Naval/Maritime History 17th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

[Uwek]

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


1642 – Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

On 24 November 1642 Abel Tasman reached and sighted the west coast of Tasmania, north of Macquarie Harbour. He named his discovery Van Diemen's Land after Antonio van Diemen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies.

Proceeding south Tasman skirted the southern end of Tasmania and turned north-east. He then tried to work his two ships into Adventure Bay on the east coast of South Bruny Island where he was blown out to sea by a storm. This area he named Storm Bay. Two days later Tasman anchored to the north of Cape Frederick Hendrick just north of the Forestier Peninsula. Tasman then landed in Blackman Bay – in the larger Marion Bay. The next day, an attempt was made to land in North Bay. However, because the sea was too rough the carpenter swam through the surf and planted the Dutch flag. Tasman then claimed formal possession of the land on 3 December 1642.


Coastal cliffs of Tasman Peninsula

For two more days, he continued to follow the east coast northward to see how far it went. When the land veered to the north-west at Eddystone Point, he tried to keep in with it but his ships were suddenly hit by the Roaring Forties howling through Banks Strait. The impenetrable wind wall indicated that here was a strait, not a bay. Tasman was on a mission to find the Southern Continent, not more islands, so he abruptly turned away to the east and continued his continent-hunting.

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


1700 – Launch of French Héros, 46 (later 50) guns, design by Pierre Coulomb, for French East India Company, and purchased June 1702 for the Navy – re-rated as 3ième Rang in 1705–08; deleted 1740.


1779 – Launch of French Cérès, at Rochefort – demolished 1787.

Cérès class (32-gun design by Charles-Etienne Bombelle, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).
Cérès, (launched 24 November 1779 at Rochefort) – demolished 1787.
Fée, (launched 19 April 1780 at Rochefort) – demolished 1790.


1799 - HMS Solebay (32), Cptn. Stephen Poyntz, captured L'Egyptienne (18), L'Eolan (16), La Sarier (12) and La Vengeur (8).

HMS Solebay (1785) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1785 and wrecked in 1809. Along with HMS Derwent, they were the first ships in the West Africa Squadron that the British government had established to interdict and end the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

Égyptienne (1797), a corvette, captured by HMS Solebay in December 1799

Egyptienne: HMS Solebay captured her on 23 November 1799. This Egyptienne was of 300 tons burthen, was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 140 men. She was sailing from Cape François to Jacquemel.[15] Drake, under Commander John Perkins, was in company with Solebay.


1862 - During the Civil War, the screw steam gunboat USS Monticello destroys two Confederate salt works near Little River, N.C., while the screw steam gunboat USS Sagamore captures two British blockade runners, schooner Agnes and sloop Ellen, in Indian River, Fla.

he first USS Monticello was a wooden screw-steamer in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for the home of Thomas Jefferson. She was briefly named Star in May 1861.


Colored print of Monticello, ca. 1860s

Monticello was built at Mystic, Connecticut, in 1859; chartered by the Navy in May 1861; and purchased on 12 September 1861 at New York from H. P. Cromwell & Company, for service in the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, Captain Henry Eagle in command.

USS Sagamore was a Unadilla-class gunboat built on behalf of the United States Navy for service during the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat and assigned to the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America. Sagamore was very active during the war, and served the Union both as a patrol ship and a bombardment vessel.


USS Sagamore (1861) - USS Sagamore (3rd ship from the right) at Ship Island base,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Monticello_(1859)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sagamore_(1861)
.

1941 - HMS Dunedin was a Danae-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, sunk by U-124

HMS Dunedin was a Danae-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, pennant number D93. She was launched from the yards of Armstrong Whitworth, Newcastle-on-Tyne on 19 November 1918 and commissioned on 13 September 1919. She has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Dunedin (named for the capital of Scotland, generally Anglicised as Edinburgh).


Dunedin turning into Gardens Reach on the Brisbane River. South Brisbane wharves in background.

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1120 – The White Ship sinks in the English Channel, drowning William Adelin, son and heir of Henry I of England.


The White Ship (real name: French: la Blanche-Nef, Latin documents Latin: Candida navis) was a vessel that sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on 25 November 1120. Only one of those aboard survived. Those who drowned included William Adelin, the only legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England, his half-sister Matilda, his half-brother Richard and also Richard d'Avranches, 2nd Earl of Chester. William Adelin's death led to a succession crisis and a period of civil war in England known as the Anarchy.


The Sinking of the White Ship in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur, on November 25, 1120.

Shipwreck
The 'White Ship' was a newly refitted vessel captained by Thomas FitzStephen (Thomas filz Estienne), whose father Stephen FitzAirard (Estienne filz Airard) had been captain of the ship Mora for William the Conqueror when he invaded England in 1066. Thomas offered his ship to Henry I of England to use it to return to England from Barfleur in Normandy. Henry had already made other arrangements, but allowed many in his retinue to take the White Ship, including his heir, William Adelin; his illegitimate son Richard of Lincoln; his illegitimate daughter Matilda FitzRoy, Countess of Perche; and many other nobles. According to chronicler Orderic Vitalis, the crew asked William Adelin for wine and he supplied it to them in great abundance. By the time the ship was ready to leave there were about 300 people on board although some had disembarked due to the excessive drinking before the ship sailed.

The ship's captain, Thomas FitzStephen, was ordered by the revellers to overtake the king's ship, which had already sailed. The White Ship was fast, of the best construction and had recently been fitted with new materials, which made the captain and crew confident they could reach England first. But when it set off in the dark, its port side struck a submerged rock called Quillebœuf, and the ship quickly capsized. William Adelin got into a small boat and could have escaped but turned back to try to rescue his half-sister, Matilda, when he heard her cries for help. His boat was swamped by others trying to save themselves, and William drowned along with them. According to Orderic Vitalis, only two survived by clinging to the rock that night. One was Berold (Beroldus or Berout), a butcher from Rouen; the second, Godfrey, the son of Gilbert of Laigle (Godefroi de l'Aigle), eventually drowned. The chronicler further wrote that when Thomas FitzStephen came to the surface after the sinking and learned that William Adelin had not survived, he let himself drown rather than face the King.

One legend holds that the ship was doomed because priests were not allowed to board it in the customary manner. For a complete list of those who did or did not travel on the White Ship, see Victims of the White Ship disaster.

Repercussions


Henry I and the sinking White Ship.
Main article: The Anarchy

A direct result of William Adelin's death was the period known as the Anarchy. The White Ship disaster had left Henry I with only one legitimate child, a second daughter named Matilda. Although Henry I had forced his barons to swear an oath to support Matilda as his heir on several occasions, a woman had never ruled in England in her own right. Matilda was also unpopular because she was married to Geoffrey V, Count of Anjou, a traditional enemy of England's Norman nobles. Upon Henry's death in 1135, the English barons were reluctant to accept Matilda as queen regnant.

One of Henry I's male relatives, Stephen of Blois, the king's nephew by his sister Adela, usurped Matilda as well as his older brothers William and Theobald to become king. Stephen had allegedly planned to travel on the White Ship but had disembarked just before it sailed; Orderic Vitalis attributes this to a sudden bout of diarrhea


After Henry I's death, Matilda and her husband Geoffrey of Anjou, the founder of the Plantagenet dynasty, launched a long and devastating war against Stephen and his allies for control of the English throne. The Anarchy dragged from 1135 to 1153 with devastating effect, especially in southern England.

Contemporary historian William of Malmesbury wrote:

No ship that ever sailed brought England such disaster, none was so well known the wide world over. There perished then with William the king's other son Richard, born to him before his accession by a woman of the country, a high-spirited youth, whose devotion had earned his father's love; Richard earl of Chester and his brother Othuel, the guardian and tutor of the king's son; the king's daughter the countess of Perche, and his niece, Theobald's sister, the countess of Chester; besides all the choicest knights and chaplains of the court, and the nobles' sons who were candidates for knighthood, for they had hastened to from all sides to join him, as I have said, expecting no small gain in reputation if they could show the king's son some sport or do him some service.[​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ship
https://learning.knoji.com/the-white-ship-disaster-of-1120-le-blanche-nef/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1757 - HMS Augusta (60), Cptn. Arthur Forrest, took french Le Mars (32) and nine armed merchantmen – also known as Raid on Leogane Bay


HMS Augusta was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Deptford Dockyard, and launched on 1 July 1736.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and used) for building Augusta (1736), a 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker 'in the room' of the Burlington (1695). The plan has been colour washed and has external decoration details for the broadside and quarter galleries. Signed by Richard Stacey [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1715-1742].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81552.html#tQVKEYQCPqE0Cglg.99

Class and type: 1733 proposals 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1067
Length: 144 ft (43.9 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 41 ft 5 in (12.6 m)
Depth of hold: 16 ft 11 in (5.2 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• 60 guns:
• Gundeck: 24 × 24-pounders
• Upper gundeck: 26 × 9-pounders
• Quarterdeck: 8 × 6-pounders
• Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders

The Augusta was active in the Caribbean during the Seven Years' War. Arthur Forrest became the ship's commander in 1757. On November 25 1757 she sighted an armed 9-ship French convoy off of Haiti, which was disguised under neutral Dutch flags. The convoy, led by the 32-gun Le Mars, wrongly assumed the Augusta was a Dutch warship. Forrest fired a broadside at Le Mars that resulted in the ship's surrender, as well was the capitulation of the entire convoy. Forrest and the Augusta captured the 400-ton French ship Pallas after a 5-day chase in October 1758. The prize, laden with oil, wine, and other goods, was valued at over two million livres.

Augusta served until 1765, when she was broken up


Scale: 1:48. A block design model of the ‘Augusta’ (1736), a 60-gun, two-decker ship of the line. The name ‘Augusta’ appears on the starboard broadside. The ‘Augusta’ was launched from Deptford dockyard in July 1736. It was the fourth of an eventual seventeen 60-gun ships to be built under the 1733 Establishment. These ships were both larger (at 144 feet by 40 feet) and heavier (at 1060 tons burden) than the 60s of the 1719 Establishment. The gun arrangement remained at 24 24-pound guns on the gun deck, twenty-six 9-pounders on the upper deck, eight 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and two 6-pounders on the forecastle. Four hundred men would have served on a ship of this type. Most of the ‘Augusta’s’ service was in European waters. It was part of Balchen’s fleet in 1744, and with Anson off Finisterre in 1747. At the beginning of the Seven Years War in 1756, it was sent to the Leewards Islands station to help secure the West Indies, where it remained until 1759.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66409.html#EUR6G3j7ZeA7sokr.99


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Augusta_(1736)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=3188

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1791 – Launch of French Sémillante, 32 guns at Lorient – sold in September 1808 for commercial use.


The Sémillante (French: "Shiny" or "Sparkling") was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was involved in a number of multi-vessel actions against the Royal Navy, particularly in the Indian Ocean. She captured a number of East Indiamen before she became so damaged that the French disarmed her and turned her into a merchant vessel. The British captured her and broke her up in 1809.


Defence of the Centurion in Vizagapatam Road, Septr. 15th 1804, Engraving by Thomas Sutherland after a painting by Sir James Lind

French Revolutionary Wars
Between 1 July and 21 November 1792 Sémillante was under the command of Commandant chevalier de Bruix, lieutenant de vaisseau. She escorted a convoy and carried troops from Lorient to Saint-Domingue. She returned to Lorient from Port-au-Prince with some government officials. de Bruix, was promoted to the rank of capitaine de vaisseau and remained captain until 14 May 1793, with Sémillante escorting convoys between Bordeaux and Brest.

Lieutenant de vaisseaux Gaillard replaced de Bruix. On 21 May 1793, Sémillante captured the Liverpool privateer Active.[2] She was under the command of Captain Stephen Bower, and was sailing under a letter of marque dated 2 May 1793. The letter of marque described her as a sloop of 100 tons burthen (bm), armed with twelve 4-pounder guns and four swivel guns, and having a crew of 40 men. The British later recaptured Active and sent her into Guernsey. The next day Sémillante captured the Guernsey privateer Betsey, of 10 guns and 55 men.

On 27 May 1794 Sémillante encountered the British frigate Venus. In the ensuing combat, which lasted some two hours, Sémillante lost 20 men killed and 40 wounded, Gaillard being among the dead. When Venus lost her main top mast, Sémillante was able to extricate herself and escape to Brest, where she arrived on 2 June.

Enseigne de vaisseaux non entretenu Garreau replaced Gaillard. Later, Capitaine de vaisseau Lemancq took command. In June–July 1794 Lemancq sailed to the United States, returning with a convoy and passengers from the Chesapeake to Brest.

In May–June 1795, Sémillante was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Bertrand (aîné). He sailed her to New York, returning to Lorient. He later received promotion to capitaine de vaisseau, and sailed Sémillante on a cruise in the Atlantic in May 1796, before returning to Lorient. The next year he carried passengers from Port Francais in Sainte-Domingue to Guadeloupe and then to Lorient.

In 1798, Sémillante took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, and notably the Battle of Tory Island. At the time she was under the command of capitaine de frégate Lacoutre.

On 9 April 1799, Sémillante, under the command of capitaine de frégate Montalan, along with Vengeance and Cornélie, encountered and fought HMS St Fiorenzo and HMS Amelia off Belle Île. The engagement was indecisive, with the French ships escaping up the Loire. The British suffered three men killed and 35 wounded.

In November–December 1800 Montalan was still captain of Sémillante when she carried Citizen Pichon, France's commissionaire general for commercial relations, to the United States. In January 1801 Sémillante sailed back to Lorient.

Napoleonic Wars
Between 15 May 1803 and 17 December, capitaine de frégate (later capitaine de vaisseau) Léonard Motard sailed Sémillante to the East Indies. There she destroyed English factories on Sumatra and near the roads of Batavia.

In 1804, Sémillante was based at Île de France to engage in commerce raiding.

Sémillante and the frigate Atalante were sailing in a squadron under the command of Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois with the 74-gun fourth rate ship of the line Marengo.

Sémillante was in Linois' squadron at the Battle of Pulo Aura on 15 February 1804. Linois attacked the British East India Company's China Fleet, a large convoy of well-armed merchant ships carrying cargo worth £8 million. Although the entire British fleet consisted of merchantmen, escorted by the East India Company's tiny gun-brig Ganges, Linois failed to press the attack. Instead, he withdrew with the convoy at his mercy, invoking the anger of Napoleon when the news reached France.

In August Linois was cruising in the Indian Ocean in Marengo, together with Atalante and Sémillante. On the 18th, near Desnoeufs Island they encountered and captured two British merchant men, Charlotte and Upton Castle. They had been on their way to Bombay when Linois's squadron captured them.

Linois described Charlotte as being copper-sheathed, of 650 tons and 16 guns. She was carrying a cargo of rice. Upton Castle he described as being copper-sheathed, of 627 tons, and 14 guns. She was carrying a cargo of wheat and other products from Bengal. He sent both his prizes into Isle de France (Mauritius).

On 15 September, under Motard, together with Marengo and Atalanta, Sémillante participated in the Battle of Vizagapatam. During the battle the three French ships engaged the sole British warship, the 50-gun HMS Centurion. Sémillante also captured the East Indiaman Princess Charlotte. The French squadron caused a second East Indiaman, Barnaby, to panic and run aground. Despite his overwhelming superiority in firepower, Linois once again withdrew his squadron, leaving Centurion to survive.

On 3 December, along with Berceau, Sémillante destroyed and captured seven British merchantmen off Paolo Bay. On 15 May 1806, she recaptured the French privateer Île de France, taken by HMS Duncan circa April 1804, and scuttled Île de France as she was "of low value and a poor sailor".[19]

On 8 June 1806, Sémillante captured the country ships Acteon, Olive, and Active. Later she also captured the country ships James Drummond and Fame. Members of her crew recaptured Fame. Sémillante put a prize crew on Fame but also left her fourth officer and many lascars on board. These overpowered the prize crew and took Fame into Bombay.

On 11 November, she encountered HMS Sceptre and HMS Cornwallis; an engagement developed on 13 November that resulted in the British ships withdrawing.

On 22 August 1807 Experiment, Cripps, master, was sailing from Rangoon to Calcutta when she encountered Sémillante, which captured Experiment, took off her officers, and put on a prize crew of four or five men with orders to sail to Île de France. The lascars overpowered the prize crew on 22 October, and forced the French to sail Experiment to Ganjam, where she arrived on 4 November. In the meantime, Sémillante had landed on the coast of India a number of captains and officers of vessels she had captured, and these men had made their way back to Calcutta.

Between 15 March and 18 March 1808, Sémillante fought a running battle with HMS Terpsichore, and escaped to Île de France. Terpsichore suffered 21 men killed and 20 wounded. Sémillante was so seriously damaged that the French removed her armament and decommissioned her on 10 July. However, the principal damage to Sémillante apparently was due to an explosion in a room near the magazine during the action. To reduce risk, the crew flooded the magazine, leaving her without usable powder, Sémillante had no choice but to break off the action with Terpsichore and return to port. Sémillante reportedly had five men killed and six wounded, including Motard, who may have had to have his arm amputated. It is not clear from the report how many casualties were due to the action and how many to the explosion.

Charles
In September Robert Surcouf purchased Sémillante, after his own ship, the Revenant, had been requisitioned for the defence of the island. He renamed Sémillante Charles after his late brother and sailed her to Saint Malo, laden with the spoils of his campaign. (By some accounts he brought with him almost 8 million French francs.) He arrived in February 1809, and did not go to sea again, though he did arm and fit out privateers.

On 5 February 1809, the day after she arrived, Charles sank in Saint-Servan harbour; she was later raised and rebuilt. In 1810, she was recommissioned in Saint-Malo with 22 guns and a crew of 195 men, under the command of Pierre Alexandre Marrauld.

On 15 October 1810 the privateer Charles, of 20 guns and 200 men, captured the Howe, Pentrick, master. Howe had sailed for Penzance from Quebec in a convoy of 25 vessels under escort by Grasshopper, but had separated from the convoy five days earlier. Charles detained Howe for some six hours, took a few things, but then permitted Howe to proceed. Howe arrived at Penzance on 19 October.

On 16 October, a French privateer brig detained the Hope, Craig, master, as Hope was sailing from New Brunswick to Plymouth. The privateer took all the sails, rigging, stores, etc. from Hope. On the next day the privateer Charles came upon Hope and offered her anything she might need. A gale on 22 October cost Hope the rigging, sails, and the like that Charles had provided, as well as her bowsprit, foremast, and maintopmast. Hope nevertheless arrived safely at the Scilly Islands on the 28th.

On 26 October, Charles captured the Americana, Fousica, master, which was sailing from Bahia to London. HMS Dryad recaptured Americana on 31 October; Americana then arrived at Plymouth on 9 November.

Fate
On 8 November 1810 about 400 miles west of Finisterre (44°41′N 21°24′W). Charles encountered the British frigate HMS Amelia. A 13-hour running chase ensued, with speeds reaching as much as 12½ knots, before Charles struck. Amelia then sent her into Plymouth. Too old and damaged to be brought into British service, she was broken up


Naval encounter during the Quasi-War between Insurgente (right) and USS Constellation on 9 February 1799.

Sémillante class, (32-gun design by Pierre-Joseph Pénétreau, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).

Class and type: Sémillante-class frigate
Displacement: 600 tons (French)
Length: 45.5 m (149 ft)
Beam: 11.5 m (38 ft)
Draught: 5.5 m (18 ft)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament: 26 × 12-pounder long guns + 6 × 6-pounder guns

The Sémillante class was a type of 12-pounder 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, designed by Pierre-Joseph Pénétreau.

• Sémillante

Builder: Lorient
Ordered: 23 April 1790 (named)
Laid down: December 1790
Launched: 25 November 1791
Completed: May 1792
Fate: Given to Robert Surcouf at Mauritius in September 1808 and armed by him as a privateer, renamed Charles. Captured by the Royal Navy in December 1809 and broken up.

• Insurgente

Builder: Lorient
Ordered: 3 September 1790
Laid down: 5 November 1791
Launched: 27 April 1793
Completed: June 1793
Fate: Captured by the US Navy off Nevis on 8 February 1799, recommissioned as USS Insurgent, but lost at sea in a hurricane in September 1800.


Scene depicting the action of 9 February 1799, when the USS Constellation (left), commanded by Captain Thomas Truxtun, captured the French frigate Insurgente (right)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Sémillante_(1792)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Surcouf

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1826 – The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy.


The Greek frigate Hellas (Greek: Ελλάς) was the flagship of the Revolutionary Hellenic Navy. After an arbitration hearing in New York due to financial default by the Greek government, she was delivered to Greece in 1826. She was burned in 1831 by the Greek Admiral Andreas Miaoulis when the government of Ioannis Kapodistrias ordered her turned over to the Russian navy.

Two ships ordered
In 1825, during the latter part of the Greek War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, representatives of the Greek government in London negotiated with an American shipyard in New York City for the construction of two frigates to be named Hope and Liberator. Ultimately, the Greek government defaulted and one of the ships, (Liberator) was sold and the proceeds were used to pay for the other ship to be delivered to Greece.


USS Hudson, formerly Liberator, was built in 1826 for the Greek government by Smith & Dimon of New York. When Greece was unable to pay for her, she was purchased by the Navy and commissioned at New York

The frigate Hellas
The Hope sailed from New York during the first days of October 1826, with the crew being mostly adventurers. An agent of the Greek government, K. A. Kontostavlos, was also on board.

The voyage was raucous as the crew attempted to murder both the Captain and the Greek government agent in a scheme to sell the vessel in Colombia. The crew failed in their mutiny, and the ship was delivered to Nafplion about 25 November 1826. The crew tried a second time to sell the vessel, this time to Ibrahim Pasha, who at the head of an Ottoman-Egyptian force had invaded the Peloponnese. This time, Admiral Andreas Miaoulis and a force of 30 local mariners secured the vessel and dispatched the raucous delivery crew.

After her arrival in Nafplion, three Admirals (Miaoulis from Hydra, Nikolis Apostolis from Psara and Androutsos from Spetses) took official delivery of the frigate and brought her to the island of Aegina, which had recently become capital of Greece.

The frigate, renamed Hellas, became the flagship of the Greek Navy, as she was the most powerful ship in the navy. Under the command of various captains (among them Cochrane, Antonios Miaoulis and Konstantinos Kanaris), the frigate took part in various successful, but insignificant, naval battles in both the Aegean and Ionian Seas.


Frigate Hellas and Steamship Karteria

Sinking of the flagship
On 27 July 1831, Admiral Miaoulis, who in the meantime had joined the English Party that was opposed to Governor Kapodistrias' Russian Party seized on the island of Poros the navy then under the command of Kanaris. When the government in Nafplion asked Miaoulis to deliver the Greek fleet to the Russian Admiral Pyotr Ivanovich Ricord, Miaoulis refused to obey that order and threatened to scuttle the entire fleet under his command in the event of hostile movement by Ricord. When Ricord attacked Poros Island the 13 August, Miaoulis carried out his threats, burning the small fleet. In addition to Hellas, the other scuttled ships were the corvettes Hydra and Spetsai.


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1839 - HMS Pelorus was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy wrecked


HMS Pelorus was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. She was built in Itchenor, England and launched on 25 June 1808. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. On anti-slavery patrol off West Africa, she captured four slavers and freed some 1350 slaves. She charted parts of Australia and New Zealand and participated in the First Opium War (1839–1842) before becoming a merchantman and wrecking in 1844 while transporting opium to China.


HMS Pelorus, as a ship-sloop, ca. 1830

Napoleonic Wars
Pelorus was commissioned in July 1808 under Commander the Honourable James William King, and sailed for the Leeward Islands on 15 December. In January 1809 Commander Thomas Huskisson was appointed commander of Pelorus, but did not find out until May. Therefore he was not her commander at the capture of Martinique in February. (Some accounts have her under the command of Captain Francis Augustus Collier; however, he was commander of Starr.) Under Huskinson she then took part in enforcing the blockade of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to any surviving crewmen from that campaign that wished to claim it.

On 16 October Pelorus and Hazard were in company when they came upon the French privateer schooner Général Ernouf moored under the guns of the battery of St. Marie on the east coast of the southern part of Guadeloupe. Hazard and Pelorus attempted to send in a cutting out party during the night, but the boats could not find a channel. The British went in again in the daylight despite fire from the battery and the schooner's long 18-pounder pivot-gun and two swivels.[6] Fire from Hazard and Pelorus silenced the batteries but as the British came alongside the French crew, an estimated 80-100 men, fled ashore. There two field guns joined them in firing on the cutting-out party.[6] Because the schooner was aground and chained to the shore the boarding party could not bring her out; instead, they set fire to her. However, a premature explosion injured some of them. In all, Hazardlost three men killed and four wounded; Pelorus lost three killed and five wounded.

In February 1810 Pelorus participated in the capture of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to any surviving crewmen from that campaign that wished to claim them. Later the same year, under Commander Alexander Kennedy, Pelorus patrolled the Leeward Islands. In May, command transferred to Commander Joshua Rowley. In late December 1811 and early 1812, Pelorus was cruising off Plymouth. On 22 and 23 December 1811 she captured Marianne and Deux Freres. On 6 January 1812, she sent in a French chasse maree that she had taken. On 5 April Rowley sailed her for the Mediterranean. In September 1812, Commander Robert Gambier took command of Pelorus.

By 1814, her captain was Commander Robert Stow. On 7 March boats from Endymion, Rattler, and a third British vessel, destroyed the American privateer Mars, of 15 guns and 70 men, off Sandy Hook. Some accounts name Pelorusas the third British vessel, but the prize money notices and most other accounts give the name of the third vessel as Belvidera. Then by September, Pelorus was under the command of Commander John Gourly. A year later she was paid off at Plymouth where she underwent a Middling Repair before she was laid up.

Return to service
She was fitted for sea from April–August 1823, Commander William Hamley having recommissioned her in April. In 1824, she was at Cork on coast guard duties. On 19 May she captured the smuggling vessel Good Hope. On 9 October, she captured a small smuggling lugger, the Phoenix, which was carrying a cargo of tobacco and a small amount of tea. Over a period of three years, Hamley captured more smuggling-vessels than any other vessel. On 30 October 1823, a ship ran into Pelorus during the night, and then sailed on. The crash destroyed the bowsprit and sent the foremast over the side; both of which had to be cut away despite the heavy seas and otherwise bad weather. The crew rigged a jury-mast and bowsprit and Pelorus was able to get back to Plymouth. Had the ship struck Pelorus a few inches further aft the sloop would almost certainly have foundered.

Pelorus was paid off in July 1826. In all, Hamley had seized more than 62,000 weight of tobacco.

From July–October 1826, she underwent alteration from a brig-sloop to a ship-sloop via the addition of a third mast.

Mediterranean
Then in October, Commander Peter Richards recommissioned her. In January 1827, Pelorus was employed in the Mediterranean protecting British trade in the Archipelago, at Alexandria, and around the coasts of Syria and Caramania. Commander Michael Quinn took command from September 1828. In December 1829, she struck a rock at the entrance of Port Mahon, Menorca. Isis came from Gibraltar to retrieve her officers and crew. By 9 May 1830, Pelorus was back in Portsmouth. From December 1830-December 1831, she underwent repairs and an alteration back to a brig.

Anti-slavery


Yacht Xarifa, ex-Segunda Theresa, 1835, by Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton, after a sketch by Nicholas Matthew Condy, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

In 1831, William Wilberforce's anti-slavery law was passed. In September, Captain Richard Meredith recommissioned Pelorus and she joined the West Africa Squadron. Here she patrolled the west coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade. On 9 May 1832, she was at Sierra Leone having brought in the Spanish slaving vessel Segunda Theresa, which was carrying 459 slaves.

On 18 October 1832 Pelorus sailed from the Cape of Good Hope for Simon's Bay. In May 1833 she was back at the Cape, and on the 16th she sailed for Mauritius. She arrived there on 3 June. A month later, on 6 June, she left Mauritius for Colombo with specie to pay the troops in Ceylon. From there she returned to the Cape, from whence she sailed for St Helena, where she arrived on 7 December. She then sailed to Ascension and the west coast of Africa.

On 16 June 1834, Lieutenant Philip de Sausmarez of Pelorus came before a court martial. The charge was that on 18 April 1832, while in command of the prize crew on the Segunda Theresa, Sausmarez had the boatswain's mate of Lynx administer 24 lashes to Francis Brown for neglect of duty. Meredith preferred the charges because he had forbidden the lash in written orders. The court supported Suasmarez, who had been under arrest for 18 months before his exoneration.

On 30 June, boats from Pelorus captured the Spanish slaver Pepita. At the time of her capture, Pepita had no slaves aboard. Under the terms of the treaty with Spain, the Royal Navy could only seize vessels actually carrying slaves. The boarding party manufactured evidence by putting three slaves aboard Pepita after boarding her. They then brought another 176 slaves that were on shore waiting to be loaded. Meredith accepted responsibility for the manufacturing of evidence. The Court in Sierra Leone therefore had to order Pepita returned to her master. Pepita's master then sued for damages. The Court found against Meredith and charged him £1092 in damages.

Pelorus continued to patrol the Bight of Benin and the vicinity of Princees Island.

On 17 December, Pelorus captured the two-gun slaver Sutil. She had 307 slaves aboard, of whom 91 died of dysentery and disease before they could be freed in Sierra Leone.

On 5 January 1835, boats from Pelorus captured the Spanish polacca-bark Minerva, which armed with two 18-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. The boats had sailed 60 mi (97 km) up the Calabar river and laid in ambush. Skillful handling resulted in the capture of the slaver with no casualties to the boarding party although the vessel's guns were double-shotted and the crew and the boarding party exchanged small arms fire. The vessel had a crew of 37 men, two of whom were cut down. The boarding party consisted of 22 men. The slaver had some 650 slaves aboard, and after her capture, the master arrived with 25 more. In sum, she had 676 aboard, of whom 206 died of disease before they could be freed in Sierra Leone.

On 24 February 1835 she was off Princes Island where Midshipman Judd died.

On 26 September, Pelorous was paid off at Portsmouth. A bounty was paid on both Sutil and Minerva in June 1836.

Far East and Antipodes
On 31 January 1837, Pelorus was recommissioned under Captain Francis Harding who had taken command on 21 January. She then sailed for the Cape of Good Hope on 9 April, having received specie from London that she was to take to Mauritius via the Cape. She arrived at the Cape on 1 June.

Pelorus — under Commander Harding — called at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on 16 December, and stayed for six days. Captain John Clunies-Ross — the "King of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands" — had asked for a visit from a naval vessel to forestall a possible revolt by the inhabitants.

In mid-September 1837, Pelorus sailed to Rangoon to deliver an ultimatum to the mutinous King Tharyarwaddy from the Governor-General of India, Lord Auckland.

Next, she sailed for Western Australia and Van Diemen's Land. On 9 January 1838, she arrived at Fremantle from Calcutta, departing on 19 March for King George Sound carrying a party including Governor of Western AustraliaCaptain James Stirling. While there a boatcrew, under master's mate Charles Forsyth, surveyed the nearby Tor Bay for a potential new anchorage. She returned Stirling to Fremantle, arriving on 9 April, then departing on 7 May for Adelaide, Launceston and Sydney, arriving on 22 June. On 5 July she sailed for New Zealand.

Then in August Pelorus sailded to New Zealand to conduct a survey of the Marlborough Sounds region. On 22 August, Pelorus sailed into Port Underwood, New Zealand, and cast anchor in Oyster Cove. She was under the temporary command of Lt. Phillip Chetwode while Commander Harding was ill. From here, Chetwode surveyed and named Pelorus River and Pelorus Sound in New Zealand in honour of his ship. He also named the Chetwode Islands, off Pelorus Sound.

Lt. Augustus Leopold Kuper was nominated acting commander of Pelorus on 27 July 1839.[27] On 26 August, Pelorus and HMS Herald attempted to scuttle the British merchant ship Lucretia, which had caught fire off Kyardbilly's point, Sydney. The attempt was unsuccessful and the ship exploded and sank.

Wrecked in New South Wales

HMS Pelorus at low water, 1840, by Owen Stanley

On 25 November 1839, while anchored off Port Essington, Australia, a hurricane struck Pelorus, wrecking her. She lost 12 of her crew; a whaleboat from Britomart, under Captain Owen Stanley, rescued the survivors. According to Kuper, "Pelorus was buried 9 feet (2.7 m) in the mud for 86 days."

Opium War
On 5 March 1840, Kuper was promoted to command of Alligator, then on 26 December, Lieutenant Kuper was promoted to the rank of commander, his commission being back-dated to when he took command of Pelorus.

After repairs, in late July 1840, Pelorus sailed from Sydney with Herald to take part in the First Opium War. On 23 April 1841, she arrived at Singapore. One month later, Lieutenant W. W. Chambers, of Wellesley, was appointed and promoted to be acting commander of Pelorus. At the time, Wellesley was at Canton (now Guangzhou) in China.

Disposal and final loss
On 6 July 1841, Pelorus was laid up at Singapore and Lieutenant Chambers returned to Britain. The officers and crew transferred to the steam paddle and sail survey cutter Bentinck, which Commodore Sir J.J.G. Bremer had just purchased and which went on to operations in China. An Admiralty Order of 16 October specified that Pelorus was to be sold, which took place in 1842.

The purchasers may have been Pybus Brothers. On 27 1843, under Captain Triggs, she arrived in Hong Kong with a load of opium.

Pelorus sank on 25 December 1844 when she struck a shoal at 8°8′30″N 115°30′0″E off the coast of Borneo in the South China Sea. Captain Triggs took her gig and two passengers and sailed 100 mi (160 km) to Singapore. From there he led the steamer Victoria to the wreck. Victoria was able to rescue 20 of the crew and save 70 chests of opium

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1872 - Royal Adelaide, iron-built emigrant clipper, wrecked on the Chesil and looted


The Royal Adelaide was an iron sailing ship of 1400 tons built by William Patterson at Bristol in 1865.


Drama as the Royal Adelaide struck the Chesil in 1872, coming broadside on the beach, the waves hurling her only ablout 20 yards from the feet of the people who were assembled to render assistance. Note the flare overhead.

She was wrecked on Chesil Beach on 25 November 1872, while on a passage from London to Sydney with a crew of 32 and 35 passengers. In bad weather, the ship tried to reach the shelter of Portland Harbour, but was forced into Lyme Bay from which there was no exit in a storm. The anchors were lowered to try to prevent the ship being blown onto Chesil Beach. However, the anchors dragged and the ship began to break up on the beach. All but seven on board were saved.

A large crowd gathered on the shore to help with the rescue and the salvage of the cargo, part of which was gin and brandy. By the end of the night four of the wreckers had died from exposure, having spent the night on the beach after becoming drunk on the cargo.

She now lies at 50°34.65′N 2°28.50′W OSGB36.


A group photograph of all the men who survived the wreck of the Royal Adelaide.


taken from http://www.weymouth-dorset.co.uk/shipwrecks.html

Royal Adelaide 1872
On 25th November 1872 a storm blew up in the channel and before long it was to claim seven lives on the Chesil bank between Wyke Regis and Portland. The Mayor of Weymouth at the time, James Robertson, was at the Royal Hotel when he had word that a large ship had been wrecked on Chesil Beach. The ship was the Royal Adelaide, an iron-built vessel of 1385 tons bound for Sydney, Australia carrying emigrants. The Mayor, leaving his guests behind at the banquet he had been holding, began organising help for the shipwreck victims and sixty lives were saved. Seven were not so lucky as a line put out to rescue them parted, the ship broke apart and they drowned. The captain of the Royal Adelaide was said to have made an error of judgement in attempting to round Portland Bill and get to the relative safety of Portland Roads. The ship had struck the Chesil bank broadside on. Almost three thousand tons of the ship's cargo was saved, though doubtless more was actually 'saved' unofficially. The cargo included spirits, and four local men finding such and making merry with it died the following day.
The Royal Adelaide was not the only ship to fall victim to that November's gales. Two days previously, the Jane Catherine, a seventy-ton Welsh schooner en route to Port Madoc, was smashed on Chesil Beach between Wyke Regis and Fleet. The crew of four had no chance of survival and all drowned.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Adelaide_(1865)
https://susanhogben.wordpress.com/2...ning-and-detention-human-nature-at-its-worst/
https://susanhogben.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/1872-chesil-royal-adelaide-shipwreck-part-2-armageddon/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 November 1941 – HMS Barham is sunk by a German torpedo during World War II.


HMS Barham was a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship built for the Royal Navy during the early 1910s. Often used as a flagship, she participated in the Battle of Jutland during the First World War as part of the Grand Fleet. For the rest of the First World War, except for the inconclusive Action of 19 August 1916, her service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.



During the 1920s and 1930s, the ship was assigned to the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Home Fleets. Barham played a minor role in quelling the 1929 Palestine riots and the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine. The ship was in the Mediterranean when the Second World War began in September 1939 and accidentally collided with and sank one of her escorting destroyers on her voyage home three months later. She participated in the Battle of Dakar in mid-1940 where she damaged a Vichy French battleship and was slightly damaged in return. Barham was then transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet where she covered multiple Malta convoys. She helped to sink an Italian heavy cruiser and a destroyer during the Battle of Cape Matapan in March 1941 and was damaged by German aircraft two months later during the evacuation of Crete. Barham was sunk off the Egyptian coast the following November by the German submarine U-331 with the loss of 862 crewmen, approximately two-thirds of her crew.


Sinking


Main magazines exploding, 25 November 1941

On the afternoon of 25 November 1941, the 1st Battle Squadron, Barham, Queen Elizabeth, and Valiant, with an escort of eight destroyers, departed Alexandria to cover the 7th and 15th Cruiser Squadrons as they hunted for Italian convoys in the Central Mediterranean.[86] The following morning, the German submarine U-331, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen, detected the faint engine noises of the British ships and moved to intercept. By the afternoon the submarine and the 1st Battle Squadron were on reciprocal courses and von Tiesenhausen ordered his boat to battle stations around 16:00. An ASDIC operator aboard one of the leading destroyers, Jervis, detected the submarine at 16:18 at an estimated range of 900–1,100 yards (820–1,010 m), but the contact was disregarded as it subtended an angle between 40 and 60 degrees wide, far larger than a submarine. U-331 thus passed through the screen and was only in a position to fire her torpedoes after the leading ship, Queen Elizabeth, had passed her by and the second ship, Barham, was closing rapidly. Von Tiesenhausen ordered all four bow torpedo tubes fired at a range of 375 metres (410 yd) at 16:25. Possibly due to her closeness to Valiant's bow wave and discharging the torpedoes, the boat's conning tower broached the surface and was fruitlessly engaged by one of the battleship's "pom-pom"s at a range of about 30 yards (27 m). The boat dived out of control after she broached, reaching an indicated depth of 265 metres (869 ft), well below her design depth rating of 150 metres (490 ft), before she stabilised without any damage. U-331 was not attacked by the escorting destroyers and reached port on 3 December. Von Tiesenhausen was not certain of the results of his attack and radioed that he had hit a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship with one torpedo.

There was no time for evasive action, and three of the four torpedoes struck amidships so closely together as to throw up a single massive water column. Barham quickly capsized to port and was lying on her side when a massive magazine explosion occurred about four minutes after she was torpedoed and sank her. The Board of Enquiry into the sinking ascribed the final magazine explosion to a fire in the 4-inch magazines outboard of the main 15-inch magazines, which would have then spread to and detonated the contents of the main magazines. Due to the speed at which she sank, 862 officers and ratings were killed, including two who died of their wounds after being rescued. The destroyer Hotspur rescued some 337 survivors, including Vice-Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell and the pair who later died of their wounds, while the Australian destroyer Nizam reportedly rescued some 150 men. Captain Geoffrey Cooke went down with his ship. The sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Pathé , aboard Valiant.

Aftermath
In an effort to conceal the sinking from the Germans and to protect British morale, the Board of Admiralty censored all news of Barham's sinking. After a delay of several weeks the War Office notified the next of kin, but they added a special request for secrecy: the notification letters included a warning not to discuss the loss of the ship with anyone but close relatives, stating it was "most essential that information of the event which led to the loss of your husband's life should not find its way to the enemy until such time as it is announced officially..." Following repeated claims by German radio, the Admiralty officially announced the loss on 27 January 1942 and explained that

it was clear at that time that the enemy did not know that she had been sunk, and it was important to make certain dispositions before the loss of this ship was made public.​

It was not until the Admiralty's admission that Barham had been sunk and described the circumstances that von Tiesenhausen knew that he had sunk her. He was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross that day


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Barham_(04)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-331

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Evenets on 25 November


1510 – Portuguese conquest of Goa: Portuguese naval forces under the command of Afonso de Albuquerque, and local mercenaries working for privateer Timoji, seize Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate, resulting in 451 years of Portuguese colonial rule.

Timoji (also referred to as Timoja or Timmayya) was a privateer who served the Vijayanagara Empire and the Portuguese Empire during the first decade of the 16th century. He claimed to have been born in Goa and to have escaped the city after its conquest by the Adil Shahi of Bijapur in 1496. After his support in the 1510 Portuguese conquest of Goa, he was for a short time appointed aguazil of the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timoji
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_conquest_of_Goa


1560 – Death of Andrea Doria, Italian admiral (b. 1466)

Andrea Doria (Italian: [andrˈea ˈdorj.a]; 30 November 1466 – 25 November 1560) was an Italian condottiero and admiral of the Republic of Genoa.


Portrait of Andrea Doria, c. 1520, by Sebastiano del Piombo

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


1577 – Birth of Piet Pieterszoon Hein, Dutch admiral (d. 1629)

Pieter Pietersen Heyn (Hein) (25 November 1577 – 18 June 1629) was a Dutch admiral and privateer for the Dutch Republic during the Eighty Years' War between the United Provincesand Spain. Hein was the first and the last to capture a large part of a Spanish "silver fleet" from America.


1629 copy after a lost 1625 original by Jan Daemen Cool

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


1665 – Launch of french Brézé 56 guns (designed and built by Rodolphe Gédéon) at Toulon - wrecked 25 November 1665 at the mouth of the Charente.


1756 - HMS Torbay (74) captured a French snow, Diligent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Neptune_(1683)


1775 - Continental Congress authorizes privateering.


1776 – Launch of French Réfléchi , a 64-gun Solitaire-class ship of the line of the French Navy

Solitaire class, design by Antoine Groignard developed from his Brillant design.
Solitaire 64 (launched 22 October 1774 at Brest) – Captured by the British on 6 December 1782 and added to the RN under the same name, sold 1790
Réfléchi 64 (launched 25 November 1776 at Brest) - hulked at Brest in November 1788, raséed in 1793 and renamed Turot, not mentioned thereafter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Réfléchi_(1776)


1783 – Launch of HMS Thisbe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate

HMS Thisbe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Thisbe was first commissioned in December 1787 under the command of Captain George Robertson.


Thisbe on fire on 4 January 1786, caused by a lightning strike. Nicholas Matthew Condy

Because Thisbe served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thisbe_(1783)


1793 - HMS Penelope (32), Cptn. Bartholomew Samuel Rowley, and HMS Iphigenia (32), Cptn. Patrick Sinclair, captured French Inconstante (36) off St. Domingo

The second HMS Penelope (1783) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1783 and broken up 1797.
HMS Iphigenia (1780) was a 32-gun fifth rate launched in 1780 and burnt by accident in 1801
Inconstante, (launched 8 September 1790 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1793./ Charmante class, (32-gun design by Jean-Denis Chevillard, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).


1839 – A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40-foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (which has never been completely rebuilt). The storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster.


1840 - Launch of French Pénélope at Lorient – deleted 22 December 1864.

Pénélope class (46-gun type, 1830 design by Jean-François Guillemard, with 26 x 18-pounder guns, 16 x 30-pounder carronades and 4 x 30-pounder shell guns):
Pénélope, (launched 25 November 1840 at Lorient) – deleted 22 December 1864.
Jeanne d'Arc, (launched 8 November 1847 at Lorient) – deleted 22 December 1864.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1161 – Battle of Caishi: A Song dynasty fleet fights a naval engagement with Jin dynasty ships on the Yangtze river during the Jin–Song Wars.


The Battle of Caishi (Battle of Ts'ai-shih; Chinese: 采石之戰) was a major naval engagement of the Jin–Song Wars of China that took place on November 26–27, 1161. Soldiers under the command of Wanyan Liang, the Jurchen emperor of the Jin dynasty, tried to cross the Yangtze River to attack Song China. Yu Yunwen, a civil official, commanded the defending Song army. The paddle-wheel warships of the Song fleet, equipped with trebuchets that launched incendiary bombs made of gunpowder and lime, decisively defeated the light ships of the Jin navy.


Song Dynasty Rivership with Xuanfeng Traction Catapult from the Wujing Zongyao, the 1510 edition of the Ming Dynasty. The photographs are part of my book. You're welcome to use them on Wikipedia so long as you list my book "Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity" by Liang Jieming

Starting in 1125 the Jin had conquered all Song territories north of the Huai River. In 1142, a peace treaty settled the border between the two states, putting the Jin in control of northern China and the Song in control of the south. Wanyan Liang was enthroned in 1150, and was intent on uniting northern and southern China under a single emperor. In 1158, he asserted that the Song had violated the 1142 treaty, a pretext for declaring war on the Song. He began preparations for the war in the following year. He instituted a draft in which all able-bodied men were required to enlist. The draft was unpopular, precipitating revolts that were later suppressed. The Jin army left the capital of Kaifeng on October 15, 1161, and pushed through from the Huai to the Yangtze River without much resistance from the Song.


The Song dynasty after the Jin conquest of northern China

The Song were fortified along the Yangtze front. Wanyan Liang planned to cross the river at Caishi, south of modern-day Nanjing. He embarked from the shore of the Yangtze on November 26, and clashed with Song forces led by Yu Yunwen in a naval engagement. Wanyan Liang lost the battle and retreated to Yangzhou. Wanyan Liang was assassinated in a military camp by his own men shortly after the Caishi battle. A military coup had taken place in the Jin court while Wanyan Liang was absent, enthroning Emperor Shizong as the new emperor. A peace treaty signed in 1165 ended the conflict between Song and Jin.

Song sources likely inflated the number of Jin soldiers and casualties at Caishi, but the 18,000 figure for the Song army is plausible. Modern studies suggest that the battle was smaller and that both sides were more evenly matched than traditional accounts suggest. Nonetheless, the victory boosted the morale of the Song infantry and halted the southern advance of the Jin army.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Caishi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_technology_of_the_Song_dynasty

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1703 - Great Storm of 1703 - The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships including the entire Channel Squadron - Part I


The Great Storm of 1703 was a destructive extratropical cyclone that struck central and southern England on 26 November 1703 (7 December 1703 in the Gregorian calendar in use today). High winds caused 2,000 chimney stacks to collapse in London and damaged the New Forest, which lost 4,000 oaks. Ships were blown hundreds of miles off-course, and over 1,000 seamen died on the Goodwin Sands alone. bulletins of casualties and damage were sold all over England – a novelty at that time. The Church of England declared that the storm was God’s vengeance for the sins of the nation. Daniel Defoe thought it was a divine punishment for poor performance against Catholic armies in the War of the Spanish Succession.


'The Great Storm Novber 26 1703 Wherein Rear Admiral Beaumont was lost on the Goodwin Sands... Beaumont's Squadron of Observation off Dunkerque'. No.25.

Severity
Contemporary observers recorded barometric readings as low as 973 millibars (measured by William Derham in south Essex), but it has been suggested that the storm deepened to 950 millibars over the Midlands.

Retrospective analysis conjectures that the storm was consistent with a Category 2 hurricane.

Damage
In London alone, approximately 2,000 massive chimney stacks were blown down. The lead roofing was blown off Westminster Abbey and Queen Anne had to shelter in a cellar at St James's Palace to avoid collapsing chimneys and part of the roof. On the Thames, some 700 ships were heaped together in the Pool of London, the section downstream from London Bridge. HMS Vanguard was wrecked at Chatham. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's HMS Association was blown from Harwich to Gothenburg in Sweden before way could be made back to England. Pinnacles were blown from the top of King’s College Chapel, in Cambridge.

There was extensive and prolonged flooding in the West Country, particularly around Bristol. Hundreds of people drowned in flooding on the Somerset Levels, along with thousands of sheep and cattle, and one ship was found 15 miles (24 km) inland.[6] Approximately 400 windmills were destroyed, with the wind driving their wooden gears so fast that some burst into flames. At Wells, Bishop Richard Kidder and his wife were killed when two chimney stacks in the palace fell on them, asleep in bed. This same storm blew in part of the great west window in Wells Cathedral. Major damage occurred to the southwest tower of Llandaff Cathedral at Cardiff in Wales.

At sea, many ships were wrecked, some of which were returning from helping Archduke Charles, the claimed King of Spain, fight the French in the War of the Spanish Succession. These ships included HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Northumberland, HMS Mary and HMS Restoration, with about 1,500 seamen killed particularly on the Goodwin Sands. Between 8,000 and 15,000 lives were lost overall.


Destruction of the first Eddystone lighthouse in Great Storm 1703

The first Eddystone Lighthouse off Plymouth was destroyed on 27 November 1703 (Old Style), killing six occupants, including its builder Henry Winstanley. (John Rudyard was later contracted to build the second lighthouse on the site.) A ship torn from its moorings in the Helford River in Cornwall was blown for 200 miles (320 km) before grounding eight hours later on the Isle of Wight. The number of oak trees lost in the New Forest alone was 4,000.

The storm of 1703 caught a convoy of 130 merchant ships sheltering at Milford Haven, along with their man of war escorts Dolphin, Cumberland, Coventry, Looe, Hastings and Hector. By 3:00pm the next afternoon, losses included 30 vessels.

Reaction
The storm was unprecedented in ferocity and duration and was generally reckoned by witnesses to represent the anger of God, in recognition of the "crying sins of this nation". The government declared 19 January 1704 a day of fasting, saying that it "loudly calls for the deepest and most solemn humiliation of our people". It remained a frequent topic of moralising in sermons well into the 19th century.

Literary
The Great Storm also coincided with the increase in English journalism, and was the first weather event to be a news story on a national scale. Special issue broadsheets were produced detailing damage to property and stories of people who had been killed.

Daniel Defoe produced his full-length book The Storm (July 1704) in response to the calamity, calling it "the tempest that destroyed woods and forests all over England". He wrote: "No pen could describe it, nor tongue express it, nor thought conceive it unless by one in the extremity of it." Coastal towns such as Portsmouth "looked as if the enemy had sackt them and were most miserably torn to pieces". Winds of up to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h) destroyed more than 400 windmills. Defoe reported that the sails in some turned so fast that the friction caused the wooden wheels to overheat and catch fire. He thought that the destruction of the sovereign fleet was a punishment for their poor performance against the Catholic armies of France and Spain during the first year of the War of the Spanish Succession.

Naval losses
In the English Channel, fierce winds and high seas swamped some vessels outright and drove others onto the Goodwin Sands, an extensive sand bank off the southeast coast of England and the traditional anchorage for ships waiting either for passage up the Thames Estuary to London or for favourable winds to take them out into the Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships including the entire Channel Squadron, and upwards of 1,500 seamen drowned.

• The third-rate HMS Restoration was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands; of the ship's company of 387 not one was saved.
• The third-rate HMS Northumberland was lost on the Goodwin Sands; all 220 men, including 24 marines were killed.
• The third-rate (battleship) HMS Stirling Castle was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. Seventy men, including four marine officers, were saved, but 206 men were drowned.
• The fourth-rate HMS Mary was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The captain and the purser were ashore, but Rear Admiral Beaumont and 268 other men were drowned. Only one man, Thomas Atkins, was saved. His escape was remarkable – having first seen the rear admiral get onto a piece of her quarter-deck when the ship was breaking up, and then get washed off again, Atkins was tossed by a wave into the Stirling Castle, which sank soon after. From the Stirling Castle he was swept into a boat by a wave, and was rescued.
• The fifth-rate Mortar-bomb was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands and her entire company of 65 lost.
• The sixth-rate advice boat Eagle was lost on the coast of Sussex, but her ship's company of 45 were all saved.
• The third-rate Resolution was lost at Pevensey on the coast of Sussex; all her ship's company of 221 were saved.
• The fifth-rate Litchfield Prize was wrecked on the coast of Sussex; all 108 on board were saved.
• The fourth-rate Newcastle was lost at Spithead. The carpenter and 39 men were saved, and the other 193 were drowned.
• The fifth-rate fire-ship Vesuvius was lost at Spithead; all 48 of her ship's company were saved.
• The fourth-rate Reserve was lost by foundering off Yarmouth. The captain, the surgeon, the clerk and 44 men were saved; the other 175 members of the crew were drowned.
• The second-rate Vanguard was sunk in Chatham harbour. She was not manned and had no armament fitted; the following year she was raised for rebuilding.
• The fourth-rate York was lost at Harwich; all but four of her men were saved.

Lamb (1991) claimed 10,000 seamen were lost in one night, a far higher figure, about one third of the seamen in the Royal Navy.
Daniel Defoe's book The Storm suggests that the Royal Navy lost one fifth of its ships which would however indicate a much lower proportion of seamen were lost, as some wrecked sailors survived.
Shrewsbury narrowly escaped a similar fate. More than 40 merchant ships were also lost.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1703

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1703 - Great Storm of 1703 - The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships including the entire Channel Squadron - Part II - The Ships

The Royal Navy lost many ships during the Great Storm of 1703, starting 24th November and ending 2nd December.
Following HMS ships were lost:

On Goodwin Sands:
Restoration, 3rd Rate, 387 lost
Mary, 4th rate, 269 lost
Northumberland, 3rd Rate, 220 lost
Stirling Castle, 3rd Rate, 206 lost

On other places:
Newcastle, 4th Rate, 193 lost, Spithead
Reserve, 4th Rate, 175 lost, Yarmouth
Mortar, 5th Rate, 65 lost, Dutch Coast
York 4th Rate, 4 lost, Harwich
Canterbury, Storeship, 1 lost, Bristol
Eagle, 6th Rate, Sussex coast
Resolution, 3rd Rate, Littlehampton
Vigo, 4th Rate, Dutch coast
Lichfield Prize, 5th Rate, Sussex coast
Vesuvius, Fireship, Spithead
Vanguard, 2nd Rate, Chatham harbour (refloated later)

Another most remarkable incident during the storm, was the loss of Eddystone Lighthouse.


The third-rate HMS Restoration (1678 - 70) was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands; of the ship's company of 387 not one was saved.

HMS Restoration was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, named after the English Restoration. She was built by Betts of Harwich and launched in 1678.
She took part in the Battle of Barfleur on 19 May 1692. She was rebuilt at Portsmouth Dockyard in 1702, remaining a 70-gun third rate.
Restoration was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703. All 387 men were lost, including her captain, named Emms.

Wreck
Local divers found the wreck site in 1980. The initial designation was of 50 around what is now known as the South Mound; the North Mound was discovered in 1999 and the area was amended under Statutory Instrument number 2004/2395 as a 300 m radius around 51° 15.6302' N, 01° 30.0262' E. It is believed that the Restoration lies under the North Mound and the South Mound is the fourth rate HMS Mary wrecked in the same storm, but this is not known for certain. The site lies 100 m to the west of the Goodwin Sands off Deal, near the wrecks of HMS Stirling Castle and HMS Northumberland which also sank in the storm.

The site was investigated by Wessex Archaeology on 25 June 2006. They found copper-clad timbers, a cannon, lead pipes and hearth bricks


The third-rate HMS Northumberland (1679 - 70) was lost on the Goodwin Sands; all 220 men, including 24 marines were killed.

HMS Northumberland was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Bristol in 1679
She fought in the War of the Grand Alliance.
In 1702, she was rebuilt at Chatham Dockyard, though she was lost with all 253 crew on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of the following year.

Wreck
The remains of the Northumberland lie south of three wrecks of other ships lost in the same storm - the Stirling Castle, Restoration and Mary.[4] The Northumberland and Mary (the latter misidentified as the Restoration) were found by recreational divers in 1980. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973 the following year. The current designation is under Statutory Instrument 2004/2395, of a 300 m radius around 51° 15.4802’ N 01° 30.0161’ E.

The Archaeological Diving Unit (ADU) conducted a number of dives on the site over the next three decades and since 1999 technology has been applied in the form of magnetometer and side-scan sonar surveys.[4] The wreck was originally identified by the discovery of a bell and stock with the naval broad arrow and date; subsequently the ADU have found guns, two copper cauldrons and an anchor. The site consists of a large mound approximately 40 metres (130 ft) long by 20 metres (66 ft) wide, lying NW/SE near Fork Spit on the western edge of the Goodwin Sands. Parts are 3 metres (9.8 ft) above the surrounding seabed, but much of the structure is thought to be buried below the sand. A dense turf of juvenile mussels covers most features, making it hard to identify them. There is a coherent piece of ship's structure just south of the centre of the designated area, with large timbers and some exposed planking, possibly corresponding to the region between the first and second futtocks (ribs) of the vessel.


The third-rate (battleship) HMS Stirling Castle (1679 - 70) was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. Seventy men, including four marine officers, were saved, but 206 men were drowned.

HMS Stirling Castle was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built at Deptford in 1679. She underwent a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard in 1699. She was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands off Deal on 27 November 1703.


A 70-gun third-rate built at Deptford and launched in 1679. It was rebuilt in 1699 and was one of three similar warships of Rear-Admiral Basil Beaumont’s squadron lost on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703. (The NMM also holds items recovered from modern investigation of the wreck.) Carefully and accurately executed, probably from an offset, this drawing shows the ship from before the port beam immediately after her launching. The staff amidships, where the royal standard flew at the launching, is bare; but there is a jack on the stem, an Admiralty flag forward, a Union flag aft, and an ensign. On the broadside the ship carries thirteen guns on the gun deck, thirteen on the upper deck, two each on the forecastle and poop and five on the quarterdeck. It has wreathed ports and a crowned lion figurehead. Originally inscribed ‘Jacobus te blackwall’ (?), this is crossed out, with ‘de Lense vande sterlings kastell’ written beneath (The launch of the ‘Stirling Castle’). In 1958 Robinson noted a starboard broadside view of the same ship in the collection of D.G. van Beuningen.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143867.html#MOe33ji91bYYTeJ2.99

Construction and service
The Stirling Castle was part of Samuel Pepys' 1677 plan for "Thirty Ships", the first systematic expansion of the Royal Navy replacing ships lost in the Dutch Raid on the Medway. Later she was one of 16 third rates to be rebuilt between 1697 and 1706, like the Northumberland and Restoration which would be lost on the Goodwin Sands in the same storm. Alterations at Chatham in 1699 increased her tonnage, and she was refitted in 1701. She is of particular interest to historians as a relic from a time of many changes in naval architecture, representing the birth of the ship of the line before the 1706 Establishment formalised rules for the dimensions of RN ships.

Loss
She was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703. There were 70 survivors from her 349 crew. She seems to have dragged her anchor, slowing the ship's progress towards the Goodwin Sands and meaning that she reached the sands at high tide, narrowly avoiding the fate of the other ships which were grounded. As the storm continued, the tides turned and dragged the ship sideways, trapping her between the new tidal currents and the oncoming storms. The resulting tumultuous seas swamped the ship. Full of water, she sank onto the sands, leaving just the stern exposed for a fortunate few to cling to.
Lieutenant Benjamin Barnett RN (1669–1703), the father of Curtis Barnett, was lost with the vessel.

Wreck
Local recreational divers found the wreck in 1979 following a movement of the surrounding sand. The wreck lies in 12.1 metres (40 ft) of water near the North Sand Head, Goodwin Knoll. The ship was in a remarkable state of preservation, possibly uncovered for the first time since she sank, and numerous artefacts were recovered in 1979-80. Most are held by Ramsgate Maritime Museum[6] but some were first displayed at Bleak House in Broadstairs while it was still a museum, and then moved to the Deal Maritime Museum.[citation needed] A few artefacts have been recovered since, but the wreck was already being covered by fresh sediment in 1981.

The ship re-emerged from the sand in 1998. Scouring of the sand supporting the stern and port quarter led to their partial collapse in the winter of 1999-2000, and the structure has been further destabilised since then. In 2000 a team of divers successfully recovered a Demi-cannon, complete with its original gun carriage from the site. This "Rupertino" gun designed by the king's nephew Prince Rupert, was one of eight delivered by the gun maker Thomas Westerne in 1690. The 49 long cwt (2,489 kg) gun fired 32 lb (14.5 kg) shot.

In 2002 a wooden fixed block was recovered that may provide evidence on the introduction of the ship’s steering wheel, possibly during the refit of 1701. Richard Endsor has argued that the ship had both a steering wheel and the older whipstaff, thus Stirling Castle provides important evidence for the transition between these two mechanisms.

HMS Stirling Castle was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 6 June 1980 by Statutory Instrument 1980/645. The position was updated by SI 1980/1306 the same year. SI 2004/2395 in 2004 redesignated the protected area from a radius of 50 m to 300 around 51° 16.4561' N, 01° 30.4121' E. The wreck has the National Monuments Record number of TR45NW24. In 1980 the wreck was bought from the Ministry of Defence by the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Unit (now the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society), and in 1982 the Society sold 64 shares in the Stirling Castle to raise funds.


The fourth-rate HMS Mary (1650 - 50) was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands. The captain and the purser were ashore, but Rear Admiral Beaumont and 268 other men were drowned. Only one man, Thomas Atkins, was saved. His escape was remarkable – having first seen the rear admiral get onto a piece of her quarter-deck when the ship was breaking up, and then get washed off again, Atkins was tossed by a wave into the Stirling Castle, which sank soon after. From the Stirling Castle he was swept into a boat by a wave, and was rescued.


A portrait of the ‘Mary’, 62 guns, built 1650 as the ‘Speaker’, renamed 1660, wrecked 1703. The ship is viewed from the starboard bow, showing the bowsprit, spritsail topmast and half the lower masts. There are men in the fore shrouds. This is a spirited and accurate drawing rather confused with corrections. It was probably drawn as the ship left the Dutch coast with the Restoration squadron.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/141671.html#QOy3AELzbOcmSbv8.99

Speaker was a 50-gun third-rate frigate and the name ship of the Speaker-class, built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Christopher Pett at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1650. At the Restoration she was renamed HMS Mary. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 62 guns.

In 1688 Mary was rebuilt by Thomas Shish at Woolwich Dockyard as a 62-gun third-rate ship of the line. Mary was wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in the Great Storm of 1703. Of her 275 crew, her captain and purser were ashore at the time of her loss, only one sailor survived.

Wreck site
Local divers found the wreck site in 1980. The initial designation was of 50 m around what is now known as the South Mound; the North Mound was discovered in 1999 and the area was amended under Statutory Instrument number 2004/2395 as a 300 m radius around 51° 15.6302' N, 01° 30.0262' E.
It is believed that Mary lies under the South Mound and the North Mound is the third rate HMS Restoration wrecked in the same storm, but this is not known for certain. The site lies 100 m to the west of the Goodwin Sands off Deal, between the wrecks of HMS Stirling Castle and HMS Northumberland, which also sank in the storm.
The site was investigated by Wessex Archaeology on 25 June 2006. The South Mound measures 28 m x 12 m but has not been studied in detail.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Restoration_(1678)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Northumberland_(1679)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Stirling_Castle_(1679)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ship_Mary_(1650)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1703 - Great Storm of 1703 - The Royal Navy was badly affected, losing thirteen ships including the entire Channel Squadron - Part II - The Ships



In the foreground is the 'Resolution', in port-quarter view, close-hauled on the port tack. Her topsails are neatly furled, she has a Union flag at the main and flies a red ensign. 'Resolution' was one of the first of the 70-gun two-deckers, built at Harwich in 1667 and rebuilt in 1698. She was flagship of Sir Thomas Allin in 1668-70, the Union at the main signifying his role at that time as 'Admiral of a Fleet to the Streights' (of Gibraltar), or, in more familiar terms, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. His fleet consisted of three third-rates, eleven fourth-rates and four fifth-rates, with three fire-ships, two ketches and a storeship. As Vice-Admiral he had Sir Edward Spragge in the 'Revenge' and, as Rear-Admiral, Sir John Harman in the 'St David' - who both operated separately on occasions in their continuing war to protect English merchant shipping against Barbary pirates. The picture is therefore presumably a commission from Allin and was done from several drawings the artist made of the subject. It may be based on Allin's reminiscence of a storm on 14 December 1669, of which he gives a brief account in his journal (also in the National Maritime Museum but edited by R.C. Anderson for the Navy Records Society; 2 vols., 1939-40). Close ahead of the 'Resolution' is another two-decker with a common pendant at the masthead but no ensign or jack. The artist was younger son of Willem van de Velde the Elder. Born in Leiden, he studied under Simon de Vlieger in Weesp and in 1652 moved back to Amsterdam. He worked in his father's studio and developed the skill of carefully drawing ships in tranquil settings. He changed his subject matter, however, when he came with his father to England in 1672-73, by a greater concentration on royal yachts, men-of-war and storm scenes. From this time painting sea battles for Charles II and his brother (and Lord High Admiral) James, Duke of York, and other patrons, became a priority. Unlike his father's works, however, they were not usually eyewitness accounts. After his father's death in 1693 his continuing role as an official marine painter obliged him to be more frequently present at significant maritime events. The painting is signed 'W.V.Velde J'.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/15055.html#l2iO0Is4CqHZTGjM.99

The third-rate HMS Resolution (1667 - 70) was lost at Pevensey on the coast of Sussex; all her ship's company of 221 were saved.

HMS Resolution was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Harwich Dockyard on 6 December 1667. She was one of only three third rate vessels designed and built by the noted maritime architect Sir Anthony Deane.


The ‘Resolution’ shown from abaft the port beam with, on the broadside, twelve guns on the gun deck, eleven on the upper deck, six on the quarterdeck and one on the poop. There are wreathed ports on the upper deck, while on the quarterdeck the two aftermost have square decoration; the remainder are wreathed. The drawing is signed ‘W.V.V.J.’, and inscribed in the top and bottom right in pencil ‘resolue’ and in brown ink, ‘1676’. It was used for the younger van de Velde’s painting now called ‘The ‘Resolution’ in a gale’ (NMM BHC3582), showing her as the flagship of Sir Thomas Allin as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterrannean, in 1668–69. In the NMM Ingram Collection (PAG6239) there is also a portrait of the ‘Resolution’ dated 1676, viewed from the starboard bow.Date made 1676

Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143863.html#tSl3hgxwGF4RAk7j.99

History
Resolution served as the flagship in an expedition against the Barbary Corsairs in 1669 and took part in the unsuccessful attack on the Dutch Smyrna convoy, which resulted in the Third Dutch War.[3] She was later girdled, which increased her breadth slightly, and underwent a rebuilding in 1698 - although this limited reconstruction did not involve taking her hull to pieces. She was lost in 1703.
By 1685, Resolution was only armed with 68 guns. She was relaunched after a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard on 30 April 1698, as a 70-gun ship once more.


Portrait of the ‘Resolution’, third rate built in 1667, 32 guns; she was wrecked in 1692. She is viewed from the starboard bow. Drawn high out of the water. There is another drawing in the NMM of the ‘Resolution’ viewed from abaft the port beam (PAH3916).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/136187.html#1YOerDOb1IsXrus5.99

Sinking
In the Great Storm of 1703 in Pevensey Bay, East Sussex she hit the Owers Bank off Littlehampton before the crew could even get up sail, then blown across the Solent, limping on around Beachy Head. With the ship seriously flooded her Captain, Thomas Liell, tried un-successfully to beach her in Pevensey Bay, but the crew had to abandon ship and all made it ashore.

Wreck
In April 2005, a well-preserved wreck believed to be hers was discovered by 3 divers attempting to recover a tangled-up lobster pot 1½ miles offshore and 9 metres below sea level, at approximately 50°48′10″N 0°24′38″ECoordinates:

50°48′10″N 0°24′38″E. It was only when a 12 ft anchor appeared that Paul Stratford, Martin Wiltshire, and Steve Paice then found dozens of cast iron cannon around a timber hull. The discovery was kept secret whilst a preliminary survey by Wessex Archaeology was carried out at the site and whilst discussions were carried out as to how best to protect it. This found at least 45 large cannon, along with a ballast mound surrounded by wooden ribs and planking protruding from a seabed of sand and silt. These all seemed to be from a large warship dating between 1600 and 1800 which is 'likely' to be Resolution.

The site was then in May 2006 made public and given official protection under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, banning unauthorised diving within 100m, by culture Minister David Lammy Martin Wiltshire & Steve Paice allowed Paul Stratford take on the responsibilities of licensee applicant. Ian Oxley, head of maritime archaeology at English Heritage, called the ship 'a crucial part of England's seafaring heritage'.


The fourth-rate HMS Newcastle (1653 - 44) was lost at Spithead. The carpenter and 39 men were saved, and the other 193 were drowned.

Newcastle was a 44-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Phineas Pett II at Ratcliffe, and launched in May 1653. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 54 guns.


Portrait of the ‘Newcastle’, fourth rate, 54 guns. She was built in 1653, rebuilt in 1692 and wrecked in 1703. She is viewed from abaft the port beam. The castle over the quarter-gallery identifies the ship as the ‘Newcastle’ with reasonable certainty as no other ship of the same size has a name appropriate to a castle. The two other drawings in the NMM inscribed ‘kastel’ (PAG6236, PAF6935) are of a different ship. It is freely and accurately drawn without the assistance of an offset.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/136183.html#PJOKD861K3POLuyV.99


Portrait of the ‘Newcastle’; fourth rate, built in 1653, 54 guns, she was rebuilt in 1692 and wrecked in 1703. She is viewed from the port beam. This seems to be the same ship as PAG6235. The drawing is an offset rubbed on the back, accurately worked up with pencil.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/136191.html#rwu8MjRL6kEC04oE.99

Her first action came in 1655 when, along with fourteen other warships, she sailed into Porto Farina in Algiers to engage Barbary Pirates. This action resulted in the destruction of the entire pirate fleet, which won the Newcastle lineage its first battle honour. In 1657 she took part in Admiral Blake's daring attack on Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and in 1665, she fought at the Battle of Lowestoft. During the Revolution of 1688 Newcastle, commanded by George Churchill, defected to William of Orange (later King William III) along with most of the English navy.

Newcastle was wrecked at Spithead in the Great Storm of 1703 with the loss of 229 of her crew.


The fourth-rate HMS Reserve (1650 - 40) was lost by foundering off Yarmouth. The captain, the surgeon, the clerk and 44 men were saved; the other 175 members of the crew were drowned.

HMS Reserve was a 40-gun fourth-rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Peter Pett II at Woodbridge, and launched in 1650. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 48 guns.

In 1701 Reserve underwent a rebuild at Deptford, relaunching as a fourth-rate ship of the line of between 46 and 54 guns. She foundered off Yarmouth in 1703 and was lost, during the Great Storm of 1703. The captain and the purser were ashore, but Rear Admiral Beaumont and 268 other men were drowned. Only one man, whose name was Thomas Atkins, was saved. His escape was very remarkable - having first seen the rear admiral get onto a piece of her quarter-deck when the ship was breaking up, and then get washed off again, Atkins was tossed by a wave into HMS Stirling Castle, which sank soon after. From Stirling Castle he was swept into a boat by a wave, and was rescued.


The second-rate HMS Vanguard (1678 - 90) was sunk in Chatham harbour. She was not manned and had no armament fitted; the following year she was raised for rebuilding.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Duke' (1739), a 1733 Establishment 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, possibly as built at Woolwich Dockyard.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80011.html#EcxAm21dADA2MLvi.99

HMS Vanguard was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard and launched in 1678.
She ran onto Goodwin Sands in 1690, but was fortunate enough to be hauled off by the boatmen of Deal.
Vanguard took part in the Battle of Barfleur as part of Edward Russell's fleet, and then in the following action at La Hougue when French ships were burned in 1692.


HMS Vanguard as Duke, ca. 1750

Vanguard sank in the Great Storm of 1703, while laid up in ordinary at Chatham Dockyard, but was raised in 1704 for rebuilding. She was relaunched from Chatham on 2 August 1710 as a 90-gun second rate built to the 1706 Establishment. In 1739 she was renamed HMS Duke, and rebuilt for a second time at Woolwich as a 90-gun second rate. She was rebuilt according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment, and relaunched on 28 April 1739.

Duke was broken up in 1769


The fourth-rate HMS York (1654 - 52) was lost at Harwich; all but four of her men were saved.

Marston Moor was a 52-gun third rate Speaker-class frigate built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England at Blackwall Yard, and launched in 1654.
After the Restoration in 1660, she was renamed HMS York. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 60 guns. York was wrecked in 1703.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolution_(1667)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Newcastle_(1653)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Reserve_(1650)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(1678)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_York_(1654)
http://www.schifferlbauer.com/seite19.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1776 – Launch of HMS Ruby, a 64-gun Intrepid-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy


HMS Ruby was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1776 at Woolwich.

She was converted to serve as a receiving ship in 1813, and was broken up in 1821.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Ruby (1776), 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Woolwich Dockyard. Signed by Nicholas Phillips [Master Shipwright, Woolwich Dockyard, 1773-1778].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81264.html#5GlLRSYDi96CjZPr.99

The British ships Ruby, 64, Captain Michael John Everitt, Aeolus (or Eolus), 32, and the sloop Jamaica, 18, were cruising off Hayti, when on 2 June 1779, in the Bay of Gonave, they fell in with the 36-gun French frigate Prudente, Captain d'Escars. Ruby chased Prudente for some hours, and was much annoyed by the well-directed fire of the enemy's stern-chasers, by which Captain Everitt and a sailor lost their lives. When within easy range of Prudente, at about sunset, Ruby compelled her to strike, with the loss of two killed and three wounded. The British Navy took Prudente into service under the same name.

HMS Ruby (Capt Stanhope) sailed with the first squadron (under Capt John Blankett) to take part in the 1st British Occupation of the Cape, leaving England on 27 February 1795. There she was used on patrols and general duties but saw no action. The Battle of Muizenberg on 7th August 1795 triggered the collapse of the Dutch forces which controlled the Cape of Good Hope at the time.


HMS Diadem, a sistership, at the capture of the cape Good Hope

The Intrepid-class ships of the line were a class of fifteen 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Williams. His design, approved on 18 December 1765, was slightly smaller than Sir Thomas Slade's contemporary Worcester class design of the same year, against which it was evaluated competitively. Following the prototype, four more ships were ordered in 1767–69, and a further ten between 1771 and 1779.

Intrepid class (Williams)

• Intrepid 64 (1770) – sold for breaking 1828.
• Monmouth 64 (1772) – broken up 1818.
• Defiance 64 (1772) – sank 1780.
• Nonsuch 64 (1774) – broken up 1802.
• Ruby 64 (1776) – broken up 1821.
• Vigilant 64 (1774) – broken up 1816.
• Eagle 64 (1774) – broken up 1812.
• America 64 (1777) – broken up 1807.
• Anson 64 (1781) – razéed to 44-gun frigate 1794, wrecked 1807
• Polyphemus 64 (1782) – broken up 1827.
• Magnanime 64 (1780) – razéed to 44-gun frigate 1794, broken up 1813.
• Sampson 64 (1781) – sold for breaking 1832.
• Repulse 64 (1780) – wrecked 1800.
• Diadem 64 (1782) – broken up 1832.
• Standard 64 (1782) – broken up 1816.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ruby_(1776)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrepid-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-344995;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1787 - Launch of HMS Captain, a 74-gun Canada class third-rate ship of the line at Limehouse


HMS Captain was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse. She served during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars before being placed in harbour service in 1799. An accident caused her to burn and founder in 1813. Later that year she was raised and broken up.


The 'Captain' capturing the 'San Nicolas' and the 'San José' at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797

French Revolutionary Wars
At the start of the French Revolutionary War, she was part of the Mediterranean fleet which occupied Toulon at the invitation of the Royalists in 1793 before being driven out by Revolutionary troops in an action where Napoleon Bonaparte made his name. During this operation Captain was deployed in the Raid on Genoa. In June 1796, Admiral Sir John Jervis transferred Captain Horatio Nelson from HMS Agamemnon into Captain. Jervis appointed Nelson commodore of a squadron that was first deployed off Livorno during Napoleon's march through northern Italy.

In September 1796, Gilbert Elliot, the British viceroy of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, decided that it was necessary to clear out Capraja, which belonged to the Genoese and which served as a base for privateers. He sent Nelson, in Captain, together with the transport Gorgon, Vanneau, the cutter Rose, and troops of the 51st Regiment of Foot to accomplish this task in September. On their way, Minerva joined them. The troops landed on 18 September and the island surrendered immediately. Later that month Nelson oversaw the British withdrawal from Corsica.

In February 1797, Nelson had rejoined Jervis's fleet 25 miles west of Cape St. Vincent at the southwest tip of Portugal, just before it intercepted a Spanish fleet on 14 February. The Battle of Cape St Vincent made both Jervis's and Nelson's names. Jervis was made Earl St Vincent and Nelson was knighted for his initiative and daring.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Majestic (1785), Orion (1787), and Captain (1787), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The design for these three ships was taken from the draught of the Canada (1765).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80493.html#FWVc80aQ0d6seC7O.99

Nelson had realised that the leading Spanish ships were escaping and wore Captain to break out of the line of battle to attack the much larger Spanish ships. Captain exchanged fire with the Spanish flagship, Santísima Trinidad, which mounted 136 guns on four decks. Later Captain closely engaged the 80-gun San Nicolas, when the Spanish ship was disabled by a broadside from Excellent and ran into another ship, the San Josef of 112-guns. With Captain hardly manoeuvrable, Nelson ran his ship alongside San Nicolas, which he boarded. Nelson was preparing to order his men to board San Josef next when she signalled her intent to surrender. The boarding of San Nicolas, which resulted in the taking of the two larger ships was later immortalised as 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates.'


Print. A detailed scene onboard HMS Captain (1787), including a view of war with soldiers dying and injured. The scene is of the battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February 1797. The battle against the Spanish fleet was one of the Royal Navy's greatest victories in that year. Horatio Nelson rose to fame through this battle, as his actions helped secure the victory.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/158730.html#RDOZDViQ7xSHo2Uw.99

Captain was the most severely damaged of the British ships as she was in the thick of the action for longer than any other ship. She returned to service following repairs and on 6 May 1799 sailed for the Mediterranean, where she joined Captain John Markham's squadron.

After the Battle of Alexandria, the squadron under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée, consisting of the 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and the brig Alerte escaped to Genoa.

On 17 June 1799 the French squadron, still under Perrée, was en route from Jaffa for Toulon when it encountered the British squadron under Markham in Centaur. In the ensuing Action of 18 June 1799, the British captured the entire French squadron, with Captain capturing Alerte. Markham described Alerte as a brig of 14 guns and 120 men, under the command of Lieutenant Dumay.


A composite picture showing five of the ships in which Nelson served as a captain and flag officer from the start of the French Wars in 1793 to his death in 1805. The artist has depicted them drying sails in a calm at Spithead, Portsmouth, and despite the traditional title, two of them were not strictly flagships. The ship on the left in bow view is the 'Agamemnon', 64 guns. It was Nelson's favourite ship, which he commanded as a captain from 1793. Broadside on is the 'Vanguard', 74 guns, his flagship at the Battle of the Nile in 1798 flying a white ensign and his blue flag as Rear-Admiral of the Blue at the mizzen. Stern on is the 'Elephant', 74 guns, his temporary flagship at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. She is flying the blue ensign from the stern and Nelson's flag as Vice-Admiral of the Blue at her foremast. In the centre distance is the 'Captain', 74 guns, in which Nelson flew a commodore's broad pendant at the Battle of St Vincent, 1797. Dominating the right foreground is the 'Victory', 100 guns, shown in her original state, with open stern galleries, and not as she was at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She is shown at anchor flying the flag of Vice-Admiral of the White, Nelson's Trafalgar rank, and firing a salute to starboard as an admiral's barge is rowed alongside, amidst other small craft. The painting is one of a series of six paintings created for a two-volume 'Life of Nelson', begun shortly after Nelson's death in 1805 by Clarke and McArthur and published in 1809. They were engraved by James Fittler and reproduced in the biography with lengthy explanatory texts. The artist placed considerable importance on accuracy, referring to his annotated drawings and sketch plans in the production of his oil paintings. Pocock was born and brought up in Bristol, went to sea at the age of 17 and rose to command several merchant ships. Although he only took up painting as a profession in his early forties, he became extremely successful, receiving commissions from naval commanders anxious to have accurate portrayals of actions and ships. By the age of 80, Pocock had recorded nearly 40 years of maritime history, demonstrating a meticulous understanding of shipping and rigging with close attention to detail.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12588.html#qQHIyqcBRded8tcF.99

Napoleonic Wars
In 1807 it had been one of the escorts for the expedition leaving Falmouth that would eventually attack Buenos Aires. Turned back north once the expedition reached the Cape Verde Islands.

Captain shared with Amaranthe, Pompee, and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829.

Captain took part in the capture of Martinique in 1809. In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Captain was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.

Fate
Later that year, Captain was put into harbour service. On 22 March 1813, she was accidentally burned in the Hamoaze, off Plymouth, Devon. At the time, she was undergoing conversion to a sheer hulk. When it was clear that the fire, which had begun in the forecastle, had taken hold, her securing lines were cut and she was towed a safe distance away from the other vessels so that she could burn herself out. Even so, orders were given that she be sunk. Ships' launches with carronades then commenced a one-hour bombardment. She finally foundered after having burned down to the waterline. Two men died in the accident. The wreck was raised in July and broken up at Plymouth.


The Canada class ships of the line were a series of four 74-gun third rates designed for the Royal Navy by William Bateley. The name ship of the class was launched in 1765.

Design
During this period in British naval architecture, the 74-gun third rates were divided into two distinct groupings: the 'large' and 'common' classes. The Canada class ships belonged to the latter grouping, carrying 18-pounder guns on their upper gun decks, as opposed to the 24-pounders of the large class.

Service
HMS Captain, made famous for Nelson's actions at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, belonged to this class of ships.

Ships

• HMS Canada

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Launched: 17 September 1765
Fate: Broken up, 1834

• HMS Majestic

Builder: Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 23 August 1781
Launched: 11 December 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1816



Model of the HMS Orion (1787) at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

• HMS Orion

Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 2 October 1782
Launched: 1 June 1787
Fate: Broken up, 1814

• HMS Captain

Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Launched: 26 January 1787
Fate: Burned and broken up, 1813



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Captain_(1787)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1795 – Launch of Spanish Neptuno, an 80-gun Montañes-class ship of the line at Ferrol - Wrecked in storm after the Battle of Trafalgar, 23 October 1805


Neptuno was an 80-gun Montañes-class ship of the line of the Spanish Navy. She was built in 1795 and took part in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She fought with the Franco-Spanish fleet in the battle of Trafalgar, and was wrecked in its aftermath.

Neptuno was built at Ferrol and launched in 1795. She entered service in time to support an attempt to unite with a French force and land troops in England, but the Spanish fleet under Admiral José de Córdoba y Ramos was intercepted and engaged by a British fleet under Sir John Jervis. Neptuno did not take part in the battle, having been sent into port beforehand. Several years later she was in a Spanish port when the combined Franco-Spanish fleet under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve arrived, having sailed to the West Indies and back, and been engaged by a British fleet in the Battle of Cape Finisterre. Neptuno joined the fleet in her attempt to reach Brest, but the plan to join with another French fleet failed and Neptuno ended up with the rest of the fleet, blockaded in Cadiz by a British fleet under Lord Nelson.


Plans for a ship of the San Ildefonsino class

Villeneuve came out of Cadiz in late 1805, and was engaged by Nelson in the decisive Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October. As the lead ship of the line, Neptuno was initially isolated from the main fighting, though she joined in an attempt later in the day to come to the aid of Villeneuve's flagship. Instead she became trapped and engaged by two British ships and, after fighting for over an hour, surrendered. She was taken in hand by a British prize crew, but two days after the battle a sortie by some of the survivors from the battle succeeded in retaking her. She was towed towards a friendly port but, already badly damaged in the battle, was caught up in the powerful storm that struck the area and ran aground. Her crew were evacuated, and Neptuno broke up in the heavy seas.


Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Neptuno' (1795) and 'Argonauta' (1798), both Spanish 80-gun two-decker. These two ships were taken at the battle of Trafalgar, but neither survived the storm - the first being retaken and foundering, and the second scuttled. Signed by Julian Martin de Retamosa [Shipbuilder and designer, and Lieutenant General of the Spanish Royal Navy].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/79962.html#QuwqPRlypihIHv2z.99

Construction and commissioning
Neptuno was built at the Royal Dockyard at Ferrol as one of the Montañes-class of 74- and 80-gun ships of the line, a design developed by Romero Landa and based on his earlier San Ildefonso class of 1785. Among her sisters were the Argonauta and Monarca, both of which fought alongside Neptuno at Trafalgar. She carried twenty-eight 24-pounder guns on her lower gundeck, thirty 18-pounders on her upper deck, fourteen 8-pounders on her quarter deck and four 8-pounders on her forecastle. By 1805 she had been fitted with four 18 pounder carronades on her poop, while the 18 pounders on her upper deck had been replaced by 24 pounders. Overall work on the ships of the Montañes class was overseen by Julién de Retamosa, and Neptuno was launched at Ferrol in 1795.

Class and type: 80-gun Montañes-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1753 bm
Length:

• 181 ft (55 m) (keel)
• 175 ft 3 in (53.42 m) (gundeck)

Beam: 51 ft (16 m)
Draught:

• 26 ft 7 in (8.10 m) (afore)
• 23 ft 3 in (7.09 m) (abaft)

Depth of hold: 25 ft 6 in (7.77 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 715
Armament:

• 80 guns:
• Lower gundeck: 28 × 24 pdrs
• Upper gundeck: 30 × 24 pdrs
• Quarterdeck: 14 × 8 pdrs
• Forecastle: 4 × 8 pdrs
• Poop deck: 4 × 18 pdr carronades

There then followed a period of fitting out and carrying out sea trials during 1796, after which she was assigned to the Spanish Mediterranean fleet at Cartagena under Admiral José de Córdoba y Ramos. Shortly afterwards Spain allied with Republican France and entered the French Revolutionary Wars against Britain and her allies. The Spanish Navy was assigned to support the planned invasion of Britain.

Alliance with France
Neptuno put to sea on 1 February 1797 with the rest of Córdoba's fleet, consisting of 27 ships of the line, twelve frigates, one brig and several smaller craft. They sailed from Cartagena and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar on 5 February. Córdoba had orders to deliver a number of gunboats to Algeciras to support the bombardment of Gibraltar, safely escort a convoy of four urcas carrying mercury from Málaga to Cadiz, and then sail to Brest to link up with the French. The first part of the operation went smoothly, and Neptuno was detached with the 74-gun ships Bahama and Terrible, the 34-gun Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe to take the gunboats into Algeciras. Neptuno and Bahama remained at Algeciras, while Terrible sailed to rejoin Córdoba.

Strong easterly winds prevented Córdoba from making port at Cadiz, and his ships were scattered to the west, before they could make sail back to the Spanish coast.[3] As they approached Cadiz on 14 February his fleet was tracked down off Cape St Vincent by a British force under Sir John Jervis. Neptuno and her consorts took no part in the action that followed, during which the Spanish were defeated.

Approach to Trafalgar

Portrait of Cayetano Valdés y Flores, commander of Neptuno at Trafalgar, painted by José Roldán y Martínez, Sevilla, 1847

By 1805 Neptuno was based at Ferrol, under the command of Captain Don Cayetano Valdés y Flores. There she was joined in late July by ships of the combined Franco-Spanish fleet under Vice-Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve. The combined fleet had recently arrived in European waters from the West Indies, where they had evaded a British fleet under Lord Nelson, but had failed to carry out any attacks on the British colonies in the Caribbean. The fleet, hotly pursued across the Atlantic by Nelson, had been intercepted by another fleet under Robert Calder that had been positioned off Cape Finisterre in expectation of their arrival. Calder captured two of Villeneuve's ships in a confused action, after which Villeneuve withdrew to Ferrol and Corunna. He sailed again on 9 August, taking the Spanish ships he had found in those ports, including Neptuno, with him, hoping to rendezvous with the French Rochefort squadron under Zacharie Allemand. The hoped-for rendezvous failed: the two French fleets supposedly mistook each other for the main British fleet and, instead of joining, attempted to escape from each other, with Villeneuve fleeing to Cádiz.

After spending several months there, watched by the blockading British fleet under Nelson, Villeneuve decided to put to sea in mid-October. Valdés prepared Neptuno for sea, and the fleet sailed from Cadiz on 19 October. Neptuno was initially the rearmost ship of the combined fleet as it sailed southwards, but as the British approached on the morning of 21 October, Villeneuve formed the line of battle and ordered it to come about heading northwards, with Neptuno now the lead ship of the van. She was ahead of the 74-gun French Scipion, and formed part of the squadron under Rear-Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, which had previously been intended as the rear of the fleet.


This picture of the end of the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 shows Rear-Admiral Dumanoir in his flagship, the ‘Formidable’, in the right foreground, retreating from the scene of the battle; followed by the ‘Duguay Trouin’, 74, ‘Mont Blanc’, 74, ‘Scipion’, 74, and the Spanish ‘Neptuno’, 80. The latter’s escape was blocked and she re-joined the fighting, whilst all four French ships were captured on 3 November 1805 by Captain Sir Richard Strachan in the ‘Caesar’, 80 guns, with a squadron of three 74s and two frigates. Rear-Admiral Dumanoir Le Pelley had jettisoned a number of guns during his flight and had had three guns dismounted during the battle, so that ‘Formidable’ only had 65 mounted guns on 3 November (W. Laid Clowes, “The Royal Navy – a history”, vol.5, p.171). Inscribed: “Victory of Trafalgar, in the Van. | This Scene at nearly the close of the Action with a View of the French Admiral Dumonoir [sic] and the Ships of his Division making their escape to Windward, is most respectfully inscribed to Vice Admiral Lord Collingwood, the Right Honble Lord Northesk, the several Captains, the Officers, Seamen & Marines of the Van Division, | by their devoted Servant Robt Dodd.” This aquatint is plate 3 of a set of four engravings (PAI6149-52).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/156089.html#HxRgimJ9BwyutOzh.99

Trafalgar
Initially isolated by the British strike at the centre and rear of the combined fleet's line, Neptuno was ordered to hug the wind to allow the other ships to get to their stations. Neptuno was fired upon by the 64-gun HMS Africa, which had arrived late to the battle and sailed southwards parallel down the line, exchanging broadsides with the ships of the fleet. Africa's long range fire caused little damage. At 2 pm Dumanoir brought the van around and headed south to support the beleaguered centre, trying to fight his way through to Villeneuve's flagship, the 80-gun Bucentaure. With Dumanoir in the attempt were Neptuno and four French ships, the 80-gun Formidable, and the 74-gun ships Scipion, Duguay-Trouin and the Mont-Blanc. Neptuno fought her way through to Bucentaure, with Valdés hoping to use her boats to recapture the flagship. The plan came to nothing when he discovered the boats had been destroyed by gunfire. Neptuno herself was soon in trouble; at 4 pm she was cut off by the two rear-most ships of Nelson's weather column, the newly arrived 74-gun ships HMS Minotaur and HMS Spartiate.

Neptuno fought both of them for the next hour, having her mizzen mast shot away, and her rigging badly damaged. Valdés, who had already been wounded twice during the battle, was hit in the head and neck by falling debris from the collapsing mizzenmast and lost consciousness. He was taken below to be treated, and command devolved to his second, Joaquín Somoza. After an hour of fighting Neptuno lost her fore topmast, the foretop, foreyard and foreshrouds, followed by her main topmast and the main stay. Valdés' successor, Somoza, was also wounded, and First Lieutenant Antonio Miranda took command. Neptuno struck her colours at 5.10 pm, becoming the last of the combined fleet to surrender. Accounts of her casualties vary but they appear to have been relatively light, with 38 to 42 dead and 42 to 47 wounded. She had by now been isolated from the rest of the fleet, and may have surrendered due to declining morale as a result. The British had been aiming high, in order to disable Neptuno and prevent her from escaping. A boarding party of 48 men from Minotaur, led by Marine Second Lieutenant Thomas Reeves arrived on board to take Neptuno's surrender. Valdés was undergoing treatment in the cockpit, so First Lieutenant Antonio Miranda went aboard Minotaur and submitted his sword to her captain, Charles Mansfield. Reeves took off a lieutenant and twenty-five men out of Neptuno and sent them to Minotaur, secured the prisoners aboard Neptuno, locked away the firearms, and placed a guard on the magazine.

Storm, and wreck
Minotaur took Neptuno in tow at 3.30 am the next day, and at daylight work began to clear away the wreckage of battle. As the storm rose, the towline snapped, putting Neptuno in danger of running onto a lee shore and being wrecked. The battered mainmast collapsed on 22 October, smashing through the captain's cabins below the poop, crushing to death Spanish paymaster Diego de Soto as he slept, and killing one of the British prize crew. Now completely dismasted the crew struggled to shore up the decks to prevent them from collapsing, and tried to jury rig sails.

On 23 October French Captain Julien Cosmao and Commodore Enrique MacDonell made a sortie from Cadiz with some of the more seaworthy ships that had escaped the battle, in an attempt to retake some of the captured prizes. Cosmao's squadron consisted of two French 80-gun ships, Neptune and Indomptable, the 74-gun French Pluton, and two Spanish ships, the 100-gun Rayo and the 74-gun San Francisco de Asis. Also with the ships of the line were the smaller French ships that had been present at the battle but had not taken part, the frigates Cornélie, Thémis, Hortense, Rhin and Hermione, and the brigs Furet and Argus. In preparation for the counter-attack the British cast off several of the prizes and formed a defensive line. While Cornélie, Hortense, Thémis and Rhin harassed the British, Hermione took Neptuno in tow, while the Spanish crew rose up and took back their ship. The British prize crew were sent below to work the pumps, while Neptuno made anchor in Cadiz Bay. During the night the storm rose again, and Neptuno dragged her anchors and ran onshore.

Lines were quickly passed between the ship and shore, and rafts were constructed to take men off the stricken ship. One raft made several trips to and from the shore, until it capsized, drowning several men. Over the next few days the remaining men, including the wounded Captain Valdés, were taken off by rafts and fishing boats. The abandoned Neptuno was soon pounded to pieces in the heavy seas, with the loss of around 20 men in her wreck. Neptuno was not the only ship to suffer this fate, a number of the captured British prizes were scuttled or left to be wrecked, while several of the ships that had accompanied Cosmao's sortie were lost. The Indomptable was lost after she grounded off Rota, as was the San Francisco de Asis, in Cadiz Bay. The Rayo attempted to anchor off San Lucar and ride out the storm, but rolled out her masts in the heavy seas. HMS Donegal came up, and being unable to resist, Rayo surrendered to her, but was driven on shore on 26 October and wrecked. Cosmao managed to retake only one other prize aside from Neptuno, the 112-gun Santa Ana. Unlike Neptuno, the Santa Ana made it back to Cadiz.

The remains of the French fleet were bottled up in Cadiz under Rear-Admiral Rosily, trapped there by the British blockade. The remaining ships were seized by the Spanish after they entered the war against France in 1808. One of the French ships taken was the 80-gun Neptune, which had fought at Trafalgar; the Spanish took her into their service, renaming her Neptuno, as a replacement for the ship lost in 1805. This new Neptuno served with the Spanish Navy until being broken up in 1820.


The Montañés class were a series of four ships of the line designed and built between 1792 and 1798 by Julián Martín de Retamosa for the Spanish Navy.

The four ships in the class, and their fates, were:

• Montañés (1794) - ran aground in 1810.
• Neptuno (1795) - lost in the storm after the Battle of Trafalgar.
• Monarca (1794) - captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and later lost in the storm.
• Argonauta (1798) - captured by Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 and later sunk in the storm.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Neptuno_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montañés-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1847 - Lt. William Lynch, in the ship-rigged sailing vessel USS Supply, sails from New York to Haifa for an expedition to the River Jordan and the Dead Sea.


The first USS Supply was a ship-rigged sailing vessel which served as a stores ship in the United States Navy. She saw service in the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.



Service history
Supply was purchased by the U.S. Navy at Boston, Massachusetts, late in 1846 for service during the Mexican–American War. She was delivered to the United States Government at the Boston Navy Yard on 8 December 1846, and was commissionedthere on 19 December 1846, Lieutenant John Calhoun in command.

Mexican–American War
Supply sailed for the Gulf of Mexico on 21 January 1847 and supported the Home Squadron's operations against Mexico serving as a stores ship until late in the summer when Commodore Matthew C. Perry reduced the size of his force in Mexican waters after the American evacuation of Tabasco. Supply returned to New York City on 26 September 1847.

Dead Sea expedition
Exactly two months later, on 26 November 1847, the ship, now commanded by Lieutenant William F. Lynch, departed New York Harbor and proceeded to the Mediterranean with equipment and stores to be used in an expedition to explore the Dead Sea. She reached Gibraltar on the afternoon of 19 December 1847, and proceeded to Port Mahón with supplies for the Mediterranean Squadron. There she was delayed in quarantine for two weeks because of two cases of smallpox which occurred on board. After finally delivering stores to the American warships, she resumed her voyage to the Levant on 4 February 1848.

After touching at Malta on 9 February 1848, the ship reached Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire on 16 February 1848. There Lieutenant Lynch left the ship and proceeded to Constantinople to obtain permission from Sultan Abdülmecid I for the expedition before returning on board on 11 March 1848. After twice getting underway and being forced back to Smyrna by bad weather, the ship finally sailed to Syria and reached Beirut on 25 March 1848, and the expedition left the ship and proceeded on to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. Lynch's report of the exploration still was cited in the 1970s as a primary source of information on the area.

Meanwhile, Supply cruised in the Mediterranean. When she returned, late in August 1848, she learned that the exploring party had successfully completed their undertaking and that Lynch, forced by the poor health of his men, had chartered a small French brig to carry them to Malta. Supply then headed west and reached Malta on 11 September 1848. There, Lynch and the entire expedition party reembarked, and the ship returned to the United States. She reached Norfolk, Virginia, on 8 December 1848 and was decommissioned there on 17 December 1848.

Tripoli mission
Recommissioned on 17 February 1849, the stores ship sailed once more for the Mediterranean on 8 March 1849, carrying the United States consul to Tripoli. After disembarking her passenger and delivering stores to the ships of the Mediterranean Squadron, Supply returned home, via Brazil, arrived at Norfolk on 4 September 1849, and was laid up there on 11 September 1849.

Commodore Perry's Japan expedition
Reactivated on 22 November 1849, Supply sailed early in January 1850 and proceeded around Cape Horn to the California coast, which was overflowing with "49ers," participants in the California Gold Rush who had been drawn there by word of a gold strike at Sutter's Mill. Two years later, she returned to New York to prepare for service in the West Indies Squadron; however, she was assigned instead to the East India Squadron as stores ship in support of Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan. She entered Edo Bay on 13 February 1854 during his second visit to Japan. After serving on the China coast, she returned to New York in February 1855.

Camel Corps mission
Supply's next assignment was perhaps the most unusual duty of her career. United States Secretary of War Jefferson Davis was extremely interested in developing the territory recently acquired by the United States from Mexico as a result of its victory in the Mexican–American War and arranged for an expedition to obtain camels for experimental use in a United States Army Camel Corps in the desert west of the Rocky Mountains.

Supply, commanded by Lieutenant David Dixon Porter – who later would win fame in the American Civil War – departed New York on 4 June 1855 and headed for the Mediterranean to obtain the camels. The ship reached Smyrna in the Ottoman Empire on 30 January 1856, loaded 21 (some reports say 31) camels, and sailed on 15 February 1856 for the Gulf of Mexico. Porter delivered the animals to Indianola, Texas, in May 1856. The ship had reached the halfway point on this curious mission for she was soon on her way back to the Levant for another load of camels which she transferred to Suwaneeon the Mississippi River early in February 1857.

Paraguay Expedition


The Paraguay Squadron (Harper's Weekly, New York, 16 October 1858).

Next in Supply's string of interesting assignments came service in a special squadron assembled and sent to South American waters to support the Paraguay Expedition, a diplomatic effort to settle differences between the United States and Paraguaywhich resulted from an incident in which Paraguayans had fired upon the U.S. Navy sidewheel gunboat USS Water Witch. Supply arrived with the squadron off Asunción, Paraguay, on 25 January 1859 and stood by during negotiations which resulted in a Paraguayan apology and an indemnity which settled the affair.

A cruise with the Africa Squadron and duty on the United States East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico followed.

American Civil War
January 1861 found Supply in Pensacola Bay, Florida, with the secession of the Southern states beginning, and, on 16 January 1861 she sailed north with the families and possessions of the officers and men who had been stationed at Pensacola Navy Yard and arrived at New York on 4 February 1861.

The ship sailed south on 15 March 1861 carrying U.S. Army troops and United States Marines. She anchored in the harbor at Pensacola, Florida, on 7 April 1861 and, on 11 April 1861, landed them at night to reinforce Fort Pickens. The American Civil War broke out the following day when Confederate forces opened fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Throughout the Civil War, Supply supported the blockading squadrons on the United States East Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. She took her sole prize of the conflict on 29 January 1862. when she captured the schooner Stephen Hart, which was carrying arms and ammunition, south of Sarasota, Florida. Her services, although undramatic, enabled many warships to remain on station in the blockade and thus helped substantially to shorten the war.


Painting by W R May (Naval War College Museum)

Post–Civil War service
After the end of hostilities, Supply served in the Brazil Squadron in 1866, and in the Far East in 1867 and 1868. After being laid up from 27 June 1868 to 5 November 1869, the ship sailed for Europe, but soon returned and was decommissioned at New York on 7 July 1870.

On 21 February 1871, Supply was recommissioned and sailed eastward across the Atlantic Ocean carrying supplies for the citizens of France left destitute by the Franco-Prussian War. In the spring of 1872, the ship carried a relief crew to the sloop-of-war Lancaster in the South Atlantic Squadron and, the following year, transported the American exhibits to Austria-Hungary for the Vienna Exposition of 1873. Following two years in ordinary at New York, the ship returned to Europe to bring back the exhibits from Vienna. Later that year, she made a training cruise with boys from New York. Then, in 1877, she served as a tender to the steam frigate Minnesota, which was serving as a training ship at the time.

In 1878, Supply sailed to Europe with the American exhibits for the Paris Exposition of 1878 and brought them home in March 1879. On 26 October 1878, while off Le Havre, France, Boatswain's Mate John Flannagan rescued a fellow sailor from drowning, for which he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

On 27 January 1879, Supply collided with the British barque Diadem in the Atlantic Ocean. Diadem′s crew abandoned ship and were landed at Madeira.

Supply was decommissioned at New York on 23 April 1879 and was towed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she was laid up until she was sold on 3 May 1884 to M. H. Gregory of Great Neck, Long Island, New York.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Supply_(1846)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_F._Lynch
http://www.navsource.org/archives/09/86/86423.htm

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1865 – Battle of Papudo: A Spanish navy schooner is defeated by a Chilean corvette north of Valparaíso, Chile.


The Naval Battle of Papudo was a naval engagement fought between Spanish and Chilean forces on November 26, 1865, during the Chincha Islands War. It was fought 55 miles north of Valparaiso, Chile, near the coastal town of Papudo.


Combate naval de Papudo

Until November 1865, Chile had been the only country firm in its declaration of war against Spain, which desired to recapture its lost South American colonies. Through the efforts of its president, Mariano Ignacio Prado, Peru was subsequently galvanized into action against Spain.

Familiar with Spanish naval movements, the Chilean corvette Esmeralda, under the command of Juan Williams Rebolledo, and whose crew included Arturo Prat, Juan José Latorre and Carlos Condell, waited for any Spanish ships to appear between Coquimbo and Valparaíso.

The Chileans hoisted a British flag on their ship and maneuvered themselves close to the Spanish ship Virgen de Covadonga, under the command of Luis Fery (or Ferry), who thought that the ship may have been one of the similarly built British vessels Shearwater, Colombina, or Mutine. The Esmeralda opened fire on the Covadonga, which returned fire, but the Chilean gunners proved more skillful. After the Covadonga received severe hits that incapacitated its crew, the Spaniards attempted to escape, but it was too late. The Esmeralda followed her, continuing to fire. Fery called out his surrender to Williams Rebolledo, who ordered Manuel Thomson to take possession of the Spanish ship. Chilean engineers then worked to save the captured vessel. All in all, the battle lasted only half an hour.

In addition to Commander Fery, six Spanish officers, and 115 sailors were taken as prisoners. The Chileans also captured the correspondence of Spanish Admiral Juan Manuel Pareja. This action, together with the general failure of Spanish operations during the Chincha Islands War, led to Pareja committing suicide on board his flagship a few days later.

Covadonga, now a vessel in the Chilean Navy, later saw combat in the Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific.


Esmeralda was a wooden-hulled steam corvette of the Chilean Navy, launched in 1855, and sunk by the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar on 21 May 1879 at the Battle of Iquique during the War of the Pacific.




General characteristics
Type: Steam corvette
Tons burthen: 854 77⁄94 tons bm
Length:

• 210 ft (64 m) o/a (excluding bowsprit)
• 180 ft (55 m) (p/p)
• 166 ft (51 m) (keel)

Beam:32 ft (9.8 m)Depth of hold:18 ft (5.5 m)Propulsion:

• 4 × coal-fired boilers
• 2 × horizontal condensing steam engines
• 200 ihp (149 kW) at 31 rpm
• Single screw

Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Speed: 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) (under steam)
Complement: 200
Armament:

• As built
• 20 × 32-pounder long guns
• 2 × 12-pounder guns
• From 1868
• 12 × Armstrong 40-pounder rifled guns
• 4 × Whitworth 40-pounder smoothbore guns

Ship history
Construction
Construction of the ship was authorized on 30 June 1852 by President Manuel Montt and the Minister of War and Navy José Francisco Gana. Chilean naval officer Robert Winthrop Simpson and shipbuilder William Pitcher of Northfleet, England, signed a contract for her construction, at a total cost of £23,000, on 23 October 1854.

The ship was laid down in December 1854, and launched on 26 June 1855 under the name Esmeralda, after the frigate captured by Thomas Cochrane during the Chilean War of Independence.

Her hull was of wood, and coppered. She was 210 ft (64 m) in length overall (excluding the bowsprit), with a beam of 32 ft (9.8 m) and a depth of 18 ft (5.5 m). Four coal-fired boilers powered two horizontal condensing steam engines rated at 200 indicated horsepower (150 kW), which gave the ship a speed of up to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) under power. The single propeller could be decoupled and raised when under sail. The ship's complement was 200.

Service history
Esmeralda was commissioned into the Armada de Chile on 18 September 1855, and eventually sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall, under Simpson's command and arrived at Valparaíso on 7 November 1856.

On 26 November 1865, during the Chincha Islands War, while under the command of Juan Williams Rebolledo, she captured the Spanish schooner Virgen de Covadonga at the Battle of Papudo.

Her original armament of twenty 32-pounder guns was replaced in 1867-68 with twelve Armstrong rifled 40-pounders and four Whitworth smoothbore 40-pounders.

In 1877 she sailed to Easter Island and Tahiti on a training voyage.


Painting by Thomas Somerscales of the sinking of Esmeralda by Huáscar during the Battle of Iquique

On 21 May 1879, during the War of the Pacific, Esmeralda engaged the Peruvian ironclad Huáscar in the Battle of Iquique. Despite the material superiority of the Peruvian ship the battle lasted for over three hours. The captain of Esmeralda, Arturo Prat was killed while leading an attempt to board the enemy vessel and Huáscar eventually sank Esmeralda.

Museum Corbeta Esmeralda
In Iquique, a replica of Esmeralda as she was on 20 May 1879 was opened as a museum ship on 20 May 2011 by President Sebastián Piñera, including the descendants of Arturo Prat.

The museum corresponds on the representation of 1:1 scale of the major departments in Esmeralda.


The schooner Virgen de Covadonga was a ship that participated in the Chincha Islands War and the War of the Pacific, under Spanish and Chilean flags. She was launched in 1859. Covadonga hit a floating mine and sank off Chancay in 1880.


Covadonga at berth in Valparaiso, Chile

Construction
A Royal Order of 10 June 1857, led to Covadonga's keel being laid at the Arsenal de la Carraca in Cádiz, Spain, on 13 February 1858. She was a wooden schooner that was also fitted with steam propulsion. She was launched on 28 November 1859, and her construction cost a total of 5 million Reales de Vellón. She was named for the Battle of Covadonga - a highly symbolic event in Spanish history, being considered the beginning of the Reconquista.

She was commissioned by Royal Command on 8 October 1858. Her first commander was Lieutenant Evaristo Casariego y García. She was originally intended as a mail boat between Manila and Hong Kong, with her berth at the Naval Base of Manila, in the Philippine Islands.



Chincha Islands War service
During the Chincha Islands War, Covadonga served as an auxiliary ship to the Spanish fleet. The Chilean corvette Esmeralda, under the command of captain Juan Williams Rebolledo, captured Covadonga during the Naval Battle of Papudo, on 26 November 1865. Her capture led to Spanish Admiral Juan Manuel Pareja committing suicide.

Covadonga was commissioned into the Chilean Navy on 4 December 1865, under her original name. During this war, she also participated at the Naval Battle of Abtao.

War of the Pacific service
Main article: Battle of Punta Gruesa
During the War of the Pacific, Covadonga and Esmeralda, as the oldest and slowest ships of the Chilean navy, were left behind to blockade the port of Iquique. There they participated in one of the most important naval battles of the war.

Esmeralda faced the ironclad Huáscar at the Naval Battle of Iquique, and Covadonga manage to escape from the attacks of the Peruvian ironclad Independencia when the latter collided with a submerged rock and sank, after trying to ram the schooner,Naval Battle of Punta Gruesa, both on 21 May 1879.



Fate
On 13 September 1880, while enforcing a blockade in the port of Chancay, Peru, the sailors of Covadonga saw an unmanned boat loaded with fresh fruit and produce being carried by the currents. When they tried to lift the boat it exploded as the Peruvians had rigged it as a floating mine. Covadonga sank in less than 10 minutes.

In the disaster, out of the 109 men of the crew, the commander, Captain Pablo Ferrari, and 32 sailors died, 29 were rescued by the gun-boat Pilcomayo, and 48 were captured by the Peruvians. Also among the dead was petty officer Constantino Micalvi, a survivor of the Naval Battle of Iquique.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Papudo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esmeralda_(1855)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_schooner_Virgen_de_Covadonga
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covadonga_(1859)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1870 – Launch of RMS Atlantic, passenger ship for White Star Line


RMS Atlantic was a transatlantic ocean liner of the White Star Line that operated between Liverpool, United Kingdom, and New York City, United States. During the ship's 19th voyage, on 1 April 1873, she ran onto rocks and sank off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, killing at least 535 people. It remained the deadliest civilian maritime disaster in the North Atlantic Ocean until the sinking of SS La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898 and the greatest disaster for the White Star Line prior to the loss of Titanic in April 1912.


The Steam-ship "Atlantic," Wrecked on Mars Head on the Morning of April 1, 1873, a wood engraving published in Harper's Weekly, April 1873.

History
Atlantic was built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast in 1870, and was the second ship built for the newly born White Star Line. She was powered by a steam engine producing 600 horsepower (450 kW) driving a single propeller, along with four masts rigged for sail. She sailed for New York City on her maiden voyage on 8 June 1871.

Disaster

Quartermaster John Speakman led a number of survivors ashore by swimming to nearby rocks, creating a link from the vessel to land


John Hindley the only child survivor of the Atlantic

On 20 March 1873 Atlantic departed on her 19th voyage from Liverpool with 952 people on board, of whom 835 were passengers. En route, the captain decided to make port at Halifax, Nova Scotia, to replenish coal for the boilers.

During the approach to Halifax on the evening of 31 March, the captain and third officer were on the bridge until midnight while Atlantic made her way through a storm, proceeding at 12 knots (22 km/h) for the entrance of Halifax harbour, experiencing intermittent visibility and heavy seas. Unbeknownst to the crew or passengers, Atlantic was approximately 12 1⁄2 miles (20.1 km) off-course to the west of Halifax Harbour. Officers failed to take soundings, post a masthead lookout, reduce speed, or wake the captain as they approached the unfamiliar coast. They somehow did not spot the Sambro Lighthouse, the large landfall lighthouse which warns mariners of the rocky shoals to the west of the harbour entrance.

At 3:15 a.m. local time on 1 April 1873, Atlantic struck an underwater rock off Marr's Head, Meagher's Island (now Mars Head, Mars Island), Nova Scotia. All 10 lifeboats were lowered by the crew but were all washed away or smashed as the ship quickly filled with water and partially capsized. Survivors were forced to swim or climb ropes first to a wave-swept rock and then to a barren shore. Residents of the tiny fishing village of Lower Prospect and Terence Bay soon arrived to rescue and shelter the survivors, but at least 535 people died, leaving only 371 survivors. The ship's manifest indicates that of the 952 aboard, 156 were women and 189 were children (including two who had been born during the voyage). All women and all children perished except for one twelve-year-old boy, John Hindley. Ten crew members were lost, while 131 survived. This was the worst civilian loss of life in the North Atlantic until the wreck of La Bourgogne on 2 July 1898. The Canadian government inquiry concluded with the statement, "the conduct of Captain Williams in the management of his ship during the twelve or fourteen hours preceding the disaster, was so gravely at variance with what ought to have been the conduct of a man placed in his responsible position."

Recovery of the dead


Winslow Homer drawing of an Atlantic victim cast up by the sea


Wreck of Atlantic during body and cargo recovery, April 1873


Burial service for victims of Atlantic shipwreck, April 1873, Lower Prospect, Halifax County, N.S.

Recovery and burial of the large numbers of victims took weeks. Divers were paid rewards for recovering the many bodies trapped within the hull. According to one newspaper account, a body of one of the crew members was discovered to be that of a woman disguised as a man. "She was about twenty or twenty-five years old and had served as a common sailor for three voyages, and her sex was never known until the body was washed ashore and prepared for burial. She is described as having been a great favorite with all her shipmates, and one of the crew, speaking of her, remarked: 'I didn't know Bill was a woman. He used to take his grog as regular as any of us, and was always begging or stealing tobacco. He was a good fellow, though, and I am sorry he was a woman."

A young doctor from Germany, Emil Christiansen, had been listed as dead in transcripts of the passenger lists sent to newspapers, but it appears he had survived. Apparently, Dr. Christiansen had survived the wreck with only a broken arm and left for the United States. It is believed that he did not speak very much English and did not know to report his status to the proper authorities. It is not known how he traveled to the United States, but it is known that he married in 1876 and had four children. A descendant of Dr. Christiansen had visited the SS Atlantic Heritage Park and Interpretation Centre and pointed out the error in the passenger list at the museum site. Also, the spelling of the name was different on the passenger list transcripts, possibly leading to some confusion; on various copies of the list, it had been sometimes spelled "Emile Christianson". Many names on the list were spelled phonetically resulting in the possibility of mistaken identities.

Legacy

The Wreck of the "Atlantic" -- Breakfast to Survivors in Faneuil Hall, Boston, 1873 engraving

RMS Atlantic was the second liner commissioned by White Star (Oceanic being first) but carried the notoriety of being the first White Star Line steamer to sink. (The company had previously lost the clipper Tayleur in Dublin Bay in 1854.) Other White Star Line ships lost in the North Atlantic include Naronic in 1893, Republic in 1909, and Titanic in 1912.

Today, most of the ship lies heavily fragmented under 40 to 60 feet (12 to 18 m) of water. Artifacts recovered from several salvage operations are on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia and also at the SS Atlantic Heritage Park and Interpretation Centre, in Terence Bay, Nova Scotia. A monument to the wreck is located at the mass grave near the interpretation centre in the Terence Bay Anglican Cemetery, while a smaller monument marks a second mass grave at the Catholic cemetery.

When the 1929 film Atlantic was released, everyone knew it was a thinly disguised story about the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. Though this film was based on a stage play it also was made only seventeen years after the actual Titanic sinking and the public, especially survivors and their families, felt uncomfortable with a direct reference to Titanic. The producers of the film decided to release the movie under the title Atlantic, apparently unaware of the previous White Star Line disaster.

P.G. Wodehouse wrote a story in 1921 called "The Girl On The Boat" in which six chapters of the romance take place on a White Star liner he named "Atlantic", crossing from New York to Southampton. As the real "Atlantic" disaster had occurred 48 years before the story and 8 years before he was born, it is unlikely that he knew about it. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20717


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 November 1898 - The Portland Gale - the loss of SS Portland


was a storm that struck the coast of New England on November 26 and 27, 1898. The storm formed when two low pressure areas merged off the coast of Virginia and travelled up the coast; at its peak, it produced a storm surge of about ten feet in Cohasset harbor and hurricane-force winds in Nantucket. The storm killed more than 400 people and sank more than 150 boats and ships. It also changed the course of the North River, separating the Humarock portion of Scituate, Massachusetts, from the rest of Scituate.

Loss of the SS Portland


Last picture made of the SS Portland

On November 26, 1898, the steamship SS Portland left India Wharf in Boston, Massachusetts, for Portland, Maine, on a regularly scheduled run. She never made it to port. None of the 192 passengers and crew survived the massive storm that wreaked havoc on New England's coast — a storm that was later dubbed "the Portland Gale" after the tragic loss of the ship.

For years, controversy reigned as to the location of the ill-fated ship. In the summer of 2002, Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, joined by the National Undersea Research Center at the University of Connecticut (UConn), solved the mystery surrounding the Portland's location. Using data from American Underwater Search and Survey, they brought back images from the sea floor that conclusively identified the remains of the steamship Portland.

Researchers from NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, along with the NOAA-UConn team and filmmakers from [The Science Channel], returned to the wreck of the famed 19th-century steamship from September 13–18, 2003. Kicking off the expedition to peer into the vessel's past and plan for its future, the team conducted the first surveys of the Portland since its location was confirmed in August 2002 within NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the Massachusetts coast.

In addition to documenting the Portland, the expedition team investigated the wrecks of the Louise B. Crary and Frank A. Palmer, a pair of Boston-bound coal schooners that collided and sank in 1902 as a result of a navigational error. Like the Portland, the Craryand Palmer lie within the boundaries of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Side-scan sonar images obtained in 2002 during a joint mission between NOAA and NURC-UConn revealed that the two large vessels plunged to the sea floor simultaneously, their bows locked together in a deadly embrace.

The researchers also investigated several nearby mystery wrecks that have yet to be fully identified.

Damage to coastal towns
Dozens of houses were destroyed in each of the towns along the South Shore of Massachusetts. Coastal railroads were damaged in Scituate and in Hull, telegraph and electric lines were severed, and the ferris wheel and roller coaster in Hull were destroyed. The Duxbury pier was damaged, beaches were badly eroded, and dozens of ships and boats were wrecked on the beaches.

Change to the course of the North River
The southern coast of Scituate, Massachusetts, is marked by four distinct flaws, running from First Cliff on the northern end of the town's coast down to Fourth Cliff in the southern end. The area surrounding and including Fourth Cliff is called Humarock. Prior to the Portland Gale, the North River flowed south between Fourth Cliff and Marshfield, Massachusetts, joining the South River and entering the ocean two kilometers to the south of the current opening. A thin strip of beach, which connected Third Cliff to Fourth Cliff, was breached by the storm, leaving Fourth Cliff an island. Eventually the old inlet has silted in, forcing the South River to flow north between Marshfield and Fourth Cliff, where it now joins the North River to enter the ocean between Third and Fourth Cliffs. Although Fourth Cliff is now connected by land to Marshfield, North of Rexhame Beach, there are no roads across the old inlet. As a result, Fourth Cliff and the rest of the Humarock part of Scituate are only accessible via the Marshfield Avenue and Julian Street bridges from Marshfield. The change to the course of the North River also increased the salinity of the large marsh area surrounding the current outlet, resulting in the loss of the valuable salt haying business.


PS Portland was a large side-wheel paddle steamer, an ocean-going steamship with side-mounted paddlewheels. She was built in 1889 for passenger service between Boston, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine. She is best known as the namesake of the infamous Portland Gale of 1898, a massive blizzard that struck coastal New England, claiming the lives of over 400 people and more than 150 vessels.

Portland sank off of Cape Ann with all hands, the exact number of which cannot be determined, as the only known passenger list went down with the ship. Initial newspaper accounts at the time estimated the loss as from 99 to 118 persons. The bodies of only 16 crew and 35 passengers were ever recovered, but present-day estimates are that the Portland was carrying, in total, from 193 to 245 persons, including 63 crew. Her loss represented New England's greatest steamship disaster prior to the year 1900.



Construction and design
Portland's wooden hull was built by the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine. The 1200-horsepower vertical-beam steam engine was constructed by the Portland Company, with a bore, or cylinder diameter, measuring 5 ft 2 in (1.57 m) across, together with a 12 ft (3.7 m) stroke. The ship's two iron boilers were constructed at the Bath Iron Works, also in Bath, Maine.

Portland was built for the Portland Steam Packet Company (later renamed Portland Steamship Company), at a cost of $250,000, to provide overnight passenger service between Boston and Portland. She was one of New England's largest and most luxurious paddle steamers in existence at the time, and after nine years' solid performance, she had earned a reputation as a safe and dependable vessel.

Shipwreck
The shipwreck is lying 460 feet (140 m) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean near Gloucester, Massachusetts, at an undisclosed location within the federally-protected Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The site was first located in 1989 by John Fish and Arnold Carr of American Underwater Search and Survey. The find was confirmed in 2002 by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration expedition that used ROV's to photograph the wreck. The wreck was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.

Divers explore The Portland wreckage


Portland, drawn in 1895 by Samuel Ward Stanton, who died on the Titanic.
In 2008, five Massachusetts scuba divers became the first to reach the steamship, also known as the "Titanic of New England".[8] The divers made three successful dives, and reported that the wreck was strewn with artifacts, like stacks of dishes, mugs, wash basins and toilets, but no human remains. They did not, however, explore below the deck because of the danger. Because of the depth of the wreck site, they reported that some of their dive lights imploded, and they could only explore the site for 10–15 minutes before needing to return to the surface. The divers "were unable to retrieve artifacts" due to rules in place at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.


Another drawing of Portland by Samuel Ward Stanton.

Purported site visit during WWII
An earlier claim of locating and reportedly visiting the wreck of the Portland arose from the last week of June 1945. A dive commissioned by noted author Edward Rowe Snow (who is also known as the Lighthouse Santa) supposedly occurred during the last week of June through the first week of July during the last year of the war. Snow supposedly recorded the affidavit of diver Al George, from Malden, Massachusetts, in pages 178-180 of his book Strange Tales from Nova Scotia to Cape Hatteras. According to the affidavit, George found the site by traveling to a location discovered by Captain Charles G. Carver of Rockland, Maine. The site is roughly identified as follows: "Highland Light bears 175 degrees true at a distance of 4.5 miles; the Pilgrim Monument, 6.25 miles away has a bearing of 210 degrees; Race Point Coast Guard Station, bearing 255 degrees, is seven miles distant."

According to diver George, recovery of artifacts would be cost-prohibitive, and nearly impossible given the status of the wreck. Even acknowledging the likely presence of uncut diamonds in the purser's safe, George assessed the chances of recovery as a losing financial proposition, based in part on how deeply entrenched in the sand the wreck was, and how widely dispersed the impact with the bottom had spread bits and pieces of the ship.

In light of more recent discovery, the accuracy of this entire account is highly questionable.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Gale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_(shipwreck)