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
5 December 1797 - Launch of Hercule, a Téméraire class ship of the line of the French Navy


HMS Hercule was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was previously Hercule, a Téméraire class ship of the line of the French Navy, but was captured on her maiden voyage in 1798, and spent the rest of her career as a British ship. She was broken up in 1810


HMS Hercules, a detail of a larger canvas: Combat de la Poursuivante contre l'Hercule, 1803 ("Fight of the Poursuivante against the Hercules", 1803). Which shows the French frigate Poursuivante raking the British ship HMS Hercules, in the action of 28 June 1803.

Class and type: Téméraire-class ship of the line
Tonnage: 1876 bm
Displacement:

• 2,966 tonnes
• 5,260 tonnes fully loaded

Length: 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam: 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught: 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion: Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:

• 74 guns:
• Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns
• Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns
• Forecastle and Quarter deck:
• • 16 × 8-pounder long guns
  • 4 × 36-pdr carronades

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal hafl-breadth for 'Hercule' (1798), a captured French Third Rate, as fitted at Plymouth Dockyard as a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker in 1801. Signed by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1801].

French career and capture


Combat between Hercule and Mars. The English frigate HMS Juno can be distinguished in the background.

During her maiden journey, on 21 April 1798, and just 24 hours out of port, she was captured by the British ship HMS Mars after a violent fight at the Battle of the Raz de Sein, off Île de Sein near Brest. Hercule attempted to escape through the Passage du Raz, but the tide was running in the wrong direction, and she was forced to anchor, giving the British the chance to attack at close quarters. The two ships were of equal force, both seventy-fours, but Hercule was newly commissioned; after more than an hour and a half of bloody fighting at close quarters she struck her colours at 10.30 pm, having lost — by her own officers' estimate — 290 men killed and wounded. On Mars 31 men were killed, including her captain, Alexander Hood, and 60 wounded. Captain Louis Lhéritier of Hercule was wounded by sabre and spike leading his boarding party.

The Hercule was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Hercule.


The ‘Mars’ (right) shown engaging the ‘Hercule’ (left) surrounded by areas of land. Both are shown in starboard quarter view. The sails of the ‘Mars’ have been shot through. Coloured engraving. Publisher’s address at bottom.

British career
In mid-1803, the squadron under Captain Henry William Bayntun, consisting of Cumberland, Hercule, Bellerophon, Elephant, and Vanguard captured Poisson Volant and Superieure. The Royal Navy took both into service.

In May 1803, Hercule's captain Solomon Ferris died suddenly on board the ship.


Detail from the Fight of the Poursuivante against the British ship Hercules, 28 June 1803: Poursuivante delivers her decisive raking broadside. Louis-Philippe Crépin, 1819, Musée national de la Marine

Main article: Action of 28 June 1803
On 28 June 1803, during the Blockade of Saint-Domingue, Hercule was under the command of First Lieutenant John B. Hills, who was acting captain because Captain Ferris had died the previous month. She encountered the French frigate Poursuivante and the corvette Mignonne, and Hercule attempted to capture Poursuivante. However, Poursuivante outmaneuvered Hercule and delivered raking fire. Hercule (Louis-Philippe Crépin immortalised the incident in a painting.) HMS Goliaththen captured Mignonne.

Hercule, under Captain Dun, participated in the failed attempt in January 1804 to capture Curaçao




https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=2080
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hercule_(1798)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-318536;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_28_June_1803

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1807 - HMS Boreas (22), Cptn. Robert Scott, went down immediately after striking the Hannois Rocks, Guernsey.


HMS Boreas was a Laurel-class 22-gun post ship launched in 1806. She wrecked off the coast of Guernsey on 5 December 1807 with the loss of most of her crew of 154 men.

Service
The Royal Navy commissioned her under the command of Captain Robert Scott. On 2 October 1807 she captured, after a four-hour chase, the French privateer schooner Victoire. The privateer had a crew of 28 men and was armed with swivel guns and small arms. She had sailed from Morlaix the day before and had already captured an American brig, which Boreas recaptured. On 8 October Boreas and Brilliant captured the Danish ships St Hans and Montreal.

Class and type: 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship
Tons burthen: 526 26⁄94 (bm)
Length: 118 ft 0 in (36.0 m) (overall)
Beam: 31 ft 7 3⁄4 in (9.6 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 155
Armament:

• As built:
• Upper deck (UD): 22 x 9-pounder guns
• QD: 6 x 24-pounder carronades
• Fc: 2 x 6-pounder chase guns
• + 2 x 24-pounder carronades
• Later rearmed:
• UD: 22 x 32-pounder carronades
• QD: 6 x 18-pounder carronades
• Fc: 2 x 6-pounder chase guns
• + 2 x 18-pounder carronades

Wreck
Boreas sailed from Saint Peter Port to the rescue of a pilot cutter that was in difficulty in bad weather. sailing back around Guernsey with the boat in tow, she struck the Requiers rock. An expert pilot was on board, who had ordered the ship to put about, however the officer of the watch refused to act without permission from the Captain, resulting in the loss of the ship in the confusion. After efforts to save her failed, Scott ordered the crew to abandon ship. He sent some men ahead in boats that landed at Hanois Point, but strong seas, and the desertion of many of the men prevented the boats from going back to rescue the remaining men. Boreas eventually sank, with only her rigging remaining above water.

Next morning boats dispatched by Admiral James Saumarez, commander of the Royal Navy Channel Islands squadron and himself a Guernsey native, rescued thirty men. In all, 120 persons drowned, including Scott. Twenty-six of the survivors took advantage of the situation to desert.

The normal Court Martial was held with the Captain, officers and crew being praised for their "standing in good conduct".

Post script
The sinking added greatly to the call to construct a lighthouse, which resulted in Les Hanois Lighthouse being erected in 1860-62.

Fort Grey on Guernsey is now a shipwreck museum and holds one of the cannon from Boreas that points towards the reef where she sank


Les Hanois Lighthouse during a volcanic ash sunset (April 2010)


View of the lighthouse and Les Hanois reef


The Laurel-class sailing sixth rates were a series of six post ships built to an 1805 design by Sir John Henslow. The first three were launched in 1806, two more in 1807, and the last in 1812. The vessels of the class served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic War.

Ships in class

• HMS Boreas
• HMS Laurel
  • Builder: Nicholas Bools & William Good, Bridport, Dorset
  • Ordered: 30 January 1805
  • Laid down: June 1805
  • Launched: 2 June 1806
  • Completed: 16 November 1806 at Plymouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Captured by the French on 12 September 1808. The French named her Esperance. Unicorn recaptured her on 12 April 1810 off the Île de Ré. She was armed en flute and was carrying a cargo of colonial produce from Île de France while under the command of a lieutenant de vaisseau. The Royal Navy took her back into service as HMS Laurestinus. She wrecked in the Bahamas in August 1813.
• HMS Comus
• HMS Garland
• HMS Perseus
• HMS Volage

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Boreas_(1806)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=3374
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel-class_post_ship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Hanois_Lighthouse

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1807 - The Raid on Griessie was a British attack on the Dutch port of Griessie


The Raid on Griessie was a British attack on the Dutch port of Griessie (later renamed Gresik) on Java in the Dutch East Indies in December 1807 during the Napoleonic Wars. The raid was the final action in a series of engagements fought by the British squadron based in the Indian Ocean against the Dutch naval forces in Java, and it completed the destruction of the Dutch squadron with the scuttling of three ships of the line, the last Dutch warships in the region. The British squadron—under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—sought to eliminate the Dutch in an effort to safeguard the trade route with China, which ran through the Straits of Malacca and were in range of Dutch raiders operating from the principal Javan port of Batavia. In the summer of 1806, British frigates reconnoitred Javan waters and captured two Dutch frigates, encouraging Pellew to lead a major attack on Batavia that destroyed the last Dutch frigate and several smaller warships. Prior to the Batavia raid however, Dutch Rear-Admiral Hartsinck had ordered his ships of the line to sail eastwards, where they took shelter at Griessie, near Sourabaya.


Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth

On the morning of 5 December 1807, a second raiding squadron under Pellew appeared off Griessie and demanded that the Dutch squadron in the harbour surrender. The Dutch commander—Captain Cowell—refused, and seized the boat party that had carried the message. Pellew responded by advancing up the river and exchanging fire with a Dutch gun battery on Madura Island, at which point the governor in Surabaya overruled Captain Cowell, released the seized boat party and agreed to surrender the ships at anchor in Gresik harbour. By the time Pellew reached the anchorage, however, Cowell had scuttled all of the ships in shallow water, and Pellew was only able to set the wreckage on fire. Landing shore parties, the British destroyed all military supplies in the town and demolished the battery on Madura. With the destruction of the force in Griessie, the last of the Dutch naval forces in the Pacific were eliminated. British forces returned to the region in 1810 with a large scale expeditionary force that successfully invaded and captured Java in 1811, temporary removing the last Dutch colony east of Africa.

Background
In 1804, at the start of the Napoleonic Wars, a powerful French squadron operating from Batavia harbour on the Dutch island colony of Java attacked a large and valuable British merchant convoy sailing from China near the Straits of Malacca in the Battle of Pulo Aura.[1] The French attack was a failure, but the threat posed to British trade passing through the Strait of Malacca by French or Dutch warships had been clearly demonstrated. Determined to eliminate this threat, the commander of Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean—Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew—ordered frigates to reconnoitre Dutch naval activity in the East Indies during the summer of 1806. The Dutch maintained a small squadron in the region under Rear-Admiral Hartsinck, principally intended to operate against pirates, consisting of three 68-gun ships of the line, three frigates and a number of smaller vessels. Despite the obsolete nature of many of these ships, they nevertheless constituted a threat to British trade and Pellew's frigates raided Dutch harbours and merchant shipping extensively during their patrols.

At the Action of 26 July 1806, a Dutch convoy sailing along the southern coast of Celebes was attacked and defeated by one of Pellew's reconnaissance frigates, HMS Greyhound. Among the captured ships was the Dutch frigate Pallas and two large merchant vessels. Three months later, the frigate HMS Caroline entered Batavia harbour itself, seizing the Dutch frigate Maria Riggersbergen at the Action of 18 October 1806. These successes encouraged Pellew to conduct a larger scale operation, launching a major Raid on Batavia harbour on 27 November 1806. As his large squadron sailed into the bay, the surviving Dutch ships were driven on shore to avoid capture, boarding parties under Admiral Pellew's son Captain Fleetwood Pellew completing the destruction by setting the wrecks on fire.

A number of vessels, including all of the Dutch ships of the line, had escaped the raid. Hartsinck had sought to divide his forces shortly before Pellew's attack and consequently sent a number of vessels eastwards along the Javan coast under an American-born Dutch officer named Captain Cowell. Cowell's force eventually sheltered in a protected anchorage at the town of Griessie near Sourabaya, 570 mi (500 nmi; 920 km) to the west of Batavia. There the squadron rapidly deteriorated so that one ship of the line—Kortenaar—had to be broken down into a sheer hulk and two others—Pluto and Revolutie—were disarmed, their cannon transferred into batteries on shore.

Admiral Pellew was unable to return to Java early in 1807, as his ships were dispersed on separate operations across the Indian Ocean, some deploying as far west as the Red Sea. However, during the summer responsibility for the blockade of the French island bases of Île Bonaparte and Isle de France(now Mauritius) passed from Pellew to Rear-Admiral Albemarle Bertie at the Cape of Good Hope and Pellew was once again free to concentrate against the remainder of the Dutch squadron.[6] During the absence of his main force, Admiral Pellew had sent two frigates into Javan waters: Caroline under Captain Peter Rainier and HMS Psyche under his son Captain Fleetwood Pellew. These ships rapidly established the location and the state of the Dutch ships of the line, and then separated to raid Dutch merchant shipping, Psyche having considerable success at Semarang on 31 August when Captain Pellew destroyed two Dutch vessels, and captured three, including the Dutch 24-gun corvette Scipio, which the British renamed Samarang.


HMS Culloden

Pellew at Griessie
When news of the Dutch whereabouts reached Admiral Pellew at Malacca, he immediately assembled a force from nearby warships, including his flagship HMS Culloden under Commander George Bell, ship of the line HMS Powerful under Fleetwood Pellew, the frigates Caroline under Commander Henry Hart and HMS Fox under Captain Archibald Cochrane and the small vessels HMS Victor under Lieutenant Thomas Groube, HMS Samarang under Lieutenant Richard Buck, HMS Seaflower under Lieutenant William Fitzwilliam Owen and HMS Jaseur under Lieutenant Thomas Langharne. The squadron was accompanied by the transport Worcester, which carried 500 men from the 30th Regiment of Foot under Lieutenant-Colonel Lockhart for any landing operations that might be required.

Sailing from Malacca on 20 November, Pellew's squadron passed along the Javan coast for 15 days, reaching Panka Point on 5 December and sending a boat under a flag of truce into Griessie with instructions for the Dutch commander to surrender his ships. Captain Cowell refused, and ordered the boat party to be arrested. He then sent a Dutch officer aboard Culloden to inform Pellew of his actions. In response, Pellew determined to attack the port and ordered that Culloden and Powerful be lightened by the removal of unnecessary stores to enable them to sail into the shallow straits. On 6 December, the British squadron moved steadily towards Griessie through the Madura Strait, coming under fire from heated cannonballs from a battery of nine cannon situated at Sambelangan on Madura Island. Returning fire with his full squadron, Pellew rapidly silenced the battery without loss or significant damage to his ships and as the squadron approached Griessie, a message from the civilian governor in Sourabaya reached Pellew, reversing Cowell's orders, releasing the captured boat party and unconditionally surrendering the ships in the harbour.

On 7 December, Pellew agreed formal terms for the surrender of Revolutie, Pluto, Kortenaar and the Dutch East Indiaman Rustloff that were anchored in Griessie. However, when British boats entered the harbour it was discovered that Cowell had issued orders for all four ships to be scuttled, their wrecks protruding from the shallow water. Unable to remove the ships, Pellew ordered their remains burnt, while British landing parties spread throughout the town, burning the military stores and destroying the cannon that had been removed from the ship. Another landing party took possession of the remains of the battery at Sambelangan and demolished it. British operations were complete by 11 December and Pellew then ordered the squadron to withdraw and return to India.

Aftermath
The final operation of Pellew's Java campaign, completed with minimal casualties on either side, saw the eradication of the Dutch naval presence in the East Indies for the remainder of the war. With the Dutch removed, British attention turned to the French Indian Ocean islands, which were blockaded and captured during the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811. Once Mauritius had been captured, British forces returned to the East Indies, expeditionary forces overwhelming the Dutch defenders on several islands, Java falling last. By that time, Pellew was serving in the Mediterranean and British control of the Indian Ocean was assured, the British remaining in possession of the East Indies until they were returned to the Netherlands following the capture of Napoleon and the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 signed at the Convention of London. The East Indies were handed over in 1816 after Napoleons final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1808 - HMS Crescent (1784 - 36), Cptn. John Temple, wrecked on the coast of Jutland, in a heavy gale.


HMS Crescent was a 36-gun Flora-Class frigate of the British Royal Navy. Launched in 1784, she spent the first years of her service on blockade duty in the English Channel where she single-handedly captured the French frigate, La Reunion. In 1795, Crescent was part of a squadron commanded by George Elphinstone, that forced the surrender of a Batavian Navy squadron at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay. After serving in the West Indies, Crescent returned to home waters and was wrecked off the coast of Jutland on 6 December 1808.

Background
Britain's early preference for smaller warships was mainly because of a requirement to maintain a large navy and to keep the expense of doing so down. However, by the latter half of the 1770s, Britain was facing a war with France, Spain and the United States of America, and was in need of a more powerful type of frigate. In 1778, the Navy Board ordered the first of two new types of frigate, one with 38 guns, the Minerva-class, and the other with 36, the Flora-Class. Both had a main battery of 18 pounder guns. Crescent was ordered on 11 August 1781 and was to be of the 36-gun variety.

Construction
Built by John Nowlan and Thomas Calhoun of Bursledon, Crescent was 137 feet 2.5 inches (41.821 m) along her gundeck, had a 38 feet 5.5 inches (11.722 m) beam and a depth in the hold of 13 feet 3.5 inches (4.051 m). This gave her a capacity of 887 85⁄94 tons (bm). Launched on 28 October 1784, she was completed in January the following year, including copper sheathing of the hull, and was taken to Portsmouth where she was laid up in ordinary and not fitted for sea until 6 June 1790. Crescent was armed with a 26-gun main battery of 18 pounders on her gundeck, eight 9 pound guns and four 18 pound carronades on her quarterdeck, and two 9 pound guns and four 18 pound carronades on her fo'c'sle.

Class and type: Flora-Class (36-gun frigate)
Tons burthen: 887 85⁄94 (bm)
Length: 137 feet 2 1⁄2 inches (41.821 m) (overall)
Beam: 38 feet 5 1⁄25 inches (11.710 m)
Depth: 13 feet 3 1⁄2 inches (4.051 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• Gundeck =*26 × 18-pounder guns
• QD =*8 × 9-pounder gun + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
• Fc = 2 x 9-pounder gun + 4 x 18-pounder carronades

Career
Initially commissioned under Captain William Young in May 1790, she was recommissioned in January 1793 under James Saumarez. She joined Rear-Admiral John MacBride's squadron on blockade duty in the English Channel and on 22 June, assisted by HMS Hind and a privateer named Lively, captured the 10-gun French privateer, le Chib de Cherbourg. Later that month, Hind and Crescent also took a 12-gun privateer called L'Espoir. HMS Crescent narrowly avoided capture herself when on 8 June 1793, she managed to escape from the 50-gun French ships, Le Scévola and Le Brutus.

Action of 20 October 1793
Main article: Action of 20 October 1793


H.M.S. Crescent, under the command of Captain James Saumarez, capturing the French frigate Réunion off Cherbourg, 20 October 1793, att. John Christian Schetky

On the morning of 20 October 1793, lookouts on board Crescent reported sails off Cape Barfleur, on the Cotentin Peninsula, heading towards Cherbourg. Saumarez set a course to intercept, and with the wind in his favour, soon came up on the port side of the two vessels which proved to be the 38-gun French frigate La Réunion and a 14-gun cutter named Espérance, returning from a raiding cruise in the Channel under the command of Captain François A. Dénian.

A second British frigate, the 28-gun HMS Circe, was becalmed some 9 nautical miles (17 km) away and Espérance fled towards Cherbourg, leaving Réunion and Crescent to engage alone. Although the French ship was bigger, 951 long tons (966 t) compared to 888 long tons (902 t), and carried a larger crew; the British ship had a slight advantage in weight of shot, 315 pounds (143 kg) to 310 pounds (141 kg) and was marginally faster.

After the opening exchanges, Réunion lost her fore yard and mizzen topmast while Crescent lost the top off her foremast. Both ships had rigging cut and a number of sails damaged but Crescent was still able to manoeuvre across Réunion's stern and rake her. This raking caused huge damage to the French ship and her crew, and although Réunion continued to resist for some time, she was no longer able to move effectively. With Saumarez about to cross his bow and Circe now rapidly approaching due to a strengthening wind, Dénian realised he had no choice but to surrender his vessel. The engagement had lasted two hours and ten minutes during which time the cutter, Espérance, managed to escape to Cherbourg. The French frigate Sémillante, which had been anchored in the harbour, was unable to come to Réunion's rescue because of contrary wind and tides.

Capitulation of Saldanha Bay
Main article: Capitulation of Saldanha Bay
In 1795, Crescent was commanded by Edward Buller and on 7 March 1796 she made for the Cape of Good Hope. As part of a squadron commanded by George Elphinstone, she was present at Saldanha Bay where a squadron of the new Batavian Republic capitulated. The Cape had long been important to Britain's marine traffic, providing a convenient stopping point en route to India. In the previous year, fearing that it may fall into the hands of the French, Britain had captured the colony from the Dutch.[8] The following year (1796) the Dutch sent a squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Engelbertus Lucas to recapture the Cape. Keith's ships trapped the Dutch in Saldanha Bay on 17 August and Lucas was forced to surrender without a fight.

Crescent remained stationed at the Cape and in 1797 she was under the command of Captain John Murray. Murray was superseded by Captain John Spranger in February 1798, then Charles Brisbane in June that same year.

West Indies
Crescent was repaired and refitted at Deptford in August 1798, re-commissioned under William Lobb in April 1799 and sent to the West Indies. In November, while en route, she captured the 16-gun El Galgo. Then while serving on the Jamaica station, in July 1800 Crescent took the 12-gun Diligente, which the Royal Navy took into service as a 14-gun transport under her existing name.

Between 21 May and 8 August, Crescent, Meleager, and Nimrod captured two Spanish vessels: a Spanish felucca that was sailing from Havana to Vera Cruz, and a xebec sailing from Campeachy to Havana.

Captain Lennox Thompson took command of Crescent in July 1802 and in June the following year, Crescent was recommissioned under Lord William Stuart.

Return to home waters
Crescent returned to home waters in February 1806, under Captain James Carthew. She served in the North Sea before undergoing repairs between June and October 1808. Recommisioned under George Reynolds in April 1808 she remained in home waters and passed to Captain John Temple who was in command when Crescent was wrecked off the coast of Jutland on 6 December. More than 200 people died as a result, including Temple himself.


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

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

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

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

Ships in class

• Flora
  • Ordered: 6 November 1778
  • Built by: Adam Hayes, Deptford Dockyard.
  • Keel laid: 21 November 1778
  • Launched: 6 May 1780
  • Completed: 23 June 1780 at the builder's shipyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off the Dutch coast on 18 January 1808.
• Thalia
  • Ordered: 19 December 1780
  • Built by: John Nowlan & Thomas Calhoun, Bursledon.
  • Keel laid: March 1781
  • Launched: 7 November 1782
  • Completed: 18 January 1783 at Portsmouth.
  • Fate: Broken up at Chatham in July 1784.
• Crescent
  
  • Ordered: 11 August 1781
  • Built by: John Nowlan & Thomas Calhoun, Bursledon.
  • Keel laid: November 1781
  • Launched: 28 October 1784
  • Completed: 11 January 1785 at Portsmouth.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Jutland on 6 December 1808.
• Romulus
  • Ordered: 28 December 1781
  • Built by: Edward Greaves & Mr Purnell, Limehouse.
  • Keel laid: November 1782
  • Launched: 21 September 1785
  • Completed: 5 July 1790 at Portsmouth.
  • Fate: Broken up in Bermuda in November 1816.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Crescent_(1784)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1808 - HMS Proselyte (1804) wrecked in ice


The Royal Navy purchased the Newcastle collier Ramillies in June 1804 and commissioned her as HMS Proselyte in September 1804, having converted her to a 28-gun sixth rate in July and August. Between 1806 and 1808 she was converted to a bomb vessel. She was crushed by ice and abandoned at the island of Anholt while acting as a lightvessel, in 1808.

Type: sixth rate
Tonnage: 403 92⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 107 ft 6 in (32.77 m) (overall)
• 87 ft 3 1⁄4 in (26.6 m) (keel)

Beam: 29 ft 6 in (8.99 m)
Complement:

• Sixth rate:155
• Bomb:70

Armament:

• Sixth rate:
• Upper deck: 24 x 9-pounder guns
• QD: 2 x 6-pounder guns
• Fc:2 x 6-pounder bow chasers
• Bomb: 8 x 24-pounder carronades + 1 x 13" mortar + 1 x 10" mortar (probably)

Service
Proselyte was commissioned under Captain George Hardinge in September 1804. Captain George Sayer was appointed to command her in January 1805. On 9 January 1805 he sailed her for the West Indies, escorting a convoy of 150 merchant vessels and three regiments of infantry. The convoy reached Barbados safely, having eluded the Rochefort squadron, under Rear-Admiral Allemand, who had found out about the convoy and was looking for it. Sayer moved to Galatea in July and Captain John Woolcombe took command, sailing her back to Portsmouth in November. When Proselyte arrived at Portsmouth she was paid off into ordinary. Between December 1806 and April 1808 the Navy converted her to a bomb vessel.

She was recommissioned in February 1808 under the command of Captain Henry James Lyford and sailed to the Baltic. During the Gunboat War on 2 October 1808 the Admiralty published a notice for mariners that it had ordered her to station herself off the island of Anholt in the Kattegat to carry a light for the safety of passing convoys. (At the outbreak of the war the Danes had closed their lighthouse on Anholt.) Proselyte took up her station in early November.

Loss
Proselyte was caught in the ice on 5 December and was wrecked at the outer end of the Anholt reef. The ice pushed her onto her starboard beam, forcing her crew to abandon her. They then walked, with great difficulty but no losses, eight miles to Anholt Island. Proselyte's loss led the British to send a squadron in May consisting of Standard, Owen Glendower and some smaller vessels to seize Anholt and restore the lighthouse.

Add on:
The Gunboat War (Danish: Kanonbådskrigen, Norwegian: Kanonbåtkrigen; 1807–1814) was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy.


Battle between the frigate HMS Tartar and Danish gunboats
at Alvøen near Bergen in 1808

Immobilized by a dead calm, HMS Africa, under Captain John Barrett, barely survived an attack by 25 Danish gunboats and seven armed launches under the command of Commodore J.C. Krieger in an action in the Øresund on 20 October 1808. Africa lost nine men killed and 51 wounded; had night not descended the Danes might well have captured her. The British, however, were less fortunate on 5 December, when the bomb vessel HMS Proselyte was wrecked on Anholt Reef while caught in the ice. The reason that the vessel sank in that area was because the Danes had closed the lighthouse on the island of Anholt, in the Kattegat early during the war, and the Admiralty had ordered her to station herself off the island on 9 November to carry a light for the safety of passing convoys. All her crew was however saved.


Danish gunboats seizing HMS Turbulent, 9 June 1808.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Proselyte_(1804)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunboat_War

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1812 - HMS Plumper (1807 - 14), Lt. Josias Bray, lost on a ledge of rocks near Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick


HMS Plumper was launched in 1807. She captured three small American privateers early in the War of 1812 but was wrecked in December 1812.

Type: Archer-class gunbrig
Tonnage: 177 26⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 80 ft 0 in (24.4 m) (overall)
• 65 ft 10 in (20.1 m) (keel)

Beam: 22 ft 6 in (6.9 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 5 in (2.9 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 50
Armament:10 × 18-pounder carronades + 2 x 12-pounder chase guns


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile, upper deck, and lower deck for the 58 ships of the Archer class (1800), 12-gun Gunbrigs built by contract. Reverse is annotated with a list of the builders and the ships names.

Career
Lieutenant William Frissell commissioned Plumper in 1808 and commanded her until 1810. He was in command when Plumper participated in the capture of Guadeloupe in January and February 1810. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all surviving participants of the campaign.

On 22 January 1811 Lloyd's List reported incorrectly that Plumper had been lost in the st Lawrence River while sailing from Halifax to Quebec.

From 1812 her commander was Lieutenant James Bray.

HMS Indian and Plumper captured the privateer schooner Fair Trader on 16 July 1812 in the Bay of Fundy. Fair Trader was armed with one gun and had a 20-man crew

Also around the middle of July an American privateer captured William, of Bristol, Hare, master, off Cape Sable. Indian recaptured William and took her into Halifax.[7] Whether William was one of Fair Trader's prizes or not is an open question. A report in Lloyd's List stated that Indian had captured Fair Trader, Argus, and a third American privateer.

Lloyd's List reported that Indian and Plumper had captured six American privateers. Separately, it reported that Plumper had recaptured Fanny, from Glasgow, which the American privateer Teazer had captured. Fanny, Colston, master, had been sailing from Clyde to New Brunswick. Plumper sent her into Halifax.

On 6 July Plumper captured Samuel, Stanton, master, which had been sailing from Oporto. Plumper took out $5300 and permitted '"Samuel to proceed. Samuel arrived at Boston on 11 July.

On 17 July Plumper captured the American privateer schooner Argus. Argus was armed with one gun and had a crew of 23 men.

The next day Plumper captured the American privateer Friendship, of one gun and eight men.

Lloyd's List reported on 15 September 1812 that Plumper had detained the sloop Margaret, from Liverpool, but that an American privateer had retaken Margaret and taken her into Portland.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Hardy (1804), a 12-gun Brig. This plan may actually relate to any of the Archer Class Gunbrigs as the plan is unassigned.

Fate
Plumper wrecked on 5 December 1812 while en route to Halifax with £70,000 in specie for the purchase of arms for the military in St John. She struck on the ledges off Dipper Harbour in the Bay of Fundy and sank immediately with the loss of the specie and 42 of the 60 people on board, consisting both of crew and passengers. Bray and all his officers were among the men drowned.

Lloyd's List reported the loss on 8 January 1813.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Plumper_(1807)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1812 – Launch of French Colosse, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line


Colosse was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Between 1815 and 1827, her forecastle and quarterdeck were razéed and she was turned into the flush deck, 60-gun first rank frigate Pallas.

Class and type: Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement:

• 2,966 tonnes
• 5,260 tonnes fully loaded

Length: 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam: 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in)
Draught: 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion: Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Armament:

• 74 guns:
• Lower gundeck: 28 × 36-pounder long guns
• Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder long guns
• Forecastle and Quarter deck:
• • 16 × 8-pounder long guns
  • 4 × 36-pdr carronades

HMS Abercrombie, ex- french Hautpoult (1807) sistership

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline with some detail, sheeer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Abercrombie (1809), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Portsmouth after having defects rectified. The plan illustrates the ship after her alterations to a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823].


Career
Colosse was ordered on 20 February 1812. She was launched on 5 December 1812, amidst a ceremony honouring the anniversary of the Battle of Austerlitz, and commissioned in January 1814 under Captain Louvel.

In 1821, she cruised in the Caribbean under Captain Ducampe de Rosamel. During the events of the "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis", she took part in the bombardment of Cadiz under Captain de la Bretonnière.

Between 1815 and 1827, her forecastle and quarterdeck were razéed, and she was turned into a 60-gun first rank frigate, with two complete batteries, and renamed Pallas.

As Pallas, she took part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830, and in the Battle of the Tagus, under Captain Buchet de Châteauville. Upon her return, she was decommissioned, and condemned in 1840.


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

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

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



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Colosse_(1813)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1830 - HMS Thetis (46), Cptn. Samuel Burgess, wrecked on Cabo Frio, South America.


HMS Thetis was a 46-gun Leda-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. She was first commissioned in 1823 and was assigned to the South America Station three years later. The ship was wrecked in 1830 off Cape Frio, Brazil, with the loss of 22 crewmen; most of her cargo of bullion was successfully salvaged.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Hebe (1826), Clyde (1828), Medusa (cancelled 1831), Nereus (1821), Hamadryad (1823), Diana (1822), Latona (1821), Fisgard (1819), Lively (1813), Melampus (1820), Thetis (1817), Aeolus (1825), Amazon (1821), Daedalus (1826), Fox (1829), Blanche (1819), Thalia (1830), Mercury (1826), Cerberus (1827), and Arethusa (1817), all 38-gun (later 46-gun) Fifth Rate, Frigates.

Description
Thetis had a length at the gundeck of 150 feet 9 inches (45.9 m) and 126 feet 7 inches (38.6 m) at the keel. She had a beam of 40 feet 2 inches (12.2 m), a draught of 14 feet 8 inches (4.5 m) and a depth of hold of 12 feet 9 inches (3.9 m). The ship's tonnage was 1086 32⁄94 tons burthen. Thetis was armed with twenty-eight 18-pounder cannon on her gundeck, fourteen 32-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and a pair of 9-pounder cannon and two more 32-pounder carronades in forecastle. The ship had a crew of 315 officers and ratings.

Class and type: Leda-class frigate
Tons burthen: 1086 32/94 bm
Length:

• 150 ft 9 in (45.9 m) (gundeck)
• 126 ft 7 in (38.6 m) (keel)

Beam: 40 ft 2 in (12.2 m)
Draught: 14 ft 8 in (4.5 m)
Depth: 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 315
Armament:

• 46 guns:
• Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pdr cannon
• Quarterdeck: 14 × 32-pdr carronades
• Forecastle: 2 × 9-pdr cannon and 2 × 32-pdr carronades

Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the midship section, and elevation illustrating the riders for Arethusa (1817), Thetis (1817), Hebe (1826), Minerva (1820), Venus (1820), Latona (1821), Diana (1822), and Blanche (1819), all 38-gun (later 46-gun) Fifth Rate, Frigates. The plan was sent to the Royal Yards, including Sheerness and Plymouth, at a time when these latter yards were not building this class.

Construction and career
Thetis, the eighth ship of her name to serve in the Royal Navy, was ordered on 18 December 1812, laid down in December 1814 at Pembroke Dockyard, Wales, and launched on 1 February 1813.[2] She sailed for Plymouth Dockyard on 21 August 1817 and was completed for ordinary on 20 September. Thetis cost £27,435 to build and £7,699 to fit out for ordinary. The ship's first commission began on 15 March 1823, under the command of Captain John Phillimore, and she was completed for sea duty on 20 August 1823 at the cost of an additional £12,959.

Thetis was assigned to the South America Station in June 1826 and Captain Arthur Bingham assumed command on 8 November. He died on 19 August 1830 and Captain Samuel Burgess was in command by 29 November. On 5 December Thetis, the ship wrecked off Cape Frio, Brazil; 22 crewmen drowned. Two-thirds of her cargo of bullion was subsequently salvaged.

In August 1832 the Falmouth packet Mutine brought back to England 17,000 dollars salvaged from Thetis.


Full hull model of a launch (circa 1831), fitted with lifting gear. Used in conjunction with diving bells for the recovery of treasure from the wreck of the 'Thetis' (1817), a 46 gun frigate. Model is decked and equipped. See Accessories field for detachable parts (Block and tackle have not been seen during the Collections Inventory Project (2001-2004)). One of a series of six models; see SLR0687, SLR0689, SLR0690, SLR0691 and SLR1806.


In 1833, the marine painter John Christian Schetky produced a pair of oil canvases, depicting the salvage of the treasures of HMS 'Thetis', a fifth-rate, 46-gun frigate (see also BHC3660). Under the command of Captain S. Burgess, the ship sank on the 4 December 1830 after crashing into the rocks at the base of Cabo Frio, north of Rio de Janeiro, because the captain relied on dead reckoning rather than taking soundings. Among its valuable cargo were silver bars, plates, coins and some gold. Twenty-eight lives were lost and subsequent storms broke the wreck up, spreading its cargo over the sea-bed. Created three years after the event, both paintings show the dramatic cliffs of the Cape Frio island under the contrasting weather conditions in which which the rescue operation was performed. To carry out the salvage operation, a naval party was encamped for nearly a year in a village of wood and grass huts on the island, enduring harsh life under tropical skies. The retrieval began soon after the sinking and a high proportion of the cargo was recovered. A net was stretched across the 480-foot entrance to the cove to prevent the cargo being washed away. Diving bells were constructed out of water tanks and with these suspended - first from a derrick and later from a cable stretched across the cove - the salvage operation was commenced in the very cold waters. This painting shows the salvage team in operation in flat calm conditions. The complex system of cables is carefully delineated and in the centre a platform is visible with steep steps cut into the rock from the top of the cliff. Another set of steps to the right wind precariously down to the water's edge. A number of figures are busy on top of the cliff, on the rocks and on boats in the cove. On one level the paintings celebrate the triumph of man against the elements in an alien environment, yet also show the risks involved in retrieving a valuable cargo. The place is now called Thetis Cove. Schetky was a Scottish painter who studied drawing with Alexander Nasmyth and embarked on a Continental tour in 1801. Initially drawing-master at the Royal Military College, Great Marlow, he was Professor of Drawing at the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth, from 1811 until it closed in 1836. He then fulfilled the same role at the East India College, Addiscombe, until his retirement in 1855 although he remained active as a marine painter until his death at the age of 95. His work was informed by close personal knowledge of the sea and his subjects ranged from ship portraits and royal embarkations to reconstructions of earlier sea battles of the time of Nelson. In 1820 he was made Marine Painter in Ordinary to George IV and was granted the same title by Queen Victoria in 1844. He frequently travelled on board the royal yacht and assisted the Queen with her own sketches. While at Portsmouth, he also supplied Turner with studies of the 'Victory', for his 1822-24 painting of the Battle of Trafalgar (BHC0565). The painting is signed and dated 1833.


The Leda-class frigates, were a successful class of forty-seven British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates constructed from 1805-1832. Based on a French design, the class came in five major groups, all with minor differences in their design. During their careers, they fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Forty-five of the 47 were eventually scrapped; two still exist.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thetis_(1817)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda-class_frigate

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1843 - Launching of USS Michigan at Erie, Penn., America's first iron-hulled warship, as well as first prefabricated ship.


USS Michigan was the United States Navy's first iron-hulled warship and served during the American Civil War. She was renamed USS Wolverine in 1905.


USS Michigan, seen here after her name was changed to USS Wolverine in 1905.

Construction and design
The side wheel steamer Michigan was built in response to the British Government arming two steamers in response to the Canadian rebellions in the late 1830s with Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur selecting an iron hull partly as a test of practicability of using such a "cheap and indestructible a material" for ships. The ship was designed by Samuel Hart, and fabricated in parts at Pittsburgh in the last half of 1842, transported overland and assembled at Erie. The launch on 5 December 1843 was unsuccessful with the ship sticking after moving some 50 feet (15.2 m) down the ways and efforts to complete the launch ended by nightfall. On returning in the morning Hart found Michigan had launched "herself in the night" and was floating offshore in Lake Erie.

By 1908 the ship was noted in the journal The American Marine Engineer as being the oldest metal hulled vessel then existing and of interest to engineers because of the ship's age. The two engines were inclined simple steam engines of 36 inches (91.4 cm) with a 96 inches (243.8 cm) stroke that were original and running well in 1908. The first of three sets of boilers were return flue type that lasted fifty years before finally being replaced by bricked in return tube types. The operating pressure was low, 25 pounds (11.3 kg) sufficient to drive the engines at 20 rpm, with engine room piping of .125 inches (0.318 cm) thick copper connecting with brass flange joints. When, about 1905, the ship finally changed from kerosene lights to electric a special engine for the dynamo had to be constructed to operate on the low pressure steam. The steam was also used in a peculiar system for repelling boarders with hot water direct from the boiler. Coal consumption before the latest modifications was two tons per hour and after the modifications was as low as one half ton per hour. The ship carried two steam launches. The ship had never made even ten knots until dispatched from the harbor at Cleveland to Buffalo to prevent riots on the assassination of President William McKinley 6 September 1901 and, with the safeties weighted, she made almost fourteen knots at 30 rpm at one point.

Early career
Michigan commissioned 29 September 1844 under the command of Commander William Inman and operated on the Great Lakes out of Erie, Pennsylvania, throughout her career. In May 1851, she assisted in the arrest of Mr. James Jesse Strang, known as "King James I", who headed a dissident Mormon colony on Beaver Island at the head of Lake Michigan, some 37 mi (60 km) from the Straits of Mackinac. Strang was soon freed, but was assassinated by two of his followers on 19 June 1856. The assassins fled to Michigan for sanctuary and were taken to Mackinac and released.

In an encounter with Great Lakes "timber pirates" in the 1850s, a steamer rammed Michigan. The pirate vessel was badly damaged in the maneuver, and was captured.

USS Michigan was the first iron-hulled ship in the US Navy. When she was rammed in the early hours of 6 May 1853, in southern Lake Huron, by the wooden-hulled Buffalo, the Michigan was badly damaged, but the Buffalo proceeded south towards the St. Clair River and was not "captured." Despite this, the Michigan assisted in arresting several of the timbermen who had been stealing timber in Michigan. Additional information is available in "The Development of Governmental Forest Control in the United States," by Jenks Cameron, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1928; and in "Guardian of the Great Lakes," by Bradley A. Rogers, The University of Michigan Press, 1996.


USS Wolverine in a Great Lakes port in the early 1900s.



American Civil War
Further information: Upper Peninsula miners' strike of 1865
During the American Civil War, Michigan was armed with a 30-pounder Parrott rifle, five 20-pounder Parrott rifles, six 24-pounder smoothbores, and two 12-pounder boat howitzers. The Confederate States of America considered launching attacks against the North from Canada. Early in 1863, Lieutenant William Henry Murdaugh, CSN, planned to lead a group of Confederate naval officers to Canada where they would purchase a small steamer, man her with Canadians and steam to Erie to board Michigan and use her against locks and shipping on the Great Lakes. However, Confederate President Jefferson Davis didn't approve the plan.

Michigan cruised on the Great Lakes during most of the war providing an element of stability and security. On 28 July 1863, a short time after New York City had been seriously shaken by riots, Commander John C. Carter commanding Michigan reported from Detroit, "I found the people suffering under serious apprehensions of a riot....The presence of the ships perhaps did something toward overawing the refractory, and certainly did much to allay the apprehensions of the excited, doubting people." During August 1863, Michigan was called on for similar service in Buffalo, New York.

During 1864, rumors of Confederate conspiracies in Canada were heard again. In March, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles ordered Michigan to be "prepared for active service as soon as the ice will permit." In the autumn, the Confederates finally struck. Led by Acting Master John Yates Beall, 20 Confederates embarked on the steamer Philo Parsons as passengers and soon seized her. They next captured and burned the steamer Island Queen. Meanwhile, Captain Charles H. Cole, CSA, a Confederate agent in the Lake Erie region, was attempting to gain the trust of Michigan's officers as the Michigan lay off Johnson's Island helping to guard Confederate prisoners. However, Commander Carter discovered Cole's duplicity and had him arrested before Beall reached Johnson's Island on Philo Parsons. When the prearranged signals from shore were not made, Beall reluctantly abandoned his plan and retired to Sandwich (now Windsor, Ontario) where he stripped and burned Philo Parsons.

Later U.S. Navy service
After the Civil War, Michigan remained in U.S. Navy service, and was the ship which intercepted and interned the army of the Fenian Brotherhood as it returned from its invasion of Canada near Buffalo in 1866. Michigan was renamed USS Wolverine on 17 June 1905 to free up the name Michigan for use by the new battleship USS Michigan (BB-27).

Wolverine was decommissioned on 6 May 1912.



Pennsylvania Naval Militia service
Wolverine was turned over to the Pennsylvania Naval Militia, which she served for 11 years, making training cruises in the summer for the United States Naval Reserve. For the 1913 centennial of the War of 1812 Battle of Lake Erie, Wolverine towed the brig USS Niagara from port to port as part of the celebrations. In mid-1920, when the U.S. Navy adopted its modern alphanumeric hull number system, she was classified as a "miscellaneous auxiliary" and designated IX-31. On 12 August 1923, a connecting rod of Wolverine's port cylinder broke, ending her active career.

Relic
In 1927, Wolverine's hulk was pushed up onto a sandbank in Misery Bay on the Presque Isle State Park Peninsula and loaned to the city of Erie, Pennsylvania, as a relic. She was sold to the Foundation for the Preservation of the Original USS Michigan, Inc., on 19 July 1948. But when fund-raising efforts failed to acquire sufficient money for her restoration and preservation, she was cut up and sold for scrap in 1949 to the Ace Junk & Salvage Company. Sam Tanenbaum, proprietor, donated the prow back to the city of Erie.

In 1950, Wolverine's prow was erected as a monument in Wolverine Park in Erie, near the shipyard where she had been built. On 22 February 1998, the prow was moved to the Erie Maritime Museum for restoration. Today it can be viewed inside the museum



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1904 - During the Siege of Port Arthur - Entire russian fleet was lost
Russian battleship Poltava (1894) and Retvizan were hit and sunk at 5th December, the battleships Pobeda and Peresvet and the cruisers Pallada and Bayan four days later. Battleship Sevastopol was scuttled to prevent her capture


The Siege of Port Arthur (Japanese: 旅順攻囲戦, Ryojun Kōisen; Russian: Оборона Порт-Артура, Oborona Port-Artura, August 1, 1904 – January 2, 1905), the deep-water port and Russian naval base at the tip of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria, was the longest and most violent land battle of the Russo-Japanese War.


Wrecked ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet, which were later salvaged by the Japanese navy

Port Arthur had been widely regarded as one of the most strongly fortified positions in the world. However, during the First Sino-Japanese War, General Nogi Maresuke had taken the city from the forces of Qing China in only a few days. The ease of his victory during the previous conflict, and overconfidence by the Japanese General Staff in its ability to overcome improved Russian fortifications, led to a much longer campaign and far greater losses than expected.

The Siege of Port Arthur saw the introduction of much technology used in subsequent wars of the 20th century (particularly in World War I) including massive 28 cm howitzers capable of hurling 217-kilogram (478-pound) shells over 8 kilometers (5.0 miles), as well as rapid-firing light howitzers, Maxim machine guns, bolt-action magazine rifles, barbed wire entanglements, electric fences, arc lamp searchlights, tactical radio signalling (and, in response, the first military use of radio jamming), hand grenades, extensive trench warfare, and the use of modified naval mines as land weapons.

Background
The Russian forces manning the defenses of Port Arthur under Major-General Baron Anatoly Stoessel consisted of almost 50,000 men and 506 guns (including the crews of the Russian warships in port). He also had the option of removing the guns from the fleet to bolster the land defenses. The total population of Port Arthur at the time was around 87,000, which meant that a very high proportion of the population were combatants.

Russian improvements to the defences of Port Arthur included a multi-perimeter layout with overlapping fields of fire and making the best possible use of the natural terrain. However, many of the redoubts and fortifications were still unfinished, as considerable resources were either in very short supply or had been diverted to improving the fortifications at Dalny, further north on the Liaodong Peninsula.

The outer defense perimeter of Port Arthur consisted of a line of hills, including Hsiaokushan and Takushan near the Ta-ho River in the east, and Namakoyama, Akasakayama, 174-Meter Hill, 203-Meter Hill and False Hill in the west. All of these hills were heavily fortified. Approximately 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles) behind this defensive line was the original stone Chinese wall, which encircled the Old Town of Lushun from the south to the Lun-ho River at the northwest. The Russians had continued the line of the Chinese wall to the west and south, enclosing the approaches to the harbor and the New Town of Port Arthur with concrete forts, machine gun emplacements, and connecting trenches.

General Stoessel withdrew to Port Arthur on July 30, 1904. Facing the Russians was the Japanese Third Army, about 150,000 strong, backed by 474 artillery guns, under the command of General Baron Nogi Maresuke

Battle of 203 Meter Hill

203 Meter Hill, December 14, 1904

Port Arthur viewed from the summit of the 203 Meter Hill, November 2004

The highest elevation within Port Arthur, designated "203 Meter Hill", overlooked the harbor. The name "203-Meter Hill" is a misnomer, as the hill consists of two peaks (203 meters and 210 meters high, and 140 meters apart) connected by a sharp ridge. It was initially unfortified; however, after the start of the war the Russians realized its critical importance and built a strong defensive position.[2] As well as the natural strength of its elevated position with steep sides, it was protected by a massive redoubt and two earth-covered keeps reinforced by steel rails and timber, and completely surrounded by electrified barbed wire entanglements. It was also connected to the neighboring strongholds on False Hill and Akasakayama by trenches. On top of the lower peak was the fortified Russian command post in reinforced concrete. The Russian defenders entrenched on the summit of were commanded by Colonel Tretyakov, and were organized into five companies of infantry with machine gun detachments, a company of engineers, a few sailors and a battery of artillery.

On September 18, Japanese General Kodama visited General Nogi for the first time, and drew his attention to the strategic importance of 203 Meter Hill. Nogi directed the first infantry assault against the hill on September 20, but found its fortifications impenetrable to Japanese artillery and was forced to retreat by September 22 with over 2500 casualties. He then resumed his attempts to break through the fortifications at Port Arthur in other locations, cumulating in a six-day general assault at the end of October, which cost the Japanese a further 124 officers and 3611 men. of this defeat inflamed Japanese popular opinion against Nogi. General Yamagata urged his court-martial, but Nogi was saved from this only through the unprecedented personal intervention of Emperor Meiji. However, Field Marshal Oyama Iwao found the continuing unavailability of the 3rd Army's manpower to be intolerable, and sent General Kodama Gentarō to compel Nogi to take drastic action, or else relieve him of command. Kodama returned to visit Nogi again in mid-November, but decided to give him one last chance. After arduous sapping work and an artillery assault with the new Armstrong 11-inch siege guns, mines were exploded underneath some of the Russian fortifications on the main defense perimeter from November 17–24, with a general assault planned for the night of November 26. Coincidentally, this was the same day that the Russian Baltic Fleet was entering the Indian Ocean. The assault contained a forlorn hope attack by 2600 men (including 1200 from the newly arrived IJA 7th Division) led by General Nakamura Satoru, but the attack failed, with direct frontal assaults on both Fort Erhlung and Fort Sungshu once again beaten back by the Russian defenders. Japanese casualties were officially 4,000 men, but unofficially perhaps twice as high. Russian General Roman Kondratenko took the precaution of stationing snipers to shoot any of his front line troops attempting to abandon their positions.

At 08:30 on November 28, with massive artillery support, Japanese troops again attempted an assault up the sides of both Akasakayama and 203 Meter Hill. Over a thousand 500 lb (230 kg) shells from the 11-inch (280 mm) howitzers were fired in a single day to support this attack. The Japanese reached as far as the Russian line of barbed wire entanglements by daybreak and held their ground throughout the following day, November 29, while their artillery kept the defenders busy by a continuous bombardment. Nonetheless, the Japanese forces suffered serious losses, as the Russian defenders were well positioned to use hand grenades and machine guns against the tightly packed mass of Japanese soldiers. On November 30, a small party of Japanese succeeded in planting the Japanese flag at the summit of the hill, but by the morning of December 1, the Russians had successfully counterattacked. Still retaining the authority to replace Nogi if necessary, Kodama assumed temporary command of the Japanese front-line forces, but officially maintained the despondent Nogi in nominal command.

The battle continued throughout the following days with very heavy hand-to-hand combat with control of the summitt changing hands several times. Finally, at 10:30 on December 5, following another massive artillery bombardment during which Russian Colonel Tretyakov was severely wounded, the Japanese managed to overrun 203 Meter Hill, finding only a handful of defenders still alive on the summit. The Russians launched two counter-attacks to retake the hill, both of which failed, and by 17:00, 203 Meter Hill was securely under Japanese control.

For Japan, the cost of capturing this landmark was great, with over 8,000 dead and wounded in the final assault alone, including most of the IJA 7th Division.[3] For Nogi, the cost of capturing 203 Meter Hill was made even more poignant when he received word that his last surviving son had been killed in action during the final assault on the hill. The Russians, who had no more than 1,500 men on the hill at any one time, lost over 6,000 killed and wounded.[4]

Destruction of the Russian Pacific Fleet


Japanese 11-inch howitzer firing; shell visible in flight


Pallada under fire as the Oil Depot burns


Pallada and Pobeda

From the vantage point on 203 Meter Hill overlooking Port Arthur harbor, Nogi could now bombard the Russian fleet by relocating his heavy 11-inch (280 mm) howitzers with 500 pound (~220 kg) armor-piercing shells on the summit. This done, he systematically started to sink the Russian ships within range.

On December 5, 1904, the battleship Poltava was destroyed, followed by the battleship Retvizan on December 7, 1904, the battleships Pobeda and Peresvet and the cruisers Pallada and Bayan on December 9, 1904. The battleship Sevastopol, although hit 5 times by 11-inch (280 mm) shells, managed to move out of range of the guns. Stung by the fact that the Russian Pacific Fleet had been sunk by the army and not by the Imperial Japanese Navy, and with a direct order from Tokyo that the Sevastopol was not to be allowed to escape, Admiral Togo sent in wave after wave of destroyers in six separate attacks on the sole remaining Russian battleship. After 3 weeks, the Sevastopol was still afloat, having survived 124 torpedoes fired at her while sinking two Japanese destroyers and damaging six other vessels. The Japanese had meanwhile lost the cruiser Takasago to a mine outside the harbor.

On the night of January 2, 1905, after Port Arthur surrendered, Captain Nikolai Essen of the Sevastopol had the crippled battleship scuttled in 30 fathoms (55 m) of water by opening the sea cocks on one side, so that the ship would sink on its side and could not be raised and salvaged by the Japanese.

The surrender

Nogi (Center left), Stoessel (Center right) and their staffs.

Following the loss of the Pacific Fleet, the rationale for holding onto Port Arthur was questioned by Stoessel and Foch in a council on December 8, 1904, but the idea of surrender was rejected by the other senior officers. Japanese trench and tunnel warfarecontinued. With the death of General Kondratenko on December 15, 1904, at Fort Chikuan, Stoessel appointed the incompetent Foch in his place. On December 18, 1904, the Japanese exploded an 1,800-kilogram (3,968-pound) mine under Fort Chikuan, which fell that night. On December 28, 1904, mines under Fort Erhlung were detonated, destroying that fort as well.

On December 31, 1904, a series of mines were exploded under Fort Sungshu, the sole surviving major fortress, which surrendered that day. On January 1, 1905, Wantai finally fell to the Japanese. On the same day, Stoessel and Foch sent a message to a surprised General Nogi, offering to surrender. None of the other senior Russian staff had been consulted, and notably Smirnov and Tretyakov were outraged. The surrender was accepted and signed on January 5, 1905, in the northern suburb of Shuishiying.

With this, the Russian garrison was taken into captivity, and civilians were allowed to leave, but the Russian officers were given the choice of either going into prisoner-of-war camps with their men or being given parole on the promise of taking no further part in the war.

The Japanese were astounded to find that a huge store of food and ammunition remained in Port Arthur, which implied that Stoessel had surrendered long before the fight was over. Stoessel, Foch and Smirnov were court-martialed on their return to St Petersburg.

As for Nogi, after leaving a garrison in Port Arthur, he led the surviving bulk of his army of 120,000 men north to join Marshal Oyama at the Battle of Mukden.

Losses
Russian land forces in the course of the siege suffered 31,306 casualties, of whom at least 6,000 were killed. Lower figures such as 15,000 killed, wounded, and missing are sometimes claimed. At the end of the siege, the Japanese captured a further 878 army officers and 23,491 other ranks; 15,000 of those captured were wounded. The Japanese also captured 546 guns and 82,000 artillery shells. In addition the Russians lost their entire fleet based at Port Arthur, which was either sunk or interned. The Japanese captured 8,956 seamen.

The Japanese army casualties were later officially listed as 57,780 casualties (killed, wounded and missing), of whom 14,000 were killed. In addition 33,769 became sick during the siege (including 21,023 with beriberi). The Japanese navy lost 16 ships in the course of the siege, including two battleships and four cruisers.

There were higher estimates of Japanese army casualties at the time such as 94,000 - 110,000 killed, wounded, and missing, though these were written without access to the Japanese Medical History of the War.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Poltava_(1894)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Port_Arthur
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Retvizan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Pobeda

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1904 - During the Siege of Port Arthur - Entire russian fleet was lost - Part II - The russian ships


The Russian battleship Poltava (Russian: Полтава) was one of three Petropavlovsk-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron shortly after completion and based at Port Arthur from 1901. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was heavily damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea. She was sunk by Japanese artillery during the subsequent Siege of Port Arthur in December 1904, but was raised by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) after the war and renamed Tango (丹後).




A Japanese postcard showing Poltava partially submerged at Port Arthur

During World War I, she bombarded German fortifications during the Siege of Tsingtao. The Japanese government sold Tango back to the Russians at their request in 1916. She was renamed Chesma (Чесма) as her former name had been given to a new ship. En route to the White Sea, she joined an Allied force that persuaded the Greek government to disarm their ships. Her crew declared for the Bolsheviks in October 1917, but made no effort to resist when the British decided to intervene in the Russian Civil War in early 1918. In poor condition, the ship was used as a prison hulk. Abandoned by the British when they withdrew in 1919 and recaptured by the Bolsheviks, she was scrapped in 1924.


Retvizan (Russian: Ретвизан) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built by the American William Cramp & Sons because Russian shipyards were already at full capacity. Named after a Swedish ship of the line that was captured during the battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790 (Swedish: Rättvisan, meaning both fairness and justice), Retvizan was briefly assigned to the Baltic Fleet, but was transferred to the Far East in 1902.


Retvizan in the Delaware River, 1902

The ship was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur during the night of 8/9 February 1904 and grounded in the harbour entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside, as her draft had significantly deepened from the amount of water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was refloated and repaired in time to join the rest of the 1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach Vladivostok through the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them again in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, forcing most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after their squadron commander was killed and his flagship damaged. Retvizan was sunk by Japanese howitzers in December after the Japanese gained control of the heights around the harbour.


Retvizan sunk in Port Arthur

The Japanese raised and repaired Retvizan after Port Arthur surrendered in January 1905. She was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy as Hizen (肥前) in 1908. Based in Sasebo when the Japanese declared war on Germany in 1914, the ship was sent to reinforce the weak British squadron off British Columbia, but diverted to Hawaii after reports of a German gunboat there. Hizen was unsuccessfully sent to search for other German ships after the Americans interned the gunboat in November. After World War I she supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War and was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was sunk as a gunnery target in 1924.


Pobeda (Russian: Победа, lit. 'Victory') was the last of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated in the battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea. Having escaped serious damage in these engagements, Pobeda was sunk by gunfire during the Siege of Port Arthur, and then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service under the name Suwo (周防).


Imperial Russian Ironclad warship Pobeda in Port Arthur.


Pobeda (right) and the protected cruiser Pallada sunk in Port Arthur

Rearmed and re-boilered by the Japanese, Suwo was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a coastal defense ship in 1908 and served as a training ship for several years. She was the flagship of the Japanese squadron that participated in the Battle of Tsingtao at the beginning of World War I and continued in that role until she became a gunnery training ship in 1917. The ship was disarmed in 1922 to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and probably scrapped around that time.


Peresvet (Russian: Пересвет) was the lead ship of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was seriously damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and again in the Siege of Port Arthur. The ship was scuttled before the Russians surrendered, then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service with the name Sagami (相模).


Imperial Russian battleship Peresvet in Toulon, 1901.


Peresvet after having been scuttled

Partially rearmed, Sagami was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a coastal defense ship in 1912. In 1916, the Japanese sold her to the Russians, their allies since the beginning of World War I. En route to the White Sea in early 1917, she sank off Port Said, Egypt, after striking mines laid by a German submarine.


Pallada was the lead ship in the Pallada class of protected cruisers in the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built in the Admiralty Shipyard at Saint Petersburg, Russia. The new class was a major improvement on previous Russian cruisers, although the armor protection was light.


Pallada circa 1903


Pallada sunk at Port Arthur


The cruiser Bayan (Russian: Баян) was the name ship of the four Bayan-class armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship had to be built in France because there was no available capacity in Russia. Bayan was assigned to the First Pacific Squadron after completion and based at Port Arthur from the end of 1903. She suffered minor damage during the Battle of Port Arthur at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and supported destroyers as they patrolled outside the harbour. After bombarding Japanese positions in July 1904, the ship struck a mine and was out of action for the next several months. Bayan was sunk during the Siege of Port Arthur and was then salvaged by the Japanese after the war.


Imperial Russian Armoured cruiser Bayan (I) in Kronstadt, summer 1903.

Renamed Aso by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) she served as a training ship after extensive repairs. The ship was converted into a minelayer in 1917 and was decommissioned in 1930 to serve as a target ship. She was eventually sunk as a target in 1932.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Poltava_(1894)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Retvizan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Pobeda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Peresvet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Pallada_(1899)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Bayan_(1900)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1931 – Launch of Pola, a Zara-class heavy cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy)


Pola was a Zara-class heavy cruiser of the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). She was built in the Odero-Terni-Orlando shipyard in Livorno in the early 1930s and entered service in 1932. She was the third of four ships in the class, which also included Zara, Fiume, and Gorizia. Pola was built as a flagship with a larger conning tower to accommodate an admiral's staff. Like her sisters, she was armed with a battery of eight 203-millimeter (8.0 in) guns and was capable of a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph).

Pola initially served as the flagship of the 2nd Squadron, and in 1940 she led the squadron during the battles of Calabria and Cape Spartivento, in July and November, respectively. During the latter engagement she briefly battled the British cruiser HMS Berwick. Pola was thereafter reassigned to the 3rd Division, along with her three sister ships. The ship took part in the Battle of Cape Matapan in late March 1941. During the battle, she was disabled by a British airstrike. Later, in a fierce night engagement in the early hours of 29 March, Pola, Zara, Fiume, and two destroyers were sunk by the British Mediterranean Fleet with heavy loss of life.


Line-drawing of Pola

Design
Main article: Zara-class cruiser
Pola was 182.8 meters (600 ft) long overall, with a beam of 20.62 m (67.7 ft) and a draft of 7.2 m (24 ft). She displaced 13,944 long tons (14,168 t) at full load, though her displacement was nominally within the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) restriction set in place by the Washington Naval Treaty. Her power plant consisted of two Parsons steam turbines powered by eight oil-fired Yarrow boilers, which were trunked into two funnels amidships. Her engines were rated at 95,000 shaft horsepower (71,000 kW) and produced a top speed of 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph). She had a crew of 841 officers and enlisted men. Pola was designed to function as a squadron flagship, and so her forward superstructure was larger than that of her sisters, and was faired into the forward funnel.

She was protected with a armored belt that was 150 mm (5.9 in) thick amidships. Her armor deck was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick in the central portion of the ship and reduced to 20 mm (0.79 in) at either end. The gun turrets had 150 mm thick plating on the faces and the barbettes they sat in were also 150 mm thick. The main conning tower had 150 mm thick sides.



Pola was armed with a main battery of eight 203 mm (8.0 in) Mod 29 53-caliber guns in four gun turrets. The turrets were arranged in superfiring pairs forward and aft. Anti-aircraft defense was provided by a battery of sixteen 100 mm (4 in) 47-cal. guns in twin mounts, four Vickers-Terni 40 mm/39 guns in single mounts and eight 12.7 mm (0.50 in) guns in twin mounts. She carried a pair of IMAM Ro.43 seaplanes for aerial reconnaissance; the hangar was located under the forecastle and a fixed catapultwas mounted on the centerline at the bow.

Pola's secondary battery was revised several times during her career. Two of the 100 mm guns and all of the 40 mm and 12.7 mm guns were removed in the late 1930s and eight 37 mm (1.5 in) 54-cal. guns and eight 13.2 mm (0.52 in) guns were installed in their place. Two 120 mm (4.7 in) 15-cal. starshell guns were added in 1940.

History


Pola (third from right) along with Zara and Fiume in Naples in 1938

Pola, named for the eponymous city seized by Italy after World War I, was laid down at the Odero-Terni-Orlando shipyard in Livorno on 17 March 1931 and was launched on 5 December that year. Fitting-out work proceeded quickly, and the new cruiser entered service just over a year later on 21 December 1932.[2] Pola participated in a naval review in the Gulf of Naples, where she hosted Italy's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini, on 6–7 July 1933. On 29 July 1934 she was formally given her battle flag in a ceremony in her namesake city. On 3 September 1936 she left Gaeta, bound for Spanish waters; she thereafter began a non-intervention patrol during the Spanish Civil War. From 10 September to 3 October, she was stationed in Palma de Mallorca to safeguard Italian interests there. Pola returned to Gaeta on 4 October.

Pola went on a short cruise to Italian Libya on 10–12 March 1937, with Mussolini and Prince Luigi Amedeo aboard. On 7 June, she took part in a naval review in the Gulf of Naples held for the visiting German Field Marshal Werner von Blomberg. Another review took place on 5 May 1938 when the German dictator Adolf Hitler made a state visit to Italy. On 7 March 1939, Pola and her sisterships sortied from Taranto to intercept a squadron of Republican warships—three cruisers and eight destroyers—attempting to reach the Black Sea. The Italian ships were ordered not to open fire but merely to try to impede the progress of the Spanish ships and force them to dock at Augusta, Sicily. The Spanish commander refused and instead steamed to Bizerte in French Tunisia, where his ships were interned. The next month, on 7–9 April, Pola provided gunfire support to Italian forces occupying Albania.

World War II
At Italy's entrance into the Second World War on 10 June 1940, Pola was assigned as the flagship of Admiral Riccardo Paladini, commander of the 2nd Squadron, which also included the three Trento-class cruisers in the 2nd Division, three light cruisers in the 7th Division, and seventeen destroyers. Pola's first wartime operation was to cover a group of minelayers on the night of 10–11 June. She refueled at Messina and departed on 12 June, along with the rest of the 2nd Squadron and the 1st Squadron. The ships sortied in response to British attacks on Italian positions in Libya. On 6 July, Polaand the rest of the 2nd Squadron escorted a convoy bound for North Africa; the following day, Italian reconnaissance reported a British cruiser squadron to have arrived in Malta. The Italian naval high command therefore ordered several other cruisers and destroyers from the 1st Squadron to join the escort for the convoy. The battleships Conte di Cavour and Giulio Cesare provided distant support. Two days later, the Italian battleships briefly clashed with the British Mediterranean Fleet in an inconclusive action off Calabria. During the action, Pola engaged British cruisers but neither side scored any hits. From 30 July to 1 August, Pola, Trento, and Gorizia escorted a convoy to Libya. On 16 August she conducted live fire training off Naples, and at the end of the month she was transferred from Naples to Taranto.

In late September, the Italian fleet, including Pola, made a sweep for a British troop convoy from Alexandria to Malta, but it made no contact with the British ships. On 1 November, Mussolini visited the ship in Taranto. Pola was present in the harbor at Taranto when the British fleet launched the nighttime carrier strike on Taranto on the night of 11–12 November, but she was not attacked in the raid. She and the rest of the fleet left for Naples the following morning. Another attempt to intercept a British convoy in late November resulted in the Battle of Cape Spartivento. The Italian fleet left port on 26 November and while en route to the British fleet, Pola and the battleship Vittorio Veneto were attacked by Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier HMS Ark Royal, but both ships evaded the torpedoes. The two fleets then clashed in an engagement that lasted for about an hour. According to some sources, the two 203 mm hits on the British cruiser HMS Berwick which disabled one of her main battery turrets were fired by Pola. Other authors state instead that Berwick was actually damaged by the main guns of Pola's sister, the heavy cruiser Fiume. Admiral Inigo Campioni broke off the action because he mistakenly believed he was facing a superior force, the result of poor aerial reconnaissance.

The Italian fleet was reorganized on 9 December, and Pola joined her three sister ships in the 3rd Division of the 1st Squadron, which was now commanded by Admiral Angelo Iachino. On 14 December, a British air raid on Naples slightly damaged Pola. Two bombs hit the ship, both amidships on the port side. The hits damaged three of the ship's boilers and caused significant flooding and a significant list to port. Pola was drydocked on 16 December for repair work that lasted until 7 February 1941. She returned to Taranto on 13 February, and she joined Zara and Fiume for extensive maneuvers off Taranto on 11–17 March. A nighttime training operation followed on 23–24 March.

Battle of Cape Matapan

Map of the movements of the Italian and British fleets during the Battle of Cape Matapan

The Italian fleet made another attempt to intercept a British convoy in the eastern Mediterranean south of Crete in late March. This operation resulted in the Battle of Cape Matapan on 27–29 March. For most of the daytime engagement, Pola and the rest of the 3rd Division were stationed on the disengaged side of the Italian fleet, and so did not see action during this phase. Vittorio Veneto was torpedoed by British aircraft from the carrier Formidable and was forced to withdraw, and the 3rd Division remained on the port side of the Italian fleet to screen against another possible British attack. A second British airstrike later in the day failed to locate the retiring Vittorio Veneto and instead scored a single torpedo strike on Pola, hitting her amidships on her starboard side. In the confusion of the attack, Pola had nearly collided with Fiume and had been forced to stop, which had prevented her from taking evasive action. The damage filled three compartments with water and disabled five of her boilers and the main steam line that fed the turbines, leaving her immobilized and unable to use her main guns due to the loss of all power, that made it impossible to move the turrets.

Iachino was unaware of Pola's plight until 20:10 on 28 March; upon learning of the situation he detached Fiume, Zara, and four destroyers to protect Pola. At around the same time, the British cruiser HMS Orion detected Pola on her radar and reported her location. The British fleet, centered on the battleships Valiant, Warspite, and Barham, was at this point only 50 nmi (93 km; 58 mi) away. The British ships, guided by radar, closed in on the Italians; at 22:10, Pola was about 6 nautical miles (11 km; 6.9 mi) from Valiant. Lookouts on the crippled Italian cruiser spotted shapes approaching and assumed them to be friendly vessels, so they fired a red flare to guide them. Almost twenty minutes later, the British illuminated first Zara and then Fiume with their searchlights; the British battleships obliterated Fiume, Zara, and two destroyers in a point-blank engagement.

Pola initially was left alone during the action, and her captain, assuming that his ship would be the next target (and unable to return fire), ordered his crew to open the seacocks and abandon ship. About ten minutes after midnight, the destroyer Havockdiscovered Pola, still without power, in the darkness. A flotilla of British destroyers rushed to the scene, first discovering the abandoned Zara, which was still afloat; she was torpedoed and sunk by the destroyer Jervis. After picking up survivors, the destroyers joined Havock and a boarding party was prepared to take Pola, though it was discovered that most of her crew had jumped into the water, and the remaining men were huddled on the forecastle, ready to surrender. Jervis took off the surviving 22 officers and 236 enlisted men from Pola. Then the destroyer HMS Nubian torpedoed the ship while Jervis illuminated her with her searchlights. Pola's magazines exploded and she sank at 04:03 on 29 March. A total of 328 men went down with the ship. Pola was formally stricken from the naval register on 18 October 1946.



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 5 December


1492 – Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

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


1813 - During the War of 1812, the frigate Congress captures the British brig Atlantic in the North Atlantic. Also on this date USS President captures schooner Comet off New York.

USS Congress was a nominally rated 38-gun wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy. She was named by George Washington to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. James Hackett built her in Portsmouth New Hampshire and she was launched on 15 August 1799. She was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so Congress and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than the standard frigates of the period.


Sail Plan of the USS Congress (1799) by sailmaker Charles Ware.

Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to defeat the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War. During the War of 1812 she made several extended length cruises in company with her sister ship President and captured, or assisted in the capture of twenty British merchant ships. At the end of 1813, due to a lack of materials to repair her, she was placed in ordinary for the remainder of the war. In 1815 she returned to service for the Second Barbary War and made patrols through 1816. In the 1820s she helped suppress piracy in the West Indies, made several voyages to South America, and was the first U.S. warship to visit China. Congress spent her last ten years of service as a receiving ship until ordered broken up in 1834.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Congress_(1799)


1859 – Birth of Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe,

Admiral of the Fleet John Rushworth Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, GCB, OM, GCVO, SGM, DL (5 December 1859 – 20 November 1935) was a Royal Navy officer. He fought in the Anglo-Egyptian War and the Boxer Rebellion and commanded the Grand Fleet at the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 during the First World War. His handling of the fleet at that battle was controversial. Jellicoe made no serious mistakes and the German High Seas Fleet retreated to port, at a time when defeat would have been catastrophic for Britain, but the public was disappointed that the Royal Navy had not won a more dramatic victory. Jellicoe later served as First Sea Lord, overseeing the expansion of the Naval Staff at the Admiralty and the introduction of convoys, but was relieved at the end of 1917. He also served as the Governor-General of New Zealand in the early 1920s.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jellicoe,_1st_Earl_Jellicoe


1862 - During the Civil War, boats from the gunboat Mahaska and the converted tug General Putnam capture and destroy several fine Confederate boats, a schooner and two sloops in branches of Severn River, Md., and bring back schooners Seven Brothers and Galena.

The first USS Mahaska was a wooden, double-ender, sidewheel steamer of the third rate in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. She was named for Ioway Chief Mahaska.

Mahaska was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, for $130,001.68; launched 10 December 1861 and commissioned 5 May 1862, Lt. Norman H. Farquhar in command.


"The Gun-boats 'Galena' and 'Mahaska' shelling the Rebels at Harrison's Landing, July 1, 1862"

Mahaska sailed from Portsmouth 15 May 1862, reporting shortly thereafter for duty in the rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay. On 20 June she engaged the Confederate batteries along the Appomattox River and on 1 November destroyed entrenchments at West Point, Virginia. Continuing her patrols into the next year, she captured the schooner General Taylor in Chesapeake Bay 20 February 1863. Moving south later in the year, she joined in the blockade of Charleston and participated in the attacks on the forts and batteries in that harbor: Fort Wagner, 8 and 18 August; Morris Island, 13 to 17, and 20 August; and Fort Sumter, 21 August 1863. The following year she took part in the joint expedition against Jacksonville, Florida, 5 February to 4 April, remaining on picket and patrol duty in the St. Johns River until 16 August when she returned to Charleston, South Carolina. She then steamed north to Boston, Massachusetts for overhaul.

Overhaul completed 16 January 1865, Mahaska returned to Florida waters, capturing the schooner Delia, near Bayport, 17 February. After the end of the Civil War, the steamer continued to cruise in southern waters until decommissioned at New Orleans, Louisiana on 12 September 1868. She was sold 20 November 1868 to John Dole of Boston.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Mahaska_(1861)


1941 - USS Lexington (CV 2) sails with Task Force 12 to ferry Marine aircraft to Midway, leaving no carriers at Pearl Harbor. Previously, on Nov. 28, USS Enterprise (CV 6) sails from Pearl Harbor for Wake Island to ferry Marine aircraft to island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2)


1942 - USS Erie (PG-50) was the lead ship of the Erie-class gunboats of the United States Navy Capsized during attempted salvage, 5 December 1942

USS Erie (PG-50) was the lead ship of the Erie-class gunboats of the United States Navy. Erie was the second US Navy ship to bear the name. The first, Erie, was named after Lake Erie, while this Erie followed the US Navy naming practices of gunboats, like cruisers, being named after US cities.


Starboard bow aerial view view of USS Erie underway in May 1940.

Erie protected US interests during the Spanish Civil War, operated as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy, and was a convoy escort ship during World War II. She operated in the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and Caribbean Sea until torpedoed and fatally damaged by U-163, off Curaçao, in 1942.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Erie_(PG-50)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Caribbean

 

[Jimsky]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 December 1904 - During the Siege of Port Arthur - Entire russian fleet was lost - Part II - The russian ships


The Russian battleship Poltava (Russian: Полтава) was one of three Petropavlovsk-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron shortly after completion and based at Port Arthur from 1901. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was heavily damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea. She was sunk by Japanese artillery during the subsequent Siege of Port Arthur in December 1904, but was raised by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) after the war and renamed Tango (丹後).

View attachment 66162

View attachment 66165
A Japanese postcard showing Poltava partially submerged at Port Arthur

During World War I, she bombarded German fortifications during the Siege of Tsingtao. The Japanese government sold Tango back to the Russians at their request in 1916. She was renamed Chesma (Чесма) as her former name had been given to a new ship. En route to the White Sea, she joined an Allied force that persuaded the Greek government to disarm their ships. Her crew declared for the Bolsheviks in October 1917, but made no effort to resist when the British decided to intervene in the Russian Civil War in early 1918. In poor condition, the ship was used as a prison hulk. Abandoned by the British when they withdrew in 1919 and recaptured by the Bolsheviks, she was scrapped in 1924.


Retvizan (Russian: Ретвизан) was a pre-dreadnought battleship built before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built by the American William Cramp & Sons because Russian shipyards were already at full capacity. Named after a Swedish ship of the line that was captured during the battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790 (Swedish: Rättvisan, meaning both fairness and justice), Retvizan was briefly assigned to the Baltic Fleet, but was transferred to the Far East in 1902.

View attachment 66163
Retvizan in the Delaware River, 1902

The ship was torpedoed during the Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur during the night of 8/9 February 1904 and grounded in the harbour entrance when she attempted to take refuge inside, as her draft had significantly deepened from the amount of water she had taken aboard after the torpedo hit. She was refloated and repaired in time to join the rest of the 1st Pacific Squadron when they attempted to reach Vladivostok through the Japanese blockade on 10 August. The Japanese battle fleet engaged them again in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, forcing most of the Russian ships to return to Port Arthur after their squadron commander was killed and his flagship damaged. Retvizan was sunk by Japanese howitzers in December after the Japanese gained control of the heights around the harbour.

View attachment 66164
Retvizan sunk in Port Arthur

The Japanese raised and repaired Retvizan after Port Arthur surrendered in January 1905. She was commissioned into the Imperial Japanese Navy as Hizen (肥前) in 1908. Based in Sasebo when the Japanese declared war on Germany in 1914, the ship was sent to reinforce the weak British squadron off British Columbia, but diverted to Hawaii after reports of a German gunboat there. Hizen was unsuccessfully sent to search for other German ships after the Americans interned the gunboat in November. After World War I she supported the Japanese intervention in the Russian Civil War and was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty. The ship was sunk as a gunnery target in 1924.


Pobeda (Russian: Победа, lit. 'Victory') was the last of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was assigned to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, she participated in the battles of Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea. Having escaped serious damage in these engagements, Pobeda was sunk by gunfire during the Siege of Port Arthur, and then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service under the name Suwo (周防).

View attachment 66166
Imperial Russian Ironclad warship Pobeda in Port Arthur.

View attachment 66167
Pobeda (right) and the protected cruiser Pallada sunk in Port Arthur

Rearmed and re-boilered by the Japanese, Suwo was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a coastal defense ship in 1908 and served as a training ship for several years. She was the flagship of the Japanese squadron that participated in the Battle of Tsingtao at the beginning of World War I and continued in that role until she became a gunnery training ship in 1917. The ship was disarmed in 1922 to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and probably scrapped around that time.


Peresvet (Russian: Пересвет) was the lead ship of the three Peresvet-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy at the end of the nineteenth century. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Squadron upon completion and based at Port Arthur from 1903. During the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, she participated in the Battle of Port Arthur and was seriously damaged during the Battle of the Yellow Sea and again in the Siege of Port Arthur. The ship was scuttled before the Russians surrendered, then salvaged by the Japanese and placed into service with the name Sagami (相模).

View attachment 66168
Imperial Russian battleship Peresvet in Toulon, 1901.

View attachment 66169
Peresvet after having been scuttled

Partially rearmed, Sagami was reclassified by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) as a coastal defense ship in 1912. In 1916, the Japanese sold her to the Russians, their allies since the beginning of World War I. En route to the White Sea in early 1917, she sank off Port Said, Egypt, after striking mines laid by a German submarine.


Pallada was the lead ship in the Pallada class of protected cruisers in the Imperial Russian Navy. She was built in the Admiralty Shipyard at Saint Petersburg, Russia. The new class was a major improvement on previous Russian cruisers, although the armor protection was light.

View attachment 66170
Pallada circa 1903

View attachment 66171
Pallada sunk at Port Arthur


The cruiser Bayan (Russian: Баян) was the name ship of the four Bayan-class armoured cruisers built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. The ship had to be built in France because there was no available capacity in Russia. Bayan was assigned to the First Pacific Squadron after completion and based at Port Arthur from the end of 1903. She suffered minor damage during the Battle of Port Arthur at the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and supported destroyers as they patrolled outside the harbour. After bombarding Japanese positions in July 1904, the ship struck a mine and was out of action for the next several months. Bayan was sunk during the Siege of Port Arthur and was then salvaged by the Japanese after the war.

View attachment 66172
Imperial Russian Armoured cruiser Bayan (I) in Kronstadt, summer 1903.

Renamed Aso by the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) she served as a training ship after extensive repairs. The ship was converted into a minelayer in 1917 and was decommissioned in 1930 to serve as a target ship. She was eventually sunk as a target in 1932.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Poltava_(1894)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Retvizan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Pobeda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_battleship_Peresvet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Pallada_(1899)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_cruiser_Bayan_(1900)

A really good manufacture of Russian imperial ships kits: http://combrig-models.com/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1667 – Launch of HMS Resolution, a 70-gun Third rate ship of the line


HMS Resolution was a 70-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Harwich Dockyard on 6 December 1667. She was one of only three third rate vessels designed and built by the noted maritime architect Sir Anthony Deane.


In the foreground is the 'Resolution', in port-quarter view, close-hauled on the port tack. Her topsails are neatly furled, she has a Union flag at the main and flies a red ensign. 'Resolution' was one of the first of the 70-gun two-deckers, built at Harwich in 1667 and rebuilt in 1698. She was flagship of Sir Thomas Allin in 1668-70, the Union at the main signifying his role at that time as 'Admiral of a Fleet to the Streights' (of Gibraltar), or, in more familiar terms, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean. His fleet consisted of three third-rates, eleven fourth-rates and four fifth-rates, with three fire-ships, two ketches and a storeship. As Vice-Admiral he had Sir Edward Spragge in the 'Revenge' and, as Rear-Admiral, Sir John Harman in the 'St David' - who both operated separately on occasions in their continuing war to protect English merchant shipping against Barbary pirates. The picture is therefore presumably a commission from Allin and was done from several drawings the artist made of the subject. It may be based on Allin's reminiscence of a storm on 14 December 1669, of which he gives a brief account in his journal (also in the National Maritime Museum but edited by R.C. Anderson for the Navy Records Society; 2 vols., 1939-40). Close ahead of the 'Resolution' is another two-decker with a common pendant at the masthead but no ensign or jack. The artist was younger son of Willem van de Velde the Elder. Born in Leiden, he studied under Simon de Vlieger in Weesp and in 1652 moved back to Amsterdam. He worked in his father's studio and developed the skill of carefully drawing ships in tranquil settings. He changed his subject matter, however, when he came with his father to England in 1672-73, by a greater concentration on royal yachts, men-of-war and storm scenes. From this time painting sea battles for Charles II and his brother (and Lord High Admiral) James, Duke of York, and other patrons, became a priority. Unlike his father's works, however, they were not usually eyewitness accounts. After his father's death in 1693 his continuing role as an official marine painter obliged him to be more frequently present at significant maritime events. The painting is signed 'W.V.Velde J'.

General characteristics as built
Class and type: 70-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 902 (bm)
Length: 148 ft 2 in (45.16 m) (gundeck); 120 ft 6 in (36.73 m) (keel)
Beam: 37 ft 2 in (11.33 m) ; after girdling 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 70 guns of various weights of shot (68 guns by 1685)
at 1677
Broadside Weight = 619 Imperial Pound ( 280.7169 kg)
Lower Gun Deck 26 British Demi-Cannon
Upper Gun Deck 26 British 12-Pounder
Quarterdeck/Forecastle 16 British Saker
Roundhouse 2 British 3-Pounder
at 1685
Broadside Weight = 581.5 Imperial Pound ( 263.7107 kg)
Gun Deck 22 British Demi-Cannon
Gun Deck 4 British Culverin
Gun Deck 24 British 12-Pounder
Gun Deck 18 British Saker

General characteristics after 1698 rebuild
Class and type: 70-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 88537⁄94 bm
Length: 148 ft 2 in (45.16 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 37 ft 6 in (11.43 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 9 in (4.80 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 70 guns of various weights of shot


History
Resolution served as the flagship in an expedition against the Barbary Corsairs in 1669 and took part in the unsuccessful attack on the Dutch Smyrna convoy, which resulted in the Third Dutch War. She was later girdled, which increased her breadth slightly, and underwent a rebuilding in 1698 - although this limited reconstruction did not involve taking her hull to pieces. She was lost in 1703.

By 1685, Resolution was only armed with 68 guns. She was relaunched after a rebuild at Chatham Dockyard by master Robert Lee on 30 April 1698, as a 70-gun ship once more.


Portrait of the ‘Resolution’, third rate built in 1667, 32 guns; she was wrecked in 1692. She is viewed from the starboard bow. Drawn high out of the water. There is another drawing in the NMM of the ‘Resolution’ viewed from abaft the port beam (PAH3916).


The ‘Resolution’ shown from abaft the port beam with, on the broadside, twelve guns on the gun deck, eleven on the upper deck, six on the quarterdeck and one on the poop. There are wreathed ports on the upper deck, while on the quarterdeck the two aftermost have square decoration; the remainder are wreathed. The drawing is signed ‘W.V.V.J.’, and inscribed in the top and bottom right in pencil ‘resolue’ and in brown ink, ‘1676’. It was used for the younger van de Velde’s painting now called ‘The ‘Resolution’ in a gale’ (NMM BHC3582), showing her as the flagship of Sir Thomas Allin as Commander-in-Chief in the Mediterrannean, in 1668–69. In the NMM Ingram Collection (PAG6239) there is also a portrait of the ‘Resolution’ dated 1676, viewed from the starboard bow.

Service History 1667 - 1696
1668 Completed at Harwich Dockyard at a cost of £7965.0.0d
1669 To the Mediterranean
13.3.1671/72 Battle of Smyrna Convoy
28.5.1672 Battle of Solebay
28.5.1673 First Battle of Schooneveld
6.1673 Returned home before the Second Battle of Schooneveld
11.8.1673 Battle of Texel
1685 Refitted as a 68 gun Third Rate
19.5.1692 Battle of Barfleur
2.6.1692 Battle of La Hogue
1693 To the West Indies
1695 Convoy to Ireland
25.9.1695 Home to pay off
3.1695/96 Blockade of Dunkirk
25.9.1696 Returned home to pay off

Service History after rebuilt 1698 - 1703
13.3.1702/3 Sailed for the West Indies
5.6.1703 Arrived at Jamaica
2.8.1703 Arrived at Newfoundland
22.10.1703 Arrived at the Downs
27.11.1703 Run ashore off Pevensey to avoid foundering in the "Great Storm", there was no loss of life

Sinking
In the Great Storm of 1703 in Pevensey Bay, East Sussex she hit the Owers Bank off Littlehampton before the crew could even get up sail, then blown across the Solent, limping on around Beachy Head. With the ship seriously flooded her Captain, Thomas Liell, tried un-successfully to beach her in Pevensey Bay, but the crew had to abandon ship and all made it ashore.

Wreck
In April 2005, a well-preserved wreck believed to be hers was discovered by 3 divers attempting to recover a tangled-up lobster pot 1½ miles offshore and 9 metres below sea level, at approximately 50°48′10″N 0°24′38″ECoordinates:

50°48′10″N 0°24′38″E. It was only when a 12 ft anchor appeared that Paul Stratford, Martin Wiltshire, and Steve Paice then found dozens of cast iron cannon around a timber hull. The discovery was kept secret whilst a preliminary survey by Wessex Archaeology was carried out at the site and whilst discussions were carried out as to how best to protect it. This found at least 45 large cannon, along with a ballast mound surrounded by wooden ribs and planking protruding from a seabed of sand and silt. These all seemed to be from a large warship dating between 1600 and 1800 which is 'likely' to be Resolution.

The site was then in May 2006 made public and given official protection under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973, banning unauthorised diving within 100m, by culture Minister David Lammy[3] Martin Wiltshire & Steve Paice allowed Paul Stratford take on the responsibilities of licensee applicant.[4] Ian Oxley, head of maritime archaeology at English Heritage, called the ship 'a crucial part of England's seafaring heritage'. One of the divers, Mr Paul Stratford, 41, who had only been diving for four years, said they were 'very proud' of their find and added:

'It was unbelievable. We went down there expecting to get some fishing junk and found a huge anchor. Visibility was poor but we kept finding cannon after cannon. We have been fishing and then diving in this area since we were kids, so were astonished to find this in our bay. It feeds your imagination about what else might be down there.​

'Many people dive for years hoping to find something like this, but we really stumbled upon it. We've been diving for four or five years and fished here as well, and to find this on our own doorstep is unbelievable. There is the anchor, some cannon, a large area of brickwork which is believed to be the galley area, but the site hasn't been dug up or disturbed at the moment. We've only been recording what's down there. We've been working closely with English Heritage and the Nautical Archaeology Society in Portsmouth.​

'It was obvious once we came across it that it was a big war ship. It had to be because of the number of guns there. The lack of any steel made us realise that we were dealing with a timber ship and very soon afterwards we found the hull structure. We believe it is the HMS Resolution. We can't be certain until we can find something so that we can date it. But with all the information pulled in for us, it looks most likely that it is the Resolution.'​

If the wreck does prove to be HMS Resolution, it is already owned by the Nautical Museums Trust in Hastings, which bought rights to the yet-to-be-found vessel from the MoD in 1985. Their representative, Adrian Barak, said,

'This is a hugely significant find. We can't say it is definitely Resolution but it is almost the exact right place. It is remarkable that this wreck hadn't been discovered before. It may be that the seabed was moved by winter storms which uncovered it.'​

For now the 3 divers (who are in 2006 taking NAS Training courses up to Part III, which will equip them to carry out sophisticated survey work) have been appointed as the site's joint licensees and will oversee maintenance, survey and any excavation, in partnership with Wessex Archaeology and with involvement from the Nautical Archaeology Society. In relation to this the divers have said:

'We are meeting soon with them, Wessex and English Heritage to discuss the way forward. For one thing, we are in need of project funding to support survey and possible sampling work that might lead to a positive identification.'​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolution_(1667)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=6171
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=175

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1743 – Launch of French Alcide, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy,


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


Capture of the French ships Alcide and Lys in 1755 off Louisbourg by Boscawen's squadron.
On the belief that the French were preparing to build up their military presence in America, in April 1755 an English naval squadron was despatched to America. The aim was to catch the French fleet in a net of British war ships. In charge was Admiral Boscawen who, having received his orders, got his fleet of 14 ships underway, followed soon afterwards by seven more ships under Admiral Holbourne. By the end of May, 1755, a British war fleet was cruising between the southern coast of Newfoundland and the northern coast of Cape Breton. At the same time, after a considerable delay the French fleet left Brest on 3 May, 1755. Aboard were 3,000 troops, with Admiral de la Motte in charge of the French fleet which had been dispatched with provisions for the French colonies in North America. In foggy conditions off the Newfoundland Banks, four French warships of de la Motte’s fleet became separated from their fleet and were sighted on 6 June and chased. They played hide and seek in the fog until two of them were brought to action and taken. A third that had been sighted and chased and escaped in the fog. Even though war was not officially declared, Boscawen had been ordered to attack any French squadron he met. The French ‘Alcide’ and ‘Lys’ were captured which resulted in the first shots of the Seven Years War, 1756-1763. In the foreground of this contemporary painting, the ‘Defiance’, commanded by Captain Thomas Andrews is firing into the French warship the ‘Lys’, which is not replying. Between the two ships in the background can be seen the ‘Dunkirk’ commanded by Captain the Hon. Richard Howe and the ‘Alcide’ commanded by Captain de Hocquart. On the left an English merchantman is shown coming towards the viewer.

Class and type: 64-gun third-rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1373.8 tons (1397.1 tonnes)
Length:

• 159 ft (48 m) (gundeck);
• 128 ft 4.5 in (39.129 m) (gundeck)

Beam: 44 ft 10.25 in (13.6716 m)
Depth of hold: 18 ft 2.375 in (5.54673 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 64 guns of various weights of shot


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

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



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


Mars class. Designed and built by Blaise Ollivier.

Ships in the class:
Mars 64 (launched May 1740 at Brest) – captured by the British off Ireland by HMS Nottingham (1745)´in October 1746 and added to the RN under the same name, wrecked on 25 June 1755 on a rock (now known as Mars Rock) near Halifax Harbour.
Alcide 64 (launched 6 December 1743 at Brest) – captured by the British off North America in June 1755 and added to the RN under the same name, sold 1772


In June 1746 the French sent a powerful force to re-take Louisbourg and capture Nova Scotia. A long stormy journey from Brest and disease defeated them and the third surviving commanding officer, de la Jonquiere took the remnants back to France in early October. Several ships were captured by British cruisers and one of these was the ‘Mars’ which had been driven by bad weather as far south as Martinique, where she refitted. After sailing for France she fell in with the ‘Nottingham’, commanded by Captain Philip de Saumarez, and was taken after a two hour engagement. The ‘Mars’ was very short of men through disease and lost in the engagement 12 killed and 16 wounded. The ‘Nottingham’ had three killed and 16 wounded. The two ships are shown in action in the right half of the picture. The ‘Nottingham’ is on the right and the ‘Mars’ is in the act of striking, her main-mast shot away and her main-yard shot through. The left half of the picture is plain sea and sky. The engraving after Monamy from a drawing by Swaine is so similar to this picture that they must be connected. The museum has an engraving by N. Parr after a drawing by F. Swaine and a painting by P. Monamy which bears an uncanny resemblance to this painting.


In June 1746 the French sent a powerful force to re-take Louisbourg and capture Nova Scotia. A long stormy journey from Brest and disease defeated them and the third surviving commanding officer, de la Jonquiere took the remnants back to France in early October. Several ships were captured by British cruisers and one of these was the ‘Mars’ which had been driven by bad weather as far south as Martinique, where she refitted. After sailing for France she fell in with the ‘Nottingham’, commanded by Captain Philip de Saumarez, and was taken after a two hour engagement. The ‘Mars’ was very short of men through disease and lost in the engagement 12 killed and 16 wounded. The ‘Nottingham’ had three killed and 16 wounded. The two ships are shown in action in the right half of the picture. The ‘Nottingham’ is on the right and the ‘Mars’ is in the act of striking, her main-mast shot away and her main-yard shot through. Two further vessels can be spotted in the distance. The left half of the picture is plain sea and sky. The museum has a painting (BHC0368) by Samuel Scott , possibly commissioned by Lord Anson, that has an uncanny resemblance to this engraving that they must be connected.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Alcide_(1742)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Mars_(1740)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1782 - french Solitaire, 64-gun Solitaire-class, and french brig Speedy were captured by HMS Ruby and a british squadron


Solitaire was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1774, lead ship of her class. She was captured by the Royal Navy on 6 December 1782, and commissioned as the third rate HMS Solitaire. She was sold out of the navy in 1790.

Class and type: Solitaire class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1521 tons (1545.4 tonnes)
Length: 51 metres
Beam: 13.2 metres
Draught: 6.4 metres
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• 26×24-pounder long guns
• 28×12-pounder long guns
• 10×6-pounder long guns [2

Solitaire was part of a squadron that comprised Triton, Résolue, Nymphe, and the brig '"Speedy. The French squadron sailed on 24 November from Saint-Pierre, Martinique.

On 6 December 1782, after a dark night, Solitaire, Captain de Borda, found herself in the morning close to a squadron of eight British ships under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, which was on its way from Gibraltar. The English gave chase and Solitaire sailed to delay them and give the rest of the French squadron a chance to escape.

At 12:30 and engagement developed between Solitaire and HMS Ruby. As another British vessel approached Solitaire had to strike. Speedy was captured in the same action, after a vigorous defence. In the action, her captain, Ribiers, was killed, together with a large part of her crew.

Solitaire was added to the RN under the same name, sold 1790


Solitaire class, design by Antoine Groignard developed from his Brillant design.

Solitaire 64 (launched 22 October 1774 at Brest) – Captured by the British on 6 December 1782 and added to the RN under the same name, sold 1790
Réfléchi 64 (launched 25 November 1776 at Brest) - hulked at Brest in November 1788, raséed in 1793 and renamed Turot, not mentioned thereafter.



HMS Ruby was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1776 at Woolwich.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Ruby (1776), 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Woolwich Dockyard. Signed by Nicholas Phillips [Master Shipwright, Woolwich Dockyard, 1773-1778].


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Eagle' (1774), later for 'Vigilant' (1774), and with alterations for 'America' (1777), 'Ruby' (1776), and 'Standard' (1782), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].

Class and type: Intrepid-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1369 (bm)
Length: 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
• Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
• QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
• Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

She was converted to serve as a receiving ship in 1813, and was broken up in 1821.

The British ships Ruby, 64, Captain Michael John Everitt, Aeolus (or Eolus), 32, and the sloop Jamaica, 18, were cruising off Hayti, when on 2 June 1779, in the Bay of Gonave, they fell in with the 36-gun French frigate Prudente, Captain d'Escars. Rubychased Prudente for some hours, and was much annoyed by the well-directed fire of the enemy's stern-chasers, by which Captain Everitt and a sailor lost their lives. When within easy range of Prudente, at about sunset, Ruby compelled her to strike, with the loss of two killed and three wounded. The British Navy took Prudente into service under the same name.

HMS Ruby (Capt Stanhope) sailed with the first squadron (under Capt John Blankett) to take part in the 1st British Occupation of the Cape, leaving England on 27 February 1795. There she was used on patrols and general duties but saw no action. The Battle of Muizenberg on 7th August 1795 triggered the collapse of the Dutch forces which controlled the Cape of Good Hope at the time.





The Intrepid-class ships of the line were a class of fifteen 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Williams. His design, approved on 18 December 1765, was slightly smaller than Sir Thomas Slade's contemporary Worcester class design of the same year, against which it was evaluated competitively. Following the prototype, four more ships were ordered in 1767–69, and a further ten between 1771 and 1779.


Speedy was a brig of 130 tons (bm) belonging to the British Post Office Packet Service that the French Navy captured off Barbados in July 1782 and took into service at Martinique. The Royal Navy recaptured her in December. She subsequently became a merchant vessel.

On 15 July, after having cruised for 50 days, the French 32-gun frigates Friponne, Lieutenant le Chevalier de Blachon, and Résolue, captain de Saint-Jean, captured Speedy, Swift, the four merchant vessels Spy, Adventure, Peggy, and Success, and the 10-gun privateer cutter Queen. The British ships were on their way to the Windward Islands.

Speedy, Captain Sampson Spargo, and Swift, both of 16 guns and 80 men, were Post Office packet boats. They were carrying despatches for Barbadoes, St Lucia, Antigua and Jamaica. Speedy, which had left Falmouth on 18 June, was the packet that the government was expecting to arrive in Britain with the news of the departure of the homeward-bound fleet from Jamaica. The French took Speedy and Swift into Martinique, and the rest of the prizes into Guadeloupe. At Martinique the French Navy took Speedy into service.

There is reason to believe that Speedy and Swift mistook the two French frigates for Virginia tobacco boats and chased them. (The frigates may have "marked their ports" to disguise themselves.) It is clear that if the packets had realized the two frigates were enemy frigates the packets might easily have escaped. There is also reason to believe that the packets were not in their proper latitude and were too long in company, given their destinations. Still, the government did compensate masters, owners, and crew for losses experienced as a result of enemy action.

On 6 December, however, the British recaptured Speedy off Barbados. Speedy was part of a squadron that comprised 64-gun Solitaire, Triton, Résolue, and Nymphe. The French squadron sailed on 24 November from Saint-Pierre, Martinique.

After a dark night, Solitaire, Captain Jean-Charles de Borda, found herself in the morning close to a squadron of eight British ships under the command of Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, which was on its way from Gibraltar. The English gave chase and Solitaire sailed to delay them and give the rest of the French squadron a chance to escape.

Main article: action of 6 December 1782
At 12:30 an engagement developed between Solitaire and HMS Ruby. As another British vessel approached Solitaire had to strike. Speedy was captured in the same action, after a vigorous defense. In the action, her captain, Ribiers, was killed, together with a large part of her crew.

Lloyd's Register for 1789 lists the brig Speedy, of 130 tons (bm), as being of French origin, and with records dating to 1782. It lists her master as W. Messer, her owner as Passmore, and her trade as London-Lisbon. She is no longer listed in Lloyd's Register for 1789, the next issue that is available online.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_6_December_1782
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Solitaire_(1774)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Speedy_(1782)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ruby_(1776)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=ruby_1776

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1812 – Launch of French Montebello, an Océan type 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.


Montebello was an Océan type, second modified group subclass "Later Dauphin Royal" class, 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was launched in 1812 and refitted in 1821.


French ship of the line Montebello, circa 1850.

Class and type: Océan class ship of the line
Displacement: 2 700 tonnes burthen
Length: 65.18 m (213.8 ft) (196,6 French feet)
Beam: 16.24 m (53.3 ft) (50 French feet)
Draught: 8.12 m (26.6 ft) (25 French feet)
Propulsion:

• sail, 3 265 m²
• 140 shp steam engine (from 1851)

Complement: 1 079 men
Armament:

• Rated as 120-gun:
• lower deck: 32 36-pounder guns
• middle deck: 34 24-pounder guns
• upper deck: 34 18-pounder guns
• forecastle: 18 8-pounder guns, 6 36-pounder carronades

Career
On 31 October 1836, she was driven ashore at the Grosse Tour, Toulon. She was subsequently refloated.

In 1851, she was refitted to receive a 140 shp (100 kW) steam engine. During trials, performance under sail was poor, probably because of the propeller which increased the drag.

She took part in the Crimean war as admiral Armand Joseph Bruat's flagship, in June 1854. An epidemic of cholera affected 300 sailors aboard, of whom 120 died, including Bruat.


Portrait of Montebello, by François Roux

On 5 March 1855 she took part in the siege of Siege of Sevastopol, then in the expedition to Kerch and in the Battle of Kinburn.

In 1860 Montebello replaced Suffren at Toulon as a school-ship for gunnery, and in 1867, she was used as a floating barracks. She was scrapped in 1889.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Montebello_(1812)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1842 – Launch of Corse, initially named Napoléon before its second commission, a sail and steam experimental schooner


Corse, initially named Napoléon before its second commission, was a sail and steam experimental schooner, initially commissioned as a mail steamer. Largely overperforming her specifications and an excellent sailor, she was purchased by the Navy and commissioned to serve as an aviso, becoming the first propeller ship in service in the French Navy. She took part in the Crimean War and ferried Prince Napoléon to Iceland in 1856. She was eventually broken up in 1902.


Scale model of the steam schooner Napoléon, later Corse, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris

Displacement: 376 tonnes
Length: 47 m (154.2 ft)
Beam: 8.5 m (27.9 ft)
Draught: 3.6 m (11.8 ft)
Propulsion: Sail and 120 hp (89 kW) Barnes steam engine
Sail plan: Schooner
Speed: 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Armament: 2 to 4 guns


Career
Napoléon was designed as a mail steamer, one of the first in France to use propellers. She was a joint venture by engineer Frédéric Sauvage, one of the inventors of the screw propeller, and shipbuilder Augustin Normand, who provided the shipbulding facilities and insisted for a propeller with several blades. As the Navy was initially uninterested in a steam and sail propeller ship, Normand demarched the Ministry of Finance, who agreed to commission Napoléon as a mail steamer under the condition that she would reach a speed of 8 knots; during her trials, Napoléon maintained an average speed or 9.7 knots and reached 12, largely exceeding ministerial specifications.


Die Goëlette Napoléon

Napoléon was used as a postal shuttle between Marseille and Ajaccio between 1842 and 1850.

In November 1850, she was purchased by the Navy, renamed Corse on 28 December, and commissioned as an aviso in Toulon in January 1851, becoming the first screw-propelled unit commissioned in the French Navy. She departed Toulon on 30 January 1850 for her new station in Brest, which she reached on 17 February. She served in the Littoral English Channel naval division, towing Basilic from Le Havre to Cherbourg on 26 April 1852, and Serpent two days later.

In 1854, Corse took part in the Crimean War as a troopship. Two years later, she ferried Prince Napoléon to Iceland.

In 1863, Corse was transferred from the Channel to the Mediterranean and affected to the Training squadron. In 1873 she was transferred to the Bosphorus naval station, and from 1879 was aprt of the Mediterranean squadron.

Corse was struck on 31 December 1890 and used as a coal store hulk, before being broken up in 1902.


Längendurchschnitt der Goëlette Napoléon


Obere Ansicht des Verdeckes der Goëlette Napoléon


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 December 1862 – Launch of USS Keokuk, an experimental ironclad screw steamer


USS Keokuk was an experimental ironclad screw steamer of the United States Navy named for the city of Keokuk, Iowa. She was laid down in New York City by designer Charles W. Whitney at J.S. Underhill Shipbuilders, at the head of 11th Street. She was originally named Moodna (sometimes incorrectly spelled "Woodna"), but was renamed while under construction, launched in December 1862 sponsored by Mrs. C. W. Whitney, wife of the builder, and commissioned in early March 1863 with Commander Alexander C. Rhind in command.


USS Keokuk in the ways

Design
Keokuk was one of the first warships to be of completely iron construction, with wood used only for deck planks and filler in the armor cladding. Her hull construction consisted of five iron box keelsons and one hundred 1-inch-thick (some sources report the thickness as 3/4 inch) by 4-inch-deep iron frames spaced 18 inches between centers. The frames included integral iron cross beams for the decks, with no transverse wood timbers as used on the Monitor. Her bow and stern sections were flooding spaces to allow raising and lowering her waterline.

Her two stationary, conical gun towers, each pierced with three gun ports, housed one 11-inch Dahlgren shell gun each on a shortened and rounded rotating wooden slide carriage (the tower shape often causing her to be mistaken for a double-turreted monitor). Her tower and casemate armor was made up from 1-inch-thick by 4-inch-deep horizontal iron bars alternating with planks of yellow pine of the same dimensions, sheathed with layers of overlapping, flush-bolted 1⁄2-inch rolled iron plates. A total thickness of this composite armor, including the hull skin proper, was 5.75 inches (146 mm). The deck was made of 5-inch wood planks overlaid with 1⁄2-inch-thick iron plate. She had two twin-cylinder main propulsion engines, each 250 hp. In total, Keokuk had nine steam engines providing power to various systems.






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