take possession. Captain Lumsdaine of Polyphemus reported that the transport was leaky and making distress signals, but that he was unable to assist. He thought it highly likely that she had sunk. This may have been the transport Fille-Unique, which sank in the Bay of Biscay on 6 January, although the fate of the 300 soldiers aboard is unknown.
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1798 - HMS Pomone (44), Cptn. Robert Carthew Reynolds, sank privateer Cheri (26), Cptn. Chassin, off Ushant
On 5 January, HMS Pomone was 94 leagues off Ushant when she encountered a large ship which she pursued. In the haze, the quarry underestimated Pomone's size and armament and opened fire. The two vessels exchanged several broadsides before the quarry struck. She was the French privateer Chéri, from Nantes, and was armed with a mix of twenty-six 12, 18 and 24-pounder guns. She had a crew of 230 men under the command of Mons. Chaffin. The engagement cost Pomone one man killed and four wounded, plus damage to masts and rigging. Chéri had 12 men killed and 22 wounded, and had lost her mizzen mast and all sails, and had taken several holes to her hull as well. Reynolds took her in tow and sent over his carpenter to plug the holes when she started to sink. He sent over Pomone's boats and they were able to get everyone off Chéri, including the wounded, before she sank.
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1809 - HMS Pigeon (or Pidgeon), a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four12-pounder carronades, wrecked off Kingsgate Point near Margate
HMS Pigeon
(or Pidgeon) was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Custance & Stone built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
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1809 - British Fifth Rate frigate HMS Loire (1798 – 40) (ex French Fifth Rate frigate 'Loire' (1795 – 44), Cptn. Alexander Wilmot Schomberg, captured French Sixth Rate corvette 'L'Hébé' (1808 - 20) off Lisbon.
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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1913 - First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
The Battle of Lemnos (Greek: Ναυμαχία της Λήμνου, Turkish: Mondros Deniz Muharebesi), fought on 18 January [O.S. 5 January] 1913, was a naval battle during the First Balkan War, which defeated the second and last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles and reclaim supremacy over the Aegean Sea from Greece.
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1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
The Tasman Bridge disaster occurred on the evening of 5 January 1975, in Hobart, the capital city of Australia's island state of Tasmania, when a bulk ore carrier travelling up the Derwent River collided with several pylons of the Tasman Bridge, causing a large section of the bridge deck to collapse onto the ship and into the river below. Twelve people were killed, including seven crew on board the ship, and the five occupants of four cars which fell 45 m (150 feet) after driving off the bridge. This severed Hobart from its eastern suburbs, and the loss of the main road connection had a social and economic impact.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6th of January

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1760 - HMS Mermaid (24), Cptn. James Hackman, wrecked off the Bahamas
HMS Mermaid
was a 24-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy, built in 1748-49, which served in the Seven Years' War.
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1762 - HMS Venus (1758 - 32) Cptn. Thomas Harrison, took French Merchantman east indiaman 'Le Boullongne' (1758 - 26).
From: The Gentleman's magazine. v. 32 (1762).
Capt. Harrison of the Venus frigate, brought into Plymouth, the Boulogne from the Isle of France, laden with coffee and pepper, M. de St. Romaine, commander. She was taken after an hours engagement, in which time she had 7 men killed and 20 wounded. She had been about 3 months from the Isle of France and left M. de Apobe's squadron there.
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1783 – Launch of HMS Dictator, a 64-gun Inflexible-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Limehouse.
HMS Dictator
was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 January 1783 at Limehouse. She was converted into a troopship in 1798, and broken up in 1817
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1801 - Boats of HMS Mercury (1779 - 28), Cptn. T. Rogers, captured French convoy of fifteen sail.
HMS Mercury
was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.
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1806 - HMS Favourite (16), Cdr. John Davie, captured by French squadron under Cptn. L'Hermite off Cape de Verd Islands
HMS Favourite
(or Favorite) was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.
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1901 – Launch of SMS Wettin ("His Majesty's Ship Wettin"), a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy).
SMS Wettin
("His Majesty's Ship Wettin")[a] was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Danzig. Wettin was laid down in October 1899, and was completed October 1902. She and her sister shipsWittelsbach, Zähringen, Schwaben and Mecklenburg—were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. Wettin was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).
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1941 - Operation Excess begun
Operation Excess
was a series of British supply convoys to Malta, Alexandria and Greece in January 1941. The operation encountered the first presence of Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. All the convoyed freighters reached their destinations. However, the destroyer Gallant was disabled by Italian mines; and Axis bombers severely damaged the cruiser Southampton and the aircraft carrier Illustrious.
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1945 - Invasion of Lingayen Gulf
The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf (Filipino: Paglusob sa Golfo ng Lingayen), 6–9 January 1945, was an Allied amphibious operation in the Philippines during World War II. In the early morning of 6 January 1945, a large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy warships began bombarding suspected Japanese positions along the coast of Lingayen from their position in Lingayen Gulf for three days. On 9 January, the U.S. 6th Army landed on a 20 mi (32 km) beachhead between the towns of Lingayen and San Fabian.
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The U.S. Navy battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) leading USS Colorado (BB-45) and the cruisers USS Louisville (CA-28), USS Portland (CA-33), and USS Columbia (CL-56) into Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, in January 1945.

1962 - The french shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique delivered the longest passenger ship of the world, the SS France, to the new owner French line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique
SS France
was a Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, or French Line) ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962. At the time of her construction in 1960, the 316 m (1,037 ft) vessel was the longest passenger ship ever built, a record that remained unchallenged until the construction of the 345 m (1,132 ft) RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7th of January

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1760 - French Modeste, a 64-gun Vaillant class Ship of the Line and launched in 1759, captured later that year on 18 August 1759, was purchased for the Navy
HMS Modeste
was a 64-gun Vaillant class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously the Modeste, of the French Navy, launched in 1759 and captured later that year.
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7 January 1783 - HMS Raven (1777 - 18) was captured by french Concorde (1777 - 32) in company with Nymphe after a longer chase
On 5 January 1783, HMS Raven was in company with the 74-gun HMS Hercules off Montserrat when they sighted a strange sail. Raven sailed to investigate, but the strange vessel turned out to be a British merchantman, as did another. By this time Raven was well out of sight of Hercules.
That evening and the next day there was no wind. At about 10a.m. on the morning of 7 January, Raven sighted two frigates sailing towards her from the direction of Guadeloupe. Raven initially sailed towards them until she realized that they were not British frigates, but the french Concorde and Nymphe.
An all-day chase ensued until about 9p.m. when one of the frigates got within pistol-shot and fired a broadside that shot away Raven's main topgallant-mast. The chase continued until about 10:30 p.m. when one of the frigates was again in range, with the other coming up rapidly. At this point Raven, which was under the command of Commander John Wells, struck. The French Navy took Raven into service under the name Cérès. Wells and his crew remained prisoners of war until the end of the war a few months later.
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1790 – Launch of French Jean Bart, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
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1799 - HMS Apollo (38), Cptn. Peter Halkett, wrecked running on Haak Sands, coast of Holland, whilst chasing a Dutch ship.
HMS Apollo
, the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars, but her career ended after just four years in service when she was wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast.
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1805 - HMS Sheerness (1787 - 44), Cptn. Lord George Stuart, driven on shore and wrecked near Trincomalee when her cables parted during a hurricane .
HMS Sheerness (1787)
was a 44-gun Adventure-class fifth rate, designed by William Hunt and launched in 1787 and wrecked in 1805. Because Sheerness served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants
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1812 - Launch of French Égyptienne, a Licorne-class fluyt of the French Navy.
Égyptienne was a Licorne-class fluyt of the French Navy.
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1813 - Cruizer-class sloop HMS Ferret (1806 - 18), Francis Alexander Halliday, wrecked on Newbiggin Point, Northumberland.
HMS Ferret
was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Benjamin Tanner at Dartmouth and launched in 1806, 19 months late. She served on the Jamaica, Halifax, and Leith (North Sea) stations during which time she took three privateers as prizes before she was wrecked in 1813.
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1912 – Battle of Kunfuda Bay was a naval battle of the Italo-Turkish War between small squadrons of the Italian and Ottoman navies
The Battle of Kunfuda Bay was a naval battle of the Italo-Turkish War between small squadrons of the Italian and Ottoman navies. On 7 January 1912, the Italian protected cruiser Piemonte and the Soldato-class destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino, cruising the Red Sea, discovered six Ottoman gunboats, a tugboat, and a yacht in the harbor at Kunfuda. The vessels engaged for over three hours and five Ottoman vessels were sunk and four dhows were captured. Three of the gunboats were damaged during the battle and grounded on the beach to prevent them from sinking. The following morning, the Italian vessels returned to destroy the remaining three vessels; the yacht, which had been sunk, was later salvaged and seized by Italy. After the battle, the Italian squadron in the Red Sea was able to proclaim a blockade of Ottoman ports in the Red Sea and frequently bombarded Ottoman positions for the rest of the war.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8th of January

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1676 - Battle of Stromboli
A French fleet of 20 ships under Abraham Duquesne engaged a combined fleet of 19 Dutch and one Spanish ship under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter.

The naval Battle of Stromboli took place on 8 January 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War between a French fleet of 20 ships under Abraham Duquesne and a combined fleet of 19 Dutch and one Spanish ship under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter that lasted eight hours and ended inconclusively. The fleets fought again at the Battle of Augusta.
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1761 - HMS Unicorn (1748 - 28), Cptn. Joseph Hunt (Killed in Action), took french Vestal (1756 - 30), M. Boisbertelot (Killed in Action), off the Penmarks.
Vestale was a Blonde-class 30-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1761, but had to scuttle her in 1778 to avoid having the French recapture her. She was refloated and sold to the French in 1784. She returned to wartime service in 1794 as a privateer. The British recaptured her in 1798 and broke her up thereafter.
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1780 - Action of 8 January 1780
a naval encounter off Cape Finisterre between a British Royal Naval fleet (20 ships of Line and 6 frigates) under Admiral Sir George Rodney, and a fleet of Spanish merchants sailing in convoy with seven warships

The Action of 8 January 1780 was a naval encounter off Cape Finisterre between a British Royal Naval fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney, and a fleet of Spanish merchants sailing in convoy with seven warships of the Caracas Company, under the command of Commodore Don Juan Augustin de Yardi. During the action the entire Spanish convoy was captured. Rodney's fleet was en route to relieve Gibraltar, and this action took place several days before Rodney's engagement and defeat of a Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
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1798 - HMS Kingfisher (1782 - 18), Cptn. Charles Herbert Pierrepont, Earl Manvers, captured French privateer La Betsey (1798 - 16).
HMS Kingfisher
was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy which saw service during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.

1806 - The Battle of Blaauwberg, also known as the Battle of Cape Town
The Battle of Blaauwberg, also known as the Battle of Cape Town, fought near Cape Town on 8 January 1806, was a small but significant military engagement. Peace was made under the Treaty Tree in Woodstock. It established British rule in South Africa, which was to have many ramifications for the region during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A bi-centennial commemoration was held in January 2006.
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1818 – Launch of French Centaure, an 86-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.
Centaure was an 86-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.
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1821 - HMS Sprightly, a 6-gun Nightingale-class cutter, wrecked
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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2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.
RMS Queen Mary 2
(also referred to as the QM2) is a transatlantic ocean liner. She is the largest passenger ship built for the Cunard Line since Queen Elizabeth 2 in 1969, the vessel she succeeded as flagship of the line. As of 2019, Queen Mary 2 is the only passenger ship operating as an ocean liner.
The new ship was named Queen Mary 2 by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 after the first RMS Queen Mary of 1936. Queen Mary was in turn named after Mary of Teck, consort of King George V. With the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008, Queen Mary 2 is the only transatlantic ocean liner in line service between Southampton, England, and New York City, United States, operating for a part of each year. The ship is also used for cruising, including an annual world cruise.
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2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.
USS San Francisco
(SSN-711) is a Los Angeles-class nuclear submarine, the third ship or boat of the United States Navy to be named for San Francisco, California.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9th of January

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1706 – Launch of HMS Nassau, a 70-gun third rate ship of the line
HMS Nassau
was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched on 9 January 1706.
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1735 – Birth of John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, English admiral and politician (d. 1823)
Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC (9 January 1735 – 14 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.
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1798 - Napoleon ordered to destroy the Bucentaur, the state barge of the doges of Venice
The bucentaur (/bjuːˈsɛntɔːr/ bew-SEN-tor; bucintoro in Italian and Venetian) was the state barge of the doges of Venice. It was used every year on Ascension Day up to 1798 to take the doge out to the Adriatic Sea to perform the "Marriage of the Sea" – a ceremony that symbolically wedded Venice to the sea every year on the "Festa della Sensa" (Ascension Day).
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1801 - british hired armed cutter Constitution (14), Lt. Whiston, was captured by two French cutters - then re-captured by HMS Harpy (1796 - 18), William Birchall, and HMS Greyhound.
Two vessels have borne the designation, His Majesty's hired armed cutter Constitution. The first served the British Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. The second served briefly at the start of the Napoleonic Wars and was sunk in 1804. The two cutters are similar enough that may have been the same vessel; at this juncture it is impossible to know.
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1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson received a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.
Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. He was noted for his inspirational leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics, which together resulted in a number of decisive British naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was wounded several times in combat, losing the sight in one eye in Corsica and most of one arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife. He was shot and killed during his final victory at the Battle of Trafalgar near the port city of Cádiz in 1805.
Sistership Gloire
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1916 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.
The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli, or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a long unsuccessful campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey).
(17 February 1915 – 9 January 1916 with 10 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
The Allied powers Britain and France, sought to greatly weaken the Ottoman Empire by capturing control of the straits that provided a supply route to their ally Russia. The invaders launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula. They hoped to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople. The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn. It was a costly and humiliating defeat for the Allies and for the sponsors, especially Winston Churchill.
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Panoramic view of the Allied fleet in the Dardanelles

1917 - HMS Cornwallis, a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, torpedoed and sunk by U-32
HMS Cornwallis
was a Duncan-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Cornwallis and her sister ships were capable of steaming at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. The Duncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Cornwallis was built between her keel laying in July 1899 and her completion in February 1904.
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
10th of January

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1755 - Adam Duncan confirmed in the rank of Lieutenant.
Adam Duncan, 1st Viscount Duncan
(1 July 1731 – 4 August 1804) was a British admiral who defeated the Dutch fleet off Camperdown (north of Haarlem) on 11 October 1797. This victory is considered one of the most significant actions in naval history.
He was born at Dundee. In 1746, when he was 15 years old and after receiving his education in Dundee, he entered the Royal Navy on board the sloop Trial, under Captain Robert Haldane, with whom, in HMS Trial and afterwards in HMS Shoreham, he continued till the peace in 1748. In 1749 he was appointed to HMS Centurion, then commissioned for service in the Mediterranean, by the Hon. Augustus Keppel (afterwards Viscount Keppel), with whom he was afterwards in HMS Norwich on the coast of North America, and was confirmed in the rank of lieutenant on 10 January 1755.
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1761 – Death of Edward Boscawen, English admiral and politician (b. 1711)
Admiral Edward Boscawen, PC (19 August 1711 – 10 January 1761) was an Admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the Siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759.[2]He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761.
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1761 - HMS Seahorse (1748 - 24), Cptn. James Smith, and HMS Unicorn (1748 - 28), Lt. John Symons-Acting, engaged French 32-gun frigate L’Aigrette (1756 - 32) off Start Point
On January 8th, 1761, the Unicorn, 28, Captain Joseph Hunt, cruising off Penmarck, fought a sharp action with, and captured, the Vestale, 32, which later became the Flora in the British Navy. The captains of both ships were mortally wounded. On the following day the Unicorn chased, but could not come up with, the Aigrette, 32, and, on the 10th, saw her engage the Seahorse, 20, Captain James Smith, then carrying out astronomers to India to observe the transit of Venus. Again she tried to come up, but could not; and the Aigrette, having mauled the Seahorse considerably, refused to be further detained and forced to fight at a disadvantage.
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1807 – Launch of HMS Clio, a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, at James Betts' shipyard in Mistleythorn in Essex
HMS Clio
was Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched at James Betts' shipyard in Mistleythorn in Essex on 10 January 1807. Her establishment was 71 officers and men, 24 boys and 20 marines. She served in the Baltic during the Napoleonic Wars, accomplished the re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833, and participated in the First Opium War. She was broken up in 1845.
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1810 - Boats of HMS Christian VII (80), Cptn. Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, and HMS Armide (38), Cptn. Lucius Hardyman, attacked in Basque Road a French convoy of 4 vessels. 3 were driven ashore and completely burnt, the fourth, a chasse-maree, was taken.
In January 1810 HMS Armide, under Captain Hardyman, and the 80-gun second rate, HMS Christian VII, Captain Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, were stationed off the Basque Roads. On 10 January, they sighted a small convoy sailing from the Île d'Aix to La Rochelle. The boats of the two ships went in under small arms and grapeshot fire from a shore battery and captured a chasse-maree of about 30 tons. The tide was ebbing too fast to bring off the other vessels so the British burnt a brig, a schooner and a chasse-maree. This was regrettable as the all were fully laden with cargoes consisting of best quality wines and brandies, soap, rosin, candles, pitch, oil, pine varnish, and the like. The cutting out expedition suffered no casualties. The captured chasse maree was probably the Felicite.
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1900 – Launch of SS Deutschland, a passenger liner built in Stettin, by the Hamburg America Line of Germany.
SS Deutschland
was a passenger liner built in Stettin and launched in 1900 by the Hamburg America Line of Germany. The rival North German Lloyd line had launched Germany's first four funnel liner, Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse in 1897, and SS Deutschland was built by Hamburg America as Germany's second four-funnel liner in order to compete.
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1952 - SS Flying Enterprise was a 6,711 ton Type C1-B ship sank
SS Flying Enterprise
was a 6,711 ton Type C1-B ship which sank in 1952. She was built in 1944 as SS Cape Kumukaki for the United States Maritime Commission for use in World War II. The ship was sold in 1947 and then operated in scheduled service under the name Flying Enterprise.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


1742 - HMS Tiger (32), Cptn. Edward Herbert, wrecked on a key near Tortuga
HMS Tyger
, often spelled Tiger, was a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built by Peter Pett II at Woolwich and launched in 1647. The term 'frigate' during the period of this ship referred to a method of construction, rather than a role which did not develop until the following century. Tyger was the third ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name, and by successive rebuildings she served for almost a century until she was wrecked in the Dry Tortugas in 1742. The ship's crew was stranded on Garden Key for 56 days, fighting off Spanish attempts to capture them, and then spent another 56 days sailing in small boats 700 miles to Port Royal, Jamaica. Remarkably, only five crew members died during this period: three killed by the Spanish, and two others of natural causes. Six crewmen were captured and imprisoned by the Spanish. The captain and three of his lieutenants were court-martialed over the wreck and subsequent events.
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1758 – Launch of HMS Active, a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate sailing frigate
HMS Active
was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1758. She was one of the captors of the Spanish ship Hermione. After Hermione surrendered, her captors found that she carried a large cargo of gold and silver that would lead to the greatest single amount of prize money awarded to the crew of a British warship.
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1788 – Death of François Joseph Paul de Grasse, French admiral (b. 1722)
François Joseph Paul, comte de Grasse
(13 September 1722 – 11 January 1788) was a career French officer who achieved the rank of admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781 in the last year of the American Revolutionary War. It led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown and helped gain the rebels' victory.
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1794 - HMS Juno (32), Cptn. Samuel Hood, having unwarily entered Toulon after the British evacuation came under fire from shore batteries but escaped.
HMS Juno
was at Toulon during its period of British control under Samuel Hood, Juno's captain's cousin once removed. Unaware that Toulon had fallen to French republican forces, and desiring to deliver 107 Maltese and 46 Marines embarked in Malta to reinforce Lord Hood's forces, Captain Hood sailed into the port at night on 11 January 1794, several days after the evacuation of the British forces. After anchorimg, Juno was boarded by 13 armed men. On being informed that British forces had left and that he and his ship's company were now prisoners of war, Captain Hood ordered cables to be cut and immediately set sail with the 13 French officials aboard as prisoners, whereupon Juno received a broadside from a nearby brig and came under point-blank fire from French batteries, but was able to escape with only light damage.
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1803 - Hindostan, an East Indiaman of the East India Company, wrecked
Hindostan was an East Indiaman of the East India Company. She was a large vessel of 1,463 tons (bm), launched in 1796 to replace a previous Hindostan that the Royal Navy had bought and turned into a Fourth Rate ship of the line. Her owner was Robert Williams, M.P., who had been the owner of the previous Hindostan.
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1860 - HMS Rodney, a two-deck 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, finished her refitting with screw propulsion – the last unarmoured wooden battleship in full commission
HMS Rodney
was a two-deck 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 June 1833 at Pembroke Dockyard.
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1866 - SS London was a British steamship which sank in the Bay of Biscay during a storm.
The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.
SS London
was a British steamship which sank in the Bay of Biscay on 11 January 1866. The ship was travelling from Gravesend in England to Melbourne, Australia, when she began taking in water on 10 January, with 239 persons aboard. The ship was overloaded with cargo, and thus unseaworthy, and only 19 survivors were able to escape the foundering ship by lifeboat, leaving a death toll of 220.
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1917 - HMS Ben-my-Chree (Manx: "Woman of My Heart"), ex-packet steamer and a Royal Navy (RN) seaplane carrier of the First World War, sunk by turkish artillery
HMS Ben-my-Chree
(Manx: "Woman of My Heart") was a packet steamer and a Royal Navy (RN) seaplane carrier of the First World War. She was originally built in 1907 by Vickers for the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company and was intended for use on the England–Isle of Man route. She was the third vessel to bear her name. To this day Ben-my-Chree holds the crossing speed record from Liverpool to Douglas for a steamship at under three hours.
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1962 – Cold War: While tied to its pier in Polyarny, the Soviet submarine B-37 is destroyed when fire breaks out in its torpedo compartment.
Soviet submarine B-37
(Russian: Б-37) was a Project 641 or Foxtrot-class diesel submarine of the Soviet Navy's Northern Fleet.
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A Cuban Foxtrot underway
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12th of January

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1783 - HMS Coventry, a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate, was captured by a french fleet under Suffren,
HMS Coventry
was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1757 and in active service as a privateer hunter during Seven Years' War, and as part of the British fleet in India during the Anglo-French War. After seventeen years' in British service she was captured by the French in 1783, off Ganjam in the Bay of Bengal. Thereafter she spent two years as part of the French Navy until January 1785 when she was removed from service at the port of Brest. She was broken up in 1786.
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1805 - HMS Doris (36), Cptn. Patrick Campell, struck the Diamond Rock rock in Quiberon Bay.
Due to leak sustained, 3 days later off the Loire, the ship was set on fire and she burned until her after magazine blew up and she sank
HMS Doris
was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.
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1813 - US Frigate Chesapeake (38), Cptn. Samuel Evans, captures British merchant Volunteer and two days later, British brig Liverpool Hero.
Chesapeake was a 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction was authorized by the Naval Act of 1794. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young navy's capital ships. Chesapeake was originally designed as a 44-gun frigate but construction delays, material shortages, and budget problems caused builder Josiah Fox to alter her design to 38 guns. Launched at the Gosport Navy Yard on 2 December 1799, Chesapeake began her career during the Quasi-War with France and saw service in the First Barbary War.
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1819 – Launch of HMS Blonde, a 46-gun modified Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of 1,103 tons burthen.
HMS
Blonde was a 46-gun modified Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of 1,103 tons burthen. She undertook an important voyage to the Pacific in 1824. She was used for harbour service from 1850 and was renamed HMS Calypso in 1870, before being sold in 1895
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1920 - Afrique, a passenger ship of the French shipping company Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis, sank with only 34 survivors of the 609 on board.
Afrique was a passenger ship of the French shipping company Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis, which was put into service in 1907 and sank January 1920 with only 34 survivors of the 609 on board.
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1922 - HMS Victory (100) entered Portsmouth dock where she remains to this day
HMS Victory
is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.
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The Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, Richard Brydges Beechey, 1881

She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship.
In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission with 240 years service by 2018.

In dry dock
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Restoring HMS Victory (William Lionel Wyllie, 1925)

By 1921 the ship was in a very poor state, and a public Save the Victory campaign was started, with shipping magnate Sir James Caird as a major contributor. On 12 January 1922, her condition was so poor that she would no longer stay afloat, and had to be moved into No. 2 dock at Portsmouth, the oldest dry dock in the world still in use. A naval survey revealed that between a third and a half of her internal fittings required replacement. Her steering equipment had also been removed or destroyed, along with most of her furnishings.

The relocation to No. 2 dock sparked public discussion about Victory's future location. Suggestions in contemporary newspapers included the creation of a floating plinth atop which she could be preserved as a monument, either in Portsmouth or adjacent to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. Others proposed a berth beside Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames, or as land-based structure in Trafalgar Square. Despite popular support, these options were not seriously entertained by Admiralty. The naval architects who had surveyed the ship reported that she was too damaged to be moved; Admiralty formally adopted their advice and No. 2 dock thereafter became Victory's permanent home.

During the initial restoration period from 1922 to 1929, a considerable amount of structural repair work was carried out above the waterline and mainly above the middle deck. In 1928, King George V was able to unveil a tablet celebrating the completion of the work, although restoration and maintenance still continued under the supervision of the Society for Nautical Research.[75]Restoration was suspended during the Second World War, and in 1941, Victory sustained further damage when a bomb dropped by the Luftwaffe destroyed one of the steel cradles and part of the foremast. On one occasion, German radio propaganda claimed that the ship had been destroyed by a bomb, and the Admiralty had to issue a denial.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13th of January

please use the following link and you will find the details and all events of this day .....


as usual in the following some events in a Pre-View -> for more events and also more details please use the link

1766 - HMS Aurora (32), Niger-class frigate, launched at Chatham
HMS Aurora
(1766) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1766, sailed September 1769 for East Indies, lost without a trace, presumably from fire or storm, in the Indian Ocean in January 1770.
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1779 - HMS Weazel or Weazle, a 16-gun ship-sloop, captured by French frigate Boudeuse
HMS Weazel
or Weazle was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the Royal Navy, in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1745, she remained in British service until 1779 and captured a total of 11 enemy vessels. She was also present, but not actively engaged, at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747.
Weazel was captured by the French in 1779, and was later sold into private hands.
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1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
The Lexington was a paddlewheel steamboat that operated along the Atlantic coast of the Northeastern United States between 1835 and 1840, before sinking in January 1840 due to an onboard fire. Commissioned by industrialist Cornelius Vanderbilt, the ship was considered one of the most luxurious steamers in operation, and began service on a route between New York City and Providence, Rhode Island. In 1837, the Lexington switched to the route between New York and Stonington, Connecticut, the terminus of the newly built railroad from Boston. Vanderbilt sold the ship to his competitor, the New Jersey Steamship Navigation and Transportation Company, in December 1838 for $60,000, at which time the Lexington was reputedly the fastest steamer on Long Island Sound.
On the night of 13 January 1840, midway through the ship's voyage, the casing around the ship's smokestack caught fire, igniting nearly 150 bales of cotton that were stored nearby. The resultant fire was impossible to extinguish, and necessitated the evacuation of the ship. The ships' overcrowded lifeboats were sunk almost immediately after their launch, leaving almost all of the ship's passengers and crew to drown in the freezing water, with rescue attempts impossible due to the rough water and lack of visibility. Of the estimated 143 people on board the Lexington, only four survived, having clung to large bales of cotton which had been thrown overboard.
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1915 - RMS Atrato, a UK steamship that was built in 1888 as a Royal Mail Ship and ocean liner, sank in heavy seas off Tory Island, County Donegal, Ireland. with all hands, a total of 295 Royal Navy officers and men
RMS Atrato
was a UK steamship that was built in 1888 as a Royal Mail Ship and ocean liner for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company. In 1912 she was sold and became the cruise ship The Viking. Toward the end of 1914 she was requisitioned and converted into the armed merchant cruiser HMS Viknor. She sank in 1915 with all hands, a total of 295 Royal Navy officers and men.
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1950 – British submarine HMS Truculent collides with an oil tanker in the Thames Estuary, killing 64 men.
HMS Truculent
was a British submarine of the third group of the T class. She was built as P315 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and launched on 12 September 1942. Truculent was lost following a post-war accident with a Swedish oil tanker in the Thames Estuary in January 1950.
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2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain Francesco Schettino's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.
On January 13, 2012, the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia ran aground and overturned after striking an underwater rock off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, resulting in 32 deaths. The eight year old Costa Cruises vessel was on the first leg of a cruise around the Mediterranean Sea when she deviated from her planned route at the Isola del Giglio, sailed closer to the island, and struck a rock formation on the sea floor. A six-hour rescue effort resulted in most of the passengers being brought ashore.
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-> The time is running -> already 8 years ago
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14th of January

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1774 – Launch of French Ajax, a 64-gun Sévère class ship of the line of the French Navy.
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Lancement du vaisseau de 64 canons le Caton à Toulon en 1777.

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1797 - Action of 13 January 1797 (lastet 13. + 14.th January) - Part II
The Action of 13 January 1797 was a minor naval battle fought between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany during the French Revolutionary Wars. During the action the frigates outmanoeuvred the much larger French vessel and drove it onto shore in heavy seas, resulting in the deaths of between 400 and 1,000 of the 1,300 persons aboard. One of the British frigates was also lost in the engagement with six sailors drowned after running onto a sandbank while failing to escape a lee shore.
The French 74-gun ship Droits de l'Homme had been part of the Expédition d'Irlande, an unsuccessful attempt by a French expeditionary force to invade Ireland. During the operation, the French fleet was beset by poor coordination and violent weather, eventually being compelled to return to France without landing a single soldier. Two British frigates, the 44-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon, had been ordered to patrol the seas off Ushant in an attempt to intercept the returning French force and sighted the Droits de l'Homme on the afternoon of 13 January.
The engagement lasted for more than 15 hours, in an increasing gale and the constant presence of the rocky Breton coast. The seas were so rough that the French ship was unable to open the lower gun ports during the action and as a result could only fire the upper deck guns, significantly reducing the advantage that a ship of the line would normally have over the smaller frigates. The damage the more manoeuvrable British vessels inflicted on the French ship was so severe that as the winds increased, the French crew lost control and the Droits de l'Homme was swept onto a sandbar and destroyed.
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1798 - Raid on Manila (1798) - HMS Sibylle (38), Cptn. Edward Cooke, and HMS Fox (32), Cptn. Pulteney Malcolm, at Caista Roads, Manila - Part I
The Raid on Manila of January 1798 was a Royal Navy false flag military operation during the French Revolutionary Wars intended to scout the strength of the defences of Manila, capital of the Spanish Philippines, capture a Manila galleon and assess the condition of the Spanish Navy squadron maintained in the port. Spain had transformed from an ally of Great Britain in the War of the First Coalition into an enemy in 1796. Thus the presence of a powerful Spanish squadron at Manila posed a threat to the China Fleet, an annual convoy of East Indiaman merchant ships from Macau in Qing Dynasty China to Britain, which was of vital economic importance to Britain. So severe was this threat that a major invasion of the Spanish Philippines had been planned from British India during 1797, but had been called off following the Treaty of Campo Formio in Europe and the possibility of a major war in India between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore.
To ensure the safety of the merchant ships gathering at Macau in the winter of 1797–98, the British commander in the East Indies, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, sent a convoy to China escorted by the frigates HMS Sybille and HMS Fox and commanded by Captain Edward Cooke. After completing his mission Cooke decided to investigate the state of readiness of Spanish forces in Manila himself. He was also intrigued by reports that a ship carrying treasure was due to sail from Manila, which would make a valuable prize. Sailing in Sybille and accompanied by Captain Pulteney Malcolm in Fox, Cooke reached the Spanish capital on 13 January 1798.
Anchored in Manila Bay, Cooke pretended that his ships were French vessels and successfully lured successive boatloads of Spanish officials aboard, taking them prisoner in turn. Once he had determined from his captives the state of defences in Manila, that the treasure ship had been unloaded at Cavite and that the Spanish squadron was undergoing extensive repairs and thus unavailable for operations, he sent a raiding party against a squadron of gunboats in the mouth of the Pasig River. Capturing the gunboats in a bloodless attack, Cooke then released his prisoners and sailed southwards, unsuccessfully assaulting Zamboanga before returning to Macau.
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1805 - HMS Doris (36), Cptn. Patrick Campbell, badly damaged striking the Diamond Rock was set on fire and blown up near the mouth of the Loire
(some sources say 14th others 21st January)
HMS Doris was a 36-gun Phoebe class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.
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1911 - Launch of Battleship Arkansas (BB 33). After service in two world wars, she is target ship for Bikini Atoll Atomic bomb tests.
USS Arkansas (BB-33)
was a dreadnought battleship, the second member of the Wyoming class, built by the United States Navy. She was the third ship of the US Navy named in honor of the 25th state, and was built by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. She was laid down in January 1910, launched in January 1911, and commissioned into the Navy in September 1912. Arkansas was armed with a main battery of twelve 12-inch (305 mm) guns and capable of a top speed of 20.5 kn(38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph).
Arkansas served in both World Wars. During the First World War, she was part of Battleship Division Nine, which was attached to the British Grand Fleet, but she saw no action during the war. During the interwar years, Arkansas performed a variety of duties, including training cruises for midshipmen and goodwill visits overseas.
Following the outbreak of World War II, Arkansas conducted Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic prior to America's entry into the war. Thereafter, she escorted convoys to Europe through 1944; in June, she supported the invasion of Normandy, and in August she provided gunfire support to the invasion of southern France. In 1945, she transferred to the Pacific, and bombarded Japanese positions during the invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. After the end of the war, she ferried troops back to the United States as part of Operation Magic Carpet. Arkansas was expended as a target in Operation Crossroads, a pair of nuclear weapon tests at Bikini Atoll in July 1946.
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1969 – USS Enterprise fire - An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
The 1969 USS Enterprise fire was a major fire and series of explosions that broke out aboard USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) on January 14, 1969, off the coast of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The fire broke out after a Zuni rocket attached to an aircraft detonated, and spread following further rocket and bomb explosions which blew holes in the flight deck, allowing burning jet fuel to enter the ship's interior. 28 sailors were killed, 314 injured, 15 aircraft were destroyed, and the total cost of aircraft replacement and shipboard repair was over $126 million. The closely related 1967 USS Forrestal fire preceded the Enterprise fire by 18 months, but a number of improvements in the wake of the Forrestal tragedy helped reduce the damage.
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1993 – In Poland's worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.
MS Jan Heweliusz
was a Polish ferry named after astronomer Johannes Hevelius (Polish: Jan Heweliusz) that served on the route Ystad-Świnoujście. It was built in Norway in 1977 and was owned by PLO (Polish Oceanliners) and operated by its daughter company PLO EuroAfrica. In the early hours of January 14th 1993 it capsized and sank in 27 metres of water off Cape Arcona on the coast of Rügen in the Baltic Sea while sailing toward Ystad with 64 passengers and crew.[1] The accident claimed the lives of 20 crewmen and 35 passengers. 10 bodies were never found. 9 people were rescued. The sinking of Jan Heweliusz is the most deadly peacetime maritime disaster involving a Polish ship.
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The commander of the British Squadron in the famous action between Droits del"homme, HMS Amazon, and HMS Indefatigable, was Sir Edward Pellew. A great, great, great uncle of mine, Octavius Cardew was a 14 year-old midshipman on HMS Amazon, which also ran aground. Most of the crew survived and helped rescue the French sailors from the Droits de l"homme. They were taken prisoner, but exchanged later as a gesture for helping rescue French sailors. Octavious passed Lieutenant, served in several Frigates, but died at Portsmouth of illness in 1803 !
 
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