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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1782 - Launch of HMS Ardent, a Royal Navy 64-gun third rate.


HMS Ardent was a Royal Navy 64-gun third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 21 December 1782 at Bursledon, Hampshire. She disappeared in 1794, believed lost to a fire and explosion.

Class and type: Crown-class ship of the line
Type: Third rate
Tons burthen: 1387 (bm)
Length: 160 ft 5 in (48.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 10 in (13.7 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 3 1⁄2 in (5.9 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

large.jpg Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Ardent' (1782), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Bursledon by Messrs Stares and Parsons.

Career
In 1784 she was under the command of Captain Harry Harmood, serving as a guard ship at Portsmouth.

In 1793 she was under the command of Captain Robert Manners Sutton, sailing with Vice-Admiral Lord Hood at Toulon in August. She was part of a force detached under Robert Linzee to take part in the attack on Corsica in September.

Fate
In April 1794 Ardent was stationed off the harbour of Villa Franca, to watch two French frigates. It is presumed that she caught fire and blew up. Berwick encountered some wreckage while cruising in the Gulf of Genoa in the summer that suggested fire and an explosion. A part of Ardent's quarter deck with some gunlocks deeply embedded in it was found floating in the area, as was splinter netting driven into planking. No trace was ever found of her crew of 500.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for 'Ardent' (1782), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, building at Bursledon by Messrs Stares and Parsons. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784].

The Crown-class ships of the line were a class of three 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Edward Hunt.

Ships
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: Unknown
Launched: 15 March 1782
Fate: Broken up, 1816
Builder: Staves & Parsons, Bursledon
Ordered: 9 September 1779
Launched: 21 December 1782
Fate: Blown up, 1794
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 11 November 1779
Launched: 22 October 1782
Fate: Broken up, 1798



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ardent_(1782)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...1;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A;start=0
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1796 - HMS Bombay Castle (74) wrecked in the Tagus.


HMS Bombay Castle was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 June 1782 at Blackwall Yard. She grounded on 21 December 1796 in the shoals of the Tagus River's mouth.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Berwick (1775), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Portsmouth Dockyard. The plan was later approved for Bombay Castle (1782), Powerful (1783), and Defiance (1783) of the same class. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784], and Edward Hunt [1778-1784].

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Bombay Caslte (1782) a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker.

Class and type: Elizabeth-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1628 19⁄94 bm
Length: 168 ft 6 in (51.4 m) (gundeck); 138 ft 3 1⁄8 in (42.1 m)
Beam: 47 ft 1 in (14.4 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft 9 in (6.02 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns

large (4).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Bombay Castle (1782), Powerful (1783), Defiance (1783), and Thunderer (1783), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The Thunderer (1783) is included in this design prior to the name being used for a ship in the Culloden/Thunder class of 1769. The plan is signed by John Williams (Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784).

Origins
The British East India Company (EIC) funded the construction of Bombay Castle as a contribution to the war effort. Similarly, the EIC also paid for the construction of HMS Carnatic and HMS Ganges.

Loss
Bombay Castle was under the command of Captain Thomas Sotheby when she entered the Tagus, having taken a pilot on board. In attempting to avoid the storeship Camel, which had grounded ahead of Bombay Castle, Bombay Castle too grounded. During the subsequent week, attempts were made to float her off after boats had removed her guns and stores, but without success. The navy abandoned her as a wreck on 27 December.


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Capture of HMS Swiftsure by Indivisible and Dix-Août

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

Unbenannt.JPG

Ships
Ships of the Elizabeth class
Name Builder Launched Fate

HMS Elizabeth
Portsmouth Dockyard
17 October 1769
Broken up, 1797

HMS Resolution
Deptford Dockyard
12 April 1770
Broken up, 1813

HMS Cumberland
Deptford Dockyard
29 March 1774
Broken up, 1804

HMS Berwick
Portsmouth Dockyard
18 April 1775
Wrecked, 1805

HMS Bombay Castle
Perry, Blackwall Yard
14 June 1782
Wrecked, 1796

HMS Powerful
Perry, Blackwall Yard
3 April 1783
Broken up, 1812

HMS Defiance
Randall, Rotherhithe
10 December 1783
Broken up, 1817

HMS Swiftsure
Wells, Deptford
4 April 1787
Broken up, 1816


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bombay_Castle_(1782)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1807 - Invasion of the Danish West Indies by the British
St. Thomas taken from the Danes by British squadron under Rear Ad. Sir Alexander Cochrane.



The second British Invasion of the Danish West Indies took place in December 1807 when a British fleet captured the Danish islands of St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless. This British occupation of the Danish West Indies lasted until 20 November 1815, when Britain returned the islands to Denmark.

Background
During the later stages of the French Revolutionary Wars (1793-1802), Denmark-Norway, Prussia, and Sweden established the Second League of Armed Neutrality (1800-1801), intending to protect their trade in the Baltic from the British. However, Britain attacked Denmark with the First Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801. Slightly in advance of that, a British fleet arrived at St Thomas at the end of March. The Danes accepted the Articles of Capitulation the British proposed and the British occupied the islands without a shot being fired. The British occupation lasted until April 1802, when the British returned the islands to Denmark.

After the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1804 Britain embarked on a campaign in the West Indies. By 1810 every single French, Dutch and Danish colony there was firmly under allied (mainly British) control.

The occupation of the Danish West Indies was a consequence of the British fear that Denmark-Norway would ally with Napoleon. Hostilities between Denmark-Norway and the United Kingdom broke out again by the Second Battle of Copenhagen in August 1807, when the British attacked the Danish capital to ensure that the Danish-Norwegian fleet did not fall into the hands of Napoleon.

In the West Indies, Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane had been in readiness to invade the Danish colonies since receiving a warning on 2 September 1807 that hostilities with Denmark-Norway were likely to break out. In October vessels of the British Royal Navy started capturing Danish vessels at sea.

The invasion
On 15 December 1807 HMS Fawn arrived at Barbados with the news of war with Denmark. Admiral Cochrane immediately set sail in his flagship, HMS Belleisle, together with a squadron including Prince George, Northumberland, Canada, Ramillies, Cerberus, Ethalion, and a number of other vessels. The expedition included troops from the 70th and 90th Regiments of Foot under the overall army commander, General Henry Bowyer.

St Thomas surrendered on 22 December and St Croix on 25 December. A prize money notice in the London Gazette in 1816 gives a list of the vessels, and the army units that participated in the campaign. The two commanders-in-chief each received £1293 3sd. A naval captain or commander received a first-class share, which was worth £398 10s 3½d. A fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth £1 18s 10d.

Royal Navy vessels
This list includes both vessels that Cochrane mentioned in his dispatch concerning the invasion, and vessels mentioned in the prize money notice. The two sources overlap, but are not identical.

HMS Belleisle:
Lion was a Téméraire class 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the French Navy, which later served in the Royal Navy. She was named Lion on 23 April 1790 and built at Rochefort from August 1791 until June 1794. She was renamed Marat on 28 September 1793 (7 months before being launched) and then Formidable on 25 May 1795, with the changing fortunes of the French Revolution.

Class and type: Téméraire-classship of the line
Displacement:
  • 2,966 tonnes
  • 5,260 tonnes fully loaded
Length: 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam: 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught: 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion: Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:


She took part in the Action of 6 November 1794, managing to rake HMS Alexander.

Capture in the Battle of Groix
Fighting under captain Linois on 23 June 1795 at the Battle of Groix, she was captured by HMS Barfleur near the French port of Lorient. She was taken into service in the Royal Navy, but because the Navy already had a Formidable, she was renamed HMS Belleisle, apparently in the mistaken belief that she had been captured off Belle Île, rather than the Île de Groix.

Battle of Trafalgar 1805

Belleisle_PU4054.jpg

Captained by William Hargood, she was the second ship in the British lee column at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, and as such was engaged by the Franco-Spanish ships Achille, Aigle, Neptune, Fougueux, Santa Ana, Monarca and San Juan Nepomuceno. She was soon completely dismasted (the only British ship which suffered that fate), unable to manœuvre and largely unable to fight, as her sails blinded her batteries, but kept flying her flag for 45 minutes until the British ships behind her in the column came to her rescue. With 33 dead and 93 wounded, she was then towed to Gibraltar after the battle by the frigate HMS Naiad.

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Despite the calm sea and comparatively still scene, this hand-coloured etching depicts the post-battle chaos after Trafalgar on 21st October 1805. Central to the image, in port quarter stern view, is the British ship Belleisle, dis-masted, with her rigging and sails hanging over her port side. The British ensign is draped forlornly over her stern. A sailor has climbed the broken mizzen mast to remove the ensign; other sailors appear to be attempting to cut loose the tangled rigging of the main mast. On the right of the image, Naiad is depicted under full sail on a port tack preparing, according to the inscription, to take the Belleisle in tow. Many other vessels can be seen on the horizon, some dis-masted, others with ragged sails. One vessel on the far right of the image is suffering a massive explosion. PAF4731 is an uncoloured impression.

large (5).jpg
Watercolour showing the damaged Belleisle being towed into Gibraltar by the Naiad after the Battle of Trafalgar. The dismasted Belleisle is shown to left, with the Naiad at centre, and the rock of Gibraltar behind. The Belleisle had been particularly badly damaged during Trafalgar. It was the second ship in Collingwood's line, receiving such a fierce attack that the captain, William Hargood, ordered the men to lie down to avoid the worst of the French fire. The Belleisle had the fifth highest casualty rate among the British ships. The Naiad was one of a group of frigates that served before and after the batlle, disrupting local shipping and helping with tactical preparations, although too small to take part in the fighting itself. The Naiad and Belleisle were the only two ships that managed to round Cape Trafalgar on 23rd October avoiding the worst of the storm which battered the British fleet for days. They still only narrowly avoided being wrecked on the shore and spent four hours of darkness in terror overnight, before the sun rose and the storm abated, allowing the two ships to make harbour. This watercolour presumably shows that moment when the storm had died down. The artist Paul Harris Nicolas was a Marine Lieutenant on the Belleisle during the battle. He wrote an account of his experiences published in the 'Bijou' in 1829 and produced a group of watercolours before and after the action, as well of the ships off Portsmouth. A variation on this drawing of the Belleisle is in a private collection in the UK.

Danish West Indies 1807
Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, the Belleisle sailed as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane, who commanded the squadron of ships that was sent to occupy the Danish West Indies. The squadron, which included HMS Prince George, HMS Northumberland, HMS Canada, HMS Ramillies and HMS Cerberus, captured Telemaco, Carvalho, and Master on 17 April 1807. The actual occupation of the Danish West Indies did not occur until December, after receipt of news of the second battle of Copenhagen.

Channel Fleet
From 1811 she was in Portsmouth harbour, and in 1814 the decision was taken to have her broken up.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_the_Danish_West_Indies_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belleisle_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Cochrane
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1811 - Death of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet


Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker, 1st Baronet (1721 – 21 December 1811) was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer, he was deployed with a squadron under Admiral Edward Vernon to the West Indies at the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear. He saw action again at the Battle of Toulon during the War of the Austrian Succession. As captain of the fourth-rate HMS Bristol he took part in the Invasion of Guadeloupe during the Seven Years' War.

800px-Sir_peter_parker_NMM.JPG

Years of service 1743–1763, 1773–1811
Rank Admiral of the Fleet
Commands held
HMS Margate
HMS Woolwich
HMS Bristol
HMS Buckingham
HMS Terrible
HMS Barfleur
Jamaica Station
Portsmouth Command
Battles/wars
War of Jenkins' Ear
War of the Austrian Succession
Seven Years' War
American Revolutionary War


As a commodore, he was deployed to the North American Station, to provide naval support for an expedition led by General Sir Henry Clinton reinforcing loyalists in the Southern Colonies at an early stage of the American Revolutionary War. He led a naval attack against the fortifications on Sullivan's Island (later called Fort Moultrie after their commander), protecting Charleston, South Carolina. However, after a long and hard-fought battle, Parker was forced to call off the attack, having sustained heavy casualties, including the loss of a ship. He subsequently served under Lord Howe in the invasion and capture of New York City and commanded the squadron that captured Long Island and Rhode Island.

Parker went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica, before being returned as Member of Parliament for Seaford and then as member for Maldon. He later became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth.

Early career
Born the third son of Rear-Admiral Christopher Parker, Parker joined the Royal Navy at an early age. Promoted to commander on 17 March 1735, he was deployed with a squadron under Admiral Edward Vernon to the West Indies in 1739 at the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Action_off_toulon_4.jpg
The Battle of Toulon at which Parker was present as a junior officer

Parker transferred to the second-rate HMS Russell and then to the bomb vessel HMS Firedrake in the Mediterranean Fleet and saw action again during the War of the Austrian Succession. He was moved to the second-rate HMS Barfleur, flagship of Rear-Admiral William Rowley, in January 1744 and took part in the Battle of Toulon in February 1744, before transferring to the second-rate HMS Neptune, flagship of Vice-Admiral Richard Lestock, in March 1744 and returning to England. Promoted to captain on 6 May 1747, he became commanding officer of the sixth-rate HMS Margate later that month and was deployed protecting commercial shipping, first in the Channel and then in the Mediterranean.

Parker became commanding officer of the fifth-rate HMS Woolwich in 1757 and then transferred to the fourth-rate HMS Bristol in January 1759. In HMS Bristol he took part in the Invasion of Guadeloupe in May 1759 during the Seven Years' War.[2] He was given command of the third-rate HMS Buckingham in 1760 and took part in the capture of Belle Île in Spring 1761. He transferred to the command of the third-rate HMS Terrible in 1762 and then retired from active service in 1763 at the end of the War.

American War of Independence

Battle_of_fort_moultrie.JPG
The Battle of Sullivan's Island: Parker's fleet (in the background) is shown attacking the American fortifications

The_British_fleet_in_the_lower_bay_1876.jpg
Parker commanded the squadron that captured Long Island

Knighted in 1772, Parker was given command of the second-rate HMS Barfleur when he rejoined the service in 1773. Promoted to commodore, he was deployed to the North American Station, with his broad pennant in the fourth-rate HMS Bristol, in October 1775 to provide naval support for an expedition led by General Sir Henry Clinton reinforcing loyalists in the Southern Colonies at an early stage of the American Revolutionary War.

In June 1776, Parker led a naval attack against the fortifications on Sullivan's Island (later called Fort Moultrie after their commander), protecting Charleston, South Carolina. At the fort, the American Colonel William Moultrie ordered his men to concentrate their fire on the two large man-of-war ships, HMS Bristol and HMS Experiment, which took hit after hit from the fort's guns. Chain-shot fired at HMS Bristoleventually destroyed much of her rigging and severely damaged both the main- and mizzenmasts. After a long and hard-fought battle, Parker was forced to call off the attack, having sustained heavy casualties, including the loss of the sixth-rate HMS Actaeon, grounded and abandoned. Lord William Campbell, the last British Governor of the Province of South Carolina, was mortally wounded aboard HMS Bristol. Parker was himself wounded by a flying splinter which injured his leg and tore off his breeches, an incident that occasioned much mirth in the newspapers.

Parker subsequently served under Lord Howe in the invasion and capture of New York City and, with his broad pennant in the fourth-rate HMS Chatham, he commanded the squadron that captured Long Island in August 1776 and Rhode Island in December 1776.

Senior command
Promoted to rear admiral on 20 May 1777, Parker became Commander-in-Chief, Jamaica Station, with his flag in HMS Bristol, in December 1777. At this time, Parker acted as a patron and friend of Horatio Nelson, then serving aboard the Bristol, an attachment which would endure for the remainder of Nelson's life. Promoted to vice admiral on 29 March 1779, he returned to England in the second-rate HMS Sandwich, accompanied by various prisoners including Admiral De Grasse captured at the Battle of the Saintes, in August 1782.

Created a baronet on 28 December 1782, Parker was, unwillingly, returned as Member of Parliament for Seaford in May 1784, and then as member for Maldon in 1786. Promoted to full admiral on 24 September 1787, he became Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth in 1793. He was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet on 16 September 1799 and was Chief Mourner at Nelson's funeral in January 1806. He died at his home at Weymouth Street in London on 21 December 1811 and was buried at St Margaret's, Westminster. Parker also owned the Manor of Bassingbourne at Takeley in Essex: in accordance with his wishes the manor was demolished in 1813.


St Margaret's, Westminster where Parker was buried

Family

In around 1761 Parker married Margaret Nugent; they had several children (including Vice-Admiral Christopher Parker). He was succeeded in the baronetcy by Christopher's son Peter.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Peter_Parker,_1st_Baronet
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1812 - Destruction of tower of St. Cataldo, between Brindisi and Ortranto, by boats of HMS Apollo (38) and HMS Weazle (18)


On 21 December HMS Apollo was in company with the brig-sloop HMS Weazel when the two vessels chased a trabaccolo until it took shelter under the tower of St. Cataldo, reputedly the strongest on the coast between Brindisi and Otranto. The tower The tower had a telegraph and was armed with three guns and three swivel guns.The next day a landing party from the two vessels captured the tower and blew it up. Unfortunately, the trabaccolo was unladen.


HMS Weazel (frequently spelt Weazle, and occasionally Weasel) was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in her crews earning three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, was decommissioned in 1815, and was sold for breaking in 1825.


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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Ferret (1806), Swallow (1805), Musquito (1804), Scorpion (1803), Scout (1804), Dispatch (1804), Minorca (1805), Racehorse (1806), Rover (1808), Avon (1805), Surinam (1805), Amaranthe (1804), Calyspo (1805), Wolverine (1805), Weazle (1805), Espoir (1804), Moselle (1804), Leveret (1806), Bellette (1806), Mutine (1806), Emulous (1806), Alacrity (1806), Philomel (1806), Frolick (1806), Recruit (1806), Royalist (1807), Grasshopper (1806), Columbine (1806), Pandora (1806), Forester (1806), Foxhound (1806), Primrose (1807), Cephalus (1807), Procris (1806), Raleigh (1806), Carnation (1807), Redwing (1806), Ringdove (1806), Philomel (1806), Sappho (1806), Peacock (1806), Clio (1807), Pilot (1807), Magnet (1807), Derwent (1807), Eclypse (1807), Sparrowhawke (1807), Eclaire (1807), Nautilus (1807), Barracouta (1807), Zenobia (1807), Peruvian (1808), Pelorus (1808), Doterel/Dotterel (1808), Charybidis (1809), Hecate (1809), Rifleman (1809), Sophie (1809), Echo (1809), Arachne (1809), Castillian (1809), Persian (1809), Trinculo (1809), Crane (1809), Thracian (1809), Scylla (1809), and those built of fir, including Raven (1804), Saracen (1804), Beagle (1804), Harrier (1804), Elk (1804), and Reindeer (1804), all 18-gun Brig Sloops built in private yards. The plan includes alterations for when the ships were repaired dated September 1817.

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H.M. Sloop Weazle going out of Malta (PAH9216)

Class and type: Cruizer-classbrig-sloop
Tonnage: 382 41⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 100 ft 0 in (30.48 m) (gundeck)
  • 77 ft 3 1⁄2 in (23.559 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.89 m)
Sail plan :Brig rigged
Complement: 121
Armament: 16 x 32-pounder carronades + 2 x 6-pounder bow guns

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To the Right Honorable The Earl of Kellie... This Plate representing His Majesty's Sloop Weazle... engaging... French Gun Boats... in the Bay of Bussaligne in Dalmatia... April 22nd 1813 (PAH8137)


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

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Lines (ZAZ2518)

large (9).jpg
Frame (ZAZ2464)

Class and type: Lively-classfifth-ratefrigate
Tons burthen: 1085 77⁄94 (bm)
Length: 154 ft 3 1⁄2 in (47.0 m) (overall); 129 ft 9 3⁄8 in (39.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 6 in (4.1 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement:
  • As frigate: 284 officers and men (later 300)
  • As troopship: 80 men
Armament:
  • Frigate:
  • Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns, 12 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns, 2 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Troopship: 6 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder guns

Drawings from the HMS Horatio, a sistership

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Horatio (1807), a 38-gun Fifth Rate Frigate, after her Large Repair at Deptford Dockyard between 1817 and 1819. The plan records the various frames replaced with foreign timbers or old timbers from other ships. Signed by William Stone [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1813-1830].

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Scale: 1:12. Plan showing the front and side elevations of the iron mast step (support) for Eurotas (1829) and Horatio (1807), both 38-gun Fifth Rate Frigates.

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Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the side elevation of the propeller and frame, and elevation and plan of the propeller for Horatio (1807), a 38-gun Fifth Rate Frigate, converted to a screw Frigate between 1845 and 1850; and Eurotas (1829), a 38-gun Fifth Rate Frigate, converted to a screw Frigate between 1845 and 1855. The two-bladed propeller was 12ft diameter.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Apollo_(1805)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Weazel_(1805)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-319477;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-363498;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=W
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England.


The Challenger expedition of 1872–76 was a scientific exercise that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography. The expedition was named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger.

Prompted by Charles Wyville Thomson—of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School—the Royal Society of London obtained the use of Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified the ship for scientific tasks, equipping her with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry. The expedition, led by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 21 December 1872. Other naval officers included Commander John Maclear. Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, she traveled nearly 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 which, among many other discoveries, cataloged over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries". Challenger sailed close to Antarctica, but not within sight of it.

Preparations
To enable her to probe the depths, 15 of Challenger's 17 guns were removed and her spars reduced to make more space available. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform were installed. Challenger used mainly sail power during the expedition; the steam engine was used only for powering the dredge. She was loaded with specimen jars, filled with alcohol for preservation of samples, microscopes and chemical apparatus, trawls and dredges, thermometers, barometers, water sampling bottles, sounding leads, devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths. Because of the novelty of the expedition, some of the equipment was invented or specially modified for the occasion. In all, she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian hemp for sounding.

Expedition

One of the original boxes containing the photographic negatives brought back from the expedition

On her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey circumnavigating the globe, 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls and 263 serial water temperature observations were taken. Also about 4,700 new species of marine life were discovered.

The scientific work was conducted by Wyville Thomson, John Murray, John Young Buchanan, Henry Nottidge Moseley, Alphonse François Renard and Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm. Frank Evers Bed was appointed prosector. The official expedition artist was John James Wild. As well as Nares and Maclear, others that were part of the naval crew included Pelham Aldrich, Lord George Granville Campbell, and Andrew Francis Balfour (one of the sons of Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour). Also among the officers was Thomas Henry Tizard, who had carried out important hydrographic observations on previous voyages. Though he was not among the civilian scientific staff, Tizard would later help write the official account of the expedition, and also become a Fellow of the Royal Society.

The original ship's complement included 21 officers and around 216 crew members. By the end of the voyage, this had reduced to 144 due to deaths, desertions, being left ashore due to illness, and planned departures.

Challenger reached Hong Kong in December 1874, at which point Nares and Aldrich left the ship to take part in the British Arctic Expedition. The new captain was Frank Tourle Thomson. The second-in-command, and the most senior officer present throughout the entire expedition, was Commander John Maclear. Willemoes-Suhm died and was buried at sea on the voyage to Tahiti. Lord Campbell and Balfour left the ship in Valparaiso, Chile, after being promoted.

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Track of HMS Challenger from December 1872 till May 1876. The color contours represent ocean surface density.

The first leg of the expedition took the ship from Portsmouth (December 1872) south to Lisbon (January 1873) and then on to Gibraltar. The next stops were Madeira and the Canary Islands (both February 1873). The period from February to July 1873 was spent crossing the Atlantic westwards from the Canary Islands to the Virgin Islands, then heading north to Bermuda, east to the Azores, back to Madeira, and then south to the Cape Verde Islands. During this period, there was a detour in April and May 1873, sailing from Bermuda north to Halifax and back, crossing the Gulf Stream twice with the reverse journey crossing further to the east.

After leaving the Cape Verde Islands in August 1873, the expedition initially sailed south-east and then headed west to reach St Paul's Rocks. From here, the route went south across the equator to Fernando de Noronha during September 1873, and onwards that same month to Bahia (now called Salvador) in Brazil. The period from September to October 1873 was spent crossing the Atlantic from Bahia to the Cape of Good Hope, touching at Tristan da Cunha on the way.

December 1873 to February 1874 was spent sailing on a roughly south-eastern track from the Cape of Good Hope to the parallel of 60 degrees south. The islands visited during this period were the Prince Edward Islands, the Crozet Islands, the Kerguelen Islands, and Heard Island. February 1874 was spent travelling south and then generally eastwards in the vicinity of the Antarctic Circle, with sightings of icebergs, pack ice and whales. The route then took the ship north-eastward and away from the ice regions in March 1874, with the expedition reaching Melbourne in Australia later that month. The journey eastward along the coast from Melbourne to Sydney took place in April 1874, passing by Wilsons Promontory and Cape Howe.

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The crew of the Challenger Expedition in 1874.

When the voyage resumed in June 1874, the route went east from Sydney to Wellington in New Zealand, followed by a large loop north into the Pacific calling at Tonga and Fiji, and then back westward to Cape York in Australia by the end of August. The ship arrived in New Zealand in late June and left in early July. Before reaching Wellington (on New Zealand's North Island), brief stops were made at Port Hardy (on d'Urville Island) and Queen Charlotte Sound (on New Zealand's South Island) and Challenger passed through the Cook Strait to reach Wellington. The route from Wellington to Tonga went along the east coast of New Zealand's North Island, and then north and east into the open Pacific, passing by the Kermadec Islands en route to Tongatabu, the main island of the Tonga archipelago (then known as the Friendly Islands). The waters around the Fijian islands, a short distance to the north-west of Tonga, were surveyed during late July and early August 1874. The ship's course was then set westward, reaching Raine Island (on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef) at the end of August and thence arriving at Cape York, at the tip of Australia's Cape York Peninsula.

Over the following three months (September to November 1874), the expedition visited several islands and island groups while sailing from Cape York to China and Hong Kong (then a British colony). The first part of the route passed north and west over the Arafura Sea, with New Guinea to the north-east and the Australian mainland to the south-west. The first islands visited were the Aru Islands, followed by the nearby Kai Islands. The ship then crossed the Banda Sea touching at the Banda Islands, to reach Amboina (Ambon Island) in October 1874, and then continuing to Ternate Island. All these islands are now part of modern-day Indonesia. From Ternate, the route went north-westward towards the Philippines, passing east of Celebes (Sulawesi) into the Celebes Sea. The expedition called at Samboangan (Zamboanga) on Mindanao, and then Iloilo on the island of Panay, before navigating within the interior of the archipelago en route to the bay and harbour of Manila on the island of Luzon. The crossing north-westward from Manila to Hong Kong took place in November 1874.

After several weeks in Hong Kong, the expedition departed in early January 1875 to retrace their route south-east towards New Guinea. The first stop on this outward leg of the journey was Manila. From there, they continued on to Samboangan, but took a different route through the interior of the Philippines, this time touching at the island of Zebu (Cebu). From Samboangan the ship diverged from the inward route, this time passing south of Mindanao (in early February 1875). Challenger then headed east into the open sea, before turning to the south-east and making landfall at Humboldt Bay (now Yos Sudarso Bay) on the north coast of New Guinea. By March 1875, the expedition had reached the Admiralty Islands north-east of New Guinea. The final stage of the voyage on this side of the Pacific was a long journey across the open ocean to the north, passing mostly west of the Carolina Islands and the Mariana Islands, reaching port in Yokohama, Japan, in April 1875.

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Challenger at Juan Fernandez

Challenger departed Japan in mid-June 1875, heading east across the Pacific to a point due north of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and then turning south, making landfall at the end of July at Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. A couple of weeks later, in mid-August, the ship departed south-eastward, anchoring at Hilo Bay off Hawaii's Big Island, before continuing to the south and reaching Tahiti in mid-September. The expedition left Tahiti in early October, swinging to the west and south of the Tubuai Islands and then heading to the south-east before turning east towards the South American coast. The route touched at the Juan Fernández Islands in mid-November 1875, with Challenger reaching the port of Valparaiso in Chile a few days later. The next stage of the journey commenced the following month, with the route taking the ship south-westward back out into the Pacific, past the Juan Fernández Islands, before turning to the south-east and back towards South America, reaching Port Otway in the Gulf of Penas on 31 December 1875.

Most of January 1876 was spent navigating around the southern tip of South America, surveying and touching at many of the bays and islands of the Patagonian archipelago, the Strait of Magellan, and Tierra del Fuego. Locations visited here include Hale Cove, Gray Harbour, Port Grappler, Tom Bay (all in the vicinity of Wellington Island), Puerta Bueno (near Hanover Island), Isthmus Bay (near the Queen Adelaide Archipelago), and Port Churruca (near Santa Ines Island). The final stops, before heading out into the Atlantic, were Port Famine, Sandy Point, and Elizabeth Island. Challenger reached the Falkland Islands towards the end of January, calling at Port Stanley and then continuing northward, reaching Montevideo in Uruguay in mid-February 1876. The ship left Montevideo at the end of February, heading first due east and then due north, arriving at Ascension Island at the end of March 1876. The period from early to mid-April was spent sailing from Ascension Island to the Cape Verde Islands (visited almost three years ago on the outward journey). From here, the route taken in late April and early May 1876 was a westward loop to the north out into the mid-Atlantic, eventually turning due east towards Europe to touch land at Vigo in Spain towards the end of May. The final stage of the voyage took the ship and its crew north-eastward from Vigo, skirting the Bay of Biscay to make landfall in England.

Challenger returned to Spithead, Hampshire, on 24 May 1876, having spent 713 days at sea out of the intervening 1,250. The complete set of reports of the Challenger expedition, published in 50 volumes between 1877 and 1895, are available online.

Scientific objectives and observation methods
The Royal Society stated that the voyage's scientific goals were:

To investigate the physical conditions of the deep sea in the great ocean basins (as far as the neighborhood of the Great Southern Ice Barrier) in regard to depth, temperature, circulation, specific gravity and penetration of light.
To determine the chemical composition of seawater at various depths from the surface to the bottom, the organic matter in solution and the particles in suspension.
To ascertain the physical and chemical character of deep-sea deposits and the sources of these deposits.
To investigate the distribution of organic life at different depths and on the deep seafloor.
At each of the 360 stations the crew measured the bottom depth, temperature at different depths, observed weather and surface ocean conditions, and collected seafloor, water, and biota samples.

Challenger's crew used methods that were developed in prior small-scale expeditions to make observations. To measure depth, Challenger's crew would lower a line with a weight attached to it until it reached the sea floor. The line was marked in 25 fathom intervals with flags denoting depth. Because of this, the depth measurements from Challenger were at best accurate to 25 fathoms, or approximately 45m. The sinker often had a small container attached to it that would allow for the collection of bottom sediment samples.

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The crew examine specimens caught in one of the nets

The crew used a variety of dredges and trawls to collect biological samples. The dredges consisted of metal nets attached to a wooden plank and dragged across the sea floor. Mop heads attached to the wooden plank would sweep across the sea floor and release organisms from the ocean bottom to be caught in the nets. Trawls were large metal nets towed behind the ship to collect organisms at different depths of water. Upon the retrieval of a dredge or trawl, Challenger crew would sort, rinse, and store the specimens for examination upon return. The specimens were often preserved in either brine or alcohol.

The primary thermometer used throughout the Challenger expedition was the Miller-Casella thermometer, which contained two markers within a curved mercury tube to record the maximum and minimum temperature through which the instrument traveled. Several of these thermometers would be lowered at various depths for recording. However, this design assumed that the water closer to the surface of the ocean was always warmer than that below. During the voyage, Challenger's crew tested the reversing thermometer, which could measure temperature at specified depths. Afterwards, this type of thermometer was used extensively until the second half of the 20th century.

Discovery of Challenger Deep
On March 23, 1875, at sample station number 225 located in the southwest Pacific Ocean between Guam and Palau, the crew recorded a sounding of 4,475 fathoms, (8,184 meters) deep, which was confirmed by an additional sounding. As shown by later expeditions using modern equipment, this area represents the southern end of the Mariana trench and is one of the deepest known places on the ocean floor. Modern soundings to 10,994 meters have since been found near the site of the Challenger's original sounding. Challenger's discovery of this depth was a key finding of the expedition in broadening oceanographic horizons on the ocean's depth and extent and now bears the vessel's name, the Challenger Deep.

Findings and legacy
Findings from the Challenger expedition continued to be published until 1895, 19 years after the completion of its journey. The report contained 50 volumes and was over 29,500 pages in length. Specimens brought back by Challenger were distributed to the world's foremost experts for examination, which greatly increased the expenses and time required to finalize the report. The report and specimens are currently held at the British Natural History Museum and the report has been made available online. Some specimens, many of which were the first discovered of their kind, are still examined by scientists today.

A large number of scientists worked on categorising the material brought back from the expedition including the palaeontologist Gabriel Warton Lee.

George Albert Boulenger, herpetologist at the British Museum (Natural History), named a species of lizard, Saproscincus challengeri, after HMS Challenger.

As the first true oceanographic cruise, the Challenger expedition laid the groundwork for an entire academic and research discipline. The name of Challenger was applied to such varied phenomena as the Challenger Society for Marine Science, the oceanographic and marine geological survey ship Glomar Challenger, and the Space Shuttle Challenger.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Challenger_(1858)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1872 – Challenger expedition: HMS Challenger, commanded by Captain George Nares, sails from Portsmouth, England - Part II - The Ship (drawings at the end)


HMS Challenger was a steam-assisted Royal Navy Pearl-class corvette launched on 13 February 1858 at the Woolwich Dockyard. She was the flagship of the Australia Station between 1866 and 1870.

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This print depicts the HMS Challenger under sail during an oceanographic expedition. The background showing the flat-topped icebergs (which are characteristic of Antarctica) and the sea-birds suggest the ship's connection to natural science. The Challenger is underway on a rough sea with all of her sails except the jib, fore-course sail, fore topsail, and main topsail reefed to cope with the windy conditions. The ship is shown with gunports open and cannon muzzles showing, which seems to be an exaggeration by the artist; not only would the gunports have been kept closed in foul weather, the Challenger was stripped of all but two of her seventeen guns for the expedition.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with half-stern board outline, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for building Challenger (1858), Racoon (1857), and Clio (1858), all 20-gun corvettes with covered decks built on the lines of Pearl (1855). Signed by Captain Sir Baldwin W. Walker [Surveyor of the Navy, 1848-1860] Signed by John Edye [Assistant Surveyor of the Navy?] Signed by Isaac Watts [Assistant Surveyor of the Navy] Initialled by James Graff [Draughtsman, First Class]?

As part of the North America and West Indies Station she took part in 1862 in operations against Mexico, including the occupation of Veracruz. Assigned as the flagship of Australia Station in 1866 and in 1868 undertook a punitive operation against some Fijian natives to avenge the murder of a missionary and some of his dependents. She left the Australian Station in late 1870.

She was picked to undertake the first global marine research expedition: the Challenger expedition. The Challenger carried a complement of 243 officers, scientists and crew when she embarked on her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey.

The United States Space Shuttle Challenger was named after the ship. Her figurehead is on display in the foyer of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.

FMIB_36357_HMS_'Challenger'_Preparing_to_Sound,_1872.jpeg

1873–1876: Grand tour
Main article: Challenger expedition
The Challenger Expedition was a grand tour of the world covering 68,000 nautical miles (125,936 km) organized by the Royal Society in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh. Charles Thomson was the leader of a large scientific team.

  • Captains: George Nares (1873 and 1874) and Charles Wyville Thomson (1875 and 1876)
  • Naturalists: Charles Wyville Thomson (1830–1882), Henry Nottidge Moseley (1844–1891) and Rudolf von Willemoes-Suhm (1847–1875)
  • Oceanographers: John Young Buchanan (1844–1925) and John Murray (1841–1914)
  • Publications: C.W. Thomson, Report on the scientific results of the voyage of HMS Challenger during the years 1873-76… prepared under the superintendence of the late Sir C. Wyville Thomson,... and now of John Murray,... (fifty volumes, London, 1880–1895). H.N. Moseley, Notes by a naturalist on the Challenger (1879). W.J.J. Spry, The cruise of the Challenger (1876).
To enable her to probe the depths, all but two of Challenger's guns had been removed and her spars reduced to make more space available. Laboratories, extra cabins and a special dredging platform were installed. She was loaded with specimen jars, alcohol for preservation of samples, microscopes and chemical apparatus, trawls and dredges, thermometers and water sampling bottles, sounding leads and devices to collect sediment from the sea bed and great lengths of rope with which to suspend the equipment into the ocean depths. In all she was supplied with 181 miles (291 km) of Italian hemp for sounding, trawling and dredging.

The Challenger's crew was the first to sound the deepest part of the ocean, thereafter named the Challenger Deep.

Later service history
She was commissioned as a Coast Guard and Royal Naval Reserve training ship at Harwich in July 1876.

In 1878 Challenger went through an overhaul by the Chief Constructor at Chatham Dockyard with a view to converting the vessel into a training ship for boys of the Royal Navy. She was found suitable and it was planned to take the place of HMS Eurydice which sank off the Isle of Wight on 24 March 1878. The Admiralty did not go ahead with the conversion and she remained in reserve until 1883, when she was converted into a receiving hulk in the River Medway, where she stayed until she was sold to J B Garnham on 6 January 1921 and broken up for her copper bottom in 1921.

Nothing, apart from her figurehead, now remains. This is kept at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.



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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the profile illustrating the inboard details for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted as survey ship for the scientific circumnavigation between 1872-1876. The plan was examined by J B Huddy. Signed by Alfred B Sturdee [Master Shipwright, Sheerness Dockyard, 1866-?] Signed and forwarded by Charles M Aynsley [Captain Superintendent, Sheerness Dockyard, 1870-?] Signed by T.W. Taylor, Exd W. Muddy.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper deck illustrating the details and deck layout for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted for the scientific circumnavigation between 1872-1876. The plan was examined by J B Huddy. Signed by Alfred B Sturdee [Chief Constructor, Sheerness Dockyard, 1866-?] Signed and forwarded by Charles M Aynsley [Captain Superintendent, Sheerness Dockyard, 1870-?] Signed WH Penndy, Exd W Muddy.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the hold, and sections through Stations 30, 26, 14, 6, Y, O, and X for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted for the scientific circumnavigation between 1872-1876. The plan was examined by J B Huddy. Signed by Alfred B Sturdee [Chief Constructor, Sheerness Dockyard, 1866-?] Signed by William G. Luard, C.B. [Captain Superintendent, Sheerness Dockyard, 1870-?]

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the main deck illustrating the cabin arrangements for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted for the scientific circumnavigation between 1872-1876. The plan was examined by J B Huddy. The cabins illustrated are the Captain's and Professor's cabins aft, the Analysing Room, Photographers and Artists Rooms, Laboratories and fittings. Signed by Alfred B Sturdee [Chief Constructor, Sheerness Dockyard, 1866-?] Signed by William G. Luard, C.B. [Captain Superintendent, Sheerness Dockyard, 1870-?]

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the lower deck illustrating the details and deck layout for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted for the scientific circumnavigation between 1872-1876. The plan was examined by J B Huddy. The plan shows the cabin layout for officers and scientists, and the messing arrangement for the men. Signed by Alfred B Sturdee [Chief Constructor, Sheerness Dockyard, 1866-?] Signed by William G. Luard, C.B. [Captain Superintendent, Sheerness Dockyard, 1870-?]

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Scale: 1:192. An Office copy of a plan showing the sail profile for Challenger (1858), a 20-gun corvette, as fitted for 'Special Service', the scientific circumnavigation between 1872 and 1876.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenger_expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Challenger_(1858)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-301425;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/...s_over_many_seas,_scenes_in_many_lands_(1877)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 December 1901 - The Discovery Expedition was leaving Lyttelton to the cheers of large crowds, a young able seaman, Charles Bonner, fell to his death from the top of the mainmast, which he had climbed so as to return the crowd's applause. (drawings at the end)


The Discovery Expedition of 1901–04, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since James Clark Ross's voyage sixty years earlier. Organized on a large scale under a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), the new expedition carried out scientific research and geographical exploration in what was then largely an untouched continent. It launched the Antarctic careers of many who would become leading figures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, including Robert Falcon Scott who led the expedition, Ernest Shackleton, Edward Wilson, Frank Wild, Tom Crean and William Lashly.

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The expedition ship Discovery in the Antarctic, alongside the Great Ice Barrier

Its scientific results covered extensive ground in biology, zoology, geology, meteorology and magnetism. The expedition discovered the existence of the only snow-free Antarctic valleys, which contain Antarctica's longest river. Further achievements included the discoveries of the Cape Crozier emperor penguin colony, King Edward VII Land, and the Polar Plateau (via the western mountains route) on which the South Pole is located. The expedition tried to reach the South Pole travelling as far as the Farthest South mark at a reported 82°17′S.

As a trailbreaker for later ventures, the Discovery Expedition was a landmark in British Antarctic exploration history.


RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research, and launched in 1901. She was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Its first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. After service as a merchant ship before and during the First World War, Discovery was taken into the service of the British government in 1923 to carry out scientific research in the Southern Ocean, becoming the first Royal Research Ship. The ship undertook a two-year expedition - the Discovery Investigations - recording valuable information on the oceans, marine life and being the first scientific investigation into whale populations. From 1929 to 1931 Discovery served as the base for the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Douglas Mawson, a major scientific and territorial quest in what is now the Australian Antarctic Territory. On her return from the BANZARE, Discovery was moored in London as a static training ship and visitor attraction until 1979 when she was placed in the care of the Maritime Trust as a museum ship. After an extensive restoration Discovery is now the centrepiece of a visitor attraction in the city where she was built, Dundee. She is one of only two surviving expedition ships from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the other being the Norwegian ship Fram.

Campamento_de_la_expedición_Discovery.jpg

Design
With increasing scientific and political attention being turned to the uncharted continent of Antarctica during the late 19th century, there were numerous proposals for a British-mounted expedition to the continent. The Royal Navy had been something of a pioneer with Antartic exploration, mounting the Ross expedition in 1839 which discovered the Ross Ice Shelf. Attention had then turned northward to the Arctic and attempts to reach the North Pole. The RN mounted the British Arctic Expedition in 1874. Towards the turn of the century there was increasing pressure for a similar expedition to the southern polar region. The British government and the Admiralty stopped short of organising a government expedition but agreed to partially fund a project led by the two main interested scientific organisations, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society. The Admiralty would provide practical support in designing and crewing a purpose-built ship for the expedition, while the ship itself would be owned by the RGS.

Early discussions on building a dedicated polar exploration ship considered replicating Fridtjof Nansen's ship Fram but that vessel was designed specifically for working through the pack ice of the Arctic, while the British ship would have to cross thousands of miles of open ocean before reaching the Antarctic so a more conventional design was chosen. In charge of her overall design was W.E. Smith, one of the senior naval architects at the Admiralty, while the ship's engine, boilers and other machinery were designed by Fleet Engineer Philip Marrack.

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Scale: 1:48. A sectional model depicting the stern of the Royal research ship Discovery (1901), made entirely in wood with metal and inorganic material fittings and painted in realistic colours. A cutaway section in the starboard hull and end section shows the engine and boiler rooms and other original 1901 machinery. The model is motorised, with working parts (engine & propeller). The model also shows the lifting arrangement for the propeller and rudder. The hull is painted black with a narrow white stripe between two strakes at main deck level. Hull fittings and details include an irregularly-shaped cutaway section in the starboard quarter revealing the engine and also the method of construction of the hull; main and mizzen channels with dead eyes; and single two-bladed propeller. Other fittings include engine room with forward bulkhead, triple expansion engine and companion ways; single funnel, painted buff, on a white-painted mounting; two buff-painted ventilators with red inserts; a clinker-built lifeboat rigged to davits on the port side; two furnished cabins on the port and starboard sides on lower deck and a hearth between them with a tall, narrow, chimney pipe; coal store on orlop deck; and wooden main deck that is scored to resemble planking. On stern ‘Discovery’.

The ship borrowed many aspects of her design (as well as her name) from the Bloodhound, a Dundee-built whaling ship taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Discovery for the Arctic Expedition. By 1900 few yards in the United Kingdom had the capability to build wooden ships of the size needed - only two shipbuilders submitted bids for the contract - but it was deemed essential that the ship be made from wood, both for strength and ease of repair and to reduce the magnetic interference from a steel hull that would allow the most accurate navigation and surveying. The main compass was mounted perfectly amidships and there were to be no steel or iron fittings within 30 feet (9.1 metres) of this point - to the extent that the original cushions for the wardroom (just aft and below the main bridge) were changed when it was found they included steel-backed buttons. For the same reason the boilers and engine were mounted towards the stern of the ship, a feature which also provided maximum space for equipment and provisions. A special laboratory for taking magnetic field measurements was provided below the bridge.

The ship was almost built in Norway by Framnæs, the yard which would later build the Endurance but it was thought that the British government's money should be spent at a British yard and the Discovery was built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company, which primarily made smaller vessels such as trawlers, tugboats and steam yachts. The yard was previously owned by Alexander Stephen and Sons and had built the Terra Nova (purchased in 1910 by Scott for his last expedition) in 1884. The committee responsible for the ship's construction offered a separate tender for her boilers, engine and auxiliary machinery in an effort to reduce costs, but Dundee Shipbuilders also won that contract.

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Discovery (centre) trapped by the ice in McMurdo Sound, accompanied by Morning (left) and Terra Nova (right) in February 1904.

The ship cost £34,050 to build, plus another £10,322 to be fitted with engines and machinery and more than £6000 for other equipment and fittings: The total cost for the Discovery was £51,000, equivalent to £4.1m in modern currency. Much of the detail work of fitting out the ship's interior spaces, scientific equipment and provisions was overseen directly by Scott and the ship's newly-appointed engineer Reginald Skelton.

Discovery was fitted with a 450-horsepower coal-fired triple expansion steam engine, but had to rely primarily on sail because the coal bunkers did not have sufficient capacity to take the ship on long voyages. At her economical cruising speed of 6 knots (6.9 mph, 11.1 km/h) she only carried enough coal for 7700 miles of steaming; the voyage to New Zealand covered over 12,000 miles. At 8 knots (9.2 mph, 14.2 km/h) she could steam only 5100 miles. The ship was seen as a sailing vessel with auxiliary steam propulsion - when first registered in 1900 Discovery was classified as a sailing ship. Her legal owners were the Royal Geographical Society the president of which, Sir Clements Markham, was a member of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club - Discovery was thus registered as a private sailing yacht of the RHYC and carried the official name and prefix 'S.Y. Discovery'. She flew the RHYC's burgee and the Blue Ensign throughout her first expedition.

She was rigged as a barque (the fore- and mainmasts being square rig and the mizzen mast carrying a fore-aft sail) and the total maximum sail area was 12,296 square feet (1142 square metres). Following the practice of the most modern sailing ships of the time, the windjammers, she carried split topsails to reduce the size of the deck crew needed to handle them. Her spars and sails on the foremast and mainmast were identical to reduce the amount of spares carried and allow easier repairs. The ship was rigged to carry several large staysails and the funnel was hinged at the base so it could be laid on the deck when the mizzen staysail was rigged once at sea. The Discovery was marginally faster under sail than she was under engine - her record for distance travelled in 24 hours is 223 nautical miles (358 km), equivalent to 9.2 knots (10.5 mph, 17 km/h).

The ship has a massively built wooden hull designed to withstand being frozen into the ice and resist crushing. At the time of her launch Discovery was widely held to be the strongest wooden ship ever built. The hull frames, placed much closer together than was normal, were made of solid sections of oakup to 11 inches (27.9 cm) thick. The outer hull was formed from two layers - one 6 inches (15.2 cm) thick and an outer skin some 5 inches (12.7 cm) thick. A third lining was laid inside the frames, forming a double bottom and skin around almost the entire hull. This meant that in places the hull was over 2 feet (60 cm) thick, providing not only formidable strength but excellent insulation against the cold. The construction meant that it was impossible to install portholes (and fitting them would have weakened the hull) so the crew relied on 'mushroom vents' on the deck to allow air and light into the interior.

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Discovery in Australia.

The wood used for the planking varies depending on where in the ship it is laid and what structural purpose it serves: The inner layer is Scots pine while the 6-inch skin is made of pitch pine, Honduras mahogany or oak. The outer hull is made of English Elm and Greenheart. Oak beams run across the hull forming three decks - the lower deck beams are 11 inches (27.9 cm) square in cross-section and are placed less than three feet (0.9m) apart along the ship's length. Seven transverse bulkheads, also of wood, provide additional strength and ensured that any ice damage would not flood the entire ship. To prevent damage from ice floes or crushing the two-blade propeller could be hoisted out of the way and the rudder could be easily detached and stored aboard. A second rudder and spare propeller blades were carried, and the ship could be steered by use of her sails if her rudder or steering gear was completely disabled. Iron-shod bows were severely raked so that when ramming the ice they would ride up over the margin and crush the ice with deadweight. The coal bunkers on each side contained a steel compartment, each of which could hold 60 tons of fresh water. These would be filled on the long ocean trip to and from New Zealand but for the Antarctic expedition the extra coal capacity was more important as ice and snow could be melted each day to provide water, so the tanks would be filled with coal. The metal tanks also contributed to the strength of the lower hull around the boiler and engine spaces.

On 16 March 1900, in the context of significant donations to the approaching expedition by patrons Llewellyn W. Longstaff and the British Government, construction on the Discovery began in Dundee, Scotland, by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company. She was launched into the Firth of Tay on 21 March 1901 by Lady Markham, the wife of Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society

Discovery Point, Dundee

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RRS Discovery, in Dundee in 2009.

On 28 March 1986, Discovery left London aboard the cargo ship Happy Mariner to make her journey home to the city that built her. She arrived on the River Tay on 3 April - the first time she had been back to Dundee since her construction. Moved to a custom built dock in 1992, Discovery is now the centrepiece of Dundee's visitor attraction Discovery Point. She is displayed in a purpose-built dock, in a configuration as near as possible to her 1923 state, when she was refitted in the Vosper yard at Portsmouth. She is listed as part of the National Historic Fleet. Discovery Point is a fully accredited museum and has won numerous national awards, as well as being a 5 star rated tourist attraction with Visit Scotland. In 2008, Discovery and the associated polar collections were named as a Recognised Collection of National Significance.

Since the 1990s, the Discovery Point museum has concentrated on interpreting the vessel on all of her voyages, with personal items from the ship's crew as well as information on her scientific activities. Items range from the games played by the crew on her first expedition to examples of sea fauna. Star objects on display including Captain Scott's rifle and pipe. Her three main voyages, the National Antarctic Expedition (1901–1904), the Discovery Oceanographic Expedition (1925–1927) and the BANZARE expedition(1929–31), are all explored in the museum through film and photographic evidence with artefacts from each era represented. The museum also holds other pieces from Scott's subsequent Terra Nova expedition and Shackleton's Endurance expedition.

The ship also features on the crest of the coat of arms of the British Antarctic Territory.

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Body (ZAZ6642)

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section (ZAZ6643)

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Lines (ZAZ6654)

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rigging (ZAZ6653)

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rigging (ZAZ6652)

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Inboard profile plan (ZAZ6648)

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Hold (ZAZ6649)

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Upper deck plan (ZAZ6651)

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Scale: 1:24. A sectional model of the bow of the exploration and research vessel RRS Discovery (1901) made entirely in wood with metal fittings and painted in realistic colours. The model depicts the construction of the vessel from the thirtieth frame onward. There is a large irregular cutaway section in the starboard bow hull with smaller cutaway sections in the forecastle and main decks. Several frames, deck beams, and hull and deck planking are also removed for clarity. The hull is painted a dark colour below the waterline, black above with a narrow white stripe just below main deck level. Fittings include a stump bowsprit and foremast; companionway housing, portside half of forward bridge and an unidentified superstructure; forecastle, section of main deck and sections of two lower decks; and iron cross bracing to the wooden frames. The model is mounted on two different shaped crutches.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Discovery
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Expedition
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.ht
ml#!csearch;authority=vessel-275597;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 21 December


1471 - portugiese eplorer João de Santarém reached the island São Tomé in Gulf of Guinea takes the island in possession for Portugal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/João_de_Santarém
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/São_Tomé_(Insel)


1533 - the spanish Hernando de Grijalva discover the island Socorro as the first of the mexican Revillagigedo-islands in East-Pacific

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernán_Cortés
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socorro_(Insel)


1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower


1735 – Launch of Spanish Esperanza 50 at Havana - Stricken 1747


1754 – Launch of spanish Atlante 74 at Cartagena - transferred to France 22 September 1801, renamed Atlas 1803, captured by Spain 1808, same name, BU 1817


1797 - British frigate HMS Phoebe (36), Cptn. Robert Barlow, captured the French frigate Néréide (36), Cptn. Antoine Canon, off the Isles of Scilly

HMS Phoebe was a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Overall, her crews were awarded six clasps to the Naval General Service Medals, with two taking place in the French Revolutionary Wars, three during the Napoleonic Wars and the sixth in the War of 1812. Three of the clasps carried the name Phoebe. During her career, Phoebe sailed to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, North America and South America.

Capture_of_Nereide.jpg
Capture of Néréide by HMS Phoebe, on 20 December 1797

Once peace finally arrived, Phoebe was laid up, though she spent a few years as a slop ship during the 1820s. She was then hulked. The Admiralty finally sold her for breaking up in 1841.

Néréide was a Sybille class 32-gun, copper-hulled, frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Isle de France (now Mauritius), in 1810. After the Battle of Grand Port she was in such a poor condition that she was laid up and sold for breaking up in 1816.

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HMS Nereide at the Battle of Grand Port

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Phoebe_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Néréide_(1779)


1797 - HMS Speedy, a 14-gun Speedy-class brig of the British Royal Navy, captured privateer Pilgrim

HMS Speedy was a 14-gun Speedy-class brig of the British Royal Navy. Built during the last years of the American War of Independence, she served with distinction during the French Revolutionary Wars.

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"HMS Speedy falling in with the wreck of Queen Charlotte March 21 1800 at Leghorn".

Built at Dover, Kent, Speedy spent most of the interwar years serving off the British coast. Transferred to the Mediterranean after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, she spent the rest of her career there under a number of notable commanders, winning fame for herself in various engagements and often against heavy odds. Her first commander in the Mediterranean, Charles Cunningham, served with distinction with several squadrons, assisting in the capture of several war prizes, such as the French frigates Modeste and Impérieuse. His successor, George Cockburn, impressed his superiors with his dogged devotion to duty. Speedy's next commander, George Eyre, had the misfortune to lose her to a superior French force on 9 June 1794.

She was soon retaken, and re-entered service under Hugh Downman, who captured a number of privateers between 1795 and 1799 and fought off an attack by the large French privateer Papillon on 3 February 1798. His successor, Jahleel Brenton, fought a number of actions against Spanish forces off Gibraltar. Her last captain, Lord Cochrane, forced the surrender of a much larger Spanish warship, the Gamo. Speedy was finally captured by a powerful French squadron in 1801 and donated to the Papal Navy by Napoleon the following year. She spent five years with them under the name San Paolo, but was struck around 1806.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Speedy_(1782)


1804 - HMS Severn (44), Cptn. Philip d'Auvergne, Prince of Bouillon, wrecked in Grouville Bay, Jersey,

The third HMS Severn (1786) was a 44-gun Adventure-class fifth rate launched in 1786 and wrecked in 1804.

large (11).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with alterations to the head, longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Woolwich (1785), and later used for Sheerness (1787), Severn (1786), Adventure (1784), Gorgon (1785), Chichester (1785), Dover (1786), and Expedition (1784), all 44-gun Fifth Rate, two-deckers. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-347640;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S


1808 – Launch of French Danube 74 at Toulon = school ship 1822, struck and taken to pieces in 1826.

Danube was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Danube served under Captain Henry in 1810.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Danube_(1808)


1821 - The schooner USS Enterprise, commanded by Lt. Lawrence Kearny, captures and burns a pirate schooner off Cape Antonio, West Indies. A landing party destroys a shore base and burns five pirate prizes.

The third US ship to be named Enterprise was a schooner, built by Henry Spencer at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1799, whose command was given to Lieutenant John Shaw. This ship was overhauled and rebuilt several times, effectively changing from a twelve-gun schooner to a fourteen-gun topsail schooner and eventually to a brig.

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U.S. en:Schooner ENTERPRIZE Capturing the Tripolitan en:Corsair TRIPOLI, 1 August 1801. From a drawing (circa 1878) by Captain William Bainbridge Hoff, U.S. Navy, in the collection of the Navy department.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Enterprise_(1799)


1848 - HMS Mutine (18), John Palmer, wrecked in the Adriatic near Venice.

HMS Mutine (1844) was a 12-gun brig launched in 1844 and wrecked in 1848.

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Lines (ZAZ4963)

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Six two-masted naval brigs are depicted on different tacks. Central to the picture is the Mutine, starboard broadside on, with her lower courses reefed and upper sails spilling wind. Figures can be seen on the decks of the closest ships. To the left of the image, behind Mutine, the bows of the Daring can be seen. Espiegle, Osprey, Waterwich and Pantaloon are on the right of the picture. In the foreground, a small, gaff-rigged, single sail dinghy, on a starboard tack, is depicted in stern view. This experimental squadron was assembled in September 1844 to undergo trials against an older design of brig. The trial was rather inconclusive as the vessels excelled in different conditions.

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-333371;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M


1859 - The sloop-of-war USS Constellation captures the American slaver Delicia off Kabenda, Africa.

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


1861 - Congress authorizes the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award, for Naval enlisted personnel.


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


1873 – Death of Francis Garnier, French admiral and explorer (b. 1839)

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


1879 - Adelphoi was a wooden barque built in Sunderland, UK, that spent most of her working life in Australian waters. She was wrecked off Port Hacking, Australia, in 1879.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adelphoi_(1865)


1914 – French battleship Jean Bart was torpedoed, but did not sink

Jean Bart spent most of the rest of 1914 providing gunfire support for the Montenegrin Army until she was torpedoed by the submarine U-12 off Sazan Island on 21 December. The one torpedo struck her in the wine store just before the forward magazine. She was able to steam to Malta on her own for repairs that required three and a half months, but this attack forced the battleships to fall back to either Malta or Bizerte.

Jean_Bart_(1911).jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_battleship_Jean_Bart_(1911)


1942 - USS Seadragon (SS 194) sinks Japanese submarine I-4 between New Britain and New Ireland while I-4 is engaged in a resupply mission to Guadalcanal.


1951 - The first helicopter lands on board USS Consolation (AH 15) during Operation Helicopter, where casualties are directly evacuated from the battlefield to a hospital ship for the first time.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1668 – Launch of HMS Nonsuch, a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Nonsuch was a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was an experimental fast-sailing design, built by the renowned shipwright Anthony Deane according to proposals by the Dutch naval officer Laurens van Heemskirk, who became her first captain. She was launched in December 1668, and commissioned the same day under van Heemskirk. In 1669 she was reclassed as a 42-gun Fourth rate, being commanded from 9 April by Captain Sir John Holmes.

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An English fourth-rate seen from before the port beam with, on the broadside, nine guns on the gun deck, ten on the upper deck (square decorated ports) and three in wreathed ports on the quarterdeck. There are eight sweep ports between the guns on the gun deck. This is a pen and brown ink drawing with a wash over the preliminary work in pencil. It has been signed by the Younger, ‘W.V.VJ’. The ship may be one of the 42-gun fourth-rates which in 1677 were armed with twenty guns on the gun deck, eighteen on the upper deck and four on the quarterdeck. They were the ‘Assurance’ (1646) ‘Constant Warwick’ (1646, rebuilt 1666) ‘Falcon’ and ‘Sweepstakes’ (1666), ‘Nonsuch’ (1668) and ‘Phoenix’ (1671). Other drawings and the small number of gun-deck ports led Robinson to suggest the ‘Assurance’ as most probable, but she was sold in 1698 and he considered it unlikely she would have been drawn as late as 1701, which the style here suggests. By the style and paper he related this drawing to PAH5024, which shows the ‘Seahorse’ of 1694 and could be more certainly dated to about 1701. Both are very accurate drawings in pen and brown ink and the early features here, such as the square decorated ports, might be accounted for if it is this drawing is based on an offset from an earlier example. Robinson, however, fails to say whether the ‘Assurance’ of 1646 was rebuilt in 1675, the date he ascribes to the ship as shown.

Class and type:
  • 36-gun fifth rate (as launched)
  • Re-rated as 42-gun fourth rate in 1669
  • Re-rated as 36-gun fifth rate in 1691
Tons burthen: 359 29⁄94bm
Length:
  • 97 ft 3.5 in (29.7 m)(gundeck)
  • 88 ft 3 in (26.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 27 ft 8 in (8.4 m)
Draught: 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 10 in (3.30 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement:
  • 150 as Fifth Rate;
  • 180 as Fourth Rate
Armament:
  • 40 in 1685:
  • 20 demi-culverins,
  • 16 sakers
  • and 4 x 3-pounder guns

She was to spend most of her career in the Mediterranean. She was for a time based on Tangier, and was commanded by a succession of accomplished commanders who subsequently rose to flag rank in the Navy, including George Rooke from 1677 to 1680, then briefly under Cloudesley Shovell, and then Francis Wheler from 1680 to 1681. Under Wheler's command, she participated on 9 April 1681 in the capture of the Algerine 46-gun Golden Horse, along with the Fourth rate Adventure.

She reverted to a 36-gun fifth rate in 1691, and was recommissioned under Captain Richard Short, for service off New England. Command passed in January 1693 to Captain Thomas Dobbin, then in November 1693 to Captain Thomas Taylor. She was captured off the Scilly Isles on 4 January 1695 by the French 48-gun privateer Le François; renamed Le Sans Pareil, she subsequently served in the French Navy until 1697.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Nonsuch_(1668)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1743 – Launch of HMS Harwich, a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line


HMS Harwich was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions laid down in the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Harwich, and launched on 22 December 1743.

Class and type: 1741 proposals 50-gun fourth rateship of the line
Tons burthen: 976 (bm)
Length: 140 ft (42.7 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 40 ft (12.2 m)
Depth of hold:1 7 ft 2 1⁄2 in (5.2 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 22 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 22 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for rebuilding Falkland (1744), a 1741 Establishment 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker. The plan was later used for Portland (1744), and Harwich (1743), Colchester (1744), Chester (1744), Winchester (1744),Gloucester (1745), Maidstone (1744), Advice (1746), Norwich (1745), Ruby (1745), Salisbury (1746). The body plan and longitudinal half-breadth was later altered for Litchfield (1746) and Colchester (1746).


Her captain, William Adams, was killed in 1748 during Edward Boscawen's unsuccessful siege of Pondicherry during the War of the Austrian Succession.

At some point around in 1757 or shortly before, Harwich captured the Maria Louisa Magdalena, Messagere, and Comte de Maurepas. She shared the prize money, by agreement, with Torbay and Rochester.

Harwich was wrecked in 1760.


1741 proposals and revisions
The true state of British ship design became apparent with the start of the War of Jenkins' Ear. The capture of the Spanish 70-gun ship Princessa in April 1740 by three British 70-gun ships (HMS Kent, HMS Lennox and HMS Orford) took six hours of fighting despite one of Princessa's topmasts being missing. Her greater size (much closer to that of a British 90-gun ship than a 70) gave her stability that the British ships lacked, and her build quality allowed her to withstand the pounding from the three British ships for a long time. By way of response to the now apparent individual inferiority of British ships over their opponents, a previously abandoned update to the gun establishment was called upon to increase the firepower of the ships. With heavier guns came the need for larger ships to carry them, and so Sir Jacob made a new set of proposals for increased dimensions—slightly less conservative this time around. Additionally, the new gun establishment made some changes to the types of ships that would be on the navy list in future. The 70-gun ships would become 64-gunners, albeit with heavier guns as compensation, and the 60-gun ships were to become 58-gun ships, again with heavier guns. No first rates were built to the dimensions of the 1741 proposals, but one ship of 74 guns and two of 66 were constructed.

An additional side effect of the war was the collapse of the system of rebuilding. Until the outbreak of the war, it had been the practice to rebuild ships periodically, to maintain the size of the fleet without alarming parliament with requests for new ships. In reality, many of these rebuilds amounted to just that, with little or no timber from the original ship surviving into her rebuilt form. In some cases, ships would be dismantled years before they actually underwent the rebuilding process, but remained on the active list for the entire time. Rebuilding a ship was a lengthy process, more time consuming and more expensive than building a completely new one. The pressures of the war meant that for drydocks to be taken up for long periods of time whilst a ship was surveyed to determine what timber was reusable in the new ship, and what could find a use elsewhere in the dockyard, disassembled and then rebuilt was counter-productive. Ships intended to be sent to the West Indies for service in the war required the use of drydocks to have their hulls appropriately sheathed to combat such problems as shipworm, and other uses of the drydocks for servicing the fleet meant that rebuilds were given a low priority. It was at this time that the British practise of converting old ships to hulks for expanded storage space in harbours began, as instead of wasting effort and dockyard space on breaking up an old vessel that was still perfectly capable of floating, they were converted to serve the dockyards in this new capacity. Few rebuilds were started after 1739, and none at all were begun after 1742, although any that had been started were allowed to complete.

Fourth rates of 50 guns
General characteristics for 50-gun fourth rates
Type:5 0-gun fourth-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 755 89⁄94bm
Length:
  • 134 ft 0 in (40.8 m) (gundeck)
  • 109 ft 8 in (33.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 36 ft 0 in (11.0 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 2 in (4.6 m)
Complement: 280 officers and men (300 from 1733)
Armament:
  • 50 guns:
  • Lower deck: 22 × 18-pounders (24-pounders from 1743)
  • Upper deck: 22 × 9-pounders (12-pounders from 1743)
  • Quarter deck: 4 × 6-pounders
  • Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders

The 1716 Establishment of Guns for the smaller fourth rates had replaced the 12-pounder guns on their lower deck by 18-pounders, and the 6-pounders on their upper decks by 9-pounders; at the same time, it removed four of the smaller (6-pounder) guns from the quarterdeck, turning them from 54 to 50 guns. The 1719 Establishment revised the dimensions of these ships as shown in the adjacent table.

Fourteen vessels were rebuilt to this specification between 1718 and 1732 - the Falkland, Chatham, Colchester, Leopard, Portland, Lichfield, Argyll, Assistance, Romney, Oxford, Greenwich, Falmouth, Salisbury and Newcastle.

The 1733 revision increased the dimensions as follows:
  • Tons burthen: 853 44⁄94 bm
  • Length: 134 ft 0 in (40.8 m) (gundeck)
    108 ft 3 in (33.0 m) (keel)
  • Beam: 38 ft 6 in (11.7 m)
  • Depth in hold: 15 ft 9 in (4.8 m)
Eight ships were rebuilt to this specification in the Royal Dockyards - the Gloucester, Severn, Saint Albans, Woolwich, Dartmouth, Guernsey, Antelope and Preston. Subsequently four further vessels were newbuilt by commercial contract - the Hampshire, Leopard, Sutherland and Nonsuch.

The 1741 revision further increased the dimensions to:
  • Tons burthen: 968 8⁄94 bm
  • Length: 140 ft 0 in (42.7 m) (gundeck)
    113 ft 9 in (34.7 m) (keel)
  • Beam: 40 ft 0 in (12.2 m)
  • Depth in hold: 17 ft 2.5 in (5.2 m)
Fourteen vessels were newbuilt by contract to a common design by the Surveyor's Office - the Harwich, Colchester, Falkland, Chester, Winchester, Portland, Maidstone, Gloucester, Norwich, Ruby, Advice, Salisbury. Lichfield and a second Colchester (after the first was lost in 1744).
A fifteenth vessel - Panther - was built to a local design at Plymouth Dockyard, and two others were also dockyard-built at Woolwich and Deptford to a lengthened design - the Bristol and Rochester.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Harwich_(1743)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-317835;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1719_Establishment#1741_proposals_and_revisions
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1809 - HMS Salorman (1808 - 12), Lt. Duncan, lost in the Baltic.


HMS Salorman was the Danish cutter Søormen, of twelve guns, built in 1789, which the British captured in 1808. She was wrecked in 1809.

b156.jpg
http://www.orlogsbasen.dk/Stor.asp

c192.jpg
http://www.orlogsbasen.dk/Stor.asp

Danish origins
Søormen was built in Copenhagen to a design by Ernst Stibolt. She was launched on 13 November 1789.

Type: Cutter
Length: 68' 2" (Danish)
Beam: 21' (Danish)
Draught: 9' (Danish; laden); 7'3" (Danish; unladen)
Sail plan: Cutter
Complement: 43 (Danish service)
Armament:
  • Danish service: 8 x 4-pounder guns + 4 x 12-pounder howitzers
  • British service: 10 guns

Søormen was designated as a mail boat [hence the Danish "kongensbåd" or "kongenjagt" – king’s boat or king’s sloop – in the record], and armed for self-defence. Until August 1808 the Danes considered such vessels non-combatants. Captain Trampe, in command of a sister ship (Ørnen) in the postal service based in Korsør, was reprimanded for putting his ship in harm's way when he captured a British barge in the Great Belt later that month. However, Frederick VI of Denmark later approved Trampe's action.

Capture

El_juramento_de_las_tropas_del_Marqués_de_la_Romana.jpg
The Spanish Division of the North sent to fight the British in Denmark pledging to turn against France and side with the British

When word of the uprising of the Spanish against the French in 1808 reached Denmark, some 12,000 Spanish troops of the Division of the North stationed in Denmark and under the Marquis de la Romana decided that they wished to leave French service and return to Spain. The Marquis contacted Rear-Admiral Keats, on Superb, who was in command of a small British squadron in the Kattegat. They agreed a plan and on 9 August 1808 the Spaniards seized the fort and town of Nyborg. Keats then prepared to take possession of the port and to organize the departure of the Spanish. Keats informed the Danish authorities that if they did not impede the operation he would spare the town. The Danes agreed, except for the captains of two small Danish warships in the harbour.

On 11 August Keats sent in the boats from Edgar, under the command of her captain, James Macnamara. The boats captured the brig Fama, of 18 guns and under the command of Otto Frederick Rasch, and the cutter Søormen, of 12 guns and under the command of Thøger Emil Rosenørn. Despite the odds Rasch and Rosenørn decided to resist. British losses were an officer killed and two men wounded; the Danes lost seven men killed and 13 wounded before they struck. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "11 Aug. Boat Service 1808" to all surviving claimants of the action.

The British organized the evacuation of the Spanish troops using some 50 or so local boats. Some 10,000 troops returned to Spain via Britain.

The British commissioned the cutter under the name Salorman and appointed Lieutenant Andrew Duncan to command her.

Fate
On 22 December 1808, Salorman was part of the escort of the last British convoy of the year leaving the Baltic. She was in company with four other British warships - the frigate Salsette, the brig-sloop Fama, the brig-sloop Magnet, and the gun-brig Urgent - three Swedish naval vessels and twelve merchant vessels. Unfortunately, the convoy left after an unusually severe winter had set in. Furthermore, a storm coming from the north drove already formed ice onto the convoy.

A storm washed one man on Salorman overboard and damaged her yards and rigging. Duncan steered her towards Ystad, but a blinding snowstorm developed that obliterated the sight of land. She grounded at about 4 am on 23 December, a little east of Ystad. In the morning boats came out from the town and salvaged what they could. By nightfall it was clear that Salorman was unrecoverable and her crew abandoned her. Next morning she was discovered to be full of water up to her gunwales.

The convoy and its escorts were ill-fated, with Magnet and Fama also being lost, as were most of the merchantmen, many of which the Danes captured or destroyed.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Salorman_(1808)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1810 - HMS Minotaur (74), Cptn. John Barrett, wrecked on the North Haaks, Texel.


HMS Minotaur was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 November 1793 at Woolwich. She was named after the mythological bull-headed monsterof Crete. She fought in three major battles - Nile, Trafalgar, and Copenhagen (1807) - before she was wrecked, with heavy loss of life, in December 1810.

Class and type: Courageux classship of the line
Tons burthen: 1723 (bm)
Length: 172 ft 3 in (52.50 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 47 ft 9 in (14.55 m)
Depth of hold: 20 ft 9 1⁄2 in (6.3 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
Shipwreck_turner (2).jpg The shipwreck of the Minotaur, oil on canvas, by J. M. W. Turner

Career
On 26 September 1795 Minotaur and Porcupine recaptured Walsingham Packet. The French corvette brig Insolent, of 18 guns and 90 men, had captured Walsingham Packet, which was sailing from Falmouth to Lisbon, on 13 September. Insolent narrowly escaped being herself captured at the recapture of Walsingham Packet, getting into Lorient as the British ships came into range.

Minotaur fought at the battle of the Nile in 1798, engaging the Aquilon with HMS Theseus and forcing her surrender. In the battle Minotaur lost 23 men dead and 64 wounded.

After the French surrendered Rome on 29 September 1799, Captain Thomas Louis had his barge crew row him up the Tiber River where he raised the Union Jack over the Capitol.

In May 1800, Minotaur served as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Lord Keith at the siege of Genoa. On 28 April, the squadron captured the Proteus, off Genoa.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with modifications to the gun ports, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Minotaur', a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, building at Chatham, similar to 'Tremendous' (1784) under repaired at Chatham Dockyard. Signed by William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

On 8 January 1801 Penelope captured the French bombard St. Roche, which was carrying wine, liqueurs, ironware, Delfth cloth, and various other merchandise, from Marseilles to Alexandria. Swiftsure, Tigre, Minotaur, Northumberland, Florentina, and the schooner Malta, were in sight and shared in the proceeds of the capture.

She was present at the landings in Aboukir Bay during the invasion of Egypt in 1801 where she lost a total of three men killed, and six wounded. Because Minotaur served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

On 28 May 1803 Minotaur, in company with Thunderer, and later joined by Albion, captured the French frigate Franchise. Franchise was 33 days out of Port-au-Prince, and was pierced for twenty-eight 12-pounder guns on her main deck and sixteen 9-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle, ten of which were in her hold. She had a crew of 187 men under the command of Captain Jurien.

Minotaur was present at the surrender of the French garrison at Civitavecchia on 21 September 1804. She shared the prize money for the capture of the town and fortress with Culloden, Mutine, Transfer, and the bomb vessel Perseus. The British also captured the French polacca Il Reconniscento.

Minotaur, under Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield, participated in the Battle of Trafalgar. There she was instrumental in capturing the Spanish ship Neptuno, although Neptuno's crew recaptured her in the storm that followed the battle.

Minotaur was towards the rear of Nelson’s wing of his fleet at Trafalgar. Mansfield pledged to his assembled crew that he would stick to any ship he engaged "till either she strikes or sinks – or I sink". Late in the battle he deliberately placed Minotaur between the damaged Victory and an attacking French ship; he was later awarded a sword and gold medal for his gallantry. Both are now in the National Maritime Museum.

In 1807 Minotaur served as the flagship of Rear-Admiral William Essington at the battle of Copenhagen.

Then on 25 July, during the Anglo-Russian War, 17 boats from a British squadron under the command of Captain Charles Pater, consisting of Minotaur, Princess Caroline, Cerberusand Prometheus, attacked a flotilla of four Russian gunboats and a brig off Aspö Head near Fredrickshamn in the Grand Duchy of Finland, Russia (present-day Hamina, Finland). Captain Forrest of Prometheus commanded the boats and succeeded in capturing gunboats Nos. 62, 65, and 66, and the transport brig No. 11. The action was sanguinary in that the British lost 19 men killed and 51 wounded, and the Russians lost 28 men killed and 59 wounded. Minotaur alone lost eight men killed and had 30 wounded, of whom four died of their wounds on the next day or so. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "25 July Boat Service 1809" to surviving claimants from the action. Cerberus then moved to the Mediterranean in 1810.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (dispostion) for building 'Minotaur' (1816), a 74-gun Third Rate, two decker, at Chatham Dockyard. Initialled by William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

Shipwreck
Whilst sailing from Gothenburg to Britain, under the command of John Barrett, Minotaur in darkness and heavy weather struck the Haak Bank, or Razende Bol, on the Texel off the Netherlands, then part of the First French Empire, in the evening of 22 December 1810, after becoming separated from her consorts, HMS Plantagenet and Loire. Minotaur got stuck in the sand, rolled on her side and quickly made water. It was decided to cut all the masts to lighten the ship; this destroyed some of the boats. By the early morning, the ship had nevertheless sunk deeper, flooding the forecastle. Waves pounded the hull. Around 08:00, the hull split asunder. The crew, taking refuge on the poop deck, tried to evacuate on a remaining launch and two yauls. Thirty-two men escaped on a yaul. When they reached the Dutch coast, this inspired another eighty-five to use the launch; they too reached the shore. Captain Barrett, together with about a hundred men, then tried to escape with the remaining yaul but it was swamped and all drowned. Around 14:00, the Minotaur turned completely, drowning the remaining crew. The 110 of her crew that had taken to her boats informed the Dutch authorities of the disaster. Another twenty survivors were rescued by a pilot vessel. The authorities placed the survivors under custody and refused to dispatch more rescue vessels until the following morning. The rescue party found however that apart from four men who had reached shore by clinging to wreckage, no survivors remained on the vessel or in the surrounding water. The death toll therefore was between 370 and 570 men.[10][20] All survivors were taken to France as prisoners of war.


The Noorderhaaks bank, in the mouth of the Texel, is today an island

Three and a half years later, when the prisoners were released, the customary court martial decided that the deceased pilots were to blame for steering the ship into an unsafe position, having misjudged their location by over 60 miles because of the weather. Some of the survivors, including Lieutenant Snell, criticized the Dutch authorities for their failure to despatch rescue boats sooner. Snell stated "The launch which had brought on shore eighty-five men, was of the smallest description of 74 launches, with one gunwale entirely broken in, and without a rudder. This will better prove than anything I can say how easy it would have been for the Dutch admiral in the Texel to have saved, or to have shown some wish to have saved, the remaining part of the crew". Reports from the Dutch chief officer of the marine district of the North coast indicated that the Dutch had sent two boats out to examine the wreck site on the morning of 23 December, but the wind and the seas prevented them from approaching. Maritime historian William Stephen Gilly concluded in 1850 that "There is not the slightest doubt but that, had the Dutch sent assistance, the greater part of the ship's company would have been saved".

Legacy
The famed landscape painter J. M. W. Turner depicted the sinking, though the subject was not originally the Minotaur, but a generic merchant ship. Turner had been producing sketches in preparation for the painting as early as 1805, but by the time he had completed the painting in 1810, the recent wreck of Minotaur was a subject of much discussion. He named the painting to capitalise on this public interest.

The shipwreck of Minotaur remains the largest ever, in terms of loss of life, on the Dutch coast, with the possible exception of the loss of HMS Hero on 24/25 December 1811, on the same location. The tragic event, and the British accusations, made the Dutch realise that, despite the notoriously dangerous shoals in their waters, they lacked specialised equipment to save the crews of wrecked ships. In response on 11 November 1824, for the area of the Texel the Koninklijke Noord-Hollandsche Redding-Maatschappij was founded, the first Dutch sea-rescue organisation.

Master’s mate Stephen Hilton brought home the Union Jack from Minotaur at Trafalgar as a souvenir, along with an Austrian flag from a captured Spanish ship. His descendants presented the flags to St Mary’s Church in Kent in 1930, where they hung until 2011 when the church sold them to the National Maritime Museum for a reported sum of £175,000. After conservation work the flag was put on display in October 2015 in the National Maritime Museum to mark Trafalgar Day. It has lost its right-hand edge, and an oblong section that may have been cut away as a souvenir, but was in surprisingly good condition. After cleaning and gently ironing out 200 years’ worth of creases and crumples it gained several centimetres, and now measures an imposing 233 x 310 cm.


The Courageux-class ships of the line were a class of six 74-gun third rates of the Royal Navy. Their design was a direct copy of the French ship Courageux, captured in 1761 by HMS Bellona. This class of ship is sometimes referred to as the Leviathan class. A further two ships of the class were built to a slightly lengthened version of the Courageuxdraught. A final two ships were ordered to a third modification of the draught.

Ships
Standard group
Builder: Dudman, Deptford
Ordered: 14 July 1779
Launched: 21 January 1783
Fate: Broken up, 1825
Builder: Clevely, Gravesend
Ordered: 13 December 1781
Launched: 4 April 1787
Fate: Wrecked, 1798
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 9 December 1779
Launched: 9 October 1790
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1848
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 3 December 1782
Launched: 6 November 1793
Fate: Wrecked, 1810

Lengthened group
Builder: Brindley, Frindsbury
Ordered: 24 November 1802
Launched: 18 November 1807
Fate: Sold, 1838
Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 23 July 1805
Launched: 28 March 1808
Fate: Broken up, 1825

Modified group
Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 30 October 1805
Launched: 23 August 1808
Fate: Sold, 1816
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 30 October 1805
Launched: 3 March 1809
Fate: Sold, 1816


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Minotaur_(1793)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Minotaur_1793;start=0
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courageux-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1841 - The Navy's first ocean-going side-wheel steam ship, the USS Mississippi, is commissioned at Philadelphia, Pa.


USS Mississippi, a paddle frigate, was the first ship of the United States Navy to bear that name. She was named for the Mississippi River. Her sister ship was Missouri. Her keel was laid down by the Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1839; built under the personal supervision of Commodore Matthew Perry. She was commissioned on 22 December 1841, with Captain W. D. Salter in command and launched several weeks later.

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USS Mississippi about 1863

Type: steam frigate
Displacement: 3,220 long tons (3,272 t)
Length: 229 ft (70 m)
Beam: 40 ft (12 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion: Steam engine
Speed: 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph)
Armament:


Service history
Mexican–American War

After several years of service in the Home Squadron, during which she performed experiments crucial to development of the steam Navy, Mississippi joined the West Indian Squadron in 1845 as flagship for Commodore Perry. During the Mexican–American War, she took part in expeditions against Alvarado, Tampico, Pánuco, and Laguna de Términos, all successful in tightening American control of the Mexican coastline and interrupting coastwise commerce and military supply operations.

She returned to Norfolk for repairs on 1 January 1847, then arrived at Veracruz on 21 March 1847, carrying Perry to take command of the American fleet. At once she and her men plunged into amphibious operations against Veracruz, supplying guns and their crews to be taken ashore for the battery which fought the city to surrender in four days. Through the remainder of the war, Mississippi contributed guns, men, and boats to a series of coastal raids on Mexico’s east coast, taking part in the capture of Tabasco in June 1847.

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Print of USS Mississippi at sea, date and location unknown.

Mission to Japan
Mississippi cruised the Mediterranean Sea during 1849–1851, picking up Louis Kossuth on his way into exile, before returning to the United States to prepare for Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan. Serving as the flagship; it was commanded by Sydney Smith Lee. The squadron cleared Hampton Roads on 24 November 1852, for Madeira, the Cape of Good Hope, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, which was reached 4 May 1853.

The squadron now approached Japan by calls in the Ryukyu Islands and Bonin Islands, and entered Edo Bay on 8 July 1853, remaining until the Japanese accepted an official letter by President Millard Fillmore on 14 July. After further cruising in the Far East, Mississippi and the squadron returned to Japan on 12 February 1854, remaining as part of Perry's show of force until the signing of the Convention of Kanagawa on 31 March. Mississippi returned to New York City on 23 April 1855, and again sailed for the Far East on 19 August 1857, to base at Shanghai and patrol in support of America's burgeoning trade with the Orient. As the flagship for Commodore Josiah Tattnall, she was present during the British and French attack on the Chinese forts at Taku in June 1859, and two months later, she landed a force at Shanghai when the American consul requested her aid in restoring order to the city, torn by civil strife. She returned to ordinary at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1860, but was reactivated when the American Civil War became inevitable.

Civil War
Mississippi arrived off Key West, Florida, to institute the blockade there on 8 June 1861, and five days later made her first capture, the schooner Forest King bound with coffee from Rio de Janeiro to New Orleans, Louisiana. On 27 November 1861, off Northeast Pass of the Mississippi River, she joined Vincennes in capturing the British bark Empress, again carrying coffee from Rio to New Orleans. The following spring, she joined Farragut's squadron for the planned assault on New Orleans. After several attempts, on 7 April 1862, she and Pensacola successfully passed over the bar at Southwest Pass, the heaviest ships ever to enter the river to that time.

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Mississippi attempts to ram Manassas

As Farragut brought his fleet up the river, a key engagement was that with Fort Jackson and Fort Saint Philip on 24 April 1862, during which Mississippi ran the Confederate ram Manassas ashore, wrecking her with two mighty broadsides. One of her sailors, Seaman Christopher Brennan, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his part in the battle. The city was now doomed, and Mississippi, her heavy draft making her less suitable to river operations than lighter ships, remained off New Orleans for much of the next year.

Ordered upriver for the operations against Port Hudson, Louisiana, Mississippi sailed with six other ships lashed in pairs, while she sailed alone. On 14 March 1863, she grounded while attempting to pass the forts guarding Port Hudson. Under enemy fire, every effort was made to refloat her by Captain Melancton Smith and his executive officer George Dewey (later to achieve fame as an admiral). At last, her machinery was destroyed, her battery spiked, and she was fired to prevent Confederate capture. When the flames reached her magazines, she blew up and sank. Three of Mississippi's men, Seaman Andrew Brinn, Boatswain's Mate Peter Howard, and U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant Pinkerton R. Vaughn, were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions during the abandonment. She lost 64 men, with the accompanying ships saving 223 of her crew.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Mississippi_(1841)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86112.htm
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1864 - HMS Bombay line of battle screw steamship (84), Cptn. Colin Campbell, caught fire and exploded off Montevideo.


HMS Bombay was an 84-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 February 1828 at Bombay Dockyard.

Class and type: Canopus-classship of the line
Tons burthen: 2279 bm
Length: 193 ft 10 in (59.08 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 52 ft 4.5 in (15.964 m)
Depth of hold: 22 ft 6 in (6.86 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • 84 guns:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounders, 2 × 68-pounder carronades
  • Upper gundeck: 32 × 24-pounders
  • Quarterdeck: 6 × 24-pounders, 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Forecastle: 2 × 24-pounders, 4 × 32-pounder carronades
lossy-page1-1280px-The_Bombay_on_fire_1861_RMG_PU6226.tiff.jpg The Bombay on fire 1861 (actually 14 December 1864). Print The Bombay on fire 1861 (actually 14 December 1864)

She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1861.

On 8 December 1864, members of the crew fielded a rugby side to play against the Buenos Aires Cricket Club in their first official rugby game and opening of the BACC's new game field in Parque Tres de Febrero in Palermo, Buenos Aires, located where the Galileo Galilei planetarium is today. That day the BACC defeated the Bombay team by 85 runs to 31.

The ship would be destroyed in a fire on the River Plate, in a freak target practice accident. Her efficient ventilation system spread the fire of unknown origin during the target practice off Uruguay near Isla da Floes near Montevideo in the River Plate on 14 December 1864, destroying her and costing the lives of 93 of her crew of 619.

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Scale: 1:16. A sectional model depicting the circular stern for Canopus Class second rate vessels. The model is made entirely of wood, with the outboard painted black and the traditional yellow buff stripes along the gun decks, which carry on round the stern and onto the galleries. The lower part of the stern is painted brown to indicate copper sheaving. There are twelve gun ports, all of which are painted red internally. The upper and lower stern galleries all run into one with the quarter galleries and comprise of a series of dummy as well as framed glass panels, and individual sliding sash doors, some of which are working. On the lower stern galleries moulded columns are painted on raised pillars between each stern gallery window. The stern post is fitted together with two small brass eyes to take the rudder, which unfortunately is missing. Internally the model comprises of three decks supported by deck beams and shelves, all of which are painted a light brown colour. The underside of the decks and beams are painted white. The lower of the decks is fitted to a solid waterline base, with the interior hull and ceiling planking painted the same colour as the decks. The poop deck is fitted with a raise taffrail and bulwark rail complete with ports for guns and access. On the starboard stern quarter at the upper gun deck the model inscribed "Canopus Class" and on the lower deck "Original After-Port" is hand painted. There is an accompanying original metal display plaque painted black and inscribed "CIRCULAR STERN, of ships of "Canopus" class. 84 GUNS, built by Sir Robert Sepping, between 1821-1832. S.K.No550 CL1 DIV. E.".

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Asia (1824) and Bombay (1828), both 84-gun Second Rate, two-deckers. The body plan was taken from the captured French Second Rate Canopus (ex Le Franklin). The plan, with alterations dated 1821 to 1826, was later used for Vengeance (1824), Thunderer (1831), Monarch (1832), and Powerful (1826), all 84-gun Second Rate, two-deckers. The plan is stamped 'Chatham Dockyard, 18 December 1917', which may refer to when Ganges was altered and renamed Tenedos III.

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Scale 1:24. A plan showing the midship section, and the section at Station 28 for 'Monarch' (1832), 'Vengeance' (1824), 'Thunderer' (1831) and 'Powerful' (1826), and a copy sent to Bombay for 'Asia' (1824) and 'Bombay' (1828), all 84-gun, Second Rate, two-deckers.


The Canopus-class ships of the line were a class of nine 84-gun two-deck second rates of the Royal Navy. Their design was based on an enlarged version of the lines of the captured French ship Franklin, since commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Canopus, although this ship herself was not included as a member of the class. The earlier ships were initially ordered as 80-gun third rates, but this classification was altered by changes in the rating system in February 1817. This class of ships is sometimes referred to as the Formidable class.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bombay_(1828)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canopus-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-296914;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1904 – Launch of SS Milwaukee Clipper, also known as SS Clipper , and formerly as SS Juniata,


SS Milwaukee Clipper, also known as SS Clipper , and formerly as SS Juniata, is a retired passenger ship and automobile ferry that sailed under two configurations and traveled on all of the Great Lakes except Lake Ontario. Along with the SS Keewatin, Milwaukee Clipper is one of only two passenger steamships left on the Great Lakes. The vessel is now docked in Muskegon, Michigan.

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Photograph of the mothballed S.S. Milwaukee Clipper, taken from the Lake Express High Speed Ferry

Juniata

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Loading copper, c. 1905

Her story begins on 22 December 1904, in Cleveland, Ohio, at the shipyards of the American Shipbuilding Company. Christened Juniatawhen launched, she was built for the Anchor Line, the Great Lakes marine division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Her sister ships are the SS Tionesta and SS Octorara.

The ship is 361 feet (110 m) in length, 45 feet (14 m) in beam, a depth of 22 feet (6.7 m), with a gross tonnage of 4333 tons. She carried 350 passengers in staterooms at 18 knots. As originally built, she had a riveted steel hull and a magnificent wooden superstructure. For the Pennsylvania Railroad, she carried passengers and freight between Buffalo, New York and Duluth, Minnesota until 1915.

That year, the anti-monopoly Panama Canal Act, which forbade railroads from owning steamships, went into effect. Divesting its marine divisions, the Pennsylvania Railroad sold its Anchor Line along with four other railroad-owned company fleets, to the newly formed Great Lakes Transit Corporation. Under this flag, she carried passengers along her old routes for another 20 seasons. Juniata was laid up in 1937 after the closing of the Chicago World's Fair.

Milwaukee Clipper
Juniata sat idle in Buffalo until being sold in 1940 to be rebuilt and used as a passenger ship on Lake Michigan. Juniata was extensively modernized at the yard of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company. Her boilers upgraded from coal to run on fuel oil, but she retained her original quadruple expansion steam engine. The old cabins and wooden superstructure were removed and replaced with steel to meet the new maritime fire safety standards created after the disastrous SS Morro Castle fire off Asbury Park, New Jersey in 1934. The streamlined forward stack is false and does not ventilate engine exhaust. It is a signature of naval architect George Sharp, whose ideas regarding fireproof ships were first incorporated into Juniata. This stack became standard on many new ships that were to come. Sharp is credited with three historic vessels, Milwaukee Clipper, SS Lane Victory, and NS Savannah.

1280px-S._S._Milwaukee_Clipper_passing_sand_dunes_at_entrance_to_harbor,_Muskegon,_Michigan.jpg
The ship passing sand dunes at the entrance to the harbor in Muskegon.

The modernized ship featured air conditioned staterooms, a children's playroom, a movie theater, a dance floor with a live band, a soda fountain, bar, cafeteria known for its cuisine, lounges and sports deck, and capacity to carry 120 automobiles. On June 3, 1941, she made her maiden voyage from Milwaukee to Muskegon. As Milwaukee Clipper, she steamed between Muskegon and Milwaukee, as well as excursions throughout Lake Michigan visiting various other ports, for 29 seasons. She was also called the "Queen of the Great Lakes" and carried around 900 passengers and 120 automobiles in the summer. The amount of oil used varied per round trip, but was approximately 5,500 US gallons (21,000 l; 4,600 imp gal). On week days she made two round trips that took 7 hours each way, using three of the four boilers. On weekends, she made three, six-hour round trips on all four boilers. The crew lists were between 105 and 109, with around 55 of them in the steward's department alone to take care of the 900 or so passengers on board. There are stories from former crew members about how they would "lose count" as to how many were actually on board. If you were there, apparently you did not get turned away. The cost per person in the 1950s was $3.33 and $8.00 extra for an automobile, with an extra 75 cents charged to travel in the forward Club Lounge and to use the forward deck.

During World War II, Milwaukee Clipper transported defense materials between Muskegon and Milwaukee. The ship had contracts with auto manufacturers to carry new cars during her entire career. The passenger season was between May and September. After that she was under various limited passenger certificates which allowed her to carry a reduced number of passengers and up to 250 automobiles.

By 1970, the company had plans to replace Milwaukee Clipper with the newer and larger Aquarama. Negotiations regarding dredging the Milwaukee harbor for Aquarama failed and the plan did not materialize. Ironically, though 1970 was a banner year for Milwaukee Clipper, she stopped running her regular route after that year.

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Photo of S.S. Milwaukee Clipper taken from the Lake Express High Speed Ferry as it departed it's Muskegon, Michigan terminal

Museum Ship
In 1977, Milwaukee Clipper was purchased by Chicago interests operating out of Navy Pier. They planned to put her on a Chicago to Milwaukee run made popular by the whaleback passenger ship SS Christopher Columbus. Financial backing fell through and Milwaukee Clipper remained a museum ship on Navy Pier.

In December 1983, Milwaukee Clipper was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in May 1989 the ship was designated a National Historic Landmark. Today, both plaques are on board the ship. The next year (1990), she was sold to Hammond, Indiana where she served as the centerpiece for their large new marina. She was sold on December 2, 1997 for use as a museum in Muskegon, Michigan, her old home port.

Milwaukee Clipper is currently docked in Muskegon, Michigan at the old Grand Trunk Ferry dock, undergoing restoration by volunteers of the SS Milwaukee Clipper Preservation, Inc. organization. In the summer season, visitors tour the pilothouse, some staterooms, crew quarters, dance floor, soda bowl, movie theater and more. A large collection of the original Art Deco furniture remains on board. Warren McArthur was the designer and builder of the ship furniture. The frames were all aluminum. He designed furniture for buildings, such as theaters, and there were no two that were alike. A piece of Milwaukee Clipper furniture off the ship is readily identifiable. There are also displays of memorabilia from both Juniata and Milwaukee Clipper, which include memory books, photographs, brochures, dishes and other items of interest.

Media and Legacy
A 30-minute documentary, The Milwaukee Clipper: A Legend Saved, was produced by filmmaker Mark Howell in 1997 and shown on PBS. The program has interviews with the key people who worked aboard the ship and includes restored 16 mm color film footage of Milwaukee Clipper's christening, sailing, and other operations.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Milwaukee_Clipper
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1946 - ex-german battlecruiser USS Prinz Eugen (IX-300) capsized and sank


Prinz Eugen (German pronunciation: [ˈpʁɪnts ɔʏˈɡeːn]) was an Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruiser, the third of a class of five vessels. She served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarineduring World War II. The ship was laid down in April 1936, launched in August 1938, and entered service after the outbreak of war, in August 1940. She was named after Prince Eugene of Savoy, an 18th-century Austrian general. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).


USS_Prinz_Eugen_(IX_300)_at_sea_during_Operation__Crossroads_._¾_view_STBD_forward._-_NARA_-_8...png
As USS Prinz Eugen, before the atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll

Prinz Eugen saw action during Operation Rheinübung, an attempted breakout into the Atlantic Ocean with the battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The two ships destroyed the British battlecruiser Hood and moderately damaged the battleship Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Strait. Prinz Eugen was detached from Bismarck during the operation to raid Allied merchant shipping, but this was cut short due to engine troubles. After putting into occupied France and undergoing repairs, the ship participated in Operation Cerberus, a daring daylight dash through the English Channel back to Germany. In February 1942, Prinz Eugen was deployed to Norway, although her time stationed there was curtailed when she was torpedoed by the British submarine Trident days after arriving in Norwegian waters. The torpedo severely damaged the ship's stern, which necessitated repairs in Germany.

Upon returning to active service, the ship spent several months training officer cadets in the Baltic before serving as artillery support for the retreating German Army on the Eastern Front. After the German collapse in May 1945, she was surrendered to the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the US Navy as a war prize. After examining the ship in the United States, the US Navy assigned the cruiser to the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests at Bikini Atoll. Having survived the atomic blasts, Prinz Eugen was towed to Kwajalein Atoll, where she ultimately capsized and sank in December 1946. The wreck remains partially visible above the water approximately two miles northwest of Bucholz Army Airfield, on the edge of Enubuj. One of her screw propellers was salvaged and is on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany.

Design
Main article: Admiral Hipper-class cruiser

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Recognition drawing of an Admiral Hipper-class cruiser

The Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreementwith Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) "treaty cruisers". The Admiral Hippers were nominally within the 10,000-ton limit, though they significantly exceeded the figure.

Bundesarchiv_DVM_10_Bild-23-63-14,_Kiel,_Kreuzer__Prinz_Eugen_,_Stapellauf.jpg
Prinz Eugen's launch

Prinz Eugen was 207.7 meters (681 ft) long overall, and had a beam of 21.7 m (71 ft) and a maximum draft of 7.2 m (24 ft). After launching, her straight bow was replaced with a clipper bow, increasing the length overall to 212.5 meters (697 ft). The new bow kept her foredeck much drier in heavy weather. The ship had a design displacement of 16,970 t (16,700 long tons; 18,710 short tons) and a full-load displacement of 18,750 long tons (19,050 t). Prinz Eugen was powered by three sets of geared steam turbines, which were supplied with steam by twelve ultra-high pressure oil-fired boilers. The ship's top speed was 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph), at 135,619 shaft horsepower(101.131 MW). As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men.

The ship's primary armament was eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft.[a] Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and eight 2 cm (0.79 in) guns. The ship also carried a pair of triple 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo launchers abreast of the rear superstructure. For aerial reconnaissance, she was equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult.[5] Prinz Eugen's armored belt was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 12 to 30 mm (0.47 to 1.18 in) thick and her main armored deck was 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 105 mm (4.1 in) thick faces and 70 mm thick sides.

Read about her career in wikipedia......

After the War
was decommissioned on 7 May and turned over to Royal Navy control the following day. For his leadership of Prinz Eugen in the final year of the war, Reinicke was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 21 April 1945. During her operational career with the Kriegsmarine, Prinz Eugen lost 115 crew members; 79 men were killed in action, 33 were killed in accidents and three died of other causes. Of these 115 crew members, four were officers, seven were cadets or ensigns, two were petty officers, 22 were junior petty officers, 78 were sailors and two were civilians.

Service with the US Navy

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USS Prinz Eugen passing through the Panama Canal in 1946. Note the missing guns on her A turret.

On 27 May 1945, Prinz Eugen and the light cruiser Nürnberg—the only major German naval vessels to survive the war—were escorted by the British cruisers Dido and Devonshire to Wilhelmshaven. On 13 December, Prinz Eugen was awarded as a war prize to the United States, which sent the ship to Wesermünde. The United States did not particularly want the cruiser, but it did want to prevent the Soviet Union from acquiring it. Her US commander, Captain Arthur H. Graubart, recounted later how the British, Soviet and US representatives in the Control Commission all claimed the ship and how in the end the various large prizes were divided in three lots, Prinz Eugen being one of them. The three lots were then drawn lottery style from his hat with the British and Soviet representatives drawing the lots for other ships and Graubart being left with the lot for Prinz Eugen. The cruiser was commissioned into the US Navy as the unclassified miscellaneous vessel USS Prinz Eugen with the hull number IX-300. A composite American-German crew consisting of 574 German officers and sailors, supervised by eight American officers and eighty-five enlisted men under the command of Graubart, then took the ship to Boston, departing on 13 January 1946 and arriving on 22 January.

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After arriving in Boston, the ship was extensively examined by the US Navy. Her very large GHG passive sonar array was removed and installed on the submarine USS Flying Fish for testing. American interest in magnetic amplifier technology increased again after findings in investigations of the fire control system of Prinz Eugen. The guns from turret Anton were removed while in Philadelphia in February. On 1 May the German crewmen left the ship and returned to Germany. Thereafter, the American crew had significant difficulties in keeping the ship's propulsion system operational—eleven of her twelve boilers failed after the Germans departed. The ship was then allocated to the fleet of target ships for Operation Crossroads in Bikini Atoll. Operation Crossroads was a major test of the effects of nuclear weapons on warships of various types. The trouble with Prinz Eugen's propulsion system may have influenced the decision to dispose of her in the nuclear tests.

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An aerial photo of the wreck of Prinz Eugen in 2018

She was towed to the Pacific via Philadelphia and the Panama Canal, departing on 3 March. The ship survived two atomic bomb blasts: Test Able, an air burst on 1 July 1946 and Test Baker, a submerged detonation on 25 July. Prinz Eugen was moored about 1,200 yards (1,100 m) from the epicenter of both blasts and was only lightly damaged by them; the Able blast only bent her foremast and broke the top of her main mast. She suffered no significant structural damage from the explosions but was thoroughly contaminated with radioactive fallout. The irradiated ship was towed to the Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific, where a small leak went unrepaired due to the radiation danger. On 29 August 1946, the US Navy decommissioned Prinz Eugen.

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By late December 1946, the ship was in very bad condition; on 21 December, she began to list severely. A salvage team could not be brought to Kwajalein in time, so the US Navy attempted to beach the ship to prevent her from sinking, but on 22 December, Prinz Eugen capsized and sank. Her main battery gun turrets fell out of their barbettes when the ship rolled over. The ship's stern, including her propeller assemblies, remains visible above the surface of the water. The US government denied salvage rights on the grounds that it did not want the irradiated steel entering the market. In August 1979, one of the ship's screw propellers was retrieved and placed in the Laboe Naval Memorial in Germany. The ship's bell is currently held at the National Museum of the United States Navy, while the bell from Tegetthoff is held in Graz, Austria.

Beginning in 1974, the US government began to warn about the danger of an oil leak from the ship's full fuel bunkers. The government was concerned about the risk of a severe typhoon damaging the wreck and causing a leak. Starting in February 2018, the US Navy, including the Navy's Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit One, US Army, and the Federated States of Micronesia conducted a joint oil removal effort with the salvage ship USNS Salvor, which had cut holes into the ship's fuel tanks to pump the oil from the wreck directly into the oil tanker Humber. The US Navy announced that the work had been completed by 15 October 2018; the project had extracted approximately 250,000 US gallons (950,000 l; 210,000 imp gal) of fuel oil, which amounted to 97 percent of the fuel remaining aboard the wreck. Lieutenant Commander Tim Emge, the officer responsible for the salvage operation, stated that "There are no longer active leaks...the remaining oil is enclosed in a few internal tanks without leakage and encased by layered protection."


The Admiral Hipper class was a group of five heavy cruisers built by Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine beginning in the mid-1930s. The class comprised Admiral Hipper, the lead ship, Blücher, Prinz Eugen, Seydlitz, and Lützow. Only the first three ships of the class saw action with the German Navy during World War II. Work on Seydlitz stopped when she was approximately 95 percent complete; it was decided to convert her into an aircraft carrier, but this was not completed either. Lützow was sold incomplete to the Soviet Union in 1940.

Admiral Hipper and Blücher took part in Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher was sunk by Norwegian coastal defenses outside Oslo while Admiral Hipper led the attack on Trondheim. She then conducted sorties into the Atlantic to attack Allied merchant shipping. In 1942, she was deployed to northern Norway to attack shipping to the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of the Barents Sea in December 1942, where she was damaged by British cruisers. Prinz Eugen saw her first action during Operation Rheinübung with the battleship Bismarck. She eventually returned to Germany during the Channel Dash in 1942, after which she too went to Norway. After being torpedoed by a British submarine, she returned to Germany for repairs. Admiral Hipper while decommissioned after returning to Germany in early 1943, was partially repaired and recommissioned in the fall of 1944 for a refugee transport mission in 1945. Only Prinz Eugen continued to serve in full commission and stayed in the Baltic until the end of the war.

Admiral Hipper was scuttled in Kiel in May 1945, leaving Prinz Eugen as the only member of the class to survive the war. She was ceded to the US Navy, which ultimately expended the ship in the Operation Crossroads nuclear tests in 1946. Seydlitz was towed to Königsberg and scuttled before the advancing Soviet Army could seize the ship. She was ultimately raised and broken up for scrap. Lützow, renamed Petropavlovsk, remained unfinished when the Germans invaded the Soviet Union. The ship provided artillery support against advancing German forces until she was sunk in September 1941. She was raised a year later and repaired enough to participate in the campaign to relieve the Siege of Leningrad in 1944. She served on in secondary roles until the 1950s, when she was broken up.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_cruiser_Prinz_Eugen
https://www.navsource.org/archives/09/46/46300.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiral_Hipper-class_cruiser
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 December 1963 – The cruise ship TSMS Lakonia burns 180 miles (290 km) north of Madeira, Portugal with the loss of 128 lives.


The TSMS Lakonia was a Greek-owned cruise ship which caught fire and sank north of Madeira on 22 December 1963, with the loss of 128 lives.

The vessel was built in the Netherlands as the MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt and sailed regularly between Amsterdam and the East Indies. The ship served as an allied troopship during World War II. She was sold to the General Steam Navigation Company of Greece in 1962.

Renamed Lakonia, the ship completed a successful cruise from Southampton to the Canary Islands in April 1963, planned as the first of a long series. On 19 December, she departed Southampton for an 11-day Christmas cruise with 646 passengers and 376 crew under Captain Mathios Zarbis.

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On the fourth evening of the voyage, a steward found the ship's hair salon ablaze, with flames spreading quickly toward the passenger cabins. Alarms sounded too softly to be heard by most people on board.

Evacuation was hampered by the overcrowding of lifeboats and the loss of several boats to fire. Some passengers were able to reach the water via the gangways and rope ladders. Two ships alerted by distress signals managed to save most of the others.

Construction
The MS Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was built in Amsterdam at the Nederlandse Scheepsbouw Maatschappij, dockyard 194. The ship was launched on August 3, 1929 and construction was completed on March 13, 1930. She was powered by two propellers and two Sulzer diesel engines and had a maximum speed of 19 knots (35 km/h). The ship was 609 feet (186 m) long and measured 19,040 gross tons. The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt originally could accommodate 770 passengers: 366 in first class, 280 in second, 64 in third and 60 in fourth class. She could also carry as many as 360 crewmen. The ship had seven passenger decks and could carry 9,000 tons of additional cargo.


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As the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt
She was originally operated by the Netherland Line, and sailed between Amsterdam and the Dutch East Indies for nine years. Along with her sister ship, the Marnix van St Aldegonde, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was the largest Dutch ship at the time she was built.


The ship was built as a luxury liner. Famed artist Carel Adolph Lion Cachet and sculptor Lambertus Zijl designed the ship's teak and marble interior, as well as her many statues, mosaics, tapestries and chandeliers.

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World War II service
At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was chartered by the Holland America Line and re-registered in Batavia, Netherlands East Indies. She was used as a cargo ship on the Batavia to New York City route. On January 20, 1941, she was registered as an allied troop ship, and was converted for duty at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. Managed by the Orient Line, she could carry a maximum of 4,000 troops. Her port of registration was Willemstad, Curaçao. After servicing India, Singapore and Penang, she finally returned to her home port of Amsterdam on February 13, 1946.


Postwar service
After a refitting, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt returned to service on the Amsterdam – Batavia route in 1946. Indonesians were fighting for their independence from the Netherlands at this time. The ship ferried Dutch troops returning home to Europe from Indonesia for several years.


By 1950, the political climate in Indonesia had become so unstable that the ship was withdrawn from the East Indies service. She was switched to the Amsterdam – Australia service and departed on her first voyage to Australia on September 2, 1950. She serviced Australia and New Zealand for the next twelve and a half years, with occasional service to Canada and the United States.

The Australia run was an instant success, and 1951, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was put into dry-dock in Amsterdam for refitting. She was refurbished to carry 1,414 passengers in a one-class configuration. Her lounges were restored to their original state of luxury, and additional passenger facilities were installed. Eight lifeboats were added, bringing her total number of boats to 24.

On 23January 1952, the ship left for Australia and was forced to return to Amsterdam after four small fires were discovered on board. The fires were quickly extinguished. Arson was suspected, but no suspects were ever arrested.

The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was refitted again in 1958 at a cost of A$800,000. The refitting was carried out by the Amsterdam Dry Dock Company and took three months to complete. Accommodation was reduced to 1,210 passengers. Three luxury suites were added, as well as a nightclub, cinema, gift shop, promenade lounge and second swimming pool. All public rooms were refinished and restored. The main mast was relocated to atop the bridge, and the decks were extended aft. Her funnels were heightened, given rounded tops and painted yellow and black. Her black hull was re-painted gray.

The ship was assigned to her new port, Southampton, England, on 2 April 1959. She offered round-the-world service, making stops in Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda and New York City. She was now marketed as a cruise ship, instead of a passenger liner.

The Johan van Oldenbarnevelt left on her last round-the-world voyage for the Netherland Line on 30 June 1962. She arrived in Sydney, Australia on February 3, 1963 and was decommissioned by the Netherland Line that day, ending a 33-year career for that shipping line. She then sailed for Genoa, Italy, and arrived on 7 March 1963.

As TSMS Lakonia

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The Lakonia at dock in Southampton.


On 8 March 1963, the Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was sold to the General Steam Navigation Company of Greece. Her decks and public rooms were renamed and the aft swimming pool was enlarged. Twelve additional cabins were built, and air conditioning was installed throughout the ship. Her hull was painted white, and her tonnage grew to 20,314 tons. Most importantly, the ship's name was changed to TSMS Lakonia.

The ship was operated by the Ormos Shipping Company (also known as the Greek Line) and offered service from Southampton to the Canary Islands. She departed Southampton on her first voyage as Lakonia on 24 April 1963. She proved immensely popular, and the Greek Line planned 27 cruises for 1964. From December 9–13, 1963, she underwent another minor upgrade. A new pneumatic fuel injection system was installed. Cabins were redecorated, and the kitchen and pantry were completely remodeled.

The Lakonia was outfitted with a number of safety features. She carried 24 lifeboats capable of holding 1,455 people. The ship had an automatic fire alarm system and two fire stations with specialized firefighting equipment. There were lifejackets for every person on board and an extra 400 stowed on deck.


The fire

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Aerial photo of the Lakonia burning.


The Lakonia departed Southampton on 19 December 1963 for an 11-day "Christmas Cruise" of the Canary Islands. Her first scheduled stop was to be the island of Madeira. There were 646 passengers and 376 crewmen on board: a total of 1,022 people. All but 21 of the passengers were British citizens, and the crew members were mostly Greek and German. The captain of the Lakonia was 53-year-old Mathios Zarbis.

The crew had conducted a boat drill a week before, and the ship passed a safety inspection by the British Ministry of Transport 24 hours prior to sailing. The ship carried a Greek certificate of seaworthiness. Passengers participated in a boat drill on 20 December.

On 22 December, at around 11:00 p.m., a steward noticed thick smoke seeping under the door of the ship's hairdressing salon. Upon opening the door, he found the room completely ablaze, and the fire rushed into the hallway toward the staterooms. He and another steward attempted to fight the flames with fire extinguishers, but the fire was spreading too fast to be contained. One of the men ran to notify the ship's purser, Antonio Bogetti.

Fire alarms sounded, but too softly to be heard by most passengers. "The fire alarm bell was so weak that it sounded like someone calling the waiter to ask for tea," one survivor later told reporters. An alarm went off on the bridge, pinpointing the fire's location. The ship was about 180 miles north of Madeira.

At the time the blaze was discovered, most of the passengers were in the ship's ballroom, called the Lakonia Room, dancing at the "Tropical Tramps' Ball." Passengers began to notice the smell of smoke, but most dismissed it as strong cigar smoke. Captain Zarbis, who had been notified of the fire, attempted to make an announcement on the ship's intercom system, but it had been disabled by the blaze. As smoke began to fill the ballroom at about 11:30, the band stopped playing and cruise director George Herbert ushered the frightened passengers to the boat deck. The upper deck was ablaze within 10 minutes.

Many of the passengers who had been asleep in their cabins found themselves unable to escape the fire. Some passengers were told to go to the main dining room to await instructions, but most ignored this order, since the dining room lay directly in the path of the fire.

At 11:30 p.m., the ship's chief radio officer Antonios Kalogridis sent out the first distress call: "Fire spreading up. Prepare evacuation on ship." At midnight, a second distress call was sent out: "We are leaving the ship. Please immediately give us assistance. Please help us." Kalogridis sent out the last call at 12:22 a.m., just before the wireless room caught fire: "SOS from Lakonia, last time. I cannot stay anymore in the wireless station. We are leaving the ship. Please immediate assistance. Please help."

A six-man fire crew attempted to fight the blaze, but the fire spread too quickly to be contained. The pressure boilers began to explode, filling the rooms and hallways with thick, black smoke, and the suffocating passengers were forced on deck. The ship's purser gave the order to abandon ship shortly before 1:00 a.m. Dazed passengers made their way to the lifeboats, some in their pyjamas and others still wearing their jewellery and evening wear.

A few crew members went below decks to try to save passengers from their burning cabins. The ship's swimming pool attendant and a steward lowered themselves over the side of the ship, by rope, to pull trapped people from portholes.

Evacuation of the ship was extremely difficult. Some lifeboats burned before they could be lowered. Two of the lifeboats were swamped, spilling their occupants into the sea; one when it was lowered only by one end, and the other when its davits broke off. Chains had rusted in many of the davits, making boats difficult or impossible to move. In the end, just over half of the lifeboats made it safely away from the Lakonia, some of them less than half full. Several people who dived overboard struck the side of the ship on the way down, killing them before they hit the water.

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Passengers were angered when the wireless operator left the ship in a launch, with a nurse and two musicians. Kalogridis later testified that he had left to rescue people from the water. He did not return to the ship, because the current pushed the launch away, he explained. Passengers also claimed that some of the crewmen took advantage of the chaos to loot staterooms.

When all of the boats were away, there were still people adrift in the water and over 100 people left on board the burning ship. The Lakonia continued to burn fiercely and was rocked by violent explosions. Those who remained on board flocked to the glass-enclosed Agora Shopping Centre at the stern of the ship. After several hours, the flames closed in on them, and they were forced to descend ropes and rope ladders into the ocean. The port and starboard gangways were lowered as well, and people walked down the gangways single file into the sea.

At 3:30 a.m., four hours after the first distress call, the 495-foot (151 m) Argentine passenger ship Salta arrived on the scene. The Salta, under the command of Captain José Barrere, had been on its way from Genoa, Italy to Buenos Aires. The 440-foot (130 m) British cargo ship Montcalm arrived half an hour later at 4:00 a.m. The majority of the survivors were saved by these two ships. The Salta rescued 475 people and took aboard most of Lakonia's lifeboats.

In the hours that followed, the Belgian ship Charlesville, the USA freighter Rio Grande (ex-AKA 87), the British passenger ship Stratheden and the Panamanian freighter Mehdi all arrived to take part in the rescue. Each of the rescue vessels launched boats to pluck survivors from the water. Also, four United States Air Force C-54 planes were sent from the Lajes Air Base in the Azores. The planes dropped flares, lifejackets, life rafts and survival kits to people in the water. An RAF Avro Shackleton from Gibraltar criss-crossed the area, pinpointing boats and survivors and guiding rescuers to them.

Rescue efforts were hindered by the fact that the Lakonia drifted for several miles during the evacuation. People in the water were dispersed over a 2 – 3-mile (4.8 km) area. Also, rescue ships were reluctant to get too near the Lakonia; there was a constant risk that the ship's 500 tons of fuel oil would explode.

A lifeboat was dispatched from the Charlesville shortly after daybreak to rescue Captain Zarbis, who was spotted pacing the decks of the still-burning ship. Zarbis was the last person to leave the Lakonia alive.

Most of the survivors were transported to Madeira, while others, including Captain Zarbis, were taken to Casablanca.

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The aftermath
A total of 128 people died in the Lakonia disaster, of which 95 were passengers and 33 were crew members. Only 53 people were killed in the actual fire. The rest died from exposure, drowning and injuries sustained while diving overboard. Most of the dead were buried in a Gibraltar cemetery after an autopsy which was carried out in a cavern workshop of 1st Fortress Squadron, Royal Engineers.


One passenger who jumped from the ship cut her throat on her life jacket. After being rescued by the Montcalm, her injuries were treated by another passenger, Alan Leigh. Largely due to this incident, cruise ship passengers are now instructed how to hold their jackets if jumping from a height.

Crewmen from the British aircraft carrier HMS Centaur were able to board the Lakonia on December 24, once the flames had died down. Most of the bodies were recovered by the crew of the Centaur. By this time, the Lakonia was a charred, smoking hulk. Her superstructure had partially collapsed amidships, and the bridge and aft decks had caved in. There were holes blasted near the bow, and the ship was listing 10 degrees to starboard.

The Norwegian tugboat Herkules attached a tow line to the Lakonia at 5:30 p.m. on 24 December. The Herkules, along with the Portuguese tugboat Praia da Adraga and two other tugs, set off for the British base at Gibraltar with the Lakonia in tow. Her list grew more severe each day, and at about 2:00 p.m. on 29 December, the Lakonia rolled over onto her starboard side. She sank stern-first in only three minutes.

The only color photographs taken of the Lakonia disaster ran in Life magazine on January 3, 1964. Life's photographic coverage of the event marked only the second time in history that a publication was able to offer hour-by-hour photographic coverage of a disaster at sea. The first such coverage appeared on 6 August 1956, when Life ran a series of photos of the SS Andrea Doria sinking. The only person known to have taken photos while on board the burning ship was Ian Harris from Finchley, London, who was travelling with his wife, Rita Harris. These photos appeared in Life magazine, edition dated 3 January 1964.

The investigation
The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry launched a two-year investigation into the Lakonia disaster. The board of inquiry maintained that the Lakonia never should have passed safety inspections before sailing. Lifeboat davits were rusted and lockers containing lifesaving equipment failed to open. The drain holes in many lifeboats were without stoppers, so that passengers had to constantly bail water.


While a lifeboat drill had been conducted by the crew a week before the fateful voyage, only five of the boats had been lowered in the drill. All of the boats should have been tested, the board argued.

Charges of looting were dropped after extensive questioning. The crewmen maintained that they had only broken into cabins to search for extra lifejackets.

The board of inquiry issued a number of other charges. The order to abandon ship was given too late. Operations on deck were not supervised by responsible officers. The crew, despite a few cases of self-sacrifice, failed to rescue sleeping passengers from their cabins below decks.

Eight of the Lakonia's officers were charged with negligence. Captain Zarbis, his first officer and the ship's security officer were charged with gross negligence. The other five men were charged with simple negligence.

The cause of the fire was ultimately determined to be a short circuit of faulty electrical wiring.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMS_Lakonia
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 22 December


1746 – Launch of Spanish Vencedor (Santo Tomas) 70 at Havana - Burnt 1750


1775 - Congress commissions the first naval officers: Commander-in-Chief of the Fleet Esek Hopkins; Captains Dudley Saltonstall, Abraham Whipple, Nicolas Biddle, and John Hopkins; and 13 lieutenants including John Paul Jones.


1798 – Launch of French Argonaute, a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line

Argonaute was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Under Vice-amiral Villaret de Joyeuse, she took part in the expedition to Saint-Domingue in 1802. She took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805, and managed to return to Cádiz. Unable to leave the harbour because of the British blockage and damage, she was exchanged for the Spanish ship Vencedor in December 1806. She was renamed Argonauta, but was never recommissioned.

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Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Argonaute (1798), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Argonaute_(1798)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line


1799 - Harmony ( United States): The ship was captured on 22 December by the French while on a voyage from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to the West Indies. She was taken in to Guadeloupe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_(1794_ship)


1799 - french privateer L'Espérance was captured in the Atlantic Ocean off Viana do Castelo, Portugal by the Royal Navy's HMS Netley (1798 - 16).

HMS Netley was launched in 1798 to an experimental design. During the French Revolutionary Wars she spent some years on the Oporto station, where she captured many small privateers. The French captured her in 1806, early in the Napoleonic Wars. They lengthened her and she became the 17-gun privateer Duquesne. In 1807 the British recaptured her and the Royal Navy returned her to service as the 12-gun gun-brig HMS Unique. She was expended in an unsuccessful fire ship attack at Guadeloupe in 1809.

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth of Netley (1797), a 16-gun Schooner-rigged Gun Vessel. This ship was designed by Brigadier General Sir Samuel Bentham [Inspector of Naval Works, 1796-1806].

On 22 December Netley captured Esperance, of Viana. Espereance was a French privateer lugger, formerly a privateer from Guernsey. She was pierced for 12 gun but only mounting five, and had a crew of 36 men.

The next day Netley encountered San Fiorenzo and Captain Sir Henry Neale passed on to Bond the information that three convoys had become dispersed along the Portuguese coast and that the vessels had been unable to get into Douro for the previous 20 days. Weather conditions having improved, Bond therefore decided to sail to intercept any prizes attempting to get into Vigo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Netley_(1798)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/85955.html


1807 – The Embargo Act, forbidding trade with all foreign countries, is passed by the U.S. Congress, at the urging of President Thomas Jefferson.

The Embargo Act of 1807 was a general embargo enacted by the United States Congress against Great Britain and France during the Napoleonic Wars.

The embargo was imposed in response to the violations of the United States neutrality, in which American merchantmen and their cargo were seized as contraband of war by the belligerent European navies. The British Royal Navy, in particular, resorted to impressment, forcing thousands of British-American seamen into service on their warships (under British law of the time, having been born British they were still subjects of the Crown). Britain and France, engaged in the Napoleonic Wars, rationalized the plunder of U.S. shipping as incidental to war and necessary for their survival. Americans saw the Chesapeake-Leopard Affair as a particularly egregious example of a British violation of American neutrality. Perceived diplomatic insults and unwarranted official orders issued in support of these actions by European powers were argued by some to be grounds for a U.S. declaration of war.

President Thomas Jefferson acted with restraint as these antagonisms mounted, weighing public support for retaliation. He recommended that Congress respond with commercial warfare, rather than with military mobilization. The Embargo Act was signed into law on December 22, 1807. The anticipated effect of this measure – economic hardship for the belligerent nations – was expected to chasten Great Britain and France, and force them to end their molestation of American shipping, respect U.S. neutrality, and cease the policy of impressment. The embargo turned out to be impractical as a coercive measure, and was a failure both diplomatically and economically. As implemented, the legislation inflicted devastating burdens on the U.S. economy and the American people.

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A political cartoon showing merchants dodging the "Ograbme", which is "Embargo" spelled backwards. The embargo was also ridiculed in the New England press as Dambargo, Mob-Rage, or Go-bar-'em.

Widespread evasion of the maritime and inland trade restrictions by American merchants, as well as loopholes in the legislation, greatly reduced the impact of the embargo on the intended targets in Europe. British merchant marine appropriated the lucrative trade routes relinquished by U.S. shippers due to the embargo. Demand for English goods rose in South America, offsetting losses suffered as a result of Non-Importation Acts. The embargo undermined national unity in the U.S., provoking bitter protests, especially in New England commercial centers. The issue vastly increased support for the Federalist Party and led to huge gains in their representation in Congress and in the electoral college in 1808. The embargo had the effect of simultaneously undermining American citizens' faith that their government could execute its own laws fairly, and strengthening the conviction among America's enemies that its republican form of government was inept and ineffectual. At the end of 15 months, the embargo was revoked on March 1, 1809, in the last days of Jefferson's presidency. Tensions with Britain continued to grow, leading to the War of 1812.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embargo_Act_of_1807


1942 - Sue Dauser takes the oath of office as Superintendent of Navy Nurse Corps, becoming the first woman with the relative rank of captain in U.S. Navy. She is promoted to the rank of captain Feb. 26, 1944.

Sue S. Dauser was the fifth Superintendent of the United States Navy Nurse Corps, guiding the Nurse Corps through World War II.

Sue_S_Dauser.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_S._Dauser


1960 - HS-3 and HU-2 helicopters, operating from USS Valley Forge, rescue 28 men from oiler SS Pine Ridge breaking up in heavy seas off Cape Hatteras, N.C.


USS Valley Forge (CV/CVA/CVS-45, LPH-8) was one of 24 Essex-class aircraft carriers built during and shortly after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was the first US Navy ship to bear the name, and was named after Valley Forge, the 1777–1778 winter encampment of General George Washington's Continental Army. Valley Forge was commissioned in November 1946, too late to serve in World War II, but saw extensive service in the Korean War and the Vietnam War. She was reclassified in the early 1950s as an attack carrier (CVA), then to an antisubmarine carrier (CVS), and finally to an amphibious assault ship (LPH), carrying helicopters and marines. As a CVS she served in the Atlantic and Caribbean. She was the prime recovery vessel for an early unmanned Mercury space mission. After conversion to an LPH she served extensively in the Vietnam War. Valley Forge was awarded eight battle stars for Korean War service and nine for Vietnam War service, as well as three Navy Unit Commendations.

Although she was extensively modified internally as part of her conversion to an amphibious assault ship, external modifications were minor, so throughout her career Valley Forgeretained the classic appearance of a World War II Essex-class ship. She was decommissioned in 1970, and sold for scrap in 1971.

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On 19 December, the carrier acted as the primary recovery ship for the Mercury-Redstone 1A unmanned space capsule, the first flight of the Redstone rocket as part of Project Mercury. Her helicopters retrieved the capsule, launched from Cape Canaveral, after its successful 15-minute flight and splashdown.

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Two days later off Cape Hatteras, in response to an SOS, Valley Forge sped to the aid of the tanker SS Pine Ridge, which had broken in two during a storm. While the survivors of the stricken ship clung to the after half of the tanker, the carrier's helicopters shuttled back and forth to pick up the men in distress. Soon, all 28 survivors were safe on board Valley Forge

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Valley_Forge_(CV-45)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23 December 1688 – As part of the Glorious Revolution, King James II of England flees from England to Paris, France after being deposed in favor of his nephew, William of Orange and his daughter Mary.


The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (James VII of Scotland) by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III, Prince of Orange, who was James's nephew and son-in-law. William's successful invasion of England with a Dutch fleet and army led to his ascension to the throne as William III of England jointly with his wife, Mary II, James's daughter, after the Declaration of Right, leading to the Bill of Rights 1689.

King James's policies of religious tolerance after 1685 met with increasing opposition from members of leading political circles, who were troubled by the King's Catholicism and his close ties with France. The crisis facing the King came to a head in 1688, with the birth of his son, James, on 10 June (Julian calendar). This changed the existing line of succession by displacing the heir presumptive (his 26-year-old daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of William of Orange) with young James as heir apparent. The establishment of a Roman Catholic dynasty in the kingdoms now seemed likely. Some Tory members of parliament worked with members of the opposition Whigs in an attempt to resolve the crisis by secretly initiating dialogue with William of Orange to come to England, outside the jurisdiction of the English Parliament. Stadtholder William, the de facto head of state of the Dutch United Provinces, feared a Catholic Anglo–French alliance and had already been planning a military intervention in England.

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William boarding the Brill danish Den Briel

After consolidating political and financial support, William crossed the North Sea and English Channel with a large invasion fleet in November 1688, landing at Torbay. After only two minor clashes between the two opposing armies in England, and anti-Catholic riots in several towns, James's regime collapsed, largely because of a lack of resolve shown by the king.

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Prince of Orange Landing at Torbay, engraving by William Miller after J M W Turner (Rawlinson 739), published in The Art Journal 1852 (New Series Volume IV). George Virtue, London, 1852

This was followed, however, by the protracted Williamite War in Ireland and Dundee's rising in Scotland. In England's distant American colonies, the revolution led to the collapse of the Dominion of New England and the overthrow of the Province of Maryland's government. Following a defeat of his forces at the Battle of Reading on 9 December, James and his wife Mary fled England; James, however, returned to London for a two-week period that culminated in his final departure for France on 23 December. By threatening to withdraw his troops, William in February 1689 (New Style Julian calendar) convinced a newly chosen Convention Parliament to make him and his wife joint monarchs.

The Revolution permanently ended any chance of Catholicism becoming re-established in England. For British Catholics its effects were disastrous both socially and politically: For over a century Catholics were denied the right to vote and sit in the Westminster Parliament; they were also denied commissions in the army, and the monarch was forbidden to be Catholic or to marry a Catholic, this latter prohibition remaining in force until 2015. The Revolution led to limited tolerance for Nonconformist Protestants, although it would be some time before they had full political rights. It has been argued, mainly by Whig historians, that James's overthrow began modern English parliamentary democracy: the Bill of Rights 1689 has become one of the most important documents in the political history of Britain and never since has the monarch held absolute power.

Internationally, the Revolution was related to the War of the Grand Alliance on mainland Europe. It has been seen as the last successful invasion of England. It ended all attempts by England in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th century to subdue the Dutch Republic by military force. The resulting economic integration and military co-operation between the English and Dutch navies, however, shifted the dominance in world trade from the Dutch Republic to England and later to Great Britain.

The expression "Glorious Revolution" was first used by John Hampden in late 1689, and is an expression that is still used by the British Parliament. The Glorious Revolution is also occasionally termed the Bloodless Revolution, albeit inaccurately. The English Civil War (also known as the Great Rebellion) was still within living memory for most of the major English participants in the events of 1688, and for them, in comparison to that war (or even the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685) the deaths in the conflict of 1688 were few.


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