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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
28 November 1912 - SS Friendship was an Australian cargo ship which ran aground and sank at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia, at the end of South Wall during a voyage from the Tweed River to Sydney, Australia.


SS Friendship was an Australian cargo ship which ran aground and sank at Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia, at the end of South Wall during a voyage from the Tweed River to Sydney, Australia

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Friendship (ship) Wreck of the steamer, Friendship, at Tweed Heads on 2 June 1912. The crew were rescued by rocket brigade. (Description supplied with photograph).

Construction
Friendship was constructed in 1897 at the Rock Davis shipyard in Sydney. She was 30.8 metres (101 ft 1 in) long, with a beam of 8.2 metres (26 ft 11 in) and a depth of 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in), and was assessed at 214 GRT. She had a compound engine driving a single screw propeller. She operated for Corrigan, B.M. & Co. from 1897 until her demise in 1912.

June 1912 grounding
Friendship ran aground off Tweed Heads, New South Wales, on 2 June 1912. It was the first accident of her 15-year career. She was refloated a few days later and returned to service after repairs.

Sinking
On 28 November 1912, Friendship left Tweed River bound for Sydney with a cargo of tallow. She had made this voyage numerous times with only one accident, the grounding the previous June. This time, however, she ran aground again at Tweed Heads at the end of South Wall. She sank, taking her cargo down with her, but there were no injuries or fatalities.

Wreck
Friendship′s wreck lies at the entrance to the Tweed River on the coast of New South Wales.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Friendship_(1897)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
28 November 1924 - HMS Marlborough (1855 - 131), a first-rate three-decker 131 gun screw ship built for the Royal Navy in 1855, capsized and sank


HMS Marlborough was a first-rate three-decker 131 gun screw ship built for the Royal Navy in 1855. She was begun as a sailing ship of the line (with her sister ships HMS Duke of Wellington, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Royal Sovereign), but was completed to a modified design and converted to steam on the stocks.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 131-gun single-screw ship HMS ‘Marlborough’ (1855), complete with stump masts, figurehead, a full set of anchors and single funnel. It is mounted on its original wooden baseboard and two sections of the deck lift away to reveal the interior layout and internal construction of the hull and decks. Laid down as a sailing ship, the ‘Marlborough’ was lengthened and adapted for auxiliary screw propulsion during the course of its construction. It was launched at Portsmouth dockyard on 31 July 1855 and completed three months later measuring 245 feet along the gun deck by 61 feet in the beam. Although not the largest wooden ship of the line ever designed, it was the largest to serve in the Royal Navy as an effective man-of-war, and may be regarded as representing the peak of the development of its type. From 1858–64 the ‘Marlborough’ served in the Mediterranean, but was later removed from service becoming an engineering school in 1877. In 1904, as ‘Vernon II’, it became part of the torpedo school centred on HMS 'Vernon’. In 1923 when 'Vernon' became a shore establishment, the ‘Marlborough’ was sold but was not to suffer the indignity of being broken up. Whilst under tow in the Channel in the late evening of 28 November 1924, it capsized and sank.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66065.html#4jSduJE1iti4UeCX.99


Class and type: 131-gun (later 121-gun ) first-rate ship of the line
Displacement: 5,892 / 6071 tons
Length: 240 ft (73 m)
Beam: 61 ft (19 m
)Propulsion: Sails and 780 hp steam powered screw propeller
Speed: 10.15 kt
Armament:

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She served as flagship of the Mediterranean Fleet from 1858-64 (with the flag of Vice-Admiral William Fanshawe Martin, captain William Houston Stewart, from 3 May 1860 to 20 April 1863; and of Vice-Admiral Robert Smart, Captain Charles Fellowes, from 1863). In 1864 she was replaced as flagship by Victoria. She sailed back to Portsmouth to serve as a receiving ship (e.g. for the Steam Reserve in c.1890, as tender to HMS Asia) and as a training ship for engineers (c. December 1878). Whilst at Portsmouth, she was down-graded in rating to a 98 gun ship (in c. 1870).

For a time her Commander was Sir Edward Dolman Scott (1826–1905), 6th Baronet Scott of Great Barr.

In 1904 Marlborough was moved to Portchester Creek and renamed Vernon II, becoming an accommodation hulk to the shore establishment HMS Vernon. (Vernon I was the joint name for the establishment's two existing hulks, HMS Ariadne and HMS Actaeon - all three hulks were joined together by bridges.)

Marlborough was sold to A. Butcher for breaking up in October 1924, but capsized and sank with the loss of four men on 28 November 1924 off Selsey while being towed to the breakers at Osea Island.

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Cross section of the Duke of Wellington


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Marlborough_(1855)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
28 November 1944 - 10 days after commissioning Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano sunk by submarine USS Archerfish


Shinano (信濃), was an aircraft carrier built by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II, the largest such built up to that time. Laid down in May 1940 as the third of the Yamato-class battleships, Shinano's partially complete hull was ordered to be converted to a carrier following Japan's disastrous loss of four fleet carriers at the Battle of Midway in mid-1942. Her conversion was still not finished in November 1944 when she was ordered to sail from the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to Kure Naval Base to complete fitting out and transfer a load of 50 Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka rocket-propelled kamikaze flying bombs. Hastily dispatched, she had an inexperienced crew and serious design and construction flaws, lacked adequate pumps and fire-control systems, and did not carry a single aircraft. She was sunk en route, 10 days after commissioning, on 29 November 1944, by four torpedoes from the U.S. Navy submarine Archerfish. Over a thousand sailors and civilians were rescued and 1,435 were lost, including her captain. She remains the largest warship ever sunk by a submarine.

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Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano underway during her sea trials.

Design and description
One of two additional Yamato-class battleships ordered as part of the 4th Naval Armaments Supplement Program of 1939, Shinano was named after the old province of Shinano, following the Japanese ship-naming conventions for battleships. She was laid down on 4 May 1940 at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal to a modified Yamato-class design: her armor would be 10–20 millimeters (0.39–0.79 in) thinner than that of the earlier ships, as it had proved to be thicker than it needed to be for the desired level of protection, and her heavy anti-aircraft (AA) guns would be the new 65-caliber 10 cm Type 98 dual-purpose gun, as it had superior ballistic characteristics and a higher rate of fire than the 40-caliber 12.7 cm Type 89 guns used by her half-sisters.

Construction and conversion
As with Shinano's half-sisters Yamato and Musashi, the new ship's existence was kept a closely guarded secret. A tall fence was erected on three sides of the graving dock, and those working on the conversion were confined to the yard compound. Serious punishment—up to and including death—awaited any worker who mentioned the new ship. As a result, Shinano was the only major warship built in the 20th century to have avoided being officially photographed during its construction. The ship is only known to have been photographed twice: on 1 November 1944, by a Boeing B-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft from an altitude of 9,800 meters (32,000 ft), and ten days later, by a civilian photographer aboard a harbor tug during Shinano's initial sea trials in Tokyo Bay.

In December 1941, construction on Shinano's hull was temporarily suspended to allow the IJN time to decide what to do with the ship. She was not expected to be completed until 1945, and the sinking of the British capital ships Prince of Wales and Repulse by IJN bombers had called into question the viability of battleships in the war. The navy also wanted to make the large drydock in which the ship was being built available, which required either scrapping the portion already completed or finishing it enough to launch it and clear the drydock. The IJN decided on the latter, albeit with a reduced work force which was expected to be able to launch the ship in one year.

In the month following the disastrous loss of four fleet carriers at the June 1942 Battle of Midway, the IJN ordered the ship's unfinished hull converted into an aircraft carrier. Her hull was only 45 percent complete by that time, with structural work complete up to the lower deck and most of her machinery installed. The main deck, lower side armor, and upper side armor around the ship's magazines had been completely installed, and the forward barbettes for the main guns were also nearly finished. The navy decided that Shinano would become a heavily armored support carrier—carrying reserve aircraft, fuel and ordnance in support of other carriers—rather than a fleet carrier.

As completed, Shinano had a length of 265.8 meters (872 ft 1 in) overall, a beam of 36.3 meters (119 ft 1 in) and a draft of 10.3 meters (33 ft 10 in). She displaced 65,800 metric tons (64,800 long tons) at standard load, 69,151 metric tons (68,059 long tons) at normal load and 73,000 metric tons (72,000 long tons) at full load. Shinano was the heaviest aircraft carrier yet built, a record she held until the 81,000-metric-ton (80,000-long-ton) USS Forrestal was launched in 1954. She was designed for a crew of 2,400 officers and enlisted men.

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Commissioning and sinking
Departure from Yokosuka

On 19 November 1944, Shinano was formally commissioned at Yokosuka, having spent the previous two weeks fitting out and performing sea trials. Worried about her safety after a U.S. reconnaissance bomber fly-over, the Navy General Staff ordered Shinano to depart for Kure by no later than 28 November, where the remainder of her fitting-out would take place. Abe asked for a delay in the sailing date as the majority of her watertight doors had yet to be installed, the compartment air tests had not been conducted, and many holes in the compartment bulkheads for electrical cables, ventilation ducts and pipes had not been sealed. Importantly, fire mains and bailing systems lacked pumps and were inoperable; even though most of the crew had sea-going experience, they lacked training in the portable pumps on board. The escorting destroyers, Isokaze, Yukikaze and Hamakaze, had just returned from the Battle of Leyte Gulf and required more than three days to conduct repairs and to allow their crews to recuperate.

Abe's request was denied, and Shinano departed as scheduled with the escorting destroyers at 18:00 on 28 November. Abe commanded a crew of 2,175 officers and men. Also on board were 300 shipyard workers and 40 civilian employees. Watertight doors and hatches were left open for ease of access to machinery spaces, as were some manholes in the double and triple-bottomed hull. Abe preferred a daylight passage, since it would have allowed him extra time to train his crew and given the destroyer crews time to rest. However, he was forced to make a nighttime run when he learned the Navy General Staff could not provide air support. Shinano carried six Shinyo suicide boats, and 50 Ohka suicide flying bombs; her other aircraft were not planned to come aboard until later. Her orders were to go to Kure, where she would complete fitting out and then deliver the kamikaze craft to the Philippines and Okinawa. Traveling at an average speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), she needed sixteen hours to cover the 300 miles (480 km) to Kure. As a measure of how important Shinano was to the naval command, Abe was slated for promotion to rear admiral once its fitting out was complete.

Attacked

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Archerfish on the surface, June 1945

At 20:48, the American submarine Archerfish, commanded by Commander Joseph F. Enright, picked up Shinano and her escorts on her radar and pursued them on a parallel course. Over an hour and a half earlier, Shinano had detected the submarine's radar. Normally, Shinano would have been able to outrun Archerfish, but the zig-zagging movement of the carrier and her escorts—intended to evade any American subs in the area—inadvertently turned the task group back into the sub's path on several occasions. At 22:45, the carrier's lookouts spotted Archerfish on the surface and Isokaze broke formation, against orders, to investigate. Abe ordered the destroyer to return to the formation without attacking because he believed that the submarine was part of an American wolfpack. He assumed Archerfish was being used as a decoy to lure away one of the escorts to allow the rest of the pack a clear shot at Shinano. He ordered his ships to turn away from the submarine with the expectation of outrunning it, counting on his 2-knot (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) margin of speed over the submarine. Around 23:22, the carrier was forced to reduce speed to 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), the same speed as Archerfish, to prevent damage to the propeller shaft when a bearing overheated. At 02:56 on 29 November, Shinano turned to the southwest and headed straight for Archerfish. Eight minutes later, Archerfish turned east and submerged in preparation to attack. Enright ordered his torpedoes set for a depth of 10 feet (3.0 m) in case they ran deeper than set; he also intended to increase the chances of capsizing the ship by punching holes higher up in the hull. A few minutes later, Shinano turned south, exposing her entire side to Archerfish—a nearly ideal firing situation for a submarine. The escorting destroyer on that side passed right over Archerfish without detecting her. At 03:15 Archerfish fired six torpedoes before diving to 400 feet (121.9 m) to escape a depth charge attack from the escorts.

Four torpedoes struck Shinano, at an average depth of 4.27 meters (14 ft 0 in). The first hit towards the stern, flooding refrigerated storage compartments and one of the empty aviation gasoline storage tanks, and killing many of the sleeping engineering personnel in the compartments above. The second hit the compartment where the starboard outboard propeller shaft entered the hull and flooded the outboard engine room. The third hit further forward, flooding the No. 3 boiler room and killing every man on watch. Structural failures caused the two adjacent boiler rooms to flood as well. The fourth flooded the starboard air compressor room, adjacent anti-aircraft gun magazines, and the No. 2 damage-control station, and ruptured the adjacent oil tank.

Sinking

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Diagram showing locations of torpedo hits and ensuing flooding: Red shows compartments immediately flooded, orange slowly flooded, and yellow deliberate flooding to offset the ship's list

Though severe, the damage to Shinano was at first judged to be manageable. The crew were confident in the ship's armor and strength, which translated into lax initial efforts to save the ship. This overconfidence extended to Abe. He doubted the sub's torpedoes could inflict serious damage, since he was well aware that American torpedoes were inferior to Japanese torpedoes in both potency and accuracy. He ordered the carrier to maintain its maximum speed even after the last torpedo hit. This pushed more water through the holes in the hull resulting in extensive flooding. Within a few minutes she was listing 10 degrees to starboard. Despite the crew pumping 3,000 long tons (3,000 t) of water into the port bilges, the list increased to 13 degrees. When it became apparent the damage was more severe than first thought, Abe ordered a change of course towards Shiono Point. Progressively increasing flooding increased the list to 15 degrees by 03:30. Fifty minutes later, Abe ordered the empty port outboard tanks to be counter-flooded, reducing the list to 12 degrees for a brief time. After 05:00 he ordered the civilian workers to be transferred to the escorts as they were impeding the crew in their duties.

A half-hour later, Shinano was making 10 knots with a 13 degree list. At 06:00 her list had increased to 20 degrees after the starboard boiler room flooded, at which point the valves of the port trimming tanks rose above the waterline and became ineffective. The engines shut down for lack of steam around 07:00, and Abe ordered all of the propulsion compartments evacuated an hour later. He then ordered the three outboard port boiler rooms flooded in a futile attempt to reduce the carrier's list. He also ordered Hamakaze and Isokaze to take her in tow. However, the two destroyers only displaced 5,000 metric tons (4,900 long tons) between them, about one-fourteenth of Shinano's displacement and not nearly enough to overcome her deadweight. The first tow cables snapped under the strain and the second attempt was aborted for fear of injury to the crews if they snapped again. The ship lost all power around 09:00 and was now listing over 20 degrees. At 10:18, Abe gave the order to abandon ship; by this time Shinano had a list of 30 degrees. As she heeled, water flowed into the open elevator well on her flight deck, sucking many swimming sailors back into the ship as she sank. A large exhaust vent below the flight deck also sucked many other sailors into the ship as she submerged.

At 10:57 Shinano finally capsized and sank stern-first at coordinates (32°07′N 137°04′ECoordinates:
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32°07′N 137°04′E), 65 miles (105 km) from the nearest land, in approximately 4,000 meters (13,000 ft) of water, taking 1,435 officers, men and civilians to their deaths. The dead included Abe and both of his navigators, who chose to go down with the ship. Rescued were 55 officers and 993 petty officers and enlisted men, plus 32 civilians for a total of 1,080 survivors. After their rescue, the survivors were isolated on the island of Mitsuko-jima until January 1945 to suppress the news of the carrier's loss. The carrier was formally struck from the Naval Register on 31 August.

US Naval Intelligence did not initially believe Enright's claim to have sunk a carrier. Shinano's construction had not been detected through decoded radio messages or other means, and the American analysts believed that they had located all of Japan's surviving carriers. Enright was eventually credited with sinking a 28,000-long-ton (28,000 t) Hayatake (Hiyō-class) carrier by the acting commander of the Pacific Fleet's submarine force on the basis of a drawing Enright submitted depicting the ship he had attacked. The Americans only learned about the existence of Shinano after the war; following this discovery Enright was credited with her sinking and awarded the Navy Cross.

Post-war analysis of the sinking
Post-war analysis by the U.S. Naval Technical Mission to Japan noted that Shinano had serious design flaws. Specifically, the joint between the waterline armor belt on the upper hull and the anti-torpedo bulge on the underwater portion was poorly designed, a trait shared by the Yamato-class battleships; Archerfish's torpedoes all exploded along this joint. The force of the torpedo explosions also dislodged an I-beam in one of the boiler rooms, which punched a hole into another boiler room. In addition, the failure to test for water-tightness in each compartment played a role as potential leaks could not be found and patched before Shinano put to sea. The executive officer blamed the large amount of water that entered the ship on the failure to air-test the compartments for leaks. He reported hearing air rushing through gaps in the water-tight doors just minutes after the last torpedo hit—a sign that seawater was rapidly entering the ship, proving the doors were unseaworthy.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_Shinano
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 28 November


1520 – An expedition under the command of Ferdinand Magellan passes through the Strait of Magellan.

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


1673 – two French frigates ships of the Caché class were renamed on the same day

Caché class, designed by Laurent Hubac with 16 x 8-pounder and 16 x 6 (or 4)-pounder guns:

Entreprenant, 32 guns, launched October 1673 at Brest – renamed Dragon on 28 November 1673; reclassed as a flûte in 1709, taken to pieces 1712.
Caché, 32 guns, launched October 1673 at Brest – renamed Arrogant on 28 November 1673, then Galant on 28 June 1678; wrecked off Portugal in March 1684.


1690 – Launch of French Constant, 68/70 guns at Toulon – deleted 1714

Modified Superbe Class, designed and built by François Coulomb snr.
Heureux 68/70 guns (launched November 1690 at Toulon) – captured by the English 1710
Constant 68/70 guns (launched 28 November 1690 at Toulon) – deleted 1714

1701 - Launch of French Sage, 55, later 56 guns (designed and built by Pierre Coulomb) at Lorient – deleted 1707 after being fired by British bombardment.

6-pounder armed frigates (most are frégates légères)

From 1715 onwards, it is more appropriate to classify frégates according to their principal armament, i.e. by the weight of shot fired by the principal battery of guns carried by those ships - although the older categories of 4th Rank (frégates de premier rang), 5th Rank (frégates de second rang) and unrated light frigates (frégates légères) nominally remained in force until the 1780s. The smaller frigates were those mounting 6-pounder guns in their main battery, while larger frigates carried 8-pounder or 12-pounder guns (note that these "pounds" were actually French livres, of about 7.9% greater weight than British Imperial pounds). Later in the century, 18-pounder or 24-pounder frigates were introduced, and from the 1820s 32-pounder guns were carried as the principal battery on larger frigates.


1728 – Launch of French Flore (26-gun design of 1727 by Pierre-Blaise Coulomb, with 4 x 8-pounders on the lower deck and 22 x 6-pounders on the gun deck) - Hulked at Marseille 1753, condemned 1754 and sold for commerce in 1759 or 1761, in this connection captured by Britain 1762.


1775 - Birthday of the Chaplain Corps after Congress adopts the first Rules for Regulation of the Navy of the United Colonies.


1839 - HMS Tribune (1803 - 36), Cptn. Charles Hamlyn Williams, wrecked near Tarragona

HMS Tribune (1803) was a 36-gun fifth rate launched in 1803. She was rebuilt as a 24-gun sixth rate in 1832 and was wrecked in 1839.


1863 - During the Civil War, the screw steam gunboat USS Chippewa convoys Army transport Monohansett and Mayflower up Skull Creek, S.C., on a reconnaissance mission.

The third USS Chippewa was a Unadilla-class gunboat which saw service with the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War.

One of the "Ninety-day gunboats", Chippewa was launched 14 September 1861 by Webb and Bell, New York; outfitted at New York Navy Yard; and commissioned 13 December 1861, Lieutenant Andrew Bryson in command.

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USS Chippewa under construction

Sailing from New York 25 December 1861 Chippewa took station on the blockade between Fort Monroe, Virginia, and Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina, remaining there until 9 August 1862 except for a brief repair period at Baltimore, Maryland 8 March–13 March. During this time she exchanged fire with the enemy at Forts Macon and Caswell and Federal Point Batteries, and assisted in the capture of a blockade runner, the English brig Napier 29 July 1862. Chippewa arrived at the Washington Navy Yard, 10 August 1862.

Returning to Fort Monroe she departed from there 18 October 1862 on a cruise in search of CSS Florida which took her to the Azores; Algeciras and Cadiz, Spain; Gibraltar; Funchal, Madeira; Porto Grande, Africa; Cape Verde Islands; and various ports in the West Indies. Returning to Port Royal, South Carolina, 30 May 1863, she resumed patrols with the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. She participated in the attacks on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, from 13 July to 21 July 1863, and opened fire on enemy pickets up Broad River, on 12 November. After repairs at Philadelphia Navy Yard, she returned to North Carolina to take part in the bombardments and capture of Fort Fisher in December 1864 and January 1865 and Fort Anderson, Cape Fear River, North Carolina, in February 1865.

Chippewa departed Wilmington, North Carolina, 1 March 1865 and steamed up the James River for patrol duty until 15 May, engaging enemy batteries at Dutch Gap Canal on 1 April and 2 April.

After cruising to Havana, Cuba, between 17 May and 12 June 1865, Chippewa arrived at Boston 17 June where she was decommissioned 24 June 1865, taken to New York 29 June and sold there 30 November 1865.

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


1941 - USS Enterprise (CV 6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to the island. By Dec. 5, there are no carriers left at Pearl Harbor.

USS Enterprise (CV-6) was the seventh U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name. Colloquially called "The Big E", she was the sixth aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. A Yorktown-class carrier, she was launched in 1936 and was one of only three American carriers commissioned before World War II to survive the war (the others being Saratoga and Ranger). She participated in more major actions of the war against Japan than any other United States ship. These actions included the Attack on Pearl Harbor (18 dive bombers of VS-6 were over the harbor; 6 were shot down with a loss of 11 men—she was the only American aircraft carrier with men at Pearl Harbor during the attack and the first to sustain casualties during the Pacific War), the Battle of Midway, the Battle of the Eastern Solomons, the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, various other air-sea engagements during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Enterprise earned 20 battle stars, the most for any U.S. warship in World War II, and was the most decorated U.S. ship of World War II. She is also the first American ship to sink an enemy warship during the Pacific War when she sank Japanese submarine I-70 on 10 December 1941. On three occasions during the Pacific War, the Japanese announced that she had been sunk in battle, inspiring her nickname "The Grey Ghost".

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(CV-6)


1942 - Battle and Liberation of La Réunion

The Battle of Réunion or Liberation of Réunion (French: Bataille de La Réunion, Libération de La Réunion) was an amphibious landing and uprising which brought the island of Réunion onto the Allied side during the Second World War. The invasion was performed by the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL) destroyer Léopard on 28 November 1942, which toppled the administration loyal to the Vichy French regime and replaced it with a Free French administration.

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A Chacal class destroyer similar to Léopard

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Réunion
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1612 – The two-days Battle of Swally takes place, which loosens the Portuguese Empire's hold on India.


The naval Battle of Swally, also known as Battle of Suvali, took place on 29–30 November 1612 off the coast of Suvali (anglicised to Swally) a village near the Surat city (now in Gujarat, India) and was a victory for four English East India Company galleons over four Portuguese galleons and 26 barks (rowing vessels with no armament).

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Eighteenth-century engraving showing the battle of Swally delivered on 9-10 December 1612 between ships of the Bristish East India Company and the Portuguese Navy

Importance
This relatively small naval battle is historically important as it marked the beginning of the end of Portugal's commercial monopoly over India, and the beginning of the ascent of the English East India Company's presence in India.

This battle also convinced the English East India Company to establish a small navy to safeguard their commercial interests from other European powers and also from pirates. This small beginning is regarded as the root of the modern Indian Navy.

The background to this battle also points to the main reason for the Dutch Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie being organised in 1602.

Background
This battle was the result of the Portuguese monopoly over trade with India in the late-15th and 16th centuries. Two English ventures, The Company of Merchant Adventurers(established 1551) which became the Muscovy Company in 1555, and the English East India Company also known as "John Company", (established 1600) were desperately attempting to find routes to the East Indies and the spice trade. The following three individuals played a key part in the events leading up to this battle:

Ralph Fitch
The Portuguese guarded their new-found routes to Asia very well. During July, 1583 an English merchant, Ralph Fitch was arrested for spying at Ormuz (near the modern Iranian port of Bandar Abbas). He was on a voyage from Syriato the Indian Ocean in his ship,Tiger, via what is now Iraq using the Euphrates river. Ralph was presented before the Portuguese Viceroy in Goa where he was placed under arrest. He was released on the surety provided by Jesuitpriests, but escaped from Goa and wandered around India for several years. He returned to England in 1591, and became a valuable advisor to the Company.

Jan Huyghens van Linschoten
Jan Huyghens van Linschoten (1563–1611) was a Dutch Protestant traveller and historian who also served as the Portuguese Viceroy's secretary in Goa between 1583 and 1588. He returned to Holland in 1592. He published a book, Itinerario in 1596 (later published as an English edition as Discours of Voyages into Y East & West Indies) which graphically displayed for the first time in Europe, detailed maps of voyages to the East Indies, particularly India. During his stay in Goa, abusing the trust put in him by the Viceroy, Jan Huyghens meticulously copied the top-secret charts page-by-page. Even more crucially, Jan Huyghens provided nautical data like currents, deeps, islands and sandbanks, which was absolutely vital for safe navigation, along with coastal depictions to guide the way.

His publications were also responsible for the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) in 1602 to unify Dutch efforts at trade with Asia.

Sir William Hawkins, First envoy
Sir William Hawkins led the first voyage of the English East India Company to India and sailed into the Gujarat port of Surat on 24 August 1608 aboard the Hector. He had with him 25,000 pieces of gold and a personal letter to the Mughal Emperor Jehangir (sometimes also rendered as Cehangir or Ichan Guire) from King James I seeking trade concessions. He persisted for over two years, however pirates stole his gold, and tried several times to murder him while on shore. He returned to England empty-handed. The next envoy, Paul Canning, lasted only a few months.

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1614 painting by Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom showing English, Dutch and Spanish ships in a bay in the East Indies.

Tenth voyage
The initial voyages of the English East India Company were not necessarily to India. Each voyage was a venture in itself, separately funded by issuance of subscription stock. An eighth voyage was led in 1611 by Captain John Saris to Japan. The ninth voyage (February 1612 – August 1615) was to India and Sumatra.

The tenth voyage (1612–1614) on behalf of the English East India Company was led by Captain Thomas Best. It set out from Gravesend on 1 February 1612 passing via the present day Trinidad[citation needed], then Daman on 3 September 1612 eventually reaching Surat on 5 September 1612. Surat was the principal port for the Mughals, and was then situated at the mouth of the river Tapti.

Battle
Coincidentally, on 13 September 1612 a squadron of 16 Portuguese barks sailed into Surat. On 22 September 1612 Captain Best decided to send an emissary to the Emperor asking for permission to trade and settle a factory at Surat. If refused he planned to quit the country.[1] This may have been partly because King James I had extended the Company's charter in 1609 on the basis that it would be cancelled if no profitable ventures were concluded within three years.

On 30 September 1612 Captain Best got news that two of his men, Mr Canning (the purser) and William Chambers were arrested while on shore. Fearing the worst, Captain Best detained a ship belonging to the Governor of Gujaratand offered to release it in exchange for his men.

On 10 October Captain Best and his ships sailed to Suvali, a small town about 12 miles (19 km) North of Surat. This may have been because the Governor (Sardar Khan?) was battling a Rajput rebellion at a fort situated in the town. Between 17–21 October, amidst negotiations he managed to obtain a treaty with the Governor allowing trading privileges, subject to ratification by the Emperor.

A skirmish took place between the two navies on the 29th without much damage to either side.

At daylight on 30 October, Captain Best in Red Dragon sailed through the four Portuguese galleons during which three of them ran aground, and was joined by Hosiander on the other side. The Portuguese managed to get the three galleons refloated.

At 9pm that night in an attempt to set the English ships alight, a bark was sent towards them as a fire ship. But the English watch was alert, and the bark was sunk by cannon fire with the loss of eight lives.

A standoff remained until 5 December, when Captain Best sailed for the port of Diu.

Tenth voyage continues
On 6 January 1613, Captain Best received a letter from the Emperor ratifying the treaty, which was presented by the Governor. Captain Best then ordered one of his men, Anthony Starkey, on 16 January to leave for England, via land, carrying letters of their success. Mr Starkey was later poisoned by two Jesuit friars.

Captain Best then continued on to Ceylon on 18 January, and then onwards to Sumatra, before returning to England around April 1614 without returning to India.

Impact on Mughals
This event sufficiently impressed the Sardar (Governor) of Gujarat, who reported it to the Emperor. Thereafter the Emperor was more favourable towards the English than the Portuguese.

Ships involved
English East India Company

(Most references to this battle mention only the first 2 ships. James and Solomon were also part of the eighth voyage)

Portugal
4 galleons
26 oared barks

Swally
Swally is the anglicization of Suvali. Suvali port is close to the modern day village of Suvali, located in Surat, India.

The port was constructed by the English as they found it protected both from sudden squalls and military attacks. Besides, the English found it convenient to use the place for their early trade with Surat as Swally was navigable in low tides. There were several complications in using the ports at Surat as the French and the Portuguese also operated from there.

Mr. R Sengupta, the Chief Project Co-ordinator (coastal and marine ecology) of GES advised that, "The port was also better than those located in the mouth of river Tapti. The English did not allow anyone to use the port at Swally and used to charge duty for permission to do so."


Red Dragon (1595)
Scourge of Malice or Malice Scourge or Mare Scourge was a 38-gun ship ordered by George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. She was built and launched at Deptford Dockyardin 1595. The Earl used her as his flagship during raids on the Spanish Main, where she provided additional force to support his fleet. She was later renamed Red Dragon; the East India Company used her for at least five voyages to the East Indies. The first recorded performance of the play Hamlet took place on Red Dragon in 1607 while she was anchored off the coast of Sierra Leone.

Reddragonship.jpg
Wood-cut of the Red Dragon, captain Lancaster, in the Strait of Malacca, anno 1602–From the Dutch collection of East-India voyages, 1645–6.

Type: Armed ship
Tons burthen: 600 – 900, or 960 (bm)
Propulsion: Sails
Armament:


Construction
In the 1590s, the Earl of Cumberland's passion for nautical adventure was at its peak. He lacked a vessel able to support his hired fleet; the only option he had to get a sufficiently well-armed vessel was to borrow from the Queen, something which would give her significant control over his actions. As a result, he declared that he would have his own ship built, 'the best and largest ship that had been built by any English subject.'[4] The ship is variously recorded as being between 600 and 900 tons and was named by Queen Elizabeth Ias Scourge of Malice.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Swally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dragon_(1595)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1682 - Death of Prince Rupert of the Rhine


Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, KG, PC, FRS (17 December 1619 – 29 November 1682) was a noted German soldier, admiral, scientist, sportsman, colonial governor and amateur artist during the 17th century. He first came to prominence as a Cavalier cavalry commander during the English Civil War.

Rupert_of_the_Rhine.jpg

Rupert was a younger son of the German prince Frederick V, Elector Palatine and his wife Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland and I of England. Thus Rupert was the nephew of King Charles I of England, who made him Duke of Cumberland and Earl of Holderness, and the first cousin of King Charles II of England. His sister Electress Sophia was the mother of George I of Great Britain.

Prince Rupert had a varied career. He was a soldier from a young age, fighting against Spain in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648), and against the Holy Roman Emperor in Germany during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Aged 23, he was appointed commander of the Royalist cavalry during the English Civil War, becoming the archetypal Cavalier of the war and ultimately the senior Royalist general. He surrendered after the fall of Bristol and was banished from England. He served under Louis XIV of France against Spain, and then as a Royalist privateer in the Caribbean. Following the Restoration, Rupert returned to England, becoming a senior English naval commander during the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars, engaging in scientific invention, art, and serving as the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company. Rupert died in England in 1682, aged 62.

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The Four Days' Battle, 1–4 June 1666, by Abraham Storck, during which Rupert's new aggressive fleet tactics were first applied

Rupert is considered to have been a quick-thinking and energetic cavalry general, but ultimately undermined by his youthful impatience in dealing with his peers during the Civil War. In the Interregnum, Rupert continued the conflict against Parliament by sea from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean, showing considerable persistence in the face of adversity. As the head of the Royal Navy in his later years, he showed greater maturity and made impressive and long-lasting contributions to the Royal Navy's doctrine and development. As a colonial governor, Rupert shaped the political geography of modern Canada—Rupert's Land was named in his honour, and he was a founder of the Hudson's Bay Company. He also played a role in the early African slave trade. Rupert's varied and numerous scientific and administrative interests combined with his considerable artistic skills made him one of the more colourful individuals of the Restoration period.

1280px-Battle_of_Texel_August_21_1673_(Slag_bij_Kijkduin)_-_Nightly_battle_between_Cornelis_Tr...jpg
The Battle of Texel, by Willem van de Velde the Younger, a Dutch victory which marked the end of Rupert's career as a sea admiral

all details of his long career you can find at wikipedia......


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert_of_the_Rhine
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1762 - HMS Marlborough (1669 / 1706 / 1732 - 68), Cptn. Thomas Burnett, met very heavy weather and had to be abandoned in a sinking condition and destroyed


HMS St Michael (1669), a second rate, renamed HMS Marlborough 1706; fought in the Seven Years' War; present in Sir George Pocock's fleet at the taking of Havana from the Spanish 1762; foundered at sea 1762.

HMS St Michael was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by John Tippetts of Portsmouth Dockyard and launched in 1669.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary model of 'St Michael' (1669), a 90-98 gun three-decker ship of the line, built in the Navy Board style. The hull shape is tall, slender with much sheer on the profile; considerable tumblehome, and with a round tucked stern. The model is three-masted, rigged partially decked and equipped. This represents the earliest English ship whose model can be identified with any certainty and is depicted as re-classified to a first rate 98-gun ship circa 1672, after her first building. There are several drawings by the Dutch artist Willem van de Velde of the stern and figurehead decoration which corroborate the detail depicted on the model. Length of gundeck: 3 feet 2 ¾ inches Breadth: 10 and 3⁄16 inches The hull framing is the standard Navy Board construction but the floor heads are cut off horizontally instead of square. The futtock heads mostly finish at the level of the chainwales, but many are longer or shorter. The hull framing is maybe made of walnut or mahogany. The topsides are planked and strakes are fastened with treenails, but the lower hull is left unplanked. Internally there is a keelson; two footwales each side; pillars under every other gun deck beam and fore and aft knees are fitted at the wing transom. The masts rest straight onto the keelson with no mast steps. The mainwales are painted black and are ⅜ inch broad, and 1/5 inch thick and spaced 1/25 inch apart. There are no upper wales, just a gilt moulded rail above which the top of the sides is painted black. The fore and main channels are ¾ inch broad, the mizzen channel is narrower, but all are braced above by spurs. Amidships there is an entry port with gilt railing on the port side. The beakhead bulkhead is two decks deep, and contains chase ports on both the middle and upper decks. The belfry at the forecastle bulkhead has a highly elaborate structure with ornate carvings. The quarter deck bulkhead has large central pair of doors opening to an enclosed flight of stairs leading down to the middle deck. There are no side gangways and or stairs leading up to the quarterdeck and forecastle from the waist. The decks have typical beams and carlings; they are left unplanked except for where the guns stand. Guns are fitted to carriages and are held in place by pins through the barrels into the port cills. Two long carlings are rebated into the beams on upper deck forming the sides of the central hatches which have coaming and gratings. There is a fore jeer capstan fitted just forward of amidships. The capstan has five whelps and the head is pierced for 3 or 4 through bars. The single main capstan with a barrel of around ¾ inch in diameter is abaft the main mast on the lower deck. The figurehead is of seated figure in a chariot drawn by the double-headed eagle. The figure is possibly Ganymede who was, at the order of Zeus, taken to Mount Olympus to live with the gods. The taffrail is decorated with a cherub holding a pair of cornucpias, and more cherubs sitting astride seahorses. In the centre panel is the crowned monogram of Charles II. Above this is the Royal Coat of Arms of the Stuarts, carved by Robert Spence 1931-32, together with the carved initials ‘CR’. The lower counter features painted Trophies of Arms and the rudder head is decorated with a lion’s head. Greco-Roman male figures with spears adorn the quarter pieces on plinths, below which cloven hooved figures crouch. This model, which was re-rigged in 1930 represents the earliest English ship whose model can be identified with any certainty and is depicted as re-classified to a first rate 98-gun ship circa 1672, after her first building. There are several drawings by the Dutch artist Willem van de Velde of the stern and figurehead decoration which corroborate the detail depicted on the model. The ‘St Michael’ took part in the battles of Solebay in 1672 and Barfleur in 1692 before being rebuilt in 1706 and renamed ‘Marlborough’.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65963.html#eJBghxX4qfuh5psT.99


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A portrait, viewed from slightly before the port beam, of the English first-rate ship ‘St Michael’, 90 guns; built in 1669, renamed ‘Marlborough’ in 1706 and rebuilt 1708. The drawing shows in detail the wreathed ports and the decoration of the bow, with a figurehead in the form of a bird drawing Neptune in a chariot. It is probably not based on an offset, but carefully drawn in pencil and wash, in the manner of Van de Velde the Younger, with the figurehead and quarter galleries lightly put in. Separate studies of these were made by the Younger (PAF6607, PAF6608), the superior treatment of which leads Robinson to attribute this drawing of the ship to the Elder. The damaged figurehead has been clumsily drawn in by a later hand.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/158176.html#Md57qC45r1YgeE6t.99


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The figurehead of the ‘St. Michael’ depicting a bird drawing Neptune in a chariot; the port cathead and the port quarter-gallery with a note on the wale near it ‘geel’ (yellow). Also a square decorated port with the note ‘g de lijst vand hals mast’. Inscribed ‘vand sint mighel’ (Of the ‘St. Michael’). This is an unsigned pencil drawing by the Younger. This is one of three drawings of detail of ships which were being drawn probably at the same time by the Elder (PAJ2300, PAI7579).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/101434.html#FgIcy1lfTt5i8IPt.99


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The port side of the ‘St. Michael’, showing the figurehead of a bird drawing Neptune in a chariot, the head rails and the beakhead bulkhead. Inscribed ‘d Mighal’ and ‘dit is te lange’ (This is too long). This is an unsigned pencil drawing by the Younger. This is one of three drawings of detail of ships which were being drawn probably at the same time by the Elder (PAJ2300, PAI7579).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/101435.html#m77M1GTWdbadLPW2.99


General characteristics as built
Class and type: 90-gun second rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1101 bm
Length: 125 ft (38 m) (keel)
Beam: 40 ft 8 1⁄2 in (12.408 m)
Depth of hold: 17 ft 5 in (5.31 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 90 guns of various weights of shot

St Michael was rebuilt at Blackwall Yard in 1706, at which time she was also renamed HMS Marlborough.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines (one waterline) with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Marlborough (1732), a 1719 Establishment 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80280.html#QxzwTzCUDIVZFcmE.99

General characteristics after 1706 rebuild
Class and type: 90-gun second rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1,579 long tons (1,604.3 t)
Length: 162 ft 8 in (49.58 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 47 ft 4 in (14.43 m)
Depth of hold: 18 ft 6 in (5.64 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 90 guns of various weights of shot

On 5 April 1725 Marlborough was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Chatham. She was relaunched on 25 September 1732.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Marlborough (1732), a 1719 Establishment 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, and a comparison longitudinal half-breadth for Sandwich (1715), a 1706 Establishment 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker. This plan may have been drawn between 1729-1732 when Sandwich was at Chatham Dockyard undergoing a Great Repair, at the same time as Marlborough was designed and being built.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80281.html#1iGcOxekjtHDjrjy.99


General characteristics after 1732 rebuild
Class and type: 1719 Establishment 90-gun second rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1,567 long tons (1,592.1 t)
Length: 164 ft (50 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 47 ft 2 in (14.38 m)
Depth of hold: 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 90 guns:
Gundeck: 26 × 32 pdrs
Middle gundeck: 26 × 18 pdrs
Upper gundeck: 26 × 9 pdrs
Quarterdeck: 10 × 6 pdrs
Forecastle: 2 × 6 pdrs

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HMS Marlborough (90 guns) after fight at Toulon (1744). The ship was severely damaged by the Spanish Real (110 guns) and Hercules (64 guns).

Marlborough was reduced to a 68-gun ship in 1752. Whilst making her way back to Britain after participating in the reduction of Havana in 1762, Marlborough was caught in very heavy weather. On 29 November her crew were forced to abandon the ship, which was sinking. All of Marlborough's crew were taken off by HMS Antelope.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the stern board outline with decoration detail, and inboard profile for Marlborough (1732), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, as fitted after having undergone a small repair and then cut down (razeed) to a 68-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard between August 1760 and March 1761. Signed by Edward Allin [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]. Reverse: Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the roundhouse, quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck, and orlop deck with platforms for Marlborough (1732), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, as fitted after having undergone a small repair and then cut down (razeed) to a 68-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard between August 1760 and March 1761.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80282.html#IVatd6R1ocEerG0q.99




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_Michael_(1669)
 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1765 – Re-Launch of french Conquérant, originally launched in 1746 on a design by François Coulomb the Younger.


The Conquérant was originally launched in 1746 on a design by François Coulomb the Younger. She was taken out of service in March 1764 & rebuilt at Brest as a Citoyen class74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

General characteristics
Class and type: Citoyen class ship of the line
Displacement: 1500 tonnes
Length: 55.1 m (181 ft)
Beam: 14.1 m (46 ft)
Draught: 6.8 m (22 ft)
Armament:

She took part in the Battle of the Nile, where she was armed with only 18- and 12-pounders, and crewed by a mere 400 men, under captain Dalbarade. Second ship in the vanguard of her line, Conquérant sustained fire from the passing British ships sailing to attack the centre of the French fleet. She was particularly targeted by HMS Audacious and Goliath, who reduced her to a hulk before 19:00. Immobilised, hopelessly overgunned and undermanned, her captain mortally wounded, Conquérant struck her colours and was seized by a boarding party from Audacious.

She was subsequently recommissioned in the Royal Navy under the same name.

Conquérant 74 (launched 29 November 1765 at Brest, designed by Joseph-Louis Ollivier) – Built with timbers from the 1746 ship of the same name, captured by the British at Toulon in August 1793, retaken there by the French in December 1793, captured by the British in the Battle of the Nile in August 1798 and added to the RN under the same name

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A French 74-gun ship of the same type as the Palmier, drawn by Nicolas Ozanne.

The Citoyen class consisted of four 74-gun ships of the line all built at Brest Naval Dockyard to a design by Joseph-Louis Ollivier. The first ship (Citoyen, originally to have been named Cimeterre) was newly built there from 1761 to 1764, and the other three were rebuilt to her design from earlier ships.
Built at: Brest
Keel laid: July 1761
Launched: 27 August 1764
Completed: December 1764
Fate: decommisioned in 1783 and taken to pieces in 1792
Originally built at: Toulon
Ordered: 5 March 1743
Launched: 9 March 1746
Rebuilt: from January 1765 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched 29 November 1765 and completed in December 1765
Fate: Condemned in May 1796 but put back into service in March 1798, captured by the British on 2 August 1798 at the Battle of the Nile, broken up in Plymouth in January 1803
Originally built at: Brest
Keel laid: November 1750
Launched: 21 July 1752
Rebuilt: from 23 May 1766 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched in December 1766 and completed in the same month
Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1776. Abandoned and foundered off Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean on 24 October 1782
Originally built at: Brest (as a 64-gun ship)
Keel laid: 1750
Launched: 15 December 1752
Rebuilt at: from April 1767 at Brest to the draught of the Citoyen, re-launched on 5 October 1767 and completed in April 1768
Fate: Rebuilt again at Brest in 1774. Condemned in August 1783, sold 1784




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citoyen-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Conquérant_(1747)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1781 – The crew of the British slave ship Zong murders 133 Africans by dumping them into the sea to claim insurance.


The Zong massacre was the mass killing of more than 130 African slaves by the crew of the British slave ship Zong on and in the days following 29 November 1781.The Gregson slave-trading syndicate, based in Liverpool, owned the ship and sailed her in the Atlantic slave trade. As was common business practice, they had taken out insurance on the lives of the slaves as cargo. When the ship ran low on potable water following navigational mistakes, the crew threw slaves overboard into the sea to drown, in part to ensure the survival of the rest of the ship's passengers, and in part to cash in on the insurance on the slaves, thus not losing money on the slaves who would have died from the lack of drinking water.

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The Slave Ship (1840) J. M. W. Turner's representation of the mass killing of slaves, inspired by the Zong killings

After the slave ship reached port at Black River, Jamaica, Zong's owners made a claim to their insurers for the loss of the slaves. When the insurers refused to pay, the resulting court cases (Gregson v Gilbert (1783) 3 Doug. KB 232) held that in some circumstances, the deliberate killing of slaves was legal and that insurers could be required to pay for the slaves' deaths. The judge, Lord Chief Justice, the Earl of Mansfield, ruled against the syndicate owners in this case, due to new evidence being introduced suggesting the captain and crew were at fault.

Following the first trial, freed slave Olaudah Equiano brought news of the massacre to the attention of the anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp, who worked unsuccessfully to have the ship's crew prosecuted for murder. Because of the legal dispute, reports of the massacre received increased publicity, stimulating the abolitionist movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries; the Zong events were increasingly cited as a powerful symbol of the horrors of the Middle Passage of slaves to the New World.

The non-denominational Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787. The next year Parliament passed the first law regulating the slave trade, to limit the number of slaves per ship. Then, in 1791, Parliament prohibited insurance companies from reimbursing ship owners in cases in which slaves were thrown overboard. The massacre has also inspired works of art and literature. It was commemorated in London in 2007, among events to mark the bicentenary of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the African slave trade. A monument to the killed slaves on Zong was installed at Black River, Jamaica, their intended port.


Zong
Zong was originally named Zorg (meaning "Care" in Dutch) by its owners, the Middelburgsche Commercie Compagnie. It operated as a slave ship based in Middelburg, Netherlands, and made a voyage in 1777, delivering slaves to the coast of Suriname, South America. Zong was a "square stern ship" of 110 tons burthen. It was captured by the British 16-gun brig HMS Alert on 10 February 1781. By 26 February, Alert and Zong arrived at Cape Coast Castle, in what is present-day Ghana, which was maintained and staffed, along with other forts and castles, by the Royal African Company (RAC). The Castle was used as the regional headquarters of the RAC.

In early March 1781, Zong was purchased by the master of William, on behalf of a syndicate of Liverpool merchants. The members of the syndicate were Edward Wilson, George Case, James Aspinall and William, James and John Gregson. William Gregson had an interest in 50 slaving voyages between 1747 and 1780. He served as mayor of Liverpool in 1762. By the end of his life, vessels in which Gregson had a financial stake had carried 58,201 Africans to slavery in the Americas.

Zong was paid for with bills of exchange, and the 244 slaves already on board were part of the transaction. The ship was not insured until after it started its voyage. The insurers, a syndicate from Liverpool, underwrote the ship and slaves for up to £8,000, approximately half the slaves' potential market value. The remaining risk was borne by the owners.

Crew
Zong was the first command of Luke Collingwood, formerly the surgeon on the William. While Collingwood lacked experience in navigation and command, ship's surgeons were typically involved in selecting slaves for purchase in Africa, so their medical expertise supported the determination of "commodity value" for a captive. If the surgeon rejected a captive, that individual suffered "commercial death", being of no value, and was liable to be killed by African handlers. Sometimes these killings happened in the presence of the surgeon. It is likely that Collingwood had already witnessed the mass-killing of slaves. As the historian Jeremy Krikler commented, this may have prepared him psychologically to condone the massacre that took place on the Zong. Zong's first mate was James Kelsall, who had also served on the William.

The vessel's only passenger, Robert Stubbs, was a former captain of slave ships. In early 1780 he was appointed by the African Committee of the Royal African Company, as the governor of Anomabu, a British fortification near Cape Coast Castle in Ghana. This position made him also vice-president of the RAC Council of the Castle. Due to his ineptitude and enmity incurred with John Roberts, governor of the Castle, Stubbs was forced out of the governorship of Anomabu by the RAC Council after nine months. Witness statements gathered by the African Committee of the RAC, accused him of being a semi-literate drunkard who mismanaged the slave-trading activities of the fort. Stubbs was aboard to return to Britain; Collingwood may have thought his earlier experience on slave ships would be useful.

Zong had a 17-man crew when it left Africa, which was far too small to maintain adequate sanitary conditions on the ship. Mariners willing to risk disease and slave rebellions on slave ships were difficult to recruit within Britain and were harder to find for a vessel captured from the Dutch off the coast of Africa. Zong was manned with remnants of the previous Dutch crew, the crew of William, and with unemployed sailors hired from the settlements along the African coast.

The Middle Passage
When Zong sailed from Accra with 442 slaves on 18 August 1781, it had taken on more than twice the number of people that it could safely transport. In the 1780s, British-built ships typically carried 1.75 slaves per ton of the ship's capacity; on the Zong, the ratio was 4.0 per ton. A British slave ship of the period would carry around 193 slaves and it was extremely unusual for a ship of Zong's relatively small size to carry so many.

After taking on drinking water at São Tomé, Zong began its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean to Jamaica on 6 September. On 18 or 19 November, the ship neared Tobago in the Caribbean but failed to stop there to replenish its water supplies.

It is unclear who, if anyone, was in charge of the ship at this point, as Luke Collingwood had been gravely ill for some time. The man who would normally have replaced him, first mate James Kelsall, had been previously suspended from duty following an argument on 14 November. Robert Stubbs had captained a slave ship several decades earlier and he temporarily commanded Zong during Collingwood's incapacitation, but he was not a registered member of the vessel's crew. According to historian James Walvin, the breakdown of the command structure on the ship might explain the subsequent navigational errors and the absence of checks on supplies of drinking water.

Massacre

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Map of the Caribbean, showing Tobago, Hispaniola (red) and Jamaica (blue)

On 27 or 28 November, the crew sighted Jamaica at a distance of 27 nautical miles (50 km; 31 mi) but misidentified it as the French colony of Saint-Domingue on the island of Hispaniola. Zong continued on its westward course, leaving Jamaica behind. This mistake was recognised only after the ship was 300 miles (480 km) leeward of the island. Overcrowding, malnutrition, accidents, and disease had already killed several mariners and approximately 62 Africans. James Kelsall later claimed that there was only four days' water remaining on the ship, when the navigational error was discovered and Jamaica was still 10–13 sailing days away.

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Plan of the slave ship Brookes, carrying 454 slaves. Before the Slave Trade Act 1788, Brookes had transported 609 slaves and was 267 tons burden, making 2.3 slaves per ton. Zong carried 442 slaves and was 110 tons burden—4.0 slaves per ton.

If the slaves died onshore, the Liverpool ship-owners would have had no redress from their insurers. Similarly, if the slaves died a "natural death" (as the contemporary term put it) at sea, then insurance could not be claimed. If some slaves were jettisoned in order to save the rest of the "cargo" or the ship, then a claim could be made under "general average". (This principle holds that a captain who jettisons part of his cargo in order to save the rest can claim for the loss from his insurers.) The ship's insurance covered the loss of slaves at £30 a head.

On 29 November, the crew assembled to consider the proposal that some of the slaves should be thrown overboard. James Kelsall later claimed that he had disagreed with the plan at first but it was soon unanimously agreed. On 29 November, 54 women and children were thrown through cabin windows into the sea.[36] On 1 December, 42 male slaves were thrown overboard, and 36 more followed in the next few days. Another ten, in a display of defiance at the inhumanity of the slavers, jumped into the sea. Having heard the shrieks of the victims as they were thrown into the water, one slave requested that the remaining Africans be denied all food and drink rather than be thrown into the sea. The crew ignored this request. In total, 142 Africans were killed by the time the ship reached Jamaica. The account of the King's Bench trial reports that one slave managed to climb back onto the ship.

The crew claimed that the slaves had been jettisoned because the ship did not have enough water to keep all the slaves alive for the rest of the voyage. This claim was later disputed, as the ship had 420 imperial gallons (1,900 l) of water left when it arrived in Jamaica on 22 December. An affidavit later made by Kelsall, stated that on 1 December, when 42 slaves were killed, it rained heavily for more than a day, allowing six casks of water (sufficient for eleven days) to be collected.

Arrival at Jamaica
On 22 December 1781, Zong arrived at Black River, Jamaica, with 208 slaves on board, less than half the number taken from Africa. These sold for an average price of £36 each. The Jamaican Vice-Admiralty court upheld the legality of the British capture of Zong from the Dutch, and the syndicate renamed the ship Richard of Jamaica. Luke Collingwood died three days after Zong reached Jamaica, two years before the 1783 court proceedings about the case.

.........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zong_massacre
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1784 – Launch of HMS Mermaid, an Active-class frigate


HMS Mermaid was a 32-gun Active-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1784 and broken up in 1815. During the French Revolutionary Wars she served in the West Indies, the Channel, and the Mediterranean. During the Napoleonic Wars she first served in the Americas, but from early 1811 on, she was armed en flute and served as a troopship until she was broken up.

Design and construction
Mermaid was one of the eight ship Active class, designed by Edward Hunt. She was initially ordered from the shipwright George White, of Woolwich Dockyard Shipwright on 27 August 1778, and laid down in September 1778, but the order moved to John Jenner in April 1779. On 21 March 1782 the order was canceled and moved instead to Thomas Pollard, at Sheerness Dockyard, and the frigate was again laid down, on 29 July 1782. She was launched on 29 November 1782, and commissioned for the ordinary on 30 December 1784. She was commissioned again between June and August 1790 for sea. She had cost £12,854 to build, with another £2,539 paid for her fitting out in 1790. The Woolwich work had cost £1,807.


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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 'Mermaid' (1784), a 32-gun frigate, built in 'bread and butter' fashion, planked and finished in the Georgian style. Model is partially decked and equipped, and is mounted on its launching cradle in a slipway, depicting the vessel prior to launch. On deck there is a full set of launching flags including from the bow, the Union Jack, Admiralty flag with foul anchor motif, Royal Standard and furthest aft, the Union flag. As part of the base unit there is a drawer at one end, which hides a separate section of slipway. Once pulled out, it doubles the length of the slip. A small catch can then be depressed which releases the model down slipway. The stern decoration is typical for this period where the style of carving is crisp and finished with clear varnish, even down to the name plaque mounted on the counter. The 'Mermaid’ was present at the capture of Toulon in 1793 and, later, in 1798 whilst in the West Indies, it is credited with the capture of three French warships. In 1797 it captured a Spanish packet off Corunna, before finally being broken up in 1815.
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Early career
Mermaid was commissioned under Captain Cuthbert Collingwood in June 1790 during the Nootka Crisis. She sailed to the West Indies, but returned in April 1791 and was then paid off.

French Revolutionary Wars
She was again fitted out, this time at Portsmouth for £3,446, between February and May 1793, commissioning in March that year under Captain John Trigge. She was assigned to the Mediterranean, departing Britain on 22 May 1793. On 27 May she and Tartar captured the 20-gun privateer Général Washington, and on 30 May 1793 Mermaid and Castor captured the 16-gun privateer Angélique. Mermaid also captured a 14-gun privateer in June that year. Mermaid then joined Admiral Samuel Hood's fleet at Toulon.

The Caribbean
She came under the command of Captain Henry Warre in June 1794, and then sailed to the Leeward Islands on 5 May 1794. Then Mermaid captured the 10-gun Brutus off Grenada on 10 October 1795. However, the brig's crew of 50 men, together with some 120 troops, were able to get ashore before Mermaid could capture them. Brutus had been in the company of a ship, which temporarily escaped. Still, on 14 October Mermaid was able to find and capture the ship after a fight that cost Mermaid one man killed and three men wounded. The French ship was the Républicaine, and she was armed with eighteen guns and had some 250–260 men aboard at the start of the action, one of whom was a French general on his way to take command of Grenada. In the action, the French lost 20 men killed and some wounded. Zebra shared by agreement. The Royal Navy took Republicaine into service as HMS Republican.

On 30 October 1795 Robert Waller Otway received promotion to post-captain; he took command of Mermaid the next month at Grenada. In February 1796 Mermaid briefly came under the command of Captain Charles Davers, but by April Otway had returned.

At the time Grenada and several of the other islands were in a state of insurrection, with the slaves joining the French inhabitants under the leadership of Victor Hugues in opposition to the British. Mermaid was off Labaye, in company with Favorite, when a British blockhouse came under attack from a battery that the rebels had erected. Otway led a landing party of seamen and marines that stormed the battery and destroyed it. Soon thereafter, a large contingent of British troops landed near Labaye. At the same time two French vessels, under British colours, arrived with French troops from Saint Lucia. The British general wished to withdraw, but Otway declined to permit him to do so. Instead, Otway rode up a hill on which there were some field guns that he ordered to fire on the French vessels. The battery commander did so, with the result that the French vessels withdrew, having failed to land their troops. Favorite pursued the French vessels but could not keep up after losing her topmast. The British troops then attacked and captured Pilot Hill.

On 22 July Mermaid and Favorite} recaptured the sloop Two Sisters.


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Lines & Profile (ZAZ3042)
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Then on 8 August, Rear-Admiral Pole, in Carnatic, was lying at The Saintes with several British vessels, including Mermaid, when a strange vessel was sighted. Pole dispatched Mermaid to investigate. The vessel turned out to be the 40-gun French frigate Vengeance. An engagement ensued in which Mermaid managed to inflict heavy casualties although Vengeance outgunned her. When the 40-gun British frigate Beaulieu came up Vengeance retired, taking refuge under the batteries in the roads of Basse-Terre. Mermaid suffered no casualties, but later reports were that the French had lost 12 men killed and 26 wounded.

Mermaid and Resource, on 10 December 1796, captured the French brig-corvette Général Leveau, of 16 guns and 80 men, off San Domingo. On the south side of the island Mermaid also captured a Dutch brig, which was carrying several thousand dollars and a cargo of dry goods, and a Spanish schooner, which was carrying raw hides. Mermaid then captured the privateer Liberté Générale on 7 March 1797.

On 20 April 1797 Mermaid formed part of a squadron under Captain Hugh Pigot, in the 32-gun frigates Hermione, that also included Quebec, the 14-gun brig Drake, and the cutter Penelope. The squadron cut out nine ships at Jean-Rabel without suffering any casualties. Most of the ships the British were able to cut out were actually British merchant vessels that French privateers had captured.

English Channel and the Mediterranean
James Newman-Newman took command of Mermaid around mid-1797. Mermaid captured "sundry prizes" between 28 December and 1 January 1798, and 16 January and 28 February. She also shared in Phaeton's capture or recapture of Aventure, Hazard, and Daphne, and with Phaeton and a number of other vessels in the capture or recapture of the chasse maree Marie Perota, the Sea Nymphe, the Mary, and an unnamed French sloop.

Additionally, on 19 February Mermaid, Phaeton, and Sylph, Anson and Nymphe recaptured the Lighthorse. Two days later, Mermaid and Sylph met up with Phaeton, having captured an American vessel, the Eliza, which had sailed from Batavia for Amsterdam via Boston, where she had changed her papers but not her cargo. Phaeton sent Sylph into port with the Eliza and the French privateer Legere, which Phaeton had captured. In addition to Mermaid, Phaeton, and Sylph, Anson and Nymphe shared in the proceeds of the capture of both vessels. The same squadron shared in the recapture, on the next day, of the Danish Indiaman Graff fon Bernstoff. On 21 May Mermaidcaptured the Two Brothers; Clyde and the hired armed cutter Cygnet shared in the proceeds of the capture.

While patrolling off the Penmarks on 29 June 1798 Mermaid, Pique and Jason came across the French frigate Seine, which was bound for Lorient. At the Action of 30 June 1798, The British squadron manoeuvred to cut Seine off from land, but Mermaid soon lost contact, leaving Pique, under Captain Milne, and Jason under Captain Charles Stirling, to chase down the Frenchman.

The chase lasted until 11 o'clock at night when Pique was able to range alongside the Seine and fire a broadside. The two exchanged fire for several hours, with the lighter Pique suffering considerable damage to her masts and rigging. Jason then arrived and Captain Stirling called upon Milne to anchor, but Milne did not hear. Determined to see the Seine captured, Pique pressed on but suddenly ran aground. Jason too ran aground before she could swing way. Furthermore, Seine was observed to have grounded and to have lost all her masts in the process. As the tide rose the Seine was able to swing into a position to rake the two British ships. With difficulty the sailors of Jasondragged several guns to the bow in order to exchange fire, while Pique was able to bring her foremost guns to bear.[22] Already under fire from both British ships, the appearance on the scene of Mermaid convinced the French to surrender. Jason had lost seven killed and 12 wounded, while Pique sustained casualties of one killed, one missing and six wounded.85 Seine however had 170 killed and 100 wounded.

Mermaid was next involved in the capture of the French frigate Loire in the aftermath of the Battle of Tory Island.

Mermaid was detached to operate off Corunna and together with Sylph, captured the Spanish packet Golondrina on 24 March 1799 after a 15-hour chase. Golondrina was pierced for 20 guns but was carrying only four. She was under the command of Don Juan El Busto and was 39 days out of Havana on her way to Corruna with a cargo of sugar, cocoa and indigo. Newman described her as being of 200 tons burthen, coppered, and a remarkably fast vessel.

In April 1799 Captain Robert Dudley Oliver, replaced Newman-Newman in command of Mermaid off France and Italy. Thereafter Mermaid appears to have spent much of her time patrolling the coasts and intercepting coasters. On 4 December Mermaid captured the Portuguese vessel Voador.

On 10 and 11 January 1800, Mermaid captured the French privateers Redoubtable, General Massena, and Vengeur. A month later, on 10 February, Mermaid recaptured a Neapolitan brig that was on her way from Palermo to Leghorn with a cargo of "locusts". Mermaid was in sight but too far away to render assistance when Peterel, of 24 cannons, captured the brig Ligurienne, of 16 cannons, and drove the ship Cerf, of 14 guns, and the xebec Joliet, of six guns, on shore. The whole action took place under the guns of two shore batteries and so close to shore that Peterel grounded for a few minutes.

On March 10 and 11, Mermaid captured three French merchant vessels and between March 15 and 16 seven merchant vessels.


Between 2 and 6 April, Mermaid captured and destroyed nine merchant vessels that were carrying grain and wine to French forces at Genoa. The vessels had taken refuge under the guns of a fort in the small islands off Cape Croisette, south of Marseilles. One evening Oliver anchored Mermaid within grapeshot of the fort, which he cannonaded for an hour while two boats went in and cut out six vessels. The British suffered no casualties.

On 11 May, Mermaid captured the settee St Joseph, which was selling from Sardinia to Marseilles in ballast. Four days later Mermaid captured the Genoese settee Nostra Dame de Rosario, which was carrying wheat from Marseilles to Genoa. Four days after that Mermaid captured a settee, in ballast.

Then on 1 June about 12 leagues southward of Les Hières Mermaid captured Cruelle, which was eight hours out of Toulon. Cruelle was a brig of six guns, four of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and had a crew of 43 men under the command of Ensigne de vaisseau Francis Xavier Jeard. She had been a bomb vessel but had left her mortar at Toulon. She was carrying supplies for Malta when Mermaid intercepted her. The British took Cruelleinto service under her existing name.

In the month between 19 July and 20 August, Mermaid captured ten vessels, five of which she burnt or scuttled. Four were the French settee Bien Venue, which had been sailing from Fréjus to Marseilles with deals (long wooden planks), the French settee San Antonio, which was sailing from Oneglia to La Silva with a cargo of snuff, the French settee Saint Pierre, which was sailing from Bandol to Marseilles with firewood, and an unnamed Spanish settee carrying barilla. Mermaid ran one French settee, which was carrying wheat, ashore and scuttled her too. The three vessels Mermaid kept were the Spanish sloop Saint Juan Baptiste, which was sailing from Cette to Genoa with wine, an unnamed Spanish settee carrying barilla, the French settee Sainte Barbe, which was sailing from Marseilles with wheat, the French ketch Notre dame de la Providence, which was sailing from Marseilles to Genoa with wine and flour, and the Genoese settee Conception, which was sailing from Bandol to Genoa with wine.

On 11 October Mermaid's boats cut out from La Vendour four vessels carrying wine and flour.

On 18 February 1801, Mermaid and Mercury captured the ship Esperanza (or Esperance), which had sailed from Tunis with a cargo of silk, cotton, and other merchandise. Three days later, Mermaid captured the Genoese settee Beato, sailing from Selloa to Port Maurice with wine. The next day, Mermaid captured three settees.
Then on 17 May Mermaid captured the French transport brig Barthelemy, which was sailing from Toulon to Cartagena. After the signing of the Treaty of Amiens, which ended the war between Britain and France, Mermaid returned to Britain where in August 1802 she was paid off and placed in ordinary at Woolwich.

Napoleonic Wars
Mermaid was fitted out again between June and September 1803, commissioning in August that year under Captain Aiskew Hollis. She spent the period between 1804 and 1807 at Jamaica. During the first half of 1804 Mermaidrecaptured the British ship Stranger.

Mermaid was at Havana in October 1804 when war with Spain was declared. He successfully brought some British merchant ships in the harbour out and then convoyed them to safety.

She was then on the Halifax Station. On 6 July 1806 Mermaid and Cleopatra captured the American brig Jennet. Mermaid was paid off again on 20 August 1807.

Mermaid returned to service after being refitted at Woolwich between September 1808 and March 1809. She was recommissioned in February 1809 under Captain Major Henniker. She then sailed on 12 June 1809 with a troop convoy bound for Portugal.

She was recommissioned as an 18-gun troopship in January 1810, and was fitted out as a troopship at Chatham Dockyard between October 1810 and February 1811. She came under the command of Commander William Henry Percy in 1811. Percy and Mermaid then transported troops between Britain and Iberia for the Peninsular War.

By April 1812 Mermaid was under Commander David Dunn, serving in the Mediterranean. In October 1813 she participated in the attack on Trieste.

On 30 November, Edinburgh, Furieuse and Mermaid embarked 1,000 men of the Italian levy, under the command of Lieut-Colonel Catanelli, at Milazzo. America and Termagant joined them. They sailed the same evening and, accompanied by Armada and Imperieuse, landed them at Viareggio. Some 600 cavalry and infantry from the Livorno garrison attacked the troops, who routed them, capturing two field pieces and a howitzer. From the prisoners they learned of the weak state of the garrison and asked to be re-embarked to be taken to Livorno. Boats of the squadron towed them off the shore in country vessels and the ships towed the whole to the Livorno roads. The troops and marines landed on the evening of 13 December and they occupied the suburbs of the town. Some 700 cavalry and infantry attacked the marines, who opened to let the cavalry pass through them, killing all but 14 men and two officers. Of these, the Italian levy killed all but one officer. The marines charged and routed the remainder, killing, wounding or taking prisoner between 250 and 300 men. Edinburgh had three marines wounded. The 1000 men of the Italian Levy , marched inland and captured Lucca. They then returned to Via Reggio. There was further fighting around Pisa and Via Reggio before the expedition re-embarked aboard the British warships.

In early 1814, a British squadron, consisting of Milford, Eagle, Tremendous, Mermaid, Wizard, and Weazel joined a force of 1500 Austrians to capture Trieste and its 80 guns.

Fate
Mermaid was first offered for sale at Plymouth on 9 August 1815. The buyer had to post bond of £3000, with two sureties, that he would not resell her and that he would break her up within 12 months from the date of sale. She was broken up at Plymouth in November 1815.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mermaid_(1784)
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1811 - Action of 29 November 1811 - HMS Alceste (38), HMS Active (38) and HMS Unite (38) took Pomone and Pesanne off Lissa


The Action of 29 November 1811 was a minor naval engagement fought between two frigate squadrons in the Adriatic Sea during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars. The action was one of a series of operations conducted by the British Royal Navy and the French Navy to contest dominance over the Adriatic between 1807 and 1814. During this period the Adriatic was surrounded by French territory or French client states and as a result British interference was highly disruptive to the movement of French troops and supplies.

The action came over eight months after the British had achieved a decisive victory over the French at the Battle of Lissa and was the first squadron action since that engagement. The action of November 1811 was the result of the British interception of a French military convoy traveling from Corfu to Trieste with a consignment of cannon, and resulted in a British victory, only one French ship escaping capture by the British force. It has been suggested that this action was a factor in Napoleon's decision to change the direction of his planned eastwards expansion in 1812 from the Balkans to Russia.

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La Pomone contre les frégates HMS Alceste et Active
Pierre Julien Gilbert, 1836. MNM, Toulon

Background
Further information: Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
Since the War of the Third Coalition, the French had maintained client kingdoms in Italy and Naples that controlled the western shores of the Adriatic. Over the next four years, strategically important islands and territories had been seized in the treaties of Tilsit and Schönbrunn, giving Napoleon direct command of the eastern shore. With these treaties, France had seized not only several important fortress islands, most notably Corfu, but also many important shipyards and harbours. Maintaining control of the Adriatic was however even harder than seizing it had been, the threat of attack by Austrian, Russian or Ottoman armies and the mountainous terrain of the Balkans forcing the development of garrisons that could be effectively resupplied only by sea.

The Royal Navy, preeminent in the Mediterranean since the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, sought to disrupt French convoys across the Adriatic. Following the Russian withdrawal in 1807, the Royal Navy dispatched a small frigate squadron to operate in the sea. The squadron was commanded by Captain William Hoste, who seized the Illyrian island of Lissa(present-day Vis) to use as a base, waging a campaign against the French and their allies that forced the French Navy to deploy significantly larger forces to combat him. This escalating series of raid and counter raid continued until March 1811, when the French commander in the Adriatic, Bernard Dubourdieu attacked Lissa with force twice that available to Hoste. In the ensuing battle Hoste not only routed his opponents, but captured two ships, sank another and killed Dubourdieu.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Lissa, the badly wounded Hoste returned to Britain in HMS Amphion leaving Captain James Brisbane in command in the Adriatic. Conflict in the theatre was widely dispersed, and so Brisbane delegated command to various commanders of small squadrons and independent cruisers. These dispersed forces continued to have success against French convoys; on 27 November 1811, the independently sailing HMS Eagle foiled an attempt to send supplies to Corfu and captured the unarmed frigate Corceyre. The following day at 07:00, a message was received at Port St. George on Lissa warning that another French convoy had been sighted close to the island.

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Combat de la Fregate Francaise la Pomone contre les Fregates, Anglaises l' Alceste et l' Active. Galrie Histque de Versailles (PAD5813)
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Chase
The British commander on Lissa in November 1811 was Captain Murray Maxwell of HMS Alceste with two other frigates and a sloop. Maxwell responded to the signal by readying his squadron to seek out and destroy the convoy, but the attempted invasion of Lissa the previous March had bred caution in the British defenders and Maxwell was therefore compelled to disembark 30 sailors and most of his marines at Port St. George and leave behind the 20-gun HMS Acorn to protect the harbour. This not only weakened the squadron but also delayed it, Maxwell's force not departing Port St. George until 19:00. It was assumed among the British squadron that the convoy comprised Danaé, Flore and Corona, the survivors of the Battle of Lissa now sailing from Trieste to Corfu to supply the island.

Shortly after passing the southern headland of Lissa, the British squadron encountered a neutral merchant ship that had been carrying Lieutenant John McDougal, formerly of HMS Unite, to Malta. McDougal had seen the French ships in passing and identified them as a convoy heading north from Corfu rather than south to it, and had ordered the merchant ship to return him to Lissa to bring warning.[8] The French convoy was under the command of Commodore François-Gilles Montfort and consisted of three ships, the two large frigates Pomone and Pauline and the smaller Persanne. The convoy had departed Corfu on 16 November carrying a cargo of cannon to Trieste.

Squadrons
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Battle
Casting south close to the island of Augusta (Lastovo), Captain Gordon in Active sighted the French force at 09:20 on 29 November, sailing to the north-west. Initially the French ships held their course, but on determining that the approaching squadron was British, Montfort spread all sail to escape pursuit. By 11:00 it was evident that Persanne could not maintain the pace of the two larger frigates and so turned north-east in hopes of escaping independently. Active initially gave chase to the smaller ship, but Maxwell recalled her and sent Unite after Persanne, keeping Active and Alceste in pursuit of the larger French ships. At 11:50 it became clear that Alceste would soon catch the heavily laden French ships, and Maxwell sent the telegraph signal to Gordon; "Remember the battle of Lissa", the action of eight months before at which Hoste had raised the signal "Remember Nelson".

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Frigate Pomone in Toulon

The first shots were fired at 12:30 by Persanne close to the island of Pelagosa (Palagruža), but the main action did not begin for another hour, when Alceste and Pomone exchanged shots from their stern and bow guns. By 13:40, Alceste was firing her broadside into Pomone and simultaneously pressing on all sail in an effort to reach Pauline, but this ambition was thwarted when a shot from Pomone brought down Alceste's main topmast, slowing her suddenly and allowing Pauline to pull a little ahead. At 14:00, Active had arrived in action and was also firing into Pomone, forcing Montfort to bring Pauline round to protect her outgunned colleague. By 14:20 the conflicts between Active and Pomone and Alceste and Pauline had separated into different duels, Pomone particularly suffering severely but Active also taking heavy damage, a 32-pounder carronade shot severing Captain Gordon's leg at the height of the engagement.

At 15:05 another British ship appeared on the horizon, the sloop HMS Kingfisher, which persuaded Montfort that he could no longer protect the battered Pomone against superior numbers. Pauline set all sail to the west, away from her opponents who were either too battered or too distant to pursue. Alceste and Active now concentrated their full broadsides on Pomone, which soon lost both masts and was forced to surrender to prevent total destruction. Pauline escaped, later reaching Ancona safely but having suffered severe damage in the engagement.

Unite vs. Persanne
The secondary engagement of the battle was contested initially within sight of the other combatants, Persanne firing the first shots at the pursuing Unite at 12:30. The smaller size of these vessels made them faster and more manoeuvrable than their larger counterparts, and as a result it was not until 16:00 that Unite caught the smaller ship. During the pursuit, the ships had exchanged long-range shots from their stern and bow guns which caused six casualties aboard Unite but none on Persanne. From external appearances, Persanne seemed to be a frigate of similar size to the fifth rate Unite, but in fact the French ship was only lightly armed, carrying 26 small guns to her opponent's 36. As a result, when it became clear that his ship could not outrun Unite, Captain Satie surrendered after firing a token broadside rather than be destroyed by the more powerful ship.

Aftermath
Casualties suffered in the action were relatively heavy on both sides. The British ships, with their reduced crews, suffered 61 men killed or wounded while the French lost over 50 on Pomone alone. There were no casualties on Persanne, and Pauline's losses are unknown, although believed to be heavy given her battered condition. The French also lost the cargo aboard Persanne and Pomone, which amounted to 201 bronze and iron cannon, 220 iron wheels for gun carriages and numerous other military stores.

Promotions were granted to the junior officers of Alceste and Active and both crews received praise and prize money for their service in the operation. Similar rewards were not made to the crew of Unite, probably because Persanne was so much smaller and less-well armed than her opponent. The total prize money was £3,500, not as much as first anticipated because neither of the captured ships were of sufficient quality to warrant purchase into the Royal Navy. Pomone had been hastily built in 1803 as the personal warship of Jérôme Bonaparte and as a result was of weak construction while Persanne had been designed as an armed storeship rather than a full-scale warship. Ultimately Pomone was transferred to Britain, briefly renamed HMS Ambuscade and broken up for materials while Persanne was sold to the Bey of Tunis. Nearly four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.

In France, the action had more significant consequences. The loss of two ships and over 200 cannon was a serious blow to the French army marshalling in the Balkans. Napoleon himself took an interest in the engagement and it has been suggested by British historian James Henderson that this action convinced Napoleon of his inability to control the Adriatic Sea, which was vital to launching operations in the Balkans. This action may have been a factor in his decision to abandon plans to invade the Ottoman Empire, and instead to turn his attention on Russia. In the French Navy, the flight of Pauline was deemed cowardly and Captain Montfort was court-martialled and relieved of command. In 1817, when Murray Maxwell visited St Helena on his return from the East Indies where HMS Alceste had been wrecked, Napoleon greeted him with the words "Your government must not blame you for the loss of Alceste, for you have taken one of my frigates".

The effects on the Adriatic itself were slight, the action only confirming the already overwhelming British dominance in the region. The French Navy would continue to seek reinforcements for their squadrons, concentrating on the construction of several new ships in Italian seaports that would not be ready until 1812. As a result, this was the last significant action of the year in the Adriatic.

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No. 9 of 73 (PAI0889 - PAI0961) Drawing extensively annotated with the name of the vessel, colour notes, etc, and the date, 29 November 1811. The name of the vessel is hard to decipher, and although the names looks like Vernon, there was not a ship in the navy with this name in 1811. The figurehead is a female classical figure.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_29_November_1811
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1913 – Launch of german SMS Lützow, the second Derfflinger-class battlecruiser


SMS Lützow was the second Derfflinger-class battlecruiser built by the German Kaiserliche Marine (English: Imperial Navy) before World War I. Ordered as a replacement for the old protected cruiser Kaiserin Augusta, Lützow was launched on 29 November 1913, but not completed until 1916. Lützow was a sister ship to Derfflinger from which she differed slightly in that she was armed with an additional pair of 15 cm (5.9 inch) secondary guns and had an additional watertight compartment in her hull. She was named in honor of the Prussian general Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow who fought in the Napoleonic Wars.

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Lützow in her configuration at Jutland

Lützow was commissioned on 8 August 1915, but did not join the I Scouting Group until 20 March due to engine damage during trials. This was after most of the major actions conducted by the German battlecruiser force had taken place. As a result, Lützow saw very little action during the war. She took part in only one bombardment operation: the Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft on 24–25 April 1916, after which she became Admiral Franz von Hipper's flagship. One month later, the ship was heavily engaged during the Battle of Jutland, on 31 May–1 June. During the battle, Lützow sank the British battlecruiser HMS Invincible and is sometimes given credit for sinking the armored cruiserHMS Defence. However, she was heavily damaged by an estimated 24 heavy-caliber shell hits. With her bow thoroughly flooded, the ship was unable to make the return voyage to Germany; her crew was evacuated and she was sunk by torpedoes fired by one of her escorts, the torpedo boat G38.

Design

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Plan of the Derfflinger-class battlecruiser, from Jane's Fighting Ships 1919
Main article: Derfflinger-class battlecruiser

Lützow was 210.4 m (690 ft 3 in) long overall and had a beam of 29 m (95 ft 2 in) and a draft of 9.2 m (30 ft 2 in) forward and 9.56 m (31 ft 4 in) aft. She was designed to displace 26,600 t (26,200 long tons) normally and she reached 26,741 t (26,319 long tons) at full load. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines that drove four screw propellers. Steam was provided by eighteen naval boilers, fourteen of which burned coal, the other four burning fuel oil. Lützow's powerplant was rated at 63,000 metric horsepower (62,138 shp; 46,336 kW), which generated a top speed of 26.4 knots (48.9 km/h; 30.4 mph). The ship had a crew that consisted of 44 officers and 1,068 to 1,138 enlisted men. While serving as the squadron flagship, her crew was augmented by an additional 14 officers and 62 enlisted men in the commander's staff.

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Illustration of the German battlecruiser SMS Lützow

Lützow's armament consisted of a main battery of eight 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns in four gun turrets,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Lützow#cite_note-gun_nomenclature-4 mounted in superfiring pairs fore and aft of the central superstructure. Her secondary armament consisted of fourteen 15 cm SK L/45 guns and eight 8.8 cm SK L/45 quick-firing guns in anti-aircraft mounts. The armament suite was rounded out with four 60 cm (24 in) torpedo tubes, all placed in the hull, below the waterline. The ship's belt armor was 300 mm (11.8 in) thick, and the deck was 30 to 80 mm (1.2 to 3.1 in) thick. The conning tower was protected with 300 mm (12 in) of armor plating. The main battery turrets had 270 mm (11 in) thick faces and sides, and the secondary casemates received 150 mm (5.9 in) of armor protection




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Lützow
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 November 1940 – HMS Javelin torpedoed and lost bow and stern, but did not sunk


HMS Javelin was a J-class destroyer of the Royal Navy laid down by John Brown and Company, Limited, at Clydebank in Scotland on 11 October 1937, launched on 21 December 1938, and commissioned on 10 June 1939 with the pennant number F61.

HMS_Javelin_1941_IWM_FL_10524.jpg

History
In May 1940, during Operation Dynamo, Javelin and other destroyers rescued survivors from the sinking of SS Abukir.[1][2]

At the end of November 1940 the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, consisting of HMS Jupiter, Javelin, Jackal, Jersey, and Kashmir, under Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten, was operating off Plymouth, England. The flotilla engaged the German destroyers Hans Lody, Richard Beitzen, and Karl Galster. Javelin was badly damaged by torpedo and artillery hits from the German destroyers and lost both her bow and her stern. Only 155 feet (47 m) of Javelin's original 353 ft (108 m) length remained afloat and she was towed back to harbour. Javelin was out of action for almost a year. Probably arising from this incident, Stoker First Class T Robson was killed and is interred at St Pol de Leon Cemetery, Brittany, France.

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Javelin participated in the Operation Ironclad assault on Madagascar in May 1942.

She participated in the failed Operation Vigorous attempt to deliver a supply convoy to Malta, in June 1942. Javelin along with HMS Kelvin destroyed a flotilla of Italian small ships on the night of 19 January 1943.

Javelin's record was marred on 17 October 1945 whilst off Rhodes by an outbreak of indiscipline (a refusal to work by “Hostilities Only” ratings following resentment over a return to pre-war spit-and-polish): one leading rating was charged with mutiny, and several ratings were subsequently court-martialled, though sentences were reduced as the facts became known.

Javelin was sold to the shipbreakers on 11 June 1949, and she was scrapped at Troon in Scotland


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Javelin_(F61)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 29 November


1689 - HMS Charles and Henry fireship (6) lost near Plymouth in a storm

1727 Launch of French Léopard, 64 at Toulon, (designed and built by Blaise Coulomb) - condemned and burnt 1757.

64-gun ships ("vaisseaux de 64") of the Louis XV era

The 60 or 62 (later 64) gun ship built from 1717 onwards continued the practice of similarly-armed vessels built in the first decade of the century. They were two-deckers with a "first tier" (or lower deck) battery of twenty-four 24-pounder guns and a "second tier" (upper deck) battery of twenty-six 12-pounder guns, supplemented by between ten and fourteen 6-pounder guns mounted on the gaillards (forecastle and quarterdeck).


1744 - HMS Rye (24), Cptn. Ormond Thomson, was chased by a large ship flying French colours and, while trying to escape, ran ashore on the Norfolk coast and was lost.


HMS Rye (1740) was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1740 and wrecked in 1744.


1758 – Launch of HMS Aeolus, a Niger-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates

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

large (11).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Alarm (1758), Aeolus (1758), Montreal (1761), Niger (1759), Quebec (1760), Stag (1758), and Winchelsea (1764), all 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigates. The plan includes alterations, dated 1769, to the main channels and deadeyes.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/82884.html#zbHb5ZOdTSZSSFe3.99


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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger-class_frigate


1775 - Cptn. John Manley in schooner USS Lee captures British ordnance ship Nancy with large quantity of munitions.

The first USS Lee was a schooner under the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. She was named for General Charles Lee.

In October 1775, Colonel John Glover, acting for General George Washington, chartered the schooner Two Brothers from Thomas Stevens of Marblehead, Massachusetts, as a replacement for Hannah. Her complement complete, 28 October, Captain John Manley dropped her down with the tide, lay to off Tuck Point, and headed out to sea the next morning.

On 27 November, the vessel, now known as Lee, took her first prize, the 80 ton sloop Polly carrying turnips and Spanish-milled dollars from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to the British troops at Boston, Massachusetts. After sending Polly into Beverly under a prize crew, Lee sailed off Boston, and at dusk the next day gave chase to the 250-ton brig Nancy, then beating her way into Boston. Mistaking Lee for a pilot boat, Nancy laid her sails aback and sent up a string of signal flags. Captain Manley dispatched a boat with carefully picked men, ordering them to conceal their weapons as they rowed to and boarded Nancy. Taken by surprise, the brig surrendered without resistance, providing the Americans with a precious cargo of ordnance and gunpowder. Manley placed a prize crew in Nancy and accompanied her to Beverly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lee_(1775)
?? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_(1775)


1776 - Continental brig USS Reprisal arrives in Quiberon Bay, France, becoming the first Continental vessel to arrive in Europe. Reprisal was carrying Benjamin Franklin who was acting as the diplomatic agent to the country.

USS Reprisal, 18, was the first ship of what was to become the United States Navy to be given the name promising hostile action in response to an offense. Originally the merchantman brig Molly, she was purchased from Robert Morris by the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress on March 28, 1776, renamed Reprisal, and placed under the command of Captain Lambert Wickes.

Benjamin Franklin's passage to France
On October 24, 1776, Wickes was ordered by Congress to take Reprisal to Nantes, France, carrying Benjamin Franklin, who had been appointed Commissioner to France. Undertaking America's first diplomatic mission, Franklin would remain in France for nine years as ambassador. Franklin was accompanied on Reprisal by two of his grandsons, William Temple Franklin and Benjamin Franklin Bache. Reprisal afterwards was to cruise against enemy shipping in the English Channel.

Reprisal became the first vessel of the Continental Navy to arrive in European waters. En route to France, Reprisal captured two British brigs, reaching Nantes on November 29, 1776.

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The Reprisal, chased by a British cruiser (wood engraving by Alexander Anderson, c. 1848)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Reprisal_(1776)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_(1775)


1805 - Boats of HMS Serpent (1789 - 16), John Waller, captured guarda costa San Christoval Pano (7), Don Juan Christovel Tierro, at Trujillo Bay, Island of Bonecce.

HMS Serpent (1789) was a 16-gun ship-sloop launched in 1789 and foundered in September 1806 on the Jamaica station.[

large (12).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board with decoration and name on the stern counter, sheer lines with figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Serpent (1789), a 16-gun Ship Sloop with quarterdeck and forecastle, as built at Plymouth. Signed by Thomas Pollard [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1784-1793]
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84080.html#gwToXVbw4mXT4AB6.99


http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-347549;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S


1811 - At the Admiralty Sessions, the master of a merchant vessel was sentenced to pay a fine and be imprisoned 12 months in Newgate for enticing seamen from the King's service


1943 - SS Suez Maru was a Japanese passenger-cargo ship, used as a hell ship, which was torpedoed by submarine USS Bonefish on 29 November 1943, carrying 548 Allied POWs of which many drowned and the rest, some 250 men, were shot by the Japanese.

SS Suez Maru was a Japanese passenger-cargo ship, used as a hell ship, which was torpedoed by submarine USS Bonefish on 29 November 1943, carrying 548 Allied POWs of which many drowned and the rest, some 250 men, were shot by the Japanese.

Suez Maru sailed on 25 November 1943 with 547 POWs (414 British and 133 Dutch) from Ambon bound for Surabaya. The POWs were all sick men from the work-camps on the Moluccas and Ambon. About twenty men were on stretchers. There were also around two hundred sick and wounded Japanese soldiers on board.

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On 29 November 1943 , near Kangean Island east of Madoera Island, the ship was torpedoed by USS Bonefish, unaware of the presence of Allied POWs. About half of the POWs drowned in the aft hold of the ship, but about 250 - 280 escaped from the holds and jumped into the water. Nearly four hours later the escort ship, Minesweeper no.12 returned from dropping depth charges near the Bonefish, the minesweeper only picked up Japanese survivors, pushing PoWs back into the water if they tried to climb aboard. Then Captain Kawano Osumu, Master of W-12, discussed with the PoW transport commander Lt. Masaji Koshio (aka Masaji Iketani) what should be done with the surviving PoWs. Koshio/Iketani informed him that Major General Sanso Anami had told him that in the event of the ship being torpedoed that the PoWs should be shot. Captain Kawano quickly agreed ordering Gunnery officer Yatsuka to arrange twenty soldiers with rifles on deck and two machine-guns on the lower bridge, whilst other crew pointed out survivors amongst the wreckage. The gunnery crew then machine-gunned all surviving POWs in the water. All were killed. There were also some 3 Japanese casualties which went down with 'Suez Maru'. The minesweeper no.12 reports lodged at Batavia on 3 December 1943 stated that the PoWs were kept int the holds and the hatches locked and stated that they had all drowned on the sinking, and made no mention of the war crime. This war crime was extensively investigated in 1949, following its reporting by one of the c.200 wounded Japanese soldiers, a Yoshio Kashiki. Dozens of first hand accounts and sworn statements were taken from twenty-two individuals; suspects and eye witnesses, Kawano and Iketani being arrested. A memorial to the 414 British POW's aboard the Suez Maru, who were murdered by the Japanese was dedicated on 29 November 2013 at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffs. A Detailed account of the ship, the sinking and subsequent atrocity, along with the trial documents and descriptions can be found in the book; The Suez Maru Atrocity- Justice Denied!. And a further book on the atrocity and subsequent war crime investigation can be found in the book; Unwritten Letters to Spring Street.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Suez_Maru
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1652 - Battle of Dungeness.
Dutch fleet of 88 ships and 5 fireships, under Lt. Admiral Maarten Tromp, defeat English fleet of 42 ships, under Robert Blake



The naval Battle of Dungeness took place on 30 November 1652 (10 December Gregorian calendar), [a] during the First Anglo-Dutch War near the cape of Dungeness in Kent.

The_royal_navy_-_a_history_from_the_earliest_times_to_the_present_(1897)_(14579529307) (1).jpg
Brederode entangled with the Garland and Anthony Bonaventure. To the right Hollandia comes to the rescue

Background
In September 1652 the government of the Commonwealth of England, the Council of State, mistakenly believing that the United Provinces after their defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock would desist from bringing out a fleet so late in the season, sent away ships to the Mediterranean and the Baltic. At the same time the largest English vessels remained in repair and active ships were undermanned as sailors deserted or rioted because their wages were in arrears. This left the English weakened and badly outnumbered in home waters. Meanwhile, the Dutch were making every effort to reinforce their fleet. Dutch trade interests demanded that their navy would make a final effort to convoy merchantmen to the south.

Battle

Maarten Tromp

On 21 November 1652 Old Style, 1 December New Style, Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp, again (unofficial) supreme commander after his successor Vice-Admiral Witte de With had suffered a breakdown because of his defeat at the Battle of the Kentish Knock, set sail from the naval port of Hellevoetsluis with 88 men of war and five fireships, escorting a vast convoy of 270 merchantmen bound for France, the Mediterranean and the Indies. At first, unfavourable southwestern gales forced him to return but on 23 November he again sailed south. With the convoy, accompanied by sixteen warships, safely delivered through the Straits of Dover, Tromp turned to the west in search of the English, and on 29 November 1652 he discovered the English fleet of 42 capital ships and ten smaller vessels anchored in the Downs, between the landheads of North Foreland and South Foreland, commanded by General at Sea Robert Blake. After a council of war in which it was decided to avoid battle, the English promptly left their anchorage, sailing south. Blake may have not realised how large the Dutch fleet was, or he may have feared to become trapped like the Spanish had some years earlier in the Battle of the Downs. The wind was now strong from the northwest, so the English could not return to the Downs in any case, having to settle for Dover. The English fleet swiftly rounded South Foreland while the Dutch were unable to reach them, both fleets anchoring in the evening at about five miles distance. During the night a storm dispersed some Dutch vessels. Next morning, at noon the two fleets began to move southwest, with the English hugging the coast and the Dutch keeping some distance. The forces were separated by the Rip-Raps and the Varne Shoal and therefore unable to engage. Ultimately the curve of the shoreline, the cape of Dungeness or the "Hook of the Shingles" jutting out, forced the English to turn on a southerly course. Between the Varne Shoal and Dungeness a narrow exit exists. Blake had hoped to escape through it but when he arrived already about seventeen Dutch ships were waiting for him. Nevertheless, he continued his manoeuvre. At about 15:00, the leading ships of both fleets met in what a contemporary account called a "bounteous rhetoric of powder and bullet".


Robert Blake

Blake's Triumph was the first larger ship to sail through the exit. At that moment Tromp's Brederode arrived and the Dutch commander immediately hoisted the red "bloodflag" as a sign to attack. Blake, noticing this, tacked to cross the bow of the Brederode, giving his opponent a broadside. In response, Tromp also tacked and fired a salvo. The next English ship, the Garland, then moved between the Triumph and the Brederode in an attempt to cross the latter's bow also. This failed however, the Garland ramming the bow of the Brederode at starboard with such force that both ships remained entangled. The snout and bowsprit of the Brederode broke off. The larger crew of the Brederode swiftly boarded the Garland. Tromp encouraged his men by promising a reward of five hundred guilders to the first who would strike the English flag. One sailor climbed into the main mast of the Garland and replaced the St George's Cross with the Prince's Flag. In despair, captain Richard Batten blew up his own upper deck to drive away the Dutch. Meanwhile, the third English ship to arrive, the Anthony Bonaventure, grappled the port of the Brederode. Covering the deck of the Dutch ship with canister shot, it soon forced its crew below deck. Noticing the plight of his commander, Vice-Admiral Johan Evertsen in turn boarded the port of the Anthony Bonaventure with his Hollandia, so that four ships were now attached. In ferocious fighting his men, losing sixty, killed the entire crew of the Anthony Bonaventure, including Captain Walter Hoxton. When Tromp's secretary, standing next to him, was killed by a musket ball, he exhorted the combined crews of the Brederode and the Hollandia to assault the Garland, exclaiming "Children, things cannot go on this way. It's them or us!". The Garland was taken, with sixty killed out of a crew of hundred fifty, including Captain Batten. At this point the Garland was in a bad condition, her rudder largely having been shot away.

Blake tried to assist the Garland and the Anthony Bonaventure but was constantly attacked by Dutch flagships such as the Princes Louise of Johan de Liefde and the Monnickendam of Pieter Florisse. The Triumph nearly avoided being grappled at both sides, by the Princes Louiseand the Gulden Beer of Captain Jan de Haes. Blake received little support from the remainder of the English fleet. When the Happy Entrance entered the channel, she was at once assaulted and only with difficulty managed to extract herself. The other English ships began to understand the tactical situation: the exit functioned as a bottle neck and trying to force it would only allow the Dutch to overpower the English ships one by one. On the other hand, most Dutch ships did not engage either. Annoyed, Commodore Michiel de Ruyter on the Witte Lamentered the exit in the opposite direction to attack the mass of the English ships but no one followed him and he was forced to withdraw. He complained in his journal: "If we had any help, yea of but ten or twelve ships, we would have beaten the entire fleet". Despite the tactical difficulties, it was unacceptable to leave Blake to his fate. The two most heavily armed English vessels apart from the Triumph, the Vanguard and the Victory, used their superior firepower to break the Dutch opposition and allowed Blake to retreat and join the English main force. The Triumph had lost her fore-topmast and Blake had been wounded.

De_Vlieger,_Brederode_off_Hellevoetsluis.jpg
Brederode off Hellevoetsluis by Simon de Vlieger
Brederode was a ship of the line of the Maas Admiralty, part of the navy of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the flagship of the Dutch fleet in the First Anglo-Dutch War. Throughout her career, she carried from 49 to 59 guns. She was named after Johan Wolfert van Brederode, the brother-in-law of stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.

Around 17:00, the onset of darkness ended the battle. A large part of the Dutch fleet had not even arrived yet. The English fleet by nightfall had lost five ships. These included the captured Garland and Anthony Bonaventure that would be taken into Dutch service as the Rozenkransand the Bonaventura. Two smaller vessels were burnt, one of them perhaps the light frigate Acorn, and one sunk. In the evening, the Dutch lost the Schiedam, also known as the Gelderland because the States of Gueldres had paid for her, through fire and subsequent explosion. Captain Dirk Juinbol died from his wounds the next day. Blake that night retreated under cover of darkness to his anchorage in the Downs. The Dutch did not follow but used this time to repair the ships, especially the Brederode. The next morning the Dutch intercepted a group of three merchantmen sailing from the west. Their guard ship, the Merlin, managed to escape, but they themselves were taken and their cargo of figs and lemons were distributed among the Dutch crews. Tromp could not be satisfied with the result however as the Dutch had missed an opportunity to annihilate the English. On 1 December, he pursued Blake who, however, had already rounded South Foreland again. The wind turned east, which allowed Blake to quickly reach the Thames but slowed the Dutch. A group of English ships was encountered, that had been sent to reinforce Blake but had sailed past him in the darkness. Two new frigates, the Ruby and the Sapphire, managed to escape, but the Hercules, an armed merchantman, was run ashore by her captain, Zachary Browne. Most of the crew fled inland and the Hercules, and Browne, were captured by the Haes in 't Veld of Bastiaan Centsen, who managed to refloat the vessel.

Witmont,_Battle_of_the_Gabbard.jpg
The Battle of the Gabbard, 12 June 1653 by Heerman Witmont, shows the Dutch flagship Brederode (foreground left) in action.

Returning to the Strait of Dover, Tromp allowed his merchant convoy to split up, each group of merchantmen continuing its way towards their individual destination together with their protecting warships. Tromp considered attacking Blake in the Medway, but despite offering a reward of fifty Flemish pounds, in the entire Dutch fleet not a single pilot could be found who dared to navigate these dangerous waters. Not until 1667 did De Ruyter manage to execute such an attack, in the Raid on the Medway.

Aftermath
The battle resulted in several reforms in the English Fleet. Part of Blake's force consisted of impressed merchant vessels that retained their civilian captains/owners. Many of them refused to participate in the battle. Some naval captains insisted on their traditional right to enter and leave the battle at times of their choosing, and to leave formation in order to secure any prize. Blake threatened to resign if something was not done. The Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty responded by:
  • requiring all impressed vessels to be under the command of naval captains;
  • dividing the fleet into squadrons under junior flag officers for better command and control;
  • issuing Sailing and Fighting Instructions which significantly enhanced an admiral's authority over his fleet.
The victory gave the Dutch temporary control of the English Channel and so control of merchant shipping. A legend says that Tromp attached a broom to his mast as a sign that he had swept the sea clean of his enemies, but in his book The Command of the Ocean, N.A.M. Roger doubts the legend as such a boasting action would have been out of character for Tromp. Additionally, at the time, a broom attached to a mast was the way of showing that a ship was for sale.

Also Dutch contemporaneous sources make no mention of it. The battle not only showed the folly of dividing forces while the Dutch still possessed a large fleet in home waters, but exposed "much baseness of spirit, not among the merchantmen only, but many of the state's ships". It seemed that the captains of hired merchant ships were reluctant to risk their vessels in combat, while the state's ships lacked the men to sail and fight them.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dungeness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_ship_Brederode_(1644)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ship_Garland_(1620)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1780 – HMS Tamar (1758 – 16) captured at sea by 24-gun French privateer Duc de Chartres (1780 - 24)


HMS Tamar or Tamer was a 16-gun Favourite-class sloop-of-war of the Royal Navy.

The ship was launched in Saltash in 1758 and stationed in Newfoundland from 1763 to 1777.

large.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Favourite (1757), Tamar (1758) and Flora (cancelled 1761), all 16-gun Ship Sloops. The reverse notes that the third ships (then unnamed) had alterations different to Favourite and Tamar, dated March 1757.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84002.html#vcVE1XJqzIM9UqL8.99


Class and type: 16-gun Favourite-class sloop-of-war
Tons burthen: 313 15⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 96 ft 4 in (29.4 m) (gundeck)
  • 78 ft 10 in (24.0 m) (keel)
Beam: 27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 3 1⁄2 in (2.5 m)
Sail plan: Ship rig
Complement: 125
Armament:

large (1).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, an outboard profile and plan view of the Tamar (1758), a 16-gun ship sloop. The plan specifically illustrates the jury rudder made on the return voyage to Britain after she lost her rudder through electrolysis between the copper sheathing and iron rudder pintles [see Mariner's Mirror, volume 87, No. 4 (Nov 2001)].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84017.html#4MrDrhS5lgDYWOge.99



From 21 June 1764 to mid-1766, under Commander Patrick Mouat, she accompanied the Dolphin on a circumnavigation of the globe during which the latter's commander, Capt. Byron, took possession of and named the Falkland Islands in January 1765.

The warship hosted South Carolina's royal governor, Lord William Campbell, beginning in September 1775, when increasingly-violent patriot activity drove the governor from his home on the mainland. She was renamed HMS Pluto when she was converted into a fire ship in 1777. The French privateer Duc de Chartres captured her on 30 November 1780. Her subsequent fate is unknown.


The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.

Tons burthen:
  • Privateer: 220 (French; of load)
  • HMS: 4267⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 109 ft 2 in (33.3 m) (overall)
  • 86 ft 5 1⁄2 in (26.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 5 1⁄4 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 11 1⁄2 in (3.6 m) (overall)
Sail plan: brig
Complement: HMS: 125
Armament:
  • At capture: 18 guns
  • HMS
    • Upperdeck:18 × 6-pounder guns
    • QD:4 × 12-pounder carronades

Privateer
Duc de Chartres captured HMS Pluto, a 16-gun sloop, on 30 November 1780. Pluto, under the command of Commander Thomas Geary, was about 140 miles south west of the Scilly Isles in drifting fog when she sighted a ship. Cautious, Pluto prepared for action and when the two vessels passed each other, they exchanged broadsides. Duc de Chartres turned and gave chase, catching up with her quarry. Unable to escape, and outgunned, Pluto struck.

In spring 1781, Admiral George Darby sailed a fleet to Gibraltar to relieve the siege for a second time. On the way the fleet captured Duc de Chartres, the Spanish frigate Santa Leucadia, and the French brig Trois Amis. Although HMS Cumberlandexecuted the actual capture of Duc de Chartres, the entire British fleet of 42 vessels shared in the resulting prize money.

At the time of her capture Duc de Chartres was under the command of Jean-Baptiste l'Écolier. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. The capture of Leocadia took place in the action of 1 May 1781, off Brest. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Leocadia.

HMS Duc de Chartres
Between 26 May and 17 September Duc de Chartres was at Portsmouth undergoing coppering and fitting. The Royal Navy commissioned Duc de Chartres under Commander John Child Purvis on 7 October 1781 and he immediately sailed her for North America.

Around August 1782 Duc de Chartres captured the Connecticut letter of marque schooner Turn of Times. She was armed with four guns and had a crew of 25 men under the command of John Cook. She had sailed to Demerara and was on her return voyage when the British captured her and sent her into Bermuda.

On 9 August 1782, Duc de Chartres encountered the French navy's corvette Aigle, of 22 guns and 136 men. In the subsequent hour-long action, Aigle lost 13 men killed, including her captain, and 15 wounded; Duc de Chartres had no casualties.

On 15 March 1783 the British frigates Astraea and Vestal, and Duc de Chartres captured the Massachusetts letter of marque Julius Caesar.[9] Julius Caesar was a privateer of eighteen 9-pounder guns and carried a crew of 100 men under the command of Captain Thomas Benson, of Salem. Her captors sent her into New York City where the Vice admiralty court condemned her.

Duc de Chartres captured the Connecticut armed brig Thetis on 2 April. Thetis, of 100 tons (bm) and six guns, had a crew of 21 men under the command of Robert Colfax. She was tried and condemned at New York.

The highly successful action against Aigle led, on 1 September 1783, to Purvis receiving promotion to post-captain.

Commander John Shairp replaced Purvis. Then in 1784 Captain William Afleck replaced Shairp for the purpose of sailing Duc de Chartres back to Britain.

Fate
Duc de Chartres was paid off in May 1784. The Navy sold her on 1 July for £700



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tamar_(1758)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Duc_de_Chartres_(1780_Le_Havre)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1803 - British squadron, under Commodore John Loring of HMS Bellerophon (1786 - 74) accepted the surrender of French vessels at Cape Francois, including French frigates Surveillante (1802 - 40), Vertu (1794 -40) and Clorinde (1800 - 40), which were threated by the insurgents.


The Blockade of Saint-Domingue was a naval campaign fought during the first months of the Napoleonic Wars, in which a series of British Royal Navy squadrons blockaded the French-held ports of Cap Français and Môle-Saint-Nicolas on the Northern coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue.

1280px-Fight_of_the_Poursuivante_mp3h9427.jpg
Detail from the Fight of the Poursuivante against the British ship Hercules, 28 June 1803.

Background
During the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), the wealthy French colony of Saint-Domingue on the western half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea was the scene of heavy fighting. In addition to unsuccessful British and Spanish invasions, the colony was wracked by a brutal civil war as the black population of newly emancipated slaves, under the command of Toussaint Louverture, fought forces from the French Republic before allying themselves with the Republic against foreign invaders. By 1801, Louverture had seized control of almost the entire island, including much of the neighbouring colony of Santo Domingo. Louverture officially pledged allegiance to France, declaring himself the island's governor. However, following the Peace of Amiens in Europe that brought an end to the French Revolutionary Wars in 1802, French First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte sent a large expeditionary force to Saint-Domingue under General Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc's army had some initial success and Louverture was captured after signing a peace treaty with the French general, later dying in unclear circumstances in a French prison. However, following Louverture's arrest and under threat of the restoration of slavery, the Haitian general Jean Jacques Dessalines renewed the campaign against the French. Leclerc and much of his army died in an epidemic of yellow fever in the autumn of 1802, and command fell to the Vicomte de Rochambeau, whose forces were rapidly driven back into a few well fortified towns, relying for communication and supply on maritime links. In May 1803, the situation in Haiti deteriorated still further for the French when Britain and France once again went to war, after a peace lasting just fifteen months. In preparation for the coming conflict, the French had ordered a number of ships to sail from their southern ports in Saint-Domingue, the frigate Franchise sailing en flute from Port-au-Prince on 3 May. Franchisewas however intercepted in the Bay of Biscay by a British battle squadron and captured on 28 May, as was the corvette Bacchante on 25 June which had sailed in April. The remaining French naval forces in the colony were consolidated at the port of Cap Français.


The Blockade
The Royal Navy was well prepared for the renewed conflict, with a squadron of ships of the line and numerous frigates based at the Jamaica station, the Navy's western Caribbean base, under Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth. On 18 June 1803 two squadrons were sent to enact a blockade of the principal northern ports in French hands, Cap Français to the east and Môle-Saint-Nicolas to the west. The first squadron, which cruised off Môle-Saint-Nicolas consisted of the 74-gun ships of the line HMS Cumberland under Captain Henry William Bayntun, HMS Goliath under Captain Charles Brisbane and HMS Hercule under the acting command of Lieutenant John B. Hills. The second squadron, assigned to the blockade of Cap Français, was commanded by Commodore John Loring in HMS Bellerophon and included HMS Elephant under Captain George Dundas, HMS Theseus under Captain John Bligh and HMS Vanguard under Captain James Walker. Loring's force was accompanied by the frigates HMS Aeolus under Captain Andrew Fitzherbert Evans and HMS Tartar under Captain John Perkins.

Flight of Touffet
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Capture of French brig Lodi by HMS Racoon on 11 July 1803 off Léogâne


In late July the strategic situation altered when orders arrived from France demanding the return of the French squadron, primarily based at Cap Français under Contre-Admiral Latouche Tréville. Command of the returning squadron was given to Commodore Quérangal in the Duquesne, a 74-gun ship Consolidating enough healthy sailors to crew three of his ships, Latouche Tréville gave orders for Duquesne, the 74-gun ship Duguay-Trouin under Captain Claude Touffet that following a recent accident only carried 54 guns, and the 40-gun frigate Guerrière under Captain Louis-Alex Beaudoin to sail from Cap Français when it became possible. On the afternoon of 24 July, a rain squall drove the blockade force away from the post and Quérangal's ships slipped out of the harbour, initially sailing westwards with the prevailing wind. All were in a weakened state, none with full crews and all carrying large numbers of sick passengers aboard.

The French ships were sighted almost immediately by the frigates of Loring's blockade squadron, which began pursuit. At 21:00, Quérangal took advantage of the darkness to divide his ships, Duguay-Trouin tacking to the east while Duquesne continued following the shoreline to the west. In response, Loring ordered Dundas in Elephant to chase Duguay-Trouin while he remained in pursuit of Duquesne with Aeolus and Tartar. During the night both British pursuits gained significant ground on their targets, Loring joined by Theseus and Vanguard. At 07:00 on 15 July, Quérangal's ship was sighted by a Haitian battery on shore and came under fire, Loring sending Theseus to investigate the gunfire and arriving on the scene himself soon afterwards, Tartar and Vanguard leading the squadron. Perkins was the first to come within range of the French ship, opening fire at 15:30, followed soon afterwards by Walker. Quérangal returned fire briefly, but his ship was too weak to face the British force, having only 275 crewmen aboard of whom only 215 were fit for duty. Duquesne was so poorly-manned that only 12 guns could be crewed at any one time, although one shot did strike Vanguard, killing one man and wounding another. Before the British ships could take up more effective firing positions however, Quérangal surrendered. His ship was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Duquesne, but was broken up in 1804 following damage in an accident at Morant Cays.

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Scale model of the Duquesne

The second pursuit, that of Dundas in Elephant and Touffet in Duguay-Trouin continued throughout the night, the British ship coming within range of the French at 06:00 on 25 July. Touffet opened fire on Elephant with his stern-mounted guns, striking the British ship several times, although without serious effect. Dundas was able, despite the French fire, to pull up at some distance from the French starboard quarter, firing broadsides although at such long range that they too had little effect. The action was decided soon afterwards by the arrival of two ships, the 18-gun British sloop HMS Snake under Commander William Roberts to the northwest and the absent Guerrière from the opposite direction. Dundas considered that the arrival of the frigate favoured the French too much, and dropped back allowing both ships to combine and escape. This was a serious miscalculation: historian William Laird Clowes notes that the French ships were both desperately under-armed and undermanned and even if they fought alongside one another they would have been unable to match Dundas's weight or rate of shot. By the time night fell, the French ships had reached open water in preparation for the journey across the Atlantic.

Touffet's voyage was however far from over: on 29 August while in the Eastern Atlantic close to the Bay of Biscay, they were spotted by the independently cruising 38-gun frigate HMS Boadicea under Captain John Maitland, which gave chase, the French ships turning southwards toward the friendly-neutral port of Ferrol in Spain. Throughout the following day, Boadicea followed the French squadron, losing them during the night of 30 August in a fog, but rediscovering them at 13:30 on 31 August when the wind shifted from the west to the northeast. Maitland could now see that Duguay-Trouin was a ship of the line, but was also aware that weakened ships were travelling to Europe from Saint-Domingue and consequently closed with Touffet's force, firing on his ship from a distance of 0.25 nautical miles (0.46 km) at 14:00, the French ship of the line returning fire. The fire from Duguay-Trouin was fierce enough that, in combination with the approaching Guerrière, Maitland considered that they were too powerful for Boadicea to effectively fight and he sheered away, briefly followed by the French ships. At 14:50 however, with Boadicea rapidly widening the gap between the forces, Touffet abandoned the chase, turning southwards towards Ferrol.

At Ferrol, a British battle squadron cruised off the port under the command of Commodore Sir Edward Pellew, HMS Culloden under Captain Barrington Dacres sailing at some distance from the remainder of the squadron. On 2 September, Touffet's small squadron appeared to windward sailing for the port of Corunna and Dacres was well situated to intercept them, opening fire at long range at 11:50. The French were faster than Culloden however, Duguay-Trouin successfully entering Corunna ahead of Guerrière as the Spanish batteries opened fire on the British ship. Although Dacres managed to damage Guerrière's masts and rigging severely, inflicting casualties of six killed and 15 wounded, the French frigate was able to enter Corunna ahead of Culloden. Dacres, who had brought his ship right into the entrance to the port was forced to retire, having suffered four men wounded.

Surrender of Cap Français
With the removal of the ships of the line from the squadron at Saint-Domingue, the only remaining force of any significance was based at Cap Français, consisting mainly of the frigates Surveillante, Clorinde and Vertu. In September, the southern port of Les Cayes surrendered, the garrison capitulating to the British brig HMS Pelican, while in the north Captain Bligh in Theseus bombarded Fort Labouque at the harbour of Fort Dauphin, an important anchorage for small craft resupplying the garrison of Cap Français, on 8 September. The fort rapidly surrendered, as did a 20-gun corvette Sagesse, which was at anchor nearby but with only 75 men aboard. Fort Dauphin also capitulated later in the day, the French prisoners requesting that Bligh intercede with the Haitian forces nearby which had captured a number of soldiers including General Dumont and were intending to execute them. Bligh successfully obtained the release of Dumont and transported all of the prisoners, including many suffering from yellow fever, to Cap Français. While Loring remained off Northern Saint-Domingue, the brig Raccoon was active against ships travelling between Saint-Domingue and Spanish-held Cuba, destroying two small convoys in September and October.


In October, Latouche-Tréville obtained free passage from the British due to his poor health, and returned to France leaving Captain Jean-Baptiste Barré in command of the squadron. Attempts were still made however to supply the ports, which were under siege by Haitian forces. On 3 November the frigate HMS Blanche under Captain Zachary Mudge discovered an armed cutter in Mancenille Bay carrying 52 bullocks to the garrison of Cap Français and Mudge sent boats under Lieutenant Nicholls of the Royal Marines into the bay during the night. Nicholls, despite unhelpful interference from Lieutenant Warwick Lake of Blanche, successfully cut the ship out from under French shore batteries, losing two killed and two wounded to French losses of two killed and four wounded. In early November, Captain Walker in Vanguard took 850 French soldiers as prisoners of war from the port of Saint-Marc, General D'Henin surrendering his garrison after Dessalines's advancing forces had threatened to massacre them all. Captured in the harbour were the 12-gun corvette Papillon, naval schooner Courier and the transports Mary Sally and Le Trois Amis. On 16 November, Vanguard captured an American merchant schooner Independence attempting to enter Cap Français.

On 17 November Rochambeau sent a message to Loring's squadron requesting that he be allowed to safely evacuate the port and return with his men to France. Loring refused, and so on 20 November the French general instead concluded a peace treaty with Dessalines, the terms of which insisted that the French garrison and population had to evacuate the port within ten days. Loring was informed of the terms of the agreement and although Rochambeau was ready to depart on 25 November, his ships crammed with thousands of refugees, the British squadron blocked all of the escape routes. On 30 November, as Haitian soldiers took possession of the vacated batteries and forts that protected the harbour, Rochambeau was still prevaricating, his ships lying at anchor directly under the guns of the forts. Orders were given to the Haitian garrisons to make preparations to fire heated roundshot at the French in order to burn their ships to the waterline should the squadron still be in the harbour following the deadline. Concerned with the delay, Loring ordered Captain Bligh to enter the harbour and offer terms of surrender to Rochambeau.

After meeting Captain Barré, Bligh obtained a signed treaty establishing Rochambeau's total surrender to the British blockade squadron. Under the terms, the French ships would sail from the port flying the tricolour, fire a ceremonial broadside each, and then formally surrender to Loring's squadron. Having obtained French acquiescence, Bligh then had to carry the terms to a reluctant Dessalines, who ultimately agreed to permit the French to leave Cap Français unmolested, although he refused to provide pilots to ensure safe passage out of the harbour. During the afternoon, Rochambeau sailed out first in Surveillante, firing his broadside and striking his colours to Loring. He was followed by a procession of ships, including Vertu, the 12-gun brig Cerf, the naval schooner Découverte, and the French merchant vessels Endymion, Casar, L'Augusta, Louis Cherie, Jason, Bonnevallere, Jeremie, Havre de Grace, Necessaire, Union, Nicholas Debarre, Marin, and an unnamed schooner, all of which were heavily laden with refugees and taken as prizes. The French hospital ships Nouvelle Sophie and Justice also surrendered, but were packed with hundreds of sick soldiers and sailors and were subsequently reprovisioned and sent back to France as cartels. Five American ships: Sisters, Eugene, Thesbald, Adventurer, and Hiram, and two Danish vessels, Diana and Bentley, were also filled with refugees and seized by Loring's force. Duckworth had arrived during the evacuation on Hercule, adding its boats to the numerous British craft assisting the overloaded French ships.

Disaster struck the operation however when the frigate Clorinde attempted to leave the harbour. Weighed down with 900 refugees and soldiers including General Jean François Cornu de La Poype and his staff, the ship accidentally grounded on rocks directly beneath Fort St. Joseph, now manned by Haitian soldiers. Clorinde was stuck fast, heeled over and being repeatedly bashed against the rocks so that the ship's rudder had been torn away, leaving it helpless. The situation was deemed so hopeless that a number of British ship's boats that had been supervising the evacuation of the harbour turned away without offering assistance, abandoning the frigate as a total wreck. One of the rearmost boats however, the launch from Hercule containing 30-40 men and commanded by Acting-Lieutenant Nesbit Willoughby, turned towards the frigate. Willoughby was determined to assist the wrecked crew and passengers, well aware that without help they would either be drowned or massacred by the Haitians, who could be seen making preparations to fire heated shot from the fort at the frigate.


Aware that the people on Clorinde would swamp his boat if he drew alongside the frigate, possibly drowning all concerned, Willoughby instead commandeered a punt and used it to come aboard the frigate. Once on board, Willoughby persuaded La Poype to surrender the ship without the formalities observed outside the harbour, raising the Union Flag. The Haitians were consequently unable to fire on a ship in possession of their ally, Willoughby going ashore to meet with Dessalines, who promised assistance. Willoughby returned with a number of boats crewed by Haitians and was joined by several British boats in anticipation of removing the crew and passengers from the stricken ship. On his return however, Willoughby discovered that the wind had fallen significantly, allowing him to use the boats instead to haul Clorinde off the rocks and into deeper water. Her hull was still intact, and by the evening Clorinde had joined the rest of the British squadron off the mouth of the harbour.

Final Actions
With the surrender of the main French city in Northern Haiti, the Haitian Revolution was almost at an end, only Môle-Saint-Nicolas remaining in French hands. On 2 December, Loring's squadron reached the port and offered the same terms to Noailles as had been offered to Rochambeau, who refused, claiming he had stores to last a five-month siege and so Loring continued to Port Royal in Jamaica, his ships laden with prisoners, leaving Cumberland and the frigate HMS Pique to enforce the blockade. That evening however Noailles made a desperate attempt to escape the port with six small vessels. The French convoy was sighted during the night of 5–6 December, and soon overrun, the Republic, Temeraire, Belle Louise, Active and Sally Warner all seized by the British warships. Only one vessel, Noailles's flagship, escaped pursuit, although Noailles had apparently been mortally wounded as he died shortly after reaching Havana, Cuba as a result of his reported injuries. French histories recount that Noailles's vessel was able to board and overpower a small British warship en route, but no British warships of any size were lost in these waters during 1803 and so the origin of this story is unknown.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Saint-Domingue
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1803 – The Balmis Smallpox Expedition starts in Spain with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and Philippines - The First Public Health Vaccination Campaign in South America


The Balmis Expedition (1803–1806) was a three-year mission to Spanish America and Asia led by Dr. Francisco Javier de Balmis with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox. Vaccination, a much safer way to prevent smallpox than older methods such as inoculation, had been introduced by the English physician Edward Jenner in 1798.

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Expedition by Balmis and his collaborators to America

The Balmis expedition, officially called Real Expedición Filantrópica de la Vacuna (Royal Philanthropic Vaccine Expedition), set off from A Coruña on 30 November 1803. It may be considered the first international healthcare expedition in history. Jenner himself wrote, "I don't imagine the annals of history furnish an example of philanthropy so noble, so extensive as this."

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Dr Jenner performing his first vaccination on James Phipps, a boy of age 8. 14 May 1796

King Charles IV of Spain supported his royal doctor Balmis since his Infanta Maria Teresa, his daughter, had died from the illness. The expedition sailed on Maria Pita and carried 22 orphan boys (aged 8 to 10) as successive carriers of the virus; Balmis, a deputy surgeon, two assistants, two first-aid practitioners, three nurses, and Isabel Zendal Gómez, the rectoress of Casa de Expósitos, an A Coruña orphanage.

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Expedition by Balmis and his collaborators to America

The mission took the vaccine to the Canary Islands, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, the Philippines and China. The ship carried also scientific instruments and translations of the Historical and Practical Treatise on the Vaccine by Moreau de Sarthe to be distributed to the local vaccine commissions to be founded.

In Puerto Rico, the local population had already been inoculated from the Danish colony of Saint Thomas. In Venezuela, the expedition divided at La Guayra. José Salvany, the deputy surgeon, went toward today's Colombia and the Viceroyalty of Peru (Venezuela, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Bolivia). They took seven years and the toils of the voyage brought death to Salvany (Cochabamba, 1810). Balmis went to Caracas and later to Havana. The local poet Andrés Bello wrote an ode to Balmis. In New Spain, Balmis took 25 orphans to maintain the infection during the crossing of the Pacific. In the Philippines, they received help from the Catholic church, which was initially reluctant until Governor-General Rafael Aguilar made an example by vaccinating his five children. Balmis sent most of the expedition back to New Spain while he went on to China, where he visited Macau and Canton. On his way back to Spain, Balmis convinced the British authorities of Saint Helena (1806) to be vaccinated.

Julia Alvarez wrote a fictional account of the expedition from the perspective of its only female member in Saving the World (2006).



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmis_Expedition
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1811 - French frigate Flore was wrecked in a heavy storm off Chioggia


Flore was a 44-gun Armide-class frigate of the French Navy.

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A 1⁄48 scale model of Flore on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris


Service history
In 1808, she was part of Ganteaume's squadron that cruised in the Mediterranean.

On 12 March 1811, she was part of Bernard Dubourdieu's squadron sailing to raid the British commerce raider base of the island of Lissa. The squadron encountered William Hoste's frigate squadron, leading to the Battle of Lissa.

In the ensuing fight, Flore was distanced by her flagship Favorite, which engaged the British flagship HMS Amphion, and ran aground. Flore and Bellona caught on and engaged Amphion in a crossfire. Amphion outmanoeuvred Flore and raked her for ten minutes, after which Flore struck her colours.

The battle still raging, the British failed to send a capture crew aboard, and Flore eventually joined the surviving Carolina and Danaé and fleeing to Ragusa.

Flore was wrecked in a tempest off Chioggia on 30 November 1811, with the loss of 75. Her commanding officer, Frigate Captain Lissilour, was acquitted by the court martial.

A 1⁄48 shipyard model of Flore, originally part of the Trianon model collection, is on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.


The Armide class was a type of 40-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed by Pierre Roland. A highly detailed and accurate model of Flore, one of the units of the class, is on display at Paris naval museum, originally part of the Trianon model collection.

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Portrait of Pénélope by François-Geoffroi Roux

Armide class, (40-gun design by Pierre Roland, with 28 x 18-pounder and 8 x 12-pounder guns and 4 x 36-pounder obusiers).
  • Armide, (launched 24 April 1804 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Armide.
  • Minerve, (launched 9 September 1805 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Alceste.
  • Pénélope, (launched 28 October 1806 at Bordeaux) – deleted 1826.
  • Flore, (launched 11 November 1806 at Rochefort) – wrecked 1811.
  • Amphitrite, (launched 11 April 1808 at Cherbourg) – burnt 1809.
  • Niémen, (launched 8 November 1808 at Bordeaux) – captured by British Navy 1809, becoming HMS Niemen.
  • Saale, (launched 28 October 1810 at Rochefort) – renamed Amphitrite September 1814, reverted to Saale March 1815, then Amphitrite again in July 1815 – deleted 1821.
  • Alcmène, (launched 3 October 1811 at Cherbourg) – captured by British Navy 16 January 1814, becoming HMS Dunira, but quickly renamed HMS Immortalite.
  • Circé, (launched 15 December 1811 at Rochefort) – deleted 1844.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Flore_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armide-class_frigate
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 November 1812 - HMS Subtle (1807 - 10), Lt. Charles Brown (2), capsized off St. Bartholomew's in the West Indies when chasing an American privateer, Jack's Favorite.


HMS Subtle was a schooner that the Royal Navy reportedly captured in 1807, and purchased and registered in 1808. She served in the Caribbean, taking part in several actions, including a small debacle in 1808, and the capture of Martinique and Guadeloupe in 1809. She foundered in November 1812 with the loss of her entire crew.

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Subtle' (1808), an American-built Danish Schooner, as fitted at Plymouth Dockyard September 1808. The plan also includes the dimensions of yards and masts, but this is hidden below a flap of paper attached at the lower left of the plan. Signed by Jospeh Tucker [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1802-1813; later Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1831].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/85993.html#pt6HzaYuixrB4yMr.99


Tons burthen: 139 (bm)
Length:
  • 76 ft (23.2 m) (overall)
  • 58 ft 9 in (17.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 21 ft 1 in (6.4 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 6 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan: Schooner
Armament: 10 guns

Origins
Based on Admiralty records, Winfield reports that she was possibly a privateer, possibly under the Danish flag, and sailing as Subtle. Unfortunately, there are no readily available online records that indicate the capture of any Danish (or Dutch - some reports state Subtle was Dutch), vessel named Subtle. It is possible that she had another name that the Royal Navy changed. For instance, the Royal Navy captured 12 Danish schooners at Christianstadt in the Danish West Indies on 25 December 1807, some of which had names that matched those of serving Navy vessels. It would have been standard Royal Navy practice to rename a capture to avoid duplicating names, reusing the names of recently lost or sold naval vessels. The Royal Navy schooner Subtle had just been wrecked at Bermuda on 20 October 1807, making her name available.

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Scale: 1:48. A plans showing the upper deck, and lower deck with fore and aft platforms for 'Subtle' (1808), an American-built captured Danish Schooner, as fitted at Plymouth Dockyard in September 1808. Signed by Jospeh Tucker [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1802-1813; later Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1831].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/85994.html#dfwgDRTDAtrPZZIY.99


Royal Navy career
Lieutenant Charles Nicholson commissioned Subtle at Antigua in 1807. In 1808 Lieutenant George A. Spearing replaced Nicholson.

On 3 July, Subtle was cruising with the ship-sloop Wanderer and the schooner Ballahoo between the islands of Anguilla and Saint Martin, the small squadron attempted an attack on St. Martin with a view to reducing the number of havens available to French privateers, but unfortunately the opposition proved stronger than intelligence had led the British to expect.

The attack turned into a disaster. A landing party of 38 seamen and marines from all three vessels, under Lieutenant Spearing of Subtle, succeeded in capturing a lower battery with few losses and spiking six guns. An attack on the upper fort failed, with Spearing being killed a few feet from the French ramparts. When the British withdrew to their boats the French captured them. In all, the British lost seven killed and 30 wounded, all the dead and 17 of the wounded being from Subtle, which had contributed 43 men to the landing. The French lost one man wounded.

Not surprisingly, French and British accounts differ substantially in several places. Crofton reported that the British landing party consisted of 135 men, whereas a French account talks of 200 men, all of whom were killed or captured. (The total establishment of the three British vessels amounted to about 190 men.) Crofton negotiated a truce under which he was able to reclaim all the prisoners who could be moved. Crofton claimed that the French had been forewarned and had 900 men in the fort. The French claimed the fort had a garrison of 28 regulars and 15 militia men. That the French permitted their British prisoners to leave is more consistent with the French figures on their numbers than the British. Crofton reported that the French buried the English dead with full military honors with both the fort and the British firing salutes.

Admiral Lord Collingwood received intelligence that the French corvette Rapide was on her way from Bayonne with dispatches and he asked Admiral Lord Alexander Cochrane to attempt to intercept her. On 8 August 1808 Belette captured Rapide and took her into Barbados, but Rapide's captain had managed to throw the dispatches overboard before Belette captured her. However, even earlier, duplicates of the dispatches and much besides were found concealed aboard the cartel Phoenix, which had sailed from Cayenne and had stopped in Barbados. She had aroused suspicion, leading Cochrane to having her searched. Because carrying these documents was a violation of the cartel (truce) flag, the British seized Phoenix and the documents.

Cochrane put the dispatches aboard Subtle, and then appointed his flag-lieutenant from HMS Belleisle, Lieutenant Humphrey Fleming Senhouse, to sail Subtle back to Britain. The captain of Phoenix, Mr. Boarea, traveled on Subtle as a prisoner of war. Flemming left Carlisle Bay, Barbados on 19 July and arrived at Plymouth on 18 August.

Subtle underwent repairs at Plymouth between 19 August and 10 November. Lieutenant Charles Browne (or Brown), replaced Senhouse. She then sailed for the Leeward Islands on 15 December 1808.

In February 1809, Subtle participated in the combined naval and military assault and capture of the French-held island of Martinique. This qualified those of her crew still alive in 1847 for the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Martinique". Subtle was among the 42 warships that shared in the proceeds for the capture of Martinique. She then participated in the capture of Guadeloupe (January - February 1810), which earned for her crew the clasp "Guadaloupe" to the NGSM, as well as further prize money, which she shared with 49 other vessels.

Loss
On 1 December 1812, Captain Miller of the American privateer schooner Jack's Favorite, was re-provisioning at Saint Barts when Subtle arrived. Browne threatened to take the privateer, but in good time. Jack's Favorite sailed away, with Subtle in pursuit. During the chase a squall came up. After it had passed, Miller searched for Subtle but could find only floating debris.

British records give the date of loss as 30 November. The belief was that Subtle had capsized when she failed to shorten sail in time.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Subtle_(1807)
 
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