Naval/Maritime History 22nd of March - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1416 - Battle of Gallipoli - Venetians defeat Ottoman Turks


The Battle of Gallipoli occurred on 29 May 1416 between a squadron of the Venetian navy and the fleet of the Ottoman Empire off the Ottoman naval base of Gallipoli. The battle was the main episode of a brief conflict between the two powers, resulting from Ottoman attacks against Venetian possessions and shipping in the Aegean Sea in late 1415. The Venetian fleet, under Pietro Loredan, was charged with transporting Venetian envoys to the Sultan, but was authorized to attack if the Ottomans refused to negotiate. The subsequent events are known chiefly from a letter written by Loredan after the battle. The Ottomans exchanged fire with the Venetian ships as soon as the Venetian fleet approached Gallipoli, forcing the Venetians to withdraw.

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On the next day, the two fleets manoeuvred and fought off Gallipoli, but during the evening, Loredan managed to contact the Ottoman authorities and inform them of his diplomatic mission. Despite assurances that the Ottomans would welcome the envoys, when the Venetian fleet approached the city on the next day, the Ottoman fleet sailed to meet the Venetians and the two sides quickly became embroiled in battle. The Venetians scored a crushing victory, killing the Ottoman admiral, capturing a large part of the Ottoman fleet, and taking large numbers prisoner, of whom many—particularly the Christians serving voluntarily in the Ottoman fleet—were executed. The Venetians then retired to Tenedos to replenish their supplies and rest. Although a crushing Venetian victory, which confirmed Venetian naval superiority in the Aegean Sea for the next few decades, the settlement of the conflict was delayed until a peace treaty was signed in 1419.

Background
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Map of the southern Balkans and western Anatolia in 1410, during the later phase of the Ottoman Interregnum

In 1413, the Ottoman prince Mehmed I ended the civil war of the Ottoman Interregnum and established himself as Sultan and the sole master of the Ottoman realm. The Republic of Venice, as the premier maritime and commercial power in the area, endeavoured to renew the treaties it had concluded with Mehmed's predecessors during the civil war, and in May 1414, its bailo in the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, Francesco Foscarini, was instructed to proceed to the Sultan's court to that effect. Foscarini failed, however, as Mehmed campaigned in Anatolia, and Venetian envoys were traditionally instructed not to move too far from the shore (and the Republic's reach); Foscarini had yet to meet the Sultan by July 1415, when Mehmed's displeasure at this delay was conveyed to the Venetian authorities. In the meantime, tensions between the two powers mounted, as the Ottomans moved to re-establish a sizeable navy and launched several raids that challenged Venetian naval hegemony in the Aegean Sea.

During his 1414 campaign in Anatolia, Mehmed came to Smyrna, where several of the most important Latin rulers of the Aegean—the Genoese lords of Chios, Phokaia, and Lesbos, and even the Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller—came to do him obeisance. According to the contemporary Byzantine historian Doukas (c. 1400 – after 1462), the absence of the Duke of Naxos from this assembly provoked the ire of the Sultan, who in retaliation equipped a fleet of 30 vessels, under the command of Çali Bey, and in late 1415 sent it to raid the Duke's domains in the Cyclades. The Ottoman fleet ravaged the islands, and carried off a large part of the inhabitants of Andros, Paros, and Melos.

In June 1414, Ottoman ships raided the Venetian colony of Euboea and pillaged its capital, Negroponte, taking almost all its inhabitants prisoner; out of some 2,000 captives, the Republic was able after years secure the release of 200 mostly elderly, women, and children, the rest being sold as slaves. Furthermore, in the autumn of 1415, an Ottoman fleet of 42 ships—six galleys, 16 galleots, and the rest smaller brigantines—tried to intercept Venetian merchant convoy coming from the Black Sea at the island of Tenedos, at the southern entrance of the Dardanelles. The Venetian vessels were delayed at Constantinople by bad weather, but managed to pass through the Ottoman fleet and outrun its pursuit to the safety of Negroponte. The Ottoman fleet instead raided Euboea, including an attack on the fortress of Oreos (Loreo) in northern Euboea, but its defenders under the castellan Taddeo Zane resisted with success. Nevertheless the Turks were able to once again ravage the rest of the island, carrying off 1,500 captives, so that the local inhabitants even petitioned the Signoria of Venice for permission to become tributaries of the Turks to guarantee their future safety—a demand categorically rejected by the Signoria on 4 February 1416.

In response to the Ottoman raids, the Great Council of Venice appointed Pietro Loredan as commander-in-chief and charged him with equipping a fleet of fifteen galleys; five were equipped in Venice, four at Candia, and one each at Negroponte, Napoli di Romania (Nauplia), Andros, and Corfu.a[›] Loredan's brother Giorgio, Jacopo Barbarigo, Cristoforo Dandolo, and Pietro Contarini were appointed as galley captains (sopracomiti), while Andrea Foscolo and Delfino Venier were designated as provveditori of the fleet and envoys to the Sultan. While Foscolo was charged with a mission to the Principality of Achaea, Venier was tasked with reaching a new agreement with the Sultan on the basis of the treaty concluded between Musa Çelebi and the Venetian envoy Giacomo Trevisan in 1411, and with securing the release of the Venetian prisoners taken in 1414. Loredan's appointment was unusual, as he had served recently as Captain of the Gulf, and law forbade anyone who had held the position from holding the same for three years after; however, the Great Council overrode this rule due to the de facto state of war with the Ottomans. In a further move calculated to bolster Loredan's authority (and appeal to his vanity), an old rule that had fallen into disuse was revived, whereby only the captain-general had the right to carry the Banner of Saint Mark on his flagship, rather than every sopracomito. In a rare display of determination on behalf of the Venetian government, the Council voted almost unanimously to authorize Loredan to attack if the Ottomans were unwilling to negotiate a cessation of hostilities.

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Map of the Dardanelles Straits and their vicinity. Gallipoli (Gelibolu) is marked on the northern entrance of the Straits.

The main target of Loredan's fleet was to be Gallipoli. The city was the "key of the Dardanelles" and one of the most important strategic positions in the Eastern Mediterranean. At the time it was also the main Turkish naval base and provided a safe haven for their corsairs raiding Venetian colonies in the Aegean. With Constantinople still in Christian hands, Gallipoli had also for decades been the main crossing point for the Ottoman armies from Anatolia to Europe. As a result of its trategic importance, Sultan Bayezid I took care to improve its fortifications, rebuilding the citadel and strengthening the harbour defences. The harbour had a seaward wall and a narrow entrance leading to an outer basin, separated from an inner basin by a bridge, where Bayezid erected a three-storey tower. When Ruy González de Clavijo visited the city in 1403, he reported seeing its citadel full of troops, a large arsenal, and 40 ships in the harbour.

Bayezid aimed to use his warships in Gallipoli to control (and tax) the passage of shipping through the Dardanelles, an ambition which brought him into direct conflict with Venetian interests in the area. While the Ottoman fleet was not yet strong enough to face the Venetians, it forced the latter to provide armed escort to their trade convoys passing through the Dardanelles. Securing right of unimpeded passage through the Dardanelles was a chief issue in Venice's diplomatic relations with the Ottomans: the Republic had secured this in the 1411 treaty with Musa Çelebi, but the failure to renew that agreement in 1414 had again rendered Gallipoli "the main object of dispute in Venetian-Ottoman relations", and the Ottoman naval activity in 1415, based in Gallipoli, further underscored its importance.

Battle
The events before and during the battle are described in detail in a letter sent by Loredan to the Signoria on 2 June 1416, which was included by Sanudo in his (posthumously published) History of the Doges of Venice, while Doukas provides a brief and somewhat different account. According to Loredan's letter, his fleet was delayed by contrary winds and reached Tenedos on 24 May, and did not enter the Dardanelles until the 27th, when they arrived near Gallipoli. Loredan reports that the Venetians took care to avoid projecting any hostile intentions, but the Ottomans, who had assembled a large force of infantry and 200 cavalry on the shore, began firing on them with arrows. Loredan dispersed his ships to avoid casualties, but the tide was drawing them closer to the shore. Loredan tried to signal the Ottomans that they had no hostile intentions, but the latter kept firing poisoned arrows at them, until Loredan ordered a few cannon shots that killed a few soldiers and forced the rest to retire from the shore.

At dawn on the next day, Loredan sent two galleys, bearing the Banner of Saint Mark, to the entry of the port of Gallipoli to open negotiations. In response the Turks sent 32 ships to attack them. Loredan withdrew his two galleys, and began to withdraw, while shooting at the Turkish ships, in order to lure them away from Gallipoli. As the Ottoman ships could not keep up with their oars, they set sail as well; on the Venetian side, the galley from Napoli di Romania tarried during the manoeuvre and was in danger of being caught by the pursuing Ottoman ships, so that Loredan likewise ordered his ships to set sail. Once they were had made ready for combat, Loredan ordered his ten galleys to lower sails, turn about, and face the Ottoman fleet. At that point, however, the eastern wind rose suddenly, and the Ottomans decided to break off the pursuit and head back to Gallipoli. Loredan in turn tried to catch up with the Ottomans, firing at them with his guns and crossbows and launching grappling hooks at the Turkish ships, but the wind and the current allowed the Ottomans to retreat speedily behind the fortifications of Gallipoli. According to Loredan, the engagement lasted until the 22nd hour.

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14th-century painting of a light galley, from an icon now at the Byzantine and Christian Museum at Athens

Loredan then sent a messenger to the Ottoman fleet commander to complain about the attack, insisting that his intentions were pacific, and that his sole purpose was to convey the two ambassadors to the Sultan. The Ottoman commander replied that he was ignorant of that fact, and that the fleet was meant to sail to the Danube and stop Mehmed's brother and rival for the throne, Mustafa Çelebi, from crossing from Wallachia into Ottoman Rumelia. The Ottoman commander informed Loredan that he and his crews could land and provision themselves without fear, and that the members of the embassy would be conveyed with the appropriate honours and safety to their destination. Loredan sent a notary, Thomas, with an interpreter to the Ottoman commander and the captain of the garrison of Gallipoli to express his regrets, but also to gauge the number, equipment, and dispositions of the Ottoman galleys. The Ottoman dignitaries reassured Thomas of their good will, and proposed to provide an armed escort for the ambassadors to bring them to the court of Sultan Mehmed.

After the envoy returned, the Venetian fleet, sailing with difficulty against the eastern wind, departed and sailed to a nearby bay to spend the night. On the next day, in accordance to the messages exchanged, Loredan led his ships towards Gallipoli to replenish his supplies of water, while leaving three galleys—those of his brother, of Dandolo, and of Capello of Candia—as a reserve. As soon as the Venetians approached the town, the Ottoman fleet sailed out of the harbour, and one of their galleys approached and fired a few cannon shots at the Venetian vessels. According to the account by Doukas, the Venetians were pursuing a merchant vessel of Lesbos thought to be Turkish origin, coming from Constantinople. The Ottomans likewise thought the merchant vessel was one of their own, and one of their galleys moved to defend the vessel.

The galley from Napoli, which sailed to his left, was again showing signs of disorder, so he ordered it moved to the right, away from the approaching Turks. Loredan had his ships withdraw a while, in order to draw the Turks further from Gallipoli and have the sun in the Venetians' back. Once ready, Loredan led his own flagship to attack the leading Ottoman galley. Its crew offered determined resistance, and the other Ottoman galleys came astern of Loredan's ship to his left, and launched volleys of arrows against him and his men. Loredan himself was wounded by an arrow below the eye and the nose, and by another that passed through his left hand, as well as other arrows that struck him with lesser effect. Nevertheless, the galley was captured after most of its crew was killed, and Loredan, after leaving a few men of his crew to guard it, turned against a galleot, which he captured as well. Again leaving a few of his men and his flag on it, he turned on the other Ottoman ships. The fight lasted from morning to the second hour of the night. The Venetians defeated the Ottoman fleet, killing its commander and many of the captains and crews, and capturing six great galleys and nine galleots, according to Loredan's account. Doukas claims that the Venetians captured 27 vessels in total, while the contemporary Egyptian chronicler Maqrizi reduced the number to twelve. Loredan gives a detailed breakdown of the ships captured by his men: his own ship captured a galley and a galleot of 20 banks of oars; the Contarini galley captured a galley; the galley of Giorgio Loredan captured two galleots of 22 banks and two galleots of 20 banks; the Grimani galley of Negroponte captured a galley; the galley of Jiacopo Barbarini captured a galleot of 23 banks and another of 19 banks; the same for the Capello galley; the galley of Girolamo Minotto from Napoli captured the Ottoman flagship galley, which had been defeated and pursued before by the Capello galley; the Venieri and Barbarigo galleys of Candia took a galley. Venetian casualties were light, twelve killed—mostly by drowning—and 340 wounded, most of them lightly. Maqrizi puts the total number of Ottoman dead at 4,000 men.

The Venetian fleet then approached Gallipoli and bombarded the port, without response from the Ottomans within the walls. The Venetians then retired about a mile from Gallipoli to recover their strength and tend to their wounded. Among the captive Ottoman crews were found to be many Christians—Genoese, Catalans, Cretans, Provencals, and Sicilians—who were all executed by hanging from the yardarms, while a certain Giorgio Calergi, who had participated in a revolt against Venice, was quartered at the deck of Loredan's flagship. Many of the Christian galley slaves also perished in combat, but about 1,100 were taken prisoner by the Venetians. Doukas places these events later, at Tenedos, where the Turkish prisoners were executed, while the Christian prisoners were divided into those who had been pressed into service as galley slaves, who were liberated, and those who had entered Ottoman service as mercenaries, who were impaled. After burning five galleots in sight of Gallipoli, Loredan made ready to retire with his ships to Tenedos to take on water, repair his ships, tend to his wounded and make new plans. The Venetian commander sent a new letter to the Ottoman commander in the city complaining of breach of faith and explaining that he would return from Tenedos to carry out his mission of escorting the ambassadors, but the Ottoman commander did not reply.

Aftermath
One of the Turkish captains that had been taken prisoner also composed a letter to the Sultan, stating that the Venetians had been attacked without cause. He also informed Loredan that the remnants of the Ottoman fleet were such that they posed no threat to him: a single galley and a few galleots and smaller vessels were seaworthy, while the rest of the galleys in Gallipoli were out of commission. At Tenedos, Loredan held a council of war, where the opinion was to return to Negroponte for provisions, for offloading the wounded, and for selling three of the galleys for prize money for the crews.b[›] Loredan disagreed, believing that they should keep up the pressure on the Turks, and resolved to return to Gallipoli to press for the passage of the ambassadors to the Sultan's court. He sent his brother with his ship to bring the more heavily wounded to Negroponte, and burned three of the captured galleys since they were too much of a burden—in his letter to the Signoria, he expressed the hope that his men would still be recompensed for them, his shipwrights estimating their value at 600 gold ducats.

The conflict was finally ended in November 1419, when a peace treaty was signed between the Sultan and the new Venetian bailo in Constantinople, Bertuccio Diedo, in which the Ottomans recognized by name Venice's overseas possessions, and agreed to an exchange of prisoners—those taken by the Ottomans from Euboea, and by Venice at Gallipoli.

The victory at Gallipoli ensured Venetian naval superiority for decades to come, but also led the Venetians to complacency and over-confidence, as, according to historian Seth Parry, the "seemingly effortless trouncing of the Ottoman fleet confirmed the Venetians in their beliefs that they were vastly superior to the Turks in naval warfare". During the long Siege of Thessalonica (1422–1430) and subsequent conflicts over the course of the century, however, "the Venetians would learn to their discomfiture that naval superiority alone could not guarantee an everlasting position of strength in the eastern Mediterranean".



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1691 – Death of Cornelis Tromp, Dutch admiral (b. 1629)


Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp
(3 September 1629 – 29 May 1691) was a Dutch naval officer. He was the son of Lieutenant Admiral Maarten Tromp.[a]He became Lieutenant Admiral General in the Dutch Navy and briefly General admiral in the Danish Navy. He fought in the first three Anglo-Dutch Warsand in the Scanian War.

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Biography
Early life

His father Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp

Cornelis Maartenszoon Tromp was born on 9 September 1629 in Rotterdam, in the county of Holland, the historically dominant province of the Dutch Republic. He was the second son of Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp and Dina Cornelisdochter de Haas. His name Maartenszoon, sometimes abbreviated to Maartensz., is a patronymic and means "son of Maarten". He had two full brothers, Harper and Johan.

In 1633, when he was only four years old, his mother died. His father remarried in 1634 and again in 1640. The two marriages together brought Tromp four half brothers and five half sisters.

His father had made career as an officer for the Admiralty of the Maze. After a conflict with Lieutenant-Admiral Philips van Dorp in 1634 Maarten Tromp left the fleet starting to work as a deacon. After Van Dorp was removed from his position[2] in 1637, his father became Lieutenant Admiral and supreme commander of the Dutch Navy.

In 1642, Cornelis Tromp was sent to Harfleur in France to learn to speak French from a Calvinist preacher.

Early navy career
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The Battle of Leghorn in 1653

On 1 September 1643, he joined his father on his flagship the Aemilia. In September 1645, he was appointed as lieutenant. On 22 August 1649, he was made a full captain.

He served in the First Anglo-Dutch War, fighting in the Battle of Leghorn, but was not given command of the Mediterranean fleet after the death of Johan van Galen, only being promoted to Rear-Admiral with the Admiralty of de Maze on 11 November 1653 after the death of his beloved father Maarten.

In 1656, he participated in the relief of Gdańsk (Danzig). In 1658, it was discovered he had used his ships to trade in luxury goods; as a result he was fined and not allowed to have an active command until 1662. Just before the Second Anglo-Dutch War, he was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 29 January 1665; at the Battle of Lowestoft, he prevented total catastrophe by taking over fleet command to allow the escape of the larger part of the fleet.

Lieutenant Admiral
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The Battle of Texel in 1673

Gaining sudden popularity, he was temporarily given supreme command as Lieutenant Admiral of the confederate fleet on 23 July 1665, but had to give up this function (but not rank) the next month in favour of Lieutenant Admiral Michiel de Ruyter; he fought, having been transferred to the Admiralty of Amsterdam on 6 February 1666, under the latter in the Four Days Battle and the St. James's Day Battle. As this failure off Nieuwpoort in August 1666 was imputed to him by De Ruyter, he was dismissed, at the same time, being under the suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government, but he returned in April 1673, after the Orangists seized power, to fight against the French and English navies in the Third Anglo-Dutch War where he participated in the last three fleet actions under Lieutenant-Admiral-General Michiel de Ruyter, distinguishing himself in the double Battle of Schooneveld and the Battle of Texel in August 1673 fighting out an epic duel with his personal enemy Edward Spragge, who drowned. During this war, his flagship was the Gouden Leeuw, of 82 cannon.


Cornelis Tromp by Abraham Evertsz. van Westerveld, painted circa 1666. Tromp is here pictured in a Roman costume, in the 17th century a symbol of martial virtue. His orangist sympathies are reflected by the colour of the mantle

He was closely involved in the murder of Johan de Witt and Cornelis de Witt in 1672.[3] In 1675 he was created an Englishbaronet and a Dutch erfridder by Charles II of England but he refused an honorary doctorate when visiting Oxford.

Danish Navy
On 8 May 1676, he became Admiral-General of the Danish navy and Knight in the Order of the Elephant; in 1677 Count of Sølvesborg (then a Danish nobility title). He defeated the Swedish navy in the Battle of Öland, his only victory as a fleet commander.

Lieutenant Admiral General
On 6 February 1679, he became Lieutenant-Admiral-General of the Republic but never fought in that capacity, having become a liability to the new regime of William III. He died in Amsterdam in 1691, his mind broken by alcohol abuse and remorse, still officially commander of the Dutch fleet, after having been for a period replaced by Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest.

Character

Tromp at a later age, painted by David van der Plas


Cornelis Tromp

Tromp was a very aggressive squadron commander who personally relished the fight, preferring the direct attack having the weather gage over line-of-battle tactics. As a result, he had to change ships often: four times at the Four Days' Battle, three times at Schooneveld and two times at Texel. He was popular with his crews, despite the danger he put them in, because of his easy-going manners and his supporting the cause of the House of Orange against the States regime of Johan de Witt. However, he often treated his fellow officers with contempt, both his equals and superiors. Indeed, he is today infamous for his insubordination, although the two examples most often mentioned in this context, not following De Ruyter on the second day of the Four Days' Battle and chasing the English rear in the St James's Day Fight, seem to have been honest mistakes. He was very jealous of De Ruyter but generally treated him with respect, though he considered him too common. Tromp tried to imitate the lifestyle of the nobility, marrying a rich elderly widow, Margaretha van Raephorst, in 1667. He had no children. At home, without fighting to distract him, Cornelis, or Kees as he was normally called, grew quickly bored and indolent. He had the reputation of being a heavy drinker, so much so that many inns at the time were named after him. An example book for inn signs proposed the following inscription:

IN THE ADMIRAL TROMP
The heaviest drinker that is known
Is Tromp, as he has often shown.
So all real men do gather here,
To likewise fill their mouths with beer.
Tromp was a vain man, having an extremely high opinion of himself, which he never hesitated in sharing with others. He felt that, son of a famous father, he had a natural right to the position of naval hero. During his life he posed as a sitter for at least 22 paintings, a record for the 17th century, many by top artists such as Ferdinand Bol. His art possessions were displayed in his estate, that long after his death was called Trompenburgh, the manor house built in the form of a warship.

As his wider family was among the most fanatical supporters of Orange, he participated in most of their schemes, especially those of his brother-in-law Johan Kievit, a shrewd and unscrupulous intriguer. Tromp however had no great enthusiasm for subtle plotting; later in life he came to regret many of his actions. He died in great mental anguish, convinced he would go to hell as punishment for his crimes.

Legacy

The frigate HNLMS Tromp of the Royal Netherlands Navy

The Dutch Ministry of Defence names Maarten Tromp and Cornelis Tromp as naval heroes. Since 1777, nine navy ships have been named Tromp in honour of them, most recently the frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803).

In the Dutch movie, Michiel de Ruyter, he was portrayed by the actor Hajo Bruins.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1758 - HMS Dorsetshire (70) and HMS Achilles (60), Cptn. Hon. Samuel Barrington, took French Raisonnable (64)


Raisonnable was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1755.

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On 29 May 1758, she was captured in the Bay of Biscay by HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Achilles at the Action of 29 April 1758, and commissioned in the Royal Navy as the third rate HMS Raisonnable. She was lost off Martinique on 3 February 1762.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehad, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Raisonnable' (1758), a captured French Third Rate, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker



HMS Dorsetshire was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Chatham Dockyard to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment, amended in 1754, and launched on 13 December 1757.

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At the Action of 29 April 1758, Dorestshire defeated and captured French ship of the line Raisonnable in the Bay of Biscay.

Dorsetshire served until 1775, when she was broken up

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Dorsetshire' (1757), a modified 1745 Establishment, 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as originally designed to carry 70-guns



HMS Achilles was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Barnard and Turner at Harwich to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched in 1757. She was ordered in November 1755. HMS Achilles was a Dunkirk-class fourth rate, along with HMS Dunkirk and HMS America.

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HMS Maria Anna, Earl of Chatham and Achilles (far right) off a coastal town

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Achilles (1757), a 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker

Career
HMS Achilles was launched on 6 February 1757 at Harwich. At the Action of 29 April 1758, she was detached along with HMS Dorsetshire in pursuit of the 64-gun French ship Raisonnable. The Dorsetshire engaged the Raisonnable first, followed by the Achilles. After sustaining 35 casualties, Raisonnable was taken and later purchased for the navy as HMS Raisonnable.

On 4 April 1759 Achilles engaged and captured the 60-gun French coastguard vessel St Florentine in a two-hour battle. The Achilles sustained 25 casualties – 2 killed and 23 wounded. St Florentine was later brought into the Royal Navy as HMS St. Florentine.

Later that year, the Achilles was the flagship of Rear-Admiral George Rodney when he sailed to L'Havre on 3 July. The fleet of four 50-gun ships along with 5 frigates, a sloop and 6 bomb ketches destroyed landing barges assembled in the harbour for a possible invasion of England. The Achilles remained at L'Havre for the rest of the year.

On 28 March 1762 the Achilles, along with several other warships and transports carrying 10,000 troops, set sail from Saint Helens to attack the French at Belleisle. The fleet arrived on 7 April. The next day the army attempted a landing under the cover of the Achilles's guns. The attack was forced back and the army lost 500 soldiers killed, wounded or captured. The army finally landed successfully on 22 April, and besieged the French in Le Palais until 7 June – when the French surrendered.

Achilles became the guardship at Portsmouth in 1763. Achilles was hulked in 1782 and sold on 1 June 1784.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Raisonnable_(1755)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-341844;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1781 - Colonial frigate USS Alliance (36), Cptn. John Barry, captures HMS Atalanta (14), Cdr. Sampson Edwards, and HMS Trepassy (14), Cdr. James Smyth (Killed in Action), off Nova Scotia.


The first USS Alliance of the United States Navy was a 36-gun sailing frigate of the American Revolutionary War.

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Originally named Hancock, she was laid down in 1777 on the Merrimack River at Amesbury, Massachusetts, by the partners and cousins, William and James K. Hackett, launched on 28 April 1778, and renamed Alliance on 29 May 1778 by resolution of the Continental Congress. Her first commanding officer was Capt. Pierre Landais, a former officer of the French Navy who had come to the New World hoping to become a naval counterpart of Lafayette. The frigate's first captain was widely accepted as such in America. Massachusetts made him an honorary citizen and the Continental Congress gave him command of Alliance, thought to be the finest warship built to that date on the western side of the Atlantic.

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Excerpt of her career - the year 1781
Meanwhile, efforts to restore Alliance to fighting trim progressed slowly – when they moved at all – because of a dearth of both men and money. Funds for the necessary yard work and for provisioning and manning the ship were slow in reaching Boston until Col. John Laurens – a former aide-de-camp to General George Washington, a successful battlefield commander, and an exchanged prisoner of war – appeared there on 25 January 1781. Congress had appointed Laurens as its envoy extraordinary to France because his military experience seemed to fit him to become a convincing spokesman for Washington's needy army. It had also selected Alliance as the speediest and safest ship to carry the dashing young officer to Europe. The urgency of Alliance's new mission made the funds and crew available so that the ship was ready to sail by the end of the first week of February. A favorable wind came up on the 11th enabling her to depart Nantasket Roads and stand out to sea.

Five days later, she entered crowded ice fields and suffered "considerable damage" as she forced her way through. Her crew contained many British sailors, a group of whom plotted to take over the frigate and to kill all her officers but one who would be spared to navigate the vessel to an English port. However, Barry took careful precautions to prevent the mutiny from erupting.

While she sailed eastward Barry followed the orders of the Naval Committee to not pursue any shipping which would delay his progress. Yet, on 4 March, the frigate encountered a ship and a British cruiser. One shot brought both vessels to. The cruiser proved to be the English privateer Alert and her consort was Buono Campagnia, a prize which the Britisher had recently taken. Barry took Alert as a prize, but released the merchantman. Five days later, on 9 March, the frigate anchored in Groix Roads and disembarked her important passenger and his three companions: Thomas Paine, whose writings had exerted great influence in persuading the colonies to seek independence, Major William Jackson, a Continental Army officer from South Carolina, and the vicomte de Noailles, a cousin of Lafayette.

After almost three weeks in port, Alliance headed home on the afternoon of 29 March, escorting Marquis De Lafayette, an old, French East Indiaman which an American agent had chartered to carry a valuable cargo of arms and uniforms for the Continental Army. Before the month was out, Barry discovered and investigated a mutiny plot and punished the conspirators.

At dawn on 2 April a lookout sighted two ships to the northwest, Barry headed toward the strangers and ordered the Indiaman to follow. Undaunted, the distant vessels – which proved to be two British brigs – continued to approach the little American convoy and fired a broadside at the frigate as they passed abreast. Two answering salvoes from Alliance robbed the larger of the two English vessels of her rigging and forced her to strike her colors. Barry ordered Marquis De Lafayette to attend to the captured foe while he pursued and took the second brig. The first prize, a new and fast privateer from Guernsey named Mars though badly damaged, was repaired and sent to Philadelphia under an American crew. Marquis De Lafayette provided the prize crew for the smaller vessel, a Jersey privateer named Minerva. Barry ordered the prizemaster of this vessel to head for Philadelphia but Marquis De Lafayette's captain had secretly ordered him to head for France if he had a chance to slip away. On the night of 17 April, foul weather separated Mars from the convoy. Nevertheless, that prize dutifully continued on toward the Delaware capes. Minerva slipped away during the next night and apparently set course for the Bay of Biscay. Marquis De Lafayette dropped out of sight during a fierce storm on the night of the 25th.

After spending two days looking for her lost charge, Alliance continued on toward America alone. On 2 May, she took two sugar-laden Jamaicamen. Off Newfoundland Banks later that day, Alliance sighted but escaped the attention of a large convoy from Jamaica and its Royal Navy escorts. Ironically, a few days before, the missing Marquis De Lafayette and her treacherous master had fallen prey to this same British force.

Almost continuous bad weather plagued Barry's little force in the days that followed until Alliance permanently lost sight of her two prizes on 12 May. During a tempest on the 17th, lightning shattered the frigate's main topmast and carried away her main yard while damaging her foremast and injuring almost a score of men.

Jury-rigged repairs had been completed when Barry observed two vessels approaching him from windward 10 days later but his ship was still far from her best fighting trim. The two strangers kept pace with Alliance roughly a league off her starboard beam. At first dawn, the unknown ships hoisted British colors and prepared for battle. Although all three ships were almost completely becalmed, the American drifted within hailing distance of the largest British vessel about an hour before noon; Barry learned that it was the sloop of war HMS Atalanta. Her smaller consort proved to be Trepassey, also a sloop of war. The American captain then identified his own vessel and invited Atalanta's commanding officer to surrender. A few moments later, Barry opened the inevitable battle with a broadside. The sloops immediately pulled out of field of fire of the frigate's broadsides and took positions aft of their foe where their guns could pound her with near impunity In the motionless air, Alliance – too large to be propelled by sweeps – was powerless to maneuver.

A grapeshot hit Barry's left shoulder, seriously wounding him, but he continued to direct the fighting until loss of blood almost robbed him of consciousness. Lieutenant Hoystead Hacker, the frigate's executive officer, took command as Barry was carried to the cockpit for treatment. Hacker fought the ship with valor and determination until her inability to maneuver out of her relatively defenseless position prompted him to seek Barry's permission to surrender. Indignantly, Barry refused to allow this and asked to be brought back on deck to resume command.

Inspired by Barry's zeal, Hacker returned to the fray. Then a wind sprang up and restored Alliance's steerage way, enabling her to bring her battery back into action. Two devastating broadsides knocked Trepassey out of the fight. Another broadside forced Atalanta to strike, ending the bloody affair. The next day, while carpenters labored to repair all three ships, Barry transferred all of his prisoners to Trepassey which – as a cartel ship – would carry them to St. John's, Newfoundland, to be exchanged for American prisoners. HMS Charlestown recaptured Atalanta in June and sent her into Halifax.

Temporary repairs to Atalanta ended on the last day of May, and the prize got underway for Boston. After more patching her battered hull and rigging, Alliance set out the next day and reached Boston on 6 June. While Barry recuperated, her repairs were again delayed by want of funds. Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, ending the war's last major action on land, but not the war, well before she was ready for sea. As had happened before, her restoration to service was hastened by decision to use the frigate to carry an important person to France. Lafayette – who had completed his work in America with a major role in the Yorktown campaign – arrived in Boston on 10 December 1781, wanting to return home. Even with the aid of the Marquis' great influence, a full fortnight passed before she could put to sea on Christmas Eve 1781.

..... further read in wikipedia .....



HMS Atalanta was a 14 gun ship sloop of the Swan class, launched on 12 August 1775. She served during the American Revolutionary War when she was captured and after 10 days recaptured. In May 1782, under the command of Brett, she destroyed an American privateer (6 guns, 25 men), under then command of Ayret, near Cape d'Or. Privateers from Cumberland (including Samuel Rogers) were on board. The privateers escaped to the woods leaving their provisions, which Captain Brett took to Cumberland.

She also served in the French Revolutionary War, and was then renamed HMS Helena in March 1797 before being sold for disposal in 1802.

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Scale: 1:96. A contemporary full hull model of the 'Atalanta' (1775), a 16-gun sixth-rate sloop, built in bread and butter fashion and finished in the Georgian style. Model is partially decked, equipped, rigged and is complete with its original baseboard and display case. The name ‘Atalanta’ is on the stern. Built in the Royal Dockyard, Sheerness, the ‘Atalanta’ measured 97 feet along the upper deck by 27 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 300 (builders old measurement). As one of the larger class of ship-rigged sloops introduced in the 1760s, the ‘Atalanta’ carried 16 guns as well as a number of swivel guns on the quarterdeck. She was captured by the American 36-gun ship ‘Alliance’ in 1781 but was retaken by the British shortly after. She was eventually sold for breaking up in 1802. By comparing the original plans of this ship held in the NMM collection, there is no doubt that this model is an accurate representation of an 18th-century sloop. An Admiralty order issued in 1772 stated that the names were to be painted on the sterns of ships in large letters. The model significantly illustrates this point as can be seen on the stern counter. The unusually small scale of this model would suggest it was made for presentation purposes, possibly a gift to the person performing the naming ceremony. A fair amount of both the standing and running rigging has been replaced



HMS Trepassey, often spelled "Trepassy", was a 14-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, formerly the American privateer Wildcat, launched and captured in 1779. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1779. USS Alliance captured Trepassey in 1781. She became the American merchant vessel Defence. In 1782 HMS Jason captured Defense, which the Royal Navy took back into service under her earlier name. The Navy sold her in 1784.

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Wild Cat
Wild Cat sailed under the command of David Ropes. She captured two British vessels in June or July: the 120-ton (bm) brigantine Mercury, Jonathan Lovgrove, master, and the 160-ton (bm) ship Ocean, Christopher Dunon, master.

On 14 July 1779, Wildcat encountered and gave chase to the schooner HMS Egmont. Egmont, under the command of Lieutenant John Gardiner, attempted to escape from Wildcat but was forced to strike after having lost two men killed, one of them by the boarding party from Wildcat.

On 16 July, HMS Surprise was able to capture Wildcat. Surprise was able to free Lieutenant Gardiner and 20 of his men from Egmont who were aboard Wildcat, but the schooner herself had separated during the chase that preceded Wildcat's capture. The Royal Navy took Wildcat into service as Trepassey.

HMS Trepassey

On 6 August 1779 Henry Edward Stanhope was promoted to Master and Commander of Trepassey at Newfoundland. He left during the autumn of 1780 and his successor was James Smyth, who took command in September.

On 27 May 1781 Captain John Barry commanding USS Alliance captured her in an engagement in which Smyth and four others were killed and nine men were wounded before she struck.

Barry repaired Trepassey, disarmed her, and sent her as a cartel to Halifax under the direction of her master, Phillip Windsor. After she had delivered the prisoners on board she returned to Boston, Massachusetts.

Defense

HMS Jason recaptured Defence on 3 November 1792. Defence was libelled on 11 November. His Majesty's Naval Storekeeper claimed her as the Trepassey, sloop of war. The Vice admiralty court in Halifax, Nova Scotia, awarded the cargo, which had been proven American property, to the captors, and also one-eight of the value of Defence.

HMS Trepassey
Commander Francis Cole commissioned Trepassey in September 1782. On 8 February 1784 she arrived at Plymouth, and then on 1 March she arrived at Deptford where she was paid off.
The Navy sold Trepassey on 29 April 1784 for £735



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alliance_(1778)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Atalanta_(1775)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1794 – Launch of French Droits de l'Homme (French for Rights of Man), a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


Droits de l'Homme (French for Rights of Man) was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy during the French Revolutionary Wars. Launched in 1794, the ship saw service in the Atlantic against the British Royal Navy.

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She was part of the fleet that sailed in December 1796 on the disastrous Expédition d'Irlande. After unsuccessful attempts to land troops on Ireland, the Droits de l'Homme headed back to her home port of Brest with the soldiers still on board. Two British frigates were waiting to intercept stragglers from the fleet, and engaged Droits de l'Homme in the Action of 13 January 1797. Heavily damaged by the British ships and unable to manoeuvre in rough seas, the ship struck a sandbar and was wrecked. Hundreds of lives were lost in the disaster.

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Battle between the French warship Droits de l'Homme and the frigates HMS Amazon and Indefatigable, 13 & 14 January 1797. (Indefatigable on the left, Droits de l'Homme at the centre, Amazon on the right.)

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La Droits de L’Homme, a French 74 Gun Ship returning from an unssuccessful [sic] Expedition to Ireland attacked by his Majesty’s Frigates the Indefatigable, commanded by Sir Edward Pellew, Bart & the Amazon commanded by R.C. Reynold Esqr by Night on the 13th & 14th January 1797, which Action, continued for ten hours hard fighting, when the Enemy’s Ship was forced on shore on their own Coast. The Amazon (1795) is on the left-hand side of the picture and is shown in action against the French temeraire Droits-de-l'Homme (1794). Indefatigable (1784) is on the right. This image depicts three ships showing the stern view. The Droits-de-L'Homme is in the centre, being attacked by the two British ships. It is badly damaged by cannon fire, visible on the sails, its yard is suspended diagonally. The Indefatigable sails also have holes in from cannon fire. There is smoke surrounding the three ships from cannon fire


Construction and naming
The ship was built at Port-Liberté (now Lorient) and launched on 10 Prairial de l'An II (29 May 1794). Her name refers to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, one of the founding documents of the French Revolution.

Service history
Droits de l'Homme, was involved in the Action of 6 November 1794, chasing the British 74s Canada and Alexander. Droits de l'Homme caught up with Alexander first, but was forced out of action with damage to her rigging, but Alexander was soon caught by Jean Bart and Marat and captured.

Droits de l'Homme was lightly involved in Battle of Groix, on 22 June 1795, firing few if any shots during the battle.

Expédition d'Irlande
In December 1796 Droits de l'Homme, under capitaine de vaisseau Raymond de Lacrosse, took part in the invasion attempt against Ireland, carrying 549 soldiers. On their way, the fleet was dispersed by tempests. The Droits de l'Homme arrived at Bantry Bay and cruised off the coast, capturing the brigs Cumberland and Calypso. She stayed there for eight days to ascertain that no French ship was in distress on the coast, and departed for Brittany.

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Droits de l'Homme wrecked

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Coloured aquatint showing the wreck of Les Droits de L'Homme (1794), a French ship chased ashore by the British ship Indefatigable. Inscribed: 'Destruction of Le Droits de L'Homme, showing her situation at Daybreak as forced onshore by the two Frigates in Hodierne Bay near Brest, with the Indefatigable under a press of sail haul'd to clear the land, and throwing up rockets as signals to her consort the Amazon which was unfortunately wrecked at some distance from the enemy's ship'. This action happened on 13 Jan 1797. There are 2 further impressions of this picture in the collection


On 25 Nivôse An V in the Action of 13 January 1797, off Penmarch, Droits de l'Homme met the British frigates HMS Indefatigable (44), under Sir Edward Pellew, and Amazon(36), commanded by Robert C. Reynolds. The sea was rough, preventing Droits de l'Homme from using her lower deck batteries and from boarding the British. Lacrosse was wounded; he gave command of the ship to his second officer, Prévost de Lacroix, and had his crew swear not to strike their colours.

After 13 hours of combat, running out of ammunition, the British broke contact when Indefatigable sighted land ahead. Indefatigable, despite having damage to her masts and rigging, managed to beat off the lee shore and escape Penmarch reefs; Amazon ran aground and was destroyed near Plozévet, and her crew captured. Droits de l'Homme, having lost her rudder, masts and anchors, ran aground off Plozévet.

Some of the crew were rescued by the ship's boats and fishing boats from nearby villages, but the rescue was interrupted for five days by the storm; 60 men died for lack of food and water. General Jean-Amable Humbert, who was commanding the soldiers aboard, narrowly escaped drowning, and between 250 and 390 men died in the wreck. Captain Lacrosse was last to leave the ship.

Commemoration
In 1840, Major Pipon, an English officer who had been a prisoner aboard, erected an inscribed menhir on the coast in remembrance of the tragedy. In 1876 it was broken into several pieces by the weather, but restored in 1882

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In the summer of 1796 the French conspired with Irish dissidents to send an expedition to Ireland to assist an uprising there, by which it was hoped to detach it from the United Kingdom. Owing to various delays it was mid-December before a well equipped army of 18,000 was embarked for Bantry Bay. Extremely bad weather over Christmas meant the troops could not be landed and the enterprise was abandoned. Some of the ships went as far as the mouth of the Shannon before heading for their French bases, including the ‘Droits de l' Homme’ which had been partly disarmed to act as a troop carrier. She was nearing Brest when she was spotted by the British frigates 'Indefatigable' and 'Amazon'. The running fight lasted from 1730 on 13 January until the early hours of the next morning when land was sighted close ahead. The 'Indefatigable' beat clear but the 'Amazon' was so damaged aloft that she was wrecked. All but six of her crew were saved and made prisoners. The 'Droits de l’Homme' was less fortunate. She had already had over 200 killed and wounded in the fight, was disabled and ran on a sandbank in the Bay of Audierne. For three days she pounded on the bank with the big seas washing through her, before the weather abated enough for boats to get out to her. Some of her crew and the many soldiers aboard tried to swim ashore, but few reached it safely. Altogether about a thousand soldiers and sailors died in the wreck. In the left centre of the picture the 'Droits de l’Homme’ is shown running in a heavy sea, while astern of her the ‘Indefatigable’ is raking her. In the right background the ‘Amazon’ is coming up under a press of sail, so this scene shows the fight in its earliest stage. The painting was probably copied from the aquatint by Edward Duncan after W. J. Huggins. It is signed ‘E.Colls’ and is one of a pair. The second, which when acquired by the Museum was mistakenly identified as showing the stranded ‘Droits de l’Homme’ with the ‘Indefatigable’ clawing off, was taken from a Nicholas Pocock painting of another scene altogether. That one (also a better picture, BHC0532) shows the ‘Endymion’ rescuing a French ship from going ashore on the Spanish coast about 1803


Threedecks Description Chase of the Droits de l'Homme, 14th January 1797
Some of the ships which had failed to make Bantry proceeded eventually to the mouth of the Shannon; but they attempted nothing there; and, after a short stay, headed again for France. One of them was the Droits de I'Homme, 74, on board of which was General Humbert. After quitting the Shannon, off which she captured a rich letter of marque, and looking a second time into Bantry Bay, she left the coast of Ireland on January 9th, and made for Brest. On the 13th the weather was thick, and, although Captain La Crosse believed himself to be near his destination, he stood to the southward under easy sail with the wind on his starboard beam. Early in the afternoon he imagined himself to be chased by two vessels, and, in his endeavours to escape from them, he ran up against two more, which were sighted at 3.30 P.M., and which turned out to be the Indefatigable, 44, Captain Sir Edward Pellew, and the Amazon, 36, Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds. These frigates were still engaged in watching Brest, and were then in latitude 47 30' N., Ushant bearing N.E. 50 leagues. When they first saw the French 74, she bore N.W. from them. At 4.15 P.M. the Droits de I'Homme was so unfortunate as to carry away in a squall her main topsail braces and, soon afterwards, her fore and main topmasts; but long before 5.30 P.M., when the Indefatigable, then seven miles ahead of her consort, got within hail, the Frenchman had cleared away the wreck. A hot action then began, the natural superiority of the two-decker being to some extent neutralised by ber crippled condition, and by her inability to keep open her lower ports when she was rolling in a heavy sea with but little sail to steady her. At about 6.45 P.M. the Amazon came up, and poured a broadside into the Frenchman's quarter; but Captain La Crosse handled his ship so as to avoid being raked, and so as to bring both of his opponents on one side of him, and at 7.30 P.M. he was temporarily relieved by both the British ships shooting ahead, the Amazon, on account of the quantity of sail which she carried, and the Indefatigable, to repair damages aloft. The Droits de I'Homme utilised the respite as best she could, and continued running to the east-south-east. At 8.30 the action was renewed, the frigates stationing themselves one on each bow of the 74, and yawing to rake her, and she, from time to time, also yawing to rake them, though without much effect. At 10.30 P.M., she was obliged to cut away her mizen; whereupon the frigates took up positions on her quarters. With a brief intermission, the fight continued until about 4.20 A.M. on January 14th, when land was suddenly sighted close ahead. The Indefatigable promptly hauled off, and made sail to the southward. The Amazon wore to the northward; but, being unable, owing to her crippled state, to work off, she ran aground in about half an hour and became a wreck. Except six men, all her people saved themselves, though they were, of course, made prisoners.
In this action the Indefatigable had all her masts wounded; and, at its conclusion, she had four feet of water in her hold; but she had only Lieutenant John Thompson and 18 men wounded, and nobody killed. The Amazon suffered almost as severely aloft and in hull, and had 3 men killed and 15 badly wounded.
As for the gallant Droits de I'Homme, which, in the engagement, had lost no fewer than 103 killed and about 150 wounded, she also altered course, hoping to avoid the danger, but immediately afterwards lost her foremast and bowsprit. In vain did she try to bring up. In a few minutes she struck on a sandbank in the Bay of Audierne. As she pounded there her mainmast went by the board. During the whole of the following day and night, and also on the 15th and 16th of January, she lay, her people being washed out of her by the heavy sea, or being drowned in their endeavours to make the shore. Few managed to reach it. On the 17th, when the weather had cleared, the Arrogante, brig, and Aiguille, cutter, reached the spot; and on that day and the following the survivors were taken off from the wreck. The disaster is supposed to have cost the loss of upwards of 1000 lives. This was the most terrible episode of an adventure which, from beginning to end, was singularly unfortunate.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1794 - Atlantic campaign of May 1794


29 May

Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse,
Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin

With Audacious and Révolutionnaire lost in the dark behind them, both British and French fleets continued westwards towards the convoy rendezvous. At dawn on 29 May the British fleet saw Audacieux retiring to the east but did not follow, concentrating on the main French line with the hope of provoking a decisive engagement. Howe ordered his ships to pursue the enemy rear, and the British line was placed on a tack that was intended to cut through the French line and isolate and capture the ships east of the cut. Captain Anthony Molloy in HMS Caesar was chosen to lead the attack as his ship was the fastest in the fleet, but the manoeuvre was a complete failure due to the inexplicable refusal of Molloy to close with the enemy. Instead, Caesar and HMS Queen opened fire on the rearmost French ships from a distance. The vans of the opposing fleets then engaged in a long-range broadside duel from 10:00. This inflicted mild damage on both sides, the worst hit being the French Montagnard.

Having failed to cut the French line at his first attempt, Howe reissued the order at 12:30. Once more Caesar was to lead the way, with the intention of splitting the enemy fleet in half. Captain Molloy then refused to carry out the order, signalling without cause that Caesar was unable to tack and then turning and sailing eastwards down the outside of the British fleet, rather than towards the enemy. This unexpected move threw the following ships into a state of confusion; Queen, coming behind Caesar, attempted to obey Howe's signal alone but was badly damaged by shot, and her captain John Hutt mortally wounded. Unable to effectively manoeuvre, Queen passed down the outside of the French line, firing as she went.

His plan in tatters, Howe responded by example, leading his flagship HMS Queen Charlotte towards the French line which was rapidly slipping ahead of the British, steering around the meandering Caesar as he did so. Queen Charlottefirst attempted to break through the French between the sixth and seventh ships from the rear, but was unable to reach this gap and instead sailed between the fifth and sixth, raking the sixth ship Eole from close range. Bellerophon and Lord Hugh Seymour in Leviathan followed close behind the flagship. Both battleships attempted to cut between the subsequent French ships; Bellerophon successfully, Leviathan prevented by damage to her helm. This manoeuvre changed the course of the battle, as Howe's ships isolated and raked the Terrible, Tyrannicide, and Indomptable, forcing Villaret to either abandon his ships or sacrifice the weather gage to save them.

As Howe pressed after the main body of the French fleet—now tailed by the damaged Terrible—the rest of his fleet followed, bombarding the already battered Tyrannicide and Indomptable as they passed. As HMS Orion, HMS Invincible, and HMS Barfleur cut through the French in turn, Villaret wore his fleet round to face Howe. Encouraged by Caesar's disobedience, he deliberately sacrificed the weather gage in the belief that Howe's fleet was more damaged than it appeared. All of Villaret's ships followed him except Montagnard, which refused to turn, claiming to be seriously damaged. Villaret's manoeuvre soon isolated the Queen Charlotte, Bellerophon, and Leviathan, which were forced to retreat hastily before the main French force. Having driven away the ships threatening Indomptable and Tyrannicide, Villaret reformed his fleet and attempted to escape westwards, closely followed by the British van who were now holding the weather gage. Both fleets were too damaged to continue action in the remaining daylight and firing stopped at 17:00. The British fleet has suffered 67 killed and 128 wounded during the day's fighting.

Evening found the fleets approximately 10 nautical miles (19 km) apart, sailing northwest. Both were conducting hasty repairs and attempting to ready themselves for what all assumed would be another day of battle on 30 May. Significantly, Lord Howe was unaware that to the northeast, over the same sea as the previous day's action had been fought, the ponderous convoy of merchant ships was passing, having successfully evaded British pursuit. Unlike his opponent Villaret knew the location of the convoy, which was joined that evening by the battered Montagnard. Escorting the convoy, Admiral Nielly had been apprised of the situation by Montagnard's captain, and had left his escort duties to reinforce Villaret.

In a postscript to the day's action the British frigate Castor, captured early in the campaign by Nielly, was attacked and retaken by the smaller HMS Carysfort under Captain Francis Laforey at the frigate action of 29 May 1794. Some of the crew were released by their rescuers but most, including the officers, were not aboard, having been taken onto Nielly's flagship Sans Pareil.


Order of the ensuing Battle on 29th May

British fleet
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French fleet

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

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Between 1791 and 1793, she was based in Saint-Domingue. In March 1794, she was renamed Montagnard. On 29 May, during the May 1794 Atlantic campaign, she encountered a British squadron; in the ensuing battle, she sustained damage which prevented her from taking part in the subsequent battle of the Glorious First of June itself.
She was renamed Démocrate on 18 May 1795, and back to Jupiter on 30 May. On 7 August, she took part in the recapture from the British of Censeur.
She was renamed Batave on 27 April 1798. The next year, she took part in the Cruise of Bruix.
Condemned in 1807, she was broken up in Brest.


Indomptable
("Indomitable") was a Tonnant-class 80-gun ship of the line in the French Navy, laid down in 1788 and in active service from 1791. Engaged against the Royal Navy after 1794, she was damaged in the Battle of Trafalgar and wrecked near the Spanish city of Cadiz on 24 October 1805.

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Early service
Indomptable was designed by naval engineer Jacques-Noël Sané and laid down in Brest in September 1788. She was launched on 20 December 1790, and completed in February 1791.
Her first engagement was on 29 May 1794 against HMS Barfleur and HMS Orion during the Glorious First of June campaign. Following the battle the dismasted Indomptable was towed back to Brest by Brutus.
In 1795, she served in the Mediterranean under Admiral François Joseph Bouvet and took part in the landing attempt in Ireland planned by General Louis Lazare Hoche. In 1801, she was engaged in the campaign in Egypt, but was unable to break the English blockade and stayed in Toulon. Other elements of the fleet managed to reach Elba.
Indomptable fought in the battle of Algeciras in 1801 when she was again badly damaged. In 1802 and 1803, she served in Toulon under Admiral Latouche Tréville.

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Indomptable (centre) at Trafalgar, between Fougueux and HMS Belleisle (left) and Santa Ana and HMS Royal Sovereign (right)


Mont-Blanc was a Téméraire class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the French Navy. In the course of her career, she was renamed no less than four times, reflecting the tides of politics with the French Revolution.

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During the Wars of the First and Second Coalitions, Mont-Blanc took part in the last actions of the Glorious First of June, in the Croisière du Grand Hiver, in the Battle of Hyères Islands and in Bruix' expedition of 1799; after peace was restored in the Treaty of Lunéville, she served during the Saint-Domingue expedition.
Mont-Blanc took part of the vanguard of the French fleet the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, and consequently saw little action as this division was cut off from the battle. The squadron was destroyed during the Battle of Cape Ortegal on 4 November 1805, where Mont-Blanc was captured. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy but never saw action again.

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The Mont-Blanc off Marseille (detail of this image), by Antoine Roux.

Career
She was built at Rochefort as Pyrrhus in 1791. She was renamed Mont-Blanc in 1793 before being renamed Trente-et-un Mai in 1794. Under that name she fought at the Glorious First of June in 1794 under Captain Ganteaume. She took part in the Croisière du Grand Hiver, where she rescued the crew of the sinking Scipion.

In 1795 she was renamed Républicain, taking part in the Battle of Hyères Islands, and Ganteaume's expedition of 1795, and then became Mont-Blanc again in 1796. She took part in Bruix' expedition of 1799 under Captain Maistral.
In 1802 she took part in the Saint-Domingue expedition under Magon.
She was one of the ships of Rear-Admiral Lepelley at the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. Dumanoir commanded the six ship vanguard of the French fleet, with Formidable, Scipion, Duguay-Trouin, Mont-Blanc, Intrépide and Neptune. Nelson's attacks left these ships downwind of the main confrontation and Dumanoir did not immediately obey Villeneuve's orders to return to the battle. When the ships did turn back, most of them only exchanged a few shots before retiring.
On 4 November 1805, Admiral Sir Richard Strachan, with HMS Caesar, Hero, Courageux, Namur and four frigates, defeated and captured what remained of the squadron at the Battle of Cape Ortegal.
Mont-Blanc was taken and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Mont Blanc. She was used as a gunpowder hulk from 1811, and was sold in 1819.


HMS Royal George was a 100-gun first rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched from Chatham Dockyard on 16 September 1788. She was designed by Sir Edward Hunt, and Queen Charlotte was the only other ship built to her draught. She was the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.

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Royal George served as the flagship at the Battle of Groix and wore the flag of Admiral Alexander Hood at the Glorious First of June. In 1807 she served as the flagship of Admiral Sir John Duckworth during the Alexandria expedition of 1807.
She was broken up in 1822

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for 'Royal George' (1788), a 100-gun First Rate, three-decker. This plan was later recalled and replaced with another in which she had been lengthened by three feet. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]



HMS Queen was a three-deck 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 September 1769 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was designed by William Bateley, and was the only ship built to her draught. Her armament was increased to 98 guns in the 1780s.

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Service
Queen fought at the First Battle of Ushant under Keppel in 1778, and the Second Battle of Ushant under Kempenfelt in 1781. In 1794 she fought in the Glorious First of June under Howe, where she served as Rear-Admiral Alan Gardner's flagship. During the battle Queen sustained significant damage, and her commanding officer, Captain John Hutt, was amongst those killed.

For some of the period between 1798 and 1802, she was under the command of Captain Theophilus Jones.
After the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, Queen continued in the blockade of Cadiz. On 25 November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, which was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods. Queen shared the prize money with ten other British warships.
On 25 October 1806, the Spanish privateer Generalísimo captured HM gunboat Hannah, which was serving as a tender to Queen.
After Trafalgar, the demand for the large three-decker first and second rates diminished. Consequently, in 1811 the Admiralty had Queen razeed to become a two-decker third rate of 74 guns.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Queen' (1769), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, to be built at Woolwich Dockyard. Signed by William Bately [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1765]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_campaign_of_May_1794
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1794 - frigate action of 29 May 1794
HMS Carysfort (28), Cptn. Francis Laforey, re-captured HMS Castor (32) off Land's End.



The frigate action of 29 May 1794—not to be confused with the much larger fleet action of 29 May 1794 that took place in the same waters at the same time—was a minor naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars between a Royal Navy frigate and a French Navy frigate. The action formed a minor part of the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, a campaign which culminated in the battle of the Glorious First of June, and was unusual in that the French ship Castor had only been in French hands for a few days at the time of the engagement. Castor had previously been a British ship, seized on 19 May by a French battle squadron in the Bay of Biscay and converted to French service while still at sea. While the main fleets manoeuvered around one another, Castor was detached in pursuit of a Dutch merchant ship and on 29 May encountered the smaller independently cruising British frigate HMS Carysfort.

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Captain Francis Laforey on Carysfort immediately attacked the larger ship and in an engagement lasting an hour and fifteen minutes successfully forced its captain to surrender, discovering a number of British prisoners of war below decks. Castor was subsequently taken back to Britain and an extended legal case ensued between the Admiralty and Captain Laforey over the amount of prize money that should be awarded for the victory. Ultimately Laforey was successful, in part due to testimony from the defeated French captain, proving his case and claiming the prize money. The lawsuit did not harm Laforey's career and he later served at the Battle of Trafalgar and became a prominent admiral.

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Capture of the Castor May 29th 1794 (PAD5476)

Background
During the spring of 1794, the newly declared French Republic faced famine. In an effort to secure the required food supplies, large quantities were ordered from the French American colonies and from the United States, which gathered in a large convoy of merchant vessels off Hampton Roads in Virginia. On 2 April the convoy sailed for Europe under Contre-Admiral Pierre Vanstabel, expecting to meet a squadron under Contre-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly en route while the main French Atlantic Fleet under Contre-Admiral Villaret de Joyeuse held off the British Channel Fleet under Lord Howe. On 6 May, Nielly's ships sailed from Rochefort and soon passed out of the Bay of Biscay and into the Central Atlantic, where they encountered a British convoy sailing from Newfoundland. The convoy was unprepared for the encounter, and escorted only by the frigate HMS Castor under Captain Thomas Troubridge. Nielly, whose squadron included five ships of the line and several smaller warships, ordered an attack on the convoy and after a brief chase ten merchant ships were captured and Castor was run down by the ship of the line Patriote, the British vessel offering no resistance in the face of such overwhelming odds.

Troubridge and most of his crew were removed from their ship and taken aboard Nielly's flagship Sans Pareil, where they remained for the rest of the campaign. They were replaced by 200 French sailors taken from Nielly's squadron, as Castor was hastily refitted at sea for service with the French Navy. Command was given to Captain L'Huillier, who operated as a scout for Nielly's squadron until 24 May, when he became detached while chasing the Dutch merchant ship Maria Gertruda, which had been separated from a Dutch convoy that had been attacked by Villaret's fleet on 19 May. Separated from Nielly's ships, L'Huillier turned back towards Europe with the Dutch ship in tow. While the French fleets and squadrons searched the Eastern Atlantic for the convoy, the Royal Navy was equally active with a number of squadrons and independently sailing warships complementing the main fleet under Lord Howe. One such ship was the small 28-gun frigate HMS Carysfort under Captain Francis Laforey. Laforey was cruising the Eastern Atlantic for signs of the French convoy when on 29 May his lookouts sighted two sails ahead.

Battle
Laforey immediately advanced on the strange sails, which were soon revealed to be Castor and the Dutch merchant ship. With Carysfort bearing down on him L'Huillier cast off the tow and prepared for battle, meeting the approaching British frigate with a broadside. The engagement was fought at close range and with little manoeuvering by either side, the ships exchanging broadsides for an hour and fifteen minutes before L'Huillier surrendered. His ship was heavily battered in the exchange, with the main topgallantmast knocked down and the mainmast and hull severely damaged. Carysfort suffered just one man killed and four wounded from the understrength crew of 180, while casualties were much heavier among the approximately 200 men aboard Castor, the French losing 16 men killed and nine wounded. The Dutch ship initially escaped, but was later captured and its value was eventually included in the prize money paid for Castor.

Laforey's success was considered impressive by historian William James, as his ship carried only 28 nine-pounder cannon in contrast with L'Huillier's 32 twelve-pounder guns and four 24-pounder carronades. Castor was also a larger ship with a slightly larger crew, and although L'Huillier and his men had only been aboard for ten days, the crew of Carysfort had only come together immediately before the cruise and had not had much longer to become acquainted with their vessel than the French crew.

Aftermath
Laforey placed a boarding party aboard Castor, who discovered an officer and 18 British sailors held as prisoners below decks, part of the original crew of the ship. These men were freed and joined the prize crew in bringing the ship back to Britain. The rest of the crew, including Captain Troubridge, remained on Nielly's flagship throughout the subsequent campaign and witnessed the battle of the Glorious First of June, at which Sans Pareil was captured by Lord Howe's fleet. The French fleet was defeated, losing seven ships, but the convoy had passed safely to the north during the battle and eventually reached France without interception by the cruising British squadrons.

When Castor returned to Britain, the frigate was classed by the Admiralty and the Navy Board as "salvage" rather than as a prize. The laws regarding salvage meant that the proportion of prize money due to be paid to Laforey and his crew was significantly reduced by the declaration. The grounds for this judgement were that after its capture by the French, Castor was not taken into a French harbour and properly condemned by a French prize court and commissioned into the French Navy, the normal legal requirement for what was termed a "complete prize". On behalf of his men Laforey brought a legal challenge against the ruling to the High Court of Admiralty to determine the status of Castor. The judge, Sir James Marriott, heard evidence from a number of parties, including a deposition by Captain L'Huillier that described Admiral Nielly's standing orders to fit out any captured warships at sea for continued service in the campaign. After considering the evidence Marriott ruled that Castor was a legitimate prize "setting forth as a ship of war", and that the normal prize rules should apply to Laforey's case. The prize money for the purchase of the frigate was therefore authorised to be paid at Plymouth on 20 July 1795.

The result of the case did not damage Laforey's career: his junior officers were promoted after the action and he was given command of the larger frigate HMS Aimable. He went on to serve at the Battle of Trafalgar and become a full admiral before his death in 1835. However, historian Tom Wareham has speculated that the legal case was probably the reason that Laforey was denied the knighthood that customarily accompanied a successful frigate action at this stage of the war. More than five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants from Carysfort still living in 1847.


HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.

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Construction and commissioning
Castor was ordered on 30 January 1782 and laid down in January the following year at the yards of the shipbuilder Joseph Graham, of Harwich. She was launched on 26 May 1785 and completed by July the following year. The ship was then laid up in ordinary at Chatham Dockyard.

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sistership Andromache

Career
Early years

Castor spent nearly five years in ordinary until the Spanish Armament of 1790 caused her to be fitted out at Chatham between June and August 1790 for the sum of £2,795. She commissioned in July that year under Captain John S. Smith, but the easing of international tensions caused Castor to be paid off later that year. The rising tensions with France immediately prior to the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars led the Admiralty to again prepare Castor for active service. She was fitted at Chatham between February and April 1793 for £4,066, recommissioning that February under Captain Thomas Troubridge.

French Revolutionary Wars and capture
Further information: Frigate action of 29 May 1794
Troubridge sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 May 1793, where in June she and HMS Mermaid captured a 14-gun privateer. Castor was then part of Admiral Hood's fleet at Toulon. While Castor was escorting a convoy back to Britain, on 9 May 1794 a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly chased and captured her off Cape Clear. A French prize crew then sailed her back towards France. Twenty days later, on 29 May, Francis Laforey's HMS Carysfort sighted Castor off Land's End and recaptured her. Castor was re-registered as a naval ship on 6 November and recommissioned in January 1795 under Captain Rowley Bulteel. Bulteel took her to the Mediterranean in May 1795, but paid her off in September 1796.

Castor underwent a refit at Plymouth between November 1798 and March 1799, recommissioning under Captain Edward Leveson Gower. In March 1799 a quantity of the gunpowder stores were accidentally ignited, causing severe injury to one of Castor's midshipmen. The injured man having been replaced, Captain Gower sailed Castor to Newfoundland in April 1799, but by December that year Castor was on the Spanish coast when she captured the 2-gun privateer Santa Levivate y Aninimus off Oporto on Christmas Day 1799. Captain David Lloyd took command of Castor in 1801, but he was soon succeeded by Captain Bernard Hale who sailed for the West Indies in April 1801. Hale died in 1802; his successor Captain Richard Peacocke continued to command Castor in the West Indies.

West Indies and Caribbean
Castor returned home, and was fitted out as a guardship for Liverpool between August and October 1803. She came initially under the command of Captain Edward Brace, but by April 1805 she had been moved to Sheerness, where she recommissioned under Captain Joseph Baker. She spent between 1806 and 1809 undergoing a repair and refit, before she came under the command of Captain William Roberts. On 27 March 1808 her boats, along with those of HMS Ulysses, HMS Hippomenes and HMS Morne Fortunee made an unsuccessful attempt to cut out the 16-gun French Griffon from Port Marin, Martinique.

In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Castor was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands. Castor was next involved in the chase on 16 and 17 April 1809 of the 74-gun French ship of the line Hautpoult off Puerto Rico.

Mediterranean and final years
Captain Charles Dilkes took command in October 1810, and Castor spent 1811 and 1812 on the Leeward Islands and Jamaica stations. She moved to the Mediterranean in late 1812, and on 22 June 1813 captured the 2-gun privateer Fortune off the Catalan coast. She captured two other privateers, the one gun Heureux and Minute (or Minuit), off Barcelona on 22 or 25 January 1814.

Fate
Castor was finally laid up in August 1815 in Portsmouth at the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars. The Admiralty sold her for breaking up on 22 July 1819 to G. Bailey for the sum of £2,650


HMS Carysfort was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned over forty years.

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She had a number of notable commanders during this period, and saw action in several single-ship actions against French and American opponents. She took several privateers during the American War of Independence, though one of her most notable actions was the recapture of Castor, a Royal Navy frigate that a French squadron had captured nearly three weeks earlier and a French prize crew was sailing to France. Carysfort engaged and forced the surrender of her larger opponent, restoring Castor to the British, though not without a controversy over the issue of prize money. Carysfort spent the later French Revolutionary and early Napoleonic Wars on stations in the East and later the West Indies. Carysfort returned to Britain in 1806 where she was laid up in ordinary. The Admiralty finally sold her in 1813.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frigate_action_of_29_May_1794
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1797 - Boats of HMS Lively (20) and HMS Minerve (38), Cptn. George Cockburn, cut out and captured french Mutine (14) from the roads of Santa Cruz, under command of Thomas Masterman Hardy.


Mutine was an 18-gun Belliqueuse-class gun-brig of the French Navy, built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait, and launched in 1794 at Honfleur. She took part in the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where the British captured her. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Mutine, and eventually sold in 1803.

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French service and capture
After her commissioning, Mutine served at Le Havre, Brest, La Rochelle, and Rochefort. Initially, she served under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Beenst (the elder).

In late 1794 and early 1795 she was part of a French naval squadron that cruised against British shipping on the African coast. The squadron drove the slave ship Lady Penrhyn on shore on 7 December 1794, at Papaw(Little Popoe), where she was destroyed. The squadron also captured the cutter Bee. Mutine herself grounded while chasing a British merchant vessel into the Benin River.

In 1795, under enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Lefebvre, she escorted a prize back to la Rochelle. Then she cruised the coasts of Guinea before returning to Rochefort.

On 4 March 1796, under lieutenant de vaisseau Xavier Pomiès Mutine departed île d'Aix in a frigate division under Rear-admiral Sercey, bound for a campaign in the Indies; however, a gale damaged her and she had to double back for repairs. She then took part in the Expédition d'Irlande. She also made a voyage from Rochefort, to Ferrol then to Tenerife, before returning to Lorient.

In 1797, Mutine was sent on a secret mission to Batavia under Pomiès, by then promoted to capitaine de frégate. She sailed from Brest on 8 May 1797 for Île de France and had put into the Bay of Santa Cruz on 26 May to take on water.

Lieutenant Thomas Hardy captured Mutine on 29 May during the battle for Santa Cruz. Hardy led a cutting out party using boats from Minerve and Lively, and was able to board and capture Mutine. He then sailed her out of the port to the British fleet under heavy fire from shore and naval guns. Hardy was wounded during the action, as were 14 of the other British officers and men in the cutting out party. Captain Pomiès was on shore at the time of her capture. In 1847 the Admiralty recognized the action by awarding the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "29 May Boat Service 1797" to the surviving claimants from the action.

A French account states that not only was Pomiès ashore at the time of Hardy's attack, so were almost all of Mutine's crew members. Although this made it easier for the British to capture her, it rebounded to the benefit of France's ally, Spain, at the battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in July. The French sailors augmented the force that Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana cobbled together to resist, and ultimately repel, the British attack, which became a debacle that cost Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson his right arm.

read about her british career in wikipedia ......

Belliqueuse Class

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sistership
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline and name in a cartouche on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Jalouse (captured 1797), a captured French Brig, as taken off at Deptford Dockyard. Signed by Thomas Pollard [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1795-1799]


Minerve was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her twice and the French recaptured her once. She therefore served under four names before being broken up in 1814:
  • Minerve, 1794–1795
  • HMS Minerve, 1795–1803
  • Canonnière, 1803–1810
  • HMS Confiance, 1810–1814
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Depicts a confrontation between two British and two French naval ships. Cannon smoke hangs between the vessels. The French La Minerve, in the centre foreground, in port broadside view, has lost the top section of her mainmast and her entire foremast. Her bow is badly damaged with the bowsprit and figurehead gone. Figures can be seen crowding the deck. Behind La Minerve, passing on the opposite tack, the starboard stern quarter of a British naval vessel can be seen through the smoke. This vessel has lost her mizzen mast overboard, but is still carrying three courses of sails on her remaining masts and flying the Red Ensign on her main mast. On the right of the picture, further away, two vessels, one French, one British, both on the same tack, are seen in port stern quarter view exchanging cannon fire. Their sails are intact, but holed; otherwise, both vessels appear to be in better condition than those in the foreground. The scene depicts the capture of La Minerve by the British Dido and Lowestoffe off Toulon on 24th June 1795. The French L'Artemise was also involved in the action


HMS Lively was a 32-gun fifth-rate Alcmene-class frigate of the British Royal Navy launched on 23 October 1794 at Northam, Devon. She took part in three actions that would in 1847 qualify for the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal, one a single-ship action, one a major battle, and one a cutting-out boat expedition. Lively was wrecked in 1798.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1802 – Launch of French Surveillante, a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy


Surveillante entered service as a 40-gun Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy. She was surrendered to the British in 1803, after which she served in the Royal Navy, classed under the British system as a 38-gun vessel, until 1814 when she was decommissioned. HMS Surveillante had a long and active career under two successful and distinguished commanders, from the Baltic to the northwestern coasts of France, Spain and Portugal, and was present at the Battle of Copenhagen (1807) and throughout the Peninsula War. Her record as a taker of prizes is notable for its success, particularly towards the end of her career.

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1803 - British capture
Surveillante was present at Saint Domingue (Haiti) in November 1803 during the revolt of slaves against the French, and was trapped by the British blockade of Saint-Domingue. The French naval commander who was also Surveillante's captain, Henry Barre, prevailed upon British Commodore John Loring's representative, Captain John Bligh, to accept the capitulation of Surveillante, in order to put her, as well as her crew and passengers, under British protection. The former slaves threatened to fire red hot shot at the ship from the overlooking forts.

The British naval Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica station Admiral Sir John Duckworth, accepted the French commander General Rochambeau, his staff and entourage, as prisoners. Duckworth wrote "From General Rochambeau's extraordinary conduct in the public service, neither Captain Bligh or myself have any thing to say to him further than complying with his wishes in allowing him to remain on board the Surveillante until her arrival at Jamaica." Another French frigate, Clorinde, suffered the loss of her rudder and was temporarily beached, although she was re-floated and taken as a prize. Consequently both frigates were brought into the Royal Navy as HMS Surveillante and HMS Clorinde. Surveillante, newly built, was bought into the service quickly; the first recorded Navy Pay Office Ships' Pay Books from the Navy Board commenced from 11 July 1804.

Prize-taking
  • On 9 January 1805, Surveillante, Captain John Bligh commanding, in company with HMS Tartar, Edward Hawker commanding, captured the Spanish ship El Batidor.
  • On 9 July, Surveillante in company with Fortunee and Echo captured several merchant vessels laden with sugar.
  • On 7 December, Surveillante, accompanied by Morne Fortunee, Lieutenant John Rorie commanding, captured the merchant ship Cleopatra.
  • On 5 July 1806, Surveillante, accompanied by the British vessels Fortunée, Echo, Superieure and Hercule, captured Spanish ship La Josepha, laden with quicksilver.
sistership Belle Poule
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1807 - 1813: Captain Collier
1807

Captain George Collier took command of Surveillante on 22 April 1807 and took part in the Second Battle of Copenhagen that began late in August. She was present at the detention of numerous Danish merchant vessels that were taken as prizes, the proceeds of which were shared by the fleet. The Danish merchant ships shared by Surveillante were Hans and Jacob taken 17 August 1807; Die Twee Gebfoders, taken 21 August 1807; Sally taken 22 August; Speculation detained 23 August; Fama detained on 26 August; Aurora, Paulina and Ceres taken 30 and 31 August; and Odifiord and Benedicta, taken 4 and 12 September 1807. Admiral James Gambier sent Surveillante back to England entrusted with dispatches, explaining the outcome of the battle and the subsequent Danish surrender. Gambier signed his dispatch on 7 September on board flagship HMS Prince of Wales; Surveillante sailed directly from the Copenhagen Road to London, where Collier delivered the dispatch to the Admiralty Office in person on 16 September 1807.

Following Russia's declaration of war against Great Britain in 1807 following the Treaty of Tilsit between Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia, the British government issued an embargo against all Russian ships then found in British ports. Surveillante was one of 70 British vessels present at Portsmouth, at the detaining of the 44-gun frigate Speshnoy (Speshnyy) and Wilhelmina (Vilgemina), which were carrying the payroll for Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin's squadron in the Mediterranean.

1809
Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington was appointed commander of the Portuguese expedition in March 1809, and received his letter of service on 2 April. He made his way to Portsmouth where he was received by the frigate assigned for his transportation, which was subsequently delayed from 3 to 14 April, nearly two weeks, waiting for a fair wind. That frigate was Surveillante. She was able to set sail on 14 April 1809 allowing Wellesley to embark upon his second voyage to Lisbon during the Peninsula War; however, Wellesley, troubled by bad weather, was subjected to a storm during his first night at sea; it was remarked that the frigate narrowly escaped shipwreck off the coast of the Isle of Wight. His aide-de-camp was sent by Captain Collier to request that Wellesley put his boots on and join him on deck, to which he replied he could swim better without his boots and would stay where he was.

On 30 October 1809 Surveillante captured French corvette Le Milan, in sight of HMS Seine. 3 December 1809 saw Surveillante driven southward from her allotted station off Rochelle, where she fell in with a French cutter privateer, La Comtesse Laure, which she captured. Collier wrote "The privateer is of a class and possesses qualities admirably calculated for the annoyance of the British Trade."

1810
On 23 June 1810 Surveillante captured the chasse marees Le Margaretta and L'Eclair, His Majesty's gun-brigs Constant and Piercer in company. On 5 September 1810, the Surveillante and the gun-brig HMS Constant, the latter commanded by Lieutenant John Stokes, were reconnoitering the Loire, when they observed a division of a French convoy running south from the Morbihan. The British ships gave chase and forced a single brig to seek shelter between two nearby batteries. Collier attacked the frigate with boats, whilst receiving fire from French troops ashore and succeeded in cutting out the brig without sustaining any casualties.

1811
On 30 April 1811 Surveillante captured the French privateer La Creole. On 20 July Surveillante was appointed to escort a convoy bound for Corunna.

1812
On 28 January 1812 Surveillante, in company with HMS Sybille, Captain C. Upton, and HMS Spitfire, captured the American ship Zone. On 25 May 1812, HMS Surveillante captured the American schooner Young Connecticut.

In late July 1812, Surveillante was part of a British squadron stationed off the north coast of Spain, commanded by Captain Sir Home Popham of the 74-gun Venerable. The British squadron, assisting Spanish Guerillas against the French, made an attack upon the town of Santander and the Castle of Ano. The castle was taken possession of by the Royal Marines, but the garrison of Santander was reinforced, and the Spanish and British attacking forces were obliged to fall back upon the Castle, sustaining losses as they retreated. Captain Lake of HMS Magnificent and Captain Sir George Collier, who commanded the British detachment, were wounded.

On 7 October 1812 Surveillante captured the American schooner Baltimore accompanied by His Majesty's Ships Venerable, Diadem, Briton,, Latona and Constant.[29] On 20 December 1812 Surveillante recaptured the American brig Ocean bound to Lisbon from New York, laden with flour.

1813
On 4 February 1813 Surveillante was present at the capture of American schooner Rolla made by HMS Medusa, the Honourable D. Pleydell Bouverie commanding, and HMS Iris. On 23 March 1813 Surveillante took the fishing schooner Polly as a prize. On 15 April she was present at the capture of the American schooner Price, captured by HMS Iris, Hood Hanway Christian commanding. 27 April 1813 saw Surveillante involved in a notable action against American letter of marque Tom. Collier wrote, on 27 April, that she was captured "after a smart chase; she was from Charlestown, bound to Nantz; she is a remarkably fine vessel for her class, and, from her superior sailing, had already escaped eighteen of His Majesty's cruizers." Surveillante was accompanied by HMS Lyra.

On 5 May 1813 she recaptured the American ship Mount Hope, sailing from Charlestown bound for Cadiz, laden with rice, in company with HMS Andromeda and HMS Iris. On 1 June 1813, Surveillante captured the American schooner Orders in Council, a letter of marque (privateer), after a five-hour chase. Orders in Council was armed with two 18 and four 9-pounder guns. Surveillante shared the prize money from this action with two British privateers, the Rebecca and Earl Wellington, who were in sight of the action but did not take part in it, and with Iris, by agreement.

In late July 1813, Surveillante under Captain Collier was involved in landing operations off St. Sabastian's, in which they attempted to breach a battery. In so doing they established an artillery position whilst under heavy fire from the fortification. Several of her crew, and an artillery officer from the army, were killed. Surveillante remained in action against the French garrison on the island of Santa Clara, at the mouth of Saint Sebastian harbour. Collier announced that a successful attack had been made on 27–28 August, despite being under heavy fire.

In September Surveillante was present at the fall of San Sebastian. Collier wrote that the frigate's 24-pounders dragged over land and mounted on Santa Clara had silenced the enemy's guns opposing them in the Castle of La Motte. The French commander, General Rey, flew a flag of truce, capitulating to the British. "The garrison," wrote Collier, "still upwards of seventeen hundred, became prisoners of war, and are to be conveyed to England."

Fate
Surveillante was broken up on 14 August 1814.

sistership
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Hand-coloured aquatint shows two naval vessels engaged in battle in a fairly calm sea. Cannon smoke swirls between them. On the left, the French La Virginie, in port broadside view, has tattered sails and her main mast has broken. On the right, in port bow quarter view, the British Indefatigable, with her lower courses looped for action, seems to have sustained little damage other than some holes in her flag and sails

The Virginie class was a class of ten 40-gun frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1793 by Jacques-Noël Sané. An eleventh vessel (Zephyr) begun in 1794 was never completed.

Builder: Brest
Begun: November 1793
Launched: 26 July 1794
Completed: December 1794
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 22 April 1796, becoming HMS.
Builder: Brest
Begun: December 1793
Launched: early August 1794
Completed: December 1794
Fate: Renamed Justice April 1795. Captured by the British Navy in September 1801, but not added to Royal Navy; instead, handed over to the Turkish Navy.
Builder: Bordeaux
Begun: May 1794
Launched: early 1796
Completed: May 1796
Fate: Beached and burnt to avoid capture by the British Navy in April 1797.
Builder: Bordeaux
Begun: September 1794
Launched: 7 June 1796
Completed: 1796
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 4 March 1806, becoming HMS Volontaire.
Builder: Brest
Begun: March 1794
Launched: 19 September 1796
Completed: April 1798
Fate: Captured by the Spanish Navy in June 1808, becoming Spanish Cornelia.
  • Zéphyr
Builder: Brest
Begun: March 1794
Fate: Construction abandoned in April 1804 (never launched).
Builder: Saint Malo
Begun: September 1796
Launched: 1 August 1799
Completed: September 1800
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 10 August 1805, becoming HMS Didon.
Builder: Saint Malo
Begun: September 1799
Launched: 29 June 1802
Completed: July 1802
Fate: Wrecked in November 1805.
Builder: Toulon
Begun: June 1801
Launched: 15 April 1802
Completed: October 1802
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 27 July 1806, becoming HMS Rhin.
Builder: Basse-Indre
Begun: June 1801
Launched: 17 April 1802
Completed: September 1802
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 13 March 1806, becoming HMS Belle Poule.
Builder: Basse-Indre
Begun: July 1801
Launched: 29 May 1802
Completed: December 1802
Fate: Captured by the British Navy on 30 November 1803, becoming HMS Surveillante.

sistership
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No scale. Plan showing the starboard profile of the figurehead for Belle Poule (1806), a captured French Frigate, now a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1802-1823]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Surveillante_(1802)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1869 – Launch of HMS Invincible, a Royal Navy Audacious-class ironclad battleship.


HMS
Invincible
was a Royal Navy Audacious-class ironclad battleship. She was built at the Napier shipyard and completed in 1870. Completed just 10 years after HMS Warrior, she still carried sails as well as a steam engine.

HMS_Invincible_(1869).jpg
HMS Invincible off Plymouth, 1870

Armament
The Audacious class was armed with ten 9 in (230 mm) muzzle-loading guns, supported by four 6 in (0.15 m) muzzle loaders. These were located in a broadside pattern over a 59 ft (18 m) two-deck battery amidships—this was the area of the ship least affected by its motion, and made for a very stable gun platform.

Early career
For the first year of her career, she was a guardship at Hull, before being replaced by her sister HMS Audacious. She was then transferred to the Mediterranean, where she served until 1886. She was sent to Cadiz in 1873 to prevent ships seized by republicans during the civil war in Spain from leaving harbour. She rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1878 under the command of Captain Lindsay Brine, but her poor state of seamanship attracted the ire of the commander-in-chief, Geoffrey Hornby. In early 1879 Invincible blundered badly, putting two ships at hazard, and Brine was court-martialled. Though acquitted, Brine was relieved by Captain Edmund Fremantle. She was Admiral Seymour's temporary flagship at the 1882 bombardment of Alexandria because his normal one, HMS Alexandra, drew too much to enter the inner harbour. She provided men for the naval brigade that was subsequently landed and she also provided men for Charles Beresford's naval brigade in the Sudan campaign of 1885.

Later career and shipwreck
She made a trip to China in 1886 to carry out a new crew for Audacious before becoming the guardship at Southampton until 1893. Her engines were removed in 1901 when she became a depot ship at Sheerness for a destroyer flotilla. She was renamed HMS Erebus in 1904, a name that she bore until 1906, when she was converted into a training ship at Portsmouth for engineering artificers and was renamed Fisgard II (Audacioushad been renamed Fisgard in 1904).

On 17 September 1914, she sank during a storm off Portland Bill with the loss of 21 of her crew of 64. She was being towed from Portsmouth to Scapa Flow where she was to act as a receiving ship for seamen newly mobilised for World War I. She now lies upside down with the bottom of the hull about 164 ft (50 m) below sea level.

HMS Fisgard II is a Designated vessel under schedule 1 of The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 (Designation of Vessels and Controlled Sites) Order 2012.



HMS_Vanguard_h52617.jpg

The Audacious-class ironclad battleships were designed by Sir Edward Reed at the request of the Board of Admiralty to serve as second-class battleships on distant foreign stations.

Background and design
HMS_Iron_Duke_(1870)_9-inch_gun.jpg
A 9-inch (229 mm) muzzle-loadingrifle aboard HMS Iron Duke c. 1870s. Hanging from the deckhead above the gun are its ramming staff and its sponging-out staff. One of the gun's shells, partially obscured by the glare from outside, is hanging in the gunport in front of the gun.

The principal motivation driving the Admiralty was the French policy, already well advanced, of dispatching their own small ironclads to these same distant stations. HMS Monarchwas under construction, and HMS Captain had been authorised. Both of these were turret-armed ships, and the press agitated for a turret-mounted armament in these newly ordered ships. The Admiralty, however, decided that as there had been built a long succession of successful broadside ironclads, and no turret-armed ships had been produced other than some coastal defence ships of low displacement and limited range, it would be better to await the assessment of Monarch and Captain before departing from the broadside principle.

As the ships were intended for service in waters far distant from Britain, and given the limited efficiency of the steam engines of the period, it was necessary to equip them with a full sailing rig. Reed never wavered from his belief that in a fully rigged ship armament carried in a central broadside battery was the superior method, being unobstructed by masts and rigging. Both the designer and the Admiralty were therefore in total agreement that these ships should not be armed with turret-mounted artillery. The rig was later converted to a barque-rig, which required fewer hands to manage.

The ships were designed following the lines of HMS Defence, by then, more than five years old. Reed found that, on the dimensions of the older ship, the armament, armour and machinery would all be insufficient for the stated requirements, and asked for an increase in tonnage, which was reluctantly granted by the Board.

Although four ships were required, initially only two, HMS Audacious and HMS Invincible were laid down. The Admiralty, following a commitment made to Parliament by the First Lord of the Admiralty, put the other two ships out to tender. Submissions of various designs were received: a broadside and turret ship from Mare & Company, a broadside ship from Palmers, a different broadside ship from Thames Ironworks, and turret ships from Napiers, Samudas and Lairds Co & Sons. All were determined to be in some way inadequate, and ultimately the third and fourth ships were built, with some delay, to the Admiralty design.

This class was the first homogeneous class of battleships to be launched since the Prince Consort class, and the last until the Admiral class.

Ships
  • Audacious : Launched 27 February 1869. Renamed HMS Fisgard in 1902 and reclassified as a Depot ship. Renamed HMS Imperieuse in 1914 and reclassified as a Repair ship. Sold for breaking up 12 March 1927.
  • Invincible : Launched 29 May 1869. Reclassified as a Depot ship in 1901. Renamed HMS Erebus in 1904. Renamed HMS Fisgard II and reclassified as a Training ship in 1906. Sank while under tow on 17 September 1914.
  • Iron Duke : Launched 1 March 1870. Put into Reserve 1890, converted to coal hulk 1900. Sold for scrap 15 May 1906.
  • Vanguard : Launched 3 January 1870. Sunk after accidental collision with Iron Duke on 1 September 1875.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Invincible_(1869)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1877 - Battle of Pacocha - Indecisive battle between HMS Shah, HMS Amethyst and Huascar


The naval Incident of Pacocha took place on 29 May 1877 when Nicolás de Piérola was leading a revolution to overthrow then Peruvian President Mariano Ignacio Prado. Piérola's supporters used the Peruvian monitor Huáscar as a raiding ship. She harassed the shipping especially off El Callao, the main commercial port of Peru. However, after she boarded some British merchant ships, British authorities sent Rear Admiral de Horsey to capture the vessel. The Peruvian warship managed to outrun the British squadron after a fierce exchange of fire. Huáscar's guns were undermanned, and she fired just 40 rounds. Shah's mast was damaged by splinters. On the British side, Shah fired 237 shots and Amethyst 190, but none of them carried armour-piercing ammunition. Huáscar was hit 60 times, but her armour shield defeated all the rounds. There was a last-ditch effort to stop or sink the rebels when two small torpedo rams from Shah attempted to find the Huáscar, but the Peruvian ship managed to escape under the cover of darkness. The rebel crew was forced to surrender their ship to the Peruvian government just two days later.

Combate_de_Pacocha_1877.jpg
The Naval Combat in the Pacific, Between H.M.S.s "SHAH" and AMETHYST and the Peruvian Rebel Ironclad Turret Ram "HUASCAR" off No, May 29th 1877.

This battle saw the first use of the newly invented self-propelled torpedo which, at the time, had just entered limited service with the Royal Navy. The torpedo was dodged by the rebel monitor.

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HMS Amethyst was the lead ship of the Amethyst-class corvettes built for the Royal Navy in the early 1870s. She participated in the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in 1873 before serving as the senior officer's ship for the South American side of the South Atlantic. The ship was transferred to the Pacific Station in 1875 and fought in the Battle of Pacocha against the rebellious Peruvian ironclad warship Huáscar two years later. This made her the only British wooden sailing ship ever to fight an armoured opponent. After a lengthy refit, Amethyst again served as the senior officer's ship on the South American station from 1882–85. She was sold for scraptwo years later.


Huáscar is an ironclad turret ship built in Britain for Peru in the 1860s. Her price was a bit more than £81,000 pounds sterling. She was the flagship of the Peruvian Navy and participated in the Battle of Pacocha and the War of the Pacific of 1879–1883 before being captured and commissioned into the Chilean Navy. Today she is one of the few surviving ships of her type. The ship has been restored and is currently commissioned as a memorial ship. She is named after the 16th-century Inca emperor, Huáscar.


The first HMS Shah was a 19th-century unarmoured iron hulled, wooden sheathed frigate of Britain's Royal Navy designed by Sir Edward Reed. She was originally to be named HMS Blonde but was renamed following the visit of the Shah of Persia in 1873.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1914 - the passenger liner RMS Empress of Ireland sank after colliding with the cargo ship Storstad on the Saint Lawrence River, killing 1,012 people. About 465 survived.


RMS Empress of Ireland
was an ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Although the ship was equipped with watertight compartments, and in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster two years earlier, carried more than enough lifeboats for all onboard, she foundered in only 14 minutes. Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died, making it the worst peacetime marine disaster in Canadian history.

EMPRESS_OF_IRELAND_-_Sjöhistoriska_museet_-_Fo210199.tif.jpg

Empress of Ireland and her sister ship, Empress of Britain, were built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering at Govan on the Clyde in Scotland. The liners were commissioned by Canadian Pacific Steamships (at that time part of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) conglomerate) for the North Atlantic route between Liverpool and Quebec City. (The transcontinental CPR and its fleet of ocean liners constituted CPR's self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Transportation System".) Empress of Ireland had just begun her 96th voyage when she sank.

The wreck lies in 40 metres (130 ft) of water, making it accessible to advanced divers. Many artifacts from the wreckage have been retrieved, some of which are on display in the Empress of Ireland Pavilion at the Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père in Rimouski, Quebec and at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. The Canadian government has passed legislation to protect the site.

Numerous books have been written about the sinking of Empress of Ireland and several films and documentaries have been made.


Final crossing

Formal portrait of Captain Henry Kendall, the last captain of RMS Empress of Ireland.

Empress of Ireland departed Quebec City for Liverpool at 16:30 local time (EST) on 28 May 1914, manned by a crew of 420 and carrying 1,057 passengers, roughly two-thirds of her total capacity. In First Class, the list of passengers was relatively small, with only 87 booked passages. This small number did not however spare the inclusion of some rather notable figures from both sides of the Atlantic.
  • Col. Robert Bloomfield of New Zealand's 3rd Mounted Regiment, his wife Isabella and their daughter Hilda.
  • Laurence Irving, son of famous Victorian stage actor Sir Henry Irving, who since 1912 had been on an extended stage tour of Australia and North America, together with his wife and stage partner, Mabel Hackney.
  • Sir Henry Seton-Karr, a former member of the British House of Commons returning home from a hunting trip to British Columbia.
  • Henry Lyman, head of the firm Lyman, Sons & Co, which in 1914 was the largest pharmaceutical company in Canada, who was bound for Europe for a belated honeymoon with his young wife, Florence.
  • Wallace Palmer, associate Editor for The London Financial Times and his wife Ethel.
  • George Smart, Inspector of British Immigrant Children and Receiving Homes.
  • Lt. Col. Charles Tylee of the Canadian Army and his wife Martha.
Second Class saw a considerably larger booking at just over half capacity with 253 passengers, owed greatly to a large party of Salvation Army members and their families, numbering 170 in all, who were travelling to attend the 3rd International Salvation Army Congress in London.

Third Class saw the largest booking, which with 717 passengers was nearly filled to capacity. This compliment reflected greatly the typical mix of steerage travellers seen on eastbound crossings aboard the Empress and her running mates on the North Atlantic which paralleled that seen on westbound crossings from Liverpool. While on westbound crossings Third Class passengers were predominantly diverse mixes of immigrants, eastbound crossings saw equally diverse blends of former immigrants from both Canada and the United States returning to their native countries in Europe. Many were returning to visit relatives, while others were in the process of remigrating and resettling.

Henry George Kendall had just been promoted to her captain at the beginning of the month, and it was his first trip down the Saint Lawrence River in command of her.

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Collision and sinking
The ship reached Pointe-au-Père, Quebec (or Father Point) near the town of Rimouski in the early hours of 29 May 1914, where the pilot disembarked. Empress of Ireland resumed a normal outward bound course of about N76E, and soon sighted the masthead lights of Storstad, a Norwegian collier, on her starboard bow at a distance of several miles. Likewise, Storstad, which was abreast of Métis Point and on a course W. by S., sighted Empress of Ireland's masthead lights. The first sightings were made in clear weather conditions, but fog soon enveloped the ships. The ships resorted to repeated use of their fog whistles. At about 02:00 local time Storstadcrashed into Empress of Ireland's starboard side at around midships. Storstad remained afloat, but Empress of Ireland was severely damaged. A gaping hole in her side caused the lower decks to flood at a rate alarming to the crew.

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Damage sustained by Storstad after its collision with Empress of Ireland.

Storstad_Montreal_1914.jpg
SS Storstad in Montreal after the collision. Note the damage to the bow

Empress of Ireland listed rapidly to starboard. There was no time to shut the watertight doors. Most of the passengers and crew in the lower decks drowned quickly; water entered through open portholes, some only a few feet above the water line, and inundated passageways and cabins. Those berthed in the upper decks were awakened by the collision, and immediately boarded lifeboats on the boat deck. Within a few minutes of the collision, the list was so severe that the port lifeboats could not be launched. Some passengers attempted to do so but the lifeboats just crashed into the side of the ship, spilling their occupants into the frigid water. Five starboard lifeboats were launched successfully, while a sixth capsized during lowering.

Ten or eleven minutes after the collision, Empress of Ireland lurched violently onto her starboard side, allowing as many as 700 passengers and crew to crawl out of the portholes and decks onto her port side. The ship lay on her side for a minute or two, having seemingly run aground. A few minutes later, about 14 minutes after the collision, the stern rose briefly out of the water and the ship finally sank. Hundreds of people were thrown into the near-freezing water. The disaster resulted in the deaths of 1,012 people.

As reported in the newspapers at the time, there was much confusion as to the cause of the collision with both parties claiming the other was at fault.[24] As was noted at the subsequent inquiry "If the testimony of both captains were to be believed, the collision happened as both vessels were stationary with their engines stopped". The witnesses from Storstad said they were approaching so as to pass red to red (port to port) while those from Empress of Irelandsaid they were approaching so as to pass green to green (starboard to starboard), but "the stories are irreconcilable".

Ultimately, the swift sinking and immense loss of life can be attributed to three factors: the location in which Storstad made contact, failure to close Empress of Ireland's watertight doors, and longitudinal bulkheads that exacerbated the list by inhibiting cross flooding. A contributing factor were open portholes. Surviving passengers and crew testified that some upper portholes were left open for ventilation.[26] The maritime 'Safety of Life at Sea' regulations require that any openable portholes be closed and locked before leaving port, but portholes were often left open in sheltered waters like the Saint Lawrence River where heavy seas were not expected. When Empress of Irelandbegan to list to starboard, water poured through the open portholes further increasing flooding.

1280px-Sailors_taking_children_in_coffins_from_LADY_GREY_at_Quebec1.jpg
Unloading the coffins of the children from Lady Gray

Passengers and crew
Total numbers saved and lost
The exact numbers of passengers and crew of the sunken ship who either died or were saved was not established until the inquiry. This was because of discrepancies in the names of the passengers shown on the manifest(particularly in regard to the continentals) and the names given by the survivors.[2] As a consequence, initial reports in the newspapers were incomplete.

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Rescue operations and survivors
Storstad, which remained afloat, lowered her own lifeboats and began the rescue of the many survivors in the water. The radio operator at Father Point who picked up the emergency signal from Empress of Ireland notified two Canadian government steamers, Eureka at Father Point Wharf and Lady Evelyn at Rimouski Wharf.[30] Eureka was first on the scene and by 03:00 had returned to Father Point Wharf with 32 survivors and several bodies. Eureka was told to go to Rimouski Wharf where Lady Evelyn arrived around 04:00 with more survivors and bodies.[30] Around 06:10 the survivors and bodies Storstad had on board were transferred to Eureka and transported to Rimouski Wharf, Storstad was damaged but not enough to stop her then continuing to Quebec.

There were only 465 survivors: 4 of whom were children (the other 134 children were lost), 41 of whom were women (the other 269 women were lost) and 172 men (the other 437 men were lost). The fact that most passengers were asleep at the time of the sinking (most not even awakened by the collision) also contributed to the loss of life when they were drowned in their cabins, most of them from the starboard side where the collision happened.

One of the survivors was Captain Kendall, who was on the bridge at the time, and quickly ordered the lifeboats to be launched. When Empress of Ireland lurched onto her side, he was thrown from the bridge into the water, and was taken down with her as she began to go under. Swimming to the surface, he clung to a wooden grate long enough for crew members aboard a nearby lifeboat to row over and pull him in. Immediately, he took command of the small boat, and began rescue operations. The lifeboat's crew successfully pulled in many people from the water, and when the boat was full, Kendall ordered the crew to row to the lights of the mysterious vessel that had rammed them, so that the survivors could be dropped off. Kendall and the crew made a few more trips between the nearby Storstad and the wreckage to search for more survivors. After an hour or two, Kendall gave up, since any survivors who were still in the water would have either succumbed to hypothermia or drowned by then.

Amongst the dead were the English dramatist and novelist Laurence Irving, the explorer Henry Seton Karr, William Hart-Bennett's wife Ella, Suva's mayor Gabriel J. Marks, and Lieutenant Charles Lindsay Claude Bowes-Lyon, a first cousin of the future Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.

The passengers included 167 members of the Salvation Army. These travelers, all but eight of whom died, were members of the Canadian Staff Band of The Salvation Army who were traveling to London for an international conference. One of the four children who survived was 7-year-old Grace Hanagan who was born in Oshawa, Ontario, on 16 May 1907, and was traveling with her parents who were among the Salvation Army members who did not survive. Grace Hanagan Martyn was also the last survivor of the sinking and died in St. Catharines, Ontario on 15 May 1995 at the age of 87, one day before her 88th birthday.

As for Storstad's Chief Officer Alfred Toftenes, little is known of what became of him except that he died in New York a few years later, in 1918. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Robert Crellin saved over twenty people and became famous for his heroics during the disaster.


Read more about the Investigations and the wrecksite at wikipedia ....








https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1940 - while taking part in the evacuation of Dunkirk, the British destroyer HMS Wakeful was torpedoed and sunk by E-Boat S-30. Of the 750 crew and troops aboard, 724 were killed.


HMS Wakeful
was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was built under the 1916-17 Programme in the 10th Destroyer order. Wakeful was assigned to the Grand Fleet after completion, and served into the early years of the Second World War. Wakeful was torpedoed and sunk during Operation Dynamo by a German E-Boat on 29 May 1940.

HMS_Wakeful_(H88).jpg

Career
First World War

Wakeful joined the Grand Fleet and was present at the surrender of the German High Seas Fleet in 1918. She then went into reserve.

Second World War
Just prior to the start of the war in August 1939 Wakeful was reactivated and recommissioned to attend the Royal Review of the Reserve Fleet in Weymouth Bay. At the outbreak of war Wakeful was assigned to convoy escort duty with the 17th Destroyer Flotilla, which was part of the Western Approaches Command.

Operation Dynamo
Wakeful was selected to support Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of allied troops from Dunkirk, on 26 May 1940. On 27 May 1940 Wakeful embarked 631 Allied troops. While returning them to Dover Wakeful came under air attack and received minor damage below the waterline. Despite the near miss Wakeful returned to Dunkirk to continue the evacuation, embarking 640 Allied troops on 28 May 1940. While carrying this out Wakeful was torpedoed by the German E-Boat S-30. The destroyer was struck by two torpedoes, one hitting the forward boiler room. Casualties were heavy, only two of the 640 Allied troops - Mr Stanley Patrick of the Royal Army Service Corps and Mr James 'Jim' Kane of the Royal Tank Regiment plus 25 of Wakeful's crew survived. A number of ships stopped to pick up the survivors, but one of these, the destroyer Grafton, was then in turn sunk by a German U-Boat.

Wreck
The wreck is a designated War Grave, lying at a depth of 24 metres (79 ft) in busy waters along the approaches to Zeebrugge harbour at 51° 22'N, 2° 43'E. Permission is needed from Belgian Nautical Authority to dive on the site. In 2003 work was done to remove parts of the superstructure and funnel that were considered to be a potential danger to navigation and the recovered ship's crest and foot plate were placed in the Royal Naval Museum.


HMS Grafton (H89) was a G-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during the mid-1930s. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 the ship spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the non-intervention measures agreed by Britain and France. After the beginning of World War II she was transferred from the Mediterranean Fleet to Great Britain for escort and contraband inspection duties. Grafton was refitting when the Norwegian Campaign began in April 1940, but the ship escorted convoys to Norway once her refit was completed. She evacuated British troops from the Dunkirk bridgehead in May, but was sunk by a German submarine after she stopped to rescue survivors from another British destroyer.

Hmsgrafton.jpg

Operation Dynamo
During the Siege of Calais, Grafton escorted the light cruisers Arethusa and Galatea as they provided naval gunfire support for the 30th Motor Brigade on 26 May. The following day she evacuated over 1,600 troops from the beaches of La Panne and Bray, northeast of Dunkirk. On the morning of 29 May, she stopped to rescue survivors from the destroyer Wakeful, which had been torpedoed and sunk earlier that morning by the German E-boat S-30. While rescuing survivors from Wakeful off Nieuwpoort, Belgium, Grafton was struck in the stern by a torpedo from the German submarine U-62. This seriously damaged the ship, and also triggered a secondary explosion which damaged the bridge, killing the captain and another officer. 13 ratings and the Canteen Manager were also killed. The ship's back was broken, but she remained afloat long enough for all survivors to be rescued by the destroyer Ivanhoe and the transport Malines. Ivanhoe sank Grafton with naval gunfire, as she was too badly damaged to be towed to safety.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wakeful_(H88)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1944 - USS Block Island (CVE 21) is torpedoed and is sunk by German submarine U 549, USS Barr (DE 576) is also damaged.
Block Island is the only U.S. carrier lost in the Atlantic during World War II. U-549 is later sunk that night by USS Eugene E. Elmore (DE-686) and USS Ahrens (DE 575).



USS Block Island (CVE-21/AVG-21/ACV-21) was a Bogue-class escort carrier for the United States Navy during World War II. She was the first of two escort carriers named after Block Island Sound off Rhode Island. Block Island was launched on 6 June 1942 by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation in Tacoma, Washington, under a Maritime Commission contract; sponsored by Mrs. H. B. Hutchinson, wife of Commander Hutchinson; transferred to the United States Navy on 1 May 1942; and commissioned on 8 March 1943, Captain Logan C. Ramsey in command. Originally classified AVG-21, she became ACV-21 on 20 August 1942, and CVE-21 on 15 July 1943. She was named after Block Island, an island in Rhode Island east of New York.

USS_Block_Island_(CVE-21)_leaving_Norfolk,_October_15,_1943.jpg
USS Block Island underway with a deckload of aircraft, 15 October 1943.

Service history
Departing San Diego, California in May 1943, Block Island steamed to Norfolk, Virginia, to join the Atlantic Fleet. After two trips from New York City to Belfast, United Kingdom, during the summer of 1943 with cargoes of Army fighters, she operated as part of a hunter-killer group. During her four anti-submarine cruises, Block Island′s planes sank two submarines: U-220 in 48°53′N 33°30′W on 28 October 1943 and U-1059 in 13°10′N 33°44′W on 19 March 1944. She shared credit with destroyer Corry and destroyer escort Bronstein for the sinking of U-801 at 16°42′N 30°20′W on 17 March 1944 and with Buckley for U-66 sunk on 6 May 1944 in 17°17′N 32°29′W. Thomas, Bostwick, Borie and Bronstein sank U-709 on 1 March 1944 and the same day Bronstein sank U-603.

Sinking
Block Island was torpedoed off the Canary Islands at 20:13 on 29 May 1944. U-549 had slipped undetected through her screen. The submarine put three torpedoes into the carrier before being sunk herself by Eugene E. Elmore and Ahrens of the screen in 31°13′N 23°03′W. After the Block Island was torpedoed, six Wildcats that were in the air at the time had no place to land, They headed for the Canary Islands, but all of them had to ditch at night after running out of fuel; only two of the six pilots were rescued. The carrier lost 6 men in the attack; the remaining 951 were picked up by the escort screen.

This was the only American carrier sunk in the Atlantic during the war.

Reunions
Former crewmembers held several reunions, the final one in Fargo, North Dakota in 2019.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
29 May 1950 – The St. Roch, the first ship to circumnavigate North America, arrives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.


RCMPV
St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the direction west to east (Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean), going the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa went east to west, 38 years earlier.

St._Roch_schooner_wintering_in_the_Beaufort_Sea.jpg

The ship was most often captained by Henry Larsen.
Liverpool born Sgt. Fred S. Farrar R.C.M.P. (1901-1954) was a crew member of St. Roch for various voyages including the 1950 voyage that circumnavigated North America, he wrote the book Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch. which was published posthumously in 1955.
The Stan Rogers song "Take It From Day To Day" is the lament of a crew member on St. Roch.
The ship is located at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is open to the public for scheduled visits.


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Construction
St. Roch was made primarily of thick Douglas-fir, with very hard Australian "ironbark" eucalyptus on the outside, and an interior hull reinforced with heavy beams to withstand ice pressure during her Arctic duties. St. Roch was designed by Tom Halliday and was based on Roald Amundsen's ship Maud.

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Service history
St. Roch was constructed in 1928 at the Burrard Dry Dock Shipyards in North Vancouver. Between 1929–1939 she supplied and patrolled Canada's Arctic.

In 1940–1942 she became first vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage in a west to east direction, and in 1944 became first vessel to make a return trip through the Northwest Passage, through the more northerly route considered the true Northwest Passage, and was also the first to navigate the passage in a single season. Between 1944–1948 she again patrolled Arctic waters. On May 29, 1950, she became first vessel to circumnavigate North America, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Vancouver via the Panama Canal. In all she sailed 3 voyages.

Exhibition
In 1954, the St. Roch was decommissioned in Halifax and returned to Vancouver. In 1958, she was placed in drydock at Kitsilano Point for restoration, partly inspiring the location of the planned Vancouver Maritime Museum, which opened the following year. In 1962, St. Roch was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.[6] Although the ship was placed indoors in an A-frame building adjoining the museum, it remained formally under the control of Parks Canada. In 1995 Parks Canada handed over full control of the St. Roch to the museum

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StRoch_-_VMM.jpg stroch2.jpg 1280px-St_roch_vancouver_2.jpg



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 29 May


1652 - Battle of Goodwin Sands

Goodwin Sands (Dover) - English under Robert Blake fire on Maarten Tromp's Dutch fleet off Dover without declaring war and initiate the First Anglo-Dutch War

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


1692 battles of Barfleur and La Hogue



1719 HMS Blandford (1711 - 20), Cptn. Erasmus Phillips, foundered in the Bay of Biscay with the loss of all on board.


1783 – Spanish Dragón 60 (launched 2 May 1745 at Havan
a) - Wrecked 29 May 1783

Conquistador class
, 70 guns
Conquistador (Jesus, Maria y José) 64 (launched 28 January 1745 at Havana) - Captured by Britain 1748
Dragón 60 (launched 2 May 1745 at Havana) - Wrecked 29 May 1783


1792 – Spanish 40-gun frigate Nuestra Señora de Loreto (1781) wrecked


1807 HMS Jackall Gun-boat (14), Lt. Charles Stewart, captured by the French after going ashore near Calais.


HMS Jackal
(or Jackall) was a Bloodhound-class brig of the Royal Navy, launched in 1801. She captured a number of small prizes in the Channel, including one armed sloop, before she was lost in 1807.

Fate
On 29 May 1807 Jackal was in the North Sea when she sighted and gave pursuit to a French privateer lugger, which eventually escaped into Dunkirk. As the weather worsened in the evening Jackal attempted to head back to the Downs, but grounded in the night. The crew manned the pumps until dawn, when they discovered that they were on the French shore, about three miles from Calais. As the tide rose, Jackal sank around 5 a.m., at which point the crew took to the rigging. By 8 a.m. the tide had gone out sufficiently that all were able safely to go ashore, whereupon the French took them prisoner.

The court martial for the loss of Jackal did not take place until 16 June 1814, presumably after her officers and crew returned from captivity.



1844 - The frigate USS Constitution, commanded by John Percival, sails from New York to depart on her 52,370-mile around-the-world cruise. Heading eastward, she visits places such as Brazil, Borneo, China, the Philippines, Hawaii, and Mexico before returning to Boston on September 27, 1846.


1863 - During the Civil War, the side-wheel "double-ender" gunboat , USS Cimarron, commanded by Cmdr. Andrew J. Drake, captures the blockade-runner, Evening Star, off Wassaw Sound, Ga.


The first USS Cimarron (officially changed from the original spelling Cimerone) was a sidewheel double-ended steam gunboat of the United States Navy that served during the American Civil War.
Cimarron, a large ship of 860 tons, was outfitted as a gunboat with six howitzers for riverside operations, and as a blockade interceptor gunboat with a powerful 100-pounder rifle.

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1935 Maiden voyage of SS Normandie

The SS Normandie was a French ocean liner built in Saint-Nazaire, France, for the French Line Compagnie Générale Transatlantique (CGT). She entered service in 1935 as the largest and fastest passenger ship afloat; she remains the most powerful steam turbo-electric-propelled passenger ship ever built.

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Her novel design and lavish interiors led many to consider her the greatest of ocean liners. Despite this, she was not a commercial success and relied partly on government subsidy to operate. During service as the flagship of the CGT, she made 139 westbound transatlantic crossings from her home port of Le Havre to New York. Normandie held the Blue Riband for the fastest transatlantic crossing at several points during her service career, during which the RMS Queen Mary was her main rival.

During World War II, Normandie was seized by U.S. authorities at New York and renamed USS Lafayette. In 1942, the liner caught fire while being converted to a troopship, capsized onto her port side and came to rest on the mud of the Hudson River at Pier 88, the site of the current New York Passenger Ship Terminal. Although salvaged at great expense, restoration was deemed too costly and she was scrapped in October 1946.

Normandie's maiden voyage was on 29 May 1935. Fifty thousand saw her off at Le Havre on what was hoped would be a record-breaking crossing. Normandie reached New York after four days, three hours and 14 minutes, taking away the Blue Riband from the Italian liner, Rex. This brought great pride for the French, who had not won the distinction before. Under the command of master Captain René Pugnet, her average on the maiden voyage was around 30 knots (56 km/h) and on the eastbound crossing to France, she averaged over 30 knots (56 km/h), breaking records in both directions.

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During the maiden voyage, French Line refused to predict that their ship would win the Blue Riband. However, by the time the ship reached New York, medallions of the Blue Riband victory, made in France, were delivered to passengers and the ship was flying a 30-foot-long (9.1 m) blue pennant. An estimated 100,000 spectators lined New York Harbor for Normandie's arrival. All passengers were presented with a medal celebrating the occasion on behalf of CGT.

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


1942 - the Italian destroyer Emanuele Pessagno, while escorting a convoy to Libya, was torpedoed by HMS Turbulent, exploded and quickly sank with the loss of 159 of her 245 crew.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Turbulent_(N98)


1945 - USS Sterlet (SS 392) sinks Japanese army cargo ships Kuretake Maru and Tenyro Maru despite the close proximity of the escort Coast Defense Ship No. 65.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 May 1213 - Battle of Damme
May 30 and 31 Damme - English under William Longsword sink most of fleet of France's King Philip II in the harbor of Damme



The Battle of Damme was fought on 30 and 31 May 1213 during the 1213–1214 Anglo-French War. An English fleet led by William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury accidentally encountered a large French fleet under the command of Savari de Mauléon in the vicinity of the port of Damme, in Flanders. The French crews were mostly ashore, pillaging the countryside, and the English captured 300 French ships at anchor, and looted and fired a further hundred beached ships. The main French army, commanded by King Philip II of France, was nearby besieging Ghent and it promptly marched on Damme. It arrived in time to relieve the town's French garrison and drive off the English landing parties. Philip had the remainder of the French fleet burned to avoid capture. The success of the English raid yielded immense booty and ended the immediate threat of a French invasion of England.

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Philip II awaits his fleet


Background
When King John of England (r. 1199–1216) came to the throne he attempted to expand his territory, launching a campaign in Normandy in 1200. He was defeated by King Philip II of France (r. 1180–1223) and had lost most of his overseas possessions by 1204. Subsequently, John repeatedly attempted to form alliances against Philip, with a view to recovering Normandy. In 1208 John's nephew, Otto, became Holy Roman Emperor. Prior to his accession Otto had promised to help John recover his lost possessions. By 1212 both John and Otto were engaged in power struggles against Pope Innocent III. In John's case his refusal to accept Innocent's candidate for Archbishop of Canterbury had led to Innocent placing an interdict on England, prohibiting clergy from conducting religious services (with limited exceptions), in 1208 and excommunicating John personally in 1209. Philip decided to take advantage of this situation, first in Germany, where he aided a German noble rebellion. John immediately threw England's weight behind Otto, and Philip saw an opportunity to launch an invasion of England. To secure the co-operation of all of his vassals in his plans for the invasion, Philip denounced John as an enemy of the Church, thereby justifying his attack as motivated by religious scruples. He summoned an assembly of French barons at Soissons, which was well attended with the exception of Ferdinand, Count of Flanders, who refused to attend. Philip was encouraged in all of this by the papal legate, Pandulf Verraccio.

Verraccio, however, was also holding secret discussions with John, who agreed to accept the legate's decision in ecclesiastical disputes. In return, the Pope offered John the kingdom of England and the lordship of Ireland as papal fiefs, which John would rule as the Pope's vassal, and for which John would do homage to the Pope. Once the treaty confirming this had been ratified in May 1213 Verraccio announced to Philip that he would have to abandon his expedition against John, since to attack a faithful vassal of the Holy See would constitute a mortal sin. He suggested that as Ferdinand had denied Philip's right to declare war on England while John was still excommunicated, his disobedience needed to be punished. Philip accepted the advice, and marched with his army into the territory of Flanders.[5]It is possible that Philip saw this as a preliminary to an invasion of England. John declared support for Ferdinand, starting the Anglo-French War of 1213–1214.

Prelude
At the time, galleys were used as purpose-built warships. They had long been used by the Mediterranean powers and had been adapted by the northern countries for use in the English Channel. Galleys could penetrate shallow harbours and were highly manoeuvrable, making them effective for raiding and ship-to-ship combat in meeting engagements. Operating the galleys was a specialist activity and called for highly trained crews. Both the English and the French relied on requisitioning cogs, the merchant vessels of the time, to supplement their navies. Cogs had a deep draught, a round hull and were propelled by a single large sail set on a mast amidships. Cogs were used as transports and could be converted into warships by the addition of wooden castles – raised fighting platforms – at the bow and stern and the erection of crow's nest fighting platforms at the masthead. Cogs typically had a displacement of 100–250 long tons (102–254 t). Their high freeboard made them superior to the oared vessels in close combat, particularly when they were fitted with the castles, from which missiles could be fired or stones dropped on to enemy craft alongside.[

Contemporary chronicler William the Breton, the royal chaplain, who was in the French camp at the time, reported the French fleet as numbering some 1,700 ships. This number is considered improbably high by modern historians, who simply describe both fleets as "large". F. W. Brooks describes the figure of 1,700 ships for the French as "hopelessly exaggerated" and suggests that the actual size was less than 500, but of unknown breakdown between fighting ships and transports. Better figures are available for the English. In 1206 fifty galleys were recorded in royal service, operating in four squadrons. In 1211 there is a record of a fleet of over fifty ships, including twenty galleys. Building and maintaining fleets of this size was extremely expensive. In 1212 the fleet was costing over £3,500 per year; perhaps a quarter of the total royal revenue. For the 1213 campaign John attempted to requisition every English merchant ship capable of carrying six or more horses. 19th century historian Smedley estimates the English fleet at 500 ships;[4] 20th century historian Brooks that it was "much inferior in point of numbers to the French fleet".

Battle
The French fleet, originally assembled to carry troops to invade England, instead operated in a supporting role. It assembled at Boulogne, where Savari de Mauléon, a French minor noble who had served John for the previous eight years, was appointed its commander. Heavily laden with supplies, largely wine and bacon, the army's pay chests, and the personal goods of the French barons, it proceeded to Gravelines and then to the port of Damme, "among the most important commercial ports of Europe". Damme is located on the estuary of the Zwyn, now largely silted up. At the time it was in the County of Flanders (now in Belgium) and was the port of the city of Bruges. Meanwhile, the army marched via Cassel, Ypres, and Bruges before laying siege to Ghent. In England John had assembled his own fleet, which he sent to Flanders, under the command of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, to support his ally, Ferdinand, Count of Flanders, on 28 May 1213.

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An 1873 illustration of the English attack

The English ships were carrying 700 English and Flemish men-at-arms and their attendants, and a large force of mercenaries. They entered the estuary of the Zwyn on 30 May, where they unexpectedly found the French armada. Most of the ships were pulled up on the beach. The French army was besieging Ghent, and many of the crews were pillaging the surrounding area. The English were surprised to discover the French fleet, at first believing them to be their Flemish allies. After scouting the roadstead to confirm the nationality and size of the fleet and discovering that the French ships were almost unmanned they attacked. They seized the 300 ships which were anchored and killed their crews. A further 100 ships were looted and then burnt on the beach after their crews had fled. The next day they attacked the rest of the ships and attempted an assault on Damme, which was repulsed. English and French chroniclers of the time all agree that the French lost approximately 400 ships.

The Flemish forces which had accompanied the English now disembarked and reconnoitered Damme. Finding it strongly garrisoned they bypassed it and advanced on Bruges. When Philip heard the news of the disaster behind him he broke off the siege of Ghent and marched for Damme. Part of his army encountered the Flemish army near Bruges and drove them off. His army reached Damme on 2 June, in time to relieve the French garrison. There, Philip found that groups of English ships were looting and capturing or firing his remaining ships almost at will. He was furious at the performance of the fleet. He suspected the loyalty of the crews, who were almost all from Poitiers or Normandy, until recently English possessions; and the loyalty of their commander, who until recently had led troops for the English. He had the surviving ships burned to prevent them from falling into English hands, and ordered the town of Damme to be burned as well. Determined to make the Flemish pay for his retreat, Phillip ordered that all towns be razed in every district he passed through, and that the peasantry be either killed or taken prisoner and sold as slaves. He extracted 30,000 marks from the Flemish cities he had captured as a ransom for the release of the hostages he had taken.

Aftermath
The English fleet returned to England with the seized ships and a large booty; a contemporary writer claimed "never had so much treasure come into England since the days of King Arthur". The success at Damme dashed any French hopes of invading England that year and severely strained their resources, but did little to affect their army or its operations. Nevertheless, John began preparing for an invasion of France and a reconquest of his lost provinces. The English barons were initially unenthusiastic about the expedition, which delayed his departure, so it was not until February 1214 that he landed in France. John was to advance from the Loire, while his ally Otto made a simultaneous attack from Flanders, together with Ferdinand. John retook the county of Anjou, but was forced back after losing the Battle of Roche-au-Moine to Philip's son, Louis, on 2 July. Shortly after, Philip decisively defeated Otto and Ferdinand's army, which had assembled in the Low Countries, at the Battle of Bouvines. This ended John's hopes of regaining his continental lands.

De Mauléon returned to English service and in 1216 was appointed by John to the council of regency which governed England in the name of the new nine-year-old king, Henry III.[



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Damme
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 May 1563 - The Battle of Bornholm (1563) was the first naval battle of the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–70).


The Battle of Bornholm (1563) was the first naval battle of the Northern Seven Years' War (1563–70).

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Naval battles of the Northern War: Battle of Bornholm (1563)


The naval engagement took place on 30 May 1563 near Bornholm. A Danish squadron of 10 ships under the command of Jacob Brockenhuus (1521-1577) at anchor near Bornholm, saw a Swedish squadron of 19 ships approaching under the command of Jakob Bagge (1502–1577). Brockenhuus sent only the three ships; Hercules 81 (flag), Hector 38 and Hjort 46, toward it to show that they didn't want to fight. However, when firing three shots as a challenge, they managed to hit one of the Swedish ships. Swedish forces promptly surrounded and attacked the Danish ships, capturing all three after a 4-hour fight. The remaining Danish ships remained at anchor.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bornholm_(1563)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 May 1564 - The first battle of Öland (Swedish: Första slaget vid Ölands norra udde) took place on 30–31 May 1564 between the islands of Gotland and Öland, between a fleet of Allied ships, the Danes under Herluf Trolle and the Lübeckers under Friedrich Knebel, and a Swedish fleet of 23 or more ships under Jakob Bagge. It was an Allied victory.


The first battle of Öland (Swedish: Första slaget vid Ölands norra udde) took place on 30–31 May 1564 between the islands of Gotland and Öland, between a fleet of Allied ships, the Danes under Herluf Trolle and the Lübeckers under Friedrich Knebel, and a Swedish fleet of 23 or more ships under Jakob Bagge. It was an Allied victory.

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Only some of the ships on each side were involved, the rest being unable to help due to the wind. On 30 May Fortuna was damaged and Lange Barksunk, but on 31 May the Swedish ship Mars was boarded by Byens Løffue, Engel and Fuchs before catching alight and exploding, killing most of its crew and 300 boarders. Jakob Bagge and his Second, Arved Trolle [sv], were taken prisoner. Swedish casualties apart from in this ship were 101. Fleming took over the fleet and sailed it back to Älvsnabben, while the Danes sailed to Copenhagen.


Ships involved

Denmark/Lübeck
  • Fortuna (flag)
  • Byens Løffue 56
  • Engel (Lübeck flag)
  • Lange Bark (Lübeck) — sunk 30 May
  • Arck
  • Fuchs (Lübeck)
  • other ships
Sweden
  • Mars 173 (flag) — blew up 31 May
  • Elefant 65 (Fleming)
  • Finska Svan 82
  • Svenska Hektor 87
  • 19 or more other ships



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_battle_of_Öland_(1564)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
30 May 1757 – Launch of HMS Coventry, a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy


HMS Coventry
was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1757 and in active service as a privateer hunter during Seven Years' War, and as part of the British fleet in India during the Anglo-French War. After seventeen years' in British service she was captured by the French in 1783, off Ganjam in the Bay of Bengal. Thereafter she spent two years as part of the French Navy until January 1785 when she was removed from service at the port of Brest. She was broken up in 1786.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for Coventry (1757), Lizard (1757),Liverpool (1757), Maidstone (1758), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757), Levant (1757), Coberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Hussar (1757), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates, based on the plan for Lowestoft (1756) and Tartar (1756, which were the same as Unicorn (1748) and Lyme (1748). Maidstone (1758), Cerberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757),Bureas (1757) and Trent (1757) had the House holes moved to the upper deck. There are construction amendments for the first built Frigates. Annoted in the top right: " Body, same as the Lestaff and Tartar, except one havng a Beakhead and the other a round bow, withou the least alteration below the surface of the water - and the Tartar and Leostaff are exactly the same Body as the Unicorn and Lime. "


Design
Sir Thomas Slade designed Coventry "to the draught of the Tartar with such alterations withinboard as may be judged necessary", making her a further development of the Lyme. A further twelve ships were built to the draught of the Coventry between 1756 and 1763, as well as another five to a modified version of fir (pine) construction.

The vessel was named after the city of Coventry in England's West Midlands. In selecting her name the Board of Admiralty continued a tradition, dating to 1644, of using geographic features; overall, ten of the nineteen Coventry-class vessels, including Coventry herself, were named after well-known regions, rivers or towns. With few exceptions the remainder of the class were named after figures from classical antiquity, following a more modern trend initiated in 1748 by John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty.

In sailing qualities Coventry was broadly comparable with French frigates of equivalent size, but with a shorter and sturdier hull and greater weight in her broadside guns. She was also comparatively broad-beamed which, when coupled with Adams' modifications to her hull, provided ample space for provisions, the ship's mess and a large magazine for powder and round shot. Taken together, these characteristics would enable Coventry to remain at sea for long periods without resupply.[4][5] She was also built with broad and heavy masts, which balanced the weight of her hull, improved stability in rough weather and made her capable of carrying a greater quantity of sail. The disadvantages of this comparatively heavy design were a decline in manoeuvrability and slower speed when sailing in light winds.

Career
Coventry saw active service shortly after launch. On 19 December 1757 she was chasing the 14-gun French privateer Diamond when that vessel caught fire and exploded, likely as a result of sparks flying from her guns back into the powder room. Five days later, in company with the 36-gun frigate HMS Brilliant, Coventry engaged and defeated a 24-gun privateer, Le Dragon. Six of Coventry's sailors were wounded in the brief exchange of fire with the French vessel, compared with four killed and either 10 or 12 wounded aboard the privateer. A total of 280 French sailors survived the battle and were taken prisoner aboard Coventry and Brilliant.

Early on the morning of 10 August 1778, Admiral Edward Vernon's squadron, consisting of Rippon (Vernon's flagship), Coventry, Seahorse, Cormorant, and the East India Company's ship Valentine, encountered a French squadron under Admiral François l'Ollivier de Tronjoly which consisted of the 64-gun ship of the line Le Brillant, the frigate La Pourvoyeuse, and three smaller ships, Sartine, Lauriston, and Brisson. An inconclusive action followed for about two hours in mid-afternoon. The French broke off the action and the British vessels were too damaged to be able to catch them up again. In the action the British suffered 11 men killed and 53 wounded, including one man killed and 20 wounded aboard Coventry.

Seahorse captured Sartine on 25 August 1778. Sartine had been patrolling off Pondichery with Pourvoyeuse when they sighted two East Indiamen, which were sailing blithely along, unaware of the outbreak of war. The French vessels gave chase lazily. Sartine's captain, Count du Chaillar, first had to be roused from his bed ashore. The British merchant vessels escaped, but Sartine came too close to Vernon's squadron. Vernon sent Coventry and Seahorse after her and she surrendered after a short action. A French account remarks acidly that she surrendered to a frigate of her own size without a fight. All four Royal Navy vessels in Vernon's squadron shared in the prize money. (Vernon had already sent Valentine off with dispatches.) The Royal Navy took Sartine into service as the fifth-rate frigate HMS Sartine.

On 12 August 1782, Coventry, under the command of Captain Andrew Mitchell encountered the French frigate Bellone off Friars Hood, Ceylon. After two-and-a-half hours, Bellone sailed away. Coventry pursued until Bellone reached the protection of the French fleet at Batacaloa. Coventry suffered 15 men killed and 29 wounded in the engagement.

Capture
On 14 September 1782, Captain William Wolseley took command of Coventry. On the night of 12 January 1783, he sailed her towards four large vessels at Ganjam Roads, believing them to be some East Indiamen for which he was searching to convoy to Calcutta. He had no information that French vessels were in the area and so allowed the current to take him towards the vessels, the wind being weak. When he realized that they were French vessels, part of the fleet under Suffren, he was unable to escape. The French vessels opened fire and Wolseley had no choice but to surrender.

Fate
The French sailed Coventry to Brest, where they decommissioned her in January 1785. She was broken up in 1786.

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Scale 1:96. Plan showing the quater deck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck and fore and aft platforms for Coventry (1757) , a 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigate as taken off at Chatham Dockyard in 1775. Signed Israel Pownoll (Master Shipwright, Chatham 1775-1779)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Coventry_(1757)
 
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