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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 23 April


1014 – Battle of Clontarf: High King of Ireland Brian Boru defeats Viking invaders, but is killed in battle.

The Battle of Clontarf (Irish: Cath Chluain Tarbh) was a battle that took place on 23 April 1014 by the River Tolka, from Clontarf inland, near the then-small Dublin. It pitted forces led by Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, against a Norse-Irish alliance comprising the forces of Sigtrygg Silkbeard, King of Dublin; Máel Mórda mac Murchada, King of Leinster; and an external Viking contingent led by Sigurd, of Orkney; and Brodir of Mann. It lasted from sunrise to sunset, and ended in a rout of the Viking and Leinster forces. It is estimated that between 7,000 and 10,000 men were killed. Although Brian's forces were victorious, Brian himself was killed, as were his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach. Leinster king Máel Mórda and Viking leaders Sigurd and Brodir were also slain.


Battle of Clontarf, oil on canvas painting by Hugh Frazer, 1826

After the battle, the Vikings and the Kingdom of Dublin were reduced to a secondary power. Brian's family was temporarily eclipsed, and there was no undisputed High King of Ireland until the late 12th century.

The battle was an important event in Irish history and is recorded in both Irish and Norse chronicles. In Ireland, the battle came to be seen as an event that freed the Irish from foreign domination, and Brian was hailed as a national hero. This view was especially popular during English rule in Ireland. Although the battle has come to be viewed in a more critical light, it still has a hold on the popular imagination.

Battle of Clontarf - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1621 – Birth of William Penn, English admiral and politician (d. 1670)

Sir William Penn (23 April 1621 – 16 September 1670) was an English admiral and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1670. He was the father of William Penn, founder of the Province of Pennsylvania.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn_(Royal_Navy_officer)


1692 – Launch of HMS Breda was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard

HMS Breda was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard on 23 April 1692. She was named after the Declaration of Breda made in 1660 by Charles II of England.
In 1701, under Captain Christopher Fogg, she became the flagship of Vice-Admiral John Benbow. His squadron left for the West Indies on 2 September 1701 as the War of the Spanish Succession began.
During the Action of August 1702, Breda, under Benbow's command, was one of only two ships in the squadron to effectively engage the French. After several days, the contumacy of Benbow's captains in refusing to fight, and his own injuries, forced him to return to Port Royal, where several were convicted of cowardice at a court-martial.
In 1718, Breda was commanded by Captain Barrows Harris, and took part in the Battle of Cape Passaro. During the Blockade of Porto Bello (1726–7) she served as flagship for Vice-Admiral Hosier, who died aboard her in 1727.[3] She was broken up in 1730.


The Battle of Cape Passaro, 11 August 1718 by Richard Paton (oil on canvas, 1767)

HMS Breda (1692) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1750 – Launch of French Rose, (one-off 30-gun design of 1749 by Joseph Chapelle, with 8 x 12-pounders on the lower deck and 22 x 8-pounders (or 6-pounders) on the gun deck; launched 23 April 1750 at Toulon) – sold 1781


1750 – Launch of French Gracieuse, (one-off 24-gun design of 1749 by Joseph Chapelle, with 24 x 12-pounder guns, launched 23 April 1750 at Toulon) – sold 1781.


1768 – Launch of Spanish San Vicente Ferrer 80 (launched 23 April 1768 at Cartagena) - Scuttled 16 February 1797

San Vicente Ferrer Class 80 guns.
San Vicente Ferrer 80 (launched 23 April 1768 at Cartagena) - Scuttled 16 February 1797
San Nicolás Bari 80 (launched 5 April 1769 at Cartagena) - Captured by Britain at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797, renamed HMS San Nicholas, sold 1814
San Rafael 80 (-) - Destroyed by fire on stocks at Havana 1769


1782 HMS Queen (98), Cptn. Maitland, took Actionnaire (64 flute)

HMS Queen was a three-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 September 1769 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was designed by William Bateley, and was the only ship built to her draught. Her armament was increased to 98 guns in the 1780s


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Queen' (1769), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, to be built at Woolwich Dockyard. Signed by William Bately [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1765]

HMS Queen (1769) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-341486;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=Q


1796 – Launch of HMS Termagant was an 18-gun Bittern-class sloop of the Royal Navy.

HMS Termagant was an 18-gun sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1796 and performed convoy duty during the French Revolutionary Wars, shuttling between The Nore and Riga under Commander David Lloyd in mid-1797 in the company of HMS Clyde


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half-breadth for Termagant (1796),

HMS Termagant (1796) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Termagant_(1796


1797 HMS Magicienne (32), Cptn. William Henry Ricketts, HMS Regulus (44), and HMS Fortune (14), took a sloop (6) and four schooners and drove off an attacking force at Careasse Bay, Haiti.

Magicienne was a frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. The British captured her in 1781 and she served with the Royal Navy until her crew burned her in 1810 to prevent her capture after she grounded at Isle de France (now Mauritius). During her service with the Royal Navy she captured several privateers and participated in the Battle of San Domingo.

HMS Regulus (1785) was a wooden fifth rate of 44 guns, launched at Northam in January 1785 and converted to a troopship in 1793. Because Regulus served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal, which the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants. The ship was broken up in March 1816.

HMS Fortune (1780) was a 14-gun brig-sloop launched in 1780 and wrecked in 1797.

French frigate Magicienne (1778) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1804 - Cuthbert Collingwood promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue and Horatio Nelson to Vice Admiral of the White

Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood - Wikipedia

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Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson - Wikipedia

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1805 - HMS Gallant (14). Lt. Thomas Shirley, and consorts captured eight gun-vessels off Cap Gris Nez.

HMS Gallant (1804) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1804 and sold in 1815.


1809 HMS Spartan (38), Cptn. Jahleel Brenton, HMS Amphion (32), Cptn. William Hoste, and HMS Mercury (28), Cptn. Henry Duncan, bombarded Pesaro, took 13 vessels and destroyed a castle.

HMS Spartan was a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate, launched at Rochester in 1806. During the Napoleonic Wars she was active in the Adriatic and in the Ionian Islands. She then moved to the American coast during the War of 1812, where she captured a number of small vessels, including a US Revenue Cutter and a privateer, the Dart. She then returned to the Mediterranean, where she remained for a few years. She went on to serve off the American coast again, and in the Caribbean, before being broken up in 1822.

HMS Mercury was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.


HMS Mercury cutting out a French gunboat from Rovigno, 1 April 1809

HMS Amphion was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars.
Amphion was built by Betts, of Mistleythorn, and was launched on 19 March 1798.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Spartan_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mercury_(1779)

HMS Amphion (1798) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1811 – Launch of HMS Investigator was a survey brig of the Royal Navy

HMS Investigator was a survey brig of the Royal Navy. She performed surveying duties until she was paid off in 1835. She then became a police ship moored on the Thames River. she was broken up in 1857.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board detail, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for building the Investigator (1811) as a 6-gun Survey Vessel. Signed Henry Peake [Surveyor of the Navy, 1806-1822]

HMS Investigator (1811) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-320962;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=I


1839 – Death of Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, French admiral and explorer (b. 1768)

Baron Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin (13 October 1768 – 23 April 1839) was a rear admiral of the French navy and later a Baron. He commanded numerous naval expeditions and battles with the British Navy as well as exploratory voyages in the Indian Ocean and the South Seas.



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


1889 – Birth of Karel Doorman, Dutch admiral (d. 1942)

Karel Willem Frederik Marie Doorman (23 April 1889 – 28 February 1942) was a Dutch naval officer who during World War II commanded remnants of the short-lived American-British-Dutch-Australian Commandnaval strike forces in the Battle of the Java Sea. He was killed in action when his flagship HNLMS De Ruyter was torpedoed during the battle, having chosen to go down with the ship.



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


1945 – The Action of 23 April 1945 was a submarine engagement of World War II that occurred in the Java Sea between Nazi Germany and the United States. USS Besugo (SS 321) sinks the German submarine U 183 in the Java Sea.

The Action of 23 April 1945 was a submarine engagement of World War II that occurred in the Java Sea between Nazi Germany and the United States. It resulted in the last sinking of a German U-boat in Asian waters during the Pacific War and was one of only a few actions of the theater involving German forces.

USS Besugo, under the command of Lieutenant Commander Herman Edward Miller, made radar contact with U-183 at about 01:00 off the southern coast of Borneo while patrolling the area. Underwater, the Americans fired a spread of torpedoes and one struck the U-boat which had a Japanese flag painted on the side. The German submarine sank quickly at position 04°50′S 112°52′E with 54 men still aboard, including Kapitänleutnant (Lieutenant Commander) Fritz Schneewind. Afterward, the Americans surfaced and rescued one wounded German warrant officer and took him prisoner.

Action of 23 April 1945 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1590 - The First Battle of the Strait of Gibraltar was a naval engagement that took place on 24 April 1590 during the Anglo-Spanish War.


The First Battle of the Strait of Gibraltar was a naval engagement that took place on 24 April 1590 during the Anglo-Spanish War. Ten English armed merchant vessels of the Levant Company were met and intercepted by twelve Spanish galleys under Pedro de Acuña in the service of Spain in the region of the Gibraltar Straits. English sources claim that the English were able to repel the galleys inflicting heavy losses after a six-hour fight, while Spanish sources show the battle as indecisive.



Background
The Levant company had been trading in the Mediterranean since 1580 after a successful petition to Queen Elizabeth I. They had established "factories"in Aleppo and Constantinople, Alexandria and Smyrna. The war with Spain in 1585 had started and as a result the company armed their ships as part of an investment by the English crown and sailed in convoy for their mutual protection. This proved successful as in July 1586 off Pantelleria island, five ships of the company managed to repel eleven Spanish galleys. After this victory the company's military strategy remained from that day.

In mid April 1590 ten ships of the company, some freighted for Venice, for Constantinople and to other parts of the Mediterranean met on their homeward course within the Straits of Gibraltar having escaped all danger thus far. As soon as they were all together they came into a tight convoy formation as they approached the Spanish-held waters. Two Flemish ships on their way back from the Mediterranean also joined them in convoy, partly for protection against pirates. The lead ship Salomon whose captain Benedict Barnham was in charge followed by second in command John Watts of the Margeret and John, followed with the rest; Thomas Cordell's Centurion, Minion, Viloet, Samual, Elizabeth, Ascension and finally the Richard.

On 24 April as they approached the Straits of Gibraltar twelve tall galleys were seen and soon the ships under orders from Barnham were told to prepare hastily for action. English sources assert that the galleys were under the command of Andrea Doria's great-nephew Giovanni Andrea Doria., while Spanish official data show that the actual commander of the Spanish squadron was don Pedro de Acuña, although they acknowledge a previous unsuccessful attempt of Doria against an English convoy.

Engagement
As the galleys approached, Salomon fired off a number of warning shots but without success. The galleys then formed out of line, becoming an arrowhead formation. As this was happening, Salomon soon targeted the lead ship and began to find its target. The lead galleys sheared away almost violently with the first suffering damage that ultimately forced it to withdraw. Soon the other English ships began to fire; Minion and Margaret and John shielded the lighter armed vessels. Centurion, the biggest ship, was held back in reserve.

Within the first hour of action, one of the Flemish ships which was nearby immediately sailed to the Spanish galleys and surrendered, which gave some distraction for a while. The other Flemish ship was boarded by sailors from the Violet and dissuaded from surrendering. The galleys however continued to attack the English ships in attempts to grapple and board; a usual Spanish tactic on the sea at the time. However, after nearly three hours, the Spanish were kept at bay and each galley that attempted to get close was repelled until the next one came along trying to get close enough to grapple.

Salomon soon began to run out of powder as did Margaret and John. Centurion soon came up along with Elizabeth which so far had fired off very little. Now with both ships in action, Centurion's fire soon began to tell and the Spanish galleys were not getting anywhere near enough to board. Eventually after nearly six hours of fighting, the last of the Spanish galleys had been repelled with some in a sinking state. Doria's galleys had all suffered much damage and losses in galley slaves, soldiers and sailors had been heavy. With this in mind, he had no choice but to go into port and so withdrew immediately to Algeciras after temporarily shadowing the English ships.

Spanish views on the battle differ greatly from the English point of view. The Spanish naval historian and captain Cesáreo Fernández Duro points that the Levant Company ships only sailed through the strait in rough seas, which prevented the Spanish galleys from boarding them, and also from using their main gun. Fernández Duro also notes that most the English, and some French authors, had mistaken the Spanish galleys' failure to approach the English ships with a success of the company's vessels in repelling the galleys with cannon fire.

Aftermath
The English ships except in the rigging and masts had sustained only little damage, since the Spanish aim was to board and overpower. None of this was achieved as the English fire or the rough sea, depending on sources, had been strong enough not to allow the Spanish galleys into grappling position. The English casualties were only light at best but soon the wind had died down and therefore were becalmed just before Gibraltar itself. They were in desperate need of shot and powder as most of the bigger ships were close to being out of ammunition by the end of the action.

The English therefore had no alternative but to tow their vessels into the nearest friendly harbor, that being Tétouan on the Barbary coast. Once there fresh supplies were bought in and the inhabitants treated them favorably. soon trickled in of the repulse of the galleys and the governor extended gifts upon them and granted them stay for as long as they wanted. After around four days and with the wind now in their favor, the English sailed off without incident; the Spanish in the harbor of Algeciras unable to intercept them because of their severe damage or the rough sea. The English soon arrived off the coast of England without further hindrance.

In the following months the Levant Company ships clashed with varying results against Spanish galleys. On August Acuña sank one ship and took another, while in 1591 an English convoy would meet another fleet of Spanish galleys under Doria in the same area and with the same outcome.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Strait_of_Gibraltar_(1590)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1709 - British channel squadron under Lord Dursley defeated French squadron under Duguay-Trouin, taking Glorieux (44), and HMS Bristol was captured, but re-captured the next day, which sank soon afterwards.


Bristol was a British 44-gun fourth-rate frigate, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England during the 1650s. She was taken over by the Royal Navy after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, and was thereafter styled HMS Bristol. The ship participated in multiple battles during the Anglo-Spanish War of 1654–60, and the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars.





Description
Bristol had a length at the gundeck of 130 feet (39.6 m) and 104 feet (31.7 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 31 feet 1 inch (9.5 m), a draught of 15 feet 8 inches (4.8 m) and a depth of hold of 13 feet (4.0 m). The ship's tonnage was 534 45⁄94 tons burthen. Originally built for 50 guns, in 1660 she actually carried 44. This was raised in 1666 to 48 (24 culverins, 22 demi-culverins and 2 sakers) and until her rebuild in 1693 she generally carried 48 guns, with the older culverins and demi-culverins gradually replaced by more modern 12- and 8-pounders. The ship had a crew of 150–230 officers and ratings.

Construction and career
Bristol was the first ship in the Navy to be named after the eponymous port. Part of the 1651 Naval Programme, the ship was ordered on 27 February 1652. She was built at Portsmouth Dockyard under the direction of Master Shipwright John Tippetts, and was launched in 1653 at a cost of £4,256.

Bristol was commissioned that same year under the command of Captain Roger Martin and spent the winter of 1653–54 in the Western Approaches. She was present at the battles of Lowestoft, the Four Days Battle, and the St. James's Day Battle during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, and Solebay in the Third Anglo-Dutch War. She was involved in the wars against North African corsairs in the later 1670s and early 1680s, as well as escorting convoys to North America.

In 1693, Bristol was rebuilt at Deptford as a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line.

On 24 April 1709 she was captured by two French ships off Plymouth, but was recaptured the following day and foundered in the English Channel.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bristol_(1653)

James Berkeley, 3rd Earl of Berkeley - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

René Duguay-Trouin - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1715 - Battle of Fehmarn - The Action of 24 April 1715 was a battle took place during the Great Northern War


The Action of 24 April 1715 was a battle took place on 24 April 1715, during the Great Northern War. It was a victory for a Danish squadron under Gabel, which captured five of the six Swedish ships under Wachtmeister at the cost of 65 dead and 224 wounded.




Battle of Fehmarn, 1715

Terra X - 088 - Kampf um die Ostsee - Das Wrack der Hedvig Sophia


Ships involved
Denmark (Gabel)
Prinds Christian 76
Prinds Carl 54
Prinds Wilhelm 54
Delmenhorst 50
Fyen 50
Island 50
Laaland 50
Højenhald 30
Raae 34
Løvendals Gallej 20
3 small
1 fireship

Sweden (Wachtmeister)
Nordstjerna 76 - Aground, captured next day
Princessa Hedvig Sophia 76 - Aground, captured next day and later scuttled
Södermanland 56 - Aground, captured next day
Göteborg 50 - Aground, captured next day
Hvita Örn 30 - Captured
Falk 26 - Aground, captured next day


Die gestrandete schwedische Flotte


parts of a sword, found in the wreck of the Prinsessan Hedvig Sophia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Fehmarn_(1715)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeschlacht_bei_Fehmarn_(1715)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinsessan_Hedvig_Sophia

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1742 – Launch of HMS Stirling Castle, a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment,


HMS Stirling Castle was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 24 April 1742.




French Firerafts Attacking the British Fleet off Quebec, 28 June 1759. The left foreground of the picture is taken up with the anchored British fleet in which Saunders' flagship, 'Stirling Castle', is in starboard-quarter view in the foreground just left of centre.


Whilst under the command of Captain Thomas Cooper, Stirling Castle took part in the Battle of Toulon on 11 February 1744. Stirling Castle was the lead ship in Rear-Admiral William Rowley's van division of Admiral Thomas Mathews' fleet that engaged the France-Spanish fleet. After the battle several officers were court-martialed, including Captain Cooper who appeared on 12 May at Port Mahon, where he was dismissed the service. He was immediately restored to his former rank and command however, as the charges against him were not deemed detrimental to either his professional honour or his ability as a sea officer.

She took part in the Battle of Havana in 1762. Shortly afterwards Stirling Castle was declared unserviceable and was stripped and scuttled in the upper reaches of Havana harbour on 14 September 1762, on the orders of Admiral George Pocock.


French Fireships attacking the English Fleet off Quebec, 28 June 1759. The left foreground of the picture is taken up with the anchored British fleet in which Saunders' flagship, 'Stirling Castle', is in starboard-quarter view in the foreground just left of centre.

HMS Stirling Castle (1742) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Stirling_Castle;start=40

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1774 – Launch of HMS Roebuck, a 44-gun, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars.


HMS Roebuck was a 44-gun, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1769, to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year, engaging the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forcing a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779; this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was therefore at the front of the attack; leading the British squadron across the bar to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.



In October 1783, Roebuck underwent repairs at Sheerness and was refitted as hospital ship. She served in this capacity during the capture of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Lucia by a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis in 1794. Recommissioned as a troopship in July 1799, Roebuck was part of the fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell, to which the Dutch surrendered in the Vlieter Incident, on 30 August. Following the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, Roebuck was paid off and laid up in ordinary at Woolwich Dockyard. When hostilities resumed in May 1803, she was brought back into service as a guardship at Leith, flying the flags of Vice-Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh then Rear-Admiral James Vashon under whom she later transferred to Great Yarmouth. In March 1806, she became a receiving ship, and from some point in 1810, the flagship of Lord Gardner. Roebuck was broken up at Sheerness in July 1811.


Roebuck with Phoenix, Tartar and three smaller vessels passing forts Washington and Lee on the Hudson River

Construction and armament
Roebuck was the prototype of the Roebuck-class ships; two-deck, fifth-rates built to operate in the shallower waters of North America. She was designed by renowned naval architect, Sir Thomas Slade in 1769 as an improvement on his Phoenix model, and ordered by The Admiralty on 30 November. Her keel of 115 feet 9 inches (35.3 m), was laid down in October the following year at Chatham Dockyard.

As built, Roebuck was 140 feet 0 inches (42.7 m) long at the gundeck, had a beam of 37 feet 9 1⁄2 inches (11.5 m), and a depth in the hold of 16 feet 4 inches (5.0 m). She measured 879 26⁄94 tons burthen. Launched on 24 April 1774 and completed by the 4 August 1775, Roebuck cost £18,911.0.6d plus a further £1,749.5.5d for fitting.

Roebuck was built with two rows of windows in the stern, giving the illusion of an extra deck but behind was a single-level cabin. This design was eventually phased out, with most of the Roebuck-class, after HMS Dolphin, featuring a traditional frigate-style stern.

On her lower gun deck, Roebuck carried twenty 18-pounder (8.2 kg) guns. Her upper deck originally had twenty-two 9 pounders (4.1 kg) but these were later upgraded to 12 pounders (5.4 kg). There were two 6-pounder (2.7 kg) guns on the forecastle but the quarterdeck was devoid of armament. When fully manned, Roebuck had a complement of 280. This was increased to 300 in 1783.


The Roebuck-class ship was a class of twenty 44-gun sailing two-decker warships of the Royal Navy. The class carried two complete decks of guns, a lower battery of 18-pounders and an upper battery of 9-pounders. This battery enabled the vessel to deliver a broadside of 285 pounds. Most were constructed for service during the American Revolutionary War but continued to serve thereafter. By 1793 five were still on the active list. Ten were hospital ships, troopships or storeships. As troopships or storeships they had the guns on their lower deck removed. Many of the vessels in the class survived to take part in the Napoleonic Wars. In all, maritime incidents claimed five ships in the class and war claimed three.


The 44-gun ship Argo with russian ship 1799 at Gribraltar

HMS Roebuck (1774) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Roebuck-class ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1778 – The North Channel naval duel
During the American Revolution, the Continental Navy sloop-of-war USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones, captures the British sloop HMS Drake after an hours battle off Carrickfergus, Ireland.


The North Channel naval duel was a single-ship action between the United States Continental Navy sloop of war Ranger (Captain John Paul Jones) and the British Royal Navy sloop of war Drake (Captain George Burdon) on the evening of 24 April 1778. Fought in the North Channel, separating Ireland from Scotland, it was the first American defeat of a Royal Navy ship within British home waters, and also very nearly the only American victory over the Royal Navy in the Revolution achieved without an overwhelming superiority of force. The action was one of a series of actions by Jones that brought the American War of Independence to British waters.



Background

Looking out over Belfast Lough, where Drake prepared for battle, from Carrickfergus Castle

Even before the official entry of other nations, the American Revolutionary War was by no means confined to American soil; naval operations, by both the Continental Navy and privateers, ranged across the Atlantic. In 1777, American captains such as Lambert Wickes, Gustavus Conyngham, and William Day had been making raids into British waters and capturing merchant ships, which they took into French ports, even though France was officially neutral. Captain Day had even been accorded a gun salute by the French admiral at Brest.

Encouraged by such successes, and even more so by the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga that autumn, France signed two treaties with America in February 1778, but stopped just short of declaring war on Britain. The risk of a French attack forced the Royal Navy to concentrate its forces in the English Channel (La Manche), leaving other areas vulnerable.

Wickes and Day had shown that, despite the narrowness of St. George's Channel and the North Channel, it was possible for single ships or very small squadrons to get into the Irish Sea, and create havoc among the many vessels which traded between Great Britain and Ireland. John Paul Jones, on his first return to British waters as an enemy, had a more ambitious plan: to teach the British people that their government's policies in America, such as the burning of ports, could be turned back against them.

The Ranger mission
With a single small Continental Navy sloop of war, the Ranger, Jones sailed from Brest on 10 April 1778, and headed for the coasts of the Solway Firth, where he had first learned to sail. Following an unsuccessful attempt to raid the port of Whitehaven in Cumberland, on the night of 17–18 April, he harassed shipping in the North Channel; then on the night of 20–21 April Ranger entered Belfast Lough in northern Ireland, with the intention of seizing a Royal Navy ship moored off Carrickfergus, HMS Drake. Unsuccessful, he returned to Whitehaven, and achieved another objective, landing a large party at the harbour on the night of 22–23 April, and setting fire to a merchant ship. This raid was followed within hours by another, at the Scottish seashore mansion of the Earl of Selkirk, near Kirkcudbright. Even as the news of those deeds was racing to alert Britain's defences, Ranger was on the way back to Carrickfergus.

24 April 1778
Preparations for combat
John Paul Jones's crew had been recruited by being offered the opportunity to "make their Fortunes", a goal that could be achieved by privateering operations against British merchant ships. But more British merchant ships had been sunk on the mission than captured, to avoid diverting crew members to sailing the prizes to France. The crew blamed Jones for what appeared to be a tactical error that allowed a British customs vessel to escape after being fired on by Ranger. Now he was intent on capturing a Royal Navy ship from its moorings, although it carried no cargo that could be sold for a handsome profit to his crew's benefit. The account of events just after dawn on 24 April that Jones published a few years later may not be greatly exaggerated: "I ran a great risk of being killed or thrown in the sea". The crew was reluctant, and the state of the wind and tide would have made it difficult to enter the harbour. But it soon appeared that they might not have to visit Carrickfergus after all, as Drakewas preparing to leave port, which revived the Americans' flagging spirits.

In fact, Drake had been preparing for action since the previous visit by Ranger, taking on volunteers from the Carrickfergus area to boost the crew from 100 to about 160, many of them landsmen who were to be used only for close-quarters combat, although there was a shortage of ammunition. Absent from the ship's company at this crucial time were the gunner, master's mate, boatswain, and lieutenant. The aging captain, George Burdon, was later reported to have been in poor health himself. Drake got under way about 8am, but with wind and tide against it, made little progress. After an hour or so a boat was therefore sent to get a closer look at the intruder. Jones opted to try a slight variant of the plan which had failed to capture the customs vessel a few days earlier; hiding most of the crew and the big guns. This time it worked; the crew of the reconnaissance boat was captured, and this success raised the morale of the Americans. One of the prisoners revealed the large number of volunteers who had gone aboard Drake.


The approximate courses of the opponents up to the moment just before the first shots

About 1pm, as Drake moved sluggishly out across Belfast Lough, a small boat came out to her, carrying another volunteer, Royal Navy Lieutenant William Dobbs, a local man who had just gotten married. According to Drake's pilot he brought with him a copy of an express letter from Whitehaven, explaining the full details of the mystery ship (Jones states in his official report that the news from Whitehaven had arrived the previous evening and was known to his morning captives). With the wind and tide more favourable in the afternoon, Ranger moved slowly back out of the Lough into the North Channel, making sure never to get too far ahead of Drake. Finally, about 6pm, the two enemies were within hailing distance. Jones had the American naval colours flying, and Lieut. Dobbs' formal inquiry as to the ship's identity was answered with absolute truth.

The North Channel naval duel was in some respects a small-scale dress-rehearsal, in reverse, for Jones's 1779 battle with HMS Serapis. Drake had been built as a merchant ship with defensive capability, and bought by the Royal Navy to help fill the gap left when many ships had to be sent to America; even the 20 four-pound guns were not official Navy issue, but her armament as a merchant vessel. The hull was the wrong shape for rapid battle manoeuvres, and not designed to resist cannon fire. Ranger had been built as a fighting ship, and modified by Jones for maximum efficiency: for example, although there were ports for 20 guns, he found it safest to install only 18 six-pound guns. That made for a total broadside weight of 54 pounds, slightly more than Drake's 40 pounds total.[8] But those dozens of Irish volunteers meant that if Drake could grapple and board Ranger the Americans would be in trouble.

Battle


The life of John Paul Jones – written from original letters and manuscripts in possession of his relatives, and from the collection prepared by John Henry Sherburne – together with Chevalier Jones' (14777463374)

The formalities completed, Ranger turned sharply and fired a broadside at the following Drake. The British were unable to reply immediately; when they did, they found they had a serious problem. With full charges of powder, the four-pounders were unstable, and tended to tip forward; in the case of the two pairs of guns at the rear of the ship, most subject to the rise and fall with the waves, this meant that they could skid almost anywhere as they were fired, presenting grave danger to the gun crews. In Navy records, Drake's armament had been listed as only 16 guns, suggesting that the rearmost guns had been left aboard just for show. The ship's gunner may well have known of these problems, and perhaps the gunner's mate too, but neither was aboard the Drake anymore (the mate having been captured in the reconnaissance mission, and the gunner being ill at Portsmouth).

After a few more broadsides, further problems emerged. Shrapnel from Ranger's third broadside hit Lieut. Dobbs in the head, putting him out of action. Conditions on Drake's gun deck were so unpredictable that the "powder monkeys"—the boys who brought charges of gunpowder up for the great guns, in fire-resistant boxes—eventually became reluctant to do their duty. Twice the ship's master had to go below to urge the acting gunner to be more efficient in supplying the powder, when opportunities for broadsides were missed. Another problem was that the "slow matches" which were used to fire the guns kept falling into their fire-safety tubs and going out. The four-pound guns could not penetrate Ranger's toughened hull anyway, so Drake tried copying the technique the Americans had been using from the start: they aimed at the masts, sails and rigging, in order to slow the opponent down.

The combatants were very close together, but never close enough for grappling, probably because Captain Jones knew of the extra men hidden below decks on Drake. As well as the great guns, both sides were firing small arms at each other, and here, too, Drake was at a disadvantage. The ship's magazine lacked cartridge paper; and when the musketeers ran out of cartridges, they had to laboriously load their guns by pouring in the right amount of powder, then putting in the shot. Musket balls were passed round in the armourer's hat, and two powder horns were shared between all the men on duty. With the other side much better organised, such inefficiency meant the difference between life and death. Drake killed just one of Jones's crew, Lieutenant Samuel Wallingford, by musket fire; another two—who were firing from positions in the mast tops—died as the by-product of a broadside. Five of Drake's crew were killed, including, just under an hour into the fight, Captain Burdon himself, struck in the head by a musket ball. With both the captain and lieutenant out of action, command of Drake passed to the master, John Walsh.

By that time, Drake's sails and rigging had been reduced to tatters by Ranger's broadsides, and even the masts and yardarms were seriously damaged; in the light wind, the sloop was more or less immobilised, not even able to turn to aim a broadside. Unable to load fast enough, the small-arms fighters had retreated to cover, so only about a dozen people were left on Drake's main deck. A few minutes after the captain died, the two remaining petty officers on deck went to the master and advised him that they should strike their colours and surrender; after further consultation, he agreed.[8] The colours had already been shot away, so Mr. Walsh had to shout and wave his hat instead. According to John Paul Jones's records, the duel lasted one hour and five minutes.

Aftermath
Thirty-five men were sent from Ranger to Drake to take charge and assess the damage; and the next three days were spent making repairs, while moving slowly north-westward between Ireland and Scotland. A cargo brig which came too close was captured, and used as extra accommodations. Six Irish fisherman who had been captured on the first Carrickfergus expedition were allowed to take a boat and go home, taking with them three sick Irish sailors, a present of sails from Drake, and money from Jones. On their return they reported the concern Jones was showing for Lieut. Dobbs, who remained gravely ill. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy had sent out some proper warships in pursuit. Despite Drake's lameness, they never caught a glimpse of the slowly escaping Americans. The only real trouble Jones had was with his Lieutenant, Thomas Simpson, who had command of the Drake and at one point on the voyage sailed out of sight.

The news of the battle reached France much faster than Jones did, and the Americans were welcomed as heroes. As for the British, they had learned their lesson well—the Royal Navy could not defend British shipping, nor British coasts, nor even its own fighting vessels against American raiders. Militia regiments were hastily redeployed to coastal areas; seaports equipped themselves with artillery to defend themselves against further raids; and the gentry banded together in volunteer battalions as a last line of defence. Thenceforward, the press paid very close attention to every move John Paul Jones made; struggling to reconcile the malicious rumours of his murders and piracy with the evidence of his chivalrous and far from bloodthirsty behaviour on the Ranger mission (back in France, he wrote kind and thoughtful letters to the Earl of Selkirk, and to the family of Lieut. Dobbs, who had died within a couple of days).

John Paul Jones had gone from being an obscurity to international fame. The naval duel in the North Channel was the unequivocally triumphant climax to his remarkable mission, which demonstrated that the world's most powerful nation was as vulnerable to attack as any other. The press reports of his preparations for his next mission created a climate of fear and uncertainty which helped turn his return visit in 1779 into his best-remembered achievement.

North Channel Naval Duel - Wikipedia

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HMS Drake (1777) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1778 – The North Channel naval duel - Part II - The Ships


HMS Drake was a 14-gun sloop-of-war of the Royal Navy. Originally the merchantman Resolution, she was purchased in early 1777 and commissioned in April 1777, being fitted for RN service at Plymouth from 19 April to 24 May. She served in the American Revolutionary War, and on 24 April 1778, off Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland, she fought the North Channel naval duel with the 18-gun sloop Ranger of the Continental Navy, commanded by Captain John Paul Jones. Five of Drake's crew, including her captain, George Burdon, were killed, and after an hour-long engagement, Drake surrendered to the Americans. Jones was able to evade capture and deliver Drake to Brest, France as his prize on 8 May 1778. This was the first, and most complete, American victory over any Royal Navy vessel in British waters




THE drake surrenders TO THE RANGER PAUL JONESS CHUISES. 49 about her character, and the two ships fired their broadsides assoon as they had come within range. It was a running fight,broadside to broadside, and the two enemies were fairly matched.But the Rangers men were better at the guns, and theirsteady fire soon began to tell, as the people who lined the shorescould see to their dismay. The shots rained thick and fast uponthe Drake, sweeping her decks, wounding her sides, and cut-ting wp her rigging. Her ties were shot away and the fore andmain top-sail yards fell upon the caps. The jib hung in thewater ahead and the ensign drooped astern. Presently the cap-tain received a shot in the liead. and soon afterward the firstlieutenant fell, mortally wounded ; finally, after an hour of hotfighting, the Drake surrendered. On board the Ranger poor Wallingford was killed, but Jones had not been touched.Securing his prisoners and his prize, on board of which he foundthe anchor which had been


USS Ranger was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy in active service in 1777–1780, the first to bear her name. Built in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, she is famed for the one-ship guerilla campaign waged by her caption, Captain John Paul Jones, against the British during the American Revolution. In six months spent primarily in British waters she captured five prizes, staged a single failed attack on the English mainland at Whitehaven, and sent the Royal Navy seeking to run her down in the Irish Sea.





Jones was detached in Brest, France to take charge of Bonhomme Richard, turning over command of Ranger to his first officer, Lieutenant Thomas Simpson. Under Simpson Ranger went on to capture twenty-four more prizes abroad the Atlantic and along the U.S. coast during 1778 and 1779.

Sent to the South in late 1779 to aid the U.S. garrison at Charleston, South Carolina, during the British siege, she continued her predatory ways until ultimately forced to take station on the Cooper River, and was captured on May 11, 1780 with the fall of the city.

She was brought into the Royal Navy as HMS Halifax. Decommissioned in 1781 in Portsmouth, England, she was sold that year as a merchant ship.


USS Ranger receiving the salute of the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, France, 14 February 1778.

History
Ranger (initially called Hampshire) was launched 10 May 1777 by James Hackett, master shipbuilder, at the shipyard of John Langdon on what is now called Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine; Captain John Paul Jones in command.

Continental Navy
After fitting out, she sailed for France on 1 November 1777, carrying dispatches telling of General Burgoyne's surrender to the commissioners in Paris. On the voyage over, two British prizes were captured. Ranger arrived at Nantes, France, 2 December, where Jones sold the prizes and delivered the news of the victory at Saratoga to Benjamin Franklin. On 14 February 1778, Ranger received an official salute to the new American flag, the "Stars and Stripes", given by the French fleet at Quiberon Bay, the second to an American fighting vessel by a foreign power (the first salute was received by Andrew Doriawhen on 16 November 1776 she arrived at St. Eustatius and the Dutch island returned her 11-gun salute).

Ranger sailed from Brest 10 April 1778, for the Irish Sea and four days later captured a prize between the Scilly Isles and Cape Clear. On 17 April, she took another prize and sent her back to France. Captain Jones led a raid on the British port of Whitehaven, 23 April, spiking the guns of the fortress, but failing to burn the ships in the harbor. Sailing across the bay to St. Mary's Isle, Scotland, the American captain planned to seize the Earl of Selkirk and hold him as a hostage to obtain better treatment for American prisoners of war. However, since the Earl was absent, the plan failed. Several Royal Navy vessels were searching for Ranger, and Captain Jones sailed across the North Channel to Carrickfergus, Ireland, to induce HMS Drake of 14 guns, to come out and fight. Drake came out slowly against the wind and tide, and, after an hour's battle, the battered Drake struck her colors, with three Americans and five British killed in the combat. Having made temporary repairs, and with a prize crew on Drake, Ranger continued around the west coast of Ireland, capturing a stores ship, and arrived at Brest with her prizes on 8 May.

Captain Jones was detached to command Bonhomme Richard, leaving Lieutenant Simpson, his first officer, in command. Ranger departed Brest 21 August, reaching Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 15 October, in company with Providence and Boston, plus three prizes taken in the Atlantic.

The sloop departed Portsmouth on 24 February 1779 joining with the Continental Navy ships Queen of France and Warren in preying on British shipping in the North Atlantic. Seven prizes were captured early in April, and brought safely into port for sale. On 18 June, Ranger was underway again with Providence and Queen of France, capturing two Jamaicamen in July and nine more vessels off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Of the 11 prizes, three were recaptured, but the remaining eight, with their cargoes, were worth over a million dollars when sold in Boston.

Underway on 23 November, Ranger was ordered to Commodore Whipple's squadron, arriving at Charleston on 23 December, to support the garrison there under siege by the British. On 24 January 1780, Ranger and Providence, in a short cruise down the coast, captured three transports, loaded with supplies, near Tybee, Georgia. The British assault force was also discovered in the area. Ranger and Providence sailed back to Charleston with the news. Shortly afterwards the British commenced the final push. Although the channel and harbor configuration made naval operations and support difficult, Ranger took a station in the Cooper River, and was captured when Charleston fell on 11 May 1780.

Royal Navy
Ranger was taken into the British Royal Navy and commissioned under the name HMS Halifax. She was decommissioned in Portsmouth, England, in 1781, then sold as a merchant vessel for about 3 percent of her original cost.

Specifications
Ranger's specifications were:

• Begun:January 11, 1777
• Launched:May 10, 1777 into the Piscataqua River
• Location:Rising Castle, now Badger's Island, Kittery, Maine
• Departed:Nov 1, 1777
• Builder:John Langdon
• Designer:James Hackett
• Yard Boss:Tobias Lear IV (father of Tobias Lear V, Secretary to President George Washington)
• Officers:
  • John Paul Jones, Captain
  • Thomas Simpson, Portsmouth, 1st Lt.
  • Elijah Hall, Portsmouth, 2nd Lt.
  • Samuel Wallingford, Lt of Marines
  • Dr Ezrah Green, Dover, Surgeon
  • Mr Joseph Frazer, Sr Officer of Marines
  • Capt Matthew Parke
• Crew:145 men including nearly half from Piscataqua area
• Cost:$65,000 Continental dollars
• Rating:Sloop of war
• Rigging:Square rigged on all three masts with royals, topgallant, and a full set of studding sails
• Arms:18 nine-pounder guns
• Painting:Topside black with broad yellow stripe and masthead
• DimensionsRecorded by Royal Navy after capture)
  • 97' 2" at gundeck (est 110' overall)
  • 77' 9" keel
  • 27' 8" beam
  • 12' depth of hold

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Drake_(1777)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ranger_(1777)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1778 - Battle off Liverpool, Nova Scotia (1778)


The Battle off Liverpool took place on 24 April 1778 during the American Revolutionary War. The raid involved the British vessel HMS Blonde and the French vessel Duc de Choiseul (24-gun frigate).



Background
During the American Revolution, Americans regularly attacked Nova Scotia by land and sea. American privateers devastated the maritime economy by raiding many of the coastal communities, such as the numerous raids on Liverpool and on Annapolis Royal.

Liverpool's struggle for identity during the revolutionary war has been the subject of considerable study by historians. The town was at first sympathetic to the cause of the American Revolution, with outlying outports like Port Medway and Port Mouton almost continuously visited by American privateers,[8] but after repeated attacks by American privateers on local shipping interests and one direct attack on the town itself, Liverpool citizens turned against the rebellion. The defence of the town and the outfitting of privateers was led by Colonel Simeon Perkins. Captain William Duddingston of HMS Senegal was stationed at Liverpool.

Just of Liverpool, on 26 August 1776, HMS Liverpool (28 guns) captured Warren (ex Hawk), which subsequently served as a tender for HMS Milford and ran around in a storm near Portsmouth, New Hampshire at the end of December 1776.

The Battle off Port Medway took place on 27 September 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. The American privateer Hannah and Molly (8 guns, 14 men), under the command of Captain Agreen Crabtree, captured five Nova Scotia vessels.


Colonel of the Militia Simeon Perkins

Battle
On April 24, 1778, the Royal Navy warship HMS Blonde under the command of Captain John Milligan ran aground the French ship Duc de Choiseul (named after Étienne François, duc de Choiseul) under the command of Captain Jean Heraud in Liverpool Harbour. There was an exchange of cannon fire lasting over three hours. A number of the French crew were killed, drowned and wounded. The 100 remaining French crew were taken prisoner. The arms that were on the wrecked ship continued to attract American privateers over the following month.

Consequently, on May 1, American privateers raided Liverpool, ravaging and pillaging a number of the houses and stores, including the store of Simeon Perkins, a significant town leader. Three weeks later, on May 21, the same privateers returned and tried to tow the wreck of Duc de Choiseul out to sea. Perkins mustered ten men at the shore. Cannon fire was exchanged by the British militia and the American privateers. The privateers continued to fire at the town for almost an hour. Perkins marched his men along the shore, closer to the privateers. One of the militia was wounded in the ensuing exchanges. The privateers stayed off shore for a number of days. Perkins kept a sergeant and six men on guard duty twenty four hours a day until the privateers left the area.

Aftermath
After suffering three years of similar sporadic raids, the people of Liverpool, on June 2, 1779 built a battery for the artillery and on October 31 launched their own privateer vessel named Lucy to bring battle to their adversaries. As well, Perkins wrote a successful appeal to the authorities in Halifax, and on December 13, 1778 Captain John Howard's company of the King's Orange Rangers arrived aboard the transport Hannah. The company consisted of Howard, 2 lieutenants, 1 ensign, 3 sergeants, 2 or 3 corporals, 48 privates, and several camp followers, both women and children.

On 22 June 1778, American privateers captured a small schooner of Major Studholm that was en route from St. John to Annapolis. Captured were one Sergeant and eight soldiers from the Royal Fencible American Regiment and the Royal Nova Scotia Volunteer Regiment.

Another privateer raid on Liverpool occurred on September 13, 1780. Two American privateers, Surprize under Captain Benjamin Cole, and Delight, under Captain Lane, unloaded nearly 70 men at Ballast Cove shortly after midnight. By 4am they had captured the fort and taken Howard, two other officers, and all but six of the KOR garrison as prisoners. Perkins called out the militia, engineered the capture of Cole, and negotiated with Lane for the recovery of the fort and the release of the prisoners. Within a few hours "every thing [was] restored to its former Situation without any Blood Shed." Liverpool was not bothered by privateers for the remainder of the war.

American privateers remained a threat to Nova Scotian ports for the rest of the war. For example, after a failed attempt to raid Chester, Nova Scotia, American privateers struck again in the Raid on Lunenburg in 1782

sistership Brune

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


lines & profile Signed by Thomas Bucknall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 648, states that 'Brune' was surveyed and fitted at Plymouth Dockyard between March and October 1761

HMS Blonde was a 32-gun fifth rate warship of the British Royal Navy captured from the French in 1760. The ship wrecked on Blonde Rock with American prisoners on board. An American privateer Captain Daniel Adams rescued the American prisoners and let the British go free. The Captain's decision created an international stir. Upon returning to Boston, the American privateer was banished for letting go the British crew and he and his family became Loyalist refugees in Nova Scotia.

Career
On 24 February 1760, during the Seven Years' War, a British squadron under Captain John Elliot in HMS Aeolus met a French squadron under Captain François Thurot in the Maréchal de Belle-Isle. In the subsequent Battle of Bishops Court, the British captured Maréchal de Belle-Isle (after Thurot was killed), Terpsichore, and Blonde. The Royal Navy took the latter two into service.

During the American Revolution, the Blonde was in the Battle off Liverpool, Nova Scotia (1778). In 1780 the Blonde captured the commander of the Resolution, for which his crew took revenge the following year in the Raid on Annapolis Royal (1781). Blonde was wrecked on Blonde Rock, Nova Scotia on 21 January 1782. The 60 American prisoners on board HMS Blonde made their way to Seal Island, Nova Scotia. American privateer Noah Stoddard in the Scammell reluctantly allowed the British crew to go free and return to Halifax in HMS Observer, which was involved in the Naval battle off Halifax en route.

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

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

deck Initialled by Israel Pownell [Master Shipwright, Chatham Dockyard, 1775-1779]. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 235, states that 'Brune' was fitted at Chatham Dockyard between 9 December 1775 and 17 March 1776

Battle off Liverpool, Nova Scotia (1778) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Blonde_(1760)
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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1790 – Launch of HMS Leopard, a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Leopard was a 50-gun Portland-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was notable for the actions of her captain in 1807, which were emblematic of the tensions that later erupted in the War of 1812 between Britain and America. She was wrecked in 1814.



Construction and commissioning
She was first ordered on 16 October 1775, named on 13 November 1775 and laid down at Portsmouth Dockyard in January 1776. She was reordered in May 1785, ten years after having first been laid down, and construction began at Sheerness Dockyard on 7 May 1785. Work was at first overseen by Master Shipwright Martin Ware until December 1785, and after that, by John Nelson until March 1786, when William Rule took over. She was launched from Sheerness on 24 April 1790, and was completed by 26 May 1790. She was commissioned for service in June that year under her first commander, Captain John Blankett.

Service
The China fleet of East Indiamen left Macao on 21 March 1791. Leopard and Thames escorted them as far as Java Head.

French Revolutionary Wars
On 24 October 1798, Leopard captured the French privateer vessel Apollon, which was under the command of Captain La Vaillant. On 22 August 1800 Leopard captured Clarice.

Because Leopard served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March – 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.

Napoleonic Wars
Leopard left Britain on 30 March 1806 as escort to a convoy that included Asia, Lady Burges, Lord Melville, Lord Nelson, and Sovereign. During the night of 20 April Lady Burges wrecked on a reef off Boa Vista, Cape Verde. Boats from the convoy were able to rescue 150 of the 184 people on board; 34 or 38 drowned. Leopard left the convoy at Latitude 9°N, and arrived at Spithead on 8 June.


The Chesapeake–Leopard Affair

The Chesapeake-Leopard affair
Main article: Chesapeake–Leopard Affair
In early 1807, a handful of British sailors—some of American birth—deserted their ships, which were then blockading French ships in Chesapeake Bay, and joined the crew of USS Chesapeake. In an attempt to recover the British deserters, Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, commanding Leopard, hailed Chesapeake and requested permission to search her. Commodore James Barron of Chesapeake refused and Leopard opened fire. Caught unprepared, Barron surrendered and Humphreys sent boarders to search for the deserters. The boarding party seized four deserters from the Royal Navy–three Americans and one British-born sailor–and took them to Halifax, where the British sailor, Jenkin Ratford, was hanged for desertion. The Americans were initially sentenced to 500 lashes, but had their sentence commuted; Britain also offered to return them to America.

The incident caused severe political repercussions in the United States, and nearly led to the two nations going to war.

Leopard escorted a convoy from Portsmouth on 6 May 1808. Leopard left the convoy on 28 July at 35°S 7°E.

She then was part of the convoy assigned to Josias Rowley in the Mauritius campaign of 1809–11 in the Indian Ocean.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board with decoration detail and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Leopard (1790), a 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker, as built at Sheerness Dockyard

Fate
In 1812, Leopard had her guns removed and was converted to a troopship. On 28 June 1814 she was en route from Britain to Quebec, carrying a contingent of 475 Royal Scots Guardsmen, when she grounded on Anticosti Island in heavy fog. Leopard was destroyed, but all on board survived.

Leopard in fiction
In Patrick O'Brian's novel Desolation Island, the fifth book of the Aubrey–Maturin series, Jack Aubrey commands Leopard on a cruise through the Atlantic and Indian oceans after the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, a voyage which included the sinking of the fictional Dutch ship of the line Waakzaamheid, and a disastrous collision with an iceberg. In the sixth book, The Fortune of War, the ship is left at a British station in the Dutch East Indies, unable to support her complement of guns. She is called the "horrible old Leopard" in the fourth book in the series The Mauritius Command, and in other books in the series, and ends its days as a store ship sailing from the English Channel to the Baltic.



Game developer Lucas Pope based the layout of the titular ship in his game Return of the Obra Dinn on the layout of HMS Leopard.


Portland class (Williams)

• Portland 50 (1770) – sold 1817
• Bristol 50 (1775) – broken up 1810
• Renown 50 (1774) – broken up 1794
• Isis 50 (1774) – broken up 1810
• Leopard 50 (1790) – wrecked 1814 near the Isle of Anacosti in the Saint Lawrence River due to the disobedience and neglect of the officer of the watch
• Hannibal 50 (1779) – captured by France 1782
• Jupiter 50 (1778) – wrecked 1808, with no loss of life, in Vigo Bay
• Leander 50 (1780) – captured by France 1798, captured by Russia 1799, returned to Britain, converted to hospital ship 1806, renamed Hygeia 1813, sold 1817
• Adamant 50 (1780) – broken up 1814
• Assistance 50 (1781) – wrecked 1802 on the outer banks of the northern part of Dunkirk Dyke due to the ignorance of her pilot, but with no loss of life due to the help of a Flemish pilot boat
• Europa 50 (1783) – sold 1814

Scale: 1:96. A plan showing the spar deck, and upper deck of 'Leopard' (1790), as originally fitted as a fifty gun fourth rate two-decker, and as fitted in 1812 for a troopship. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1802-1823]


Scale: 1:96. A plan showing the gun deck, and hold with fore and aft platforms for 'Leopold' (1790), as originally fitted as a fifty gun fourth rate two-decker, and as fitted in 1812 for a troopship. The plan was subsequently used for fitting the 'Romney' (1815), a fifty gun fouth rate two-decker, as well as all other two decked ships with the omission of the red lines and addition of the green lines on the plan (Admiralty Order of 12 September 1812). Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth dockyard, 1802-1823]


ventilator (ZAZ6842)

HMS Leopard (1790) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desolation_Island_(novel)
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[Uwek]

Additional Info: we made a book review which gives a very interesting background of the HMS Leopard

Book review - Book Review: "THE 50-GUN SHIP: A Complete History" by Rif Winfield

The 50-Gun ship by Rif Winfield Hardcover: 128 pages (but also available in the meantime as soft) Publisher: Chatham; First UK edition (1997) Language: English Product Dimensions: 10 x 0.5 x 11.8 inches, or 24,1 x 1,9 x 28,6 cm Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds the softcover-version of the book...

shipsofscale.com

The 50-Gun ship
by Rif Winfield

• Hardcover: 128 pages (but also available in the meantime as soft)
• Publisher: Chatham; First UK edition (1997)
• Language: English
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 0.5 x 11.8 inches, or 24,1 x 1,9 x 28,6 cm
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds

the softcover-version of the book with different cover


Synopsis:

By the end of the sailing era the 50-gun ship had become regarded as a hybrid, too small to stand in the line of battle, and lacking the speed and hardiness of the frigate, so it has often been dismissed as a naval architectural dinosaur left over from an earlier age. This book aims to reveal the crucial role of the 50-gun ship in the development of both the battleship and the frigate, and explains the enduring role which ensured the survival of the type into the 19th century. Charting its origins in the pre-Commonwealth frigates, the author follows the development of the type in the 18th century and its gradual transition from battlefleet to heavy cruiser role, highlighting its revival for the special conditions of colonial warfare during the American Revolution. Thereafter they were employed as peacetime flagships for distant stations, achieving final glory leading small craft in anti-invasion operations during the Napoleonic War. The Leopard is the subject of the cutaway drawings.

Features include: an in-depth text, based on the latest research in original sources, covering the complete history of the 50-gun ship; numerous tables of technical data covering dimensions, construction, armament and details; comprehensive collection of illustrations including original draughts, models and contemporary paintings and drawings; a selection of specially commissioned perspective and cutaway drawings by John McKay; a separate set of large scale plans for modelmakers; these and the cutaway depict the Leopard of 1790, famous in history for her assault on USS Chesapeake and as well known in fiction as the 'horrible old Leopard' of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey novels.

History and development of this type from 1650 to 1816 - All 50-gun ships in the British Navy are covered in detail, with a chronological history and full details of every vessel built or acquired, plus chapters on gunnery, construction, manning, stores, masts and sails with sailing qualities.


left side: The Earliest Frigates with HMS Sheerness 1691, Tiger painting by Van de velde
right side: The Commonwealth Period with "Dover of the Taunton / Crown 1654/1660 and HMS Leopard 1659

About the Author:

Rif Winfield has been researching naval matters for 25 years and has been a frequent contributor to Jane's Fighting Ships. This is his first book.




Contents:

Part I: DEVELOPMENT
The earliest frigates
The Commonwealth period
The fourth rate in the Restoration Navy
The 12pdr [pounder] fifties
The 18pdr fifties
The 24pdr fifties
The last of the two-decker 50s

Part II: THE SHIPS
General arrangement and layout
Manpower and accommodation
Masting and rigging
Cutaway drawings of HMS Leopard 1790 : orlop deck and lower deck
Fittings
Armament
Cutaway drawings of HMS Leopard 1790 : upper deck, forecastle, and quarterdeck and poop deck
Stores
Costs and funding
Aspects of service
Appendices

and very important

Plans and cutaway drawings in scale 1:96 of HMS Leopard in pocket.



left side: HMS Adventure, HMS Saint David, HMS Assurance
right side: HMS Bonaventure after rebuilding 1683

Review:

The classes of 50-gun ships suffered from being neither fish nor fowl, being too small for the line of battle and too large to serve as frigates, and are usually neglected in histories of the era. . The book is representing a complete history of this type of ship and his forerunners starting in the 17.th century and is fully provided with reproductions of historical draughts and photos of models.

The book is divided in principle into two sections. The first looks at the development of the 50 gun ship, following the lines and principles of the early frigates copied from Flemish privateers, commonly known as Dunkirkers, from the first half of the seventeenth century. The story develops through the Commonwealth period, the Restoration up through the last ships built during the Napoleonic Wars. This section looks especially at the design changes to the hull and armament, the restrictions created by the rules of the Establishment, and how that led to the navy falling behind the capabilities of the other navies in Europe.

The second section of the book looks at the ships themselves, general layout, manpower and accommodation; masts and rigging; fittings; armament; stores; costs and funding; and how they were used in service.

Throughout the book there are lots of superb period diagrams showing you what the ships looked like and how they changed. All ships of this class seem to be mentioned, described and you get a real sense of what the ships were like and how they compared with one another. And there is a bonus here for fan's of Patrick O'Brian and his hero, Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy. One of Jack's least favorite commands, the "Horrible Old Leopard", is prominently featured in this volume, including meticulously detailed big size cutaway drawings of the HMS Leopard 1790 (Portland-class) and hull plans in a pocket in scale 1:96, drawn by Donald McKay.

If you are interested in the fourth and fifth class vessels and their specialities, this book is highly recommended. And also if you are interested not only in the well known threedeckers and want to learn more about the working horses of the navies......


left side: Navy Board model of (most likely) HMS Lincoln
right side: HMS Deptford 1718, HMS Chatham 1721, HMS Falkland 1720


left side: 24pdr Fifties, HMS Falkland 1741
right side: Painting of HMS Portland, dutch Prinses Carolina 1748 and dutch Rotterdam


left side: HMS Cato, HMS Grampus 1780
right side: HMS Jupiter, HMS Saturn

For more Look Inside photos please check the link at the top to see the complete Book Review

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1797 - HMS Albion (74), lead ship of the Albion-class, wrecked off Swin


HMS Albion was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 16 May 1763 at Deptford, being adapted from a design of the old 90-gun ship Neptune which had been built in 1730, and was the first ship to bear the name. She was the first of a series of ships built to the same lines, which became known as the Albion-class ship of the line.



She saw her first action in the American War of Independence in July 1779 at the indecisive Battle of Grenada, when the British Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Byron managed to avoid defeat from superior French forces.

Albion's next action was a year later on 17 April 1780, when British and French fleets met in the Battle of Martinique. A month later, on 15 May, the fleets met again and after a few days of manoeuvring the head of the British line confronted the rear-most French warships. Albion, leading the vanguard of the British fleet suffered heavy casualties, but with little to show for it. Just four days later the two fleets clashed for the third time but again it was indecisive with Albion heavily engaged as before, suffering numerous casualties in the process

In 1794 Albion was consigned to the role of a 60-gun floating battery armed with heavy carronades and moored on the Thames Estuary. She was positioned in the Middle Swin, seven miles north-east of Foulness Point.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Albion (1763), and later, by Admiralty Order dated 6 July 1778, for Irresistible (1782), both 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771], and later signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]

Fate
In April 1797, while heading to a new position in the Swin Channel, off Maplin Sands and Foulness she ran aground due to pilot error. Two days later, during salvage efforts, her back broke, and she was completely wrecked. HMS Astraea rescued Captain Henry Savage and his crew. The crew later transferred to the newly-built HMS Lancaster.

The subsequent court-martial blamed the pilots, William Springfield and Joseph Wright, for imprudent maneuvering and going too far back before altering course. The court ordered that they lose all pay due to them and they never serve as pilots again.



HMS Albion in a gale (PAF6082)

The Albion-class ships of the line were a class of five 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Design
Slade based the design of the Albion-class on the lines of the 90-gun ship Neptune.



Ships

• HMS Albion

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Launched: 16 May 1763
Fate: Wrecked, 1797

• HMS Grafton

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 22 October 1767
Launched: 26 September 1771
Fate: Broken up, 1816

• HMS Alcide

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 21 August 1774
Launched: 30 July 1779
Fate: Broken up, 1817

• HMS Fortitude

Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 2 February 1778
Launched: 23 March 1780
Fate: Broken up, 1820

• HMS Irresistible

Builder: Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 8 July 1778
Launched: 6 December 1782
Fate: Broken up, 1806


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Fortitude (1780) and Irresistible (1782), both 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers, based on Albion (1763)

HMS Albion (1763) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion-class_ship_of_the_line_(1763)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-290161;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1798 - HMS Pearl (32) engaged two French frigates Vertu, Charles René Magon de Médine, and Régénérée escorting a convoy of two Spanish ships of the line back to Europe.


HMS Pearl was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Niger-class (or Alarm-class) in the Royal Navy. Launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1762, she served in British North America until January 1773, when she sailed to England for repairs. Returning to North America in March 1776, to fight in the American Revolutionary War, Pearl escorted the transports which landed troops in Kip's Bay that September. Towards the end of 1777, she joined Richard Howe's fleet in Narragansett Bay and was still there when the French fleet arrived and began an attack on British positions. Both fleets were forced to retire due to bad weather and the action was inconclusive. Pearlwas then dispatched to keep an eye on the French fleet, which had been driven into Boston.



Pearl was present when the British captured the island of St Lucia in December 1778 and was chosen to carry news of the victory to England, capturing the 28-gun frigate Santa Monica off the Azores on her return journey. Pearl joined Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot's squadron in July 1780, capturing the 28-gun frigate Esperance while stationed off Bermuda in September and, in the following March, took part in the first battle of Virginia Capes, where she had responsibility for relaying signals. At the end of the war in 1782, Pearl returned to England where she underwent extensive repairs and did not serve again until 1786, when she was recommissioned for the Mediterranean.

Taken out of service in 1792, Pearl was recalled in February 1793, when hostilities resumed between Britain and France. On her return to America, she narrowly escaped capture by a French squadron anchored between the Îles de Los and put into Sierra Leone for repairs following the engagement. In 1799, Pearl joined George Elphinstone's fleet in the Mediterranean where she took part in the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. In 1802, she sailed to Portsmouth where she served as a slop ship and a receiving ship before being sold in 1832.




Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan, and sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead for 'Pearl' (1762), a 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigate

Construction and armament
Pearl was a 32-gun, Niger-class frigate built to Thomas Slade's design and ordered on 24 March 1761. Her keel was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 6 April.

When launched on 27 March 1762, Pearl was 125 feet 0 1⁄2 inch (38.1 m) along the gun deck, 103 feet 4 3⁄8 inches (31.5 m) at the keel, had a beam of 35 feet 3 inches (10.7 m) and a depth in the hold of 12 feet 0 inches (3.7 m). She was 683 16⁄94 tons burthen and by the time she had been completed, on 14 May 1762, she had cost The Admiralty £16,573.5.4d.

Niger-class frigates were fifth-rates, carrying a main battery of twenty-six 12-pounder (5.4 kg) guns on the upper deck, four 6-pounder (2.7 kg) guns on the quarterdeck and two on the forecastle. When fully manned, they carried a complement of 220.

Service
Pearl was first commissioned in April 1762, under Captain Joseph Deane, who took her to The Downs, to be fitted-out. In March 1763 she was recommissioned under Captain Charles Saxton and on 22 May 1764, she left for Newfoundland in British North America. Pearl served there under captains Patrick Drummond and, subsequently, John Elphinston, until she paid off in December 1768. She was recommissioned the following month under John Leveson-Gower, who was superseded by Captain Sir Basil Keith in November.

Between April 1770 and January 1773, Pearl spent time on and off the Newfoundland station, first under John Ruthven then James Bremer. She then sailed for Portsmouth where she underwent repairs, then a refit, at a total cost of £9,008.15.11d. The combined works took until February 1776.

......... read about her intensive career on wikipedia ........


Shortly after commissioning the British ship ‘Pearl’ Captain George Montagu was cruising off Fayal in the Azores when early in the morning he saw and chased a sail. After several hours he was able to open fire and a two hour fight ensued. The other ship eventually struck and it turned out to be the Spanish frigate ‘Santa Monica’. Though the Spanish ship was less strongly armed, Montagu’s crew was very raw since only ten of the men having been in a man-of-war before. In the painting, the ‘Pearl’ is in the centre foreground and is shown in the process of raking the ‘Santa Monica’ in the left of the picture. In the right distance are two more British frigates. The painting is signed ‘Tho. Whitcombe 1805’

Mediterranean service and the outbreak of war
Pearl was refitted between July and December 1786 and sailed to the Mediterranean on 22 March the following year. She returned home in 1789 but was recommissioned under Captain George Courtnay and rejoined the Mediterranean fleet in May 1790. Sometime in 1792, Pearl was taken out of service but was recalled the following year after France again declared war on Britain, in February. She was fitted out at Plymouth between June and August at a cost of £7,615, before sailing to the Irish Station under Captain Michael de Courcy where she served until November 1795. Following a small repair at Plymouth, costing £9,686, Captain Samuel James Ballard took command in February 1796.

While cruising in the company of the 36-gun HMS Flora, on 16 April 1797, Pearl helped capture the 24-gun privateer, Incroyable. In March 1798, she sailed for the Leeward Islands via West Africa where on 24 April, she escaped from two French frigates. While passing through the Îles de Los, an archipelago off the coast of Guinea, Pearl discovered an enemy squadron comprising 4 large ships at anchor and a brig under sail. As she approached one of the French frigates hoisted her colours and opened fire. Forced to run between two frigates, Pearl engaged both as she passed then hove to, continuing to fire for a further hour before making off with one, or possibly both frigates in pursuit. The chase continued through the night and all through the following day before Pearl managed to escape, and arrived at Sierra Leone on 27 April, where she was inspected for damage. She had been holed in several places, although all were above the waterline; her foretopgallant yard and fore yard had been shot away and a number of lower shrouds and other rigging had been cut through. In addition two of her carronades had been dismounted, causing the death of one man.

......... read about her intensive career on wikipedia ........


Alarm class 32-gun fifth rates 1758-66; designed by Thomas Slade.

• HMS Alarm 1758 - broken up 1812.
• HMS Eolus (or Aeolus) 1758 - hulked as receiving ship at Sheerness in 1796, renamed Guernsey in 1800, broken up in 1801.
• HMS Stag 1758 - broken up in 1783.
• HMS Pearl 1762 - hulked as a slop ship at Portsmouth in 1803, renamed Prothee in 1825, sold 1832.
• HMS Glory 1763 - renamed Apollo in 1774, broken up in 1786.
• HMS Emerald 1762 - broken up in 1793. (According to Rif Winfield - British Warships in The Age of Sail 1714 - 1792. This is a "Niger Class" ship.)
• HMS Aurora 1766 - lost with all hands on her way to the West Indies in 1769.

Niger class 32-gun fifth rates 1759-64; Thomas Slade design, "very similar" to the Alarm class above.

• HMS Niger 1759 - converted to troopship in 1799, reclassed as a 28-gun Sixth Rate in 1804, sold in 1814.
• HMS Montreal 1761 - taken by the French off Malaga on 29 April 1779.
• HMS Quebec 1760 - caught fire and blew up while in action with the French frigate Surveillante (1778) on 5 October 1779.
• HMS Winchelsea 1764 - converted to troopship in 1800, mooring hulk at Sheerness in 1803, sold in 1814.

HMS Pearl (1762) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-337994;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1798 - 18-gun French privateer Brave, was captured by HMS Phoenix (36)


HMS Arab was a 22-gun post ship of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the 18-gun French privateer Brave, which the British captured in 1798. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars until she was sold in 1810.





During her 12-year career with the Royal Navy she served on three separate stations, and was involved in two international incidents. The first incident occurred under Captain John Perkins and involved the Danes. The second incident occurred under Captain Lord Cochrane and involved the Americans. She participated in the capture of Sint Eustatius and Saba. Under Captains Perkins and Maxwell she also took a considerable number of prizes.

After the Royal Navy sold her in 1810 she served as a whaling ship in the South Seas whale fisheries. She made six complete whaling voyages until she was lost in 1824 during her seventh; all her crew were saved.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead , also with longitudinal half breadth for Arab (1798), a captured French Sixth Rate, as fitted as a 22-gun, Sixth Rate at Plymouth Dockyard. Signed John Marshall (Master Shipwright)

French origins and capture
Brave was built in Nantes circa June 1797. She was commissioned under Joseph Robin, and had a crew of 160 men.

On 24 April 1798 the 36-gun Phoenix, under the command of Captain Lawrence William Halsted, captured Brave off Cape Clear. She was pierced for 22 guns and was carrying eighteen, mixed 12 and 18-pounders. Unusually for a privateer, Brave resisted capture, suffering several men killed and 14 wounded before she surrendered. Phoenix had no casualties and suffered trifling damage to her sails and rigging. Brave had a crew of 160 men and also some 50 English prisoners on board, none of whom were injured. Halsted described Brave as being "a very fine ship, of 600 Tons, is coppered, and sails exceedingly fast." That she had 50 prisoners on board and only 160 crew indicates that she had taken several British vessels and then put prize crews on board her prizes.

After Phoenix captured Brave, the British brought her to Plymouth, where she arrived on 12 May. She was named and registered on 24 July 1798 and fitted out between November 1798 and April 1799. During this period a lower deck, quarterdeck and a forecastle were added. She was commissioned as HMS Arab in December 1798 under Commander Peter Spicer.


Lougen (centre) at the battle of West Kay in combat, with British privateer Experiment and HMS Arab

Capel
On 5 January 1799 Captain Thomas Bladen Capel took command of Arab, sailing for Jamaica on 23 April. After arriving in the West Indies, at about midnight on 10 July, she engaged three Spanish frigates off the coast of Havana for about half an hour, losing three of the crew to enemy fire though apparently giving as good as she got thus causing the Spanish to withdraw. It was also during late June and early July 1799 that there was a serious outbreak of yellow fever on board, something from which ten of the Ship's company would die, including its carpenter Jeremiah Driscoll. The journal of the ship's surgeon, Thomas Tappen, contains an interesting and detailed account of the symptoms these men experienced, together with his treatment for the fever, including the use of bloodletting and the administering of calomel.

On 23 August, Quebec shared with Arab in the capture of the American ship Porcupine, a brig of 113 tons with a crew of eight men that was sailing from New York to Havana carrying a cargo wine, oil, soap and sundries. Porcupine was condemned but Quebec appealed.

During this period Arab on her own also detained, on suspicion, the Spanish brig Esperansa, which was sailing from Carthagena with a cargo of cotton, hides, and so forth. Later, at sea off Cape Canaveral on 11 October, lightning struck Arab, killing three men and splinting her main top mast. Tappen again recorded things in his journal, including the state of one of the men, John Leggett, "whose side had the appearance of being burnt, the skin all peeled off, tho the shirt remained entire ". Before the year was out another severe outbreak of yellow fever struck Arab whilst she was in Jamaica, and by the following January a further twelve of the crew were dead.

Perkins

An extract from the logbook of HMS Arab. The extract is dated 3 March 1801. The log is available from the National Archives, Kew Cat. Ref ADM 51/1406
Captain John Perkins (Jack Punch) took command in January 1801.

In early 1801 rumours of a diplomatic rift between Britain and Second League of Armed Neutrality started reaching the Caribbean. On 1 March Perkins received orders to stop all Danish, Swedish and Russian ships that he encountered.

Two days later Arab, in company with the 18-gun British privateer Experiment, caught and challenged two Danish vessels, the brig Lougen, under the command of Captain Carl Wilhelm Jessen, and the schooner Den Aarvaagne. Arab approached the two Danish vessels and, according to Danish accounts, without warning, fired several broadsides at Lougen before the Danish ship was able to return fire. Lougen, which had escaped serious damage, began to return fire steadily. Experiment initially attempted to capture Aarvaagne, but Aarvaagne obeyed orders to stay out of the fight and instead escaped south to Christiansted on St. Croix with its intelligence on British actions. Experiment then joined Arab in the attack on Lougen, with the two British ships sandwiching the Danish ship. During the engagement, which lasted for over an hour, one of Lougen's shots struck the Arab's cathead and loosed the bower anchor. (Perkin's reported that it was the first shot from Lougen that loosed the bower anchor.) Arab's crew was unable to cut the anchor free, leaving Arab unable to manoeuvre effectively. This allowed Jessen to steer a course that brought him under the protection of the shore batteries and then into St Thomas.

The Danish government awarded Jessen a presentation sword made of gold, a medal and 400 rixdollars (the equivalent of a whole year's salary) for his actions in escaping from a numerically superior force. Still, Perkins, after having repaired his battle damage, cruised outside the harbour and in a two-week period captured more than a dozen Danish and other foreign vessels.

Between 15 March and 7 April 1801, an expedition under Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge and Admiral Duckworth captured the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and St. Croix. Arab was listed among the vessels participating in the expedition and entitled to a share in the "proceeds of sundry articles of provisions, merchandise, stores, and property afloat" that had been captured. At that time the British seized both Lougen and Den Aarvaagne.

On 13 April Arab captured the Spanish armed schooner Duenda.

On 16 April 1801 Perkins, in Arab and the newly captured Duenda, together with Colonel Richard Blunt and a detachment of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), laid siege to and captured the wealthy islands of Sint Eustatius and Saba, capturing their French garrisons, forty-seven cannon and 338 barrels of gunpowder. Eustatia had been the most profitable of the islands in the Dutch West Indies.

Command of Arab passed to Captain Robert Fanshawe in 1802. Fanshawe took her back to Plymouth, where she spent between August and December being repaired and refitted. After a brief period spent laid up she was brought back into service with the resumption of war with France.


Scale 1:96. Plan showing the quater deck and fore castle, upper deck, lower deck plans and fore and aft platforms for Arab (1798), a captured French Sixth Rate, as fitted as a 22-gun, Sixth Rate at Plymouth Dockyard. Signed John Marshall (Master Shipwright)

Napoleonic Wars
Cochrane
Arab was recommissioned in October 1803 under Captain Lord Cochrane, who had been assigned to Arab by Earl St Vincent. In his autobiography, Cochrane compared the Arab to a collier, and his first thoughts on seeing her being repaired at Plymouth were that she would "sail like a haystack". Under Cochrane's command Arab twice collided with Royal Navy ships, first with the 12-gun HMS Bloodhound, and then with the storeship HMS Abundance.

Despite his misgivings, Cochrane still managed to intercept and board an American merchant ship, the Chatham, thereby creating an international incident that led to the consignment of Arab and her commander to fishing fleet protection duties beyond Orkney in the North Sea, an assignment that Cochrane bitterly complained about. Cochrane would later refer to his time in the Arab in the North Sea and the Downs as "naval exile in a dreary tub".

Maxwell
Captain Keith Maxwell replaced Cochrane in 1805, and sailed Arab to serve with the squadron off Boulogne. On 18 July the British spotted the French Boulogne flotilla sailing along the shore. Captain Edward Owen of HMS Immortalite sent Calypso, Fleche, Arab and the brigs Watchful, Sparkler, and Pincher in pursuit of 22 large schooners flying the Dutch flag. As Maxwell came close to shore he found the water barely deep enough to keep Arab from running aground. Still, the British managed to force three of the schooners to ground on the Banc de Laine near Cap Gris Nez; their crews ran two others ashore. The British also drove six French gun-vessels on shore. However, the bank off Cape Grinez, and the shot and shells from the right face of its powerful battery, soon compelled the British to move back from the shore. Arab suffered seven wounded and a great deal of damage. Fleche was the closest inshore owing to her light draft of water; she had five men severely wounded and damage to her rigging.

At some point a shell from a shore battery hit Arab's main-mast-head and then fell to the gun deck. At first a seaman named Clorento tried to defuse the shell. While he was doing this master's mate Edward Mansell and two more seamen came up. Together they got the shell into the sea, where it exploded. The next day Arab buried her dead at sea, after which the men on Immortalite cheered Arab. Maxwell wrote to the Patriotic Fund at Lloyd's, drawing its attention to the heroism of the four men. Thereafter, the Fund voted Mansell £50 and the three other seamen £20 each. The fund gave an additional £125 for Maxwell to divide between eight other crewmen in graduated amounts.

On 22 September 1805 she left St Helens, Isle of Wight. She arrived at Funchal Roads on 12 October, having with Favourite, convoyed the slave ship Andersons and some other vessels.

In December Arab and Favourite were off the west coast of Africa. Subsequently, Arab returned to the West Indies. During her time in the West Indies Lieutenant Edward Dix, as acting captain, temporarily replaced Maxwell for a period of five weeks in 1806. Two days after Dix joined Arab, yellow fever broke out which the crew of Arab, except Dix and eight others, contracted; 33 men died. Maxwell resumed command and returned to Spithead in 1807 where Arab's remaining crew were paid off.

Disposal
The Navy then placed Arab in ordinary at Woolwich. The principal officers and commissioners of His Majesty's Navy sold her at Deptford on 20 September 1810.

Whaler
The supplement to Lloyd's Register for 1811 describes Arab, 500 tons, French prize, at London, Hill, master, and the whaling company Mather & Co. as owner. However, there is no record that she sailed for Mather & Co. Arab did engage in whaling and sealing voyages from 1813 until she was lost in 1824, but for Daniel Bennett.

An addendum to the entry for Arab in the 1813 Lloyd's Register gave her new master as "Brown". This is John Brown. Ownership changed in 1813 and the new owner was Daniel Bennett, who would remain Arab's owner for seven voyages.

she made six voyages as whaler without special events, but....

Loss
For what was her seventh voyage, which turned out to be her last, Arab was under the command of Captain Alexander Sinclair. She left on 9 April 1821 for New Zealand. She was reported to be at the Bay of Islands and to have loaded 350 barrels. She left from "Fenning's Island" (possibly Fanning's Island), and by 11 June was in a sinking state with nine feet of water in her hold. Fortunately, she encountered Ocean, Harrison, master, at 57°S 77°E.

Ocean had left Port Jackson in February 1824 bound for London. While en route she weathered a large gale but she lost her live stock overboard. When she encountered Arab, she was able to rescue Arab's 36-man crew before Arab sank with her cargo of 300 tons of sperm oil. Ocean went on to Saint Helena to undertake repairs and buy provisions. Ocean arrived in London in July 1824.


HMS Phoenix was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The shipbuilder George Parsons built her at Bursledon and launched her on 15 July 1783. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was instrumental in the events leading up to the battle of Trafalgar. Phoenix was involved in several single-ship actions, the most notable occurring on 10 August 1805 when she captured the French frigate Didon, which was more heavily armed than her. She was wrecked, without loss of life, off Smyrna in 1816.




HMS Phoenix in chase of Didon

HMS Arab (1798) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-292116;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Phoenix_(1783)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...0;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1799 – Launch of HMS Amethyst, a Royal Navy 36-gun Penelope-class fifth-rate frigate, at Deptford


HMS Amethyst was a Royal Navy 36-gun Penelope-class fifth-rate frigate, launched in 1799 at Deptford. Amethyst served in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing several prizes. She also participated in two boat actions and two ship actions that won her crew clasps to the Naval General Service Medal. She was broken up in 1811 after suffering severe damage in a storm.



French Revolutionary Wars
Amethyst was commissioned in May 1799 under the command of Captain John Cooke. She then operated on the Dutch coast later that year. During the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland, Amethyst conveyed the Duke of York to the Netherlands and later participated in the evacuation of the force following the campaign's collapse.

On 18 December she and Beaulieu recaptured the brig Jenny. Eleven days after that, Amethyst and Beaulieu recaptured the ships Dauphin, Cato, Cabrus, and Nymphe.

On 29 December Amethyst captured the French privateer brig Aventurier (or Avanture). Aventurier, out of Lorient, was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 75 men. One month earlier, on 29 November, Aventurierhad captured the American ship Cato and taken her master, John Parker, and his crew prisoner. When Amethyst captured Aventurier Cooke freed the Americans and informed Parker that Cato had been sent to Cork. Cooke sent Aventurier into Plymouth from where Parker and his mate traveled to Cork.

On 7 January 1800, the French armed ship Huzelle (or Ursule), came into Plymouth. She had been carrying passengers from Cayenne, including women and children, when Amethyst captured her. On her way into a British port, the French privateer Providence, of 14 guns and 152 men, had recaptured her and sent her to Bordeaux. However, before she got get there, Beaulieu and Unicorn again captured her and sent her into Plymouth. Huzelle was low on provision with the result that a five-year-old child died while she was in Plymouth Sound; as she anchored at Catwater, M.P. Symonds, the broker for the prize, delivered fresh provisions to Huzelle. Among Huzelle's passengers were a Colonel Molonson of Invalids, and a naturalist, M. Burnelle, with a cabinet of curiosities for the French National Museum at Paris.

Later that month, on the 26th, Oiseaux encountered the French frigate Dédaigneuse and gave chase. Sirius and Amethyst joined the next day. On the 28th Oiseaux and Sirius effected the capture. Unfavourable winds kept Amethyst from joining the action. She was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Dedaigneuse.

In February 1800 Amethyst was in company with Nymphe when on 15 February they captured the French privateer cutter Valiant (or Vaillante), of Bordeaux, after a long chase. Valiant was armed with one long 18-pounder, two long 12-pounder, and twelve 6-pounders guns. She had a crew of 131 men who had been out four days, but had not yet captured anything.

On 24 February, Nymphe, in company with Amethyst, captured the French letter of marque Modeste, of about 600 tons burthen. She was pierced for 16 guns and had a crew of 70 men. She had left the Île de France some nine weeks earlier and was sailing for Bordeaux with a cargo of cotton, coffee, tea, sugar, indigo, and the like. Still in company with Nymphe, Amethyst captured Julius Pringle and recaptured Active (4 March) and Amity (21 March).

Then on 31 March, Amethyst, with Nymphe, captured the French privateer Mars. Mars was armed with twenty 12-pounder guns and two 36-pounder obusiers, and carried a crew of 180 men. Cooke described her as being "one of the finest Privateers fitted out of Bourdeaux." The British took Mars into service as Garland.

Amethyst also captured a valuable American ship attempting to dock in a French port. This may have been Caroline, captured on 14 April.

In early June Cooke met up with Captain Sir Edward Pellew's squadron at Quiberon Bay. The squadron engaged in a successful large scale raid on Morbihan, though Amethyst's role, if any, is unclear.

Amethyst was among the vessels of a squadron that shared the proceeds for the recapture on 28 June 1800 of Lancaster. She was also part of Pellew's squadron, which shared in the proceeds of the capture of Vigilant, Menais, Insolent, Ann, and the wreck of a vessel that was sold, and the recapture of Industry.

On 29 July, a boat each from Viper, Impetueux and Amethyst, all manned by volunteers under the command of Lieutenant Jeremiah Coghlan of Viper, cut out the French naval brig Cerbère, armed with three 24-pounder and four 6-pounder guns. Cerbère was manned by 87 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Menage and was moored in a port within pistol-shot of three batteries and near a number of naval vessels. The attack was a success, with the British boarding party of some 20 men losing only one man killed and eight wounded, including Coghlan; none of the casualties were from Amethyst's boat, which did not take part in the actual boarding. The French lost six men killed and 20 wounded. In admiration for the feat, Pellew's squadron gave up their share of the prize money, with the result that it accrued in its entirety to the cutting-out party. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 July Boat Service 1800" to the four surviving claimants from the action.

Next, Amethyst participated in an abortive invasion of Ferrol. On 29 August, in Vigo Bay, Admiral Sir Samuel Hood assembled a cutting-out party from the vessels under his command consisting of two boats each from Amethyst, Stag, Amelia, Brilliant, and Cynthia, four boats from Courageaux, as well as the boats from Renown, London, and Impetueux. The party went in and after a 15-minute fight captured the French privateer Guêpe, of Bordeaux, and towed her out. She was of 300 tons burthen and had a flush deck. Pierced for 20 guns, she carried eighteen 9-pounders, and she and her crew of 161 men were under the command of Citizen Dupan. In the attack she lost 25 men killed, including Dupan, and 40 wounded. British casualties amounted to four killed, 23 wounded and one missing. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 Aug. Boat Service 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 9 October, Amethyst returned to Plymouth from a secret mission. She and Nymphe would share in the prize money for a captured a French East Indiaman. During their stay in port the prize netted them £36,000.

In 1801, Amethyst operated off Spain, capturing two Spanish privateers and the French corvette Général Brune. On 26 January, Oiseaux encountered Dédaigneuse and gave chase while unfavorable winds kept Amethyst from joining the action. The British brought Dédaigneuse into Royal Navy service as HMS Dedaigneuse.

Later on 28 January Sirius and Amethyst captured the Spanish Letter of Marque Charlotta (or Carlotta) of Ferol, 16 hours out of Ferol on her way to Curaçao. The capture took place about six or seven leagues from Cape Belem in Galicia. The hired armed cutter Earl St Vincent shared in the capture.

The next day Atalante captured the Spanish privateer Intrepido Cid. Amethyst and Sirius shared in the prize money by agreement.

On 16 March, Amethyst encountered and captured Nostra Signora del Carmen, a Spanish privateer schooner. Nostra Signora was armed with six guns and had a crew of 65 men. She had left Rigo [sic] the previous evening and had not captured anything. Cooke decided to destroy her as she appeared unfit to take into the navy.

On 12 April, Amethyst captured French navy corvette General Brune. General Brune was a former merchant ship and she was sailing from Guadeloupe to Bordeaux. She was under the command of Citizen Martin, lieutenant de vaisseaux. She was armed with fourteen 6-pounders guns and had 108 men on board, including Général Pélardy, the late governor of Guadaloupe, and his suite.

On 10 September Amethyst captured the French lugger Alert, and recaptured a ship.

In October 1801 Captain Charles Taylor took command of Amethyst, only to be replaced in the next month by Captain Henry Glynn, for the North Sea. During the Peace of Amiens, Amethyst sailed on anti-smuggling patrols off the coast of Scotland under the command of Captain Alexander Campbell.

On 30 July 1802, Amethyst and the frigates, Glenmore and Galatea, sailed from Plymouth for the Isle of wight. There they were to pick up Dutch troops that they were to return to Holland.

During the autumn and winter of 1802–03 Amethyst was sent to the Northern Station, based at Leith. On Wednesday 27 October 1802, 38 miles off Tod Head, she captured Vlugheid, smuggling cutter from Flushing. Aboard were John Dangerfield and eleven other seamen. On 18 November 1802, three or four leagues from the Isle of May, Campbell captured Fly, a smuggling lugger from Flushing, "laden with 570 Ankers of Gineva and eighty five Bails of Tobacco". On Tuesday 30 November Amethyst gave chase to three more smuggling luggers, but lost them due to lack of wind.

Captain Campbell wrote to the Admiralty on 27 October 1802 requesting that he might keep the seamen captured on Vlugheid, because Amethyst was 29 short of complement. However, Dangerfield and the others were released on 22 November.

In a letter to the Admiralty dated 10 November Capt. Campbell reported that the smugglers were attempting to bribe the seamen to desert from His Majesty’s ships on the Leith station “so as to disable them from cruising.” In a letter dated 27 October 1802, at sea, he had complained that “The Revenue Cruizers belonging to Leith are seldom out of Harbour. I have not seen or heard of any of them during my cruise altho’ there are several smuggling vessels on the coast.”


Capture of la Thetis by Amethyst, Novr 10th 1808

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

Some seven months later, on 11 November 1803 Amethyst captured Spes, H. L. Cornelia, master. Three days later, Amethyst captured Johannes.[36] That same day Amethyst captured Irene, L. J. Lubbens, master.

In June 1804, a court martial dismissed Campbell from command of Amethyst and stripped him of all his seniority on the Captain's List for misconduct in an action with four Dutch vessels off the coast of Norway. Command transferred to Captain John Spranger.

On 24 July Amethyst, while in company with Magicienne, captured Agnela. On 30 July Amethyst captured the Ebenezer, and then on 1 August Amethyst captured Juno. In December Amethyst participated in the pursuit of a French squadron under Admiral Willaumez.

In November 1805 Amethyst encountered the brig-sloop Wolverine off the coast of Madeira. After a series of ambiguous and misinterpreted moves by the other, the two captains mistook each other for enemies and opened fire. Both vessels survived and the two captains proceeded to exchange mutually recriminatory letters.
Amethyst was among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture, on 25 July 1805, of the Jonge Jacob.



Captain Michael Seymour replaced Spranger. On 15 May 1807, Amethyst captured the privateer Josephine some 20 leagues from Scilly. Josephine was armed with four 2-pounders guns and small arms. She had a crew of 45 men, but had put ten on board Jane, which had been sailing from Lisbon. Josephine had sailed from the Île de Batz and Jane was her only capture. When Amethyst captured Josephine, Amethyst was in company with Dryad and Plover.

Then on 9 September Amethyst captured the Danish ship Twende Venner.

Later, on 18 October, Amethyst recaptured the ship Susannah. Amethyst also recaptured the American brig Rising Sun.

On 10 March 1808 Amethyst captured the Spanish brig Vigilantie. Eleven days later Amethyst recaptured the Portuguese schooner Inseperavil Unio.

On 3 May Amethyst and Conflict captured the French sloop Actif. Sixteen days later, Amethyst, Conflict, and Growler were in company when they captured the French schooner Annais. The next month, on 10 June, Amethyst and Conflict captured the Spanish schooner Carmelita. Fourteen days later, Amethyst captured the American brig Sally Tracey. Then Amethyst was again in company with Growler when they captured St. Etienne, Maria Julia, and six chasse marees on 9 July. Lastly, on 17 September Amethyst captured sundry spars

In November 1808 Amethyst captured the French frigate Thétis at the Action of 10 November 1808. British casualties in the engagement were severe, with 19 killed and 51 wounded, but French losses were several times larger, with 135 dead and 102 wounded. Amethyst had been severely damaged in the engagement and repairs took 71 days to complete at Plymouth. Seymour's victory was rewarded: Seymour himself was presented with a commemorative medal, £100 (with £625 to share among the wounded) and the freedoms of Cork and Limerick. The Admiralty awarded him a gold medal; this was one of only 18 actions that it so honoured. In addition, first lieutenant Goddard Blennerhasset was promoted to commander, the junior officers were advanced, and the Royal Navy purchased Thétis, commissioning her as HMS Brune. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Amethyst Wh. Thetis" to the still living survivors of the battle.


In 1809, Amethyst was with Sir Robert Stopford's squadron off Rochefort. She saw action in the early stages of the Battle of Brest Roads and in April captured the French frigate Niémen, under the command of Mons. Dupotet, Capitaine de Frigate, at the Action of 6 April 1809. Niémen had 47 killed and 73 wounded; Amethyst had eight killed and 37 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Amethyst 5 April 1809".

Later in the year, Seymour participated in the Walcheren Expedition, providing naval support to the transports. On 11 August she was part of a squadron under Captain William Stewart that forced the passage between shore batteries at Flushing and Cadsand. Amethyst had one man killed and one man wounded in the operation. Seymour left the ship in 1809; his replacement in September was Captain Jacob Walton.

Fate
On 15 February 1811 Amethyst was anchored in Plymouth Sound, intending to sail the next day join the fleet off Brest with provisions, including live bullocks. To facilitate her departure Walton decided to use only her bower anchor. A heavy storm caught her and blew her on shore near Cony Cliff Rocks, Mount Batten, before her crew could lower a second anchor. Lines were passed to the shore that enabled most of the crew to reach safety, though eight men did die. Most of the ship's stores were salvaged over the next few days. Still, the ship was too badly damaged to salvage and by 10 March wave action had broken up the hull.

The subsequent court martial found Walton and Robert Owen, the master, negligent and reprimanded both for allowing Amethyst to be anchored so close to shore with only one anchor. The court also barred Owen for a year from serving in anything larger than a sixth rate

sistership Penelope

A painting detailing the capture of the ‘Guillaume Tell’. She is shown on the left of the painting, with her last mast, the mizzen, falling forward over the starboard side, her ensign from the peak trailing in the water. This differs from the written accounts which describe the main and mizzen going first at 6.30 a.m. and the foremast was the last to go. Masking the ‘Guillaume Tell’s’ bow with her stern and gunsmoke is the ‘Foudroyant’. She has also lost her mizzen mast and there are shot holes in her sails. On the left and slightly further off is the ‘Penelope’ facing into the stern of the ‘Guillaume Tell’ while on the right of the picture is the Lion with her mizzen topmast gone and some of her guns not run out as they had been dismounted.

Penelope class 36-gun fifth rates 1798-1800, designed by John Henslow.

• HMS Penelope 1798 - troopship in 1814, wrecked in the Saint Lawrence River in 1815.
• HMS Amethyst 1799 - wrecked and subsequently broken up in 1811.
• HMS Jason 1800 - wrecked in 1801.

HMS Amethyst (1799) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-278732;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1804 – Launch of Armide, a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, at Rochefort.


Armide was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1804 at Rochefort. She served briefly in the French navy before the British captured her in 1806. She went on to serve in the British Navy until 1815 when she was broken up.





French service
She took part in Allemand's expedition of 1805. On 18 July, she captured and burnt a Prussian cutter to maintain the secrecy of the movements of the fleet, in spite of the neutrality of Prussia at the time. The next day, she captured HMS Ranger and burnt her. She then took part in the assault on the Calcutta convoy, helping Magnanime engage and capture HMS Calcutta.

In March 1806, under Amable Troude, Armide helped repel an attack led by Robert Stopford at Les Sables-d'Olonne.


lines & profile These plans show her as fitted as a British ship. NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 365, states that 'Armide' was at Plymouth Dockyard between 1806 and 1809 for middling repairs and to be fitted

Capture
During the Action of 25 September 1806, HMS Centaur, under the command of Commodore Sir Samuel Hood, captured Armide, which was under the command of Captain Jean-Jacques-Jude Langlois, and assisted in the capture of Infatigable, Gloire and Minerve. Centaur lost three men killed and three wounded. In addition, a musket ball shattered Hood's arm, which had to be amputated. The wound forced Hood to quit the deck and leave the ship in the charge of Lieutenant William Case. Centaur also lost most of her lower rigging. In all, the British lost nine men killed and 32 wounded. Hood estimated that the French had 650 men aboard each vessel, inclusive of soldiers, but put off till later any estimate of their losses.

Armide arrived at Plymouth on 2 October 1806, where she was laid up. In 1807 and 1808 she was in ordinary in Plymouth. She then underwent repairs between February and October 1809.

British service
Armide entered British service as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS Armide. In August 1809 Captain Lucius Ferdinand Hardyman commissioned her and assumed command.

..... read more about the career in the British Navy at wikipedia ......


Portrait of Pénélope by François-Geoffroi Roux

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



Armide class, (40-gun design by Pierre Roland, with 28 x 18-pounder and 8 x 12-pounder guns and 4 x 36-pounder obusiers).

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

sistership HMS Alceste, ex french Minerve




deck These plans show her as fitted as a British ship. NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 365, states that 'Armide' was at Plymouth Dockyard between 1806 and 1809 for middling repairs and to be fitted



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

Armide-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-292765;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-290198;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1862 - Battle of New Orleans; Union Navy under David Farragut runs past forts into Mississippi River
USS Varuna sunk in action


USS Varuna (1861) was a heavy (1,300 ton) steam-powered ship acquired by the Union Navy during the early days of the American Civil War. She was outfitted with powerful 8-inch guns and assigned, as a gunboat, to the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.



Built in Connecticut
Varuna, the first U.S. Navy ship to bear the name, was originally intended for merchant service between New York City and New Orleans. She was laid down in late January or early February 1861 at the Mallory Yard, Mystic, Connecticut; launched there in the following September; and purchased by the Navy at New York City on 31 December 1861.

Civil War service
Joining the Union blockade
On 10 February 1862, she was ordered to remain in New York until Monitor was ready for action so that she might escort the new ironclad from New York to Hampton Roads, Virginia, to protect the wooden-hulled Union blockaders there from the Southern armored ram, CSS Virginia.

However, these orders were revoked later that same day; and Varuna was assigned to the newly established West Gulf Blockading Squadron. En route south late in February, Varuna put into Port Royal, South Carolina, for repairs, where the ship's commanding officer, Commander Charles S. Boggs, assumed temporary command of the harbor on 24 February during Flag Officer Samuel F. Du Pont's absence. The gunboat finally joined Rear Admiral David G. Farragut's West Gulf Blockading Squadron on 6 March.

Mississippi River operations
On 24 April 1862, Varuna was with the squadron during Farragut's daring nighttime dash past Confederate works guarding the Mississippi below New Orleans – Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip.

Varuna sunk in action
At the height of the melee, Varuna was rammed twice by the steamer CSS Governor Moore and struck twice again immediately thereafter by the cotton-clad ram CSS Stonewall Jackson. After striking Varuna, CSN Lt. Beverly Kennon, in command of one of the Confederate warships, Governor Moore – found himself unable to depress his guns far enough to fire upon the Union vessel. So he shot through the bow of his own ship and used the resulting hole as a gun port.

Fatally damaged, Varuna backed off from the Confederate vessels and continued to subject them to a withering fire until rising water silenced her guns. Eight sailors of the Varuna received the Medal of Honor for their actions during the battle: Seaman Thomas Bourne, Landsman Amos Bradley, Captain of the Forecastle John Greene, Third Class Boy George Hollat, Seaman William Martin, Quartermaster John McGowan, Coxswain William McKnight, and Second Class Boy Oscar E. Peck.


Engraving published in "The Soldier in Our Civil War", Volume I. It depicts USS Varuna (center), being rammed by a Confederate ship identified as "Breckinridge" (left) while engaging CSS Governor Moore (right) during the battle off Forts Jackson and St. Philip, 24 April 1862. The ship identified as "Breckinridge", is more probably the Stonewall Jackson.


USS Varuna sinking

Varuna honored with a poem
Rear Admiral Farragut's stunning victory at and subsequent capture of New Orleans itself electrified the North. Varuna's part in the Union triumph was soon commemorated in George Henry Boker's poem, "The Varuna", which appeared in the Philadelphia Press on 12 May.


LSNS Governor Moore was a schooner-rigged steamer in the Confederate States Navy.

Governor Moore had been Southern S. S. Company's Charles Morgan, named for the firm's founder and built at New York in 1854 as a schooner-rigged, low pressure, walking beam-engined, seagoing steamer. She was seized at New Orleans, Louisiana by Brigadier General Mansfield Lovell, CSA, in mid-January 1862 "for the public service." As a gunboat, renamed for Louisiana's Governor Thomas Overton Moore, her stem was reinforced for ramming by two strips of flat railroad iron at the waterline, strapped and bolted in place, with pine lumber and cotton-bale barricades to protect her boilers, but the Governor Moore was never commissioned as a ship in the Confederate States Navy.



The larger of two similar cotton-clads owned and operated by the State of Louisiana, Governor Moore was commanded for some time by Lieutenant Beverly Kennon, CSN, then serving as Commander in the Louisiana Provisional Navy without pay. She distinguished herself in the battle of 24 April 1862, when Admiral David Farragut, USN, passed Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip before dawn en route to capture New Orleans. After a furious exchange of raking fire, Governor Moore twice rammed USS Varuna, and a third thrust from another cottonclad forced Varuna aground. Next attacking USS Cayuga, Governor Moore exposed herself to fire from most of the Union flotilla. With practically her whole upper hamper shot away and 64 men dead or dying, she went out of command, drifting helplessly to shore, where her captain, pilot, and a seaman set her afire. Governor Moore blew up while they and three other survivors were being captured by USS Oneida's boats to be imprisoned on board USS Colorado; two-thirds of the two dozen or more crew members escaped into the marshes, the rest being captured by other ships' launches; no one drowned.


CSS Governor Moore after the fight

"The pennant and remains of the ensign were never hauled down," wrote Kennon from Colorado. "The flames that lit our decks stood faithful sentinels over their halyards until they, like the ship, were entirely consumed. I burned the bodies of the slain. Our colors were shot away three times. I hoisted them myself twice; finally every stripe was taken out of the flag, leaving a small constellation of four little stars only, which showed to our enemy how bravely we had defended them." The ship sank with the Louisiana's colors flying.(It is unclear if the flag referred to was the Confederate Stars and Bars or Louisiana State banner of January 1861; the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships claims the latter.)


CSS Stonewall Jackson was a cotton-clad sidewheel ram of the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.

Stonewall Jackson was selected in January 1862, by Capt. James E. Montgomery to be part of his River Defense Fleet at New Orleans. On 25 January Montgomery began to convert her into a cottonclad ram by placing a 4-inch (100 mm) oak sheath with 1-inch (25 mm) iron covering on her bow, and by installing double pine bulkheads fitted with compressed cotton bales.



Service history
Stonewall Jackson's conversion was completed on 16 March 1862. Under Capt. G. M. Phillips she was detached from Montgomery's main force and sent to Forts Jackson and St. Philip on the lower Mississippi to cooperate in the Confederate defense of New Orleans. There, with five other vessels of Montgomery's fleet, all under Capt. J. A. Stevenson, she joined the force under Capt. J. K. Mitchell, CSN, commanding Confederate naval forces in the lower Mississippi.

On 24 April 1862 a Union fleet under Flag Officer David Farragut, USN, ran past Forts Jackson and St. Philip on its way to capture New Orleans. In the engagement Stonewall Jackson rammed USS Varuna, which had already been struck by CSS Governor Moore. With Varuna's shot glancing off her bow, Stonewall Jackson backed off for another blow and struck again in the same place, crushing Varuna's side. The shock of the blow turned the Confederate vessel, and she received five 8-inch shells from Varuna, abaft her armor. Varuna ran aground in a sinking condition, and Stonewall Jackson, chased by USS Oneida coming to Varuna's rescue, was driven ashore and burned.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Varuna_(1861)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Governor_Moore

CSS Stonewall Jackson - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86329.htm

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1872 – Launch of SMS Erzherzog Albrecht, an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class


SMS Erzherzog Albrecht was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1870s, the only member of her class. Her design was similar to the ironclad Custoza, but Erzherzog Albrecht was built to a smaller size; like Custoza, she was an iron-hulled casemate ship armed with a battery of eight heavy guns. The ship was laid down in June 1870, was launched in April 1872, and was commissioned in June 1874. The ship's service career was limited; tight naval budgets precluded an active fleet policy in the 1870s, which did not markedly improve in the 1880s. Her first period of active service came in 1881 and 1882, when she helped suppress a revolt in Cattaro Bay. In 1908, she was converted into a tender for the gunnery training school, having been renamed Feuerspeier. In 1915, she became a barracks ship, and after World War I ended in 1918, was ceded to Italy as a war prize. She was renamed Buttafuoco, served in the Italian Navy as a hulk through World War II before being scrapped in 1950.


Illustration of Erzherzog Albrecht, c. 1886

Design
In 1869, the Austro-Hungarian navy asked its foremost naval designer, Chief Engineer Josef von Romako, who had designed all of the earlier ironclad vessels, to prepare designs for two new ironclads. The first became the larger ironclad Custoza, and the second became Erzherzog Albrecht, built to a slightly smaller design owing to budgetary shortages. Romako incorporated the lessons of the Battle of Lissa of 1866, and decided the new ship should favor heavy armor and the capability of end-on fire to allow it to effectively attack with its ram. This required compromises in the number of guns and the power of the ship's machinery; to make up for carrying fewer guns, Romako adopted the same casemate ship design adopted with the previous vessel, Lissa. Unlike the wooden-hulled Lissa, however, Erzherzog Albrecht's hull would be constructed with iron; along with Custoza, they were the first iron-hulled ships of the Austro-Hungarian navy. Vice Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the victor of Lissa, approved Romako's proposals for Erzherzog Albrecht and Custoza, allowing construction to begin.

General characteristics and machinery
Erzherzog Albrecht was 87.87 meters (288.3 ft) long at the waterline and 89.69 m (294.3 ft) long overall. She had a beam of 17.15 m (56.3 ft) and an average draft of 6.72 m (22.0 ft). She displaced 5,980 long tons (6,080 t). The ship was the second iron-built vessel to be built for the Austro-Hungarian fleet. A small conning tower was built aft of the foremast. She had a crew of 540 officers and enlisted men.

Her propulsion system consisted of one single-expansion, horizontal, 2-cylinder steam engine that drove a single screw propeller that was 6.324 m (20.75 ft) in diameter. The engine was manufactured by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino, the same shipyard that built the ship. Steam was provided by seven boilers with twenty-six fireboxes, which were trunked into a single funnel located amidships. Her engine produced a top speed of 12.84 knots (23.78 km/h; 14.78 mph) from 3,969 indicated horsepower (2,960 kW), though on speed trials conducted on 28 October 1874, she reached a speed of 13.38 knots (24.78 km/h; 15.40 mph). The ship had a storage capacity of 467.9 long tons (475.4 t) of coal.

Armament and armor
Erzherzog Albrecht was armed with a main battery of eight 24-centimeter (9.4 in) 22-caliber breech-loading guns manufactured by Krupp's Essen Works. These were mounted in a central, armored battery that had two stories, four guns apiece, which allowed four guns to fire ahead or on the broadside, and two guns astern. She also carried several smaller guns, including six 9 cm (3.5 in) 24-caliber guns and two 7 cm (2.8 in) 15-caliber guns, all manufactured by Krupp. Later in her career, several small guns were added, including five 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon, four 47 mm 35-caliber quick-firing guns, and a pair of 25 mm (0.98 in) machine guns. She was also fitted with four 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes, with on in the bow, one on each broadside, and one in the stern.

The ship's armored belt was composed of wrought iron plate that was 203 mm (8.0 in) thick, and it was located at the waterline. The main battery casemate had 177 mm (7.0 in) of iron plating. The transverse bulkheads on either end of the casemate were 126 mm (5.0 in) thick.

Service history

Erzherzog Albrecht as Feuerspeier sometime after 1899

The keel for Erzherzog Albrecht was laid down at the STT shipyard in Trieste on 1 June 1870. She was launched on 24 April 1872 and was completed in June 1874, less her armament, which was installed in the naval arsenal at Pola. Completion of the ship was delayed significantly by budgetary shortages, which slowed acquisition of armor plate from British manufacturers. Funding for the iron armor was approved in January 1871. Erzherzog Albrecht was finally completed in June 1874, and began sea trials on 27 October. The ironclad fleet, including Erzherzog Albrecht, was kept out of service in Pola, laid up in reserve; the only vessels to see significant service in the 1870s were several screw frigates sent abroad In fact, she did not see active service until 1881. Late that year, Erzherzog Albrecht, the unarmored frigate Laudon, and several smaller vessels were sent to Cattaro Bay to help suppress a revolt there. During the operations, which concluded in March 1882, the ships bombarded rebel positions in the area.

The ship took part in fleet maneuvers in 1887, which included gunnery training. In June and July 1889, Erzherzog Albrecht served as the flagship during fleet training exercises, which also included the ironclads Custoza, Tegetthoff, Kaiser Max, Prinz Eugen, and Don Juan d'Austria. The ship remained in service until 1908, when she was converted into a tender for the gunnery school. Renamed Feuerspeier, she served in this capacity until October 1915, when during World War I she was repurposed for use as a barracks ship for German naval personnel operating U-boats in the Adriatic Sea. After the Central Powers lost the war in November 1918, Erzherzog Albrecht was ceded to Italy as a war prize under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. She was renamed Buttafuoco and served as a hulk in the Italian fleet; she survived World War II and was eventually broken up for scrap beginning in 1950.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Erzherzog_Albrecht
http://www.agenziabozzo.it/navi_da_guerra/c-navi da guerra/C-2800_Feuerspeier_1908_ex_Erzherzog_Albrecht_cannoniera_KuK_Marina_Austro-Ungarica_ormeggio_1910.htm
http://www.agenziabozzo.it/navi_da_guerra/c-navi da guerra/C-2801_RN_Buttafuoco_1920_Feuerspeier_1908_Erzherzog_Albrecht_1872_Marina_Austro-Ungarica_Taranto_1925.htm
http://www.navypedia.org/ships/austrohungary/ah_bb_erzherzog_albrecht.htm
http://www.kuk-kriegsmarine.it/navi/corazzate/erzherzog-albrecht/erzherzog-albrecht-de.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1899 - Scottish sailing barque Loch Sloy, that operated between Great Britain and Australia, wrecked on Brothers Rocks, about 300 metres from shore off Maupertuis Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Of the 34 passengers and crew on board, there were only four survivors, one who died from injuries and exposure shortly afterwards.


Loch Sloy was a Scottish sailing barque that operated between Great Britain and Australia from the late 19th century until 1899. Her name was drawn from Loch Sloy, a freshwater loch which lies to the north of the Burgh of Helensburgh, in the region of Argyll and Bute, Scotland. Ships Captains: 1877 - 1885 James Horne, 1885 – 1890 John McLean, 1890 – 1895 Charles Lehman, 1895 – 1896 James R. George, 1896 – 1899 William J. Wade, 1899 Peter Nicol.

In the early hours of 24 April 1899, Loch Sloy overran her distance when trying to pick up the light at Cape Borda and was wrecked on Brothers Rocks, about 300 metres from shore off Maupertuis Bay, Kangaroo Island, South Australia. Of the 34 passengers and crew on board, there were only four survivors, one who died from injuries and exposure shortly afterwards.



History and description
Loch Sloy was built in 1877 by D. and W. Henderson and Company, Glasgow, Yard No 178 for the Glasgow Shipping Company, more commonly known as the Loch Line.

Under the command of Captain Peter Nicol, Loch Sloy was on passage from Glasgow to Adelaide and Melbourne with a load of general cargo and seven passengers, including 2 women; David Kilpatrick, a cook from Glasgow (25), George Lamb, a clerk from Edinburgh, (30), Robert Logan, a piano tuner from Inverness, (40), Alexander McDonald, an engineer from Aberdeen (34), Captain Osmond Leicester (30) and Mrs Leicester (real name Blanche Sophia Meyer-Edmunds, 26, but listed as 30; Osmond's real wife Fermina had been abandoned) of Liverpool, and Rosalind Cartlidge (25). In the early hours of 24 April 1899, she met with disaster on the coast of Kangaroo Island at the mouth of the Investigator Strait, South Australia. The ship overran her distance when trying to pick up the light at Cape Borda. She was too close inshore and the light was hidden by the cliffs between Cape Bedout and Cape Couedie. In the darkness of the morning she ran full on to a reef 300 yards from shore to the north of the Casuarina Islets in Maurpetuis Bay.

The crew and passengers took refuge in the rigging, but one by one the masts broke and went over the side and the men were hurled into the breakers. There was little opportunity for her crew to save themselves. The ship had struck well off shore and only four men reached it - a passenger, two able seamen and an apprentice. None of the survivors remembered how they actually got ashore; they heard the crash of the masts, and then felt the wreckage bumping them about in the surf.

Survivors
The four survivors, David Kilpatrick a passenger from Paisley, Renfrewshire, William John Simpson, the 19-year-old apprentice, and nephew of the captain, and two able seamen William Mitchell and Duncan McMillan, had to scale steep cliffs before they could even begin to get help. Kilpatrick was in a fearful state and could not climb up but eventually his companions helped him to the top, cutting his feet badly during the climb.


Cape Borda Lighthouse

McMillan, the strongest of the survivors, left to find assistance, but after three days he had not returned, and the remaining three men decided to try to reach Cape Borda lighthouse. McMillan returned and finding the others gone, again set out for help, this time finding the May family, one of whom rode to the lighthouse where a search was organised.

The three other survivors were many miles from a settlement and were forced to survive on shell fish and dead penguins cast up by the sea. Unable to keep up with the others due to injuries and exposure, Kilpatrick was too ill to continue. The two others made him as comfortable as possible and he was left behind. Simpson and Mitchell were eventually found seventeen days after the disaster in a terrible state, slowly making their way to the Cape Borda Lightstation. They were without food, having given all they possessed to Kilpatrick, but the remains of two dead penguins were tied around their necks.

Mitchell subsequently stated that the ship was in fairly calm water half an hour before she struck. The boats might have been got out, but no attempt was made, the captain hoping to "bout ship" (change direction of the ship).

The body of David Kilpatrick was found nearly a month after the disaster. He was buried where found and his stone grave can still be seen today as a memorial to those who died in shipwrecks on Kangaroo Island's west coast.

Aftermath
The ship’s wreck site is protected by the Commonwealth Historic Shipwrecks Act 1976 and is located at 36°00′00″S 136°40′48″ECoordinates:

36°00′00″S 136°40′48″E.


If you are further interested, please take a close look at the pdf attachments, giving much much more information of the ship, her crew, captains and loss

Loch Sloy - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1900 – Launch of HNLMS Koningin Regentes, a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy


HNLMS Koningin Regentes (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Koningin Regentes) was a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was built at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam at the start of the twentieth century. After the eruption of the Mount Pelée volcano on the French island of Martinique the ship provided assistance to the casualties, and then later participated in an expedition to the island of Bali in 1906. She made several journeys to show the Dutch flag and was finally decommissioned in 1920.



Design
The ship was 96.622 metres (317 ft 0 in) long, had a beam of 15.189 metres (49 ft 10 in), a draught of 5.817 metres (19 ft 1 in), and had a displacement of 5,002 tons. The ship was equipped with 2-shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 6,500 ihp (4,800 kW) and produced a top speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h). Her belt armour was 6 in (15 cm) thick, while she also had 10 in (25 cm) of barbette armour and 10 in (25 cm) turret armour. Two 9.4 in (24 cm) single turret guns provided the ship's main armament, and these were augmented by four single 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and eight 7.5 cm (3.0 in) single guns. The ship had a complement of 340 men.

Service history
After being laid down in 1898, Koningen Regentes was built at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam and launched on 24 April 1900. The ship was christened there by the Dutch Queen Mother, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont and was then commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy on 3 January 1902.

On 11 March that year she departed from the port of Flushing bound for the Dutch West Indies in response to rising political tension between the Netherlands and Venezuela to evacuate the Jews of Coro to Curaçao. She interrupted this journey to assist and help the casualties of the Mount Pelée volcano eruption on the French island of Martinique. After this, the ship continued her journey in concert with HNLMS Utrecht and on 2 April 1902 they arrived in the Venezuelan port of La Guaira. Prior to their arrival, the Venezuelan Navy had repeatedly checked Dutch and Antillean merchant ships and the presence of the Dutch warships acted as a deterrent against further actions.

In 1906 Koningin Regentes, along with her sister ship HNLMS De Ruyter and the protected cruiser HNLMS Zeeland, assisted in an expedition to the island of Bali in the Dutch East Indies as part of Dutch attempts to integrate the southern kingdoms of Tabanan, Badung and Klungkung into the Dutch East Indies. On 16 and 17 September, the ships bombarded the city of Denpasar and afterwards ground forces broke what resistance remained.

10 August 1909 the ship, together with HNLMS Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp and De Ruyter, departed from Batavia to China, Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines to show the flag. The following year the ship undertook a cruise to Australia to show the flag. After leaving Surabaya on 15 August 1910, Koningin Regentes and both her sister ships, De Ruyter and HNLMS Hertog Hendrik, visited the ports of Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Fremantle and several others.

On 4 April 1918, during the final stages of World War I, the ship and the HNLMS De Zeven Provinciën escorted the passenger ships Vondel, Kawi, Rindjani and Grotius to the port of Tanjung Priok. The ships were intercepted in the eastern parts of the Indian archipelago by the two warships after Dutch merchant ships had been confiscated by British and American naval forces, exercising the Angary right.

The ship was finally decommissioned in 1920.


The Koningin Regentes class was a class of coastal defence ships[a] of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The class comprised Koningin Regentes, De Ruyter and Hertog Hendrik.


Plan and side views of the ships

Design
The ships of the class were 96.622 metres (317 ft 0 in) long, had a beam of 15.189 metres (49 ft 10 in), a draught of 5.817 metres (19 ft 1 in), and had a displacement of 5,002 ton. The ships were equipped with 2 shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 6,500 ihp (4,800 kW) and produced a top speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h).

The ships had belt armour of 6 in (15 cm), 10 in (25 cm) barbette armour and 10 in (25 cm) turret armour.

The main armament of the ships were two 9.4 in (24 cm) single turret guns. Secondary armament included four single 15 cm (5.9 in) guns and eight 7.5 cm (3.0 in) single guns.

Construction



De Ruyter


Hertog Hendrik

HNLMS Koningin Regentes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koningin_Regentes-class_coastal_defense_ship