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

[Uwek]

28 July 1854 – USS Constellation (1854), the last all-sail warship built by the United States Navy, is commissioned

USS Constellation is a sloop-of-war, the last sail-only warship designed and built by the United States Navy. She was built in 1854, using a small amount of material salvaged from the frigate USS Constellation, which had been disassembled the year before. Despite being a single-gundeck "sloop," she is actually larger than her original frigate build, and more powerfully armed with fewer but much more potent shell-firing guns.

The sloop was launched on 26 August 1854 and commissioned on 28 July 1855 with Captain Charles H. Bell in command. She remained in service for close to a century before finally being retired in 1954. She is now preserved as a museum ship in Baltimore, Maryland, and is a National Historic Landmark.


Constellation at Baltimore's Inner Harbor

Design and construction
From 1816 to the 1830s, the Navy accumulated extensive stocks of live oak timbers for use in new warship construction under the provisions of the Act for the Gradual Increase of the Navy of the United States, passed in 1816. In the early 1850s, the Navy decided to build a new sail-powered ship using these existing stockpiles, calling for a sloop-of-war that would be fast, with a long endurance, and sufficiently armed to be capable of engaging other warships of her type. This would produce a capable warship while keeping costs low since the material used was already on hand and an expensive steam engine would not be required. Chief Constructor John Lenthall prepared the design, along with Edward Delano, the constructor of the Gosport Shipyard. In June 1853, Lenthall completed the hull half model, which was necessary to scale up the design and to prepare the necessary hull timbers. During this period, the new vessel's namesake, Constellation, was in the process of being broken up a short distance away in the Gospart yard.

Beginning in May 1853, work on assembling the timbers commenced, as the shipyard workers prepared to start construction of the new sloop-of-war. The vessel's keel was laid down on 25 June 1853, using material from the oak stockpile; her sternpost was erected on 27 August, and her stem followed a couple of weeks later. She was launched on 26 August 1854 at 11:45. Fitting-out work then commenced, which included the installation of her masts, rigging, and armament.


Constellation in 1926

Characteristics
Constellation was 181 feet (55 m) long at the waterline and 199 feet (61 m) long overall. She had a beam of 41 feet (12 m) at the waterline, and was 43 feet (13 m) across at her widest point. Her maximum draft was 21 feet (6.4 m) at a full load displacement of 1,400 long tons (1,400 t). The ship's crew numbered 21 officers and 265 enlisted men.

In her original configuration, Constellation was armed with a battery of sixteen 8-inch (200 mm) shell-firing guns and four 32-pounder guns mounted on her gun deck in the main battery. On her spar deck, she carried a pair of chase guns; a 30-pounder Parrott rifle was placed in the bow and a 20-pounder Parrott rifle was placed in the stern. She also carried three 12-pounder boat howitzers.

Service
Constellation was commissioned on 28 July 1855, under the command of Captain Charles H. Bell. She immediately departed for a tour with the Mediterranean Squadron that lasted three years.
....................................


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_(1854)

 

[Uwek]

Other events on 28 July


1635 – In the Eighty Years' War the Spanish capture the strategic Dutch fortress of Schenkenschans.

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

1784 - HMS Boreas (28), Cptn. Horatio Nelson, arrives at English Harbour, Antigua.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Boreas_(1774)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-297133;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B

1808 - HMS Volage (22), Cptn. P. L. J. Rosenhagen, captured sloop Requin off Northern Corsica

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

1861 - Frigate USS St. Lawrence, Cptn. Hugh Y. Purviance, spotted a schooner flying English colors and engaged the vessel. Fleeing, the schooner then ran up the Confederate flag and fired three shots. Returning fire, St. Lawrence hit the vessel twice, once in her bow. Survivors of the sunken vessel revealed it had been the Confederate privateer, Petrel.


USS St. Lawrence

On the 28th, a lookout on the frigate spotted a schooner flying British colors and gave chase. Some four hours later, as St. Lawrence was overhauling the schooner, the fleeing vessel ran up the Confederate flag and fired three shots at her pursuer. One passed through the frigate's "mainsail and took a splinter out of the main yard." St. Lawrence answered with her forecastle battery and hit the chase twice, once in her bow. Survivors from the schooner, which sank half an hour later, revealed that their ship had been the Confederate privateer, Petrel, of Charleston, South Carolina. Boats from St. Lawrence rescued all but two of the privateer's 38 crewmen and sent them north in the steamer USS Flag.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_St._Lawrence_(1848)

1914 - pursuit of SMS Goeben and SMS Breslau by british battleships

The pursuit of Goeben and Breslau was a naval action that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea at the outbreak of the First World War when elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet attempted to intercept the German Mittelmeerdivision consisting of the battlecruiser SMS Goeben and the light cruiserSMS Breslau. The German ships evaded the British fleet and passed through the Dardanelles to reach Constantinople, where they were eventually handed over to the Ottoman Empire. Renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim and Midili, the former Goeben and Breslau were ordered by their German commander to attack Russian positions, in doing so bringing the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers.


SMS Goeben


SMS Breslau

Though a bloodless "battle," the failure of the British pursuit had enormous political and military ramifications. In the short term it effectively ended the careers of the two British Admirals who had been in charge of the pursuit. Writing several years later, Winston Churchill—who had been First Lord of the Admiralty—expressed the opinion that by forcing Turkey into the war the Goeben had brought "more slaughter, more misery, and more ruin than has ever before been borne within the compass of a ship."


British ships seen following the German ships

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Goeben_and_Breslau
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Goeben
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Breslau


1945 - USS Callaghan (DD 792) is the last ship sunk by a Japanese kamikaze attack when she hits a radar picket station approximately 50 miles southwest of Okinawa, 25X 43N, 126X 55E. USS Pritchett (DD 561) is also damaged by a near hit from a kamikaze as she assists the destroyer. The kamikaze that hits USS Callaghan is carrying Willow (a primary training biplane), revealing the desperation level of the Japanese. USS Callaghan is named in honor of Medal of Honor recipient, Rear Adm. Daniel J. Callaghan, who died during the naval Battle of Guadalcanal, Nov. 12-13, 1942.



On 9 July 1945, Callaghan took station on the radar picket line, where on 28 July she drove off an attacking wood-and-fabric Yokosuka K5Y biplane. The aircraft survived the first approach because the proximity fuses were ineffective against its wooden fuselage. The plane, skimming low and undetected, crashed into Callaghan on the starboard side. It exploded and one of the aircraft's bombs penetrated the aft engine room. The destroyer flooded and the fires which ignited antiaircraft ammunition prevented nearby ships from rendering aid. Callaghan sank at 02:35, 28 July 1945, with the loss of 47 members of her crew. She was the last Allied ship sunk by a kamikaze attack during the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Callaghan_(DD-792)

1947 - The frighter Ocean Liberty, loaded with Ammoniumnitrat explodes in harbour of french city Brest. 21 lost life

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/_de_l'Ocean_Liberty

 

[Uwek]

Events on 29 July


904 - The Sack of Thessalonica in 904 by Saracen pirates was one of the worst disasters to befall the Byzantine Empire in the 10th century. A Muslim fleet, led by the renegade Leo of Tripoli, and with the imperial capital of Constantinople as its initial target, sailed from Syria. The Muslims were deterred from attacking Constantinople, and instead turned to Thessalonica, totally surprising the Byzantines, whose navy was unable to react in time. The city walls, especially towards the sea, were in disrepair, while the city's two commanders issued conflicting orders.


Illustration of the sack of Thessalonica by the Arab fleet in 904, from the Madrid Skylitzes, fol. 111v, detail.

After a short siege, the Saracens were able to storm the seaward walls, overcome the Thessalonians' resistance and take the city on 29 July. The sacking continued for a full week, before the raiders departed for their bases in the Levant, having freed 4,000 Muslim prisoners while capturing 60 ships,[1] and gaining a large loot and 22,000 captives, mostly young people.[2] In the event, most of the captives, including John Kaminiates, who chronicled the sack, were ransomed by the Empire and exchanged for Muslim captives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sack_of_Thessalonica_(904)

1710 - HMS Kent (70) captured Superbe (64)

HMS Superb was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She had previously been Le Superbe, a 56-gun warship of the French Navy, until her capture off Lizard Point by HMS Kent in July 1710. Commissioned into the Royal Navy in September 1710, HMS Superb served throughout Queen Anne's War and the War of the Quadruple Alliance, during which she participated in the destruction of the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Cape Passaro in 1718. She was broken up in 1732.





Captured ships are detailed surveyed by the british and documented - also they copied the structures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Superb_(1710)

1710 - HMS Swallow Prize (32) wrecked off Corsica

1752 – Birth of Peter Warren, Irish admiral and politician (b. 1703)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Warren_(Royal_Navy_officer)

1775 - HMS Resolution, Cmdr. James Cook, arrived in Britain after 2nd voyage of discovery.

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

1778 - HMS Kingfisher (14) captured by a French Squadron.

1782 - HMS Santa Margarita (36) took Amazone (36) of Cape Henry, but the next day the squadron under Vaudreuil intervened, recapturing Amazone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Santa_Margarita_(1779)

1800 - Boats of HMS Impetueux (74), Cptn. Sir Edward Pellew, captured French brig Cerbere.

America was a French Téméraire-class ship of the line 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1794 at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. She then served with the British under the name HMS Impetueux until she was broken up in 1813. She became the prototype for the Royal Navy America-class ship of the line.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_America_(1788)

1809 - Boats of HMS Excellent (74) Cptn. John West, HMS Acorn (18), Robert Clephane, and HMS Bustard, John Duff Markland, cut out six Italian gunboats and ten trabaccolos from Duino.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Excellent_(1787)

1813 - HMS Martin (18), Humphry Fleming Senhouse, aground on the Crow's Shoal, attacked by 10 American gunboats.

1813 - USS President (44), John Rodgers, captures and burns British brig Alert.

1846 - During the Mexican-American War, a detachment of Marines and Sailors, led by Arm. Col. John C. Fremont from the sloop USS Cyane, commanded by Cmdr. Samuel F. DuPont, lands and takes possession of San Diego and raises the U.S. flag.

1898 - During the Spanish-American War, the gunboat, USS Helena, commanded by Cmdr. William T. Swinburne, captures the Spanish steamer Manati at Cienfuegos, Cuba.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Helena_(PG-9)

1920 - USS St. Louis (CA 20) is ordered to Turkish waters to protect American nationals and citizens during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922).



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_St._Louis_(C-20)

1967 - USS Forrestal fire

a fire broke out on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. An electrical anomaly had caused the discharge of a Zuni rocket on the flight deck, triggering a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161. At the time, Forrestal was engaged in combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the Vietnam War. The ship survived, but with damage exceeding US$72 million, not including the damage to aircraft. Future United States Senator John McCain and future four-star admiral and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Ronald J. Zlatoper were among the survivors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1967_USS_Forrestal_fire

2010 – An overloaded passenger ferry capsizes on the Kasai River in Bandundu Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, resulting in at least 80 deaths.

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1711 - The Quebec Expedition, or the Walker Expedition to Quebec started and was ending with a disaster

The Quebec Expedition, or the Walker Expedition to Quebec, was a British attempt to attack Quebec in 1711 in Queen Anne's War, the North American theatre of the War of Spanish Succession. It failed when seven transports and one storeship were wrecked and some 850 soldiers drowned in one of the worst naval disasters in British history.

The expedition was planned by the administration of Robert Harley, chief minister of the crown, and was based on plans originally proposed in 1708. Harley decided to mount the expedition as part of a major shift in British military policy, emphasizing strength at sea. The expedition's leaders, Admiral Hovenden Walker and Brigadier-General John Hill, were chosen for their politics and connections to the crown, and its plans were kept secret even from the Admiralty. Despite the secrecy, French agents were able to discover British intentions and warn authorities in Quebec.

The expedition expected to be fully provisioned in Boston, the capital of colonial Massachusetts, but the city was unprepared when it arrived, and Massachusetts authorities had to scramble to provide even three months' supplies. Admiral Walker also had difficulty acquiring experienced pilots and accurate charts for navigating the waters of the lower Saint Lawrence River.

Boston
Francis Nicholson arrived in Boston in early June 1711 with news and details of the expedition plans, and a meeting of provincial governors was quickly arranged in New London, Connecticut. The naval expedition was to include provincial militia raised in the New England colonies, while Nicholson led a provincial force raised in provinces from Connecticut to Pennsylvania up the Hudson River and down Lake Champlain to Montreal. The provincial forces that were to go with Walker's expedition were led by Samuel Vetch, who became the governor of Nova Scotia in 1710. They consisted of 1,500 men, most from Massachusetts, with smaller contingents from New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

The fleet arrived in Boston on 24 June, and the troops were disembarked onto Noddle's Island (the present-day location of Logan International Airport). The size of the force was, according to historian Samuel Adams Drake, "the most formidable that had ever crossed the Atlantic under the English flag." Since the fleet had left with insufficient supplies, its organizers expected it to be fully provisioned in Boston. But as the number of soldiers and sailors outnumbered the population of Boston, this proved a daunting task. Laws were passed to prevent merchants from price-gouging, and sufficient provisions were eventually acquired. Additional laws were passed penalizing residents found harbouring deserters from the fleet; apparently the attraction of colonial life was sufficient that this was a significant problem during the five weeks the expedition was in Boston.


HMS Swiftshure 1673 - This is a ship portrait viewed from before the port beam. The ship is flying a Union flag at a staff on her forecastle as at a launching. Her mainmast, however, to the height of the fourth woulding, has been drawn in. The ‘Swiftsure’ was launched at Harwich on 8 April 1673. This is a faint offset based on an accurate original worked up with a little pencil on the figurehead and a crude wash along the side. It has also been strengthened in some places by pen-work.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/157865.html#BvMSmGRpXr5OOZVd.99

During the expedition's sojourn in Boston, Walker attempted to enlist pilots experienced in navigating the Saint Lawrence River. To his dismay, none were forthcoming; even Captain Cyprian Southack, reputed to be one of the colony's best navigators, claimed he had never been beyond the river's mouth.[18] Walker intended to rely principally on a Frenchman he had picked up in Plymouth prior to the fleet's departure. Samuel Vetch, however, deeply distrusted the Frenchman, writing that he was "not only an ignorant, pretending, idle, drunken Fellow", but that he "is come upon no good Design". Following this report, Walker also forced a Captain Jean Paradis, the captain of a captured French sloop, to serve as navigator. The charts Walker accumulated were notably short in details on the area around the mouth the Saint Lawrence, as was the journal Sir William Phips kept of his 1690 expedition to Quebec, which Walker also acquired. Walker interviewed some participants in the Phips expedition, whose vague tales did nothing to relieve his concerns about what he could expect on the river. These concerns prompted him to detach his largest and heaviest ships for cruising duty, and he transferred his flag to the 70-gun Edgar.

Disaster


The approximate site of the disaster is marked in red on this 1733 map detail.

On 30 July, the fleet set sail from Boston. It consisted of a mix of British and colonial ships, including nine ships of war, two bomb vessels, and 60 transports and tenders. It carried 7,500 troops and about 6,000 sailors. By 3 August the fleet reached the coast of Nova Scotia, and Samuel Vetch piloted the fleet around Cape Breton and Cape North and into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

On the morning of the 18 August, just as the expedition was about to enter the Saint Lawrence River, the wind began to blow hard from the northwest, and Walker was forced to seek shelter in Gaspé Bay. On the morning of the 20th, the wind veered to the southeast, and he was able to advance slowly past the western extremity of Anticosti Island before it died down and thick fog blanketed both shore and fleet. By the 22nd, the wind had freshened from the southeast, and there were intermittent breaks in the fog, but not sufficient to give sight of land. At this point the fleet was west of Anticosti at a point where the Saint Lawrence was about 70 miles (110 km) wide, but it narrowed noticeably at a point where the river's North Shore made a sharp turn, running nearly north-south. This area, near what is now called Pointe-aux-Anglais, includes a number of small islands, including Île-aux-Oeufs (Egg Island), and numerous rocky shallows. After consulting his pilots, Walker gave the signal to head the fleet roughly southwest at about 8:00 pm.

Walker had thought he was in mid-stream when he issued the order. In fact, he was about seven leagues (about 20 miles (32 km)) north of his proper course, and in the grasp of strong currents which steered his ships towards the northwest. Propelled by an easterly wind, the fleet was gradually closing on the north-south shore near Île-aux-Oeufs. When Captain Paddon reported to Walker that land had been sighted around 10:30 pm, presumably dead ahead, Walker assumed that the fleet was approaching the south shore, and ordered the fleet to wear, and bring-to on the other tack, before he went to bed. This manoeuvre put the fleet onto a more northerly heading. Some minutes later, an army captain named Goddard roused Walker, claiming to see breakers ahead. Walker dismissed the advice and the man, but Goddard returned, insisting that the admiral "come upon deck myself, or we should certainly be lost".

Walker came on deck in his dressing gown, and saw that the ship was being driven toward the western lee shore by the east wind. When the French navigator came on deck, he explained to Walker where he was; Walker immediately ordered the anchor cables cut, and beat against the wind to escape the danger. Two of the warships, Montague and Windsor, had more difficulty, and ended up anchored for the night in a precarious situation, surrounded by breakers. Throughout the night, Walker heard sounds of distress, and at times when the fog lifted, ships could be seen in the distance being ground against the rocks. One New Englander wrote that he could "hear the shrieks of the sinking, drowning, departing souls." Around 2:00 am the wind subsided, and then shifted to the northwest, and most of the fleet managed to stand away from the shore.

It took three days to discover the full extent of the disaster, during which the fleet searched for survivors. Seven transports and one supply ship were lost. Walker's initial report was that 884 soldiers perished; later reports revised this number down to 740, including women attached to some of the units. Historian Gerald Graham estimates that about 150 sailors also perished in the disaster. After rescuing all he could, Walker and Hill held a war council on 25 August. After interviewing a number of the pilots, including Samuel Vetch, the council decided "that by reason of the Ignorance of the Pilots abord the Men of War", the expedition should be aborted. Vetch openly blamed Walker for the disaster: "The late disaster cannot, in my humble opinion, be anyways imputed to the difficulty of navigation, but to the wrong course we steered, which most unavoidably carried us upon the north shore."

The fleet sailed down the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and came to anchor at Spanish River (now the harbour of Sydney, Nova Scotia) on 4 September, where a council was held to discuss whether or not to attack the French at Plaisance. Given the lateness of the season, insufficient supplies to overwinter in the area, and rumours of strong defences at Plaisance, the council decided against making the attack, and sailed for England

Return
Francis Nicholson's land expedition learned of the naval disaster when it was encamped near Lake George; Nicholson aborted the expedition. He was reported to be so angry that he tore off his wig and threw it to the ground.

The expedition's fortunes did not improve on the return voyage. Walker had written to New York requesting HMS Feversham and any available supply ships to join him; unbeknownst to him, the Feversham and three transports (Joseph, Mary, and Neptune) were wrecked on the coast of Cape Breton on 7 October with more than 100 men lost. The fleet returned to Portsmouth on 10 October; Walker's flagship, the Edgar, blew up several days later, possibly due to improper handling of gunpowder. Walker lost a number of papers as a result, and claimed that the journal of William Phips was lost in the blast.
........


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_Expedition
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovenden_Walker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Edgar_(1668)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Windsor_(1695)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Montagu_(1654)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Swiftsure_(1673)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Monmouth_(1667)

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1768 - Launch of HMS Barfleur

HMS Barfleur was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Thomas Slade on the lines of the 100-gun ship Royal William, and launched at Chatham Dockyard on 30 July 1768, at a cost of £49,222. In about 1780, she had another eight guns added to her quarterdeck, making her a 98-gun ship; she possessed a crew of approximately 750. Her design class sisters were the Prince George, Princess Royal, and Formidable. She was a ship of long service and many battles.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard details, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Barfleur' (1768), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker. The extension to the Roundhouse illustrated in this plan was ordered in January 1771 while 'Barfleur' was completing at Chatham Dockyard. The plan also shows her with three quarter galleries, unlike the proposal plan (ZAZ0336), which illustrates only two - Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80129.html#YYC2L57lbddYGXSp.99

In June 1773, King George III reviewed the British fleet at Spithead. Barfleur, under Captain Edward Vernon, was on this occasion the flagship of the fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Thomas Pye.

She distinguished herself as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Samuel Hood on the Leeward Islands station during the American War of Independence. Under Captain John Knight, she was flagship at the indecisive action of 28 April 1781 off Martinique against the French fleet of Rear-Admiral Comte de Grasse, at which Barfleur lost five men killed.

She next took part in the battles of the Chesapeake, St. Kitts and the Saintes. At the Battle of the Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, under Captain Alexander Hood (later Lord Bridport), she was again the flag of Samuel Hood, second in command to Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves, 1st Baron Graves. The battle was lost to the French under de Grasse, which had a profound effect on the outcome of the American war.


The Battle of the Saintes, 12 April 1782: surrender of the Ville de Paris by Thomas Whitcombe, painted 1783, shows Hood's Barfleur, centre, attacking the French flagship Ville de Paris, right, at the Battle of the Saintes.


Oil painting on a thin two-piece oak panel, the join about one third from the top. The Saints was the last major action of the American Revolutionary War, fought near the islets called the Iles des Saintes, just north of Dominica in the West Indies. Admiral Sir George Rodney's victory over the French fleet of the Comte de Grasse foiled the latter's attempt to invade Jamaica and enabled Britain to secure her position in the West Indies by the treaty that ended the war in 1783, even though she lost her American colonies. The battle is also famous as the point of origin of the tactic of 'breaking the line', which was achieved with great, albeit accidental, effect by Rodney in seizing an advantage created by a shift of wind as the fleets began the action. The principal subject here is the clash of flagships of the two commanders-in-chief, both seen from astern in port- quarter view. The larger 'Ville de Paris' (110 guns) flagship of de Grasse, is fully seen in the centre on the left. Admiral Sir George Rodney, in the 'Formidable' (90 guns) is engaging her to starboard on the right, partly concealed, although de Grasse eventually struck to his second-in-command, Samuel Hood, in the 'Barfleur'. Rodney correctly flies the St George's cross at the main, as an Admiral of the White, but a red ensign rather than a white one. This was his normal colour but he had specifically ordered the British fleet to fly red on this occasion, to minimize confusion in action with enemy ships flying the white (Bourbon) colours of pre-Revolutionary France, as shown on the 'Ville de Paris'. - Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12193.html#FbYgPX27zkyClljm.99

She saw further action in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, taking part in Richard Howe's victory at the Glorious First of June as the flagship of Rear-Admiral (W) George Bowyer, with Captain Cuthbert Collingwood in 1794. In this battle she engaged the French Indomptable on 29 May and took a major part in the general action of 1 June, with a total loss of 9 killed and 25 wounded.

She later saw action under Lord Bridport at the Battle of Groix. In 1797 she was with Admiral Sir John Jervis at the Battle of Cape St Vincent.



In 1805, under Captain George Martin, she was part of the Channel Fleet. Her final battle was fought in a squadron under Admiral Sir Robert Calder at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on 22 July 1805 in the attack on the combined Franco-Spanish fleet off Ushant. The action was fought in heavy weather, part of the time in thick fog. The master and four others were killed and Lieutenant Peter Fisher and six others were wounded.

In 1807 under Captain Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke she served in the Channel Fleet. In 1808, under Capt. D. M'Cleod, she served as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Charles Tyler and was engaged in the blockade of Lisbon and the escort to Plymouth of the first division of the Russian squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin. In 1811, under Captain Sir Thomas Hardy, she was engaged in actions in support of the army under Lord Wellington at Lisbon.

After the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars, Barfleur spent some years in ordinary at Chatham, and was finally broken up there in January 1819.


The Barfleur-class ships of the line were a class of four 90-gun second rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Design
The design for the Barfleur class was based upon HMS Royal William.

Ships

• HMS Barfleur

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Launched: 30 July 1768
Fate: Broken up, 1819

• HMS Prince George

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Launched: 31 August 1772
Fate: Broken up, 1839

• HMS Princess Royal

Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Launched: 18 October 1773
Fate: Broken up, 1807

• HMS Formidable

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Launched: 20 August 1777
Fate: Broken up, 1813


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Barfleur_(1768)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barfleur-class_ship_of_the_line

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1790 - Launch of French ship 74 gun Téméraire-class ship of the line Scipion

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

Career
In 1792, Scipion took part in operations against Nice, Villefranche and Oneille. In December, she joined the division under Admiral Latouche Tréville, and assisted the damaged Languedoc during the storm of 21 to 23 of that month.

Captured by the British after the surrendering of Toulon by a Royalist cabale, she was commissioned with a crew of French rebels. On 28 November 1793, she caught fire by accident in the harbour of Livorno and exploded, killing 86 including her commanding officer, Captain Degoy


Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Scipion (1790), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.


The Téméraire-class ships of the line

were class of a 120 (hundred and twenty) 74-gun ships of the line ordered between 1782 and 1813 for the French navy or its attached navies in dependent (French-occupied) territories. Although a few of these were cancelled, the type was and remains the most numerous class of capital ship ever built.

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


VAISSEAU DE 74 CANONS 1780 TRAITE PRATIQUE D'ART NAVAL 1780 En quatre volumes. Base de la collection (taken from ancre)

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

Variants from basic design
While all the French 74-gun ships from the mid-1780s until the close of the Napoleonic Wars were to the Téméraire design, there were three variants of the basic design which Sané developed with the same hull form of Téméraire. In 1793 two ships were laid down at Brest to an enlarged design; in 1801 two ships were commenced at Lorient with a slightly shorter length than the standard design (with a third ship commenced at Brest but never completed); and in 1803 two ships were commenced at Toulon to a smaller version (many more ships to this 'small(er) model' were then built in the shipyards controlled by France in Italy and the Netherlands) - these are detailed separately below.



(taken from ancre)

From the description of Jean Boudriot´s classic Monographie with four books

As the main naval war machine at the end of the 18th century, the 74 Gun Ship was the result of a compromise, like every successful vessel. Her balance between strong guns and manoeuvrability offered by the 28 gun lower gundeck and firing 36 pound cannon-balls, made the "74" the perfect ship of the line. Since she moved more easily, she was much more useful in combat than the heavy 100 gun three-decker.
Her hull alone represented half of 3000 tons moving. 2800 hundred-year-old oak trees (a whole forest), and 600 tons of iron and wood bolts were needed for her construction. The hold and its orlop-deck could contain victuals for 6 months and water for 12 weeks. The gundeck had to bear the considerable weight of enormous 36-pdr guns, weighing 4 tons each. The upper deck, covered front and back with castles, carried lighter guns.
This hull rose 7 meters above water and carried prodigious flights of sails. Each of the three masts, in three elements, rigged three floors of square sails and the main top-mast truck towered at 60 meters. This ship was well designed by her engineer and when correctly used by her crew, she performed superbly at sea in all weathers. In a fair breeze, she could exceed ten knots by sailing quartering.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Scipion_(1790)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
and
https://ancre.fr/en/basic-books/9-v...-en-quatre-volumes-base-de-la-collection.html

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1803 - HMS Calypso (16-gun), run down in a violent hurricane by a heavily laden West Indiaman.

HMS Calypso was a Royal Navy Echo Class ship-sloop. She was built at Deptford between 1781 and 1783, launched on 27 September 1783 and first commissioned on 1 December 1783 for service off Northern Ireland and Scotland. She served in the North Sea, Atlantic, and the West Indies. Calypso was sunk whilst acting as a convoy escort on 30 July 1803 after colliding with a West Indiaman merchant ship during a violent storm.



Construction
Calypso was built to the same technical drawings as the five other Echo-class ships: Echo, Rattler, Brisk, Nautilus, and Scorpion. The class was designed to be 16-gun ship sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with gallery decoration and figurehead for Echo (1782) and Calypso (1783), and later for Rattler (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/83626.html#ObgW7mxPLWiZCU1k.99

All use the same plans for frame, Inboard profile, Lines, Stern, and upper and lower decks





Service history
Calypso was first commissioned in September 1783 under Commander Ralph Dundas for service on the Irish and Scottish stations. She was then refitted at Plymouth and placed in ordinary in October 1785. She was paid off in October 1786.

Her second commission began in January 1787 under Commander William Mitchell. After fitting for Channel service she sailed for Jamaica on 16 April 1787,[1] returning to home waters in 1790 and once more being placed in ordinary.

Calypso underwent a period of repair and was refitted at Portsmouth between July 1793 and March 1796. Her third commission began in January 1796 under Commander Andrew Smith, who took her to sea following her repair and refit to join Admiral Duncan's North Sea Fleet.

In January 1797 Commander Richard Worsley took command and operated Calypso as a convoy escort and cruiser. Commander C. Collis succeeded Worsley in November 1797. Collis continued operating in this role until April 1798 when Calypso returned to Portsmouth for refit.

Commander Henry Garrett took command in April 1799 and was succeeded by Commander Joseph Baker in November of that year. Baker took Calypso to the Caribbean, sailing for the Leeward Islands in February 1800. Whilst under Baker's command on this station, Calypso participated in several notable actions.

• 13 April 1800 - Her cutter took the schooner Diligente (6-guns) (Remark: Head money for 57 men was paid in October 1829. A first-class share was worth £31 6s 4½d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 4s ½d)
• 15 November 1800 - Fought off a French squadron, saving a convoy and capturing 16-gun sloop Ganso (with HMS Crescent)

In October 1801 Commander Robert Barrie assumed command, followed by Commander Edward Brenton in April 1802, and finally by Commander William Venour in August 1802.

On 30 July 1803, Calypso and the 74-gun Goliath were escorting a convoy of heavily laden West Indiamen from Jamaica. #
The convoy was caught in a violent storm that dismasted 21 of the vessels.
One of the merchantmen ran down Calypso, sinking her with the loss of all hands



Commanding Officers and typical Crew of an unreated sloop at this time:
As an unrated sloop-of-war Calypso was too small a ship to warrant a Post-captain and was instead commanded by an officer in the rank of Commander, although aboard ship he was afforded the courtesy title of Captain.

From 1794 the Admiralty allowed a crew of 121 for a 16-gun sloop such as HMS Calypso. The Commander and Lieutenants were professional sea officers, trained in gunnery, navigation and seamanship in equal measure and appointed to the ship by Admiralty Commission. The Lieutenants were all at least nineteen years of age, having served a minimum six-year apprenticeship as Midshipman or Master's Mate before undertaking and passing the examination for Lieutenant. The Commander would usually have been an experienced Lieutenant who had come to the attention of the Admiralty or his Commander-in-Chief through some distinction in service or by having an influential patron. The Commander's duties were almost identical to those of a Post Captain, although on a smaller scale, the exception being that as a Commander he had no automatic rights of promotion to the flag list and could quite easily remain a Commander for the rest of his career.

The Warrant Officers were specialists appointed to the ship by Navy Board Warrant. The Wardroom Warrant Officers were allowed all the privileges of a Commissioned Officer, eating and sleeping with the Lieutenants. The Standing Warrant Officers stayed with the ship throughout its commission and remained aboard when the ship was placed in ordinary. They were heavily involved with the fitting out of the ship and general maintenance. Cockpit Officers had a higher status than the Petty Officers and could generally expect to reach the Wardroom in time, with its members aspiring to be Lieutenants, Masters, Pursers or Surgeons. Petty Officers performed particular roles that required additional skills or expertise, and they were usually rated by the Captain or First Lieutenant on joining the ship. Unlike the Warrant Officers, the Petty Officers had no security in his rank; the Captain could demote a Petty Officer for negligence. A Petty Officer could also lose his rating on moving to a new ship.

The seaman were classed as either Able Seaman, Ordinary Seaman, or Landsman. An Able Seaman was an expert all rounder, happy aloft in the rigging or taking the helm and all other aspects of shipboard life. An Ordinary Seaman was one who had a grasp of basic seamanship and could be useful aboard ship but was not yet an expert or skillful sailor. A Landsman was a man with very little or no prior sea experience at all, most commonly a product of the press gang.

The full crewing requirements for a 16-gun sloop are given on the page of wikipedia.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Calypso_(1783)

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1808 - HMS Meleager (36), wrecked on Barebush Cay, Jamaica.

HMS Meleager was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate Fifth-rate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806 and wrecked on 30 July 1808 off Jamaica. During her brief career she captured two armed vessels and two merchantmen on the Jamaica station. She was named after Meleager, who could have been a Macedonian officer of distinction in the service of Alexander the Great, or a Meleager a character from Greek mythology.



Active service
In November 1806 Meleager was commissioned under Captain John Broughton for the North Sea. In mid-1807 Meleager accompanied HMS Shannon above 80 degrees latitude in a mission to protect the Greenland whaling fleet. They found neither whalers nor threats and so on 23 August they were back in Leith Roads, seeking replenishment, having spent three months above the Arctic Circle. They then sailed for the Shetland Islands where they cruised for about another month.

Meleager, under Captain J. Broughton, was in company with Quebec, Vestal and Forester when they captured the Fischia on 14 April 1807. Then on 5 September 1807, Meleager captured the Jonge Lars.

On 16 November 1807 Meleager sailed with a convoy to the West Indies. On 8 February 1808, Meleager was off Santiago de Cuba when she sent her boats, with 41 men, to capture the French felucca-rigged privateer Renard. She was armed with one long 6-pounder gun and many muskets, and had a crew of 47 men. The boat party took her without loss even though she was perfectly prepared and expecting to be attacked by the boats, given that Meleager had chased her. At the approach of the boats, 18 men jumped overboard. Renard had been cruising for 27 days but had not taken anything.

Eleven days later, Meleager captured the Antelope, a Spanish schooner Letter of Marque. Antelope was pierced for 14 guns but only carried five, an 18-pounder midships and four 6-pounders; the 6-pounders she threw overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 62 men and was sailing from Cadiz to Vera Cruz with a cargo of dry goods, brandy and wine.

In early 1808 Meleager detained the American schooner Meteor between the Cuban cities of Trinidad and Santiago, on the pretext that she was going to violate the British embargo. A judge in Jamaica ordered Meteorreleased, but not before her owner, Richard Raynal Keene, had to pay $2000 to cover his and Broughton's costs. The detainment led to further pecuniary misfortunes for Keene. In April 1808 Captain Frederick Warren replaced Brougton.

The French privateer Plutus on 4 July 1808 captured the Commerce, which had been sailing from the Halifax to Jamaica. Meleager recaptured Commerce three days later and sent her into Jamaica.



Fate
On 30 July 1808 Meleager, under the command of Captain Frederick Warren, had been sailing from Port Royal, Jamaica, when in the evening the master, believing that land in sight was Portland Point, set a course that would take her well clear of land. Still, less than half an hour later lookouts spotted broken water ahead; although the helmsman attempted to turn Meleager, she struck. Efforts to get her off or to stem in the inflow of water were unsuccessful. During the night the crew took down the masts and made rafts; once daylight arrived the task became to get everyone safely on shore. A line was strung to the shore of Bare Bush Key and all but three crewmen made it safely ashore. For the next few days the crew worked to salvage a large amount of stores and the guns.

On 30 August Captain Warren, his officers and crew went before a court martial on Milan at Port Royal. The court martial ruled that the wrecking was probably due to the master mistaking Braziletto Hill for Portland Point and so setting a wrong course. The court martial board warned Warren and the master to be more careful in the future and to pay closer attention to the courses they steered and the distances they had covered

Wonderfull model of the HMS Inconstant, another Perseverance-class frigate from the Science Museum in London

photos taken from
http://www.modelships.de/Museums_and_replicas/Science_Museum_London/Contemporary_ship_models_I.htm


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Meleager_(1806)

 

[Uwek]

30 July 1945 - USS Indianapolis sunk after japanese torpedoes

USS Indianapolis (CL/CA-35) was a Portland-class heavy cruiser of the United States Navy, named for the city of Indianapolis, Indiana. The vessel served as the flagship for the commander of Scouting Force 1 for eight pre-war years, then as flagship for Admiral Raymond Spruance, in 1943 and 1944, while he commanded the Fifth Fleet in battles across the Central Pacific in World War II.


Indianapolis off Mare Island, on 10 July 1945.

In 1945, the sinking of Indianapolis led to the greatest single loss of life at sea, from a single ship, in the history of the US Navy. The ship had just finished a high-speed trip to United States Army Air Force Base at Tinian to deliver parts of Little Boy, the first nuclear weapon ever used in combat, and was on her way to the Philippines on training duty. At 0015 on 30 July 1945 the ship was torpedoed by the Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, and sank in 12 minutes. Of 1,195 crewmen aboard, approximately 300 went down with the ship. The remaining 900 faced exposure, dehydration, saltwater poisoning, and shark attacks while floating with few lifeboats and almost no food or water. The Navy learned of the sinking when survivors were spotted four days later by the crew of a PV-1 Ventura on routine patrol. Only 316 survived.

Shortly before her fate she was in Secret mission
After major repairs and an overhaul, Indianapolis received orders to proceed to Tinian island, carrying parts and the enriched uranium (about half of the world's supply of Uranium-235 at the time) for the atomic bomb Little Boy, which would later be dropped on Hiroshima. Indianapolis departed San Francisco's Hunters Point Naval Shipyard on 16 July 1945, within hours of the Trinity test.

Indianapolis set a speed record of 74 1⁄2 hours with an average speed of 29 kn (54 km/h; 33 mph) from San Francisco to Pearl Harbor, which still stands today. Arriving at Pearl Harbor on 19 July, she raced on unaccompanied, delivering the atomic weapon components to Tinian on 26 July.
Indianapolis was then sent to Guam, where a number of the crew who had completed their tours of duty were replaced by other sailors. Leaving Guam on 28 July, she began sailing toward Leyte, where her crew was to receive training before continuing on to Okinawa, to join VADM Jesse B. Oldendorf's Task Force 95.


Indianapolis's intended route from Guam to the Philippines.

Sinking
At 00:15 on 30 July, she was struck on her starboard side by two Type 95 torpedoes, one in the bow and one amidships, from the Japanese submarine I-58, captained by Commander Mochitsura Hashimoto, who initially thought he had spotted the New Mexico-class battleship Idaho. The explosions caused massive damage. Indianapolis took on a heavy list, (the ship had a great deal of added armament and gun firing directors added as the war went on and was top heavy) and settled by the bow. Twelve minutes later, she rolled completely over, then her stern rose into the air, and she plunged down. Some 300 of the 1,195 crewmen went down with the ship. With few lifeboats and many without lifejackets, the remainder of the crew was set adrift.


Japanese submarine I-58

Rescue
Navy command did not know of the ship's sinking until survivors were spotted three and a half days later. At 10:25 on 2 August, a PV-1 Ventura flown by Lieutenant Wilbur "Chuck" Gwinn and his copilot, Lieutenant Warren Colwell, spotted the men adrift while on a routine patrol flight. Gwinn immediately dropped a life raft and radio transmitter. All air and surface units capable of rescue operations were dispatched to the scene at once.

The survivors suffered from lack of food and water (leading to dehydration and hypernatremia; some found rations, such as Spam and crackers, amongst the debris), exposure to the elements (leading to hypothermia and severe desquamation), and shark attacks, while some killed themselves or other survivors in various states of delirium and hallucinations. Two of the rescued survivors, Robert Lee Shipman and Frederick Harrison, died in August 1945.



"Ocean of Fear", a 2007 episode of the Discovery Channel TV documentary series Shark Week, states that the sinking of Indianapolis resulted in the most shark attacks on humans in history, and attributes the attacks to the oceanic whitetip shark species. Tiger sharks might have also killed some sailors. The same show attributed most of the deaths on Indianapolis to exposure, salt poisoning, and thirst, with the dead being dragged off by sharks.


Survivors of Indianapolis on Guam, in August 1945.

Missing The USS Indianapolis - Documentary

Reunions
Since 1960, surviving crew members have been meeting for reunions in Indianapolis. For the 70th reunion, held 23–26 July 2015, 14 of the 32 remaining survivors attended. The reunions are open to anyone interested, and have more attendees each year, even as the number of survivors decreases from death. Held only periodically at first, biannually later on, the reunions have been held annually for the past several years. Every year, the survivors, most of them in their nineties, vote whether to continue. Seven out of twenty living survivors attended the 2017 reunion


Navy firing detail as part of a burial-at-sea in 2008 for one of the 316 survivors of Indianapolis sinking on 30 July 1945.

"Ocean of Fear", a 2007 episode of the Discovery Channel TV documentary series Shark Week, states that the sinking of Indianapolis resulted in the most shark attacks on humans in history, and attributes the attacks to the oceanic whitetip shark species. Tiger sharks might have also killed some sailors. The same show attributed most of the deaths on Indianapolis to exposure, salt poisoning, and thirst, with the dead being dragged off by sharks.

USS Indianapolis is found after 72 years on the sea bed

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Indianapolis_(CA-35)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_submarine_I-58_(1943)

 

[Uwek]

Other events on 30 July - Part 1


1502 – Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.



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

1635 – Eighty Years' War: The Siege of Schenkenschans begins; Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, begins the recapture of the strategically important fortress from the Spanish Army.


Gerrit van Santen - Het beleg van Schenckenschans door prins Frederik Hendrik, april 1636

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

1680 – Death of Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory, Irish admiral and politician, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (b. 1634)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Butler,_6th_Earl_of_Ossory

1768 – Launch of French East India Company Ship with 64 guns Indien

Indien 64 (launched 30 July 1768 at Lorient for the Compagnie des Indes, purchased in April 1770 by the Navy) - condemned 1783 and sold 1784.
Three French East India Company ships were purchased by the Navy in April 1770; all designed and built after the same plans

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

1779 – Launch of HMS Alcide

HMS Alcide, the French and Italian version of "Alcides", another name for Heracles, was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 30 July 1779 at Deptford Dockyard.
She fought at the battles of Cape St Vincent and Martinique in 1780, and the battles of St. Kitts and the Saintes in 1782.
On 12 September 1780 Alcide captured the Pocahontas. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Pocahontas.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Alcide_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion-class_ship_of_the_line_(1763)

1782 – Action between the Amazon and HMS Santa Margarita



http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-346039;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

1784 - HMS Antelope (14) lost in a hurricane off Jamaica.

HMS Antelope was a 14-gun brig of the Royal Navy.
She was originally a mercantile brig, purchased in April 1784 at Jamaica by Vice-Admiral Gambier and commissioned that year under Lieutenant Robert Causzor. She sank in a hurricane whilst at Jamaica on 30 July 1784.

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

1790 – Launch of French brig Albanaise

The French brig Albanaise (or Albannese) was launched in 1790. In June 1800, the Royal Navy captured her in the Mediterranean and took her into service as HMS Albanaise. In November 1800, her crew mutinied, took command of the vessel, and sailed her to Malaga where they surrendered her to the Spanish. The Spanish later returned her to the French, who did not return her to service.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Albanaise_(1790)

 

[Uwek]

Other events on 30 July - Part 2


30 July 1815 - On promotion to lieutenant, Otto von Kotzebue (Russian: О́тто Евста́фьевич Коцебу́, Otto Evstàf'evič Kotsebù) (December 30, 1787 – February 15, 1846) was a Russian officer and navigator in the Imperial Russian Navy, was placed in command of an expedition, fitted out at the expense of the imperial chancellor, Count Nikolay Rumyantsev, in the brig Rurik. In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, including the naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso, and the artist Louis Choris, Kotzebue set out on July 30, 1815 to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean and explore the less-known parts of Oceania.


The Travels of Otto von Kotzebue, 1823–1826.

Proceeding via Cape Horn, he discovered the Romanzov Islands, Rurik Islands and Krusenstern Islands (today Tikehau), then made for Kamchatka. In the middle of July he proceeded northward, coasting along the north-west coast of North America, and discovering and naming Kotzebue Sound or Gulf and Cape Krusenstern in the remote Chukchi Sea.

Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojourned for three weeks at the Sandwich Islands, and on January 1, 1817 discovered New Year Island. After further cruising in the Pacific Ocean, he proceeded north. Severe illness compelled him to return to Europe, and he reached the Neva River in Russia on August 3, 1818, bringing home a large collection of previously unknown plants and new ethnological information.

In 1823 Kotzebue, now a captain, was entrusted with the command of an expedition of two ships of war, the main object of which was to take reinforcements to Kamchatka. A staff of scientists on board the Russian sailing sloop Enterprise collected much valuable information and material in geography, ethnography and natural history. The expedition, proceeding by Cape Horn, visited the Radak and Society Islands, and reached Petropavlovsk in July 1824. Many positions along the coast were rectified, the Navigator islands visited, and several discoveries made. The expedition returned by the Marianas, Philippines, New Caledonia and the Hawaiian Islands, reaching Kronstadt on July 10, 1826.

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

1821 – Launch of 46 gun Leda class fifth rate frigate HMS Nereus

HMS Nereus was a 46-gun modified Leda-class fifth-rate frigate built for the Royal Navy during the 1810s. She was never commissioned and was converted into a store ship in 1843 for service in South America. The ship was sold for into civilian service in 1879.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Nereus_(1821)

1825 – Malden Island is discovered by captain George Byron, 7th Baron Byron.

The earliest documented sighting of Malden Island was on 25 March 1825, made by the captain of the Nantucket whaler Alexander, Samuel Bunker (1796-1874). After an unsuccessful attempt to land the following day, Bunker sailed on. The log entry for the 25th, however, also states that "it proved to be an Island seen by the Sarah Ann of London and the Independence of Nantucket Capt Whippey". On 30 July , 1825, the island was seen again by Captain The 7th Lord Byron (a cousin of the famous poet). Byron, commanding the British warship HMS Blonde, was returning to London from a special mission to Honolulu to repatriate the remains of the young king and queen of Hawaii, who had died of measles during a visit to Britain. The island was named after Lt. Charles Robert Malden, navigator of the Blonde, who sighted the island and briefly explored it. Andrew Bloxam, naturalist of the Blonde, and James Macrae, a botanist travelling for the Royal Horticultural Society, joined in exploring the island and recorded their observations. Malden may have been the island sighted by another whaling captain William Clark in 1823, aboard the Winslow.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malden_Island
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Byron,_7th_Baron_Byron

1865 – The steamboat Brother Jonathan sinks off the coast of Crescent City, California, killing 225 passengers, the deadliest shipwreck on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. at the time.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Jonathan_(steamer)

1871 – The Staten Island Ferry Westfield II's boiler explodes, killing over 85 people.

On July 30, 1871, Westfield II was damaged when its boiler exploded while sitting in its slip at South Ferry in Manhattan. Within days of the disaster, between 45 and 91 had died, and from 78 to 208 listed as injured, although figures varied widely between the Times, Herald, Tribune, and World. Among those injured was Antonio Meucci, an Italian immigrant who was developing the first telephone at the time; he was so poor that his wife sold his lab and telephone prototype to buy $6 worth of medications. Jacob Vanderbilt was arrested for murder, though he escaped conviction. This had an adverse effect on the railroad's finances and on March 28, 1872, the railway and the ferry went into receivership. On September 17, 1872, the property of the company was sold to George Law in foreclosure, with the exception of the ferryboat Westfield II, which was purchased by Horace Theall.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staten_Island_Ferry
http://www.gendisasters.com/new-york/13522/new-york-city-ny-ferryboat-explosion-july-1871
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield_(Schiff)

1916 - The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916, in Jersey City, New Jersey, was an act of sabotage by German agents to destroy American-made munitions that were to be supplied to the Allies in World War I. This incident, which happened prior to American entry into World War I, is also notable for causing damage to the Statue of Liberty.



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

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1653 - The Battle of Scheveningen (also known as the Battle of Texel or the Battle of Ter Heijde)

was the final naval battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War. It took place on 31 July 1653 (10 August Gregorian calendar) [a]between the fleets of the Commonwealth of England and the United Provinces. The Dutch fleet suffered a heavy defeat, but achieved their strategic goal in the short term, as the battle led to the raising of the English blockade of the Dutch coast.


The Battle of Scheveningen by Jan Abrahamsz straaten, painted c. 1654, depicts the final battle of the First Anglo-Dutch War
(National Maritime Museum, London)

Background
After their victory at the Battle of the Gabbard in June 1653, the English fleet of 120 ships under General at Sea George Monck blockaded the Dutch coast, capturing many merchant vessels. The Dutch economy began to collapse immediately: mass unemployment and even starvation set in. On 24 July (3 August Gregorian calendar), Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp put to sea in the Brederode with a fleet of 100 ships to lift the blockade at the island of Texel, where Vice-Admiral Witte de With's 27 ships were trapped by the English. On 8 August, the English sighted Tromp and pursued to the south, sinking two Dutch ships before dark, but allowing De With to slip out and rendezvous the next day with Tromp off Scheveningen, right next to the small village of Ter Heijde, after Tromp had positioned himself by some brilliant manoeuvering to the north of the English fleet.



Battle
The winds were fierce on 30 July and overnight, giving both fleets pause. Around 7 in the morning of 31 July, the Dutch gained an advantage from the weather and attacked, led by the Brederode. The ensuing battle was ferocious, with both fleets moving through each other four times. Tromp was killed early in the fight by a sharpshooter in the rigging of William Penn's ship. His death was kept secret to keep up the morale of the Dutch, but by late afternoon, twelve of their ships had either been sunk or captured and many were too heavily damaged to continue the fight. In the end, morale broke and a large group of vessels under the command of merchant captains fled to the north. De With tried to halt their flight, but had to limit himself to covering the retreat to the island of Texel. However, the English fleet, also heavily damaged and with many wounded in urgent need of treatment, had to return to port to refit and were unable to maintain the blockade.


Die Schlacht bei Scheveningen, gemalt von Jan Abrahamszoon straten, gemalt ca. 1654, zeigt die Schlacht vom niederländischen Ufer aus, wo sich Tausende Schaulustiger versammelt hatten

Aftermath
Both sides claimed a victory: the English because of their tactical superiority, the Dutch because the strategic goal of their attack, the lifting of the blockade, had been achieved. However, Tromp's death was a severe blow to the Dutch – few now expected to beat the English; the Orangist faction lost political influence and Grand Pensionary Johan de Witt was willing to give formal treaty assurances to Cromwell that the infant William III of Orange would never become stadtholder, thus turning the Netherlands into a base for a Stuart restoration. Peace negotiations began in earnest, leading to the 1654 Treaty of Westminster.

The damage done to the Dutch fleet effectively ended the first war. The Dutch capitulated to several English demands.


This detail from Willem van de Velde the Elder's painting of the Battle of Scheveningen shows the Dutch fireship Fortuijn attacking the British warship Andrew. Note the much smaller size of the fireship when compared to even the 56 gun Andrew. This fireship attack ended in failure, although Rear Admiral Thomas Graves was killed before the fire was put out


After Jeronymus van Diest


Commanders and leaders
England - George Monck
Netherland - Maarten Tromp
Strength
England - 120 ships
Netherland - 100 ships under Tromp. 27 ships under De With
Casualties and losses
England - 2 ships sunk, 250 dead and 700 wounded
Netherland - 12 to 14 (Dutch claim), 30 (English claim) ships captured or sunk, 2000 taken prisoner or dead



Zeeslag bij Ter Heyde, 10 augustus 1653,gemalt von Jan Abrahamszoon straaten (vor 1666)

The Dutch ship Brederode - leading ship of Dutch Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp

Brederode was a ship of the line of the navy of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, and the flagship of the Dutch fleet in the First Anglo-Dutch War. Throughout her career, she carried from 53-59 guns. She was named after Johan Wolfert van Brederode, the brother-in-law of stadtholder Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.




Brederode on the left half with damages after action, all sketches by van de Veldes

Construction
The Brederode was, in Maas feet, about 132 ft (40 m). long by about 32 ft (9.8 m). wide by approximately 13.5 ft (4.1 m). deep. The English dimensions were very close to those figures. The published dimensions are in Maas feet of 308 mm, divided into 12 inches (300 mm).
The Brederode was initially armed with 49 guns, increasing to 54 from 1652. These comprised 4 36-pounders, 12 24-pounders, and 8 18-pounders on the lower deck, 20 12-pounders on the upper deck, and 10-12 6-pounders on the forecastle, quarterdeck, and poop deck. All of her guns were bronze-cast except four of the 12-pounders which were Swedish-made and cast in iron.
Crew numbers varied considerably over Bredereode's sailing career. In September 1652 her complement was 175 sailors, rising to 260 in June 1653 before falling back to 113 in 1656. Between 40 and 175 soldiers were also accommodated aboard.


Brederode off Hellevoetsluis by Simon de Vlieger

Ship history
Launched at Rotterdam in 1644, and a design of shipwright Jan Salomonszoon van den Tempel, she was the flagship of Vice-Admiral Witte Corneliszoon de With from May 1645 until 1647 when she was assigned to Lieutenant-Admiral Maarten Tromp. The same year however, she again became De With's flagship for his expedition to Dutch Brazil. De With delegated actual command of the vessel to Lieutenant Jan Janszoon Quack, who remained in that role after the expedition returned to Holland in 1647. Only in 1652 would Tromp sail for the first time with his flag on the Brederode, during an attack against royalist privateers operating from the Scilly Islands.

In the First Anglo-Dutch War Brederode was present under Tromp's command at the Battle of Goodwin Sands on 29 May 1652. After Tromp's failure to bring the English to battle off the Shetland Islands in July, Tromp was relieved and Michiel de Ruyter took over command. When De Ruyter was subordinated to De With in September, Brederode's crew refused to let the latter come on board to take command, so he had to content himself with the Prins Willem. Under De Ruyter, Brederode fought at the Battle of the Kentish Knock on 8 October 1652.


The Battle of the Gabbard, 12 June 1653 by Heerman Witmont, shows the Dutch flagship Brederode (foreground left) in action.

With Tromp back in command, Brederode fought at the Battle of Dungeness on 10 December 1652 where she came close to being captured, but was instrumental in that victory over the English. She fought again on 18 February 1653 at the Battle of Portland and on 12 June 1653 at the Battle of the Gabbard, where she fought an exhausting but inconclusive duel with William Penn's flagship James. On that day, the first day of the battle, Tromp's men boarded the English ship but were beaten back; boarded in turn by the English, Tromp was only able to dislodge the boarders by blowing up Brederode's deck. On 13 June the English were joined by a squadron under Admiral Robert Blake and the Dutch were scattered in defeat.

Brederode fought in the last major engagement of the war, the Battle of Scheveningen on 26 July 1653, when Tromp was killed. The acting flag captain (later Admiral) Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer kept Tromp's standard raised after his death to keep up morale.

In the Northern Wars the United Provinces sent an expeditionary force to support Denmark in the war against Charles X of Sweden. In the Battle of the Sound on 8 November 1658 the Dutch fleet, commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam, defeated a Swedish fleet and relieved the siege of Copenhagen. Van Wassenaer's flagship was Eendracht; De With commanded the van in Brederode; attacking the enemy without proper knowledge of the shoals he grounded his ship (after damaging Leoparden so much that this enemy vessel subsequently was lost by fire) and was surrounded; after many hours of fighting, Brederode was boarded by Wismar and De With mortally wounded. The partially burnt wreck was deemed unsalvagable.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Scheveningen
http://bcw-project.org/military/first-anglo-dutch-war/scheveningen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monck,_1st_Duke_of_Albemarle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maarten_Tromp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_ship_Brederode
https://www.amazon.ca/Dutch-Ship-Brederode-Tromps-Flagship-ebook/dp/B00U4E2PGE

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1653 - Death of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp (23 April 1598 – 10 August 1653)

who was an officer and later admiral in the Dutch navy. His first name is also spelled Maerten.



Early life
Born in Brill, Tromp was the oldest son of Harpert Maertensz, a naval officer and captain of the frigate Olifantstromp ("Elephant Trunk"). The surname Tromp probably derives from the name of the ship; it first appeared in documents in 1607. His mother supplemented the family's income as a washerwoman. At the age of nine, Tromp went to sea with his father, and he was present in a squadron covering the Dutch main fleet fighting the Battle of Gibraltar in 1607.


Battle of Gibraltar 1607

In 1610, after his father's discharge because of a navy reorganization, the Tromps were on their way to Guinea on their merchantman when they were attacked by a squadron of seven ships under command of the English pirate Peter Easton. During the fight, Tromp's father was slain by a cannonball. According to legend, the 12-year-old boy rallied the crew of the ship with the cry "Won't you avenge my father's death?" The pirates seized him and sold him on the slave market of Salé. Two years later, Easton was moved by pity and ordered his redemption.

Set free, he supported his mother and three sisters by working in a Rotterdam shipyard. Tromp went to sea again at 19, briefly working for the navy, but he was captured again in 1621 after having rejoined the merchant fleet, this time by Barbary corsairs off Tunis. He was kept as a slave until the age of 24 and by then had so impressed the Bey of Tunis and the corsair John Ward with his skills in gunnery and navigation that the latter offered him a position in his fleet. When Tromp refused, the Bey was even more impressed by this show of character and allowed him to leave as a free man.

He joined the Dutch navy as a lieutenant in July 1622, entering service with the Admiralty of the Maze based in Rotterdam. On 7 May 1624, he married Dignom Cornelisdochter de Haes, the daughter of a merchant; in the same year he became captain of the St. Antonius, an advice yacht (fast-sailing messenger ship). His first distinction was as Lieutenant-Admiral Piet Hein's flag captain on the Vliegende Groene Draeck during the fight with Ostend privateers in 1629 in which Hein was killed. In 1629 and 1630, the year that he was appointed full captain on initiative of stadtholder Frederick Henry himself, Tromp was very successful in fighting the Dunkirkers as a squadron commander, functioning as a commandeur on the Vliegende Groene Draeck. Despite receiving four honorary golden chains, he was not promoted further. The Vliegende Groene Draeck foundered and new heavy vessels were reserved for the flag officers while Tromp was relegated to the old Prins Hendrik.

In 1634, Tromp's first wife died, and he left the naval service in 1634 in disappointment. He became a deacon and married Alijth Jacobsdochter Arckenboudt, the daughter of Brill's wealthy schepen and tax collector, on 12 September 1634.

Supreme commander of the confederate fleet
Tromp was promoted from captain to Lieutenant-Admiral of Holland and West Frisia in 1637, when Lieutenant-Admiral Philips van Dorp and other flag officers were removed due to incompetence. Although formally ranking under the Admiral-General Frederick Henry of Orange, he was the de facto supreme commander of the Dutch fleet, as the stadtholders never fought at sea. Tromp was mostly occupied with blockading the privateer port of Dunkirk.

In 1639, during the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain, Tromp defeated a large Spanish fleet bound for Flanders at the Battle of the Downs, marking the end of Spanish naval power. In a preliminary battle, the Action of 18 September 1639, Tromp was the first fleet commander known for the deliberate use of line of battle tactics. His flagship in this period was the Aemilia.


Cornelis Tromp, 1629–1691 by Sir Peter Lely, painted c. 1675.

In the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652 to 1653, Tromp commanded the Dutch fleet in the battles of Dover, Dungeness, Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen. In the latter, he was killed by a sharpshooter in the rigging of William Penn's ship. His acting flag captain, Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, on the Brederode kept up fleet morale by not lowering Tromp's standard, pretending Tromp was still alive.

Tromp's death was a severe blow to the Dutch navy but also to the Orangists, who sought the defeat of the Commonwealth of England and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Republican influence strengthened after Scheveningen, which led to peace negotiations with the Commonwealth, culminating in the Treaty of Westminster.

During his career, his main rival was Vice-Admiral Witte de With, who also served the Admiralty of Rotterdam (de Maze) from 1637. De With temporarily replaced him as supreme commander for the Battle of Kentish Knock. Tromp's successor was Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer Obdam.

Tromp, a "sea hero", was immensely popular with the common people, a sentiment expressed by the greatest of Dutch poets, Joost van den Vondel, in a famous poem describing his marble grave monument in Delft showing the admiral on his moment of death with a burning English fleet on the foreground:

Here rests the hero Tromp, the brave protector
of shipping and free sea, serving free land
his memory alive in artful spectre
as if he had just died at his last stand
His knell the cries of death, guns' thunderous call
a burning Brittany too Great for sea alone
He's carved himself an image in the hearts of all
more lasting than grave's splendour and its marble stone

Cornelis Tromp, the second son of Tromp by his first wife, Dignom Cornelisdochter de Haes, later became Commander of the Dutch navy, in the rank of Lieutenant-Admiral-General, after previously having commanded the Danish navy.


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

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1715 - 11 ships of Spanish treasure fleet sink in a storm off the coast of Florida.

The 1715 Treasure Fleet was a Spanish treasure fleet returning from the New World to Spain. At two in the morning on Wednesday, July 31, 1715, seven days after departing from Havana, Cuba, eleven of the twelve ships of this fleet were lost in a hurricane near present-day Vero Beach, Florida. Because the fleet was carrying silver, it is also known as the 1715 Plate Fleet (plata being the Spanish word for silver). Some artifacts and even coins still wash up on Florida beaches from time to time.


8 Reales Mexican Silver cob full date 1715 recovered from the 1715 fleet.

Around 1,000 sailors perished while a small number survived on lifeboats. Many ships, including pirates, took part in the initial salvage. Initially a privateer, Henry Jennings was first accused of piracy for attacking such salvage ships and claiming their salvages.


Spanish galleon routes (white): West Indies or trans-atlantic route begun in 1492, Manila galleon or trans-pacific route begun in 1565. (Blue: Portuguese routes, operational from 1498 to 1640)

Exhibits and preserves
Treasure hunter Kip Wagner's team built an exhibit held at National Geographic "Explorers Hall" in Washington, D.C. that was featured in the January 1965 issue of National Geographic. This was the beginning of a fine collection of 1715 plate fleet treasure that brought hundreds of visitors from around the world. Wagner published his book Pieces of Eight (Recovering The Riches Of A Lost Spanish Fleet) in 1966. This is a detailed account of the finding and exploration of many of these shipwrecks along the Florida "Treasure Coast." An exhibit was set up with a grand opening on May 1, 1967, at the First National Bank of Satellite Beach, Florida.


Rare 8 Escudos Lima dated 1710 recovered from the 1715 Fleet.

In 1987, another ship in the fleet, the Urca de Lima, became the first shipwreck in the Florida Underwater Archaeological Preserves.

In 2015, 1715 Fleet - Queens Jewels, LLC and their founder Brent Brisben discovered $4.5 million in gold coins off the coast of Florida; the coins come from the 1715 Fleet shipwreck.

List of identified ships
Urca de Lima
former HMS Hampton Court (1678)
Santo Cristo de San Roman (article at wrecksite.eu)
Nuestra Señora de las Nieves (article at wrecksite.eu)
Nuestra Señora del Rosario y San Francisco Xavier (article at wrecksite.eu)
Nuestra Señora de Carmen y San Antonio (article at wrecksite.eu


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1715_Treasure_Fleet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_treasure_fleet

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1782 - parallel Launch of two french Minerve-class frigates, the Minerve and also the Junon both in Toulon

The Minerve class was a type of 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, carrying 18-pounder long guns as their main armament. Six ships of this type were built at Toulon Dockyard, and launched between 1782 and 1794. The frigates served the French Navy briefly during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured all six between 1793 and 1799 and took them into service, with all but one serving in the Napoleonic Wars, and some thereafter.

The first four frigates were built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb. Jacques Brune Sainte Catherine modified Coulomb's design for the fifth, lengthening it to permit the addition of a 14th pair of gunports on the upper deck. Catherine further redesigned the class for the sixth, final frigate. The French Navy preferred the designs by Jacques-Noël Sané. However, the more rounded hull form of the Minerve-class vessels' found favour with the Royal Navy, leading it to copy the design.

Ships of the Minerve class

• Minerve

Launched: 31 July 1782
Completed: October 1782
Fate: Captured by the British 18 February 1794,
taken into service as HMS San Fiorenzo, broken u 1837

• Junon

Launched: 31 July 1782
Completed: October 1782
Fate: Captured by the British 16 June 1799,
taken in as HMS Princess Charlotte, renamed HMS Andromache January 1812, broken up 1828


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plans with stern board outline and some detail, sheer lines with inboard details and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte (captured 1799), a captured French Frigate, after being fitted for a 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigate. The plan includes an annotation dated October 1817 relating to the ship (renamed Andromache in 1812) when she was fitted for service in Brazil under the command of Captain Shirriff [William Henry Shirreff, seniority: 15 November 1809]. The quarterdeck coamings were ordered to be raised and fitted with glass sashes as the ship was being ordered to 'a warm climate'.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81876.html#DyS3fhyqAQRTb4Ud.99

• Impérieuse

Launched: 11 July 1787
Completed: May 1788
Fate: Captured by the British 12 October 1793,
taken in as HMS Captain, renamed HMS Unite 3 September 1803, hospital hulk 1836, broken up 1858

• Melpomène

Launched: 6 August 1789
Completed: April 1792
Fate: Captured by the British 10 August 1794,
taken om as HMS Melpomene, sold on 14 December 1815

• Perle

Launched: 27 August 1790
Completed: September 1792
Fate: Handed over to the British 29 August 1793,
taken in as HMS Amethyst, wrecked 27 December 1795

• Minerve

Launched: 4 September 1794
Completed: October 1794
Fate: Captured by the British 23 June 1795,
taken in as HMS Minerve, recaptured by the French 3 July 1803, renamed Canonnière, sold June 1809 and renamed Confiance, recaptured by the British 3 February 1810 and sold


The Frigate Minerve, later HMS St Fiorenzo

Minerve was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. She operated in the Mediterranean during the French Revolutionary Wars. Her crew scuttled her at Saint-Florent to avoid capture when the British invaded Corsica in 1794, but the British managed to raise her and recommissioned her in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS St Fiorenzo (also San Fiorenzo).


HMS St Fiorenzo capturing Piémontaise on 9 March 1808

She went on to serve under a number of the most distinguished naval commanders of her age, in theatres ranging from the English Channel to the East Indies. During this time she was active against enemy privateers, and on several occasions she engaged ships larger than herself, being rewarded with victory on each occasion. She captured the 40-gun Résistance and the 22-gun Constance in 1797, the 36-gun Psyché in 1805, and the 40-gun Piémontaise in 1808. (These actions would earn the crew members involved clasps to the Naval General Service Medal.) After she became too old for frigate duties, the Admiralty had her converted for successively less active roles. She initially became a troopship and then a receiving ship. Finally she was broken up in 1837 after a long period as a lazarette.


San Fiorenzo (far left) and Nymphe (second from right) capture Résistance and Constance, 9 March 1797. Oil painting by Nicholas Pocock.


The frigate Junon

The Junon was captured by the english in the 1799 during the Action of 18 June 1799, a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought off Toulon in the wake of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798. A frigate squadron (Three frigates and two brigs: 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and 14-gun brig Alerte) under Rear-admiral Perrée, returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates (HMS Centaur, HMS Bellona, HMS Captain, HMS Emerald, HMS Santa Teresa) detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates and brigs had no choice but to surrender, given their opponents' overwhelming strength.


On 27 May 1811, Princess Charlotte was in company with the Rhin when they captured the American ship Fox.

After a very active time in british service, also renamed HMS Princess Charlotte and later in HMS Andromache, she was sold for scrap and dismantled in Deptford in 1828.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerve-class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_Fiorenzo_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Junon_(1786)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_18_June_1799
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centaur_(1797)

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1948 – USS Nevada is sunk by an aerial torpedo after surviving hits from two atomic bombs (as part of post-war tests) and being used for target practice by three other ships.


USS Nevada (BB-36), the second United States Navy ship to be named after the 36th state, was the lead ship of the two Nevada-class battleships. Launched in 1914, Nevada was a leap forward in dreadnoughttechnology; four of her new features would be included on almost every subsequent US battleship: triple gun turrets, oil in place of coal for fuel, geared steam turbines for greater range, and the "all or nothing" armor principle. These features made Nevada, alongside its sister ship Oklahoma, the first US Navy "standard-type" battleships.


The stern of Nevada during WWI.

Nevada served in both World Wars. During the last few months of World War I, Nevada was based in Bantry Bay, Ireland, to protect supply convoys that were sailing to and from Great Britain. In World War II, it was one of the battleships trapped when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Nevada was the only battleship to get underway during the attack, making the ship "the only bright spot in an otherwise dismal and depressing morning" for the United States. Still, it was hit by one torpedo and at least six bombs while steaming away from Battleship Row, forcing the crew to beach the stricken ship on a coral ledge. The ship continued to flood and eventually slid off the ledge and sunk to the harbor floor. Nevada was subsequently salvaged and modernized at Puget Sound Navy Yard, allowing it to serve as a convoy escort in the Atlantic and as a fire-support ship in five amphibious assaults (the invasions of Attu, Normandy, Southern France, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa).


Nevada underway off the Atlantic coast of the United States on 17 September 1944


Post-war


USS Nevada post-Operation Crossroads visible with extensive damage.

Nevada returned after the war to Pearl Harbor after a brief stint of occupation duty in Tokyo Bay. Nevada was surveyed and, at 32⅓ years old, was deemed too old to be kept in the post-war fleet. As a result, she was assigned to be a target ship in the first Bikini atomic experiments (Operation Crossroads) of July 1946. The experiment consisted of detonating two atomic bombs to test their effectiveness against ships. Nevada was the bombardier's target for the first test, codenamed 'Able', which used an air-dropped weapon. To help distinguish the target from surrounding vessels, Nevada was painted a reddish-orange. However, even with the high-visibility color scheme, the bomb fell about 1,700 yd (1,600 m) off-target, exploding above the attack transport Gilliam instead. Due in part to the miss, Nevada survived. The ship also remained afloat after the second test—'Baker', a detonation some 90 ft (27 m) below the surface of the water—but was damaged and extremely radioactive from the spray.[56] Nevada was later towed to Pearl Harbor and decommissioned on 29 August 1946.

After she was thoroughly examined, Iowa and two other vessels used Nevada as a practice gunnery target 65 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor on 31 July 1948. The ships did not sink Nevada, so she was given a coup de grâce with an aerial torpedo hit amidships.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Nevada_(BB-36)

 

[Uwek]

31 July 1970 – Black Tot Day: The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy.


Black Tot Day is the name given to the last day on which the Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (the daily tot).

In the 17th century, the daily drink ration for English sailors was a gallon of beer. Due to the difficulty in storing the large quantities of liquid that this required, in 1655 a half pint of rum was made equivalent and became preferred to beer. Over time, drunkenness on board naval vessels increasingly became a problem and the ration was formalised in naval regulations by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740 and ordered to be mixed with water in a 4:1 water to rum ratio and split into two servings per day.


Measuring out the tot (diorama aboard HMS Belfast)

In the 19th century, there was a change in the attitude towards alcohol due to continued discipline problems in the navy. In 1824 the size of the tot was halved to a quarter pint in an effort to improve the situation. In 1850, the Admiralty's Grog Committee, convened to look into the issues surrounding the rum ration, recommended that it be eliminated completely. However, rather than ending it the navy further halved it to an eighth of a pint per day, eliminating the evening serving of the ration. This led to the ending of the ration for officers in 1881 and warrant officers in 1918.


The grog tub of HMS Cavalier

On 17 December 1969 the Admiralty Board issued a written answer to a question from the MP for Woolwich East, Christopher Mayhew, saying "The Admiralty Board concludes that the rum issue is no longer compatible with the high standards of efficiency required now that the individual's tasks in ships are concerned with complex, and often delicate, machinery and systems on the correct functioning of which people's lives may depend". This led to a debate in the House of Commons on the evening of 28 January 1970, now referred to as the 'Great Rum Debate', started by James Wellbeloved, MP for Erith and Crayford, who believed that the ration should not be removed. The debate lasted an hour and 15 minutes and closed at 10:29pm with a decision that the rum ration was no longer appropriate.



31 July 1970 was the final day of the rum ration and it was poured as usual at 6 bells in the forenoon watch (11am) after the pipe of 'up spirits'. Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were 'buried at sea' and in one navy training camp, HMS Collingwood, the Royal Naval Electrical College at Fareham in Hampshire, there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin and accompanying drummers and piper. The move was not popular with the ratings despite an extra can of beer being added to the daily rations in compensation.

A special stamp was issued, available from Portsmouth General Post Office, with the slogan "Last Issue of Rum to the Royal Navy 31 July 1970".

Black Tot Day was subsequently followed in two other Commonwealth navies
(the Royal Australian Navy having already discontinued the rum ration, in 1921):
(i) 31 March 1972 was the final day of the rum ration in the Royal Canadian Navy; and
(ii) 28 February 1990 was the final day of the rum ration in the Royal New Zealand Navy.


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

 

[Uwek]

Other events on 31 July


1588 – The Spanish Armada is spotted off the coast of England.

Near Plymouth a small action happened, but english ships could not leave the harbour due to bad wind. The spanish armada is not using this advantage, due to a previous order by Philipps II, not to start fighting with the british before the unification with the army for the invasion.

1671 – French Fidele class 54 gun ship Parfait launched

Parfait 54, later 64 guns (designed and built by François Chapelle, launched 31 July 1671 at Toulon) – condemned 1699.

Similar ship of the class: Agreable



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

1712 - Action of 31 July 1712

This battle took place on 31 July 1712 south of Rügen, in the Baltic Sea, during the Great Northern War. The site is known as Neues Tief in German, Nydyp in Danish, and Nya Djupet in Swedish, all meaning "New Deep." The action was a victory for Denmark, commanded by Hannibal Sehested, over Sweden, commanded by Henck.

Ships involved
The name of the ship is followed by the number of guns carried.
Denmark (Sehested)
Ditmarsken 46 (v.adm. Christen Thomesen Sehested; capt.com. Christian Thomsen Carl)
Kongens Jagt Krone 24
Ark Noa 16
Ebenetzer 15
Helleflynder 14

Sweden (Henck)
Stralsund 30
Anklam 30
St Thomas 30
St Johannes 30
Witduve 22
Jomfru 14
Sjökane I 8
Sjökane II 8

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_31_July_1712

1793 - HMS Boston (32), Cptn. George Courtenay (Killed in Action), engaged French frigate Embuscade (36), Cptn. Jean-Baptiste Bompart, off New Jersey.

The Action of 31 July 1793 was an inconclusive engagement between a British Royal Navy frigate and French frigate off the New Jersey coastline in the first year of the French Revolutionary Wars. The British captain, George Courtenay of HMS Boston, had arrived off New York City on 28 May and deliberately disguised his ship as a French vessel, fooling a French officer into coming aboard and making him a prisoner of war. Courtenay then sent a message into New York, where he knew a French frigate lay at anchor, challenging the French captain to battle within the next three days. The challenge was accepted and widely disseminated throughout the city, so that when Captain Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart of Embuscade sailed out to meet Courtenay on the morning of 31 July, the shore was crowded with thousands of sightseers.


Combat between the frigate 'L'Embuscade' and the 'Boston' in the Port of New York in 1793, Baron Jean Antoine Theodore Gudin, Palace of Versailles

The engagement between the ships was fiercely contested, but the smaller and more lightly armed Boston seemed to be taking the more serious damage when at 6:20 Captain Courtenay was thrown to the deck. What happened next has been subject to debate, with the second-in-command, Lieutenant John Edwards claiming that Courtenay had been killed and he was thrown overboard as was the custom at the time. However rumours subsequently circulated that Courtenay had only been knocked unconscious when Edwards gave the order to jettison him, a story that his family credited and was later taken up by the contemporary historian Edward Pelham Brenton, although historian William James subsequently defended Edwards' actions. With Courtenay gone, Boston continued to suffer severe damage until just after 07:00, when the remaining officers ordered all surviving sails set and the British ship attempted to escape. Although Bompart pursued, by 08:00 the strain had proved too much for his ship and he fell back. After a close encounter with French ships in the Delaware River, Boston eventually escaped to St John's, Newfoundland while Embuscade refitted in New York.


HMS Boston 1762

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_31_July_1793
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Boston_(1762)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Embuscade_(1789)

1797 - HMS Artois, first ship of the Artois class and launched 1794 (38) wrecked off La Rochelle

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built - the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.



Scale: 1:48. A design block model of the ‘Artois’, a 38-gun frigate, built by Wells of Rotherhithe in 1794. The model is scenic, and is represented on a slipway, with complete with its launching flags. It carries a plaque inscribed ‘Artois tons 996 Guns 38 Built 1794. On a launch. This model represents the mode of launching ships in HM Dockyards at the present time, and was accepted subsequent to 1795’. ‘Artois’ captured several French ships before being wrecked near La Rochelle in 1797.


Scale: 1:48. A model of one of the nine ships of the 'Artois/Apollo' class of 38-gun frigates designed by Sir John Henslow and built between 1793 and 1795. Seven were built conventionally in private shipyards and two more were constructed experimentally in fir in the Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Woolwich. Four of the conventional ships were wrecked between 1797 and 1799, and the fir-built ships deteriorated rapidly. The model shows the hull of the ship fully planked and set on a launching cradle, though without the rails on which it will run, as is common on models of this period. The stern decoration and figurehead are carefully carved and some features such as decorations and the steering wheel are made in bone. The figurehead is of Diana the huntress, which identifies the ship. Two other models of this ship are in the Museum collection.





Ships in Artois class

• HMS Artois
  • Builder: John & William Wells, Rotherhithe
  • Launched: 3 January 1794
  • Completed: 3 March 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Ballieu rocks off Brittany on 31 July 1797
• HMS Diana
  • Builder: Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
  • Launched: 3 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Sold to new Dutch Navy on 7 March 1815;
    burnt in fire at Willemsoord, Den Helder on 16 January 1839.
• HMS Apollo
  • Builder: Perry & Hankey, Blackwall
  • Launched: 18 March 1794
  • Completed: 23 September 1794 at Woolwich Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Haak sands off the Dutch coast on 7 January 1799
• HMS Diamond
  • Builder: William Barnard, Deptford
  • Launched: 17 March 1794
  • Completed: 6 June 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812
• HMS Jason
  • Builder: John Dudman, Deptford
  • Launched: 3 April 1794
  • Completed: 25 July 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on rocks off Brittany on 13 October 1798
• HMS Seahorse
  • Builder: Marmaduke Stalkart, Rotherhithe
  • Launched: 11 June 1794
  • Completed: 16 September 1794 at Deptford Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in July 1819
• HMS Tamar
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Broken up in January 1810 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Clyde
  • Builder: Chatham Royal Dockyard
  • Launched: 26 March 1796
  • Completed: 21 June 1796
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up August 1814.
• HMS Ethalion
  • Builder: Joseph Graham, Harwich
  • Launched: 14 March 1797
  • Completed: 11 July 1797 at Chatham Dockyard
  • Fate: Wrecked on the Penmarcks on 25 December 1799

Jotika/Caldercraft offers a beautifull wooden kit of the Artois class HMS Diana (http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Nelson_Front.htm) in scale 1:64



an there is a wonderfull Anatomy of Ships book available (I guss I should make asap a book review....)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Diana_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artois-class_frigate

1801 HMS Sylph (18), Charles Dashwood, engaged a French frigate.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed for building Albatross (1795) and Dispatch (1795). The plan was later used for Pelican (1795), Kite (1795) and Raven (1796) before being altered in April 1795 and used for Star (1795), Swallow (1795 and Sylph (1795). Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

1803 - Birth of John Ericsson, Swedish-American engineer, co-designed the USS Princeton and the Novelty Locomotive (d. 1889)

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

1808 - HMS Imperieuse (38), Cptn. Lord Cochrane, destroyed castle at Mongal.

The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Imperieuse_(1793)

1811 - William Bligh promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue.

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

1848 – French 90 gun ship Breslaw , Suffren class launched

Breslaw was a 90-gun Suffren-class ship of the line of the French Navy. She was the twenty-second ship in French service named in honour of Louis IX of France.

Started as Achille, the ship was renamed Saint Louis in 1839. She took part in the Crimean War as a troop ship, and served in the French intervention in Mexico in 1862. She was used as a prison hulk for prisoners of the Paris Commune, then as an ammunition store, and was eventually broken up in 1886.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Breslaw_(1848)

1865 - The East India Squadron, later known as Asiatic Squadron, is established under Commodore Henry H. Bell, USN, to operate from Sunda Strait to Japan. The squadron consists of USS Hartford, USS Wachusett, USS Wyoming and USS Relief.

1874 - USS Intrepid is commissioned, the first U.S. warship equipped with torpedoes.

The second USS Intrepid, was a steam-powered torpedo ram commissioned and built in 1874 that had the distinction of being the world's first U.S. Navy ship armed with self-propelled torpedoes. In concept and design she was roughly comparable to the Royal Navy's HMS Polyphemus, although Intrepid was completed more than half a decade earlier. The Intrepid was commissioned by President Ulysses S. Grant's Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson.


USS Intrepid in dry dock, note the torpedo projection device at her forefoot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Intrepid_(1874)

1898 – French cruiser Laperouse wrecked



Lapérouse was a cruiser of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, named after Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse.
She was built at Brest, France. She was laid down in 1875 and launched in 1877. Her main armament was mounted in barbettes.
Lapérouse was part of the Far East Squadron under Admiral Amédée Courbet. On 31 July 1898, she was anchored in Fort-Dauphin's Bay at Anosy, Madagascar, waiting for coal for a voyage in which she was to provide transport for the Governor of Madagascar, General Joseph Gallieni, when a storm hit. A sudden gust of wind broke her two anchor chains, and she drifted toward the coast, ran aground, and was wrecked. All hands were saved.

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

 

[Uwek]

1 August 1620 - Speedwell leaves Delfshaven to bring pilgrims to America by way via England where she met Mayflower for their common journey

Speedwell was a 60-ton pinnace that, along with Mayflower, transported the Pilgrims and was the smaller of the two ships. A vessel of the same name and size traveled to the New World seventeen years prior as the flagship of the first expedition of Martin Pring.

Swiftsure
Speedwell was built in 1577, under the name Swiftsure, as part of English preparations for war against Spain. She participated in the fight against the Spanish Armada. During the Earl of Essex's 1596 Azores expedition she served as the ship of his second in command, Sir Gelli Meyrick. After hostilities with Spain ended, she was decommissioned in 1605, and renamed Speedwell.


Model of a typical merchantman of the period, showing the cramped conditions that had to be endured

Speedwell


The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, 1843, US Capitol Rotunda. The name of the ship, Speedwell, and 1620 are written in the foreground of the painting.

The Leiden Separatists, a Captain Blossom, bought Speedwell in Holland, and embarked from Delfshaven on 22 July 1620, some sources say 01 August. They then sailed under the command of Captain Reynolds to Southampton, England to meet the sister ship, Mayflower, which had been chartered by merchant investors (again Captain Blossom). In Southampton they joined with other Separatists and the additional colonists hired by the investors. Speedwell was already leaking. The ships lay at anchor in Southampton almost two weeks while Speedwell was being repaired and the group had to sell some of their belongings, food and stores, to cover costs and port fees.



The two ships began the voyage on 5 August 1620, but Speedwell was found to be taking on water, and the two ships put into Dartmouth for repairs. On the second attempt, Mayflower and Speedwell sailed about 100 leagues(about 300 nautical miles (560 km; 350 mi)) beyond Land's End in Cornwall, but Speedwell was again found to be taking on water. Both vessels returned to Dartmouth. The Separatists decided to go on to America on Mayflower. According to Bradford, Speedwell was sold at auction in London, and after being repaired made a number of successful voyages for her new owners. At least two of her passengers, Captain Thomas Blossom and a son, returned to Leiden.



Prior to the voyage Speedwell had been refitted in Delfshaven and had two masts. Nathaniel Philbrick theorizes that the crew used a mast that was too big for the ship, and that the added stress caused holes to form in the hull. William Bradford wrote that the "overmasting" strained the ship's hull, but attributes the main cause of her leaking to actions on the part of the crew. Passenger Robert Cushman wrote from Dartmouth in August 1620 that the leaking was caused by a loose board approximately two feet long.



Eleven people from Speedwell boarded Mayflower, leaving 20 people to return to London (including Cushman) while a combined company of 102 continued the voyage. For a third time, Mayflower headed for the New World. She left Plymouth on 6 September 1620 and entered Cape Cod Harbor on 11 November. Speedwell's replacement, Fortune, eventually followed, arriving at Plymouth Colony one year later on 9 November 1621. Philippe de Lannoy on Speedwell made the trip.


The reverse of the $10,000 bill shows a scene from Weir's painting of Speedwell.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedwell_(1577_ship)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrims_(Plymouth_Colony)
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46372/46372-h/46372-h.htm

 

[Uwek]

1 August 1704 - The Capture of Gibraltar by Anglo-Dutch forces of the Grand Alliance

occurred between 1–3 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Since the beginning of the war the Alliance had been looking for a harbour in the Iberian Peninsula to control the Strait of Gibraltar and facilitate naval operations against the French fleet in the western Mediterranean Sea. An attempt to seize Cádiz had ended in failure in September 1702, but following the Alliance fleet's successful raid in Vigo Bay in October that year, the combined fleets of the 'Maritime Powers', the Netherlands and England, had emerged as the dominant naval force in the region. This strength helped persuade King Peter II of Portugal to sever his alliance with France and Bourbon controlled Spain, and ally himself with the Grand Alliance in 1703. Now with access to the Portuguese port of Lisbon the Alliance fleets could campaign in the Mediterranean, and conduct operations in support of the Austrian Habsburg candidate to the Spanish throne, the Archduke Charles, known to his supporters as Charles III of Spain.


Sketch of Gibraltar by an officer of Admiral Rooke's fleet on 1 August 1704

Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt represented the Habsburg cause in the region. In May 1704 the Prince and Admiral George Rooke, commander of the main Grand Alliance fleet, failed to take Barcelona in the name of 'Charles III'; Rooke subsequently evaded pressure from his allies to make another attempt on Cádiz. In order to compensate for their lack of success the Alliance commanders resolved to capture Gibraltar, a small town on the southern Spanish coast. Following a heavy bombardment the town was invaded by English and Dutch marines and sailors. The governor, Diego de Salinas, agreed to surrender Gibraltar and its small garrison on 3 August. Three days later Prince George entered the town with Austrian and Spanish Habsburg troops in the name of Charles III of Spain. The Grand Alliance failed in its objective of replacing Philip V with Charles III as King of Spain but in the peace negotiations Gibraltar was ceded to Britain.


Attack on Gibraltar 1–3 August 1704. Prince George of Hesse entered the town on 6 August in the name of 'Charles III' but effective control remained with the English.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Gibraltar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dorsetshire_(1694)