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
Other Events on 11 April


1669 – Launch of french Fort 68, later 76 guns (designed and built by Jean Guichard, launched 11 April 1669 at Rochefort) – renamed Foudroyant in June 1671, broken up 1690


1693 – Launch of HMS Winchester was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Bursledon

HMS Winchester was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, launched at Bursledon on 11 April 1693.

In 1695, Winchester foundered on Carysfort Reef in the Florida Keys and was lost. The remains of the wreck—now consisting of nothing more than cannonballs—were discovered in 1938 lying approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) southwest of the Carysfort Reef Light.

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


1728 – Launch of French Triton 60 (launched 11 April 1728 at Brest, designed and built by Laurent Hélie) - condemned 1745 and taken to pieces.


1806 – Launch of HMS Cuckoo and HMS Woodcock, both Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20.

HMS Cuckoo was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. She was built by James Lovewell at Great Yarmouth and launched in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.

HMS Woodcock was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Crane & Holmes built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.
She was commissioned in 1806 under Lieutenant Isaac Charles Smith Collett. She was wrecked 13 February 1807 at Vila Franca do Campo, São Miguel in the Azores. She and her sister ship Wagtail had anchored there when a gale came up. Because of the storm it was impossible to clear the land and at 5pm Collett ran her ashore after her anchors had parted and water was continuously washing over her. Lines were passed to the shore and all her crew made it safely to land. Wagtail was wrecked three hours later.


Scale: 1:48. A plan showing body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth of 'Haddock' (1805), a four to six gun schooner, as taken off in October 1805 and modified on her refit. This plan was used for the subsequent Cuckoo class of gun schooners (1805) consisting of 'Magpie' (1806), 'Jackdaw' (1806), 'Cuckoo' (1806), 'Wagtail' (1806), 'Woodcock' (1806), 'Wigeon' (1806), 'Sealark' (1806), 'Rook' (1806), 'Landrail' (1806), 'Pigeon' (1806), 'Crane' (1806), 'Quail' (1806).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cuckoo_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Woodcock_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo-class_schooner
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-305548;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C


1808 – Launch of Amphitrite was a 44-gun Armide class frigate of the French Navy.

The Amphitrite was a 44-gun Armide class frigate of the French Navy.
Amphitrite, under frigate captain Trobriand, departed Cherbourg for Martinique on 10 November 1808, along with Vénus, Junon, Cygne and Papillon, under contre-amiral Hamelin. The next day, the squadron broke apart.
Amphitrite arrived at Fort de France, only to find it blockaded by the Royal Navy. She managed to slip through and reach the harbour. On 3 February, as the British attacked Martinique, the Amphitrite was scuttled to prevent her capture.
In 1960, construction work of a modern commerce harbour in Fort de France uncovered the bottom of the hull of Amphitrite. Copper sheets of the hull and other fragments were recovered and are now on display at the Service Régional de l'Archéologie.

sistership

Portrait of Pénélope by François-Geoffroi Roux

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

Armide-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1812 – Launch of HMS Clarence, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 11 April 1812 at Turnchapel.

HMS Clarence was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 11 April 1812 at Turnchapel.
Clarence was among a number of vessels that shared in the proceeds of the recapture of Wolf's Cove on 1 December 1813.
In 1826 Clarence was re-rated as a fourth rate, and was broken up in 1828.

sistership

HMS Asia


Scale: 1:48. Contemporary copy of a plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Conquestadore' (1810), 'Armada' (1810), 'Vigo' (1810), 'Cressey' (1810), 'La Hogue' (1811), 'Vindictive' (1813), 'Poictiers' (1809), 'Vengeur' (1810), 'Edinburgh' (1811), 'Dublin' (1812), 'Duncan' (1811), 'Indus' (1812), 'Rodney' (1809), 'Cornwall' (1812), 'Redoutable' (1815), 'Anson' (1812), 'Agincourt' (1817), 'Ajax' (1809), 'America' (1810), 'Barham' (1811), 'Benbow' (1813), 'Berwick' (1809), 'Blenheim' (1813), 'Clarence' (1812), 'Defence' (1815), 'Devonshire' (1812), 'Egmont' (1810), 'Hercules' (1815), 'Medway' (1812), 'Pembroke' (1812), 'Pitt' (1816), 'Russell' (1822), 'Scarborough' (1812), 'Stirling Castle' (1811), 'Wellington' (1816), 'Mulgrave' (1812), 'Gloucester' (1812), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The plan includes alterations for a rounded bow and circular stern.


Scale: 1:16. Plan showing a part midship section for 74-gun ships, illustrating the chocks, flat iron knees, and fastenings for attaching the deck beams to the sides, and later altered in 1811. The plan was later used for 'Conquestadore' (1810), 'Scarborough' (1812), 'Stirling Castle' (1811), 'Clarence' (1812), 'Niger' (1813), 'Rippon' (1812), 'Vengeur' (1810), 'Aisa' (1811), 'Gloucester' (18712), 'Vindictive' (1813), and Unamed (to be built in Rio de Janeiro, cancelled 1809).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Clarence_(1812)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vengeur-class_ship_of_the_line
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-302775;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C


1815 – Launch of French Cybele, Pallas class, (launched 11 April 1815 at Le Havre) – renamed Remise 1850.

Pallas-class frigate (1808) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1822 - Eine osmanische Flotte landet auf der Insel Chios im Ägäischen Meer und richtet ein Massaker unter den griechischen Einwohnern an. Der größere Teil der Bewohner wird in die Sklaverei verschleppt. Die einzigen, die vorläufig verschont werden, sind die Mastix-Bauern. Das Massaker ist eine Reaktion auf den Unabhängigkeitskampf aller Griechen.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massaker_von_Chios


1823 – Launch of french Magicienne (launched 11 April 1823 at Rochefort) – deleted 29 November 1840.

Armide-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1941 Sava, Vardar and Morava – On 11 April 1941, during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, the crews of the three Yugoslav river monitors scuttled their vessels and were transshipped to two tugboats, one of which was destroyed after a bridge fell onto it, killing 95 of the 110 men aboard.


SMS Bodrog on the Danube river in 1914

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_monitor_Sava
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_monitor_Vardar

SMS Körös - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

2002 - the ferry MV Maria Carmela caught fire while traveling from Masbate to Quezon province. After burning for three days the ship sank off Pagbilao island in Quezon. Of those on board 44 were killed in the incident.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1655 – Launch of HMS Royal Charles, an 80-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy.


Royal Charles was an 80-gun first-rate three-decker ship of the line of the English Navy. She was built by Peter Pett and launched at Woolwich Dockyardin 1655, for the navy of the Commonwealth of England. She was originally called Naseby, named in honour of Sir Thomas Fairfax's decisive 1645 victory over the Royalist forces during the English Civil Wars. She was ordered in 1654 as one of a programme of four second rates, intended to carry 60 guns each. However, she was altered during construction to mount a complete battery of guns along the upper deck (compared with the partial battery on this deck of her intended sisters, on which there were no gunports in the waist along this deck), and so was reclassed as a first rate.


Royal Charles off Hellevoetsluis, captured by the Dutch after the Raid on the Medway, June 1667. Jeronymus van Diest (II).



In the run-up to the Restoration of the monarchy in May (June, New Style) of 1660, she was anchored in The Downs off Deal, where her laurel-crowned figurehead of Oliver Cromwell was removed before sailing to the Dutch Republic at the head of the fleet sent to bring King Charles II back to England, captained by Sir Edward Montagu and still under her Parliamentary name. On arrival in Scheveningen she was renamed HMS Royal Charles and took Charles and his entourage (including Samuel Pepys) on board, landing them at Dover.

Under her new name, she thus joined the Royal Navy, which formally came into being in 1660. At 1,229 tons, Naseby was larger than Sovereign of the Seas, the first three-deck ship of the line, built by Phineas Pett, Peter's father. Unlike Sovereign of the Seas, which was in service from 1637 to 1697, Naseby was to enjoy only twelve years in service.

As Royal Charles she took part in the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1665, she fought in the Battle of Lowestoft under the command of the Lord High Admiral, James Stuart, Duke of York, her captain being Sir William Penn. During that battle she probably destroyed the Dutch flagship Eendracht. In 1666, she participated in two further actions, the Four Days Battle and the defeat of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter in the St. James's Day Battle off the North Foreland.


The painting Dutch attack on the Medway, June 1667 by Pieter Cornelisz van Soest, painted c. 1667 shows the captured Royal Charles, right of centre


The stern piece preserved at Amsterdam

In 1667, flagging English national morale was further depressed by the Raid on the Medway in which a Dutch fleet invaded the Thames and Medway rivers and on 12 June captured the uncommissioned Royal Charles, removing her with great skill to Hellevoetsluis in the United Provinces. The Dutch did not take her into naval service because it was considered that she drew too much water for general use on the Dutch coast. Instead the Royal Charles was permanently drydocked near Hellevoetsluis as a tourist attraction, with day trips being organised for large parties, often of foreign state guests. After vehement protests by Charles that this insulted his honour, the official visits were ended when she was auctioned for scrap in 1673.

The wooden carving showing the royal arms, originally placed on the ship's transom, was, however, preserved. After remaining at Hellevoetsluis for a while, it was brought to a naval shipbuilding yard in Rotterdam in the nineteenth century, and in 1855 was transferred to the Dutch navy's model collection. It is now on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which took most of the naval collection in the 1880s.








Scale: 1:48. Full hull model made in the Navy Board style, thought to be the 'Naseby' (1655), an 80-86 gun ship, three-decker ship of the line. The hull shape is typical of that of a 17th century warship with a fair amount of sheer and tumblehome. The model is partly decked, rigged and made plank on frame. The hull is left unplanked below the waterline, and the framing system is typical of that of the Navy Board style, with floor timbers spanning the keel transversely and futtocks scarphed above. Along the sides of the hull are paired open mainwales painted black. The stern is round tucked and decorated with elaborate stern carvings. The stern carving features the cross of St. George with a belt bearing the Commonwealth motto ‘Pax quaeritur bello’ (peace is sought by war). The model is square rigged, with a sprit sail, sprit topsail and the mizzen mast is rigged with a bonaventure sail. The model was made by Robert Spence in 1943 using contemporary drawings of the ship combined with her recorded dimensions. In addition, the lines were taken from an English three-decker model of similar date in the Maritime Museum, Stockholm, Sweden. The original full-sized ship measured 161 feet in length by 42 feet in the beam and 1000 tons burden, the ‘Naseby’ was built in Woolwich Dockyard and named to commemorate the Parliamentary victory of 1645 during the English Civil War. The ‘Naseby’ was renamed 'Royal Charles' by Charles II, after the ship was used to transport him back to England from Dutch exile at his Restoration in 1660. The ‘Royal Charles’ was the flagship in the many actions against the Dutch fleet but in 1667 was seized by the Dutch in their famous raid on the Medway and taken back to Holland before eventually being broken up in 1673. The post-1660 English royal arms from the stern of the full-sized ship are in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, having been retained as a trophy when the vessel was broken up in 1673.


This etching, signed and dated '1911' by the artist, shows Charles II and Pepys in the aft of a boat, with the stern of the 'Royal Charles' behind. Charles, on the left, and Pepys on the right, are both shown from the front, both hatted. Charles has his right hand on a cane. The scene depicted is the final stage of the voyage of Charles II back to England. Pepys accompanied Lord Sandwich on the 'Naseby' to Holland to convey the King back to England to restore the Monarchy. The 'Naseby', and 80-gun ship launched in 1655 , with its Civil War connotations, was renamed the 'Royal Charles' in 1660 in honour of the new king. Interestingly, the ship depicted is in fact a smaller two-decker, shown with a square-tuck stern, although the model of the 'Naseby' (SLR0001) made by Robert Spence in 1943 has a round-tuck stern.


Charles II journeyed by road and water from Breda to The Hague. After a short stay there, he went on to Scheveningen and on 23 May [OS]/2 June 1660, standing in a pink on the crowded shore, he took leave of Elisabeth of Bohemia, the Princess Royal, the young Prince of Orange and the States deputies. Then in Sandwich’s barge he went on board the ‘Naseby’, which he renamed the ‘Royal Charles’ before sailing with the fleet for England. This drawing features the ‘Royal Charles’ viewed from the weather quarter, close-hauled on the starboard tack, under fore course, mizzen and topsails. The royal standard is at the main and streamers are at the yardarms. It is an accurate drawing but with disfiguring corrections, made probably as the ship left the Dutch coast with the Restoration squadron. The tafferel (upper stern) decoration is not shown in detail but appears to include a roundel with a suggestion of a bust length figure, and was undoubtedly originally emblematic of the Commonwealth, for whom the ship was built. The substantially intact royal arms which decorated the tafferel when the Dutch seized the 'Royal Charles' in the notorious Medway Raid of 1667, and which survive today in the Rijkmuseum, Amsterdam, were installed in a post-Restoration re-fit. They are shown in Ludolf Backhuysen's painting of the ship being carried into Dutch waters at that time (BHC0292), which takes practically the same viewpoint as this drawing


The battle of Lowestoft was the first fleet action of the Second Dutch War, 1665–67, and resulted in a Dutch defeat with a loss of about 30 ships. In this initial fleet engagement both sides had over a 100 sail. The action began at 3.30 and continued until 1900 by which time the Dutch were in flight with 17 ships sunk or captured. Following action with the ‘Royal Charles’, with HRH the Duke of York on board, the principal Dutch flagship the ‘Eendracht’ blew up, killing her admiral Lieutenant -Admiral Jan van Wassenaer Heer van Obdam. Of a crew of over 400 only five survived. This painting was probably painted shortly after the battle and shows the action between the 'Royal Charles' and the 'Eendracht' from the Dutch perspective. The left foreground is dominated by the duelling flagships of the two commanders-in-chief. On the left is the ‘Royal Charles’, with the Duke of York on board, and the Royal crest is shown carved on her stern. A small boat is connected to the ship by a rope held by two men and other men can be seen working in the rigging. In very close action to the right is the ‘Eendracht’ with the carved lion visible on her stern, and flying the Dutch flag and ensign, just before she blew up. The painting inaccurately gives the English flagship ‘Royal Charles’ a Dutch stern, with a square tuck and gallery.


Dutch in the Medway. Capture of the Royal Charles June 1667 (PAF4520)


An unsigned drawing by the Elder, viewed from before the starboard beam. It is inscribed ‘de nasby [? London written over] / nu de carolus’ (The Naseby, now the Charles). This drawing is an offset, probably not in reverse since no entering port is shown. The offset has been rubbed on the back, worked up rapidly and not very accurately with a pencil and a little wash. The ‘Naseby’ was the flagship of the Restoration squadron in 1660, and the original drawing was no doubt made at this time, with the offset being taken soon afterwards. There is a drawing of the ‘Royal Charles’ viewed from the starboard quarter in the Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Charles_(1655)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-344737;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/65962.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1782 - Battle of Providien. British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes engaged a French fleet under the Bailli de Suffren near a rocky islet called Providien, south of Trincomalee, Ceylon.


The Battle of Providien was the second in a series of naval battles fought between a British fleet, under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes, and a French fleet, under the Bailli de Suffren, off the coast of India during the Anglo-French War. The battle was fought on 12 April 1782 off the east coast of Ceylon, near a rocky islet called Providien, south of Trincomalee.


Plan of the battle of Providien



Background
In 1778, France had entered the American Revolutionary War; and in 1780 Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic after the Dutch refused to stop trading military supplies with France and America. The British had rapidly gained control over most French and Dutch outposts in India when news of these events reached India, spawning the Second Anglo-Mysore War in the process.

In March 1781, French Admiral Bailli de Suffren was dispatched on a mission to provide military assistance to French colonies in India, leading a fleet of five ships, seven transports, and a corvette to escort the transports from Brest. After a happenstance battle with the British fleet at Porto Praya in the Cape Verde Islands in April, the French fleet stopped at the Dutch-controlled Cape of Good Hope in October. Troops were left to assist the Dutch in defence of that colony while the fleet was reinforced by additional ships with command transferred to the elderly Admiral Thomas d'Estienne d'Orves. The French fleet sailed on to Île de France (now Mauritius), arriving at Port Louis in December. They then sailed for India with transports that carried nearly 3,000 men under the command of the Comte du Chemin. D'Orves died in February 1782, shortly before the fleet arrived off the Indian coast, and Suffren resumed command.

Suffren first sailed for Madras, hoping to surprise the British stronghold. When he found the fleet of Sir Edward Hughes anchored there on 15 February 1782, he turned south with the intent of landing troops at Porto Novo, hoping to march up the coast and recapture French and Dutch holdings on the way. Hughes raised anchor and sailed after Suffren. In the Battle of Sadras, both fleets suffered damage without loss of ships, but the French were able to safely land troops at Porto Novo to assist the Mysoreans. Suffren made repairs to his fleet at Pondicherry after that battle; on 23 February, he sailed out to find Hughes, who had gone to Trincomalee for repairs.

On 8 April, Hughes' fleet was spotted heading for Trincomalee. Suffren gave chase, but was unable to close for three days. Hughes had to change course on 12 April to continue toward Trincomalee, which gave Suffren the advantage of the wind.

Battle
The battle lines engaged at about 12:30 pm. Initially, some of Suffren's captains hesitated, not immediately joining in the line (as had also happened at Sadras), but eventually ten of his twelve ships were engaged against the eleven British ships. Monmouth was the first ship to quit the British line after being dismasted, and Superb also suffered significant damage in the early rounds. Hughes was able to regain advantage by ordering his fleet to wear ship, and the battle began to turn against the French. Around 6 pm, a storm arose; the combatants, close to a lee shore, broke off the battle to attend to the risks the storm presented. Darkness from the storm and then nightfall precluded further battle that day.

Aftermath
The fleets had anchored near enough to each other that Suffren again positioned for battle. Hughes, however, had a convoy to protect, and sailed for Trincomalee. Suffren sailed south and anchored at Batticaloa, which was still under Dutch control, where he spent six weeks for repairs and resupply. While there, he received orders to sail to Île de France (Mauritius) to escort another troop convoy. Suffren chose to disregard this order, as the risk posed by Hughes to French operations required his full strength, and he could not trust his captains. The captains of Vengeur and Artésien, the two ships that stayed out of the action, were reported for their failure to obey orders, and his second-in-command was intriguing with some of the other captains against him.

The rival fleets

Britain Superb, 74 Hero, 74 Sultan, 74 Burford, 70 Monarca, 70 Eagle, 64 Exeter, 64 Magnanime 64 Monmouth, 64 Worcester, 64 Isis, 50

France Héros, 74 Annibal, 74 Orient, 74 Ajax, 64 Artésien, 64 Brillant, 64 Bizarre Sévère, 64 Sphinx, 64 Vengeur, 64 Flamand, 50 Hannibal, 50

HMS Monmouth was an Intrepid-class 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 April 1772 at Plymouth.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for building Monmouth (1772), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker. The plan includes a mast and yard dimension table. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]



She was not immediately commissioned for service, but went on to serve during the American War of Independence in a number of theatres. She was initially in the Caribbean, where she fought at the Battle of Grenada, before returning to Britain to join a special expedition under Commodore George Johnstone, to capture the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope. The expedition was surprised by a French fleet at the Battle of Porto Praya and though Johnstone was able to go on and capture several Dutch merchants in the Battle of Saldanha Bay, he did not attempt to attack the Cape. Monmouth, under her Captain James Alms, was sent on with several other warships to reinforce the East Indies station, and she went on to fight in a number of actions under Sir Edward Hughes against French fleets under the Bailli de Suffren. She returned to Britain on the conclusion of the wars and saw no further active service. Renamed Captivity and used as a prison ship from 1796, she served out the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was broken up in 1818.

East Indies service

Depiction of the Battle of Trincomalee by Dominic Serres

Alms struggled with adverse winds and high incidences of sickness, eventually forcing him to leave the troopships on the coast of Arabia to bring his warships to reach India in time for the campaigning season. The British fleet rendezvoused with Sir Edward Hughes at Madras on 11 February 1782, and Monmouth went on to be involved in a number of indecisive clashes between Hughes and the Bailli de Suffren; at Sadras on 17 February, Providien on 12 April, Negapatam on 6 July, and Trincomalee on 3 September 1782.

Monmouth had a particularly important part in the battle Providien, when she was the second ship in the line to Sir Edward's flagship. At one point in the action, Alms saw that Suffren had put up his helm with a view of boarding Hughes's ship, and brought Monmouth about to defend his commander, the ship receiving heavy fire as he did so. In this engagement, the Monmouth had seven guns dismounted,—the wheel twice cleared,—and two seamen only, besides the captain, left alive on the quarter-deck. Forty-five men were killed, and one hundred and two wounded. Alms himself received two splinter-wounds in the face, and two musket-balls went through his hat.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Providien
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Monmouth_(1772)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1797 – Launch of HMS Sirius, a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Between 1797 and 1805,


HMS Sirius was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Between 1797 and 1805, the Sirius was engaged in maintaining the blockade of Napoleonic Europe. She was lost in 1810 when her crew scuttled her after she grounded during the Battle of Grand Port.


The Sirius stranded on a coral shoal. Lithograph by A. Meyer (National Maritime Museum, London)



Design

Sirius general arrangement plan (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich)

The Admiralty ordered her construction on 30 April 1795, and the keel was laid at the Dudman's yard at Deptford Wharf in September of that year. She was launched on 12 April 1797. The Sirius class of 1795 was established following the taking of the San Fiorenzo from the Spanish in 1794, upon whose lines this frigate was based.

French Revolutionary Wars
Sirius was commissioned in May 1797 under the command of Captain Richard King. In her first action on 24 October 1798 Sirius took two Dutch ships, the Waakzaamheid and the Furie in the Texel. Waakzaamheid was under the command of Senior Captain Neirrop. She was armed with twenty-four 9-pounder guns on her main deck and two 6-pounders on her forecastle. She had 100 Dutch seamen aboard her, as well as 122 French troops, and was carrying 2000 stands of arms as well as other ordnance stores. Waakzaamheid put up no struggle. The sloop Kite shared in the capture.


Capture of the Furie & Waakzamheid, 23 October 1798 / Thomas Whitcombe, 1816.

Furie was armed with twenty-six 12-pounders on her main deck and ten 6-pounders on her quarter-deck and forecastle. She had a crew of 153 Dutch seamen, augmented with 165 French soldiers. She was carrying 4,000 stands of arms as well as other ordnance stores. Furie did exchange fire with Sirius for about half an hour. Sirius had only one man wounded. Furie had eight men killed and 14 wounded. The sloop Martin and the hired armed cutter Diligent shared in the proceeds of the capture.

Sirius was among the vessels that shared in the capture on 25 and 28 November of a French brig and sloop. The British vessels included Clyde, Fisguard, and Sylph, as well as the hired armed cutters Joseph, Fowey and Dolly.

Then on 6 January 1800 Sirius shared with Defiance, Unicorn, Indefatigable and Stag in the capture of the French brig Ursule.

On 12 June Sirius and Indefatigable captured the French privateer Vengeur. She was armed with six long 4-pounders and ten 18-pounder carronades, and carried a crew of 102 men. She was two days out of Bordeaux and sailing for the coast of Brazil. Vengeur was sailing in company with three letters of marque - a ship, a brig and a schooner - that were bound for Guadeloupe. On 11 June Vengeur had captured the Jersey-privateer lugger Snake.

On 3 July Sirius recaptured the brig Cultivator. Indefatigable and Boadicea were in company at the time of the capture. Cultivator, Smith, master, had been sailing from Demerara to London when the French privateer Minerve, of Bordeaux, had captured her.

The next day, Sirius and Indefatigable captured the French ship Favori. Eleven days later, Bordelais captured the French vessel Phoenix. Sirius was among the vessels sharing in the prize money by agreement. Sirius shared in the capture of the French privateer schooner Revanche on 28 July. The actual captor was Uranie. Revanche was armed with fourteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 80 men. She was 19 days out of Vigo and had already captured and sent in the English brig Marcus, a Portuguese ship, and a Spanish brig that had been a prize to Minerve.

On 11 December Sirius captured the Spanish merchant brig Melchora, some three miles off Sifarga (Illas Sisargas, some 20 miles west of A Coruña). The brig was 24 hours out of A Coruña on her way to Montevideo when Sirius captured her. Captain King reported the capture in order to draw attention to the fact that she was the only vessel to have left A Coruña since August. Diamond shared in the proceeds of the capture.

On 26 January 1801, the British frigate Oiseau encountered the French frigate Dédaigneuse and gave chase. Sirius and Amethyst joined the next day. On the 28th Oiseau and Sirius effected the capture while unfavorable winds kept Amethyst from joining the action. Dédaigneuse was brought into the Royal Navy as HMS Dedaigneuse. The next day Sirius was in company with Amethyst when they captured the Spanish letter of marque Charlotta of Ferol, 16 hours out of Ferol on her way to Curaçao. The capture took place about six or seven leagues from Cape Belem in Galicia. The hired armed cutter Earl of St Vincent shared in the capture.

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

Sirius shared by agreement in the proceeds of the capture of the Temeraire (30 May) and the Bien Aimé (23 July). In July Sirius was under the temporary command of Captain J.B. Edwards. In July Commander John Edwards took command temporarily.

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

In August 1802, Captain William Prowse took command of Sirius.

Napoleonic Wars
After the resumption of hostilities with France, Sirius took part in the blockade of Brest.

On 18 May 1803, Sirius and Nemesis captured Mere de Familie. Ten days later Sirius captured the French ship Achille and then on 8 June Trois Freres. The capture of Aigle on 30 May resulted in a preliminary allotment to Sirius's crew of £6200 in prize money. Two days earlier Sirius had captured Zephyr. Sirius shared with Nemesis the proceeds of the capture of Trois Freres and Aigle.

Sirius then was among the vessels sharing in the salvage money from the recapture of Lord Nelson on 27 August. Similarly, Sirius shared in the salvage money for Perseverance, recaptured on 28 October.

On 15 February 1805, Sirius recaptured Spring. On 22 July Sirius participated in Calder's Action (Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805)). She shared in the prize money for the Spanish ships St. Raphael and Firme, and possibly other vessels as well.

Trafalgar
On 21 October, Sirius joined the British fleet under Vice Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Entering battle to the north of the weather column, her station placed her only a few cable lengths from HMS Victory.

Parliament voted a grant of £300,000 to be distributed in September 1806 among the participants of the battle. Other distributions of prize money followed. In 1847 the Admiralty would issue surviving claimants from the battle the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Trafalgar".

On 25 November, Sirius, Prince and Swiftsure captured Nemesis.

Sirius vs. Bergère
In January 1806, Sirius and the 74-gun Polyphemus were escorting a convoy from Gibraltar when they encountered a French squadron under Admiral Willaumez. The French succeeded in capturing two of the merchant vessels and four of the French fleet unsuccessfully chased Sirius for two hours, but forcing her to separate from the convoy.

From then until 1808 Sirius served in the Mediterranean. On 17 April 1806 at 2pm Sirius was five or six leagues off Civitavecchia when Prowse received intelligence that a French force had sailed that morning for Naples. He immediately set out and succeeded in catching up with them just after sunset two leagues from the mouth of the Tiber River. The force consisted of a ship, three corvettes, and five heavy gun-vessels, and they were deployed in line of battle near a dangerous shoal, awaiting Sirius's attack. The action commenced at 7pm and lasted for two hours before the French ship leading the flotilla struck. The water had been calm so the French had been able to fire well and Sirius herself was too damaged to pursue when the remainder of the French flotilla withdrew; Prowse was also concerned about the risks of pursuit at night in water with shoals.

The captured vessel was the Bergère, which was under the command of capitaine de frégate Charles-Jacques-César Chaunay-Duclos, commodore of the flotilla and member of the Legion of Honor. She was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and one 36-pounder obusier, and had a crew of 189 men. Prowse described her as "remarkably fine Vessel, sails well, and is fit for His Majesty's Service." Prowse omitted mention of French casualties, but Sirius lost nine men killed, including Prowse's nephew, and 20 men wounded, nine dangerously so. This action too qualified the surviving claimants for the Naval General Service Medal, this time with the clasp "Sirius 17 April 1806".

Between April 1808 and January 1809 Sirius was at Chatham, undergoing repairs. In November 1808 Captain Samuel Pym assumed command of Sirius. On 24 February 1809 he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean.

Indian Ocean
On 2 March 1809 Sirius captured the French schooner Mecontent, and her cargo. In August Sirius joined a squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley and on 21 September participated in an attack on Saint-Paul, Réunion.

Main article: Raid on Saint-Paul
Sirius and HMS Raisonnable captured the French frigate Caroline. She was taken into British service as HMS Bourbonaise, there already being an HMS Caroline. The British also recaptured several East Indiamen that Caroline had captured, and the East India Company's brig Grappler. The land attack succeeded in capturing a number of shore batteries and guns. Sirius suffered the loss of two marines killed, two marines wounded, and one sailor missing.

The summer of 1810 saw a campaign against the French Indian Ocean possessions. The British captured the Île Bourbon (Réunion) in July. In August, they turned their attention to Mauritius, where they attempted to land troops to destroy coastal batteries and signals around Grand Port; the attempt turned sour, however, when two French forty-gun frigates, Bellone and Minerve, the 18-gun corvette Victor, and two East Indiaman prizes entered the harbour and took up defensive positions at the head of the main entrance channel. The French also moved the channel markers to confuse the British approach.

Main article: Battle of Grand Port
On 23 August 1810 the British squadron entered the channel. Sirius was the first to run aground, followed by Magicienne and Néréide. Iphigenia prudently anchored in the channel some distance from the action. The French vessels concentrated all their gunfire first against Néréide and then against Magicienne.

The battle continued without interruption all night and on 24 August the French boarded the defenceless Néréide. Once the French flag was hoisted on what was left of the foremast of the Néréide, Magicienne and the Sirius began an intense cross fire against their enemies. Still, in the evening her crew had to abandon Magicienne, setting her on fire as they left her.

Loss




Combat de Grand Port by Pierre-Julien Gilbert, MNM


Scuttling of Sirius

Every effort to kedge Sirius off failed; she was firmly aground, making water, and unable to be freed. Pym ordered stores and provisions to be transferred to Iphigenia. When this was complete the men were removed with the last of the crew leaving on the morning of 25 August 1810. As they left they set fire to her; Sirius exploded at about eleven o'clock, with her hull then briefly drifting off the reef before sinking.

The Battle of Grand Port was an important victory for the French. With two English frigates taken (Iphigenia and Néréide), and two others destroyed (Sirius and Magicienne), as well as 1,600 prisoners taken against 150 French dead or wounded, this battle marks the only French naval victory of the Napoleonic Wars.

Post script
Today Sirius lies in some 20–25 metres of water. The wreck has been broken up, as much by salvors as by her scuttling. Still, the site is of archaeological interest and many of her cannon rest exposed.

HMS Sirius (1797) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1806 - HMS Brave (74), Cdr. Edmund Boger, foundered off the Azores in passage from Jamaica to England.


Cassard was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Dix-août in 1798, in honour of the events of 10 August 1792, and subsequently Brave in 1803.





Career
On 10 February 1801 Dix-août captured the 16-gun cutter HMS Sprightly, which she scuttled. On 27 March 1801, as Dix-août sailed with the fleet of Toulon, she collided with Formidable and had to return to harbour.

On 4 February 1803, her name was changed to Brave.

She was captured by HMS Donegal on 6 February 1806 at the Battle of San Domingo. She foundered shortly thereafter on 12 April (without loss of life) while en route to Britain.


Scale model of The Thomson Collection of Ship Models on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario


Following Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805, Sir John Duckworth left the blockade of Cadiz and pursued a French squadron to the Caribbean, where he defeated it off San Domingo on the 6 February 1806. With six ships of the line and two frigates he was lying off St Kitts, watering and refitting his squadron, when he heard on that three French ships of the line were making for San Domingo. A force of nine French ships were found at anchor in San Domingo Roads, whence they slipped their cables and made sail in a westerly direction, forming a line of battle close inshore. The British closed in on them in two lines to cut them off. The action began when 'Superb', 74 guns, under the command of Sir John Duckworth, fired at the French 'Alexandre', 80 guns. In the action that followed the French ships' Alexandre', Brave', 74 guns, and 'Jupiter', 74 guns, were taken while the 'Diomede', 72 guns, and the huge 'Imperial', 120 guns ran themselves ashore and were wrecked. The three French frigates, 'Felicite', 36 guns, 'Comete', 36 guns and 'Diligente', 18 guns escaped. The 'Imperial', in port-bow view is in the right centre foreground of the painting, engaged to port with the 'Superb', nearly bow on. The 'Imperial's' main topmast is falling. To the right and beyond is the partly dismasted 'Northumberland', 74 guns, in starboard-quarter view. Beyond her in the extreme right background is the British 'Spencer', 74 guns, stern on, and in the background between the 'Superb 'and 'Northumberland' is the dismasted 'Brave.' In the centre middle ground, in port-bow view and partly masked by the 'Imperial 'is the 'Diomede', being engaged to starboard by the British 'Canopus', 80 guns, in starboard-bow view. Astern of her the stern half of the British 'Atlas', 74 guns, is visible, followed by the 'Agamemnon', 64 guns, in starboard-bow view, with the 'Alexandre' in starboard-quarter view in the distance. In the extreme left of the picture the British 'Donegal', 74 guns, in starboard-bow view is engaging the French 'Jupiter', 74 guns, to port. There is a fresh breeze and a choppy sea. This painting was a large-scale commission for Admiral Charles Middleton, Lord Barham, and records an event which took place while he was First Lord of the Admiralty, 1805-06. Pocock made many preparatory sketches for the commission giving full details of this action, in accordance with his usual practice of ensuring accuracy. Pocock was born and brought up in Bristol, went to sea at the age of 17 and rose to command several merchant ships. Although he only took up painting as a profession in his early forties, he became extremely successful, receiving commissions from naval commanders anxious to have accurate portrayals of actions and ships. By the age of 80, Pocock had recorded nearly forty years of maritime history, demonstrating a meticulous understanding of shipping and rigging with close attention to detail. Signed and dated, 'N Pocock 1808'.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Cassard_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1807 – Launch of French Nettuno, a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice


Nettuno was a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice and launched in June 1807. HMS Unite captured her a year later off Zara. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Cretan. She served in the Mediterranean. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1831 she made five voyages as a whaler.





French brig
Nettuno was launched in April 1807 with Eugène de Beauharnais in attendance. She was at Venice in November, and Lesina and Ancona in May 1808.

Capture
Unite took shelter from a gale between 28 and 31 July under Lusin on the Dalmatian coast. Late in the afternoon of the 31st, near Premuda, she sighted three enemy naval brigs. Captain Campbell set out in chase and around 3am found himself with in two miles of two of the brigs. Suddenly he sighted he saw the third; Unite steered to pass by the third and while within pistol-shot, gave the brig a broadside, which caused the brig to surrender without a shot being fired, her crew having taken refuge below decks. Unite sent boats that secured the brig and then set out after her two companions. There was little wind so the brigs made use of their sweeps and it was only around 7a.m. that Unite was able to catch up with the larger, and more laggardly of the brigs. This vessel, seeing no chance to escape, fired a broadside, struck her colours, and ran onto the shore, where Unite took possession. The third brig escaped. The two captured brigs turned out to be Nettuno and Teulié, both of sixteen "Thirty-Two-Pounders, Brass Carronades", and 115 men each. The brigs had been sent to find and take Unite, the French having heard that she had so many men sick that she would be easy prey. Although Unite had no casualties, the two French brigs were less fortunate. Nettuno had seven men killed, two drowned, and 13 wounded; Teuliè had five men killed and 16 wounded.


Nettuno/HMS Cretan. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheerlines with inboard detail and scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth, as taken off at Sheerness Dockyard. Drawing from August-early September 1809.


HMS Cretan
The Royal Navy commissioned Nettuno in the Mediterranean as Cretan, under Commander Charles F. Payne. He would remain her commander throughout her service.

Between 13 July and 1 December 1809 Cretan was at Sheerness, undergoing repairs.

Cretan participated in the unsuccessful Walcheren Campaign, a British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Around 40,000 soldiers, 15,000 horses together with field artillery and two siege trains crossed the North Sea and landed at Walcheren on 30 July. This was the largest British expedition of that year, larger than the army serving in the Peninsular War in Portugal. The campaign involved little fighting, but heavy losses from the sickness popularly dubbed "Walcheren Fever". Over 4,000 British troops died (only 106 in combat) and the rest withdrew on 9 December 1809. During the withdrawal operations, Commodore G.W.C.R. Owen, who was in actual command, shifted his pennant to Cretan the better to oversee the operations.

After the Walcharen Campaign Cretan served in the North Sea and Baltic.

On 28 October 1810 Cretan captured the Danish privateer Neptune. Neptune was armed with five guns, had a crew of 24 men, and had left Schelling the day before; she had taken no prizes before Cretan captured her. Neptune arrived at Dover on 7 November. Cretan and Desiree shared in the proceeds of the capture, on 25 December 1811, of the Vrow Alida.

Between 29 July and 4 August 1812, Musquito captured several Dutch fishing boats: Gute Verwagting, Tobie Maria, Jonge Maria, Jeannette, Femme Elizabeth, Hoop (alias Esperance), and the Rondwich. By agreement, Musquito shared the prize money with Desiree, Banterer and Cretan.

On 17 September Indefatigable, Hearty, Desiree, Drake, Primrose, and Cretan shared in the capture of the Dankbarheide. When the gun-brig Hearty detained the Prussian vessel Friede on 29 September, Indefatigable, Desiree, Primrose, Cretan, Drake, were either in company or sharing by agreement.

Cretan captured two fishing boats, the Harmonie and the Stadt Embden on 16 January 1813.

Then on 28 February Cretan captured the Erineron, Nessen, master, which had been sailing from Bergen to Stettin, and sent her into Yarmouth.

Cretan and Leveret were in company on 12 March and so shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Danish vessel Aurora. Two days later, Cretan captured the Anna Brauer. That same day Prospero captured the Najaden, and later Cretan and Raven shared in the proceeds by agreement.

On 1 March 1814, Antelope and a Russian frigate forced the channel between Flushing and Cadsand, but Antelope then grounded off the Hoogplaat. She was stuck for 41 hours,. For 36 of those hours Nymphen, Banterer, and Cretan protected her and worked to free her. Eventually, a tide floated Antelope off.

Disposal
Commander Payne received promotion to post-captain on 7 June 1814. The Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy offered the "Cretan sloop, of 344 tons", lying at Deptford for sale on 29 September 1814.[20] Cretan sold on that day for £1,020.


Scale: 1:48. plan showing the upper deck and lower deck with platforms for Cretan (captured 1808), a captured Franco-Venetian 12-gun Brig Sloop, as taken off at Sheerness Dockyard.

Whaler
Alexander Birnie purchased Cretan and she made five voyages between 1815 and 1831 as a whaler.

For Cretan's first whaling voyage, Captain Joseph Moore left London on 18 April 1815 for New South Wales. She reached Port Jackson on 7 September, having sailed around the bottom of Tasmania. She left Sydney on 12 October to commence whaling around New Zealand. In December 1816 she was off the west coast of South America. She returned to Britain on 5 May 1817 with a full cargo of whale oil.

Cretan, Samuel Shrewsbury, master, left Britain on 7 September 1817 on her second whaling voyage, bound for the Galapagos. She was reported there in November 1819. She returned to Britain on 21 July 1820.

H. R. Gulliver (or Galloway) sailed Cretan on her third whaling voyage, leaving Britain on 13 January 1821. She was at Tahiti on 24 February 1822;, and Valparaiso on 14 October. She returned to Britain on 20 May 1823 with 500 casks of oil.

Captain Gulliver was still master of Cretan on her fourth whaling voyage, sailing her on 3 September 1823 from Britain, bound for the "Japans". Cretan reached the Cape of Good Hope around 14 November. She was reported to be off the coast of Japan in June-July 1824 with 500 barrels. She returned to Britain on 18 December 1826 with 420 casks of oil.

Cretan left Britain on 16 March 1827 on her fifth (and last recorded) whaling voyage with H. R. Gulliver, master, and destination the Sandwich Islands and Timor. Cretan was at Tahiti from 25 August to 21 September 1827. On 18 April 1828 she was at Oahu. Her master arrived at Singapore on 26 August 1828, accusing his chief mate and crew of having mutinied and dispossessed him of his vessel. (During her voyage Stephen Reynolds (or Samuel Reynolds) replaced Gulliver as master.) Cretan was at Honolulu from 29 October to 4 December 1829 with 1110 barrels. She returned to Britain on 29 July 1831 with 400 casks of oil.

Fate
Lloyd's Register (1834) still listed Cretan but with no information beyond her burthen and location (London). She was no longer listed in 1835.

French brig Nettuno (1807) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-305266;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1808 - Launch of HMS Venerable, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Northfleet.

HMS Venerable was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1808 at Northfleet.




HMS Venerable fighting the French frigate Alcmène on 16 January 1814

Career
On 13 December 1810 Venerable was in company with the hired armed cutter Nimrod and several other vessels at the capture of the Goede Trouw.

On 31 December 1813, she captured the French letter of marque brig Jason which became HMS Jason. Jason, of 264 tons (bm), was pierced for 22 guns but carried 14, 12 of which she had thrown overboard when Venerable chased her. She had left Bordeaux five days earlier and was sailing for New York with a cargo of silks, wines, and other articles of merchandise. There were 64 people on board, ten of whom were passengers. She was on her maiden voyage, copper-bottomed, and sailed so well, Captain Worth took her under protection, intending to go to Barbados.

Venerable was Admiral Durham's flagship when on 16 January 1814, Venerable and her prize Jason, were in company with Cyane. Cyane spotted two 44-gun French frigates, Alcmène and Iphigénie and signaled to Venerable. Venerable joined her and after a chase that left Cyane far behind, captured Alcmène, though not without a fight. Venerable lost two men dead and four wounded, while the French lost 32 dead and 50 wounded. Alcmène had a complement of 319 men under the command of Captain Ducrest de Villeneuve, who was wounded when he brought her alongside Venerable and attempted a boarding.

Jason and Cyane tracked Iphigénie and initially fired on her but broke off the engagement because they were outgunned. Cyane continued the chase for over three days until Venerable was able to rejoin the fight after having sailed 153 miles in the direction she believed that Iphigénie had taken. On 20 January 1814, after a 19-hour chase, or what amounted in all to a four-day chase Iphigénie, Venerable captured the quarry, having again left Cyane behind. In the chase, Iphigénie cast off her anchors and threw her boats overboard in order to try to gain speed. She had a complement of 325 men, under the command of Captain Émeric. She apparently did not resist after Venerable came up. Before meeting up with the British ships, the two French vessels had taken some eight prizes. The action resulted in the award in 1847, to any surviving claimants, of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Venerable 16 Jany. 1814".

Venerable was able to locate Iphigénie because Commander Ducrest de Villeneuve of Alcmène was so angry at Captain Émeric, who was the senior French commander, for not having come alongside Venerable on the other side also to board, that he essentially revealed the rendezvous instructions to Durham. When some prisoners from Iphigénie's crew were brought on Venerable, crew from Alcmène too were enraged. Durham had to station Royal Marines between them, with fixed bayonets, to prevent fighting from breaking out.

Fate
Venerable was placed on harbour service in 1825, and was broken up in 1838


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with modified gun ports, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Cumberland' (1807), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. It is likely that this plan also relates to 'Venerable' (1808), as she was also built by William Pitcher at Northfleet. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813]


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for 'Cumberland' (1807) and 'Venerable' (1808), both 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers building at Northfleet by Mr Thomas Pitcher. Initialled by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].



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

Repulse-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-357179;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=V

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1823 - Launch of HMS Prince Regent, a 120-gun Caledonia-class first rate three-decker ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Chatham.


HMS Prince Regent was a 120-gun first rate three-decker ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1823 at Chatham.

Served in the Baltic campaign in 1854 (1st campaign) but not in 1855 (2nd campaign).

She was converted into a screw ship in 1861, and was broken up in 1873.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for building Caledonia (1808), a 120-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan shows alterations to the vessel during her building, including the raising of the bow to remove the vulnerability of the beakhead bulkhead. The plan was further altered and used for Britannia (1820) and Prince Regent (1823). Signed by William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813] and John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806]


The Caledonia-class ships of the line were a class of nine 120-gun first rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir William Rule. A tenth ship (Royal Frederick) was ordered on 29 October 1827 to the same design, but was launched in 1833 as Queen to a fresh design by Sir William Symonds.

The armament remained the same for the first three ships of the class, with the exception of an increase in firepower on the poop deck from 2 to 6 18-pounder carronades. The armament for the fourth ship was significantly modified, with two of the 32-pounders on the main gun deck being replaced with 68-pounder carronades, all guns on the middle and upper gun decks being replaced with the same number of 32-pounders, four of the 12-pounder guns on the quarterdeck were replaced with 32-pounder carronades, and the remaining two were increased to 18-pounders, along with the two 12-pounders on the forecastle, and the carronades on the poop deck were removed. The remaining five ships were built to a slightly broadened version of the draught, and this sub-class was armed in the same way as the last of the standard Caledonias, HMS Royal George. Except for Caledonia herself, all these ships were converted into steam-powered screw battleships during the 1850s.


Launch of HMS Trafalgar

Ships
Standard group

• HMS Caledonia

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 19 January 1797
Laid down: 1 January 1805
Launched: 25 June 1808
Fate: Broken up, 1875

• HMS Britannia

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 11 June 1812
Laid down: December 1813
Launched: 20 October 1820
Fate: Broken up, 1869

• HMS Prince Regent

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 6 January 1812
Laid down: 17 July 1815
Launched: 12 April 1823
Fate: Broken up, 1873

• HMS Royal George

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 2 June 1819
Laid down: June 1823
Launched: 22 September 1827
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1875

Broadened group

• HMS Neptune

Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Ordered: 12 February 1823
Laid down: January 1827
Launched: 22 September 1832
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1875

• HMS Royal William

Builder: Pembroke Dockyard
Ordered: 30 December 1823
Laid down: October 1825
Launched: 2 April 1833
Fate: Burnt, 1899

• HMS Waterloo

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 9 September 1823
Laid down: March 1827
Launched: 10 June 1833
Fate: Burnt, 1918

• HMS St George

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 2 June 1819
Laid down: May 1827
Launched: 27 August 1840
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1883

• HMS Trafalgar

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 22 February 1825
Laid down: November 1829
Launched: 21 June 1841
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1906


HMS Caledonia, 120 guns, lying in Plymouth Sound


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) with alterations for Caledonia (1808), a 120-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan includes later alterations for Britannia (1820) and Prince Regent (1823).


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Britannia (1820), and with later alterations for Prince Regent (1823), both 120-gun First Rate, three-deckers. The plan illustrates the alteration to the circular stern in 1818, and the introduction of truss frames and trusses between ports. Signed by Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]




Scale: 1:24. A model of the circular stern of HMS 'Prince Regent' (1823) made entirely in wood and painted in realistic colours. The model shows the completed stern and starboard quarter with the port quarter mostly in frame. The completed hull is off-white below the waterline, black above, with two broad off-white stripes along the lower two gundecks that also encompass the lower two stern galleries. The port quarter like the starboard side is carved from solid wood and shows the main frames which have been painted. The lower two gundecks on the starboard side show a total of six gunports, their lids partly open, whilst the upper two gundecks each have two gunports, the lower halves of the lids open or removed to show the guns. The stern galleries are elaborately carved and painted, the upper two galleries being open. All three galleries have nine light windows and four windows in each gallery are depicted with the muzzles of guns. The poop deck shows two small stern chasers and the counter is decorated with a phoenix with a lion and unicorn on either side. The edge of the completed section is shown with a stylised serrated edge. The top section of the rudder is shown in position




Scale: 1:48. Sectional model of the 'Caledonia' (1808), a 120 gun three-decker ship of the line. Model is decked and is one of two longitudinal half models which together forms a full hull model. SLR0120 is the port half, which depicts the method of construction in practice before adoption of the system introduced by Sir Robert Seppings. This is the starboard half, which shows improvements and modifications made by Seppings, about 1814


Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the midship section with details illustrating the method proposed by Mr Roberts of attaching the chocks, iron knees and fastenings for Caledonia (1808), a 120-gun First Rate, three-deck



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Prince_Regent_(1823)

Caledonia-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-299461;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1861 - The Civil War begins with Confederates firing on Fort Sumter, S.C.
The Union Navy plays an integral part blockading Confederates, keeping them diplomatically and economically contained from other nations.


The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12–13, 1861) was the bombardment of Fort Sumter near Charleston, South Carolina by the Confederate States Army, and the return gunfire and subsequent surrender by the United States Army, that started the American Civil War. Following the declaration of secession by South Carolina on December 20, 1860, its authorities demanded that the U.S. Army abandon its facilities in Charleston Harbor. On December 26, Major Robert Anderson of the U.S. Army surreptitiously moved his small command from the vulnerable Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island to Fort Sumter, a substantial fortress built on an island controlling the entrance of Charleston Harbor. An attempt by U.S. President James Buchanan to reinforce and resupply Anderson using the unarmed merchant ship Star of the West failed when it was fired upon by shore batteries on January 9, 1861. South Carolina authorities then seized all Federal property in the Charleston area except for Fort Sumter.



During the early months of 1861, the situation around Fort Sumter increasingly began to resemble a siege. In March, Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard, the first general officer of the newly formed Confederate States Army, was placed in command of Confederate forces in Charleston. Beauregard energetically directed the strengthening of batteries around Charleston harbor aimed at Fort Sumter. Conditions in the fort, growing increasingly dire due to shortages of men, food, and supplies, deteriorated as the Union soldiers rushed to complete the installation of additional guns.

The resupply of Fort Sumter became the first crisis of the administration of the newly inaugurated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln following his victory in the election of November 6, 1860. He notified the Governor of South Carolina, Francis W. Pickens that he was sending supply ships, which resulted in an ultimatum from the Confederate government for the immediate evacuation of Fort Sumter, which Major Anderson refused. Beginning at 4:30 a.m. on April 12, the Confederates bombarded the fort from artillery batteries surrounding the harbor. Although the Union garrison returned fire, they were significantly outgunned and, after 34 hours, Major Anderson agreed to evacuate. There were no deaths on either side as a direct result of this engagement, although a gun explosion during the surrender ceremonies on April 14 caused two Union deaths.

Following the battle, there was widespread support from both North and South for further military action. Lincoln's immediate call for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the rebellion resulted in an additional four southern states also declaring their secession and joining the Confederacy. The battle is usually recognized as the first battle that opened the American Civil War.




Bombardment

Bombardment of the Fort by the Confederates

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Lt. Henry S. Farley, acting upon the command of Capt. George S. James,[45][46] fired a single 10-inch mortar round from Fort Johnson. (James had offered the first shot to Roger Pryor, a noted Virginia secessionist, who declined, saying, "I could not fire the first gun of the war.") The shell exploded over Fort Sumter as a signal to open the general bombardment from 43 guns and mortars at Fort Moultrie, Fort Johnson, the floating battery, and Cummings Point. Under orders from Beauregard, the guns fired in a counterclockwise sequence around the harbor, with 2 minutes between each shot; Beauregard wanted to conserve ammunition, which he calculated would last for only 48 hours. Edmund Ruffin, another noted Virginia secessionist, had traveled to Charleston to be present for the beginning of the war, and fired one of the first shots at Sumter after the signal round, a 64-pound shell from the Iron Battery at Cummings Point. The shelling of Fort Sumter from the batteries ringing the harbor awakened Charleston's residents (including diarist Mary Chesnut), who rushed out into the predawn darkness to watch the shells arc over the water and burst inside the fort.

Major Anderson held his fire, awaiting daylight. His troops reported for a call at 6 a.m. and then had breakfast. At 7 a.m., Capt. Abner Doubleday fired a shot at the Ironclad Battery at Cummings Point. He missed. Given the available manpower, Anderson could not take advantage of all of his 60 guns. He deliberately avoided using guns that were situated in the fort where casualties were most likely. The fort's best cannons were mounted on the uppermost of its three tiers—the barbette tier—where his troops were most exposed to incoming fire from overhead. The fort had been designed to withstand a naval assault, and naval warships of the time did not mount guns capable of elevating to shoot over the walls of the fort. However, the land-based cannons manned by the Confederates were capable of high-arcing ballistic trajectories and could therefore fire at parts of the fort that would have been out of naval guns' reach. Fort Sumter's garrison could only safely fire the 21 working guns on the lowest level, which themselves, because of the limited elevation allowed by their embrasures, were largely incapable of delivering fire with trajectories high enough to seriously threaten Fort Moultrie. Moreover, although the Federals had moved as many of their supplies to Fort Sumter as they could manage, the fort was quite low on ammunition, and was nearly out at the end of the 34-hour bombardment. A more immediate problem was the scarcity of cloth gunpowder cartridges or bags; only 700 were available at the beginning of the battle and workmen sewed frantically to create more, in some cases using socks from Anderson's personal wardrobe. Because of the shortages, Anderson reduced his firing to only six guns: two aimed at Cummings Point, two at Fort Moultrie, and two at the Sullivan's Island batteries.

Ships from Fox's relief expedition began to arrive on April 12. Although Fox himself arrived at 3 a.m. on his steamer Baltic, most of the rest of his fleet was delayed until 6 p.m., and one of the two warships, USS Powhatan, never did arrive. Unbeknownst to Fox, it had been ordered to the relief of Fort Pickens in Florida. As landing craft were sent toward the fort with supplies, the artillery fire deterred them and they pulled back. Fox decided to wait until after dark and for the arrival of his warships. The next day, heavy seas made it difficult to load the small boats with men and supplies and Fox was left with the hope that Anderson and his men could hold out until dark on April 13.

Although Sumter was a masonry fort, there were wooden buildings inside for barracks and officer quarters. The Confederates targeted these with Heated shot (cannonballs heated red hot in a furnace), starting fires that could prove more dangerous to the men than explosive artillery shells. At 7 p.m. on April 12, a rain shower extinguished the flames and at the same time the Union gunners stopped firing for the night. They slept fitfully, concerned about a potential infantry assault against the fort. During the darkness, the Confederates reduced their fire to four shots each hour. The following morning, the full bombardment resumed and the Confederates continued firing hot shot against the wooden buildings. By noon most of the wooden buildings in the fort and the main gate were on fire. The flames moved toward the main ammunition magazine, where 300 barrels of gunpowder were stored. The Union soldiers frantically tried to move the barrels to safety, but two-thirds were left when Anderson judged it was too dangerous and ordered the magazine doors closed. He ordered the remaining barrels thrown into the sea, but the tide kept floating them back together into groups, some of which were ignited by incoming artillery rounds. He also ordered his crews to redouble their efforts at firing, but the Confederates did the same, firing the hot shots almost exclusively. Many of the Confederate soldiers admired the courage and determination of the Yankees. When the fort had to pause its firing, the Confederates often cheered and applauded after the firing resumed and they shouted epithets at some of the nearby Union ships for failing to come to the fort's aid

Surrender

Fort Sumter Flag

The fort's central flagpole was knocked down at 1 p.m. on April 13, raising doubts among the Confederates about whether the fort was ready to surrender. Col. Louis Wigfall, a former U.S. senator, had been observing the battle and decided that this indicated the fort had had enough punishment. He commandeered a small boat and proceeded from Morris Island, waving a white handkerchief from his sword, dodging incoming rounds from Sullivan's Island. Meeting with Major Anderson, he said, "You have defended your flag nobly, Sir. You have done all that it is possible to do, and General Beauregard wants to stop this fight. On what terms, Major Anderson, will you evacuate this fort?" Anderson was encouraged that Wigfall had said "evacuate," not "surrender." He was low on ammunition, fires were burning out of control, and his men were hungry and exhausted. Satisfied that they had defended their post with honor, enduring over 3,000 Confederate rounds without losing a man, Anderson agreed to a truce at 2:00 p.m.

Fort Sumter raised Wigfall's white handkerchief on its flagpole as Wigfall departed in his small boat back to Morris Island, where he was hailed as a hero. The handkerchief was spotted in Charleston and a delegation of officers representing Beauregard—Stephen D. Lee, Porcher Miles, a former mayor of Charleston, and Roger Pryor—sailed to Sumter, unaware of Wigfall's visit. Anderson was outraged when these officers disavowed Wigfall's authority, telling him that the former senator had not spoken with Beauregard for two days, and he threatened to resume firing. Meanwhile, General Beauregard himself had finally seen the handkerchief and sent a second set of officers, offering essentially the same terms that Wigfall had presented, so the agreement was reinstated.

The Union garrison formally surrendered the fort to Confederate personnel at 2:30 p.m., April 13. No one from either side was killed during the bombardment. During the 100-gun salute to the U.S. flag—Anderson's one condition for withdrawal—a pile of cartridges blew up from a spark, mortally wounding privates Daniel Hough and Edward Galloway, and seriously wounding the other four members of the gun crew; these were the first military fatalities of the war. The salute was stopped at fifty shots. Hough was buried in the Fort Sumter parade ground within two hours after the explosion. Galloway and Private George Fielding were sent to the hospital in Charleston, where Galloway died a few days later; Fielding was released after six weeks. The other wounded men and the remaining Union troops were placed aboard a Confederate steamer, the Isabel, where they spent the night and were transported the next morning to Fox's relief ship Baltic, resting outside the harbor bar.


Our Banner in the Sky (1861) by Frederic Edwin Church

Battle of Fort Sumter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1861 - Capture of Mỹ Tho


The Capture of Mỹ Tho (Vietnamese: Mỹ Tho) on 12 April 1861 was an important allied victory in the Cochinchina campaign (1858–62). This campaign, fought between the French and the Spanish on the one side and the Vietnamese on the other, began as a limited punitive expedition and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.


Capture of Saigon by France, 18th February 1859.

Background
After early French and Spanish victories at Tourane (Da Nang) and Saigon, the Cochinchina campaign reached a point of equilibrium in 1860. In March 1860 the allies were forced to evacuate Tourane. At the same time they were besieged in Saigon, which had been captured by a Franco-Spanish expedition under the command of Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly on 17 February 1859. The arrival of massive reinforcements from the French expeditionary corps in China in 1860 allowed the French to regain the initiative. In early 1861 Admiral Léonard Charner broke the Siege of Saigon by defeating the Vietnamese besieging army at the Battle of Ky Hoa (25 February 1861). This victory gave Charner the opportunity to take the offensive against the Vietnamese, and he decided to strike first at Mỹ Tho and next at Biên Hòa.



The Mỹ Tho expedition

The Mỹ Tho campaign

The expedition against Mỹ Tho was initially led by capitaine de frégate Bourdais, captain of the aviso Monge. Besides Monge, the other warships at his disposal were the first-class gunboats Alarme and Mitraille and the small gunboats Nos. 18 and 31, commanded respectively by lieutenants de vaisseau Sauze, Duval, Peyron and de Mauduit. The flotilla carried a landing force of 200 French sailors, 30 Spanish soldiers and one mountain mortar.

Bourdais was ordered to advance on Mỹ Tho from the north, along a creek known to the French as the Arroyo de la Poste. On 1 and 2 April he bombarded and captured two forts at the entrance to the creek, and went on to destroy a series of stockades erected by the Vietnamese to bar access.

On 4 April the expedition received important reinforcements from Saigon: 200 chasseurs, 100 sailors, two companies of marine infantry, two 40-millimetre mountain guns and two mortars. These reinforcements arrived aboard the aviso Echo. Command of the expedition was now given to Charner's aide-de-camp capitaine de vaisseau Le Couriault du Quilio, assisted by capitaine de frégate Allizé de Montignicourt as chief of staff. A further reinforcement of 100 sailors arrived on 6 April, under the command of capitaine de frégate Desvaux.

Between 6 and 11 April Le Couriault du Quilio's expedition fought its way along the Arroyo de la Poste, against Vietnamese resistance of varying intensity.

On 8 April the expedition was reinforced with three more gunboats (Nos. 16, 20 and 22), commanded respectively by lieutenants de vaisseau Gougeard, Béhic and Salmon.

On the evening of 9 April the Vietnamese launched two fireships against the French gunboats. Enseignes de vaisseau Joucla and Besnard took both vessels under tow and ran them aground in a tributary creek, where they burned themselves out.

On 10 April a French scouting party led by Captain du Chaffault advanced up to the walls of Mỹ Tho and exchanged shots with the defenders before returning to make its report. Le Couriault du Quilio pressed forward with his gunboats, which were towing several sloops carrying 300 soldiers and sailors. Capitaine de frégate Bourdais, the original expedition commander, led an attack on Fort No. 5 with Gunboat No. 18 (see map), but was killed by a cannonball in the first exchange of fire. The French gunboats soon beat down the fire of the fort, and its defenders abandoned it before it was assaulted. The capture of this fort, renamed Fort Bourdais by the French, opened the route to Mỹ Tho.

On 11 April the expedition closed up on Mỹ Tho, and prepared to assault the town on the following day. In the event, the assault was not necessary. A flotilla of warships under the command of Admiral François Page, who had been sent by Charner to sail up the Mekong river to attack Mỹ Tho by sea, presented itself before the town on 12 April. Mỹ Tho was occupied by the French on the same day without a shot being fired.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Mỹ_Tho
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Rigault_de_Genouilly

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1879 - The Battle of Chipana took place on 12 April 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru.


The Battle of Chipana took place on 12 April 1879, during the War of the Pacific between Chile and Peru. It was the first naval engagement between both navies and it took place in front of Huanillos, off the (then) Bolivian coast, as the Peruvian corvette Unión and gunboat Pilcomayo found the Chilean corvette Magallanes on its way to Iquique. After a two-hour running artillery duel, Unión suffered engine problems, the pursuit was called off and Magallanes escaped with minor damage. Magallanes was able to complete part of its mission of delivering commissioned papers to Iquique, but unable to complete its reconnaissance mission of finding if there were any guano ships still making commerce in the zone.


Chilean corvette Magallanes





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Chipana
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_José_Latorre

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1910 – Launch of SMS Zrínyi, one of the last pre-dreadnought battleships built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy


SMS Zrínyi ("His Majesty's ship Zrínyi") was a Radetzky-class pre-dreadnought battleship (Schlachtschiff) of the Austro-Hungarian Navy (K.u.K. Kriegsmarine), named for the Zrinski, a noble Croatian family. Zrínyi and her sisters, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and Radetzky, were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

During World War I, Zrínyi saw action in the Adriatic Sea. She served with the Second Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy's battleships and shelled Senigallia as part of the bombardment of the key seaport of Ancona, Italy, during May 1915. However, Allied control of the Strait of Otranto meant that the Austro-Hungarian Navy was effectively contained in the Adriatic. Nonetheless, the presence of the Zrínyi and other battleships tied down a substantial force of Allied ships.

With the war going against the Austrians by the end of 1918, Zrínyi was prepared to be transferred to the new State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. On 10 November 1918, just one day before the end of the war, navy officers sailed the battleship out of Pola (Pula) and surrendered to a squadron of American submarine chasers. Following the handover to the United States Navy, she was briefly designated USS Zrínyi. In the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the transfer was not recognized; instead, Zrínyi was given to Italy and broken up for scrap.



Design and construction
Main article: Radetzky-class battleship
Zrínyi was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino dockyard in Trieste, the same place where her sister ships were built earlier. She was laid down on 15 November 1908 and launched from the slipway on 12 April 1910. The teak used on Zrínyi's deck was the only material Austria-Hungary had to purchase abroad to build the ship. The ship was completed by 15 July 1911, and on 22 November 1911 she was commissioned into the fleet. She was the last ship of the class to be completed and had a crew of 880 to 890 officers and men.


Plan of SMS Radetzky, a sister ship of SMS Zrínyi

Zrínyi was 138.8 m (455 ft 4 in) long, and had a beam of 24.6 m (80 ft 8 in) and a draft of 8.1 m (26 ft 9 in). She displaced 14,508 long tons (14,741 t) normally, and up to 15,845 long tons (16,099 t) with a full combat load. She was powered by two-shaft four-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines rated at 19,800 indicated horsepower. The ship had a top speed of 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph). Zrínyi was the first warship in the Austro-Hungarian Navy to use fuel oil to supplement her 12 Yarrow-type coal-fired boilers. She had a maximum range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

The ship's primary armament consisted of four 30.5 cm (12 in) 45-caliber guns in two twin gun turrets. This was augmented by a heavy secondary battery of eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four wing turrets. The tertiary battery consisted of twenty 10 cm L/50 guns in casemated single mounts, four 47 mm (1.9 in) (1.85 in) L/44 and one 47 mm L/33 quick-firing guns. Furthermore, the ship's boats were equipped with two 66 mm (2.6 in) L/18 landing guns for operations ashore. After 1916–17 refits four Škoda 7 cm K16 anti-aircraft guns were installed. Three 45 cm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes were also carried, one on each broadside and one in the stern.


Service history
The ship was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian Fleet's 1st Battle Squadron after her 1911 commissioning. In 1912, Zrínyi and her two sister ships conducted two training cruises into the eastern Mediterranean Sea. On the second cruise into the Aegean Sea, conducted from November to December, Zrínyi and her sister ships were accompanied by the cruiser SMS Admiral Spaun and a pair of destroyers. After returning to Pola, the entire fleet mobilized for possible hostilities, as tensions flared in the Balkans.

In 1913, Zrínyi participated in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea to protest the Balkan Wars. Ships from other navies included in the demonstration were the British pre-dreadnought HMS King Edward VII, the Italian pre-dreadnought Ammiraglio di Saint Bon, the French armored cruiser Edgar Quinet, and the German light cruiser SMS Breslau. The most important action of the combined flotilla, which was under the command of British Admiral Cecil Burney, was to blockade the Montenegrin coast. The goal of the blockade was to prevent Serbian reinforcements from supporting the siege at Scutari, where Montenegro had besieged a combined force of Albanians and Ottomans. Pressured by the international blockade, Serbia withdrew its army from Scutari, which was subsequently occupied by a joint Allied ground force.

During that year, the first of four new dreadnoughts, SMS Viribus Unitis, that made up the Tegetthoff class—the only dreadnoughts built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy—came into active service. With the commissioning of these dreadnoughts, Zrínyi and her sisters were moved from the 1st Division to the 2nd Division of the 1st Battle Squadron.

World War I
At the time of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914, the battleships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy consisted of the Radetzky class, the Tegetthoff class (which still had one ship, SMS Szent István, under construction), the Erzherzog Karl class and finally, the older Habsburg class. Along with the remainder of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, Zrínyi was mobilized in late July 1914 to support the flight of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau. The two German ships broke out of Messina, which was surrounded by the British navy and reached Turkey. The flotilla had advanced as far south as Brindisi in southeastern Italy when news of the successful breakout reached Vienna. The Austro-Hungarian ships were then recalled before seeing action.


First World War postcard depicting SMS Zrínyi in action at Senigallia

On 23 May 1915, between two and four hours after news of the Italian declaration of war reached the main Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola, Zrínyi and the rest of the fleet departed to bombard the Italian and Montenegrin coast. Their focus was on the important naval base at Ancona, and later the coast of Montenegro. The bombardment of Montenegro was part of the larger Austro-Hungarian campaign against the Kingdoms of Montenegro and Serbia, who were members of the Entente, during the first half of 1915. The attack on Ancona was an immense success, and the ships were unopposed during the operation. The bombardment of the province and the surrounding area resulted in the destruction of an Italian steamer in the port of Ancona itself, and an Italian destroyer, Turbine, was severely damaged further south. On the shore, the infrastructure of the port of Ancona, as well as the surrounding towns, were severely damaged. The railroad yard in Ancona, as well as the port facilities in the town, were damaged or destroyed. The local shore batteries were also suppressed. During the bombardment, Zrínyi also helped to destroy a train, a railway station, and a bridge at Senigallia. Additional targets that were damaged or destroyed included wharves, warehouses, oil tanks, radio stations, and the local barracks. Sixty-three Italians, both civilians and military personnel, were killed in the bombardment. By the time Italian ships from Taranto and Brindisi arrived on the scene, the Austro-Hungarians were safely back in Pola.

The objective of the bombardment of Ancona was to delay the Italian Army from deploying its forces along the border with Austria-Hungary by destroying critical transportation systems. The surprise attack on Ancona succeeded in delaying the Italian deployment to the Alps for two weeks. This delay gave Austria-Hungary valuable time to strengthen its Italian border and re-deploy some of its troops from the Eastern and Balkan fronts.

Aside from the attack on Ancona, the Austro-Hungarian battleships were largely confined to Pola for the duration of the war. Their operations were limited by Admiral Anton Haus, the commander of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, who believed that he would need to husband his ships to counter any Italian attempt to seize the Dalmatian coast. Since coal was diverted to the newer Tegetthoff-class battleships, the remainder of the war saw Zrínyi and the rest of the Austro-Hungarian Navy acting as a fleet in being. This resulted in the Allied blockade of the Otranto Strait. With his fleet blockaded in the Adriatic Sea, and with a shortage of coal, Haus followed a strategy based on mines and submarines designed to reduce the numerical superiority of the Allied navies.

Post-war fate

SMS Zrínyi after being handed over to the United States

After the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed in 1918, the Austrians wanted to turn the fleet over to the newly created State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs (later to become a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in order to prevent the Italians from claiming the ships as spoils of war. However, the victorious Allies refused to acknowledge the conversations between the Austrians and the south Slavs and, in due course, reallocated the ships. The ship had been boarded by a scratch Yugoslav crew on 10 November 1918, one day before the Armistice, and had left Pola along with her sister ship, Radetzky. They were soon spotted by heavy Italian ships, so the two battleships hoisted American flags and sailed south along the Adriatic coast to Castelli Bay near Spalato (also known as Split). They appealed for American naval forces to meet them and accept their surrender, which a squadron of United States Navy (USN) submarine chasers in the area did. She had apparently been turned over to the fledgling south Slav state, as it was a Croat naval officer, Korvettenkapitän Marijan Polić, who presented the ship as a prize of war to representatives of the United States Navy on the afternoon of 22 November 1919 at Spalato (Split) in Dalmatia. Simultaneously she was commissioned as USS Zrínyi and Lieutenant E.E. Hazlett, USN, assumed command. The initial American complement consisted of four officers and 174 enlisted men—the latter entirely composed of United States Navy Reserve Force personnel. The ship remained at anchor at Spalato for nearly a year while the negotiations that would determine her ultimate fate dragged on. Only once did she apparently turn her engines over, and that occurred during a severe gale that struck Spalato on 9 February 1920.

On the morning of 7 November 1920, Zrínyi was decommissioned. USS Chattanooga took her in tow and, assisted by Brooks and Hovey, towed the battleship to Italy. Under the terms of the treaties of Versailles and St. Germain, Zrínyi was ultimately turned over to the Italian government at Venice. She was broken up for scrap later that year and into 1921.



SMS Radetzky

The Radetzky class was a group of three semi-dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1907 and 1910. All ships were built by the STT shipyard in Trieste. They were the last pre-dreadnoughts built by the Austro-Hungarians, and the penultimate class of any type of Austro-Hungarian battleship completed. The class comprised three ships: Radetzky, Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand, and Zrínyi. They were armed with four 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in two twin turrets and eight 24 cm (9.4 in) guns in four twin turrets; the heavy secondary guns set the Radetzky-class ships apart from other pre-dreadnought type battleships.

Commissioned only a few years before the outbreak of World War I, the ships had limited service careers. All three of the battleships conducted training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in 1912. In 1913, they took part in an international naval demonstration in the Ionian Sea that protested the Balkan Wars. After Italy declared war on Austro-Hungary and the other Central Powers in 1915, the three Radetzky-class ships bombarded coastal targets in the Adriatic Sea. After 1915, their participation in the war became minimal. All three ships were handed over to Italy after the end of the war, and broken up for scrap between 1920 and 1926.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Zrínyi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radetzky-class_battleship

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 April 1910 – Launch of French Vergniaud, one of the six Danton-class semi-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the late 1800s.


Vergniaud was one of the six Danton-class semi-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the late 1800s. When World War I began in August 1914, she unsuccessfully searched for the German battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiser SMS Breslau in the Western Mediterranean and escorted convoys. Later that month, the ship participated in the Battle of Antivari in the Adriatic Sea and helped to sink an Austro-Hungarian protected cruiser. Vergniaud spent most of the rest of the war blockading the Straits of Otranto and the Dardanelles to prevent German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish warships from breaking out into the Mediterranean.

She briefly participated in the occupation of Constantinople after the end of the war and was deployed in the Black Sea in early 1919 during the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The ship's crew mutinied after one of its members was killed when a protest against intervention against the Bolsheviks was bloodily suppressed. Vergniaud returned to France and was later placed in reserve after a brief deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean. She was condemned in 1921 and used as a target ship until 1926. The ship was sold for scrap two years later.





Design and description
Although the Danton-class battleships were a significant improvement from the preceding Liberté class, they were outclassed by the advent of the dreadnought well before they were completed. This, combined with other poor traits, including the great weight in coal they had to carry, made them rather unsuccessful ships, though their numerous rapid-firing guns were of some use in the Mediterranean.

Vergniaud was 146.6 meters (481 ft 0 in) long overall and had a beam of 25.8 meters (84 ft 8 in) and a full-load draft of 9.2 meters (30 ft 2 in). She displaced 19,736 metric tons (19,424 long tons) at deep load and had a crew of 681 officers and enlisted men. The ship was powered by four Parsons steam turbines using steam generated by twenty-six Niclausse boilers. The turbines were rated at 22,500 shaft horsepower (16,800 kW) and provided a top speed of around 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). Vergniaud reached a top speed of 19.7 knots (36.5 km/h; 22.7 mph) on her sea trials. She carried a maximum of 2,027 tonnes (1,995 long tons) of coal which allowed her to steam for 3,370 nautical miles (6,240 km; 3,880 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Vergniaud's main battery consisted of four 305mm/45 Modèle 1906 guns mounted in two twin gun turrets, one forward and one aft. The secondary battery consisted of twelve 240mm/50 Modèle 1902 guns in twin turrets, three on each side of the ship. A number of smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats. These included sixteen 75 mm (3.0 in) L/65 guns and ten 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns. The ship was also armed with two submerged 450 mm (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. The ship's waterline armor belt was 270 mm (10.6 in) thick and the main battery was protected by up to 300 mm (11.8 in) of armor. The conning tower also had 300 mm thick sides.



Wartime modifications
During the war 75 mm anti-aircraft guns were installed on the roofs of the ship's two forward 240 mm gun turrets.[3] During 1918, the mainmast was shortened to allow the ship to fly a captive kite balloon and the elevation of the 240 mm guns was increased which extended their range to 18,000 meters (20,000 yd).

Career


Vergniaud in Toulon, May 1914.

Construction of Vergniaud was begun on 26 December 1906 by Forges et Chantiers de la Gironde in Bordeaux and the ship was laid down in November 1907. She was launched on 12 April 1909 and was completed on 18 December 1911 at cost of 55,247,307 francs. The ship was assigned to the First Division of the First Squadron (escadre) of the Mediterranean Fleet when she was commissioned. The ship participated in combined fleet maneuvers between Provence and Tunisia in May–June 1913 and the subsequent naval review conducted by the President of France, Raymond Poincaré on 7 June 1913. Afterwards, Vergniaud joined her squadron in its tour of the Eastern Mediterranean in October–December 1913 and participated in the grand fleet exercise in the Mediterranean in May 1914.

World War I
At the beginning of the war, the ship, together with her sister Condorcet and the dreadnought Courbet, unsuccessfully searched for the German battlecruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Breslau in the Balearic Islands. She later escorted troop convoys from North Africa to France before she joined her sisters at Malta. On 16 August 1914 the combined Anglo-French Fleet under Admiral Auguste Boué de Lapeyrère, including Vergniaud, made a sweep of the Adriatic Sea. The Allied ships encountered the Austro-Hungarian cruiser SMS Zenta, escorted by the destroyer SMS Ulan, blockading the coast of Montenegro. There were too many ships for Zenta to escape, so she remained behind to allow Ulan to get away and was sunk by gunfire during the Battle of Antivari off the coast of Bar, Montenegro. Vergniaud was one of the ships that bombarded Cattaro on 1 September and blockaded the Strait of Otranto for the rest of the year and through August 1915. She was based at Malta and Bizerte until February 1916 when she sailed to Toulon.

Vergniaud was transferred to the Second Squadron on 27 March 1916 and resumed her former duties of blockading the Strait of Otranto from bases in Argostoli and Corfu for most of the rest of the war. The ship transferred some of her men to her sister Mirabeau that participated in the Allied attempt to ensure Greek acquiescence to Allied operations in Macedonia in Athens on 1 December 1916. The lieutenant in charge of her landing party was killed as were several other men during the incident. She was given a short refit at Toulon from 9 November 1917 to January 1918 and returned to Corfu. Vergniaud was transferred to Mudros in May to prevent Goeben from breaking out into the Mediterranean. A boiler burst on 14 September, killing four men and wounding nine others. After the Armistice of Mudros was signed on 30 October between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire, the ship participated in the early stage of the occupation of Constantinople. She returned to Toulon on 17 December for a short refit.

Postwar career
In early 1919, Vergniaud was among the ships stationed off Sevastopol as an Allied deterrent to Soviet forces who were encroaching on the city during the Russian civil war. Despite Allied support, the city's White Russian forces were in a seemingly hopeless position, and in April 1919 the French naval high command ordered the ships to evacuate. Rejecting this, the commander of the Second Squadron, Vice-Admiral (vice-amiral) Jean-Françoise-Charles Amet, attempted to have his forces intervene in the fighting, only to have a mutiny erupt on several of his ships. War-weary sailors demanded to return home and the ensuing standoff culminated in a mass shooting of sailor demonstrators. Fifteen people were wounded, but only one died, a sailor from Vergniaud. The battleship's crew had thus far remained neutral in the conflict but quickly joined the ranks of the most radical mutineers, unfurling red banners in support of the Bolshevik forces. The four-day stalemate ended in a victory for the sailors: the ships withdrew from the Black Sea and Vergniaud returned to France. The ship departed on 29 April, towing the merchant ship SS Jerusalem to Constantinople.


A surviving pair of 240mm/50 Modèle 1902 guns from the Vergniaud that were mounted on the Île de Goréein Senegal.

Vergniaud was based in Beirut from May to August 1919 to monitor Turkish activities off the coasts of Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. She arrived in Toulon on 6 September and was placed in special reserve on 1 October. This ship was later found to be in poor shape, decommissioned in June 1921 and condemned on 27 October. She was disarmed in 1922. Nine of her 240mm guns were installed as coastal defence batteries around the port city of Dakar, Senegal. Two of the guns and their barbettes were sited on the Île de Gorée; due to their prominence they have become known as the "Les canons de Navaronne" after the eponymous 1961 film The Guns of Navarone. In 1940, the port batteries forced an Allied fleet to withdraw from the Vichy French port during the Battle of Dakar.

Vergniaud became a target ship and was used to evaluate the effects of poison gases and bombs until 1926. She was listed for disposal on 5 May 1927 and was sold for breaking up on 27 November 1928 for the price of 5,623,123 francs. A monument to the French mutineers of 1919 was erected by the Soviets in Sevastopol, at Morskaïa Square where Vergniaud's sailor was killed.



Arsenal model of Danton, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.

The Danton-class battleship was a class of six pre-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) before World War I. The ships were assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet after commissioning in 1911. After the beginning of World War I in early August 1914, five of the sister ships participated in the Battle of Antivari. They spent most of the rest of the war blockading the Straits of Otranto and the Dardanelles to prevent warships of the Central Powers from breaking out into the Mediterranean. One ship was sunk by a German submarine in 1917.

The remaining five ships were obsolescent by the end of the war and most were assigned to secondary roles. Two of the sisters were sent to the Black Sea to support the Whites during the Russian Civil War. One ship ran aground and the crew of the other mutinied after one of its members was killed during a protest against intervention in support of the Whites. Both ships were quickly condemned and later sold for scrap. The remaining three sisters received partial modernizations in the mid-1920s and became training ships until they were condemned in the mid-1930s and later scrapped. The only survivor still afloat at the beginning of World War II in August 1939 had been hulked in 1931 and was serving as part of the navy's torpedo school. She was captured by the Germans when they occupied Vichy France in 1942 and scuttled by them after the Allied invasion of southern France in 1944.

French battleship Vergniaud - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danton-class_battleship

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 12 April


1453 - Fall of Constantinople - Turks attack Byzantine vessels defending Constantinople


The Ottoman Turks transport their fleet overland into the Golden Horn.

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


1685 – Launch of French Magnifique 84 guns (designed and built by François Chapelle, launched 12 April 1685 at Toulon) – burnt by the English in the Battle of La Hogue in June 1692. This vessel was originally classed as a Second Rank ship of 72 guns, but was raised to the First Rank in 1690

Action at La Hogue (1692) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1713 - Maltese defeat Algerines


1741 – French Bourbon 74 (launched September 1720 at Brest, designed by Laurent Helie) - foundered on 12 April 1741.


1749 HMS Apollo hospital ship, Lt. Robert Wilson, wrecked between Cudalore and Fort St. David's.

HMS Apollo (1747) was 20-gun storeship captured from the French in 1747 and wrecked in 1749 off Madras.


1766 – Launch of French Dédaigneuse, (launched 12 April 1766 at Bordeaux).

Dédaigneuse class (32-gun design by Leon-Michel Guignace, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).
Dédaigneuse, (launched 12 April 1766 at Bordeaux).
Belle Poule, (launched 18 November 1766 at Bordeaux)- captured by HMS Nonsuch and taken into the British Navy under her former name in 1780.
Impérieuse, (launched 26 October 1768 at Bordeaux, renamed Amphitrite after her launch).
Tourterelle, (launched 18 September 1770 at Bordeaux) - condemned 1783 and taken to pieces at Brest 1784.

French frigate Belle Poule (1766) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1770 – Launch of HMS Resolution was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1770 at Deptford Dockyard.

HMS Resolution was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 April 1770 at Deptford Dockyard.
She participated in the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780, the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781, and the Battle of the Saintes in 1782.
Resolution was broken up in 1813.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolution_(1770)

Elizabeth-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-342921;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R


1797 – Launch of Admiral Gardner was launched in 1797 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC).

Admiral Gardner was launched in 1797 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made five voyages for the EIC, during the fourth of which she participated in an inconclusive single-ship action with a French privateer. Admiral Gardner was wrecked in January 1809.


The 813-ton East Indiaman 'Admiral Gardner' was built in 1796 at Blackwall. She was named after Alan Gardner, the first Baron Gardner (1742–1809), who had a distinguished naval career until he became a Member of Parliament in 1796. Commanded by William Eastfield, she was wrecked off South Foreland on the Goodwin Sands, a notorious stretch of the Thames Estuary, on 25 January 1809. Her loss was a serious blow to the East India Company as she was carrying 54 tons of specially minted copper coinage, destined for the Company's Mint at Madras

Admiral Gardner (1797 EIC ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1797 – Launch of HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes.

HMS Boadicea was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the Channel and in the East Indies during which service she captured many prizes. She participated in one action for which the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal. She was broken up in 1858.

HMS Boadicea (1797) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1798 HMS Lively (32), Cptn. James Nicoll Morris, wrecked on Rosa Point, near Cadiz.

HMS Lively was a 32-gun fifth-rate Alcmene-class frigate of the British Royal Navy launched on 23 October 1794 at Northam, Devon. She took part in three actions that would in 1847 qualify for the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal, one a single-ship action, one a major battle, and one a cutting-out boat expedition. Lively was wrecked in 1798

HMS Lively (1794) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-326390;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L


1800 Boats of HMS Calypso (16), Cptn Joseph Baker, cut out Diligence (6) off Cape Tiberon.

HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Echo Class ship-sloop. She was built at Deptford between 1781 and 1783, launched on 27 September 1783 and first commissioned on 1 December 1783 for service off Northern Ireland and Scotland. She served in the North Sea, Atlantic, and the West Indies. Calypso was sunk whilst acting as a convoy escort on 30 July 1803 after colliding with a West Indiaman merchant ship during a violent storm.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with gallery decoration and figurehead for Echo (1782) and Calypso (1783), and later for Rattler (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]

HMS Calypso (1783) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-299589;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C


1805 – Launch of French Régulus was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


The French Régulus under attack by British fireships, during the evening of 11 August 1809. Drawing by Louis-Philippe Crépin.

French ship Régulus (1805) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1807 – Birth of Admiral Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly (12 April 1807 – 4 May 1873) was a French naval officer.

Admiral Pierre-Louis-Charles Rigault de Genouilly (12 April 1807 – 4 May 1873) was a French naval officer. He fought with distinction in the Crimean War and the Second Opium War, but is chiefly remembered today for his command of French and Spanish forces during the opening phase of the Cochinchina campaign (1858–62), which inaugurated the French conquest of Vietnam.

Charles Rigault de Genouilly - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1809 - Tonnerre was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy Wrecked during the Battle of the Basque Roads on 12 April 1809, and burned by her crew to avoid capture.

Tonnerre was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Started in 1794, she remained under construction until 1808. Under Captain de la Roncière, she joined the Rochefort squadron in February 1809.
At the Battle of the Basque Roads, she was beached on 12 April. Her crew then scuttled her by fire to avoid her capture

French ship Tonnerre (1808) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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

Battle of the Basque Roads - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1810 HMS Unicorn (32), Cptn. Alex. Robert Kerr, captured Esperance (flute).

HMS Unicorn was a 32-gun fifth-rate Pallas-class frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Chatham. This frigate served in both the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, including a medal action early in her career. She was broken up in 1815.


The capture of the French frigate Tribune by HMS Unicorn

HMS Unicorn (1794) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1838 HMS Rapid (10), Lt. Hon. Graham Hay St. Vincent de Ros Kinnaird, wrecked off Crete.

HMS Rapid (1829) was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1829 and wrecked in 1838.



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-342070;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R


1854 – Launch of HMS Prince was a Royal Navy storeship purchased in 1854 from mercantile owners and lost in a storm off Balaklava in November that year during the Crimean War.

HMS Prince was a Royal Navy storeship purchased in 1854 from mercantile owners and lost in a storm off Balaklava in November that year during the Crimean War.
She was purchased from the General Screw Steam Shipping Company for £105,000 by Admiralty Order dated July 1854 and commissioned under Commander Benjamin Baynton. She sailed for the Crimea, carrying 150 persons and a cargo of much needed winter uniforms. The loss of the ship and its cargo caused a public outcry in Britain because of the severe winter conditions being endured by troops in unsuitable clothing.[2]
She was destroyed at a deep water anchorage outside Balaklava by a hurricane-force storm which tore her from her anchorage and dashed her onto rocks: she broke up completely within ten minutes and only six of her 150 crew were saved. Correspondent William Howard Russell considered her officers to have been negligent in losing her bower anchors. Commander Bayntoun, her commanding officer, perished in the wreck.[3]
29 other Allied transport ships were wrecked during the same storm.[4]
The wreck was discovered off Balaklava in 2010 by a Ukrainian maritime archeological team led by Sergei Voronov, of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences

HMS Prince (1854) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1866 – Wreckage of Gilmore (or Gillmore), a merchant ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, British India, in 1824.

Gilmore (or Gillmore), was a merchant ship built at Sulkea, opposite Calcutta, British India, in 1824. In 1829-30 she made a voyage delivering settlers to the Swan River Colony in Western Australia. She then made two voyages transporting convicts from England to Tasmania.

Gilmore (1824 ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1893 – Birth of Admiral of the Fleet Sir Rhoderick Robert McGrigor GCB (12 April 1893 – 3 December 1959) was a senior Royal Navy officer.

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Rhoderick Robert McGrigor GCB (12 April 1893 – 3 December 1959) was a senior Royal Navy officer. He fought in the First World War and saw action during the Gallipoli Campaign and then the Battle of Jutland. He also served in the Second World War, taking part in the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941, carrying out the office of Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff (Weapons) and commanding the 1st Cruiser Squadron during operations off the Norwegian coast and convoys to North Russia. He served as First Sea Lord in the early 1950s and is most remembered as a leading proponent of carrier-based air power.

Rhoderick McGrigor - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1941 - Yugoslav monitor Drava – On 12 April 1941, during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia, a German dive bomber struck the monitor's engine room, killing 54 crew members


Sister ship SMS Inn

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


1944 - USS Halibut (SS 232) sinks Japanese army passenger/cargo ship Taichu Maru despite the presence of at least three escort vessels.

Cruising between Amami O Shima and Tokuno Shima late on 12 April, the submarine encountered several enemy vessels outbound from Kagoshima, Kyushu for Naha, Okinawa; following them northwards, she spotted a south-bound freighter with three small escorts. She launched three torpedoes; one struck the Taichu Maru (3,213 tons) squarely amidships and she quickly sank. The three escorts dropped eighteen depth charges, which did little more than test the newly fitted depth charge indicator. The sinking alerted the Japanese, and both sea and air anti-submarine patrols were intensified in the area, preventing Halibut from operating successfully for the next two weeks even as she expanded her patrol into the East China Sea.

USS Halibut (SS-232) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1945 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Ga. Besides being the nations longest-serving president, he also was an Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1913–1919) .

Franklin D. Roosevelt - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1945 - USS Mannert L. Abele – On 12 April 1945 the US destroyer was sunk after being hit by two kamikaze aircraft with one being a Yokosuka MXY7 Ohka flying bomb. The first plane to hit her crashed into her starboard side and penetrated her after engine room where it exploded and broke her keel amidships. The second hit, from the flying bomb, struck her starboard waterline abreast of her forward fireroom, exploded, and broke her in two. She sank quickly, killing 73 of her crew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Mannert_L._Abele


1970 - K-8 was a November-class submarine of the Soviet Northern Fleet that sank in the Bay of Biscay with her nuclear weapons on board on April 12, 1970. A fire on April 8 had disabled the submarine and it was being towed in rough seas. Fifty-two crewmen were killed attempting the salvage of the boat when it sank.

Soviet submarine K-8 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1749 - whilst near Fort St David, HMS Pembroke (66), along with HMS Namur (90) and the hospital ship HMS Apollo (20), were wrecked in a storm, with the loss of 330 of her crew, only 12 being saved. On Namur 520 of her crew were drowned, on Apollo all 120.


HMS Pembroke was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built to the dimensions of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich Dockyard, and launched on 27 November 1733.

In April 1749, whilst near Fort St David, Pembroke, along with Namur and the hospital ship Apollo, was wrecked in a storm, with the loss of 330 of her crew, only 12 being saved.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Pembroke, a 1719 Establishment 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker. The plan has alterations to the quarterdeck ports, as ordered by the Surveyor dated 22 May 1733


HMS Namur was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1697.


HMS Namur (left) at the Battle of Toulon in 1744

On 11 June 1723 she was ordered to be taken to pieces at Portsmouth and her timbers transferred to Deptford Dockyard. In 1729 the timbers were used to rebuild the ship according to the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 13 September 1729. In 1745, she was razeed to 74 guns.

Namur was wrecked on 14 April 1749 in a storm near Fort St David. In total, 520 of her crew were drowned, though Captain Marshal survived.




Scale 1:48. A plan showing a body plan, sternboard outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half-breadth with deck detail for 'Namure' (1729), a 90-gun, Second Rate, three-decker, as cut down to a 74-gun, Third Rate, two-decker in 1746. Reverse: Scale: 1:48. Plan showing a half-breadth of the quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck with fittings, full-breadth orlop deck for 'Namure' (1729)


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, basic sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Devonshire (1745), a 1741 Establishment 80-gun Third Rate, three-decker. The plan was later altered to include the sheer lines (in yellow ink) for Namure (1729), a 1719 Establishment 90-gun Second Rate, and the 1741? Establishment 80-gun Third Rate design. The plan may be for the 1745 Establishment, as there were alteration to the design.



HMS Apollo (1747) was 20-gun storeship captured from the French in 1747 and wrecked in 1749 off Madras.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pembroke_(1733)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-338199;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

HMS Namur (1697) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-333660;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=N
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=3087

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1758 - HMS Prince George, a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1682 as HMS Duke, at Woolwich Dockyard, accidently burnt at sea in the Bay of Biscay
The flames quickly spread throughout the ship and she foundered with the loss of 485 out of 745 crew.


HMS Duke was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched in 1682 at Woolwich Dockyard.






She underwent a rebuild in 1701 as another 90-gun second rate, and was renamed HMS Prince George (after the future George II). After her rebuild, she served in the War of the Spanish Succession, fighting in the Battle of Málaga and the capture of Gibraltar.

On 4 November 1719 Prince George was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Deptford, from where she was relaunched on 4 September 1723 as a 90-gun second-rate built to the 1719 Establishment.

In June 1757 Prince George was taken into Portsmouth Dockyard for repairs. The work took four months to complete at a total cost of £9,513, after which the ship was recommissioned as the flagship of Rear Admiral Broderick. On 13 April 1758, Prince George was at sea in the Bay of Biscay when a fire broke out below decks. The flames quickly spread throughout the ship and she foundered with the loss of 485 out of 745 crew.


Scale 1:48. A plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Prince George' (1723) and 'Namure' (1729) both 1719 Establishment 90-gun, Second Rate, three-deckers

HMS Duke (1682) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-340533;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1774 – Launch of HMS Surprise (or Surprize), a 28-gun Enterprise-class


HMS Surprise (or Surprize) was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which served throughout the American Revolutionary Warand was broken up in 1783.



Service history
Surprise was one of a batch of five ships ordered as part of a programme sparked by the diplomatic crisis of 1770 between Britain and Spain over the possession of the Falkland Islands. Based on a design by Sir John Williams, her keel was laid down on 5 September 1771 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was launched on 13 April 1774, commissioned in February 1775 under the command of Captain Robert Linzee, and completed on 15 April 1775.

Under Linzee's command Surprise sailed for Newfoundland on 23 May 1775. On 20 March 1776 Surprise and the sloop Martin sailed from Plymouth, carrying supplies and troops for the relief of Quebec, then besieged by American forces. They rendezvoused with Isis, which had sailed from Portland on 11 March, off the L'Isle-aux-Coudres in the Saint Lawrence River on 3 May, and Surprise sailed ahead to give the British garrison notice of their arrival. The three ships landed their troops on the 6th, and the Americans began to withdraw. Surprise and Martin sailed upriver to "annoy" the retreating troops, captured an American schooner armed with four 6-pounder and six 3-pounder guns, and recovered the Royal Navy brig Gaspée, which the Americans had captured the previous year.

Surprise remained in North America, based at Newfoundland, and captured the American schooner Favourite on 3 May 1777, and the brig Live Oak on 4 September 1777.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name on the stern counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half breadth for Syren/Siren (1773), a 28-gun,

In September 1778, following France's alliance with the Americans, Vice-Admiral John Montagu, Governor and Commander-in-Chief at Newfoundland, sent a squadron under the command of Commodore John Evans to capture the French islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon. The squadron consisted of the flagship Pallas, commanded by Richard King, Surprise, Robert Linzee; Romney, George Montagu, Martin, Charles Chamberlayn, and the sloop Bonavista, Lt. Cheney H. Garrett, and carried an additional 200 Marines and artillery. They landed on 16 September, taking the islands and also capturing the French snow Charming Nancy and the ship Aimable Betsey in Saint-Pierre on 18 September. Soon after Surprise captured Harlequin, a privateer from Salem, armed with ten 3-pounders and eight swivels, off Labrador, and on 16 December she captured the French snow Les Deux Freres.

In February 1779 Samuel Reeve assumed command of Surprise, and on 30 April she sailed for Newfoundland, where she made several captures:

• On 16 July 1779, the 12-gun brig Wildcat. Wildcat, of 14 guns and 75 men, ten weeks off the stocks, had just captured the schooner HMS Egmont. Surprise was able to free Lieutenant Gardiner and 20 of his men from Egmont who were aboard Wildcat, but the schooner herself had separated earlier.
• Two American privateers were brought into St. John's in early October 1779; Jason a 20-gun ship, commanded by John Manley, taken on the 1st, and the 14-gun brig Monmouth, commanded by John Ravil, taken on the 5th.
• On 29 January 1780, the 20-gun French privateer Duguay-Trouin was taken off the Dodman. Duguay Trouin was from Havre and the British took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name.
• On 6 October 1780, in company with Vestal, The Hon. George Berkeley, the brig Fair American.
• On 15 July 1781, she recaptured Margaret Christiana.
• On 3 September 1781 Surprise and Danae arrived at St. John's, having convoyed a fleet of transports and merchant ships to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and brought with them three American privateers that they had captured during the passage; the 16-gun Venus and Independence, and the 10-gun brig Diana. On 21 July they had also retaken the ship Lockhart Ross of Quebec, which two French frigates had captured a few days before.
• On 27 September 1781, the brig Sturdy.
• On 4 October 1781, the 14-gun Tiger.
• On 9 January 1782, Les Sept Freres.

James Ferguson took command of Surprise on 2 March 1782, sailing to Newfoundland as escort to a convoy. On 16 August 1782 Surprise and Assistance, Captain James Worth, captured the American privateer Raven.

Fate
Surprise was paid off in February 1783, and sold for breaking up on 24 April.


Honour's board decorated with a list of battles and actions of all the Royal Navy fighting vessels named HMS 'Surprise' from 1774-1945.


The Enterprise-class frigates were the final class of 28-gun sailing frigates of the sixth-rate to be produced for the Royal Navy. These twenty-seven vessels were designed in 1770 by John Williams.

Ships in class
First batch

• Siren
  • Ordered: 25 December 1770
  • Built by: John Henniker and Company, Chatham.
  • Keel laid: April 1771
  • Launched: 2 November 1773
  • Completed: 5 October 1775 at Chatham Royal Dockyard.
  • Fate: Grounded and abandoned under fire off Point Judith, Connecticut on 6 November 1777.
• Fox
  • Ordered: 25 December 1770
  • Built by: Thomas Raymond, Northam (Southampton).
  • Keel laid: May 1771
  • Launched: 2 September 1773
  • Completed: 12 February 1776 at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard.
  • Fate: Captured by the French off Brest on 11 September 1778.
• Surprise
  • Ordered: January 1771
  • Built by: Woolwich Royal Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: 5 September 1771
  • Launched: 13 April 1774
  • Completed: 15 April 1775
  • Fate: Sold at Woolwich Dockyard on 24 April 1783.
• Enterprise
  • Ordered: January 1771
  • Built by: Deptford Royal Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: 9 September 1771
  • Launched: 24 August 1774
  • Completed: 20 June 1775
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in August 1807.
• Actaeon
  • Ordered: 5 November 1771
  • Built by: Woolwich Royal Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: October 1772
  • Launched: 18 April 1775
  • Completed: 3 August 1775
  • Fate: Grounded off Fort Sullivan, South Carolina and burnt to avoid capture on 29 June 1776.

A painting showing a model of the frigate 'Enterprise' in starboard-quarter view. It has been depicted fixed to a table base, with a label on the side that reads 'Enterprise 28 Guns 200 Men'.

Second batch

• Proserpine
  • Ordered: 14 May 1776
  • Built by: John Barnard, Harwich.
  • Keel laid: June 1776
  • Launched: 7 July 1777
  • Completed: 23 September 1777 at Sheerness Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked in the Elbe Estuary on 1 February 1799.
• Medea
  • Ordered: 14 May 1776
  • Built by: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol.
  • Keel laid: June 1776
  • Launched: 28 April 1778
  • Completed: 15 September 1778 at Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Fitted as hospital ship 1801. Sold 1805.
• Andromeda
  • Ordered: 14 May 1776
  • Built by: Robert Fabian, East Cowes.
  • Keel laid: July 1776
  • Launched: 18 November 1777
  • Completed: 28 January 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Lost with all hands in a hurricane off Martinique on 11 October 1780.
• Aurora
  • Ordered: 3 July 1776
  • Built by: John Perry & Company, Blackwall.
  • Keel laid: July 1776
  • Launched: 7 June 1777
  • Completed: 9 August 1777 at Woolwich Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Chatham on 3 November 1814.
• Sibyl
  • Ordered: 24 July 1776
  • Built by: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard.
  • Keel laid: 10 December 1776
  • Launched: 2 January 1779
  • Completed: 13 March 1779 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Madagascar on 26 July 1798.
• Brilliant
  • Ordered: 9 October 1776
  • Built by: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard.
  • Keel laid: February 1777
  • Launched: 15 July 1779
  • Completed: 4 September 1779 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard in November 1811.
• Pomona
  • Ordered: 7 March 1777
  • Built by: Thomas Raymond, Chapel (Southampton).
  • Keel laid: 8 May 1777
  • Launched: 22 September 1778
  • Completed: 17 December 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard in August 1811.
• Crescent
  • Ordered: 19 July 1777
  • Built by: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol.
  • Keel laid: 19 August 1777
  • Launched: March 1779
  • Completed: 30 June 1779 at Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Captured by the French on 19 June 1781.
• Nemesis
  • Ordered: 30 September 1777
  • Built by: Jolly, Leathers & Barton, Liverpool.
  • Keel laid: November 1777
  • Launched: 23 January 1780
  • Completed: 22 June 1780 at Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold for breaking up at Plymouth Dockyard on 9 June 1814.
• Resource
  • Ordered: 30 September 1777
  • Built by: John Randall & Company, Rotherhithe.
  • Keel laid: November 1777
  • Launched: 10 August 1778
  • Completed: 2 October 1778 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Renamed Enterprise on 17 April 1806. Sold at Deptford Dockyard on 28 August 1816.
• Mercury
  • Ordered: 22 January 1778
  • Built by: Peter Mestaer, Rotherhithe.
  • Keel laid: 25 March 1778
  • Launched: 9 December 1779
  • Completed: 24 February 1780 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Woolwich Dockyard in January 1814.
• Pegasus
  • Ordered: 21 February 1778
  • Built by: Deptford Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: 20 June 1778
  • Launched: 1 June 1779
  • Completed: 20 July 1779.
  • Fate: Sold at Deptford Dockyard to break up on 28 August 1816.
• Cyclops
  • Ordered: 6 March 1778
  • Built by: James Menetone & Son, Limehouse.
  • Keel laid: 3 April 1778
  • Launched: 31 July 1779
  • Completed: 26 September 1779 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 1 September 1814.
• Vestal
  • Ordered: 18 March 1778
  • Built by: Robert & John Batson, Limehouse.
  • Keel laid: 1 May 1778
  • Launched: 24 December 1779
  • Completed: 25 February 1780 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Barbados in February 1816.
• Laurel
  • Ordered: 30 April 1778
  • Built by: Thomas Raymond, Chapel (Southampton).
  • Keel laid: 3 June 1778
  • Launched: 27 October 1779
  • Completed: 4 January 1780 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked in a hurricane off Martinique on 11 October 1780.

Third batch

• Thisbe
  • Ordered: 23 February 1782
  • Built by: Thomas King, Dover.
  • Keel laid: September 1782
  • Launched: 25 November 1783
  • Completed: 19 April 1784 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up, 9 August 1815.
• Circe
  • Ordered: 6 March 1782
  • Built by: Henry Ladd, Dover.
  • Keel laid: December 1782
  • Launched: 30 September 1785
  • Completed: 2 November 1790 at Woolwich Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Great Yarmouth on 17 November 1803.
• Rose
  • Ordered: 15 March 1782
  • Built by: Joshua Stewart & Hall, Sandgate.
  • Keel laid: June 1782
  • Launched: 1 July 1783
  • Completed: 23 October 1783 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Jamaica on 28 June 1794.
• Hussar
  • Ordered: 26 March 1782
  • Built by: Fabian, Clayton & Willson, Sandgate.
  • Keel laid: June 1782
  • Launched: 1 September 1784
  • Completed: November 1787 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Brittany 27 December 1796
• Alligator
  • Ordered: 7 May 1782
  • Built by: Philemon Jacobs, Sandgate.
  • Keel laid: December 1782
  • Launched: 18 April 1787
  • Completed: 18 July 1790 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Plymouth Dockyard 21 July 1814.
• Dido
  • Ordered: 5 June 1782
  • Built by: Joshua Stuart & Hall, Sandgate.
  • Keel laid: September 1782
  • Launched: 27 November 1784
  • Completed: October 1787 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 3 April 1817.
• Lapwing
  • Ordered: 22 October 1782
  • Built by: Thomas King, Dover.
  • Keel laid: February 1783
  • Launched: 21 September 1785
  • Completed: 19 May 1791 at Woolwich Dockyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Plymouth Dockyard in May 1828.

Plan showing the quarter deck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck and fore and aft platforms for Siren/Syren (1773)


Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth as proposed and approved for building Siren [Syren] (1773) and Fox (1773), and later for building Enterprize (1773), and Surprize (1774),


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Surprise_(1774)

Enterprise-class frigate - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-352164;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1796 - HMS Revolutionnaire (44) captured french Unite (38) off Ushant.


Revolutionaire captured the French frigate Unité. Unité, under the command of Citizen Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois, struck after Revolutionnaire's second broadside. Revolutionnaire had no casualties because the French had fired high, aiming for her rigging; the British fired into their quarry with the result that Unité suffered nine men killed and 11 wounded. In July there was an initial distribution of prize money for the capture of Unité and Virginie (captured by Indefatigable) of £20,000. Revolutionnaire and Indefatigable shared this with Amazon, Concorde and Argo. The Royal Navy took Unité into service under her existing name


Gracieuse was a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate of the French Navy. Renamed to Unité in 1793, she took part in the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796 off Île d'Yeu and brought her into British service as HMS Unite. She was sold in 1802





French service
Gracieuse was re-commissioned in Rochefort in April 1793 under captaine de vaisseau Chevillard. She transported troops between the Basque Roadsand Sables-d'Olonne, and then returned to Rochefort. She transferred to the naval division on the coasts of the Vendée. There she escorted convoys between Brest and Bordeaux. Gracieuse took part in the War in the Vendée, capturing the British privateer Ellis on 11 July.

In September 1793 Gracieuse was renamed Unité. She was to be named Variante in April 1796, but the Royal Navy captured her before the name change took effect.

On 14 May 1794, Unité captured the ship-sloop HMS Alert after a short fight that left Alert with three men killed and nine wounded before Alert struck.[4]The French Navy took Alert into service as Alerte.

Unité then undertook a crossing from Port Louis to Rochefort under commander Durand. On 13 April 1796 Indefatigable, under the command of Captain Sir Edward Pellew was in pursuit of a French frigate. Pellew signaled to his squadron mate HMS Révolutionnaire to sail to cut the frigate off from the shore. Revolutionnaire then captured Unite after having fired two broadsides into her. Unite had nine men killed and 11 wounded; Revolutionnaire had no casualties. The Royal Navy took the frigate into service as HMS Unite.


HMS Unite - Ship plan 1796

British service
She was then captained by Ralph Willett Miller and Sir Charles Rowley.

On 9 October 1797 Unite captured the French Navy brig Decouverte, of 14 guns and 91 men. She was three days out of Nantes, on her way to Guadaloupe with secret dispatches that she managed to throw overboard before the British took possession of her. During the chase her crew threw 10 of her guns overboard in an attempt to lighten her. Decouverte arrived at Plymouth on 15 October.

On 4 March 1799 Unite and the sloop Gaiete left Portsmouth as escorts to a convoy for the West Indies.

Fate
Unite was paid off at Sheerness in April 1802. She was sold there in May 1802.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the Inboard profile plan for Unite (1796) a captured French Frigate fitted at Plymouth Dockyard for a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed J. Marshall. (Master Shipwright)


Révolutionnaire (or Revolutionaire), was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels









Scale: 1:96. A full hull model of the ‘Révolutionnaire’ (1794), a French frigate. The model is decked. The origins of the model are obscure, but French prisoners of war may have made it. It shows the ship unrigged and on a building slip before launch, with the wooden treenails that hold it together featured prominently. ‘Révolutionnaire’ was built at Le Havre in 1793 as a 40-gun ship. Although French ships tended to be bigger than British ones at this time, it was captured by the British frigate ‘Artois’ and others on its first cruise in 1794. It was then received into the British navy as a 38-gun frigate. It took part in Bridport’s action against the French at the Ile de Groix in 1795, and Sir Richard Strachan’s action against some of the French ships that survived Trafalgar in 1805. It was broken up in 1822



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Révolutionnaire_(1794)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=R%C3%A9volutionnaire_(1794

French frigate Gracieuse (1787) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=unite_1796;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1799 - HMS Amaranthe (14), Francis Vesy, captured French letter of marque schooner Vengeur (6).


The French brig Amarante (equally Amaranthe), was launched in 1793 at Honfleur for the French Navy. The British Royal Navy captured her at the end of 1796 and took her into service as HMS Amaranthe. She captured one French vessel in a single-ship action before she was wrecked near Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1799.





French service and capture
Amarante was the name ship of a two-vessel class of 12-gun brigs built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait. She was also the first vessel that Joseph-Augustin Normand built at Honfleur for the French Navy.

Between February 1794 and December, she was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau Jacques-Philippe Delamare and escorted convoys from to Le Havre to Brest. Between February 1795 and May, she escorted convoys between Saint-Malo and Dieppe, and performed fisheries protection duties for the Dieppoise fishermen. She then protected the herring fisheries in the Channel.

Delamare was suspended in 1798 as a terrorist by order of the representative of the people Boissier. He was reinstated some months later and sent to Brest. A decree of the Public Safety Committee, dated 22 September, confirmed him in command of Amarante.

On 1 March 1797 Amarante was at La Hogue roads undergoing repairs.

HMS Diamond captured Amarante off Alderney on 31 December 1796. The letter in the London Gazette describes her as a brig of twelve 6-pounder guns, and nine men. She was sailing from Le Havre to Brest. She had no casualties.

British service
Amarante arrived at Portsmouth on 2 January 1797. In August 1797 the Royal Navy commissioned her as Amaranthe under Commander Francis Vesey, and she then underwent fitting until February 1798.

Vesey sailed her for Jamaica in July 1798. However, on 29 August, she and Endymion recaptured the British East India Company "extra ship" Britannia, Stewart, master. Britannia had been sailing from Bengal to London when the French privateer Huron captured her.

In November, Surprise and Amaranthe captured the French 4-gun privateer Petite Française.

On 13 April 1799 Amaranthe captured the French letter of marque schooner Vengeur after a long chase and sharp fight. Vengeur had only six 4-pounder guns, half Anmaranthe's armament, but resisted fiercely for an hour and eight minutes. French casualties were 14 killed and 5 wounded (one of whom died later and another of whom was expected to die), out of 36 crew and passengers on board; British casualties were one man killed and four wounded. Vengeur had been carrying a cargo of flour from Santiago de Cuba to Jérémie, Haiti. She had been a privateer on her previous cruise, and Vesey described her as a "very fine Copper-bottomed Schooner, capable of mounting Ten Carriage Guns, nearly new, and fails uncommonly fast".

Vesey received promotion to post captain on 16 September. Commander George Blake then replaced Vesey as captain of Amaranthe.

Fate
On 25 October 1799 Amaranthe was cruising off the coast of Florida. That evening she went aground. Efforts to free her were unavailing and the officers and crew took to the boats and rafts, with the last men having to swim for shore. Twenty-two men drowned. Morning revealed that the survivors had landed some leagues north of Cape Canaveral. The survivors had to walk for 13 days along the shoreline until they reached the Spanish settlement at Fort Matanzas on 8 November, where they were declared prisoners of war. The next day the Spaniards delivered the British to St Augustine. From there they traveled to Charleston, and on to Jamaica. The court martial took place on Hannibal on 30 December 1799 at Port Royal Harbour, Jamaica. The court martial acquitted Blake, his officers and crew of the loss of Amaranthe. However, the board found Blake blameable for having sailed west after dark at too high a speed and for failing to take frequent soundings with the lead. The board also ordered seaman Daniel Day to spend a month in jail for having prevaricated in his evidence and having wasted its time.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Amarante_(1793)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 April 1805 – Launch of HMS Revenge, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy


HMS Revenge was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1805. Sir John Henslow designed her as one of the large class 74s; she was the only ship built to her draught. As a large 74, she carried 24-pounder guns on her upper gun deck, rather than the 18-pounder guns found on the middling and common class 74s.


HMS Revenge at Gosport



Career
Newly commissioned, and captained by Robert Moorsom, she fought at the Battle of Trafalgar, where she sailed in Collingwood's column. Revenge was engaged at the Battle of Basque Roads in April 1809 under Captain Alexander Robert Kerr.

In October 1810, Revenge captured the French privateer cutter Vauteur off Cherbourg after a five-hour chase. Vauteur had been armed with 16 guns, but she threw 14 of them overboard during the chase. She had been out of Dieppe for 45 hours but had made no captures. She was the former British cutter John Bull, of Plymouth, and was restored to Plymouth on 19 October. The report in Lloyd's List announcing this news appears to have confused names. Vauteur appears to have been Vengeur. There is no account of Revenge capturing a Vauteur, but on 17 October, Revenge captured the French privateer lugger Vengeur, off Cherbourg. The lugger crossed to windward of Revenge before daylight, and Revenge gave chase, finally capturing her quarry after three hours. Vengeur was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 78 men. She was one day out of Dieppe and had not taken any prizes.

On 6 November, Donegal captured the privateer Surcouf. Revenge, Donegal, and the hired armed lugger Sandwich would share in the prize money for Vengeur and Surcouf.

On 13 November 1810, the frigates Diana and Niobe attacked two French frigates (Elisa and Amazone), which sought protection under the shore batteries near Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue. Revenge and Donegal arrived two days later and together the four ships fired upon the French for as long as the tide would allow. The operation cost Donegal three men wounded. Élisa was driven ashore and ultimately destroyed as a result of this action; Amazone escaped safely into Le Havre.

Fate
Revenge served until 1842, being broken up in 1849. She was one of the first warships of the Royal Navy to be painted with the Nelson Checker


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with modifications dating from 1798 and 1820, and the longitudinal half-breadth for building 'Revenge' (1805), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Chatham Dockyard. Note that this plan incorporates the alterations detailed on ZAZ1231, but also includes alterations to the head, quarterdeck and forecastle dating from 1798. The circular stern relates to alterations in 1820. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813]


Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the sail layout with alterations for 'Revenge' (1805), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker


Scale: 1:120. Plan showing the ballast and ground tier, and the middle and upper tier of the hoild for 'Revenge' (1805), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. The plan illustrates the way the method of stowage compensated for the imbalance in the ship's trim and balance between 23 May 1823 and 10 May 1827. Signed by Sir Charles Burrard [Captain (seniroity 29 January 1822) of 'Revenge'] and William Walker [Master of 'Revenge']



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Revenge_(1805)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Revenge_(1805