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

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 February 1884 - The Advance, a wooden topsail schooner built in 1872 at Terrigal, wrecked


The Advance was a wooden topsail schooner built in 1872 at Terrigal, that was wrecked when it missed stays whilst carrying ballast (vessel was used in the lime trade) between Botany Bay and Port Stephens under the command of Captain J. Delaney and was lost at Henry Head Bight, Botany Bay, New South Wales on 11 February 1884



Ship description and construction
Length, 63 feet 4 inches (19.30 m)
Breadth, 17 feet 0 inches (5.18 m)
Depth, 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m)
She was rigged as a fore and aft schooner, built by Mr Thomas Davis at his yard at Terrigal in 1872.


schooners drying their sails in Manitowoc in 1896

Ship service history
The Advance was originally employed between the Tweed River and Sydney but when she was purchased by Messrs, David Cairncross and William Rooke, she was placed in the trade between Port Stephens and Botany Bay carrying shells for lime burning purposes in which she remained till she has wrecked.

In July 1877 one of the crewman of the Advance died on board the vessel.

The cause of the death of Alexander M'Lean, a seaman of the schooner Advance, on board that vessel. John Smith, master of the schooner, deposed that she lay at the Victoria Wharf, Darling Harbour. The deceased was about 55 years of age, a native of Scotland, and believed unmarried, he had been employed on board the Advance for about eight months. John Smith saw him alive about a quarter to 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, the crew of the schooner consisted of about four men in all and she had been recently infested with rats, Smith adopted the following plan to get rid of them on the afternoon of Saturday, John Smith lit a fire in the hold, and threw on it charcoal and sulphur, and battened down the hatches with the view of preventing the escape of fumes, and then directed the crew to go on shore and not to come onboard till between 10 and 11 o'clock on Sunday forenoon, when they were to open the hatches. John Smith did not give any special caution about not going down after taking off the hatches; there might have been about three parts of a bucket of charcoal and a quarter of a pound of sulphur; on Sunday afternoon be heard that M'Lean was lying dead on board the schooner.

Jeremiah O’Connell, Cook on board the schooner, deposed that he last saw deceased alive about 4 o'clock on Saturday afternoon at the Victoria Wharf, he was then sober. O’Connell left the Advance about 6 o'clock in company with the mate, and returned about half past 12 on Sunday afternoon alone. He went forward and saw that the scuttle leading to the forecastle, and which was closed when he left, was open ; the other hatches were still closed; he looked into the forecastle and saw the deceased sitting on a seat with his body bent forward and his head resting on the opposite seat there was a smell of charcoal coming up out of the scuttle, he thought deceased was drunk, he spoke to him, but got not reply he shook him, but could not awake him, and found that he was dead.​

Wreck
The particulars of the wreck on 11 February 1884 are related by one of the crew:

The Advance in ballast got underway for Port Stephens at about 7 o’clock yesterday (Monday) morning, from the Government wharf, Botany Bay there was a light breeze from the SE at the time, but the weather was overcast, and the wind gradually freshened till, about three quarters of an hour afterwards, it was blowing a strong gale. We attempted to beat out, and made one board across from the south side of the bay, near Captain Cook's monument towards La Perouse As we proceeded it was thought that she would be able to get right out, but when nearing La Perouse the wind headed us veering more to the eastward, and we had to go around in an attempting, to do so the vessel missed stays. We filled on her, as there was no room to wear we made another attempt to stay her She would not stay, however, and the anchor was accordingly let go, which brought her up A kedge was then run out to try and heave her off and when we got to work the vessel was gradually being dragged off when the line unfortunately gave way. All this time the schooner was hanging by the anchor, with her stern just clear of the rocks, and the surf was beginning to break in heavily. Just after the kedge line parted, the pawls of the windlass gave way, and then, nothing holding her she headed right round for the rocks, upon which she was dashed very shortly afterwards We had just enough time to snatch up some of our clothes, get into the boat, which was alongside and pull away. We pulled out Into the bay, and the schooner Harold bound from Wollongong to the waterworks with a cargo of coal coming up at the time we got on board of her and were all landed safely at the Waterworks, whence we came on to Sydney
In the afternoon all that could be seen of the Advance was about 12 feet of her waist.​

After investigation by the Marine Board of the master of the Advance, J. E. Delany, it was found that there was nothing in the evidence upon which the Marine Board could find a charge of default and they considered that the schooner was lost in consequence of her missing stays, and parting her anchor.

Wreck site and wreckage
From contemporary newspaper reports the location of the wreck was described as:

The scene of the wreck is called Henry Head Bight where several other vessels have come to grief, notably the Sea Breeze the spot where she went ashore being not more 10 in 20 yards from that where the Advance met her fate. It is middle of the North Head of Botany Bay, and about half a mile from La Perouse The surf breaks in with great violence during SE gales into the bight and as the water is full of jagged rocks for some. distance from the base of the almost perpendicular cliffs, which rise to some height, it can well be Imagined that the crew of a vessel going ashore here in very heavy weather would have but little chance of saving their lives​

The location of the shipwreck is approximately 33.99919°S 151.2390°ECoordinates:

33.99919°S 151.2390°E, but the wreck has not been discovered.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_(1872)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 February 1893 - White Star Line ship SS Naronic lost at sea after leaving Liverpool on 11 February 1893 bound for New York, with the loss of all 74 people aboard. The ship's fate remains a mystery.


SS Naronic was a steamship built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the White Star Line. The ship was lost at sea after leaving Liverpool on February 11, 1893 bound for New York, with the loss of all 74 people on board. The ship's fate is a mystery that remains unsolved to this day.


The SS Bovic, sister ship of the SS Naronic

History
Naronic was launched on May 26, 1892, completed on 11 July 1892 and departed for her maiden voyage on 15 July 1892, sailing from Liverpool to New York. The 470 ft, twin screw steamship was designed as a freighter with the addition of limited passenger quarters to handle the increased traffic that White Star was experiencing on its non-New York routes. After her first run, Naronic made five more sailings without incident, before departing on what was to be her final voyage on February 11, 1893 under the command of Captain William Roberts.



Disappearance
For this voyage to New York, Naronic had a crew of 50, plus 24 cattlemen to attend to the ship's primary cargo, livestock. After leaving Liverpool, she stopped briefly at Point Lynas, Anglesey, North Wales, to put her pilot ashore before heading west into heavy seas, never to be seen again.

Naronic had no wireless telegraph with which to send a distress call (it would be another five years before the Marconi Company opened their factory that produced the system the RMS Titanic used to send her distress signals), so whatever problem she encountered, her crew was on their own. The only knowledge we have of the incident comes from two sources.

The British steamer SS Coventry reported seeing two of Naronic's empty lifeboats; the first lifeboat, found at 2:00 am on 4 March, was capsized and the second, found at 2:00 pm, was swamped. The first of these was found 19 miles (some sources put this at 90 miles) from the site where the White Star Line's Titanic would later meet a similar fate.

The second source of information are four bottles with messages inside, which were recovered later, that claimed to have been written while Naronic was sinking. Two of the bottles were found in the United States, one on March 3 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, and one in Ocean View, Virginia, on March 30. A third bottle was found in June 1893 in the Irish Channel, and the fourth was found on September 18 in the River Merseynear the ship's point of departure, Liverpool. While all four specifically mention Naronic sinking, the second bottle found contained the most detailed message:

3:10 AM Feb.19. SS Naronic at sea. To who picks this up: report when you find this to our agents if not heard of before, that our ship is sinking fast beneath the waves. It's such a storm that we can never live in the small boats. One boat has already gone with her human cargo below. God let all of us live through this. We were struck by an iceberg in a blinding snowstorm and floated two hours. Now it 3:20 AM by my watch and the great ship is dead level with the sea. Report to the agents at Broadway, New New York, M. Kersey & Company. Goodby all.​

It was signed "John Olsen, Cattleman"; however, there was no one with this name listed on the ship's manifest, the closest being John O'Hara and John Watson. A similar situation exists with the first bottle found, in that the signature, "L. Winsel", is also not on the manifest. The messages in the other two bottles are unsigned. Because of this, the reliability of the bottles as genuine testaments to the ship's fate has been questioned and the Court of Inquiry into the incident did not accept the bottled notes as genuine. If the messages are correct, the ship sank sometime after 3:20 a.m on February 19, 1893.




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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 February 1897 – Launch of HSwMS Najaden, a Swedish Navy training ship - today a museum-ship


HSwMS Najaden is a Swedish Navy training ship launched in 1897, previously preserved as a museum ship in Halmstad and moored on the river Nissan by Halmstad Castle, since July 2014 in Fredrikstad, Norway.





The three-masted, wooden hulled sailing ship was constructed at the Royal Naval Shipyard in Karlskrona in 1897 and served in the Swedish Navy as a sail training ship until 1938.

In 1946 she was taken over by the city of Halmstad and completely restored. She now serves as a museum ship and is in the care of the Association of the Friends of Najaden (Föreningen Najadens Vänner).

Najaden passed into Norwegian ownership Friday, July 4, 2014. A brief ceremony led by city council's chairman, Conservative Ann-Charlotte Westlund was held in front of Najaden in central Halmstad. At that time about 200 protesters demonstrated against the sale of the ship to Norway.

On Saturday, July 5, 2014, Najaden was towed from Halmstad to its new home port in Fredrikstad, Norway. The sail training ship af Chapman was a contemporary of Najaden in Swedish Navy service

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSwMS_Najaden_(1897)
http://www.fullriggarennajaden.se/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 February 1907 - french cruiser Jean Bart, a 4,800-ton first-class iron-hulled protected cruiser of the French Navy, wrecked


Jean Bart was a 4,800-ton first-class iron-hulled protected cruiser of the French Navy.



Jean Bart was built in Rochefort, France, in 1886 and commissioned in 1892. In 1893 she took part in the naval review during the World's Columbian Exhibition. She was re-rated as a second-class cruiser in 1897 and was sent to East Asia. In 1902, she returned to Lorient, France, to be decommissioned.

Jean Bart was recommissioned in 1906 and sent to the Caribbean. She ran aground in 1907 at Ras Nouadhibou on the Atlantic coast of Africa and became a total loss.




The Alger class was a class of protected cruisers of the French Navy. The class comprised Alger, Isly and Jean Bart.

Design
The ships of the class were 105 metres (344 ft 6 in) long, had a beam of 12.98 metres (42 ft 7 in), a draught of 6.1 metres (20 ft 0 in), and had a displacement of 4,313 ton. The ships were equipped with 2 shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 8,000 ihp (6,000 kW) and produced a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h).

The ships had deck armour of 2 in (5.1 cm), conning tower armour of 3 in (7.6 cm) and a complement 387 men. The main armament of the ships were four 16 cm (6.3 in) single turret guns. Secondary armament included six single 14 cm (5.5 in) guns, two 6.5 cm (2.6 in) single guns and ten 4.7 cm (1.9 in) single gun







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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 February 1992 - The Submarine Incident off Kildin Island was a collision between USS Baton Rouge and the Russian B-276 Kostroma near the Russian naval base of Severomorsk


The Submarine Incident off Kildin Island was a collision between the US Navy nuclear submarine USS Baton Rouge and the Russian Navy nuclear submarine B-276 Kostroma near the Russian naval base of Severomorsk on 11 February 1992. The incident occurred while the US unit was engaged in a covert mission, apparently aimed at intercepting Russian military communications. Although a majority of sources claim that the American submarine was trailing her Russian counterpart, some authors believe that neither Kostroma nor Baton Rouge had been able to locate each other before the collision.



Background
Following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, uncertainty prevailed among the US intelligence community about the attitude of the former Soviet forces, especially the strategic assets that remained under Russian control. The US government tasked the Navy to continue keeping a close watch on the main bases of Russian nuclear submarines to monitor developments. During the cold war, this type of submarine surveillance was known as "Operation Holy Stone;" submariners nicknamed the program "Operation Pinnacle" or "Bollard". Author Jeffrey T. Richelson maintains that "Holy Stone" continued unabated and that the 1992 incident was part of the operation. This intelligence gathering included tapping Soviet submarine communication cables, recording the pattern of noises from Soviet submarines, and observing submarine-launched ballistic missiletests.


USS Baton Rouge awaiting disposal at Mare Island(1995)

Collision
Blind encounter
The collision occurred at 8:16 pm local time at a point slightly over 12 miles from the shoreline, in waters that the United States regarded as international, and that Russia considered as five miles inside the Russian territorial sea (due to the Russian use of a straight baseline). The mission of Baton Rouge off Severomorsk was reportedly the recovery or delivery of intelligence-monitoring devices on the seabed. The American press claimed that the submarine had been checking wireless traffic between Russian bases, but the Russian counterpart asserted that the two boats were engaged in a 'cat-and-mouse game', an opinion also supported by a number of Western sources. According to naval analyst Eugene Miasnikov, the amount of antisubmarine surveillance deployed by the Russians along their shores makes the first possibility implausible. He asserts that the second argument also seems to be weak given the circumstances and that the collision itself seemed to have happened by chance. The breaking waves and the shallow waters of that area of the Barents sea prevented early enemy detection by either submarine. At the time of the incident both vessels were using only passive sonars,.' Miasnikov maintains that the submarines of the Los Angelesclass are unable to detect acoustic signals from targets located within a cone of 60 degrees astern, thus the most probable scenario was that Kostroma approached Baton Rouge from behind. Indeed, the collision took place when the Kostroma was surfacing, hitting the US submarine underneath on her aft section. The Sierra class sonar is also ‘deaf’ to the aft direction; her usual pattern of acoustic search is moving along a loop course. The incident, however, implied that Russian attack submarines are capable of avoiding passive acoustic detection, at least under certain conditions.

Damage

A Sierra-class submarine

Both submarines sustained damage, but no casualties were reported. Russian reports and American aerial surveillance agree that Kostroma's sail was dented on her front section. Russian navy sources reportedly found pieces of composite material from Baton Rouge's anti-sonar tiles. The US Navy claimed that besides some scratches, dents, and two minor cuts on her port ballast tank, Baton Rouge did not suffer major damage. But in any case it was serious since any rupture on the single hull of Baton Rouge would have compromised her pressure resistance. The deactivation of Baton Rouge was announced on 17 September 1993, although some sources claim that the American submarine had already been taken out of service less than a year after the incident, in January 1993. According to Gregory Stitz, curator of Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, and some European sources, the costs of repairing the damaged pressure hull, along with a programmed refueling, were well beyond the planned budget. Therefore, the US Navy chose to decommission the submarine. Russian naval officers alleged that the US submarine had become a constructive total loss right after the collision. Baton Rouge was deactivated at Mare Island shipyard on 1 November 1993 and eventually scrapped at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. As for Kostroma, she was laid up on 28 March 1992 and had been fully repaired at Nerpa shipyards in Snezhnogorsk by 29 June 1992. The Russian submarine was temporarily renamed Krab, before recovering her original name in November 1996. After a huge overhaul, again at Nerpa, she returned to service in 2005.

Political consequences

Kostroma at anchor, showing a crest with a large numeral 'One' on the front of her sail, a "kill marking" which commemorates the collision

The incident produced intense embarrassment in Washington. Russia complained via diplomatic channels, and the Pentagon quickly acknowledged that a collision had occurred, contrary to official policy at the time. A meeting between Secretary of State James Baker and Russian president Boris Yeltsin was arranged immediately. The Russian Navy accused the United States of continuing intelligence operations around Russia's home waters despite the end of the cold war. All of this prompted the US Navy to stop some specific submarine activities off Russian bases, such as tapping underwater cables or intercepting wireless communications. This measure, however, did not prevent a later incident in March 1993, when the Sturgeon-class submarine USS Grayling collided with a Delta-class submarine, K-407 Novomoskovsk off Kola peninsula

Decommissioning of Baton Rouge
Less than two years later, on 1 November 1993, Baton Rouge was placed in commission in reserve. On 13 January 1995, she became the first Los Angeles-class submarine to be decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register, after only 17½ years in commission. After having been refueled (Baton Rouge was not), some of her sister ships have served 25 years or more. Ex-Baton Rouge entered the Nuclear Powered Ship-Submarine Recycling Program and ceased to exist on 30 September 1997.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_incident_off_Kildin_Island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Baton_Rouge_(SSN-689)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08689.htm

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 11 February


1670 – Launch of French Sceptre 80, later 84 guns (designed and built by Laurent Coulomb) at Toulon – broken up 1692


1693 – Launch of HMS Carlisle was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy,

HMS Carlisle was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Deptford on 11 February 1693.
Carlisle was wrecked in 1696.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Carlisle_(1693)


1747 – Launch of French Content 64 at Toulon - condemned January 1770 and hulked, burnt by the British 1793.

Content class. Designed by Joseph Véronique-Charles Chapelle, built by him, and François Chapelle respectively.
Content 64 (launched 11 February 1747 at Toulon) - condemned January 1770 and hulked, burnt by the British 1793.
Orphée 64 (launched 10 May 1749 at Toulon) – captured by the British in February 1758


1778 - HMS Liverpool (28), Cptn. Henry Bellew, driven ashore near Jamaica Bay, Long Island, in thick weather and a heavy sea while taking dispatches from the Delaware to New York

HMS Liverpool was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1758, she saw active service in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. She was wrecked in Jamaica Bay, near New York, in 1778.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Liverpool_(1758)


1796 - HMS Leda (36) foundered off Madeira

HMS Leda (1783), a 36-gun fifth rate launched in 1783 and foundered 1796


Lines (ZAZ2806)


Inboard profile plan (ZAZ2807)

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-325567;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L


1803 – Launch of french Lion was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Lion was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
She took part in Allemand's expedition of 1805 under Captain Eleonore-Jean-Nicolas Soleil.
On 21 October 1809, she departed Toulon escorting a convoy bound to Barcelona. Six days into the journey, she encountered a British squadron sent by Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, which gave chase. Lion ran aground near Sète, and was set on fire by her crew to avoid capture.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Lion_(1803)


1809 - Robert Fulton erhält ein US-Patent auf seine Version für ein Dampfschiff. Er hat frühere Entwürfe entscheidend modifiziert und verleiht der Seefahrt damit neue Impulse.

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


1813 - Currach Fishing Tragedy – On 11 February 1813, 200 currachs were fishing off Bruckless Bay, Donegal. The shoal of herring moved out to sea, followed by the fragile boats. A sudden storm capsized most of them. Over 80 fishermen drowned

A currach (Irish: curach, Irish pronunciation: [ˈkʊɾˠax]) is a type of Irish boat with a wooden frame, over which animal skins or hides were once stretched, though now canvas is more usual. It is sometimes anglicised as "curragh".

The construction and design of the currach are unique to the west coasts of Ireland. It is referred to as a naomhóg (Irish pronunciation: [nˠəi'βˠo:gˠ]; lit. "little holy one", "little female saint", from naomh ([nˠe:βˠ]) "saint, holy" and the feminine diminutive suffix -óg) in counties Cork, Waterford and Kerry and as a "canoe" in West Clare. It is similar to the Welsh coracle, though the two originated independently. The plank-built rowing boat found on the west coast of Connacht is also called a currach or curach adhmaid ("wooden currach"), and is built in a style very similar to its canvas-covered relative.


Fishermen in currach with outboard motor heading back to their harbour at the west coast of Ireland in 1986

A larger version of this is known simply as a bád iomartha (rowing boat). It is suggested that the prototype of this wooden boat was built on Inishnee around 1900 and based upon a tender from a foreign vessel seen in Cleggan harbour. These wooden boats progressively supplanted the canvas currach as a workboat around the Connemara coast. This rowing currach measured up to 20 feet, and is still seen in water in North Donegal.

The currach has traditionally been both a sea boat and a vessel for inland waters. The River currach was especially well known for its shallow-draft and maneuverability. Its framework was constructed of hazel rods and Sally twigs, which was covered by a single ox-hide, which not only insulated the currach, but also helped dictate its shape. These currach were common on the rivers of South Wales, and were often referred to as Boyne currach. However, when Ireland declared the netting of salmon and other freshwater fish illegal in 1948, its once common appearance quickly dwindled.

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


1862 - Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles directs the formation of an organization to evaluate new inventions and technical development that eventually leads to National Academy of Science.

Gideon Welles (July 1, 1802 – February 11, 1878), nicknamed "Father Neptune", was the United States Secretary of the Navy from 1861 to 1869, a cabinet post he was awarded after supporting Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election. Although opposed to the Union blockade of Southern ports, he duly carried out his part of the Anaconda Plan, largely sealing off the Confederate coastline and preventing the exchange of cotton for war supplies. This is viewed as a major cause of Union victory in the Civil War, and his achievement in expanding the Navy almost tenfold was widely praised. Welles was also instrumental in the Navy's creation of the Medal of Honor.



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


1907 - the paddle steamer Larchmont sank off Block Island, Rhode Island after colliding with the schooner Harry Knowlton. About 150 of the people 200 aboard were lost



https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larchmont_(Schiff)


1918 - French submarine Diane suffered an internal explosion in the Bay of Biscay off La Pallice, Vendée, France, and sank with the loss of her entire crew of 43.

The French submarine Diane was the lead boat of the class of two submarines built for the French Navy during World War I.
On 11 February 1918, Diane suffered an internal explosion in the Bay of Biscay off La Pallice, Vendée, France, and sank with the loss of her entire crew of 43


Sister ship Daphné underway, 1916–18

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_submarine_Diane_(1916)


1943 - USS Fletcher (DD 445) and Scouting Observation Plane (VCS 9) from light cruiser Helena (CL 50) sink Japanese submarine I-18 in the Coral Sea.


1945 - The Yalta Conference ends after an 8-day session where President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, discuss Europes post-war reorganization and the reestablishment of a war-torn Europe, and for the Soviets to enter the war against Japan upon Germanys defeat.

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1759 – Launch of french Modeste, a 64-gun Vaillant class third rate ship of the line of the French Navy and captured later that year by the british.


HMS Modeste was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously the Modeste, of the French Navy, launched in 1759 and captured later that year.



French career and capture
Modeste was laid down at Toulon in April 1756 to a design by Noël Pomet, and was launched on 12 February 1759. Work on her was completed by May 1759, and she joined "Admiral"[2] Jean-François de La Clue-Sabran's fleet in the port. The Seven Years' War was being fought at the time, and the Toulon fleet was being blockaded by Admiral Edward Boscawen. Taking advantage of the British fleet's departure for supplies, the French left port and sailed into the Atlantic. There they were chased and finally brought to battle by Boscawen off Lagos, Portugal. The ensuing Battle of Lagos, fought between 18 and 19 August 1759, saw the defeat of the French fleet, with two of their ships destroyed and three taken. Captured alongside Modeste were the 74-gun ships Téméraire and Centaure.

Taken as a prize into Portsmouth, she was surveyed there that December, and was purchased for the navy on 7 January 1760 for the sum of £17,068.18.1½. She was named HMS Modeste, retaining her French name, on 11 January and was added to the navy lists. Having been commissioned into the navy, she underwent a refit in June and July 1760.

British career
Modeste was commissioned under her first commander, Captain Henry Speke, in April 1760, though command soon passed to Captain Robert Walsingham. Walsingham went out to the Mediterranean and was involved in naval operations there, capturing the 32-gun Bouffonne off Cadiz at the Action of 17 July 1761, while in company with HMS Thetis.[3] Modeste then sailed to the Leeward Islands in October 1761 and was present at the reduction of Martinique in January and February 1762. Captain John Hollwall took command later that year and Modeste remained in the Leeward Islands until returning to Britain to be paid off in March 1764.

She spent the next few years laid up, being occasionally surveyed and repaired as required. She was fitted out at Portsmouth in early 1771 and was recommissioned as a guard ship under Captain John Wheelock. She went out to Jamaica in June 1771, but returned to Britain to be paid off in October 1772. She was fitted out for her final role, a receiving ship at Portsmouth, between July and August 1778. She saw out the rest of the American War of Independence and most of the French Revolutionary Wars in this state, until finally being broken up at Portsmouth in August 1800.



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and the name in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Modeste' (1759), a captured French Third Rate, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard. Signed by Edward Allin [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]. Reverse: Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the roundhouse, quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, gun deck (lower deck), orlop deck, hold and platforms, for 'Modeste' (1759).


Vaillant class. Designed and built by Noël Pomet.

Vaillant' 64 (launched 1 October 1755 at Toulon) - hulked 1783.

Modeste 64 (launched 12 February 1759 at Toulon) – captured by the British in the Battle of Lagos in August 1759 and added to the RN under the same name, BU 1800


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, inboard profiel (no waterlines) and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Modeste' (1759), a captured French Third Rate, prior to fitting as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Modeste_(1759)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1793 - HMS Alligator (28), Cptn. William Affleck, captures the French privateer Sans Peur in the North Sea


HMS Alligator was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally ordered during the American War of Independence but was completed too late to see service during the conflict. Instead she had an active career during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Commissioned during the last few years of peace prior to the outbreak of war with France, Alligator served in British waters, making trips as far afield as the Mediterranean and the North American coast. During the period of conflict that began in 1793, Alligator spent a considerable amount of time in the West Indies under a number of commanders, and was effective in anti-privateer operations. Despite this she was laid up for a period starting in 1795, and was reduced to a 16-gun troopship in 1800. Further service followed in the West Indies, supporting the fleet and army movements around the islands, and taking part in the capture of several French frigates. She was again laid up, and as the end of hostilities approached, was deemed surplus and was sold in 1814.



Construction and commissioning
Alligator was one of the third batch of Enterprise-class ships to be ordered by the Admiralty, with the contract to build her being awarded to Philemon Jacobs, of Sandgate on 7 May 1782. She was laid down there in December 1782 and launched on 18 April 1787. With there being no immediate need for a large number of ships in the navy after the end of the war with America, Alligator was gradually completed between 20 April 1787 and 18 July 1790, at first at Deptford Dockyard and then at the civilian yards of Randall & Co, at Rotherhithe. She cost a total of £2,771 with £4,330 spent on fitting costs and expenses incurred at Deptford. She commissioned under her first commander, Captain Isaac Coffin in June 1790.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth for Pomona (1778), then Pegasus (1779), then Mercury (1779), and wih pencil alterations for Hussar (1784), Rose (1783), Dido (1784), Thisbe (1783), Alligator (1787), Circe (1783), Lapwing (1785), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 171765-1784]. The top ship is not 'Laurel' as listed in the annotation on the right, as this plan predates her ordering by over one year.

Interwar years
Coffin commissioned Alligator during the period of tensions known as the Spanish Armament and commanded her over the three years leading up to the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France. At one point, while Alligator was anchored at the Nore, one of her crew fell overboard. Coffin jumped into the water to rescue him, and succeeded in recovering the man before he drowned, but in doing so experienced a serious rupture while carrying out the rescue, that would dog him in later life. From the Nore Coffin moved to Spithead, and then to Ceuta, where Alligator briefly carried the flag of Admiral Philip Cosby. Superseded by the arrival of HMS Fame, Alligator was sent to cruise off Western Ireland. In 1792 Coffin sailed to Canada and returned carrying Lord Dorchester. Alligator then underwent a refit at Deptford for £2,895 and recommissioned in December 1792.

French Revolutionary Wars
From February 1793 her commander was Captain William Afleck, who served briefly in the North Sea, achieving success against French privateers in the region.
On 12 February 1793 he captured the Sans Peur, followed by the Prend Tout on 21 February. Afleck left Britain bound for the Leeward Islands on 18 March 1793.

He stopped at Halifax, where the schooner Diligent joined him. From there they sailed, with three transports carrying an artillery detachment and 310 troops primarily from the 4th Regiment of Foot, all under the command of Brigadier General James Ogilvie, to St Pierre and Miquelon on 7 May. They captured Saint Pierre on 14 May without firing a shot. They also captured 18 small vessels carrying fish, and two American schooners with provisions and naval stores. Trepassey joined them a day later and then sailed to Miquelon to complete the conquest. Prize money for the capture of the islands was paid in October 1796.

On 11 December 1793, Alligator captured the French ship Triomphant in St Marks Bay, in the island of Hispaniola. Next, Alligator captured the French 14-gun Liberté near Jamaica on 28 March 1794. On 14 June, Alligator was among the vessels that participated in the capture of Port-au-Prince. In October that year command passed to Captain Thomas Surridge. Captain Thomas Afleck succeeded Surridgein January 1795, and paid Alligator off the following month.

Alligator was laid up at Portsmouth for five years, until being refitted there as a 16-gun troopship between February and March 1800. She was recommissioned in February under Captain George Bowen, under whom she took part in operations off Egypt during the French campaign there. While supporting the landing of troops in Abu Qir Bay had one man killed and three wounded. On 17 July she recaptured the . Because Alligator served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

Captain Philip Beaver took over command in May 1802. He remained Alligator's captain until she was recommissioned in May the following year under Commander Richardson.

In April 1803, however, Alligator was sailing from Gibraltar to Britain in company with Dragon and the store ship Prevoyante when they sighted two French ships of the line off Cape St. Vincent. The French ships veered off rather than engage the British vessels. Later that year Alligator went out to the Leeward Islands and on 27 September was one of a number of ships that captured the 18-gun Dutch ship Hippomenes at Demerara.

Napoleonic Wars
Commander Robert Henderson was in command between 1804 and 1805, during which time Alligator was one of several ships to chase down and capture the 32-gun Proserpine at Surinam on 6 May 1804.

Alligator formed part of Commodore Samuel Hood's squadron at the capture of Surinam River in 1804. The squadron consisted of Hood's flagship Centaur, Pandour, Serapis, Unique, Hippomenes, Drake, and transports carrying 2000 troops under Brigadier-General Sir Charles Green. Both British and Dutch casualties were light.

In November, Alligator recaptured from a French privateer the Danish brig Hoff, which was carrying a cargo of slaves. On 24 June 1805, Alligator captured the Spanish brig Santo Chritle, which was carrying brandy from Spain to Havanna.

Henderson was succeeded by Commander Augustus Collier in 1806, who returned her to the Leeward Islands. There in March 1806 she came under the command of Captain Hugh Pigot.

Fate
Captain Robert Bell Campbell replaced Pigot from 1807. Campbell returned Alligator to Britain, where she was laid up at Plymouth in April 1807. She was offered for sale there on 21 July 1814 as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close. She was sold that day for the sum of £1,760.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile plan for the Enterprize Class 1770: Enterprize (1774), Siren (1773), Fox (1773), Surprize (1774), Acteon (1775), Medea (1778), Serpine (1777), Andromeda (1777), Aurora (1777), Sibyl (1779), Brilliant (1779), Pomona (1778), Crescent (1779), Nemesis (1780), Resource (1778), Mercury (1779), Cyclops (1779), Vestal (1779), Laurel (1779), Pegasus (1779), and with modifications, written in green ink, for Hussar (1784), Rose (1783), Dido (1784), Thisbe (1783), Alligator (1787), Circe (1783), Lapwing (1785), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates building at various Royal and private yards. The reverse of the plan shows a section through the deck for the after Bitts as they appear face on, from upper deck to keel.


Enterprize class 28-gun sixth rates 1773-87; 27 ships, designed by John Williams.

• HMS Siren 1773 - wrecked on the coast of Connecticut 1777.
• HMS Fox 1773 - taken by USS Hancock 1777, retaken by HMS Flora a month later, but then taken by the French Junon off Brest in 1778.
• HMS Enterprize 1774 - hulked as receiving ship at the Tower of London 1791, broken up 1807.
• HMS Surprise 1774 - sold 1783.
• HMS Actaeon 1775 - grounded at Charleston and burnt to avoid capture on 28 June 1776.
• HMS Proserpine 1777 - wrecked off Heligoland in 1799.
• HMS Andromeda 1777 - capsized in the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1780.
• HMS Aurora 1777 - sold 1814.
• HMS Medea 1778 - hulked as a hospital ship at Portsmouth in 1801 and sold in 1805.
• HMS Pomona 1778 - renamed Amphitrite in 1795, broken up 1811.
• HMS Resource 1778 - converted to troopship in 1799, hulked as receiving ship at the Tower of London and renamed Enterprize in 1803, broken up in 1816.
• HMS Sibyl 1779 - renamed Garland in 1795, lost off Madagascar on 26 July 1798.
• HMS Brilliant 1779 - broken up 1811.
• HMS Crescent 1779 - captured by the French frigates Gloire (1778) and Friponne (1780) on 20 June 1781.
• HMS Mercury 1779 - used as floating battery since 1803, converted to troopship in 1810, broken up in 1814.
• HMS Pegasus 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as receiving ship in 1814, sold 1816.
• HMS Cyclops 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as receiving ship at Portsmouth in 1807, sold 1814.
• HMS Vestal 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, on lease to Trinity House from 1803 to 1810, hulked as prison ship at Barbados in 1814, sold 1816.
• HMS Laurel 1779 - driven ashore and disintegrated during the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1780.
• HMS Nemesis 1780 - taken by the French in 1795, retaken in 1796, converted to troopship in 1812, sold 1814.
• HMS Thisbe 1783 - converted to troopship in 1800, sold 1815.
• HMS Rose 1783 - wrecked on Rocky Point, Jamaica, on 28 June 1794.
• HMS Hussar 1784 - wrecked near Île Bas on Christmas Eve 1796.
• HMS Dido 1784 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as Army prison ship at Portsmouth in 1804, sold 1817.
• HMS Circe 1785 - wrecked near Yarmouth on 6 November 1803.
• HMS Lapwing 1785 - hulked as salvage ship at Cork in 1810, residential ship at Pembroke from 1813, broken up in 1828.
• HMS Alligator 1787 - hulked as salvage ship at Cork in 1810, sold in 1814.

A painting showing a model of the frigate 'Enterprise' in starboard-quarter view. It has been depicted fixed to a table base, with a label on the side that reads 'Enterprise 28 Guns 200 Men'. The finely detailed painting was part of a commission of twelve perspective paintings, each of a different class, ordered by King George III. Each was accompanied by a memorandum describing the improvements in design that had been introduced since 1745. The work of producing these perspectives from the original Navy Board plans of the ships was divided between two draughtsmen, Joseph Williams and J. Binmer, whilst Joseph Marshall painted all the pictures. Their task was completed in August 1775. The model of the 'Enterprise' is positioned in a corner of a room, implied by the decorated wall behind featuring classical figures, and a wall frieze. The painting is signed and dated 'J Marshall pt. 1777'.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Alligator_(1787)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-290603;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1793 – Launch of french Babet, a Prompte class 20-gun corvette built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb


HMS Babet was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been a corvette of the French Navy under the name Babet, until her capture in 1794, during the French Revolutionary Wars. She served with the British, capturing several privateers and other vessels, and was at the Battle of Groix. She disappeared in the Caribbean in 1801, presumably having foundered.



French career and capture
Babet was built at Le Havre, one of a two-ship Prompte class of 20-gun corvettes built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb.

In the Bay of Biscay, on 18 May 1793, Captain Andrew Snape Douglas's HMS Phaeton captured her sister, Prompte, which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Prompte. Babet was laid down in September 1792, fitted out in May 1793 and launched on 12 December 1793.

Her commander from 9 January 1793 to October was lieutenant de vaisseau Rolland. Rolland's replacement on 23 October was enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Pierre-Joseph-Paul Belhomme.

Babet's French career was brief. Under Belhomme's command she sailed from Havre to Cherbourg via La Hogue. She then cruised the Channel before sailing from Honfleur to Cherbourg, on to Brest, and returning to Cancale. She was part of a squadron consisting of two frigates and another corvette that a British squadron under John Borlase Warren engaged off the Île de Batz in the action of 23 April 1794. HMS Flora and HMS Arethusa captured Babet and brought her into Portsmouth, arriving on 30 April. The action had cost Babet some 30 to 40 of her crew killed and wounded. Flora one man killed and three wounded; Arethusa had three men killed and five wounded.


Capture of La Pomone L' Engageante & La Babet April 23rd 1794 (PAD5471)

British career
Babet was registered for service on 19 June 1794, and was commissioned in December that year under Captain the Honourable John Murray, for service with Lord Howe's fleet. Captain Joshua Mulock replaced Murray in April 1795 while Babet was being fitted for service at Portsmouth, a process completed on 10 May that year, having cost £2,544. Captain Edward Codrington replaced Mulock; Babet was Codrington's first command after he had made post captain.

Codrington then sailed Babet to join Lord Bridport's fleet. On 23 June 1795 she was with the fleet at the battle of Groix. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded any remaining survivors who claimed it, the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "23rd June 1795".

Captain William Lobb replaced Codrington in December 1795 and sailed Babet to the Leeward Islands in February the following year. There Babet was present at the capture of Demerara on 23 April, and the capture of Berbice on 2 May 1796.

In July 1796, Babet, Prompte, Scipio and Pique captured the Catherina Christina in July 1796. At some point Babet sailed in company with Prompteand the two vessels captured the Danish brig Eland Fanoe. On 23 July, Scipio, Babet, Pique and Prompte shared in the capture of the Ariel and the Zee Nymphe.

On 16 September Thorn, Scipio and Babet captured the John and Mary. The first, fourth and fifth-class shares of the prize money were shared, by agreement, with Madras and Prompte. Thorn captured the schooner Abigail on 24 September. This time the first, fourth and fifth-class shares were shared with Scipio, Babet, Madras and Prompte. Then on 16 November Thorn and Resource captured the Spanish schooner Del Carmen. Once again the first, fourth and fifth class shares were shared with Scipio, Babet, Madras and Prompte.

On 10 January 1797, Babet and Bellona drove a small French privateer schooner ashore on Deseada. They tried to use the privateer Legere, of six guns and 48 men, which Bellona had captured three days earlier, to retrieve the schooner that was on shore. In the effort, both French privateers were destroyed. Then Babet chased a brig, which had been a prize to the schooner, ashore. The British were unable to get her off so they destroyed her. Babet and Bellona were paid headmoney in 1828, more than 30 years later.

Captain Jemmett Mainwaring took command of Babet in June 1797. Between 25 July and 5 October Babet captured three merchant vessels:

• brig Decision (or Decisive or Maria),[19] of 200 tons and eight men, recaptured while sailing from Cape to Puerto Rico in ballast;
• brig Schylhill (probably Schuylkill), of Philadelphia, of 100 tons and eight men, sailing from New York to Puerto Rico with a cargo of flour, supposedly Spanish property; and
• barque Æolus, of Copenhagen and of 180 tons and 10 men, sailing from Marseilles to St. Thomas, with a cargo of wine, French property.

Then on 16 January 1798 Babet's boats captured the French schooner Désirée. The schooner was sailing towards Babet as Babet was sailing between Martinique and Dominique. As soon as the schooner realized that Babet was a British warship she attempted to escape. The wind failed and the schooner then took to her sweeps. Lieutenant Pym of Babet took 24 men in her pinnace and launch and went after the schooner. After rowing several leagues the boats closed to within range of their cannon, which they then commenced to fire. The British closed on their quarry despite a strong counter-fire. The British then boarded Désirée and took her. She was armed with six guns and had a crew of 46 men. The British lost one man killed and five wounded; the French had three men killed and 15 wounded. Désirée was six days out of Guadeloupe and had taken one American brig that had been sailing from St. Vincent to Boston.

Babet was refitted at Portsmouth between July and December 1798 at a cost of £5,194. Then, in December she recaptured the American ship Helena.

On 18 and 19 January 1799, Babet captured two French fishing vessels, Deux Freres Unis, with a cargo of herring, and the Jacques Charles. On 3 June Babet was in company with Harpy when they captured the John. Then on 24 June they captured the ship Weloverdagt.

Then Babet took part in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in 1799. There she briefly served as Vice-Admiral Andrew Mitchell's flagship in the Zuider Zee.[26] On 28 August 1799, the fleet captured several Dutch hulks and ships in the New Diep, in Holland. Babet was listed among the vessels qualifying to share in the prize money. However, by the time this was awarded in February 1802, Babet had been lost at sea. Similarly, Babet was also present at the subsequent Vlieter Incident on 30 August.

Babet was among the numerous vessels that shared in the proceeds after Dart cut out the French frigate Desirée from Dunkirk harbour on 8 July 1800.

Fate
Babet left Spithead on 14 September 1801, arrived at Fort Royal Bay, Martinique, on 24 October, and sailed the next day for Jamaica. She was not seen again; she had probably foundered at sea during a tropical storm



An exact Representation of the Engagement and Capture of the Pomone Babet and L' Engageante French Frigates, by Sir J.B. Warren and Sir R Strachan (PAD5474)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Babet_(1794)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-294005;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1807 - HMS Atalante (16), Lt. John Bowker, wrecked when running aground on La Grande Blanche, Island of Rhe, France.


HMS Atalante was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French Atalante, captured in 1797. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was wrecked in 1807.



French service and capture
Atalante was a brig built at Bayonne between 1793 and 1794 to a design by Raymond-Antoine Haran. She was launched in January 1794 as the only ship built to her design.

Between 28 January 1794 and 9 October, Atalante was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Soustra. She sailed from Bayonne to Brest, before cruising in the vicinity of the Azores and then returning to Brest.

Atalante participated in the Croisière du Grand Hiver, an unsuccessful sortie by the French fleet at Brest on 24 December 1794. She then returned to Bayonne, and later Brest.

By 13 October 1795, she was at Concarneau and under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Dordelin.

HMS Phoebe captured Atalante on 10 January 1797 off the Scilly Isles. At capture she was under the command of now lieutenant de vaisseaux Dordelin, and had a crew of 112 men. Her captors reported that she was a three-year-old brig with a coppered hull and an 80-foot keel. The British took her back to Portsmouth. She was registered there before being sent on to Plymouth, where the Navy had her fitted out between June and September 1798.


Atalante (1797) [alternative spelling: Atalanta] Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile with stern quarter decoration, and stern board outline with decoration detail for Atalante (captured 1797), a captured French Brig, as fitted at Plymouth Dockyard as a 16 gun Brig Sloop. Signed by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1801]. ATALANTE FL.1797 [FRENCH]


French Revolutionary Wars
Atalante was commissioned under Commander Digby Dent in July 1798, but was paid off in October that year. Recommissioned in December, this time under Commander Anselm Griffiths, she went on to have a particularly successful career against French privateers.

On 20 February 1799, she and Boadicea captured the French privateer cutter Milan. Milan was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 44 men. Atalantetook the prize into port.

On 4 December, Atalante captured the privateer lugger Succès (or Success). Atalante came upon a lugger in the act of capturing a brig, and immediately set off in pursuit. The privateer abandoned her prize and tried to escape. About three hours later, Atalante dropped off her master in her jolly boat to recapture the brig, and continued the pursuit without stopping. After a pursuit of about 11 hours, Atalante finally caught up with and captured the privateer. Succès was armed with six guns and had a crew of 48 men under the command of Francois Matthieu Blondin. She was six days out of Boulogne and the interrupted capture was her first prize. The master, Edward Lewington, and crew of the prize were aboard Succès and they reported that they had been sailing from London to Belfast when the privateer had captured them the night before west of Dungeness.

On 29 January 1801, Atalante captured and destroyed the Spanish privateer Intrepido Cid. Sirius and Amethyst shared, by agreement, in the bounty-money.

On 26 February 1801, she sent into Plymouth the Bon Aventura, which had been sailing from St Ullus to Limerick when the French privateer Grande Decide, of 18 guns, had captured her. Atalante had recaptured Bon Avenura.

On 1 April 1801, Atalante was in company with Viper when they encountered four French privateers off Land's End. Three of the privateers escaped. Nevertheless, Atalante pursued one and after a chase of 17 hours captured her. She turned out to be the brig Héros, of Saint Malo. She was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 73 men under the command of her master, Renne Crosse.

On 10 August 1801, Atalante's cutter, manned by eight men, captured the 58-ton lugger Eveillé in Quiberon Bay. The lugger was armed with two 4-pounder guns and four 1½-pounder swivel guns. As the cutter approached, the lugger fired on the cutter, as did some small shore batteries. The lugger was within small-arms range of the shore and as the crew of the cutter boarded the lugger, the lugger's crew abandoned her. The British suffered no casualties. Captain A.J. Griffiths made no mention of signs of French casualties and described the lugger as being in the "Service of the Republic". At about the same time, Atalante also captured three light boats.

On 24 August 1801, a prize to Atalante, a French dogger with a cargo of wines and brandies, came into Plymouth.

Griffiths was succeeded in May 1802 by Commander Joseph Masefield, who operated out of Portland. On 13 June 1802, Masefield sailed Atalante on an anti-smuggling patrol. On 1 October 1802, he sent in to Portsmouth a large smuggling vessel with 360 casks of spirits and 20 bales of tobacco. Then the next week, he sent in a lugger with 170 ankers of spirits, a sloop with 120, and a large boat with 400. On 14 October 1802, he brought into Plymouth the 80-ton Admiral Pole, of Exeter, which Atalante caught after a long chase. She too had been carrying 170 ankers of spirits. Admiral Pole had been captured some months earlier at Weymouth and then released after posting bond with the Board of Customs and Excise.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline and some decoration detail, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Atalante (captured 1797), a captured French Brig, as taken off at Plymouth Dockyard prior to being fitted as a 16 gun Brig Sloop. Signed John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1801].

Napoleonic Wars
When Masefield (or Mansfield) recommissioned Atalante on 10 January 1803, two days after paying her off, he apparently did not want for crew. His success on anti-smuggling patrol had apparently resulted in his previous crew earning prize money the equivalent of their pay for the six-month period. Masefield had captured eight smuggling vessels and seized 1,000 ankers of spirits, in addition to bale goods.

On 14 March 1803, Atalante sailed from Plymouth to retrieve the sloop Galgo from Mount's Bay, where she had taken refuge, having been dismasted in a gale. Atalante returned the next day with Galgo. That same day Atalante and Nemesis sailed under sealed orders to Cawsand Bay where they received further orders that sent them to Bristol to impress seamen. On 13 May 1803, Nemesis and Atalantereturned to Plymouth from a cruise that had them monitoring French naval movements off Brest. On 16 June 1803, a French brig, prize to Atalante came into Plymouth.

On 7 June 1803, Atlante captured the merchant ship Ocean. Then one month later, on 8 July 1803, Atalante captured the French ship Prudent. Then on 24 September 1803, Atalante captured four French merchant vessels. These were the Jeune Adelphie, Marie Elizabeth, Betzée, and Fortunée.

On 9 October 1803, Atalante pursued two ketches and a brig at Saint Gildas Point. The quarry ran ashore near the mouth of the Pennerf river. Mansfield then sent in his boats on a cutting out expedition. One boat captured one of the ketches but couldn't bring her off; while they were so engaged they endured fire from soldiers on board the other ketch and troops with two field guns on the beach. The boarding party then abandoned their vessel and went to the assistance of the party that had boarded the brig. That party had killed six of the 10 or 12 soldiers on the brig, thrown two over board, and driven the rest and the crew below decks. The boarding party was unable to get the brig off the shore so they abandoned her without setting her on fire in consideration of the men below decks. Atalante lost one man killed and two wounded in the operation. The next day, Masefield was pleased to see that the brig was on a ridge of rocks and "apparently bilged".

That same day, i.e., 9 October, there came into Plymouth a large lugger with brandy, wine, and Castile soup that Atalante's boats had cut out near Brest. The three timber vessels they cut out at the same time turn out more valuable than had initially been expected because their cargo turned out to be timber of different scantlings for first and second rates. The timber vessels had been sailing to 1'Orient, where several ships were building.

On 24 March 1804, Atalante captured the French chasse maree Volante.[29] Volante from Nantes, arrived at Plymouth in early April.

In July 1805, Atalante captured the Belissaire and the Napoleon, carrying brandy and rosin, and sent them into Plymouth.

On 20 May 1806, Atalante captured the Fortuna Waggona. Atalante was also in sight when Iris captured the French ketch Amis de Juste. That same month Atalante captured the Noord Termans, Wagener, master, as she was sailing from St. Martin's to Bremen. Atalante sent her into Plymouth.

Atalante was assigned to the squadron under Sir Samuel Hood on 25 September 1806. On 19 October 1806, Indefatigable, Hazard and Atalante captured the chasse marees Achille, Jenny and Marianne.

In 1807, Lieutenant John Bowker took over command in an acting capacity. When he took command, Bowker requested that Atalante be surveyed. He noted that when the wind blew fresh, water would enter at a rate of 20 inches per hour. He was refused. Later, Sir Samuel Hood testified in Parliament that Commander Keats had assured him that Atalante was seaworthy. Bowker's time in command was short-lived.

Fate
On 12 February 1807, Atalante was wrecked off the Île de Ré, near Rochefort. She had been cruising to watch enemy vessels in Rochefort when she hit the Grande Blanche rock at 10 pm. Despite attempts to lighten her that included cutting away her masts, she continued to founder. At daybreak, three British vessels approached and took off the crew, enduring fire from shore batteries as they did so. The first was the cutter Nile, followed later by the frigates Penelope and Pomone. During the night, some of the crewmen took two of Atalante's boats without permission. The cutter, with 22 men, reached shore, where the French took them prisoner. The jolly boat, with the gunner and six men, headed out to sea where a ship from the British blockading squadron picked them up. The gunner, John Brockman, had been officer of the watch when Atalante had struck. He had ignored Lieutenant Bowker's order not to take her into shallow water and had ignored the advice of the French pilot, M. Legall, who was on board in an advisory capacity. That Brockman had left without permission during the night further undermined his case at the court martial for the loss of the ship. The board ordered Brockman disrated.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper, and lower deck with after platform for Atalante (captured 1797), a captured French Brig, as taken off at Plymouth Dockyard prior to being fitted as a 16 gun Brig Sloop. Signed by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1801].


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper deck, and lower deck with fore & aft platforms for Atalante (captured 1797), a captured French Brig, as fitted at Plymouth Dockyard as a 16 gun Brig Sloop. Signed by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1801].


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Atalante_(1797)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-293313;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1811 - HMS Cerberus (1794 - 32), Cptn. Henry Whitby, and HMS Active (1799 - 38), Cptn. James Alexander Gordon, take or destroy, under the town of Ortano, Italy, a Venetian trabaccolo and 9 transports.


On 12 February boats from Cerberus and Active set out to secure a number of vessels spotted moored at Ortano. As the boats attempted this, they came under heavy fire from shore positions but cleared all opposition. A party of marines and small arms men under the command of Active's lieutenant of marines landed to secure the shore to protect the cutting out operation. The carronades on Active's launches also provided cover. British casualties amounted to four men wounded. The British captured 11 Venetian vessels in all, most of which were from Ancona, bound for Corfu. The ones the British didn't burn they sent to Lissa.

• trabaccolo Eugenie, armed with six guns and under the command of a lieutenant;
• transport Fortunée, No. 52, burnt after the transfer of her cargo of corn to another transport;
• transport, name unknown, carrying oil:
• transport, name unknown, No. 2, carrying plank and corn;
• transport St. Anongiato, carrying hemp and cordage;
• transport, name unknown, No. 50, carrying wheat;
• transport, name unknown, No. 55, partly laden with sundries;
• transport Anime del Purgatorio, cargo of rice transferred and vessel burnt;
• transport, name unknown, carrying wheat.
• two transports, names unknown, burnt in the port, together with two magazines of oil, soldiers'

clothing, ammunition and naval stores, including cables, blocks, hawsers, hemp, etc.



HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Cerberus was launched in September 1794 by Henry Adams, of Bucklers Hard. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.





Cerberus (or Alcmene) class 32-gun fifth rates 1794, designed by John Henslow.

• HMS Cerberus 1794 - sold 1814.
• HMS Alcmene 1794 - wrecked off Nantes on 29 April 1809.
• HMS Galatea 1794 - broken up 1809.
• HMS Lively 1794 - wrecked near Rota Point, Cadiz on 12 April 1798

HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Active (1799), a 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigate. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

In 1819 she was fitted with man-powered paddles, an experimental design by James Ryder Burton. Burton was promoted to commander November 1819 "as a reward for an invention for propelling ships of war during a calm" (William R O'Byrne, "A Naval Biographical Dictionary", published by John Murray, 1849)


No. 10 of 73 (PAI0889 - PAI0961) Drawing inscribed in the left corner and lower right 'HMS Active – with Captain Burtons wheels/Portsmouth harbour'. HMS 'Active', 38-guns, was launched at Chatham in 14 December 1799 and was in service mainly in the Mediterranean until 1824 when she was put into Ordinary at Portsmouth. In 1819 she was fitted with man-powered paddles, an experimental design by Lieutenant Burton.


Coloured lithograph showing the Active leaving Portsmouth harbour propelled by paddle-wheels devised by James Ryder Burton and fitted in 1819. Burton was promoted to commander November 1819 "as a reward for an invention for propelling ships of war during a calm" (William R O'Byrne, "A Naval Biographical Dictionary", published by John Murray, 1849).



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cerberus_(1794)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-301039;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Active_(1799)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-289168;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1841 – Launch of HMS Ardent, a wooden Alecto-class paddle sloop,


HMS Ardent was a wooden Alecto-class paddle sloop, and the fourth ship of the Royal Navy to use the name. She was launched on 12 February 1841 at Chatham and spent much of her career on the West Coast of Africa engaged in anti-slavery operations. One of the ship's company, Gunner John Robarts, was awarded the Victoria Cross for the destruction of Russian food stores in the Crimean War. She was scrapped in 1865.



Design and construction
Ardent was ordered on 25 February 1839 as the third of a class of 5 third-class steam vessels. She was laid down in February 1840, and on 15 August orders were received to hasten her building and to complete her as a packet. She was launched on 12 February 1841. She was 164 feet (50 m) long on the gundeck and displaced 878 tons. Power for her paddles came from a Seaward & Capel 2-cylinder direct-acting steam engine developing 200 nominal horsepower, which was fitted at Woolwich in February 1841. Having conducted engine trials in the River Thames in April 1841, she left Woolwich for Chatham to be fitted out. She was commissioned for the first time at Chatham on 16 September 1842.


The design profile of the Chatham-built Alecto-class sloops



Service history
She sailed for South America and the Cape station from Portsmouth on 1 October 1841, touching at Madeira during her passage. In 1845 she transferred from the Brazilian station to the West Coast of Africa, where she was involved in the long campaign to put down the slave trade.

On 25 March 1845 detained the Spanish slave brigantine Dos Hermanos off the Pongo River, which was condemned on 9 April 1845 by the Mixed British and Spanish Court at Sierra Leone. She returned to England in September 1845.

In 1848, she was serving in the Mediterranean, On 21 December, she rescued the survivors of HMS Mutine, which had been wrecked at Chioggia, Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia with the loss of five of her crew. She saw active service during the Crimean War. On 29 May 1855 in the Sea of Azov, Crimea, Gunner Robarts of Ardent with two lieutenants (Cecil William Buckley of Miranda and Hugh Talbot Burgoyne of Swallow) volunteered to land on a beach where the Russian army were in strength. They were out of covering gunshot range of the ships offshore and met considerable enemy opposition, but managed to set fire to corn stores and ammunition dumps and destroy enemy equipment before embarking again. They were each awarded the Victoria Cross.

She returned to Portsmouth on 5 February 1856 and sailed for the West Coast of Africa on 28 December 1857 for anti-slavery duties. The station was notorious for sickness, and during the year 1858 she reported 238 cases of sickness during the year(from a ship's company numbering less than 150), with 10 cases serious enough to require the individuals affected to be invalided home. She returned to the United Kingdom in March 1859 and by 1860 had returned to South America.

Fate
Ardent was sold to Castle and arrived at Charlton for breaking on 2 March 1865.

sistership Alecto

H.M. Steam sloops Rattler and Alecto towing stern to stern, for the purpose of testing the relative powers of the Screw Propeller and the Paddle Wheel... in the North Sea during a perfect calm on the 3rd of April 1845, on which occasion the Rattler towed the Alecto stern foremost... (PAH0923)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ardent_(1841)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-290272;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1876 – Launch of HMS Belleisle was one of the four ships currently under construction for foreign navies in British shipyards which were purchased by the British government for the Royal Navy in 1878, at the time of the Russian war scare.


HMS Belleisle was one of the four ships currently under construction for foreign navies in British shipyards which were purchased by the British government for the Royal Navy in 1878, at the time of the Russian war scare.

She was one of the two ironclads of the Belleisle class, the other being HMS Orion. She was built in the Samuda Brothers shipyard at Cubitt Town, London, for service with the Ottoman Navy, under the name of Peik-i-Sheref, and was taken over for the Royal Navy in a completed condition. She was, however, not regarded as fit to serve as a British warship until a number of extensive and expensive modifications were carried out.



Design
She had been intended to carry 10-inch calibre guns, and the first recorded change is "enlargement of ports to take 25-ton guns" (i.e. guns of 12-inch calibre). Other major alterations included the building in of extra coal bunkers, the fitting of extra officers' cabins and the fitting of torpedo launching apparatus.

The main artillery was disposed in a centrally placed octagonal box battery with two guns on each beam. The firing ports were so arranged that it was possible to fire two guns ahead, astern and on a limited bearing on either side. There were limited areas afore and abaft the beam where only one gun could be brought to bear; as the primary armament of this ship, as devised and designed, was her ram, this was regarded by her designer as an acceptable limitation.

Being smaller than other contemporary British battleships, she and her sister HMS Orion had comparatively limited range, speed and armament compared to them. However they were initially welcomed by the naval press as being inexpensive, costing only half that of an Audacious class battleship and a third of HMS Inflexible, but once her drawbacks became obvious they damned her in popular and naval opinion as a front-line fighting vessel.

Service history
She was commissioned on 2 July 1878, and served for the next fourteen years as coastguard ship at Kingstown, Ireland. Her only activity there was firing practice four times a year, the annual squadron cruise, and one refit at Devonport. In 1887 while stationed in Kingstown Harbour (now Dun Laoghaire) the Commanding Officer invited the entire Water Wag Club to come on board on Tuesday 21 June to celebrate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. The Water Wags declined the invitation as they were on a Jubilee Cruise to Dalkey Island and did not wish to miss the favourable tide.

She paid off into the "B" Reserve in April 1893, descending into the Fleet Reserve in May 1894. She was paid off in May 1900 and converted into a target ship.

After surviving gunfire from HMS Majestic in which shells filled with lyddite were tested, she was towed back to Portsmouth. There, she was used to test the effect of guns of 6-inch and of 9.2 inch calibre, and of torpedoes. The torpedo experiments were expected to demonstrate the protective effect of cellulose against these weapons; the cellulose was expected to swell and plug the holes caused by the torpedoes. This did not happen, and Belleisle sank into the mud. She was raised with difficulty in October 1903 and sold for scrap to Germany.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belleisle_(1876)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belleisle-class_ironclad

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1880 - HMS Juno – a training ship - disappeared with her entire crew after setting sail from Bermuda for Falmouth, England on 31 January 1880. It was presumed that she sank in a powerful storm which crossed her route a couple of weeks after she sailed between 12 and 16 February 1880.


HMS Juno was a 26-gun Spartan-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1844 at Pembroke. As HMS Juno, she carried out the historic role in 1857 of annexing the Cocos (Keeling) Islands to the British Empire. She was renamed HMS Mariner in January 1878 and then HMS Atalanta two weeks later.



Atalanta was serving as a training ship when in 1880 she disappeared with her entire crew after setting sail from Bermuda for Falmouth, England on 31 January 1880. It was presumed that she sank in a powerful stormwhich crossed her route a couple of weeks after she sailed. The search for evidence of her fate attracted worldwide attention, and the Admiralty received more than 150 telegrams and 200 personal calls from anxious friends and relatives after it was announced that the ship was missing, and possibly lost.



Investigation of the ship's loss was rendered difficult by the lack of any survivors, but one former member of her crew, Able Seaman John Varling, testified that he had found her "exceedingly crank, as being overweight.. She rolled 32 degrees, and Captain Stirling is reported as having been heard to remark that had she rolled one degree more she must have gone over and foundered. The young sailors were either too timid to go aloft or were incapacitated by sea-sickness... Varling states that they hid themselves away, and could not be found when wanted by the boatswain's mate."

The exact circumstances of the ship's loss remain uncertain, but the gunboat Avon — which arrived at Portsmouth on 19 April from the Chile station — reported "that at the Azores she noticed immense quantities of wreckage floating about... in fact the sea was strewn with spars etc." Two days later, amid mounting concern that the loss of the ship might have been prevented had her crew not been so inexperienced, The Times editorialised: "There can be no question of the criminal folly of sending some 300 lads who have never been to sea before in a training ship without a sufficient number of trained an experienced seamen to take charge of her in exceptional circumstances. The ship's company of the Atalanta numbered only about 11 able seamen, and when we consider that young lads are often afraid to go aloft in a gale to take down sail... a special danger attaching to the Atalanta becomes apparent."


A Royal Navy service record from the last completed training mission before Atalanta's loss

A memorial in St Ann's Church, Portsmouth, names a total of 281 fatalities in the disaster. Among those lost was Philip Fisher, a lieutenant who had enlisted the support of Queen Victoria to obtain a commission to the ship. He was the younger brother of the future Admiral of the Fleet Lord Jacky Fisher.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Juno_(1844)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1903 - expedition ship Antarctic, damaged and leaking by trapped in pack ice, sank - the crew was rescued in November


Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica through 1898-1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.







The ship
Antarctic was a barque with three masts and equipped with a steam engine. Built in 1871 at Holmen in Drammen under the name Cap Nor.

Initially Antarctic was used for seal hunting around Svalbard, Jan Mayen and Greenland,. During that period the ship was captained by Gullik Jensen and among others Carsten Borchgrevink served on the ship.

In the early 1890s Norwegian ship-owner Svend Foyn wanted to expand his business to the Antarctic Ocean thereby needing capable ships. Foyn then purchased Cap Nor, made extensive repairs and after completion renamed the ship Antarctic. From 1893 the ship was deployed to the Antarctic ocean for whale hunting.



In 1897 the ship was purchased by Alfred Gabriel Nathorst for his planned expedition to Svalbard. Again extensive repairs were made prior to the expedition in 1898.

In 1899 Nathorst sold the ship to Georg Carl Amdrup for his expedition to East Greenland.

In 1900 Amdrup sold Antarctic to Otto Nordenskjöld who needed the ship for his Antarctic expedition.

The expeditions


Antarctic leaving Gothenburg harbor, 1901

In 1893 Antarctic captained by Leonard Kristensen set off on a whaling expedition to Antarctica led by Henrik Johan Bull and financed by Foyn. The ship was equipped with 11 harpoon guns, an arsenal of explosives, 8 whaleboats and 31 men and left Tønsberg on September 20, 1893. The first summer was spent around the Kerguelen Islands with winter camp in Melbourne. On September 28, 1894 the ship went off to sea heading for the Ross Sea.

On January 24, 1895 a boat was put ashore at Cape Adare at the northern extremity of Victoria Land with six men including Bull, Borchgrevink, Kristensen and Tunzelmann. The party performed the first confirmed landing on the continent of Antarctica, exactly who went ashore first was never cleared as all members claimed the honor (possibly British-American sealer John Davis had already made a landing on the Antarctic Peninsula on February 7, 1821, this claim can, however, not be confirmed).



In 1898 Antarctic captained by Emil Nilsson carried Nathorst’s polar expedition to Bear Island, Svalbard and Kong Karls Land. Among the participating scientists were Axel Hamberg, Otto Kjellström, Gustaf Kolthoff and Henrik Hesselman.

In 1899 the ship left on an expedition also under the command of Nathorst to North Greenland with the dual purpose of searching for survivors of the 1897 Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition and geographical mapping the area.

Later the same year Antarctic carried Amdrup’s expedition to East Greenland.

In 1901 the ship, then on loan from Nordenskjöld, carried the second season of the Swedish-Russian Arc-of-Meridian Expedition under the command of Gerard De Geer to Svalbard.

On October 16, 1901 Antarctic now captained by Carl Anton Larsen left Gothenburg harbor on Nordenskjold’s Antarctic expedition. This would become the ship's last voyage.

The ship wrecking

Antarctic trapped in pack ice

After exploring parts of the South Shetland Islands the expedition continued through the Antarctic Sound towards the Antarctic Peninsula. On January 15, 1902 Hope Bay was discovered. In February Nordenskjöld chose Snow Hill Island as winter camp for part of the expedition. After all preparations were completed Antarctic left for the Falkland Islands.

After the winter the ship left the Falklands on November 5 heading back to the Antarctic Peninsula by way of Ushuaia for supplies. On December 29 Antarctic was trapped in pack ice near Hope Bay, and some of the crew was put ashore.

Antarctic later broke free and continued towards Paulet Island; on the way the ship once again was trapped in pack ice on January 3, 1903. On February 3 the ship again broke free but was now damaged and leaking. Captain Larsen now intended to beach Antarctic on Paulet Island, but the ship was too damaged and sank about 40 km (25 mi) off the coast on February 12, 1903.

In November all crewmembers (including Carl Skottsberg, Johan Gunnar Andersson, José María Sobral and Frank Wilbert Stokes) were rescued by the Argentine corvette Uruguay captained by Julián Irízar.

Epitaph
When Nathorst heard about the ship wrecking he commented "seems to me more glorious than if she had gone to meet the usual fate of vessels to slowly rot in some port, or to be used for something far off from her designation and purposes as an icy seas and research vessel".

In 1944 Johan Gunnar Andersson published a commemorative book Antarctic :Stolt har hon levat Stolt skall hon dö – Antarctic: proud she lived proud she shall die.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1909 - SS Penguin – the inter-island ferry Penguin hit a rock near the entrance to Wellington Harbour, sinking then exploding when water entered her boiler room. Of the 105 people aboard, 75 died.

SS Penguin was a New Zealand inter-island ferry steamer that sank off Cape Terawhiti after striking a rock near the entrance to Wellington Harbour in poor weather on 12 February 1909. Penguin's sinking caused the deaths of 75 people, leaving only 30 survivors. This was New Zealand's worst maritime disaster of the 20th century.



Ship history
Penguin was built by Tod & McGregor of Glasgow, Scotland, for G. & J. Burns of Glasgow, and launched on 21 January 1864. Registered in Glasgow on 4 April 1864, she was finally sold to the Union Steamship Company in 1879, and was extensively refitted in 1882.

Sinking
Penguin departed Picton on 12 February 1909 en route to Wellington in good conditions. However, by 8 p.m. the weather conditions had changed, with very strong winds and bad visibility. At 10 p.m Captain Francis Naylor headed further out to sea to wait for a break in the weather. Unfortunately, as the ship turned, she smashed into Thoms Rock, and water started to pour in. Although women and children were loaded into the lifeboats first, the rough seas dragged the lifeboats underwater. Only one woman survived, and all the children onboard Penguin were killed. Other survivors drifted for hours on rafts before reaching safety. As the Penguin sank, seawater flooded the engine room. As the cold water reached the red-hot boilers a massive steam explosion violently fractured the ship.

Following the disaster, a half-day holiday was declared in Wellington to allow the many funerals to be held. About forty of the people who were killed were laid to rest in Karori Cemetery, where a self-guided walk now wanders past their grave sites.

A court of inquiry found the ship struck Thoms Rock, near the mouth to Karori Stream in Cook Strait. The captain maintained that it had struck the submerged hull of the Rio Loge, lost the month before.

On the 100th anniversary of the sinking, Wellington's mayor unveiled a plaque remembering the disaster at Tongue Point, near the site of the wreck.



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1944 - SS Oria – while carrying Germany's flag, 4,096 Italian POWs (after Italy left the Axis), from the Dodecanese to Athens, Oria entered a thunderstorm some 50 mi (80 km) from her intended destination, Piraeus harbour.
The ship cracked and sank - an estimated 4,074 were killed. 28 people were saved


SS Oria was a Norwegian steamboat that sank on 12 February 1944, causing the death of some 4,095 Italian prisoners of war 21 Greeks and 15 Germans. This was one of the worst maritime disasters ever, probably the fourth worst loss of life caused by the sinking of a single ship in the world and the worst in the Mediterranean Sea



Ship
The Oria was built in 1920 by Osbourne, Graham & Co from Sunderland. It had a tonnage of 2,127 GRT, and was property of the Norwegian company Fearnley & Eger of Oslo. At the beginning of World War II, it was part of a convoy sent to North Africa, and was in Casablanca when interned in June 1940, shortly after the German occupation of Norway. One year later the ship was requisitioned by the Vichy French, renamed Sainte Julienne, and used in the Mediterranean. In November 1942 it was formally returned to its former owner and therefore renamed Oria, but soon after it was assigned to the German company Mittelmeer-Reederei GmbH [de] from Hamburg.



Sinking
In the fall of 1943, after the German invasion of the Dodecanese, the Germans had to transfer tens of thousands of Italian prisoners over the sea. These transfers were made often using unseaworthy vessels, cramming prisoners into the hull of the ships, and without any safety standard. Several ships sank, by allied attack or by accident, causing the death of thousands of prisoners.

The Oria was one of the vessels chosen to transport Italian prisoners. On 11 February 1944, it sailed from Rhodes directly to Piraeus, carrying 4,116 Italian prisoners (43 officers, 118 non-commissioned officers and 3,955 soldiers), 21 Germans on duty or en route, and the crew of 22 Greeks. The next day the ship was caught by a storm and sank off Cape Sounion on the South East rocks of Patroklos island. Some tugs, arriving the next day on the scene, could only save 21 Italians, 6 Germans, the Norvegian captain and one Greek.The remains of the wreck were discovered in 1999 by Greek pro diver Aristotelis Zervoudis who for his actions was awarded by the President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella the distinction of the Knight of the Italian Star Order (Cavaliere del'Ordine della Stella d' Italia),the highest distinction Italy can award to foreign citizens.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Oria_(1920)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1944 - Khedive Ismail, an Egyptian-owned troopship in a convoy from Mombasa to Colombo, was torpedoed by the Japanese submarine I-27 on 12 February 1944.
Of the 1,507 people aboard, 1,302 were killed, including 79 of the 87 women.
Some survivors in the water were killed when the destroyer escorts dropped depth charges to bring the submarine to the surface.


SS Khedive Ismail, formerly SS Aconcagua, was a turbine steamship that was built in 1922 as an ocean liner, converted into a troop ship in 1940 and sunk by a Japanese submarine in 1944 with great loss of life. She was owned by the Chilean company CSAV 1922–32, the Scottish William Hamilton & Co (1932–35), the Egyptian company KML 1935–40 and the British Ministry of War Transport 1940–44.



Aconcagua
In April 1920 the Chilean Compañía Sud Americana de Vapores (CSAV) ordered a pair of passenger and cargo liners for service between Valparaíso and New York via the Panama Canal. Construction was delayed, the ships were not completed until the latter part of 1922, and CSAV lost money as a result.

The first ship was launched on 11 February 1922 and completed in August. She was named Aconcagua after the 22,837 feet (6,961 m) Aconcagua mountain, the highest in the Andes. Her sister ship, Teno, was launched on 5 September 1922, completed in December and reached Chile in January 1923.

The two ships were built by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Greenock on the Firth of Clyde, Scotland. Each had 18 corrugated furnaces with a combined grate area of 385 square feet (36 m2) that heated six single-ended boilers with a combined heating surface of 17,832 square feet (1,657 m2). These fed steam at 215 lbf/in2 to four steam turbines that drove twin propeller shafts by single-reduction gearing. The turbines had a combined rating of 1,469 NHP and gave the ship a speed of 17 knots (31 km/h).

By the time Aconcagua and Teno entered service they faced strong competition from Grace Line, and CSAV reported losses in 1922 and 1923. However, from 1922 the Chilean government introduced protection measures for Chilean companies operating shipping services along the country's 2,300-nautical-mile (4,300 km)-long coast, and in 1923 global shipping rates stabilised.

The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 started the Great Depression, which sharply reduced the export market for Chilean mining products and hence the country's ability to buy goods from overseas. CSAV lost trade, and especially on its Valparaíso – New York route, so in June 1931 the company suspended the service. It sold Aconcagua and Teno to Lithgows of Port Glasgow, and in August 1932 both ships returned to Scotland.

Teno was laid up, but Aconcagua was sold to William Hamilton and Company, run by Lord Ernest Hamilton. Lowden Conner and Company of Liverpool were appointed to manage both ships.

Khedive Ismail
In 1935 the Khedivial Mail Steamship and Graving Dock Company of Alexandria, Egypt bought both Aconcagua and Teno. The company, which traded as the Khedivial Mail Line (KML), renamed each ship after a former Khedive of Egypt. Aconcagua became Khedive Ismail, after Isma'il Pasha who reigned 1863–79. KML and operated services linking Alexandria across the Mediterranean Sea with Cyprus, Piraeus, Malta and Marseille. In 1936 the company was reconstituted as the Pharaonic Mail Line, but continued trading as the KML.

Although Egypt was supposedly independent, in practice the British Empire exercised control over the country. In 1940 the UK Ministry of War Transport requisitioned seven KML ships and placed two of them, Khedive Ismail and Mohamed Ali El-Kebir, under the management of the British-India Steam Navigation Company. The two ships were converted into troop ships, which slightly increased their tonnage. Khedive Ismail's gross register tonnage (GRT) was increased from 7,290 to 7,513 tons.

Mohamed Ali El-Kebir was sunk in August 1940 on her first troop voyage, en route under Royal Navy escort from Avonmouth to Gibraltar. By then Khedive Ismail was in the Indian Ocean to bring Empire troops to Egypt. From then until April 1941 she carried troops in convoys from Bombay, Cape Town, Mombasa and Port Sudan to Suez and Port Said.

Escape from the Argolic Gulf
In April 1941 Germany and Italy invaded Yugoslavia and Greece. After 10 days of fierce fighting the British Empire started to plan the evacuation of 60,000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops from Greece. Khedive Ismail was one of several troop ships that joined Convoy AG 14, which left Alexandria on 24 April and reached Greek waters two days later. She and a larger troop ship from AG 14, Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd's 11,406 GRT Slamat, were sent to evacuate troops from Nauplia in the Argolic Gulf in the eastern Peloponnese. Luftwaffe aircraft attacked the convoy en route to Nauplia, damaging Slamat and wounding several people aboard Khedive Ismail.

Two days before they arrived, the troop ship Ulster Prince had run aground blocking access to Nauplia Port, and on 25 April an air raid had turned her into a total loss. Khedive Ismail, Slamat and their Royal Navy escorts would now have to anchor in the bay, where boats would bring troops out to them from the shore. On the evening of 26 April three cruisers, four destroyers, Khedive Ismail and Slamat were in the Bay of Nauplia. The only available tenders were one landing craft, local caïques and the ships' own boats. Two cruisers and two destroyers embarked nearly 2,500 troops, but the slow rate of embarkation meant that Khedive Ismail did not get her turn and did not embark any.

At 0300 hrs the cruiser HMS Calcutta ordered all ships to sail, but Slamat disobeyed and continued embarking troops. Calcutta and Khedive Ismail sailed at 0400 hrs; Slamat followed at 0415 hrs, by which time she had embarked about 500 troops: about half her capacity. The convoy steamed south down the Argolic Gulf, until at about 0700 hrs waves of Luftwaffe aircraft attacked it: first Bf 109 fighters, then Ju 87 dive bombers and Ju 88 and Do 17 bombers. The attackers concentrated on Slamat as she was the largest ship. The cruiser HMS Orion and destroyers Hotspur and Isis, all of which were heavily laden with evacuated troops, escorted Khedive Ismail away as Slamat burned out of control and was abandoned and HMS Diamond stayed behind to rescue survivors.

A few hours later Diamond and another destroyer sent to assist her, HMS Wryneck, were sunk in another air raid. Khedive Ismail safely reached Souda Bay in Crete, where she joined Convoy GA 14 back to Alexandria. She then continued through the canal, reaching Suez on 30 April.

Two years in the Indian Ocean
In May 1941 the British Empire occupied Iraq to reverse a pro-German nationalist coup d'état and reinstate King 'Abd al-Ilah, and in June and July it invaded Vichy-controlled Greater Lebanon and Syria whose airfields had refuelled Regia Aeronautica and Luftwaffe flights to northern Iraq. From July 1941 until the beginning of February 1942 Khedive Ismail continually brought British Indian Army reinforcements from India to Basra in Iraq, making seven trips from Bombay and two from Karachi.

In January 1942 British and Empire forces had occupied Italian Eritrea, so in the second half of February 1942 Khedive Ismail took 850 troops from Bombay to Massawa. For the next two years she criss-crossed the Indian Ocean in troop movements.

In September 1942 Khedive Ismail took part in Operation Streamline Jane, taking troops from Allied-occupied Diego Suarez in northern Madagascar to land at Vichy-held Majunga on the east coast of the island.[36] She visited the island again in July 1943.

Loss


HMS Paladin rescued Khedive Ismail's survivors and shelled and tried to ram I-27

On 5 February 1944 Khedive Ismail left Mombasa bound for Colombo carrying 1,324 passengers including 996 members of the East African Artillery's 301st Field Regiment, 271 Royal Navy personnel, 19 WRNS, 53 nursing sisters and their matron, nine members of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry and a war correspondent, Kenneth Gandar-Dower. She was part of Convoy KR 8 and it was her fifth convoy on that route. The convoy was escorted by the Hawkins-class heavy cruiser HMS Hawkins and P-class destroyers HMS Paladin and HMS Petard. Khedive Ismail was carrying the Convoy Commodore.

Early in the afternoon of Saturday 12 February, after a week at sea, KR 8 was in the One and a Half Degree Channel south-west of the Maldives. After lunch many of the passengers were below watching an ENSA concert, while others sunbathed on deck. At 1430 hrs the Japanese submarine I-27 had taken position off Khedive Ismail's port side to attack. A lookout sighted I-27's periscope and raised the alarm; Khedive Ismail's DEMS gunners opened fire on the submarine. At the same time I-27's commander, Lt-Cdr Toshiaki Fukumura, fired a spread of four torpedoes, two of which hit Khedive Ismail.


HMS Petard depth charged, shelled, torpedoed and sank I-27

The troop ship's stern was engulfed in flame and smoke and she sank in three minutes. As the convoy's merchant ships scattered for safety, Paladin lowered boats to rescue survivors and Petard released depth charges. The troop ship had sunk too quickly to launch any lifeboats, but her Carley floats floated free and some survivors were able to board them.

After three patterned releases I-27 was forced to the surface. The two destroyers engaged her with their 4-inch (100 mm) QF Mk 5 main guns and Paladin moved to ram her, but as a Type B1 submarine, she was considerably larger than the destroyer so Petard signalled Paladin to abort the manoeuvre. Paladin therefore took avoiding action but too late, and I-27's hydroplane tore a 15-foot (4.6 m) gash in Paladin's hull.

I-27 submerged again and took refuge beneath the survivors. The destruction of a submarine that might sink more ships took precedence over the lives of survivors, so with Paladin out of action Petard resumed the attack with first depth charges, then 4-inch shellfire and finally 21-inch (530 mm) Mk IX torpedoes. The depth charge fuses had to be set to detonate at the most shallow depth, and they killed or wounded many people who had survived the initial sinking. The seventh torpedo finally destroyed I-27, sinking her with all hands. The battle had lasted two and a half hours.

Of 1,511 people aboard Khedive Ismail, only 208 men and 6 women survived the sinking and subsequent battle. 1,220 men and 77 women were killed. The sinking was the third largest loss of life from Allied shipping in World War II and the largest loss of servicewomen in the history of the Commonwealth of Nations.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Khedive_Ismail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Petard_(G56)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Paladin_(G69)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1946 – Ending of Operation Deadlight, the code name for the Royal Navy operation to scuttle German U-boats surrendered to the Allies


Operation Deadlight was the code name for the Royal Navy operation to scuttle German U-boats surrendered to the Allies after the defeat of Germany near the end of World War II.


42 surrendered U-boats moored at Lisahally, Northern Ireland in June 1945

Of the 156 U-boats that surrendered to the allies at the end of the war, 116 were scuttled as part of Operation Deadlight. The operation was carried out by the Royal Navy and it was planned to tow the submarines to three areas about 100 miles north-west of Ireland and sink them. The areas were codenamed XX, YY and ZZ. The intention was to use XX as the main area for scuttling while 36 boats would be towed to ZZ for use as targets for aerial attack. YY was to be a reserve position where, if the weather was good enough, submarines could be diverted from XX to be sunk by naval forces. In the case of those submarines not being used as targets, the plan was to sink them with explosive charges, with naval gunfire as a fall-back option if that failed.

When Operation Deadlight was activated, it was found that many of the U-boats were in an extremely poor condition as a result of being moored in exposed harbours while awaiting disposal. Combined with poor weather, this meant that 56 of the boats sank before reaching the designated scuttling areas, and those which did, were generally sunk by gunfire rather than explosive charges. The first sinking took place on 17 November 1945 and the last on 12 February 1946.



Polish Navy destroyer ORP Krakowiak towing German Type XXIII U-boat U-2377 out to sea for scuttling on 28 November 1945

U-boats excluded from Operation Deadlight
Several U-boats escaped Operation Deadlight. Some were claimed as prizes by Britain, France, Norway and the Soviet Union. Four were in East Asia when Germany surrendered and were commandeered by Japan (U-181 was renamed I-501, U-195 – I-506, U-219 – I-505, U-862 – I-502, and a fifth boat, U-511, had been sold to Japan in 1943 and renamed RO-500). Two U-boats that survived Operation Deadlight are today museum ships. U-505 was earmarked for scuttling, but American Rear Admiral Daniel V. Gallery argued successfully that she did not fall under Operation Deadlight. United States Navy Task Group 22.3, under then-Captain Gallery, had captured U-505 in battle on 4 June 1944. Having been captured, not surrendered at the end of the war, she survived to become a war memorial at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. U-995 was transferred to Norway by Britain in October 1948 and became the Norwegian Kaura. She was returned to Germany in 1965, to become a museum ship in 1971.

Deadlight U-boats discovery
In the late 1990s, an approach was made to the British Ministry of Defence for salvage rights to the Operation Deadlight U-boats, by a firm which planned to raise up to a hundred of them. Because the U-boats were constructed in the pre-atomic age, the wrecks contain metals which are not radioactively tainted, and which are therefore valuable for certain research purposes. No salvage award was made, due to objections from Russia and the U.S. and potentially from Great Britain.

Between 2001 and 2003, nautical archaeologist Innes McCartney discovered and surveyed fourteen of the U-boat wrecks; including the rare Type XXI U-boat U-2506, once under the command of Horst von Schroeter; the successful Type IXC U-boat, U-155commanded by Adolf Piening and the U-778, which was the most promising salvage.

In 2007, Derry City Council announced plans to raise the U-778 to be the main exhibit of a new maritime museum. On 3 October 2007, an Irish diver, Michael Hanrahan, died whilst filming the wreck as part of the salvage project. In November 2009, a spokesman from the council's heritage museum service announced the salvage project had been cancelled for cost reasons.



U-2540 in wartime configuration and exhibited at the Maritime Museum in Bremerhaven. It is the only floating example of a Type XXI U-boat

German submarine U-3514 was a Type XXI U-boat (one of the "Elektroboote") of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine, built for service in World War II. She was ordered on 6 November 1943, and was laid down on 21 August 1944 at F Schichau GmbH, Danzig, as yard number 1659. She was launched on 21 October 1944, and commissioned under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Günther Fritze, on 9 December 1944

On 9 May 1945, U-3514 surrendered at Bergen, Norway. She was transferred to Lisahally, Northern Ireland on 6 June 1945, arriving 8 June 1945.

U-3514 was held at Lisahally until January 1946, when she was taken to Moville. She was being held up in reserve just in case one of the Type XXI that had been transferred to the Soviets after the war did not reach them intact. Then on 7 February 1946, she was ordered to be part of Operation Deadlight. Two days later, on 9 February, she left Moville to be towed to her scuttling area, ariving on the morning of 12 February. HMS Loch Arkaig began the scuttling process at 0936 hrs using her QF 4 in (100 mm) Mark V gun, "Squid" depth charges, and "Shark" shells, fired from the 4" gun. U-3514 finally sunk at 1004 hrs, becoming the last U-boat sunk during "Operation Deadlight"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Deadlight
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Operation_Deadlight_U-boats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-3514
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_XXI_submarine

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 February 1983 - SS Marine Electric, a 605-foot bulk carrier, sank on 12 February 1983


SS Marine Electric, a 605-foot bulk carrier, sank on 12 February 1983, about 30 miles off the coast of Virginia, in 130 feet of water. Thirty-one of the 34 crewmembers were killed; the three survivors endured 90 minutes drifting in the frigid waters of the Atlantic. The wreck resulted in some of the most important maritime reforms in the second half of the 20th century. The tragedy tightened inspection standards, resulted in mandatory survival suits for winter North Atlantic runs, and helped create the now famous Coast Guard rescue swimmer program.



Ship history
The ship was built by the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Chester, Pennsylvania for the U.S. Maritime Commission (contract No. 1770) as a Type T2-SE-A1 tanker, hull number 437. She was laid down on 10 January 1944, launched on 2 May, and delivered on 23 May.

In May 1947, she was sold to the Gulf Oil Corporation and renamed Gulfmills. In May 1961, she was purchased by Marine Transport Lines (MTL), and renamed Marine Electric. The ship was modified by the addition of a new midsection for cargo transport, built at the Bremer Vulkan yard in Bremen, Germany, which was then towed to the Bethlehem Steel Co. yard in East Boston. This extended the ship's length overall from 523 feet (159 m) to 605 feet (184 m), and her tonnage from 10,448 to 13,757 gross register tons (GRT). The work was completed in November 1962. However, the Marine Electric was showing its age, exhibiting corrosion and damage to the hull and other structural components.

Final voyage
The Marine Electric put to sea for her final voyage on 10 February 1983, sailing from Norfolk, Virginia to Somerset, Massachusetts with a cargo of 24,800 tons of granulated coal. The ship sailed through a fierce (and ultimately record-breaking) storm that was gathering.

The Marine Electric neared the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay at about 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, 10 February. She battled 25-foot (7.6-m) waves and winds gusting to more than 55 miles per hour (89 km/h), fighting the storm to reach port with her cargo.

The following day, she was contacted by the United States Coast Guard to turn back to assist a fishing vessel, the Theodora, that was taking on water. The Theodora eventually recovered and proceeded on its westerly course back to Virginia; the Marine Electric turned north to resume its original route.

During the course of the investigation into the ship’s sinking, representatives of MTL theorized that the ship ran aground during her maneuvering to help the Theodora, fatally damaging the hull. They contended that it was this grounding that caused the Marine Electric to sink five hours later.

But Coast Guard investigations, and independent examinations of the wreck, told a different story: the Marine Electric left port in an un-seaworthy condition, with gaping holes in its deck plating and hatch covers. The hatch covers, in particular, posed a problem, since without them the cargo hold could fill with water in the storm and drag the ship under. And it was there that the investigation took a second, dramatic turn.

Investigators discovered that much of the paperwork supporting MTL's declarations that the Marine Electric was seaworthy was faked. Inspection records showed inspections of the hatch covers during periods where they'd in fact been removed from the ship for maintenance; inspections were recorded during periods of time when the ship wasn't even in port. A representative of the hatch covers' manufacturer warned MTL in 1982 that their condition posed a threat to the ship’s seaworthiness. But inspectors never tested them. And yet, the Marine Electric was repeatedly certified as seaworthy.

Part of the problem was that the Coast Guard delegated some of its inspection authority to the American Bureau of Shipping. The ABS is a private, non-profit agency that developed rules, standards and guidelines for ship's hulls. In the wake of the Marine Electric tragedy, questions were raised about how successfully the ABS was exercising the inspection authority delegated to it, as well as about whether the Coast Guard even had the authority to delegate that role. Also there was a conflict of interest in that the inspection fees paid to the ABS were paid by the ship owners.

Aftermath

USCG Marine Casualty Report on SS Marine Electric

In the wake of the Marine Electric sinking, The Philadelphia Inquirer assigned two reporters, Tim Dwyer and Robert Frump, to look into old ship catastrophes. In the series, the writers concluded that government programs designed to strengthen the merchant marine had actually kept unsafe ships afloat. Frump later wrote a book, Until the Sea Shall Free Them, about the sinking.

In the wake of the Marine Board report, and the newspaper's investigation, the Coast Guard dramatically changed its inspection and oversight procedures. The Coast Guard report noted that the ABS, in particular, "cannot be considered impartial", and described its failure to notice the critical problems with the ship as negligent. At the same time, the report noted that "the inexperience of the inspectors who went aboard the Marine Electric, and their failure to recognize the safety hazards...raises doubt about the capabilities of the Coast Guard inspectors to enforce the laws and regulations in a satisfactory manner."

While the Coast Guard commandant did not accept all of the recommendations of the Marine Board report, inspections tightened and more than 70 old World War II relics still functioning 40 years after the war were sent to scrap yards. In 2003, Coast Guard Captain Dominic Calicchio was posthumously awarded The Plimsoll Award by Professional Mariner magazine in part because of his role as a member of the Marine Board of Investigation.

Additionally, the Coast Guard required that survival suits be required on all winter North Atlantic runs. Later, as a direct result of the casualties on the Marine Electric, Congress pushed for and the Coast Guard eventually established the now famous Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer program.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Marine_Electric
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_Survival_Technician