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
24 April 1913 – Launch of Caio Duilio, an Italian Andrea Doria-class battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War I and World War II


Caio Duilio was an Italian Andrea Doria-class battleship that served in the Regia Marina during World War I and World War II. She was named after the Roman fleet commander Gaius Duilius. Caio Duilio was laid down in February 1912, launched in April 1913, and completed in May 1916. She was initially armed with a main battery of thirteen 305 mm (12.0 in) guns, but a major reconstruction in the late 1930s replaced these with ten 320 mm (13 in) guns. Caio Duilio saw no action during World War I owing to the inactivity of the Austro-Hungarian fleet during the conflict. She cruised the Mediterranean in the 1920s and was involved in the Corfu incident in 1923.


Italian battleship Caio Duilio in 1948.

During World War II, she participated in numerous patrols and sorties into the Mediterranean, both to escort Italian convoys to North Africa and in attempts to catch the British Mediterranean Fleet. In November 1940, the British launched an air raid on Taranto; Caio Duilio was hit by one torpedo launched by a Fairey Swordfish torpedo bomber, which caused significant damage. Repairs lasted some five months, after which the ship returned to convoy escort duties. A fuel shortage immobilized the bulk of the Italian surface fleet in 1942, and Caio Duilio remained out of service until the Italian surrender in September 1943. She was thereafter interned at Malta until 1944, when the Allies permitted her return to Italian waters. She survived the war, and continued to serve in the post-war Italian navy, primarily as a training ship. Caio Duilio was placed in reserve for a final time in 1953; she remained in the Italian navy's inventory for another three years before she was stricken from the naval register in late 1956 and sold for scrapping the following year.

Design

Right elevation and deck plan of the Andrea Doria class.
Main article: Andrea Doria-class battleship

Caio Duilio was 176 meters (577 ft) long overall and had a beam of 28 m (92 ft) and a draft of 9.4 m (31 ft). At full combat load, she displaced up to 24,715 metric tons (24,325 long tons; 27,244 short tons). She had a crew of 35 officers and 1,198 enlisted men. She was powered by four Parsons steam turbines, with steam provided by eight oil-fired and twelve coal and oil burning Yarrow boilers. The boilers were trunked into two large funnels. The engines were rated at 30,000 shaft horsepower (22,000 kW), which provided a top speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). She had a cruising radius of 4,800 nautical miles (8,900 km; 5,500 mi) at 10 kn (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The ship was armed with a main battery of thirteen 305 mm (12.0 in) 46-caliber guns in three triple turrets and two twin turrets. The secondary battery comprised sixteen 152 mm (6.0 in) 45-caliber guns, all mounted in casemates clustered around the forward and aft main battery turrets. Caio Duilio was also armed with thirteen 76 mm (3.0 in) 50-caliber guns and six 76-mm anti-aircraft guns. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with three submerged 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes. She was protected with Krupp cemented steel manufactured by U.S. Steel. The belt armor was 254 mm (10.0 in) thick and the main deck was 98 mm (3.9 in) thick. The conning tower and main battery turrets were protected with 280 mm (11 in) worth of armor plating.



Modifications
Caio Duilio was heavily rebuilt in 1937–1940 at Genoa. Her forecastle deck was extended further aft, until it reached the mainmast. The stern and bow were rebuilt, increasing the length of the ship to 186.9 m (613 ft), and the displacement grew to 28,882 t (28,426 long tons; 31,837 short tons). Her old machinery was replaced with more efficient equipment and her twenty boilers were replaced with eight oil-fired models; the new power plant was rated at 75,000 shp (56,000 kW) and speed increased to 26 kn (48 km/h; 30 mph). The ship's amidships turret was removed and the remaining guns were bored out to 320 mm (13 in). Her secondary battery was completely overhauled; the 152 mm guns were replaced with twelve 135 mm (5.3 in) guns in triple turrets amidships. The anti-aircraft battery was significantly improved, to include ten 90 mm (3.5 in) guns, fifteen 37 mm (1.5 in) 54-cal. guns, and sixteen 20 mm (0.79 in) guns. Later, during World War II, four more 37 mm guns were installed and two of the 20 mm guns were removed. After emerging from the modernization, Caio Duilio's crew numbered 35 officers and 1,450 enlisted men


Caio Duilio sailing to Malta for internment, 9 September 1943.


The Andrea Doria class (usually called Caio Duilio class in Italian sources) was a pair of dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) between 1912 and 1916. The two ships—Andrea Doriaand Caio Duilio—were completed during World War I. The class was an incremental improvement over the preceding Conte di Cavour class. Like the earlier ships, Andrea Doria and Caio Duilio were armed with a main battery of thirteen 305-millimeter (12.0 in) guns.


Andrea Doria during World War I

The two ships were based in southern Italy during World War I to help ensure that the Austro-Hungarian Navy's surface fleet would be contained in the Adriatic. Neither vessel saw any combat during the conflict. After the war, they cruised the Mediterranean and were involved in several international incidents, including at Corfu in 1923. In 1933, both ships were placed in reserve. In 1937 the ships began a lengthy reconstruction. The modifications included removing their center main battery turret and boring out the rest of the guns to 320 mm (12.6 in), strengthening their armor protection, installing new boilers and steam turbines, and lengthening their hulls. The reconstruction work lasted until 1940, by which time Italy was already engaged in World War II.

The two ships were moored in Taranto on the night of 11/12 November 1940 when the British launched a carrier strike on the Italian fleet. In the resulting Battle of Taranto, Caio Duilio was hit by a torpedo and forced to beach to avoid sinking. Andrea Doria was undamaged in the raid; repairs for Caio Duilio lasted until May 1941. Both ships escorted convoys to North Africa in late 1941, including Operation M42, where Andrea Doriasaw action at the inconclusive First Battle of Sirte on 17 December. Fuel shortages curtailed further activities in 1942 and 1943, and both ships were interned at Malta following Italy's surrender in September 1943. Italy was permitted to retain both battleships after the war, and they alternated as fleet flagship until the early 1950s, when they were removed from active service. Both ships were scrapped after 1956.

Italian battleship Duilio - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Doria-class_battleship

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1916 – Voyage of the James Caird begins
Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the crew of the sunken Endurance.


The Voyage of the James Caird was a small-boat journey from Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands to South Georgia in the Southern Ocean, a distance of 1,300 kilometres (800 mi). Undertaken by Sir Ernest Shackleton and five companions, it aimed to obtain rescue for the main body of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917, which was stranded on Elephant Island after the loss of its ship Endurance. Polar historians regard the voyage as one of the greatest small-boat journeys ever completed.


A depiction of the James Caird landing at South Georgia at the end of its voyage on 10 May 1916

In October 1915, pack ice in the Weddell Sea had sunk Endurance, leaving Shackleton and his companions adrift on a precarious ice surface. Throughout the duration of their survival, the group drifted northward until April 1916, when the floe on which they had encamped broke up. They then made their way in the ship's lifeboats to Elephant Island, where Shackleton decided that the most effective means of obtaining rescue would be to sail one of the lifeboats to South Georgia.

Of the three lifeboats, the James Caird was deemed the strongest and most likely to survive the journey. Before its voyage, the ship's carpenter, Harry McNish, strengthened and adapted the boat to withstand the mighty seas of the Southern Ocean.

Surviving a series of dangers, including a near capsizing, the boat reached the southern coast of South Georgia after a voyage that lasted 16 days. Shackleton and two companions then crossed the island's mountainous interior to reach a whaling station on the northern side. Here he organised the relief of the Elephant Island party, and the return of his men home without loss of life.

Background

Endurance, listing heavily, shortly before being crushed by the ice, October 1915

On 5 December 1914, Shackleton's expedition ship Endurance left South Georgia for the Weddell Sea, on the first stage of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. It was making for Vahsel Bay, the southernmost explored point of the Weddell Sea at 77° 49' S, where a shore party was to land and prepare for a transcontinental crossing of Antarctica. Before it could reach its destination the ship was trapped in pack ice, and by 14 February 1915 was held fast, despite prolonged efforts to free her. During the following eight months she drifted northward until, on 27 October, she was crushed by the pack's pressure, finally sinking on 21 November.

As his 27-man crew set up camp on the slowly moving ice, Shackleton's focus shifted to how best to save his party. His first plan was to march across the ice to the nearest land, and try to reach a point that ships were known to visit. The march began, but progress was hampered by the nature of the ice's surface.

After struggling to make headway over several days, the march was abandoned; the party established "Patience Camp" on a flat ice floe, and waited as the drift carried them further north, towards open water. They had managed to salvage three lifeboats, which Shackleton had named after the principal backers of the expedition: Stancomb Wills, Dudley Docker and James Caird. The party waited until 8 April 1916, when they finally took to the boats as the ice started to break up. Over a perilous period of seven days they sailed and rowed through stormy seas and dangerous loose ice, to reach the temporary haven of Elephant Island on 15 April.

On Elephant Island

Shackleton's party arriving at Elephant Island, April 1916, after the loss of Endurance

Elephant Island, on the eastern limits of the South Shetland Islands, was remote from anywhere that the expedition had planned to go, and far beyond normal shipping routes. No relief ship would search for them there, and the likelihood of rescue from any other outside agency was equally negligible. The island was bleak and inhospitable, and its terrain devoid of vegetation, although it had fresh water, and a relative abundance of seals and penguins to provide food and fuel for immediate survival. The rigors of an Antarctic winter were fast approaching; the narrow shingle beach where they were camped was already being swept by almost continuous gales and blizzards, which destroyed one of the tents in their temporary camp, and knocked others flat. The pressures and hardships of the previous months were beginning to tell on the men, many of whom were in a run-down state both mentally and physically.

In these conditions, Shackleton decided to try to reach help, using one of the boats. The nearest port was Stanley in the Falkland Islands, 540 nautical miles (1,000 km; 620 mi) away, but made unreachable by the prevailing westerly winds. A better option was to head for Deception Island, at the western end of the South Shetland chain. Although it was uninhabited, Admiralty records indicated that this island held stores for shipwrecked mariners, and was also visited from time to time by whalers. However, reaching it would also involve a journey against the prevailing winds—though in less open seas—with ultimately no certainty when or if rescue would arrive. After discussions with the expedition's second-in-command, Frank Wild, and ship's captain Frank Worsley, Shackleton decided to attempt to reach the whaling stations of South Georgia, to the north-east. This would mean a much longer boat journey, of 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi) across the Southern Ocean, in conditions of rapidly approaching winter, but with the help of following winds it appeared feasible. Shackleton thought that "a boat party might make the voyage and be back with relief within a month, provided that the sea was clear of ice, and the boat survive the great seas".

Preparations

General route of the James Caird to Elephant Island and to South Georgia

The South Georgia boat party could expect to meet hurricane-force winds and waves—the notorious Cape Horn Rollers—measuring from trough to crest as much as 18 m (60 ft). Shackleton therefore selected the heaviest and strongest of the three boats, the 22.5-foot (6.9 m) long James Caird. It had been built as a whaleboat in London to Worsley's orders, designed on the "double-ended" principle pioneered by Norwegian shipbuilder Colin Archer. Knowing that a heavily-laden open sea voyage was now unavoidable, Shackleton had already asked the expedition's carpenter, Harry McNish to modify the boats during the weeks the expedition spent at Patience Camp. Using material taken from Endurance's fourth boat, a small motor launch which had been broken up with this purpose in mind before the ship's final loss, McNish had raised the sides of the James Caird and the Dudley Docker by 8–10 inches (20–25 cm). Now in the primitive camp on Elephant Island, McNish was again asked if he could make the James Caird more seaworthy. Using improvised tools and materials, McNish built a makeshift deck of wood and canvas, sealing his work with oil paints, lamp wick, and seal blood. The craft was strengthened by having the mast of the Dudley Docker lashed inside, along the length of her keel. She was then fitted as a ketch, with her own mainmast and a mizzenmast made by cutting down the mainmast from the Stancomb-Wills, rigged to carry lug sails and a jib. The weight of the boat was increased by the addition of approximately 1 long ton (1 tonne) of ballast, to lessen the risk of capsizing in the high seas that Shackleton knew they would encounter.

The boat was loaded with provisions to last six men one month; as Shackleton later wrote, "if we did not make South Georgia in that time we were sure to go under". They took ration packs that had been intended for the transcontinental crossing, biscuits, Bovril, sugar and dried milk. They also took two 18-gallon (68 litre) casks of water (one of which was damaged during the loading and let in sea water), two Primus stoves, paraffin, oil, candles, sleeping bags and odd items of spare clothing.

Shackleton's first choices for the boat's crew were Worsley and Tom Crean, who apparently had, "begged to go". Crean was a shipmate from the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and had also been with Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1910–13, where he had distinguished himself on the fatal polar march. Shackleton was confident that Crean would persevere to the bitter end, and had great faith in Worsley's skills as a navigator, especially his ability to work out positions in difficult circumstances. Worsley later wrote: "We knew it would be the hardest thing we had ever undertaken, for the Antarctic winter had set in, and we were about to cross one of the worst seas in the world".

For the remaining places Shackleton requested volunteers, and of the many who came forward he chose two strong sailors in John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy. He offered the final place to the carpenter, McNish. "He was over fifty years of age", wrote Shackleton of McNish (he was in fact 41), "but he had a good knowledge of sailing boats and was very quick". Vincent and McNish had each proved their worth during the difficult boat journey from the ice to Elephant Island. They were both somewhat awkward characters, and their selection may have reflected Shackleton's wish to keep potential troublemakers under his personal charge rather than leaving them on the island where personal animosities could fester.

Open-boat journey

Elephant Island party waving goodbye to sailors on the James Caird, 24 April 1916

Before leaving, Shackleton instructed Frank Wild that he was to assume full command as soon as the James Caird departed, and that should the journey fail, he was to attempt to take the party to Deception Island the following spring. The James Caird was launched from Elephant Island on 24 April 1916. The wind was a moderate south-westerly, which aided a swift getaway, and the boat was quickly out of sight of the land.

Shackleton ordered Worsley to set a course due north, instead of directly for South Georgia, to get clear of the menacing ice-fields that were beginning to form. By midnight they had left the immediate ice behind, but the sea swell was rising. At dawn the next day, they were 45 nautical miles (83 km; 52 mi) from Elephant Island, sailing in heavy seas and force 9 winds. Shackleton established an on-board routine: two three-man watches, with one man at the helm, another at the sails, and the third on bailing duty. The off-watch trio rested in the tiny covered space in the bows. The difficulties of exchanging places as each watch ended would, Shackleton wrote, "have had its humorous side if it had not involved us in so many aches and pains". Their clothing, designed for Antarctic sledging rather than open-boat sailing, was far from waterproof; repeated contact with the icy seawater left their skins painfully raw.

Success depended on Worsley's navigation, based on sightings attempted during the very brief appearances of the sun, as the boat pitched and rolled. The first observation was made after two days, and showed them to be 128 nautical miles (237 km; 147 mi) north of Elephant Island. The course was now changed to head directly for South Georgia. They were clear of the dangers of floating ice but had reached the dangerous seas of the Drake Passage, where giant waves sweep round the globe, unimpeded by any land. The movement of the ship made preparing hot food on the Primus nearly impossible, but Crean, who acted as cook, somehow kept the men fed.


Launching the James Caird from the shore of Elephant Island, 24 April 1916

The next observation, on 29 April, showed that they had travelled 238 nautical miles (441 km; 274 mi). Thereafter, navigation became, in Worsley's words, "a merry jest of guesswork", as they encountered the worst of the weather. The James Caird was taking on water in heavy seas and in danger of sinking, kept afloat by continuous baling. The temperature fell sharply, and a new danger presented itself in the accumulations of frozen spray, which threatened to capsize the boat. In turns, they had to crawl out on to the pitching deck with an axe and chip away the ice from deck and rigging. For 48 hours they were stopped, held by a sea anchor, until the wind dropped sufficiently for them to raise sail and proceed. Despite their travails, Worsley's third observation, on 4 May, put them only 250 nautical miles (460 km; 290 mi) from South Georgia.

On 5 May the worst of the weather returned, and brought them close to disaster in the largest seas so far. Shackleton later wrote: "We felt our boat lifted and flung forward like a cork in breaking surf". The crew bailed frantically to keep afloat. Nevertheless, they were still moving towards their goal, and a dead reckoning calculation by Worsley on the next day, 6 May, suggested that they were now 115 nautical miles (213 km; 132 mi) from the western point of South Georgia. The strains of the past two weeks were by now taking their toll on the men. Shackleton observed that Vincent had collapsed and ceased to be an active member of the crew, McCarthy was "weak, but happy", McNish was weakening but still showing "grit and spirit".

On 7 May Worsley advised Shackleton that he could not be sure of their position within ten miles. To avoid the possibility of being swept past the island by the fierce south-westerly winds, Shackleton ordered a slight change of course so that the James Caird would reach land on the uninhabited south-west coast. They would then try to work the boat round to the whaling stations on the northern side of the island. "Things were bad for us in those days", wrote Shackleton. "The bright moments were those when we each received our one mug of hot milk during the long, bitter watches of the night". Late on the same day floating seaweed was spotted, and the next morning there were birds, including cormorants which were known never to venture far from land. Shortly after noon on 8 May came the first sighting of South Georgia.

As they approached the high cliffs of the coastline, heavy seas made immediate landing impossible. For more than 24 hours they were forced to stand clear, as the wind shifted to the north-west and quickly developed into "one of the worst hurricanes any of us had ever experienced". For much of this time they were in danger of being driven on to the rocky South Georgia shore, or of being wrecked on the equally menacing Annenkov Island, five miles from the coast. On 10 May, when the storm had eased slightly, Shackleton was concerned that the weaker members of his crew would not last another day, and decided that whatever the hazard they must attempt a landing. They headed for Cave Cove near the entrance to King Haakon Bay, and finally, after several attempts, made their landing there. Shackleton was later to describe the boat journey as "one of supreme strife"; historian Caroline Alexander comments: "They could hardly have known—or cared—that in the carefully weighted judgement of authorities yet to come, the voyage of the James Caird would be ranked as one of the greatest boat journeys ever accomplished".

South Georgia

South Georgia. King Haakon Bay, where the James Caird landed, is the large indentation at the western (upper) end of the southerly side.

As the party recuperated, Shackleton realized that the boat was not capable of making a further voyage to reach the whaling stations, and that Vincent and McNish were unfit to travel further. He decided to move the boat to a safer location within King Haakon Bay, from which point he, Worsley and Crean would cross the island on foot, aiming for the station at Stromness.

On 15 May the James Caird made a run of about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) to a shingle beach near the head of the bay. Here the boat was beached and up-turned to provide a shelter. The location was christened "Peggotty Camp" (after Peggoty's boat-home in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield). Early on 18 May Shackleton, Worsley and Crean began what would be the first confirmed land crossing of the South Georgia interior. Since they had no map, they had to improvise a route across mountain ranges and glaciers. They travelled continuously for 36 hours, before reaching Stromness. Shackleton's men were, in Worsley's words, "a terrible trio of scarecrows", dark with exposure, wind, frostbite and accumulated blubber soot. Later that evening, 19 May, a motor-vessel (the Norwegian Whale catcher Samson) was despatched to King Haakon Bay to pick up McCarthy, McNish and Vincent, and the James Caird. Worsley wrote that the Norwegian seamen at Stromness all "claimed the honour of helping to haul her up to the wharf", a gesture which he found "quite affecting".

The advent of the southern winter and adverse ice conditions meant that it was more than three months before Shackleton was able to achieve the relief of the men at Elephant Island. His first attempt was with the British ship Southern Sky. Then the government of Uruguay loaned him a ship. While searching on the Falkland Islands he found the ship Emma for his third attempt, but the ship's engine blew. Then, finally, with the aid of the steam-tug Yelcho commanded by Luis Pardo, the entire party was brought to safety, reaching Punta Arenas in Chile on 3 September 1916.

Aftermath

The James Caird, preserved at Dulwich College in south London

The James Caird was returned to England in 1919. In 1921, Shackleton went back to Antarctica, leading the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition. On 5 January 1922, he died suddenly of a heart attack, while the expedition's ship Quest was moored at South Georgia.

Later that year John Quiller Rowett, who had financed this last expedition and was a former school friend of Shackleton's from Dulwich College, South London, decided to present the James Caird to the college. It remained there until 1967, although its display building was severely damaged by bombs in 1944.

In 1967, thanks to a pupil at Dulwich College, Howard Hope, who was dismayed at the state of the boat, it was given to the care of the National Maritime Museum, and underwent restoration. It was then displayed by the museum until 1985, when it was returned to Dulwich College and placed in a new location in the North Cloister, on a bed of stones gathered from South Georgia and Aberystwyth. This site has become the James Caird's permanent home, although the boat is sometimes lent to major exhibitions.

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

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 April 1916 - Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft


The Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft, often referred to as the Lowestoft Raid, was a naval battle fought during the First World War between the German Empire and the British Empire in the North Sea.



The German fleet sent a battlecruiser squadron with accompanying cruisers and destroyers, commanded by Rear Admiral Friedrich Boedicker, to bombard the coastal ports of Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Although the ports had some military importance, the main aim of the raid was to entice defending ships to sail, which could then be picked off, either by the battlecruiser squadron or by the full High Seas Fleet, which was stationed at sea ready to intervene. The result was inconclusive: nearby British forces were too small to challenge the German force and largely kept clear of the German battlecruisers, the German ships withdrew before the British fast response battlecruiser squadron or the Grand Fleet could arrive.


Background

Recruitment poster making the most of reaction to German air raids

In February 1916, Admiral Reinhard Scheer became commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet and commenced a new campaign against the Royal Navy. A principal part of his strategy was to make raids into British waters to lure British forces into battle, in conditions advantageous to the Germans. A proposal was made to bombard towns on the east coast of England at daybreak on 25 April, which along with air raids by Zeppelins the night before, would provoke British ships to respond. The raid was timed to coincide with the expected Easter Rebellion by Irish Nationalists, who had requested German assistance.

Immediately before the raid, the German Navy believed that the British had a strong force in the North Sea, off Norway and another at Hoofden and off the south-east coast of England. The Germans intended to sneak out between the two forces to bombard the English coast and then attack whichever British force showed first. With luck, the German battlecruisers could engage the south-east force and after defeating it would run back to the north-west, meeting the northern group in the area around Terschelling Bank. Here the battlecruisers would attack the second British group from the south and the main body of the High Seas Fleet would attack from the north. If successful, the High Seas Fleet would be able to destroy significant elements of the British fleet before the main body of the British Grand Fleet could assist, reducing or eliminating the Royal Navy′s numerical superiority. If the British did not take the bait, then merchant ships could be captured and British units off the coast of Belgium destroyed.

The forces sighted by Germany in the North Sea had been part of a raid launched on 22 April, to draw out the German fleet but this did not go to plan. The battlecruisers HMAS Australia and HMS New Zealand had collided in fog off Denmark, causing serious damage to both ships. Later, the battleship HMS Neptune collided with a merchant steamer and three destroyers were also damaged in collisions. The mission had been abandoned and the ships returned north to port, so that on 24 April the main body of the Grand Fleet was near its home bases of Rosyth for the battlecruiser squadron and Scapa Flow for the remainder of the Grand Fleet.

Prelude
Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth were selected as the targets of the German bombardment. Lowestoft was a base of operations for minelaying and sweeping, while Yarmouth was a base for the submarines that disrupted German movements in the Heligoland Bight. The destruction of the harbours and other military establishments of both towns would assist the German war effort, even if the raid failed to bait the British heavy units. Eight Zeppelin airships would, after dropping their bombs, provide reconnaissance for the battlecruisers, which would conduct rescue operations, should an airship be lost over the water. Two U-boats were sent ahead to Lowestoft, while others were stationed off, or laid mines in, the Firth of Forth, Scotland.

The 1st Scouting Group, consisting of the battlecruisers SMS Seydlitz, Lützow, Derfflinger, Moltke and Von der Tann (Rear-Admiral Boedicker), would be supported by the four light cruisers of the 2nd Scouting Group and the fast torpedo boat flotillas VI and IX, with their two command light cruisers. The Main Fleet, consisting of Squadrons I, II and III, Scouting Division IV and the remainder of the torpedo flotillas, was to accompany the battlecruisers to the Hoofden, until the bombardment was over, to protect them against superior enemy forces.

Raid

SMS Seydlitz, which struck a mine and had to return to harbour


Die Seeschlacht bei Lowestoft am 25. April 1916

At noon on 24 April, German forces were in place and the operation began. The route led around British minefields to the English coast and was intended to put the bombardment group off Lowestoft and Yarmouth at daybreak, where they would bombard the towns for 30 minutes. At 16:00, the battlecruiser Seydlitz—in the vanguard of the reconnaissance force—struck a mine just north-west of Nordeney, in an area swept the night before. She was forced to turn back with a flooded torpedo compartment from a 50 ft (15 m) hole on the starboard side, being only able to make 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) with 1,400 short tons (1,300 t) of water on board and 11 men killed. While the rest of the squadron was stopped for Boedicker to transfer to Lützow and for Seydlitz to escape the minefield, the German ships sighted and avoided torpedoes from one or more British submarines. Seydlitz returned to the river Jade, accompanied by two destroyers and Zeppelin L-7. To avoid other possible mines and submarines, the battlecruiser force altered course to a route along the coast of East Friesland. This had previously been avoided, because in the clear weather the ships risked being sighted from the islands of Rottum and Schiermonnikoog and their movements reported to the British. It was assumed that the British would now be alerted to the movements of the German ships.

The British already knew that the German fleet had sailed at midday. More information arrived at 20:15, when an intercepted wireless message gave the information that they were headed for Yarmouth. At 15:50, the British fleet had been placed on two hours readiness and at 19:05 were ordered to sail south from Scapa Flow. Around midnight, the Harwich Force (Commodore Reginald Tyrwhitt) of three light cruisers and 18 destroyers was ordered to move north.

Around 20:00, German ships received a message from the Naval Staff, that a large British fleet was operating off the Belgian coast and that another large force had been sighted off Norway on 23 April. This suggested that the British Fleet was still divided, giving rise to optimism that the operation would go off as planned, despite the mining of Seydlitz. At 21:30, another message indicated that British patrol boats off the Belgian coast were heading back to harbour, which was interpreted as confirmation that British submarines had reported the German movements. By 24 April the northern British ships had returned to harbour for coaling and were unaware of the moves. The ships off the Flanders coast included 12 additional destroyers from the Harwich Force, which had been sent to assist with a barrage of the coast.


SMS Rostock sighted British destroyers approaching.

The German airships, having dropped their bombs, returned to the bombardment force. Visibility over land was poor, the winds were unfavourable and the towns were better defended than had been thought. The Zeppelins that had bombed Norwich, Lincoln, Harwich and Ipswich had been fired on by British ships but none had been damaged. At about 03:50, the light cruiser SMS Rostock, one of Boedicker′s screen ships, sighted British ships in a west-southwest direction. Tyrwhitt reported the sighting of four battlecruisers and six cruisers to the Grand Fleet. He turned away south, attempting to draw the German ships after him away from Lowestoft but they did not follow. The four battlecruisers opened fire upon Lowestoft at 04:10 for 10 minutes, destroying 200 houses and two defensive gun batteries, injuring 12 people and killing three. The ships then moved off to Yarmouth but fog made it difficult to see the target. Only a few shells were fired before reports arrived that a British force had engaged the remainder of the German ships and the battlecruisers broke off to rejoin them.


HMS Conquest: hit by shell fire

When he found he could not draw the German ships away, Tyrwhitt had returned and engaged the six light cruisers and escorts but broke off the action when seriously outgunned when the battlecruisers returned. The light cruisers Rostock and Elbing had tried to lead the British ships into the waiting guns of the battlecruisers but upon sighting the German capital ships, the British cruisers turned south. The German battlecruisers opened fire, causing severe damage to the cruiser HMS Conquest, the destroyer HMS Laertes and slightly damaging one light cruiser. Conquest was hit by a shell, which reduced her speed and produced 40 casualties. Boedicker failed to follow the retreating ships, assuming they were faster and probably concerned whether other, larger vessels might be about. The Germans ceased fire and turned north-west towards the rendezvous off Terschelling Bank, hoping the British cruisers would follow, which they did not.

During the bombardment of the two coastal towns, the light cruiser SMS Frankfurt sank an armed patrol steamer, while the leader of Torpedo-boat Flotilla VI, SMS G41 sank the trawler King Stephen, of the earlier King Stephen Incident. The crews were rescued and taken prisoner and around 07:30, the German Naval Staff passed on reports from Flanders of intercepted wireless transmissions instructing British ships to coal and then proceed to Dunkirk. Tyrwhitt attempted to follow the German squadron at a distance. At 08:30, he had located smoke from the ships, but was ordered to abandon the chase and return home. The Grand Fleet had encountered heavy seas and made slow progress coming south, leaving its destroyers behind because of the weather. At 11:00, the Admiralty ordered the chase to be abandoned, at which point the main part of the fleet was 150 mi (130 nmi; 240 km) behind the British battlecruiser squadron, which had started out from further south. The two battlecruiser squadrons came within 50 mi (43 nmi; 80 km) of each other but did not meet.

Aftermath
Analysis

A damaged street in Lowestoft, following the bombardment of the town.

As the German ships headed for home, they avoided submarine attacks, encountering only two neutral steamers and some fishing vessels. The operation had been almost a complete failure, sinking two patrol craft and damaging one cruiser and one destroyer, in exchange for serious damage to a battlecruiser, while the damage done to the naval establishments at Yarmouth and Lowestoft was light. The German battlecruiser squadron had failed to take advantage of its superior numbers to engage the British light cruisers and destroyers present at Lowestoft. The German U-boats sent out to intercept British ships leaving harbour had not found any targets. Nor had six British submarines stationed off Yarmouth and six more off Harwich. One German submarine was destroyed and another captured when it became beached at Harwich. The British submarine HMS E22 was sunk, torpedoed by the German submarine SM UB-18. The British felt obliged to take steps to react more quickly to future raids. The 3rd Battle Squadron, consisting of seven King Edward VII-class battleships, was moved from Rosyth to the Thames, together with HMS Dreadnought. The presence of these ships on the Thames was given later as one reason the Harwich destroyers were not permitted to join the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland: they were held back to escort the battleships should they be called upon to take part.

Casualties
The raid infuriated the British and it damaged German prestige in world public opinion, as the operation brought back memories of the 'baby killer' raids earlier in the war. British casualties were 21 British servicemen, who were killed at sea. A serviceman and three civilians were killed and 19 were wounded at Lowestoft.

Bombardment of Yarmouth and Lowestoft - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 24 April


1707 – Death of Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis (7 October 1645 – 24 April 1707) was a French admiral and privateer.


Attack of Gibraltar by the Baron de Pointis' fleet

Bernard Desjean, Baron de Pointis - Wikipedia

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1747 - HMS Weazel was off the Dutch coastline and in company with HMS Lys, when she encountered and defeated the privateers La Gorgonne and La Charlotte.

HMS Weazel (1745) - Wikipedia

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1753 HMS Assurance (44), Cptn. Carr Scrope, wrecked on the Needles

HMS Assurance was a 44-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1747. She was wrecked off The Needles near the Isle of Wight, England in 1753. The ship remained stuck on the rock long enough for the crew and passengers to escape.
The shipwreck site identified at the Needles contains the remains of two wrecks, thought to be the Assurance and Pomone.

HMS Assurance (1747) - Wikipedia

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1777 – Launch of HMS Pelican, a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and wrecked in 1781


Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Pelican (1777). Annotated with Isaac Rogers (bottom right). From Tyne & Wear Archives Service, Blandford House, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4JA

HMS Pelican (1777) - Wikipedia

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1800 – Launch of USS New York was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate in the United States Navy that saw service during the Quasi-War with France

USS New York was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate in the United States Navy that saw service during the Quasi-War with France.
New York was built by public subscription by the citizens of New York for the United States Government; laid down in August 1798 by Peck and Carpenter, New York City; launched 24 April 1800; and commissioned in October 1800, Captain Richard Valentine Morris in command.
The New York was one of the group of five frigates built by the States for the Federal Government to supplement the original six provided for by the Naval Act of 1794, 'The ship entered the Navy when the Quasi-War with France was being fought in the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans where French warships preyed on American shipping interests.


USS New York under way during the Barbary Wars driving off Tripolian gunboats.& First Day Cover honoring New York State, Statehood

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_New_York_(1800)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86240.htm


1805 - During the First Barbary War, the frigate USS Congress, commanded by John Rodgers, captures a Tripolitan gunboat, along with two prizes taken earlier by pirate ships off Tripoli.

USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named by George Washington to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. James Hackett built her in Portsmouth New Hampshire and she was launched on 15 August 1799. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Congress and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than the standard frigates of the period.

Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War. During the War of 1812 she made several extended length cruises in company with her sister ship President and captured, or assisted in the capture of twenty British merchant ships. At the end of 1813, due to a lack of materials to repair her, she was placed in ordinary for the remainder of the war. In 1815 she returned to service for the Second Barbary War and made patrols through 1816. In the 1820s she helped suppress piracy in the West Indies, made several voyages to South America, and was the first U.S. warship to visit China. Congress spent her last ten years of service as a receiving ship until ordered broken up in 1834.


Congress by Charles Ware, 1816

USS Congress (1799) - Wikipedia

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1808 HMS Grasshopper (18), and HMS Rapid (14) captured two merchantmen and two escorting gunboats and drove two gunboats ashore at Faro.

On 23 April Grasshopper and the gun-brig Rapid encountered two Spanish vessels from South America, sailing under the protection of four gunboats. After a short chase, the convoy anchored under the guns of a shore battery near Faro, Portugal. Searle anchored Grasshopper within grapeshot (i.e., short) range of the Spanish vessels and commenced firing. After two and a half hours, the gun crews of the shore battery had abandoned their guns, and the British had driven two gunboats ashore and destroyed them. The British also captured two gunboats and the two merchant vessels. Grasshopper had one man killed and three severely wounded. Searle himself was lightly wounded. Rapid had three men severely wounded. Spanish casualties were heavy, numbering some 40 dead and wounded on the two captured gunboats alone. Searle put 14 of the wounded on shore at Faro as he did not have the resources to deal with them as well as his own casualties. Searle estimated the value of the cargo on each of the two merchant vessels at £30,000.

HMS Grasshopper was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806, captured several vessels, and took part in two notable actions before the Dutch captured her in 1811. She then served The Netherlands navy until she was broken up in 1822.

HMS Rapid was an Archer-class (1804 batch) gun-brig of 12 guns, launched in 1804. She took part in 1808 in one action that in 1847 the Admiralty recognized with a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. One month later cannon fire from a shore battery sank her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Grasshopper_(1806)

HMS Rapid (1804) - Wikipedia

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1810 – Launch of HMS Racer was a Decoy-class cutter launched at Sandgate on 24 April 1810

HMS Racer was a Decoy-class cutter launched at Sandgate on 24 April 1810. Lieutenant Daniel Miller commissioned her, probably in May. The French captured her on 28 October when she stranded on the French coast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Racer_(1810)

Decoy-class cutter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1813 Boats of HMS Apollo (38), Cptn. Bridges W. Taylor, captured a felucca at S. Cataldo, near Brindisi

HMS Apollo, the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of the Lively class, carrying 38 guns, launched in 1805 and broken up in 1856.

sistership HMS Macedonian

HMS Macedonian (left) of the Lively class, painting of its engagement with USS United States, 1812, by Thomas Birch

HMS Apollo (1805) - Wikipedia

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1831 – Birth of Vice-Admiral Sir George Strong Nares KCB FRS (24 April 1831 – 15 January 1915) was a Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer.

George Nares - Wikipedia

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1838 – Launch of HMS Grecian was a sixteen-gun Acorn-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s

HMS Grecian was a sixteen-gun Acorn-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1830s.


This tinted lithograph depicts the 16-gun brig-sloop ‘Grecian’ running before the wind, possibly off the south coast of England.

HMS Grecian (1838) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-316487;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=G


1859 - the emigrant ship Pomona (1181 tons) was wrecked on a sandbank off Ballyconigar.
Three hundred and eighty nine people lost their lives. The loss of life on the Pomona was the sixth worst in Irish waters surpassed by the Lusitania, Leinster, Norge, Tayleur and Rival

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


1861 – Launch of HMS Defence was the lead ship of the Defence-class armoured frigates

HMS Defence was the lead ship of the Defence-class armoured frigates ordered by the Royal Navy in 1859. Upon completion in 1862 she was assigned to the Channel Fleet. The ship was paid off in 1866 to refit and be re-armed and was briefly reassigned to the Channel Fleet when she recommissioned in 1868. Defence had brief tours on the North Atlantic and Mediterranean Stations, relieving other ironclads, from 1869 to 1872 before she was refitted again from 1872 to 1874. She became guard ship on the Shannon when she recommissioned. The ship was transferred to the Channel Fleet again in 1876 and then became guard ship on the Mersey until 1885. Defence was placed in reserve until 1890 when she was assigned to the mechanical training school in Devonport in 1890. She was renamed Indus when the school adopted that name and served there until sold in 1935.



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

Defence-class ironclad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1862 – Launch of CSS Mississippi, a projected ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy,

CSS Mississippi was a projected ironclad warship of the Confederate States Navy, intended to be used on the Mississippi River in the vicinity of New Orleans during the American Civil War. Her design was unusual, as she was built according to house-building techniques. Whether this would have proved to be feasible cannot be known, as she was not complete when New Orleans fell to the Union Fleet under Flag Officer David G. Farragut on 25 April 1862. Rather than let her fall into enemy hands, Captain Arthur Sinclair, CSN, ordered her to be hastily launched and burned. Despite the delays in construction that left her unfinished and untried, her mere existence, together with that of CSS Louisiana, raised thwarted hopes in the defenders of New Orleans, and unfounded fears in Union circles, that affected the strategy of both sides in the campaign on the lower Mississippi. Mississippi is significant to the Civil War therefore not so much as a warship as in the way her reputation influenced events, and as an example of the difficulties the South had in the contest with the industrial North.


Deck plan of CSS Mississippi, sketch prepared by N. Tift

CSS Mississippi - Wikipedia

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1867 – Launch of French The French ironclad Armide was a wooden-hulled armored corvette built for the French Navy in the mid-1860s

The French ironclad Armide was a wooden-hulled armored corvette built for the French Navy in the mid-1860s. Placed into reserve after completion, she was first mobilized for the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. She spent the rest of her career in the Mediterranean and then in the Far East as flagship of the French squadrons there, until her decommissioning in 1880. Armide was use as a target for gunnery trials in 1886.


Model of her sister ship Jeanne d'Arc on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris, before the rear barbettes were deleted.

French ironclad Armide - Wikipedia

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1872 – Launch of Belgrano was a French sail and steam liner, belonging to the Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis

Belgrano was a French sail and steam liner, belonging to the Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis.
Built as Louis XIV for the company Quesnel Frères, the ship was purchased by the newly founded Compagnie des Chargeurs Réunis, and renamed Belgrano while on keel. Launched on 24 April 1872, she shuttled between La Plata and Le Havre, carrying immigrants to Argentina.
In 1880, Belgrano was transformed into a cooling ship and ferried meat from Argentica to France


Sail and steam liner refitting, probably Belgrano. Painting by Édouard Adam.

Belgrano (1872 ship) - Wikipedia

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1876 – Birth of Erich Raeder, German admiral (d. 1960)

Erich Johann Albert Raeder (24 April 1876 – 6 November 1960) was a German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Grand Admiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Henning von Holtzendorff. Raeder led the Kriegsmarine for the first half of the war; he resigned in 1943 and was replaced by Karl Dönitz. At the Nuremberg Trials he was sentenced to life in prison but was released early due to failing health.

Erich Raeder - Wikipedia

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1884 - USS Bear leaves New York Naval Shipyard on its way to the Arctic as part of the Greely Relief Expedition. USS Thetis and USS Alert join USS Bear on the mission. On June 22, the relief ships rescue the remaining seven members of the 27-man Greely Expedition at Cape Sabine.

In 1884, Secretary of the Navy, William E. Chandler, was credited with planning the ensuing rescue effort, commanded by Cdr. Winfield Schley. While four vessels (Bear, Thetis, the British government's Alert, and Loch Garry) made it to Greely's camp on June 22, only seven men had survived the winter. The rest had succumbed to starvation, hypothermia, and drowning, and one man, Private Henry, had been shot on Greely's order for repeated theft of food rations.

The surviving members of the expedition were received as heroes. A parade attended by thousands was held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was decided that each of the survivors was to be awarded a promotion in rank by the Army, although Greely reportedly refused.


Thetis, Arctic, Aurora, and Bear


With the exception of Ellis [who had died after rescue]-the other six survivors of the U.S. Army's Greely Arctic expedition [22. First Lieutenant Adolphus W. Greely, U.S. Army; 23. Private Julius Frederick, U.S. Army; 24. Sergeant David L. Brainard, U.S. Army; 25. Private Henry Bierderbick, U.S. Army; 26. Private Maurice Connell, U.S. Army; 27. Private Francis Long, U.S. Army;] with their U.S. Navy rescuers, at Upernavik, Greenland, 2–3 July 1884. Probably photographed on board USS Thetis

Lady Franklin Bay Expedition - Wikipedia

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1907 – Launch of HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Defence was a Minotaur-class armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century, the last armoured cruiser built for the Royal Navy. She was stationed in the Mediterranean when the First World War began and participated in the pursuit of the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and light cruiser SMS Breslau. The ship was transferred to the Grand Fleet in January 1915 and remained there for the rest of her career.

Defence was sunk on 31 May 1916 during the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of the war. Escorting the main body of the Grand Fleet, the ship was fired upon by one German battlecruiser and four dreadnoughts as she attempted to engage a disabled German light cruiser. She was struck by two salvoes from the German ships that detonated her rear magazine. The fire from that explosion spread to the ship's secondary magazines, which exploded in turn. There were no survivors.


Stern view of Defence


Minotaur at anchor, shortly after she was completed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Defence_(1907)

Minotaur-class cruiser (1906) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1929 – Launch of French Foch, a French Navy heavy cruiser of the Suffren class,

Foch was a French Navy heavy cruiser of the Suffren class, that saw service in World War II. She was the first French warship named for the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch.

French cruiser Foch - Wikipedia

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1945 - USS Frederick C. Davis (DE 136) is sunk by German submarine U 546, 570 miles east of Cape Race, Newfoundland. In a combined effort by different destroyers U 546 was sunk the same day.

USS Frederick C. Davis - Wikipedia

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German submarine U-546 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1946 - CNO Adm. Chester W. Nimitz ordered the formation of a flight exhibition team that would showcase naval aviation. Officially known as the U.S. Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron, they formally adopted the nickname "Blue Angels" in 1949 when the squadron commander designed the Blue Angels insignia which is nearly identical to the one in use today.

The Blue Angels is the United States Navy's flight demonstration squadron which was initially formed in 1946, making it the second oldest formal flying aerobatic team (under the same name) in the world, after the French Patrouille de France formed in 1931. The Blue Angels' McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets (numbered 1–6) are currently flown by five Navy demonstration pilots and one Marine Corps demonstration pilot.

The Blue Angels typically perform aerial displays annually in at least 60 shows at 30 locations throughout the United States and 2 shows at one location in Canada. The "Blues" still employ many of the same practices and techniques used in the inaugural 1946 season. An estimated 11 million spectators view the squadron during air shows from March through November each year. Members of the Blue Angels team also visit more than 50,000 people in schools, hospitals, and community functions at air show cities. Since 1946, the Blue Angels have flown for more than 505 million spectators.

Blue Angels - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1185 - The battle of Dan-no-ura was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū


The battle of Dan-no-ura (壇ノ浦の戦い Dan-no-ura no tatakai) was a major sea battle of the Genpei War, occurring at Dan-no-ura, in the Shimonoseki Strait off the southern tip of Honshū. On April 25, 1185, the fleet of the Minamoto clan (Genji), led by Minamoto no Yoshitsune, defeated the fleet of the Taira clan (Heike). The morning rip tide was an advantage to the Taira in the morning but turned to their disadvantage in the afternoon. The young Emperor Antoku was one of those who perished amongst the Taira nobles.





The Taira were outnumbered, but some sources say that they had the advantage over the Minamoto in understanding the tides of that particular area, as well as naval combat tactics in general. The Taira split their fleet into three squadrons, while their enemy arrived en masse, their ships abreast, and archers ready. The beginning of the battle consisted mainly of a long-range archery exchange, before the Taira took the initiative, using the tides to help them try to surround the enemy ships. They engaged the Minamoto, and the archery from a distance eventually gave way to hand-to-hand combat with swords and daggers after the crews of the ships boarded each other. However, the tide changed, and the advantage was given back to the Minamoto. One of the crucial factors that allowed the Minamoto to win the battle was that a Taira general, Taguchi Shigeyoshi, defected and attacked the Taira from the rear He also revealed to the Minamoto which ship the six-year-old Emperor Antoku was on. Their archers turned their attention to the helmsmen and rowers of the Emperor's ship, as well as the rest of their enemy's fleet, sending their ships out of control. Many of the Taira saw the battle turn against them and committed suicide.

Among those who perished this way were Antoku and his grandmother, Nun of the Second Rank, the widow of Taira no Kiyomori.

To this day, the Heike Crabs found in the Straits of Shimonoseki are considered by the Japanese to hold the spirits of the Taira warriors. The Taira attempted to toss the imperial regalia off the ship but only managed to get the sword and jewel into the water before the ship holding the regalia was captured.

The jewel was recovered by divers; many presume the sword to have been lost at this time, though it is officially said to have been recovered and enshrined at Atsuta Shrine.

This decisive defeat of the Taira forces led to the end of the Taira bid for control of Japan. Minamoto no Yoritomo, the elder half-brother of Minamoto Yoshitsune, became the first shōgun, establishing his military government (bakufu) in Kamakura. In this battle the Taira lost Taira Tomomori, Taira Noritsune, Taira Norimori, Taira Tsunemori, Taira Sukemori, Taira Arimori and Taira Yukimori, who were killed.


Map of the battle of Dan-no-ura

In popular culture
In 1965, a dramatized version of the battle dated for March 24, 1185, appeared as part of the movie Kwaidan.

In his book and television series Cosmos, Carl Sagan presents a brief, dramatic account of the battle in chapter/episode 2; "One Voice in the Cosmic Fugue". Sagan then uses the Heike crabs as examples of artificial selection.

In the anime film Pom Poko, by Studio Ghibli, one of the venerable Shape-Shifting Tanuki Masters is an eyewitness to the battle and delights in telling the Tama Tanuki of his exploits, where he was responsible for firing the first critical shot of the battle disguised as one of the mounted archers.

In Sukiyaki Western Django (a Japanese remake of the spaghetti Western movie A Fistful of Dollars), this battle is referred to as part of the film's backstory.

The battle is also recounted near the beginning of the Usagi Yojimbo story arc Grasscutter.

The Japanese anime, Angolmois: Genkō Kassen-ki depicts the battle in a historical flashback and provides an alternative story where the young emperor survived the sea.

Battle of Dan-no-ura - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1507 - German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann are credited with the first recorded usage of the word America, on the 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia in honour of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.


Martin Waldseemüller (Latinized as Martinus Ilacomylus, Ilacomilus or Hylacomylus; c. 1470 – 16 March 1520) was a German cartographer.

He and Matthias Ringmann are credited with the first recorded usage of the word America, on the 1507 map Universalis Cosmographia in honour of the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci.

Life
Waldseemüller was born in Wolfenweiler near Freiburg im Breisgau (his mother came from Radolfzell) and he studied at the University of Freiburg.


Universalis Cosmographia, Waldseemüller's 1507 world map which was the first to show the Americas separate from Asia



On 25 April 1507, as a member of the Gymnasium Vosagense at Saint Diey (German: Sankt Didel) in the Duchy of Lorraine (today Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France), he produced a globular world map and a large 12-panel world wall map using the information from Columbus and Vespucci's travels (Universalis Cosmographia), both bearing the first use of the name "America". The globular and wall maps were accompanied by a book Cosmographiae Introductio, an introduction to cosmography. The book, first printed in the city of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, includes in its second part, a translation to Latin of the Quattuor Americi Vespuccij navigationes (Four Voyages of Americo Vespucci), which is apparently a letter written by Amerigo Vespucci, although some historians consider it to have been a forgery written by its supposed recipient in Italy.

In the seventh chapter of the Cosmographiæ Introduction, written by Matthias Ringmann, it is explained why the name America was proposed for the then New World, or the Fourth Part of the World:

Atque in sexto climate Antarcticum versus et pars extrema Africæ nuper reperta. . . . et quarta orbis pars (quam quia Americus invenit Amerigen, quasi Americi terram, sive American nuncupare licet) sitae sunt

Translation:

And in the sixth climate toward the Antarctic, the recently discovered farther part of Africa . . . and a fourth part of the world (which may be called Amerige, as if meaning "Americus' land", or America) are situated

In the ninth chapter of the same book the reasons for the name America are given in more detail:

Nunc vero et hæ partes sunt latius lustratæ et alia quarta pars per Americum Vesputium (ut in sequentibus audietur) inventa est, quam non video cur quis jure vetet ab Americo Inventore sagacis ingenii viro, Amerigen quasi Americi terram sive Americam dicendam; cum et Europa et Asia a mulieribus sua sortita sunt nomina.

Translation:

But now these parts have been more widely explored, and also another fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vesputius (as will be heard in the following), and I do not see why anyone should justifiably forbid it to be called Amerige, as if "Americus' Land", or America, from its discoverer Americus, a man of perceptive character; since both Europa and Asia have received their names from women.

In 1513, Waldseemüller appears to have had second thoughts about the name, probably due to contemporary protests about Vespucci’s role in the discovery and naming of America, or just carefully waiting for the official discovery of the whole northwestern coast of what is now called North America, as separated from East Asia. In his reworking of the Ptolemy atlas, the continent is labelled simply Terra Incognita (unknown land). Despite the revision, 1,000 copies of the world maps had since been distributed, and the original suggestion took hold. While North America was still called Indies in documents for some time, it was eventually called America as well.

The wall map was lost for a long time, but a copy was found in Schloss Wolfegg in southern Germany by Joseph Fischer in 1901. It is still the only copy known to survive, and it was purchased by the United States Library of Congress in May 2003 after an agreement was reached in 2001. Five copies of the globular map survive in the form of "gores": printed maps that were intended to be cut out and pasted onto a wooden globe. Only one of these lies in the Americas today, residing at the James Ford Bell Library University of Minnesota; three copies are in Germany (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, LMU Munich, Stadtbibliothek Offenburg), and one is in London, UK, in private hands.

Waldseemüller died intestate 16 March 1520 in Sankt Didel, then a canon of the collegiate Church of Saint-Dié.


Faksimile der Waldseemüller-Karte in der Library of Congress (2007)


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1607 - The naval Battle of Gibraltar took place during the Eighty Years' War when a Dutch fleet surprised and engaged a Spanish fleet anchored at the Bay of Gibraltar.
During the four hours of action, most of the Spanish ships were destroyed


The naval Battle of Gibraltar took place on 25 April 1607 during the Eighty Years' War when a Dutch fleet surprised and engaged a Spanish fleet anchored at the Bay of Gibraltar. During the four hours of action, most of the Spanish ships were destroyed.




The Battle of Gibraltar by Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen. Oil on canvas. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Forces
A Dutch fleet of 26 warships was led by Jacob van Heemskerk.
The Dutch flagship was Æolus.
Other Dutch ships were De Tijger (The Tiger),
De Zeehond (The Seal),
De Griffioen (The Griffon),
De Roode Leeuw (The Red Lion),
De Gouden Leeuw (The Gold Lion),
De Zwarte (The Black Bear),
De Witte (The White Bear) and
De Ochtendster (The Morningstar).

A Spanish fleet of 21 ships including 10 galleons, was led by Don Juan Álvarez de Ávila.
The Spanish flagship San Augustin (St Augustine) was commanded by Don Juan's son.
Other ships were Nuestra Señora de la Vega (Our Lady of Vega) and
Madre de Dios (Mother of God).
The Spanish fleet was covered by a fortress, although the Dutch fleet was out of range of its guns at all times and they could not intervene in the battle[dubious – discuss] .

The battle
Van Heemskerk left some of his ships at the bay entrance to prevent the escape of any Spanish ships. Twenty from the Dutch fleet were ordered to focus on the Spanish galleons while the rest attacked the smaller vessels. Van Heemskerk was killed during the first approach on the Spanish flagship as a cannon ball severed his leg. The Dutch then doubled up on the galleons and a few of the galleons caught fire. One exploded due to a shot into the powder magazine. The Dutch captured the Spanish flagship but let it go adrift.

Following the destruction of the Spanish ships, the Dutch deployed boats and killed hundreds of swimming Spanish sailors. The Dutch lost 100 men including admiral Van Heemskerk. Sixty Dutch were wounded. Depending on the sources, most or all of the Spanish ships were lost and between 3500 and 4000 Spaniards killed or captured. Álvarez de Ávila was amongst the dead.

Aftermath
The battle resulted in a 12-year truce in which the Dutch Republic achieved de facto recognition by the Spanish Crown.


This painting (BHC0265) depicts the Battle of Gibraltar, 25 April 1607 in which some thirty Dutch vessels, under the command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk, defeated the Spanish fleet. The battle was the first major naval victory for the Dutch in the Eighty Years War, 1568-1648 and it was the first time during the conflict that the Dutch had effectively trounced the Spanish in Spanish waters. The battle began when thirty Dutch ships took the Spanish fleet by surprise in the Bay of Gibraltar in an action which lasted four hours. The entire Spanish fleet, which had threatened Dutch trade with Asia, was destroyed and 4000 Spaniards as well as 100 Dutchmen lost their lives. Both Dutch and Spanish admirals were amongst the dead including the Dutch Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk and the Spanish Admiral Don Juan Alvares d’Avila. Admiral Jacob van Heemskerk (1567-1607) was killed at the beginning of the action whilst standing on deck. He was hit by a Spanish cannon ball which severed his leg. Unusually, in this painting, the Dutch and Spanish ships are shown running from right to left with the Dutch in pursuit. This pursuit is not known from any other representations of the battle. On the right, in the foreground, is Heemskerk's flagship the 'Æolus' with the flagship of Vice-Admiral Laurens Jacobsz Alteras of Zeeland, the 'De Roode Leeuw' (the Red Lion), on her starboard bow. In the central background, close to the ‘De Roode Leeuw’, is the Spanish rear-admiral's ship the 'Madre de Dios' (Mother of God). Two other Spanish flagships can be seen running out of the painting on the left. They are the ‘San Augustin’ in the foreground, which flies the flag of Don Juan Alvares d’Avila, and, in the background, the Vice-Admiral’s ‘Nuestra Señora de la Vega’ (Our Lady of the Meadow). In the central foreground a small Spanish xebec (chebeck) is under attack from an even smaller Dutch caravel. On a diminutive scale, these two ships re-enact the larger battle taking place behind them. The artist has paid careful attention to details such as the uniforms worn by and weapons carried by the figures on these two small vessels. Sailors can be seen clinging to the flotsam in the water. The artist’s use of a high perspective has allowed as much detail as possible to be shown. Potentially these details could allow us to identify a specific point in the battle. However, at present, we have insufficient contemporary evidence for this to be determined conclusively. The painting does not demonstrate any discernible influence from the known accounts of the battle which were recorded by contemporary writers. The Battle of Gibraltar was depicted by several Dutch painters during the seventeenth century. The earliest of these was Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom (1562-1638), the founder of European marine painting. His painting of the same scene may have been presented by the Dutch States-General to Prince Henry, elder son of James I and heir to the English throne, in 1610. However its present whereabouts is unknown. Van Wieringen (Haarlem c.1575–Haarlem 1633) was a draughtsman, painter and etcher. He was strongly influenced by and he probably studied under Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. Although he was a seaman before he became a marine painter. In 1597 he is recorded as a member of the guild of St Luke and as a signatory to its new articles of association. The new articles of association which, for the first time, distinguished artists from craftsmen were an innovative landmark and updated the outmoded organization of the guild. His early works included designing a tapestry for the council of Haarlem town hall. However, in 1621, Van Wieringen received his most prestigious commission when the Amsterdam Admiralty ordered a painting of the Battle of Gibraltar to be presented to Prince Maurits. The commission marked the completion of the new wing of the Prince’s residence in the Binnehof at The Hague. The painting, which depicted a previous military triumph, was intended as a token of support for Maurits who had reopened hostilities with Spain in 1621, following a truce that had lasted 12 years. Van Wieringen painted a sample piece, then a modello, and ultimately a finished painting for the commission. The painting, which Van Wieringen completed in 1622, shows the entire campaign in the bay including numerous ships clustered to represent particular episodes of the action. Since, this painting is dated 1619, it is unlikely that it forms part of the Maurits commission. This artwork is van Wieringen’s first independent painting of the defeat of the Spaniards at Gibraltar. Moreover it is one of the few paintings by van Wieringen which is dated. The absence of the Rock of Gibraltar is, also, remarkable since it appears in all his other known versions of the battle. The large scale of the canvas and the intensely heroic subject of the painting suggest that it may have been commissioned by Heemskerk’s family as a tribute to the dead admiral. Curiously, for a Dutch commission, this version of the event shows the action from the perspective of the Spanish fleet. Moreover the signature and date '1619' are peculiarly placed on the Spanish flag of the 'San Augustin'. There is evidence that the canvas has been cut down. Consequently the original intentions of the artist are no longer clear. There is a larger version of this painting by van Wieringen in the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam. The National Maritime Museum, also, has a large etching of the action which is made up of three plates. In this etching the action is viewed from the west end of Gibraltar towards Algeciras


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Gibraltar_(1607)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Battle_of_Gibraltar_1607

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1763 – Launch of HMS Ramillies, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Chatham Dockyard.


HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1763 at Chatham Dockyard.




Loss of HMS Ramillies by Robert Dodd artist

In 1782 she was the flagship of a fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves off Newfoundland. Ramillies was badly damaged in a violent storm of 1782, and was finally abandoned and burned on 21 September 1782.


Loss of HMS 'Ramillies', September 1782: on her beam ends (BHC2213)
’The Storm increas'd. Distressed situation of the Ramillies when Day broke with the Dutton Store Ship foundering'


Loss of HMS 'Ramillies', September 1782: taking to the boats (BHC2217)


Loss of HMS 'Ramillies', September 1782: ship abandoned in abating storm (BHC2214)


A painting showing Rear Admiral Graves’s flagship ‘Ramillies’ on 16 September 1782. Under instruction from Admiral Rodney, she was on her way home to England from the North American Station. She was conducting English ships in need of repair, French prizes and a merchant convoy. The ships ran into a gale on the Newfoundland Bank. This painting captures the moment after the storm when the decision is made to set the ‘Ramillies’ on fire, to destroy her. The painting shows her ablaze in the central foreground with other ships from the convoy close by. This painting is the last of a set of five showing the incident, including, ‘Before the Storm Breaks’ (BHC2212), ‘On her beam ends’, ‘Bearing away’ and ‘Abandoned’. There was also a set of aquatints from the paintings. The misfortunes and sufferings of this fleet would loom large even in a history of shipwrecks. The painting is signed ‘R. Dodd 1783’


On 16–19 September, she was escorting a convoy from Jamaica when they were hit by the storm. Frantic efforts were made to save her. All anchors, cannon, and masts were shipped over the side. The hull was bound together with rope, officers and men manned the pumps for 24 hours a day for 3 days. However despite all the water continued to rise. The exhausted crew were rescued by nearby merchantmen, and the last man, Captain Sylverius Moriarty, set her on fire as he left.

Robert Dodd painted a series of four documenting the tragedy. "The demise of the Ramillies" comprises: A storm coming on (shown right), ’The Storm increas'd (shown left), The Ramillies Water Logg'd with her Admiral & Crew quitting the Wreck, and The Ramillies Destroyed. In 1795 a set of four coloured mezzotints were engraved and published by Jukes from his shop at No.10 Howland Street.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Ramillies' (1763); 'Terrible' (1762); 'Russell' (1764); 'Invincible' (1765); 'Magnificent' (1766); 'Prince of Wales' (1765); 'Marlborough' (1767); 'Robust' (1764), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Note the pencil annotations of chain channels and gunports. An annotation on the reverse states that the class was similar to the 'Superb' (1760), specifically mentioning 'Monarch', 'Magnificent', and Marlborough'


Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the inboard profile, with the longitudinal half-breadth super-imposed for 'Ramilles' (1763), a 74 gun Third Rate two-decker

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

Design
The draught for the Ramillies class was very similar to that of the Bellona class and subsequent Arrogant class, with the only real differences to be found in the shape of the underwater hull. There were two distinct sub-groups; four ships were built in the Royal Dockyards to the original design, approved on 25 April 1760 – although the name-ship Ramillies had originally been ordered as a Bellona-class unit. Slade subsequently amended his design for the ships which were to be built by commercial contractors – this modified design, with slightly amended dimensions, being approved on 13 January 1761.



Ships
First group
Dockyard-built ships:

• HMS Ramillies

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Laid down: 25 August 1760
Launched: 25 April 1763
Completed: November 1763
Fate: Abandoned and burned off Newfoundland, 21 September 1782.

• HMS Monarch

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 22 November 1760
Laid down: 2 June 1761
Launched: 20 July 1765
Completed: 24 September 1765
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, March 1813

• HMS Magnificent

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: 15 April 1762
Launched: 20 September 1767
Completed: September 1778
Fate: Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804.

• HMS Marlborough

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 4 December 1762
Laid down: 3 June 1763
Launched: 26 August 1767
Completed: 1 December 1767
Fate: Wrecked off Belle Île, 4 November 1800

Second (modified) group
Contract-built ships:

• HMS Terrible

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: February 1761
Launched: 4 September 1762
Completed: 18 December 1762
Fate: Burned following the Battle of Chesapeake, 11 September 1781

• HMS Russell

Builder: Thomas West, Deptford
Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: June 1761
Launched: 10 November 1764
Completed: 6 January 1765 at Woolwich Dockyard
Fate: Sold out of the service in the East Indies, 1811

• HMS Invincible

Builder: John and William Wells, Deptford
Ordered: 12 October 1761
Laid down: December 1761
Launched: 9 March 1765
Completed: February 1777 at Chatham Dockyard.
Fate: Wrecked off Yarmouth, 16 March 1801

• HMS Robust

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: February 1762
Launched: 25 October 1764
Completed: 10 December 1764
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth, January 1817

• HMS Prince of Wales

Builder: Henry Bird and Roger Fisher, Milford Haven
Ordered: 16 December 1762
Laid down: March 1762
Launched: 4 June 1765
Completed: 22 December 1770 at Plymouth Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Plymouth, August 1783



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ramillies_(1763)

Ramillies-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-341926;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1807 – Launch of HMS Garland, a 22-gun Royal Navy Laurel-class post ship. She was built by Richard Chapman at Bideford


HMS Garland was a 22-gun Royal Navy Laurel-class post ship. She was built by Richard Chapman at Bideford and launched on 5 May 1807. She saw action in the War of 1812 and was sold in 1817.



Career
She was commissioned in March 1807 under Captain Header Whittier. On 11 November 1807 she sailed to the West Indies. She served under a number of captains there, including Rowland Bevan (1808), Thomas Thrush (1 May - August 1809), William Charlton (died 7 August 1810), William Henry Shirreff (18 November 1809 - 1811), Thomas Graves, and Thomas Huskisson (May 1811 to June 1812). Captain Richard Plummer Davies received promotion to Post-captain on 19 June 1812 and then took command of Garland.



Prize taking
On 28 July 1812, Garland recaptured the Hassan, which was sailing to Havannah with a cargo of sundries. Five days later, Garland captured the Superb, which was sailing to Boston in ballast. That same day, 2 August, Garland captured the Dal, which was sailing to Newhaven with rum and sugar, and the Madisonia, sailing to Alexandria with sugar and hides.

On 13 September 1812 Garland's boats captured the American privateer Poor Sailor. Poor Sailor was armed with one long 6-pounder gun and had a crew of 15 men. Then on 4 December Garland captured the brig San Pedro, which was sailing from New Orleans to St. Domingo.

Mediterranean
In 1814 Garland was off the north coast of Spain, still under Davies. In 1815, following Napoleon's escape from Elba, the Admiralty sent Garland and Undaunted to the Adriatic, under the orders of Captain Charles Austen, brother of the novelist Jane Austen, in Phoenix. Austen's mission was to co-operate with the Austrians and to intercept some Neapolitan warships. Phoenix and Garland watched two large frigates at Brindisi, while Undaunted cruised northwards along the coast. After the surrender of Naples, following the military convention of Casalanza, Austen persuaded the captains of the two Neapolitan frigates to switch their allegiance to the restored monarch, Ferdinand IV of Naples.

Next, Phoenix, Aquilon, Garland and Reynard sailed to the Greek Archipelago to look for a French squadron comprising the frigate Junon, the 32-gun corvette Victorieuse, two brigs and two schooners. The British objective was to prevent the French squadron capturing merchant vessels traversing the area and to suppress piracy. However, it turned out that the French had left the area; shortly afterwards peace was restored.

Fate
In 1816 Garland was out of commission at Deptford. Garland was finally sold on 9 May 1817 to a Mr Hill for £1,500.






The Laurel-class sailing sixth rates were a series of six post ships built to an 1805 design by Sir John Henslow. The first three were launched in 1806, two more in 1807, and the last in 1812. The vessels of the class served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War.

Ships in class

• HMS Boreas
• HMS Laurel
  • Builder: Nicholas Bools & William Good, Bridport, Dorset
  • Ordered: 30 January 1805
  • Laid down: June 1805
  • Launched: 2 June 1806
  • Completed: 16 November 1806 at Plymouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Captured by the French on 12 September 1808. The French named her Esperance. Unicorn recaptured her on 12 April 1810 off the Île de Ré. She was armed en flute and was carrying a cargo of colonial produce from Île de France while under the command of a lieutenant de vaisseau.[1] The Royal Navy took her back into service as HMS Laurestinus. She wrecked in the Bahamas in August 1813.
• HMS Comus
• HMS Garland
• HMS Perseus
• HMS Volage

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

Laurel-class post ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-314647;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=G

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1807 – French privateer (Lady) Dame Villaret captures Wanstead


Wanstead was launched in 1802. In 1807 a French privateer captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her the next day. Then in 1810 she was again captured by a French privateer, and was again recaptured a few days later. In 1819 she traded with India or China under a license from the British East India Company (EIC). She was wrecked in 1820.



Career
Thomas Wilson received a letter of marque for Wanstead on 1 October 1805. In 1807 her trade was London-Madeira.

On 25 April 1807 Wanstead, Wilson, master, was sailing from London and Madeira to Barbados and Jamaica. She encountered the French privateer Lady Villaret, of six guns and 117 men. In the 4-hour single-ship action that ensued, Wanstead had one man killed and five wounded before she struck. Lady Villaret had 15 men killed and wounded. The next day Admiral Alexander Cochrane's squadron recaptured Wanstead and took her into Barbados.[Note 1]

William Coultons received a letter of marque on 14 April 1808.

On 26 March 1810 Wanstead, Morton, master, was sailing from Jamaica to London when the French privateer Grand Decidé, of 18 guns and 200 men, captured her. [Note 2] HMS Amelia and the British privateer Sorcière recaptured Wanstead on 3 April 1810.

In 1818, Wanstead, W. Young, master, was shown with trade London-India. She sailed to Bengal on 20 January. On 28 October 1818 Wanstead, Young, master, was in Madras Roads when a gale drove her and a number of other vessels out.

The entry in Lloyd's Register for 1819 saw her master changing to Richards, and her trade changing to London-St Vincent.

Fate
Wanstead, Smith, master, was wrecked on 11 July 1820 at Irvin's Bay, Grenada, after her cables parted during a storm. Her crew and part of her cargo were saved.


Notes

1. ^ On 15 August 1807, HMS Blonde, Captain Volant Vashon Ballard, captured Dame Villaret after a chase of 13 hours. She was armed with an 18-pounder gun and four 9-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 69 men. She had been out twenty days but had taken no prizes. French sources refer to the privateer as Villaret, but otherwise the description and her capture by Blonde match.
2. ^ Grand Décidé was a three-masted ship from Bordeaux, launched in August 1809 by the Courau brothers and commissioned as Décidé in September 1809 under Louis Briolle. She was 30.05 metres long, of 277 tons (French; "of load"), and had a crew of 12 officers and 128 men. She carried two 6-pounder guns and twelve 24-pounder carronades. On 9 December 1809 she underwent a mutiny on board. This led to the arrest of 17 men and the eventual execution of two of them. Her owners renamed her Grand Décidé in 1810.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanstead_(1802_ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1811 – Launch of french Auguste, an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.


The Auguste was an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.



In 1812, she was part of Gourdon's squadron.

She was renamed Illustre in March 1814, following the Bourbon Restoration. The Treaty of Fontainebleau left her to France, and with 11 other ships of the line, she sailed to her new station in Brest in October.

She was disarmed the next month, and never sailed again. In a state of disrepair, she was broken up in 1827.


Launching of Friedland, by Mattheus Ignatius van Bree


The Robuste


Bucentaure at the Battle of Trafalgar, detail of a painting by Auguste Mayer

The Bucentaure class was a class of 80-gun French ships of the line built to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané from 1802 onwards, of which at least 29 were ordered but only 21 ships were launched. They were a development from his earlier Tonnant class.



80-gun ships ("vaisseaux de 80") of the First Empire
Bucentaure class 80-gun ships designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, a modification of the 80-ship Tonnant class listed above. 21 ships were launched to this design, of which 16 were afloat by the end of 1814

• Bucentaure 80 (launched 13 July 1803 at Toulon) – Flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, captured there by the British and wrecked in the subsequent storm
• Neptune 80 (launched 15 August 1803 at Toulon) – Captured by the Spanish at Cadiz in June 1808, renamed Neptuno, BU 1820
• Robuste 80 (launched 30 October 1806 at Toulon) – Driven ashore by the British and burnt near Frontignan in October 1809
• Ville de Varsovie 80 (launched 10 May 1808 at Rochefort) – Captured and burnt by the British in the Battle of the Basque Roads in April 1809
• Donawerth 80 (launched 4 July 1808 at Toulon) – BU 1824
• Eylau 80 (launched 19 November 1808 at Lorient) – BU 1829
• Friedland 80 (launched 2 May 1810 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Vlaming, BU 1823
• Sceptre 80 (launched 15 August 1810 at Toulon) – Condemned 1828
• Tilsitt 80 (launched 25 August 1810 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Neptunus, BU 1818
• Auguste 80 (launched 25 April 1811 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Illustre, returned in September 1814, BU 1827
• Pacificateur 80 (launched 22 May 1811 at Antwerp) – BU 1824
• Illustre 80 (launched 9 June 1811 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Prins van Oranje,BU 1825.
• Diadème[note 1] 80 (launched 1 December 1811 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; condemned 1856.
• Conquérant 80 (launched 27 April 1812 at Antwerp) – Condemned 1831.
• Zélandais 80 (launched 12 October 1813 at Cherbourg) – renamed Duquesne in April 1814, but reverted to Zélandais in March 1815 then Duquesne again in July 1815. Condemned 1858.
• Magnifique 80 (launched 29 October 1814 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; condemned 1837.
• One further ship begun at Venice to this design was never launched – Saturne, which was broken up on the stocks by the Austrian occupiers.

80-gun ships ("vaisseaux de 80") of the Restoration
Bucentaure class (continued)

• Centaure 80 (launched 8 January 1818 at Cherbourg) – renamed Santi Pietri in October 1823; 86 guns from 1837; hulked 1849, burnt by accident 1862.
• Neptune 80 (launched 21 March 1818 at Lorient) – 86-guns from 1837; hulked 1858, broken up 1868.
• Algésiras 80 (launched 21 August 1823 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; deleted 1846.
• Jupiter 80 (launched 22 October 1831 at Cherbourg) – 86 guns from 1837; deleted 1863.

Loss of a longboat of Algésiras in a storm, 9 August 1831.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Auguste_(1811)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucentaure-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1829 – Charles Fremantle arrives in HMS Challenger off the coast of modern-day Western Australia prior to declaring the Swan River Colony for the United Kingdom.


The Swan River Colony was a British colony established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia.

The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832 the colony was renamed the Colony of Western Australia, when the colony's founding lieutenant-governor, Captain James Stirling, belatedly received his commission. However, the name "Swan River Colony" remained in informal use for many years afterwards.

European exploration

Willem de Vlamingh's ships, with black swans, at the entrance to the Swan River, Western Australia, coloured engraving (1796), derived from an earlier drawing (now lost) from the de Vlamingh expeditions of 1696–97.

The first recorded Europeans to sight land where the city of Perth is now located were Dutch sailors. Most likely the first visitor to the Swan River area was Frederick de Houtman on 19 July 1619, travelling on the ships Dordrecht and Amsterdam. His records indicate he first reached the Western Australian coast at latitude 32°20' which would equate to Rottnest or just south of there. He did not land because of heavy surf, and so proceeded northwards without much investigation.

On 28 April 1656, Vergulde Draeck en route to Batavia (now Jakarta) was shipwrecked 107 km north of the Swan River near Ledge Point. Of the 193 on board, only 75 made it to shore. A small boat that survived the wreckage then sailed to Batavia for help, but a subsequent search party found none of the survivors. The wreck was rediscovered in 1963.

In 1658, three Dutch Republic ships, also partially searching for Vergulde Draeck visited the area. Waekende Boey under Captain S. Volckertszoon, Elburg under Captain J. Peereboom and Emeloort under Captain A. Joncke sighted Rottnest but did not proceed any closer to the mainland because of the many reefs. They then travelled north and subsequently found the wreck of Vergulde Draeck (but still no survivors). They gave an unfavourable opinion of the area partly due to the dangerous reefs.


The first detailed map of the Swan River, drawn by the French in 1801

The Dutch captain Willem de Vlamingh was the next European in the area. Commanding three ships, Geelvink, Nyptangh and Wezeltje, he arrived at and named Rottnest on 29 December 1696, and on 10 January 1697 discovered and named the Swan River. His ships could not sail up the river because of a sand bar at its mouth, so he sent out a sloop which even then required some dragging over the sand bar. They sailed until reaching mud flats probably near Heirisson Island. They saw some Aborigines but were not able to meet any close up. Vlamingh was also not impressed with the area, and this was probably the reason for a lack of Dutch exploration from then on.

In 1801, the French ships Géographe captained by Nicolas Baudin and Naturaliste captained by Emmanuel Hamelin visited the area from the south. While Géographe continued northwards, Naturaliste remained for a few weeks. A small expedition dragged longboats over the sand bar and explored the Swan River. They also gave unfavourable descriptions regarding any potential settlement due to many mud flats upstream and the sand bar (the sand bar wasn't removed until the 1890s when C. Y. O'Connor built Fremantle harbour).

Later in March 1803, Géographe with another ship Casuarina passed by Rottnest on their way eventually back to France, but did not stop longer than a day or two.

The next visit to the area was the first Australian-born maritime explorer, Phillip Parker King in 1822 on Bathurst. King was also the son of former Governor Philip Gidley King of New South Wales. However, King also was not impressed with the area.

Background to the settlement


Map of Swan River Settlement and Surrounding Country (1831)

The founding father of Western Australia was Captain James Stirling who, in 1827, explored the Swan River area in HMS Success which first anchored off Rottnest, and later in Cockburn Sound. He was accompanied by Charles Fraser, the New South Wales botanist.

Their initial exploration began on 8 March in a cutter and gig with parties continuing on foot from 13 March. In late March, HMS Success moved to Sydney, arriving there on 15 April. Stirling arrived back in England in July 1828, promoting in glowing terms the agricultural potential of the area. His lobbying was for the establishment of a "free" (unlike the now well established penal colonies at New South Wales, Port Arthur and Norfolk Island) settlement in the Swan River area with himself as its governor. As a result of these reports, and a rumour in London that the French were about to establish a penal colony in the western part of Australia, possibly at Shark Bay, the Colonial Office assented to the proposal in mid-October 1828.

In December 1828 a Secretary of State for Colonies despatch reserved land for the Crown, as well as for the clergy, and for education, and specified that water frontage was to be rationed. The most cursory exploration had preceded the British decision to found a settlement at the Swan River; the most makeshift arrangements were to govern its initial establishment and the granting of land; and the most sketchy surveys were to be made before the grants were actually occupied. A set of regulations were worked out for distributing land to settlers on the basis of land grants. Negotiations for a privately run settlement were also started with a consortium of four gentlemen headed by Potter McQueen, a member of Parliament who had already acquired a large tract of land in New South Wales. The consortium withdrew after the Colonial Office refused to give it preference over independent settlers in selecting land, but one member, Thomas Peel, accepted the terms and proceeded alone. Peel was allocated 500,000 acres (2,000 km²), conditional on his arrival at the settlement before 1 November 1829 with 400 settlers. Peel arrived after this date with only 300 settlers, but was still granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km²).

Events of the settlement
The first ship to reach the Swan River was HMS Challenger. After she anchored off Garden Island on 25 April 1829, Captain Charles Fremantle declared the Swan River Colony for Britain on 2 May 1829.

Parmelia arrived on 31 May carrying Stirling and his party and HMS Sulphur arrived on 8 June carrying members of the 63rd Regiment and families. Three merchant ships arrived shortly after: Calista on 5 August, St Leonard on 6 August and Marquis of Anglesea on 23 August.

A series of accidents followed the arrivals which probably nearly caused the abandonment of the expedition. Challenger and Sulphur both struck rocks while entering Cockburn Sound and were fortunate to escape with only minor damage. Parmelia however, under Stirling's "over confident pilotage", also ran aground, lost her rudder and damaged her keel, which necessitated extensive repairs. With winter now set in, the settlers were obliged to land on Garden Island. Bad weather and the required repairs meant that Stirling did not manage to reach the mainland until 18 June, and the remaining settlers on Parmelia finally arrived in early August. In early September a major disaster occurred: Marquis of Anglesea was driven ashore during a gale and wrecked beyond repair. (She did not break up, as had been expected, but instead survived to become Western Australia's first prison hulk.)

The first reports of the new colony arrived back in England in late January 1830. They described the poor conditions and the starving state of the colonists, deemed the land totally unfit for agriculture, and reported (incorrectly) that the settlers had abandoned the colony. As a result of these reports, many people cancelled their migration plans or diverted to Cape Town or New South Wales.

Nevertheless, a few settlers arrived and additional stores were dispatched. By 1832 the population of the colony had reached about 1,500 (Aboriginal people were not counted but in the south west have been estimated to number 15,000), but the difficulty of clearing land to grow crops was so great that by 1850 the population had only increased to 5,886. This population had settled mainly around the southwestern coastline at Bunbury, Augusta and Albany.

Karl Marx used the Swan River Colony to illustrate a point about a shortcoming of capitalism in Das Kapital.




Admiral Sir Charles Howe Fremantle GCB RN (1 June 1800 – 25 May 1869) was a British Royal Navy officer. The city of Fremantle in Western Australia is named after him.



HMS Challenger was despatched by the Admiralty from the Cape of Good Hope on 20 March 1829, anchored in Cockburn Sound on 2 May and landing on Garden Island. One week later, he hoisted the British flag on the south head of the mouth of the Swan River and took formal possession in the name of His Majesty King George IV of "all that part of New Holland (Australia) which is not included within the territory of New South Wales".

The appointed Lieutenant Governor James Stirling arrived in Cockburn Sound on 2 June aboard the hired transport barque Parmelia with his family and other intending settlers, numbering 69 in all, to establish a colony at the Swan River in Western Australia. On 8 June they were joined by a military detachment of some 56 officers and men who disembarked from the consort ship HMS Sulphur. On 17 June, a proxy proclamation was read by Stirling confirming Fremantle's earlier proclamation. The landing of those immigrants marked the beginning of the history of Western Australia as a British colony, and later as a state of federal Australia.

Fremantle left the Swan River Colony on 25 August 1829, heading towards the British base at Trincomalee, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where he was based for the next couple of years. While there he visited many locations, including Kowloon in China, which he recommended as a good site for a British settlement. The British government agreed and Hong Kong was settled in 1841.

Fremantle was only in Ceylon for a couple of years. On his way back to England in September 1832 he visited the Swan River Colony for a week, but never returned again. In 1833 he stopped at Pitcairn Island, where he attempted to make peace in the leadership dispute between Joshua Hill and George Hunn Nobbs. He was given command of HMS Inconstant in the Mediterranean Fleet in 1843 and command of HMS Albion (also in the Mediterranean) in 1847. Then in 1853 he became Captain of HMS Juno on the Australia Station.

Fremantle served as Rear-Admiral controlling the naval transport service from Balaklava on the Crimean Peninsula during the Crimean War. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Squadron in July 1858 and Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth in 1863



Coloured etching and engraving of The Challenger (1826),

HMS Challenger was a 28-gun sixth rate of the Royal Navy launched at Portsmouth, England on 14 November 1826.



Freemantle
Under the command of Charles Fremantle, she was in part responsible for the creation of the colony of Swan River in 1829. Captain Freemantle was under orders to take possession of the western side of New Holland on behalf of the British government. Challenger arrived on 25 April 1829 off Garden Island. She attempted to sail into Cockburn Sound the next day, but due to the incompetence of the sailing master, struck a rock midway between Garden and Carnac Islands. Challenger was not seriously damaged.

Fate
Challenger was wrecked off Mocha Island, Chile on 19 May 1835, with the loss of two lives. HMS Blonde rescued the survivors on 15 June.

Challenger was under the command of Captain Michael Seymour. She sailed from Rio de Janeiro on 1 April, bound for Talcahuano. She was sailing off the coast of Chile when she struck on rocks in the late evening of 19 May. Overcast skies had prevented her from taking sightings since 17 May. The crew cut away her mizzen mast and the waves carried her over the rocks into calmer water. Pumping kept the water coming in from sinking her, but it was clear that she was lost. The morning revealed that she was a low, flat beach nearby. Over the next few days the crew used boats and rafts to evacuate Challenger, though some crew members died when their boats overturned in the surf. The crew were also able to salvage a considerable amount of her stores and to establish a camp. Local ranchers arrived and rendered assistance. The survivors abandoned their camp on 8 June and established a new camp at the mouth of the Lebu River, about 10 miles north. from there parties went overland to Concepción, Chile, about 40 miles away (as the crow flies). HMS Blondearrived on 5 July. Investigation revealed that a powerful current had pushed Challenger onshore at Molfguilla.


The wreck of HMS Challenger, with a encampment built by the crew



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Fremantle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_River_Colony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Challenger_(1826)
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1843 – Launch of HMY Victoria and Albert, a twin-paddle steamer


HMY Victoria and Albert was a twin-paddle steamer launched 25 April 1843. It functioned as a royal yacht of the sovereign of the United Kingdom, owned and operated by the Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1842 at Pembroke Dock and was designed by William Symonds. She measured 1,034 tons burthen, carried two guns, and was the first royal yacht to be steam powered, being fitted with a 430 horsepower (320 kW) engine.


HMY Victoria and Albert, depicted during a royal visit to Le Tréport, France; September 1843.

Steam yachts, first introduced in 1823, became popular amongst Victorian millionaires and Royalty around Europe.

She was lengthened in 1853. She was 200 feet and emerged at 260 x 33 x 22 feet, displacement 1,382 tons, with new engines of 600 horsepower (450 kW).

She made twenty voyages. She was renamed Osborne, after the launch of HMY Victoria and Albert II on 16 January 1855.



Her Majesty's Yacht Osborne continued in service, conveying the Royal Family to their summer home, Osborne House, on the Isle of Wight. She was named after the Queen's new estate.

In the 1861 Census, Osborne, 'and her hulk Blonde' had on board, Master Commanding G H K Bowers; a master, boatswain, assistant engineer, quartermaster, 2 carpenters, 11 seamen, 3 stokers and 6 boys.

On 15 February 1862 the Prince of Wales boarded Osborne at Triest, having arrived by train. The Royal party stopped at Venice, the Dalmatian Coast, Corfu and Ionian Islands. She received a 21 gun salute at Alexandria. The tour continued via Jaffa, Constantinople, Athens, Malta and France, to return by train.

Osborne was scrapped in 1868.c.


The ship's figurehead is preserved above the door of the South Office Block in Portsmouth's Royal Dockyard.





Scale: 1:96. A contemporary full hull model of the Royal Yacht Victoria & Albert(I) (1843). Built in ‘bread and butter’ fashion, the model is decked and fully equipped and mounted on its original baseboard. It is complete with a variety of equipment including windlass, ventilation cowls, skylights, deckhouses, a wheel, a full complement of boats slung from davits and two stump masts


Scale: 1:12. A sectional model of part of the aft deck of the Royal Yacht Victoria and Albert (1845). Showing the steering apparatus for the double wheel. The model is made in wood and metal, and is patinated and varnished. The eight-spoke double wheel is supported on a wishbone-shaped brass or bronze frame and situated over the rudder head at deck level. The large drum between the wheels is wound with the steering rope which is then led through a metal block and sheave on deck, then onto another drum connected directly to the worming gear which in turn moves the tiller from port to starboard. The deck section is scored and varnished to resemble planking and the aft and side faces are vertical cream-painted surfaces. The forward face is angled and there is a stern rail with four turned uprights. The deck effectively forms the baseboard for the model and has four bun feet on which it rests. There is a handwritten paper label applied to the right-hand vertical face of the baseboard




Scale 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the royal paddle yacht ‘Victoria and Albert'. The hull is constructed in ‘bread and butter’ fashion, is decked and is fitted with a variety of equipment including windlass, ventilation cowls, skylights, deckhouses, a wheel and two stump masts. The model was constructed by David Harvey, senior modeller of the original Naval Museum at Somerset House, and was awarded at the Great Exhibition of 1851. The model is complete with an original Royal Naval Museum metal label (post 1854) which is inscribed ‘H.M Paddle yacht "Osborne", Tons 1034. Horse Power, 430. Built at Pembroke YD 1843.’ It has 'Royal Naval Museum' and the number '197' on the baseboard and is complete with a glazed wooden display case. The ‘Victoria and Albert’ was the first British steam-propelled royal yacht. Designed by Sir William Symonds, Chief Surveyor of the Navy, it had a wooden hull and measured 200 feet in length by 33 feet in the beam with a tonnage of 1034 builder’s measurement. Launched at Pembroke dock on 26th April 1843, it was propelled by a twin set of direct-acting engines developing 430 horsepower and had a top speed of 11 ½ knots. The Queen and Prince Consort made considerable use of this yacht with over twenty voyages to ports around the UK as well as a couple of visits to the Continent. In 1854 the name was changed to 'Osborne' after Queen Victoria's country house on the Isle of Wight. The yacht remained in service until 1867 and was broken up the following year

HMY Victoria and Albert - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1857 - Launch of HMS Royal Sovereign, originally laid down as a 121-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.


HMS Royal Sovereign was originally laid down as a 121-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She would have mounted sixteen 8 in (200 mm) cannon, 114 32-pounder (15 kg) guns, and a 68-pounder (31 kg) pivot gun. With the rise of steam and screw propulsion, she was ordered to be converted on the stocks to a 131-gun screw ship, with conversion beginning on 25 January 1855. She was finally launched directly into the ordinary on 25 April 1857. She measured 3,765 long tons (3,825 t) burthen, with a gundeck of 240 feet 6 inches (73.30 m) and breadth of 62 feet (19 m), and a crew of 1,100, with engines of 780 nhp.




HMS Royal Sovereign as she appeared as completed as a turret ship in 1864

Turret ship


A plate by Lionel Smythe which appeared in the Illustrated London in 1864 of Royal Sovereignafter her conversion into a turret ship that year.

After several years of inactivity, she was selected for conversion into an experimental turret ship instigated by Captain Cowper Coles, who believed that a mastless ship armed with turret-mounted guns was the best possible design for a coast-defence ship. The order to proceed with the conversion was issued on 4 April 1862.

She was razed down to the lower deck, leaving her with between 7 and 8 feet (2.1 and 2.4 m) of freeboard. The decks and hull sides were strengthened to carry the planned armament, and to absorb the force when the guns were fired. There was some delay when it was found that she had been cut down too far, necessitating some re-building of the sides. On the completion of her conversion on 20 August 1864, she was the first British turret-armed ship, and the only one with a wooden hull. Her length-to-beam ratio was slightly under 4:1, which was the smallest ever ratio used in British armoured ships.

Armament
The original design included five turrets, each containing either two 68-pounder smoothbore or one 100-pounder (45 kg) smoothbore cannon. This was modified to a four-turret configuration, with one 164 long tons (167 t) twin turret, and three 150 long tons (150 t) single turrets. The initial guns carried were 10 1⁄2-inch (270 mm) smoothbores that fired a 150-pound spherical steel shot. In 1867 they were all replaced by 9-inch (230 mm) muzzle-loading rifles.

On 15 January 1866 three shots were fired at close range against the after turret of Royal Sovereign by one of the 9-inch (230 mm) guns carried by HMS Bellerophon to evaluate how well Coles' turrets held up to gunfire. While the armour plates of the turret were displaced, and one shot pierced the back of the turret, the ability of the turret to turn and the guns to fire was not impaired.

Service history
She was commissioned at Portsmouth for service in the English Channel, where she undertook limited operational service and was used for gun and turret testing and evaluation. She paid off in October 1866, being then re-commissioned in July 1867 for the Naval Review. She was thereafter attached to the naval gunnery school HMS Excellent as gunnery ship until 1873, when she was replaced by HMS Glatton and demoted to fourth class reserve. She saw no further service until her sale in May 1885.






Scale: 1:12. Model of the gun turret designed in 1862 for the ironclad turret ship HMS Royal Sovereign (1857). The model is made brass and wood and has been partially painted in blue. There are a set of gears that can each be used to rotate the turret. On the roof of the turret is a ventilator; another part on the roof has either been omitted or is missing. A section of the roof can be removed to reveal the gun below on its mounting. There is provision for a second gun. The model mounted on a baseboard, which resembles the planking of a ship's deck, and it is inscribed "Lowerdeck", "A1", "Auxiliary gear" and "Note: When worked with one set of Gear the other sets should be disconnected". The turret is inscribed "Level of upper deck". There are four partially illegible labels on the deck


Illustrations of the Spars, Rigging, Sails and Interior of a Steam Line of Battle Ship with views and description of the Warrior and Royal Sovereign, Iron-clad and Turret ships... Line-of-Battle Ship Class of Royal Albert, Wellington etc (PAH9267)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Sovereign_(1857)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=royal_sovereign_turret;start=0

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1868 – Launch of SMS König Wilhelm (King William), an armored frigate of the Prussian and later the German Imperial Navy


SMS König Wilhelm (King William) was an armored frigate of the Prussian and later the German Imperial Navy. The ship was laid down in 1865 at the Thames Ironworks shipyard in London, originally under the name Fatih for the Ottoman Empire. She was purchased by Prussia in February 1867, launched in April 1868, and commissioned into the Prussian Navy in February 1869. The ship was the fifth ironclad ordered by the Prussian Navy, after Arminius, Prinz Adalbert, Friedrich Carl, and Kronprinz. She was built as an armored frigate, armed with a main battery of sixteen 24 cm (9.4 in) and five 21 cm (8.3 in) guns; several smaller guns and torpedo tubes were added later in her career.





The ship was for a time the largest and most powerful warship in the German navy; she served as its flagship during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870–1871, though engine troubles prevented the ship from seeing action. In 1878, the ship accidentally rammed and sank the ironclad Grosser Kurfürst, with great loss of life. König Wilhelm was converted into an armored cruiser in 1895–1896; by early 1904, however, she had been superseded by newer vessels. In May of that year, she was placed out of active service and used as a floating barracks and training ship, a role she held through World War I. In 1921, the ship was ultimately broken up for scrap, after a career spanning 52 years and three German states.



Design
General characteristics and machinery

Line-drawing of SMS König Wilhelm

König Wilhelm was 108.60 meters (356 ft 4 in) long at the waterline and 112.20 m (368 ft 1 in) long overall. She had a beam of 18.30 m (60 ft) and a draft of 8.56 m (28 ft 1 in) forward and 8.12 m (26 ft 8 in) aft. The ship was designed to displace 9,757 metric tons (9,603 long tons) at a normal loading, and up to 10,761 t (10,591 long tons) with a combat load. The ship's hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal iron frames. It contained eleven watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for 70 percent of the length of the vessel.

König Wilhelm was noted by the German navy as having had "satisfactory sea-keeping qualities"; the ship was responsive to commands from the helm and had a moderate turning radius. She suffered from severe roll but little pitch. The ship's crew numbered 36 officers and 694 enlisted men, and while serving as a flagship, the crew was augmented with a command staff composed of 9 officers and 47 enlisted men. König Wilhelm carried a number of smaller boats, including two picket boats, two launches, a pinnace, two cutters, two yawls, and one dinghy.

A horizontal two-cylinder single expansion steam engine, built by Maudslay, Son & Field of London, powered the ship. It drove a four-bladed screw 7 m (23 ft 0 in) in diameter. J Penn & Sons of Greenwich built eight trunk boilers for the ship. These were divided into two boiler rooms with twenty fireboxes in each, supplied steam to the engine at 2 standard atmospheres (200 kPa). The propulsion system was rated at 8,000 indicated horsepower (6,000 kW) and a top speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph), though on trials König Wilhelm managed to make 8,440 ihp (6,290 kW) and 14.7 knots (27.2 km/h; 16.9 mph). The ship carried 750 t (740 long tons) of coal, which enabled a maximum range of 1,300 nautical miles (2,400 km; 1,500 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). A ship rig with a surface area of 2,600 square meters (28,000 sq ft) supplemented the steam engine, though in service they added little to the ship's performance. Steering was controlled with a single rudder.

Armament and armor
As built, König Wilhelm was equipped with thirty-three rifled 72-pounder cannon. After her delivery to Germany, these guns were replaced with eighteen 24-centimeter (9.4 in) L/20 guns, supplied with a total of 1,440 rounds of ammunition. These guns were mounted in a central battery, with nine on either broadside. The guns could depress to −4° and elevate to 7.5°; at maximum elevation, the guns could reach targets out to 4,500 m (14,800 ft). The ship's armament was rounded out by five 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, which could depress to −5° and elevate to 13°. Their maximum range was 5,900 m (19,400 ft)


König Wilhelm after the 1895–1896 reconstruction into an armored cruiser

König Wilhelm was reconstructed into an armored cruiser in 1895–1896 and rearmed with twenty-two 24 cm L/20 guns, a single 15 cm (5.9 in) L/30 gun with 109 rounds mounted in the stern, and eighteen 8.8 cm (3.5 in) quick-firing guns on the upper deck, nine on each broadside. The 15 cm gun had a range of 8,900 m (29,200 ft). Five 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubes were also installed; two were placed in the bow, one on both broadsides, and one in the stern, all above water. The torpedo tubes were supplied with a total of 13 rounds. Following her conversion into a training ship, most of her armament was removed. The ship only carried sixteen 8.8 cm L/30 guns, and in 1915, twelve of these were removed.

As built, the ship was protected by wrought iron plating mounted over teak backing. Protection at the waterline was thickest amidships, with an outer layer of iron armor 305 mm (12.0 in) thick, an inner layer of 178 mm (7.0 in) thick iron, and 250 mm (9.8 in) of teak behind the iron. The outer layer was reduced to 152 mm (6.0 in) in the stern but did not extend to the bow. The inner layer was 127 mm (5.0 in) thick in both the bow and stern, and the teak backing was 90 mm (3.5 in) for both ends of the ship. The main battery was protected with 150 mm (5.9 in) thick plating and capped on either end with 150 mm thick transverse bulkheads. During her reconstruction into an armored cruiser, the iron armor was cut away and replaced with stronger steel armor. The conning tower received armor protection during the refit as well. The sides were 50 to 100 mm (2.0 to 3.9 in) thick sloped plates, with a 30 mm (1.2 in) thick roof.

Service history
Laid down at the Thames Ironworks shipyard in London, England in 1865, the ship was originally ordered by the Ottoman Empire as the Fatih. The ship was built to a design created by the British naval architect Edward Reed. Before her launch, the Prussian Navy purchased the ship on 6 February 1867 and initially renamed it Wilhelm I. On 14 December 1867, the ship was renamed again, as König Wilhelm. She was launched on 25 April 1868 and commissioned less than a year later, on 20 February 1869. The ship's first commander was Kapitän zur See Ludwig von Henk. The ship was the largest and most powerful vessel in the Prussian fleet, and served as its flagship. Indeed, König Wilhelm remained the largest German vessel until 1891. This was in part due to the fact that Germany laid down only one small ironclad between 1876 and 1888; the four Brandenburg-class battleships, launched in 1891 and 1892, were the first ships to surpass König Wilhelm in size.

Franco-Prussian War
At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the greatly numerically inferior Prussian Navy assumed a defensive posture against a naval blockade imposed by the French Navy. König Wilhelm and the broadside ironclads Friedrich Carl and Kronprinz, along with the small ironclad ram Prinz Adalbert, had been steaming in the English Channel before the French declared war; they had left Plymouth on 10 July with the intention of steaming to Fayal in the Azores. On the 13th, however, they put into port and learned of the rising tension between France and Prussia. The ships therefore returned to Wilhelmshaven immediately, arriving on 16 July. France declared war on Prussia three days later on 19 July. König Wilhelm, Friedrich Carl, and Kronprinz were concentrated in the North Sea at the port of Wilhelmshaven. They were subsequently joined there by the turret ship Arminius, which had been stationed in Kiel.

Despite the great French naval superiority, the French had conducted insufficient pre-war planning for an assault on the Prussian naval installations, and concluded that it would only be possible with Danish assistance, which was not forthcoming. The four ships, under the command of Vice Admiral Jachmann, made an offensive sortie in early August 1870 out to the Dogger Bank, though they encountered no French warships. König Wilhelm and the other two broadside ironclads thereafter suffered from chronic engine trouble, which left Arminius alone to conduct operations. König Wilhelm, Friedrich Carl, and Kronprinz stood off the island of Wangerooge for the majority of the conflict, while Arminius was stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river. On 11 September, the three broadside ironclads were again ready for action; they joined Arminius for another major operation into the North Sea. It too did not encounter French opposition, as the French Navy had by this time returned to France. After the war, the Prussian Navy became the Imperial Navy, and resumed its peacetime training routines. General Albrecht von Stosch became the chief of the Imperial Navy, and organized the fleet for coastal defense.

Collision with Grosser Kurfürst

König Wilhelm collides with Grosser Kurfürst

While steaming in the Straits of Dover on 31 May 1878, König Wilhelm accidentally collided with the newly commissioned turret ironclad Grosser Kurfürst. The two ships, along with Preussen, had left Wilhelmshaven on the 29th. König Wilhelm and Preussen steamed in a line, with Grosser Kurfürst off to starboard. On the morning of the 31st, the three ships encountered a pair of sailing vessels off Folkestone. Grosser Kurfürst turned to port to avoid the boats while König Wilhelm sought to pass the two boats, but there was not enough distance between her and Grosser Kurfürst. She therefore turned hard to port to avoid Grosser Kurfürst, but the action was not taken quickly enough, and König Wilhelm found herself pointed directly at Grosser Kurfürst. König Wilhelm's ram bow tore a hole in Grosser Kurfürst.

A failure to adequately seal the watertight bulkheads aboard Grosser Kurfürst caused the ship to sink rapidly, in the span of about eight minutes. Out of a crew of 500 men, 269 died in the accident. König Wilhelm was also badly damaged in the collision, with severe flooding forward. König Wilhelm's captain initially planned on beaching the ship to prevent it from sinking, but determined that the ship's pumps could hold the flooding to an acceptable level. The ship made for Portsmouth, where temporary repairs could be effected to allow the ship to return to Germany. In the aftermath of the collision, the German navy held a court martial for Rear Admiral Batsch, the squadron commander, and Captains Monts and Kuehne, the commanders of the two ships, along with Lieutenant Clausa, the first officer aboard Grosser Kurfürst, to investigate the sinking. The damage to König Wilhelm necessitated a lengthy period of repairs from 1878 to 1882. The work was carried out at the Imperial Dockyard in Wilhelmshaven, and also included reboilering and replacement of the ship's ram. Torpedo nets were fitted to the ship from 1885 to 1897.

Later service

König Wilhelm as a training ship

By 1893, König Wilhelm had been assigned as the flagship for the II Division of the German fleet; the four Sachsen-class armored corvettes composed the I Squadron. The ship flew the flag of Admiral Otto von Diederichs, and was based in Wilhelmshaven. On 20 February 1894, a special ceremony was held on board the ship to commemorate the 25th anniversary of her commissioning. Kaiser Wilhelm II attended the ceremony, as did Ludwig von Henk, who had by that time retired as a Vizeadmiral. In April 1894, the II Division conducted a training cruise to prepare for the annual summer maneuvers. During the cruise, König Wilhelm ran aground on a mud bank off the Frisian coast. Deutschland and Friedrich der Grosse quickly pulled the ship free with minimal damage. The ships then proceeded to Scotland via Oslo and Bergen. The division returned to Kiel at the end of May to replenish its stocks of coal and provisions for the summer exercises. During the 1894 maneuvers, von Diederich's II Division acted as the opposing force in the Baltic, simulating a Russian fleet attacking Germany's Baltic coast. Following the conclusion of maneuvers in September, Admiral Diederichs left the squadron and was replaced by Admiral Karl Barandon.

In 1895, König Wilhelm went into drydock at the Blohm and Voss shipyard in Hamburg for an extensive reconstruction into an armored cruiser. The vessel's armament was increased, the ship rig was removed, and new fighting masts were installed in place of the old masts. The ship's crew was dramatically increased, to 38 officers and 1,120 enlisted men. Work lasted through 1896, and the ship was returned to the fleet in her new guise on 25 January 1897. On 26 June, she represented Germany at the Fleet Review for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. She served with the fleet until 1904, when she was removed from active duty. Starting on 3 May 1904, she became a harbor ship. She was then used as barracks ship and training vessel for naval cadets, based in Kiel, starting on 1 October 1907. Two years later, König Wilhelm was moved to the Naval Academy at Mürwik, where she continued in these duties. Starting in 1910, the old corvette Charlotte served as a support vessel for the ship. The light cruiser Medusa replaced Charlotte as König Wilhelm's auxiliary vessel in 1917. König Wilhelm served through World War I, until 1921, after Germany's defeat. On 4 January 1921, the ship was stricken from the naval register and broken up for scrap in Rönnebeck.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_König_Wilhelm
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_König_Wilhelm

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1868 – Launch of HMS Repulse, the last wooden battleship constructed for the Royal Navy


HMS Repulse was the last wooden battleship constructed for the Royal Navy.



She was laid down as a 90-gun second-rate line-of-battle ship with two decks; having been approved for conversion to a broadside ironclad in 1861, work on her was intentionally delayed until the performance of earlier conversions from wooden hull to ironclad could be assessed. She was therefore eleven years from being laid down to completion, no work at all being undertaken on her between 1861 and 1866.

In 1864 Sir Edward Reed had been Chief Constructor for some eighteen months, and was in a position to stipulate the nature of the armament and the disposition of armour which Repulse should carry when construction should be resumed, which it was in 1866. Guns of 9-inch and 10-inch calibre were already afloat in the Royal Navy, and clearly similar weapons could be carried by potential adversaries. It followed that armour of 4.5 inches thickness, which since HMS Warrior had been regarded as adequate, could no longer be so considered. Thicker armour had therefore to be provided, which in turn meant that less of the side of the ship could be armoured, lest the displacement exceed the allowed tonnage. While the water-line belt was continuous from stem to stern, the armour over the battery stretched for only 70 feet (21 m), the hull fore and aft of this being exposed wood. The risk of battle damage to these large unprotected areas was minimised by posting her the Pacific station, where combat with any unit of significant force was thought to be unlikely.

Repulse was always intended as an overseas flagship. She had the reputation of providing the best accommodation in the fleet, with the Captain's quarters under the poop, the Admiral's quarters on the main deck, and officers' cabins arranged either side of the poop, with most officers being able to bunk under an open port-hole, which in the tropics markedly enhanced comfort and habitability.

She covered more distance under sail alone than any ironclad except HMS Zealous.

Service history
Her conversion finally started on 25 October 1866. She was commissioned in March 1870 and posted to Queensferry, where she served for two years as guardship. She relieved Zealous as flagship, Pacific Fleet, and patrolled the seas from Patagonia to British Columbia for the next five years. She was relieved by HMS Shah in 1877; in coming home her Captain decided not to pass through the Straits of Magellan under steam - which was the accepted route - but to round Cape Horn under sail. The trip from the Pacific to Rio de Janeiro took her seven weeks; she was the only British armoured ship ever to round the Horn under canvas. She was under refit from 1877 to 1880, and was then guardship at Hull until 1885, in the days when a warship was stationed at every major British port. She was mobilized as part of the Royal Navy Evolutionary Squadron 1885 commanded by of Admiral Sir Geoffrey Phipps Hornby. The Repulse was then held in reserve until sold.



Royal Alfred in 1867

The Bulwark class were the final class of wooden line-of-battle ships laid down for the Royal Navy. They were laid down after HMS Warrior. In March 1861 their construction was suspended, and seven were later converted to iron-clads. HMS Bulwark and HMS Robust were kept on the stocks almost complete, in case of need, until they were scrapped in 1873 and 1872.



Origins
The consensus of British naval opinion after the Crimean War favoured the large steam-powered two-decker line-of-battle ship with 101 or 91 guns. The designs for two-decker evolved. "The 101-gun type were redesigned with an extra 400 tons and engines of 800 nhp, to produce the Duncan class. The 91s were given similar engines, while their smaller increase in size was largely taken up with an additional 15 feet (4.6 m) overall for a finer length-to-beam ratio and improved lines in HMS Defiance." In the 1859 programme the two types were merged to produce a 91-gun ship with the dimensions of the 101-gun type. Two ships built on this plan - the Bulwark and Robust, the latter having been commenced as a 101-gun ship - were preserved on the stocks until 1872, the remaining seven being converted into ironclads. These last two-deckers were 252 feet (77 m) overall, that they all displayed all the classic symptoms of weak construction, such as leaky seams, demonstrated that wood was no longer suitable for the construction of the largest classes of warships.

Britain's first sea-going iron-clad, HMS Warrior was laid down in May 1859, and a further three had been laid down by the end of 1859. Nevertheless, the Royal Navy continued to convert old sailing line-of-battle ships to steam, and to order and lay down new Bulwark-class two-deckers. The objective was to achieve parity with the combined navies of France and Russia. Initially there was great uncertainty about the value of iron-clads. So it was prudent to continue building unarmoured steam line-of-battle ships, which would in any case be "the common currency of sea-power for some years to come."

In March 1861, work on the Bulwark class was suspended. They were retained on the stocks while the smaller HMS Defiance was launched on 27 March 1861. The larger ships were better suited for conversion into iron-clads and were held in reserve for that purpose. Similarly, the sailing line-of-battle ships HMS Albion and HMS Bombay completed their conversion to steam line-of-battle ships on 21 May and 25 June 1861 respectively.


Royal Oak In Grand Harbour circa 1867 after being re-armed

Design
The Bulwark class ships were a modification of the 101-gun Duncan-class design. They had the same dimensions, but had a new timbering plan dated 29 July 1858, which suited the smaller armament. The reduction in armament was intended to improve the efficiency of the guns.



Conversion to iron-clads
Bulwark and Robust were suspended on the stocks in March 1861 in an advanced state of construction. The Controller "had plans prepared for the Bulwark to be converted into a twin turret breastwork monitor but they were never used. As Edward Reed pointed out this was a wise policy as they would have been inferior to, and yet more costly than, iron-hulled ships built from scratch." "In war time the rapidity with which these ships might be converted into iron-clads would probably outweigh these considerations". Bulwark and Robust were eventually broken up in March 1873 and August 1872 respectively.

The remaining seven ships of the Bulwark class were in a less complete state and were converted into 'ironclad frigates'.

Of these HMS Triumph (later renamed HMS Prince Consort), HMS Ocean, and HMS Caledonia were converted to 'broadside ironclads' with 1000 nhp engines. HMS Royal Oak had a similar conversion but with the original 800 nhp engine. The development of these four ships is discussed in the article on the Prince Consort class.

HMS Royal Alfred, HMS Zealous and HMS Repulse were later converted into 'central battery ships'.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Repulse_(1868)

Bulwark-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1898 – Spanish gunboat Ligera repulses an attack by American torpedo boat USS Foote


The Action of 25 April 1898 was a minor single ship action of the Spanish–American War fought near Cárdenas, Cuba, between the American torpedo boat USS Foote under Lieutenant William Ledyard Rodgers and the Spanish gunboat Ligera under Lieutenant Antonio Pérez Rendón. After a fierce exchange of fire, Foote, seriously damaged, was forced to withdraw. The engagement was the first battle of the war, as well as the first naval Spanish success.




USS Foote

Background

Spanish 3rd class gunboat Ligera.

At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, the US Navy detached a force of two protected cruisers, 16 auxiliary cruisers, 12 torpedo boats and many other units including armed tugboats, yachts and colliers to blockade the Cuban coasts with the aim of cutting off the supplies of the Spanish Army. It proved to be a difficult task due to the large number of inlets, keys and natural ports of that coasts that allowed the much inferior Spanish vessels to break the blockade many times. One of that ports was Cárdenas. The naval units based there were the gunboats Alerta, Ligera and Antonio López, the last a former tugboat operated by the Spanish Line, which had ceded it to the navy. The port was supposedly defended by two shore-batteries, but the Spanish accounts didn't mention their presence prior to their installation on 12 May. The entrances to the bay were covered by 20 Bustamante mines, most of them defective, and a 70-men company of marines had been detached to garrison the town. The gunboats belonged to the Spanish Caribbean squadron under Admiral Vicente Manterola, and most of its units had been described as "unhelpful even to the coastal police". Antonio López, nevertheless, had captured the filibuster ship Genoveva and the schooner William Todd few years before.

Battle

Antonio Pérez Rendón.

On 25 April, the Ligera patrolled the entrance of Cárdenas' port. Her commander was Lieutenant Antonio Pérez Rendón y Sánchez, an experienced Cádiz-born officer who had seen action against the Cuban insurgents many times during the war. The American torpedo boat Foote, a 142-ton warship armed with three 1-pounder guns and three 457 mm torpedo tubes, was sighted off Cayo Diana. Both ships soon opened fire on each other. The American fired more rapidly, but less accurately. Foote fired about 70 shots, of which only one hit Ligera, while Ligera only managed 10. The damage and casualties aboard the Spanish ship were minimal. Foote, meanwhile, took several hits that caused heavy damage. Foote left the combat enveloped in smoke with its boilers badly damaged. At the time the Spanish believed that the U.S. torpedo boat was the USS Cushing.

Aftermath
Antonio Rendón was awarded with the Naval Cross of Maria Cristina for his success, which was met with public acclaim. Subsequently, the American and Spanish navies fought several more engagements near Cárdenas. On 8 May, the three Spanish gunboats under Rendón surprised the American torpedo boat USS Winslow, which was part of a small flotilla led by the gunboat USS Machias. The most important of the battles around Cárdenas, the Battle of Cárdenas, took place on 11 May, when Rendón and his ships repulsed an attack against the port.

Spanish naval successes of the war were mainly due to the actions of their small coastguard vessels. Besides the actions off Cárdenas they faced the American Mosquito Squadron with some success in Manzanillo, Cienfuegos and even in Philippine waters. There the gunboat Elcano captured the American bark Saranac on 26 April 1898. Saranac, under Captain Bartaby, was carrying 1,640 tons of coal from Newcastle, New South Wales, to Iloilo, for Admiral Dewey's fleet.


USS Foote (Torpedo Boat No. 3/TB-3/Coast Torpedo Boat No. 1) was launched 1 October 1896 by Columbian Iron Works and Dry Dock Co., Baltimore, Md.; sponsored by Miss Laura Price; and commissioned 7 August 1897, Lieutenant W. L. Rodgers in command.

After training out of Charleston, S.C., Foote joined the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Key West, Fla., 19 March 1898. In the subsequent Spanish–American War she served as picket, patrolled, and carried orders from the flagship to ships of the squadron, and from 23 April, patrolled the Cuban coast closely, primarily off the Cardenas entrance to Havana Harbor. On that day, she penetrated the harbor to scout shipping, was fired upon by a clearly weaker Spanish small gunboat, and she retired.

Six days later, she herself bombarded Morro Island. Several times during the summer, she returned to Key West to load mail, stores, and despatches for the squadron off Havana, and on 14 August she returned to Charleston, S.C.. Foote was out of commission at New York from 28 October 1898 to 9 November 1900, then operated in the Newport-Boston area until placed in reserve at Norfolk 6 March 1901. In 1908 she moved to Charleston.

Detached from the Reserve Torpedo Flotilla 8 June 1910, Foote based on Charleston for the next year, putting to sea only for a 3-week cruise early in 1911. From 27 June 1911 to 15 November 1916, she was assigned to the North Carolina Naval Militia, based at New Bern, then lay at Charleston until returned to full commission 7 April 1917. Through World War I, Foote patrolled the coast of the 6th Naval District; renamed Coast Torpedo Boat No. 1 1 August 1918. She was decommissioned at Philadelphia 28 March 1919, and sold 19 July 1920.

Action of 25 April 1898 - Wikipedia

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USS Foote (TB-3) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 April 1908 - off the Isle of Wight: the HMS Gladiator collided with the US liner SS St. Paul and Capsized - 127 people died


HMS Gladiator was a second class protected cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 December 1896 at Portsmouth, England. She was of the Arrogant class rated at 5,750 long tons (5,840 t) displacement, with a crew of 250 officers and men. She had three distinctive stacks amidships with a conspicuous bridge well forward.



Service history
Gladiator was ordered to be commissioned at Portsmouth on 15 February 1900 to take out relief crews for the Australia Station.

She served with the Mediterranean Squadron under the command of Captain Frederick Owen Pike, when she visited Larnaka in June 1902, and Lemnos in August 1902. Captain T. B. S. Adair was appointed in command on 22 September 1902.

Collision




Raising of HMS Gladiator



During a late snowstorm off the Isle of Wight on 25 April 1908, Gladiator was heading into port when she struck the outbound American steamer SS Saint Paul. Visibility was down to 800 yd (730 m), but the strong tides and gale force winds required both ships to maintain high speeds to maintain steerage.

Lookouts on each vessel saw the approaching danger off Hurst Point. The American ship attempted to pass to the port side, the standard procedure in such a situation. Lacking room for the manoeuvre, Captain William Lumsden choose to turn the opposite direction, ensuring a collision. Both ships attempted to slow but both were exceptionally heavy (Saint Paul was built for conversion in wartime to a cruiser). They hit at about 3 knots (5.6 km/h; 3.5 mph). Saint Paul struck Gladiator just aft of her engine room.

The glancing blow ripped open the sides of both ships. The British warship foundered at once, while the American was able to remain afloat and launch lifeboats. Several men were also saved by Royal Engineers from nearby Fort Victoria. A total of 27 sailors were lost, but only three bodies were recovered.[citation needed]

Gladiator settled on her starboard side in shallow water close to Fort Victoria. Salvage work began almost at once, but it took over five months to right the ship, re-float it and tow it back to Portsmouth. The operation cost £64,000 pounds and a further £500 to make the ship seaworthy, but as the ship's design was considered obsolete, she was scrapped rather than repaired. Gladiator was sold to a Dutch firm for only £15,000.

A court of inquiry reprimanded Captain Lumsden in July 1908, but held Saint Paul responsible for the collision. However, when the Admiralty sued the owners of the liner, a high court held Gladiator responsible.

Later fame
A postcard of the capsized vessel was subsequently used by the artist Tacita Dean as the basis for her artwork So They Sunk Her, part of a portfolio of twenty black and white photogravures with etching collectively entitled The Russian Ending. The artwork ascribes the cause of the incident to a fictitious mutiny. A copy of the artwork is held by the Tate in London.


The SS Saint Paul was a trans-Atlantic ocean liner named for the capital of Minnesota.



Saint Paul was launched on 10 April 1895 by William Cramp & Sons, Philadelphia, as a steel passenger liner; chartered for United States Navy service as an auxiliary cruiser from her owner, International Navigation Company, by a board appointed on 12 March 1898; and commissioned on 20 April 1898 for Spanish–American War service, Captain Charles D. Sigsbee in command.

Service history
Spanish–American War


The St. Paul in port.

Departing Philadelphia on 5 May 1898, Saint Paul's first assignment was to cruise in search of Admiral Cervera's squadron between Morant Point, Jamaica, and western Haiti. She captured the British collier Restormel—bound for Cuba with a critical cargo of Cardiff coal—on 25 May and sent her into Key West under a prize crew. She cruised off Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo Bay into mid-June, then sailed to join the force blockading San Juan, Puerto Rico.


St Paul capsized at the pier in New York. Caption from Popular Science Magazine July 1918 edition



Saint Paul arrived off San Juan on the morning of 22 June. Shortly after midday, in the 2nd battle of San Juan, the Spanish cruiser Isabel II, emerged from the harbor and, remaining under protection of shore batteries, opened fire on Saint Paul at long range without success. Isabel II was joined shortly by the destroyer Terror, which attempted to close Saint Paul to launch torpedoes. Saint Paul took Terror under heavy fire, scoring at least one direct hit which heavily damaged the destroyer. Terror gave up the attack and returned to port, followed by Isabel II. Saint Paul was relieved by Yosemite off San Juan on the 26th and made for New York to coal.

Saint Paul spent the remainder of her Spanish–American War service as a transport, operating for 48 days in July–August as a War Department vessel. She landed troops at Siboney, Cuba, and Arroyo, Puerto Rico, subsequently returning soldiers from Guantanamo Bay to New York City through 15 August. Entering the Cramp shipyard on 22 August for reconversion to mercantile service, Saint Paul was decommissioned on 2 September and returned to her owner the same day.

Collision
On 25 April 1908, outward bound from Southampton, England, in a late snowstorm, the Saint Paul was in collision with the British cruiser, HMS Gladiator in the Needles Channel. Gladiator foundered in shallow water with the loss of 27 crew, but the Saint Paul was able to return to Southampton for repairs.

World War I

Image of one of Saint Paul's deck guns.

Saint Paul was again taken over for wartime service on 27 October 1917. Operated by the United States Shipping Board as a transport on the War Department account, she retained her merchant crew and carried a naval armed guard on board. She made twelve voyages between New York and Liverpool, England. She was transferred to the Navy account in April 1918; designated SP-1643; and overhauled at New York. Then, while being towed to her berth from dry dock on 28 April with her ballast removed, she capsized in the North River. Righted on 11 September, she was subsequently turned over to the Commandant, 3rd Naval District, on 17 October.

Saint Paul entered the New York Navy Yard the following day, but the end of World War I led to cancellation of plans to convert the ship to a troopship.

Post-war
Placed in temporary commission on 14 January 1919 for the purpose of fixing responsibility for her care outside the Navy Yard, Saint Paul soon began reconversion for mercantile service. Returned to her owner on 24 March 1919, Saint Paul was scrapped in Germany in 1923.

HMS Gladiator (1896) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Saint_Paul_(1895)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 25 April - Part I


1709 - HMS Bristol (1653 – 44) was a British 44-gun fourth-rate frigate, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England during the 1650s, foundered after she was captured one day before by french

HMS Bristol (1653) - Wikipedia

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1725 – Birth of Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel, English admiral and politician (d. 1786)

Admiral Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel PC (25 April 1725 – 2 October 1786) was a Royal Navy officer and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1755 to 1782. He saw action in command of various ships, including the fourth-rate Maidstone, during the War of the Austrian Succession. He went on to serve as Commodore on the North American Station and then Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station during the Seven Years' War. After that he served as Senior Naval Lord and then Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet.



During the American Revolutionary War Keppel came into a notorious dispute with Sir Hugh Palliser over Palliser's conduct as his second-in-command at the inconclusive Battle of Ushant in July 1778; the dispute led to Keppel being court-martialled, although he was subsequently acquitted. During the final years of the American Revolutionary War Keppel served as First Lord of the Admiralty.

Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel - Wikipedia

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1757 – Launch of French Oiseau, (launched 25 April 1757 at Toulon) – captured by British Navy 1762.

Minerve class (30-gun design of 1754 by Jacques-Luc Coulomb, with 26 x 8-pounder and 4 x 4-pounder guns).
Minerve, (launched 15 February 1756 at Toulon) – wrecked October 1762 off Villefranche.
Oiseau, (launched 25 April 1757 at Toulon) – captured by British Navy 1762.


1758 – Launch of HMS Chatham, a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1752

HMS Chatham was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1752, and launched on 25 April 1758.
On 2 September 1781 Chatham captured the French frigate Magicienne off Cape Ann after a sanguinary engagement. Magicienne was serving in Orvilliers' fleet under captain Brun de Boades. In the action the French lost 60 men killed and 40 wounded; the British lost one man killed and one man wounded. Magicienne was described as being of 800 tons, 36 guns and 280 men. She was subsequently taken to Halifax and recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Magicienne.
Chatham was placed on harbour service in 1793, and continued in this role until 1814, when the decision was taken to have her broken up.[



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Chatham_(1758)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-301736;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C


1796 HMS Agamemnon (64), Cptn. Horatio Nelson, and squadron captured French vessels at Finale.

HMS Agamemnon was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She saw service in the Anglo-French War, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and fought in many of the major naval battles of those conflicts. She is remembered as being Nelson's favourite ship, and was named after the mythical ancient Greek king Agamemnon, being the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

HMS Agamemnon (1781) - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-289643;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A


1800 HMS Lark (16), J. H. Wilson, captured French privateer cutter Impregnable (14) which had run ashore on Vlie Island

HMS Lark was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class, launched in 1794 at Northfleet. She served primarily in the Caribbean, where she took a number of prizes, some after quite intensive action. Lark foundered off San Domingo in August 1809, with the loss of her captain and almost all her crew.

HMS Lark (1794) - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-324976;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L


1805 HMS Archer (14), Lt. William price, captured two gun-vessels off Cap Gris Nez.

HMS Archer (1801) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1801 and sold in 1815.



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-292273;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A


1806 HMS Pallas (32), Cptn. Lord Cochrane, reconnoitred Isle of Aix.

HMS Pallas was a 32-gun fifth rate Thames-class frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804 at Plymouth.

HMS Pallas (1804) - Wikipedia

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1807 – Launch of HMS Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys.

HMS Coquette was launched in 1807 and spent her naval career patrolling in the Channel and escorting convoys. In 1813 she engaged an American privateer in a notable but inconclusive single-ship action. The Navy put Coquette in ordinary in 1814 and sold her in 1817. She became a whaler and made five whaling voyages before she was lost in 1835 on her sixth.



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

Cormorant-class ship-sloop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1808 HMS Forward (14), Lt. Sheils, towed in boats of consorts and captured ten sail at Flodstrand.

During the Gunboat War, Forward towed three boats from Daphne and two from Tartarus in an attack on ten laden vessels, moored at Fladstrand in Denmark. Despite coming under artillery and musket fire from a fortification, the vessels were successfully spirited away, with five men wounded in the action

HMS Forward was a 12-gun gun-brig of the Archer class of the British Royal Navy.



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

HMS Daphne (1806) - Wikipedia

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1810 HMS Spartan (38), Capt. Jahleel Brenton, HMS Success (32), Cptn. John Ayscough, and HMS Espoir (18), Robert Mitford, engaged batteries and took 4 vessels at Monte Circello.

On 25 April 1810, Success in company with the frigate Spartan, Captain Jahleel Brenton, and the brig-sloop Espoir, Commander Robert Mitford, observed a ship, three barks, and several feluccas at anchor under the castle of Terracina. The boats of the squadron were sent in under the Lieutenants William Augustus Baumgardt of Spartan and George Sartorius of Success, who, supported by the fire from the ships, and in spite of spirited resistance, brought out the ship and the barks, with a loss of only one man killed and two wounded.

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 Success was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy launched in 1781, which served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French captured her in the Mediterranean on 13 February 1801, but she was recaptured by the British on 2 September. She continued to serve in the Mediterranean until 1811, and in North America until hulked in 1814, then serving as a prison ship and powder hulk, before being broken up in 1820.

HMS Espoir was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, primarily in the Mediterranean, and then briefly on the North American station. She was broken up in April 1821.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Spartan_(1806)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...0;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S;start=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Success_(1781)

HMS Espoir (1804) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 25 April - Part II


1811 - 3 Danish gunboats, under Sub Lt. Christen F. Klinck, engage at Kongshavn near Uddevalla, Sweden the British cutters The Swan and Hero. The Swan is captured but sunk shortly afterwards

On 24 April 1811, Swan and hired armed cutter Hero anchored off Kungsholm; at 3am the next morning they saw three Danish gunboats in The Sleeve (Sunningesund), approaching them. The two British cutters cut their cables and attempted to escape. Shots from one of the gunboats damaged Swan and one shot resulted in the wetting of her powder magazine. As the wind died off, the gunboats concentrated on Swan, forcing her surrender. The Danes boarded her but were able to retrieve little before Swan sank off Uddevalla, on the Swedish coast north of Gothenburg. The fight cost Swan two men killed and one wounded.[30] The same battle apparently also resulted in damage to Hero.

The second Swan was a cutter of ten 12-pounder carronades and 119 27⁄94 tons burthen (bm) that served the Royal Navy from 6 August 1803 to 21 October 1803 and again from 3 August 1807 until the Danes captured her on 24 April 1811 during the Gunboat War



The second hired armed cutter Hero carried ten 12-pounder carronades and was of 11927⁄94 tons (bm). She served the Royal Navy from 4 May 1809 to 11 November 1811.

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

Hired armed cutter Hero - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-351913;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S


1813 - HMS Duke of Gloucester (or Gloucester) was a 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy which was launched at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Ontari, captured by Americans

HMS Duke of Gloucester (or Gloucester) was a 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy which was launched at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Ontario. A Provincial Marine vessel, during the War of 1812, the brig took part in several of the early engagements between British and American naval forces on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. While being repaired at York, Duke of Gloucester was captured by Americans in 1813. A month later the British destroyed the brig at the Battle of Sackett's Harbor.

During the winter of 1812–1813, Duke of Gloucester was sent to York, Upper Canada. However, by 1813, Duke of Gloucester was no longer seaworthy and was un-rigged. Duke of Gloucester was being repaired at York, with the intent of increasing the vessel's armament to 16 guns when the Americans briefly captured the colonial capital in 1813. Chauncey stripped the town of guns and supplies and towed the schooner back to Sackett's Harbor, New York. Renamed York, the schooner was converted to a powder hulk at Sackett's Harbor. York was herself damaged by the British a month later on 29 May 1813 in the Battle of Sackett's Harbor.

HMS Duke of Gloucester (1807) - Wikipedia

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1815 – Launch of HMS Defence, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 April 1815 at Chatham.

HMS Defence was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 25 April 1815 at Chatham.
She was converted to serve as a prison ship in 1849. Defence was badly damaged by an accidental fire, probably caused by spontaneous combustion in a load recently delivered coal, at Woolwich on 14 July 1857. The fire was extinguished by scuttling the ship and while it was not totally destroyed the remains were broken up later.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Defence_(1815)

Vengeur-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-306647;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D


1842 – Launch of French Virginie, (launched 25 April 1842 at Rochefort) – deleted 13 May 1881.

Artémise class (52-gun type, 1826 design by Jean-Baptiste Hubert):
Artémise, (launched 1828 at Lorient) – deleted 3 October 1840.
Andromède, (launched 5 April 1833 at Lorient) – deleted 24 October 1860.
Néréide, (launched 17 February 1836 at Lorient) – deleted 30 December 1887.
Gloire, (launched 1837 at Rochefort) – wrecked 10 August 1847 off Korea.
Cléopâtre, (launched 23 April 1838 at Saint-Servan) – deleted 31 December 1864.
Danaé, (launched 23 May 1838 at Saint-Servan) – fitted as steam frigate 1857 – deleted 18 January 1878.
Virginie, (launched 25 April 1842 at Rochefort) – deleted 13 May 1881.
Circé, (launched 15 October 1860 at Rochefort as a steam frigate) – deleted 22 July 1872.
Hermione, (launched 16 August 1860 at Brest as a steam frigate) – deleted 11 May 1877.
Junon, (launched 28 January 1861 at Brest as a steam frigate) – deleted 24 March 1872.
Flore, (launched 27 February 1869 at Rochefort as a steam frigate) – deleted 18 October 1886.


plans of the French 2nd rank frigates. The ships of the type comprised Artémise, Andromède, Néréide, Cléopatre, Danaé, Gloire and Virginie

Sistership : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Néréide_(1836)


1845 HMS Skylark (10), Lt. George Morris, wrecked on the Kimmeridge Ledge on the Dorset coast

HMS Skylark was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s.

HMS Skylark (1826) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1854 – Launch of French Saint Louis was a 90-gun Suffren-class Ship of the line of the French Navy.

The Saint Louis was a 90-gun Suffren-class Ship of the line of the French Navy. She was the twenty-second ship in French service named in honour of Louis IX of France.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Saint_Louis_(1854)

Suffren-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

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1862 Union naval forces occupy New Orleans, LA

Union Flag Officer David G. Farraguts fleet sails into New Orleans, La., after long preparation and fierce battles while passing through the Confederate defenses of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip the previous day.


1915 Anzac Day

is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand that broadly commemorates all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars, conflicts, and peacekeeping operations" and "the contribution and suffering of all those who have served". Observed on 25 April each year, Anzac Day was originally devised to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who served in the Gallipoli campaign, their first engagement in the First World War (1914–1918).



Gallipoli campaign
In 1915, Australian and New Zealand soldiers formed part of an Allied expedition that set out to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula to open the way to the Black Sea for the Allied navies. The objective was to capture Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which was a member of the Central Powers during the war. The ANZAC force landed at Gallipoli on 25 April, meeting fierce resistance from the Ottoman Army commanded by Mustafa Kemal (later known as Atatürk). What had been planned as a bold strike to knock the Ottomans out of the war quickly became a stalemate, and the campaign dragged on for eight months. At the end of 1915, the Allied forces were evacuated after both sides had suffered heavy casualties and endured great hardships. The Allied deaths totalled over 56,000, including 8,709 from Australia and 2,721 from New Zealand.[9][10] of the landing at Gallipoli made a profound impact on Australians and New Zealanders at home and 25 April quickly became the day on which they remembered the sacrifice of those who had died in the war.

Anzac Day - Wikipedia

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1918 - off Hankow: Chinese steamer "Kiang-Kwan" sank after collision; 500 people died


1944 - USS Crevalle (SS 291) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Kashiwa Maru, north of Borneo and USS Guvania (SS 362) sinks Japanese army cargo ship Tetsuyo Maru, northwest of Chichi Jima.


1960 – The United States Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

Operation Sandblast was the code name for the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, executed by the United States Navy nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton (SSRN-586) in 1960 under the command of Captain Edward L. Beach. The New York Times described Triton's submerged circumnavigation of the Earth as "a triumph of human prowess and engineering skill, a feat which the United States Navy can rank as one of its bright victories in man's ultimate conquest of the seas."



The circumnavigation took place between 24 February and 25 April 1960, covering 26,723 nautical miles (49,491 km; 30,752 mi) over 60 days and 21 hours. The route began and ended at the St. Peter and Paul Rocksin the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the Equator. During the voyage, Triton crossed the Equator four times while maintaining an average speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). Triton's overall navigational track during Operation Sandblast generally followed that of the first circumnavigation of the world, led by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan from 1519 to 1522.

The initial impetus for Operation Sandblast was to increase American technological and scientific prestige before the May 1960 Paris Summit between U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. It also provided a high-profile public demonstration of the capability of U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarines to carry out long-range submerged operations independent of external support and undetected by hostile forces, presaging the initial deployment of the U.S. Navy's Polaris ballistic missile submarines later in 1960. Finally, Operation Sandblast gathered extensive oceanographic, hydrographic, gravimetric, geophysical, and psychological data during Triton's circumnavigation.

Although official celebrations for Operation Sandblast were cancelled following the diplomatic furor arising from the shooting down of a CIA U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union in early May 1960, Triton did receive the Presidential Unit Citation with a special clasp in the form of a golden replica of the globe in recognition of the successful completion of its mission, and Captain Beach received the Legion of Merit for his role as Triton's commanding officer. In 1961, Beach received the Magellanic Premium, the United States' oldest and most prestigious scientific award, from the American Philosophical Society in "recognition of his navigation of the U.S. submarine Triton around the globe."



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Triton_(SSRN-586)

Operation Sandblast - Wikipedia

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