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

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September HMS Coronation (1685 - 90) and HMS Harwich (1674 - 70) sank in a storm whilst attempting to get into Plymouth Sound, appr. 1.000 of their crews drowned


Summer 1691. England was at war with her old enemy France, and the fleet were busy trying to lure the French and Dutch Navies out of the relative safety of the Channel Ports. The French however, knew when they were on to a good thing, and lay snug in their harbours whilst the English Fleet was battered by some of the worst summer storms anybody could remember. In late August, during a particularly bad gale, much of the Fleet retired to shelter in Torbay, and amongst those ships was the 90 gun second rate man of war, Coronation.


Unknown maker, model of the "Coronation," 1677, boxwood, gold leaf, japanning, mica, brass, and varnish, The Kriegstein Collection



Launched in 1685 the Coronation was 140 feet long and weighed some 1366 tons. Commanded by Captain Charles Skelton, the Coronation should have had a ships complement of 660 officers and men, but due to manpower shortages it was unlikely that she was up to full strength and was probably managing with up to 100 men less than she needed. Whether this was to have some bearing on subsequent events I leave for the reader to decide.

After a couple of days the weather took a turn for the better and once more the Fleet, including the Coronation, sailed forth to blockade the French ports. Unfortunately on the first of September, when the Fleet was off Ushant, the weather turned extremely nasty and once more the ships had to turn tail, this time making for the safety of Plymouth Sound. The French must have laughed fit to burst, for the storms were accomplishing more than their own Navy had dreamed possible. Worse was to follow.

Most people know that Plymouth Sound provides one of the best natural harbours in England, well protected from southwesterly gales by a very effective breakwater. However in 1691 the breakwater had not even been thought of, and when the southwesterly gales blew, the safe haven of Plymouth Sound often turned into a raging deathtrap. Imagine that night of September 3 1691. Southwest winds of hurricane force blowing right across the Sound. The Fleet lashed by torrential rain and forced to take in all canvas. Communications with the flagship impossible. What to do? off Penlee or Rame Head and risk dragging onto a lee shore, or take a calculated risk and press on into the Sound. If you could miss Drakes Island and avoid being smashed onto the Hamoaze, you would be home and dry. If not disaster and a ruined career.


Van de Velde painting of the Harwich (NMM)

In the end some of the Fleet elected to anchor off Rame Head, and some like the HMS Harwich, took the gamble and plunged into the maelstrom. She did not get far; in fact she didn’t even make the Sound but ripped onto the rocks near Maker Point. There was no hope for her, and she quickly smashed to pieces drowning 450 of her crew. Other ships followed the Harwich, some were successful, others foundered in the Hamoaze, ran aground at the Cattewater, or simply ran into each other. The carnage was fearful.

But what of the Coronation? Well she was still somewhere between Rame Head and Penlee Point, and what happened next is largely a matter for conjecture. All we do know for certain is that she was anchored somewhere between Rame and Penlee, apparently completely dismasted with only an ensign flying from her stern. A rainsquall obliterated her, and when visibility returned the Coronation had sunk killing Captain Skelton and all but twenty of his crew. We can only imagine that Skelton had decided to have a go at sailing into the Sound when he became dismasted. Perhaps he didn’t get his sails reefed in time. Whatever the cause he would have lost control of the vessel and found himself heading for the rocky shore at an alarming rate. In a vain effort to regain control he must have slipped his anchors, but the strain of bringing the Coronation up short in those murderous seas must have been her downfall. Maybe she took on too much water and foundered, or maybe she just started to break up. In any event, whatever the cause, down she went with well over 500 officers and men. That one night shocked the Nation. Over a thousand men were killed, and the damage done to the Navy was worse than a dozen sorties against the French. But the pressures on a country during a long war are many, and soon the shock of that terrible night receded, and by the turn of the century nine years later, I doubt anybody really remembered it.

The Ships:
HMS Coronation was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard as part of the '30 great ships programme' of 1677, and launched in 1685. She was lost in a storm off Rame Head, Cornwall on 29 October 1690 and is designated as a protected wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. The area has been subjected to a geophysical survey and it is possible to acquire a licence and dive on the site

Service
Coronation was commissioned on 14 February 1690 under Captain John Munden, as the flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Ralph Delavall, under whom she took part in the Battle of Beachy Head, against the French, on 30 June 1690. The French won the battle and had temporary control of the English Channel. Captain Charles Skelton took command of the ship on 29 October 1690.
Loss
On 3 September 1691 Coronation was patrolling the channel with the English Fleet and made for Plymouth. The exact circumstances are unclear but it is thought she dragged her anchors while trying to sit out a south-east gale in the lee of Rame Head and was driven aground in Lady Cove to the west of Penlee Point; approximately 600 men drowned, including Skelton. Only circa twenty survived.
Diver trail
Part of the wreck was discovered, close to the shore in 1967 and a second offshore site was found in 1977. The area is subject to strong tidal flows, especially during spring tides. The main wreck site extends in a south-west direction, over 1300m, from the southern side of Penlee Point and artefacts are spread over a large area. The site is a protected wreck, but divers can visit it under licence. Many cannon are visible.

HMS Harwich was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy, built by Sir Anthony Deane at Harwich and launched in 1674. By 1685 she was carrying only 64 guns.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Coronation_(1685)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Harwich_(1674)
Text taken partly from
http://www.submerged.co.uk/coronationandpenleecannons.php
Photos partly from the very interesting page of my austrian modeling friends
http://www.schifferlbauer.com/index.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1777 - Launch of HMS Lion, a 64 gun Worcester-class Ship of the Line


HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard.



American Revolutionary War
She fought at the Battle of Grenada under Captain William Cornwallis on 6 July 1779, where she was badly damaged and forced to run downwind to Jamaica. She remained on the Jamaica station for the next year.

In March 1780, Lion fought an action in company with two other ships against a larger French force off Monte Christi on San Domingo. A second action took place in June 1780 near Bermuda when Cornwallis in Lion, with three other ships of the line and a fifty-gun ship, met a larger French squadron carrying the troops of Rochambeau to North America. The French were too strong for Cornwallis's squadron, but were content to continue with their mission instead of attacking the smaller British force. Lion then returned to England, carrying with her Horatio Nelson, who was ill with malaria.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Worcester' (1769), 'Stirling Castle' (1775), and 'Lion' (1777), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81192.html#Bictor7vDtFd8MyT.99


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard outline and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Lyon (1777), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Portsmouth Dockyard. Having been launched on 3 September she was completed in early September 1778. Reverse: Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the quarterdeck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck (gun deck), and orlop deck with fore & aft platforms for Lyon (1777), as built.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81262.html#YdSBV8z1USytXD9y.99

French Revolutionary Wars
In late July 1793, under the command of Captain Sir Erasmus Gower, Lion escorted the East Indiaman Hindostan, which carried the British ambassador Lord Macartney on his way to visit the Qianlong Emperor of China (the Macartney embassy).


HMS Lion under sail, 1794

On their way they stopped at New Amsterdam Island or Île Amsterdam. There they found a gang of seal fur hunters under the command of Pierre François Péron. Later, Lioncaptured the French ship Emélie, the vessel that had landed the sealers. Deprived of the ship that had landed them, Péron and his men spent some 40 months marooned on the island until Captain Thomas Hadley, in Ceres, rescued them in late 1795 and took them to Port Jackson.

The Embassy proceeded to the Bohai Gulf, off the Hai River. The ambassador and his party were conveyed up river by light craft to Tianjin before proceeding by land to Beijing On reaching Tianjin, Macartney sent orders to Lion to proceed to Japan, but because of sickness among the crew she was unable to do so. The embassy rejoined Lionat Canton in December 1793. The ship's journal from this voyage is in the library of Cornell University.


Capture of the Dorothea, 15 July 1798 (HMS Lionis at centre right), Thomas Whitcombe, 1816

In 1796, she visited Cape Town; in 1797, her crew were among those who joined the Mutiny at the Nore. In 1798, now under the command of Sir Manley Dixon, Lion fought a squadron of Spanish frigates at the Action of 15 July 1798 and captured the Santa Dorotea.

She then took part in the siege of Malta, and with HMS Penelope and HMS Foudroyant captured the French 80-gun ship Guillaume Tell as she tried to escape from the blockade (Guillaume Tell was subsequently bought into the Royal Navy as HMS Malta).


A painting detailing the capture of the ‘Guillaume Tell’. She is shown on the left of the painting, with her last mast, the mizzen, falling forward over the starboard side, her ensign from the peak trailing in the water. This differs from the written accounts which describe the main and mizzen going first at 6.30 a.m. and the foremast was the last to go. Masking the ‘Guillaume Tell’s’ bow with her stern and gunsmoke is the ‘Foudroyant’. She has also lost her mizzen mast and there are shot holes in her sails. On the left and slightly further off is the ‘Penelope’ facing into the stern of the ‘Guillaume Tell’ while on the right of the picture is the Lion with her mizzen topmast gone and some of her guns not run out as they had been dismounted. The sea is choppy. Following the defeat of the French fleet in Aboukir Bay in August 1798 the French garrison at Malta came under siege. An attempt in February by the French to run a small convoy into Valetta was thwarted by the British. One of the three French ships that had escaped from Aboukir Bay was the ‘Guillaume Tell’ which was by now lying in Valetta Harbour. In late March she attempted to run the gauntlet of the British blockade to try to reach Marseilles to alert the French to their plight. As soon as she headed for open water she was spotted by the frigate ‘Penelope’ who gave chase. She soon caught up with her and for over five hours harried the ‘Guillaume Tell’ and eventually brought down her main and mizzen topmasts and main yard. The British ship ‘Lion’ also joined in and further disabled the ‘Guillaume Tell’. The ‘Foudroyant’ also arrived and by day light the ‘Guillaume Tell’ had lost all her masts. She surrendered soon afterwards following a most gallant defence and was captured. The ‘Penelope’ which had engaged the ‘Guillaume Tell’ throughout the eight hour action had only one sailor killed and three wounded. This is a very late work by Luny painted in the last year he was working by which time he was severely incapacitated by arthritis, so that the brushwork is a little shaky in places, though still very vigorous and of good quality. It is signed and dated ‘T. Luny 1835’.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/15573.html#xivogp6dzOUUDOOL.99

In July 1807 in the Malacca Strait she successfully protected from the French frigate Semillante, without an engagement, a convoy homeward bound from China.

On 27 December 1807 Lion captured the French privateer lugger Reciprocité off Beachy Head. She was from Dieppe, had a crew of 45 men, and was armed with 14 guns. Lion sent her into the Downs.

In 1811, under the command of Captain Henry Heathcote, Lion was one of a large fleet of ships involved in the capture of Java from Dutch forces.

On 26 January 1812 Commander Henderson Bain of Harpy became acting captain of Lion. Bain returned to command of Harpy a few weeks before he received promotion to post captain 6 April 1813.

Lion was converted to a sheer hulk in September 1816, following the end of the Napoleonic wars.


The Worcester-class ships of the line were a class of three 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

• HMS Worcester

Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Ordered: 16 November 1765
Launched: 17 October 1769
Fate: Broken up, 1816

• HMS Stirling Castle

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 12 October 1768
Launched: 28 June 1775
Fate: Wrecked, 1780

• HMS Lion

Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Ordered: 12 October 1768
Launched: 3 September 1777
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1837


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lion_(1777)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcester-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-326273;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1777 – Launch of French Le Concorde, a 32 gun Concorde-class frigate, later HMS Concorde


Concorde (originally Le Concorde) was a 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class. Built in Rochefort in 1777, she entered service with the French early in the American War of Independence, and was soon in action, capturing HMS Minerva in the West Indies. She survived almost until the end of the war, but was captured by HMS Magnificent in 1783. Not immediately brought into service due to the draw-down in the navy after the end of the war, she underwent repairs and returned to active service under the White Ensign with the outbreak of war with France in 1793 as the fifth-rate HMS Concorde.


Hand-coloured.; Technique includes pen and ink style lithograph. The identity of the vessel on the extreme left of the image is unknown. The other vessels depicted are, from left to right, the Engageante (French), the Concorde (British) and the Resolve (French).
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/128812.html#EQY5aVhS4dBlGRhM.99

Initially part of squadrons cruising off the French coast, she played an important part in the Action of 23 April 1794, capturing the French frigate Engageante, and at a later engagement, where she helped to capture the French frigate Virginie. From 1797 until the early 19th century she had especial success against privateers, capturing a large number in the West Indies and in the Atlantic. She had a narrow escape from a superior French force in 1801, but was able to batter her pursuer, the 40-gun Bravoure into submission. She was prevented from capturing her by the arrival of French reinforcements. Her last years were spent on a variety of stations, including at the Cape of Good Hope and the East Indies. Laid up in 1807, she was sold for breaking up in 1811.

Construction and French career
Concorde was one of a three-ship class of Concorde-class frigates built for the French Navy to a design by Henri Chevillard. She was built at Rochefort between April 1777 and January 1778, being launched on 3 September 1777. She went out to the West Indies after the French entry to the American War of Independence, and reached Martinique on 17 August 1778. On 28 August 1778 she came up on the 32-gun HMS Minerva, under Captain John Stott, and after two and a half hours of fighting, captured her. Minerva was towed to Cap Français on Saint-Domingue, where she was joined shortly afterwards by the captured HMS Active, which a hurricane had dismasted in late August and which the French frigates Charmante and Dédaigneuse had captured on 1 September.

In 1781 Concorde was responsible for vital transfers of personnel, funds, and communications that contributed to the allied success at Yorktown. In March 1781 she carried despatches to George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau from France. These despatches included a request from the comte de Grasse, commander of the West Indies fleet, for information on planned allied operations and the delivery of pilots familiar with the American coast. She also carried 6 million livres to support the war effort, and the new commander of the French naval squadron at Newport, Rhode Island, the comte de Barras. Following a conference of allied leaders in May, Concorde was sent to Cap-Français with despatches for de Grasse and the requested pilots. When de Grasse received these despatches, he made the critical decision to sail his fleet to the Chesapeake Bay to assist in land operations against British forces operating under the command of Charles Cornwallis in Virginia. Concorde carried de Grasse's letters for Washington, Rochambeau, and de Barras back to Newport; arrival of this news set in motion Washington's march to Virginia and the eventual entrapment of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

On 7 January 1783, Concorde was in company with Nymphe. They sighted HMS Raven, which initially sailed towards them until she realized that they were not British frigates. An all-day chase ensued until about 9p.m. when one of the frigates got within pistol-shot and fired a broadside that took away Raven's main topgallant-mast. The chase continued until about 10:30 p.m. when one of the frigates was again in range, with the other coming up rapidly. At this point, Raven, which was under the command of Commander John Wells, struck. The French Navy took Raven into service under the name Cérès, which she had born when under French colours between 1778 and 1782.

Capture

The battle between Concorde and HMS Minerva

On 15 February the 74-gun HMS Magnificent, under Captain Robert Linzee, sighted Concorde. Magnificent had sailed from Gros Islet Bay on 12 February on a cruise in company with the 64-gun ships HMS Prudentand HMS St Albans, and on sighting the strange sail, Magnificent gave chase. She was close enough to identify the mysterious ship as a frigate by 18:00, and by 20:00 as darkness fell Concorde opened fire on her pursuer with her stern guns. Magnificent overhauled the French ship by 21:15, and after fifteen minutes forced her to strike her colours. Magnificent took possession of Concorde, the latter being described as carrying 36 guns and 300 men, and being under the command of M. le Chevalier du Clesmaur. Shortly after surrendering the Concorde's maintopsail caught fire, forcing the crew to cut away the mainmast to extinguish it. Prudent and St Albans came up two hours later and Magnificent towed Concorde to St. John's, Antigua.

Read much more about her career in wikipedia .......



The Concorde class was a type of 32-gun frigate of the French Navy, designed by Henri Chevillard, carrying 12-pounder long guns as their main armament. Three ships of this type were built between 1778 and 1779, and served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.

The class is noteworthy for comprising a fourth unit, Hermione (2014), laid down in 1997 and launched in 2014; she is a replica ship of Hermione (1779), famous for ferrying General Lafayette and for her role in the Naval battle of Louisbourg under the command of Lieutenant de Latouche, who would rise to become Vice-admiral Latouche-Tréville.

Ships

• Concorde

Builder: Rochefort
Begun: April 1777
Launched: 3 September 1777
Completed: January 1778
Fate: Captured by the Royal Navy on 15 February 1783. Sold on 21 February 1811.

• Courageuse

Builder: Rochefort
Begun: September 1777
Launched: 28 February 1778
Completed: April 1778
Fate: Captured by HMS Centaur in the Action of 18 June 1799

• Hermione

An image of the French frigate Hermione in combat by Auguste Louis de Rossel de Cercy.

Builder: Rochefort
Begun: March 1778
Launched: 28 April 1779
Completed: June 1779
Fate: Ran aground and wrecked due to a navigation error of her pilot at Croisic on 20 September 1793[4]

• Replica "Hermione"

2014 September 17th, Hermione replica, built in Rochefort, comes off the Charente river, and reach open sea for the first time. Thousands of spectators attend this first departure.

Builder: Rochefort
Begun: 1997
Launched: 2012



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Concorde_(1783)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde-class_frigate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Hermione_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Hermione_(2014)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1782 - The Ship of the Line USS America is given to France to replace the French ship, Magnifique, which ran aground and was destroyed Aug. 11 while attempting to enter Boston harbor. The ship symbolizes the appreciation for France's service to America and her sacrifices during the American Revolution.


USS America was the first ship of the line built for the Continental Navy, but she never saw service there, being given to France after launching.


Launching Day, USS America - (Geoff Hunt)

On 20 November 1776, the Continental Congress authorized the construction of three 74-gun ships of the line. One of these was America, laid down in May 1777 in the shipyard of John Langdon on Rising Castle Island (now Badger's Island) in Kittery, Maine, across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

However, progress on her construction was delayed by a chronic scarcity of funds and a consequent shortage of skilled craftsmen and well seasoned timber. The project dragged on for over two years under the immediate supervision of Col. James Hackett as master shipbuilder and the overall direction of John Langdon. Then, on 6 November 1779, the Marine Committee named Captain John Barry as her prospective commanding officer and ordered him to "...hasten, as much as will be in your power, the completing of that ship...."

Nevertheless, the difficulties which previously had slowed the building of the warship continued to prevail during the ensuing months, and little had been accomplished by mid-March 1780 when Barry applied for a leave of absence to begin on the 23rd. However he did perform one notable service for the ship. In November 1777, after inspecting the unfinished vessel which was slated to become his new command, he strongly recommended against a proposal, then under consideration, to reduce her to a 54-gun frigate. His arguments carried the day, and the Marine Committee decided to continue the work of construction according to the ship's original plans.



All possibility of Barry's commanding America ended on 5 September 1780 when he was ordered to Boston to take command of the 36-gun frigate Alliance which had recently arrived from Europe. Over nine months later, on 23 June 1781, Congress ordered the Continental Agent of Marine, Robert Morris, to get America ready for sea and, on the 26th, picked Captain John Paul Jones as her commanding officer. Jones reached Portsmouth on 31 August and threw himself into the task of completing the man-of-war. However, before the work was finished, Congress decided on 3 September 1782 to present the ship to King Louis XVI of Franceto replace the ship of the line Magnifique, which had run aground and been destroyed on 11 August 1782 while attempting to enter Boston Harbor. The ship was also to symbolize the new nation's appreciation for France's service to and sacrifices in behalf of the cause of the American patriots.

Despite his disappointment over losing his chance to command the largest warship yet built in America, Jones remained in Portsmouth striving to finish the new ship. The home in which he boarded is now known as the John Paul Jones House and is a National Historic Landmark. His labors bore fruit on 5 November 1782 when America – held partially back by a series of ropes calculated to break in sequence to check the vessel's acceleration, lest she come to grief on the opposite bank of the river – slipped gracefully into the waters of the Piscataqua. After she had been rigged and fitted out, the ship – commanded by M. le Chevalier de Macarty Martinge (who had commanded Magnifique when she was wrecked) departed Portsmouth on 24 June 1783 and reached Brest, France, on 16 July. Armed with a main battery of 18 pounder at a time when French 74's carried 24-pdr and 36-pdr guns, America would have a relatively weak broadside compared to other French ships-of-the-line.

Little is known of her subsequent service under the French flag other than the fact it was brief. A bit over three years later, she was carefully examined by a survey committee which found her damaged by dry rot beyond economical repair, probably caused by her wartime construction from green timber. She was accordingly scrapped and a much larger America with nearly twice her weight of shot was built to take her place.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_America_(1782)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Magnifique_(1750)
https://www.scrimshawgallery.com/product/launching-day-uss-america-standard-canvas-giclee/
https://museumoftheuniversityofstan...ons-centre-object-of-the-month-2-august-2011/

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1782 - Battle of Trincomalee, the fourth action between Hughes and Suffren,

was fought between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes and a French fleet under the Bailli de Suffren off the coast of Trincomalee, then Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), on 3 September 1782. It was the fourth in a series of battles fought between the two fleets off the coast of the Indian subcontinent during the Anglo-French War.


1782 Battle of Trincomalee in the American Revolutionary War, painted for the British admiral Sir Edward Hughes, the leader of the British forces in the battle

Background
France had entered the American Revolutionary War in 1778, and Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in late 1770 after the Dutch refused to stop trading in military supplies with the French and the Americans. The British had rapidly gained control over most French and Dutch outposts in India when news of these events reached India, spawning the Second Anglo-Mysore War in the process.

The French admiral the Bailli de Suffren was dispatched on a mission to provide military assistance to French colonies in India. He arrived in February 1782, and immediately engaged the British fleet of Vice-Admiral Hughes in the inconclusive Battle of Sadras. After both fleets spent time in port repairing, refitting, and revictualing, they met again in the April Battle of Providien, south of the Ceylonese port of Trincomalee, which was ended by a storm and then nightfall. Hughes put into Trincomalee, a formerly Dutch port the British had captured in January, for repairs, while Suffren went to the Dutch-controlled port of Batticaloa. Suffren and Hughes then met a third time off Negapatam, again with inconclusive results, after which Suffren anchored off Cuddalore to make repairs.

Due to the exposed nature of the anchorage at Cuddalore, and the impending arrival of additional British fleets, Suffren decided to attempt the capture of Trincomalee to gain a safe harbour for his fleet where he might effect more substantial repairs to his fleet. (He had already cannibalized prize ships and transports, as well as housing in Cuddalore, to make repairs.) Suffren was meeting with Hyder Ali near Cuddalore on 28 July when he learned of the arrival of a French fleet near the southern end of Ceylon. This fleet included two ships of the line, a frigate, and transports carrying 800 troops and their supplies. He immediately sailed for Batticaloa, where the two fleets joined forces on 21 August. The next day, after ammunition and supplies were distributed among Suffren's ships, they sailed for Trincomalee, where they anchored the same evening.

Trincomalee captured
On 25 August, after studying the defenses, Suffren landed 2400 men east of the main fortifications. Gun batteries were set up the next day, which then bombarded the fort for three days, until the wall was breached. Captain MacDowel, the British commander, was summoned to surrender on 30 August. After negotiations, the fort's garrison surrendered on condition that the French transport it to Madras and allow it to continue service in the war.

French troops entered Trincomalee on 1 September. The next day, Hughes' fleet was spotted approaching the port.

Naval battle
Following the battle off Negapatam, Hughes had spent two weeks at sea before putting into Madras for repairs. There he was joined by Sceptre and San Carlos. Notified by one of his scouts that the French were anchored outside Trincomalee, Hughes lifted anchor and made haste to come to the garrison's aid, but arrived one day too late.


Plan of the battle (British units - black, French - white)

Suffren, now safe within the harbour, held council with his captains. Some of them, led by his second-in-command, had persistently opposed offensive actions against the British, and vigorously renewed their objections to the need for combat. Suffren, after confirming that his fleet outnumbered that of Hughes, argued in favor of action, as the destruction of the British fleet would greatly simplify land operations in pursuit of objectives of the French and their Mysorean allies. He accordingly gave orders to sail out and meet the British fleet.

When they exited the harbour, Suffren gave the signal to form the battle line. This command, even after being repeated several times, was poorly executed by his recalcitrant subordinates, and only a ragged line was arranged. Frustrated by this insubordination, Suffren then gave orders to hold fire until close quarters, and tried to communicate this by firing a gun from his flagship, Héros. This shot was misinterpreted by his captains as an order to open fire, and the whole line opened fire on the British fleet, beginning the action.

HMS Hero, launched in 1759, flagship of Hughes

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline with some decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and quarter gallery decorations, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Hero' (1759), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker, possibly as built and launched at Plymouth Dockyard.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80660.html#0MIKw02EyGQC4tdH.99

The french Heros

The stern of Heros, the flagship of Suffren

The heaviest action was at the center of the lines, where Suffren and Hughes again faced off against each other. Héros was assisted by Illustre and Ajax, while Hughes, leading from Superb, was assisted by Burford, Sultan, Eagle, Hero, and Monarca. This lopsided conflict went on for about one hour before Suffren signalled for assistance. St. Michel and Annibal, commanded by insubordinate captains, stayed away, while Brillanteventually neared the action and gave some assistance. Thirty minutes later, Ajax was forced to withdraw with heavy damage, and was replaced by Artésien. An hour later, the situation became critical when Héros'mainmast came crashing down, and Suffren was forced to scramble to make sure the British did not think that he had struck his colours. He had also run out of ammunition, having fired 1,800 rounds at the British ships, and continued to fire powder alone in an attempt to fool the enemy.

Battle on the ends of the line went more in favor of the French. Isis, Worcester, and Monmouth were badly damaged, and Exeter, whose captain was killed in the action, was disabled.

At 5:30 pm, after about three hours of battle, the winds suddenly shifted to the advantage of the French fleet. The ships on the outer ends of their line, which had seen relatively light action, were able to bear on the battle at the center, bringing a new intensity to the battle. Hero lost her mainmast and mizzenmast, and Worcester lost her maintopmast. A number of British ships were disabled before night fell and darkness ended the battle.

Aftermath
While accounts differ, it appears likely that Suffren may have attempted to give chase when Hughes drew his fleet off and made for Madras. The French fleet entered Trincomalee harbour and began working to repair the extensive damage to the fleet. The damage to the British fleet was so severe that land commanders at Madras recalled troops from the field in case the French attempted an attack there.

As he had following the battle of Negapatam, Suffren arrested three of his captains and sent them to Île de France for punishment for their performance in the battle. This performance was so noteworthy that even the British commented on it; the Calcutta Gazette reported that Suffren was very poorly supported by his subordinates, and one commentator wrote that they were "unworthy to serve so great a man".

Suffren sailed from Trincomalee on 30 September, arriving at Cuddalore on 4 October. Eleven days later, he sailed for winter quarters in Achin, where he arrived on 7 November.

Hughes, who did not want to remain in the exposed anchorage of Madras during the monsoon season, sailed for Bombay. His whole fleet suffered through the early days of the monsoon, and some ships took two months to arrive there.

The rival fleets
Britain

• Superb, 74
• Hero, 74
• Sultan, 74
• Burford, 70
• Monarca, 70
• Eagle, 64
• Exeter, 64
• Magnanime 64
• Monmouth, 64
• Sceptre, 64
• Worcester, 64
• Isis, 50

France

• Héros, 74
• Annibal, 74
• Illustre, 74
• Orient, 74
• Ajax, 64
• Artésien, 64
• Brillant, 64
• Bizarre, 64
• Sévère, 64
• Sphinx, 64
• Vengeur, 64
• Hardi, 64
• Saint Michel, 60
• Flamand, 50
• Hannibal, 50
• Consolante, 36

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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1783 - The Treaty of Paris was signed, ending the American Revolution and the War of Independance.
The United States is acknowledged as a sovereign and independent nation.


The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. The treaty set the boundaries between the British Empire in North America and the United States, on lines "exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details included fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war.

This treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause — France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic — are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free, sovereign, and independent states, remains in force.

Agreement
Peace negotiations began in April 1782, and continued through the summer. Representing the United States were Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and John Adams. David Hartley and Richard Oswaldrepresented Great Britain. The treaty was signed at the Hotel d'York (presently 56 Rue Jacob) in Paris on September 3, 1783, by Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Hartley.

Regarding the American Treaty, the key episodes came in September 1782, when French Foreign Minister Vergennes proposed a solution that was strongly opposed by his ally, the United States. France was exhausted by the war, and everyone wanted peace except for Spain, which insisted on continuing the war until it could capture Gibraltar from the British. Vergennes came up with the deal that Spain would accept instead of Gibraltar. The United States would gain its independence but be confined to the area east of the Appalachian Mountains. Britain would take the area north of the Ohio River. In the area south of that would be set up an independent Indian state under Spanish control. It would be an Indian barrier state.


The United States delegation at the Treaty of Paris included John Jay, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens, and William Temple Franklin. Here they are depicted by Benjamin West in his American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Agreement with Great Britain. The British delegation refused to pose, and the painting was never completed.


If the painting would have been completed, it could look like this one

However, the Americans realized that they could get a better deal directly from London. John Jay promptly told the British that he was willing to negotiate directly with them, cutting off France and Spain. The British Prime Minister Lord Shelburne agreed. He was in charge of the British negotiations (some of which took place in his study at Lansdowne House, now a bar in the Lansdowne Club) and he now saw a chance to split the United States away from France and make the new country a valuable economic partner. The western terms were that the United States would gain all of the area east of the Mississippi River, north of Florida, and south of Canada. The northern boundary would be almost the same as today. The United States would gain fishing rights off Canadian coasts, and agreed to allow British merchants and Loyalists to try to recover their property. It was a highly favorable treaty for the United States, and deliberately so from the British point of view. Prime Minister Shelburne foresaw highly profitable two-way trade between Britain and the rapidly growing United States, as indeed came to pass.


Commemorative plaque of the place where the Treaty was signed, 56 rue Jacob, Paris 6

Great Britain also signed separate agreements with France and Spain, and (provisionally) with the Netherlands. In the treaty with Spain, the territories of East and West Florida were ceded to Spain (without a clear northern boundary, resulting in a territorial dispute resolved by the Treaty of Madrid in 1795). Spain also received the island of Menorca; the Bahama Islands, Grenada, and Montserrat, captured by the French and Spanish, were returned to Britain. The treaty with France was mostly about exchanges of captured territory (France's only net gains were the island of Tobago, and Senegal in Africa), but also reinforced earlier treaties, guaranteeing fishing rights off Newfoundland. Dutch possessions in the East Indies, captured in 1781, were returned by Britain to the Netherlands in exchange for trading privileges in the Dutch East Indies, by a treaty which was not finalized until 1784.



The United States Congress of the Confederation ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784. Copies were sent back to Europe for ratification by the other parties involved, the first reaching France in March 1784. British ratification occurred on April 9, 1784, and the ratified versions were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.

Treaty key points

Map of the United States and territories after the Treaty of Paris

This treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause — France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic — are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free sovereign and independent states, remains in force. The borders of the USA changed in later years, which is a major reason for specific articles of the treaty to be superseded.

Preamble. Declares the treaty to be "in the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity" (followed by a reference to the Divine Providence) states the bona fides of the signatories, and declares the intention of both parties to "forget all past misunderstandings and differences" and "secure to both perpetual peace and harmony".

1. Britain acknowledges the United States (New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) to be free, sovereign, and independent states, and that the British Crown and all heirs and successors relinquish claims to the Government, property, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof;
2. Establishing the boundaries of the United States, including but not limited to those between the United States and British North America;
3. Granting fishing rights to United States fishermen in the Grand Banks, off the coast of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence;
4. Recognizing the lawful contracted debts to be paid to creditors on either side;
5. The Congress of the Confederation will "earnestly recommend" to state legislatures to recognize the rightful owners of all confiscated lands and "provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging to real British subjects" (Loyalists);
6. United States will prevent future confiscations of the property of Loyalists;
7. Prisoners of war on both sides are to be released; all property of the British army (including slaves) now in the United States is to remain and be forfeited;
8. Great Britain and the United States are each to be given perpetual access to the Mississippi River;
9. Territories captured by Americans subsequent to the treaty will be returned without compensation;
10. Ratification of the treaty is to occur within six months from its signing.

Eschatocol. "Done at Paris, this third day of September in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three."



Consequences
Historians have often commented that the treaty was very generous to the United States in terms of greatly enlarged boundaries. Historians such as Alvord, Harlow, and Ritcheson have emphasized that British generosity was based on a statesmanlike vision of close economic ties between Britain and the United States. The concession of the vast trans-Appalachian region was designed to facilitate the growth of the American population and create lucrative markets for British merchants, without any military or administrative costs to Britain. The point was the United States would become a major trading partner. As the French foreign minister Vergennes later put it, "The English buy peace rather than make it". Vermont was included within the boundaries because the state of New York insisted that Vermont was a part of New York, although Vermont was then under a government that considered Vermont not to be a part of the United States.

Privileges that the Americans had received from Britain automatically when they had colonial status (including protection from pirates in the Mediterranean Sea; see: the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War) were withdrawn. Individual states ignored federal recommendations, under Article 5, to restore confiscated Loyalist property, and also ignored Article 6 (e.g., by confiscating Loyalist property for "unpaid debts"). Some, notably Virginia, also defied Article 4 and maintained laws against payment of debts to British creditors. The British often ignored the provision of Article 7 about removal of slaves.

The actual geography of North America turned out not to match the details used in the treaty. The Treaty specified a southern boundary for the United States, but the separate Anglo-Spanish agreement did not specify a northern boundary for Florida, and the Spanish government assumed that the boundary was the same as in the 1763 agreement by which they had first given their territory in Florida to Britain. While that West Florida Controversy continued, Spain used its new control of Florida to block American access to the Mississippi, in defiance of Article 8. The treaty stated that the boundary of the United States extended from the "most northwesternmost point" of the Lake of the Woods (now partly in Minnesota, partly in Manitoba, and partly in Ontario) directly westward until it reached the Mississippi River. But in fact the Mississippi does not extend that far northward; the line going west from the Lake of the Woods never intersects the river.

Great Britain violated the treaty stipulation that they should relinquish control of forts in United States territory "with all convenient speed." British troops remained stationed at six forts in the Great Lakes region, plus two at the north end of Lake Champlain. The British also built an additional fort in present-day Ohio in 1794, during the Northwest Indian War. They found justification for these actions in the unstable and extremely tense situation that existed in the area following the war, in the failure of the United States government to fulfill commitments made to compensate loyalists for their losses, and in the British need for time to liquidate various assets in the region. All posts were relinquished peacefully through diplomatic means as a result of the 1794 Jay Treaty.



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1803 – Launch of HMS Illustrious, a 74 gun Fame-class Ship of the Line


HMS Illustrious, a 74-gun third rate ship of the line and the second of that name, was built by Randall & Brent at Rotherhithe where her keel was laid in February 1801. Launched on 3 September 1803, she was completed at Woolwich.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with alterations to the gunport positions, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Illustrious' (1803), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker building at Rotherhithe by Messrs Randall & Brents. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80825.html#5XKM64DohbCKzEPK.99

She was first commissioned for the Channel Fleet under Captain Sir Charles Hamilton and was involved in the Battle of the Basque Roads in 1809, in which she won a battle honour, and in the expeditions against the docks at Antwerp and render the Schelde unnavigable to French ships. On 22 November 1810, Illustrious was amongst the fleet that captured Île de France on 3 December.


HMS Illustrious heading out of Table Bay (Thomas Whitcombe, cira 1811)

She then took part in the Invasion of Java (1811) in Indonesia. She was refitted at Portsmouth (1813–17) and then laid up in reserve until recommissioned in 1832. She was laid up again in 1845, and later used as a guard-ship, a hospital ship and, lastly, in 1854 she became a gunnery training ship and continued as one until she was broken up in 1868 in Portsmouth.


The Fame-class ships of the line were a class of four 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Henslow. After the name-ship of the class was ordered in October 1799, the design was slightly altered before the next three ships were ordered in February 1800. A second batch of five ships was ordered in 1805 to a slightly further modified version of the original draught.


HMS York shown in Prison-ship in Portsmouth Harbour with the convicts going on board. Plate from Shipping and Craft by E W Cooke, 1829

Ships
First batch

• HMS Fame

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 15 October 1799
Laid down: 22 January 1802
Launched: 8 October 1805
Fate: Broken up, 1817

• HMS Albion

Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laid down: June 1800
Launched: 17 June 1802
Fate: Broken up, 1836

• HMS Hero

Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laid down: August 1800
Launched: 18 August 1803
Fate: Wrecked, 1811

• HMS Illustrious

Builder: Randall & Brent, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 4 February 1800
Laiddown: February 1801
Launched: 3 September 1803
Fate: Broken up, 1868

Second batch

• HMS Marlborough

Builder: Mrs Barnard, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: August 1805
Launched: 22 June 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1835

• HMS York

Builder: Brent, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: August 1805
Launched: 7 July 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1854

• HMS Sultan

Builder: Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: December 1805
Launched: 19 September 1807
Fate: Broken up, 1864

• HMS Hannibal

Builder: Adams, Bucklers Hard
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: December 1805
Launched: May 1810
Fate: Broken up, 1833

• HMS Royal Oak

Builder: Dudman, Deptford Wharf
Ordered: 31 January 1805
Laid down: June 1806
Launched: 4 March 1809
Fate: Broken up, 1850



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Illustrious_(1803)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fame-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-320326;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1811 - A Court of Inquiry began to sit, to investigate the conduct of Commodore Rodgers, USS President (1800 - 44) respecting his affair with HMS Little Belt (1807 - 20), Arthur Batt Bingham


Background of the Little Belt Affair
The Little Belt affair occurred four years after the Chesapeake–Leopard affair of 1807, in which HMS Leopard had attacked USS Chesapeake, killing three, wounding eighteen, and putting four of her sailors on trial for desertion. It was fifteen days after an incident involving HMS Guerriere, a frigate. On 1 May Guerriere had stopped the brig USS Spitfire off Sandy Hook in New Jersey and had impressed Maine citizen John Diggio, the apprentice sailing master of Spitfire. Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton had ordered President, along with USS Argus, to patrol the coastal areas from the Carolinas to New York.


A painting of two sailing ships engaged in battle. The battle occurs in darkness. To the right of the frame a small ship is seen with many holes in its sails from cannon fire. To the left of the frame a much larger ship is firing toward the smaller ship.

Chase
Commodore John Rodgers, commanding the frigate President, had left Annapolis several days earlier and was aware of the Guerriere incident. He was off the Virginia Capes and sailing up the coast towards New York. Little Belt was sighted to the east at about noon on 16 May. Believing her to be Guerriere, Rodgers pursued. Little Belt's captain, Arthur Bingham, had spotted President one hour earlier. Bingham signaled President asking for identification but received none. However, he noticed a blue pennant showing the ship's nationality was American. Bingham continued south, but Rodgers continued his pursuit because he wanted to know the stranger's identity. By 15:30, President was close enough for Rodgers to make out part of the British ship's stern. However, the angle at which he saw her made her appear larger than she was. Little Beltwas much smaller than President, displacing only 460 tons in contrast to President's 1,576. The sloop mounted 20 guns, while President carried 56.


President and HMS Little Belt

Battle
The British and American accounts disagree on what followed. As President closed with Little Belt, Bingham thought the frigate was manuevering to rake his ship with gunfire. Bingham wore ship three times to avoid the threat. The ships were not within hailing range until long after sunset. At about 10:15, each captain demanded the other identify his ship. Each refused to answer before the other. Each captain later claimed he had been the first to ask. Shortly after this a shot was fired, but it is disputed who shot it. The ships were soon engaged in a battle which the sloop had no chance of winning. After fifteen minutes, most of Bingham's guns had been put out of action, and Rodgers ordered a cease fire. President returned and Rodgers asked Bingham if he had struck. Bingham replied he had not, and President withdrew.

Aftermath
Upon President's return to port, the U.S. Navy launched an investigation into the incident. Gathering testimony from President's officers and crewmen, they determined that Little Belt had fired the first shot in the encounter. In the Royal Navy investigation, Captain Bingham insisted that President had fired the first shot and continued firing for 45 minutes, rather than the five minutes Rodgers claimed. In all subsequent reports, both captains continually insisted that the other ship had fired the first shot. Reaching a stalemate, the American and British governments quietly dropped the matter.

President sailed on to New York City, and Little Belt went to the North America Station in Halifax, Nova Scotia, escorted by HMS Goree The British and American governments argued about the encounter for months. Rodgers insisted that he had mistaken the sloop for a frigate and was adamant that Bingham had fired first. The Admiralty expressed their confidence in Bingham and promoted him to post-captain on 7 February 1812.

On 19 August 1812, after war had finally broken out, HMS Guerriere sailed into her ill-fated action against USS Constitution. Painted across her foretopsail were the words "NOT THE LITTLE BELT".

The Little Belt Affair was one of many incidents and events that led to the War of 1812.


The Ships
Lillebælt was a Danish 22-gun warship launched in 1801. The Danes surrendered her to the Royal Navy in 1807 and she became the 20-gun post ship HMS Little Belt. In a single-ship action in 1811 while the United States of America was at peace with Great Britain, USS President fired on Little Belt, ostensibly believing her to be HMS Guerriere, which had recently abducted a sailor from USS Spitfire. Still to this day history is not sure who took the first shot, both sides convinced the other had fired initially. This action was the eponymous "Little Belt Affair". Her captain at the time, Arthur Batt Bingham, maintained that the Americans fired first and that although his vessel had suffered heavy casualties he had not at any time surrendered. She was broken up in 1811.

USS President was a wooden-hulled, three-masted heavy frigate of the United States Navy, nominally rated at 44 guns. George Washington named her to reflect a principle of the United States Constitution. She was launched in April 1800 from a shipyard in New York City. President was one of the original six frigates whose construction the Naval Act of 1794 had authorized, and she was the last to be completed. Joshua Humphreys designed these frigates to be the young Navy's capital ships, and so President and her sisters were larger and more heavily armed and built than standard frigates of the period. Forman Cheeseman, and later Christian Bergh were in charge of her construction. Her first duties with the newly formed United States Navy were to provide protection for American merchant shipping during the Quasi War with France and to engage in a punitive expedition against the Barbary pirates in the First Barbary War.



On 16 May 1811, President was at the center of the Little Belt Affair; her crew mistakenly identified HMS Little Belt as HMS Guerriere, which had impressed an American seaman. The ships exchanged cannon fire for several minutes. Subsequent U.S. and Royal Navy investigations placed responsibility for the attack on each other without a resolution. The incident contributed to tensions between the U.S. and Great Britain that led to the War of 1812.

During the war, President made several extended cruises, patrolling as far away as the English Channel and Norway; she captured the armed schooner HMS Highflyer and numerous merchant ships. In January 1815, after having been blockaded in New York for a year by the Royal Navy, President attempted to run the blockade, and was chased by a blockading squadron. During the chase, she was engaged and crippled by the frigate HMS Endymion off the coast of the city. The British squadron captured President soon after, and the Royal Navy took her into service as HMS President until she was broken up in 1818. President's design was copied and used to build the next HMS President in 1829.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_President_(1800)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Little_Belt_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Belt_affair

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1878 – Over 640 die when the crowded pleasure boat Princess Alice collides with the Bywell Castle in the River Thames.


SS Princess Alice , formerly PS Bute, was a passenger paddle steamer. She was sunk in 1878 in a collision off Tripcock Point on the River Thames with the collier Bywell Castle that resulted in the loss of over 650 lives, the greatest loss of life of any British inland waterway shipping disaster.

Early service
Caird & Company of Greenock launched Bute in 1865 for the Wemyss Bay Railway Company, for whom she plied between Wemyss Bay and Rothesay. She was sold in 1867 to the Waterman's Steam Packet Co. on the River Thames, who renamed her Princess Alice. She was sold again in 1870 to the Woolwich Steam Packet Co. and in 1875 to the London Steamboat Company, who operated her as an excursion steamer.


Drawing of a collision between the Princess Alice and Bywell Castle Caption reads "The great disaster on the Thames--Collision between the Princess Alice and the Bywell Castle, near Wollwich Published in Harper's Weekly October 12, 1878.

The disaster
On 3 September 1878, she was making what was billed as a "Moonlight Trip" to Gravesend and back. This was a routine trip from Swan Pier near London Bridge to Gravesend and Sheerness. Tickets were sold for two shillings. Hundreds of Londoners paid the fare; many were visiting Rosherville Gardens in Gravesend.

By 7:40 PM, the Princess Alice was on her return journey and within sight of the North Woolwich Pier—where many passengers were to disembark—when she sighted the Newcastle bound vessel SS Bywell Castle. Bywell Castle displaced 890 long tons (904 t), more than three times that of the Princess Alice. She usually carried coal to Africa: at the time, she had just been repainted at a dry dock and was on her way to pick up a load of coal. Her Master was Captain Harrison, who was accompanied by an experienced Thames river pilot. The collier was coming down the river with the tide at half speed.



Scale: Unknown. A scenic model of the depicting the aftermath of the collision on the River Thames, on the 3 September 1878, between the pleasure steamer Princess Alice (1875) and the cargo steamship Bywell Castle (1870). The Princess Alice is shown with its back broken and with both the bow and stern sections sinking. The model also depicts a number of small sailing vessels in attendance including a Thames sailing barge with its sails set. The vessels are set in a realistically painted and modelled plaster sea that also serves as the baseboard. There is also mounted on the scenic sea base a memoriam card and a small damaged and discoloured pocket watch. The ship models are made of wood with metal and organic material fittings and painted in realistic colours. The hulls of both principal vessels are painted brick red below the waterline, black above, with white detailing. The hull of the Thames barge is black overall. Princess Alice has two tall funnels, while Bywell Castle has a single funnel and three masts. On pocket watch ‘Relic from the Princess Alice disaster’. On memoriam card ‘In memory of nearly seven hundred passengers, who perished by the sinking of the saloon steamer, "Princess Alice", on the Thames, off Woolwich, September 3rd, 1878’.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/68132.html#ribLOsVgcWfmK7Vd.99

On the bridge of the Bywell Castle, Harrison observed the port light of the Princess Alice; he set a course to pass to starboard of her. However, the Master of Princess Alice, 47-year-old Captain William R.H. Grinsted, labouring up the river against the tide, followed the normal watermen's practice of seeking the slack water on the south side and altered Princess Alice's course to port, bringing her into the path of Bywell Castle.[4]Captain Harrison ordered the Bywell Castle's engines reversed, but it was too late; Princess Alice was struck on the starboard side; she split in two and sank within four minutes.



Part of Princess Alice beached after the disaster

Many passengers were trapped within the wreck and drowned: piles of bodies were found around the exits of the saloon when the wreck was raised. Additionally, the twice-daily release of 75 million imperial gallons (340,000 m3) of raw sewage from sewer outfalls at Barking and Crossness had occurred one hour before the collision; the heavily polluted water was believed to have contributed to the deaths of many of those who went into the river. It was noted that the sunken corpses began rising to the surface after only six days, rather than the usual nine. More than 650 people died, and between 69 and 170 were rescued. Several of those rescued died within the following weeks, in part from the effects of the contaminated water swallowed. 120 victims were buried in a mass grave at Woolwich Old Cemetery, Kings Highway, Plumstead. A memorial cross was erected to mark the spot, "paid for by national sixpenny subscription to which more than 23,000 persons contributed".


Memorial to those killed in the disaster

The log of the Bywell Castle described the incident:

The master and pilot were on the upper bridge, and the lookout on the top-gallant forecastle; light airs prevailed; the weather was a little hazy; at 7:45 o'clock P. M. proceeded at half speed down Gallion's Reach; when about at the centre of the reach observed an excursion steamer coming up Barking Reach, showing her red and masthead lights, when we ported our helm to keep out toward Tripcock Point; as the vessels neared, observed that the other steamer had ported her helm. Immediately afterward saw that she had starboarded her helm and was trying to cross our bows, showing her green light close under our port bow. Seeing that a collision was inevitable, we stopped our engines and reversed them at full speed. The two vessels came in collision, the bow of the Bywell Castle cutting into the other steamer with a dreadful crash. We took immediate measures for saving life by hauling up over our bows several passengers, throwing overboard ropes' ends, life-buoys, a hold-ladder, and several planks, and getting out three boats, at the same time keeping the whistle blowing loudly for assistance, which was rendered by several boats from shore, and a boat from another steamer. The excursion steamer, which turned out to be the Princess Alice, turned over and sank under our bows. We succeeded in rescuing a great many passengers, and anchored for the night.​

The subsequent Board of Trade enquiry blamed Captain Grinsted, who had died in the disaster), finding that "the Princess Alice was not properly and efficiently manned; also, that the numbers of persons aboard were more than was prudent and that the means of saving life on board the paddle steamer was inadequate for a vessel of her class". The jury of the Coroner's Inquest, held at the same time on the opposite bank of the river, said "that the Bywell Castle did not take the necessary precaution of easing, stopping and reversing her engines in time and that the Princess Alice contributed to the collision by not stopping and going astern, that all collisions in the opinion of the jury might in future be avoided if proper and stringent rules and regulation were laid down for all steam navigation on the River Thames". But the jury agreed that the number of persons aboard the Princess Alice was more than was prudent and that the means of lifesaving were inadequate.



Local people had a different point of view to the enquiry: "Many Thames watermen considered that, as all experienced Thames pilots were well aware that 'working the slack' on the south side of the river was a common and accepted practice of the day, the pilot of Bywell Castle should have realised the situation and acted accordingly, but no watermen were called to give evidence at the inquest or subsequent enquiry". The Thames Conservancy had published by-laws in 1872 which mandated the 'port to port' rule and there was no provision for exceptions.

The press also railed against the captain of the collier, with endless speculation and the Illustrated London publishing a full-spread picture showing the Princess Alice facing in the opposite direction, being 'run down'. Despite the verdict exonerating him, Captain Harrison's health broke down, and he never returned to sea.

Six ensigns of the 30th Regiment of Foot, including Charles O'Brien, later a prominent colonial administrator, missed the Princess Alice (and likely death) by a matter of seconds. Elizabeth Stride, later one of the victims of Jack the Ripper, claimed to have survived the disaster and that her husband and children were killed in it: in fact her husband died of tuberculosis, and they were childless.

At this time there was no official body responsible for marine safety in the Thames. The subsequent inquiry resolved that the Marine Police Force, based at Wapping, be equipped with steam launches, to replace their rowing boats and make them better able to perform rescues. A new plan for dumping sewage far out at sea via boat, rather than simply releasing it downriver, was also formulated, but not implemented.

The new Royal Albert Dock, which helped to separate heavy goods traffic from the smaller boats, and adoption of emergency signalling lights on boats across the globe, are considered to be responses to the disaster. The Princess Alice accident also produced a change to the Burial of Drowned Persons Act which extended the obligation on parishes to bury dead persons cast ashore from the sea to include all tidal or navigable waters. Previously, payments were not made for the recovery of corpses, and bodies were allowed to float up and down rivers.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Princess_Alice_(1865)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-340649;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1913 – Launch of HMS Erin, a Reşadiye-class dreadnought battleship, originaly designed for the Ottoman Navy


HMS Erin was a dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, originally ordered by the Ottoman government from the British Vickers Company. The ship was to have been named Reşadiye when she entered service with the Ottoman Navy. The second of the two ships of the Reşadiye-class battleships would have been known as Fatih Sultan Mehmed. The class was designed to be at least the equal of any other ship afloat or building.


Photograph of British battleship HMS Erin underway in the Moray Firth, Scotland.

When the First World War opened in August 1914, Reşadiye was nearly complete and was seized at the orders of Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty. Fatih Sultan Mehmed had only begun construction in April and was broken up for scrap. Another ship, Sultan Osman I, originally ordered by Brazil but being fitted out for the Ottomans, was also seized. The Reşadiye became Erin and Sultan Osman I became HMS Agincourt.

Aside from playing a minor role in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August several months later, Erin's service during the war generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea. The ship was deemed obsolete after the war and was reduced to reserve and used as a training ship. Erin served as the flagship of the reserve fleet at the Nore for most of 1920, was sold for scrap in 1922 and broken up the following year.

Design and description
Main article: Reşadiye-class battleship
The design was based on the King George V class but with the six-inch (152 mm) secondary armament of the Iron Duke class. Erin had an overall length of 559 feet 6 inches (170.5 m), a beam of 91 feet 7 inches (27.9 m) and a draught of 28 feet 5 inches (8.7 m). She displaced 22,780 long tons (23,150 t) at normal load and 25,250 long tons (25,660 t) at deep load. In 1914 her crew numbered 976 officers and ratings and 1,064 a year later.


Line-drawing of the British Iron Duke class; Reşadiye was very similar to this design

Erin was powered by two sets of Parsons direct-drive steam turbines, each driving two shafts, using steam from 15 Babcock & Wilcox boilers. The turbines were rated at 26,500 shaft horsepower (19,800 kW) and intended to give the ship a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph). The ship carried enough coal and fuel oil to give her a maximum range of 5,300 nautical miles (9,800 km; 6,100 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). This radius of action was somewhat less than that of contemporary British battleships but was adequate for operations in the North Sea.


Erin in a floating drydock, about 1918

Armament and armour
The ship was armed with a main battery of ten 13.5 in (343 mm) guns mounted in five twin-gun turrets, designated 'A', 'B', 'Q', 'X' and 'Y' from front to rear.[Note 1] They were arranged in two superfiring pairs, one forward and one aft; the fifth turret was amidships, between the funnels and the rear superstructure. Close-range defence against torpedo boats was provided by a secondary battery of sixteen BL 6-inch (152 mm) Mk XVI guns. The ship was also fitted with six quick-firing (QF) 6-pounder (57 mm) Hotchkiss guns. As was typical for capital ships of the period, she was equipped with four submerged 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes on the broadside. Erin was protected by a waterline armoured belt that was 12 inches (305 mm) thick over the ship's vitals. Her decks ranged in thickness from 1 to 3 inches (25 to 76 mm). The main gun turrets were 11 inches (279 mm) thick and the turrets were supported by barbettes 9–10 inches (229–254 mm) thick.

Wartime modifications
Four of the six-pounder guns were removed in 1915–1916 and a QF three-inch 20-cwt anti-aircraft (AA) gun was installed on the former searchlight platform on the aft superstructure.[7][Note 2] A fire-control director was installed on the tripod mast between May and December 1916.[8] A pair of directors for the secondary armament were fitted to the legs of the tripod mast in 1916–1917 and another three-inch AA gun was added on the aft superstructure. In 1918, a high-angle rangefinder was fitted and flying-off platforms were installed on the roofs of 'B' and 'Q' turrets.[9]

Construction and career


Reşadiye being launched, 3 September 1913

Erin originally was ordered by the Ottoman Empire, at an estimated cost of £2,500,000, with the name of Reşad V in honour of Mehmed V, the ruling Ottoman Sultan, but was renamed Reşadiye during construction. She was laid down at the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness on 6 December 1911 but construction was suspended in late 1912 during the Balkan Wars and resumed in May 1913. The ship was launched on 3 September and completed in August 1914. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June, the British postponed delivery of Reşadiye on 21 July, despite the completion of payments and the arrival of the Ottoman delegation to collect Reşadiye and another dreadnought battleship, Sultan Osman I, after their sea trials. The First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill illegally ordered the Royal Navy to detain the ships on 29 July and prevent Ottoman naval personnel from boarding them; two days later, British sailors formally seized them and Reşadiye was renamed Erin, a poetical name for Ireland. A proposal by the British government to compensate the Ottomans for the loss of their battleships was ignored. Captain Victor Stanley was appointed as Erin's captain.

Much more of her career you can read at wikipedia.......


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reşadiye-class_battleship

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1939 - The SS Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany, 117 civilian passengers and crew were killed with the sinking condemned as a war crime.

The SS Athenia was a steam turbine transatlantic passenger liner built in Glasgow in 1923 for the -Donaldson Line, which later became the Donaldson Atlantic Line. She worked between the United Kingdomand the east coast of Canada until September 1939, when a torpedo from a German submarine sank her in the Western Approaches.


SS ATHENIA seen in Montreal Harbour - 1933 Credit National Archives of Canada

The Athenia was the first UK ship to be sunk by Germany during World War II, and the incident accounted for the Donaldson Line's greatest single loss of life at sea. 117 civilian passengers and crew were killed with the sinking condemned as a war crime. The dead included 28 US citizens, leading Germany to fear that the US might react by joining the war on the side of the UK and France. Wartime German authorities denied that one of their vessels had sunk the ship, and a German admission of responsibility did not come until 1946.

She was the second Donaldson ship of that name to be torpedoed and sunk off Inishtrahull by a German submarine; the earlier Athenia was similarly attacked in 1918.

Loss
On 1 September 1939 Athenia, commanded by Captain James Cook, left Glasgow for Montreal via Liverpool and Belfast. She carried 1,103 passengers, including about 500 Jewish refugees, 469 Canadians, 311 US citizens and 72 UK subjects, and 315 crew. Despite clear indications that war would break out any day, she departed Liverpool at 13:00 hrs on 2 September without recall, and on the evening of the 3rd was 60 nautical miles (110 km) south of Rockall and 200 nautical miles (370 km) northwest of Inishtrahull, Ireland, when she was sighted by the German submarine U-30 commanded by Oberleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp around 16:30. Lemp later claimed that the fact that she was a darkened ship steering a zigzag course which seemed to be well off the normal shipping routes made him believe she was either a troopship, a Q-ship or an armed merchant cruiser. U-30 tracked the Athenia for three hours until eventually, at 19:40, when both vessels were between Rockall and Tory Island, Lemp ordered two torpedoes to be fired. One exploded on Athenia's port side in her engine room, and she began to settle by the stern.



Several ships, including the E-class destroyer HMS Electra, responded to Athenia's distress signal. Electra's commander, Lt. Cdr. Sammy A. Buss, was senior officer present and took charge. He sent the F-class destroyerHMS Fame on an anti-submarine sweep of the area, while Electra, another E-class destroyer, HMS Escort, the Swedish yacht Southern Cross, the 5,749 GRT Norwegian tanker MS Knute Nelson, and the US cargo ship City of Flint, rescued survivors. Between them they rescued about 981 passengers and crew. The German liner SS Bremen, en route from New York to Murmansk, also received Athenia's distress signal, but ignored it. City of Flint took 223 survivors to Pier 21 at Halifax, and Knute Nelson landed 450 at Galway.


Survivors in one of Athenia's lifeboats alongside City of Flint

Athenia remained afloat for more than 14 hours, until she finally sank stern first at 10:40 the next morning. Of the 1,418 aboard, 98 passengers and 19 crew members were killed. Many died in the engine room and after stairwell, where the torpedo hit. The British crews were famous for putting the passengers' lives before their own, and were expertly trained to handle such "events"; nonetheless, about 50 people died when one of the lifeboats was crushed in the propeller of the Knute Nelson. No. 5A lifeboat came alongside the empty tanker and tied up, against advice, astern of No 12 lifeboat. Only 15 feet (5 m) separated the life boat from the tanker's exposed propeller. Once No. 12 lifeboat was emptied it was cast adrift and began to sink. This fact was reported to the bridge of Knute Nelson. For some reason the ship's engine order telegraph was then set to full ahead. 5A lifeboat's mooring line or "warp" parted under the stress, causing the lifeboat to be pulled back into the revolving propeller.


A painting of the sinking of the SS Athenia CREDIT: HULTON ARCHIVE

There was a second accident at about 05:00 hrs when No. 8 lifeboat capsized in a heavy sea below the stern of the yacht Southern Cross, killing 10 people. Three passengers were crushed to death while trying to transfer from lifeboats to the Royal Navy destroyers. Other deaths were due to falling overboard from Athenia and her lifeboats, or to injuries and exposure. Ultimately, all deaths were the result of the U-boat violating orders and torpedoing a merchant passenger liner.

54 dead were Canadian and 28 were US citizens, which led to German fears that the incident would bring the US into the war.

Aftermath
It was not until the Nuremberg Trials after the War that the truth of the U-boat sinking of the SS Athenia finally came out. The sinking was given dramatic publicity throughout the English-speaking world. The front pages of many newspapers ran photographs of the lost ship along with headlines about the UK's declaration of war. For example, the Halifax Herald for 4 September 1939 had a banner across its front page announcing "LINER ATHENIA IS TORPEDOED AND SUNK" with, in the center of the page, "EMPIRE AT WAR" in outsized red print.

A Canadian girl, 10-year-old Margaret Hayworth, was among the casualties, and was one of the first Canadians to be killed by enemy action. papers widely publicised the story, proclaiming "Ten-Year-Old Victim of Torpedo" as "Canadians Rallying Point", and set the tone for their coverage of the rest of the war. One thousand people met the train that brought her body back to Hamilton, Ontario, and there was a public funeral attended by the mayor of Hamilton, the city council, the Lieutenant-Governor, Albert Edward Matthews, Premier Mitchell Hepburn, and the entire Ontario cabinet.

When Grand Admiral Raeder first heard of the sinking of the Athenia, he made inquiries and was told that no U-boat was nearer than 75 mi (121 km) to the location of the sinking. He therefore told the US chargé d'affaires in good faith that the German Navy had not been responsible. When, on 27 September, U-30 returned to Wilhelmshaven, Lemp reported to Admiral Dönitz that he had sunk the Athenia in error. Dönitz at once sent Lemp to Berlin, where he explained the incident to Raeder. In turn, Raeder reported to Hitler, who decided that the incident should be kept secret for political reasons. Raeder decided against court-martialling Lemp because he considered that he had made an understandable mistake, and the log of the U-30, which was seen by many people, was altered to sustain the official denials.

A month later the Völkischer Beobachter, the Nazi party's official newspaper, published an article which blamed the loss of the Athenia on the UK, accusing Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, of sinking the ship to turn neutral opinion against Germany. Raeder claimed not to have known about this previous to publication and said that if he had known about it, he would have prevented its appearing.

In the US, 60 per cent of respondents to a Gallup poll believed the Germans were responsible, despite their initial claims that the Athenia had been sunk by the UK for propaganda purposes, with only 9 per cent believing otherwise. Some anti-interventionists called for restraint while at the same time expressing their abhorrence of the sinking. Boake Carter described it as a criminal act.

Some were not completely convinced that Germany was in fact responsible. Herbert Hoover expressed his doubts, saying, "It is such poor tactics that I cannot believe that even the clumsy Germans would do such a thing", while North Carolina senator Robert Rice Reynolds denied that Germany had any motive to sink the Athenia. At best, he said, such an action "could only further inflame the world, and particularly America, against Germany, with no appreciable profits from the sinking." He added that Britain could have had a motive – "to infuriate the American people".

It was not until January 1946, during the case against Admiral Raeder at the Nuremberg trials, that a statement by Admiral Dönitz was read in which he finally admitted that Athenia had been torpedoed by U-30 and that every effort had been made to cover it up. Lemp, who claimed he had mistaken her for an armed merchant cruiser, took the first steps to conceal the facts by omitting to make an entry in the submarine's log, and swearing his crew to secrecy.

After Athenia's sinking, conspiracy theories were circulated by pro-Axis and anti-British circles. For example, one editor in Boston's Italian suggested the ship had been sunk by British mines and blamed on German U-boats to draw America into the war. The claims were unfounded.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Athenia_(1922)
http://www.39-45war.com/athenia.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1939 – World War II: The United Kingdom and France begin a naval blockade of Germany that lasts until the end of the war.
This also marks the beginning of the Battle of the Atlantic.


The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945, and was a major part of the Naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943.


Officers on the bridge of a destroyer, escorting a large convoy of ships keep a sharp look out for attacking enemy submarines during the Battle of the Atlantic. October 1941

In 1939, the Kriegsmarine lacked the strength to challenge the combined British Royal Navy and French Navy (Marine Nationale) for command of the sea. Instead, German naval strategy relied on commerce raiding using capital ships, armed merchant cruisers, submarines and aircraft. Many German warships were already at sea when war was declared, including most of the available U-boats and the "pocket battleships" (Panzerschiffe) Deutschland and Admiral Graf Spee which had sortied into the Atlantic in August. These ships immediately attacked British and French shipping. U-30 sank the ocean liner SS Athenia within hours of the declaration of war—in breach of her orders not to sink passenger ships. The U-boat fleet, which was to dominate so much of the Battle of the Atlantic, was small at the beginning of the war; many of the 57 available U-boats were the small and short-range Type IIs, useful primarily for minelaying and operations in British coastal waters. Much of the early German anti-shipping activity involved minelaying by destroyers, aircraft and U-boats off British ports.

The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the Kriegsmarine (Navy) and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. Convoys, coming mainly from North America and predominantly going to the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union, were protected for the most part by the British and Canadian navies and air forces. These forces were aided by ships and aircraft of the United States beginning September 13, 1941. The Germans were joined by submarines of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina) after their Axis ally Italy entered the war on June 10, 1940.

As an island nation, the United Kingdom was highly dependent on imported goods. Britain required more than a million tons of imported material per week in order to be able to survive and fight. In essence, the Battle of the Atlantic was a tonnage war: the Allied struggle to supply Britain and the Axis attempt to stem the flow of merchant shipping that enabled Britain to keep fighting. From 1942 onward, the Axis also sought to prevent the build-up of Allied supplies and equipment in the British Isles in preparation for the invasion of occupied Europe. The defeat of the U-boat threat was a prerequisite for pushing back the Axis. The outcome of the battle was a strategic victory for the Allies—the German blockade failed—but at great cost: 3,500 merchant ships and 175 warships were sunk in the Atlantic for the loss of 783 U-boats (the majority being Type VII submarines) and 47 German surface warships, including 4 battleships (Scharnhorst, Bismarck, Gneisenau, and Tirpitz), 9 cruisers, 7 raiders, and 27 destroyers. Of the U-boats, 519 were sunk by British, Canadian, or other allied forces, while 175 were destroyed by American forces; 15 were destroyed by Soviets and 73 were scuttled by their crews before the end of the war for various causes.


Admiral Graf Spee shortly after her scuttling

The Battle of the Atlantic has been called the "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history. The campaign started immediately after the European war began, during the so-called "Phoney War", and lasted six years, until the German Surrender in May 1945. It involved thousands of ships in more than 100 convoy battles and perhaps 1,000 single-ship encounters, in a theatre covering millions of square miles of ocean. The situation changed constantly, with one side or the other gaining advantage, as participating countries surrendered, joined and even changed sides in the war, and as new weapons, tactics, counter-measures and equipment were developed by both sides. The Allies gradually gained the upper hand, overcoming German surface raiders by the end of 1942 and defeating the U-boats by mid-1943, though losses due to U-boats continued until war's end.

Outcomes

Seamen raise the White Ensignover a captured German U-boat U-190in St. John's, Newfoundland 1945

The Germans failed to stop the flow of strategic supplies to Britain. This failure resulted in the build-up of troops and supplies needed for the D-Day landings. The defeat of the U-boat was a necessary precursor for accumulation of Allied troops and supplies to ensure Germany's defeat.

Victory was achieved at a huge cost: between 1939 and 1945, 3,500 Allied merchant ships (totalling 14.5 million gross tons) and 175 Allied warships were sunk and some 72,200 Allied naval and merchant seamen lost their lives. The vast majority of Allied warships lost in the Atlantic and close coasts were small warships averaging around 1,000 tons such as frigates, destroyer escorts, sloops, submarine chasers, or corvettes, but losses also included two battleships (Royal Oak and Barham), one battlecruiser (Hood), two aircraft carriers (Glorious and Courageous), three escort carriers (Dasher, Audacity, and Nabob), and seven cruisers (Curlew, Curacoa, Dunedin, Edinburgh, Charybdis, Trinidad, and Effingham).
The Germans lost 783 U-boats and approximately 30,000 sailors killed, three-quarters of Germany's 40,000-man U-boat fleet. Losses to Germany's surface fleet were also significant, with 4 battleships, 9 cruisers, 7 raiders, and 27 destroyers sunk.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Atlantic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany_(1939–1945)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1943 – World War II: The Allied invasion of Italy begins on the same day that U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower and Italian Marshal Pietro Badoglio sign the Armistice of Cassibile aboard the Royal Navy battleship HMS Nelson off Malta.


The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 by Walter Bedell Smith and Giuseppe Castellano, and made public on 8 September, between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed at a conference of generals from both sides in an Allied military camp at Cassibile in Sicily, which had recently been occupied by the Allies. The armistice was approved by both King Victor Emmanuel III and Italian Prime MinisterPietro Badoglio. The armistice stipulated the surrender of Italy to the Allies.


IWM caption : The British battleship HMS NELSON off Spithead for the 1937 Fleet Review. ed in the background are two Queen Elizabeth Class battleships and two cruisers of the London Class.


HMS Nelson in Malta September 1943

After its publication, Germany retaliated against Italy, attacking Italian forces in Italy, South of France and the Balkans. Italian forces were quickly defeated and most of Italy was occupied by German troops, while the King, the government and most of the navy reached territories occupied by the Allies.



Italian Navy
While Italy's army and air force virtually disintegrated with the announcement of the armistice on 8 September, the Allies coveted the country's navy with 206 ships in total, including the battleships Roma, Vittorio Veneto and Italia (known as the Littorio until July 1943). There was a danger that some of the Italian Navy might fight on, be scuttled or, of more concern for the Allies, end up in German hands. As such, the truce called for Italian warships on Italy's west coast, mostly located at La Spezia and Genoa, to sail for North Africa (passing Corsica and Sardinia); and for those at Taranto, in the heel of Italy, to sail for Malta.

At 02:30, on 9 September, the three battleships Roma, Vittorio Veneto and Italia, "shoved off from La Spezia escorted by three light cruisers and eight destroyers". When German troops who had stormed into the town to prevent the defection became enraged by these ships' escape, "they rounded up and summarily shot several Italian captains who, unable to get their vessels under way, had scuttled them". That afternoon German bombers attacked the ships, sailing without air cover, off Sardinia, launching guided bombs; several ships suffered damage and Roma sank with the loss of nearly 1,400 men. Most of the remaining ships made it safely to North Africa, "while three destroyers and a cruiser which had stopped to rescue survivors, docked in Menorca." The Italian navy's turnover proceeded more smoothly in other areas of Italy. When an Allied naval force headed for the big naval base of Taranto, they watched a flotilla of Italian ships sailing out of Taranto harbour towards surrender at Malta.

An agreement between the Allies and the Italians in late September provided for some of the Italian Navy to be kept in commission, but the battleships were to be reduced to care and maintenance, effectively disarmed. Italian mercantile marine vessels were to operate under the same general conditions as those of the Allies. In all cases, the Italian vessels would retain their Italian crews and fly Italian flags.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_of_Cassibile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Nelson_(28)
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articl...-Italian-armistice-during-World-War-II.502485

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
3 September 1954 – The German submarine U-505 begins its move from a specially constructed dock to its site at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry.


U-505 is a German Type IXC U-boat built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was captured by the U.S. Navy on 4 June 1944.

In her uniquely unlucky career with the Kriegsmarine, she had the distinction of being the "most heavily damaged U-boat to successfully return to port" in World War II (on her fourth patrol) and the only submarine in which a commanding officer took his own life in combat conditions (on her tenth patrol, following six botched patrols).


Unterseeboot 505 shortly after being captured in 1944 by a task force headed by USS Guadalcanal off the coast of Africa.

She was one of six U-boats that were captured by Allied forces during World War II. She was captured on 4 June 1944 by United States Navy Task Group 22.3 (TG 22.3). All but one of U-505's crew were rescued by the Navy task group. The submarine was towed to Bermuda in secret and her crew was interned at a US prisoner-of-war camp where they were denied access to International Red Cross visits. The Navy classified the capture as top secret and prevented its discovery by the Germans. Her codebooks, Enigma machine, and other secret materials found on board helped the Allied codebreakers.

In 1954, U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois. She is now one of four German World War II U-boats that survive as museum ships, and, along with U-534, just one of two Type IXCs still in existence.

Museum ship



U-505 at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois


Marker at the Museum of Science and Industry

After the war, the Navy had no further use for U-505. She had been thoroughly examined in Bermuda, and was now moored derelict at the Portsmouth Navy Yard. It was decided to use her as a target for gunnery and torpedo practice until she sank. In 1946, Gallery, now a rear admiral, told his brother Father John Gallery about this plan. Father John contacted President Lenox Lohr of Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) to see if they would be interested in U-505. MSI, established by Chicago businessman Julius Rosenwald, was a center for "industrial enlightenment" and public science education, specializing in interactive exhibits. As the museum already planned to display a submarine, the acquisition of U-505 seemed ideal. In September 1954, U-505 was donated to Chicago by the US government, a public subscription among Chicago residents raised $250,000 for transporting and installing the boat. The vessel was towed by United States Coast Guard tugs and cutters through the Great Lakes, making a stop in Detroit, Michigan in July 1954. On its way to Chicago, the U-505 entered Milwaukee's harbor and was towed up the Milwaukee River for a short distance. On 25 September 1954, U-505 was dedicated as a permanent exhibit and a war memorial to all the sailors who lost their lives in the first and second Battle of the Atlantic.

When U-505 was donated to the Museum, she had been sitting neglected at the Portsmouth Navy Yard for nearly ten years; just about every removable part had been stripped from her interior. She was in no condition to serve as an exhibit. Admiral Gallery proposed a possible solution. At his suggestion, Lohr contacted the German manufacturers who had supplied U-505's original components and parts, asking for replacements. As the Admiral reported in his autobiography, Eight Bells and All's Well, to his and the museum's surprise, every company supplied the requested parts without charge. Most included letters that said in effect, "We are sorry that you have our U-boat, but since she's going to be there for many years, we want her to be a credit to German technology."

In 1989, U-505 was designated a National Historic Landmark. Before the submarine was donated to the MSI, the periscope had been removed from U-505 and placed in a water tank used for research. When the US Navy demolished its Arctic Submarine Laboratory in Point Loma, California in 2003, U-505's original observation periscope was discovered. After being recovered, the periscope was given to the museum to be displayed along with the submarine.

By 2004, the U-boat's exterior had suffered noticeable damage from the weather so in April 2004 the museum moved the U-boat to a new underground, covered, climate-controlled location. Now protected from the elements, the restored U-505 reopened to the public on 5 June 2005.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-505

 

[Uwek]

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


36 BC – In the Battle of Naulochus, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, defeats Sextus Pompey, son of Pompey, thus ending Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate.

The naval Battle of Naulochus (Italian: Battaglia di Nauloco) was fought on 3 September 36 BC between the fleets of Sextus Pompeius and Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, off Naulochus, Sicily. The victory of Agrippa, admiral of Octavian, marked the end of the Pompeian resistance to the Second Triumvirate.

In front of Naulochus promontory, Agrippa met Sextus' fleet. Both fleets were composed of 300 ships, all with artillery, but Agrippa commanded heavier units, armed with the harpax, a newer version of the corvus, that was invented by Agrippa himself. Agrippa used his new weapon to great effect, succeeding in blocking the more maneuverable ships of Sextus and, after a long and bloody fight, in defeating his enemy. Agrippa lost three ships, while 28 ships of Sextus were sunk, 17 fled, and the others were burnt or captured.

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

1657 – Launch of HMS Forrester – Fifth rate frigate of the 1653-1656 Programme

HMS Forester (1657) was a 22-gun ship launched in 1657 and blown up in 1672.

1658 – The death of Oliver Cromwell; Richard Cromwell becomes Lord Protector of England.

Oliver Cromwell (25 April 1599 – 3 September 1658) was an English military and political leader. He served as Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 1653 until his death, acting simultaneously as head of state and head of government of the new republic.



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

1665 - British squadron under Lord Sandwich captures the Dutch East India Fleet.

The Battle of Vågen, a naval battle between a Dutch merchant and treasure fleet and an English flotilla of warships in August 1665, ended with the defeat of the English fleet, which retreated, much damaged but without losing any ships. The treasure fleet was relieved by the Dutch home fleet seventeen days later.

Meanwhile, on 19 August De Ruyter's relief fleet had arrived at Bergen; on 23 August he left again to shield a planned escape by the merchant fleet, but adverse gales forced him to return two days later. Only on 29 August did the Dutch merchant fleet leave the harbour. The next day the convoy of 184 ships was struck by a hurricane, lasting till the afternoon of 1 September, that completely dispersed it. When the storm subsided De Ruyter had only 37 warships and eight merchantmen with him. Sandwich, now to the east of De Ruyter, on 3 September managed to intercept and take a straggling group of four warships, the Zevenwolden, Westvriesland, Groningen and Hoop and, much more important, two VOC-vessels: the Slot Hooningen and Gulden Phenix, that would again be lost by them during the Raid on the Medway. Receiving the false news that De Ruyter was east of him with the mass of the Dutch fleet, Lord Sandwich retreated to the west to bring his prizes to safety, again narrowly missing De Ruyter, moving to the east. Montague would afterwards be severely criticised for this as he thus forwent an excellent opportunity to destroy the Dutch in detail or at least capture more of the treasure ships. He on 9 September managed however to intercept and capture a second group with two WIC-vessels, four warships and seven fluyt naval supply ships. After breaking off a chase of another thirty vessels, for fear of the shoals of the Frisian Isles, he finally returned to Solebay on 11 September. The other Dutch vessels returned to the Dutch Republic safely, mostly reassembled by De Ruyter.

For the English the escape of the Dutch Return Fleet from the Indies was an enormous blow: they could only finance the war by capturing it. But the blow was somewhat softened by the later capture of the two VOC-merchantmen. Lord Sandwich was blamed for the failure and fell into disgrace. After his arrival in the Thames he illegally, but perhaps with connivance of Charles, took goods of considerable value from the hulls of the Slot Hooningen and Gulden Phenix, sold these in secret and divided the gain among his nine flag officers, reserving for himself ₤4000. When this came to light, Charles had no choice but to cashier him, though Sandwich defended his conduct by pointing out he took only a small part of the booty, the value of which was estimated by him at ₤500,000. Samuel Pepys thus describes the impression of wealth when visiting one of the captured ships, in his diary entry of 16 November: "So I on board my Lord Bruncker; and there he and Sir Edmund Pooly carried me down into the hold of the India shipp, and there did show me the greatest wealth lie in confusion that a man can see in the world. Pepper scattered through every chink, you trod upon it; and in cloves and nutmegs, I walked above the knees; whole rooms full. And silk in bales, and boxes of copper-plate, one of which I saw opened (...)which was as noble a sight as ever I saw in my life(...)".

Lord Sandwich also thought he had been tricked by the Danish king, as Pepys recounts in his diary entry of 18 September: "But the main thing my Lord wonders at, and blames the Dane for, is, that the blockhead, who is so much in debt to the Hollander, having now a treasure more than much than all his Crowne was worth, and that which would for ever have beggared the Hollander, should not take this time to break with the Hollander, and thereby pay his debt that must have been forgiven him and have got the greatest treasure into his hands that ever was together in the world". In February 1666 the Danish king would declare war against England, after receiving large Dutch subsidies. Pieter de Bitter received an honorary golden chain from the States-General.

One reaction to the battle was the construction of a [additional] fortress—Fredriksberg Fortress (on Nordnes); the battle "showed clearly how vulnerable the city really was", according to Bjørn Arvid Bagge.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Montagu,_1st_Earl_of_Sandwich

1798 – The week long battle of St. George's Caye with a series of naval engagements begins between Spain and Britain off the coast of Belize.

The Battle of St. George's Caye was a short military engagement that lasted from 3 to 10 September 1798, off the coast of what is now Belize. However, the name is typically reserved for the final battle that occurred on 10 September.


Map St. George's Caye in 1764

The Spaniards had previously attempted to expel the British settlers and their slaves on six occasions, most recently in 1779. September 10, 1798 marked the final Spanish attempt to take over the area. Today, the Battle of St. George's Caye is a national public and bank holiday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_St._George's_Caye

1800 - Boats of HMS Minotaur (1793 - 74), Cptn. Thomas Louis, and HMS Niger (33), Cptn. James Hillyer, cut out corvettes La Paz (22) and Esmeralda (22) from the Roads off Barcelona.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Colossus' (1787), 'Leviathan' (1790), 'Carnatic' (1783), and 'Minotaur' (1793), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers based on the lines for the captured French Third Rate 'Courageux' (captured 1761). Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy 1778-1784]
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80773.html#6CpY0VXUFfOup7iM.99

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

1811 - HMS Rinaldo (10), James Anderson, and HMS Redpole (10), Colin M'Donald, engaged a flotilla of Boulogne.

1813 - 6 Danish cannon shallops, under Lt. Martinus C. Klaumann, en route on the Eider to reinforce the naval forces at Glückstadt, fight their way through a British blockade, consisting of 13 gunboats and 4 armed shallops. 2 British gunboats are sunk.

1814 - American frigate USS Adams (1799 - 28) and 10 vessels destroyed by British squadron under Rear Ad. Edward Griffith's up the Penobscot river at Hamden.

USS Adams was a 28-gun (rated) sailing frigate of the United States Navy. She was laid down in 1797 at New York City by John Jackson and William Sheffield and launched on 8 June 1799. Capt. Richard Valentine Morris took command of the ship.

Near the end of her homeward passage, Adams ran aground on the Isle au Haut on 17 August 1814 and was damaged seriously. Skillful seamanship aided by a rising tide managed to refloat the ship and despite heavy leaking she made it into the Penobscot River and reached Hampden, Massachusetts (now part of Maine). There on 3 September 1814, during the Battle of Hampden, she was scuttled and set ablaze to prevent capture by a British squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Edward Griffiths supporting British offensive operations in Maine.

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

1814 - Boats of HMS Nancy (3) captured U.S. schooner Tigress.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 September 1733 - Launch of French Diamant 50 guns at Toulon,


designed by François Coulomb the Younger – Captured by the British in the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in May 1747 and added to the RN as HMS Isis
A Two-decker of 50-60 guns (mainly "vaisseaux de 50") with 18-pounder or 24-pounder main battery.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, inboard profile (no waterlines), and longitudinal half-breadth for Isis (captured 1747), a captured French Fourth Rate, prior to being fitted as a 50-gun Fourth Rate, two-decker. Note that she is listed under her french name 'Diamond', which was ordered to be changed to 'Isis' on 17 October 1747 by Admiralty Order. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 226 states that an Admiralty Order dated 16 June 1747 had 'Isis' surveyed at Portsmouth Dockyard. she was renamed by Admiralty Order dated 17 October 1747. 'Isis' arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard on 19 May 1747 and was docked on 4 March 1748. She was undocked and sailed on 15 March 1748 having been surveyed. Isis underwent a small repair at Portsmouth between 19 April 1748 and 7 March 1749.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/87631.html#yKAQk3Fk7O7S8M7j.99


"To the Honble Sir Charles Howard Lieutenant General...This Plate Being on one side, an exact stern-view of the 'Jason'; on the other, the Head view of the 'Ruby', in the middle is that of the 'Diamond', three of the six French ships of war, taken by the British Fleet 3rd May, 1747 under the command of...Lord Anson and Sir Peter Warren "


The Isis late the Diamant of 56 Guns, captured from the French 1747. Vol II page 116 (PAF7935)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/102762.html#hcDBVuygVlJ4SK5D.99


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Louisa (1744), Tilbury (1745), Defiance (1744), and Eagle (1745), all 1741 Establishment 60-gun Fourth Rate, two-deckers. Alterations are recorded on the plan, which were sent to Portsmouth in December 1742, to Mr Carter in January 1743, and Mr West in November 1743. Alterations to the after port but one were made for Defiance. Further alterations to the after body and midships were made for Eagle, dated April 1744. The plan also mentions Isis (captured 1747), a captured French 50-gun Fourth rate, two-decker.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81376.html#Ffrj0JMtRbuhmDvp.99

http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=isis_17471758
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_Cape_Finisterre_(1747)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 September 1758 - Launch of HMS Stag, a 32 gun Niger-class frigate


HMS Stag was a 32-gun Niger-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the first Royal Navy ship to bear this name. She was ordered during the Seven Years' War, and saw service during that conflict and also during the American War of Independence.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Alarm (1758), Aeolus (1758), Montreal (1761), Niger (1759), Quebec (1760), Stag (1758), and Winchelsea (1764), all 32-gun Fifth Rate Frigates. The plan includes alterations, dated 1769, to the main channels and deadeyes.

History
Stag was brought into service in October 1758, under Captain Henry Angel. She cost £7,136 19s 8d to build, plus fitting-out costs of £4,370 15s 2d.She was reduced to a 28-gun sixth rate in 1777, but restored as a 32-gun fifth rate in 1779. In August 1781, Stag and Viper were in company when they recaptured the sloop Peggy and the cutter Hope.





Typical stern view of the ships of the same Niger class


On 4 January 1782, Stag under the command of Captain Robert Palliser Cooper, captured the French privateer Anti-Briton. Anti-Briton was armed with twenty-two 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 104 men under the command of John Kelly. Cooper had received intelligence that a privateer cutter had taken several vessels in the channel between Ireland and Britain. As soon as the weather permitted, Cooper set sail and was fortunate enough to encounter and capture her. Cooper reported that he took great pleasure in capturing her as she was quite new and had done a great deal of mischief. Kelly had captured the cutter Hope in August 1781. The Royal Navy took Anti-Briton into service as HMS Trimmer.

Then on 18 June Stag captured the French privateer cutter Victoire after an eleven-hour chase. Cooper had received intelligence on the 14th that two French privateers were cruising off Waterford. He immediately set off in pursuit and caught up with Vicotire off Dungarvan. She was armed with two 8-pounder and fourteen 6-pounder guns, six of which she threw overboard during the chase, and a crew of 91 men. Victoire was a new, copper-bottomed cutter, sixteen days out of Brest. The other French privateer, the cutter Eagle, of Dunkirk, was reportedly of the "same force" as Victoire, but had already left the area.

Stag was broken up in July 1783 at Deptford.


The Niger-class frigates were 32-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1757 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were an improvement on his 1756 design for the 32-gun Southampton-class frigates.

Slade's design was approved in September 1757, on which date four ships were approved to be built to these plans - three by contract and a fourth in a royal dockyard. Seven more ships were ordered to the same design between 1759 and 1762 - three more to be built by contract and four in royal dockyards. Stag and Quebec were both reduced to 28-gun sixth rates in 1778, but were then restored to 32-gun fifth rates in 1779.

Ships in class

• HMS Stag
  • Launched: 4 September 1758
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in July 1783.
• HMS Alarm
  • Launched: 19 September 1758
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Portsmouth Dockyard in September 1812.
• HMS Aeolus
  • Launched: 29 November 1758
  • Fate: Renamed Guernsey on 7 May 1800. Taken to pieces at Sheerness Dockyard in April 1801.
• HMS Niger
  • Launched: 25 September 1759
  • Fate: Renamed Negro 1813. Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 29 September 1814.
• HMS Montreal
  • Launched: 15 September 1761
  • Fate: Captured by French squadron off Gibraltar on 1 May 1779.
• HMS Quebec
  • Launched: 14 July 1760
  • Fate: Blew up and sunk in action against French frigate La Surveillante off Ushant on 6 October 1779.
• HMS Pearl
  • Launched: 27 March 1762
  • Fate: Renamed Prothee 19 March 1825. Sold at Portsmouth Dockyard on 14 January 1832.
• HMS Emerald
  • Launched: 8 June 1762
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Deptford Dockyard in October 1793.
• HMS Winchelsea
  • Launched: 31 May 1764
  • Fate: Sold at Sheerness Dockyard on 3 November 1813.
• HMS Glory
  • Launched: 24 October 1763
  • Fate: Taken to pieces at Woolwich Dockyard in January 1786.
• HMS Aurora
  • Launched: 13 January 1766
  • Fate: Lost with all hands in the Indian Ocean (disappeared, fate unknown) in January 1770.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Stag_(1758)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-350395;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S
HMS Niger - http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...1;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=N;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 September 1762 – Launch of HMS Terrible, a 74 gun Ramillies class Ship of the Line


HMS Terrible was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 September 1762 at Harwich, England.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Ramillies' (1763); 'Terrible' (1762); 'Russell' (1764); 'Invincible' (1765); 'Magnificent' (1766); 'Prince of Wales' (1765); 'Marlborough' (1767); 'Robust' (1764), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Note the pencil annotations of chain channels and gunports. An annotation on the reverse states that the class was similar to the 'Superb' (1760), specifically mentioning 'Monarch', 'Magnificent', and Marlborough'.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81028.html#6MiMvC7pExOgyGaD.99

In the English Channel, in 1777, under Captain Richard Bickerton, she took an American privateer brig called the Rising States, Capt Thompson.

In 1778 she fought at the First Battle of Ushant, and in 1781 Terrible (Capt. Finch) was part of Sir Thomas Graves' fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake. During the course of the battle, she took heavy damage, and was scuttled, or deliberately sunk, after the battle had ended.


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

Design
The draught for the Ramillies class was very similar to that of the Bellona class and subsequent Arrogant class, with the only real differences to be found in the shape of the underwater hull. There were two distinct sub-groups; four ships were built in the Royal Dockyards to the original design, approved on 25 April 1760 – although the name-ship Ramillies had originally been ordered as a Bellona-class unit. Slade subsequently amended his design for the ships which were to be built by commercial contractors – this modified design, with slightly amended dimensions, being approved on 13 January 1761.

Ships
First group
Dockyard-built ships:

• HMS Ramillies

Launched: 25 April 1763
Fate: Abandoned and burned off Newfoundland, 21 September 1782.


Loss of HMS Ramillies, September 1782: before the storm breaks

• HMS Monarch

Launched: 20 July 1765
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, March 1813


HMS Monarch in the lead, forcing the Passage of the Sound, 30 March 1801, prior to the Battle of Copenhagen

• HMS Magnificent

Launched: 20 September 1767
Fate: Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804.

• HMS Marlborough

Launched: 26 August 1767
Fate: Wrecked off Belle Île, 4 November 1800

Second (modified) group
Contract-built ships:

• HMS Terrible

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Launched: 4 September 1762
Fate: Burned following the Battle of Chesapeake, 11 September 1781

• HMS Russell

Builder: Thomas West, Deptford
Launched: 10 November 1764
Fate: Sold out of the service in the East Indies, 1811

• HMS Invincible

Builder: John and William Wells, Deptford
Launched: 9 March 1765
Fate: Wrecked off Yarmouth, 16 March 1801

• HMS Robust

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Launched: 25 October 1764
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth, January 1817

• HMS Prince of Wales

Builder: Henry Bird and Roger Fisher, Milford Haven
Launched: 4 June 1765
Fate: Broken up at Plymouth, August 1783



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terrible_(1762)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramillies-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-353480;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=T

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 September 1781 – Launch of HMS Anson, a 64 gun Intrepid class Ship of the Line


HMS Anson was a ship of the Royal Navy, launched at Plymouth on 4 September 1781. Originally a 64-gun third rate ship of the line, she fought at the Battle of the Saintes.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with stern quarter decorations, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for 'Anson' (1781), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81187.html#stcK8uPMJrsirO5P.99

The ship proved too weak to stand in the line of battle, so in 1784 she was razéed to produce a frigate of 44 guns (fifth rate). Stronger than the average frigate of the time, the razee frigate Anson subsequently had a successful career during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars, mostly operating against privateers, but also in small actions against enemy frigates.

Anson was lost in a shipwreck on 29 December 1807. Trapped by a lee shore off Loe Bar, Cornwall, she hit the rocks and between 60 and 190 men were killed. The subsequent treatment of the recovered bodies of drowned seamen caused controversy, and led to the Burial of Drowned Persons Act 1808.

Design and construction
The ship was ordered on 24 April 1773 as an Intrepid-class ship of the line of 64 guns. The lead ship of the class, HMS Intrepid, had entered service in 1771 and proved satisfactory in sea trials, so the Royal Navy increased their order from four to fifteen ships. Anson was part of the expanded order, named after George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, the victorious admiral of the First Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747).



Anson was launched on 4 September 1781 by Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire. She was completed and entered service on 15 October 1781.

The Intrepid-class design had been originally approved in 1765, so by the time Anson was launched it was over 15 years old. During that period, the design of ships-of-the-line had evolved, with the standard size and layout now being the seventy-four. Anson was therefore rather small and less solidly built than most of her contemporaries.

American Revolutionary War
Main article: Battle of the Saintes
Anson fought at the battle of Les Saintes on 9 April 1782 under the flag of Admiral Sir George Rodney against Admiral de Grasse. She was in the rear division, which was under the command of Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake. In this engagement, Captain William Blair was one of the two Royal Navy post captains killed. In all Anson lost three men killed (including Blair), and 13 men wounded.

Conversion to a frigate
Experience with 64-gun ships throughout the navy, at the Battle of the Saintes and elsewhere, had shown that they were now too poorly armed and weakly built to stand in the line of battle against larger ships-of-the-line. Rather than dispose of the ships entirely, the Royal Navy subjected some ships to a razée – removing the uppermost deck (and its armament) to produce a large frigate. The subsequent razee frigate was more heavily armed and built than a typical purpose-built frigate, though was not as fast and easy to handle in strong winds.

Anson was chosen for this process and in 1794 the ship was razéed. The original forecastle and quarterdeck were removed, and the former upper deck (now weather or spar-deck) was partially removed and restructured to provide a new forecastle and quarterdeck. The result was a frigate of 44 guns, with a primary gun deck armament of twenty-six 24-pounder cannon (most frigates of the time were too lightly built to handle such heavy guns, so were armed with 18-pounders). The new quarterdeck and forecastle also allowed the armaments stationed there to be substantially strengthened from the original design, including adding carronades. Anson was thus heavily armed for a frigate, and retained the stronger construction (and ability to absorb damage) of a ship-of-the-line.
(Remark: I did not find plans of the changed ship!)

French Revolutionary Wars
At the Action of 16 July 1797, Anson and Sylph drove the French corvette Calliope on shore, where Sylph proceeded to fire on her. When Pomone checked a week later, Calliope was wrecked; her crew were camped on shore trying to salvage what stores they could. Pomone confirmed that the flute Freedom and a brig that had also been driven ashore too were wrecked.

Leviathan, Anson, Pompee, Melpomene, and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture on 10 September 1797 of the Tordenskiold.

On 29 December 1797 Anson recaptured Daphne, which the French had captured three years earlier in December 1794 and taken into service under her existing name. Daphné was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Latreyte and transiting between Lorient and Bordeaux on her way to Guadeloupe when Anson captured her at the mouth of the Gironde. Anson fired several shots before Daphne struck. She was armed with 30 guns and had 276 men aboard, including 30 passengers. Two of the passengers were Civil Commissioners Jaiquelin and La Carze, who succeeded in throwing their dispatches for Guadeloupe overboard. Daphne had five men killed and several wounded.

On 7 September 1798, after a 24-hour long chase, Anson and Phaeton captured Flore. Captain Stopford, of Phaeton, in his letter described Flore as a frigate of 36 guns and 255 men. She was eight days out of Boulogne on a cruise. She had also served the Royal Navy in the American Revolutionary War.

Anson was unable to take part in the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798, because she had sustained damage during poor weather and was unable to keep up with the rest of the British squadron. In the aftermath of the original engagement, on 18 October she joined the brig HMS Kangaroo and fought a separate action, capturing the damaged French frigate Loire. Anson was then under the command of Captain Philip Charles Durham, who struggled to manoeuvre his ship after having lost her mizzen mast, main lower and topsail yards during the earlier pursuit.

Anson sailed from Plymouth on 26 January 1799, and on 2 February, in company with Ethalion, captured the French privateer cutter Boulonaise. Boulonaise, of Dunkirk, was armed with 14 guns and had been preying on shipping in the North Sea.

On 9 September 1799 Captain Durham hosted a fête for King George III. During the course of the evening, the king was found on the low deck surrounded by the ship’s company talking to an old sailor.

On 10 April 1800, when north-west of the Canary Islands, Anson detained Catherine & Anna bound for Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire, from Batavia with a cargo of coffee.

On 27 April Anson captured the letter of marque brig Vainquer. Vainquer was pierced for 16 guns but only mounted four. When captured she had been on her way from Bordeaux to San Domingo with a cargo of merchandise.

Two days later, at daybreak, Anson encountered four French privateers: Brave (36 guns), Guepe (18), Hardi (18), and Duide (16). As soon as the French vessels realized that Anson was a British frigate they scattered. As Anson passed Brave going in the opposite direction Anson fired a broadside into her; Durham believed that the broadside did considerable damage, but he was unable to follow up as the Brave had the wind in her favour and so outsailed Anson. Durham then set off after one of the other French vessels, which he was able to capture. She was Hardi, of 18 guns and 194 men. Durham described her as "a very fine new Ship just of the Stocks." The Royal Navy took Hardi into service, first as HMS Hardi, before shortly thereafter renaming her HMS Rosario. Lastly, Durham reported sending into port for adjudication a very valuable ship that had been sailing from Batavia to Hamburg with the Governor of Batavia as passenger. (This may have been Catherine & Anna.)

In 1801 Captain W. E. Cacraft assumed command and Anson joined the Channel station, cruising from Portsmouth. In 1802 she was in the Mediterranean, and in November she sailed from Malta for Egypt. She went in for repairs in 1805 at Portsmouth.

Napoleonic Wars
In December 1805 Captain Charles Lydiard was appointed to command the Anson.
Under his command the Anson sailed to the West Indies in early 1806.

Action of 23 August 1806


Capture of the Pomona by Anson & Arethusa off Havannah, 23 Aug 1806

Main article: Action of 23 August 1806
On 23 August while sailing in company with Captain Charles Brisbane's HMS Arethusa when they came across the 38-gun Spanish frigate Pomona off Havana, guarded by a shore battery and twelve gunboats. The Pomona was trying to enter the harbour, whereupon Lydiard and Brisbane bore up and engaged her. The gunboats came out to defend her, whereupon the two British frigates anchored between the shore battery and gunboats on one side, and the Pomona on the other. A hard fought action began, which lasted for 35 minutes until the Pomona struck her colours. Three of the gunboats were blown up, six were sunk, and the remaining three were badly damaged. The shore battery was obliged to stop firing after an explosion in one part of it. There were no casualties aboard Anson, but Arethusa lost two killed and 32 wounded, with Brisbane among the latter. The captured Pomona was subsequently taken into the Navy as HMS Cuba.

Anson and Foudroyant
The Anson remained cruising off Havana, and on 15 September sighted the French 84-gun Foudroyant. The Foudroyant, carrying the flag of Vice-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez, had been dismasted in a storm and was carrying a jury-rig. Despite the superiority of his opponent and the nearness of the shore Lydiard attempted to close on the French vessel and opened fire. Anson came under fire from the fortifications at Morro Castle, while several Spanish ships, including the 74-gun San Lorenzo, came out of Havana to assist the French. After being unable to manoeuvre into a favourable position and coming under heavy fire, Lydiard hauled away and made his escape. Anson had two killed and 13 wounded during the engagement, while its sails and rigging had been badly damaged. Foudroyant meanwhile had 27 killed or wounded.

Capture of Curaçao


The capture of Curaçao, depicted by Thomas Whitcombe

Anson was then assigned to Charles Brisbane's squadron and joined Brisbane's Arethusa and James Athol Wood's HMS Latona.

The ships were despatched in November 1806 by Vice-Admiral James Richard Dacres to reconnoitre Curaçao. They were joined in December by HMS Fisgard and Brisbane decided to launch an attack. The British ships approached early in the morning of 1 January 1807 and anchored in the harbour. They were attacked by the Dutch, at which Brisbane boarded and captured the 36-gun frigate Halstaar, while Lydiard attacked and secured the 20-gun corvette Suriname. Both Lydiard and Brisbane then led their forces on shore, and stormed Fort Amsterdam, which was defended by 270 Dutch troops. The fort was carried after ten minutes of fighting, after which two smaller forts, a citadel and the entire town were also taken. More troops were landed while the ships sailed round the harbour to attack Fort République. By 10 am the fort had surrendered, and by noon the entire island had capitulated.

The Anson had seven men wounded. In all, the British lost three killed and 14 wounded. On the ships alone, the Dutch lost six men killed, including Commandant Cornelius J. Evertz, who commanded the Dutch naval force in Curaçao, and seven wounded, of whom one died later. With the colony, the British captured the frigate Kenau Hasselar, the sloop Suriname (a former Royal Naval sloop), and two naval schooners.

The Anson was sent back to Britain carrying the despatches and captured colours. The dramatic success of the small British force carrying the heavily defended island was rewarded handsomely. Brisbane was knighted, and the captains received swords, medals and vases.

In 1847 the Admiralty authorised the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Curacoa 1 Jany. 1807" to any surviving claimants from the action; 65 medals were issued.

Shipwreck


'Loss of the Anson Frigate, off Cornwall', in an 1808 depiction by William Elmes

After a period refitting in Britain Anson was assigned to the Channel Fleet and ordered to support the blockade of Brest by patrolling off Black Rocks. She sailed from Falmouth on 24 December, and reached Ile de Bas on 28 December 1807. With a severe storm developing from the south west, Lydiard decided to return to port. He made for the Lizard, but in the poor weather, came up on the wrong side and became trapped on a lee shore off Mount's Bay near Penzance, in Cornwall with breakers ahead and insufficient room to sail out to the open seas. Anson rolled heavily in rough seas, having retained the spars from her days as a 64-gun ship after she had been razeed. Lydiard's only option was to anchor off Loe Bar. The storm caused the first anchor cable to snap at 4 am on the morning of 29 December. Anson's smaller anchor cable broke at 7 am and she was soon being driven onto the shore. With no anchors, Lydiard, in the hope of saving as many lives as possible, attempted to beach her on what he thought was a suitable beach. It only upon impact that he discovered that it was a sandbar that covered rocks dividing Loe Pool from the open sea. The wind and waves caused the ship to roll broadside on and her mainmast snapped. a sheet anchor was let out, which righted the ship only before it snapped at 8 am.

Watched by hundreds of spectators from nearby settlements the pounding surf prevented boats from being launched from the ship or the shore, and a number of the crew were swept away. Some managed to clamber along the fallen main-mast to the shore. Captain Lydiard remained aboard to oversee the evacuation. About 2 pm the ship began to break up, which allowed a few more men to emerge from the wreck, with one being saved. By 3 pm no trace of the ship remained.

Survivors were taken to Helston, two miles away and later sent on to Falmouth.

Estimates of the number of lives lost vary from sixty to 190. Captain Lydiard and her first-lieutenant was among the casualties, his body being recovered on 1 January 1808 and taken to Falmouth for burial with full military honours. Most of the other victims were buried in pits dug on unconsecrated ground on the cliffs with no burial rites. The death toll is uncertain as some of the survivors had been press ganged and took the opportunity to desert.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Anson_(1781)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrepid-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...6;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A;start=0
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66486.html

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
4 September 1781 – Launch of HMS Anson, a 64 gun Intrepid class Ship of the Line (Part II - Intrepid-class)


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


Scale: 1:48. A contemporary ful hull skeleton model of the Intrepid (1770), a third rate 64 gun two-decker ship of the line. Numerous hand written labels attached to inner and outer surfaces of frame identifying specific parts. The ‘Intrepid’ model was almost certainly the one referred to in the following letter from King George III to Lord Sandwich in September 1773: ‘I shall be very curious to receive the model you mean to send tomorrow, and doubt not from the ingenuity of Mr Williams that it will thoroughly explain the construction of a ship, which the more I reflect on it the more it shows the perfection to which mechanics has arrived.’
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66486.html#DTxWkvUQFVxeucsK.99


HMS Diadem at the capture of the cape Good Hope


painting by Joseph Marshall (active 1755–1779) / Photo credit: Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library


Ships

• HMS Intrepid

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 16 November 1765
Laid down: January 1767
Launched: 4 December 1770
Completed: 31 January 1771
Fate: Sold to be broken up at Plymouth, 26 March 1828

• HMS Monmouth

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 10 September 1767
Laid down: May 1768
Launched: 18 April 1772
Completed: 9 May 1778
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth, January 1818

• HMS Defiance

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 9 June 1768
Laid down: October 1768
Launched: 31 August 1772
Completed: July 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard
Fate: Wrecked in the Savannah River, 15 February 1780

• HMS Nonsuch

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 30 November 1769
Laid down: January 1770
Launched: 17 December 1774
Completed: 25 April 1776
Fate: Broken up at Sheerness, June 1802

• HMS Ruby

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 30 November 1769
Laid down: 9 September 1772
Launched: 26 November 1776
Completed: 27 February 1778
Fate: Broken up at Bermuda, April 1821

• HMS Vigilant

Builder: Henry & Anthony Adams, Bucklers Hard
Ordered: 14 January 1771
Laid down: February 1771
Launched: 6 October 1774
Completed: 11 July 1778 at Portsmouth Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth , April 1816

• HMS Eagle

Builder: John & William Wells, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 14 January 1771
Laid down: April 1771
Launched: 12 May 1774
Completed: 30 July 1776 at Woolwich Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, October 1812

• HMS America

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 18 June 1771
Laid down: October 1771
Launched: 5 August 1777
Completed: 29 March 1778Fate: Broken up, 1807

• HMS Anson

Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Ordered: 24 April 1773
Laid down: January 1774
Launched: 4 September 1781
Completed: 15 October 1781
Fate: Wrecked in Mounts Bay, 29 December 1807

• HMS Polyphemus

Builder: Sheerness Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1773
Laid down: January 1776
Launched: 27 April 1782
Completed: 24 July 1782
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, September 1827

• HMS Magnanime

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 16 October 1775
Laid down: 23 August 1777
Launched: 14 October 1780
Completed: 29 December 1780 at Woolwich Dockyard.
Fate: Broken up at Sheerness, July 1813

• HMS Sampson

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 25 July 1776
Laid down: 20 October 1777
Launched: 8 May 1781
Completed: 29 June 1781
Fate: Sold to be broken up, 30 May 1832

• HMS Repulse

Builder: Robert Fabian, East Cowes
Ordered: 5 February 1777
Laid down: 12 January 1778
Launched: 28 November 1780
Completed: 15 February 1781 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
Fate: Wrecked off Ushant, 10 March 1800

• HMS Diadem

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 5 December 1777
Laid down: 2 November 1778
Launched: 19 December 1782
Completed: 19 July 1783
Fate: Broken up at Plymouth, September 1832

• HMS Standard

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 5 August 1779
Laid down: May 1780
Launched: 8 October 1782
Completed: 19 December 1782 at Woolwich Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Sheerness, October 1816


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrepid-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66486.html