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
17 January 1640 - Action of 12–17 January 1640 - Battle of Itacamara (Battle of Pernambuco)
Ending of a 5 day naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War.


The Action of 12–17 January 1640 was a naval battle between a Dutch fleet and a combined Spanish-Portuguese fleet during the Eighty Years' War. The battle took place on the Brazilian coast off Pernambuco and was an attempt by a fleet consisting of approximately eighty vessels transporting about 5,000 soldiers under the command of Portuguese Admiral Fernando de Mascarenhas to land reinforcements to bolster the Portuguese militia besieging the city of Recife. On 12 January this fleet was intercepted by a Dutch task force of about forty ships commanded by Willem Loos. The ensuing battle lasted with occasional breaks until the evening of 17 January, when the Spanish and Portuguese fleet retreated and sailed away to the north.



Background
About 30 Spanish and Portuguese vessels under Admiral don Lope de Hoces arrived off the Dutch Brazil in November 1635. Although the fleet failed to overrun Pernambuco, supplies and 2,500 Spanish, Portuguese, and Neapolitan reinforcements were successfully landed at the Lagunas under General Luis de Rojas. The Dutch vessels in the area were driven off and De Hoces spent some months escorting a sugar convoy to the Spanish Main and preparing a counter-invasion of the Dutch-held island of Curaçao which was finally abandoned because the siege train was lost in a wreck. The expedition was seen as success in Spain, however, because the landed troops greatly contributed to defeat John Maurits of Nassau's attack over Bahia. Another expedition was planned at Hoces'a arrival to retake the Dutch base of Pernambuco.


View of the city of Mauricia (Recife), based on a drawing from Frans Post, 1645

The command of this expedition would be entrusted to Miguel de Noronha, 4th Count of Linhares, for which he was appointed Capitán General del Mar Océano, but he eventually declined to lead the fleet as he did not trust in the success of the expedition. García Álvarez de Toledo, 6th Marquis of Villafranca also rejected its command, but not the Count of Torre, Dom Fernando de Mascarenhas, former Portuguese governor of Tangier. The same day that the French siege of Hondarribia was lifted, he was given the command of 41 ships, of which 23 were Portuguese and were commanded by Admiral Dom Francisco Melo de Castro and Vice Adm. Dom Cosme Couto de Barbosa, and 18 were Castilian under Admiral Juan de la Vega y Bazán and Vice Adm. Francisco Díaz de Pimienta. 5,000 soldiers of infantry were embarked aboard this ships. Half of them were of the Tercio de Anfibios, a unit specialized in the naval fighting.

The fleet stopped at the islands of Cape Verde, where an epidemic struck the crews of the ships, resulting in the death of 3,000 men and a number plus larger of incapacitated at the arrival of the fleet to Salvador da Bahia. Mascarenhas, ignoring his orders for an immediate assault upon Recife, spent about a year in the town before set sail again, which was done in January 1640 with the intention of land 1,200 soldiers under Luís Barbalho Bezerra to reinforce the Portuguese guerrilla surrounding the Dutch garrison of Pernambuco.

Battle


Map of Paraíba and Rio Grande do Norte, 1643, by Frans Post

A Dutch fleet of 36 ships under Admiral Willem Corneliszoon Loos and Vice Adm. Jacob Huygens emerged from Recife and intercepted the Spanish-Portuguese fleet between Itamaracá and Goiana on 12 January, before any attempt of disembarkation could be effected. The battle degenerated in a confused melee in which Loos lost 2 of his vessels, while Loos himself was killed aboard his flagship while confronting Mascarenhas flagship. Some Dutch ships managed to approach and disengage it from the Spanish flagship, but the vessel sank, taking down the admiral. Another Dutch ship, the Alemar, was riddled by the Spanish guns and nearly sank, being unable to continue the pursuit.

Vice Adm. Huygens,now aboard Loos' former flagship the Faam, continued the chase and the action was resumed the following day between Goiana and Cabo Branco. The Dutch fought a long-range battle using their superior artillery, but the only ship lost that day was the Dutch Soleil Brillant, badly damaged and sank with its commander and 44 soldiers. On 14 January Huygens renewed the attack off Paraíba. The Portuguese galleon of Capt. António da Cunha Andrade was captured, and another Spanish vessel of the Squadron of Castile ran aground and was boarded while fighting the Dutch Zwaan. Its crew under the Neapolitan Colonel Ettore della Calce was taken prisoner. The Dutch Zwaan, under Rear Admiral Aldrichsz, lost its mainmast and, washed away, ran aground on the coast.

Compelled to sail northwest, the Spanish-Portuguese fleet arrived before Rio Grande closely followed by the Dutch. The lack of wind prevented both fleets from attack each other until 17 January. That day the Dutch won the windward and attacked the Spanish-Portuguese. Mascarenhas' ship was damaged, after which the Dutch fleet abandoned the pursuit and the Spanish-Portuguese vessels could land the army at Cape São Roque, too far to threaten Recife. Although the battle had been largely indecisive, the Dutch objective of impeding the Spanish disembarkation near Recife was accomplished. The behavior of three captains in the battle, nevertheless, displeased the Count of Nassau, who condemned them to death "for not fulfilling his military duties in front of the galleons of Spain". Mascarenhas was also punished, being arrested upon his arrival on Spain.

Aftermath
The Dutch garrison of Recife was increased in March 1640 by 2,500 soldiers carried aboard 28 ships under Amidrals Cornelis Jol and Jan Lichthart, who was in charge of naval operations to disrupt the Portuguese sugar trade. In December Portugal revolted against the Spanish Habsburg rule, proclaiming the seventh Duke of Bragança as King João IV in place of Philip IV of Spain. Although the Dutch welcomed the news of the revolt, expecting the Portuguese to become their allies, this did not happen, as the Dutch had no wish to restore the occupied territories to Portugal. Recife served as base for an expedition under Jol and Lichthart, in 1641, to seize Portugal's slaving depots in Angola before any treaty could be concluded in Europe, and despite a ten-year truce between both countries that was signed on 12 June, the hostilities continued, resulting in the expulsion of the Dutch from Brazil in 1654.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_12–17_January_1640
http://thedutchgoldenage.nl/wars an...0 years' war after the truce (1621-1648).html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1759 – Launch of HMS Minerva, one of the four 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy


HMS Minerva was one of the four 32-gun Southampton-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1759 and served through the Seven Years' War, but was captured in 1778 during the American Revolutionary War and served as the French Minerve until being recaptured in 1781 and renamed HMS Recovery. She was broken up in 1784.




Lines & Profile (ZAZ3069)

Class and type: Southampton-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 664 24⁄94bm
Length:

• 124 ft 4 in (37.90 m) (gundeck)
• 102 ft 2.25 in (31.1468 m) (keel)

Beam: 34 ft 11.5 in (10.655 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 0 in (3.66 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 210 officers and men
Armament:

• 32 guns comprising:
• Upperdeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
• Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounder guns
• Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounder guns

Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the quarter deck, forecastle, upper deck, lower deck, and fore & aft platforms for Minerva (1759), a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate as taken off/fitted at Sheerness Dockyard. Signed by Edward Hunt [Master Shipwright, Sheerness Dockyard, 1767-1772].

Service history
The frigate was built at Rotherhithe between 1756 and 1759 and was commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Minerva during the Seven Years' War. Under the command of Captain Alexander Hood, she took part in the Battle of Quiberon Bay on 20 November 1759 In mid-1761 prize money was paid to the crews of ships taking part in the battle, and also to the crews of Intrepid and Minerva, for the capture of the St. Simon.

At daybreak on 24 January 1761 Minerva, still under the command of Captain Hood, encountered a large two-decker ship about 90 nautical miles north-west of Cabo de Peñas in northern Spain. Minerva gave chase and finally caught her at 10.20 a.m. During a brisk engagement lasting no more than 40 minutes the enemy ship lost her main and fore top-mast, while soon after Minerva lost her bowsprit and fore-mast. Both ships were obliged to break off the action to clear the wreckage, but Minerva was ready to resume the fight first and closed with the enemy again at 4 p.m., forcing her to strike her colours after an hour. She proved to be the French ship Warwick (formerly HMS Warwick, captured in 1756), a 60-gun ship, but armed with only 34 guns, under the command M. le Vegerde Belair. She had sailed from Rochfort on 20 January, bound for the Isle de France (now Mauritius) loaded with provisions, ammunition, and stores, and also transporting a detachment of 74 soldiers and six other passengers. Warwick had 14 killed and 32 wounded, while aboard Minerve 14 were killed, and 34 wounded, three of whom later died.

On 15 February 1762 at the Downs, prize money was paid to the crews of Minerva and Edgar, for the capture of the French privateer Ecureuil and the recapture of the brig Elizabeth. Prize money for the Warwick was paid from 19 July 1762 at Portsmouth.

During the American Revolutionary War Minerva was part of the West Indies Squadron under Admiral Peter Parker. On 14 August 1778 she captured the American 50-ton schooner Fanny off Hispaniola, sailing from Connecticut with a cargo of timber.

On 22 August 1778, Minerva, under the command of Captain John Stott, and unaware that France had declared war on Britain met the French 32-gun frigate Concorde, under Capitaine de Tilly. Stott, mistaking her for a harmless merchantman, approached to speak to her, but Concorde fired two broadsides into her before Minerva could reply. The British were caught off guard, and suffered further misfortune when a powder explosion under the half-deck dismounted three guns, and killed or wounded eighteen men. Captain Stott was also severely wounded in the head and was carried below. After two and a half hours, Minerva surrendered, her mizzen-mast having gone overboard and her other masts tottering, her wheel destroyed, and having lost her Captain and First Lieutenant.

She was commissioned into the French Navy as Minerve, and commanded by Nicolas Henri de Grimouard. On 4 January 1781 the 74s HMS Courageuxand Valiant recaptured her; the Royal Navy recommissioned her under the name HMS Recovery, as another HMS Minerva had been commissioned after she was lost. She was laid up in 1783 and sold the following year.


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

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

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

Ships in class

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

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


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Minerva_(1759)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southampton-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-331293;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1773 – Captain James Cook commands HMS Adventure and HMS Resolution in the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.


On 17 January 1773, Resolution and Adventure were the first ships to cross the Antarctic Circle and crossed twice more on the voyage. The third crossing, on 3 February 1774, was the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10′ South at longitude 106°54′ West. Resolution thus proved Alexander Dalrymple's Terra Australis Incognita to be a myth


The route of Cook's second voyage

The second voyage of James Cook, from 1772 to 1775, commissioned by the British government with advice from the Royal Society, was designed to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible to finally determine whether there was any great southern landmass, or Terra Australis. On his first voyage, Cook had demonstrated by circumnavigating New Zealand that it was not attached to a larger landmass to the south, and he charted almost the entire eastern coastline of Australia, yet Terra Australis was believed to lie further south. Alexander Dalrymple and others of the Royal Society still believed that this massive southern continent should exist. After a delay brought about by the botanist Joseph Banks' unreasonable demands, the ships Resolution and Adventure were fitted for the voyage and set sail for the Antarctic in July 1772.

On 17 January 1773, Resolution was the first ship to venture south of the Antarctic Circle, which she did twice more on this voyage. The third and final such crossing, on 3 February 1774, was to be the most southerly penetration, reaching latitude 71°10′ South at longitude 106°54′ West. Cook undertook a series of vast sweeps across the Pacific, finally proving there was no Terra Australis by sailing over most of its predicted locations.

In the course of the voyage he visited Easter Island, the Marquesas, Tahiti, the Society Islands, Niue, the Tonga Islands, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Norfolk Island, Palmerston Island, South Sandwich Islands, and South Georgia, many of which he named in the process. Cook proved the Terra Australis Incognita to be a myth[4] and predicted that an Antarctic land would be found beyond the ice barrier.

On this voyage the Larcum Kendall K1 chronometer was successfully employed by William Wales to calculate longitude. Wales compiled a log book of the voyage, recording locations and conditions, the use and testing of various instruments, as well as making many observations of the people and places encountered on the voyage.


Resolution and Adventure with fishing craft in Matavai Bay, painted by William Hodges in 1776, shows the two ships of Commander James Cook's second voyage of exploration in the Pacific at anchor in Tahiti.

HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, a converted merchant collier purchased by the Navy and adapted, in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific. She impressed him enough that he called her "the ship of my choice", and "the fittest for service of any I have seen."

Class and type: ex-mercantile collier
Tons burthen: 462 bm
Length:

• 110 ft 8 in (33.73 m) overall
• 93 ft 6 in (28.50 m) keel

Beam: 30 ft 6 in (9.30 m)
Draught: 13 ft 1 in (3.99 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Complement: 112, including 20 marines
Armament:

• 12 × 6pdrs
• 12 × ½pdr swivels

Purchase and refitting
Resolution began her career as the North Sea collier Marquis of Granby, launched at Whitby in 1770, and purchased by the Royal Navy in 1771 for £4,151 (equivalent to £499,414.53 today). She was originally registered as HMS Drake, but fearing this would upset the Spanish, she was soon renamed Resolution, on 25 December 1771. She was fitted out at Deptford with the most advanced navigational aids of the day, including an azimuth compassmade by Henry Gregory, ice anchors, and the latest apparatus for distilling fresh water from sea water. Her armament consisted of 12 6-pounder guns and 12 swivel guns. At his own expense Cook had brass door-hinges installed in the great cabin. It was originally planned that the naturalist Joseph Banks and an appropriate entourage would sail with Cook, so a heightened waist, an additional upper deck and a raised poop deck were built to suit Banks. This refit cost £10,080.12.9d. However, in sea trials the ship was found to be top-heavy, and under Admiralty instructions the offending structures were removed in a second refit at Sheerness, at a further cost of £882.3.0d. Banks subsequently refused to travel under the resulting "adverse conditions" and Johann Reinhold Forster and his son, George, replaced him.


HMS Adventure was a barque that the Royal Navy purchased in 1771. She had been the merchant vessel Marquis of Rockingham, launched in 1770 at Whitby. In naval service she sailed with Resolution on James Cook's second expedition to the Pacific in 1772–1775. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the globe from west to east. After her return she served as a store ship until 1779. The navy sold her in 1783 and she resumed a civilian career, but retaining the name Adventure. She was lost in May 1811.


Lines & Profile (ZAZ6583)


Deck (ZAZ6584)

Tons burthen: 336 41⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 99 ft 3 in (30.3 m) (overall)
• 76 ft 9 1⁄2 in (23.4 m) (keel)

Beam: 28 ft 4 in (8.6 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft (4.0 m)
Sail plan: Barque
Complement: 80
Armament: 10 x 4-pounder guns + 8 x ½-pounder swivel guns



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Resolution_(1771)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Adventure_(1771)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_voyage_of_James_Cook

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1775 – Launch of French Sévère, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


Sévère was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Class and type: Sévère class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1300 tons
Length: 51.2 metres
Beam: 13.2 metres
Draught: 6.7 metres
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 64 guns


Lancement du vaisseau de 64 canons le Caton à Toulon en 1777.

Career
Built as an Indiaman by Roth on the lines of a previous ship, Superbe, that had been sold to the Austrian East India Company, Sévère was purchased by the Crown in November 1778 and commissioned for the American Revolutionary War.

She was incorporated into Suffren's squadron. She took part in the Battle of Negapatam in 1782, under Captain Villeneuve-Cilart; during the battle, Villeneuve panicked and attempted to strike, but was prevented from doing so by officers Dieu and Kerlero de Rosbo. Sévère ended up causing damage to HMS Sultan.

Sévère was later armed en flûte, and was wrecked on 26 January 1784 at the Cape of Good Hope.



Sévère class, built by François Caro for commercial operators, to the design of Antoine Groignard's Indien Class. Purchased in 1778-79 by the French Navy. A third sister-ship - the Superbe (launched 11 March 1774) was sold in 1779 to Austria.

Sévère 64 (launched 17 January 1775 at Lorient-Caudan, and purchased for the French Navy in November 1778) - Wrecked 26 January 1784 in Table Bay, South Africa.
Ajax 64 (launched 14 January 1774 at Lorient-Caudan under the name Maréchal de Broglie, and purchased for the French Navy in April 1779, being renamed Ajax on 13 August 1779) - Struck in 1786, but reinstated as a floating battery at Verdon in June 1795; taken to pieces after March 1801.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Sévère_(1778)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Ajax_(1779)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1794 - Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794


The Sunda Strait campaign of January 1794 was a series of manoeuvres and naval actions fought between warships and privateers of the French Republic and a squadron of vessels sent by the British East India Company to protect trade in the region, later augmented by Dutch warships. The campaign developed as French forces based on Île de France reacted more quickly than the British forces in the Indian Ocean to the expansion of the French Revolutionary Wars on 1 February 1793. French privateers rapidly spread along the British trade routes in the Far East, becoming concentrated around the narrow Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. These ships were soon joined by French Navy frigates and began to inflict losses on shipping in the region. The Royal Navy forces in the Indian Ocean were deployed elsewhere and so the East India Company, the private enterprise that ruled much of British India in the 1790s and maintained their own fleet and navy, raised a squadron of armed merchant ships to patrol the Strait and drive off the raiders.

The arrival of this British force on 2 January 1794 was initially a success, the squadron over-running and capturing two large and well-armed privateers on 22 January, not long after the French vessels had been beaten off during an attack on the British trading post at Bencoolen. On 24 January an action against a larger French squadron was fought in the Strait itself, but ended inconclusively and the squadrons divided, the British receiving the Dutch frigate Amazone as reinforcements. The French subsequently turned southwards out of the Strait and attacked Bencoolen again on 9 February, capturing an East Indiaman in the harbour before returning to Île de France with their prize.



Background
On 1 February 1793, the French Republic declared war on Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, extending the already existing French Revolutionary Wars. It took several months for news of the outbreak of war to reach British India, messages arriving at Calcutta from Consul George Baldwin at Alexandria on 11 June. The Royal Navy commander in the region, Commodore William Cornwallis, immediately set about demanding the surrender of the French trading posts in India. Most fell within a few days, but the major port of Pondicherry refused, and was besieged from 1 August. The siege lasted a month before the French commander capitulated under bombardment from British land and naval forces. With the French presence eliminated from India, Cornwallis was ordered to return to Europe, leaving minimal naval forces in the Indian Ocean.

The Indian Ocean formed a vital part of Britain's trade links with the wider British Empire. India was controlled by the East India Company, a commercial organisation that maintained its own army and navy in Indian waters and owned a fleet of large merchant ships known as East Indiamen. These vessels ranged in size between 400 and 1500 tons burthen (bm), carried up to 30 cannons and were capable in certain conditions of fighting warships, although a frigate was usually more than a match for an individual East Indiaman. These ships sailed on an annual route from China, the East Indies or India carrying trade goods such as spices, tea or silk to Britain. There the goods were sold, and replaced with general cargo including military equipment and troops for the journey back to the Indian Ocean.

One of the most vital parts of the Indian trade route was through the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java in the Dutch East Indies, through which most of the China and East Indies trade passed on its journey to the Indian Ocean. French ships, both Navy warships and commercially owned privateers, operated along the Indian trade routes from their base at the isolated island of Île de France and recognised the strategic importance of the Sunda Straits. As soon as news of war arrived at Île de France French ships spread out into the Indian Ocean in search of British and Dutch merchant shipping, gathering in significant numbers off the Sunda Straits.

On 27 September 1793 French cruisers achieved their first major victory when three privateers mounting more than 20 guns each attacked the East Indiaman Princess Royal, under Captain James Horncastle, off Anjier (or Anjere or Anger) Point in the Sunda Strait. Although Horncastle resisted, the privateers outgunned him and eventually forced him to strike.

East India Company deployment
With the Royal Navy unable to provide forces to protect trade in the East Indies, the East India Company authorities in India decided to form a squadron from their own ships to patrol the region. Two East Indiamen, William Pitt and Britannia, and the country ship Nonsuch, were diverted from their regular route for the service, accompanied by the brig Nautilus (or possibly Viper), and under the overall command of Commodore Charles Mitchell, captain of William Pitt. On 2 January 1794 this force passed Singapore and entered the Malacca Strait, sailing eastwards in search of French raiders. As the British squadron travelled along the northern coast of Sumatra, two French privateers attacked the East India Company's trading post at Bencoolen on the southern coast. The privateers were the 30-gun Vengeur under Captain Corosin and the 26-gun Résolue under Captain Jallineaux, and on 17 January they approached the mouth of Rat Island Basin close to Bencoolen where the 32-gun East Indiaman Pigot lay at anchor. Pigot, under Captain George Ballantyne, had a crew of 102 men, but was completely unprepared for action. At 08:15 Vengeur opened fire at 150 yards (137 m), maintaining the battle for an hour and 45 minutes before hauling off so that Résolu could continue the combat. Ballantyne defended his vessel intelligently, positioning Pigot so that the French could only approach one at a time through the narrow mouth of the bay. This allowed him to drive off each ship in turn, the privateers falling back together at 10:20 with damaged rigging. Pigot too had suffered, with one man killed and sufficient damage to the rigging to require several weeks of repairs. After immediate repairs had been completed, Corosin abandoned Bencoolen and retreated to the Sunda Strait in search of weaker targets.

Early on 22 January, Mitchell's squadron, reinforced by the East Indiaman Houghton, stopped a merchant ship for inspection and as the ship was searched two new sails appeared to the southwest near Shown Rock in the Zuften Islands. Suspicious of the identity of the new arrivals, Mitchell sent Britannia and Nonsuch in pursuit and the ships turned away. As the East Indiamen closed with the fleeing ships, they were identified as Vengeur and Résolu. The British vessels soon outran the French and the French opened fire to which the larger British vessels responded. Captain Thomas Cheap of Britannia engaged Vengeur while Captain John Canning of Nonsuch attacked Résolu at 10:45 and were soon supported by William Pitt and Houghton. The overwhelming numbers and size of the British squadron soon convinced Corosin and Jallineaux that further resistance was pointless and 45 minutes after the first shots were fired both surrendered. Corosin died in the aftermath of the battle after losing a leg and another 11 French sailors were killed and 25 wounded, while British losses were one killed and two wounded on Britannia. French records report that Résolu has sustained heavy casualties. The British then manned both raiders with crews from the East Indiaman squadron.

Battle of the Sunda Strait
On the morning of 24 January, most of Mitchell's squadron lay at anchor off the island of Pulau Panjang in Bantam Bay on the northwestern tip of Java, with Nonsuch and the new prizes remaining in the Zuften Islands about 15 miles (24 km) distant. At 06:00, sails were sighted in the northern part of the Sunda Strait passing the small island of Dwars in de Weg that were rapidly identified as three frigates and a brig. These were in fact the French naval squadron from Île de France, consisting of the frigates Prudente and Cybèle, the brig Vulcain and the captured Princess Royal, now renamed Duguay-Trouin, under the overall command of Captain Jean-Marie Renaud. Canning attempted to communicate with the strange vessels, but by 13:00 it was obvious from their lack of response that these were enemy ships, and the greatly outnumbered Canning made all sail northeast with his prizes to avoid destruction.

During the evening heavy rain squalls reduced visibility and prevented any decisive movement by either side, but on 25 January the French squadron had rounded St. Nicholas Point at the northwestern tip of Java and was in full pursuit of Canning's ships, which had been joined by Houghton. Resolu in particular was struggling to escape the advancing enemy, but Mitchell had realised the danger and was sailing to intercept the French. At 06:30 Houghton, Nonsuch and Vengeur joined with the remainder of Mitchell's force and two hours later Renaud's ships met the British line, Resolu just managing to reach safety in the shelter of the large East Indiamen despite being hit repeatedly in the latter stages of the chase. For an hour the two squadrons continued a general exchange of fire at long-range, before Mitchell turned William Pitt, Houghton and Nonsuch towards the French at 09:30, the latter two both managing to hit Cybèle with destructive broadsides. Firing continued for another 18 minutes as Renaud withdrew, eventually anchoring off the island of Pulau Baby. Neither commander was keen to continue the action, Mitchell fearing that his undermanned ships would not be able to properly engage the better armed French vessels. Casualties among the French squadron are not known, but the only loss on the British ships was on Nonsuch, which had a man killed in combat with Cybèle.

Final operations
In need of reinforcement and resupply, Mitchell drew his squadron back to Batavia and was there joined by the 36 gun Dutch frigate Amazone under Captain Kerwal and an armed merchant ship. Mitchell's ships then cruised the Sunda Strait for another two weeks without discovering any enemy vessels, before concluding the operation on 8 February and returning to the Indian Ocean via Bencoolen. Cheap died of an illness in June, but Mitchell survived and on his return to Britain in 1796 was knighted by King George III, and presented with £8,000 (the equivalent of £843,000 as of 2019) as reward and compensation for his diversion to the Straits.

The Dutch meanwhile retained their warships for a raid on Sourabaya where two French corvettes were sheltering. Both were captured without a fight and sent back to France as cartels carrying French prisoners. Alternatively, Royal Charlotte reported in August 1794 on her return to England that the Dutch at Batavia had purchased the French prizes Vengeur and Resolve and would send them in July to Mauritius as cartels with the French prisoners.

The French squadron under Renaud had used the retreat of Mitchell's force to also withdraw into the Indian Ocean via Bencoolen, reaching the British trading post on 9 February. There Pigot was still undergoing repairs and was taken by surprise and captured. As the merchant ship was manoeuvred out of the bay, Renaud demanded the surrender of the small Fort Marlborough nearby and was informed that the fort was well armed and that the arrival of Mitchell's squadron was expected at any moment. Unwilling to continue the engagement with Mitchell, Renaud withdrew immediately without assaulting the fort. The French squadron subsequently returned to Île de France where, in the Action of 22 October 1794, they drew away two British warships that blockaded the island.

The Sunda Strait and surrounding waters remained an important strategic location throughout the war, although the subsequent organisation of East Indiamen into convoys and the return of a Royal Navy presence in the region assisted in limiting losses to French privateers and smaller warships. On more than one occasion convoys of East Indiamen successfully discouraged large squadrons from attempting attacks on the valuable merchant craft with their size and power.







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunda_Strait_campaign_of_January_1794

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1798 – Launch of HMS Kent, a 74-gun Ajax-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy


HMS Kent was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 17 January 1798 at Blackwall Yard.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, longitudinal half-breadth for 'Kent' (1798), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. The plan has been cut in two and a second sheet inserted to take into account the Admiralty Order dated October 1796 to lengthen her by 11 feet. This has resulted in further alteration to the masts, channels and dead eyes. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

Class and type: Ajax-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 2009 62⁄94 (bm)
Length:

• 184 ft 2.5 in (56.147 m) (gundeck)
• 150 ft 10.5 in (45.987 m) (keel)

Beam: 50 ft 0 in (15.24 m)
Depth of hold: 21 ft 10 in (6.65 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:

• Gundeck: 28 × 32-pdrs
• Upper gundeck: 28 × 24-pdrs
• QD: 4 × 9-pdrs & 8 x 32-pdr carronades
• Fc: 4 × 9-pdrs

Career


'View of Mr Perry's Yard, Blackwall, commemorating the launch of HM ship Kent

On 9 May 1801 Kent, Hector and Cruelle unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria.[3]Because Kent served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants.

On 13 December 1809 350 sailors and 250 marines from Kent,and two other 74-gun third rates, Cambrian and Ajax, attacked Palamós. (The sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing.) The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and 60 men and two xebecs of three guns and thirty men each. The vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24-pounders, and a 13" mortar in a battery on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert.

Fate
Kent became a sheer hulk in 1856, and was broken up in 1881.


Watercolor of HMS Ajax (1798)


The Ajax-class ships of the line were a class of two 74-gun third rates of the Royal Navy. They were grouped in with the large class of 74s, as they carried 24-pounders on their upper gun decks, rather than the 18-pounders of the middling and common class 74s. The design of the Ajax class was a lengthened (by 11 ft (3.4 m)) version of the Valiant class, the lines of which were taken from the French Invincible, captured in 1747.

Ships

• HMS Kent

Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 10 June 1795
Launched: 17 January 1798
Fate: Broken up, 1881

• HMS Ajax

Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 10 June 1795
Launched: 3 March 1798
Fate: Accidentally burnt, 1807


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, of which only the midship to stern (left side) has been completed in ink, possibly for 'Kent' (1798) and 'Ajax' (1798), both 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The identity of this plan relating to 'Kent' and 'Ajax' requires much more research, as it has not been corroborated.


Illustrated certificate of commendation for the gun carriage invented by John Gover of 42 Paradise Street, Rotherhithe to reduce the number of men required to man a gun, as commnended by Captain William Hope of Kent (1798), a 74-gun, Third Rate, two-decker, and the Right Honourable Lord Duncan, as well as a Committee of Artillery Officers appointed by the Board of Ordnance.Date madecirca 1800


Scale: unknown. A contemporary waterline model of the sheer hulk Kent (1857), mounted on a wooden sea base with mooring chains laid out. The hull is painted with blacktop sides and a white stripe longitudinally, and is rigged with cream-coloured sheer legs. On deck are fitted a number of mooring bollards, fairleads and hatched giving access to the hull. The sheer legs are mounted in a tripod formation with the two larger on the starboard side supported by shrouds rigged with ratlines and the third rigged from the port side rigged with shrouds only. The lifting spars or ‘derricks’ are not rigged and are laid on deck for storage purposes. Since it was too dangerous to launch a ship with its lower mast stepped, the completed hull once launched, was towed and moored alongside these sheer hulks. Their role was a floating crane to step the lower masts on ships in a safe and controlled manner. In most cases, these vessels were old ships that had been retired from active service but were still seaworthy enough to be converted or rebuilt as sheer hulks. In this case, the ‘Kent’ was originally a 74-gun third rate launched in 1795 at Perry’s Yard, Blackwall, London. Measuring 182 feet in length by 49 feet in the beam, she was later rebuilt with a circular stern in 1817–20. She then became guardship for Plymouth and was re-rated to 76 guns in 1839. From 1857 the ‘Kent’ became a sheer hulk, eventually being broken up in situ in 1881.


Scale: 1:24. A model of the stern of HMS Kent (1798) showing the timbering, made entirely in wood. It has been made in two halves with the starboard side depicting the vessel as finished from the waterline up the hull is painted black with a white line along the gun deck. The port side shows the timbering arrangements which have been painted on and varnished. Thirteen of the fourteen gun ports on both halves of the model are finished with a red interior. There is a small semi-circular quarter gallery on each half with the addition of a glazed window gun port on the port side at the stern. Both the interior and upper gun deck are painted a creamy yellow with the bulwarks painted an emerald green with a black wooden capping.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Kent_(1798)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajax-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-323157;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=K

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1801 - French Navy schooner Eclair, launched in 1799, captured in 1801 by HMS Garland


HMS Eclair was a French Navy schooner launched in 1799 and captured in 1801. The British took her into service under her French name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronades. In 1804 she engaged in a noteworthy, albeit indecisive single ship action with the 22-gun French privateer Grande Decide. In 1809 she was renamed Pickle. In December 1812 she and three other small British vessels engaged the French 40-gun frigate Gloirein another noteworthy and indecisive action. She was sold in 1818.

Type: Télégraphe-class
Displacement: 107 tons (French), or 70
Tons burthen: 145 (bm)
Length:

• 25 m (82 ft) (overall),
• 24 m (79 ft) (keel)

Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 55 (in French service)
Armament:

• Originally:18 x swivel guns
• August 1800: 2 × long 4-pounder guns & 14 × 1-pounder brass swivels
• At capture: 4 × long 4-pounder guns & 20 × 1½-pounder brass swivels
• British service:12 × 12-pounder carronades

Origins and capture
Éclair was the sixth of Pierre Ozanne's Télégraphe-class schooners. Her commanding officer was ensiegne de vaisseau Sougé. Under Sougé's command she sailed from Rochfort to Basse-Terre.

On 15 January 1801, while the 20-gun post-ship Daphne, Captain Richard Matson, 18-gun ship-sloops Cyane and Hornet, Captains Henry Matson and James Nash, and schooner Garland (tender to Daphne), were at anchor in the harbour of the Saintes, they observed a convoy of French coasters, escorted by an armed schooner, sailing towards Vieux-Fort, Guadeloupe. At midnight Garland, accompanied by two boats from each of the three ships, under the command of Lieutenants Kenneth Mackenzie of Daphne and Francis Peachey of Cyane, sailed to engage the convoy. The convoy's vessels, however, except one, succeeded in getting under the guns of Basse-terre. The British were able to board and carry off one vessel, which had anchored near Vieux-Fort, despite a heavy but apparently harmless cannonade.

Two days later, in the afternoon, the British observed the French schooner Éclair, of four long 4-pounders, twenty 1½ pounder brass swivels, and 45 men, the escort of the convoy in question, put into Trois-Rivières, and anchor under the protection of one principal battery and two smaller flanking ones. Lieutenants Mackenzie and Peachey volunteered to attempt to cut her out. For this purpose Mackenzie, with 25 seamen and marines, went on board Garland. The next day, 18 January, which was as early as the breeze would permit, Garland ran alongside Éclair and Lieutenants Mackenzie and Peachey, with 30 men, boarded and carried the French schooner in the face of the batteries.

Garland lost one seaman and one marine killed, and a sergeant of marines and two seamen wounded. Éclair lost one seaman killed, two drowned, and her captain, first and second lieutenants, and six men wounded.

Éclair carried only four guns but was pierced for 12 and was large enough to carry that many cannon. She was on her way to Pointe Petre to complete her armament of twelve 6-pounders and 20 brass swivels. The British took her into service under her existing name and armed her with twelve 12-pounder carronades. Mackenzie became Eclair's first British commander.

HMS Eclair
In March 1801 Eclair took part in the attack on the islands of St Bartholomew and Saint Martin, led by Rear-Admiral Duckworth and Lieutenant-General Thomas Trigge. On 20 March, after the capture of St Bartholomew, Duckworth sent Drake and Eclair to investigate ten vessels that were approaching. Although it took a while, the ten vessels proved to be the troopships from England that Duckworth expected. They had, following Duckworth's orders, landed their sick and the women and children at Barbados before joining him. These reinforcements enabled Duckworth to attack St. Martin on 24 March.

In 1803 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant William Carr, in the West Indies. On 6 August she was off Dominica when she chased two row-boat privateers from Guadaloupe until she was becalmed. She was able to capture one of them, which was the government sloop of the island. Eclair's jolly-boat, with only six men aboard, including Eclair's master and a young midshipman, attacked the second rowboat, which had 16 well-armed men aboard. The British succeeded in capturing their quarry within a few minutes, after killing her commander and one man, and wounding three, without sustaining any casualties of their own.

In August Eclair captured two vessels. On 14 August she captured the Spanish armed schooner Maria, which was carrying provisions, silks and gunpowder. Then on 29 August Eclair captured the Swedish ship Little John and her cargo of sugar and cotton.

On 10 February 1804 Eclair was 200 miles north of Tortola, returning from having escorted a packet on 5 February, when she pursued and caught up with a strange vessel. The two ships engaged for three-quarters of an hour, exchanging broadsides and small arms fire. However, when it became clear that Carr was preparing to attempt to board, the French vessel ceased firing and sailed away to the north. Eclair attempted to pursue but she had lost too much of her rigging in the action. Her casualties were one marine killed and four seamen wounded. The French vessel turned out to have been the privateer Grande Decide, Captain Mathieu Goy, of 22 long 8-pounders and a complement, including 80 soldiers, of about 220 men. John William Norie wrote, "This may be considered as one of the most brilliant and gallant exploits in naval history."

On 5 March Eclair sighted a schooner sailing towards La Hayes, Guadeloupe, where she could shelter under the guns of the battery there. Eclair's master, Mr John Salmon, and the surgeon, Mr John B. Douglas, and 10 men volunteered to take a boat and form a boarding party. As their boat entered the harbour both the vessel and the battery opened fire on them. Still, they managed to board and capture the schooner in ten minutes. In capturing her they killed five of her crew of 50 and wounded ten, while suffering no casualties of their own. The wounded included the captain and four men that jumped overboard. The battery continued to fire on the boarding party as they towed and rowed out their prize using sweeps. The schooner turned out to be the privateer Rose, which was armed with one long brass 9-pounder gun and had provisions for a three-month cruise having only just set out.

On 25 June 1804, Eclair captured a Swedish galliot carrying French passengers and property. In August Eclair captured the French sloop Try again, which was carrying provisions. In December 1804 Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant Joseph Beckett, after Carr had transferred to Netley in October.

In 1805, Eclair was under the command of Lieutenant George James Evelyn, in the Leeward Islands. On 5 April he recaptured the English ship Heroine, from London, and her cargo of dry goods. Eclair and Osprey shared in the capture, on 25 November, of the schooner, Henrietta Adelaide.

On 9 June 1807, off Point Cedar, Eclair's cutter, with six men under the command of a midshipman, captured a Spanish armed rowboat. After an hour's heavy fighting the ten-man crew of the rowboat escaped ashore. On 20 July Eclair was in company with Surinam and Shannon when they captured Comet.

Also in 1807, Eclair encountered the French three-masted privateer schooner Felicité. Evelyn captured her prize, and then brought the privateer to action. During the engagement Eclair had one man killed and four wounded, including Evelyn, before Felicité was able to escape.

Almost a year later, on 20 June 1808, Eclair captured Franchise, another rowboat privateer. She had 23 men on board, armed with small arms. On 27 November, Eclair captured Fair American. On the same day she and Haughty captured Ocean.

Eclair also captured the merchant vessel Grand Duc de Berg on 27 September. (This vessel apparently was not the privateer of the same name, which continued to sail for several more years.) Head money was finally paid in April 1929.

On 30 January 1809, Eclair assisted with the landing of British troops at Bay Robert, Basse Terre. The naval force there was under the command of Captain Philip Beaver of Acasta. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. On 8 February 1809, Evelyn assumed command of Swaggerer.

HMS Pickle
In May 1809 the Admiralty renamed her Pickle, the famous schooner Pickle having been recently lost, and the Cruizer-class brig-sloop Eclair having been launched and commissioned in 1807, and commissioned her under Lieutenant Goodwin. However, by June she was under the perhaps temporary command of Lieutenant J.G.(?) Evelyn, who on 11 June sailed for Portugal. Lieutenant Andrew Crawford was appointed to succeed Goodwin, who would die in late 1809 or early 1810 in the Royal Hospital, Plymouth. Crawford took command of Pickle in August 1809. While she was under his command, she was chiefly employed in the waters off Cadiz, Lisbon, and Guernsey.

On 15 April 1810 Pickle, under Crawford's command, captured the French brig Hypolite Chery and her cargo. A few weeks later, on 9 May, Pickle, Implacable, Imperieuse and Nonpareil were in company when Nonpareil captured the French navy brig Canoniere (or No. 176). On 7 July 1810, Pickle sailed for the Davis Strait, the northern arm of the Labrador Sea.

Lieutenant Andrew Crawford relinquished command of Pickle in July 1811. She was subsequently commanded by Lieutenant William Figg. During the night of 17 December 1812 Pickle and the 18-gun ship-sloop Albacore were becalmed off the Lizard with six merchantmen. At dawn they found that they were also in company with the French 40-gun frigate Gloire. When a wind came up the Frenchman made all sail to escape, pursued by the British ships, who were joined later by the 12-gun brig-sloop Borer and 4-gun schooner Landrail. In the exchange of fire Albacore suffered one man killed and six or seven wounded before she pulled back. Eventually, the frigate managed to outrun the four small vessels. In the engagement Landrail did not actually fire her guns. As James put it, "for the Landrail to have fired her 12-pounders would have been a farce."

On 11 April 1813, Pickle captured the French sloop Marie Joseph, Laurent Le Breton, master. Pickle was in company when the cutter Surly captured the French sloop Les Amis on 18 March 1814.

Fate
In 1816 Pickle was out of commission. She was sold on 11 June 1818.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Eclair_(1801)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Garland_(1798)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1805 – Launch of French Pluton, a Téméraire class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Toulon


Pluton was a Pluton-class, Sub-class of Téméraire class, 74-gun French ship of the line built at Toulon. She was one of two prototypes for a derivative sub-class of the original design; this sub-class (somewhat smaller than the primary design) was specially intended for construction in some of the shipyards in states occupied by the French, where there was less depth of water than in the main French shipyards. Although the Pluton (and her sister, the Borée) were built at Toulon, all other vessels of this sub-class were built in these overseas yards, notably at Antwerp but also at Genoa, Trieste, Venice, Amsterdam, Flushing and Rotterdam.

Sistership Rivoli

Scale: 1:48. Plan showng the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Rivoli' (1812), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Portsmouth Dockyard after fitting as 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823]


Class and type: Pluton-class, Sub-class of Téméraire-class ship of the line
Displacement: 2,900 tonnes
Length: 55.87 metres (183.3 ft) (172 pied)
Beam: 14.90 metres (48 ft 11 in) (44.5 pied)
Draught: 7.26 metres (23.8 ft) (22 pied)
Propulsion: Up to 2,485 m2 (26,750 sq ft) of sails
Complement: 3 officers + 690 men
Armament:

• 74 guns
• 28 × 36-pounder long guns
• 30 × 24-pounder long guns
• 16 × 8-pounder long guns
• 4 × 36-pounder carronades

Launch of Charlemagne before Napoléon (sistership)

The Pluton took part in the Battle of Trafalgar under Captain Julien Cosmao, and escaped to Cádiz with other ships. Two days later, on 23 October 1805, she was the flagship of the counter-attack from Cádiz, together with Indomptable, Neptune, Rayo and San Francisco de Asis. They managed to recapture the Santa Ana and Algésiras. To prevent their recapture, the British scuttled the Intrépide and Neptuno. Rayo and San Francisco de Asis were wrecked on their journey back.

She was captured by Spain in Cadiz in 1808 and commissioned in the Spanish Navy as Pluton. She was later renamed Montañes, and was eventually broken up in 1816.





Pluton class – A revised design for Téméraire class, by Jacques-Noël Sané, described officially as "the small model" specially introduced to be constructed at shipyards outside France itself (the first pair were built at Toulon) where they lacked the depth of water required to launch 74s of the Téméraire Class.

Small Variant (Pluton group – 24 ships launched)


Rivoli, fitted with the camels that allowed her to cross the shallow banks before Venice harbour.

Starting with the prototypes Pluton and Borée in 1803, a smaller version of the Téméraire class, officially named petit modèle, was designed by Jacques-Noël Sané to be produced in shipyards having a lesser depth of water than the principal French shipyards, primarily those in neighbouring states under French control and in foreign ports which had been absorbed into the French Empire such as Antwerp. The revised design measured 177 feet 7 inches on the waterline, 180 feet 1 inch on the deck, and 46 feet 11 inches moulded breadth. The depth of hull was 9 inches less than that in the "regular" Téméraire design.

• Pluton 74 (launched 17 January 1805 at Toulon) – captured by the Spanish at Cadiz in June 1808, retained the same name, later renamed Montañes, BU 1816.
• Borée 74 (launched 27 June 1805 at Toulon) – BU 1827
• Génois 74 (launched 17 August 1805 at Genoa) – BU 1821
• Charlemagne 74 (launched 8 April 1807 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Netherlands Navy in 1814 and renamed Nassau.
• Commerce de Lyon 74 (launched 9 April 1807 at Antwerp) – BU 1830
• Anversois 74 (launched 7 June 1807 at Antwerp) – BU 1819
• Duguesclin 74 (launched 20 June 1807 at Antwerp) – BU 1820
• César 74 (launched 21 June 1807 at Antwerp) – transferred to the Netherlands Navy on 1 August 1814 and renamed Prins Frederik.
• Dantzig 74 (launched 15 August 1807 at Antwerp) – renamed Achille in August 1814, BU 1815
• Ville de Berlin 74 (launched 6 September 1807 at Antwerp) – renamed Atlas in July 1815, BU 1819
• Pultusk 74 (launched 20 September 1807 at Antwerp) – Transferred to the Netherlands Navy on 1 August 1814 and renamed Waterloo.
• Breslaw 74 (launched 3 May 1808 at Genoa) – condemned 1836.
• Dalmate 74 (launched 21 August 1808 at Antwerp)
• Albanais 74 (launched 2 October 1808 at Antwerp)
• Rivoli 74 (launched 6 September 1810 at Venice) – captured by the British in an action in the Adriatic in February 1812 and added to the RN under the same name, stricken 1819.
• Mont Saint Bernard 74 (launched 9 June 1809 at Venice)
• Régénérateur 74 (launched July 1811 at Venice)
• Royal Hollandais 74 (begun 1806 at Flushing, frames taken to Woolwich after Flushing was taken by the British, and there launched as HMS Chatham on 14 February 1812)
• Castiglione 74 (launched 2 August 1812 at Venice)
• Royal Italien 74 (launched 15 August 1812 at Venice)
• Piet Hein 74 (launched 1 May 1813 at Rotterdam) – abandoned December 1813 to Netherlands, who renamed her Admiraal Piet Hein
• Couronne 74 (launched 26 October 1813 at Amsterdam) – abandoned December 1813 to Netherlands, who renamed her Prins Willem de Eerste
• Montebello 74 (launched 7 November 1815 at Venice) – completed by Austrians, who renamed her Cesare but never finished her
• Audacieux 74 (launched October 1816 at Amsterdam for Netherlands Navy, renamed Wassenaar)
• Polyphème 74 (launched July 1817 at Amsterdam for Netherlands Navy, renamed Holland)

Four further ships begun at Venice to this design were never launched – Montenotte, Arcole, Lombardo and Semmering; all were broken up on the stocks by the Austrian occupiers.


Portrait of Borée on 12 April 1807, by Antoine Roux


Mont Saint-Bernard fitted with Ship Camels


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Pluton_(1804)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-343464;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1815 - HMS Sylph (1812 - 18), a 18-gun flush-decked Ship Sloop built at Bermuda of Bermuda class, Commander George Dickins, struck the Southampton Bar at Shinecock Bay (or Canoe Place) at the east end of Long Island, capsized, and broke in two.


The 18-gun Bermuda Sloops were all built in Bermuda Dockyard using Bermudan cedar, and launched between 1805 and 1812.
The Bermudas were modified versions of the Dasher class of 1797, and eventually consisted of six ships.

Class and type: 18-gun Bermuda sloop
Tons burthen: 399 (bm)
Length: 107 ft (32.6 m)
Beam: 29 ft 11 in (9.12 m)
Draught: 14 ft 8 in (4.47 m)
Complement: 121
Armament: 16 × 24-pounder carronades + 2 × 9-pounder bow chasers



Scale: 48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with scroll figurehead and longitudinal half-breadth for building Bermuda (1806) and Indian (1805), both 16-gun flush-decked Ship Sloops built at Bermuda. The plan was then used in 1806 for building Atalante (1808) and Martin (1809), and finally in 1809 for Sylph (1812) and Morgiana (1811).


Scale: 48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Bermuda (1806) and Indian (1805), both 16-gun flush-decked Ship Sloops built at Bermuda. The plan was later used in 1809 for Sylph (1812) and Morgiana (1811).


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the upper deck, lower deck, and fore & aft platforms for Bermuda (1806) and Indian (1805), both 18-gun flush-deck ship sloops to be built at Bermuda. The plan was later used in 1809 for Morgiana (1811) and Sylph (1812). The plan does include an unprovenanced pencil annotation listing Atalante (1808) who, along with Martin (1809), was also built at Bermuda to the same class.


Scale: 48. Plan showing the midship section specifically for Bermuda (1806) and Indian (1805), both 18-gun flush-decked Ship Sloops built at Bermuda. The plan may be appropriate to the other ships in the class, as all were built at Bermuda: Atalante (1808), Martin (1809), Sylph (1812), Morgiana (1811).

Ships in this class were:

HMS Bermuda (1805)
HMS Indian (1805)
HMS Atalante (1808)
HMS Martin (1809)
HMS Morgiana (1811)
HMS Sylph (1812)




'Atalante' is depicted in the centre of the composition surrounded by three sailing boats. The coast of Sambro (Nova Scotia) provides the backdrop. Inscribed: "HMS Atalante passing Sambro Nova Scotia at sunset" and on the back of the picture "W E B. Done when at school in 1851". This drawing is apparently based on the picture engraved by Bailey used as an illustration opposite page 388 of Vol XXXI of the Naval Chronicle (January to June 1814). The description on p.388 refers to "His Majesty's late sloop the Atalante" as the 'Atalante' had been wrecked on 10th November 1813.




http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-295800;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=7049
https://www.webcitation.org/query?u...llain/shipnames.html&date=2009-10-26+12:08:49

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1907 - Prinz Waldemar, a steam passenger-cargo ship, wrecked because of earthquake


Prinz Waldemar was a steam passenger-cargo ship built in 1902 by the Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik of Hamburg for Hamburg America Line (HAPAG). She was named after Prince Waldemar of Prussia. The ship was primarily employed as a passenger and cargo carrier between Hamburg and South America during her career.

Design and construction
In 1900 HAPAG established a route from Germany to the east coast of South America which at the time was served by an old steamer SS Canadia. At the same time, the company placed an order for five ships of approximately 4,600 GRT to adequately serve the route. The first of these ships, SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, was launched in early 1902 and became the first ship of the Prinzen class, as all the vessels were named after the princes of the German imperial family, the other four would be named SS Prinz Waldemar, SS Prinz Adalbert, SS Prinz Oskar and SS Prinz Sigismund.

Prinz Waldemar was laid down at Reiherstieg Schiffswerfte & Maschinenfabrik shipyard in Hamburg as a second of the Prinzen-class vessels, and launched on 7 May 1902 (yard number 409). After successful completion of sea trials Prinz Waldemar was handed over to her owners on 23 August of the same year. The ship was primarily intended as a cargo carrier, but at the same time had 25 spacious cabins built, that could accommodate between 60 and 100 first class passengers. The cabins were all on the second deck, well above the waterline, so that ports could be kept open all the voyage except in very stormy weather. Each cabin was equipped with heaters and fans to make journey more enjoyable. In addition, the ship could also carry around 560 third class passengers and 5,200 tons of cargo to handle which the vessel was equipped with eight steam cranes.

As built, the ship was 371 feet 2 inches (113.13 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 45 feet 3 inches (13.79 m) abeam, a mean draft of 26 feet 8 inches (8.13 m). Prinz Waldemar was assessed at 4,658 GRT and 3,604 NRT. The vessel had a steel hull, and a single 318 nhp quadruple-expansion steam engine, with cylinders of 22 1⁄2-inch (57 cm), 32 1⁄4-inch (82 cm), 47 1⁄4-inch (120 cm) and 68-inch (170 cm) diameter with a 47 1⁄4-inch (120 cm) stroke, that drove a single screw propeller, and moved the ship at up to 12.0 knots (13.8 mph; 22.2 km/h).

Operational history
After delivery Prinz Waldemar was immediately put on the Hamburg to Brazil route. On her trips down south, the ship would carry a variety of general cargo such as cheese, tea, cod, butter, cereals, wines etc. while on her return journey, the vessel would be loaded with coffee, and occasionally with agricultural products from Argentina and Uruguay, such as meat and cotton. Additionally, the vessel carried immigrants to Brazil, mostly Portuguese who were picked during her stop at Lisbon. Prinz Waldemar departed Hamburg for her maiden journey on September 10, 1902 for Brazilian ports of Santos and Rio de Janeiro via Lisbon. She arrived at Rio de Janeiro on October 4, and proceeded to Santos the next day. After loading 48,622 bags of coffee, Prinz Waldemar departed Santos on October 22 for Europe. To entice passengers, HAPAG added several ports, such as Dover and Boulogne on her return trips from Brazil. However, in 1906 the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company entered the competition for a lucrative trade between New York and West Indies, where HAPAG operated its own Atlas Line, acquired in 1901 from the United Fruit Company. Prinz Waldemar arrived in Rio de Janeiro for the last time on April 21, 1906, and consequently was reassigned to the Atlas Line, where the vessel was employed on the New York City to the West Indies route, calling at ports of Kingston, Puerto Limón, Savanilla and Cartagena starting in late summer of 1906.


Princess Victoria Louise, wrecked in Kingston, Jamaica

Sinking
Prinz Waldemar departed New York City under command of Captain Paul Wintzer for her final journey on December 29, 1906 for Kingston where she arrived on January 4, 1907. After touching at Savanilla, and Cartagena, the vessel took course to Puerto Limón. On January 14, 1907 the vessel left Puerto Limón and took course to Jamaica where she was expected to arrive in the afternoon of January 17. At around 15:32 local time on January 14, Kingston was struck by a devastating earthquake which flattened the city, and destroyed among other things both Plum Point and Port Royal lighthouses at the entrance to the Kingston harbor.

Around 02:00 on January 17, 1907 Prinz Waldemar arrived at the Plum Point, about 10 miles east of Kingston, and attempted to navigate into the harbor. Due to non-functioning lighthouse, the Captain got confused and ran aground on a coral reef, about half-mile east northeast of the lighthouse, in an approximate position 17°55′55″N 76°46′18″W, close to the place where another HAPAG liner, Prinzessin Victoria Luise, went ashore on December 16, 1906. All crew and passengers were able to safely disembark the ship. An attempt was made to refloat the vessel, however, on February 26, 1907 it was announced that HAPAG decided to abandon the salvage operations and the ship was declared a total wreck.


Plumb Point Lighthouse is an active 19th century heritage lighthouse, located on the Palisadoes a narrow peninsular that connects Port Royal to the mainland. The light helps guide shipping into Kingston Harbour.


Plumb Point Lighthouse, Palisadoes, Jamaica taken from the NE

Built in 1853 it is claimed that the light at the lighthouse has gone out only once since then, during the 1907 earthquake. The 70 feet (21 m) stone and cast iron tower with lantern and gallery shows a white light visible for about 40 km (25 mi) over the entrance of the eastern navigable channel and a red light over the south channel which is visible for 20 km (12 mi).

The entire lighthouse is painted white and is in the historic Port Royal Protected Area, which the government hopes to develop as a tourist attraction. It is positioned about 8 km (5.0 mi) east of Port Royal and the entrance to Kingston Harbour near Norman Manley International Airport.

It is maintained by the Port Authority of Jamaica, an agency of the Ministry of Transport and Works


Prinzessin Victoria Luise was a German passenger ship of the Hamburg-America Line (HAPAG) of some 4,409 gross register tons (GRT). She is credited with having been the first purpose-built cruise ship. Launched on 29 June 1900, she served with HAPAG until 16 December 1906 after being accidentally grounded off Jamaica.


Prinzessin Victoria Luise


Interior and exterior views of the ship (1901 Scientific American cover)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Prinz_Waldemar_(1902)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumb_Point_Lighthouse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prinzessin_Victoria_Luise

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1911 – Japanese battlecruiser Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) laid down


Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.

Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. In 1942, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.


Kongō in her 1944 configuration

Kongō fought in a large number of major naval actions of the Pacific War during World War II. She covered the Japanese Army's amphibious landings in British Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942, before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Throughout 1943, Kongō primarily remained at Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga Roads, and deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier air raids on Japanese island bases scattered across the Pacific. Kongō participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 (22–23 October), engaging and sinking American vessels in the latter. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion while transiting the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She was the only Japanese battleship sunk by submarine in the Second World War.


Kongō in her battlecruiser configuration, pre-1927.

Design and construction
See also: Kongō-class battlecruiser
Kongō was the first of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kongō-class battlecruisers, which were almost as large, costly and well-armed as battleships, but which traded off armored protection for higher speeds. These were designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston and were ordered in 1910 in the Japanese Emergency Naval Expansion Bill after the commissioning of HMS Invincible in 1908. These four battlecruisers of the Kongō class were designed to match the naval capabilities of the battlecruisers of the other major naval powers at the time, and they have been called the battlecruiser versions of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship HMS Erin. Their heavy armament of 14-inch naval guns and their armor protection (which took up about 23.3% of their approximately 30,000-ton displacements in 1913) were greatly superior to those of any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time.

The keel of Kongō was laid down at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering on 17 January 1911. Under Japan's contract with Vickers, the first vessel of the class was constructed in the United Kingdom, with the remainder built in Japan. Kongō was launched on 18 May 1912, and then transferred to the dockyards of Portsmouth, England, where her fitting-out began in mid-1912. All parts used in her construction were manufactured in the U.K. Kongo was completed on 16 April 1913.


Kongō in 1931, following her first reconstruction

Armament
Kongō's main battery consisted of eight 14-inch (36 cm) heavy-caliber main naval guns in four twin turrets (two forward and two aft). The turrets were noted by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence to be "similar to the British 15-inch turrets", with improvements made in flash-tightness. Each of her main guns could fire high explosive or armor-piercing shells 38,770 yards (19.14 nmi; 35.45 km) at a firing rate of about two shells per minute. In keeping with the Japanese doctrine of deploying more powerful vessels before their opponents, Kongō and her sister ships were the first vessels in the world equipped with 14-inch (36 cm) guns. Her main guns carried ammunition for 90 shots, and they had an approximate barrel lifetime of 250 to 280 shots. In 1941, separate dyes were introduced for the armor-piercing shells of the four Kongō-class battleships to assist with targeting, with Kongō's armor-piercing shells using red dye.

The secondary battery of Kongō originally consisted of sixteen 6-inch (15 cm) 50 caliber guns in single casemates located amidships ("50 calibre" means that the lengths of the guns were 50 times their bore, or 300 inches), eight 3-inch (7.6 cm) guns, and eight submerged 21-inch (53 cm) torpedo tubes. Her six-inch naval guns could fire five to six rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 500 rounds. The 6-inch/50 calibre gun was capable of firing both antiaircraft and antiship shells, though the positioning of these guns on Kongō made antiaircraft firing mostly impractical. During her second reconstruction, the older three-inch guns were removed and then replaced with eight 5-inch (13 cm) 5-inch/40 calibre dual-purpose guns. These guns could fire from eight to 14 rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 800 to 1,500 rounds. Of Kongō's guns, the 5-inch guns had the widest variety of shell types: antiaircraft, antiship, and illumination shells. Kongō was also armed with a large number of 1-inch (2.5 cm) antiaircraft machine guns. By October 1944, Kongō's secondary armament was reconfigured to eight 6-inch (15 cm) guns, eight 5-inch (13 cm) guns, and 122 Type 96 antiaircraft rapid-fire cannons




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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1918 – Launch of HMS Vindictive, a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy (RN)


HMS Vindictive was a warship built during the First World War for the Royal Navy (RN). Originally designed as a Hawkins-class heavy cruiser and laid down under the name Cavendish, she was converted into an aircraft carrier while still being built. Renamed in 1918, she was completed a few weeks before the end of the war and saw no active service with the Grand Fleet. The following year she participated in the British campaign in the Baltic against the Bolsheviks during which her aircraft made numerous attacks against the naval base at Kronstadt. Vindictive returned home at the end of the year and was placed in reserve for several years before her flight decks were removed and she was reconverted back into a cruiser. The ship retained her aircraft hangar and conducted trials with an aircraft catapult before she was sent to the China Station in 1926. A year after her return in 1928, she was again placed in reserve.

Vindictive was demilitarized and converted into a training ship in 1936–1937. At the beginning of the Second World War she was converted into a repair ship. Her first role after the conversion was completed in early 1940, however, was to transport troops during the Norwegian Campaign. She was then sent to the South Atlantic to support British ships serving there and, in late 1942, to the Mediterranean to support the ships there. Vindictive returned home in 1944 and was damaged by a German torpedo off the coast of Normandy after the Allies invaded France. She was reduced to reserve after the war and sold for scrap in 1946.


HMS VINDICTIVE : CAVENDISH class cruiser converted to an aircraft carrier with six seaplanes.

Background and description
The Hawkins-class cruiser was designed to hunt enemy commerce raiders overseas. This required a large ship to provide the necessary endurance for sustained operations away from supporting bases and high speed to catch the raiders. The design was also given high freeboard to allow it to maintain its speed in heavy weather. Sir Eustace Tennyson d'Eyncourt, the Director of Naval Construction, included both coal and oil-fired boilers to provide the ship with fuel no matter the supply conditions. Four ships were ordered, named after famous Elizabethan seafarers, in 1915 and the fifth and last was ordered in April 1916, named HMS Cavendishafter the adventurer and circumnavigator Thomas Cavendish. By this time the threat from German cruisers and raiders had ended, so construction proceeded slowly.

The cruisers had an overall length of 605 feet (184.4 m), a beam of 65 feet (19.8 m), and a mean draught of 19 feet 3 inches (5.9 m) at deep load. They were designed to displace 9,750 long tons (9,906 t) and had a complement of 37 officers and 672 enlisted men.

The ships had four Parsons geared steam turbines, each of which drove one propeller shaft. The turbines were designed to produce a total of 60,000 shaft horsepower (45,000 kW) for a speed of 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph). Steam for the turbines was provided by 12 Yarrow boilers; 8 of these were oil-fired while the remaining 4 used coal. They had a stowage capacity of 800 long tons (810 t) of coal and 1,600 long tons (1,600 t) of fuel oil, giving her a range of 5,400 nautical miles (10,000 km; 6,200 mi) at a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph).

The main armament of the Hawkins-class cruisers consisted of seven 45-calibre 7.5 in (190 mm) Mk VI guns in pivot mounts. They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one each fore and aft of the superstructure, one on each broadside abreast the rear funnel, and the last was on the quarterdeck at the same level as the lower of the rear superfiring pair; they were designated 1 through 7 from front to rear. At maximum elevation these guns fired a 200-pound (91 kg) shell to a range of 21,114 yards (19,307 m).

Their secondary armament comprised a dozen quick-firing (QF) 3-inch 20 cwt guns. Eight of these were on low-angle mounts intended for use against torpedo boats and the remaining four were on high-angle mounts for anti-aircraft defence. They also mounted two submerged tubes, one on each broadside, and four above-water tubes, two on each broadside, for 21-inch torpedoes.

The Hawkins-class cruisers were protected with an armour that had a maximum thickness of 4 inches abreast the ships' magazines and a minimum thickness of 1.5 inches (38 mm). It consisted of two layers of high-tensile steel of varying thicknesses that covered most of the ships' sides. The decks had a maximum thickness of 1–1.5 in (25–38 mm) over the engine rooms, boilers, and the steering gear. The conning tower and its communication tube were protected by the only Krupp cemented armour in the ships and had thicknesses of 3 inches and 2 inches (51 mm) respectively.

Conversion into an aircraft carrier
In January 1917, the Board of Admiralty reviewed the navy's aircraft carrier requirements and decided to order two ships fitted with a flying-off deck as well as a landing deck aft. The initial order had to be cancelled in April 1917 for lack of building facilities, so the Admiralty decided to convert Cavendish, already under construction, in June 1917.

No. 2 7.5-inch gun, two 3-inch guns and the conning tower were removed and the forward superstructure was remodelled into a 78 by 49 feet (23.8 by 14.9 m) hangar with a capacity for six reconnaissance aircraft. The hangar roof, with a small extension, formed the 106-foot (32 m) flying-off deck. The aircraft were hoisted up through a hatch at the aft end of the flying-off deck by two derricks. The 193 by 57 feet (58.8 by 17.4 m) landing deck required the removal of Nos. 5 and 6 7.5-inch guns and moving the four 3-inch AA guns to an elevated platform between the funnels, in lieu of the 3-inch guns intended for that position. A port side gangway 8 feet (2.4 m) wide connected the landing and flying-off decks to allow aircraft with their wings folded to be wheeled from one to the other. A crash barrier was hung from "the gallows" at the forward end of the landing on deck. To increase her stability after the addition of so much topweight, the upper portion of her anti-torpedo bulge was enlarged.

Although still overweight compared to her designed displacement, the modifications made the ship lighter than her sister ships, at 9,344 long tons (9,494 t) light displacement and a metacentric height of 3.59 feet (1.1 m). She completed her sea trials on 21 September 1918 and reached a speed of 29.12 knots (53.93 km/h; 33.51 mph) from 63,600 shaft horsepower (47,400 kW).

Construction and career
Cavendish was laid down at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast on 26 June 1916 and launched on 17 January 1918. In June she was renamed Vindictive, the fifth ship of that name in the RN, to perpetuate the name of the old protected cruiser Vindictive, which had distinguished herself in the Zeebrugge Raid of April 1918 and had then been sunk as a blockship at Ostend in May. She commissioned on 1 October and, after briefly working up, joined the Grand Fleet's Flying Squadron on 18 October only a few weeks before the Armistice on 11 November. For the rest of the year she conducted flying trials and exercises, including those of the Port Victoria Grain Griffin reconnaissance aircraft, of which two were lost in accidents. The only landing aboard the ship was made by William Wakefield on 1 November in the fleet's last operational Sopwith Pup. Experiments conducted earlier aboard the larger Furious, with a similarly intact superstructure and funnels, had demonstrated that the turbulence from these was enough to make successful landings almost impossible at high speed. Wakefield minimised the problem by approaching the landing deck at an angle with the ship slowly moving.

Vindictive was dispatched to the Baltic with a dozen aircraft, a mix of Griffins, Sopwith 2F.1 fighters, Sopwith 1½ Strutter and Short Type 184 bombers, on 2 July 1919 to participate in the British campaign in the Baltic in support of the White Russians and the newly independent Baltic states. On 6 July she ran aground on a shoal near Reval at speed. Stuck hard in the tideless Baltic, all of her fuel was dumped overboard, and most of her ammunition as well. Some 2,200 long tons (2,200 t) of stores were also off-loaded, but the ship could not be towed free by the combined efforts of the light cruisers Danae and Cleopatra and three tugboats. Eight days after grounding a fortuitous westerly wind began that raised the water level by 8 inches (203 mm), just enough to pull the ship free. Unbeknownst to the British the entire operation had taken place in a minefield.

The carrier unloaded her air group, commanded by Major Grahame Donald, at Biorko, Finland on 14 July. Their airfield was still under construction, but they were able to fly a reconnaissance mission over the major Bolshevik naval base at Kronstadt on 26 July while Vindictive sailed to Copenhagen, Denmark, to load aircraft and spares left for her by the carrier Argus. Four days later, Rear Admiral Walter Cowan ordered Donald and his aircraft to attack Kronstadt at night. As their airfield was not yet finished, the ship's flying-off deck was extended to 118 feet (36.0 m) to better allow the bombers to take off with their 112-pound (51 kg) bombs. Accurate anti-aircraft fire kept the aircraft too high for an effective attack, but Donald's men claimed two hits on the submarine tender Pamiat Azova. In reality one bomb struck the oil tanker Tatiana, setting it on fire and killing one man. That same day eight RN Coastal Motor Boat (CMB)s arrived; Vindictive served as their depot ship.

Vindictive's aircraft continued to support British operations against the Bolsheviks until they left the Baltic in December, although no further missions were flown from the carrier. They shot down a helium-filled observation balloon and spotted for ships conducted shore bombardments. Most importantly, nine of them attacked Kronstadt during the night of 17/18 August 1919 to provide a diversion for an attack by the CMBs on ships in Kronstadt harbour. As a result, the torpedo boats damaged the battleship Andrei Pervozvanny and sank Pamiat Azova. In subsequent attacks on Kronstadt, they nearly hit Andrei Pervozvanny while she was in drydock, nearly hit a minesweeper, killing one crewman from the explosion, and hit two auxiliary ships. By December it was clear that the Whites' offensive against Petrograd had failed and the British began withdrawing; Vindictive left three Camels in Latvia, embarked the rest of her aircraft and sailed for home on 22 December.

She was paid off into reserve at Portsmouth Dockyard on 24 December and received permanent repairs of her damage from the grounding, at a cost of £200,000. Furious and Vindictive had proven that the idea of "cruiser-carriers" was unworkable due to the turbulence from their superstructures and that a complete flight deck was necessary to successfully operate aircraft at sea. The Admiralty had considered converting her to that configuration, with an island, in July 1918 while still building, but had decided to wait on the results of tests conducted with Argus evaluating different designs for the island. Vindictive was thought to be too small to be an effective carrier and the financial restrictions in place after the war vitiated against such a major reconstruction.

As cruiser


Vindictive in China, 1926. After re-conversion into a cruiser

For the next several years the ship was either in reserve or used as a troop transport, until she began reconversion into a cruiser at Chatham Dockyard on 1 March 1923. The flight decks were removed and she was mostly restored to her designed configuration, although her 3-inch AA guns were replaced by three QF 4 inch Mk V AA guns. Two of these were mounted on a platform between the aft funnel and the mainmast and the third gun was positioned on the quarterdeck between the two 7.5-inch guns. The major exception was that No. 2 7.5-inch gun was not installed and she retained her hangar in the forward superstructure. The two derricks that serviced the hangar were replaced by a single crane on the starboard side of the hangar roof. No. 2's position was occupied by a prototype compressed-air Carey aircraft catapult, the first British cruiser to mount a catapult. Vindictive used it for the first time on 3 October when she launched a Fairey IIID floatplane. She also conducted catapult trials on float-equipped Fairey Flycatcher fighters.

She sailed for the China Station on 1 January 1926 with six Fairey IIIDs aboard for anti-piracy patrols and departed for home on 14 March 1928. She arrived in May and her catapult was removed in October, ending her career as an aviation ship. Vindictive was again reduced to reserve in 1929, making occasional trooping voyages. In July 1935 the ship was briefly sailed from her reserve mooring to join in the King George V's Silver Jubilee Fleet Reviewheld on the 15th.

As training ship


Vindictive in September 1937 as a training ship

In 1936–1937, Vindictive was demilitarised in accordance with the terms of the London Naval Treaty and converted to a training ship for cadets. Her two inboard propellers were removed as were the inboard turbines; half of her boilers were removed and their compartments were converted into accommodations. The aft funnel was removed, the aft superstructure remodelled and enlarged and her hangar converted into more accommodation space. Her armament, including the above-water torpedo tubes, was replaced by a pair of 4.7-inch (120 mm) guns forward and a quadruple QF 2-pounder ("pom-pom") AA mount aft. In this form she displaced 9,100 long tons (9,200 t) and was capable of a maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph). She was recommissioned on 7 September 1937.

As fleet repair ship
After the Second World War began in August 1939, Vindictive was transferred to Devonport for a modernisation like that of her sister Effingham, with nine 6-inch (152 mm) guns, four twin-gun 4-inch (100 mm) mounts and a catapult. She had a low priority so little work had been done by early October, when a less complex modernisation was considered. This proposal had six 6-inch guns and three 4-inch AA guns, and her former aft boiler room was to be converted from a laundry into an oil tank to extend her range, but this was rejected in favour of a conversion into a fleet repair ship. Her armament was removed and her forward superstructure was extended over the former hangar's roof. Her aft superstructure was extended to be flush with her sides and slightly lengthened, and a large deckhouse was built on the quarterdeck. Her armament now consisted of six single 4-inch QF Mk V AA guns, all on the centreline, two quadruple "pom-pom" mounts, one on each side, and six depth charges. In this role, she had a standard displacement of 10,000 long tons (10,000 t) (12,000 long tons (12,000 t) at full load) and her draught increased to 20 feet 3 inches (6.2 m).


Vindictive nearly hit by bombs while at anchor in Harstad fjord, 17 May 1940.

The conversion was completed on 30 March 1940, just in time for the ship to be used with the Home Fleet as a troop transport during the Norwegian Campaign. She ferried British troops to Narvik in late April and escorted an evacuation convoy from Harstad on 4 June. Vindictive was transferred to the South Atlantic later in the year and remained there until late 1942, when she was ordered north. On the night of 12 November, she was attacked west of Gibraltar by the German submarine U-515, but managed to evade the torpedoes. U-515 sank the accompanying destroyer tender Hecla and blew the stern off one of the escorting destroyers, Marne. She remained with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1944, when she was recalled to support the ships participating in Operation Overlord.

During this time she received her first radars. By August 1943 she mounted a Type 286 target indication set as well as a Type 285 anti-aircraft gunnery radar. By January 1944 she had received a Type 291 air warning radar. Her light AA armament had also been augmented by six Oerlikon 20 mm autocannon, three on each side of the roof of the large workshop abaft the funnel. In 1944 Vindictive was converted into a destroyer depot ship and her AA armament was reinforced by the addition of six more Oerlikons. Later that year, the 4-inch guns were removed and eight additional Oerlikons were added. In early August 1944, the ship was damaged by a long-range, circling, "Dackel" torpedo dropped by the Luftwaffe off the coast of Normandy. In 1945 she received an additional six Oerlikons. She was paid off into reserve on 8 September 1945 and was sold for scrap on 24 January 1946. Vindictive was subsequently broken up at Blyth.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vindictive_(1918)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1922 - French ironclad turret ship Marceau wrecked, the last french Barbette


Marceau was an ironclad turret ship built for the French Navy during the 1880s, the lead ship of her class. She served in the Mediterranean Squadron until 1900, when she was rebuilt and subsequently placed in reserve. She returned to service in 1906 as a torpedo training ship. During World War I, she served in Malta and Corfu as a submarine tender. The old ironclad was sold for scrapping in 1920, and while being towed to Toulon, she ran aground in a gale off Bizerte and became stranded. The wreck remained visible there until the 1930s.


Marceau after her 1900–02 refit

Design


Line-drawing of Marceau in 1908

Marceau had an overall length of 101.6 meters (333 ft 4 in) and was 98.6 meters (323 ft 6 in) long between perpendiculars. She had a beam of 20.23 m (66 ft 4 in) and a draft up to 8.3 m (27 ft 3 in). She displaced 10,850 tonnes (10,680 long tons). The ship was powered by a pair of vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam provided by eight coal-fired cylindrical boilers that were trunked into a single large funnel. The engines were designed to reach 12,000 metric horsepower (8,800 kW) and propel the ship at a top speed of 16.5 knots (30.6 km/h; 19.0 mph), but they only managed 11,169 metric horsepower (8,215 kW) and 16.194 knots (29.991 km/h; 18.636 mph) on the ship's sea trials. Marceau had a range of 4,000 nautical miles (7,400 km; 4,600 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 643–651 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of two 340-millimeter (13.4 in) M1881 28-caliber guns and two slightly newer M1884 guns of the same caliber. These weapons were mounted in individual barbettes in a "lozenge" arrangement, with one gun forward, one aft, and two amidships. The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 138.6 mm (5.46 in) M1884 quick-firing (QF) guns, all firing through unarmored embrasures in the hull. Marceau's light armament varies widely between sources: Chesneau & Kolesnik give a range of three to six 65 mm (2.6 in) 65 mm (2.6 in) guns, nine to eighteen 47 mm (1.9 in) 3-pounder guns, eight to twelve 37 mm (1.5 in) 1-pounder five-barrel Hotchkiss revolving cannon, and three to five 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes in deck-mounted launchers; naval historian Eric Gille gives four to seven 65 mm (2.6 in) guns, nine to twelve 47 mm guns, eight 37 mm guns and five to six torpedo tubes, all above water; naval historian Paul Silverstone says six 65 mm guns, twelve 47 mm guns and five torpedo tubes. The ship's compound armor belt was 450 mm (17.7 in) thick amidships and reduced to 300 mm (11.8 in) at the stern and 230 mm (9.1 in). The barbettes were also 450 mm thick. The conning tower was protected by 120 mm (4.7 in) of armor plating and the deck was 80 mm (3.1 in) thick.

Service history


Marceau as originally built

Marceau was ordered in October 1880, but was not laid down until 27 January 1882 at the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée shipyard in La Seyne-sur-Mer. Work proceeded slowly, and she was not launched until April 1890. This was a result of the influence of Admiral Théophile Aube, who was the Minister of Marine in 1886–87; Aube was a staunch advocate of the so-called Jeune École and opposed new battleship construction. Fitting out work was completed much more quickly, however, and she was commissioned into the French fleet on 14 March 1891. After her commissioning, she joined a French fleet that visited Kronstadt and was inspected by Czar Alexander III of Russia. On the return voyage, the fleet stopped in Spithead, where Queen Victoria reviewed the ships. This turned out to be the only time Marceau operated in the Atlantic; after returning to France, she was assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron, where she remained for the duration of her career.

In 1895, Marceau and the ironclads Courbet, Amiral Baudin, and Formidable all nearly ran aground off Hyères; Marceau and three tugs used to tow Amiral Baudin back to port. During the 1897 fleet gunnery trials, which saw the first use of a new system of centralized fire control in the French fleet, Marceau, her sister Neptune, and the new battleship Brennus all achieved more than 25 percent hits at ranges of between 3,000 yd (2,700 m) and 4,000 yd (3,700 m). On 30 August 1900, Marceau returned to La Seyne for a major reconstruction. Her heavy military masts were cut down, her engines were modernized and her boilers were replaced with 16 Niclausse boilers. Another 138.6 mm gun was installed in the bow under the forecastle. The work was completed in May 1902, and Marceau underwent a series of sea trials for the remainder of the year. She did not return to active service with the fleet, however, and was placed in reserve at Toulon. In 1906, she was converted into a training ship for torpedo operators in Toulon.

After the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Marceau was converted into a floating workshop to support torpedo boats and submarines. She was initially based in Malta, but was later moved to Corfu and then to Bizerte in 1918. She was stricken from the naval register on 1 October 1920, and sold to a shipbreaking firm based in Toulon in 1921. While she was being towed to Toulon, a storm caused her to run aground off Bizerte. She remained visible there until the 1930s.



Magenta in her early configuration

The Marceau class was class of ironclad battleships of the French Navy. They were the last barbette ships built in France.

Ships in class

• Marceau

Builder: La Seyne-sur-Mer
Ordered: 27 December 1880
Launched: 24 May 1887
Fate: Broken up in 1922

• Magenta

Builder: Toulon
Ordered: 7 October 1880
Launched:19 April 1890
Fate: Broken up in 1911

• Neptune

Builder: Brest
Ordered: 7 October 1880
Launched: 7 May 1887
Fate: Sunk as target ship in 1913



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ironclad_Marceau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marceau-class_ironclad

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.




Popeye the Sailor is a cartoon fictional character created by Elzie Crisler Segar. The character first appeared in the daily King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on January 17, 1929, and Popeye became the strip's title in later years. Popeye has also appeared in theatrical and television animated cartoons.

Segar's Thimble Theatre strip was in its 10th year when Popeye made his debut, but the one-eyed (left) sailor quickly became the main focus of the strip, and Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular properties during the 1930s. After Segar's death in 1938, Thimble Theatre was continued by several writers and artists, most notably Segar's assistant Bud Sagendorf. The strip continues to appear in first-run installments in its Sunday edition, written and drawn by Hy Eisman. The daily strips are reprints of old Sagendorf stories.



In 1933, Max Fleischer adapted the Thimble Theatre characters into a series of Popeye the Sailor theatrical cartoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. These cartoons proved to be among the most popular of the 1930s, and Fleischer—and later Paramount's own Famous Studios—continued production through 1957. These cartoon shorts are now owned by Turner Entertainment and distributed by its sister company Warner Bros.

Over the years, Popeye has also appeared in comic books, television cartoons, arcade and video games, hundreds of advertisements, peripheral products ranging from spinach to candy cigarettes, and the 1980 live-action film directed by Robert Altman and starring Robin Williams as Popeye.

Charles M. Schulz said, "I think Popeye was a perfect comic strip, consistent in drawing and humor". In 2002, TV Guide ranked Popeye number 20 on its "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time" list.

Thimble Theatre was cartoonist E. C. Segar's third published strip when it first appeared in the New York Journal on December 19, 1919. The paper's owner William Randolph Hearst also owned King Features Syndicate, which syndicated the strip. Thimble Theatre was intended as a replacement for Midget Movies by Ed Wheelan (Wheelan having recently resigned from King Features). It did not attract a large audience at first, and at the end of its first decade appeared in only half a dozen newspapers.

In its early years, the strip featured characters acting out various stories and scenarios in theatrical style (hence the strip's name). It could be classified as a gag-a-day comic in those days.

Thimble Theatre's first main characters were the thin Olive Oyl and her boyfriend Harold Hamgravy. After the strip moved away from its initial focus, it settled into a comedy-adventure style featuring Olive, Ham Gravy, and Olive's enterprising brother Castor Oyl. Olive's parents Cole and Nana Oyl also made frequent appearances.



Popeye first appeared in the strip on January 17, 1929 as a minor character. He was initially hired by Castor Oyl and Ham to crew a ship for a voyage to Dice Island, the location of a casino owned by the crooked gambler Fadewell. Castor intended to break the bank at the casino using the unbeatable good luck conferred by stroking the hairs on the head of Bernice the Whiffle Hen. Weeks later, on the trip back, Popeye was shot many times by Jack Snork, a stooge of Fadewell's, but survived by rubbing Bernice's head. After the adventure, Popeye left the strip but, due to reader reaction, he was quickly brought back.

The Popeye character became so popular that he was given a larger role, and the strip was taken up by many more newspapers as a result. Initial strips presented Olive as being less than impressed with Popeye, but she eventually left Ham Gravy to become Popeye's girlfriend and Ham Gravy left the strip as a regular. Over the years, however, she has often displayed a fickle attitude towards the sailor. Castor Oyl continued to come up with get-rich-quick schemes and enlisted Popeye in his misadventures. Eventually, he settled down as a detective and later on bought a ranch out West. Castor has seldom appeared in recent years.

In 1933, Popeye received a foundling baby in the mail, whom he adopted and named "Swee'Pea." Other regular characters in the strip were J. Wellington Wimpy, a hamburger-loving moocher who would "gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" (he was also soft-spoken and cowardly; Vickers Wellington bombers were nicknamed "Wimpys" after the character); George W. Geezil, a local cobbler who spoke in a heavily affected accent and habitually attempted to murder or wish death upon Wimpy; and Eugene the Jeep, a yellow, vaguely dog-like animal from Africa with magical powers. In addition, the strip featured the Sea Hag, a terrible pirate, as well as the last witch on earth (her even more terrible sister excepted); Alice the Goon, a monstrous creature who entered the strip as the Sea Hag's henchwoman and continued as Swee'Pea's babysitter; and Toar, a caveman.

Segar's strip was quite different from the cartoons that followed. The stories were more complex, with many characters that never appeared in the cartoons (King Blozo, for example). Spinach usage was rare and Bluto made only one appearance. Segar would sign some of his early Popeye comic strips with a cigar, due to his last name being a homophone of "cigar" (pronounced SEE-gar). Comics historian Brian Walker stated: "Segar offered up a masterful blend of comedy, fantasy, satire and suspense in Thimble Theater Starring Popeye".


Popeye the Sailor opening title employed in the 1930s.

Thimble Theatre became one of King Features' most popular strips during the 1930s. A poll of adult comic strip readers in the April 1937 issue of Fortune magazine voted Popeye their second favourite comic strip (after Little Orphan Annie). By 1938, Thimble Theatrewas running in 500 newspapers, and over 600 licensed "Popeye" products were on sale. The success of the strip meant Segar was earning $100,000 a year at the time of his death. Following an eventual name change to Popeye in the 1970s, the comic remains one of the longest running strips in syndication today. After Mussolini came to power in Italy, he banned all American comic strips, but Popeye was so popular the Italians made him bring it back.[citation needed]. The strip carried on after Segar's death in 1938, at which point he was replaced by a series of artists. In the 1950s, a spinoff strip was established, called Popeye the Sailorman.



http://xroads.virginia.edu/~1930s/PRINT/comic/thimble/popeye.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye#Thimble_Theatre_and_Popeye_comic_strips
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye_the_Sailor_(film_series)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1943 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis captures the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios Stefanos and mans her with part of her crew.


Papanikolis (Greek: Y-2 Παπανικολής) was one of the most successful Greek submarines during the Second World War.



History
Papanikolis, together with her sister ship, Katsonis, formed the first class of Greek submarines ordered after the First World War. She was built at the Chantiers de la Loire shipyards between 1925–27, and commissioned into the Hellenic Navy on 21 December 1927. Its first captain was Cdr P. Vandoros.

Despite her age and mechanical problems, she participated in the 1940-41 Greco-Italian War under the command of Lieutenant Commander Miltiadis Iatridis, carrying out six war patrols in the Adriatic. During one of these, on 22 December 1940, she sank the small Italian motor ship Antonietta, and, on the very next day, the 3,952-ton troop carrier Firenze near Sazan Island. After the German invasion of April 1941, together with the rest of the fleet, Papanikolis fled to the Middle East, from where she would operate during the next years, carrying out nine war patrols in total.





Under the command of Commander Athanasios Spanidis, the former captain of Katsonis, she participated in two patrols in the Aegean Sea in 1942. During the first, in June 1942, she sank six small sailing vessels between 11 and 14 June, and proceeded to disembark SOE agents in Crete and receive a team of 15 New Zealand commandos. During the next patrol, from 31 August to 15 September, she unsuccessfully attacked an 8,000-ton oil carrier, and disembarked two mixed British-Greek commando teams at Rhodes, which succeeded in attacking the island's two airfields and destroying a large number of Axis aircraft in "Operation Anglo".

Coming under the command of Lieutenant Nikolaos Roussen, the submarine went into another patrol in November, offloading men and equipment at Crete. On 30 November, Papanikolis successfully ambushed and sank an 8,000-ton cargo vessel at the Alimnia islet, near Rhodes. On 17 January 1943, after carrying agents and equipment to Hydra, she captured the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios Stefanos and manned her with part of her crew, which sailed her to Alexandria, while the next day, she sank another 150-ton sailer. During subsequent patrols in March and May, she sank further 4 sailers, totaling 450 tons.

Papanikolis survived the war and returned to Greece after liberation in October 1944. However, she was severely outdated, and was decommissioned in 1945. The ship's conning tower was preserved and is on display in the Hellenic Maritime Museum at Piraeus.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_submarine_Papanikolis_(Y-2)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1955 - "Underway on nuclear power"


USS Nautilus (SSN-571) was the world's first operational nuclear-powered submarine and the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on 3 August 1958.

Sharing names with Captain Nemo's fictional submarine in Jules Verne's classic 1870 science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and named after another USS Nautilus (SS-168) that served with distinction in World War II, the new nuclear powered Nautilus was authorized in 1951, with laying down for construction in 1952 and launched in January 1954, attended by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States, wife of 34th President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and commissioned the following September into the United States Navy. Final construction was completed in 1955.

Because her nuclear propulsion allowed her to remain submerged far longer than the then current diesel-electric submarines previously, she broke many records in her first years of operation, and traveled to locations previously beyond the limits of submarines. In operation, she revealed a number of limitations in her design and construction. This information was used to improve subsequent submarines.

Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives around 250,000 visitors per year.


USS Nautilus during her initial sea trials, 20 January 1955

"Underway on nuclear power"
Following her commissioning, Nautilus remained dockside for further construction and testing. On the morning of January 17, 1955, at 11 am EST, Nautilus' first Commanding Officer, Commander Eugene P. Wilkinson, ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, "Underway On Nuclear Power." On 10 May, she headed south for shakedown. Submerged throughout, she traveled 1,100 nautical miles(2,000 km; 1,300 mi) from New London to San Juan, Puerto Rico and covered 1,200 nautical miles (2,200 km; 1,400 mi) in less than ninety hours. At the time, this was the longest submerged cruise by a submarine and at the highest sustained speed (for at least one hour) ever recorded.


Museum
Nautilus was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Secretary of the Interior on 20 May 1982.

She was named as the official state ship of Connecticut in 1983. Following an extensive conversion at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Nautilus was towed back to Groton, under the command of Captain John Almon, arriving on 6 July 1985. On 11 April 1986, Nautilus opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Library and Museum.

Nautilus now serves as a museum of submarine history operated by the Naval History and Heritage Command. The ship underwent a five-month preservation in 2002 at Electric Boat, at a cost of approximately $4.7 million. Nautilusattracts some 250,000 visitors annually to her present berth near Naval Submarine Base New London.



Nautilus celebrated the 50th anniversary of her commissioning on 30 September 2004 with a ceremony that included a speech from Vice Admiral Eugene P. Wilkinson, her first Commanding Officer, and a designation of the ship as an American Nuclear Society National Nuclear Landmark.

Visitors may tour the forward two compartments, with guidance from an automated system. Despite similar alterations to exhibit the engineering spaces, tours aft of the control room are not permitted due to safety and security concerns.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nautilus_(SSN-571)
https://web.archive.org/web/20150101040825/http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08571a.htm
http://www.ussnautilus.org/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1980 - supertanker Salem scuttled off the coast of Guinea after secretly unloading 192,000 tons of oil in Durban, South Africa. The oil was delivered in breach of the South African oil embargo, and the ship was scuttled to fraudulently claim insurance.


Salem was a supertanker which was scuttled off the coast of Guinea on 17 January 1980, after secretly unloading 192,000 tons of oil in Durban, South Africa. The oil was delivered in breach of the South African oil embargo, and the ship was scuttled to fraudulently claim insurance.



Ship
The tanker, T/T Sea Sovereign, was commissioned in 1969 in Stockholm for Salénrederierna AB and built at the Kockums shipyard in Malmö. In 1977 Salénrederierna sold the tanker to Pimmerton Shipping Ltd. (Liberia), as South Sun and ship management was placed in the hands of Wallem Ship Management Ltd. (Hong Kong). Two years later South Sun was sold to Oxford Shipping Inc. (U.S.). The ship was renamed Salem, but remained under the Liberian flag.



Loading and sinking
On 30 November 1979 Salem left the port of Piraeus to load oil in the Kuwaiti port of Mina Al Ahmadi, on behalf of an Italian charterer. She loaded approximately 194,000 tons of light crude oil to be discharged in Genoa. The tanker, with its cargo, was insured at Lloyd's of London. She left Mina Al Ahmadi on 10 December and proceeded down the East African coast. On 27 December under the name Lema she entered the port of Durban, South Africa. There, the ship discharged 170–180,000 tons of cargo, and took on the same amount in ballast water in order to stay on a laden draft. She departed Durban on 2 January 1980. On 17 January 1980, under the name Salem, she was found off the Senegalese coast in distress. The British tanker British Trident rescued the crew of the sinking tanker.



Fraud
Four days after leaving the port of Mina Al Ahmadi, the charterers in Genoa sold the cargo to the Shell Group for [US$]56 million. This type of transaction is not uncommon. When the British tanker Trident rescued the shipwrecked Salem crew, it was observed that not only had the crew taken all their belongings in suitcases but they had gone so far as to rescue a number of other items including duty-free goods and sandwiches, although the tanker was supposed to have sunk so quickly, after several explosions, that there was not enough time to save the ship's log. Far more striking was that, despite the ostensible cargo of nearly 200,000 tons of crude oil and having suffered sufficient explosion damage to cause her to sink, there was barely a trace of the vessel left on the surface.

Aftermath
After Salem′s loss, Lloyd's of London received an insurance claim of US$56.3 million from the owner of the cargo. It was the largest single claim that Lloyd's had received up to that time. Research by Lloyd's revealed that the South African oil company Sasol, had bought the Lema / Salem cargo in Durban for US$43 million.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_(supertanker)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 January 1994 – Ocean liner American Star beached at Fuertefentura


SS America was an ocean liner built in 1940 for the United States Lines and was designed by the noted American naval architect William Francis Gibbs. She carried many names in the 54 years between her construction and her 1994 wrecking, as she served as the SS America (carrying this name three different times during her career), the USS West Point, the SS Australis, the SS Italis, the SS Noga, the SS Alferdoss, and the SS American Star. She served most notably in passenger service as the SS America, and as the Greek-flagged SS Australis.


SS America arriving at Southampton.

She was finally wrecked as the SS American Star at Playa de Garcey on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands on 18 January 1994. The wreck remains there to this day but has now broken up and collapsed into the sea. Only a small section of the bow remains visible during low tide.


Alferdoss/Noga in Eleusis, 1986

Wrecked at Fuerteventura (1994)


American Star the day after she ran aground on Fuerteventura in 1994.


Wreck of American Star, 8 March 1995.


The wreck of American Star (SS America) seen in July 2004 from land side, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.

In October 1992, the ship was sold yet again, with the intention of being refitted to become a five-star hotel ship off Phuket, in Thailand. Drydocking at that time revealed that despite the years of neglect, her hull was still in remarkably good condition. In August 1993 she was renamed American Star, her propellers were removed and placed on the deck at the bow, the funnel was painted red and the bridge was painted signal orange just for the tow, and ladders were welded to starboard. She left Greece on 22 December 1993 under tow, but the tow proved impossible due to the weather. She then returned to Greece for a few days until the weather calmed down. On 31 December 1993, American Star left Greece for the last time and under tow by Ukrainian tugboat Neftegaz-67.

The hundred-day tow began. Shortly afterwards, American Star and Neftegaz-67 sailed into a thunderstorm in the Atlantic. The tow-lines broke and six or more crew-members were sent aboard the American Star to reattach the emergency tow-lines, which proved unsuccessful. Two other towboats were called to assist Neftegaz 67. On 17 January 1994 the crew aboard American Star was rescued by helicopter. The ship was left adrift. At 6:15 am on 18 January, the ship ran aground at Playa de Garcey off the west coast of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.

While discussions among the ship's owners, the towing firm, and the companies insuring the ship were going on, the ship was left to nature, with the forward part of the ship running aground on a sandbar. Within the first 48 hours of grounding the pounding surf of the Atlantic broke the ship in two just past the second funnel. The ship was declared a total loss on 6 July 1994. The 344 ft (105 m) stern section collapsed completely to port and sank in 1996, while the 379 ft (116 m) bow section remained intact.

In November 2005, the port side of the bow section collapsed, which caused the liner's remains to assume a much sharper list and the remaining funnel to detach and fall into the ocean. The collapse of the port side also caused the hull to begin to break up and by October 2006, the wreck had almost completely collapsed onto its port side.

In April 2007 the starboard side finally collapsed causing the wreck to break in half and fall into the sea. Over the subsequent years, the wreck continued to collapse. At last report, a small section of the bow as well as the keel of the vessel was still visible at low tide.


The deterioration of the remains of American Star between 2005 and 2007. The stern broke off and sank in 1996, leaving only the bow section on the sandbar.

Since that time, the ship has developed a greater list to port, and the funnel has detached and sunk. More parts of the ship have now collapsed and the wreck is only visible during low tide.
It was noted in 2013 that the wreck was no longer visible on Google Maps. Google StreetView



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_America_(1939)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(Schiff,_1940)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 17 January


1730 – Four spanish ships of the line were launched on the same day

Santa Isabel 80 (launched 17 January 1730 at Guarnizo) - Stricken 1747
Castilla 62 (launched 17 January 1730 at Pasajes) - Stricken 1736
Andalucía (Nuestra Señora del Carmen) 62 (launched 17 January 1730 at Pasajes) - Wrecked September 1740
Santa Teresa 60/62 (launched 17 January 1730 at Pasajes) - Stricken 1 November 1743


1743 - armed storeship HMS Astraea (1739 - 20), Cptn. Robert Swanton, ex-Spanish Sixth Rate frigate 'Astrea' (1737 - 24), accidentally burnt at Portsmouth

HMS Astraea (1739) was a storeship, formerly a Spanish ship captured in 1739. She was burnt by accident in 1743.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=3168


1770 - HMS Jamaica (14) foundred off Jamaica

HMS Jamaica was a 10-gun (14-gun from 1749) two-masted Hind-class sloop of the Royal Navy, designed by Joseph Allin and built by him at Deptford Dockyard on the Thames River, England and launched on 17 July 1744. She and her sister Trial were the only sloops to be built in the Royal Dockyards between 1733 and 1748.
After more than 25 years service, she was wrecked off Cuba on 27 January 1770.

Remark:
Was rigged as a two-masted Sloop. The term Brig-sloop is inappropriate here as it was not recognised as a rig description in the 1740s. She may have been snow rigged.


lines This plan relates to the new-builds which originally hads the names of the ships they replaced - esp. the Rupert's Prize and Pembroke's Prize. Peregrina was launched as Merlin Galgo was launched as Swallow NMM, progress Book, volume 2, folio 542, states that 'Rupert Prize' was renamed 'Hind' per Admiralty Order dated April 1744. She was launched 19 April 1744, and fitted at Woolwich Dockyard between April and May 1744. The previous 'Rupert Prize' was sold in October 1743. NMM, Progress Book volume 2, folio 540, states that 'Pembroke Prize' was renamed per Admiralty Order 'Vulture' on 18 April 1744. She was launched in May 1744, and surveyed afloat and refitted at Plymouth Dockyard, October-November 1744. The previous 'Pembroke Prize' was sold 13 March 1743.

The Hind class was a class of four sloops of wooden construction built for the Royal Navy between 1743 and 1746. Two were built by contract with commercial builders to a common design prepared by Joseph Allin, the Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard, and the other two were built in Deptford Dockyard itself.
The first two - Hind and Vulture - were ordered on 6 August 1743 to be built to replace two ex-Spanish vessels (the Rupert's Prize and Pembroke's Prize, captured in 1741 and 1742 respectively, and put into service by the British). Although initially armed with ten 6-pounder guns, this class was built with seven pairs of gunports on the upper deck, enabling them to be re-armed with fourteen 6-pounders later in their careers.
Two more vessels to the same design - Jamaica and Trial - were ordered ten days later, on 18 August 1743; these were built under Allin's supervision at Deptford Dockyard, and were the only wartime sloops of this era be built in a Royal Dockyard.



Type: Sloop-of-war
Tons burthen: 266 20⁄94bm
Length:

• 91 ft 3 in (27.8 m) (gundeck)
• 75 ft 0 in (22.9 m) (keel)

Beam: 25 ft 10 in (7.9 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 2 in (3.71 m) (vessels without platform in hold)
Sail plan: Snow brig
Complement: 110
Armament:

• 10 × 6-pounder guns;
• also 14 x ½-pounder swivel guns

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jamaica_(1744)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/84832.html


1863 - Union iron-clad gunboat USS Baron de Kalb, with tinclad gunboats Forest Rose and Romeo, along with an Army transport, clear out Confederate strong holds up White River to Des Arc, Ark.

USS Baron DeKalb (1861) was a City-class ironclad gunboat constructed for the Union Navy by James B. Eads during the American Civil War.
USS Baron DeKalb, named after General Baron DeKalb of Hüttendorf near Erlangen, in present-day Bavaria, was originally named Saint Louis, and was one of seven City-class ironclads built at Carondelet, Missouriand Mound City, Illinois, for the Western Gunboat Flotilla.[1]
These ironclads were shallow draft with a center driven paddle wheel. They were partially armored and slow and very hard to steer in the currents of rivers. This ironclad was also vulnerable to plunging fire and also by hits in their un-armored areas. Called "Pook Turtles" for the designer, they did yeoman service through four years of war and were present at almost every battle on the Mississippi River and its tributaries.



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


1863 – Launch of USS Lehigh was a Passaic-class monitor launched 17 January 1863 by Reaney, Son & Archbold, Chester, Pennsylvania,

The first USS Lehigh was a Passaic-class monitor launched 17 January 1863 by Reaney, Son & Archbold, Chester, Pennsylvania, under a subcontract from John Ericsson; and commissioned at Philadelphia Navy Yard15 April 1863, Commander John Guest in command.


USS Lehigh during the Spanish–American War

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lehigh_(1863)


1899 - Gunboat USS Bennington, commanded by Cmdr. E.D. Taussig, claims Wake Island for the United States, giving the U.S. a cable route between Honolulu and Manila, a factor that influences territorial demands in the Pacific.

USS Bennington (Gunboat No. 4/PG-43) was a member of the Yorktown class of steel-hulled, twin-screw gunboats in the United States Navy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was the first U.S. Navy ship named in honor of the town of Bennington, Vermont, site of the Battle of Bennington in the American Revolutionary War.


The Bennington, photographed circa 1898 by William H. Rau

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bennington_(PG-4)


1943 - Submarine USS Whale (SS 239) sinks the Japanese transport Heiyo Maru.

USS Whale (SS-239), a Gato-class submarine, was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named for a whale, an extremely large, aquatic mammal that is fishlike in form. The USS Cachalot (SS-170) (Cachalot, another name for a Sperm Whale) commissioned on 1 December 1933 preceded the Whale.



Her keel was laid down on 28 June 1941 by the Mare Island Naval Shipyard of Vallejo, California. She was launched on 14 March 1942 (sponsored by Mrs. A. D. Denny, wife of Captain A. D. Denny, the commanding officer of the shipyard), and commissioned on 1 June 1942, with Lieutenant Commander (Lt. Cmdr.) John B. Azer (Class of 1930) in command.

Dock trials and initial shakedown training commenced on 30 July. The submarine—escorted by destroyer Kilty (DD-137)—departed San Francisco, California, on 4 August and arrived at San Diego, California, two days later. Between 30 July and 9 September, she conducted type training in the San Diego and San Francisco areas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Whale_(SS-239)


1943 - Light aircraft carrier USS Cowpens (CV-25) is launched. Redesignated CVL 25 six months later, she serves in the Pacific during World War II.

USS Cowpens (CV-25/CVL-25/AVT-1), nicknamed The Mighty Moo, was an 11,000-ton Independence class light aircraft carrier that served the United States Navy from 1943 to 1947.



Cowpens, named for the Battle of Cowpens of the Revolutionary War, was launched on 17 January 1943 at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation, in Camden, New Jersey, sponsored by Mrs. Margaret Bradford Spruance (née Halsey, daughter of Fleet Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr.) and commissioned on 28 May 1943 by Captain R. P. McConnell. She was reclassified CVL-25 on 15 July 1943. Cowpens completed her active service at the end of 1946.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cowpens_(CVL-25)


1944 - Dauntless SBD scout planes and Avenger TBF torpedo bombers bomb Japanese shipping at Rabaul and sank three ships, damaging a third.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 January 1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay - Part I


The First Fleet was the 11 ships that departed from Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787 to found the penal colony that became the first European settlement in Australia. The Fleet consisted of two Royal Navy vessels, three store ships and six convict transports, carrying between 1,000 and 1,500 convicts, marines, seamen, civil officers and free people (accounts differ on the numbers), and a large quantity of stores. From England, the Fleet sailed southwest to Rio de Janeiro, then east to Cape Town and via the Great Southern Ocean to Botany Bay, arriving over the period of 18 to 20 January 1788, taking 250 to 252 days from departure to final arrival.


The First Fleet entering Port Jackson on 26 January 1788 by Edmund Le Bihan

History
Background and planning
Convicts were originally transported to the Thirteen Colonies in North America, but after the American War of Independence ended in 1783, the newly formed United States refused to accept further convicts. On 6 December 1785, Orders in Council were issued in London for the establishment of a penal colony in New South Wales, on land claimed for Britain by explorer James Cook in his first voyage to the Pacific in 1770.

The First Fleet was commanded by Commodore Arthur Phillip, who was given instructions authorising him to make regulations and land grants in the colony.[4] The ships arrived at Botany Bay between 18 January and 20 January 1788; HMS Supply arrived on 18 January, Alexander, Scarborough and Friendship arrived on 19 January, and the remaining ships on 20 January.

The cost to Britain of outfitting and despatching the Fleet was £84,000 (about £9.6 million as of 2015).

Ships of the First Fleet
Naval escort
The First Fleet included two Royal Navy escort ships, the ten-gun sixth-rate vessel HMS Sirius under the command of Captain John Hunter, and the armed tender HMS Supply commanded by Lieutenant Henry Lidgbird Ball.






Food and supply transports
Ropes, crockery, agricultural equipment and a miscellany of other stores were needed. Items transported included tools, agricultural implements, seeds, spirits, medical supplies, bandages, surgical instruments, handcuffs, leg irons and a prefabricated wooden frame for the colony's first Government House.[12] The party had to rely on its own provisions to survive until it could make use of local materials, assuming suitable supplies existed, and grow its own food and raise livestock.



Scale models of all the ships are on display at the Museum of Sydney. The models were built by ship makers Lynne and Laurie Hadley, after researching the original plans, drawings and British archives. The replicas of the Supply, Charlotte, Scarborough, Friendship, Prince of Wales, Lady Penrhyn, Borrowdale, Alexander, Sirius (1786), Fishburn and Golden Grove are made from Western Red or Syrian Cedar.

Nine Sydney harbour ferries built in the mid-1980s are named after First Fleet vessels. The unused names are Lady Penrhyn and Prince of Wales.

People of the First Fleet
See also: List of convicts on the First Fleet and Journals of the First Fleet
The people of the fleet included seamen, marines and their families, government officials, and a large number of convicts, including women and children. All had been tried and convicted in Britain and almost all of them in England. However, many are known to have come to England from other parts of Britain and, especially, from Ireland; at least 14 are known to have come from the British colonies in North America; 12 are identified as black (born in Britain, Africa, the West Indies, North America, India or a European country or its colony). Further identifications are made on the basis of the surname, for example as typically an Irish name. The convicts had committed a variety of crimes, including theft, perjury, fraud, assault, and robbery, for which they had variously been sentenced to penal transportation for 7 years, 14 years, or the term of their natural life.

The six convict transports each had a detachment of marines on board. Most of the families of the marines travelled aboard the Prince of Wales.[20] A number of people on the First Fleet kept diaries and journals of their experiences, including the surgeons, sailors, officers, soldiers, and ordinary seamen. There are at least eleven known manuscript Journals of the First Fleet in existence as well as some letters.

The exact number of people directly associated with the First Fleet will likely never be established, as accounts of the event vary slightly. A total of 1,420 people have been identified as embarking on the First Fleet in 1787, and 1,373 are believed to have landed at Sydney Cove in January 1788. In her biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Mollie Gillen gives the following statistics:



While the names of all crew members of Sirius and Supply are known, the six transports and three storeships may have carried as many as 110 more seamen than have been identified – no complete musters have survived for these ships. The total number of persons embarking on the First Fleet would, therefore, be approximately 1,530 with about 1,483 reaching Sydney Cove.

Other sources indicate that the passengers consisted of 10 civil officers, 212 marines, including officers, 28 wives and 17 children of the marines, 81 free people, 504 male convicts and 192 female convicts; making the total number of free people 348 and the total number of prisoners 696, coming to a grand total of 1,044 people.

According to the first census of 1788 as reported by Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, the white population of the colony was 1,030 and the colony also consisted of 7 horses, 29 sheep, 74 swine, 6 rabbits, and 7 cattle.

The following statistics were provided by Governor Phillip:



David Collins' book An Account of the English Colony in New South Wales gives the following details:

The Alexander, of 453 tons, had on board 192 male convicts; 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 29 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
The Scarborough, of 418 tons, had on board 205 male convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 26 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
The Charlotte, of 346 tons, had on board 89 male and 20 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 35 privates, with the principal surgeon of the colony.
The Lady Penrhyn, of 338 tons, had on board 101 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, and 3 privates, with a person acting as a surgeon's mate.
The Prince of Wales, of 334 tons, had on board 2 male and 50 female convicts; 2 lieutenants, 3 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer, and 24 privates, with the surveyor-general of the colony.
The Friendship, … of 228 tons, had on board 76 male and 21 female convicts; 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 sergeants, 3 corporals, 1 drummer, and 36 privates, with 1 assistant surgeon to the colony.
There were on board, beside these, 28 women, 8 male and 6 female children, belonging to the soldiers of the detachment, together with 6 male and 7 female children belonging to the convicts.
The Fishburn store-ship was of 378 tons, the Borrowdale of 272 tons, and the Golden Grove of 331 tons. Golden Grove carried the chaplain for the colony, with his wife and a servant.
Not only these store-ships, but the men of war and transports were laden with provisions, implements of agriculture, camp equipage, clothing for the convicts, baggage, etc.
The Sirius carried as supernumeraries, the major commandant of the corps of marines embarked in the transports* [*This officer was also lieutenant-governor of the colony], the adjutant and quarter-master, the judge-advocate of the settlement, and the commissary; with one sergeant, three drummers, seven privates, four women, and a few artificers.​

The chief surgeon for the First Fleet, John White, reported a total of 48 deaths and 28 births during the voyage. The deaths during the voyage included one marine, one marine's wife, one marine's child, 36 male convicts, four female convicts, and five children of convicts.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Fleet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_convicts_on_the_First_Fleet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journals_of_the_First_Fleet