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

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1911 – The White Star Line's RMS Olympic collides with the British warship HMS Hawke.


RMS Olympic (/ʊˈlɪmpɪk/) was a British transatlantic ocean liner, the lead ship of the White Star Line's trio of Olympic-class liners. Unlike the other ships in the class, Olympic had a long career spanning 24 years from 1911 to 1935. This included service as a troopship during the First World War, which gained her the nickname "Old Reliable". Olympic returned to civilian service after the war and served successfully as an ocean liner throughout the 1920s and into the first half of the 1930s, although increased competition, and the slump in trade during the Great Depression after 1930, made her operation increasingly unprofitable.


RMS Olympic during her sea trial

Olympic was the largest ocean liner in the world for two periods during 1911–13, interrupted only by the brief tenure of the slightly larger Titanic (which had the same dimensions but higher gross tonnage owing to revised interior configurations), before she was then surpassed by SS Imperator. Olympic also retained the title of the largest British-built liner until RMS Queen Mary was launched in 1934, interrupted only by the short careers of her slightly larger sister ships.


Olympic arriving at New York on her maiden voyage on 21 June 1911

The Olympic was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap in 1935; demolition was completed in 1937. Decorative elements of Olympic were removed and sold at auction before she was scrapped and now adorn buildings and a cruise ship.

By contrast with Olympic, the other two ships in the class, Titanic and Britannic, did not have long service lives. Titanic collided with an iceberg in the North Atlantic on its maiden voyage and sank, while Britannic struck a mine and sank in the Kea Channel in Greece in 1916.

Hawke collision


Images documenting the damage to Olympic (left) and Hawke (right) following their collision (other view here)

Olympic's first major mishap occurred on her fifth voyage on 20 September 1911, when she collided with the British cruiser HMS Hawke. The collision took place as Olympic and Hawke were running parallel to each other through the Solent. As Olympic turned to starboard, the wide radius of her turn took the commander of Hawke by surprise, and he was unable to take sufficient avoiding action. Hawke's bow, which had been designed to sink ships by ramming them, collided with Olympic's starboard side near the stern, tearing two large holes in Olympic's hull, above and below the waterline, resulting in the flooding of two of her watertight compartments and a twisted propeller shaft. Despite this, Olympic was able to return to Southampton under her own power; no one was seriously injured or killed. HMS Hawke suffered severe damage to her bow and nearly capsized; she was repaired, but sunk by the German U-boat SM U-9 in October 1914.

Captain Edward Smith was still in command of Olympic at the time of the incident. Two crew members, stewardess Violet Jessop and stoker Arthur John Priest, survived not only the collision with Hawke but also the later sinking of Titanic and the 1916 sinking of Britannic, the third ship of the class.

At the subsequent inquiry the Royal Navy blamed Olympic for the incident, alleging that her large displacement generated a suction that pulled Hawke into her side. The Hawke incident was a financial disaster for Olympic's operator. A legal argument ensued which decided that the blame for the incident lay with Olympic, and although the ship was technically under the control of the harbour pilot, the White Star Line was faced with large legal bills and the cost of repairing the ship, and keeping her out of revenue service made matters worse. However, the fact that Olympic endured such a serious collision and stayed afloat, appeared to vindicate the design of the Olympic-class liners and reinforced their "unsinkable" reputation.


Olympic (left) being manoeuvred into dry dock in Belfast for repairs on the morning of 2 March 1912 after throwing a propeller blade. Titanic(right) is moored at the fitting-out wharf. Olympic would sail for Southampton on 7 March, concluding the last time the two ships would be photographed together

It took two weeks for the damage to Olympic to be patched up sufficiently to allow her to return to Belfast for permanent repairs, which took just over six weeks to complete. To expedite repairs, Harland and Wolff was obliged to replace Olympic's damaged propeller shaft with one from Titanic, delaying the latter's completion. By 29 November Olympic was back in service, but, in February 1912, suffered another setback when she lost a propeller blade on an eastbound voyage from New York, and once again returned to her builder for repairs. To return her to service as soon as possible, Harland & Wolff again had to pull resources from Titanic, delaying her maiden voyage by three weeks, from 20 March to 10 April 1912.


HMS Hawke, launched in 1891, was the seventh British warship to be named Hawke. She was an Edgar-class protected cruiser.


British Edgar class protected cruiser HMS HAWKE.

Construction
Hawke was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 17 June 1889, one of nine Edgar-class cruisers ordered for the Royal Navy under the Naval Defence Act 1889, and launched on 11 March 1891. Sea trials in March 1892 were satisfactory, with her engines reaching the required power, and the ship was completed on 16 May 1893.

Hawke was 387 feet 6 inches (118.11 m) long overall and 360 feet (109.73 m) between perpendiculars, with a beam of 60 feet (18.29 m) and a draught of 23 feet 9 inches (7.24 m). She displaced 7,350 long tons(7,470 t).

Armament consisted of two 9.2 inch guns, on the ships centreline, backed up by ten six-inch guns, of which four were in casemates on the main deck and the remainder behind open shields. Twelve 6-pounder and four 3-pounder guns provided anti-torpedo-boat defences, while four 18 inch torpedo tubes were fitted. The Edgars were protected cruisers, with an arched, armoured deck 5–3 inches (127–76 mm) thick at about waterline level. The casemate armour was 6 inches (152 mm) thick, with 3 inches (76 mm) thick shields for the 9.2 inch guns and 10 inches (254 mm) armour on the ship's conning tower.

Hawke's machinery was built by Fairfields, with four double-ended cylindrical boilers feeding steam at 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) to 2 three-cylinder triple expansion engines, which drove two shafts. This gave 12,000 indicated horsepower (8,900 kW) under forced draught, giving a speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Olympic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hawke_(1891)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
20 September 1911 – Launch of P-liner Passat


Passat is a German four-masted steel barque and one of the Flying P-Liners, the famous sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. The name "Passat" means trade wind in German. She is one of the last surviving windjammers.


Passat in Travemünde

History
Passat was launched in 1911 at the Blohm & Voss shipyard, Hamburg. She began her maiden voyage on Christmas Eve 1911 toward Cape Horn and the nitrate ports of Chile. She was used for decades to ship general cargo outbound and nitrate home. Passat was interned at Iquique for the duration of World War I and sailed in 1921 to Marseille and was turned over to France as war reparation. The French government put her up for sale, and the Laeisz Company was able to buy back the ship for £13,000. Again she was used as a nitrate carrier until 1932 when Passat was sold to the Gustaf Erikson Line of Finland. The ship was then used in the grain trade from Spencer Gulf in South Australia to Europe. At the onset of World War II, Passat was at her home port Mariehamn in the Åland Islands of Finland. She was towed in 1944 to Stockholm to serve as a storage ship.

In 1948 the Erikson Line reentered the grain trade, and together with Pamir she participated in the last Great Grain Race in 1949 from Port Victoria around Cape Horn to Europe. Among her crew was Niels Jannasch who later became the director of Canada's Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. All told, Passat rounded Cape Horn 39 times.

Edgar Erikson (son of Gustaf Erikson, who died in 1947) found he could no longer operate either Passat or Pamir at a profit, primarily due to changing regulations and union contracts governing employment aboard ships; the traditional 2-watch system on sailing ships was replaced by the 3-watch system in use on motor-ships, requiring more crew. In March 1951, Belgian shipbreakers paid £40,000 for both Passat and Pamir.

German shipowner Heinz Schliewen stepped in and bought both ships for conversion to freight carrying school ships (thus often erroneously referred to as sister ships). The two vessels were modernized at Kiel with refurbished quarters to accommodate merchant marine trainees, fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine, a refrigeration system for the galleys (precluding the need to carry live animals for fresh meat), modern communications equipment and water ballast tanks. After financial problems for the owner, a newly organized consortium of forty German shipowners purchased the ships. For the next five years Passat (and Pamir) continued to sail between Europe and the east coast of South America, primarily to Argentina, but not around Cape Horn.

In 1957, a few weeks after the tragic loss of Pamir in mid-Atlantic and shortly after having been severely hit by a storm, Passat was decommissioned. She had almost experienced the same fate as the Pamir when her loose barley cargo shifted.

Passat was purchased in 1959 by the Baltic Sea municipality of Lübeck and is now a youth hostel, venue, museum ship, and landmark moored at Travemünde, a borough of Lübeck in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.


Sister ships


The Kruzenshtern meeting the Passat on the occasion of her one hundredth anniversary (2011), Photo: Constantin Stephan

Passat's true sister ship is the Peking; she has also survived as a museum ship and attraction at the South Street Seaport museum, harbor of New York in the United States. The Pamir has often been, and is still discussed as Passat's sister ship because both ships were owned and operated by the same consortium of German shipowners in the 1950s. The last eight four-masted barques ordered by Laeisz have been incorrectly called "The Eight Sisters" because of their similarity, including Pangani, Petschili, Pamir, Passat, Peking, Priwall, Pola (which never sailed under the Laeisz flag) and Padua, now under the Russian flag as the training ship Kruzenshtern. Of these eight ships, Pangani, Petschili, Pamir and Padua had no true sister ships.

The Peking is a steel-hulled four-masted barque. A so-called Flying P-Liner of the German company F. Laeisz, it was one of the last generation of cargo-carrying windjammers used in the nitrate trade and wheat tradearound Cape Horn.


During her stay in New York

Return to Germany
In November 2015 the 'Maritim Foundation' purchased the ship for US $100. Peking is intended to become part of the German Port Museum (Deutsches Hafenmuseum) at Schuppen 52 in Hamburg for which €120 million of federal funds will provided. She was taken to Caddell Dry Dock, Staten Island, on September 7, 2016, to spend the winter. On July 17, 2017, she was docked, and two days later, she was transported, at a cost of some €1 million, in the hold of the semi-submersible heavy-lift ship Combi Dock III across the Atlantic, arriving on July 30, 2017 at Brunsbüttel.


The Peking docked at the yard in Wewelsfleth in 2018 during restoration

Refurbishment in Germany
On August 2, 2017, she was transferred to Peters Werft located at Wewelsfleth for a 3 year refurbishment at estimated cost of €32 million:

• New rigging
• New double floor steel plates
• Dismounting of all masts, because these are too rotten
• Docking in dry-dock and renewal of the steel structure
• Removal of the cement that fills the lower three and a half metres of the Hull
• The ship spent about a year in dry dock.
• Peking was refloated on 07 September 2018 with Primer paint Hull.
• She stayed on Peters Werft Pier for about 2 months and goes to dry dock again.
• Teak will be reinstalled before she will be taken to Hamburg to the German Port Museum.

There might also be an opportunity to make her sail again.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passat_(ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peking_(ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 20 September


1709 - HMS Plymouth (1708 - 60), Cptn. Jonas Hanway, captured French Ariadne (40)

HMS Plymouth was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard (Devonport then known as Plymouth-Dock) to the 1706 Establishment of dimensions, and launched on 25 May 1708.

Orders were issued on 26 May 1720 directing Plymouth to be taken to pieces and rebuilt according to the 1719 Establishment at Chatham, from where she was relaunched on 2 August 1722. Plymouth remained in service until she was broken up in 1764

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Plymouth_(1708)


1793 – Death of Fletcher Christian, English lieutenant and mutineer (b. 1764)

Fletcher Christian (25 September 1764 – 20 September 1793) was master's mate on board HMS Bounty during Lieutenant William Bligh's voyage to Tahiti during 1787–1789 for breadfruit plants. In the mutiny on the Bounty, Christian seized command of the ship from Bligh on 28 April 1789


Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian

Clark Gable (1935)

Marlon Brando (1962)

Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian and Anthony Hopkins as William Bligh (1984)

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


1803 - HMS Princess Augusta cutter (8), Lt. J. W. Scott (Killed in Action), repulsed Dutch cutters Union and Wraak. 45 miles N. E. of Texel.

HMS Princess Augusta was a yacht launched in 1771 as HMS Augusta. She was renamed HMS Princess Augusta in 1773 and was sold in 1818.


1811 - Buonaparte being off Boulogne, ordered seven armed praams to attack HMS Naiad (38), Cptn. Philip Carteret, but they were all repulsed, and compelled to seek shelter under their batteries.


1884 – Launch of RMS Etruria

RMS Etruria was a transatlantic ocean liner built by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland in 1884 for the Cunard Line. Etruria and her sister ship Umbria were the last two Cunarders that were fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were among the fastest and largest liners then in service. Etruria was completed and launched in March 1885, twelve weeks later than Umbria and quickly entered service on the Liverpool to New York route.



Etruria had many distinguishing features that included two enormous funnels that gave an impression of huge power. She also had three large steel masts which when fully rigged had an extensive spread of canvas. Another innovation on Etruria was that she was equipped with refrigeration machinery, but it was the single screw propulsion that would bring the most publicity later in her career.



The ship epitomized the luxuries of Victorian style. The public rooms in First Class were full of ornately carved furniture and heavy velvet curtains hung in all the rooms, and they were cluttered with bric-a-brac that period fashion dictated. These rooms, and the First Class cabins, were situated on the Promenade, Upper, Saloon and Main Decks. There was also a Music Room, Smoke Room for gentlemen, and separate dining rooms for First and Second Class passengers. By the standard of the day, Second Class accommodation was moderate, but spacious and comfortable. RMS Etruria's accommodation consisted of 550 First Class, and 800 Second Class passengers. However late in 1892 this changed to 500 First Class, 160 Second Class, and 800 Third Class (Steerage) passengers.

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


1892 – Launch of bark Roanake

Roanoke was one of the largest wooden ships ever constructed.



Roanoke was a four-masted barque built by Messrs. A. Sewall and Co. in 1892 on the Kennebec River at Bath, Maine, in the United States. With the exception of Great Republic, she was the largest wooden ship ever built in an American yard. Her gross register tonnage was 3,347, but on a draft of 27 feet (8.2 meters) she could stow away 2,000 additional tons. Her length was 311 feet (94.8 meters), her beam 49 feet (14.9 meters), and her hold depth 29 feet (8.8 meters). Her lower yards were 95 feet (29 meters) long, and her foremast truck was 180 feet (54.9 meters) from the deck. The keel was in two tiers of 16-inch (40.6- cm) white oak, her garboards were eight inches (20.3 cm) thick, and her ceiling in the lower hold was 14 inches (35.6 cm). Into her construction went 1,250,000 board feet of yellow pine, 14,000 cubic feet (396.4 cubic meters) of oak, 98,000 treenails, and 550 hackmatack knees.

Loss
Roanoke left New York City on her final voyage in June 1904 and was involved in a serious collision with the British steamship Llangibby off the coast of South America in August 1904, requiring repairs for three months in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After delivering cargo to Australia, Roanoke was loading chromium ore near Nouméa, New Caledonia, when she was destroyed by fire on the night of August 10, 1905

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


1899 - Launch of French ocean steamer La Lorraine


SS La Touraine a sistership

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Lorraine_(Schiff)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_La_Touraine


1967 – RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 is launched Clydebank, Scotland.

The Queen Elizabeth 2, often referred to simply as QE2, is a floating hotel and retired ocean liner built for the Cunard Line which was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic liner and a cruise ship from 1969 to 2008. Since 18 April 2018 she has been operating as a floating hotel in Dubai.


RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 on her last visit to the Clyde where she was built.

QE2 was designed for the transatlantic service from her home port of Southampton, UK, to New York, and was named after the earlier Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth. She served as the flagship of the line from 1969 until succeeded by RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. Designed in Cunard's then headquarters and regional offices in Liverpool and Southampton respectively, and built in Clydebank, Scotland, QE2 was considered the last of the great transatlantic ocean liners until Queen Mary 2 entered service.

The QE2 was also the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service until she was refitted with a modern diesel powerplant in 1986/1987. During almost forty years of service, Queen Elizabeth 2 undertook regular world cruises and later operated predominantly as a cruise ship, sailing out of Southampton, England. QE2 had no running mate and never ran a year-round weekly transatlantic express service to New York. QE2 did, however, continue the Cunard tradition of regular scheduled transatlantic crossings every year of her service life. QE2 was never given a Royal Mail Ship designation, instead carrying the SS and later MV or MS prefixes in official documents.

QE2 was retired from active Cunard service on 27 November 2008. She had been acquired by the private equity arm of Dubai World, which planned to begin conversion of the vessel to a 500-room floating hotel moored at the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai. The 2008 financial crisis, however, intervened and the ship was laid up at Dubai Drydocks and later Port Rashid. Subsequent conversion plans were announced by Istithmar in 2012 and by the Oceanic Group in 2013 but these both stalled. In November, 2015 Cruise Arabia & Africa quoted DP World chairman Ahmed Sultan Bin Sulayem as saying that QE2 would not be scrapped and in March, 2017, a Dubai-based construction company announced it had been contracted to refurbish the ship. The restored QE2 opened to visitors on 18 April 2018, with a soft opening, with discounted rates and only five of the planned 13 restaurants and bars completed. The grand opening is set for October 2018.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_2


1981 - Philippine Navy frigate, Datu Kalantia, previously, USS Booth (DE 170), is forced aground by Typhoon Clara while at anchor near Clayan Island, 340 miles north of Manila. USS Mount Hood (AE 29), with a special medical team embarks and joins in on rescue operations on Sept. 21.
Only 18 members of the crew survive.

USS Booth (DE-170) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and then the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.



She was laid down on 30 January 1943 at Newark, New Jersey, by the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Co.; launched on 21 June 1943; named for Ensign Robert Sinclair Booth, who was assigned to the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor, the first Washington, DC serviceman to die in the war; sponsored by Mrs. Annie L. Booth; towed by ocean-going tug AT-208 from her building yard to Norfolk, Virginia, via the Cape Cod Canal(24–26 June 1943), completed at the Norfolk Navy Yard; and commissioned there on 18 September 1943, Lt. Comdr. Donald W. Todd in command.

Booth's "possible transfer to [a] foreign government" ultimately came to pass. Reconditioned by the Brewer Dry Dock Co., Staten Island, New York, the ship was loaned to the Republic of the Philippines under the Military Assistance Program on 15 December 1967. The Philippine Navy commissioned her on that day at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as BRP Datu Kalantiaw (PS-76). On 30 June 1975, while she was still operating on loan under a foreign flag, the destroyer escort was redesignated a frigate, FF-170. Subsequently, given the Philippine Navy's continuing need for the ship "in the interest of National Defense Requirements and in the furtherance of the Security Alliance between the [Philippines] and the United States," the U.S. Navy disposed of her by Foreign Military Sale and Booth was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 15 July 1978.


The foundered Datu Kalantiaw on the coast of Calayan Island, 1981.

Datu Kalantiaw continued to serve under the Philippine flag until Typhoon Clara drove her aground on 21 September 1981 on the rocky northern shore of Calayan Island, in the northern Philippines. Ammunition ship Mount Hood (AE-29), as she neared Subic Bay that day, slated for a period of upkeep, received orders to "get underway again that evening to coordinate rescue operations" at the scene of the tragedy. Consequently, Mount Hood, working in concert with Philippine Navy units "in a most adverse weather environment," retrieved 49 bodies in two days of operations, and ultimately sailed for Manila to turn them over to Philippine authorities, rescuers no longer hearing tapping from inside the ship that lay on her beam ends where Clara had cast her. Soon thereafter, Rear Admiral Simeon Alejandro, Flag Officer in Command of the Philippine Navy, "made an emotional address to the officers and men of Mount Hood upon the ship's arrival on Manila," the auxiliary's historian records, "thanking each man for his part in the mission and offering the gratitude of the Philippine nation to the Captain and crew." One contemporary account called the loss of Datu Kalantiaw "one of the worst disasters in the history of the Philippine Navy," 79 of the 97-man crew perishing.

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1742 - HMS Tilbury (1733 - 60) burnt by accident off Hispaniola


HMS Tilbury was a 60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the dimensions of the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 2 June 1733.




Scale: 1:48. A Georgian full hull model of a 60-gun, two-decker ship of the line (circa 1720). The model is decked and equipped. It is a very early example of the Georgian models that came to replace Navy Board models over the first half of the 18th century. The dimensions relate to the 1719 Establishment for 60-gun ships, although the model represents the general design for two-deck, third rate warships, rather than a particular ship. The ship would have been approximately 144 feet in length, with a beam of 39 feet, and would have weighed about 955 tons. It carried twenty-four 24-pound guns on its gun deck, twenty-six 9-pounders on its upper deck, eight 6-pounders on its quarterdeck and two 6-pounders on the forecastle. Four hundred men would have served on a ship of this type, of which 11 were built. Many served in foreign waters. The ‘Tilbury’, for example, was launched in 1733 and joined Vernon’s fleet during the War of Jenkins’ Ear. It served off Cartagena in 1741 before being accidentally burnt off Hispaniola in 1744.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66373.html#TEhGEJPHAGlQxOTj.99


The Tilbury was part of Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon's fleet and took part in the expedition to Cartagena de Indias during the War of Jenkins' Ear.

Tilbury was accidentally burnt in 1742.


Data from Three-Decks

Dimension - Measurement - Type - Metric Equivalent
Length of Gundeck - 144' 2" Imperial Feet - 43.8924
Length of Keel - 118' 0" Imperial Feet - 35.9664
Breadth39' 2"Imperial Feet11.8928
Depth in Hold - 16' 5" Imperial Feet - 4.898
Burthen 962 79⁄94 Tons BM

2.6.1733 Broadside Weight = 435 Imperial Pound ( 197.2725 kg)
Lower Gun Deck - 24 British 24-Pounder
Upper Gun Deck - 26 British 9-Pounder
Quarterdeck - 8 British 6-Pounder
Forecastle - 2 British 6-Pounder

1734 - Began fitting at Chatham Dockyard
25.4.1734 - Completed at Chatham Dockyard at a cost of £14485.19.0d
25.4.1734 - Completed fitting at Chatham Dockyard at a cost of £1148.6.4d
1740 - Sailed to the West Indies
3.9.1740 - Joined Vernon's squadron
4.3.1740/41 - Operations against Cartagena
7.1741 - Operations against Santiago
22.9.1742 - Burnt by accident off San Domingo


The 1719 Establishment revised the dimensions of these ships as shown in the adjacent table. Three 60-gun ships were rebuilt to this specification during the early 1720s - the Plymouth, Canterbury and Windsor - while the Dreadnought underwent a major repair amounting to a rebuild and a fifth ship - the Sunderland - was replaced by new construction. In the late 1720s, six new 60-gun ships were rebuilt to replace obsolete 50-gun ships - the Deptford, Pembroke, Tilbury, Warwick, Swallow and Centurion (the last-named to a somewhat broader specification), while the 60-gun Dunkirk was likewise rebuilt. A slightly lengthened ship - the Rippon - was built in 1730–1735.

Fourth rates of 60 (later 58) guns
General characteristics for 60-gun fourth rates
Type:60-gun fourth-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 951 27⁄94 bm
Length:

• 144 ft 0 in (43.9 m) (gundeck)
• 117 ft 7 in (35.8 m) (keel)

Beam:

• 39 ft 0 in (11.9 m) (1719)
• 41 ft 5 in (12.6 m) (1733)

Depth of hold:

• 16 ft 5 in (5.0 m) (1719)
• 16 ft 11 in (5.2 m) (1733)

Complement: 365 officers and men (400 from 1733, 420 from 1743)
Armament:

• 60 guns:
• Lower deck: 24 × 24-pounders
• Upper deck: 26 × 9-pounders
• Quarter deck: 8 × 6-pounders
• Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders

The 1733 revision increased the dimensions as follows:

• Tons burthen: 1061 49⁄94 bm
• Length: 144 ft 0 in (43.9 m) (gundeck)
  116 ft 4 in (35.5 m) (keel)
• Beam: 41 ft 5 in (12.6 m)
• Depth in hold: 16 ft 11 in (5.2 m)

Eleven vessels were initially built to this specification, including six built as replacements for obsolete 50-gun ships. These were the Weymouth, Worcester, Strafford, Superb, Jersey, Augusta, Dragon, Lion, Kingston, Rupert and Princess Mary. After 1739 another four were built - the Nottingham and Exeter in the Royal Dockyards and the Medway and Dreadnought by contract.

The 1741 revision further increased the dimensions to:

• Tons burthen: 1123 57⁄94 bm
• Length: 147 ft 0 in (44.8 m) (gundeck)
  119 ft 9 in (36.5 m) (keel)
• Beam: 42 ft 0 in (12.8 m)
• Depth in hold: 18 ft 1 in (5.5 m)

Six ships were ordered to this specification - the Canterbury, Sunderland, Tilbury, Princess Louisa, Defiance and Eagle. A seventh - Windsor - was built to a somewhat enlarged design.

The 1743 Establishment of Guns replaced the 26 9-pounder guns on the upper deck by 24 12-pounder guns, reducing the vessel to a 58-gun ship.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tilbury_(1733)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1719_Establishment
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=7160

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1757 - French Emeraude (1744 - 28) captured by HMS Southampton (1757 - 32)


The British 32-gun frigate HMS Southampton, cruizing off Brest, having been dispatched by the admiral to reconnoitre the harbour, was chased by a large ship. As soon as the stranger was perceived, the Southampton tacked and stood towards her, upon which the stranger shortened sail and hove to. Owing to light airs and calms, it was 2h. p.m. before the Southampton could get near enough to open her fire. At that time, being within musket-shot, the stranger, which proved to be the Emeraud, French 28-gun frigate, opened her fire on the Southampton, but it was not returned until, being within twenty yards of each other, the British frigate opened her fire, and a warmly contested action ensued. In consequence of the calm, which the firing caused, the ships drifted foul of each other, when the French endeavoured to carry the Southampton by boarding, but were beaten back with great loss.
The struggles of the two crews lasted for a quarter of an hour, at the expiration of which time, the Emeraud having lost her first and second captains, most of the officers, and 60 men killed and wounded, surrendered. The Southampton had her second lieutenant and 19 men killed, and every officer, except the captain, and 28 men wounded.
In this action the two ships were as nearly as possible of equal force, and the vigour of the contest evinces great courage and skill on both sides.

The Emeraud was added to the royal navy under the English name Emerald, and continued for many years a cruizing ship.


George III in HMS Southampton reviewing the fleet off Plymouth, 18 August 1789'. The Carnatic is shown just right of the centre of the picture, heading the line of ships being reviewed.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/11952.html#kEzJ3l0oyD5mDFhJ.99

The Ships:

HMS Emerald was a 28-gun frigate of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War.

Launched in 1744 as the French naval vessel L'Emeraude, she was captured by HMS Southampton on 21 September 1757 and brought into Portsmouth Dockyard where she was refitted from British service. She was renamed Emerald in December 1757 and commissioned into the Royal Navy in April 1758 under the command of Captain Thomas Cornwall.

Emerald was assigned to patrol and convoy duties in the British Leeward Islands from January 1759, securing three victories over French privateers in the following two years. In July 1760 command was transferred to Captain Charles Middleton, who remained with Emerald for the rest o her Caribbean service. The frigate returned to England in September 1761 and was decommissioned at Portsmouth Dockyard in October. She was declared surplus to Navy requirements on 7 October and broken up at Portsmouth Dockyard in November 1761.



HMS Southampton was the name ship of the 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served for more than half a century until wrecked in 1812.



In 1772, Southampton – at the time commanded by the capable John MacBride, destined for a distinguished naval career – was sent to Elsinore, Denmark, to take on board and convey to exile in Germany the British Princess Caroline Matilda, George III's sister, who had been deposed from her position as Queen of Denmark due to her affair with the social reformer Johan Struensee.

On 3 August 1780, Southampton captured the French privateer lugger Comte de Maurepas, of 12 guns and 80 men, under the command of Joseph Le Cluck. She had on board Mr. Andrew Stuart, Surgeon's Mate of HMS Speedwell, "as a ransomer." She had suffered shot holes between wind and water and sank shortly thereafter. Southampton shared the head money award with Buffalo, Thetis, and Alarm.

On 10 June 1796, Southampton captured the French corvette Utile at Hyères Roads, by boarding. Utile was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns and was under the protection of a battery. She had a crew of 136 men under the command of Citizen François Veza. The French put up a resistance during which they suffered eight killed, including Veza, and 17 wounded; Southampton had one man killed. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Utile. Gorgon, Courageux, and the hired armed cutter Fox were in company at the time, and with the British fleet outside Toulon. They shared with Southampton in the proceeds of the capture, as did Barfleur, Bombay Castle, Egmont, and St George.


deck Signed by John Henslow [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1775-1784; Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806]. NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 256 states that 'Southampton' was at Plymouth Dockyard from October to December 1776 for small repairs and to be fitted. Her only other visit to Plymouth Dockyard is in 1794, by which time John Henslow was Surveyor of the Navy.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/82861.html#81ZYrkVUiXBdKopr.99

Lloyd's List reported that she and the sloop Brazen had run aground and lost their masts on the coast of Mississippi during a great hurricane on 19 and 20 August 1812, but that the crews were saved. Neither vessel was lost though.

On 22 November, Southampton, under the command of Captain James Lucas Yeo, captured the American brig USS Vixen. Vixen was armed with twelve 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder bow chasers, and had a crew of 130 men under the command of Captain George Reed. She had been out five weeks but had not captured anything.

Fate
A strong westerly current wrecked Southampton and Vixen on an uncharted submerged rock off Conception Island[9] in the Crooked Island Passage of the Bahamas on 27 November. No lives were lost



Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the elevation and plan for the steering apparatus as fitted to Southampton (1757), a 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigate; to an invention of Captain Lawson (Seniority, 21 October 1810, no ship assigned [Steel's Navy List, March 1811]). Signed Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, March 1803 - January 1823].


The Southampton-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1756 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were the first 'true' fifth-rate frigates produced to the new single-deck concept (that is, without any gunports on the lower deck). They were, however, designed with sweep ports (for rowing) along the lower deck.

Unlike the contemporary sixth-rate frigates of 28 guns, which were derived from French designs by Slade, the Southampton class were fully British-designed. Unlike the French models, these ships had considerably more height on the lower deck, and were originally intended to work their cables here.

A total of four ships were built in oak during the Seven Years’ War, all ordered from private shipyards. The initial design was approved on 12 March 1756, and provided for a ship of 648 37/94 tons burthen, and the contract with Robert Inwood to build the prototype reflected this. On 25 May the design was modified by Slade to lengthen the ship on the lower deck by 3 inches, and along the keel by 10½ inches, thus raising the tonnage to 652 51/94 burthen; on the same date, the name Southampton was approved for the prototype, and two further ships were ordered to be built to this design, with a fourth vessel being ordered one week later.

Ships in class

• HMS Southampton
  • Ordered: 12 March 1756
  • Built by: Robert Inwood, Rotherhithe.
  • Keel laid: April 1756
  • Launched: 5 May 1757
  • Completed: 19 June 1757 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked in the Bahamas on 27 November 1812.
• HMS Minerva
  • Ordered: 25 May 1756
  • Built by: John Quallet, Rotherhithe.
  • Keel laid: 1 June 1756
  • Launched: 17 January 1759
  • Completed: 3 March 1759 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Captured by the French on 22 August 1778. Retaken on 4 January 1781 and renamed Recovery 20 April 1781. Sold at Deptford Dockyard 30 December 1784.
• HMS Vestal
  • Ordered: 25 May 1756
  • Built by: John Barnard & John Turner, Harwich.
  • Keel laid: June 1756
  • Launched: 17 June 1757
  • Completed: 17 August 1757 at the builder's shipyard.
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in June 1775.
• HMS Diana
  • Ordered: 1 June 1756
  • Built by: Robert Batson, Limehouse.
  • Keel laid: June 1756
  • Launched: 30 August 1757
  • Completed: 12 September 1757 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold at Deptford Dockyard on 16 May 1793.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Emerald_(1757)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Southampton_(1757)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton-class_frigate

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1782 - HMS Centaur (1759 - 74) foundered in severe gale off Newfoundland banks.


Centaure was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched at Toulon in 1757. She was designed by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and named on 25 October 1755, and built under his supervision at Toulon. In French service she carried 74 cannon, comprising: 28 x 36-pounders on the lower deck, 30 x 18-pounders on the upper deck, 10 x 8-pounders on the quarterdeck, 6 x 8-pounders on the forecastle.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sternboard decoration detail with name on the counter in a cartouche, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Centaur (captured 1759), a captured French Third Rate, two-decker, as taken off at Chatham Dockyard. The plan illustrates the ship prior to being fitted as a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 633 states that Centaur arrived at Chatham Dockyard on 6 November 1759 and was docked on 6 December. She was undocked on 16 February 1760 and sailed on 30 May 1760 having been fitted.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80521.html#tM3EFyxBBGmQPrdg.99


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the midship section for Centaur (captured 1759), a captured French Third Rate. The plan illustrates the ship prior to being fitted as a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, at Chatham Dockyard.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80524.html#YsKWTgtygRBVbbZy.99


The Royal Navy captured Centaure at the Battle of Lagos on 18 August 1759, and commissioned her as the third-rate HMS Centaur.

Career in British service
She had a skirmish with the French ships Vaillant and Amethyste, in January 1760.


Plate IV. A View of the Sea on the Morning after the Storm, with the distressed situation of the Centaur, Ville de Paris and the Glorieux as seen from the Lady Juliana, the Ville de Paris passing to Windward under close reef'd Topsails


Loss
In September 1782, Centaur was one of the ships escorting prizes back to Britain from Jamaica, when she foundered during the 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. Captain John Nicholson Inglefield, along with eleven of his crew, survived the wreck in one of the ship's pinnaces, arriving at the Azores after sailing in an open boat for 16 days without compass quadrant or sail, and only two quart bottles of water; some 400 of her crew perished


Sepia aquatint inscribed with a description of the picture: 'Distress of the Centaur on the Night of the 16th Septr 1782; which with other ships of war, in their passage from Jamaica, were attacked with a most fatal storm, in which his majesty's ships, the Ville de Paris, the Glorieux, and several others perished; the Centaur was laid on her broadside, but righted, with the loss of all her masts, bowsprits and rudder, was driven about the sea in great distress for several days before she foundered. Twelve persons only escaping from the wreck.' Makers: Painted by R. Dodd, Engraved by Pollard, London, Published Octr 20 1783 by R. Pollard No.15 Braynes Row, SpaFields, & sold by R. Wilkinson No.38 Cornhill.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/149129.html#HJdJR0oOmy235ZWs.99


Hand-coloured. 'In 1784 [Northcote] exhibited [at the Royal Academy] his first modern history painting, "The Wreck of HMS Centaur", painted for Henry Noel, sixth earl of Gainsborough (des.), which Northcote acknowledged as ‘the grandest and most original thing I ever did’ . The success of this painting helped launch Northcote's career as a history painter, which began in earnest in 1786 [the year he was elected ARA].' (From Martin Postle's entry on Northcote in ODNB). The original painting, as hung at the Royal Academy in Somerset House, is shown taking pride of place in the centre, above the line, on one of the walls of the Great Room in E. F. Burney's record drawings of the exhibition of 1784, reproduced in David Solkin's 'Art on the Line: the Royal Academy exhibitions 1780-1836' (2001)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/147337.html#fmMURlkUDjKlZsxj.99


Preservation of Cpt Inglefield, the Master, and Ten of the Crew of the Centaur in the Pinnace... on the Great Western Ocean, and after seventeen days at sea, arrived at Fayal (PAH9181)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/149128.html#usKVICz3WOWDLCWv.99


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centaur_(1759)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...2;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1785 – Launch of HMS Lapwing, a 28 gun Enterprise class frigate


HMS Lapwing was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.

Career
Lapwing was first commissioned in October 1790 under the command of Captain Paget Bayly (or Bayley), who had commanded Scorpion off the coast of Africa and in the West Indies. Captain Henry CUrzon recommissioned her in April 1791 and sailed for the Mediterranean on 12 July. She returned to Britain in 1793 and was paid off in February 1794.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth for Pomona (1778), then Pegasus (1779), then Mercury (1779), and wih pencil alterations for Hussar (1784), Rose (1783), Dido (1784), Thisbe (1783), Alligator (1787), Circe (1783), Lapwing (1785), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 171765-1784]. The top ship is not 'Laurel' as listed in the annotation on the right, as this plan predates her ordering by over one year.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/83173.html#ElW4osEyG3HxbOf7.99

Between May and November Lapwing underwent fitting at Woolwich. While this was underway, Captain Robert Barton commissioned her for cruising. He then sailed her to the Leeward Islands in October 1795.

Lapwing vs. Le Décius and Vaillante
On 25 November 1796, Captain R. Barton and Lapwing were at St Kitts when an express boat brought the news that a French force consisting of two warships, several smaller ships, and 400 troops, were threatening Anguilla. Contrary winds prevented Lapwing from arriving in time to prevent the French from burning the town. Still, Lapwing was able to meet the French force near St Martin's. There she was able to capture the corvette, Décius, and destroy the brig, Vaillante. She captured 170 men. Décius was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns, two 12-pounder carronades, and two field pieces. She had a crew of 133 men, and was carrying 203 troops, all under the command of Citizen Andrée Senis. Vaillante was armed with four 24-pounder guns, had a crew of 45 men, and was carrying 90 troops, all under the command of Citizen Laboutique. Half an hour after Décius struck, Vaillante ran aground at St Martin's, where fire from Lapwing destroyed her.


Battle between the French corvette Décius and the frigate HMS Lapwing

Having destroyed Valliante, Lapwing took possession of Décius. Barton found that she had suffered about 80 men killed and 40 wounded. He took 170 prisoners. The next day two French frigates, Thétis and Pensée,[5]chased Lapwing. Barton took the prisoners aboard Lapwing and set fire to Décius. Lapwing then returned to St Kitts.

Barton further added that it was his understanding that all the troops were from "Victor Hughes" (Guadeloupe), picked expressly for the purpose of plundering and destroying the island. Many of the soldiers may have drowned in attempting to swim to shore.


Inscribed: "Capture of Le Desius, Novr. 25th. 1796". The action occurred on November 25th 1796 off Anguilla. 'Le Desius' is shown in the left foreground of the picture; two more vessels are depicted in the centre and backdrop.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109664.html#dHFIl93ORXUSWjvh.99


A coloured aquatint depicting the English 28-gun, 6th rate ‘Lapwing’, under the command of a Captain Burton, capturing the French frigate Decius and sinking the brig Valiant. The action took place off Anguilla in the West Indies on 25 November 1796. Gunfire blazes from the Lapwing’s starboard side. The captured ship’s ensign, lowered in defeat, trails in the water at her stern, while the brig sinks in flames, her crew abandoning ship into a jolly boat.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109663.html#kjuOoU6W1fiqp8UX.99


The engagement cost Lapwing only one man killed (her pilot), and six men wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Lapwing 3 Decr. 1796" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 28 December, Lapwing was off Montserrat when she captured the French privateer Maria Topaze. Maria Topaze, of Guadeloupe, was armed with ten guns and had a crew of 47 men. During the chase she threw six of her guns overboard. She was one day out of St Eustatia.

1797 on
On 31 January 1797 Lapwing was sailing off Barbuda when she captured the French privateer schooner Espoir. Espoir was armed with four guns and ten swivel guns, and had a crew of 48 men. She was out of Guadeloupe and Lapwing sent her into St. Christopher's.

On 31 March 1798, Lapwing was off St Bartholomews when she captured the French privateer schooner Hardi. Hardi, of Guadeloupe, was armed with four guns and had a crew of 47 men. She had been out some time but had not made any captures. Lapwing sent Hardi into Martinique.

On 29 May Lapwing captured Intrepid, of 10 guns and 58 men, off Saint Bartholomew's. She had not made any captures since leaving Guadeloupe.



Napoleonic Wars
On 17 July 1803 Lapwing, Falcon, and the hired armed cutter Queen Charlotte captured Caroline. Then on 28 July, the same three vessels recaptured from the French the brig Mercure, which apparently was British-built and once called Mercury.

Aaron Thomas' journal
Aaron Thomas kept a journal from 15 June 1798 to 26 October 1799 in which he gave an account of his time aboard Lapwing. This manuscript is now held by the University of Miami. During this period Lapwing sailed around the Caribbean visiting St. Kitts, Nevis, Antigua, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. In August 1799, Lapwing was also involved in the successful operation in which the British seized Paramaribo from the Dutch.


The Enterprise-class frigates were the final class of 28-gun sailing frigates of the sixth-rate to be produced for the Royal Navy. These twenty-seven vessels were designed in 1770 by John Williams. A first batch of five ships were ordered as part of the programme sparked by the Falklands Islands emergency. Two ships were built by contract in private shipyards, while three others were constructed in the Royal Dockyards using foreign oak.



A second batch of fifteen ships were ordered in 1776 to 1778 to meet the exigencies of the North American situation, and a final group of seven ships followed in 1782 to 1783 with only some minor modifications to include side gangways running flush with the quarter deck and forecastle, and with solid bulkheads along the quarterdeck.

Enterprize class 28-gun sixth rates 1773-87; 27 ships, designed by John Williams.

• HMS Siren 1773 - wrecked on the coast of Connecticut 1777.
• HMS Fox 1773 - taken by USS Hancock 1777, retaken by HMS Flora a month later, but then taken by the French Junon off Brest in 1778.
• HMS Enterprize 1774 - hulked as receiving ship at the Tower of London 1791, broken up 1807.
• HMS Surprise 1774 - sold 1783.
• HMS Actaeon 1775 - grounded at Charleston and burnt to avoid capture on 28 June 1776.
• HMS Proserpine 1777 - wrecked off Heligoland in 1799.
• HMS Andromeda 1777 - capsized in the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1780.
• HMS Aurora 1777 - sold 1814.
• HMS Medea 1778 - hulked as a hospital ship at Portsmouth in 1801 and sold in 1805.
• HMS Pomona 1778 - renamed Amphitrite in 1795, broken up 1811.
• HMS Resource 1778 - converted to troopship in 1799, hulked as receiving ship at the Tower of London and renamed Enterprize in 1803, broken up in 1816.
• HMS Sibyl 1779 - renamed Garland in 1795, lost off Madagascar on 26 July 1798.
• HMS Brilliant 1779 - broken up 1811.
• HMS Crescent 1779 - captured by the French frigates Gloire (1778) and Friponne (1780) on 20 June 1781.
• HMS Mercury 1779 - used as floating battery since 1803, converted to troopship in 1810, broken up in 1814.
• HMS Pegasus 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as receiving ship in 1814, sold 1816.
• HMS Cyclops 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as receiving ship at Portsmouth in 1807, sold 1814.
• HMS Vestal 1779 - converted to troopship in 1800, on lease to Trinity House from 1803 to 1810, hulked as prison ship at Barbados in 1814, sold 1816.
• HMS Laurel 1779 - driven ashore and disintegrated during the Great West Indian Hurricane of 1780.
• HMS Nemesis 1780 - taken by the French in 1795, retaken in 1796, converted to troopship in 1812, sold 1814.
• HMS Thisbe 1783 - converted to troopship in 1800, sold 1815.
• HMS Rose 1783 - wrecked on Rocky Point, Jamaica, on 28 June 1794.
• HMS Hussar 1784 - wrecked near Île Bas on Christmas Eve 1796.
• HMS Dido 1784 - converted to troopship in 1800, hulked as Army prison ship at Portsmouth in 1804, sold 1817.
• HMS Circe 1785 - wrecked near Yarmouth on 6 November 1803.
• HMS Lapwing 1785 - hulked as salvage ship at Cork in 1810, residential ship at Pembroke from 1813, broken up in 1828.
• HMS Alligator 1787 - hulked as salvage ship at Cork in 1810, sold in 1814.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lapwing_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise-class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_frigate_classes_of_the_Royal_Navy
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-324922;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1785 – Launch of HMS Romulus, a 36 gun Flora-class frigate


HMS Romulus was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, Romulus was despatched to the Mediterranean where she became part of the fleet under Lord Hood, initially blockading, and later occupying, the port of Toulon. She played an active role during the withdrawal in December, providing covering fire while HMS Robust and HMS Leviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.


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

With three other frigates and 13 ships-of-the-line, Romulus chased a smaller French fleet into Gourjean Bay in August 1794. Kept away by the batteries on the shore, Hood returned to Corsica with four ships, leaving Romulus and the remainder to form a blockade. This ultimately failed due to bad weather and the French ships escaped. Following an action on 14 March 1795, boats from Romulus assisted in the rescue of stores and crew from HMS Illustrious, which had been badly damaged during the battle and subsequent storm.

In January 1797, Romulus was in the small squadron, under Commodore Horatio Nelson that evacuated the island of Elba. While the escaping convoy was escorted to Gibraltar, Romulus, with Nelson's ship Minerve, carried out a surveillance of the enemy ports and coast. On 24 May 1797, in a ruse de guerre, she captured a Spanish 20-gun corvette. Sneaking up under false colours with another British frigate, the Spanish vessel was taken without a shot being fired.

She was converted to a troopship in mid-1799 and served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign, landing troops at Aboukir bay on 8 March 1801. She paid off at the end of the war in 1802. When hostilities resumed, Romulus was converted into a floating battery, standing guard first at Woolwich, then Hollesley Bay near East Anglia and finally Leith. During the later half of 1810, Romulus was converted to a troopship once more and in 1812 was back in the Mediterranean. In July 1813 she had a short-lived appointment as a hospital ship in Bermuda. She paid off that December, was recommissioned a final time, and was finally broken up on the island in November 1816.


Construction and armament
Romulus was a 36-gun, Flora-class frigate built to John Williams' design and ordered on 28 December 1781. Her keel, of 113 feet 0 inches (34.4 m) was laid down at Limehouse in November 1782 by shipwright company Greaves and Purnell. The build cost £11,154 5/4d.

When launched on 21 September 1785, Romulus was 137 feet 2 inches (41.8 m) along the gun deck, had a beam of 38 feet 3 inches (11.7 m) and a depth in the hold of 13 feet 3 1⁄2 inches (4.1 m). She was 87937⁄94tons burthen and drew between 9 ft 5 1⁄2 in (2.883 m) and 13 ft 6 1⁄2 in (4.128 m). When fully manned, she carried a complement of 270.

Flora-class frigates were initially designed to carry a main battery of twenty-six 18-pounder (8.2 kg) guns, with a secondary armament of ten 6-pounder (2.7 kg) guns on the upperworks. By the time Romulus was ordered however, the armament had twice been increased with the addition of eight 18-pounder carronades and twelve 1⁄2-pounder (0.23 kg) swivel guns in September 1799 and the upgrading of the 6-pound long guns with 9-pounders in April 1780.

Service
Launched on 21 September 1785, Romulus was taken down the Thames to Deptford Dockyard. Work began on 11 October to have her sheathed in copper and rigged for sailing to Portsmouth. The works cost £1,736. With a further £2,333 spent finishing the fitting-out at Portsmouth, Romulus had cost the Admiralty £15,345 5/4d

Between May 1790 and September 1791, Romulus was under the command of Thomas Lennox Frederick after which she paid off. Following Britain's entry into the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, Romulus was recommissioned under Captain John Sutton and refitted at Portsmouth in April. On the twenty-second of that month she set sail for the Mediterranean where she joined Admiral William Hotham's squadron.

In August she was blockading the port of Toulon with Samuel Lord Hood's fleet and was among the vessels that shared in the capture, on 5 August 1793, of the Prince Royal of Sweden She took a polacca on 20 August, while in the company of Agamemnon, Robust and Romney and on 28 August she took part in the occupation of Toulon, receiving a share of the prize money for the ships captured there. With HMS Meleager, she captured a French gunboat on 16 November and during the evacuation in December, Romulus provided covering fire while HMS Robust and HMS Leviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.

Corsica
Early in 1794 Romulus, with HMS Victory, Fortitude, Egmont, Princess Royal, Alcide, Captain, St George, Imperieuse, Juno, Aurora and Meleager, supported the troops under Sir David Dundas that captured the town of San Fiorenzo in the Gulf of St Florent, Corsica. There they found the scuttled French frigate Minerve on 19 February 1794, and were able to refloat her. She was taken into service as the 38-gun St Fiorenzo. Romulus shared in the prize money for both the frigate and for the naval stores captured in the town.

The British fleet under Samuel Lord Hood was laying off Bastia in early August 1794 when word was received that seven French ships-of-the-line and five frigates had broken out of Toulon. Setting off in pursuit, with 13 ships-of-the-line and four frigates, including Romulus, the British spotted their quarry on 10 August, and by dawn the next day had closed the distance to 12 nautical miles (22 km). Wishing to avoid conflict with a superior force, the French sought shelter in Gourjean Bay. When they arrived at the anchorage at about 14:00, the only British ship close enough to engage was the frigate Dido which was beaten off by the fire from the rearmost French vessels and the two forts guarding the entrance. A plan was formulated to capture or destroy the French fleet with Romulus, Dido, Juno, Meleager and the 74-gun HMS Illustrious, attacking the four enemy frigates. The scheme was delayed by contrary winds and tides and then cancelled after the French fortified their position by landing guns and establishing batteries on the shore.

Hood returned to Corsica with Victory, the 98-gun Princess Royal and two 74s, leaving the remainder of the fleet under Hotham. This force, comprising nine ships-of-the-line and four frigates, including Romulus was supposed to blockade the bay, but was blown off station during a storm, and the French escaped back to Toulon.


H.M.S. Crescent (sistership of Romulus), under the command of Captain James Saumarez, capturing the French frigate Réunion off Cherbourg, 20th October 1793

Battle of Genoa
Main article: Battle of Genoa
Later that August, George Hope became the captain of Romulus, and in November Hood left for England, leaving Hotham as the Commander-in-Chief. Romulus was one of seven frigates which, together with 13 ships-of-the-line, two sloops and a cutter, were anchored in the roads of Livorno on 8 March 1795. The following day, a British scout, the 24-gun sloop Moselle, brought news that a French fleet of 15 ships-of-the-line, six frigates and two brigs, had been seen off the islands of Sainte-Marguerite. Hotham immediately ordered his ships to sea and on 10 March the advanced British frigates spotted the French fleet at some distance. Making their way back to Toulon against the wind, the French had with them the recently captured Berwick, which had been undergoing repairs at Corsica when taken.

The British had been in pursuit for two days when on the night of 12 March a storm developed. Two French ships of the line, Berwick and Mercure, were damaged and had to be escorted to Gourjean Bay by two frigates, leaving the opposing fleets roughly equal in strength and number. Seeing that the French were intending to avoid battle, the next morning Hotham, who had hitherto been trying to form line, ordered a general chase, and at 08:00 the 80-gun Ça Ira at the rear of the French fleet, collided with Victoire and its fore and main topmasts collapsed overboard. The leading British ship was the 36-gun frigate, HMS Inconstant under Captain Thomas Fremantle, which reached the damaged Ça Ira within an hour of the collision and opened fire at close range, causing further damage. Seeing the danger, the French frigate Vestale fired upon Inconstant from a distance before taking the limping Ça Ira in tow.

The chase continued throughout the day and night with the British van sporadically engaging with the French rearguard. Ça Ira dropped further and further behind the main body of the French force; to better protect the damaged ship, Vestale was replaced with the ship of the line Censeur. By morning the fleets were 21 nautical miles (39 km) southwest of Genoa with the British rapidly gaining on the French. Ça Ira and Censeur had fallen a long way back from the French fleet, and Hotham sent his two fastest ships after them. Captainand Bedford did not arrive simultaneously however, and were both repulsed, although further damage was inflicted on the French stragglers in the process. As more British ships arrived, the French fleet broke off the engagement and left Ça Ira and Censeur to their fate. Hotham was content with the capture of these prizes and made no attempt to pursue the fleeing French.

After the action, the British fleet anchored in the Gulf of La Spezia to make repairs, but on 17 March was struck by a heavy gale. The badly damaged HMS Illustrious, which had been taken in tow by HMS Meleager, broke free and grounded near Avenza. On 20 March, the weather had abated sufficiently to effect a rescue. Romulus, Tarleton, Lowestoffe, and teams of ship's boats, successfully removed all of the crew and most of the ship's stores without casualties but were unable to save the irreparably damaged ship. Once the wreck had been cleared, it was set on fire and abandoned.

Following temporary repairs, Romulus and her compatriots left the bay on 25 March and arrived the next day at San-Fiorenzo where further work was carried out to the battle and storm damaged British fleet. Upon completion on 18 April, Hotham's ships, minus the two prizes, Ça Ira and Censeur, set sail for Livorno and anchored in the roads there on 27 April.

Escort duties and cruising
On 26 September, in company with HMS Diadem, Romulus captured an enemy ship, Aballata, loaded with specie. She took another prize in January the following year, and a further vessel in July 1796. Romulus was also in sight when HMS Lively captured the Danish ship, Concordia on 27 February 1796, and was therefore entitled to a share of the spoils.

In January 1797, Romulus assisted in the evacuation of the island of Elba along with Minerve under Commodore Nelson, the frigates, Dido and Southampton; the storeships Dromedary and Dolphin, and two sloops. On 29 January the squadron left Portoferraio, with 12 transports bound for Gibraltar but on that evening, Minerve and Romulus left the convoy to carry out a surveillance of the enemy ports and coast. The two frigates travelled first to Corsica, evacuated by the British in October the previous year. Finding nothing of any consequence in San Fiorenzo Bay, Nelson decided to investigate Toulon. Arriving on 1 February, two days were spent in the roads and looking into the port but there was no sign of the enemy fleet, and the few ships that were there were not in a seaworthy condition. The squadron subsequently sailed to Barcelona, where they flew French colours in the hope of tempting out any ships within. This ruse de guerre was not successful however, and with the wind being contrary for Minorca, the two British vessels sailed instead for Cartagena. Finding it empty also, Nelson surmised that the combined Spanish and French fleet had gone west and was operating outside the Mediterranean. Minerve and Romulus therefore, rejoined the rest of the squadron at Gibraltar on 10 February.

With the 36-gun, 12 pound frigate HMS Mahonesa, Romulus captured the 20-gun Nuestra Senora del Rosario off Cadiz on 24 May 1797. The two British ships approached under false colours and did not reveal their true identity until they were alongside; at which point the Spanish corvette struck, without a shot being fired. Romulus and Mahonesa made a further capture on 10 September when, this time with the assistance of HMS Thalia, they took the French brig, Espoir. In February 1798, Romulus sailed for England, under Sir Henry Heathcote, where she paid off.

Later service and fate

Landing troops at Aboukir Bay on 8 March 1801

During mid-1799, Romulus was recommissioned as a troopship and sent to the Mediterranean. Even in this lightly-armed state she was still an effective warship, capturing a Danish brig out of Livorno on 14 June 1800. On 30 September 1800, Romulus was in sight when a privateer took a Swedish brig, and was therefore entitled to a share of the prize money. She served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign, landing troops at Aboukir bay on 8 March 1801, where she came under fire, which killed one of her crew and wounded another. She paid off at the end of the war in 1802. When hostilities resumed, Romulus was converted into a floating battery, with thirty-two 18lb long guns, eight on the upperworks. She guarded the Thames near Woolwich until June, when she was transferred to Hollesley Bay, off East Anglia, a popular anchorage for the Royal Navy at that time. In May 1804, she was moved to the Firth of Forth where she stood sentry near Leith.

Romulus was laid up at Chatham from 1807 until some point in 1809. Between June and October 1810 she was converted to a lightly-armed troopship with fourteen 9-pounders on the upper deck, two on the forecastle and six 18-pound carronades on the quarter deck. In 1812, she was serving in this capacity in the Mediterranean, then in July 1813 she was used as a hospital ship in Bermuda. This was a short-lived appointment, and she paid off in December. She was later recommissioned but, eventually broken up on the island in November 1816


18-pounder armed frigates
In general, the following were either 36-gun type (armed with 26 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and 10 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle) or 38-gun type (with 28 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and 10 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle); however, one class of smaller ships had just 32 guns (with 26 x 18-pounder guns on the upper deck and just 6 smaller guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle).

• Flora class 36-gun fifth rates 1780, designed by John Williams.
  • HMS Flora 1780 - wrecked and destroyed on the Dutch coast on 19 January 1808.
  • HMS Thalia 1782 - broken up 1814.
  • HMS Crescent 1784 - wrecked on the Coast of Jutland on 6 December 1808.
  • HMS Romulus 1785 - converted to troopship in 1799, hulked as hospital ship at Bermuda in 1813, broken up 1816.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Romulus_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flora-class_frigate

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1790 – Launch of French Prudente, a 32 gun Capricieuse class frigate at Lorient


The Prudente was a 32-gun Capricieuse-class frigate of the French Navy

Armament​

2.1799 Broadside Weight = 174 French Livre (187.7808 lbs 85.173 kg)
Upper Gun Deck - 26 French 12-Pounder
Quarterdeck - 2 French 12-Pound Obusier
Forecastle - 2 French 6-Pounder

Career
In 1791, under lieutenant Villaret de Joyeuse, she was tasked with ferrying troops to Cap-Français and with police duty in Santo Domingo. In 1793, she returned to France, escorting a convoy from Terre-Neuve, under Villaret de Joyeuse, by then promoted to Captain.

In 1794, she was the flagship of a frigate division under Captain Renaud, also comprising Cybèle, under Pierre Julien Tréhouart. She took part in the Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 and in the Action of 22 October 1794 off Ile de France. During the Sunda Strait campaign the squadron captured the East Indiaman Pigot.

In 1796, Prudente was attached to the squadron under Sercey, that had come from France.

She served for a time at Mauritius, taking part in the Action of 8 September 1796, before being sold and becoming a privateer.


French frigate Cybèle and Prudente battling HMS Centurion and HMS Diomede

Capture
Daedalus captured Prudente on 9 February 1799 near Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope. At daybreak Daedalus spotted two sails and gave chase to the larger vessel, catching up with her at about 12:30. The quarry struck after an action of almost an hour. She proved to be the Prudente, which Captain H.L. Ball referred to as a French National frigate, rather than a privateer. She was pierced for 42 guns but was armed with twenty-six 12-pounder long guns on her main-deck and two long 6-pounders and two brass howitzers on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 297 men. In the fight, Daedalus lost two men killed and 12 wounded. Prudente lost 27 men killed and 22 wounded. The ship in her company, which escaped, was an American vessel that she had taken as a prize.

Notes on Action on Threedecks
On February 9th, the British Daedalus, 32, Captain Henry Lidgbird Ball, cruising in the Indian Ocean, sighted the French Prudente, 36, Captain Joliff, with a prize. The Prudente had only thirty guns on board, having left eight at Mauritius, and she had already detached seventeen of her officers and men to form the prize crew. She separated from her prize and was soon closed by the Daedalus, which engaged her hotly just after noon. The British ship crossed her stern, raked her and luffed, bringing the two broadside to broadside. , At 1.21 P.M., the Prudente struck in a very shattered condition. According to Troude, she was a privateer and not a warship.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Prudente_(1790)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=544

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1791 – Launch of French Thémistocle, a 74-gun Téméraire-class ships of the line, at Lorient


Thémistocle was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Built in Lorient, Thémistocle was transferred to the Mediterranean soon after her commissioning to reinforce the squadron under Admiral Truguet. Seized by the British at the surrendering of Toulon by a Royalist cabale in 1793, she was used as a prison hulk during the Siege of Toulon. At the fall of the city, Captain Sidney Smith had her scuttled by fire, along with Héros, in December 1793.


Destruction of the French fleet at Toulon

The wreck was refloated in 1804 to be broken up.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Thémistocle_(1791)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1802 – French Conquérant 74 (1791, ex-Spanish Conquistador, obtained 1801) – disarmed in Brest


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

She was built in Cartagena (Spain) in 1791 as a 74-gun ship under the name Conquistador, sold to France in 1801 and renamed Conquérant. From December 1801 to January 1802, her guns where reduced from 74 to 66 in Brest (by Tupinier, S ing.).

In May 1802, under Captain Malin, Conquérant left France with the 77th demi-brigade and a Polish Legion (total 1,600pax), bound for to Hispaniola (Sainto Domingo) to support the French troupes against the Haitian Revolution. A day after she left France, she was damaged by a storm. The Conquérant arrived in Hispaniola 14 July 1802 with the troops; and immediately left with deportees (such as Rigaud). She returned safely to Brest in August 1802.

On 21 September 1802, she was disarmed in Brest.

She was stricken from the lists in 1804.

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1811 - HMS Naiad (1797 - 38) with HMS Redpole (10), HMS Rinaldo (10), HMS Castilian (18) and HMS Viper (4) again attacked off Boulogne, but the enemy fled as before, leaving one praam Ville de Lyon (12) taken by Naiad.


On 19 August Echo, with Naiad in company, captured the Woodman. Under Carteret Naiad participated in an action with gunboats off Boulogne on 20 September. A large French flotilla consisting of seven praams of twelve 24-pounder guns each, ten brigs of four long 24-pounders guns each, and one sloop with two long 24-pounders. The praams' crews totalled about 120 men, and they were under the command of Rear-Admiral Baste. The praams cannonaded Naiad for about three-quarters of an hour before the other vessels came up and added desultory fire for another two hours. Eventually the French vessels gave up their attack and returned to the safety of anchorages under the protection of batteries. In all this Naiad suffered no casualties.


"Plan of the attack upon the Boulogne flotilla, by the frigate 'Naiad', 21 September 1811" (1812).


Memorial in the churchyard of St George's, Deal, Kent to John Ross and James Draper, the two seamen killed on board the Naiad during the 21 September 1811 action.

On 21 September Naiad captured the 16-gun vessel Ville de Lyon. Ville de Lyon was a praam belonging to the Boulogne Flotilla, under the command of Commodore Jean Baptiste Coupe and Captain Jean Barbaud. She was armed with twelve long 24-pounder guns and a complement of 112 men, 60 of them soldiers from the 72 Regiment. The seven praams came out again to attack Naiad and the three brigs in company with her, Redpole, Castilian and Rinaldo. The British squadron moved to engage and Naiad was able to separate Ville de Lyons from her consorts and capture her. The brigs drove off the other praams but were unable to capture any before they again took refuge under the protection of the shore batteries. In the engagement Naiad suffered two men killed and 14 wounded. Carteret estimated that the French had lost 30 to 40 men killed and wounded. Redpole had no casualties, Castilian lost her first lieutenant killed and one man wounded, and Rinaldo had her pilot wounded.

Naiad left Deal on 29 September 1811 to cruise off Boulogne. This cruise yielded two prizes. On 6 October she captured the French privateer lugger Milan in the Channel. Milan was armed with 16 guns, though only two were mounted, and had a crew of 42 men. She had left that morning from Dieppe.



HMS Naiad was built to a design by Sir William Rule. She was an expanded version of his Amazon-class frigates.


HMS Naiad towing HMS Belleisle towards Gibraltar, after the Belleisle had been damaged and dismasted at the Battle of Trafalgar two days previously.

HMS Naiad was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was built by Hall and Co. at Limehouse on the Thames, launched in 1797 and commissioned in 1798. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and her last actions occurred in 1824-5. She was paid off in 1826. She then served for many years in Latin America as a depot ship, first for the Royal Navy and then for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. She was broken up in 1898, 101 years after her launching.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Naiad_(1797)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1850 - barque Jenny Lind wrecked at Kenn Reef


Kenn Reef is a submerged coral atoll off the Pacific coast of Queensland, Australia. It is about 15 by 8 km and appears as either a backward facing “L“ or a boot. The reef covers an area of approximately 40 km², with an islet in the Southeast part of the reef called Observatory Cay which is approximately 2 m above the high tide level


Map of the Coral Sea Islands with Kenn Reef at southeast corner of outlined area

It is part of the Coral Sea Islands and is over 280 nm north-east from Gladstone, Queensland.

The reef was discovered by Mr. Alexander Kenn, Master of the ship William Shand, on her passage from Sydney to Batavia,


Exhibits at Gladstone Maritime Museum, Central Queensland, Australia. Jenny Lind figurehead from the barque Jenny Lind - carved 1847 - shipwrecked 1850. the Jenny Lind was a wooden Barque vessel of 484 or 475? ton built in Quebec CANADA Launched Thursday, 15 July 1847 by T.C. Lee, Esq., from his ship-yard, at St. Roch and registered in Plymouth (Registered number: 15/1848) under the owner Brent & Co

Jenny Lind Wrecked 21 September 1850 while underway from Melbourne to Singapore under the command of Joseph Taylor struck Kenn Reef, 280 miles east of Mackay. The carvel wooden Barque struck the Reef aft and she lay broadside on with seas pounding over her. 28 passengers and crew landed on a small island and built a boat out of the wreckage. Set out with a small supply of food. No lives lost. the Jenny Lind was a wooden Barque vessel of 484 or 475? ton built in Quebec CANADA Launched Thursday, 15 July 1847 by T.C. Lee, Esq., from his ship-yard, at St. Roch and registered in Plymouth (Registered number: 15/1848) under the owner Brent & Co

"The Jenny Lind, left Melbourne for Singapore, on Tuesday, 3 September, being chartered to proceed from Singapore to London or Liverpool. The ship's company consisted of Captain Taylor, Mr. Masters, chief mate, Mr. Harpur, second mate, and sixteen seamen and apprentices. The passengers were Mr. Beal, Mr. Noble, Mr. Ackermann, Mrs. Harpur, and Mr and Mrs. Somerset and three children. Mr. Beal, Mr. Noble, and Mrs. Harpur were passengers to London ; the others had taken their passage to Singapore. The weather seems to have been very variable until 21 September, no observation having been taken for two days previously, in consequence of the sun being obscured. The chief mate took charge of the watch at ten minutes past four in the morning of the 21st, and enjoined the man on the forecastle to keep a sharp look out, as the sun had not been taken for two days ; and at the same time he directed the man at the helm to keep the ship N. by W. The wind at the time was W. by S, and the ship going nine knots through the water. Immediately afterwards the officer of the watch saw something black ahead, and asked the lookout man what it was, and he answered that it was the reflection of a heavy black cloud that was hanging overhead. A quick glance over the gangway seems to have shown the' mate better, and be immediately had the helm port hard up, and all hands called fore and aft. The vessel wore off to the wind, but before the braces could be touched, she struck aft, and immediately afterwards lay broadside on to the reef, the sea making breaches over her. ' The masts were cut away, but the vessel continued to lurch heavily upon the reef, and it was plain that she must soon break up. An attempt was made to launch the pinnace, but this was unsuccessful, and the captain got his leg hurt in the attempt.

After great difficulty the jolly boat was launched, and two hands being placed in her, she was taken to a rock at a short distance, inside the reef, and there secured. The safety boat was then launched, and the difficulty of this process will -be understood when it isremembered that the vessel was nearly on her beam ends, and that the boats had to be hoisted 1 to the davits on the upper quarter, and thence launched into the sea.

When the second boat was launched, the women and children were first taken off in her jolly boat, which served as a temporary depot. In this way all hands were got out in three trips, some of the seamen jumping overboard from the jolly-boat when she was getting overloaded, and holding her on; the water being shoal near the rock.

When all had left the ship, the people were divided in the two boats, and made for a coral bank, partly covered with sand, which lay about half a mile away. This place they all reached in safety. The islet on which they landed was about 150 yards long by 40 wide. In the course of the afternoon some provisions and about four gallons of water were procured from the wreck, and about half a gill of water was served out to each person.

Next day some sails were procured, also some more provisions, and a small keg containing lime juice. The captain had saved some of his charts and nautical instruments, and got them away when the boat left the wreck. A search was made for the mail, but it could not be found, as the vessel was completely bilged, and fast breaking up.

On Monday a copper boiler and some lead piping, together with a cistern, having been procured from the wreck at low water, Mr. Philip Beal (a son, we understand, of the Rev. W. Beal of Exeter, and lately surgeon of the ship Rajah), succeeded in distilling fresh water from the sea water, and half a pint was served to each person that evening; the fuel for the purpose being procured from the wreck.

On the next day, after consultation, it was resolved to attempt the building of a boat large enough to carry all hands in safety to some port, and accordingly three divisions were made of the men ; one portion to assist in saving necessary articles from the wreck, another to assist Mr. Beal in distilling water for their sustenance, and the third in building the boat. Some carpenters' tools were procured from the wreck, and timber from time to time, and in this way the judicious arrangements that bad been made were effectively carried out. The men employed at the wreck succeeded in saving many necessary articles, including some clothing ; the boat builder's department, under the superintendence of the ship's carpenter, assisted by some persons who had a slight knowledge of boat-building, were actively employed ; and Mr. Beal and his assistants were continually engaged in sustaining the lives of the people by distilling the sea water.

An attempt had been made to find fresh water by digging, but the diggers only came on the coral, which afforded to them no more relief than they could get by sucking from it the fresh moisture that had exuded through the sand. During their stay at this solitary, place some relics of former wrecks were found. A rusty chain was discovered on the reef, and some boat boards and other pieces of timber in other places, also some cinders, as if a fire had been made on one of the banks.

By 25 September Mr. Beal had so far improved his machinery by means of articles procured from the wreck, that he was enabled to obtain twenty-five gallons of fresh water that day, and thenceforth the supply to the people was more liberal. The provisions, however, began to get short, and the allowance was reduced to half a pound of flour a day, which had to be made into pudding, with salt water. The little biscuit they had was preserved for a sea stock, as was also all the water that could be put by.

At length, on 26 October, the boat upon which all their hopes depended was launched successfully. It was found that she sat well upon the water, but leaked considerably, and two days more were occupied in repairing that defect, and getting her rigged and stowed. These operations being completed, the adventurers got under way on 29 October, twenty-two persons being in the craft that had been built, and six in the safety boat. They made for Moreton Bay, and the wind was favourable until Saturday last, when it blew from the southward, and they had to cast anchor in a small bay to the southward of Wide Bay, where they saw some natives, but, not liking their manner, refused to allow them on board.

When the wind again shifted they made sail for Brisbane, and, after some difficulty in discovering the mouth of the river, succeeded in reaching within a few miles of the town on Tuesday night, and arrived in Brisbane next morning; all of them, including women and children, being comparatively well and hearty, after having been thirty-seven days on a desolate coral bank in the Pacific.

The preservation of these people is most remarkable. All persons appear to have exerted themselves in an extraordinary mannerly to remedy their condition; but there can be no doubt that to Mr. Beal is due the credit of every life saved, for if he had not brought science to bear upon their difficulties, and supplied them with water when there was scarcely a hope of it, the hot sun of that latitude and the burning sand on which they were encamped, would have made short work with them.

Captain Wickham, on behalf of the government, supplied the shipwrecked mariners with lodging and rations; the females and the children have been quartered with the matron of the immigrant depot, and we believe that the inhabitants generally have exerted themselves to assist the sufferers. Mr. Smith, of the Victoria Hotel, supplied provisions to the men while their rations were being prepared. We are informed that the reef on which the Jenny Lind struck was not laid down on the chart of the Australian coast (dated 1849), with which the ship was provided. The cargo of the Jenny Lind consisted only of a small quantity of flour and beef. We understand that she was partly insured."​

http://www.angelfire.com/my/cornishroots/page5.html
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/687963
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenn_Reef
https://www.artuk.org/discover/artworks/schooner-jenny-lind-164745

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1905 – Launch of SS America, later USS America


USS America (ID-3006) was a troop transport for the United States Navy during World War I. She was launched in 1905 as SS Amerika by Harland and Wolff in Belfast for the Hamburg America Line of Germany. As a passenger liner, she sailed primarily between Hamburg and New York. On 14 April 1912, Amerika transmitted a wireless message about icebergs near the same area where RMS Titanic struck one and sank less than three hours later. At the outset of World War I, Amerika was docked at Boston; rather than risk seizure by the British Royal Navy, she remained in port for the next three years.


SS Amerika, of the Hamburg-Amerika Line.

Hours before the entry of the United States into the war, Amerika was seized and placed under control of the United States Shipping Board (USSB). Later transferred to the U.S. Navy for use as a troop transport, she was initially commissioned as USS Amerika with Naval Registry Identification Number 3006 (ID-3006), but her name was soon Anglicized to America. As America she transported almost 40,000 troops to France. She sank at her mooring in New York in 1918, but was soon raised and reconditioned. After the Armistice, America transported over 51,000 troops back home from Europe. In 1919, she was handed over to the War Department for use by the United States Army as USAT America, under whose control she remained until 1920.

Returned to the USSB in 1920, America was initially assigned to the United States Mail Steamship Company, and later, after that company’s demise, to United States Lines, for which she plied the North Atlantic on Bremen to New York routes. In March 1926, due to an oil leak from inside the ship, near the end of one of her periodic refits, America suffered a fire that raged for seven hours and burned nearly all of her passenger cabins. Despite almost $2,000,000 in damage, the ship was rebuilt and back in service by the following year. In April 1931, America ended her service for the United States Lines and was laid up for almost nine years.

In October 1940, America was reactivated for the U.S. Army and renamed USAT Edmund B. Alexander. After establishing the Newfoundland Base Command and a stint as a barracks ship at St. John's, Newfoundland in January–May 1941, Edmund B. Alexander was refitted for use as a troopship for World War II duty. She was first placed on a New Orleans to Panama route, but later transferred to trooping between New York and European ports. At the end of the war, Edmund B. Alexander was converted to carry military dependents, remaining in that service until 1949. She was placed in reserve until sold for scrapping in January 1957.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(ID-3006)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 September 1957 - Pamir, a four-masted barque one of the famous Flying P-Liners, caught in Hurricane Carrie and sank off the Azores, with only six survivors rescued after an extensive search.


Pamir, a four-masted barque, was one of the famous Flying P-Liner sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. She was the last commercial sailing ship to round Cape Horn, in 1949. By 1957, she had been outmoded by modern bulk carriers and could not operate at a profit. Her shipping consortium's inability to finance much-needed repairs or to recruit sufficient sail-trained officers caused severe technical difficulties. On 21 September 1957, she was caught in Hurricane Carrie and sank off the Azores, with only six survivors rescued after an extensive search.



Early days and World War I
She was built at the Blohm & Voss shipyards in Hamburg, launched on 29 July 1905. She had a steel hull & tonnage of 3,020 GRT (2,777 net). She had an overall length of 114.5 m (375 ft), a beam of about 14 m (46 ft) and a draught of 7.25 m (23.5 ft). Three masts stood 51.2 m (168 ft) above deck and the main yard was 28 m (92 ft) wide. She carried 3,800 m² (40,900 ft²) of sails and could reach a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h). Her regular cruise speed was around 8-9 knots.

She was the fifth of ten near-sister ships. She was commissioned on 18 October 1905 and used by the Laeisz company in the South American nitrate trade. By 1914, she had made eight voyages to Chile, taking between 64 and about 70 days for a one-way trip from Hamburg to Valparaíso or Iquique, the foremost Chilean nitrate ports at the time. During World War I, she stayed in Santa Cruz de la Palma port in La Palma Island, Canary Islands between October 1914 until March 1920. Due to post war conditions, she did not return to Hamburg until 17 March 1920 from Santa Cruz de la Palma.

In the same year, she was handed over to Italy as war reparation. On 15 July 1920, she left Hamburg via Rotterdam to Naples towed by tugs. The Italian government was unable to find a deep-water sailing ship crew, so she was laid up near Castellamare in the Gulf of Naples.

In 1924, the F. Laeisz Company bought her back for £7,000 and put her into service in the nitrate trade again. Laeisz sold her in 1931 to the Finnish shipping company of Gustaf Erikson, which used her in the Australianwheat trade.

World War II and beyond


Painting of the Pamir by Yasmina (2008)

During World War II, Pamir was seized as a prize of war by the New Zealand government on 3 August 1941 while in port at Wellington. Ten commercial voyages were made under the New Zealand flag: five to San Francisco, three to Vancouver, one to Sydney and her last voyage across the Tasman from Sydney to Wellington carrying 2,700 tons of cement and 400 tons of nail wire. Weathering a storm during the last Tasman voyage is described in detail by one of the mates, Andrew Keyworth, in a letter never posted.


Plaque commemorating the German 4 masted barque Pamir, installed on the waterfront, Wellington, New Zealand

She escaped the war unscathed despite a close call in 1943 when a Japanese submarine was spotted. Evidently as a fast-moving barque under a strong and fair wind, she did not interest the submarine's commander. After the war, she made one voyage from Wellington via Cape Horn to London, then Antwerp to Auckland and Wellington in 1948.

She was returned to the Erikson Line on 12 November 1948 at Wellington and sailed to Port Victoria on Spencer Gulf to load Australian grain. On her 128-day journey to Falmouth, she was the last windjammer carrying a commercial load around Cape Horn, on 11 July 1949.

Gustaf Erikson had died in 1947. His son Edgar found he could no longer operate her (or Passat) at a profit, primarily due to changing regulations and union contracts governing employment aboard ships; the traditional two-watch system on sailing ships was replaced by the three-watch system in use on motor-ships, requiring more crew.



In March 1951, Belgian shipbreakers paid £40,000 for her and Passat. As she was being towed to Antwerp, German shipowner Heinz Schliewen, who had sailed on her in the late 1920s, bought her (and Passat, thus often erroneously referred to as a sister ship).[6] The ships were modernized with refurbished quarters to accommodate merchant marine trainees, fitted with an auxiliary engine, a refrigeration system for the galleys (precluding the need to carry live animals for fresh meat), modern communications equipment and water ballast tanks. Her first trip was to Brazil in 1952 with cement, to return to Germany with iron ore. Early in the outbound voyage the propeller dropped off, "much to the satisfaction of the sail-favoring crew if not the owner."[8] The enterprise went briefly bankrupt but was bought by a new consortium of 40 German shipowners. For the next five years, the ships continued to sail between Europe and the east coast of South America, but not around Cape Horn. They were used as cargo-carrying school ships, primarily to Argentina. Although the German public supported the concept as maritime symbols and sources of national pride, the economic realities of the post-war years placed restraints on the operation. The ships were no longer profitable as freight haulers, and Pamir had increasing technical problems such as leaking decks and serious corrosion. The consortium was unable to get sufficient increased funding from German governments or contributions from shipping companies or public donations, and thus let both vessels deteriorate.

Last voyage


Last Sighting of Pamir?

Due to ill health, her regular captain, Hermann Eggers, had been replaced by Captain Johannes Diebitsch, who had sailed on her as a young seaman and had commanded sail-training ships, but had little experience as master of cargo-carrying sailing ships.[10] His first officer, Rolf Köhler, was only 29 at the time, and wrote that he was "getting thin with anger" over the state of the ship and that he was intending to quit the ship's company after arriving home from the next voyage. Captain Diebitsch was criticized for being a harsh and inflexible officer.

On 10 August 1957, she left Buenos Aires for Hamburg with a crew of 86, including 52 cadets. Her cargo of 3,780 tons of barley was stored loose in the holds and ballast tanks, secured by 255 tons in sacks on top of the loose grain.[10] Records indicate that this was one of the major mistakes implicated in the sinking – she had been held up by a dockworkers' strike, and Diebitsch, under severe pressure to sail, decided to let the trimming (the correct storage of loose cargo so that it does not shift in the hold) be done by his own untrained crew. It was later found that he also had the ballast tank filled with barley. Even though testing of the roll period (the time the ship took to right itself after load transfers) showed that she was dangerously unsafe, Diebitsch decided to sail.

On the morning of 21 September 1957, she was caught in Hurricane Carrie before shortening sails. It was later considered that because the radio officer had also been given substantial administrative tasks (to save the money required for another officer's position), he had likely not received any of the radio storm warnings. She had also not responded to radio hails by ships that had sighted her earlier in the voyage. She soon listed severely to port in the sudden storm. As hatchways and other openings were not closed at once, they probably allowed considerable amounts of water to enter, as found by the commission which examined the probable causes of the sinking. The shipping company's lawyer at the investigation claimed that the water entered her due to a leak. According to the commission, the water caused her to list further and the grain to shift, which aggravated the list.

The captain did not order the flooding of her grain-filled ballast tanks, which would have helped her to right herself. Once she listed severely, the lifeboats could not be deployed because her port side was underwater and her starboard side was raised to an angle that did not allow use of the boats.

She sent distress signals before capsizing at 13:03 local time, and sinking after drifting keel-up for 30 minutes in the middle of the Atlantic 600 nautical miles (1,100 km) west-southwest of the Azores at position 35°57′N 40°20′W. Three damaged lifeboats that had come loose before or during the capsizing and the only lifeboat that had been deployed was drifting nearby. None contained any provisions or working distress signal rockets. Many sharks were later seen near the position.

A nine-day search for survivors was organized by the United States Coast Guard Cutter Absecon, but only four crewmen and two cadets were rescued alive, from two of the lifeboats. It was reported that many of the 86 men aboard had managed to reach the boats, but most died in the next three days. As none of the officers nor the captain survived, the reasons for the capsizing remained uncertain.

The sinking made headlines around the world; it was a national tragedy in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamir_(ship)
http://www.esys.org/bigship/pamir.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 21 September


1707 - Launch of French Auguste 54 guns (designed and built by René Levasseur) at Dunkirk – struck at Brest 1720


1809 - HMS Raisonnable (64), Cptn. Josias Rowley, and consorts took St. Paul, Bourbon.

HMS Raisonnable (sometimes spelt Raisonable) was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent-class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Raisonnable (1768), and later for Agamemnon (1781) and Belliqueux (1780), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771], and John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81293.html#zsow036eVpiwvsfy.99

In 1809, Captain Rowley commanded a squadron that blockaded Mauritius (the Isle of France) and Réunion (the Isle of Bourbon). On 20 September, Rowley, commanding the squadron from HMS Nereide, succeeded in taking the town of Saint-Paul, the batteries, a 40-gun frigate Caroline, a 16-gun brig, and 2 merchantmen, as well as rescuing 2 ships of the Honourable East India Company (Streatham and Europe). Captain Rowley transferred to HMS Boadicea during March 1810, and Captain John Hatley took over the command, paying the ship off in Chatham at the end of July.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Raisonnable_(1768)


1813 - HMS Goshawk Sloop (16), Hon. William John Napier, wrecked to the eastward of the Mole Head, Barcelona.

HMS Goshawk (1806) was a 16-gun brig-sloop launched in 1806 and wrecked in 1813.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with scroll figurehead and longitudinal half-breadth for Goshawk (1805) and Challenger (1806), both fir-built 16-gun Brig Sloops. The plan also relates to Kite (1805), Raven (1805), Fly (1805), Fly (1805), Wizard (1805) and Sparrow (1805), all 16-gun Brig Sloops. All the ships were built to the alterations on the plan. Additional alterations in ticked lines relate to the two fir-built ships.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84357.html#hhRJqUv15Mwtl8AI.99

1858 - The sloop, USS Niagara, departs Charleston, S. C., for Liberia carrying 200 Africans liberated from the slave brig Echo off the coast of Cuba by USS Dolphin.

USS Niagara, commonly called the US Brig Niagara or the Flagship Niagara, is a wooden-hulled snow-brig that served as the relief flagship for Oliver Hazard Perry in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812. As the ship is certified for sail training by the United States Coast Guard, it also designated SSV Niagara. Niagara is usually docked behind the Erie Maritime Museum in downtown Erie in the U.S. state of Pennsylvaniaas an outdoor exhibit for the museum. It also often travels the Great Lakes during the summer, serving as an ambassador of Pennsylvania when not docked. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and was designated the official state ship of Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1988.


The Brig Niagara under full sail, off of South Bass Island, Ohio on Lake Erie.

Niagara was constructed from 1812 to 1813 to protect the vulnerable American coastline on Lake Erie from the British and played a pivotal role in the battle for the lake. Along with most warships that served in the war, Niagara was sunk for preservation on Presque Isle in 1820. Raised in 1913, it was rebuilt for the centennial of the Battle of Lake Erie. After deteriorating, the restoration of Niagara was started again in the 1930s, but was hampered by the lack of funds caused by the Great Depression and remained uncompleted until 1963. A more extensive restoration was carried out in 1988 in which much of the original ship was largely destroyed. The incorporation of new materials and modern equipment makes it ambiguous as to whether it is or is not a replica.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Niagara_(1813)


1860 - The sloop USS Portsmouth captures the American slave ship Emily at Loango, Africa.

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


USS Portsmouth in 1896 (John S. Johnston, photographer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Portsmouth_(1843)


1862 - During the Civil War, the wooden screw gunboat USS Albatross, commanded by Cmdr. Henry French, captures the schooner Two Sisters off the Rio Grande River. The schooner later serves in the East Gulf Blockading Squadron.

USS Albatross (1858) was a screw steamer rigged as a three-masted schooner acquired by the Union Navy during the beginning of the American Civil War. She was outfitted as a gunboat with heavy guns and used in the Union blockade of the waterways of the Confederate States of America.


USS Albatross (1861-1865) Sketch by William M.C. Philbrick, depicting her off Mobile, Alabama, on 25 September 1863.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Albatross_(1858)


1900 – Launch of Japanese Wakamiya, a seaplane carrier

Wakamiya (Japanese: 若宮丸, later 若宮艦) was a seaplane carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the first Japanese aircraft carrier. She was converted from a transport ship into a seaplane carrier and commissioned in August 1914. She was equipped with four Japanese-built French Maurice Farman seaplanes (powered by Renault 70 hp (52 kW) engines). In September 1914, she conducted the world's first naval-launched air raids.






Japanese seaplane carrier "Wakamiya"


Two of Wakamiya's Maurice Farman seaplanes stationed on land in Tsingtao after 30 September 1914.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_seaplane_carrier_Wakamiya
http://japanese-aviation.forumotion.com/t61-01-early-times-1914-to-1920

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 September 1655 – Launch of HMS Dartmouth, a 22 gun frigate


HMS Dartmouth was a small frigate or fifth-rate ship, one of six ordered by the Council of State on 28 December 1654 and built in 1655. At the end of July 1689 HMS Dartmouth, commanded by John Leake, managed to break through the boom on the River Foyle allowing the siege of Londonderry by forces of James II to be relieved. After a lengthy career in the Royal Navy, she was wrecked in the Sound of Mull on 9 October 1690, while on a mission to persuade the MacLeans of Duart to sign Articles of Allegiance to William III and Mary II.

The wrecksite was identified in 1973 by divers from Bristol. The wrecksite was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 11 April 1974 and redesignated on 25 June 1992.


In the list compiled by W. Laird Clowes (from Charnock and other sources) of the Royal Navy in 1660 ("The Royal Navy - a history" Vol. II p. 108), 'Dartmouth' is listed as 22 guns. In his list of the fleet in 1688 (Ibid p. 246), she is given as a fireship; however, in the list of the English fleet that took part in the action off Bantry Bay in 1659 (Ibid p. 328) she is classed as a 5th rate with 36 guns. In the "Dimensons Book", she is listed as 30 guns. M. S. Robinson's identification of the ship shown as 'Dartmouth' is based on her armament of 18 guns on the gundeck, 10 on the upper deck and four on the quarterdeck.

In company with 'Sapphire' and 'Little Gift' captured three well armed Dutch merchantmen in 1666. She was converted to a fireship 22 guns from August 1688 to January 1689, reconverted from fireship to 5th rate 32 guns from 5th January 1688/1689. She was wrecked off the Isle of Mull (Scotland) on the 9th October 1690 under the command of Captain Edward Pottinger.


The ‘Dartmouth’ viewed from the port quarter and carries, on the broadside, nine guns on the gun deck, two forward and four aft on the upper deck and two on the quarterdeck. She has square decorated ports. Robinson identifies this as a 32-gun ship (rather than a 30) based on the number of upper deck guns, making it either the ‘Sapphire’, ‘Success’, ‘Swan’, ‘Mermaid’ or ‘Dartmouth’: of two others the ‘Eagle’ was made a fireship in 1667 and the ‘Sorlings’ was lost in 1667. The quarter galleries are early (so it is unlikely to be the later ‘Sapphire’ or ‘Swan’) and since they and the stern galleries are very similar to the ‘Portsmouth’ (PAH1841) it may be the Portsmouth-built ‘Dartmouth’.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/143854.html#04KWqSs2acS7I8kd.99

Dimensions​

Dimension - Measurement - Type - Metric Equivalent
Length of Keel - 80' 0" Imperial Feet - 24.384
Breadth - 24' 9" Imperial Feet - 7.3724
Depth in Hold - 10' 0" Imperial Feet - 3.048
Draught Aft - 12' 0" Imperial Feet - 3.6576
Burthen 260 62⁄94 Tons BM

Armament​

1654 Broadside Weight = 92 Imperial Pound ( 41.7221 kg)
Gun Deck - 18 British Demi-Culverin
Gun Deck - 4 British Saker

1666 Broadside Weight = 108.5 Imperial Pound ( 49.205 kg)
Gun Deck - 18 British Demi-Culverin
Gun Deck - 10 British Saker

1677 Broadside Weight = 114.5 Imperial Pound ( 51.926 kg)
Gun Deck - 18 British Demi-Culverin
Gun Deck - 10 British Saker
Gun Deck - 4 British Minions

1685 Broadside Weight = 122 Imperial Pound ( 55.3274 kg)
Gun Deck - 16 British Demi-Culverin
Gun Deck - 16 British Saker
Gun Deck - 4 British Minions

Service History​

Date - Event
9.1654 - Completed at Portsmouth Dockyard at a cost of £1693.5.0d
1662 - At Tangier and Lisbon
1665 - Stationed off Ireland
1666 - Stationed off Ireland
1666 - Refitted as a 28 gun Fifth Rate Ship
1672 - Sailed with Narbrough's squadron to Tangier and the Mediterranean
28.5.1672 - Battle of Solebay
1.7.1673 - Coming From the Straights
21.7.1673 - Refitting at Woolwich
28.9.1673 - In the Hope, staying for Victualls
1674 - Stationed off Ireland
1675 - Sailed to the Mediterranean
1677 - To Virginia and then home
1677 - Refitted as a 32 gun Fifth Rate Ship
1684 - To the Leeward Islands
1685 - Refitted as a 36 gun Fifth Rate Ship
8.1688 - Converted to a fireship
8.1688 - Refitted as a 8 gun Unrated Fireship
23.8.1688 - Recommissioned
11.1688 - Refitted as a 36 gun Fifth Rate Ship
1.5.1689 - Battle of Bantry Bay
28.7.1689 - Sailed to the releif of Londonderry
9.10.1690 - Wrecked on the Isle of Mull


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dartmouth_(1655)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=3819

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 September 1692 – Launch of French Royal Louis, 110 guns, (designed and built by François Coulomb snr) at Toulon – broken up 1727


The Royal Louis was a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy, designed and constructed by François Coulomb. She replaced an earlier ship of the same name.


Contemporary model of the Royal Louis, on display at the Musée de la Marine

Following completion in 1693, the 48-pounder guns on her lower deck were replaced by 36-pounders. Subsequently, the 6-pounders and 4-pounders were replaced by 8-pounders and 6-pounders respectively.

Brest Dockyard noted in 1715 that she was usable only in summertime and her upperworks were beginning to rot. She was condemned in 1723 at Brest and broken up there in 1727.



Royal Louis 1692 was the largest ship in the world, and keeps that record until the next Royal Louis launched in 1759.
This huge ship laid down 4/1692, launched 22.9 1692, and was ready for sea 5/1693.
Dimensions were: 176 x 48 x 23 ft. keel was 147 ft., and draught 21/26 ft. (fore/aft).
The crew was 1050+officers. Calculated displacement was 3928 t.
Guns: 30-48, 32-18, 30/28-12, 16-8, 4-6 pdrs.







Further information about detailed dimensions (and excerpts from contemporary drawings), please check the page of Gerard Delacroix

http://gerard.delacroix.pagesperso-orange.fr/royal/royal.htm


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Royal_Louis_(1692)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=1910

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 September 1776 - John Paul Jones in Providence sails into Canso Bay, Nova Scotia, and attacks British fishing fleet - The Raid on Canso


The Raid on Canso took place on 22 September – November 22, 1776 during the American Revolutionary War. The raid involved John Paul Jones attacking Canso, Nova Scotia and the surrounding fishing villages.



Background
During the American Revolution, Americans regularly attacked Nova Scotia by land and sea. American privateers devastated the maritime economy by raiding many of the coastal communities, such as the numerous raids on Liverpool and on Annapolis Royal.

During the American Revolution, Canso was subject to numerous raids by American Privateers. George Washington's Marblehead Regiment raided Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on 17 November 1775 and three days later, they raided Canso Harbor.

Raid
On September 22, 1776, Canso was attacked by American privateer John Paul Jones. The privateer sailed on the USS Providence and destroyed fifteen vessels, and damaged much property on shore. There he recruited men to fill the vacancies created by manning his prizes, burned a British fishing schooner, sank a second, and captured a third besides a shallop which he used as a tender.


USS_Providence (1775)

Jones then pillaged the community of Petit-de-Grat and Arichat on Isle Madame, Nova Scotia. The nine ships (300 men) immediately surrendered. On the evening of September 25, a gale droved three of the prizes on to shore and they were destroyed. (The remaining prizes were Alexander, Kingston Packet, Success and Defence.) Jones destroyed John Robin’s fishing business when they plundered and razed the entire establishment. The business of John Robin ended and he did not return until after the war. Jones then sailed to Boston only to return two months later.

On 22 November, John Paul Jones returned to Canso in the USS Alfred. Boats from the ship went ashore and he raided the community, his crews burned a transport bound for Canada with provisions and a warehouse full of whale oil, besides capturing a small schooner. He took 6 prizes, 1 burned, 1 confiscated.

Captain Jones then went on to present-day Sydney, Nova Scotia to free 300 Americans imprisoned in the British coalmines.

Aftermath
Again in 1779, American privateers destroyed the Canso fisheries, worth $50,000 a year to England.

American privateers remained a threat to Nova Scotian ports for the rest of the war. For example, after a failed attempt to raid Chester, Nova Scotia, American privateers struck again in the Raid on Lunenburg in 1782.


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


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Canso_(1776)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Providence_(1775)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 September 1796 - HMS Amphion (1780 - 32), Cptn. Israel Pellew, caught fire at Plymouth and violently exploded alongside a sheer-hulk.


HMS Amphion was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Amazon (Thetis) Class built in Chatham in 1780 which blew up on 22 September 1796.


Cleopatra (a sistership) 32 Guns Launched at Bristol, December, 1779

Service
On 6 September 1781, a small squadron under the command of the Amphion's captain John Bazely, in conjunction with General Benedict Arnold, completely destroyed the town of New London, Connecticut, together with stores and shipping in the harbour.

On 3 January 1782 Amphion recaptured the British sloop Bonetta, which the French had captured at the capitulation of Yorktown on 19 October 1781.


lines & profile Date: NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 245, states that 'Andromache' was begun in June 1780 at Adams & Barnard on the River Thames. She was launched 17 Nvoember and sent to Deptford Dockyard for fitting. It is likely to be her as 'Ambuscade' was launched in 1773.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/82880.html#5y8BdzEqUPaIuevA.99

Sinking
On 22 September 1796, Amphion was completing repairs at Plymouth, England. She was lying alongside a sheer hulk close to the dockyard jetty. Being due to sail the next day, she had more than a hundred relatives and visitors on board in addition to her crew.

At about 4 p.m. she exploded without warning, killing 300 out of the 312 aboard. Among the few survivors was her captain, Israel Pellew, who went on to command a ship at the Battle of Trafalgar and ended the Napoleonic Wars as a Rear-Admiral. Pellew had been dining in his cabin with Captain Swaffield of the Overyssel and the First Lieutenant of the Amphion when the explosion threw them about; Pellew managed to rush to the cabin window before a second explosion blew him into the water, whence he was rescued.


http://www.promare.co.uk/ships/Wrecks/Wk_Amphion.html

Apart from Pellew, two lieutenants, a boatswain, three or four seamen, a marine, one woman, and a child were the only survivors.

The cause of the disaster was never fully proven, but it was thought that the ship's gunner had accidentally spilled gunpowder near the fore magazine which had then accidentally ignited and set off the magazine itself. The gunner had been suspected of stealing gunpowder, and on the day of the disaster he was reported to have been drunk and probably as a result less careful than usual.


Amazon (Thetis) class 32-gun fifth rates 1773-87; 18 ships, designed by John Williams.

• HMS Thetis 1773 - ran onto a rock and sank near Saint Lucia on 12 May 1781.
• HMS Amazon 1773 - broken up in 1794.
• HMS Ambuscade 1773 - taken by the French corvette Bayonnaise in 1798, retaken by HMS Victory in 1803, broken up 1810.
• HMS Cleopatra 1779 - broken up 1814.
• HMS Amphion 1780 - accidentally caught fire and blew up at Portsmouth on 22 September 1796.
• HMS Orpheus 1780 - wrecked on a coral reef in the West Indies on 23 January 1807.
• HMS Juno 1780 - broken up 1811.
• HMS Success 1781 - taken by the French in the Mediterranean on 13 February 1801, retaken seven month later by HMS Pomone on 2 September, converted to troopship in 1812, hulked as prison ship at Halifax in 1813, broken up in 1820.
• HMS Iphigenia 1780 - hulked as prison hospital ship at Plymouth in 1798, converted to troopship in 1801, accidentally burnt in the same year.
• HMS Andromache 1781 - broken up 1811.
• HMS Syren (or Siren) 1782 - hulked as lazaretto at Pembroke in 1805, broken up in 1822.
• HMS Iris 1783 - on lease to Trinity House between 1803 and 1805, hulked as receiving ship at Yarmouth in 1811, presented to the Marine Society as a training ship, broken up in 1833.
• HMS Greyhound 1783 - wrecked in the Philippines on 4 October 1808.
• HMS Meleager 1785 - wrecked on Triangle Bank in the Gulf of Mexico on 9 June 1801.
• HMS Castor 1785 - sold 1819.
• HMS Solebay 1785 - on lease to Trinity House from 1803 to 1806, wrecked in action with a Senegalese fort on 11 June 1809.
• HMS Terpsichore 1785 - hulked as receiving ship at Chatham in 1811, broken up 1813.
• HMS Blonde 1787 - hulked for stationary service at Portsmouth in 1803, sold 1805.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amphion_(1780)