Thanks for this Uwe, one of my favorite maritime stories and ship. I've just finished reading Erebus The Story of a ship by Michel Palin, very good read, I recommend it.
Alfie
Alfie
Naval/Maritime History 27th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1883 – Launch of Riachuelo (Portuguese: [ʁiaˈʃuelu]), a Brazilian ironclad battleship completed in 1883
Riachuelo (Portuguese: [ʁiaˈʃuelu]) was a Brazilian ironclad battleship completed in 1883. She was named in honour of the Battle of Riachuelo in 1865. Built in the United Kingdom, the ship entered service with the Brazilian Navy in 1883 and remained in service until 1910.
Design
Riachuelo was built after the Brazilian Minister of the Navy, Admiral Jose Rodrigues de Lima Duarte, presented a report to the national legislature on the importance of modernising the Brazilian Navy by acquiring new battleships, with the intention to order two from British shipyards. Riachuelo was constructed by Samuda Brothers in London, being laid down on 31 August 1881, launched on 7 June 1883 and commissioned into the Brazilian Navy on 19 November 1883. The slightly smaller Aquidabã was launched in 1885.
Riachuelo was constructed with a steel hull, and was the first battleship with a compound armour belt, following shortly after the Argentine armoured corvette ARA Almirante Brown. Both Riachuelo and Aquidabã had an unusual design that became popular in the 1870s and 1880s: the two main gun turrets were placed off the centreline, en echelon, with the forward turret offset to port and the aft turret to starboard. The superstructure ran the full length of the vessel, higher than both turrets, with two funnels and three fully rigged masts. Aquidabã can be distinguished by its single funnel.
These two modern battleships made the Brazilian Navy the strongest in the western hemisphere. Hilary A. Herbert, the chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee in order to push the U.S. to increase its naval spending and build its first battleships warned Congress in 1883: “if all this old navy of ours were drawn up in battle array in mid-ocean and confronted by the Riachuelo it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing the American flag would get into port”.[3] A similar design was followed by USS Maine and USS Texas, launched in 1889 and 1892 respectively. By the time they were completed in 1895, developments in battleship design made them obsolete.
In service
Battleship Riachuelo circa 1907
When the Republic of Brazil was declared in 1889, Riachuelo escorted the Brazilian Imperial Family to exile in Europe. Riachuelo and Aquidabã, the two most powerful vessels in the Brazilian Navy, were both in dock for repairs in 1891 during the first Revolta da Armada (mutiny of the Brazilian Navy), led by Custódio José de Mello, which eventually forced the dictatorial President, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, to resign in favour of Marshal Floriano Peixoto.
Riachuelo was modernised and rearmed in Toulon in 1893–94, where structural alterations included the replacement of the three rigged masts with two unrigged fighting masts. Riachuelo returned to active service in 1896, and led the so-called "White Squadron" of President Campos Sales on his official visit to Argentina in 1900, accompanied by the cruisers Barroso and Tamoio. Its last important mission in 1907 was to convey the Brazilian Naval Commission to take delivery of the new battleships, Minas Geraes and São Paulo.
Riachuelo was deactivated in 1910 and put under tow to be broken up in Europe, but sank on the way.
en.wikipedia.org
7 June 1883 – Launch of Riachuelo (Portuguese: [ʁiaˈʃuelu]), a Brazilian ironclad battleship completed in 1883
Riachuelo (Portuguese: [ʁiaˈʃuelu]) was a Brazilian ironclad battleship completed in 1883. She was named in honour of the Battle of Riachuelo in 1865. Built in the United Kingdom, the ship entered service with the Brazilian Navy in 1883 and remained in service until 1910.
Design
Riachuelo was built after the Brazilian Minister of the Navy, Admiral Jose Rodrigues de Lima Duarte, presented a report to the national legislature on the importance of modernising the Brazilian Navy by acquiring new battleships, with the intention to order two from British shipyards. Riachuelo was constructed by Samuda Brothers in London, being laid down on 31 August 1881, launched on 7 June 1883 and commissioned into the Brazilian Navy on 19 November 1883. The slightly smaller Aquidabã was launched in 1885.
Riachuelo was constructed with a steel hull, and was the first battleship with a compound armour belt, following shortly after the Argentine armoured corvette ARA Almirante Brown. Both Riachuelo and Aquidabã had an unusual design that became popular in the 1870s and 1880s: the two main gun turrets were placed off the centreline, en echelon, with the forward turret offset to port and the aft turret to starboard. The superstructure ran the full length of the vessel, higher than both turrets, with two funnels and three fully rigged masts. Aquidabã can be distinguished by its single funnel.
These two modern battleships made the Brazilian Navy the strongest in the western hemisphere. Hilary A. Herbert, the chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee in order to push the U.S. to increase its naval spending and build its first battleships warned Congress in 1883: “if all this old navy of ours were drawn up in battle array in mid-ocean and confronted by the Riachuelo it is doubtful whether a single vessel bearing the American flag would get into port”.[3] A similar design was followed by USS Maine and USS Texas, launched in 1889 and 1892 respectively. By the time they were completed in 1895, developments in battleship design made them obsolete.
In service
Battleship Riachuelo circa 1907
When the Republic of Brazil was declared in 1889, Riachuelo escorted the Brazilian Imperial Family to exile in Europe. Riachuelo and Aquidabã, the two most powerful vessels in the Brazilian Navy, were both in dock for repairs in 1891 during the first Revolta da Armada (mutiny of the Brazilian Navy), led by Custódio José de Mello, which eventually forced the dictatorial President, Marshal Deodoro da Fonseca, to resign in favour of Marshal Floriano Peixoto.
Riachuelo was modernised and rearmed in Toulon in 1893–94, where structural alterations included the replacement of the three rigged masts with two unrigged fighting masts. Riachuelo returned to active service in 1896, and led the so-called "White Squadron" of President Campos Sales on his official visit to Argentina in 1900, accompanied by the cruisers Barroso and Tamoio. Its last important mission in 1907 was to convey the Brazilian Naval Commission to take delivery of the new battleships, Minas Geraes and São Paulo.
Riachuelo was deactivated in 1910 and put under tow to be broken up in Europe, but sank on the way.
Brazilian battleship Riachuelo - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1883 – Launch of HMS Calypso, a corvette (designated as a third-class cruiser from 1887) of the Royal Navy and the name ship of her class.
Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, she served as a warship and training vessel until 1922, when she was sold.
HMS Calypso was a corvette (designated as a third-class cruiser from 1887) of the Royal Navy and the name ship of her class. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, she served as a warship and training vessel until 1922, when she was sold.
As originally classified as a screw corvette, Calypso was one of the Royal Navy’s last sailing corvettes. She supplemented her extensive sail rig with a powerful engine. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given steel hulls, instead of iron, she nevertheless was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.
Unlike her more famous sister Calliope, Calypso had a quiet career, consisting mainly of training cruises in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1902 she was sent to the colony of Newfoundland, where she served as a training vessel for the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve before and during the First World War. In 1922 she was declared surplus and sold, then used as a storage hulk. Her hull still exists, awash in a coastal bay off Newfoundland.
Design
Main article: Calypso-class corvette § Design
Calypso and Calliope made up the Calypso class of corvettes, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. Part of a long line of cruiser classes built for protecting trade routes and colonial police work, they were the last two sailing corvettes built for the Royal Navy. Corvettes had been built of iron since the Volage class of 1867, but the Calypsos and the preceding Comus class were instead of steel. Corvettes were designed to operate across the vast distances of Britain's maritime empire, and could not rely on dry docks for maintenance. Since iron (and steel) hulls were subject to biofouling and could not easily be cleaned, the established practice of copper sheathing was extended to protect them; the metal plating of the hull was timber-cased and coppered below the waterline.
Under full sail (1898)
The Calypsos differed from the ships of the preceding Comus class in armament, including new 6-inch rifles in place of the 7-inch muzzleloaders and 64-pounders that originally armed the first ships of the parent class. Although similar in general appearance to their predecessors, the Calypsos had guns sponsoned out both fore and aft and had no gunports under the quarterdeck and foredeck. They were also slightly longer, had a deeper draught, and displaced 390 tons more. Calypso's engine produced were of 4,023 indicated horsepower, over 50% more powerful than those of her nine half-sisters, which gave her one more knot of speed. This compound-expansion engine could drive Calypso at 13¾ knots, or 14¾ knots with forced draught.
She nevertheless carried a barque rig of sail on three masts, including a full set of studding sails on her fore and mainmast. This rig enabled her to serve in areas where coaling stations were rare, and to rely entirely on her sails for propulsion. The class therefore was well-suited to her designed role: trade protection and distant cruising service for the British Empire at its Victorian peak.
Service with the fleet
While the class was designed for long-range protection of the trade routes of the empire,[8] and Calypso participated in war games, much of her career comprised activities appropriate to an empire at peace.
The ship served in home waters, and participated in fleet exercises, including a simulated attack on Britain, and visited Kiel, site of a major base of the Imperial German Navy often visited by British vessels. In 1890, Britain gave up the isle of Heligoland in the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, and Calypso was assigned to carry out the ceremony of transfer to the German Empire and bring back the island's last British governor.
HMS Calypso in 1897, by W L Wyllie
From the time of her first commission in 1885 until was placed in reserve in 1898, Calypso was part of the Sail Training Squadron, the "last refuge of the sailing navy" apart from a handful of smaller vessels. The ship made cruises to the West Indies, the Canary Islands, and Norway. In 1895 Calypso was part of the squadron which conducted surveys well above the Arctic Circle, and a landfall and cluster of buildings on Svalbard, Norway, now a cultural heritage site, were named for her in honour of her visits to those waters. On other occasions she assisted in the salvage of a civilian ship, for which her officers and crew were awarded salvage money, and passed on hydrographic information from waters near Iceland.
On 26 June 1897 Calypso was present at the Review of the Fleet off Spithead held to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.[19]Paid off into reserve at Devonport in 1898, the ship was no longer considered a fighting ship by the turn of the century, and it was felt she could best be employed in training naval reservists for service at sea.
Training ship
Wharfside at St. Johns. The shedlike structure behind the reservists is a drill hall erected atop Calypso's gunwale. Boat davits are shown on port side of vessel (upper left) and at stern (far right); the aft port gun is sponsoned out from the hull (right of top rows of sailors).
Image from Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador
On 3 September 1902 Calypso was placed back into commission under the command of Commander Frederick Murray Walker, and was sent across the Atlantic to become a training ship for the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), which trained men for service in the Royal Navy. The Reserve had been founded in 1900 as an experiment to assist the Admiralty in the manning of ships, and to enable the Newfoundlanders to assist in the defence of the empire, training their seafarers in the winter months when the fishery was not worked. As the result of this trial, the Admiralty agreed to provide a vessel, and the colony agreed to pay for the refit, as well as an annual subvention to support the training programme.
The location of the vessel was controversial, with the community of Argentia proferred as a substitute for the colonial capital of St. John's. Reasons for this proposal included both a desire to protect the larger city from the conjectured debaucheries of sailors, and to protect the reservists, many of whom were married, from the temptations (including prostitution) which might be available in the city. In a time of tensions between Britain and France, Argentia also had the benefit of being closer to the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and it was felt beneficial to have a British military force in proximity to the French territory in the event of a dispute. These objections were felt to be outweighed by cost, convenience, and accessibility of staff to the colonial government, and St. John's was chosen to host the ship. Calypso arrived there on 15 October, was later hulked, and permanently moored at the western end of the harbour.
Prior to the outbreak of war candidates had to be fishermen or sailors, and the RNR maintained a reserve strength of 500–600 men. By 1914, over 1,400 seamen had been trained, and more than 400 answered the call to arms on the outbreak of the Great War. The Reserve provided crew for ships of the Royal Navy, including over 100 seamen taken aboard HMCS Niobe a month after the start of the war, the first group of Newfoundlanders to go to war. It also provided home defence, including manning coast artillery at the entrance to the St. Johns harbour, and the protection of Newfoundland's shore and shipping. Calypso and a small, slow armed patrol vessel were the colony's only warships, and Calypso could not go to sea.
In 1916, Calypso was renamed HMS Briton, and surrendered her former name to a new light cruiser laid down in that year, which entered service in 1917.
Before the war the owner of the dock where Calypso was berthed had sought the vessel's removal. The matter was held in abeyance during the war years, but after the conclusion of hostilities the subject arose anew. Relocation would have been a significant expense to the Admiralty, and the Colonial Office was informed that the dominion would accept complete withdrawal of the vessel. By 1922 naval estimates were being slashed and the Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of fleets. The Admiralty therefore summarily discontinued the Newfoundland RNR, and there being no further need of her services, Briton was made available for disposition.
Later use, and legacy
A 6-inch gun from HMS Calypso on display at Fort Nelson
The derelict hulk of Briton being used for salt storage. August 1955. Lewisporte, Newfoundland.
Briton was sold in 1922, and was used in St. John's for the storage of salt. In 1952 she was towed to Lewisporte harbour. Some thought was given to preservation, but in 1968 she was towed to a coastal bay near Embree, and burned to the waterline. Her hull still is there, awash in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Her anchor sits outside a local inn, and other artefacts are in museums.
These remnants are not her sole remaining legacy. Calypso, created as a ship of war, has given her name another training institution, but one with peaceful purposes. Inspired by the traditions of the ship where Newfoundlanders once trained to be competent and able seamen for the Royal Navy, the Calypso Foundation of Lewisporte trains developmentally disabled individuals to become productive workers and live independently. This charitable foundation carries on the name of HMS Calypso. One of her 12lb deck guns was removed in 1965 and taken to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #12 in Grand Falls, NL and was positioned on the front of the Legion building where it still sits to this day(2018. Recently a 12lb shell that was removed from that same gun in 1965 as well as a 5" shell from Calypso was turned over to the RCMP for disposal as it has been suspected to still be live. Those two shells from the Calypso sat on a shelf in the Branch 12 Military Museum for over 35 years in plain view and accessible to everyone.. ( From the Historical Committee, Royal Canadian Legion, Grand Falls Branch #12, NL
The Calypso class comprised two steam corvettes (later classified as third-class cruisers) of the Royal Navy. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, they served with the fleet until the early twentieth century, when they became training ships. Remnants of both survive, after a fashion; HMS Calliope in the name of the naval reserve unit the ship once served, and HMS Calypso both in the name of a civilian charity and the more corporeal form of the hull, now awash in a cove off Newfoundland.
The class exemplifies the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the Calypsos show evidence of their wooden sailing antecedents, blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam warships which followed. Their appearance and layout was similar to the "pure" sailing corvettes, with boiler rooms, machinery spaces, ventilators, and a flue added. Of iron and steel construction, they had coppering over timber below the waterline, as did older wooden vessels. Their armament was not in turrets or barbettes, but arranged in a central broadside battery, with the four largest guns on sponsons to give larger arcs of fire. And they had both a powerful steam engine and an extensive rig of sail. They formed the last class of sailing corvettes in the Royal Navy.
HMS Calliope at Portsmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Calypso_(1883)
en.wikipedia.org
7 June 1883 – Launch of HMS Calypso, a corvette (designated as a third-class cruiser from 1887) of the Royal Navy and the name ship of her class.
Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, she served as a warship and training vessel until 1922, when she was sold.
HMS Calypso was a corvette (designated as a third-class cruiser from 1887) of the Royal Navy and the name ship of her class. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, she served as a warship and training vessel until 1922, when she was sold.
As originally classified as a screw corvette, Calypso was one of the Royal Navy’s last sailing corvettes. She supplemented her extensive sail rig with a powerful engine. Among the first of the smaller cruisers to be given steel hulls, instead of iron, she nevertheless was cased with timber and coppered below the water line, as were wooden ships.
Unlike her more famous sister Calliope, Calypso had a quiet career, consisting mainly of training cruises in the Atlantic Ocean. In 1902 she was sent to the colony of Newfoundland, where she served as a training vessel for the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve before and during the First World War. In 1922 she was declared surplus and sold, then used as a storage hulk. Her hull still exists, awash in a coastal bay off Newfoundland.
Design
Main article: Calypso-class corvette § Design
Calypso and Calliope made up the Calypso class of corvettes, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby. Part of a long line of cruiser classes built for protecting trade routes and colonial police work, they were the last two sailing corvettes built for the Royal Navy. Corvettes had been built of iron since the Volage class of 1867, but the Calypsos and the preceding Comus class were instead of steel. Corvettes were designed to operate across the vast distances of Britain's maritime empire, and could not rely on dry docks for maintenance. Since iron (and steel) hulls were subject to biofouling and could not easily be cleaned, the established practice of copper sheathing was extended to protect them; the metal plating of the hull was timber-cased and coppered below the waterline.
Under full sail (1898)
The Calypsos differed from the ships of the preceding Comus class in armament, including new 6-inch rifles in place of the 7-inch muzzleloaders and 64-pounders that originally armed the first ships of the parent class. Although similar in general appearance to their predecessors, the Calypsos had guns sponsoned out both fore and aft and had no gunports under the quarterdeck and foredeck. They were also slightly longer, had a deeper draught, and displaced 390 tons more. Calypso's engine produced were of 4,023 indicated horsepower, over 50% more powerful than those of her nine half-sisters, which gave her one more knot of speed. This compound-expansion engine could drive Calypso at 13¾ knots, or 14¾ knots with forced draught.
She nevertheless carried a barque rig of sail on three masts, including a full set of studding sails on her fore and mainmast. This rig enabled her to serve in areas where coaling stations were rare, and to rely entirely on her sails for propulsion. The class therefore was well-suited to her designed role: trade protection and distant cruising service for the British Empire at its Victorian peak.
Service with the fleet
While the class was designed for long-range protection of the trade routes of the empire,[8] and Calypso participated in war games, much of her career comprised activities appropriate to an empire at peace.
The ship served in home waters, and participated in fleet exercises, including a simulated attack on Britain, and visited Kiel, site of a major base of the Imperial German Navy often visited by British vessels. In 1890, Britain gave up the isle of Heligoland in the Heligoland-Zanzibar Treaty, and Calypso was assigned to carry out the ceremony of transfer to the German Empire and bring back the island's last British governor.
HMS Calypso in 1897, by W L Wyllie
From the time of her first commission in 1885 until was placed in reserve in 1898, Calypso was part of the Sail Training Squadron, the "last refuge of the sailing navy" apart from a handful of smaller vessels. The ship made cruises to the West Indies, the Canary Islands, and Norway. In 1895 Calypso was part of the squadron which conducted surveys well above the Arctic Circle, and a landfall and cluster of buildings on Svalbard, Norway, now a cultural heritage site, were named for her in honour of her visits to those waters. On other occasions she assisted in the salvage of a civilian ship, for which her officers and crew were awarded salvage money, and passed on hydrographic information from waters near Iceland.
On 26 June 1897 Calypso was present at the Review of the Fleet off Spithead held to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne.[19]Paid off into reserve at Devonport in 1898, the ship was no longer considered a fighting ship by the turn of the century, and it was felt she could best be employed in training naval reservists for service at sea.
Training ship
Wharfside at St. Johns. The shedlike structure behind the reservists is a drill hall erected atop Calypso's gunwale. Boat davits are shown on port side of vessel (upper left) and at stern (far right); the aft port gun is sponsoned out from the hull (right of top rows of sailors).
Image from Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador
On 3 September 1902 Calypso was placed back into commission under the command of Commander Frederick Murray Walker, and was sent across the Atlantic to become a training ship for the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve (RNR), which trained men for service in the Royal Navy. The Reserve had been founded in 1900 as an experiment to assist the Admiralty in the manning of ships, and to enable the Newfoundlanders to assist in the defence of the empire, training their seafarers in the winter months when the fishery was not worked. As the result of this trial, the Admiralty agreed to provide a vessel, and the colony agreed to pay for the refit, as well as an annual subvention to support the training programme.
The location of the vessel was controversial, with the community of Argentia proferred as a substitute for the colonial capital of St. John's. Reasons for this proposal included both a desire to protect the larger city from the conjectured debaucheries of sailors, and to protect the reservists, many of whom were married, from the temptations (including prostitution) which might be available in the city. In a time of tensions between Britain and France, Argentia also had the benefit of being closer to the French territory of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and it was felt beneficial to have a British military force in proximity to the French territory in the event of a dispute. These objections were felt to be outweighed by cost, convenience, and accessibility of staff to the colonial government, and St. John's was chosen to host the ship. Calypso arrived there on 15 October, was later hulked, and permanently moored at the western end of the harbour.
Prior to the outbreak of war candidates had to be fishermen or sailors, and the RNR maintained a reserve strength of 500–600 men. By 1914, over 1,400 seamen had been trained, and more than 400 answered the call to arms on the outbreak of the Great War. The Reserve provided crew for ships of the Royal Navy, including over 100 seamen taken aboard HMCS Niobe a month after the start of the war, the first group of Newfoundlanders to go to war. It also provided home defence, including manning coast artillery at the entrance to the St. Johns harbour, and the protection of Newfoundland's shore and shipping. Calypso and a small, slow armed patrol vessel were the colony's only warships, and Calypso could not go to sea.
In 1916, Calypso was renamed HMS Briton, and surrendered her former name to a new light cruiser laid down in that year, which entered service in 1917.
Before the war the owner of the dock where Calypso was berthed had sought the vessel's removal. The matter was held in abeyance during the war years, but after the conclusion of hostilities the subject arose anew. Relocation would have been a significant expense to the Admiralty, and the Colonial Office was informed that the dominion would accept complete withdrawal of the vessel. By 1922 naval estimates were being slashed and the Washington Naval Treaty limited the size of fleets. The Admiralty therefore summarily discontinued the Newfoundland RNR, and there being no further need of her services, Briton was made available for disposition.
Later use, and legacy
A 6-inch gun from HMS Calypso on display at Fort Nelson
The derelict hulk of Briton being used for salt storage. August 1955. Lewisporte, Newfoundland.
Briton was sold in 1922, and was used in St. John's for the storage of salt. In 1952 she was towed to Lewisporte harbour. Some thought was given to preservation, but in 1968 she was towed to a coastal bay near Embree, and burned to the waterline. Her hull still is there, awash in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Her anchor sits outside a local inn, and other artefacts are in museums.
These remnants are not her sole remaining legacy. Calypso, created as a ship of war, has given her name another training institution, but one with peaceful purposes. Inspired by the traditions of the ship where Newfoundlanders once trained to be competent and able seamen for the Royal Navy, the Calypso Foundation of Lewisporte trains developmentally disabled individuals to become productive workers and live independently. This charitable foundation carries on the name of HMS Calypso. One of her 12lb deck guns was removed in 1965 and taken to the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #12 in Grand Falls, NL and was positioned on the front of the Legion building where it still sits to this day(2018. Recently a 12lb shell that was removed from that same gun in 1965 as well as a 5" shell from Calypso was turned over to the RCMP for disposal as it has been suspected to still be live. Those two shells from the Calypso sat on a shelf in the Branch 12 Military Museum for over 35 years in plain view and accessible to everyone.. ( From the Historical Committee, Royal Canadian Legion, Grand Falls Branch #12, NL
The Calypso class comprised two steam corvettes (later classified as third-class cruisers) of the Royal Navy. Built for distant cruising in the heyday of the British Empire, they served with the fleet until the early twentieth century, when they became training ships. Remnants of both survive, after a fashion; HMS Calliope in the name of the naval reserve unit the ship once served, and HMS Calypso both in the name of a civilian charity and the more corporeal form of the hull, now awash in a cove off Newfoundland.
The class exemplifies the transitional nature of the late Victorian navy. In design, materials, armament, and propulsion the Calypsos show evidence of their wooden sailing antecedents, blended with characteristics of the all-metal mastless steam warships which followed. Their appearance and layout was similar to the "pure" sailing corvettes, with boiler rooms, machinery spaces, ventilators, and a flue added. Of iron and steel construction, they had coppering over timber below the waterline, as did older wooden vessels. Their armament was not in turrets or barbettes, but arranged in a central broadside battery, with the four largest guns on sponsons to give larger arcs of fire. And they had both a powerful steam engine and an extensive rig of sail. They formed the last class of sailing corvettes in the Royal Navy.
HMS Calliope at Portsmouth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Calypso_(1883)
Calypso-class corvette - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1902 – Launch of HNLMS Hertog Hendrik (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Hertog Hendrik), a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
HNLMS Hertog Hendrik (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Hertog Hendrik) was a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was built at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam at the start of the twentieth century. She was the first ship in the Dutch navy to be equipped with wireless communication. The ship took part in two expeditions to South Celebes and during the Spanish Civil War she performed convoy duties. During World War II she was captured by the invading German forces and converted into an anti-aircraft battery. After the war the ship was recovered and given back to the Netherlands, to be converted into an accommodation ship.
Design
The ship was 96.622 metres (317 ft 0 in) long, had a beam of 15.189 metres (49 ft 10 in), a draught of 5.817 metres (19 ft 1 in), and had a displacement of 5,002 tons. The ship was equipped with 2-shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 4,800 kW (6,500 ihp) and produced a top speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h). Her belt armour was 150 mm (6 in) thick, while she also had 250 mm (10 in) of barbette armour and 250 mm (10 in) turret armour. Two 240 mm (9.4 in) single turret guns provided the ship's main armament, and these were augmented by four single 150 mm (5.9 in) guns and eight 75 mm (3 in) single guns. The ship had a complement of 340 men.
Service history
Hertog Hendrik was laid down on 8 March 1901 by the Dutch Queen Mother, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam.
The ship was launched and christened there by, Prince Henry on 7 June 1902. She was commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy on 5 January 1904 and the first ship in the Dutch navy to be equipped with wireless communication. The ship left Den Helder on 9 November 1904 for the Dutch East Indies. Shortly after she had departed she send the first Dutch wireless telegram.
On 24 June 1905 Hertog Hendrik hit a coral reef near Matjidosteen while en route to the Gulf of Boni. The cruiser Zeeland made several attempts to pull the stranded ship loose, but these proved unsuccessful and were abandoned when Zeeland's bollards broke. The ship was later pulled clear after her sister ship De Ruyter and Japara, a ship with towing equipment from the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, arrived and Hertog Hendrik's coal, reserves and munitions were offloaded. Later that year the ship took part in two expeditions to South Celebes. The first expedition was undertaken against the lord of Boni. Armed sloops of Hertog Hendrik, Zeeland and Assahan protected the landing of Dutch forces near Patiro on 20 July 1905.
During the second expedition on 11 September De Ruyter, Hertog Hendrik, Borneo, Serdang and two ships of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappijwhere engaged in operations against the lord of Loewoe an ally of the lord of Boni. An infantry battalion and a marine landing party were set ashore near Palope and later that day the soldiers and marines took the lord's palace.
In 1910 the ship together with the cruiser Holland escorted another cruiser, Noordbrabant, that had hit a cliff on 31 May while en route to Surabaya. The collision caused the flooding of several compartment of the ship. Damaged as she was, Noordbrabant continued to sail without aid.
Later that year the ship undertook a cruise to Australia to show the flag. After leaving Surabaya on 15 August 1910, Hertog Hendrik and both her sister ships, De Ruyter and Koningin Regentes, visited the ports of Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Fremantle and several others.
Hertog Hendrik and Noordam deployed as auxiliary cruiser left the Netherlands on 16 February 1918 as convoy to the Dutch East Indies. They planned to take the route through the Panama Canal. North of Scotland the ships encountered a heavy storm and were forced to return to make necessary repairs. The ships arrived on 19 March in Den Helder. On 5 July that year a second attempt was made to reach the Dutch East Indies by going around Scotland and Cape of Good Hope. This time the convoy consisted of Hertog Hendrik, Tabanan deployed as auxiliary cruiser, Bengkalis deployed as coaling ship and Noordam. The convoy reached Tanjung Priok, Dutch East Indies on 27 September that year.
On 2 March 1920 she and Marten Harpertszoon Tromp departed from Den Helder for a four-month journey to Asia to show the flag. They visited the ports of Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobeand Manila.
On 27 March 1934 the ship entered the harbor of Den Helder. The ship and crew had just returned from gunnery practice during the first three months of 1934 in the Mediterranean Sea and 19 February the ship had made an official visit to Venice. Later that year during the Open Day of the Navy in Scheveningen the ship and crew gave a demonstration with searchlights.
During the Spanish Civil War she performed convoy duties
Video of submarine O16 passing HNLMS Hertog Hendrik in 1937. Dutch newsreel.
World War II
In 1939 December the ship served as floating battery ship Batterijschip Vliereede off Vlieland for several weeks. In early 1940 she was laid up waiting to be scrapped. However the floating hulk was on captured on 14 May 1940 by the invading German forces. The ship sank after being attacked by a British aircraft on 21 and 22 June 1940. The Germans decided to salvage her in October 1940 and converted her into an Anti Aircraft battery at Antwerpen. The conversion lasted from 1941 to 1943 and the ship was renamed Ariadne. After the war the ship was recovered in Wilhelmshaven and given back to the Netherlands, to be converted at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard into an accommodation ship. On 21 October 1947 she was recommissioned and given back her initial name Hertog Hendrik. She was finally decommissioned on 27 September 1968 and stricken from the navy list on 28 August 1969.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
7 June 1902 – Launch of HNLMS Hertog Hendrik (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Hertog Hendrik), a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy.
HNLMS Hertog Hendrik (Dutch: Hr.Ms. Hertog Hendrik) was a Koningin Regentes-class coastal defence ship (pantserschip) of the Royal Netherlands Navy. The ship was built at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam at the start of the twentieth century. She was the first ship in the Dutch navy to be equipped with wireless communication. The ship took part in two expeditions to South Celebes and during the Spanish Civil War she performed convoy duties. During World War II she was captured by the invading German forces and converted into an anti-aircraft battery. After the war the ship was recovered and given back to the Netherlands, to be converted into an accommodation ship.
Design
The ship was 96.622 metres (317 ft 0 in) long, had a beam of 15.189 metres (49 ft 10 in), a draught of 5.817 metres (19 ft 1 in), and had a displacement of 5,002 tons. The ship was equipped with 2-shaft reciprocating engines, which were rated at 4,800 kW (6,500 ihp) and produced a top speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h). Her belt armour was 150 mm (6 in) thick, while she also had 250 mm (10 in) of barbette armour and 250 mm (10 in) turret armour. Two 240 mm (9.4 in) single turret guns provided the ship's main armament, and these were augmented by four single 150 mm (5.9 in) guns and eight 75 mm (3 in) single guns. The ship had a complement of 340 men.
Service history
Hertog Hendrik was laid down on 8 March 1901 by the Dutch Queen Mother, Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont at the Rijkswerf in Amsterdam.
The ship was launched and christened there by, Prince Henry on 7 June 1902. She was commissioned into the Royal Netherlands Navy on 5 January 1904 and the first ship in the Dutch navy to be equipped with wireless communication. The ship left Den Helder on 9 November 1904 for the Dutch East Indies. Shortly after she had departed she send the first Dutch wireless telegram.
On 24 June 1905 Hertog Hendrik hit a coral reef near Matjidosteen while en route to the Gulf of Boni. The cruiser Zeeland made several attempts to pull the stranded ship loose, but these proved unsuccessful and were abandoned when Zeeland's bollards broke. The ship was later pulled clear after her sister ship De Ruyter and Japara, a ship with towing equipment from the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij, arrived and Hertog Hendrik's coal, reserves and munitions were offloaded. Later that year the ship took part in two expeditions to South Celebes. The first expedition was undertaken against the lord of Boni. Armed sloops of Hertog Hendrik, Zeeland and Assahan protected the landing of Dutch forces near Patiro on 20 July 1905.
During the second expedition on 11 September De Ruyter, Hertog Hendrik, Borneo, Serdang and two ships of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappijwhere engaged in operations against the lord of Loewoe an ally of the lord of Boni. An infantry battalion and a marine landing party were set ashore near Palope and later that day the soldiers and marines took the lord's palace.
In 1910 the ship together with the cruiser Holland escorted another cruiser, Noordbrabant, that had hit a cliff on 31 May while en route to Surabaya. The collision caused the flooding of several compartment of the ship. Damaged as she was, Noordbrabant continued to sail without aid.
Later that year the ship undertook a cruise to Australia to show the flag. After leaving Surabaya on 15 August 1910, Hertog Hendrik and both her sister ships, De Ruyter and Koningin Regentes, visited the ports of Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Fremantle and several others.
Hertog Hendrik and Noordam deployed as auxiliary cruiser left the Netherlands on 16 February 1918 as convoy to the Dutch East Indies. They planned to take the route through the Panama Canal. North of Scotland the ships encountered a heavy storm and were forced to return to make necessary repairs. The ships arrived on 19 March in Den Helder. On 5 July that year a second attempt was made to reach the Dutch East Indies by going around Scotland and Cape of Good Hope. This time the convoy consisted of Hertog Hendrik, Tabanan deployed as auxiliary cruiser, Bengkalis deployed as coaling ship and Noordam. The convoy reached Tanjung Priok, Dutch East Indies on 27 September that year.
On 2 March 1920 she and Marten Harpertszoon Tromp departed from Den Helder for a four-month journey to Asia to show the flag. They visited the ports of Singapore, Saigon, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Kobeand Manila.
On 27 March 1934 the ship entered the harbor of Den Helder. The ship and crew had just returned from gunnery practice during the first three months of 1934 in the Mediterranean Sea and 19 February the ship had made an official visit to Venice. Later that year during the Open Day of the Navy in Scheveningen the ship and crew gave a demonstration with searchlights.
During the Spanish Civil War she performed convoy duties
Video of submarine O16 passing HNLMS Hertog Hendrik in 1937. Dutch newsreel.
World War II
In 1939 December the ship served as floating battery ship Batterijschip Vliereede off Vlieland for several weeks. In early 1940 she was laid up waiting to be scrapped. However the floating hulk was on captured on 14 May 1940 by the invading German forces. The ship sank after being attacked by a British aircraft on 21 and 22 June 1940. The Germans decided to salvage her in October 1940 and converted her into an Anti Aircraft battery at Antwerpen. The conversion lasted from 1941 to 1943 and the ship was renamed Ariadne. After the war the ship was recovered in Wilhelmshaven and given back to the Netherlands, to be converted at the Wilton-Fijenoord shipyard into an accommodation ship. On 21 October 1947 she was recommissioned and given back her initial name Hertog Hendrik. She was finally decommissioned on 27 September 1968 and stricken from the navy list on 28 August 1969.
HNLMS Hertog Hendrik - Wikipedia
Koningin Regentes-class coastal defense ship - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1906 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched from the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland. The sinking presaged the United States declaration of war on Germany two years later.
Lusitania held the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing and was briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister ship Mauretania three months later. The Cunard Line launched her in 1906 at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing.
German shipping lines were aggressive competitors for the custom of transatlantic passengers in the early 20th century, and Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity, and luxury. Cunard used assistance from the British Admiralty to build Lusitania, on the understanding that the ship would be available as a light merchant cruiser in time of war. She had gun mounts for deck cannons, but no guns were ever installed.
Both Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with revolutionary new turbine engines that enabled them to maintain a service speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). They were equipped with lifts, wireless telegraph, and electric light, and provided 50-percent more passenger space than any other ship; the first-class decks were noted for their sumptuous furnishings.
The Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of the First World War; the UK declared the entire North Sea a war zone in the autumn of 1914 and mined the approaches. In the spring of 1915, all food imports for Germany were declared contraband. RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915 when German submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on Lusitania.
On the afternoon of 7 May, a German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared war zone. A second internal explosion sank her in 18 minutes, killing 1,198 passengers and crew.
The Germans justified treating Lusitania as a naval vessel because she was carrying hundreds of tons of war munitions, making her a legitimate military target, and they argued that British merchant ships had violated the Cruiser rules from the very beginning of the war. The internationally recognized Cruiser rules were obsolete by 1915; it had become more dangerous for submarines to surface and give warning with the British introduction of Q-ships in 1915 with concealed deck guns. The Germans argued that Lusitania was regularly transporting war munitions; she operated under the control of the Admiralty; she could be converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser to join the war; her identity had been disguised; and she flew no flags. They claimed that she was a non-neutral vessel in a declared war zone, with orders to evade capture and ram challenging submarines.
However, the ship was unarmed and was carrying thousands of civilian passengers, and the British government accused the Germans of breaching the Cruiser Rules. The sinking caused a storm of protest in the United States because 128 American citizens were among the dead. The sinking shifted public opinion in the United States against Germany and was one of the factors in the declaration of war nearly two years later. After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no munitions on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1982, the head of the British Foreign Office's American department finally admitted that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and poses a safety risk to salvage teams.
Development and construction
Lusitania, shortly before her launch
Lusitania and Mauretania were commissioned by Cunard, responding to increasing competition from rival transatlantic passenger companies, particularly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). They had larger, faster, more modern and more luxurious ships than Cunard, and were better placed, starting from German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for North America. The NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse captured the Blue Riband from Cunard's Campania in 1897, before the prize was taken in 1900 by the HAPAG ship Deutschland. NDL soon wrested the prize back in 1903 with the new Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kronprinz Wilhelm. Cunard saw its passenger numbers affected as a result of the so-called "Kaiser-class ocean liners".
American millionaire businessman J. P. Morgan had decided to invest in transatlantic shipping by creating a new company, International Mercantile Marine (IMM), and, in 1901, purchased the British freight shipper Frederick Leyland & Co. and a controlling interest in the British passenger White Star Line and folded them into IMM. In 1902, IMM, NDL and HAPAG entered into a "Community of Interest" to fix prices and divide among them the transatlantic trade. The partners also acquired a 51% stake in the Dutch Holland America Line. IMM made offers to purchase Cunard which, along with the French CGT, was now its principal rival.
Cunard chairman Lord Inverclyde thus approached the British government for assistance. Faced with the impending collapse of the British liner fleet and the consequent loss of national prestige, as well as the reserve of shipping for war purposes which it represented, they agreed to help. By an agreement signed in June 1903, Cunard was given a loan of £2.6 million to finance two ships, repayable over 20 years at a favourable interest rate of 2.75%. The ships would receive an annual operating subsidy of £75,000 each plus a mail contract worth £68,000. In return, the ships would be built to Admiralty specifications so that they could be used as auxiliary cruisers in wartime.
Lusitania arriving in New York on her maiden voyage
en.wikipedia.org
7 June 1906 – Cunard Line's RMS Lusitania is launched from the John Brown Shipyard, Glasgow (Clydebank), Scotland.
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner that was sunk on 7 May 1915 by a German U-boat 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland. The sinking presaged the United States declaration of war on Germany two years later.
Lusitania held the Blue Riband appellation for the fastest Atlantic crossing and was briefly the world's largest passenger ship until the completion of her sister ship Mauretania three months later. The Cunard Line launched her in 1906 at a time of fierce competition for the North Atlantic trade. She was sunk on her 202nd trans-Atlantic crossing.
German shipping lines were aggressive competitors for the custom of transatlantic passengers in the early 20th century, and Cunard responded by trying to outdo them in speed, capacity, and luxury. Cunard used assistance from the British Admiralty to build Lusitania, on the understanding that the ship would be available as a light merchant cruiser in time of war. She had gun mounts for deck cannons, but no guns were ever installed.
Both Lusitania and Mauretania were fitted with revolutionary new turbine engines that enabled them to maintain a service speed of 25 knots (46 km/h; 29 mph). They were equipped with lifts, wireless telegraph, and electric light, and provided 50-percent more passenger space than any other ship; the first-class decks were noted for their sumptuous furnishings.
The Royal Navy had blockaded Germany at the start of the First World War; the UK declared the entire North Sea a war zone in the autumn of 1914 and mined the approaches. In the spring of 1915, all food imports for Germany were declared contraband. RMS Lusitania left New York for Britain on 1 May 1915 when German submarine warfare was intensifying in the Atlantic. Germany had declared the seas around the United Kingdom a war zone, and the German embassy in the United States had placed newspaper advertisements warning people of the dangers of sailing on Lusitania.
On the afternoon of 7 May, a German U-boat torpedoed Lusitania 11 mi (18 km) off the southern coast of Ireland and inside the declared war zone. A second internal explosion sank her in 18 minutes, killing 1,198 passengers and crew.
The Germans justified treating Lusitania as a naval vessel because she was carrying hundreds of tons of war munitions, making her a legitimate military target, and they argued that British merchant ships had violated the Cruiser rules from the very beginning of the war. The internationally recognized Cruiser rules were obsolete by 1915; it had become more dangerous for submarines to surface and give warning with the British introduction of Q-ships in 1915 with concealed deck guns. The Germans argued that Lusitania was regularly transporting war munitions; she operated under the control of the Admiralty; she could be converted into an armed auxiliary cruiser to join the war; her identity had been disguised; and she flew no flags. They claimed that she was a non-neutral vessel in a declared war zone, with orders to evade capture and ram challenging submarines.
However, the ship was unarmed and was carrying thousands of civilian passengers, and the British government accused the Germans of breaching the Cruiser Rules. The sinking caused a storm of protest in the United States because 128 American citizens were among the dead. The sinking shifted public opinion in the United States against Germany and was one of the factors in the declaration of war nearly two years later. After the First World War, successive British governments maintained that there were no munitions on board Lusitania, and the Germans were not justified in treating the ship as a naval vessel. In 1982, the head of the British Foreign Office's American department finally admitted that there is a large amount of ammunition in the wreck, some of which is highly dangerous and poses a safety risk to salvage teams.
Development and construction
Lusitania, shortly before her launch
Lusitania and Mauretania were commissioned by Cunard, responding to increasing competition from rival transatlantic passenger companies, particularly the German Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL) and Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). They had larger, faster, more modern and more luxurious ships than Cunard, and were better placed, starting from German ports, to capture the lucrative trade in emigrants leaving Europe for North America. The NDL liner Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse captured the Blue Riband from Cunard's Campania in 1897, before the prize was taken in 1900 by the HAPAG ship Deutschland. NDL soon wrested the prize back in 1903 with the new Kaiser Wilhelm II and Kronprinz Wilhelm. Cunard saw its passenger numbers affected as a result of the so-called "Kaiser-class ocean liners".
American millionaire businessman J. P. Morgan had decided to invest in transatlantic shipping by creating a new company, International Mercantile Marine (IMM), and, in 1901, purchased the British freight shipper Frederick Leyland & Co. and a controlling interest in the British passenger White Star Line and folded them into IMM. In 1902, IMM, NDL and HAPAG entered into a "Community of Interest" to fix prices and divide among them the transatlantic trade. The partners also acquired a 51% stake in the Dutch Holland America Line. IMM made offers to purchase Cunard which, along with the French CGT, was now its principal rival.
Cunard chairman Lord Inverclyde thus approached the British government for assistance. Faced with the impending collapse of the British liner fleet and the consequent loss of national prestige, as well as the reserve of shipping for war purposes which it represented, they agreed to help. By an agreement signed in June 1903, Cunard was given a loan of £2.6 million to finance two ships, repayable over 20 years at a favourable interest rate of 2.75%. The ships would receive an annual operating subsidy of £75,000 each plus a mail contract worth £68,000. In return, the ships would be built to Admiralty specifications so that they could be used as auxiliary cruisers in wartime.
Lusitania arriving in New York on her maiden voyage
RMS Lusitania - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 June 1941 – Launch of USS South Dakota (BB-57), the lead vessel of the four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s.
USS South Dakota (BB-57) was the lead vessel of the four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (410 mm) guns, but Congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.
South Dakota saw extensive action during World War II; immediately upon entering service in mid-1942, she was sent to the south Pacific to reinforce Allied forces waging the Guadalcanal campaign. The ship was damaged in an accidental grounding on an uncharted reef, but after completing repairs she returned to the front, taking part in the Battle of Santa Cruz in October and the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November. During the latter action, electrical failures hampered the ability of the ship to engage Japanese warships and she became the target of numerous Japanese vessels, sustaining over two-dozen hits that significantly damaged her superstructure but did not seriously threaten her buoyancy. South Dakota returned to the United States for repairs that lasted into 1943, after which she was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union.
In mid-1943, the ship was transferred back to the Pacific, where she primarily operated with the fast carrier task force, contributing her heavy anti-aircraft armament to its defense. In this capacity, she took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in late 1943 and early 1944, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in mid-1944, and the Philippines campaign later that year. In 1945, she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and bombarded Japan three times. Following the end of the war in August 1945, she took part in the initial occupation of the country before returning to the United States in September. She later moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 1962, when she was sold for scrap.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
7 June 1941 – Launch of USS South Dakota (BB-57), the lead vessel of the four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s.
USS South Dakota (BB-57) was the lead vessel of the four South Dakota-class fast battleships built for the United States Navy in the 1930s. The first American battleships designed after the Washington treaty system began to break down in the mid-1930s, they took advantage of an escalator clause that allowed increasing the main battery to 16-inch (410 mm) guns, but Congressional refusal to authorize larger battleships kept their displacement close to the Washington limit of 35,000 long tons (36,000 t). A requirement to be armored against the same caliber of guns as they carried, combined with the displacement restriction, resulted in cramped ships. Overcrowding was exacerbated by wartime modifications that considerably strengthened their anti-aircraft batteries and significantly increased their crews.
South Dakota saw extensive action during World War II; immediately upon entering service in mid-1942, she was sent to the south Pacific to reinforce Allied forces waging the Guadalcanal campaign. The ship was damaged in an accidental grounding on an uncharted reef, but after completing repairs she returned to the front, taking part in the Battle of Santa Cruz in October and the Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November. During the latter action, electrical failures hampered the ability of the ship to engage Japanese warships and she became the target of numerous Japanese vessels, sustaining over two-dozen hits that significantly damaged her superstructure but did not seriously threaten her buoyancy. South Dakota returned to the United States for repairs that lasted into 1943, after which she was briefly deployed to strengthen the British Home Fleet, tasked with protecting convoys to the Soviet Union.
In mid-1943, the ship was transferred back to the Pacific, where she primarily operated with the fast carrier task force, contributing her heavy anti-aircraft armament to its defense. In this capacity, she took part in the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign in late 1943 and early 1944, the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign in mid-1944, and the Philippines campaign later that year. In 1945, she participated in the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa and bombarded Japan three times. Following the end of the war in August 1945, she took part in the initial occupation of the country before returning to the United States in September. She later moved to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, where she was laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until 1962, when she was sold for scrap.
USS South Dakota (BB-57) - Wikipedia
South Dakota-class battleship (1939) - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 7 June
1683 – Launch of French Brave 50, later 60 guns (launched 7 June 1683 at Le Havre) – deleted 1697.
Arrogant Class. Designed by Jacques Doley and built by Étienne Salicon.
Arrogant 50, later 60 guns (launched 6 May 1682 at Le Havre) – captured by the English in the Battle of Marbella in March 1705.
Brave 50, later 60 guns (launched 7 June 1683 at Le Havre) – deleted 1697.
1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake and subsequent tsunami; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.
The 1692 Jamaica earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica on 7 June. A stopped pocket watch found in the harbour in 1959 indicated that it occurred around 11:43 a.m.
Known as the "storehouse and treasury of the West Indies", and as "one of the wickedest places on Earth", it was, at the time, the unofficial capital of Jamaica, one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the West Indies, and a common home port for many of the privateers and pirates operating within the Caribbean Sea.
The earthquake caused most of the city to sink below sea level.
About 2,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and the following tsunami; and, about another 3,000 people died in the days following the earthquakes, due to injuries and disease
Map of Port Royal showing shorelines before and after the earthquake
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
1777 – Launch of HMS Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy,
HMS Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, that saw service during the American and French Revolutionary wars, and the Napoleonic wars. Designed to carry a complement of 200 men, she was armed with a main battery of twenty-four 9-pound guns.
Launched in June 1777, she was commissioned the following month and sent to the West Indies where she formed part of a squadron under Vice-admiral Clark Gayton, attacking American shipping interests in the area. At the beginning of 1794 Aurora was among the British vessels assisting Sir David Dundas in capturing the town of San Fiorenzo, Corsica. In January 1797, Aurora came under the command of Henry Digby in the Mediterranean and in November the following year, took part in the capture of Minorca.
Returning to the West Indies in 1808, she joined Charles Dashwood's squadron which took possession of the town of Samaná in November and in July 1809, escorted a large force under Hugh Lyle Carmichael sent to expel the French from the city of Santo Domingo. In December 1810, Aurora was laid up, then on 3 November 1814, she was sold.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
1799 – Launch of USS Portsmouth was constructed for the United States Navy in 1798 by master shipbuilder James Hackett to a design of Josiah Fox at what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built with funds contributed by the citizens of Portsmouth.
USS Portsmouth was constructed for the United States Navy in 1798 by master shipbuilder James Hackett to a design of Josiah Fox at what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built with funds contributed by the citizens of Portsmouth.
Commanded by Captain Daniel McNeil, Portsmouth operated in the West Indies during the Quasi-War with France in the squadron commanded by Commodore John Barry. In 1800, she sailed to France to bring back the United States envoys who had concluded peace negotiations with France. After a second cruise in the Caribbean, Portsmouth was sold less than three years later at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1801, after the military cutbacks ordered by the new Jefferson Administration after the peace signed with France ending the Quasi-War in 1800.
en.wikipedia.org
1807 – Launch of French Anversois, a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
Anversois was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Ordered on 24 April 1804, Anversois was one of the ships built in the various shipyards captured by the First French Empire in Holland and Italy in a crash programme to replenish the ranks of the French Navy.
In 1807, she crossed from Antwerp to Vlissingen for a refit. In 1814, she took part in the defence of the city, attacking the forts Frederick Henry on 21 March and Lacroix the next day.
At the Bourbon Restoration, she was renamed to Éole, returned to her original name during the Hundred Days, and Éole back again in 1815. In 1818, she was found to be in such poor state that she could not be used even as a hulk, and was broken up.
en.wikipedia.org
1849 - Simon Taylor was a barque used to transport assisted migrants to Western Australia, wrecked
Simon Taylor was a barque used to transport assisted migrants to Western Australia.
Built in 1824 for Meek and Co., Simon Taylor was constructed at the Blackwall Yard on the River Thames in London. On completion, she was registered to S. Taylor. She weighed 431 tons, the passenger deck was 140 feet (43 m) long, and there was a height of 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) between decks. Between 1829 and 1837, Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Jamaica; a voyage to Mauritius in 1833 is also recorded. Records indicate that the ship's captain in 1830 was a Mr. Christie. In 1837 ownership of Simon Taylor was transferred to R. Taylor, and over the next two years she was restored. Once restored, she was transferred to Thomson and Co. In 1840 she made a voyage under a Captain whose name is recorded as Mr. Slater. From 1841 the Captain was Thomas Brown.
From 1841 to 1846, Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Bombay, India.
In the early 1840s, John Hutt, Governor of Western Australia, sent £3500 to the Land and Emigration Commission in Britain to provide assisted passage for migrants to bolster the workforce in the new colony. The Simon Taylor departed from London on 30 April 1842 and docked at Fremantle, Western Australia on 20 August. (Lloyds register listed her as bound for Bombay however). 242 passengers were alighted, of which 219 were assisted migrants to Western Australia, and a further 18 were Parkhurst apprentices – these were juvenile criminals from the Isle of Wight who were transported to Western Australia but pardoned on arrival on the condition that they take up an apprenticeship with a local settler. The Parkhurst apprentices were arguably the first convicts transported to Western Australia, although the colony would not become an official penal colony until 1850.
From 1847 to 1849 Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Calcutta. On 7 June 1849 she was returning from Jamaica when she was driven ashore on shingles off the south coast of England, and broke up. There are no further records of the ship after that date.
en.wikipedia.org
1850 - SS Martha, of New York, captured by USS Perry when about to embark from southern coast of Africa with 1800 slaves. The captain was admitted to bail, and escaped
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.
en.wikipedia.org
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, USS Marblehead (C 11), along with auxiliary cruisers USS Yankee and USS St. Louis, engage the Spanish gunboat Sandoval and the shore batteries at Guantanamo, Cuba for 2 1/2 hours
en.wikipedia.org
1917 - During World War I, U.S. submarine chasers arrive at Corfu, Greece, for anti-submarine patrols.
1942 - Just after dawn, USS Yorktown (CV 5) sinks after being torpedoed the previous day by Japanese submarine (I 168).
en.wikipedia.org
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.
en.wikipedia.org
1944 - The construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages, also known as Mulberries, begins off the Normandy coast.
Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours developed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. After the Allies successfully held beachheads following D-Day, two prefabricated harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from Britain with the invading army and assembled off Omaha Beach (Mulberry "A") and Gold Beach (Mulberry "B").
The Mulberry harbours were to be used until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after repair of the inevitable sabotage by German defenders. The first choice, Cherbourg, was captured towards the end of July 1944 but the port facilities were found to have been expertly wrecked, then booby-trapped. Although Antwerp in Belgium was captured on 4 September 1944, the Port of Antwerp was not opened until 28 November as the approaches to the port were held by the Germans until the (delayed) Battle of the Scheldt was won. Two French ports were eventually available; the port of Boulogne on 14 October after Operation Wellhit and the port of Calais in November after Operation Undergo. Montgomery insisted that the First Canadian Army clear the German garrisons in Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk (which was held until 9 May 1945) first before the Scheldt although the French ports were "resolutely defended" and had all suffered demolitions so would not be navigable for some time. The success of Operation Dragoon meant that the southern French ports of Marseille and Toulon were available in October.
The harbour at Gold Beach was used for 10 months after D-Day and over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies were landed before it was fully decommissioned. The still only partially-completed Mulberry harbour at Omaha Beach was damaged on 19 June by a violent storm that suddenly arrived from the north-east. After three days the storm finally abated and damage was found to be so severe that the harbour had to be abandoned.
en.wikipedia.org
1944 – World War II: The steamer Danae, carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans, is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
1944 - USS Susan B. Anthony (AP 72) strikes a German mine while approaching "Omaha" Beach to land reinforcements. After an unsuccessful effort to contain flooding, she is abandoned and, within a few hours, sinks. No lives are lost in her sinking.
USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72) was a turbo-electric ocean liner, Santa Clara, of the Grace Steamship Company that was built in 1930. Santa Clara was turned over to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 28 February 1942 and operated by Grace Lines as agent for WSA as a troop ship making voyages to the South Pacific. The ship was chartered to the Navy on 7 August 1942 for operation as a United States Navy transport ship. The ship was sunk 7 June 1944 off Normandy by a mine while cruising through a swept channel with all 2,689 people aboard being saved.
en.wikipedia.org
1944 - USS Mingo (SS 261) torpedoes and sinks Japanese destroyer Tamanami, 150 miles west-southwest of Manila while USS Skate (SS 305) attacks a Japanese convoy in the southern Sea of Okhotsk and sinks destroyer Usugumo, 160 miles north of Etorofu, Kuril Islands. Additionally, USS Sunfish (SS 281) attacks Japanese fishing boats en route from Matsuwa to Uruppu, Kuril Islands, shelling and sinking No.105 Hokuyo Maru, No.5 Kannon Maru, Ebisu Maru, and Kinei Maru while USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks Japanese transport No.2 Koto Maru off Cape Varella, French Indochina. Lastly, USS Bonefish (SS 223) shells and sinks Japanese guardboat Ryuei Maru at the mouth of Tarakan Harbor, Borneo.
1958 – Launch of SS Edmund Fitzgerald – Fitzgerald was an American taconite Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on 10 November 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on 7 June 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own previous record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.
Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgeraldcould have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Edmund Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Arthur M. Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, been shoaled, or suffered from a combination of these.
The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of
week. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.
en.wikipedia.org
Other Events on 7 June
1683 – Launch of French Brave 50, later 60 guns (launched 7 June 1683 at Le Havre) – deleted 1697.
Arrogant Class. Designed by Jacques Doley and built by Étienne Salicon.
Arrogant 50, later 60 guns (launched 6 May 1682 at Le Havre) – captured by the English in the Battle of Marbella in March 1705.
Brave 50, later 60 guns (launched 7 June 1683 at Le Havre) – deleted 1697.
1692 – Port Royal, Jamaica, is hit by a catastrophic earthquake and subsequent tsunami; in just three minutes, 1,600 people are killed and 3,000 are seriously injured.
The 1692 Jamaica earthquake struck Port Royal, Jamaica on 7 June. A stopped pocket watch found in the harbour in 1959 indicated that it occurred around 11:43 a.m.
Known as the "storehouse and treasury of the West Indies", and as "one of the wickedest places on Earth", it was, at the time, the unofficial capital of Jamaica, one of the busiest and wealthiest ports in the West Indies, and a common home port for many of the privateers and pirates operating within the Caribbean Sea.
The earthquake caused most of the city to sink below sea level.
About 2,000 people died as a result of the earthquake and the following tsunami; and, about another 3,000 people died in the days following the earthquakes, due to injuries and disease
Map of Port Royal showing shorelines before and after the earthquake
1692 Jamaica earthquake - Wikipedia
Port Royal - Wikipedia
1777 – Launch of HMS Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy,
HMS Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, that saw service during the American and French Revolutionary wars, and the Napoleonic wars. Designed to carry a complement of 200 men, she was armed with a main battery of twenty-four 9-pound guns.
Launched in June 1777, she was commissioned the following month and sent to the West Indies where she formed part of a squadron under Vice-admiral Clark Gayton, attacking American shipping interests in the area. At the beginning of 1794 Aurora was among the British vessels assisting Sir David Dundas in capturing the town of San Fiorenzo, Corsica. In January 1797, Aurora came under the command of Henry Digby in the Mediterranean and in November the following year, took part in the capture of Minorca.
Returning to the West Indies in 1808, she joined Charles Dashwood's squadron which took possession of the town of Samaná in November and in July 1809, escorted a large force under Hugh Lyle Carmichael sent to expel the French from the city of Santo Domingo. In December 1810, Aurora was laid up, then on 3 November 1814, she was sold.
HMS Aurora (1777) - Wikipedia
Enterprise-class frigate - Wikipedia
1799 – Launch of USS Portsmouth was constructed for the United States Navy in 1798 by master shipbuilder James Hackett to a design of Josiah Fox at what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built with funds contributed by the citizens of Portsmouth.
USS Portsmouth was constructed for the United States Navy in 1798 by master shipbuilder James Hackett to a design of Josiah Fox at what is now Badger's Island in Kittery, Maine, directly across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. She was built with funds contributed by the citizens of Portsmouth.
Commanded by Captain Daniel McNeil, Portsmouth operated in the West Indies during the Quasi-War with France in the squadron commanded by Commodore John Barry. In 1800, she sailed to France to bring back the United States envoys who had concluded peace negotiations with France. After a second cruise in the Caribbean, Portsmouth was sold less than three years later at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1801, after the military cutbacks ordered by the new Jefferson Administration after the peace signed with France ending the Quasi-War in 1800.
USS Portsmouth (1798) - Wikipedia
1807 – Launch of French Anversois, a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy
Anversois was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Ordered on 24 April 1804, Anversois was one of the ships built in the various shipyards captured by the First French Empire in Holland and Italy in a crash programme to replenish the ranks of the French Navy.
In 1807, she crossed from Antwerp to Vlissingen for a refit. In 1814, she took part in the defence of the city, attacking the forts Frederick Henry on 21 March and Lacroix the next day.
At the Bourbon Restoration, she was renamed to Éole, returned to her original name during the Hundred Days, and Éole back again in 1815. In 1818, she was found to be in such poor state that she could not be used even as a hulk, and was broken up.
French ship Anversois - Wikipedia
1849 - Simon Taylor was a barque used to transport assisted migrants to Western Australia, wrecked
Simon Taylor was a barque used to transport assisted migrants to Western Australia.
Built in 1824 for Meek and Co., Simon Taylor was constructed at the Blackwall Yard on the River Thames in London. On completion, she was registered to S. Taylor. She weighed 431 tons, the passenger deck was 140 feet (43 m) long, and there was a height of 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) between decks. Between 1829 and 1837, Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Jamaica; a voyage to Mauritius in 1833 is also recorded. Records indicate that the ship's captain in 1830 was a Mr. Christie. In 1837 ownership of Simon Taylor was transferred to R. Taylor, and over the next two years she was restored. Once restored, she was transferred to Thomson and Co. In 1840 she made a voyage under a Captain whose name is recorded as Mr. Slater. From 1841 the Captain was Thomas Brown.
From 1841 to 1846, Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Bombay, India.
In the early 1840s, John Hutt, Governor of Western Australia, sent £3500 to the Land and Emigration Commission in Britain to provide assisted passage for migrants to bolster the workforce in the new colony. The Simon Taylor departed from London on 30 April 1842 and docked at Fremantle, Western Australia on 20 August. (Lloyds register listed her as bound for Bombay however). 242 passengers were alighted, of which 219 were assisted migrants to Western Australia, and a further 18 were Parkhurst apprentices – these were juvenile criminals from the Isle of Wight who were transported to Western Australia but pardoned on arrival on the condition that they take up an apprenticeship with a local settler. The Parkhurst apprentices were arguably the first convicts transported to Western Australia, although the colony would not become an official penal colony until 1850.
From 1847 to 1849 Simon Taylor made a number of voyages to Calcutta. On 7 June 1849 she was returning from Jamaica when she was driven ashore on shingles off the south coast of England, and broke up. There are no further records of the ship after that date.
Simon Taylor (ship) - Wikipedia
1850 - SS Martha, of New York, captured by USS Perry when about to embark from southern coast of Africa with 1800 slaves. The captain was admitted to bail, and escaped
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
1898 - During the Spanish-American War, USS Marblehead (C 11), along with auxiliary cruisers USS Yankee and USS St. Louis, engage the Spanish gunboat Sandoval and the shore batteries at Guantanamo, Cuba for 2 1/2 hours
USS Marblehead (C-11) - Wikipedia
1917 - During World War I, U.S. submarine chasers arrive at Corfu, Greece, for anti-submarine patrols.
1942 - Just after dawn, USS Yorktown (CV 5) sinks after being torpedoed the previous day by Japanese submarine (I 168).
USS Yorktown (CV-5) - Wikipedia
1942 – World War II: The Battle of Midway ends in American victory.
Battle of Midway - Wikipedia
1944 - The construction of artificial harbors and sheltered anchorages, also known as Mulberries, begins off the Normandy coast.
Mulberry harbours were temporary portable harbours developed by the United Kingdom during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. After the Allies successfully held beachheads following D-Day, two prefabricated harbours were taken in sections across the English Channel from Britain with the invading army and assembled off Omaha Beach (Mulberry "A") and Gold Beach (Mulberry "B").
The Mulberry harbours were to be used until major French ports could be captured and brought back into use after repair of the inevitable sabotage by German defenders. The first choice, Cherbourg, was captured towards the end of July 1944 but the port facilities were found to have been expertly wrecked, then booby-trapped. Although Antwerp in Belgium was captured on 4 September 1944, the Port of Antwerp was not opened until 28 November as the approaches to the port were held by the Germans until the (delayed) Battle of the Scheldt was won. Two French ports were eventually available; the port of Boulogne on 14 October after Operation Wellhit and the port of Calais in November after Operation Undergo. Montgomery insisted that the First Canadian Army clear the German garrisons in Boulogne, Calais and Dunkirk (which was held until 9 May 1945) first before the Scheldt although the French ports were "resolutely defended" and had all suffered demolitions so would not be navigable for some time. The success of Operation Dragoon meant that the southern French ports of Marseille and Toulon were available in October.
The harbour at Gold Beach was used for 10 months after D-Day and over 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies were landed before it was fully decommissioned. The still only partially-completed Mulberry harbour at Omaha Beach was damaged on 19 June by a violent storm that suddenly arrived from the north-east. After three days the storm finally abated and damage was found to be so severe that the harbour had to be abandoned.
Mulberry harbours - Wikipedia
1944 – World War II: The steamer Danae, carrying 350 Cretan Jews and 250 Cretan partisans, is sunk without survivors off the shore of Santorini.
1944 - USS Susan B. Anthony (AP 72) strikes a German mine while approaching "Omaha" Beach to land reinforcements. After an unsuccessful effort to contain flooding, she is abandoned and, within a few hours, sinks. No lives are lost in her sinking.
USS Susan B. Anthony (AP-72) was a turbo-electric ocean liner, Santa Clara, of the Grace Steamship Company that was built in 1930. Santa Clara was turned over to the War Shipping Administration (WSA) on 28 February 1942 and operated by Grace Lines as agent for WSA as a troop ship making voyages to the South Pacific. The ship was chartered to the Navy on 7 August 1942 for operation as a United States Navy transport ship. The ship was sunk 7 June 1944 off Normandy by a mine while cruising through a swept channel with all 2,689 people aboard being saved.
USS Susan B. Anthony - Wikipedia
1944 - USS Mingo (SS 261) torpedoes and sinks Japanese destroyer Tamanami, 150 miles west-southwest of Manila while USS Skate (SS 305) attacks a Japanese convoy in the southern Sea of Okhotsk and sinks destroyer Usugumo, 160 miles north of Etorofu, Kuril Islands. Additionally, USS Sunfish (SS 281) attacks Japanese fishing boats en route from Matsuwa to Uruppu, Kuril Islands, shelling and sinking No.105 Hokuyo Maru, No.5 Kannon Maru, Ebisu Maru, and Kinei Maru while USS Flasher (SS 249) sinks Japanese transport No.2 Koto Maru off Cape Varella, French Indochina. Lastly, USS Bonefish (SS 223) shells and sinks Japanese guardboat Ryuei Maru at the mouth of Tarakan Harbor, Borneo.
1958 – Launch of SS Edmund Fitzgerald – Fitzgerald was an American taconite Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on 10 November 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on 7 June 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald was an American Great Lakes freighter that sank in a Lake Superior storm on November 10, 1975, with the loss of the entire crew of 29. When launched on June 7, 1958, she was the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, and she remains the largest to have sunk there.
For 17 years, Edmund Fitzgerald carried taconite iron ore from mines near Duluth, Minnesota, to iron works in Detroit, Toledo, and other Great Lakes ports. As a workhorse, she set seasonal haul records six times, often breaking her own previous record. Captain Peter Pulcer was known for piping music day or night over the ship's intercom while passing through the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers (between Lakes Huron and Erie), and entertaining spectators at the Soo Locks (between Lakes Superior and Huron) with a running commentary about the ship. Her size, record-breaking performance, and "DJ captain" endeared Edmund Fitzgerald to boat watchers.
Carrying a full cargo of ore pellets with Captain Ernest M. McSorley in command, she embarked on her ill-fated voyage from Superior, Wisconsin, near Duluth, on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. En route to a steel mill near Detroit, Edmund Fitzgerald joined a second freighter, SS Arthur M. Anderson. By the next day, the two ships were caught in a severe storm on Lake Superior, with near hurricane-force winds and waves up to 35 feet (11 m) high. Shortly after 7:10 p.m., Edmund Fitzgerald suddenly sank in Canadian (Ontario) waters 530 feet (88 fathoms; 160 m) deep, about 17 miles (15 nautical miles; 27 kilometers) from Whitefish Bay near the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario—a distance Edmund Fitzgeraldcould have covered in just over an hour at her top speed. Although Edmund Fitzgerald had reported being in difficulty earlier, no distress signals were sent before she sank; Captain McSorley's last message to Arthur M. Anderson said, "We are holding our own." Her crew of 29 perished, and no bodies were recovered. The exact cause of the sinking remains unknown, though many books, studies, and expeditions have examined it. Edmund Fitzgerald may have been swamped, suffered structural failure or topside damage, been shoaled, or suffered from a combination of these.
The disaster is one of the best-known in the history of Great Lakes shipping. Gordon Lightfoot made it the subject of his 1976 hit song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" after reading an article, "The Cruelest Month", in the November 24, 1975, issue of
week. The sinking led to changes in Great Lakes shipping regulations and practices that included mandatory survival suits, depth finders, positioning systems, increased freeboard, and more frequent inspection of vessels.
SS Edmund Fitzgerald - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1755 - The Action of 8 June 1755 was a naval battle between France and Great Britain early in the French and Indian War.
Gulf of St. Lawrence - British under Boscawen defeat French under Hocquart / Capture of French Alcide, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1742.
The Action of 8 June 1755 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.
The Capture of the 'Alcide' and 'Lys' - unknown 18th century artist
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.
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.
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)
en.wikipedia.org
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=1095
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1755 - The Action of 8 June 1755 was a naval battle between France and Great Britain early in the French and Indian War.
Gulf of St. Lawrence - British under Boscawen defeat French under Hocquart / Capture of French Alcide, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1742.
The Action of 8 June 1755 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.
The Capture of the 'Alcide' and 'Lys' - unknown 18th century artist
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.
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.
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)
Action of 8 June 1755 - Wikipedia
French ship Alcide (1743) - Wikipedia
British Third Rate ship of the line 'Alcide' (1755)
British Third Rate ship of the line 'Alcide' (1755). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources
threedecks.org
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1781 – Launch of HMS Argo, a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy, 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.
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. 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.
French Revolutionary Wars
Captain William Clarke recommissioned Argo in May 1793. Captain Richard Rundle Burgess (or Burges) replaced him in February 1795.
In September 1795, Argo was part of the force escorting 63 merchants of the Levant convoy from Gibraltar. The other escorts were the 74-gun ships HMS Fortitude and HMS Bedford, the 32-gun frigates HMS Juno and HMS Lutine, the fireship HMS Tisiphone, and the recently captured Censeur. The convoy called at Gibraltar on 25 September, at which point thirty-two of the merchants left that night in company with Argo and Juno. The rest of the fleet sailed together, reaching Cape St Vincent by the early morning of 7 October. At this point a sizeable French squadron was sighted bearing up, consisting of six ships of the line and three frigates under Rear-Admiral Joseph de Richery. Eventually Censeur had to strike, and the remaining British warships and one surviving merchant of the convoy made their escape.[9] On 17 October Argo and Juno brought in their convoy of 32 vessels from Gibraltar
Captain John Stevens Hall took command of Argo in June 1796.
1798
In March 1798 Captain James Bowen took over command of Argo. On 5 May she encountered Captain Sir Sidney Smith, who was in an open boat in the Channel, having escaped via Havre de Grace from "the Temple" in Paris.
Argo sailed for the Mediterranean in September 1798. Argo, HMS Pomone, and HMS Cormorant convoyed a large fleet of merchantmen and transports to Lisbon. The convoy included the East Indiamen Royal Charlotte, Cuffnells, Phoenix, and Alligator. On 25 September the convoy encountered a French fleet of nine sail, consisting of one eighty-gun ship and eight frigates. The convoy commander signalled the Company's ships to form line of battle with the Royal Navy ships, and the convoy to push for Lisbon. This manoeuvre, and the warlike appearance of the Indiamen, deterred the French admiral from attacking them; the whole fleet reached Lisbon in safety.
Argo remained in the Mediterranean, serving with Commodore Duckworth. On 29 September Argo captured the Nostra Seniora de la Aldea.
In November Argo participated in the reduction of Menorca. Argo supported the landing of British troops. When four or five Spanish vessels were spotted, the British squadron sailed to catch them. The Spaniards consisted of four frigates and a sloop. The four Spanish frigates - the Flora, Casilda, Proserpine and Pomona - had been on their way from Barcelona to Mahon with the payroll of eight million reales for the troops there when they encountered sloop-of-war Peterel and captured her on 12 November. The Spanish frigates escaped their pursuers and sailed back to Cartagena, Spain.
Duckworth detached Argo to pursue the sloop and on 13 November she retook Peterel and her 72-man Spanish prize crew under the command of Don Antonio Franco Gandrada, Second Captain of Flora. Bownen put his own prize crew of 46 officers seamen and marines aboard.
On 22 November Argo captured the Spanish ship Virgin Solidad at sea. The Virgin Solidad was carrying a cargo of rags to Barcelona. At some point Argo also captured the Madona del Rosario.
1799
On 6 February 1799, Argo and Leviathan surprised two Spanish frigates at anchor near the south point of the Bahia de Alcudia on Majorca. The Spanish set sail with the British in pursuit. A violent westerly gale came up that took away Leviathan's main top-sail. After dark the Spanish frigates separated but Leviathan had fallen behind and saw neither the separation nor Argo's signal that she chase the one to port. Leviathan had nearly caught up with Argo when Argo got alongside the Santa Theresa about midnight. Argo fired a broadside that wounded two men and badly damaged Santa Theresa's rigging. At this point the Spaniard surrendered. She was of upwards of 950 tons burthen, carrying 42 guns plus coehorns and swivel guns. In addition to her crew of 280 seamen and marines under the command of Don Pablo Perez, she had 250 soldiers on board. Santa Theresa had recently been completely refurbished and provisioned for a four-month cruise. Her consort Proserpine, which had escaped, though smaller, was equally well-armed.
Then on 16 February Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrelles. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five setteesand brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.
In May Argo sailed to Algiers to arrange with the Dey for a supply of fresh provisions for the British forces in Menorca. While there Bowen achieved the release of six British subjects that the Algerians had held as slaves for more than 14 years.
On 6 August Argo captured the Spanish sloop Infanta Amelia off Portugal. She was a packet ship, which the Royal Navy took in as Porpoise. After her capture, Infanta Amelia took Earl St Vincent, who had been aboard Argo after resigning his command of the Mediterranean station, to Portsmouth, arriving there on 18 August.
1800
In early 1800 Argo captured three privateers: Independente (1 March), San Antonio (2 March) and Arlequin (1 May). On 18 March, the French privateer Vengeance, of 16 guns and 135 men, captured at Lat. 42° 16' Long. 16°, the packet Jane, which was sailing from Falmouth to Barbados and Jamaica. A week later Argo recaptured the Jane and sent her back into Falmouth.
On 19 August 1800 Argo captured the Spanish lugger St Antonio in ballast. Argo sent her in to Plymouth.
On 21 October, after a 15-hour chase, Argo captured the Spanish letter of marque San Fernando, which was pierced for 22 guns but carried twelve long 6-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men. San Fernando was five days out of Santander and sailing to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron bars and bale goods that belonged to the Royal Philippine Company. She was also carrying government dispatches but had thrown them overboard before the British boarded her.
Bowen also reported, but without giving further details, that during the same cruise he had captured four merchant vessels, two of which he sent in to port as prizes and two of which he sank. The two sent in were the French brig Maria Louisa, in ballast, and the Spanish barque Vincento, carrying iron ore. The vessels that he sank were also Spanish barques carrying iron ore.
1801
On 14 January 1801 Argo was off Ferrol serving as escort for the Mornington, Exeter, and Eliza Ann, which were bound for India, and a whaler. They encountered a small Spanish ship that Argo captured.
Then in March, Argo brought into Plymouth the Spanish ship Bolientorio, which had been sailing from Havana to Tenerife.
Argo and Carysfort escorted five transports carrying the 85th Regiment of Foot and forty artillerymen from Cowes on 24 June. They arrived in Portsmouth on 28 June and then sailed again on a "secret mission". They had to put back into Torbay on 11 July.
Later in 1801 the East India Company gave Bowen 400 guineas for the purchase of plate in gratitude for his having escorted from St Helena to England ten vessels either belonging to the company or carrying its cargo. Then in January 1802 the British merchants of Madeira gave Captain Bowen a sword for his services.
Napoleonic Wars
Captain Benjamin Hallowell commissioned Argo in August 1802, and in November sailed to the African coast, returning the next year. Next, she sailed to the West Indies where she participated in the captures of St Lucia and Tobago.
On 12 September Argo captured the French privateer cutter Oiseau. Oiseau was armed with ten guns and had a crew of 68 men under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau Nicholas Brune Daubin. Fire from Argo killed Oiseau's second lieutenant during the pursuit. Oiseau was nine days out of Rochfort and taken nothing. That same month, on the 24th, Argo recaptured the brig Rover, which the privateer Adventure, of Bordeaux, had captured as Rover was sailing from Bristol to Newfoundland.
On 25 December a tremendous gale hit Portsmouth and several outward-bound West Indiamen drifted from their anchors. One of them, the Matthew, bound to Jamaica, ran into Argo. In doing so, she carried away Argo's top mast and yards. Other West Indiamen came on shore. Captain Thomas le Marchant Gosselin commanded her briefly in 1804 before taking command of Ville de Paris in February 1804.
Captain Edward Codrington took command in July 1804 and Captain George Aldham replaced him in May 1805. A Captain Rickets briefly took command in July 1806 only to have Captain Stephen Thomas Digby replace him within the month.
In 1806 Digby again sailed Argo to the coast of Africa. In 1808 she was at Jamaica. In 1809, Argo and the brig-sloop Sparrow were blockading the town of Santo Domingo while a Spanish force invested it from the landward side. The British and Spaniards agreed a joint attack. The two British vessels came in close to the detached fort of St. Jerome and silenced it with their guns while losing only two men wounded. However the Spanish land attack failed.
On 9 March 1809, Argo's boats cut out the French navy felucca Joseph. Joseph was armed with a brass 9-pounder gun and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men under the command of Enseign de Vaisseau Jean Botin. Joseph was anchored under the guns of several shore batteries at St. Domingo. Her crew put up a strong resistance that, together with the fire from the batteries, wounded seven of Argo's men. However, most of the French crew then fled ashore with the result that Argo only captured 19 of them. Joseph arrived at Jamaica on 5 April.
On 8 July 1809 Argo was off Havanah, escorting the fleet from Jamaica.
In January 1810 Captain Frederick Warren became captain of Argo, after serving as acting captain of Melpomene. He sailed her for St. Helena and from there he convoyed a large fleet of East Indiamen to England.
On 28 November he faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth. The charge was that he had failed to follow orders to proceed to Quebec to bring home a convoy. He argued that the reason he had not sailed was that it was late in the year and that the weather was bad. The court accepted his reasoning and acquitted him.
Early in 1811 Argo carried Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke to Portugal, together with reinforcements for the British army there. Argo then took out an Algerine Ambassador. Lastly, she sailed for Constantinople with Sir Robert Liston and his suite on 6 April 1812.
Between 22 and 29 August 1812, Argo detained the Eliza, Leslie, master, sailing from Malta, and sent her into Gibraltar.
Captain Cornelius Quinton replaced Warren in October 1812. Argo then served as the flagship for Vice-Admiral Charles Stirling. Argo sailed for Jamaica on 22 January 1813.
In April 1813 Captain William Fothergill took command of Argo. She then served as Rear-Admiral W. Brown's flagship on the Jamaica station.
On 1 June Argo recaptured Cantonada. Cantonada had been sailing from Cadiz to Havana when a Carthaginian privateer captured her. The recaptured Cantonada reached Jamaica on 24 June. On 4 June Argo captured the Fly, which had been sailing from Jacmel to Wilmington. Fly arrived at Jamaica on 17 April. In September Argo was to escort a convoy to Bermuda.
In 1815 Captain Donald M'Cloud took command. Argo then served on the Downs station as flagship for Rear-Admiral Matthew Scott.
Fate
Argo was sold on 11 January 1816 for £2,600.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1781 – Launch of HMS Argo, a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy, 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.
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. 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.
French Revolutionary Wars
Captain William Clarke recommissioned Argo in May 1793. Captain Richard Rundle Burgess (or Burges) replaced him in February 1795.
In September 1795, Argo was part of the force escorting 63 merchants of the Levant convoy from Gibraltar. The other escorts were the 74-gun ships HMS Fortitude and HMS Bedford, the 32-gun frigates HMS Juno and HMS Lutine, the fireship HMS Tisiphone, and the recently captured Censeur. The convoy called at Gibraltar on 25 September, at which point thirty-two of the merchants left that night in company with Argo and Juno. The rest of the fleet sailed together, reaching Cape St Vincent by the early morning of 7 October. At this point a sizeable French squadron was sighted bearing up, consisting of six ships of the line and three frigates under Rear-Admiral Joseph de Richery. Eventually Censeur had to strike, and the remaining British warships and one surviving merchant of the convoy made their escape.[9] On 17 October Argo and Juno brought in their convoy of 32 vessels from Gibraltar
Captain John Stevens Hall took command of Argo in June 1796.
1798
In March 1798 Captain James Bowen took over command of Argo. On 5 May she encountered Captain Sir Sidney Smith, who was in an open boat in the Channel, having escaped via Havre de Grace from "the Temple" in Paris.
Argo sailed for the Mediterranean in September 1798. Argo, HMS Pomone, and HMS Cormorant convoyed a large fleet of merchantmen and transports to Lisbon. The convoy included the East Indiamen Royal Charlotte, Cuffnells, Phoenix, and Alligator. On 25 September the convoy encountered a French fleet of nine sail, consisting of one eighty-gun ship and eight frigates. The convoy commander signalled the Company's ships to form line of battle with the Royal Navy ships, and the convoy to push for Lisbon. This manoeuvre, and the warlike appearance of the Indiamen, deterred the French admiral from attacking them; the whole fleet reached Lisbon in safety.
Argo remained in the Mediterranean, serving with Commodore Duckworth. On 29 September Argo captured the Nostra Seniora de la Aldea.
In November Argo participated in the reduction of Menorca. Argo supported the landing of British troops. When four or five Spanish vessels were spotted, the British squadron sailed to catch them. The Spaniards consisted of four frigates and a sloop. The four Spanish frigates - the Flora, Casilda, Proserpine and Pomona - had been on their way from Barcelona to Mahon with the payroll of eight million reales for the troops there when they encountered sloop-of-war Peterel and captured her on 12 November. The Spanish frigates escaped their pursuers and sailed back to Cartagena, Spain.
Duckworth detached Argo to pursue the sloop and on 13 November she retook Peterel and her 72-man Spanish prize crew under the command of Don Antonio Franco Gandrada, Second Captain of Flora. Bownen put his own prize crew of 46 officers seamen and marines aboard.
On 22 November Argo captured the Spanish ship Virgin Solidad at sea. The Virgin Solidad was carrying a cargo of rags to Barcelona. At some point Argo also captured the Madona del Rosario.
1799
On 6 February 1799, Argo and Leviathan surprised two Spanish frigates at anchor near the south point of the Bahia de Alcudia on Majorca. The Spanish set sail with the British in pursuit. A violent westerly gale came up that took away Leviathan's main top-sail. After dark the Spanish frigates separated but Leviathan had fallen behind and saw neither the separation nor Argo's signal that she chase the one to port. Leviathan had nearly caught up with Argo when Argo got alongside the Santa Theresa about midnight. Argo fired a broadside that wounded two men and badly damaged Santa Theresa's rigging. At this point the Spaniard surrendered. She was of upwards of 950 tons burthen, carrying 42 guns plus coehorns and swivel guns. In addition to her crew of 280 seamen and marines under the command of Don Pablo Perez, she had 250 soldiers on board. Santa Theresa had recently been completely refurbished and provisioned for a four-month cruise. Her consort Proserpine, which had escaped, though smaller, was equally well-armed.
Then on 16 February Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrelles. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five setteesand brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.
In May Argo sailed to Algiers to arrange with the Dey for a supply of fresh provisions for the British forces in Menorca. While there Bowen achieved the release of six British subjects that the Algerians had held as slaves for more than 14 years.
On 6 August Argo captured the Spanish sloop Infanta Amelia off Portugal. She was a packet ship, which the Royal Navy took in as Porpoise. After her capture, Infanta Amelia took Earl St Vincent, who had been aboard Argo after resigning his command of the Mediterranean station, to Portsmouth, arriving there on 18 August.
1800
In early 1800 Argo captured three privateers: Independente (1 March), San Antonio (2 March) and Arlequin (1 May). On 18 March, the French privateer Vengeance, of 16 guns and 135 men, captured at Lat. 42° 16' Long. 16°, the packet Jane, which was sailing from Falmouth to Barbados and Jamaica. A week later Argo recaptured the Jane and sent her back into Falmouth.
On 19 August 1800 Argo captured the Spanish lugger St Antonio in ballast. Argo sent her in to Plymouth.
On 21 October, after a 15-hour chase, Argo captured the Spanish letter of marque San Fernando, which was pierced for 22 guns but carried twelve long 6-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men. San Fernando was five days out of Santander and sailing to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron bars and bale goods that belonged to the Royal Philippine Company. She was also carrying government dispatches but had thrown them overboard before the British boarded her.
Bowen also reported, but without giving further details, that during the same cruise he had captured four merchant vessels, two of which he sent in to port as prizes and two of which he sank. The two sent in were the French brig Maria Louisa, in ballast, and the Spanish barque Vincento, carrying iron ore. The vessels that he sank were also Spanish barques carrying iron ore.
1801
On 14 January 1801 Argo was off Ferrol serving as escort for the Mornington, Exeter, and Eliza Ann, which were bound for India, and a whaler. They encountered a small Spanish ship that Argo captured.
Then in March, Argo brought into Plymouth the Spanish ship Bolientorio, which had been sailing from Havana to Tenerife.
Argo and Carysfort escorted five transports carrying the 85th Regiment of Foot and forty artillerymen from Cowes on 24 June. They arrived in Portsmouth on 28 June and then sailed again on a "secret mission". They had to put back into Torbay on 11 July.
Later in 1801 the East India Company gave Bowen 400 guineas for the purchase of plate in gratitude for his having escorted from St Helena to England ten vessels either belonging to the company or carrying its cargo. Then in January 1802 the British merchants of Madeira gave Captain Bowen a sword for his services.
Napoleonic Wars
Captain Benjamin Hallowell commissioned Argo in August 1802, and in November sailed to the African coast, returning the next year. Next, she sailed to the West Indies where she participated in the captures of St Lucia and Tobago.
On 12 September Argo captured the French privateer cutter Oiseau. Oiseau was armed with ten guns and had a crew of 68 men under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau Nicholas Brune Daubin. Fire from Argo killed Oiseau's second lieutenant during the pursuit. Oiseau was nine days out of Rochfort and taken nothing. That same month, on the 24th, Argo recaptured the brig Rover, which the privateer Adventure, of Bordeaux, had captured as Rover was sailing from Bristol to Newfoundland.
On 25 December a tremendous gale hit Portsmouth and several outward-bound West Indiamen drifted from their anchors. One of them, the Matthew, bound to Jamaica, ran into Argo. In doing so, she carried away Argo's top mast and yards. Other West Indiamen came on shore. Captain Thomas le Marchant Gosselin commanded her briefly in 1804 before taking command of Ville de Paris in February 1804.
Captain Edward Codrington took command in July 1804 and Captain George Aldham replaced him in May 1805. A Captain Rickets briefly took command in July 1806 only to have Captain Stephen Thomas Digby replace him within the month.
In 1806 Digby again sailed Argo to the coast of Africa. In 1808 she was at Jamaica. In 1809, Argo and the brig-sloop Sparrow were blockading the town of Santo Domingo while a Spanish force invested it from the landward side. The British and Spaniards agreed a joint attack. The two British vessels came in close to the detached fort of St. Jerome and silenced it with their guns while losing only two men wounded. However the Spanish land attack failed.
On 9 March 1809, Argo's boats cut out the French navy felucca Joseph. Joseph was armed with a brass 9-pounder gun and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men under the command of Enseign de Vaisseau Jean Botin. Joseph was anchored under the guns of several shore batteries at St. Domingo. Her crew put up a strong resistance that, together with the fire from the batteries, wounded seven of Argo's men. However, most of the French crew then fled ashore with the result that Argo only captured 19 of them. Joseph arrived at Jamaica on 5 April.
On 8 July 1809 Argo was off Havanah, escorting the fleet from Jamaica.
In January 1810 Captain Frederick Warren became captain of Argo, after serving as acting captain of Melpomene. He sailed her for St. Helena and from there he convoyed a large fleet of East Indiamen to England.
On 28 November he faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth. The charge was that he had failed to follow orders to proceed to Quebec to bring home a convoy. He argued that the reason he had not sailed was that it was late in the year and that the weather was bad. The court accepted his reasoning and acquitted him.
Early in 1811 Argo carried Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke to Portugal, together with reinforcements for the British army there. Argo then took out an Algerine Ambassador. Lastly, she sailed for Constantinople with Sir Robert Liston and his suite on 6 April 1812.
Between 22 and 29 August 1812, Argo detained the Eliza, Leslie, master, sailing from Malta, and sent her into Gibraltar.
Captain Cornelius Quinton replaced Warren in October 1812. Argo then served as the flagship for Vice-Admiral Charles Stirling. Argo sailed for Jamaica on 22 January 1813.
In April 1813 Captain William Fothergill took command of Argo. She then served as Rear-Admiral W. Brown's flagship on the Jamaica station.
On 1 June Argo recaptured Cantonada. Cantonada had been sailing from Cadiz to Havana when a Carthaginian privateer captured her. The recaptured Cantonada reached Jamaica on 24 June. On 4 June Argo captured the Fly, which had been sailing from Jacmel to Wilmington. Fly arrived at Jamaica on 17 April. In September Argo was to escort a convoy to Bermuda.
In 1815 Captain Donald M'Cloud took command. Argo then served on the Downs station as flagship for Rear-Admiral Matthew Scott.
Fate
Argo was sold on 11 January 1816 for £2,600.
HMS Argo (1781) - Wikipedia
Roebuck-class ship - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1781 – Launch of HMS Sceptre, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Rotherhithe.
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building Dictator (1783), and in February 1779 for Sceptre (1781), both 64-gun, Third Rate, two-deckers. The design was similar to the 74-gun Albion (1763). Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]
Career
Shortly after completion she was sent out to the Indian Ocean to join Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes's squadron. She arrived in time for the Battle of Trincomalee in 1782. This was the fourth battle of a bloody campaign between Vice-Admiral Hughes and the French Admiral Suffren'ssquadron.
The following year, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore (1783), the final battle in the East Indies campaign. In the run-up to the battle Sceptre captured the Naïade, under captain Villaret, on the night of 11 April 1783. Naïade was armed with eighteen to twenty 8-pounder guns and ten swivel guns, and had a crew of 160 men. The British took her into service but never commissioned her; they then sold her in August 1784.
She was then laid up for the peace.[citation needed] In 1794, under the command of Commodore John Ford, Sceptre assisted in the capture of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
On 12 March 1795, under the command of Captain William Essington, Sceptre sailed for the Cape of Good Hope as escort to fleet of East Indiamen sailing to India and China.
Capture of eight Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena
General Goddard, HMS Sceptre, and Swallow capturing Dutch East Indiamen, by Thomas Luny; National Maritime Museum
When Sceptre arrived at St Helena she brought the news that France had invaded the Netherlands in January. Furthermore, under an order dated 9 February 1795, Royal Navy vessels and British letters of marque were to detain Dutch vessels and cargoes and bring them into British ports that they might be detained provisionally. Then on 2 June the British East India Company packet ship Swallow arrived from the Cape of Good Hope with the news than a convoy of Dutch East Indiamen had left the Cape, sailing for the Netherlands.
On 18 May 1795, the Dutch brig Komeet, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Mynheer Claris, and the Dutch corvette Scipio, under the command of de Jong, set out from Table Bay with a convoy of sixteen East Indiamen, for Europe. Bad weather forced eight Indiamen back to the Cape. These eight sailed again on 22 May.
The remaining eight Indiamen, which had sailed on 18 May together with their two escorts, and a private Dutch ship from the Cape, the whaler Herstilder, sailed on.[4] All but two of this group reached ports in then-neutral Norway.
Essington prevailed upon Colonel Brooke, the governor of St Helena, to lend him some troops and to put the British East India Company (EIC) vessels there at the time to form a squadron to try and intercept the Dutch. Providentially, General Goddard, an East Indiaman under the command of Captain William Taylor Money, was resting at St Helena while on her way back to England. On 3 June, Sceptre, General Goddard, Manship (also an EIC ship), and Swallow set out. Five other HEIC ships set out later, of which only Busbridge met up with the squadron. On 10 June the British captured the Dutch Indiaman Hougly, which Swallow escorted into St Helena, before returning to the squadron with additional seamen. Due to bad weather, Manship and Busbridge lost contact with Essington's squadron.
In the afternoon of 14 June, Essington's squadron sighted seven sail. At 1 a.m. the next morning General Goddard sailed through the Dutch fleet, which fired on her. She did not fire back. Later that morning, after some exchange of shots between the British and Dutch vessels, the Dutch surrendered. The HEIC ships Busbridge, Captain Samuel Maitland, and Asia, Captain John Davy Foulkes, arrived on the scene and helped board the Dutch vessels. There were no casualties on either side. The British then brought their prizes into St Helena on 17 June.
On 1 July, Sceptre, General Goddard and the prizes sailed from St Helena to gather in other returning British East Indiamen. They then returned to St Helena, where George Vancouver and Discovery, which had arrived there in the meantime, joined them.[6] The entire convoy, now some 20 vessels or so strong, sailed from there in August to Shannon, where most arrived on 13 December. (Three Dutch vessels were lost. Houghly was lost on 1 September. Surcheance was lost on 5 September. Zeelelie escaped and wrecked off the Scilly Islands on 26 September.) General Goddard reached the Downs on 15 October.
Because the captures occurred before Britain had declared war on the Batavian Republic, the vessels become Droits to the Crown. Still, prize money, in the amount of two-thirds of the value of the Dutch ships amounted to £76,664 14s. Of this, £61,331 15s 2d was distributed among the officers and crew of Sceptre, General Goddard, Busbridge, Asia, and Swallow.
Wrecking
"Slowing wreckage of Sceptre of Craig's Tower" Sketch Lady Anne Barnard
While under the command of Captain Edwards, Sceptre was caught at anchor in a storm on 5 November 1799 along with seven other ships in Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope. At 10:30am, the captain ordered the topmasts struck, and the fore and main yards lowered in order to ease the ship in the strengthening winds. At midday, the ship fired a feu de joie on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot, suggesting no apparent apprehension about the oncoming storm. However within half an hour, the main anchor cable parted followed by the secondary one. At approximately 7pm, the ship was driven ashore onto a reef at Woodstock Beach at the site of the present-day Royal Cape Yacht Club. The ship was battered to pieces, and approximately 349 seamen and marines were killed or drowned. One officer, two midshipmen, 47 seamen and one marine were saved from the wreck, but nine of these died on the beach.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]
The Inflexible-class ships of the line were a class of four 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade. The lines of this class were based heavily on Slade's earlier 74-gun Albion-class.
Ships
Builder: Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 26 February 1777
Launched: 7 March 1780
Fate: Broken up, 1820
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 11 February 1778
Launched: 11 April 1781
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 21 October 1778
Launched: 6 January 1783
Fate: Broken up, 1817
Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 16 January 1779
Launched: 8 June 1781
Fate: Wrecked, 1799
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1781 – Launch of HMS Sceptre, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Rotherhithe.
HMS Sceptre was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 June 1781 at Rotherhithe.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building Dictator (1783), and in February 1779 for Sceptre (1781), both 64-gun, Third Rate, two-deckers. The design was similar to the 74-gun Albion (1763). Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]
Career
Shortly after completion she was sent out to the Indian Ocean to join Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes's squadron. She arrived in time for the Battle of Trincomalee in 1782. This was the fourth battle of a bloody campaign between Vice-Admiral Hughes and the French Admiral Suffren'ssquadron.
The following year, she took part in the Battle of Cuddalore (1783), the final battle in the East Indies campaign. In the run-up to the battle Sceptre captured the Naïade, under captain Villaret, on the night of 11 April 1783. Naïade was armed with eighteen to twenty 8-pounder guns and ten swivel guns, and had a crew of 160 men. The British took her into service but never commissioned her; they then sold her in August 1784.
She was then laid up for the peace.[citation needed] In 1794, under the command of Commodore John Ford, Sceptre assisted in the capture of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
On 12 March 1795, under the command of Captain William Essington, Sceptre sailed for the Cape of Good Hope as escort to fleet of East Indiamen sailing to India and China.
Capture of eight Dutch East Indiamen off St Helena
General Goddard, HMS Sceptre, and Swallow capturing Dutch East Indiamen, by Thomas Luny; National Maritime Museum
When Sceptre arrived at St Helena she brought the news that France had invaded the Netherlands in January. Furthermore, under an order dated 9 February 1795, Royal Navy vessels and British letters of marque were to detain Dutch vessels and cargoes and bring them into British ports that they might be detained provisionally. Then on 2 June the British East India Company packet ship Swallow arrived from the Cape of Good Hope with the news than a convoy of Dutch East Indiamen had left the Cape, sailing for the Netherlands.
On 18 May 1795, the Dutch brig Komeet, under the command of Captain-Lieutenant Mynheer Claris, and the Dutch corvette Scipio, under the command of de Jong, set out from Table Bay with a convoy of sixteen East Indiamen, for Europe. Bad weather forced eight Indiamen back to the Cape. These eight sailed again on 22 May.
The remaining eight Indiamen, which had sailed on 18 May together with their two escorts, and a private Dutch ship from the Cape, the whaler Herstilder, sailed on.[4] All but two of this group reached ports in then-neutral Norway.
Essington prevailed upon Colonel Brooke, the governor of St Helena, to lend him some troops and to put the British East India Company (EIC) vessels there at the time to form a squadron to try and intercept the Dutch. Providentially, General Goddard, an East Indiaman under the command of Captain William Taylor Money, was resting at St Helena while on her way back to England. On 3 June, Sceptre, General Goddard, Manship (also an EIC ship), and Swallow set out. Five other HEIC ships set out later, of which only Busbridge met up with the squadron. On 10 June the British captured the Dutch Indiaman Hougly, which Swallow escorted into St Helena, before returning to the squadron with additional seamen. Due to bad weather, Manship and Busbridge lost contact with Essington's squadron.
In the afternoon of 14 June, Essington's squadron sighted seven sail. At 1 a.m. the next morning General Goddard sailed through the Dutch fleet, which fired on her. She did not fire back. Later that morning, after some exchange of shots between the British and Dutch vessels, the Dutch surrendered. The HEIC ships Busbridge, Captain Samuel Maitland, and Asia, Captain John Davy Foulkes, arrived on the scene and helped board the Dutch vessels. There were no casualties on either side. The British then brought their prizes into St Helena on 17 June.
On 1 July, Sceptre, General Goddard and the prizes sailed from St Helena to gather in other returning British East Indiamen. They then returned to St Helena, where George Vancouver and Discovery, which had arrived there in the meantime, joined them.[6] The entire convoy, now some 20 vessels or so strong, sailed from there in August to Shannon, where most arrived on 13 December. (Three Dutch vessels were lost. Houghly was lost on 1 September. Surcheance was lost on 5 September. Zeelelie escaped and wrecked off the Scilly Islands on 26 September.) General Goddard reached the Downs on 15 October.
Because the captures occurred before Britain had declared war on the Batavian Republic, the vessels become Droits to the Crown. Still, prize money, in the amount of two-thirds of the value of the Dutch ships amounted to £76,664 14s. Of this, £61,331 15s 2d was distributed among the officers and crew of Sceptre, General Goddard, Busbridge, Asia, and Swallow.
Wrecking
"Slowing wreckage of Sceptre of Craig's Tower" Sketch Lady Anne Barnard
While under the command of Captain Edwards, Sceptre was caught at anchor in a storm on 5 November 1799 along with seven other ships in Table Bay, near the Cape of Good Hope. At 10:30am, the captain ordered the topmasts struck, and the fore and main yards lowered in order to ease the ship in the strengthening winds. At midday, the ship fired a feu de joie on the occasion of the Gunpowder Plot, suggesting no apparent apprehension about the oncoming storm. However within half an hour, the main anchor cable parted followed by the secondary one. At approximately 7pm, the ship was driven ashore onto a reef at Woodstock Beach at the site of the present-day Royal Cape Yacht Club. The ship was battered to pieces, and approximately 349 seamen and marines were killed or drowned. One officer, two midshipmen, 47 seamen and one marine were saved from the wreck, but nine of these died on the beach.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]
The Inflexible-class ships of the line were a class of four 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade. The lines of this class were based heavily on Slade's earlier 74-gun Albion-class.
Ships
Builder: Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 26 February 1777
Launched: 7 March 1780
Fate: Broken up, 1820
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 11 February 1778
Launched: 11 April 1781
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 21 October 1778
Launched: 6 January 1783
Fate: Broken up, 1817
Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 16 January 1779
Launched: 8 June 1781
Fate: Wrecked, 1799
HMS Sceptre (1781) - Wikipedia
Inflexible-class ship of the line - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1785 – Launch of HMS Melampus, a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
Design and construction
The Admiralty ordered Melampus from James Martin Hillhouse, of Bristol on 17 April 1782 as a 38-gun fifth rate. After she had been laid down in December 1782, the Admiralty reduced her armament to 36 guns on 11 January 1783, as captains of earlier 38-gun frigates had complained that the extra guns made the upper gundeck too cramped. Melampus was launched on 8 June 1785, and fitted between 3 July and 8 September 1785 for ordinary at Plymouth. She was again fitted between May and 2 July 1790 for Channel service. She had cost £20,785 13s 0d to build, with a further £2,985 being spent in 1790 for fitting out.
Detail from the painting by Bristol artist Chris Woodhouse of the 36-gun Bristol-built frigate HMS Melampus, commissioned and purchased in 1990 by Bristol City Museum
Early service
Her first captain following her May 1790 commissioning was Charles M. Pole. Melampus was paid off again in November 1790, but by 1793 she had been moved to Plymouth, where she was refitted between March and June for £4,726.
French Revolutionary Wars
She recommissioned in April 1793 under the command of Isaac Coffin, and by April the following year she was under Captain Thomas Wells, serving in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron. During this time Melampus participated in the Action of 23 April 1794, during which the British took three vessels, Engageante, Pomone, and Babet. Melampus had five men killed and five wounded.
She came under the command of Sir Richard Strachan in September 1794 and was recommissioned in April 1795. She was part of Strachan's force that attacked and destroyed a French convoy in Cartaret Bay on 9 May 1795. The British squadron spotted a convoy of 13 vessels and immediately gave chase. Twelve of the quarry escaped and got close to the shore where a small shore battery, their own armed escorts, and a brig and a lugger offered some protection. Strachan sent in the boats from the vessels in his squadron while Melampus and the ships provided covering fire. The French crews abandoned their vessels at the approach of the British and eventually the shore battery also stopped firing. The cutting out party retrieved all the vessels, save a small sloop, which was hard ashore and which they burnt. Melampus had eight men wounded and in all the British lost one man killed and 14 wounded. They captured a gun brig and a gun lugger, each armed with three 18-pounder guns. They also captured the convoy, which consisted of: Prosperitte (80 tons and carrying cordage), Montagne (200 tons and carrying timber, lead and tin plates), Catharine (200 tons and carrying ship timber), Hyrondelle (220 tons and carrying ship timber and pitch), Contente (250 tons, carrying powder), Nymphe (120 tons carrying fire wood), Bonne-Union (150 tons), Fantazie (45 tons carrying coals), Alexandre (397 and carrying ship timber, cordage, hemp and cannon), and Petit Neptune (113 tons and carrying ship timber). A later prize money report added the names of the escorts, the gun-brig Crachefeu and the gun-lugger Eclair, both of which the Royal Navy took into service under their existing names.
On 3 July 1795 Melampus and Hebe intercepted a convoy of 13 vessels off St Malo. Melampus captured an armed brig and Hebe captured six merchant vessels: Maria Louisa, Abeille. Bon Foi, Patrouille, Eleonore, and Pecheur. The brig of war was armed with four 24-pounders and had a crew of 60 men. Later she was identified as the 4-gun Vésuve. The convoy had been on its way from Île-de-Bréhat to Brest. Seaflower, Daphne and the cutter Sprightly shared in the prize and head money. The Royal Navy took Vésuve into service as HMS Vesuve.
Melampus came under the command of Captain Graham Moore in August 1796. On 13 November she and Minerva drove a French navy corvette ashore near Barfleur. However the British were not able to get close enough to assure her destruction. Then Melampus and Childers captured another corvette, the Etna. Etna was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 137 men under the command of Citizen Joseph La Coudrais. The prisoners stated that both corvettes were carrying military and naval stores and that the corvette that had run ashore was the Etonnant, of eighteen 18-pounder guns. Both were new ships on their first cruise. The Royal Navy took Etna into service as the 20-gun post ship HMS Cormorant.
Melampus was also active in operations against French privateers. On 5 October 1797 she captured the French privateer lugger Rayon off the Casquets after a chase of four hours. Rayon was armed with six carriage guns and eight coehorns, and had a crew of 54 men under the command of Jean Baptiste Leonard Gosselin. She had sailed from Cherburg ten hours earlier intending to cruise between the Lizard and Cape Clear for six weeks.
Melampus was in company with Seahorse when they captured the Belliqueux, off the Irish coast on 16 January 1798. She was originally a corvette, but was now a privateer. Belliqueux was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with fourteen 8-pounder guns and four carronades, and had a crew of 120 men. She was out of St. Malo, and on 11 January had captured His Majesty's packet Prince Ernest, which had been sailing from Tortola. The captain of the packet and all but four of her crew were on board Belliqueux.
A few days later, on 23 January, Melampus captured the Volage, after a short, intense engagement. She was a corvette that the French navy had lent to merchants. She was armed with twenty 9-pounder guns and two 18-pounders, and had a crew of 195 men under the command of Citizen Delageneaux, a capitaine de frégate. In the engagement Melampus had two men mortally wounded and three men dangerously wounded; Volage had four men killed and eight wounded. Volage was three weeks out of Nantes, provisioned for a three-month cruise. By the time of her capture, Volage had herself only captured an American ship and destroyed an English brig sailing from Belfast to Lisbon with coal. The Captain and all the officers on Volage were officers in the French navy, but on a three-month leave.
Melampus was present at the Battle of Tory Island in October that year, fighting in the main action and then subsequently capturing the French frigate Résolue in a night action two days later. Together with Ethalion she captured the 32-gun frigate Bellone which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Proserpine.
On 26 February 1799 Melampus captured the French privateer Mercure, which the Admiralty took into service as Trompeuse. Mercure was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 103 men. She was from Saint Malo and was returning to her home port after having had a successful cruise in the Channel. She was under the command of Captain Jacques Dupuy-Fromy.
On 14 April Melampus pursued another French privateer for 25 hours before she was able to capture her quarry. The privateer was the brig Papillon, which was armed with ten 9-pounder guns and four 36-pounder obusiers and had a crew of 123 men.
On 18 April Melampus was in pursuit of a privateer when the privateer capsized and sank before Melampus could reach her. The captain of Papillon stated that the privateer was the Nantois, of fourteen 6 and 12-pounder guns, and a crew of 150 men. Furthermore, she had on board the master and part of the crew of the brig Echo, which she had captured earlier.
Melampus was then assigned to the Caribbean, sailing for Jamaica in March 1800. On 2 June, Melampus, in company with Juno, captured the French letter of marque Volant, of 140 tons, armed with eight guns, and having a crew of 49 men. She was sailing from Vera Cruz to the Havannah. Melampus also captured Hannibal on 23 July.
On 1 October Melampus, Juno, and Retribution were in company when they captured the Aquila. Thereafter she came under the command of Captain Thomas Gosselin in November 1801 before being paid off in June 1802.
Lastly, Melampus captured Amistad (29 December) and Falcon Corunnes (30 December).
Napoleonic Wars
Melampus returned to England, and underwent a large repair at Deptford between August 1803 and October 1804. She was recommissioned in August 1804 under the command of Captain Stephen Poyntz, and commenced cruises off the French coast.
Between 12 and 14 February 1805, Melampus was in company with cutter Nimble, and the hired armed cutters Frisk and Rhoda. At this time a group of 27 French gunvessels were sailing from Bordeaux to Brest. Melampus succeeded in capturing two gunbrigs carrying two 24-pounder guns and one 18-pounder gun each, with a complement of 50 men each, primarily soldiers. Melampus also captured four luggers, each armed with one 18-pounder gun, and with complements of 25 men,mostly soldiers. The gunvessels Melampus captured were N°s 169, 174, 277, 286, 287, and 311. Frisk succeeded in capturing Gunvessel n° 288, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 25 men (20 being troops from the 44th Regiment), all under the command of enseigne de vaisseaux P. Roox. Rhoda succeeded in capturing the lugger Gunvessel n °313, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 22 men (18 of them soldiers), under the command of enseigne auxiliaire Frederick Widsmann. The gunvessel had had one man killed.
On 25 June Loire had been chasing a French frigate privateer for some twelve hours when Melampus and Brilliant came up and cut-off the quarry, forcing her to surrender. She was the Valiant (or Vaillant), of Bordeaux. She was armed with twenty-four 18-pounder guns on her main deck and six 6-pounders, which she threw overboard while Loire was pursuing her. She had a crew of 240 men. She had been out for 20 days on a four-month cruise but had only captured the Halifax packet Lord Charles Spencer.
On 13 July 1805 she captured the Spanish privateer Hydra at sea. Hydra was pierced for 30 cannons and carried twenty-two 9-pounder guns on her main deck, and six 6-pounders on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 192 men, and she lost three men killed and several men wounded before she struck. Melampus captured her on the 17th day of a four-month cruise and she had not yet captured any British vessels.
Melampus was present, whilst serving as part of a squadron under her old commander Sir Richard Strachan, at the destruction of the 74-gun French ship Impétueux on 14 September 1806.
In September 1807 Captain Edward Hawker took over command, sailing her to North America in 1808. He then took her to the Leeward Islands in 1809.
On 16 January 1809 Melampus captured the French navy brig Colibri off Barbuda, after her captain had the "temerity" to put up a fight as Melampus was sailing alongside. She was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two 8-pounder guns, had a crew of 92 men, under the command of Mons. Deslandes, Lieutenant de vaisseau. In the engagement, Colibri had three men killed and 11 wounded before she struck. She was a new vessel and was sailing from Cherburg with a cargo of 570 barrels of flour and a great quantity of gunpowder intended for the relief of to San Domingo. On her way she had captured and sunk two British brigs that had been sailing from Newfoundland to Lisbon, the Hannibal and the Priscilla, both of Dartmouth. The Royal Navy took her into service as Colibri.
On 14 December Melampus captured the French brig corvette Bearnais after pursuing her for 28 hours. Bearnais was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades and had a crew of 109 men (including 30 soldiers), under the command of Monsieur Montbazen, Lieutenant de vaisseau. She fought before striking with the result that she had one man killed and some men wounded, and she wounded two men on Melampus. Bearnais was a new vessel and was sailing from Bayonne to Guadeloupe with a cargo of flour and military stores, some of which she had thrown overboard during the pursuit. The Royal Navy took her into service as Curieux.
Between January and February 1810, Melampus was involved in the capture of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all surviving claimants from the campaign.
Melampus was in company with the sloop Driver when they captured a French corvette brig letter of marque on 28 May. The vessel was the Fantôme, of 300 tons burthen (bm), pierced for 20 heavy carronades, and with a crew of 74 men. She had made three captures before being captured herself. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
Transfer
Melampus returned to Britain, and by December 1812 was under repair at Isaac Blackburn's yards, at Turnchapel. Work was completed by March 1814, and she was again fitted for sea, between April 1814 and May 1815 at Plymouth Dockyard. She was then sold to the Dutch government in June 1815 for the sum of £35,364.
HNLMS Melampus
The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, painting by George Chambers Sr.
On 27 August 1816 Melampus was the flagship of the Dutch squadron under Vice-Admiral Baron T.F. van de Capellen that joined a British fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Exmouth in the bombardment of Algiers. Her captain was Antony-Willem De-Man.[30] In the action Melampus lost three men killed and 15 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to the 1328 surviving British claimants from the action.
The bombardment was an attempt by Britain to end the slavery practices of the Dey of Algiers. The Anglo-Dutch fleet bombarded ships and the harbour defences of Algiers.
By 1822 Melampus was in the Dutch East Indies. In that year she led a squadron of five transports and 24 local vessels carrying Dutch marines and local auxiliaries in a punitive expedition against the Iranun of Sulawesi.
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1785 – Launch of HMS Melampus, a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.
Design and construction
The Admiralty ordered Melampus from James Martin Hillhouse, of Bristol on 17 April 1782 as a 38-gun fifth rate. After she had been laid down in December 1782, the Admiralty reduced her armament to 36 guns on 11 January 1783, as captains of earlier 38-gun frigates had complained that the extra guns made the upper gundeck too cramped. Melampus was launched on 8 June 1785, and fitted between 3 July and 8 September 1785 for ordinary at Plymouth. She was again fitted between May and 2 July 1790 for Channel service. She had cost £20,785 13s 0d to build, with a further £2,985 being spent in 1790 for fitting out.
Detail from the painting by Bristol artist Chris Woodhouse of the 36-gun Bristol-built frigate HMS Melampus, commissioned and purchased in 1990 by Bristol City Museum
Early service
Her first captain following her May 1790 commissioning was Charles M. Pole. Melampus was paid off again in November 1790, but by 1793 she had been moved to Plymouth, where she was refitted between March and June for £4,726.
French Revolutionary Wars
She recommissioned in April 1793 under the command of Isaac Coffin, and by April the following year she was under Captain Thomas Wells, serving in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron. During this time Melampus participated in the Action of 23 April 1794, during which the British took three vessels, Engageante, Pomone, and Babet. Melampus had five men killed and five wounded.
She came under the command of Sir Richard Strachan in September 1794 and was recommissioned in April 1795. She was part of Strachan's force that attacked and destroyed a French convoy in Cartaret Bay on 9 May 1795. The British squadron spotted a convoy of 13 vessels and immediately gave chase. Twelve of the quarry escaped and got close to the shore where a small shore battery, their own armed escorts, and a brig and a lugger offered some protection. Strachan sent in the boats from the vessels in his squadron while Melampus and the ships provided covering fire. The French crews abandoned their vessels at the approach of the British and eventually the shore battery also stopped firing. The cutting out party retrieved all the vessels, save a small sloop, which was hard ashore and which they burnt. Melampus had eight men wounded and in all the British lost one man killed and 14 wounded. They captured a gun brig and a gun lugger, each armed with three 18-pounder guns. They also captured the convoy, which consisted of: Prosperitte (80 tons and carrying cordage), Montagne (200 tons and carrying timber, lead and tin plates), Catharine (200 tons and carrying ship timber), Hyrondelle (220 tons and carrying ship timber and pitch), Contente (250 tons, carrying powder), Nymphe (120 tons carrying fire wood), Bonne-Union (150 tons), Fantazie (45 tons carrying coals), Alexandre (397 and carrying ship timber, cordage, hemp and cannon), and Petit Neptune (113 tons and carrying ship timber). A later prize money report added the names of the escorts, the gun-brig Crachefeu and the gun-lugger Eclair, both of which the Royal Navy took into service under their existing names.
On 3 July 1795 Melampus and Hebe intercepted a convoy of 13 vessels off St Malo. Melampus captured an armed brig and Hebe captured six merchant vessels: Maria Louisa, Abeille. Bon Foi, Patrouille, Eleonore, and Pecheur. The brig of war was armed with four 24-pounders and had a crew of 60 men. Later she was identified as the 4-gun Vésuve. The convoy had been on its way from Île-de-Bréhat to Brest. Seaflower, Daphne and the cutter Sprightly shared in the prize and head money. The Royal Navy took Vésuve into service as HMS Vesuve.
Melampus came under the command of Captain Graham Moore in August 1796. On 13 November she and Minerva drove a French navy corvette ashore near Barfleur. However the British were not able to get close enough to assure her destruction. Then Melampus and Childers captured another corvette, the Etna. Etna was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 137 men under the command of Citizen Joseph La Coudrais. The prisoners stated that both corvettes were carrying military and naval stores and that the corvette that had run ashore was the Etonnant, of eighteen 18-pounder guns. Both were new ships on their first cruise. The Royal Navy took Etna into service as the 20-gun post ship HMS Cormorant.
Melampus was also active in operations against French privateers. On 5 October 1797 she captured the French privateer lugger Rayon off the Casquets after a chase of four hours. Rayon was armed with six carriage guns and eight coehorns, and had a crew of 54 men under the command of Jean Baptiste Leonard Gosselin. She had sailed from Cherburg ten hours earlier intending to cruise between the Lizard and Cape Clear for six weeks.
Melampus was in company with Seahorse when they captured the Belliqueux, off the Irish coast on 16 January 1798. She was originally a corvette, but was now a privateer. Belliqueux was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with fourteen 8-pounder guns and four carronades, and had a crew of 120 men. She was out of St. Malo, and on 11 January had captured His Majesty's packet Prince Ernest, which had been sailing from Tortola. The captain of the packet and all but four of her crew were on board Belliqueux.
A few days later, on 23 January, Melampus captured the Volage, after a short, intense engagement. She was a corvette that the French navy had lent to merchants. She was armed with twenty 9-pounder guns and two 18-pounders, and had a crew of 195 men under the command of Citizen Delageneaux, a capitaine de frégate. In the engagement Melampus had two men mortally wounded and three men dangerously wounded; Volage had four men killed and eight wounded. Volage was three weeks out of Nantes, provisioned for a three-month cruise. By the time of her capture, Volage had herself only captured an American ship and destroyed an English brig sailing from Belfast to Lisbon with coal. The Captain and all the officers on Volage were officers in the French navy, but on a three-month leave.
Melampus was present at the Battle of Tory Island in October that year, fighting in the main action and then subsequently capturing the French frigate Résolue in a night action two days later. Together with Ethalion she captured the 32-gun frigate Bellone which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Proserpine.
On 26 February 1799 Melampus captured the French privateer Mercure, which the Admiralty took into service as Trompeuse. Mercure was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 103 men. She was from Saint Malo and was returning to her home port after having had a successful cruise in the Channel. She was under the command of Captain Jacques Dupuy-Fromy.
On 14 April Melampus pursued another French privateer for 25 hours before she was able to capture her quarry. The privateer was the brig Papillon, which was armed with ten 9-pounder guns and four 36-pounder obusiers and had a crew of 123 men.
On 18 April Melampus was in pursuit of a privateer when the privateer capsized and sank before Melampus could reach her. The captain of Papillon stated that the privateer was the Nantois, of fourteen 6 and 12-pounder guns, and a crew of 150 men. Furthermore, she had on board the master and part of the crew of the brig Echo, which she had captured earlier.
Melampus was then assigned to the Caribbean, sailing for Jamaica in March 1800. On 2 June, Melampus, in company with Juno, captured the French letter of marque Volant, of 140 tons, armed with eight guns, and having a crew of 49 men. She was sailing from Vera Cruz to the Havannah. Melampus also captured Hannibal on 23 July.
On 1 October Melampus, Juno, and Retribution were in company when they captured the Aquila. Thereafter she came under the command of Captain Thomas Gosselin in November 1801 before being paid off in June 1802.
Lastly, Melampus captured Amistad (29 December) and Falcon Corunnes (30 December).
Napoleonic Wars
Melampus returned to England, and underwent a large repair at Deptford between August 1803 and October 1804. She was recommissioned in August 1804 under the command of Captain Stephen Poyntz, and commenced cruises off the French coast.
Between 12 and 14 February 1805, Melampus was in company with cutter Nimble, and the hired armed cutters Frisk and Rhoda. At this time a group of 27 French gunvessels were sailing from Bordeaux to Brest. Melampus succeeded in capturing two gunbrigs carrying two 24-pounder guns and one 18-pounder gun each, with a complement of 50 men each, primarily soldiers. Melampus also captured four luggers, each armed with one 18-pounder gun, and with complements of 25 men,mostly soldiers. The gunvessels Melampus captured were N°s 169, 174, 277, 286, 287, and 311. Frisk succeeded in capturing Gunvessel n° 288, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 25 men (20 being troops from the 44th Regiment), all under the command of enseigne de vaisseaux P. Roox. Rhoda succeeded in capturing the lugger Gunvessel n °313, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 22 men (18 of them soldiers), under the command of enseigne auxiliaire Frederick Widsmann. The gunvessel had had one man killed.
On 25 June Loire had been chasing a French frigate privateer for some twelve hours when Melampus and Brilliant came up and cut-off the quarry, forcing her to surrender. She was the Valiant (or Vaillant), of Bordeaux. She was armed with twenty-four 18-pounder guns on her main deck and six 6-pounders, which she threw overboard while Loire was pursuing her. She had a crew of 240 men. She had been out for 20 days on a four-month cruise but had only captured the Halifax packet Lord Charles Spencer.
On 13 July 1805 she captured the Spanish privateer Hydra at sea. Hydra was pierced for 30 cannons and carried twenty-two 9-pounder guns on her main deck, and six 6-pounders on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 192 men, and she lost three men killed and several men wounded before she struck. Melampus captured her on the 17th day of a four-month cruise and she had not yet captured any British vessels.
Melampus was present, whilst serving as part of a squadron under her old commander Sir Richard Strachan, at the destruction of the 74-gun French ship Impétueux on 14 September 1806.
In September 1807 Captain Edward Hawker took over command, sailing her to North America in 1808. He then took her to the Leeward Islands in 1809.
On 16 January 1809 Melampus captured the French navy brig Colibri off Barbuda, after her captain had the "temerity" to put up a fight as Melampus was sailing alongside. She was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two 8-pounder guns, had a crew of 92 men, under the command of Mons. Deslandes, Lieutenant de vaisseau. In the engagement, Colibri had three men killed and 11 wounded before she struck. She was a new vessel and was sailing from Cherburg with a cargo of 570 barrels of flour and a great quantity of gunpowder intended for the relief of to San Domingo. On her way she had captured and sunk two British brigs that had been sailing from Newfoundland to Lisbon, the Hannibal and the Priscilla, both of Dartmouth. The Royal Navy took her into service as Colibri.
On 14 December Melampus captured the French brig corvette Bearnais after pursuing her for 28 hours. Bearnais was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades and had a crew of 109 men (including 30 soldiers), under the command of Monsieur Montbazen, Lieutenant de vaisseau. She fought before striking with the result that she had one man killed and some men wounded, and she wounded two men on Melampus. Bearnais was a new vessel and was sailing from Bayonne to Guadeloupe with a cargo of flour and military stores, some of which she had thrown overboard during the pursuit. The Royal Navy took her into service as Curieux.
Between January and February 1810, Melampus was involved in the capture of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all surviving claimants from the campaign.
Melampus was in company with the sloop Driver when they captured a French corvette brig letter of marque on 28 May. The vessel was the Fantôme, of 300 tons burthen (bm), pierced for 20 heavy carronades, and with a crew of 74 men. She had made three captures before being captured herself. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
Transfer
Melampus returned to Britain, and by December 1812 was under repair at Isaac Blackburn's yards, at Turnchapel. Work was completed by March 1814, and she was again fitted for sea, between April 1814 and May 1815 at Plymouth Dockyard. She was then sold to the Dutch government in June 1815 for the sum of £35,364.
HNLMS Melampus
The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, painting by George Chambers Sr.
On 27 August 1816 Melampus was the flagship of the Dutch squadron under Vice-Admiral Baron T.F. van de Capellen that joined a British fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Exmouth in the bombardment of Algiers. Her captain was Antony-Willem De-Man.[30] In the action Melampus lost three men killed and 15 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to the 1328 surviving British claimants from the action.
The bombardment was an attempt by Britain to end the slavery practices of the Dey of Algiers. The Anglo-Dutch fleet bombarded ships and the harbour defences of Algiers.
By 1822 Melampus was in the Dutch East Indies. In that year she led a squadron of five transports and 24 local vessels carrying Dutch marines and local auxiliaries in a punitive expedition against the Iranun of Sulawesi.
HMS Melampus (1785) - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1793 - Launch of HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal"), an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal") was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French ship Sans Pareil, but was captured in 1794 and spent the rest of her career in service with the British.
French service
Sans Pareil was built at Brest as a Tonnant-class ship of the line, to a design by Groignard. She was launched on 8 June 1793, but spent less than a year in service with the French navy. She sailed into the Atlantic in May 1794, under the command of Captain Courand, as part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly. She was Nielly's flagship for the operation, which aimed to meet a corn convoy inbound from North America, under Pierre Jean Van Stabel. Neilly initially failed to make contact with the French convoy, but on 9 May 1794 the squadron came across a British one, escorted by HMS Castor, under the command of Captain Thomas Troubridge. The squadron attacked and captured Castor, and a number of the convoy's ships. Castor was only briefly in French hands before HMS Carysfort retook her on 29 May. However, Troubridge remained a prisoner on Sans Pareil until the battle of the Glorious First of June.
In May, Sans Pareil captured a number of British merchantmen: Gordon, Boyman, master, sailing from Antigua to London; Irton, Wikinson, master, sailing from Cork to Jamaica; Edward, of London, sailing from Naples to Hull; and Active, sailing from Civita Vechia to Lieth. The same report credits Sans Pareil with capturing HMS Alert, though the actual captor was Unité.
The French fleet on 1 June 1794. Sans Pareil is second to last in the French rear
Having made contact with the approaching convoy, the squadron began the return voyage. During this, a French fleet under Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was intercepted by a British fleet under Lord Howe, and a series of sporadic actions took place on 28 and 29 May. Neilly brought some of his larger ships, including Sans Pareil, to join Villaret, sending the convoy on ahead under the escort of frigates.
The fleets eventually clashed in force at the Glorious First of June, where Sans Pareil formed part of the French rear. During the battle HMS Royal George, flagship of Vice-Admiral Alexander Hood, broke the French line ahead of Sans Pareil, bringing down her fore and mizzen masts with a broadside. HMS Glory then passed across her stern, shooting away her main mast. Disabled and unmanageable, Sans Pareil drifted out of the line until HMS Majestic captured her. Aboard her were found Troubridge and 50 men and officers of the Castor. They were released and helped to bring the damaged Sans Pareil into Spithead. Sans Pareilhad possibly lost as many as 260 of her crew killed, with another 120 wounded.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as fitted? as an 80-gun, Third Rate, two-decker. The plan may relate to her when she was originally fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard between June 1794 and April 1795. This plan was sent to Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth) in October 1842 to compare with the lines ordered to be taken off by Mr Spiller
British service
Sans Pareil was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and was initially commanded from March 1795 by Captain Lord Hugh Seymour, who was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 1 June 1795, the first anniversary of the Glorious First. He was succeeded in the command by Captain W. Browell in August 1795, but she continued to serve as Seymour's flagship, with the Channel Fleet. She was then present as part of a fleet under Admiral Hood at another engagement with Villaret, the Battle of Groix on 22 June, where she engaged the French ships Formidable and Peuple, losing ten killed and two wounded. Formidable was subsequently taken, joining the Royal Navy as HMS Belleisle. Seymour left the ship after this, being appointed to the Board of Admiralty in autumn 1795.
Sans Pareil continued to sail off the French coast, using her French build to her advantage by flying the French ensign and luring privateers to come within range. Seymour returned on a number of occasions, retaining her as his flagship for several cruises. By January 1799 Captain Atkins had taken command of Sans Pareil, but by August Captain Charles Penrose had replaced him. She then sailed to the West Indies, again as Seymour's flagship.
At some point in 1800 or 1801, Sans Pareil captured Guachapin, which the British took into service under that name. The London Gazette reports that on 9 April 1800, Sans Pareil captured the Spanish trader Guakerpin, of 165 tons burthen (bm), ten guns and 38 men. She belonged to Saint Andero, and was sailing from there to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron, porter, and linens.
On 27 March, Sans Pareil captured two small French privateer schooners. One was Pensee, of four guns and 65 men. She was from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when she was captured. The second was Sapajon, of six guns and 48 men. Both were from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when they was captured.
Seymour contracted a fever and died on 11 September 1801. Penrose too became ill and had to return to Britain. Sans Pareil then came under the command of Captain William Essington, and served as the flagship of Admiral Richard Montague. She returned to Plymouth on 4 September 1802.
Fate
After her return to Plymouth the Lords of the Admiralty wished immediately to recommission her as a guardship, but then she was put into ordinary instead because she was so in need of repair. In 1805 she was ordered repaired. The subsequent major refit lasted for 18 months and cost £35,000. This turned her into a prison hulk, and by 1807 she was used to hold French prisoners-of-war. She was reduced to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in October 1810, and spent another 32 years in service. Sans Pareil was finally broken up in October 1842.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile illustrating the knees, riders and beams for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later fitted as a sheer hulk in 1810. The plan shows the ship after the removal of the upper decks, leaving the altered lower deck for when she was used as a sheer hulk at Plymouth. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with half-sternboard outline, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later altered to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in 1810. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the midship section, and midship profile illustrating the knees, beams and spaces between the frames for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later altered to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in 1810. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
A Tonnant-class ship of the line, HMS Canopus, the former Franklin
Tonnant class (1787 onwards) – Following his standard design for 74-gun ships (see Téméraire class below), Jacques-Noël Sané then produced a standard design (approved on 29 September 1787) for an 80-gun ship, to which 8 ships were eventually built.
Tonnant 80 (launched 24 October 1789 at Toulon) – Captured by the British at Toulon in August 1793, retaken there by the French in December 1793, captured by the British in the Battle of the Nile on 2 August 1798 and added to the RN under the same name, broken up 1821
Indomptable 80 (launched 20 December 1790 at Brest) – Wrecked in the storm following the Battle of Trafalgar on 22 October 1805 off Rota
Sans Pareil 80 (launched 8 June 1793 at Brest) – Captured by the British in the Glorious First of June 1794 and added to the RN under the same name, broken up October 1842
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1793 - Launch of HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal"), an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy.
HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal") was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French ship Sans Pareil, but was captured in 1794 and spent the rest of her career in service with the British.
French service
Sans Pareil was built at Brest as a Tonnant-class ship of the line, to a design by Groignard. She was launched on 8 June 1793, but spent less than a year in service with the French navy. She sailed into the Atlantic in May 1794, under the command of Captain Courand, as part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly. She was Nielly's flagship for the operation, which aimed to meet a corn convoy inbound from North America, under Pierre Jean Van Stabel. Neilly initially failed to make contact with the French convoy, but on 9 May 1794 the squadron came across a British one, escorted by HMS Castor, under the command of Captain Thomas Troubridge. The squadron attacked and captured Castor, and a number of the convoy's ships. Castor was only briefly in French hands before HMS Carysfort retook her on 29 May. However, Troubridge remained a prisoner on Sans Pareil until the battle of the Glorious First of June.
In May, Sans Pareil captured a number of British merchantmen: Gordon, Boyman, master, sailing from Antigua to London; Irton, Wikinson, master, sailing from Cork to Jamaica; Edward, of London, sailing from Naples to Hull; and Active, sailing from Civita Vechia to Lieth. The same report credits Sans Pareil with capturing HMS Alert, though the actual captor was Unité.
The French fleet on 1 June 1794. Sans Pareil is second to last in the French rear
Having made contact with the approaching convoy, the squadron began the return voyage. During this, a French fleet under Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was intercepted by a British fleet under Lord Howe, and a series of sporadic actions took place on 28 and 29 May. Neilly brought some of his larger ships, including Sans Pareil, to join Villaret, sending the convoy on ahead under the escort of frigates.
The fleets eventually clashed in force at the Glorious First of June, where Sans Pareil formed part of the French rear. During the battle HMS Royal George, flagship of Vice-Admiral Alexander Hood, broke the French line ahead of Sans Pareil, bringing down her fore and mizzen masts with a broadside. HMS Glory then passed across her stern, shooting away her main mast. Disabled and unmanageable, Sans Pareil drifted out of the line until HMS Majestic captured her. Aboard her were found Troubridge and 50 men and officers of the Castor. They were released and helped to bring the damaged Sans Pareil into Spithead. Sans Pareilhad possibly lost as many as 260 of her crew killed, with another 120 wounded.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as fitted? as an 80-gun, Third Rate, two-decker. The plan may relate to her when she was originally fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard between June 1794 and April 1795. This plan was sent to Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth) in October 1842 to compare with the lines ordered to be taken off by Mr Spiller
British service
Sans Pareil was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and was initially commanded from March 1795 by Captain Lord Hugh Seymour, who was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 1 June 1795, the first anniversary of the Glorious First. He was succeeded in the command by Captain W. Browell in August 1795, but she continued to serve as Seymour's flagship, with the Channel Fleet. She was then present as part of a fleet under Admiral Hood at another engagement with Villaret, the Battle of Groix on 22 June, where she engaged the French ships Formidable and Peuple, losing ten killed and two wounded. Formidable was subsequently taken, joining the Royal Navy as HMS Belleisle. Seymour left the ship after this, being appointed to the Board of Admiralty in autumn 1795.
Sans Pareil continued to sail off the French coast, using her French build to her advantage by flying the French ensign and luring privateers to come within range. Seymour returned on a number of occasions, retaining her as his flagship for several cruises. By January 1799 Captain Atkins had taken command of Sans Pareil, but by August Captain Charles Penrose had replaced him. She then sailed to the West Indies, again as Seymour's flagship.
At some point in 1800 or 1801, Sans Pareil captured Guachapin, which the British took into service under that name. The London Gazette reports that on 9 April 1800, Sans Pareil captured the Spanish trader Guakerpin, of 165 tons burthen (bm), ten guns and 38 men. She belonged to Saint Andero, and was sailing from there to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron, porter, and linens.
On 27 March, Sans Pareil captured two small French privateer schooners. One was Pensee, of four guns and 65 men. She was from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when she was captured. The second was Sapajon, of six guns and 48 men. Both were from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when they was captured.
Seymour contracted a fever and died on 11 September 1801. Penrose too became ill and had to return to Britain. Sans Pareil then came under the command of Captain William Essington, and served as the flagship of Admiral Richard Montague. She returned to Plymouth on 4 September 1802.
Fate
After her return to Plymouth the Lords of the Admiralty wished immediately to recommission her as a guardship, but then she was put into ordinary instead because she was so in need of repair. In 1805 she was ordered repaired. The subsequent major refit lasted for 18 months and cost £35,000. This turned her into a prison hulk, and by 1807 she was used to hold French prisoners-of-war. She was reduced to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in October 1810, and spent another 32 years in service. Sans Pareil was finally broken up in October 1842.
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile illustrating the knees, riders and beams for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later fitted as a sheer hulk in 1810. The plan shows the ship after the removal of the upper decks, leaving the altered lower deck for when she was used as a sheer hulk at Plymouth. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with half-sternboard outline, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later altered to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in 1810. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the midship section, and midship profile illustrating the knees, beams and spaces between the frames for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later altered to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in 1810. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]
A Tonnant-class ship of the line, HMS Canopus, the former Franklin
Tonnant class (1787 onwards) – Following his standard design for 74-gun ships (see Téméraire class below), Jacques-Noël Sané then produced a standard design (approved on 29 September 1787) for an 80-gun ship, to which 8 ships were eventually built.
Tonnant 80 (launched 24 October 1789 at Toulon) – Captured by the British at Toulon in August 1793, retaken there by the French in December 1793, captured by the British in the Battle of the Nile on 2 August 1798 and added to the RN under the same name, broken up 1821
Indomptable 80 (launched 20 December 1790 at Brest) – Wrecked in the storm following the Battle of Trafalgar on 22 October 1805 off Rota
Sans Pareil 80 (launched 8 June 1793 at Brest) – Captured by the British in the Glorious First of June 1794 and added to the RN under the same name, broken up October 1842
HMS Sans Pareil (1794) - Wikipedia
Tonnant-class ship of the line - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1796 – HMS Unicorn (32), Cptn. Thomas Williams, and HMS Santa Margarita (36), Cptn. Thomas Byam Martin, captured Tribune (44), Commodore Moulson, and Tamise (42) to the westward of the Scillies.
A corvette Legere escaped.
The Atlantic raid of June 1796 was a short campaign containing three connected minor naval engagements fought in the Western Approaches comprising Royal Navy efforts to eliminate a squadron of French frigates operating against British commerce during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although Royal Navy dominance in the Western Atlantic had been established, French commerce raiders operating on short cruises were having a damaging effect on British trade, and British frigate squadrons regularly patrolled from Cork in search of the raiders. One such squadron comprised the 36-gun frigates HMS Unicorn and HMS Santa Margarita, patrolling in the vicinity of the Scilly Isles, which encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Tribune and Tamise and the corvette Légėre.
Capture of the French Frigate La Tribune by His Majesty's Ship The Unicorn on the 8th June 1796, Nicholas Pocock, 1797, National Maritime Museum
The opposing forces were approximately equal in size, but the French, under orders to operate against commerce, not engage British warships, attempted to retreat. The British frigates pursued closely and over the course of the day gradually overhauled the French squadron. At 16:00 Santa Margarita caught Tamise and a furious duel ensued in which the smaller Tamise was badly damaged and eventually forced to surrender. Tribune continued its efforts to escape, but was finally caught by Unicorn at 22:30 and defeated in a second hard-fought engagement. Légėre took no part in the action and was able to withdraw without becoming embroiled in either conflict.
Five days later the French frigate Proserpine, which had separated from the rest of the squadron after leaving Brest, was searching for her compatriots off Cape Clear in Southern Ireland when she was discovered by the patrolling British frigate HMS Dryad. Dryad successfully chased down Proserpine and forced the French ship to surrender in an engagement lasting 45 minutes. Nine days later Légėre was captured without a fight by another British frigate patrol. French casualties in all three engagements were very heavy, while British losses were light. In the aftermath all four captured ships were purchased for service in the Royal Navy.
Background
The first three years of the conflict between Great Britain and the new French Republic in the French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1793, had resulted in a series of setbacks for the French Atlantic Fleet, based at the large fortified port of Brest. In 1794 seven French ships of the line had been lost at the battle of the Glorious First of June, and early the following year five more were wrecked by winter storms during the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver campaign. In June 1795 three more ships were captured by the British Channel Fleet at the Battle of Groix. With the French fleet consolidating at Brest, the Royal Navy instituted a policy of close blockade, maintaining a fleet off the port to intercept any efforts by the main French battle fleet to sail. The French Navy instead embarked on a strategy of interference with British commerce, the majority of which by necessity passed through the Western Approaches and the English Channel. This campaign was conducted principally by privateers and small squadrons of frigates operating from Brest and other smaller ports on the French Atlantic and Channel coasts.
The French commerce raiding operations had some success against British trade, and to counteract these attacks the Royal Navy formed squadrons of fast frigates, which patrolled the Channel and Bay of Biscay in search of the French warships. This resulted in a series of engagements between British and French frigate squadrons, including a notable battle on 23 April 1794, and two actions by a squadron under the command of Commodore Sir Edward Pellew on 13 April and 20 April 1796 fought in the mouth of the Channel. The southern coast of Ireland, in the Kingdom of Ireland, a British client state, was seen as a particularly vulnerable region due to its proximity to the trade routes and its numerous isolated anchorages in which French ships could shelter. To counteract this threat, a Royal Navy frigate squadron was stationed in Cork under the command of Rear-Admiral Robert Kingsmill. Ships from this squadron patrolled the mouth of the Channel, singly or in pairs, in search of French raiders.
On 4 June 1796, a French squadron was dispatched from Brest on a raiding cruise. This force included the 40-gun frigates Tribune under Franco-American Commodore Jean Moulston, Proserpine under Captain Etienne Pevrieux and Tamise under Captain Jean-Baptiste-Alexis Fradin, the latter formerly a Royal Navy ship named HMS Thames which had been captured in an engagement in the Bay of Biscay by a French frigate squadron in October 1793. With the frigates was the 18-gun corvette Légėre under Lieutenant Jean Michel-Martin Carpentier. Tamise in particular had proven a highly effective commerce raider, recorded as capturing twenty merchant ships since her enforced change of allegiance. Prosperine separated from the other ships during a period of heavy fog on 7 June, sailing independently to the rendezvous off Cape Clear in Southern Ireland.
Tamise and Tribune
Engagement between the Unicorn Frigate Capt Williams and the Tribune French Frigate near Waterford, 1801, Atkins, National Maritime Museum
At 02:00 in the morning of 8 June, the remaining ships of the French squadron were sailing approximately 54 nautical miles (100 km) southeast of the Scilly Isles when sails were sighted 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) distant. This was a small British frigate squadron from Kingsmill's command comprising the 36-gun HMS Unicorn under Captain Thomas Williams and HMS Santa Margarita under Captain Thomas Byam Martin, sent to patrol the area in search of French raiders. The British frigates had just seized a Swedish merchant ship carrying Dutch contraband from Surinam, which they sent to Cork under a prize crew and immediately set sail to intercept the French, who turned away, sailing in line ahead. Tribune led the line, a much faster ship than either of her consorts, holding back for mutual support, but as the morning passed and the British ships drew closer and closer Légėre fell out of the line to windward. Both British frigates passed the corvette at distance, although the smaller vessel remained in sight for sometime, eventually departing to attack a merchant sloop sailing nearby.
At 13:00 the British frigates were close enough that both Tamise and Tribune could open fire with their stern-chasers, inflicting considerable damage to the sails and rigging of the British ships and causing them to fall back despite occasional fire from the British bow-chasers. This tactic bought the French frigates three hours, but at 16:00 it became clear that the slower Tamise would be overhauled by Santa Margarita; Williams had already instructed Martin to focus on Tamise as he intended to attack the larger Tribune himself. Under fire from Martin's ship and wishing to both avoid this conflict and hoping to inflict severe damage on Santa Margarita, Fradin turned away from the former and across the bows of the latter, intending to rake Santa Margarita. In response Martin brought his frigate alongside Tamise. Running at speed away from their compatriots, Tamise and Santa Margarita exchanged broadsides for 20 minutes until Fradin, his ship badly damaged and his crew suffering heavy casualties, was forced to strike his colours.
To Captain Sir Thomas Williams, This Print representing The Capture of the French Frigate La Tribune by His Majesty's Ship The Unicorn on the 8th June 1796 (PAH7894)
As Tamise and Santa Margarita fought, Unicorn continued the pursuit of Tribune. Without the need to support the slower Tamise, Moulston was able to spread more sail and Tribune pulled ahead of her opponent during the afternoon the ships passing Tuskar Rock on the Wexford Coast. The French frigate's stern-chasers continued to inflict damage on Unicorn's rigging, at one point snatching away the main topsail and it was only when night fell, and the wind with it, that Williams was able to gain on the French ship through the use of studding sails. At 22:30, following a chase of 210 nautical miles (390 km) northwards into St George's Channel, Unicorn was finally able to pull alongside Tribune. For 35 minutes the frigates battered at one another from close range. Under cover of smoke, Moulston then attempted to escape by pulling Tribune back and turning across Unicorn's stern, seeking to rake the British frigate and move to windward. Realising Moulston's intent, Williams hauled his sails around, effectively throwing Unicorn in reverse. As the British ship sailed suddenly backwards she crossed Tribune's bow, raking the French ship with devastating effect. From this vantage point the fire from Unicorn succeeded in collapsing the foremast and mainmast on Tribune and shooting away the mizen topmast, rendering the French ship unmanageable. With no hope of escape and casualties rapidly mounting, the wounded Moulston surrendered to Williams.
The engagements were relatively evenly matched: Tamise and Santa Margarita carried similar weight of shot (279 pounds (127 kg) to 250 pounds (110 kg)) although Tamise had seventy more crew members (306 to 237) and Santa Margarita was slightly more than a third larger (993bm to 656bm). Naval historian William James credits Santa Margarita's larger size as giving her the advantage. In the second action, Tribune also had a much larger crew than Unicorn (339 to 240) and was substantially larger (916bm to 791bm), but Unicorn, equipped with 18-pounder long guns, massed a far larger weight of shot (348 pounds (158 kg) to 260 pounds (120 kg)), which proved decisive. Both engagements saw similar casualty ratios, with Tamise losing 32 killed and 19 wounded, some of whom later died, and Tribune suffering 37 killed and 15 wounded, including Moulston, while losses on Santa Margarita and Unicorn were two killed and three wounded and none at all respectively.
Proserpine
Capture of Proserpine by HMS Dryad - 13 June 1796, 1816 Thomas Whitcombe, National Maritime Museum
While Tamise and Tribune met their fates in the Channel, Prosperine had continued unmolested to the cruising ground off the Cork coast. At 01:00 on 13 June, 36 nautical miles (67 km) southeast of Cape Clear Island, Pevrieux' crew sighted a sail approaching from the northeast. Pevrieux was searching for Moulston's squadron, and allowed his ship to close with the newcomer before discovering that it was the patrolling 36-gun British frigate HMS Dryad under Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk. On realising the danger, Pevrieux tacked away from Dryad and attempted to escape to the southwest. This chase lasted most of the day, Beauclerk gradually gaining on his opponent until Pevrieux opened fire with his stern-chaser guns at 20:00.
Shot from the stern-chasers punched holes in Dryad's sails and damaged the rigging, but Beauclerk's ship continued to gain on Proserpine until at 21:00 Beauclerk was close enough to open fire with his main broadside. Some damage was done to the sails and rigging of Dryad in the exchange and at one point the ship's colours were shot away and had to be replaced, but casualties were light. On Proserpine casualties mounted quickly, and although her sails and rigging remained largely intact, significant damage to the hull and heavy losses among the crew convinced Pevrieux to surrender at 21:45.
As in the previous engagements, the French ship had a much larger crew, (346 to 254), although weight of shot (366 pounds (166 kg) to 407 pounds (185 kg)) and size (1059bm to 924bm) were more evenly distributed. Casualties displayed the same inequalities as in the earlier engagements, with two killed and seven wounded on Dryad but 30 killed and 45 wounded on Proserpine. In James' opinion, had Pevrieux opted to use his initial advantage of the weather gage to attack Dryad directly rather than attempt to escape he might have been able to defeat the British frigate.
Aftermath
The last survivor of the squadron, Légėre, remained at sea for another nine days, capturing six merchant ships, before the corvette was intercepted at 48°30′N 08°28′W in the Western Approaches by the frigates HMS Apollo under Captain John Manley and HMS Doris under Captain Charles Jones. All of the captured ships were taken to Britain and were subsequently purchased for the Royal Navy, Tamise restored as HMS Thames, Tribune with the same name, Proserpine as HMS Amelia as there was already an HMS Proserpine in service, and Légėre anglicised as HMS Legere.
As the senior captain in the operation, Williams was subsequently knighted, although historian Tom Wareham considered that Martin's fight had been the harder-fought encounter. Wareham also considered that Beauclerk may not have been rewarded as he was already a member of the nobility. Historian James Henderson considered that Martin may not have been honoured for the engagement due to his youth: he was 23 years old at the time of the battle. The first lieutenants on each British ship were promoted to commanders and Commander Joseph Bullen, volunteering on board Santa Margarita, was promoted to post captain. More than five decades later, the Admiralty recognised the actions with the clasps "SANTA MARGARITA 8 JUNE 1796", "UNICORN 8 JUNE 1796" and "DRYAD 13 JUNE 1796" attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
Following the capture of Moulston's squadron there was little activity in the English Channel or Bay of Biscay almost to the end of the year. On 22 August a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren drove ashore and destroyed the French frigate Andromaque at the Gironde, and on 24 October Santa Margarita successfully chased down and captured two heavily armed privateers in the same region as the action in June. In December 1796 however, after the British fleet had retired to Spithead for the winter, the main French fleet sailed from Brest for the first time since June 1795 on a major operation named the Expédition d'Irlande, a planned invasion of Ireland. Like their winter campaign of two years previously, and for much the same reasons, this ended in disaster with 12 ships wrecked or captured and thousands of soldiers and sailors drowned without a single successful landing.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1796 – HMS Unicorn (32), Cptn. Thomas Williams, and HMS Santa Margarita (36), Cptn. Thomas Byam Martin, captured Tribune (44), Commodore Moulson, and Tamise (42) to the westward of the Scillies.
A corvette Legere escaped.
The Atlantic raid of June 1796 was a short campaign containing three connected minor naval engagements fought in the Western Approaches comprising Royal Navy efforts to eliminate a squadron of French frigates operating against British commerce during the French Revolutionary Wars. Although Royal Navy dominance in the Western Atlantic had been established, French commerce raiders operating on short cruises were having a damaging effect on British trade, and British frigate squadrons regularly patrolled from Cork in search of the raiders. One such squadron comprised the 36-gun frigates HMS Unicorn and HMS Santa Margarita, patrolling in the vicinity of the Scilly Isles, which encountered a French squadron comprising the frigates Tribune and Tamise and the corvette Légėre.
Capture of the French Frigate La Tribune by His Majesty's Ship The Unicorn on the 8th June 1796, Nicholas Pocock, 1797, National Maritime Museum
The opposing forces were approximately equal in size, but the French, under orders to operate against commerce, not engage British warships, attempted to retreat. The British frigates pursued closely and over the course of the day gradually overhauled the French squadron. At 16:00 Santa Margarita caught Tamise and a furious duel ensued in which the smaller Tamise was badly damaged and eventually forced to surrender. Tribune continued its efforts to escape, but was finally caught by Unicorn at 22:30 and defeated in a second hard-fought engagement. Légėre took no part in the action and was able to withdraw without becoming embroiled in either conflict.
Five days later the French frigate Proserpine, which had separated from the rest of the squadron after leaving Brest, was searching for her compatriots off Cape Clear in Southern Ireland when she was discovered by the patrolling British frigate HMS Dryad. Dryad successfully chased down Proserpine and forced the French ship to surrender in an engagement lasting 45 minutes. Nine days later Légėre was captured without a fight by another British frigate patrol. French casualties in all three engagements were very heavy, while British losses were light. In the aftermath all four captured ships were purchased for service in the Royal Navy.
Background
The first three years of the conflict between Great Britain and the new French Republic in the French Revolutionary Wars, which began in 1793, had resulted in a series of setbacks for the French Atlantic Fleet, based at the large fortified port of Brest. In 1794 seven French ships of the line had been lost at the battle of the Glorious First of June, and early the following year five more were wrecked by winter storms during the disastrous Croisière du Grand Hiver campaign. In June 1795 three more ships were captured by the British Channel Fleet at the Battle of Groix. With the French fleet consolidating at Brest, the Royal Navy instituted a policy of close blockade, maintaining a fleet off the port to intercept any efforts by the main French battle fleet to sail. The French Navy instead embarked on a strategy of interference with British commerce, the majority of which by necessity passed through the Western Approaches and the English Channel. This campaign was conducted principally by privateers and small squadrons of frigates operating from Brest and other smaller ports on the French Atlantic and Channel coasts.
The French commerce raiding operations had some success against British trade, and to counteract these attacks the Royal Navy formed squadrons of fast frigates, which patrolled the Channel and Bay of Biscay in search of the French warships. This resulted in a series of engagements between British and French frigate squadrons, including a notable battle on 23 April 1794, and two actions by a squadron under the command of Commodore Sir Edward Pellew on 13 April and 20 April 1796 fought in the mouth of the Channel. The southern coast of Ireland, in the Kingdom of Ireland, a British client state, was seen as a particularly vulnerable region due to its proximity to the trade routes and its numerous isolated anchorages in which French ships could shelter. To counteract this threat, a Royal Navy frigate squadron was stationed in Cork under the command of Rear-Admiral Robert Kingsmill. Ships from this squadron patrolled the mouth of the Channel, singly or in pairs, in search of French raiders.
On 4 June 1796, a French squadron was dispatched from Brest on a raiding cruise. This force included the 40-gun frigates Tribune under Franco-American Commodore Jean Moulston, Proserpine under Captain Etienne Pevrieux and Tamise under Captain Jean-Baptiste-Alexis Fradin, the latter formerly a Royal Navy ship named HMS Thames which had been captured in an engagement in the Bay of Biscay by a French frigate squadron in October 1793. With the frigates was the 18-gun corvette Légėre under Lieutenant Jean Michel-Martin Carpentier. Tamise in particular had proven a highly effective commerce raider, recorded as capturing twenty merchant ships since her enforced change of allegiance. Prosperine separated from the other ships during a period of heavy fog on 7 June, sailing independently to the rendezvous off Cape Clear in Southern Ireland.
Tamise and Tribune
Engagement between the Unicorn Frigate Capt Williams and the Tribune French Frigate near Waterford, 1801, Atkins, National Maritime Museum
At 02:00 in the morning of 8 June, the remaining ships of the French squadron were sailing approximately 54 nautical miles (100 km) southeast of the Scilly Isles when sails were sighted 3 nautical miles (5.6 km) distant. This was a small British frigate squadron from Kingsmill's command comprising the 36-gun HMS Unicorn under Captain Thomas Williams and HMS Santa Margarita under Captain Thomas Byam Martin, sent to patrol the area in search of French raiders. The British frigates had just seized a Swedish merchant ship carrying Dutch contraband from Surinam, which they sent to Cork under a prize crew and immediately set sail to intercept the French, who turned away, sailing in line ahead. Tribune led the line, a much faster ship than either of her consorts, holding back for mutual support, but as the morning passed and the British ships drew closer and closer Légėre fell out of the line to windward. Both British frigates passed the corvette at distance, although the smaller vessel remained in sight for sometime, eventually departing to attack a merchant sloop sailing nearby.
At 13:00 the British frigates were close enough that both Tamise and Tribune could open fire with their stern-chasers, inflicting considerable damage to the sails and rigging of the British ships and causing them to fall back despite occasional fire from the British bow-chasers. This tactic bought the French frigates three hours, but at 16:00 it became clear that the slower Tamise would be overhauled by Santa Margarita; Williams had already instructed Martin to focus on Tamise as he intended to attack the larger Tribune himself. Under fire from Martin's ship and wishing to both avoid this conflict and hoping to inflict severe damage on Santa Margarita, Fradin turned away from the former and across the bows of the latter, intending to rake Santa Margarita. In response Martin brought his frigate alongside Tamise. Running at speed away from their compatriots, Tamise and Santa Margarita exchanged broadsides for 20 minutes until Fradin, his ship badly damaged and his crew suffering heavy casualties, was forced to strike his colours.
To Captain Sir Thomas Williams, This Print representing The Capture of the French Frigate La Tribune by His Majesty's Ship The Unicorn on the 8th June 1796 (PAH7894)
As Tamise and Santa Margarita fought, Unicorn continued the pursuit of Tribune. Without the need to support the slower Tamise, Moulston was able to spread more sail and Tribune pulled ahead of her opponent during the afternoon the ships passing Tuskar Rock on the Wexford Coast. The French frigate's stern-chasers continued to inflict damage on Unicorn's rigging, at one point snatching away the main topsail and it was only when night fell, and the wind with it, that Williams was able to gain on the French ship through the use of studding sails. At 22:30, following a chase of 210 nautical miles (390 km) northwards into St George's Channel, Unicorn was finally able to pull alongside Tribune. For 35 minutes the frigates battered at one another from close range. Under cover of smoke, Moulston then attempted to escape by pulling Tribune back and turning across Unicorn's stern, seeking to rake the British frigate and move to windward. Realising Moulston's intent, Williams hauled his sails around, effectively throwing Unicorn in reverse. As the British ship sailed suddenly backwards she crossed Tribune's bow, raking the French ship with devastating effect. From this vantage point the fire from Unicorn succeeded in collapsing the foremast and mainmast on Tribune and shooting away the mizen topmast, rendering the French ship unmanageable. With no hope of escape and casualties rapidly mounting, the wounded Moulston surrendered to Williams.
The engagements were relatively evenly matched: Tamise and Santa Margarita carried similar weight of shot (279 pounds (127 kg) to 250 pounds (110 kg)) although Tamise had seventy more crew members (306 to 237) and Santa Margarita was slightly more than a third larger (993bm to 656bm). Naval historian William James credits Santa Margarita's larger size as giving her the advantage. In the second action, Tribune also had a much larger crew than Unicorn (339 to 240) and was substantially larger (916bm to 791bm), but Unicorn, equipped with 18-pounder long guns, massed a far larger weight of shot (348 pounds (158 kg) to 260 pounds (120 kg)), which proved decisive. Both engagements saw similar casualty ratios, with Tamise losing 32 killed and 19 wounded, some of whom later died, and Tribune suffering 37 killed and 15 wounded, including Moulston, while losses on Santa Margarita and Unicorn were two killed and three wounded and none at all respectively.
Proserpine
Capture of Proserpine by HMS Dryad - 13 June 1796, 1816 Thomas Whitcombe, National Maritime Museum
While Tamise and Tribune met their fates in the Channel, Prosperine had continued unmolested to the cruising ground off the Cork coast. At 01:00 on 13 June, 36 nautical miles (67 km) southeast of Cape Clear Island, Pevrieux' crew sighted a sail approaching from the northeast. Pevrieux was searching for Moulston's squadron, and allowed his ship to close with the newcomer before discovering that it was the patrolling 36-gun British frigate HMS Dryad under Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk. On realising the danger, Pevrieux tacked away from Dryad and attempted to escape to the southwest. This chase lasted most of the day, Beauclerk gradually gaining on his opponent until Pevrieux opened fire with his stern-chaser guns at 20:00.
Shot from the stern-chasers punched holes in Dryad's sails and damaged the rigging, but Beauclerk's ship continued to gain on Proserpine until at 21:00 Beauclerk was close enough to open fire with his main broadside. Some damage was done to the sails and rigging of Dryad in the exchange and at one point the ship's colours were shot away and had to be replaced, but casualties were light. On Proserpine casualties mounted quickly, and although her sails and rigging remained largely intact, significant damage to the hull and heavy losses among the crew convinced Pevrieux to surrender at 21:45.
As in the previous engagements, the French ship had a much larger crew, (346 to 254), although weight of shot (366 pounds (166 kg) to 407 pounds (185 kg)) and size (1059bm to 924bm) were more evenly distributed. Casualties displayed the same inequalities as in the earlier engagements, with two killed and seven wounded on Dryad but 30 killed and 45 wounded on Proserpine. In James' opinion, had Pevrieux opted to use his initial advantage of the weather gage to attack Dryad directly rather than attempt to escape he might have been able to defeat the British frigate.
Aftermath
The last survivor of the squadron, Légėre, remained at sea for another nine days, capturing six merchant ships, before the corvette was intercepted at 48°30′N 08°28′W in the Western Approaches by the frigates HMS Apollo under Captain John Manley and HMS Doris under Captain Charles Jones. All of the captured ships were taken to Britain and were subsequently purchased for the Royal Navy, Tamise restored as HMS Thames, Tribune with the same name, Proserpine as HMS Amelia as there was already an HMS Proserpine in service, and Légėre anglicised as HMS Legere.
As the senior captain in the operation, Williams was subsequently knighted, although historian Tom Wareham considered that Martin's fight had been the harder-fought encounter. Wareham also considered that Beauclerk may not have been rewarded as he was already a member of the nobility. Historian James Henderson considered that Martin may not have been honoured for the engagement due to his youth: he was 23 years old at the time of the battle. The first lieutenants on each British ship were promoted to commanders and Commander Joseph Bullen, volunteering on board Santa Margarita, was promoted to post captain. More than five decades later, the Admiralty recognised the actions with the clasps "SANTA MARGARITA 8 JUNE 1796", "UNICORN 8 JUNE 1796" and "DRYAD 13 JUNE 1796" attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.
Following the capture of Moulston's squadron there was little activity in the English Channel or Bay of Biscay almost to the end of the year. On 22 August a squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren drove ashore and destroyed the French frigate Andromaque at the Gironde, and on 24 October Santa Margarita successfully chased down and captured two heavily armed privateers in the same region as the action in June. In December 1796 however, after the British fleet had retired to Spithead for the winter, the main French fleet sailed from Brest for the first time since June 1795 on a major operation named the Expédition d'Irlande, a planned invasion of Ireland. Like their winter campaign of two years previously, and for much the same reasons, this ended in disaster with 12 ships wrecked or captured and thousands of soldiers and sailors drowned without a single successful landing.
Atlantic raid of June 1796 - Wikipedia
Action of 1796/06/08, 8th June 1796
Description and participants : Action of 1796-06-08, 8th June 1796
threedecks.org
HMS Unicorn (1794) - Wikipedia
HMS Tribune (1796) - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1796 – Re capture of HMS Thames, a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758.
She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service (as Tamise) after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service (as Tamise) after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
The Action of 24 October 1793 between Uranie and HMS Thames
British service
Thames was commissioned in April 1758. On 18 May 1759, she assisted in the capture of the French frigate Aréthuse, which was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Arethusa. She was deployed in the Mediterranean from August 1763 and paid off in March 1766 after wartime service.
She was repaired and recommissioned in October 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute. She participated in the Spithead Review of 22 June 1773, and in a mission to Morocco in 1774. Paid off in July 1775, she was recommissioned in August 1776, and then paid off again in September 1782 after wartime service.
After several repairs at various times, she was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Troubridge in June 1790. The China fleet left Macao on 21 March. HMS Leopard and Thames escorted them as far as Java Head.
She was later again paid off, repaired, and refitted.
Capture
At the Action of 24 October 1793, while sailing to Gibraltar under Captain James Cotes, she met Jean-François Tartu's Uranie, off Gascony. In the ensuing engagement she lost her rigging and most of her starboard battery, yet killed Tartu and forced Uranie to disengage. The next day the frigate Carmagnole, under Zacharie Allemand, and accompanying vessels captured Thames, which was essentially a defenseless hulk. She was brought into French service as Tamise.
French service and recapture
Tamise was entrusted to Captain Jean-Marthe-Adrien l'Hermitte, who ordered some technical improvements. She went for two short cruises in the Channel where she succeeded in taking 22 British merchant vessels of various sizes. She also escaped a British squadron that ignored her because of her British construction lines. She was then the admiral's frigate, repeating orders, in Villaret de Joyeuse's fleet. She was charged with the reconnaissance of Lord Howe's fleet in the morning of the Glorious First of June 1794.
Under the command of Captain Fradin, Tamise took part in the disastrous campaign of "Grand Hiver" while still with Villaret Joyeuse's fleet. She also was sent on three individual chasing campaigns making several seizures and taking part in three inconclusive individual fights.
On 8 June 1796 Tamise was cruising with the Tribune in the approaches to the Channel when they encountered the British frigates, Santa Margarita and Unicorn, which chased the two French frigates. Unicorn captured Tribune, and Santa Margarita captured Tamise at the Action of 8 June 1796. The Royal Navy reinstated Tamise under her old name as HMS Thames.
British service again
Thames was recommissioned in December 1796 under Captain William Lukin and in June sailed for Jamaica. In April – May 1797 she was caught up in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. However, Lukin managed her well during this period and she was one of the first vessels to sail after the suppression of the mutiny. In the second half of 1797, Thames captured a small barge of one gun, name unknown, on the Jamaica station.
On 12 May 1800, Thames, Clyde and the hired armed cutter Suwarrow captured a French chasse maree, name unknown. On 1 June, Thames was a part of a squadron detached from Channel fleet to Quiberon Bay and the Morbihan. On 4 June Thames, Cynthia and some smaller vessels attacked the south-west end of Quiberon where the silenced the forts, which a landing party of troops later destroyed.
On 26 October Thames encountered a French privateer at about 9:30 in the morning. Thames pursued her quarry for five hours. During the pursuit they came upon Immortalite, which joined in. The two British vessels finally captured the ship Diable à Quatre some 36 leagues from the Cordouan lighthouse. She was armed with sixteen 6 and 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 150 men. She was only one day out of Bordeaux. The Royal Navy took her into service as Imogen.
On 26 or 29 October, Thames and Immortalite chased a French letter of marque schooner all day. They finally captured her and found that she had been sailing from Guadaloupe to Bordeaux with a cargo of coffee. She was the schooner Unique.
A little over a month later, on 30 November she captured another French privateer in the Bay of Biscay after a six-hour pursuit. The prize, Actif, was armed with fourteen 6-pounder and two brass 12-pounder guns. She had a crew of 137 men and this was the first day of her first cruise. From her, Captain Lukin learned that in the previous three months only two British prizes had come into French or Spanish ports, one into Rochelle and one into Passage. The Royal Navy trook Actif into service as Morgiana.
On 18 January 1801, Thames captured the French navy corvette Aurore in the English Channel. Aurore was armed with 16 guns and was under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Charles Girault. She had as a passenger the governor of Mauritius's Aide de Camp, who was carrying dispatches to the French government there. The Royal Navy took Aurore into service as Charwell.
Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis took command of Thames in June. On 5 July she became becalmed while trying to recall Superb to join the squadron under Rear Admiral Sir James Saumarez. On 8 July she observed a Franco-Spanish squadron of six sail of the line prepare to sail the next day for Algeciras, and sailed to Gibraltar to warn the admiral.
Fine deed of arms by Captain Troude, Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio. Thames is in the right foreground.
Three days later Thames was part of Saumarez's squadron, which left Gibraltar to chase a Franco-Spanish squadron observed sailing from Algeciras. Thames took a minor part in the subsequent Battle of Algeciras Bay. The engagement resulted in the destruction of two first rates, and the capture of a third rate.
In subsequent months, assisted by the sloop-of-war Calpe, which had also participated in the battle, she destroyed a number of the enemy's coasters in the bay of Estepona.
Fate
Thames was paid off in January 1803 and broken up at Woolwich in September.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1796 – Re capture of HMS Thames, a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758.
She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service (as Tamise) after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service (as Tamise) after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
The Action of 24 October 1793 between Uranie and HMS Thames
British service
Thames was commissioned in April 1758. On 18 May 1759, she assisted in the capture of the French frigate Aréthuse, which was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Arethusa. She was deployed in the Mediterranean from August 1763 and paid off in March 1766 after wartime service.
She was repaired and recommissioned in October 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute. She participated in the Spithead Review of 22 June 1773, and in a mission to Morocco in 1774. Paid off in July 1775, she was recommissioned in August 1776, and then paid off again in September 1782 after wartime service.
After several repairs at various times, she was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Troubridge in June 1790. The China fleet left Macao on 21 March. HMS Leopard and Thames escorted them as far as Java Head.
She was later again paid off, repaired, and refitted.
Capture
At the Action of 24 October 1793, while sailing to Gibraltar under Captain James Cotes, she met Jean-François Tartu's Uranie, off Gascony. In the ensuing engagement she lost her rigging and most of her starboard battery, yet killed Tartu and forced Uranie to disengage. The next day the frigate Carmagnole, under Zacharie Allemand, and accompanying vessels captured Thames, which was essentially a defenseless hulk. She was brought into French service as Tamise.
French service and recapture
Tamise was entrusted to Captain Jean-Marthe-Adrien l'Hermitte, who ordered some technical improvements. She went for two short cruises in the Channel where she succeeded in taking 22 British merchant vessels of various sizes. She also escaped a British squadron that ignored her because of her British construction lines. She was then the admiral's frigate, repeating orders, in Villaret de Joyeuse's fleet. She was charged with the reconnaissance of Lord Howe's fleet in the morning of the Glorious First of June 1794.
Under the command of Captain Fradin, Tamise took part in the disastrous campaign of "Grand Hiver" while still with Villaret Joyeuse's fleet. She also was sent on three individual chasing campaigns making several seizures and taking part in three inconclusive individual fights.
On 8 June 1796 Tamise was cruising with the Tribune in the approaches to the Channel when they encountered the British frigates, Santa Margarita and Unicorn, which chased the two French frigates. Unicorn captured Tribune, and Santa Margarita captured Tamise at the Action of 8 June 1796. The Royal Navy reinstated Tamise under her old name as HMS Thames.
British service again
Thames was recommissioned in December 1796 under Captain William Lukin and in June sailed for Jamaica. In April – May 1797 she was caught up in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. However, Lukin managed her well during this period and she was one of the first vessels to sail after the suppression of the mutiny. In the second half of 1797, Thames captured a small barge of one gun, name unknown, on the Jamaica station.
On 12 May 1800, Thames, Clyde and the hired armed cutter Suwarrow captured a French chasse maree, name unknown. On 1 June, Thames was a part of a squadron detached from Channel fleet to Quiberon Bay and the Morbihan. On 4 June Thames, Cynthia and some smaller vessels attacked the south-west end of Quiberon where the silenced the forts, which a landing party of troops later destroyed.
On 26 October Thames encountered a French privateer at about 9:30 in the morning. Thames pursued her quarry for five hours. During the pursuit they came upon Immortalite, which joined in. The two British vessels finally captured the ship Diable à Quatre some 36 leagues from the Cordouan lighthouse. She was armed with sixteen 6 and 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 150 men. She was only one day out of Bordeaux. The Royal Navy took her into service as Imogen.
On 26 or 29 October, Thames and Immortalite chased a French letter of marque schooner all day. They finally captured her and found that she had been sailing from Guadaloupe to Bordeaux with a cargo of coffee. She was the schooner Unique.
A little over a month later, on 30 November she captured another French privateer in the Bay of Biscay after a six-hour pursuit. The prize, Actif, was armed with fourteen 6-pounder and two brass 12-pounder guns. She had a crew of 137 men and this was the first day of her first cruise. From her, Captain Lukin learned that in the previous three months only two British prizes had come into French or Spanish ports, one into Rochelle and one into Passage. The Royal Navy trook Actif into service as Morgiana.
On 18 January 1801, Thames captured the French navy corvette Aurore in the English Channel. Aurore was armed with 16 guns and was under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Charles Girault. She had as a passenger the governor of Mauritius's Aide de Camp, who was carrying dispatches to the French government there. The Royal Navy took Aurore into service as Charwell.
Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis took command of Thames in June. On 5 July she became becalmed while trying to recall Superb to join the squadron under Rear Admiral Sir James Saumarez. On 8 July she observed a Franco-Spanish squadron of six sail of the line prepare to sail the next day for Algeciras, and sailed to Gibraltar to warn the admiral.
Fine deed of arms by Captain Troude, Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio. Thames is in the right foreground.
Three days later Thames was part of Saumarez's squadron, which left Gibraltar to chase a Franco-Spanish squadron observed sailing from Algeciras. Thames took a minor part in the subsequent Battle of Algeciras Bay. The engagement resulted in the destruction of two first rates, and the capture of a third rate.
In subsequent months, assisted by the sloop-of-war Calpe, which had also participated in the battle, she destroyed a number of the enemy's coasters in the bay of Estepona.
Fate
Thames was paid off in January 1803 and broken up at Woolwich in September.
HMS Thames (1758) - Wikipedia
Richmond-class frigate - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1830 - The sloop of war USS Vincennes becomes the first US Navy warship to circle the globe when she returns to New York.
She departs on Sept. 3, 1826, rounds Cape Horn and cruises the Pacific protecting American merchantmen and whalers until June 1829.
USS Vincennes (1826) was a 703-ton Boston-class sloop of war in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1865. During her service, Vincennes patrolled the Pacific, explored the Antarctic, and blockaded the Confederate Gulf coast in the Civil War. Named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes, she was the first U.S. warship to circumnavigate the globe.
19th-century painting (based on a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN), depicting USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, circa January–February 1840.
Built in Brooklyn
Vincennes—the first American ship to be so named—was one of ten sloops of war whose construction was authorized by Congress on 3 March 1825. She was laid down at New York in 1825, launched on 27 April 1826, and commissioned on 27 August 1826, with Master Commandant William Compton Bolton in command.
First world cruise
The ship set sail for the first time on 3 September 1826, from New York bound for the Pacific by way of Cape Horn. She cruised extensively in that ocean, visiting the Hawaiian islands in 1829 and made her way to Macau by 1830, under Commander William B. Finch.[2]
p.208–9 Her return voyage was made by way of China, the Philippines, the Indian Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope. Ship chaplain Charles Samuel Stewart published a book about the voyage.[3] After nearly four years, Vincennes arrived back in New York on 8 June 1830, becoming the first U.S. Navy ship to circumnavigate the Earth. Two days later the ship was decommissioned.
.... read about her later career on wikipedia .....
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1830 - The sloop of war USS Vincennes becomes the first US Navy warship to circle the globe when she returns to New York.
She departs on Sept. 3, 1826, rounds Cape Horn and cruises the Pacific protecting American merchantmen and whalers until June 1829.
USS Vincennes (1826) was a 703-ton Boston-class sloop of war in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1865. During her service, Vincennes patrolled the Pacific, explored the Antarctic, and blockaded the Confederate Gulf coast in the Civil War. Named for the Revolutionary War Battle of Vincennes, she was the first U.S. warship to circumnavigate the globe.
19th-century painting (based on a sketch by Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, USN), depicting USS Vincennes in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica, circa January–February 1840.
Built in Brooklyn
Vincennes—the first American ship to be so named—was one of ten sloops of war whose construction was authorized by Congress on 3 March 1825. She was laid down at New York in 1825, launched on 27 April 1826, and commissioned on 27 August 1826, with Master Commandant William Compton Bolton in command.
First world cruise
The ship set sail for the first time on 3 September 1826, from New York bound for the Pacific by way of Cape Horn. She cruised extensively in that ocean, visiting the Hawaiian islands in 1829 and made her way to Macau by 1830, under Commander William B. Finch.[2]
p.208–9 Her return voyage was made by way of China, the Philippines, the Indian Ocean, and the Cape of Good Hope. Ship chaplain Charles Samuel Stewart published a book about the voyage.[3] After nearly four years, Vincennes arrived back in New York on 8 June 1830, becoming the first U.S. Navy ship to circumnavigate the Earth. Two days later the ship was decommissioned..... read about her later career on wikipedia .....
USS Vincennes (1826) - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1899 – Launch of Jeanne d'Arc, an armoured cruiser built for the French Navy at the end of the 19th century, the sole ship of her class.
Jeanne d'Arc was an armoured cruiser built for the French Navy at the end of the 19th century, the sole ship of her class. Completed in 1903, she was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (French: Escadre du Nord), although she was transferred to the reserve fleet before the end of the year. The ship was recommissioned for a few months in mid-1905 and was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet (Escadre de Méditerranée) in mid-1906 and served as a flagship for the next several years. Jeanne d'Arc was assigned to the reserve in mid-1908 and modified to serve as a training ship for naval cadets of the Naval Academy (École Navale). In 1912, she made the first of two lengthy training cruises.
A few days after she returned from her cruise, the ship was mobilised for service with the Northern Squadron as tensions rose before World War I began in August 1914. Jeanne d'Arc was tasked to patrol the English Channel in search of contraband and German blockade runners and continued to perform that mission until March 1915 when she was transferred to the Mediterranean. The ship was initially assigned to support French troops in the Dardanelles Campaign and then became flagship of the French ships patrolling the Levantine coast. In early 1916, Jeanne d'Arc began a lengthy refit that lasted until 1917 when she was assigned to the French West Indies. The ship was placed in reserve in 1918 and resumed her previous role as a training ship the next year. Jeanne d'Arc returned to reserve in 1928 and was struck from the Navy List in 1933 before being sold for scrap the following year.
Background and description
Plan and right elevation of Jeanne d'Arc from Brassey's Naval Annual1915, showing the armour layout and positions of the guns. (The plan is incorrect regarding the upper superstructure and the position of the second 138 mm (5.5 in) gun on upper deck — it should be in the middle of the ship.)
Jeanne d'Arc was originally conceived in the early 1890s as a large protected cruiser for overseas service, but the design was recast as an armoured cruiser by the naval architect Emile Bertin, director of the Navy's Technical Section (Section technique) in 1895. His design is regarded as unsuccessful with too light an armament for her size and failing to achieve her designed speed. The ship measured 147 metres (482 ft 3 in) long overall with a beam of 19.42 metres (63 ft 9 in) and had a maximum draught of 8 metres (26 ft 3 in). She displaced 11,264 tonnes (11,086 long tons) at normal load and had a metacentric height of 1.458 metres (5 ft). The hull was subdivided by 15 watertight bulkheads that extended from her double bottom to the main armoured deck. Jeanne d'Arc had a crew of 651.
The ship had 3 four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single three-bladed propeller. The outer engines had 5-metre (16 ft 5 in) propellers while the centre propeller had a diameter of 4.7 metres (15 ft 5 in). Steam for the engines was provided by 36 Guyot-du Temple boilers and the engines were rated at a total of 28,500 indicated horsepower (21,300 kW; 28,900 PS). Jeanne d'Arc failed to reach her designed speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) during her sea trials on 23 January 1903, only reaching 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph) from 29,691 ihp (22,141 kW; 30,103 PS). She carried up to 2,100 tonnes (2,067 long tons) of coal that gave her a range of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km; 15,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). In an effort to improve her speed, the propellers and the struts for her propeller shafts were replaced and her bilge keels were shortened, but the ship is not known to have exceeded her trials speed.
Jeanne d'Arc's main armament consisted of two 40-calibre 194 mm (7.6 in) Modèle 1893 guns that were mounted in single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The guns fired 75–90.3-kilogram (165–199 lb) shells at muzzle velocities ranging from 770 to 800 metres per second (2,500 to 2,600 ft/s).[6] The ship's secondary armament comprised fourteen 45-calibre 138.6 mm (5.5 in) Modèle 1893 guns in single mounts, protected by gun shields. Four of the guns on each broadside were positioned in hull sponsons and the remaining guns were on the sides of the superstructure. Their 30–35-kilogram (66–77 lb) shells were fired at muzzle velocities of 730 to 770 metres per second (2,400 to 2,500 ft/s).[8] For close-range anti-torpedo boatdefense, she carried sixteen quick-firing 40-calibre 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns. Four of these were mounted in the fighting top on the military foremast and the others were positioned in the superstructure. Jeanne d'Arc was also armed with a pair of submerged 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. The ship carried six Modèle 1892 torpedoes that were fitted with a 75-kilogram (165 lb) warhead and had a range of 800 metres (870 yd) at a speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).
Protection
Jeanne d'Arc was protected by a waterline armour belt of Harvey armour that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick amidships and reduced to 100 millimetres (3.9 in) at the bow and 80 millimetres (3.1 in) at the stern. It extended from 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) below the waterline to 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in) above it and tapered to a thickness of 50 millimetres (2.0 in) at its lower edge. Above this was a strake of 80-millimetre armour that was 1.92 metres (6 ft 4 in) amidships and tapered to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) at its upper edge. Three additional strakes of 40-millimetre armour covered the sides of the bow up to the forecastle deck.
The sloped protective deck met the bottom edge of the waterline armour belt and ranged in thickness from 45 to 55 millimetres (1.8 to 2.2 in) of mild steel on two layers of 10-millimetre (0.4 in) "extra-mild" steel. Above it was a thin deck of 11-millimetre (0.4 in) armour on a 7-millimetre (0.3 in) deck. The armour protecting the conning tower was 138 millimetres thick. The turret plates were made from Krupp armour 161 millimetres (6.3 in) thick on two layers of 11-millimetre plating with a roof 20 millimetres (0.8 in) thick on a 10-millimetre plate. The barbette armour was 160 millimetres (6.3 in) thick and reduced to 60 millimetres (2.4 in) below the upper deck. The gun shields of the secondary armament were 74 millimetres (2.9 in) thick and the sponsons were protected by hinged 40-millimetre plates.
Construction and career
Drawing of Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne d'Arc, named after the French warrior saint Joan of Arc, and nicknamed La Jeanne, was ordered on 28 December 1895 from the Arsenal de Toulon. While the Arsenal was not known for its speed of construction, the building of Jeanne d'Arc was even more prolonged than that shipyard's norm. Construction was almost at a standstill from September 1896 to June 1898, despite being laid down in October 1896, as the result of a dispute between the constructors and the naval administration and problems with her engines caused her to be launched on 8 June 1899 without her engines installed. The ship was commissioned for sea trials on 1 March 1901 and they revealed that the boiler rooms were very poorly ventilated and that the boilers were very poorly insulated resulting in a temperature of 65 °C (149 °F) in the boiler rooms. In addition the feed pumps frequently failed because of the temperature of the feed water was too high due to the overheating of the condensers. Rectifying these problems took until March 1902, although another set of trials in April revealed problems with the piston rings in all three engines. She was finally commissioned on 10 March 1903, before her trials were concluded.
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1899 – Launch of Jeanne d'Arc, an armoured cruiser built for the French Navy at the end of the 19th century, the sole ship of her class.
Jeanne d'Arc was an armoured cruiser built for the French Navy at the end of the 19th century, the sole ship of her class. Completed in 1903, she was initially assigned to the Northern Squadron (French: Escadre du Nord), although she was transferred to the reserve fleet before the end of the year. The ship was recommissioned for a few months in mid-1905 and was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet (Escadre de Méditerranée) in mid-1906 and served as a flagship for the next several years. Jeanne d'Arc was assigned to the reserve in mid-1908 and modified to serve as a training ship for naval cadets of the Naval Academy (École Navale). In 1912, she made the first of two lengthy training cruises.
A few days after she returned from her cruise, the ship was mobilised for service with the Northern Squadron as tensions rose before World War I began in August 1914. Jeanne d'Arc was tasked to patrol the English Channel in search of contraband and German blockade runners and continued to perform that mission until March 1915 when she was transferred to the Mediterranean. The ship was initially assigned to support French troops in the Dardanelles Campaign and then became flagship of the French ships patrolling the Levantine coast. In early 1916, Jeanne d'Arc began a lengthy refit that lasted until 1917 when she was assigned to the French West Indies. The ship was placed in reserve in 1918 and resumed her previous role as a training ship the next year. Jeanne d'Arc returned to reserve in 1928 and was struck from the Navy List in 1933 before being sold for scrap the following year.
Background and description
Plan and right elevation of Jeanne d'Arc from Brassey's Naval Annual1915, showing the armour layout and positions of the guns. (The plan is incorrect regarding the upper superstructure and the position of the second 138 mm (5.5 in) gun on upper deck — it should be in the middle of the ship.)
Jeanne d'Arc was originally conceived in the early 1890s as a large protected cruiser for overseas service, but the design was recast as an armoured cruiser by the naval architect Emile Bertin, director of the Navy's Technical Section (Section technique) in 1895. His design is regarded as unsuccessful with too light an armament for her size and failing to achieve her designed speed. The ship measured 147 metres (482 ft 3 in) long overall with a beam of 19.42 metres (63 ft 9 in) and had a maximum draught of 8 metres (26 ft 3 in). She displaced 11,264 tonnes (11,086 long tons) at normal load and had a metacentric height of 1.458 metres (5 ft). The hull was subdivided by 15 watertight bulkheads that extended from her double bottom to the main armoured deck. Jeanne d'Arc had a crew of 651.
The ship had 3 four-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single three-bladed propeller. The outer engines had 5-metre (16 ft 5 in) propellers while the centre propeller had a diameter of 4.7 metres (15 ft 5 in). Steam for the engines was provided by 36 Guyot-du Temple boilers and the engines were rated at a total of 28,500 indicated horsepower (21,300 kW; 28,900 PS). Jeanne d'Arc failed to reach her designed speed of 23 knots (43 km/h; 26 mph) during her sea trials on 23 January 1903, only reaching 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph) from 29,691 ihp (22,141 kW; 30,103 PS). She carried up to 2,100 tonnes (2,067 long tons) of coal that gave her a range of 13,500 nautical miles (25,000 km; 15,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). In an effort to improve her speed, the propellers and the struts for her propeller shafts were replaced and her bilge keels were shortened, but the ship is not known to have exceeded her trials speed.
Jeanne d'Arc's main armament consisted of two 40-calibre 194 mm (7.6 in) Modèle 1893 guns that were mounted in single-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The guns fired 75–90.3-kilogram (165–199 lb) shells at muzzle velocities ranging from 770 to 800 metres per second (2,500 to 2,600 ft/s).[6] The ship's secondary armament comprised fourteen 45-calibre 138.6 mm (5.5 in) Modèle 1893 guns in single mounts, protected by gun shields. Four of the guns on each broadside were positioned in hull sponsons and the remaining guns were on the sides of the superstructure. Their 30–35-kilogram (66–77 lb) shells were fired at muzzle velocities of 730 to 770 metres per second (2,400 to 2,500 ft/s).[8] For close-range anti-torpedo boatdefense, she carried sixteen quick-firing 40-calibre 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Modèle 1885 Hotchkiss guns. Four of these were mounted in the fighting top on the military foremast and the others were positioned in the superstructure. Jeanne d'Arc was also armed with a pair of submerged 450-millimetre (17.7 in) torpedo tubes. The ship carried six Modèle 1892 torpedoes that were fitted with a 75-kilogram (165 lb) warhead and had a range of 800 metres (870 yd) at a speed of 27.5 knots (50.9 km/h; 31.6 mph).
Protection
Jeanne d'Arc was protected by a waterline armour belt of Harvey armour that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick amidships and reduced to 100 millimetres (3.9 in) at the bow and 80 millimetres (3.1 in) at the stern. It extended from 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) below the waterline to 0.7 metres (2 ft 4 in) above it and tapered to a thickness of 50 millimetres (2.0 in) at its lower edge. Above this was a strake of 80-millimetre armour that was 1.92 metres (6 ft 4 in) amidships and tapered to 40 millimetres (1.6 in) at its upper edge. Three additional strakes of 40-millimetre armour covered the sides of the bow up to the forecastle deck.
The sloped protective deck met the bottom edge of the waterline armour belt and ranged in thickness from 45 to 55 millimetres (1.8 to 2.2 in) of mild steel on two layers of 10-millimetre (0.4 in) "extra-mild" steel. Above it was a thin deck of 11-millimetre (0.4 in) armour on a 7-millimetre (0.3 in) deck. The armour protecting the conning tower was 138 millimetres thick. The turret plates were made from Krupp armour 161 millimetres (6.3 in) thick on two layers of 11-millimetre plating with a roof 20 millimetres (0.8 in) thick on a 10-millimetre plate. The barbette armour was 160 millimetres (6.3 in) thick and reduced to 60 millimetres (2.4 in) below the upper deck. The gun shields of the secondary armament were 74 millimetres (2.9 in) thick and the sponsons were protected by hinged 40-millimetre plates.
Construction and career
Drawing of Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne d'Arc, named after the French warrior saint Joan of Arc, and nicknamed La Jeanne, was ordered on 28 December 1895 from the Arsenal de Toulon. While the Arsenal was not known for its speed of construction, the building of Jeanne d'Arc was even more prolonged than that shipyard's norm. Construction was almost at a standstill from September 1896 to June 1898, despite being laid down in October 1896, as the result of a dispute between the constructors and the naval administration and problems with her engines caused her to be launched on 8 June 1899 without her engines installed. The ship was commissioned for sea trials on 1 March 1901 and they revealed that the boiler rooms were very poorly ventilated and that the boilers were very poorly insulated resulting in a temperature of 65 °C (149 °F) in the boiler rooms. In addition the feed pumps frequently failed because of the temperature of the feed water was too high due to the overheating of the condensers. Rectifying these problems took until March 1902, although another set of trials in April revealed problems with the piston rings in all three engines. She was finally commissioned on 10 March 1903, before her trials were concluded.
French cruiser Jeanne d'Arc (1899) - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1916 - Principe Umberto – On 8 June 1916 the steamship and another transport were carrying troops escorted by four Regia Marina destroyers and one scout cruiser.
The Austro-Hungarian U-5 torpedoed her and she sank quickly, killing 1,926 of the 2,821 men aboard.
SS Principe Umberto was an Italian passenger and refrigerated cargo ship built in 1908 for Navigazione Generale Italiana. During World War I, Principe Umberto served as an armed merchant cruiser. While transporting troops in the Adriatic in June 1916, the ship was sunk by Austro-Hungarian U-boat U-5with the loss of 1,926 men.
It was the worst naval disaster of World War I in terms of human lives lost.
Career
Principe Umberto was built in 1908 by Riuniti in Palermo for Navigazione Generale Italiana, a company that sailed to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, as well as passenger service to North and South America. She was 145.1 meters (476 ft 1 in) long (pp) with a beam of 16.3 meters (53 ft 6 in). She was powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that moved her at up to 16 knots (30 km/h).
Principe Umberto's routes and early activities are not known, but during World War I, the ship was employed as an armed merchant cruiser to transport men and materiel in support of Italy. On 8 June 1916, Principe Umberto and another transport, the Ravenna, were carrying the 55th Infantry Regiment(col. Ernesto Piano) back from Albania to Italy, under the escort of the Italian scout cruiser Libia and four Regia Marina destroyers. The Austro-Hungarian U-boat U-5, under the command of Friedrich Schlosser, launched a torpedo attack that successfully hit the Italian ship.[5] Principe Umberto went down quickly with the loss 1,926 men (1,750 according to other sources
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1916 - Principe Umberto – On 8 June 1916 the steamship and another transport were carrying troops escorted by four Regia Marina destroyers and one scout cruiser.
The Austro-Hungarian U-5 torpedoed her and she sank quickly, killing 1,926 of the 2,821 men aboard.
SS Principe Umberto was an Italian passenger and refrigerated cargo ship built in 1908 for Navigazione Generale Italiana. During World War I, Principe Umberto served as an armed merchant cruiser. While transporting troops in the Adriatic in June 1916, the ship was sunk by Austro-Hungarian U-boat U-5with the loss of 1,926 men.
It was the worst naval disaster of World War I in terms of human lives lost.
Career
Principe Umberto was built in 1908 by Riuniti in Palermo for Navigazione Generale Italiana, a company that sailed to Mediterranean and Black Sea ports, as well as passenger service to North and South America. She was 145.1 meters (476 ft 1 in) long (pp) with a beam of 16.3 meters (53 ft 6 in). She was powered by two quadruple expansion steam engines that moved her at up to 16 knots (30 km/h).
Principe Umberto's routes and early activities are not known, but during World War I, the ship was employed as an armed merchant cruiser to transport men and materiel in support of Italy. On 8 June 1916, Principe Umberto and another transport, the Ravenna, were carrying the 55th Infantry Regiment(col. Ernesto Piano) back from Albania to Italy, under the escort of the Italian scout cruiser Libia and four Regia Marina destroyers. The Austro-Hungarian U-boat U-5, under the command of Friedrich Schlosser, launched a torpedo attack that successfully hit the Italian ship.[5] Principe Umberto went down quickly with the loss 1,926 men (1,750 according to other sources
SS Principe Umberto - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1926 - SS Atlantus is the most famous of the twelve concrete ships built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Brunswick, Georgia during and after World War I, wrecked
SS Atlantus is the most famous of the twelve concrete ships built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Brunswick, Georgia during and after World War I.
SS Atlantus the day she ran aground, 8 June 1926
The steamer was launched on 5 December 1918, and was the second concrete ship constructed in the World War I Emergency Fleet. The war had ended a month earlier, and so work on completing her was put on slow. She completed her sea trials (a 400-500 mile trip) and sailed to Wilmington on her maiden voyage on 26 May 1919 for final touches, prior to sailing for New York. The Liberty Ship Building Company had their headquarters in Wilmington. She was built for service between New York and the West Indies.
The Atlantus was used to transport American troops back home from Europe and also to transport coal in New England. After two years of service, the ship was retired in 1920 to a salvage yard in Virginia.
In 1926, Colonel Jesse Rosenfeld purchased the Atlantus for use in the creation of a ferry dock (for a route now served by the Cape May – Lewes Ferry) out of her and two of her sister ships. The plan was to dig a channel to the shore where the Atlantus would be placed, and the other two ships would be placed in a Y formation, creating a slip for a ferry to dock. In March 1926, the groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the construction of the ferry dock. The Atlantus was repaired and towed to Cape May. On June 8 of the same year, a storm hit and the ship broke free of her moorings and ran aground 150 feet off the coast of Sunset Beach. Several attempts were made to free the ship, but none were successful.
At one time there was a billboard painted on the side of the ship advertising boat insurance.[citation needed] Since her sinking, her slowly deteriorating hull has drawn tourists, although little of her is left visible above the water line. The wreckage is currently split in three pieces. The stern is the most visible section, the middle is completely submerged, and the bow can only be viewed at low tide.
Atlantus in July 2015
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1926 - SS Atlantus is the most famous of the twelve concrete ships built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Brunswick, Georgia during and after World War I, wrecked
SS Atlantus is the most famous of the twelve concrete ships built by the Liberty Ship Building Company in Brunswick, Georgia during and after World War I.
SS Atlantus the day she ran aground, 8 June 1926
The steamer was launched on 5 December 1918, and was the second concrete ship constructed in the World War I Emergency Fleet. The war had ended a month earlier, and so work on completing her was put on slow. She completed her sea trials (a 400-500 mile trip) and sailed to Wilmington on her maiden voyage on 26 May 1919 for final touches, prior to sailing for New York. The Liberty Ship Building Company had their headquarters in Wilmington. She was built for service between New York and the West Indies.
The Atlantus was used to transport American troops back home from Europe and also to transport coal in New England. After two years of service, the ship was retired in 1920 to a salvage yard in Virginia.
In 1926, Colonel Jesse Rosenfeld purchased the Atlantus for use in the creation of a ferry dock (for a route now served by the Cape May – Lewes Ferry) out of her and two of her sister ships. The plan was to dig a channel to the shore where the Atlantus would be placed, and the other two ships would be placed in a Y formation, creating a slip for a ferry to dock. In March 1926, the groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the construction of the ferry dock. The Atlantus was repaired and towed to Cape May. On June 8 of the same year, a storm hit and the ship broke free of her moorings and ran aground 150 feet off the coast of Sunset Beach. Several attempts were made to free the ship, but none were successful.
At one time there was a billboard painted on the side of the ship advertising boat insurance.[citation needed] Since her sinking, her slowly deteriorating hull has drawn tourists, although little of her is left visible above the water line. The wreckage is currently split in three pieces. The stern is the most visible section, the middle is completely submerged, and the bow can only be viewed at low tide.
Atlantus in July 2015
SS Atlantus - Wikipedia
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1937 – Launch of Blücher, the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (War Navy), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles.
Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (War Navy), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1936 and launched in June 1937. She was completed in September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. After completing a series of sea trials and training exercises, the ship was pronounced ready for service with the fleet on 5 April 1940. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displacedover 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).
Immediately upon entering service, Blücher was assigned to the task force that supported the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher served as the flagship of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Oskar Kummetz, the commander of Group 5. The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway. Two old 28 cm (11 in) coastal guns in the Oscarsborg Fortress engaged the ship at very close range, scoring two hits, as did several smaller guns in other batteries. Two torpedoes fired by land-based torpedo batteries struck the ship, causing serious damage. A major fire broke out aboard Blücher, which could not be contained. The fire spread to one of her anti-aircraft gun magazines, causing a large explosion, and then spread further to the ship's fuel bunkers. Blücher then capsized and sank with major loss of life.
The wreck lies at the bottom of Oslofjord, and in 2016 was designated as a war memorial to protect it from looters. Several artifacts have been raised from the wreck, including one of her Arado 196 floatplanes, which was recovered during an operation to pump out leaking fuel oil from the ship in 1994.
Design
Main article: Admiral Hipper-class cruiser
Recognition drawing of an Admiral Hipper-class cruiser
The Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreement with Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) "treaty cruisers". The Admiral Hippers were nominally within the 10,000-ton limit, though they significantly exceeded the figure.
As launched, Blücher was 202.80 meters (665.4 ft) long overall, had a beam of 21.30 m (69.9 ft) and a maximum draft of 7.74 m (25.4 ft). The ship had a design displacement of 16,170 t (15,910 long tons; 17,820 short tons) and a full load displacement of 18,200 long tons (18,500 t). Blücher was powered by three sets of Blohm & Vossgeared steam turbines that drove three propellers. The turbines were supplied with steam by twelve ultra-high pressure oil-fired boilers. The ship's top speed was 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) at 132,000 shaft horsepower (98,000 kW). As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men.
Blücher's primary armament was eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin gun turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft.[a] Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and eight 2 cm (0.79 in) guns. She had four triple 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo launchers, all on the main deck next to the four range finders for the anti-aircraft guns.
Blücher's armored belt was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 12 to 30 mm (0.47 to 1.18 in) thick while the main armored deck was 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 105 mm (4.1 in) thick faces and 70 mm thick sides. The ship was equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. Blucher never had more than two seaplanes on board, and en route to Oslo one had to rest on the catapult as one of the hangars was used for storing bombs and torpedoes.
Blücher launching at Kiel, 8 June 1937
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1937 – Launch of Blücher, the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (War Navy), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles.
Blücher was the second of five Admiral Hipper-class heavy cruisers of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine (War Navy), built after the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Treaty of Versailles. Named for Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, the Prussian victor of the Battle of Waterloo, the ship was laid down in August 1936 and launched in June 1937. She was completed in September 1939, shortly after the outbreak of World War II. After completing a series of sea trials and training exercises, the ship was pronounced ready for service with the fleet on 5 April 1940. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displacedover 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).
Immediately upon entering service, Blücher was assigned to the task force that supported the invasion of Norway in April 1940. Blücher served as the flagship of Konteradmiral (Rear Admiral) Oskar Kummetz, the commander of Group 5. The ship led the flotilla of warships into the Oslofjord on the night of 8 April, to seize Oslo, the capital of Norway. Two old 28 cm (11 in) coastal guns in the Oscarsborg Fortress engaged the ship at very close range, scoring two hits, as did several smaller guns in other batteries. Two torpedoes fired by land-based torpedo batteries struck the ship, causing serious damage. A major fire broke out aboard Blücher, which could not be contained. The fire spread to one of her anti-aircraft gun magazines, causing a large explosion, and then spread further to the ship's fuel bunkers. Blücher then capsized and sank with major loss of life.
The wreck lies at the bottom of Oslofjord, and in 2016 was designated as a war memorial to protect it from looters. Several artifacts have been raised from the wreck, including one of her Arado 196 floatplanes, which was recovered during an operation to pump out leaking fuel oil from the ship in 1994.
Design
Main article: Admiral Hipper-class cruiser
Recognition drawing of an Admiral Hipper-class cruiser
The Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreement with Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) "treaty cruisers". The Admiral Hippers were nominally within the 10,000-ton limit, though they significantly exceeded the figure.
As launched, Blücher was 202.80 meters (665.4 ft) long overall, had a beam of 21.30 m (69.9 ft) and a maximum draft of 7.74 m (25.4 ft). The ship had a design displacement of 16,170 t (15,910 long tons; 17,820 short tons) and a full load displacement of 18,200 long tons (18,500 t). Blücher was powered by three sets of Blohm & Vossgeared steam turbines that drove three propellers. The turbines were supplied with steam by twelve ultra-high pressure oil-fired boilers. The ship's top speed was 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) at 132,000 shaft horsepower (98,000 kW). As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men.
Blücher's primary armament was eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin gun turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft.[a] Her anti-aircraft battery consisted of twelve 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and eight 2 cm (0.79 in) guns. She had four triple 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo launchers, all on the main deck next to the four range finders for the anti-aircraft guns.
Blücher's armored belt was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 12 to 30 mm (0.47 to 1.18 in) thick while the main armored deck was 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 105 mm (4.1 in) thick faces and 70 mm thick sides. The ship was equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. Blucher never had more than two seaplanes on board, and en route to Oslo one had to rest on the catapult as one of the hangars was used for storing bombs and torpedoes.
Blücher launching at Kiel, 8 June 1937
German cruiser Blücher - Wikipedia
Admiral Hipper-class cruiser - Wikipedia
Last edited by a moderator:
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 June 1940 - HMS Glorious – The aircraft carrier, with escorting destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta were sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Norway, 8 June 1940.
1,515 men died; 46 survived.
Operation Juno was a German naval offensive late in the Norwegian Campaign. The German ships involved were the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Z20 Karl Galster, Z10 Hans Lody, Z15 Erich Steinbrinck and Z7 Hermann Schoemann.
The mission was launched on 8 June 1940, as an attack on Harstad to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. After refuelling at Jan Mayen Island the mission became unnecessary as the Allies were evacuating from Norway. On his own initiative, however, the German commander, Admiral Marschall, decided to seek and destroy the Allied transports. The troop transport Orama, the tanker Oil Pioneer and the minesweepeing trawler HMT Juniper were sunk. Marschall ordered the Admiral Hipper and the destroyers to Trondheim, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June.
The next day, Admiral Hipper attempted to leave Trondheim, but was forestalled by the sighting of a British submarine.
Sinking of HMS Glorious
As a notorious sideline to Operation Juno, Scharnhorst under the command of Kapitän zur See Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann and Gneisenau sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escorting destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent on 8 June at around 69° N off Norway.
On the night of 7–8 June, the Glorious, under the command of Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes (who was a submarine specialist and had only 10 months' experience in aircraft carrier operations), took on board 10 Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from No. 46 Squadron RAF and No. 263 Squadron Royal Air Force, the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier. These had been flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. Glorious was part of a troop convoy headed for Scapa Flow, also including the carrier HMS Ark Royal.
In the early hours of 8 June, Glorious requested permission to proceed independently, and at a faster speed. According to Alan Beith, this was because D'Oyly-Hughes was impatient to hold courts-martial of his Commander, Flying, J. B. Heath, and Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Slessor; Heath had refused an order to attack certain shore targets on the grounds that his aircraft were unsuited to the task, and had therefore been left behind in Scapa to await trial.
It has been noted by Beith that Glorious was in a low state of readiness. The high crow's nest look-out position was not manned, leaving the observation task to the destroyers with much lower observing angles. Only 12 out of 18 of boilers were in use, so she could not develop full speed (from 17 knots(31 km/h; 20 mph) to 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)) as fast as was required. Most importantly, D'Oyly-Hughes failed to launch any aircraft to form a Combat Air Patrol around the carrier group, reportedly to give the aircrews a rest. The previous commander always had some aircraft in the air. Had he done so, Glorious might have been able to spot incoming threats, or have been able to either turn and run or fight. No aircraft were even on the deck for a quick launch. In her hangars were 10 Hurricanes and 10 Gladiators from the RAF, and her own nine Sea Gladiators plus five Swordfish.
While sailing through the Norwegian Sea, the carrier and her two escorts, the destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent, were intercepted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly 170 nmi (310 km; 200 mi) west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men; there were only 45 survivors. The single survivor from Acasta was rescued by the Norwegian steam merchant Borgund which also saved 38 men from one of Glorious' lifeboats. All 39 men saved by Borgund were set ashore at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 14 June.
Scharnhorst's salvoes hit Glorious at 16:32, before her torpedo-bombers could be launched.[4] Scharnhorst's second salvo, at 16:38, struck Glorious at the extreme range of 26,300 yd (24,000 m), one of the longest range hits ever recorded. A Gneisenau salvo subsequently hit the bridge. The destroyers had started to lay smoke to protect Glorious and themselves. Ardent and Acasta made continual attempts to launch torpedoes at the German ships. At about 17:39, Scharnhorst was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by Acasta. Fifty sailors were killed, 2,500 long tons (2,500 t) of water flooded into her and her aft turret was put out of action. Ardent was sunk at around 17:20 having made seven attacks with torpedoes.
The approximate sinking position based on last transmission from Glorious: 69°0′N 04°0′E.
Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard his flagship Gneisenau, ordered Scharnhorst to cease fire and wasting ammunition on Glorious. At this point, Gneisenau was 4,374 yd (4,000 m) closer to Glorious than Scharnhorst.
Aftermath
Scharnhorst in company with Gneisenau made for Trondheim for repairs. Due to their exposed position they were not able to stop to rescue survivors of any of the ships. On 13 June, Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua bombers from Ark Royal attacked Scharnhorst in harbour; only a single bomb struck her.
As a result of the action, 1,533 people on board were killed, 63 of them from RAF, the greatest military loss of life for Britain up to that time in the war.
Despite this notable success, damage from the torpedo attacks forced Scharnhorst to return to Trondheim for emergency repairs. It was not until 23 June that she was able to reach Kiel and a dry dock. She remained there under repair for most of the rest of 1940. Although the sacrifice of Glorious was great, the withdrawal of these two powerful German warships allowed the remaining Allied convoys to reach Britain with a greatly reduced threat.
Legacy
In 1997, Channel 4 (UK) screened a documentary in its Secret History series entitled "The Tragedy of HMS Glorious" and interviewed one of the surviving RAF pilots. There is a degree of mystery about the sinking of the Glorious because papers relating to the sinking have a "100 year rule" embargo on their release.
The action is sometimes[citation needed] compared to the Battle off Samar (1944), in which a US Navy force of six small escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts encountered an ostensibly more powerful group of four battleships and eight cruisers belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, including the largest battleship ever built, Yamato. A US antisubmarine patrol spotted the Japanese force and the carriers had hundreds of aircraft ready to launch. Aggressive attacks by US aircraft and destroyer escorts sank three Japanese heavy cruisers and persuaded the remainder to retreat, for the loss of two US escort carriers, two destroyers and a destroyer escort.
HMS Glorious was the second of the three Courageous-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord, Lord Fisher, they were relatively lightly armed and armoured. Glorious was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.
Glorious was paid off after the war, but was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the late 1920s. She could carry 30 per cent more aircraft than her half-sisterFurious which had a similar tonnage. After re-commissioning in 1930, she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War, Glorious spent the rest of 1939 unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway in June, the ship was sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives.
HMS Ardent was one of eight A-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1920s. The ship spent most of the 1930s assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, Ardent spent considerable time in Spanish waters enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict.
At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the ship escorted aircraft carriers before she was transferred to the Western Approaches for convoy escort duties that last until April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway. That month Ardent was transferred to the Home Fleet and supported Allied operations in Norway. Whilst escorting the carrier Glorious, she was sunk by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 8 June 1940.
HMS Acasta was one of eight A-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1920s. The ship spent most of the 1930s assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, Acasta spent considerable time in Spanish waters enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict.
At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the ship was assigned convoy escort duties in the English Channel and the Western Approaches that lasted until April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway. That month Acasta was transferred to the Home Fleet and supported Allied operations in Norway. Whilst escorting the aircraft carrier Glorious on 8 June 1940, she was sunk by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but not before badly damaging the former ship.
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
8 June 1940 - HMS Glorious – The aircraft carrier, with escorting destroyers HMS Ardent and HMS Acasta were sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau off Norway, 8 June 1940.
1,515 men died; 46 survived.
Operation Juno was a German naval offensive late in the Norwegian Campaign. The German ships involved were the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper and the destroyers Z20 Karl Galster, Z10 Hans Lody, Z15 Erich Steinbrinck and Z7 Hermann Schoemann.
The mission was launched on 8 June 1940, as an attack on Harstad to relieve pressure on the German garrison at Narvik. After refuelling at Jan Mayen Island the mission became unnecessary as the Allies were evacuating from Norway. On his own initiative, however, the German commander, Admiral Marschall, decided to seek and destroy the Allied transports. The troop transport Orama, the tanker Oil Pioneer and the minesweepeing trawler HMT Juniper were sunk. Marschall ordered the Admiral Hipper and the destroyers to Trondheim, where they arrived in the morning of 9 June.
The next day, Admiral Hipper attempted to leave Trondheim, but was forestalled by the sighting of a British submarine.
Sinking of HMS Glorious
As a notorious sideline to Operation Juno, Scharnhorst under the command of Kapitän zur See Kurt-Caesar Hoffmann and Gneisenau sank the British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and her escorting destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent on 8 June at around 69° N off Norway.
On the night of 7–8 June, the Glorious, under the command of Captain Guy D'Oyly-Hughes (who was a submarine specialist and had only 10 months' experience in aircraft carrier operations), took on board 10 Gloster Gladiators and eight Hawker Hurricanes from No. 46 Squadron RAF and No. 263 Squadron Royal Air Force, the first landing of modern aircraft without arrestor hooks on a carrier. These had been flown off from land bases to keep them from being destroyed in the evacuation. Glorious was part of a troop convoy headed for Scapa Flow, also including the carrier HMS Ark Royal.
In the early hours of 8 June, Glorious requested permission to proceed independently, and at a faster speed. According to Alan Beith, this was because D'Oyly-Hughes was impatient to hold courts-martial of his Commander, Flying, J. B. Heath, and Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Slessor; Heath had refused an order to attack certain shore targets on the grounds that his aircraft were unsuited to the task, and had therefore been left behind in Scapa to await trial.
It has been noted by Beith that Glorious was in a low state of readiness. The high crow's nest look-out position was not manned, leaving the observation task to the destroyers with much lower observing angles. Only 12 out of 18 of boilers were in use, so she could not develop full speed (from 17 knots(31 km/h; 20 mph) to 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph)) as fast as was required. Most importantly, D'Oyly-Hughes failed to launch any aircraft to form a Combat Air Patrol around the carrier group, reportedly to give the aircrews a rest. The previous commander always had some aircraft in the air. Had he done so, Glorious might have been able to spot incoming threats, or have been able to either turn and run or fight. No aircraft were even on the deck for a quick launch. In her hangars were 10 Hurricanes and 10 Gladiators from the RAF, and her own nine Sea Gladiators plus five Swordfish.
While sailing through the Norwegian Sea, the carrier and her two escorts, the destroyers HMS Acasta and Ardent, were intercepted by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The carrier and her escorts were sunk in two hours, roughly 170 nmi (310 km; 200 mi) west of Harstad, with the loss of 1,519 men; there were only 45 survivors. The single survivor from Acasta was rescued by the Norwegian steam merchant Borgund which also saved 38 men from one of Glorious' lifeboats. All 39 men saved by Borgund were set ashore at Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands on 14 June.
Scharnhorst's salvoes hit Glorious at 16:32, before her torpedo-bombers could be launched.[4] Scharnhorst's second salvo, at 16:38, struck Glorious at the extreme range of 26,300 yd (24,000 m), one of the longest range hits ever recorded. A Gneisenau salvo subsequently hit the bridge. The destroyers had started to lay smoke to protect Glorious and themselves. Ardent and Acasta made continual attempts to launch torpedoes at the German ships. At about 17:39, Scharnhorst was hit by one of four torpedoes launched by Acasta. Fifty sailors were killed, 2,500 long tons (2,500 t) of water flooded into her and her aft turret was put out of action. Ardent was sunk at around 17:20 having made seven attacks with torpedoes.
The approximate sinking position based on last transmission from Glorious: 69°0′N 04°0′E.
Admiral Wilhelm Marschall, aboard his flagship Gneisenau, ordered Scharnhorst to cease fire and wasting ammunition on Glorious. At this point, Gneisenau was 4,374 yd (4,000 m) closer to Glorious than Scharnhorst.
Aftermath
Scharnhorst in company with Gneisenau made for Trondheim for repairs. Due to their exposed position they were not able to stop to rescue survivors of any of the ships. On 13 June, Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua bombers from Ark Royal attacked Scharnhorst in harbour; only a single bomb struck her.
As a result of the action, 1,533 people on board were killed, 63 of them from RAF, the greatest military loss of life for Britain up to that time in the war.
Despite this notable success, damage from the torpedo attacks forced Scharnhorst to return to Trondheim for emergency repairs. It was not until 23 June that she was able to reach Kiel and a dry dock. She remained there under repair for most of the rest of 1940. Although the sacrifice of Glorious was great, the withdrawal of these two powerful German warships allowed the remaining Allied convoys to reach Britain with a greatly reduced threat.
Legacy
In 1997, Channel 4 (UK) screened a documentary in its Secret History series entitled "The Tragedy of HMS Glorious" and interviewed one of the surviving RAF pilots. There is a degree of mystery about the sinking of the Glorious because papers relating to the sinking have a "100 year rule" embargo on their release.
The action is sometimes[citation needed] compared to the Battle off Samar (1944), in which a US Navy force of six small escort carriers, three destroyers and four destroyer escorts encountered an ostensibly more powerful group of four battleships and eight cruisers belonging to the Imperial Japanese Navy, including the largest battleship ever built, Yamato. A US antisubmarine patrol spotted the Japanese force and the carriers had hundreds of aircraft ready to launch. Aggressive attacks by US aircraft and destroyer escorts sank three Japanese heavy cruisers and persuaded the remainder to retreat, for the loss of two US escort carriers, two destroyers and a destroyer escort.
HMS Glorious was the second of the three Courageous-class battlecruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord, Lord Fisher, they were relatively lightly armed and armoured. Glorious was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later.
Glorious was paid off after the war, but was rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the late 1920s. She could carry 30 per cent more aircraft than her half-sisterFurious which had a similar tonnage. After re-commissioning in 1930, she spent most of her career operating in the Mediterranean Sea. After the start of the Second World War, Glorious spent the rest of 1939 unsuccessfully hunting for the commerce-raiding German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee in the Indian Ocean before returning to the Mediterranean. She was recalled home in April 1940 to support operations in Norway. While evacuating British aircraft from Norway in June, the ship was sunk by the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the North Sea with the loss of over 1,200 lives.
HMS Ardent was one of eight A-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1920s. The ship spent most of the 1930s assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, Ardent spent considerable time in Spanish waters enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict.
At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the ship escorted aircraft carriers before she was transferred to the Western Approaches for convoy escort duties that last until April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway. That month Ardent was transferred to the Home Fleet and supported Allied operations in Norway. Whilst escorting the carrier Glorious, she was sunk by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau on 8 June 1940.
HMS Acasta was one of eight A-class destroyers built for the Royal Navy (RN) in the 1920s. The ship spent most of the 1930s assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet. During the early months of the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939, Acasta spent considerable time in Spanish waters enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict.
At the beginning of the Second World War in September 1939, the ship was assigned convoy escort duties in the English Channel and the Western Approaches that lasted until April 1940 when the Germans invaded Norway. That month Acasta was transferred to the Home Fleet and supported Allied operations in Norway. Whilst escorting the aircraft carrier Glorious on 8 June 1940, she was sunk by the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, but not before badly damaging the former ship.
Operation Juno - Wikipedia
HMS Glorious - Wikipedia
HMS Ardent (H41) - Wikipedia
HMS Acasta (H09) - Wikipedia
Scharnhorst - The History - Operation "Juno"
Website about the battleships Scharnhorst & Gneisenau. stories, photographs, technical details, drawings, models, discussion forum and much more.
www.scharnhorst-class.dk
Last edited by a moderator: