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
22 February 1744 - Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié - Part I


The naval Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié took place on 22–23 February 1744 (NS) in the Mediterranean off the French coast near Toulon. A combined Franco-Spanish fleet fought off Britain's Mediterranean Fleet. The French fleet, not officially at war with Great Britain, only joined the fighting late, when it was clear that the greatly outnumbered Spanish fleet had gained the advantage over its foe. With the French intervention, the British fleet was forced to withdraw.


Engraving of the Battle (1796) Naval museum of Madrid.

In Britain the battle was regarded as the most mortifying defeat; the Franco-Spanish fleet successfully ended the British blockade and inflicted considerably more damage to the British than they received, causing the British to withdraw to Menorca in need of heavy repairs. The retreat of Admiral Mathews' fleet left the Mediterranean Sea temporarily under Spanish control, allowing the Spanish navy to deliver troops and supplies to the Spanish army in Italy, decisively swinging the war there in their favour.

Thomas Mathews was tried by court-martial in 1746 on charges of having brought the fleet into action in a disorganised manner, of having fled the enemy, and of having failed to bring the enemy to action when the conditions were advantageous. He was one of seven ship captains dismissed from service.

In English-language literature the battle is viewed as indecisive at best and a fiasco at worst.



Prelude


The British fire ship HMS Anne Galley, aflame and sinking short of her intended target, the Spanish flagship Real Felipe

The War of the Austrian Succession broke out in 1740, over whether Maria Theresa could inherit the throne of Hapsburg Austria. Britain supported Austria and the claim of Maria Theresa, whilst Spain and France supported the rival claim of Charles, Elector of Bavaria. Britain and Spain had been at war in the Americas since 1739, in the War of Jenkins' Ear. Britain and France were not officially at war at the start of 1744, although they were on opposite sides of the wider conflict and France was secretly planning an invasion of Britain.

Thomas Mathews had had a solid but unspectacular career as a naval captain, rising to command a small squadron before retiring from the navy in 1724. He returned to naval service in 1736, but only in a shore-based administrative role. The outbreak of war with Spain and the imminent threat of war with France led to Mathews' return to active service after years of effective retirement, with a promotion directly to Vice-Admiral of the Red on 13 March 1741. He was given command of a fleet in the Mediterranean, and with it an appointment as plenipotentiary to Charles Emmanuel III, King of Sardinia (who supported Maria Theresa's claim), and the other courts of Italy. The choice of Mathews for the role was somewhat unexpected, as he was not especially distinguished, and had not served in the navy for a number of years.

The second in command in the Mediterranean was Rear-Admiral Richard Lestock. Mathews knew Lestock from their time at Chatham Dockyard, when Mathews had been the Commissioner and Lestock had commanded the guard ships stationed in the Medway. The two had not been on good terms, and Lestock had hoped to receive the command of the Mediterranean fleet himself – he had been acting commander for several weeks after Nicholas Haddock was recalled. On receiving the Mediterranean posting, Mathews requested that Lestock be recalled to Britain. Lestock also asked to be reassigned, requesting the command of the West Indies fleet instead. The Admiralty declined to act upon either request.

The two men continued their disagreements during their time in the Mediterranean, although Mathews' preoccupation with his diplomatic duties meant they did not break out into open argument. In 1742 Mathews sent a small squadron to Naples to compel King Charles, later the King of Spain, to remain neutral in the war. It was commanded by Commodore William Martin, who refused to enter into negotiations, and gave the king half an hour in which to return an answer. The Neapolitans were forced to agree to the British demands.

In June 1742 a squadron of Spanish galleys, which had taken refuge in the Bay of Saint-Tropez, was burnt by the fire ships of Mathews' fleet. In the meantime a Spanish squadron had taken refuge in Toulon, and was watched by the British fleet from Hyères. The British began a naval blockade outside Toulon, allowing French vessels to pass but preventing the Spanish from leaving.


Plano del navío Real Felipe, de 114 cañones, aunque en la batalla llevaba 112.


Order of battle


The Spanish ship Poder being unable to keep up with the British ships that captured her, was rataken in the night by the French squadron. The French perceiving the British fleet coming fall up with them, cast off and abandoned the Poder, first setting fire to her, and she shortly after blew up.






According a spanish web page the spanish french fleet had 1.806 guns available with 19.100 seamen.
On british side 16.585 seamen fighted with 2.280 guns.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_(1744)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1744 - Battle of Toulon or Battle of Cape Sicié - Part II


Battle
On 21 February 1744 the Spaniards left Toulon and put to sea, in company with a French force. Mathews ordered the British fleet to follow their course.[16]The Franco-Spanish fleet numbered 27 ships of the line and three frigates, whilst the British had 30 ships of the line and three frigates of their own. The British ships were generally larger and more heavily armed than their opponents, carrying over 25% more cannons overall. Both fleets were organised in the traditional three squadrons of van, centre and rear, with the Spanish forming the rear squadron of the allied fleet.

The winds were light, making manoeuvring difficult and causing the fleets to become spread out. In the evening of 22 February the fleets began to approach each other and prepare for battle, with Mathews signalling his ships to form line of battle.[6] The line had still not been properly formed as night fell, leading Mathews to hoist the signal to come to (halt by turning into the wind), intending for his ships to first finish forming the line. The van and centre squadrons did so, but Lestock, commanding the rear, obeyed the order to come to immediately, without having formed the line.


Map of the battle

By daybreak on 23 February, the rear of the British fleet was separated by a considerable distance from the van and centre. Mathews signalled for Lestock to make more sail, reluctant to start the attack with his ships still disorganised, but the slowness of Lestock to respond caused the Franco-Spanish force to start to slip away to the south.[6] Mathews feared that they would escape him and pass through the Strait of Gibraltar to join the French force gathered at Brest for the planned invasion of Britain.

Knowing that his duty was to attack, Mathews hoisted the signal to engage the enemy aboard his flagship HMS Namur, and at one o'clock left the line to attack the Spanish rear, followed by Captain James Cornewall aboard HMS Marlborough. In doing so, the signal to form the line of battle was left flying. The two signals flying simultaneously created confusion. A number of British commanders, including Captain Edward Hawke, followed Mathews' example, but many did not. His other commanders were either too uncertain, or in the case of Lestock, allegedly pleased to see Mathews in difficulty and unwilling to help him.

Heavily outnumbered and unsupported, Namur and Marlborough managed to successfully engage their opposite numbers in the enemy line, but suffered considerable damage.[6] At the rear of the ships being attacked, five more Spanish ships followed, at some distance due to the slow speed of the one ahead: Brillante, San Fernando, Halcon, Soberbio and Santa Isabel. There was some exchange of fire between these and the lead ships of the English rear. Most of Lestock's ships in the rear remained inactive during the battle.

The main action was being fought around Real Felipe, Navarro's flagship. Marlborough purposefully crossed the Spanish line, but suffered such severe damage that she was deemed to be on the verge of sinking. The Hercules, astern of the Real Felipe, vigorously fought off three British ships. The Constante, immediately ahead of the flagship, repelled the attack of a British ship-of-the-line, which was promptly replaced by two more, with which she continued to fight for nearly three hours.

The French ships came about at 5 o'clock to aid the Spanish, a manoeuvre interpreted by some of the British commanders to be an attempt to double the British line and surround them. With no orders from Mathews and a lack of clear instructions or command structure, the British line broke, and began to flee to the northwest. The Spanish, still on the defensive, neglected to capture the defenceless Marlborough, though they did retake the Poder, which had previously surrendered to the British.

The Franco-Spanish fleet then resumed their flight to the southwest, and it was not until 23 February that the British were able to regroup and resume the pursuit. They caught up with the enemy fleet again, which was hampered by towing damaged ships, and the unmanoeuvrable Poder was abandoned and scuttled by the French. By now the British had closed to within a few miles of the enemy fleet, but Mathews again signalled for the fleet to come to. The following day, 24 February, the Franco-Spanish fleet was almost out of sight, and Mathews returned to Hyères, and sailed from there to Port Mahon, where he arrived in early March.

Aftermath


The 90-gun HMS Marlborough, heavily damaged after the battle

Tactically, the battle was indecisive, but France and Spain both made significant strategic gains as a result. The escaping Franco-Spanish fleet was able to deliver troops and supplies to the Spanish army in Italy, decisively swinging the war there in their favour.[6] The Spanish admiral Juan José Navarro was created Marquess of Victory after his conduct of the battle. The battle was followed by a French declaration of war on Britain and Hanover in March. In May the French also declared war on Maria Theresa and invaded the Austrian Netherlands, having abandoned their earlier plan to invade Britain.

These were significant consequences, resulting from the failure of the British fleet to bring a decisive action against a foe of inferior number. This was widely remarked on in Britain, leading to the House of Commons petitioning King George II for a public enquiry. This was held, and a dozen captains were tried by court-martial, seven were cashiered for failing to do their "utmost" to engage the enemy and support the already-engaged ships, as required by the Articles of War (two were acquitted, one died before trial). Lestock was also tried, but was able to place the blame on Mathews, and with the help of powerful supporters in government, was acquitted and offered further employment. Mathews was also tried by court-martial in 1746, on charges of having brought the fleet into action in a disorganised manner, of having fled the enemy, and of having failed to bring the enemy to action when the conditions were advantageous. In his defence it was shown that he had fought bravely, but in June 1747 the court judged the charges were proven, and Mathews was cashiered (dismissed from the service).

The judgements were unpopular with the public, with a 1758 history declaring:

The nation could not be persuaded that the vice-admiral ought to be exculpated for not fighting, and the admiral cashiered for fighting.​

The court-martial process was hampered by interference from politicians and civilian courts, so in 1749 Parliament amended the 1661 Articles of War to enhance the autonomy of naval courts. It also amended the section that read:

Every Captaine and all other Officers Mariners and Souldiers of every Ship Frigott or Vessell of War that shall in time of any fight or engagement withdraw or keepe backe or not come into the fight and engage and do his utmost to take fire kill and endamage the Enemy Pirate or Rebells and assist and relieve all and every of His Majesties Ships shall for such offence of cowardice or disaffection be tried and suffer paines of death or other punishment as the circumstances of the offence shall deserve and the Court martiall shall judge fitt.​

Article XII in the 1749 Articles of War would instead read:

Every Person in the Fleet, who thro’ Cowardice, Negligence or Disaffection, shall in Time of Action withdrawn, or keep back, or not come into the Fight or Engagement, or shall not do his utmost to take or destroy every Ship which it shall be his Duty to engage, and to assist and relieve all and every of his Majesty's Ships, or those of his Allies, which it shall be his Duty to assist and relieve, every such Person so offending and being convicted thereof by the Sentence of a Court Martial, shall suffer Death.​

This change would lead to the execution of Admiral Byng in 1757.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Toulon_(1744)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1765 – Launch of HMS Suffolk, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy,


HMS Suffolk was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 February 1765 at Rotherhithe. She was designed by William Bateley, based on the principles of his earlier HMS Fame, and was the only ship built to her draught.



Suffolk under command of Rear Admiral Joshua Rowley saw action off Guadeloupe island on the night of 21–22 December 1779 when three French frigates, la Fortunée (42 guns), la Blanche (36 guns), and l'Ellis (28 guns) were captured.

On 4 May 1794 Captain Peter Rainier, with the Suffolk, a 64-gun ship, and four or five frigates, undertook to escort a convoy to India. In November arrived at Madras. In July, the Suffolk, now under Captain Robert Lambert, HMS Hobart, HMS Centurion and transports, sailed from Madras, joined en route by HMS Diomede, for Ceylon to take Trincomalee and other Dutch settlements on the island.

On 16 February 1796 Rear-admiral Peter Rainier arrived with a squadron, including the Suffolk, off Amboyna, on the Dutch controlled Molucca islands and landed troops who were able to take possession without facing any resistance. Then on 7 March, the squadron arrived off Banda-Neira and again landed troops, this time taking possession after facing only a little resistance. The Admiral found in the Treasury at Amboyna, 81,112 Rixdollars, and in store 515,940 pounds (weight) of cloves; in the Treasury at Banda-Neira 66,675 Rix dollars, and 84,777 pounds of nutmeg, 19,587 pounds of mace, and merchandise and other stores. Estimates suggest that each of the captains in Rainier's squadron received £15,000 in prize money.

What is perhaps more interesting and of greater long-term significance is that on this voyage, Suffolk was taking part in an experiment under the auspices of the and Hurt Board. At the suggestion of Rear Admiral Gardner, and in defiance of civilian medical opinion the Admiralty implemented a long-term trial of citrus fruit as a remedy for scurvy. Lemon juice was issued on board the Suffolk on her twenty-three-week, non-stop voyage to India. The daily ration of two-thirds of an ounce mixed in grog contained just about the minimum daily intake of 10 mg vitamin C. There was no serious outbreak of scurvy. The following year the Admiralty adopted a general issue of lemon juice to the whole fleet.

At Colombo a serious mutiny broke out on Suffolk on 15 January 1798. However, it was suppressed.

On 4 February 1802 Suffolk was at St Helena and expected to sail for England in company with Arran, which too was returning England from the Indies.

Fate
Suffolk was broken up in 1803.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the quarterdeck, forecastle, half-breadth for the upper deck and lower deck, and the orlop deck with fore & aft platforms for Suffolk (1765), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker.



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the half-breadth for the forecastle deck, a three-quarter width for the quarterdeck, and half-breadth for the upper deck and lower deck, and three-quarter width for the orlop deck with fore & aft platforms for Suffolk (1765), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Reverse: Scale: 1:48. Plan showing sections illustrating the rising timber for a 74-gun ship, and midship section for Suffolk (1765).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Suffolk_(1765)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-351319;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1797 – A force of 1,400 French soldiers invaded Britain at Fishguard in support of the Society of United Irishmen. They were defeated by 500 British reservists.


The Battle of Fishguard was a military invasion of Great Britain by Revolutionary France during the War of the First Coalition. The brief campaign, on 22–24 February 1797, is the most recent landing on British soil by a hostile foreign force, and thus is often referred to as the "last invasion of Britain".



The French General Lazare Hoche had devised a three-pronged attack on Britain in support of the Society of United Irishmen. Two forces would land in Britain as a diversionary effort, while the main body would land in Ireland. Adverse weather and ill-discipline halted two of the forces but the third, aimed at landing in Wales and marching on Bristol, went ahead.

After brief clashes with hastily assembled British forces and the local civilian population, the invading force's Irish-American commander, Colonel William Tate, was forced into unconditional surrender on 24 February. In a related naval action, the British captured two of the expedition's vessels, a frigate and a corvette.

Invasion plan
General Hoche proposed to land 15,000 French troops in Ireland to support the United Irishmen at Bantry Bay. As a diversionary attack to draw away British reinforcements, two smaller forces would land in Britain, one in northern England near Newcastle and the other in Wales.

In December 1796 Hoche's expedition arrived at Bantry Bay, but atrocious weather scattered and depleted it. Unable to land even a single soldier, Hoche decided to set sail and return to France. In January 1797 poor weather in the North Sea, combined with outbreaks of mutiny and poor discipline among the recruits, stopped the attacking force headed for Newcastle, and they too returned to France. However, the third invasion went ahead, and on 16 February 1797 a fleet of four French warships left Brest, flying Russian colours and bound for Britain.

Expedition forces
The Wales-bound invasion force consisted of 1,400 troops from La Legion Noire (The Black Legion), a partly penal battalion under the command of Irish-American Colonel William Tate. He had fought against the British during the American War of Independence, but after a failed coup d'etat in New Orleans, he fled to Paris in 1795. His forces, officially the Seconde Légion des Francs, became more commonly known as the Légion Noire ("The Black Legion") due to their using captured British uniforms dyed very dark brown or black. Most historians have misrepresented Tate's age, following E. H. Stuart Jones in his The Last Invasion of Britain (1950), in which Jones claimed Tate was about 70 years old. In fact, he was only 44.

The naval operation, led by Commodore Jean-Joseph Castagnier, comprised four warships - some of the newest in the French fleet: the frigates Vengeance and Résistance (on her maiden voyage), the corvette Constance, and a smaller lugger called the Vautour. The Directory had ordered Castagnier to land Colonel Tate's troops and then to rendezvous with Hoche's expedition returning from Ireland to give them any assistance they might need.

Landing


Carregwastad Head, the landing site for Tate's forces


French forces landing at Carregwastad on 22 February 1797. From a lithograph first published in May 1797 and later coloured


French troops surrender to British forces on Goodwick sands

Of Tate's 1,400 troops, some 600 were French regular soldiers that Napoleon Bonaparte had not required in his conquest of Italy, and 800 were irregulars, including republicans, deserters, convicts and Royalist prisoners. All were well-armed, and some of the officers were Irish. They landed at Carregwastad Head near Fishguardin Pembrokeshire on 22 February. Some accounts report a failed attempt to enter Fishguard harbour, but this scenario does not seem to have appeared in print before 1892 and probably has its origin in a misunderstanding of an early pamphlet about the invasion. The Legion Noire landed under the cover of darkness at Carreg Wastad Point, three miles northwest of Fishguard. By 2 a.m. on 23 February, the French had put ashore 17 boatloads of troops, plus 47 barrels of gunpowder, 50 tons of cartridges and grenades and 2,000 stands of arms. One rowing boat was lost in the surf, taking with it several artillery pieces and their ammunition.

Armed response
Upon landing, discipline broke down amongst the irregulars, many of whom deserted to loot nearby settlements. The remaining troops confronted a quickly assembled group of around 500 British reservists, militia and sailors under the command of John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor. Many local civilians also organised and armed themselves.

Volunteer infantry and cavalry
Landowner William Knox had raised the Fishguard & Newport Volunteer Infantry in 1794 in response to the British Government's call to arms. By 1797, there were four companies totalling nearly 300 men, and the unit was the largest in the County of Pembrokeshire. To command this regiment, William Knox appointed his 28-year-old son, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Knox, a man who had bought his commission and had no combat experience.

On the night of 22 February, there was a social event at Tregwynt Mansion, and the young Thomas Knox was in attendance when a messenger on horseback arrived from the Fishguard & Newport Volunteer Infantry to instruct the commanding officer of the invasion. The import of this news was slow to dawn on Knox, but, upon returning to Fishguard Fort, he ordered the regiment's Newport Division to march the seven miles to Fishguard with all haste.

Lord Cawdor, captain of the Castlemartin Troop of the Pembroke Yeomanry Cavalry, was stationed thirty miles away at Stackpole Court in the far south of the county, where the troop had massed in preparation for a funeral the following day. He immediately assembled all the troops at his disposal and set off for the county town of Haverfordwest along with the Pembroke Volunteers and the Cardiganshire Militia, who were on routine exercises at the time. At Haverfordwest, Lieutenant-ColonelColby of the Pembrokeshire Militia had summoned together a force of 250 soldiers.

Naval crew and ordnance
Captain Longcroft brought up the press gangs and crews of two revenue vessels based in Milford Haven, totalling 150 sailors. Nine cannons were also brought ashore, of which six were placed inside Haverfordwest Castle and the other three prepared for transit to Fishguard with the local forces. Cawdor arrived, and in consultation with the lord lieutenant of the county, Lord Milford, and the other officers present, Lord Cawdor was delegated full authority and overall command.

Initial actions
The French moved inland and secured some outlying farmhouses. A company of French grenadiers under Lieutenant St. Leger took possession of Trehowel farm on the Llanwnda Peninsula about a mile from their landing site, and it was here that Colonel Tate decided to set up his headquarters. The French forces were instructed to live off the land, and as soon as the convicts landed on British soil, they deserted the invasion force and began to loot the local villages and hamlets. One group broke into Llanwnda Church to shelter from the cold, and set about lighting a fire inside using a Bible as kindling and the pews as firewood.[citation needed] However, the 600 regulars remained loyal to their officers and orders.

On the British side, Knox had declared to Colby his intention to attack the French on 23 February if he was not heavily outnumbered. He then sent out scouting parties to assess the strength of the enemy.

Battle averted
By the morning of 23 February, the French had moved two miles inland and occupied strong defensive positions on the high rocky outcrops of Garnwnda and Carngelli, gaining an unobstructed view of the surrounding countryside. Meanwhile, 100 of Knox's men had yet to arrive, and he discovered he was facing a force of nearly ten times the size of his own. Many local inhabitants were fleeing in panic, but many more were flocking into Fishguard armed with a variety of makeshift weapons, ready to fight alongside the Volunteer Infantry. Knox was faced with three choices: attack the French, defend Fishguard or retreat towards the reinforcements from Haverfordwest. He quickly decided to retreat and gave orders to spike the nine cannons in Fishguard Fort, which the Woolwich gunners refused to do. At 9 a.m., Knox set off towards his rear, sending out scouts continuously to reconnoitre the French. Knox and his 194 men met the reinforcements led by Lord Cawdor at 1.30 p.m. at Treffgarne, eight miles south of Fishguard. After a short dispute over who was in charge, Cawdor assumed command and led the combined British forces towards Fishguard.

By now, Tate was having serious problems of his own. Discipline among the convict recruits had collapsed once they discovered the locals' supply of wine. (A Portuguese ship had been wrecked on the coast several weeks previously.) Moreover, morale overall was low, and the invasion was beginning to lose its momentum. Many convicts rebelled and mutinied against their officers, and many other men had simply vanished during the night. Those troops left to him were the French regulars, including his Grenadiers. The rest mainly lay drunk and sick in farm houses all over the Llanwnda Peninsula. Instead of welcoming Tate's invaders, the Welsh had turned out to be hostile, and at least six Welsh and French had already been killed in clashes. Tate's Irish and French officers counselled surrender, since the departure of Castagnier with the ships that morning meant there was no way to escape.

By 5 p.m., the British forces had reached Fishguard. Cawdor decided to attack before dusk. His 600 men, dragging their three cannons behind them, marched up narrow Trefwrgi Lane from Goodwick toward the French position on Garngelli. Unknown to him, Lieutenant St. Leger and the French Grenadiers had made their way down from Garngelli and prepared an ambush behind the high hedges of the lane. A volley of muskets and grenades poured at close range into the tightly compressed column would have resulted in heavy casualties to Cawdor's men. However, Cawdor decided to call off his attack and returned to Fishguard due to the failing light.

French surrender
That evening, two French officers arrived at the Royal Oak where Cawdor had set up his headquarters on Fishguard Square. They wished to negotiate a conditional surrender. Cawdor bluffed and replied that with his superior force he would only accept the unconditional surrender of the French forces and issued an ultimatum to Colonel Tate. He had until 10 a.m. on 24 February to surrender on Goodwick Sands, otherwise the French would be attacked.

At 8 a.m. on the 24th, the British forces lined up in battle order on Goodwick Sands. Up above them on the cliffs, the inhabitants of the town came to watch and await Tate's response to the ultimatum. The locals on the cliff included women wearing traditional Welsh costume which included a red whittle (shawl) and Welsh hat which, from a distance, some of the French mistook to be red coats and shako, thus believing them to be regular line infantry.

Tate tried to delay it but eventually accepted the terms of the unconditional surrender and, at 2 p.m., the sounds of the French drums could be heard leading the column down to Goodwick. The French piled their weapons and by 4 p.m. the French prisoners were marched through Fishguard on their way to temporary imprisonment at Haverfordwest. Meanwhile, Cawdor had ridden out with a party of his Pembroke Yeomanry Cavalry to Trehowel farm to receive Tate's official surrender. Unfortunately the actual document has been lost.

After brief imprisonment, Tate was returned to France in a prisoner exchange in 1798, along with most of his invasion force.

Folk heroine
A legendary heroine, Jemima Nicholas, is reported to have gone out single-handed with a pitchfork into the fields, rounded up twelve French soldiers and escorted them to town where she locked them inside St. Mary's church.

Related naval action
On 9 March 1797, HMS St Fiorenzo, under the command of Sir Harry Neale, was sailing in company with Captain John Cooke's HMS Nymphe, when they encountered La Resistance, which had been crippled by the adverse weather in the Irish Sea en route to Ireland, along with La Constance. Cooke and Neale chased after them, engaging them for half an hour, after which both French ships surrendered. There were no casualties or damage on either of the British ships, while the two French ships lost 18 killed and 15 wounded between them. La Resistance was re-fitted and renamed HMS Fisgard and La Constance became HMS Constance. Castagnier, on board Le Vengeance, made it safely back to France.


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1799 - HMS Espoir, Cptn. James Sanders, engaged Spanish flotilla and captured Spanish xebec Africa off Marbella


L'Espoir was a French brig-sloop (Fr. brick-aviso) that served for 9½ years in the French Navy before HMS Thalia captured her in September 1797. In her subsequent short career within in British service as HMS Espoir she captured three prizes, with the capture in 1798 of the more heavily armed Genoese pirate Liguria earning her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. Espoir was laid up in 1799 and sold in 1804.



Construction
L'Espoir was one of six brig-sloops of the Hasard class, designed by Raymond-Antoine Haran. She was built in Bayonne between December 1787 and April 1788, and launched in March 1788. She originally mounted just 4-pounder guns and carried a crew of 5 officers and 65 ratings; by 1794 she carried twelve 6-pounder guns and 125 men.

French service
Espoir cruised the coasts of Newfoundland while under the command of chevalier de Fabry, lieutenant de vaisseau, around 17 August 1790. Between 13 July 1792 and 12 January 1793, Espoir carried dispatches to Senegal, and then returned. At the time she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau, later lieutenant de vaisseau, Martin.

Espoir sailed from Rochefort to Verdon, escorted a convoy from Verdon to Rochelle, cruised and conducted escorts on the coasts of Poitou and la Charente, and between Rochefort and Bayonne, and escorted a convoy from France to Cayenne. Between 5 February and 17 July 1793 she was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Charles-Nicolas Lacaille; in August her commander was lieutenant de vaisseau Vignier.

Espoir was renamed Lazouski (or Lazousky) on 28 September 1793 (in honour of Revolutionary leader Claude François Lazowski). She escorted convoys between Bayonne and Brest, cruised in the Bay of Biscay and south of Ireland, and was at Rochefort. From 1 January 1794 to 22 May, she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau, later lieutenant de vaisseau, Farjanel. Then between 27 May and 8 September her captain was enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Barbé. On 26 May 1795 her captain was lieutenant de vaisseau Barrère. Under his command Lazouski, based at Rochefort, cruised the Gulf of Gascony, and escorted a convoy from Rochelle to Pasajes.

Lazouski reverted to the name Espoir on 30 May 1795. Around 15 July, while under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Goyeteche, Espoirescorted merchant vessels from Saint-Jean-de-Luz to Bayonne.

From 20 August 1797 until her capture, Espoir was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Pairaudeau. He sailed her to Cayenne, and then cruised east of Bermuda.

Capture
Thalia, under Captain Lord Henry Paulet, captured Espoir in the Mediterranean on 18 September 1797. She had sailed from Cayenne and earlier had been in company with the French corvette Gaité, which however the British frigate HMS Arethusa had captured on 10 August.[5] Thalia shared the prize money for Espoir with Romulus and Mahonesa.

British service
The British rearmed Espoir with fourteen 6-pounder guns and gave her a crew of 80 men. She was commissioned in June 1798 in the Mediterranean under Commander Loftus Otway Bland.

On 7 August she was escorting the Oran convoy when she encountered the Genoese pirate, the 26-gun Liguria, some three leagues off Cape Windmill.[7] Bland sailed to meet the vessel, which ordered him to surrender and then fired on Espoir. Liguria mounted twelve 18-pounder guns, four 12-pounder guns, and ten 6-pounder guns. She also carried 12 wall-pieces, and four swivel guns. Lastly, she had a crew of 120 men. She thus outgunned and outnumbered Espoir. After several broadsides and some lulls, lasting in all perhaps four hours, Ligouria struck her colors. She had lost her boatswain and six men killed, and 14 men wounded, including her commander Don Francisco de Orso dangerously so. Espoir lost her master killed, and had six men wounded, of whom two were badly wounded. Liguria was a Dutch frigate that had been sold to the Genoese.

Bland received a promotion to post-captain, with seniority of 25 September 1798. In 1847 the Admiralty issued the clasp "Espoir 7 Augt. 1798" to the Naval General Service Medal to the one surviving claimant from that action.

Corso shared in the prize money for Liguria. Then on 18 October, Espoir and Corso captured the Madonna de Ydra.

On 29 October, between Tarifa and Tangiers, Espoir captured the 8-gun cutter Fulminante, which had had the "impudence" (in Bland's words) to attack Espoir. Admiral Jervis, Earl of St Vincent, needing an advice boat, took her into service the next day as Fulminante. Fulminante had a short career, being wrecked on the Egyptian coast on 24 March 1801.

On 2 December 1798, Espoir's boats assisted Corso in bringing off a small French privateer that Corso had run ashore about three leagues east of Malabar Bay, near Gibraltar. When the boarding party arrived at the vessel they found that her crew had deserted her. The privateer was armed with two carriage guns, two swivels, and small arms. Corso and Espoir shared the prize money for the vessel, which turned out to be the barque Adolphe.

In late 1798 or early 1799, command of Espoir transferred to Commander James Sanders. (When Bland handed over command he reported that he considered Espoir to be unseaworthy.)

Under Sanders's command she took her last prize on 22 February 1799, the Spanish 14-gun xebec Africa some three leagues from Marbello on the Spanish coast. Espoir sighted two xebecs and a brig. One of the two xebecs hoisted Spanish colours and it and the brig formed in line ahead to engage Espoir. (They had cast off a Moorish vessel, which was a prize.) After exchanging broadsides with the xebec and the brig, Espoir was able to bring the xebec Africa, Captain Josepho Subjado, to close action. Africa mounted 14 long Spanish 4-pounder guns and four brass 4-pounder swivels, and had a crew of 75 seamen and 38 soldiers from Algosamus, bound to Malaga. After exchanging fire for an hour and a half, Espoir seized the opportunity to board Africa. The British captured the xebec after a 20-minute fight on board. Africa's two consorts effected their escape; the fleeing brig alone had 18 guns. Espoir lost two seamen killed and two wounded. Africa lost one officer and eight seamen killed, and her commander, two other officers and 25 seamen wounded. Majestic was in sight and her commander, Captain Cuthbert, transmitted Sanders's letter, adding his own endorsement extolling "the meritorious Conduct of Captain Sanders and his Ship's Company on the Occasion." Espoir and Majestic shared the prize money for the xebec, whose full name was Nostra Senora de Africa.

On 12 May Espoir arrived at Palermo bearing the news that the French fleet had been sighted off Oporto and was believed to be sailing to the Mediterranean. In June Espoir was off Cape delle Melle with Lord Keith's fleet. Although the frigate Emerald had run into Espoir during the night, stoving in her larboard side, Espoir still took part in Keith's squadron's pursuit of a French squadron in the Action of 18 June 1799. Espoir later shared in the prize money for the capture of the three frigates Courageux, Alceste, and Junon, and the two French brigs Alerte and Salamine.

While at Gibraltar Sanders observed Spanish gunboats capture a merchant brig between Cabritta Point and Ceuta. He set out at sunset and recaptured the brig, while sinking one of the gunboats. He went on to save several English merchant vessels from the Algeciras flotilla and captured or destroyed several privateers and trading vessels. Some of these encounters involved an action but none resulted in material injury or damage to Espoir.

Fate
Espoir arrived in Sheerness on 14 October and was paid off in December. She then went into dock. Here several feet of her counter fell out when the copper was removed, bearing out Bland's earlier condemnation of her condition. Espoir was laid up in December. She was sold at Sheerness in September 1804.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Espoir_(1797)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1812 - Battle of Pirano
HMS Victorious (74), Cptn. John Talbot, and HMS Weasel (18), John William Andrew, captured French Rivoli (74), Commodore Jean-Baptiste Barré, engaged brig Mercure (16) which blew up, off Venice.


The Battle of Pirano (also known as the Battle of Grado) on 22 February 1812 was a minor naval action of the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars fought between a British and a French ship of the line in the vicinity of the towns of Piran and Grado in Adriatic Sea. The French Rivoli, named for Napoleon's victory 15 years earlier, had been recently completed at Venice. The French naval authorities intended her to bolster French forces in the Adriatic, following a succession of defeats in the preceding year.



To prevent this ship challenging British dominance in the theatre, the Royal Navy ordered a ship of the line from the Mediterranean fleet to intercept and capture Rivoli on her maiden voyage. Captain John Talbot of HMS Victorious arrived off Venice in mid-February and blockaded the port. When Rivoliattempted to escape under cover of fog, Talbot chased her and forced her to surrender in a five-hour battle, Rivoli losing over half her crew wounded or dead.


Battle of Pirano by Giovanni Luzzo
(Municipal Museum, Perast, Montenegro)

Background
Further information: Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
The Treaty of Tilsit in 1807 had resulted in a Russian withdrawal from the Adriatic and the French takeover of the strategic island fortress of Corfu. The Treaty of Schönbrunn with the Austrian Empire in 1809 had further solidified French influence in the area by formalising their control of the Illyrian Provinces on the Eastern shore. To protect these gains, the French and Italian governments had instigated a shipbuilding program in Venice and other Italian ports in an effort to rebuild their Mediterranean fleet and challenge British hegemony. These efforts were hampered by the poverty of the Italian government and the difficulty that the French Navy had in manning and equipping their ships. As a result, the first ship of the line built in the Adriatic under this program was not launched until 1810 and not completed until early 1812.


Rivoli, fitted with the camels that allowed her to cross the shallow banks before Venice harbour.

By the time this ship, Rivoli, was launched, the Royal Navy had achieved dominance over the French in the Adriatic Sea. Not only had the regional commander Bernard Dubourdieu been killed and his squadron destroyed at the Battle of Lissa in March 1811, but French efforts to supply their scattered garrisons were proving increasingly risky. This was demonstrated by the destruction of a well-armed convoy from Corfu to Trieste at the Action of 29 November 1811. Rivoli's launch was therefore seen by the French Navy as an opportunity to reverse these defeats, as the new ship of the line outgunned the British frigates that operated within the Adriatic and would be able to operate in the Adriatic without the threat of attack by the frigate squadron based on Lissa.

The Royal Navy was aware of the threat that Rivoli posed to their hegemony and were warned in advance by spies in Venice of the progress of the ship’s construction. As Rivoli neared completion, HMS Victorious was dispatched from the Mediterranean Fleet to intercept her should she leave port. Victorious was commanded by John Talbot, a successful and popular officer who had distinguished himself with the capture of the French frigate Ville de Milan in 1805 and his service in the Dardanelles Operation of 1807. Talbot was accompanied by the 18-gun brig HMS Weazel under Commander John William Andrew.

Battle


The explosion of Mercure in HMS 'Victorious' Taking the 'Rivoli', 22 February 1812 , Thomas Luny, National Maritime Museum

Rivoli departed Venice on 21 February 1812 under the command of Commodore Jean-Baptiste Barré, accompanied by five smaller escort ships, the 16-gun brigsMercure and Iéna, the 8-gun brig Mamelouck and two small gunboats, strung out in an improvised line of battle. Barré hoped to make use of a heavy sea fog that had descended, to break out from Venice and elude pursuit. Victorious had held off from the land during the fog and by the time Talbot was able to observe Venice harbour at 14:30, his opponent had escaped. Searching for Barré, who was sailing to Pula, Talbot spotted one of the French brigs at 15:00 and gave chase.

The French head-start had enabled Rivoli to gain a substantial distance on the British ship, and so it was not until 02:30 on 22 February that Talbot was able to close with her quarry and its escort. Not wishing to be held up by the escort ships protecting Rivoli, Talbot ordered Weasel ahead to engage them while Victorious fought Barré's flagship directly. At 04:15, Weasel overhauled the rearmost French brig Mercure and opened fire from close range, Mercure replying in kind. Iéna also engaged Weasel but the greater distance between these ships allowed Commander Andrew to focus his attack on Mercure, which fought hard for twenty minutes before being destroyed in a catastrophic explosion, probably caused by a fire in the magazine. Weasel immediately launched her boats to rescue any survivors, but only three were saved.

Following the explosion aboard Mercure, Iéna and the other French brigs scattered, briefly pursued by Weasel, who chased Iéna and Mamelouck but was unable to bring them to a decisive action. The loss of the French escorts allowed Victorious to close with Rivoli unopposed and at 04:30 the two large ships began a close range artillery duel. This combat continued unabated for the next three and a half hours, both ships being severely damaged and suffering heavy casualties. Captain Talbot was struck on the head by a flying splinter and had to quit the deck, temporarily blinded, command passing to Lieutenant Thomas Peake. To assist in subduing Rivoli, Peake recalled Weasel to block the French ship's attempts to escape, Commander Andrew sailing his ship in front of Rivoli and repeatedly raking her.

Surrender and aftermath


Napoleon's letter to Eugene, Viceroy of Italy, about the tragedy of Rivoli

At 08:45 Rivoli, which had been struggling to reach the harbour of Trieste, lost her mizzenmast under fire from both Victorious and Weasel. Nearly at the same moment, two of her 36-pounder long guns exploded, killing or wounding 60 men, greatly disorganising and demoralising the others, and forcing Barré to transfer gunners from the upper gun deck to man his lower battery. Fifteen minutes later, with his ship unmanageable and battered, Commodore Barré surrendered.[8] Rivoli had suffered over 400 killed and wounded from her crew of over 800, who had only assembled for the first time a few days before and had never sailed their ship in open water. Losses aboard Victoriouswere also heavy, with one officer and 25 sailors and marines killed and six officers (including Captain Talbot) and 93 men wounded.

French losses on Mercure, although unknown exactly, were severe, only three sailors surviving. Weasel, despite being engaged with three different French ships for a considerable time, had not one man killed or wounded during the entire engagement. Rivoli's scattered escorts were not pursued, British efforts being directed instead at bringing the shattered Rivoli back to port as a prize. As a result, the remaining French ships were able to make their way to friendly ports unopposed. Rivoli was a new and well-built ship and, following immediate repairs at Port St. George, she and Victorious traveled together to Britain. There they were both repaired, Victorious returning to the fleet under Talbot for service against the United States Navy during the War of 1812, and Rivoli commissioned as HMS Rivoli for service in home waters.

The crews of Victorious and Weasel were well rewarded with both promotions and prize money, the junior officers either promoted or advanced and Commander Andrew of Weasel made a post captain. Captain Talbot was rewarded at the end of the war, becoming Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in recognition of his success. Nearly four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847. This was the last significant ship-to-ship action in the Adriatic, and its conclusion allowed British raiders to strike against coastal convoys and shore facilities unopposed, seizing isolated islands and garrisons with the aid of an increasingly nationalistic Illyrian population.


The Mercure was a brig of the French Navy.



In November 1806, she was commissioned in Genoa under Gen. Lacombe-Saint-Michel. In 1808, she was at Corfu, and in 1810 in Venice. On 14 June 1810, she was transferred to the navy of the Kingdom of Italy, along with Cyclope and Écureuil, in exchange for the frigate Favorite.

On 22 February 1812, as she escorted the newly commissioned 74-gun Rivoli with the brigs Mamelouk and Iéna, the squadron encountered a British force. In the ensuing Battle of Pirano, Mercure battled against HMS Weazel for 45 minutes until her magazines suddenly exploded, instantly sinking her and killing all aboard except for three men, who were rescued by Weazel.

The wreck of Mercure was discovered in 2001 when a fishing net caught one of her guns. Archeological campaigns were conducted from 2002, and the hull was found in 2005, in good condition.


Rivoli was a Téméraire-class ship of the line of the French Navy.



Rivoli was built in Venice, whose harbour was too shallow for a 74-gun to exit. To allow her to depart, she was fitted with seacamels.

On her maiden journey, under Jean-Baptiste Barré, the British 74-gun third rate HMS Victorious intercepted her on 22 February 1812. Her crew was inexperienced, and in the ensuing Battle of Pirano, the British captured Rivoli after some 400 men of her crew of over 800 were killed or wounded.

The Royal Navy subsequently recommissioned her as HMS Rivoli. On 30 May 1815, under Captain Edward Stirling Dickson, she captured the frigate Melpomène off Naples.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showng the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Rivoli' (1812), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Portsmouth Dockyard after fitting as 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pirano
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Rivoli_(1810)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Mercure_(1806)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-343464;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victorious_(1808)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Weazel_(1805)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Iéna_(1810)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1845 – Launch of French Seine, a fluyt of the French Navy.


Seine was a fluyt of the French Navy. Sent to the Pacific in a time of colonial rivalry with the United Kingdom to both consolidate French positions and diplomatically ease tensions with the British, she ran aground off Balade and was wrecked. The remains of the ship have become a subject of interest for maritime archeology, notably yielding a rare example of a desalination device of the 1840s.


Portrait of Durance, sister-ship of Seine, by François Roux.



Career
Designed as a fluyt, or "corvette of burden", Seine was built under the direction of Bernard Chariot upon plans drawn by Forfait and revised by Sané, with notably a hull sheathed in bronze.

Seine left Brest on 3 September 1845, under Lieutenant Commander François Leconte, to take the New Zealand station and relieve Rhin.

Seine ferried troops to Tahiti, where the British encouraged the local population to riot against the French, which had led Dupetit Thouars to expel British consul George Pritchard to Australia.

She also carried a letter from Minister Mackau to renounce sovereignty over New Caledonia and ease tensions with the British in the Pacific.

Fate
On 4 July 1846, she ran aground off Balade [8] and became a total loss. The crew abandoned ship with no loss of life and spent two months at Pouébo before the British ship Arabian rescued them. The diplomatic letters reached the British via Bishop Guillaume Douarre.

Legacy
On 28 May 1968, French Navy frogmen of the Dunkerquoise located the wreck of Seine in 23-metre deep waters, near Pouébo. Between 7 and 18 April 1997, Laplace conducted a survey of the wreckage, with the local association Fortunes de Mer Calédonienne.

The wreck triggered interest as carrying the lone surviving example of a Peyre et Rocher desalination system, invented in 1840 by chemist Peyre and industrialist Rocher and used on long-haul ships. The system used waste heat from the kitchen of the ship to desalinate water in a 1.2-ton copper cubic cistern. The device was located 20 metres from the wreck.


A fluyt (archaic Dutch: fluijt "flute"; Dutch pronunciation: [flœy̯t] (listen)) is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed by the shipwrights of Hoorn as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating in the Dutch Republic in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with the maximum of space and crew efficiency. Unlike rivals, it was not built for conversion in wartime to a warship, so it was cheaper to build and carried twice the cargo, and could be handled by a smaller crew. Construction by specialized shipyards using new tools made it half the cost of rival ships. These factors combined to sharply lower the cost of transportation for Dutch merchants, giving them a major competitive advantage. The fluyt was a significant factor in the 17th-century rise of the Dutch seaborne empire. In 1670 the Dutch merchant marine totalled 568,000 tons of shipping—about half the European total.


Dutch fluyt, 1677


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_fluyt_Seine_(1845)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluyt

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1892 – Launch of Placilla, a four-masted barque which was built for F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany


Placilla was a four-masted barque which was built for F. Laeisz, Hamburg, Germany in 1892. She was sold in 1901 and renamed Optima in 1903. In 1905 she was wrecked on the Haisborough Sands.



Description
Placilla was built by Joh. C. Tecklenborg in Geestemünde, Germany. She was 113.00 metres (370 ft 9 in) long overall, with a beam of 13.58 metres (44 ft 7 in) and a depth of 13.58 metres (44 ft 7 in). She had four masts and was rigged as a barque, with royal sails over double top and topgallant sails. Her air draught was 52.50 metres (172 ft 3 in). Her sail area was 3,500 square metres (38,000 sq ft). Placilla was a sister ship to Pisagua, which was launched seven months later than she was.

sistership Pisagua


History
Placilla entered service with F Laeisz, Hamburg in 1892. She was used on the route between Germany and Chile. In 1892, Placilla made the voyage from Lizard Point to Valparaiso, Chile in 58 days. This was a record time. It was equalled by Potosi (1900), Pitlochry (1902), Preußen (1903), Eldora(1904) and Preußen (1905). She recorded a fastest voyage from Iquique, Chile to the English Channel of 71 days and a voyage from Pisagua, Chile to The Lizard in 78 days. In 1901 she was sold to Rhederei AG von 1896, Hamburg. She was renamed Optima in 1903. On 6 January 1905, she departed Hamburg bound for Santa Rosalía, Mexico with a cargo of coke. On 18 January 1905, she ran aground on the misty Haisborough Sands after a storm in the North Sea, off the coast of Norfolk and was wrecked. All of the crew survived.


as Optima

sistership Pisagua

Pisagua after the collision with Oceana


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placilla_(ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisagua_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1901 - en route from Hong Kong, passenger ship SS City of Rio de Janeiro sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay, killing more than 135 passengers and crew.


The SS City of Rio de Janeiro was an iron-hulled steam-powered passenger ship, launched in 1878, which sailed between San Francisco and various Asian Pacific ports. On 22 February 1901, the vessel sank after striking a submerged reef at the entry to San Francisco Bay while inward bound from Hong Kong. Of the approximately 220 passengers and crew on board, fewer than 85 people survived the sinking, while 135 others were killed in the catastrophe. The wreck lies in 287 feet (87 m) of water just off the Golden Gate and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as nationally significant.

City of Rio de Janeiro was one of many ships that were lost due to challenging navigational conditions in this area.



History
Launched on 6 March 1878, the City of Rio de Janeiro was originally built for the United States & Brazil Mail Steamship Company, a two-ship shipping line between Brazil and the United States. This proved unprofitable, and she was sold to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company in 1881 and refitted to serve as an ocean liner, traveling between her home port in San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii, Yokohama, Japan and Hong Kong.

In early March 1896, she ran out of coal while on passage between San Francisco and Hawaii, only reaching Honolulu by burning her wooden topmasts and deckhouses as fuel. In 1898 the US Government leased the ship for a short time to ferry troops to Manila in the Philippines as part of the Spanish–American War. After the war, she went back to her usual Pacific route.





Sinking
On 22 February 1901, while trying to pass through the Golden Gate in heavy fog, en route to her home port of San Francisco, the City of Rio de Janeiro collided with rocks, reportedly on the southern part of the straits at or near Fort Point, and sank stern first.

The damage to the ship was considerable: virtually the entire underside of the vessel had been ripped open by the collision, and seawater rapidly flooded the cargo holds and engine room. The ship had been built in 1878, before watertight bulkheads came into use, and sank in 287 feet (87 m) of water only ten minutes after striking the reef.

Launching of the lifeboats was very difficult because the officers were English-speaking Americans, while the seamen were non-English-speaking Chinese.

The wreck was so sudden that the lookout at the Fort Point Lifesaving Station, only a few hundred yards away, was completely unaware of the situation for two hours, when a lifeboat was sighted emerging from a fog bank. Fortunately Italian fishermen were nearby and were able to rescue a number of survivors clinging to floating wreckage. One of those rescuers, Gaspare Palazzolo of Terrasini, Sicily, Captain of the boat Citta di N.Y., was awarded a gold medal by the Banco Italo-Americana di San Francisco for his heroism.

Of the 210 people aboard, 82 were rescued and approximately 130 people lost their lives. The captain, William Ward, was not among the survivors. He had previously stated that if ever faced with such a situation, he would go down with his ship. Among those lost in the wreck was Rounsevelle Wildman, the US Consul General at Hong Kong, and his wife and two children, who had been en route for Washington DC to participate in the inauguration of William McKinley.


Entrance to San Francisco Hydrographic Chart 5581 (cropped) U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey 1901
Credit: NOAA U.S. Office of Coast Survey


Cargo
After the shipwreck, rumors circulated that the ship's cargo had included a substantial amount of gold and silver, but her manifest listed no such cargo. However, the manifest did list 2,423 slabs of tin, each of which weighed 107 pounds (49 kg). The ship's insurers paid a sum of $79,000 for the loss of the metal, which on December 13, 2014, market prices would be worth in excess of $2,900,000.

Salvage attempts


Photo with a line showing the probable course of the SS City of Rio de Janeiro as published by Popular Science Monthly in 1901

Divers engaged by the Pacific Mail Line immediately began a search for the ship but failed to find any traces of it due to the depth of the water in the area, well beyond the diving or salvage capabilities of the time.

For several years after the disaster, bodies washed up on the beach near Fort Point, including, in July 1902, the remains of Captain Ward, which were identified by the watch chain wrapped around his rib cage.

On November 15, 1905, the Los Angeles Herald reported that divers had found the wreck. It was asserted that there was no doubt of the identity of the wreckage found. One diver had a narrow escape from death during his exploration of the bottom of the Golden Gate.

In 1917, a wooden keg clearly marked Rio de Janeiro surfaced off Point Lobos. In 1919, more wreckage from the ship surfaced off Suisun Bay, 40 miles (64 km) away from the assumed site of the wreck between Mile Rock and Baker Beach.

The currents are too strong off Baker Beach for amateur divers, and the water too deep for anything other than professional divers. It has also been suggested that the currents may have pushed the ship out to sea as she sank, while some say that she could not be found because of the number of wrecks on the seabed in the area, and that even using modern sonar it would be impossible to distinguish whatever remains of the ship from all the other disintegrated remnants of sunken ships.

In 1931 Captain Haskell made a formal claim for the cargo and fabric of the wreck by right of discovery; he announced to a news conference that he had discovered the wreck using a two-man submarine of his own invention and planned to salvage $6 million worth of silver from the wreck. However, he disappeared without a trace in July 1931.

In 1987, Gus Cafcalas, a San Francisco-area mortgage banker, announced that he and four other men had discovered the wreck the previous fall in 200 feet of water, half a mile west of the Golden Gate Bridge, aided by sonar and photographs taken by a robot submarine. Cafcalas said they would not attempt to raise the ship because the condition of the hull and fierce tides and currents made the task virtually impossible, but that they hoped to probe the ship's interior for the rumored cargo of silver. He said the consortium was prepared to spend $1 million to salvage whatever was left on the wreck.

Cafcalas and his partners applied for a salvage permit from the California State Lands Commission under the name Segamb, Inc. (listed in several media reports as “Seagamb Corp.”), and on February 6, 1989, the Commission authorized the issuance of a permit “for survey and mapping purposes, and retrieval of an object or objects sufficient to positively identify the shipwreck”, subject to numerous conditions. However, Segamb never met the conditions, and the authorization was revoked on January 17, 1990.

The wreck of the Rio de Janeiro was located again in November 2014 and imaged in detail using sonar. There are no plans to salvage her.


Hundreds of shipwrecks including the SS City of Rio de Janeiro have occurred at the entrance to the Golden Gate and offshore waters now managed by the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, as recorded by George Davidson of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Credit: NOAA Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_City_of_Rio_de_Janeiro
https://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/shipwrecks/city-of-rio-de-janeiro/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1909 – Launch of HMS Vanguard, one of three St Vincent-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy


HMS Vanguard was one of three St Vincent-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. She spent her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, her service during World War I mostly consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.



Shortly before midnight on 9 July 1917 at Scapa Flow, Vanguard suffered a series of magazine explosions. She sank almost instantly, killing 843 of the 845 men aboard. The wreck was heavily salvaged after the war, but was eventually protected as a war grave in 1984. It was designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden.



Design and description
The design of the St Vincent class was derived from that of the previous Bellerophon class, with a slight increase in size, armour and more powerful guns, among other minor changes. Vanguard had an overall length of 536 feet (163.4 m), a beam of 84 feet (25.6 m),[1] and a normal draught of 28 feet (8.5 m). She displaced 19,700 long tons (20,000 t) at normal load and 22,800 long tons (23,200 t) at deep load. In 1910 her crew numbered 753 officers and ratings.


Right elevation and plan of the first generation of British dreadnoughts from Brassey's Naval Annual, 1912

Vanguard was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from eighteen Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 24,500 shaft horsepower (18,300 kW) and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). During her sea trials on 17 December 1909, she unofficially reached a top speed of 22.3 knots (41.3 km/h; 25.7 mph) from 25,780 shp (19,220 kW), although she must have been lightly loaded to reach this speed. Vanguard carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a range of 6,900 nautical miles (12,800 km; 7,900 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).


Vanguard's starboard aft side, showing her rear 12-inch gun turret and anti-torpedo net booms, around 1914

The St Vincent class was equipped with ten breech-loading (BL) 12-inch (305 mm) Mk XI guns in five twin-gun turrets, three along the centreline and the remaining two as wing turrets. The centreline turrets were designated 'A', 'X' and 'Y', from front to rear, and the port and starboard wing turrets were 'P' and 'Q' respectively. The secondary, or anti-torpedo boat armament, comprised twenty BL 4-inch (102 mm) Mk VII guns. Two of these guns were each installed on the roofs of the fore and aft centreline turrets and the wing turrets in unshielded mounts, and the other ten were positioned in the superstructure. All guns were in single mounts. The ships were also fitted with three 18-inch (450 mm) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside and the third in the stern.

The St Vincent-class ships were protected by a waterline armoured belt 8–10 inches (203–254 mm) thick that extended between the end barbettes. Their decksranged in thickness between 0.75 to 3 inches (19 to 76 mm) with the thickest portions protecting the steering gear in the stern. The main battery turret faces were 11 inches (279 mm) thick, and the turrets were supported by barbettes 9–10 inches (229–254 mm) thick.

Modifications
The guns on the forward turret roof were removed in 1910–1911. About three years later, gun shields were fitted to most of the 4-inch guns in the superstructure and the bridge structure was enlarged around the base of the forward tripod mast. During the first year of World War I, the base of the forward superstructure was rebuilt to house eight 4-inch guns and the turret-top guns were removed, which reduced her secondary armament to a total of fourteen guns. In addition a pair of 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft (AA) guns were added. A fire-control director was installed high on the forward tripod mast before the Battle of Jutland in May 1916.[9] Approximately 50 long tons (51 t) of additional deck armour were added afterwards. By April 1917, Vanguard mounted thirteen 4-inch anti-torpedo boat guns as well as one 4-inch and one 3-inch AA gun.

Construction and career

Vanguard just after her launch, 22 February 1909

Vanguard, the eighth ship of that name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 6 February 1908. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 2 April 1908, launched on 22 April 1909, and completed on 1 March 1910. Including armament, the ship cost about £1.6 million. Vanguard was commissioned on 1 March 1910, under the command of Captain John Eustace, and assigned to the 1st Division of the Home Fleet. She was present in Torbay when King George V visited the fleet in late July. Vanguard also participated in the Coronation Fleet Review at Spithead on 24 June 1911 and she trained with the Atlantic Fleet the following month before beginning a refit. Captain Arthur Ricardo relieved Eustace on 23 September.


The 1st Battle Squadron at sea, April 1915


The St Vincent-class battleships were a group of three dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The sister ships spent their entire careers assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, their service during the First World War generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. Vanguard was destroyed in 1917 by a magazine explosion with the near total loss of her crew. The remaining pair were obsolete by the end of the war in 1918, and spent their remaining time either in reserve or as training ships before being sold for scrap in the early 1920s.

Vanguard's wreck was extensively salvaged before it was declared a war grave. Since 2002, it has been designated as a controlled site under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 and diving on the wreck is generally forbidden.


St Vincent at anchor, 1909




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vanguard_(1909)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Vincent-class_battleship

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1909 – The Great White Fleet returns to Hampton Roads, Va., following its 14-month round-the-world cruise.
The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States


The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the powerful United States Navy battle fleet that completed a journey around the globe from 16 December 1907, to 22 February 1909, by order of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. Its mission was to make friendly courtesy visits to numerous countries, while displaying new U.S. naval power to the world.


Theodore Roosevelt (on the 12-inch gun turret at right) addresses the crew of Connecticut.

It consisted of 16 battleships divided into two squadrons, along with various escorts. Roosevelt sought to demonstrate growing American military power and blue-water navy capability. Hoping to enforce treaties and protect overseas holdings, the United States Congress appropriated funds to build American naval power. Beginning in the 1880s with just 90 small ships, over one-third of them wooden and therefore obsolete, the navy quickly grew to include new modern steel fighting vessels. The hulls of these ships were painted a stark white, giving the armada the nickname "Great White Fleet".


Map of the Great White Fleet's voyage (2009 political boundaries shown).

Voyage


A 1908 postcard welcoming the fleet to Australia


The Fleet Passing Through the Magellan Straits by naval artist Henry Reuterdahl, who traveled with the fleet on USS Culgoa

As the Panama Canal was not yet complete, the fleet had to pass through the Straits of Magellan. The scope of such an operation was unprecedented in U.S. history, as ships had to sail from all points of the compass to rendezvous points and proceed according to a carefully orchestrated, well-conceived plan. It involved almost the entire operational capability of the U.S. Navy. Unlike the formidable obstacles that had faced the Russian fleet on its voyage from the Baltic to the Pacific, which eventually led to its destruction by the Japanese in 1905, the U.S. effort benefited from a peaceful environment which aided the coordination of ship movements.

In port after port, citizens in the thousands turned out to see and greet the fleet. In 1908, the Great White Fleet visited Monterey, California, from 1–4 May. The nearby Hotel Del Monte in Del Monte, California, hosted a grand ball for the officers of the fleet.

In Australia, the arrival of the Great White Fleet on 20 August 1908 was used to encourage support for the forming of Australia's own navy. When the fleet sailed into Yokohama, the Japanese went to extraordinary lengths to show that their country desired peace with the U.S.; thousands of Japanese schoolchildren waved American flags to greet navy officials as they came ashore. In Sicily, the sailors helped in recovery operations after the 1908 Messina earthquake.

In February 1909, Roosevelt was in Hampton Roads, Virginia, to witness the triumphant return of the fleet from its long voyage, and what he saw as a fitting finish for his administration. To the officers and men of the fleet, Roosevelt said, "Other nations may do what you have done, but they'll have to follow you." This parting act of grand strategy by Roosevelt greatly expanded foreign respect for the United States, as well as its role in the international arena.


Kansas sails ahead of Vermont as the fleet leaves Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 16 December 1907.


The fleet in San Francisco: Virginiais closest to the camera, with the other ships anchored nearby.

Experience gained
The cruise of the Great White Fleet provided practical experience for US naval personnel in sea duty and ship handling. It also showed the viability of US warships for long-range operations as no major mechanical mishaps occurred. However, while the cruise uncovered design flaws, it did not test the abilities to engage in battle fleet action. In fact, the success of the deployment might have helped obscure design deficiencies that were not addressed until World War I. These included excessive draft, low armor belts, large turret openings and exposed ammunition hoists.

Effects on US capital ship design
While the capital ships of the Great White Fleet were already obsolescent in light of the "big gun" revolution ushered in by the construction of HMS Dreadnought, their behavior at sea furnished valuable information that affected future construction. For instance, in terms of seaworthiness, all the capital ships in the fleet proved wet in all but the calmest seas, which led to the flared bows of subsequent U.S. battleships, increased freeboard forward and such spray-reducing measures as the elimination of billboards for anchors and gun sponsons. Increased freeboard was needed; this and related considerations demanded increases in beam and overall size. Between the Florida-class battleships, the last American capital ships completed before data from the cruise became available, and the Wyomingclass, the first designed after this data was received, displacement (and, as a result, cost) per ship increased by one third.


12 January 1908 – Arrival at Rio de Janeiro – Fleet enters Guanabara Bay

Deficiencies in seaworthiness in turn reduced the battle-worthiness of the fleet. Turret heights for main armament proved too low and needed to be raised. Secondary armament was useless at speed and especially in tradewind conditions (with the wind moving over the sea at 10 knots (19 km/h) or greater) and needed to be moved much higher in the hull. Improved placement began with the Wyoming-class battleships and was further refined in the Nevadaclass. Casemates for the bow 3-inch guns in the newer pre-dreadnoughts were untenable due to wetness and were removed. Another discovery was that, even when fully loaded, the bottom of the battleships' side armor was visible—and the ships thus vulnerable to shells that might hit beneath it to reach their machinery and magazines—in smooth to moderate seas. The profile of crests and troughs in some ships contributed to this problem. Admiral Evans concluded that the standard 8-foot (2.4 m) width of belt armor was inadequate.

One other necessity the cruise outlined was the need for tactical homogeneity. Before the cruise, critics such as then-Captain William Sims (to whom President Roosevelt listened) had argued that American warship design had remained too conservative and precluded the level of efficiency needed for the fleet to function as an effective unit. The cruise proved the charge true. This would eventually lead to the building of standard type battleships in the U.S. Navy. When President Roosevelt convened the 1908 Newport Conference of the Naval War College, he placed responsibility for U.S. battleship design on the General Board of the United States Navy. This gave line officers and planners direct input and control over warship design, a pattern which has persisted to the present day.

Effects on fleet operations
Experience gained by the cruise led to improvements in formation steaming, coal economy and morale. Gunnery exercises doubled the fleet's accuracy. However, the mission also underlined the fleet's dependence on foreign colliers and the need for coaling stations and auxiliary ships for coaling and resupply.


USS Connecticut (BB-18), the fourth United States Navy ship to be named after the state of Connecticut, was the lead ship of her class of six battleships. Her keel was laid on 10 March 1903; launched on 29 September 1904, Connecticut was commissioned on 29 September 1906, as the most advanced ship in the US Navy.

Connecticut served as the flagship for the Jamestown Exposition in mid-1907, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony. She later sailed with the Great White Fleet on a circumnavigation of the Earth to showcase the US Navy's growing fleet of blue-water-capable ships. After completing her service with the Great White Fleet, Connecticut participated in several flag-waving exercises intended to protect American citizens abroad until she was pressed into service as a troop transport at the end of World War I to expedite the return of American Expeditionary Forces from France.

For the remainder of her career, Connecticut sailed to various places in both the Atlantic and Pacific while training newer recruits to the Navy. However, the provisions of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that many of the older battleships, Connecticut among them, would have to be disposed of, so she was decommissioned on 1 March 1923, and sold for scrap on 1 November 1923.


Connecticut and Nebraska in Brooklyn in 1909.


Connecticut in dry dock at the Brooklyn Naval Yard after the world cruise in March 1909


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Fleet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Connecticut_(BB-18)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1928 – Launch of HMS Sussex, one of the London sub-class of the County-class heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy


HMS Sussex was one of the London sub-class of the County-class heavy cruisers in the Royal Navy. She was laid down by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited, at Hebburn-on-Tyne on 1 February 1927, launched on 22 February 1928 and completed on 19 March 1929.



The County class was a class of heavy cruisers built for the Royal Navy in the years between the First and Second World Wars. They were the first post-war cruiser construction for the Royal Navy and were designed within the limits of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922. Such ships, with a limit of 10,000 tons, standard displacement and 8-inch calibre main guns may be referred to as "treaty cruisers" (the term "heavy cruiser" was not defined until the London Naval Treaty of 1930).

The thirteen Counties were built in three distinct sub-classes: the Kent, London and Norfolk classes. They were the only 10,000-ton 8-inch gun, or "A", cruisers that the Royal Navy built. The Counties are remembered for their distinctive three-funnel layout and service in all the major naval theatres of the Second World War.

In an attempt to extract more ships from the treaty limits, the navy planned to construct 8,250-ton "B" ships, six of which could be built in place of five Counties. The extra ship that this afforded was an attractive proposition for a navy that had the immense peacetime commitments of empire. In the event, peacetime economies and politics intervened and only two B-type cruisers were built, an 8-inch gun modified County design: the York class.

In 1929, the mean cost of each "A" ship was estimated to be £2,180,000, whilst the mean cost of each "B" ship was estimated to be £1,800,000.






HMAS Australia


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sussex_(96)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/County-class_cruiser

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1931 – Launch of Amerigo Vespucci, a tall ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.


The Amerigo Vespucci is a tall ship of the Italian Navy (Marina Militare) named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Its home port is LIVORNO, Italy, and it is in use as a school ship.


Amerigo Vespucci in New York Harbor, 1976

History
In 1925, the Regia Marina ordered two school ships to a design by General Lieutenant Francesco Rotundi of the Italian Navy Engineering Corps, inspired by the style of large late 18th century 74-cannon ships of the line (like the neapolitan ship "Monarca"). The first, the Cristoforo Colombo, was put into service in 1928 and was used by the Italian Navy until 1943. After World War II, this ship was handed over to the USSR as part of the war reparations and was shortly afterwards decommissioned.

The second ship was the Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930 at the (formerly Royal) Naval Shipyard of Castellammare di Stabia (Naples). She was launched on February 22, 1931, and put into service in July of that year.

The vessel is a full rigged three-masted steel hull 82.4 m (270 ft) long, with an overall length of 101 m (331 ft) including the bowsprit and a maximum width of 15.5 m (51 ft). She has a draught of about 7 m (23 ft) and a displacement at full load of 4146 tons. Under auxiliary diesel-electric propulsion the Amerigo Vespucci can reach 10 knots (19 km/h) and has a range of 5450 nm at 6.5 knots.


The Amerigo Vespucci in the harbor of Oslo, 2005. Akershus Fortress in the background.

The three steel masts are 50, 54 and 43 metres high, and carry sails totalling 2,824 m2 (30,400 sq ft). The Amerigo Vespucci has 26 sails – square sails, staysails, and jibs: all are traditional canvas sails. When under sail in severe sea and wind conditions she can reach 12 knots (22 km/h). The rig, some 30 km of ropes, uses only traditional hemp ropes; only the mooring lines are synthetic, to comply with port regulations.

The hull is painted black with two white stripes, harking back to the two gun decks of the ships her design is based on, but she carries only two 6pdr saluting guns in pivot mountings on the deck, forward of the mainmast. The deck planks are of teak wood and must be replaced every three years. Bow and stern are decorated with intricate ornaments; she has a life-size figurehead of Amerigo Vespucci. The stern gallery is accessible only through the Captain's saloon.

The standard crew of the Amerigo Vespucci is 16 officers, 70 non-commissioned officers and 190 sailors. In summer, when she embarks the midshipmen of the Naval Academy (Accademia Navale), the crew totals some 450.

Since 1964 the ship has been fitted with two 4-stroke, 8-cylinder FIAT B 308 ESS diesel engines, which replaced the original 2-stroke 6-cylinder FIAT Q 426 engines. The newer engines generate electric power for one electric propulsion motor that can produce up to about 1,471 kW (1,973 hp).

After update works, between 2013 and 2016, the ship has been fitted with two 4-stroke, 12-cylinder MTU, 1,32 MW each diesel engine generators and two 4-stroke, 8-cylinder MTU, 760 kW each diesel engine generators, and one NIDEC (Ansaldo Sistemi Industriali) electric engine. During the same work, the ship has been fitted with new radar GEM Elettronica AN/SPS-753(V)5, new satellite antenna ORBIT AL-7103.

When carrying cadets, the ship is usually steered from the manual stern rudder station, which is operated by four steering wheels with two men each. At other times, the hydraulically assisted steering on the bridge is used. Except for the anchor winch, the winches aboard are not power operated. The bridge is equipped with sophisticated modern electronic navigation instruments.

Other than during World War II, the Amerigo Vespucci has been continually active. Most of her training cruises are in European waters, but she has also sailed to North and South America, and navigated the Pacific. In 2002, she undertook a voyage around the world.

The Amerigo Vespucci often takes part in sailing parades and Tall Ships' Races, where she is in amicable rivalry with the Gorch Fock. When she is berthed in port, public tours of the vessel are usually offered.

On 7 July 2018, Amerigo Vespucci arrived to the port of Almeria. It is the third time it visited Almería: the first one was in 1932, and the second one was in 1989. It left the city on 10 July. Then it will travel to Ponta Delgada, in the Azores Islands, and it will cross the Atlantic Ocean to the Northern Europe.


A beautiful model of the Amerigo Vespucci built in scale 1:84 by our member Joachim alias @shipshobbyist you can find here with more photos

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/...-th-21-st-october-2018.2050/page-7#post-43770




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_training_ship_Amerigo_Vespucci
http://www.marina.difesa.it/uominimezzi/navi/Pagine/Vespucci.aspx

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1940 - german destroyers Z1 Leberecht Maass and Z3 Max Schultz, while en route to Dogger Bank to intercept British fishing vessels, sank with all hands


On 22 February, Z3 Max Schultz and five other destroyers, Z1 Leberecht Maass, Z4 Richard Beitzen, Z6 Theodor Riedel, Z13 Erich Koellner and Z16 Friedrich Eckoldt, sailed for the Dogger Bank to intercept British fishing vessels in "Operation Wikinger". En route, the flotilla was apparently attacked by a Heinkel He 111 bomber from Bomber Wing (Kampfgeschwader) 26. Z1 Leberecht Maass was hit by at least one bomb, lost steering, and broke in half, sinking with the loss of 280 of her crew. During the rescue effort, Z3 Max Schultz hit a mine and sank with the loss of her entire crew of 308. Hitler ordered a Court of Inquiry to be convened to investigate the cause of the losses and it concluded that both ships that been sunk by bombs from the He 111. The Kriegsmarine had failed to notify its destroyers that the Luftwaffe was making anti-shipping patrols at that time and had also failed to inform the Luftwaffe that its destroyers would be at sea. Postwar research revealed that one or both ships struck a British minefield laid by the destroyers Ivanhoe and Intrepid.


Z3 Max Schultz was one of four Type 1934 destroyers built for the German Navy (Kriegsmarine) during the mid-1930s. Completed in 1937, two years before the start of World War II, the ship spent most of her time training although she did participate in the occupation of Memel in early 1939. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, the ship accidentally rammed and sank a German torpedo boat. Z3 Max Schultz spent the following month under repair. In mid-February 1940, while proceeding into the North Sea to search for British fishing trawlers, one of her sisters, Z1 Leberecht Maass, was bombed and sunk by a patrolling German bomber, with loss of 280 of her crew. While trying to rescue survivors, Z3 Max Schultz was either bombed by a patrolling German bomber, or struck a British mine and sunk, with the loss of all 308 of her crew. A contemporary German court of inquiry stated that Z3 Max Schultz was damaged by the German bomber, however postwar research revealed that Z3 Max Schultz may have hit a mine instead.




The German destroyer Z1 Leberecht Maass was the lead ship of her class of four destroyers built for the German Navy (initially called the Reichsmarine and then renamed as the Kriegsmarine in 1935) during the mid-1930s. Completed in 1937, two years before the start of World War II, the ship served as a flagship and spent most of her time training although she did participate in the occupation of Memel in early 1939.

Several days after the start of the war in September 1939, Z1 Leberecht Maass and another destroyer unsuccessfully attacked Polish ships in the naval base on the Hel Peninsula. She was lightly damaged during the action. In mid-February 1940, while proceeding into the North Sea to attack British fishing trawlers (Operation Wikinger), the ship was bombed by a patrolling German bomber that damaged her steering. A court of inquiry convened during the war determined that she and a sister ship were hit by bombs, but a post-war investigation determined that she had drifted into a newly laid British minefield. Z1 Leberecht Maass broke in half with the loss of most of her crew.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_destroyer_Z1_Leberecht_Maass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_destroyer_Z3_Max_Schultz

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 1971 – Endeavour II, a three-masted auxiliary barque built in Vancouver in 1968 and originally named Monte Cristo, wrecked


Endeavour II was a three-masted auxiliary barque built in Vancouver in 1968 and originally named Monte Cristo. She was built along the lines of the brigantine Albatross as published in Uffa Fox's Second Book of Boats.

In late February 1971 she was embayed during a full gale and, after attempting to beat her way out for several days, on 22 February was driven onto the bar of Parengarenga Harbour, a few miles south of North Cape, New Zealand, and wrecked.





Construction
Her hull was constructed of mahogany planking on heavy fir frames with spars of Sitka spruce. Her three-sectioned mainmast rose 84 feet (26 m) from deck to truck. Her deck measured 94 feet (29 m) which bowsprit and jibboom extended to almost 140 feet (43 m) length overall.

She was rigged as a three-masted barque with square sails on the mainmast and foremast, a gaff rigged fore and aft spanker on the mizzenmast, four jibs and a variety of staysails for a maximum of seventeen sails set totalling 9,000 square feet (840 m2). The sails were controlled by around 5 miles (8.0 km) of running and standing rigging, all of natural manila rope and galvanised wire. There were no mechanical winches, all hauling being by block and tackle and man power.

The auxiliary engine was a GMC Jimmy 6-71 diesel. The only electronic aid to navigation was a marine VHF radio.





Ownership
Originally owned and built by a consortium of business men keen to recreate the great days of sail she quickly became the sole property of Ron Craig, a Canadian businessman.

Voyages
Initially, as Monte Cristo, she worked her way down the western seaboard of the United States giving costumed on-board tours to paying visitors at each port of call. On 22 July 1969 she had to be towed into Port Townsend, Washington in thick fog after suffering engine trouble.[3] She had a number of movie roles and on 9 November was briefly involved in the occupation of Alcatraz.

After being renamed Endeavour II, she sailed across the Pacific to Sydney to take part in the bicentenary re-enactment on 29 April 1970 of James Cook's landing at Botany Bay, Sydney. She subsequently cruised up the eastern seaboard of Australia to Brisbane, giving costumed on-board tours to paying visitors at each port of call, and then sailed for Auckland, New Zealand, under American skipper Jeff Berry.

This proved to be her final voyage and she encountered a number of delays. Soon after sailing she was becalmed and carried southwards by a freak seventy-mile-a-day current. In the Tasman Sea the crew sighted distress flares and searched for over twelve hours without success; the consequent depletion of fuel reserves was to prove crucial later. On rounding North Cape she encountered a full gale and failed to make the intended Houhora Harbour.

Wreck
After rounding North Cape, New Zealand, Endeavour II found it impossible to keep position in 40-knot easterly winds when fuel ran out, and she tried to anchor. Her anchors dragged and she was driven onto the bar of Parengarenga Harbour, a few miles south of North Cape, in the early hours of 22 February 1971. By 1pm she had settled on her side and began to break up. The crew of thirteen men and one woman reached the shore without loss.

She was the first square-rigged sailing vessel wrecked on the New Zealand coast for more than fifty years. Her masts are preserved, fitted to the converted sugar barge Tui in Paihia.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endeavour_II_(barque)
https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/sailing-ship-montecristo-at-dock-3

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 February 2015 - Death of Jean Boudriot, architect,
notable historian of naval engineering, author of many mongraphies and the well known volumes of "74-Gun Ship"


Jean Pierre Paul Boudriot, (20 March 1921 in Dijon — 22 February 2015 in Paris) was a French naval architect and notable historian of weaponry and naval engineering.



Bourdiot was one on the foremost instigators of the newal of naval archaeology and of arsenal modelism. He notably authored a 4-volume opus on 74-guns, Le vaisseau de 74 canons.

Biography
Career
Born to a family of architects, Jean Boudriot started studying architecture.
In 1942, he started studying at Beaux-Arts, where he met his wife.
In 1943, he volunteered to work on a farm in Bourgogne to avoid STO forced work in Germany, and later in a schiste mine near Autun until May 1944.
After achieving an architecture diploma in 1947, Boudriot started working with three of his Beaux-Arts friends. He notably worked with Pierre Lejeune in Paris.


Jean Boudriot was an exceptional Frenchman. Originally an architect, he was an outstanding draughtsman and in only a few years' time became the first specialist in 17th and 18th century naval architecture. He was first interested in the study of French statutory arms, on which he published four books that were accepted as authorities. In 1960, he moved on to studying naval archeology.
J. Boudriot's first studies on naval guns, published in 1969 in Neptunia, are true revelations for amateurs. Between 1973 and 1977, he published the four volumes of "The 74 GUN SHIP" thus creating the Boudriot myth. Since then, he has dedicated his time to scouring the archives in Paris in winter, and to drawing in Charente in summer. For our utmost pleasure, Jean Boudriot regularly published the monographs and historical studies that constitute the French Naval Archeology Collection.
Boudriot is both an author and a publisher. He also teached the weekly naval archeology seminar that takes place in the Musée de la Marine, and gives numerous lectures, most of them in the Sorbonne. He was also a talented speaker and hearing him speak on his topic is an enchanting event.


Publications
Les ouvrages de référence :

• Les armes à feu françaises : modèles réglementaires, Paris, chez l'auteur, 1961-1971 (réimpr. 1978 et 1997), in-4° (notice BnF no FRBNF32930000).
• Le Vaisseau de 74 canons : traité pratique d'art naval, Grenoble, Éditions des Quatre Seigneurs, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1973-1977 (réimpr. 1978, 1983, 1997 et 2006), 4 volumes (notice BnF no FRBNF36258705).

Les monographies :

• La "Vénus" : frégate de 18, de l'ingénieur Sané, 1782, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1979 (ISBN 2-903-179-01-8) ;
• Le "Cygne" : brick de 24, de l'ingénieur Pestel, 1806-1808, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1981 (ISBN 2-903-179-02-6) ;
• Le "Cerf" : cotre, du constructeur Denÿs, 1779-1780, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1981 (ISBN 2-903-179-03-4) ;
• Galiote à bombes "La Salamandre" : 1752, du constructeur J.M.B. Coulomb, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1982 (ISBN 2-903-179-04-2) ;
• Compagnie des Indes, 1720-1770, vol. 1 : Vaisseaux : hommes, voyages, commerces, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1983 (ISBN 2-903-178-12-7) ;
• Compagnie des Indes, 1720-1770, vol. 2 : Le " Boullongne " (1759-1761) : du constructeur G. Cambry ;
• Traite et navire négrier "L'Aurore" : monographie au 1/36, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1984 (ISBN 2-903-178-13-5) ;
• "Le Coureur", 1776 : lougre du constructeur D. Denÿs, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1985 (ISBN 2-903-179-05-0) ;
• La Belle Poule, frégate de XII de 1765, 1986 (ISBN 2-903-179-06-9) ;
• Le Requin, chébec de 1750, 1987 (ISBN 2-903-179-07-7) ;
• Le Bonhomme Richard, navire corsaire ex Cie des Indes de 1779, 1987 (ISBN 2-903-178-18-6) ;
• Le Bateau de Lanvéoc, traversier de la rade de Brest des xviie et xviiie siècles, 1988 (ISBN 2-903-179-08-5) ;
• Goélette "La Jacinthe", 1823 : de l'ingénieur-constructeur Delamorinière, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1989 (ISBN 2-903-178-22-4) ;
• Historique de la corvette, 1650-1850 : "La Créole", 1827 : prince de Joinville, San Juan de Ulúa, 1838, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1990 (ISBN 2-903-178-23-2) ;
• Le navire marchand : Ancien régime, vol. 1 : étude historique et monographie, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1991 (ISBN 2-903-178-26-7) ;
• Le navire marchand : Ancien régime, vol. 2 : "Le Mercure", 1730 : navire au commerce ;
• "La Renommée" : frégate de VIII, 1744, Paris, ANCRE, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1993 (ISBN 2-903-179-11-5) ;
• Le vaisseau trois-ponts du chevalier de Tourville, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 1998, 2 volumes (ISBN 2-903-178-27-5) ;
• "La Belle", 1684 : Cavelier de La Salle, l'expédition de 1684, Paris, J. Boudriot, coll. « Archéologie navale française », 2000, 2 volumes (ISBN 2-903-178-28-3) ;

Les ouvrages historiques :

• 1992 L'artillerie de mer 1650-1850 (ISBN 2-903-179-12-3) ;
• 1992 La frégate, Marine de France 1650-1850 (ISBN 978-2-903-179-11-3) ;
• 1994 Les vaisseaux de 50 et 64 canons 1650-1780 (ISBN 2-903-179-12-3) ;
• 1995 Les vaisseaux de 74 à 120 canons 1650-1850 (ISBN 2-903-178-19-1) édité erroné9 ;
• 1997 Modèles historiques Musée de la Marine (vol.1)
• 2003 Les uniformes de la Marine royale française (ISBN 2-903-178-29-1) ;
• 2006 Modèles historiques Musée de la Marine (vol.2)

Several Monographies were already subject of detailed Planset Reviews (like 74-Gun Ship, La Salamandre, La Renommee, La Belle, Le Requin, Bonhomme Richard) and Book Reviews ( like 74-Gun Ship Volumes 1 to 4, Modèles historiques Musée de la Marine Vol. 1 and 2 ) here in SOS:

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/overview-of-available-plan-set-monographie-reviews.2888/

https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/forums/books-and-reference.4/


His publications are available at ancre via

https://ancre.fr/en/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Boudriot
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Boudriot

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 22 February


1730 – Spanish Constante (San Dionisio) 60 (launched 1728 at Havana) - Wrecked 22 February 1730


1815 - Engagement between British boats and U.S. troops in St. Mary's River.


1862 – Launch of The first USS Adirondack was a large and powerful screw-assisted sloop of war

The first USS Adirondack was a large and powerful screw-assisted sloop of war with heavy guns, contracted by the Union Navy early in the American Civil War. She was intended for use by the Union Navy as a warship in support of the Union Navy blockade of Confederate waterways. Her career with the Navy proved to be short, yet active and historically important. USS Adirondack was one of four sister ships which included the Housatonic, Ossipee and Juniata.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Adirondack_(1862)


1864 RMS Bohemian – On February 22, 1864 the three masted iron hulled Bohemian struck an underwater ledge at Casco Bay, Maine while attempting to enter the harbor. With the hull damaged and taking on water the ship grounded on another ledge approximately a quarter mile from shore then sank. Forty-two of the three hundred and seventeen on board died in the evacuation of the ship


http://www.maineirish.com/150th-anniversary-sinking-bohemian/#!prettyPhoto


1915 – World War I: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.

Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink vessels such as freighters and tankers without warning, as opposed to attacks per prize rules (also known as "cruiser rules"). Prize rules call for submarines to surface and search merchantmen and place crews in "a place of safety" (for which lifeboats did not qualify, except under particular circumstances) before sinking them, unless the ship showed "persistent refusal to stop ... or active resistance to visit or search". During the First World War, the British introduced Q-ships with concealed deck guns, and armed many merchantmen, leading the Germans to ignore the prize rules; in the most dramatic episode they sank Lusitania in 1915 in a few minutes because she was carrying war munitions. The U.S. demanded it stop, and Germany did so. Admiral Henning von Holtzendorff, chief of the Admiralty staff, argued successfully in early 1917 to resume the attacks and thus starve the British. The German high command realized the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare meant war with the United States but calculated that American mobilization would be too slow to stop a German victory on the Western Front.

Following Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on February 1, 1917, countries tried to limit or even abolish submarines. Instead, the Declaration of London required submarines to abide by prize rules. These regulations did not prohibit arming merchantmen but having them report contact with submarines (or raiders) made them de facto naval auxiliaries and removed the protection of the prize rules. This rendered the restrictions on submarines effectively useless. While such tactics increase the combat effectiveness of the submarine and improve its chances of survival, some regard them as a breach of the rules of war, especially when employed against neutral vessels in a war zone.

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


1943 - USS Iowa (BB-61), the lead ship of the last class of American fast battleships, is commissioned.

USS Iowa (BB-61) is a retired battleship, the lead ship of her class, and the fourth in the United States Navy to be named after the state of Iowa. Owing to the cancellation of the Montana-class battleships, Iowa is the last lead ship of any class of United States battleships and was the only ship of her class to have served in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II.



During World War II, she carried President Franklin D. Roosevelt across the Atlantic to Mers El Kébir, Algeria, en route to a meeting of vital importance in 1943 in Tehran with Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Britain and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. When transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1944, Iowa shelled beachheads at Kwajalein and Eniwetok in advance of Allied amphibious landings and screened aircraft carriersoperating in the Marshall Islands. She also served as the Third Fleet flagship, flying Admiral William F. Halsey's flag at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. During the Korean War, Iowa was involved in raids on the North Korean coast, after which she was decommissioned into the United States Navy reserve fleets, better known as the "mothball fleet." She was reactivated in 1984 as part of the 600-ship Navy plan and operated in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets to counter the recently expanded Soviet Navy. In April 1989, an explosion of undetermined origin wrecked her No. 2 gun turret, killing 47 sailors.

Iowa was decommissioned for the last time in October 1990 after 19 total years of active service, and was initially stricken from the Naval Vessel Register (NVR) in 1995. She was reinstated from 1999 to 2006 to comply with federal laws that required retention and maintenance of two Iowa-class battleships. In 2011 Iowa was donated to the Los Angeles–based non-profit Pacific Battleship Center and was permanently moved to Berth 87 at the Port of Los Angeles in 2012, where she was opened to the public as the USS Iowa Museum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_(BB-61)


1944 - U.S. Navy Task Group (TG) 39.4, commanded by Capt. Arleigh Burke, bombards Japanese airstrips, pier area, and anchorages at Kavieng, New Ireland Island, while DESRON 12 shells Rabaul.


1945 - USS Becuna (SS 319) sinks Japanese merchant tanker Nichiyoku Maru off Cape Padaran Bay despite the presence of two escort vessels.


2007 - Levina 1 - On 22 February 2007 the passenger ferry Levina caught fire en route from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, to the island of Bangka killing at least 51 people. Three days later, on February 25, it sank with a group of journalists and investigators on board, killing at least one more and leaving three missing.


2015 – A ferry carrying 100 passengers capsizes in the Padma River, killing 70 people.

On 22 February 2015, a two-deck ferry traveling on the Padma River in the Manikganj District, Dhaka Division in Dhaka, Bangladesh, capsized. Up to 70 people, including 19 children, were killed in the crash when it hit a trawler.

Capsizing
Approximately 150 people were on board ML Mostofa-3, which was traveling from Daulatdia to Paturia. The ferry was traveling on the Padma River when it crashed into a trawler, causing it to overturn. The ferry weighed about fifty tons and had a maximum capacity of only 100 to 120 passengers. Despite reports from passengers that there were as many as 250 to 300 passengers on board, the ferry staff denied those claims, stating there were only about 150 to 200 passengers on board. The two vessels did not leave enough space to pass between one another, causing the two ships to crash. As the ferry was capsizing, passengers located on the top deck jumped off the ferry and were able to swim safely to shore. After the capsizing, a salvage vessel with a crane raised the ferry from the water. This allowed the Bangladesh Fire department and Bangladesh Navy to search inside the ferry. Rescuers at the scene were able to save around fifty passengers.

Aftermath
The captain and two crew members of the trawler were arrested. The local government gave 20,000 Bangladeshi taka as a burial fee for fifteen of the victims. The prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, ordered a full investigation on the capsizing be conducted. The investigation is being conducted by a five-member committee, led by shipping department's nautical surveyor Capt Shahjahan. Offering his condolences, the shipping minister of Bangladesh, Shahjahan Khan, gave 105,000 takas to the victims of the capsizing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_ML_Mostofa-3

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23 February 1737 – Launch of HMS Victory, a 96-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions of the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Portsmouth Dockyard, and launched on 23 February 1737.


HMS Victory was a 96-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions of the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Portsmouth Dockyard, and launched on 23 February 1737.

although commonly misconstrued to be a first rate ship, HMS Victory (1737) is in actuality a second rate due to its broadside being 96 guns a side, this would be most likely be the leader of the Vanguard of a fleet



Construction
A small number of the timbers used in the construction of Victory were taken from the remains of the previous HMS Victory, which had caught fire and been burnt to the waterline in February 1721 whilst having weed burned from her bottom (in a process called "breaming"). Officially a rebuild of the previous vessel, the new Victory was built by master shipwright Joseph Allin and cost £38,239 to assemble, plus £12,652 fitting as a flagship. Launched in 1737 she became the flagship of the Channel Fleet under Sir John Norris following completion in 1740. She was the last British First Rate to be armed entirely with bronze cannon.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration, sheer lines with decoration detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Victory' (1737), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. Chapman's signature on the plan implies it was copied by him from the Admiralty during his visit to London in 1754. Signed by Fredrik Henrik Af Chapman [Swedish Naval Architect and Shipwright, 1721-1808]. This plan closely resembles the model of 'Victory' held in Cawdor Castle in terms of the scale, the decoration detail, and the position of the ports.

The Victory was "a high-sided ship for her draught and this was believed to have made her leewardly and to have led to her loss". The term "leewardly" means she had a tendency to be pushed to leeward (down wind) more than normal when sailing with the wind on or forward of the beam, increasing the risk of being driven ashore. A plan of the ship reproduced in Howard and an extant contemporary model also show her with four rows of lights (stern galleries), three open balconies along her stern, and four quarter galleries, one more of each than was usual for an English three-decker.[4][5] These expansive features improved her internal capacity and conditions for the crew, but were heavy enough to compromise her stability in rough weather.[4] Their addition to the ship reflected a long-running dispute between Jacob Acworth, the Surveyor of the Navy and representative of the Admiralty Board, and master shipwright Allin who had carriage of the actual construction of the ship. Acworth had instructed Allin that Admiralty required the ship's upper works to be "low and snug." Allin, jealous of his prerogatives as a shipwright, refused to adhere to this direction and instead built a particularly large and roomy craft. The completed ship was revealed to be so incompetent a sailer that she required several refits before she passed her sea trials.

Victory carried 28 guns on each of her gundecks, but with an additional set of unused gunports to the aft of the middle deck. She was the last Royal Navy three-decker to carry bronze cannons; after her loss the Navy switched instead to cheaper iron-made weapons for all first- and second-rate ships.


'Loss of HMS 'Victory', 4 October 1744' by Peter Monamy

Loss
She was wrecked with the loss of her entire crew while returning to England as the flagship of Admiral Sir John Balchen after relieving Sir Charles Hardy, who had been blockaded in the Tagus estuary by the French Brest fleet. As the fleet reached the English Channel on 3 October 1744 it was scattered by a large storm. At around 15:30 on 4 October, the ships accompanying Victory lost sight of her near the Channel Islands. For over 260 years she was believed to have been wrecked during the night on Black Rock just off the Casquets, with the loss of her entire complement.

Frigates were dispatched across the English Channel to search for her where she had last been seen wallowing on the horizon on 4 October. Eventually, Captain Thomas Grenville of HMS Falkland landed at Guernsey in the Channel Islands to provision, and there heard from locals that wreckage and part of a topmast had washed up on the island's shores. Further investigation proved that the wreckage had indeed come from Victory, which was believed to have run into the Casquets, a group of rocks nearby. Other wreckage was washed up on Jersey and Alderney, whose inhabitants had heard distress guns the night before the wreck but were unable to provide aid in the severe storm. No trace of any of the 1,150 sailors aboard Victory was found until the wreck was discovered in 2008.





Scale: 1:34.3. A model of the Victory (1737), made largely in wood with metal and organic material fittings. The model has a hull which is fully planked, is partially decked, fully equipped and rigged with three masts. The lower part of the hull is made from solid wood which has been planked and scored to resemble individual planking. A wide closed wale runs the entire length of the hull at the waterline and is painted black. There are fifteen gunports on the upper gundeck, six of them with gun port lids and one with double gun port doors. There are fourteen gunports on the main gun deck, all with lids and there is an entry port between the eighth and ninth gunports. There are fourteen gunports on the lower gundeck, all with lids. There are four galleries at the stern, the lowermost one is closed, and all the glazing is made of mica. The bowsprit has two yards and an ensign staff. The figurehead, which is painted brown with red, blue, gold and black details, depicts a lion and unicorn, allegorical figures, and a large crown. There are two large anchors stowed from catheads on the port and starboard bows. The foredeck accommodates the foremast, stove chimney, and belfry. The foremast is complete with three yards. The main deck accommodates the mainmast, capstan, four companion ladders all painted red, and gratings running along the centre of the deck with a partly planked area on either side. The mainmast has three yards. The upper deck is partly planked and has two curved companion ladders. There are four gunports on the upper deck all without lids. The poop deck is partly planked and accommodates the mizzen mast and two companion ladders. The mizzen mast has three yards, one of them a lateen yard. Through the un-planked parts of the deck the ship's wheel is visible. The rear bulkhead on the poop deck has six windows, each with four lights, the panels of which are painted red. There are three stern-mounted lanterns, the middle one being the largest, and there is a large ensign staff. The model is displayed on a pair of decoratively shaped brass crutches attached to a rectangular wooden baseboard with egg and dart moulding, set atop four bun feet.

Discovery
On 1 February 2009, the Associated Press reported that Odyssey Marine Exploration, based in Tampa, Florida, United States, claimed to have found the wreck in May 2008, and has recovered two of the one hundred bronze cannons. Located in the Western Approaches between England and France, as a military wreck she legally remains the property of the British Government under the laws of marine salvage. The wreck was found "more than 80 km (43 nm) from where anybody would have thought it went down", according to Odyssey Marine Exploration CEO Gregg Stemm, and 100 m (330 ft) deep,[6] meaning that the vessel had not foundered on the Casquets as had been surmised, but lay approximately at latitude 49°42.5' N and longitude 3°33.3' W. The team announced their findings publicly on 2 February and stated that they were negotiating with the British government over the wreckage. On 26 March 2009, the TV show Treasure Quest, which had followed the company's ship Odyssey Explorer exploring several different shipwreck sites, aired two hours of footage of the Odyssey Explorer's initial findings of the ship. The show included footage of the Odyssey Explorer's crew finding a 42 pounder cannon that identified the wreck as the Victory. The crew raised a 42 pounder cannon and a 12 pounder cannon which are now on display at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. In 2011 a Dutch salvage company was caught having illegally looted a cannon from the wreck site.

In January 2012 it was reported that the remains of HMS Victory are to be raised from the sea bed. The wreck is to be handed over to the Maritime Heritage Foundation, which is expected to employ Odyssey Marine Exploration to carry out the recovery. The terms of the contract with Odyssey Marine Exploration remain controversial, with concerns over, "allowing foreign investors to profit from the property, grave and memorial of Royal Navy personnel".


Scale: 1:48. A model of the Victory (1737) made entirely in wood, built from wood in layers based on waterlines, and painted in realistic colours. There is a marked division along the waterline, between the upper and lower halves of the model. The hull is painted white below the waterline and black above with yellow ochre bands running the length of the three gundecks. The gunports are shown painted brown and outlined in red. The paint finish on the port side is badly degraded. The quarter galleries and figurehead are not depicted, although the support for the figurehead is shown. The centre of the model has been hollowed out, which reduces the overall weight of the model. Inspection of the interior of the model with an endoscope revealed this had been carried out with a gouge with a concave cutting edge after the lifts had been glued together. The top of the model has been closed with thin panels across the top of the bulwarks. The model’s ‘decks’ have been glued on top of the upper lift. There is a hole with a diameter of 1.8cm cut into the deck in the waist and another hole at the fore end of the poop deck. On stern and starboard broadside it is painted 'Victory.'. On the paper label applied to quarter deck reads: “Victory 100 1737. Catalogued (1923) under No.63. If the beam is taken as moulded as in the Princessa model the Dimensions fit the Establishment of 1719 and 1733 for 100-gun ships. The distribution of ports and deadeyes visible on the starboard side beneath the overpainting does not agree with that shown either by model No.43 or by the contemporary Draughts of the Victory. This model may perhaps represent an early stage in the design” The length and midship section does match that of the original plan, which was drawn to the 1719 Establishment. The model is mounted on three inline supports and displayed on a dark-stained wooden baseboard with bevelled edges. Block models were made by, or under the supervision of, the Master Shipwright in the Royal Dockyards. They were made to plans which had first been drawn on paper. The models were then sent to the Navy Board Office in Tower Hill in London for approval. The ‘Victory’ joined the Channel Fleet in 1741 after being repaired following a collision with the ‘Lion’ in 1740. It was armed with heavy guns, carrying twenty-eight 32- or 42-pound guns on the gun deck, twenty-eight 24-pounders on the middle deck, twenty-eight 12-pounders on the upper deck, twelve 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and four 6-pounders on the forecastle. It was the last first rate to be armed only with brass guns. In April and May 1744, it served on the Lisbon convoy before becoming Admiral Balchen’s flagship later that year. The ship is best known as ‘Balchen’s Victory’, after the Admiral, lost with the ship when she foundered in a storm in October 1744. N.J. Ball

Possible treasure
There has been research which has backed up anecdotal evidence that there is a possibility that Victory was carrying significant quantities of gold and silver when she sank which could be worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Lisbon was the bullion capital of Europe and the Mediterranean world and, following the blockade of the river Tagus, there would have been a backlog of bullion to transport to England and Royal Navy ships were often used to safely transport private coinage. In addition to this, admiral Sir John Balchin had recently captured six prize ships and could also have been carrying their assets. The Amsterdamsche Courant of 18/19 November 1744 describes how a huge sum of money was being carried by the flagship when she foundered: “People will have it that on board of the Victory was a sum of 400,000 pounds sterling that it had brought from Lisbon for our merchants.” This would equate to approximately 4 tons of gold coins


Figure Head of H.M.S. Victory, 1737 (Print)



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, inboard profile, and longitudinal half-breadth for a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan was a copy sent by Sir Jacob Acworth to John Naish for rebuilding the 'Victory' of 1695, which had been taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard from 1721. Alterations to gun ports and beams were later sent to Joseph Allin, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth Dockyard during the building of the replacement 'Victory', launched in 1737. Signed by John Naish [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1715-1726 (died)].


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the poop deck, quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, middle deck, and lower deck for Victory (1737), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. The ship was built, and later repaired in 1740 at Portsmouth Dockyard after a collision with Lion (1738).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victory_(1737)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23 February 1758 – Launch of HMS Shrewsbury, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy


HMS Shrewsbury was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 February 1758 at Deptford Dockyard.

In 1783, she was condemned and scuttled.




Scale: 1:48. Plans showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Dublin' (1757), 'Norfolk' (1757), 'Shrewsbury' (1758), 'Warspite' (1758), 'Resolution' (1758), 'Lenox' (1758), and 'Mars' (1759) all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers.

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

Design
The Dublin-class ships were the first 74-gun ships to be designed for the Royal Navy, and marked the beginning of a more dynamic era of naval design than that in the ultra-conservative Establishment era preceding it.

Slade's draught was approved on 26 August 1755 when the first two orders were transmitted to Deptford Dockyard. The design was some 4½ feet longer than the preceding 70-gun ships of the 1745 Establishment, with the extra length making provision for an additional (14th) pair of 32-pounder guns on the lower deck compared with the 13 pairs of the 70-gun ships. They were nominally ordered as 70-gun ships (although always designed to carry 74), but redesignated as 74-gun during construction.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper deck and gun deck (lower deck) proposed (and approved) for 'Dublin' (1757), 'Norfolk' (1757), 'Shrewsbury' (1758), 'Warspite' (1758), 'Resolution' (1758), 'Lenox' (1758), and 'Mars' (1759) all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers.

Ships

• HMS Dublin

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 26 August 1755
Laid down: 18 November 1755
Launched: 6 May 1757
Completed: 1 July 1757
Fate: Broken up, May 1784

• HMS Norfolk

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 26 August 1755
Laid down: 18 November 1755
Launched: 28 December 1757
Completed: 23 February 1758
Fate: Broken up, December 1774

• HMS Shrewsbury

Builder: Wells & Company, Deptford
Ordered: 28 October 1755
Laid down: 14 January 1756
Launched: 23 February 1758
Completed: 2 May 1758 at Deptford Dockyard
Fate: Condemned and scuttled at Jamaica 12 June 1783

• HMS Lenox

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 28 October 1755
Laid down: 8 April 1756
Launched: 25 February 1758
Completed: 26 May 1758
Fate: Sunk as breakwater, 1784; later raised and broken up May 1789

• HMS Mars

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 28 October 1755
Laid down: 1 May 1756
Launched: 15 March 1759
Completed: 12 April 1759
Fate: Sold to be broken up, August 1784

• HMS Warspite

Builder: Thomas West, Deptford
Ordered: 14 November 1755
Laid down: November 1755
Launched: 8 April 1758
Completed: 27 July 1758 at Deptford Dockyard
Fate: Broken up, November 1801

• HMS Resolution

Builder: Henry Bird, Northam, Southampton
Ordered: 24 November 1755
Laid down: December 1755
Launched: 14 December 1758
Completed: 23 March 1759 at Portsmouth Dockyard
Fate: Wrecked, 20 November 1759 during Battle of Quiberon


The French Soleil Royal and Héros are in flames on the right, in the foreground HMS Resolution lies wrecked on her starboard side. In front of her is HMS Essex, with other members of the British fleet at anchor in the background. The captured French Formidable is attended by a British frigate on the left of the picture.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Shrewsbury_(1758)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin-class_ship_of_the_line
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-348203;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23 February 1771 - Death of Thomas Slade - Naval architect


Sir Thomas Slade (1703/4–1771) was an English naval architect, most famous for designing HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.



Career outline
Like many who rose to the pinnacle of the design of British sailing warships, Thomas Slade began as a shipwright in the Royal Dockyards. His uncle Benjamin Slade was Master Shipwright at Plymouth Dockyard (a master shipwright was responsible for all ship construction and repair at the dockyard in which he served).

In 1744 Thomas became Deputy Master Shipwright at Woolwich Dockyard. On 22 November 1750 he replaced his uncle, who had died that year, as Master Shipwright at Plymouth. On 27 May 1752 he was transferred temporarily back to Woolwich Dockyard as Master Shipwright, and from there to Chatham Dockyard on 17 June 1752 and subsequently on 15 March 1753 to Deptford Dockyard, where he remained until 5 August 1755.


Battle of Quiberon Bay: the Day After (Richard Wright, 1760). The Dublin-class HMS Resolution is on her starboard side in the foreground

He was appointed Surveyor of the Navy in August 1755 by George Anson, First Lord of the Admiralty, serving until his death in February 1771. For the first decade, he shared the appointment with William Bately, formerly the Deputy Surveyor of the Navy, until the latter's retirement in June 1765. On Bately's retirement, John Williams was appointed to share the post. Nevertheless, Slade was clearly the senior surveyor throughout his tenure.

Achievements
According to N. A. M. Rodger:

The ships which [he] designed...were admirably suited to Britain's strategic requirements...By common consent, Slade was the greatest British naval architect of the century...it was generally agreed (even by themselves) that his successors, though competent designers, never matched his genius.​

During this tenure, Slade was responsible for several major design changes. He produced a 'generic design' that was used as a template for the Royal Navy's 74-gun ships and frigates. His '74' designs, starting with the Dublin-class, were an evolution of current British ships, built to compete with the new French '74's, some of which had been captured during the War of Austrian Succession in 1747. At least forty-six '74's were built to his designs; the last was launched in 1789.


HMS Asia in Halifax Harbour, 1795. Watercolour by George Gustavus Lennock, a lieutenant aboard Asia.

He also designed HMS Asia, which was the first true 64-gun ship.[4] As a result, the Royal Navy ordered no further 60-gun ships but instead commissioned more 64s. Because these incorporated alterations learned from trials with Asia, subsequent ships were bigger, she was the only ship of her draught (class).[4] The first of these was HMS Ardent, which ushered in the Ardent-class.

Slade also designed smaller vessels, such as the 10-gun Board of Customs cutter, HMS Sherborne.


HMS Victory in Portsmouth Harbour with a coal ship alongside, 1828. Etching by Edward William Cooke based on his own drawing.

Victory was his most famous single vessel. Once commissioned, she became the most successful first-rate ship of the line ever built. On 13 December 1758, the Board of Admiralty in London placed an order for the construction of 12 new ships of the line, including one of 100 guns. The following year the Admiralty chose the name Victory for this vessel, despite the previous holders of the name having been largely unsuccessful. In 1758, Nelson was born, who would die on her decks at Trafalgar.

Out of the 33 ships which were available to Nelson at Trafalgar, eight (Africa, Victory, Agamemnon, Bellerophon, Defiance, Thunderer, Defence, and Prince) were built to Thomas Slade's designs. Two more of his ships (Swiftsure and Berwick) had been captured by the French earlier and fought on the French side. Slade's designs represented 24% of Nelson's ships and 29% of his guns.

Designs
This table lists ships that were built to designs drawn up by Thomas Slade. Some of them were not ordered until after his death.





Death
Sir Thomas Slade died on 23 February 1771 in Bath, and is buried in St Clement's churchyard, Grimwade Street, Ipswich. His will was proven on 19 March 1771 (Prob. 11/965). His wife Hannah and her parents were buried next to the west boundary of the churchyard.

Legacy
Slade Point 21°04′S 149°14′E on the central Queensland coast was named after him.

His 1745 apprentice John Henslow (later Sir John) also became Chief Surveyor to the Navy in 1784 and was the grandfather of Darwin's mentor John Henslow.




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