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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2 April 1844 – Launch of HMS Daring, a 12 gun-brig of the Royal Navy which became part of the Experimental Squadrons of both 1844 and 1845


HMS Daring was a 12 gun-brig of the Royal Navy which became part of the Experimental Squadrons of both 1844 and 1845, and later served in the West Indies. She was sold in 1864.







The Experimental Brigs. H.M. Brig Daring, 12 guns. Constructed by Mr Joseph White. (Shows H.M.S. Pantaloon, Espiegle, Cruizer and Osprey) (PAH0926)

Construction
Daring was designed by Mr. Thomas White of Cowes and built in Portsmouth Dockyard. She was launched on 2 April 1844 and commissioned on 22 October the same year.

History
The Experimental Squadron of 1844
From September 1844 until February 1847, she was commanded by Commander Henry James Matson, an outspoken abolitionist and hero of the Preventative Squadron. She was employed on the Home Station, where she formed part of the 1844 Experimental Brig Squadron. The Times stated:

“	We stated last week that the Daring entered her complement, and could have entered many more on the day she hoisted her pendant. This has been seized upon (as we expected it would be), as corroboratory of the statements made in certain daily and weekly "sources of information" upon the present efficient state of our naval force. It is, in fact, however, corroborative of no such allegation, but merely proves this, that the Daring and Waterwitch, being the first of the squadron commissioned, had a rush made to enter for them, and the former having a very excellent commander and a very "winning" look, was manned, and to spare, before her sister had half her complement on her books, and before the other vessel of the squadron had entered a single hand.	”
— The Times, 23 September 1844[3]

She appeared to be a good sailer; the report of the comparative sailing qualities of the vessels making up the Experimental Brig Squadron reads:

“	In the trial No. l, with the water smooth and a long swell, the Flying Fish had the greatest advantage; the Osprey and Daring slightly differing from each other, coming next; but in the trial No. 7, when the wind was similar, but where instead of smooth water there was a cross head sea, the Daring was the most weatherly, the Flying Fish and Espieglecoming after her, being followed, but at some distance, by the Mutine and Osprey. From the results of these two trials with the same weather, but with the sea coming in a different direction, it may safely be deduced that the Daring with a head sea is the superior vessel; and this is really remarkably confirmed by examining the details of the trial No. 7, where it appears that for three hours, when on the tack, with a following sea, there was comparatively but little difference between the Flying Fish, Espiegle, and Daring; but that afterwards, when the signal to tack had been made, and they were brought to bow the sea, the advantage was chiefly gained, which in two hours gave the Daring so great a superiority over the other two.	”
— Capatin Corry RN, To the Secretary of the Admiralty, 9 December 1844

The Experimental Squadron of 1845
Daring joined the two-deckers Albion, Vanguard, Superb, Rodney and Canopus on the third cruise of the 1845 Experimental Squadron, the only brig to do so. They were joined on 21 October by the wooden steam sloop HMS Rattler.[5] The Times reported that Daring could often not keep up with the larger ships:

“	The Daring brig, 12, is, from her small tonnage and canvass, always left behind, except when on a wind under storm stay sails, in which case she drifts less, and is consequently ahead.	”
— The Times, London, 13 October 1845[6]

Service on the North America and West Indies Station
From 1846 Daring served on the North America and West Indies Station. On 10 June 1846 she captured the Spanish slave schooners Rauret and Numa off Guano Point. The Mixed Court of Justice at the Havana found in favour of the owners and sentenced the ships to be restored to their masters on 15 July 1846.

The Wreck of USS Somers


Loss of USS Somers off Vera Cruz

The United States government awarded medals to thirty-nine officers and crew of Daring, Endymion and Alarm in recognition of saving several officers and crew of the United States brig Somers in the harbour of Vera Cruz on 10 December 1846.

Daring apparently served the rest of her career on the North America and West Indies Station, returning to Britain at the end of each commission. Commander William Peel (a later winner of the VC and 3rd son of Sir Robert Peel, British Prime Minister) became her captain from February 1847 until October 1848. She refitted at Chatham in 1850 and from August 1852 was commanded by Commander Gerard John Napier. A memorial Inscription in the Port Royal Parish Church records that Lieutenant Smith, Midshipman Trevillian and 5 seamen of Daring were "drowned on June 23rd, 1853,- by the upsetting of one of her boats, - in the crossing of Tampico." She visited the Turks and Caicos Islands in 1855, and is recorded on a 20c stamp issued by the islands in August 1973.

Disposal
She was sold out of the service to Castle and Beech on 7 October 1864 and broken up at Charlton in March 1865. Her figurehead, a contemporary sailor staring straight ahead, is on display at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.





Scale: 1:48. A contemporary half block model of HMS Daring(1844), a 12 gun brig. The hull is carved from a solid block of wood(?) and painted a bronze colour below the waterline with black topsides above separated by a thin white line. Along the broadside are seven gunports let in and painted a light brown together with a cathead and channels. The clipper-shaped bow is fitted with headrails and a small half length bust figurehead, above which is mounted a stump bowsprit. The main deck is flush, fitted with two stump masts, and runs aft finishing with a small angled stern and quarter gallery with a rudder below fitted with gudgeons and pintles. The whole model is fitted on a rectangular wooden backboard which is painted a creamy white and surrounded by a stained moulded edging which is inscribed with "(3)" amidships below the keel. There is a detached plaque which is inscribed "200 Daring, 12 gun, 1844 scale 1/48 (1/4" to 1'). A brig built at Portsmouth, sold in 1865. Dimensions: - Gun deck 104ft Beam 31ft. 4 1/2 in".



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Daring_(1844)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Daring_(1844

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2 April 1863 - The USS Alligator, the fourth United States Navy ship of that name, is the first known U.S. Navy submarine, foundered


The USS Alligator, the fourth United States Navy ship of that name, is the first known U.S. Navy submarine, and was active during the American Civil War. The first American submarine, built during the Revolutionary War, was Turtle, which the civilian David Bushnell designed and built, and Sergeant Ezra Lee of the Continental Army operated.


Contemporary artist's rendering of Alligator

Construction
In the autumn of 1861, the Navy asked the firm of Neafie & Levy to construct a small submersible ship designed by the French engineer Brutus de Villeroi, who also acted as a supervisor during the first phase of the construction.

The ship was about 30 ft (9 m) long and 6 ft (1.8 m) or 8 ft (2.4 m) in diameter. "It was made of iron, with the upper part pierced for small circular plates of glass, for light, and in it were several water tight compartments." She was designed to carry eighteen men. For propulsion, she was equipped with sixteen hand-powered paddles protruding from the sides, but on 3 July 1862, the Washington Navy Yard had the paddles replaced by a hand-cranked propeller, which improved its speed to about four knots. Air was to be supplied from the surface by two tubes with floats, connected to an air pump inside the submarine, and was the first operational submarine to have an air purifying system.The ship had a forward airlock, and was the first operational submarine with the capability for a diver to leave and return to the vessel while both remained submerged. Divers could affix mines to a target, then return and detonate them by connecting the mine's insulated copper wire to a battery inside the vessel.

The Navy wanted such a vessel to counter the threat posed to its wooden-hulled blockaders by the former screw frigate Merrimack which, according to intelligence reports, the Norfolk Navy Yard was rebuilding as an ironclad ram for the Confederacy (the CSS Virginia). The Navy's agreement with the Philadelphia shipbuilder specified that the submarine was to be finished in not more than 40 days; its keel was laid down almost immediately following the signing on 1 November 1861 of the contract for her construction. Nevertheless, the work proceeded so slowly that more than 180 days had elapsed when the novel craft finally was launched on 1 May 1862.





Operational history

Samuel Eakins, first commander of Alligator

Soon after her launching, she was towed to the Philadelphia Navy Yard to be fitted out and manned. A fortnight later, she was placed under command of a civilian, Mr. Samuel Eakins. On 13 June, the Navy formally accepted this boat.

Next, the steam tug Fred Kopp was engaged to tow the submarine to Hampton Roads, Virginia. The two vessels got underway on 19 June and proceeded down the Delaware River to the Delaware and Chesapeake Canal through which they entered the Chesapeake Bay for the last leg of the voyage, reaching Hampton Roads on the 23rd. At Norfolk, the submarine was moored alongside the sidewheel steamer Satellite which was to act as her tender during her service with the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron. A spring 1862 newspaper report called the vessel Alligator, in part because of its green color, a moniker which soon appeared in official correspondence.

Several tasks were considered for the vessel: destroying a bridge across Swift Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox River; clearing away the obstructions in the James River at Fort Darling which had prevented Union gunboats from steaming upstream to support General McClellan's drive up the peninsula toward Richmond; and blowing up Virginia II if that ironclad were completed on time and sent downstream to attack Union forces. Consequently, the submarine was sent up the James to City Point where she arrived on the 25th. Commander John Rodgers, the senior naval officer in that area, examined Alligator and reported that neither the James off Fort Darling nor the Appomattox near the bridge was deep enough to permit the submarine to submerge completely. Moreover, he feared that while his theater of operation contained no targets accessible to the submarine, the Union gunboats under his command would be highly vulnerable to her attacks should Alligator fall into enemy hands. He therefore requested permission to send the submarine back to Hampton Roads.

The ship headed downriver on the 29th and then was ordered to proceed to the Washington Navy Yard for more experimentation and testing. In August, Lt. Thomas O. Selfridge, Jr.was given command of Alligator and she was assigned a naval crew. The tests proved unsatisfactory, and Selfridge pronounced "the enterprise… a failure."

The Navy Yard on 3 July 1862 replaced Alligator's oars with a hand cranked screw propeller, thereby increasing her speed to about 4 knots (7.4 km/h). On 18 March 1863, President Lincoln observed the submarine in operation.

About this time, Rear Admiral Samuel Francis du Pont—who had become interested in the submarine while in command of the Philadelphia Navy Yard early in the war—decided that Alligator might be useful in carrying out his plans to take Charleston, South Carolina, the birthplace of secession. Acting Master John F. Winchester, who then commanded the Sumpter, was ordered to tow the submarine to Port Royal, South Carolina. The pair got underway on 31 March.

The next day, the two ships encountered bad weather which, on 2 April, forced Sumpter to cut Alligator adrift off Cape Hatteras. She either immediately sank or drifted for a while before sinking, ending the career of the United States Navy's first submarine.

USS Alligator (1862) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Submarine Photo Index

www.navsource.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2 April 1901 – Launch of Gauss, a ship built in Germany specially for polar exploration, named after the mathematician and physical scientist Carl Friedrich Gauss.


Gauss was a ship built in Germany specially for polar exploration, named after the mathematician and physical scientist Carl Friedrich Gauss. Purchased by Canada in 1904, the vessel was renamed CGS Arctic. As Arctic, the vessel made annual trips to the Canadian Arctic until 1925. The ship's fate is disputed among the sources, but all claim that by the mid-1920s, the vessel was out of service.


CGS Arctic at anchor at Pond Inlet in 1923

Ship construction


Postcard showing the construction of the Gauss ship

The ship was built by the Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft shipyard at Kiel[2] at a cost of 500,000 marks. Launched on 2 April 1901 she was modelled on Fridtjof Nansen's ship Fram, and rigged as a barquentine. Displacing 1,442 long tons (1,465 t), Gauss had a tonnage of 762 gross register tons (GRT). The ship was 46 m (150 ft 11 in) long, 11 m (36 ft 1 in) in the beam, with a draught of 4.8 m (15 ft 9 in). With a 325 hp (242 kW) triple expansion steam engine driving one screw to augment the sails, she was capable of 7 knots (13 km/h; 8.1 mph).

Classed "A1" by Germanischer Lloyds, she was designed to carry 700 tons of stores, enough to make her self-sufficient for up to three years with a crew of 30 aboard. The hull was exceptionally strong, and the rudder and propeller were designed to be hoisted aboard for inspection or repairs.

Ship history


Aerial view of Gauss in the ice during the German Antarctic Expedition taken using a tethered balloon

Between 1901 and 1903 Gauss explored the Antarctic in the Gauss expedition under the leadership of Erich von Drygalski.

In early 1904 the ship was purchased by the Canadian government under the advice of Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, who had surveyed the ship before the acquisition. The ship was renamed Arctic and under the command of Bernier she explored the Arctic Archipelago. Bernier and Arctic made annual expeditions to Canada's north. On 1 July 1909, Bernier, without government approval, claimed the entire area between Canada's eastern and western borders all the way to the North Pole. Bernier only left the ship during the First World War, returning to command Arctic again from 1922–1925. The vessel's end is not agreed upon. According to schiffe-und-mehr.com, Arctic was abandoned in 1925 and left to rot at her moorings. Maginley and Collin claim the vessel was broken up in 1926 while the Miramar Ship Index say the ship was abandoned in 1927.

Gauss (ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
2 April 1921 – Launch of SS Delphine, a yacht commissioned by Horace Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers.


SS Delphine is a yacht commissioned by Horace Dodge, co-founder of Dodge Brothers. The yacht was launched on 2 April 1921, and spans 258 feet (79 m). Power was originally supplied from three Babcock & Wilcox boilers powering two 1,500-horsepower (1,100 kW) quadruple-expansion engines. In her 2003 refit Delphine was re-equipped with two modern water-tube boilers operating at 20 bars (290 psi), the larger of which has an evaporation capacity of 14 metric tons (31,000 lb) of steam per hour while the smaller can evaporate 4 metric tons (8,800 lb) per hour; these new boilers supply the original quadruple-expansion engines. "Of all the large American-built steam yachts built between 1893 and 1930, the Delphine is the only one left in her original condition with her original steam engines still in service."


SS Delphine launched April 1921. Caption from Popular Mechanics magazine.

The Delphine caught fire and sank in New York in 1926, to be recovered and restored. She suffered further damage in 1940 when she ran aground in the Great Lakes, and was repaired. She was acquired by the United States Navy in January 1942 and rechristened USS Dauntless (PG-61), to serve as the flagship for Admiral Ernest King, Commander in Chief of the U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations. She was sold back to Anna Dodge (Horace Dodge's wife) after the conclusion of World War II and restored to civilian standards and service, including her original name.

Delphine changed hands in 1967 and again in 1968, changing names again to Dauntless, only to be sold again in 1986, 1989, and in 1997 – at scrap metal prices to her next owners – who proceeded to restore her for $60 million to the original 1921 condition including interior decor and the original steam engines. She was rechristened Delphine by Princess Stéphanie of Monaco on 10 September 2003. She was recently acquired by its current owners in 2015 and has returned to its home port of Monaco for the 2017 charter season.


SS Delphine off the French Riviera, July 2008.

SS Delphine (1921) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 2 April


1755 HEICS Protector attacked and destroyed the fortress of Tulaji Angre

Protector was a ship of 580 tons (bm) launched in 1751 for the British East India Company as a fast heavily armed warship to deter pirates and the French Company in Indian waters. In 1761 a monsoon wrecked her while she rode at anchor in Pondicherry Roads.


1781 Frigate USS Alliance (36) captures 2 British privateers, Mars (26) and Minerva (10) off the French Coast

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.


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

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

USS Alliance (1778) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1801 – Launch of HMS Basilisk was a Bloodhound-class gun-brig built by Randall in Rotherhithe and launched in 1801

HMS Basilisk was a Bloodhound-class gun-brig built by Randall in Rotherhithe and launched in 1801. She served briefly at the end of the French Revolutionary Wars, with most of her service occurring during the Napoleonic Wars protecting convoys from privateers, conducting close-inshore surveillance and taking enemy coastal shipping. She was sold for breaking in 1815.

HMS Basilisk (1801) - Wikipedia

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1814 Boats of HMS Porcupine (22), Cptn. Sir George R. Collier, captured 12 and destroyed 4 vessels.

On 2 April Captain Goode, who had ascended the Gironde above Pouillac, sent Porcupine's boats, under the orders of Lieutenant Robert Graham Dunlop, to pursue a French flotilla that was proceeding down from Blaye to Tallemont. As the British boats approached them, the French flotilla ran on shore under the cover of about 200 troops from Blaye who lined the beach. Dunlop landed with a party of seamen and marines and drove the French off. The landing party remained until the tide allowed them to take away most of the French vessels. The British captured a gun-brig, six gun-boats, one armed schooner, three chasse-marées, and an imperial barge, and burned a gun-brig, two gun-boats, and a chasse-marée. Total British casualties were two seamen missing and 14 seamen and marines wounded.

HMS Porcupine was a Royal Navy Banterer-class post ship of 24 guns, launched in 1807. She served extensively and relatively independently in the Adriatic and the Western Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars, with her boats performing many cutting out expeditions, one of which earned for her crew the Naval General Service Medal. She was sold for breaking up in 1816 but instead became the mercantile Windsor Castle. She was finally sold for breaking up in 1826 at Mauritius.

HMS Porcupine (1807) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1825 – Launch of French Atalante, (launched 2 April 1825 at Lorient) – deleted 28 DVestale class (58-gun type, 1820 design by Paul Filhon, comprising 30 x 24-pounder and 2 x 18-pounder guns, and 26 x 36-pounder carronades):

Vestale, (launched 6 May 1822 at Rochefort) – deleted 26 May 1831.
Vénus, (launched 11 March 1823 at Lorient) – deleted 1847.
Atalante, (launched 2 April 1825 at Lorient) – deleted 28 December 1850.ecember 1850.


1893 - Navy General Order 409 establishes the rank of Chief Petty Officer.


1899 - A landing party of 60 men from USS Philadelphia (C 4) and a force of 100 friendly natives join 62 men from HMS Porpoise and Royal Isle in Samoa to establish order over Samoan throne.


1912 – The ill-fated RMS Titanic begins sea trials.

Titanic - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1943 - USS Shad (SS 235) torpedoes and damages the Italian blockade runner Pietro Orseolo, shortly after the Italian ship reaches the Bay of Biscay and her escort of four German destroyers.


1943: Vor den Bermudas wird das britische Passagier- und Frachtschiff Melbourne Star von dem deutschen U-Boot U 129 torpediert. Es explodiert und sinkt innerhalb von zwei Minuten. 114 Menschen sterben.

Melbourne Star – Wikipedia

de.wikipedia.org

1945 - Under heavy naval gunfire and aircraft support, U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops begin the invasion of Okinawa, the last major amphibious assault of World War II.





1999 Nigeria, off the coast: passenger ferry sank; more than 200 people died

1998 2. April 1998 - Nigeria: Untergang einer mit 300 Menschen besetzten Fähre vor der Küste; nur 20 können gerettet werden.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1694 – Launch of HMS Lancaster, an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Bursledon


HMS Lancaster was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Bursledon on 3 April 1694.



She was rebuilt according to the 1719 Establishment at Portsmouth, from where she was relaunched on 1 September 1722. After this time, her armament of 80 guns, previously carried on two gundecks, was carried on three, though she continued to be classified as a third rate. On 15 February 1743 she was ordered to be taken to pieces and rebuilt at Woolwich Dockyard as a 66-gun third rate according to the 1741 proposals of the 1719 Establishment. This rebuild returned her to a two-decker, and she was relaunched on 22 April 1749.

Lancaster was broken up in 1773.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Newark (1747), Devonshire (1745), and Lancaster (1749), all 1741 Establishment 80-gun Third Rate, three-deckers. Lancaster was re-ordered in 1747 as a 66-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Jacob Acworth [Surveyor of the Navy, 1715-1749]



Scale: 1:48. A contemporary block design model of a 74-gun, two-decker ship of the line (circa 1747). An accompanying label reads, ‘Ship of 74 guns about 1747 one of the first English 74's, originally designed as an 80-gun two decker (see No 58). Probably either the 'Culloden' (1747) or 'Lancaster' (1749). Dimensions Approximately Gun Deck 161ft Beam 46ft scale 1: 48 (1/4 inch to 1').’ The figurehead has been carved approximately to shape out of a solid block

HMS Lancaster (1694) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-324777;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1701 - Relaunch of HMS St George, ex HMS Charles (1668)


HMS Charles was a 96-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Christopher Pett at Deptford Dockyard until his death in March 1668, then completed by Jonas Shish after being launched in the same month. Her name was formally Charles the Second, but she was known simply as Charles, particularly after 1673 when the contemporary Royal Charles was launched.



The Charles was renamed HMS St George in 1687 and reclassified as a second rate in 1691. In 1699-1701 she was rebuilt at Portsmouth Dockyard as a 90-gun second rate. In 1707, she belonged to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell's fleet. Under the command of Captain James Lord Dursley, she saw action during the unsuccessful Battle of Toulon and was present during the great naval disaster off the Isles of Scilly when Shovell and four of his ships (Association, Firebrand, Romney and Eagle) were lost, claiming the lives of nearly 2,000 sailors. St George also struck rocks off Scilly, but got off.

The St George was taken to pieces at Portsmouth in 1726 to be rebuilt again. On 4 September 1733, St George was ordered to be rebuilt to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 3 April 1740.

She was eventually broken up in September 1774.




The ‘Charles’, 96 guns, was built in 1668, renamed ‘St George’ in 1687, and rebuilt in 1701. This drawing is probably an offset and is worked up in graphite and wash with the exception of the quarter-gallery, of which there is a drawing in the NMM’s collection by the Younger dated 1676 (PAF6612). The decks of the ship are crowded with people, but the reason for this is not known


The ‘Charles’ viewed from before the port beam with the lower masts lightly sketched in. A flagstaff at the mizzen top suggests she was unrigged when drawn. On the broadside she carries fifteen guns on the gun deck, fourteen on the middle deck, fourteen on the upper deck, and five on the quarterdeck; there are none on the forecastle and the poop armament is not visible. She has square decorated ports and a lion figurehead. This is one of a group of similar pencil drawings (PAH1843, PAH3909, PAF6564, PAH1844, PAH1845, PAH1846, PAH3910) all of which show ships high out of the water, without guns, and possibly made while they were laid up in ordinary (reserve)


On the left is the starboard side of a quarter-gallery viewed from slightly abaft the beam. One of the wales indicated ‘dit sijn de leijste’. On the right is the same gallery from before the beam. Inscribed ‘de gallerij van de karlis 1676’. This is an unsigned pencil drawing by the Younger. This is one of three drawings of detail of ships which were being drawn probably at the same time by the Elder (PAJ2300, PAI7579)


A trimmed drawing showing a close three-quarter view of the beakhead bulkhead (that is, the foremost section) of the Charles – identifiable from the lion figure-head, the top part of which is visible in the lower centre of the page. The forecastle and the ship’s distinctive projecting galleries are crowded with people. The image is an offset that has been worked with graphite overdrawing, and is similar to (though not taken from) the upper right section of PAJ2300


A composition adapted from the painting of the Battle of the Texel, 1673, by Willem van de Velde the Younger, painted in 1687 (see BHC0315). In that painting the Dutch ship 'Gouden Leeuw', 80 guns, is shown firing at the British ship, 'Charles', 96 guns. The Battle of Texel was the last battle of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, 1672-74. Although based closely on van de Velde's large painting, the central ship has been modified to become an English flagship, mainly by altering the flags. This distorts an already confused visual account since the positions of the ships in van de Velde's picture cannot be reconciled with either the written accounts or the drawings made of the battle by van de Velde the Elder. The red ensign differs from van de Velde's since it is of the post-1707 pattern with the St George's cross and St Andrew's cross superimposed on a blue ground in the upper quadrant. The sails of the central ship also have more holes to make it look as if the English have suffered more. Figures on deck are gesturing and waving their arms towards the Dutch. On far right the bow of a ship with a golden lion figurehead can be seen sinking. Figures are clambering off the wreck and into two heavily laden ship's boats. The plight of the sailors is shown in a number of ways. Figures are in the water, lowering themselves into it or clinging on to the wreck. Wreckage is strewn in the foreground of the painting and one figure hangs on to a floating mast with the Dutch flag prominently fixed at its peak. On the far left in the middle distance two British ships replace the two Dutch ones of van de Velde's painting while on the right Dutch ships replace British ones, all by merely changing the flags. Unlike the van de Velde, Woodcock has shown a calmer sea with less pronounced waves. The artist was a clerk in the Admiralty with a keen interest in ships. By the age of 30 he is known to have been painting in oils. He admired the van de Veldes and made a number of copies of their work. This is an example. His close parallels with van de Velde indicate that he must have known him and seen his work at first hand. At the time of his death Woodcock had not entirely escaped his influence to develop a distinctive style of his own. The Willem van de Veldes, father and son, came to England in 1672-73. The younger man's preferred subject matter was royal yachts, men-of-war and storm scenes. Unlike his father's pictures of sea battles, those he undertook after his arrival in England were not usually eyewitness accounts. However, after his father's death in 1693 he became an official marine painter and was obliged to be present at significant maritime events. The painting is signed on the spar, lower left, 'Richd. Woodcock'

HMS Charles (1668) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-301605;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=St_George_1687

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1756 – Launch of HMS Tartar, a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.


HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.



Naval career
Tartar was designed by Sir Thomas Slade and based on the Lyme of 1748, "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns."

The ship was first commissioned in March 1756 under Captain John Lockhart, and earned a reputation as a fast sailer during service in the English Channel. She made many captures of French ships during the Seven Years' War, including 4 in 1756 and 7 the following year.



During the peace that followed, the ship sailed to Barbados carrying a timekeeper built by John Harrison, as a part of a series of experiments used to determine longitude at sea. She also served in the American Revolutionary War, capturing the Spanish Santa Margarita of 28 guns off Cape Finisterre on 11 November 1779.

She went on to see further service during the French Revolutionary War. On 14 December the French frigate Minerve captured off the island of Ivica the collier Hannibal, which was sailing from Liverpool to Naples. However, eleven days later, Tartar recaptured the Hannibal off Toulon and sent her into Corsica.

Tartar was part of the fleet under Lord Hood that occupied Toulon in August 1793. With HMS Courageux, Meleager, Egmont and Robust, she covered the landing, on 27 August, of 1500 troops sent to remove the republicans occupying the forts guarding the port. Once the forts were secure, the remainder of Hood's fleet, accompanied by 17 Spanish ships-of-the-line which had just arrived, sailed into the harbour. Tartar was wrecked off Saint-Domingue on 1 April 1797.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail and longitudinal half breadth for building Lowestoff (1756) and Tartar (1756), both 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. Note the French influence on the designs bow shape, single bitts, and wheel abaft mizzen. Top right: "A Copy of this Draught was given to Mr Graves of Lime house for Building a 28-guns, p. 13th June 1755. Do to Mr Randell....of Rotherhithe."



Scale 1:48. Plan showing sheer lines and only one water line for Tartar (1757), a 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigate, as being altered during repairs at Chatham by Mr Nicholson's Yard. The decks were raised, as shown by the ticked red lines. Annotation: top right: "A Copy was sent to Mr Belshar the Overseer 2nd December 1790."



The Lowestoffe class were a class of two 28-gun sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. They served during the Seven Years' War, with HMS Tartar surviving to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.

They were designed by Sir Thomas Slade, based on the prototype 28-gun frigate Lyme (launched in 1748), "with such alterations as may tend to the better stowing of men and carrying for guns". These alterations involved raising the headroom between decks. They were originally ordered as 24-gun ships with 160 men, but re-rated while under construction to 28 guns with the addition of 3-pounder guns on the quarterdeck and with their complement being raised to 180 men.



Ships in class

• HMS Lowestoffe
  • Ordered: 20 May 1755
  • Builder: John Greaves, Limehouse.
  • Laid Down: June 1755
  • Launched: 17 May 1756
  • Completed: 8 June 1756 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked at Pointe-aux-Trembles, Canada on 19 May 1760.
• HMS Tartar
  • Ordered: 12 June 1755
  • Builder: John Randall, Rotherhithe.
  • Laid Down: 4 July 1755
  • Launched: 3 April 1756
  • Completed: 2 May 1756 at Deptford Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked at Puerto Plata, then burnt there 1 April 1797.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tartar_(1756)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowestoffe-class_frigate
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1783 – Launch of HMS Powerful, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Blackwall Yard, London.


HMS Powerful was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 April 1783 at Blackwall Yard, London.



Found in Jamaica ,Port Royal 12th May 1794 with half her crew buried.

In 1805 the ship arrived too late to take part in the Battle of Trafalgar but was then detached to reinforce the East India squadron. On 13 June 1806 she captured the French privateer Henriette off Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. At the Action of 9 July 1806, disguised as an East Indiaman and together with the sloop Rattlesnake, she captured the privateer Bellone, which had been a serious threat to British trade.

She was broken up in 1812.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Powerful (a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Blackwall by Perry & Co. The foremast was later moved aft 1ft 2inches by a verbal order from the Admiralty Board dated 20 November 1783



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Berwick (1775), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Portsmouth Dockyard. The plan was later approved for Bombay Castle (1782), Powerful (1783), and Defiance (1783) of the same class. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784], and Edward Hunt [1778-1784]

The Elizabeth-class ships of the line were a class of eight 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Elizabeth class (Slade)

• Elizabeth 74 (1769) – broken up 1797
• Resolution 74 (1770) – broken up 1813
• Cumberland 74 (1774) – broken up 1804
• Berwick 74 (1775) – captured by France 1795, recaptured and wrecked, 1805
• Bombay Castle 74 (1782) – wrecked 1796
• Powerful 74 (1783) – broken up 1812
• Defiance 74 (1783) – broken up 1817
• Swiftsure 74 (1787) – captured by France 1801, same name, recaptured at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805, renamed Irresistible 1805, broken up 1816

Capture of HMS Swiftsure by Indivisible and Dix-Août


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Bombay Castle (1782), Powerful (1783), Defiance (1783), and Thunderer (1783), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The Thunderer (1783) is included in this design prior to the name being used for a ship in the Culloden/Thunder class of 1769. The plan is signed by John Williams (Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784

HMS Powerful (1783) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1792 – Death of George Pocock, English admiral (b. 1706)


Admiral Sir George Pocock, KB (6 March 1706 – 3 April 1792) was a British officer of the Royal Navy.



Early career
George Pocock entered the navy in 1718, serving aboard HMS Superb under the patronage of his maternal uncle, Captain Streynsham Master (1682–1724). He became lieutenant in April 1725 and commander in 1733. In 1738 he was promoted to post-captain and granted command of the 20-gun HMS Aldborough. After serving in the West Indies he was sent to the East Indies Station in 1754 as captain of the 58-gun HMS Cumberland with Rear-Admiral Charles Watson. Watson's squadron co-operated with Clive in the conquest of Bengal. In 1755 Pocock became rear-admiral, and was promoted to vice-admiral in 1756.

Command of British naval forces in Indian waters
Further information: Great Britain in the Seven Years War
On the death of Watson in 1757 Pocock took the command of the naval forces in the East Indies. In 1758 he was joined by Commodore Charles Steevens (d. 1761), but the reinforcement only raised the squadron to seven small line-of-battle ships. War being now in progress between France and England the French sent a naval force from their islands in the Indian Ocean into the Bay of Bengal to the assistance of Pondicherry. To intercept the arrival of these reinforcements for the enemy now became the object of Pocock. The French force was indeed of less intrinsic strength than his own. Comte D'Aché who commanded it had to make up his line by including several Indiamen which were only armed merchant ships. Yet the number of the French was superior and Pocock was required by the practice of his time to fight by the old official fighting instructions. He had to bring his ships into action in a line with the enemy, and to preserve his formation while the engagement lasted.

All Pocock's encounters with D'Aché were indecisive. The first battle, on 29 April 1758, failed to prevent the Frenchmen from reaching Pondicherry.[2] After a second and more severe engagement on 3 August, the French admiral returned to Mauritius, and when the monsoon set in Pocock went round to Bombay. He was back early in spring, relieving the Siege of Madras, but the French admiral did not return to the Bay of Bengal till September. Again Pocock was unable to prevent his opponent from reaching Pondicherry, and a well-contested battle between them on 10 September 1759 proved again indecisive. The French government was nearly bankrupt, and D'Aché could get no stores for his squadron. He was compelled to return to the islands, and the British were left in possession of the Coromandel and Malabar Coasts. Pocock went home in 1760, and in 1761 was made a Knight of the Bath and admiral.

Later career
In 1762 he was appointed to the command of the naval forces in the combined expedition which took Havana. The siege, which began on 7 June and lasted till 13 August, was rendered deadly by the climate. The final victory was largely attributable to the vigorous and intelligent aid which Pocock gave to the troops. His share in the prize money was no less than £122,697. On his return to England Pocock is said to have been disappointed because another officer, Sir Charles Saunders, was chosen in preference to himself as a member of the Admiralty Board, and to have resigned in consequence. It is certain that he resigned his commission in 1766. His monument is in Westminster Abbey.

In 1763 Pocock married Sophia (died 1767), the widow of his friend Commodore Digby Dent, daughter of George Francis Drake of Madras and step-daughter of George Morton Pitt who had inherited Pitt's house at Twickenham now known as Orleans House. Their son George (1765-1840) was created a baronet and their daughter Sophia (died 1811) married John 4th Earl Powlett.




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

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1794 – Launch of HMS Peterel (or Peterell), a 16-gun Pylades-class ship-sloop of the Royal Navy.


HMS Peterel (or Peterell) was a 16-gun Pylades-class ship-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and was in active service until 1811. Her most famous action was the capture of the French brig Ligurienne when shortly after Peterel captured two merchant ships and sent them off with prize crews, three French ships attacked her. She drove two on shore and captured the largest, the 14-gun Ligurienne. The Navy converted Peterel to a receiving ship at Plymouth in 1811 and sold her in 1827.


Battle between Ligurienne and HMS Peterel, 30 Ventôse an VIII (21 March 1800). Aquatint by Antoine Roux.

Design and construction
Peterel was part of the six-ship Pylades-class of ship-sloops designed by Sir John Henslow. The ship was built by John Wilson & Company of Frindsbury, and measured 365 57⁄94 tons bmwith a total length of 105ft 1in. She was initially armed with 16 6-pound guns and 4 ½-pounder swivel guns and carried a complement of 121 men. She was later re-armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades on the upper deck, with six 12-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck and two 12-pounder carronades on the forecastle. The ship was ordered on 18 February 1793, laid down in May 1793 and launched on 4 April 1794. She moved to Chatham to be fitted-out and have her hull covered with copper plates between 4 April and July 1794; at her completion she had cost £7,694 to build including fitting.




Lines (ZAZ4802)

Service
Peterel was commissioned in April 1794 under Commander Stephen Church. In October Commander Edward Leveson-Gower replaced Church, only to be replaced in turn in July 1795 by Commander Charles Ogle. Peterel was at this stage assigned to the squadron in the Downs. Commander John Temple succeeded Ogle in January 1796. By 31 May Peterel had joined Horatio Nelson's squadron patrolling off Genoa. On that day Peterel was part of a small squadron under Nelson in Agamemnon that captured six French vessels that were carrying military supplies from Toulon to St. Piere d'Acena for the siege of Mantua. In July she was under the command of Captain Stuart. Stuart and Peterel directed the landing of troops for the capture of Porto Ferrajo on 10 July.

Commander Philip Wodehouse had taken command of Peterel by December 1796 when Peterel landed a small party under Lieutenant Thomas Staines on the coast of Corsica. The landing party attacked a Martello tower, which they captured, and threw its gun, a long 32-pounder, over the cliff.

Peterel's next captain, Commander William Proby, took over in March 1797. In June 1797 Proby authorised Staines to take 20 men in two of the ship's boats to cut out a French privateer that had been preying on merchant vessels off the coast of Tuscany. After a skirmish in which the British had five men wounded and the French lost several dead and wounded, the British took the privateer, which had a crew of 45 men and was armed with two long guns and several swivels.

By August Commander Thomas Caulfield had replaced Proby. Under Caulfield's command Peterel was involved in the capture of the French privateer Léopard on 30 April 1798. Leopard was armed with twelve 6-pounder guns and 14 swivel guns. She had a crew of 100 men and had been on the prowl for 20 days, but without having captured anything.

At some later stage she was commanded by Lieutenant Adam Drummond, who was followed by Commander Henry Digby. In September 1798, Digby sailed from Gibraltar to Faro, Portugal, to deliver despatches from Earl St. Vincent for the Lisbon packet. Staines took the six men in Peterel's jolly boat to deliver the despatches to the packet when the jolly boat overturned in heavy seas. Four men drowned and Staines and the other man were only rescued after four hours.

Digby's replacement in October that year was to be Commander Hugh Downman, but in November Captain George Long was in command, serving with John Duckworth's squadron at Menorca.

Capture and recapture
Peterel participated in the Capture of Menorca (1798) by the British expedition under Commodore John Duckworth. On 12 November 1798 the Spanish 40-gun frigate Flora, in company with the 40-gun Proserpina and the 34-gun ships Pomona and Casilda, captured Peterel whilst she was operating off Menorca. One of the Spanish ships fired a broadside after she surrendered. After removing the prisoners from the ship, the Spanish plundered their clothes and possessions, murdering a seaman who attempted to defend his property. Duckworth detached Argo to pursue the sloop and on 13 November she retook Peterel and her 72-man Spanish prize crew, which was under the command of Don Antonio Franco Gandrada, Second Captain of Flora. Captain James Bowen of Argo put his own prize crew of 46 officers seamen and marines aboard Peterel. Duckworth later appointed his first lieutenant, George Jones, to command Peterel. Most of the clothes belonging to Captain Long and his officers were subsequently recovered. This charge of ill-usage was officially contradicted in the Madrid Gazette of 12 April, but was, nevertheless, essentially true.

The Spanish squadron, already being chased the next day by several British ships, completely outsailed their pursuers and returned to Cartagena with the prisoners. After a detention of 14 days at Cartagena, Lieutenant Staines and his fellow prisoners were embarked in a merchant brig bound to Málaga; but they did not arrive there until 24 December, a westerly wind having obliged the vessel to anchor off Almeria, where she was detained upwards of three weeks, and her passengers confined on shore during that period. From Málaga, the British were marched to Gibraltar, under a strong escort of soldiers, who treated both officers and men with great brutality, but particularly Lieutenant Staines, who had received a sabre wound in the wrist whilst parrying a blow which one of those soldiers had aimed at his head. On their arrival at the rock, a court-martial was assembled to investigate the circumstances attending their capture by the Spanish squadron; and as no blame could be attached to any individual, the whole of them were sent back to the Peterel immediately after their acquittal.

Resumed service
On 3 February 1799 Francis Austen, the brother of author Jane Austen and future admiral of the fleet, took command of Peterel. Peterel and Austen shared in the proceeds of the capture on 18 June 1799 of the French frigates Courageuse, Alceste, and Junon, and the brigs Alerte and Salamine. Under Austen, Peterel captured or cut out from ports an armed galley, a transport brig carrying cannons and ammunition, and some twenty merchant vessels. In May 1799 Peterelcarried the news to Lord Nelson at Palermo, Sicily, that a large enemy fleet had passed through the straits of Gibraltar.

On the evening of 1 August 1799, at 9 P.M., Minerve's boats came alongside Peterel. Austen sent these boats and his own to cut out some vessels from the Bay of Diano, near Genoa. Firing was heard at around midnight and by morning the boats returned, bringing with them a large settee carrying wine, and the Virginie. Virginie was a Turkish-built half-galley that the French had captured at Malta the year before. She had provision for 26 oars and carried six guns. She was under the command of a lieutenant de vaisseau and had a crew of 36 men, 20 of whom had jumped overboard when the British approached, and 16 of whom the British captured. She had brought General Joubert from Toulon and was going on the next day to Genoa where Joubert was to replace General Moreau in command of the French army in Italy. Minerve and Peterel shared the proceeds of the capture of Virginie with Santa Teresa and Vincejo.


Ligurienne under way.

In March 1800, Peterel was sailing near Marseille with the frigate HMS Mermaid. On 21 March, Peterel spotted a large convoy with three escorts: the brig-sloop French brig Ligurienne, armed with fourteen brass 6-pounder guns and two brass 36-pounder howitzers, the corvette Cerf, of fourteen 6-pounder guns, and the xebec Lejoille, of six 6-pounder guns. Peterel captured a bark of 350 tons and a bombarde (ketch) of 150 tons, both carrying wheat and which their crews had abandoned, and sent them off with prize crews; later that afternoon the escorts caught up to Peterel and attacked. Mermaid was in sight but a great distance to leeward and so unable to assist. Single-handedly, Peterel drove Cerf and Lejoille on shore, and after a 90-minute battle captured Ligurienne, which lost the French commander (lieutenant de vaisseaux Citoyen Francis Auguste Pelabon), and one sailor killed and two sailors wounded out of her crew of 104 men; there were no British casualties. Cerf was a total loss but the French were able to salvage Lejoille. The whole action took place under the guns of two shore batteries and so close to shore that Peterel grounded for a few minutes. Austen recommended, without success, that the Navy purchase Ligurienne, which was less than two years old. In 1847 the Admiralty authorised the issue of the Naval General Service medal with clasp "Peterel 21 March 1800" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 14 April 1800 Peterel and Phaeton captured St. Rosalia.

Peterel went on to take part in operations against the French forces in Egypt. On 13 August 1800, Peterel was sailing towards Alexandria when she spied a Turkish 80-gun ship of the line totally dismasted and aground near Aboukir Bay, with three Turkish frigates standing offshore, out of range of any French guns on shore. Some of the Turkish crew of the ship of the line had reached the frigates, but the captain and most of the crew had surrendered to the French. Austen sent in a pinnace and ten men who set fire to the Turkish ship to forestall any further French attempts to plunder it, especially of its guns and ammunition. Commander Charles Inglis officially replaced Austen in June 1800, but apparently did not actually take command until some months later.

On 8 March 1801, Peterel, Cameleon, and another sloop supported the British landing at Abu Qir Bay by stationing themselves close in with their broadsides towards the shore. Because Peterel served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 2 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 for all surviving claimants.

In July–August 1802, Peterel was part of a small anti-smuggling squadron under the command of Captain King, of Sirius. who further had command of a small squadron on anti-smuggling duties. The other vessels in the squadron were Carysfort, Imogen, and Rosario.

Napoleonic Wars
From 29 April 1802 until 1809 Peterel was under Commander John Lamborn. In May 1804, she sailed for Jamaica and Barbados, convoying the West Indies trade, and thereafter remained in the West Indies for some years. She destroyed a small privateer on the Jamaica station on 23 January 1805. The privateer was a felucca, armed with one 4-pounder gun and a swivel gun. She had a crew of 27 men, all except one of whom escaped after they ran her on shore and before Peterel's boats arrived to burn her. The privateer had captured an American brig which she had sent into Havana where the brig was sold.

On 8 February, Pique captured the Spanish warship Urquixo, of 18 guns and 82 men. Peterel shared in the proceeds.

On 13 May Peterell captured the Spanish privateer schooner Santa Anna off Cuba. Santa Anna was armed with one long 18-pounder gun and four 6-pounder guns, and had a crew of 106 men. She had sailed from Santiago de Cuba only the day before and had not yet captured anything. At some point in 1805 or 1806, Peterel captured the ship Hoffnung, in sight of the armed schooner Arab, Lieutenant Carpenter, commander.

In early October 1806, Peterel was part of a convoy from Jamaica. Near North Edisto she encountered the French privateer Superbe, of 14 guns and 150 men. The privateer mistook Peterel for a guineaman and attempted to board. Peterelrepulsed the attempt and then gave chase as Captain Dominique Houx (or Diron) of Superbe realized his mistake and made his escape. In the skirmish, Lieutenant Maitland of Peterel was killed, and four seamen were wounded. Peterelcaptured one of the French boarders who reported that a broadside from Peterel had killed some 30 to 40 men on Superbe as she came up to board. On 27 October, Pitt, under the command of Lieutenant William Fitton, caught up with Superbe in Ocoa Bay after a 50-hour chase. Pitt captured Superbe, with Drake in sight, after Houx ran her aground. Houx and most of his crew escaped, though a number had been killed in the running battle with Pitt.

Fate
Peterel was fitted as a receiving ship at Plymouth in August 1811 and served in that capacity until 1825. Peterel was put up sale at Plymouth on 11 July 1827, and sold that same day to Joshua Crystall at Plymouth for £730.


Frame (ZAZ4803)


The American Schooner bore down on the Pylades Sloop of war, mistaking her, but on receiving a shot made sail & escaped hoisting a white flag at her fore 'Catch me who can' G.H (PAD6391)

HMS Peterel (1794) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1794 – Launch of HMS Jason, a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy


HMS Jason was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars, but her career came to an end after just four years in service when she struck an uncharted rock off Brest and sank on 13 October 1798. She had already had an eventful career, and was involved in several engagements with French vessels.


HMS Jason captures the Seine on 30 June 1798, depicted in a contemporary engraving

Construction
Jason was ordered on 1 April 1793 and was laid down that month at the yards of John Dudman, at Deptford. She was launched on 3 April 1794 and had been completed at Deptford Dockyard by 25 July 1794. She cost £16,632 to build; this rising to a total of £22,567 when the cost of fitting her for service was included. Jason was commissioned in May 1794 under her first commander, Captain James Douglas.



Career
Jason initially served in the English Channel, at first under Douglas, and then by 1795 under Captain Charles Stirling. Stirling remained the Jason's commander for the rest of her career. In a highly active career against French shipping he took at least six French vessels, including two that later became part of the Royal Navy.

Jason was present at the Quiberon expedition in October 1795 as part of John Borlase Warren's squadron, and went on to be highly active against French privateers and raiders. In December 1796 she was part of the British squadron that frustrated the French Expédition d'Irlande, capturing the disarmed frigate Suffren. Further service in the Channel followed; Jason captured the 14-gun privateer Marie off Belle Isle on 21 November 1797, the 24-gun privateer Coureur on 23 February 1798, and in company with HMS Russell captured the 12-gun privateer Bonne Citoyenne on 20 March 1798. Further successes that year included the 6-gun Arrogante off Brest 23 April 1798, and in company with HMS Pique, the 38-gun frigate Seinein the Breton Passage at the Action of 30 June 1798. Arrogante was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Arrogante, later being renamed HMS Insolent. Seine too became a British ship, as HMS Seine, serving until being wrecked in 1803.

Loss
HMS Jason struck an uncharted rock on 13 October 1798 while sailing off Brest and was wrecked. She was one of a handful of frigates to be lost on the dangerous Brest blockade, with three of her class be and HMS Ethalion was lost the following year.





Scale: 1:48. A design block model of the ‘Artois’, a 38-gun frigate, built by Wells of Rotherhithe in 1794. The model is scenic, and is represented on a slipway, with complete with its launching flags. It carries a plaque inscribed ‘Artois tons 996 Guns 38 Built 1794. On a launch. This model represents the mode of launching ships in HM Dockyards at the present time, and was accepted subsequent to 1795’. ‘Artois’ captured several French ships before being wrecked near La Rochelle in 1797. The model was displayed in the naval museum in Somerset House, open to the public in 1838


Lines (ZAZ2383)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Jason_(1794)

Artois-class frigate - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1810 – Launch of HMS Nisus, a Royal Navy 38-gun fifth rate frigate, at Plymouth


HMS Nisus was a Royal Navy 38-gun Lively-class fifth rate frigate, launched in 1810 at Plymouth, named for Virgil's character Nisus from The Aeneid.



Nisus entered service in 1810 under the command of Captain Philip Beaver, and sailed for the Indian Ocean, where she participated in the squadron led by Admiral Albemarle Bertie which landed troops on Île de France and captured the island from the French in December 1810.

By agreement, Eclipse and Nisus shared in the prize money for the capture of the Renommée on 20 May 1811 at the Battle of Tamatave, and one week later of the Néréide. In August 1811, Nisus supported the Invasion of Java and was involved in a successful attack on the French fortified port of Cheribon, seizing the fort and defeating a French army sent to drive the British off. In September the force captured Surabaya.

In 1814 command passed to Charles Marsh Schomberg and in 1815 she was laid up at Plymouth, prior to being broken up in 1822.



The Lively class were a successful class of sixteen British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates.

Origins
The Lively class were a series of sixteen ships built to a 1799 design by Sir William Rule, which served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The prototype and name ship of the class was HMS Lively of 1804. In contemporary usage the class was referred to as the 'Repeat Lively class'. As such the prototype ship was not considered to be part of the class at the time.

They were considered the most successful British frigate design of the period, much prized by the Navy Board; after the prototype was launched in 1804 (by which time four more frigates had already been ordered to the same design), a further eleven sister-ships were ordered to her design, although this was slightly modified (in 1805) to have the gangways between forecastle and quarterdeck more integrated into the upperworks, a step towards the final enclosure of the waist. This was reinforced in 1809 by the abandonment of breastworks at the break of the quarterdeck and forecastle and in 1810 by the narrowing of the waist by the addition of gratings inboard of the gangways. At the same date, 'top riders', angled reinforcing timbers for the upperworks, were discontinued.

Characteristics and performance
The captain's reports on the performance of this class were remarkable for their absence of serious criticism. The vessels of the class were fast, recording 13kts large and 10-11kts close-hauled, weatherly and manoeuvrable. They were excellent heavy-weather ships, perfectly able to cope with a "head sea." They stowed their provisions well; they were capable of stowing provisions and freshwater for up to six months of cruising. Indeed "riding light," after a substantial proportion of fresh water and provisions had been consumed, affected their sailing qualities adversely, so that most captains filled any emptied freshwater stowage capacity with seawater.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Leda' (1800), and later with alterations for 'Pomone' (1805), 'Shannon' (1806), 'Leonidas' (1807), 'Surprise' (1812), 'Lacedemonian' (1812), 'Tenedos' (1812), 'Lively' (1804), 'Trinocomalee' (1817), 'Amphitrite' (1816), 'Hebe' (1826), and 'Venus' (1820), all 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigates. The draught was prepared from that of the captured French ship 'Hebe' (captured 1782). The plans for 'Amphitrite' and 'Trincomalee' were resent in 1813 on the 'Stirling Castle' after the capture of 'Java' by the US Frigate 'Constitution' in 1812. A duplicate set were dispatched on the Hon East India Company ship 'Tigris' in 1814. This plan was sent to Devonport, arriving on 20 January 1875. The plan was later sent to Chatham, arriving 8 July 1893, for making a half-model of 'Shannon' for the museum in the R. N. College, Greenwich


HMS Macedonian (left) of the Lively class, painting of its engagement with USS United States, 1812, by Thomas Birch

Ships in class

• HMS Lively
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Ordered: 15 October 1799
  • Laid down: November 1801
  • Launched: 23 July 1804
  • Completed: 27 August 1804
  • Fate: Wrecked off Malta on 10 August 1810.
• HMS Resistance
  • Builder: Charles Ross, Rochester
  • Ordered: 7 November 1803
  • Laid down: March 1804
  • Launched: 10 August 1805
  • Completed: 19 October 1805 at Chatham Dockyard.
  • Fate: Broken up April 1858 at Chatham Dockyard.
• HMS Apollo
  • Builder: George Parsons, Bursledon.
  • Ordered: 7 November 1803
  • Laid down: April 1804
  • Launched: 27 June 1805
  • Completed: 26 September 1805 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Broken up October 1856 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
• HMS Hussar
  • Builder: Balthasar & Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard.
  • Ordered: 7 November 1803
  • Laid down: March 1806
  • Launched: 23 April 1807
  • Completed: 27 June 1807 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Burnt by accident 1861 at Shoeburyness.
• HMS Undaunted
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Ordered: 7 November 1803 from Joseph Graham at Harwich; this builder became bankrupt in 1806 and the contract was transferred to Woolwich Dockyard on 6 January 1806.
  • Laid down: April 1806
  • Launched: 17 October 1807
  • Completed: 2 December 1807
  • Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth in December 1860.
• HMS Statira
  • Builder: Robert Guillaume, Northam, Southampton.
  • Ordered: 4 June 1805
  • Laid down: December 1805
  • Launched: 7 July 1807
  • Completed: 26 August 1807 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Wrecked off Cuba on 26 February 1815.
• HMS Horatio
  • Builder: George Parsons, Bursledon.
  • Ordered: 15 June 1805
  • Laid down: July 1805
  • Launched: 23 April 1807
  • Completed: 4 August 1807 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold to break up 1861 at Charlton.
• HMS Spartan
  • Builder: Charles Ross, Rochester
  • Ordered: 24 August 1805
  • Laid down: October 1805
  • Launched: 16 August 1806
  • Completed: 6 October 1806 at Chatham Dockyard.
  • Fate: Broken up April 1822 at Plymouth Dockyard.
• HMS Menelaus
  • Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
  • Ordered: 28 September 1808
  • Laid down: November 1808
  • Launched: 17 April 1810
  • Completed: 21 June 110 at Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Sold 10 May 1897 to be broken up.
• HMS Nisus
  • Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
  • Ordered: 28 September 1808
  • Laid down: December 1808
  • Launched: 3 April 1810
  • Completed: 15 June 110 at Plymouth Dockyard.
  • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth September 1822.
• HMS Macedonian
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Ordered: 28 September 1808
  • Laid down: May 1809
  • Launched: 2 June 1810
  • Completed: 6 July 1810 at Chatham Dockyard
  • Fate: Captured by United States 25 October 1812. Served as USS Macedonian. Broken up 1834.
• HMS Crescent
  • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
  • Ordered: 28 September 1808
  • Laid down: September 1809
  • Launched: 11 December 1810
  • Completed: 2 February 1811
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up 1854.
• HMS Bacchante
  • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
  • Ordered: 12 June 1809
  • Laid down: July 1810
  • Launched: 16 March 1811
  • Completed: 25 January 1812
  • Fate: Broken up 1858.
• HMS Nymphe
  • Builder: George Parsons, Warsash.
  • Ordered: 14 December 1810
  • Laid down: January 1811 as HMS Nereide (renamed later that year)
  • Launched: 13 April 1812
  • Completed: 22 June 1812 at Portsmouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up 1875.
• HMS Sirius
  • Builder: Richard Blake & John Tyson, Bursledon.
  • Ordered: 14 December 1810
  • Laid down: September 1811
  • Launched: 11 September 1813
  • Completed: 29 September 1815 at Portsmouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Broken up 1862.
• HMS Laurel
  • Builder: John Parsons & John Rubie, Warsash.
  • Ordered: 21 March 1812
  • Laid down: July 1812
  • Launched: 31 May 1813
  • Completed: 13 September 1813 at Portsmouth Dockyard
  • Fate: Sold to be broken up 1885.

HMS Nisus (1810) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lively-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Lively_(1804

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1836 – Texas schooner Invincible sinks the Mexican schooner Montezuma in the Battle of Matamoros, a naval engagement during the Texas Revolution


The Battle of Matamoros was a naval engagement during the Texas Revolution on April 3, 1836, between the brig Montezuma of the Mexican Navy and the schooner Invincible of the Texas Navy. The Mexican ship was outmaneuvered and repeatedly hit before running aground and being abandoned. The Port of Matamoros, also known as Los Brazos de Santiago, was the Mexican army's primary resupply base for the operations of General Santa Anna, who was finally defeated on April 21, 1836, outside Houston at the battle of San Jacinto.



Background
The Invincible was purchased by the Texan government, then in rebellion, because the Texans were disturbed by the appearance of Mexican naval raiders along the Gulf Coast. Captain Jeremiah Brown was given command of the Invincible on March 12, 1836, in Galveston.

Captain Brown was tasked with defending the Texas coast, and neutralizing the Mexican brig Montezuma. The Invincible cruised south to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where on April 3, 1836, she encountered the ten-gun Mexican brig in the Port of Matamoros (also known as Brazos Santiago, now Boca Chica) at the mouth of the Laguna Madre.

Battle
The Texan ship was outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered and outplanned. The Montezuma had two 68-pounder guns, eight 32-pounder Paixhans guns, and had a crew of about 75 men. The Paixhans guns fired a shell that exploded on impact, creating a shower of shrapnel over the target. The Invincible had two 18-pounder guns, two 9-pounder guns, and four 6-pounder guns and carried a smaller crew than Montezuma.

At 10:00 am the Invincible approached the Montezuma and raised the Texas colors, and Captain Jeremiah Brown ordered his artillerists to open fire on the Montezuma. For a short while the two warships exchanged broadsides, scoring some hits. Invincible outmaneuvered Montezuma by sailing in circles around the Mexican vessel, firing broadsides the entire time. Invincible made only two passes before the slower Mexican cruiser was in flames. Eventually the Montezuma ran aground on a sandbar, sealing her fate. The Mexican officers and crew quickly escaped into the water from the severely damaged vessel and made it ashore on the enemy coast. The Invincible continued to barrage her opponent until she was destroyed. Casualties are unknown.

Aftermath
The Texans emerged victorious, having destroyed the Montezuma. Later that day, the Invincible encountered an American merchant vessel, the Pocket. After engaging and capturing the Pocket, Captain Brown discovered a cache of weapons, as well as supplies being shipped to the Mexican Army. Accompanying the supplies were Mexican naval officers and a considerable amount of military documents, all in Spanish. The Pocket was sent to Galveston under a prize crew. The supplies aboard the Pocket were sent to General Sam Houston's army, where the general used them against the Mexicans at San Jacinto.

This action by the Texas Navy of disrupting the Mexican army's maritime based supply chain, operating through the Port of Matamoros, was a significant factor in the Mexicans' later defeat at San Jacinto, Texas. Their vastly superior army was forced to scatter into several smaller units in order to procure food throughout Texas, thus diluting their numerical advantage.



The Texas schooner Invincible was one of the four schooners of the Revolutionary Texas Navy (1836-1837). She began her service in January 1836 and immediately began attacking ships supplying the Mexican army in Texas, including capturing the United States merchant vessel Pocket and later the British ship Eliza Russell. Both of these actions caused diplomatic incidents between the Republic of Texas and the United States and the United Kingdom.

Invincible was refitted in New York City and barely avoided being seized by the United States Navy for violating the neutrality of the United States. She served until she was run aground and wrecked at Galveston, Texas on August 27, 1837 while fleeing two ships of the Mexican Navy. During her short career in the service of the Republic of Texas, she was a raider and flagship of the small Texian navy.



Purchase and commissioning of the Invincible
The activities of Mexican raiding vesels along the gulf coast, the provisional government of Texas in the 1830s became acutely aware of the need for a navy. On the day that Texas acquired the first ship to the purpose, Liberty, the General Council reported that they were being offered another, Invincible, which they recommended be examined and, if suitable, purchased immediately. Originally built as a slave trader in a Baltimore shipyard, the schooner was being presented to the government by new owners, Texas special agents Thomas F. McKinney and Samuel May Williams, who had purchased her for $12,013.02 and were asking a 12.5% commission. She was approved and purchased three days thereafter, on January 8, 1836.

The schooner had been built sturdily, but for speed, and was fitted in New Orleans with two 18-pounder long guns, two 9-pounders and four 6-pounders. The costs were borne by General Thomas J. Green, Texas general agent William Bryan, and purchasing agent Edward Hall. By the time the 70-crew Invincible was prepared for service, she cost almost $20,000.00.

On March 12, 1836, she was given over to the command of Captain Jeremiah Brown.



Destruction of Bravo and capture of Pocket
Captain Brown had been given a specific initial mission: to protect the Texas coast from the Mexican man-of-war Montezuma. On April 3, 1836, he found her. By that time renamed Bravo, the 20-gun man-of-war was near the mouth of the Rio Grande awaiting a refit for a lost rudder when Invincible came up. One of her lieutenants, William H. Leving, was sent to Bravo on a small boat, but when Bravo attempted to flee with Leving on board, Invincible opened fire. Bravo ran aground on a sandbar near the north beach and there broadsides destroyed her. While Invincible suffered no damage in the conflict, Bravo's crew escaped with Leving and hanged him for piracy.

Invincible's battle with Bravo was witnessed by the captain and crew of the American-owned brig Pocket.[2] This merchant vessel, captained by Elijah Howe, was carrying food and weapons to Santa Anna's army in Texas. It also carried important evidence of Santa Anna's plans to seize the ports of Texas and station men on the strategically important and heavily populated Galveston Island. After the destruction of Bravo, Brown captured Pocket and arrived with her in Galveston on April 8. Sam Houston's army received the seized supplies fortified Galveston Island with them. Texas historian Jim Dan Hill, writing during the Texas Centennial in 1936 credited Invincible with contributing mightily to Sam Houston's victory at San Jacinto by depriving the Mexicans of the reinforcements that Bravo would have brought and by redirecting Pocket's supplies to the Texans just before the battle.

Charges of piracy
Upon leaving Pocket, Captain Howe lodged a complaint of privacy against Captain Brown. The sloop Warren captured Invincible on May 1 and took her to New Orleans, along with 46 of her crew. Brown escaped capture. The crew was soon released, however, when insufficient testimony was offered to counter the defense's claim that Invincible had apprehended Pocket for violating the laws of the Republic of Texas and of nations, by carrying contraband and spies to Santa Anna. After the courts released his men, Brown surrendered and also was released. However, the government of Texas agreed to settle with the United States for Pocket by paying $11,750.00. This was paid, with interest to a total of $12,455.00, on July 6, 1849.

Repairs in New York
Thereafter, Invincible defended the coast until June, when she was ordered to transport Santa Anna to Veracruz. Santa Anna was already aboard the schooner when General Thomas Jefferson Green arrived on June 5 from New Orleans aboard Ocean to forbid the transport.

On July 4, Invincible was sent to Matagorda to defend the schooner Brutus, which was blockaded by the Vencedor del Alamo. Invincible offered to engage the retreating Vencedor del Alamo in battle near Vera Cruz, but were told that the crew was not able to fight.

In September, Invincible arrived in New York city for repairs and might have remained there due to lack of funds to pay for the services. However, Texas benefactor Samuel Swartwout settled the debt to release the ship from impoundment. Pursued by a ship sent to arrest the crew for violating the neutrality laws of the United States, she fled back to Galveston, arriving on March 14, 1837.

New captain and final battle
In April 1837, Invincible received a new captain, Commodore H. L. Thompson, who after a fruitless search for enemy on the Texas coast alongside Brutus, set off for Mexico. The ships captured several pirogues and burned eight or nine Mexican towns before capturing several vessels. One of these was the merchantman Eliza Russell, a British ship that was flying a neutral flag and carrying no contraband. Eliza Russell was quickly released, but the British government later demanded, and received, about $4,000.00 compensation for the detainment. Because of such acts and because Invincible had continued sailing several months beyond her sailing orders, President Sam Houston relieved Captain Thompson of his command. Houston also dismissed Texas's Secretary of the Navy, Samuel Rhoads Fisher, who had abandoned his position to join the ships. Thompson would die on November 1, 1837, before he could be brought to trial.


The wreck of the schooner Invincible at Galveston in 1837 by E.M. Schiwetz

Invincible and Brutus returned to Galveston on August 26, 1837, but while Brutus entered the harbor, poor weather kept Invincible outside. In the morning, Vencedor del Alamo and Libertador attacked her. Brutus attempted to come to Invincible's assistance, but ran aground. When after some time resisting Invincible attempted to enter the harbor, she too ran aground. Her crew abandoned her and Invincible was dashed to pieces during the night. The First Texas Navy had lost its two final ships and was no more.

On May 23, 1838, President Houston agreed to pay the officers and crew one half of the value of the prizes they had obtained, albeit illegally, on their last cruise.

Action of April 3, 1836 - Wikipedia

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Texan schooner Invincible - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1895 – Launch of SMS Ägir, the second and final member of the Odin class of coastal defense ships (Küstenpanzerschiffe) built for the Imperial German Navy.


SMS Ägir was the second and final member of the Odin class of coastal defense ships (Küstenpanzerschiffe) built for the Imperial German Navy. She had one sister ship, Odin. Ägir was named for the norse god, and was built by the Kaiserliche Werft Danzig shipyard between 1893 and 1896. She was armed with a main battery of three 24-centimeter (9.4 in) guns. She served in the German fleet throughout the 1890s and was rebuilt in 1901–1903. She served in the VI Battle Squadron after the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but saw no action. Ägirwas demobilized in 1915 and used as a tender thereafter. After the war, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship and served in this capacity until December 1929, when she was wrecked on the island of Gotland.


Lithograph of Ägir in 1899

Design
Main article: Odin-class coastal defense ship
Ägir was 79 meters (259 ft 2 in) long overall and had a beam of 15.20 m (49 ft 10 in) and a maximum draft of 5.61 m (18 ft 5 in). She displaced 3,754 tonnes (3,695 long tons) at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical 3-cylinder triple expansion engines. Steam for the engines was provided by eight coal-fired Thornycroft boilers. The ship's propulsion system provided a top speed of 15.1 knots (28.0 km/h; 17.4 mph). She carried 370 t (360 long tons; 410 short tons) of coal, which gave her a range of approximately 1,490 nautical miles(2,760 km; 1,710 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Because she had twice the number of electrical generators as her sister, Ägir was nicknamed "Elektrische Anna" (Electric Anna). The ship had a crew of 20 officers and 256 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with three 24 cm K L/35 guns mounted in three single gun turrets. Two were placed side by side forward, and the third was located aft of the main superstructure. They were supplied with a total of 204 rounds of ammunition. The ship was also equipped with ten 8.8 cm SK L/30 guns in single mounts. Ägir also carried three 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, two in swivel mounts on the deck amidships and one in the bow, submerged below the waterline. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was 240 mm (9.4 in) thick amidships, and an armored deck that was 70 mm (2.8 in) thick. The conning tower had 120 mm (4.7 in) thick sides.

Service history
Ägir was laid down at the Kaiserliche Werft shipyard in Kiel in 1892. She was launched on 3 April 1895 and completed on 15 January 1896, after which she underwent a somewhat lengthy period of sea trials. The ship was commissioned into the German fleet on 15 October 1896, where she served on active duty for the entirety of her peacetime career. During the 1900 summer maneuvers, Ägir served in the simulated hostile squadron, alongside Heimdall, Hildebrand, and Siegfried. The maneuvers lasted from 15 August to 15 September.


Ägir sometime before 1904

In 1901, Ägir was taken in hand at the Kaiserliche Werft in Danzig for an extensive reconstruction. Her old boilers were replaced with eight new Marine type boilers and her length was increased to 86.15 m (282.6 ft). This increased her displacement to 4,376 t (4,307 long tons; 4,824 short tons) at full load. The lengthened hull, which improved her hydrodynamic shape, and the improved boilers increased her speed by a full knot, to 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph). Her coal storage was increased to 580 t (570 long tons; 640 short tons), which allowed her to steam for an additional 800 nmi (1,500 km; 920 mi). The modernization work was completed by 1903, at which point she returned to active service.

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Ägir was assigned to the VI Battle Squadron, along with her sister Odin and the six Siegfried-class coastal defense ships. The Squadron was disbanded on 31 August 1915 to free up the ships' crews for more important tasks. Ägir was thereafter used as a barracks ship in Wilhelmshaven through to the end of the war. She was stricken from the naval register on 17 June 1919 and sold. In 1922, she was rebuilt as a merchant ship at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Rüstringen. She was operated by A. Bernstein Co., out of Hamburg. She continued in this role until she was wrecked on the island of Gotland off the Karlsö lighthouse on 8 December 1929. Her bow ornament is preserved at the Laboe Naval Memorial.



S.M. Küstenpanzerschiff Odin im Salut

The Odin class was a pair of coastal defense ships built for the German Kaiserliche Marine in the late 19th century. The class comprised two ships: Odin, named after the Norse god Odin, and Ägir, named after the Norse god of the same name. The ships were very similar to the preceding Siegfried-class coastal defense ships, and are sometimes considered to be one class of ships.

Like the preceding Siegfried-class ships, Odin and Ägir were obsolete by the time World War I had started. Regardless, they were still used in their primary role until 1915, at which point they were withdrawn from active service. The ships performed a variety of secondary duties until the end of the war. On 17 June 1919, both ships were struck from the naval register and sold to the A. Bernstein Company in Hamburg. The shipping company had the ships rebuilt as freighters; Odin served in this capacity until she was scrapped in 1935, however Ägir accidentally grounded near the Karlsö lighthouse on the island of Gotland in 1929 and proved to be a total loss.


Odin in dry dock showing the arrangement of the forward guns and the bow torpedo tube

SMS Ägir - Wikipedia

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Odin-class coastal defense ship - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 April 1913 - Launch of SS Leviathan, originally built as Vaterland (meaning "Fatherland" in German), an ocean liner which regularly crossed the North Atlantic from 1914 to 1934


SS Leviathan, originally built as Vaterland (meaning "Fatherland" in German), was an ocean liner which regularly crossed the North Atlantic from 1914 to 1934. The second of three sister ships built for Germany's Hamburg America Line for their transatlantic passenger service, she sailed as Vaterland for less than a year before her early career was halted by the start of World War I. In 1917, she was seized by the U.S. government and renamed Leviathan. She would become known by this name for the majority of her career, both as a troopship during World War I and later as the flagship of the United States Lines.



Construction and early career


Launch of Vaterland, 3 April 1913.


Vaterland in her original HAPAG livery.

SS Vaterland, a 54,282 gross ton passenger liner, was built by Blohm & Voss at Hamburg, Germany, as the second of a trio of very large ships of Imperator class for the Hamburg-America Line's trans-Atlantic route. She was launched 3 April 1913 and was the largest passenger ship in the world upon her completion, superseding SS Imperator, but later being superseded in turn by the last ship of this class, SS Bismarck, later the RMS Majestic.

Vaterland had made only a few trips when, in late July 1914, she arrived at New York City just as World War I broke out. With a safe return to Germany rendered questionable by British dominance of the seas, she was laid up at her Hoboken, NJ, terminal and remained immobile for nearly three years.

World War I


USS Leviathan in dazzle camouflage

She was seized by the United States Shipping Board when the United States entered World War I, 6 April 1917. She was turned over to the custody of the U.S. Navy in June 1917, and her German crew was sent to a new internment camp in Hot Springs, NC, where many of the crew later died of a typhoid fever outbreak in summer 1918 as they were about to be transferred to Fort Oglethorpe, GA.

She was commissioned in July 1917 as the USS Vaterland, Captain Joseph Wallace Oman in command. On 6 September 1917 she was redesignated SP-1326 and renamed Leviathan by President Woodrow Wilson.

The trial cruise to Cuba on 17 November 1917 prompted Captain Oman to order 241 Marines on board to relieve a detachment of Marines to station themselves conspicuously about the upper decks giving the appearance from shore that the great ship was headed overseas to increase American Expeditionary Forces. Upon her return later that month, she reported for duty with the Cruiser and Transport Force. In December she took troops to Liverpool, England, but repairs delayed her return to the U.S. until mid-February 1918. A second trip to Liverpool in March was followed by more repairs.


Leviathan leaving for France from the New York Port of Embarkation with 11,000 American troops.

At that time she was repainted with the British-type "dazzle" camouflage scheme that she carried for the rest of the war. With the completion of that work, Leviathan began regular passages between the U.S. and Brest, France, delivering up to 14,000 persons on each trip. Once experience in embarking troops was gained 11,000 troops could board the ship in two hours.

On 29 September 1918 she left New York for Brest, she was one of the main carriers of troops to France, carrying 2,000 crew, and 9,000 troops. The voyage would prove to have the worst in-transit casualties of the deadly second wave of the Spanish flu. By the time she arrived at Brest on 8 October, 2,000 were sick, and 80 had died.

Before the armistice 11 November 1918 the ship transported over 119,000 fighting men. Amongst the ship's US Navy crew during this period was future film star Humphrey Bogart. After that date Leviathan, repainted grey overall by December 1918, reversed the flow of men as she transported the veterans back to the United States with nine westward crossings ending 8 September 1919. On 29 October 1919, USS Leviathan was decommissioned and turned over to the U.S. Shipping Board and again laid up at Hoboken until plans for her future employment could be determined.

American service
The U.S. Shipping Board was by the end of the war encumbered with surplus tonnage and government sponsored shipping companies. On 17 December 1919 the International Mercantile Marine signed an agreement to maintain their intended acquisition until a final decision could be made. The Gibbs Brothers Inc., later named Gibbs & Cox in 1929, was hired to survey the vessel and her economic potential from every aspect when newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst objected to the purchase by claiming British influence over I.M.M, riding on nationalistic sentiment to stop the deal.

The Gibbs brothers were allowed to continue by the Shipping Board even as the deal fell through,[6] their first big task being the creation of a new set of blueprints. None had been received from Germany under the Versailles Treaty and the price was deemed outrageous. Instead an army of workers measured every part of the ship until a new set of prints had been made.

Having languished in political limbo at her Hoboken pier until April 1922, a decision was finally made and the $8,000,000 in funds allocated to sail Leviathan to Newport Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company in Newport , Virginia, for her 14-month reconditioning and refurbishment.[6] War duty and age meant that all wiring, plumbing, and interior layouts were stripped and redesigned while her hull was strengthened and her engines converted from coal to oil while being refurbished; virtually a new ship emerged.


The Ritz-Carlton of Leviathan

The decorations and fittings, designed by New York architects Walker & Gillette, retained much of her prewar splendor of Edwardian, Georgian, Louis XVI styles now merged with modern 1920s touches. The biggest deviation was an art deco night club supplanting the original Verandah Cafe. And in June 1923 she was given back to the Shipping Board. Leviathan's measured tonnage had increased to 59,956.65 GRT and her speed trials showed an average of 27.48 knots. Thanks in part to Gibbs' clever accounting and the Gulf stream, she had become the world's largest and fastest ship.[6][7][8] A claim that was immediately challenged by the Cunard Line who reminded them their RMS Mauretania (1906) still held the official speed record for trans-Atlantic crossing, as well as the White Star Line, who claimed the RMS Majestic as the world's largest ship as its length was longer, and its gross tonnage was higher as Gibbs used a skewed formula.

By this time United States Lines, which had interested I.M.M, had been sold and contractually obligated to run Leviathan for a minimum of five return voyages on the Atlantic run per year. The Gibbs Brothers Inc would run her for her first voyages and train the crew until ownership officially changed hands. She immediately proved popular with the American public in the 20s, starting her career fully booked for her maiden voyage 4 July 1923. Her passenger average reached a strong 1,300 by 1926, making her the #1 traveled ship on the Atlantic, but given her capacity of 3,000 it was too little to be profitable.

Her economic problems lay primarily in high labor and fuel costs which were compounded by Prohibition. From 1920 all US registered ships counted as an extension of US territory, making them "dry ships" according to the National Prohibition Act. With the Atlantic shipping capacity oversaturated, especially after the Immigration Act of 1924, alcohol-seeking passengers readily chose other liners. But Leviathan was an American symbol of power and prestige, which despite her economic failings, made her a popular ship with loyal travelers. She attracted attention as the largest and fastest ship in the American merchant marine and featured in countless advertisements. The only serious incident occurred one day out of Cherbourg on a winter crossing in 1924 where she met a fierce storm with 90 ft waves and winds up to 100 mph, at times forcing her into 20 degree rolls. Eleven portholes were smashed and 32 passengers injured by the time the storm abated.

The ship's orchestra, the SS Leviathan Orchestra under the direction of Nelson Maples, was also well regarded.[by whom?] Gramophone records were produced in 1923 and 1924 for Victor Records by the band, which would later become inspiration for the New Leviathan Oriental Fox-Trot Orchestra decades later.


Leviathan in drydock, December 1931.

Captain Herbert Hartley commanded Leviathan from July 1923 until he retired in February 1928. Hartley published his autobiography titled "Home Is the Sailor" in 1955. By 1927 the "good years" were over, during which time U.S. Lines had been sold and re-nationalized. In 1929 Leviathan was finally allowed to serve "medicinal alcohol" outside US territorial waters to make her more competitive with foreign lines and was quickly sent on Booze Cruises to make money. The Great Depression was the final nail in the coffin and U.S. Lines actively lobbied for the Shipping Board to either take the Leviathan back or give them a subsidy for her operation. She was laid up at her pier in Hoboken, New Jersey, in June 1933, having lost $75,000 per round trip since 1929.


USS Leviathan escorted by USS Allen, both in dazzle camouflage, painted by Burnell Poole, 1918

U.S. Lines had been acquired at auction by I.M.M. in 1931 who were just as eager to be rid of their white elephant. The government steadfastly stipulated that Leviathan should sail, and so she did after a refurbishment costing $150,000, for another five round trips. The first round trip sailed on 9 June 1934, high season on the Atlantic, and tallied a loss of $143,000. By Leviathan's fifth voyage she sailed at barely half capacity. The I.M.M. paid the U.S. government $500,000 for permission to retire her while keeping her in running order until 1936.

In 1937 she was finally sold to the British Metal Industries Ltd. On 26 January 1938 Leviathan set out on her 301st and last voyage under the command of Captain John Binks, retired master of RMS Olympic, and a crew of 125 officers and men who had been hired to deliver her to the breakers. She arrived at Rosyth, Scotland, on 14 February. In the 13 years that she served U.S. Lines she carried more than a quarter-million passengers, never earning a cent.

SS Vaterland (1913) - Wikipedia

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Vaterland (Schiff, 1914) – Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 3 April


1745 – Launch of Aurore 46 guns (launched 3 April 1745 at Rochefort, designed and built by Pierre Morineau) – hulked in October 1748 and deleted 1753.


1761 - Capture of french Belleisle, a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1760.

Belleisle was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1760.
She was captured by the Royal Navy on 3 April 1761, and commissioned as the Third Rate HMS Belleisle.
Belleisle was placed on harbour service in 1784, and was sold out of the navy in 1819.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail (note one waterline), and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Belleisle' (1761), a captured French East Indiaman, prior to being fitted as a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Thomas Bucknall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1755-1762]

HMS Belleisle (1761) - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-295428;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B


1797 - Capt. Thomas Truxtun issues the first known American signal book using a numerary system entitled, Instructions, Signals, and Explanations, Ordered for the United States Fleet.

Thomas Truxtun (or Truxton) (February 17, 1755 – May 5, 1822) was an American naval officer after the Revolutionary War, when he served as a privateer, who rose to the rank of commodore in the late eighteenth century and later served in the Quasi-War with France. He was one of the first six commanders appointed to the new US Navy by President Washington. During his naval career he commanded a number of famous U.S. naval ships, including USS Constellation and USS President. Later in civilian life he became involved with politics and was also elected as a sheriff.

Thomas Truxtun - Wikipedia

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1798 – Birth of 1798 – Charles Wilkes, American admiral, geographer, and explorer (d.1877)

Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 and commanded the ship in the Trent Affair during the American Civil War (1861–1865), where he attacked a Royal Mail Ship, almost leading to war between the US and the UK. His behavior led to two convictions by court-martial, one stemming from the massacre of almost 80 Fijians on Malolo in 1840.

Charles Wilkes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1801 Boats of HMS Trent (36), Cptn. Sir Edward Hamilton, drove ashore 2 armed escorts and captured French prize.

HMS Trent (1796) was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate launched in 1796. She became a hospital ship in 1803, a receiving ship in 1818 and was broken up in 1823. She was used by David Buchan in the Arctic.

fir-built Amazon class with alterations necessary for fir wood, notably the flat, square tuck stern.

• HMS Trent 1796 - hospital ship laid up at Cork in 1803, hulked 1815, broken up 1823.
• HMS Glenmore 1796 - hulked as receiving ship at Portsmouth in 1805, broken up 1823.

1804 Cutter HMS Swift (8), Lt. William Martin Leake (Killed in Action), captured by French privateer Esperance (10), Cptn. Escoffier.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=11614


1805 HMS Bacchante (22), Cptn. Charles Dashwood, captured Spanish schooner Elisabeth (10) off Havana.

On 3 April 1805, Bacchante captured the Spanish naval schooner Elizabeth of ten guns and 47 men under the command of Don Josef Fer Fexegron. Elizabeth had been carrying dispatches from the Spanish governor of Pensacola, but had thrown these overboard before her capture.

The French corvette Bacchante was launched in 1795 as the second of the four-vessel Serpente class of corvettes. She served for almost two years as a privateer, before returning to the service of the French Navy. After HMS Endymion captured her in 1803, the Royal Navy took her in under her existing name as a 20-gun post ship. Bachante served in the West Indies, where she captured several armed Spanish and French vessels before the Navy sold her in 1809.

French corvette Bacchante (1795) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1813 Boats of HMS San Domingo (74) and consorts captured 4 schooners, Arab (7), Lynx (6), Racer (6) and Dolphin (12), in the mouth of the Rappahannock River.

HMS Shelburne was the American letter of marque schooner Racer, built in Baltimore in 1811 and captured by the British in 1813.

HMS Dolphin was the 12-gun American privateer schooner Dolphin that Admiral John Borlase Warren's squadron captured on 13 April 1813 and that the Royal Navy took into service.

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

HMS Dolphin (1813) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1844 – Launch of HMS Boscawan was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 April 1844 at Woolwich Dockyard.

HMS Boscawan was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 3 April 1844 at Woolwich Dockyard. She was originally ordered and begun as a 74-gun ship, but an Admiralty order dated 3 March 1834 required that she be reworked to Sir William Symonds' design.[1] She was named for Admiral Edward Boscawen.



In 1873, Boscawen replaced Wellesley – the former HMS Cornwall – as the training ship at Wellesley Nautical School and was herself renamed Wellesley.
On the afternoon of 11 March 1914, Wellesley was destroyed by fire and sank at her moorings on the River Tyne at North Shields. A total loss, she was broken up later in 1914.

HMS Boscawen (1844) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1942 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, is named Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas (CINCPOA) and also retains the title of Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet (CINCPAC).

Chester William Nimitz, Sr. (/ˈnɪmɪts/; February 24, 1885 – February 20, 1966) was a fleet admiral of the United States Navy. He played a major role in the naval history of World War II as Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet and Commander in Chief, Pacific Ocean Areas, commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II.

Nimitz was the leading US Navy authority on submarines. Qualified in submarines during his early years, he later oversaw the conversion of these vessels' propulsion from gasoline to diesel, and then later was key in acquiring approval to build the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, whose propulsion system later completely superseded diesel-powered submarines in the US. He also, beginning in 1917, was the Navy's leading developer of underway replenishment techniques, the tool which during the Pacific war would allow the US fleet to operate away from port almost indefinitely. The chief of the Navy's Bureau of Navigation in 1939, Nimitz served as Chief of Naval Operations from 1945 until 1947. He was the United States' last surviving officer who served in the rank of fleet admiral.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_W._Nimitz


1943 - USS Haddock (SS 231) sinks Japanese fleet tanker Arima Maru north of Palau, and USS Pickerel (SS 177) sinks Japanese submarine chaser Ch 1.

USS Haddock (SS-231), a Gato-class submarine, was the second submarine of the United States Navy to be named for the haddock, a small edible Atlantic fish, related to the cod. A previous submarine had been named Haddock (SS-32), but was renamed K-1 prior to her launching, so Haddock (SS-231) was the first to actually bear the name.

Haddock (SS-231) was laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 31 March 1941. She was launched on 20 October 1941 (sponsored by Mrs. William H. Allen), and commissioned on 14 March 1942, Lieutenant Commander Arthur H. Taylor (Class of 1927) in command.


USS Pickerel (SS-177), a Porpoise-class submarine, was the first ship of the United States Navy to be named for the pickerel, species of freshwater fish native to the eastern United States and Canada.

Her keel was laid on 25 March 1935 by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 7 July 1936 sponsored by Miss Evelyn Standley, daughter of Rear Admiral William Standley, acting Secretary of the Navy. She was commissioned on 26 January 1937, Lieutenant Leon J. Huffman in command.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Haddock_(SS-231)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pickerel_(SS-177)


1944 - USS Sanders (DE 40), tank landing ship (LST 127), and two infantry landing crafts occupy Mejit Island, Marshall Islands and defeat Japanese force.

The second USS Sanders (DE-40) was an Evarts class destroyer escort constructed for the United States Navy during World War II. She was sent to the Pacific Ocean to protect convoysand other shipping from Japanese submarines and fighter aircraft. She performed dangerous work in major battle areas and was awarded four battle stars.



She was originally designated for transfer to Great Britain. As BDE-40, she was laid down on 7 September 1942 by the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington; named Sanders on 14 June 1943; reclassified DE-40 on 16 June 1943; launched on 18 June 1943; and commissioned on 1 October 1943, Lieutenant Commander Arthur N. Daniels in command.


USS LST-23 and LST-910, beached in the Philippines, circa 1944.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sanders_(DE-40)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 April 1744 - Médée, a French frégate du deuxième ordre, a 26-gun frigate, was captured in the English Channel by HMS Dreadnought


Médée was a French frégate du deuxième ordre, or 26-gun frigate, built in 1740. She is widely considered to be the inspiration for a long line of similar sailing frigates, and was the first ship captured by the British Royal Navy in the War of the Austrian Succession. She became a privateer and was wrecked at St Ives, Cornwall, following a succession of gales in November 1745.



Construction
Médée was designed by Blaise Ollivier, with twenty-six 8-pounder guns, and was launched in February 1741 at Brest. She is regarded as the first of the 'true' frigate designs: she was built with two decks, but only the upper deck mounted guns. These guns were relatively heavy, and the higher mounting meant that they could be used in rough seas.



Capture and final voyage
Médée was captured in the English Channel by HMS Dreadnought on 4 April 1744 (Julian calendar date) and briefly served as HMS Medea in the British Royal Navy. She was sold in March 1745, becoming the privateer Boscawen; named after Edward Boscawen, the Captain of Dreadnought. Although the Navy Board had the opportunity to purchase her, they decided not to retain her, in spite of her innovative design qualities; many French ships of the time were not designed for durability and she was not as strongly built as British frigates of that time. Despite this the number of guns she carried was increased, and when Boscawen encountered a series of gales after leaving the Azores on 5 October 1745 she sprung several leaks. She was further weakened when, through negligence, the mainyard parted and dropped onto the ship, straining the already weakened hull. In response to a near-mutinous crew, Commodore George Walker set a course for the Lizard and having been swept northwards she was a floating wreck when Land's End was sighted on 24 November. The ship finally hove to in St Ives Bayon the north Cornish coast. Her anchors had been ditched days before and she broke in two on rocks at St Ives with the townsfolk wading into the sea to save the crew. Only four crew were lost, Commodore Walker being the last man to leave the wreck.

Her speed and size provided the Bedford Board of Admiralty with the arguments needed to change British frigate design.



A View and Plan of the Hampton Court & Dreadnought Chaceing two French Ships of War, Jany the 7th 1744/5 (PAD5220)

HMS Dreadnought was a 60-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Deptford, and was launched on 23 June 1742.

Dreadnought served until 1784, when she was sold out of the service.





Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Weymouth (1736) and Dragon (1736). The plan includes the ticked outlines aft for Medway (1742) and Dreadnought (1742) prior to alterations to the floor. The plan also illustrates the alterations forward and to the gunports for Nottingham (1745). All the ships were 1733 Establishment 60-gun Third (later Fourth) Rate, two-deckers

French frigate Médée (1741) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dreadnought_(1742)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-308070;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 April 1759 - HMS Achilles (60), Cptn. Hon. Samuel Barrington, took French privateer Le Comte de St. Florentine (60), Cptn. Sieur de Montay, off Cape Finisterre.


St Florentine was a 60-gun coast guard vessel in service in support of the French Navy during the early days of the Seven Years' War, before being captured by Britain in 1759 and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS St Florentine.


The Capture of the Comte de St Florentine by HMS Achilles, 4 April 1759 (BHC0390)

Surplus to Navy requirements by 1771, St Florentine was decommissioned and sunk as a breakwater off the port of Sheerness.







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.




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

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.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Dunkirk (1754), a 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker. A copy of the plan was sent to merchant yards to build Achilles (1757) and America (1757), also 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-deckers


View of the first attack on Port Andro, Belleisle, by the British fleet (left to right: ‘Dragon’ in starboard bow view, ‘Prince of Orange’ in starboard quarter view, ‘Achilles’ in port quarter view); foreground, approx. 38 rowing boats and two similar crafts with a square main sail and fore-and-aft mizzen sail; to the left of the ‘Prince of Orange’ further inland is a three-masted vessel in port broadside view; clouds above. Engraving



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_Florentine_(1759)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Achilles_(1757)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-304143;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 April 1808 - The Action of 4 April 1808 was a naval engagement off the coast off Rota near Cadiz, Spain where Royal Naval frigates intercepted a large Spanish convoy protected by twenty gunboats and a train of batteries close to shore.
HMS Alceste (38), Cptn. Murray Maxwell, HMS Mercury (28), Cptn. James Alexander Gordon, and HMS Grasshopper (18), Thomas Searle, took 7 vessels and drove many others ashore at Rota.


The Action of 4 April 1808 was a naval engagement off the coast off Rota near Cadiz, Spain where Royal Naval frigates Mercury, Alceste and Grasshopper intercepted a large Spanish convoy protected by twenty gunboats and a train of batteries close to shore.




Battle location in Cadiz Bay. Rota is on left of map

Background
Blockade duties around Cadiz were still being carried out by the Royal Navy over two years since Trafalgar (1805). The intention was the same as it was in 1805 to keep the Franco-Spanish fleet 'locked up' and also to keep a watchful eye on any movements by sea and attack if necessary. These included vessels such as that under the command of Captain Murray Maxwell with his 38-gun frigate Alceste, 28-gun frigate Mercury, Captain James Alexander Gordon, and 18-gun brig-sloop Grasshopper (16 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long sixes), under Captain Thomas Searle

Attack
38-gun frigate Alceste Captain Murray Maxwell, 28-gun frigate Mercury, Captain James Alexander Gordon, and 18-gun brig-sloop Grasshopper (16 carronades, 32-pounders, and two long sixes), Captain Thomas Searle, lay at anchor about three miles to the north-west of the lighthouse of San-Sebastian, near Cadiz, a large convoy, under the protection of about 20 gun-boats and a numerous train of flying' artillery on the beach, was observed coming down close along-shore from the northward. At 3 p.m., the Spanish convoy being then abreast of the town of Rota, the Alceste and squadron weighed, with the wind at west-south-west, and stood in for the body of the Spanish vessels.

At 4 p.m. the shot and shells from the Spanish gun-boats and batteries passing over them, the British ships opened their fire. The Alceste and Mercury devoted their principal attention to the gun boats; while the Grasshopper, drawing much less water, stationed herself upon the shoal to the southward of the town and so close to the batteries that by the grape from her carronade drove the Spaniards from their guns, and at the same time kept in check a division of gunboats which had come out from Cadiz to assist those engaged by the two frigates. The situation of the Alceste and Mercury was also rather critical, they having in the state of the wind to tack every fifteen minutes close to the end of the shoal.

The first lieutenant of the Alceste, Lieutenant Stewart, intended to board the convoy with boats. Accordingly, the boats of the Alceste with marines set off and the boats of the Mercury quickly followed. As they came across the convoy, the two divisions of boats, led by Lieutenant Stewart, soon boarded and brought out seven merchants, from under the muzzles of the Spanish guns and from under the protection of the barges and pinnaces of the Franco-Spanish squadron of seven sail of the line; which barges and pinnaces had also by that time effected their junction with the gun-boats. By early evening the action had ended and the three frigates set off with the captured prizes.

Aftermath
Exclusive of the seven merchants captured, two of the gunboats were destroyed and another seven had run on shore by the fire from the two British frigates and brig. The merchants contained ship timber, gunpowder and weapons. The cost to the British was one dead and two slightly wounded on board the Grasshopper. The damage to the latter, however, were extremely severe, as well in hull, masts, rigging and sails. With the exception of an anchor shot away from the Mercury, the damage to the two frigates was confined to their sails and rigging.



HMS Mercury was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.


HMS Mercury cutting out a French gunboat from Rovigno, 1 April 1809


HMS Alceste was built at Rochefort in 1804 for the French Navy as Minerve, an Armide-class frigate. In the spring of 1806, prior to her capture, she engaged HMS Pallas, then under Lord Cochrane. During the duel she ran aground but Cochrane had to abort his attack when French reinforcements appeared.


An Armide-class frigate similar to Alceste, illustrated by François-Geoffroi Roux

The British seized her in an action on 25 September 1806, and the Royal Navy took Minerve into service as Alceste in March 1807; Alceste then continued to serve throughout the Napoleonic Wars. On 29 November 1811, Alceste led a British squadron that captured a French military convoy carrying more than 200 cannon to Trieste in the Balkans. After this loss, Napoleonchanged the direction of his planned eastward expansion in 1812 from the Balkans to Russia. The British historian James Henderson has suggested that the two events were linked, and may have changed the course of the war.

In 1814, Alceste was converted to a troopship and used to transport British soldiers to North America during the War of 1812. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1815, Alceste carried Lord Amherst on his 1816 diplomatic mission to China. On the return journey, she struck a reef in the Java Sea; her wreck was subsequently plundered and burned by Malayan pirates.


HMS Grasshopper was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806, captured several vessels, and took part in two notable actions before the Dutch captured her in 1811. She then served The Netherlands navy until she was broken up in 1822.

Action of 4 April 1808 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mercury_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Alceste_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Grasshopper_(1806)