Naval/Maritime History 18th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1801 – Launch of HMS Medusa, a 32-gun 5th rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served in the Napoleonic Wars.


HMS Medusa was a 32-gun 5th rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served in the Napoleonic Wars. Launched on 14 April 1801, she took part in the Action of 5 October 1804 against a Spanish squadron, in the River Plate Expedition in 1807, and made several captures of enemy ships, before being converted to a hospital ship in 1813. She was broken up in 1816.





Construction
Medusa was ordered on 28 January 1800 from the Pitcher yard at Northfleet, and was designed by Sir William Rule. Her keel was laid down in April 1800, and she was launched a year later on 14 April 1801. Medusa was commissioned on 25 April 1801 under the command of John Gore.

Service history
On 2 August 1801 Lord Nelson hoisted his flag aboard the Medusa at Deal and crossed the channel in order to observe the French invasion fleet at Boulogne. He ordered an attack by bomb vessels on the 4th, followed by an attempt to board and cut out the enemy flotilla on the night of the 15th.

The British were organised into four boat divisions under the command of Captains Philip Somerville, Isaac Cotgrave, Robert Jones and Nelson's aide-de-camp Edward T. Parker, supported by howitzer boats commanded by Captain John Conn. The darkness of the night and a powerful tide meant that the boats arrived separately rather than together, and Jones' division missed the action completely. The French were well-prepared, and the attackers were met by heavy fire from the ships and from shore. Medusa's boats attempted to board a large brig, but they were frustrated by nets stretched around the bulwarks. Medusa suffered 55 casualties, the most of any ship. Midshipmen William Gore and William Bristow, 14 seamen and 4 marines were killed, and Captain Parker, Lieutenants Charles Pelley and Frederick Langford, the Master William Kirby, Midshipman the Hon. Anthony Maitland, 24 seamen and 6 marines were wounded.

During the Peace of Amiens, between October 1801 and February 1802, Medusa was employed in suppressing smuggling in the English Channel, patrolling the south coast between Start Point and the Isle of Wight. She was then ordered to the Mediterranean Sea, where she visited Spanish and French ports and escorted King Ferdinand IV from Palermo to Naples. Early in 1803 Medusa was at Constantinople, having carried the British ambassador, William Drummond, from Naples. There Gore learned of the imminent renewal of hostilities, so hurried to join the squadron of Sir Richard Bickerton in blockading the French naval base at Toulon. When Nelson arrived to take command in July, four sloops and four frigates, including Medusa, were sent to patrol off Gibraltar.

On 8 December 1803 Medusa attacked two French felucca-rigged privateers in the Strait. The first, Esperance, armed with two 12 and two 6-pounder guns, was captured, while the other, Sorcier, was pursued until she ran aground and was wrecked near Cabrita Point, 9 miles south-west of Marbella. Soon afterwards Medusa chased another French privateer schooner so close to Cadiz, that her shot went into the town.

On 9 January 1804 she captured the Spanish ship Nostra Senora del Rosario.

In the action of 5 October 1804 Medusa, along with the frigates Indefatigable, Amphion and Lively engaged four Spanish frigates en route to Cadiz with silver and gold from South America. Captain Graham Moore of Indefatigable made a perfunctory attempt to persuade the Spanish ships to allow themselves to be detained, which they naturally declined. In the short battle that followed the Spanish frigate Mercedes blew up, and the remaining three; Fama, Medea and Clara, were captured.

Medusa returned to Portsmouth on 8 November with the Spanish frigate Matilda, which she and the Donegal under Captain Sir Richard Strachan had intercepted on 23 October, while sailing from Cadiz to Veracruz with £200,000 worth of mercury aboard. Medusa went into dock for extensive repairs. Gore was knighted in February 1805.

On 15 April 1805 Medusa sailed for Bengal with Lord Cornwallis, the new Governor-General of India, aboard as passenger. Unfortunately Cornwallis died soon after his arrival, so in November Medusa headed back to England, arriving on 26 January 1806, taking only 84 days to sail 13,800 miles. Gore was then given command of the 74-gun ship Revenge, and command of Medusa passed to Captain the Hon. Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie.

During 1807 Medusa formed part of the expedition in the River Plate. In January she landed seamen and marines to support the army during the capture of Montevideo. In June an attempt to capture Buenos Aires failed, and Medusa helped to evacuate the troops.

In 1808 Medusa was attached to the Channel Fleet. On 4 April she captured the privateer lugger Actif of Dieppe, and relieved her of her prize, a coasting sloop. On 6 December 1808 Captain William Bowles was appointed acting-captain of Medusa, remaining in command until 23 April 1809 and Captain Bouverie's return.

In January 1810 Medusa captured two more prizes; the 14-gun French privateers Aventure and Hirondelle. Captain Bowles returned to acting command of Medusa in May 1810 while she served on the north coast of Spain, landing seamen and marines at Santoña in July to assist in the destruction of various French batteries.

From May 1812 Medusa was part of a squadron under the command of Captain George Collier in Surveillante, employed off the coast of northern Spain assisting the operations of Spanish partisans. On 17 June Medusa joined the Hotspur, Rover, Venerable, Rhin and Lyra off Santoña, and made contact with the guerilla chief Don Gaspar, who arranged an attack on the town and the fort of Lequietio, 12 miles to the east. Marines were landed to reinforce the guerillas, and Captain Bouverie supervised the landing of a gun, which made a breach in the fort's wall allowing it to be captured.

On 9 November 1812 Medusa captured the American schooner Independence, of 213 tons, 4 guns, and 23 men. She had been sailing from Bayonne, bound to New York, with a cargo of brandy, silks, etc. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Racer.

On 10 March 1813 Medusa captured the American vessel Messenger, and on 22 March the American vessel Tiger.

On 13 April Medusa captured the American letter of marque schooner Caroline, armed with 4 guns and with a crew of 28, en route to Bordeaux from New Orleans. On 10 June Bouverie left Medusa, and command was given to Captain George Bell, who remained until 17 November 1813 when she was decommissioned at Plymouth.

Fate
Medusa was converted into a hospital ship, and was eventually broken up in 1816.

sistership

Portrait of Proserpine by Antoine Roux, after her capture in the Action of 27 February 1809

Amphion class 32-gun fifth rates 1798-1809, designed by William Rule.

• HMS Amphion 1798 - breakwater 1820.
• HMS Aeolus 1801 - broken up 1817.
• HMS Medusa 1801 - hulked as hospital ship at Plymouth in 1813, broken up 1816.
• HMS Proserpine 1807 - taken by the French Pénélope and Pauline off Toulon on 28 February 1809.
• HMS Nereus 1809 - broken up 1817.

HMS Medusa (1801) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1809 - Troude's expedition to the Caribbean
Start of 4 day engagement in which HMS Pompee (80), HMS Neptune (98), HMS Castor (32) and HMS Recruit (18), took French D'Hautpoult (74) off Cuba
Part I


Troude's expedition to the Caribbean was a naval operation by a French force under Commodore Amable-Gilles Troude during the Napoleonic Wars. The French squadron departed from Lorient in February 1809 in an attempt to reach and resupply the island colony of Martinique in the Caribbean Sea, then under invasion from a British expeditionary force. The force arrived much too late to affect the outcome of the successful invasion and took shelter from a British squadron in the Îles des Saintes, where they were blockaded by part of the British invasion fleet, led by Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane. Two weeks after the French ships arrived, British troops invaded and captured the Saintes, constructing mortar batteries to bombard the French squadron. With his position unsustainable, Commodore Troude decided to break out.


Intrepid behaviour of Captn Charles Napier, in HM 18 gun Brig Recruit for which he was appointed to the D' Haupoult. The 74 now pouring a broadside into her. April 15, 1809, by G. W. Terry

Attempting to escape under cover of darkness on 14 April, the French squadron was spotted by a number of small British ships stationed close inshore. These ships raised the alarm and the main British squadron followed in pursuit. The rearmost French ship of the line, Hautpoult, was closely followed by the small brig HMS Recruit, which succeeded in delaying Hautpoult long enough that the main British squadron was able to attack and overwhelm her in a running battle that lasted three days and ended off the coast of Puerto Rico. The British suffered 45 casualties, the French nearly 100. The remainder of the French squadron escaped, with the two surviving ships of the line sailing directly for France, eventually reaching Cherbourg in May.

The French expedition's two frigates, both only partially armed, were detached during the action and took shelter in harbour at Guadeloupe. In June, heavily laden with trade goods, they attempted to escape to Europe, but were pursued by elements of the British blockade force. Félicité was overrun after four days of manoeuvre, submitting to the more powerful British frigate HMS Latona without a fight. Furieuse was able to escape immediate pursuit, but was subsequently discovered on 3 July by the smaller British ship HMS Bonne Citoyenne. In a fierce engagement two days later, the small British ship was able to defeat and capture the French vessel, which was later commissioned into the Royal Navy.



Background
During the Napoleonic Wars, the French Navy suffered a series of defeats at the hands of the British Royal Navy, culminating in the destruction of much of their Mediterranean Fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Unable to compete at sea, the French were increasingly confined to their principal naval bases, especially Brest on the Biscay coast and Toulon in the Mediterranean. With British squadrons patrolling the entrances to these ports, the French found it difficult not only to conduct regular overseas trade, but also to supply and reinforce their overseas colonies. As a result, the colonies faced financial collapse and the constant threat of attack by British forces, especially in the Caribbean, where by 1809 their island colonies of Martinique and Guadeloupe were surrounded by British held islands and blockaded by a strong British fleet under Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane.

During the summer of 1808, messages arrived in France from Martinique, outlining the desperate situation of their supplies, morale and economy. It was determined that reinforcements and food supplies would be sent and the frigate Thétis was despatched in November 1808. Within days, Thétis had been captured at the Action of 10 November 1808, and subsequent operations had mixed success: the frigate Amphitrite reached Martinique, but a number of smaller ships were intercepted and defeated, both in Europe and the West Indies. In desperation, a major operation was planned, intended to transport substantial supplies and sufficient troops to resist the inevitable British invasion on Martinique. To this end, Commodore Amable-Gilles Troude was provided with the ships of the line Courageux, Polonais and Hautpoult, with the frigates Félicité and Furieuse en flûte as armed storeships, carrying the bulk of the supplies.

On 21 February 1809, a large French fleet under Admiral Jean-Baptiste Willaumez attempted to escape Brest and was chased by the blockade squadron and driven to shelter under the Ile d'Aix. Shortly afterwards, three French frigates attempted to break out of Lorient, but were challenged and destroyed at the Action of 24 February 1809. These operations were the preliminaries to the Battle of Basque Roads in April, but also provided the cover required for Troude's force to escape Lorient while the British were engaged elsewhere. Travelling rapidly across the Atlantic, the French encountered no British warships but were able to seize a number of lone British merchant ships, from whom Troude learned that the invasion of Martinique was already underway. While Troude's expedition had been preparing at Lorient, Cochrane had been preparing his own operation to Martinique, following the interception of the same despatches warning of the island's low morale and preparedness in the summer of 1808. Amassing an expeditionary force of 44 ships and 10,000 men at Carlisle Bay, Barbados, Cochrane began the invasion on 30 January 1809 and his troops rapidly overran the French defences, despite stiff resistance in the central highlands. By 10 February, the only remaining point in French hands was Fort Desaix, which held out until the magazine was breached on 24 February, at which point Governor Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse surrendered unconditionally.

Îles des Saintes

Guadeloupe and associated islands. The Saintes are in the southwest corner

Troude was wary on his arrival in the Leeward Islands on 29 March, refusing to approach Martinique and instead anchoring near the Îles des Saintesuntil the situation in the islands could be established. Before he could make contact with nearby Guadeloupe, he was discovered by patrolling British warships and a warning sent to Cochrane, who was on his flagship HMS Neptune off Martinique. Within hours Neptune was cruising off the Saintes, joined by the ships of the line HMS Pompee, HMS York, HMS Belleisle, HMS Captain, HMS Polyphemus and a number of smaller warships that could operate closer inshore. Blockading the Saintes was a difficult task: the French had three channels through which they could escape, too many to be effectively blocked by the forces at Cochrane's disposal. In addition, Troude's force could not be attacked directly, the width of the channels making it impossible for the British ships to attack in full strength.

For two weeks the British and French squadrons watched one another, the British unable to attack and the French unable to escape. In an effort to break the deadlock, Cochrane sent to Martinique for a body of 3,000 men under Major-General Frederick Maitland. With this force he launched a surprise invasion of the islands on 14 April, the amphibious operation commanded by Captain Philip Beaver in HMS Acasta and executed successfully with only minor casualties. Parties of seamen went ashore in the wake of the soldiers, working rapidly to establish a battery of two 8-inch howitzers on Morne-Russell. These guns began firing during the afternoon and by 20:00 Troude had given orders for his squadron to sail through the western channel during the night.

In their efforts to monitor the French, Cochrane's squadron had become divided, so that Neptune and Pompee were the only ships within reach of Troude's squadron when they passed through the channel. Neither ship was well placed to fight the larger French force and both were taken by surprise, only alerted to the French escape by the brig HMS Hazard under Captain Hugh Cameron shortly before 22:00. Pompee was closest to the French, and Captain William Charles Fahie managed to fire two broadsides into the rearmost ship, Hautpoult before Troude's squadron pulled away from her. Neptune, Pompee and the small brig HMS Recruit took up the chase, the fast Recruit annoying the French with persistent minor attacks, while Neptune came too close to Hautpoult and was fired on, losing one man killed and four wounded. The French escape, while necessitated by the British battery, was actually a feint: the frigates Félicitéand Furieuse had remained hidden off the Saintes during the night and at 09:00 on 15 April, with the main combat continuing to the west, slipped away into Basse-Terre on Guadeloupe, chased in vain by HMS Intrepid under Captain Warwick Lake. French batteries drove off the British pursuit and the frigates were anchored in harbour and their stores successfully unloaded.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troude's_expedition_to_the_Caribbean

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1809 - Troude's expedition to the Caribbean
Start of 4 day engagement in which HMS Pompee (80), HMS Neptune (98), HMS Castor (32) and HMS Recruit (18), took French D'Hautpoult (74) off Cuba
Part II


Battle
During the night of 14–15 April 1809, contact was maintained with the French squadron by Recruit, Captain Charles John Napier firing on the rearmost ship Hautpoult and coming under fire from the French stern-chasers, guns situated in the rear of a ship to fire on pursuers. Shortly after 04:00, Pompee came within range and began to fire her bow-chasers, the chase continuing westwards into the Caribbean Sea. Frustrated by her inability to escape Recruit, Hautpoult eventually turned and fired a broadside at 10:45, causing severe damage but failing to dissuade Napier, who immediately counter-attacked. Hautpoult's manoeuvre caused her to lose ground to her pursuers and throughout the day the squadrons exchanged shots, neither causing significant damage but the French being driven deeper into British held waters and unable to drive off their opponents.

At 20:00, Troude ordered Hautpoult to steer to the northwest while he took Courageux and Polonais southwest in an effort to divide the pursuit. Pompee and Recruit kept with Hautpoult, while Neptune, accompanied by the brig HMS Hawk continued to follow Troude's main force. During the night however Troude outdistanced Neptune, and on the morning of 16 April Cochrane ordered all available ships to converge on Hautpoult. The lone French ship of the line had finally forced the damaged Recruit to retire, but could see Pompee and Neptune to the southeast and the newly arrived frigates HMS Latonaunder Captain Hugh Pigot and HMS Castor under Captain William Roberts to the northeast, with the Spanish coast of Puerto Rico directly north. During the day the chase continued, Neptune falling behind but Pompee remaining in sight and the frigates gaining on Hautpoult. At 17:00, Puerto Rico appeared on the horizon, the French forced to follow the coastline westwards. During the night, the British pursuers were confused by the overcast sky, which helped Hautpoult to partially obscure herself among the lights from shore.

At 02:45 on 17 April, Castor closed within range of Hautpoult and opened fire, exchanging broadsides with the much larger French ship for 75 minutes and slowing her sufficiently for Pompee to come within range. Sailing between Castor and the French ship, Fahie closed within 50 yards (46 m) and opened fire with his broadside. Within 15 minutes Hautpoult attempted to escape by pulling forward and engaging with Castor again, but the damage done to her sails and rigging hindered the manoeuvre and Pompee pulled across her stern, threatening to rake her. With defeat inevitable, the French captain surrendered, Neptune, York, Captain, Hazard, Hawk, Recruit, Polyphemus, HMS Ethalion and HMS Ringdove all coming within sight as dawn broke, joining Pompee, Castor and Latona.

Aftermath
Hautpoult had fought hard during the engagement and was badly damaged, suffering between 80 and 90 casualties. Pompee was also badly damaged, losing nine killed and 30 wounded, including Fahie wounded. Other casualties were suffered on Castor, with one killed and five wounded; Neptune one killed and four wounded and Recruit one wounded. In total, British losses were 11 killed and 40 wounded. Cochrane ordered Pompee and the newly captured French ship back to port, promoting Napier to command the ship of the line for his service on Recruit and despatching York and Captain to hunt for Troude's remaining squadron. Despite their efforts, Troude evaded pursuit and eventually reached Cherbourg in May. In addition to Napier there were further promotions and awards and Hautpoult was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Abercromby. Four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.



Félicité and Furieuse
During May 1809, the frigates Félicité and Furieuse remained at Guadeloupe, taking on stores and preparing for their eventual return journey to France. Although they were both large frigates, they had been largely disarmed in France to create space for cargo: Furieuse was provided with only 20 cannon(including 12 carronades) and a crew of just 200, while Félicité had even fewer defences, carrying just 14 cannon and 174 men. Watching these ships was a small British blockade force led by Hugh Pigot in Latona with a few brigs and sloops, Cochrane's invasion fleet having been dispersed.

Félicité
On 14 June under the cover of darkness, the French frigates set sail, laden with colonial merchandise for sale in France. They were immediately spotted leaving Basse-Terre by the blockade squadron, but although the brig HMS Haughty managed to fire a few shots before they pulled away, only Latona and Cherub under Captain Thomas Tudor Tucker were able to maintain contact. Throughout 15, 16 and most of 17 June the chase continued, until the frigates separated: Furieuse led Cherub away from Latona and then outdistanced her, disappearing into the Atlantic. Félicité was unable to escape Latona however, and on 18 June was overrun. Outgunned by his larger opponent, Félicité's captain surrendered immediately. An old and worn ship, she was not deemed worthy of purchase into the Royal Navy and was instead sold to Haiti, reappearing in 1812 as the Améthyste under the control of a privateer commissioned by Haitian rebels. Captain Yeo quickly attacked and captured her during the Action of 3 February 1812.

Furieuse
Although Furieuse had escaped Cherub's pursuit, she still had to cross the Atlantic. Passing up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, her commander, Lieutenant Gabriel-Etienne-Louis Le Marant Kerdaniel, raided British merchant shipping and was consequently delayed. At 15:00 on 5 July, the 20-gun sloop HMS Bonne Citoyenne under Captain William Mounsey, on passage from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Quebec, spotted Furieuse to the southwest taking possession of a British merchant ship. As Bonne Citoyenne approached, Kerdaniel abandoned the merchant ship and sailed northwards, Mounsey giving chase but trailing 5 nautical miles (9.3 km) behind throughout the day.

As darkness fell, Furieuse disappeared ahead, Mounsey pursuing in the hope of rediscovering his opponent during the night. At 03:00 on 6 July, the British lookouts spotted the French ship in the distance and the chase began again, Bonne Citoyenne proving much faster than the French ship as the wind strengthened. At 09:10 it became clear to Kerdaniel that he could not escape his opponent and instead turned to meet her, opening fire five minutes later as Bonne Citoyenne came within range. Mounsey replied immediately, the two ships exchanging fire at close range for nearly seven hours, the smaller and more manoeuvrable Bonne Citoyenne successfully turning several times to vary her broadsides and prevent her guns overheating. In the exchange, the British ship fired 129 broadsides, while Furieuse only managed 70: Bonne Citoyenne lost three cannon to fractures caused by the intense heat generated by repeated firing. With his ammunition spent, Mounsey swung towards Furieuse at 18:16 to board and capture her, at which point Kerdaniel, whose ship was battered and unmanoeuvrable, surrendered.

Due to her small size and high speed, Bonne Citoyenne suffered minimal casualties of one man killed and five wounded, although the ship itself was badly damaged. French losses were far more severe, with 35 killed, 37 seriously wounded including her captain, and 20 lightly wounded. Furieuse, built as a 40-gun frigate, had proven unable to match the speed an agility of the smaller ship and as a result her reduced armament had proven inadequate when faced with Mounsey's determined opposition. It was not until 01:30 on 7 July that temporary repairs were complete and the two ships began the long, slow journey to Halifax, Nova Scotia. The following day however, two of the Furieuse's masts collapsed and Mounsey was forced to take her in tow, both ships in constant danger of foundering.[20] After 25 days in tow, Furieuse arrived in Halifax. Mounsey and his officers were widely praised for their success and Mounsey was given command of the repaired and newly purchased HMS Furieuse several months later as a reward. His first lieutenant was also promoted and the whole crew benefitted from the award of prize money. As with the April engagement, the capture of Furieuse was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal.

Subsequent operations
The failure of Troude's squadron to escape the British pursuit highlights the dominance of the Royal Navy in the Atlantic by 1809. With Martinique gone, and French Guiana and San Domingo falling the same year, Guadeloupe was the only remaining French possession in the West Indies. Despite the supplies carried by Troude's ships, the situation there was desperate: food shortages and financial crisis causing a collapse in the island's morale. When a further effort to resupply the island was defeated in December 1809, the French losing two more frigates, the inhabitants had no alternative but to wait for the inevitable British invasion. In January 1810, Cochrane ordered an amphibious landing on Guadeloupe, which rapidly overwhelmed the weakened defenders and eliminated the last remaining French colony in the Caribbean Sea.



Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline with some detail, sheeer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Abercrombie (1809), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Portsmouth after having defects rectified. The plan illustrates the ship after her alterations to a British 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Signed by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1803-1823]

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





French service
On 16 February 1809 Captain Amand Leduc, Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, commanded Hautpoult on her maiden voyage, a mission to Martiniquewith reinforcements and supplies, as flagship of a squadron of three 74-gun ships. (The others vessels were Courageux and Polonais), and two frigates, under the overall command of Commodore Amable Troude.) Learning of the capture of Martinique, Troude's squadron turned back but were pursued by the British.

Hautpoult was captured by her now-British sister ship, HMS Pompée, on 17 April 1809, after a chase over three nights and two days by Pompée, Recruit, and Neptune. Recruit hung on the tail of the French squadron and managed to cripple Hautpoult's mizzen mast, so Pompée could bring her to action and capture her after exchanging fire for 75 minutes. Between 80 and 90 men from Hautpoult were killed or wounded, including several officers.

British service
Taken as a prize, she was renamed Abercrombie, and was briefly given to the commander of Recruit, Charles Napier, who was made post captain for his part in the action, as acting captain. Captain Sir William Fahie of Pompée, who had fallen ill after capturing her, then replaced Napier.

Abercrombie also participated in the capture of Guadeloupe in January and February 1810. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to all surviving participants of the campaign.

While she was at anchor in Basque Roads on 26 October 1811, lightning damaged her fore topmast and foremast.

On 17 July 1813 Abercrombie, under the command of Captain William Charles Fahie, shared the proceeds of the capture of Union with Dublin.

Fate
Abercrombie was sold in 1817.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troude's_expedition_to_the_Caribbean
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-288870;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1814 – Launch of HMS Prince Regent, a 56-gun British warship that served on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812.


HMS Prince Regent was a 56-gun British warship that served on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. Prince Regent was built at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Upper Canada and launched on 14 April 1814. Rated as a fourth-rate frigate, Prince Regent took part in the Raid on Fort Oswego in 1814. Following the War of 1812 the frigate was renamed HMS Kingston on 9 December 1814. In 1817, the vessel was placed in reserve following the Rush-Bagot Treaty that demilitarized all the lakes along the United States-Canada border. Discarded in 1832, the vessel found no buyer and sank in Deadman Bay off Kingston after 1832.






Description
Prince Regent, rated by the Royal Navy as a fourth-rate frigate, measured 1,293 tons burthen and was 131 ft 1 in (40.0 m) long at the keel and 155 ft 10 in (47.5 m) overall. Prince Regent was of similar design to HMS Leander and HMS Newcastle, constructed in 1813, and was the first frigate to ever be constructed on inland waters. The vessel had a beam of 43 ft 1 in (13.1 m) and a maximum draught of 17 ft 0 in (5.2 m). The frigate's depth of hold was 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m). A full-rigged ship, Prince Regent was armed with twenty-eight 24-pounder (11 kg) long guns on the lower deck and four 68-pounder (31 kg) carronades and twenty-four 32-pounder (15 kg) long guns on the upper deck at launch. By 1830, the armament had changed, with thirty 24-pounder long guns on the lower deck and two 24-pounder long guns, six 68-pounder carronades and twenty-two 32-pounder carronades on the upper deck. Prince Regent had a complement of 280.


The masts of HMS Prince Regent in 1813, directly behind the dismantled hull of HMS Duke of Gloucester at York, Upper Canada

Service history
In September 1813, the commander-in-chief of British North America, Sir George Prevost approved further construction which was initially set to a brig, but was later revised to two frigates. This was in response to new vessels under construction by the Americans. By the third week of October 1813, work began on the second frigate. The design of the vessel is in dispute, with Malcomson stating that Patrick Fleming was the designer, with Master Shipwrights George Record and John Goudie sharing responsibility for construction, while Winfield states that it was Record who was named the designer though it was probably Goudie who actually designed the vessel while Patrick Fleming, Goudie's foreman, was responsible for the frigate's construction. The frigate was constructed at Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Upper Canada. The construction of the vessel did result in the resignation of George Record, who was the master shipwright at Kingston and the frigate was built under private contract. Shortages of men and material at the shipyard led to construction delays. By January 1814, the frigate was completely planked and by February, had been caulked. Prince Regent was launched on 14 April 1814, a half hour after Princess Charlotte, the other frigate under construction

Prince Regent was made the flagship of Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo's British squadron on Lake Ontario. Commander Richard O'Connor was advanced to the rank of post-captain and made Yeo's flag captain aboard Prince Regent. The squadron departed Kingston on 4 May with infantry and Royal Marines embarked for an attack on Fort Oswego. The squadron arrived on 5 May with the attack commencing at 06:00 on 6 May. O'Connor was in charge of the landing operation, getting the infantry into the bateaux and gunboats and to the shore. The town and fort were captured by the British late in the day. The British looted the town and returned to Kingston with their captured goods.

On 11 May, the squadron set out again, this time along the southern shore of Lake Ontario. On 19 May, Yeo put the naval blockade of Sackett's Harbor in place, pinning the American squadron under Commodore Issac Chauncey within their main naval base. Prince Regent was stationed of Stony Island. On 29 May, a British force that had been detached from Yeo's squadron, commanded by two of the squadron's captains and the majority of the crews of Montreal and Niagara, was defeated and captured at Sandy Creek. This significantly weakened the squadron. Yeo lifted the blockade on 5 June and returned to Kingston. The resulting command shuffle led to Captain Frederick Hickey taking over Prince Regent and becoming Yeo's flag captain. Following the disaster at Sandy Creek, the majority of the squadron, including Prince Regent, remained in Kingston's harbour for the remainder of the summer.

The arrival of the first-rate, St Lawrence on Lake Ontario led to another round of command changes. St Lawrence immediately became the new flagship, and Captain Hickey transferred to the new ship. Captain Henry Davies took command of Prince Regent, which came into effect on 1 October. On 16 October, the squadron sailed again with infantry reinforcements for Niagara embarked. On 19 October, while in transit to Niagara, Prince Regent was hit by lightning. The following day, the squadron arrived and began the disembarkation. St Lawrence's arrival led Chauncey withdrawing his squadron to Sackett's Harbor and never returned in force to Lake Ontario for the rest of the war. On 1 November, Prince Regent sailed as escort to a convoy transporting infantry reinforcements to Fort George. The vessel then sailed to York, Upper Canada to embark troops returning to Kingston.

Following the war, on 9 December 1814, the frigate was renamed Kingston. In January 1816, command of Kingston was given to Captain Sir Robert Hall. In 1817, Kingston was paid off into the ordinary as a result of the Rush-Bagot Treaty which demilitarized the Great Lakes. The vessel was ordered to be sold in January 1832. However, no buyer's were found and the vessel sank in Deadman Bay in the mid-1830s. The wrecksite, along with those of St Lawrence and Princess Charlotte were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2015.


Scale: 1:96. Plan showing the body plans, sheer lines with inboard detail and scroll figurhead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Prince Regent' (1814), a 56-gun Frigate (possibly regarded as a two-decker due to spar deck), built at the Kingston Naval Yard, Canada. Signed by Thomas Strickland [Master Shipwright, Kingston Naval Yard, 1814-1815 (died)]


Scale: 1:96. A contemporary block model of the Prince Regent (1814), a 56 gun two-deck Fourth Rate Frigate. The Prince Regent was built in Kingston Dockyard by Master Shipwright John Goudie. She was renamed Kingston on 9 December 1814. Dimensions on the Gun Deck 155ft 10 inches. The underside of the baseboard has a plaque erroneously inscribed "Psyche 32-56 guns 1814 Frame prepared at Chatham and completed at Kingston on Lake, Ontario. Dimensions Gun Deck 130ft Beam 36ft 7" Scale (?) Rated as a 32 gun frigate but actually carried 56 guns on two complete decks". Psyche (1814) was a smaller two-deck (or spar-deck) warship ordered in 1813


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Prince_Regent_(1814)
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-340601;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1814 – Launch of HMS Princess Charlotte, later HMS Burlington, was a 42-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built in 1814, during the War of 1812 at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Ontario.


HMS Princess Charlotte, later HMS Burlington, was a 42-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built in 1814, during the War of 1812 at the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Ontario. She had originally been built as Vittoria, but was renamed before being launched. She was constructed to a design by George Record, and was built under a private contract by Master shipwright John Goudie. She served on Lake Ontario, having been commissioned at Oswego on 5 May 1814 under Captain William Mulcaster.

The ship took part in the British attack on Fort Oswego and blockade of Sackett's Harbor on Lake Ontario in 1814. In November that year she came under the command of Captain Edward Collier, and was renamed HMS Burlington on 9 December 1814. Captain Nicholas Lockyer took command in June 1816. Burlington was offered for sale in January 1833, but there were no buyers and she was later towed away and scuttled.



Description
Princess Charlotte was designed by George Record of the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard in Kingston, Upper Canada. The frigate was constructed under private contract by the master shipwright John Goudie. The vessel measured 755 90⁄94 tons burthen and was 121 ft 0 in (36.9 m) long overall and 100 ft 0 3⁄8 in (30.5 m) long at the keel. The frigate had a beam of 37 ft 8 in (11.5 m) and a draught of 14 ft 4 in (4.4 m). The frigate's hold had a depth of 8 ft 8 1⁄2 in (2.7 m). The frigate was pierced for 40 gunports but carried 42 guns. Princess Charlotte was armed with twenty-four 24 pdr (11 kg) long gunson her upper deck and sixteen 32 pdr (15 kg) carronades and two 68 pdr (31 kg) carronades on her quarterdeck and forecastle. The vessel had a complement of 280 officers and enlisted.

Service history
In September 1813, the commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, Sir George Prevost approved further ship construction on Lake Ontarioduring the War of 1812. Initially the plan was to construct a transport brig, but this idea was later changed to two frigates. The frigate was the first of the two ordered to begin construction. Initially called Vittoria for the recent victory in Spain by British forces, the vessel's name was changed to Princess Charlotte during construction, this time named for one of King George III's daughters. Before the frigate was fully constructed, the commander of British naval forces on Lake Ontario, Commodore Sir James Lucas Yeo, awarded command of the vessel to Commander William Mulcaster, advancing him to the rank of post-captain.

Princess Charlotte was launched on 14 April 1814, the same day as the second frigate under construction, HMS Prince Regent. The vessel was commissioned under Captain Mulcaster on 5 May 1814 at Oswego. Commodore Yeo's Lake Ontario squadron departed Kingston transporting troops for an attack on Fort Oswego. They arrived on 5 May, where it was decided that Mulcaster would lead a naval detachment of 200 men ashore to assault the fort from its western flank. Princess Charlotte would remain offshore, carrying reserves for the battle. At 06:00 on 6 May, the battle began at 09:00, Mulcaster had moved Princess Charlotte into position where the frigate could bombard the fort with her 24-pounder long guns. The frigate opened fire at 13:00 and under the naval bombardment, the landing began. Mulcaster's men stormed the main shore battery. During the assault, Mulcaster was severely injured when he was shot through the leg. Lieutenant John Scott of Princess Charlotte took over command of the attack on the western flank. Fort Oswego was captured and the reserves aboard Princess Charlotte were landed to secure the perimeter around the fort and town. Supplies and goods were taken and the squadron returned to Kingston on 8 May.

On 11 May, the squadron sailed again along the south shore of Lake Ontario and began a naval blockade of the main United States naval base on the lake at Sackets Harbor, New York. With Mulcaster's severe injuries, command of Princess Charlotte passed to Captain Edward Collier. Princess Charlotte was stationed off Stony Island during the blockade. On 29 May, a British force under Captains Stephen Popham and Francis Spilsbury was defeated at Sandy Creek by the American units they were sent to capture. This defeat led Yeo to lift the blockade on 5 June and return to Kingston. For the rest of the summer, Princess Charlotte remained within Kingston's harbour.

On 1 October, command of Princess Charlotte was given to Captain Richard O'Connor with newly-arrived Captain Peter Fisher being awarded the command of the much smaller Montreal. This did not sit well with Fisher, as he believed that he should have been given command of Princess Charlotte, being the senior captain. After attempting to address the issue with Yeo, which failed, Fisher sent a complaint to the Admiralty. This complaint was among the reasons that led to Yeo's recall by the Admiralty in November. On 16 October, the new flagship HMS St Lawrence, accompanied by the rest of the squadron, transported infantry reinforcements and supplies to General Gordon Drummond in the Niagara region, arriving on 20 October. With the arrival of St Lawrence on Lake Ontario, the American squadron no longer attempted to wrest control of the lake from the British.

On 9 December 1814, the frigate was renamed Burlington. Following the war, the vessel remained in commission and came under the command of Captain Nicholas Lockyer in June 1816. Later that year, the frigate was laid up in ordinary. Burlington was put up for sale in January 1833, but finding no buyers, was towed away and scuttled in Deadmans Bay in Lake Ontario. The wrecksite, along with those of St Lawrence and Prince Regent were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2015.


Drawing showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte, 1815

HMS Princess Charlotte (1814) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-340675;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=P

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1847 - Cleopatra, with a crew of 151 carrying 100 convicts plus guard from Mumbai to Singapore sank during a tropical cyclone of the Malabar Coast


Cleopatra was a Victorian-era wooden paddle steam frigate of the East India Company. Constructed at Northfleet, the ship arrived at Bombay (now Mumbai) on 19 April 1840,[6] and operated as a transport and mail steamer between Bombay to Karachi, Aden and Suez.



Loss at sea during cyclone
Cleopatra foundered on 15 April 1847 during a cyclone off the Malabar Coast in the Indian Ocean whilst en route from Bombay to Singapore. Nearly 300 people were killed - her entire crew of 151, 100 convicts she was carrying and their Royal Marine guard. The ship was in poor condition prior to her loss, her captain Commander J. A. Young having complained that on the immediately prior voyage, from Aden to Bombay, the paddle boxes had to be secured with chains running across the deck.

Memorial
A monument recording the loss of the Cleopatra is situated close to the entrance of St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai.

Among the list of casualties it records the name of Assistant Surgeon James Thomas Carr, MRCS, (29 September 1822 – 15 April 1847)[8] son of the then serving inaugural Bishop of Bombay, Rt. Revd. Thomas Carr.


Cleopatra Memorial, St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleopatra_(1839)
http://www.victorianweb.org/history/empire/india/98.html

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1847 – Launch of French frigate Némésis, an Artémise class screw-powered 50-gun second rate frigate of the French Navy in the 19th century.


The French frigate Némésis was an Artémise class screw-powered 50-gun second rate frigate of the French Navy in the 19th century. She was launched in 1847 at Brest, and participated in campaigns in Asia.



In 1857-1858, she was the flagship of Admiral Rigault de Genouilly during the Second Opium War, and in Vietnam at the Siege of Đà Nẵng.

She was used for harbour service at Lorient in 1866, and was scrapped in 1889.


French frigate Némésis at the Siege of Đà Nẵng, Vietnam in 1858.


Némésis class (50-gun type, 1828 design by Jean-Baptiste-Charles Perroy):

Némésis, (launched 14 April 1847 at Brest) – deleted 19 April 1866.
Pandore, (launched 26 March 1846 at Brest) – fitted as steam frigate 1857; deleted 2 November 1877.
Another unit of this class – Clorinde at Brest – was cancelled in 1838.

French frigate Némésis (1847) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1869 – Launch of The SS Silesia, a late 19th-century Hamburg America Line passenger and cargo ship that ran between the European ports of Hamburg, Germany and Le Havre, France to Castle Garden and later Ellis Island


The SS Silesia was a late 19th-century Hamburg America Line passenger and cargo ship that ran between the European ports of Hamburg, Germany and Le Havre, France to Castle Garden and later Ellis Island, New York transporting European immigrants, primarily Russian, Prussian, Hungarian, German, Austrian, Italian, and Danish individuals and families. Most passengers on this route were manual laborers, including stonecutters, locksmiths, farmers, millers, upholsterers, confectioners, and tailors, though physicians and other professionals also bought passage on her.



A Hammonia class ship, the SS Silesia appeared very much like the ship pictured here, the SS Frisia

Building
Built by Caird & Company of Greenock, Scotland, the Silesia, along with the SS Germania (I) (1863), SS Germania (II) (1870), SS Frisia (1872), SS Pomerania (1873), SS Hammonia (I) (1855), and SS Hammonia (II) (1866), was a Hammonia class ship. Some sources report her as being 340 feet (100 m) in length and 40 feet (12 m) from side to side though other contemporary sources report her as somewhat larger.

With both a steam engine and a set of traditional masts, she was one of a brief but large category of "transitional" (wind-to-steam) vessels. Like many of these ships, the Silesia had a steel hull, two masts, and one steam funnel. Her two engines drove a single 10 ft (3.0 m) screw with 2,200 horsepower making 54 revolutions per minute. Twelve men shoveling coal continuously from her four coal bunkers kept her engines running around the clock, consuming 75 of her 1,100-ton capacity of coal per day. All of the steam generated in her boilers was recovered and reused during any given length of her journey. The smoke from the burning of coal quickly blackened many of her sails, which were as follows: on her foremast she had two staysails (a fore staysail and a fore topmast staysail), a course, topsail, and topgallant sail; and on her mainmast, the equivalent five sails (a staysail, topmast staysail, course, topsail, and topgallant sail) plus a spanker for a combined total of eleven sails.

History
She began her maiden voyage from Hamburg to Le Havre and New York on 23 June 1869. Her last voyage on this route began on 24 February 1875. After this she was fitted with a compound engine and supposedly began sailing the route from Hamburg to the West Indies, though passenger manifests continue to show her bringing immigrants to New York for many more years.

Accounts then differ as to the path of her ownership, with some sources claiming she was given to W.G. Armstrong & Mitchell Company in 1887 before being sold to the H.F. Swan Company who renamed her Pacifica, then in 1888 sold to A. Albini of Genoa, then in 1889 sold to Fratelli Lavarello, also of Genoa, and renamed Citta di Napoli, then in 1890 sold to the La Veloce Line, again of Genoa, and renamed Montevideo. Others record that once refitted she went to an unnamed British firm, then to an Italian company called Solari & Schiaffino, then year after that sold to Fratelli Lavarello, and then in 1891 sold to La Veloce.

Sources agree, however, that on 2 December 1899, she ran aground near the island of Lobos in the River Plate between Uruguay and Argentina and was eventually sold for scrap metal.

SS Silesia (1869) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1887 – Launch of SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1880s, the last vessel of that type to be built for Austria-Hungary.


SMS Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was an ironclad warship built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the 1880s, the last vessel of that type to be built for Austria-Hungary. The ship, named for Archduchess Stephanie, Crown Princess of Austria, was laid down in November 1884, was launched in April 1887 and completed in July 1889. She was armed with a pair of 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in open barbettes and had a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph). Her service was limited, in large part due to the rapid pace of naval development in the 1890s, which quickly rendered her obsolescent. As a result, her career was generally limited to routine training and the occasional visit to foreign countries. In 1897, she took part in an international naval demonstration to force a compromise over Greek and Ottoman claims to the island of Crete. Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephaniewas decommissioned in 1905, hulked in 1910, and converted into a barracks ship in 1914. After Austria-Hungary's defeat in World War I, the ship was transferred to Italy as a war prize and was eventually broken up for scrap in 1926.



Design
In the decades that followed the Austrian victory at the Battle of Lissa in 1866, naval expenditure in the Austro-Hungarian Empire were drastically reduced, in large part due to the veto power the Hungarian half of the empire held. Surrounded by potentially hostile countries powers on land, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was more concerned with these threats, and so naval development was not prioritized. Admiral Friedrich von Pöck argued for several years to improve the strength of the Austro-Hungarian fleet, finally winning authorization to build the center battery ship Tegetthoff in 1875. He spent another six years trying in vain to secure a sister ship to Tegetthoff. In 1881, he called for a fleet of eleven armored warships. Pöck's successor, Maximilian Daublebsky von Sterneck, ultimately had to resort to budgetary sleight of hand, appropriating funds that had been allocated to modernize the ironclad Erzherzog Ferdinand Max to build an entirely new vessel. He attempted to conceal the deception by referring to the ship officially as Ferdinand Max, though the actual Ferdinand Max was still anchored in Pola as a school ship.



General characteristics and machinery
Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was 85.36 meters (280 ft 1 in) long between perpendiculars and 87.24 m (286 ft 3 in) long overall. She had a beam of 17.06 m (56 ft 0 in) and a draft of 6.6 m (21 ft 8 in), and she displaced 5,075 long tons (5,156 t). Her hull was constructed with transverse and longitudinal steel frames and was extensively subdivided into watertight compartments to improve the ship's resistance to flooding. The ship was equipped with a ram bow that was manufactured in Germany by Krupp.[6] She was fitted with two pole masts equipped with fighting tops for some of her light guns. Her crew number 430 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was powered by a pair of compound steam engines driving two screw propellers; the engines were built by Maudslay, Sons and Field of Britain. The number and type of the coal-fired boilers that provided steam for the engines have not survived, though they were trunked into two funnels. Her propulsion system was rated to provide 8,000 indicated horsepower (6,000 kW) for a top speed of 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph).

Armament and armor
Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was armed with a main battery of two 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) 35-caliber guns mounted singly in an open barbette. They were placed forward in sponsons over the battery deck to maximize end-on fire. The guns were manufactured by Krupp, while the carriages that carried them were built by Armstrong Mitchell & Co. The guns fired a 450-kilogram (990 lb) shell using a 140 kg (310 lb) charge of brown powder, which produced a muzzle velocity of 530 metres per second (1,700 ft/s). While the open barbettes provided a wide field of fire for the slow-firing guns, they were rapidly rendered obsolete by the successful application of quick-firing (QF) technology to large-caliber artillery pieces.

The main battery was supported by a secondary battery of six 15 cm (5.9 in) 35-caliber guns, also built by Krupp. These were mounted in gun ports amidships, three on each side. She carried nine 47 mm (1.9 in) QF guns for close-range defense against torpedo boats; seven were 44-caliber guns and the other two were shorter 33-caliber pieces, all built by Hotchkiss. Her gun armament was rounded out by a pair of 37 mm (1.5 in) 44-caliber QF guns and a pair of 7 cm (2.8 in) 15-caliber landing guns for use by landing parties. As was customary for capital ships of the period, she carried four 40 cm (16 in) torpedo tubes; one was mounted in the bow, another in the stern, and one on each broadside.

Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was protected with compound armor manufactured by the Dillinger Hütte works in Germany. The ship was protected by an armored belt that was 229 mm (9.0 in) thick. The barbette for the main battery was 283 mm (11.1 in) thick, and the conning tower had sides that were 50 mm (2.0 in) thick.

Service history


Austro-Hungarian squadron in Kiel, Germany; Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie is the rearmost vessel


Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie hulked in Pola in 1916

Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was built by the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste. Her keel was laid down on 12 November 1884, the last ironclad to be laid down for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She was launched on 14 April 1887 and completed in July 1889. The following year, the German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, invited the Austro-Hungarian fleet to take part in the annual fleet training exercises in August. Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, the ironclad Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, and the protected cruiser Kaiser Franz Joseph I were sent to Germany under the command of Rear Admiral Johann von Hinke. While en route, the squadron made visits in Gibraltar and Britain; during the latter stop, the ships took part in the Cowes Regatta, where they were reviewed by Queen Victoria. The ships also stopped in Copenhagen, Denmark and Karlskrona, Sweden. During the voyage back to Austria-Hungary, the squadron visited Cherbourg, France and Palermo, Italy.

Celebrations to honor the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first trans-Atlantic voyage were held in several countries; Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, and Kaiser Franz Joseph I represented Austria-Hungary during the ceremonies in Genoa, Italy, Columbus's birthplace.[9]During the 1893 fleet maneuvers, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was mobilized to train alongside the ironclads Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, Prinz Eugen, Kaiser Max, and Don Juan d'Austria, among other vessels.

In February 1897, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie deployed to Crete to serve in the International Squadron, a multinational force made up of ships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, French Navy, Imperial German Navy, Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina), Imperial Russian Navy, and British Royal Navy that intervened in the 1897-1898 Greek uprising on Crete against rule by the Ottoman Empire. She arrived as part of an Austro-Hungarian contingent that also included the armored cruiser Kaiserin und Königin Maria Theresia, the torpedo cruisers Tiger, Leopard, and Sebenico, three destroyers, and eight torpedo boats, the third-largest contingent in the International Squadron after those of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Italy. The International Squadron operated off Crete until December 1898, but Austria-Hungary, displeased with the decision to create an autonomous Cretan State under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire, withdrew its ships in March 1898.

By 1898, the Austro-Hungarian Navy regarded Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie as a second-rate vessel after less than 10 years in service. The rapid pace of naval development in the late 19th century had quickly rendered her obsolescent. She was decommissioned in 1905, and in 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to sell the ship, Kronprinz Erzherzog Rudolf, and Tegetthoff to Uruguay in an attempt to raise funds for new projects, but the deal fell through. In 1910, she was hulked and became a barracks ship for the mine warfare school in 1914, and served in this role for the duration of World War I. Following the conclusion of the conflict, Kronprinzessin Erzherzogin Stephanie was ceded to Italy as a war prize in 1920 and eventually broken up for scrap in 1926.


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

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1896 – Launch of Esmeralda, developed as a custom design by naval architect Philip Watts for the Chilean Navy


Esmeralda was developed as a custom design by naval architect Philip Watts for the Chilean Navy.





On 18 December 1907, the ship brought troops from Valparaíso to Iquique to repress thousands of miners from different nitrate mines in Chile's north who were appealing for government intervention to improve their living and working conditions. This later developed into the Santa María School massacre.

Esmeralda served in the Chilean Navy for approximately thirty years, until 1930.


1/48th scale model of Esmeralda, on display at the Swiss Museum of Transport.

Chilean cruiser Esmeralda (1896) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://web.archive.org/web/2012032.../site/artic/20090710/pags/20090710192942.html

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1897 - Launch of SMS Hertha, a protected cruiser of the Victoria Louise class, built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the 1890s.


SMS Hertha was a protected cruiser of the Victoria Louise class, built for the German Imperial Navy (Kaiserliche Marine) in the 1890s. Hertha was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in 1895, launched in April 1897, and commissioned into the Navy in July 1898. The ship was armed with a battery of two 21 cm guns and eight 15 cm guns and had a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph).


SMS Hertha in the United States

Hertha served abroad in the German East Asia Squadron for the first six years of her career; she served briefly as the Squadron flagship in 1900. She contributed a landing party to the force that captured the Taku Forts during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900. After returning to Germany in 1905, she was modernized and used as a training ship in 1908, following the completion of the refit. She conducted a series of training cruises, and several notable officers served aboard the ship as cadets, including Karl Dönitz and Ernst Lindemann. At the outbreak of World War I, Hertha was mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group, but served in front-line duty only briefly. She was used as a barracks ship after 1915, and ultimately sold for scrapping in 1920.

Design
Main article: Victoria Louise-class cruiser


Line-drawing of the Victoria Louise class

Hertha was 110.6 meters (363 ft) long overall and had a beam of 17.4 m (57 ft) and a draft of 6.58 m (21.6 ft) forward. She displaced 6,491 t (6,388 long tons; 7,155 short tons) at full combat load. Her propulsion system consisted of three vertical 4-cylinder triple expansion engines powered by twelve coal-fired Belleville boilers. Her engines provided a top speed of 19 kn (35 km/h; 22 mph) and a range of approximately 3,412 nautical miles(6,319 km; 3,926 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph). She had a crew of 31 officers and 446 enlisted men.

The ship was armed with two 21 cm SK L/40 guns in single turrets, one forward and one aft. The guns were supplied with 58 rounds of ammunition each. They had a range of 16,300 m (53,500 ft). Hertha also carried eight 15 cm SK L/40 guns. Four were mounted in turrets amidships and the other four were placed in casemates. These guns had a range of 13,700 m (44,900 ft). She also carried ten 8.8 cm SK L/35 naval guns. The gun armament was rounded out by machine guns. She was also equipped with three 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes with eight torpedoes, two launchers were mounted on the broadside and the third was in the bow, all below the waterline.

Service history

Hertha in Dar es Salaam

Hertha was ordered under the contract name "K" and was laid down at the AG Vulcan shipyard in Stettin in 1895. She was launched on 14 April 1897, after which fitting-out work commenced. She was commissioned into the German navy on 23 July 1898.

Hertha served as a colonial cruiser after she was completed, starting in 1899. After arriving on the East Asia station, she temporarily served as the flagship of Vice Admiral Felix von Bendemann, the commander of the East Asia Squadron, which included the cruisers Hansa, Gefion, Irene, and Kaiserin Augusta. After the new armored cruiser Fürst Bismarck reached the Asia station, she relieved Hertha as the Squadron flagship.

As part of the East Asia Squadron during the Boxer Rebellion, the ship made a noteworthy contribution in the Battle of the Taku Forts. In June 1900, Hertha, along with Hansa, Gefion, and Irene landed detachments of Seebataillone (marines) to seize the Taku Forts. The marines joined detachments sent from warships of several other countries. A total of around 450 German troops were contributed to the multi-national force, which totaled around 2,200 officers and men. During the attack on the forts, Hertha's commanding officer was shot and killed. In September, Hertha carried Alfred von Waldersee to Shanghai, arriving on the 21st, where he took command of the international forces suppressing the rebellion.

Hertha was detached from the East Asia Squadron and returned to Germany in 1905. In 1906, she went to dry dock at the Imperial Dockyard in Danzig for a refit, during which she was re-boilered. Hertha originally had three stacks, and during the modernization they were trunked into two funnels. The refit was finished by 1908, at which point Hertha became a cadet training ship; several prominent naval officers trained aboard the ship during this period. In September–October 1909, Hertha, Victoria Louise, Dresden, and Bremen traveled to the United States to represent Germany during the Hudson-Fulton Celebration.


Hertha at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in 1909

In 1910, Karl Dönitz, the future commander of the Kriegsmarine during World War II, served as a cadet on Hertha for a year. The ship cruised in the western Mediterranean in the autumn of 1912, along with her sister Vineta. The old cruiser Geier was also in the region. The future commander of the battleship Bismarck, Ernst Lindemann, served aboard the ship as a cadet in 1913. The ship conducted a training cruise in the Baltic and North Seas in late May to early July, stopping in a number of foreign ports, including Stockholm, Visby, and Bergen. The ship then embarked on a seven month training cruise into the Atlantic Ocean; during the voyage, Hertha called on numerous ports, including Vera Cruz, Mexico, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Kingston, Jamaica, and Halifax, Canada. The cruise lasted from mid-August 1913 to mid-March 1914.

Hertha had a short career during World War I. At the outbreak of hostilities, she was briefly mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group, which was tasked with training cadets in the Baltic Sea. By the end of 1914, however, the ships were again removed from service.[14] She was then put into service as a coastal defense ship. After 1915, she was withdrawn from front-line duty again and employed as a barracks ship for the seaplane base in Flensburg. She was stricken from the naval register on 6 December 1919 and sold to ship-breakers in Audorf-Rendsburg. She was scrapped the following year.


The Victoria Louise class of protected cruisers was the last class of ships of that type built for the German Imperial Navy. The class design introduced the combined clipper and ram bow and the blocky sides that typified later German armoured cruisers. The class comprised five vessels, Victoria Louise, the lead ship, Hertha, Freya, Vineta, and Hansa. The ships were laid down in 1895–1896, and were launched in 1897–1898 and commissioned into the fleet over the following year.

The first three ships were 110.60 meters (362 ft 10 in) long and displaced 6,491 metric tons (6,388 long tons) at combat load; Vineta and Hansa were a slightly modified design. They were 110.50 m (362 ft 6 in) long and displaced 6,705 t (6,599 long tons) at full load. All five ships were armed with a main battery of two 21-centimeter (8.3 in) guns and eight 15 cm (5.9 in) guns. The first three ships had a top speed of 19.5 knots (36.1 km/h; 22.4 mph); the last two were slightly slower, at 18.5 knots (34.3 km/h; 21.3 mph). Problems with the Niclausse boilers installed on Freya prompted the Navy to standardize boiler types in future warships.

The ships of the class served in various units in the German fleet, including on the America Station, in the East Asia Squadron, and with the home fleet. Hertha and Hansa participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, and Vineta was involved in the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–1903. All five ships were modernized between 1905 and 1911, after which they served as training ships for naval cadets. They were mobilized into the 5th Scouting Group at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, but were quickly withdrawn from front-line service. They served in various secondary roles for the rest of the war. After the end of the conflict, Victoria Louise was converted into a merchant ship, but was broken up in 1923. The other four ships were scrapped in 1920–1921.

SMS Hertha - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Louise-class_cruiser

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1907 – Launch of Aki (安芸), a Satsuma-class semi-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the first decade of the 20th century.


Aki (安芸) was a Satsuma-class semi-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during the first decade of the 20th century. She was the second battleship built domestically in Japan and the first to use steam turbines for propulsion. The ship was named for Aki Province, now a part of Hiroshima Prefecture. The ship saw no combat during World War I. Aki was disarmed in 1922 and sunk as a target in 1924 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.



Background
The Satsuma class was ordered in late 1904 under the 1904 War Naval Supplementary Program during the Russo-Japanese War. Unlike the previous Katori-class pre-dreadnought battleships, they were the first battleships ordered from Japanese shipyards. They were originally designed with a dozen 12-inch (305 mm) guns, but had to be redesigned because of a shortage of guns in Japan and to reduce costs.

Design and description
The ship had an overall length of 492 feet (150.0 m), a beam of 83 feet 7 inches (25.5 m), and a normal draft of 27 feet 6 inches (8.4 m). She displaced 20,100 long tons (20,400 t) at normal load. The crew consisted of 931 officers and enlisted men.

Aki was fitted with a pair of Curtiss steam turbine sets using steam from 15 Miyabara water-tube boilers. The turbines were rated at a total of 24,000 shaft horsepower (18,000 kW) for a design speed of 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph). The ship reached a top speed of 20.25 knots (37.50 km/h; 23.30 mph) during her sea trials from 27,740 shp (20,690 kW). She carried enough coal and oil to give her a range of 9,100 nautical miles (16,900 km; 10,500 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). Unlike her half-sister, she had three funnels.

The ship was completed with four 45-caliber 12-inch 41st Year Type guns in two gun turrets, one each fore and aft of the superstructure. They fired 850-pound (386 kg)[8] armor-piercing (AP) shells to a maximum range of 24,000 yd (22,000 m). The intermediate armament consisted of six twin-gun turrets equipped with 45-caliber Type 41 10-inch guns, three turrets on each side of the superstructure. Her heavy intermediate armament of guns larger than 9 inches (229 mm) is why the ship is considered to be a semi-dreadnought.

Aki's secondary armament consisted of eight 45-caliber 6-inch 41st Year Type guns, mounted in casemates in the sides of the hull. The ship was also equipped with eight quick-firing (QF) 40-caliber 12-pounder 12-cwt guns and four 28-caliber 12-pounder QF guns. In addition, the battleship was fitted with five submerged 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes, two on each broadside and one in the stern.

The waterline main belt of the Satsuma-class vessels consisted of Krupp cemented armor that had a maximum thickness of 9 inches (229 mm) amidships. It tapered to a thickness of 4 inches (102 mm) at the ends of the ship. A 6-inch (152 mm) strake of armor protected the casemates. The barbettes for the main guns were 7–9.5 inches (180–240 mm) thick. The armor of Aki's main gun turrets had a maximum thickness of 8 inches (203 mm). The deck armor was 2–3 inches (51–76 mm) thick and the conning tower was protected by six inches of armor.

Construction
Aki was laid down at Kure Naval Arsenal on 15 March 1906. She was launched on 15 April 1907, but construction was suspended for about five months after the decision was made on 26 November to install steam turbines on Aki and the armored cruiser Ibuki. Aki's turbines were already behind schedule and the suspension allowed the less valuable ship to be completed first, and changes made to its turbines after testing were also incorporated into Aki's turbines. Aki was finally completed on 11 March 1911 and her first captain was Tatsuo Matsumura.

Operational history
When World War I began in August 1914, Aki was refitting at Kure Naval Arsenal. She was assigned to the 1st Battleship Squadron upon the completion of her refit and remained with it until she was transferred to the 2nd Battleship Squadron in 1918, seeing no combat during the war. From December 1915 to December 1916, she was commanded by Captain Kiyokazu Abo. The ship was disarmed at Yokosuka in 1922 to comply with the provisions of the Washington Naval Treaty, stricken from the navy list during 1923 and converted into a target ship. Aki was sunk by the battlecruiser Kongō and the battleship Hyūga on 2 September 1924 in Tokyo Bay. Two of her 10-inch gun turrets were installed as coastal artillery batteries on Jōgashima island to protect Tokyo Bay.



The Satsuma class (薩摩型戦艦 Satsuma-gata senkan) was a pair of semi-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century. They were the first battleships to be built in Japan and marked a transitional stage between the pre-dreadnought and true dreadnought designs. They saw no combat during World War I, although Satsuma led a squadron that occupied several German colonies in the Pacific Ocean in 1914. Both ships were disarmed and expended as targets in 1922–1924 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.




Postcard of Satsuma at anchor

Japanese battleship Aki - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satsuma-class_battleship

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic at 23:40 (sinks morning of April 15th)

RMS Titanic – A passenger ocean liner and, at the time, the world's largest ship. On 14 April 1912, on her maiden voyage, she struck an iceberg, buckling part of her hull and causing her to sink in the early hours of 15 April.
706 of her 2,224 passengers and crew survived.
Her loss was the catalyst for major reforms in shipping safety and is arguably the most famous maritime disaster, being the subject of numerous media portrayals




14 April 1912
Iceberg warnings (09:00–23:39)


The iceberg thought to have been hit by Titanic, photographed the morning of 15 April 1912 by SS Prinz Adalbert's chief steward. The iceberg was reported to have a streak of red paint from a ship's hull along its waterline on one side.

On 14 April 1912, Titanic's radio operators received six messages from other ships warning of drifting ice, which passengers on Titanic had begun to notice during the afternoon. The ice conditions in the North Atlantic were the worst for any April in the previous 50 years (which was the reason why the lookouts were unaware that they were about to steam into a line of drifting ice several miles wide and many miles long). Not all of these messages were relayed by the radio operators. At the time, all wireless operators on ocean liners were employees of the Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company and not members of their ship's crew; their primary responsibility was to send messages for the passengers, with weather reports as a secondary concern.

The first warning came at 09:00 from RMS Caronia reporting "bergs, growlers and field ice". Captain Smith acknowledged receipt of the message. At 13:42, RMS Baltic relayed a report from the Greek ship Athenia that she had been "passing icebergs and large quantities of field ice". This too was acknowledged by Smith, who showed the report to J. Bruce Ismay, the chairman of the White Star Line, aboard Titanic for her maiden voyage. Smith ordered a new course to be set, to take the ship farther south.

At 13:45, the German ship SS Amerika, which was a short distance to the south, reported she had "passed two large icebergs". This message never reached Captain Smith or the other officers on Titanic's bridge. The reason is unclear, but it may have been forgotten because the radio operators had to fix faulty equipment.

SS Californian reported "three large bergs" at 19:30, and at 21:40, the steamer Mesaba reported: "Saw much heavy pack ice and great number large icebergs. Also field ice." This message, too, never left the Titanic's radio room. The radio operator, Jack Phillips, may have failed to grasp its significance because he was preoccupied with transmitting messages for passengers via the relay station at Cape Race, Newfoundland; the radio set had broken down the day before, resulting in a backlog of messages that the two operators were trying to clear. A final warning was received at 22:30 from operator Cyril Evans of Californian, which had halted for the night in an ice field some miles away, but Phillips cut it off and signalled back: "Shut up! Shut up! I'm working Cape Race."

Although the crew was aware of ice in the vicinity, they did not reduce the ship's speed, and continued to steam at 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph), only 2 knots (3.7 km/h; 2.3 mph) short of her maximum speed. Titanic's high speed in waters where ice had been reported was later criticised as reckless, but it reflected standard maritime practice at the time. According to Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the custom was "to go ahead and depend upon the lookouts in the crow's nest and the watch on the bridge to pick up the ice in time to avoid hitting it".

The North Atlantic liners prioritised time-keeping above all other considerations, sticking rigidly to a schedule that would guarantee their arrival at an advertised time. They were frequently driven at close to their full speed, treating hazard warnings as advisories rather than calls to action. It was widely believed that ice posed little risk; close calls were not uncommon, and even head-on collisions had not been disastrous. In 1907, SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, a German liner, had rammed an iceberg and suffered a crushed bow, but was still able to complete her voyage. That same year, Titanic's future captain, Edward Smith, declared in an interview that he could not "imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."

"Iceberg right ahead!" (23:39)
Titanic enters Iceberg Alley
Further information on the missing binoculars: David Blair (mariner)
As Titanic approached her fatal collision, most passengers had gone to bed and command of the bridge had passed from Second Officer Charles Lightoller to First Officer William Murdoch. Lookouts Frederick Fleet and Reginald Lee were occupying the crow's nest, 29 metres (95 ft) above the deck. The air temperature had fallen to near freezing, and the ocean was completely calm. Colonel Archibald Gracie, one of the survivors of the disaster, later wrote that "the sea was like glass, so smooth that the stars were clearly reflected." It is now known that such exceptionally calm water is a sign of nearby pack ice.

Although the air was clear, there was no moon, and with the sea so calm, there was nothing to give away the position of the nearby icebergs; had the sea been rougher, waves breaking against the icebergs would have made them more visible. Because of a mix-up at Southampton the lookouts had no binoculars; but reportedly binoculars would not have been effective in darkness which was total except for starlight and the ship's own lights. The lookouts were nonetheless well aware of the ice hazard, as Lightoller had ordered them and other crew members to "keep a sharp look-out for ice, particularly small ice and growlers".

At 23:30, Fleet and Lee noticed a slight haze on the horizon ahead of them, but did not make anything of it. Some experts now believe that this haze was actually a mirage caused by cold waters meeting warm air (similar to a water mirage in the desert) when Titanic entered Iceberg Alley. This would have resulted in a raised horizon, blinding the lookouts from spotting anything far away.

Collision
Nine minutes later, at 23:39, Fleet spotted an iceberg in Titanic's path. He rang the lookout bell three times and telephoned the bridge to inform Sixth Officer James Moody. Fleet asked "Is there anyone there?" Moody replied, "Yes, what do you see?" Fleet replied: "Iceberg, right ahead!" After thanking Fleet, Moody relayed the message to Murdoch, who ordered Quartermaster Robert Hichens to change the ship's course. Murdoch is generally believed to have given the order "Hard astarboard" which would result in the ship's tiller being moved all the way to starboard (the right side of the ship) in an attempt to turn the ship to port (left). (This "reversal" of directions, when compared to modern practice, was common in British ships of the era.) He also rang "Full Astern" on the ship's telegraphs.

According to Fourth Officer Joseph Boxhall, Murdoch told Captain Smith that he was attempting to "hard-a-port around [the iceberg]", suggesting that he was attempting a "port around" manoeuvre – to first swing the bow around the obstacle, then swing the stern so that both ends of the ship would avoid a collision. There was a delay before either order went into effect; the steam-powered steering mechanism took up to 30 seconds to turn the ship's tiller, and the complex task of setting the engines into reverse would also have taken some time to accomplish. Because the centre turbine could not be reversed, both it and the centre propeller, positioned directly in front of the ship's rudder, were stopped. This reduced the rudder's effectiveness, therefore impairing the turning ability of the ship. Had Murdoch turned the ship while maintaining her forward speed, Titanic might have missed the iceberg with feet to spare.

In 2010, Louise Patten asserted that her grandfather Charles Lightoller claimed that the helmsman Robert Hichens initially panicked and turned the rudder in the wrong direction and that subsequently Bruce Ismay ordered the boat to continue "Slow Ahead" in the belief that Titanic was unsinkable. This, allegedly, had never been revealed because of the insurance implications.


Diagram of Titanic's course at the time of the collision with the iceberg.
(Blue: path of bow. Red: path of stern.)

In the event, Titanic's heading changed just in time to avoid a head-on collision, but the change in direction caused the ship to strike the iceberg with a glancing blow. An underwater spur of ice scraped along the starboard side of the ship for about seven seconds; chunks of ice dislodged from upper parts of the berg fell onto her forward decks. About five minutes after the collision, all of Titanic's engines were stopped, leaving the bow of the ship facing north and slowly drifting south in the Labrador Current.

Effects of the collision


The iceberg buckled the plates, popping rivets and damaging a sequence of compartments. Contrary to widespread assumption, the iceberg did not slice the hull.
The impact with the iceberg was long thought to have produced a huge opening in Titanic's hull, "not less than 300 feet (91 m) in length, 10 feet (3.0 m) above the level of the keel", as one writer later put it. At the British inquiry following the accident, Edward Wilding (chief naval architect for Harland and Wolff), calculating on the basis of the observed flooding of forward compartments forty minutes after the collision, testified that the area of the hull opened to the sea was "somewhere about 12 square feet [1.1 m2]". He also stated that "I believe it must have been in places, not a continuous rip", but that the different openings must have extended along an area of around 300 feet, to account for the flooding in several compartments. The findings of the inquiry state that the damage extended about 300 feet, and hence many subsequent writers followed this statement. Modern ultrasound surveys of the wreck have found that the damage consisted of six narrow openings in an area of the hull covering only about 12 to 13 square feet (1.1 to 1.2 m2) in total. According to Paul K. Matthias, who made the measurements, the damage consisted of a "series of deformations in the starboard side that start and stop along the hull ... about 10 feet [3.0 m] above the bottom of the ship".

The gaps, the longest of which measures about 39 feet (12 m) long, appear to have followed the line of the hull plates. This suggests that the iron rivets along the plate seams snapped off or popped open to create narrow gaps through which water flooded. An engineer from Titanic's builders, Harland and Wolff, suggested this scenario at the British Wreck Commissioner's inquiry following the disaster but his view was discounted. Titanic's discoverer Robert Ballard has commented that the assumption that the ship had suffered a major breach was "a by-product of the mystique of the Titanic. No one could believe that the great ship was sunk by a little sliver." Faults in the ship's hull may have been a contributing factor. Recovered pieces of Titanic's hull plates appear to have shattered on impact with the iceberg, without bending.

The plates in the central 60% of the hull were held together with triple rows of mild steel rivets, but the plates in the bow and stern were held together with double rows of wrought iron rivets which were – according to materials scientists Tim Foecke and Jennifer McCarty – near their stress limits even before the collision. These "Best" or No. 3 iron rivets had a high level of slag inclusions, making them more brittle than the more usual "Best-Best" No. 4 iron rivets, and more prone to snapping when put under stress, particularly in extreme cold. But Tom McCluskie, a retired archivist of Harland & Wolff, pointed out that Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, was riveted with the same iron and served without incident for nearly 25 years, surviving several major collisions, including being rammed by a British cruiser. When Olympic rammed and sank the U-boat U-103 with her bow, the stem was twisted and hull plates on the starboard side were buckled without impairing the hull's integrity.

Above the waterline, there was little evidence of the collision. The stewards in the first class dining room noticed a shudder, which they thought might have been caused by the ship shedding a propeller blade. Many of the passengers felt a bump or shudder – "just as though we went over about a thousand marbles", as one survivor put it – but did not know what had happened. Those on the lowest decks, nearest the site of the collision, felt it much more directly. Engine Oiler Walter Hurst recalled being "awakened by a grinding crash along the starboard side. No one was very much alarmed but knew we had struck something". Fireman George Kemish heard a "heavy thud and grinding tearing sound" from the starboard hull.

The ship began to flood immediately, with water pouring in at an estimated rate of 7 long tons (7.1 t) per second, fifteen times faster than it could be pumped out. Second Engineer J. H. Hesketh and Leading Stoker Frederick Barrett were both struck by a jet of icy water in No. 6 boiler room and escaped just before the room's watertight door closed. This was an extremely dangerous situation for the engineering staff; the boilers were still full of hot high-pressure steam and there was a substantial risk that they would explode if they came into contact with the cold seawater flooding the boiler rooms. The stokers and firemen were ordered to reduce the fires and vent the boilers, sending great quantities of steam up the funnel venting pipes. They were waist-deep in freezing water by the time they finished their work.


Annotated diagram of RMS Titanic showing the arrangement of the bulkheads. The areas of damage are shown in green. The compartments in the engineering area at the bottom of the ship are noted in blue. The scale's smallest unit is 10 feet (3.0 m) and its total length is 400 feet (120 m).

Titanic's lower decks were divided into sixteen compartments. Each compartment was separated from its neighbour by a bulkhead running the width of the ship; there were fifteen bulkheads in all. Each bulkhead extended at least to the underside of E Deck, nominally one deck, or about 11 feet (3.4 m), above the waterline. The two nearest the bow and the six nearest the stern went one deck further up.

Each bulkhead could be sealed by watertight doors. The engine rooms and boiler rooms on the tank top deck had vertically closing doors that could be controlled remotely from the bridge, lowered automatically by a float if water was present, or closed manually by the crew. These took about 30 seconds to close; warning bells and alternative escape routes were provided so that the crew would not be trapped by the doors. Above the tank top level, on the Orlop Deck, F Deck and E Deck, the doors closed horizontally and were manually operated. They could be closed at the door itself or from the deck above.

Although the watertight bulkheads extended well above the water line, they were not sealed at the top. If too many compartments were flooded, the ship's bow would settle deeper in the water, and water would spill from one compartment to the next in sequence, rather like water spilling across the top of an ice cube tray. This is what happened to Titanic, which had suffered damage to the forepeak tank, the three forward holds and No. 6 boiler room, a total of five compartments. Titanic was only designed to float with any two compartments flooded, but she could remain afloat with certain combinations of three or even four compartments (the first four) open to the ocean. With five compartments, the tops of the bulkheads would be submerged and the ship would continue to flood.


Animation showing the sequence of Titanic's sinking, from 23:50 April 14 to 02:20 April 15

Captain Smith felt the collision in his cabin and immediately came to the bridge. Informed of the situation, he summoned Thomas Andrews, Titanic's builder, who was among a party of engineers from Harland and Wolff observing the ship's first passenger voyage. The ship was listing five degrees to starboard and was two degrees down by the head within a few minutes of the collision. Smith and Andrews went below and found that the forward cargo holds, the mail room and the squash court were flooded, while No. 6 boiler room was already filled to a depth of 14 feet (4.3 m). Water was spilling over into No. 5 boiler room, and crewmen there were battling to pump it out.

Within 45 minutes of the collision, at least 13,500 long tons (13,700 t) of water had entered the ship. This was far too much for Titanic's ballast and bilge pumps to handle; the total pumping capacity of all the pumps combined was only 1,700 long tons (1,700 t) per hour. Andrews informed the captain that the first five compartments were flooded, and therefore Titanic was doomed. By his estimate, she could remain afloat for no longer than about two hours.

From the time of the collision to the moment of her sinking, at least 35,000 long tons (36,000 t) of water flooded into Titanic, causing her displacement to nearly double from 48,300 long tons (49,100 t) to over 83,000 long tons (84,000 t). The flooding did not proceed at a constant pace, nor was it distributed evenly throughout the ship, due to the configuration of the flooded compartments. Her initial list to starboard was caused by asymmetrical flooding of the starboard side as water poured down a passageway at the bottom of the ship. When the passageway was fully flooded, the list corrected itself but the ship later began to list to port by up to ten degrees as that side also flooded asymmetrically.

Titanic's down angle altered fairly rapidly from zero degrees to about four and a half degrees during the first hour after the collision, but the rate at which the ship went down slowed greatly for the second hour, worsening only to about five degrees. This gave many of those aboard a false sense of hope that the ship might stay afloat long enough for them to be rescued. By 1:30, the sinking rate of the front section increased until Titanic reached a down angle of about ten degrees. At about 02:15, Titanic's angle in the water began to increase rapidly as water poured into previously unflooded parts of the ship through deck hatches, disappearing from view at 02:20.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Titanic

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1930 – Launch of Shamrock V, the first British yacht to be built to the new J-Class rule.


Shamrock V was the first British yacht to be built to the new J-Class rule. She was commissioned by Sir Thomas Lipton for his fifth America's Cup challenge. Although refitted several times, Shamrock is the only J-class never to have fallen into dereliction.



Origins
The services of Charles Ernest Nicholson were once again employed to design the challenger and she was constructed at the Camper and Nicholsons yard in Gosport. Shamrock V was built from wood, with mahogany planking over steel frames and, most significantly, a hollow spruce mast. As a result of rule changes, she was the first British contender for the America's Cup to carry the Bermuda rig. Following her launch on 14 April 1930 she showed early promise on the British Regatta circuit winning 15 of 22 races. She also underwent continuous upgrading with changes to her hull shape, rudder, and modifications to the rig to create a more effective racing sail plan before departing to America in time for the 15th America's Cup.

Four New York syndicates responded to Lipton's challenge each creating a J-Class, Weetamoe, Yankee, Whirlwind, and Enterprise. This was a remarkable response, particularly during depression-hit America with each yacht costing at least half a million dollars, and served to highlight that despite the J-Class' immense power and beauty, their Achilles heel would be the exorbitant cost to construct and race them. Winthrop Aldrick's syndicate, Enterprise, emerged from the competitive round-robins as the eventual defender.

Enterprise was the smallest J-Class to be built, her size being an early indication of the ruthless efficiency that was employed by the renowned naval architect Starling Burgess. The efficiency of design was coupled to a number of pioneering features such as the Park Avenue Boom, hidden lightweight winches and the world’s first duralumin mast.



America's Cup
The first of the best-of-seven races was a convincing victory for Enterprise winning by nearly three minutes. Shamrock V was to fare worse in the second race losing by nearly 10 minutes. The third race finally provided the assembled thousands on the shore at Newport, the racing they craved. Shamrock V's initial lead at the start was relinquished to Enterprise after a tacking duel. Following this surrender disaster struck, as Shamrock V's main halyard parted and her sail collapsed to the deck. The fourth race clinched the cup for Enterprise after which Sir Thomas Lipton was heard to utter "I can't win".

Shamrock V's challenge was plagued by bad luck and haunted by one of the most ruthless skippers in America's Cup history, Harold Vanderbilt. Sir Thomas Lipton, after endearing himself to the American public during 31 years and five attempts, would die the following year never fulfilling his ambition to win the cup.


SAILING YACHT BRITANNIA (K1), ASTRA (K2), SHAMROCK V (K3), CANDIDA (K8) & VELSHEDA (K7), AUGUST 1934

Post Cup Career
The British aviation industrialist Sir Thomas Sopwith was to be the next custodian of Shamrock V. Already a keen yachtsman, Sopwith bought her in 1931 as a trial horse to gain J-Class racing experience. He would also add to Nicholson's skills with his own aeronautical expertise and material knowledge to build and perfect his challenger for the 16th America's cup, Endeavour.

Shamrock V was then sold to Sopwith's aviation friend, and fellow yachtsman, Sir Richard Fairey of Fairey Aviation who continued to incorporate aerodynamic and hydrodynamic modifications as well as campaigning her against other J-Class yachts (Velsheda, Endeavour, and Yankee) during the 1935 regatta season. In 1937, Shamrock V was sold to the Italian senator and industrialist Mario Crespi. This change in ownership prompted Shamrock V's only name change. Italian Fascist law had banned the use of foreign names in society, accordingly Shamrock V was renamed Quadrifoglio (cloverleaf). Crespi was also the first owner who modified Shamrock V for comfort by installing her maple interior.

A renaissance for Shamrock V began in 1962 with her acquisition by the Italian yachtsman Piero Scanu. He instigated a comprehensive three year overhaul commencing in 1967 with Shamrock V returning to the Camper and Nicholsons yard. The hull and deck received significant attention along with the modernisation of the systems and engines. The effects of this rebuild were to last the next twenty years during which a remarkable repeat of history was enacted when, in 1986, Shamrock V returned to the ownership of the Lipton Tea Company who donated her to the Museum of Yachting at Newport, Rhode Island. Another extensive restoration was instigated by her new owners and undertaken by Elizabeth Meyer in 1989.

Following changes of ownership in the 1990s and another renovation, Shamrock V participated in a reunion in August 2001 with the only two remaining J-Classes, Endeavour, and Velsheda, for the America's Cup Jubilee in the Solent. In March 2016 it was reported that Shamrock V had changed ownership and had been listed for sale with an asking price of €6 million.


Shamrock V in the Itchen, July 2018

Shamrock V was seen being towed to and moored at Saxon Wharf in the River Itchen, Southampton, on 21st July 2018. She looked like she'd just had a refit as her paint was shiny and new, lots of bits of gear were still wrapped up and her mast was on deck.

Shamrock V - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1944 – Bombay explosion: A massive explosion in Bombay harbor kills 800 to 1.300 people and causes economic damage valued then at 20 million pounds.


The Bombay explosion (or Bombay docks explosion) occurred on 14 April 1944, in the Victoria Dock of Bombay (now Mumbai) when the freighter SS Fort Stikine, carrying a mixed cargo of cotton bales, gold, and ammunition including around 1,400 tons of explosives, caught fire and was destroyed in two giant blasts, scattering debris, sinking surrounding ships and setting fire to the area, killing around 800 to 1,300 people. Some 80,000 people were made homeless and 71 firemen lost their lives in the aftermath.


Smoke billowing out of harbour

Vessel, the voyage and cargo


SS Fort Stikine

The SS Fort Stikine was a 7,142 gross register ton freighter built in 1942 in Prince Rupert, British Columbia, under a lend-lease agreement, and was named after Fort Stikine, a former outpost of the Hudson's Bay Company located at what is now Wrangell, Alaska.

Sailing from Birkenhead on 24 February, via Gibraltar, Port Said and Karachi, she arrived at Bombay on 12 April 1944. Her cargo included 1,395 tons of explosives including 238 tons of sensitive "A" explosives, torpedoes, mines, shells, and munitions. She also carried Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft, raw cotton bales, barrels of oil, timber, scrap iron and approximately £890,000 of gold bullion in bars in 31 crates. The 87,000 bales of cotton and lubricating oil were loaded at Karachi and the ship's captain, Alexander James Naismith, recorded his protest about such a "mixture" of cargo. The transportation of cotton through the sea route was inevitable for the merchants, as transporting cotton by rail from Punjab and Sindh to Bombay was banned at that time. Naismith, who lost his life in the explosion, described the cargo as "just about everything that will either burn or blow up." The vessel was still awaiting unloading on 12 April, after forty-eight hours of berthing.

Incident


People running for safety after the explosion

In the mid-afternoon around 14:00, the crew were alerted to a fire onboard burning somewhere in the No. 2 hold. The crew, dockside fire teams and fireboats were unable to extinguish the conflagration, despite pumping over 900 tons of water into the ship, nor were they able to find the source due to the dense smoke. The water was boiling all over the ship, due to heat generated by the fire.

At 15:50 the order to abandon ship was given, and sixteen minutes later there was a great explosion, cutting the ship in two and breaking windows over 12 km (7.5 mi) away. This and a later second explosion were powerful enough to be recorded by seismographs at the Colaba Observatory in the city. Sensors recorded that the earth trembled at Shimla, a city located at a distance of over 1,700 km. The shower of burning material set fire to slums in the area. Around 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) were set ablaze in an 800 m (870 yd) arc around the ship. Eleven neighbouring vessels had been sunk or were sinking, and the emergency personnel at the site suffered heavy losses. Attempts to fight the fire were dealt a further blow when a second explosion from the ship swept the area at 16:34. Burning cotton bales fell from the sky on docked ships, the dock yard, and slum areas outside the harbour. The sound of explosions was heard as far as 80 km (50 mi) away. Some of the most developed and economically important parts of Bombay were wiped out by the blast and resulting fire.


The details of the explosions and losses were first reported to the outside world by Radio Saigon, a Japanese-controlled radio which gave a detailed report of the incident on 15 April 1944. British-Indian wartime censorship permitted news reporters to send the reports only in the second week of May 1944. Time Magazine published the story as late as 22 May 1944 and still it was news to the outside world. A movie depicting the explosions and aftermath, made by Indian cinematographer Sudhish Ghatak, was confiscated by military officers[6] although parts of it were shown to the public as a newsreel at a later date.[6]

Loss


Aftermath of the explosion at the harbour


A piece of propeller that landed in St. Xaviers High School, about 5 km (3 mi) from the docks.


The memorial erected outside Mumbai Fire Brigade Headquarters

The total number of lives lost in the explosion is estimated at more than 800, although some estimates put the figure around 1,300. More than 500 civilians lost their lives, many of them residing in adjoining slum areas, but as it was wartime, information about the full extent of the damage was partially censored. The results of the explosion are summarised as follows:

• Two hundred thirty-one people killed were attached to various dock services including fire brigade and dock employees.
• Of the above figure, 66 were firemen
• More than 500 civilians were killed
• Some estimates put total deaths up to 1,300
• More than 2,500 were injured, including civilians
• Thirteen ships were lost[8] and some other ships heavily or partially damaged
• Out of above, three Royal Indian Navy ships lost
• Thirty-one wooden crates, each containing four gold bars, each gold bar weighing 800 Troy ounces or almost 25 kg. (almost all since recovered)
• More than 50,000 tonnes of shipping destroyed and another 50,000 tonnes of shipping damaged
• Loss of more than 50,000 tonnes of food grains, including rice, which gave rise to black marketing of food grains afterwards.

Salvage
As part of the salvage operation, a British officer was seconded to the Indian government, to establish the pumping operation. This was Sub-Lieutenant Ken Jackson, RNVR, who along with Chief Petty Officer Brazier arrived in Bombay on 7 May 1944. Over a period of three months many ships were salvaged. The de-watering operation took three months to complete, after which Jackson and Brazier returned to their base in Colombo. Jackson remained in the Far East for another two years, conducting further salvage work. For their efforts with the pumping operation, both men were rewarded: Brazier was awarded the MBE, and Jackson received an accelerated promotion. An Australian minesweeper, HMAS Gawler, landed working parties on 21 June 1944, to assist in the restoration of the port.

Aftermath
It took three days to bring the fire under control, and later, 8,000 men toiled for seven months to remove around 500,000 tons of debris and bring the docks back into action.

The inquiry into the explosion identified the cotton bales as probably being the seat of the fire. It was critical of several errors:

• storing the cotton below the munitions,
• not displaying the red flag (B flag) required to indicate a "dangerous cargo on board",
• delaying unloading the explosives,
• not using steam injectors to contain the fire and a delay in alerting the local fire brigade.

Many families lost all their belongings and were left with just the clothes on their backs. Thousands became destitute. It was estimated that about 6,000 firms were affected and 50,000 lost their jobs. The government took full responsibility for the disaster and monetary compensation was paid to citizens who made a claim for loss or damage to property. During normal dredging operations carried out periodically to maintain the depth of the docking bays, many intact gold bars have been found over time – some as late as February 2011 – and they have since been returned to the government. A live shell weighing 45 kg (100 lb) was also found in October 2011. The Mumbai Fire Brigade's headquarters at Byculla has a memorial built in the memory of the numerous fire fighters who died. National Fire Safety Week is observed across India from 14 to 21 April, in memory of the 66 firemen who died in this explosion.

1944 Bombay explosion - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
14 April 1945 - german submarine U-1206 lost and sunk caused by a failure in the toilet


German submarine U-1206 was a Type VIIC U-boat of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down on 12 June 1943 at F. Schichau GmbH in Danzig and went into service on 16 March 1944 before sinking a year later, in April 1945. The boat's emblem was a white stork on a black shield with green beak and legs.

Design
German Type VIIC submarines were preceded by the shorter Type VIIB submarines. U-1206 had a displacement of 769 tonnes (757 long tons) when at the surface and 871 tonnes (857 long tons) while submerged. She had a total length of 67.10 m (220 ft 2 in), a pressure hull length of 50.50 m (165 ft 8 in), a beam of 6.20 m (20 ft 4 in), a height of 9.60 m (31 ft 6 in), and a draught of 4.74 m (15 ft 7 in). The submarine was powered by two Germaniawerft F46 four-stroke, six-cylinder supercharged diesel engines producing a total of 2,800 to 3,200 metric horsepower (2,060 to 2,350 kW; 2,760 to 3,160 shp) for use while surfaced, two AEG GU 460/8–27 double-acting electric motors producing a total of 750 metric horsepower (550 kW; 740 shp) for use while submerged. She had two shafts and two 1.23 m (4 ft) propellers. The boat was capable of operating at depths of up to 230 metres (750 ft).

The submarine had a maximum surface speed of 17.7 knots (32.8 km/h; 20.4 mph) and a maximum submerged speed of 7.6 knots (14.1 km/h; 8.7 mph). When submerged, the boat could operate for 80 nautical miles (150 km; 92 mi) at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph); when surfaced, she could travel 8,500 nautical miles (15,700 km; 9,800 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). U-1206 was fitted with five 53.3 cm (21 in) torpedo tubes (four fitted at the bow and one at the stern), fourteen torpedoes, one 8.8 cm (3.46 in) SK C/35 naval gun, (220 rounds), one 3.7 cm (1.5 in) Flak M42 and two twin 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The boat had a complement of between forty-four and sixty.


Type VIIC U-Boat

Service history
After being commissioned, under the command of Oberleutnant zur See Günther Fritze, the submarine took part in training exercises with the 8th U-boat Flotilla until July 1944 when it was assigned to the 11th U-boat Flotilla. Command was handed over to Kapitänleutnant Karl-Adolf Schlitt. The boat was then fitted with a Schnorchel underwater-breathing apparatus before being released for patrol duties.

Patrols
On 28 March 1945 the submarine departed from Kiel for its first training patrol in the North Sea, returning on 30 March. The submarine departed from Horten Naval Base for a one-day patrol on 2 April, and its first active patrol began on 6 April when it departed from Kristiansand.

Fate
On 14 April 1945, 24 days before the end of World War II in Europe, while U-1206 was cruising at a depth of 200 feet (61 m), 8 nautical miles (15 km; 9.2 mi) off Peterhead, Scotland, misuse of the new toilet caused large amounts of water to flood the boat. According to the Commander's official report, while in the engine room helping to repair one of the diesel engines, he was informed that a malfunction involving the toilet caused a leak in the forward section. The leak flooded the submarine's batteries (located beneath the toilet) causing them to release chlorine gas, leaving him with no alternative but to surface. Once surfaced, U-1206 was discovered and bombed by British patrols, forcing Schlitt to scuttle the submarine. One man died in the attack, three men drowned in the heavy seas after abandoning the vessel and 46 were captured. Schlitt recorded the location as 57°24′N 01°37′W but the wreck would not be located until the 1970s.

During survey work for the BP Forties Field oil pipeline to Cruden Bay in the mid 1970s, the remains of U-1206 were found at 57°21′N 01°39′W in approximately 70 m (230 ft) of water. The site survey performed by RCAHMS suggests that the leak that forced U-1206 to surface may have occurred after running into a pre-existing wreck located at the same site.

A large number of sources incorrectly attribute this incident to U-120.

German submarine U-1206 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/wnjvvm/poo-sank-this-nazi-sub

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 14 April


1678 – Launch of French Écueil 50, later 60 guns (designed and built by Laurent Coulomb, launched 14 April 1678 at Toulon) – burnt by the English at Battle of La Hogue on 2 June 1692.


1729 – Launch of Spanish Hércules 60 (launched 14 April 1729 at Cadiz) - Stricken 1749

Hércules class, 60 guns
Hércules 60 (launched 14 April 1729 at Cadiz) - Stricken 1749
Real Familia 60 (launched 3 February 1732 at Cadiz) - BU 1750


1749 - HMS Namur – the second-rate was wrecked on 14 April 1749 in a storm near Fort St David. In total, 520 of her crew were drowned, though Captain Marshal survived.

HMS Namur was a 90-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Woolwich Dockyard in 1697.
On 11 June 1723 she was ordered to be taken to pieces at Portsmouth and her timbers transferred to Deptford Dockyard. In 1729 the timbers were used to rebuild the ship according to the 1719 Establishment. She was relaunched on 13 September 1729. In 1745, she was razeed to 74 guns.
Namur was wrecked on 14 April 1749 in a storm near Fort St David. In total, 520 of her crew were drowned, though Captain Marshal survived


HMS Namur (left) at the Battle of Toulon in 1744

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Namur_(1697)


1790 – Launch of French Thésée, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

The Thésée was a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. As Révolution, she took part in the Expédition d'Irlande under Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley.

French ship Thésée (1790) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1805 – Launch of Jane, Duchess of Gordon was launched in 1805 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC).

Jane, Duchess of Gordon was launched in 1805 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made one complete voyage for the EIC and then foundered while homeward bound on the second.

Jane, Duchess of Gordon (1805 EIC ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1812 – Launch of Gaulois, a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

Gaulois was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
Commissioned in Antwerp, Gaulois served in Missiessy's squadron under Captain Malin before being stationed at Antwerp in March, along with Trajan, for the defence of the town.
At the Bourbon Restoration in 1814, she returned to Brest, where she was decommissioned. She was struck in 1827 and eventually broken up in 1831.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Gaulois_(1812)


1813 – Launch of Albion was a sailing ship of two decks and three masts, built at Bristol, England, and launched in 1813.

She made three voyages transporting convicts to New South Wales. She also traded with Jamaica, India, and Quebec. For two of the voyages to India she was an "extra" ship (i.e. under charter) to the British East India Company (EIC).

Albion (1813 ship) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1813 - Melera Island, Corfu, captured by HMS Apollo (38), Cptn. Bridges W. Taylor, and HMS Cerberus(32), Cptn. Thomas Garth


1823 – Launch of HMS Tweed, an Atholl-class corvette were a series of fourteen Royal Navy sailing sixth-rate post ships built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy.

The Atholl-class corvettes were a series of fourteen Royal Navy sailing sixth-rate post ships built to an 1817 design by the Surveyors of the Navy. A further four ships ordered to this design were cancelled.
Non-standard timber were used in the construction of some; for example, the first pair (Atholl and Niemen) were ordered built of larch and Baltic fir respectively, for comparative evaluation of these materials; the three ships the East India Company built,(Alligator, Termagant and Samarang), were built of teak. Nimrod was built of African timber.

Atholl-class corvette - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1828 HMS Contest Gun-boat (12), Lt. Edward Plaggenborg, and HMS Acorn Sloop (18) wrecked on Halifax Station.

HMS Contest (1812) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1812 and wrecked in 1828.

HMS Acorn (1826) was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1826 and wrecked in 1828.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the profile (elevation) and sections of the main and curved keel for Acord (1826), an 18-gun Sloop ordered to be built at Chtham Dockyard. The plan illustrates the method of fixing the deadwood and cross pieces to the keel. Signed by Robert Seppings [Surveyor of the Navy, 1813-1832]. This appears to be a proposal for rabbeting the rising wood/deadwood for the bottom planking instead of the keel

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-289083;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A


1857 HMS Raleigh (50) wrecked near Macao

HMS Raleigh (1845) was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1845 and wrecked in 1857.


Scale: 1:48. A contemporary half block model of HMS Raleigh (1845), a fourth rate 50 gun frigate. The hull is carved form a solid block of wood (?) and is painted a metallic bronze colour below the main wales separated by a thin white line along the waterline. The topsides are painted black, with the main gundeck highlighted by a creamy white horizontal band. The gunports are painted black, let into the hull and fitted with canon in the firing position with half lids above. Above the main gundeck are three sets of channels rigged with chain plates and deadeyes, above which the gunports on the forecastle and quarterdeck are cut into the solid bulwarks. The bow is fitted with half-length figurehead, painted gold, with a stump bowsprit above. There are three stump masts on a flush upper deck which are painted a creamy white colour. At the stern are the carved galleries, painted black, below which is a rudder complete with gudgeons and pintles. The whole model is mounted on a rectangular wooden backboard which is painted a creamy white surrounded by a stained moulded edging. The number "(23)" is painted in white on the lower backboard edge amidships. There is a detached plaque which is inscribed "202 Raleigh, 50 guns 1845. Scale 1: 48 (1/4" to 1ft). Built at Chatham. Wrecked on the Chinese coast in 1857. Dimensions: - Gun deck 180ft Beam 50ft 1in"


1898 - The first post-Civil War hospital ship, USS Solace (AH 2) is commissioned and soon participates in the Spanish-American War attending to wounded servicemen from battles in Cuba.

The first USS Solace (AH-2) was a hospital ship in the United States Navy.
Solace was built in 1896 and 1897 by the Newport Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., Newport , Virginia, and was operated as the SS Creole by the Cromwell Steamship Lines. The ship was acquired by the United States Navy on 7 April 1898, renamed Solace, and converted into a hospital ship. She was the first Navy ship to fly the Geneva Red Cross flag. Solace was commissioned on 14 April 1898, Comdr. Andrew Dunlap in command.


Off the Mare Island Navy Yard, 1 July 1899.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Solace_(AH-2)


1945 - USS Tirante (SS 420), commanded by Lt. Cmdr. George L. Street III, attacks a Japanese convoy in the approaches to the Yellow Sea and sinks a transport ship and two vessels. Street earns Medal of Honor for his actions.

USS Tirante - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1988 – The USS Samuel B. Roberts strikes a mine in the Persian Gulf during Operation Earnest Will.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) is one of the final ships in the United States Navy's Oliver Hazard Perry-class of guided missile frigates (FFG). Commissioned in 1986, the ship was severely damaged by an Iranian mine in 1988, leading U.S. forces to respond with Operation Praying Mantis. Repaired and returned to duty, the ship served until decommissioned in 2015.


USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), navigates in the Caribbean Sea during an exercise, 9 April 2007.

USS Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1991 - Dänemark, Ostsee: bei dichtem Nebel stößt die dänische Auto- und Eisenbahnfähre "Dronning Margreta" mit einem finnischen Frachter zusammen und schlägt Leck. Eine an Bord beschäftigte Dänin kommt ums Leben, die rund 30 Passagiere werden gerettet.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
15 April 1763 - Launch of HMS Ramillies, a 74-gun Ramillies-class third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Chatham Dockyard.


HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1763 at Chatham Dockyard.



In 1782 she was the flagship of a fleet under Admiral Thomas Graves off Newfoundland. Ramillies was badly damaged in a violent storm of 1782, and was finally abandoned and burned on 21 September 1782.


Loss of HMS 'Ramillies', September 1782: on her beam ends (BHC2213)
’The Storm increas'd. Distressed situation of the Ramillies when Day broke with the Dutton Store Ship foundering'


Loss of HMS 'Ramillies', September 1782: taking to the boats (BHC2217)

On 16–19 September, she was escorting a convoy from Jamaica when they were hit by the storm. Frantic efforts were made to save her. All anchors, cannon, and masts were shipped over the side. The hull was bound together with rope, officers and men manned the pumps for 24 hours a day for 3 days. However despite all the water continued to rise. The exhausted crew were rescued by nearby merchantmen, and the last man, Captain Sylverius Moriarty, set her on fire as he left.

Robert Dodd painted a series of four documenting the tragedy. "The demise of the Ramillies" comprises: A storm coming on (shown right), ’The Storm increas'd (shown left), The Ramillies Water Logg'd with her Admiral & Crew quitting the Wreck, and The Ramillies Destroyed. In 1795 a set of four coloured mezzotintswere engraved and published by Jukes from his shop at No.10 Howland Street.


Loss of HMS Ramillies by Robert Dodd artist


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

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

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

Ships
First group
Dockyard-built ships:

• HMS Ramillies

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Laid down: 25 August 1760
Launched: 25 April 1763
Completed: November 1763
Fate: Abandoned and burned off Newfoundland, 21 September 1782.

• HMS Monarch

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 22 November 1760
Laid down: 2 June 1761
Launched: 20 July 1765
Completed: 24 September 1765
Fate: Broken up at Chatham, March 1813

• HMS Magnificent

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: 15 April 1762
Launched: 20 September 1767
Completed: September 1778
Fate: Wrecked off Brest, 25 March 1804.

• HMS Marlborough

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 4 December 1762
Laid down: 3 June 1763
Launched: 26 August 1767
Completed: 1 December 1767
Fate: Wrecked off Belle Île, 4 November 1800

Second (modified) group
Contract-built ships:

• HMS Terrible

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: February 1761
Launched: 4 September 1762
Completed: 18 December 1762
Fate: Burned following the Battle of Chesapeake, 11 September 1781

• HMS Russell

Builder: Thomas West, Deptford
Ordered: 1 January 1761
Laid down: June 1761
Launched: 10 November 1764
Completed: 6 January 1765 at Woolwich Dockyard
Fate: Sold out of the service in the East Indies, 1811

• HMS Invincible

Builder: John and William Wells, Deptford
Ordered: 12 October 1761
Laid down: December 1761
Launched: 9 March 1765
Completed: February 1777 at Chatham Dockyard.
Fate: Wrecked off Yarmouth, 16 March 1801

• HMS Robust

Builder: John Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 16 December 1761
Laid down: February 1762
Launched: 25 October 1764
Completed: 10 December 1764
Fate: Broken up at Portsmouth, January 1817

• HMS Prince of Wales

Builder: Henry Bird and Roger Fisher, Milford Haven
Ordered: 16 December 1762
Laid down: March 1762
Launched: 4 June 1765
Completed: 22 December 1770 at Plymouth Dockyard
Fate: Broken up at Plymouth, August 1783

HMS Ramillies (1763) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramillies-class_ship_of_the_line
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...6;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=R;start=0

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
15 April 1786 - Launch of HMS Hannibal, a 74-gun Culloden-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca.


HMS Hannibal was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1786, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca. She is best known for having taken part in the Algeciras Campaign, and for having run aground during the First Battle of Algeciras on 5 July 1801, which resulted in her capture. She then served in the French Navy until she was broken up in 1824.


HMS Hannibal (left foreground) lies aground and dismasted at the First Battle of Algeciras.




Early service
Hannibal was commissioned in August 1787 under Captain Roger Boger.

In May 1790 Hannibal was recommissioned under Captain John Colpoys. She was recommissioned in August 1791 for service as a guardship at Plymouth. When war with France became increasing likely towards end of 1792 the guardships at the three naval seaports were ordered to rendezvous at Spithead. Hannibal and the other Plymouth-based ships left on 11 December and arrived at Spithead the next day. The guardships from the other ports took longer to arrive.

On 15 February 1793 she and HMS Hector left on a cruise during which at some point they pursued two French frigates. They captured a French merchant ship, Etoille du Matin, on 23 February. They returned on 4 March. They then were fitted for service in the West Indies and on 24 March left with the fleet under Rear-Admiral Sir Alan Gardner. Hannibal returned to Britain in early 1794, and underwent fitting at Plymouth from March to December.

Captain John Markham took command of Hannibal in August 1794. On 10 April 1795 Rear-Admiral Colpoys, while cruising with a squadron composed of five ships of the line and three frigates, chased three French frigates. HMS Colossus got within gunshot of one of them and opened fire, at which the frigates took different courses. HMS Robust and Hannibal pursued two; the 32-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Astraea pursued and captured the 36-gun Gloireafter an hour-long fight at the Action of 10 April 1795. The next day Hannibal captured the French 36-gun frigate Gentille, but the Fraternité escaped. Gentille lost eight men killed and fifteen wounded; Hannibal had four men wounded. The Royal Navy took Gentille into service.

Ten British warships, Hannibal being one of them, shared in the proceeds of the recapture of the Caldicot Castle on 28 March 1795 and the capture on 30 March of the French privateer corvette Jean Bart. (The Navy took Jean Bart into service as Arab.)

On 14 May 1795 Hannibal sailed for Jamaica. On 21 October, while on the West Indies station, Hannibal captured the 8-gun French privateer schooner Grand Voltigeur. Three days later she captured the 12-gun French privateer Convention. On 13 November she captured the French privateer Petit Tonnerre. Markham left Hannibal in December.

His successor, in January 1796, was Captain T. Lewis. On 27 January 1796, Hannibal and HMS Sampson captured the privateer Alerte. Alerte was armed with 14 guns and Sampson was the actual captor.

Captain Robert Campbell assumed command in April 1798. Captain E.T. Smith followed him in October, and remained in command until 1800, when Captain John Loring replaced him, only to pay Hannibal off later that year.

Defeat and loss
Captain Solomon Ferris commissioned her in March 1801, and under his command she sailed from Spithead on 6 June 1801. She joined Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez in Cawsand Bay on 12 June, ready to sail for the Mediterranean.

On the morning of 6 July Saumarez's squadron of six line-of-battle ships attacked French Admiral Linois's three line-of-battle ships and a frigate in Algeciras Bay. Hannibal was the last in and she anchored ahead of HMS Caesar, Saumarez's flagship. From there she fired broadsides for about an hour. At about 10 o'clock Ferris Saumarez ordered Hannibal to cut her cables and move to support HMS Pompeeby engaging Formidable, Linois's flagship. As Hannibal manoeuvred, the variable winds pushed her into shoal water and she grounded. Still, from his immobile position, Ferris maintained fire on Formidable with those of his forward guns that could bear on her; the other guns fired at the town, batteries and gunboats. Saumarez sent boats from Caesar and HMS Venerable to assist Hannibal but a shot demolished Caesar's pinnace; Ferris then used one of his own cutters to send them back to Caesar. At about 1:30pm the British ships withdrew to Gibraltar, leaving Hannibal immobile and unsupported.

Ferris consulted with his officers and decided that further resistance was pointless and that the only way to save the lives of the remaining crew was for Hannibal to strike. By this point Hannibal's fire had dwindled to almost nothing so Ferris ordered his men to shelter below decks. He then signalled capitulation by hoisting Hannibal's ensign upside down. The battle had cost Hannibal 75 men killed, 62 wounded and six missing.

Commander George Dundas, deceived by a signal from Hannibal, sent boats from HMS Calpe to save Hannibal's crew. The French detained the boats and their crews, including Calpe's lieutenant, T. Sykes; after firing several broadsides at the enemy's shipping and batteries, Calpe returned to Gibraltar. The French and Spanish were unable to repair Hannibal quickly enough for her to take part in the eventual defeat of the Franco-Spanish squadron at the Second Battle of Algeciras several days later.

Sir James Saumarez then arranged to exchange the men from St Antoine, which the British had captured in the second part of the battle, for the men from Hannibal and Calpe. A court martial on HMS Gladiator in Portsmouth on 1 September honourably acquitted Captain Ferris, his officers and crew for the loss of their ship.

French service
The French renamed Hannibal to Annibal. In November 1801 HMS Racoon convoyed the Straits fleet to Gibraltar, arriving there on 16 November. On the way they encountered dreadful weather in the Bay of Biscay. While Racoon was near Brest, she observed Hannibal and Speedy underway. Both former Royal Navy vessels were under jury-masts and French colours. Later, on 9 February 1802, Annibal(along with Intrépide and Formidable), sailed from Cadiz for Toulon where she underwent a refit between March and June.

Annibal then served in the French Navy until 1821 (undergoing a further refit at Toulon during 1809). She was partly re-armed in 1806, with one pair of upper deck guns being removed, and sixteen 32-pounder carronades replacing ten of her 9-pounder guns. In May 1807, the 38-gun frigate HMS Spartan encountered Annibal, two frigates (Pomone and Incorruptible), and the corvette Victorieuse off Cabrera in the Mediterranean but escaped.

Fate
In January 1821 Annibal became a hulk at Toulon, and was broken up in 1824.



Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Thunderer' (1783), 'Terrible' (1785), 'Venerable' (1784), 'Victorious' (1785), 'Theseus' (1786), 'Ramillies' (1785), and 'Hannibal' (1786), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The plan also records alterations dated January 1813 for cutting down 74-gun Third Rates to Frigates, relating specifically to 'Majestic' (1785), 'Resolution' (1770), and 'Culloden' (1783), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Only the 'Majestic' was cut down to a 58-gun Fourth Rate, as the other two were broken up in 1813


The Culloden-class ships of the line were a class of eight 74-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade. The Cullodens were the last class of 74s which Slade designed before his death in 1771.



Culloden class (Slade)

• Culloden 74 (1776) – wrecked 1781
• Thunderer 74 (1783) – broken up 1814
• Venerable 74 (1784) – wrecked 1804
• Victorious 74 (1785) – broken up 1803
• Ramillies 74 (1785) – broken up 1850
• Terrible 74 (1785) – broken up 1836
• Hannibal 74 (1786) – captured by France 1801
• Theseus 74 (1786) – broken up 1814

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hannibal_(1786)

Culloden-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-317526;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=H

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
15 April 1786 - Launch of HMS Impregnable, a Royal Navy 98-gun London-class second rate, at Deptford Dockyard.


HMS Impregnable was a Royal Navy 98-gun second rate. This ship of the line was launched on 15 April 1786 at Deptford Dockyard. She was wrecked in 1799 off Spithead.



Service
In 1794, Impregnable served as Rear-Admiral Benjamin Caldwell's flagship at the Glorious First of June.

Fate
Impregnable was lost off Chichester on 18 October 1799. She had escorted a convoy of 12 merchantmen from Lisbon to the Isle of Wight and her master, Michael Jenkins, was anxious to get into Spithead that night. The result was that she ended up on the Chichester Shoals. Captain Jonathan Faulknor ordered the ship be lightened by cutting away the masts, and an attempt was made to anchor for the night. At dawn the crew discovered that she had beaten a mile and a half over the shoals and now lay in mud flats near the entrance to Langstone Harbour. The following day she was found to have bilged.

Faulknor determined that the ship could not be saved. A small flotilla of vessels from Langstone and Spithead dockyards was put to sea to assist, and successfully removed the crew, the ship's guns and other valuables. Admiralty later sold Impregnable's remains to a Portsmouth merchant, A. Lindenegren.

The court martial on 30 October dismissed Master Jenkins from the service


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'London' (1766), and later approved for 'Prince' (1788), 'Impregnable' (1786), and 'Windsor Castle' (1790), all 90-gun Second Rate, three-deckers. Signed in 1780 by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]


The London class ships of the line were a class of four second rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.



Design
The first ship of the class, London, was a 90-gun ship. When the second batch of three ships was ordered several years later, they were specified as being 98-gun ships. This was achievable without significant modifications to the design thanks to the earlier practice of not arming the quarterdecks of second rates, thus allowing for the addition of 4 guns per side.

Ships

• HMS London

Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Ordered: 28 September 1759
Launched: 24 May 1766
Fate: Broken up, 1811

• HMS Prince

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 9 December 1779
Launched: 4 July 1788
Fate: Broken up, 1837

• HMS Impregnable

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 13 September 1780
Launched: 15 April 1786
Fate: Wrecked, 1799

• HMS Windsor Castle

Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 10 December 1782
Launched: 3 May 1790
Fate: Broken up, 1839


HMS London depicted during the Action of 18 October 1782


Scale 1:48. Plan showing the above waterline profile for altering the sheer of 'London' (1766), and later for 'Prince' (1788), 'Windsor Castle' (1790), 'Impregnable' (1786), all 90/98-gun Second Rate, three-deckers. The plan includes the 'as-built' outline of the 'Blenheim' (1761), a 90-gun Second Rate, three-decker, and alterations for forming the quarterdeck gun ports but not cutting them out on 'Prince', 'Windsor Castle' and 'Impregnable'.


Scale 1:48. Plan showing Inboard profile as proposed (and approved) for 'London' (1766), and later with alterations for 'Impregnable' (1786), 'Prince '(1788) and 'Windsor Castle' (1790), all 90/98-gun Second Rate, three-deckers. The alterations in green illustrate the three later ships as fitted, with the exception of the quarterdeck beams on Impregnable and 'Prince'



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Impregnable_(1786)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London-class_ship_of_the_line
https://collections.rmg.co.uk/colle...el-320476;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=I