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

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1941 - Operation Excess begun


Operation Excess was a series of British supply convoys to Malta, Alexandria and Greece in January 1941. The operation encountered the first presence of Luftwaffe anti-shipping aircraft in the Mediterranean Sea. All the convoyed freighters reached their destinations. However, the destroyer Gallant was disabled by Italian mines; and Axis bombers severely damaged the cruiser Southampton and the aircraft carrier Illustrious.


A later image taken from Illustrious showing Valiant in the background. Both ships were part of Force A and the closest aircraft are Fulmar fighters of the type defending operation Excess.

Background
Italy's declaration of War on 10 June 1940 brought World War II to the Mediterranean Sea and placed the Regia Aeronautica astride the traditional British sea route to Indian Oceanports, while the Regia Marina roughly tripled the numbers of battleships, cruisers and submarines available to challenge British sea power. The Royal Navy had held the eastern Mediterranean and France the western Mediterranean but the Second Armistice at Compiègne removed the French navy from the alliance on 25 June 1940. From bases at Gibraltarand Alexandria, the Royal Navy attempted to convoy supplies to sustain Malta as a base in the central Mediterranean. As Italy attacked Egypt from Libya in September 1940 and Greece from Albania in October 1940, the Royal Navy maintained most of their Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria while Force H at Gibraltar was used for raids. British successes in early November 1940 including halting the Italian offensive in Greece and disabling Italian battleships Littorio, Conte di Cavour and Caio Duilio at the Battle of Taranto provided incentive and opportunity to supply Malta and Greece.

Preparations
Allied
Convoy MC 4: Four freighters waited at Gibraltar. Clan Cumming, Clan MacDonald and Empire Song carried materiel destined for Piraeus; while Essex carried 3,000 tons of seed potatoes, 4,000 tons of ammunition and 12 crated Hawker Hurricanes for Malta.

Convoy MW 5: Freighters Breconshire and Clan Macaulay waited at Alexandria with material for Malta.

Convoy ME 6: Nine freighters waited at Malta for passage to Alexandria.

Force A: HMS Warspite, Valiant, Nubian, Mohawk, Dainty, Gallant, Greyhound, Griffin, Jervis and Illustrious would sail from Alexandria to cover convoys MC 4, MW 5 and ME 6 east of the Skerki Banks.

Force B: HMS Gloucester, Southampton, Ilex and Janus would carry five hundred soldiers and airmen from the Aegean to Malta and join convoy MC 4 after dropping their passengers in Malta.

Force C: Convoy MW 5 would be screened by HMS Calcutta, Defender and Diamond.

Force D: HMS York and Orion would sail from Alexandria with Flower-class corvettes Gloxinia, Peony, Hyacinth, Salvia and the replenishment oiler Brambleleaf to be joined by HMS Ajax and HMAS Perth from Souda Bay.

Force F: Convoy MC 4 would be screened by HMS Jaguar, Hero, Hasty, Hereward and Bonaventure carrying four hundred soldiers and airmen to Malta.

Force H: Convoy MC 4 would be covered from Gibraltar to the Skerki Banks by HMS Malaya, Renown, Sheffield, Faulknor, Fury, Forester, Fortune, Firedrake and Ark Royal carrying six Fairey Swordfish for Malta.

Axis
Five hundred anti-shipping aircraft of Fliegerkorps X were being transferred from Norway to Sicily to protect Axis convoys to North Africa and prevent passage of British convoys to Malta.

Battle
6 January 1941


Royal Navy personnel accustomed to these Regia Aeronautica SM.79s were surprised by the intensity of X Fliegerkorps operations encountered during Operation Excess.
Convoy MC 4 left Gibraltar, feinting toward the Atlantic, before turning toward Malta after darkness concealed them from the view of Axis agents near Gibraltar.

7 January
Force H sailed from Gibraltar to cover convoy MC 4. Force A, Force D and convoy MW 5 with Force C sailed from Alexandria and Force B sailed from the Aegean toward Malta. Force A was located by Italian air reconnaissance that afternoon.

8 January
Force B landed its passengers in Malta and proceeded west to meet convoy MC 4. Vickers Wellingtons bombed Naples damaging Giulio Cesare with three near misses and causing the only operational Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto to retreat from the approaching convoys.

9 January
Force A was joined by Force D and HMAS Sydney 210 nmi (240 mi; 390 km) south-east of Malta, Force B joined convoy MC 4 and Convoy MC 4 and Force H were discovered by Italian aircraft and attacked by ten SM.79s from Sardinia. Two SM.79s were shot down by Fairey Fulmars from Ark Royal and later attack by 15 Fiat CR.42s carrying 100 kg bombs also failed. Force H left convoy MC 4 that afternoon after Ark Royallaunched six Swordfish for the defence of Malta; Force A joined convoy MC 4 at dusk.

10 January

Few ships survived dive bombing attacks of the intensity Illustrious endured from these Ju 87 Stukas.

Italian ships from La Spezia failed to find Force H. Italian submarine Settimo and torpedo boats Circe and Vega launched torpedoes against convoy MC 4 but missed.[2] Bonaventure and Hereward sank Vega six miles south of Pantellaria at 0830 and Circe escaped undamaged. Bonaventure was slightly damaged and two men killed; 75 per cent of her ammunition was expended in the engagement. Two of Vega's crew survived. Right after the engagement, which pushed the British convoy too much south of their route, Gallant struck a naval mine at 0835. The bow was destroyed and 65 men were killed. Mohawk took Gallant in tow toward Malta while the Force B cruisers provided protection from air attacks.[5] Convoys MC 4 and MW 5 arrived at Malta and convoy ME 6 departed for Alexandria.

Fulmars from Illustrious shot down an Italian aircraft shadowing Force A at 0930. Valiant avoided torpedoes launched by two SM.79s approaching under the radar horizon at 1230. As the combat air patrol Fulmars dropped altitude to engage the SM.79s, Force A was attacked at 1235 by 18 He 111s of KG 26 and 43 Ju 87s of StG 1 and StG 2 escorted by 10 Bf 110s of ZG 26. Illustrious completed launching Fulmar and Swordfish patrol aircraft as the attack developed. Illustrious was the main target and was enveloped in waterspouts and mist of exploding bombs. Some bombers diving from an altitude of 12,000 feet delayed bomb release until they pulled-out lower than the height of Illustrious' funnel. The five air patrol Fulmars had not returned from chasing the SM.79s which attacked Valiant and the four recently launched Fulmars were unable to gain altitude rapidly enough to break up the attack. The Fulmars claimed eight enemy aircraft during the bombing of Force A as they shuttled to Malta airfields to refuel and re-arm. Warspite was lightly damaged by a bomb. Illustrious was hit by five bombs, including one which failed to explode and a near miss disabled her rudder mechanism. A bomb striking a lowered elevator caused extensive hangar damage, with many casualties among aircraft maintenance personnel and destroyed nine Swordfish and five Fulmars. At 1530 Illustrious headed for Malta steering with engines. The bombing attacks continued. Seven SM.79s were discouraged by heavy anti-aircraft fire but an attack by six Italian Ju 87s at 1600 scored another bomb hit and two near misses. Fourteen German Ju 87s missed Valiant and Janus and a later attack by 14 He 111s was similarly ineffective. Illustrious reached Malta at 2130 and would suffer 126 dead and 91 wounded by the time she departed from Malta.

11 January
Gallant was beached in Malta's Grand Harbor at dawn but never repaired. As Mohawk and the Force B cruisers steamed from Malta to rejoin Force A, they were surprised by 12 Ju 87R dive bombers of II/St.G.2. attacking out of the sun at 1520. Gloucester was hit by a bomb which failed to explode and Southampton was hit by two bombs killing 80 men and starting fires, requiring the ship to be scuttled 180 nmi (210 mi; 330 km) east of Malta. Force H returned to Gibraltar.

12 January
Force A was reinforced west of Crete by Force B, the cruisers of Force D, HMS Barham and Eagle from Alexandria.

13 January
Convoy ME 6 arrived at Alexandria.

The Illustrious blitz
What Maltese called the Illustrious Blitz began when bomb stocks depleted during the attacks of 10 and 11 January, were replenished and the Axis made a concerted effort to destroy Illustrious before she could be repaired. Illustrious and Essex were hit by an air raid on 16 January. Ten Macchi C.202s, ten CR.42s and twenty Bf 110s escorted 44 Ju 87s. Bombs exploding in Grand Harbour killed numerous fish, that were collected after the raid and eaten. Illustrious was not seriously damaged but a bomb exploded in Essex's engine room killing 15 men and wounding 23 more. There was another heavy air raid on 17 January and Illustrious was again hit by an air raid on 18 January. Illustrious was not damaged by the final major attack on 19 January. Illustrious departed Malta on 23 January but her Fulmars remained for the defence of the island. Illustrious was able to complete additional repairs after reaching Alexandria on 25 January but restoration of full combat effectiveness required a trip to United States shipyards.

Losses
Fairey Fulmar fighters and AA gunners of the Royal Navy shot down at least seven aircraft on 10 January 1941, in defence of HMS Illustrious, while one Fulmar was lost. No merchantmen were lost during Excess but the Royal Navy lost one cruiser sunk and a destroyer damaged beyond repair



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1945 - USS Walke (DD 723) is attacked by four kamikazes while laying mines. After the third plane struck the ship, burning gasoline envelopes the bridge and Cmdr. George F. Davis, the commanding officer, is horribly burned. Remaining on his feet, he conns the ship, directs damage control efforts and sees to the destruction of the fourth plane. Assured of the ship's survival, Davis is taken down below, where he dies a short time later. For his heroic conduct, Davis is posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.


USS Walke (DD-723), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for Henry A. Walke, a Rear Admiral during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. The third Walke (DD-723) was laid down on 7 June 1943 at Bath, Maine, by the Bath Iron Works and launched on 27 October 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Douglas Dillon. The ship was commissioned at the Boston Navy Yard on 21 January 1944, Comdr. John C. Zahm in command.



Service history
World War II
After fitting out at the Boston Navy Yard, Walke got underway on 12 February for Washington, D.C., which she visited from 14 to 18 February before heading for Bermuda and shakedown training. She returned to Boston on 19 March 1944 for availability before moving to Norfolk, Virginia, to conduct high-speed, over-the-stern fueling exercises with Aucillaunder the auspices of the Bureau of Ships. From Hampton Roads, the destroyer moved to Key West, Florida, at the end of the first week in April to conduct antisubmarine warfare(ASW) tests on a new type of sound gear. She completed that duty on 17 April and headed to Norfolk where she arrived two days later for almost a month of duty training nucleus crews for newly constructed destroyers.

On 12 May, Walke got underway for New York where she arrived the following day. On 14 May, she headed for European waters to participate in the Normandy invasion. She arrived in Greenock, Scotland, on 24 May. As a unit of Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 119, Walke participated in the Normandy invasion between 6 and 26 June. On 7 and 8 June, she conducted shore bombardments, destroying blockhouses and machine-gun positions as well as helping to repulse a counterattack mounted by German armored units. On 23 and 24 June, the warship supported minesweeping operations at the Bombardment of Cherbourg and duelled with enemy shore batteries.

After the Allied ground forces had pushed the fighting front inland out of range of the destroyer's guns, Walke departed European waters on 3 July and arrived at the Boston Navy Yard on 9 July. Following repairs there and refresher training at Casco Bay, Maine, she sailed south and arrived at Norfolk on 26 August.

Four days later, the ship departed Norfolk in the screen of the aircraft carrier Ticonderoga, bound ultimately for the western Pacific. Steaming via the Panama Canal and San Diego, California, the destroyer arrived in Pearl Harbor on 25 September. She conducted training exercises there for almost a month before departing the Hawaiian Islands on 23 October in the screen of North Carolina. Steaming via Eniwetok and Manus Island, she arrived in Ulithi on 5 November. There, she became a unit of Task Group (TG) 38.4, of the fast carrier task force, with which she sortied that day for a series of air strikes on targets in the Philippines. The warship returned from that foray to Ulithi on 22 November and lay at anchor there until 27 November when she got underway with Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 60 for the Philippines. She arrived in San Pedro Bay, Leyte, on 29 November and joined the screen of TG 77.2 operating in Leyte Gulf. She returned to the anchorage at San Pedro Bay on 4 December and remained there until 6 December when she departed with TG 78.3 to support landings from Ormoc Bay on the western coast of Leyte. The troops of the United States Army's 77th Infantry Division stormed ashore unopposed on 7 December, but the Japanese mounted heavy kamikaze attacks on the supporting ships in an attempt to foil the assault. During those air raids, Walke assisted the destroyer Mahan when three kamikazes of a nine-plane raid succeeded in crashing into her. After rescuing a number of Mahan's crewmen, Walke sent the stricken destroyer to the bottom with a torpedo and gunfire. The next day, en route back to San Pedro Bay, she helped to splash an attacking enemy aircraft. She safely reached her destination later that day and operated in Leyte Gulf and at San Pedro Bay until 13 December.

That day, she got underway with TG 77.3 to support the assault on Mindoro. She arrived off that island on 15 December as a part of Rear Admiral Berkley's close covering force, made up of one heavy cruiser, two light cruisers, Walke, and six other destroyers. Besides protecting the heavier elements from air and submarine attack, she destroyed by gunfire the grounded Wakaba. After completing that mission, she headed back to Leyte Gulf. En route, she drove off by antiaircraft fire several planes which approached her and arrived safely in San Pedro Bay on 18 December 1944.


Walke (right center), along with battleship Mississippi, and two other destroyers cover the landings in Lingayen Gulf, 9 January 1945

The destroyer remained there until 2 January 1945 when she got underway for Lingayen Gulf and the invasion of Luzon. American minesweepers moved into the gulf on 6 January, and Walkesteamed in with them to provide covering fire and antiaircraft defense. That day, four enemy Nakajima Ki-43 "Oscar" aircraft approached the destroyer from her starboard side forward, low on the water. She opened fire and succeeded in splashing the first two attackers. The third plane pressed home his combination strafing run-suicide attack and, though hit several times, managed to crash into Walke's bridge on the port side and burst into flames. The destroyer lost all communications, radars, gyro repeaters, and electricity throughout the superstructure. She also suffered extensive damage to the bridge itself as well as to her gun and torpedo directors. The 250-pound (110 kg) bomb the plane carried did not explode but passed completely through the ship in the vicinity of the combat information center.

Two minutes after the first kamikaze crashed into Walke, the last of the four "Oscars" began his dive. As this attacker came in toward the destroyer's starboard quarter, he was subjected to fire from 5-inch mount number 3 in local control and from the starboard side 40- and 20-millimeter guns. Their concentrated fire saved the ship from a second crash when the plane burst into flames and splashed into the sea close aboard. Soon thereafter, control was shifted aft to secondary conn, and fires were under control within 15 minutes.

Throughout the action, though seriously wounded and horribly burned, the warship's commanding officer, Comdr. George F. Davis, continued to conn his ship and exhorted her crew to heroic efforts to save the ship. Only after he was certain that she would remain afloat and intact, did he consent to relinquish command to the executive officer and allowed himself to be carried below. Comdr. Davis succumbed to his wounds several hours later; but, for his gallant action, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, posthumously. He was further honored by having the destroyer Davis named for him.

Walke continued to operate with TG 77.2 until after the landings on 9 January. The next day, she departed the gulf with Task Unit (TU) 78.4.2 and headed for Leyte. She arrived in San Pedro Bay on 13 January and remained there undergoing patching for two days before getting underway for the Admiralty Islands. She received further temporary repairs at Manus Island from 18 to 21 January and then resumed her voyage home, via Pearl Harbor. The ship reached the Mare Island Navy Yard on 6 February and began permanent repairs. The last of her extensive battle damage had been corrected by 4 April, when the ship set a course—via Pearl Harbor, Eniwetok, and Ulithi— for Okinawa where, on 10 May, she joined the campaign to capture that island. During the first part of her stay in the Ryukyus, she served as a support ship on radar picket stations around Okinawa. On 24 June, she was ordered to join the screen of Task Force (TF) 32, the Amphibious Support Force, with which she operated until 23 July. The following day, she departed the Ryukyus in the screen of a task unit, bound for Leyte, and underwent an availability at San Pedro Bay from 28 July to 14 August. On the latter day, Walke and Barton got underway to rendezvous at sea with TF 38. The destroyer joined the screen of TG 38.3 on 18 August—three days after hostilities ended. On 10 September, she switched to the screen of TG 38.1 and operated with the fast carriers.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Walke_(DD-723)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1945 - Invasion of Lingayen Gulf


The Invasion of Lingayen Gulf (Filipino: Paglusob sa Golfo ng Lingayen), 6–9 January 1945, was an Allied amphibious operation in the Philippines during World War II. In the early morning of 6 January 1945, a large Allied force commanded by Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf began approaching the shores of Lingayen. U.S. Navy and Royal Australian Navy warships began bombarding suspected Japanese positions along the coast of Lingayen from their position in Lingayen Gulf for three days. On 9 January, the U.S. 6th Army landed on a 20 mi (32 km) beachhead between the towns of Lingayen and San Fabian.


The U.S. Navy battleship USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) leading USS Colorado (BB-45) and the cruisers USS Louisville (CA-28), USS Portland (CA-33), and USS Columbia (CL-56) into Lingayen Gulf, Philippines, in January 1945.

Background
During World War II, the Lingayen Gulf proved a strategically important theater of war between American and Japanese forces. On 22 December 1941, the Japanese 14th Army—under Lieutenant General Masaharu Homma—landed on the Eastern part of the gulf at Agoo, Caba, Santiago and Bauang, where they engaged in a number of relatively minor skirmishes with the defenders, which consisted of a poorly equipped contingent of predominantly American and Filipino troops, and managed to successfully invade and occupy the gulf. Following the defeat, the next day General Douglas MacArthur issued the order to retreat from Luzon and withdraw to Bataan. For the next three years, the gulf remained under Japanese occupation prior to the Lingayen Gulf Landings.

Operations


USS Columbia is attacked by a kamikaze off Lingayen Gulf, 6 January 1945.


The kamikaze aircraft hits Columbiaat 17:29.

Beginning on 6 January 1945, a heavy naval and air bombardment of suspected Japanese defenses on Lingayen began. Underwater demolitions began, but found no beach obstacles, and encountered sparse opposing forces. Aircraft and naval artillery bombardment of the landing areas also occurred, with kamikazes attacking on the 7th. On the 8th, it was observed that in the town of Lingayen, as a response to the pre-landing bombardment, Filipinos had begun to form a parade, complete with United States and Philippine flags; fire was shifted away from that area.

At 09:30 on 9 January 1945, about 68,000 GIs under General Walter Krueger of the U.S. 6th Army—following a devastating naval bombardment—landed at the coast of Lingayen Gulf meeting no opposition. A total of 203,608 soldiers were eventually landed over the next few days, establishing a 20 mi (32 km) beachhead, stretching from Sual, Lingayen and Dagupan (XIV Corps) to the west, and San Fabian (I Corps) to the east. The total number of troops under the command of MacArthur was reported to have even exceeded the number that Dwight D. Eisenhower controlled in Europe. Within a few days, the assault forces had quickly captured the coastal towns and secured the 20-mile-long (32 km) beachhead, as well as penetrating up to five miles (8 km) inland.

Despite their success in driving out the Japanese forces stationed there, they suffered relatively heavy losses; particularly to their convoys, due to kamikaze attacks. From 4–12 January, a total of 24 ships were sunk and another 67 were damaged by kamikazes; including the battleships USS Mississippi, New Mexico and Colorado (the latter was accidentally hit by friendly fire), the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, the light cruiserUSS Columbia, and the destroyers USS Long and USS Hovey. Following the landings, the Lingayen Gulf was turned into a vast supply depot for the rest of the war to support the Battle of Luzon.

Commemoration
On 9 January 2008, Gov. Amado Espino, Jr. and Vice Gov. Marlyn Primicias-Agabas of Pangasinan institutionalized the commemoration to honor the war veterans. The resolution named 9 January as Pangasinan Veterans' Day. In the 63rd anniversary commemoration of the Lingayen Gulf Landing, President Fidel Ramos appealed to U.S. President George W. Bush for 24,000 surviving war veterans, to pass two legislative bills pending since 1968 at the US House of Representatives — the Filipino Veterans' Equity Act of 2006 and the Filipino Veterans' Equity of 2005 sponsored by former Senator Daniel Inouye.


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1962 - The french shipyard Chantiers de l'Atlantique delivered the longest passenger ship of the world, the SS France, to the new owner French line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique


SS France was a Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT, or French Line) ocean liner, constructed by the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard at Saint-Nazaire, France, and put into service in February 1962. At the time of her construction in 1960, the 316 m (1,037 ft) vessel was the longest passenger ship ever built, a record that remained unchallenged until the construction of the 345 m (1,132 ft) RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004.


The SS France docked at Kowloon in Hong Kong on her round-the-world final cruise as the France

France was later purchased by Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) in 1979, renamed SS Norway and underwent significant modifications that better suited her for cruising duties. She was renamed SS Blue Lady and sold to be scrapped in 2006, and scrapping was completed in late 2008.

Tonnage:

• 66,343 GT (1961)
• 70,202 GT (1984)
• 76,049 GT (1990)

Length:316.1 m (1,035 ft)
Beam:33.8 m (110.6 ft)
waterline Draft:10.8 m (34 ft)
Decks:12
Propulsion:

• Geared CEM-Parsons turbines
• quadruple propeller (1961–1979)
• / twin propeller (1979–2008)

Speed:30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)
approx.Capacity:

• 1961–1974
• First class: 407
• Tourist class: 1,637
• 1980–1990 - 1,944 passengers
• 1994–2003 - 2,565 passengers

Crew:

• 1961–1974 - 1,253
• 1980–1990 - 875
• 1994–2003 - 875

Notes: Cost US$80 million approx.


Norway leaving Lloyd shipyards in Bremerhaven after conversion

Characteristics
France was the French Line flagship from 1961 to 1974, combining regular five days/nights transatlantic crossings with occasional winter cruises, as well as two world circumnavigations. During her last years, to save fuel costs, crossings took six days/nights.

As Norway she was the flagship of the Norwegian Cruise Line from 1980 to approximately 2001.

Some, like ship historian John Maxtone-Graham, believe that France was purposely built to serve as both a liner and a cruise ship, stating: "Once again, the company had cruise conversion in mind... for cruises, all baffle doors segregating staircases from taboo decks were opened to permit free circulation throughout the vessel." However, others, such as ship historian William Miller, have asserted that France was the "last purposely designed year-round transatlantic supership."


Norway at Velsen, the Netherlands

Concept and construction
France was constructed to replace the line's other ageing ships like SS Ile de France and SS Liberté, which were outdated by the 1950s.[citation needed] Without these vessels the French Line had no ability to compete against their rivals,[citation needed] most notably the Cunard Line, which also had plans for constructing a new modern liner. It was rumoured that this ship would be a 75,000-ton replacement for their ships RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth. (This ship would eventually be the 68,000-ton Queen Elizabeth 2.) Further, the United States Lines had put into service in 1952 SS United States, which had broken all speed records on her maiden voyage, with an average speed of 35.59 knots (65.91 km/h; 40.96 mph).

At first, the idea of two 35,000-ton running mates was considered to replace Ile de France and Liberté. Charles de Gaulle (the future President of France) opined that it would be better for French national pride, then flagging due to the then ongoing Algerian War of Independence, to construct one grand ocean liner, in the tradition of SS Normandie, as an ocean-going showcase for France. The idea of such a publicly funded liner was controversial, leading to raucous debates in the French parliament. The dealing lasted three and a half years, and though the letter commissioning the construction was finally signed by the Chairman of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Jean Marie, on 25 July 1956, debate about the form, cost and construction schedule for France lasted a further year.

Beyond the luxuries, the French Line had to also face the realities that transatlantic passenger trade was forecast to decline due to increased air travel. Also, costs to operate ships were increasing, mostly due to prices of crude oil.[citation needed] Thus, the new ship would be larger than Ile, but smaller and cheaper to operate than Normandie. She would also only be a two-class liner, which would, like the recently built SS Rotterdam, be able to be converted from a segregated, class restricted crossing mode to a unified, classless cruising mode, thereby allowing the ship to be more versatile in its operations. Despite these requirements, she was still to be the longest ship ever built, as well as one of the fastest, meaning not only an advanced propulsion system, but also a hull design which would withstand the rigours of the North Atlantic at high speed.

Hull G19 was built by Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard, in Saint-Nazaire, France, her keel being laid down on 7 September 1957. She was built in a pioneering manner: rather than constructing a skeleton which was then covered in steel hull plating, large parts of the ship were prefabricated in other cities (such as Orléans, Le Havre and Lyon). The hull was fully welded, leading to weight savings, and two sets of stabilisers were fitted.

She was blessed by the Bishop of Nantes, Monseigneur Villepelet, and launched on 11 May 1960, at 4:15 pm, by Madame Yvonne de Gaulle, wife of the President, and was then named France, in honour both of the country, and of the two previous CGT ships to bear the name. By 4:22 pm France was afloat and under command of tugs. President De Gaulle was also in attendance at the launch, and gave a patriotic speech, announcing that France had been given a new Normandie, they were able to compete now with Cunard's Queens, and the Blue Riband was within their reach.[citation needed] In reality, however, the 35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph) speed of United States would prove impossible to beat.

After the launch, the propellers were installed (the entire process taking over three weeks), the distinctive funnels affixed to the upper decks, the superstructure completed, life boats placed in their davits, and the interiors fitted out. France then undertook her sea trials on 19 November 1961, and averaged an unexpected 35.21 knots (65.21 km/h; 40.52 mph). With the French Line satisfied, the ship was handed over, and undertook a trial cruise to the Canary Islands with a full complement of passengers and crew. During this short trip she met, at sea, Liberté which was on her way to the shipbreakers.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_France_(1961)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 6 January


1711 – Death of Philips van Almonde, Dutch admiral (b. 1646)

Philips van Almonde (29 December 1644 – 6 January 1711) was a Dutch Lieutenant Admiral, who served in his nation’s maritime conflicts of the 17th and early 18th centuries.



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


1807 Boats of HMS Imperieuse (38), Cptn. Lord Cochrane, destroyed a fortress in Bay of Arcasson, near Rochefort.

HMS Imperieuse was a 38-gun fifth-rate, previously the Spanish ship Medea (1797). She was captured in 1804 and taken into service as HMS Iphigenia but renamed Imperieuse in 1805, placed on harbour service in 1818, and sold in 1838.


1813 Boats of HMS Bacchante (38), Cptn. William Hoste, took 5 French gun-brigs off Otranto.

HMS Bacchante (1811) – 38-gun fifth rate launched in 1811 at Deptford. She was converted to harbour service in 1837 and scrapped in 1858.


1813 - During the War of 1812, USS Hornet, commanded by J. Lawrence, captured the merchant schooner, Ellen, off the coast of Brazil.

The third USS Hornet was a brig-rigged (later ship-rigged) sloop-of-war in the United States Navy.[Notes 1] During the War of 1812, she was the first U.S. Navy ship to capture a British privateer.


Artist's depiction of Hornet's foundering

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hornet_(1805)


1814 - HMS Tagus (38), Cptn. Philip Pipon, and HMS Niger (38), Cptn. Peter Ranier, took the French frigate Ceres (44), Cptn. Baron de Bourgainville, off Cape Verde Islands.

The next HMS Severn was to have been a 38-gun fifth rate. She was renamed HMS Tagus before her launch in 1813.

HMS Ceres (1781) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1781 and broken up in 1830. Because Ceres served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants


1829 – Launch of HMS Andromeda, Andromeda sub-Class (2nd modified version of Seringapatam Class)

The Seringapatam-class frigates, were a class of British Royal Navy 46-gun sailing frigates. The first vessel of the class was HMS Seringapatam. Seringapatam's design was based on the French frigate Président, which the British had captured in 1806. Seringapatam was originally ordered as a 38-gun frigate, but the re-classification of British warships which took effect in February 1817 raised this rating to 46-gun.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Madegascar (1822), Manilla (cancelled 1831), both building at Bombay, India. The plan was later used with alterations in November 1820 for Druid (1825), and alterations dated February 1822 for the Africaine (1827). The alterations dated 13 October 1827 relate to Jason (cancelled 1831), Pique (cancelled 1832), Tigris (cancelled 1832), Statira (cancelled 1832), Stag (1830), Forth (1833), Severn (cancelled 1831), Seahorse (1830), Euphrates (cancelled 1831), Spartan (cancelled 1831), Theban (cancelled 1831), Tiber (cancelled 1831), Andromeda (1828), Meander (1840), Orpheus (cancelled 1831), all 46-gun Fifth Rate Frigates.

The Admiralty ordered six further ships to this design – including three ships which had originally been ordered as Leda-class frigates, but the Seringapatam design was subsequently altered to produce a Modified version which was labelled the Druid sub-class, and three of the ships formerly ordered to the Seringapatam original design (Madagascar, Nemesis and Jason) were re-ordered to this modified design. Subsequently a further modification of the design was produced, which was labelled the Andromeda sub-class, and the remaining three of the ships formerly ordered to the Seringapatam original design (Manilla, Tigris and Statira) were re-ordered to this modified design. Further vessels were ordered to both modified designs, but the majority of these were subsequently cancelled.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile illustrating the diagonal bracing and riders for the Seringapatam Class No. 3. This refers to the sub-class of Seringapatam with the final alterations to the original design and relates to Pique (cancelled 1832), Andromeda (1829), Seahorse (1830), Stage (1830), Euphrates (cancelled 1831), Maeander (1840), Forth (1833), Inconstant (cancelled 1832), Orpheus (cancelled 1831), Severn (cancelled 1831), Tiber (cancelled 1831), Manilla (cancelled 1831), Spartan (cancelled 1831), Theban (cancelled 1831), Jason (cancelled 1831), Statira (cancelled 1832), and Tigris (cancelled 1832), all 46-gun Fifth Rate Frigates.

Seringapatam class 46-gun fifth rates, 1819–40
Druid sub-class (1st modified version of Seringapatam Class)
Andromeda sub-Class (2nd modified version of Seringapatam Class)

• HMS Seringapatam 1819
• HMS Madagascar 1822
• HMS Druid 1825
• HMS Nemesis 1826
• HMS Africaine 1827
• HMS Leda 1828
• HMS Hotspur 1828
• HMS Eurotas 1829
• HMS Andromeda 1829
• HMS Seahorse 1830
• HMS Stag 1830
• HMS Forth 1833
• HMS Maeander 1840
• HMS Euphrates - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Orpheus - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Severn - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Tiber - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Manilla - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Spartan - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Theban - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Jason - cancelled 1831.
• HMS Statira - cancelled 1832.
• HMS Tigris - cancelled 1832.
• HMS Inconstant - cancelled 1832.
• HMS Pique - cancelled 1832.

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


1892 - USS Albert Gallatin (1871) wrecked

Albert Gallatin was a U.S. Revenue Cutter that grounded on Boo Hoo Ledge off Manchester, MA on 6 January 1892


Revenue cutter Albert Gallatin

History
Named after President Thomas Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury, the Albert Gallatin was built in Buffalo, New York in 1871 at a cost of $65,000. She was armed with a 2.6 pdr(1.2 kg), brass Whitworth carriage gun, mounted in a broadside and sported an iron hull and mahogany decks. The initial propulsion was a horizontal, direct-acting steam engine with a Fowler steering propeller which was removed in 1874.

Albert Gallatin was ported in Boston Harbor and patrolled from Portsmouth, NH to Holmes Hole, MA. Captain Gabrielson also skippered the Revenue Cutter Dexter when it came to the aid of City of Columbus which wrecked off Martha's Vineyard.

The shipwreck
In the morning of 6 January 1892, Capt. Gabrielson was attempting to make the safety of Gloucester Harbor during a snowstorm and became disoriented. The cutter hit Boo Hoo Ledge hard. While trying to free the ship of the ledge the ship flooded and the smokestack fell onto the ship, killing the ship's carpenter, Mr. J. Jacobson. The other 39 members of the crew were rescued. At the time of her sinking, Gallatin was armed with two 20-pound Dahlgren guns on Marsilly carriages. In small arms, she had new Lee magazine rifles and other pistols cited in Barnstable (MA) Patriot, 12 January 1892. The current coordinates of Albert Gallatin are 42°33′50″N 70°44′52″W, at a depth of around 50 ft (15 m).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Albert_Gallatin_(1871)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1760 - French Modeste, a 64-gun Vaillant class Ship of the Line and launched in 1759, captured later that year on 18 August 1759, was purchased for the Navy


HMS Modeste was a 64-gun Vaillant class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously the Modeste, of the French Navy, launched in 1759 and captured later that year.



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and the name in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Modeste' (1759), a captured French Third Rate, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard. Signed by Edward Allin [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]. Reverse: Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the roundhouse, quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, gun deck (lower deck), orlop deck, hold and platforms, for 'Modeste' (1759).

Class and type: 64-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1,357 47/94 bm
Length:

• 158 ft 6 in (48.3 m) (overall)
• 129 ft (39.3 m) (keel)

Beam: 44 ft 5.75 in (13.6 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 8 in (5.99 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 500
Armament:

• 64 guns:
• Lower Deck: 26 x 24pdrs
• Upper Deck: 28 x 12pdrs
• Quarterdeck: 6 x 6pdrs
• Forecastle: 4 x 6pdrs

La bataille de Lagos, en 1759, lors de laquelle le Modeste est perdu par la Marine française.

French career and capture
Modeste was laid down at Toulon in April 1756 to a design by Noël Pomet, and was launched on 12 February 1759. Work on her was completed by May 1759, and she joined "Admiral" Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran's fleet in the port. The Seven Years' War was being fought at the time, and the Toulon fleet was being blockaded by Admiral Edward Boscawen. Taking advantage of the British fleet's departure for supplies, the French left port and sailed into the Atlantic. There they were chased and finally brought to battle by Boscawen off Lagos, Portugal. The ensuing Battle of Lagos, fought between 18 and 19 August 1759, saw the defeat of the French fleet, with two of their ships destroyed and three taken. Captured alongside Modeste were the 74-gun ships Téméraire and Centaure.

Taken as a prize into Portsmouth, she was surveyed there that December, and was purchased for the navy on 7 January 1760 for the sum of £17,068.18.1½. She was named HMS Modeste, retaining her French name, on 11 January and was added to the navy lists. Having been commissioned into the navy, she underwent a refit in June and July 1760.


Le Vaillant (sistership), à gauche, au combat contre le HMS Centaur en 1760

British career
Modeste was commissioned under her first commander, Captain Henry Speke, in April 1760, though command soon passed to Captain Robert Walsingham. Walsingham went out to the Mediterranean and was involved in naval operations there, capturing the 32-gun Bouffonne off Cadiz at the Action of 17 July 1761, while in company with HMS Thetis. Modeste then sailed to the Leeward Islands in October 1761 and was present at the reduction of Martinique in January and February 1762. Captain John Hollwall took command later that year and Modeste remained in the Leeward Islands until returning to Britain to be paid off in March 1764.

She spent the next few years laid up, being occasionally surveyed and repaired as required. She was fitted out at Portsmouth in early 1771 and was recommissioned as a guard ship under Captain John Wheelock. She went out to Jamaica in June 1771, but returned to Britain to be paid off in October 1772. She was fitted out for her final role, a receiving ship at Portsmouth, between July and August 1778. She saw out the rest of the American War of Independence and most of the French Revolutionary Wars in this state, until finally being broken up at Portsmouth in August 1800.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, inboard profiel (no waterlines) and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Modeste' (1759), a captured French Third Rate, prior to fitting as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard.


Vaillant class. Designed and built by Noël Pomet.

• Vaillant' 64 (launched 1 October 1755 at Toulon) - hulked 1783.
• Modeste 64 (launched 12 February 1759 at Toulon) – captured by the British in the Battle of Lagos in August 1759 and added to the RN under the same name, BU 1800

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Modeste_(1759)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modeste_(1759)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-331691;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1783 - HMS Raven (1777 - 18) was captured by french Concorde (1777 - 32) in company with Nymphe after a longer chase


On 5 January 1783, HMS Raven was in company with the 74-gun HMS Hercules off Montserrat when they sighted a strange sail. Raven sailed to investigate, but the strange vessel turned out to be a British merchantman, as did another. By this time Raven was well out of sight of Hercules.

That evening and the next day there was no wind. At about 10a.m. on the morning of 7 January, Raven sighted two frigates sailing towards her from the direction of Guadeloupe. Raven initially sailed towards them until she realized that they were not British frigates, but the french Concorde and Nymphe.

An all-day chase ensued until about 9p.m. when one of the frigates got within pistol-shot and fired a broadside that shot away Raven's main topgallant-mast. The chase continued until about 10:30 p.m. when one of the frigates was again in range, with the other coming up rapidly. At this point Raven, which was under the command of Commander John Wells, struck. The French Navy took Raven into service under the name Cérès. Wells and his crew remained prisoners of war until the end of the war a few months later.

The Ships
HMS Ceres was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1777 for the British Royal Navy that the French captured in December 1778 off Saint Lucia. The French Navy took her into service as Cérès. The British recaptured her in 1782 and renamed her HMS Raven, only to have the French recapture her again early in 1783. The French returned her name to Cérès, and she then served in the French Navy until sold at Brest in 1791.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some midship section framing, longitudinal half-breadth for Ceres (1777), an 18-gun Ship Sloop.

Displacement: 450 tons (French)
Tons burthen: 361 26⁄94(bm)
Length:

• 108 ft 0 in (32.9 m) (gundeck)
• 90 ft 11 1⁄4 in (27.7 m) (keel)

Beam: 27 ft 4 in (8.3 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 5 in (3.8 m)
Sail plan: Sloop
Complement: 125

HMS Ceres
Ceres was the only ship-sloop of her design. The British Admiralty ordered her in 1774 with the requirement that her design follow that of HMS Pomona, the 18-gun French sloop-of-war Cheveret, which the Royal Navy had captured on 30 January 1761 and that had disappeared, presumed foundered, during a hurricane in 1776.

On 9 March 1778, near Barbados, Ariadne and Ceres encountered two vessels belonging to the Continental Navy, Raleigh and Alfred. When the American ships attempted to flee, Alfred fell behind her faster consort. Shortly after noon the British men-of-war caught up with Alfred and forced her to surrender after a half an hour's battle. Her captors described Alfred as being of 300 tons and 180 men, and under the command of Elisha Hinsman.

On 18 October 1778, Ceres captured the French privateer Tigre.

A little over a month later, on 17 December 1778, the French captured Ceres off St Lucia. Ceres was escorting a convoy of transport at the time, and Dacres acted to decoy the French 50-gun ship of the line Sagittaire and frigate Iphigénie away from the convoy, which Dacres sent on to Saint Lucia. After a chase of 48 hours, Dacres was forced to strike to Iphigénie as Sagittaire was only three miles astern and closing.

The British fleet under Admiral Barrington that had captured St Lucia, captured the American privateer Bunker Hill on 22 December 1778. Barrington decided to take her into service as HMS Surprize as she was a fast sailer and he had just been informed that the French had captured Ceres. Barrington also arranged an exchange of prisoners with the French, the crew of Bunker Hill for the crew of Ceres. Dacres subsequently returned to England.

Cérès
The French Navy coppered Cérès after they captured her. She came to be known as Petite Cérès to distinguish her from the French 32-gun frigate Cérès launched in 1779.

In 1779 Cérès was under the Marquis de Traversay. Under his command she seized numerous British transports. In October, Ceres participated in the attempt by French and Continental Army to retake Savannah. Despite the assistance of a French naval squadron commanded by Comte d'Estaing, the effort was a spectacular failure,

In 1780 Cérès was part of the fleet under Admiral the comte de Guichen. She participated in the battle of Martinique on 17 April, and in two subsequent fleet engagements on 15 and 19 May.

In September, Cérès arrived at Cadiz as a member of a squadron under Guichen that escorted 95 merchant vessels back from the West Indies. On 7 November, Admiral the Comte d'Estaing sortied from Cadiz with the Franco-Spanish fleet there. Cérès, under the command of Traversay, was in the Van Division. The fleet soon returned to port, not having accomplished anything.

Main article: Battle of the Mona Passage
Rodney's fleet recaptured Cérès in the Mona Passage in April 1782. The actual captor was Champion, under the command of Captain Alexander Hood. Champion was part of a squadron under Alexander Hood's brother, Sir Samuel Hood, which Rodney detached in the wake of the battle of the Saintes.

Cérès departed Guadeloupe on 15 April 1782.) On 19 April the British sighted five small French warships and gave chase to them, capturing four. Cérès was under the command of Baron de Peroy, who became friends with his captor, Alexander Hood. After the war Alexander Hood visited Peroy in France.

Because the Royal Navy had a new HMS Ceres (1781 - 32), they renamed their capture HMS Raven.

HMS Raven
Between June and September 1782, Raven was at Plymouth, undergoing fitting. This included coppering.

In July 1782, Commander William Domett commissioned Raven. On 9 September Commander John Wells replaced Domett. At some point Wells sailed Raven to the West Indies.

Cérès
After the capture by the french, the French Navy returned Raven to her earlier name, Cérès. The French Navy sold Cérès at Brest in 1791


Concorde was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Built in Rochefort in 1777, she entered service with the French early in the American War of Independence, and was soon in action, capturing HMS Minerva in the West Indies. She survived almost until the end of the war, but was captured by HMS Magnificent in 1783. Not immediately brought into service due to the draw-down in the navy after the end of the war, she underwent repairs and returned to active service under the White Ensign with the outbreak of war with France in 1793 as the fifth-rate HMS Concorde.

Initially part of squadrons cruising off the French coast, she played an important part in the Action of 23 April 1794, capturing the French frigate Engageante, and at a later engagement, where she helped to capture the French frigate Virginie. From 1797 until the early 19th century she had especial success against privateers, capturing a large number in the West Indies and in the Atlantic. She had a narrow escape from a superior French force in 1801, but was able to batter her pursuer, the 40-gun Bravoure into submission. She was prevented from capturing her by the arrival of French reinforcements. Her last years were spent on a variety of stations, including at the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies. Laid up in 1807, she was sold for breaking up in 1811.

Class and type: 32-gun fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 888 82⁄94 bm
Length:

• 142 ft 11 in (43.6 m) (overall)
• 118 ft 10 in (36.2 m) (keel)

Beam: 37 ft 6 in (11.4 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 7 in (3.53 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 220

Construction and French career
Concorde was one of a three-ship class of Concorde-class frigates built for the French Navy to a design by Henri Chevillard. She was built at Rochefort between April 1777 and January 1778, being launched on 3 September 1777. She went out to the West Indies after the French entry to the American War of Independence, and reached Martinique on 17 August 1778. On 28 August 1778 she came up on the 32-gun HMS Minerva, under Captain John Stott, and after two and a half hours of fighting, captured her. Minerva was towed to Cap Français on Saint-Domingue, where she was joined shortly afterwards by the captured HMS Active, which a hurricane had dismasted in late August and which the French frigates Charmante and Dédaigneuse had captured on 1 September.

In 1781 Concorde was responsible for vital transfers of personnel, funds, and communications that contributed to the allied success at Yorktown. In March 1781 she carried despatches to George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau from France. These despatches included a request from the comte de Grasse, commander of the West Indies fleet, for information on planned allied operations and the delivery of pilots familiar with the American coast. She also carried 6 million livres to support the war effort, and the new commander of the French naval squadron at Newport, Rhode Island, the comte de Barras. Following a conference of allied leaders in May, Concorde was sent to Cap-Français with despatches for de Grasse and the requested pilots. When de Grasse received these despatches, he made the critical decision to sail his fleet to the Chesapeake Bay to assist in land operations against British forces operating under the command of Charles Cornwallis in Virginia. Concorde carried de Grasse's letters for Washington, Rochambeau, and de Barras back to Newport; arrival of this news set in motion Washington's march to Virginia and the eventual entrapment of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

action on 7 January 1783

Capture


Concorde and HMS Minerva

On 15 February the 74-gun HMS Magnificent, under Captain Robert Linzee, sighted Concorde. Magnificent had sailed from Gros Islet Bay on 12 February on a cruise in company with the 64-gun ships HMS Prudent and HMS St Albans, and on sighting the strange sail, Magnificent gave chase. She was close enough to identify the mysterious ship as a frigate by 18:00, and by 20:00 as darkness fell Concorde opened fire on her pursuer with her stern guns. Magnificent overhauled the French ship by 21:15, and after fifteen minutes forced her to strike her colours. Magnificent took possession of Concorde, the latter being described as carrying 36 guns and 300 men, and being under the command of M. le Chevalier du Clesmaur. Shortly after surrendering the Concorde's maintopsail caught fire, forcing the crew to cut away the mainmast to extinguish it. Prudent and St Albans came up two hours later and Magnificent towed Concorde to St. John's, Antigua.

Interwar years
Concorde was bought into the navy and commissioned in the West Indies for a return to Britain later in the year, though her commander for this voyage is unknown. She arrived in Britain and was paid off in September at Chatham. With the end of the American War of Independence and the draw-down in the navy, Concorde was not brought into immediate service but remained laid up at Chatham until November 1790, when a great repair was begun by Wilson, of Frindsbury. The work, which cost a total of £18,259, was completed by April 1793, by which time the French Revolutionary Wars had broken out. She was fitted for service at Chatham between April and May 1793, at a cost of £6,600, and was commissioned in April under Captain Thomas Wells.

French Revolutionary Wars
In 1794 command of Concorde passed to Captain Sir Richard Strachan, and she joined Commodore John Borlase Warren's squadron off the French coast. The squadron also included Warren's 36-gun HMS Flora, the 38-gun HMS Arethusa under Captain Sir Edward Pellew, and the 36-gun frigates HMS Melampus, under Captain Thomas Wells, and HMS Nymphe, under Captain George Murray.

Concorde and Engageante

Depiction of the Action of 23 April 1794

While sailing off the Channel Islands on 23 April the British squadron came across a French squadron under Commodore Desgareaux consisting of the 36-gun Engageante, the 44-gun Pomone, the 36-gun Résolue and the 24-gun Babet. Warren chased and engaged them, leading the attack in Flora. When the Flora was badly damaged from the combined fire from the French ships, the remaining British ships came up in support, and forced the rear-most French ships, Babet and Pomone, to surrender. Melampus, Nymphe and Concorde gave chase to the fleeing Résolue and Engageante. Strachan in Concorde attempted to damage the rearmost of the French ships, Engageante, before pushing on to chase Résolue, but the Résolue dropped back to support the Engageante, damaging Concorde's sails and rigging. With Nymphe and Melampus still too far astern, and unable to catch Résolue himself, Strachan engaged Engageante and after 105 minutes of fighting, forced her to surrender, while Résolue made her escape. The Concorde lost one man killed and 12 wounded in the fighting.


The other vessels depicted are, from left to right, the Engageante (French), the Concorde (British) and the Resolve (French).

Concorde and Virginie
Concorde was then assigned to Rear-Admiral George Montagu's squadron in May 1794, and took part in the manoeuvres during the Atlantic campaign of May 1794. Strachan left Concorde in July 1794 to take command of HMS Melampus, and in August Captain Anthony Hunt took over command of Concorde. Concorde was part of John Warren's squadron off Quiberon between June and July 1795, supporting the Quiberon Expedition, after which she joined Sir Edward Pellew's squadron. On 20 April 1796 Pellew's squadron, then consisting of Concorde, Pellew's 38-gun HMS Indefatigable and the 36-gun HMS Amazon under Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds, spotted and chased a mysterious sail. After chasing her for 15 hours over 168 miles they caught up with her, with Indefatigable leading the attack. Both ships exchanged fire, considerably damaging each other, upon which Concorde came up under her stern and forced her to surrender. She was discovered to be the 40-gun Virginie, under Captain Jacques Bergeret. The captured French ship was towed to port and taken into the navy.

Later years
On 31 January 1795 Concorde was part of a squadron under Captain Sir John Borlase Warren that seized the Dutch East India Ship Ostenhuyson.

Command of Concorde passed from Hunt to Captain Richard Bagot in November 1796, and he in turn was succeeded by Captain Batholomew Roberts in June 1797. Concorde captured the 4-gun privateer Poisson Volant off Cape Finisterre on 24 July 1797. She was bound from Bordeaux to Guadeloupe carrying wines and merchandise, after which she intended to cruise as a privateer in the West Indies. Concorde was later commanded by Captain Robert Barton, who took a number of privateers in a series of cruises in the West Indies in 1798, capturing the 16-gun Caye du Pont off St Bartholomew on 3 January, the 8-gun Proserpine off Montserrat on 8 January, the 8-gun Hardi off Barbuda on 11 February, the 2-gun Hazard off Montserrat on 13 February and the 2-gun Rosière off Montserrat on 1 April. In an action with HMS Lapwing on 8 and 9 September she captured four privateers, the 8-gun Buonaparte, 10-gun Amazone, 4-gun Sauveur and 2-gun Fortune.

Concorde's success against privateers continued with the capture of the 18-gun Prudente on 14 February 1799 and the 6-gun San Josef off Oporto in December 1800 and the 1-gun San Miguel el Volante on 1 December 1800. Concorde had a narrow escape from a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Honoré Joseph Antoine Ganteaume, which had sailed from Brest on 23 January 1801. The French sighted Concorde off Cape Finisterre on 27 January, and the 40-gun Bravoure was sent to chase her down. Concorde cast off a Swedish ship she was towing and drew the French frigate away from the main body of the fleet. Barton then turned and engaged her for forty minutes, silencing her guns. By now the main French fleet was fast approaching, and with his sails and rigging damaged, Barton did not attempt to take possession of Bravoure and instead made for a British port to report the encounter. Concorde had four men killed and 19 wounded in the engagement, while Bravoure had 10 killed and 24 wounded.

Napoleonic Wars
Captain John Wood succeeded Barton in 1802, and the following year Concorde went out to the Cape of Good Hope. On 7 November 1804, she captured the 24-gun privateer Fortune, under François-Thomas Le Même, after a ten-hour running battle. In the battle Fortune lost two men killed and had four wounded; Concorde had no casualties. Fortune also suffered extensive damage to her rigging. A few days earlier at Qais Island Fortune had captured and scuttled Fly, a 14-gun brig belonging to the Bombay Marine of the British East India Company. Captain Wood received his prisoners "with distinction" and Concorde returned to Bombay. Fortune, reduced to a poor condition, limped in several days later.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Concorde_(1783)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ceres_(1777)

See also The Planset Review of the Hermione from ancre:
https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/planset-review-hermione-12-pdr-frigate-of-the-american-war-of-independence-1779-1793-in-scale-1-48-by-jc-lemineur.2727/#post-47495

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1790 – Launch of French Jean Bart, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


Jean Bart was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Ship history
The ship was laid down at Lorient on 1 June 1788 from a design by Jacques-Noël Sané, and launched on 7 November 1790. Construction was delayed by lack of materials, and she was not completed until March 1791.

Class and type: Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement:

• 2,966 tonnes
• 5,260 tonnes fully loaded

Length: 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam: 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught: 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion: Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:

• 74 guns:
• Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns
• Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns
• Forecastle and Quarter deck:
• • 16 × 8-pounder long guns
  • 4 × 36-pounder carronades

Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Jean Bart (1791), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.

In 1793, she was part of the squadron led by Van Stabel. Along with the Tigre, she rescued the Sémillante which was in danger of being captured by the British.

She took part in the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, and in the capture of HMS Alexander on 6 November. She was also part of the Croisière du Grand Hiver winter campaign in 1794/95, serving in Van Stabel's division, and was present at the Battle of Genoa in March 1795, and in Cornwallis's Retreat and the subsequent Battle of Groix in June 1795.

In 1800, she sailed to the Mediterranean and made her homeport at Toulon.




In February 1809, she formed part of a French fleet which departed from Brest intending to aid the French colony of Martinique which was under threat from invasion. The fleet sailed for Basque Roads to rendezvous with the Rochefort squadron but upon entering the roadstead they were immediately blockaded by the British. On 26 February 1809, the Jean Bart grounded on a shoal near Île Madame while attempting to enter the anchorage south of Ile d'Aix and was subsequently declared a wreck. In April, the British seized the wreck and burnt the remains.

Replica
A full-scale model is under construction in Gravelines, France.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Jean_Bart_(1791)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1795 – Launch of La Immortalité, a Romaine class frigate of the French Navy


The Immortalité was a Romaine class frigate of the French Navy.

She took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, and was captured shortly after the Battle of Tory Island by HMS Fisgard. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Immortalite and had an active career on the Home Station.

Class and type: Romaine class frigate
Displacement: 700 tonnes
Length: 45.5 m (149 ft)
Beam: 11.8 m (39 ft)
Draught: 5 m (16 ft)
Armament:

• 40 guns:
• 24 24-pounders
• 16 8-pounders

Capture of L' Immortalite Octr. 20th. 1798 [by the 'Fisgard'] (PAD5612)


HMS Fisgard taking the French Immortalite off Brest 20 Oct 1798 (PAF5951)

Napoleonic Wars
In the months before the resumption of war with France, the Navy started preparations that included impressing seamen. The crews of outbound Indiamen were an attractive target. Woodford and Ganges were sitting in the Thames in March 1803, taking their crews on board just prior to sailing. At sunset, a press gang from Immortalite rowed up to Woodford, while boats from HMS Amethyst and HMS Lynx approached Ganges. As the press gangs approached they were noticed, and the crews of both Indiamen were piped to quarters. That is, they assembled on the decks armed with pikes and cutlasses, and anything they could throw. The officers in charge of the press gangs thought this mere bravado and pulled alongside the Indiamen, only to meet a severe resistance from the crewmen, who had absolutely no desire to serve in the Royal Navy. The men from Immortalite suffered several injuries from shot and pike that were thrown at them, and eventually opened fire with muskets, killing two sailors on Woodford. Even so, the press gangs were not able to get on board either Indiaman, and eventually withdrew some distance. When Woodford's officers finally permitted the press gang from Immortalite to board, all they found on board were a few sickly sailors.

Fate
Immortalite was broken up in July 1806.



lines & profile NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 739, states that 'Desiree' (1800) arrived at Sheerness Dockyard on 12 July 1800, was docked on 23 August, and sailed on 10 November 1800 having been fitted. The work cost £10,258. She was sold to Mr Joseph Christie of Rotherhithe on 22 Agusut 1832 for £2,020.

The Romaine class was a class of nine frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1794 by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. They were originally designated as "bomb-frigates" (Fr. frégate-bombarde) and were intended to carry a main armament of twenty 24-pounder guns and a 12-inch mortar mounted on a turntable in front of the mizzen mast. Experience quickly led to the mortars being removed (in most vessels they were never fitted), and the 24-pounders were replaced by 18-pounder guns. The ships also featured a shot furnace, but they proved impractical, dangerous to the ships themselves, and were later discarded. A further eleven ships ordered to this design in 1794 were not built, or were completed to altered designs.

Two vessels of the class became breakwaters in less than 15 years after their construction. The British Royal Navy captured three. One was lost at sea. None had long active duty careers. All-in-all, these ships do not appear to have been successful with the initially intended armament, but proved of adequate performance once their heavy mortar was removed and their 24-pounders replaced with 18-pounder long guns.


The plate represents the sloop 'Dart', commanded by Captain P. Campbell in the act of boarding and taking the French frigate 'La Desiree'. 'Dart' is in the centre of the picture. Inscribed: "Capture of La Desiree - July 7th 1800."

Vessels in class

• Romaine

Builder: Le Havre
Begun: March 1794
Launched: 25 September 1794
Completed: December 1794
Fate: Condemned 1804.

• Immortalité

Builder: Lorient
Begun: May 1794
Launched: 7 January 1795
Completed: February 1795
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 20 October 1798, becoming HMS Immortalite.

• Impatiente

Builder: Lorient
Begun: May 1794
Launched: 12 March 1795
Completed: May 1795
Fate: Wrecked off Cape Clear on 29 December 1796.

• Incorruptible

Builder: Dieppe
Begun: March 1794
Launched: 20 May 1795
Completed: December 1795
Fate: Deleted 1815.

• Revanche

Builder: Dieppe
Begun: March 1794
Launched: 31 August 1795
Completed: December 1795
Fate: Deleted 1818 or 1819.

• Libre

Builder: Le Havre
Begun: August 1794
Launched: 11 February 1796
Completed: January 1798
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on December 1805, but not added to the British Navy.

• Comète

Builder: Le Havre
Begun: September 1794
Launched: 11 March 1796
Completed: January 1798
Fate: Converted to a breakwater 1808, taken to pieces 1810.

• Désirée

Builder: Dunkirk
Begun: February 1794
Launched: 23 April 1796
Completed: December 1798
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 8 July 1800, becoming HMS Desiree.

• Poursuivante

Builder: Dunkirk
Begun: February or April 1794
Launched: 24 May 1796
Completed: April 1798
Fate: Condemned 1805, made a breakwater 1806 or 1807.

Twenty ships of this type were originally included in the shipbuilding programme placed between October 1794 and April 1794, but several appear not to have been begun. Apart from the nine listed above, a tenth vessel, Furieuse, was begun at Cherbourg in March 1795 to the same design but was completed as a vessel of Forfait's earlier Seine class. An eleventh, Pallas (originally named Première) was begun at Saint-Malo in November 1795 to a much modified design; a twelfth, Fatalité was also ordered in October 1793 at Saint-Malo, but was cancelled in 1796, as was a further vessel, Nouvelle, ordered in 1794 at Lorient. Another vessel, Guerrière, was begun at Cherbourg in 1796 to this design but was also completed to a modified design.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Immortalité_(1795)
http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=1193
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romaine-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Desiree_1800

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1799 - HMS Apollo (38), Cptn. Peter Halkett, wrecked running on Haak Sands, coast of Holland, whilst chasing a Dutch ship.


HMS Apollo, the third ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars, but her career ended after just four years in service when she was wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast.


The Apollo frigate going before the wind

Construction
Apollo was ordered on 28 March 1793 and was laid down that month at the yards of John Perry & Hanket, at Blackwall. She was launched on 18 March 1794 and was completed at Woolwich Dockyard on 23 September 1794. She cost £13,577 to build; this rising to a total of £20,779 when the cost of fitting her for service was included.

Class and type: 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen: 994 12⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 146 ft 3 in (44.6 m) (overall)
• 121 ft 10 in (37.1 m) (keel)

Beam: 39 ft 2 in (11.9 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 270
Armament:

• Upper deck (UD): 28 × 18-pounder guns
• QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 12 × 32-pounder carronades
• Fc: 2 × 9-pounder bow chasers + 2 × 32-pounder carronades.

Scale: 1:48. A design block model of the ‘Artois’, a 38-gun frigate, built by Wells of Rotherhithe in 1794. The model is scenic, and is represented on a slipway, with complete with its launching flags. It carries a plaque inscribed ‘Artois tons 996 Guns 38 Built 1794. On a launch. This model represents the mode of launching ships in HM Dockyards at the present time, and was accepted subsequent to 1795’. ‘Artois’ captured several French ships before being wrecked near La Rochelle in 1797. The model was displayed in the naval museum in Somerset House, open to the public in 1838.

Career
Apollo was launched in March 1794 and commissioned in August under her first commander, Captain John Manley. Her career began inauspiciously, when Manley accidentally ran her aground on sandbanks in the mouth of the Wash in late 1794. On Manley's orders the ship was lightened by the disposal over the side of her stores and several of her guns, after which she floated free of the sand. Her rudder had broken in the process, and after some difficulty she was sailed to Great Yarmouthfor repairs.

In June 1796, she and Doris captured the French corvette Légère, of twenty-two 9-pounder guns and 168 men. Légère had left Brest on 4 June in company with three frigates. During her cruise she had captured six prizes. However, on 23 June she encountered the two British frigates at 48°30′N 8°28′W. After a 10-hour chase the British frigates finally caught up with her; a few shots were exchanged and then Légère struck. The Navy took into her service as HMS Legere.

Then in December, Apollo and Polyphemus were off the Irish coast when they captured the 14-gun French privateer schooner Deux Amis, of 100 tons bm and 80 men.[6] The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

In 1798 Captain Peter Halkett was appointed to the command of Apollo. Apollo shared with Cruizer, Lutine, and the hired armed cutter Rose om the proceeds from the capture on 13 May of the Houismon, Welfart, and Ouldst Kendt.

Fate
An accident at sea in late 1798 forced Apollo back to port in Great Yarmouth and left her with a depleted crew. A capstan pawl, or crossbar, had broken while the crew were raising the anchor, and the weight of the anchor and chain caused the remaining pawls to turn sharply as the anchor ran back out. Around thirty men were injured after being struck by the pawls. Halkett gave orders for a prompt return to port, where the injured men were discharged from Apollo's service and entrusted to local medical care. The ship then put back to sea on 5 January, without replacing the injured crew.

Halkett's orders were to take Apollo to a point off the coast of Holland, and there to seek out Dutch vessels for capture. One such vessel was sighted on 6 January, and Apollo was turned to give chase. The pursuit was hampered by thick fog, and at 7am on the following morning Apollo ran aground on the Haak Sandbank adjacent to Texel. Halkett ordered that the ship's stores and guns be thrown overboard in order to lighten her and float her free, but despite these efforts she remained stuck fast in the sands.

In the late afternoon, a Prussian galliot was sighted and hailed by Apollo's crew. After some negotiation, the Prussian captain agreed to jettison the bulk of his cargo of wines and take 250 of Apollo's crew back to England. The remaining crew members went aboard Apollo's cutter with plans to make their own way to port. By 9pm all crew members had left the British ship, which was then abandoned to the tides. The Prussian ship reached Yarmouth on 11 January, followed three days later by the cutter.

A Royal Navy court martial was established to examine the reasons for the loss of the ship. Apollo's pilot, John Bruce was found to have shown "great want of skill" in the execution of his duties, and he was dismissed forthwith from naval service. No findings were made against Captain Halkett, who returned to the Navy at his previous rank and was granted command of a newly completed 36-gun frigate, also named Apollo.


Lines (ZAZ2383)

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built - the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.



Scale: 1:48. A model of one of the nine ships of the 'Artois/Apollo' class of 38-gun frigates designed by Sir John Henslow and built between 1793 and 1795. Seven were built conventionally in private shipyards and two more were constructed experimentally in fir in the Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Woolwich. Four of the conventional ships were wrecked between 1797 and 1799, and the fir-built ships deteriorated rapidly. The model shows the hull of the ship fully planked and set on a launching cradle, though without the rails on which it will run, as is common on models of this period. The stern decoration and figurehead are carefully carved and some features such as decorations and the steering wheel are made in bone. The figurehead is of Diana the huntress, which identifies the ship. Two other models of this ship are in the Museum collection.

Ships in class

• HMS Artois
  • Builder: John & William Wells, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 3 January 1794
  • Completed: 3 March 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Ballieu rocks off Brittany on 31 July 1797
• HMS Diana
  • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 3 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Sold to new Dutch Navy on 7 March 1815;
    burnt in fire at Willemsoord, Den Helder on 16 January 1839.
• HMS Apollo
  • Builder: Perry & Hankey, Blackwall
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 18 March 1794
  • Completed: 23 September 1794 at Woolwich Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast on 7 January 1799
• HMS Diamond
  • Builder: William Barnard, Deptford
  • Ordered: 28 March 1793
  • Laid down: April 1793
  • Launched: 17 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812
• HMS Jason
  • Builder: John Dudman, Deptford
  • Ordered: 1 April 1793
  • Laid down: April 1793
  • Launched: 3 April 1794
  • Completed: 25 July 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on rocks off Brittany on 13 October 1798
• HMS Seahorse
  • Builder: Marmaduke Stalkart, Rotherhithe
  • Ordered: 14 February 1793
  • Laid down: March 1793
  • Launched: 11 June 1794
  • Completed: 16 September 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in July 1819
• HMS Tamar
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Ordered: 4 February 1795
  • Laid down: June 1795
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Broken up in January 1810 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Clyde
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Ordered: 4 February 1795
  • Laid down: June 1795
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up August 1814.
• HMS Ethalion
  • Builder: Joseph Graham, Harwich
  • Ordered: 30 April 1795
  • Laid down: October 1795
  • Launched: 14 March 1797
  • Completed: 11 July 1797 at Chatham Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Penmarcks on 25 December 1799

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Apollo_(1794)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...1;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1805 - HMS Sheerness (1787 - 44), Cptn. Lord George Stuart, driven on shore and wrecked near Trincomalee when her cables parted during a hurricane .


HMS Sheerness (1787) was a 44-gun Adventure-class fifth rate, designed by William Hunt and launched in 1787 and wrecked in 1805. Because Sheerness served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with alterations to the head, longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Woolwich (1785), and later used for Sheerness (1787), Severn (1786), Adventure (1784), Gorgon (1785), Chichester (1785), Dover (1786), and Expedition (1784), all 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-deckers. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]

Tons burthen: 896 54⁄94 tons bm (as designed)
Length:

• 140 ft (43 m) (gundeck)
• 115 ft 2 1⁄2 in (35.12 m) (keel)

Beam: 38 ft 3 in (11.66 m)
Depth of hold: 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 300 (294 from 1794)
Armament:

• Lower deck: 20 × 18-pounder guns
• Upper deck: 22 × 12-pounder guns
• Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sheerness (1787), a 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-decker, as built at Bucklers Hard by Mr Adams.

Those fifth rate ships were not frigates in a stricter sense, being two-deckers, but they were mostly used in the same way, e.g. convoy protection. In addition they were too small to sail in the line of battle. Thus they are listed here. In the middle of the 18th century, those ships had a more powerful armament than the frigates at that time (these were 9 and 12 pdr equipped), that consisted of 18 pdrs on the gun deck. Later in the century, with the advent of the 18 pdr frigate (the first British 18 pdr armed frigate, HMS Flora (36), was launched in 1780), those ships became obsolete and ceased to being built in 1787, when the last one, HMS Sheerness, was launched. Many continued to serve until after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, most of them as troop- or storeships.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Chichester (1785), a 44 - gun Fifth Rate two - decker, building at Itchenor by Mr Batson with Crookenden, Taylor & Smith. Signed J[ohn]. Williams (Survayor of the Navy)


Adventure class 1784-87 (William Hunt)

HMS Adventure 1784 - troopship 1799, hulked 1801, broken up 1816
HMS Chichester 1785 - troopship 1787, storeship 1794, sold 1810
HMS Expedition 1784 - troopship 1798, hulked 1810, broken up 1817
HMS Gorgon 1785 - storeship 1793, floating battery 1805, broken up 1817
HMS Woolwich 1785 - troopship 1793, storeship 1798, troopship 1813, wrecked 1813
HMS Severn 1786 - wrecked 1804
HMS Dover 1786 - transport 1795, accidentally burnt and then broken up 1806
HMS Sheerness 1787 - completed as troopship, wrecked 1805



http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-347913;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frigate_classes_of_the_Royal_Navy

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1812 - Launch of French Égyptienne, a Licorne-class fluyt of the French Navy.


Égyptienne was a Licorne-class fluyt of the French Navy.

Class and type: Licorne-class fluyt
Tons burthen: 800 tonnes

Model of Égyptienne, part of the Trianon model collection

Career
Built as Égyptienne under the First French Empire, the ship was renamed to Normande during the Bourbon Restoration. Again renamed Égyptienne during the Hundred Days, she sailed from Basque Roads to Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 17 February 1815, under Lieutenant Charmasson, to retrieve French refugees and bring them back to Lorient.

Renamed Normande again after the second abdication of Napoléon, she was rebuilt in 1816. After the Second Treaty of Paris restored the French colonies lost to Britain, Normande took part in the evacuation of the British soldiers that occupied them: from 25 to 27 November 1816, she ferried troops from Pointe-à-Pitre to Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as from Fort-Royal de la Martinique to Grenada, under Commander Ducrest de Villeneuve. She then crossed the Atlantic, ferrying passengers from Basse-Terre to Brest.

From 3 January to 3 March 1818, Normande ferried passengers and supplies from Île-d'Aix to Mauritius, as weel as to Saint-Denis and to Saint-Paul on Ile Bourbon (now Réunion). She returned to France carrying Marshal Bouvet de Lozier, former governor of Bourbon, as well as passengers from Saint-Paul and from Cape Town. By July, her command had passed to Commander Elie, and she was attached to the China Seas division under Captain Pierre-Henri Philibert.

From 4 March to 21 December 1819, under Commander Botherel de La Bretonnière, Normande ferried passengers, supplies, ammunition and funds from Rochefort to Saint-Louis du Sénégal and to Gorée. She then ferried cattle and supplies from Senegal to Cayenne, Fort-Royal de la Martinique and Basse-Terre. On 8 February 1820, Normande departed Basse-Terre, bound for New York to rapatriate refugees from Santo Domingo to France; she arrived at Île d'Aix on 18 April 1820.

On 22 May, Normande departed Brest, under Lieutenant Vergos, with troops and passengers bound for Île Sainte-Marie, arriving on 20 December after calling in Gorée, Teneriffe, Cape Town and Tamatave.

Fate
Égyptienne was decommissioned in Brest in 1825, to be demolished the next year.




Taken from the Museum:
http://mnm.webmuseo.com/ws/musee-national-marine/app/collection/record/9020?expo=5&index=6



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fluyt_Égyptienne_(1812)
http://mnm.webmuseo.com/ws/musee-national-marine/app/collection/expo/5

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1813 - Cruizer-class sloop HMS Ferret (1806 - 18), Francis Alexander Halliday, wrecked on Newbiggin Point, Northumberland.


HMS Ferret was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Benjamin Tanner at Dartmouth and launched in 1806, 19 months late. She served on the Jamaica, Halifax, and Leith (North Sea) stations during which time she took three privateers as prizes before she was wrecked in 1813.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Cruiser (1797), and later for Ferret (1806), Scorpion (1803), Swallow (1805), Musquito (1804), Scout (1804) and Despatch (1804), all 18 gun Brig Sloops. The plan also shows the mast alterations (to ship-rigged) for Snake (1797) and Victor (1798), both 18 gun Ship Sloops.

Type: Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tonnage: 387 30⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 100 ft 2 in (30.5 m) (gundeck)
• 77 ft 5 1⁄8 in (23.6 m) (keel)

Beam: 30 ft 8 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 121
Armament:
18 cannons: 16 x 32-pounder carronades+ 2 x 6-pounder bow guns


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile (proposed and approved) for the Snake (1798), an 18 gun flush-decked Ship Sloop. The plan includes later alterations to the mast positions for Victor (1798), an 18 gun flush-decked Ship Sloop. The plan was also used for the Brig Sloops Fly (1813) and Grasshopper (1813) when they were re-rigged as Ship Sloops in 1822.

Service
She was commissioned in March 1806 under Commander George Cadogan. On 21 June he sailed for the Leeward Islands. In early 1807 Lieutenant John Bowker may have briefly commanded Ferret before being promoted to commander and captain of Epervier.}

Commander George Gustavus Lennock then took command of Ferret in Jamaica. On 23 August 1807, Ferret, in company with Lark, captured the French privateer schooner Mosquito, out of Santo Domingo. She had eight guns and a crew of 58 men, and had been cruising for some time without success.

Commander Samuel John Pechell took command of Ferret on 23 March 1808 on the Jamaica station. In April he sailed her for the Halifax station. On 16 June 1808 he received a promotion to post-captain.

From June 1808 she was under Commander Richard Walter Wales. On 26 October Ferret chased a French privateer schooner for four hours before Ferret was able to take her. The schooner was the Becune, and she was armed with one long 9-pounder gun amidships and two carronades and carried a crew of 38 men. She was ten days out of Martinique and had made one capture.

In March 1809, Ferret and Hussar captured three French schooners. They were June Rose (3 March), Rivals (12 March), and Duguay-Trouin (30 March). Duguay Trouin was a letter of marque schooner. She was commissioned in April in the Royal Navy to carry eight guns. She then served in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron as HMS Duguay-Trouin.

Between November 1811 and February 1812 Ferret underwent repairs at Portsmouth, with Commander Francis Alexander Halliday assuming command in December 1811.


Frame (ZAZ4573)

Fate
On 6 January 1813 Ferret left Leith and sailed for Portsmouth. The next evening she grounded and bilged near Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (Northumberland), due to the inattention and ignorance of her pilot.[9] The pilot, Robert Muckle, was barred from ever serving as a pilot again and was sentenced to three months in the Marshalsea prison. The court martial reprimanded the Master, Charles Lupton, for failing to keep track of her position and sentenced him to the loss of one year's seniority.

Her crew was saved and ten days later she was abandoned as a wreck. One boat crew from Ferret took advantage of the opportunity to desert. A press gang picked up three of the deserters, who received sentences of 100 lashes on their bare backs with a cat o' nine tails.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ferret_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruizer-class_brig-sloop
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-312196;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=F

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1841 - Second Battle of Chuenpi was fought between British and Chinese forces in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong province, China, on 7 January 1841 during the First Opium War.


The Second Battle of Chuenpi was fought between British and Chinese forces in the Pearl River Delta, Guangdong province, China, on 7 January 1841 during the First Opium War. The British launched an amphibious attack at the Humen strait (Bogue), capturing the forts on the islands of Chuenpi and Taikoktow. Subsequent negotiations between British Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot and Chinese Imperial Commissioner Qishan resulted in the Convention of Chuenpi on 20 January. As one of the terms of the agreement, Elliot announced the cession of Hong Kong Island to the British Empire, after which the British took formal possession of the island on 26 January.


British forces advancing in Chuenpi

Background
In September 1840, the Daoguang Emperor of the Qing dynasty fired Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu and replaced him with Qishan. British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston instructed Plenipotentiary Charles Elliot to have the ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuzhou, Ningpo, and Shanghai opened for trade; to acquire the cession of at least one island (or if the Chinese refused, the establishment of a secure English enclave on the mainland); and to secure compensation for confiscated opium as well as military costs incurred in China. On 1 December, Elliot wrote to Palmerston that these demands would be secured within ten days. Three days after the deadline, Elliot wrote to Governor-General of India Lord Auckland that he had failed to get the concessions, but one was still in prospect. He then conceded that any settlement would be "far short of the demands of the government."

In negotiations with Qishan, Elliot wanted $7 million over a period of six years and the surrender of Amoy and Chusan as permanent British possessions. Qishan offered $5 million over twelve years, so they agreed to $6 million. However, Qishan refused Elliot's territorial demands. On 17 December, Elliot countered with an offer to abandon Chusan, which the British captured in July 1840, and for another port to be chosen later in its place. After Qishan rejected the offer, Elliot told him, "There are very large forces collected here, and delays must breed amongst them a very great impatience." The year passed with no final settlements. An opium clipper that subsequently sailed into Canton brought with it a rumour that the emperor had decided to wage war. On 5 January 1841, Elliot prepared for an attack on Canton, informing Qishan that an attack would commence in two days if agreement could not be reached. He allowed Commodore James Bremer, commander-in-chief of the British forces, to make offensive operations.

Battle
British operations began at 8:00 am on 7 January from Sampanchow Island, 3 miles (4.8 kilometres) below the Humen strait (Bogue). By 9:00 am, the East India Company steamers Enterprise, Madagascar, and Nemesis assisted in embarking the following forces who landed unopposed 2 miles (3.2 kilometres) below the Chuenpi Island artillery batteries:

• 504 Royal Marines under Captain Samuel Ellis
• 33 Royal Artillery under Captain J. Knowles, operating a 24-pounder howitzer and two 6-pounder field guns
• 137 seamen from the Wellesley, Blenheim, and Melville under Lieutenant Wilson
• 104 troops of the 26th and 49th Regiments under Major Johnstone
• 607 troops of the 37th Madras Native Infantry under Captain Duff
• 76 Bengal Volunteers under Captain Bolton

An additional 30 seamen assisted in dragging the 24-pounder and two 6-pounders into position, and 15 sailors from the Blenheim were employed in the rocket and ammunition service. Major Thomas Pratt of the 26th Regiment commanded the land force of about 1,500 men. After advancing 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres), the British spotted the upper fort and an entrenchment comprising a deep ditch with surrounding breastwork. The Chinese cheered when they saw the British, waved their flags in defiance, and opened fire from the batteries. In response, the British cannons on the crest of the hill commenced firing. The Chinese then returned fire for about 20 minutes. The steamers Queen and Nemesis, under Captain Edward Belcher of the Sulphur, fired shells into the upper fort while the Calliope, Hyacinth, and Larne ships (under Captain Thomas Herbert) attacked the lower fort. In less than an hour, the combined bombardment silenced the Chinese batteries. By 10:00 am, the upper fort had been captured, and the lower fort surrounded and stormed by Royal Marines. After the capture, the Nemesis attacked a fleet of about 15 war junks under Admiral Guan Tianpei in Anson's Bay. The junks mounted 7 to 11 guns of various calibre from 4- to 12-pounders. The ship fired a Congreve rocket that struck a junk near the admiral, which a British officer described as follows:


The Nemesis (right background) destroying Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay

The very first rocket fired from the Nemesis was seen to enter the large junk ... and almost the instant afterwards it blew up with a terrific explosion, launching into eternity every soul on board, and pouring forth its blaze like the mighty rush of fire from a volcano. The instantaneous destruction of the huge body seemed appalling to both sides engaged. The smoke, and flame, and thunder of the explosion, with the broken fragments falling round, and even portions of dissevered bodies scattering as they fell, were enough to strike with awe, if not fear, the stoutest heart that looked upon it.​

Nemesis and other British boats engaging Chinese junks at Chuenpi

At about 11:30 am, the Chinese on board the junks hauled down their flags. At noon, two cutters of the Nemesis sailed towards Admiral Guan's junk, described by an officer as "immensely large" and mounting 14 or 15 guns, some of them brass and "beautifully chased". They found only one man on board who after seeing the crew board the ship, jumped over the bow. Meanwhile, Captain James Scott of the Samarang commanded the attack on Taikoktow Island (west of Chuenpi). When the forts began firing on the British vessels at 10:20 am, the Samarang returned fire ten minutes later after anchoring 200 yards (180 metres) away. The Modeste, Druid, and Columbine later anchored in succession. Scott reported that "in a few minutes, so destructive and well directed was the fire of our ships, that that of the enemy was silenced, with the exception of an occasional gun or two." At 11:20 am, the ships embarked their crewmen to storm the forts where the Chinese remained inside until driven out. The Chinese could not withstand the onslaught of British muskets during hand-to-hand combat. After capturing the forts, the Chinese guns were spiked and thrown into the river.

In total, 38 British were wounded, many from an explosion of an extensive magazine after capturing the Chuenpi fort. Commodore Bremer credited the Chinese for fighting "with the greatest credit and devotion" in the batteries and reported their losses at 500 to 600 out of a force of 2,000 men. Chinese records indicate 744 casualties (277 killed and 467 wounded). The high Chinese casualties were due to the impression they had that British troops would give no quarter. 100 Chinese prisoners who laid down their arms were released the next day. 11 junks were destroyed and 191 artillery pieces were captured. According to Qing scholar Wei Yuan, Kuan sent Rear-Admiral Li T'ing-Yü to Canton to request more troops, which the "whole official body" supported except Qishan, who spent the night writing peace proposals.

Aftermath
Elliot sent a Chinese prisoner to Kuan, with a letter explaining "the usages of civilized warfare" and that if the forts did not hoist their colours the following day, they would not be attacked. At 11:30 am on 8 January, British ships led by the Blenheim sailed up the Bocca Tigris. As they approached Anunghoy Island (north of Chuenpi), a boat rowed by an old woman displayed a white flag. A man from the ship was taken on board a British vessel to deliver a request from Kuan that hostilities be suspended for three days in order to contact Qishan. Cancellation of the attack order prompted Lieutenant John Ouchterlony to note that it "certainly created a feeling of great disappointment throughout the fleet." Elliot addressed the cancellation in a circular aboard the Wellesley: "A communication has been received from the Chinese commander-in-chief, which has led to an armistice, with the purpose to afford the high commissioner time to consider certain conditions now offered for his acceptance."

On 20 January, after the Convention of Chuenpi, Elliot announced "the conclusion of preliminary arrangements" between Qishan and himself. They involved the cession of Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom, a £6 million indemnity payable to the British government, direct and equal ties between the countries, and trade in Canton to be opened within ten days following the Chinese new year. They also agreed to the restoration of Chuenpi and Taikoktow to the Chinese, and the evacuation of Chusan. On 26 January, the Union Jack was raised on Hong Kong, and Commodore Bremer took formal possession of the island, under a feu de joie from the marines and a royal salute from the anchored men-of-war. On 29 January, Elliot proclaimed that Chinese natives "shall be governed according to the laws and customs of China, every description of torture excepted" and that "all British subjects and foreigners residing, or resorting to the island of Hongkong, shall enjoy full security and protection, according to the principles and practice of British law".

When the news reached the emperor, he ordered Qishan to be "degraded from his office" and to stand trial at the Board of Punishments. Qishan faced several charges including giving "the barbarians Hongkong as a dwelling place". In his response, he claimed, "I pretended to do so from the mere force of circumstances, and to put them off for a time, but had no such serious intention." The court denounced him as a traitor and sentenced him to death. He was imprisoned for several months, but at the end of 1841 he was allowed, without authority or rank, to deal with the British. On 21 April 1841, Lord Palmerston wrote a letter of reprimand to Elliot and recalled him for not securing the earlier demands as ordered. Palmerston dismissed Hong Kong as "a barren island with hardly a house upon it." In May 1841, Henry Pottinger replaced Elliot as plenipotentiary.

Queen Victoria addressed the events in a letter to her uncle, King Leopold I of Belgium, on 13 April:

The Chinese business vexes us much, and Palmerston is deeply mortified at it. All we wanted might have been got, if it had not been for the unaccountably strange conduct of Charles Elliot ... who completely disobeyed his instructions and tried to get the lowest terms he could. [...] The attack and storming of the [Chuenpi] Forts on the 7th of January was very gallantly done by the Marines, and immense destruction of the Chinese took place. The accounts of the cruelty of the Chinese to one another are horrible. Albert is so much amused at my having got the Island of Hong Kong, and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hong Kong in addition to Princess Royal.​

Nemesis was the first British ocean-going iron warship. Launched in 1839, she was used to great effect in the First Opium War under Captain Richard Collinson and Captain William Hutcheon Hall. The Chinese referred to her as the "devil ship".


An engraving of Nemesis (published 1844)

Class and type: Paddle frigate
Tons burthen: 660 bm
Length: 184 ft (56 m)
Beam: 29 ft (8.8 m)
Draught: 6 ft (1.8 m)
Propulsion: Twin 60 horsepower George Forrester & Co. steam engines
Armament: 2 x 32 pdr, 4 x 6 pdr

HMS Melville was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 February 1817 at Bombay Dockyard.


HMS Melville off the volcanic Graham Island, 1831.

Class and type: Black Prince-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1768 bm
Length: 176 ft (54 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold :21 ft (6.4 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• 74 guns:
• Gundeck: 28 × 32 pdrs
• Upper gundeck: 28 × 18 pdrs
• Quarterdeck: 4 × 12 pdrs, 10 × 32 pdr carronades
• Forecastle: 2 × 12 pdrs, 2 × 32 pdr carronades
• Poop deck: 6 × 18 pdr carronades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Chuenpi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Melville_(1817)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemesis_(1839)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1841 – Launch of The first USS Missouri, a 10‑gun side‑wheel frigate, one of the first steam warships in the Navy, was begun at New York Navy Yard


The first Missouri, a 10‑gun side‑wheel frigate, one of the first steam warships in the Navy, was begun at New York Navy Yard in 1840; launched 7 January 1841; and commissioned very early in 1842 Capt. John Newton in command.

Her engines were capable of 600 horse power, and she was said to have cost $600,000 to build.

Type: Sidewheel Steam Frigate
Displacement: 3,220 long tons (3,272 t)
Length: 229 ft (70 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine/Sails
Complement: 268
Armament:

• 2 × 10 in (250 mm) guns
• 8 × 8 in (200 mm) guns

Departing New York at the end of March 1842 on a trial run to Washington, D.C. with sister ship Mississippi, Missouri grounded opposite Port Tobacco, Maryland, 1 April, and did not arrive in Washington until the 13th. The warship made numerous trial runs out of the nation's capital during the spring and summer of 1842, demonstrating the advantages of steam propulsion in restricted waters to the Government, and then departed for a long cruise to the Gulf of Mexico. The frigate returned to Washington 25 April 1843 and then underwent overhaul in preparation for extended distant service.

On 6 August 1843 Missouri embarked the U.S Minister to China Caleb Cushing, bound for Alexandria, Egypt, on the first leg of his journey to negotiate the first commercial treaty with China. The same day the ship was visited by President John Tylerwho came on board for a few hours' cruise in Hampton Roads, observing the crew working the ship and the powerful twin paddlewheels in action. The President disembarked at Old Point Comfort, and the frigate steamed from Norfolk, Virginia, via Fayal in the Azores, for Gibraltar on the first powered crossing of the Atlantic by an American steam warship.



Missouri arrived Gibraltar on 25 August and anchored in its harbor. On the night of the 26th, the engineer's yeoman accidentally broke a demijohn of turpentine in the storeroom which soon ignited. The flames spread so rapidly that the warship was abandoned, the crew barely escaping with their lives. Minister Cushing was able to rescue his official letter to the Daoguang Emperor of China, allowing him to later carry out his mission. In four hours, the steam frigate was reduced to a blackened and sinking hulk and finally at 03:20 in the morning of the 27th, the forward powder magazine blew up, destroying the still burning skeleton of the ship.


USS Missouri on fire at Gibraltar, 1843, by Edward Duncan

British ship of the line HMS Malabar assisted Missouri in fighting the fire and took aboard some 200 of her men. Sir Robert Thomas Wilson, the Governor of Gibraltar, threw open the gates of that base to Missouri survivors in an unprecedented act of courtesy which was recognized by a resolution of appreciation from Congress. The remnants of the once proud frigate, a hazard to navigation, were painstakingly removed by divers, piece by piece, from the shallow waters of the harbor.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Missouri_(1841)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1904 – The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS".


CQD (transmitted in Morse code as) is one of the first distress signals adopted for radio use. It was announced on 7 January 1904, by "Circular 57" of the Marconi International Marine Communication Company, and became effective beginning 1 February 1904 for Marconi installations.

Land telegraphs had traditionally used "CQ" ("sécu", from the French word sécurité) to identify alert or precautionary messages of interest to all stations along a telegraph line, and CQ had also been adopted as a "general call" for maritime radio use. However, in landline usage there was no general emergency signal, so the Marconi company added a "D" ("distress") to CQ in order to create its distress call. Sending "D" was already used internationally to indicate an urgent message. Thus, "CQD" is understood by wireless operators to mean, "All stations: distress." Contrary to popular belief, CQD does not stand for "Come Quick, Danger", "Come Quickly: Distress", "Come Quick – Drowning!", or "C Q Danger" ("Seek You, Danger"); these are backronyms.



Although used worldwide by Marconi operators, CQD was never adopted as an international standard, since it could be mistaken for a general call "CQ" if the reception were poor. At the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention, held in Berlin in 1906, Germany's Notzeichen distress signal of three-dots/three-dashes/three-dots was adopted as the international Morse code distress signal. (This distress signal soon became known as "SOS" because if gaps are inserted it can be thought of as the Morse codes for those letters – by contrast CQD is transmitted as three distinct letters with a short gap between each. Germany had first adopted this distress signal in regulations effective 1 April 1905.)

Between 1899 and 1908, nine documented rescues were made by the use of wireless. The earliest of these was a distress call from the East Goodwin lightship. However, for the earliest of these, there was no standardized distress signal. The first US ship to send a wireless distress call in 1905 simply sent HELP (in both International Morse and American Morse). By February 1904, the Marconi Wireless Company required all its operators to use CQD for a ship in distress or for requiring URGENT assistance. In the early morning of 23 January 1909, whilst sailing into New York from Liverpool, RMS Republic collided with the Italian liner SS Florida in fog off the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. Radio Operator Jack Binns sent the CQD distress signal by wireless transmission.

On April 15, 1912, RMS Titanic radio operator Jack Phillips initially sent "CQD", which was still commonly used by British ships. Harold Bride, the junior radio operator, suggested using "SOS", saying half-jokingly that it might be his last chance to use the new code. Phillips thereafter began to alternate between the two. Though Bride survived the sinking, Phillips did not.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CQD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOS

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 January 1912 – Battle of Kunfuda Bay was a naval battle of the Italo-Turkish War between small squadrons of the Italian and Ottoman navies


The Battle of Kunfuda Bay was a naval battle of the Italo-Turkish War between small squadrons of the Italian and Ottoman navies. On 7 January 1912, the Italian protected cruiser Piemonte and the Soldato-class destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino, cruising the Red Sea, discovered six Ottoman gunboats, a tugboat, and a yacht in the harbor at Kunfuda. The vessels engaged for over three hours and five Ottoman vessels were sunk and four dhows were captured. Three of the gunboats were damaged during the battle and grounded on the beach to prevent them from sinking. The following morning, the Italian vessels returned to destroy the remaining three vessels; the yacht, which had been sunk, was later salvaged and seized by Italy. After the battle, the Italian squadron in the Red Sea was able to proclaim a blockade of Ottoman ports in the Red Sea and frequently bombarded Ottoman positions for the rest of the war.


The Italian cruiser Piemonte

Background
Following the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in September 1911, the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) concentrated a squadron of cruisers, destroyers, and light craft in the Red Sea to protect Italian Eritrea from a perceived threat of invasion by Ottoman forces in the Arabian peninsula. In late 1911, Italian warships attacked Ottoman ports along the Red Sea to destroy any vessels that might be used to ferry an army to Eritrea. By the end of the year, the Italians had amassed a squadron of three protected cruisers, a torpedo cruiser, four destroyers, and two gunboats, among other vessels.

To answer the Italians, the only major Ottoman naval unit in the region was the torpedo cruiser Peyk-i Şevket; after briefly engaging the Italian torpedo cruiser Aretusa and the gunboat Volturno off Al Hudaydah, she fled into the port, and was later interned in British-controlled Suez. The rest of the Ottoman fleet was concentrated in the Mediterranean Sea, and it remained in the safety of the Sea of Marmara, where it could support the coastal defenses along the Dardanelles. Six gunboats that had been stationed in the Persian Gulf were recalled to the Mediterranean, but after their arrival in the Red Sea, they had run low on coal. A steamer, Kaiseri, was to provide coal for the vessels, but she had been captured by the Italian squadron.



Battle
The Italians had learned of the presence of the gunboats, so in early January, the protected cruiser Piemonte and the destroyers Artigliere and Garibaldino searched for the gunboats while the cruisers Calabria and Puglia carried out diversionary bombardments against Jebl Tahr, and Al Luḩayyah. Piemonte and the destroyers located the Ottoman flotilla on 7 January. The Ottoman force consisted of the gunboats Ordu, Bafra, Refahiye, Gökçedağ, Kastamonu, and Ayintag, the armed tugboat Muha, and the armed yacht Şipka.

The Italians opened fire at a range of 4,500 yards (4,100 m), and in a bombardment that lasted for three hours, sank four of the gunboats and forced the other three to run themselves aground to avoid sinking. The following morning, the Italian vessels returned and sent landing parties ashore to destroy the remaining gunboats and seize some light guns from the vessels. The Italian warships then bombarded the port itself, before seizing four dhows. Şipka was later raised and taken to Italy as a prize.

Aftermath
With the destruction of the remaining Ottoman naval force in the area, the Italians proclaimed a blockade of the Arabian Red Sea coast and began seizing vessels carrying contraband, though they did allow Muslims to cross the Red Sea on their pilgrimage to Mecca. For the remainder of the war, Italian cruisers operated in the area, bombarding Ottoman positions with impunity. The Ottomans eventually agreed to surrender in October, ending the war.


Piemonte was a unique protected cruiser built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) in the 1880s by the British shipyard Armstrong Whitworth. She was the first major warship armed entirely with quick-firing (QF) guns and she was also the fastest cruiser in the world upon her completion in 1889. Piemonte was frequently deployed overseas, including a lengthy tour in East Asian waters from 1901 to 1904. She saw significant action during the Italo-Turkish War in 1911–12 in the Red Sea, where she frequently bombarded Ottoman ports. During the Battle of Kunfuda Bay in January 1912, she and two destroyers sank four Ottoman gunboats and forced ashore three more. Piemonte participated in World War I but she saw little action during the conflict. She remained in service until 1920, when she was scrapped.


Piemonte in 1889


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kunfuda_Bay
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_cruiser_Piemonte
https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2018/05/29/the-italian-turkish-war-1911-12-qunfudha-bay-kunfuda-bay/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 7 January


1746 – Birth of George Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith, Scottish admiral and politician (d. 1823)

Admiral of the Red George Keith Elphinstone, 1st Viscount Keith GCB (7 January 1746 – 10 March 1823) was a British admiral active throughout the Napoleonic Wars.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Elphinstone,_1st_Viscount_Keith


1794 - Unaware of Hood's evacuation sloop HMS Moselle (1793 - 24), H. A. Bennett, entered Toulon harbor and was taken by the French.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=5470


1809 - Start of British campaign to capture Cayenne.


1822 - The schooner USS Porpoise captures six pirate vessels off Cuba and destroys their base, while USS Spark recaptures a Dutch sloop that had been taken as a prize by pirates. A landing party destroys the pirates base in the West Indies.

The first USS Porpoise was a topsail schooner in the United States Navy.
Porpoise was built in 1820 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine. The schooners Alligator, Dolphin, and Shark were her sister ships.
She first cruised in the West Indies in 1821–1823, Lieutenant James Ramage in command, hunting pirates.
Cruising the West African coast in 1824–25, the schooner engaged in the suppression of the slave trade. Late in 1825 she returned to the United States and, under Commander Foxhall A. Parker, Sr., cruised off the northeast coast of the United States.
Porpoise cruised the Mediterranean from 1826 until 1830 under the command of Lts. Benjamin Cooper, John H. Bell, and Thomas M. Newell successively. Returning to the West Indies in 1830, she sailed under Lts. John Percival, James Armstrong, and James McIntosh.
While cruising in the West Indies in 1833 under the command of Lt. William Taylor, Porpoise was wrecked on a reef off Point Lizardo.



USS Spark (1813) was a heavily armed brig in the services of the United States Navy, built for service in the War of 1812. However, she was completed too late for that war and was assigned, instead, to the Barbary Wars in the Mediterranean. After two voyages in support of that action, she was assigned to suppress pirates in the Caribbean, where she was successful in capturing a number of pirate ships and their crews.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Porpoise_(1820)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Spark_(1813)


1835 – HMS Beagle drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.

HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, one of more than 100 ships of this class. The vessel, constructed at a cost of £7,803 (£572,000 in today's currency), was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom, and for that occasion is said to have been the first ship to sail completely under the old London Bridge. There was no immediate need for Beagle so she "lay in ordinary", moored afloat but without masts or rigging. She was then adapted as a survey barque and took part in three survey expeditions.


HMS Beagle in the Straits of Magellan at Monte Sarmiento, reproduction of R. T. Pritchett's frontispiece from the 1890 illustrated edition of The Voyage of the Beagle.

The second voyage of HMS Beagle is notable for carrying the recently graduated naturalist Charles Darwin around the world. While the survey work was carried out, Darwin travelled and researched geology, natural history and ethnology onshore. He gained fame by publishing his diary journal, best known as The Voyage of the Beagle, and his findings played a pivotal role in the formation of his scientific theories on evolution and natural selection.

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


1892 - SS Kaffraria was a British cargo ship owned by Bailey & Leetham of Hull, England wrecked

SS Kaffraria was a British cargo ship owned by Bailey & Leetham of Hull, England. She was built in 1864 by J. Laing & Son, Ltd., of Sunderland, England. She was originally built for the shipping company Ryrie & Company of London, which sold her to Bailey & Leetham in 1871.


The remains of the SS '’Kaffraria at Otterndorf, Germany

Construction
Initially the ship was rated at 872 gross tons, but this was increased in 1873 to 1,039 gross tons. She was 237 feet (72 m) long and had a beam of 29 feet (8.8 m) with a depth of 16 feet (4.9 m). She was a single-screw schooner constructed of iron, with one deck with two tiers of beams, five cemented bulkheads, a well deck, and a double bottom aft. She had a four-cylinder compound engine which produced 90 horsepower (67 Kw). The engine was built by the Humber Iron Works of Hull, England. Her Lloyd′s Register code letters were WFVQ and her official number was 49917.

Wreck
While under the command of Captain W. Barron, Kaffraria ran aground in the River Elbe at Otterndorf, Germany, on 7 January 1891. The ship had a cargo of general export goods such as kitchen utensils, children’s toys, bundles of wool, hand tools, and all kinds of domestic appliances. Local residents quickly removed the cargo both legally and illegally. Later on 8 January, the ship sank. The wreck became a threat to shipping and was removed in 1984. The stern part of the ship with the rudder and screw can be seen today at Otterndorf.

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 January 1676 - Battle of Stromboli
A French fleet of 20 ships under Abraham Duquesne engaged a combined fleet of 19 Dutch and one Spanish ship under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter.


The naval Battle of Stromboli took place on 8 January 1676 during the Franco-Dutch War between a French fleet of 20 ships under Abraham Duquesne and a combined fleet of 19 Dutch and one Spanish ship under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter that lasted eight hours and ended inconclusively. The fleets fought again at the Battle of Augusta.


The Combat against the Dutchs and the Spaniards at Stromboli Jean Antoine Gudin. Oil on Canvas. (1854)

Order of battle
France (Duquesne)

• 20 ships including:
  • Sceptre 80 (flagship, Louis Victor de Rochechouart)
  • Saint Esprit 70 (Duquesne)
  • Saint Michel 60 (Marquis de Preuilly d'Humières)
  • Lys 70 (Almeras)
• 6 other battleships
• 4 ships under Valbelle

large convoy (The information above is about the First Battle of Stromboli on 11 February 1675)

Avant-garde (Preuilly d'Humières)

• Prudent 54 (Chevalier de La Fayette)
• Parfait 60 (Monsieur de Chasteneuf)
• Saint Michel 60 (Marquis de Preuilly d'Humières, chef d'escadre)
• Fier 48 (Monsieur de Chabert)
• Mignon 46 (Monsieur de Relingues)
• Assuré 56 (Phillippe Le Valois, Marquis de Villette-Mursay)
• fireship (Chevalier de Beauvoisis)
• fireship (Chevalier de La Galissonière)

Corps de bataille (Duquesne)

• Sage 54 (Marquis de Langeron)
• Syrène 46 (Chevalier de Bèthune)
• Pompeux 72 (Chevalier de Valbelle, commandeur)
• Saint Esprit 72 (Lt-general Abraham Du Quesne, commander-in-chief)
• Sceptre 80 (Chevalier de Tourville)
• Éclatant 60 (Monsieur de Coux)
• Téméraire 54 (Chevalier de L'Hery)
• Aimable 56 (Monsieur de La Barre)
• fireship (cpt. Champagne)
• fireship (cpt. Honorat)

Arriere-garde (Gabaret)

• Vaillant 54 (Monsieur de Sptesme)
• Apollon 52 (Chevalier de Forbin)
• Grand 72 (Monsieur de Beaulieu)
• Sans Pareil 70 (Louis Gabaret, chef d'escadre, captain Allain Emmanuel de Coëtlogon)
• Aquilon 50 (Monsieur de Villeneuve-Ferrieres)
• Magnifique 72 (Monsieur De La Gravier)
• fireship (cpt. Despretz)
• fireship (cpt. Serpaut)

Netherlands/Spain (Michiel de Ruyter)

First Squadron

• Provincie van Utrecht 60 (Jan de Jong)
• Vrijheid 50 (Adam van Brederode)
• Gouda 76 (Vice-Admiral Jan de Haan)
• Wakende Boei 46 (Cornelis Tijloos)
• Edam 34 (Cornelis van der Zaan)
• Kraanvogel 46 (Jacob Willemszoon Broeder)
• Rouaan 8 (snauw, Willem Knijf)
• Roos 8 (snauw, Juriaan Baak)
• Sint Salvador 6 (fireship, Jan Janszoon Bont)
• Witte Tas 4 (supply ship, Adriaan van Esch)
• Second Squadron:
• Steenbergen 68 (Pieter van Middelandt)
• Leeuwen 50 (Frans Willem, Graaf van Stierum)
• Eendracht 76 (Lt-Admiral Michiel De Ruyter)
• Stad en Lande 54 (Joris Andringa)
• Zuiderhuis 46 (Pieter de Sitter)
• Leiden 36 (Jan van Abkoude)
• Tonijn 8 (snauw, Philips Melkenbeek)
• Kreeft 8 (snauw, Wijbrand Barendszoon)
• Salm 4 (fireship, Jan van Kampen)
• Melkmeisje 4 (fireship, Arent Ruyghaver)
• Third Squadron:
• Oosterwijk 60 (Jacob Teding van Berkhout)
• Harderwijk 46 (Mattheus Megang)
• Spiegel 70 (SbN Nikolaas Verschoor, killed)
• Essen 50 (Gilles Schey) - Sunk
• Damiaten 34 (Isaac van Uitterwijk)
• Groenwijf 36 (Jan Noirot)
• Ter Goes 8 (snauw, Abraham Wilmerdonk)
• Prinsen Wapen 8 (snauw, Hendrik Walop)
• Jakob en Anna 4 (fireship, Dirk Klaaszoon Harney)
• Zwarte Tas 4 (Jacob Stadtlander)
• Nuestra Señora del Rosario 50 (Spanish. Capt. Mateo de Laya y Cabex)

Possibly should be 1 more large Dutch ship


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 January 1761 - HMS Unicorn (1748 - 28), Cptn. Joseph Hunt (Killed in Action), took french Vestal (1756 - 30), M. Boisbertelot (Killed in Action), off the Penmarks.


Vestale was a Blonde-class 30-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1761, but had to scuttle her in 1778 to avoid having the French recapture her. She was refloated and sold to the French in 1784. She returned to wartime service in 1794 as a privateer. The British recaptured her in 1798 and broke her up thereafter.


Scale model on display at the Musée de la Marine in Toulon

Class and type: Blonde class
Displacement: 900 tons (French)
Tons burthen: 411 (French; "of load")
Complement:

• Navy: 181–184
• 1793–95:254 (220 at capture)

Armament:

• Originally: 26 × 8-pounder long guns + 4 × 4-pounder long guns
• 1784: 26 × 12-pounder guns (Upper deck; UD) + 6 ×6-pounder guns (Spar Deck; SD)
• 1784: 26 × 8-pounder guns (UD) + 6 ×6-pounder guns (SD)
• 1793: 26 × 8-pounder guns (UD) + 8 × 6-pounder guns (SD)

Vestale
She took part in the Battle of Quiberon Bay (November 1759).

HMS Unicorn captured her on 8 January 1761. Vestale, under the command of M. Boisbertelot, had been part of a squadron of five ships that had left the Vilaine river for Brestunder the cover of a heavy fog. When Unicorn encountered Vestale off the Penmarks a two-hour engagement ensued until Vestale struck. Hunt received a wound at the third broadside and died of his injuries an hour after the action ended. The British had five killed and ten wounded, the majority of them dangerously. The French had many killed and wounded, among them Captain Boisbertelot, who lost a leg, and died of his wounds the next day. Lieutenant John Symons, who took command of Unicorn on Hunt's death, described Vestal as having twenty-six 12 and 9-pounder guns on her lower deck, and four 6-pounders on her quarterdeck; she also had a crew of 220 men.


Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for an unnamed 130ft French Fifth Rate, Frigate (circa 1760), as taken off prior to fitting as a British Frigate. The 'Flora' (1761), a 32-gun Fifth Rate, ex French Frigate Vestal (1757) has similar dimensions. The French identity comes from the shape and size of the tumblehome, the position of the wheel behind the mizzen mast, only one set of bits on the Upper Deck, and the lack of an Orlop Deck. The date is uncertain, but is likely to be sometime between 1756 and 1783, as Frigates become larger by the French Revolutionary Wars.

HMS Flora
The Royal Navy recommissioned Vestale in July as HMS Flora, under the command of Captain Gamaliel Nightingale, for the channel and The Downs. July 1761 commissioned. She was paid off in 1762 or 1763.

Captain C. Saxton recommissioned her in January 1771 for Channel service.

Captain G. Collier sailed for Cronstadt on 2 June 1772, to deliver the new ambassador.

Captain John Brisbane recommissioned her in December 1775. He then sailed Flora for North America on 29 April 1776.

On 8 July 1777, during the Capture of the USS Hancock, Flora recaptured Fox, which the Americans had captured a month earlier.

On 30 May 1778, 100 men of the 54th Regiment of Foot embarked on boats to attack saw mills at Fall River, Massachusetts. The galley Pigot and some armed boats were to provide support. Pigot grounded, but the attack proceeded anyway. A sharp skirmish ensued when the troops arrived at their objective. Even so, they were able to destroy one saw mill and one grain mill, as well as a large stock of planks and boards, other buildings, some cedar boats, and so on. They then withdrew, having lost two men killed and five officers and men wounded. As the tide returned, Pigot was floated off, but as Flora towed her off, Flora lost two men killed and a lieutenant severely wounded, all by fire from shore batteries.

French Admiral d'Estaing's squadron arrived in Narragansett Bay on 29 July to support the American army under General George Washington during the battle of Rhode Island. On 30 July, four French ships of the line entered Narrngansett Bay and positioned themselves north of Conanicut Island to support the American and French forces in the battle of Rhode Island. The arrival of the French vessels trapped several British vessels, Flora among them.

Captain Brisbane was the senior British naval officer and he ordered the naval vessels to land their guns, men, and stores for the benefit of the garrison at Newport. Flora was in the inner harbour and on 5 August Brisbane scuttled her in shallow water. The Royal Navy ended up having to destroy ten of their own vessels in all.

Return to French service
After the Americans recaptured Newport, they some time later refloated and repaired Flora. On 16 August 1782, Lloyd's List reported that the transport Amazon, Gray, master, had been taken while carrying clothing to Quebec. Her captor was the American letter of marque Flora, formerly HMS Flora, which sent her capture into Bordeaux.

After Flora reached Bordeaux, the French Navy bought her in September 1784; she was known as Flore américaine, to distinguish her from Flore, built since.

The French Navy refitted her between January and May 1786. Then in 1787 Flore americaine was renamed Flore. The next year the Navy re-rated her as a corvette, and rearmed her with 8-pounder guns. The Navy struck her from the lists and hulked her at Rochefort in May 1789, disarming her some two years later, and then selling her on 4 July 1792.

Her new, private owners, renamed her Citoyenne Française in April 1793. They commissioned her as a privateer out of Bordeaux in May. She then fought an inconclusive but sanguinary engagement with HMS Iris on 13 May 1793. The two vessels encountered each other at 6p.m. at 42°34′N 13°12′W and after a short chase by Iris, an action of one and a half hours began. When Iris lost her foremast, main topmast, and mizzenmast, Citoyenne Française escaped. She had lost Captain Dubedat and 15 other men killed, and 37 men wounded. British casualties were four men killed, one man mortally wounded, and 31 wounded.

The French Navy requisitioned Citoyenne Française in August, but then returned her to her former owners in December 1795. Her owners again deployed her as a privateer.

Fate
HMS Phaeton and HMS Anson captured her on 8 September 1798 after Phaeton had chased her for 20 hours. Captain Robert Stopford, of Phaeton, in his letter described Flore as a frigate of 36 guns and 255 men. She was eight days out of Boulogne on a cruise. Stopford had heard of her departure and had searched for her for a week.[9] Flore was then sold for breaking up.

Other
A model is on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris, and another in the naval museum in Toulon.


lines & profile NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 648, states that 'Brune' was surveyed and fitted at Plymouth Dockyard between March and October 1761.


Blonde class, (32-gun design by Jean-Joseph Ginoux, with 26 x 8-pounder and 6 x 4-pounder guns).

• Blonde, (launched 23 August 1755 at Le Havre) – captured by British Navy 28 February 1760, becoming HMS Blonde.
• Brune, (launched 7 September 1755 at Le Havre) – captured by British Navy 30 January 1761, becoming HMS Brune.
• Aigrette, (launched 1756 at Le Havre) – condemned at Brest 1789.
• Vestale, (launched March 1756 at Le Havre) – captured by British Navy 8 January 1761, becoming HMS Flora, scuttled at Rhode Island to prevent capture by the Americans in 1778, an attempt to burn her failed and so she was refloated by the US; after the War of Independence she was either presented to or repurchased by the French in 1784, renamed Flore Americaine, fitted as a privateer in 1793, taken by HMS Phaeton (1782) in 1798, not recommissioned.
• Félicité, (launched 1756 at Le Havre) – captured and burnt by British Navy 24 January 1761

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


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for Coventry (1757), Lizard (1757),Liverpool (1757), Maidstone (1758), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757), Levant (1757), Coberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Hussar (1757), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates, based on the plan for Lowestoft (1756) and Tartar (1756, which were the same as Unicorn (1748) and Lyme (1748). Maidstone (1758), Cerberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757),Bureas (1757) and Trent (1757) had the House holes moved to the upper deck. There are construction amendments for the first built Frigates. Annoted in the top right: " Body, same as the Lestaff and Tartar, except one havng a Beakhead and the other a round bow, withou the least alteration below the surface of the water - and the Tartar and Leostaff are exactly the same Body as the Unicorn and Lime. "

Class and type: Lyme-class frigate
Tons burthen: 581 50⁄94 (bm)
Length: 117 ft 10 in (35.9 m)
Beam: 33 ft 8 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 2 in (3.1 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 160 (increased to 180 on 22 September 1756, and to 200 on 11 November 1756)
Armament:

• Upper deck: 24 x 9-pounder guns
• QD: 4 x 3-pounder guns
• Fc: Nil
• Also 12 Swivel guns

Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the sixth-rate sloop 'Guadeloupe' (1763), 28 guns, built in the Georgian style. The model is decked and equipped. The unfinished appearance of the head and stern suggests that the model was built for design purposes but the measurements are correct for the frigate ‘Guadeloupe’ of 1763. The deck layout is typical of the early frigates. The raised forecastle shows the position of the foremast with bitts either side and the galley funnel and belfry at the break of the forecastle. Below, in the waist, are the riding bitts, the hatchways and by the mainmast position, the gallows bitts, freshwater and bilge pumps. The quarterdeck carries the main capstan and steering wheel. The mizzenmast was situated just abaft the wheel. Built at Plymouth Royal Dockyard, the ‘Guadeloupe’ measured 118 feet along the lower deck by 34 feet in the beam, displacing 586 tons burden. It was armed with twenty-four 9-pounders on the upper deck and four 3-pounders on the quarterdeck. The ‘Guadeloupe’ was one of the smallest class of 18th-century frigates. The first of the ‘true’ frigates of this class were actually the ‘Tartar’ and ‘Lowestoft’, built in 1756, but the ‘Unicorn’ and ‘Lyme’ of 1748 had been almost similar in design. The ‘Guadeloupe’ was sunk by American batteries near Yorktown in 1781. Frigates were fifth or sixth rate ships and thus not expected to lie in the line of battle. With the advantage of superior sailing qualities over the larger ships of the line, they were used with the fleet for such tasks as lookout or, in battle, as repeating ships to fly the admiral’s signals. They also cruised independently in search of privateers.

Unicorn was first commissioned in March 1749 under Captain Molyneaux Shuldham, under whose command she spent her first commission in the Mediterranean until returning home to pay off at Deptford in June 1752. After repairs, she was recommissioned in January 1753 under Captain Matthew Buckle, and sailed for the Mediterranean again in April 1753. In February 1756 command passed to Captain James Galbraith; in September Captain John Rawling replaced Galbraith.

Unicorn captured the French frigate Vestale on 8 January 1761. Vestale, under the command of M. Boisbertelot, had been part of a squadron of five ships that had left the Vilaineriver for Brest under the cover of a heavy fog. When Unicorn encountered Vestale off the Penmarks a two-hour engagement ensued until Vestale struck. Hunt received a wound at the third broadside and died of his injuries an hour after the action ended. The British had five killed and ten wounded, the majority of them dangerously. The French had many killed and wounded, among them Captain Boisbertelot, who lost a leg and died of his wounds the next day. Lieutenant John Symons, who took command of Unicorn on Hunt's death, described Vestal as having twenty-six 12 and 9-pounder guns on her lower deck, and four 6-pounders on her quarterdeck; she also had a crew of 220 men. The Royal Navy took Vestale into service as HMS Flora.

The next day a French frigate approached Unicorn, but then sailed away. The day after that Unicorn came upon Seahorse engaging the same French frigate. Although Unicornchased the French vessel, which later turned out to be L'Aigrette, she escaped. Unicorn was hampered in her sailing by the damage to her masts and rigging from the battle with Vestale.

Fate
After active and continuous service during the Seven Years' War, Unicorn finally paid off in late 1763, and was broken up in 1771.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Vestale_(1756)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Unicorn_(1748)