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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1757 – Launch of French Souverain, a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class


Souverain was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class.

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She took part in the Battle of the Chesapeake, in 1781. In 1792, she was renamed Peuple Souverain ("Sovereign People").

In 1798, she took part in the battle of the Nile. A shot from HMS Orion (at the rear of the British line) cut her cable and she drifted out of position, later in the battle being captured by the British She was subsequently recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Guerrier, but was in too bad a shape to serve in the high sea, so she was used as a guard ship.


The Souverain class was a type of two 74-gun ships of the line.

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800px-Protecteur_mg_9407.jpg
Scale model of Protecteur on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris. This model is a 64-gun, probably mislabeled.

Ships
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 25 October 1755
Launched: December 1755
Fate: Captured by the British after the Battle of the Nile, 2 August 1798.
Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 29 May 1757
Launched: 22 May 1760
Fate: Hulked in 1784



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Souverain_(1757)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1761 – Launch of HMS Mermaid, a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Mermaid
was a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was first commissioned in April 1761 under Captain George Watson.

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1920px-Mermaid_(1761),_Hussar_(1763),_Soleby_(1763)_RMG_J6369.png
Scale 1:48. Plan showing the Inboard profile plan as proposed and approved for Mermaid (1761), a 28-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate, for building at Hull by Mr Blaydes, and later for Hussar (1763) and Soleby (1763), also 28-gun, Fifth Rate Frigates. There is annotation on the reverse of the plan relating to when the copies of the draught was sent to various yards. Note: This plan is not for Daedalus (1780) as she was a shorter ship built to a different design. Confusion had arisen from the name Mermaid.

MERMAID 1761

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The Mermaid-class frigates were a group of six 28-gun sailing frigates of the sixth rate designed in 1760 by Sir Thomas Slade, based on the scaled-down lines of HMS Aurora (originally a French prize, L'Abénaquise, which had been captured in 1757).

The contract for the prototype was agreed on 12 May 1760, for a ship to be launched within twelve months, and her name was assigned as Mermaid on 28 October 1760. The contract for the second ship was agreed on 10 March 1762, for a ship to be launched within thirteen months, and the contract for the third ship was agreed on 2 April 1762, for a ship to be launched within fourteen months; both names were assigned on 30 April 1763.

Some ten years after the design was first produced, it was re-used for a second batch of three ships which were ordered on Christmas Day, 1770. While the design differences from the first batch were minor (the keel was a few inches longer), the second batch were normally designated the Modified Mermaid class.

Ships in class
First batch
  • Mermaid
    • Ordered: 24 April 1760
    • Built by: Hugh Blaydes, Hull.
    • Keel laid: 27 May 1760
    • Launched: 6 May 1761
    • Completed: September 1761 at the builder's yard.
    • Fate: Run ashore to avoid capture by the French 8 July 1778.
  • Hussar
    • Ordered: 30 January 1762
    • Built by: Thomas Inwood, Rotherhithe.
    • Keel laid: 1 April 1762
    • Launched: 26 August 1763
    • Completed: 7 November 1763 at Deptford Dockyard.
    • Fate: Wrecked in Hell's Gate passage, New York, on 24 November 1779.
  • Solebay
    • Ordered 30 January 1762
    • Built by: Thomas Airey & Company, Newcastle.
    • Keel laid: 10 May 1762
    • Launched: 9 September 1763
    • Completed: December 1763 at the builder's yard, then 2 January to 15 March 1764 at Sheerness Dockyard.
    • Fate: Wrecked off Nevis Island and burnt to avoid capture 25 January 1782.
Second batch
  • Greyhound
    • Ordered: 25 December 1770
    • Built by: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard.
    • Keel laid: February 1771
    • Launched: 20 July 1773
    • Completed: October 1775 to 9 January 1776 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Wrecked off Deal 16 August 1781.
  • Triton
    • Ordered: 25 December 1770
    • Built by: Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard.
    • Keel laid: February 1771
    • Launched: 1 October 1773
    • Completed: 15 October 1773 to 4 November 1775 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in January 1796.
  • Boreas
    • Ordered: 25 December 1770
    • Built by: Hugh Blaydes & Hodgson, Hull.
    • Keel laid: May 1771
    • Launched: 23 August 1774
    • Completed: 13 September 1774 to 23 October 1775 at Chatham Dockyard.
    • Fate: Sold at Sheerness Dockyard May 1802.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mermaid_(1761)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mermaid-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Guerrier
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1780 – Launch of HMS Flora, a Flora-class frigates were 36-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy.
They were designed in 1778 by Sir John Williams in response to an Admiralty decision to discontinue 32-gun, 12-pounder (5.4 kg), vessels



The Flora-class frigates were 36-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1778 by Sir John Williams in response to an Admiralty decision to discontinue 32-gun, 12-pounder (5.4 kg), vessels. Williams proposed a frigate with a main battery of twenty-six 18-pound (8.2 kg) guns and a secondary armament of ten 6 pounders (2.7 kg). Four 18-pounder carronades and 12 swivel guns were added to the upperworks in September 1799 and the 6-pound long guns were upgraded to 9-pounders in April 1780, before any of the ships were completed.

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The drafted vessel had a 137 ft (42 m) gundeck, she was 113 ft (34.4 m) at the keel, with a 38 ft (12 m) beam, and a depth in the hold of 13 ft (3.962 m); she was 868 53⁄94 tons burthen. Initially intended for a crew of 260 this was increased to 270 when the secondary armament was boosted on 25 April 1780.

The first of the class, HMS Flora was ordered on 6 November 1778. The second ship, ordered on 19 December 1780, had the position of its hawseholes changed to just above the cheeks. This design modification carried over to the last two ships, requested between August and December 1781, which also had their lines slightly altered.

Flora-class frigates served in the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary War and Napoleonic Wars. The last to be built, HMS Romulus was ordered in December 1781 by which time, Williams' Latona-class frigate was in service, a 38-gun 18-pounder built to compete with Edward Hunt's Minerva-class.

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A Flora-class frigate, HMS Crescent, capturing the French frigate Réunion off Cherbourg, 20th October 1793

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Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard profile, longitudinal half-breadth for Flora (1780). States that it is a copy of an original. From Tyne & Wear Archives Service, Blandford House, Blandford Square, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4JA

Ships in class
  • Flora
    • Ordered: 6 November 1778
    • Built by: Adam Hayes, Deptford Dockyard.
    • Keel laid: 21 November 1778
    • Launched: 6 May 1780
    • Completed: 23 June 1780 at the builder's shipyard.
    • Fate: Wrecked off the Dutch coast on 18 January 1808.
  • Thalia
    • Ordered: 19 December 1780
    • Built by: John Nowlan & Thomas Calhoun, Bursledon.
    • Keel laid: March 1781
    • Launched: 7 November 1782
    • Completed: 18 January 1783 at Portsmouth.
    • Fate: Broken up at Chatham in July 1784.
  • Crescent

    HMS Crescent battles the French Frigate Réunion in October 1793
    • Ordered: 11 August 1781
    • Built by: John Nowlan & Thomas Calhoun, Bursledon.
    • Keel laid: November 1781
    • Launched: 28 October 1784
    • Completed: 11 January 1785 at Portsmouth.
    • Fate: Wrecked off Jutland on 6 December 1808.
  • Romulus
    • Ordered: 28 December 1781
    • Built by: Edward Greaves & Mr Purnell, Limehouse.
    • Keel laid: November 1782
    • Launched: 21 September 1785
    • Completed: 5 July 1790 at Portsmouth.
    • Fate: Broken up in Bermuda in November 1816.

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A Plan of the ballast of the 'Crescent' as stowed by the orders of Captain W. M. Ge Lobb, at Deptford on 6 May 1799. The 888-ton frigate HMS 'Crescent' was built in 1784 at Bursledon. Her heaviest gun was an 18-pounder. William Granville Lobb ended his career as Commissioner of Sheerness Dockyard, where he died in 1814

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Flora_(1780
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/100843.html
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1781 - HMS Roebuck, a 44-gun, captured Protector


Protector was a frigate of the Massachusetts Navy, launched in 1779. She fought a notable single-ship action against a British privateer General Duff before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1781. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth-rate post ship HMS Hussar. Hussar too engaged in a notable action against the French 32-gun frigate Sybille. The Royal Navy sold Hussar in 1783 and a Dutch ship-owner operating from Copenhagen purchased her. She made one voyage to the East Indies for him before he sold her to British owners circa 1786. She leaves Lloyd's Register by 1790.

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Career
Massachusetts Navy

Captain John Foster Williams received command of the new 20 or 28-gun frigate Protector in the spring of 1780 and took her to sea in June. In accordance with instructions from the Board of War, the new warship cruised in the vicinity of the Newfoundland Banks, on the lookout for British merchantmen. Her vigilance was rewarded early in June.

At 0700 on 9 June 1780, Protector spotted a strange ship bearing down on her, flying British colors. At 1100, Protector, also flying English colors, hailed the stranger and found her to be the 32-gun letter-of-marque Admiral Duff, bound for London from St. Kitts. When the enemy's identity had been ascertained, Protector hauled down British colors and ran up the Continental flag—opening fire almost simultaneously. The action ensued for the next hour and one-half, until Admiral Duff caught fire and exploded, leaving 55 survivors for Protector to rescue soon thereafter.

In May 1781, Lloyd's List reported that the rebel frigates Dean and Protector had captured John, Ashburner, master, from Lancaster to St. Kitts, and a ship sailing from Glasgow to Jamaica with 900 barrels of beef and a quantity of dry goods, and had taken them into Martinique.

In June, Lloyd's List reported that the American privateer Protector, of 28 guns and 179 men, had captured Sally, Townsend, master, which had been sailing from st Kitts to New York.

Notification of these captures took some months to get to Britain. In the meantime, on 5 May 1781, HMS Roebuck and HMS Medea captured Protector off Sandy Hook. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth-rate HMS Hussar.

Royal Navy
The Royal Navy commissioned Hussar under Captain Thomas McNamara Russell (or Thomas Macnamara Russell).

On 3 May 1782, Hussar Hussar captured the brig Boston Packet, which was carrying flour and rum.

Hussar's most famous engagement was the action with the French frigate Sybille.

Main article: Action of 22 January 1783
In the action Hussar emerged victorious, having lost only two men killed and five or six wounded. However, the actions of the French captain gave rise to controversy.

Hussar arrived at Deptford on 3 June 1783 and was paid off. The Royal Navy sold Hussar on 14 August 1783 for £1540, at Deptford.

Danish ownership
Frédéric de Coninck, who was a Dutch trader with a fleet of 64 ships operating from Copenhagen, purchased her. At purchase, the ship was already fitted with a desalination plant which was ideal for the long voyages envisaged to the East Indies and the Danes made contemporary technical drawings of the distilling machine.

Her captain was A. M'Intosh (or Mackingtosh, or MacIntosh), and her trade was initially London-Copenhagen. In 1784-5 she sailed to Bengal and back to Denmark. When she sailed up the Hooghly to Calcutta the British East India Company suspected that she was American, even though she was flying Danish colours. M'Intosh himself died in late 1785 as there is a call in the London Gazette of 3 January 1786 for claimants against his estate.

Danish records show Hussaren as making only one voyage for De Connick.

British ownership
Lloyd's Register for 1787 shows a new master, R. Wilson, a new owner, and a new trade, Honduras-Bristol.
Lloyd's Register did not publish in 1788, and the relevant pages are missing from the volume for 1789. Hussar is not listed in the volume for 1790.


HMS Roebuck was a 44-gun, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1769, to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year, engaging the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forcing a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779; this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was therefore at the front of the attack; leading the British squadron across the bar to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.

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In October 1783, Roebuck underwent repairs at Sheerness and was refitted as hospital ship. She served in this capacity during the capture of Martinique, Guadeloupe and St Lucia by a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir John Jervis in 1794. Recommissioned as a troopship in July 1799, Roebuck was part of the fleet, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell, to which the Dutch surrendered in the Vlieter Incident, on 30 August. Following the Treaty of Amiens in March 1802, Roebuck was paid off and laid up in ordinary at Woolwich Dockyard. When hostilities resumed in May 1803, she was brought back into service as a guardship at Leith, flying the flags of Vice-Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh then Rear-Admiral James Vashon under whom she later transferred to Great Yarmouth. In March 1806, she became a receiving ship, and from some point in 1810, the flagship of Lord Gardner. Roebuck was broken up at Sheerness in July 1811.

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HMS Phoenix, Roebuck and Tartar, accompanied by three smaller vessels, forcing their way through a cheval-de-frise on the Hudson River with the Forts Washington and Lee and several batteries on both sides. The painting is a copy by Thomas Mitchell after the original rendering of the subject, a scene from the American Revolutionary War, by Dominic Serres the Elder.


HMS Medea was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Medea was first commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain William Cornwallis. She was sold for breaking up in 1805.

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the inboard profile (incomplete) with figurehead and stern quarter decoration for 'Medea' (1778), a 28-gun Sixth Rate Frigate, as built at Bristol by Mr Hilhouse

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for 'Medea' (1778) and 'Crescent' (1779), both 28-gun Sixth Rate Frigates building at Bristol by Mr Hilhouse. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Roebuck_(1774)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Medea_(1778)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-330307;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1788 – Launch of French Aglaé, a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, built to a design by P. Duhamel.


The Aglaé was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, built to a design by P. Duhamel.

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Service
During the Revolutionary wars, she was used to ferry troops to the Caribbean, and spent two years on station at Saint Domingue. In 1793, she undertook a refit, after which she was renamed Fraternité.

Under lieutenant de vaisseau Gourrège, she cruised off Spain, and later she took part in the Battle of Groix on 23 June 1795 under lieutenant de vaisseau Florinville.

During the winter 1796, she took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver under vice-admiral Morard de Galles. On 30 December, she helped Révolution in rescuing the crew of Scevola, which foundered in the tempest off Ireland. Fraternité returned to Rochefort on 14 January 1797.

Fate
She was lost at sea in August 1802, as she sailed from Saint Domingue to France

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View of the Close of the Action Between the British and French Fleets, off Port L'Orient on 23 June 1795; aquatint by Robert Dodd, from original by Captain Alexander Becher, RN; 1812. NMM.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1801 - Lord Thomas Cochrane in HMS Speedy (14) captures Spanish xebec frigate El Gamo (32), Cptn. Don Francisco de Torris (Killed in Action), off the coast near Barcelona.


The Action of 6 May 1801 was a minor naval engagement between the 32-gun xebec-frigate El Gamo of the Spanish Navy under the command of Don Francisco de Torres and the much smaller 14-gun brig HMS Speedy under the command of Thomas, Lord Cochrane. El Gamo was subsequently captured. The skirmish is notable for the large disparity between the size and firepower of El Gamo and Speedy – the former was around four times the size, had much greater firepower and a crew six times the size of Speedy, which had a reduced crew of 54 at the time of the engagement.

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Background
In March 1800 Commander Lord Cochrane took command of Speedy; he had been operating in the Mediterranean and had fought many actions from its base in Port Mahon in Menorca.

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Commander Lord Cochrane achieved some of his most notable exploits with Speedy.

Speedy was cruising off Barcelona at dawn on 6 May 1801 when a large enemy frigate was sighted. The frigate, a xebec-rigged vessel named Gamo, commanded by Don Francisco de Torres and carrying 319 men, was armed with 8- and 12-pounder guns, with 24-pounder carronades. This amounted to a total broadside of 190 pounds, more than seven times that of Speedy. Gamo had "22 long 12-pounders, 8 9-pounders and 2 heavy carronades". Furthermore, Cochrane had only 54 men on board Speedy, having sent men away as prize crews for ships previously taken.

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Painting depicting the capture of the Spanish xebec frigate El Gamo in 1801 off the coast of Barcelona by the Royal Navy brig HMS Speedy commanded by Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

Battle
Instead of evading the Spanish frigate, Cochrane closed on her, and at 9.30 a.m. Gamo fired a gun and hoisted Spanish colours. In return Cochrane hoisted American colours. The Spanish hesitated, allowing Cochrane to get closer, hoist British colours, and evade the first broadside. Gamo fired another, which Cochrane again evaded, holding fire until Speedy ran alongside her and locked her yards in her rigging. Gamo attempted to fire upon her smaller opponent, but her guns were mounted too high and could not be depressed sufficiently, causing their shot to pass through Speedy's sails and rigging. Cochrane then opened fire with his 4-pounders double- and treble-shotted, their shots passing up through the sides and decks, the first broadside killing the Spanish captain and boatswain.

Seeing their disadvantage the Spanish second-in-command assembled a boarding party, at which Cochrane drew off, pounded their massed ranks with shot and musket fire, before drawing in close again. After having their attempts to board frustrated three times, the Spanish returned to their guns. Cochrane then decided to board the Gamo, and assembled his entire crew into two parties, leaving only the ship's doctor to command and crew Speedy. The British then rushed the Gamo, boarding from bow and waist, the boarders at the bow had their faces blackened to look like pirates. The Spanish faltered at this, and were then set-upon by the party that had boarded from the waist. There was a hard-fought battle between the two crews, until Cochrane called down to the doctor, at the time the only person on Speedy, ordering him to send the rest of the men over. At the same time he ordered the Spanish colours to be torn down. Thinking that their officers had surrendered the ship, the remaining Spanish seamen stopped fighting.

Aftermath
The British had lost three men killed and nine wounded, while the Spanish had lost fourteen killed and forty-one wounded with the rest captured; a total casualty list exceeding Speedy's entire complement.[9] The British then secured the Spanish prisoners below deck and made their way back to Port Mahon, Menorca. Finding that he had been beaten by such an inferior foe, the Spanish second-in-command asked Cochrane for a certificate assuring him that he had done all he could to defend his ship. Cochrane obliged, with the equivocal wording that he had 'conducted himself like a true Spaniard'. El Gamo was subsequently sold to the ruler of Algiers as a merchantman.

In fiction
This battle inspired Patrick O'Brian, where, in a very similar manner, the brig HMS Sophie escapes from, then lures and captures the Spanish Xebeque-frigate Cacafuego, as the first major battle led by his main character Jack Aubrey in his novel Master and Commander.


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Preparatory drawing relating to two (duplicate) prints in the NMM collection, PAH7988 and PAH7989. Includes an (unrelated) profile of a Portuguese “bean-cod” fishing vessel, top left. Below the main composition is a small diagram, hard to discern, but which may relate to Pocock’s working out in plan view the two ships’ relative positions. Inscribed below that (in Pocock’s hand): “Speedy & El Gamo”; (bottom-left, in another, later hand): “[Pocock]”; (bottom-right, in the same hand as the opposite corner): “Speedy & Gamo | 6 Nov 1799”. This date is puzzling, as the incident portrayed took place precisely a year and a half later, on 6 May 1801 (see PAH7988 for a fuller description, along with a reference to a corresponding oil by Pocock), but is perhaps due to nothing more than a clerical error by a later custodian

The Spanish ship El Gamo was a 32-gun xebec-frigate of the Spanish Navy involved in action with, and subsequently captured by Lord Cochrane on 6 May 1801. The Action of 6 May 1801 is notable for the large disparity between the size and firepower of El Gamo and her opponent, the British brig Speedy; the former was around four times the size, had much greater firepower and a crew six times the size of Speedy, which had a reduced crew of 54 at the time of the engagement.

After her capture, El Gamo was sold to the ruler of Algiers as a merchantman.

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HMS Speedy was a 14-gun Speedy-class brig of the British Royal Navy. Built during the last years of the American War of Independence, she served with distinction during the French Revolutionary Wars.

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Built at Dover, Kent, Speedy spent most of the interwar years serving off the British coast. Transferred to the Mediterranean after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, she spent the rest of her career there under a number of notable commanders, winning fame for herself in various engagements and often against heavy odds. Her first commander in the Mediterranean, Charles Cunningham, served with distinction with several squadrons, assisting in the capture of several war prizes, such as the French frigates Modeste and Impérieuse. His successor, George Cockburn, impressed his superiors with his dogged devotion to duty. Speedy's next commander, George Eyre, had the misfortune to lose her to a superior French force on 9 June 1794.

She was soon retaken, and re-entered service under Hugh Downman, who captured a number of privateers between 1795 and 1799 and fought off an attack by the large French privateer Papillon on 3 February 1798. His successor, Jahleel Brenton, fought a number of actions against Spanish forces off Gibraltar. Her last captain, Lord Cochrane, forced the surrender of a much larger Spanish warship, the Gamo. Speedy was finally captured by a powerful French squadron in 1801 and donated to the Papal Navy by Napoleon the following year. She spent five years with them under the name San Paolo, but was struck around 1806.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Speedy_(1782)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=19386
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=15697
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-349716;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1814 - The Battle of Fort Oswego was a partially successful British raid on Fort Ontario and the village of Oswego, New York on May 6, 1814 during the War of 1812.
British squadron under Sir James Lucas Yeo of HMS Prince Regent (56), HMS Princess Charlotte (42) and consorts destroyed a fort and captured USS Growler (5) and other vessels at Oswego, Lake Ontario



The Battle of Fort Oswego was a partially successful British raid on Fort Ontario and the village of Oswego, New York on May 6, 1814 during the War of 1812.

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"The attack on Fort Oswego, May 6, 1814". Drawing by L. Hewitt, engraving by R. Havell From "http://collections.ic.gc.ca/stlauren/hist/hi_war1812.htm"

Background
During the early months of 1814, while Lake Ontario was frozen, the British and American naval squadrons had been building two frigates each, with which to contest command of the lake during the coming campaigning season. The British under Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo were first to complete their frigates on 14 April, but when the Americans under Commodore Isaac Chauncey had completed their own, more powerful, frigates, Yeo's squadron would be outclassed.

Lieutenant General Sir Gordon Drummond, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, suggested using the interval during which Yeo's squadron was stronger than Chauncey's to attack the main American harbour and base at Sackett's Harbor, New York. Most of its garrison had marched off to the Niagara River, leaving only 1,000 regular troops as its garrison. Nevertheless, Drummond would require reinforcements to mount a successful attack on the strongly fortified town, and the Governor General of Canada, Lieutenant General Sir George Prevost, refused to provide these.

Instead, Drummond and Yeo decided to attack the smaller post at Fort Ontario. This fort, with the nearby village of Oswego, New York, was a vital staging point on the American supply route from New York. Ordnance, food and other supplies were carried up the Mohawk River and across Lake Oneida, to Oswego, before making the final leg of the journey across the southeast corner of Lake Ontario to Sackett's Harbor.

Drummond and Yeo had reliable information that the garrison of the fort numbered only 290 regulars, and believed that thirty or more heavy guns intended for Chauncey's ships under construction at Sackett's Harborwere waiting there. They planned, by capturing Oswego, to capture these guns and thereby retain Yeo's advantage over Chauncey.

Attack
Yeo's squadron embarked the landing force and set out from Kingston late on 3 May. They arrived off Oswego early in the morning, on 5 May. The troops prepared to land shortly after midday, but a southerly breeze sprang up, which made it impossible for Yeo's ships to get close enough to the shore to provide support from their guns. That evening, a storm blew up, forcing the British squadron to withdraw for the night.

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The British landing force during the Battle of Oswego

The British squadron returned to Oswego at eleven o'clock the next morning, and the landing proceeded. The landing force consisted of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Marines under Lieutenant Colonel James Malcolm, a company of the Glengarry Light Infantry under Captain Alexander MacMillan, a company of the Regiment de Watteville and a detachment of 200 sailors armed with boarding pikes under Captain William Mulcaster. Four more companies of the Regiment de Watteville were in reserve. Lieutenant Colonel Victor Fischer, the commanding officer of the Regiment de Watteville, was in charge of the landing.


Lt Col James Malcolm led the British landing force that included Royal Marines, the Glengarry Light Infantry, and De Watteville's Regiment.

Opposed to them was an American force of 242 officers and enlisted men of the 3rd U.S. Regiment of Artillery, 25 sailors of the U.S. Navy and about 200 of the New York Militia, under the command of Major George Mitchell of the 3rd Artillery. The fort was in a state of disrepair, but the delay imposed on the landing had allowed them to shift extra guns to face the lake, with a total of five guns in a battery in the fort: one 9-pounder and four 4 or 6-pounders.

While the two British frigates (HMS Prince Regent and Princess Charlotte) engaged the fort, the guns of six sloops and brigs swept the woods and landing beaches. The British landed at about two o'clock. Almost all the troops landed in deep water and their ammunition was soaked and made useless. Nevertheless, they fixed their bayonets and advanced under heavy fire. While the company of the Glengarry Light Infantry cleared woods to the left of the main attack and the sailors advanced on the village, the main body of the troops made a frontal attack against the fort. American foot soldiers drawn up on the glacis fell back into the fort. As the attackers reached the top of the glacis, the defenders abandoned the fort and fled.

Casualties
The official British Army casualty return, signed by Lieutenant Colonel John Harvey, the Deputy Adjutant-General, gave 7 killed and 33 wounded for the 2nd Battalion, Royal Marines, 8 killed and 17 wounded for the Regiment de Watteville and 9 wounded for the Glengarry Light Infantry. The separate Royal Navy casualty return for the engagement, signed by Yeo, gave 3 killed and 10 wounded for the Navy and 6 killed and 27 wounded for the Royal Marines. This would give a grand total of either 18 killed and 69 wounded or 17 killed and 63 wounded, depending upon whether the Army or Navy casualty list is correct for the Royal Marines' losses. Captain Mulcaster was seriously wounded by grapeshot, losing a leg.

The American losses are hard to determine. Mitchell's casualty return, which apparently included the U.S. regular troops only, stated the loss as 6 killed, 38 wounded and 25 missing. General Drummond's report of the engagement to Sir George Prevost stated that the British captured "about 60 men, half of them severely wounded". Another British report, however, said that only 25 American soldiers and 1 "civilian" (possibly a militiaman) were captured. Still another British account said that 1 officer and 20 enlisted men of the Americans were found dead on the battlefield.

Result
The British gathered 2,400 barrels of useful supplies of all description; flour, pork, salt, bread and ordnance stores. They also captured a few small schooners, including USS Growler, which had previously been captured by the British the year before but then recaptured by the Americans. Growler contained seven of the invaluable cannon destined for Chauncey. Although the Americans had hastily scuttled the schooner to prevent it being captured, the British were able to raise it. Lieutenant Phillpotts of the Corps of Royal Engineers set fire to and destroyed the fort, barracks and stores which could not be moved. The British withdrew at about four o'clock in the morning on 7 May.

The British had missed twenty-one more guns which had still been en route to Oswego, and were 12 miles (19 km) away at Oswego Falls. Rather than launch an expedition up the Oswego River, Yeo mounted a blockade of Sackett's Harbor to prevent them reaching Chauncey. The Americans tried to move them to Sackett's Harbor in launches and small boats but were intercepted. British marines and sailors then mounted a "cutting-out" attack against them but failed, with 200 marines and sailors ambushed and captured at the Battle of Big Sandy Creek.

Once Chauncey had received the guns and fitted out his squadron, he commanded the lake from the end of July 1814 until late in the year.


HMS Prince Regent was a 56-gun British warship that served on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. Prince Regent was built at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Upper Canada and launched on 14 April 1814. Rated as a fourth-rate frigate, Prince Regent took part in the Raid on Fort Oswego in 1814. Following the War of 1812 the frigate was renamed HMS Kingston on 9 December 1814. In 1817, the vessel was placed in reserve following the Rush-Bagot Treaty that demilitarized all the lakes along the United States-Canada border. Discarded in 1832, the vessel found no buyer and sank in Deadman Bay off Kingston after 1832.

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Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the body plans, sheer lines with inboard detail and scroll figurhead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Prince Regent' (1814), a 56-gun Frigate (possibly regarded as a two-decker due to spar deck), built at the Kingston Naval Yard, Canada. Signed by Thomas Strickland [Master Shipwright, Kingston Naval Yard, 1814-1815 (died)]


HMS Princess Charlotte, later HMS Burlington, was a 42-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built in 1814, during the War of 1812 at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Ontario. She had originally been built as Vittoria, but was renamed before being launched. She was constructed to a design by George Record, and was built under a private contract by Master shipwright John Goudie. She served on Lake Ontario, having been commissioned at Oswego on 5 May 1814 under Captain William Mulcaster.

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The ship took part in the British attack on Fort Oswego and blockade of Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario in 1814. In November that year she came under the command of Captain Edward Collier, and was renamed HMS Burlington on 9 December 1814. Captain Nicholas Lockyer took command in June 1816. Burlington was offered for sale in January 1833, but there were no buyers and she was later towed away and scuttled.

Princess_Charlotte_(1814)_RMG_J3673.jpg
Princess Charlotte (1814) Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte (1814), a 42-gun Fifth Rate Frigate, as built at Kingston Naval Yard for use on the Lakes. Signed by Thomas Strickland [Master Shipwright, Kingston Naval Yard, Point Frederick, Upper Canada, Lake Ontario, 1812-1815] PRINCESS CHARLOTTE 1814


USS Growler (1812) was a 53-ton wooden schooner of 5 guns, which served in the War of 1812, changing hands three times.

Growler was purchased as Experiment on Lake Ontario during 1812, and was first commanded by Sailing Master M.P. Mix. She was actively employed with Isaac Chauncey's squadron on Lake Ontario from 1812 to 1814. Growler took part in attacks on Kingston, York, and Fort George and the engagement with the British squadron 7–11 August 1813.

She was captured by the British on 10 August 1813, and recaptured on 5 October 1813 by USS Sylph, Growler was libelled and purchased by the United States Navy, rejoining the squadron.

The British captured her again 5 May 1814 at Oswego, New York, and she was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Hamilton.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Prince_Regent_(1814)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-340601;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Princess_Charlotte_(1814)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-340675;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Growler_(1812_schooner)
 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1829 – Launch of HMS Hyacinth, an 18-gun Royal Navy ship sloop.
She surveyed the north-eastern coast of Australia under Francis Price Blackwood during the mid-1830s


HMS Hyacinth was an 18-gun Royal Navy ship sloop. She was launched in 1829 and surveyed the north-eastern coast of Australia under Francis Price Blackwood during the mid-1830s. She took part in the First Opium War, destroying, with HMS Volage, 29 Chinese junks. She became a coal hulk at Portland in 1860 and was broken up in 1871.

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Design and construction
Hyacinth was the second of four Favorite-class ship sloops, which were a ship-rigged and lengthened version of the 1796 Cruizer-class brig-sloop. All four ships of the class were ordered on 10 June 1823 and Hyacinth was laid down at Plymouth Dockyard in March 1826. She was launched on 6 May 1829 and commissioned for the West Indies Station on 12 January 1830.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plans, sheer lines and longitudinal half-breadth for building Childers (1827), Cruizer (1828), Favorite (1829), Hyacinth (1829), Racehorse (1830) and Hazard (1837), all 18-gun flush-decked Ship Sloops similar to the Cruizer (1797) brig. The plan was cut in two along the midship section and a new piece inserted for the proposed (and approved) lengthening for the last four ships and the alterations to the mast positions as a result. Signed by Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]

Dimensions
Hyacinth measured 109 ft 6 in (33.4 m) along the gun deck by 30 ft 9 in (9.4 m) in the beam, and had a tonnage of 429 40/94 bm. She was flush-decked with a small forecastle and quarterdeck.

Armament
She was armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder bow chaser guns.

Service
During her 42-year career, she was stationed in the West and East Indies from 1829–41, took part in the First Opium War from 1841–42, and from 1843-46 was stationed off the west coast of Africa in the suppression of the slave trade. After being reduced to 14 guns in 1848, she later became a coal hulk at Portsmouth before being broken up in 1871


Favorite class


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Scale: 1:60. A contemporary full hull model of the 'Hyacinth' (1829), a ship rigged sloop 18-gun sixth-rate, built plank on frame and sailor made. Model is decked, equipped and rigged with three masts and flying a white ensign from the peak of the gaff. Launched at Plymouth in 1829, the `Hyacinth’ measured 109 feet along the gun deck by 30 feet in the beam, and it had a tonnage of 435 burden. It was flush-decked with a small forecastle and quarterdeck, and was armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder guns. During its 42-year career, it was stationed in the West and East Indies from 1829-41, took part in the China Wars from 1841-42, and from 1843-46 it was stationed off the west coast of Africa in the suppression of the slave trade. After being reduced to 14 guns in 1847, it later became a coal hulk at Portsmouth before being broken up in 1871

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Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the midship section for Childers (1827), Cruizer (1828), Favorite (1829), Hyacinth (1829), Racehorse (1830) and Hazard (1837), all 18-gun flush-decked Ship Sloops as originally designed. Favorite (1829), Hyacinth (1829), Racehorse (1830) and Hazard (1837) were subsequently lengthened by 9 ft 6 inches. The plan also has alterations from 1826 and 1831



https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-320059;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1863 – Launch of Rolf Krake, a Danish monitor built in Scotland during the 1860s.
The vessel was designed by Cowper Phipps Coles, a pioneering naval architect, and was the first warship of any navy to carry a turret of the type designed by Coles.



Rolf Krake was a Danish monitor built in Scotland during the 1860s. The vessel was designed by Cowper Phipps Coles, a pioneering naval architect, and was the first warship of any navy to carry a turret of the type designed by Coles. She was the first all-iron, steam-powered vessel acquired by Denmark.

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Danish Ironclad Rolf Krake in 1863. This was the first armoured ship with turrets, serving in Europe.

Design and description
Rolf Krake was ordered in 1862 as tensions rose between Prussia and Denmark over the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein in the early 1860s. The ship had an overall length of 191 feet 3 inches (58.3 m), a beam of 50 feet 10 inches (15.5 m), and a draft (ship) of 23 feet 3 inches (7.1 m). She displaced 1,360 long tons (1,382 t) and her crew consisted of 140 officers and ratings. Hinged bulwarks were fitted to improve Rolf Krake's seakeeping abilities. She was equipped with a beak-shaped ram at the bow.

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The ship had one direct-acting steam engine that drove a single 9-foot (110 in) propeller, using steam provided by two boilers. The engine produced a total of 700 indicated horsepower (520 kW) which gave her a maximum speed of 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h; 12.1 mph) during her sea trials in mid-1863. Rolf Krake carried 135 long tons (137 t) of coal, enough to steam 1,150 nautical miles (2,130 km; 1,320 mi) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). She was schooner-rigged with three masts.

Rolf Krake was initially armed with four Swedish-built 68-pounder smoothbore guns, one pair in each gun turret. The hand-operated turrets took a crew of 18 men one minute to complete a full revolution.

The ship had a complete waterline belt of wrought iron that was 4.5-inch (110 mm) thick. It completely covered the hull from the upper deck to 3 feet (0.9 m) below the waterline and was backed by 8 inches (203 mm) of wood. The armour protection of the turrets was quite elaborate. The inside of the turret was lined with 0.375 inches (9.5 mm) of iron boiler plate to which T-shaped beams were bolted. The space between the beams was filled with 10 inches (254 mm) of wood. This was covered by an iron lattice 0.75 inches (19 mm) thick that was covered in turn by 7 inches (178 mm) of wood. The 4.5-inch iron plates were bolted to the outside using bolts that ran through to the interior iron "skin". The area around the gun ports was reinforced by 3.5-inch (89 mm) plates to give a total thickness of 8 inches. The pilothouse was protected by 4.5 inches of iron backed by 11 inches (279 mm) of wood. One of the ship's major weaknesses was that the deck was virtually unprotected, consisting only of 0.5 inches (12.7 mm) of sheet iron covered by 3 inches (76 mm) of wood.

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Construction and career
The Danes signed the contract with Robert Napier and Sons for Rolf Krake named after Rolf Krake, a hero of Danish saga, on 28 August 1862. She was laid down in Govan later that year, launched on 6 May 1863, and commissioned upon her arrival in Denmark in July. Following her commissioning, Rolf Krake engaged in sea trials from 18 July to 20 August 1863.

She saw service in the Second War of Schleswig




https://milhist.dk/panserbatteriet-rolf-krake-og-krigen-i-1864/
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1867 – Launch of SMS Kronprinz, a unique German ironclad warship built for the Prussian Navy in 1866–1867.
Kronprinz was laid down in 1866 at the Samuda Brothers shipyard at Cubitt Town in London.


SMS Kronprinz
was a unique German ironclad warship built for the Prussian Navy in 1866–1867. Kronprinz was laid down in 1866 at the Samuda Brothers shipyard at Cubitt Town in London. She was launched in May 1867 and commissioned into the Prussian Navy that September. The ship was the fourth ironclad ordered by the Prussian Navy, after Arminius, Prinz Adalbert, and Friedrich Carl, though she entered service before Friedrich Carl. Kronprinz was built as an armored frigate, armed with a main battery of sixteen 21 cm (8.3 in) guns; several smaller guns were added later in her career.

Kronprinz saw limited duty during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871. Engine troubles aboard the ship, along with the two other armored frigates in her squadron, prevented operations against the French blockade. Only two sorties in which Kronprinz participated were conducted, both of which did not result in combat. The ship served in the subsequent Imperial Navy until she was converted into a training ship for boiler room personnel in 1901. The ship was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1921.

1280px-Panzerfregatte_Kronprinz_-_aus_Illustrirte_Zeitung_März_1868.jpg
Illustration of Kronprinz in 1868

Design
General characteristics and propulsion

Kronprinz was 88.20 meters (289 ft 4 in) long at the waterline and 89.44 m (293 ft 5 in) long overall. She had a beam of 15.20 m (49 ft 10 in) and a draft of 7.85 m (25 ft 9 in) forward and 7.45 m (24 ft 5 in) aft. The ship was designed to displace 5,767 metric tons (5,676 long tons) at a normal loading, and up to 6,760 t (6,650 long tons) with a combat load. The ship's hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal iron frames. It contained nine watertight compartments and a double bottom that ran for 43 percent of the length of the vessel. The ship was an excellent sea boat; the ship was responsive to commands from the helm but had a large turning radius. The ship's crew numbered 33 officers and 508 enlisted men. Kronprinz carried a number of smaller boats, including a large tender, two launches, a pinnace, two cutters, two yawls, and one dinghy.

The ship's propulsion system was built by John Penn and Sons of Greenwich, England. A horizontal two-cylinder single expansion steam engine powered the ship. It drove a two-bladed screw 6.50 m (21 ft 4 in) in diameter. Eight trunk boilers, with four fireboxes in each, were divided into two boiler rooms. The boilers supplied steam to the engine at 2 standard atmospheres (200 kPa). The propulsion system was rated at 4,500 indicated horsepower (3,400 kW) and a top speed of 13.5 knots (25.0 km/h; 15.5 mph), though on trials Kronprinz managed to make 4,870 ihp (3,630 kW) and 14.7 knots (27.2 km/h; 16.9 mph). The ship carried up to 646 t (636 long tons) of coal, which enabled a maximum range of 3,200 nautical miles (5,900 km; 3,700 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and a range of 1,730 nmi (3,200 km; 1,990 mi) at 14 knots. A barque rig with a surface area of 1,980 square meters supplemented the steam engine. Steering was controlled with a single rudder.

Armament and armor[edit]
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Kronprinz on maneuvers with Friedrich Carl and Ariadne

As built, Kronprinz was equipped with thirty-two rifled 72-pounder cannon. After her delivery to Germany, these guns were replaced with a pair of 21-centimeter (8.3 in) L/22 guns and fourteen 21 cm L/19 guns. The L/22 gun could depress to −5 degrees and elevate to 13 degrees, which provided a range of 5,900 m (6,500 yd). The shorter barreled L/19 guns had a wider range of elevation, from −8 to 14.5 degrees, but the shorter barrel imposed a lower muzzle velocity, which correspondingly reduced the range of the gun to 5,200 m (5,700 yd). The two types of gun fired the same shell, of which the total supply numbered 1,656 rounds of ammunition. The fourteen L/19 guns were placed in a central battery amidships, seven on either broadside. The L/22 guns were placed on either end of the ship.[1] Later in her career, six revolver cannon and five 35 cm (14 in) torpedo tubeswere added. Two of the tubes were placed in the bow, two on the ship's sides, and one in the stern on the port side. All were placed above water, and were supplied with 12 torpedoes.

Kronprinz's armor consisted of wrought iron backed with heavy teak planking. The iron component of the waterline armored belt ranged in thickness from 76 millimeters (3.0 in) in the stern to 124 mm (4.9 in) amidships and 114 mm (4.5 in) toward the bow. The entire belt was backed with 254 mm (10.0 in) of teak. The central battery was protected by 114 to 121 mm (4.5 to 4.8 in) of sloped iron plating on 254 mm of timber. The battery's roof was protected by 9-millimeter (0.35 in) thick iron plating.

Service history
1280px-Panzerfregatte_Kronprinz_nach_Stapellauf_auf_der_Themse_-_aus_Illustrirte_Zeitung_Juni_...jpg
Kronprinz after her launching in 1867

Kronprinz was laid down in 1866 at the Samuda Brothers shipyard in London. The British naval architect Edward Reed designed the ship, and resulted in a vessel similar to the contemporary, French-built Prussian ironclad Friedrich Carl. The ship was launched on 6 May 1867 and commissioned into the Prussian Navy four months later on 19 September 1867.[1] On the voyage from England to Prussia, the ship lost her main mast in a storm. The ship immediately went into dock for refitting upon arrival in Prussia; the mast was repaired and the ship's armament was converted from the initial arrangement.

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the greatly numerically inferior Prussian Navy assumed a defensive posture against a naval blockade imposed by the French Navy.[4] Kronprinz and the broadside ironclads Friedrich Carl and König Wilhelm, along with the small ironclad ram Prinz Adalbert, had been steaming in the English Channel before the French declared war; they had left Plymouth on 10 July with the intention of steaming to Fayal in the Azores. On the 13th, however, they put into port and learned of the rising tension between France and Prussia. The ships therefore returned to Wilhelmshaven immediately, arriving on 16 July. France declared war on Prussia three days later on 19 July. Kronprinz, Friedrich Carl, and König Wilhelm were concentrated in the North Sea at the port of Wilhelmshaven. They were subsequently joined there by the turret ship Arminius, which had been stationed in Kiel.[6] For the duration of the conflict, Kronprinz was commanded by Captain Reinhold von Werner.

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Kronprinz in Kiel in 1892

Despite the great French naval superiority, the French had conducted insufficient pre-war planning for an assault on the Prussian naval installations, and concluded that it would only be possible with Danish assistance, which was not forthcoming. The four ships, under the command of Vice Admiral Jachmann, made an offensive sortie in early August 1870 out to the Dogger Bank, though they encountered no French warships. Kronprinz and the other two broadside ironclads thereafter suffered from chronic engine trouble, which left Arminius alone to conduct operations. Kronprinz, Friedrich Carl, and König Wilhelm stood off the island of Wangerooge for the majority of the conflict, while Arminius was stationed in the mouth of the Elbe river. On 11 September, the three broadside ironclads were again ready for action; they joined Arminius for another major operation into the North Sea. It too did not encounter French opposition, as the French Navy had by this time returned to France.

Engine problems plagued the ship throughout her career; Kronprinz's engines broke down during the fleet maneuvers in May 1883. Two of the three other armored frigates also broke down, which forced the cancellation of the maneuvers. Kronprinz had anti-torpedo nets installed in 1885; these were removed in 1897. The ship served on active duty with the fleet until 22 August 1901, when she was stricken from the naval register. She was reconstructed at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel that year. The propulsion system was overhauled and the eight J Penn & Sons boilers were removed. Two Dürr and two Thornycroft boilers were installed in their place. Her barque rig was cut down to 1,409 square meters (15,170 sq ft). After emerging from the reconstruction, Kronprinz served as a training ship for engine-room personnel, based in Kiel. The ship was ultimately sold to Bonn, a German ship-breaking firm, on 3 October 1921 for 5,000,000 marks. Kronprinz was broken up for scrap in Rendsburg-Audorf later that year.

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1876


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Kronprinz_(1867)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Kronprinz_(Schiff,_1867)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1869 - The Battle of Miyako Bay (宮古湾海戦 Miyakowan Kaisen) was a naval action on 6 May 1869.
It was part of the overall Battle of Hakodate at the end of the Boshin War, a civil war in Japan between Imperial forces of the new Meiji government, and samurai loyalists to the former Tokugawa shogunate.



The Battle of Miyako Bay (宮古湾海戦 Miyakowan Kaisen) was a naval action on 6 May 1869. It was part of the overall Battle of Hakodate at the end of the Boshin War, a civil war in Japan between Imperial forces of the new Meiji government, and samurai loyalists to the former Tokugawa shogunate.

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Preparations
The military forces loyal to the former Tokugawa shogunate were defeated by the Satchō Alliance at the Battle of Ueno and Battle of Aizu. With the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei in tatters, rather than surrender, a portion of the Tokugawa navy led by Admiral Enomoto Takeaki fled to the northern island of Hokkaidō, together with several thousand soldiers and a handful of French military advisors and established the Republic of Ezo.

The new Imperial Japanese Navy departed Tokyo on 9 March 1869, and reached Miyako Bay in what is now the city of Miyako in central Iwate Prefecture, on 20 March. The imperial fleet had been rapidly constituted around the French-built ironclad warship Kōtetsu, which had been purchased from the United States. Other ships included Kasuga, ’’Hiryū, Teibō,[SIA disambiguation needed] Yōshun, and Mōshun, which had been supplied by the domains of Saga, Chōshū and Satsuma to the new central government in 1868. There were altogether eight Imperial ships: Kōtetsu, Kasuga, three small corvettes and three transport ships. Future commander in chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Tōgō Heihachirō was an officer on Kasuga during this battle

Anticipating the arrival of the Imperial fleet, the rebels organized a plan to seize the revolutionary new warship Kōtetsu, and dispatched three warships for a surprise attack:
The Ezo fleet encountered bad weather, in which Takao suffered from engine trouble, and Banryū became separated. Banryū eventually returned to Hokkaidō, without joining the battle.

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The Imperial Japanese Navy's revolutionary ironclad Kōtetsu was the main target of the Naval Battle of Miyako Bay

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Kōtetsu leading the line of battle, at the Naval Battle of Hakodate.

Action
To create surprise, Kaiten planned to enter Miyako harbor under an American flag. Unable to achieve more than 3 knots (5.6 km/h) due to engine trouble, Takao trailed behind, and Kaiten first joined battle.

Kaiten approached the enemy ships and raised the Republic of Ezo flag seconds before boarding Kōtetsu. She rammed her prow into the side of Kōtetsu, and started firing her guns. Her deck however proved higher than that of Kōtetsu by close to three meters, forcing the samurai to jump one by one in a trickle. After the first surprise passed, Kōtetsu managed to repel the attack with a Gatling gun, causing huge losses to the attackers. Most of the attacking samurai perished; Nicol was hit by two bullets, and boarding party commander Kōga Gengo [ja] was killed and his position taken over by Admiral Arai Ikunosuke. In the action, Kaiten damaged three enemy warships, but finally disengaged without having captured Kōtetsu.

Kaiten steamed out of Miyako Bay pursued by the Imperial fleet (which had been warming up their engines even before the attack began), just as Takao was entering. Kaiten eventually escaped to Hokkaidō, but Takao was too slow to outdistance its pursuers and was beached at little distance from Miyako Bay, so that her crew could escape inland, and was scuttled by explosion. The 40 crewmen (including 30 samurai and the ex-French officer Eugène Collache) managed to flee for a few days, but finally surrendered to government forces. They were brought to Tokyo for imprisonment and trial. Although the fate of the Japanese rebels is unknown, Collache was eventually pardoned and deported back to France.

Conclusion
The Naval Battle of Miyako was a daring but desperate attempt by the Republic of Ezo forces to neutralize the powerful Kōtetsu. It was the first case of an abordage (boarding) maneuver on an ironclad steamship in Japan. Although the attempt ended in failure, the loss of the Takao was marginal. The Imperial Navy continued north unimpeded, and supported landing and combat operations of thousands of government troops in the Battle of Hakodate.

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The wreckage of the Takao, pursued by steamships of the Imperial Navy


Kōtetsu (甲鉄, literally "Ironclad"), later renamed Azuma (東, "East"), was the first ironclad warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Built in Bordeaux, France in 1864 for the Confederate States Navy as CSS Stonewall, and acquired from the United States in February 1869, she was an ironclad ram warship. She had a decisive role in the Naval Battle of Hakodate Bay in May 1869, which marked the end of the Boshin War, and the complete establishment of the Meiji Restoration.

Her sister ship Cheops was sold to the Prussian Navy, becoming Prinz Adalbert.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_ironclad_Kōtetsu
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1902 - passanger steamer SS Camorta was caught in a cyclone and sank in the Irrawaddy Delta with the loss of all 655 passengers and 82 crew.
She was en route from Madras, India, to Rangoon, Burma, across the Bay of Bengal.


SS Camorta
was a passenger steamship built at A. & J. Inglis in 1880 and owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company.

A_and_J_Inglis_-_SS_Camorta_by_Tom_Robinson.jpg
SS Camorta in a painting by Tom Robinson

Fate
Camorta sank in the Irrawaddy Delta on 6 May 1902 with the loss of all 655 passengers and 82 crew. She was en route from Madras, India, to Rangoon, Burma, across the Bay of Bengal, when she was caught in a cyclone while crossing an area called the Baragua Flats, just off the Irrawaddy Delta. All of her passengers and 73 of her crew were Indians. She was reported missing when she failed to arrive at Rangoon on 13 May 1902. Other British India vessels were sent to search for her. Initially a lifeboat was found near the Krishna lightvessel. The wreck was subsequently found by SS Purnea on 4 June 1902 in fifteen fathoms (90 feet; 27 meters) of water; her masts still stood six feet (1.8 meters) above the water. The disaster was the fourth-worst loss of life in the wreck of a British-registered civilian vessel (she was registered in Glasgow, Scotland) in history after RMS Titanic in 1912, RMS Lusitania in 1915, and RMS Empress of Ireland in 1914.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1905 – Launch of The fourth USS St. Louis (C-20/CA-18), the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers in the United States Navy.


The fourth USS St. Louis (C-20/CA-18), was the lead ship of her class of protected cruisers in the United States Navy. St. Louis was launched on 6 May 1905 by the Neafie & Levy Company, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was sponsored by Miss Gladys Bryant Smith and commissioned on 18 August 1906 with Captain Nathaniel R. Usher in command.

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Service history
Pre-war

Assigned to the Pacific Fleet, St. Louis departed Tompkinsville, New York, on 15 May 1907 following completion of her trials along the Virginia coast. St. Louis called at Port Castries, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Punta Arenas, Valparaíso, Callao, and Acapulco before arriving at San Diego on 31 August 1907. Operating off the west coast into the spring of 1908, she steamed from Puget Sound to Honolulu in June, then cruised in Central American waters from July to October. On 5 November 1909, St. Louis returned to Puget Sound and was placed in reserve on 14 November.

Decommissioned on 3 May 1910, St. Louis was recommissioned, in reserve, on 7 October 1911 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard. She departed Puget Sound on 13 July 1911 for San Francisco and brief service as receiving ship there. After undergoing repairs, 22 July 1911 to 28 February 1912, she joined the Pacific Reserve Fleet again on 12 March. From 14 July 1912 until 26 April 1913, she operated in support of the Oregon Naval Militia, then returned to the Puget Sound Navy Yard to be placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet for a year. She departed Puget Sound on 24 April 1914 and commenced her next assignment as receiving ship at San Francisco on the 27th. Returning north to Bremerton, St. Louis was again placed in the Pacific Reserve Fleet on 17 February 1916.

Detached from the Reserve Fleet on 10 July 1916, St. Louis departed Puget Sound on 21 July for Honolulu. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 29 July, she commenced her next duty assignment as tender, Submarine Division Three, Pacific Fleet, with additional duty as station ship, Pearl Harbor. When it became evident that the crew of the interned German sloop Geier intended to scuttle their ship, an armed party from St. Louis boarded the ship on 4 February 1917 and seized her. Geier subsequently served the United States as Schurz.

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World War I
Placed in reduced commission on 6 April 1917, as the United States entered World War I, St. Louis departed Honolulu on 9 April to join the cruiser force engaged in escorting convoys bound for Europe. Calling first at San Diego, she took on board 517 National Naval Volunteers and apprentice seamen to bring her war complement to 823 officers and men. On 20 April, she was placed in full commission. A month later, she arrived in the Panama Canal Zone and embarked the 7th, 17th, 20th, 43d, 51st and 55th companies of Marines. She transported them to Santiago de Cuba and then sailed for Philadelphia, arriving on 29 May 1917.

St. Louis's first convoy duty began on 17 June 1917 when she departed New York in escort of Group 4, American Expeditionary Force. Returning to Boston for repairs on 19 July 1917, she had completed six additional voyages, escorting convoys bound from New York for ports in Britain and France by the end of the war.

Together with the USS Huntington she left Halifax on 30 October 1917 carrying members of a high-level U.S. Commission to confer with the European Allies. Escorted by USS Balch and other British and American vessels she arrived in Plymouth on the evening of 7 November.

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Post-war
After the Armistice, St. Louis was immediately pressed into service returning troops to the United States. She returned 8,437 troops to Hoboken, New Jersey, from Brest, France, in seven round-trip crossings between 17 December 1918 and 17 July 1919 when she arrived at the Philadelphia Navy Yard for repairs.

Designated CA-18 on 17 July 1920 and assigned to post-war duty with the European Squadron, St. Louis departed Philadelphia on 10 September 1920 for Sheerness, Cherbourg and Constantinople. She disembarked military passengers at Sheerness on 26 September, then continued on to the Mediterranean and reported to the Commander, United States Naval Forces in Turkish Waters at Constantinople on 19 October. Standing up the Bosphorus from Constantinople on 13 November, St. Louis embarked refugees at Sevastopol and Yalta, returning them to Constantinople on 16 November. The following day, her crew formed boat landing parties to distribute food among refugees quartered aboard naval transports anchored in the Bosphorus. St. Louis continued her humanitarian duties at Constantinople and at Anatolian ports during the time of unrest caused by the Russian Civil War and the Turkish revolution.

She departed Asia Minor for Naples on 19 September 1921 and called at Gibraltar.

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Decommissioning and fate
On 11 November, St. Louis arrived at Philadelphia where, on completion of pre-inactivation overhaul, she was decommissioned on 3 March 1922. In reserve until struck from the Navy List on 20 March 1930, St. Louis's hulk was sold for scrapping on 13 August in accordance with the provisions of the London Naval Treaty and Second London Naval Treaty for the limitation and reduction of naval armament.


The St. Louis-class cruisers were a class of three cruisers that served in the United States Navy at the beginning of the 20th century. Authorized in fiscal year 1901 by an Act of Congress of 7 June 1900 as part of the naval buildup touched off by the Spanish–American War, the St. Louis-class cruiser initially began as an improved Olympia. However, during the design phase, decisions were made that increased the size of the vessel from 6,000 long tons (6,100 t) to 9,700 long tons (9,900 t), including adding protection that resulted in the designation "semi-armored cruiser". This led to a larger power plant, and other decisions were made to try to increase speed and range, such as using smaller 6-inch (152 mm) guns instead of 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and adding coal capacity. The completed ship at 9,700 long tons was the same displacement as a full armored cruiser (such as the Royal Navy's Monmouth class, launched four years prior to the St. Louis class) without the same armor. One reference describes the class as "among the earliest well-documented examples of creeping growth in warship design".

Milwaukee grounded near Eureka, California, and was lost in January 1917. The other ships of the class patrolled for German commerce raiders and escorted convoys in World War I, were decommissioned in the early 1920s, and were sold for scrap in 1930 in compliance with the London Naval Treaty

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_St._Louis_(C-20)
http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/c20/c20.htm
 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 May 1937 – Hindenburg disaster

The Hindenburg disaster occurred on May 6, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, United States. The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Naval Air Station Lakehurst. On board were 97 people (36 passengers and 61 crewmen); there were 36 fatalities


The disaster was the subject of newsreel coverage, photographs, and Herbert Morrison's recorded radio eyewitness reports from the landing field, which were broadcast the next day. A variety of hypotheses have been put forward for both the cause of ignition and the initial fuel for the ensuing fire. The event shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger-carrying rigid airship and marked the abrupt end of the airship era.

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The stern of the Hindenburg begins to fall, with the mooring mast in the foreground.

Flight
After opening its 1937 season by completing a single round-trip passage to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in late March, the Hindenburg departed from Frankfurt, Germany, on the evening of May 3, on the first of 10 round trips between Europe and the United States that were scheduled for its second year of commercial service. American Airlines had contracted with the operators of the Hindenburg to shuttle the passengers from Lakehurst to Newark for connections to airplane flights.

Except for strong headwinds that slowed its progress, the Atlantic crossing of the Hindenburg was otherwise unremarkable until the airship attempted an early-evening landing at Lakehurst three days later on May 6. Although carrying only half its full capacity of passengers (36 of 70) and crewmen (61, including 21 crewman trainees) for the accident flight, the Hindenburg was fully booked for its return flight. Many of the passengers with tickets to Germany were planning to attend the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London the following week.

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The Hindenburg over Manhattan, New York on May 6, 1937, shortly before the disaster

The airship was hours behind schedule when it passed over Boston on the morning of May 6, and its landing at Lakehurst was expected to be further delayed because of afternoon thunderstorms. Advised of the poor weather conditions at Lakehurst, Captain Max Pruss charted a course over Manhattan Island, causing a public spectacle as people rushed out into the street to catch sight of the airship. After passing over the field at 4:00 p.m., Captain Pruss took passengers on a tour over the seasides of New Jersey while waiting for the weather to clear. After finally being notified at 6:22 p.m. that the storms had passed, Pruss directed the airship back to Lakehurst to make its landing almost half a day late.

Landing timeline
Around 7:00 p.m. local time, at an altitude of 650 feet (200 m), the Hindenburg made its final approach to the Lakehurst Naval Air Station. This was to be a high landing, known as a flying moor, because the airship would drop its landing ropes and mooring cable at a high altitude, and then be winched down to the mooring mast. This type of landing maneuver would reduce the number of ground crewmen, but would require more time. Although the high landing was a common procedure for American airships, the Hindenburg had only performed this maneuver a few times in 1936 while landing in Lakehurst.

At 7:09, the airship made a sharp full-speed left turn to the west around the landing field because the ground crew was not ready. At 7:11, it turned back toward the landing field and valved gas. All engines idled ahead and the airship began to slow. Captain Pruss ordered aft engines full astern at 7:14 while at an altitude of 394 ft (120 m), to try to brake the airship.

At 7:17, the wind shifted direction from east to southwest, and Captain Pruss ordered a second sharp turn starboard, making an s-shaped flightpath towards the mooring mast. At 7:18, as the final turn progressed, Pruss ordered 300, 300 and 500 kg of water ballast in successive drops because the airship was stern-heavy. The forward gas cells were also valved. As these measures failed to bring the ship in trim, six men (three of whom were killed in the accident) were then sent to the bow to trim the airship.

At 7:21, while the Hindenburg was at an altitude of 295 ft (90 m), the mooring lines were dropped from the bow; the starboard line was dropped first, followed by the port line. The port line was overtightened as it was connected to the post of the ground winch. The starboard line had still not been connected. A light rain began to fall as the ground crew grabbed the mooring lines.

At 7:25 p.m., a few witnesses saw the fabric ahead of the upper fin flutter as if gas were leaking. Others reported seeing a dim blue flame – possibly static electricity, or St Elmo's Fire – moments before the fire on top and in the back of the ship near the point where the flames first appeared. Several other eyewitness testimonies suggest that the first flame appeared on the port side just ahead of the port fin, and was followed by flames which burned on top. Commander Rosendahl testified to the flames in front of the upper fin being "mushroom-shaped". One witness on the starboard side reported a fire beginning lower and behind the rudder on that side. On board, people heard a muffled detonation and those in the front of the ship felt a shock as the port trail rope overtightened; the officers in the control car initially thought the shock was caused by a broken rope.

Disaster
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Hindenburg begins to fall seconds after catching fire

At 7:25 p.m. local time, the Hindenburg caught fire and quickly became engulfed in flames. Eyewitness statements disagree as to where the fire initially broke out; several witnesses on the port side saw yellow-red flames first jump forward of the top fin near the ventilation shaft of cells 4 and 5. Other witnesses on the port side noted the fire actually began just ahead of the horizontal port fin, only then followed by flames in front of the upper fin. One, with views of the starboard side, saw flames beginning lower and farther aft, near cell 1 behind the rudders. Inside the airship, helmsman Helmut Lau, who was stationed in the lower fin, testified hearing a muffled detonation and looked up to see a bright reflection on the front bulkhead of gas cell 4, which "suddenly disappeared by the heat". As other gas cells started to catch fire, the fire spread more to the starboard side and the ship dropped rapidly. Although there were cameramen from four newsreel teams and at least one spectator known to be filming the landing, as well as numerous photographers at the scene, no known footage or photograph exists of the moment the fire started.

Wherever they started, the flames quickly spread forward first consuming cells 1 to 9, and the rear end of the structure imploded. Almost instantly, two tanks (it is disputed whether they contained water or fuel) burst out of the hull as a result of the shock of the blast. Buoyancy was lost on the stern of the ship, and the bow lurched upwards while the ship's back broke; the falling stern stayed in trim.

As the tail of the Hindenburg crashed into the ground, a burst of flame came out of the nose, killing 9 of the 12 crew members in the bow. There was still gas in the bow section of the ship, so it continued to point upward as the stern collapsed down. The cell behind the passenger decks ignited as the side collapsed inward, and the scarlet lettering reading "Hindenburg" was erased by flames as the bow descended. The airship's gondola wheel touched the ground, causing the bow to bounce up slightly as one final gas cell burned away. At this point, most of the fabric on the hull had also burned away and the bow finally crashed to the ground. Although the hydrogen had finished burning, the Hindenburg's diesel fuel burned for several more hours.

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The fire bursts out of the nose of the Hindenburg, photographed by Murray Becker.

The time that it took from the first signs of disaster to the bow crashing to the ground is often reported as 32, 34 or 37 seconds. Since none of the newsreel cameras were filming the airship when the fire started, the time of the start can only be estimated from various eyewitness accounts and the duration of the longest footage of the crash. One careful analysis by NASA's Addison Bain gives the flame front spread rate across the fabric skin as about 49 ft/s (15 m/s) at some points during the crash, which would have resulted in a total destruction time of about 16 seconds (245m/15 m/s=16.3 s).

In the days after the disaster, an official board of inquiry was set up at Lakehurst to investigate the cause of the fire. The investigation by the US Commerce Department was headed by Colonel South Trimble Jr, while Dr. Hugo Eckener led the German commission.

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Hindenburg disaster sequence from the Pathé Newsreel, showing the bow nearing the ground.

News coverage

The disaster was well-documented because of the combination of many news crews having been on site at the time of the airship exploding and the significant extent of newsreel coverage and photographs, as well as Herbert Morrison's eyewitness radio report for station WLS in Chicago, which was broadcast the next day. Heavy publicity about the first transatlantic passenger flight of the year by Zeppelin to the United States attracted a large number of journalists to the landing. (The airship had already made one round trip from Germany to Brazil that year.)

Parts of Morrison's broadcast were later dubbed onto newsreel footage, giving the impression that the words and film were recorded together.It's practically standing still now they've dropped ropes out of the nose of the ship; and (uh) they've been taken ahold of down on the field by a number of men. It's starting to rain again; it's... the rain had (uh) slacked up a little bit. The back motors of the ship are just holding it (uh) just enough to keep it from...It's burst into flames! Get this, Charlie; get this, Charlie! It's fire... and it's crashing! It's crashing terrible! Oh, my! Get out of the way, please! It's burning and bursting into flames and the... and it's falling on the mooring mast and all the folks between it. This is terrible; this is one of the worst catastrophes in the world. Oh it's... [unintelligible] its flames... Crashing, oh! oh, four or five hundred feet into the sky, and it’s a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There’s smoke, and there’s flames, now, and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring mast. Oh, the humanity, and all the passengers screaming around here! I told you; it – I can't even talk to people, their friends are on there! Ah! It's... it... it's a... ah! I... I can't talk, ladies and gentlemen. Honest: it's just laying there, a mass of smoking wreckage. Ah! And everybody can hardly breathe and talk and the screaming. I... I... I'm sorry. Honest: I... I can hardly breathe. I... I'm going to step inside, where I cannot see it. Charlie, that's terrible. Ah, ah... I can't. Listen, folks; I... I'm gonna have to stop for a minute because I've lost my voice. This is the worst thing I've ever witnessed.— Herbert Morrison, Transcription of WLS radio broadcast describing the Hindenburg disaster.
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The Hindenburg disaster, photographed by Arthur Cofod Jr.

The newsreels and photographs, along with Morrison's passionate reporting shattered public and industry faith in airships and marked the end of the giant passenger-carrying airships. Also contributing to the downfall of Zeppelins was the arrival of international passenger air travel and Pan American Airlines. Heavier-than-air aircraft regularly crossed the Atlantic and Pacific much faster than the 130 km/h (80 mph) speed of the Hindenburg. The one advantage that the Hindenburg had over such aircraft was the comfort that she afforded her passengers.

In contrast to the media coverage in the United States, media coverage of the disaster in Germany was more subdued. Although some photographs of the disaster were published in newspapers, the newsreel footage was not released until after World War II. Additionally, German victims were memorialized in a similar manner to fallen war heroes, and grassroots movements to fund zeppelin construction (as the case with the LZ4 crash in 1908) were expressly forbidden by the Nazi government.

There had been a series of other airship accidents prior to the Hindenburg fire; many were caused by bad weather. The Graf Zeppelin had flown safely for more than 1.6 million kilometers (1.0 million miles), including the first circumnavigation of the globe by an airship. The Zeppelin company's promotions had prominently featured the fact that no passenger had been injured on any of its airships.

Death toll
Despite the sheer ferocity of the colossal fire, many of the crew members and passengers survived, but the majority of them were severely burned. Of the 36 passengers and 61 crewmen, 13 passengers and 22 aircrewmen died. Also killed was one ground crewman, the civilian linesman Allen Hagaman. Ten passengers and 16 crewmen died in the crash or in the fire. The majority of the victims were burnt to death, while others died jumping from the airship at an excessive height, or as a consequence of either smoke inhalation or falling debris. Six other crewmembers, three passengers and Allen Hagaman died in the following hours or days, mostly as a consequence of the burns.

The majority of the crewmen who died were up inside the ship's hull, where they either did not have a clear escape route or else were close to the bow of the ship, which hung burning in the air for too long for most of them to escape death. Most of the crew in the bow died in the fire, although at least one was filmed falling from the bow to his death. Most of the passengers who died were trapped in the starboard side of the passenger deck. Not only was the wind blowing the fire toward the starboard side, but the ship also rolled slightly to starboard as it settled to the ground, with much of the upper hull on that part of the ship collapsing outboard of the starboard observation windows, thus cutting off the escape of many of the passengers on that side. To make matters worse, the sliding door leading from the starboard passenger area to the central foyer and the gangway stairs (through which rescuers led a number of passengers to safety) jammed shut during the crash, further trapping those passengers on the starboard side. Nonetheless, some did manage to escape from the starboard passenger decks. By contrast, all but a few of the passengers on the port side of the ship survived the fire, with some of them escaping virtually unscathed. Although the best remembered airship disaster, it was not the worst. Just over twice as many (73 of 76 on board) had perished when the helium-filled U.S. Navy scout airship USS Akron crashed at sea off the New Jersey coast four years earlier on April 4, 1933.

Some of the survivors were saved by luck. Werner Franz, the 14-year-old cabin boy, was initially dazed by the realization that the ship was on fire. As he stood near the officer's mess where he had been putting away dishes moments before, a water tank holding ballast above him burst open, and he was suddenly soaked. This snapped him back to his senses, as he later told interviewers, and also put out the fire around him. He then made his way to a nearby hatch through which the kitchen had been loaded with provisions before the flight, and dropped through it just as the forward part of the ship was briefly rebounding into the air. He began to run toward the starboard side, but stopped and turned around and ran the other way, because the flames were being pushed by the wind in that direction. He made it clear of the wreck with no injuries, and was the last surviving crew member when he died at the age of 92 on August 13, 2014. The last surviving passenger is Werner G. Doehner (b. 1928), a retired electrical engineer who was an eight-year-old child traveling with his parents, brother, and sister at the time of the accident. His father and sister died in the disaster.

When the control car crashed onto the ground, most of the officers leapt through the windows, but became separated. First Officer Captain Albert Sammt found Captain Max Pruss trying to re-enter the wreckage to look for survivors. Pruss's face was badly burned, and he required months of hospitalization and reconstructive surgery, but he survived.

Captain Ernst Lehmann escaped the crash with burns to his head and arms and severe burns across most of his back. He died at a nearby hospital the next day.

Of the 12 crewmen in the bow of the airship, only three survived. Four of these 12 men were standing on the mooring shelf, a platform up at the very tip of the bow from which the forwardmost landing ropes and the steel mooring cable were released to the ground crew, and which was directly at the forward end of the axial walkway and just ahead of gas cell #16. The rest were standing either along the lower keel walkway ahead of the control car, or else on platforms beside the stairway leading up the curve of the bow to the mooring shelf. During the fire the bow hung in the air at roughly a 45-degree angle and flames shot forward through the axial walkway, bursting through the bow (and the bow gas cells) like a blowtorch. The three men from the forward section who survived (elevatorman Kurt Bauer, cook Alfred Grözinger, and electrician Josef Leibrecht) were those furthest aft of the bow, and two of them (Bauer and Grözinger) happened to be standing near two large triangular air vents, through which cool air was being drawn by the fire. Neither of these men sustained more than superficial burns. Most of the men standing along the bow stairway either fell aft into the fire, or tried to leap from the ship when it was still too high in the air. Three of the four men standing on the mooring shelf inside the very tip of the bow were actually taken from the wreck alive, though one (Erich Spehl, a rigger) died shortly afterwards in the Air Station's infirmary, and the other two (helmsman Alfred Bernhard and apprentice elevatorman Ludwig Felber) were reported by newspapers to have initially survived the fire, and then to subsequently have died at area hospitals during the night or early the following morning.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 6 May


1649 Minor battle between Venetians and Turks


1682 – Launch of French Arrogant 50, later 60 guns (launched 6 May 1682 at Le Havre)
– captured by the English in the Battle of Marbella in March 1705.

Arrogant Class. Designed by Jacques Doley and built by Étienne Salicon.
Arrogant 50, later 60 guns (launched 6 May 1682 at Le Havre) – captured by the English in the Battle of Marbella in March 1705.
Brave 50, later 60 guns (launched 7 June 1683 at Le Havre) – deleted 1697.


1741 Samuel Hood entered the navy as Captain’s Servant on HMS Romney (48)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Hood,_1st_Viscount_Hood


1801 Nelson succeeds Parker as Commander-in-Chief, Baltic.


1805 Boats of HMS Unicorn (32), Cptn. Lucius Hardyman, took French privateer Tape a bord (4) in the West Indies.


On the morning of 6 May 1805, Unicorn was eight or nine leagues NE by N of Cape Francois, off St. Domingo, when she saw a strange sail seven or eight miles away. There was little wind so Handyman sent out four boats in chase. After rowing for many hours, and despite finally facing cannon and small arms fire, the British captured the privateer without taking any casualties. She turned out to be the Tape-a-Bord, under the command of Citizen Hemiguelth. She was armed with four 6-pounder guns, and carried 46 men. She was out of Samana and had been on a cruise for 10 days without taking any prizes.

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.

Capture_of_the_French_Frigate_La_Tribune_byThe_Unicorn,_Pocock_GRAND_FORMAT2.jpg
The capture of the French frigate Tribune by HMS Unicorn

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Unicorn_(1794)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-356369;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=U


1814 – Launch of HMS Towey, a Conway class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten Royal Navy post ships built to an 1812 design by Sir William Rule.

The Conway class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten Royal Navy post ships built to an 1812 design by Sir William Rule. All ten were ordered on 18 January 1812, and nine of these were launched during 1814, at the end of the Napoleonic War; the last (Tees) was delayed and was launched in 1817.

These ships were originally designated as "sloops", but were nominally rated as sixth rates of 20 guns when built, as their 12-pounder carronades were not included in the official rating. When this changed in February 1817, they were rated at 28 guns.

j6569.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway-class_post_ship
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...0;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=T;start=0


1822 – Launch of French Vestale, (launched 6 May 1822 at Rochefort) – deleted 26 May 1831.

Vestale class (58-gun type, 1820 design by Paul Filhon, comprising 30 x 24-pounder and 2 x 18-pounder guns, and 26 x 36-pounder carronades):
Vestale, (launched 6 May 1822 at Rochefort) – deleted 26 May 1831.
Vénus, (launched 11 March 1823 at Lorient) – deleted 1847.
Atalante, (launched 2 April 1825 at Lorient) – deleted 28 December 1850.


1826 – Launch of HMS Skylark was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was wrecked in 1845.

HMS Skylark
was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop built for the Royal Navy during the 1820s. She was wrecked in 1845.

The Cherokee class was a class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy, mounting 10 guns. Brig-sloops are sloops-of-war with two masts (a fore mast and a taller main mast) rather than the three masts of ship sloops. Orders for 115 vessels were placed, including 5 which were cancelled and 6 for which the orders were replaced by ones for equivalent steam-powered paddle vessels.
Many of these sailing vessels served as mail packet ships, and more than eight assisted with exploration and surveys. The best known of the class was HMS Beagle, then considerably modified for Beagle's second survey voyage under Robert FitzRoy, with the gentleman naturalist Charles Darwin on board as a self-funded supernumerary.

sistership Beagle
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Longitudinal section of HMS Beagle (Cherokee class) as of 1832, by then converted to a barque by addition of a mizzen-mast.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Skylark_(1826)


1856 – Birth of Robert Peary, American admiral and explorer (d. 1920)

Robert Edwin Peary Sr.
(/ˈpɪəri/; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and United States Navy officer who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for claiming to have reached the geographic North Pole with his expedition on April 6, 1909.

Robert_Peary_self-portrait,_1909.jpg

Peary was born in Cresson, Pennsylvania, but was raised in Portland, Maine, following his father's death at a young age. He attended Bowdoin College, then joined the National Geodetic Survey as a draftsman. Peary enlisted in the navy in 1881, as a civil engineer. In 1885, he was made chief of surveying for the Nicaragua Canal (which was never built). Peary visited the Arctic for the first time in 1886, making an unsuccessful attempt to cross Greenland by dogsled. He returned in 1891 much better prepared, and by reaching Independence Fjord (in what is now known as Peary Land) conclusively proved that Greenland was an island. He was one of the first Arctic explorers to study Inuit survival techniques.

On his 1898–1902 expedition, Peary set a new "Farthest North" record by reaching Greenland's northernmost point, Cape Morris Jesup. He also reached the northernmost point of the Western Hemisphere, at the top of Canada's Ellesmere Island. Peary made two further expeditions to the Arctic, in 1905–1906 and in 1908–1909. During the latter, he claimed to have reached the North Pole. Peary received a number of awards from geographical societies during his lifetime, and in 1911 received the Thanks of Congress and was promoted to rear admiral. He served two terms as president of The Explorers Club, and retired to Eagle Island.

Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole was widely debated in contemporary newspapers (along with a competing claim made by Frederick Cook), but eventually won widespread acceptance. In 1989, British explorer Wally Herbert concluded that Peary did not reach the pole, although he may have been as close as 60 miles (97 km). His conclusions have been widely accepted, although disputed by some authorities.



1860 - The sloop-of-war USS Portsmouth, commanded by John Calhoun, captures the slaver brig Falmouth off Porto Praya.

The second USS Portsmouth was a wooden sloop-of-war in the United States Navy in service during the mid-to-late 19th century. She was designed by Josiah Barker on the lines of a French-built privateer, and built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was described as an improvement over the USS Saratoga built in the same shipyard a year earlier. The Portsmouth was launched on 23 October 1843 and commissioned on 10 November 1844, with Commander John Berrien Montgomery in command.

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1908 - The Great White Fleet anchors in San Francisco Bay, Calif. The fleet is delayed from its round-the-world cruise after both Rear Adm. Robley D. Evans and Rear Adm. Charles M. Thomas fall ill. On May 15, Rear Adm. Charles S. Sperry assumed command and completes the cruise ending Feb. 22, 1909.

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

1280px-Great_white_fleet_map.svg.png
Map of the Great White Fleet's voyage (2009 political boundaries shown).

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

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1916 - The first ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation was held on board USS New Hampshire (BB 25) off the Virginia Capes.



1944 - USS Buckley (DE 51) rams German submarine U 66 while TBMs (VC 55) from USS Block Island (CVE 21) attack U 66 near Cape Verdes.


1945 - USS Farquhar (DE 139) sinks the last German submarine, U 881, in the North Atlantic.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Farquhar_(DE-139)
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 May 1694 - Henry Every (also spelled Avery) leads a mutiny aboard the privateer Charles II anchored off La Coruna, Spain.


Henry Every, also Avery or Evory (20 August 1659 – time of death uncertain), sometimes erroneously given as Jack Avery or John Avery, was an English pirate who operated in the Atlantic and Indian oceans in the mid-1690s. He probably used several aliases throughout his career, including Benjamin Bridgeman, and was known as Long Ben to his crewmen and associates.

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Dubbed "The Arch Pirate" and "The King of Pirates" by contemporaries, Every was infamous for being one of few major pirate captains to escape with his loot without being arrested or killed in battle, and for being the perpetrator of what has been called the most profitable pirate heist in history. Although Every's career as a pirate lasted only two years, his exploits captured the public's imagination, inspired others to take up piracy, and spawned works of literature.

Every began his pirate career while he was first mate aboard the warship Charles II. As the ship lay anchored in the northern Spanish harbor of Corunna, the crew grew discontented as Spain failed to deliver a letter of marque and Charles II's owners failed to pay their wages, and they mutinied. Charles II was renamed the Fancy and Every elected as the new captain.

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A woodcut from A General History of the Pyrates (1725) showing a moor escorting Captain Every

His most famous raid was on a 25-ship convoy of Grand Mughal vessels making the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, including the treasure-laden Ghanjah dhowGanj-i-sawai and its escort, the Fateh Muhammed. Joining forces with several pirate vessels, Every found himself in command of a small pirate squadron, and they were able to capture up to £600,000 in precious metals and jewels, equivalent to around £89.6 million in 2019, making him the richest pirate in the world. This caused considerable damage to England's fragile relations with the Mughals, and a combined bounty of £1,000—an immense sum at the time—was offered by the Privy Council and the East India Company for his capture, leading to the first worldwide manhunt in recorded history.

Although a number of his crew were subsequently arrested, Every himself eluded capture, vanishing from all records in 1696; his whereabouts and activities after this period are unknown. Unconfirmed accounts state he may have changed his name and retired, quietly living out the rest of his life in either Britain or an unidentified tropical island, while alternative accounts consider Every may have squandered his riches. He is considered to have died anywhere between 1699 and 1714; his treasure has never been recovered.


Piratical career
Spanish Expedition Shipping
In the spring of 1693, several London-based investors led by Sir James Houblon, a wealthy merchant hoping to reinvigorate the stagnating English economy, assembled an ambitious venture known as the Spanish Expedition Shipping. The venture consisted of four warships: a pink, the Seventh Son, as well as the frigates Dove (of which famed navigator William Dampier was second mate), the James and the Charles II (sometimes erroneously given as Duke).

Charles II had been commissioned by England's ally, Charles II of Spain (the ship's namesake), to prey on French vessels in the West Indies. Under a trading and salvage license from the Spanish, the venture's mission was to sail to the Spanish West Indies, where the convoy would conduct trade, supply the Spanish with arms, and recover treasure from wrecked galleons while plundering the French possessions in the area. The investors promised to pay the sailors well: the contract stipulated a guaranteed monthly wage to be paid every six months throughout deployment, with the first month's pay paid in advance before the start of the mission. Houblon personally went aboard the ships and met the crew, reassuring them of their pay. Indeed, all wages up to 1 August 1693, not long before the start of the mission, were paid on that date.

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An 1837 woodcut from The Pirates Own Book by Charles Ellms depicting Henry Every receiving three chests of treasure on board his ship, the Fancy

As a result of his previous experience in the navy, Every was promoted to first mate after joining the Spanish Expedition. The convoy's four ships were commanded by Admiral Sir Don Arturo O'Byrne, an Irish nobleman who had previously served in the Spanish Navy Marines. This was an odd occurrence at the time and many people thought it boded ill for an Irishman to control an English fleet. Indeed, the voyage was soon in trouble, as the flag captain, John Strong, a career mariner who had previously served with Sir William Phips, died while the ship was still in port. Although he was replaced by Captain Charles Gibson, this would not be the last of the venture's misfortunes.

By early August 1693, the four warships were sailing down the River Thames en route to Spain's northern city of Corunna. The journey to Corunna should have taken two weeks, but for some reason the ships did not arrive in Spain until five months later. Worse still, the necessary legal documents had apparently failed to arrive from Madrid, so the ships were forced to wait. As months passed and the documents still did not arrive, the sailors found themselves in an unenviable position: with no money to send home to support their families and unable to find alternative sources of employment, they had become virtual prisoners in Corunna.

After a few months in port, the men petitioned their captain for the pay they should have received since their employment began. If this request had been granted, the men would no longer have been tied to the ship and could easily have left, so predictably their petition was denied. After a similar petition to James Houblon by the men's wives had also failed, many of the sailors became desperate, believing that they had been sold into slavery to the Spanish.

On 1 May, as the fleet was finally preparing to leave Corunna, the men demanded their six months of pay or threatened to strike. Houblon refused to acquiesce to these demands, but Admiral O'Byrne, seeing the seriousness of the situation, wrote to England asking for the money owed to his men. However, on 6 May some of the sailors were involved in an argument with Admiral O'Byrne, and it was probably around this time that they conceived of a plan to mutiny and began recruiting others. One of the men recruiting others was Henry Every. As William Phillips, a mariner on the Dove, would later testify, Every went "up & down from Ship to Ship & persuaded the men to come on board him, & he would carry them where they should get money enough." Since Every had a great deal of experience and was also born in a lower social rank, he was the natural choice to command the mutiny, as the crew believed he would have their best interests at heart.

Mutiny and ascension to captaincy
On Monday, 7 May 1694, Admiral O'Byrne was scheduled to sleep ashore, which gave the men the opportunity they were looking for. At approximately 9:00 p.m., Every and about twenty-five other men rushed aboard the Charles II and surprised the crew on board. Captain Gibson was bedridden at the time, so the mutiny ended bloodlessly. One account states that the extra men from the James pulled up in a longboat beside the ship and gave the password, saying, "Is the drunken boatswain on board?" before joining in the mutiny. Captain Humphreys of the James is also said to have called out to Every that the men were deserting, to which Every calmly replied that he knew perfectly well. The James then fired on the Charles II, alerting the Spanish Night Watch, and Every was forced to make a run to the open sea, quickly vanishing into the night.

Declaration of Henry Every to English ship commanders
:To all English Commanders lett this Satisfye that I was Riding here att this Instant in ye Ship fancy man of Warr formerly the Charles of ye Spanish Expedition who departed from Croniae [Corunna] ye 7th of May. 94: Being and am now in A Ship of 46 guns 150 Men & bound to Seek our fortunes I have Never as Yett Wronged any English or Dutch nor never Intend while I am Commander. Wherefore as I Commonly Speake wth all Ships I Desire who ever Comes to ye perusal of this to take this Signall that if you or aney whome you may informe are desirous to know wt wee are att a Distance then make your Antient [i.e., ensign, flag] Vp in a Ball or Bundle and hoyst him att ye Mizon Peek ye Mizon Being furled I shall answere wth ye same & Never Molest you: for my Men are hungry Stout and Resolute: & should they Exceed my Desire I cannott help my selfe.as Yett
An Englishman's friend,At Johanna [Anjouan] February 28th, 1694/5
Henry Every
Here is 160 od french Armed men now att Mohilla who waits for Opportunity of getting aney ship, take Care of your Selves.


After sailing far enough for safety, Every gave the non-conspirators a chance to go ashore, even deferentially offering to let Captain Gibson command the ship if he would join their cause. According to Charles Ellms, Every's words to Gibson were, "if you have a mind to make one of us, we will receive you; and if you turn sober, and attend to business, perhaps in time I may make you up of my lieutenants; if not, here's a boat, and you shall be set on shore." The captain declined and was set ashore with several other sailors. The only man who was prevented from voluntarily leaving was the ship's surgeon, whose services were deemed too important to forgo. All of the men left on board the Charles II unanimously elected Every captain of the ship. Some reports say that Every was much ruder in his dealings with Captain Gibson, but agree that he at least offered him the position of second mate. In either case, Every exhibited an amount of gentility and generosity in his operation of the mutiny that indicates his motives were not mere adventure.

Every was easily able to convince the men to sail to the Indian Ocean as pirates, since their original mission had greatly resembled piracy and Every was renowned for his powers of persuasion. He may have mentioned Thomas Tew's success capturing an enormous prize in the Red Sea only a year earlier. The crew quickly settled the subject of payment by deciding that each member would get one share of the treasure, and the captain would get two. Every then renamed the Charles II the Fancy—a name which reflected both the crew's renewed hope in their journey and the quality of the ship—and set a course for the Cape of Good Hope.

The Pirate Round
At Maio, the easternmost of the Cape Verde's Sotavento islands, Every committed his first piracy, robbing three English merchantmen from Barbadosof provisions and supplies. Nine of the men from these ships were quickly persuaded to join Every's crew, who now numbered about ninety-four men. Every then sailed to the Guinea coast, where he tricked a local chieftain into boarding the Fancy under the false pretense of trade, and forcibly took his and his men's wealth, leaving them slaves. Continuing to hug the African coastline, Every then stopped at Bioko in the Bight of Benin, where the Fancy was careened and razeed. By cutting away some of the superstructure to improve the ship's speed, the Fancy became one of the fastest vessels then sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. In October 1694, the Fancy captured two Danish privateers near the island of Príncipe, stripping the ships of ivory and gold and welcoming approximately seventeen defecting Danes aboard.

In early 1695, the Fancy finally rounded the Cape of Good Hope, stopping in Madagascar where the crew restocked supplies, likely in the area of St. Augustine's Bay. The Fancy next stopped at the island of Johanna in the Comoros Islands. Here Every's crew rested and took on provisions, later capturing a passing French pirate ship, looting the vessel and recruiting some forty of the crew to join his own company. His total strength was now about 150 men.

At Johanna, Every wrote a letter addressed to the English ship commanders in the Indian Ocean, falsely stating that he had not attacked any English ships. His letter describes a signal English skippers could use to identify themselves so he could avoid them, and warns them that he might not be able to restrain his crew from plundering their ships if they failed to use the signal. It is unclear whether this document was true, but it may have been a ploy by Every to avoid the attention of the East India Company, whose large and powerful ships were the only threat the Fancy faced in the Indian Ocean. Either way, the letter was unsuccessful in preventing the English from pursuing him.

......... read more about the career in wikipedia ........

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An 18th-century depiction of Henry Every, with the Fancy shown engaging its prey in the background



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 May 1765 – Launch of HMS Victory, a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765.
She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.


HMS Victory
is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is best known for her role as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805.

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She additionally served as Keppel's flagship at Ushant, Howe's flagship at Cape Spartel and Jervis's flagship at Cape St Vincent. After 1824, she was relegated to the role of harbour ship.

In 1922, she was moved to a dry dock at Portsmouth, England, and preserved as a museum ship. She has been the flagship of the First Sea Lord since October 2012 and is the world's oldest naval ship still in commission, with 241 years' service as of 2019.

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HMS Victory in Portsmouth, 1900

Construction
In December 1758, Pitt the Elder, in his role as head of the British government, placed an order for the building of 12 ships, including a first-rate ship that would become Victory. During the 18th century, Victory was one of ten first-rate ships to be constructed. The outline plans were based on HMS Royal George which had been launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1756, and the naval architect chosen to design the ship was Sir Thomas Slade who, at the time, was the Surveyor of the Navy. She was designed to carry at least 100 guns. The commissioner of Chatham Dockyard was instructed to prepare a dry dock for the construction. The keel was laid on 23 July 1759 in the Old Single Dock (since renamed No. 2 Dock and now Victory Dock), and a name, Victory, was chosen in October 1760. In 1759, the Seven Years' War was going well for Britain; land victories had been won at Quebec and Minden and naval battles had been won at Lagos and Quiberon Bay. It was the Annus Mirabilis, or Year of Miracles (or Wonders), and the ship's name may have been chosen to commemorate the victories or it may have been chosen simply because out of the seven names shortlisted, Victory was the only one not in use. There were some doubts whether this was a suitable name since the previous Victory had been lost with all on board in 1744.

A team of 150 workmen were assigned to construction of Victory's frame. Around 6,000 trees were used in her construction, of which 90% were oakand the remainder elm, pine and fir, together with a small quantity of lignum vitae. The wood of the hull was held in place by six-foot copper bolts, supported by treenails for the smaller fittings. Once the ship's frame had been built, it was normal to cover it up and leave it for several months to allow the wood to dry out or "season". The end of the Seven Years' War meant that Victory remained in this condition for nearly three years, which helped her subsequent longevity. Work restarted in autumn 1763 and she was floated on 7 May 1765, having cost £63,176 and 3 shillings, the equivalent of £8.48 million today.

On the day of the launch, shipwright Hartly Larkin, designated "foreman afloat" for the event, suddenly realised that the ship might not fit through the dock gates. Measurements at first light confirmed his fears: the gates were at least 9½ inches too narrow. He told the dreadful news to his superior, master shipwright John Allin, who considered abandoning the launch. Larkin asked for the assistance of every available shipwright, and they hewed away enough wood from the gates with their adzes for the ship to pass safely through. However, the launch itself revealed significant problems in the ship's design, including a distinct list to starboard and a tendency to sit heavily in the water such that her lower deck gunports were only 4 ft 6 in (1.4 m) above the waterline. The first of these problems was rectified after launch by increasing the ship's ballast to settle her upright on the keel. The second problem, regarding the siting of the lower gunports, could not be rectified. Instead it was noted in Victory's sailing instructions that these gunports would have to remain closed and unusable in rough weather. This had potential to limit Victory's firepower, though in practice none of her subsequent actions would be fought in rough seas.

Because there was no immediate use for her, she was placed in ordinary and moored in the River Medway. Internal fitting out continued in a somewhat desultory manner over the next four years, and sea trials were completed in 1769, after which she was returned to her Medway berth. She remained there until France joined the American War of Independence in 1778. Victory was now placed in active service as part of a general mobilisation against the French threat. This included arming her with a full complement of smooth bore, cast iron cannon. Her weaponry was intended to be thirty 42-pounders (19 kg) on her lower deck, twenty-eight 24-pounder long guns (11 kg) on her middle deck, and thirty 12-pounders (5 kg) on her upper deck, together with twelve 6-pounders on her quarterdeck and forecastle. In May 1778, the 42-pounders were replaced by 32-pounders (15 kg), but the 42-pounders were reinstated in April 1779; however, there were insufficient 42-pounders available and these were replaced with 32-pounder cannons instead.

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Victory's bow and figurehead, 2007

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Scale: 1:60. A model of H.M.S Victory (1765) made entirely in wood that has been painted in realistic colours with metal fittings. The vessel is shown in a launching cradle on a slipway. The hull is painted white below the waterline with a closed black wale above. The remainder of the hull is varnished, and laid in individual planks. There are three gun decks and all the gunports are depicted in an open position, the inner faces of the gunport lids are painted red as are the insides of the gunports themselves. A decorative frieze is painted on a blue ground that runs the entire length of the hull just above main deck level. The figurehead is finely carved depicting George III, allegorical figures and a Union flag on the starboard side. Other bow details include a pair of whisker booms, a pair of catheads, one large admiralty pattern anchor, and one small anchor. The model does not have any masts but instead has three launching flag poles. Foredeck fittings include a bell and belfry, stove chimney, and a forward launching flag pole. The waist has been closed in and four beams support a ship’s boat equipped with a number of red-painted oars. Beneath the boat on the main deck are two sets of gratings. The upper deck fittings include the ship's double wheel painted red, and two companion ways that provide access to the poop deck. The poop deck fittings include a rectangular skylight, launching flag pole, hammock stowage rails, and provision for an ensign jack staff. The stern and quarter galleries, of which two are open, are elaborately carved and painted, and glazed in mica. The launching cradle and slipway is realistically depicted and there are six stabiliser poles attached to the port and starboard stern quarters and the sides of the slipway.

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Scale: 1:60. A full hull model of the ‘Victory’ (1765), a 100-gun, three-decker ship of the line. The model is decked. Judging by its style and finish, this model would appear to be an early 19th-century example of the ‘Victory’ as built in 1765. It was originally in the Admiralty collection at Somerset House. Built at Chatham, the ‘Victory’ measured 186 feet in length (gun deck) by 52 feet in the beam, displacing 2162 tons burden. It was armed with thirty 32-pounders on the gun deck, twenty-eight 24-pounders on the middle deck, thirty 12-pounders on the upper deck, twelve 12-pounders on the quarterdeck, two 12-pounders on the forecastle and two 68-pounder carronades. The ‘Victory’, the flagship of Vice-Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar, is probably the best known of all the Royal Navy’s warships. This was the fifth incarnation of the name, and was built at Chatham and launched in 1765. It was not commissioned until 1778 and first served as Admiral Keppel’s flagship in an indecisive battle with the French off Ushant in the same year. It saw much service both in the American Revolutionary War (1775–82) and in the Revolutionary War with France (1793–1801). In 1803 it became Nelson’s flagship in the Mediterranean and carried him in his pursuit of Admiral Villeneuve across the Atlantic. It then took Nelson from Portsmouth to join, and take command of, Vice-Admiral Collingwood’s fleet that was watching the combined Franco-Spanish fleet at Cadiz in October 1805. During the subsequent battle off Cape Trafalgar, Nelson was mortally wounded by a bullet while standing on the upper deck. ‘Victory’ next served in the Baltic as the flagship of Admiral Saumarez and was withdrawn from active service in 1812. Taken to Portsmouth, it was selected as the permanent, and stationary, flagship of the commander-in-chief there, lying at moorings in the harbour. In 1922, under pressure from the Society for Nautical Research, it was brought into No. 2 Dry Dock, Chatham, where it was restored and re-rigged to its state at Trafalgar. See also SLR0515, SLR0516 and SLR0520.


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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail and quarter decoration, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Victory (1765), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan is badly damaged so parts of the half-breadth are missing. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771]

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail, decoration and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Victory (1765), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. Even though the plan is dated 1830, the plan illustrates the vessel prior to her 1800-3 'Large Repair' at Chatham Dockyard. The plan commemorates the death of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson despite the plan representing the ship prior to when she was his flagship in 1803. There are also differences in gunport layouts when compared to the plan signed by Thomas Slade in 1759

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, and inboard profile with some external detail for Victory (1765), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. The plan is titled 'Presented to the Royal Naval College Museum, Greenwich in 1925 by Mr Chas. H. Jordan M Inst NA". As part of this plan is an envelope containing press cuttings relating to the main plan. Numbered ZAZ0121.1

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the Victory (1765), a 100 gun first rate, three-decker ship of the line. Model is decked. Depicted after extensive refit (her so-called "large repair") completed in 1803, prior to the Battle of Trafalgar. Model also shows further modifications which were proposed after Trafalgar which were not carried out.

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Scale approx. 1:24. Model of the original figurehead on HMS 'Victory' (1765), a first-rate 100-gun warship. It has been carved from several pieces of wood which have been glued together to form one figurehead. It is topped by a shoulder length bust intended to represent George III in armour, wearing a laurel-leaf crown though it does not resemble him either in the 1760s or later. ( It more closely resembles his uncle Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, who died in October 1765 aged 44).


https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...0;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=V;start=0
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 May 1773 – Launch of HMS Orpheus, a British Modified Lowestoffe-class fifth-rate frigate, ordered on 25 December 1770 as one of five fifth-rate frigates of 32 guns each contained in the emergency frigate-building programme inaugurated when the likelihood of war with Spain arose over the ownership of the Falkland Islands


HMS
Orpheus
was a British Modified Lowestoffe-class fifth-rate frigate, ordered on 25 December 1770 as one of five fifth-rate frigates of 32 guns each contained in the emergency frigate-building programme inaugurated when the likelihood of war with Spain arose over the ownership of the Falkland Islands (eight sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns each were ordered at the same time). Sir Thomas Slade's design for the Lowestoffe was approved, but was revised to produce a more rounded midships section; the amended design was approved on 3 January 1771 by Edward Hawke's outgoing Admiralty Board, just before it was replaced. The contract to build the Orpheus was awarded to John Barnard at Harwich, the keel being laid in May 1771, and the frigate was launched 7 May 1773, at a cost of £12,654.16.11d. She sailed from Harwich on 24 May for Sheerness Dockyard, where she was completed and fitted out to the Navy Board's needs (for £835.7.7d) by 11 June.

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Orpheus measured 130 ft 0 in on the gun deck and 108 ft 2.5 in on the keel, with a breadth of 35 ft 1 in (one inch wider than designed) and a depth in hold of 12 ft 6 in; a total of 708 40/94 tons BM. She mounted twenty-six 12-pounder guns on the upper deck, four 6-pounder guns on the quarterdeck, and two 6-pounder guns on the forecastle; she also carried twelve small (half-pounder) swivel guns. She was established with a complement of 220 men.

She served in the American Revolutionary War, enforcing the blockade of the Delaware Bay, and at the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, near Cape May, New Jersey. She was burnt to avoid capture on 5 August 1778 in Narragansett Bay during the Battle of Rhode Island.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, longitudinal half breadth for building Orpheus (1774),a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate. This is likely to be Orpheus as a copy of ZAZ3172 dated 18 January 1771 was sent to Messers Bernard & Turner for the Orpheus. Signed Thomas Slade (Surveyor of the Navy)

Service history
Orpheus was first commissioned in early 1773 under Captain John MacBride. On completion, she first took part in the Spithead Review on 22 June 1773, and was then sent cruising in the Channel. She was paid off into ordinary in August 1774. A year later she was recommissioned in July 1775 under Capt. Charles Hudson, was fitted at Plymouth (for £3,729.11.8d) between August and the end of September 1775, and sailed for North America on 30 September 1775.

On the afternoon of 28 June 1776, Kingfisher spotted the American privateer Nancy sailing toward Cape May and began chase, followed by Orpheus. Early on the morning of 29 June 1776, Kingfisher and Orpheus resumed chase. Nancy, to evade capture of her supplies of gunpowder and arms, ran aground at Turtle Gut Inlet. She was assisted by the American ships Lexington, Reprisal, and Wasp. In the ensuing battle, Nancy was set on fire and exploded, killing the master's mate and six men on longboats from Kingfisher.

The Orpheus was abandoned and burnt to avoid capture by the French at Rhode Island on 5 August 1778.


Lowestoffe class 32-gun fifth rates 1761-74; Thomas Slade design, like Mermaid class (9-pounder armed) above, adapted from the French Frigate Abénakise, captured in 1757.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orpheus_(1773)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-307151;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 May 1779 - The Continental Navy sloop USS Providence, captures the British brig HMS Diligent off Sandy Hook and is later acquired for service in the Continental Navy.


USS
Providence
was a sloop-of-war in the Continental Navy, originally chartered by the Rhode Island General Assembly as Katy. The ship took part in a number of campaigns during the first half of the American Revolutionary War before being destroyed by her own crew in 1779 to prevent her falling into the hands of the British after the failed Penobscot Expedition.

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Continental Sloop Providence (1775-1779) Painting in oils by W. Nowland Van Powell. See Photo # 85201-A-KN for a view of this painting in its decorative frame. Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C. Donation of the Memphis Council, U.S. Navy League, 1976.

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Service as Katy
From early 1775, British men-of-war forcibly stopped and searched Rhode Island shipping, especially the frigate Rose, annoying the colony's merchants. On 13 June, Deputy Governor Nicholas Cooke wrote the frigate's Captain James Wallace demanding restoration of several ships which Rose had captured. Two days later, the Rhode Island General Assembly ordered the committee of safety to fit out two ships to defend the colony's shipping, and appointed a committee of three to obtain the vessels. That day, the committee chartered the sloop Katy from John Brown of Providence and the sloop Washington at the same time. The General Assembly appointed Abraham Whipple as commander of Katy, the larger ship, and made him commodore of the tiny fleet. Whipple had won fame in burning the British armed schooner Gaspee in 1772, and he captured a tender to HMS Rose before sunset that same day. Katy then cruised in Narragansett Bay through the summer protecting coastal shipping.

Gunpowder was an essential commodity, scarce in the Continental Army throughout the Revolutionary War and desperately low during the first year of the struggle for independence. Late in the summer of 1775, the shortage in Washington's army besieging Boston became so severe that he was unable to use his artillery, and his riflemen would have been unable to repel an attack had the British taken the offensive. Cooke, therefore, ordered Whipple to cruise for two weeks off Sandy Hook, New Jersey to intercept a powder-laden packet expected from London. He was then to proceed to Bermuda to capture the powder stored in the British magazine there. Katy departed Narragansett Bay on 12 September but caught no sight of the packet. Upon reaching Bermuda, Whipple learned that the powder from the magazine was already en route to Philadelphia.

Service as Providence
Katy was purchased by Rhode Island 31 October 1775, soon after she returned to Providence. Late in November, she sailed for Philadelphia carrying seamen enlisted by Commodore Esek Hopkins in New England for Continental service. She arrived on 3 December and was immediately taken into Continental service and renamed Providence.

Captain Whipple assumed command of USS Columbus, a larger ship, and Captain John Hazard was placed in command of Providence, formalized by a commission from the Continental Congress dated 9 January 1776. The ships joined a squadron being formed by Congress under the command of Esek Hopkins, who was Commander in Chief of the Fleet of the United Colonies; they ordered him to sail for Chesapeake Bay on 5 January 1776 and to clear waters there of a fleet organized the previous autumn by Governor Dunmore of Virginia. These English and Tory ships had ravaged the shores of the bay and the rivers which empty into it. Once Whipple's ships had completed this task, they were to move south and clear the Carolina coast of enemy shipping, then sail North to Rhode Island to perform a similar service.

Providence and her consorts departed Philadelphia early in January but were delayed by ice and did not get to sea until 17 February. Hopkins deemed it unwise to cruise along the southern coast and led his little fleet to the Abaco Islands in the Bahamas, which they reached on 1 March and staged for a raid on New Providence. The next day, they seized two sloops on which Hopkins placed a landing party of 200 marines and 50 sailors. The Americans went ashore unopposed on the eastern end of New Providence at mid-morning of the 3rd, under cover of the guns of Providence and Wasp. They advanced toward Fort Montagu which opened fire, interrupting the invaders' progress. The defenders spiked their guns and retreated to Fort Nassau. The next day, Nassau surrendered and gave the Americans the keys to the Fort. Hopkins then brought his ships into the harbor and spent two weeks loading captured munitions before heading home on 17 March.

Hopkins’ ships captured the schooner Hawk off Block Island on 4 April, belonging to the British fleet at Newport, Rhode Island, and they took the brig Bolton at dawn the next day. That evening, the Americans added a brigantine and a sloop to their list of prizes, both from New York. About 1 a.m. on 6 April, USS Andrew Doria sighted HMS Glasgow, a 20-gun sloop carrying dispatches from Newport to Charleston, South Carolina. The American fleet engaged the enemy ship for 1.5 hours before she turned and fled back toward Newport. After daylight, Hopkins ordered his ships to give up the chase and headed with his fleet and prizes for New London, Connecticut, where they arrived on the 8th.

Lieutenant John Paul Jones took command of Providence on 10 May and made a voyage to New York, returning about 100 soldiers to the Continental Army whom Washington had lent to Hopkins to help man the American fleet, and Jones then hove down the ship to clean her bottom. She sailed again on 13 June, escorting Fly to Fishers Island at the entrance to Long Island Sound. He rescued a brigantine en route from the British frigate Cerberus, bringing munitions from Hispaniola.

Providence next escorted a convoy of colliers to Philadelphia, arriving 1 August, and Jones received his permanent commission as captain a week later. Providence departed the Delaware Capes on the 21st to begin an independent cruise; she took the brigantine Britannia soon after and sent her into Philadelphia under a prize crew. On 1 September, daring seamanship enabled Jones to escape from the British frigate Solebay. Two days later, Providence captured the Bermudan brigantine Sea Nymph carrying sugar, rum, ginger, and oil and sent her to Philadelphia. On the 6th, Providence caught the brigantine Favourite carrying sugar from Antigua to Liverpool, but HMS Galatea recaptured the prize before she could reach an American port.

Turning north, Jones headed for Nova Scotia and escaped another frigate on 20 September before his raid on Canso two days later. There he recruited men to fill the vacancies created by manning his prizes, burned a British fishing schooner, sank a second, and captured a third besides a shallop which he used as a tender. Providence took several more prizes fishing near Ile Madame before riding out a severe storm. The whaler Portland surrendered to her before she returned to Narragansett Bay on 8 October.

While Providence was at home, Hopkins appointed Jones the commander of Alfred, a larger ship and the Commander in Chief's flagship on the expedition to the Bahamas, and Captain Hoysted Hacker took command of Providence. The two ships got under way 11 November. They took the brigantine Active after ten days and the armed transport Mellish the next day, carrying winter uniforms and military supplies for the British Army. On the 16th, they captured the snow Kitty. Providence had been troubled by leaks which developed during bad weather on the cruise, so she headed back for Rhode Island and arrived at Newport two days later.

The British seized Narragansett Bay in December 1776 and Providence retired up the Providence River with other American vessels. She ran the British blockade in February 1777 under Lt. Jonathan Pitcher and put into New Bedford, then cruised to Cape Breton where she captured a transport brig loaded with stores and carrying two officers and 25 men of the British Army, besides her crew. She made two cruises on the coast under command of Captain John Peck Rathbun, and sailed from Georgetown, N.C. about mid-January 1778, again bound for New Providence in the Bahamas but this time alone. On 27 January, she spiked the guns of the fort at Nassau, taking military stores including 1,600 pounds of powder and releasing 30 American prisoners. She also captured a 16-gun British ship and recaptured five other vessels which had been brought in by the British. On 30 January, the prizes were manned and sailed away, and Providence put into New Bedford with her armed prize.

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On the left, the replica Providence in Boston, 1980

During the early part of April 1779, Providence was ordered to make a short cruise in Massachusetts Bay and along the coast of Maine. She later sailed south of Cape Cod and captured the brig HMS Diligent, 12 guns off Sandy Hook on 7 May. She fired two broadsides and a volley of muskets during the engagement and Diligentwas forced to surrender, with mast rigging and hull cut to pieces. Providence was then assigned to Commodore Saltonstall's squadron which departed Boston on 19 July 1779 and entered Penobscot Bay 25 July.

Providence was destroyed by her crew, along with other American vessels in the Penobscot River on 14 August 1779 to prevent her from falling into the hands of the British towards the end of the failed Penobscot Expedition.

Replica
In the early 1970s a replica of the Providence was constructed with a fiberglass hull and was used for youth sail training. The replica was maintained by the Providence Maritime Heritage Foundation. The ship was commissioned by John Fitzhugh Millar who was the captain of the replica frigate Rose in the 1970s.

She was launched in 1976 and designated in 1992 as the flagship and tall ship ambassador of the state of Rhode Island. The ship was in drydock for the winter of 2015, when she was toppled and severely damaged by high winds during the January 2015 nor'easter.


HMS Diligent was a brig the Royal Navy purchased in 1777. The Continental Navy captured her in May 1779 and took her into service as the USS Diligent. She then participated in the disastrous Penobscot Expedition where her crew her crew had to scuttled her in August to prevent the British from capturing her.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Providence_(1775)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Diligent_(1777)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 May 1788 – Launch of French La Bienvenue, a 20-gun French warship launched at Le Havre in 1788 that made several changes in ownership and name during military conflict with the British.


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

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Construction
La Bienvenue was a 20-gun French flûte designed by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait and built by the renowned French ship builders Gouet and Deros. She was constructed in the port of Le Havre on the north coast of France between November 1787 and June 1788, and launched on 7 May 1788. She was 699 tons burthen and her French measurements, as built were; 130 ft (length) x 31 ft (beam) x 15 ft 7in (depth). This equates to the modern metric dimensions of 42.2 m (138 ft) x 10.1 m (33 ft) x 4.9 m (16 ft). Initially La Bienvenue was armed with 20 x 8 pounders (livre de Paris)

Career (France)
After setting sail from Mauritius for France in December 1791, La Bienvenue was seized by her crew, handed over to the British and renamed. She was retaken by the French Royalist forces on 4 October 1792 at St Kitts and was renamed Royaliste; her original name was restored in January 1793. She served as a prison ship at Martinique from July that year until she was recaptured by the British.

Invasion of Martinique
Main article: Battle of Martinique (1794)
On 5 February 1794, a British fleet under Sir John Jervis and escorting 7,000 troops under Sir Charles Grey, arrived at the island of Martinique. In spite of the strong opposition from the occupying forces and difficult terrain, the island was substantially under British control by 28 February, save for two forts covering the town of Fort Royal. A siege was conducted by both British Army and Royal Navy forces, supported by gunfire from Jervis' fleet which was now occupying the harbour. On 20 March, British Grenadiers and Light Infantry took the town while British sailors attacked and occupied the coastal fort. The landward fort surrendered a few days later. It was on 17 March 1794, during the occupation of the harbour and just prior to the landings, that La Bienvenue was taken.

Career (Great Britain)
After her capture, La Bienvenue was appointed a prize crew under Captain Robert Faulkner. She was subsequently commanded by Captain James Carpenter, then on 4 May she was handed to the newly promoted post-captain, Henry William Bayntun. La Bienvenue was later taken to England, arriving at Sheerness on 24 September. She was registered and renamed HMS Undaunted 30 March 1795 and sold at Deptford on 24 July having served only 16 months as a British ship.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_La_Bienvenue_(1788)
 
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