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

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19 August 1808 – Death of Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Swedish admiral and shipbuilder (b. 1721)


Fredrik Henrik af Chapman (9 September 1721 in Gothenburg – 19 August 1808) was a Swedish shipbuilder, scientist and officer in the Swedish navy. He was also manager of the Karlskrona shipyard 1782-1793. Chapman is credited as the first person to apply scientific methods to shipbuilding and is considered to be the first naval architect.


Chapman is wearing a Sami (Lappish) jacket and the knight cross of the Order of Sword.

Chapman was the author of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria (1768) and several other shipbuilding-related works. His Tractat om Skepps-Byggeriet("Treatise on Shipbuilding") published in 1775 is a pioneering work in modern naval architecture. He was the first shipbuilder in Northern Europe to introduce prefabrication in shipyards and managed to produce several series of ships in record time.


Title page of Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, published 1768.

He was ennobled as "af Chapman" in 1772, after the successful coup of Swedish king Gustav III.

Architectura Navalis Mercatoria
In 1765 Chapman applied for permission from his work as a chief naval builder for the Archipelago Fleet at the naval base at Sveaborg to work on Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, a collection of contemporary ship types that he considered to be the best and most interesting. The work had been commissioned by Duke Charles, the brother of king Gustav and was published in 1768. The book contained 62 illustrations of ships and smaller vessels, both Swedish and foreign designs. Some of these were Chapman's own designs, but many were also types that he had seen during visits to foreign countries. Everything from large warships to small fishing vessels were represented.

The book was intended for an international audience and the text was available in Swedish, French and English. All measurements were given in Swedish, French and English feet. However, it took seven years to finish the accompanying explanatory texts. The charts and the following Tractat om Skepps-byggeriet ("Treatise on shipbuilding") in 1775 launched Chapman as one of the leading experts on ship building in the world.

A further advance in the general theory was made on the appearance in 1775 of a work on the construction of ships by the Swedish Constructor—Admiral Frederick Henry de Chapman. This was translated into French by Vial du Clairbois, 1779, and into English by Dr. Inman, 1820. It contains the first published record of the use of Simpson's rules for approximate quadrature, and the calculations of displacement, centre of buoyancy, and metacentre given in the book closely resemble those made at the present day​

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

 

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19 August 1812 - The frigate USS Constitution captures the frigate HMS Guerriere, off Halifax, Nova Scotia after an intense battle.


USS Constitution vs HMS Guerriere by Michele Felice Cornè

Background
When the United States declared war on Britain on 18 June 1812, the Royal Navy had eighty-five vessels in American waters. By contrast, the United States Navy, which was not yet twenty years old, was a frigate navy that had only twenty-two commissioned vessels. The chief fighting strength of the U.S. Navy was a squadron of three frigates and two sloops of war under Commodore John Rodgers, based in New York. A week after Congress declared war, United States Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had sent orders to Rodgers to cruise off New York, and to Captain Isaac Hull, commanding USS Constitution at Annapolis on Chesapeake Bay, to join Rodgers.

However, Rodgers set out to sea immediately when he heard of the declaration of war, before he could receive Hamilton's instructions. He feared that if he delayed he might be blockaded by a superior British fleet, but by sailing immediately he might catch isolated British ships before they could concentrate.[3] He did indeed encounter the frigate HMS Belvidera, but Belvidera escaped, aided by a bursting cannon aboard USS President which injured Rodgers and caused much damage and confusion. Rodgers then crossed the Atlantic hoping to catch a valuable British convoy from the West Indies. The weather was foul throughout the voyage and Rodgers missed the convoy, capturing only seven small merchant vessels.

On hearing of Belvidera's encounter, Vice Admiral Herbert Sawyer, the commander of the Royal Navy's North American Station based at Halifax, Nova Scotia, despatched a squadron under Captain Philip Bowes Vere Broke to catch Rodgers' squadron. Broke's squadron consisted of the 64-gun ship of the line HMS Africa and the frigates Shannon, Aeolus, Belvidera and Guerriere. By forcing the British to concentrate their force in one place, Rodgers had made it possible for large numbers of American merchant ships to reach other ports without being intercepted.

Pursuit of Constitution
On the outbreak of war, Constitution was at Annapolis, collecting a fresh crew, and was unable to sail for three weeks. When her captain, Isaac Hull, was able to put his vessel to sea, he headed for New York in accordance with Secretary Hamilton's orders. Near New York, in the late afternoon of 17 July 1812, Hull saw four ships sailing west, and another one heading straight towards Constitution. He thought the ships could be Rodgers' squadron, but was cautious. He ordered signal lights to be shown, and when the approaching ship did not identify herself, ordered Constitution to keep her distance and wait for daylight to assess the situation. The approaching ship was Guerriere, rejoining Broke's squadron after having become separated. Aboard her, Captain James Richard Dacres soon determined that Constitution was a hostile ship, but at dawn on 18 July, he sighted the other four British ships. His signals to them were not answered. Fearing that he was about to be trapped by Rodgers' entire squadron, Dacres also put as much distance between Guerriere and the other ships as he could, thus missing a chance to trap Constitution.


Constitution escapes the British squadron.

In light and fitful winds which occasionally died away altogether, Constitution led the British squadron in a stern chase. Constitution lowered her boats to tow the ship, while Broke ordered the boats from the entire British squadron to tow Shannon. In an attempt to pull away, Hull ordered ten tons of drinking water to be pumped overboard. Despite this, the British squadron continued to gain on Constitution. Constitution's First Lieutenant, Charles Morris, then suggested kedging to haul the ship along. This allowed Constitution to draw away from Shannon. Fire from four heavy guns which Hull had shifted to point right aft prevented the British trying the same tactic. Late in the afternoon, the wind sprang up again, and Constitutionincreased her lead. The British ships gained slightly during the night, but the next day, Constitution drew away again, although the chase lasted another day and a night until the British ships were out of sight.

Following his escape, Hull sailed for Boston to replenish his drinking water supply, before setting out on 2 August to raid British merchant ships off Halifax and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, before sailing south again towards Bermuda. Constitution soon chased down the American privateer Decatur, and her captain told Hull that he had escaped a British frigate the day before.

Broke had meanwhile sailed after the valuable West India convoy, assuming correctly that Rodgers was also searching for it. Three weeks after losing sight of Constitution and having seen the convoy safely into British waters, Broke prepared to return to New York. Guerriere was detached and ordered to proceed to Halifax for a much-needed refit.

Battle


Gun crew on Constitution preparing to do battle with Guerriere

At 2:00 p.m. on 19 August, Constitution sighted a large ship to leeward, and bore down to investigate. The weather was cloudy, and the wind was brisk. The strange ship proved to be Guerriere, whose crew recognised Constitution at about the same moment. Both ships prepared for action, and shortened sail to "fighting sail", i.e. topsails and jibs only. As Constitution closed, Dacres first hove to to fire a broadside, which fell short, and then ran before the wind for three quarters of an hour with the Constitution on Guerriere's quarter. Dacres yawed several times to fire broadsides at Constitution, but Guerriere's broadsides were generally inaccurate, while the few shots fired from Constitution's foremost guns had little effect. After one cannonball bounced "harmlessly" off the side of Constitution, a crew member is said to have yelled "Huzzah! Her sides are made of iron!"


Constitution fires into the burning hulk of Guerriere, now badly damaged

Once the range had closed to within a few hundred yards, Captain Hull ordered extra sail (the foresail and main topgallant sail) to be set, to close the distance quickly. Dacres did not match this maneuver, and the two ships began exchanging broadsides at "half pistol-shot", with Constitution to starboard and Guerriere to port. After fifteen minutes of this exchange, during which Guerriere suffered far more damage than Constitution due to the latter's larger guns and thicker hull, Guerriere'smizzenmast fell overboard to starboard, acting like a rudder and dragging her around. This allowed Constitution to cross ahead of Guerriere, firing a raking broadside which brought down the main yard. Hull then wore ship to cross Guerriere's bow again, firing another raking broadside, but the maneuver was cut too close and Guerriere's bowsprit became entangled in the rigging of Constitution's mizzenmast.


Guerriere and Constitution, a BEPengraving.

On both ships, boarding parties were summoned and musket fire broke out. Aboard Constitution, Lieutenant William S. Bushwas killed and Lieutenant Charles Morris wounded by musket shots, as was Captain Dacres. Only Guerriere's narrow bowsprit provided a way between the ships, and in the heavy sea, neither side could venture across it. Some of the gunners aboard Guerriere fired at point-blank range into Hull's stern cabin, setting the American ship on fire briefly. The two locked ships slowly rotated clockwise until they broke free. Guerriere's foremast and mainmast both then fell "by the board" i.e. snapped off at deck level, leaving her helpless and rolling heavily. Dacres attempted to set sail on the bowsprit to bring his ship before the wind, but it too had been damaged and broke.[13] The Constitution meanwhile ran downwind for several minutes, repairing damage to the rigging, before once again wearing and beating upwind to return to battle.

As Constitution prepared to renew the action, Guerriere fired a shot in the opposite direction to Constitution. Sensing that this was an attempt to signal surrender, Hull ordered a boat to take a Lieutenant over to the British ship. When the Lieutenant boarded Guerriere and asked if Guerriere was prepared to surrender, Captain Dacres responded "Well, Sir, I don't know. Our mizzen mast is gone, our fore and main masts are gone - I think on the whole you might say we have struck our flag."

Captain Dacres was escorted aboard Constitution. Hull refused to accept Dacres' sword of surrender, saying he could not accept the sword from a man who had fought so gallantly. He also ordered that Dacres' mother's Bible be returned to him. Guerriere was clearly sinking, and the wounded were transferred to Constitution. Hull found that ten impressed Americans had been serving aboard Guerriere but Dacres had permitted them to stay below decks instead of fighting their countrymen.

Hull wanted Guerriere towed in as a prize ship. Constitution lay by Guerriere during the night but at daybreak it was obvious that Guerriere could not be salvaged. The prisoners and the American salvage parties were brought aboard Constitution and at 3:00 p.m., Guerriere was set on fire, and soon blew up


American Tactical Doctrine
It was claimed that the standard American naval tactic was to stand off at long range and use dismantling shot to disable the opponent. If the above description of events is accurate, this shows Isaac Hull was not hesitant to close with Guerriere. However, the type of damage inflicted on Guerriere makes the employment of dismantling shot possible.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution_vs_HMS_Guerriere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Guerriere_(1806)

 

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Other Events on 19 August


1793 - Toulon declares for the Royalist cause and men from the British fleet under Lord Hood occupy the defences.

1799 - Surinam taken by British.

1818 - Capt. James Biddle, as commanding officer of USS Ontario, takes possession of Oregon Territory for United States.

1941 - Southwest of the Fastnet-rock near the irish coast the british passenger steamer Aguila is hit by a torpedo of the german U-Boot U 201 and sinks. 157 passengers and crew died.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aguila_(Schiff,_1917)

1943 - USS Finback (SS 230) sinks the Japanese auxiliary submarine chaser (No.109) off the eastern Celebes.

2017 - A team of civilian researchers led by entrepreneur and philanthropist Paul G. Allen announces they found the wreck of World War II cruiser USS Indianapolis (CA 35), which was lost July 30, 1945, in 18,000 feet of water. About 800 of the ship's 1,196 Sailors and Marines survived the sinking, but after four to five days in the water - suffering exposure, dehydration, drowning, and shark attacks - only 316 survived.


Navy firing detail as part of a burial-at-sea in 2008 for one of the 316 survivors of Indianapolis sinking on 30 July 1945.

The wreck of Indianapolis is located in the Philippine Sea. In July–August 2001, an expedition sought to find the wreckage through the use of side-scan sonar and underwater cameras mounted on a remotely operated vehicle. Four Indianapolis survivors accompanied the expedition, which was not successful. In June 2005, a second expedition was mounted to find the wreck. National Geographic covered the story and released it in July. Submersibles were launched to find any sign of wreckage. The only objects ever found, which have not been confirmed to have belonged to Indianapolis, were numerous pieces of metal of varying size found in the area of the reported sinking position (this was included in the National Geographic program "Finding of the USS Indianapolis").

In July 2016, new information came out regarding the possible location of Indianapolis when naval records said that LST-779 passed by the ship 11 hours before the torpedoes struck. Using this information, National Geographic planned to mount an expedition to search for the wreck in the summer of 2017. Reports estimated that Indianapolis was actually 25 mi (40 km) west of the reported sinking position, in water over three mi (4,800 m) deep, and likely on the side of an underwater mountain.

A year after the discovery of the records, the wreck was located by Paul Allen’s "USS Indianapolis Project" aboard Research Vessel Petrel  on 19 August 2017, at a depth of 18,000 feet (5,500 m).[44] The wreck is well preserved due to the great depth at which Indianapolis rests, which is the rocky mountain ranges of the North Philippine Sea.

In September 2017, a map detailing the wreckage was released. The main part of the wreck lies in an impact crater. Its bow, which broke off before the ship sank, lies 1.5 miles (2.4 km) east. The two forward 8-inch guns, which also broke off on the surface and mark the ship's last position on the surface, lie 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of the main wreck. The single 8-inch gun turret on the stern remains in place. Airplane wreckage from the ship lies about 0.6 miles (0.97 km) north of the main part of the wreck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)

 

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20 August 1777 - Launch of Barfleur-class 90 gun Ship of Line HMS Formidable


HMS Formidable was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Thomas Slade on the lines of the 100-gun ship Royal William, launched on 20 August 1777 at Chatham. In about 1780, she had another eight guns added to her quarterdeck increased to 98-guns.


Scale model of HMS Formidable, flagship of Rodney at the Battle of the Saintes. On display at Fort Napoléon des Saintes museum.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some decoration detail, and longitudinal half-breadth, proposed (and approved) for 'Formidable' (1777), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, to be built at Chatham Dockyard. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80135.html#qg0ELUOIGKpivgJ7.99




In 1782, Formidable served as Admiral Rodney's flagship at the Battle of the Saintes.
She fought as Squadron Flagship of Rear, Sir Hugh Palliser (1st Baronet) at the Battle of Ushant and served as Admiral Rodney's flagship at the Battle of the Saintes in 1782.


The Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1783, shows Hood's HMS Barfleur, centre, attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris, right.


Lord Rodney’s flagship ‘Formidable’ breaking through the French line at the battle of the Saintes, 12th April 1782; painted by William Elliott



She was ordered to be converted to a 74-gun third rate in 1813, but found to be decayed and broken up later that year.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Formidable_(1777)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Saintes
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...6;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=F;start=0
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=108

 

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20 August 1778 - Launch of french 74 gun Ship of the Line Neptune


Neptune was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.


Saint Remi museum of Reims (Marne, France) ; miltary room, model of the Neptune

Under Captain de Latouche, she captured a 30-gun British privateer named Hercules on 28 October 1778.
In 1782, she was part of de Grasse's squadron. Neptune engaged HMS Repulse (1780 - 64) and HMS Canada (1765 - 74) in the Battle of the Saintes.
Decommissioned, she was reactivated to take part in the Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 / Glorious 1.st of June and in the Croisière du Grand Hiver. She ran aground and was destroyed on 28 December 1794, with the loss of 50.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Neptune_(1778)

 

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20 August 1785 – Launch of Yacht HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat


HDMS Kronprindsens Lystfregat (literally, "the crown prince's pleasure frigate") was a yacht launched in Britain in 1785. George III gave it to his nephew Frederick, the Crown Prince of Denmark. Kronprindsens Lystfregat cost £10,347 to build and furnish.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with stern quarter and broadside window decoration, and longitudinal half-breadth for building a yacht for the Prince Royal of Denmark at Deptford Dockyard. The plan includes some undated minor alterations. The yacht was referred to as the Kronprindsens Lystfregat in Denmark. It was returned in protest to Britain in 1807 after the British bombardment of Copenhagen. Signed by Edward Hunt [Survewyor or the Navy, 1778-1784] The plan post dates the proposed (and approved) plan in the Admiralty collection - reference NPD0966
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/382891.html#5Vopp4Hc5I5yaPHv.99

Then in 1807 Britain attacked Copenhagen. After their victory, the British took whatever vessels they hadn't destroyed, but made a conscious and conspicuous exception of Kronprindsens Lystfregat. In a gesture of contempt, the Danes manned her with a crew of 17 captured British sailors, put one of them in command and sent her back to Britain.


Kongeskibet KRONPRINDSENS LYSTFREGAT ses her under engelsk flag.
(Foto fra Orlogsmuseets arkiv)

The Royal Navy took her into service as the royal yacht, HMS Prince Frederick, succeeding a previous ship of that name - it is unclear whether in the yacht's case this was after George's nephew, father or second son, all called Frederick. On 25 July 1816 the Admiralty registered her as a third rate and renamed the yacht HMS Princess Augusta after Augusta, George's second daughter. Captain Thomas Hardy commanded Prince Frederick/Princess Augusta for three years prior to her sale.

The Admiralty put her and her predecessor, also named Princess Augusta, up for sale and sold her to Thomas Pittman on 13 August 1818 for £500. It is not clear that she got much use, either in Denmark or the United Kingdom.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMS_Kronprindsens_Lystfregat_(1785)
http://www.navalhistory.dk/Danish/Skibene/K/KronprindsensLystfregat(1785).htm

 

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20 August 1797 - Launch of french Carrère class 40 gun frigate Carrère at Venice


40-gun design by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait, with 28 x 18-pounder and 12 x 8-pdr guns, plus 4 x 36-pounder obusiers.

Carrère was a French frigate that served briefly in the French navy before the British captured her in 1801, naming her HMS Carrere. She seems never to have seen any meaningful active duty after her capture as she was laid up in 1802 and finally sold in 1814.


1/72 Scale model of the Carrère's sister ship, the Muiron, on display at the Musée national de la Marine

French service
Carrère was one of two 38-gun frigates that were building on the stocks in Venice in May 1797, when Napoleon took the city during the Campaign of Italy. Pierre-Alexandre Forfait ordered the two frigates completed, which they were in August 1797 under the names Carrère and Muiron. The French named Carrère after an esteemed artillery colonel who had fallen at Unzmarkt fighting the Austrians.

Carrère and Muiron both served during the French invasion of Egypt in 1798. They then accompanied Napoleon on his return to France after the failure of that campaign. The captain of the Carrère was Commodore Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley, and with him travelled generals Lannes, Murat, and Marmont.

Capture
The British Pomone of 48 guns, in company with Phoenix and Pearl, captured Carrère near Elba on 3 August 1801 after a short fight.[3] She was escorting a small convoy from Porto Ercole to Porto Longone during the Siege of Porto Ferrajo. Pomone lost two men killed and four wounded, of whom two died later. The French casualty list was not initially available.

The Royal Navy took her in as HMS Carrere, but rated at 36 guns. Frederick Lewis Maitland was her first captain. He sailed her to Portsmouth, where she arrived on 24 September 1802.

Fate
Carrère's active duty career in the Royal Navy was short. She was paid off on 4 October 1802 and then laid up in ordinary. She was sold on 1 September 1814. The purchasers had to post a bond of £3000 that they would not sell or otherwise dispose of her but would break her up within 12 months from the day of sale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Carrere_(1801)

 

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20 August 1800 - Start of a 6 day engagement in which HMS Seine (48) captured Vengeance (24) off the Mona Passage.


HMS Seine was at West Africa before she sailed for Jamaica in July. On 20 August 1800 Seine attacked the French ship, Vengeance, which had just finished refitting at Curaçao. The vessels broke off action and Seine was unable to resume the engagement until 25 August. Then, after an hour and a half of hard fighting, Seine captured the French frigate. Both ships had sustained heavy casualties; 13 crew were killed aboard the Seine, 29 were wounded, and the ship was cut up. However, Vengeance sustained worse; almost cut to pieces, many considered her beyond repair. Nevertheless Vengeance was repaired in Jamaica and taken into British service under her existing name. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Seine 20 Augt. 1800" to all surviving claimants from this action.


Depiction of the capture of Vengeance

The naval historian William James subsequently exaggerated Vengeance's earlier engagement with the Constellation in favour of the French. He declared that as Seine had done what Constellation could not, British naval forces were "more potent than American thunder". That said, Vengeance had been heavily armed with twenty-eight 18-pounder guns (main deck), sixteen 12-pounder guns and eight 42-pounder carronades (QD and Fc), brass swivel guns on the gunwales, with shifting guns on the main and quarter decks.

The Ships:
Seine was a 38-gun French Seine-class frigate that the Royal Navy captured in 1798 and commissioned as the fifth rate HMS Seine. On 20 August 1800, Seine captured the French ship Vengeance in a single ship action that would win for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Seine's career ended in 1803 when she hit a sandbank near the Texel.

French career
Seine was a 40-gun frigate built between May 1793 and March 1794 at Le Havre, having been launched on 19 December 1793. Seine's career with the French Navy lasted less than five years.

On 14 July 1794 she and Galathée captured the 16-gun sloop-of-war HMS Hound in the Atlantic. In late 1794, L'Hermitte's squadron sailed for Norway. It comprised the frigates Seine, under L'Hermitte, Galathée, under Labutte, and Républicaine, under Le Bozec.

The squadron found itself blocked by cold and damage in a Norwegian harbour during the entire winter of 1794-95, sustaining over 250 dead from illness out of a total complement of 880. In spring, Seine and Galathéereturned to France, leaving Républicaine to care for the untransportable sick. They eventually were rescued by the corvette Subtile.

Seine then sailed for Île de France, where she joined the squadron under Sercey. She took part in the Action of 8 September 1796. In March 1798, she sailed from Île de France and was on her way to Lorient when she encountered a British frigate squadron in the Breton Passage on 30 June 1798.

HMS Jason and HMS Pique chased her down and captured her at the Action of 30 June 1798. Seine was commanded by Capitaine Bigot and was armed with forty-two 18 and 9-pounder guns. She had a crew of 610 men, including troops.


'A Representation of the Jason 38 guns, capturing the La Seine a French Frigate of 42 Guns near the Penmark Rocks, June 30th 1798'. Deptiction of the Action of 30 June 1798

In the engagement Seine lost 170 men killed and some 100 men wounded, many mortally. Jason had seven men killed and 12 wounded. Pique lost one man killed, six wounded, and one man missing. In the fight Jason, Pique and Seine grounded; Pique was lost, but San Fiorenzo, which had arrived on the scene, was able to get Seine off. Although the casualties aboard Seine had been high she was not badly damaged and Captain David Milne, who had been captain of Pique, and his crew transferred to her. Her captors sailed her into Portsmouth, arriving there on 18 July; Milne commanded Seine for the rest of her career.

British career
The Royal Navy took Seine into service under an Admiralty order dated 14 September 1798. She then spent several months fitting out at Portsmouth for the sum of £14,755. She was re-rated as a 38-gun frigate and Milne commissioned her in November.

On 13 February 1799 Seine captured Graff Bernstoff. Roughly a month later, on 18 March, Seine and Sea Gull recaptured Industry. That same day, in a probably related encounter, Seine was in sight when the hired armed brig Telegraph captured the French privateer Hirondelle in a notable action.

By March 1801 Seine was at Jamaica, as part of the fleet under Lord Hugh Seymour. She was then paid off in 1802.

Fate
Seine underwent a refit at Chatham Dockyard between June and July 1803, with Milne recommissioning her in May for the North Sea. However, shortly after her return to service she grounded on a sandbank to the northward of Terschelling on 21 July 1803. That evening Milne had ordered the pilots to keep her out of shallow water and they had assured him that she was safe; forty minutes later she struck. The crew labored all night and well into the morning, with the assistance of two passing merchant vessels to pull her off and to lighten her, but to no avail. At about 11:30am the crew abandoned Seine; they set fire to her as they left to prevent the French recapturing her.

A court martial on 4 August 1803 honourably acquitted Captain Milne, his officers and crew for the loss of the vessel. However, it found the pilots guilty of ignorance. The court martial sentenced them to be mulcted of all their wages for two years and to be imprisoned in the Marshalsea for two years


Vengeance was a 48-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class and launched in 1800. She engaged USS Constellation during the Quasi-War, in an inconclusive engagement that left both ships heavily damaged. During the French Revolutionary Wars, HMS Seine hunted Vengeance down and captured her after a sharp action. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS Vengeance, but the British apparently never returned her to seagoing service. Accounts are divided as to her eventual fate. She may have been broken up in 1803 after grounding in 1801, or continued as a prison ship until 1814.


USS Constellation engaging la Vengeance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Seine_(1798)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vengeance_(1800)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_vs_La_Vengeance

 

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20 August 1808 - Launch of French Pallas-class fifth rate frigate La Renommée, later HMS Java


HMS Java was a British Royal Navy 38-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was originally launched in 1805 as Renommée, described as a 40-gun Pallas-class French Navy frigate designed by Jacques-Noël Sané, but the vessel actually carried 46 guns. The British captured her in 1811 in a noteworthy action during the Battle of Tamatave, but she is most famous for her defeat on 29 December 1812 in a three-hour single-ship action against USS Constitution. Java had a crew of about 277 but during her engagement with Constitution her complement was 475.


Capture of the HMS Java Drawn & Etched by N. Pocock, from a Sketch by Lieut. Buchanan / Engraved by R. & D. Havell / Published by Messrs. Boydell & Co.

French service
In May 1811, she was part of a three-sail squadron under François Roquebert, comprising Renommée, Clorinde and Néréide, and ferrying troops to Mauritius. On 20 May, the French encountered a British squadron comprising Astraea, Phoebe, Galatea, and Racehorse. In the ensuing Battle of Tamatave, Renommée struck after her mainsail was set on fire. The British captured Néréide five days later at Tamatave, Madagascar. Clorinde, commanded by Jacques de Saint-Cricq, escaped.


Battle of Tamatave

The British brought Renommée into service as HMS Java and Néréide as HMS Madagascar.

Royal Navy service
In July Java was under Captain William Gordon, but not commissioned until August under Captain Henry Lambert, a senior commander who had seen combat on a number of occasions in His Majesty's service.

Java sailed from Portsmouth on 12 November for Bombay to deliver the appointed Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Thomas Hislop, and his staff with their baggage, and naval stores (including copper plates for the under construction Cornwallis, at Bombay, and plans for the new ship, Trincomalee). She was carrying additional personnel for other ships at the time and included another Royal Navy commander in transit.

Capture by USS Constitution


Diagram of the battle between USS Constitutionand HMS Java

Captain Lambert of Java was a well-qualified officer, having seen much combat during his service. Java had more than a full crew, having been rounded out while in Portsmouth; however many were landsmen still raw to service at sea, and even more damning to her cause, they had only practiced gunnery once without shot loaded in the guns. Still, Java was well supplied and manned, and would prove to be well handled and well fought. USS Constitution had an experienced crew manning a heavy frigate carrying 54 cannon: thirty 24-pounder guns and twenty-four 32-pounder carronades, plus two 24-pounder bow chasers.

On 13 December 1812, sailing from Boston by way of Cape Verde USS Constitution, under the command of Captain William Bainbridge, accompanied by USS Hornet, commanded by James Lawrence, arrived off the coast of Brazil at St. Salvador. On 26 December Hornet was sent into the port to communicate with the American consul stationed there. On 29 December at 9:00 AM still out at high sea in search of prizes crewmen aloft Constitution sighted strange sails on the distant horizon. Bainbridge initially was unsure of the disposition of the ships, but hours later as they drew closer he was able to discern that the approaching vessels were large and now assumed them to be British. To ascertain the disposition of the unidentified ships Constitution hoisted private signals (flags) at 11:30 AM, while the assumed British vessel also hoisted its signals, but neither ship made the correct counter-signal.


USS Constitution (right) engages the HMS Java watercolor by Ian Marshall (American Society of Marine Artists)

Constitution tacking the wind made her way from the neutral Portuguese territorial waters with Java giving chase. The following day at 12:30 PM Java hoisted her colors and ensign with Constitution hoisting her colors in reply. With the dispositions of each ship confirmed, Java with the weather gauge to her advantage came about to position herself to rake Constitution. Being French-built, she was comparatively light for a frigate and was consequently faster and more maneuverable than Constitution. In reply Constitution fired a shot across Java's bow with Java returning fire with a full broadside.



Java started the battle badly out-matched both in terms of the experience of her crew and the weight of her broadside. Constitution, with her experienced commander and crew, countered by not shortening sail as was standard (this reduced strain on the masts thus making it less likely to lose a mast under fire). By 2 PM both ships were heading southeast. The opening phase of the action comprised both ships turning to and from attempting to get the better position for which to fire upon and rake the other, but with little success. Bainbridge now wore Constitution to a matching course and opened fire with a broadside at half a mile. This broadside accomplished nothing and forced Bainbridge to risk raking to close Java. Another broadside from Java carried away Constitution's helm, disabling her rudder and leaving Bainbridge severely wounded; however he still maintained command refusing to sit out the battle. Both ships resumed firing broadsides but by now Java had a mast and sail falling over her starboard side that prevented most of her guns on that side from firing, which also prevented her from laying alongside Constitution. The guns that attempted to fire only managed to set the fallen sail and rigging ablaze.


HMS Java exploding after being set ablaze

Constitution's accuracy of fire and the greater weight of her broadside put the much smaller Java at a large disadvantage. Within one hour, after several close encounters involving the rigging of each ship getting entangled with the other's, Java's masts collapsed. During this encounter a sharpshooter aloft in Constitution mortally wounded Lambert. Lieutenant Henry Ducie Chads now took over command, assisted by the captain in transit to his ship. Bainbridge used this opportunity to distance Constitution so as to make immediately needed repairs, taking approximately an hour. However clearing the masts and fallen rigging aboard Java had hardly begun when Constitution returned from repairing her damage and immediately took a raking position from which Java could not defend herself. This left Lieutenant Chads no choice but to surrender Java. Constitution hoisted out a boat and sent First Lieutenant Parker to take possession of the prize.

In the battle, Java suffered 22 men killed, including Lambert, and 102 wounded.Constitution lost nine men initially and 57 wounded, including Bainbridge. Some four or five later succumbed to their wounds.

In the course of battle Java was rendered a dismasted hulk that was not worth taking as a prize. Instead Bainbridge removed her helm and installed it on Constitution, replacing the one that had been shot away. On New Year's Day 1813, two days after the engagement, Bainbridge gave the order to set Java ablaze; she subsequently blew up.

Upon learning of the death of Captain Lambert, Commodore Bainbridge expressed deep sorrow for a commander he credited to be brave and noble. On 23 April 1813, Lieutenant Chads and the other surviving officers and men of Java faced the customary court martial aboard HMS Gladiator for the loss of their ship. They were honourably acquitted.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Java_(1811)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constitution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tamatave

 

[Uwek]

20 August 1810 - The Battle of Grand Port started,


which was a naval battle between squadrons of frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy. The battle was fought during 20–27 August 1810 over possession of the harbour of Grand Port on Isle de France (now Mauritius) during the Napoleonic Wars. The British squadron of four frigates sought to blockade the port to prevent its use by the French through the capture of the fortified Île de la Passe at its entrance. This position was seized by a British landing party on 13 August, and when a French squadron under Captain Guy-Victor Duperré approached the bay nine days later the British commander, Captain Samuel Pym, decided to lure them into coastal waters where his superior numbers could be brought to bear against the French ships.


Plan of the battle. French ships are in blue, the British in red.


Detail from Combat de Grand Port by Pierre-Julien Gilbert. Visible from left to right: HMS Iphigenia (seen striking her colours), HMS Magicienne and HMS Sirius being set on fire by their crews, HMS Nereide surrendering, French frigate Bellone, French frigate Minerve, Victor (in the background) and Ceylon. Many of the details shown in the painting did not happen simultaneously, but were spread over several days

Four of the five French ships managed to break past the British blockade, taking shelter in the protected anchorage, which was only accessible through a series of complicated reefs and sandbanks that were impassable without an experienced harbour pilot. When Pym ordered his frigates to attack the anchored French on August 22 and 23, his ships became trapped in the narrow channels of the bay: two were irretrievably grounded; a third, outnumbered by the combined French squadron, was defeated; and a fourth was unable to close to within effective gun range. Although the French ships were also badly damaged, the battle was a disaster for the British: one ship was captured after suffering irreparable damage, the grounded ships were set on fire to prevent their capture by French boarding parties and the remaining vessel was seized as it left the harbour by the main French squadron from Port Napoleon under Commodore Jacques Hamelin.


The French squadron at Grand Port. From left to right: Bellone, Minerve, Victor (background) and Ceylon, detail from Combat de Grand Port, by Pierre-Julien Gilbert

The British defeat was the worst the Royal Navy suffered during the entire war, and it left the Indian Ocean and its vital trade convoys exposed to attack from Hamelin's frigates. In response, the British authorities sought to reinforce the squadron on Île Bourbon under Josias Rowley by ordering all available ships to the region, but this piecemeal reinforcement resulted in a series of desperate actions as individual British ships were attacked by the more powerful and confident French squadron. In December 1810 an adequate reinforcement was collected, with the provision of a strong battle squadron under Admiral Albemarle Bertie, that rapidly invaded and subdued Isle de France.

Order of battle
Captain Pym's squadron
HMS Sirius Fifth-rate 36 Scuttled to avoid capture.
HMS Iphigenia Fifth-rate 36 Surrendered on 27 August
HMS Nereide Fifth-rate 32 Surrendered on 24 August
HMS Magicienne Fifth-rate 32 Scuttled to avoid capture
Casualties: 105 killed, 163 wounded, 268 total, all survivors captured

Captain Duperré's squadron
Bellone Fifth-rate 40
Minerve Fifth-rate 48
Victor Corvette 18
Ceylan Captured East Indiaman 26
Windham Captured East Indiaman 26 Captured by HMS Sirius on 21 August
Casualties: 36 killed, 112 wounded

Commodore Hamelin's reinforcements
Vénus Fifth-rate 40
Manche Fifth-rate 40
Astrée Fifth-rate 40
Entreprenant Brig 16

Very detailed description of the action you can find on wikipedia

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

 

[Uwek]

20 August 1810 – 38 gun frigate HMS Lively (1804) wrecked

HMS Lively was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 July 1804 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was the prototype of the Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.




Action of 5 October 1804
In October 1804, Lively was under the command of Captain (later Vice-Admiral Sir) Graham Eden Hammond.

On 5 October, a British squadron of four frigates, Lively, Medusa, Indefatigable and Amphion and, with Graham Moore as Commodore, Indefatigable, intercepted four Spanish frigates under the command of Rear-Admiral Don Joseph Bustamente, Knight of the Order of St. James, off Cadiz. As it transpired later, they were carrying bullion from Montevideo, South America to Spain. Spain was at the time a neutral country, but was showing strong signs of declaring war in alliance with Napoleonic France. Acting on Admiralty orders Moore required the Spaniards to change their course and sail for England. Admiral Bustamente refused and a short engagement ensued.


This action, technically at a time of peace with Spain, was one of the most controversial of the Napoleonic War. Four Spanish frigates with a rich shipment of gold, silver and other high value cargo from Montevideo were making for Cadiz. The value carried was ultimately destined for France and therefore potentially for use against the British. Four British frigates were sent to intercept and the two squadrons met off Cape Santa Maria, southern Portugal, on 5 October. The senior British captain, Graham Moore of the 44-gun 'Indefatigable', asked the Spanish admiral, Don Jose Bustamenta y Guerra, to surrender. When he refused, action commenced and within ten minutes the Spanish ‘Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes’ (36 guns) had blown up with the loss of all but one officer and 45 men. Half an hour later the Spanish ‘Medea’ (40 guns and their flagship) and ‘Santa Clara’ (40) both surrendered. The Spanish ‘Fama’ (34) tried to escape but also surrendered after she was chased by the British ‘Lively’ (38, Captain Graham Eden Hamond). The total value of the prize taken, at sale, was about £900,000 in 1804 value, one of the largest of the period and equivalent to over £35 million today. British losses were minor: two men killed and four wounded in 'Lively' and three men wounded in 'Amphion' (32, Captain Samuel Sutton). The Spaniards had 388 casualties: two men killed and 10 men wounded in 'Medea', 11 killed and 50 wounded in 'Fama'; seven killed and 20 wounded in 'Santa Clara' and 238 killed in the explosion of the 'Mercedes. All three captured ships were taken into the Navy, 'Medea' becoming the 'Imperieuse' and 'Santa Clara' the 'Leocadia': 'Fama' retained that name as anew British 'Fame' was already being built. Considered an act of piracy in Spain, but a 'necessity of war' in England, the action made all four captains wealthy men but hastened Carlos IV of Spain's formal declaration of war against Britain as an ally of Napoleon on 12 December 1804. Sartorius has arranged the eight ships of the two opposing squadrons across the canvas in pairs. In the right foreground the ‘Lively' fires into the ‘Santa Clara’. Ahead of them is the exploding ‘Mercedes’ with men avoiding the blast out on her bowprit and the stern of the British ‘Amphion’ beyond her. To the left and ahead the British ‘Indefatigable’ and Spanish ‘Medea’, on the right, are in close action. Beyond them the British ‘Medusa’ (32, Captain John Gore) and Spanish ‘Fama’ are also firing at each other. The painting is signed and dated ‘F. Sartorius 1807’, in red, lower right.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12027.html#ld9tQbvu43hm2wMK.99

First, Mercedes blew up. Then Indefatigable captured Medée and Lively captured Clara. After a further chase, Lively and Medusa captured Fama.

• Medée, the flagship, was armed with forty-two 18-pounder guns, on the main deck, and had a crew of 300 men. She lost two men killed and 10 wounded.
• Fama, the Commodore's ship, was armed with thirty-six 12-pounder guns on the main deck, and had a crew of 180 men. She lost 11 killed and 50 wounded.
• Clara was armed with thirty-six 12-pounder guns on the main deck, and had a crew of 300 men. She lost seven killed and 20 wounded.
• Mercedes was armed with thirty-six 12-pounder guns, on the main deck, and had a crew of 280 men. After she exploded the British were only able to rescue her second captain and 40 men.

Indefatigable had no casualties. Amphion had five men wounded, one badly. Lively had two killed and four wounded. Indefatigable and Amphion escorted Medée and Fama to Plymouth. Medusa and Lively brought in Clara. The Royal Navy took Medea into service as Iphigenia and Clara as Leocadia.

The value of the treasure was very large, and if it had been treated as Prize of War then Moore and his brother captains would have become extremely wealthy. As it was the money (and ships) were declared to be "Droits of Admiralty" on the grounds that war had not been declared, and the captains and crew shared a relatively small ex gratia payment of £160,000 for the bullion, plus the proceeds of the sale of the hull and cargo.

On 7 December Lively and Polyphemus captured the Spanish frigate Santa Gertruyda off Cape St Mary. The Royal Navy took her into service as Santa Gertruda, but did not commission the 40-year-old ship. Instead it used her as a receiving ship at Plymouth.

In March 1805, Lively was attached to Sir James Craig's military expedition to Italy. Along with HMS Dragon, Craig's flagship, and HMS Ambuscade, Lively escorted the fleet of transports to Malta.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Leda' (1800), and later with alterations for 'Pomone' (1805), 'Shannon' (1806), 'Leonidas' (1807), 'Surprise' (1812), 'Lacedemonian' (1812), 'Tenedos' (1812), 'Lively' (1804), 'Trinocomalee' (1817), 'Amphitrite' (1816), 'Hebe' (1826), and 'Venus' (1820), all 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigates. The draught was prepared from that of the captured French ship 'Hebe' (captured 1782). The plans for 'Amphitrite' and 'Trincomalee' were resent in 1813 on the 'Stirling Castle' after the capture of 'Java' by the US Frigate 'Constitution' in 1812. A duplicate set were dispatched on the Hon East India Company ship 'Tigris' in 1814. This plan was sent to Devonport, arriving on 20 January 1875. The plan was later sent to Chatham, arriving 8 July 1893, for making a half-model of 'Shannon' for the museum in the R. N. College, Greenwich.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84700.html#R3XcpIWgE4x3tWIs.99

Fate
On 20 August 1810, while escorting another convoy to Malta, HMS Lively ran aground on rocks near Point Coura, Malta, and was wrecked; no lives were lost. Workmen from the dockyard at Valletta attempted unsuccessfully to get her off. Work continued until late September when she was abandoned as a wreck after having been stripped of anything of use or value. The court martial dis-rated the master for having sailed too close to shore, and reprimanded the officer of the watch.

The Lively-class
Origins of the Lively-class
The Lively class were a series of sixteen ships built to a 1799 design by Sir William Rule, which served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The prototype and name ship of the class was HMS Lively of 1804. In contemporary usage the class was referred to as the 'Repeat Lively class'. As such the prototype ship was not considered to be part of the class at the time.

They were considered the most successful British frigate design of the period, much prized by the Navy Board; after the prototype was launched in 1804 (by which time four more frigates had already been ordered to the same design), a further eleven sister-ships were ordered to her design, although this was slightly modified (in 1805) to have the gangways between forecastle and quarterdeck more integrated into the upperworks, a step towards the final enclosure of the waist. This was reinforced in 1809 by the abandonment of breastworks at the break of the quarterdeck and forecastle and in 1810 by the narrowing of the waist by the addition of gratings inboard of the gangways. At the same date, 'top riders', angled reinforcing timbers for the upperworks, were discontinued.

Characteristics and performance
The captain's reports on the performance of this class were remarkable for their absence of serious criticism. The vessels of the class were fast, recording 13kts large and 10-11kts close-hauled, weatherly and manoeuvrable. They were excellent heavy-weather ships, perfectly able to cope with a "head sea." They stowed their provisions well; they were capable of stowing provisions and freshwater for up to six months of cruising. Indeed "riding light," after a substantial proportion of fresh water and provisions had been consumed, affected their sailing qualities adversely, so that most captains filled any emptied freshwater stowage capacity with seawater

Ships in class

• HMS Lively
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Launched: 23 July 1804
  • Fate: Wrecked off Malta on 10 August 1810.
• HMS Resistance
  • Builder: Charles Ross, Rochester
  • Launched: 10 August 1805
  • Fate: Broken up April 1858 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Apollo
  • Builder: George Parsons, Bursledon.
  • Launched: 27 June 1805
  • Fate: Broken up October 1856 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
• HMS Hussar
  • Builder: Balthasar & Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard.
  • Launched: 23 April 1807
  • Fate: Burnt by accident 1861 at Shoeburyness.
• HMS Undaunted
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Launched: 17 October 1807
  • Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth in December 1860.
• HMS Statira
  • Builder: Robert Guillaume, Northam, Southampton.
  • Launched: 7 July 1807
  • Fate: Wrecked off Cuba on 26 February 1815.
• HMS Horatio
  • Builder: George Parsons, Bursledon.
  • Launched: 23 April 1807
  • Fate: Sold to break up 1861 at Charlton.
• HMS Spartan
  • Builder: Charles Ross, Rochester
  • Launched: 16 August 1806
  • Fate: Broken up April 1822 at Plymouth Dockyard.
• HMS Menelaus
  • Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
  • Launched: 17 April 1810
  • Fate: Sold 10 May 1897 to be broken up.
• HMS Nisus
  • Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
  • Launched: 3 April 1810
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth September 1822.
• HMS Macedonian
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Launched: 2 June 1810
  • Fate: Captured by United States 25 October 1812. Served as USS Macedonian. Broken up 1834.
• HMS Crescent
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Launched: 11 December 1810
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up 1854.
• HMS Bacchante
  • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
  • Launched: 16 March 1811
  • Fate: Broken up 1858.
• HMS Nymphe
  • Builder: George Parsons, Warsash.
  • Laid down: January 1811 as HMS Nereide (renamed later that year)
  • Launched: 13 April 1812
  • Fate: Broken up 1875.
• HMS Sirius
  • Builder: Richard Blake & John Tyson, Bursledon.
  • Launched: 11 September 1813
  • Fate: Broken up 1862.
• HMS Laurel
  • Builder: John Parsons & John Rubie, Warsash.
  • Launched: 31 May 1813
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up 1885.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lively_(1804)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lively-class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_5_October_1804
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-326393;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L

 

[Uwek]

20 August 1852 – Steamboat Atlantic sank on Lake Erie after a collision, with the loss of at least 150 lives.


Atlantic was a steamboat that sank on Lake Erie after a collision with the steamer Ogdensburg on 20 August 1852, with the loss of at least 150 but perhaps as many as 300 lives. The loss of life made this disaster, in terms of loss of life from the sinking of a single vessel, the fifth-worst tragedy in the history of the Great Lakes.

Construction and Career
Atlantic was built in 1848 or 1849 in Newport, Michigan, now called Marine City, by J. L. Wolverton. Atlantic was relatively large for the time, 267 feet (81 m) long with a tonnage of 1,155 tons, a beam of 33 feet (10 m), and a depth of 12.5 feet (3.8 m). She had 85 staterooms and a capacity of over 300 passengers.


Atlantic, Great Lakes steamboat built 1848.

Atlantic was owned by E. B. Ward of Detroit, or E. B. and S. Ward of St. Clair, Michigan and operated by the Michigan Central Railroad. She was put into service making trips between Buffalo, New York and Detroit, Michigan; she set a speed record of 16 and a half hours for a trip between the two cities.

Final voyage
On the afternoon of 19 August 1852, Atlantic left Buffalo, heading for Detroit, under the command of Captain J. Byron Pettey. Every cabin was full, and over 250 passengers were on the deck, many Norwegian, Irish, or other European immigrants. Atlantic stopped at Erie, Pennsylvania to pick up even more Norwegian immigrants waiting for ships to take them west to Detroit. Around half of the immigrants waiting were taken aboard; roughly seventy had to be left behind due to lack of space. Atlantic was now dangerously overcrowded, with 500-600 people aboard; the ship's clerk did not keep an exact count. Baggage was piled on the deck, and passengers stayed wherever they could, including on the uppermost hurricane deck and the roof of Atlantic's cabin. At 11 pm on 19 August 1852, Atlantic left Erie. The lake was calm; the sources are unclear about the level of visibility, with reports indicating everything from a light mist to a heavy fog.

Meanwhile, the new propeller steamer Ogdensburg was heading the other way, from Cleveland, Ohio, to Ogdensburg, New York, carrying a load of wheat. At 2 am on 20 August 1852, the paths of the two ships crossed near Long Point. On board Ogdensburg, the first mate, Degrass McNeil, was on duty. He spotted lights from Atlantic but was sure that Ogdensburg would pass at least a half mile ahead of the other ship. But then Atlantic changed course, turning north as though trying to pass in front of Ogdensburg. McNeil ordered Ogdensburg's engines reversed and the ship turned to port, and since Ogdensburg's steam whistle was broken, McNeil ran out onto the ship's deck and yelled to try and get the other ship to turn to starboard.


Atlantic and Ogdensburg collide. From an illustration for Gleason's Pictorial

McNeil's actions came too late. Ogdensburg rammed Atlantic on the port side, forward of the paddlewheel, cutting into Atlantic's side down to the waterline. Ogdensburg reversed and backed away from Atlantic, while Atlanticcontinued away under full steam. Perhaps reassured by Atlantic steaming away, McNeil steered Ogdensburg back onto its regular course. Many passengers on Atlantic were awakened by the collision, but the crew of Atlanticmade no effort to alert all the passengers. Water flowing in through the hole in Atlantic soon flooded the boilers, bringing the ship to a halt. The passengers and crew began to panic, many throwing anything that would float over the side of the ship before jumping over the side themselves, where many drowned. An attempt was made to launch Atlantic's three boats; one capsized, and Captain Petty suffered a concussion while lowering another, leaving him unable to provide any more assistance. The two other boats were lowered, carrying mostly crew members. The bow of Atlantic began to sink, but the stern was kept above water by air trapped inside the ship.

Meanwhile, the crew of Ogdensburg realized that Atlantic was in trouble, either because Ogdensburg's Captain Richardson reached that conclusion after examining the damage to his ship, or because the crew of Ogdensburg, after stopping their ship to check for damage, heard screams coming from the sinking Atlantic.. Ogdensburg turned around and found the half-sunk Atlantic ten minutes later; her crew took survivors off Atlantic's stern and rescued others from the water.Shortly after Ogdensburg took the last survivors off of the deck of Atlantic, Atlantic sank completely. The ship did not carry detailed passenger lists, but estimates range from at least 130 lives lost up to 300 lives lost, with an estimated death toll of 250 being common.

Aftermath
Ogdensburg steamed to the nearest port, which was Erie, Pennsylvania. While there, a group of passengers met and issued a resolution. In it, they condemned the incompetence of the officers of Atlantic with the exception of the clerk, Mr. Givon. They also spoke out against the poor quality of the life preservers on Atlantic and commended the captain of Ogdensburg for returning to the scene

Among the survivors of the disaster was Henry T. Titus, future founder of Titusville, Florida


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

 

[Uwek]

20 August 1857 - The british clipper Dunbar wrecked near harbour of Sydney. From 122 people on board only one survived.


Hand-coloured lithograph inscribed: The Dunbar, 1321 tons, To Duncan Dunbar Esqre Owner, Capt J. Green and the Officers of the Ship, this print is most respectfully dedicated by their obedient servant Wm Foster". The Dunbar was considered the finest ship in Duncan Dunbar's fleet. Great attention was paid in her construction to strength and to the comfort of her passengers. Her tragic wreck in 1857 off Sydney, when she was under the command of captain Green, seems to have been the result of a navigatinal error, but the cause was uncertain as there was only one survivor. (Basil Lubbock, The Blackwall Frigates p.202-211).

The Dunbar was a full-rigged ship that was wrecked near the entrance to Sydney Harbour, Australia in 1857 with the loss of 121 lives. Now a heritage site, the Dunbar is a former maritime trade, troop ship and transport and now Gillies artefact collection, tourist attraction, anchor memorial, shipwreck and education facility located at Watsons Bay in the Municipality of Woollahra local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The ship was designed and built from 1852 to 1853 by James Laing & Sons of Sunderland, England. The site is also known as Dunbar Group. The property is owned by the Land and Property Management Authority, an agency of the Government of New South Wales and Woollahra Municipal Council. The site was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 17 October 2003.

The Dunbar was launched on 30 November 1854 for London shipowner Duncan Dunbar. She was one of a number of large sailing ships that began trading to Australia as a result of the Australian gold rushes. The Dunbar was built as a first class passenger and cargo carrier. Ship rigged and well fitted out throughout, the vessel was, at the time of launching, the largest timber vessel constructed in Sunderland. This was partly in response to the demand for ships to carry passengers to the Australian goldfields. The Dunbar however was initially deployed as a troop ship in the Crimean War and did not become involved in the Australian trade until 1856.



On the night of 20 August 1857, the ship approached the entrance to Port Jackson from the south, but heavy rain and a strong gale made navigating difficult. The ship's captain, James Green, either erroneously believing he had already passed the harbour's southern headland or mistaking a smaller break in the coastline known as The Gap for the port's entrance, drove the ship onto rocks. There were 59 crew and 63 passengers on board under command of Captain Green. The ship was driven against the cliffs of South Head and rapidly broke apart. The force of the gale caused the Dunbar to break up. Only one out of 122 survived, Able Seaman James Johnson, who managed to cling to the cliff face until rescued some 1-2 days later. Crew member James Johnson was thrown against the cliffs from the impetus of the collision and managed to scramble to safety, however he remained undiscovered for two days. The remainder of the passengers and crew were drowned. Bodies and wreckage filled the harbour. A funeral was held in Sydney for the dead which included several prominent residents and business people. There were seven hearses, four mourning coaches and a long procession of carriages. The city closed down for the ceremony and the streets lined with mourners while all flags flew at half mast across the city and harbour. A day of public mourning was declared. The remains of the bodies of twenty-two victims were recovered and interred in a single large tomb in Camperdown Cemetery in Newtown. Several other victims have individual monuments. The ship's bell was recovered and donated to St John's Anglican church in Darlinghurst Road near Sydney's Kings Cross. It was installed in the bell-tower of the adjoining St John's Primary School (now demolished) where it became a tradition for generations of head-boys to announce the start of each school day by ringing it. A later enquiry blamed the disaster on insufficient navigational aids in the Harbour. As a result of this loss and that of the ship Catherine Adamson at North Head some 9 weeks later, the Government built the Hornby Light at the tip of South Head. James Johnson was eventually employed in Newcastle as the lighthouse keeper and on 12 July 1866, and was instrumental in rescuing the sole survivor of the paddle steamer SS Cawarra wrecked there in 1866. Memorial services for the victims of the Dunbar are held annually at St Stephen's Church.


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

 

[Uwek]

Other Events on 20 August


1572 – Death of Miguel López de Legazpi, Spanish navigator and politician, 1st Governor-General of the Philippines (b. 1502)


Miguel López de Legazpi / A route of the Spanish expeditions in the Philippines.

Miguel López de Legazpi (Spanish pronunciation: [miˈɣel ˈlopeθ ðe leˈɣaθpi]; c. 1502 – August 20, 1572), also known as El Adelantado and El Viejo (The Elder), was a Basque-Spanish navigator and governor who established the first Spanish settlement in the East Indies when his expedition crossed the Pacific Ocean from the Viceroyalty of New Spain in modern-day Mexico, arrived in Cebu of the Philippine Islands, 1565. He was the first Governor-General of the Spanish East Indies which included the Philippines and other Pacific archipelagos, namely Guam and the Marianas Islands. After obtaining peace with various indigenous nations and kingdoms, Miguel López de Legazpi made Manila the capital of the Spanish East Indies in 1571. The capital city of the province of Albay bears his name.

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

1619 - The first slaver, a dutch ship, arrived in North America with the first 20 survived slaves in Jamestown (Virginia)


A later big size slaver

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

1672 – Former Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt and his brother Cornelis are brutally murdered by an angry mob in The Hague.

Johan de Witt or Jan de Witt, heer van Zuid- en Noord-Linschoten, Snelrewaard, Hekendorp and IJsselveere (24 September 1625 – 20 August 1672) was a key figure in Dutch politics in the mid-17th century, when its flourishing sea trade in a period of globalisation made the United Provinces a leading European power during the Dutch Golden Age. De Witt controlled the Netherlands political system from around 1650 until shortly before his death in 1672, working with various factions from nearly all the major cities, especially his hometown, Dordrecht, and the hometown of his wife, Amsterdam.



As a republican he opposed the House of Orange-Nassau. He was also strongly liberal, preferring lesser power to the central government and more power to the regenten. However, his negligence of the Dutch land army (as the regents focused only on merchant vessels, thinking they could avoid war) proved disastrous when the Dutch Republic suffered numerous early defeats in the Rampjaar (1672). In the hysteria that followed the effortless invasion by an alliance of three countries, he and his brother Cornelis de Witt were blamed and lynched in The Hague, whereafter rioters partially ate them. The rioters were never prosecuted, and historians have argued that William of Orange may have incited them.

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

1756 – Launch of French Sphinx-class 64-gun Ship of Line Sphinx

Sphinx was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She was designed by Pierre Salinoc from 1752 to 1755 and fought in several engagements of the Seven Years' War before being broken up in 1775 and replaced by another 64 gun ship of the same name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Sphinx_(1756)

1785 – Launch of Didon, 38 guns at Lorient

Danaé class, (36/38-gun design by Charles Segonday-Duvernet, with 26 x 18-pdr guns initially, although by 1793 carried 28 x 18-pdr guns, plus 10 x 8-pdr guns on the gaillards and 4 obusiers).) The Danaé, the prototype, differed somewhat from the other pair). Fate: burnt at Guadeloupe 1792.

1801 - The boats of HMS Hound (14) and HMS Mallard (12) set fire to a vessel loaded with pitch and tar which had been wrecked near Etaples. Six flat boats came out of St. Valery and were forced ashore.

1825 – Death of William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, English admiral and politician, Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1753)

William Waldegrave, 1st Baron Radstock, GCB (9 July 1753 – 20 August 1825) was the Governor of Newfoundland and an admiral in the Royal Navy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Waldegrave,_1st_Baron_Radstock

1862 – Launch of USS Estrella

Estrella was a paddle steamship built by Samuda Brothers in London in 1853 for the Magdalena Steam Navigation Company's commercial services in present-day Colombia. In 1862 she was sold to United States owners and briefly used as a Union Army transport before being acquired by the Union Navy. She served as the armed steamship USS Estrella during the remainder of the American Civil War, carrying three heavy guns as well as two howitzers for shore bombardment.
Returning to commercial service in 1867, Estrella operated under the American flag and, later, as the British-flag Twinkling Star on services within the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico area. She was seriously damaged in 1870 in Jamaica and later sank in port



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

1883 - Battle of Thuan An

The Battle of Thuận An (20 August 1883) was a clash between the French and the Vietnamese during the period of early hostilities of the Tonkin Campaign (1883 to 1886). During the battle a French landing force under the command of Admiral Amédée Courbet stormed the coastal forts that guarded the river approaches to the Vietnamese capital Huế, enabling the French to dictate a treaty to the Vietnamese that recognised a French protectorate over Tonkin. The French strike against the Vietnamese in August 1883, sanctioned by Jules Ferry's administration in Paris, did more than anything else to make a war between France and China inevitable, and sowed the seeds of the Vietnamese Cần Vương national uprising in July 1885


French warships deployed off the Thuan An forts, 18 August 1883 / French Bayard

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

1901 – Launch of Plunger-class submarine USS Moccasin (SS-5)

USS Moccasin (SS-5) (later renamed A-4) was one of seven Plunger-class submarines built for the United States Navy (USN) in the first decade of the 20th century.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Moccasin_(SS-5)

1962 – The NS Savannah, the world's first nuclear-powered civilian ship, embarks on its maiden voyage.

NS Savannah was the first nuclear-powered merchant ship. Built in the late 1950s at a cost of $46.9 million, including a $28.3 million nuclear reactor and fuel core, funded by United States government agencies, Savannah was a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. Launched on July 21, 1959, and named after SS Savannah, the first steamship to cross the Atlantic ocean, she was in service between 1962 and 1972 as one of only four nuclear-powered cargo ships ever built. (Soviet ice-breaker Lenin launched on December 5, 1957, was the first nuclear-powered civil ship.)
Savannah was deactivated in 1971 and after several moves has been moored at Pier 13 of the Canton Marine Terminal in Baltimore, Maryland, since 2008.


NS (Nuclear Ship) Savannah, the first commercial nuclear power cargo vessel, enroute to the World's Fair in Seattle.

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

1989 – The pleasure boat Marchioness sinks on the River Thames following a collision. Fifty-one people are killed.

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

 

[Uwek]

21 August 1673 - The naval Battle of Texel or Battle of Kijkduin

took place off the southern coast of island of Texel on 21 August 1673 (11 August O.S.) between the Dutch and the combined English and French fleets. It was the last major battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, which was itself part of the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), during which Louis XIV of France invaded the Republic and sought to establish control over the Spanish Netherlands. English involvement came about because of the Treaty of Dover, secretly concluded by Charles II of England, and which was highly unpopular with the English Parliament.

The overall commanders of the English and Dutch military forces were Lord High Admiral James, Duke of York, afterwards King James II of England, and Admiral-General William III of Orange, James' son-in-law and also a future King of England. Neither of them took part in the fight.


The encounter between Cornelis Tromp on the 'Gouden Leeuw'and Sir Edward Spragg on the 'Royal Prince'in the night of 21 August 1673, during the Battle of Kijkduin: episode from the Third Angli-Dutch War (1672-1674) by Willem van de Velde the Younger

Prince Rupert of the Rhine commanded the Allied fleet of about 92 ships and 30 fireships, taking control of the centre himself, with Jean II d'Estrées commanding the van, and Sir Edward Spragge the rear division. The Dutch fleet of 75 ships and 30 fireships was commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter, with Lieutenant-Admirals Adriaen Banckert in charge of the van and Cornelis Tromp the rear. The Dutch were under an even greater disadvantage than the above numbers show, as Dutch warships were on the average smaller than both their English and French opponents.

Actions
The Battle of Texel was joined when a Dutch fleet sought to oppose the landing of troops by a combined Anglo-French fleet.

De Ruyter first decided not to leave his defensive position in the Schooneveld, from which he had successfully engaged the allied fleet in the double Battle of Schooneveld. However the Dutch Spice Fleet was returning from the Indies, filled with precious cargo. With half the country under French occupation for almost a year, the Dutch Republic's finances were in disastrous straits. The Dutch could not afford to lose the wealth the Spice Fleet was bringing, let alone allow it to be captured by the enemy. As such stadtholder William ordered De Ruyter to seek to engage the enemy.

Although outnumbered, De Ruyter gained the weather gauge and sent his van under Adriaen Banckert in to separate the Allied van (under D'Estrées) from the main fleet. His ploy was effective, and the French ships were unable to play a significant part in the remainder of the battle, which became a gruelling encounter between the bulk of the Dutch fleet and the English centre and rear divisions. Both suffered badly during hours of fierce fighting.

Spragge and Tromp, commanding their respective rear divisions, clashed repeatedly – Spragge had publicly sworn an oath in front of King Charles that this time he would either kill or capture his old enemy Tromp – each having their ships so damaged as to need to shift their flags to fresh ships three times. On the third occasion, Spragge drowned when his boat took a shot and sank.


"Victorieus zeegevecht der Nederlanders tegen de Franse en Engelse vloot den 22 Augusti anno 1673". 22 augustus 1673. Panorama. Gravure met genummerde beschrijvingen, met onder meer: Admiraal de Ruijter (Michiel de Ruyter), Tromp (Cornelis Tromp), Bankert (Adriaen Banckert), Robbart, Eduard Sprag (Edward Spragge), Blauwe Vlag, vice-admiraal Sweerts (Isaac Sweers, gesneuveld), branders (brandschepen), vice-admiraal van de Rode Vlag, vice-admiraal De Liefde (Jan Evertszoon de Liefde, gesneuveld), Jonker Jan van Gelder (Jan Paulusz van Gelder, gesneuveld), Witte Vlag, Franse admiraal, "een Gallioot kits Pinck", kapitein de Jong, een groot Engels schip reddeloos geschoten. Derde Engels-Nederlandse Oorlog. Slag bij Kijkduin.

Because of Spragge's preoccupation with duelling Tromp, the English centre had separated from the rear, clashing with the Dutch centre under De Ruyter and Lieutenant-Admiral Aert Jansse van Nes. The fight raged for hours, due to turnings of the wind each side suddenly gaining or losing the advantage of the weather gauge. Banckert managed to disengage from the French and joined the Dutch centre, upon which Rupert decided to move north to the rear squadron to prevent that he would have to fight a superior Dutch force, followed by De Ruyter with the mass of his ships. The fight then focused on an attempt by the Dutch to capture Spragge's isolated flagship, the Prince, which in the end failed.

With both fleets exhausted, the English eventually abandoned their attempt to land troops (the landing force known as the Blackheath Army was still waiting in England to be shipped), and both sides retired. No major ship was sunk (although several fireships were expended on each side), but many were seriously damaged and about 3,000 men died: two-thirds of them English or French. After the battle Prince Rupert complained that the French had not done their share of the fighting, but historians ascribe the lack of French impact on the battle to de Ruyter's brilliant fleet handling. It is true however that Count d'Estrées had strict orders from Louis XIV not to endanger the French fleet, as he himself admitted after the battle. Despite its inconclusive finish, the battle was a clear strategic victory for the Dutch.


The Battle of Texel, 11/21 August 1673 by Willem van de Velde the Younger, painted 1683. The ship at the centre is Dutch Admiral Cornelis Tromp's flagship Gouden Leeuw, 82 guns

Aftermath
The Spice Fleet arrived safely, bringing the much needed financial reprieve. In the months following, the Netherlands formed a formal alliance with Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The threat posed by German and Spanish invasions from the south and east forced the French to withdraw from the territory of the Republic. The Third Anglo-Dutch War came to an end with the signing of the Treaty of Westminster between the English and the Dutch in 1674. Fourteen years later the Glorious Revolution, which saw Stadtholder William III ascend the throne of England, put an end to the Anglo-Dutch conflicts of the 17th century. Only in 1781 would the Dutch and British fleets fight each other again in the battle of Dogger Bank.


Ships involved

England and France
White Squadron (French): 30 ShipOfLine (SOL) about 1828 guns
Red squadron (English): 29 SOLs (I-IV rates) about 1870 guns
Blue squadron (English): 27 SOLs (I-IV rates) about 1690 guns
and appr. 30 fireships

Dutch
75 SOLs (I-IV rates) with appr 30 fireships

with Gouden Leeuw (1666 - 80) with Lt-Admiral Cornelis Tromp, captain Thomas Tobiaszoon

The Gouden Leeuw (Dutch: Golden Lion) was a Dutch ship of the line armed with 80-82 cannon. The ship was built for the Admiralty of Amsterdam in 1666 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Gouden Leeuwwas for a time the largest Dutch warship. During the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the ship served as the flagship of Lieutenant Admiral Cornelis Tromp. She was Tromp's flagship at the Battle of Texel in 1673, with the Irishman Thomas Tobiasz as his flag captain. She was broken up in 1686.

The Gouden Leeuw was, in English feet, about 165 ft long by about 40 ft (12 m) wide by approximately 15 ft (4.6 m) deep, and was armed with 28 guns on the lower deck, 28 guns on the upper deck, and 26 guns on the forecastle, quarterdeck, and poop deck.


Cornelis de Tromp's former flagship the 'Gouden Leeuw' on the IJ in front of Amsterdamdetail /
This is a ship portrait viewed from the starboard bow. This drawing is not rubbed on the back but is nonetheless based on an offset. It is extremely accurate, a feature synonymous with the work of van de Velde the Younger. The hand of van de Velde the Elder is recognisable, however, in the isometric perspective which makes the stern larger than it should be for a drawing made so close on the bow. Reflection is suggested under the stern using a prominent flick of pencil. The drawing has been approximately dated by its watermark. It may have been used as a preparatory study a painting by van de Velde the Younger, The ‘Gouden Leeuw’ at sea in heavy weather, 1671, oil on canvas, 66.7 x 82.7 cm (Royal Collection, inventory no. RCIN 405324). There is a tracing of the same image in the Boymans Museum, Rotterdam.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/157860.html#7d6Lm69peyL4cxLA.99


and also De Zeven Provinciën (1665) as fleet flag, Lt-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter, flag captains Gerard Callenburgh and Pieter de Liefde

De Zeven Provinciën (Dutch: "the seven provinces") was a Dutch ship of the line, originally armed with 80 guns. The name of the ship refers to the seven autonomous provinces that made up the Dutch Republic in the 17th century. The vessel was built in 1664-65 for the Admiralty of de Maze in Rotterdam by the master shipbuilder Salomon Jansz van den Tempel.
De Zeven Provinciën was 151 ft (46 m) long and 40 ft (over 12 m) wide, and had a draft of over 15 ft (c. 4.7 m). It was 1600 tons and had a crew of 420. It was originally armed with twelve 36-pounders and sixteen 24-pounders on the lower deck (although this had changed to an all 36-pounder battery by the time of the Third Anglo-Dutch War), fourteen 18-pounders and twelve 12-pounders on the upper deck, and twenty-six 6-pounders on the forecastle, quarterdeck, and poop deck.


Model van De Zeven Provincien uit 1665. Foto: Ad van der Zee / Vintage diagram of the ship, by Willem van de Velde the elder


You can find a detailed list of ships on wikipedia!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Texel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_ship_Gouden_Leeuw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_ship_De_Zeven_Provinciën_(1665)

 

[Uwek]

1635 August 21 - Dunkirk squadron under Jacob Collaart (see Dunkirkers) defeat Dutch guardships and captures 60 fishing trawlers


Background

During the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648), the Dunkirkers or Dunkirk Privateers were commerce raiders in the service of the Spanish monarchy. They were also part of the Dunkirk fleet, which consequently was a part of the Spanish monarchy's Flemish fleet (Armada de Flandes). The Dunkirkers operated from the ports of the Flemish coast: Nieuwpoort, Ostend, and Dunkirk. Throughout the Eighty Years' War, the fleet of the Dutch Republic repeatedly tried to destroy the Dunkirkers. The first Dunkirkers sailed a group of warships outfitted by the Spanish government, but non-government investment in privateering soon led to a more numerous fleet of privately owned and outfitted warships.


An illustration of Flemish privateer Jacques Colaert created prior to his death in 1600.

Jacob Collaart or Collaert (floruit ca. 1625-1637) was a Flemish admiral who served as privateer and one of the Dunkirkers in Spanish Habsburg service during the Dutch Revolt. He was responsible for the capture or destruction of at least 150 fishing vessels, bringing 945 captured sailors back to his base in Dunkirk for ransom. A leading admiral over the next decade, he would have later encounters with other Dutch corsairs of the period including Captain Claes Compaan who escaped from him after sighting the corsair off the Spanish coast.

From 1633 until 1637, Collaart served as Vice Admiral with the Royal Squadron operating out of Dunkirk and, in 1635, his attacks against Dutch herring redders would cost the city of Flushing over two million guilders in income.

Although the city of Dunkirk was under a Dutch blockade during early 1635, the blockade was temporarily weakened as several warships under Lieutenant-Admiral Philips van Dorp were supporting French naval forces in the Gulf of Biscay and, on 14 August, Collaert sailing out of Dunkirk successfully broke through the Dutch blockade with a fleet of twenty-one vessels.

Within three days, Collaart's fleet located a herring fleet numbering 160 under the guard of a single man-of-war, armed with 39 guns and an 85-men crew. Easily disabling the escort, 74 vessels were either sunk or set afire with the surviving vessels escaping to the Vlie.

On 19 August, after chasing off the six men-of-war escorts, Collaart's forces destroyed around 50 herring boats near Doggersbank. Of the surviving fishermen, 150 sailors including wounded as well as the young and the elderly were put on a merchant vessel from Hamburg and returned to the Dutch Republic while the remaining 775 were held captive for ransom.

After this latest attack, a Dutch fleet was soon raised by the States-General of the Netherlands who ordered all available vessels to set out after the Collaart's fleet. Sailing from Rotterdam, its commander Willem Codde van der Burch was ordered to rendez-vous at the Texel with Philips van Dorp, recently returning from La Rochelle, and Vice Admiral Quast.

Collaart soon encountered the Dutch fleet of Van der Burch and Van Dorp, consisting of a combined twenty warships, and managed to damage four before the arrival of Quast's fleet forced Collaart to abandon the fight. In part due to bad weather, Collaart was able to escape to Dunkirk, arriving with 975 captive fisherman on 8 September 1635.

The following year, while sailing with two other privateers, Collaart and Mathieu Romboutsen were captured (the third captain managing to escape to an English port) near Dieppe after a five-hour battle against Captain Johan Evertsen on 29 February 1636.

Collaart died of an illness at A Coruña in August 1637. He had a son who was also a privateer, Jacques Collaert the Younger, and was the father-in-law of the later English Vice-Admiral Edward Spragge.


Effectiveness of the Dunkirkers
Despite a near constant blockade of the Dunkirkers' ports by Dutch warships, the privateers routinely managed to evade the blockaders and inflict much damage to Dutch shipping. Though the Dutch at times prevented the Dunkirkers from reaching open sea, during the winter months the blockade was extremely difficult to maintain and permitted virtually free passage. Sometimes naval battles ensued when privateers tried to break out or when Dutch warships tried to destroy the privateers in their harbours. During one of these Dutch attacks, the Dutch folk hero Piet Pieterszoon Hein, famous for capturing a Spanish treasure fleet, was killed. The Dutch declared the Dunkirk privateers pirates in 1587; captains of Dutch naval vessels had to swear an oath that they would throw or beat all prisoners from Dunkirk warships into the sea (euphemistically known as voetenspoelen, "washing the feet").[2] Due to its excessive harshness and the fact that it provoked equally cruel retributions from the side of the privateers, this standing order was very unpopular with Dutch crews and the general public. The order was often evaded by putting Dunkirk seamen off on one of the many shallow shoals off the Flemish coast from which they could wade to dry land.

The Dunkirkers had an extremely wide range for their era. Although mainly operating in and around the Channel, they also sailed near the Danish and German coastal areas to intercept Dutch ships returning from the Baltic, and operated in Spanish and Mediterraneanwaters. They cooperated closely with the Spanish navy, for instance, in the Battle of the Downs. This combined effort reached a peak of effectiveness during the time the Eighty Years' War merged with the Thirty Years' War. To evade the Dutch navy the Dunkirk admiralty had a special type of small and very maneuverable warship constructed, the frigate. Frigate-like ship types were soon adopted by other navies and still have their modern-day counterparts.


The Battle of the Downs

In 1600 the Dutch sent an army to conquer the city of Dunkirk and stop the privateering once and for all. The Dutch invasion force clashed with a Spanish army and although the Dutch won the resulting Battle of Nieuwpoort the Dutch commander, stadtholder Maurits of Nassau, realised his lines were dangerously over-stretched and so turned back to the Republic. The Flemish Fleet continued to be especially damaging to the herring fisheries of Holland and Zeeland, almost completely wiping out the sector on several occasions. However, Dutch merchantmen proved far more valuable targets, sometimes vessels on their way back from Russia or as far as the Indies were captured, along with their valuable cargoes.

After 1621, when the Twelve Years' Truce ended, the Dunkirkers captured on average 229 merchantmen and fishing vessels per year from the Dutch. During this period they took about sixty English vessels each year, as neutral shipping carrying munitions and victuals to the enemy were also considered 'good prize'. This was one of the major concerns of Charles I of England's diplomatic representative in Brussels, Sir Balthasar Gerbier, who eventually managed to have tobacco taken off the list of 'victuals'. One of the most successful raiders of this period was Jacob Collaert. It was not until October 1646, when the French captured Dunkirk with Dutch naval support, that the danger from the privateers was greatly reduced. In 1652, Spanish forces recaptured the city and the Dunkirkers once again became a major threat. The Dunkirkers wiped out English trade after England resumed hostilities against Spain in 1657, before Dunkirk was captured by a Franco-English force in 1658. Ostend then became their most important port. When, after 1672, France and the Dutch Republic became enemies, privateering activities were resumed at Dunkirk, this time for France, and this would last intermittently until 1712. A famous Dunkirk privateer from this period was Jean Bart.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Collaert
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirkers

 

[Uwek]

21 August 1799 - HMS Clyde (1796 - 38), Cptn. Charles Cunningham, captured the French frigate Vestale (1781 -32) in the mouth of the Garonne.


In August, Clyde was off the coast of France. On 21 August, she was six or seven leagues northwest of the Cordovan Lighthouse near the mouth of the Gironde when she observed two sail. As Clyde approached, they separated, and she pursued the larger. Clyde brought her quarry to action, eventually forcing the French vessel to strike. The French vessel was Vestale, a 32-gun frigate and a crew of 235 men under the command of M. P.M. Gaspard. She had sailed from Cadiz with dispatches for Saint Domingue and was on her return voyage. She carried a number of passengers who she had landed at Passages (Pasajes) two days earlier, and was now on her way to Rochefort. In the engagement, Clyde lost two men killed and three wounded; Vestale had ten men killed and 22 wounded, several of whom died later. Vestale's consort, the 20-gun corvette Sagesse (launched 1794) had too large a lead and escaped into the Garonne.



The Ship:

HMS Clyde was a Royal Navy Artois-class frigate built at Chatham Dockyard of fir (pitch pine), and launched in 1796. In 1797, she was one of only two ships whose captains were able to maintain some control over their vessels during the Nore mutiny. In 1805, HMS Clyde was dismantled and rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard; she was relaunched on 23 February 1806. She was ultimately sold in August 1814.


During the mutiny at the Nore, off Sheerness, which followed on from that at Spithead, only two ships' captains managed to maintain some control of their commands. One of these was Captain Charles Cunningham of the frigate, 'Clyde'. On 29 May, he managed to persuade his men to ignore the summons from the rebel leader Richard Parker, in the 'Sandwich', to a conference. Instead, at 9.00 p.m. that night, Cunningham assembled his crew and told them that he intended to take the 'Clyde' into Sheerness. After midnight she slipped her cable and made for Sheerness, anchoring there at dawn. The port admiral, Vice-Admiral Buckner, then defiantly rehoisted his flag in her, the mutineers having hauled it down in the guardship, 'Sandwich'. In this interpretation, the second image of a pair (see also BHC0496), the 'Clyde' is shown arriving at sunrise in the Medway, off Sheerness Dockyard. She is in the left middle distance, in port-bow view, on the starboard tack, flying a white ensign but with a red one hanging over her port quarter rail as a signal. Nearer, centre left, is a cutter in starboard-bow view, moored to a buoy and with a boat under her stern. In the left foreground is a large mooring buoy. On the right of the picture, against the rising sun, is a sheer hulk used for masting or de-masting ships, shown in bow and starboard-broadside view, with people waving to the 'Clyde' in her stern. Beyond the hulk is part of Sheerness Dockyard, with buildings, a ship on the stocks and a crowd of people waving on the fortifications. In the distance to the north-east ships of the mutinous fleet lie at anchor. The darkness of the earlier image in the pair has given way to brilliance in this allegory of success and triumph for the Navy. The painting is signed and dated on the buoy, lower left, in black on brown, (see also BHC 0496).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11989.html#Bb12M7wqocloArmu.99

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built - the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.





Ships in class

• HMS Artois
  • Launched: 3 January 1794
    Fate: Wrecked on the Ballieu rocks off Brittany on 31 July 1797
• HMS Diana
  • Launched: 3 March 1794
  • Fate: Sold to new Dutch Navy on 7 March 1815;
    burnt in fire at Willemsoord, Den Helder on 16 January 1839.
• HMS Apollo
  • Launched: 18 March 1794
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast on 7 January 1799
• HMS Diamond
  • Launched: 17 March 1794
  • Fate: Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812
• HMS Jason
  • Launched: 3 April 1794
  • Fate: Wrecked on rocks off Brittany on 13 October 1798
• HMS Seahorse
  • Launched: 11 June 1794
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in July 1819
• HMS Tamar
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Fate: Broken up in January 1810 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Clyde
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up August 1814.
• HMS Ethalion
  • Launched: 14 March 1797
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Penmarcks on 25 December 1799

A very good model kit of the HMS Diana is available from Jotika / Caldercraft in scale 1:64



and a Anatomy of Ships book written by David White




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Clyde_(1796)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cunningham

 

[Uwek]

21 August 1808 – Launch of Dalmate, a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
21 August 1810 - Launch of Capri, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the Real Marina of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

Dalmate
Ordered on 11 August 1806, Dalmate was one of the ships built in the various shipyards captured by the First French Empire in Holland and Italy in a crash programme to replenish the ranks of the French Navy.


Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Dalmate (1808), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.

She was commissioned in 1808 and served under Captain Le Jaulne. She was decommissioned in 1813, and her crew transferred on Friedland.

At the Bourbon Restoration, she was renamed Hector, changed to Dalmate during the Hundred Days, and to Hector back again after Napoléon's second abdication. She later served under Captain Baron Lemarantbetween 15 May to 22 June 1817, and Bergeret from 13 September, cruising the Caribbean and returning to Rochefort on 4 February 1818.


Capri was built by engineers Jean-François Lafosse and Philippe Greslé after plans by Sané. In April 1815, she was seized by the British, but returned to Napoli in December 1815. She remained in service at least until 1821


The Téméraire-class ships of the line were class of a hundred and twenty 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built.

The class was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané in 1782 as a development of the Annibal and her near-sister Northumberland, both of which had been designed by him and built at Brest during the 1777-1780 period. Some dozen ships were ordered and built to this new design from 1782 to 1785, and then the same design was adopted as a standard for all subsequent 74s during the next three decades as part of the fleet expansion programme instituted by Jean-Charles de Borda in 1786.

The design was appreciated in Britain, which eagerly commissioned captured ships and even copied the design with the Pompée and America class.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Dalmate_(1808)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neapolitan_ship_Capri_(1810)

 

[Uwek]

21 August 1823 – Launch of Algésiras, an 80-gun Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, designed by Sané.


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

She took part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830, under Captain Ponée, and in the Battle of the Tagus the next year, under Captain Moulac.


Loss of a longboat of Algésiras in a storm, 9 August 1831.

In 1832, she was used as a troopship to ferry troops to Algeria. In 1836, she cruised the Caribbean with Artémise.

Algésiras was featured in Les Misérables, where she is mislabeled as a frigate:

“The frigate Algesiras was anchored alongside the Orion, and the poor convict had fallen between the two vessels"
Book second, chapter III


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Algésiras_(1823)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Misérables

 

[Uwek]

21 August 1846 – Launch of HMS Thetis, a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, later SMS Thetis of prussian Navy

After nearly a decade of service with the British, she was transferred to Prussia in exchange for two steam gunboats. She served with the Prussian Navy, the North German Federal Navy and the Imperial German Navy as a training ship until being stricken in 1871. Thetis was subsequently converted into a coal hulk and broken up in 1894–95.


SMS Thetis, the former HMS Thetis, circa 1867.

Description
Thetis was a three-masted, ship-rigged frigate that had a sail area of 2,370 square metres (25,500 sq ft). Her maximum speed was 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph). The ship was considered to be a very good sea boat and very manoeuvrable, although she did suffer from severe pitching. Thetis had a crew of 330 officers and enlisted men in British service, but her crew numbered 35 officers and 345 enlisted men in Prussian service.

Measured at the gundeck, Thetis had a length of 164 feet 7.25 inches (50.2 m), a beam of 46 feet 8.75 inches (14.2 m) and a depth of hold of 13 ft 6.5 in (4.1 m). She was 1533 17⁄94 tons burthen in size and displaced1,894 long tons (1,924 t). Forward, the ship had a draught of 13 ft 10 in (4.2 m) and 15 ft 5 in (4.7 m) aft.

In British service, Thetis was armed with eighteen 32-pounder (56 cwt) smoothbore and four 68-pounder (65 cwt) smoothbore shell guns on the upper deck. The ship was also fitted with ten 32-pounder guns on her quarterdeck and four more on her forecastle. All of these guns were of the lighter 25 cwt model. The Prussians rearmed her with thirty-eight Swedish 68-pounder guns, although two of these were later removed.



Service history
Thetis was designed by Read, Chatfield and Creuze and she was the only ship of her class, which was approved on 16 March 1843. With the approval of the final order Thetis was laid down at Devonport Dockyard on 2 December 1844. She was launched on 21 August 1846 and duly commissioned for service on 30 December 1846, having cost £40,605, this rising to £51,926 to have her fitted for sea. From 3 July 1850 to February 1854, her captain was Augustus Leopold Kuper. He commissioned her at Plymouth and sailed her to the south-east coast of America and then the Pacific. Kuper Island, one of the Gulf Islands in the Strait of Georgia, off the east coast of Vancouver Island, is named for him after he surveyed the area from 1851–53. A nearby island is named Thetis Island and several other localities on Vancouver Island are named after the ship, including Thetis Lake, Thetis Cove, Thetis Crescent and Thetis Lane.

After nine years of service she was disarmed and given to the Prussian Government in exchange for two steam gunboats (Radavisos SMS Salamander und SMS Nix) on 12 January 1855. She was used by the Prussians as a training ship for cabin boys and naval cadets. By 1867, the ship was serving as an artillery training ship. Numbered among her cadets at this time was the future grand admiral Alfred von Tirpitz; also serving aboard her during this time were Lieutenant Commanders Eduard von Knorr and Max von der Goltz, both future admirals. After serving in the successive navies of the emerging German state, Thetis was stricken from the navy list on 28 November 1871. Her internal equipment was removed and she served as a coal hulk at Kiel, eventually being broken up there in 1894–95.

small additional remark in german:
Eine für die preußische Marine besonders wichtige Auslandsreise führte 1859 - 1862 ein Geschwader, bestehend aus "Arcona" mit 27 Geschützen, "Thetis" mit 38 Geschützen, Schoner "Frauenlob" und Transportschiff "Elbe" in ostasiatische Gewässer. Im fernen Osten waren die Tore der 250 Jahre verschlossenen japanischen Inselwelt durch den us-amerikanischen Kommodore Perry geöffnet worden. Perry erzwang mit Gewalt die Öffnung des bis dahin hermetisch verschlossenen Landes und den Vertrag von Kanagawa 1854. Auch das Königreich Preußen zeigte sich an einem Handel mit China, Japan und Siam (Thailand) sehr interessiert. Die Reise ging von Danzig über England um das Kap von Südafrika nach Singapur. Das kleine preußische Geschwader gerät am 2. September 1860 vor Yokohama in einen Taifun, in dem "Frauenlob" untergeht. Die größeren Kriegsschiffe, die gleichfalls in ernster Gefahr gewesen waren, landeten den außerordentlichen preußischen Gesandten Graf Eulenberg dann am 18. September 1860 in Yokohama, wo er seinen Staatsbesuch abstattete, um nach Vollendung seines Auftrages mit dem Geschwader über Siam die Heimreise anzutreten.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thetis_(1846)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Thetis_(1855)
https://www.deutsche-schutzgebiete.de/sms_thetis_segelfregatte.htm