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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1755 - Action of 6/8 June 1755, 6th June 1755 - 8th June 1755


At Threedecks:
On the 6th June, 1755, near the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, [Boscawen's British squadron happened] to fall in with four sail of the line, which had parted from M. de la Motte in a gale of wind, he chased them for two days. On the 8th at noon, the Dunkirk, Captain the Hon. Richard Howe, having arrived up with the sternmost French ship, the Alcide, 64, it may be said declared war; for, after some little preliminary hailing, he opened so furious a cannonade, that on the approach of the Torbay, the French ship struck her colours.

A second ship—the Lys, 64—en-flute, was also captured; but a fog shortly afterwards came on, and the third escaped. Thus was this war, commonly called in history "The Seven Years' War" commenced.






at wikipedia:
The Action of 8 June 1755 (from 6th to 8th) was a naval battle between France and Great Britain early in the French and Indian War. The British captured the third-rateFrench ships Alcide and Lys off Cape Race, Newfoundland in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The battle contributed to the eventual war declarations that in 1756 formally began the Seven Years' War.



Background
Main article: French and Indian War

Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen was dispatched with eleven ships of the line to intercept French ships heading for Quebec City.

In 1754, French and British colonial forces clashed in 1754, first in the Battle of Jumonville Glen, and then in the Battle of Fort Necessity, over control of the upper Ohio River valley, near present-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When word of these conflicts reached London, government leaders decided to send regular army troops to occupy the site on which the French had constructed Fort Duquesne. Word of the British military planning leaked to France, where convoys of troops were also rushed into readiness for service in North America. The Royal Navy, aware of the French plans, dispatched Vice Admiral Edward Boscawen and a fleet of eleven ships of the line to the Gulf of St. Lawrence to intercept French shipping headed for Quebec City. Boscawen patrolled along the southern shore of Newfoundland. Three weeks later, a second fleet of seven ships was despatched under Admiral Holbourne to intercept French shipping.

The French fleet, under the command of Admiral Dubois de la Motte, for the most part managed to avoid these British forces. Many of its ships landed at Louisbourg, and some successfully eluded Boscawen's fleet to reach Quebec. However, three ships became separated from the rest of the fleet in fog, and encountered some of Boscawen's ships.

Battle
HMS Dunkirk, HMS Defiance and HMS Torbay encountered the Dauphin Royal, Alcide, and Lys under the command of Toussaint Hocquart. The Lys was sailing en flûte, and had been reduced to 22 cannons because it was carrying soldiers of the Régiment de la Reine and the Régiment de Languedoc; eight companies in all. The Alcide had 64 guns and these ships soon fell in with the British ships. Hocquart of the Alcide called out to the commander of the Dunkirk Richard Howe, "Are we at war, or at peace?" to which the English replied, "At peace, at peace." After a brief discussion, the Royal Navy ships opened fire on the three French ships. The Alcide being better armed than the other two French ships, returned fire and fought bravely for five hours. However, after sustaining much damage it surrendered along with the Lys. The Dauphin Royal escaped in the fog to tell the tale.

Aftermath
After this action and further harassment of French shipping by British naval forces, the two countries declared war on each other in the spring of 1756. The prisoners of this battle, most of them French land troops intended for service in New France, were held at Georges Island in Halifax Harbour and were treated as prisoners of war.

On board the ships Alcide and Lys were found to contain 10,000 scalping knives for Acadians and Indians under Mik Mak Chief Cope and Acadian Beausoleil as they continued to fight Father Le Loutre's War.

Hocquart became Boscawen's prisoner for the third time; he had been captured by him in a frigate action back in 1744. He was then captured again in the First Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747) before finally being captured in the Alcide.




Alcide was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1742. The captain of the vessel was Toussaint Hocquart, for the re-enforcement campaign that was sent to Canada in May 1755.




Capture of Alcide near Louisbourg



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail (figurehead missing), and longitudinal half-breadth for' Alcide' (1755), a captured French Third Rate, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard. 'Alcide' was docked at Portsmouth between 20 February and 7 March to be surveyed per Admiralty Order dated 20 December 1756. She was later fitted at Portsmouth between April and July 1757. Signed by Edward Allin [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]. Reverse: Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the roundhouse, quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck gun deck (lower deck), orlop deck, and fore and aft platforms for 'Alcide' (1755)


On 8 June 1755, Alcide was captured by HMS Dunkirk and HMS Torbay of Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen's squadron, and commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1757 as the third-rate HMS Alcide.

HMS Alcide was sold out of the navy in May 1772. However, it perhaps remained in service in some form because on 10 July 1772 according to the UK, Register of Duties Paid for Apprentices' Indentures, 1710–1811, Robert Mellefent was apprenticed as a carpenter to Ebenezer Holland to serve on the ship.

Mars class. Designed and built by Blaise Ollivier.

• Mars 64 (launched May 1740 at Brest) – captured by the British off Ireland in October 1746 and added to the RN under the same name, wrecked at Halifax 1755
• Alcide 64 (launched 6 December 1743 at Brest) – captured by the British off North America in June 1755 and added to the RN under the same name, sold 1772

Lys 64 (launched 10 September 1746 at Brest) – captured by the British off North America in June 1755

Lys class. Designed and built by Jacques-Luc Coulomb.

• Lys 64 (launched 10 September 1746 at Brest) – captured by the British off North America in June 1755
• Fougueux 64 (launched March 1747 at Brest) – Captured by the British at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747
• Dragon 64 (launched 16 September 1747 at Brest) - wrecked 1762.

HMS Dunkirk was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Woolwich Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishmentas amended in 1750, and launched on 22 July 1754.




Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and the longitudinal half-breadth for 'Dunkirk' (1754), a 60-gun Fourth Rate two-decker. Signed by Joseph Allin [Surveyor of the Navy, 1749-1755]

Career
HMS Dunkirk was sent to America in 1755, along with several other ships, under Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen. On 5 June she spotted four French ships which were bound for Canada under the command of Admiral Bois de la Mothe. Dunkirk, HMS Defiance and several other ships gave chase. Dunkirk came alongside the 64-gun Alcide and requested the captain meet with the Vice-Admiral, who was then about three miles away. After the captain of the Alcide refused, the Dunkirk opened fire. Soon afterwards, HMS Edgar came alongside the French at which Alcide struck her colours. The Alcide had been carrying 900 troops and the governor of Louisbourg. The general of those troops was killed and 30,000 pounds sterling captured. In the battle, another French vessel, the Lys was captured by HMS Fougueux.

In 1778, Dunkirk was placed on harbour service under captain John Milligan, who had previously served as second lieutenant aboard Eagle. During Milligan's captaincy, and despite her harbor service status, she was among the vessels credited with the capture on 23 December 1781 of the Dutch ship De Vrow Esther, being in company with Squirrel, Antigua, and Cambridge. Milligan left the ship in 1782,[3] and Dunkirk was sold out of the navy in that same year.

Action of 8 June 1755 - Wikipedia

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French ship Alcide (1743) - Wikipedia

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Collections - National Maritime Museum

HMS Dunkirk (1754) - Wikipedia

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Collections - National Maritime Museum

HMS Neptune (1683) - Wikipedia

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Action of 6/8 June 1755, 6th June 1755 - 8th June 1755

Description and participants : Action of 6-8 June 1755, 6th June 1755 - 8th June 1755

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


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



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


A painting showing an important naval engagement during the French Revolutionary War, 1793-1802. On 19 May 1798, Napoleon sailed from Toulon on his hazardous adventure to Egypt, capturing Malta en route. On realizing this, Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson initially looked for the French at Alexandria, but when he didn’t find them he sailed back to Syracuse in Sicily to reposition before returning to Alexandria. There, on 1 August, he received a signal that the French fleet had been sighted anchored in Aboukir Bay, 15 miles east of Alexandria. Thence Nelson headed, appearing off Aboukir Island at 17.30. Despite the failing daylight, his ships immediately attacked the head of the unprepared French fleet at anchor, commanded by Admiral Brueys. Three ships rounded the bows of the leading French ships, one passed between the first and second ship and another between the sixth and seventh. Whitcombe’s painting shows the beginning of the action at about 19.00, viewed from the north. On the extreme right the French battery on the Island of Aboukir fires on the nearest British ships. To the left of this is the anchored French line with the ‘Guerrier’ at the head with the British ‘Zealous’ engaging her on her right. Astern of the ‘Guerrier’, the ‘Conquérant’ is engaged with the British ‘Goliath’. The next French ship in the line is the ‘Spartiate’, almost obscured by Nelson’s flagship the ‘Vanguard’, identifiable by the blue flag at the mizzen and the three Union jacks. Beyond is the British ‘Theseus’. The British ‘Minotaur’ masks the French ‘Aquilon’ while to the left of her is the French ‘Peuple Souverain’ engaging the British ‘Orion’ being raked by the ‘Leander’. Next left, the British ‘Defence’ and Swiftsure’ engage the French flagship ‘Franklin’. Beyond and to the left the British ‘Bellerophon’ engages the ‘Orient’. In the extreme left background the British ‘Majestic’ engages the ‘Tonnant’ and in the extreme left foreground the British ‘Culloden’ is aground. The painting is signed and dated ‘T Whitcombe 1798’ and was presented by the Earl of Yarborough to the Greenwich Hospital Collection in 1855


A view of the ‘Ocean’ (left) and the ‘Souveraine’ (right). Lithograph. The ‘Ocean’ was designed by Sané and broken up at Brest in 1855. Carved work on the stern shown in the picture does not agree with that shown on the model of the ship in Musée de Marine, Paris. Hand-coloured.; No.5.


On 19 May 1798, Napoleon sailed from Toulon on his hazardous adventure to Egypt, capturing Malta on the way. On 1 August, Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson sighted Alexandria, with its harbour full of shipping and saw French flags, although none belonged to ships of the line. The French battle fleet was subsequently sighted anchored in Aboukir Bay, 15 miles east of Alexandria, by the British ship 'Zealous', 74 guns. Nelson, in his flagship 'Vanguard', 74 guns, immediately headed there and launched and immediate, late-afternoon attack on the anchored enemy in what subsequently became a devastating night action. The scene shows the end of the action and is lit by the burning French flagship, 'L' Orient', 120 guns, shortly before she blew up at 10 p.m. She is in the right middle-distance of the picture, and shown in broad port-bow view. Flames are pouring from her waist and middle-deck ports, although the fire has not yet brought down her upper masts and yards. The guns of most of the rest of the ships in the picture are silent because their ports have been closed in anticipation of the explosion which would soon blow 'L'Orient's' hull out of the water. Ahead of 'L'Orient' is the French 'Franklin' almost in port- broadside view with only her foremast standing. Across her bows and raking her, bow-on, is the British 'Leander', 50 guns, and beyond the stern of the 'Franklin' can be seen the stern and spars of the British 'Swiftsure', 74 guns, in starboard-broadside view and also firing into the Frenchman. Ahead of 'Swiftsure' are more French ships. The dismasted 'Peuple Souverain', 74 guns, in port-quarter view, then the dismasted and captured 'Aquilon', 74 guns, 'Spartiate', 74 guns, 'Conquérant', 74 guns, and 'Guerrier', 74 guns. In the far background between the 'Conquérant' and the 'Spartiate' is the stern of Nelson's 'Vanguard' in starboard-quarter view. The French ships on the left of the picture are partially obscured by the British ships anchored on the viewer's side. On the extreme left, the British 'Audacious', in port-quarter view, masks the French 'Guerrier'. The British 'Goliath', 74 guns, in starboard-bow view does the same for the French 'Spartiate'; the British 'Theseus', 74 guns, in starboard-bow view covers the French 'Aquilon' and the British 'Orion', port-quarter view, the French 'Peuple Souverain'. There is a boat between the last two British ships. In the right foreground is another boat and beyond this, masking the stern of 'L'Orient' and the bows of the 'Tonnant', 80 guns, is the British 'Alexander', 74 guns, in port-bow view. The last two have sailors aloft securing the sails. Of the 13 French ships of the line and four frigates which were at anchor in Aboukir Bay, only two of the ships of the line ('Guillaume Tell' and 'Généreux') escaped with two frigates. Of the rest nine were taken, three burnt and one sunk. Whitcombe was born in London in about 1752 and painted ship portraits, battle scenes, harbour views and ships in storms. Although his output was vast, little is known about him. He produced a large number of subjects from the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815, and exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1783 and 1824. His depiction of ships implies specific knowledge of life at sea, although he probably spent most of his career in London. Many of his works were engraved and they included 50 plates to James Jenkins's account of 'The Naval Achievements of Great Britain', published in 1817. The painting is signed and dated 'T Whitcombe, 1799' and is one of a pair with BHC0515, which shows the beginning of the action

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


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


Souverain class - designed by Noël Pomet.

Souverain 74 (launched 6 June 1757 at Toulon) – captured by the British at Toulon in August 1793, retaken there by the French in December 1793, renamed Peuple-Souverain c. 1794, captured by the British in the Battle of the Nile in August 1798 and added to the RN as HMS Guerrier, BU 1810.

Protecteur 74 (launched 21 May 1760 at Toulon) - hulked as hospital ship at Rochefort 1784.

French ship Souverain (1757) - Wikipedia

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Souverain-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1762 – The Siege of Havana was a military action from March to August 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War.


The Siege of Havana was a military action from March to August 1762, as part of the Seven Years' War. British forces besieged and captured the city of Havana, which at the time was an important Spanish naval base in the Caribbean, and dealt a serious blow to the Spanish Navy. Havana was subsequently returned to Spain under the 1763 Treaty of Paris that formally ended the war.




The British fleet closing in on Havana in 1762. Painting by Dominic Serres

Background
Main article: Anglo-Spanish War (1762–1763)
Spanish preparations
Before involving his country in the conflict raging in Europe and across the world, Charles III of Spain made provisions to defend the Spanish colonies against the British Royal Navy. For the defence of Cuba, he appointed Juan de Prado as commander-in-chief. De Prado arrived at Havana in February 1761 and began work to improve the fortifications of the city.

In June 1761, a flotilla of seven ships of the line under the command of Admiral Gutierre de Hevia arrived at Havana, transporting two regular infantry regiments (España and Aragón) totalling some 1,000 men. However, yellow fever quickly reduced the defending forces, and by the time of the siege, they had been reduced to 3,850 soldiers, 5,000 sailors and marines and 2,800 militia. The main garrison consisted of:

• España Infantry Regiment (481)
• Aragón Infantry Regiment (265)
• Havana Infantry Regiment (856)
• Edinburgh's Dragoons (150)
• Army's gunners (104)
• Navy's gunners and marines (750)

Havana had one of the finest natural harbours in the West Indies. It could easily accommodate up to 100 ships of the line. A 180 m wide and 800 m long entrance channel gave access to the harbour, and Havana housed important shipyards capable of building first-rate man-of-war ships.

Two strong fortresses defended the entrance channel; on the north side of the channel stood the very strong Castillo de los Tres Reyes del Morro (known in English as Morro Castle) on the rocky Cavannos Ridge. It had 64 heavy guns and was garrisoned by 700 men. The south side was defended by the Castillo de San Salvador de la Punta. The channel could also be blocked by a boom chain extending from El Morro to La Punta. Havana itself lay on the south side along the channel and was surrounded by a wall 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long. Havana was considered impregnable, and hadn't been taken since the French pirates in the 16th century.

British preparations
When war broke out with Spain, plans were made in Great Britain for an amphibious attack on Havana. The expedition was under the command of George Keppel, 3rd Earl of Albemarle, with Vice-Admiral Sir George Pocock as naval commander. This plan also called for Jeffrey Amherst to embark 4,000 men from America to join Keppel and to assemble another force of 8,000 men for an attack on Louisiana.

During the month of February, British troops embarked, they consisted of:

• 22nd Regiment of Foot
• 34th Regiment of Foot
• 56th Regiment of Foot
• 72nd Richmond's Regiment of Foot

On 5 March the British expedition sailed from Spithead, England, with 7 ships of the line and 4,365 men aboard 64 transports, and arrived in Barbados on 20 April. Five days later the expedition reached Fort Royal on the recently conquered island of Martinique where it picked up the remainder of Major-General Robert Monckton's expedition, still numbering 8,461 men. Rear Admiral George Rodney's squadron, amounting to 8 ships of the line also joined the expedition bringing the total number of ships of the line to 15.

On 23 May the expedition, now off the northwest corner of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), was further reinforced by Sir James Douglas' squadron from Port Royal, Jamaica. The force under Albemarle now amounted to 21 ships of the line, 24 lesser warships, and 168 other vessels, carrying some 14,000 seamen and marines plus another 3,000 hired sailors and 12,826 regulars.

Siege

A plan of Havana and its environs in 1762, by Thomas Kitchen

On 6 June the British force came into sight of Havana. Immediately, 12 British ships of the line were sent to the mouth of the entrance channel to block in the Spanish fleet. The British planned to begin the operations by the reduction of the Morro fortress, on the north side of the channel, through a formal Vauban-style siege. The commanding position of this fort over the city would then force the Spanish commander to surrender. However, this plan did not take into account the fact that the fortress was located on a rocky promontory where it was impossible to dig approach trenches and that a large ditch cut into the rock protected the fort on the land side.

The Spanish force under Prado and Admiral Hevia, surprised by the size of the attacking force, adopted a delaying defensive strategy, hoping for a relief force or for an epidemic of yellow fever among the besiegers or for a hurricane destroying the British fleet. Accordingly, the Spanish fleet was kept in the harbour while its sailors, gunners and marines were sent to garrison the fortresses of Morro and Punta which were placed under the command of naval officers. Most of the shot and powder of the fleet as well as its best guns were also transferred to these two fortresses. Meanwhile, regular troops were assigned to the defence of the city.

The channel entrance was immediately closed with the boom chain. Furthermore, 3 ships of the line (Asia (64), Europa (64) and Neptuno (74)) were selected among the fleet for their poor condition and sunk behind the boom chain. Realising the importance of the Morro, the Spanish commanders gave it top priority.

On 7 June the British troops were landed northeast of Havana, and began advancing west the next day. They met a militia party that was easily pushed back. By the end of the day, British infantry had reached the vicinity of Havana. The defence of the Morro was assigned to Luis Vicente de Velasco e Isla, a naval officer, who immediately took measures to prepare and provision the fortress for a siege.

Siege of El Morro

El Morro fortress in Havana, built in 1589

On 11 June a British party stormed a detached redoubt on the Cavannos heights. Only then did the British command realise how strong the Morro was, surrounded by brushwood and protected by a large ditch. With the arrival of their siege train the next day, the British began erecting batteries among the trees on La Cabana hill overlooking the Morro (some 7 metres (23 ft) higher) as well as the city and the bay. Surprisingly, this hill had been left undefended by the Spanish army despite its well-known strategic importance. The king of Spain had even instructed Prado to fortify this hill, a task that he considered the most urgent among those confided to his commander.

On 13 June a British detachment landed at Torreón de la Chorrera, on the west side of the harbour. Meanwhile, Colonel Patrick Mackellar, an engineer, was overseeing the construction of the siege works against the Morro. Since digging trenches was impossible, he resolved to erect breastworks instead. He planned to mine towards a bastion of the Morro once his siege works would have reached the ditch and to create a runway across this ditch with the rubble produced by his mining activities.

On 22 June, 4 British batteries totalling 12 heavy guns and 38 mortars opened fire on the Morro from La Cabana. Mackellar gradually advanced his breastworks towards the ditch under cover of these batteries.

By 29 June, the British batteries had increased their daily direct hits on the Morro to 500. Velasco was losing as many as 30 men each day, and the workload of repairing the fortress every night was so exhausting that men had to be rotated into the fort from the city every three days. Velasco finally managed to convince Prado that a raid was necessary against the British batteries. At dawn on 29 June 988 men (a mixed company of grenadiers, marines, engineers, and slaves) attacked the siege works. They reached the British batteries from the rear and started to spike guns, but British reaction was swift, and the attackers were repulsed before they caused any serious damage.


British siege guns before Morro Castle, by Dominic Serres

On 1 July, the British launched a combined land and naval attack on the Morro. The fleet detached 4 ships of the line for this purpose: HMS Stirling Castle, HMS Dragon, HMS Marlborough and HMS Cambridge. The naval and land artilleries simultaneously opened fire on the Morro. However, naval guns were ineffective, the fort being located too high. Counter-fire from 30 guns of the Morro inflicted 192 casualties and seriously damaged the ships, one of which was later scuttled, forcing them to withdraw. Meanwhile, the bombardment by the land artillery was far more effective. By the end of the day, only 3 Spanish guns were still effective on the side of the Morro facing the British batteries.

On 2 July, the British breastworks around the Morro caught fire and the batteries were burned down, destroying the product of much of the work undertaken since mid June. Velasco immediately capitalized on this event, remounting many guns and repairing breaches in the fortifications of the Morro.

Since its arrival at Havana, the British army had heavily suffered from yellow fever. It was now at half strength. Since the hurricane season was approaching, Albemarle was now engaged in a race against time. He ordered the batteries to be rebuilt with the help of men of the fleet. Many 32-pdrs were taken from the lower deck of several ships to equip these new batteries.

By 17 July the new British batteries had progressively silenced most of Velasco's guns, leaving only two of them operational. With the absence of artillery cover, it now became impossible for the Spanish troops to repair the damage being inflicted on the Morro. Mackellar was also able to resume construction of siege works to approach the fortress. With the army in such a bad condition, work progressed rather slowly. All hope of the British army now resided in the expected arrival of reinforcements from North America.

On 20 July the progress of siege works allowed the British to begin the mining towards the right bastion of the Morro. Meanwhile, the now unopposed British artillery was daily hitting the Morro up to 600 times, causing some 60 casualties. Velasco had now no hope but to destroy British siege works. At 4 am on 22 July 1,300 regulars, seamen and militia sallied from Havana in three columns and attacked the siege works surrounding the Morro. The sortie did not succeed and the siege works were left relatively intact.

On 24 July Albemarle offered Velasco the opportunity to surrender, allowing him to write his own terms of capitulation. Velasco answered that the issue would rather be settled by force of arms.


William Keppel - Storming the Morro Castle. Painting by Joshua Reynolds

On 27 July the reinforcements from North America led by Colonel Burton finally arrived. During their journey, they had been attacked by the French, who captured some 500 men. These reinforcements consisted of:

• 46th Thomas Murray's Regiment of Foot
• 58th Anstruther's Regiment of Foot
• American provincials (3,000 men)
• Gorham's and Danks' Rangers - which were combined into a 253-man ranger corps.

On 29 July the mine near the right bastion of the Morro fort was completed and ready to explode. Albemarle vainly feigned an assault, hoping that Velasco would finally decide to surrender. On the contrary, Velasco decided to launched a desperate attack from the sea upon the British miners in the ditch.

At 2:00 am on 30 July two Spanish schooners attacked the miners from the sea. Their attack was unsuccessful and they had to withdraw. At 1:00 pm the British finally detonated the mine. The debris of the explosion partly filled the ditch but Albemarle judged it passable, and launched an assault, sending 699 picked men against the right bastion. Before the Spanish could react, 16 men gained a foothold on the bastion. Velasco rushed to the breach with his troops, and was mortally wounded during the ensuing hand-to-hand fighting. The Spanish troops fell back, leaving the British in control of the Morro fort. Velasco was transported back to Havana, but by 31 July had died of his wounds.

The British then occupied a position commanding the city of Havana as well as the bay. Artillery batteries were brought up along the north side of the entrance channel from the Morro fort to La Cabana hill, where they could be trained directly on the town.


Parts of a patched Spanish flag captured during the assault on Moro Castle, showing arms of Castille and Leon with Bourbon arms in centre surrounded by Order of the Golden Fleece (from Royal Museums Greenwich)

Surrender
On 11 August, after Prado had rejected the demand for surrender sent to him by Albemarle, the British batteries opened fire on Havana. A total of 47 guns (15 x 32-pdrs, 32 x 24-pdrs), 10 mortars and 5 howitzers pounded the city from a distance of 500–800 m. By the end of the day Fort la Punta was silenced. Prado had no other choice left but to surrender.

On 12 and 13 August negotiations of the articles of capitulation went on, and Prado and his army obtained the honours of war. Hevia neglected to burn his fleet which fell intact in the hands of the British.

Aftermath
On 14 August the British entered the city. They had obtained possession of the most important harbour in the Spanish West Indies along with military equipment, 1,828,116 Spanish pesos and merchandise valued around 1,000,000 Spanish pesos. Furthermore, they had seized 20% of the ships of the line of the Spanish Navy, namely Aquilón (74), Conquistador (74), Reina (70), San Antonio (64), Tigre (70), San Jenaro (60), África (70), América (60), Infante (74) and Soberano (74), together with 3 frigates, 9 smaller vessels including the Marte (18) commanded by Domingo de Bonechea and some armed vessels belonging to trading companies (Compañía de La Habana and Compañía de Caracas). Furthermore, two new almost-completed ships of the line were seized in the dockyards - San Carlos (80) and Santiago (60 or 80).


The Captured Spanish Fleet at Havana, August–September 1762, by Dominic Serres

During the siege the British had lost 2,764 killed, wounded, captured or deserted but by 18 October also had lost 4,708 dead from sickness. One of the most depleted brigades was transferred to North America where it lost a further 360 men within a month of arrival. Three ships of the line were lost either as a direct result of Spanish gunfire or severe damage received which would cause their demise later. Shortly after the siege HMS Stirling Castle was declared unserviceable and was stripped and scuttled. HMS Marlborough sank in the Atlantic due to extensive damage received during the siege, and HMS Temple was lost while returning to Britain for repairs.

On their return to Spain Prado and Hevia were court-martialed and convicted.

The loss of Havana and Western Cuba was a serious blow to Spain. Not only were the financial losses considerable, the loss in prestige was even greater. This defeat, together with the conquest of Manila by the British one and a half months later, meant the loss of both the capitals of the Spanish West Indies and the Spanish East Indies. This confirmed British naval supremacy, and showed the fragility of the Spanish Empire. Just as the earlier War of Jenkins' Ear had forced the British government into a thorough review of its military, this war forced the Spanish government into undertaking a similar process.

Havana and Manila were returned to Spain as a result of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, but Spain was required to cede Florida and Menorca to Great Britain and pay the Manila Ransom. Spain received French Louisiana as a payment for intervening in the war on the side of the French and as compensation for having lost Florida.

Siege of Havana - Wikipedia

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Operations against Havana, 6th June 1762 - 13th August 1762

Description and participants : Operations against Havana, 6th June 1762 - 13th August 1762

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1776 - HMS Milford vs USS Yankee Hero, 6th June 1776


Description of the action
At dawn on 6 June, HM Frigate Milford was patrolling off Cape Ann. She was a large frigate, armed with twenty-eight 9-pounders, with a crew of 280 men. Her commanding officer, Captain John Burr, was a seasoned and experienced veteran. Milford set easy sail and stood west, her deck officer noting that she was twelve miles ESE of Cape Ann. By afternoon the Yankee Hero was going around Cape Ann and Tracy saw the sails of a large vessel in the distance. Without a full crew aboard he was reluctant to chase. Soon after the brig overtook two boats, full of armed men, which had been pursuing the vessel. These men informed Tracy that several transports had been in close to the Cape earlier in the day, and offered to join him if he would pursue the stranger. Tracy agreed, and fourteen of the men boarded the Yankee Hero, sending their boats ashore. The brig now set off for the stranger, which was fifteen miles away to the ESE, the wind blowing from the west. Aboard the Milford Burr's lookouts noticed the stranger bearing down in chase about 1400. Burr held to his course, concluding that the chase (if it were American), could be lured closer by imitating a merchant vessel.

When Yankee Hero had closed to within six miles of the stranger he discovered her to be a large ship, and soon after, from her actions, he concluded she was a warship. Yankee Hero immediately came about and headed for the distant shore. No one aboard the American thought the warship could catch the brig, but the wind died after about ten minutes. Aboard the Milford, the master noted that the chase had tacked at 1500. Yankee Hero was to the southwest of Milford when she turned away. Burr immediately followed and set all sail. Milford caught a fresh south wind and was coming up very fast, intending to get between Tracy and the shore, thus cutting off the Yankee Hero's retreat. The warship had gotten into the brig's wake when the west wind sprang up again. Tracy angled for the shore with the most direct tack possible. The ship pursued. An hour went by. An agonizing hour of watching the pursuit steadily draw closer. At a distance of half a mile the warship opened fire with her bow chasers. Milford's master noted that they fired four shots at 1530 and four more at 1600. An hour later Milford had pulled alongside Yankee Hero.

When the Milford opened fire with her bow chasers, Tracy had his crew reply: with one swivel gun. As Milford closed in, she kept up a constant long range fire (probably ranging shots). Tracy prepared for a desperate fight. When the Milford had closed to within pistol shot on his lee quarter, he opened fire with guns, swivels and muskets, and kept firing continually. The frigate soon pulled alongside: with twelve 9-pounders to the side, forecastle and quarterdeck guns, and Marines in her fighting tops high above the brig's decks, Tracy was overmatched and knew it. Burr noted that Milford was alongside the Yankee Hero at 1700, when several shots were fired at the frigate, upon which he "came to Actio" Milford kept up a rapid and continuous fire. Burr turned his ship into the wind, cutting Tracy off from shore and forcing him to conform or collide with Milford. First Lieutenant Main was struck and wounded. Yankee Hero was now unable to fight her lee guns. Tracy quickly backed sail, and ran under the frigate's stern to escape. However, Milford sailed quicker and worked just as fast as the brig and soon had her on the broadside again. Tracy could not evade Burr. Milford's master simply recorded that, at 1730, the brig wore ship and bore away, Milford following. Milford got alongside within pistol shot, firing “Great Guns and Musquets” for about thirty minutes.

The two vessels lay a hundred feet apart, yawing back and forth in the wind, for an hour and twenty minutes, all the while keeping a steady fire upon each other. When the Milford's foremost guns slackened fire, Tracy saw a glimmer of a chance. He tacked under Milford's stern again and got clear of the smoke and fire that hung in a cloud over the water. As he ran clear Tracy saw that Yankee Hero's rigging was cut to pieces: yards were flying without braces, sails tattered. Dead and wounded men lay on the deck: it looked as if half the crew were down. Prize Master Davis had fallen in the last fighting.

Tracy set his men collecting the wounded and getting them below, and refitting the brig's rigging. Milford was now some way off and had no guns bearing at the moment. She soon came around and got underway. As the ship came up Tracy sent his men back to the guns, but kept a few hands at work on the rigging. Hardly had two broadsides been fired when Tracy was hit in the thigh. In a few minutes he could not stand, then he fainted and had to be helped below. When he came to, he was in the Yankee Hero's cockpit, surrounded by dead and dying men, and the brig's guns were silent. Tracy had himself carried to the deck in a chair, to resume the action. On deck he fainted again, briefly, then looked around his vessel, and gave the order to surrender.

The action seemed shorter aboard Milford, her master noting the American surrendered after a half an hour, about 1800. Burr sent his first lieutenant over to take charge of the prize. The lieutenant reported that Yankee Hero had seventeen guns, twelve swivels, and a crew of fifty-two men. The lieutenant found twelve wounded and four dead among the prisoners. While removing the prisoners, another man died.


HMS Milford was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Milford by Richard Chitty and launched in 1759.[1] She was sold for breaking at Woolwich on 17 May 1785.




Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half breadth for Argo (1758), Active (1758), Aquilon (1758), Milfrord (1759), and later in 1758 for Guadeloupe (1763), and in 1764 for Carysfort (1766), then in 1782 for Laurel (cancelled 1783 and not built), and Hind (1785)a 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates


The Yankee Hero was an American Sloop-of-War commissioned in Massachusetts colony on January 13, 1776, for use by the new Continental Navy.[1] It was under the command of Captain James Tracy until it was captured by the British on June 7, 1776.




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HMS Milford (1759) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1780 - HMS Iris (32) versus french La Hermione (32)

from Threedecks:
Description
On June 6th, in West Indian waters, the Iris, 32, Captain James Hawker, engaged for eighty minutes the French 32 of equal force, Hermione, Captain de La Touche. Each side accuses the other of breaking off the engagement, but as the Hermione was coppered, and therefore presumably the fastest sailer, it is probable that she, rather than the Iris, retired. The British loss was seven killed and nine wounded; the French lost ten killed and thirty-seven wounded; which bears out the account of the Iris's log, and leads us to think that the Hermione had all the worst of it.


from wikipedia: (correct date was the 6th June)
The Action of 7 June 1780 took place during the American War of Independence between the frigates Hermione and HMS Iris. The ships exchanged fire for one hour and a half before parting. The battle resumed epistolarily when Hawker published his account of the battle in a newspaper, which Latouche contested heatedly.

Background
The Franco-American alliance marked the French intervention in the American War of Independence, yielding a considerable contribution to the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War. France and Britain fought to control shipping lanes and supply their side on the American continent, while conducting support operations and landings.

One of the French frigates involved was Latouche's 32-gun Hermione, that had ferried General La Fayette France to Boston. After a brief period installing artillery for the defence of Rhodes Island, Latouche returned off Long Island to intercept shipping to New York City.

Action
On 7 June, Hermione was 15 miles South-East of Long Island, cruising under a fair South-Western wind, when she spotted four sails windward. As Hermione was a good sailor, Latouche came nearer to the wind and closed in to investigate. He soon made the strange ships to be a frigate, a corvette, a schooner and a snow. The frigate reduced her sails and ran in the wind to intercept Hermione, which took a port tack for the same purpose.

Slightly before they arrived on each other's beam, both frigates reduced their lower sails and hoisted their flag, firing a full broadside. The British frigate was the 32-gun HMS Iris, under Captain James Hawker. After overhauling Iris, Hermione turned to run into the wind, on a starboard tack, and easily sailed into the beam of Iris. The exchange of fire then resumed, and Latouche was wounded when his arm was shot through by a musket ball; he nevertheless continued to command his ship.

After an hour and a half of cannonade at half-musket range, Isis reduced the topsail of her foremast; as soon as Hermione overhauled her, she veered into the wind and sailed away. Latouche attempted to mirror this maneuver, but his rigging was torn to ribbons, and he could not give chase.

Aftermath
On 10 June, Hawker published his version of the battle in a newspaper, stating that Hermione had fled although an American frigate was in sight. Latouche published a letter written to Hawker, in which he stated that the rigging of his frigate was so torn that she could hardly maneuver and that Iris could have re-engaged at will. He further stated that he had attributed the retreat of Iris to her casualties, which he inferred from her low rate of fire at the end of the engagement, and was surprised to read that she had only seven killed and nine wounded.

See also here in our forum:

Book review - Book Review: "L´HERMIONE - Lafayette and La Touche-Treville, two men and a frigate serving American Independence" by Patrick Villiers

Book Review: L´HERMIONE / HERMIONE Lafayette and La Touche-Treville, two men and a frigate serving American Independence A study accompanied by historical documents from 1764 to 1793 by Patrick Villiers with particpation of J.C. Lemineur Translated by Francois Fougerat available from...

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Planset review - HERMIONE - 12-Pdr frigate of the American War of Independence 1779-1793" in scale 1:48 by JC Lemineur

PLanset Review: HERMIONE 12-Pdr frigate of the American War of Independence 1779-1793 in scale 1:48 by Jean Claude Lemineur with assistance by Patrick Villiers Translated by François Fougerat This monographie is available from ancre in different languages, which can be choosen -...

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Iris vs Hermione, 6th June 1780

Description and participants : Iris vs Hermione, 6th June 1780

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Action of 7 June 1780 - Wikipedia

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USS Hancock (1776) - Wikipedia

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British Sixth Rate frigate 'Iris' (1777)

British Sixth Rate frigate 'Iris' (1777). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources

threedecks.org

French frigate Hermione (1779) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

French Fifth Rate frigate 'L'Hermione' (1779)

French Fifth Rate frigate 'L'Hermione' (1779). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources

threedecks.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1803 - Launch of HMS Euryalus, a 36-gun Apollo-class frigate, which saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812.


HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate, which saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period, Henry Blackwood, George Dundas and Charles Napier. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars she continued on active service for a number of years, before spending more than two decades as a prison hulk. She ended her career in Gibraltar where, in 1860, she was sold for breaking up.



Napoleonic Wars
Euryalus was built by Henry Adams's firm at Buckler's Hard, and launched in 1803. Her first action occurred on 2 and 3 October 1804 when, captained by Henry Blackwood, she participated in an attack on French vessels off Boulogne pier. During Blackwood's absence, Captain J. Hardy temporarily commanded her.

On 22 February 1805, Euryalus captured St Jose while on the Irish station. Dryad shared in the prize by agreement with Euryalus.

Battle of Trafalgar
In 1805 she led a squadron of four other frigates in watching Cádiz to report the movements of the combined French and Spanish fleets anchored there.The combined fleet sailed from Cádiz on 20 October, shadowed through the night by Euryalus and the others that reported its position to the Royal Navy fleet on the horizon.


The Day after Trafalgar – The Victory Trying to Clear the Land with the Royal Sovereign in Tow to the Euryalus

Main article: Battle of Trafalgar
With battle imminent the following morning, Captain Blackwood suggested that Admiral Horatio Nelson transfer from Victory to the faster Euryalus, the better to observe and control the engagement. Nelson declined the offer. Euryalus - too small to play a major role - stood off until the late afternoon when she took the badly damaged Royal Sovereign in tow and turned her to engage the French ship Formidable.

Following the death of Admiral Nelson, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood transferred his flag from Royal Sovereign to Euryalus. She became for the next ten days the British fleet's flagship.

After the battle Euryalus took on survivors from the French ship-of-the-line Achille, as well as the captured French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve. Blackwood also received the surrender of the Spanish ship Santa Ana, after two raking broadsides to the stern by Royal Sovereign and Belleisle had caused her to strike her colours.

Euryalus again took Royal Sovereign in tow but the two ships collided during a sudden squall, badly damaging the frigate's masts and rigging. Once repairs were completed, Euryalus went into Cádiz Harbour to allow Blackwood to negotiate an exchange of prisoners and the repatriation of French and Spanish wounded. On 31 October, Euryalus set sail for England with Admiral Villeneuve as a prisoner. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "Trafalgar" to all surviving claimants from the battle.





Mediterranean, post-Trafalgar
On 5 February 1806 Blackwood was still in command of Euryalus when the privateer Mayflower, of Guernsey, captured the Spanish vessel San Jose Andrea. This gave rise to court case in which the captain of the privateer alleged that Eurylaus had not been in sight (and so entitled to share in the prize money), but had come on the scene later and that Blackwood had coerced him to sign that she had joined the chase and was in sight. The court found for Euryalus having been in sight.

Later that year George Dundas took command of Euryalus. Euryalus, Ocean and other warships escorted a large convoy to Oporto, Lisbon and the Mediterranean. When she arrived, she was assigned to patrol the coast between Cape St. Vincent and Cape St. Maria in the Algarve, and then to watch the port of Cartagena. After about four months she transferred to the Gulf of Lyons. In the Mediterranean her boats captured several small merchant vessels.

Towards the end of 1807 Euryalus returned to England with Niger. The two vessels escorted several thousand of the late Sir John Moore's troops from Gibraltar. On her return Euryalus went into dock at Plymouth for a refit.

Her next station was the North Sea and then the Baltic under Vice-Admiral Sir James Saumarez. First, Euryalus transported the Duke d'Angoulême from Yarmouth to Gottenburg. She then escorted Baltic convoys through the Great Belt.

On 11 June 1808, she and Cruizer discovered several vessels at anchor close to shore at the entrance to the river Naskon. Dundas anchored at dark and sent a cutting out party in four boats from the two ships to destroy the vessels. The cutting out party burnt two large troop transports and retrieved a gun-vessel armed with two 18-pounders and carrying 64 men. The successful foray took place directly under the guns of a Danish battery of three 18-pounder guns and numerous enemy troops who lined the shore. The enemy lost seven men killed and twelve wounded; the British had one man slightly wounded. In 1816 the crews of the British ships received prize money for "Danish gun-boat E".

Later that year Dundas sailed to Elbing, a small port in West Prussia about 60 kilometers (37 mi) east of Dantzig. There he took on board Princess Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy (the consort of Louis XVIII), the Duc du Berry and other members of the French royal family. He carried them first to Carlscrona in southern Sweden. He then re-embarked them at Gottenburg and carried them to Harwich.

On 30 July 1809, a British force of 39,000 men landed on Walcheren, initiating the Walcheren Campaign. Euryalus joined the squadron under Captain Lord William Stuart in Lavinia that on 11 August forced the passage of the Scheldt between the batteries at Flushing and Cadsand. Euryalus herself had no casualties although the British lost two men killed and nine wounded in other ships. Although the Walcheren Expedition, which ended on 9 August 1809, was notably unsuccessful, Euryalus was among the myriad vessels sharing in the prize money form the campaign.

Later she was stationed off Cherbourg under the orders of Captain Sir Richard King. On 18 November Euryalus was off Cherbourg where she captured the French privateer lugger Etoile of 14 guns and 48 men. Etoile was two days out from the Hogue without having made any captures.

On 26 April 1810 Euryalus sailed for the Mediterranean, escorting a large convoy from Spithead to Portugal and the Mediterranean. She then joined Captain Blackwood's inshore squadron off Toulon. The squadron consisted of Blackwood's Warspite, Ajax, Conqueror, Euryalus and Shearwater. A strong gale on 15 July forced the squadron to seek shelter behind the Île du Levant. The same gale drove Blackwood's ship, San Josef east to Villefranche.

On 20 July a French squadron consisting of six sail-of-the line and four frigates exited Toulon. Their objective was to provide cover to a frigate and her convoy that wished to escape from Bandol where it had taken shelter. The light and variable winds made it impossible for Blackwood to block the French squadron and the frigate and her convoy from joining up. Furthermore, while Blackwood was trying to regroup his squadron, Euryalus and Shearwater were forced to sail across the front of the French force. The wind failed for Blackwood, but not the French, making it highly likely that the French would be able to capture Euryalus and Shearwater.

Blackwood was able to position Warspite with Conqueror and Ajax astern where they could exchange broadsides with the French ships as they came up one at a time. Then the French tacked and the British line matched them, enabling Euryalus and Shearwater to escape, though not before Shearwater was on the receiving end of three completely ineffectual broadsides from one of the French ships of the line and a frigate. Despite its greater strength, the French force returned to Toulon rather than take on the British squadron.

Early in 1811 Dundas temporarily took command of the 74-gun third rate Achille until relieved by Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis, who had transferred from Standard. Dundas then returned to Euryalus.

On 16 April 1811, Euryalus sailed for the Mediterranean. By May 1811, she was under the command of Captain George Waldegrave.

On 7 June 1811 Euryalus, again under the command of Dundas, and Swallow sent their boats in pursuit of a French privateer off Corsica. After a long chase the boats captured Intrepide, which had a crew of 58 and was armed with two 8-pounders.

In November 1812 Captain Thomas Ussher took command. His successor was Captain Jeremiah Coghlan. On 2 April, Euryalus, under Coghlan, drove a French vessel on shore on the coast of Sardinia.

Euryalus was still in the Mediterranean when Captain (later Admiral) Charles Napier took command early in 1813. She took part in successful commerce raiding and the blockade of Toulon. On 16 May 1813, boats from Berwick and Euryalus attacked French coastal shipping at Cavalaire, east of Toulon. There they captured the French naval xebec Fortune, of ten 9-pounder guns and four swivel guns. She was under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseaux Félix-Marie-Louise-Anne-Joseph-Julien Lecamus, and had a crew of 95 men who had abandoned her before the British boarded. In addition, the British captured 22 small coasting vessels. They took out 14, but then destroyed nine after removing their cargoes. Fifteen of the vessels were chiefly laden with oil, corn, lemons, etc., and one with empty casks; six of those destroyed were empty. In the attack Berwick lost one man killed, and Euryalus had one man missing.

On 23 December Euryalus drove the Var-class flüte Baleine, sailing from Toulon to Ajaccio, ashore near Calvi where she bilged on the rocks. Baleine was armed with 22 guns and carried a crew of 120 men. That same day, Alcmene captured the Cerf-class schooner Flèche between Corsica and Cape Delle Molle. Flèche was armed with 12 guns, and carried a crew of 99 men and 24 soldiers. She was carrying the soldiers from Toulon to Corsica. French records place the capture off Vintimilles, and add that Flèche was escorting the storeships Lybio and Baleine, which were also carrying troops for Ajaccio, Corsica.

On 21 April 1814, in company with Undaunted, under the command of Ussher, Euryalus entered the harbour at Marseilles where they heard the news of Napoleon's defeat. Undaunted then sailed to Frejus Bay where she embarked Napoleon and transported him to Elba.





War of 1812
Napier next took Euryalus across the Atlantic to serve in the War of 1812. In June she sailed from Gibraltar to Bermuda as part of a squadron under Captain Andrew King. The squadron escorted transports carrying troops that had been recently employed against Genoa.

Next, Napier and Euryalus participated in the expedition up the Potomac (August–September 1814), in which he was second in command of the squadron under James Alexander Gordon. On 17 August Euryalus, bombs Devastation, Aetna, and Meteor, the rocket ship Erebus, and the dispatch boat Anna-Maria were detached under Captain Gordon of Seahorse to sail up the Potomac River and bombard Fort Washington, about ten or twelve miles below the capital. On the second day of the expedition Euryalus went aground on an oyster-bank at Kettle Bottoms and took several hours to be floated off.

She subsequently took part in the bombardment and reduction of the forts defending the town of Alexandria. Later Euryalus contributed a boat armed with a howitzer to assist Meteor and Fairy in their unsuccessful attempt to stop the Americans from adding guns to a battery that would impede the British withdrawal. On 25 August a vicious squall hit the whole squadron; it temporarily put Euryalus almost on her beam ends and cost her bowsprit and the heads of all her topmasts. Only 12 hours were needed for refit, however.

Then on 5 September, Seahorse and Euryalus anchored close to the American battery and silenced it with their fire. With the rest of the squadron she then descended the Potomac, running the gauntlet of fire from enemy batteries; in all Euryalus lost three killed and ten wounded. One of the wounded was Napier, who took a musket ball in the neck. She returned to her anchorage at the mouth of the river on 9 September. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM) with clasp "The Potomac 17 Augt. 1814" to all surviving claimants from the campaign.

On 13 September Euryalus was present at the bombardment of Fort McHenry preparatory to an expedition against Baltimore. Napier led nine boats up the Patapsco River where they fired on the American troops and drew fire from Fort McHenry that killed one man.

Following these operations, on 28 January 1815 Napier issued a challenge to the captain of US frigate Constellation to meet Euryalus in single-ship combat. Constellation's captain, Charles Gordon, accepted, but Euryalus was first required for the naval operations preceding the Battle of New Orleans and then peace was signed before the engagement could take place. Napier wrote to Captain Gordon that he was glad they were at peace, but should that situation change 'I trust we shall have an opportunity of being better acquainted'.

During Napoleon's Hundred Days Euryalus landed troops at the mouth of the River Scheldt.

Post-war

Scale 1:48. Model made by A.W. Curtis. Buckler's Hard Maritime Museum, Beaulieu, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

Euryalus was paid off in June 1815. That same month Captain Thomas Huskisson recommissioned her. On 7 July she captured the French vessels Aimable Antoinette and Marie. At the time, Harrier Towey and Saracen were in sight and so entitled to share in the prize money.

From 25 August 1818 to end 1820, Euryalus was in the West Indies. She served as the flagship in the Leeward Islands from November 1819 to May 1820, and then at Jamaica from June to December.

In January 1821 Captain Isaac Chapman became acting captain. From about June 1821 to August she was under the command of Wilson Braddyll Bigland.

Captain Sir Augustus Clifford was appointed to Euryalus on 22 October 1821 and sailed her from St. Helen's with W.J. Hamilton, the British ambassador to the Neapolitan court. She would spend from 1822 to 1825 relatively uneventfully in the Mediterranean though in 1824 she participated in the blockade of Algiers. Then in late in 1824 or early in 1825, she rendered assistance to the American brig Charles and Ellen at the island of Milos. Euryalus stayed for a week, lending some 70 to 80 men to the brig to effect repairs, a kindness acknowledged her Captain, P.R.Bing and two Boston insurance companies by posting a notice in the National Intelligencer of 23 March 1825. Euryalus was paid-off in Deptford in 1825.

Fate
After her return to England Euryalus was converted to a prison hulk. From 1825 to at least 1843, she was a prison for boys, the youngest being nine years old.

In 1845 Euryalus became a coal hulk at Sheerness. In 1846-7 she was refitted as a convict ship and in that capacity she was moved to Gibraltar. In 1859 she was renamed Africa but was sold to a Mr. Recanno for breaking up in 1860.

HMS Euryalus (1803) - Wikipedia

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Apollo-class frigate - Wikipedia

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British Fifth Rate frigate 'Euryalus' (1803)

British Fifth Rate frigate 'Euryalus' (1803). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1862 - The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately above the city of Memphis, Tennessee, during the American Civil War


The First Battle of Memphis was a naval battle fought on the Mississippi River immediately above the city of Memphis, Tennessee on June 6, 1862, during the American Civil War. The engagement was witnessed by many of the citizens of Memphis. It resulted in a crushing defeat for the Confederate forces, and marked the virtual eradication of a Confederate naval presence on the river. Despite the lopsided outcome, the Union Army failed to grasp its strategic significance. Its primary historical importance is that it was the last time civilians with no prior military experience were permitted to command ships in combat. As such, it is a milestone in the development of professionalism in the United States Navy.





Battle of the rams. - Ward, A. R., artist

Background
The defending Confederates closely matched the advancing federal force in raw numbers, with eight rebel vessels opposing nine Union gunboats and rams, but the fighting qualities of the former were far inferior. Each was armed with only one or two guns, of a light caliber that would be ineffective against the armor of the gunboats. The primary weapon of each was its reinforced prow, which was intended to be used in ramming opponents.

The Confederate rams were distinguished by a unique feature of their defense against enemy shot. Their engines and other interior spaces were protected by a double bulkhead of heavy timbers, covered on the outer surface by a layer of railroad iron. The gap between the bulkheads, a space of 22 in (56 cm), was packed with cotton. Although the cotton was the least important part of the armor, it caught the public's attention, and the boats came to be called "cottonclads". Later in the war, ships' crews were often protected from small-arms fire by bales of cotton placed in exposed positions, and these vessels were also referred to as "cottonclads". They differed, however, from the originals of the category.

The federal force consisted of five gunboats, four of which were known semi-officially as "Eads gunboats", after their builder, James Buchanan Eads, but more commonly as "Pook turtles", after their designer, Samuel M. Pook, and their strange appearance. The fifth gunboat, flagship Benton, was also a product of the Eads shipyards, but was converted from a civilian craft. Each of these vessels carried from 13–16 guns. The other four vessels were rams, with no armament whatever, aside from the small arms carried by the officers. All of the rams had been converted from civilian riverboats, and had no common design.

Organization
Both sides entered the battle with faulty command structures. The federal gunboats were members of the Mississippi River Squadron, commanded directly by Flag Officer Charles H. Davis, who reported to Major General Henry W. Halleck. The gunboats were thus a part of the United States Army, although their officers were supplied by the navy. The rams were led by Colonel Charles Ellet, Jr., who reported directly to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Thus the federal "fleet" consisted of two independent organizations, with no common command outside of Washington.

The Confederate arrangement was even worse. The cottonclads were about half of a group of fourteen river steamers that had been seized at New Orleans and converted into rams to defend that city. Known as the "River Defense Fleet", it was split in two when the Confederate holdings on the river became threatened from both the north and the Gulf of Mexico. Six were retained below New Orleans to face the fleet of David G. Farragut, while eight were sent up to Memphis to block the Union descent down the river. Sending them this far north did not violate their original purpose, as Memphis was regarded as a shield for New Orleans. The northern (Memphis) section was commanded overall by James E. Montgomery, a riverboat captain in civilian life. The other boats were also commanded by former civilian riverboat captains, selected by Montgomery, and with no military training. Once under way, Montgomery's command ceased, and the rams operated independently. The futility of this arrangement was recognized immediately by military men, but their protests were disregarded. Furthermore, the captains would neither learn how to handle the guns themselves, nor assign crew members to the task, so gun crews had to be drawn from the Confederate Army. The gunners were not integrated into the crews, but remained subject to the orders of their army officers.

Cottonclad River Defense Fleet

• 
  {Ex CSS} USS General Bragg probably photographed at Cairo or Mound City, Illinois, circa 1862–63.
• 
  {Ex CSS} USS General Price off Baton Rouge, LA, January 18, 1864
  

Battle

Harper Weekly version of the Battle of Memphis


The Total Annihilation of the Rebel Fleet by the Federal Fleet under Commodore Davis. On the Morning of June 6, 1862, off Memphis, Tenn. CSS General Beauregard (center foreground) is being rammed by the federal ram Monarch. At left are the disabled federal ram Queen of the West and the Confederate ships General Sterling Price and Little Rebel.

As a result of the federal victory at Corinth, the railroads that linked Memphis with the eastern part of the Confederacy had been cut, severely reducing the strategic importance of the city. Therefore, in early June 1862, Memphis and its nearby forts were abandoned by the rebel army. Most of the garrison were sent to join units elsewhere, including Vicksburg and only a small rear guard was left to make a token resistance. The River Defense Fleet was also to have retreated to Vicksburg, but it could not get enough coal in Memphis. Unable to flee when the federal fleet appeared on June 6, Montgomery and his captains had to decide whether to fight, or scuttle their boats. They chose to fight, steaming out in the early morning to meet the advancing flotilla and the rams trailing behind it, with Memphis citizens cheering them on.

The battle started with an exchange of gunfire at long range, the federal gunboats setting up a line of battle across the river and firing their rear guns at the cottonclads coming up to meet them as they entered the battle stern first. Two of the four rams advanced beyond the line of the gunboats and rammed or otherwise disrupted the movements of their opponents; the other rams misinterpreted their orders and did not enter the battle at all. With the federal rams and gunboats not coordinating their movements and the Confederate vessels operating independently, the battle soon was reduced to a melee. It is agreed by all that the ram flagship, Queen of the West, initiated hostilities by slamming into CSS Colonel Lovell. She was then rammed in turn by one or more of the remaining cottonclads. Ellet was at this time wounded by a pistol shot in his knee, thereby becoming the only casualty on the Union side. (In the hospital, he contracted measles, the childhood disease that killed some 5,000 soldiers during the war. The combination of the disease and the debilitation caused by his wound was too great, and he died on June 21.) The remainder of the battle is obscured by more than the fog of war. Several eyewitness accounts are available; however, they are mutually contradictory to a greater degree than usual. All that is certain is that at the end of the battle, all but one of the cottonclads were either destroyed or captured, and one Yankee boat, Queen of the West, was disabled. The sole boat to escape, CSS General Earl Van Dorn, fled to the protection of the Yazoo River, just north of Vicksburg. Personnel losses among the Confederates cannot be estimated reliably.

Results
The battle, which took less than two hours in the early morning hours of June 6, resulted in the immediate surrender of the city of Memphis to federal authority by noon that day.

The battle of Memphis was, aside from the later appearance of the ironclad CSS Arkansas, the final challenge to the federal thrust down the Mississippi River against Vicksburg. The river was now open down to that city, which was already besieged by Farragut's ships, but the federal army authorities did not grasp the strategic importance of the fact for nearly another six months. Not until November 1862 would the Union Army under Ulysses S. Grant attempt to complete the opening of the river.

The poor performance of the River Defense Fleet, both at Memphis and at the earlier Battle of New Orleans, was the final demonstration that naval operations had to be commanded by trained professionals subject to military discipline. The Ellet Rams remained in federal service, but they had no other opportunity for combat of the sort for which they were intended. They were soon transformed into an amphibious raiding body, the Mississippi Marine Brigade (with no connection to the United States Marine Corps), led by Ellet's brother, Lieutenant Colonel (later Brigadier General) Alfred W. Ellet. The demand for increased professionalism also resulted in the elimination of privateering, although the River Defense Fleet was not composed of privateers in the usual meaning of the term.

The battle remains a cautionary tale, demonstrating the ill effects of a poor command structure. It is also one of only two purely naval battles of the war,[citation needed] excluding single-ship actions, and took place 500 mi (800 km) from the nearest open water. The other was the Battle of Plum Point Bend, also on the Mississippi.

Another civil war military engagement took place in Memphis, namely the Second Battle of Memphis in April 1864, when Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest led a nighttime cavalry raid on his hometown of Memphis with the intent of freeing Confederate prisoners and capturing Union generals encamped there. The raid failed in both goals, but forced the Union Army to guard the area more diligently.

First Battle of Memphis - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1862 - The First Battle of Memphis - The Ships


CSS Mexico

USS General Bragg (1851) was a heavy (1,043-ton) steamer captured by Union Navy forces during the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a U.S. Navy gunboat and was assigned to enforce the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.
Originally the 1043-ton side-wheel river steamer, built 1851 at NY, owned by Southern Steamship Co. . Pressed into service by the Confederacy at New Orleans 15 January 1862. She ran aground during the Battle of Memphis, captured, renamed USS General Bragg.


USS General Bragg probably photographed at Cairo or Mound City, Illinois, circa 1862-63.

USS General Bragg - Wikipedia

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CSS Victoria

USS Abraham (1858) — formerly CSS Victoria — was a side-wheel steamer captured by the Union Navy from the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.
Abraham — a capacious ship of 800 long tons (810 t) — served primarily as a storeship, conveying supplies to Union vessels in the battle area and at times, during such missions, getting struck by enemy shell.
A side-wheel steamer acquired by the Confederate Government for service as a troop transport on the waters of the Mississippi River. Captured by Union forces at Battle of Memphis and renamed USS Abraham

USS Abraham - Wikipedia

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CSS General Sumter

USS Sumter was a 525-ton sidewheel paddle steamer captured by the Union Navy during the Union blockade of the American Civil War.
Sumter originally was the Confederate cottonclad ram CSS General Sumter. She was placed into Confederate service and then United States Navy service, each for a short period of time, before she ran aground and was destroyed.

A side wheel steamer, Capt. W. W. Lamb. Built as Junius Beebe, in 1853 at Algiers, Louisiana. Captured during the Battle of Memphis by Union forces, renamed USS Sumter.

USS Sumter (1862) - Wikipedia

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CSS Little Rebel

Little Rebel was a cotton-clad ram that had been converted from a Mississippi River steamer to serve as the flagship of the Confederate River Defense Fleet in the American Civil War. Sent from New Orleans to defend against the Federal descent of the Mississippi, she was among the force that engaged vessels of the Union Army's Western Gunboat Flotilla at the Battle of Plum Point Bend on May 10, 1862. On June 6, she again was involved in an action with the Federal gunboats, this time at the Battle of Memphis. In the battle, a shot from a Federal gun pierced her boiler, disabling her, and she was then pushed aground by the Federal ram USS Monarch and captured.

Subsequently repaired and taken into the Union Navy, she served through the remainder of the war, seeing only limited action. After the war, she was deemed surplus by the Navy Department. Sold, she reentered the merchant service, where she remained until 1874.


Battle of Memphis; Little Rebel is third vessel from the left.

USS Little Rebel - Wikipedia

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CSS General Sterling Price

Laurent Millaudon was a wooden side-wheel river steamboat launched at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1856 operating in the New Orleans, Louisiana area, and captained by W.S. Whann. At the beginning of the American Civil War she was taken into service by the Confederate Navy as CSS General Sterling Price. On 6 June 1862, she was sunk at the Battle of Memphis. She was raised and repaired by the Union army, and on 16 June 1862 was moved into Union service as USS General Price and served until the end of the war. (Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships 1968 p525)


CSS General Sterling Price

Laurent Millaudon (steamboat) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1879 – Launch of Lady Elizabeth, an iron barque of 1,155 tons built by Robert Thompson Jr. of Southwick, Sunderland


Lady Elizabeth was an iron barque of 1,155 tons built by Robert Thompson Jr. of Southwick, Sunderland and launched on 4 June 1879. Robert Thompson Jr. was one of the sons of Robert Thompson Sr. who owned and operated the family ran shipyard J. L. Thompson & Sons. Thompson Jr. eventually left the family business in 1854 to start his own shipbuilding business in Southwick, Sunderland. The ship was built for John Wilson as a replacement for the 658-ton, 1869-built barque Lady Elizabeth which sank off Rottnest Island, Western Australia in 1878.



History
The builders of the second Lady Elizabeth had also built the first ship. The ship had three masts and was just under average size compared to barques built by Robert Thompson. However, the later Lady Elizabeth was still the seventh largest ship the firm built. John Wilson remained owner of Lady Elizabeth and was captained by Alexander Findley from Montrose until 15 March 1884 when he took out a number of loans from G. Oliver and also with the bank. Eventually John Wilson declared bankruptcy and all of his ships, including Lady Elizabeth were sold off.

The new owner was George Christian Karran who purchased the ship a few months later. Karrans' family owned a number of ships but this was George Christian Karrans' first ship. George Christian Karran also captained the ship for a few years. After owning the ship for a few years, George's elder brother Robert Gick Karran died leading George to take command of Manx King. However, he remained owner of Lady Elizabeth until 1906. In 1906 Lady Elizabeth was purchased by the Norwegian company Skibasaktieselskabet for £3,250. The company was managed by L. Lydersen and Lady Elizabeth was captained by Peter Julius Hoegh.

Events

• On 23 February 1884, Lady Elizabeth suffered substantial damage from a hurricane. She sustained damage to the front of the poop deck after it was stoved in. Many of her sails were lost or severely damaged. Despite the damage, the ship was able to make it to port in Sydney, Australia where six crew members jumped ship. Another death occurred on the voyage when William Leach fell from aloft and later died from his injuries. This was the third voyage under the command of Captain Karran.
• On 10 May 1890, Captain George Christian Karran stepped down as captain after six voyages and Captain H. C. Lever took command as the new captain of Lady Elizabeth.
• In January 1906, Lady Elizabeth was sold to the Norwegian company Skibasaktieselskabet of Sundet, Boroen.

Mystery of lost sailors
During Captain Julius Hoegh’s command of the ship, two crew members went missing after suffering from malarial fever. Lady Elizabeth left Callao, Peru with a crew that included several Finns on 26 September (year unknown, but between 1906 and 1913). Just after leaving port, one of the Finns, a man named Granquiss, became ill. Captain Hoegh diagnosed his condition as malarial fever.

A few days later, another Finnish crewman, Haparanta by name, also became ill with malarial fever. A third crew member also complained of feeling ill, but not as severely. The captain prescribed some remedies to help the sick crew members, and they were allowed to walk the deck to get fresh air. A short time later, Granquiss went missing and the crew were unable to locate him on the ship.

Captain Hoegh came to the conclusion that the sick crew member must have deliberately jumped from the ship, taking his own life, as the fine weather that day made an accidental fall overboard unlikely. Around 7:00 pm, Captain Hoegh discovered the other sick Finnish crewmember was also missing. A search turned up no evidence of him. It was concluded that the malaria had caused both men to become delirious and jump overboard, and Captain Hoegh ordered the crew to keep close watch on the man with the less severe fever.

Lady Elizabeth eventually arrived at Newcastle New South Wales and filed a report with authorities. A consul from Norway named H. C. Langwill held an official inquiry.

Final years

An ad placed in October 1900 for Lady Elizabeth.

On 4 December 1912, Lady Elizabeth left Vancouver bound for Delagoa Bay Mozambique, with a shipment of lumber. The ship encountered severe weather halfway through the voyage and was damaged just off Cape Horn. Four crew members were lost overboard, along with the ship's two boats and part of her deck cargo. She also sustained damage to the deck fittings, wheel, moorings, and other parts of the ship. Captain Hoigh ordered the ship to the nearest port for repairs. Lady Elizabeth altered course for Stanley, Falkland Islands. 15 miles (24 km) outside Port Stanley, Lady Elizabeth struck Uraine Rock just off Volunteer Point and suffered a 6-foot (1.8 m) break in the hull and keel along with a 1-foot (30 cm) hole. The ship began to sink but was able to get to Port Stanley for repairs. After she was examined, Lady Elizabeth was condemned (declared unseaworthy) because of the damage.

In June 1913, she was condemned and converted into a coal hulk. She was sold to the Crown Receiver of Wrecks, Falkland Islands for £1,000. Lady Elizabeth remained stationed there until 17 February 1936 when her mooring lines broke during a storm and she drifted to where she now lies in Whale Bone Cove in Stanley Harbour.

Current status

Lady Elizabeth in 2012.




Lady Elizabeth can be seen on the left in this 2007 photo of the harbor.

Lady Elizabeth is still intact and partially beached in Whale Bone Cove. The ship has been reported to rock back and forth during high tides from the pounding waves. Many of the ship's accessories are still attached to Lady Elizabeth including the main crank for the anchor, the davits that would hold the two lifeboats, part of the crow's nest, part of the spiral staircase, and most of her wooden decking. However, most of the ship is suffering severe rust and the keel has started to rust away leaving large holes. During high tide, the bottom of the ship is flooded. There are still sections of paint on the inside of the ship. Some of the iron rivets have rusted away causing the starboard bulkhead to spring out.
In June 1984, the owner assessed the damage of Lady Elizabeth. Using original reports from the assessment made on the damage in 1913, they found the foot-long hole in the keel and reported that this was indeed the reason the ship would not stay afloat. However, if Lady Elizabeth was towed for repairs in drydock, she could possibly sail again. Unfortunately, there was no dry dock in Port Stanley in 1984.

Since coming to rest in Whale Bone Cove, the poop deck quarters have been removed of all wood and vandalized. The rudder of the ship is still intact but showing severe corrosion and is turned to port with the steering gears still intact but also corroded. The ship's wheel is missing. The original anchor has not been located; however, it is believed to be buried where Lady Elizabeth was used as a coal hulk. Plans were made by the Crown Receiver of Wrecksto salvage Lady Elizabeth and convert her into a floating museum. Due to lack of funding, however, the project was never completed.

In the winter of 2008, the ship’s bowsprit broke during a storm. The Falkland Islands Museum & National Trust has discussed removing the bowsprit.

Lady Elizabeth (1879) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1891 – Launch of Sicilia, the second of three Re Umberto-class ironclad battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy).


Sicilia was the second of three Re Umberto-class ironclad battleships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). The ship, named for the island of Sicily, was laid down in Venice in November 1884, launched in July 1891, and completed in May 1895. She was armed with a main battery of four 13.5-inch (340 mm) guns and had a top speed of 20.3 knots (37.6 km/h; 23.4 mph), though this high speed came at the cost of armor protection.



Sicilia spent the first decade of her career in the Active Squadron of the Italian fleet. Thereafter, she was transferred to the Reserve Squadron, and by 1911, she was part of the Training Division. She took part in the Italo-Turkish War of 1911–1212, where she escorted convoys to North Africa and supported Italian forces ashore by bombarding Ottoman troops. She was thereafter used as a depot ship for the new dreadnought battleship Giulio Cesare. During World War I, she continued in service as a depot ship, and later in the war she was converted into a repair ship. Sicilia was stricken in 1923 and subsequently broken up for scrap.


Design
Main article: Re Umberto-class ironclad

Line-drawing of the Re Umberto class

Sicilia was 127.6 meters (419 ft) long overall; she had a beam of 23.44 m (76.9 ft) and an average draft of 8.83 m (29.0 ft). She displaced 13,058 long tons (13,268 t) normally and up to 14,842 long tons (15,080 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical compound steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by eighteen coal-fired, cylindrical fire-tube boilers. Her engines produced a top speed of 20.1 knots (37.2 km/h; 23.1 mph) at 19,131 indicated horsepower (14,266 kW). Specific figures for her cruising radius have not survived, but the ships of her class could steam for 4,000 to 6,000 nautical miles (7,400 to 11,100 km; 4,600 to 6,900 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 736 officers and men.

Sicilia was armed with a main battery of four 13.5-inch (343 mm) 30-caliber guns, mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one on either end of the ship. She carried a secondary battery of eight 6-inch (152 mm) 40-cal. guns placed singly in shielded mounts atop the upper deck, with four on each broadside. Close-range defense against torpedo boats was provided by a battery of sixteen 4.7 in (119 mm) guns in casemates in the upper deck, eight on each broadside. These were supported by twenty 57-millimeter (2.2 in) 43-cal. guns and ten 37 mm (1.5 in) guns. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she carried five 17.7 in (450 mm) torpedo tubes in above-water launchers. The ship was lightly armored for her size. She was protected by belt armor that was 4 in (102 mm) thick, an armored deck that was 3 in (76 mm) thick, and her conning tower was armored with 11.8 in (300 mm) of steel plate. The turrets had 4 in thick faces and the supporting barbettes had 13.75 in (349 mm) thick steel.




The Re Umberto class were a group of three ironclad battleships built for the Italian Navy in the 1880s and 1890s. The ships—Re Umberto, Sicilia, and Sardegna—were built as the culmination of a major naval expansion program begun in the 1870s following Italy's defeat at the Battle of Lissa in 1866. The Re Umbertos incorporated several innovations over previous Italian designs, including a more efficient arrangement of the main battery, installation of wireless telegraphs, and in Sardegna, the first use of triple-expansion steam engines in an Italian capital ship. Designed by Benedetto Brin, they retained the very thin armor protection and high top speeds of his earlier designs.

All three ships served in the Active Squadron for the first decade of their careers, which proved to be uneventful. They were transferred to the Reserve Squadron in 1905, and by the outbreak of the Italo-Turkish War in 1911, they were serving as training ships. They provided fire support to Italian troops fighting in Libya during the conflict and took part in the seizure of several Ottoman ports, including Tripoli. During World War I, Sardegna was used as a guard ship in Venice, while Re Umberto served as a floating battery in Brindisi and Sicilia was reduced to a depot ship. All three ships survived the war and were broken up for scrap in the early 1920s.

Italian ironclad Sicilia - Wikipedia

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Re Umberto-class ironclad - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1903 – Launch of SMS Eber, the last of the six gunboats of the Iltis class of the German Imperial Navy prior to and during World War I.


SMS Eber was the last of the six gunboats of the Iltis class of the German Imperial Navy prior to and during World War I. Other ships of the class are SMS Iltis, SMS Luchs, SMS Tiger, SMS Jaguar and SMS Panther. They were built between 1898 and 1903. All of them served primarily overseas, in the German colonies. Eber had a crew of 9 officers and 121 men.


Eber's sistership Jaguar

Design
Main article: Iltis-class gunboat
Eber was 66.9 meters (219 ft) long overall and had a beam of 9.7 m (32 ft) and a draft of 3.54 m (11.6 ft) forward. She displaced 1,193 metric tons (1,174 long tons; 1,315 short tons) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by four coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. Eber could steam at a top speed of 14.3 knots (26.5 km/h; 16.5 mph) at 1,314 indicated horsepower (980 kW). The ship had a cruising radius of about 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 km; 3,900 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph).[1] She had a crew of between 9 officers and 121 enlisted men. Eber was armed with a main battery of two 10.5 cm (4.1 in) SK L/40 guns, with 482 rounds of ammunition. She also carried six machine guns.

Service history
The keel for Eber was laid down at the AG Vulcan in Stettin in 1902, much later than her five sister ships. She was launched on 6 June 1902 and commissioned into the German fleet on 15 September that year.

Eber was posted in West African waters prior to World War I. During a port visit to Cape Town Eber received news of impending war with Great Britain, and immediately sailed to avoid capture. She arrived in German South-West Africa on August 1, 1914, three days prior to the formal declaration of war. After taking on coal at Lüderitz, the gunboat departed for South American waters, to assume wartime duties. She met up with the German passenger liner Cap Trafalgar off the Brazilian island of Trindade and transferred her guns, most of her ammunitions and some of her crew to the liner, which was then expected to operate as a commerce raider. Eber herself was interned in Brazil and scuttled by her crew on 16 October 1917 in Salvador, Bahia when Brazil joined the war against Germany.


Luchs c. 1900

Other ships of the class are SMS Iltis, SMS Luchs, SMS Tiger, SMS Jaguar and SMS Panther.

SMS Eber - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1914 – Launch of The Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (Russian: Императрица Екатерина Великая, or Empress Catherine the Great), the second ship of the Imperatritsa Mariya-class dreadnoughts of the Imperial Russian Navy.


The Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya (Russian: Императрица Екатерина Великая, or Empress Catherine the Great) was the second ship of the Imperatritsa Mariya-class dreadnoughts of the Imperial Russian Navy. She was begun before World War I, completed in 1915 and saw service with the Black Sea Fleet. She engaged the ex-German battlecruiser Yavuz once, but only inflicted splinter damage while taking no damage herself. She was renamed Svobodnaya Rossiya (Russian: Свободная Россия, Free Russia) after the February Revolution, but saw no further combat. She was evacuated from Sevastopol as the Germans approached in May 1918, but was scuttled in Novorossiysk harbor the following month when the Germans demanded that the Soviets hand her over according to the terms of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.



Description
Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was slightly larger than her half-sisters. She was 167.8 meters (550 ft 6 in) long at the waterline and had a beam of 28.07 meters (92 ft 1 in); 4 feet 10 inches (1.47 m) longer and 2 feet (0.6 m) wider than her half sisters. Her exact draft is not known, but she had a draft of 8.7 meters (28 ft 7 in) on trials. Her displacement was 24,644 long tons (25,039 t) at load, over 900 long tons (910 t) more than her designed displacement of 23,783 long tons (24,165 t). The first ship of the class, Imperatritsa Mariya, had proved to be very bow heavy in service and tended to ship large amounts of water through her forward casemates. The ammunition for Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya's forward 12-inch guns was reduced from 100 to 70 rounds each while the forward 130 mm ammunition was reduced from 245 to 100 rounds per gun in an attempt to compensate for her trim. This sufficed as Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya's longer length meant that she was less affected by the trim problem to begin with.

Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was fitted with four Parsons-type steam turbines built by the Associated Factories and Shipyards of Nikolayev (ONZiV) with technical assistance from Vickers Limited. They were designed for a total of 27,000 shaft horsepower (20,000 kW), but produced 33,000 shp (25,000 kW) on trials. 20 mixed-firing triangular Yarrow water-tube boilers powered the turbines with a working pressure of 17.5 atm(257 psi). Her designed speed was 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). Her maximum coal capacity was 2,000 long tons (2,032 t) plus 630 long tons (640 t) of fuel oil which gave her a range of 1,680 nautical miles (3,110 km; 1,930 mi) at full speed and 3,000 nautical miles (5,600 km; 3,500 mi) at economical speed. All of her electrical power was generated by three main Curtis 360-kilowatt turbo generators and two 200-kilowatt auxiliary units.

Her main armament consisted of twelve 52-caliber Obukhovskii 12-inch Pattern 1907 guns mounted in four triple turrets distributed over the length of the ship. Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 130-millimeter (5.1 in) B7 Pattern 1913 55-caliber guns mounted in casemates. They were arranged in two groups, six guns per side from the forward turret to the rear funnel and the remaining four clustered around the rear turret. She was fitted with three 75-millimeter (3.0 in) anti-aircraft guns, one mounted on the roof of the fore turret and two side by side on the aft turret. Four 17.7-inch (450 mm) submerged torpedo tubes were mounted, two tubes on each broadside abaft the forward magazine.

Service

Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya drydocked

Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya was built by the ONZiV Shipyard at Nikolayev. She was laid down on 30 October 1911 as Ekaterina II, but this was just a ceremonial event as the design had not yet been finalized or the contract signed. ONZiV decided, on advice from Vickers, to increase her dimensions over those of her sisters to prevent her from being overweight. This added over two million gold rubles to her cost and delayed the start of her construction three months past her sisters. She suffered from a number of other delays during construction. First the method of fastening the armor to its supports was changed and the armor plates were locked together by a type of mortise and tenon joint to better distribute the shock of an impact. This was based on the full-scale armor trials conducted using the hulk of the old pre-dreadnought battleship Chesma in 1913 and added almost 500 long tons (508 t) of weight to the ship. She was launched on 6 June 1914, renamed on 27 June 1915, and completed on 18 October 1915. She ran her trials during the remainder of the year.

She was nearly sunk by the Russian destroyer Bystry on 5 January 1916 when the destroyer fired seven torpedoes at her in a case of mistaken identity; luckily they all missed. Three days later she encountered the Ottoman battlecruiser Yavuz at long range. The ships opened fire at about 22,000 yards (20,000 m) and Yavuz only got off five salvoes before she disengaged from the slower Russian dreadnought without damaging her. Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya fired 96 shells from her longer-ranged guns, but inflicted only splinter damage on Yavuz before she pulled out of range. Six months later both Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya and her half-sister Imperatritsa Mariya, alerted by intercepted radio transmissions, sortied from Sevastopol in an attempt to intercept Yavuz as she returned from a bombardment of the Russian port of Tuapse on 4 July. Yavuz dodged north and avoided the Russians by paralleling the Bulgarian coastline back to the Bosphorus.

After the February Revolution she was renamed Svobodnaya Rossiya (Свободная Россия, "Free Russia") on 29 April 1917. She sailed from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk on 30 April 1918 as German troops approached the city. The ship was scuttled on 19 June 1918 by four torpedoes fired by the destroyer Kerch in Novorossiysk harbor to prevent her from being turned over to the Germans as required by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The fourth torpedo caused a massive explosion and she capsized and sank in four minutes. No attempt was made to salvage her during the 1920s, but the 12-inch shells were salvaged from her wreck. Explosive charges were used to gain access to her magazines until one day in 1930 when a charge set off a torpedo warhead, which caused a nearby powder magazine to explode, throwing a column of water 100–120 meters (110–130 yd) into the air. No one was injured, but salvage work of this type ceased, although parts of her engines and boilers were later salvaged.

Russian battleship Imperatritsa Ekaterina Velikaya - Wikipedia

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Imperatritsa Mariya-class battleship - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 June 1944 - Allied forces land troops on Normandy beaches for the largest amphibious landing in history, Operation Overlord (D-Day), beginning the march eastward to defeat Germany.


The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history. The operation began the liberation of German-occupied France (and later western Europe) from Nazi control, and laid the foundations of the Allied victory on the Western Front.


Men of the 16th Infantry Regiment, US 1st Infantry Division wading ashore on Omaha Beach on the morning of 6 June 1944

Planning for the operation began in 1943. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, codenamed Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. The weather on D-Day was far from ideal, and the operation had to be delayed 24 hours; a further postponement would have meant a delay of at least two weeks, as the invasion planners had requirements for the phase of the moon, the tides, and the time of day that meant only a few days each month were deemed suitable. Adolf Hitler placed German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in command of German forces and of developing fortifications along the Atlantic Wall in anticipation of an Allied invasion.



The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 US, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. The target 50-mile (80 km) stretch of the Normandy coast was divided into five sectors: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. Strong winds blew the landing craft east of their intended positions, particularly at Utah and Omaha. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. Casualties were heaviest at Omaha, with its high cliffs. At Gold, Juno, and Sword, several fortified towns were cleared in house-to-house fighting, and two major gun emplacements at Gold were disabled using specialised tanks.



The Allies failed to achieve any of their goals on the first day. Carentan, St. Lô, and Bayeux remained in German hands, and Caen, a major objective, was not captured until 21 July. Only two of the beaches (Juno and Gold) were linked on the first day, and all five beachheads were not connected until 12 June; however, the operation gained a foothold that the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day have been estimated at 4,000 to 9,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. Museums, memorials, and war cemeteries in the area now host many visitors each year.




Aftermath

Situation map for 24:00, 6 June 1944

The Normandy landings were the largest seaborne invasion in history, with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft, 289 escort vessels, and 277 minesweepers participating. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on D-Day, with 875,000 men disembarking by the end of June. Allied casualties on the first day were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead. The Germans lost 1,000 men. The Allied invasion plans had called for the capture of Carentan, St. Lô, Caen, and Bayeux on the first day, with all the beaches (other than Utah) linked with a front line 10 to 16 kilometres (6 to 10 mi) from the beaches; none of these objectives were achieved. The five beachheads were not connected until 12 June, by which time the Allies held a front around 97 kilometres (60 mi) long and 24 kilometres (15 mi) deep. Caen, a major objective, was still in German hands at the end of D-Day and would not be completely captured until 21 July. The Germans had ordered French civilians other than those deemed essential to the war effort to leave potential combat zones in Normandy. Civilian casualties on D-Day and D+1 are estimated at 3,000.

The Allied victory in Normandy stemmed from several factors. German preparations along the Atlantic Wall were only partially finished; shortly before D-Day Rommel reported that construction was only 18 per cent complete in some areas as resources were diverted elsewhere. The deceptions undertaken in Operation Fortitude were successful, leaving the Germans obliged to defend a huge stretch of coastline. The Allies achieved and maintained air supremacy, which meant that the Germans were unable to make observations of the preparations underway in Britain and were unable to interfere via bomber attacks. Infrastructure for transport in France was severely disrupted by Allied bombers and the French Resistance, making it difficult for the Germans to bring up reinforcements and supplies. Some of the opening bombardment was off-target or not concentrated enough to have any impact, but the specialised armour worked well except on Omaha, providing close artillery support for the troops as they disembarked onto the beaches. Indecisiveness and an overly complicated command structure on the part of the German high command were also factors in the Allied success

Normandy landings - Wikipedia

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


1746 – Launch of french Martre, (24-gun design of 1745 by René-Nicolas Levasseur, with 20 x 6-pounders and 4 x 4-pounders; launched 6 June 1746) - deleted and hulked at Rochefort 1753, last mentioned 1757.


1758 – Begin of The Siege of Louisbourg, 6th June 1758 - 27th July 1758

The Siege of Louisbourg, 6th June 1758 - 27th July 1758

Description and participants : The Siege of Louisbourg, 6th June 1758 - 27th July 1758

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1758 Begin of the Raid on St. Malo.

The Raid on St Malo took place in June 1758 when an amphibious British naval expedition landed close to the French port of St Malo in Brittany. While the town itself was not attacked, as had been initially planned, the British destroyed large amounts of shipping before re-embarking a week later. The naval forces were under the command of Richard Howe while the army was led by the Duke of Marlborough and Lord Sackville.

Raid on St Malo - Wikipedia

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1762 Death of George Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson

Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, PC, FRS (23 April 1697 – 6 June 1762) was a Royal Navy officer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Battle of Cape Passaro during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. He then undertook a circumnavigation of the globe during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Anson commanded the fleet that defeated the French Admiral de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre during the War of the Austrian Succession.

Anson went on to be First Lord of the Admiralty during the Seven Years' War. Among his reforms were the removal of corrupt defence contractors, improved medical care, submitting a revision of the Articles of War to Parliament to tighten discipline throughout the Navy, uniforms for commissioned officers, the transfer of the Marines from Army to Navy authority, and a system for rating ships according to their number of guns.

George Anson, 1st Baron Anson - Wikipedia

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1762 – Begin of Manilla operations, 6th June 1762 - 14th August 1762

Manilla operations, 6th June 1762 - 14th August 1762

Description and participants : Manilla operations, 6th June 1762 - 14th August 1762

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1781 – Launch of French La Brave was a 74-gun Argonaute class ship of the line of the French Navy.

The Brave was a 74-gun Argonaute class ship of the line of the French Navy.
Commissioned in 1781, she was put in the reserve in 1788, but reactivated in March 1791. Two years later, she was decommissioned again, and razeed to a 52-gun frigate. She took part in the Biscay campaign of June 1795 under Captain Antoine René Thévenard.
She later served under Captain Rolland, and was used as a hulk in Toulon from 1798.

Argonaute class (1781) – Designed by François-Guillaume Clairin-Deslauriers.
Argonaute 74 (launched 5 June 1781 at Rochefort) – cut down (razéed) to a 42-gun ship 1794 and renamed Flibustier, out of service 1795
Brave 74 (launched 6 June 1781 at Rochefort) – hulked in 1798, not mentioned after 1803

French ship Brave (1781) - Wikipedia

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Argonaute-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

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1781 – HMS Ulysses (1779 - 44) versus Le Surveillante (1778 - 32)

HMS Ulysses was a 48-gun Roebuck-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy during the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. Commissioned in 1779, her principal active service was in the Caribbean, interspersed with periods as a troopship and storeship. She was decommissioned and sold at Sheerness Dockyard in 1815.

Surveillante was an Iphigénie-class 32-gun frigate of the French Navy. She took part in the Naval operations in the American Revolutionary War, where she became famous for her battle with HMS Quebec; in 1783, she brought the news that the war was over to America. She later took part in the French Revolutionary Wars, and was eventually scuttled during the Expédition d'Irlande after sustaining severe damage in a storm. The wreck was found in 1979 and is now a memorial.


Battle between the French frigate Surveillante and the British frigate Quebec, 6 October 1779. Auguste-Louis Rossel de Cercy

Ulysses vs Surveillante, 6th June 1781

Description and participants : Ulysses vs Surveillante, 6th June 1781

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HMS Ulysses (1779) - Wikipedia

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French frigate Surveillante (1778) - Wikipedia

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1793 - Vanneau was a lugger aviso or cutter of the French Royal Navy, launched in 1782. The British captured her in 1793 and brought her into the Royal Navy.

Vanneau (1782 ship) - Wikipedia

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1799 – Launch of USS Connecticut, a sailing frigate built by Seth Overton at Chatham, Conn. at Middletown, Conn.

The Connecticut was a sailing frigate built by Seth Overton at Chatham, Conn. and launched 6 June 1799 at Middletown, Conn. She sailed 15 Oct. 1799 under the command of Captain M. Tryon for the Guadaloupe Station, and cruised in the West Indies for a year during the Quasi-War with France, protecting American commerce from French privateers. Connecticut's successful career was highlighted by the capture of four privateers and the recapture of seven American merchantmen. Arriving at New London, Conn., 18 Oct. 1800, Connecticut was sold at New York in 1801.
The mensurations are designed by the plan of the Departement of the Navy.

USS Connecticut (1799) - Wikipedia

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1800 – End of Operation in Quiberon Bay, 1st June 1800 - 6th June 1800

Operation in Quiberon Bay, 1st June 1800 - 6th June 1800

Description and participants : Operation in Quiberon Bay, 1st June 1800 - 6th June 1800

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1800 HMS Impetueux (74), Cptn. Sir Edward Pellew, and consorts took two brigs, two sloops, two gun vessels and about 100 prisoners and destroyed the batteries ashore at Morbihan.

Impétueux was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
She took part in the Glorious First of June in 1794. During the battle, HMS Marlborough became tangled with Impétueux. Badly damaged and on the verge of surrender, Impétueux received a brief reprieve when Mucius appeared through the smoke and collided with both ships. The three entangled ships continued exchanging fire, all suffering heavy casualties with Marlborough and Impétueux losing all three of their masts. This combat continued for several hours. Captain Berkeley of Marlborough had to retire below with serious wounds, and command fell to Lieutenant John Monkton, who signalled for help from the frigates in reserve. Robert Stopford responded in HMS Aquilon, which had the assignment of repeating signals, and towed Marlborough out of the line as Mucius freed herself and made for the regrouped French fleet to the north. Impétueux was in too damaged a state to move at all and sailors from HMS Russell soon seized her.
The Royal Navy intended to take into service as HMS Impetueux, but she was destroyed in an accidental fire at Portsmouth on 24 August 1794 and so was never commissioned. During the battle of The Glorious First of June, the Royal Navy had also captured her sister ship America, which it renamed HMS Impetueux in 1795.

French ship Impétueux (1787) - Wikipedia

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1806 A British prize schooner of HMS Port D'Espagne, Lt. James Pattison Stewart, captured Spanish privateer Mercedes

On 6 June, 25 men from Port d'Espagne, under the command of Lieutenant Hall, succeeded in capturing the Spanish privateer schooner Mercedes in the Gulf of Paria. Mercedes was armed with two guns and two swivel guns, and had a crew of 30 men. Hall used a captured Spanish schooner disguised as a neutral vessel to get close to the Mercedes. The British came alongside, under fire, and captured the Mercedes after a brief fight. British casualties were two men wounded; Spanish casualties were two killed, one drowned, and three wounded.

HMS Port d'Espagne (1806) - Wikipedia

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1807 – Launch of HDMS Allart, a brig launched at Copenhagen in June 1807, was amongst the ships taken by the British after the second Battle of Copenhagen.

HDMS Allart, a brig launched at Copenhagen in June 1807, was amongst the ships taken by the British after the second Battle of Copenhagen. In British service, she was recaptured by Danish-Norwegian gunboats after venturing too close inshore. Her subsequent service was in the Dano-Norwegian Navy's Norwegian Brig Division, which harried enemy frigates and convoys in Norwegian waters. On the separation of Denmark from Norway in 1814, Allart transferred to the Norwegian navy, who sold her in 1825.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer line with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Allart (captured 1807), a captured Danish brig after fitting as an 18-gun brig sloop. The top right of the plan is missing removing the evidence of what the figurehead represented. Signed by Edward Hillyer [Hellyer?], [not Master Shipwright at Chatham as this was Robert Seppings]

HDMS Allart (1807) - Wikipedia

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Collections - National Maritime Museum

1827 HMS Cynthia Packet-Brig (6) wrecked off the Island of Barbados.

HMS Cynthia (1826) was a 6-gun packet brig purchased in 1826 and wrecked off Barbados on 6 June 1827.


1850 - The brig USS Perry, commanded by Lt. Andrew H. Foote, captures American slaver Martha off Ambriz (near the city of Luanda), Angola, Africa.

USS Perry (1843) was a brig commissioned by the United States Navy prior to the American Civil War. She was tasked by the Navy for various missions, including those related to diplomatic tensions with Paraguay, the Mexican-American War, the slave trade, and the American Civil War. She was probably named after Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry.
Perry was launched in May 1843 by the Norfolk Navy Yard; and commissioned 13 October 1843, Comdr. Samuel F. Du Pont in command.


Brig USS Perry (left) confronting American slave ship Martha off Ambriz, June 6, 1850.

USS Perry (1843) - Wikipedia

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1868 – Birth of 1868 – Robert Falcon Scott, English sailor and explorer (d. 1912)

Robert Falcon Scott - Wikipedia

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1901 – Launch of SMS Wettin ("His Majesty's Ship Wettin")[a] was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy)

SMS Wettin ("His Majesty's Ship Wettin")[a] was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Danzig. Wettin was laid down in October 1899, and was completed October 1902. She and her sister ships—Wittelsbach, Zähringen, Schwaben and Mecklenburg—were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. Wettin was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

Wettin saw service in I Squadron of the German fleet for most of her career, along with her sister ships. She was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. The training exercises provided the framework for the High Seas Fleet's operations during World War I. The ship was decommissioned in June 1911 as dreadnought battleships began to enter service but was reactivated for duty as a gunnery training ship between December 1911 and mid-1914.

After the start of World War I in August 1914, the Wittelsbach-class ships were mobilized and designated IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea, but the ship played a minor role in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, though Wettin saw no combat with Russian forces. By late 1915, crew shortages and the threat from British submarines forced the Kaiserliche Marine to withdraw older battleships like Wettin from active service. For the remainder of the war, Wettin served as a training ship for naval cadets and as a depot ship. The ship was stricken from the navy list after the war and sold for scrapping in 1921. Her bell is on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in Dresden.

SMS Wettin - Wikipedia

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Wittelsbach-class battleship - Wikipedia

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1906 – Launch of HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy.

HMS Minotaur was the lead ship of the Minotaur-class armoured cruisers built for the Royal Navy. Launched in 1906, she served as the flagship of the China Station before the First World War. Shortly after the war began, the ship searched unsuccessfully for the German East Asia Squadron and was transferred to the Grand Fleet at the end of 1914. During the rest of the war Minotaur served as the flagship of the 7th and 2nd Cruiser Squadrons and spent most of her time assigned to the Northern Patrol. In mid-1916 she participated in the Battle of Jutland but did not fire her weapons during the battle. The ship was paid off in 1919 and sold for scrap the following year.

HMS Minotaur (1906) - Wikipedia

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Minotaur-class cruiser (1906) - Wikipedia

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1942 - During the Battle of Midway, planes from the U.S. carriers Enterprise (CV 6) and Hornet (CV 8) pursue the retreating Japanese fleet, sinking the heavy cruiser Mikuma and damaging the destroyer Mogami. The abandoned USS Yorktown (CV 5) is reboarded and salvage attempts begin. However, a successful torpedo attack by the Japanese submarine I-168 sinks the destroyer USS Hammann (DD 412) and forces the salvage party to leave Yorktown.

USS Hammann (DD-412) was a World War II-era Sims-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy, named after Ensign Charles Hammann, a Medal of Honor recipient from World War I. Hammann was sunk during the Battle of Midway, trying to assist the sinking aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.

Hammann was launched by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey on 4 February 1939; sponsored by Miss Lillian Hammann; and commissioned on 11 August 1939, Commander Arnold E. True in command. Hammann conducted shakedown off the East Coast and for the next two years participated in training and readiness operations off both coasts.

USS Hammann (DD-412) - Wikipedia

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1942, June 6 – German auxiliary cruiser Stier sinks the tanker SS Stanvac Calcutta in the South Atlantic.

The Action of 6 June 1942 was a single ship action fought during World War II. The German raider Stier encountered and sank the American tanker SS Stanvac Calcutta while cruising in the South Atlantic Ocean off Brazil.


Stier under way.

Action of 6 June 1942 - Wikipedia

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German auxiliary cruiser Stier - Wikipedia

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1944 - after departing Tawitawi with a tanker convoy to Balikpapan on Borneo, the Japanese destroyer Minazuki was torpedoed and sunk by the US submarine USS Harder off Tawitawi. Of her 154-man crew 109 were killed.

Minazuki (水無月 "June") was one of twelve Mutsuki-class destroyers, built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the 1920s. During the Pacific War, she participated in the Philippines Campaign in December 1941 and the Dutch East Indies Campaign in early 1942. In March, she was assigned to convoy escort duties in and around Malaya and the Dutch East Indies until she was transferred to Rabaul in early 1943 to ferry troops around New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

Japanese destroyer Minazuki (1926) - Wikipedia

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USS Harder (SS-257) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1673 - First Battle of Schooneveld


The Battles of Schooneveld were two naval battles of the Franco-Dutch War, fought off the coast of the Netherlands on 7 June and 14 June 1673 (New Style; 28 May and 4 June in the Julian calendar then in use in England) between an allied Anglo-French fleet commanded by Prince Rupert of the Rhine on his flagship the Royal Charles, and the fleet of the United Provinces, commanded by Michiel de Ruyter.

The Dutch victories in the two battles, and at the Battle of Texel that followed in August, saved their country from an Anglo-French invasion.




The first battle of Schooneveld, 7 June 1673 by Willem van de Velde, the elder, painted c.1684.

Background
The Franco-Dutch War of 1672–1678 resulted from the attempts of Louis XIV of France to annex the Spanish Netherlands. In 1672, troops from France, Münster and Cologne invaded the Netherlands by land, while England's navy attacked Dutch shipping and threatened a seaborne invasion. The conflict between England and the Republic is commonly called the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

The years 1672-1673 were particularly desperate for the Dutch, with the French stopped only by The Dutch Water Line, a deliberate flooding of large parts of the Dutch countryside, and the withdrawing of guns and men from the fleet to augment the army of William III of Orange, now Admiral-General of the fleet. A surprise attack by De Ruyter in June 1672, resulting in the Battle of Solebay, had however prevented the allies from establishing naval superiority on the North Sea, keeping open the sea lanes so vital to Dutch trade.

When the French invaded, the Orangist party took power, falsely accusing the former leading politician Johan de Witt and his personal friend Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter of plotting to betray the Republic to the French. The Orangists themselves were in fact subsidised by the English. Both England and France hoped to create a Dutch puppet state, using the enormous Dutch mercantile assets to gain world trade dominance, each expecting that any moment the Dutch might surrender to one of them, but greatly fearing not being the one chosen. Therefore, during the battles, mutual suspicion between the French and the English was enormous: the English were wary that De Ruyter might suddenly team up with the French; the French thought the Orangist Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp, readmitted to the Dutch fleet early in 1673, might well do the same with the English. In fact, De Ruyter did not feel too sure about Tromp himself, but his fears proved to be unfounded. Tromp cared for battle honours above all else.

Michiel de Ruyter, since February 1673 Lieutenant-Admiral-General of the confederate Dutch fleet, planned to blockade the main English fleet in the River Thames by sinking blockships in its narrowest part, then deal with the remaining English squadrons at his leisure. But the English fleet took to sea in time to prevent this operation, and De Ruyter retreated on 15 May to the Schooneveld, the coastal waters at the mouth of the Schelde River, near the island of Walcheren, to prevent the allies from establishing the naval superiority needed for the transport and landing of a force of 6,000 soldiers of the English Army waiting at Yarmouth. The Schooneveld basin, between two shoals, was so narrow the allies could not take advantage of their numerical superiority. There, De Ruyter was joined by Tromp, adding the squadrons of the admiralties of Amsterdam and the Northern Quarter to that of the Admiralty of de Maze and the Zealandic fleet. De Ruyter read a message from the stadtholder to his captains, informing them they were not only the champions of their nation but of the whole of Christendom and that for any cowards, "the least safe place will be the ports of the State for there they shall escape neither the severe hand of Justice nor the curse and hatred of their compatriots", many later being overheard repeating these words to themselves.



First battle
On 2 June 1673 (New Style; 23 May in the Julian calendar then in use in England), the allies, deciding they had waited long enough, approached the Dutch fleet. Prince Rupert had a considerable superiority in ships (eighty-six against sixty-four), men (24,295 to 14,762) and cannon (4,826 to 3,157) — indeed the Dutch admirals nicknamed their fleet the "Little Hope". The Dutch fleet was smaller than usual because the Admiralty of Frisia was unable to assist, that province and Groningen being attacked by Bernhard von Galen, bishop of Münster. However a sudden storm prevented a battle. On 7 June, the wind blowing from the northwest, Rupert tried again and arranged his own squadron of the Red in the van, the French squadron of the White commanded by Jean II d'Estrées in the centre, and Sir Edward Spragge's squadron of the Blue in the rear. The Dutch van was commanded by Tromp, the centre by Lieutenant-Admiral Aert Jansse van Nes under direct supervision of De Ruyter himself and the rear by Lieutenant-Admiral Adriaen Banckert.

Rupert, convinced that the smaller Dutch fleet would withdraw to Hellevoetsluis when pressed, detached a special squadron at nine in the morning to cut off the retreating Dutch from the north. In this taskforce he concentrated all lighter ships from the regular squadrons so that it would be able to manoeuvre more easily over the shoals. However, De Ruyter did not budge. When however the squadron at last returned to the main allied line, joining Rupert's squadron, the Dutch started to move, but surprisingly in the direction of the enemy. This forced Rupert to attack immediately to prevent the Dutch from gaining the weather gauge, before he could form a proper keel line.

The battle began at noon and lasted for nine hours. Using his superior knowledge of the shallow waters, De Ruyter was able to manoeuvre his fleet so close to the shoals that the allies found it difficult to engage without grounding.

Rupert first made contact with the squadron of Cornelis Tromp. He had now about half of the allied fleet with him. Sailing slowly to the northeast after some time he reached the edge of the basin. This gave him the opportunity to surround Tromp from the north with the mass of frigates while simultaneously using his favourable windward position to attack him directly from the west with the heavy English ships. The frigate squadron was now in complete disarray however and couldn't execute such a complicated manoeuvre. Nor did Rupert choose the direct attack. He was much criticised for this afterwards and defended himself by claiming his approach would have been blocked by shoals. This was simply not true and Rupert knew it. Whatever his motives he turned to the southwest, both fleets bombarding each other from a distance, the Dutch inferiority in numbers compensated by the fact that their leeward position gave their guns a better range and the lack of a proper battle line in the enemy squadron.

De Ruyter had at first closely followed Tromp; but becoming aware the French flotilla of de Grancey had joined Spragge against Banckert, creating a gap in the French line, he suddenly tacked to the southwest, separating Tromp from the rest of the Dutch fleet. This greatly surprised the French fleet. The French main force of d'Estrées, both frightened and delighted by what it saw as a brilliant manoeuvre, disengaged slowly to the northwest to keep the weather gauge, but like Rupert didn't use this position to attack. This caused De Ruyter to comment: "The De Zeven Provinciën can still inspire awe among its enemies". The Dutch centre now moved in opposite tack behind the enemy rear. Spragge understood that if De Ruyter reached the southern edge of the basin his force would be trapped between the Dutch centre and rear. He immediately broke formation to tack to the southwest also, narrowly escaping to the west with his flotilla, but leaving the flotillas of Ossorey and Kempthorne behind with that of de Grancey in a slower turn in the same direction. Banckert now united his squadron with the Dutch centre by making a similar but larger turn, sailing behind De Ruyter. The Dutch supreme commander had thus gained an excellent position: the enemy fleet was now divided in four uncoordinated parts and he could attack the confused enemy rear with a numerical superiority having the weather gauge. At that moment he had no knowledge of Tromp's situation however and typically decided not to take any unnecessary risks but to join Tromp with the remainder of the Dutch fleet instead, saying: "First things first; it's better to help friends than to harm enemies". He tacked to the northeast, Banckert now in front, towards both vanguards moving in the opposite direction. Seeing him approach Tromp yelled to his men: "There's Granddad! (the Dutch sailors used this term of endearment for De Ruyter) He's coming to help us. I in return shall never abandon him, as long as I can breathe!" That these things needed to be said at all shows the underlying political divisions within the Dutch fleet. As the Dutch crews of the van had become rather nervous by the size of their opposing force, Tromp had for hours pretended to be in signal contact with the Dutch centre. The allied rear could now escape to the west also.

When the Dutch main force reached Tromp it again tacked to the southwest forming a perfect continuous line of battle with his squadron. The allied rear tried to do likewise with their centre and van, but its formations remained very confused. Spragge, having moved far to the north to reach Tromp, his personal enemy, now inserted his flotilla between d'Estrées and Rupert. The combined Dutch fleet then broke repeatedly through the many gaps in the allied line and Rupert, worried by the mounting disorder in his fleet, was happy to disengage at nightfall, only halting his retreat at first light, when it became clear the Dutch weren't pursuing. Two French ships were lost (as well as several French fireships expended ineffectually against the Dutch fleet), one Dutch ship was captured and then recaptured, and one, Deventer (70), sank after grounding the next day. Dutch Vice-Admiral Volckhard Schram (of the van) and Rear-Admiral David Vlugh (of the rearguard) were killed.



Second battle
The allies cruised off the Dutch coast for a week, each accusing the other of having caused the failure, while the British gave vent to recriminations against each other also. Spragge accused Rupert: "...the battle was, in truth, as ill fought on our side, as ever yet I saw". Worse was to come however. The allies had no intention to enter the Schooneveld again. Captain George Legge of HMS Royal Katherine wrote to his Lord High Admiral the Duke of York: "That hole is too little and the sands too dangerous for us to venture among them again". They hoped to lure the Dutch fleet to open sea; when at first nothing happened they grew so despondent, they were surprised when the Dutch did in fact come out. On 14 June 1673, De Ruyter, reinforced by four ships (including the heavy Oliphant and Voorzichtigheid) and fresh crews and fully resupplied, took advantage of a favourable northwest wind to attack the allied line. In this battle the allies were in total disarray — partly the result of having been two weeks at sea, including one battle — but mainly because of a curious coincidence: it so happened Spragge, now commanding the van, was visiting Rupert the moment the Dutch attacked. He immediately left for his squadron, but Rupert, suddenly fearing Spragge could never reach his force in time, decided to form the van with his own rear squadron. He tried to overtake the French in the centre, but never having made his intentions clear to them, they did their utmost to remain in formation, i.e. in front of Rupert. Needless to say, the chaos was complete.

Edward Spragge wrote in his journal:

The Prince placing himself in the van, the French in the middle, the line-of-battle being 89 men-of-war and small frigates, fireships and tenders, is so very long that I cannot see any sign the general admiral makes, being quite contrary to any custom ever used at sea before, and may prove of ill consequence to us. I know not any reason he has for it except being singular and positive.

Rupert repeatedly raised the bloodflag and then lowered it again upon seeing the confusion among his ships, which made a coordinated attack impossible. De Ruyter, utterly amazed and exclaiming, "What's wrong with this man? Has he gone mad or what?", exploited this disarray by engaging from some distance and firing at the allied masts and rigging, severely damaging Rupert's squadron. The French, when attacked by Banckert, disengaged immediately, very suspicious of the bizarre course of events. Only Tromp clashed with great fury with his eternal enemy Spragge until nightfall.

A heavy sea made it impossible for the allies, though in a leeward position, to open their lower gunports, and strong gales had driven all three fleets dangerously close to the British coast. Rupert now desperately attempted to close with the Dutch to save his fleet from destruction, but they, four miles from the coast, retreated to save theirs, and by the morning of 15 June, the damaged allied fleets sailed into the Thames and De Ruyter was safely back in the Schooneveld.

The allies had not lost any ships, but they had suffered considerable damage and had to return to port for repairs.



Aftermath
By skillful manoeuvre, De Ruyter had fought two engagements against a superior fleet, inflicted such damage against his opponents that they were forced to lift the blockade and retire, and taken care to avoid the decisive battle that the allies were hoping to fight.

After refitting and establishing with great difficulty somewhat more cordial relationships, the allies decided to cruise off the Texel in the hope of drawing De Ruyter out of the Schooneveld and bringing him to action. But the resulting Battle of Texel was a Dutch victory, and England was forced to withdraw from the costly and unproductive war.

Battle of Schooneveld - Wikipedia

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Collections - National Maritime Museum

First Battle of Schooneveld, 28th May 1673

Description and participants : First Battle of Schooneveld, 28th May 1673 (1673/06/07 NS)

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1777 - HMS Fox (28), Cptn. Patrick Fotheringham, was taken by American frigates USS Hancock (32), Cpt. John Manley, and USS Boston (30), Cptn. Hector McNeil, off Newfoundland Banks.


HMS Fox was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Fox was first commissioned in October 1775 under the command of Captain Patrick Fotheringham. The Americans captured her in June 1777, only to have the British recapture her about a month later. The French then captured her a little less than a year after that, only to lose her to grounding in 1779, some six months later.







Career
Capture

USS Hancock and USS Boston overtake HMS Fox.

On 7 June 1777 Fox was cruising off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland when she sighted a strange vessel. Foxsailed towards the stranger until she sighted yet another strange vessel. Suspecting that these were both American frigates, Fox attempted to escape. However, Hancock, the first of the two, caught up with Fox and an engagement started that lasted for about a half-hour before Boston was able to join the combat. Fox again attempted to sail away, but Hancock caught up and opened fire. After Boston came up too and was able to shoot away Fox's mainmast and wheel, Fotheringham struck. Fox had lost four men killed and eight wounded.

Recapture
Main article: Capture of USS Hancock
One month later, on 7–8 July, Hancock, Boston, and Fox were in company when they encountered HMS Rainbow, under the command of Captain Sir George Collier, and HMS Victor. Rainbow had left Halifax in the morning of 6 July and in the afternoon sighted three sail. She gave chase, during which HMS Flora came up independently and proceeded to engage one of the unknown vessels. The next day Rainbow and Flora exchanged quarry, with Rainbow pursuing the largest enemy vessel, accepting that one of the three American vessels would necessarily escape. The brig Victor was a poor sailer and essentially played no role in the engagement. Ultimately, Rainbow captured Hancock after a 39-hour chase, but Boston escaped to the Sheepscot River on the Maine coast. (Captain McNeill, of Boston, was court-martialed in June 1779 for his failure to support Hancock and was dismissed from the U.S. Navy.)

Collier's after-action letter made no mention of any casualties on either side, even though the vessels had exchanged some fire. Hancock normally had a complement of 290 men, but only 229 on board when Rainbow captured her; the remainder were a prize crew on Fox. Fotheringham and 40 of his men were prisoners on Hancock. The other officers and some of the men were aboard Boston, and Captain John Manley of Hancock had put most into a fishing vessel and sent them to Newfoundland. Because of the number of American prisoners involved, Rainbow took Hancock into Halifax. When Collier arrived at Halifax he was delighted to see that Flora had captured Fox and that they had arrived there before him.


The capture of HMS Fox by the French frigate Junon

And capture again
The French frigate Junon captured Fox on 11 September 1778. Fox, now under the command of Captain the Honourable Thomas Windsor, was off Brestwhen she sighted a ship and sloop. Fox gave chase, but the weather made visibility poor and obscured Junon's approach. When Fox finally sighted Junon, Fox prepared to engage. The two vessels maneuvered against each other until finally they gave up and simply exchanged broadsides. Junon, unusually for a French vessel, fired at Fox's hull rather than her rigging, with the result that Junon's heavier guns were able to inflict heavy casualties on Fox, and shoot away her three masts. Windsor was forced to strike, having lost 14 men killed and 32 wounded.

Fate
Fox ran aground in March 1779 on Pointe St Jacques on the Rhuys Peninsula and could not be refloated.

Action of 7th June 1777, 7th June 1777

Description and participants : Action of 7th June 1777, 7th June 1777

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1781 – Launch of HMS Argo, a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781 from Howdon Dock.


HMS Argo was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781 from Howdon Dock. The French captured her in 1783, but 36 hours later the British recaptured her. She then distinguished herself in the French Revolutionary Wars by capturing several prizes, though she did not participate in any major actions. She also served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was sold in 1816.






The Argo serving as flagship at Gibraltar, 1799. In the collection of the National Maritime Museum; Thomas Buttersworth; 19th century.

Baltic
Argo was commissioned in March 1781 under Captain John Butchart. On 29 October Argo sailed for the Baltic with Albemarle, under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson and Enterprise, arriving at Elsinor on 4 November. On 8 December the squadron, now under the command of Captain Douglas in Sampson, escorted a convoy of 280 vessels to Britain, arriving on 22 December.

Gold Coast
Early in 1782, Argo joined Captain Thomas Shirley in the 50-gun ship Leander and the sloop-of-war Alligator off the Dutch Gold Coast. Britain was at war with The Netherlands and before Argo arrived Shirley captured the small Dutch forts at Mouri (Fort Nassau - 20 guns), Kormantin (Courmantyne or Fort Amsterdam - 32 guns), Apam (Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience - 22 guns), Senya Beraku (Berku, or Fort Barracco, or Fort Goede Hoop - 18 guns), and Accra (Fort Crêvecoeur or Ussher Fort - 32 guns). Argo provided a landing party of 50 men who assisted Governor Mills to take Komenda (Fort Komenda).

Capture and recapture
In 1782 Argo was on her passage to the West Indies under Captain Butchart when she captured the French ship Dauphin, nominally of 64 guns but armed en flute and so sailing with only 26 guns mounted. Dauphin had a cargo of military stores and provisions, some brass cannons and mortars, and two hundred soldiers, all bound for Martinique.


Battle between the French frigates Nymphe, Amphitrite, and the 44-gun two-decker HMS Argo, 17 February 1783, by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy.

Governor Thomas Shirley of the Leeward Islands had Argo carry him to Tortola where he had official business. Argo stayed there three weeks until Shirley was ready to return to Antigua. The French found out about this and sent the French 36-gun frigate Nymphe and the 32-gun Amphitrite to intercept him.

On 16 February 1783, Argo and the two French frigates met. After a five-hour action they captured her. Not only did they out gun Argo, but the sea was so rough that she could not open her lower ports. Argo had lost thirteen men killed and had suffered a number of wounded, as well as having suffered damage to her masts and rigging. Governor Shirley had stayed on deck throughout the engagement.

About 36 hours later, the 74-gun third rate HMS Invincible, under Captain Charles Saxton was coming from Jamaica when she encountered the two French frigates and their prize, Argo. The frigates fled, leaving Invincible to recapture Argo. Captain J. Douglas briefly took command.

After a court martial acquitted her officers, Admiral Sir Hugh Pigot reappointed them. Then Captain J. Douglas briefly took command. She returned to England after the Peace of Paris (1783) and was paid off in April 1784.

Argo underwent repairs at Sheerness between July 1785 and October 1786. She then was fitted as a troopship at Chatham from about June 1790 to April 1791.[8] She was recommissioned in February 1791 under Commander Sandford Tatham, who sailed her for Halifax on 11 May. Argo was paid off in June 1792.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1796 – Launch of French Volontaire, a 40-gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy


Volontaire was a 40-gun Virginie class frigate of the French Navy.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Volontaire (captured 1806), a captured French Frigate, as taken off at Portsmouth in October 1806. The plan illustrates the ship prior to being fitted as a 38-gun Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823]

On 20 November 1798, along with Insurgente, Volontaire, under Captain Laurent, captured the 14-gun corvette USS Retaliation.

She took part in the Atlantic campaign of 1806 and was captured by HMS Diadem on 4 March 1806. She sailed into Table Bay, unaware that the British had captured Cape Town. HMS Diadem, flying a Dutch flag, came alongside. When Diadem ran up the British flag, Volontaire surrendered.

The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Volontaire. Captain Josceline Percy commissioned her and sailed her to St Helena. There he took charge of a convoy for England.

The transports Anacreon and Charlotte (1784 ship) sailed from the Cape of Good Hope on 11 March 1806 bound for France as cartels carrying Volontaire's crew.

See also: Transport vessels for the British invasion of the Dutch Cape Colony (1805-1806)
On 21 March Volontaire sailed as escort to 17 transports in a convoy to Great Britain carrying invalids and Dutch prisoners.

Fate
Volontaire was broken up in February 1826.


The Virginie class was a class of ten 40-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1793 by Jacques-Noël Sané. An eleventh vessel (Zephyr) begun in 1794 was never completed.

• Virginie class, (40-gun design by Jacques-Noël Sané, with 28 x 18-pounder and 12 x 8-pounder guns, plus 4 x 36-pounder obusiers).
  • Virginie, (launched 1794 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 1795, becoming HMS Virginie.
  • Courageuse, (launched 1794 at Brest) – renamed Justice in April 1795 – captured by British Navy 1801, then handed over to Turks.
  • Harmonie, (launched 1796 at Bordeaux).
  • Volontaire, (launched 1796 at Bordeaux) – captured by British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Volontaire.
  • Cornélie, (launched 1797 at Brest) – captured by Spanish Navy 1808.
  • Didon, (launched 1799 at St Malo) – captured by British Navy 1805, becoming HMS Didon.
  • Rhin, (launched 1802 at Toulon) – captured by British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Rhin.
  • Belle Poule, (launched 1802 at Basse-Indre) – captured by British Navy 1806, becoming HMS Belle Poule.
  • Surveillante, (launched 1802 at Basse-Indre) – captured by British Navy 1803, becoming HMS Surveillante.
  • Atalante, (launched 1802 at St Malo) – burnt 1805.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1796 – Launch of HMS Weymouth, a 44-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was previously the country ship, i.e., India-built, merchantman Wellesley, built in Calcutta in 1796.


HMS Weymouth was a 44-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was previously the country ship, i.e., India-built, merchantman Wellesley, built in Calcuttain 1796. She successfully defended herself against a French frigate, and made two voyages to Britain as an East Indiaman for the East India Company. The Admiralty purchased her in May 1804; she then became a storeship in 1806. On her last voyage for the Royal Navy, in 1820, she carried settlers to South Africa. She was then laid up in ordinary. In 1828 she was converted to a prison ship and sailed to Bermuda where she served as a prison hulk until 1865 when she was sold for breaking up.





Merchantman
In late 1799 the Commissioners of the Navy engaged Bellona and Wellesley to "convey stores, &c. to the different Settlements in India, on account of Government."

Wellesley was under the command of Captain Peter Gordon on 9 August 1800 when she encountered the French 36-gun frigate Franchise off the coast of Brazil. Wellesley was carrying provisions and stores for the fleet at the Cape and India; her crew consisted mostly of lascars and Chinese. The French frigate was the sole survivor from a surprising defeat of a French squadron in the Action of 4 August 1800. Captain Pierre Jurien, of Franchise, attacked Wellesley, but Gordon succeeded in driving him off.[6] Gordon had about ninety men, including passengers. The engagement lasted about an hour and although the frigate had 12-pounder guns to Wellesley's 9 and 6-pounders, the British suffered no casualties. The frigate tailed the British for some two days, but then gave up.

Wellesley's insurance company presented Gordon with a sugar bowl. tray, and pair of candlesticks, all inscribed, "Presented by the Bengal Phoenix Insurance Society to Capt. P. Gordon of the Wellesley for defending that ship against a French Frigate of 36 Guns on the coast of Brazil, the 9th of August 1800".

That autumn, The Times reported, "The following ships arrived at the Cape, and departed from thence in September and October (1800): The Bellona, Union, Sarah, Wellesley, Cecilia, Kent, and Thetis."

In 1801 Wellesley was designated a troop transport, one of a number of country ships that took, or were to take troops to Egypt as part of a force seeking to dislodge French forces there that threatened access to India. She carried a detachment of the 80th Regiment of Foot, but after eight weeks at sea she returned to Bombay. Gordon explained that it had been impossible to make safe passage to the Red Sea.

Wellesley first appears in Lloyd's Register in the volume for 1801. Her master appears as J. Purrier, and her owner as "Lambert". The register describes her as trading between London and India, and being armed with twelve 9-pounder and ten 6-pounder guns.

In the next few years, Wellesley made two trips from Bengal to Britain for the British East India Company (EIC). Lloyd's Register published in mid-1802 shows Gordon replacing Purrier as master.

Voyage 1 (1801-1802)
Again under Gordon's command, Wellesley passed Saugor on 8 December 1801, on her way to Britain. She reached St Helena on 24 February 1802, and the Downs on 9 June. She traveled with a letter of marque that had been issued to Captain Gordon on 25 April 1800.

Voyage 2 (1803-1804)
Gordon sailed Wellesley for England, leaving Madras on 20 August 1803. She reached St Helena on 8 November, Ventry Harbour, Ireland, on 13 January 1804, Carrick Road on 7 February, the Downs on 24 February.


No scale (probably 1:96). Plan showing pencil modifications (from 1813) to the incomplete inboard profile, spar deck, upper deck, lower deck, and platforms of the Weymouth (1804), a purchased East Indiaman, as converted to a Storeship. Signed by Edward Sisons [Master Shipwright, Woolwich Dockyard, 1801-1817]


Royal Navy service
The Admiralty purchased Wellesley in May 1804 and between May and August she was in the yards of Perry & Co, at Rotherhithe for fitting out. Further fitting took place at Woolwich Dockyard in November.

Weymouth was commissioned under the first commander, Captain Alexander Fraser, in August 1804. The following month Captain John Draper assumed command. Weymouth provided the naval escort for a convoy of five East Indiamen and two whalers that left Portsmouth on 1 February 1805. The Indiamen were Earl of Abergavenny, Royal George, Henry Addington, Wexford, and Bombay Castle. On 5 February the incompetence of her pilot caused the loss of Earl of Abergavenny and 263 of the people on board. The convoy continued on with Weymouth going on to India.

Weymouth returned to Britain in 1806, having left Madras on 8 September 1805 escorting Airly Castle, Baring, Duke of Montrose Lord Hawkesbury, and Devaynes. She was then fitted as a storeship at Woolwich, recommissioning in September 1807 under Commander Martin White. White made two voyages to the Mediterranean, after which she operated in the North Sea by 1809.

She passed under a succession of masters over the next few years. While under the command of Richard Turner, master, in August 1815 she accompanied the 74-gun Northumberland, and the troopship HMS Ceylon as Northumberland carried Napoleon into exile at Saint Helena.

She was at St Helena on 15 November 1815. On 14 September 1817 she was at Lebida (Leptis Magna), together with Aid. There they loaded columns, marbles, and other antiquities. Weymouth then left for Malta. In March 1818 she delivered them at Deptford, together with a nine-ton granite head that at the time was believed to be that of Memnon, King of Abydos, Egypt. Henry Salte, the British Consul General to Egypt had sent it as a present to the British Museum, and Weymouth had loaded it at Malta.

In 1820 Weymouth visited the Cape Colony. On this voyage she embarked 478 British 1820 Settlers at Portsmouth to take them to Algoa Bay. Captain Turner left Portsmouth on 7 January 1820, arrived in Table Bay on 25 April 1820, and in Algoa Bay on 15 May 1820.

Fate
Weymouth was laid up in ordinary at Deptford in November 1821. Between February and October 1828 she was fitted out as a prison ship. In September William Miller became master, and in 1829 sailed her to Bermuda. There she served as a prison hulk. On 12 September 1839, her bows were severely damaged in a hurricane at Ireland Island, Bermuda. She was described as a victualling depot ship of 1,160 tons.

Weymouth was finally sold there for £300 on 2 July 1865 and was broken up.

Legacy
At Fairbairn College, Cape Town, one of the sports fields is named after HMS Weymouth.


No Scale (probably 1:96). Plan showing incomplete inboard profile, the spar deck, upper deck, and lower deck of Weymouth (1804), a purchased East Indiaman as fitted for a Storeship in December 1813. Signed by Edward Sison, [Master Shipwright, Woolwich Dockyard, 1801-1817]

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1826 – Launch of HMS Erebus, a Hecla-class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826


HMS Erebus was a Hecla-class bomb vessel designed by Sir Henry Peake and constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales in 1826. The vessel was the second in the Royal Navy named after Erebus, the dark region of Hades in Greek mythology. The 372-ton ship was armed with two mortars – one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (254 mm) – and 10 guns. The ship took part in the Ross expedition of 1839-1843, and was abandoned in 1848 during the third Franklin expedition. The sunken wreck was discovered by the Canadian Victoria Strait Expedition in September 2014.








Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile with fittings for Terror (1813) and Erebus (1826), both Bomb Vessels converted for polar exploration. The plan relates to the two ships as converted for the Antartctic Expedition under Captain James Clark Ross in 1839. The plan shows the Erebus, as Terror had some diferences in the position of the bowsprit and hatches. Signed by Francis J. Laire [Master Shipwright, Chatham Dockyard 1844-1858]



Ross expedition
Main article: Ross expedition
After two years' service in the Mediterranean Sea, Erebus was refitted as an exploration vessel for Antarctic service, and on 21 November 1840 – captained by James Clark Ross – she departed from Van Diemen's Land for Antarctica in company with Terror. In January 1841, the crews of both ships landed on Victoria Land, and proceeded to name areas of the landscape after British politicians, scientists, and acquaintances. Mount Erebus, on Ross Island, was named after one ship and Mount Terror after the other.

The crew then discovered the Ross Ice Shelf, which they were unable to penetrate, and followed it eastward until the lateness of the season compelled them to return to Van Diemen's Land. The following season, 1842, Ross continued to survey the "Great Ice Barrier", as it was called, continuing to follow it eastward. Both ships returned to the Falkland Islands before returning to the Antarctic in the 1842–1843 season. They conducted studies in magnetism, and returned with oceanographic data and collections of botanical and ornithological specimens. The plants were described in the resulting The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross.

Birds collected on the first expedition were described and illustrated by George Robert Gray and Richard Bowdler Sharpe in The Zoology of the Voyage of HMS Erebus & HMS Terror. Birds of New Zealand, 1875. The revised edition of Gray (1846) (1875). The future botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, then aged 23, was assistant-surgeon to Robert McCormick.

Franklin expedition

'Erebus' and the 'Terror' in New Zealand, August 1841, by John Wilson Carmichael.

Main article: Franklin's lost expedition
In 1845, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror left England on a voyage of exploration to the Canadian Arctic, under Sir John Franklin. Both ships were outfitted with steam engines from the London and Greenwich Railway steam locomotives. That of Erebus was rated at 25 horsepower (19 kW) and could propel the ship at 4 knots (7.4 km/h). The ships carried 12 days' supply of coal. The ships had iron plating added to their hulls. Sir John Franklin sailed in Erebus, in overall command of the expedition, and Terror was again commanded by Francis Crozier. The expedition was ordered to gather magnetic data in the Canadian Arctic and to complete a crossing of the Northwest Passage, which had already been partly charted from both the east and west but had never been entirely navigated.

The ships were last seen by Europeans entering Baffin Bay in August 1845. The disappearance of the Franklin expedition set off a massive search effort in the Arctic. The broad circumstances of the expedition's fate were first revealed when Hudson's Bay Company doctor John Rae collected artifacts and testimony from local Inuit in 1853. Later expeditions up to 1866 confirmed these reports.


This oil painting by the Belgian marine artist François Etienne Musin (1820–1888) refers to HMS ‘Erebus’s’ Arctic venture under the command of Sir John Franklin in 1845. For Franklin’s last journey she had been fitted with a steam engine and a screw propeller and was accompanied by HMS ‘Terror’. In 1848 both vessels were abandoned in the ice. In this painting Musin shows the vessel surrounded by icebergs, but still in open water. A gloomy sky is only allowing some sunlight unto the scene, causing a stage-like effect in the composition. In the foreground the ship’s crew are busy moving smaller crafts across the ice

Both ships had become icebound and had been abandoned by their crews, totaling about 130 men, all of whom died from a variety of causes, including hypothermia, scurvy, and starvation while trying to trek overland to the south. Subsequent expeditions until the late 1980s, including autopsies of crew members, also revealed that Erebus and Terror's shoddily canned rations may have been tainted by both leadand botulism. Oral reports by local Inuit that some of the crew members resorted to cannibalism were at least somewhat supported by forensic evidence of cut marks on the skeletal remains of crew members found on King William Island during the late 20th century.

In April 1851 the British transport ship, Renovation, spotted two ships on a large ice floe off the coast of Newfoundland. The identities of the ships were not confirmed. It was suggested over the years that these might have been Erebus and Terror, though it is now certain they could not have been and were most likely abandoned whaling ships.

Discovery of the wreckage

Side-scan sonar images of the wreck of Erebus, September 2014

On 15 August 2008, Parks Canada, an agency of the Government of Canada, announced a Can$ 75,000 six-week search deploying the icebreaker Sir Wilfrid Laurier, with the goals of finding the ships and reinforcing Canada's claims regarding sovereignty over large portions of the Arctic. The search was headed by underwater archeologist Robert Grenier, of Parks Canada, and local historian Louie Kamookak, who had collected Inuit oral histories related to the wreck, as well as working with the written records. Kamookak, who died in 2018 at the age of 58, was made an officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Order of Nunavut for his work.

The wreckage of one of Franklin's ships was found on 2 September 2014 by a Parks Canada team led by Ryan Harris and Marc-André Bernier. On 1 October 2014, it was announced that the remains were those of Erebus. Recovery of the ship's bell was announced on 6 November 2014. On 4 March 2015, it was announced that a diving expedition on Erebus, by Parks Canada and Royal Canadian Navy divers, would begin in April.

On 12 September 2016, it was announced that the wreck of HMS Terror had been found submerged in Terror Bay, off the south-west coast of King William Island. The wrecks are designated a National Historic Site of Canada with the precise location of the designation in abeyance.

On 23 October 2017, British Defence Minister Sir Michael Fallon announced that the United Kingdom would transfer the ownership of both ships to Canada, retaining only a few relics and any gold, along with the right to repatriate any human remains.

In September 2018, Parks Canada announced that Erebus' condition had deteriorated significantly, with a 14-meter section of the upper deck detaching from the ship, flipping over, and moving towards the stern. Parks Canada attributed the deterioration to "an upwards buoyant force acting on the decking combined with storm swell in relatively shallow water". It was then confirmed that the United Kingdom will own the first 65 artifacts brought up from Erebus while the wrecks of both ships and other artifacts will be owned by Canada and the Inuit people.

Legacy

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper appearing at a gala to celebrate the discovery of HMS Erebus, one of two ships wrecked during John Franklin's lost expedition, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

Main article: Franklin's lost expedition § Legacy

In art, entertainment, and media
HMS Erebus is featured, often alongside HMS Terror, in fictional works that use the Franklin expedition in their backstories, such as:

• Captain Nemo mentions Erebus and Terror, in the context of Captain Ross's expedition, in Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870), as background to establish the difficulty of reaching the South Pole, while Captain Nemo stands upon its fictional summit.
• Erebus and Terror are mentioned in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness (1899).
• Terror and Erebus (1965) is a verse radio play for CBC Radio by Canadian poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, subsequently published in her collection Afterworlds(1987).
• Terror and Erebus (A Lament for Franklin) (1997) is an oratorio for solo baritone and chamber ensemble by Canadian composer Henry Kucharzyk, adapted from MacEwen's verse drama and crediting her for its libretto.
• Ice Blink: The Tragic Fate of Sir John Franklin's Lost Polar Expedition (2001), by Scott Cookman, offers a journalistic account of Franklin's expedition.
• Erebus and Terror appear in Dan Simmons' novel The Terror(2007), which is a fictional account of the expedition's fate.
  • The Terror is a 2018 American television series based on Simmons' book.
• Clive Cussler's novel, Arctic Drift (2008), uses Erebus and Terror as part of the plot as well as the establishing backstory of the ill-fated expedition.
• "Erebus" (2012) is a radio play for BBC Radio 4, based on the Franklin expedition, by British poet Jo Shapcott.
• Erebus: The Story of a Ship (2018, published by Cornerstone, a division of Random House), by Michael Palin, is a biography of the ship, covering its loss in the Arctic, Antarctic exploration, and back to its construction in Milford Haven. The book was serialized on BBC Radio 4 in 2018.
• Erebus and Terror is the sixth track on the 2016 album, Further Than Rust by Canadian folk band, Nickeltree.
• The Erebus and the Terror, an instrumental piece composed by Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, is the third track on the 1987 album Something of Time by Nightnoise.

In namesakes

• Mount Erebus, located on Ross Island adjacent to the volcanically inactive Mount Terror, is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth.
• Erebus Bay lies between Cape Evans and Hut Point Peninsula, on the west side of Ross Island.
• Erebus and Terror Gulf, in Antarctica. Named for the vessels used by Royal Navy Captain Sir James Clark Ross in exploring the area in 1842–43.
• Erebus crystal is a type of feldspar found in the immediate area surrounding Mount Erebus; the crystals grow in the magma beneath Mount Erebus and are ejected out of the mountain encased in glassy volcanic bombs.
• Erebus (crater) is a geological feature on the planet Mars, named for HMS Erebus, and visited by the Opportunity rover on the way to the much larger crater Victoria.

A full hull block model built at a scale of 1:48 of HMS ‘Erebus’, launched in 1826. The model is decked with some fittings and the hull is complete with the additional planking at the bow and around the waterline to prevent damage and crushing by the pack ice.

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