Naval/Maritime History 19th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1796 - pilot ship Cartier, a brig launched in 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service, was captured by French privateer corvette Émilie, captained by privateer Robert Surcouf.


Cartier was a brig launched in 1787 for the Bengal Pilot Service as a pilot ship operating at Balasore Roads. The French privateer Robert Surcouf captured her, and then used her to capture the East Indiaman Triton on 29 January 1796. The British Royal Navy subsequently recaptured her.

The brig Cartier operated in Balasore roads, in the Indian Ocean. On 21 January 1796 the French privateer corvette Émilie, captained by Robert Surcouf, captured her.


Boarding of the Triton by the French corsair Hasard(ex-Cartier) under Robert Surcouf. Painting by Léon Trémisot.



Surcouf had the four 6-pounder guns of Émilie mounted on Cartier, renamed her Hasard, (or Hazard), and transferred aboard with 23 men. Two days later, Hasard encountered the East Indiaman Triton, with a 150-man crew and 26 guns; despite the overwhelming superiority of Triton, after haranguing his men, Surcouf approached under a British flag, before hoisting French colours at the very last moment and launching a violent assault. In the ensuing 45-minute battle, Triton suffered 5 wounded and 10 killed, including her captain, Captain Burnycat (or Burnyeat), and the first officer, Picket; The prisoners were transferred to Diana, which Surcouf released against a 30,000 rupee ransom.

Transferring to his new prize, Surcouf left ten men on Hasard as a prize crew and returned to Île de France (now Mauritius), on Triton. During the journey back, in the month of February 1796, Hasard encountered the 74-gun HMS Victorious, which recaptured her.


Émilie a French corvette-built privateer based in Île de France (now Mauritius). She is mostly known as one of the ships captained by Robert Surcouf.

In early 1795 she was renamed to Émilie, which might raise your eyebrow since she was then under command of young Robert Surcouf; she was armed with only 4 6-pounders cruising from August 1795; in January 1796, after she had captured Cartier, Surcouf transferred to his prize, leaving Émilie in command of Jean Croizet. (more details at Robert Surcouf#Cruise of Émilie and capture of Triton). She returned to Mauritius in March 1796 and was renamed Modeste again. In August 1796, armed with 20 guns, she cruised under Claude Deschiens, who died in battle on 10 September 1796; command passed to Jean-Marie Dutertre and she returned to Isle de France in June 1797. Dutertre went on another cruise from late 1797 or early 1798, and sailed until April 1798 (again with 20 guns). Eventually captured by the Royal Navy but the circumstances are murky: either in March 1797 near Visakhapatnam by the 32-gun HMS Fox, or in April 1798 by the 32-gun HMS Cleopatra



Career
Émilie was originally the merchantman Lafayette, arrived at Île de France from Bordeaux in July 1792. In 1793, she was commissioned as a privateer corvette and conducted a campaign under Jean-François Malroux during the year.

In September 1793, she was renamed Île de France and cruised until April 1794 under Léonard-Julien Quiroard.

Around May 1794, she was under Louis Levaillant, carrying the name Modeste. She notably captured the Dutch East India Company ship Hootluyce, with Joachim Drieux leading her boarding party.

In August 1795, Modeste passed under the command of Robert Surcouf, who renamed her Émilie. Governor Malartic had refused to provide Surcouf a lettre de marque and ordered Émilie to go to the Seychelles to purchase tortoises as food for Île de France. Upon arrival at Mahé, she encountered two large British ships and fled hastily, cutting her anchor. Arrived a Bago, Myanmar, Émilie encountered the British merchant Pinguin; she approached without hoisting colours and when Pinguin fired a warning shot, Surcouf took pretext of it to fire a three-shot broadside that induced Pinguin to surrender. Surcouf took supplies needed for Émilie and sent Pinguin to Mauritius under Péru, one of his officers. On 19 January, Émilie captured the pilot ship Cartier, along with two rice-loaded merchantmen she was guiding; Surcouf transferred to Cartier, which he renamed Hasard, taking all the guns off Émilie and leaving only 23 men aboard under Jean Croizet, who returned to Île de France with the two prizes.

When she returned to Île de France, Émilie was renamed back to Modeste. In August 1796, she set out for another campaign under Claude Deschiens, this time armed with 20 guns. She captured Princess while Princess was at anchor in Delagoa Bay. Although Modeste captured Princess, Butterworth was able to fend off Modeste. Modeste did capture Good Intent two days later.

Deschiens was killed in action on 10 September. As Deschiens was preying on British whalers, two heavily armed whalers attacked Modeste. Deschiens managed to repel them but was injured in the battle and died of his wounds the next day. Jean-Marie Dutertre took command and continued the cruize. Still, Modeste returned to Île de France within the month.

The same month, she set out for another campaign under Jean-Marie Dutertre. Apparently HMS Fox captured Modeste near Visakhapatnam in March 1797


Boarding of Triton by the French corsair Hasard. Engraving by Ambroise-Louis Garneray

Robert Surcouf (12 December 1773 – 8 July 1827) was a French privateer who operated in the Indian Ocean between 1789 and 1801, and again from 1807 to 1808, capturing over 40 prizes, while amassing a large fortune as a ship-owner, from both privateering and commerce.

Surcouf started his career as a sailor and officer on the slave ships Aurore, Courrier d'Afrique and Navigateur. Having risen to captain, and in spite of the prohibition of slave trading by the National Convention in 1793, he engaged in the business himself as a captain on Créole. He then captained the merchantman Émilie, on which he engaged in commerce raiding despite lacking a letter of marque. He preyed on British shipping, capturing the East Indiaman Triton, before returning to Île de France in the Indian Ocean, where his prizes were confiscated. He then returned to France, where he obtained prize money from the government.

Returning to the Indian Ocean, Surcouf captained the privateers Clarisse and Confiance, raiding British, American, and Portuguese merchantmen. He captured the East Indiaman Kent on 7 October 1800. Returning to France, he was awarded the Legion of Honour and settled as a ship-owner.

He briefly returned to the Indian Ocean in 1807 on the custom-built Revenant before returning to France. There, he armed privateers and merchantmen. His privateers led successful campaigns against the British in the Indian Ocean and disastrous ones in the English Channel, except for Renard. This cutter achieved fame in her very costly victory over HMS Alphea on 9 September 1812 which exploded after repulsing French attempts at boarding. There were many casualties. After the Bourbon restoration, he organised fishing expeditions to Newfoundlandand amassed a considerable fortune. He died in 1827 and is buried in a graveyard at Saint-Malo.

Cruise of Émilie and capture of Triton

Cruise of Émilie: from Port-Louis (Mauritius) to the Seychelles via La Réunion, on to Sumatra, the Gulf of Bengal, and return to Port-Louis.

In the spring in 1795, Surcouf took command of the 180-ton, privateer schooner Modeste, renamed Émilie, with a 32-man crew and four 6-pounder guns, armed by Malroux and Levaillant. Governor Malartic refused to provide a lettre de marque and ordered Émilie to go to the Seychelles to purchase tortoises as food for Isle de France.

Émilie departed on 3 September 1795 with a congé de navigation authorising her to defend herself, but not to take prizes as a privateer. The next day, she made a port call at Saint-Denis before cruising to Mahé. At Sainte Anne Island, two large British ships chased him, but he was able to evade them by sailing through the reefs, at night.

Surcouf then decided to sail to the Mergui Archipelago to load a rice cargo. On 8 December 1795, while in transit, cruising off the Ganges Delta, Surcouf captured his first prize, the ship Penguin, loaded with lumber, on which he detached a prize crew under Lieutenant Péru before sending her to Isle de France.

On 19 January 1796, Surcouf met the pilot ship Cartier leading two merchantmen, the Russel and Sambolasse, through the Ganges delta. He attacked and captured them, finding the merchantmen to be carrying rice. After detaching prize crews, Surcouf transferred his command, along with his remaining 22 crew members and Émilie's four guns, to Cartier, which (according to Ambroise Louis Garneray) he renamed Hasard. Surcouf then sent Émilie, under Lieutenant Croizet, together with his prizes, to Isle de France.

On the night of 28 January, Surcouf captured the 12-gun Diana, loaded with 6000 bags of rice. The next day, Cartier met a 26-gun Indiaman, Triton, armed with 12-pounders and a 150-man crew; having decided to attack, and recognising only too late the overwhelming superiority of his opponent, Surcouf, feeling threatened and unable to flee, decided to board her with his 26 men. After haranguing his men, he approached under a British flag, before hoisting French colours at the very last moment and launching a violent assault. In the ensuing 45-minute battle, Triton suffered 5 wounded and 10 killed, including her captain, Captain Burnycat, and the first officer, Picket; The prisoners were transferred to Diana, which Surcouf released against a 30,000 rupee ransom.

Surcouf returned to Ile de France with his prizes, where he arrived on 10 March 1796, although Hasard was captured by HMS Victorious on the journey back. As Émilie had been armed as a merchant rather than a privateer, the Prize court seized her prizes and sold them for the benefit of the State, although their capture was declared to be legal. Surcouf returned to France to claim his prize money, and on 3 September 1797, the government finally granted him 660,000 francs, of which he only received 80,000


Statue of Surcouf in Saint-Malo by Alfred Caravaniez, inaugurated on 6 July 1903.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartier_(1787_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Émilie_(1793_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Surcouf

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1800 - Transport ship HMS Weymouth (1795 - 26), Cdr. Ambrose Crofton, wrecked on the Bar of Lisbon


HMS Weymouth was laid down as the East Indiaman Earl of Mansfield. The British Royal Navy purchased her on the stocks to use as a 56-gun fourth rate. She was launched in 1795 but never commissioned in the Royal Navy. She was transferred in February 1796 to the Transportation Board as a transport. Lieutenant Robert Passmore took command in June 1796. Commander Charles Ryder succeeded Passmore in July 1798, and Commander Ambrose Crofton replaced Ryder in August 1799.



Having sailed from Portsmouth, she wrecked on 21 January 1800 on the bar in the Tagus River as Crofton was attempting to sail her into Lisbon harbour. Her crew was saved.


screenshot from the web-page "Threedecks"


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Weymouth_(1795)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=7403

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1805 - HMS Doris (1795 - 36), Cptn. Patrick Campbell, wrecked on the Diamond Rock off Quiberon Bay.


HMS Doris was a 36-gun Phoebe-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.


model of the HMS Phoebe (leadship of the class)

Service
She entered service in November 1795, operating as part of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. Her first captain was the Hon. Charles Jones, who in 1797 became Lord Ranelagh.

In June 1796, Doris and Apollo 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.

In January 1797 Doris shared with Druid and Unicorn in the capture of the French privateer Eclair. Unicorn was the actual captor. Eclair was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men.

On 15 July, Doris took the privateer Duguay Trouin. Duguay Trouin had been armed with twenty 6-pounders and two 12-pounders but had thrown them overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 127 men and was out four days from Nantes, but had not taken any prizes. On her previous cruise she had taken the Sandwich Packet of Falmouth. Galatea shared in the capture.

On 19 July 1797, Doris and Galatea recaptured the Portuguese ship Nostra Senora de Patrocinio e Santa Anna. At some point they also recaptured the Portuguese ship Nostra Senora de Conceiçao e Navigantes.


Lines (ZAZ2659)

In 1798 Doris was engaged in the hunt for Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart's French squadron that culminated in the Battle of Tory Island, although Doris was not present during the action. In 1800 and 1801, Doris under the command of John Holliday participated in the capture of six French merchant brigs and prizes.

On 21 July 1801, the boats of Doris, Beaulieu, Uranie and Robust succeeded in boarding and cutting out the French naval corvette Chevrette, which was armed with 20 guns and had 350 men on board (crew plus troops placed on board in expectation of the attack). Also, Chevrette had anchored under the batteries of Cameret Bay. The hired armed cutter Telemachus placed herself in the Goulet de Brest and thereby prevented the French from bringing reinforcements by boat to Chevrette.

The action was a sanguinary one. The British had 11 men killed, 57 wounded, and one missing. Also killed was Lieutenant Burke (who was a relative of Walter Burke- purser of HMS Victory), who was wounded in the fight, and died after boarding the French ship.[10] Chevrette lost 92 officers and men, including her first captain, and 62 seamen and troops were wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 JULY BOAT SERVICE 1801" to surviving claimants from the action.

In 1803 following the Peace of Amiens, Doris took two more French privateers. On 18 May Doris, under the command of Captain Richard Harrison Pearson, captured the French naval lugger Affronteur, off Ushant. Affronteur was armed with fourteen 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 92 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau M. Morce André Dutoya. Capturing Affronteur required an engagement during which Doris suffered one man wounded, while Affronteur lost Dutoya and eight men killed, and 14 men wounded, one of whom died shortly thereafter. Affronteur became the hired armed vessel Caroline.




Scale: unknown. A full hull model of the ‘Phoebe’ (1795), a 36-gun frigate. The model is decked, equipped and rigged. This model represents the new, large types of frigate which were built in large numbers in the 1790s.It is fully rigged and shows the seamen’s hammocks stowed around the decks. It also shows the Nelson chequer, or black and white painting of the hull. This style was not common until about 1815, which may date the model to this time. The ‘Phoebe’ was built on the Thames in Dudman’s yard at Deptford. It served off the Irish coast in 1796–1800 and captured many enemy ships. In 1805 it was present at the Battle of Trafalgar captained by Thomas Bladen Capel, one of Nelson’s original ‘band of brothers’. It became a depot ship at Plymouth in 1822 and was finally broken up in 1840.

Fate
In 1806, while under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell, Doris was lost on a rock off Quiberon Bay. She had arrived there on 20 January to bring news of a French squadron that was preparing to set sail, but when she arrived the British fleet was no longer in the bay. The next morning, as Doris set sail, the weather worsened. Campbell returned to the bay to take shelter, at which time Doris hit the Diamond Rock in Benequet Passage. She took on water but the crew was able to get her nearly clear of water, in part by stretching a sail over the hole in her side and then pumping the accumulated water out. However, that afternoon the schooner Felix arrived with news that the Rochefort Squadron had sailed. Campbell felt it imperative that he get the news to the blockading squadron. As he set sail, the holes in the hull opened and despite her crew's efforts to save her she began to sink rapidly. Campbell anchored her eight miles north-east of Le Croisic and evacuated the crew to Felix and a passing American merchant schooner. He then set the ship on fire to prevent her use by the enemy. He later took passage to Britain aboard HMS Tonnant. The subsequent court martial reprimanded the pilot, Jean Le Gall, for his lack of skill.


Phoebe class 36-gun fifth rates 1795-1800, lengthened version of William Hunt's Perseverance class of 1780.

• HMS Phoebe 1795 - hulked as receiving ship at Plymouth 1826, sold 1841.
• HMS Dryad 1795 - hulked as receiving ship at Portsmouth 1838, broken up 1860.
• HMS Caroline 1795 - hulked as salvage vessel at Portsmouth 1813, broken up 1815.
• HMS Doris 1795 - wrecked in Quiberon Bay on 21 January 1805.
• HMS Fortunee 1800 - sold 1818.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Doris_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Phoebe_(1795)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-338894;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1807 - Boats of HMS Galatea (1794 - 32), Cptn. George Sayer, captured French corvette Lynx (1804 - 16) off the coast of Venezuela


HMS Galatea was a fifth-rate 32-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy that George Parsons built at Bursledon and launched in 1794. Before she was broken up in 1809 she captured numerous prizes and participated in a number of actions, first in the Channel and off Ireland (1794–1803), and then in the Caribbean (1802–1809), including one that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal.


HMS Galatea, by Thomas Whitcombe

Galatea captures Lynx
On the morning of 21 January 1807 Galatea was off the coast of Venezuela when she sighted a sail steering for La Guaira. Galatea approached and identified the vessel as a man-of-war; she then change her course, heading for Barcelona, Anzoátegui, which lay some 160 miles to the east. By noon Galatea was becalmed; at the same time a slight breeze enabled Galatea's quarry to continue on her way. Two hours later lookouts could barely see her highest sails above the horizon.

Galatea sent her boats under the command of her first lieutenant William Coombe, together with Lieutenants Harry Walker and Robert Gibson, Master's Mates John Green and Barry Sarsfield, 50 seamen and 20 marines. The boat crews rowed about 35 miles in eight hours, some of it in the blazing sun, before they were able to catch up with their quarry. The British tried to board twice, but her guns repelled them. The boats then pulled back and poured musket and small arms fire through the stern and quarter ports. This had the effect of clearing many of the enemy from her decks, including the captain and most of his officers. The British then were able to board on their third attempt. There they still faced a fight as the vessel's crew outnumbered the attackers.

Still, Coombe and his men prevailed and discovered that they had captured the French navy corvette Lynx. She was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades, two 9-pounder chase guns and carried a crew of 161 men under the command of Mons. Jean M. Yarquest. Their resistance had cost the French 14 men killed and 20 wounded, including their captain. The British loss was 9 killed, including Lieutenant Walker. Coombe and Master's Mates Sarsfield and Green were among the 22 wounded. Coombe's wound was in the thigh above his previous amputation.

The surviving British officers received promotions. Coombe was promoted to commander but received an appointment as captain of Hart, not Lynx. Hart was a lesser vessel than Lynx and Coombe complained to the admiral of the station and then to the Admiralty. The Admiralty reversed the appointments, which led to Coombe fighting a duel with the relegated captain. The Royal Navy took Lynx into service as Heureux.

The Patriotic Society awarded Coombe and several of the other British officers swords worth 50 guineas, but Coombe did not live to receive it. In 1849 the Navy awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 Jan. Boat Service 1807" to all surviving claimants from the action.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Pallas (1793), Stag (1793), Unicorn (1734),all 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigates. The plan was later used in 1793 for Cerberus (1794) and in 1795 for Galatea (1794), Lively (1794), Alcemene (1794), Maidstone (1795), and Shannon (1796). The alterations in red relate to Maidstone and Shannon only.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the stern board construction profile for Pallas (1793), Stag (1793), and Unicorn (1734), all 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigates It was later used in 1793 for Galatea (1794), Lively (1794), Alcemene (1794), Cerberus (1794), and in 1795 for Maidstone (1795), Shannon (1796) all 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigates.


Lynx (or Linx) was a 16-gun brig of the French Navy, name ship of her two-vessel class of brigs, and launched at Bayonne on 17 April 1804. The British captured her in 1807 and named her HMS Heureux. After service in the Caribbean that earned her crew two medals, including one for a boat action in which her captain was killed, she was laid up in 1810 and sold in 1814.



French service
Lynx was the name ship of her two-vessel class of brigs. She was built to plans by Pierre-Jacques-Nicolas Rolland. The French Navy commissioned her in June 1804 under Lieutenant Fargenel. She took part in the Trafalgar Campaign, ferrying dispatches between Fort de France and France, where she arrived on 10 July 1805.

She was then attached to a five-frigate squadron under Commodore Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil, tasked with ferrying supplies and troops to the French West Indies. A British squadron intercepted the convoy, which led to the Action of 25 September 1806, where the British captured four of the frigates. Lynx, the frigate Thétis, and the corvette Sylphe escaped, with Lynx managing to outrun HMS Windsor Castle. Lynx finally arrived in Martinique on 31 October.

Capture
The boats of Galatea, under Lieutenant William Coombe, captured Lynx off Les Saintes on 21 January 1807. The boats, manned with five officers, 50 seamen and 20 marines, had to row for eight hours, mainly in the blazing sun, to catch her.[5] During the action Coombe, who had already lost a leg in a previous action, received a musket ball through the thigh above the previous amputation. The British only succeeded in boarding Lynx on their third attempt and a desperate struggle occurred on deck as the crew of the Lynx outnumbered their attackers. The British lost nine men killed and 22 wounded, including Coombe. The French had 14 killed and 20 wounded, including the captain.

The Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded Coombe and several of the other British officers swords worth 50 guineas, but Coombe did not live to receive his. The surviving officers were promoted; Coombe was promoted to commander but appointed as captain of Hart, not Lynx. Hart was a lesser vessel than Lynx and Coombe complained to the admiral of the station and then to the Admiralty. The Admiralty reversed the appointments, which led to Coombe fighting a duel with the relegated captain. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 Jan. Boat Service 1807" to all surviving claimants of the action.

The British took Lynx into service as HMS Heureux as the Royal Navy already had a Lynx, and had lost an Heureux the year before.

British service
Heureux was commissioned in Antigua in April 1807 under Coombe.

Coombe was killed in the early morning of 29 November 1808. He had received information that seven French vessels were lying under the protection of two batteries in the harbour at Mahaut, Guadeloupe and decided to attack them. Coombe took three boats and 63 men who rowed six hours to reach Mahaut at about midnight. The cutting out party then waited for four hours at their oars until just after the moon set at 4 am on 29 November. Coombe, with 19 men, boarded and carried a schooner armed with two guns and with a crew of 39 men. After a few minutes of desperate fighting the attackers prevailed. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Daniel Lawrence and the remainder of the party landed and spiked three 24-pounders in the batteries, before boarding a brig. On the way out the prizes grounded, making them ideal targets for small arms fire and the three field pieces that the French had brought down to the shore. As Coombe was about to abandon the prizes, a 24-pound shot struck him on the left side, killing him almost immediately. A musket ball wounded Lawrence in the forearm. Still, he extricated all the men without further casualties. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "28 Nov. Boat Service 1808" to all surviving claimants of the action.

Commander John Ellis Watt replaced Coombe. Captain Michael Halliday replaced Watt in 1809.

Fate
Heureux arrived in Plymouth on 20 January 1810 and was laid up in ordinary. She was sold there on 1 September 1814 for £460 and was broken up.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Galatea_(1794)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_corvette_Lynx_(1804)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1854 - RMS Tayleur, a full rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line, ran aground and sank on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. She has been described as "the first Titanic"


RMS Tayleur was a full rigged iron clipper ship chartered by the White Star Line. She was large, fast and technically advanced. She ran aground and sank on her maiden voyage in 1854. Of more than 650 aboard, only 280 survived. She has been described as "the first Titanic".



History
Construction
Tayleur was designed by William Rennie of Liverpool and built at the Charles Tayleur foundry at Warrington for owners Charles Moore & Company of Mooresfort lattin, Co Tipperary. She was launched in Warrington on the River Mersey on 4 October 1853 - it had taken just six months to build her. She was 230 feet in length with a 40-foot beam and displaced 1,750 tons, while 4,000 tons of cargo could be carried in holds 28 feet deep below three decks. She was named after Charles Tayleur, founder of the Vulcan Engineering Works, Bank Quay, Warrington.

The new ship was chartered by White Star to serve the booming Australian trade routes, as transport to and from the colony was in high demand due to the discovery of gold there.



Disaster
Tayleur left Liverpool on 19 January 1854, on her maiden voyage, for Melbourne, Australia, with a complement of 652 passengers and crew. She was mastered by 29-year-old Captain John Noble. During the inquiry, it was determined that her crew of 71 had only 37 trained seamen amongst them, and of these, ten could not speak English. It was reported in newspaper accounts that many of the crew were seeking free passage to Australia. Most of the crew were able to survive.

Her compasses did not work properly because of the iron hull. The crew believed that they were sailing south through the Irish Sea, but were actually travelling west towards Ireland. On 21 January 1854, within 48 hours of sailing, Tayleur found herself in a fog and a storm, heading straight for the island of Lambay. The rudder was undersized for her tonnage, so that she was unable to tack around the island. The rigging was also faulty; the ropes had not been properly stretched, so that they became slack, making it nearly impossible to control the sails. Despite dropping both anchors as soon as rocks were sighted, she ran aground on the east coast of Lambay Island, about five miles from Dublin Bay.

Initially, attempts were made to lower the ship's lifeboats, but when the first one was smashed on the rocks, launching further boats was deemed unsafe. Tayleur was so close to land that the crew was able to collapse a mast onto the shore, and some people aboard were able to jump onto land by clambering along the collapsed mast. Some that reached shore had carried ropes from the ship, allowing others to pull themselves to safety on the ropes. Captain Noble waited on board Tayleur until the last minute, then jumped towards shore, being rescued by one of the passengers.

With the storm and high seas continuing, the ship was then washed into deeper water. She sank to the bottom with only the tops of her masts showing.

A surviving passenger alerted the coastguard station on the island. This passenger and four coast guards launched the coastguard galley. When they reached the wreck they found the last survivor, William Vivers, who had climbed to the tops of the rigging, and had spent 14 hours there. He was rescued by the coastguards. On 2 March 1854, George Finlay, the chief boatman, was awarded a silver medal for this rescue.



paper accounts blamed the crew for negligence, but the official Coroner's Inquest absolved Captain Noble and placed the blame on the ship's owners, accusing them of neglect for allowing the ship to depart without its compasses being properly adjusted. The Board of Trade, however, did fault the captain for not taking soundings, a standard practice when sailing in low visibility. The causes of the wreck were complex and included: Compass problems due to the placing of an iron river steamer on the deck after the compasses had been swung. Absence of a mast head compass placed at a distance from the iron hull. Northerly current in the Irish sea similar to that which drove the Great Britain northward. Slotting effect of the wind in the sails driving the ship sideways. Small untried crew to manage the sails. Large turning circle making ship unmanoeuvreable. The anchor chains broke when they were dropped in final efforts to save the ship. The captain had been injured in a serious fall and may have had head injuries. Lack of lifebelts - then uncommon and panic led to increased loss of life, those who kept their heads or could swim, escaped.

Tayleur has been compared with RMS Titanic. They shared similarities in their separate times. Both were RMS ships and White Star Liners (although these were different companies), and both went down on their maiden voyages. Inadequate or faulty equipment contributed to both disasters (faulty compasses and rigging for the Tayleur, and lack of binoculars and life boats for the Titanic).

Enquiries
There were four official enquiries: The inquest, held at Malahide; The Board of Trade Inquiry under Captain Walker; The Admiralty investigation was held by Mr Grantham, Inspector of Iron Ships; The Liverpool Maritime Board tried the fitness of Captain Noble to command. There are contradictions between these enquiries.

Numbers of lives lost vary, as do the numbers given as to how many were on board. The latter are between 528 and 680, while the dead are supposed to be at least 297, and up to 380, depending on source. Out of over 100 women on board, only three survived, possibly because of the difficulty with the clothing of that era. The survivors were then faced with having to get up an almost sheer 80 foot (24m) cliff to get to shelter. When word of the disaster reached the Irish mainland, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company sent the steamer Prince to look for survivors. Recent research by Dr Edward J Bourke names 662 on board.

A memorial to those killed in the wreck was unveiled at Portrane (53.493441 -6.108558) on 16 May 1999.

Diving

Display in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland

The remains of the wreck were rediscovered in 1959 by members of the Irish Sub-Aqua Club. Because the wreck is over 100 years old (163 as of 29 December 2016) a licence to dive the site must be obtained from the Office of Public Works. The wreck lies at 17 metres depth some 30m off the South-East corner of Lambay Island in a small indentation. Substantial wreckage includes the hull, side plates, a donkey engine and the lower mast. The woodwork was salvaged shortly after the wreck. Crockery from the cargo and several pieces of the wreck are on display at Newbridge House, Donabate.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ok-tells-forgotten-story-Tayleur-Tragedy.html

Book:
The Sinking of RMS Tayleur : The Lost Story of the Victorian Titanic by Gill Hoffs




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Tayleur
https://mooremarine.wordpress.com/

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Tayleur

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 January 1937 - SS Roosevelt, an American steamship of the early 20th century, beached and abandoned


SS Roosevelt was an American steamship of the early 20th century. She was designed and constructed specifically for Robert Peary′s polar exploration expeditions, and she supported the 1908 expedition in which he claimed to have discovered the North Pole.


SS Roosevelt participating in a naval parade on the Hudson River as part of the Hudson-Fulton Anniversary Celebration in 1909.

After her career with Peary, Roosevelt saw commercial use as a tug. She also operated as a United States Bureau of Fisheries supply ship and served as a United States Navy patrol vessel during World War I.

Design and construction
United States Navy Commander Robert Peary designed Roosevelt specifically for operations in support of his Arctic exploration expeditions. His design attempted to incorporate the best features of previous polar exploration ships with innovations that would give her first-of-their-kind capabilities.

Peary designed the ship along the same lines as the Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen's schooner Fram, with the capability both to push through large floating ice packs and squeeze through and between ice fields. Roosevelt was a schooner with an ice-strengthened flexible wooden hull sheathed in steel and braced by a unique system of trusses. The wooden construction of her hull gave it both strength and the flexibility to bend rather than break when ice struck it or pressed against it, and her hull planking was assembled through a lamination process that gave her hull greater strength than a single piece of wood could provide. Her hull was 30 inches (76 cm) thick in places and was egg-shaped, a design that would allow her to rise and ride above sea ice that pushed against her below the waterline – almost popping up out of the ice – rather than be crushed by it. Her bow and stern both had 1-inch (2.5 cm) steel plating; the bow plating extended from her keel to 3 feet (0.91 m) above the waterline and 10 feet (3.0 m) aft, while the stern plating also extended from the keel to above the waterline and extended 14 feet (4.3 m) forward. Between the bow and stern plating, a layer of steel 3⁄8 of an inch (0.95 cm) thick and 6 feet (1.8 m) tall extended along the waterline.


LEFT: The hull of SS Roosevelt under construction. RIGHT: The system of trusses that braced the hull against ice pressure.

Previous Arctic exploration ships had relied on sails for their primary propulsion, with engine power secondary, but Roosevelt became the first such ship to reverse that principle; she had three masts, all of which could carry sails for auxiliary propulsion, but relied for propulsion primarily on a powerful 1,000-horsepower (750 kW) compound steam engine – equipped with a special system that allowed it to generate 1,500 horsepower (1,100 kW) for brief periods if she encountered particularly massive ice concentrations – that drove a single, large propeller 11 feet (3.4 m) in diameter on a 1-foot (0.30 m)-diameter shaft designed to generate powerful thrust that could push her through drift ice. She had a sharply raked stem intended to increase her ramming and cutting power against sea ice, and a short length at the waterline and narrow beam to give her increased maneuverability when steering between ice packs. Her rudder was of a special design that gave her the maximum possible steering capacity while exposing the rudder as little as possible to ice damage. Her design minimized auxiliary structures, both to allow the stowage of sufficient fuel, supplies, and provisions for lengthy stays in the Arctic and to give her a relatively shallow draft so that she could operate in shallow waters and close to shore.

Roosevelt was the first ship ever built in the Western Hemisphere for Arctic exploration. Her construction cost US$150,000 and was funded in part by a US$50,000 gift by George Crocker, the youngest son of banker Charles Crocker. The McKay and Dix Shipyard laid her keel at Bucksport, Maine, on 19 October 1904. Sponsored by Peary's wife, Josephine Peary, who broke a bottle of champagne encased in ice across Roosevelt's bow, the ship was launched on 23 March 1905 and christened SS Roosevelt in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt, who had openly supported Peary and played an instrumental role in arranging for the U.S. Navy to grant Peary a leave of absence so that he could continue his Arctic explorations. After fitting out, she was delivered to her owner, the Peary Arctic Club, in July 1905. She drew considerable attention because of her innovative design and at the time of her construction she was considered the strongest wooden vessel ever built.

Operational history
Peary expeditions


First Mate Thomas Gushue, Chief Engineer George Wardwill, and the crew of Roosevelt during the 1905–1906 expedition

On 16 July 1905, Roosevelt, captained by Robert Bartlett, set out from New York City on what was called the Roosevelt Expedition, sponsored by the Peary Arctic Club, with Peary and his party aboard. Roosevelt withstood a fire, rudder damage, and encounters with fog and icebergs and proceeded northward to Cape Sheridan in the north of Ellesmere Island. Made fast to the ice on 5 September 1905, she remained there through the winter of 1905–1906, becoming the second-largest ship ever to spend a winter in the Arctic. Peary and his party disembarked in January 1906 to head northward across the ice, and set a record for Farthest North, reaching a latitude of 87 degrees 6 minutes North before turning back. Roosevelt broke out of the ice on 4 July 1906, prior to the return of the expedition. Carried 20 nautical miles (37 km) south, she crashed against an ice foot a few days later, losing propeller blades, her rudder, and her sternpost. On 30 July 1906, Peary and his party returned to her after a six-month absence, and on 24 August 1906 Roosevelt broke free and turned southward. By mid-September 1906 she was far enough south to assure her escape from the ice before the winter freeze and in December 1906 she arrived at New York City.

On 8 July 1908, Roosevelt, again captained by Robert Bartlett, cleared New York Harbor and began a voyage north via Baffin Bay, Smith Sound, Kane Basin, Kennedy Channel, Hall Basin, and Robeson Channel into the Arctic Ocean. In early September 1908 she again made fast to the ice at Cape Sheridan to wait out the winter of 1908–1909 as Peary and his party tried for the North Pole. Departing Cape Sheridan in February 1909, Peary determined that he had reached the North Pole on 6 April 1909, and he and his party returned to Roosevelt. In July 1909, Roosevelt began the return voyage. In mid-August 1909 she left Smith Sound, and in September 1909 she rounded Cape Breton on Newfoundland Island and steamed to New York City. She arrived in New York flying the North Pole flag, the first ship ever to enter a harbor flying the flag. Not long afterward, she participated in a naval parade on the Hudson River as part of the 1909 Hudson-Fulton Anniversary Celebration.

After his return to New York, Peary proposed that the Peary Arctic Club and the National Geographic Society jointly undertake an expedition to the Antarctic, with the Peary Arctic Club contributing Roosevelt to the expedition. However, Roosevelt required expensive repairs because of ice damage she had suffered, and the Antarctic expedition never took place.

John Arbuckle

U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
On 21 April 1910, the United States Congress assigned the responsibility for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes, and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea, as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands, to the United States Bureau of Fisheries (BOF).

On 19 July 1915, Roosevelt departed New York City bound for Norfolk, Virginia, to pick up coal for the Pribilofs, but during the voyage to Norfolk she suffered significant mechanical failures that required repairs at the Norfolk Navy Yard in Portsmouth, Virginia. A thorough inspection of her at the shipyard revealed that she needed additional repairs and a general overhaul, replacement of the foremast Arbuckle had removed, and the installation of a more efficient three-bladed propeller; this may also have been when the need to convert her from burning coal to burning fuel oil was identified. At the end of the summer of 1916, the demand for steel for use in World War I created a delay for forging Roosevelt's new tail shaft, delaying her departure from Norfolk for several more months. While she was lying idle, the eighth annual Convention of the Southern Commercial Congress took place in Norfolk in December 1916, and she and the BOF steamer Fish Hawk participated in it, exhibiting several fishery-related items and devices.



With her repairs finally complete, Roosevelt departed Norfolk on 23 January 1917, bound for Seattle, Washington, but endured further delays en route, first impeded by an international incident which detained her for over a month at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, followed by yet another delay of three weeks for repairs at Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone. She finally arrived at Seattle on 23 April 1917, carrying supplies for the United States Navy and the United States Lighthouse Service. On 4 July 1917, a dedication ceremony took place in Seattle to mark the opening of the Government Locks, which connected Puget Sound with the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Lake Washington, and Roosevelt became the first large ocean-going vessel to enter the canal, leading a flotilla of hundreds of boats that included the newly built BOF boat MV Auklet, and the first such ship to enter Lake Washington.

On 7 July 1917, Roosevelt began her duties as the first "Pribilof tender," departing Seattle for the Pribilof Islands and Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands, the beginning of the 58-year history of the United States Government-operated "Pribilof tenders." She made two voyages to the Pribilof Islands during 1917, carrying personnel, building materials, and supplies. On her return trip in August 1917, she hauled 4,882 sealskins and 606 fox skins to Seattle for rail shipment to St. Louis, Missouri, where they were prepared for auction. The BOF calculated that the money it saved by operating Roosevelt as its "Pribilof tender" rather than chartering commercial vessels in Roosevelt′s first year alone more than made up for the cost of purchasing Roosevelt.

When Roosevelt made a voyage to the Pribilofs in January 1918, it marked the first time that it was possible to sail reliably to the Pribilof Islands in the winter. On 27 April 1918, she departed Seattle bound for the Pribilofs filled with a load of cargo that included three one-ton trucks. The ship was unloading supplies at the Pribilofs when diphtheria broke out among her crew. After the physician on Saint Paul Island administered an antitoxin, she steamed to Unalaska in the Aleutian Islands for quarantine. The disease was confined to the ship, with no cases of diptheria reported among people in the Pribilofs.

While Roosevelt was quarantined at Unalaska, several cannery vessels carrying workers became stuck in pack ice in Bristol Bay. The ice threatened to sink the vessels and kill many of those aboard them. The BOF sent Roosevelt to render assistance. She was delayed by her quarantine for three days, but departed Unalaska on 27 May 1918. She encountered ice as thick as 16 feet (4.9 m), but her hull, designed for Peary′s expeditions in the Arctic, allowed her to cut through it. She saved 21 people who had abandoned the sunken vessel Tacoma and taken refuge on an ice floe. The other 115 passengers from Tacoma had boarded the vessel St. Nicholas, but St. Nicholas, with over 300 people aboard, was herself within an estimated 12 hours of sinking when Roosevelt arrived to tow her to safety. Over the next few weeks she also towed Centennial, carrying 161 persons and probably within a week of sinking, Star of Chile, with 220 people aboard, and two other vessels out of danger. As a result, the cannery associations sent letters of appreciation and commendation to Roosevelt's captain and crew. Roosevelt received only minimal damage during the rescue operation.

United States Navy
Meanwhile, the United States had entered World War I on 6 April 1917, and on 18 March 1918 Roosevelt was transferred to the United States Navy for war service. The Navy commissioned her the same day as the patrol vessel USS Roosevelt (SP-2397). Armed with three 3-pounder guns and based at Seattle, she was assigned to the section patrol in the 13th Naval District. She patrolled in the waters of the Pacific Northwest and Territory of Alaska through the end of the war on 11 November 1918. While in naval service, she continued her "Pribilof tender" duties, making voyages on behalf of the BOF between Seattle, Unalaska, and the Pribilof Islands between June 1918 and January 1919.

On 17 January 1919, it was reported that Roosevelt needed extensive repairs and an overhaul, and the Steamboat Inspection Service later confirmed it. She arrived at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, Washington, on 21 April 1919, where she was discovered to have dry rot. After additional inspections, the cost of repairs was estimated at US$186,000, which the BOF deemed prohibitive. Roosevelt was condemned on 4 June 1919, and the Navy transferred her to the BOF on 11 June 1919. The BOF moved her to Seattle for auction. Her crew remained aboard her long enough to transfer equipment from her to her replacement, MV Eider, which the BOF had purchased in the summer of 1919 to serve as its next "Pribilof tender". On 15 July 1919, Roosevelt was sold in an auction at Salmon Bay Wharf in Seattle for US$28,000 to the high bidder, Captain M. E. Tallakson.

Later career
After her sale, Roosevelt was resold several times but ultimately was rebuilt and issued a certificate of seaworthiness by the Steamboat Inspection Service. She operated in the Pacific Northwest as a 700-ton-capacity cargo ship. In April 1923, the West Coast Tug Company acquired her and modified her into a powerful oceangoing towing tug, and she became what was considered the largest commercial tug on the United States West Coast. Over the next 18 months, she established a reputation for successfully towing vessels in all weather and in record times and in June 1924 she set a record for the largest tow by a single tug in history when she towed the decommissioned 16,000-ton U.S. Navy battleship USS Connecticut from Seattle to Oakland, California.

In November 1924 the Washington Tug and Barge Company of Seattle acquired Roosevelt and put her to work towing lumber barges between Puget Sound and California. She averaged two round trips per month, considered an impressive tempo of operations. On a six-day trip from Puget Sound to San Pedro, California, in August 1925, she averaged 8 knots (15 km/h) while towing the ocean-going barge Decula loaded with 2.4 million feet of lumber.

While operating as a tug, Roosevelt had a number of mishaps. During the winter in early 1926 she lost her rudder while towing two barges from Seattle to Miami, Florida, and she drifted for days in the Pacific Ocean before the Panama Canal tug Tavernilla found her and towed her to Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone. On 24 December 1929, she was towing the ex-mail vessel Starr in a heavy gale off the Territory of Alaska when the tow line parted and tangled in her propeller, disabling her. Starr set anchor, but Roosevelt nonetheless drifted dangerously close to Wessels Reef near Middleton Island. The halibut-fishing schooner Attu, arrived on the scene and towed Roosevelt to safety. In late December 1931, she was towing the racing schooner Commodore in a violent gale off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, when her towline apparently parted and her radio room flooded. Her seven-man crew sent out a distress signal before her radio failed, but she managed to reach Neah Bay on the northwest coast of Washington, where she rode out the storm.

The Steamboat Inspection Service inspected Roosevelt for the final time on 22 May 1936 and did not renew her license. Shortly afterwards, the California Towing Company of San Francisco, California, purchased her. In what turned out to be her last voyage, she left Seattle on 31 October 1936 bound for New York City, towing the decommissioned 19,250-ton U.S. Navy collier USS Jason, She encountered heavy seas in the Pacific Ocean that strained her aging hull, and a leaking condenser forced her to put into San Francisco for three days for repairs. She resumed her voyage, but on 8 December 1936 her chief engineer reported to her captain that her engine needed to be stopped; the captain ordered him to keep it running, and Roosevelt limped into Balboa in the Panama Canal Zone on 12 December 1936. After undergoing repairs at Balboa, she transited the Panama Canal on 23 December 1936, and on 24 December 1936 she left Cristóbal in the Panama Canal Zone and set out into the Caribbean Sea. By that evening, a leaking fuel tank and filled her bilge with fuel oil and, due to the danger of a fire breaking out, she returned to Cristóbal. After more repairs, Roosevelt again departed Cristóbal on 8 January 1937. She had steamed about 250 nautical miles (460 km) into the Caribbean Sea when, on 14 January 1937, she reported herself unable to handle her tow due to heavy seas, a leaking hull, and engine and boiler problems. The Panama Canal tug Tavernilla set out on 15 January 1937 to rendezvous with Roosevelt and relieve her of her tow of Jason, but when Tavernilla met Roosevelt on 16 January 1937, she was unable to take over the tow due to heavy seas. Tavernilla returned to Cristóbal shortly before midnight on 16 January, and Roosevelt arrived there with Jason in tow early in 17 January 1937. During her ordeal, Roosevelt's forward topmast had fallen and the booms had been carried away.

With her hull still leaking, Roosevelt arrived at Mount Hope Shipyard in the Panama Canal Zone for repairs on 20 January 1937. No repairs were made, however, and to keep her from sinking alongside the pier she was beached on a mud bank in the Old French Canal on 21 January 1937. Her crew, whose pay was long overdue, salvaged equipment from her to compensate for unpaid wages, and she was abandoned on the mud bank. An effort to have her salvaged and preserved as a museum failed, and she subsequently rotted away where she had been beached.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Roosevelt_(1905)
https://www.afsc.noaa.gov/history/vessels/boats/roosevelt.htm

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 21 January


1643 - En route back to Batavia, dutch Abel Tasman came across the Tongan archipelago on 20 January 1643

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


1704 – Launch of French Rubis 56 guns (designed and built by Pierre Coulomb) at Lorient – broken up 1729


1795 – Death of Samuel Wallis, English navigator and explorer (b. 1728)

Samuel Wallis (23 April 1728 – 21 January 1795 in London) was a British naval officer and explorer of the Pacific Ocean.



Wallis was born at Fenteroon Farm, near Camelford, Cornwall. He served under John Byron, and in 1766 was promoted to captain and was given the command of HMS Dolphin (1751) as part of an expedition led by Philip Carteret in the Swallow with an assignment to circumnavigate the globe. The two ships were parted by a storm shortly after sailing through the Strait of Magellan, Wallis continuing to Tahiti, which he named "King George the Third's Island" in honour of the King (June 1767). Wallis himself was ill and remained in his cabin: lieutenant Tobias Furneaux was the first to set foot, hoisting a pennant and turning a turf, taking possession in the name of His Majesty.


Captain Wallis facing Tahitians hostility.

Dolphin stayed in Matavai Bay in Tahiti for over a month. Wallis went on to name or rename five more islands in the Society Islands and six atolls in the Tuamotu Islands, as well as confirming the locations of Rongerik and Rongelap in the Marshall Islands. He renamed the Polynesian island of Uvea as Wallis after himself, before reaching Tinian in the Mariana Islands. He continued to Batavia, where many of the crew died from dysentery, then via the Cape of Good Hope to England, arriving in May 1768.
He was able to pass on useful information to James Cook who was due to depart shortly for the Pacific, and some of the crew from the Dolphin sailed with Cook.
In 1780 Wallis was appointed Commissioner of the Admiralty.

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


1810 - Batteries at Baie Mahout, Guadaloupe, destroyed by British.


1862 - Navy ship USS Ethan Allen, commanded by acting-Lt. William B. Eaton, captures the schooner Olive Branch at sea off the Florida coast.

USS Ethan Allen (1859) was a 556-ton bark acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War, and used as a gunboat in support of the blockade of Confederate waterways.



History
Ethan Allen was built in 1859 at Boston, Massachusetts; purchased by the Navy 23 August 1861; and commissioned 3 October 1861, Acting Volunteer Lieutenant W. B. Eaton in command.
During her first wartime cruise, 27 October 1861 to 30 March 1863, Ethan Allen patrolled in the Gulf of Mexico, capturing eight prizes, and destroying extensive salt works along the Floridacoast, thus hampering the Confederate war effort and civilian economy.
Ethan Allen returned to Boston for repairs, and between 22 June and 28 October 1863, cruised along the New England coast to protect merchantmen and fishing craft from Southern cruisers.
On 9 November, she sailed from Boston to join the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Port Royal, South Carolina, 26 November. During the following year and a half, she patrolled the Carolina coast, and for several months served as practice ship for junior officers of her squadron.
She arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 5 June 1865, and was decommissioned there 26 June 1865, and sold 20 July 1865.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ethan_Allen_(1859)


1940 - The Italian passenger ship Orazio caught fire 40 nautical miles (74 km) south west of Toulon, Var, France due to an engine failure. 106 people were killed. The ship sank early the next day. The survivors were rescued by Cellina, Colombo, Conte Biancamano (all Italy); Kersaint, Ville d'Ajaccio (both Marine Nationale); Djebel Dira, Djebel Nador, Gouvernor General Cambon, Gouvernor General Grevy and Six Fours (all France)

Orazio was completed by Cant ed Officine Meridionali, Baia and delivered to Navigazione Generale Italiana in 1927. She was 11,669 GRT, 506 feet long, 61 feet 9 inches beam. Twin screw, powered by two Burmeister & Wain diesel engines producing 6,600 BHP, giving a 14 knot service speed. Accommodation was provided for 110 first, 190 second and 340 third class passengers, with a crew of 200.

After the 1932 merger of leading Italian shipping companies to form Italia, the 1927 built Orazio was employed on their Genoa to the West Coast of South America service. On 21 January 1940 Italy was still a neutral country, but while Orazio was on a voyage from Genoa to Barcelona she was stopped off Toulon and searched by the French Navy. Orazio had 645 people on board, many of the passengers being Jewish refugees. The French authorities removed some German citizens and after a four hour delay she resumed her voyage, in rough seas in a growing Mistral. At 05:12 she suffered a crankcase explosion in her port B&W propulsion diesel engine, which ignited diesel fuel from the fractured fuel lines. The resultant fire spread rapidly throughout the ship. Although ships were quickly on the scene, rescue efforts were severely hampered by the bad weather and 106 people died in the blaze. The ship sank during the night of 21/22 January 1940.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orazio_(Schiff)


1943 - Submarines USS Pollack (SS 180) and USS Gato (SS 212) attack and cause the sinking of two Japanese ships.

USS Pollack (SS-180), a Porpoise-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pollack, a food fish resembling the true cod, but with the lower jaw projecting and without the barbel.



The first Pollack was laid down 1 October 1935 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Kittery, Maine; launched 15 September 1936; sponsored by Miss Anne Carter Lauman; and commissioned 15 January 1937, Lt. Clarence E. Aldrich in command.

USS Gato (SS-212) was the lead ship of her class of submarine in the United States Navy. She was the first Navy ship named for the gato, a species of small catshark.



Her keel was laid down 5 October 1940, by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched 21 August 1941 sponsored by Mrs. Louise Ingersoll, wife of Admiral Royal E. Ingersoll, and commissioned 31 December 1941 with Lieutenant Commander William Girard Myers (Class of 1926) in command.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pollack_(SS-180)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Gato_(SS-212)


1945 - TF 38 aircraft attacks Japanese shipping and airfields on Formosa and in the Pescadores, sinking approximately 15 vessels.


1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958.


Launching Nautilus

Sharing names with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and named after another USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, the new nuclear powered Nautilus was authorized in 1951, with laying down for construction in 1952 and launched in January 1954, attended by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States, wife of 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and commissioned the following September into the United States Navy. Final construction was completed in 1955.
Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than the then current diesel-electric submarines previously, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines.


Nautilus passes under the George Washington Bridge during a visit to New York Harbor in 1956

Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives around 250,000 visitors per year.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)


1961 - USS George Washington (SSBN 598) completes the first operational voyage as a fleet ballistic missile submarine, staying submerged 66 days.

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



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_George_Washington_(SSBN-598)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1761 – Launch of HMS Arrogant, a 74-gun Arrogant class third rate ship of the line


HMS Arrogant was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 January 1761 at Harwich. She was the first of the Arrogant class ships of the line, designed by Sir Thomas Slade.



She took part in the Action of 8 September 1796 and in January 1799 was with the British squadron at the defence of Macau during the Macau Incident.

By 1804 she had been converted to a hulk at Bombay where she served as a receiving ship, sheer hulk, and floating battery. In 1810 she was condemned as unfit for further service. She was sold out of service in 1810


The Arrogant, Intrepid and Virginie chasing French and Spanish Squadron off coast of China, 27 January 1799 (PAH9508)


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with quarter gallery decorations, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed for 'Defence (1763), Kent' (1762), 'Cornwall' (1761), and 'Arrogant' (1761), all 74-gun Third Rate, two deckers. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for 'Bellona' (1760), 'Dragon' (1760), and 'Superb' (1760), 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers, and with alterations for the Arrogant class (1758): 'Arrogant' (1761); 'Cornwall' (1761), 'Defence' (1763), 'Kent' (1762), 'Edgar' (1779), 'Goliath' (1781), 'Vanguard' (1787), 'Excellent' (1787), 'Saturn' (1786), 'Zealous' (1785), 'Elephant' (1786), 'Audacious' (1785), and 'Illustrious' (1789) all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers, and with further alterations for 'Monarch' (1765); 'Magnificent' (1766), both 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers of the Monarch class (1760), although this plan implies they were originally to be of the Arrogant class.


The Arrogant-class ships of the line were a class of twelve 74-gun third rate ships designed by Sir Thomas Slade for the Royal Navy.


Scene in Plymouth Sound in August 1815, oil on canvas: HMS Bellerophon anchored in Plymouth Sound, with Napoleon Bonaparte aboard.

Design
The Arrogant-class ships were designed as a development of Slade's previous Bellona class, sharing the same basic dimensions. During this period, the original armament was the same across all the ships of the common class, of which the Arrogant-class ships were members. Two ships were ordered on 13 December 1758 to this design (as the same time as the fourth and fifth units of the Bellona class), and a further ten ships were built to a slightly modified version of the Arrogant design from 1773 onwards.



Arrogant class (Slade) – modified Bellona class

• Arrogant 74 (1761) – broken up 1810
• Cornwall 74 (1761) – scuttled/burnt 1780
• Edgar 74 (1779) – broken up 1835
• Goliath 74 (1781) – razéed to 58 guns 1813, broken up 1815
• Zealous 74 (1785) – broken up 1816
• Audacious 74 (1785) – broken up 1815
• Elephant 74 (1786) – razéed to 58 guns 1818, broken up 1830
• Bellerophon 74 (1786) – sold 1836
• Saturn 74 (1786) – razéed to 58 guns 1813, broken up 1868
• Vanguard 74 (1787) – broken up 1821
• Excellent 74 (1787) – razéed to 58 guns 1820, broken up 1835
• Illustrious 74 (1789) – wrecked 1795

Model of HMS Illustrious at Buckler's Hard



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Arrogant_(1761)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrogant-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-292858;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1783 - The Action of 22 January 1783 was a single ship action fought off the Chesapeake Bay


The Action of 22 January 1783 was a single ship action fought off the Chesapeake Bay during the American War of Independence. The British frigate Hussar, under the command of Thomas McNamara Russell, captured the French frigate Sybille, under the command of Kergariou-Locmaria. The circumstances of the battle included controversial violations of accepted rules of war regarding the flying of false flags and distress signals.



Background
Further information: Action of 2 January 1783
Sybille, a relatively new French frigate, was commanded by Kergariou-Locmaria, whose name is badly misspelled in British histories. Sybille had three weeks previously engaged the 32-gun British frigate HMS Magicienne, under Captain Thomas Graves. The ships had fought until they had both been dismasted and were forced to disengage. Sybille made for a French port under a jury rig and was then caught in a violent storm. Due to this unfortunate series of events Kergariou had been obliged to throw twelve of his guns overboard.

Action
On 22 January 1783 Hussar sighted the French 32-gun frigate Sybille. When she sighted Hussar, Kergariou ordered the English flag hoisted over the French, the recognised signal of a prize, and at the same time, in the shrouds, an English yachting flag, union downwards, the internationally recognised signal of distress. Accordingly, Russell bore down to her assistance, but as the two ships drew near, Russell became suspicious and bore away. Seeing this, to prevent Hussar from warning the rest of the British forces of his presence, Kergariou lowered the British flag and fired his broadside; he also attempted to lower the yachting ensign, but this got stuck in the rigging and could not be removed.

Sybille's fire caused some damage to Hussar, but not as much as he could have done had Russell not turned away. Kergariou then attempted to board and overwhelm the Hussar whilst still flying the stuck distress flag. The Hussar's crew managed to repel the boarding party. At some point, a broadside from Hussar penetrated Sybille under the waterline, causing her to leak gravely, which flooded her gunpowder reserve. Sybille's pumps proved unable to compensate for the intake of seawater, and Kergariou ordered twelve guns thrown overboard. Soon, Hussar returned with the 50-gun HMS Centurion and the 16-gun sloop HMS Terrier. Unable to defend herself, Sybille surrendered to Centurion, after Centurion's second broadside.

Controversy
The rules of war that were accepted at the time were that a ship might fly a country's flag other than its own to escape or lure an enemy, but that before the engagement commenced they must remove the decoy flag and replace it with their own. Alongside this, ships were expected to only fly a distress flag if they were actually in distress. Luring enemies into a trap using a distress flag was an unacceptable ruse de guerre. The French captain therefore would have broken two of the fundamental rules of sea warfare. Kergariou came aboard the Hussar to surrender his sword. The count handed Russell his sword and complemented the captain and his crew on the capture of his vessel. Russell took the sword and reportedly said:

"Sir, I must humbly beg leave to decline any compliments to this ship, her officers, or company, as I cannot return them. She is indeed no more than a British ship of her class should be. She had not fair play; but Almighty God has saved her from the most foul snare of the most perfidious enemy. – Had you, Sir, fought me fairly, I should, if I know my own heart, receive your sword with a tear of sympathy. From you, Sir, I receive it with inexpressible contempt. And now, Sir, you will please observe, that lest this sword shold ever defile the hand of any honest French or English officer, I here, in the most formal and public manner, break it."​

Russell stuck the blade into the deck, broke it in half, and threw it to the deck. He then placed the count under close arrest. The crew of Hussar discovered £500 in valuables aboard Sybille which the French officers claimed as personal property. Russell permitted them to keep their property even though it reduced the prize money he and his crew received.

Russell kept Kergariou and his officers under guard in the orlop, fed them basic food rations, and provided them no bedding. Later, Admiral Digby received Kergariou with courtesy.

Aftermath
When Russell brought the prize into New York City he reported the circumstance, and his officers swore an affidavit in support of their captain. The Treaty of Paris was then on the point of being concluded and in consequence the Admiralty Board and British government thought the affair would cause undue scandal. The official account was kept from the general public and Russell's accounts of the affair were not published. Kergariou sent his subordinate, the Chevalier d'Escures to see Russell. The Frenchman attempted to threaten Russell with retaliation should he ever publish an account of the matter. When Kergariou was released, he said, Kergariou would use his influence at the French court to acquire another ship to hunt Russell down should that happen. When Russell failed to be moved, the count, again through his subordinate, issued a challenge to Russell to demand personal satisfaction. Russell considered the challenge and transmitted this answer for delivery to Kergariou: "Sir I have considered your challenge maturely...I will fight him, by land or by water, on foot or on horseback, in any part of this globe that he pleases. You will, I suppose, be his second; and I shall be attended by a friend worthy of your sword."

In the automatic court-martial for the loss of his ship, between April and September 1784, the allegations were brought to the attention of the court; Kergariou-Locmaria was honourably discharged of all accusations of wrongdoing.

On the declaration of peace, Hussar returned to England for decommissioning. Russell was offered a knighthood, but refused as his income would not have been enough to support the title. Russell was informed that Kergariou had been tried and acquitted of the loss of his ship and the alleged breach of internationally recognised laws. In pursuit of satisfaction, he applied to the Admiralty for permission to travel to France. Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot accompanied him to France, unaware at first of the reason. Kergariou wrote to Russell and expressed his gratitude of the treatment that he and his crew had received after their capture and informed Russell that he intended to move to the Pyrenees, although he did not give a specific location. Arbuthnot convinced Russell that he should not attempt to follow Kergariou and so they returned to England.

Kergariou himself moved to England five years later at the outbreak of the French Revolution; in 1795, he was part of a Royalist band supported by the British government and took part in the attempted Invasion of France in 1795. At the Battle of Quiberon, Hoche's troops captured him; the Revolutionaries sentenced him to death and shot him.


Protector was a frigate of the Massachusetts Navy, launched in 1779. She fought a notable single-ship action against a British privateer General Duff before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1781. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth-rate post ship HMS Hussar. Hussar too engaged in a notable action against the French 32-gun frigate Sybille. The Royal Navy sold Hussar in 1783 and a Dutch ship-owner operating from Copenhagen purchased her. She made one voyage to the East Indies for him before he sold her to British owners circa 1786. She leaves Lloyd's Register by 1790.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with quarter gallery decoration, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Centurion (1774), a 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].

HMS Centurion was a 50-gun Salisbury-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

During the war with America, Centurion saw action in a number of engagements and supported British forces in the Caribbean and the North American coasts. Spending the period of peace either serving as a flagship in the Caribbean or laid up or under refit in British dockyards, she was recommissioned in time to see action in the wars with France, particularly in the East Indies.

Her most important action came in the Battle of Vizagapatam in 1804, in which she fought against the French squadron of Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois that consisted of a 74-gun ship, and two frigates. Despite sustaining severe damage, she continued fighting, and survived the assault by the considerably heavier forces.

Returning to Britain shortly afterwards, she was refitted and transferred to Halifax, where she served as a hospital and receiving ship for the rest of her career. She sank at her moorings there in 1824, and was raised the following year and broken up, ending 50 years of Royal Navy service.


End of the action between HMS Magicienne and La Sibylle, 2 January 1783 (BHC0457)

Sibylle class, (32-gun design by Jacques-Noël Sané, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).

• Sibylle, (launched 30 August 1777 at Brest) – captured by the British Navy 1783.
• Diane, (launched 18 January 1779 at Saint-Malo) – wrecked 1780.
• Néréide, (launched 31 May 1779 at Saint-Malo) – captured by the British Navy 1797.
• Fine, (launched 11 August 1779 at Nantes) – wrecked 1794.
• Émeraude, (launched 25 October 1779 at Nantes) – broken up 1797.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_22_January_1783
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protector_(1779_frigate)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centurion_(1774)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_2_January_1783

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1785 - Launch of spanish San Ildefonso, a 74 gun Ildefonso class ship of the line


San Ildefonso was a ship of the Spanish Navy launched in 1785. She was designed to be lighter than traditional Spanish vessels which had had difficulty matching the speed of ships of the Royal Navy. Though nominally a 74-gun ship the San Ildefonso actually carried 80 cannons and howitzers. She saw service against French and British vessels in the late 18th century, sailed twice to the Americas and was trapped in Cadiz by the British blockade. San Ildefonso was captured by the British third-rate HMS Defence at the Battle of Trafalgar and successfully weathered the storm afterwards to be taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Ildefonso.


This is a plate from 'The Naval Chronicle' , 1806, subsequently extracted and hand-coloured. It shows the day after the Battle of Trafalgar, with the captured and dismasted Spanish 'San Ildefonso' on the right and on the left her captor, the 'Defence', riding at anchor in the wake of the post-battle storm near Cadiz, with other ships wrecked on the coast around Rota in the distance. (The old pencil identification, lower right, identifying the scene as concerning the Battle of I June 1794 is wrong.) The 'San Ildefonso' shows British colours flying above Spanish on a jury flagstaff fished to the stump of her mizzen. The Spanish ensign is clearly very large and is presumed to be the one from the ship hung in St Paul's Cathedral for Nelson's funeral, 9 January 1806 (see PAH7332), and subsequently preserved there until presented to Greenwich Hospital by the Dean and Chapter in 1907. It is now NMM AAA0567. The print is also of interest since it was much later used by Clarkson Stanfield RA (1793-1867) as the basis of his last Nelsonic marine subject, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1863 with almost the same title as Lee's print: see ZBA4261. This is now in the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Design
San Ildefonso has been described as a technical milestone in 18th-century Spanish shipbuilding. Having fought the Royal Navy in various wars the Spanish admirals were concerned that their ships could not match equivalent British vessels for speed. The San Ildefonso incorporated many amendments from traditional Spanish designs in order to improve her speed. Instead of traditional iron bolts holding the hull together the vessel utilised much lighter wooden treenails, the upper parts of the ship were made from pine and cedar instead of oak to reduce weight and lower the centre of gravity and the vessel was constructed shorter in length than a traditional Spanish seventy-four would be. Though considered a seventy-four (or third-rate) ship, in common with other vessels of the time, the San Ildefonso actually carried more guns. She was equipped with 80 in total comprising 16 eight pounder cannons on the fore-deck and 6 eight pounder cannons, 10 thirty pounder howitzers and six twenty-four pound howitzers on the aft deck. However unlike most other Spanish ships of the line (including all those present at the Battle of Trafalgar) the San Ildefonso did not carry any four pounder anti-personnel "pedrero" cannons.



Spanish service
The San Ildefonso was designed by Romero Landa and built by J. Fdz. Romero de Landa at a yard in Cartagena. She was ordered on 23 February 1784 with her keel being laid down a little over a month later. She took ten months to build, being launched on 22 January 1785. She began a forty-day sea trial period on 19 August 1785 but shortly afterwards was disarmed at Cartagena and placed in reserve for 2 years and nine months. San Ildefonso was refitted in 1788 and underwent more trials before being placed into reserve once more in October of that year. She was reactivated again in April 1789 and made a cruise to Cadiz in August, becoming damaged on the way. San Ildefonso underwent a third period of reserve later that year before being reactivated and having her interior layout rearranged.

San Ildefonso then sailed on campaign against the French and British navies for four years beginning in 1793. She returned to port at Cadiz on 3 March 1797 and was subsequently blockaded in that port by the Royal Navy. San Ildefonso sailed to America twice from 1798 to 1802 as an escort to convoys of galleons. During these voyages artillery officer Luis Daoiz de Torres, who would later lead the Spanish forces against French troops in the Dos de Mayo Uprising, served aboard the ship due to a shortage of trained naval officers. San Ildefonso was placed in reserve at Ferrol in 1802 for the last time in her career. After another period of refit in July and August 1805 she joined the main Spanish fleet prior to the Battle of Trafalgar. In her career to this point San Ildefonso had been in Spanish service for 21 years but had spent 9 of those years disarmed in reserve and had not fought any engagements.

Capture and British service
At Trafalgar San Ildefonso and her commander, Commodore Don Jose de Varga, were captured by the British third-rate HMS Defence. Defence was at the rear of the British line and so joined the battle later than most other ships but had already dismasted the French 74-gun ship Berwick before engaging the San Ildefonso. The Spanish vessel had already been damaged in the action and after a fierce fight lasting less than an hour surrendered to the British. Defence suffered only 34 casualties in return. San Ildefonso was successfully sailed to Gibraltar by the British, surviving the storm that followed the battle. She was taken into British service as HMS Ildefonso. The Ildefonso was laid up at Portsmouth until 3 April 1806 when she was placed under the command of newly promoted Captain John Quilliam, a veteran of Trafalgar. The ship was paid off in Portsmouth on 19 June but recommissioned on 22 July 1808 under Captain Edward Harvey. She was decommissioned later that year and reduced to a victualling storeship in Portsmouth and, later, Spithead. Being obsolete and of no further use after the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars she was broken up in July 1816.

The 145 m2 (1,560 sq ft) naval ensign that San Ildefonso flew at the Battle of Trafalgar was hung in St Paul's Cathedral at Admiral Nelson's funeral on 9 January 1806. The flag, damaged during the battle, was presented to the Royal Naval Museum by the cathedral in 1907


San Ildefonso class

San Ildefonso 74 (launched 22 January 1785 at Cartagena) - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, retaining same name, BU 1816
San Telmo 74 (launched 20 June 1788 at Ferrol) - Lost off Cape Horn 1819
San Francisco de Paula 74 (launched 20 December 1788 at Cartagena) - BU 1823
Europa 74 (launched 19 October 1789 at Ferrol) - Stricken 1801
Intrépido 74 (launched 20 November 1790 at Ferrol) - transferred to France 1 July 1801, renamed Intrépide, captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar and sank in storm, 1805
Conquistador 74 (launched 9 December 1791 at Cartagena) - transferred to France 23 April 1802, renamed Conquérant, stricken 1804
Infante Don Pelayo 74 (launched 22 November 1792 at Havana) - transferred to France 23 April 1802, renamed Desaix, stricken 1804
Monarca 74 (launched 17 March 1794 at Ferrol) - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked in storm, 23 October 1805



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_San_Ildefonso
https://www.napoleon.org/en/history...ips-flag-captured-at-the-battle-of-trafalgar/
http://oa.upm.es/1520/1/PONEN_FRANCISCO_FERNANDEZ_GONZALEZ_01.pdf

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1794 – Launch of French Jemmapes, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


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

Laid down as Alexandre, she was renamed Jemmapes on 7 January 1793 in honour of the Battle of Jemappes. She took part in the Atlantic campaign of May 1794 and ultimately in the Glorious First of June. She was attacked and totally dismasted by HMS Queen, with the loss of 60, including her captain, and 55 wounded.



She took part in the expedition to Saint-Domingue under Julien Cosmao.


Allemand's squadron in pursuit of the Calcutta convoy, 25 September 1805, Thomas Whitcombe, National Library of Australia

She was part of Zacharie Allemand's "invisible squadron", under Captain Jean-Nicolas Petit. She fought at the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809.

She was used as a hulk in Rochefort, Charente-Maritime from 1830, and was later broken up.


Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Jemmapes (1794), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Jemmapes_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1794 - Action of 22 January 1794 - Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794
HEICS Britannia and HEICS Nonsuch captured French privateers Vengeur (34) and Resolu (26) off Zuften isles.


East India Company deployment
With the Royal Navy unable to provide forces to protect trade in the East Indies, the East India Company authorities in India decided to form a squadron from their own ships to patrol the region. Two East Indiamen, William Pitt and Britannia, and the country ship Nonsuch, were diverted from their regular route for the service, accompanied by the brig Nautilus (or possibly Viper), and under the overall command of Commodore Charles Mitchell, captain of William Pitt. On 2 January 1794 this force passed Singapore and entered the Malacca Strait, sailing eastwards in search of French raiders. As the British squadron travelled along the northern coast of Sumatra, two French privateers attacked the East India Company's trading post at Bencoolen on the southern coast. The privateers were the 30-gun Vengeur under Captain Corosin and the 26-gun Résolue under Captain Jallineaux, and on 17 January they approached the mouth of Rat Island Basin close to Bencoolen where the 32-gun East Indiaman Pigot lay at anchor. Pigot, under Captain George Ballantyne, had a crew of 102 men, but was completely unprepared for action. At 08:15 Vengeur opened fire at 150 yards (137 m), maintaining the battle for an hour and 45 minutes before hauling off so that Résolu could continue the combat. Ballantyne defended his vessel intelligently, positioning Pigot so that the French could only approach one at a time through the narrow mouth of the bay. This allowed him to drive off each ship in turn, the privateers falling back together at 10:20 with damaged rigging. Pigot too had suffered, with one man killed and sufficient damage to the rigging to require several weeks of repairs. After immediate repairs had been completed, Corosin abandoned Bencoolen and retreated to the Sunda Strait in search of weaker targets



Early on 22 January, Mitchell's squadron, reinforced by the East Indiaman Houghton, stopped a merchant ship for inspection and as the ship was searched two new sails appeared to the southwest near Shown Rock in the Zuften Islands.
Suspicious of the identity of the new arrivals, Mitchell sent Britannia and Nonsuch in pursuit and the ships turned away.
As the East Indiamen closed with the fleeing ships, they were identified as Vengeur and Résolu.
The British vessels soon outran the French and the French opened fire to which the larger British vessels responded. Captain Thomas Cheap of Britannia engaged Vengeur while Captain John Canning of Nonsuch attacked Résolu at 10:45 and were soon supported by William Pitt and Houghton. The overwhelming numbers and size of the British squadron soon convinced Corosin and Jallineaux that further resistance was pointless and 45 minutes after the first shots were fired both surrendered.
Corosin died in the aftermath of the battle after losing a leg and another 11 French sailors were killed and 25 wounded, while British losses were one killed and two wounded on Britannia. French records report that Résolu has sustained heavy casualties. The British then manned both raiders with crews from the East Indiaman squadron.


Britannia was launched by the Bombay Dockyard in 1772, and was rebuilt in 1778. The British East India Company (EIC) apparently acquired her in 1775. Between 1779 she made eleven complete voyages as an East Indiaman for the EIC. She also participated in three naval campaigns, during the first of which she was deployed as a cruiser off Sumatra. There she engaged and captured a French ship. In the other two served as a transport. She set out for her twelfth EIC voyage but was lost in 1805 during the third naval campaign.



Britannia was built of teak and her long life as an East Indiaman sailing between England and India and China demonstrated the both the utility of teak, and the skill in ship construction of Eastern shipyards. She was also one of only a handful of merchant ships that the EIC actually owned. (Almost without exception the EIC leased and chartered its merchant ships.)


Nonsuch was launched at Calcutta in 1781 as the first large vessel built there. She was designed to serve as either a merchantman or a man-of-war. She spent the first 12 years of her career as a merchant vessel, carrying opium to China amongst other cargoes. After the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 her owner frequently hired her out as an armed ship to the British East India Company (EIC). She participated in an engagement with a French naval squadron and recaptured an East Indiaman. She also made two voyages for the EIC. After the Peace of Amiens in 1802 the EIC paid her off; as she was being hauled into a dockyard for repairs she was damaged and the decision was taken to break her up.


The Calcutta-trade merchantman 'Nonsuch' in two positions off the Kingsgate Gap

Origins
Lieutenant colonel Henry Watson built Nonsuch in 1781 at the shipyard he had constructed at Kidderpore. Watson was chief engineer under Warren Hastings' government. Hastings was the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal).

Nonsuch was the first regular Calcutta-built ship and her sequence number in the General Registry there was "1". She was built to be able to function either as a merchantman or a cruiser.



Watson proposed to Hastings that the EIC start trading opium to China, and offered Nonsuch for the purpose. China prohibited the opium trade and the intent was to circumvent the Chinese authorities.

Watson also convinced Hastings to provide the armament for Nonsuch, and soldiers to act as marines. Watson requested that the EIC provide him with thirty-six light 12-pounder guns, perhaps by drawing on the guns at Fort St George (Madras), or Fort William (Kidderpore). Apparently he received the guns, some especially cast for him and some transferred from Madras. Nonsuch had 56 soldiers: 30 sepoys from an EIC battalion, and 26 men from the "Supernumerary Company".



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_22_January_1794
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britannia_(1772_EIC_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonsuch_(1781_ship)



A very interesting web-page with a lot of data:
http://www.heicshipslogs.co.uk/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1809 - Action of 22 January 1809
HMS Cleopatra (1779 - 32), HMS Jason (1804 - 32) and HMS Hazard (1794 - 16) captured Topaze (1805 - 48), anchored under a small battery south of Point Noir, Guadeloupe.


The Action of 22 January 1809 was a minor naval engagement fought off the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The action was fought as part of the blockade of Guadeloupe and neighbouring Martinique by a large British Royal Navy squadron, which was seeking to cut the islands off from contact and supplies from France by preventing the passage of shipping from Europe to the islands. The British blockade was part of their preparation for planned invasions during the next year.

The French made numerous efforts to supply their colonies during this period, attempting to use fast frigates to bring food and military stores to the Caribbean past the British blockades, themselves a response to Napoleon's Continental System, but often losing the vessels in the process. One such attempt was made by the French frigate Topaze, despatched from Brest to Cayenne with a large cargo of flour. Driven away from Cayenne by Portugal (allies of Britain, and fighting France themselves in be Peninsular War), who had recently captured the colony, Topaze took refuge under the gun batteries of Guadeloupe.

Discovered at anchor off Pointe-Noire on 22 January by the British brig HMS Hazard, Topaze was isolated and attacked by two British frigates, led by Captain Samuel Pechell in HMS Cleopatra. In the ensuing engagement, the British ships outnumbered and overwhelmed their opponent, capturing the ship and her cargo, despite heavy fire from a French gun battery that overlooked the anchorage. The British ships were drawn from a force gathered for the impending invasion of Martinique, which was launched six days after Topaze had been captured and successfully completed in a campaign lasting just over three weeks.



Background
By the summer of 1808, the Napoleonic Wars were five years old and the British Royal Navy—whose success during the 1793–1801 French Revolutionary Wars had continued into the new conflict—was dominant at sea. In an effort to restrict French movement and trade, the British fleet actively blockaded French ports, maintaining squadrons of fast frigates and large ships of the line off every important French harbour and smaller warships off less significant anchorages to intercept any vessel that attempted to enter or leave. This strategy was practised across the French Empire, particularly in the West Indies, where lucrative British trade routes were at constant risk from raiding French warships and privateers. As a result, the economies of the French colonies, especially the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, collapsed and their food stocks, military supplies and morale all began to run low. Messages requesting assistance from France were despatched but many were intercepted by British ships, convincing the Admiralty to order invasions of the French colonies. During late 1808 and early 1809 therefore, expeditionary forces were sent to occupy the smaller colonies while a major army and naval fleet were assembled on Barbados under Sir Alexander Cochrane in readiness for an attack on Martinique.

In France, news of the situation in the West Indies forced the authorities to take action. During the autumn of 1808, a number of ships were despatched carrying much needed food and military supplies, but several were intercepted, including the frigate Thétis, captured during the Action of 10 November 1808 in the Bay of Biscay. Despite the losses, some ships did reach their destination intact and further supply ships were prepared, including the frigate Topaze, ordered to transport 1,100 barrels of flour to Cayenne. The cargo was loaded during late November and early December, the frigate also carrying military supplies and 100 soldiers to augment the Cayenne garrison. The ship, under the command of Captain Pierre-Nicolas Lahalle, was only three years old and carried 40 heavy guns.

In early December 1808, Topaze departed Brest and travelled across the Atlantic, encountering the British frigate HMS Loire in the Bay of Biscay. Loire fired on Topaze, but was unable to catch her and, despite minor damage, the French ship was able to reach the Caribbean without further incident. Nearing Cayenne on 13 January 1809, Lahalle was surprised to see the small British ship HMS Confiance emerge from the harbour and manoeuvre threateningly towards his ship. Realising that Cayenne was in British hands, he turned and sailed northwards, concerned that stronger British forces might be nearby. In fact Confiance was the only British ship in the vicinity and she was severely underarmed, with a crew of just 47 men, including 20 local inhabitants recruited on the spot. The colony had been captured just three days earlier by a combined British and Portuguese expeditionary force under Captain James Lucas Yeo.

Battle
With Cayenne under British control, Topaze made all speed for Guadeloupe, Lahalle intending to land his food supplies and reinforcements on French held territory before attempting the return journey to Europe. For nine days Topaze crossed the Caribbean without encountering any British warships, but at 07:00 on 22 January she was spotted approaching Guadeloupe from the southwest by the brig HMS Hazard under Captain Hugh Cameron, which was part of a squadron detached from Cochrane's invasion fleet on Barbados to watch the French islands. Although his lookouts had also sighted a French schooner close inshore, Cameron gave orders for his brig to close with the much larger French frigate instead. Within two hours, Hazard was joined by the frigates HMS Cleopatra under Captain Samuel Pechell and HMS Jason under Captain William Maude. Although both ships were smaller than Topaze, together they held a considerable advantage over the overladen French ship.

With Hazard approaching from the northeast, Cleopatra from the southeast and Jason from the south, Lahalle had only one clear route available, eastwards directly towards Guadeloupe. By 11:00, Topaze was 200 yards (180 m) offshore, sheltering in the anchorage off Pointe-Noire, which was protected by a small gun battery manned by soldiers from the island's garrison. Over the next three and a half hours, the British ships steadily approached the bay, hampered by light winds. The breeze strengthened at 14:30 and by 16:30 Cleopatra was close enough for Topaze to open fire on her from 25 yards (23 m). Under fire, Pechell manoeuvered into an advantageous position off Topaze's bow and began to fire on his opponent, shooting away one of the French ship's anchors. This caused her to swing with her bow towards the shore and Cleopatra was able to repeatedly rake Lahalle's ship from close range.

Severely damaged, Topaze was unable to effectively respond, the only serious danger to the British ships coming from the battery onshore. By 17:10 Jason and Hazard had joined Cleopatra, the brig bombarding the battery while Jason opened fire on the other side of the French ship, causing further damage. Recognising that his situation was hopeless, Lahalle surrendered at 17:20. As the French colours fell, approximately a third of the 430 soldiers and sailors on board Topaze attempted to escape captivity by diving overboard and swimming for the shore. Many drowned, and more were killed when Jason opened fire on the swimmers, although exact losses in the water are unknown. The remainder of the survivors, including Lahalle, totalled almost 300 men and were all made prisoners of war. The badly damaged Topaze was towed out of the bay and taken to a British port for repairs.

Aftermath
With the exception of the aforementioned Topaze, casualties were minimal: none were recorded on Jason and Hazard and none in the French battery on shore. Cleopatra, due to the poor position and accuracy of her opponent, lost only two men killed and one wounded, the most serious damage being to her masts and rigging, which were badly cut up. Losses among the French that didn't attempt to flee crew in the engagement were also relatively light, with 12 dead and 14 wounded, although a number of men were killed in their attempt to swim for shore after Topaze had surrendered. The French frigate was badly damaged, particularly in her hull, and required extensive repairs before she was fit for service in the Royal Navy, commissioned under the new name of HMS Alcmene.

On 28 January, Cochrane's fleet at Barbados, including Jason, Cleopatra and Hazard, sailed for Martinique, arriving two days later and conducting successful landings at three points on the island. Within a week, all of the French colony was in British hands except for Fort Desaix, which held out for a further three weeks before surrendering after a heavy bombardment. The following month, a major reinforcement fleet arrived from France but was unable to affect the situation on Martinique and anchored in Îles des Saintes, a small archipelago to the south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded and attacked by Cochrane's squadron and in the ensuing Action of 14–17 April 1809 were defeated, with the ship of the line Haupoult captured and the remainder driven back to Europe. Two frigates reached Guadeloupe, but both were later captured. Subsequent attempts to resupply Guadeloupe, the only remaining French position in the West Indies, were made during 1809, and a squadron under Commodore Francois Roquebert managed to capture a British frigate at the Action of 13 December 1809. However, this force was intercepted by a British blockade squadron near Guadeloupe at the Action of 18 December 1809 and defeated, with two frigates destroyed and two others forced to return to Europe without reaching their destination. Guadeloupe was subsequently invaded in January 1810 and captured, ending direct French interest in the Americas during the Napoleonic Wars.



HMS Cleopatra, depicted in a print by Nicholas Pocock

HMS Cleopatra was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had a long career, seeing service during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During the latter wars she fought two notable engagements with larger French opponents. In the first engagement she was forced to surrender, but succeeded in damaging the French ship so badly that she was captured several days later, while the Cleopatra was retaken. In the second she forced the surrender of a 40-gun frigate. After serving under several notable commanders she was broken up towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with half stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for building 'Cleopatra' (1778), a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate, at Bristol by Mr Hilhouse. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].

Construction
Cleopatra was ordered on 13 May 1778 and was laid down on 6 July 1778 at the yards of James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol. She was launched on 26 November 1779 and had been completed by 9 September 1780. £9,202 (approximately £1.12 million at today's prices) was paid to the builder, with another £5,563.1.5d (approximately £680 thousand at today's prices) spent on dockyard expenditures. Cleopatra was commissioned in October 1779 under her first commander, Captain George Murray.


Topaze was a Gloire-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she the served with the Royal Navy under the name Jewel, and later Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.



French service
She was built in Nantes in 1803 on plans by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait and launched on 1 March 1805. She was put into service in September.

She departed from Nantes in June 1805 for Fort-de-France to carry new instructions to Admiral Villeneuve, but failed to reach him as the fleet was already heading for Europe. On 19 July she was the lead vessel of a squadron of four vessels that captured HMS Blanche. The other three were the 22-gun corvette Départment des Landes, the 18-gun Torche, and the 16-gun brig-corvette Faune.


HMS Blanche attacked and captured by Topaz and three other French ships 19 July 1805 (PAD8764)

On 14 August, a British squadron comprising the 74-gun Goliath, HMS Camilla and HMS Raisonnable captured Faune, which was trailing. Two days later, the British caught up with the three remaining ships, and Baudin had to abandon Torche, which surrendered after a token resistance against Goliath.

Raissonable chased Topaze, which she engaged in the morning of 17 August. The two ships were becalmed at first and unable to manoeuver, until Topaze caught some breeze. Baudin prepared to board Raisonnable, but abandoned the project after considering that his frigate was ferrying the crew of Blanche; he later told Captain Mudge to testify that Raisonnable would have been taken, had it not been for Mudge's presence on Topaze.

On 13 January 1803, Topaze, Pierre-Nicolas Lahalle, approached Cayenne. She was carrying flour and was under orders to avoid combat. At the time, the sloop HMS Confiance was at Cayenne, supporting the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana. However, three-quarters of her crew, as well as her captain, James Lucas Yeo, were ashore, attacking the French defenders. Midshipman G. Yeo, Yeo's younger brother, another midshipman, the remaining 25 men of the crew, and 20 local Negroes that the two midshipmen induced to join them, set sail towards Topaze. Topaze, judging from the sloop's boldness that she had company that would be forthcoming, turned away.

A little over a week later, Topaze met HMS Cleopatra, which captured Topaze in the subsequent action of 22 January 1809. The British took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Jewel.

Sistership President

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

British service
After the loss of Alcmene in 1809, Jewel was renamed Alcmene later that year.

On 5 October 1809 Alcmene was in company with Wanderer and Pelter and all three shared in proceeds of the capture of George. Prize money was forwarded in 1815 from the Vice admiralty court in Antigua.

On 23 December 1813, Alcmene captured the Cerf-class schooner Fleche between Corsica and Cape Delle Molle. Fleche was armed with 12 guns, and carried a crew of 99 men and 24 soldiers. She was carrying the soldiers from Toulon to Corsica. French records place the capture off Vintimilles, and add the Fleche was escorting the storeships Lybio and Baleine, which were also carrying troops for Ajaccio, Corsica. That same day Euryalus drove Baleine, ashore near Calvi, where she bilged on the rocks. Baleine was armed with 22 guns and carried a crew of 120 men.

Alcmene was in company with Pembroke and Aigle on 11 April 1814 when they captured Fortune, Notre Dame de Leusainte, and a settee of unknown name.

On 13 May 1815 Alcmene, with Captain Jeremiah Coghlan in command, was present at the surrender of Naples during the Neapolitan War. A British squadron, consisting of Alcmene, and more importantly the 74-gun Tremendous, the sloop Partridge, and the brig-sloop Grasshopper blockaded the port and destroyed all the gunboats there. Parliament voted a grant of £150,000 to the officers and men of the squadron for the property captured at the time, with the money being paid in May 1819.

On 6 July, Alcmene captured the French naval schooner Antelope (Antilope) off Sardinia. Antilope was a Cerf-class schooner armed with two chase guns of 6 or 8-pounds, and two 24-pounder carronades. She had a complement of 86 men and displaced 273 tons (French).

Fate
The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Topaze, of 38 guns and 917 tons", lying at Portsmouth, for sale on 11 August 1814. The buyer had to post a bond of £3,000, with two guarantors, that they would break up the vessel within a year of purchase. Topaze did not sell immediately and was not broken up until February 1816.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_22_January_1809
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cleopatra_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Topaze_(1805)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-302884;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1809 - HMS Primrose (18), James Mein, wrecked on the Manacle near Falmouth.


HMS Primrose (1807) was a Royal Navy Cruizer-class brig-sloop built by Thomas Nickells (or Nicholls), at Fowey and launched in 1807. She was commissioned in November 1807 under Commander James Mein, who sailed her to the coast of Spain on 3 February 1808.


HMS Childers (a sistership of the Cruizer class)

On 14 May 1808 Primrose was in the Tagus with the 14-gun brig Rapid. They saw and chased two merchant feluccas that took shelter under the protection of a shore battery. On 18 May the British decided to try to cut the feluccas out nonetheless, with Rapid leading the way. However, fire from the battery struck Rapid, opening two holes in her bow so that she filled quickly with water. Still, that evening Primrose was able to save Rapid's entire crew.

In January 1809 Primrose sailed for Spain with a convoy. During a snowstorm she ran aground at 5am on 22 January on Mistrel Rock, The Manacles, a mile offshore, and was wrecked. (The Manacles are a set of treacherous rocks off The Lizard, close to the shipping lane into Falmouth, Cornwall.) The sole survivor was a drummer boy. Lieut. J. Withers of the Manacles Signal Post prevailed on six local men to try to rescue survivors. For their efforts, albeit unsuccessful, the Admiralty directed that the volunteers each receive an award of 10 guineas from the Naval authorities at Falmouth.

On the same night another vessel was also wrecked, nearby on Black Head, a few miles to the south. She was the transport Dispatch, homeward-bound from Corunna, with a detachment of the 7th Hussars, who had been fighting with Sir John Moore. The Hussars lost 104 men in the wrecking. Only seven men from Dispatch were saved.


HMS Childers (a sistership of the Cruizer class)

Postscript
Inland, a mile from the coast is St Keverne, where a 32-pounder carronade that divers recovered in 1978 from the wreck of Primose stands by the lych-gate to the churchyard.

The Charlestown Shipwreck Centre, Cornwall, has a small (90mm bore and 125 kg weight overall) brass boat gun from Primrose. The curators have determined that it was cast in a Danish foundry.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Primrose_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruizer-class_brig-sloop
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-301977;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1856 – Launch of French Audacieuse, an Ardente-class frigate of the French Navy


Audacieuse was an Ardente-class frigate of the French Navy.

She served between France and the Far East, notable ferrying ambassador Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros to China in 1857 and bringing guns from the Taku Forts to France.


Audacieuse, drawn by Roux





Impératrice Eugénie class, 56 guns

Impératrice Eugénie, launched 21 August 1856 at Toulon
Foudre, launched 2 December 1856 at Toulon
Audacieuse, launched 22 January 1856 at Brest
Ardente, launched 25 May 1857 at Brest


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Audacieuse_(1856)
http://www.spurlingandrouxwatercolours.com/nppfra.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1873 - The Northfleet, a British full rigged ship, is rammed by Spanish steamer Murillo and sinks 293 passengers and crew near Dungeness


The Northfleet was a British full rigged ship that is best remembered for her disastrous sinking in the English Channel in January 1873.


The Northfleet photographed on the Thames a few days before her loss in 1873

Description
The Northfleet was a Blackwall Frigate of 951 tons gross, 895 net registered tons on dimensions of 180 feet (55 m) between perpendiculars, 32.3 feet (9.8 m) beam and 20.0 feet (6.1 m) depth of hold. She was built at Northfleet, Kent in 1853 for London shipowner Duncan Dunbar and spent much of her career trading between England and Australia and between England, India and China.

Sinking
In 1872 the ship was owned by John Patton, Jr., of London when she was chartered to carry labourers and their families, 340 tons of iron rails, and 240 tons of other equipment to build a railway line in Tasmania, under the command of her previous chief officer Captain Edward Knowles (born on 4 May 1839).


Divers preparing to recover bodies from the wreck, Illustrated London , 6 February 1873

The Northfleet left Gravesend for Hobart on 13 January 1873 with 379 persons on board: the pilot, 34 crew, three cabin passengers and the assisted emigrants comprising 248 men, 42 women and 52 children. Bad weather forced the ship to drop anchor at several points before leaving the Channel and on the night of 22 January she was at anchor about two or three miles (5 km) off Dungeness. Around 10.30 p.m. she was run down by a steamer that backed off and disappeared into the darkness. The heavily laden Northfleet sank within half an hour, before vessels in the vicinity realised anything was amiss, and in the ensuing panic a total of 293 people were drowned. 86 were saved. Of the women on board only the captain's wife and one emigrant survived, along with just two of the children. Only two boats managed to get clear of the sinking ship, one without any oars and the other damaged. The captain went down with his ship.

The offending steamer proved to be the Spanish steamship Murillo, which was stopped off Dover on 22 September 1873, eight months after the collision. A Court of Admiralty condemned her to be sold and severely censured her officers.


Loss of the Northfleet (The Captain's Farewell) 1873 (PAF7747)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northfleet_(ship)
https://books.google.at/books?id=al...=onepage&q=the Loss of the Northfleet&f=false
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-335244;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=N
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northfleet_(Schiff)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1891 – The Hapag liner Augusta Victoria starts in Ciuxhaven for a 3 month cruise.

Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore started in 1891, and Augusta Victoria's cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves, is often stated to have been the first ever cruise


Augusta Victoria, later Auguste Victoria, placed in service in 1889 and named for Empress Augusta Victoria, wife of German Emperor Wilhelm II, was the name ship of the Augusta Victoria series and the first of a new generation of luxury Hamburg America Line ocean liners. She was the first European liner with twin propellers and when first placed in service, the fastest liner in the Atlantic trade. In 1897, the ship was rebuilt and lengthened and in 1904 she was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy, which renamed her Kuban.


Augusta Victoria as first launched, about 1890

History
Hamburg America Line
Albert Ballin commissioned Augusta Victoria and her sister ship Columbia in 1887, soon after joining the Hamburg America Line as head of passenger service. Augusta Victoria, the first to be put in service, was originally to have been called Normannia but was renamed for the Empress after Wilhelm II became Emperor. In the 1890s the line added the larger Normanniaand SS Fürst Bismarck to the series. Augusta Victoria was the first continental European liner with twin screws, which made her both faster and more reliable. (The two previous twin-screw liners were the British-built City of New York and City of Paris of the Inman Line.) In May 1889, her maiden voyage to New York broke a record, taking only seven days. In November 1889, Nellie Bly sailed to Southampton on the Augusta Victoria on the first leg of her 72-day race around the world.



She was also the first luxury liner at Hamburg America, introducing the concept of the "floating hotel"; she had "a rococo stairhall, illuminated by a milky way of pear-shaped prisms and naked light bulbs clutched by gilded cherubs, a reception court choked by palm trees and a dark and gothic smoking room." Ballin had her interior design work done by Johann Poppe, the designer at Hamburg America's rival line, North German Lloyd, whose ships already had a reputation for elegance. She was immediately successful, but she and her sister ship were an economic drain on the line because they required more coal than slower ships and could not carry much freight or many steerage passengers and were therefore profitable only in the summer season, and it was risky to operate them at all from Hamburg in very bad weather, when the Elbe was packed with ice.

Off-season pleasure cruises were therefore started in 1891, and Augusta Victoria's cruise in the Mediterranean and the Near East from 22 January to 22 March 1891, with 241 passengers including the Ballins themselves, is often stated to have been the first ever cruise. Christian Wilhelm Allers published an illustrated account of it as Backschisch (Baksheesh). However, the British Orient Line had offered cruises in the late 1880s.

In 1897, the ship underwent a comprehensive rebuilding at Harland & Wolff in Belfast. She was lengthened, her tonnage increased, and her speed increased by half a knot, and the middle of her three masts was removed. Her name was also changed to Auguste Victoria to correct an original inaccuracy; the Empress spelt her name with an e.


Auguste Victoria around 1900 after her rebuild

Imperial Russian Navy
While Augusta Victoria was under construction, the Emperor persuaded both Hamburg America and its rival Norddeutscher Lloyd to make their future liners convertible to auxiliary cruisers in time of war. Like all German fast liners built from then until 1914, she therefore had reinforced decks which could support gun platforms. In 1904 she and the other three ships in the series were sold to the Russian Navy; she was renamed Kuban and became a cruiser, but was assigned to be a scout ship. She sailed in the Far East with Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky's fleet in the Russo-Japanese War, but did not see action. She was broken up at Stettin in 1907

https://www.gustav-mahler.eu/index.php/plaatsen/365-atlantic/3046-s-s-kaiserin-auguste-victoria
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Augusta_Victoria_(1888)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Victoria

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.


SS Valencia was an iron-hulled passenger steamer built as a minor ocean liner for the Red D Line for service between Venezuela and New York City. She was built in 1882 by William Cramp and Sons, one year after the construction of her sister ship Caracas. She was a 1,598 ton vessel (originally 1,200 tons), 252 feet (77 m) in length. In 1897, Valencia was deliberately attacked by the Spanish cruiser Reina Mercedes off Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The next year, she became a coastal passenger liner on the U.S. West Coast and served periodically in the Spanish–American War as a troopship to the Philippines. Valencia was wrecked off Cape Beale, which is near Clo-oose, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 22 January 1906. Since her sinking killed 100 people (including all of the women and children aboard), some classify the wreck of Valencia as the worst maritime disaster in the "Graveyard of the Pacific", a famously treacherous area off the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.


SS Valencia around 1900, showing much of her original Red D Line profile

Final voyage


Valencia, circa 1905



Valencia was not a well-liked ship among Pacific Coast passengers. She was regarded as being too small and too open to the elements, causing her to be classified as a second class vessel. Furthermore, her average speed was only 11 knots. During the winter season, Valencia spent most of her time sitting at her dock in San Francisco, only seeing use as a backup vessel. The Valencia was not equipped with a double bottom and, like other early iron steamers, her hull compartmentalization was primitive. In January 1906, however, she was temporarily diverted to the San Francisco–Seattle route to take over from the SS City of Puebla, which was undergoing repairs in San Francisco. The weather in San Francisco was clear, and Valencia set off on 20 January at 11:20 a.m. with nine officers, 56 crew members and at least 108 passengers aboard. As she passed by Cape Mendocino in the early morning hours of 21 January, the weather took a turn for the worse. Visibility was low and a strong wind started to blow from the southeast.



Unable to make celestial observations, the ship's crew was forced to rely on dead reckoning to determine their position. Out of sight of land, and with strong winds and currents, Valencia missed the entrance to the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Shortly before midnight on 22 January, she struck a reef 11 miles (18 km) off Cape Beale on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island.

Collision and disaster
Immediately after the collision, a large wave lifted her off the reef, and crew members reported a large gash in the hull into which water was pouring rapidly. To prevent her from sinking, the captain ordered her run aground, and she was driven into the rocks again. She was left stranded in sight of the shore, separated from it by by less than 100 yards (91 m).

In the ensuing confusion, all but one of the ship's seven lifeboats were lowered into the water against the captain's orders, all of them improperly manned. Three flipped while being lowered, spilling their occupants into the ocean; of the three that were successfully launched, two capsized and one disappeared. The scene at the wreck was horrific, as one of the few survivors, Chief Freight Clerk Frank Lehn recounted:


The wreck of Valencia, seen from one of the rescuing ships.

Screams of women and children mingled in an awful chorus with the shrieking of the wind, the dash of rain, and the roar of the breakers. As the passengers rushed on deck they were carried away in bunches by the huge waves that seemed as high as the ship's mastheads. The ship began to break up almost at once and the women and children were lashed to the rigging above the reach of the sea. It was a pitiful sight to see frail women, wearing only night dresses, with bare feet on the freezing ratlines, trying to shield children in their arms from the icy wind and rain.​

Only 12 men made it to shore, and of those, three were washed away by the waves after landing. The remaining nine men scaled the cliffs and found a telegraph line strung between the trees. They followed the line through thick forest until they came upon a lineman's cabin, from which they were able to summon help. These nine men, who became known as the "Bunker" Party, after the survivor Frank Bunker, eventually received much criticism for not attempting to reach the top of the nearby cliff, where they might have received and made fast, the cable fired from the Lyle gun on board Valencia.

Meanwhile, the ship's boatswain and a crew of volunteers had been lowered in the last remaining lifeboat with instructions to find a safe landing place and return to the cliffs to receive a lifeline from the ship. Upon landing, they discovered a trail and a sign reading "Three miles to Cape Beale". Abandoning the original plan, they decided to head toward the lighthouse on the cape, where they arrived after 2 ½ hours of hiking. The lighthouse keeper phoned Bamfield to report the wreck, but the news had already arrived and been passed on to Victoria. This last group of survivors was "well-nigh crazed" by their last sight of the remaining stranded passengers:

the brave faces looking at them over the broken rail of a wreck and of the echo of that great hymn sung by the women who, looking death smilingly in the face, were able in the fog and mist and flying spray to remember: Nearer, My God, to Thee.​

Rescue efforts


Survivors on a life raft being rescued by City of Topeka

Once word of the disaster reached Victoria, three ships were dispatched to rescue the survivors. The largest was the passenger liner SS Queen; accompanying her were the salvagesteamer Salvor and the tug Czar. Another steamship, City of Topeka, was later sent from Seattle with a doctor, nurses, medical supplies, members of the press, and a group of experienced seamen. On the morning of 24 January, Queen arrived at the site of the wreck, but was unable to approach due to the severity of the weather and lack of depth charts. Seeing that it would not be possible to approach the wreck from the sea, Salvor and Czar set off to Bamfield to arrange for an overland rescue party.

Upon seeing Queen, Valencia's crew launched the ship's two remaining life rafts, but the majority of the passengers decided to remain on the ship, presumably believing that a rescue party would soon arrive. Approximately one hour later, City of Topeka arrived and, like Queen, was unable to approach the wreck. Topeka cruised the waters off the coast for several hours searching for survivors, and eventually came upon one of the life rafts carrying 18 men. No other survivors were found, and at dark the captain of City of Topeka called off the search. The second life raft eventually drifted ashore on an island in Barkley Sound, where the four survivors were found by the island's First Nations and taken to a village near Ucluelet.

When the overland party arrived at the cliffs above the site of the wreck, they found dozens of passengers clinging to the rigging and the few unsubmerged parts of Valencia's hull. Not long afterwards, the ship's lone funnel collapsed. With the funnel being the last full means of protection to anyone on board, the waves were now able to completely wash over Valencia's deck, leaving all at the mercy of the waves. Without any remaining lifelines, however, they could do nothing to help the survivors, and within hours a large wave washed the wreckage off the rocks and into the ocean. The remaining passengers drowned, were beaten to death against the rocks, or clung to wreckage as they were swept to sea, dying of hypothermia.

Investigation and aftermath

A headstone marking the remains of the unknown dead of the Valencia disaster, located in the Mt Pleasant Cemetery on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle, Washington

Within days of the disaster, the US Marine Inspection Service launched an investigation into the incident. A second investigation was launched by President Theodore Roosevelt. Its purpose was twofold: one, to determine the causes of the disaster, and two, to recommend how to avoid such loss of life in the future.

The investigation ran from 14 February to 1 March 1906, and the final report was published on 14 April 1906. The reports agreed on the causes of the disaster — navigational mistakes and poor weather. Safety equipment was, for the most part, in working order, but lifeboat drills had not been carried out. According to the report, the crew of the rescuing vessels did as much to help Valencia as could be expected under the circumstances.

The loss of life was attributed to a series of unfortunate coincidences, aggravated by a lack of lifesaving infrastructure along Vancouver Island's coast. The federal report called for the construction of a lighthouse between Cape Beale and Carmanah Point, and the creation of a coastal lifesaving trail with regularly spaced shelters for shipwrecked sailors. It also recommended that surfboats be stationed at Tofino and Ucluelet and that a well-equipped steamboat be stationed at Bamfield. The Government of Canada immediately set to work building a lighthouse and trail; in 1908, the Pachena Point Lighthouse was lit, and in 1911 work on the trail – later known as the West Coast Trail – was completed.

Estimates of how many people died in the sinking vary; some sources list that 117 people were killed, while others claim that the number of fatalities was as high as 181. According to the federal report, the official death toll was 136 persons. Only 37 men survived, and every woman and child on Valencia died in the disaster.

In 1933, 27 years after the disaster, Valencia's lifeboat No. 5 was found floating in Barkley Sound. Remarkably, it was in good condition, with much of the original paint remaining. The boat's nameplate is now on display in the Maritime Museum of British Columbia.

Coincidentally, Valencia's sister ship Caracas, was also wrecked. On 9 December 1888, shortly after arriving on the west coast as Yaquina Bay, she broke free from her tugboat, ran aground at the bay of her namesake and was declared a total loss.



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 January 1941 - Operation Berlin started


Operation Berlin was a successful commerce raid performed by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau between January and March 1941. The commander-in-chief of the operation was Admiral Günther Lütjens, who subsequently commanded the famous cruise of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.



The two ships aborted the operation in December 1940, but finally sailed from Kiel on 22 January 1941. They were spotted en route through the Great Belt and the British Admiralty was informed. Admiral Sir John Tovey sailed with a strong force (three battleships, eight cruisers and 11 destroyers), hoping to intercept the German ships in the Iceland—Faroe Islands Passage. Instead, Lütjens took his flotilla through the Denmark Strait into the Atlantic, where they were positioned to intercept convoys between Canada and Britain.

Convoy HX-106 was intercepted, but the attack was aborted when the escorting battleship HMS Ramillies was spotted. Lütjens had orders to avoid action with enemy capital ships. The British failed to make an accurate identification of the German battleships.

After refuelling, the German ships missed convoy HX-111, but happened upon an empty convoy returning to the U.S. Over 12 hours, five ships were sunk but the attack was reported. The squadron moved south to the Azores to intercept the convoy route between West Africa and Britain.

A convoy was sighted but, once again, was not attacked due to the presence of the battleship HMS Malaya. Instead, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau shadowed it, acting to guide in U-boat attacks.

The two ships moved back to the western Atlantic, sinking a solitary freighter en route. Two unescorted convoys were attacked and 16 ships were sunk or captured. One of these ships—Chilean Reefer—caused problems. It made smoke, radioed an accurate position and returned Gneisenau's fire with its small deck gun. Lütjens, uncertain of the freighter's capabilities, withdrew and destroyed it from a safe distance. During this action, HMS Rodney appeared, possibly in response to the radio calls. The German ships bluffed their way to safety while Rodney picked up survivors.

The German ships were ordered back to Brest. They met air and sea escorts on 21 March and docked the next day.

In total, they had sailed nearly 18,000 mi (16,000 nmi; 29,000 km) in 60 days and destroyed or captured 22 ships. They were supported by supply ships and the tankers Uckermark, Ermland, Schlettstadt, Friedrich Breme and Esso Hamburg.


Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out.



Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement (November 1939). Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung (April–June 1940), the German invasion of Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history.

In early 1942, after repeated British bombing raids, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy, but British naval patrols intercepted the German force. During the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Only 36 men were rescued, out of a crew of 1,968


Gneisenau was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship and battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the second vessel of her class, which included one other ship, Scharnhorst. The ship was built at the Deutsche Werke dockyard in Kiel; she was laid down on 6 May 1935 and launched on 8 December 1936. Completed in May 1938, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets, though there were plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets.



Gneisenau and Scharnhorst operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During their first operation, the two ships sank the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short battle. Gneisenau and Scharnhorst participated in Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious. Gneisenau was damaged in the action with Renown and later torpedoed by a British submarine, HMS Clyde, off Norway. After a successful raid in the Atlantic in 1941, Gneisenau and her sister put in at Brest, France. The two battleships were the subject of repeated bombing raids by the RAF; Gneisenau was hit several times during the raids, though she was ultimately repaired.

In early 1942, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. After reaching Kiel in early February, the ship went into drydock. On the night of 26 February, the British launched an air attack on the ship; one bomb penetrated her armored deck and exploded in the forward ammunition magazine, causing serious damage and a large number of casualties. The repairs necessitated by the damage were so time-consuming that it was determined to rebuild the ship to accommodate the 38 cm guns as originally intended. The 28 cm guns were removed and used as shore batteries. In 1943, Hitler ordered the cessation of conversion work, and on 27 March 1945, she was sunk as a blockship in Gotenhafen (Gdynia) in German-occupied Poland. She was eventually broken up for scrap in 1951.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Berlin_(Atlantic)
http://www.scharnhorst-class.dk/scharnhorst/history/scharnberlin.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Scharnhorst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Gneisenau

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 22 January


1560 – Death of Wang Zhi, Chinese pirate

Wang Zhi (Chinese: 王直 or 汪直), art name Wufeng (五峰), was a Chinese pirate lord of the 16th century, one of the chief named and known figures among the wokou pirates prevalent during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor. Originally a salt merchant, Wang Zhi turned to smuggling during the Ming dynasty's period of maritime prohibitions banning all private overseas trade, and eventually became the head of a pirate syndicate stretching the East and South China Seas, from Japan to Thailand. Through his clandestine trade, he is credited for spreading European firearms throughout East Asia, and for his role in leading the first Europeans (the Portuguese) to reach Japan in 1543. However, he was also blamed for the ravages of the Jiajing wokou raids in China, which he was executed for in 1560 while trying to negotiate a relaxation of the Ming maritime prohibitions.


Map of the wokou raids in Wang Zhi's time (blue), with sea routes from Japan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Zhi_(pirate)


1645 – Birth of William Kidd, Scottish sailor and pirate hunter (d. 1701)

William Kidd, also Captain William Kidd or simply Captain Kidd (c. 1645 – 23 May 1701), was a Scottish sailor who was tried and executed for piracy after returning from a voyage to the Indian Ocean. Some modern historians, for example Sir Cornelius Neale Dalton (see Books), deem his piratical reputation unjust.


Captain Kidd, gibbeted, following his execution in 1701.

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


1733 – Birth of Philip Carteret, English admiral and explorer (d. 1796)

Philip Carteret, Seigneur of Trinity (22 January 1733, Trinity Manor, Jersey – 21 July 1796, Southampton) was a British naval officer and explorer who participated in two of the Royal Navy's circumnavigation expeditions in 1764–66 and 1766–69.



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


1755 - John Jervis (later Earl of St Vincent) passed as Lieutenant (some sources say 2nd January)

Admiral of the Fleet John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent GCB, PC (9 January 1735 – 14 March 1823) was an admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Jervis served throughout the latter half of the 18th century and into the 19th, and was an active commander during the Seven Years' War, American War of Independence, French Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. He is best known for his victory at the 1797 Battle of Cape Saint Vincent, from which he earned his titles, and as a patron of Horatio Nelson.



Jervis was also recognised by both political and military contemporaries as a fine administrator and naval reformer. As Commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean, between 1795 and 1799 he introduced a series of severe standing orders to avert mutiny. He applied those orders to both seamen and officers alike, a policy that made him a controversial figure. He took his disciplinarian system of command with him when he took command of the Channel Fleet in 1799. In 1801, as First Lord of the Admiralty he introduced a number of reforms that, though unpopular at the time, made the Navy more efficient and more self-sufficient. He introduced innovations including block making machinery at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard. St Vincent was known for his generosity to officers he considered worthy of reward and his swift and often harsh punishment of those he felt deserved it.

Jervis' entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography by P. K. Crimmin describes his contribution to history: "His importance lies in his being the organiser of victories; the creator of well-equipped, highly efficient fleets; and in training a school of officers as professional, energetic, and devoted to the service as himself."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jervis,_1st_Earl_of_St_Vincent


1798 - HMS Sybille (44), Cptn. Edward Cooke, and HMS Fox (32), Cptn. Pulteney Malcolm, at Sambangen on the island of Majindiao.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Manila_(1798)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Sibylle_(1792)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Fox_(1780)


1800 - Cptn. Thomas Tingey USN is ordered to duty as first Superintendent of the Washington Navy Yard

Thomas Tingey (11 September 1750 – 23 February 1829) was a commodore of the United States Navy. Originally serving in the British Royal Navy, Tingey later served in the Continental Navy. Tingey served with distinction during the Quasi-War and served as the commandant of the navy yard until his death.



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


1807 - Unrated schooner HM Felix (1803 - 14), Lt. Robert Cameron (Acting), ex- French Le Felix captured 26.07.1803, was wrecked near Santander


1862 - During the Civil War, the side-wheel steamer USS Lexington conducts a reconnaissance up the Tennessee River and exchanges long-range fire with Fort Henry in Tennessee.

The third USS Lexington was a timberclad gunboat in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.



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


1870 - USS Nipsic, commanded by Cmdr. Thomas O. Selfrige, sails on an expedition to survey the Isthmus of Darien at Panama to determine the best route for a ship canal.

USS Nipsic was a gunboat in the Union Navy. The ship was laid down on 24 December 1862 by Portsmouth Navy Yard; launched on 15 June 1863; sponsored by Miss Rebecca Scott; and commissioned on 2 September 1863, Lieutenant Commander George Bacon in command.



In 1874 she was rebuilt as a new, and substantially larger, Adams/Enterprise-class gunboat. The Navy rebuilt some ships to new, when they could not get budget authorization for a new ship, but had significant funding for repairs. She would also be completely rebuilt in 1890 her length and beam extended and her tonnage increased.

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


1941 - During World War II, USS Louisville (CA 28) arrives at New York with $148 million in British gold brought from Simonstown, South Africa, to be deposited in American banks.

USS Louisville (CL/CA-28), a Northampton-class cruiser, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. She was active throughout the Pacific War. USS Louisville was the first large warship to be built in a drydock.


USS Louisville in 1938

Louisville was launched on 1 September 1930 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, sponsored by Miss Jane Brown Kennedy, and commissioned on 15 January 1931, Captain Edward John Marquart in command. Louisville since commissioning day has carried, on the prominent bulkhead, a shoe of the great stallion, Man o' War, as a talisman against evil.

Originally classified as a light cruiser, CL-28, because of her thin armor. Effective 1 July 1931, Louisville was redesignated a heavy cruiser, CA-28, because of her 8-inch guns in accordance with the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1930

22 January
As a neutral ship, Louisville traveled the U-boat-infested waters with her American flag spotlighted. At Simonstown, she received $148 million in British gold for deposit in the United States. She then sailed for New York City, delivered her precious cargo and returned to the Pacific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Louisville_(CA-28)


1944 - Operation Shingle, the Allied landing at Anzio and Nettuno, Italy, begins. While the landings are flawless and meet with little resistance from the Germans, USS Portent sinks during the invasion.

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