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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1780 – Launch of French Invincible, 110 at Rochefort
And
20 March 1780 - Launch of French Royal-Louis, 110 at Brest


Invincible was a first-rate ship of the line of the French Royal Navy.

sistership Royal-Louis

Detail of Vue du port de Brest en 1793 by Jean-François Hue.

Built on plans by Deslauriers, she served during the American War of Independence in Lamotte-Picquet's squadron.
She took part in the Battle of Cape Spartel, where she attacked the rear of the British squadron.
She was eventually struck in January 1808.





The Royal Louis was a 106-gun (110 guns from 1786) ship of the line of the French Royal Navy. She was designed and built at Brest Dockyard by Léon-Michel Guignace.


Vue du port de Brest by Jean-François Hue


Républicain, details of Vue du port de Brest by Jean-François Hue

She was renamed Républicain in September 1792. Under this name, she took part in the Third Battle of Ushant, being the last ship of the French rear. She was attacked, totally dismasted, and struck her colours; however, the British failed to capture her, and she returned to Rochefort.

On 24 December 1794, she took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver. As the fleet exited Brest harbour, she ran aground with the loss of 10 men. Her crew abandoned ship, and the wreck was destroyed in a tempest a few days later.


Républicain grounded on Mingant rock. Drawing by Pierre Ozanne.





110-gun three-decker group of 1780.
Three different constructeurs designed these ships; the first two were by François-Guillaume Clairain-Deslauriers and Léon-Michel Guignace respectively, while the Toulon pair were by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. Typically each carried 30 x 36pdr guns on the lower deck, 32 x 24pdr guns on the middle deck, 32 x 12pdr guns on the upper deck, and 16 x 8pdr guns on the gaillards, although this armament varied from time to time.

Invincible 110 (begun February 1779, launched 20 March 1780 and completed May 1780 at Rochefort) – condemned in 1806 and broken up in 1808.
Royal-Louis 110 (begun March 1779, launched 20 March 1780 and completed June 1780 at Brest) – renamed Républicain in September 1792, wrecked in storm December 1794.
Terrible 110 (begun July 1779, launched 27 January 1780 and completed May 1780 at Toulon) – condemned in 1804 and broken up.
Majestueux 110 (begun July 1780, launched 17 November 1780 and completed February 1781 at Toulon) – renamed Républicain in May 1797, condemned in 1808.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Invincible_(1780)

French ship Royal Louis (1780) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1793 - the privateer Pelican, while on a pleasure and working-up cruise, sank in a sudden storm on the River Mersey. Of 134 people aboard, 102 were lost.


Pelican was a private man of war commissioned by a Liverpool merchant for offensive operations against French commerce following the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793. Pelican sank in bad weather on March 20, 1793.

Background
The ship was a small brig craft fitted with a number of cannon designed to capture French merchant shipping for a profit under a letter of marque from the British government. She was crewed and outfitted in the Mersey, and on 20 March 1793 was taking her owners and their families and friends on a pleasure and working up cruise in the mouth of the river. On board were 94 sailors and approximately 40 civilians, including several women.

Worsening weather
During the brief journey, the weather took a sudden turn for the worse and the ship began to rock violently, causing many of those aboard to go below decks, worsening the impending tragedy.

Pitching and rolling
Suddenly and without warning, at about two in the afternoon, with the ship at the height of her pitch, several cannon, which had been improperly tied down, broke free. These became iron missiles which rolled across the deck and punched huge holes in the ship's opposite side, causing water to flood into the Pelican, which rapidly filled and sank. The location of the wreck was so shallow that her mast tops remained above the water, visible after the storm had died down. Unfortunately, because all unnecessary personnel had been ushered below and because the hatches were battened down during the storm, no one was able to escape the lower decks.

Just 32 people survived the disaster, 102 drowning in the sunken ship. The survivors were mainly men who had remained on deck and were able to launch boats, or those who were rescued from the masts some time later by rescue craft from the nearby shoreline. The disaster was reported in The Times three days later.


From

The Pelican Tragedy of 1793 - Liverpool Hidden History

A parade on the River Mersey of two privateers one spring afternoon in March 1793 ended in tragedy when one of them sank, leading to the deaths of over one hundred people on board. Europe had been slowly descending into chaos since the French Revolution of 1789 and in 1793 France declared war on...

liverpoolhiddenhistory.co.uk

A parade on the River Mersey of two privateers one spring afternoon in March 1793 ended in tragedy when one of them sank, leading to the deaths of over one hundred people on board.

Europe had been slowly descending into chaos since the French Revolution of 1789 and in 1793 France declared war on Great Britain, having already been fighting against Austria, Spain and Portugal.

At that time privateering was common practice in wartime, with governments granting Letters of Marque to individuals allowing them to attack enemy vessels and plunder their cargo. One of those to take advantage was Nicholas Ashton of Woolton Hall, who owned the Dungeon Salt Works in Hale. He quickly purchased a brig called the Pelican and fitted it out for this purpose.

On the afternoon of Wednesday 20th March the Pelican was parading in the river alongside the Prince of Wales, which had been part of the First Fleet which took the first group of convicts to Australia in 1788. The two ships were displaying their eighteen guns which were ready for action. It was a pleasant day, but the wind began to get up and when the Pelican made a turn she keeled and the portholes filled with water, causing her to sink rapidly. On the shore, an excise officer named Mr Starkie launched boats to mount a rescue but by the time they reached the vessel, most of those on board had drowned. The windy conditions had led to many going below deck, worsening their chances of escape.

The Chester Chronicle described the scene as ‘inconceivably shocking’ as the ‘heart rendering shriek of death pierced the air.’ In addition to ninety-four crew members, there were forty civilians on board, including some wives and children of the ninety four crew. In total only 32 were saved, most of them crew members who were the stronger swimmers.

Those who survived stated that the tragedy happened due to the guns being loose, causing them to roll and break the portholes which filled with water. It was later revealed that one of those who survived lost his mother, father, wife and two children who had all come on board to wish him a long and last farewell.

The disaster did not stop the Prince of Wales, which was owned by Clayton Tarleton, from sailing. On 7th April she captured a French vessel and returned to Hoylake a week later with a prize valued at up to £40,000 (£5.2 million today) Mr Starkie was presented with a medal by the Humane Society to recognise his efforts in saving many lives that may also have been lost. Nicholas Ashton returned to Liverpool to live in Clayton Square and died in 1833 at the age of 91.

Pelican (1793 ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1802 – Launch of HMS Grampus, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Diomede class of the Royal Navy.


HMS Grampus was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Diomede class of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1802



Napoleonic Wars
She was commissioned in March 1803 at Portsmouth by Captain Hugh Downman, but in the following month command passed to Captain Thomas Gordon Caulfield. The ship was completed on 11 April 1803 and was ordered to the Downs on 7 May. As soon as her complement of men was completed and her bounty paid she sailed to join Admiral Edward Thornbrough's squadron off Goree.

On 19 May 1803 Jalouse captured Jong Jan Pieter. Jalouse shared the prize money with Grampus and the gun-brigs Censor and Vixen, with whom she had been in company.

Grampus returned to Portsmouth from Guernsey on 20 June to fit out for the East Indies and sailed with a convoy under her protection on 29 June. She carried £100,000 that the British East India Company was shipping to Bengal. On 16 October she was three days out of Rio and in company with the 74-gun third rate ship of the line HMS Russell. The East Indiamen they were escorting were Northampton, Lord Melville, Earl Spencer, Princess Mary, Anna, Ann, Glory, and Essex, Grampus spent 1805 in the East Indies.

In March 1806 Captain James Haldane Tait took command of Grampus, leaving HMS Sir Francis Drake, while Grampus was employed in India. Later she was stationed at the Cape of Good Hope, and returned home in the summer of 1809, escorting a large convoy of East India Company ships that Captain Tait had taken under his protection at St. Helena. He was presented by the Court of directors with a sum of money for the purchase of a piece of plate. Grampus was paid off because of her poor condition at the end of 1809.

Grampus underwent a repair and refit at Chatham between then and February 1810; in January 1810 she was recommissioned under the command of Captain William Hanwell.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with quarter gallery detail, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for building the Diomede (1798) and Grampus (1802), both 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-deckers.

On 28 April 1811 Grampus joined an East India convoy to see them through to the coast of Africa. On 30 September, back at Portsmouth, a court martial was convened on board Raisonnablein Sheerness harbour to try Lieutenant John Cheshire of Grampus. Captain Hanwell accused him of insolence, contempt, and disrespect on 11 April and similar conduct, coupled with neglect of duty, on 15 April. The court found the charges unfounded and acquitted Lieutenant Cheshire.

In November 1811 Commodore George Cockburn hoisted his broad pendant on board Grampus, preparatory to proceeding as one of three commissioners (the others were Thomas Sydenham and John Philip Morier) nominated by the Prince Regent to mediate between Spain and her colonies. They received final instructions on 2 April 1812, and arrived in Cádiz on 21 April to find the Spanish government and the majority of the Cortes resolved to retain absolute control over their South American possessions instead of taking a liberal view as proposed by the British government. He returned from his unsuccessful mission on 4 August.


H.M.S. Grampus lying off Deptford Creek, Greenwich

Post-war and fate
In 1816 Grampus was taken out of commission at Woolwich, where she was converted to a troopship and then used as a hospital ship at Deptford from 1820 until being lent to the Society for Destitute Seamen at Deptford in 1824. She served as a hospital ship until 1831. The society relocated at this time to Dreadnought and in due course provided the foundation for the UK's Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Seamen's Dreadnought Hospital at Greenwich Hospital, later relocated to St Thomas's Hospital.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Antelope (1802), and with alterations in 1792 for Grampus (1802) and Diomede (1798), all 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-deckers. The plan also records alterations to Grampus and Antelope from 1796, and again for the former in 1798, as well as the position of the quarterdeck gunport for Diomede when she sailed from Deptford in 1798.


A pencil drawing of Grampus, an ex-Admiralty 50-gun vessel allocated as a hospital ship to the (merchant) Seamen's Hospital Society in 1821, moored between Greenwich and Deptford. She was subsequently replaced by the larger Dreadnought in 1831 and the Caledonia (renamed Dreadnought) in 1857. In 1870 the facility moved ashore into the former infirmary of Greenwich Hospital, which finally closed as a residential naval almshouse in 1869 and is today the Dreadnought Building of the University of Greenwich.


Diomede class (Henslow) – probably a variant of Antelope

• Diomede 50 (1798) – broken up 1815
• Grampus 50 (1802) – sold 1832

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Grampus_(1802)

Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1805 – French privateer Général Ernouf explodes during an engagement with HMS Renard


HMS Spencer was a 16-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, formerly the civilian Sir Charles Grey. The Admiralty purchased her in 1795, after having hired her in 1793-94, and renamed her HMS Lilly in 1800. The French privateer Dame Ambert captured her in 1804 and Lilly became the French privateer Général Ernouf. She blew up in 1805 while in an engagement with HMS Renard.



Origins
On 11 August 1795 Captain Francis Pender arrived at Bermuda. Shortly thereafter he purchased two vessels, one of which became Bermuda and the other of which was the Sir Charles Grey, which he renamed Spencer. Sir Charles Grey had been a privateer and for a while a hired armed vessel, and was named for Charles Grey, 1st Earl Grey. Commander Thomas Hurd, of Bermuda, commissioned her, but he had been engaged in hydrographic survey work and Pender replaced him in Spencer with Lieutenant Andrew F. Evans.

Career
On 4 May 1796 Spencer was sailing in company with Esperance and Bonetta when they sighted a suspicious vessel. Spencer set off in chase while shortly thereafter Esperance saw two vessels, a schooner and a sloop, and she and Bonetta set off after them. Spencer sailed south-southeast and the other two British vessels sailed southwest by west, with the result that they lost sight of each other. Spencer captured the French gun-brig Volcan, while Bonetta and Esperance captured the schooner Poisson Volant.

Spencer shared with Bonetta and Esperence in the prize money for "Puissant Volant". Similarly, Esperance and Bonetta shared with Spencer in the proceeds of the capture of Volcan.

Commander J. Dunbar replaced Evans in August 1798, and remained in command until November 1798. His replacement was J. Walton.

Around September 1799, Joseph Spear was promoted to Commander and became captain of Lily, on the Halifax station.

On 10 May 1800 the Royal Navy launched the 74-gun third rate Spencer. To avoid having two vessels with the same name, the brig-sloop Spencer became Lilly.

In May 1801 Lilly was in the Bahamas, still under Spear, and a year later she was at Halifax, on the Halifax station. The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, Sir John Wentworth, had requested that the navy station a vessel there "in the season" to interrupt the contraband trade by American vessels. Spear transferred from Lilly in 1802.

Commander W. Compton replaced Spear in December 1802. In August 1803 Lilly was under the command of Randall McDonnell.

On 27 February 1804, Lilly, under Captain William Lyall, were at Halifax where Llyall had to draw a bill of exchange to pay the expenses of boats and crews serving the ship. Lilly was on her way to Bermuda when on 1 March she captured the Batavian Republic schooner Draak near Bermuda. Draak was armed with four 4-pounder guns and one long 3-pounder gun, and had a crew of 50 men under the command of a "lieutenant of frigate" Jan Justus Dingemans. She was seven weeks out of Curaçoa but had not taken anything. Lyall reported that the engagement lasted 15 minutes and that Draak made preparations to board Lilly, but then struck. The engagement resulted in a marine on Lilly losing his arm, and in the death of two men on Draak, and one wounded. Lyall described Draak as a four-year-old Bermuda-built vessel, coppered, and a remarkably fast sailer. After Lyall, Lilly again came under the command of Commander William Compton.

Capture
Lily was off the coast of Georgia in the afternoon of 14 July 1804 when she sighted two vessels. She sailed towards them but by sunset was only able to determine that one was a ship and the other a smaller vessel, possibly the larger vessel's prize. In the morning the larger vessel could be seen towing the smaller. As Lilly approached, the larger vessel dropped her tow and sailed to engage Lilly.

The enemy vessel proceeded to stay by Lilly's stern and to use her long guns at ranges Lilly's carronades could not match. The fire from the enemy vessel killed Compton and so damaged Lilly's rigging that she lost her ability to manoeuvre. Seeing that the enemy vessel was preparing to board, Lieutenant Samuel Fowler, who was now in command, wanted to surrender, but the warrant officers objected. As the two vessels came alongside Lily was finally able to fire a broadside, which the French returned, and French fire killed Fowler. The British repelled several French attempts to board but eventually the French prevailed. Lilly's casualties were Compton and Fowler killed, and 16 men wounded.

The French vessel was Dame Ambert, a privateer of 16 guns. Dame Ambert had been the British packet Marlborough (or Marlboro, Duke of Marlborough, or General Marlborough), prior to her capture.

The French put their British prisoners onto a prize vessel and sent them into Hampton Roads. Once in America, a number of the British seamen deserted.

French privateer
Her captors had Lilly fitted out as a privateer and renamed Général Ernouf for Jean Augustin Ernouf, governor of Guadeloupe. Giraud Lapointe took command.

On 1 July 1804 Général Ernouf encountered the British letter of marque Britannia, which was under the command of Captain D. Leavey, but did not engage. Four days later the two again sighted each other, and again the French vessel did not engage. However, one month later, on 5 August, Général Ernouf encountered Britannia, and this time, sensing an easy capture as her quarry appeared unready, came alongside and attempted to board. The two vessels exchanged both cannon and small arms fire, with Britannia twice repulsing boarding attempts. After the engagement left both vessels with severely damaged masts and rigging, Général Ernouf withdrew, with Britannia in pursuit; however, Britannia lost her attacker in the dark after night fell. Britannia had one man killed (a passenger who volunteered his services), and four wounded, Leavey among them.

On 14 August the frigate Galatea attempted to cut out Général Ernouf, which was sheltering at the Saintes near Guadeloupe where shore batteries could protect her. The attack was a debacle for the British, who failed completely in their attempt. Galatea's captain, Henry Heathcote, had been too obvious in his reconnoitering and the French were waiting for the night attack. In all, the British lost some 10 men killed, including Lieutenant Charles Hayman (the commander of the boarding party and first lieutenant of Galatea), and 55 or more wounded or captured. The French lost four killed and suffered some wounded, among them Captain Lapointe, commander of Général Ernouf, and Lieutenant Mouret, commander of the detachment of troops the French stationed aboard her in anticipation of the attack. The French also captured Galatea's barge, which the other three boats of the cutting out party could not retrieve as they made their escape.

Destruction
On 20 March 1805 HMS Renard was at 21°14′N 71°30′W when she sighted a ship to the north-west. Renard gave chase and as she approached, her quarry shortened sail and made ready to engage. At 2:20 p.m., Renard opened fire. After 35 minutes, the French vessel appeared to be on fire, and ten minutes later she exploded. Renard lowered a boat and was able to rescue 55 men, all the rest of the 160 men aboard the French vessel having perished. The survivors reported that their vessel was the Général Ernouf. She had been under the command of Paul Gerard Pointe, and was seven days out of Basseterre. She had intended to intercept the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet. Prior to the explosion, Général Ernouf had 20-30 men killed and wounded; Renard had only nine wounded.


HMS Renard was the French privateer Renard, launched in 1797, that Cerberus captured in the Channel that same year. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name and she participated in some notable engagements on the Jamaica stationbefore the Navy sold her in 1809.



On 20 March 1805 Renard was at 21°14′N 71°30′W when she sighted a ship to the north-west. Renard gave chase and as she approached, her quarry shortened sail and made ready to engage. At 2:20 p.m., Renard opened fire. After 35 minutes, the French vessel appeared to be on fire, and ten minutes later she exploded. Renard lowered a boat and was able to rescue 55 men, all the rest of the 160 men aboard having perished. She had been under the command of Paul Gerard Pointe, and was seven days out of Basseterre. She had intended to intercept the homeward-bound Jamaica fleet. The survivors reported that their vessel was the Général Ernouf. Général Ernouf was the former HMS Lily. Prior to the explosion, Général Ernouf had 20-30 men killed and wounded; Renard had only nine wounded.

HMS Spencer (1795) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

HMS Renard (1797) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1888 – Launch of HMS Melita, a Royal Navy Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns


HMS Melita was a Royal Navy Mariner-class composite screw gunvessel of 8 guns. She was the only significant Royal Navy warship ever to be built in Malta Dockyard, hence the name, which is the Latin name for the island. She was renamed HMS Ringdove in 1915 and sold as a salvage vessel to Falmouth Docks Board in 1920, when her name was changed to Ringdove's Aid. She was sold again in 1927 to the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association, who changed her name to Restorer, and she was finally broken up in 1937, 54 years after her keel was laid.






Watercolour, 1896, by Gaetano Esposito

Construction


Launch of Melita

Designed by Nathaniel Barnaby, the Royal Navy Director of Naval Construction, her hull was of composite construction; that is, iron keel, frames, stem and stern posts with wooden planking. She was fitted with a 2-cylinder horizontal compound expansion steam engine driving a single screw, which was also built in the Malta Dockyard. She was rigged with three masts, with square rig on the fore- and main-masts, making her a barque-rigged vessel. Her keel was laid at a special slipway built for her on the Senglea side of French Creek, which was still known as the "Melita Slip" into modern times. Although laid down on 18 July 1883, work progressed slowly; the entire enterprise had been designed to employ the local workforce when the Mediterranean Fleet was absent, and the fleet's frequent presence caused work on the new vessel to be halted all too often. She was launched on 20 March 1888 by Princess Victoria Melita, the twelve-year-old daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet. The Army and Navy Gazette reported that

“

The launch of the Melita, sloop at Malta Dockyard must have been quite an event in the history of the island. Under the circumstances, it would be invidious to make any remarks about the length of time she has been building. Let us hope she will prove a staunch and useful vessel.[4]

”

Her entire class were re-classified from gunvessels to sloops in November 1884 long before Melita entered service.

Career
Melita was commissioned into the Royal Navy on 27 October 1892, nearly ten years after she was laid down. During the 1890s she served in the Mediterranean, recommissioning in October 1895, and again in October 1898. While serving in Melita during this period Lieutenant (later Rear Admiral) Edward Inglefield invented the Inglefield clip for quickly attaching flags to each other - they are still in use in the Royal Navy today. In 1896 she served off the Sudanese coast, as part of the preparations for the reconquest of the Sudan. While under Commander Ian M. Fraser she was as special service vessel at Constantinople when in November 1901 she was ordered to Devonport, where she arrived in late December to be paid off 17 January 1902.

Although it was stated by the Secretary to the Admiralty in Parliament that she would be sold, instead she became a boom defence vessel at Southampton in May 1905. She was reassigned to become a salvage vessel in December 1915, and swapped names with the Redbreast-class gunboat Ringdove, thereby becoming the sixth Ringdove to serve in the Royal Navy.


HMS Melita

Disposal
Ringdove (ex-Melita) was sold to the Falmouth Docks Board on 9 July 1920 and renamed Ringdove’s Aid. She was sold on to the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association, which in 1927 applied her name to change her name to Restorer. She was broken up in the second quarter of 1937.


The Mariner class was a class of six 8-gun gunvessels (sloops from 1884) built for the Royal Navy between 1883 and 1888. Four were built in the Naval Dockard at Devonport, and two elsewhere; the Acorn was built by contract at Jacobs Pill on the Pembroke River (a private yard founded in the 1870s by Sir Edward Reed), while the Melita was built in the Malta Dockyard, the only substantial ship of the Royal Navy ever to be built in the island.


HMS Racer

HMS Melita (1888) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Mariner-class gunvessel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1909 – Launch of SMS Von der Tann , the first battlecruiser built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, as well as Germany's first major turbine-powered warship.


SMS Von der Tann was the first battlecruiser built for the German Kaiserliche Marine, as well as Germany's first major turbine-powered warship. At the time of her construction, Von der Tann was the fastest dreadnought-type warship afloat, capable of reaching speeds in excess of 27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph). She was designed in response to the British Invincible class. While the German design had slightly lighter guns—28 cm (11 in), compared to the 30.5 cm (12 in) Mark X mounted on the British ships—Von der Tann was faster and significantly better-armored. She set the precedent of German battlecruisers carrying much heavier armor than their British equivalents, albeit at the cost of smaller guns.

Von der Tann participated in a number of fleet actions during the First World War, including several bombardments of the English coast. She was present at the Battle of Jutland, where she destroyed the British battlecruiser HMS Indefatigable in the opening minutes of the engagement. Von der Tann was hit several times by large-caliber shells during the battle, and at one point in the engagement, the ship had all of her main battery guns out of action either due to damage or malfunction. Nevertheless, the damage was quickly repaired and the ship returned to the fleet in two months.

Following the end of the war in November 1918, Von der Tann, along with most of the High Seas Fleet, was interned at Scapa Flowpending a decision by the Allies as to the fate of the fleet. The ship met her end in 1919 when German caretaker crews scuttled their ships to prevent their division among Allied navies. The wreck was raised in 1930, and scrapped at Rosyth from 1931 to 1934.


The German battlecruiser SMS Von der Tann at anchor. The photo was probably taken during Von der Tann´s cruise to South America in 1911.

Development
The preceding German large cruiser design, Blücher, was an incremental increase over previous armored cruisers. Blücher was armed with twelve 21 cm (8.3 in) guns, and designed to counter what the Germans knew about the British Invincible class, which were assumed to be larger iterations of the basic armored cruiser type. Once sufficient information about the new British cruisers became available, it was obvious that they were not simply an enlargement on previous designs but a whole new type of warship—the battlecruiser—to which Blücher was quite inferior. However, there were insufficient funds to alter Blücher's layout, so the cruiser assigned for 1907 would have to be an entirely new design.

Design of Von der Tann began in August 1906, under the name "Cruiser F", amid disagreements over the intended role of the new ship. Admiral Tirpitz advocated a ship similar to the new British battlecruisers of the Invincible class: heavier guns, lighter armor, and higher speed with the intention of using the ship as a fleet scout and to destroy the opposing fleet's cruisers. Tirpitz had no intention of using the ship in the main battle line. Kaiser Wilhelm II however, along with most of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office), was in favor of incorporating the ship into the battle line after initial contact was made, which necessitated much heavier armor. This insistence upon the capability to fight in the battle line was a result of the numerical inferiority of the German High Seas fleet compared to the British Royal Navy.

Several design proposals were submitted, all calling for heavy main guns, between 30.5 cm (12 in) and 34.3 cm (13.5 in) calibers. However, financial limitations dictated that smaller, less expensive weaponry would be used instead. The final design therefore used the same 28 cm (11 in) double turret introduced for the last two Nassau-class battleships — hydraulic elevated Drh LC/1907 instead of electrical elevated Drh LC/1906. In compensation, the design was given a relatively heavy secondary armament.

At a conference in September 1906, many of the disagreements over the ship's design were resolved. The Naval Constructor, von Eickstedt, argued that since the explosive trials for the proposed protection systems for the new battlecruiser had not been completed, the construction should be postponed, to allow for any alterations to the design.[8] He also argued that guns of 21 cm (8.3 in) or 24 cm (9.4 in) caliber would be sufficient to penetrate the armor of the new British battlecruisers. However, Admiral August von Heeringen, of the General Navy Department, stated that for the ship to be able to engage battleships, the 28 cm (11 in) caliber guns were necessary.

Admiral Capelle, the deputy director of the Reichsmarineamt, stated that by mid November 1906, the testing for the underwater protection designs would be complete. He suggested that if the torpedo bulkhead needed to be strengthened, the ship might be too heavy for the 28 cm (11 in) guns, if the displacement of around 19,000 t (21,000 short tons) was to be retained. Tirpitz refused to consider using smaller guns, even if it meant increasing the displacement of the ship. Von Eickstedt proposed employing a secondary battery of 17 cm (6.7 in) guns instead of the 15 cm (5.9 in) the design called for, but the increased weight would have made it impossible to mount eight main battery guns.

On 22 June 1907, the Kaiser authorized construction of Cruiser F, to be named Von der Tann, after Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, a Bavarian general who fought in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The contract was awarded to the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg, on 26 September 1907. The keel was laid on 21 March 1908, and the ship was launched nearly a year later, on 20 March 1909. The source of the ship's name was the subject of much gratitude from the Bavarian aristocracy. papers at the time reported that Luitpold, the prince regent and de facto ruler of Bavaria, telegraphed a message of thanks to the German emperor, and the launch ceremony was overseen by one of Von der Tann's descendants, also a general. He spoke to the assembled crowd, stating his hope that Von der Tann would, in his words, "go out to protect Germany's might world-trade, or, at the command of his Majesty the Emperor, to ward off an enemy who attacked the vital interests or the honour of the Empire. Might the ship acquit herself upon the ocean as the General whose name she bore had acquitted himself upon the blood-drenched battlefield and bring her flag victorious out of the fight for the greatness and the honour of Germany." The ship cost 36.523 million Marks.

Design
Armament


CG-rendering of Von der Tann

Von der Tann carried eight 28 cm (11.02 in) SK L/45 guns, mounted in four twin turrets: one fore, one aft, and two staggered wing turrets. The guns were emplaced in the Drh.L C/1907 turntable mount, which was traversed electrically, while the guns themselves used hydraulics to change elevation. The guns could be elevated up to 20 degrees, which enabled a maximum range of 18,900 m (20,700 yd). A refit in 1915 increased this to 20,400 m (22,300 yd). The main guns fired a 302 kg (670 lb) armored-piercing shell that had a muzzle velocity of 875 m/s; the main propellant charges were encased in a brass cartridge. A total of 660 projectiles were stored in four shell rooms, each containing 165 shells. The wing turrets were staggered in such a way that all eight guns were able to fire on broadside on a very wide arc.

Unlike her British contemporaries, Von der Tann also carried a heavy secondary battery, consisting of ten 15 cm (5.91 in) SK L/45 guns, casemated in MPL C/06 pivot mounts, each with 150 high explosive and armor-piercing shells. At construction, these guns could fire their 45.3 kg (100 lb) shells at targets up to 13,500 m (14,800 yd) away; after the 1915 refit, their maximum range was extended to 16,800 m (18,400 yd). She was also armed with sixteen 8.8 cm SK L/45 naval gun 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK L/45 guns, to defend against torpedo boats and destroyers. These were also emplaced in pivot mounts, of the MPL C/01-06 type, with a total of 3,200 shells for these guns. These guns fired a 9 kg (20 lb) shell at the high rate of 15 rounds per minute, up to a range of 10,694 m (11,695 yd), which was quite long for a smaller caliber weapon. In late 1916, following repair work after the damage sustained during the Battle of Jutland, Von der Tann had her 8.8 cm (3.5 in) guns removed and the firing ports welded shut. Two 8.8 cm flak guns were installed on the aft superstructure.

As was customary for capital ships of the time, Von der Tann was equipped with four 45 cm (17.72 in) torpedo tubes, with a total of 11 torpedoes. These were located in the bow, the stern, and two on the broadside. The torpedoes carried a 110 kg (240 lb) warhead, and had an effective range of 2 km (1.04 nmi) when set for a speed of 32 kn (59 km/h), and 1.5 km (0.81 nmi) at 36 kn (67 km/h).

Armor


Von der Tann as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual in 1913; shaded areas represent armor protection.

Because the Von der Tann was designed to fight in the battle line, her armor was much thicker than that of the British battlecruisers. Von der Tann weighed over 2,000 tonnes more than the Indefatigable class, and used 10% more of her weight for armor than the battlecruisers she faced at the Battle of Jutland.

Von der Tann's armor consisted of Krupp cemented and nickel steel. The main belt armor was 80–120 mm (3.1–4.7 in) thick forward, 250 mm (9.8 in) thick over the ship's citadel, and was 100 mm (3.9 in) thick aft. The forward conning tower was protected by 250 mm (9.8 in), while the aft conning tower by 200 mm (7.9 in). The four turrets had 230 mm (9.1 in) faces, 180 mm (7.1 in) sides, and 90 mm (3.5 in) on the roofs. The horizontal armor measured 25 mm (0.98 in) thick, and the sloping deck armor was 50 mm (2.0 in) thick. Like the armored cruiser Blücher before her, she was protected by a torpedo bulkhead, 25 mm (0.98 in) thick. It was set back a distance of 4 meters (13 ft) from the outer hull skin, the space in between being used to store coal.

Machinery
Von der Tann was powered by 18 naval coal-fueled double boilers, separated into five boiler rooms. The boilers produced steam at a pressure of 235 psi (16 atmospheres). Von der Tann was the first large German warship to use turbine propulsion. The ship used two sets of turbines: high pressure turbines, which ran the outer two shafts, and low pressure turbines, which powered the inner two shafts. Each shaft had a propeller 3.6 m (12 ft) in diameter. The ship was designed to have a power output of 41,426 shaft horsepower (30,891 kW) at a speed of 300 rpm, which enabled a rated top speed of 24.8 kn (45.9 km/h). However, as was the case with all later German battlecruisers, the ship could be run dramatically higher. During sea trials, the turbines provided 77,928 shp (58,111 kW) at 339 rpm for a top speed of 27.757 kn (51.39 km/h). In one instance during a cruise from Tenerife to Germany, the ship averaged 27 kn (50 km/h), and reached a maximum speed of 28 kn (52 km/h). At the time of her launch, she was the fastest dreadnought afloat. The ship had two parallel rudders, which were controlled by steam-powered engines. Von der Tann's electrical plant consisted of six steam turbo generators that had a total output of 1,200-kW (1,600-hp).

Like many German capital ships, Von der Tann had chronic problems with the often low-quality coal available for the ship's boilers. Following the end of the raid on Scarborough, Von der Tann's commander, Captain Max von Hahn, remarked that "the inadequacy of our coal and its burning properties results in heavy smoke clouds and signals our presence." During the battle of Jutland, the ship was unable to maintain fires in all of her boilers after 16:00, due to the poor quality coal. Many other German ships suffered the same difficulties during the battle, including Derfflinger and Seydlitz. After 1916, the coal firing in the boilers was supplemented by spraying tar-oil on the coal, which made the coal burn better.

Other characteristics


Von der Tann in 1911

Frahm anti-roll tanks were fitted during construction, but these proved to be ineffective; the tanks only reduced rolling by 33%. Bilge keelswere later added to improve stability, and the space previously used for the anti-roll tanks was instead used as extra fuel storage. The ship was able to carry an additional 180 t (200 short tons) of coal in the anti-roll tanks. Von der Tann's hull consisted of 15 watertight compartments, and a double bottom extended for 75% of the ship's length. The ship was known to have good maneuvering characteristics, with a speed loss of 60% and a heel of 8 degrees at full rudder.

The ship's crew compartments were arranged such that the officers were accommodated in the forecastle. This arrangement was found to be unsatisfactory, and not repeated in later classes. Von der Tann was designed to be fitted with a lattice mast, but the ship received standard masts instead. In 1914, spotting posts were attached to the masts in order to observe the fall of artillery fire. In 1915, seaplane trials were conducted on Von der Tann, and a crane was attached on the aft deck to lift the seaplane aboard the ship. Von der Tann had originally been equipped with anti-torpedo nets, but these were removed towards the end of 1916.


Von der Tann in 1911

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1912 – Launch of HMS Queen Mary, the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I.


HMS Queen Mary was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I. The sole member of her class, Queen Maryshared many features with the Lion-class battlecruisers, including her eight 13.5-inch (343 mm) guns. She was completed in 1913 and participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the Grand Fleet in 1914. Like most of the modern British battlecruisers, she never left the North Sea during the war. As part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, she attempted to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914, but was unsuccessful. She was refitting in early 1915 and missed the Battle of Dogger Bank in January, but participated in the largest fleet action of the war, the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser Derfflinger during the early part of the battle and her magazines exploded shortly afterwards, sinking the ship.


Queen Mary at sea with torpedo net booms folded against her side

Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests in pieces, some of which are upside down, on the floor of the North Sea. Queen Maryis designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as it is the grave of 1,266 officers and ratings.

Design


Left elevation and deck plan of the Lion-class battlecruisers, to which Queen Mary was almost identical externally

Queen Mary was ordered, together with the four battleships of the King George V class, under the 1910–11 Naval Programme. As was the usual pattern of the time, only one battlecruiser was ordered per naval programme. She differed from her predecessors of the Lion class in the distribution of her secondary armament and armour and in the location of the officers' quarters. Every capital ship since the design of the battleship HMS Dreadnought in 1905 had placed the officers' quarters closer to their action stations amidships; after complaints from the Fleet, Queen Mary was the first battlecruiser to restore the quarters to their traditional place in the stern. In addition, she was the first battlecruiser to mount a sternwalk.

Queen Mary, the only ship of her name ever to serve in the Royal Navy, was named for Mary of Teck, the wife of King George V. The Queen's representative at the ship's christening on 20 March 1912 was the wife of Viscount Allendale.

General characteristics
Slightly larger than the preceding Lion-class ships, Queen Mary had an overall length of 700 feet 0.6 inches (213.4 m), a beam of 89 feet 0.5 inches (27.1 m), and a draught of 32 feet 4 inches (9.9 m) at deep load. The ship normally displaced 26,770 long tons (27,200 t) and 31,650 long tons (32,160 t) at deep load, over 1,000 long tons (1,016 t) more than the earlier ships. She had a metacentric height of 5.92 feet (1.8 m) at deep load. In peacetime the crew numbered 997 officers and ratings, but this increased to 1,275 during wartime.

Propulsion
The ship had two paired sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines housed in separate engine rooms. Each set consisted of a high-pressure turbine driving an outboard propeller shaft and a low-pressure turbine driving an inner shaft. A cruising stage was built into the casing of each high-pressure turbine for economical steaming at low speeds. The turbines had a designed output of 75,000 shaft horsepower (56,000 kW), 5,000 shp (3,700 kW) more than her predecessors. On sea trials in May and June 1913, Queen Mary achieved more than 83,000 shp (62,000 kW), although she barely exceeded her designed speed of 28 knots (52 km/h; 32 mph). The steam plant consisted of 42 Yarrow boilers arranged in seven boiler rooms. Maximum bunkerage was 3,600 long tons (3,660 t) of coal and 1,170 long tons (1,190 t) of fuel oil to be sprayed on the coal to increase its burn rate. Her range was 5,610 nautical miles(10,390 km; 6,460 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Armament


HMS Queen Mary leaving the River Tyne, 1913

Queen Mary mounted eight BL 13.5-inch Mk V guns in four twin hydraulically powered turrets, designated 'A', 'B', 'Q' and 'X' from bow to stern. The guns could be depressed to −3° and elevated to 20°, although the director controlling the turrets was limited to 15° 21' until prisms were installed before the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 to allow full elevation. They fired 1,250-pound (567 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,550 ft/s (780 m/s); at 20° elevation, this provided a maximum range of 23,820 yd (21,781 m) with armour-piercing (AP) shells. The rate of fireof these guns was 1.5–2 rounds per minute. Queen Mary carried a total of 880 rounds during wartime for 110 shells per gun.

Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen BL 4-inch Mk VII guns, most of which were mounted in casemates on the forecastle deck, unlike the arrangement in the Lion class. The guns could depress to −7° and had a maximum elevation of 15°. They fired 31-pound (14 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,821 ft/s (860 m/s) at a maximum range of 11,400 yd (10,400 m);[16] the ship carried 150 rounds per gun.

The ship was built without any anti-aircraft guns, but two guns were fitted in October 1914. One was a QF 6-pounder Hotchkiss gun and the other was a QF 3-inch 20 cwt, both on high-angle mountings. The Hotchkiss fired a 6-pound (2.7 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,773 ft/s (540 m/s). The three-inch gun fired a 12.5-pound (5.7 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 2,604 ft/s (794 m/s) with a maximum effective ceiling of 23,000 ft (7,010 m).

Two 21-inch (530 mm) submerged torpedo tubes were fitted, one on each broadside. Fourteen Mk II*** torpedoes were carried, each of which had a warhead of 400 pounds (181 kg) of TNT. Their range was 4,500 yards (4,115 m) at 45 knots (83 km/h; 52 mph) or 10,000 yards (9,144 m) at 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph).

Fire-control
In February 1913, the Admiralty bought five sets of fire-control equipment from Arthur Pollen for comparative trials with the equipment designed by Commander Frederic Dreyer. One set was mounted in Queen Mary and consisted of a 9-foot (2.7 m) Argo rangefinder located on top of the conning tower that fed range data into an Argo Clock Mk IV (a mechanical fire-control computer)[20] located in the transmitting station below the conning tower. The clock converted the information into range and deflection data for use by the guns. The target's data was also graphically recorded on a plotting table to assist the gunnery officer in predicting the movement of the target. The aft torpedo director tower was the backup gunnery control position. All four turrets were provided with 9-foot rangefinders and 'B' and 'X' turrets were further outfitted to serve as auxiliary control positions.

Fire-control technology advanced quickly during the years immediately preceding World War I, and the development of the director firing system was a major advance. This consisted of a fire-control director mounted high in the ship which electrically provided elevation and training angles to the turrets via pointers, which the turret crewmen only had to follow. The guns were fired simultaneously, which aided in spotting the shell splashes and minimized the effects of the roll on the dispersion of the shells. Queen Mary received her director before the Battle of Jutland.

Armour
The armour protection given to Queen Mary was similar to that of the Lions; her waterline belt of Krupp cemented armour was also 9 inches (229 mm) thick between 'B' and 'X' turrets. It thinned to 4 inches (102 mm) inches towards the ships' ends, but did not reach either the bow or the stern. In addition the ship was given an upper armour belt with a maximum thickness of six inches over the same length as the thickest part of the waterline armour, thinning to 5 inches (127 mm) abreast the end turrets. Four-inch transverse bulkheads closed off the ends of the armoured citadel. High-tensile steel plating, cheaper than nickel-steel, but equally as effective, was used for the protective decks. The lower armoured deck was generally only 1 inch (25 mm) thick except outside the citadel where it was 2.5 inches (64 mm). The upper armoured deck was situated at the top of the upper armour belt and was also only one inch thick. The forecastle deck ranged from 1 to 1.5 inches (25.4 to 38.1 mm).

The gun turrets had nine-inch fronts and sides, while their roofs were 2.5 to 3.25 inches (64 to 83 mm) thick. The barbettes were protected by nine inches of armour above the deck, but it thinned to 8 inches (203 mm) above the upper armour deck and 3 inches (76 mm) below it. The forward 4-inch guns were protected by three-inch sides and a two-inch high-tensile steel deck overhead. The conning tower sides were 10 inches (254 mm) thick, with three-inch roofs and communication tubes. Her aft torpedo director tower was protected by six-inch walls and a three-inch cast steel roof. High-tensile steel torpedo bulkheads 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick were fitted abreast the magazines and shell rooms. Her funnel uptakes were protected by high-tensile steel splinter armour 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick on the sides and one inch thick on the ends between the upper and forecastle decks

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1912 - Koombana – disappeared on 20 March 1912 north of Port Hedland, Western Australia, in a tropical cyclone with the loss of about 76 passengers and 74 crew.


SS Koombana was a late Edwardian-era passenger, cargo and mail carrying steamship. From March 1909 to March 1912, she operated coastal liner services between Fremantle, Western Australia and various ports in the northwest of that State. She is best known for disappearing at an unknown location north of Port Hedland, Western Australia, during a tropical cyclone on 20 March 1912, killing 74 passengers and 76 crew; in total, 150 people died.



Other than a small quantity of wreckage, no trace was ever found of the ship, which was presumed sunk along with several other vessels during the same storm. At least a further 15 people died in other ships and near the cyclone. As accurate passenger lists were not kept at the time, the exact number of deaths is not known; however, all on board are presumed to have perished. The loss was almost certainly Australia's worst weather-related maritime disaster in the twentieth century.

In her short career, Koombana also played a significant role in the public life of Western Australia. In April/May 1909, she carried the Premier of Western Australia, Newton Moore, on a tour of the northwest, which included the official opening of the jetty at Port Hedland, now the highest tonnage port in Australia. Koombana was also the first ship to berth at that jetty. In November 1910, Koombana was part of a welcoming flotilla of vessels at Broome, Western Australia for the inaugural arrival in Australia of the Royal Australian Navy's first two destroyers, Parramatta and Yarra. Twelve months later, in Fremantle, she was the subject of a divisive industrial dispute that had nationwide implications.

Additionally, the loss of Koombana, and the associated withdrawal of her owner, the Adelaide Steamship Company, from the northwest coastal trade, was a major impetus for the early development of the State Shipping Service of Western Australia, which was to dominate that trade for the rest of the twentieth century.


Concept and construction

Koombana (right) at low tide, possibly at Broome.

Koombana was the first passenger and cargo vessel to be built exclusively for service on the Western Australian coast, and her mission was to develop trade with the north west of the State. Owned and operated by the Adelaide Steamship Company, she was constructed under the British Corporation shelter deck rules, to carry first and second class passengers, a large number of cattle, and a considerable amount of general cargo.

When the order for Koombana was placed, the Adelaide Steamship Company was the major operator of coastal shipping between Fremantle and Western Australia's northern ports. Since 1900, the service had been provided by SS Bullarra; Koombana was ordered as Bullarra's much larger replacement. In the design of Koombana, special attention was given to her intended engagement in this unusual semi-tropical trade.

Of steel construction, Koombana was built in Linthouse, a district of Glasgow, Scotland, by shipbuilders Alex. Stephen & Sons, and launched on 27 October 1908, following a delay owing to labor troubles. Her naming ceremony was performed by Mrs S Elgar, wife of one of the owner's superintendents in England. At the suggestion of the Premier, Newton Moore, she was named Koombana, after Mr Robert Forrest's "Koombana" mill, near Bunbury, Western Australia.

The name Koombana also conformed with the owner’s established tradition of using a local Aboriginal language word as the name of each of its ships. "Koombana", first recorded by John Arrowsmith in 1838 as "Koombanah", is the Noongar name of a bay, now known as Koombana Bay, adjacent to Bunbury. The word "Koombana" has been defined as meaning bay ("ana") of spouting whales ("koomba"), and also as meaning "calm and peaceful". In view of Koombana’s ultimate fate, the latter definition may now convey a touch of irony.

By the standards of the time, Koombana was a modern, luxury vessel, and contrasted starkly with the corrugated iron and canvas of the ports she was built to serve. She has been described as being "... as luxurious as the Titanic ..." and as "... the last word in seagoing opulence". Following her arrival in Fremantle during her delivery voyage, she was praised as "... the acme of perfection as regards the comfort of passengers, facilities for handling cargo, and appliances for skilful navigation ...". However, she was also criticised as "... too good for the trade".

Koombana was 340 ft (100 m) long between perpendiculars. She had a beam of 48 ft 2 in (14.68 m) and a draught of 20 ft 8 in (6.30 m). Her tonnage was 3,668 gross register tons (GRT). All of her compartments were fitted with watertight doors, and she was capable of carrying 900 tons of ballast water.

Demise
Cyclone


A postcard of Koombana at sea, showing her Adelaide Steamship Co funnel livery (dark buff with black band) and British red ensign.

Koombana left Port Hedland for Broome on the morning of Wednesday, 20 March 1912 with a fresh north easterly blowing, followed by the SS Bullarra, which had recently returned to the north-west passenger and cargo trade. Before departing, her master, Captain Allen, had reported a falling barometer and suggested that the voyage may take longer than normal. However, he and Captain Upjohn, master of Bullarra, had decided in conversation prior to departure that there was nothing in it, and neither of them had expected to encounter such a blow as was later recorded in Bullarra's log book as "A Howling Hurricane".

Several hours after departing, the two ships altered course as a heavy north easterly gale set in and they became separated. The storm increased and Bullarra suffered damage but was able to limp into Cossack. She later returned to Port Hedland minus her smokestack reporting that the eye of the cyclone had passed directly over. Koombana was not seen again.

A steel sailing ship, Crown of England, was wrecked on Depuch Island with another vessel, Concordia beached nearby. Several lighter vessels and pearling luggers were also sunk or wrecked.

The cyclone crossed the coast two days later on 22 March just west of Balla Balla, a minor port for the Whim Creek copper mines. Damage was reported for more than 200 kilometres along the coast.

After the ship became overdue in Broome several days later, public concern was raised and a search organised. On 2 April one of the search ships steamed through a quantity of wreckage about 25 nautical miles (46 km) north of Bedout Island and 100 km offshore. In the end, the only wreckage recovered from Koombana was part of a starboard bow planking of a motor launch, a state-room door, and panel from the promenade deck, two planks for covering tanks of lifeboats, and some air tanks. Apart from the air tanks, which were found on the mainland, all of the recovered wreckage was picked up at sea.

Passengers
Prominent passengers

Corporal Frank Buttle.


Mr F W B Clinch.

Aboard Koombana at the time of her loss were a number of passengers who had been playing prominent roles in the north of Western Australia. They included the following:

• Captain Pearson, who was the wharfinger at Derby, to which he was travelling. An old sea captain, he had formerly been employed by Melbourne Steamship Company, and had lived for many years in Fremantle, where he was very well known.
• Corporal Frank Buttle, who had been in charge of the Derby police for about three years. He had been returning from a holiday in Perth.[69] His descendants include Brownlow Medal winning Australian rules footballer Graham Moss.
• Mr George Simpson, the Department of Public Works official who had been in charge of public works on the north coast for a considerable time. His last important work was in connection with the building of the lighthouse at Broome. Originally from NSW, Mr Simpson was a grandson of colonial innkeeper, pastoralist and politician Nicolas Hyeronimus. He was also more distantly related to the Suttor dynasty of early NSW politicians, and to Grosvenor Francis, member of the House of Representatives for the seat of Kennedy in Queensland between 1925 and 1929. He left a widow and six children.
• Mr J S Davis, the manager of the Broome office of Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd, "submarine engineers".
• Mr W P Milne, of the Department of Public Works, who was proceeding to Derby with a gang of five men – W Davis, A Baker, G Martin, H Hereford and E Green – to carry out works. For a very long time, he had been a member of a government boring party, and had done a lot of boring work on one of the stock routes in the far north.
• Messrs George Piper and R H Jenkins, who were both managers of stations for Emanuel Brothers Limited, and were returning to Derby from a trip to Perth. As of 1912, Emanuel Brothers were prominent suppliers of stock and meat to Perth and the goldfields. George Piper had previously been employed by Sidney Kidman, who had sent him to Western Australia to manage Meda Station for Forrest and Emanuel, which he had done very successfully. He was accompanied aboard Koombana by his brother, Alfred C Piper, another ex-Kidman employee. Mr Kidman was quoted after Koombana's disappearance as saying that "George was one of the smartest men they have had in the west, and his brother was a very capable man, too." Mr Jenkins had been a stock manager for Emanuel Brothers for over a decade, and was accompanied on Koombana by his daughter.
• Mr Deane Sparke, who was a storekeeper in Derby. He had been returning from holidays in Perth.
• Mr Frederick W B Clinch, of Elder, Shenton & Co, who had been on his way to Derby to supervise the loading of cattle onto Bullarra. His father, James Clinch, had been the founder of the Berkshire Valley farm near Moora, and the first European settler in the Moora area. Frederick Clinch left a widow and six daughters.
• Captain Charles Brown Stuart, who was engaged in pearling on his own account, and was returning to Broome from a business trip to Port Hedland.
• Mr Abraham de Vahl Davis, a resident of Broome, and manager of the Australian business of his brother-in-law, Mr Mark Rubin, whose business interests embraced pearling, pastoral and other business concerns. Mr de Vahl Davis was an uncle of Mark Rubin's son, Bernard Rubin, who won the 1928 24 Hours of Le Mans, in a Bentley 4½ Litre. His descendants include Graham de Vahl Davis, Emeritus Professor in the School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales.
• Rev Robert W Main, who had been travelling north on behalf of the Presbyterian Church of Western Australia to find a suitable place for a mission station for Aborigines.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1920 – Launch of USS Maryland (BB-46), also known as "Old Mary" or "Fighting Mary" to her crewmates, was a Colorado-class battleship.


USS Maryland (BB-46), also known as "Old Mary" or "Fighting Mary" to her crewmates, was a Colorado-class battleship. She was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named in honor of the seventh state. She was commissioned in 1921, and serving as the flagship of the fleet, cruised to Australia, New Zealand, and Brazil.


USS Maryland (BB-46) underway in 1935

She is most notable for her service in World War II. She was present on Battleship Row during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, and was lightly damaged by Japanese bombs. Returning to duty in 1942, she saw service in the Pacific War, first supporting the rest of the fleet at the Battle of Midway, and then patrolling the Fiji Islands to guard against Japanese incursion. Next, she went on the offensive, commencing shore bombardments in the Battle of Tarawa and later in the Battle of Kwajalein. During the Battle of Saipanshe took torpedo damage to her bow, necessitating repairs and refits. She then participated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf where she was hit by a kamikaze. She took another kamikaze hit at the Battle of Okinawa, and was under repair at the end of World War II.

After service in Operation Magic Carpet, she was decommissioned in 1947, and sold for scrap in 1959. She received seven battle stars for World War II service.


Construction
Main article: Colorado-class battleship


Hull of Maryland under construction c. 1917

Maryland was one of four dreadnought battleships of the Colorado class to be constructed. Her keel was laid down on 24 April 1917, by Newport Shipbuilding Company of Newport , Virginia. She was launched on 20 March 1920, and sponsored by Mrs. E. Brook Lee, daughter-in-law of U.S. Senator from Maryland Blair Lee; she was commissioned on 21 July 1921, with Captain C.F. Preston in command. She was the third ship named for the state of Maryland, the first Maryland was a sloop commissioned in 1799 and the second Maryland was an armored cruiser commissioned in 1905.

Maryland had an overall length of 624 feet (190 m). She had an extreme beam of 97.5 feet (29.7 m) and a mean draft of 30.5 feet (9.3 m). She displaced 32,000 long tons (33,000 t). Her armor was 18 inches (460 mm) at its maximum thickness. Her designed speed was 21 knots. Her crew complement consisted of 58 officers and 1,022 men.

Maryland's main battery consisted of eight 16-inch (406 mm)/45 caliber Mark 1 guns in four double turrets (two in a superfiring pair forward, two in a superfiring pair mounted aft of the main superstructure) that were capable of firing 2,110 pounds (960 kg) armor-piercing (AP) Mark 3 shells, later upgraded to 2,240 pounds (1,020 kg) Mark 5. Her secondary battery consisted of twelve 5-inch (127 mm)/51 cailber guns as well as four 3-inch (76 mm)/23 caliber guns. She was also armed with a pair of 21-inch (533 mm) submerged torpedo tubes. She was outfitted with a new type of seaplane catapult and the first 16-inch guns mounted on a U.S. ship.




USS Maryland in March 1944

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 March 1922 - USS Jupiter (Fuel Ship #3) is recommissioned as USS Langley (CV 1), the Navy's first aircraft carrier.


USS Langley (CV-1/AV-3) was the United States Navy's first aircraft carrier, converted in 1920 from the collier USS Jupiter (AC-3), and also the US Navy's first turbo-electric-powered ship. Conversion of another collier was planned but canceled when the Washington Naval Treaty required the cancellation of the partially built Lexington-class battlecruisers Lexington and Saratoga, freeing up their hulls for conversion to the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga. Langley was named after Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American aviation pioneer. Following another conversion to a seaplane tender, Langley fought in World War II. On 27 February 1942, she was attacked by nine twin-engine Japanese bombers of the Japanese 21st and 23rd Naval Air Flotillas and so badly damaged that she had to be scuttled by her escorts.


USS Langley underway, 1927

Service history
Collier
President William H. Taft attended the ceremony when Jupiter's keel was laid down on 18 October 1911 at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 August 1912 sponsored by Mrs. Thomas F. Ruhm; and commissioned on 7 April 1913 under Commander Joseph M. Reeves. Her sister ships were Cyclops, which disappeared without a trace in World War I, Proteus, and Nereus, which disappeared on the same route as Cyclops in World War II.


Jupiter 16 October 1913, the collier, before conversion to Langley, the aircraft carrier.

After successfully passing her trials as the first turbo-electric-powered ship of the US Navy, Jupiter embarked a United States Marine Corps detachment at San Francisco, California, and reported to the Pacific Fleet at Mazatlán Mexico on 27 April 1914, bolstering US naval strength on the Mexican Pacific coast in the tense days of the Veracruz crisis. She remained on the Pacific coast until she departed for Philadelphia on 10 October. En route, the collier steamed through the Panama Canal on Columbus Day, the first vessel to transit it from west to east.

Prior to America's entry into World War I, she cruised the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexicoattached to the Atlantic Fleet Auxiliary Division. The ship arrived at Norfolk, Virginia on 6 April 1917, and, assigned to the Naval Overseas Transport Service, interrupted her coaling operations by two cargo voyages to France in June 1917 and November 1918. The first voyage transported a naval aviation detachment of 7 officers and 122 men to England. It was the first US aviation detachment to arrive in Europe and was commanded by Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting, who became Langley's first executive officer five years later. Jupiter was back in Norfolk on 23 January 1919 whence she sailed for Brest, France on 8 March for coaling duty in European waters to expedite the return of victorious veterans to the United States. Upon reaching Norfolk on 17 August, the ship was transferred to the West Coast. Her conversion to an aircraft carrier was authorized on 11 July 1919, and she sailed to Hampton Roads, Virginia on 12 December, where she decommissioned on 24 March 1920.

Aircraft carrier


Langley being converted from a collier to an aircraft carrier at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1921.


Langley at Puget Sound Navy Yard, immediately opposite Saratoga (with black stripe on funnel) and Lexington in 1929

Jupiter was converted into the first US aircraft carrier at the Navy Yard, Norfolk, Virginia, for the purpose of conducting experiments in the new idea of seaborne aviation. On 11 April 1920, she was renamed Langley in honor of Samuel Pierpont Langley, an American astronomer, physicist, aeronautics pioneer and aircraft engineer, and she was given the hull number CV-1. She recommissioned on 20 March 1922 with Commander Kenneth Whitingin command.

As the first American aircraft carrier, Langley was the scene of several seminal events in US naval aviation. On 17 October 1922, Lt. Virgil C. Griffin piloted the first plane—a Vought VE-7—launched from her decks. Though this was not the first time an airplane had taken off from a ship, and though Langley was not the first ship with an installed flight deck, this one launching was of monumental importance to the modern US Navy. The era of the aircraft carrier was born introducing into the navy what was to become the vanguard of its forces in the future. With Langley underway nine days later, Lieutenant Commander Godfrey de Courcelles Chevalier made the first landing in an Aeromarine 39B. On 18 November, Commander Whiting was the first aviator to be catapulted from a carrier's deck.

An unusual feature of Langley was provision for a carrier pigeon house on the stern between the 5” guns. Pigeons had been carried aboard seaplanes for message transport since World War I, and were to be carried on aircraft operated from Langley. The pigeons were trained at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard while Langley was undergoing conversion. As long as the pigeons were released a few at a time for exercise, they returned to the ship; but when the whole flock was released while Langley was anchored off Tangier Island, the pigeons flew south and roosted in the cranes of the Norfolk shipyard. The pigeons never went to sea again and the former pigeon house became the executive officer's quarters; but the early plans for conversion of Lexington and Saratoga included a compartment for pigeons.

By 15 January 1923, Langley had begun flight operations and tests in the Caribbean Sea for carrier landings. In June, she steamed to Washington, D.C., to give a demonstration at a flying exhibition before civil and military dignitaries. She arrived at Norfolk on 13 June, and commenced training along the Atlantic coast and Caribbean which carried her through the end of the year. In 1924, Langley participated in more maneuvers and exhibitions, and spent the summer at Norfolk for repairs and alterations, she departed for the west coast late in the year and arrived in San Diego, California on 29 November to join the Pacific Battle Fleet.

In 1927, Langley was at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. For the next 12 years, she operated off the California coast and Hawaii engaged in training fleet units, experimentation, pilot training, and tactical-fleet problems. Langley was featured in the 1929 silent film about naval aviation The Flying Fleet.

Seaplane tender


Langley after conversion to a seaplane tender, 1937

On 25 October 1936, she put into Mare Island Navy Yard, California for overhaul and conversion to a seaplane tender. Though her career as a carrier had ended, her well-trained pilots had proved invaluable to the next two carriers, Lexington and Saratoga (commissioned on 14 December and 16 November 1927, respectively).

Langley completed conversion on 26 February 1937 and was assigned hull number AV-3 on 11 April. She was assigned to the Aircraft Scouting Force and commenced her tending operations out of Seattle, Washington, Sitka, Alaska, Pearl Harbor, and San Diego, California. She departed for a brief deployment with the Atlantic Fleet from 1 February-10 July 1939, and then steamed to assume duties with the Pacific Fleet at Manila arriving on 24 September.

USS Langley (CV-1) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 20 March


1602 – The Dutch East India Company is established.

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


1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London after 13 years of imprisonment.

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


1705 - Arrogant 60 (fourth rate) (1685, ex-French Arrogant, captured 20 March 1705), foundered 1709

HMS Arrogant (1705) was a 60-gun third rate captured from the French in 1705. She was carrying naval stores between Gibraltar and Port Mahon when she foundered in 1709; there were no survivors


1780 – Launch of French Friponne, (launched 20 March 1780 at Lorient) – condemned 1796.

Capricieuse class, (32-gun design by Charles Segondat-Duvernet, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).

Capricieuse, (i) (launched 23 December 1779 at Lorient) – captured 1780 by British Navy.
Friponne, (launched 20 March 1780 at Lorient) – condemned 1796.
Capricieuse, (ii) (launched 20 November 1786 at Lorient ( – wrecked January 1800.
Prudente, (launched 21 September 1790 at Lorient) – sold for service as a privateer 1798.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Prudente_(1790)

French frigate Capricieuse (1786) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1780 - HMS Lion (64), Cptn. William Cornwallis, HMS Bristol (50) and HMS Janus (44) chased by M. de la Motte Piquet, who had four 74 gun ships and two frigates, off Monte Christi, St. Domingo.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lion_(1777)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Bristol_(1775)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Janus_(1778)

Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1794 - La Bienvenue, a 20-gun French warship launched at Le Havre in 1788, captured by British

La Bienvenue was a 20-gun French warship launched at Le Havre in 1788 that made several changes in ownership and name during military conflict with the British. She briefly became La Royalist in October 1792 before reverting to her original name in January the following year. She was serving as a prison ship at Martinique when she was captured by the British in 1794.

French ship La Bienvenue (1788) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1796 - HMS Anson (64), HMS Galatea (32), Cptn. Richard Keats, and consorts under Sir John Borlase Warren engaged with French convoy captured L'Etoile (30), one of five French frigates in escort of a provision fleet of 70 sail.

Galatea, Artois, Anson and Pomone, which was under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren, who commanded the squadron, attacked a French convoy of some 60 vessels, including its escort of four frigates, a corvette, the armed store ship Étoile and a gun-brig, on 20 March 1796. The British captured Étoile, which was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Mathurin-Théodore Berthelin. She was armed with thirty 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 160 men. The British also captured a ship and four brigs belonging to the convoy. In the engagement Galatea lost two men killed and six wounded and her losses represented the only British casualties.[15] In his letter, Sir John exaggerated the French strength; actually the British outgunned them

John Borlase Warren - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Anson_(1781)

HMS Galatea (1794) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1799 - Siege of Acre begins. Napoleon besieges Ottoman forces supported by British squadron under Sidney Smith, HMS Tigre (74)
The Siege of Acre of 1799 was an unsuccessful French siege of the Ottoman-defended, walled city of Acre (now Akko in modern Israel) and was the turning point of Napoleon's invasion of Egypt and Syria. It was Napoleon`s first strategic defeat as three years previously he had been tactically defeated at the Second Battle of Bassano.

Siege of Acre (1799) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1801 St Bartholomew capitulated to British under Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth.

Duckworth was nominated a Knight Companion of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath in 1801 (and installed in 1803),[3] for the capture of the islands of St. Bartholomew, St. Martin, St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix and defeat of the Swedish and Danish forces stationed there on 20 March 1801.[4] Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge commanded the ground troops, which consisted of two brigades under Brigadier-Generals Fuller and Frederick Maitland, of 1,500 and 1,800 troops respectively. These included the 64th Regiment of Foot (Lieutenant-Colonel Edward Pakenham), and the 2nd and 8th West Indies Regiments, two detachments of Royal Artillery, and two companies of sailors, each of about 100 men. The ships involved, in addition to Leviathan, included HMS Andromeda, HMS Unite, HMS Coromandel, HMS Proselyte, HMS Amphitrite, HMS Hornet, the brig HMS Drake, hired armed brig Fanny, schooner HMS Eclair, and tender Alexandria. Aside from the territory and prisoners taken during the operation, Duckworth's force took two Swedish merchantmen, a Danish ship (in ballast), three small French vessels, one privateer brig (12-guns), one captured English ship, a merchant-brig, four small schooners, and a sloop.

Sir John Duckworth, 1st Baronet - Wikipedia

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1809 Boats of HMS Arethusa (38), Cptn. Robert Mends, destroyed batteries at Baigno and Paissance.

HMS Arethusa was a 38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built at Bristol in 1781. She served in three wars and made a number of notable captures before she was broken up in 1815.


Anson (left) and Arethusa (centre) capture Pomona

HMS Arethusa (1781) - Wikipedia

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1822 - The Heroína (Spanish for "heroine") was a privately owned frigate that was operated as a privateer under a license issued by the United Provinces of the River Plate (later Argentina).captured

The Heroína (Spanish for "heroine") was a privately owned frigate that was operated as a privateer under a license issued by the United Provinces of the River Plate (later Argentina). It was under the command of American-born Colonel David Jewett and has become linked with the Argentine claim to sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.

Heroína (ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1833 - Honorable Edmund Roberts, transported by USS Peacock and accompanied by USS Boxer, signs the Treaty of Amity, with the King of Siam (now Thailand), which is the first treaty between the United States and an Asian power.


1941 - HMS Malaya torpedoed by U-106

Second World War
Malaya served in the Mediterranean in 1940, escorting convoys and operating against the Italian fleet. She shelled Genoa in February 1941 as part of Operation Grog but due to a crew error, fired a 15-inch armour-piercing shell into the south-east corner of the Cathedral nave. The fuse failed to detonate.[11]


Armour-piercing shell – with cap (left) fired on 9 February 1941 into the naveof Genoa cathedral

On 7 March 1941, while escorting convoy SL 67, Malaya encountered the German capital ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. By her presence she forced them to withdraw rather than risk damage in an attack.

Later that month Malaya was escorting convoy SL 68. On the evening of 20 March 1941, about 250 miles west-northwest of the Cape Verde Islands, Malaya was hit by a torpedo from U-106. Damaged on the port side, and with a 7 degree list due to flooding, Malaya was forced to leave the convoy and make for port, escorted by the corvette Crocus. She reached Trinidad safely on 29 March. After temporary repairs were made, she continued to the New York Navy Yard, where she was docked for four months.

On 9 July, under the command of Captain Cuthbert Coppinger, the battleship left New York on trials and steamed to Halifax, Nova Scotia to provide protection for an urgent fast convoy. No ships were lost, and Malaya arrived in Rosyth on 28 July. Thereafter she escorted convoys from the United Kingdom to Malta and Cape Town until summer 1943.

Malaya was placed in reserve at the end of 1943. During this time her entire secondary 6-inch armament was offloaded and her anti-aircraft armament was enhanced. Between 15 and 17 May 1944, Malaya was used in Loch Striven as a target ship for inert bouncing bomb prototypes, one of which punched a hole in the ship's side. She was reactivated just before the Normandy landings to act as a reserve bombardment battleship.

Fate
Malaya was finally withdrawn from all service at the end of 1944 and became an accommodation ship for a torpedo school. Sold on 20 February 1948 to Metal Industries, she arrived at Faslane on 12 April 1948 for scrapping. The ship's bell can be seen in the East India Club, London.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Malaya

German submarine U-106 (1940) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1980 – The sinking of Mi Amigo (Spanish: My Friend) was originally a three masted cargo schooner, that later gained international recognition as an offshore radio station.

Mi Amigo (Spanish: My Friend) was originally a three masted cargo schooner, that later gained international recognition as an offshore radio station.

She was built as the schooner Margarethe for German owners. A sale in 1927 saw her renamed Olga and she was lengthened in 1936. During the Second World War, she was requisitioned by the Kriegsmarine and served as an auxiliary ship between 1941 and 1943. In 1953, the ship was again lengthened to 133 feet 9 inches (40.77 m). In 1959, she was sold for conversion to a floating radio station and was renamed Bon Jour. Subsequently, she was renamed Magda Maria in 1961 and Mi Amigo in 1962. She served, intermittently, as a radio ship, until 1980, when she sank in a gale.

MV Mi Amigo - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1776 – Launch of HMS Galatea, a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post-ship of the Royal Navy.


HMS Galatea was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post-ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence.



History
In 1776, the ship was sent to North America under the command of Captain Thomas Jordan with a crew of 200. She took part in the capture of 30 American ships. An American naval squadron led by Samuel Elbert attacked the ship near St. Simons Island in what became known as the Frederica naval action. Although the Americans captured her other three escort ships, Galatea's crew ran her aground and managed to escape without being captured.

The American privateer Gustavus Conyngham was captured and held aboard the Galatea. By his own report he was kept in irons until he reached prison, and was given no more than a “cold plank as my bed, a stone for a pillow”. Additionally, he was not fed properly, causing him to lose fifty pounds while imprisoned on the ship en route to his English prison.

Fate
She was broken up in April 1783.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed for Galatea (1776), Daphne (1776) and Camilla (1776), all 20-gun Ship Sloops. The mast and yard dimensions are the same as for Sphinx (1775) [see ZAZ3917]. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].


The Sphinx-class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten post ships built to a 1773 design by John Williams. Although smaller than true frigates, post ships were often referred to incorrectly as frigates by sea officers, but not by the Admiralty or Navy Board.

The first vessel in the class was launched in 1775, six more in 1776, two in 1777 and the last in 1781. The vessels of the class served in the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War. Three of them - Sphinx and Ariel in September 1779, and Unicorn in September 1780 - were captured by the French Navy, but Sphinx was recovered in December 1779 and Unicorn in April 1781. Some survived to see service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.






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

Sphinx-class post ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1800 - HMS Peterel (16), Francis William Austen, drove 2 armed vessels ashore and captured Ligurienne (16) in the Bay of Marseilles


HMS Peterel (or Peterell) was a 16-gun Pylades-class ship-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and was in active service until 1811. Her most famous action was the capture of the French brig Ligurienne when shortly after Peterel captured two merchant ships and sent them off with prize crews, three French ships attacked her. She drove two on shore and captured the largest, the 14-gun Ligurienne. The Navy converted Peterel to a receiving ship at Plymouth in 1811 and sold her in 1827.


Battle between Ligurienne and HMS Peterel, 30 Ventôse an VIII (21 March 1800). Aquatint by Antoine Roux.

Design and construction
Peterel was part of the six-ship Pylades-class of ship-sloops designed by Sir John Henslow. The ship was built by John Wilson & Company of Frindsbury, and measured 365 57⁄94 tons bm with a total length of 105ft 1in. She was initially armed with 16 6-pound guns and 4 ½-pounder swivel guns and carried a complement of 121 men. She was later re-armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades on the upper deck, with six 12-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck and two 12-pounder carronades on the forecastle. The ship was ordered on 18 February 1793, laid down in May 1793 and launched on 4 April 1794. She moved to Chatham to be fitted-out and have her hull covered with copper plates between 4 April and July 1794; at her completion she had cost £7,694 to build including fitting.



Service
Peterel was commissioned in April 1794 under Commander Stephen Church. In October Commander Edward Leveson-Gower replaced Church, only to be replaced in turn in July 1795 by Commander Charles Ogle. Peterel was at this stage assigned to the squadron in the Downs. Commander John Temple succeeded Ogle in January 1796. By 31 May Peterel had joined Horatio Nelson's squadron patrolling off Genoa. On that day Peterel was part of a small squadron under Nelson in Agamemnon that captured six French vessels that were carrying military supplies from Toulon to St. Piere d'Acena for the siege of Mantua. In July she was under the command of Captain Stuart. Stuart and Peterel directed the landing of troops for the capture of Porto Ferrajo on 10 July.

Commander Philip Wodehouse had taken command of Peterel by December 1796 when Peterel landed a small party under Lieutenant Thomas Staines on the coast of Corsica. The landing party attacked a Martello tower, which they captured, and threw its gun, a long 32-pounder, over the cliff.

Peterel's next captain, Commander William Proby, took over in March 1797. In June 1797 Proby authorised Staines to take 20 men in two of the ship's boats to cut out a French privateer that had been preying on merchant vessels off the coast of Tuscany. After a skirmish in which the British had five men wounded and the French lost several dead and wounded, the British took the privateer, which had a crew of 45 men and was armed with two long guns and several swivels.

By August Commander Thomas Caulfield had replaced Proby. Under Caulfield's command Peterel was involved in the capture of the French privateer Léopard on 30 April 1798. Leopard was armed with twelve 6-pounder guns and 14 swivel guns. She had a crew of 100 men and had been on the prowl for 20 days, but without having captured anything.

At some later stage she was commanded by Lieutenant Adam Drummond, who was followed by Commander Henry Digby. In September 1798, Digby sailed from Gibraltar to Faro, Portugal, to deliver despatches from Earl St. Vincent for the Lisbon packet. Staines took the six men in Peterel's jolly boat to deliver the despatches to the packet when the jolly boat overturned in heavy seas. Four men drowned and Staines and the other man were only rescued after four hours.

Digby's replacement in October that year was to be Commander Hugh Downman, but in November Captain George Long was in command, serving with John Duckworth's squadron at Menorca.

HMS Pylades

Lines (ZAZ4802)

Capture and recapture
Peterel participated in the Capture of Menorca (1798) by the British expedition under Commodore John Duckworth. On 12 November 1798 the Spanish 40-gun frigate Flora, in company with the 40-gun Proserpina and the 34-gun ships Pomona and Casilda, captured Peterel whilst she was operating off Menorca. One of the Spanish ships fired a broadside after she surrendered. After removing the prisoners from the ship, the Spanish plundered their clothes and possessions, murdering a seaman who attempted to defend his property. Duckworth detached Argo to pursue the sloop and on 13 November she retook Peterel and her 72-man Spanish prize crew, which was under the command of Don Antonio Franco Gandrada, Second Captain of Flora. Captain James Bowen of Argo put his own prize crew of 46 officers seamen and marines aboard Peterel. Duckworth later appointed his first lieutenant, George Jones, to command Peterel. Most of the clothes belonging to Captain Long and his officers were subsequently recovered. This charge of ill-usage was officially contradicted in the Madrid Gazette of 12 April, but was, nevertheless, essentially true.

The Spanish squadron, already being chased the next day by several British ships, completely outsailed their pursuers and returned to Cartagena with the prisoners. After a detention of 14 days at Cartagena, Lieutenant Staines and his fellow prisoners were embarked in a merchant brig bound to Málaga; but they did not arrive there until 24 December, a westerly wind having obliged the vessel to anchor off Almeria, where she was detained upwards of three weeks, and her passengers confined on shore during that period. From Málaga, the British were marched to Gibraltar, under a strong escort of soldiers, who treated both officers and men with great brutality, but particularly Lieutenant Staines, who had received a sabre wound in the wrist whilst parrying a blow which one of those soldiers had aimed at his head. On their arrival at the rock, a court-martial was assembled to investigate the circumstances attending their capture by the Spanish squadron; and as no blame could be attached to any individual, the whole of them were sent back to the Peterel immediately after their acquittal.

Resumed service
On 3 February 1799 Francis Austen, the brother of author Jane Austen and future admiral of the fleet, took command of Peterel. Peterel and Austen shared in the proceeds of the capture on 18 June 1799 of the French frigates Courageuse, Alceste, and Junon, and the brigs Alerte and Salamine. Under Austen, Peterel captured or cut out from ports an armed galley, a transport brig carrying cannons and ammunition, and some twenty merchant vessels. In May 1799 Peterelcarried the news to Lord Nelson at Palermo, Sicily, that a large enemy fleet had passed through the straits of Gibraltar.

On the evening of 1 August 1799, at 9 P.M., Minerve's boats came alongside Peterel. Austen sent these boats and his own to cut out some vessels from the Bay of Diano, near Genoa. Firing was heard at around midnight and by morning the boats returned, bringing with them a large settee carrying wine, and the Virginie. Virginie was a Turkish-built half-galley that the French had captured at Malta the year before. She had provision for 26 oars and carried six guns. She was under the command of a lieutenant de vaisseau and had a crew of 36 men, 20 of whom had jumped overboard when the British approached, and 16 of whom the British captured. She had brought General Joubert from Toulon and was going on the next day to Genoa where Joubert was to replace General Moreau in command of the French army in Italy. Minerve and Peterel shared the proceeds of the capture of Virginie with Santa Teresa and Vincejo.


Ligurienne under way.

In March 1800, Peterel was sailing near Marseille with the frigate HMS Mermaid. On 21 March, Peterel spotted a large convoy with three escorts: the brig-sloop French brig Ligurienne, armed with fourteen brass 6-pounder guns and two brass 36-pounder howitzers, the corvette Cerf, of fourteen 6-pounder guns, and the xebec Lejoille, of six 6-pounder guns. Peterel captured a bark of 350 tons and a bombarde (ketch) of 150 tons, both carrying wheat and which their crews had abandoned, and sent them off with prize crews; later that afternoon the escorts caught up to Peterel and attacked. Mermaid was in sight but a great distance to leeward and so unable to assist. Single-handedly, Peterel drove Cerf and Lejoille on shore, and after a 90-minute battle captured Ligurienne, which lost the French commander (lieutenant de vaisseaux Citoyen Francis Auguste Pelabon), and one sailor killed and two sailors wounded out of her crew of 104 men; there were no British casualties. Cerf was a total loss but the French were able to salvage Lejoille. The whole action took place under the guns of two shore batteries and so close to shore that Peterel grounded for a few minutes. Austen recommended, without success, that the Navy purchase Ligurienne, which was less than two years old. In 1847 the Admiralty authorised the issue of the Naval General Service medal with clasp "Peterel 21 March 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 14 April 1800 Peterel and Phaeton captured St. Rosalia.

Peterel went on to take part in operations against the French forces in Egypt. On 13 August 1800, Peterel was sailing towards Alexandria when she spied a Turkish 80-gun ship of the line totally dismasted and aground near Aboukir Bay, with three Turkish frigates standing offshore, out of range of any French guns on shore. Some of the Turkish crew of the ship of the line had reached the frigates, but the captain and most of the crew had surrendered to the French. Austen sent in a pinnace and ten men who set fire to the Turkish ship to forestall any further French attempts to plunder it, especially of its guns and ammunition. Commander Charles Inglis officially replaced Austen in June 1800, but apparently did not actually take command until some months later.

On 8 March 1801, Peterel, Cameleon, and another sloop supported the British landing at Abu Qir Bay by stationing themselves close in with their broadsides towards the shore. Because Peterel served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 for all surviving claimants.

In July–August 1802, Peterel was part of a small anti-smuggling squadron under the command of Captain King, of Sirius. who further had command of a small squadron on anti-smuggling duties. The other vessels in the squadron were Carysfort, Imogen, and Rosario.

Napoleonic Wars
From 29 April 1802 until 1809 Peterel was under Commander John Lamborn. In May 1804, she sailed for Jamaica and Barbados, convoying the West Indies trade, and thereafter remained in the West Indies for some years. She destroyed a small privateer on the Jamaica station on 23 January 1805. The privateer was a felucca, armed with one 4-pounder gun and a swivel gun. She had a crew of 27 men, all except one of whom escaped after they ran her on shore and before Peterel's boats arrived to burn her. The privateer had captured an American brig which she had sent into Havana where the brig was sold.

On 8 February, Pique captured the Spanish warship Urquixo, of 18 guns and 82 men. Peterel shared in the proceeds.

On 13 May Peterell captured the Spanish privateer schooner Santa Anna off Cuba. Santa Anna was armed with one long 18-pounder gun and four 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 106 men. She had sailed from Santiago de Cuba only the day before and had not yet captured anything. At some point in 1805 or 1806, Peterel captured the ship Hoffnung, in sight of the armed schooner Arab, Lieutenant Carpenter, commander.

In early October 1806, Peterel was part of a convoy from Jamaica. Near North Edisto she encountered the French privateer Superbe, of 14 guns and 150 men. The privateer mistook Peterel for a guineaman and attempted to board. Peterelrepulsed the attempt and then gave chase as Captain Dominique Houx (or Diron) of Superbe realized his mistake and made his escape. In the skirmish, Lieutenant Maitland of Peterel was killed, and four seamen were wounded. Peterelcaptured one of the French boarders who reported that a broadside from Peterel had killed some 30 to 40 men on Superbe as she came up to board. On 27 October, Pitt, under the command of Lieutenant William Fitton, caught up with Superbe in Ocoa Bay after a 50-hour chase. Pitt captured Superbe, with Drake in sight, after Houx ran her aground. Houx and most of his crew escaped, though a number had been killed in the running battle with Pitt.

Fate
Peterel was fitted as a receiving ship at Plymouth in August 1811 and served in that capacity until 1825. Peterel was put up sale at Plymouth on 11 July 1827, and sold that same day to Joshua Crystall at Plymouth for £730.

HMS Peterel (1794) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1804 – French privateer Blonde captures and sinks HMS Wolverine.


HMS Wolverine (or Wolverene, or Woolverene), was a Royal Navy 14-gun brig-sloop, formerly the civilian collier Rattler that the Admiralty purchased in 1798 and converted into a brig sloop, but armed experimentally. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and participated in one action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. A French privateer captured and sank Wolverine on 21 March 1804 whilst she was on convoy duty.



Armament
Unusually for a brig-sloop, she was virtually a two-deck vessel as the waist between forecastle and quarterdeck was filled in to form a continuous flush deck. The upper deck below this flush deck carried six 24-pounder carronades and two 18-pounder long guns, all mounted on centreline pivots. The gun crews could fire their weapons to either side of the vessel by rotating the carriages along grooves set into the deck firing through the eight gunports on either side to accommodate these guns.

On the flush deck above she additionally carried six 12-pounder carronades (two forwards and four on the quarterdeck). The crews could also shift the carronades on her upper deck from side to side as required.

Captain John Schank, who was responsible for several other nautical innovations, devised this method of arming Wolverine.



French Revolutionary Wars
Lieutenant Donald M'Dougall commissioned Wolverine on 28 April 1798. On 16 April 1798 command passed to the newly promoted Commander Lewis Mortlock. The next month Wolverinewas part of the force under Admiral Home Popham that took part in the Ostend Raid that landed 1,300 troops under Major General Coote at Ostend in May. Shore batteries caused extensive damage to her and killed one seaman and one soldier, and wounded 10 seamen and five soldiers; the soldiers on Wolverene were from the 23rd Regiment of Foot. The army blew up the locks and gates on the Bruges canal but was then forced to surrender.


"Captain Lewis Mortlock of His Majesty's sloop of war Wolverene of 12 guns & 70 men, who gallantly distinguished himself in attacking & defeating two French luggers of Superior Force, one of 16 guns the other 14 guns & 140 men each, off Boulogne on the 3d Janry 1799 and died in consequence of his wounds. This print is with permission dedicated to John Schank Esq, Captain in the Royal Navy, by his much obliged & obedient servant C Turner", National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

On 28 June Wolverine was in company with the 50-gun fourth rate Romney, Plover, and Pilote, also later Daphne, and possibly the 24-gun post ship Champion, when they fell in with a Swedish convoy of 21 merchant vessels and their escort, 44-gun frigate. Sweden and Britain not then being at war, Captain Lawford of Romney shadowed the convoy while sending a lieutenant back to the Admiralty for instructions. On 30 June the lieutenant returned, but his instructions are now lost. Lawford decided to detain the Swedish merchant vessels, which he did, without the Swedish frigate intervening. Ultimately, the Swedish vessels sailed into Margate where they were held for some months before the authorities sent most on their way. Prize money for some part of the capture was paid in June 1804.

At the end of July Wolverine captured nine Dutch fishing boats off Ostend and brought them into the Downs.

On 14 October, Wolverine was in sight when the hired armed cutter Sandwich captured the Dutch hoy Hoop and her cargo.

1799
Wolverine was again in action on 3 January 1799 when she engaged the French luggers Furet and Rusé. The Furet carried fourteen 4-pounders and about 80 men, and was under the command of Citizen Denis Fourment; Rusé carried eight 4-pounders and about 70 men, and was under the command of Citizen Pierre Audibert. The men from both French vessels attempted to board Wolverine but the British repelled them. The French then threw incendiary devices though Wolverine's stern cabin windows and escaped while the British were extinguishing the fire. In all, Wolverine had two men killed, and eight, including Mortlock, wounded. Furet had five men killed, her captain and five men mortally and 10 men badly wounded. Rusé had her first and second lieutenants, another officer, and two seamen killed, and five mortally and several badly wounded.

Wolverine, under Lieutenant M'Dougall, sailed to Portsmouth, where she landed Mortlock on 6 January after contrary winds had forced her to spend 24 hours off the Isle of Wight. Mortlock died in his mother's arms at Gosport on 10 January, and was interred two days later after a funeral procession attended by every Captain in the port. His large Newfoundland dog, which had stood beside him throughout the fight, escaped without a scratch.

Command of Wolverine was given to Captain John MacKellar, but on 24 January 1800 he was appointed to Charon. In late 1799 Lieutenant William Bolton became her new commander.

Between April and July Wolverine sailed in company with the 28-gun sloop Arrow and the Hired armed cutter Kent. Together, these three vessels captured a number of prizes. On 23 April they captured Blenie Rosetta. On 29 May they took Active and Providence. One month later, on 28 June, they captured five fishing boats. Then on 13 July they captured the Altona. Three days later they captured the Antony Wilhelm. Lastly, on 29 July, they captured the Nancy.

Next, Wolverine was among the many British vessels that shared in the surrender of the Dutch Fleet at the Vlieter Incident.

On 9 September Vice-Admiral Mitchell detached Arrow and Wolverine to attack a ship and a brig belonging to the Batavian Republic and anchored under the Vlie at the entrance to the Texel. Arrow had to lighten ship and the following day they crossed over the Flack abreast of Wieringen and saw the enemy in the passage leading from Vlie Island towards Harlingen. On 12 September Wolverine anchored within 60 yards of the brig and only had to fire one gun before the brig hauled down her colours. She proved to be the Gier, armed with fourteen 12-pounders. Arrow exchanged broadsides with the ship, Draak, of 24 guns (six 50-pound brass howitzers, two 32-pounder guns, and sixteen long 18-pounder guns), which surrendered when Wolverine came up. Draak turned out to be a sheer hulk so Captain Bolton burnt her. The British also captured two schooners, each of four 8-pounder guns, and four schuyts, each of two 8-pounder guns. The Dutch prisoners numbered 380 men. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Arrow 13 Sept 1799" and "Wolverine 13 Sept. 1799" to any survivors of the two crews that claimed them.

Arrow and Wolverine weighed on 15 September and Wolverine went to take possession of a Batavian ship, the 24-gun Dolphin (Dolfijn), near Vlie which hoisted Orange colours as soon as the English came up. Two hundred and thirty prisoners were put aboard her and the command given to Lieutenant M'Dougall of Wolverine. Command of Gier, a brand new vessel, went to Lieutenant Gilmour of Arrow.

On Friday the 26 September Wolverine and the gun-brigs Haughty and Piercer anchored near Espiegle, some 6 miles off Lemmer in West Friesland to organise an attack on the town the following morning. Captain Boorder of Espiegle had discovered that the enemy had 1,000 regular troops to defend the place and to augment the flotilla he had taken two schuyts that he had armed with two 6-pounders each from Espiegle. Early on Saturday morning Bolton sent Boorder ashore with the following letter: "Resistance on your part is in vain. I give you one hour to send away your women and children; if the town is not surrendered to the British arms for the Prince of Orange, your soldiers shall be buried in its ruins."

Commandant Van Groutten requested 24 hours delay but Bolton replied that if the Orange colours were not hoisted in half an hour, he was opening fire. Although his Dutch pilot insisted that the water was too shallow, Bolton pushed Wolverinethrough the oozy mud for two miles until he was a musket shot from the shore. Haughty and Piercer passed ahead until they grounded within a pistol shot of the pier, which had been reinforced with some 18-pounders from Dutch gunboats. Notwithstanding the flag of truce the enemy opened a heavy fire that the British squadron returned. The action continued for an hour until the soldiers fled from the town and a crew from Piercer's boat planted the British standard on the pier. Later the wind came round to the southward and freshened to a gale. Wolverine's bow was hove around with difficulty and by using a heavy press of sail she was dragged through the mud into 11 feet of water. Flatboats pulled the gunbrigs clear. On the Monday morning the enemy advanced towards the town along the northern causeway and Bolton sent word to warn Boorder. Because the town was nearly surrounded by water, a few men in flat boats were able to defend the place and the enemy were soon in retreat.

1800
In 1800 Lieutenant Jeffery Riegersfield took command, succeeded on 16 July by Lieutenant John Wight. On 10 August he sent into Portsmouth a prize, the Catherine of Bordeaux, laden with wine.

On the morning of 19 August he found that a part of an enemy convoy, consisting of two French gun-brigs and a cutter were attempting to escape from the mouth of the river Isigny and run along shore to the eastward. Supported by Sparkler and the gun-vessel Force, he went in pursuit. The enemy ran themselves ashore in Grand Camp, the entrance being commanded by batteries on either side, which Wolverine bombarded for nearly an hour. Lieutenant Stephens of Sparkler and Lieutenant Tokeley of Force covered Lieutenant Gregory of Wolverine who went in with the cutter and the jolly boat and a party of Royal Marines to board the largest vessel and set her on fire. They were under fire from three field pieces and about 200 men with muskets. The other vessel was completely shot through. The only casualties were three men on Wolverine who were burnt by an explosion of gunpowder. The enemy lost at least four men killed on the beach.

When Wolverine entered Portsmouth on 17 September she brought with her Neptunus, laden with naval stores, that Wight had captured when she was going into Havre de Grace. Wolverine shared the prize money with Oiseau and the cutter Fly.

On 2 November Wight discovered a French cutter under the land about 4 miles E. S. E. of Cape Barfleur light-house. He prevented her getting round the Cape and ran her ashore inside a reef of rocks under the village of Gouberville. She struck hard and because a gale was blowing up he assumed that she would be destroyed. Riegersfield again took temporary command.

1801
Wolverine, Loire, St Fiorenzo, Aggressor, Seahorse, Censor and the hired armed cutter Swift shared in the capture on 11 and 12 August 1801 of the Prussian brigs Vennerne and Elizabeth. Wolverine paid off and was put into ordinary on 29 April 1802, when Lieutenant Wight was promoted to Commander.

Loss
Wolverine was recommissioned in November 1803 under Lieutenant Henry Gordon. She then served as a convoy escort in the North Atlantic.

Wolverine was in action on 21 March 1804 with the French 30-gun privateer Blonde while on passage to Newfoundland with a convoy of eight merchantmen. Wolverine sighted two strange vessels. When it became clear that they were French frigates, Wolverine sent the convoy on its way and sailed to intercept the frigates. The larger of the two French frigates sailed to engage Wolverine, while the smaller one sailed after the merchantmen.

Wolverine was finally forced to surrender after an hour-long fight and losing 5 men killed and 10 wounded, one mortally. She was so badly damaged that she sank within a quarter-hour of her surrender, though the French rescued the surviving crew. Blonde, under François Aregnaudeau, out of a complement of 240 men and boys, lost only her first lieutenant mortally, and five of her men slightly wounded. The court martial on 17 August 1804 attributed Wolverine's loss on the defective state of her gun carriages - a mass of complicated timber and machinery - that the enemy's first two broadsides had rendered useless.

Post script
HMS Loire captured Blonde five months later on 17 August. Also in August a letter arrived in Portsmouth from one of Wolverine's officers that reported that Wolverine's crew had been marched nearly 900 miles to Verdun from where they were landed. Captain Gordon and his officers were well, and had not been ill-treated.

Blonde's captain was François Aregnaudeau. He was captain of the privateer Duc de Dantzig, when she disappeared in 1812.




Scale: 1:36. A Georgian full hull model of the ‘Wolverine’ (1798), a 12-gun sixth-rate sloop. The model is decked. This vessel was used to demonstrate a system devised by Captain John Schank by which the carriages of her lower deck guns ran in grooves in the deck. The model shows the hull with some external detail, and part of the deck planking aft is left off to show how the guns are fitted. Built as the merchant ship ‘Rattler’ of London, the ‘Wolverine’ was purchased by Captain John Schanck and converted to a small warship. Schanck fitted powerful carronades along the centre line, fitted in grooves so that they could be swung from one side to the other and thus double her armament for a given weight. This proved unsuccessful in practice, as the weight on one side caused it to heel so much that the gunports could not be opened except in calm weather. The ‘Wolverine’ had some success despite its faults, until a French privateer captured then sank it in 1804.




Blonde was a French 32-gun privateer corvette, built in Bordeaux around 1801 and commissioned in 1803 under François Aregnaudeau. She preyed on British and American commerce, notably destroying the Royal Navy corvette HMS Wolverine, before the frigate HMS Loire captured her on 17 August 1804.



Privateer
Blonde started her career in June 1803 under François Aregnaudeau, a promising privateer captain noted for capturing several valuable ships off Dartmouth on Heureux Spéculateur.

Blonde had a successful cruise, notably capturing the former Royal Navy brig Flirt, by then commissioned as a whaling ship and returning to London from the South Seas Fisheries.

On 7 July Blonde encountered the British privateer Young Nicholas, of 18 carriage guns and 50 men. The ensuing engagement lasted an hour and a half before Young Nicholas struck after she had suffered four men killed. Aregnaudeau gave her up to her captain and crew in recognition of their "courageous Conduct", and she arrived at Penzance on the 29th.

On 22 July, at 50°21′N 17°0′W, Blonde encountered the under-manned East Indiaman Culland's Grove, which struck. Culland's Grove was on her return leg from India and carried a valuable cargo amounting to 2.5 million francs in insurance money.

On 24 February 1804, Blonde departed from Santander, Spain, and in the following days captured the ships Diana, Eclipse, Sally and Rebecca, Rollindson, and Zephir. On 24 March she encountered an eight-ship convoy escorted by the corvette HMS Wolverine. Aregnaudeau attacked Wolverine and forced her to surrender. Wolverine sank almost immediately after striking. While Blonde's crew was busy rescuing the survivors, the convoy attempted to escape. Still, Blonde managed to capture two ships, Nelson and Union. Blonde then returned to Pasaia, having captured a total of eight ships and 228 prisoners.

Denis Decrès ordered that the most deserving crew members of Blonde be honoured; Aregnaudeau received a sword of honour from the merchants of Bordeaux, and on 18 July 1804 he was made a Knight in the Legion of Honour.

Fate
On 16 August 1804, at coordinates 47°30′N 12°20′W, Blonde encountered the frigate HMS Loire. After a chase of 20 hours, including a running fight of a quarter of an hour, during which the British had one midshipman and five men wounded, and the French lost two men killed and five wounded, Blonde struck. Loire took her prize in tow to Plymouth where the prisoners were disembarked on 31 August.

Blonde was not commissioned in the Royal Navy

Blonde (1803 ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

HMS Wolverine (1798) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1804 - The brig USS Syren (Siren), commanded by Lt. Charles Stewart, captures the Tripolitan brig Transfer off the coast of Tripoli, renaming it Scourge after being taken into US Navy service.


Quatre frères was a French privateer commissioned in 1796. The Royal Navy captured her in April 1797 and took her into service as HMS Transfer. The Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802 to Ottoman Tripolitania. The U.S. Navy captured her in 1804 and took her into service as USS Scourge. She was sold in 1813.



Quatre frères
Quatre frères was commissioned in 1796 in Bordeaux under Martial Dupeyrat. Under his command she captured two prizes: Résolution and Frascara, that she sent into Rochfort. Résolution, of Lisbon and of 500 tons (French, "of load"), Dos Santos (or Roze de Sautort), master, was a Portuguese vessel carrying wheat and almonds from the Barbary Coast. Frascara was a Danish vessel carrying oranges and lemons.

The 74-gun HMS Irresistible captured Quatre frères in March 1797 in the Mediterranean.



HMS Transfer
The Royal Navy registered Transfer on 30 June 1797, and commissioned her in October under Commander George Bowen. Transfer, brig of 14 guns, is listed as being in Earl St Vincent's fleet in 1798. Commander George Mundy (or Munday), was promoted to command of Transfer on 24 December 1798. She was listed in Lord Viscount Keith's fleet in 1799.

On 11 February 1799, Transfer, under the command of Lieutenant George Miller (acting), captured the French privateer Escamoteur off Ayamonte. Escamoteur was armed with three 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 34 men.

On 4 April Transfer was under Mundy's command when she and the 74-gun Majestic destroyed a French privateer of 14 guns and of unknown name. The two British ships were patrolling between Malaga and Cape de Gatt when they encountered the privateer, which they chased into a small bay where their quarry took refuge under the three guns of a circular fortress. Head money was paid in 1828, almost 30 years later.

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

In October 1800 Commander Edward O'Brien took command of Transfer. She shared with Lutine, Strombolo and Bonne Citoyenne in the proceeds of unclaimed property found on the ship Fowler on 31 October 1800. In 1801 O'Brien received promotion to post captain and command of Kent.

Next, under the command of Lieutenant John Nicholas, she served in Admiral Viscount Keith's Egyptian campaign of 1801. Prize money was paid in April 1823. In 1850 the Admiralty awarded the Medal for Egypt to the crews of any vessel that had served in the campaign between 8 March and 2 September 1801. Transfer is listed among the vessels whose crews qualified.

Commander Richard Cribb took command in April 1802, but the Navy paid-off Transfer in June 1802. It then sold her at Malta that same year for £700.

Tripolitanian Navy
Gaetano Andrea Schembri, consul for Ottoman Tripolitania, purchased Transfer at Malta. Tripoli then used her in blockade running during the Barbary Wars. Syren, commanded by Lieutenant Charles Stewart, captured her off Tripoli on 21 March 1804. The Americans captured her for violating the conditions for the pass under which she had permission to pass through the blockade of the port of Tripoli.

USS Scourge
Commodore Edward Preble renamed the ship Scourge. On 17 April 1804, she joined Preble's squadron and participated in the blockade of Tripoli and also in the attacks on Tripoli. She was commanded by Lieutenants John H. Dent, John Rowe, Henry Wadsworth (acting lieutenant), and Ralph Izard in succession. On 30 November 1804, Izard sailed Scourge for the United States. She carried as a passenger Midshipman Frederick C. de Kraft, under arrest for having killed Midshipman William R. Nicholson in a duel on 19 November at Syracuse.

Once in the U.S., Scourge saw coastal service.

Fate
In 1812, the United States Navy declared Scourge unfit for further service and sold her at auction in Norfolk, Virginia.


USS Syren (later Siren) was a brig of the United States Navy built at Philadelphia in 1803. She served during the First Barbary War and the War of 1812 until the Royal Navy captured her in 1814. The British never commissioned her but apparently used her for a year or so as a lazaretto. She then disappears from records.



Service history
Syren was built for the Navy in 1803 at Philadelphia by shipwright Nathaniel Hutton and launched on 6 August 1803. She was commissioned in September and Lieutenant Charles Stewartwas appointed in command.



First Barbary War
Syren departed Philadelphia on 27 August 1803 and reached Gibraltar on 1 October. A fortnight later she sailed via Livorno to Algiers carrying presents and money to the Dey of Algiers. She then sailed to Syracuse, Sicily, where she arrived early in January 1804.

The first action Syren was involved in was an attack aimed at destroying USS Philadelphia, a frigate that had run aground the previous autumn and that Tripolitan gunboats had then captured. To prevent Philadelphia from opposing his planned operations against Tripoli, the commander of the American squadron in the Mediterranean, Commodore Edward Preble, decided to destroy her. To achieve this, Syren and ketch Intrepid sailed from Syracuse on 3 February 1804 and proceeded to Tripoli, which they reached on 7 February. However, before the American ships could launch their attack, they were driven off by a violent gale and did not get back off Tripoli until 16 February. Before the attack Syren tied up alongside Intrepid to transfer some of her crew for the assault on Philadelphia. Aboard Intrepid, under the command of Stephen Decatur, sailors from both Intrepid and Syren succeeded in burning Philadelphia. Also present during the assault was Thomas Macdonough of Syren.

Syren returned to Syracuse on the morning of 19 February. On 9 March, she and Nautilus sailed for Tripoli. Soon after their arrival, Syren captured a polacca named Madona Catapolcana and sent her to Malta. Toward the end of the month, she captured the armed brig Transfer belonging to the Pasha. Stewart took Transfer into US service and renamed her USS Scourge. She then served in the American squadron. Operations in the Mediterranean during the spring and summer of 1804 and participated in the attacks on Tripoli in August and September 1804. The ship continued to support the squadron's operation against Tripoli which forced the Pasha to accede to American demands. After a peace treaty with Tripoli was signed on 10 June 1805, the brig remained in the Mediterranean for almost a year helping to establish and maintain satisfactory relations with other Barbary states.

The ship returned to America in May 1806 and reached the Washington Navy Yard in August. She was laid up in ordinary there until recommissioned in 1807 and subsequently carried dispatches to France in 1809.[2] The following year, her name was changed to Siren.

War of 1812
Little record has been found of the brig's service during the War of 1812, however small news items appeared in the Salem Gazette and the Boston Gazette.

In May 1813 it was reported that within the space of two days a merchant vessel, Pilgrim, was boarded, first by HMS Herald which was searching for Syren, and then by Syren, which was searching for Herald. Syren was now commanded by Lieutenant Joseph Bainbridge. The following month Syren left Belize and proceeded to Cuba where after three weeks searching for a Royal Navy sloop, probably Herald, she sailed for the coast of Florida putting in at New Orleans before departing on 9 May 1813. No prizes were taken during this voyage and the ship needed repairs.

By January 1814 Syren was in Massachusetts and was now commanded by Lieutenant Parker, In February she sailed along with a privateer, Grand Turk.[8] Not long after sailing Parker died and command transferred to Lieutenant N.J. Nicholson.

Syren captured at least three merchant ships off the coast of Africa. On 28 May she captured and burnt Barton, Hassler, master, which had been sailing from Africa to Liverpool. Then on 1 June Syren captured Adventure, which too was from Africa to Liverpool. She took-off their cargoes of ivory and sank them. Lastly, at some point Syren captured Catherine.

On 12 July 1814 Syren encountered the British ship HMS Medway a 74-gun third rate ship of the line under the command of Captain Augustus Brine. Heavily outgunned, Syren attempted to run. After an 11-hour chase Medway captured her despite Syren having lightened her load by throwing overboard her guns, anchors and boats. During her last voyage she had captured or sunk several British merchantmen. Among the prisoners was Samuel Leech, who later wrote an account of his experiences.

According to Samuel Leech, after being captured the crew of Syren were taken to the Cape of Good Hope, and after landing at Simonstown, marched to a jail in Cape Town. Here they were held until transferred to England when the war was over. On arriving at Simonstown, other American prisoners were seen to be leaving the jail and being shipped off to Dartmoor. The Syren crew met these again in England while waiting for transfer to the United States. Some had been present at 'The Massacre'.

British service
The Royal Navy used her as a lazaretto. She is no longer listed after 1815.

Quatre frères (1796 ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1806 - Boats of HMS Colpoys (14), Thomas Ussher, cut out 3 Spanish luggers, Santa Buena Ventura (2), San Antonio (2) and San Real, from the port of Avilles.


On the 21st of March the Colpoys chased in to the port of Avillas, under the protection of a battery of six long 24-pounders, three Spanish luggers. Having a fine commanding breeze, the Colpoys stood in after them; when, just as she got within range of the battery, and before her carronades could be worked with effect, the wind died away.

Lieutenant Ussher immediately manned two boats, and stepping into one himself, dashed through a heavy fire of grape from the battery and of musketry from a party of soldiers that had been sent on board the vessels to defend them. His boat, containing, besides himself, only six men, soon out-pulled the other boat. Without waiting for the latter, Lieutenant Ussher gallantly boarded and carried the three luggers, the captains and crews, all but 13 men, leaping over on one side, as the lieutenant and his little party entered on the other.

The second boat then came up, and assisted in getting off the prizes; one, named Santa Buena-Yentura. of two guns, laden with flax and steel; the second, named San- Antonio, of the same force and lading; and the third, the San-Real in ballast. The latter was given up to the enemy, with 11 of the prisoners. Notwithstanding the heavy fire of the battery, this truly gallant exploit was effected with the loss of only two men wounded, one of them severely.




https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=11716

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1818 – Launch of French Neptune, an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.


The Neptune was an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.



Started in 1810, briefly renamed Brabançon during the Hundred Days and launched in 1818, after the Bourbon Restoration, she remained without commission until 1839.

She was part of a squadron under Admiral Hugon, along with Montebello and Andromaque.

She was struck in 1858 and used as a prison ship in Toulon harbour between 1865 and 1868.


The Robuste, sister-ship of the Neptune


The Bucentaure class was a class of 80-gun French ships of the line built to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané from 1802 onwards, of which at least 29 were ordered but only 21 ships were launched. They were a development from his earlier Tonnant class.


Bucentaure class 80-gun ships designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, a modification of the 80-ship Tonnant class listed above. 21 ships were launched to this design, of which 16 were afloat by the end of 1814

• Bucentaure 80 (launched 13 July 1803 at Toulon) – Flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, captured there by the British and wrecked in the subsequent storm
• Neptune 80 (launched 15 August 1803 at Toulon) – Captured by the Spanish at Cadiz in June 1808, renamed Neptuno, BU 1820
• Robuste 80 (launched 30 October 1806 at Toulon) – Driven ashore by the British and burnt near Frontignan in October 1809
• Ville de Varsovie 80 (launched 10 May 1808 at Rochefort) – Captured and burnt by the British in the Battle of the Basque Roads in April 1809
• Donawerth 80 (launched 4 July 1808 at Toulon) – BU 1824
• Eylau 80 (launched 19 November 1808 at Lorient) – BU 1829
• Friedland 80 (launched 2 May 1810 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Vlaming, BU 1823
• Sceptre 80 (launched 15 August 1810 at Toulon) – Condemned 1828
• Tilsitt 80 (launched 25 August 1810 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Neptunus, BU 1818
• Auguste 80 (launched 25 April 1811 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Illustre, returned in September 1814, BU 1827
• Pacificateur 80 (launched 22 May 1811 at Antwerp) – BU 1824
• Illustre 80 (launched 9 June 1811 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Dutch Navy in August 1814 and renamed Prins van Oranje,BU 1825.
• Diadème 80 (launched 1 December 1811 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; condemned 1856.
• Conquérant 80 (launched 27 April 1812 at Antwerp) – Condemned 1831.
• Zélandais 80 (launched 12 October 1813 at Cherbourg) – renamed Duquesne in April 1814, but reverted to Zélandais in March 1815 then Duquesne again in July 1815. Condemned 1858.
• Magnifique 80 (launched 29 October 1814 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; condemned 1837.
• One further ship begun at Venice to this design was never launched – Saturne, which was broken up on the stocks by the Austrian occupiers.
• Centaure 80 (launched 8 January 1818 at Cherbourg) – renamed Santi Pietri in October 1823; 86 guns from 1837; hulked 1849, burnt by accident 1862.
• Neptune 80 (launched 21 March 1818 at Lorient) – 86-guns from 1837; hulked 1858, broken up 1868.
• Algésiras 80 (launched 21 August 1823 at Lorient) – 86 guns from 1837; deleted 1846.
• Jupiter 80 (launched 22 October 1831 at Cherbourg) – 86 guns from 1837; deleted 1863.

French ship Neptune (1818) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucentaure-class_ship_of_the_line

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1848 – Launch of HMS Reynard, an 8-gun screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She was conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked on the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851.


HMS Reynard was an 8-gun screw sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1848, conducted anti-piracy work in Chinese waters and was wrecked on the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851.



Construction
The Admiralty originally ordered the ship on 25 April 1847 from Woolwich Dockyard as the steam schooner Plumper.[1] She was re-ordered from Deptford Dockyard as the screw sloop Reynard on 12 August 1847 to a design by John Edye, and laid down in August that year. She was launched on 21 March 1848 at Deptford and commissioned at Woolwich on 1 August 1848.

Reynard was the only ship ever built to the design. She was constructed of wood, was 147 feet 0 inches (44.8 m) long and 27 feet 10 inches (8.5 m) in the beam, and had a mean draught of 11 feet 6 inches (3.5 m). She had a displacement of 656 tons.

She was powered by a J. and G. Rennie two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine driving a single screw. Rated at 60 nominal horsepower, and developing 165 indicated horsepower, this unit was capable of driving her at 8.2 knots (15.2 km/h).

Her armament of 8 guns consisted of two 32-pounder (56 cwt) muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns and six 32-pounder (25 cwt) muzzle-loading smooth-bore guns mounted to fire in a traditional broadside arrangement.


The original plans of Reynard

Service
After commissioning, Reynard served in the Channel Fleet under Sir Charles Napier. On 15 September 1848, she ran aground at Cobh, County Cork. She was refloated. Reynard took part in an abortive amphibious landing against Riff pirates in February 1849. On leaving the Channel Fleet. she sailed for the East Indies, leaving Singapore in company with HMS Cleopatra for Labuan and China on 10 October 1849, and arriving in Hong Kong on 14 November. She served on the China Station in an anti-piracy role, recapturing two junks and apprehending 15 Chinese pirates on 23 March 1850. She left Hong Kong to return to Woolwich to pay off, but on her way was required to accompany the brig HMS Pilot to rescue the crew of the brig Velocipede, which had run aground on Pratas shoal, 170 miles southeast of Hong Kong.


The ship's company of Reynard on a raft, with the ship aground behind them on the Pratas Islands in 1851

Fate
In rescuing the crew of Velocipede, Reynard herself was wrecked on the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea on 31 May 1851. The whole crew survived the sinking and were rescued by HMS Pilot, which also rescued the crew of Velocipede. The ship could not be saved, and she was paid off as a total loss on 27 February 1852.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Reynard_(1848)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1882 – Launch of The fourth HMS Colossus, a Colossus class second-class British battleship


The fourth HMS Colossus was a Colossus class second-class British battleship, launched in 1882 and commissioned in 1886. She had a displacement of 9,520 tons, and an armament of 4 × 12-inch breechloaders, 5 × 6-inch guns and had a respectable speed of 15.5 knots.

She was one of the first, if not the first, modern battleship. She had several features which would be standard for all gun warships up to the Second World War including all steel construction, a main battery of breech loading major caliber guns (ie. 10 inches or greater) mounted in turrets and was propelled only by steam engines instead of a combination of steam and sails - as was common in the mid-19th century.



Service history
She served in the Mediterranean Fleet, from her commission in 1886 to 1893 when she then became a Coastguard ship. In 1895 she was part of the 1st Reserve Squadron. Captain Samuel Arthur Johnson was in command from March 1897 to March 1900, when she was coastguard ship at Holyhead.

She was paid off in November 1901 and placed in the reserve, her crew transferred to HMS Resolution which took over as guardship at Holyhead. Commander Rowland Nugent was appointed in command of the ship on 25 February 1902, and from August she had a refit at the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company. In 1904, she was re-commissioned as a tender to Excellent. Colossus was put up for sale in 1906, finally being broken up in 1908.




The Colossus-class battleships were British ironclad warships, carrying their main armament in turrets, which served in the Victorian Royal Navy from 1882. They were the first British warships to carry large rifled breech-loading main guns.

Design

Right elevation and plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1896

They were in all essential points improved versions of the Ajax class, with slightly greater displacement, protection and speed, with better handling characteristics, and most significantly, with breech-loading artillery replacing the obsolescent muzzle loaders. They also used steel rather than iron for most of the hull structure, and utilised the innovative compound armour for the belt and turrets.

The class was originally designed to carry the then-standard muzzle-loading artillery, while European navies had already for several years been equipped with breech-loading guns. At this time, for historical reasons, the Board of Admiralty was ultimately responsible for the designs of Royal Naval warships, but the War Office was responsible for the design and provision of naval artillery. In 1879, while the Colossus class was under construction, a 100-ton muzzle-loader was being tested at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and the 16-inch 80-ton guns destined for HMS Inflexible were nearly complete. Responding to a groundswell of professional opinion, the Admiralty sent a group of senior officers to witness and report on the performance of the new breech-loading weapons being produced by Krupp in Essen. As a result of their report, Woolwich undertook the manufacture of 12 inch calibre breech-loaders, with a breech mechanism manufactured at Elswick. The Colossus class was nominated to be armed with these guns; the delay in their manufacture largely accounts for the protracted building times of these vessels.

Both ships did well on sea-trials, exceeding their design speed. They threw up what is described as a "remarkable bow wave, which rose like a solid wall for thirteen feet, the like of which has never been observed." They had a quick roll, and because of the low freeboard and the long chases of the guns, the gun muzzles dipped into the sea at a roll of 13° when trained on the beam. They were fitted with large bilge keels and with anti-rolling tanks.

They were both reported to be slow to respond to the helm, with large turning circles.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Colossus_(1882)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus-class_battleship_(1882)

Very interesting page:

HMS Colossus (1882 - 1906)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1886 – Launch of Vesuvio, a protected cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the 1880s


Vesuvio was a protected cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) built in the 1880s. She was the third member of the Etna class, which included three sister ships. Named for the volcano Mount Vesuvius, the ship's keel was laid down in July 1883. She was launched in March 1886 and was commissioned into the fleet in March 1888. She was armed with a main battery of two 10-inch (254 mm) and six 6-inch (152 mm) guns, and could steam at a speed of around 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). Her career was relatively uneventful; the only significant action in which she took part was the campaign against the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900. She was stricken from the naval register in May 1911 and sold for scrap in 1915.



Design
Main article: Etna-class protected cruiser
Vesuvio was 283 feet 6 inches (86.4 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 42 feet 6 inches (13.0 m). She had a mean draft of 19 feet (5.8 m) and displaced 3,373 long tons (3,427 t). Her crew numbered 12 officers and 296 men. The ship had two horizontal compound steam engines, each driving a single propeller, with steam provided by four double-ended cylindrical boilers. Vesuvio was credited with a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph) from 6,820 indicated horsepower (5,090 kW). She had a cruising radius of 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The main armament of the ships consisted of two Armstrong 10-inch (254 mm), 30-caliber breech-loading guns mounted in barbettes fore and aft. She was also equipped with six 6-inch (152 mm), 32-caliber, breech-loading guns that were carried in sponsons along the sides of the ship. For anti-torpedo boat defense, Vesuvio was fitted with five 57-millimeter (2.2 in) 6-pounder Hotchkiss guns and five 37-millimeter (1.5 in) 1-pounder Hotchkiss guns. Vesuvio was also armed with four 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes. One was mounted in the bow underwater and the other three were above water. She was protected with an armored deck below the waterline with a maximum thickness of 1.5 inches (38 mm). The conning tower had .5 in (13 mm) worth of armor plating.

Service history
Vesuvio was built by the Livorno shipyard, with her keel being laid down on 10 July 1883. Her completed hull was launched on 21 March 1886, and after fitting-out work was finished, she was commissioned into the Italian fleet on 16 March 1888. Vesuvio and her sisters Stromboli and Ettore Fieramosca participated in the 1893 naval maneuvers as part of the Squadron of Maneuvers, which was tasked with defending against the Permanent Squadron. Vesuvio was placed in reserve for 1896, though she was reactivated to take part on the naval maneuvers at the end of the year. During these maneuvers, she was assigned to a force tasked with defending against a simulated French fleet.

In February 1897, Vesuvio deployed to Crete to serve in the International Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, French Navy, Imperial German Navy, Regia Marina, Imperial Russian Navy, and British Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897-1898 Greek uprising on Crete against rule by the Ottoman Empire. She arrived as part of an Italian division that also included the battleships Sicilia (flagship of the division′s commander, Vice Admiral Felice Napoleone Canevaro) and Re Umberto and the torpedo cruiser Euridice.

In 1900, Vesuvio and Ettore Fieramosca were sent to Chinese waters to assist in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance. Both ships were formally assigned to the Cruising Squadron in Chinese waters in 1901. During 1901, she made stops in Shanghai, Wusong, and Hong Kong. After a second deployment to the Far East from 1906 to 1909, Vesuvio was placed in reserve, struck from the Navy List on 11 May 1911 and sold for scrap in 1915


The Etna class was a series of protected cruisers that were built in the late 1880s for the Regia Marina (the Royal Italian Navy). The four ships built were slightly enlarged copies of the Elswick Works' design for the protected cruiser Giovanni Bausan. Etna, the lead ship of the class, was the only ship still in service when World War I began, although she served as a stationary headquarters ship for the Navy Commander-in-Chief in Taranto for the duration of the war. The three later ships all participated in putting down the Boxer Rebellion as part of the Eight-Nation Alliance. The three were struck from the Navy List before 1912, but Etna was not sold for scrap until 1921.


Etna at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration, New York, 1909





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

Etna-class cruiser - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org