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
6 February 1806 – Battle of San Domingo - Part I
British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.


The Battle of San Domingo was a naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars fought on 6 February 1806 between squadrons of French and British ships of the line off the southern coast of the French-occupied Spanish colonial Captaincy General of Santo Domingo (San Domingo in contemporary British English) in the Caribbean.

All five of the French ships of the line commanded by Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues had been captured or destroyed. The Royal Navy led by Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth lost no ships and suffered less than a hundred killed while the French lost approximately 1,500 men. Only a small number of the French squadron were able to escape.

The battle of San Domingo was the last fleet engagement of the war between French and British capital ships in open water.



Background

Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues

In late 1805, First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Barham withdrew the Royal Navy blockade of the French Atlantic ports following the Trafalgar Campaign, in which the French Navy had lost 14 ships of the line. Barham believed that the French, having suffered such heavy losses, would be unable and unwilling to launch a major offensive in the Atlantic until after the winter. However, he had miscalculated the strength of the fleet at Brest, the principal French Atlantic seaport. The Brest fleet had not been engaged in the 1805 campaign and was therefore intact.

Taking advantage of the withdrawal of the British blockade, Emperor Napoleon ordered two squadrons to put to sea with orders to raid the British trade routes that crossed the Atlantic. These forces were to inflict as much economic damage to Britain as possible without engaging an equivalent British naval squadron and risking defeat and capture. The cruise was expected to last as long as 14 months, sustained by captured food supplies from British merchant ships. Sailing unopposed on 13 December 1805, the squadrons separated two days later in pursuit of British merchant convoys, one squadron steering for the South Atlantic under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez and the other, under Vice-Admiral Corentin-Urbain Leissègues, sailing for the Caribbean. The Admiralty in London did not discover that the French had sailed until 24 December, and the two squadrons they prepared in pursuit, under Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Strachan and Rear-Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, did not sail until January 1806, by which time the French had disappeared into the Atlantic.

There was however one British squadron that had maintained contact with the French: since the Battle of Trafalgar in October 1805, the Admiralty had stationed a squadron under Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth off Cadiz to watch the remnants of the combined fleet. In November 1805, reports reached Duckworth of a French squadron operating against British convoys off the Savage Islands between Madeira and the Canary Islands. This squadron, which belonged to Contre-Admiral Zacharie Allemand, had left France in July 1805.[5] Immediately sailing to investigate, Duckworth abandoned Cadiz, leaving just two frigates to watch the Allied fleet at anchor. Passing the Savage and Canary Islands, Duckworth continued to the Cape Verde Islands before conceding that the French had escaped him and turning northwards again. Allemand was already far to the north. He eventually returned to France without incident on 23 December.

Duckworth's cruise
During his return journey to Cadiz, on 23 December Duckworth encountered HMS Arethusa under Captain Charles Brisbane escorting a small group of merchant ships. Leissègues had intercepted, chased and dispersed Brisbane's convoy in the Bay of Biscay on 15 December, Brisbane retaining only the largest merchant ships to help cover the flight of the smaller vessels. Once he had escaped Leissègues' pursuit, Brisbane sailed in search of support at Cadiz, continuing southwards after realizing that Duckworth was not at his appointed station. Immediately setting a course that he believed would intercept Leissègues, Duckworth turned to the northwest and on 25 December discovered an enemy squadron approximately 200 nautical miles (370 km) northwest of the Canary Islands. Duckworth ordered his squadron to pursue, the chase lasting throughout the day and continuing into 26 December, by which time it had become clear that his quarry was not Allemand. In fact, Duckworth had discovered Willaumez's squadron. However, the French admiral ordered his ships to run before Duckworth rather than give battle. By 13:00 on 26 December, it seemed certain that the British flagship, HMS Superb, would outstrip the rearmost French ship, when Duckworth suddenly called off the pursuit. He later claimed that he was concerned that the leading ships of his squadron would be overwhelmed by the concentrated French squadron before the stragglers, some of which were more than 45 nautical miles (83 km) behind Superb, could join the battle.


Vice-Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth
Henry William Beechey, 1809, National Maritime Museum

As Willaumez escaped into the South Atlantic, Duckworth ordered his squadron to sail for Barbados to resupply before making the long journey back to Cadiz. When he arrived on 12 January 1806, he ordered the frigate HMS Acasta to St. Kitts to arrange the required water supplies, and moved the squadron to an anchorage off Basseterreon 19 January. There two ships of the Leeward Islands squadron, HMS Northumberland and HMS Atlas, joined him. Northumberland was the flagship of Rear-Admiral Alexander Cochrane, commander of the station. Cochrane's arrival raised the number of admirals in the squadron to three, as Duckworth's second in command was Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis in HMS Canopus. Leissègues was also en route to the Caribbean, winter storms off the Azores having delayed him, separated Alexandre and Braveand inflicted damage on Jupiter and Diomède. Arriving at the French-held city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola on 20 January, Leissègues disembarked over 1,000 soldiers as reinforcements for the garrison, and made hasty repairs as he awaited the arrival of his missing ships, which appeared on 29 January. During his time in the harbour, Leissègues moved ashore and gave orders for the ships to be recaulked following their Atlantic voyage, a difficult and time-consuming process.

On 1 February the small sloop HMS Kingfisher arrived at Basseterre with information that three French ships of the line had been sighted off Santo Domingo. Duckworth gave orders for the fleet to sail immediately. On 3 February the brig HMS Epervier joined him at St. Thomas and on 5 February the frigate HMS Magicienne under Captain Adam Mackenzie joined near the Mona Passage. Mackenzie was accompanied by a Danish schooner that had sailed from Santo Domingo a few days before, and whose crew were able to provide a detailed account of the French squadron's composition. Before the schooner had sailed, a number of French officers had commented on the risk involved in allowing the vessel to leave port, but the admiral had refused their demands that he burn the Danish ship. Duckworth was now confident that he outnumbered and outgunned Leissègues. During the night of 5 February the British squadron slowly approached Santo Domingo, Acasta and Magicienne scouting ahead of the main fleet.


Battle
Duckworth's attack
At 06:00 on 6 February Duckworth's scouts sighted the French, observing two frigates, five ships of the line and one large merchant ship anchored in line at the entrance to Santo Domingo. Leissègues had reportedly issued orders for the squadron to sail for Jamaica, even though several of the French ships were not yet ready for sea, and two frigates were already under sail when the British arrived. Leissègues was not aboard Impérial; he and a number of his officers were still conducting their business in the town and were therefore forced to join the squadron in small boats, which delayed the squadron. Several officers, possibly including Leissègues, did not reach their ships until after the engagement had begun. Recognising that his enemy was in a vulnerable position, Duckworth raised all sail in an effort to close with the French. Leissègues too recognised the danger his ships were in and ordered them to raise anchor and then to sail westwards along the coast in the direction of Nizao. Maintaining close formation, the French formed a line of battle, Captain Pierre-Elie Garreau in Alexandre leading, with Impérial, Diomède, Jupiter and Brave following. The frigates and corvette took a position between the battle line and the shore. Duckworth was concerned that there might be other French forces to the west. He therefore angled his line of attack to pass across the front of the French line and signaled to his squadron to direct their fire at the front three ships: Alexandre, Impérial and Diomède.


The Battle of San Domingo, 6 February 1806, with H.M.S. Canopus Joining the Action, Thomas Lyde Hornbrook

At 08:00 Duckworth's ships divided into two divisions, a westerly line to windward under Duckworth with Superb, Northumberland, HMS Spencer and HMS Agamemnon, and an eastern line under Louis with Canopus, HMS Donegal and Atlas. The British frigates were gathered in formation to the west of the British lines, awaiting orders to assist if required. Over the next two hours the British slowly closed with the French squadron, the British divisions breaking up as the faster ships outpaced the slower. Louis' squadron fell behind Duckworth's, while Agamemnon dropped behind the other three vessels in her division, which otherwise remained in a tight formation. A slight shift in the wind allowed Leissègues to adjust his direction to the southwest, but the close presence of the land restricted French movements and at 10:10 Superb was able to open fire on Alexandre.


Positions of both fleets at around 10am

With the British flagship engaged with the leading French vessel, Northumberland opened fire on the next in line, Leissègues' flagship Impérial. The French ship carried 120 guns to Northumberland's 74, but Cochrane engaged closely, rapidly supported by Spencer, which opened fire on Impérial and Diomède simultaneously. For 15 minutes the British continued to close, both squadrons sailing westwards along the coast with the wind. At 10:25, the damaged Alexandre suddenly swung out of the line in an attempt to drive between Spencer and Northumberland and rake them both. Captain Robert Stopford on Spencer responded rapidly, turning across Alexandre's bow and raking her, before pulling along the opposite side of Garreau's Alexandre and opening fire from close range. In the smoke and confusion neither Superb nor Northumberland noticed Spencer's move; both fired several shots into Spencer before they realized their mistake.[18] With Spencer and Alexandre out of the way, Impérial was able to engage both of the leading British ships, threatening to overwhelm them. Cochrane moved to defend the flagship by pulling Northumberland between Impérial and Superb, suffering terrible damage but preserving Duckworth's ship intact. Impérial's fire was so heavy that several shot passed straight through Northumberland into Superb.

to be continued .........


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Domingo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_at_the_Battle_of_San_Domingo

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1806 – Battle of San Domingo - Part II
British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.


Destruction of the French rear
As the combat raged at the head of the line, the remainder of both squadrons strained to join the battle. The British eastern division under Louis reached the battling Alexandre and Spencer at 10:35, the two ships locked together to the south of the main engagement. As they passed, Canopus, Donegal and Atlas all raked the French ship, bringing down all of her masts and leaving her in a crippled state. Canopus then steered directly towards the battle around Impérial, as Donegal and Atlas turned northwest to intercept Brave and Jupiter respectively. At 11:00, Spencer followed Canopus while Alexandre's crew were preoccupied with extinguishing a fire that had broken out on board. Alexandre was so badly damaged that she was unable to either escape or continue the action; she formally surrendered ten minutes later.


Following Nelson's victory at Trafalgar in 1805, Sir John Duckworth left the blockade of Cadiz and pursued a French squadron to the Caribbean, where he defeated it off San Domingo on the 6 February 1806. With six ships of the line and two frigates he was lying off St Kitts, watering and refitting his squadron, when he heard on that three French ships of the line were making for San Domingo. A force of nine French ships were found at anchor in San Domingo Roads, whence they slipped their cables and made sail in a westerly direction, forming a line of battle close inshore. The British closed in on them in two lines to cut them off. The action began when 'Superb', 74 guns, under the command of Sir John Duckworth, fired at the French 'Alexandre', 80 guns. In the action that followed the French ships' Alexandre', Brave', 74 guns, and 'Jupiter', 74 guns, were taken while the 'Diomede', 72 guns, and the huge 'Imperial', 120 guns ran themselves ashore and were wrecked. The three French frigates, 'Felicite', 36 guns, 'Comete', 36 guns and 'Diligente', 18 guns escaped. The 'Imperial', in port-bow view is in the right centre foreground of the painting, engaged to port with the 'Superb', nearly bow on. The 'Imperial's' main topmast is falling. To the right and beyond is the partly dismasted 'Northumberland', 74 guns, in starboard-quarter view. Beyond her in the extreme right background is the British 'Spencer', 74 guns, stern on, and in the background between the 'Superb 'and 'Northumberland' is the dismasted 'Brave.' In the centre middle ground, in port-bow view and partly masked by the 'Imperial 'is the 'Diomede', being engaged to starboard by the British 'Canopus', 80 guns, in starboard-bow view. Astern of her the stern half of the British 'Atlas', 74 guns, is visible, followed by the 'Agamemnon', 64 guns, in starboard-bow view, with the 'Alexandre' in starboard-quarter view in the distance. In the extreme left of the picture the British 'Donegal', 74 guns, in starboard-bow view is engaging the French 'Jupiter', 74 guns, to port. There is a fresh breeze and a choppy sea. This painting was a large-scale commission for Admiral Charles Middleton, Lord Barham, and records an event which took place while he was First Lord of the Admiralty, 1805-06. Pocock made many preparatory sketches for the commission giving full details of this action, in accordance with his usual practice of ensuring accuracy. Pocock was born and brought up in Bristol, went to sea at the age of 17 and rose to command several merchant ships. Although he only took up painting as a profession in his early forties, he became extremely successful, receiving commissions from naval commanders anxious to have accurate portrayals of actions and ships. By the age of 80, Pocock had recorded nearly forty years of maritime history, demonstrating a meticulous understanding of shipping and rigging with close attention to detail. Signed and dated, 'N Pocock 1808'.


Inscribed by Pocock in pencil, 'Sir J. T. Duckworth', 'Final View' (with a sight-line indicated) and with the names and positions of the ships. This is a preparatory plan for the large oil painting (NMM BHC0571) of Sir John Thomas Duckworth's victory off San Domingo, which formed a somewhat overlooked postscript to Trafalgar in destroying French naval power in the West Indies. Duckworth's 'Superb' engages the French flagship 'Imperial' in the centre.


Captain Pulteney Malcolm on Donegal attacked Brave directly, firing his starboard guns and then crossing Brave's stern, inflicting severe damage with a raking broadside, before pulling alongside again and engaging from close range.[16] Badly damaged, Brave surrendered. Malcolm then ordered Captain Richard Dunn in Acasta to take possession as Donegal moved forward to engage Jupiter. With Donegalalongside Jupiter, Captain Samuel Pym in Atlas abandoned his brief engagement with the French ship and steered for the melee surrounding the increasingly isolated Impérial. Taking advantage of his ship's superior speed, Malcolm pulled ahead of Jupiter and then rammed her bow, securing the ships together to prevent the French vessel from escaping. Recognising that further resistance was hopeless, Captain Gaspard Laignel surrendered immediately. Malcolm then sent 100 men on board as a prize crew and attached a towline to the French ship, just as the trailing Agamemnon finally reached the battle.

Leissègues drives ashore
Under the shroud of heavy smoke that confused the positions and identities of the ships at the head of the line, manoeuvering became hazardous: Atlas fired two broadsides into Impérial as she arrived and then raked the French flagship before her tiller jammed just as Diomède loomed out the smoke. Receiving a heavy broadside from the French ship, Atlas subsequently collided with Canopus as she too appeared immediately ahead, tearing off her bowsprit in the collision. Turning back into the battle, Atlas engaged Diomède at close range as the rest of the British squadron concentrated their fire on the beleaguered Impérial, with the exception of the damaged Northumberland, which was drifting out of the line.

With his main and mizzen masts collapsed and escape impossible, Leissègues turned his ship towards the shore at 11:30, outdistancing the fire from the drifting Northumberland and leaving Superb behind, Duckworth reluctant to risk his ship in the shallow coastal shoals. Canopus maintained the pressure, pursuing the French flagship until it was clear at 11:40 that Impérial was hard aground on a coral reef, less than a mile from the beach. Diomède, under attack by Atlas and the recently returned Spencer, followed Impérial ashore. As they struck the reef, both French ships lost their remaining masts and suffered severe damage to their hulls. Their crews then gathered on deck and made preparations to abandon ship as the British squadron pulled back out of range of fire from the shore. During the engagement the French frigates and corvette had all slipped between the battling squadrons and the shoreline and escaped to the westwards. The British frigates were too preoccupied with boarding and towing prizes to initiate a chase.

Destruction of Impérial and Diomède


Sir J.T. Duckworth's Action off San Domingo, Feb. 7 8th 1806, Thomas Whitcombe, 1817, National Maritime Museum

As Duckworth gathered his squadron, Northumberland's mainmast collapsed across the deck, causing severe damage to the ship's fittings. Although Cochrane's flagship was the most severely damaged of the squadron, all had suffered to a degree: Superb's men counted 60 shot holes while Atlas was out of control and Donegal had lost one of her topmasts. Casualties were also distributed throughout the fleet, with Northumberland and Spencer suffering the worst and Atlas the least except for the barely engaged Agamemnon. Total losses were 74 killed and 264 wounded and several ships were damaged, but Duckworth was rapidly able to effect repairs as his ships remained on station to observe the situation ashore.

Impérial and Diomède had both run aground between Nizao and Point Catalan, their hulls broadside to the beach and their bottoms stove in by the reefs that lay offshore. Using the remaining ship's boats and with assistance from the shore, the wounded and survivors were ferried to the beach. These operations continued uninterrupted until 8 February, when Duckworth sent boats from Acasta and Magicienne to the wrecks. Boarding unopposed, the boat parties removed the remaining French crewmen as prisoners and set both ships on fire to deny their potential use to the French, although Leissègues had in fact already issued orders for them to be burnt once the last men had been evacuated. Her captain, Jean-Baptiste Henry, was among the 150 prisoners the British took from Diomède. By contrast, the British found only six men still aboard Impérial, none of them officers. French casualties in the engagement were very heavy, with over 500 men estimated to have been killed or wounded on Impérial alone and over 1,000 additional casualties shared among the rest of the fleet. Jupiter had not been severely damaged in the engagement and Brave, although damaged in the hull, was in a sailing condition. Both ships had surrendered early in the engagement after losing their captains killed or wounded, in the initial exchanges. Alexandre, by contrast, was a shattered wreck. Her British prize crew only just prevented the gaping holes smashed in her hull from sinking her.

Duckworth remained at anchor off Santo Domingo for several more days until his entire squadron and their prizes were ready for the voyage to Jamaica, sending Commander Nathaniel Day Cochrane to Britain in Kingfisher with the official despatches.[28] Admiral Cochrane separated from the fleet on the day of departure and Northumberland and Agamemnon sailed for Barbados in case other French forces should appear in the Leeward Islands while the main fleet was repairing at Jamaica. Duckworth was received at Jamaica with "rapturous acknowledgments" and his prizes were refitted for the journey back to Britain. In the event, Brave foundered off the Azores with the loss of three men, and Alexandre was too badly damaged for further service, being broken up on arrival. Only Jupiter, renamed HMS Maida after the recent French defeat at the battle of Maida in Italy, had any continued career in the Royal Navy. The only surviving French ships, the frigates Comète and Félicité, and the corvette Diligente all returned to France without incident over the following months.

Aftermath
The victory, just four months after the success at Trafalgar, was celebrated in Britain and across the Empire, particularly in the Caribbean. Mere rumours of Leissègues' presence had stifled trade and caused panic among the merchant houses of the West Indies and Duckworth's victory helped to restore confidence in commercial ocean travel once more. In Britain both the House of Commons and the House of Lords voted their thanks to the entire squadron when Duckworth's account of the action was read out, the motions led by Lord Grenville and Charles Grey, who both made expansive speeches in praise of Duckworth. Head money, a bounty on enemy servicemen killed, wounded or captured, was paid for 4,268 men, even though records showed that the French fleet carried significantly fewer men than that. Additional prize money was paid for the captured Jupiter and awards of money, ceremonial plate and ornate swords were made by patriotic societies and Lloyd's of London insurers. Admiral Louis was made a baronet and Cochrane a Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath, while a number of promotions were distributed among the first lieutenants. Duckworth, however, received nothing beyond his share of the general rewards. Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood, commander in chief of the Mediterranean, was furious that Duckworth had deserted his post off Cadiz, failed to bring Willaumez to battle in December and then sailed for the West Indies to resupply rather than returning to the Spanish coast. Historians William James and William Laird Clowes both considered that if Duckworth had not defeated Leissègues he would probably have faced a court martial. Duckworth's absence forced Collingwood to divert some of his own ships to the Cadiz blockade. The force provided still proved inadequate – on 26 February a French frigate squadron broke out of the port and escaped to Rochefort. Collingwood's influence was enough to block additional rewards to Duckworth, who subsequently returned to the Mediterranean and in 1807 commanded the fleet at the ineffectual Dardanelles Operation. Over four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.

In France, the government press misrepresented the battle. Le Moniteur Universel published a report purportedly written by Captain Raymond Cocault of the corvette Diligente. The report began by inaccurately claiming that the British squadron consisted of nine ships of the line. The report concluded with the information that two British ships had been destroyed on the San Domingo coast alongside three French and that two others had been dismasted and were badly damaged. The official French report, written by Leissègues but not published in France, contradicted this version of events. Leissègues stated that Cocault, with the other smaller warships, had made all sail to the westwards at the start of the engagement and that by the time the flagship drove ashore, Diligente was already out of sight. Leissègues remained on Santo Domingo for some time, but had returned to Europe by the time the colony fell to a joint English and Spanish force in July 1809. He later received a regional command in the Ionian Sea and took part in the Adriatic campaign.

The Atlantic campaign continued throughout the spring and summer. Willaumez was able to avoid the British squadrons searching for him by remaining deep in the South Atlantic. However, on 13 March 1806 the British under Warren intercepted and defeated an unrelated French squadron under Contre-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois while he was returning from the Indian Ocean. Eventually forced north in search of additional food supplies, Willaumez entered the Caribbean, where he hoped to intercept the Jamaica convoy to Britain. The disobedience of one of his own captains foiled Willaumez's plan and he ordered his squadron to its final cruising ground, off Newfoundland. On 18 August 1806, while it was deep in the Central Atlantic, a ferocious hurricane caught the squadron and scattered it. Willaumez eventually found shelter in Havana; a number of his ships reached ports in the United States, some too badly damaged to ever sail again. Only four of the 11 ships of the line that left Brest in December 1805 ever returned to France. San Domingo was the last fleet battle of the Wars to be fought in open water; the only subsequent engagement between fleets was the Battle of Basque Roads, fought in the narrow, shallow waters at the mouth of the Charente River.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Domingo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_at_the_Battle_of_San_Domingo

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1806 – Battle of San Domingo - Part III
British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.


Order of battle at the Battle of San Domingo


Position de la Division Imperiale de France.... attaquee par L'Escadre Anglaise Commandee par le Vice Amiral Duckworth, et les Contre Amiraux Cochrane et Louis le Six Fevrier 1806 a 6 Lieues 050 de Santo Domingo Vers 10h du Matin (PAF4759)


Seconde Position Des Divisions Francaise et Anglaise.... a la fin du Combat qui eut lieu le Six fevrier pres.... Santo Domingo (PAF4760)

British squadron
Duckworth's squadron was principally formed from his original Cádiz squadron, except for HMS Powerful which had been sent to the Indian Ocean in December 1805, and with the addition of two ships from the West Indies squadron under Cochrane, HMS Northumberland and HMS Atlas. Frigates and smaller craft joined the fleet as it sailed north through the Leeward Islands, but none were engaged during the battle itself except to act as tows for the more seriously damaged ships of the line. As he approached the French line, Duckworth separated his force into two divisions: a western force to windward under Duckworth himself and a slower eastern force led by Duckworth's second in command Rear-Admiral Thomas Louis. During the engagement the divisions became separated and as a result Duckworth's division fought the strongest French forces at the head of the line. Louis was initially engaged with the French rear, but later assisted his commander against the huge Impérial during the final stages of the battle. British casualties were recorded in detail in Duckworth's despatches, based on the returns of each ship, although they were not evenly distributed: HMS Agamemnon arrived late in the battle and suffered minimal losses, while Northumberland was heavily engaged with the French flagship and suffered correspondingly severe casualties.




Admiral, Sir J. T. Duckworth's Victory over, and Signal Defeat, of the French Fleet, in the Bay of St Domingo London Gazette Extraordinary Admiralty-Office, March 23, 1806 (PAD5762)

French squadron
Contre-Admiral Leissègues' squadron was unchanged from the force that left Brest on 13 December. All ships however, especially Jupiter and Diomède, had been badly damaged by storms off the Azores in late December and repairs were incomplete by the time of Duckworth's attack, most the fleet still undergoing caulking at Santo Domingo. Recognising that if he was caught at anchor he would be destroyed, Leissègues sent orders from his offices in Santo Domingo for the fleet to sail, joining them later by small boat. Trapped against the land with the wind from the west, Leissègues had no option but to form a line of battle and wait to meet the British squadron. Although his ships fought hard, they were unable to mutually support one another and were rapidly overwhelmed: three surrendered, while Diomède and Impérial were driven ashore and wrecked to prevent their capture. The only ships to escape were the two frigates and a corvette that and slipped between the French line and the land early in the battle and made sail to the west, eventually reaching France.

French casualties are hard to calculate, as the best available source is the vague totals submitted by Duckworth in his account to the Admiralty. He estimates, apparently based on reports by the senior remaining French officers on Alexandre, Jupiter and Brave, that those three ships suffered 760 casualties in total. These accounts were subsequently called into question by historian William James, who considered them too high. James also criticised the assumed totals for Impérial and Diomède, which are even less certain but reportedly totalled 500 and 250 respectively. In addition to those killed and wounded, the entire surviving crews of Alexandre, Jupiter and Brave were taken prisoner, as were 150 men from Diomède and six from Impérial seized by British boarding parties on 8 February.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Domingo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_battle_at_the_Battle_of_San_Domingo

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1806 – Battle of San Domingo - Part IV - the french ships
British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.


2 french ships of the line destroyed

Vengeur ("Avenger") was a first-rate 118-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, of the Océan type, designed by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was the first ship in French service to sport 18-pounder long guns on her third deck, instead of the lighter 12-pounder long guns used before for this role.



Career
Laid down as Peuple in covered basin no.3 at Brest Dockyard in October 1793, she was renamed as Vengeur after the Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 in honour of the Vengeur du Peuple by a decree passed by the National Convention.

She was launched on 1 October 1803 and completed in February 1804. She was again renamed in March 1805, becoming Impérial.

She took part in the Battle of San Domingo on 6 February 1806. Severely battered by several British ships, most of her artillery out of order and without means to manoeuver, she was beached by her captain to prevent her sinking and capture. It took several days to evacuate her crew, of whom many were wounded; after a few days, British ships closed in and sent boats to capture those remained aboard and set fire to the wreck.


1/48 scale model of the Océan class 120-gun ship of the line Commerce de Marseille, on display at Marseille naval museum; and Half-hull of a 120-gun ship of the line on display at Brest naval museum.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Commerce de Marseilles (captured 1793), a captured French First Rate. The plan illustrates the ship as taken off at Plymouth Dockyard, prior to being fitted as a 120-gun First Rate, three-decker. Signed by John Marshall [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1795-1802].


Scale: 1:48. A contemporary half block model of the warship Commerce de Marseille (1788), a French 120 gun three decked ship of the line.


Union was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Diomède in 1803. She was wrecked and burnt at the Battle of San Domingo.


Scale model of Achille, sister ship of French ship Union (1799), on display at the Musée de la Marine in Paris.



sistership

Coloured lithograph (PAF4706 is an uncoloured impression). Le Genereux and HMS Leander are depicted after the action. Le Genereux, in port side view, is flying the French flag at the main mast and stern, gun ports are open, all sails are holed. The starboard bow of HMS Leander is visible on the right-hand side of the image. She appears to have lost her masts, tattered sails are draped on the decks and hang from the bowspit. Flotsam is visible in the calm sea. While carrying Nelson's despatches announcing the victory in the Battle of the Nile, HMS Leander was captured by the French Le Genereux on 18th August 1798. The crew displayed exceptionally brave resistence. The commander, Captain Thomas Boulden Thompson, and Nelson's flag commander, Edward Berry, who was on board, were afterwards knighted. Le Genereux was eventually captured and added to the Royal Navy in 1800.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Vengeur_(1803)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Océan-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Union_(1799)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Commerce_de_Marseille
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-314983;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=L

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1806 – Battle of San Domingo - Part V - the french ships
British naval victory against the French in the Caribbean.


Captured ships

Indivisible was a Tonnant class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.




Capture of HMS Swiftsure by Indivisible and Dix-Août

Originally named the Indivisible in 1793, she was commissioned in Toulon on 23 September 1800. On 5 February 1803, she was renamed Alexandre, and recommissioned in Brest under Captain Leveyer.

In December, under Captain Garreau, she was part of Corentin Urbain Leissègues's squadron bound for San Domingo. She took part in the subsequent Battle of San Domingo, where she was badly damaged by the fire of HMS Superb, which left her adrift, her rigging shot off and her rudder destroyed. She was taken by HMS Spencer.

From 1808, the Royal Navy used her as a gunpowder hulk in Plymouth. Indivisible was eventually broken up in 1822.

sistership

Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as fitted? as an 80-gun, Third Rate, two-decker. The plan may relate to her when she was originally fitted at Portsmouth Dockyard between June 1794 and April 1795. This plan was sent to Devonport Dockyard (Plymouth) in October 1842 to compare with the lines ordered to be taken off by Mr Spiller.


Viala was a 74-gun Téméraire-class ship of the line of the French Navy launched in 1795. The Royal Navy captured her in 1806 and sold her in 1814.



French service
Between 1794 and 1795, the French successively named her Viala (in honour of Joseph Agricol Viala), Voltaire (in honour of François-Marie Arouet), and Constitution (after the Constitution of the National Convention).

In the winter of 1796-1797, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande. She managed to reach Bantry Bay, where she was damaged in a collision with Révolution.

In 1802, she was recommissioned in Toulon, under Captain Faure.

In 1803, she was renamed again to Jupiter, and joined Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues's squadron bound for Santo Domingo, under Captain Laignel. Donegal, while serving in a Royal Navy squadron under the command of Vice Admiral Duckworth, captured her at the Battle of San Domingo (6 February 1806). In the battle, Jupiter lost some 200 men killed and wounded; Donegal had 12 men killed and 33 wounded.

British service
Jupiter arrived in Portsmouth on 6 May 1805. The Royal Navy then commissioned her as HMS Maida, in honour of the Battle of Maida, the name Jupiter being already used for the 50-gun fourth rate Jupiter.

She was commissioned in February 1807 under Captain Samuel Hood Linzee.

Maida was one of the vessels at the Second Battle of Copenhagen. There she landed a party of seamen who manned the breaching battery before the city. Because she was one of the vessels present at the seizure of the Danish fleet on 7 September, her officers and crew were entitled to share in the prize money.[Note 2] By the end of the year she was back in Portsmouth.

On 26 October 1807, Tsar Alexander I of Russia declared war on Great Britain. The official news did not arrive there until 2 December, at which time the British declared an embargo on all Russian vessels in British ports. Maida was one of some 70 vessels that shared in the proceeds of the seizure of the 44-gun Russian frigate Speshnoy (Speshnyy), and the Russian storeship Wilhelmina (or Vilghemina) then in Portsmouth harbour. The Russian vessels were carrying the payroll for Vice-Admiral Dmitry Senyavin’s squadron in the Mediterranean.

Maida was paid off at Portsmouth on 9 March 1808 and placed into ordinary. In 1813 she came under the command of Captain John Hayes. She remained in ordinary, i.e., she was not recommissioned, but served as flagship at Portsmouth to Rear-Admiral Edward Griffith Colpoys.

Fate
On 25 July 1814 the Principal Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy put her up for sale. The conditions of sale included that the purchaser was to give a bond, with two sureties for ₤3000, that they would not sell or otherwise dispose of the ship but that they would break her up within twelve months from the date of sale. She was sold on 11 August 1814 for £4,700.



Cassard was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Dix-août in 1798, in honour of the events of 10 August 1792, and subsequently Brave in 1803.



Career
On 10 February 1801 Dix-août captured the 16-gun cutter HMS Sprightly, which she scuttled. On 27 March 1801, as Dix-août sailed with the fleet of Toulon, she collided with Formidable and had to return to harbour.

On 4 February 1803, her name was changed to Brave.

She was captured by HMS Donegal on 6 February 1806 at the Battle of San Domingo. She foundered shortly thereafter on 12 April (without loss of life) while en route to Britain.


Scale model of The Thomson Collection of Ship Models on display at the Art Gallery of Ontario




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Indivisible
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnant-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Viala_(1795)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Cassard_(1795)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-346001;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1810 - End of campaign with final capture of Guadaloupe by Britsh fleet, under Rear Ad. Sir Alexander Cochrane, of HMS Pompee (80), Capt. George Cockburn, and consorts.


The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British amphibious operation fought between 28 January and 6 February 1810 over control of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was the final remaining French colony in the Americas, following the systematic invasion and capture of the others during 1809 by British forces. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French colonies had provided protected harbours for French privateers and warships, which could prey on the numerous British trade routes in the Caribbean and then return to the colonies before British warships could react. In response, the British instituted a blockade of the islands, stationing ships off every port and seizing any vessel that tried to enter or leave. With trade and communication made dangerous by the British blockade squadrons, the economies and morale of the French colonies began to collapse, and in the summer of 1808 desperate messages were sent to France requesting helping.



Despite repeated efforts, the French Navy failed to reinforce and resupply the garrison, as their ships were intercepted and defeated either in European waters or in the Caribbean itself. The British had intercepted a number of these messages, and launched a series of successful invasions during 1809, until Guadeloupe was the only French colony remaining. A British expeditionary force landed on 28 January 1810, and found that much of the island's militia garrison had deserted. Advancing from two landing beaches on opposite sides of the island, they were able to rapidly push inland. It was not until they reached Beaupère–St. Louis Ridge outside the capital Basse-Terre that the expeditionary force faced strong opposition, but in a battle lasting for most of 3 February, the French were defeated and driven back. The island's commander, Jean Augustin Ernouf, began surrender negotiations the following day.


Preparations
Beckwith mustered 6,700 men from a variety of garrisons and sources, his men belonging to the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 8th West India Regiments, the 1st Foot, 15th Foot, 19th Foot, 25th Foot, 63rd Foot, 90th Foot and the Royal York Rangers, as well as 300 garrison artillerymen and various militia forces. These troops were split into two divisions: the largest, 3,700 men under Beckwith with subordinate command given to Major General Thomas Hislop, was to be deployed at Le Gosier on the island's southern shore. The second division, 2,450 men under Brigadier General George Harcourt, was initially ordered to wait on the Îles des Saintes before being deployed after the main attack to the rear of the French garrison. A small reserve under Brigadier General Charles Wale would follow the main assault to provide support if required. As the French had no significant naval resources on the island, the Royal Navy's contribution was much smaller than that required for the Martinique invasion the year before. Cochrane attached ships of the line to both divisions, Beckwith sailing in Cochrane's flagship HMS Pompee, accompanied by HMS Abercrombie with Commodore William Charles Fahie, while Harcourt sailed with Commodore Samuel James Ballard in HMS Sceptre. Ballard and Fahie were in command of the transports and smaller vessels that carried the invasion forces and bore responsibility for ensuring that the amphibious landings were successful as well as for any naval units that participated in the land campaign.

The French defenders of the island were weakened by years of isolation caused by the British blockade. Although the available French troops numbered between 3,000 and 4,000, there was an epidemic on the island and a significant proportion of the garrison, principally formed by the 66e Régiment, were unfit for duty. Apart from the capital, the rest of the island's defences were manned by a militia formed from local inhabitants, among whom morale was low and desertion rates high. Military and food stores of all kinds were in short supply and the governor, General Jean Augustin Ernouf was unable to maintain garrisons around the island's extensive perimeter.

Invasion

British military operations in southern Guadeloupe 1810

After a brief period of consolidation on Dominica, Cochrane and Beckwith sailed for Guadeloupe on 27 January 1810, arriving off Le Gosier in the evening and landing the larger division at the village of Sainte-Marie under the command of Hislop. The division split, with one half marching south towards Basse-Terre and the other north. Neither met serious opposition, the militia forces deserting in large numbers and abandoning their fortifications as the British approached. Messages were sent by the approaching British ordering the surrender of towns and forts, and both forces made rapid progress over the following two days. On 30 January, Ernouf took up a position with his remaining garrison in the Beaupère–St. Louis Ridge highlands that guarded the approaches to Basse-Terre, Hislop forming his men in front of Ernouf's position. Later in the day, Harcourt's men came ashore to the north of Basse-Terre, outflanking the strongest French positions at Trois-Rivières and forcing their withdrawal to Basse-Terre itself.

With his capital coming under bombardment from gun batteries set up by Royal Navy sailors organised into naval brigades, Ernouf marched to meet the British on the plain at Matabar on 3 February. Forming up, Ernouf attacked the British and initially drove them back, before superior numbers forced him to retire after he was outflanked by Wale's force attacking from the north. General Wale was wounded in the attack, in which his men suffered 40 casualties. One eyewitness, an Irish sailor from HMS Alfred, claimed that Ernouf had laid a large land mine along his line of retreat and planned to detonate it as the British advanced but was prevented from doing so when Beckwith spotted the trap and refused to be drawn into it, although this story does not appear in other accounts. While Ernouf was retreating, Commodore Fahie seized the opportunity to attack the undefended town of Basse-Terre, landing with a force of Royal Marines and capturing the town, cutting off Ernouf's route of escape. Isolated and surrounded, the French general requested a truce at 08:00 on 4 February to bury the dead from the battle the day before. This was accepted, and on 5 February he formally surrendered.

Aftermath
British casualties in the operation numbered 52 killed and 250 wounded, with seven men missing. French losses were heavier, in the region of 500–600 casualties throughout the campaign. 3,500 soldiers were captured with their officers, cannon and the French Imperial Eagle of the 66e Régiment. As Napoleon had rescinded the prisoner exchange system previously in place, all of the prisoners would remain in British hands until 1814. The captured eagle was sent to Britain, the first French eagle captured during the Napoleonic Wars. By 22 February, the nearby Dutch colonies of Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatiusand Saba were all persuaded to surrender without a fight by ships sent from Cochrane's fleet. The British officers were rewarded for their successes: Beckwith remained in the Caribbean until he retired in 1814 from ill-health, while Cochrane and Hislop were promoted. All of the expedition's officers and men were voted the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and ten years later the regiments and ships that participated (or their descendents) were awarded the battle honour Guadaloupe 1810. Four decades after the operation, it was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal and the Military General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.

Guadeloupe was taken over as a British colony for the remainder of the war, only restored to France after Napoleon's abdication in 1814. The following year, during the Hundred Days, Guadeloupe's governor Charles-Alexandre Durand Linois declared for the Emperor once more, requiring another British invasion, although of much smaller size and duration, to restore the monarchy. The fall of Guadeloupe marked the end of the final French territory in the Caribbean; the entire region was now in the hands of either the British or the Spanish, except the independent state of Haiti. The lack of French privateers and warships sparked a boom in trade operations, and the economies of the Caribbean islands experienced a resurgence. It also made a significant reduction in French international trade and had a corresponding effect on the French economy. Finally, the capture of the last French colony struck a decisive blow to the Atlantic slave trade, which had been made illegal by the British government in 1807 and was actively persecuted by the Royal Navy. Without French colonies in the Caribbean, there was no ready market for slaves in the region and the slave trade consequently dried up.



HMS Pompee was a 74-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. Built as La Pompée, a Téméraire class ship of the French Navy, she was handed over to the British at Spithead by French royalists who had fled France[1] after the Siege of Toulon (September-December 1793) by the French Republic, only a few months after being completed. After reaching Great Britain, La Pompée was registered and recommissioned as HMS Pompee and spent the entirety of her active career with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1817.



Service
During the Siege of Toulon, Captain Poulain, her commanding officer, joined the British. La Pompée fled Toulon when the city fell to the French Republicans and sailed to Britain under the temporary command of Lieutenant John Davie. She arrived at Portsmouth on 3 May 1794, and was registered on the navy list under an Admiralty order dated 29 October 1794.

She commissioned as HMS Pompee under her first commander, Captain Charles Edmund Nugent, in May 1795 and entered service with the Channel Fleet after a period of refitting. From August 1795 she was under Captain James Vashon, and she was later one of the ships involved in the Spithead mutiny in 1797.

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

Under Captain Charles Stirling, she fought at the Battle of Algeciras Bay in 1801. In 1807 the ship, under the command of Captain Richard Dacres served in the Mediterranean squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Sydney Smith,[4] as part of the Vice-Admiral Duckworth's Dardanelles Operation and later the Alexandria expedition of 1807.

In late 1808 Pompee was in the Caribbean, captured the brig Pylade on 20 October 1808. She shared with Captain, Amaranthe, and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829.

Pompee participated in the capture of Martinique in January 1809. Later, she and Hautpoul took part in an action on 17 April 1809.

In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta, invaded and captured the islands. Pompee was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.

Fate
Pompee was fitted out for service as a prison hulk between September 1810 and January 1811. She was finally broken up at Woolwich in January 1817.

The acquisition of Pompée allowed the British to design a copy of the Téméraire class, the Pompée class.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline with decoration detail and the name in a cartouche on the stern counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Pompee (1794), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Portsmouth Dockyard prior to fitting as a 74-gun third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Edward Tippet [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1793-1799].




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Guadeloupe_(1810)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pompee_(1793)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-339838;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1822 - Tek Sing – The Chinese junk, was bound for Batavia, Dutch East Indies. She tried a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait between Belitung and Bangka Islands and grounded on a reef. The junk sank in about 30 metres (100 ft) of water, killing about 1,600 people


The Tek Sing (Chinese, "True Star") was a large three-masted Chinese ocean-going junk which sank on February 6, 1822 in an area of the South China Sea known as the Belvidere Shoals. The vessel was 50 meters in length, 10 meters wide and weighed about a thousand tons. Its tallest mast was estimated to be 90 feet in height. The ship was manned by a crew of 200 and had approx. 1600 passengers. The great loss of life associated with the sinking has led to the Tek Sing being referred to in modern times as the "Titanic of the East".



Sinking
Sailing from the port of Amoy (now Xiamen in Fujian, People's Republic of China), the Tek Sing was bound for Batavia, Dutch East Indies (now Jakarta, Indonesia) laden with a large cargo of porcelain goods and 1600 Chinese immigrants. After a month of sailing, the Tek Sing's captain, Io Tauko, decided to attempt a shortcut through the Gaspar Strait between the Bangka-Belitung Islands, and ran aground on a reef. The junk sank in about 30m (100 feet) of water.

The next morning, February 7, an English East Indiaman captained by James Pearl sailing from Indonesia to Borneo passed through the Gaspar Strait. The ship encountered debris from the sunk Chinese vessel and an enormous number of survivors. The English ship managed to rescue about 190 of the survivors. Another 18 persons were saved by a wangkang, a small Chinese junk captained by Jalang Lima. This Chinese vessel may have been sailing in tandem with the Tek Sing, but had avoided the reefs.



Discovery
On May 12, 1999, British marine salvor Michael Hatcher discovered the wreck of the Tek Sing in an area of the South China Sea north of Java, east of Sumatra and south of Singapore. His crew raised about 350,000 pieces of the ship's cargo in what is described as the largest sunken cache of Chinese porcelain ever recovered. Human remains were also found, but they were not disturbed as most of Hatcher's crew, being Indonesian and Chinese, believed that bad luck would befall any who disturbed the dead.

The Tek Sing's recovered cargo was auctioned in Stuttgart, Germany in November 2000.


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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1841 – Launch of French Sémillante, a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy


The Sémillante was a Surveillante class 60-gun first rank frigate of the French Navy.



Career
Sémillante took part in the Crimean war from 1854 as a transport. In February 1855, under Captain Jugan, she departed Toulon with a crew of 301 and 392 soldiers as reinforcements for the French army

On 15 February 1855, in the Strait of Bonifacio near the Lavezzi Islands, Sémillante was caught in a storm. Lost in a thick fog, a gust of wind drove the ship into rocks on Ile Lavezzi, the 200 ha main island of the archipelago. The ship sank around midnight with all hands.


Fragments of Sémillante, on display at Port-Louis naval museum

Monument
For weeks, bodies of the victims washed up on the shore of Ile Lavezzi. The remains of 600 of the people on board were eventually recovered and buried in the Achiarino cemetery on the island. Only the captain's grave is marked by name. A 27-foot-high (8.2 m) pyramid of boulders was built as a remembrance of the disaster.

The wreck is cited[by whom?] as a triggering event that raised public awareness of naval disasters and spurred the creation of coastal rescue organizations


Model showing characteristics and original painting scheme of Belle Poule, sister-ship of the French frigate Melpomène (1828). Model on display at Toulon naval museum.

The Surveillante class was a type of sixty-gun frigate of the French Navy, designed in 1823 by Mathurin-François Boucher.

One of the main innovations with respect to previous design was the disappearance of the gangways, which provided a flush deck capable of harbouring a complete second battery. With the standardisation on the 30-pounder calibre for all naval ordnance that occurred in the 1820s, this design allowed for a frigate throwing a 900-pound broadside, thrice the firepower of the 40-gun Pallas class that constituted the majority of the frigate forces during the Empire, and comparable to that of a 74-gun.

By far the best-known ship of the class is Belle Poule, which achieved fame when she transported the ashes of Napoléon back to France in the so-called Retour des cendres; for this occasion, she was painted all black, a colour scheme that she retained later in her career, but which is uncharacteristic of the ships of this type.

First class frigates, 30-pounder armed
Initially defined as frigates with a main armament of 30-pounder guns, this category was amended to define them as frigates of 60 guns.

• Surveillante class, (60-gun first rate type, 1823 design by Mathurin-François Boucher, with 30 x 30-pounder guns, 28 x 30-pounder carronades and 2 x 18-pounder guns – later units had altered 60-gun armament):
  • Surveillante, (launched 29 September 1825 at Lorient) – deleted 22 August 1844.
  • Belle Gabrielle, (launched 28 June 1828 at Cherbourg) – renamed Indépendante 9 August 1830, deleted 24 October 1860.
  • Melpomène, (launched 28 July 1828 at Cherbourg) – deleted 20 March 1845.
  • Herminie, (launched 25 August 1828 at Lorient) – wrecked off Bermuda 3 December 1838.
  • Belle Poule, (launched 26 March 1834 at Cherbourg) – deleted 19 March 1861.
  • Sémillante, (launched 6 February 1841 at Lorient) – wrecked 16 February 1855 off Bonifacio.
  • Andromaque, (launched 8 March 1841 at Lorient) – deleted 17 August 1869.
  • Forte, (launched 16 September 1841 at Cherbourg) – deleted 23 October 1883.
  • Pallas, (launched 15 August 1860 at Lorient as a steam frigate) – deleted 23 October 1883

Belle Poule - Depiction by Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Sémillante_(1841)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveillante-class_frigate

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1862 - Union gunboat squadron captures Fort Henry, Tennessee River


The Battle of Fort Henry was fought on February 6, 1862, in western Middle Tennessee[, during the American Civil War. It was the first important victory for the Union and Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in the Western Theater.




On February 4 and 5, Grant landed two divisions just north of Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. (The troops serving under Grant were the nucleus of the Union's successful Army of the Tennessee, although that name was not yet in use.) Grant's plan was to advance upon the fort on February 6 while it was being simultaneously attacked by Union gunboats commanded by Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. A combination of accurate and effective naval gunfire, heavy rain, and the poor siting of the fort, nearly inundated by rising river waters, caused its commander, Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, to surrender to Foote before the Union Army arrived.



The surrender of Fort Henry opened the Tennessee River to Union traffic south of the Alabama border. In the days following the fort's surrender, from February 6 through February 12, Union raids used ironclad boats to destroy Confederate shipping and railroad bridges along the river. On February 12, Grant's army proceeded overland 12 miles (19 km) to engage with Confederate troops in the Battle of Fort Donelson.


Background


Relief map of Fort Henry, drafted by General Cullum w/ his notations

In early 1861 the critical border state of Kentucky had declared neutrality in the American Civil War. This neutrality was first violated on September 3, when Confederate Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, acting on orders from Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk, occupied Columbus, Kentucky. The riverside town was situated on 180 foot high bluffs that commanded the river at that point, where the Confederates installed 140 large guns, underwater mines and a heavy chain that stretched a mile across the Mississippi River to Belmont, while occupying the town with 17,000 Confederate troops, thus cutting off northern commerce to the south and beyond.

Two days later, Union Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, displaying the personal initiative that would characterize his later career, seized Paducah, Kentucky, a major transportation hub of rail and port facilities at the mouth of the Tennessee River. Henceforth, neither adversary respected Kentucky's proclaimed neutrality, and the Confederate advantage was lost. The buffer zone that Kentucky provided between the North and the South was no longer available to assist in the defense of Tennessee.

By early 1862, a single general, Albert Sidney Johnston, commanded all the Confederate forces from Arkansas to the Cumberland Gap, but his forces were spread too thinly over a wide defensive line. Johnston's left flank was Polk, in Columbus with 12,000 men; his right flank was Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, with 4,000 men; the center consisted of two forts, Forts Henry and Donelson, under the command of Brig. Gen. Lloyd Tilghman, also with 4,000 men. Forts Henry and Donelson were the sole positions defending the important Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. If these rivers were opened to Union military traffic, two direct invasion paths would lead into Tennessee and beyond.

The Union military command in the West suffered from a lack of unified command, and were organized into three separate departments: the Department of Kansas, under Maj. Gen. David Hunter; the Department of Missouri, under Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck; and the Department of the Ohio, under Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. By January 1862, the disunity was apparent because they could not agree on a strategy for operations in the Western Theater. Buell, under political pressure to invade and hold pro-Union eastern Tennessee, moved slowly in the direction of Nashville. In Halleck's department, Grant moved up the Tennessee River to divert attention from Buell's intended advance, which did not occur. Halleck and the other generals in the West were coming under political pressure from President Abraham Lincoln to participate in a general offensive by Washington's birthday (February 22). Despite his tradition of caution, Halleck eventually reacted positively to Grant's proposal to move against Fort Henry. Halleck hoped that this would improve his standing in relation to his rival, Buell. Halleck and Grant were also concerned about rumors that Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard would soon arrive with 15 Confederate regiments. On January 30, 1862, Halleck authorized Grant to take Fort Henry.

Grant wasted no time, leaving Cairo, Illinois, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, on February 2. His invasion force, which arrived on the Tennessee River on February 4 and 5, consisted of 15–17,000 men in two divisions, commanded by Brig. Gens. John A. McClernand and Charles F. Smith, and the Western Gunboat Flotilla, commanded by United States Navy Flag Officer Andrew Hull Foote. The flotilla included four ironclad gunboats (flagship USS Cincinnati, USS Carondelet, USS St. Louis, and USS Essex) under Foote's direct command, and three timberclad (wooden) gunboats (USS Conestoga, USS Tyler, and USS Lexington) under Lt. Seth Ledyard Phelps. Insufficient transport ships this early in the war to deliver all of the army troops in a single operation required two trips upriver to reach the fort.


Campaign for Fort Henry

Fort Henry
Fort Henry was a five-sided, open-bastioned earthen structure covering 10 acres (0.04 km2) on the eastern bank of the Tennessee River, near Kirkman's Old Landing. The site was about one mile above Panther Creek and about six miles below the mouth of the Big Sandy River and Standing Rock Creek.

Seventeen guns were mounted in Fort Henry by the time of the battle, eleven covering the river and the other six positioned to defend against a land attack (18-pounder smoothbores). There were two heavy guns, a 10-inch (250 mm) Columbiad and a 24-pounder rifled cannon, with the remainder being 32-pounder smoothbores. There were also two 42-pounders, but no ammunition of that caliber was available. When the river was at normal levels, the fort's walls rose 20 feet (6.1 m) above it and were 20 feet (6.1 m) thick at the base, sloping upward to a width of nearly 10 feet (3.0 m) at the parapet. However, in February 1862, heavy rains caused the river to rise and most of the fort was underwater, including the powder magazine.

The Confederates deployed one additional defensive measure, which was then unique in the history of warfare: several torpedoes (in modern terminology, a naval minefield) were anchored below the surface in the main shipping channel, rigged to explode when touched by a passing ship. (This measure turned out to be ineffective, due to high water levels and leaks in the torpedoes' metal containers.)

Battle


Battle of Fort Henry and the movements to Fort Donelson

On February 4 and 5, Grant landed his divisions in two different locations. McClernand's division was 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the fort, on the east bank of the Tennessee River, to prevent the garrison's escape. C.F. Smith's division would seize Fort Heiman on the Kentucky side of the river and turn its artillery on Fort Henry. When heavy rains the night of February 5 slowed the progress of Union troops toward the forts, the battle turned on naval actions, which concluded before the infantry saw action.

Tilghman realized that it was only a matter of time before Fort Henry fell. Only nine guns remained above the water to mount a defense. While leaving artillery in the fort to hold off the Union gunboats, he ordered the majority of his force to march, under the command of Col. Adolphus Heiman, on the overland route to Fort Donelson, 12 miles (19 km) away. Fort Heiman was abandoned on February 4, and all but a handful of artillerymen left Fort Henry on February 5. (Union cavalry pursued the retreating Confederates, but poor road conditions prevented any serious confrontation and they took few captives.) Tilghman, as was his custom, spent the night of February 5–6 on the steamer Dunbar, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) upstream from the fort. Around midnight he sent an update on the situation to Johnston, then returned to Fort Henry just before dawn.

On the morning of February 6, Foote's seven Union gunboats arrived at Fort Henry and established their position around 12:30 p.m. They soon opened fire from a distance at 1,700 yards (around 1,554 meters), beginning an exchange of gunfire with Fort Henry that continued for over an hour. After Tilghman rejected an initial call to surrender, the fleet continued to bombard the fort. This was its first engagement using newly designed and hastily constructed ironclads. Foote deployed the four ironclad gunboats in a line abreast, followed by the three timberclads, under the command of Seth Ledyard Phelps, which were held back for long-range, but less effective fire against the fort. The high water level of the river and the low elevation of Fort Henry's guns allowed Foote's fleet to escape serious destruction. The Confederate fire was able to hit the ironclads only where their armor was strongest. During the bombardment, all four of the Union ironclads were repeatedly hit by Confederate fire. The USS Essex was seriously damaged when a 32-pound shot from Fort Henry penetrated the ironclad, hitting the middle boiler and sending scalding steam through half the ship. Thirty-two crewmen were killed or wounded, including commander William D. Porter. The ship was out of action for the remainder of the campaign.

Aftermath and the timberclad raid
After the bombardment had lasted 75 minutes, Tilghman surrendered to Foote's fleet, which had closed to within 400 yards (370 m) for a close-range bombardment. Before the battle, Tilghman told his men that he would offer an hour of resistance to allow his men additional time to escape. With only one cannon still working, down to the last few rounds due to the powder magazine being underwater, and the rest of the guns destroyed or knocked out, Tilghman ordered the Confederate flag at Fort Henry lowered and a white sheet raised on the fort's flagpole. Upon seeing the white flag, the Union gunboats immediately ceased fire. A small launch from the flotilla sailed through the sally port of the fort and picked up Tilghman for the surrender conference and ceremony on Cincinnati. Twelve officers and 82 men of the garrison surrendered; other casualties from the fort's garrison were estimated to be 15 men killed and 20 wounded. The evacuating Confederate force left all of its artillery and equipment behind. Tilghman was imprisoned, but exchanged on August 15.

Tilghman wrote bitterly in his report that Fort Henry was in a "wretched military position. ... The history of military engineering records no parallel to this case." Grant sent a brief dispatch to Halleck: "Fort Henry is ours. ... I shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th and return to Fort Henry." Halleck wired Washington, D.C.: "Fort Henry is ours. The flag is reestablished on the soil of Tennessee. It will never be removed."

Grant and his troops arrived at Fort Henry at around 3 p.m. on February 6 to see that the garrison had already surrendered. McClernand's division arrived at the fort about 30 minutes later. In the meantime, Smith's division had reached the deserted Fort Heiman. If Grant had been cautious and delayed his departure by two days, the battle would have never occurred. By February 8, Fort Henry was completely underwater. On February 7, the Union gunboats Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Essex returned to Cairo with whistles blowing and flying Fort Henry's captured Confederate flags upside down. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed the battle as "one of the most complete and signal victories in the annals of the world's warfare."

Fort Henry's fall quickly opened the Tennessee River to Union gunboats and shipping south of the Alabama border. Immediately after the surrender, Foote sent Lieutenant Phelps with the three timberclads, Tyler, Conestoga, and Lexington, on a mission upriver to destroy installations and supplies of military value. (The flotilla's ironclads had sustained damage in the bombardment of Fort Henry and were slower and less maneuverable for the mission at hand, which included pursuit of Confederate ships.) The raid reached as far as Muscle Shoals, just past Florence, Alabama, the river's navigable limit. The Union timberclads and their raiding parties destroyed supplies and an important bridge of the Memphis and Ohio Railroad, 25 miles (40 km) upriver. They also captured a variety of southern ships, including Sallie Wood, Muscle, and Eastport, an ironclad under construction. The Union gunboats returned safely to Fort Henry on February 12. The citizens of Florence asked Phelps to spare their town and its railroad bridge. Phelps agreed, seeing no military importance to the bridge.

After the fall of Fort Donelson to Grant's army on February 16, the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, two major water routes in the Confederate west, became Union waterways for movement of troops and material. As Grant suspected, the Union capture of the two forts and the rivers flanked the Confederate forces at Columbus, and soon caused them to withdraw from that city and from western Kentucky.


Fort Henry, on the morning after its capture, February 6, from a sketch by Henry Lovie

Preservation
Although closely associated with Fort Donelson, the Fort Henry site is not managed by the U.S. National Park Service as part of the Fort Donelson National Battlefield. It is currently part of the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. When the Tennessee River was dammed in the 1930s, creating Kentucky Lake, the remains of Fort Henry were permanently submerged. A small navigation beacon, far from the Kentucky shoreline, marks the location of the northwest corner of the former fort. Fort Heiman was on privately owned land until October 2006, when the Calloway County, Kentucky, executive office transferred 150 acres (0.61 km2) associated with that fort to the National Park Service for management as part of the Fort Donelson National Battlefield. Some of the entrenchments are still visible.



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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1898 - SS Baltic, an ocean liner hit a derelict ship and sank, with all on board saved.


SS Baltic was an ocean liner owned and operated by the White Star Line. Baltic was one of the first four ships ordered by White Star from shipbuilders Harland and Wolff after Thomas Ismay bought the company, and the third of the ships to be delivered.

In 1889, after SS Teutonic entered service, Baltic was sold to the Holland America Line and renamed Veendam after the Dutch city of that name. On 6 February 1898, Veendam hit a derelict ship and sank, with all on board saved.


A portrait of the four-mast steamship ‘Baltic'. She was built at Belfast by Harland and Wolff and launched in 1871 as the ‘Pacific’. That same year she made her maiden voyage for the White Star Line and was renamed ‘Baltic’. This voyage was from Liverpool to Queenstown and New York.

The White Star Line was founded in September 1869 as the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company. From the earliest days it was known as the White Star Line, owing to the flag of a red swallow-tailed flag with a white star. The company entered in the North Atlantic passenger trade soon after, and established a network of ticket agencies in many European countries and in America. When the White Star Line entered the highly competitive North Atlantic market around 1871, they as newcomers in the emigration trade had to compete with other well established companies. In 1873 the ‘Baltic’ gained the Blue Ribbon after setting a new record between New York and Queenstown. Later in 1883 she was chartered from the White Star Line to the Inman Line, established in 1850 as the Liverpool and Philadelphia Steamship Company. The company soon became more commonly known as the Inman Line, after one of the founders, William Inman. However this was not the official name before 1875, when the name of the company was changed to Inman Steamship Company Ltd. The ships were equipped to carry 400 steerage passengers, and entered on the route between Liverpool and New York.

An advertisement for 1871 described steamships like the ‘Baltic’ as ‘designed to afford the very best accommodation to all classes of passengers and are expected to accomplish quick and regular passages between this country and America. The state-rooms, with saloon and smoking-rooms, are placed amidships, and cabin passengers are thus removed from the noise and motion experienced at the after part of the vessel. Passengers are booked to all parts of the States, Canada, and Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, India, etc., at moderate through rates. A surgeon and stewardess is carried on each ship’.

In 1886 the Inman Line was purchased by the International Navigation Co. Red Star Line, and the name was changed to the Inman and International Steamship Co. Two years later the ‘Baltic’ was sold to Holland America Line and renamed ‘Veendam’. In February 1898 she foundered in the North Atlantic after a collision with a wreck, with no loss of life.

The painting shows the ship flying the flag of the White Star Company from her mainmast and the American flag from her foremast. It is signed ‘N. Jacobsen 1879’.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Baltic_(1871)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1922 - The world powers of the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France and Italy, sign the Washington Naval Treaty providing for limitation of naval armament.


The Washington Naval Treaty, also known as the Five-Power Treaty, the Four-Power Treaty, and the Nine-Power Treaty, was a treaty signed during 1922 among the major nations that had won World War I, which agreed to prevent an arms race by limiting naval construction. It was negotiated at the Washington Naval Conference, held in Washington, D.C., from November 1921 to February 1922, and it was signed by the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Italy, and Japan. It limited the construction of battleships, battlecruisers and aircraft carriers by the signatories. The numbers of other categories of warships, including cruisers, destroyers and submarines, were not limited by the treaty, but those ships were limited to 10,000 tons displacement each.


Signing of the Washington Naval Treaty

The treaty was concluded on February 6, 1922. Ratifications of that treaty were exchanged in Washington on August 17, 1923, and it was registered in the League of Nations Treaty Series on April 16, 1924.

Later naval arms limitation conferences sought additional limitations of warship building. The terms of the Washington treaty were modified by the London Naval Treaty of 1930 and the Second London Naval Treaty of 1936. By the mid-1930s, Japan and Italy renounced the treaties, while Germany renounced the Treaty of Versailles which had limited its navy. Naval arms limitation became increasingly difficult for the other signatories.


Terms



The treaty strictly limited both the tonnage and construction of capital ships and aircraft carriers and included limits of the size of individual ships.

The tonnage limits defined by Articles IV and VII (tabulated) gave a strength ratio of approximately 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 for the UK, the United States, Japan, Italy, and France, respectively.

The qualitative limits of each type of ship were as follows:

• Capital ships (battleships and battlecruisers) were limited to 35,000 tons standard displacement and guns of no larger than 16-inch calibre. (Articles V and VI)
• Aircraft carriers were limited to 27,000 tons and could carry no more than 10 heavy guns, of a maximum calibre of 8 inches. However, each signatory was allowed to use two existing capital ship hulls for aircraft carriers, with a displacement limit of 33,000 tons each (Articles IX and X). For the purposes of the treaty, an aircraft carrier was defined as a warship displacing more than 10,000 tons constructed exclusively for launching and landing aircraft. Carriers lighter than 10,000 tons, therefore, did not count towards the tonnage limits (Article XX, part 4). Moreover, all aircraft carriers then in service or building (Argus, Furious, Langley and Hosho) were declared "experimental" and not counted (Article VIII).
• All other warships were limited to a maximum displacement of 10,000 tons and a maximum gun calibre of 8 inches (Articles XI and XII).

The treaty also detailed by Chapter II the individual ships to be retained by each navy, including the allowance for the United States to complete two further ships of the Colorado class and for the UK to complete two new ships in accordance with the treaty limits.

Chapter II, part 2, detailed what was to be done to render a ship ineffective for military use. In addition to sinking or scrapping, a limited number of ships could be converted as target ships or training vessels if their armament, armour and other combat-essential parts were removed completely. Some could also be converted into aircraft carriers.

Part 3, Section II specified the ships to be scrapped to comply with the treaty and when the remaining ships could be replaced. In all, the United States had to scrap 30 existing or planned capital ships, Britain 23 and Japan 17.

Effects

The treaty arrested the continuing upward trend of battleship size and halted new construction entirely for more than a decade.

The treaty marked the end of a long period of increases of battleship construction. Many ships then being constructed were scrapped or converted into aircraft carriers. Treaty limits were respected and then extended by the London Naval Treaty of 1930. It was not until the mid-1930s that navies began to build battleships once again, and power and size of new battleships began to increase once again. The Second London Naval Treaty of 1936 sought to extend the Washington Treaty limits until 1942, but in the absence of Japan or Italy, it was largely ineffective.

There were fewer effects on cruiser building. While the treaty specified 10,000 tons and 8-inch guns as the maximum size of a cruiser, that was also the minimum size cruiser that any navy was willing to build. The treaty began a building competition of 8-inch, 10,000 ton "treaty cruisers", which gave further cause for concern. Subsequent naval treaties sought to address this, by limiting cruiser, destroyer and submarine tonnage.

Unofficial effects of the treaty included the end of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. It was not part of the Washington Treaty in any way, but the American delegates had made it clear they would not agree to the treaty unless the UK ended its alliance with the Japanese.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Naval_Treaty
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flottenkonferenzen#Die_Washingtoner_Flottenkonferenz_von_1922

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 February 1937 – Launch of german cruiser Admiral Hipper, the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper class of heavy Cruisers


Admiral Hipper, the first of five ships of her class, was the lead ship of the Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers which served with Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. The ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1935 and launched February 1937; Admiral Hipper entered service shortly before the outbreak of war, in April 1939. The ship was named after Admiral Franz von Hipper, commander of the German battlecruiser squadron during the Battle of Jutland in 1916 and later commander-in-chief of the German High Seas Fleet. She was armed with a main battery of eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) guns and, although nominally under the 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) limit set by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, actually displaced over 16,000 long tons (16,000 t).



Admiral Hipper saw a significant amount of action during the war, notably present during the Battle of the Atlantic. She led the assault on Trondheimduring Operation Weserübung; while en route to her objective, she sank the British destroyer HMS Glowworm. In December 1940, she broke out into the Atlantic Ocean to operate against Allied merchant shipping, though this operation ended without significant success. In February 1941, Admiral Hippersortied again, sinking several merchant vessels before eventually returning to Germany via the Denmark Strait. The ship was then transferred to northern Norway to participate in operations against convoys to the Soviet Union, culminating in the Battle of the Barents Sea on 31 December 1942, where she sank the destroyer Achates and the minesweeper Bramble but was in turn damaged and forced to withdraw by the light cruisers HMS Sheffield and HMS Jamaica.



Disappointed by the failure to sink merchant ships in that battle, Adolf Hitler ordered the majority of the surface warships scrapped, though Admiral Karl Dönitz was able to convince Hitler to retain the surface fleet. As a result, Admiral Hipper was returned to Germany and decommissioned for repairs. The ship was never restored to operational status, however, and on 3 May 1945, Royal Air Force bombers severely damaged her while she was in Kiel. Her crew scuttled the ship at her moorings, and in July 1945, she was raised and towed to Heikendorfer Bay. She was ultimately broken up for scrap in 1948–1952 and her bell is currently on display at the Laboe Naval Memorial.


Design
Main article: Admiral Hipper-class cruiser


Admiral Hipper during fitting-out. Hamburg, 1937.

The Admiral Hipper class of heavy cruisers was ordered in the context of German naval rearmament after the Nazi Party came to power in 1933 and repudiated the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles. In 1935, Germany signed the Anglo–German Naval Agreement with Great Britain, which provided a legal basis for German naval rearmament; the treaty specified that Germany would be able to build five 10,000-long-ton (10,000 t) "treaty cruisers". The Admiral Hippers were nominally within the 10,000-ton limit, though they significantly exceeded the figure.

Admiral Hipper was 202.8 meters (665 ft) long overall and had a beam of 21.3 m (70 ft) and a maximum draft of 7.2 m (24 ft). After the installation of a clipper bow during fitting out, her overall length increased to 205.9 meters (676 ft). The ship had a design displacement of 16,170 t (15,910 long tons; 17,820 short tons) and a full load displacement of 18,200 long tons (18,500 t). Admiral Hipper was powered by three sets of geared steam turbines, which were supplied with steam by twelve ultra-high pressure oil-fired boilers. The ship's top speed was 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph), at 132,000 shaft horsepower (98,000 kW). As designed, her standard complement consisted of 42 officers and 1,340 enlisted men.

Admiral Hipper's primary armament was eight 20.3 cm (8.0 in) SK L/60 guns mounted in four twin gun turrets, placed in superfiring pairs forward and aft.[a] Her anti-aircraft battery was to have consisted of twelve 10.5 cm (4.1 in) L/65 guns, twelve 3.7 cm (1.5 in) guns, and eight 2 cm (0.79 in) guns. The ship also would have carried a pair of triple 53.3 cm (21.0 in) torpedo launchers abreast of the rear superstructure. The ship was to have been equipped with three Arado Ar 196 seaplanes and one catapult. Admiral Hipper's armored belt was 70 to 80 mm (2.8 to 3.1 in) thick; her upper deck was 12 to 30 mm (0.47 to 1.18 in) thick while the main armored deck was 20 to 50 mm (0.79 to 1.97 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 105 mm (4.1 in) thick faces and 70 mm thick sides.




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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 6 February


1758 – Launch of french Chimère, (one-off 30-gun design of 1756 by Joseph Coulomb, with 26 x 12-pounder and 4 x 6-pounder guns, launched at Toulon) – sold 1783.


1944 - Lt. j.g. C.I. Purnell, in his PB4Y-1 Liberator aircraft, sinks German submarine U-177 west of Ascension Island, in the South Atlantic.


1945 - U.S. Navy submarine USS Pampanito (SS 383) attacks a Japanese convoy and sinks merchant tanker Engen Maru about 200 miles northeast of Singapore. Also on this date, USS Spadefish (SS 411) sinks Japanese merchant passenger-cargo ship Shohei Maru off Port Arthur, Korea.


1968 - USS Bache (DD/DDE-470), a Fletcher-class destroyer, wrecked

USS Bache (DD/DDE-470), a Fletcher-class destroyer, was second ship of the United States Navy of that name. DD-470 was named for CommanderGeorge M. Bache.



Bache was launched 7 July 1942 by Bethlehem Steel Co., Staten Island, N.Y.; sponsored by Miss Louise Bache, daughter of Commander Bache; and commissioned 14 November 1942, Commander J. N. Opie, III, in command.

Bache was blown aground outside of the Rhodes harbor by a gale during a three-day port visit to the Island of Rhodes, Greece 6 February 1968. She was declared a loss and scrapped there. Bache was decommissioned and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 1 March 1968.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bache_(DD-470)


1973 - In accordance with the agreement at the Paris Peace Talks, Navy Task Force 78 begins Operation End Sweep, the mine clearance of North Vietnamese waters of mines laid in 1972.

Operation End Sweep was a United States Navy and United States Marine Corps operation to remove naval mines from Haiphong harbor and other coastal and inland waterways in North Vietnam between February and July 1973. The operation fulfilled an American obligation under the Paris Peace Accord of January 1973, which ended direct American participation in the Vietnam War. It also was the first operational deployment of a U.S. Navy air mine countermeasures capability.

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


1999 - Harta Rimba, the ferry foundered and sank after being struck by a large wave while drifting with engine problems. Of the 332 aboard 19 were rescued two days after the sinking by a passing ship. A distress signal was not sent out and the sinking was unknown until the survivors were found

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1795 – Launch of Brunswick at Newcastle, she made one voyage as an "extra ship"


Brunswick was launched at Newcastle in 1795. She made one voyage as an "extra ship", i.e., under charter, to the British East India Company (EIC). She then traded generally until she foundered in 1809.



Career
Brunswick enters Lloyd's Register in 1795 with G. Ryland, master, Hurry & Co., owners, and trade London–India. Captain George Ryland acquired a letter of marque on 3 September 1795.

Captain Ryland sailed from The Downs on 23 September 1795. Brunswick reached Calcutta on 12 April 1796. Homeward bound, she was at Saugor on 28 July, reached St Helena on 22 November, and arrived at Long Reach on 17 February 1797.

On her return from India Hurry & Co. sold Brunswick and she became a West Indiaman



On 1 May 1804 Lloyd's List reported that Brunswick, Drysdale, master, had had to put back to Portsmouth having lost her mainmast and having suffered other damage. She had left the convoy on 25 April at 46°N 10°W. The convoy was under the escort of the brig HMS Busy.

Fate
The Register of Shipping for 1810 shows Brunswick with Simpson, master, Penton & Co., owners, and trade London transport.

Brunswick, Simpson, master, foundered in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland on 27 July 1809 while sailing from London to Quebec. Her crew were rescued.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_(1795_ship)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1808 - HMS Decouverte (1804/1806 - 8) drove ashore a privateer.


HMS Decouverte was the French schooner Eclipse, launched in 1804, that was captured in 1806. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Decouverte. She served in the Caribbean, where she captured two privateers, one French and one American. She was sold in 1816.



French service
Eclipse was built as a schooner and launched in 1804. She was captured in 1807. The Royal Navy already had an Eclipse, and had just laid up a Decouverte, so the captured vessel became HMS Decouverte. She was registered on 3 January 1806.

British service
Between 1806 and 1807, Decouverte was under the command of Lieutenant the Honourable A. de Courcy. (It is not clear whether it was he who first commissioned her.)

In March 1807 Decouverte detained Trist, Rinker, master, as Trist was sailing from Bordeaux to New Orleans.

In February 1808 Decouverte was under the command of Lieutenant Colin Campbell. In that month she captured one French privateer and destroyed another, as well as the privateer's prize.

On 7 February Campbell was cruising between Altavella and the Main, when he discovered three vessels, two French schooner privateers and an English ship, their prize. One schooner escaped after a running battle. Decouverte succeeded in driving the other schooner and the ship on shore. Next morning, when Campbell sailed in to take possession of the two vessels, he found the enemy still in possession, covered by small arms fire from the shore. The British were able by cannon fire to drive the French from the ship. Campbell sent a request to the schooner under a flag of truce that she surrender the ship, together with whatever prisoners might be on board the schooner. The schooner's captain refused. Campbell then deployed a boarding party that set fire to the ship. The water was too shallow for the British to be able to get closer to the schooner, but Campbell was confident that she was wrecked on the rocks. The ship was Matilda, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, which had been sailing to Jamaica.

In the morning of 9 February, Cambell discovered an enemy schooner in Bottomless Cove. Decouverte gave chase and caught up with her by 3p.m. After a 45-minute exchange of fire, the enemy schooner struck. She turned out to be Dorade, from San Domingo. Doradewas armed with one long 18-pounder gun and two 9-pounder guns, and had a crew of 72 men under the command of Monsieur Netly. During the engagement three guns on Decouverte on the side in action were dismounted, which reduced her broadside. French casualties were heavy; the British had to bury at sea seven of Dorade's crew and Campbell estimated that they had lost and thrown overboard seven more during the fight. There were also three wounded. The British did not go unscathed; Decouverte had six men wounded, of whom one was mortally wounded and three were dangerously wounded.

On 21 January 1809 Decouverte arrived at Jamaica from Maraycabu.

Decouverte came under the command in, in 1809, of Lieutenant Richard W. Graves.

Next, in 1809-10 Decouverte was under the command of Lieutenant James Oliver until a severe eye injury forced Oliver to return to England. In 1812 there was a diplomatic correspondence about three seamen on Decouverte, all of whom claimed to be Americans, and one of whom claimed that Oliver had destroyed his protection (certificate of citizenship).

In April 1811 Lieutenant Richard Williams assumed command of Decouverte. Under his command she patrolled the Bahamas and the Gulfs of Mexico and Florida.

In June Decouverte brought into Nassau the slave ship Joanna. The number of slaves freed was 120. Decouverte also detained a schooner flying the Swedish flag, but carrying French property.

On her way to Jamaica Decouverte chased the French privateer Comet, of five guns and 80 men, for two hours. Williams had to give up the chase after a squall sent overboard Decouverte's fore-top-gallant mast and sprung her two lower masts, the fore mast badly. When Decouverte reached Port Royal she was ordered to undergo a thorough refit, something that would take nine months.

While Decouverte underwent repairs the merchants of Jamaica lent the schooner Confiance to the Royal Navy. During this time Williams commanded Confiance.

After Williams and Decouverte returned to sea, on 12 July 1812 she captured the American privateer Non-Pareil. Nonpareil, H. Martin, master, was armed with one gun and had a crew of 30 men. She was out of Savannah, Georgia, and had captured one schooner. Martin also had intended to attack the defenseless town of Harbour Island, Bahamas.

Between 28 July and 23 October 1812, British warships sent into Nassau 39 American and Spanish ships with American cargoes. Decouverte sent in Olympus (captured 29 July), sailing from Oporto to Havanah, and Augusta (captured 29 August), Haskell, master, sailing from Greenock to Charleston. These were carrying flour and logwood.

Decouverte also drove two privateers from the coast, but was unable to capture them. While she was in Murray's anchorage, Bermuda, a heavy gale came up. Her crew was forced to cut away her masts to save her as she was only two cable-lengths (580 yards) from the shore.

While escorting a convoy from New Providence on its way to Jamaica and Cape Haitian through the Caicos Passage, Decouverte prevented the American privateer brig Saratoga, of 16 guns and 140 men, from capturing a schooner. In 1814 Williams was transferred to the brig Edwards, a brigantine of 360 tons, 12 guns, and 74 men, possibly a transport, but his period of command was short-lived as an officer sent from England replaced him. Before Williams left the Jamaica station in 1815, he received a letter of thanks from the mayor and merchants of Kingston for his services to the trade.

Fate
The Navy sold Decouverte in 1816




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

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los,
HMS Amelia (1796 - 38), Cptn. Frederick Paul Irby, engaged French frigate Arethuse (1812 - 46), Capt. Bouvet, off Sierra Leone


The Action of 7 February 1813 was a naval battle between two evenly matched frigates from the French Navy and the British Royal Navy, Aréthuse and HMS Amelia. The battle was fought during the night of 7 February 1813 at the Îles de Los, off Guinea. It lasted four hours, causing significant damage and casualties to both opponents, and resulted in a stalemate. The two ships parted and returned to their respective ports of call, both sides claiming victory.


The fight of the French frigate Aréthuse and Amelia on the shores of Guinea, 7 February 1813, after Louis-Philippe Crépin.


A dramatic night scene depiciting the battle between the French 'Arethuse', in the left foreground, and the British 'Amelia' near Guinea. The battle resulted in a stalemate, but both ships returned to port claiming victory. Inscription reads: 'Engagement between His Majesty's Ship Amelia carrying 48 Guns and 300 Men - and L'Arethuse, (French Frigate) carrying 48 Guns, and 380 Men, Off the Isle de Loss, on the Coast of Africa, On the Night of The 7th of February 1813 - The Rubus (Arethuse's Consort) carrying 48 Guns & 375 Men, having been in sight previous to the Action.' In 'The Royal Navy - a history' (Vol. 5, p521), William Laird Clowes lists 'Amelia's' guns as 24 and crew as 319 "men and boys" and 'Arethuse's' guns as 22 and crew as "about 340 men".


Background
After the British victory in the Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, all French possessions in the Indian Ocean were in the hands of the British Empire. France had already lost the use of Cape Town in 1806 after the Battle of Blaauwberg, and of Batavia in 1811 with the British Invasion of Java. Thus, in 1813, the French Navy lacked the advance bases it needed to support the commerce raiding frigate squadron that it had operated in the previous decade. It was therefore decided to send a force to the Western coast of Africa to disrupt British shipping closer to the metropole, while still being far enough away to be beyond the reach of the powerful British naval divisions that blockaded the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay.

To this end, a frigate division was given to Captain Pierre Bouvet, a skilled frigate captain,[note 1] veteran of the Mauritius campaign and leader of the French forces during the second half of the Battle of Grand Port. The squadron comprised the 40-gun frigate Aréthuse, under Bouvet himself, and the Rubis, under Commander Louis-François Ollivier. Another two-frigate squadron, made up of Elbe and Hortense, was to perform the same mission with a two-week interval.



Cruise of Bouvet's division


Captain Pierre Bouvet, who commanded the French squadron, his flag on Aréthuse.

On 25 November 1812, Bouvet's division departed from Nantes, sneaked through the British blockade, and established a station to the North-East of the Azores, near the group of five rocks called "Vigie des Cinq Grosses-Têtes" (44°17'N, 21°45'W). The frigates then continued to cruise off Madeira and Cape Verde.

During January, due to continual gales and preliminary symptoms of a fever epidemic, Bouvet decided to sail South with two prizes, the British cutter Hawk, and the other the Portuguese slave ship Serra, to anchor at the Îles de Los, off Sierra Leone. On 27 January, the frigates and their prizes came in view of the islands when the 16-gun HMS Daring, under Lieutenant William Pascoe, appeared. Mistaking the French frigates for British cruisers, Daring launched a boat towards Rubis, which altered her course to intercept; as the frigate approached, the boat realised her error and attempted to flee, to no avail. Questioning his prisoners, Ollivier learnt the identity of his opponent, and gave chase. Hopelessly outmanned and outgunned, Pascoe threw his brig on the coast, on the North-Western point of Tamara, and scuttled her by fire. Daring's magazines detonated at 5 in the evening, and the French frigates dropped anchor one hour later.

Ashore, the French collected fruit, resupplied their fresh water, and gathered intelligence on the British deployment: the station of Sierra Leone comprised two frigates and several corvettes, but only HMS Amelia was anchored in the bay at the time. After six days of repairs and resupply, Aréthuse and Rubis were ready for a six-month cruise; to unburden himself of his prisoners and prizes, Bouvet returned Serra to the Portuguese, and on 29 January, the British were released on parole and sent to Sierra Leone on Hawk. Bouvet departed on 4 February.


Frederick Paul Irby, in 1822. He commanded Ameliaduring the action.

Meanwhile, on 29 January, Lieutenant Pascoe had arrived at Freetown, with some of his men, and informed Amelia of the presence of what he believed to be three French frigates at Tamara. Hawk arrived the same evening with the prisoners on parole, confirming Pascoe's account; she was then equipped with a boat from Amelia and sent for a reconnaissance of the French squadron. Having volunteered, Pascoe returned with—this time—an accurate description of the French division, including the names of the frigate and their prize. On the 3rd, at 10:30, Amelia departed her anchorage and took the direction of île de Lot to intercept the French squadron.

At île de Lot, Aréthuse had, upon departure, maneuvered to catch the wind and struck the bottom, breaking her rudder and forcing the squadron to drop anchor on the spot. That very night, a violent storm broke out, and both frigates broke their cables. Aréthuse managed to avoid running aground using a makeshift rudder, and in the morning found herself twelve miles to the North-West of Tamara; Bouvet dropped anchor as soon as he found the bottom to repair his rudder. Meanwhile, Rubis had been cast aground on the shore of Tamara. At ten, she fired distress shots and signals; Aréthuse launched her longboat to assist, but could not maneuver herself without her rudder; the launch carried two additional pumps to Rubis, but returned with the news that she was unsalvageable and that her crew was transferring on Serra. The following night, the hull of the stranded Rubis broke under the stress of the waves. Commander Ollivier scuttled her by fire and embarked his crew on Serra.

On 5 January, around 20:00, Amelia sighted a strange sail making night signals which, the next morning, turned out to be Princess-Charlotte, a government schooner from Sierra Leone. Amelia got sight of the French squadron half an hour later, and dispatched Princess-Charlotte to Sierra Leone to instruct any incoming British warship to come to her aid at once. She then observed what was deemed to be a prize being unloaded into one of the frigates, but was in fact Rubis transferring her crew to Serra, and the second frigate in the distance.

Battle


HMS 'Amelia' chasing the French frigate 'Arethuse' 1813, a fancifully titled representation of the early stages of the battle, by John Christian Schetky, 1852. On display at Norwich Castle.

In the morning of 6 February, while Aréthuse was completing her repairs, HMS Amelia appeared under the wind. Bouvet set sails to meet her and in the evening, the frigates sailed on parallel courses; As Irby was not aware of the demise of Rubis, he was attempting to lure Aréthuse away from her to prevent the two French frigates from supporting each other. Aréthuse having a slight advantage, and hoping to overhaul his opponent during the night, Bouvet hoisted the French colours and fired a carronade; Amelia answered by hoisting the Union Jack and firing a shot.

At dawn, a fog obscured the frigates from each other, and Bouvet could not engage. The next morning, Aréthuse found herself alone on the sea, and Bouvet followed the course that he assumed Amelia had taken; around eleven, she appeared on the horizon and Aréthuse put on all sails to give chase. The frigates raced all day and at 19:30, Irby decided that he was far enough to avoid interference from Rubis, and Amelia turned to confront her opponent.

Aréthuse was pierced for 44 guns, but actually mounted only 42: as her two foremost guns, obstructed by bollards, could not be maneuvered properly, Bouvet had ordered them stored in the hold. This left Aréthuse with twenty-six 18-pounder long guns, two 8-pounder chase guns, and fourteen 24-pounder carronades.[19] Amelia mounted twenty-six 18-pounders and twenty 32-pounder carronades. Her crew was reinforced by that of Daring.

The frigates closed in to pistol range without opening fire. As they passed each other, Aréthuse came about and fired her broadside at Amelia that cut the braces of her topsail; Amelia answered in kind, and then veered and abruptly decreased her speed, her davit touching Aréthuse at starboard. Aréthuse fired another broadside at point-blank range, and for the following hour and a half, the two frigates remained entangled, exchanging volleys, gunners from both sides snatching the ramrods of their opponents and duelling with sabres from one gunport and the other, but neither side attempting to board the other.

After 90 minutes of cannonade and gunfire, Captain Irby and his two Lieutenants, John James Bates and John Pope, were wounded. The third lieutenant, George Wells, was killed soon after taking command, and the master of Amelia, Anthony De Mayne, replaced him. Then, Bouvet attempted a boarding to decide the issue, but with her clewlines cut by shots, Aréthuse could not maneuver.

At 21:00, the frigates separated. The cannonade continued until eleven, until the frigates lost contact. Soon, a dense fog hid the frigates one from another, and it was not until the next morning that Amelia was spotted again. According to Bouvet's report, Aréthuse attempted to give chase, but to no avail.

Aftermath


HMS Amelia in action with the French Frigate Aréthuse, 1813, by John Christian Schetky, 1852. This painting was originally in the possession of the family of Frederick Paul Irby, captain of HMS Amelia.

Each captain accused the other of having fled. Irby stated that Aréthuse "bore up, having the advantage of being able to do so, leaving us in an ungovernable state"; while Bouvet wrote "At eleven o'clock, firing ceased on both sides; we were no longer in range; and the enemy, putting on all sail, surrendered the battlefield to us". Another view is that the ships, their riggings both damaged, simply drifted away from each other under the effect of the cannonade.

Aréthuse had 20 killed and 98 wounded. Amelia suffered 51 killed and 90 wounded.

Bouvet sailed to Tamara, where he rejoined Serra and the crew of Rubis on the 10th. Serra was taken in tow for a few days before Bouvet scuttled her by fire, off Madeira, as she retarded Aréthuse. Aréthuse returned to Saint-Malo with no further encounter, where she arrived on 19 April 1813. During their mission, Rubis and Aréthuse had captured ten prizes.

Irby sailed to England, where he had been bound before the battle to repatriate sick sailors. He arrived at Spithead on 22 March, carrying large quantities of gold.


The fight of the French frigate Aréthuse and Amelia on the shores of Guinea, 7 February 1813, by Louis-Philippe Crépin.

Navy Minister Decrès gave a mixed review of the events. On one hand, he praised Bouvet's bravery and conduct during the battle itself; in his report of the events, on 26 April 1813, he wrote:

“This fight leaves well behind that of Belle Poule in 1778, that of Nymphe in 1780 and all the others, that have had more or less fame. I request from Your Majesty permission to commission on government funds a painting of this battle.”

Louis-Philippe Crépin did paint a 258 by 162 centimetres (102 by 64 in) depiction of the battle, which is in the collections of the Musée de Versailles.

On the other hand, Decrès sharply criticised Bouvet for the wreck of Rubis and near-loss of Aréthuse in the storm of 5 February:

“While giving him his due for his brilliant valour and his good results, I am not allowed to hide from Your Majesty that a sailor of long experience would not have, as he did, put the two frigates in distress at the îles de Los. This opinion is not only mine, it was cast by all to whom I communicated the report.”

Probably because of these mixed reviews, Bouvet was awarded the rank of Officer in the Legion of Honour, on 2 July, but was neither promoted to rear-admiral, nor made a Baron of the Empire, as had been requested in his favour




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_7_February_1813
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Aréthuse_(1812)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amelia_(1796)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los - Part II - The Ships


The Aréthuse was a 46-gun 18-pounder frigate of the French Navy. She served during the Napoleonic Wars, taking part in a major single-ship action. Much later she took part in the conquest of Algeria, and ended her days as a coal depot in Brest.



Construction
Aréthuse was laid down at Nantes in 1807 and launched on 15 May 1812.

Broadside Weight = 428 French Livre (461.8976 lbs 209.506 kg)


The battle between Aréthuse and Amelia on the shores of Guinea, 7 February 1813, by Louis-Philippe Crepin

Career
Cruise off West Africa, 1812-1813
Main article: Action of 7 February 1813
On 25 November 1812 the frigates Aréthuse (Captain Pierre Bouvet) and Rubis sailed from Nantes to intercept British trade off West Africa. In January, having captured a Portuguese ship, La Serra, they reached Cap-Vert. They also captured Little Belt, J. Wilson, master, sailing from Altea to London, Friends, Houston, master, sailing from Teneriffe to Belfast, and a Spanish brig sailing from Majorca to Puerto Rico. The French put the masters and crews on Delphina, a Portuguese they had captured and plundered. Delphina arrived at Pernambuco on 31 January.

On 27 January 1813, Aréthuse intercepted the brig HMS Daring (Lieutenant Pascoe) off Tamara (one of the Iles de Los off Guinea). Pascoe ran Daring aground and set fire to her to avoid her capture. The French managed to take part of her crew prisoner but released them against their parole and put them in a boat. Pascoe and those of his men who had escaped capture sailed to the Sierra Leone River, where they arrived the next day. There they reported the presence of the French frigates to HMS Amelia (Captain Frederick Paul Irby).

In the night of 5 February, a storm threw Rubis ashore, wrecking her. The same storm damaged Aréthuse' rudder. Rubis was abandoned and set afire, while Aréthuse effect her repairs.


HMS Amelia in action with the French Frigate Aréthuse, 1813, by John Christian Schetky, 1852

On 6 February, HMS Amelia, guided and reinforced by sailors from Daring, attacked Aréthuse. A furious, 4-hour night battle followed. Aréthuse and Amelia disabled each other by shooting at their sails and rigging. Eventually the ships parted, neither able to gain the upper hand, and both with heavy casualties: Amelia had 46 killed and 51 wounded; Aréthuse suffered over 20 killed and 88 wounded, and 30 round shot had struck her hull on the starboard side below the quarter deck.

Aréthuse returned to the wreck of Rubis to gather her crew, and returned to France. Soon afterwards Aréthuse captured the British privateer Cerberus, and arrived back in St Malo on 19 April having taken 15 prizes.

Later life and disposal
She took part in the Invasion of Algiers in 1830 as a transport. In 1833, she was razeed into a corvette. She was decommissioned in 1861 and used as a coal depot in Brest.


Lines & Profile (ZAZ2569) of Clorinde

The Pallas class constituted the standard design of 40-gun frigates of the French Navy during the Napoleonic Empire period. Jacques-Noël Sané designed them in 1805, as a development of his seven-ship Hortense class of 1802, and over the next eight years the Napoléonic government ordered in total 62 frigates to be built to this new design. Of these some 54 were completed, although ten of them were begun for the French Navy in shipyards within the French-occupied Netherlands or Italy, which were then under French occupation; these latter ships were completed for the Netherlands or Austrian navies after 1813.

Pallas class, (40-gun design of 1805 by Jacques-Noël Sané on basis of the Hortense class, with 28 x 18-pounder and 12 x 8-pounder guns). This was the 'standard' frigate design of the French First Empire, numerically outweighing all other types.

• Pallas, (launched 9 April 1808 at Basse-Indre) - deleted in 1822.
• Elbe, (launched 23 May 1808 at Basse-Indre) – renamed Calypso 30 August 1814; hulked 1825; demolished probably in 1841.
• Renommée, (launched 21 August 1808 at Basse-Indre) – captured by British Navy 1811, becoming HMS Java.
• Amélie, (launched 21 July 1808 at Toulon) – renamed Junon April 1814; "en flûte" 1837; deleted from the navy list 1842.
• Clorinde, (launched 8 August 1808 at Paimboeuf) – captured by British Navy 1814, becoming HMS Aurora.
• Elisa, (launched 1808 at Le Havre) – wrecked 1810.
• Favorita, (launched 4 October 1808 at Venice for subsidiary "Italian" Navy) – to French Navy itself April 1810, renamed Favorite, burnt and destroyed by explosion at the Battle of Lissa in 1811.
• Astrée, (launched 1809 at Cherbourg) – captured by British Navy 1810, becoming HMS Pomone.
• Fidèle, (launched 1809 at Flushing after capture on stocks) – captured by British Navy 1809, becoming HMS Laurel.
• Adrienne, (launched 1809 at Toulon) – renamed Aurore April 1814, then Dauphine September 1829 but reverted to Aurore August 1830; deleted 1848.
• Nymphe, (launched 1810 at Basse-Indre); hulked 1832; taken apart 1873.
• Iphigénie, (launched 1810 at Cherbourg) – captured by British Navy 1814, renamed HMS Palma, but shortly after becoming HMS Gloire.
• Méduse, (launched 1810 at Paimboeuf) – wrecked 1816.
• Pregel, (launched 1810 at St Malo) – renamed Eurydice August 1814; taken apart at Brest in 1825.
• Ariane, (launched 1811 at Basse-Indre) – burnt to avoid capture in the action of 22 May 1812.
• Médée, (launched 1811 at Genoa)- renamed Muiron 1850; foundered at Toulon in 1882.
• Andromaque, (launched 1811 at Basse-Indre) – burnt to avoid capture in the action of 22 May 1812.
• Yssel, (launched 1811 at Amsterdam, named Ijssel by the Dutch) – handed over to new Dutch Navy 1814; deleted in 1826.
• Carolina, (launched 1811 at Naples) - .
• Principessa di Bologna, (ordered 1810 at Venice for subsidiary "Italian" Navy) – to French Navy itself April 1810, renamed Princesse de Bologne and launched 1811 – captured by the Austrian Navy April 1814 at the fall of Venice.
• Gloire, (launched 1811 at Le Havre) - condemned in 1822 and broken up at Brest.
• Meuse, (launched 1811 at Amsterdam) – handed over to new Dutch Navy 1814 and renamed Maas; demolished in 1816.
• Terpsichore, (launched 1812 at Antwerp) – captured by British Navy 1814, becoming HMS Modeste.
• Érigone, (launched 1812 at Antwerp) - demolished at Brest 1825.
• Aréthuse, (launched 1812 at Paimboeuf) - razeed to corvette in 1834; condemned and sold for demolition in 1851.
• Jahde, (launched 1812 at Rotterdam) – renamed Psyché August 1814; deleted 1822.
• Trave, (launched 1812 at Amsterdam) – captured by British Navy 1813, becoming HMS Trave.
• Weser, (launched 1812 at Amsterdam) – captured by British Navy 1813, becoming HMS Weser.
• Melpomene, (launched 1812 at Toulon) – captured by British Navy 1815, becoming HMS Melpomene.
• Rubis, (launched 1812 at Basse-Indre) – wrecked 1813.
• Ems, (launched 1812 at Rotterdam) – renamed Africaine August 1814; wrecked in 1822.
• Atalante, (started as the Euridyce, launched 1812 at Lorient) – renamed Duchesse d'Angoulême July 1814; condemned and deleted in 1825.[2]
• Cérès, (launched 1812 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 1814, becoming HMS Seine.
• Piave, (launched 1812 at Venice) - abandoned at the fall of Venice and taken by the Austrians; demolished in 1826.
• Dryade, (launched 1812 at Genoa) – renamed Fleur de Lys in November 1814, reverted to Dryade March 1815 then Fleur de Lys again July 1815, finally Résolue August 1830; run aground and wrecked in a storm and demolished on site in 1833.
• Sultane, (launched 30 May 1813 at Paimboeuf, near Nantes) – captured by British Navy 1814, becoming HMS Sultane.
• Étoile, (launched 28 July 1813 at Paimboeuf, near Nantes) – captured by British Navy 1814, becoming HMS Topaze.
• Rancune, (launched 30 September 1813 at Toulon) – renamed Néréide in August 1814; hulked in 1825.
• Amphitrite, (launched October 1814 at Venice) – seized by the Austrians at Venice's capture, becoming Austrian Navy's Anfitrite and later Augusta.
• Amstel, (launched 13 September 1814 at Rotterdam) - captured by the Dutch on the stocks at the fall of Rotterdam.
• Ambitieuse, (launched November 1814 at Amsterdam) - taken on the stocks by the Dutch at the evacuation of Amsterdam and renamed Koningin, later renamed Wilhelmina; deleted ca. 1821.
• Immortelle, (launched November 1814 at Amsterdam) - taken on the stocks by the Dutch at the evacuation of Amsterdam and renamed Frederika Sophia Wilhelmina; deleted from the Dutch Navy List in 1819.
• Vestale, (launched October 1816 at Rotterdam) - abandoned on the stocks by the retreating French; the Dutch recommenced construction, later renaming her Rhijn in 1828, hulked in 1853 and demolished in 1874.
• Fidèle, (launched 22 November 1817) - abandoned on the stocks by the retreating French; the Dutch recommenced construction, renaming her Schelde; deleted in 1853.
• Cybele, (launched 11 April 1815 at Le Havre) – renamed Remise 1850.
• Duchesse de Berry, (launched 25 August 1816 at Lorient) – renamed Victoire August 1830.
• Constance, (launched 2 September 1818 at Brest) – hulked 1836, broken up after 1837.
• Thétis, (launched 3 May 1819 at Toulon) – renamed Lanninon April 1865.
• Astrée, (launched 28 April 1820 at Lorient).
• Armide, (launched 1 May 1821 at Lorient).

Proserpine was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy launched in 1785 that HMS Dryad captured on 13 June 1796. The Admiralty commissioned Proserpine into the Royal Navy as the fifth rate, HMS Amelia. She spent 20 years in the Royal Navy, participating in numerous actions in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing a number of prizes, and serving on anti-smuggling and anti-slavery patrols. Her most notable action was her intense and bloody, but inconclusive, fight with Aréthuse in 1813. Amelia was broken up in December 1816.




The Hébé class was a class of six 38-gun (later 40-gun) frigates of the French Navy, designed in 1781 by Jacques-Noël Sané. The name ship of the class. Hébé, was also the basis for the British Leda-class frigatesafter the ship had been captured.


lines & pr NMM, Progress Book, volume 5, folio 582, states that 'Sybille' arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard on 30 November 1794 and was docked on 3 January 1795. She was undocked on 21 January and sailed on 17 April 1795 having been fitted.

Hébé class, (36/38-gun design by Jacques-Noël Sané, with 26 x 18-pdr guns initially, although by 1793 carried 28 x 18-pdr guns, plus 10 x 8-pdr guns on the gaillards and 4 obusiers).

• Hébé, 38 guns (launched 25 June 1782 at Saint-Malo) – captured by British Navy 4 September 1782.
• Vénus, 38 guns (launched 14 July 1782 at Brest) – wrecked 31 December 1788 in the Indian Ocean.
• Dryade, 40 guns (launched 3 February 1783 at Saint-Malo) – condemned 1801 and BU.
• Proserpine, 40 guns (launched 25 June 1785 at Brest) – captured by British Navy 13 June 1796, becoming HMS Amelia.
• Sibylle, 40 guns (launched 30 August 1791 at Toulon) – captured by British Navy 17 June 1794.
• Carmagnole, 40 guns (launched 22 May 1793 at Brest) – wrecked at Vlissingen 9 November 1800.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=715
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Aréthuse_(1812)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pallas-class_frigate_(1808)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-302789;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Amelia_(1796)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hébé-class_frigate
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-352081;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1824 – Launch of HMS North Star, a 28-gun Atholl class corvette sixth-rate post ship


HMS North Star was a 28-gun Atholl class corvette sixth-rate post ship built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy. She was launched in 1824.
North Star Bay, a bay in Greenland, was named in honour of this ship.



Suppressing the Atlantic slave trade
From 1826 to 1828 under Captain Arabin, North Star was stationed in the West Africa Squadron, whose task was to suppress the Atlantic slave trade by patrolling the coast of West Africa. In late 1828 she sailed to England, via the West Indies. From 1829 to 1832 she was stationed in Portsmouth; then from 1832-1833 she became part of the North America and West Indies Station before being paid off. In 1834 she was commissioned for service on the Pacific Station then known as the South American Station. She was in the Pacific off the coast of South and Central America until 1836, when she returned to Portsmouth.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with some midship framing and longitudinal half breadth for Ranger (1820), Tweed (1823), Rainbow (1823), Rattlesnake (1822), Crocodile (1825),Success (1825), Talbot (1824) and with alterations for Alligator (1821), Samarang (1822), Herald (1822) - ex Termagant, and later for North Star (1820), Daphne (cancelled 1832), Porcupine (cancelled 1832), Nimrod (1828) – ex Andromache, Alarm (cancelled 1826), all 28-gun Sixth Rate Sloops. Signed Joseph Tucker and Robert Seppings (Surveyors of the Navy) Annotation at the top right: "Mem: The Head was altered agreeably to a sketch dated Nov 6th 1821." Annotation on the right: " 14th May 1823. The following ships were ordered to be built agreeably to the alterations in ticked lines in the fore body viz Alarm, Crocodile, Daphne, Porcupine and Sucess." "2nd June 1830. The main rails of the head of the Talbot was directed to be moved 8ins and the Birthing rails about fuurther from the side at the front of the supporters." Annoted in pencil at bottom right: "Memo ? ? lines for the Model."

First Anglo-Chinese War
In September 1841 Captain Sir J. E. Home was appointed to North Star. She was then commissioned for service in the East Indies and China Station and in November of that year she conveyed money for the commissariat in China. During the period 1841-42 she served with Sir William Parker's ships in the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42), known popularly as the First Opium War.

Service in the First Māori War in New Zealand


HMS North Star destroying Pomare's Pā, 1845. Painting by John Williams.

At the end of the First Anglo-Chinese War North Star was sent to Calcutta, then Sydney, Australia, and when at Sydney, the Flagstaff War began in New Zealand.

On 23 March 1845 North Star arrived in New Zealand with the officers and men of the 58th Regt. North Star operated in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand during the Flagstaff War between 11 March 1845 and 11 January 1846. On 28 March 1845 cannon fire from North Star was directed at the pā of Pōmare II on the coast in the Bay of Islands. A pā is a fortified village. Because of the almost constant intertribal warfare the art of defensive fortifications had reached a very high level among the Māori. The colonial forces were able to occupy Pōmare's pā without a fight, although up until that time Pōmare had been considered neutral and was not a supporter of the rebellion led by Hone Heke.

On 3 May 1845 a small naval brigade from both North Star and HMS Hazard supported the 58th Regt. and other colonial forces at the Battle of Ohaeawai. The colonial forces were repulsed by Māori warriors with serious losses. From 27 December 1845 to 11 January 1846 officers, seamen and Royal Marines from North Star assisted the army at the siege of Ruapekapeka Pā. Officers present at the battle were Commander Hay and Lieutenant Egerton. Mr. Murray, a midshipman, was killed during the battle.

Following the end of the Flagstaff War North Star returned to England. On 19 December 1846 she arrived in Portsmouth sailing via the Cape of Good Hope.

Arctic Expedition
Under Commander James Saunders North Star sailed to the Arctic in 1849 in the spring on a venture to search for and resupply Captain Sir James Clark Ross' expedition, who in turn had sailed in 1848 trying to locate the whereabouts of Sir John Franklin's expedition.

Failing to find Franklin or Ross, Saunders's mission aboard North Star consisted in depositing stores along several named areas of the Canadian Arctic coast and returning to England before the onset of winter. However, progress being made difficult by ice in Melville Bay James Saunders's ship became trapped by ice off the coast of NW Greenland in North Star Bay, a protected bay off Wolstenholme Fjord, being the first Royal Navy ship to winter so far north. While wintering in the frozen bay in 1849–50 Saunders named numerous landmarks in that area. In August 1850 North Star broke free of the ice and crossed the Baffin Bay to Possession Bay, entering Lancaster Sound and reaching Whaler Point. Since westward progress became difficult on account of the ice Saunders returned to Baffin Bay and off Admiralty Inlet, he met William Penny's expedition and was informed that Ross had returned home. After leaving the remaining stores at Navy Board Inlet, North Star sailed back to England. She was immediately attached to Edward Belcher's 1852 Franklin search expedition and returned to the arctic under William Pullen. Left at Beechey Island, she served as depot ship and when the remainder of the expedition was frozen in and abandoned, she and HMS Phoenix brought off the crews of Belcher's four other ships as well as that of HMS Investigator, returning again to England in 1854. In 1860 she was broken up at the Chatham Dockyard.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile and disposition for building Niemen (1820), Ranger (1820), Tweed (1823), Rainbow (1823), Rattlesnake (1822),North Star (1820), Talbot (1824), Daphne (cancelled 1832), Porcupine (cancelled 1832), Nimrod (1828) – ex Andromache, Alarm (cancelled 1826), all 28-gun Sixth Rate Sloops. The bow modifications are dated 1821. In the bottom left of the plan is a list of ship names and the yards to which they were sent. Annoted on the right in faint pencil: "May 1821. A sketch as shown in red was sent to the severel yards viz Niemen, Ranger, Tweed, Rainbow, Rattlesnake,North Star, Talbot, Daphne, Porcupine,Andromache, Alarm "


The Atholl-class corvettes were a series of fourteen Royal Navy sailing sixth-rate post ships built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy. A further four ships ordered to this design were cancelled.

Non-standard timber were used in the construction of some; for example, the first pair (Atholl and Niemen) were ordered built of larch and Baltic fir respectively, for comparative evaluation of these materials; the three ships the East India Company built,(Alligator, Termagant and Samarang), were built of teak. Nimrod was built of African timber


HMS Success undergoing repairs off Carnac Island Western Australia




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_North_Star_(1824)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atholl-class_corvette
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=North_Star_(1824

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1832 - The frigate USS Potomac, commanded by Capt. John Downes, shells a pirate stronghold at Qualla Battoo, Sumatra
The day before a Potomac landing party destroys four forts, killing 150 pirates and the pirate leader, Rajah Po Mohamet. The Malays agree not to make further attacks on American ships


USS Potomac was a Raritan-class frigate in the United States Navy laid down by the Washington Navy Yard in August 1819 and launched in March 1822. Fitting out was not completed until 1831, when Captain John Downes assumed command as first commanding officer. Although called a "44" 1st class, she was built to mount 32 carronades on her spar deck, 30 long guns on her gun deck, two bow and three stern chasers on each of these decks, significantly under-rating her on the rating system of the Royal Navy.





Service History
On her first overseas cruise, Potomac departed New York 19 August 1831 for the Pacific Squadron via the Cape of Good Hope on the first Sumatran Expedition. On 6 February 1832, Potomac destroyed the town of Kuala Batee in retaliation for the capture there in February of the previous year of the American merchantman Friendship, which had been recaptured and returned to Salem to report the murder of many of her crew. Of Potomac's 282 sailors and Marines who landed, two were killed while 150 natives died, including Mahomet, the chieftain. After circumnavigating the world, Potomac returned to Boston 23 May 1834.

The frigate next made two cruises to the Brazil Station, protecting American interests in Latin America from 20 October 1834 to 5 March 1837, and from 12 May 1840 to 31 July 1842. From 8 December 1844 to 4 December 1845, she patrolled in the West Indies, and again from 14 March 1846 to 20 July 1847 in the Caribbean and the Gulf. During this latter period, she landed troops at Port Isabel, Texas, on 8 May 1846 in support of General Zachary Taylor’s army at the Battle of Palo Alto. She also participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, 9 to 28 March 1847.

Potomac served as flagship for the Home Squadron 1855–1856. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, she departed from New York City on 10 September 1861 for the Gulf Blockading Squadron off Mobile Bay. At this time, William Thomas Sampson served aboard her until 25 December 1861 when he transferred to the USS Water Witch as executive officer. The Potomac became the stores ship for the squadron and remained at Pensacola Navy Yard as a receiving ship until 1867, when she was sent to Philadelphia. She remained at League Island Navy Yard until she decommissioned 13 January 1877. She was sold to E. Stannard & Company 24 May 1877.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Potomac_(1822)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
7 February 1863 - HMS Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand after grounding on a sand bar.
Of the 259 aboard 189 were lost making it the highest maritime loss of life in New Zealand waters


HMS Orpheus was a Jason-class Royal Navy corvette that served as the flagship of the Australian squadron. Orpheus sank off the west coast of Auckland, New Zealand on 7 February 1863: 189 crew out of the ship's complement of 259 died in the disaster, making it the worst maritime tragedy to occur in New Zealand waters.



Richard Brydges Beechey's 1863 painting of the disaster.

The ship
HMS Orpheus (named after the Greek hero) was a Jason-class corvette, a screw-driven vessel built in Chatham Dockyard in Kent, England, in 1861. She was owned by the Royal Navy, and was 69 metres long with a crew of 259.

Orpheus was commanded by Captain Robert Heron Burton. She displayed a broad pennant to indicate that Commodore William Farquharson Burnett, senior officer of HM ships and vessels on the Australian and New Zealand Stations, was also on board.

She was wrecked when delivering naval supplies and troop reinforcements to Auckland for the New Zealand land wars.



Background
Orpheus's first journey was in December 1861 flying the pennant of Commodore W Farquharson Burnett CB. She sailed from Plymouth Sound, initially for convoy duty off Canada, which delayed her voyage to Sydney. On 31 January 1863, Burnett set out on a mission to New Zealand. The mission was not to reinforce the British ships already taking part in the New Zealand Wars, but to arrange for the withdrawal of two Royal Navy sloops – Miranda, stationed in Manukau harbour, and Harrier. They were to rendezvous in the Waitematā Harbour. Orpheus was behind schedule, and Burnett decided to save some time by cutting through Manukau Harbour rather than going by the intended course of rounding North Cape and sailing down the East Coast of Northland.

The wreck


Whatipu beach: area of the wreck

Orpheus left Sydney, Australia, on 31 January 1863. Her approach to Manukau Harbour on 7 February ran near Whatipu beach, through a series of dangerous sand bars. The weather was clear and sunny. Although the bars had been charted twice, in 1836 and 1856, a revised pilotage guide from 1861 was available that indicated that the middle sand bar had moved northwards and grown considerably in the intervening time. Orpheus carried both the out-of-date chart and the updated guide, and the sailing master William Strong originally used the updated instructions for entering the harbour, but he was over-ruled by the commodore and the ship proceeded according to the 1856 chart.

As the ship approached the submerged bar, a navigational signal from nearby Paratutae Island was received instructing her to turn north to avoid a grounding. Soon after, Quartermaster Frederick Butler (a convicted deserter, and one of only two men on board to have previously entered Manukau Harbour) alerted the senior officers to the improper course they were taking. Despite finally attempting to correct their course, a few minutes later, at approximately 1:30 in the afternoon, Orpheus hit the bar in an approximate position of 37°04.1′S 174°28.3′ECoordinates:

37°04.1′S 174°28.3′E.

The force of the surf soon caused Orpheus to swing around, exposing its port side to the waves. Considerable damage was sustained: the hatches burst open, cabin windows were shattered, and Orpheus began to take on water. The crew attempted to abandon ship, but the power of the sea's surge made escape extremely difficult, and many sailors were swept away.

The Wonga Wonga
Meanwhile, the harbour pilot and signalman of Manukau Harbour on duty was Edward Wing (son of Captain Thomas Wing, pilot and harbourmaster of the Port of Manukau who also created the original 1836 chart) who was, at that time guiding the steamship Wonga Wonga out of the harbour. When it became apparent that Orpheus was in trouble, Wonga Wonga approached the beached ship and attempted to pick up survivors, many of whom had climbed into the rigging as the deck became submerged. At approximately 8:00pm, the masts began to break, killing most of the crew who remained on board. Wonga Wonga remained in the area overnight looking for survivors, and then buried what dead could be recovered in the sand-dunes on shore. An information board located at Kakamatua Inlet on the Waitakere Ranges, near Titirangi to the west of Auckland, indicates the approximate area, now heavily overgrown, where some of the victims were buried. Later, the survivors were transferred from Wonga Wonga to HMS Avon and taken to Onehunga.


The wreck of HMS Orpheus, Orpheus Memorial, Lobby of the Chapel at the Old Naval College, Greenwich

Aftermath
Three inquiries were held after the shipwreck, but due to the unwillingness of the Royal Navy to admit an officer's culpability much of the blame was laid on Edward Wing for not guiding the ship into the harbour and for failing to maintain the signalling station on Paratutai Island. In all, 189 people died in the wreck of HMS Orpheus, including Commodore Burnett and Captain Burton, giving it the highest ever casualty rate for a shipwreck in New Zealand waters.

Later, the survivors (8 officers and 62 men) were taken to HMS Miranda and split into three groups. All the officers and 10 hands were sent to Portsmouth to appear before a court martial (in this case not a criminal trial, but a formal inquiry); 25 sailors were drafted to HMS Harrier; and the remaining 27 sailors stayed with Miranda.

Most of the sailors who drowned were very young, some being boys aged 12 to 18 who were still "learning the ropes" to become able seamen. The average age of the crew (including marines) was only 25.

The cause of this disaster is disputed, even after the Admiralty laid the blame on Edward Wing. The local Maori interpreted it differently. In Manukau Harbour some distance from the scene of the disaster lies Puketutu Island. On the extreme western point of the island there grew a puriri tree, the tree was considered sacred and "tapu" to the Maori people. The day before Orpheus was wrecked a pakeha settler felled the tree and used the wood for fence posts. Hence, Maori linked the disaster with a violation of tapu.

Orpheus Island off the coast of Queensland was named after the corvette by Lieutenant G. E. Richards in 1887 in memory of the loss of life.

Protection
The wreck of the Orpheus is scheduled for preservation in the Auckland Regional Plan: Coastal and is also protected under the archaeological provisions of the Historic Places Act 1993

HMS Wolverine (also HMS Wolverene) was a Jason-class three-masted wooden screw corvette, of the Royal Navy









https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orpheus_(1860)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wolverine_(1863)