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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1607 - Late in 1606, English colonizers set sail with a charter from the London Company to establish a colony in the New World. The fleet consisted of the ships Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, all under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport.
They made a particularly long voyage of four months, including a stop in the Canary Islands and subsequently Puerto Rico, and finally departed for the American mainland on April 10, 1607.
The expedition made landfall on April 26, 1607 at a place which they named Cape Henry, Chesapeake Bay, Mid of May they found Jamestown



The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the east bank of the James (Powhatan) River about 2.5 mi (4 km) southwest of the center of modern Williamsburg. It was established by the Virginia Company of London as "James Fort" on May 4, 1607 O.S.;(May 14, 1607 N.S.), and was considered permanent after brief abandonment in 1610. It followed several failed attempts, including the Lost Colony of Roanoke, established in 1585 on Roanoke Island. Jamestown served as the capital of the colony of Virginia for 83 years, from 1616 until 1699.

Colonial_Jamestown_About_1614.jpg
Colonial Jamestown About 1614

The settlement was located within the country of Tsenacommacah, which belonged to the Powhatan Confederacy, and specifically in that of the Paspaheghtribe. The natives initially welcomed and provided crucial provisions and support for the colonists, who were not agriculturally inclined. Relations soured fairly early on, however, leading to the total annihilation of the Paspahegh in warfare within three years. Mortality was very high at Jamestown itself due to disease and starvation, with over 80 percent of the colonists perishing in 1609–10 in what became known as the "Starving Time".

The Virginia Company brought eight Polish and German colonists in 1608 in the Second Supply, some of whom built a small glass factory—although the Germans and a few others soon defected to the Powhatans with weapons and supplies from the settlement. The Second Supply also brought the first two European women to the settlement. In 1619, the first documented Africans came to Jamestown—about 50 men, women, and children aboard a Portuguese slave ship that had been captured in the West Indies and brought to the Jamestown region. They most likely worked in the tobacco fields as indentured servants. The modern conception of slavery in the United States was formalized in 1640 (the John Punch hearing) and was fully entrenched in Virginia by 1660.

The London Company's second settlement in Bermuda claims to be the site of the oldest town in the English New World, as St. George's, Bermuda was officially established in 1612 as New London, whereas James Fort in Virginia was not converted into James Towne until 1619, and further did not survive to the present day. In 1676, Jamestown was deliberately burned during Bacon's Rebellion, though it was quickly rebuilt. In 1699, the capital was relocated from Jamestown to what is today Williamsburg, Virginia, after which Jamestown ceased to exist as a settlement, existing today only as an archaeological site.

Today, Jamestown is one of three locations composing the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, along with Williamsburg and Yorktown, with two primary heritage sites. Historic Jamestowne is the archaeological site on Jamestown Island and is a cooperative effort by Jamestown National Historic Site (part of Colonial National Historical Park) and Preservation Virginia. Jamestown Settlement, a living history interpretive site, is operated by the Jamestown Yorktown Foundation, a state agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Settlement
Main article: History of Jamestown, Virginia (1607–99)
See also: European colonization of the Americas and List of Jamestown colonists
Spain, Portugal, and France moved quickly to establish a presence in the New World, while other European countries moved more slowly. The English did not attempt to found colonies until many decades after the explorations of John Cabot, and early efforts were failures—most notably the Roanoke Colony which vanished about 1590.

Arrival and beginning (1607–1609)
Jamestown_Island_(1958_base_map).png
Map of Jamestown Island, showing the terrain and location of the original 1607 fort. (Modern roads, causeway, and buildings not shown)

Late in 1606, English colonizers set sail with a charter from the London Company to establish a colony in the New World. The fleet consisted of the ships Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, all under the leadership of Captain Christopher Newport. They made a particularly long voyage of four months, including a stop in the Canary Islands and subsequently Puerto Rico, and finally departed for the American mainland on April 10, 1607. The expedition made landfall on April 26, 1607 at a place which they named Cape Henry. Under orders to select a more secure location, they set about exploring what is now Hampton Roads and an outlet to the Chesapeake Bay which they named the James River in honor of King James I of England. Captain Edward Maria Wingfield was elected president of the governing council on April 25, 1607. On May 14, he selected a piece of land on a large peninsula some 40 miles (64 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean as a prime location for a fortified settlement. The river channel was a defensible strategic point due to a curve in the river, and it was close to the land, making it navigable and offering enough land for piers or wharves to be built in the future.[18] Perhaps the most favorable fact about the location was that it was uninhabited because the leaders of the nearby indigenous nations considered the site too poor and remote for agriculture. The island was swampy and isolated, and it offered limited space, was plagued by mosquitoes, and afforded only brackish tidal river water unsuitable for drinking.

The Jamestown settlers arrived in Virginia during a severe drought, according to a research study conducted by the Jamestown Archaeological Assessment (JAA) team in the 1990s. The JAA analyzed information from a study conducted in 1985 by David Stahle and others, who obtained borings of 800 year-old baldcypress trees along the Nottoway and Blackwater rivers. The lifespan of these trees is up to 1,000 years and their rings offer a good indication of an area's annual amount of rainfall. The borings revealed that the worst drought in 700 years occurred between 1606 and 1612. This severe drought affected the Jamestown colonists and Powhatan tribe's ability to produce food and obtain a safe supply of water.

Marsh_-_Colonial_National_Historical_Park_(Robin_Baranowski,_NPS_Photo)_(8426448355).jpg
Salt marshes along Jamestown Island. The ample wetlands on the island proved to be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

The settlers also arrived too late in the year to get crops planted. Many in the group were either gentlemen unused to work or their manservants, both equally unaccustomed to the hard labor demanded by the harsh task of carving out a viable colony. One of these was Robert Hunt, a former vicar of Reculver, England who celebrated the first known Eucharist in the territory of the future United States on June 21, 1607.

In a few months, 80% of the party were dead; some of the survivors were deserting to the Indians whose land they had colonized. Virginia Native Americans had established settlements long before the English settlers arrived, and there were an estimated 14,000 in the region who were politically known as Tsenacommacah and who spoke an Algonquian language. They were the Powhatan Confederacy, ruled by their paramount chief known as Wahunsenacawh or "Chief Powhatan". Wahunsenacawh initially sought to resettle the English colonists from Jamestown, considered part of Paspahegh territory, to another location known as Capahosick where they would make metal tools for him as members of his Confederacy, but this never happened.

Jamestown_settler_dead_in_the_swamp.jpg
Jamestown settler dead in the swamp

The first explorers had been welcomed by the Indians with dancing, feasting, and tobacco ceremonies. Despite the hospitality of Wahunsenacawh, the presence of the English settlers and perhaps a further expedition up the James River by Captain Christopher Newport provoked the Paspahegh, Weyanock, and other groups to mount a series of attacks on the fort during a period of violence lasting from May 27 to July 14, 1607.

Jamestownzuniga.jpg
Detail of the map made by Pedro de Zúñiga, depicting the fort in about 1608

Two-thirds of the settlers died before ships arrived in 1608 with supplies and German, Polish, and Slovak craftsmen, who helped to establish the first manufactories in the colony. As a result, glassware became the foremost American products to be exported to Europe at the time. Clapboard had already been sent back to England beginning with the first returning ship.

Page_445.JPG
Names of those on the Second Supply - Page 445 (or Page 72)"The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles", by Capt. John Smith -

The delivery of supplies in 1608 on the First and Second Supply missions of Captain Newport had also added to the number of hungry settlers. It seemed certain at that time that the colony at Jamestown would meet the same fate as earlier English attempts to settle in North America, specifically the Roanoke Colony (Lost Colony) and the Popham Colony, unless there was a major relief effort. The Germans who arrived with the Second Supply and a few others defected to the Powhatans, with weapons and equipment. The Germans even planned to join a rumored Spanish attack on the colony and urged the Powhatans to join it. The Spanish were driven off by the timely arrival in July 1609 of Captain Samuel Argall in Mary and John, a larger ship than the Spanish reconnaissance ship La Asunción de Cristo. Argall's voyage also prevented the Spanish from gaining knowledge of the weakness of the colony. Don Pedro de Zúñiga, the Spanish ambassador to England, was desperately seeking this (in addition to spies) in order to get Philip III of Spain to authorise an attack on the colony.

The investors of the Virginia Company of London expected to reap rewards from their speculative investments. With the Second Supply, they expressed their frustrations and made demands upon the leaders of Jamestown in written form. They specifically demanded that the colonists send commodities sufficient to pay the cost of the voyage, a lump of gold, assurance that they had found the South Sea, and one member of the lost Roanoke Colony. It fell to the third president of the Council Captain John Smith to deliver a bold and much-needed wake-up call in response to the investors in London, demanding practical laborers and craftsmen who could help make the colony more self-sufficient.

800px-Virginia_quarter,_reverse_side,_2000.jpg
Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery, commemorated on the Virginia State Quarter


Susan Constant, captained by Christopher Newport, was the largest of three ships of the English Virginia Company (the others being Discovery and Godspeed) on the 1606–1607 voyage that resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia.

History
Susan Constant was rated at 120 tons. Its keel length is estimated at 55.2 feet (16.8 meters). The overall length from tip to stern is estimated at 116 feet (35 m).

On the 1606–1607 voyage, it carried 71 colonists, all male, including John Smith. On June 22, 1607, Christopher Newport sailed back for London with Susan Constant and Godspeed carrying a load of supposedly precious minerals, leaving behind the 104 colonists and Discovery (to be used in exploring the area).

Susan Constant, which had been a rental ship that had customarily been used as a freight transport, did not return to Virginia again. She later served as a merchant ship through at least 1615. Its fate is unknown.

800px-JamestownShips.jpg
Replica of Susan Constant (built 1989)


Discovery or Discoverie was a small 20-ton, 38-foot (12 m) long "fly-boat" of the British East India Company, launched before 1602. It was one of the three ships (along with Susan Constant and Godspeed) on the 1606–07 voyage to the New World for the English Virginia Company of London. The journey resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia.


Godspeed, under Captain Bartholomew Gosnold, was one of the three ships (along with Susan Constant and Discovery) on the 1606-1607 voyage to the New World for the English Virginia Company of London. The journey resulted in the founding of Jamestown in the new Colony of Virginia.

800px-Godspeed_replica.jpg
Replica of Godspeed in New York City in 2006


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamestown,_Virginia
ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Newport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Constant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_(1602_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_(ship)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1717 - Whydah Gally – a slave ship that was captured by the pirate Captain "Black Sam" Bellamy, and refitted as his flagship.
On 26 April 1717 off of Cape Cod she ran aground and capsized in a fierce storm. Bellamy and 143 of his crew were lost, as was and more than 4.5 short tons (4.1 tonnes) of gold and silver. There were two survivors. Whydah and her treasure eluded discovery for over 260 years, until being discovered in 1984 under only 14 feet (4.3 m) of water and 5 feet (1.5 m) of sand. She is the only authenticated pirate shipwreck yet found.



The Whydah Gally /ˈhwɪdə ˈɡæli, ˈhwɪdˌɔː/ (commonly known simply as the Whydah) was a fully rigged galley ship that was originally built as a passenger, cargo, and slave ship. On the return leg of its maiden voyage of the triangle trade, it began a new role in the Golden Age of Piracy, when it was captured by the pirate Captain Samuel "Black Sam" Bellamy.

Bellamy sailed the Whydah up the coast of colonial America, capturing ships as he went. On 26 April 1717, the Whydah was caught in a violent storm and wrecked. Only two of Whydah's crew survived, along with seven others who were on a sloop captured by Bellamy earlier that day. Six of the nine survivors were hanged, two who had been forced into piracy were freed, and one Indian crewman was sold into slavery.

The Whydah and her treasure eluded discovery for over 260 years until 1984, when the wreck was found – buried under 10 ft (3 m) to 50 ft (15 m) feet of sand, in depths ranging from 16 ft (5 m) to 30 ft (9 m) feet deep, spread four miles parallel to the Cape's coast. With the discovery of the ship's bell in 1985 and a small brass placard in 2013, both inscribed with the ship's name and maiden voyage date, the Whydah is the only fully authenticated Golden Age pirate shipwreck ever discovered.

1280px-Whydah-model.jpg
model of Whydah

Slave ship
The Whydah was commissioned in 1715 in London, England, by Sir Humphrey Morice, a member of parliament (MP), who was known as 'the foremost London slave merchant of his day'. A square-rigged three-masted galley ship, it measured 110 feet (34 m) in length, with a tonnage rating at 300 tunsburthen, and could travel at speeds up to 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).

Christened Whydah after the West African slave-trading Kingdom of Whydah, the vessel was configured as a heavily armed trading and transport ship (which included the Atlantic slave trade). It set out for its maiden voyage in early 1716, carrying a variety of goods from different businesses to exchange for delivery, trade, and slaves in West Africa. After traveling down West Africa through modern-day Gambia and Senegal to Nigeria and Benin, where its namesake port was located, it left Africa with an estimated 500 slaves, gold, including Akan jewelry, and ivory aboard. It traveled to the Caribbean, where it traded and sold the cargo and slaves for precious metals, sugar, indigo, rum, logwood, pimento, ginger, and medicinal ingredients, which were to then be transported back to England. It was fitted with a standard complement of 18 six-pound cannon, which could be increased to a total of 28 in time of war.

Pirate ship
In late February 1717, the Whydah, under the command of Captain Lawrence Prince, a former buccaneer under Sir Henry Morgan, was navigating the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola when it was attacked by pirates led by "Black Sam" Bellamy. At the time of the Whydah's capture, Bellamy was in possession of two vessels, the 26-gun galley Sultana and the converted 10-gun sloop Marianne, captained by Bellamy's friend and investor Paulsgrave Williams. After a three-day chase, Prince surrendered his ship near the Bahamas with only a desultory exchange of cannon fire.

Bellamy decided to take the Whydah as his new flagship; several of its crew remained with their ship and joined the pirate gang. Pirate recruitment was most effective among the unemployed, escaped bondsmen, and transported criminals, as the high seas made for an instant leveling of class distinctions. They were freed African slaves, displaced English seamen, Native Americans, and a scattering of social outcasts from Europe and elsewhere.

In a gesture of goodwill toward Captain Prince who had surrendered without a struggle—and who in any case may have been favorably known by reputation to the pirate crew—Bellamy gave Sultana to Prince, along with £20 in silver and gold (equivalent to £3,000 in 2018).

black flag with traditional skull and crossbones
"...they spread a large black flag, with a Death's Head and Bones across, and gave chase to Cap't. Prince under the same colors." – Thomas Baker (Bellamy's crew) on Whydah pursuit

The Whydah was then fitted with 10 additional cannons by its new captain, and 150 members of Bellamy's crew were detailed to man the vessel. They razeed the ship by clearing the top deck of the pilot's cabin, removing the slave barricade, and getting rid of other features that made her top heavy.

Bellamy and his crew then sailed on to the Carolinas and headed north along the eastern coastline of the American colonies, aiming for the central coast of Maine, looting or capturing additional vessels on the way. The Whydah was caught up in a storm which heavily damaged the Whydah and broke one of its masts. Patch-ups and repairs were effected until they reached the waters near Nantucket Sound, where greater repairs were effected, possibly at Block Island or Rhode Island. At some point during his possession of the Whydah, Bellamy added another 30+ cannon below decks, possibly as ballast. Two cannons recovered by underwater explorer Barry Clifford in August 2009 weighed 800 and 1,500 pounds (360 and 680 kg), respectively.

They could not wipe out the North-East gales
Nor what those gales set free —
The pirate ships with their close-reefed sails,
Leaping from sea to sea.

Rudyard Kipling, "The Pirates of England"
Accounts differ as to the Whydah's destination in her last few days. Some evidence supports local Cape Cod legend: The Whydah was headed for what is now Provincetown Harbor at the tip of Cape Cod, so that Bellamy could visit his love, Maria Hallett – the "Witch of Wellfleet". Others blame the Whydah's route on navigator error. In any case, on 26 April 1717, near Chatham, Massachusetts, the Whydah approached a thick, gray fog bank rolling across the water – signaling inclement weather ahead.

On 26 April the pirates captured the ship Mary Anne with a hold full of Madeira wine. The captain of Mary Anne refused Bellamy's request to pilot them up the coast, so Bellamy arrested the captain and five of his crew and brought them aboard the Whydah Gally, leaving three of the original crew aboard Mary Anne. Then Bellamy sent 7 of his own men onboard of Mary Anne - one of whom was the carpenter Thomas South who had been forced by Bellamy and his crew to make repairs; not wanting to join the pirate crew he had been offered release by Bellamy after work was completed, but the surviving pirates later testified to the court that they had over-ruled Bellamy's decision and forced South to stay due to his much whimpering and complaining. South testified that it was his choice to accompany the 6 pirates going aboard Mary Anne in hopes of escaping, possibly by jumping overboard and swimming ashore as they drew near to the Cape. Sometime around sunset that evening, the winds completely died, and a massive fog bank made visibility virtually nil. The four ships in Bellamy's fleet lost sight of one another. Bellamy's ships Anne (captained by his quartermaster Richard Noland) and Fisher moved out to sea (eventually making it to Damariscove Island with heavy damage). Williams had turned the Marianne away earlier, putting into Block Island to visit relatives but agreeing to meet Bellamy later off Maine.

Whydah-map.jpg
The location of the wreckedWhydah Gally in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod


Shipwreck
That weather turned into a violent nor'easter, a storm with gale force winds out of the east and northeast, which forced the vessel dangerously close to the breaking waves along the shoals of Cape Cod. The ship was eventually driven aground at what today is Marconi Beach at Wellfleet, Massachusetts. At midnight she hit a sandbar, bow first in 16 feet (5 m) of water about 500 feet (152 m) from shore. Pummeled by 70 mph (110 km/h) winds and 30-to-40 ft (9-to-12 m) waves, the main mast snapped, pulling the ship into about 30 ft (9 m) of water, where she violently capsized, sending over 4.5 short tons (4.1 tonnes) of silver and gold, more than 60 cannons and 144 people to the ocean floor. The 60+ cannon on board ripped through the overturned decks of the ship and quickly broke it apart, scattering parts of the ship, 102 human bodies, and thousands of objects over a 4-mile (6.4 km) length of coast. One of the two surviving members of Bellamy's crew, Thomas Davis, testified in his subsequent trial that "In a quarter of an hour after the ship struck, the Mainmast was carried by the board, and in the Morning she was beat to pieces."

By morning, hundreds of Cape Cod's notorious wreckers (locally known as "moon-cussers") were already plundering the remains. Hearing of the shipwreck, then-governor Samuel Shute dispatched Captain Cyprian Southack, a local salvager and cartographer, to recover "Money, Bullion, Treasure, Goods and Merchandizes taken out of the said Ship." When Southack reached the wreck on 3 May, he found that part of the ship was still visible breaching the water's surface, but that much of the ship's wreckage was scattered along more than 4 miles (6.4 km) of shoreline. On a map that he made of the wreck site, Southack reported that he had buried 102 of the 144 Whydah crew and captives lost in the sinking (though technically they were buried by the town coroner, who surprised Southack by handing him the bill and demanding payment).

The Mary Anne was also wrecked, ten miles south at Pochet Island. According to surviving members of the crew at the time of its sinking, the Whydah carried from four and a half to five tons of silver, gold, gold dust, and jewelry, which had been divided equally into 180 50-pound (23 kg) sacks and stored in-between the ship's decks. Though Southack did salvage some nearly worthless items from the ship, little of the massive treasure hoard was recovered. Southack wrote in his account of his findings, that, "The riches, with the guns, would be buried in the sand." With that, the exact location of the ship, its riches and its guns were lost, and came to be thought of as nothing more than legend.

Survivors
Of the 146 souls aboard the Whydah, only two men (Welshman Thomas Davis and 18-year-old Central American Mosquito [Miskito] Indian John Julian) are known to have made it to the beach alive. All seven of Bellamy's men on board the Mary Anne survived, as did the Mary Anne's three original crewmen. Including the seven men aboard Mary Anne, nine of Bellamy's crew survived the wrecking of the two ships. They were all quickly captured by Justice Joseph Doane and his posse and locked up in Barnstable Gaol (currently the oldest wooden jail house in United States). On 18 October 1717, six were tried in Boston for piracy and robbery. The following were found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging: John Brown of Jamaica, Thomas Baker and Hendrick Quintor of the Netherlands; Peter Cornelius Hoof of Sweden; John Shaun of France; and Simon van der Vorst of New York.

Carpenters Thomas South and Thomas Davis, who were tried separately, had been conscripted by Bellamy – forced to choose between a life of piracy or death. Therefore, they were acquitted of all charges and spared the gallows. The last survivor was a 16-year-old Miskito Indian named John Julian – who was a skilled navigator, and also the Whydah's pilot. He was not tried, but instead was sold as a slave (to John Quincy Adams's great-grandfather) after his capture, and finally hanged 16 years later.

On 15 November 1717, the famous Puritan minister Cotton Mather accompanied the six condemned men as they were rowed across Boston Harbor to Charlestown. All six men confessed and repented in the presence of Mather, but they were still hanged


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whydah_Gally
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Bellamy
 

Attachments

  • 1280px-Flag_of_Edward_England.svg.png
    1280px-Flag_of_Edward_England.svg.png
    16.9 KB · Views: 3
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1763 – Launch of French Bordelois, a 56-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the city of Bordeaux, and built by engineer Léon Guignace on a design by Antoine Groignard.


Bordelois was a 56-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the city of Bordeaux, and built by engineer Léon Guignace on a design by Antoine Groignard. Complete too late to serve in the Seven Years' War, she was razéed into a frigate and used as an East Indiaman. She was rebuilt into a frigate to serve in the War of American Independence. Captured by HMS Romney, she was brought into British service as HMS Artois.

1.JPG 2.JPG

3.JPG

Career
Bordelois was commissioned in July 1763 under Captain Charles de Cornick-Duchène, arriving in Rochefort on 6 September after the end of the Seven Years' War. In 1768, she was razéed to a large frigate, while her spare timber was used to rebuild Ferme.

From 1776 to 1778, Bordelois was used as an East Indiaman, after which she became a hulk in Lorient.

In 1779, on the background of the Franco-American alliance, Bordelois was sold and razéed into a 40-gun frigate; her refitting having been financed by the States of Artois, she was renamed to États d'Artois . She entered drydock in June 1779, to be launched in January 1780 and commissioned in May 1780.

On 1 July 1780 Artois was captured by HMS Romney, and brought into British service as HMS Artois.

She participated in the Battle of Dogger Bank. "Artois was the finest frigate then known; had 28 18-pounders on her main deck with in addition to her complement of guns, heavy carronades on the quarterdeck and forecastle; Manned by 300 men"

j5590.jpg
lines & profile NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 522, states that 'Artois' was docked at Chatham Dockyard on 28 November 1780. She was undocked on 9 January 1781 and sailed on 21 March having been fitted. Subsequently, Artois was sold on 2 February 1786 for £650

bhc0435.jpg
'The Artois capturing two Dutch privateers, 3 December 1781' The names of the two captured Dutch privateers were 'Mars' and 'Hercules'; both were subsequently acquired by the RN and commissioned as brig-sloops 'Orestes' and 'Pylades' (see Rif Winfield, 'British Warships of the Age of Sail', p. 328)


The Bordelois Class was a class of 56-gun ships of the line, designed by Antoine Groignard. This was a unique type, designed to provide a battlefleet armament (with 36-pounder guns in the principal battery) on a hull able to operate in the shallow waters around Dunkirk. The ships were funded by don des vaisseaux donations and rushed into production for the Seven Years' War, but were completed too late to take part in the conflict. The Flamand would later have a distinguished career during the War of American Independence.

Unbenannt.JPG

Bordelois class: group of four ships designed by Antoine Groignard for operation in the shallow waters off Dunkirk, and built at Bordeaux by Léon-Michel Guignace.

Bordelois 56 guns (launched 26 April 1763 at Bordeaux) – Razeed to frigate 1768; converted into an indiaman 1776; deleted 1778; reactivated 1780 as États d'Artois; taken by Britain 1780 and renamed HMS Artois
Ferme
56 guns (launched 10 October 1763 at Bordeaux) – Deleted 1774
Utile 56 guns (launched 14 August 1764 at Bordeaux) – Deleted 1771
Flamand 56 guns (launched 11 May 1764 at Bordeaux) – Deleted 1785



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Bordelois
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-292952;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1767 – Launch of French frigate Mignonne, a one-off design by Jean-Baptiste Doumet-Revest, at Toulon.


The French frigate Mignonne was a one-off design by Jean-Baptiste Doumet-Revest, and launched in 1767 at Toulon. Some notable French captains commanded her before the British captured her at Calvi in 1794 and took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Mignonne. She was burnt in 1797 as useless.

1.JPG 2.JPG

3.JPG

French service
In 1772 Mignonne came under the command of Pierre André de Suffren de Saint Tropez, who had just been promoted to the rank of captain. He commanded her and later Alcemene in the squadron that the French government had established for the purpose of training its officers.

In 1793 the French Navy had Mignonne razeed, converting her to a corvette.

On 22 October 1793 Mignonne was part of a five-vessel squadron under the command of Jean-Baptiste Perrée. In addition to Mignonne, the squadron included the frigates Melpomene, Minerve, and Fortunée, and the brig Hasard. They encountered the 64-gun third rate HMS Agamemnon, under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson. Agamemnon and Fortunée engaged in an inconclusive action before the French squadron chose not to pursue the matter and sailed off.

Capture
On 18 June 1794, Agamemnon anchored south of Calvi. Once the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean fleet under Vice-Admiral Hood arrived, the British commenced a 51-day siege of the town, which surrendered on 10 August. Shortly thereafter the inhabitants of Corsica declared themselves to be subjects of His Majesty King George III.

The British captured five vessels at Calvi, two frigates – Melopmène and Mignonne – and three small armed vessels, the brigs Auguste and Providence, each of four guns, and the gun-boat Ca Ira, of three guns. Melpomène was a new vessel and the British were glad to take her into service, which they did under her existing name; she served in the Royal Navy until 1815. The 27-year-old Mignonne they too took into service under her existing name but without the same expressions of enthusiasm.

British service
Mignonne was commissioned under Commander Henry Hotham. Commander Ralph Miller recommissioned her in November 1795. On 13 June 1796 D’Arcy Prescott was promoted to post captain in Mignonne. His replacement in September was Captain Charles Stuart. On 19 October John Giffard was similarly promoted into Mignonne. His successor, in December, was Captain Phillip Wodehouse.

Fate
Captain Nelson wrote to Admiral Jervis on 29 December 1796 that he expected to be able to sell Tarleton and Mignonne. Clearly he was unable to as on 31 July 1797 the British burnt Mignonne as unserviceable when they withdrew from Porto Ferrajo



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Mignonne_(1767)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1793 – Launch of French Brave at Le Havre in 1793, was the name vessel of a two-vessel class of brig-rigged canonnières, i.e., gun-brigs.
The French Navy renamed her Arrogante in May 1795. The Royal Navy captured her on 23 or 24 April 1798. The British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Arrogante, but renamed her HMS Insolent some four months later. She was sold in June 1818.



Brave, launched at Le Havre in 1793, was the name vessel of a two-vessel class of brig-rigged canonnières, i.e., gun-brigs. The French Navy renamed her Arrogante in May 1795. The Royal Navy captured her on 23 or 24 April 1798. The British Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Arrogante, but renamed her HMS Insolent some four months later. She was sold in June 1818.

1.JPG 2.JPG

3.JPG 4.JPG


French career
As the corvette-canonnière Brave, she was stationed at the Bay of Audierne. Between 4 February 1793 and 7 August she was under the command of sous-lieutenant de vaisseau (later lieutenant de vaisseau) Massard and escorted convoys between Le Havre and Brest. From 27 August to 25 October she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Bourhis.

Between 11 April 1794 and 28 July she was stationed first at Verdon and then at the Gironde estuary. There she carried dispatches from Brest to Verdon.

Still under Bourhis's command, between 13 May 1795 to 8 July, Brave sailed from Brest à Audierne, where she then was stationed in the bay, before returning to Brest. Next she was at Camaret roads, and then escorted a transport from le Conquet to Brest.

In May 1795 the French Navy renamed Brave to Arrogante, and changed her classification from corvette-canonnière to canonnière.

On 21 April 1796 Arrogante was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Le Bastard when she engaged a British squadron in the Audierne roads. On 25 July 1797 she was at Brest and still under Le Bastard's command.

Almost exactly two years later, on 23 April 1798 Arrogante was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Lambour and escorting a convoy between Audierne and Brest. French records report that while she was in the Iroise Sea she encountered two English frigates, HMS Jason and HMS Naiad.

j6550.jpg
Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead , also with longitudinal half breadth for Arab (1798), a captured French Sixth Rate, as fitted as a 22-gun, Sixth Rate at Plymouth Dockyard. Signed John Marshall (Master Shipwright)

Capture
British records report that Naiad, Mars and Ramillies were in sight when Jason captured Arrogante. Arrogante was armed with six long 24-pounder guns and had a crew of 92 men.

British career
The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Arrogante. She arrived at Plymouth in April 1798 and she sat there. In August, the Navy renamed her HMS Insolent, but did not refit her until February to April 1801. On 24 April Lieutenant Burians, a veteran officer, commissioned her.

On 21 July 1801, Jason wrecked off the coast near Saint-Malo. Some nine days later Captain Charles Cunningham of Clyde, who commanded the small British flotilla off the coast and had just found out about the wrecking, on 1 August sent Weazel to inquire about the crew of Jason. The French in Saint-Malo informed the British that the crew were all prisoners, and that the French were willing to release them on parole. On 3 August three cutters flying the cartel flag brought out Jason's crew. Although Jason was lying on her side, masts gone, and water breaking over her, Cunningham decided to destroy her to prevent the French from recovering her.

The boats of Weazel went in on 5 August despite strong opposition from shore batteries and various armed small craft, though the larger French vessels in the harbour did not sortie. The first attempt to set Jason on fire failed. A second attempt the next day was successful as the boats from Weazel, Insolent, and Liberty diverted French attention. On 5 October Cunningham received the news of peace with France.

Later, in October, one of Insolent's boats hit a rock, with the result that her captain and three seamen drowned. The purser's daughter was on the boat and one of the seaman swam for the shore, carrying her on his back. As he swam her clothes became sodden and he informed the young woman that unless she agreed to let him remove her clothes he could not carry her further. She refused, stating that she preferred to die than compromise her virtue. He swam on for a bit with her, still clothed, on his back, but eventually, exhausted, he had to let her go and watch her drown.

On 1802 she came under the command of Lieutenant N. Hartwright, at Milford. On 1 December Insolent went into Barnpool from Hamoaze, where she had been refitted. The next day a gale of wind drove a flush of sea over the bridge of St. Nicholas and Redding Point pushed Insolent towards the rocks under Mount Edgecumbe before she was brought up in safety. At some point Hartwright paid her off.

In January 1803 Lieutenant William Smith (2nd), recommissioned her at Guernsey. On 21 May Insolent captured the French ship Centaure. Centaur arrived at Plymouth on 23 May. She had sailed from Havre de Grace with provisions, shot, and shells,all bound for Brest.

Insolent was recoppered in January 1805 at Guernsey. In May Lieutenant Row Morris replaced Smith.

On 7 March 1807 Insolent came into Plymouth carrying French prisoners, which she landed at Mill Bay. The Naval Chronicle reports that as boat carrying the French prisoners paused for them to rest on their oars, Hibernia glided majestically by, causing the prisoners to exclaim, "There goes the coup de grace for Bounaparte".

On 25 August Morris sailed Insolent to the Mediterranean.

In early July 1808, Insolent detained and sent into Plymouth the Augustus, of New York, Hurdle, master. Augustus had sailed from Canton, China, in early February.

Insolent was present at the battle of Basque Roads, which took place on 11 April 1809. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Basque Roads 1809" to all surviving British participants in the battle.

On 9 June 1809 Insolent captured the French lugger Union. Six days latere Insolent captured the brig Juno; the schooner Arrow was in sight. The gun-brig Martial was in sight. Ten days after that Insolent, Conflict, and Arrow were in company when they captured the French brig Amitaire. On 8 August, Insolent captured the French chasse maree Marie.

From October 1809 to September 1810, Insolent was at Plymouth, undergoing a large repair. The Admiralty rerated her as a brig-sloop and commissioned her for the North Sea and the Baltic in October 1810 under the command of Commander Edward Brazier.

Under Brazier's command, Insolent captured two chasse marees, Providence (20 September 1812), and Trois Freres (23 January 1813).

In April 1812, Insolent captured a French privateer rowboat, armed with swivel guns, and sent her into Dover.

A gale on Sunday 18 October that continued to the next morning damaged many vessels. Insolent, for one, was driven ashore at Swansea.

In December 1812 Commander John Forbes replaced Brazier.

On 26 April 1814, Insolent was in company with Hamadryad and Cracker when they captured the Euranie.

Insolent was among the vessels in the Channel Fleet under the command of Vice Admiral Lord Keithfrom 1812 to 1814, and so qualifying for a share of the Parliamentary grant for her services.

In June 1814 Commander William Kelly replaced Forbes for North America.

Fate
Insolent was paid off at Deptford in 1815. The Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered the "Insolent gun-brig, of 258 tons", lying at Deptford for sale on 11 June 1818. She was sold for £860 on that day to J. Crystall.

j6551.jpg
Scale 1:96. Plan showing the quater deck and fore castle, upper deck, lower deck plans and fore and aft platforms for Arab (1798), a captured French Sixth Rate, as fitted as a 22-gun, Sixth Rate at Plymouth Dockyard. Signed John Marshall (Master Shipwright)



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-297581;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1797 - The Action of 26 April 1797 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars in which a Spanish convoy of two frigates was trapped and defeated off the Spanish town of Conil de la Frontera by British ships of the Cadiz blockade.

HMS Irresistible (74) and HMS Emerald (36) captured Spanish frigates Elena (36) and Nimfa (36) in Conil Bay, near Cape Trafalgar.
Elena ran ashore and was got off but was so damaged that she had to be destroyed.



The Action of 26 April 1797 was a minor naval engagement during the French Revolutionary Wars in which a Spanish convoy of two frigates was trapped and defeated off the Spanish town of Conil de la Frontera by British ships of the Cadiz blockade. The British vessels, the ship of the line HMS Irresistible and the Fifth-rate frigate HMS Emerald, were significantly more powerful than the Spanish frigates, which were on the last stage of a voyage carrying treasure from Havana, Cuba, to the Spanish fleet base of Cadiz.

The British commander, Captain George Martin, succeeded in chasing the Spanish vessels into the rocky Conil Bay, where they surrendered after a brief engagement in which the Spanish suffered significantly higher casualties than the British. One of the Spanish ships, the Santa Elena, was subsequently wrecked on the shore, while the other, the Ninfa, was captured and later recommissioned into the Royal Navy. The treasure carried on board the frigates, however, had been removed by a Spanish fishing boat before the battle and so did not fall into British hands.

1.JPG 2.JPG

Background
In late 1796, with the French Revolutionary Wars three years old, a major shift occurred in the conflict when the Kingdom of Spain, until that point an enemy of the French Republic, abruptly changed sides following the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso. This reversal forced the British Royal Navy to retire from the Mediterranean Sea to preserve its lines of communication, falling back to the mouth of the Tagus River near Lisbon. From the Tagus, pressure was placed on the Spanish Navy by the erstwhile British Mediterranean Fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis, who organised a blockade of the main Spanish fleet base at Cádiz on the country's Southern Atlantic coast. This resulted in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February 1797, when Jervis inflicted a stinging defeat on the Spanish fleet. The surviving Spanish ships limped back to Cádiz after the battle, and to ensure that they could not sail again without risking a repeat action, Jervis arranged a close blockade of the port so that by April there were 21 British ships of the line and numerous frigateswatching the Spanish fleet at anchor.

The blockade of Cádiz was designed not only to contain the main Spanish fleet, but also to disrupt Spanish communications and transport. Cádiz was the principal port of Southern Spain and thus an important destination for shipping from across the Spanish Empire. This included numerous so-called "treasure ships", heavily armed warships that convoyed the gold and silver from the Spanish colonies in the Americas to the Spanish mainland. For centuries, Spanish treasure ships had been the ultimate prize for Royal Navy captains, and the sums of prize money involved were enormous. In October 1799 for example, a Spanish treasure convoy was captured off Vigo and the British captains alone were awarded £40,730 each (the equivalent of £3,930,600 as of 2019).

Battle
At 06:00 on 26 April 1797, the 74-gun ship of the line HMS Irresistible under Captain George Martin and the 36-gun frigate HMS Emerald under Captain Velterers Cornewall Berkeley were sailing at the southern edge of Jervis' (now known as Earl St. Vincent) fleet. While cruising close to the Spanish coast two unknown ships were sighted. Martin immediately ordered his ships to give chase and the strangers fled with Martin's vessels in pursuit. The new arrivals were two Spanish 34-gun frigates, the Santa Elena and Ninfa, bound to Cádiz from Havana with a cargo of silver specie. The captains of these Spanish ships had unwittingly sailed into the midst of the blockade fleet the previous night, but had had a fortunate encounter with a Spanish fishing vessel which had warned them of the danger. Acting quickly, the captains off-loaded their treasure into the fishing boat with instructions to carry it safely into Cádiz.

The Spanish captains, recognising that they were outmatched by the larger British vessels, attempted to shelter in Conil Bay, a rocky stretch of coastline near the village of Conil de la Frontera to the north of Cape Trafalgar. At 14:30 they were discovered by Martin's ships, which had to carefully negotiate a large rock formation known as the Laja de Cape Rocha which protected the head of the bay. With this obstacle successfully behind them, Irresistible and Emerald attacked the anchored Spanish frigates broadside to broadside. The action lasted an hour and a half, with the Spanish ships taking much the worst of the damage. At 16:00, both battered Spanish vessels surrendered, although as the British ships launched boats to take possession of their prizes, the crew of Santa Elena hacked through the anchor cables and allowed their ship to drift onto the rocky shoreline where they disembarked and escaped inland.

Aftermath
Martin ordered Ninfa to be secured by his men and Santa Elena to be towed off the rocks with the intention of salvaging the vessel. The tow succeeded in freeing the wrecked ship, but she sank soon afterwards in the deeper water of Conil Bay. All of the treasure which the Spanish frigates had carried was subsequently safely transported into Cadiz by the fishing boat whose secret cargo was not suspected by the British blockade forces. Spanish losses in the engagement amounted to 18 killed and 30 wounded, the British losing one man killed and one wounded on Irresistible. Ninfa was subsequently purchased by the Royal Navy and commissioned as the 36-gun frigate HMS Hamadryad. In his dispatch to the Admiralty regarding the action, Earl St. Vincent noted that the action was "one of the most notable that had ever come under my observation". The blockade of Cadiz remained in force with varying degrees of intensity for the remainder of the year, with the British fleet retiring to the Tagus during the winter.



Ninfa was a 36-gun Spanish frigate built at Mahon, on the island of Minorca, between 1794 and 1795. She was captured by the British in an action on 26 April 1797 and taken into service as HMS Hamadryad. She sank in a storm on 25 December the same year.

4.JPG 5.JPG

Construction
Ninfa was built at Mahon, on the island of Minorca, between 1794 and 1795. Her measurements were not recorded but she was known to be 890 tons burthen. As built, her armament comprised twenty-six 12-pounders on the main gundeck, eight 6-pounders and six 32-pound carronades on the quarterdeck, and two 6-pound guns with two 32-pound carronades on the forecastle.

Capture
In April 1797, Ninfa and a similar frigate, Santa Elena, were bound for Cadiz with a cargo of silver and would have blundered into a large blockading fleet under Sir John Jervis, were it not for a fortuitous encounter with some Spanish fishermen on the night of 25 April.[2] Having been warned of the danger, the captains decided to transfer the precious cargo into the fishing boat and for the Spanish frigates to try and sneak into port by hugging the coastline. The following morning the 74-gun HMS Irresistible and the 36-gun frigate HMS Emerald, spotted the Spanish frigates and pursued them. Outgunned, Ninfa and Santa Elena chose to seek shelter in Conil Bay, hoping the hazard of Laja de Cape Rocha, a large rocky ledge in the entrance, would deter the British from following. However, the British vessels rounded the rocks and entered the bay to engage the ships anchored there. After an action lasting around 11⁄2 hours, both the Spanish frigates struck. Before she could be taken possession of however, Santa Elena cut her cable and drifted onto the shore where she was so badly damaged that when the British tried to refloat her, she sank.

British service
After her capture, Ninfa was taken into Gibraltar where she was commissioned under Thomas Elphinstone as HMS Hamadryad. On 30 June 1797, she captured a Spanish privateer off the Rock, and on 3 July she captured another privateer in the Straits, Actaeon. Her British career was cut short however when she sank whilst trying to shelter from a storm in Algiers Bay, on 25 December 1797.


HMS Irresistible
was a 74-gun Albion-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 December 1782 at Harwich.

6.JPG 7.JPG

Irresistible captured the French privateer Quatre frères in April 1797 in the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Transfer.
Irresistible fought at the Battle of Groix in 1795, and at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797 and captured two Spanish frigates at the Action of 26 April 1797.
Irresistible was broken up in 1806.

Albion_Fortitude_Irresistible_Grafton_Alcide.jpg
The body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Albion (1763) a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. The plan was later used for building Grafton (1771), Alcide (1779), Fortitude (1780), and Irresistable (1782).


HMS Emerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class frigate that Sir William Rule designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.

8.JPG 9.JPG

In 1797, Emerald was one of several vessels sent to hunt down and capture the crippled Santisima Trinidad, which had escaped from the British at the Battle of Cape St Vincent. Emerald was supposed to have been present at the Battle of the Nile but in May 1798 a storm separated her from Horatio Nelson's squadron and she arrived in Aboukir Bay nine days too late. She was part of Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth's squadron during the Action of 7 April 1800 off Cadiz.

Emerald served in the Caribbean throughout 1803 in Samuel Hood's fleet, then took part in the invasion of St Lucia in July, and of Surinam the following spring. Returning to home waters for repairs in 1806, she served in the western approaches before joining a fleet under Admiral James Gambier in 1809, and taking part in the Battle of the Basque Roads. In November 1811 she sailed to Portsmouth where she was laid up in ordinary. Fitted out as a receiving ship in 1822, she was eventually broken up in January 1836.

j5297.jpg


Amazon class 36-gun fifth rates 1795-96, designed by William Rule.

Vaisseau-Droits-de-lHomme.jpg
Emerald's sister ship Amazon (right) engaging the French frigate, Droits de l'Homme (centre), with HMS Indefatigable (left)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_frigate_Ninfa_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Irresistible_(1782)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-321206;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=I
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...2;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A;start=0
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1808 – Launch of HMS Iphigenia, a Royal Navy 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate. She was built at Chatham Dockyard by Master Shipwright Robert Seppings


HMS
Iphigenia
was a Royal Navy 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate. She was built at Chatham Dockyard by Master Shipwright Robert Seppings.

The French captured her at the debacle of Grand Port and in their service she participated in the capture of several British vessels. The British recaptured her and she served in the West Africa squadron (or "Preventative Service"), combating the slave trade. She was broken up in 1851 after serving for many years as a training ship.

1.JPG 2.JPG 3.JPG

4.JPG

British service
Captain Henry Lambert commissioned Iphigenia and sailed her to the Indian Ocean to join the British squadron off Isle de France (now Mauritius). The squadron consisted of Iphigenia, Leopard, Magicienne and Néréide. The squadron blockaded Isle de France from May, and started operations to attempt a take-over on 7 July. Iphigenia was present at the capture of Réunion the next day.

Grand_Port_mg6971b.jpg
The Battle of Grand Port; Iphigeniais first from the left. By Pierre Julien Gilbert.

800px-Grand_Port_mg6981.jpg
Detail of the Battle of Grand Port: HMS Iphigenia striking her colours (actually happened the next day) Oil on canvas

On 10 August, the squadron, under Samuel Pym, landed parties to capture the Île de la Passe and take control of Port-Impérial, initiating the Battle of Grand Port. From 23 August, the British squadron faced off against a French squadron under Guy-Victor Duperré, comprising Minerve, Bellone and Victor. The French had moved the buoys marking the passage through the reef, causing Magicienne and Sirius to run aground and leading the British to scuttle them by fire. Néréide was captured. Iphigenia, which had been kept in reserve, attempted to flee, but French reinforcements under Hamelin - (Vénus, Manche and Créole) - intercepted her, forcing Iphigenia to strike her colours.

French service
Iphigenia was taken into French service as Iphigénie, under Pierre Bouvet, who had assumed command of the French squadron at Grand Port after Duperré was wounded, and had been promoted to Acting Captain 2nd class. She formed a squadron with Astrée and Entreprenant.

Africaine-Durand_Brager_img_3109.jpg
Africaine in French service

On 12 September 1810, Bouvet's squadron intercepted HMS Africaine (commodore Corbett) off Saint-Denis, as the frigate HMS Boadicea, the sloop HMS Otter and the brig HMS Staunch were sailing from the bay of Saint-Paul. Bouvet lured the British into pursuit until midnight. He sent Astrée forwards, as if Iphigénie would attempt to slow Africainedown to allow the rest of the squadron to flee. At three, Astrée regained her place at the rear of the squadron; the weather, which had been rough, improved somewhat, and in the moonlight Astrée suddenly found herself within gun range of Africaine, with Boadicea, Otter and Staunch out of sight. A gunnery duel followed immediately, in which Astrée had her rigging damaged; she closed in to Iphigénie, Africaine in close pursuit. Africaine soon found herself under fire from Iphigénie at point blank range, her guns still trained at Astrée. After exchanging broadsides and small arms fire for half an hour, during which the French had the upper hand, the British attempted a boarding. Iphigénie easily eluded Africaine, and gave Astrée an opportunity for raking Africaine's bow. At 4:30, Africaine struck her colours.

All Africaine's officers had been killed or wounded in the action, save for Colonel Barry, and only 69 men were uninjured. Bouvet was given Corbett's dagger, which he kept thereafter. The French abandoned Africaine and Boadicea recaptured her the next day.

On 3 December 1810, the Isle de France fell to the British. The British took over the ships moored at the island, including Iphigénie, Bellone and Astrée. They recommissioned Iphigénie, returning her to service as Iphigenia. Captain Thomas Caulfield then sailed her home to Britain where she was paid off in April 1811.

Return to British service
After fitting out at Portsmouth from November to February 1812, Iphigenia was recommissioned in January under Captain Lucius Curtis. On 25 March 1812 she sailed with a convoy for the East Indies.

Later, under Captain Fleetwood Pellew, Iphegenia sailed for the Mediterranean on 6 December. In February 1813, while still in the Mediterranean, she came under the command of Captain Andrew King. On 17 April 1814, a British squadron consisting of Furieuse, Aboukir, Iphigenia, Swallow and Cephalus supported the successful assault on Genoa. Afterwards, King escorted a convoy of transports from Gibraltar to Bermuda.

Post war
She underwent repairs at Chatham between June and September 1815, and sailed for the East Indies again in October. King returned home from the East Indies in command of the Third Rate Cornwallis.

In September 1816 Captain John Tancock took command of Iphigenia in Trincomalee. In December 1817 he sailed her back to Britain in company with Melville, whose fitting out in Bombay he had overseen.

Between January and June 1818 she was at Portsmouth having defects made good. Captain Hyde Parker took command on 15 March and eventually sailed Iphigenia for Jamaica. She served also on the Quebec and Mediterranean stations before being paid off on 12 June 1821.

Cape_coast_castle_II.JPG
Cape Coast Castle

In 1821 Iphegenia was recommissioned under Captain Sir Robert Mends. She then served in the anti-slave patrol off Africa with Mends as Commodore of the West Africa squadron. On 22 March 1822 she transported Sir Charles McCarthy, Governor of Sierra Leone, to Cape Coast Castle to assume the governorship of the Gold Coast.

On 15 April, her boats captured six slave ships on the Bonny River: Vigilante, Petite Betsey, Ursule, the Spanish Yeanam, Becaa, and the French brigantine Utile. In June Yeanam foundered in a tornado, claiming the lives of two officers, 16 men and 400 slaves; seven of the Iphigenia's crew managed to survive on the wreckage of the Yeanam.

In August 1822 Iphigenia was again in the Caribbean. On 27 August her barge, under the command of Lieutenant Stokes, in company with Zephyr, Harrison, which was on her way from Jamaica to London, captured a pirate schooner of about 250 tons (bm), six 18-pounder guns, and 60 men. The capture took place between Matanzas and Double Headed Shot Cays. The pirate had captured Sarah, of Nassau, but the barge and Zephyr recaptured her and sent her on her way. Iphigenia sent the prize into Havana.

Fate
She was fitted at Woolwich between December 1832 and July 1833. Between 1833 and 1848, she was lent to the Marine Society as a training ship.

In 1849 she reported two attacks of cholera and one death between 1 and 12 July, inclusive.

"The Commissioners for executing the office of Lord High Admiral of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" offered Iphigenia for sale at Woolwich on 19 February 1850. She was finally broken up at Deptford in May 1851

j5839.jpg

Perseverance class 36-gun fifth rates 1803-11 (a revival of the class of 1781-83 - see above)
j5766.jpg



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-347805;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1828 – Launch of british Lord William Bentink (1828 Bristol ship) at Bristol.
She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC), and one transporting convicts to Tasmania. She was wrecked on June 18, 1840, off the harbour of Bombay.



Lord William Bentink was launched in 1828 at Bristol. She made one voyage for the British East India Company (EIC), and one transporting convicts to Tasmania. She was wrecked on June 18, 1840, off the harbour of Bombay.

1.JPG 2.JPG

'Lord_William_Bentinck'_(1828)_RMG_J8647.jpg
'Lord William Bentinck' (1828) Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for 'Lord William Bentinck' (1828), a 123ft, three-masted merchant ship. Mould Loft Number 69. The Lloyd's Survey Report (LON2338) confirms the builder, dimensions and tonnage, as well as notes that in 1829 she had part of her keel replaced in consequence of 'having been onshore'. 'Lord William Bentinck' (1828)

Career
Initially Thomas Craigie was master of Lord William Bentinck, but already on 12 May Captain John Craigie assumed command.

Captain John Cragie sailed Lord William Bentinck from the Downs on 8 June 1828, bound for China and Halifax. She arrived at Whampoa on 18 November. Homeward bound, she crossed the Second Bar on 21 January 1829, reached St Helena on 30 March, and arrived at Halifax on 9 May. Lord William Bentinck discharged her cargo of tea but then ran ashore. HMS Tyne and HMS Hussar helped re-float her on 14 May; she docked at Connard's Wharf, Halifax, on the same day.

On 2 Feb. 1830, her owners sold Lord William Bentinck to Henry Hutchinson, master mariner. He assumed command on 16 February, and proceeded to re-register her at London. Her trade was listed as London—China.

According to one source, on 5 June 1831 she sailed for Madras and Bengal, returning the next year.

In 1836 Mangles & Co. purchased her from Hutchinson.

Captain William S. Stockley sailed Lord William Bentinck from Portsmouth on 14 April 1838. She arrived at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, on 26 August. She had embarked 320 male convicts, three of whom died on the way.

Fate
Lord William Bentinck wrecked in 1840. As she was approaching Bombay on 17 June,[8] she overshot the port in a gale. She attempted to turn south but wrecked on a reef. She hoisted distress signals but quickly came apart. She had on board passengers, European recruits for the Indian army, and a valuable cargo. Twenty-eight crew, seven passengers and 65 soldiers were lost.[8] A later accounting gave her master's name as Ord, and reported that she had 150 recruits, 11 passengers, and 39 crew.

Worse yet, Lord Castlereagh mistook Lord William Bentinck's lights for those of a ship safely at anchor, and steered on to the same reef, also wrecking. Castlereagh had on board 200 people, 70 of whom were saved.



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-327013;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1853 – Launch of RMS Atrato was a UK iron-hulled steamship.
She was built in 1853 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as a side-wheel paddle steamer, and when completed was the World's largest passenger ship.


RMS Atrato
was a UK iron-hulled steamship. She was built in 1853 for the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as a side-wheel paddle steamer, and when completed was the World's largest passenger ship. She was a Royal Mail Ship until 1870.

In 1870 RMSP traded her in and in 1872 she was converted to a single screw ship with a compound steam engine. From 1872 Aberdeen Line chartered her to run to Victoria and New Zealand. In 1880 she was renamed Rochester. She sank in 1884.

1.JPG 2.JPG

py0277.jpg
Royal Mail Steam Ship Atrato Caird & Co, Engineers & Builders, Greenock. Starboard side view (PAH0277)

Demerara and Amazon
Until 1850 RMSP secured its first contract to carry mail between the UK, Brazil and the River Plate. It ordered five large new wooden-hulled sister ships to take over scheduled services on its premier route between Southampton and the Caribbean, thus releasing older RMSP ships to start its new service to Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.

One of the new ships, the 2,318 NRT Demerara, was built in Bristol by William Patterson Shipbuilders, but her engines were built by Caird & Company of Greenock. After her launch in November 1851 a steam tug started to tow from Bristol to Greenock for her engines to be installed. But the tug master lacked experience of the winding Avon and lost control of Demerara, which became wedged against both banks. When the tide went out the ship was left bridging the river, and suffered structural distortion from the 1,200 tons of ballast in her engine room.

RMSP rejected the damaged ship, which was effectively a "constructive total loss" – a concept then unknown in marine insurance. RMSP was then left with one ship missing from the quintet it needed for its new service, and an engine in Greenock with no ship into which to put it.

Until 1851 the Admiralty had insisted that ships for mail contracts had to have a wooden hull. However, two months after Demerara's accident RMS Amazon, another member of the new quintet, caught fire and sank in the Bay of Biscay on her maiden voyage. More than 100 passengers and crew were killed and the Admiralty agreed to allow iron-hulled ships to be used for mail services.

pz6963.jpg
"SS Atrato of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company", painted by William Frederick Mitchell

Atrato with RMSP
RMSP duly ordered an iron-hulled ship from Caird & Company to use Demerara's engines and fill one of the gaps in the new fleet. In design she was an improved, enlarged, iron-hulled version of Demerara. The engine was a two-cylinder side-lever steam engine that developed 800 ihp and drove a pair of side paddles, giving her a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h). For some reason Caird did not use Demerara's boilers for Atrato but supplied new ones.

Atrato was completed in 1853 and entered service between Southampton and the Caribbean. In April 1856 she and two other RMSP ships, La Plata and Tay, attended the Spithead Review to celebrate the end of the Crimean War.

By 1869 Atrato was outdated for RMSP's use. John Elder and Company of Govan built a new ship, Elbe for the company and in 1870 accepted Atrato in part-payment.

py0278.jpg

After RMSP
Later in 1870 John Morrison and Company of London bought Atrato. In 1872 Aberdeen Line chartered her to run between Britain and Port Phillip, Victoria via Cape Town. James Watt and Company of London re-engined her as a single-screw vessel with a two-cylinder compound engine fed by three double-ended boilers. Her first such voyage to Port Phillip was in September 1872. In 1874 she sailed to New Zealand, leaving London on 5 April, calling at Port Chalmers on 8 June and reaching Lyttelton Harbour on 20 June.

In 1879 Henry T Horn of Sidcup, Kent bought Atrato. In 1880 Adamson and Ronaldson of Rochester, Kent bought her and renamed her Rochester. In 1884 she sank, but neither the date nor her final position is known.

pu6794.jpg
Royal Mail Atrato 1883-1912 (PAD6794)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Atrato_(1853)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-936830;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1865 – Launch of HMS Bellerophon, a central battery ironclad built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s


HMS
Bellerophon
was a central battery ironclad built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1860s.

HMS_Bellerophon_(1865).jpg
HMS Bellerophon as she appeared when completed in 1866.

Design and description
HMS_Bellerophon_(1865)_Brassey.jpg
Right elevation drawing. The shaded areas represent the ship's armour.

In this ship, designed by Sir Edward Reed, the power-to-weight ratio was increased; the long rows of guns on the broadside were replaced by a small number of guns, centrally placed, of the largest possible calibre; the armour was increased in thickness but reduced in length, and a sharp beak ram was combined with a classical style plough bow.

This double bottom had the added advantage of allowing the engine to be carried higher, raising the centre of gravity of the whole ship and making her thereby a steadier gun platform. Unlike earlier classes, Bellerophon's bow and stern had a "U" shaped profile, giving increased buoyancy at the ends noticeably absent in some earlier battleships. Bellerophon carried the first balanced rudder in Royal Navy service. Full helm could be applied by eight men in about 27 seconds, whereas in HMS Warrior it took forty men 90 seconds to perform the same manoevre.

HMS Bellerophon was 280 feet (85.3 m) long between perpendiculars. She had a beam of 56 feet 1 inch (17.1 m) and a maximum draught of 26 feet 7 inches (8.1 m).

Propulsion
HMS_Bellerophon_engine.jpg
Cutaway view of Bellerophon's trunk engine

Bellerophon had one 2-cylinder trunk steam engine made by John Penn and Sons driving a single 23-foot-6-inch (7.2 m) propeller. Eight rectangular boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of 27 psi (186 kPa; 2 kgf/cm2). The engine produced a total of 6,521 indicated horsepower (4,863 kW)n during the ship's sea trials in August 1864 and the ship had a maximum speed 14.17 knots (26.24 km/h; 16.31 mph). Bellerophon carried 640 long tons (650 t) of coal, enough to steam 1,500 nmi (2,800 km; 1,700 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph).

The ironclad was ship rigged and had a sail area of 23,800 square feet (2,211 m2). Bellerophon was "dull under canvas" and only made 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) under sail in a moderate gale. The ship's propeller could be disconnected to reduce drag while under sail.

pw5707.jpg
HMS Bellerophon 16 guns; 7551 tons displacement. Armour 6 inches. Speed 13.5 K. Dimensions 300 x 56 feet. Launched 1865 (PAF5707)

Armament
Bellerophon was the first British ironclad to carry the 9-inch rifled muzzle-loading gun. All ten of the 9-inch (229 mm) guns were mounted on the main deck, five on each side. Five 7-inch rifled muzzle-loaders were mounted outside the battery as chase guns. Four of these were mounted in pairs fore and aft on the main deck; the last gun was mounted on the upper deck at the stern. The ship also had four breech-loading 12-pounder Armstrong guns for use as saluting guns.

The shell of the 14-calibre 9-inch gun weighed 254 pounds (115.2 kg) while the gun itself weighed 12 long tons (12 t). It had a muzzle velocity of 1,420 ft/s (430 m/s) and was credited with the ability to penetrate a nominal 11.3 inches (287 mm) of wrought iron armour at the muzzle. The 16-calibre 7-inch (178 mm) gun weighed 6.5 long tons (6.6 t) and fired a 112-pound (50.8 kg) shell. It was credited with the nominal ability to penetrate 7.7-inch (196 mm) armour.

When the ship was refitted in 1881–85, she became the only British ironclad to have her entire muzzle-loading armament replaced by breech-loaders. Bellerophon received ten BL Mk III guns, mounted in the central battery and four 6-inch (152 mm) guns as chase guns fore and aft. The forward guns were mounted in new embrasures in the forecastle on the upper deck as the original guns were too low and were usually washed out in a head sea. Eight 4-inch breech-loading guns as well as four quick-firing 6-pounder Hotchkiss and 12 machine guns were fitted for defence against torpedo boats. The ship also received two 16-inch (406 mm) Whitehead torpedo launchers that were carried on the main deck, outside the armoured battery. The new eight-inch guns were some 7 feet (2.1 m) longer than the original nine-inch guns and the central battery proved to be too small for effective use of the guns.

Armour
Bellerophon had a complete waterline belt of wrought iron that was 6 inches (152 mm) thick amidships and tapered to 5 inches (127 mm) thick at the bow and stern. From the height of the main deck, it reached 6 feet (1.8 m) below the waterline. The central battery were protected by a section of 6-inch armour, 98 feet (29.9 m) long, with 5-inch (127 mm) transverse bulkheads at each end. The forward chase guns were protected by a strake of 4.5-inch (114 mm) armour. The upper deck was 1 inch (25 mm) thick over the battery and the main deck was 0.5 inches (13 mm) thick. The armour was backed by 8–10 inches (200–250 mm) of teak and the skin of the ship was 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick. The total weight of her armour was 1,093 long tons (1,111 t).

Construction
For the first time since the construction of HMS Warrior, the basic method of construction of an ironclad's hull was altered. The usage of longitudinal girders to impart strength and resistance to the hull was discarded, and a "bracket frame" system devised by Nathaniel Barnaby was adopted. This system allowed for the inclusion into the ship of a double bottom, with clear survival implications if damaged, while at the same time allowing for a saving in weight so that 100 feet (30 m) of the hull of Bellerophon weighed 1,123 long tons (1,141 t), versus 1,303 long tons (1,324 t) for 100 feet (30 m) of HMS Black Prince. Some steel was used in the hull to save weight.

HMS Bellerophon was ordered on 23 July 1863 from the Royal Dockyard in Chatham, Kent. She was laid down on 28 December 1863 and launched on 26 April 1865. The ship was commissioned in March 1866 and completed on 11 April 1866. Bellerophon cost £356,493.

Service history
HMS_Bellerophon_officers_LAC_3333085.jpg
Bellerophon's officers at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, while with the North America and West Indies Squadron, circa. 1889-1892

Bellerophon was commissioned at Chatham, and served in the Channel Fleet until 1871. She was struck by Minotaur in 1868 while leaving Belfast Lough, but only suffered minimal damage. The ship served with the Mediterranean Fleet from 1871 to 1872, and then paid off for refit where she was given a poop deck. Bellerophon relieved HMS Royal Alfred as flagship on the North America station in 1873 and remained there until 1881. On her outbound voyage she was rammed by SS Flamsteed during an attempt to exchange newspapers. The merchant ship had her bow stove in and sank a few hours later after the scarcely damaged Bellerophon took off her passengers and crew. An extensive refit, including new boilers and new armament was followed by a further period on the North America station until 1892, when she paid off at Plymouth. She was re-commissioned as port guardship at Pembroke until 1903. Bellerophon was converted into a stokers' training ship in 1904, and renamed HMS Indus III. The ship was sold on 12 December 1922 to P. and W. McLellan for scrap, although she did not arrive in Bo'ness for breaking-up until March 1923.

l0825.jpg
Scale: 1:48. A half block model of the starboard side of HMS Bellerophon (1865) made entirely in wood and painted in realistic colours. The hull is painted brick red below the waterline and black above. The hull has a pronounced ram bow and the counter has a prominent overhang. The model is displayed on a distressed plank of wood, painted white, the top right-hand corner of which is missing. On plaque attached to model: ‘Bellerophon 1865... (illegible)’. On bottom left-hand corner of backboard ‘65’

l2286_001.jpg l2286_002.jpg
Scale: Unknown. A model of the stern of HMS Bellerophon (1865) made entirely in wood and painted in realistic colours. The model shows the balancing mechanism for the rudder and the framing of the stern part of the vessel.

l2262_001.jpg l2262_002.jpg l2262_003.jpg
Scale: Unknown. A model of the steering wheel of the armoured central battery warship HMS Bellerophon (1865). The triple wheel has been made in wood and brass and is mounted on a wooden baseboard that has been made to resemble deck planking.



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...l-1014740;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1881 - HMS Doterel – The sloop sank at anchor off Punta Arenas after an explosion killing 143 members of a crew of 155, while on her way to join the Pacific Station.


HMS Doterel
was a Doterel-class sloop launched by the Royal Navy in 1880. She sank at anchor off Punta Arenas after an explosion on 26 April 1881. Her loss caused the deaths of 143 crew members, and there were 12 survivors. She was en route to join the Pacific Station. Her loss was initially the source of much speculation. Causes considered included an attack by the Fenians, a lost torpedo, and a coal gas explosion. An enquiry in September 1881 concluded coal gas was the cause.

In November 1881, an explosion in HMS Triumph killed three men and wounded seven; it was determined to have been caused by "xerotine siccative", one of a compound commonly called "patent driers." A survivor of the Doterel explosion recalled smelling that compound shortly before the explosion. In 1883 the government determined xerotine siccative caused the first explosion on Doterel, which set off the more damaging explosion of the forward magazine. The Admiralty ordered the compound withdrawn from use in the Royal Navy and better ventilation below decks.

HMS_Doterel.jpg

Design and construction
The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 Osprey-class sloop. The graceful clipper bow of the Ospreys was replaced by a vertical stem and the engines were more powerful. The hull was of composite construction, with wooden planks over an iron frame. Power was provided by three cylindrical boilers, which supplied steam at 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) to a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine driving a single 13-foot-1-inch (3.99 m) screw. This arrangement produced 900 indicated horsepower (670 kW) and a top speed of 11 knots (20 km/h).

Ships of the class were armed with two 7-inch (90 cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). Four machine guns and one light gun completed the weaponry. All the ships of the class were provided with a barque rig,[5] that is, square-rigged foremast and mainmast, and fore-and-aft sails only on the mizzen mast.

Crew
Doterel would have had a normal complement of 140–150 men, although on the day of the explosion and sinking she had 155 men on board, despite five having deserted since leaving Sheerness. Some of the supernumeraries may have been bound for ships already on station in the Pacific; one of the survivors, Engineer Walker, was due to join HMS Garnet.

Construction
Doterel was ordered from Chatham Dockyard and laid down on 13 May 1878. She was launched on 2 March 1880 from Number 3 slip, and was named by Miss Hunt-Grubbe, daughter of the captain of Steam Reserves at Chatham. She was commissioned on 7 December 1880.

Service
Sloops such as Doterel were used in the far-flung parts of Britain's maritime empire for constabulary duties. Barnaby, Doterel's designer, was an enthusiast of heavily armed but un-armoured frigates, sloops and corvettes, arguing that the Navy's tasks were best accomplished by a number of small, cheap ships. The system of colonial cruisers provided an inexpensive peace-keeping force for the protection of British interests, and gave imperial representatives a supply of sailors, marines and guns to deal with petty tyrants, minor insurrections and banditry. Doterel was assigned to the Pacific Station, which included the western coasts of North and South America as well as China and Japan. Under Commander Richard Evans she sailed from Sheerness, Kent on 17 January 1881. Having called at Madeira, St Vincent and Montevideo, she anchored at Punta Arenas, Chile on 26 April 1881 at 09:00.

Sinking
At about 10:15 on 26 April while the ship was at anchor off Punta Arenas, an explosion occurred in the forward magazine. Eyewitnesses described how objects of every type were thrown high into the air, and a huge column of smoke was seen to rise from the ship. The ship sank instantly.

Boats of every kind put off from shore to seek survivors, as well as from the missionary schooner Allen Gardiner, the Chilean schooner San Jose, and the pontoon Kate Kellogg. 143 of the 155 crew members were killed.The captain was one of the twelve survivors, rescued by a boat from San Jose. He was found stripped naked by the blast and bleeding from several wounds.

Doterel_Funeral.jpg
Funeral service performed over the remains of those who perished by the explosionThe Graphic, London 1881

That afternoon, crews recovered bodies from the water; only three were recovered whole. The various body parts were put into boxes and buried at sea the same afternoon. Reverend Thomas Bridges, an Anglican missionary at Ushuaia, presided over the mass funeral in the harbour for the many sailors killed in the explosion.

Commander Evans, the captain of Doterel telegrammed the Admiralty from Montevideo on 3 May 1881:

'Doterel' totally destroyed and sunk by explosion of fore magazine at Sandy Point, 10 a.m., April 26. Cause unknown, supposed boiler burst and exploded magazine. Twelve survivors, all well, proceeding in Britannia for Liverpool. Stokes (lieutenant) remains Sandy Point, awaiting orders. Have telegraphed Pacific, and Jones. Survivors. Commander Evans, Lieutenant Stokes, Paymaster Colborne, Engineer Walker (of Garnet), Carpenter Baird, Gunner's Mate Pengelly, Quartermaster Trout, Caulker's Mate Ford, Shipwright Walkers, Ordinary Seaman James Smith, Stoker Turner, Marine Summers. Discharged. Inlis (clerk), Miggeridge (sick bay man), Hayes (private), Motton (A.B.). John Ellery (A.B.) deserted. Dead.—Eight officers, 135 men.
— Commander Richard Evans, 3 May 1881
The ship's guns, screw and other valuable fittings were salvaged by Garnet and Turquoise. The contemporary rules governing pensions allowed the widow or dependent children of the dead men a gratuity equal to a year's pay, although the loss of their property was not compensated.

Cause of the explosion
1280px-Wreck_of_the_HMS_Doterel.jpg
Recovery of Doterel's wreckage

Initial reports blamed an explosion in the boilers, which detonated the magazine. This was definitively proven to be false when the crew of Garnet found the boilers in perfect condition. Conjecture also suggested the Fenians could have blown up the ship with a coal torpedo, the explosion could have been caused by a Whitehead torpedo lost by Shah in 1878, or coal gas from the bunkers might have caused the explosion. An enquiry was held at Portsmouth, which referred the evidence to a scientific committee. In September 1881, they determined that the explosion was caused by the detonation of coal gas in the bunkers, and that no crew members were at fault.

On 21 November 1881, an explosion occurred in Triumph, caused by a drying compound called "xerotine siccative", also called a patent drier. Three men were killed and seven were wounded.

It was not until 1883 that the cause of the Doterel explosion was settled. A surviving crew member of that ship, upon later smelling xerotine siccative while on board Indus, stated that he had smelled it before the 1881 explosion. He explained to authorities that a jar of liquid had cracked while being moved below deck. Subsequent investigation revealed that just before the explosion in Doterel, two men were ordered to throw the jar overboard. While cleaning the leaking explosive liquid from beneath the forward magazine, the men may have broken the rule of not having an open flame below decks. The xerotine siccative exploded first, setting off the huge explosion in the forward magazine, which contained 4 tons and 7 cwt (4,456 kg) of explosives.

The Admiralty ordered xerotine siccative to be discontinued from use in the fleet, and a system of ventilation was recommended for all ships of the Royal Navy.

The_explosion_on_HMS_Doterel_(detail_on_the_Greenwich_memorial).JPG
The explosion on HMS Doterel(detail on the Greenwich memorial)


The Doterel class was a Royal Navy class of screw-driven sloops. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. They were a revised version of an 1874 design by the Royal Navy's Chief Constructor, William Henry White, the Osprey-class sloop. Two of the class were lost, one to an explosion off Chile and one wrecked off Canada. Gannet is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

Unbenannt.JPG


HMS Gannet was a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop-of-war launched on 31 August 1878. She became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then lent as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913. She was restored in 1987 and is now part of the UK's National Historic Fleet.

800px-HMS_Gannet_(1878).jpg
HMS Gannet in her dock in Chatham, 2005



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Doterel_(1880)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doterel-class_sloop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Gannet_(1878)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1887 – Launch of Thistle, the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the seventh America's Cup in 1887 against American defender Volunteer.


Thistle was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the seventh America's Cup in 1887 against American defender Volunteer.

1280px-Jsj-246-thistle.jpg
Thistle in September 1887

1.JPG 2.JPG

Design
JSJthistle.jpg
Thistle in drydock, as photographed by John S. Johnston.

The cutter Thistle was designed by George Lennox Watson, with interiors by his brother Thomas Lennox Watson, and built at the D&W Henderson shipyard in Partick on the River Clyde and launched on 26 April 1887, for a syndicate of owners that included William Clark, John Clark, Andrew Coates, William Coates, James Coates, George Coates, J. Hilliard Bell, and William Bell of the Royal Clyde Yacht Club, and headed by James Bell. She was built of all-metal construction, with a teak deck. Thistle was skippered by John Barr.

Career
Thistle was built under conditions of great secrecy during the winter of 1886-7 and launched with her hull covered by a huge canvas. After winning or placing second in 13 of 15 Scottish regattas in her first year afloat, Thistle sailed to New York as the challenger in the 1887 America's Cup against the US defender, Volunteer. Skippered by John Barr, she lost both Cup races, and returned to Scotland in September 1887. John Barr's younger brother Charlie Barr was also a crew member who, after emigrating to the United States, went on to achieve success skippering three consecutive successful America's Cup defenders.

Meteor
1024px-Meteor_01.jpg
Meteor I in the 1893 Kiel Week races.

Following a few very successful years racing in Britain, Thistle was sold to the German emperor Wilhelm II (who otherwise used the SMY Hohenzollern) in 1891 for 90,000 gold marks and renamed Meteor. Between 1892 and 1895 Wilhelm II raced against the Britannia owned by his uncle the Prince of Wales later King Edward VII each year at the Cowes Week. Being a more experienced yachtsmen and having the faster ship Edward won all the races comfortably.

In 1895, Meteor was handed over to the German Navy in Wilhelmshaven as a school yacht and renamed Comet. In 1921, the vessel was broken up.



Volunteer was an American racing yacht built in 1887 for the America's Cup races. She was the victorious American defender of the seventh America's Cup match that same year against Scottish challenger Thistle.

3.JPG 4.JPG

1024px-JSJ-volunteer_turning.jpg
Volunteer turning Sandy Hook Lightship during the America's Cup race on September 27, 1887

Design
Volunteer, a centerboard compromise sloop, was designed by Edward Burgess and built by Pusey & Jones Shipbuilding Company at Wilmington, Delaware in 1887 for owner General Charles J. Paine of the New York Yacht Club.

Volunteer was the first America's Cup yacht with an all steel frame and hull. Her deck was made of white pine.

Career
Volunteer easily beat the 1886 America's Cup defender Mayflower during the defender trials for the 1887 America's Cup and won both Cup races on September 27 and 30, 1887, against Thistle. Volunteer was skippered by Captain Hank Haff with the assistance of Captains Terry, Berry and L. Jeffreys.

Soon after the Cup races, Volunteer was bought by John Malcolm Forbes (who also owned Puritan) and was Re-rigged as a schooner in 1891.

4a04495v.jpg
Damage after the 1893 grounding

On August 21,1893 she went onto the rocks at Hadley's Harbor, Naushon Island, off the coast of Massachusetts. Damage was extensive, as shown in the picture below. In 1894, in anticipation of racing with the British Valkyrie, she was returned to her original sloop rig. She was broken up at a New York junkyard in 1910.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_(yacht)
https://www.glwatson.com/projects/to-build/thistle/
https://peggybawn.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/order-of-the-thistle/
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1943 – Launch of USS Intrepid (CV/CVA/CVS-11), also known as The Fighting "I", is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy.


USS Intrepid
(CV/CVA/CVS-11)
, also known as The Fighting "I", is one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. She is the fourth US Navy ship to bear the name. Commissioned in August 1943, Intrepid participated in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, most notably the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, she was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she served mainly in the Atlantic, but also participated in the Vietnam War. Her notable achievements include being the recovery ship for a Mercury and a Gemini space mission. Because of her prominent role in battle, she was nicknamed "the Fighting I", while her frequent bad luck and time spent in dry dock for repairs—she was torpedoed once and hit by four separate Japanese kamikaze aircraft—earned her the nicknames "Decrepit" and "the Dry I". Decommissioned in 1974, in 1982 Intrepid became the foundation of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City.

1280px-USS_Intrepid_(CV-11)_operating_in_the_Philippine_Sea_in_November_1944_(NH_97468).jpg
USS Intrepid (CV-11) in the Philippine Sea, November 1944

The keel for Intrepid was laid down on 1 December 1941 in Shipway 10 at the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., Newport News, Virginia, days before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into World War II. She was launched on 26 April 1943, the fifth Essex-class aircraft carrier to be launched. She was sponsored by the wife of Vice Admiral John H. Hoover. On 16 August 1943, she was commissioned with Captain Thomas L. Sprague in command before heading to the Caribbean for shakedown and training. She thereafter returned to Norfolk, before departing on 3 December, bound for San Francisco. She proceeded on to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving there on 10 January, where she began preparations to join the rest of the Pacific Fleet for offensive operations against the Imperial Japanese Navy.

1280px-USS_Intrepid_(CV-11)_of_Hunters_Point_1944.jpeg
Intrepid off Hunter's Point in June 1944, her deck loaded with aircraft to be transported to the Pacific Theater


The Essex class was a class of aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that constituted the 20th century's most numerous class of capital ships. The class consisted of 24 vessels, which came in "short-hull" and "long-hull" versions. Thirty-two ships were originally ordered, but as World War II wound down, six were canceled before construction, and two were canceled after construction had begun. No Essex-class ships were lost to enemy action, despite several vessels sustaining very heavy damage. The Essex-class carriers were the backbone of the U.S. Navy's combat strength during World War II from mid-1943 on, and, along with the addition of the three Midway-class carriers just after the war, continued to be the heart of U.S. naval strength until the supercarriers began to come into the fleet in numbers during the 1960s and 1970s.

Design_plan_Essex.jpg
1941 design plans for the Essexclass.

Essex-class_carrier_modernisations_1944-1960.jpg
Essex-class modernizations 1944-1960.

1.JPG
2.JPG


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex-class_aircraft_carrier
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1944 - Yoshida Maru No. 1 – In April 1944, she departed Shanghai as part of the Take Ichi convoy carrying a full Japanese regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division.
On 26 April 1944 she was spotted and sunk by the submarine USS Jack. There were no survivors from the 2,586 soldiers, 81 ship's crew, and 2 armed guards aboard at the time of sinking.



The SS Yoshida Maru No. 1 was a Japanese cargo ship owned by Yamashita Kisen K. K. The ship was built in 1919 by Asano Shipbuilding Company, at Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, and sank on 26 April 1944 with great loss of life.

History
The Yoshida Maru No. 1 was built at Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama in 1919.

World War II
Yoshida Maru No. 1 was requisitioned as a transport ship by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

In April 1944, she departed Shanghai as part of the Take Ichi convoy carrying a full Japanese regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division. On April 26, 1944 she was spotted and sunk by the submarine USS Jack.
There were no survivors from the 2,586 soldiers, 81 ship's crew, and 2 armed guards aboard at the time of sinking


USS Jack (SS-259), a Gato-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the jack (any of various fishes—young pike, green pike or pickerel, or large California rockfish).

Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company, Groton, Connecticut 2 February 1942. She was launched 16 October 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. Frances Seely) and commissioned at New London, CT, 6 January 1943, Commander Thomas. M. "Tommy" Dykers (Class of 1927) in command.

USS_Jack;0825901.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Yoshida_Maru_No._1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Jack_(SS-259)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1952 - USS Hobson - On the night of 26 April 1952, Hobson was steaming in formation with carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) about 600 miles (1000 kilometers) west of the Azores.
The Hobson crossed the carrier's bow and was promptly struck amidships.
The force of the collision rolled the destroyer-minesweeper over, breaking her in two.

USS Rodman (DD-456) and the Wasp rescued many survivors but the ship and 176 of her crew were lost.


USS Hobson (DD-464/DMS-26)
, a Gleaves-class destroyer, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for Richmond Pearson Hobson, who was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions during the Spanish–American War. He would later in his career attain the rank of rear admiral and go on to serve as a congressman from the state of Alabama.

Uss_Hobson_DD-464_Censored.jpg

Hobson, constructed at a cost of $5 million, was launched at the Charleston Navy Yard on 8 September 1941; sponsored by Mrs. Grizelda Hobson, widow of Rear Admiral Hobson. As the new destroyer slid down the ways, she was cheered on by spectators and whistle blasts from other vessels on the Cooper River. Hobson was commissioned on 22 January 1942, Commander R. N. McFarlane in command.

In 1952, Hobson collided with the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) and sunk with the loss of 176 crew. The ships had been undertaking amphibious exercises in the Atlantic, with Wasp practicing night flying, when Hobson attempted to turn in front of the carrier and collided with Wasp. Hobson was broken in two and quickly sunk, causing the greatest loss of life on a US Navy ship since World War II.


Post war and sinking

USS_Hobson_(DMS-26)_underway_in_1948.jpg
USS Hobson, in 1948.

The unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan came with Hobson still undergoing repairs. With repairs completed and after shakedown training, she spent February 1946 on mine-sweeping operations out of Yorktown, Virginia. The remainder of the year was spent in training and readiness exercises in the Caribbean and off Norfolk. Until 1950, the ship continued to operate off the East Coast and in Caribbean waters on amphibious and mine warfare operations. In late 1948, she visited Argentia and Halifax, Nova Scotia on mine-sweeping exercises with Canadian ships. With the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, Hobson's schedule of training intensified. She took part in amphibious exercises off North Carolina and Puerto Rico during 1950–51, and participated in carrier operations as a plane guard and screening ship.

During one such operation on the night of 26 April 1952 at 2220, Hobson was steaming in formation with the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-18) and destroyer USS Rodman (DD-456) about 900 kilometres (490 nmi) southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland at 42°21′N 44°15′W during night flight operations en route to Gibraltar. Hobson was moving at 24 knots and following the carrier 3,000 yards off her starboard quarter with Rodman following Wasp off her port quarter. Hobson's commanding officer, Lt. Comdr. William J. Tierney, had been in command of the ship for 5 weeks. He anticipated that Wasp, preparing to recover her aircraft at 2300, would change course to 250–260 degrees to bring the carrier into the wind, necessary for the aircraft landings. The destroyer's executive officer, Lt. William A. Hoefer, was on the bridge with the conn and control of the ship when Tierney outlined a course to maneuver Hobson ahead of Wasp and then come up on the massive carrier's port quarter as the destroyer's new station. Rodman would move to the starboard quarter as her new station. Hoefer, who had been on Hobson for 16 months, was immediately concerned when he saw Tierney's plan and turned the conn over to Lt. Donald Cummings, so that he could voice his opposition and belief that Tierney's maneuver would put the two ships on a collision course. Since Wasp had to turn to port to recover aircraft, the trailing destroyer had two options, slow down and let Wasp turn, the conventional method, or cross in front of the carrier. A heated argument ensued that Hoefer lost and he strode off the bridge to the outside wing to cool off.

Meanwhile, Wasp's commanding officer, Capt. Burnham C. McCaffree, was on his bridge, where Lt. Robert Herbst had the conn and ordered right standard rudder and flank speed to bring the carrier into the wind. McCaffree observed the red aircraft warning lights of the two destroyers and believed that they were also beginning the evolution. Tierney, now in control of Hobson ordered right standard rudder and a course of 130 degrees. The wind shifted and McCaffree ordered a necessary course change from 250 to 260 degrees to head into the wind. At that time Wasp's surface radar failed, while on Hobson, the port pelorus was fogged, thus preventing an accurate bearing on Wasp. McCaffree notified the destroyers of his course change, but it is unclear whether anyone on Hobson's bridge heard the communication. Tierney, without disclosing his intention, was going to put the Hobson into a Williamson turn that would bring the ship back to the point she had been. Tierney suddenly ordered full left rudder and within 30 seconds ordered full right rudder. Hoefer rushed back onto Hobson's bridge when he realized what Tierney was doing and yelled "Prepare for collision!, Prepare for collision!" At that moment, Tierney ordered left full rudder, intending to race ahead of Wasp which was bearing down on the destroyer. Aboard Wasp, Lt. Herbst told Capt. McCaffree, "We're in trouble" as McCaffree ordered "all back emergency."

At first it looked as though Hobson might escape the massive carrier as her bow and number-one stack passed from starboard to port, but then there was a horrendous, grinding crash as Wasp struck Hobson amidships. The force of the collision rolled the destroyer-minesweeper over onto her port side, breaking her in two. The aft section of Hobson trailed alongside of the carrier while the forward half was temporarily lodged in the Wasp's bow. The aft part of the ship sank first but 40 of the survivors came from that section as men were literally shot out of a scuttle hatch they had managed to open, propelled by the force of water and expelling air. Aboard the carrier, life rafts were being dropped over and lines lowered. One set of double rafts fell on top of a cluster of five men who were never seen again. One lucky man, a chief petty officer in the bow, managed to grab a pipe protruding from Wasp, just as Hobson's bow began her descent under the waves and leaped onto Wasp without getting wet. Survival for the rest of Hobson's crew in the thick, glutinous fuel oil was incredible, yet it happened for some. Rodman and Wasp pulled aboard 61 oil-coated survivors, but the destroyer and 176 of her crew were lost in less than five minutes, including Tierney, who dove from the bridge into the sea moments before the carrier plowed into Hobson – and brought about the tragic end of the destroyer-minesweeper's valiant career. The sinking of Hobson was the worst non-combat accident for the U.S. Navy since the disappearance of the collier USS Cyclops (AC-4) with 306 crew and passengers en route from Barbados to Baltimore, Maryland in March 1918, during World War I.

Aftermath and findings

021896.jpg

Damaged_Bow_of_USS_Wasp_(CV-18)_in_1952.jpg
Damage sustained by Wasp during the collision

A court of inquiry performed an investigation into the sinking of Hobson in an effort to determine the cause of the tragedy. The opinion of the court of inquiry was "that the sole cause of the collision was the unexplained left turn made by the Hobson about 2224. In making this left turn the Commanding Officer committed a grave error in judgement." Since the commanding officer did not survive the collision, the reason for this error could not be determined. No one else was considered to be at fault and the crew of Wasp was absolved of any responsibility for the collision. The commanding officer of Hobson had six months of prior command experience on a High-speed transport (APD), but had been in command of Hobson for only five weeks. Seven days of that were underway and only 3 1/2 days were with the task group. The cost of repairs to Wasp was said to be $1 million ($9.43 million today).

As a direct result of the sinking of Hobson, upon recommendation of the court of inquiry, the Allied Navy Signal Book was changed. A special signal was to be put into use for carriers during aircraft operations. The court of inquiry also stated in its findings that, in the future, proposed schedules for aircraft launching and recovery should be provided to the vessels performing plane guard duties.

The court of inquiry also noted that Wasp, Rodman, and Hobson were all running without normal marine navigation lights, just red aircraft warning lights on top of their masts.

USS Hobson Memorial, Charleston, SC
In 1954, the USS Hobson Memorial Society erected an obelisk memorial of Salisbury Pink granite, quarried from Salisbury, North Carolina at the city where Hobson had been built 14 years earlier, Charleston, South Carolina. The memorial is dedicated to the 176 men of the Hobson who perished in the collision with Wasp. Surrounding the obelisk are stones from each of the 38 states where the men came from. Their names are inscribed and can also be seen in the 1954 dedication program for the memorial.



USS Wasp (CV/CVA/CVS-18) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during World War II for the United States Navy. The ship, the ninth US Navy ship to bear the name, was originally named Oriskany, but was renamed while under construction in honor of the previous Wasp (CV-7), which was sunk 15 September 1942. Wasp was commissioned in November 1943, and served in several campaigns in the Pacific Theater of Operations, earning eight battle stars. Like many of her sister ships, she was decommissioned shortly after the end of the war, but was modernized and recommissioned in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), and then eventually became an antisubmarine carrier (CVS). In her second career, she operated mainly in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Caribbean. She played a prominent role in the manned space program, serving as the recovery ship for five missions: Gemini IV, Gemini VI, Gemini VII, Gemini IX, and Gemini XII. She was retired in 1972, and sold for scrap in 1973.

1024px-USS_Wasp_(CVS-18)_underway_at_sea,_circa_in_early_1967_(NH_97509).jpg



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Hobson_(DD-464)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/0926.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wasp_(CV-18)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/02/18a.htm
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 April 1956 – SS Ideal X, the world's first successful container ship, leaves Port Newark, New Jersey for her first voyage in her new configuration for Houston, Texas.


SS
Ideal X
, a converted World War II T-2 oil tanker, was the first commercially successful container ship.

Ideal_X.jpg

idealx.jpeg

Built by The Marinship Corporation during World War II as Potrero Hills, she was later purchased by Malcom McLean's Pan-Atlantic Steamship Company. In 1955, the ship was modified to carry shipping containers and rechristened Ideal X. During her first voyage in her new configuration, on April 26, 1956, the Ideal X carried 58 containers from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Port of Houston, Texas, where 58 trucks were waiting to be loaded with the containers. It was not the first container ship, however. The Clifford J. Rodgers, operated by the White Pass and Yukon Route, made its debut in 1955.

In 1959, the vessel was acquired by Bulgarian owners, who rechristened her Elemir. The Elemir suffered extensive damage during heavy weather on February 8, 1964, and was sold in turn to Japanese breakers. She was finally scrapped on October 20, 1964, in Hirao, Japan.

1920px-Type_T2-SE-A1_tanker_Hat_Creek_underway_at_sea_on_16_August_1943.jpg
The Ideal X was originally constructed as a T2 tanker, similar to the Hat Creek shown here in August 1943


https://www.wired.com/2012/04/april-26-1956-the-container-ships-maiden-voyage/
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 26 April


1654 – Launch of Basing – launched 26 April 1654, renamed HMS Guernsey in 1660


Fifth rate-frigates before 1660
Fifth rates were essentially two-decked vessels, with their main battery on the lower deck and a lesser number of guns of lesser power on the upper deck (as well as even smaller guns on the quarter deck).


px6236.jpg
This may be a portrait of the ‘Guernsey’, fifth-rate, 30 guns. She was built in 1654 as the ‘Basing’. She was renamed in 1660 and condemned in 1693. She is viewed from abaft the starboard beam. On the tafferel is a large cross with a helmet and mantling above it, presumably the arms of Guernsey. Above the quarter gallery is a swan with wings outspread. It is freely drawn, but not as accurately as most drawings by the Younger at this period. The ship is shown too long for the amount of stern showing, and the stern is heeled slightly to port while the fore part of the ship is not.

pw6935.jpg
This might be the same ship as PAG6236 and in spite of the inscription she is not the same ship as PAG6235, which is identified as the ‘Newcastle’ with reasonable certainty; she is a good deal smaller and may well be the ‘Guernsey’. This is an unsigned pencil drawing by the Younger. It is inscribed ‘d Kastel 1676’.

Similar or sistership https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dartmouth_(1655)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-316834;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=G


1706 Relief of Barcelona by British.

The Siege of Barcelona took place between 3 and 27 April 1706 during the War of the Spanish Succession when a Franco-Spanish army laid siege to Barcelona in an attempt to recapture the city following its fall to an English-led Allied army the previous year.

Alliberament_de_Barcelona_1706.jpg
Alliberament de Barcelona, el 30 d'abril de 1706

After the Earl of Peterborough entered Valencia in triumph in January of 1706, Barcelona was left vulnerable. This led the French to change the plans of attacking Valencia and try to besiege Barcelona instead, while the city was blocked from the sea-side by the Count of Toulouse. The Spanish forces were led by Philip V, while René de Froulay, Comte de Tessé was placed in charge of the French land forces during the siege.

Despite insufficient artillery and the constant harassment from Peterborough, who marched north with 3000 men and attacked the besiegers from the mountains, the Franco-Spanish forces finally managed to shoot three breaches in the walls. But before the decision to storm the city could be made, the siege was abandoned, following the appearance of a large English fleet under the command of John Leake carrying reinforcements.

The Franco-Spanish army abandoned its supplies and artillery in its hasty retreat. Phillip was cut off from returning to Madrid, and so he crossed into France. Barcelona and the entire region of Catalonia remained in Allied hands until 1714



1730 – Launch of Spanish Galicia 70 (launched 26 April 1730 at Grana Shipyard, Ferrol) - Scuttled 5 April 1741, captured and raised by Britain, renamed Galicia Prize, scuttled 1742(?)

Galicia class, 70 guns
Galicia 70 (launched 26 April 1730 at Grana Shipyard, Ferrol) - Scuttled 5 April 1741, captured and raised by Britain, renamed Galicia Prize, scuttled 1742(?)
Leon 70 (launched 19 August 1731 at Grana Shipyard, Ferrol) - taken to pieces in 1747 or 1749.


1806 – Launch of HMS Quail, HMS Pigeon and HMS Crane, all three Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooners of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20.

j1010.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Quail_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pigeon_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Crane_(1806)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-305548;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C


1809 HMS Thrasher gun-brig engaged Flotilla near Boulogne.

HMS Thrasher
(1804) was a 12-gun brig, previously named Adamant. She was built in 1804, and purchased that year by the navy. She was sold in 1814 and wrecked in 1815.


1819 – Launch of HMS Belleisle was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 April 1819 at Pembroke Dockyard.

HMS Belleisle
was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 April 1819 at Pembroke Dockyard.
Belleisle was converted to serve as a troopship in 1841, and was broken up in 1872

j2821.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belleisle_(1819)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repulse-class_ship_of_the_line
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-295429;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B


1853 – 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.
Started as Achille, the ship was renamed Saint Louis in 1850. She took part in the Crimean War as a troopship, bombed the Tétouan forts on 20 November 1859, and served in the French intervention in Mexico in 1862.
She was renamed Cacique in 1881 and served as a gunnery school, and was eventually broken up in 1895

Suffren-IMG_8647.jpg
1/20th scale model of Suffren, lead ship of Saint Louis's class, on display at the Musée national de la Marine

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


1860 - The screw steamship USS Mohawk captures the slaver Wildfire with 530 slaves on board in the Bahama Channel, taking them to a camp in Key West guarded by Mohawks Marines until returned home.

The second USS Mohawk was a screw steamship in the United States Navy. She was the SS Caledonia, which the US Navy acquired in 1858 and sold in 1864. After her sale she became SS Alliance and was wrecked in 1869.

USS_Mohawk.jpg



1869 – Launch of The Spanish ironclad Sagunto, a wooden-hulled armored frigate converted from the 100-gun ship of the line Principe Don Alfonso during the 1870s.

Sagunto.jpg



1869 - As a post-Civil War push for re-enlistments, the Good Conduct Medal, then called Good Conduct Badge, is authorized by Secretary of the Navy Adolphus E. Borie.

The Good Conduct Medal is one of the oldest military awards of the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. Navy's variant of the Good Conduct Medal was established in 1869, the Marine Corps version in 1896, the Coast Guard version in 1923, the Army version in 1941, and the Air Force version in 1963; the Air Force Good Conduct Medal was temporarily discontinued from February 2006 to February 2009, followed by its subsequent reinstatement.



1877 – Launch of HMS Pelican was an Osprey-class sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1870s.

HMS Pelican
was an Osprey-class sloop built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1870s. She was launched in 1877 and was sold to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1901. She was scuttled in 1953.

HMS_Pelican_launched_26_April_1877.jpg

1280px-Royal_Navy_ship_Pelican_owned_by_Hudson_Bay_Company,_New_York_(30238965581).jpg



1918 - USS Stewart (DD 13) collides with an unidentified steamer near Brest, France. Just days earlier, Stewart crew members attacked a German submarine and saved the SS Florence H crew when she exploded internally.

The first USS Stewart (DD-13) was a Bainbridge-class destroyer in the United States Navy. She was named for Rear Admiral Charles Stewart.

USS_Stewart_(DD-13),_anchored_off_Guaymas,_Mexico.jpg

On 23 April, Stewart sighted two seaplanes dropping bombs, apparently on a submarine; and she raced to the spot. One aircraft flew over the destroyer, and the observer pointed to the location of the sub. Stewart saw first the sub's wake, then its periscope, and finally the dark form of her hull underwater. She was forced to turn away at the last moment due to the effort of a French escort to ram the sub, but dropped two depth charges which brought up large amounts of oil. The action was evaluated at the time as a kill; but the submarine, U-108, survived to be damaged by Porter several days later and finally to surrender at Harwich at the end of the war.

During a dense fog three days later, Stewart was damaged when she collided with an unidentified merchantman, and she remained under repair until 28 May. On 4 August, the destroyer made another attack on an apparent submarine wake, but obtained no evidence of success.



1944 – The Action of 26 April 1944 occurred as a part of Operation Tunnel, allied destroyer sweeps of the coast of Brittany in preparation for Operation Overlord.

The Action of 26 April 1944 occurred as a part of Operation Tunnel, allied destroyer sweeps of the coast of Brittany in preparation for Operation Overlord. On the night of 25–26 April a sweep was conducted by the Dido-class cruiser HMS Black Prince and the Tribal-class destroyers HMS Ashanti, HMCS Athabaskan, HMCS Haida and HMCS Huron. They engaged the Elbing-class torpedo boats T24, T27 and T29 off the île de Batzuntil T29 was destroyed. Both of the other torpedo boats were damaged in the engagement. T29 caused some casualties on Haida and Huron before sinking with a loss of 135 men. Haida and Ashanti collided with each other near the end of the action.



1944 - USS Frost (DE 144), USS Huse (DE 145), USS Barber (DE 161) and USS Snowden (DE 246) sink the German submarine U 488 northwest of the Canary Islands.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
27 April 1521 – Battle of Mactan: Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines led by chief Lapu-Lapu.


The Battle of Mactan (Cebuano: Gubat sa Mactan; Filipino: Labanan sa Mactan; Spanish: Batalla de Mactán) was fought in the Philippines on 27 April 1521, prior to Spanish colonization. The warriors of Lapu-Lapu, a native chieftain of Mactan Island, overpowered and defeated a Spanish force fighting for Rajah Humabon of Cebu, under the command of Ferdinand Magellan, who was killed in the battle.

1280px-MactanShrinePainting2.jpg
Lapu-Lapu shrine, Mactan Shrine Painting 2, Lapu-Lapu vs Ferdinand Magellan.

1.JPG 2.JPG

Background
On 16 March 1521 (Julian calendar), Magellan sighted the mountains of what is now Samar while on a mission to find a westward route to the MoluccasIslands for Spain. This event marked the arrival of the first documented Europeans in the Archipelago. The following day, Magellan ordered his men to anchor their ships on the shores of Homonhon Island.

There, Magellan befriended Rajah Kolambu and Rajah Siagu, king of Limasawa, who guided him to Cebu. There he met Rajah Humabon, the Rajah of Cebu. Then, Rajah Humabon and his queen were baptized into the Catholic faith, taking the Christian names Carlos, in honor of King Charles of Spain, and Juana, in honor of King Charles' mother. To commemorate this event, Magellan gave Juana the Santo Niño, an image of the infant Jesus, as a symbol of their new alliance and held their first mass in the coast.

Ph_locator_cebu_mactan (1).png

As a result of Magellan's influence with Rajah Humabon, an order had been issued to the nearby chiefs that each of them were to provide food supplies for the ships, and convert to Christianity.

Most chiefs obeyed the order. However, Datu Lapu-Lapu, one of the two chiefs within the island of Mactan, was the only chieftain to show his opposition. Lapu-Lapu refused to accept the authority of Rajah Humabon in these matters. This opposition proved to be influential when Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's voyage chronicler, writes,

"On Friday, April twenty-six, Zula, the second chief of the island of Mactan, sent one of his sons to present two goats to the captain-general, and to say that he would send him all that he had promised, but that he had not been able to send it to him because of the other chief Lapu-Lapu, who refused to obey the king of Spain."
Rajah Humabon and Datu Zula suggested to Magellan to go to the island of Mactan and force his subject chieftain Datu Lapu-Lapu to comply with his orders. Magellan saw an opportunity to strengthen the existing friendship ties with the ruler of the Visayan region and agreed to help him subdue the resistant Lapu-Lapu.

Battle
According to the documents of Italian historian Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan tried to convince Lapu-Lapu to comply with Rajah Humabon's orders the night before the battle,

At midnight, sixty of us set out armed with corselets and helmets, together with the Christian king, the prince, some of the chief men, and twenty or thirty balanguais. [a type of Filipino boat] We reached Mactan three hours before dawn. The captain did not wish to fight then, but sent a message to the natives to the effect that if they would obey the king of Spain, recognize the Christian king as their sovereign, and pay us our tribute, he would be their friend; but that if they wished otherwise, they should wait to see how our lances wounded. They replied that if we had lances they had lances of bamboo and stakes hardened with fire. They said that in order to induce us to go in search of them; for they had dug certain pit holes filled with spikes between the houses in order that we might fall into them.
Pigafetta writes how Magellan deployed forty-nine armored men with swords, axes, shields, crossbows, and guns, and sailed for Mactan in the morning of 28 April. A number of native warriors who had converted to Christianity also came to their aid. According to Pigafetta, because of the rocky outcroppings, and coral near the beach, the Spanish soldiers could not land on Mactan. Forced to anchor their ships far from shore, Magellan could not bring his ships' cannons to bear on Lapu-Lapu's warriors, who numbered more than 1,500.

"When morning came, forty-nine of us leaped into the water up to our thighs, and walked through water for more than two cross-bow flights before we could reach the shore. The boats could not approach nearer because of certain rocks in the water. The other men remained behind to guard the boats. When we reached land, [the natives] had formed in three divisions to the number of more than one thousand five hundred persons. When they saw us, they charged down upon us with ear-shattering loud cries... The musketeers and crossbow-men shot from a distance for about a half-hour, but uselessly..."[5]
The musketeers boats could not get close enough for their crossbows to reach shore due.

Magellan and his men then tried to scare them off by burning some houses in Bulaia. But the natives surprised them by raining a barrage of arrows, but due to the shields and helmets of the Spaniards, they left no permanent damage.

"Seeing that, Magellan sent some men to burn their houses in order to terrify them. When they saw their houses burning, they were roused to greater fury. Some of our men were killed near the houses, while we burned twenty or thirty houses. So many of them rained down upon us that the captain was shot through the right leg with a poisoned arrow. On that account, he ordered us to a frontal assault. But the men took to flight, except ten to fifteen of us who remained with the captain. The natives shot only at our legs, for the latter were bare; and so many were the spears and stones that they hurled at us, that we could offer no resistance. The mortars in the boats could not aid us as they were too far away."
When the natives charged to their position, Magellan ordered his men to fire at them using their rifles and crossbows, but for a short period of time. Out of ammunition, they switched to their swords and axes and fought with the captain. At least 10 Spaniards were killed and the others withdrew.

Many of the warriors specifically attacked Magellan. In the struggle, he was wounded in the arm with a spear and in the leg by a kampilan. Those who stood beside him were easily overpowered and killed, while the others who tried to help him were hacked by spears and swords. With this advantage, Lapu-Lapu's troops finally overwhelmed and killed Magellan. Pigafetta and a few others managed to escape.

"Recognizing the captain, so many turned upon him that they knocked his helmet off his head twice... an Indian hurled a bamboo spear into the captain's face, but the latter immediately killed him with his lance, which he left in the Indian's body. Then, trying to lay hand on sword, he could draw it out but halfway, because he had been wounded in the arm with a bamboo spear. When the natives saw that, they all rushed themselves upon him. One of them wounded him on the left leg with a large cutlass, which resembles a scimitar, only being larger. That caused the captain to fall face downward, when immediately they rushed upon him with iron and bamboo spears and with their cutlasses, until they killed our mirror, our light, our comfort, and our true guide. When they wounded him, he turned back many times to see whether we were all in the boats. Thereupon, beholding him dead, we, wounded, retreated, as best we could, to the boats, which were already pulling off..."
According to Pigafetta, several of Magellan's men were killed in battle, and a number of natives converted to Catholicism who had come to their aid were immediately killed by the warriors.

Magellan's allies, Humabon and Zula, were said not to have taken part in the battle due to Magellan's bidding, and they watched from a distance.

Aftermath
When the body of Magellan was recovered by the warriors, Humabon ordered him to return the bodies of Magellan and some of his crew who were killed, and they would be given as much merchandise as they wished. Lapu-Lapu refused.

Some of the soldiers who survived the battle and returned to Cebu were poisoned while attending a feast given by Humabon. Magellan was succeeded by Juan Sebastián Elcano as commander of the expedition, who ordered the immediate departure after Humabon's betrayal. Elcano and his fleet sailed west and returned to Spain in 1522, completing the first circumnavigation of the world.

In Philippine culture

A depiction of Lapu Lapu at the Lapu Lapu shrine.


The memorial to Magellan built by the Spanish.

Today, Lapu-Lapu is retroactively honored as the first "Philippine national hero" to resist foreign rule, even though the territory of the "Philippine Islands" did not exist at the time, or was even named or imagined that way. It might be considered a historical inaccuracy to consider the Battle of Mactan a "fight to resist foreign rule",[citation needed] as Magellan's forces were fighting to defend the interests of Rajah Humabon, the local chieftain of Cebu. Rajah Humabon was among the first indigenous converts to Roman Catholicism after he, his wives, and his subjects were baptised by the expedition's priest on 14 April 1521. The Battle of Mactan was in fact one of many tribal wars common in the archipelago prior to the arrival of the Spanish, with the added component that a European force fought for one of the sides, and lost.

Lapu-Lapu is remembered by a number of commemorations: statues on the island of Mactan and at the Cebu Provincial Capitol, a city bearing his name, and a local variety of red grouper fish. Kapampangan actor-turned-politician Lito Lapid starred in a film called Lapu-Lapu, and novelty singer Yoyoy Villame wrote a folk song entitled "Magellan" that tells a humorously distorted story of the Battle of Mactan.

There is a spot in Mactan Island called the Mactan shrine where the battle is reenacted during its anniversary. In the same shrine, next to the Lapu-Lapu statue, there is an obelisk erected in Magellan's honor by the Spanish colonial authorities and defaced shortly after the US military occupation of the Philippines.

Magellan is also honored for bringing Catholicism to the Philippines in general and the Santo Niño (Child Jesus) to Cebu in particular. The Magellan's Cross and the aforementioned Magellan's shrine were erected in Cebu City and Mactan Island. Many landmarks and infrastructures all over the Philippines bear Magellan's name, mostly using its Spanish spelling (Magallanes), which is also a widely used Filipino surname.

The inhabitants of the Sulu archipelago believe that Lapu-Lapu was a Muslim (Lapu Lapu among Khidr Army.) of the Sama-Bajau.

On April 27, 2017, in honoring Lapu-Lapu as the first hero who resisted foreign rule in the country, the date April 27 when the battle happened was declared by President Rodrigo Duterte as Lapu-Lapu Day.

Legends
According to native legend, Lapu-Lapu never died but turned into stone, and has since then been guarding the seas of Mactan. Fishermen of the island would throw coins at a stone shaped like a man as a way of asking for permission to fish in the chieftain's territory.

Another myth passed on by the natives concerns the statue of Lapu-Lapu erected on a pedestal at the center of the town plaza in Lapu-Lapu City. The statue faced the old city hall building, where the mayors used to hold office; it held a crossbow in the stance of appearing to shoot an enemy. Some superstitious people of the city proposed to change this crossbow with a sword, after a succession of three mayors died due to a heart attack.

Another legend suggests that after the battle, Lapu-Lapu left Mactan and lived on a mountain.


Ferdinand Magellan (/məˈɡɛlən/[1] or /məˈdʒɛlən/; Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães, IPA: [fɨɾˈnɐ̃w dɨ mɐɣɐˈʎɐ̃jʃ]; Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes, IPA: [feɾˈnando ðe maɣaˈʎanes]; c. 1480 – 27 April 1521) was a Portuguese explorer who organised the Spanish expedition to the East Indies from 1519 to 1522, resulting in the first circumnavigation of the Earth, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano.

Ferdinand_Magellan.jpg

Born into a family of the Portuguese nobility in around 1480, Magellan became a skilled sailor and naval officer and was eventually selected by King Charles I of Spain to search for a westward route to the Maluku Islands (the "Spice Islands"). Commanding a fleet of five vessels, he headed south through the Atlantic Ocean to Patagonia, passing through the Strait of Magellan into a body of water he named the "peaceful sea" (the modern Pacific Ocean). Despite a series of storms and mutinies, the expedition reached the Spice Islands in 1521 and returned home via the Indian Ocean to complete the first circuit of the globe. Magellan did not complete the entire voyage, as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines in 1521. His gift, the Santo Niño de Cebú image, remains one of his legacies during his arrival.

Magellan had already reached the Malay Archipelago in Southeast Asia on previous voyages traveling east (from 1505 to 1511–1512). By visiting this area again but now travelling west, Magellan achieved a nearly complete personal circumnavigation of the globe for the first time in history.

The Magellanic penguin is named after him, as he was the first European to note it.[5] Magellan's navigational skills have also been acknowledged in the naming of objects associated with the stars, including the Magellanic Clouds, now known to be two nearby dwarf galaxies; the twin lunar craters of Magelhaens and Magelhaens A; and the Martian crater of Magelhaens.

Magellan_Elcano_Circumnavigation-en.svg.png
The Magellan–Elcano voyage. Victoria, one of the original five ships, circumnavigated the globe, finishing 16 months after Magellan's death.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Magellan
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
27 April 1702 – Death of Jean Bart, French admiral (b. 1651)


Jean Bart
(21 October 1650 – 27 April 1702) was a French naval commander and privateer.

800px-Jean_Bart_mg_9487.jpg Unbenannt.JPG

Early life
Jean Bart was born in Dunkirk in 1650[1] to a seafaring family, the son of a sailor who has been described variously as a fisherman or corsair commander. He almost certainly spoke Flemish, at that time the native language in the region, and his birth name was Jan Baert.

Naval career
When he was young, Bart served in the Dutch navy under Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. When war broke out between France and the United Provinces in 1672, he entered the French service. Since persons not of noble birth in those days couldn't obtain the rank of officer in the navy, he became captain of one of the Dunkirk privateers. In this capacity he displayed astonishing bravery, so that Louis XIV sent him on a special mission to the Mediterranean, where he gained great distinction.

Unable to receive a command in the navy due to his low birth, he held an irregular sort of commission, but he had such success, however, that he became a lieutenant in 1679. He became a terror to the Dutch navy and a serious menace to the commerce of Holland. On one occasion, with six vessels, he broke through a blockading fleet, shattered a number of the enemy's ships, and convoyed a transport of grain safely into Dunkirk harbor. He rose rapidly to the rank of captain and then to that of admiral.

He achieved his greatest successes during the Nine Years' War (1688–1697).
  • In 1689, in the beginning of this war he was captured by the English, together with Claude de Forbin, and taken to Plymouth. But 3 days later, they succeeded in escaping to Brittany in a rowboat, together with 20 other sailors.
  • In 1691 he slipped through the blockade of Dunkirk, terrorizing the allied merchant fleet and burning a Scottish castle and four villages.
  • In 1694 he achieved his greatest success in the Action of 29 June 1694, when he captured a huge convoy of Dutch grain ships, saving Paris from starvation. Jean Bart was raised into the nobility on 4 August 1694 with a peerage.
  • In 1696 he struck another blow against the Dutch in the Battle of Dogger Bank (1696).
The Peace of Ryswick (1697) put a close to his active service.

Marriage and children
He married the 16-year-old Nicole Gontier on 3 February 1676. They had four children before Nicole died in 1682. Their oldest son, François-Cornil (17 June 1676- ?), became vice-admiral.

Then he married Jacoba Tugghe on 13 October 1689. They had ten children. He signed his marriage contract, which is still on file in Dunkirk, with the name "Jan Baert".

Jean Bart died of pleurisy and is buried in the Eglise Saint-Eloi in Dunkirk.

Legacy
Many anecdotes tell of the courage and bluntness of the 2.04 m tall[citation needed], uncultivated sailor, who became a popular hero of the French Navy. He captured a total of 386 ships and also sank or burned a great number more. The town of Dunkirk has honoured his memory by erecting a statue and by naming a public square after him.

In World War II, 70% of Dunkirk was destroyed, but the statue survived.

Jean_Bart_statue_Dunkirk.jpg
Statue of Jean Bart in Dunkirk


Jean_Bart.png
Jean Bart as depicted in 1845

Ships bearing the name Jean Bart
Main article: French ship Jean Bart
More than 27 ships of the French Navy, over a period of 200 years, have borne the name Jean Bart. These include:
Many smaller naval ships as well as privateers have also borne the name "Jean Bart".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Bart
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
27 April 1782 – Launch of HMS Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Sheerness.


HMS Polyphemus
, a 64-gun Intrepid-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.

1.JPG 2.JPG

Early career
Polyphemus was laid down at Sheerness in 1776. On 26 April 1778, His Majesty King George III visited Sheerness to inspect the dockyards. There he saw Polyphemus, which was standing in her frame to season. She was launched in 1782 and commissioned under Captain William C. Finch, who then sailed her to Gibraltar.

She was part of a British fleet under Admiral Richard Howe successfully resupplied Gibraltar, then under siege by Bourbon forces. Shortly after, the British fleet met the Franco-Spanish fleet under Admiral Luis de Córdova y Córdova on 20 October 1782. The consequent battle of Cape Spartel was indecisive. Polyphemus was part of the second division of the van, and suffered four men wounded.

In late 1782, Admiral Sir Richard Hughes took a squadron that included Polyphemus, under Captain Thomas Sotheby, out to the West Indies. On their way the British encountered a French convoy off Martinique. The action of 6 December 1782 lasted 40 minutes, during which time Ruby, under Captain John Collins, captured the French 64-gun ship Solitaire, under Jean-Charles de Borda. Solitaire had 35 men killed and 55 wounded whilst Ruby had only two men wounded. Two days later the squadron arrived at Barbados. The Royal Navy took Solitaire into service as HMS Solitaire. Polyphemus shared with Ruby in the head money for the capture of Solitaire, while the other vessels of the British squadron did not, suggesting that Polyphemus assisted Ruby.

At the end of the war in 1783, her crew was paid off in June. Then she received some repairs between December 1783 and December 1784.

j3245.jpg

French Revolutionary Wars
In December 1793, after the outbreak of war with France, Polyphemus underwent fitting that at Chatham that took until June 1794. Captain George Lumsdaine commissioned her in April.

Irish station
Polyphemus and Santa Margarita shared in the recapture on 21 September 1795 of the vessel Hibberts. Polyphemus was operating off Queenstown, Ireland, on 22 October when she took possession at Cork of the Dutch 64-gun ship Overijsel (or Overyssel), which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Overyessel. Polyphemus then became the flagship for Vice-Admiral Robert Kingsmill, at Queenstown, before undergoing repairs in May and June 1796 at Plymouth. In August Polyphemus left the East India fleet west of the Canaries and returned to Plymouth two weeks or so later.

In December 1796, Polyphemus and Apollo were off the Irish coast when they captured the 14-gun French privateer schooner Deux Amis, of 100 tons bm and 80 men. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. On the 31st Polyphemus captured the Tartar.

There was only a handful of ships based at Cork under Rear-Admiral Kingsmill, principally Polyphemus and a frigate squadron, in late December 1796 when the French launched the Expédition d'Irlande, an attempt to create a republican uprising in Ireland. Polyphemus seized the transport Justine on 30 December and HMS Jason captured the transport Suffren shortly afterwards, although the French frigate Tartu recaptured Suffren. On 5 January 1797 Polyphemus captured Tartu, of 44 guns and 625 men (including troops). The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Uranie. Polyphemus also captured another transport, but the weather being bad and night falling, she did not take possession. Lumsdaine reported that the transport was leaky and making distress signals, but that he was unable to assist. He thought it highly likely that she had sunk. This may have been the Fille-Unique, which sank in the Bay of Biscay on 6 January.

Between November 1799 and March 1800 she underwent repairs at Chatham. She was recommissioned in 1799, again under Lumsdaine.

j3634.jpg

Baltic service
Captain John Lawford was appointed to command of Polyphemus on 1 August and took up his position on three days later. She sailed from Yarmouth on 9 August 1800, with a squadron under Vice-Admiral Archibald Dickson in Monarch bound for Denmark. Because of lack of wind the faster sailing vessels had to tow the slower ones and it was 15 August before they reached The Skaw. The next day the whole squadron advanced as far as the mouth of the Sound where the Danes had anchored three 74-gun ships, later increased to four, between Kronberg Castle and the Swedish shore. Because of gales the Admiral sheltered his squadron in Elsinore Roads and then went in Romney as far as Sophienberg Castle to talk with Lord Whitworth, who was negotiating with the Danish government. After matters were resolved the squadron returned to Yarmouth in September.

In March 1801, Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves raised his flag on Polyphemus, replacing Kingsmill. Polyphemus was with the fleet under the command of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker that bombarded Copenhagen on 2 April. The British objective was to break up the second League of Armed Neutrality, which also included Sweden and Prussia, that Tzar Paul I of Russia had established.

Main article: Battle of Copenhagen (1801)
During the battle, Polyphemus and Desiree came to the assistance of the 50-gun fourth rate Isis, which was being hard-pressed by the Danes' 56-gun ship Provesteenen, and succeeded in silencing her. Polyphemus lost six men killed, and 25 men wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to all surviving claimants from the battle.

The division of the North Sea fleet commanded by Admiral Thomas in Polyphemus returned to Yarmouth from the Baltic Sea on 13 July and then sailed to join Admiral Dickson's squadron blockading the Dutch fleet in the Texel. At some point Graves transferred his flag to Defiance.

In April 1802 Polyphemus went into ordinary, following the Treaty of Amiens, which ended the war.

Napoleonic Wars
After war with France resumed in 1803, Polyphemus underwent fitting out at Chatham between March and September 1804. Captain Robert Redmill recommissioned her in July for the Channel, but apparently was only temporarily in command.

Polyphemus joined the Cadiz squadron under Admiral John Orde. She shared with Donegal and Defence in the proceeds from the capture on 26 November of the Spanish ship Virgen del Rosario.

In late November or early December (different records disagree), Polyphemus, under Lawford's command, captured several Spanish ships. One was the San Joseph (alias Favourite). The snow Saint Josef had been sailing from La Guayra to Cadiz with a cargo of indigo, cocoa, cochineal, and cotton. Another was the Santo Christo, which had been sailing from Montevideo to Cadiz with a cargo of hides and copper. She also captured the St Edward. The St Edward (or Edward), was sailing from Vera Cruz to Cadiz with a cargo of cocoa, cochineal, and cotton, and $98,539. Lastly, Polyphemus captured the Bon Air, which was sailing from Vera Cruz to Cadiz with a cargo of cocoa, indigo, and cochineal, and $20,000.

Three days later Polyphemus and Lively captured the Spanish frigate Santa Gertruyda off Cape St Mary. A frigate of 40-guns, she was armed only with 14, and was sailing from Peru and Mexico to Coruna when Polyphemus captured her. Polyphemus and Santa Gertruyda separated in a gale that damaged the Spanish ship, which nonetheless reached Plymouth on 10 January 1805, in tow by the armed defence ship Harriet, which had encountered Santa Gertruyda some days after the gale. Santa Gertruyda was carrying $1,215,000, and merchandize. Once she arrived in Plymouth, the Royal Navy took her into service as Santa Gertruda, but did not commission the 40-year-old ship. Instead she served as a receiving ship.

Lawford was still in command on 8 February 1805 when Polyphemus captured the Marianna. She arrived in Plymouth a few days later.

Trafalgar
Main article: Battle of Trafalgar
Under Redmill, Polyphemus took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805. She fought in the Lee column, and lost two men killed and four wounded. She engaged the French ships Neptune and Achille and after the battle captured the Spanish ship Argonauta. Lastly, Polyphemus towed HMS Victory, carrying Nelson's body, back to Gibraltar.

Parliament voted a grant of £300,000 to the participants in the battle, payable in September 1806. Then in March 1807 there was a distribution of prize money for the hull, stores, and head money for four French and two Spanish ships captured at Trafalgar. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Trafalgar" to all surviving claimants from the battle.

In January 1806, Polyphemus and the frigate Sirius were escorting a convoy from Gibraltar when they encountered a French squadron under Admiral Willaumez. The French succeeded in capturing two of the merchant vessels and four of the French fleet unsuccessfully chased Sirius for two hours, but forcing her to separate from the convoy.

On 3 April 1806 Polyphemus, Fame, and Africa were off Madeira, having escorted the East India Fleet southward. Seventeen days later, Polyphemus shared in the capture of the Spanish ship Estrella. One week later Polyphemus, Fame, and Africa shared in the capture of the Spanish ship San Pablo and her cargo. St Pablo (or St Pablus), was sailing from Vera Cruz with a valuable cargo.

French coast
In July 1806, she was with Lord St. Vincent's squadron off Ushant. On 14 July her boats, together with others of the squadron, were taken by the Iris to Captain John Tremayne Rodd in Indefatigable off Rochefort to attack two French corvettes and a convoy at the entrance to the Garonne. The weather on 15 July appeared suitable for the attempt but after the boats left a strong wind blew up and although they managed to capture the corvette or brig Caesar, they could not prevent the convoy escaping up river. The French were expecting the attack and put up a strong resistance. The British lost six men killed, 36 wounded and 21 missing. Indefatigable alone lost two killed and 11 wounded. Polyphemus had two men lightly wounded. The 21 missing men were in a boat from Revenge; a later report suggested that most, if not all, had been taken prisoner. The majority of the boats were either shot through or so badly stove in that they were swamped, and had to be cut adrift from the brig as she was brought out under fire from the batteries and the ex-British brig Teaser. The vessels claiming prize money included Pilchard and the hired armed lugger Nile, in addition to the various ships of the line and frigates. This cutting out expedition resulted in the participants qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "16 July Boat Service 1806".

Caesar, of 18 guns, had a crew of 86 men according to her roster, and was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Louis François Hector Fourré. She was five years old, coppered, 88' by 23', and "appears fit for His Majesty's Service", according to Rodd. The Royal Navy took her into service as the brig HMS Cesar. Head money for the capture was paid in June 1829.

In July 1806 Polyphemus was recommissioned. Captain Joseph O. Masefield replaced Redmill in September.

In the action of 25 September 1806, a British squadron of six ships of the line that was keeping a close blockade of the port as part of the Atlantic campaign of 1806 intercepted a French squadron comprising five frigates and two corvettes, sailing to the French West Indies with supplies and reinforcements. The British ships, under the command of Commodore Sir Samuel Hood sighted the French convoy shortly after it left Biscay port of Rochefort. The British caught the French convoy after a five-hour pursuit, although they had become separated from one another during the chase. The British captured the French frigates Infatigable, Minerve, Armide, and Gloire. Polyphemus shared in the prize money for these four frigates.

Captain John Broughton replaced Masefield in October.

Americas
In 1807 Polyphemus, under the command of Captain Peter Heywood, became the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir George Murray, off South America.

In March 1807 Murray's squadron carried troops from the Cape of Good Hope to South America in support of a second failed attempt to wrest the River Plate area from the Spanish. A detachment of sailors and marines from Polyphemus served on shore in the Advance Brigade during the disastrous (for the British) attack on Buenos Aires. Admiral Murray evacuated Lieutenant Crowley of Polyphemus, who had been wounded, and his men, aboard the frigate Nereide.

Polyphemus remained in the River Plate area, carrying out surveying and merchant vessel protection duties. Between January and February 1808 Polyphemus underwent a refit at Portsmouth.

Heywood remained in command until May 1808, when Captain William Pryce Cumby replaced him. Cumby had been lieutenant and then acting commander of HMS Bellerophon at Trafalgar.

Polyphemus became the flagship of Vice-Admiral Bartholomew Samuel Rowley. In July she sailed for Jamaica, convoying a large fleet of merchantmen, and taking the Vice-Admiral to take up his appointment as chief of the station. Since he resided on shore with his flag in Shark, Polyphemus was able to undertake cruises against the enemy.

On the morning of 14 November Cumby sent his boats, under Lieutenant Joseph Daly in the barge, to chase a schooner attempting to enter the harbour at San Domingo. An hour later the British succeed in boarding the schooner despite facing a hail of grape and musketry. Their quarry proved to be the French navy schooner Colibry, of three carriage guns and a crew of 63 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Deyrisse. The French lost one man killed and five wounded; Polyphemus had one man killed.

On 17 April 1809, a British squadron captured the French 74-gun Hautpoult during Troude's expedition to the Caribbean. The initial distribution of prize money excluded Polyphemus and Tweed, who appealed. Polyphemus's appeal succeeded. On 28 April Polyphemus recaptured the Carlotta, Duncan, master, and sent her into Jamaica. Carlotta had been sailing from St Batholomew's to Jacmel when a French privateer captured her.

In June 1809 Cumby received command of a squadron consisting of Polyphemus, Aurora, Tweed, Sparrow, Thrush, Griffon, Lark, Moselle, Fleur de la Mer and Pike. They sailed from Port Royal on 7 June with troops under Major-General Hugh Lyle Carmichael to assist the Spanish forces besieging the French in the city of San Domingo.

On 1 July Polyphemus anchored at Caleta and loaded eight of her 24-pounder guns into Sparrow for landing at Palenqui for the use of the batteries west of the city. Captain Burt of Sparrow then transported two of the guns from Andre Bay to the east battery, nearly 30 miles across almost impassable country. The French garrison surrendered on 6 July. Cumby signed the terms of capitulation in his capacity as senior officer in command of "His Majesty's Ships and Vessels before the City of Santo Domingo." One payment of prize money occurred in October 1832.

Captain Cumby was appointed to Hyperion in March 1811. His successor on Polyphemus was Captain T. Graves; Captain Douglas later replaced Graves. Under Douglas's command, Polyphemus recaptured the Diana and the Fame on 13 and 14 September.

In August 1812 Polyphemus and Barbadoes escorted a fleet of 47 merchant vessels sailing from Jamaica to London. On the 20th, the US revenue cutter James Madison started shadowing the fleet as the fleet sailed some distance off Savannah, Georgia, seeking to capture what she could. Two days later, Barbadoes succeeded in capturing James Madison after a seven-hour chase.

The British immediately fitted out James Madison for the protection of the fleet. They put two officers and 40 men on board, drawn from Barbadoes, and those men of James Madison's existing crew that were willing to change sides. On 26 August a hurricane came up that scattered the vessels of the convoy. It also totally dis-masted Barbadoes, which limped back to Jamaica, and sprung Polyphemus's main and foremasts. James Madison was able to regather 21 vessels of the convoy. On 3 September an American privateer schooner of 14 guns started shadowing James Madison and the vessels she was escorting. During the subsequent four days the privateer stayed close enough to exchange occasional shots with James Madison, but did not succeed in capturing anything. On 3 October Polyphemus and James Madison arrived separately at Portsmouth. Prize money for the capture was payable in March 1815.

In October Polyphemus detained the American vessel Amazon, from Philadelphia, and sent her into Portsmouth. Amazon arrived there on 4 October.

Fate
Polyphemus paid off at Chatham in November 1812. In 1813 she was converted to serve as a powder hulk, and she was eventually broken up in 1827.

j3632.jpg




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Polyphemus_(1782)
 
Back
Top