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

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1794 - French Patriote (74), part of a French squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly, captures HMS Castor (32), Cptn. Thomas Troubridge, off Cape Clear.
20 days later she was recaptured by Francis Laforey's HMS Carysfort


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






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

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


Hand-coloured. The Castor, a British vessel captured by the French (and flying French colours) is shown on the left of the picture, just before her re-capture by the British vessel Carysfort

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

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

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

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

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

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


Patriote was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was one of the French ships which had their hull doubled with copper.

In September 1793, during the Siege of Toulon, she was taken by the British, who removed her armament and embarked the French sailors sympathetic to the Republic. Admiral Hood having agreed to expel them, she then ferried them to Brest, where she arrived on 16 October.

In 1794 she took part in the battle of the Glorious First of June, in the Croisière du Grand Hiver winter campaign in 1794 and 1795, and in the Expédition d'Irlande in December 1796. In 1806 she was damaged in a hurricane in the caribbean and came to chesapeake bay for shelter where she was blockaded by the British along with EOLE and laid off Annapolis for repairs.until returning to france From 1821, she was used as a hulk.


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

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


Scale 1:96. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for Levant (1758) and Carysfort (1766), both 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. Date unknown as Carysfort not launched until 1766. Poss represents a time when both ships were in a Royal Dockyard at the same time? NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 595 states that 'Carysfort' (1766) was launched at Sheerness Dockyard on 23 August 1766 and docked on 30 March 1767. She was undocked on 9 June and sailed on 11 August 1767 having been fitted. NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 344 states that 'Levant' (1758) was docked at Sheerness Dockyard on 5 September 1766. she was undocked on 24 September 1766 and sailed on 3 November 1766 having been fitted. This is the only time in their careers that they were in the same dockyard together


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, longitudinal half breadth for Carysfort (1766), a 28-gun, Six th Rate Frigate building at Sheerness Dockyard

HMS Castor (1785) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109627.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Patriote_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Carysfort_(1766)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-300556;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1804 - HMS Vincejo (16), John Westly Wright, captured by French flotilla of 6 brigs and 5 luggers off the mouth of the Morbihan


HMS Vincejo (or Vencejo or Vencego, or informally as Vincey Joe), was the Spanish naval brig Vencejo, which was built c.1797, probably at Port Mahon, and that the British captured in 1799. The Royal Navy took her into service and she served in the Mediterranean where she captured a privateer and a French naval brig during the French Revolutionary Wars. After the start of the Napoleonic Wars, the French captured Vencejo in Quiberon Bay in 1804. The French Navy took her into service as Victorine, but then sold her in January 1805. She then served as the French privateer Comte de Regnaud until the British recaptured her in 1810. The Royal Navy did not take her back into service.





Origin and capture
The Spanish built Vencejo as a quarterdecked and forecastled brig, possibly around 1797, and probably in Port Mahon. Cormorant captured her on 19 March. Cormorant was in the Mediterranean proceeding to a rendezvous with Centaur when she sighted a brig. After a chase of four hours, Cormorant Vincejo. Vincejo was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns on her gun deck, six brass 4-pounders on her quarterdeck, and two on her forecastle. She also had a crew of 144 men. during the chase Vincejo threw six of her 6-pounder guns overboard.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail and longitudinal half-breadth for Port Mahon (captured 1798), an 18-gun brig sloop found building at Port Mahon when the port was taken. The plan also relates to Vensejo (captured 1799), a captured Spanish 18-gun brig sloop. There are some differences in gunwale heights between the two brigs. The plan is signed by Robinson Kittoe as 'acting Storekeeper 1798' at Mahon

British service
French Revolutionary Wars
Commander George Long commissioned Vincejo in November. However, she had long since already started to serve with the Royal Navy.

In the action of 18 June 1799, a French frigate squadron under Rear-admiral Perrée, which had escaped Alexandria on 17 March and was now returning to Toulon from Syria, met a 30-ship British fleet under Lord Keith. Three ships of the line and two frigates detached from the British squadron, and a 28-hour running battle ensued. When the British ships overhauled them, the French frigates Junon, Courageuse, and Alceste, and the brigs Salamine and Alerte had no choice but to surrender, given their opponents' overwhelming strength. Vincejo was part of Kieth's fleet and shared in the prize money. A few days later, on 25 June, Vincejo sailed close enough to shore near Genoa that shore batteries fired on her; they ceased firing when she hoisted Spanish colours.

In the latter part of 1799, Keith detached a squadron of four vessels, one being Vincejo, under the command of Captain George Cockburn in Minerve. The squadron's task was to patrol the bay of Genoa to cut communication between Italy and France.

During this time Vincejo came to intercept, after a long chase and a warning shot, a large (6-700 ton (bm)) vessel. She turned out to be the Hercules, of Boston, and hence neutral, with no apparent cargo. The American captain explained to Long that Hercules had taken cargo to Leghorn, sold it there, and then had agreed to take a small number of invalid French officers to a French port where he might find a return cargo for the United States. Long was suspicious and ordered Hercules to accompany him overnight in Long's hope that they might encounter Cockburn and that he would decide what to do with the American vessel. Next day, when it turned out that Minerve was nowhere in sight, Long released the American vessel, which sailed off to Nice. Later, the British learned that Hercules had been ballasted with brass guns (violating her neutrality), and had hidden aboard her French plunder in the form of statues, pictures, plate, and the like.

On 1 August boats from Minerve and Peterel cut out two vessels from the Bay of Diano, near Genoa. One was a large settee carrying wine, and the other was the French warship Virginie, which was a Turkish-built half-galley of 26 oars, six guns and 36 men, that the French had captured at Malta the year before. Minerve and Peterel shared the proceeds of the capture of Virginie with Santa Teresa and Vincejo.

On 17 October Admiral Nelson ordered Long to take Vincejo on a fortnight's cruise off Toulon and the Îles d'Hyères. One month later, on 16 November, Vincejo communicated with Nelson at Palermo that six French vessels (two Venetian ships armed en flute, two frigates, and two corvettes) had left Toulon. Long believed that they were sailing to Malta to reinforce the French there and so he was sailing there too to warn the Marquise of Niza, the commander of the Portuguese squadron that Nelson had sent to Valletta to initiate a blockade.

In December, Vincejo captured a French vessel carrying a General Voix and 75 officers, mostly members of Napoleon's staff, on their way back to France from Egypt. Long was able to retrieve the dispatches the French had thrown overboard as they had failed to weight them adequately.

On 8 February 1800, Vincejo left Port Mahon as escort to a transport that was carrying to Malta a surgeon's mate and some medical stores that General Henry Edward Fox, lieutenant-governor of Menorca, had provided. The British forces besieging Valletta, especially the Royal Marines and the 89th Regiment of Foot, were suffering from fever, probably typhus.

In late February and early March Vencejo was still off Valletta. Then on 10 March Nelson put the squadron off Valletta, including Vincejo, under the command of Captain Troubridge in Foudroyant.

In the action of 31 March 1800, a British squadron consisting of the ships of the line Foudroyant and Lion, frigate Penelope, brigs Minorca and Vincejo, and bomb vessel Strombolo captured the French ship of the line Guillaume Tell. Although all six vessels of the British squadron shared the prize money, only the two ships of the line and the frigate actually engaged in the battle.

Northumberland, Alexander, Penelope, Bonne Citoyenne, and Vincejo shared in the proceeds of the French polacca Vengeance, captured entering Valletta, Malta on 6 April.

On 25 June, Success captured the French aviso Intreprenante (or Entreprenante). The next day Success captured another aviso, Redoutable, with the same armament, establishment, and mission as Intreprenante. Unfortunately for Success, she had to share the prize money with a large number of other British warships, including Vincejo.

On 1 August Vincejo captured the French naval ketch Etoile, of six guns and 60 men, which was sailing from Toulon to Malta with provisions for the French forces there. French records describe Etoile as an aviso, and give the name of her captain as enseigne de vaisseau auxiliaire Reynaud and the place of capture as off Cap Bon.

The French frigates Diane (or Dianne) and Justice escaped from Valletta Harbour on 24 August. Success, Northumberland, and Genereux captured Diane, which the British took into service as HMS Niobe, but Justice escaped. As part of the blockading squadron, Vincejo shared in the prize money for Diane.

On 17 April 1801 Vincenjo captured the privateer Superbe. Then one month later, on 15 or 17 May, Vincejo captured the privateer Serpente. Vencejo was also among the vessels of the British squadron that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the St. Nicbola on 15 September.

Vincejo was part of the British squadron supporting the Anglo-Tuscan forces at the Siege of Porto Ferrajo when the French attempted to force the surrender of the Tuscan fortress town of Porto Ferrajo (now Portoferraio) on the island of Elba following the French occupation of mainland Tuscany earlier in 1801. The British went on the offensive on 14 September. They assembled a force of some 449 Royal Marines, 240 seamen, and some 300 Tuscan auxiliaries to attack the French batteries that overlooked the mouth of the harbour. Renown, Gibraltar, Dragon, Alexander, Genereux, Stately, Pomone, Pearl and Vincejo, contributed the marines and seamen, all under the command of Captain George Long and Captain John Chambers White of Renown. The British-Tuscan force succeeded in destroying the batteries, though Long was killed in the attack on one. However, eventually the French, who greatly outnumbered the attackers, were able to force them to withdraw. In March 1802 under Article XI of the final terms of the Treaty of Amiens the British turned over the entire island to the French and Elba remained in French hands throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

On 2 October Pomone, Vincejo, the cutter Pigmy, in company with the privateer Furioso, captured the Belle Aurora. In April 1802 Commander James Prevost took command of Vincejo.

Vincejo arrived at Sheerness on 6 April 1803. Admiralty records show that she then underwent refitting at Chatham between September 1803 and February 1804, with Commander John Wesley Wright recommissioning her in September 1803.


Action between H.B.M.S. Vinceio John Wesley Wright Esqr, Commander, and a numerous French flotilla, off Quiberon on the Coast of France 7th May 1804 (PAD5679)


First view of HM Sloop El Vincego I W Wright Esqr. Commander, Taken in the Bay of Quiberon, on the 8th of May 1804 (PAG9021)


Second View of HM Sloop El Vincego I W Wright Esqr, Commander, taken in the Bay of Quiberon by Six Brigs & Eleven Gun Boats of the French, on the 8th of May 1804 (PAG9022)

Napoleonic Wars and capture
However, Wright was already in command of Vincejo in August, and carrying out secret missions on the French coast. On the night of 23 August 1803, Vincejo landed Georges Cadoudal and several other Chouans, possibly including Jean-Charles Pichegru, at the foot of the cliffs of Biville. The Chouans were royalists and intended to attempt the assassination or overthrow of Napoleon.

Vincejo continued to patrol the coast between the Loire and Lorient, seeking to capture coastal shipping. At night, she made other forays to liaise with the royalists. On 15 March 1804, Vincejo captured the Delphini.

Between 28 April and 4 May Vincejo chased several large French convoys into the Villaine estuary, the Gulf of Morbihan, Crac, and Lorient. The weak and inconstant winds meant that her efforts had little effect beyond interrupting his quarries' journeys. Then on the evening of 4 May Wright sighted a large ship corvette, of 18 guns, at the entrance to Lorient. Over the next three days he attempted to intercept her and lure her out to where he could engage her. In the meantime, he forced a convoy to take shelter at Le Palais, Belle Île.

On 7 May, while trying to lure the corvette towards Belle Île Vincejo drove a sloop ashore between Saint Gilda and Saint Jacques, Sarzou. In the morning of 8 May Vincejo found herself becalmed while the tide carried her towards the Teigneuse Rock. As Wright was attempting to warp her out to the channel, he observed that a flotilla of gunboats had come out from the Morbihan and was approaching Vincejo. The gunboats started firing as soon as they were in range and continued firing as they approached. Vincejo' crew alternated between manning the larboard guns and the starboard sweeps, leaving them exhausted.

The French gunvessels stood off at a distance such that although their guns could reach Vincejo, her carronades could not reach them. After two hours of unequal combat, Wright struck Vincejo's colours. Her rigging was gone, her sails, riddled, and three guns were dismounted. She had suffered two men killed and 12 wounded. Wright wrote that he had surrendered "to preserve the lives of my brave men for some better occasion."

The French imprisoned the crew and took Wright to Paris where they imprisoned him in the Temple prison, where he had spent April 1796 to May 1798 as a prisoner while functioning as secretary to Sir Sidney Smith. Now the French interrogated Wright about what he knew of the royalists and their plans, and particularly about Georges and Pichegru. In 1805 Wright died, reportedly a suicide; British opinion was that he had been murdered.

In 1813, Lieutenant James Wallis, who had been senior lieutenant on Vincejo, escaped to Great Britain. He brought with him a letter dated 14 May 1804, that constituted Wright's official report of the loss. In his report, in addition to the casualties, Wright described 26 men as being unfit for service, without specifying what that entailed. He described the 17 gun-vessels that had captured him as consisting of six brigs each armed with three 18 and 24-pounder guns and having crews of 60 to 80 men, six cutters each armed with two 18 and 24-pounder guns and having crews of some 50 to 40 men, and five luggers each armed with one carronade or shell-firing howitzer and having a crew of 30 men. Wallis received promotion to Commander and in August 1814 command of Podargus.

Privateer and capture
The French Navy took Vincejo into service as Victorine. However, the Navy sold her at Lorient in January 1805.

In 1809, the merchants Gareshé frères, Garreau et Filleau at Lorient equipped Compte de Regnaud, ex-Victorine, for an "expedition de aventure" to Isle de France (Mauritius).

On 30 November 1811, Rover captured the letter-of-marque Comte Regnaud. Comte Regnaud was armed with ten 18-pounder carronades and four 9-pounder guns. She was under the command of M. Abraham Giscard and had left Batavia on 7 August 1811 with a cargo of spices, sugar, and coffee, the greater part of which belonged to the French government, and which cargo she was taking to Rochelle. She turned out to be the former Vincejo. Although Commander Justice Finley, Rover's captain, described her as "well found in every Respect, and sails remarkably well", the Royal Navy did not take her back into service. Prize money was paid in January 1813.

HMS Vincejo (1799) - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-357989;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=V

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1812 - american Baltimore pilot schooner Arrow was seized by HMS Andromache under Orders in Council, for trading with the French.


HMS Whiting, built in 1811 by Thomas Kemp as a Baltimore pilot schooner, was launched as Arrow. On 8 May 1812 a British navy vessel seized her under Orders in Council, for trading with the French. The Royal Navy re-fitted her and then took her into service under the name HMS Whiting. In 1816, after four years service, Whiting was sent to patrol the Irish Sea for smugglers. She grounded on the Doom Bar. When the tide rose, she was flooded and deemed impossible to refloat.






Technique includes scratching out.; Medium includes sepia ink.; Heightened with white. This anonymous watercolour, presumably of an incident in the Anglo-American ware of 1812-14 is inscribed at the bottom: 'The American Schooner bore down on the Pylades Sloop of war, mistaking her, but on receiving a shot made sail & escaped hoisting a white flag at her fore 'Catch me who can' G.H'

Arrow
Built for speed, Arrow served as a cargo vessel trading between the USA and France. This was risky, as in 1807 Britain had introduced restrictions on American trade with France, with which Britain was at war. The U.S. considered these restrictions illegitimate.

On 8 May 1812, six months after being commissioned, Arrow was on a return voyage from Bordeaux to Baltimore fully laden with goods such as brandy, champagne, silk, nuts and toys, when the 38-gun frigate HMS Andromache, commanded by Captain George Tobin, seized Arrow and her cargo. Barely a month later the instruments allowing the seizure were repealed, two days before the United States Congress had voted a declaration of war on Britain, which President Madison approved on 18 June 1812.

Tobin sent Arrow to Plymouth as a prize, with six of his seamen and two marines on board, and under escort of HMS Armide, commanded by Captain Lucius Handyman. As her original crew arrived in England before the declaration of war, they were released. Arrow was taken to Plymouth Dockyard where between June 1812 and January 1813 she was re-fitted to be used by the Royal Navy.

HMS Whiting
In full, Whiting's new name was "His Majesty's schooner Whiting", and not "His Majesty's ship". She succeeded the Bermudian-built Ballyhoo schooner, Whiting, which a French privateer had captured outside a US harbour at the start of the American War of 1812. In January 1813 Lieutenant George Hayes RN, took command and on 25 February 1813 she sailed for the Bay of Biscay to join Surveillante, Medusa, Bramble, Iris,Scylla, and Sparrow in the blockade of trade between the U.S. and France.

Whiting was in service with the Royal Navy for almost four years. During that time, while under the command of Hayes, she captured or recaptured several vessels. On 22 March 1813, Whiting shared in the capture of the American schooner Tyger with Medusa, Scylla and Iris. Tyger, of 263 tons (bm), was armed with four guns and had a crew of 25 men. She was sailing from Bordeaux to New York with a cargo of brandy, wine, and silks.

One month later, on 23 April, Whiting was in company with Scylla and Pheasant. After a chase of over 100 miles (90 nmi; 160 km), they captured the American 8-gun brig Fox, which threw two of her guns overboard during the chase. Fox and her 29-man crew was underway from Bordeaux to Philadelphia.

Then on 15 July, Whiting recaptured the ship Friends, in company with Reindeer. Whiting, in company with Helicon, also recaptured the Colin, on 25 October.

By 26 August 1814, Whiting was under the command of Lieutenant John Little. On that day she recaptured the brig Antelope.

Whiting was also one of ten British vessels that took part in the Battle of Fort Peter, a successful British attack in January 1815 on an American fort . This battle was one of the skirmishes of the War of 1812 that happened after the US and Britain had signed the Treaty of Ghent, but before the US Senate had ratified it.

Wreck on Doom Bar


Wreck of the "Whiting" on Doom Bar

On 18 August 1816, Whiting, under the command of Lieutenant John Jackson, was ordered to leave Plymouth and sail around Land's End to the Irish Sea to counter smuggling in the area. On 15 September 1816, to escape a gale, Jackson took his vessel into harbour at Padstow on the north coast of Cornwall. The wind dropped as they came around Stepper Point, and the ship ran aground on the Doom Bar as the tide was ebbing, stranding her.

According to the court-martial transcripts, an attempt to move Whiting was made at the next high tide, but she was taking on water and it became impossible to save her. Her abandonment happened over the next few days. The court martial board reprimanded Lieutenant Jackson for having attempted to enter the harbour without a pilot and for his failure to lighten her before trying to get her off; as punishment he lost one year's seniority. Five crewmen took advantage of the opportunity to desert; three were recaptured and were given "50 lashes with nine tails". Whiting was eventually sold and despite correspondence requesting her move eleven years later, the Navy took no further interest in her.


An original Baltimore Clipper. These were used as privateers during the War of 1812.

Legacy
In May 2010, ProMare and the Nautical Archaeology Society, with the help of Padstow Primary School, mounted a search to find Whiting. They conducted a geophysical survey that recorded a number of suitable targets that divers subsequently investigated. One target is located only 27 yards (25 m) from the calculated position of the wreck but sand completely covers the site, preventing further investigation at this time.



Replica of 1847 "Baltimore Clipper" Californian built in 1984

HMS Whiting (1812) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore_Clipper
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/110542.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Junon_(1786)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1876 – Launch of Caio Duilio, the lead ship of the Caio Duilio class of ironclad turret ships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy).


Caio Duilio was the lead ship of the Caio Duilio class of ironclad turret ships built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy). Named for the Roman admiral Gaius Duilius, the ship was laid down in January 1873, was launched in May 1876, and was completed in January 1880. She was armed with a main battery of four 17.7-inch (450 mm) guns, then the largest gun afloat, and she was capable of a top speed of around 15 kn (28 km/h; 17 mph).


Caio Duilio while fitting out in 1880

Caio Duilio's career was uneventful. She spent her first two decades in service with the Active and Reserve Squadrons, primarily tasked with training maneuvers and exercises. She was withdrawn from front-line duty in 1902 and thereafter employed as a training ship, though this role only lasted until 1909 when she was converted into a floating oil tank and renamed GM40. The ship's ultimate fate is unknown.


Design


Line-drawing of the Caio Duilioclass
Main article: Caio Duilio-class ironclad

Caio Duilio was 109.16 meters (358.1 ft) long overall and had a beam of 19.74 m (64.8 ft) and an average draft of 8.31 m (27.3 ft). She displaced 10,962 long tons (11,138 t) normally and up to 12,071 long tons (12,265 t) at full load. Her propulsion system consisted of two vertical compound steam engines each driving a single screw propeller, with steam supplied by eight coal-fired, rectangular boilers. Her engines produced a top speed of 15.04 knots (27.85 km/h; 17.31 mph) at 7,711 indicated horsepower (5,750 kW). She could steam for 3,760 nautical miles (6,960 km; 4,330 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 420 officers and men, which later increased to 515.

Caio Duilio was armed with a main battery of four 17.7 in (450 mm) 20-caliber guns, mounted in two turrets placed en echelon amidships. These were the largest naval guns in use at the time. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she carried three 14 in (360 mm) torpedo tubes. Caio Duilio was protected by belt armor that was 21.5 in (550 mm) thick at its strongest section, which protected the ship's magazines and machinery spaces. Both ends of the belt were connected by transverse bulkheads that were 15.75 in (400 mm) thick. She had an armored deck that was 1.1 to 2 in (28 to 51 mm) thick. Her gun turrets were armored with 17 in of steel plate. The ship's bow and stern were not armored, but they were extensively subdivided into a cellular "raft" that was intended to reduce the risk of flooding.

Service history


Illustration of Caio Duilio underway

Caio Duilio was laid down at the Regio Cantiere di Castellammare di Stabia shipyard in Castellammare di Stabia on 6 January 1873, the same day that the keel for her sister shipEnrico Dandolo was laid down at the Arsenale di La Spezia. Construction on Caio Duilio proceeded much faster than on her sister; she was launched on 8 May 1876 and completed on 6 January 1880, more than two years before Enrico Dandolo would be finished. On 8 March, shortly after Caio Duilio entered service, one of her 17.7 in guns exploded. The inexperienced gun crew had accidentally double-loaded the gun.

During the annual fleet maneuvers held in 1885, Caio Duilio served in the 1st Division of the "Western Squadron"; she was joined by her sister Enrico Dandolo, the protected cruiser Giovanni Bausan, and a sloop. The "Western Squadron" attacked the defending "Eastern Squadron", simulating a Franco-Italian conflict, with operations conducted off Sardinia. Caio Duilio took part in the annual 1888 fleet maneuvers, along with the ironclads Lepanto, Italia, Enrico Dandolo, and San Martino, one protected cruiser, four torpedo cruisers, and numerous smaller vessels. The maneuvers consisted of close-order drills and a simulated attack on and defense of La Spezia. Later that year, the ship was present during a naval review held for the German Kaiser Wilhelm II during a visit to Italy.

In 1890, Caio Duilio received a secondary battery of three 4.7 in (120 mm) 40-caliber guns to defend the ship against torpedo boats. Caio Duilio served with the 1st Division of the Reserve Squadron during the 1893 fleet maneuvers, along with the ironclad Re Umberto, which served as the divisional flagship, the torpedo cruiser Minerva, and four torpedo boats. During the maneuvers, which lasted from 6 August to 5 September, the ships of the Reserve Squadron defended against a simulated attack by the Active Squadron, which gamed a French attack on the Italian fleet. For the periodic fleet maneuvers of 1897, Caio Duilio was assigned to the First Division of the Reserve Squadron, which also included the ironclads Ruggiero di Lauria and Lepanto and the protected cruiser Lombardia.

In 1900, the ship's secondary battery was supplemented with two 75 mm (3.0 in) guns, eight 57 mm (2.2 in) 40-caliber quick-firing guns, and four 37 mm (1.5 in) 20-caliber revolver cannon. By 1902, the ship had been removed from front line service and was employed as a boys' training ship; she was at that time the flagship of the Training Division. The Italian Navy had considered rebuilding the ship along the same lines as her sister Enrico Dandolo, but the cost of the project proved to be prohibitive, and by 1902 they had abandoned the plan. In early 1909, Caio Duilio was stricken from the naval register, and on 27 June she was disarmed. The ship was converted into a coal and oil storage hulk and was renamed GM40. Her ultimate fate is unknown.



Enrico Dandolo shortly after her completion in 1882

The Caio Duilio class was a pair of ironclad turret ships built for the Royal Italian Navy (Regia Marina) in the 1870s and 1880s. The two ships, Caio Duilio and Enrico Dandolo, were fitted with the largest guns available, 17.72 in (450 mm) rifled muzzle-loading guns, and were the largest, fastest and most powerful ships of their day. To save weight on such large vessels, the ship's designer, Benedetto Brin adopted a radical solution for the time: he reserved armor only for the central portion of the ship where it protected the ships' engines and ammunition magazines, while the rest of the hull were extensively sub-divided with watertight compartments.


Enrico Dandolo after her reconstruction in the 1890s

Both ships had uneventful careers. They spent the majority of their time in service with the Active and Reserve Squadrons of the main Italian fleet. There, they were primarily occupied with conducting training exercises. In 1895–1898, Enrico Dandolo was heavily reconstructed, but the excessive cost of the modernization prevented Caio Duilio from being similarly rebuilt. Both ships were reassigned as training ships in the early to mid-1900s. Caio Duilio was stricken from the naval register in 1909 and converted into a floating oil tank, while Enrico Dandolo remained in service as a guard ship during World War I. She was sent to the breaker's yard in 1920. Caio Duilio's ultimate fate is unknown.




Caio Duilio's two main battery turrets



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_ironclad_Caio_Duilio
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caio_Duilio-class_ironclad

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1895 – Launch of HMS Renown, a second-class predreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1890s.


HMS Renown was a second-class predreadnought battleship built for the Royal Navy in the early 1890s. Intended to command cruiser squadrons operating on foreign stations, the ship served as the flagship of the North America and West Indies Station and the Mediterranean Fleet early in her career. Becoming obsolete as cruiser speeds increased, Renown became a royal yacht and had all of her secondary armament removed to make her more suitable for such duties. She became a stoker's training ship in 1909 and was listed for disposal in 1913. The ship was sold for scrap in early 1914.



Design and description
Production of a new 12-inch gun was behind schedule and the three battleships planned for the 1892 Naval Programme that were intended to use the new gun had to be delayed. In their stead, an improved Centurion-class battleship design was chosen to keep the workers at Pembroke Dockyard fully employed. No formal requirement for a second-class battleship suitable for use as the flagship on foreign stations or to reinforce cruiser squadrons existed at the time, but the decision to build the ship was strongly influenced by the views of the Controller of the Navy, Rear Admiral John A. "Jacky" Fisher and the Director of Naval Intelligence, Captain Cyprian Bridge who favoured smaller ships with a smaller main armament and large secondary armament. They pressed for additional ships of this type as substitutes for the two other battleships originally programmed, but this was rejected by the Admiralty as there was no demand for additional second-class battleships.

The Director of Naval Construction, William Henry White, submitted three designs in early April 1892 and the smallest one was chosen on 11 April. The design was quite innovative in several different ways. It was the first battleship to use Harvey armour, which allowed the secondary casemates to be armoured, the first to use a sloping armour deck and the first to provide armoured shields over the main armament.



General characteristics
Renown had an overall length of 412 feet 3 inches (125.7 m), a beam of 72 feet 4 inches (22.0 m), and a draught of 27 feet 3 inches (8.3 m) at deep load. She displaced 11,690 long tons (11,880 t) at normal load and 12,865 long tons (13,071 t) at deep load. The ship had a metacentric height of 3.75 feet (1.1 m) at deep load.

In 1903, the crew numbered between 651 and 674 officers and enlisted men. She was considered to handle well by her captains and was a good sea-boat. In view of her intended duties abroad, her bottom was coppered to reduce biofouling.

Propulsion
Renown was powered by a pair of three-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving a single propeller. Steam for the engines was provided by eight cylindrical boilers at a working pressure of 155 psi(1,069 kPa; 11 kgf/cm2). The engines were designed to produce a total of 10,000 indicated horsepower (7,500 kW) which was intended to allow her to reach a speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). The engines proved to be more powerful than anticipated and Renown reached 18.75 knots (34.73 km/h; 21.58 mph) during sea trials under forced draught. The ship carried a maximum of 1,890 long tons (1,920 t) of coal, enough to steam 6,400 nautical miles (11,900 km; 7,400 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Armament
She was armed with four 32-calibre, breech-loading 10-inch Mk III guns in two twin-gun barbettes, one forward and one aft. Each gun was provided with 105 shells. Her secondary armament consisted of ten 40-calibre quick-firing (QF) 6-inch Mk II guns. Half a dozen of these guns were mounted in casemates on the sides of the hull and the remaining guns were mounted on the upper deck in casemates in the superstructure. Defence against torpedo boats was provided by a dozen QF 12-pounder 12-cwt guns. Eight of these were mounted on the upper deck amidships. They fired 3-inch (76 mm), 12.5-pound (5.7 kg) shells at a muzzle velocity of 2,548 ft/s (777 m/s). 200 rounds per gun were carried by each ship. Renown also carried eight QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns. Each gun was provided with 500 rounds of ammunition. She had five 18-inch torpedo tubes, one in the stern above water and two on each broadside underwater.

Armour
The ship's protection was generally composed of Harvey armour and her waterline main belt was 6–8 inches (152–203 mm) thick. It was 210 feet (64.0 m) long amidships and 7.5 feet (2.3 m) high of which 5 feet (1.5 m) was below the waterline at normal load. Fore and aft oblique bulkheads, 10 inches (254.0 mm) and 6 inches (152 mm)] thick, connected the belt armour to the barbettes. The upper strake of six-inch armour was 180 feet (54.9 m) long and 6.75 feet (2.1 m) high. It covered the ship's side between the rear of the barbettes up to the level of the main deck. Oblique bulkheads six inches thick connected the upper armour to the barbettes.

Renown was the first British battleship to be built with a sloped armoured deck behind the main belt as was commonly used on British protected cruisers. The top of the protective deck was even with the top of the main armoured belt and sloped down at 45° angle to meet the bottom of the belt. It was 2 inches (51 mm) thick on the flat and 3 inches (76 mm) on the slope and ran between the barbettes. Outside the barbettes, the lower deck was three inches thick and ran towards the ends of the ship.

The barbettes were protected by 10-inch (254 mm) armour plates. The gun turrets that protected the main armament were six inches thick on their face, with three-inch sides and a 1-inch (25 mm) roof. They were initially built without a rear plate because of weight distribution problems with the turrets. The upper deck casemates were protected by 4-inch (102 mm) plates on the front and sides, but the main deck casemates had six-inch faces and sides. The stern torpedo tube was protected by a mantlet three to six inches thick. The sides of the forward conning tower were 9 inches (229 mm) thick while those of the rear conning tower were only three inches in thickness.

Construction and career

HMS Renown, flagship of the North America and West Indies Station, at Halifax circa 1898

Renown was laid down at Pembroke Dockyard on 1 February 1893 and launched on 8 May 1895. She was completed in January 1897 at a cost of £751,206, but then underwent lengthy sea trials that included the changing of her propeller blades that lasted until June. The ship commissioned on 8 June 1897 and served as flagship for the Commander-in-Chief, Vice Admiral Sir Nowell Salmon, VC, on 26 June, at the Fleet Reviewat Spithead for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, with the Prince of Wales aboard. She was briefly attached to the 1st Division, of the Channel Squadron, from 7 to 12 July for manoeuvres off the south coast of Ireland. On 24 August, Renown became Fisher's flagship, relieving the protected cruiser Crescent as flagship of the North America and West Indies Station. The ship continued as such until beginning a refit in May 1899.

Upon completion of her refit in July, she transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet, once again becoming Fisher's flagship. A strong proponent of the design of Renown, Fisher also found her highly desirable for the hosting of the social events required of a flagship in peacetime. Captain Hugh Tyrwhitt was appointed in command on 19 March 1900. Renown also underwent a special refit at Malta from February to May 1900 to meet Fisher's requirements for her. This included the transfer of the main deck 12-pounders to the superstructure. The ship recommissioned on 19 November 1900, and served as flagship until Fisher ended his tour as Commander-in-Chief on 4 June 1902, after which she continued to serve in the Mediterranean Fleet as a private ship under a new captain, Arthur Murray Farquhar. Renown participated in combined manoeuvres off Cephalonia and Moreabetween 29 September and 6 October 1902.


"HMS Renown", Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1898

After the manoeuvres ended, she was detached from the Mediterranean Fleet and returned to the United Kingdom to be specially fitted out at Portsmouth to carry the Duke and Duchess of Connaught on a royal tour of India. These modifications included removal of the main deck six-inch guns. After the modifications, she was nicknamed the "Battleship Yacht." Renown carried the Duke and Duchess on their royal tour of India from November 1902 to March 1903. The ship rejoined the Mediterranean Fleet in April. In August, she relieved Venerable as flagship of the fleet so that the latter ship could undergo a refit. From 5 to 9 August 1903, Renown participated in manoeuvres off the coast of Portugal.

Renown was placed into reserve at Devon on 15 May 1904, although she participated in manoeuvers the following month. On 21 February 1905, the ship began a special refit at Portsmouth to configure her as a royal yacht. During the refit, the remainder of her secondary armament was removed to increase her accommodations. On 8 October, Renown left Portsmouth bound for Genoa, Italy. At Genoa, the Prince and Princess of Wales—the future King George V and Queen Mary—embarked for a royal tour of India. The first-class protected cruiser Terribleescorted the ship during the tour. At the conclusion of the tour, Renown departed Karachi on 23 March 1906 and arrived at Portsmouth on 7 May. She was placed into reserve on 31 May.

In May 1907, Renown was attached to the Home Fleet as a "subsidiary yacht". Between October and December 1907, Renown carried King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain on an official trip to and from the United Kingdom. The ship was transferred to the 4th Division, Home Fleet, at Portsmouth on 1 April 1909. Five months later, 25 September, she began a refit in Portsmouth Dockyard to convert her for use as a stoker's training ship.

Renown briefly served as a tender to HMS Victory in October before her refit was completed in November. During the Coronation Review at Spithead on 24 June 1911 for King George V, the ship was used as an accommodation ship. She was slightly damaged when water tanker Aid rammed her on 26 November 1911. Renown was offered for sale on 31 January 1913 and partially dismantled. In December 1913, she was moored at the Motherbank, awaiting disposal. On 1 April 1914 she was sold at auction to Hughes Bolckow for scrap at a price of £39,000. She was broken up at Blyth.





Scale: 1:192. A full hull model of the second class battleship HMS Renown (1895), made entirely in silver and depicted moored to a buoy. Hull fittings include two pairs of hawse holes on the port and starboard sides, retracted torpedo net booms, two companion ladders each rigged to the port and starboard sides, and canopied open stern gallery. The depicted vessel is two-masted with two crow’s nests set on the foremast, and with a single crow’s nest on the mainmast. Flags are flying at the bow, stern ensign staff and from the top of the mainmast. Other fittings and features include two gun turrets fore and aft; nest of boats stowed on chocks amidships and a further eight boats of various types rigged to davits; two tall vertical funnels positioned side-by-side; and inscribed decks resembling planking. The model is displayed on an oval, ebonised plinth with deep, sculpted, concave edge and a silver plaque mounted on the starboard side of the model in the form of a shield or crest


Scale: 1:48. Design half block model of HMS 'Renown' (1895), a 2nd class battleship. Model is decked. Name "Renown" on plaque

HMS Renown (1895) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-342770;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1899 – Launch of Russian Gromoboi (Russian: Громобой, meaning: "Thunderer") was an armoured cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1890s.


Gromoboi (Russian: Громобой, meaning: "Thunderer") was an armoured cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the late 1890s. She was designed as a long-range commerce raider and served as such during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. When the war broke out, she was based in Vladivostok and made several sorties in search of Japanese shipping in the conflict's early months without much success.


Gromoboi in 1901 visiting Australia

Gromoboi, with the other armoured cruisers of the Vladivostok Cruiser Squadron, attempted to rendezvous in the Strait of Tsushima with the main portion of the Russian Pacific Fleet sailing from Port Arthur in August 1904. The Fleet was delayed, and the squadron returned to port alone. On the return, the squadron encountered a Japanese squadron of four armoured cruisers blocking their passage to base. The Japanese sank the oldest Russian ship, Rurik, and damaged Gromoboi and Rossia during the subsequent Battle off Ulsan. Both Russian ships were repaired within two months. Gromoboi ran aground immediately after completing her repairs and was out of action for four months. Three months after the damage from the grounding incident was repaired, she struck a mine, but successfully returned to port. Her armament was reinforced while under repair, but she saw no further action during the war.

Gromoboi was transferred to the Russian Baltic Fleet after the end of the war and began a lengthy refit that was completed in 1911. She was mostly inactive during World War I, but had her armament and protection upgraded during the war. She was placed into reserve in 1918 and sold to a German company in 1922 for scrapping. She was forced aground near Liepāja during a storm en route to Germany and was scrapped in place.



Design and description
Gromoboi was originally intended to be a repeat of Rossia, but a design modification for thicker armour and improved engines made that unfeasible. The use of Rossia's hull design meant that the ships looked alike.

Gromoboi was 481 feet (146.6 m) long overall. She had a maximum beam of 68.6 feet (20.9 m) and a draught of 26 feet (7.9 m). The ship displaced 12,455 long tons (12,655 t), only 95 long tons (97 t) more than designed. She was sheathed in wood and copper to reduce biofouling. As completed Gromoboi trimmed badly by the bow, which reduced her speed and made her very wet forward. Loads had to be shifted aft and ballast added to the rear of the ship to correct her trim, but she was regarded as a good sea boat afterward with an easy, although rapid, roll.


Gromoboi (left) and Rossia in Vladivostok

Propulsion
Gromoboi dispensed with Rossia's cruising engine on the centre shaft. Three equally powerful vertical triple expansion steam engines were used with a designed total of 14,500 indicated horsepower (10,813 kW), but they developed 15,496 ihp (11,555 kW) on trials and drove the ship to a maximum speed of 20.1 knots (37.2 km/h; 23.1 mph). Thirty-two Belleville water-tube boilers provided steam for the engines. She could carry a maximum of 2,400 long tons (2,439 t) of coal. This gave her a radius of action of 8,100 nautical miles (15,000 km; 9,320 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Armament
Gromoboi's main armament consisted of four 8-inch (203 mm) 45-calibre Pattern 1892 guns; the forward pair was mounted in casemates above the forward main-deck 6-inch (152 mm) gun's casemate. The two rear guns were situated in sponsons abreast the mizzenmast, protected by gun shields. The guns could be depressed to −5° and elevated to 18°. They fired 193.5-pound (87.8 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,950 feet per second (900 m/s) which gave a range of 12,000 yd (11,000 m) at 13° elevation.

Her secondary armament consisted of sixteen 6-inch (152 mm)/45 Pattern 1892 guns. One gun was mounted under the forecastle and another in the stern; neither gun could fire to the side. Most of the remaining guns were mounted in casemates, the forward pair in front of the eight-inch guns on the upper deck and the rest on the main deck. One pair was mounted on the upper deck protected by gun shields. In their pivot mounts the guns could depress to -6° and elevate to +20°. They fired 91.4-pound (41.5 kg) Pattern 1907 high explosive projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,600 feet per second (790 m/s). This gave a range of 12,600 yd (11,500 m) at maximum elevation. 240 rounds per gun were carried by Gromoboi.

Defence against torpedo boats was provided by a variety of light-calibre weapons. Gromoboi had 24 75-millimetre (3.0 in) Canet Pattern 1892 50-caliber guns mounted in sponsons on the upper deck, protected by gun shields. The gun fired 10.8-pound (4.9 kg) shells to a range of about 8,600 yards (7,864 m) at its maximum elevation of 21° with a muzzle velocity of 2,700 ft/s (820 m/s). The rate of fire was between twelve and fifteen rounds per minute.

The ship carried twelve 47-millimetre (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns. They fired a 3.3-pound (1.5 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,476 ft/s (450 m/s) at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 2,020 yards (1,850 m). The ship also carried 18 37-millimetre (1.5 in) Hotchkiss guns. These fired a 1.1-pound (0.50 kg) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1,450 ft/s (440 m/s) at a rate of 20 rounds per minute to a range of 3,038 yards (2,778 m).

Gromoboi also had four submerged 15-inch (381 mm) torpedo tubes, with two mounted on each broadside.


Gromoboi's starboard side after the Battle off Ulsan; note the holes in the ship

Armour
The Naval Ministry had hoped to increase the Gromoboi's armour thickness and increase the armour protection of the armament, but still use Rossia's hull design. The Ministry also hoped to use the new, more resistant Krupp armour, but Russian plants had proven unable to manufacture it when it was ordered and Harvey armour was used instead. In fact, for Gromoboi, the waterline belt was reduced in thickness by 2 inches (51 mm) from the older ship to six inches to better protect her guns. The belt was shortened by 100 feet (30.5 m) in length to only 300 feet (91.4 m). It was reduced in height by 9 inches (229 mm) as well to a total of 7 feet 9 inches (2.4 m); it extended 2 feet 9 inches (0.8 m) above the waterline and 5 feet (1.5 m) below the waterline. The belt was closed off by six-inch bulkheads fore and aft.

Gromoboi's casemates were 4.7 inches (119 mm) thick, with two-inch backs and 1-inch (25 mm) roofs. The two-inch thick transverse bulkhead fore and aft protected them from raking fire. The armour deck was 1.5 inches thick on the flat and 2.5 inches (64 mm) thick where it sloped down to meet the belt. The protective deck extended fore and aft of the armour deck and ranged from 2.5–3 inches (64–76 mm) in thickness. The change in the machinery allowed Gromoboi to dispense with Rossia's glacis armour that had been necessary to protect the tops of the engine cylinders. The conning tower had walls 12 inches (305 mm) thick, made of Krupp armour. The funnel uptakes and ammunition hoists were protected by 1.5 inches of armour between the lower and middle decks


A beautiful and amazing model of the Gromoboi in scale 1:700 built by an old friend of mine Jim Baumann

Russian cruiser Gromoboi - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.battleships-cruisers.co.uk/gromoboi.htm
http://www.mmt.ru/koi8/ships/gromoboy/amain.htm
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/ca/ru/gromoboi-700-jb/gromoboi-index.html

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1918 - The Action of 8 May 1918 was a small naval engagement which occurred off Algiers, North Africa during World War I.


The Action of 8 May 1918 was a small naval engagement which occurred off Algiers, North Africa during World War I. In the action, an American armed yacht and a British destroyer encountered the German U-boat UB-70. Initially, the engagement was thought to be inconclusive, but later on the allied warships were credited with sinking the German submarine.




USS Lydonia during the war, circa 1918.

Action
On 16 April, the German U-boat UB-70—under Kapitänleutnant Johannes Remy—left her home port in Germany for the Mediterranean Sea at the end of World War I. Her mission was to conduct unrestricted submarine warfare operations against allied supply lanes, primarily against Italian merchantmen.

Little is known about the disappearance of UB-70 except that she may have been in operation against an allied supply convoy somewhere near Algiers, Algeria. At about 17:00 on 8 May 1918, the American armed yacht USS Lydonia—under Richard P. McCullough—and the British destroyer HMS Basilisk were steaming and protecting a convoy from Bizerte to Gibraltar when they encountered UB-70, lining up for a shot at the British merchant ship SS Ingleside. It is however possible that the submarine involved was U-38, which has been credited with the sinking of Ingleside.


HMS Basilisk off Malta, circa 1915.

The submarine fired torpedoes and at least one hit the civil vessel. Ingleside burst into flames and immediately began to sink. The merchant ship was manned by an unknown number of crew, some of whom were killed or wounded, and some went down with the ship. The survivors waited for rescue on deck of their sinking ship or in the water. Ingleside went down, and by 17:35 the protecting allied warships spotted the submarine.

According to post-war accounts, either USS Lydonia or HMS Basilisk rammed the U-boat when it began to submerge and flee. A running battle ensued for fifteen minutes. The allied warships were coordinated and together dropped several well placed depth charges on the fleeing enemy submarine until a slight oil slick began to emerge. If the submarine was U38 it did not sink. Ingleside was its last victim but U38 survived to be handed over to the French in February 1919.

Aftermath

The port of Algiers along the Mediterranean, circa 1920.

After assuming they had sunk the enemy U-boat, Lydonia and Basilisk proceeded hastily to the wreck of Ingleside. The British and American vessels rescued some survivors and took them to a friendly port, probably Algiers.

At first the incident was listed as an inconclusive contact, but after the war the authorities realized that UB-70 had not been heard from for months, and the American and British vessels received honors for their victory.

The action off Africa became one of the few confirmed sinkings of a German U-boat by an American vessel during their short participation in the naval war. If UB-70 was sunk it was the only vessel known to have been sunk by an American vessel in Mediterranean waters during the conflict.

Action of 8 May 1918 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

http://www.navsource.org/archives/12/170700.htm

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1940 - HNLMS Buffel and HNLMS Schorpioen, both monitors ironclad ram ships, captured by germans


HNLMS Schorpioen is a Schorpioen-class monitor built in France for the Royal Netherlands Navy in the 1860s. These new ships were equipped with heavy rifled 23 cm guns, and a heavy armor. The hull had an armor plated belt of 15 cm (6 inches) and the gun turret, housing the two guns, had almost 30 cm (12 inches)of armor.

She came from the building yard with two tripod masts and able to employ about 600 m2 of sails, but she proved to be a difficult sailing ship and some years later the yards, masts and the sails were removed. As with the Buffel her huge steam engines gave her a max. speed of 13 knots (24 km/h). Her striking weapon was the pointed ram bow, slightly different from the Buffel's, but she never ever used this overestimated weapon.



Service record
As with the Buffel, her record is not very impressive. In 1886 the Schorpioen was hit in the stern quarter by a paddle steam tugboat in the harbor of Den Helder and sank in two hours. It was possible to raise and repaire her. In 1906 she completed her role as an operational warship and was transformed into an accommodation ship.

At the beginning of World War II, she fell into German hands, was towed to Germany, and served there as a lodging - and storage ship. After the war, in 1947 she was found in Hamburg (Germany) and towed back to Den Helder; again to become a lodging ship, first in Amsterdam and later in Den Helder where she became the barracks for the Dutch WRNS. In 1982, after decommissioning, she was bought by a private foundation that was established to transform her into a floating museum in Middelburg, in the southern part of the country. Seven years later, after a complete renovation, she opened her doors to visitors, as a museum.

In 1995, the Royal Netherlands Navy purchased her back and put her under the supervision of the Dutch Navy Museum in Den Helder where she is now the third, and largest, vessel on display. In May 2000, after a renovation period of eighteen months to restore her to her former glory, the ship was opened to visitors.




Schorpioen in Den Helder, Netherlands


HNLMS Buffel is a 19th-century ironclad ram ship. She was one of the main attractions of the Maritime Museum Rotterdam, also known as the Prince Hendrik Museum, named after its founder, Prince Henry (Hendrik) "The Navigator", who had a naval career and established the basis of the museum back in 1874. In October 2013 the ship moved to Hellevoetsluis and is again open for public.

Construction and design
Built in 1868 by Robert Napier and Sons in Glasgow, Scotland, HNLMS Buffel was the first ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy without sails but with a steam engine and two propellers, that gave her a maximum speed of almost 13 knots (24 km/h). Her radius of action at 6 knots (11 km/h) was about 2,150 nautical miles (3,980 km). Her main task as an armor-clad ram ship was to play a role in the Dutch coastal defense together with two sister ships and two so-called monitor ships.

Her armament was first of all the ram on her bow, mainly against wooden ships, and originally two 300-pound (140 kg), 23 cm (9 in) Armstrong guns, with a total weight of 25 metric tons, in one turret. These were later replaced by a single 28 cm (11 in) gun, and the armament was enhanced by a couple of smaller guns; two 7.5 cm (3 in), four 3.7 cm (1.5 in), and two Hotchkiss revolving cannons.

The crew consisted of 150 men, officers, petty-officers, and sailors.



Service record
The ship's only ocean voyage took place on her maiden trip in 1868 from Glasgow to Den Helder. During the voyage, the vessel rolled very much and took on a lot of water. From that day on Buffel remained in the North Sea (in accordance with her role) and her only foreign port of call was Antwerp, Belgium in 1871.

Buffel participated in many national exercises with the Royal Netherlands Army until 1894 when she was retired from active duty. This was followed by a short, two-year period as a training ship for and from 1896 she acted as a lodging or accommodation ship. She was berthed in several naval establishments in the Netherlands, the last 25 years mainly in Amsterdam. She had the (NATO) pennant number A 884 on her bow, A for Auxiliary and 8 as the first cipher for all Royal Netherlands naval ships.

In 1973 Buffel was decommissioned. In 1974, the vessel was sold to the city of Rotterdam to be modified into a museum ship. From 1979 she was opened for visitors. The ship was moved to Hellevoetsluis in 2013 in order to cut costs. Buffel arrived in Hellevoetsluis on 5 October and was moored temporarily in the brick-built Jan Blanken dry dock. This was all done on a three-year lease. On 7 February 2015 she arrived at her final berthing place at the Koningskade 2, in Het Groote Dock in Hellevoetsluis where a historic naval quarter has been developed. Positioned here are: Buffel, Bernisse, an old minesweeper, and Noord Hinder a former lightship on the North Sea. The ship is now operated by volunteers from Stichting Museumschip de Buffel.

In October 2016 Stichting Museumschip de Buffel decided not to renew the three year lease. The group of volunteers then took up the idea to try to save the historical value of the ship for the future. In co-operation with the municipal councils of Rotterdam and Hellevoetsluis, this will be tried out in the coming year 2017.




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

HNLMS Schorpioen - Wikipedia

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https://web.archive.org/web/2010091...chiffbau.de/ontour/swmschif/buffel/buffel.htm

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1941 – action of 8 May 1941
German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin, which served as a commerce raider in World War II that captured or sunk 32 ships. On 8 May 1941 she was sunk in a battle with HMS Cornwall in the Indian Ocean.
Of 401 crew, 341 were lost along with 214 of the 238 prisoners aboard.


The action of 8 May 1941 was a single ship action fought during the Second World War by the British heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall and the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) auxiliary cruiser Pinguin (Raider F to the Admiralty and Schiff 33 to the Kriegsmarine). The engagement took place in the Indian Ocean off the Seychelles archipelago, north of Madagascar. Pinguin slightly damaged Cornwall, before return-fire caused an explosion and Pinguin sank. One British sailor was killed and of 222 British and Indian Merchant Navy prisoners, captured from over thirty merchant vessels on Pinguin, 200 were killed in the explosion. Of the crew of 401 men, 332 were killed and 60 were rescued along with 22 of the Merchant Navy prisoners. Cornwall returned to Durban for repairs until 10 June.



Background
HMS Cornwall
Cornwall (Captain P. C. W. Manwaring) was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Kent subclass, built in the mid-1920s. It had a displacement of 10,000 long tons (10,000 t), carried eight 8 in (200 mm) guns in four twin turrets, four 4 in (100 mm) anti-aircraft guns in two twin turrets, two four-barrel 2-pounder pom-pom guns and two .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns. Cornwall had an aircraft catapult, three Supermarine Walrusamphibious aircraft and had a maximum speed of 31.5 kn (36.2 mph; 58.3 km/h).

Pinguin
Main article: German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin
The auxiliary cruiser Pinguin (Captain Ernst-Felix Krüder), was originally the freighter Kandelfels, which had been launched in 1936. After conversion to an auxiliary cruiser it became Schiff 33 to the Kriegsmarine. Pinguin was armed with six 150 mm (5.9 in) guns, a 75 mm (3.0 in) gun, two 37 mm (1.46 in) anti-aircraft guns, four 20 mm (0.79 in) autocannon, two torpedo tubes, 300 mines and an Arado Ar 196 A-1 floatplane. By 15 January, Pinguin (Raider F to the British) had captured 14 Norwegian merchant vessels by commerce raiding. It had captured three 12,000 long tons (12,000 t) factory ships and 11 whalers belonging to the same whaling company. The prizes were sent to Occupied France where one was renamed Adjutant and was used as minelayer for the German raiders in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. In April, Pinguin sank three British merchant ships in the Indian Ocean, close to the Equator.

Prelude
After sinking Clan Buchanan on 28 April, Pinguin sailed north-west and on 4 May, fuelled and provisioned Adjutant, which was sent away to wait at a rendezvous near the Saya de Malha Bank. Just after 5:00 a.m. on 7 May, Pinguinintercepted and sank the 3,663 long tons (3,722 t) tanker British Emperor, which was on passage from Durban to Abadan, about 375 nmi (694 km; 432 mi) east-south-east of Cape Guardafui. Emperor had sent a distress message and Cornwall, en route to refuel at the Seychelles Islands intercepted the message, when about 520 nmi (960 km; 600 mi) south of the attack. Cornwall altered course to north-north-west and increased speed to 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h). A plan was devised to catch the raider, using the Walrus spotter aircraft carried by Cornwall to close the raider's furthest on line and then search to cover the largest potential variations of the raiding ship's speed and course. Cornwall increased speed to 25.5 kn (29.3 mph; 47.2 km/h), heading north between the Seychelles and the Chagos Archipelago.

Vice-Admiral Ralph Leatham the Commander-in-Chief East Indies Station, ordered other ships to participate in the search. HMNZS Leander was sailing westwards at 25 kn (29 mph; 46 km/h) from Nine Degree Channel towards Socotra, while HMS Liverpool, which was north of Cape Guardafui, sailed for Eight Degree Channel, making for Colombo. HMS Glasgow, steaming from the Gulf of Aden, passed Cape Guardafui that morning at 23 kn (26 mph; 43 km/h), to a position about 100 nmi (190 km; 120 mi) south-east of the headland. The ship then turned south-west at 20 kn (23 mph; 37 km/h) towards the Equator, about 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) from the African coast. Farther west, the armed merchant cruiser HMS Hector, patrolled from the Equator to a position 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) to the south-west.

On the afternoon of 7 May, the two aircraft on Cornwall flew reconnaissance sorties for three hours and then altered course to get on the line of the main Vignot search. This was plotted for a mean speed of 13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h) for an hour after the time of the raider report, assuming that the raider needed an hour to sink British Emperor and then depart at full speed until dark. At 9:30 p.m., Cornwall turned east-south-east and slowed to search on this line, before the moon set. At dawn, Cornwall sent both aircraft to search an area three knots on either side of the raider's estimated speed and turned east at 18 kn (21 mph; 33 km/h) (steaming away from the raider). At 7:07 a.m. on 8 May, one of the aircraft sighted a ship heading south-west at 13 kn (15 mph; 24 km/h), about 65 nmi (120 km; 75 mi) west of Cornwall but did not report the sighting, until landing at about 8:00 a.m. At 8:25 a.m., Cornwall altered course to about west-by-south and increased speed to 23 kn (26 mph; 43 km/h). The second aircraft was launched again at 10:15 a.m. and at 12:23 p.m. it reported that the unknown ship was steaming at 15 kn (17 mph; 28 km/h) and had hoisted the signal letters of a Norwegian motor-vessel Tamerlane, which the raider resembled but was not on the list of expected ships.

Battle

HMS Cornwall in 1929

Cornwall increased speed to 26 kn (30 mph; 48 km/h) then to 28 kn (32 mph; 52 km/h). At 1:45 p.m., an aircraft was launched to give the bearing, course and speed of the suspected ship by wireless; the ship became visible from Cornwall at 4:07 p.m. The ship began transmitting raider reports, claiming to be Tamerlane. Despite orders to heave-to and two warning shots, the ship maintained course and speed for more than an hour, until the range was fewer than 12,000 yd (11,000 m) yards. At 5:10 p.m., Cornwall turned to port and the suspected raider made a larger turn to port, opening fire with five guns just before 5:15 p.m. Due to mechanical failures, Cornwall did not return fire for about two minutes and was frequently straddled by shells fired at a rapid rate, before firing two salvoes from the forward 8-inch turrets. The fore steering gear of Cornwall was disabled by a 5•9-inch shell hit and after going out of control for a moment, the after steering gear used. By 5:18 p.m., all of Cornwall's guns had opened fire, with the advantage of superior range finders and director fire-control systems, instead of local gun control. A salvo hit Pinguin, which blew up at 5:26 p.m. and sank 500 nmi (930 km; 580 mi) north of the Seychelles, about 300 nmi (560 km; 350 mi) from where it had sunk British Emperor.

Aftermath
Analysis

Example of a Walrus amphibian being catapulted from a cruiser (HMS Bermuda)

The commerce-raiding voyage of the Pinguin had lasted from 22 June 1940 – 8 May 1941 and the ship sank or captured 28 ships of 136,642 GRT. About 50,000 GRT of shipping was sent to Germany as prizes. Cornwall returned to Durban for repairs until 10 June; the tactics of the captain of Cornwall in shadowing, attempted to identify and closing with Pinguin was criticised by the Admiralty. The crew of Pinguin had been skilful in disguising the ship and it was difficult to approach a suspicious, yet unidentified ship. A raider had the tactical advantage in deciding when to open fire, before it was unmasked and investigating ships courted danger, if the vessel approached from a direction favourable to a raider's guns and torpedoes. Allied ships were given secret call-signs and a system was devised for the investigating ship to refer to the Admiralty by wireless to verify ship identities. The new methods made ship identification much easier but took months to implement and similar events occurred, when ships were either allowed to sail on and turned out to be raiders or were intercepted and sprang a surprise on the British warship.

The success against Pinguin and other raiders was due to the navy Operational Intelligence Centre (OIC) of the Naval Intelligence Division, at the Admiralty. The OIC tracked raiders, based on the position of the sinking of Allied merchant ships and by collating rare sightings and distress signals. German commerce-raiders kept radio silence, avoided common shipping routes, searching for independently routed vessels and tried to prevent their victims from transmitting wireless messages. From May to November 1941, the Germans lost Pinguin and two more commerce-raiders but Enigma decrypts by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was only involved in one sinking. German commerce-raiders used the Heimische Gewässer (Home Waters) Enigma settings, known as Dolphin to the British, before departing and when returning to Germany. The seven raiders at sea in May 1941 had sailed in 1940, before Enigma intelligence became available to the British. When at sea, Enigma-equipped raiders used the Ausserheimisch settings if they broke radio silence, which Hut 4 at Bletchley Park never managed to penetrate. Atlantis, the third raider lost in 1941, was sunk by HMS Devonshire on 22 November after the British read U-boat signals in the Heimische Gewässer setting, introduced in October 1941, to arrange a re-fuelling rendezvous.

Casualties
A British sailor near to the stern of Cornwall when Pinguin opened fire was killed in the engagement. Among the men on Pinguin were 222 British and Indian merchant sailors, captured from over thirty merchant vessels. Of the crew of 401 men, the captain and 331 otherswere killed and 60 were rescued, along with 22 of the Merchant Navy prisoners.


Pinguin was a German auxiliary cruiser (Hilfskreuzer) which served as a commerce raider in World War II. Pinguin was known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 33, and designated HSK 5. The most successful commerce raider of the war, she was known to the British Royal Navy as Raider F.


Pinguin in the Indian Ocean 1941.


HMS Cornwall, pennant number 56, was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Kent sub-class built for the Royal Navy in the mid-1920s. The ship spent most of her pre-World War II career assigned to the China Station. Shortly after the war began in August 1939, she was assigned to search for German commerce raiders in the Indian Ocean. Cornwall was transferred to the South Atlantic in late 1939 where she escorted convoysbefore returning to the Indian Ocean in 1941. She then sank the German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin in May. After the start of the Pacific War in December 1941, she began escorting convoys until she was transferred to the Eastern Fleet in March 1942. The ship was sunk on 5 April by dive bombers from three Japanese aircraft carriers during the Indian Ocean Raid.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_auxiliary_cruiser_Pinguin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_8_May_1941
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Cornwall_(56)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
8 May 1942 – World War II: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end with Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft carrier aircraft attacking and sinking the United States Navy aircraft carrier USS Lexington.



Aerial view of Lexington on 14 October 1941

Battle of the Coral Sea

Preliminary actions
Both Task Forces needed to refuel, but TF 17 finished first and Fletcher took Yorktown and her consorts northward toward the Solomon Islands on 2 May. TF 11 was ordered to rendezvous with TF 17 and Task Force 44, the former ANZAC Squadron, further west into the Coral Sea on 4 May. The Japanese opened Operation Mo by occupying Tulagi on 3 May. Alerted by Allied reconnaissance aircraft, Fletcher decided to attack Japanese shipping there the following day. The air strike on Tulagi confirmed that at least one American carrier was in the vicinity, but the Japanese had no idea of its location. They launched a number of reconnaissance aircraft the following day to search for the Americans, but without result. One H6K flying boat spotted Yorktown, but was shot down by one of Yorktown's Wildcat fighters before she could radio a report. US Army Air Forces (USAAF) aircraft spotted Shōhō southwest of Bougainville Island on 5 May, but she was too far north to be attacked by the American carriers, which were refueling. That day, Fletcher received Ultra intelligence that placed the three Japanese carriers known to be involved in Operation Mo near Bougainville Island, and predicted 10 May as the date of the invasion. It also predicted airstrikes by the Japanese carriers in support of the invasion several days before 10 May. Based on this information, Fletcher planned to complete refueling on 6 May and to move closer to the eastern tip of New Guinea to be in a position to locate and attack Japanese forces on 7 May.

Another H6K spotted the Americans during the morning of 6 May and successfully shadowed them until 1400. The Japanese, however, were unwilling or unable to launch air strikes in poor weather or without updated spot reports. Both sides believed they knew where the other force was, and expected to fight the next day. The Japanese were the first to spot their opponents when one aircraft found the oiler Neosho escorted by the destroyer Sims at 0722, south of the strike force. They were misidentified as a carrier and a cruiser so the fleet carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku launched an airstrike 40 minutes later that sank Sims and damaged Neosho badly enough that she had to be scuttled a few days later. The American carriers were west of the Japanese carriers, not south, and they were spotted by other Japanese aircraft shortly after the carriers had launched their attack on Neosho and Sims.

American reconnaissance aircraft reported two Japanese heavy cruisers northeast of Misima Island in the Louisiade Archipelago off the eastern tip of New Guinea at 07:35 and two carriers at 08:15. An hour later Fletcher ordered an airstrike launched, believing that the two carriers reported were Shōkaku and Zuikaku. Lexington and Yorktown launched a total of 53 Dauntlesses and 22 Devastators escorted by 18 Wildcats. The 08:15 report turned out to be miscoded, as the pilot had intended to report two heavy cruisers, but USAAF aircraft had spotted Shōhō, her escorts and the invasion convoy in the meantime. As the latest spot report plotted only 30 nautical miles (56 km; 35 mi) away from the 08:15 report, the aircraft en route were diverted to this new target.


Lexington photographed from a Japanese aircraft on 8 May after she had already been struck by bombs

Shōhō and the rest of the main force were spotted by aircraft from Lexington at 10:40. At this time, Shōhō's patrolling fighters consisted of two Mitsubishi A5M "Claudes" and one Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The dive bombers of VS-2 began their attack at 1110 as the three Japanese fighters attacked the Dauntlesses in their dive. None of the dive bombers hit Shōhō, which was maneuvering to avoid their bombs; one Zero shot down a Dauntless after it had pulled out of its dive; several other Dauntlesses were also damaged. The carrier launched three more Zeros immediately after this attack to reinforce its defences. The Dauntlesses of VB-2 began their attack at 11:18 and they hit Shōhōtwice with 1,000-pound (450 kg) bombs. These penetrated the ship's flight deck and burst inside her hangars, setting the fueled and armed aircraft there on fire. A minute later the Devastators of VT-2 began dropping their torpedoes from both sides of the ship. They hit Shōhō five times and the damage from the hits knocked out her steering and power. In addition, the hits flooded both the engine and boiler rooms. Yorktown's aircraft finished the carrier off and she sank at 11:31. After his attack, Lieutenant Commander Robert E. Dixon, commander of VS-2, radioed his famous message to the American carriers: "Scratch one flat top!"

After Shōkaku and Zuikaku had recovered the aircraft that had sunk Neosho and Sims, Rear Admiral Chūichi Hara, commander of the 5th Carrier Division, ordered that a further air strike be readied as the American carriers were believed to have been located. The two carriers launched a total of 12 Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers and 15 Nakajima B5N "Kate" torpedo bombers late that afternoon. The Japanese had mistaken Task Force 44 for Lexington and Yorktown, which were much closer than anticipated, although they were along the same bearing. Lexington's radar spotted one group of nine B5Ns at 17:47 and half the airborne fighters were directed to intercept them while additional Wildcats were launched to reinforce the defences. The intercepting fighters surprised the Japanese bombers and shot down five while losing one of their own. One section of the newly launched fighters spotted the remaining group of six B5Ns, shooting down two and badly damaging another bomber, although one Wildcat was lost to unknown causes. Another section spotted and shot down a single D3A. The surviving Japanese leaders cancelled the attack after such heavy losses and all aircraft jettisoned their bombs and torpedoes. They had still not spotted the American carriers and turned for their own ships, using radio direction finders to track the carrier's homing beacon. The beacon broadcast on a frequency very close to that of the American ships and many of the Japanese aircraft confused the ships in the darkness. A number of them flew right beside the American ships, flashing signal lights in an effort to confirm their identity, but they were not initially recognized as Japanese because the remaining Wildcats were attempting to land aboard the carriers. Finally they were recognized and fired upon, by both the Wildcats and the anti-aircraft guns of the task force, but they sustained no losses in the confused action. One Wildcat lost radio contact and could not find either of the American carriers; the pilot was never found. The remaining 18 Japanese aircraft successfully returned to their carriers, beginning at 20:00.

8 May

View of the flight deck of Lexington, at about 15:00 on 8 May. The ship's air group is spotted aft, with Wildcat fighters nearest the camera. Dauntless dive bombers and Devastator torpedo bombers are parked further aft. Smoke is rising around the aft aircraft elevator from fires burning in the hangar.

On the morning of 8 May, both sides spotted each other about the same time and began launching their aircraft about 09:00. The Japanese carriers launched a total of 18 Zeros, 33 D3As and 18 B5Ns. Yorktown was the first American carrier to launch her aircraft and Lexington began launching hers seven minutes later. These totaled 9 Wildcats, 15 Dauntlesses and 12 Devastators. Yorktown's dive bombers disabled Shōkaku's flight deck with two hits and Lexington's aircraft were only able to further damage her with another bomb hit. None of the torpedo bombers from either carrier hit anything. The Japanese CAP was effective and shot down 3 Wildcats and 2 Dauntlesses for the loss of 2 Zeros.


Confirmed direct hits sustained by Lexington during the battle

The Japanese aircraft spotted the American carriers around 11:05 and the B5Ns attacked first because the D3As had to circle around to approach the carriers from upwind. American aircraft shot down four of the torpedo bombers before they could drop their torpedoes, but 10 survived long enough to hit Lexington twice on the port side at 11:20, although 4 of the B5Ns were shot down by anti-aircraft fire after dropping their torpedoes. The shock from the first torpedo hit at the bow jammed both elevators in the up position and started small leaks in the port avgas storage tanks. The second torpedo hit her opposite the bridge, ruptured the primary port water main, and started flooding in three port fire rooms. The boilers there had to be shut down, which reduced her speed to a maximum of 24.5 knots (45.4 km/h; 28.2 mph), and the flooding gave her a 6–7° list to port. Shortly afterward, Lexington was attacked by 19 D3As. One was shot down by fighters before it could drop its bomb and another was shot down by the carrier. She was hit by two bombs, the first of which detonated in the port forward five-inch ready ammunition locker, killing the entire crew of one 5-inch AA gun and starting several fires. The second hit struck the funnel, doing little significant damage although fragments killed many of the crews of the .50-caliber machine guns positioned near there. The hit also jammed the ship's siren in the "on" position. The remaining bombs detonated close alongside and some of their fragments pierced the hull, flooding two compartments.

Fuel was pumped from the port storage tanks to the starboard side to correct the list and Lexington began recovering damaged aircraft and those that were low on fuel at 11:39. The Japanese had shot down three of Lexington's Wildcats and five Dauntlesses, plus another Dauntless crashed on landing. At 12:43, the ship launched five Wildcats to replace the CAP and prepared to launch another nine Dauntlesses. A massive explosion at 12:47 was triggered by sparks that ignited gasoline vapors from the cracked port avgas tanks. The explosion killed 25 crewmen and knocked out the main damage control station. The damage did not interfere with flight deck operations, although the refueling system was shut down. The fueled Dauntlesses were launched and six Wildcats that were low on fuel landed aboard. Aircraft from the morning's air strike began landing at 13:22 and all surviving aircraft had landed by 14:14. The final tally included three Wildcats that were shot down, plus one Wildcat, three Dauntlesses and one Devastator that were forced to ditch.


Lexington, abandoned and burning, several hours after being damaged by Japanese airstrikes

Another serious explosion occurred at 14:42 that started severe fires in the hangar and blew the forward elevator 12 inches (300 mm) above the flight deck. Power to the forward half of the ship failed shortly afterward. Fletcher sent three destroyers to assist, but another major explosion at 15:25 knocked out water pressure in the hangar and forced the evacuation of the forward machinery spaces. The fire eventually forced the evacuation of all compartments below the waterline at 16:00 and Lexington eventually drifted to a halt. Evacuation of the wounded began shortly afterward and Sherman ordered "abandon ship" at 17:07. A series of large explosions began around 18:00 that blew the aft elevator apart and threw aircraft into the air. Sherman waited until 18:30 to ensure that all of his crewmen were off the ship before leaving himself. Some 2,770 officers and men were rescued by the rest of the task force. The destroyer Phelps was ordered to sink the ship and fired a total of five torpedoes between 19:15 and 19:52. Immediately after the last torpedo hit, Lexington, down by the bow but nearly on an even keel finally slipped beneath the waves at 15°20′S 155°30′ECoordinates:

15°20′S 155°30′E. Some 216 crewmen were killed and 2,735 were evacuated.


USS Lexington explodes on 8 May 1942, several hours after being damaged by a Japanese carrier air attack.

Wreck location
Lexington's wreck was located on 4 March 2018 by research vessel Petrel during an expedition led by philanthropist Paul Allen. A remotely operated underwater vehicle confirmed Lexington's identity by the nameplate on its stern. It lies at a depth of 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) and at a distance of more than 800 kilometers (500 mi) east off the coast of Queensland.

The wreck lies on the seabed separated into multiple sections. The main section sits upright on the seabed; the bow rests flat with the stern sitting upright across from it, both approximately one nautical mile (1,900 m; 6,100 ft) west of the main section. The bridge rests by itself in between these sections. Seven TBD Devastators, three SBD Dauntlesses, and a single F4F Wildcat were also located farther to the west—all in a good state of preservation


USS Lexington (CV-2), nicknamed "Lady Lex", was an early aircraft carrier built for the United States Navy. She was the lead ship of the Lexington class; her only sister ship, Saratoga, was commissioned a month earlier. Originally designed as a battlecruiser, she was converted into one of the Navy's first aircraft carriers during construction to comply with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922, which essentially terminated all new battleship and battlecruiser construction. The ship entered service in 1928 and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet for her entire career. Lexington and Saratoga were used to develop and refine carrier tactics in a series of annual exercises before World War II. On more than one occasion these included successfully staged surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship's turbo-electric propulsion system allowed her to supplement the electrical supply of Tacoma, Washington, during a drought in late 1929 to early 1930. She also delivered medical personnel and relief supplies to Managua, Nicaragua, after an earthquake in 1931.


Lexington beginning the transit from her builder at Quincy to Boston Navy Yard in January 1928

Lexington was at sea when the Pacific War began on 7 December 1941, ferrying fighter aircraft to Midway Island. Her mission was cancelled and she returned to Pearl Harbor a week later. After a few days, she was sent to create a diversion from the force en route to relieve the besieged Wake Island garrison by attacking Japanese installations in the Marshall Islands. The island surrendered before the relief force got close enough, and the mission was cancelled. A planned attack on Wake Island in January 1942 had to be cancelled when a submarine sank the oiler required to supply the fuel for the return trip. Lexington was sent to the Coral Seathe following month to block any Japanese advances into the area. The ship was spotted by Japanese search aircraft while approaching Rabaul, New Britain, but her aircraft shot down most of the Japanese bombers that attacked her. Together with the carrier Yorktown, she successfully attacked Japanese shipping off the east coast of New Guinea in early March.

Lexington was briefly refitted in Pearl Harbor at the end of the month and rendezvoused with Yorktown in the Coral Sea in early May. A few days later the Japanese began Operation Mo, the invasion of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and the two American carriers attempted to stop the invasion forces. They sank the light aircraft carrier Shōhō on 7 May during the Battle of the Coral Sea, but did not encounter the main Japanese force of the carriers Shōkaku and Zuikaku until the next day. Aircraft from Lexington and Yorktown badly damaged Shōkaku, but the Japanese aircraft crippled Lexington. A mixture of air and aviation gasoline in her improperly drained aircraft fueling trunk lines (which ran from the keel tanks to her hangar deck) ignited, causing a series of explosions and fires that could not be controlled. Lexington was scuttled by an American destroyer during the evening of 8 May to prevent her capture. The wreck of Lexington was located in March 2018 by an expedition led by Paul Allen, who discovered the ship about 430 nautical miles (800 km) off the northeastern coast of Australia in the Coral Sea.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Lexington_(CV-2)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 8 May


1781 – Launch of HMS Sampson, a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Woolwich.

HMS Sampson was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 May 1781 at Woolwich.
She was hulked in 1802 and broken up in 1832


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for Magnanime (1780), and in 1776 approved for Sampson (1781), and in 1778 for Diadem (1782), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sampson_(1781)

Intrepid-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-345701;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S


1807 - Boats of HMS Comus (22), Cptn. Conway Shipley, cut out Spanish felucca San Pedro from under the protection of a strong fort and two batteries in the port of Gran Canaria.

On 8 May Comus sent her boats into the harbour of Gran Canaria, which was defended by a strong fort and two shore batteries. There they cut out a large armed felucca, which was flying His Catholic Majesty's colours. The boarding party, under the command of Lieutenant Watts, cleared her deck of her crew and the boats started to pull her out (the Spaniards had taken the precaution of removing her rudder and sails and taking them on shore), when a tug-of-war developed as men on the quay pulled on a hawser. Eventually the boarding party cut the hawser and the boats succeeded in pulling the felucca out, an operation they conducted under fire. The felucca was the packet ship San Pedro de Apostol, which had been carrying bale goods from Cadiz to Buenos Ayres. On her way, San Pedro de Apostol had captured the Lord Keith, which had been sailing from London to Mogador.

The British lost one man killed and five men wounded, one of whom was Watts, who had been severely wounded. The Spanish casualties included her captain and some crew killed, and 21 men taken prisoner, of whom 19 were wounded. The Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded Watts a sword worth £50. The prize money was substantial too.

HMS Comus was a 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806. In 1807 she took part in one notable single-ship action and was at the capture of Copenhagen. In 1815 she spent six months with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade during which time she captured ten slavers and freed 500-1000 slaves. She was wrecked in 1816, though with no loss of life.

HMS Comus (1806) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Laurel-class post ship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1811 - HMS Scylla (18), Arthur Atchison, boarded and carried French privateer Canonniere (10), Ensgn. Jean Joseph Benoit Schilds (Killed in Action), and 1 ship of her convoy of 5 off Roscoff.

Commander Arthur Atchison commissioned Scylla in September 1809. On the morning of 8 May 1811, Scylla was off the Isle of Bas when she observed a convoy of five vessels under the escort of a naval brig. After a chase of two hours, Scylla caught up with the convoy and opened fire. Being close to shore and with prospects of running on shore to evade capture, the brig resisted strongly. Finding himself among Les Triagos and Pontgalo rocks, and fearing that the French would be able to beach themselves, Atchison ran Scylla into the brig while travelling at eight knots. Within two minutes the British had captured the brig.

The brig was the Cannonière, of ten 4-pounder guns, one 24-pounder carronade, and four swivel guns, and 77 men under the command of enseigne de vaiseau Jean Joseph Benoit Schilds. In the engagement the French lost Schilds and five of his men killed, and 11 men wounded; British casualties were two killed and two wounded. The convoy was two hours out of Perros, sailing towards Brest. Scylla also captured one vessel of the convoy, a sloop with a cargo of wheat. The other four vessels had gotten within the rocks and run themselves on shore. Wind and sea conditions were such that Atchison decided not to attempt to seize them.

HMS Scylla was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. The first to bear the name Scylla, she was launched in 1809 and broken up in 1846


HMS Scylla in a perilous thunder squall at sea 6 August 1843

HMS Scylla (1809) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1822 – Launch of HMS Portland, a Southampton-class frigate

The Southampton-class frigates launched from 1820 onwards were 52-gun sailing frigates of the fourth rate produced for the Royal Navy following the close of the Napoleonic War. They were designed in 1816 to carry sixty guns, but were completed with fifty-two guns only. The design, a joint effort by the Surveyors of the Navy, was modified from that of the Java launched in 1815.

A total of four ships were ordered on 23 May 1816, with two more in 1817 and 1818; however the last pair were delayed and were not launched until 1843 with a substantially altered armament. Two further ships were ordered to a very slightly enlarged version of this design in 1825, to have been built at Plymouth Dockyard as Liverpool and Jamaica, but were cancelled on 5 March 1829 without ever being laid down.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Southampton (1820) and Worcester (1843), both 60-gun Fourth Rate Frigates. The plan may relate to the rest of the class: Portland (1822), Lancaster (1823), Winchester (1822), and Chichester (1843). Signed by Henry Peake [Surveyor of the Navy, 1806-1822], Joseph Tucker [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1831], and Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Southampton (1820), Worcester (1843), Portland (1822), Lancaster (1823), Winchester (1822), and Chichester (1843), all 60-gun Fourth Rate Frigates. The plan illustrates the use of additional timbers between the ports, and the framing and bolting of the port timbers. Signed by Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]

Southampton-class frigate (1820) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1863 - USS Flag, commanded by Cmdr. James H. Strong, captures schooner Amelia while attempting to run the blockade out of Charleston.

USS Flag (1861) was a screw steamship in the Union Navy during the American Civil War. She is listed as "3rd rate".
Flag was purchased on 26 April 1861 at Philadelphia as Phineas Sprague, converted as a warship at the Washington Navy Yard, and renamed and commissioned on 28 May 1861, Lieutenant Commander L. C. Sartori in command.
When first armed, the ship had six 200-pounder (8 in (203 mm)) Parrott rifles. In 1863 she was re-armed with one 300-pounder (8 in (203 mm)), four 200-pounder, and two 30-pounder (4.2 in (107 mm)) Parrott rifles.
Flag reported for duty in the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron at Charleston, South Carolina on 6 June 1861. Aside from periods in the North for repairs, she patrolled the coastal waters of the Carolinas until early 1865. Flag captured or shared in the capture of many blockade runners.
On 24 November, she joined Seneca and Pocahontas in taking possession of Tybee Island, evacuated previously by the Confederates, and two days later drove several southern ships back into Fort Pulaski, from which they were attempting to sail. She participated in the capture of Fernandina, Florida in March 1862, and in the general engagement of the fleet with the forts in Charleston Harbor on 7 April 1863.
She returned to New York on 16 February 1865, was decommissioned there on 25 February, and sold on 12 July.

USS Flag - Wikipedia

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1863 - blockade runner USS Cherokee was captured by USS Canandaigua leaving Charleston, South Carolina.

The USS Cherokee was a 606-ton screw steam gunboat in the US Navy during the American Civil War ship. The ship later served in the Chilean Navy.



Construction and British service
The steamer Thistle was launched on 2 July 1859 by Laurence Hill & Company at Port Glasgow, Scotland, for passenger and cargo service between Glasgow and Derry. She entered service for the Glasgow & Londonderry Steam Packet Company on 30 August. She was a composite-hulled (wood planking on iron frames) steamship, measured at 386 GRT and 206 NRT, and with dimensions of 184.5 ft (56.2 m) length, 25.2 ft (7.7 m) beam and 12.5 ft (3.8 m) depth of hold. Thistle's single-screw was powered by a two-cylinder geared beam engine of 150 NHP made by A. & J. Inglis of Glasgow, and which achieved a speed of 14 knots in trials on 29 August.

Blockade runner
Under the name Thistle she was used as a blockade runner and in late January 1863 successfully ran through the Federal blockade into Charleston, South Carolina, a favorite port for blockade runners at the time. She ran aground while attempting to leave port a month later.The ship was salvaged, sold to another owner and renamed Cherokee. On 8 May 1863, she again attempted to an outbound passage, but was captured by USS Canandaigua. Prior to delivery to the Boston Prize Court on 7 July, she was used in the search for the Confederate raider CSS Tacony.


USS Canandaigua (1862) was a sloop-of-war which displaced 1,395 long tons (1,417 t), with steam engine screw, acquired by the Union Navy during the second year of the American Civil War. After the war, Canandaigua was retained and placed in operation in Europe and elsewhere.
With her heavy guns (three of them rifled) and speed of 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h), she was an ideal and successful gunboat in the Union blockade of the Confederate States of America.
Canandaigua — a screw sloop — was launched on March 28, 1862, by Boston Navy Yard, and commissioned on August 1, 1862, with Commander J. F. Green in command.


USS Canandaigua on November 19, 1870.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Cherokee_(1859)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Canandaigua_(1862)


1911 - Capt. Washington I. Chambers prepares the requisition for the first US Navy airplane, the Triad A-1, marking the birth of Naval Aviation.


1919 - Seaplane Division One, comprised of three NC flying boats, takes off from Naval Air Station, Rockaway, New York for Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the first leg of a projected Transatlantic flight.


1945 - The unconditional surrender of Germany was ratified by Allies in Berlin. This event is remembered as V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day) !

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day (Great Britain) or V-E Day (North America), is celebrated on Tuesday, 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.


United States military policemen reading about the German surrender in the newspaper Stars and Stripes

The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944,[2] in anticipation of victory. On 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorised by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg Government. The act of military surrender was first signed at 02:41 on 7 May in SHAEF HQ at Reims, and a slightly modified document was signed on 8 May in Berlin.

European countries celebrate the end of World War II on 8 May. Russia, Belarus, and Serbia celebrate on 9 May, as did several former Soviet bloc countries until after the fall of Communism and the break-up of the Soviet Union. Israel marks VE Day on 9 May as well as a result of the large number of immigrants from the former Soviet Bloc, although it is not a public holiday.

Victory in Europe Day - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1666 – Launch of HMS Saint Patrick, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy.


HMS Saint Patrick was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the English Royal Navy.





In 1665, during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, the Navy Committee of Parliament adopted a supplement to their 1664 Programme which provided for one third rate (Warspite) and three fourth rates. The King's chronic financial worries led to the cancellation of the contracts for two of the fourth rates, but the remaining vessel, awarded to Bristol shipbuilder Francis Bayley, was completed in barely a year at the contract price of £6 per ton, measuring slightly larger than her contract dimensions of 100 ft keel length and 32 ft 6 in breadth. Launched in May 1666 at Bristol, the ship proved an outstanding success as a fast, weatherly sailing warship.

Commissioned a month after her launch under Captain Robert Saunders, the Saint Patrick joined Sir Robert Robinson's squadron on Christmas Day 1666. However, less than nine months after being launched, she was captured off the North Foreland on 5 February 1667 by the Dutch 34-gun Delft and 28-gun Shakerlo, after a battle which left Saunders and 8 of his crew dead and another 16 wounded. She was commissioned by the Dutch Navy later in 1667 as the Zwanenburg.

HMS Saint Patrick - Wikipedia

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https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=1211

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1781 – Launch of HMS Narcissus, a Sphinx-class 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy


HMS Narcissus was a Sphinx-class 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1781. Most notably in 1782, while she was under the command of Captain Edward Edwards, a mutiny occurred aboard the vessel that resulted in the hanging of six men, and the flogging of an additional 14. Captain Edwards went on to command HMS Pandora, which was assigned to carry the Bounty mutineers back to England.



Fate
Narcissus was wrecked in 1796.


The Sphinx-class sailing sixth rates were a series of ten post ships built to a 1773 design by John Williams. Although smaller than true frigates, post ships were often referred to incorrectly as frigates by sea officers, but not by the Admiralty or Navy Board.

The first vessel in the class was launched in 1775, six more in 1776, two in 1777 and the last in 1781. The vessels of the class served in the Royal Navyduring the American Revolutionary War. Three of them - Sphinx and Ariel in September 1779, and Unicorn in September 1780 - were captured by the French Navy, but Sphinx was recovered in December 1779 and Unicorn in April 1781. Some survived to see service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Ships in class




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and her name on the counter, the sheer lines with inboard detail and figurehead, and the longitudinal half-breadth for Sphinx (1775), a 20-gun Sixth Rate, as built at Portsmouth Dockyard


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Sphinx (1775) and Vestal (1777), both 20-gun Sixth Rates. A copy was sent to Portsmouth on 16 July 1773 and then a copy sent to Plymouth on 19 September 1775. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784]


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the outboard expansion and the inboard expansion for Sphinx (1775), a 20-gun Sixth Rate. Signed by John Ancell [Assistant to the Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard, 1801-1814]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Narcissus_(1781)

Sphinx-class post ship - Wikipedia

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https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-349771;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=S

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1795 - HMS Melampus (36), Sir Richard Strachan, HMS Diamond (38) Cptn. Sir W. Sidney Smith and another frigate left anchorage in Gourville Bay, Jersey and took convoy of 11 French merchantmen and 2 gun-vessels, Eclair and Crache-Feu.


HMS Melampus was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. She captured numerous prizes before the British sold her to the Royal Netherlands Navy in 1815. With the Dutch, she participated in a major action at Algiers and, then, in a number of colonial punitive expeditions in the Dutch East Indies.





Design and construction
The Admiralty ordered Melampus from James Martin Hillhouse, of Bristol on 17 April 1782 as a 38-gun fifth rate. After she had been laid down in December 1782, the Admiralty reduced her armament to 36 guns on 11 January 1783, as captains of earlier 38-gun frigates had complained that the extra guns made the upper gundeck too cramped. Melampus was launched on 8 June 1785, and fitted between 3 July and 8 September 1785 for ordinary at Plymouth. She was again fitted between May and 2 July 1790 for Channel service. She had cost £20,785 13s 0d to build, with a further £2,985 being spent in 1790 for fitting out.

Early service
Her first captain following her May 1790 commissioning was Charles M. Pole. Melampus was paid off again in November 1790, but by 1793 she had been moved to Plymouth, where she was refitted between March and June for £4,726.


Detail from the painting by Bristol artist Chris Woodhouse of the 36-gun Bristol-built frigate HMS Melampus, commissioned and purchased in 1990 by Bristol City Museum

French Revolutionary Wars
She recommissioned in April 1793 under the command of Isaac Coffin, and by April the following year she was under Captain Thomas Wells, serving in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron. During this time Melampus participated in the Action of 23 April 1794, during which the British took three vessels, Engageante, Pomone, and Babet. Melampus had five men killed and five wounded.

She came under the command of Sir Richard Strachan in September 1794 and was recommissioned in April 1795. She was part of Strachan's force that attacked and destroyed a French convoy in Cartaret Bay on 9 May 1795. The British squadron spotted a convoy of 13 vessels and immediately gave chase. Twelve of the quarry escaped and got close to the shore where a small shore battery, their own armed escorts, and a brig and a lugger offered some protection. Strachan sent in the boats from the vessels in his squadron while Melampus and the ships provided covering fire. The French crews abandoned their vessels at the approach of the British and eventually the shore battery also stopped firing. The cutting out party retrieved all the vessels, save a small sloop, which was hard ashore and which they burnt. Melampus had eight men wounded and in all the British lost one man killed and 14 wounded. They captured a gun brig and a gun lugger, each armed with three 18-pounder guns. They also captured the convoy, which consisted of: Prosperitte (80 tons and carrying cordage), Montagne (200 tons and carrying timber, lead and tin plates), Catharine (200 tons and carrying ship timber), Hyrondelle (220 tons and carrying ship timber and pitch), Contente (250 tons, carrying powder), Nymphe (120 tons carrying fire wood), Bonne-Union (150 tons), Fantazie (45 tons carrying coals), Alexandre (397 and carrying ship timber, cordage, hemp and cannon), and Petit Neptune (113 tons and carrying ship timber). A later prize money report added the names of the escorts, the gun-brig Crachefeu and the gun-lugger Eclair, both of which the Royal Navy took into service under their existing names.

On 3 July 1795 Melampus and Hebe intercepted a convoy of 13 vessels off St Malo. Melampus captured an armed brig and Hebe captured six merchant vessels: Maria Louisa, Abeille. Bon Foi, Patrouille, Eleonore, and Pecheur. The brig of war was armed with four 24-pounders and had a crew of 60 men. Later she was identified as the 4-gun Vésuve. The convoy had been on its way from Île-de-Bréhat to Brest. Seaflower, Daphne and the cutter Sprightly shared in the prize and head money. The Royal Navy took Vésuve into service as HMS Vesuve.

Melampus came under the command of Captain Graham Moore in August 1796. On 13 November she and Minerva drove a French navy corvette ashore near Barfleur. However the British were not able to get close enough to assure her destruction. Then Melampus and Childers captured another corvette, the Etna. Etna was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and had a crew of 137 men under the command of Citizen Joseph La Coudrais. The prisoners stated that both corvettes were carrying military and naval stores and that the corvette that had run ashore was the Etonnant, of eighteen 18-pounder guns. Both were new ships on their first cruise. The Royal Navy took Etna into service as the 20-gun post ship HMS Cormorant.

Melampus was also active in operations against French privateers. On 5 October 1797 she captured the French privateer lugger Rayon off the Casquets after a chase of four hours. Rayon was armed with six carriage guns and eight coehorns, and had a crew of 54 men under the command of Jean Baptiste Leonard Gosselin. She had sailed from Cherburg ten hours earlier intending to cruise between the Lizard and Cape Clear for six weeks.

Melampus was in company with Seahorse when they captured the Belliqueux, off the Irish coast on 16 January 1798. She was originally a corvette, but was now a privateer. Belliqueux was pierced for 20 cannon but was armed with fourteen 8-pounder guns and four carronades, and had a crew of 120 men. She was out of St. Malo, and on 11 January had captured His Majesty's packet Prince Ernest, which had been sailing from Tortola. The captain of the packet and all but four of her crew were on board Belliqueux.

A few days later, on 23 January, Melampus captured the Volage, after a short, intense engagement. She was a corvette that the French navy had lent to merchants. She was armed with twenty 9-pounder guns and two 18-pounders, and had a crew of 195 men under the command of Citizen Delageneaux, a capitaine de frégate. In the engagement Melampus had two men mortally wounded and three men dangerously wounded; Volage had four men killed and eight wounded. Volage was three weeks out of Nantes, provisioned for a three-month cruise. By the time of her capture, Volage had herself only captured an American ship and destroyed an English brig sailing from Belfast to Lisbon with coal. The Captain and all the officers on Volage were officers in the French navy, but on a three-month leave.

Melampus was present at the Battle of Tory Island in October that year, fighting in the main action and then subsequently capturing the French frigate Résolue in a night action two days later. Together with Ethalion she captured the 32-gun frigate Bellone which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Proserpine.

On 26 February 1799 Melampus captured the French privateer Mercure, which the Admiralty took into service as Trompeuse. Mercure was armed with 16 guns and had a crew of 103 men. She was from Saint Malo and was returning to her home port after having had a successful cruise in the Channel. She was under the command of Captain Jacques Dupuy-Fromy.

On 14 April Melampus pursued another French privateer for 25 hours before she was able to capture her quarry. The privateer was the brig Papillon, which was armed with ten 9-pounder guns and four 36-pounder obusiers and had a crew of 123 men.

On 18 April Melampus was in pursuit of a privateer when the privateer capsized and sank before Melampus could reach her. The captain of Papillon stated that the privateer was the Nantois, of fourteen 6 and 12-pounder guns, and a crew of 150 men. Furthermore, she had on board the master and part of the crew of the brig Echo, which she had captured earlier.

Melampus was then assigned to the Caribbean, sailing for Jamaica in March 1800. On 2 June, Melampus, in company with Juno, captured the French letter of marque Volant, of 140 tons, armed with eight guns, and having a crew of 49 men. She was sailing from Vera Cruz to the Havannah. Melampus also captured Hannibal on 23 July.

On 1 October Melampus, Juno, and Retribution were in company when they captured the Aquila. Thereafter she came under the command of Captain Thomas Gosselin in November 1801 before being paid off in June 1802.

Lastly, Melampus captured Amistad (29 December) and Falcon Corunnes (30 December).

Napoleonic Wars
Melampus returned to England, and underwent a large repair at Deptford between August 1803 and October 1804. She was recommissioned in August 1804 under the command of Captain Stephen Poyntz, and commenced cruises off the French coast.

Between 12 and 14 February 1805, Melampus was in company with cutter Nimble, and the hired armed cutters Frisk and Rhoda. At this time a group of 27 French gunvessels were sailing from Bordeaux to Brest. Melampus succeeded in capturing two gunbrigs carrying two 24-pounder guns and one 18-pounder gun each, with a complement of 50 men each, primarily soldiers. Melampus also captured four luggers, each armed with one 18-pounder gun, and with complements of 25 men,mostly soldiers. The gunvessels Melampus captured were N°s 169, 174, 277, 286, 287, and 311. Frisk succeeded in capturing Gunvessel n° 288, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 25 men (20 being troops from the 44th Regiment), all under the command of enseigne de vaisseaux P. Roox. Rhoda succeeded in capturing the lugger Gunvessel n °313, armed with one 24-pounder gun, and with a complement of 22 men (18 of them soldiers), under the command of enseigne auxiliaire Frederick Widsmann. The gunvessel had had one man killed.

On 25 June Loire had been chasing a French frigate privateer for some twelve hours when Melampus and Brilliant came up and cut-off the quarry, forcing her to surrender. She was the Valiant (or Vaillant), of Bordeaux. She was armed with twenty-four 18-pounder guns on her main deck and six 6-pounders, which she threw overboard while Loire was pursuing her. She had a crew of 240 men. She had been out for 20 days on a four-month cruise but had only captured the Halifax packet Lord Charles Spencer.

On 13 July 1805 she captured the Spanish privateer Hydra at sea. Hydra was pierced for 30 cannons and carried twenty-two 9-pounder guns on her main deck, and six 6-pounders on her quarterdeck. She had a crew of 192 men, and she lost three men killed and several men wounded before she struck. Melampus captured her on the 17th day of a four-month cruise and she had not yet captured any British vessels.

Melampus was present, whilst serving as part of a squadron under her old commander Sir Richard Strachan, at the destruction of the 74-gun French ship Impétueux on 14 September 1806.

In September 1807 Captain Edward Hawker took over command, sailing her to North America in 1808. He then took her to the Leeward Islands in 1809.

On 16 January 1809 Melampus captured the French navy brig Colibri off Barbuda, after her captain had the "temerity" to put up a fight as Melampus was sailing alongside. She was armed with fourteen 24-pounder carronades and two 8-pounder guns, had a crew of 92 men, under the command of Mons. Deslandes, Lieutenant de vaisseau. In the engagement, Colibri had three men killed and 11 wounded before she struck. She was a new vessel and was sailing from Cherburg with a cargo of 570 barrels of flour and a great quantity of gunpowder intended for the relief of to San Domingo. On her way she had captured and sunk two British brigs that had been sailing from Newfoundland to Lisbon, the Hannibal and the Priscilla, both of Dartmouth. The Royal Navy took her into service as Colibri.

On 14 December Melampus captured the French brig corvette Bearnais after pursuing her for 28 hours. Bearnais was armed with sixteen 24-pounder carronades and had a crew of 109 men (including 30 soldiers), under the command of Monsieur Montbazen, Lieutenant de vaisseau. She fought before striking with the result that she had one man killed and some men wounded, and she wounded two men on Melampus. Bearnais was a new vessel and was sailing from Bayonne to Guadeloupe with a cargo of flour and military stores, some of which she had thrown overboard during the pursuit. The Royal Navy took her into service as Curieux.

Between January and February 1810, Melampus was involved in the capture of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all surviving claimants from the campaign.

Melampus was in company with the sloop Driver when they captured a French corvette brig letter of marque on 28 May. The vessel was the Fantôme, of 300 tons burthen (bm), pierced for 20 heavy carronades, and with a crew of 74 men. She had made three captures before being captured herself. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

Transfer
Melampus returned to Britain, and by December 1812 was under repair at Isaac Blackburn's yards, at Turnchapel. Work was completed by March 1814, and she was again fitted for sea, between April 1814 and May 1815 at Plymouth Dockyard. She was then sold to the Dutch government in June 1815 for the sum of £35,364.

HNLMS Melampus


The Bombardment of Algiers, 27 August 1816, painting by George Chambers Sr.

On 27 August 1816 Melampus was the flagship of the Dutch squadron under Vice-Admiral Baron T.F. van de Capellen that joined a British fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Exmouth in the bombardment of Algiers. Her captain was Antony-Willem De-Man. In the action Melampus lost three men killed and 15 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to the 1328 surviving British claimants from the action.

The bombardment was an attempt by Britain to end the slavery practices of the Dey of Algiers. The Anglo-Dutch fleet bombarded ships and the harbour defences of Algiers.

By 1822 Melampus was in the Dutch East Indies. In that year she led a squadron of five transports and 24 local vessels carrying Dutch marines and local auxiliaries in a punitive expedition against the Iranun of Sulawesi.


HMS Diamond (1794), a fifth-rate launched at Deptford in 1794 and broken up in 1812

HMS Melampus (1785) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1795 - Launch of HMS Coromandel, a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, previously the East Indiaman Winterton.


HMS Coromandel was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, previously the East Indiaman Winterton. She was purchased on the stocks in 1795, used as a troopship from 1796, was converted to a convalescent ship in 1807 for Jamaica, and was sold there in 1813. She returned to Britain around 1847 and was wrecked at Yarmouth in 1856.






Military career
The Royal Navy commissioned Coromandel in June 1795 under Captain John Inglis. The Admiralty must have been dissatisfied with her as they transferred her to the Transport Board in May 1796 and paid her off in July. Coromandel was recommissioned later that month as a troopship under the command of Lieutenant Richard Harrison. He received a letter of marque dated 15 July 1796. The Navy then struck Coromandel off the Navy List on 9 August.

Richard (or Robert) Simmonds replaced Harrison in 1797. Richard Simmonds received a letter of marque dated 17 November 1797. A year later, on 7 November 1798, Coromandel was at the capture of Minorca. Her officers and crew therefore participated in their share of a partial payment of £20,000 for goods and stores captured at that time. Another payment followed later. Eight days after the fall of Minorca, on 15 November, Coromandel captured the Spanish ship Misericordia, of Minorca, which was carrying a cargo of paper. As part of the British fleet, Coromandel shared in the prize money for the recapture of HMS Peterel on 13 November.

Commander John Mortimer replaced Simmonds in July 1799, in the West Indies. He remained in command until some point in 1801. Between 15 March 1801 and 7 April, Coromandel participated in the capture of the islands of St Bartholomew, Saint Martin, St Thomas, and St. Croix as part of the expedition under Lieutenant General Thomas Trigge and Admiral John Duckworth. On 4 January 1802 she ran ashore in Jamaica, but was got off and on 18 January she sailed for Martinique.

Coromandel was back in Britain by August 1802, being fitted at Chatham for service as a troopship. She then spent the period June through October 1807 being fitted at Chatham as a convalescent ship for service in Jamaica. Coromandel was sold at Jamaica on 24 July 1813 to Mr. William Barnes for £700.

Later career and fate
She returned to Britain around 1847 and was wrecked at Yarmouth in 1856


An original art: drawing by Edward William Cooke of 'Coromandel' her at Yarmouth, where she was wrecked in 1856. The drawing, which depicts a close-up her stern, is part of series of five drawings of the ship dated 22 October, 1856. See also PAE6154, PAE6156, PAE6158, and PAE6159

HMS Coromandel (1795) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-304779;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=C

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1835 – Launch of steamship Beaver, the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America.


Beaver was the first steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America. She made remote parts of the west coast of Canada accessible for maritime fur trading and was chartered by the Royal Navy for surveying the coastline of British Columbia. She served off the coast from 1836 until 1888, when she was wrecked.





Construction and delivery
Beaver was built in Blackwall, England of British oak, elm, greenheart and teak, and was copper fastened and sheathed. Her length was 101 feet (31 m), and the beam over her paddle boxes was 33 feet (10 m). She was launched at Blackwall Yard on 9 May 1835 and left London on 29 August under the command of Captain David Home, and with the company's barque, Columbia, built at the same time and commanded by Captain Darby. Beaver was outfitted as a brig for the passage out, paddles unshipped, and came out via Cape Horn under sail alone. After calling at the Juan Fernández Islands and Honolulu, she arrived off the Columbia River on 18 March 1836 and anchored off Fort Vancouver on 10 April. Here the paddles were shipped and boilers and engines connected.



Service in Canada
Beaver served trading posts maintained by the Hudson's Bay Company between the Columbia River and Russian America (Alaska) and played an important role in helping maintain British control in British Columbia during the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858-59. In 1862 the Royal Navy chartered her to survey and chart the coast of the Colony of British Columbia. She also provided assistance to the Royal Navy at Bute Inlet during the Chilcotin War.

Initially she had a rectangular boiler, generating steam pressure at under 3 psi, and was fed by seawater. Boulton and Watt engines are not pressure engines, rather they are vacuum engines. (Salt water feed was common in the early days and could be done with low pressure and frequent boiler blowdowns to prevent salt scale build up on the plates.) The salt water played havoc with the boilers as the salinity rusted the wall thickness of the boiler, which would rot out. Beaver had to have a new boiler every seven years or so and went through multiple installations over her career. Over time the boiler pressure was increased, and 36 inch diameter cylinders replaced the original 42 inch cylinders.

Beaver played roles in the establishment of coal mines at Fort Rupert, and later in 1853, Nanaimo. She helped the Hudson's Bay Company establish Fort Victoria as a post in 1843. She would also ferry dignitaries such as the Governor back and forth between the Colony of Vancouver Island and the mainland, which until 1858 and the establishment of the Colony of British Columbia had come to be known as New Caledonia after the Oregon Treaty of 1846.

In her later life Beaver burned coal and would hire young men of the Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish) people of North Vancouver to work the holds as coal passers. The Hudson's Bay Company finally sold her in 1874.

Loss


Side lever engine off PS Levan; Beaver's engine had two cylinders and was built by Boulton and Watt.


Wreck of the S.S. Beaver

A consortium that became the British Columbia Towing and Transportation Company in 1874 purchased her, and used her as a towboat until 25 July 1888. On that day an inebriated crew ran her aground on rocks at Prospect Point in Vancouver's Stanley Park. The wreck finally sank in July 1892 from the wake of the passing steamer Yosemite, but only after enterprising locals had stripped much of the wreck for souvenirs. The Vancouver Maritime Museum houses a collection of Beaver remnants including the boiler and two drive shafts for the paddle wheels, one raised in the 1960s and the other returned from a collection in Tacoma, along with the boiler. A plaque commemorates the site of the sinking. Divers surveyed the wreck in the 1960s. However, when the Underwater Archaeological Society of BC did so in the 1990s, they found she had mostly disintegrated due to rot and currents.

Beaver (steamship) - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1864 - The Battle of Heligoland (or Helgoland) was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, between a Danish squadron led by Commodore Edouard Suenson and a joint Austro-Prussian squadron commanded by the Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff.


The Battle of Heligoland (or Helgoland) was fought on 9 May 1864, during the Second Schleswig War, between a Danish squadron led by CommodoreEdouard Suenson and a joint Austro-Prussian squadron commanded by the Austrian Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff. The action came about as a result of the Danish blockade of German ports in the North Sea; the Austrians had sent two steam frigates, SMS Schwarzenberg and Radetzky, to reinforce the small Prussian Navy to help break the blockade. After arriving in the North Sea, Tegetthoff joined a Prussian aviso and a pair of gunboats. To oppose him, Suenson had available the steam frigates Niels Juel and Jylland and the corvette Hejmdal.



On the morning of 9 May, the two squadrons encountered each other off the island of Heligoland, then controlled by neutral Great Britain. Tegetthoff attacked with his two frigates while the slower Prussian vessels lagged behind, unable to effectively engage the Danish warships. Tegetthoff's flagship, Schwarzenberg, bore the brunt of the Danish gunfire and caught fire three times, the last of which could not be put out quickly and forced Tegetthoff to seek shelter in the neutral waters around Heligoland. Though Denmark claimed a tactical victory in the battle, the Danes were forced to end the blockade of the German coast. An armistice came into effect three days after the Battle of Heligoland. By the time fighting broke out again in June, further Austrian warships had arrived to strengthen the Austro-Prussian naval forces, and the Danes did not seek to challenge them.

Historians' opinions on the outcome of the battle are mixed, with some citing the withdrawal of Tegetthoff's ships, and the greater damage they sustained, as evidence of a tactical victory for Suenson. Other naval historians cite the lifting of the blockade as a strategic victory for the Austrians and Prussians, and others still describe the battle as inconclusive. The Battle of Heligoland was the last naval battle fought by squadrons of wooden ships, and it was also the last time Danish warships fought a major action. Jylland is preserved in Ebeltoft, the last surviving wooden-hulled, screw-driven warship.


Das Seegefecht bei Helgoland 1864 (die brennende österreichische Fregatte Schwarzenberg, dahinter die Fregatte Radetzky), Öl auf Karton, signiert "Püttner", 38,5 x 26,5 cm

Background
In late 1863, tensions began to increase between the German Confederation and Denmark over the latter's November Constitution, which integrated the duchies of Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg with Denmark, a violation of the London Protocol that had ended the First Schleswig War. The crisis erupted in the Second Schleswig War, which began on 1 February 1864, after the Prussian and Austrian Empires delivered an ultimatum to Denmark to cede the disputed duchies to Austro-Prussian control. At the time, the Danish fleet was far superior to the Prussian naval forces initially available, which allowed the Danes to blockade the German coast. The bulk of the Prussian fleet was concentrated in the Baltic Sea, and the Austrian fleet was primarily stationed in the Mediterranean Sea. Also in the Mediterranean were the Prussian aviso SMS Preussischer Adler and the gunboats Blitz and Basilisk; these vessels were immediately recalled to German waters.

In the meantime, on 30 March, the Danish fleet formed the North Sea Squadron, which at the time consisted of the steam frigate Niels Juel and the steam corvettes Hejmdal and Dagmar, commanded by Commodore Edouard Suenson. On 6 May, the frigate Jylland relieved Dagmar, allowing her to be transferred to the Baltic Sea. By this time, the Danish squadron had captured fifteen German prizes, along with four blockade runners from neutral countries. Additionally, the ports of Hamburg and Bremen were effectively closed to traffic.

To reinforce their Prussian allies and break the blockade, the Austrians assembled a powerful squadron, which equaled the Danish fleet, and ordered it to steam from the Mediterranean Sea to the North Sea to break the blockade. The squadron was to comprise the ship-of-the-line Kaiser, the armored frigates Don Juan d'Austria and Kaiser Max, the screw frigates Schwarzenberg and Radetzky, the screw corvette Erzherzog Friedrich, the sidewheel gunboats Kaiserin Elizabeth and Lucia, and the gunboats Seehund and Wall. Initially, only the Austrian Levant Squadron, commanded by Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, was ready and so those ships were ordered north in advance of the rest of the squadron. The Levant Squadron, centered on Schwarzenberg and Radetzky arrived in the North Sea on 1 May; Tegetthoff's other two vessels, the corvette Dandolo and the gunboat Seehund, were unavailable due to boiler trouble and a grounding, respectively. The Austrian and Prussian squadrons rendezvoused in Texel, the Netherlands, and Tegetthoff added Preussischer Adler, Blitz, and Basilisk to his force. Tegetthoff took his flotilla to attack the Danish North Sea Squadron.

On the morning of 7 May, Tegetthoff's ships spotted the British frigate Aurora off the island of Heligoland; after Tegetthoff closed to determine that Aurora was a neutral warship, he took his squadron to anchor off the island of Sylt. Aurora, commanded by Francis Leopold McClintock, encountered Suenson's squadron the next day. McClintock informed Suenseon of the last known location of the Austro-Prussian squadron. In the meantime, Tegetthoff had proceeded further to Cuxhaven, at the mouth of the Elbe, to replenish his fuel stores.

The battle

Another painting of the battle, Slaget ved Helgoland, depicting the Danish ships in the foreground with the burning Schwarzenberg on fire in the distance

Early on 9 May, Tegetthoff received word that the Danish squadron was cruising off Helgoland. He immediately sortied, and by 10:00 approached the Danish warships. Shortly after 10:00, lookouts aboard the Danish vessels spotted smoke from Tegetthoff's ships approaching from the south. Three hours later, the two squadrons were in visual range, and Aurora, which had been observing the Danish squadron, took up a position to delineate the neutral waters around the island. A little after 13:30, the Austrian, Prussian, and Danish commanders all ordered their crews to clear for action. The Austro-Prussian squadron opened fire first, at 13:57, with Schwarzenberg's bow guns at a range of about 3,430 meters (3,750 yd). The two squadrons, in line ahead formation with the Prussian vessels lagging behind, closed to about 1,800 m (2,000 yd) and passed in opposite directions, firing broadsides at each other. A shell from Niels Juel struck Schwarzenberg and killed or wounded most of the men on one of her starboard guns.

Tegettoff turned his ships back to the south to chase Suenson, who in turn altered course to try to cut off the Prussian gunboats. As Schwarzenberg turned, the distance closed to just over 370 m (400 yd), and she came under fire from all three Danish vessels. Jylland and Hejmdal then shifted fire to Radetzky. The Prussian vessels remained on the disengaged side of the Austrian frigates, firing at the Danish vessels with little effect. One of the Austrian vessels scored a hit on Jylland that killed or wounded all the men in one of her gun crews. The crews of the guns on either side fled their positions at the sight of the carnage until one of the men returned, calling his comrades to join him. During this period of the battle, Schwarzenberg suffered multiple shell hits and was set afire three times. Her crew extinguished the first two, but the third, in her foretopsail, proved to be too difficult to fight.

By 16:00, Schwarzenberg began to withdraw from the action, her forward rigging and forecastle burning badly. Tegetthoff decided to break off the engagement and fled to the neutral waters around Heligoland. As Tegetthoff's ships began with withdraw, one of them scored a hit on Jylland's rudder, which prevented Suenson from being able to effectively pursue the retreating Austrians and Prussians. McClintock took Aurora between the two squadrons to deter Suenson from pursuing Tegetthoff in violation of British neutrality. The two Austrian frigates had suffered a total of 36 men killed and 108 wounded; of those 31 killed and 81 wounded aboard Schwarzenberg—and both vessels were damaged. The Danish vessels suffered 14 men killed and 54 wounded, and only Niels Juel was damaged in the action. The battle was the last to be fought solely by wooden warships, and it was also the last major naval action to involve the Danish Navy.

Aftermath

The memorial to Edouard Suensonat Nyboder in Copenhagen

Suenson waited outside the British zone of 3 nautical miles (5.6 km), but the Austrian-Prussian squadron was able to escape during the night to Cuxhaven, arriving at about 04:00 on 10 May. On reaching the port, the Austrian ships began to repair the damage sustained in the battle. Suenson sent his casualties ashore and resumed patrolling in the southern North Sea, between Heligoland and the Elbe. The day of the battle, the two sides had signed an armistice in London that took effect on 12 May, temporarily ending the fighting. The armistice lasted until 26 June, when fighting broke out again on land. The following day, a second Austrian squadron, which included the ship of the line Kaiser, the armored frigate Don Juan d'Austria, and two smaller vessels under Vice Admiral Bernhard von Wüllerstorf-Urbair arrived to reinforce Tegetthoff's ships. The now outnumbered Danish fleet remained in port for the rest of the war and did not seek battle with the Austro-Prussian squadron. Instead, the Austrian and Prussian naval forces supported operations to capture the islands off the western Danish coast. These advances, coupled with the capture of the island of Als in the Baltic Sea, forced the Danes to seek a second armistice on 29 June.

Denmark claimed to have won the Battle of Heligoland, though they were no longer able to enforce a blockade on the northern German ports. Tegetthoff himself claimed a draw, but he was promoted to rear admiral as a reward for his actions during the battle. The opinions of naval historians on the outcome of the battle is similarly mixed; Anthony Sokol, a historian of the Austrian Navy, states that "In spite of the damage they had sustained, the Austrians had won a strategic victory", citing the fact that the Danish blockade had been lifted. John Greene and Allesandro Massignani state that "Heligoland was Tegetthoff's day", though noting that Suenson could have won a victory had Jylland not been rendered unmaneuverable at the end of the action. On the other hand, David Zabecki affirms the argument that the battle "was a tactical Danish victory", while noting the lifting of the blockade. David Olivier described the battle as inconclusive, though also noted the end of the blockade.

Jylland is today located in a drydock in a maritime museum in Ebeltoft, Denmark. She is the last surviving screw-driven, wooden-hulled warship. In Copenhagen, at Nyboder, there is a monument commemorating Suenson. A German memorial to the Austrian sailors who died in the battle was erected in Ritzebüttel, Cuxhaven.

Order of battle

Jylland, preserved as a museum ship

Denmark
Commander: Captain Edouard Suenson


Austro-Prussian squadron

Lithograph of Wilhelm von Tegetthoff in 1866
Commander: Commodore Wilhelm von Tegetthoff




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Heligoland_(1864)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_frigate_Jylland
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Blitz_(1862)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Basilisk_(1862)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1876 – Launch of HMS Temeraire, an ironclad battleship of the Victorian Royal Navy which was unique in that she carried her main armament partly in the traditional broadside battery, and partly in barbettes on the upper deck


HMS Temeraire was an ironclad battleship of the Victorian Royal Navy which was unique in that she carried her main armament partly in the traditional broadside battery, and partly in barbettes on the upper deck.



Design and construction


One of Temeraire's 25-tondisappearing muzzle-loading riflesphotographed in its raised, or firing, position.


Depictions in the 1888 edition of Brassey's Naval Annual of Temeraire's disappearing gun in its loading and firing positions.

She was built at Chatham, on a slipway adjoining that on which HMS Alexandra, who would precede her into service by some seven months, was being built. She was designed at a time when the shortcomings of the traditional broadside battery - limited axial fire, low command, inactivity of half the guns in single-ship duels, heavy crew and difficulty in working the guns in seaway - were stimulating designers to develop improvements in artillery deployment.

Her armament was partly conventional, being deployed on the broadside, and partly experimental; she was the first British ship to be equipped with guns in barbettes located on the midline on the upper deck. Indeed, she was the first British ship with barbettes of any kind. The foremost barbette was located ahead of the foremast, and had a field of fire ahead, extending to well abaft the beam on both sides. To achieve the same degree of freedom of fire from the after barbette the mizzen mast was deleted, and the after barbette placed aft of the mainmast. Temeraireand Alexandra were the only British battleships ever to carry guns of 11-inch (279 mm) calibre.

The design of the barbettes was itself unique, being one of the few ships to have been equipped with disappearing guns. On firing, the recoil of the gun caused it to drop below deck level; this allowed re-loading without the exposure of the gun crew to aimed enemy fire. After loading, the gun was rotated by a hydraulic system back into the firing position. While this system was effective, it was slow and expensive and was never repeated.

The suppression of the mizzen mast resulted in Temeraire being the largest ship ever to sail with brig rig, that is, with sail carried on only two masts. She was known during her life as "the Great Brig".

Service history
She was commissioned at Chatham in 1877 for service in the Mediterranean, where she spent the next fourteen years with the exception of the winter of 1887-1888, when she was with the Channel Fleet. She was with Admiral Geoffrey Hornby through the Dardanelles in 1878, and remained in the vicinity of Constantinople for a year thereafter. After recommissioning at Malta in 1881 she was present at the bombardment of Alexandria (1882), firing 136 11-inch (280 mm) shells and 84 10-inch (250 mm).

Captain Compton Domvile was in command 1884–87, when she served on the Mediterranean Station. She paid off at Portsmouth in 1887, and then returned to the Mediterranean for her final three years of active service. In October 1890 Temeraire made port at Suda Bay, Crete, under sail alone,the last British naval ship ever to do so.[2] She was paid off at Devonport in 1891.

She was in the Reserve Fleet until 1893, when she was downgraded to Fleet Reserve. She was dockyard Reserve in 1901, and in January the following year it was announced that she would be removed from the effective list of navy ships. Captain Arthur William Edward Prothero was appointed in command on 16 July 1902, when she was commissioned as depot ship for the Devonport Fleet Reserve, and later that year he became flag captain to the Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, who used the ship as his flagship from 1 October. In 1904 she became part of the Indus stoker training establishment, and was renamed Indus II. In 1915, under the new name of Akbar, she was transferred to Liverpool as a reformatory ship. During the First World War she served as a depot ship, and was finally sold 26 May 1921.

HMS Temeraire (1876) - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1887 -Launch of HMS Sans Pareil, a Victoria-class battleship of the British Royal Navy of the Victorian era, her only sister ship being HMS Victoria.


HMS Sans Pareil was a Victoria-class battleship of the British Royal Navy of the Victorian era, her only sister ship being HMS Victoria.



In deciding upon her design configuration the Board of Admiralty took what history shows was a retrograde step by requesting the reversion from barbettesto turrets for her main armament. She was completed slightly later than her sister-ship and was hence the last British battleship ever to be equipped with her main armament mounted in a single turret.

The choice of calibre, while influenced by the desire to mount as heavy guns as possible, was also influenced by the slow rate of production in the Woolwichyards of the 13.5-inch (340 mm) calibre guns mounted in most of the preceding Admiral class. HMS Benbow, of that class, mounted the heavier calibre guns for the same reason. Following on from this decision, and given that a turret is heavier than a barbette, it was not possible to mount the two guns separately in fore and aft positions and at the same time keep the ship within the displacement stipulated by the Board. Hence both were mounted in a single turret, placed forward of the superstructure. To provide a nominal fire to stern, a 10-inch (250 mm) gun was mounted aft of the superstructure, behind a light armour shield. This weapon fired a shell weighing 500 pounds with a muzzle velocity of 2,040 ft/s (620 m/s), and could in theory penetrate an iron plate of thickness of 20.4 inches (520 mm) at a range of 1,000 yards (910 m).

The Elswick yards also experienced delays in producing the gun of 16.25 inches (413 mm) calibre, so in fact the times between laying down and completion of the Admirals and of Sans Pareil were closely comparable.

Sans Pareil was the last battleship to be designed by Nathaniel Barnaby.


Service history


The bow of Sans Pareil while under construction at Thames Ironworks, showing her ram.


Sans Pareil viewed from the stern, ready for launching at the Thames Ironworks

She was commissioned at Chatham on 8 July 1891 to take part in manoeuvres, and then went into reserve. She was posted to the Mediterranean Fleet in February 1892, serving on this station until April 1895 when she paid off and was named as port guard ship at Sheerness. She was refitted from April 1899, and resumed duty as Sheerness guardship on 19 January 1900, serving until January 1904. On 1 October 1901 Rear-Admiral Sir Baldwin Walker hoisted his flag as second in command of the Reserve squadron.

In June 1902 she was docked in the Medway, during a trial of the New Bermuda Floating dock. She took part in the fleet review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 for the coronation of King Edward VII, and the following month went to Chatham Dockyard for a refit.

She was sold for scrap in 1907 as part of the fleet modernisation programme instigated by the First Sea Lord, Admiral Fisher.

The ship was sold for scrap, and dismantled at the dock on the River Ribble, Preston, Lancashire. A model of the ship was removed from her at that time and is thought to be either the builder's model or constructed by the ship's crew. Whilst requiring some restoration, this fine model (about 3m long) is on display in 'The Story of Preston' at Preston's Harris Museum and Library.


The Royal Navy's Victoria class (or Sans Pareil class) battleships of the 1880s was the first class which used triple expansion steam engines, previous battleships having used compound engines

There were only two ships in this class. The lead ship, HMS Victoria, was sunk in an accidental collision with another Royal Navy battleship in the Mediterranean with the loss of half of her crew. Her sister, HMS Sans Pareil survived until it was scrapped in April 1907.

Design

Starboard elevation, deck plan and sectional views, as shown in Brassey's naval annual 1888–9

This class was intended to be an improved version of HMS Conqueror, and it was originally called the new Conquerors.

Armament

BL 16.25 inch gun in loading position in turret

The original intention had been to fit 13.5 inch (343 mm), 67-ton guns in place of the Conqueror's 12 inch (305 mm) guns in the single forward turret but late during the design it was decided to enlarge them to take the 16.25 inch (413 mm), 110-ton gun. Similar guns had been supplied by the manufacturer, Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co., Ltd., to the Italian Regia Marina and fitted in the Andrea Doria and the 1,800 pound (816 kg) projectile could penetrate any thickness of armour afloat at that time. At a period when naval supremacy of the Mediterranean was seen as a crucial part of British policy, the Victoria class was intended for service as part of the British Mediterranean Fleet. The same model of gun had been fitted in the last Admiral-class battleship HMS Benbow, which had a single example in each of its two barbettes instead of pairs of 13.5 inch (343 mm) guns and was the only other British warship to carry them.

The gun was not successful in service since it took four or five minutes to load and fire. The barrel only had a 75-round life and the muzzle tended to droop.

The rear turret contained a smaller 10 inch (254 mm) gun of similar design, and which weighed 26 tons.


Scale model of Victoria, as she was when launched in 1887 from Elswick, located in the Discovery Museum in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Seakeeping
This class was one of the last of this period to have very low freeboard, of around 10 feet (3 m). This was done to reduce target area in a naval engagement but had a deleterious effect upon seaworthiness, and was an important factor in Victoria sinking within fifteen minutes following a collision since it allowed the water to quickly reach the gun turret ports.

Propulsion
The most successful innovation of the class was the introduction of triple expansion steam engines into Royal Navy battleships. These engines had been developed as a result of the introduction of steel in boiler manufacture, which in turn had led to higher steam pressures. The Royal Navy had originally tried them with great success in the torpedo gunboat HMS Rattlesnake. The principal benefit was the improved efficiency of the engine meant a reduced displacement because less coal was needed; for example, trials with HMS Thunderer which had been re-engined with triple-expansion engines in 1889–1891 had shown that the coal consumption at 80% power was roughly halved.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sans_Pareil_(1887)

Victoria-class ironclad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victoria_(1887)

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
9 May 1895 – Launch of SMS Monarch, the lead ship of the Monarch-class coastal defense ship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s


SMS Monarch ("His Majesty's Ship Monarch") was the lead ship of the Monarch-class coastal defense ship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1890s. After their commissioning, Monarch and the two other Monarch-class ships made several training cruises in the Mediterranean Sea in the early 1900s. Monarch and her sisters formed the 1st Capital Ship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy until they were replaced by the newly commissioned Habsburg-class pre-dreadnought battleships at the turn of the century. In 1906 the three Monarchs were placed in reserve and only recommissioned during the annual summer training exercises. After the start of World War I, Budapest was recommissioned and assigned to 5th Division together with her sisters.


The battleship Monarch before World War I

The division was sent to Cattaro in August 1914 to attack Montenegrin and French artillery that was bombarding the port, and Monarch remained there for the rest of the war. The ship was decommissioned in early 1918 and became an accommodation ship. She was awarded to Great Britain by the Paris Peace Conference in 1920. The British sold her for scrap and she was broken up in Italy beginning in 1921.

Description and construction
Main article: Monarch-class coastal defense ship


Right elevation and plan of the Monarch class; the shaded area is armored

At only 5,785 tonnes (5,694 long tons) maximum displacement, the Monarch class was less than half the size of the battleships of other major navies at the time, and were officially designated as coast defense ships. Austria-Hungary's only coastline was on the Adriatic Sea, and the Austro-Hungarian government believed that the role of its navy was solely to defend the nation's coast.

Monarch had an overall length of 99.22 meters (325 ft 6 in), a beam of 17 meters (55 ft 9 in) and a draft of 6.4 meters (21 ft 0 in). Her two 4-cylinder vertical triple-expansion steam engines produced a total of 8,500 indicated horsepower (6,300 kW) using steam from five cylindrical boilers. These gave the ship a maximum speed of 17.8 knots(33.0 km/h; 20.5 mph). Monarch's maximum load of 500 metric tons (490 LT) of coal gave her a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,500 km; 4,000 mi) at a speed of 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph). She was manned by 26 officers and 397 enlisted men, a total of 423 personnel.



The armament of the Monarch class consisted of four 240-millimeter (9.4 in) Krupp K/94 guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. The ships carried 80 rounds for each gun. Their secondary armament was six 150-millimeter (6 in) Škoda guns located in casemates in the superstructure. Defense against torpedo boats was provided by ten quick-firing (QF) 47 mm (1.9 in) Škoda guns and four 47-millimeter QF Hotchkiss guns. A Škoda 66 mm (2.6 in) L/45 BAG anti-aircraft gun was added after a 1917 refit. The ships also mounted two 450-millimeter (18 in) torpedo tubes, one on each broadside. Each torpedo tube was provided with two torpedoes.

The ship's nickel-steel waterline armor belt was 120–270 millimeters (4.7–10.6 in) thick and the gun turrets were protected by 250 millimeters (9.8 in) of armor. The casemates had 80 millimeters (3.1 in) thick sides while the conning tower had 220 millimeters (8.7 in) of armor. Monarch's deck armor was 40 millimeters (1.6 in) thick.

The Monarch-class ships were ordered in May 1892, with Monarch to be built at the Pola Naval Arsenal (Seearsenal). The ship was laid down on 31 July 1893, and she was launched on 9 May 1895 by Archduchess Maria Theresa, wife of Archduke Karl Ludwig. She was commissioned on 11 May 1898.

Service history
Monarch and her sisters formed the Navy's 1st Capital Ship Division (I. Schwere Division) in 1899, and the division made a training cruise to the Eastern Mediterranean where they made port visits in Greece, Lebanon, Turkey and Malta later that year. In early 1902, they made another training cruise to the Western Mediterranean with port visits in Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Corfu, and Albania. The ship was fitted with a Siemens-Braun radio early the following year. The ships of the division were inspected by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne, in March 1903 at Gravosa. In 1904, the Monarch-class ships formed the 2nd Capital Ship Division, and they took part in the 1904 cruise of the Adriatic and Mediterranean Seas as well as training exercises in which the three Habsburg-class battleships engaged the Budapest and her sisters in simulated combat. Those maneuvers marked the first time two homogeneous squadrons consisting of modern battleships operated in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. In the summer of 1905, Wien ran aground during a night exercise off Meleda Island; it took two tries by Budapest and Habsburg to pull her off.

The Monarchs were relegated to the newly formed Reserve Squadron on 1 January 1906, and were only recommissioned for the annual summer exercises. They participated in a fleet review by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, conducted in the Koločepski Channel near Šipan, in September. The ships were briefly recommissioned at the beginning of 1913, as the 4th Division after the start of the Second Balkan War, but were decommissioned again on 10 March. In early 1914, Monarch made a cruise in the Levant with the dreadnoughts Viribus Unitis, Tegetthoff and the predreadnought Zrínyi. Two of the ship's crew came down with smallpox and cerebrospinal meningitis in Egypt and caused the ship to be quarantined for several weeks in Pola.

World War I


A map of the upper Adriatic Sea

With the beginning of World War I the three Monarchs were recommissioned as the 5th Division. They were sent down to the Bay of Kotor in August 1914, to attack Montenegrin artillery batteries on Mount Lovćen bombarding the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro and the fortifications defending it. Monarch and her sisters arrived on 13 August, but their guns could not elevate enough to engage all of the enemy artillery, which was reinforced by eight French guns on 19 October. The battleship Radetzky was summoned to deal with the guns two days later, and she managed to knock out several French guns and forced the others to withdraw by 27 October.

Monarch remained at Cattaro for the rest of the war to deter any further attacks. The ship's crew joined in the Cattaro Mutiny in early February 1918. Six weeks later she became an accommodation ship for the submarine crews based at nearby Gjenovic. Monarch was handed over to Great Britain as war reparations in January 1920 and broken up for scrap in Italy in 1921.




SMS Wien circa 1898


The Monarch class was a class of three coastal defence ships, built by Austria-Hungary at the end of the 19th century. The Monarchs were the first ships of their type to utilize turrets. The class comprised three ships: SMS Monarch, SMS Wien, and SMS Budapest, each armed with four 240 mm (9 in) L/40 guns in two turrets and capable of 15.5 knots (28.7 km/h; 17.8 mph) at full speed. Budapest was fitted with slightly more modern and powerful engines, giving her a top speed of 17.5 knots (32.4 km/h; 20.1 mph).



Monarch was launched on 9 May 1895, Wien on 7 July 1895, and Budapest just over a year later on 24 July 1896. The ships saw very little service during World War I in the V Division of the Austro-Hungarian fleet. Budapest and Wien took part in the bombardment of Italian positions along the Adriatic coast in 1915 and 1917, but the three battleships went largely inactive for the remainder of war.

In 1917, Wien was struck by Italian torpedoes and sank in her home port of Trieste. The remaining two ships were ceded to Great Britain following the end of the war and were scrapped between 1920 and 1922.


Austro-Hungarian Monarch-class battleship battleship SMS Budapest (1896). 1:50 scale model at the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum Wien.

SMS Monarch - Wikipedia

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Monarch-class coastal defense ship - Wikipedia

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