Naval/Maritime History 25th of April - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 December 1810 - Boats of HMS Diana (38), Capt. Charles Grant, took and burnt French frigate Elize ashore in the Baie de la Hougue


HMS Diana was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the 'Diana'-class frigate (1794), a 38-gun fifth-rate, built in 'bread and butter' fashion and finished in the Georgian style. Model is partially decked, equipped, and mounted on its original pillar supports with a modern base. This model clearly illustrates the increasing use of bone and ivory in particular the carved decoration on the stern and the numerous fittings that were turned on a lathe such as the capstan head and deadeyes. This class of frigate were built from plans by Sir John Henslow, Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806, and had a gun deck of 146 feet by 39 feet in the beam and a tonnage of 984 (builders old measurement). Known as the 'eyes and ears’ of the fleet, the frigate was used for a variety of roles such as searching out and reporting on the enemy fleets and convoys, as well as independent patrols worldwide.

Type: 38-gun Artois-class fifth rate frigate
Tons burthen: 999 3⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 146 ft 3 in (44.6 m) (overall)
  • 121 ft 8 1⁄2 in (37.1 m) (keel)
Beam: 39 ft 3 1⁄2 in (12.0 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 270 (later 315)
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 12 x 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades

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Scale: 1:48. A model of one of the nine ships of the 'Artois/Apollo' class of 38-gun frigates designed by Sir John Henslow and built between 1793 and 1795. Seven were built conventionally in private shipyards and two more were constructed experimentally in fir in the Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Woolwich. Four of the conventional ships were wrecked between 1797 and 1799, and the fir-built ships deteriorated rapidly. The model shows the hull of the ship fully planked and set on a launching cradle, though without the rails on which it will run, as is common on models of this period. The stern decoration and figurehead are carefully carved and some features such as decorations and the steering wheel are made in bone. The figurehead is of Diana the huntress, which identifies the ship. Two other models of this ship are in the Museum collection.

Because Diana served in the Royal Navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorized in 1850 to all surviving claimants.

Diana participated in an attack on a French frigate squadron anchored at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue at the Action of 15 November 1810, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Elisa. (Boats from Diana went in and set fire to the beached Eliza despite heavy fire from shore batteries and three nearby armed brigs; the British suffered no casualties.)

On 7 March 1815 Diana was sold to the Dutch navy for £36,796. On 27 August 1816 she was one of six Dutch frigates that participated in the bombardment of Algiers.

Fate
Diana was accidentally destroyed in a fire on 16 January 1839 while in dry-dock at Willemsoord, Den Helder.

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HMS Ethalion in action with the Spanish frigate Thetis off Cape Finisterre, 16 October 1799

The Artois class were a series of nine frigates built to a 1793 design by Sir John Henslow, which served in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Seven of these ships were built by contract with commercial builders, while the remaining pair (Tamar and Clyde) were dockyard-built - the latter built using "fir" (pitch pine) instead of the normal oak.

They were armed with a main battery of 28 eighteen-pounder cannon on their upper deck, the main gun deck of a frigate. Besides this battery, they also carried two 9-pounders together with twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and another two 9-pounders together with two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.

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Scale: approximately 1:32. According to the writing on the side of the hull, this model was made from part of the mainmast of the French flagship ‘L’Orient’ which blew up at the Battle of the Nile in 1798. The model is rather crudely made and its hull is not quite in the right proportions, being too deep, so it is probably sailor-made. The rigging appears to be contemporary. Marmaduke Stalkaart, who also wrote a textbook on naval architecture, built the ‘Seahorse’ (1794) at Rotherhithe on the Thames. It was one of the ‘Artois/Apollo’ class, of which several models exist. The ‘Seahorse’ was not actually present at the Battle of the Nile, but joined Nelson’s fleet soon afterwards.

Ships in class


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Diana_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artois-class_frigate
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 December 1811 - HMS Hero (74), Cptn. James Newman shipwrecked on Hank Sand, off the Texel.


HMS Hero was a 74-gun third rate of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 August 1803 at Blackwall Yard.

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The wreck of HMS Hero in the Texel, 25 December 1811

Class and type: Fame-classship of the line
Tons burthen: 1743 (bm)
Length: 175 ft (53 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 47 ft 6 in (14.48 m)
Depth of hold: 20 ft 6 in (6.25 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 530
Armament:
  • 74 guns:
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 9-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns
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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for 'Illustrious' (1803), 'Albion' (1802), 'Hero' (1803), 'Marlborough' (1807), 'York' (1807), 'Hannibal' (1810), 'Sultan' (1807), and 'Royal Oak' (1809), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The alterations relating to the catheads and forecastle beams refer to 'Hannibal' (1810), and to 'Victorious' (1808) of the 'Swiftsure' class (1800). Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

She took part in Admiral Robert Calder's action at the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805.

On 25 December 1811 Hero, under captain James Newman-Newman, was wrecked on the Haak Sands at the mouth of the Texel during a gale, with the loss of all but 12 of her crew.


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

Fame/Hero class (Henslow)
  • Fame 74 (1805) – broken up 1817
  • Albion 74 (1802) – lazaretto Portsmouth 1831, broken up 1836
  • Hero 74 (1803) – wrecked on the Haak Islands 25 December 1811
  • Illustrious 74 (1803) – hulked as ordinary guard ship Plymouth 1848, hospital ship 1853, reverted to ordinary guard ship 1859, broken up 1868
  • Marlborough 74 (1807) – broken up 1835
  • York 74 (1807) – hulked as convict ship Portsmouth 1819, broken up 1835
  • Hannibal 74 (1810) – lazaretto Plymouth 1825, later to Pembroke(?), broken up 1834
  • Sultan 74 (1807) – hulked as receiving ship Portsmouth 1861, target ship 1862, broken up 1864
  • Royal Oak 74 (1809) – hulked as receiving ship Bermuda 1825, broken up 1850



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Hero_(1803)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fame-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 December 1811 - HMS Grasshopper, Cptn Fanshawe, beat clean over the wreck of the Hero, and went ashore. The sloop was instantly taken possession of by the enemy, and the captain and crew made prisoners of war.


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

Class and type: 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop
Tons burthen: 383 12⁄94 (bm)
Length:
100 ft 0 in (30.5 m) (overall)
77 ft 2 5⁄8 in (23.5 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 6 1⁄2 in (9.3 m)
Draught:
6 ft 6 in (2.0 m) (unladen)
10 ft 6 in (3.2 m) (laden)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 12 in (4.3 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Armament:
large (20).jpgScale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Ferret (1806), Swallow (1805), Musquito (1804), Scorpion (1803), Scout (1804), Dispatch (1804), Minorca (1805), Racehorse (1806), Rover (1808), Avon (1805), Surinam (1805), Amaranthe (1804), Calyspo (1805), Wolverine (1805), Weazle (1805), Espoir (1804), Moselle (1804), Leveret (1806), Bellette (1806), Mutine (1806), Emulous (1806), Alacrity (1806), Philomel (1806), Frolick (1806), Recruit (1806), Royalist (1807), Grasshopper (1806), Columbine (1806), Pandora (1806), Forester (1806), Foxhound (1806), Primrose (1807), Cephalus (1807), Procris (1806), Raleigh (1806), Carnation (1807), Redwing (1806), Ringdove (1806), Philomel (1806), Sappho (1806), Peacock (1806), Clio (1807), Pilot (1807), Magnet (1807), Derwent (1807), Eclypse (1807), Sparrowhawke (1807), Eclaire (1807), Nautilus (1807), Barracouta (1807), Zenobia (1807), Peruvian (1808), Pelorus (1808), Doterel/Dotterel (1808), Charybidis (1809), Hecate (1809), Rifleman (1809), Sophie (1809), Echo (1809), Arachne (1809), Castillian (1809), Persian (1809), Trinculo (1809), Crane (1809), Thracian (1809), Scylla (1809), and those built of fir, including Raven (1804), Saracen (1804), Beagle (1804), Harrier (1804), Elk (1804), and Reindeer (1804), all 18-gun Brig Sloops built in private yards. The plan includes alterations for when the ships were repaired dated September 1817.

British naval service
Commander Thomas Searle commissioned Grasshopper in November 1806. He then sailed her for the Mediterranean on 1 February 1807.

Early in the morning of 7 November, boats from Renommee and Grasshopper cut out a Spanish brig and a French tartan, each armed with six guns, from under the Torre de Estacio. The prize crews were not able to prevent winds and tides from causing the two vessels to ground. The boats and the two vessels were under a constant fire from the tower that wounded several prisoners. After about three hours the British abandoned their prizes as they could not free them and were unwilling to set fire to them as the captured vessels had prisoners and women and children aboard, many of whom were wounded. The British had two men badly wounded in the action; although the enemy suffered many wounded, they apparently had no deaths.

That same day Grasshopper captured the American schooner Henrietta, Joseph Dawson, master.

Then in December Grasshopper and Renommee were detached to sail off Carthagena to monitor the Spanish squadron there. Grasshopper was on lookout on 11 December and sailed ahead, leaving Renommee behind. While off Cape Palos, Searle observed several enemy vessels at anchor. His Catholic Majesty's brig St Joseph, of twelve 24-pounders guns, with a crew of 99 men under the command of Teniento de naviro Don Antonio de Torrea, got under weigh, and sailed towards Grasshoper. Two more naval vessels, St Medusa Mestrio(ten 24-pounders and 77 men), and St Aigle Mestrio (eight 24-pounders and 50 men) followed St Joseph. Grasshopper brought St Joseph to action. Within 15 minutes St Joseph had struck and run onshore, at which point many men of her crew abandoned her and swam for shore. The two other vessels then sailed away. The British were able to recover St Joseph, which Searle described as being of 145 tons burthen (bm), six years old, copper-fastened, well-found, pierced for 16 guns, a "remarkably fast sailer", and suitable for service in the Royal Navy. In the engagement Grasshopper had two men wounded. Searle had no estimate of enemy casualties, but believed that many men had drowned when they jumped overboard to avoid capture.[5] The head and prize money was remitted from Gibraltar and Renommee's share was paid out to her officers and crew in December 1813.

On Christmas Day, Grasshopper captured Industry.

Grasshoper captured Neutrality on 4 February 1808.[8] She shared the proceeds of the capture with Hydra. The next day she captured Eliza.

Main article: Action of 4 April 1808
The action that took place on 4 April off the coast off Rota near Cadiz, Spain, began when the Royal Naval frigates Mercury and Alceste, and Grasshopper, intercepted a large Spanish convoy protected by twenty gunboats and a train of shore batteries. The British destroyed two of the escorts and drove many of the merchants ashore. They also silenced the shore batteries. Marines and sailors of the British ships subsequently captured and sailed seven vessels back out to sea. Grasshopper was badly damaged and had one man mortally wounded and three others slightly wounded. The prizes were loaded with timber for the arsenal at Cadiz. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Off Rota 4 April 1808" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 23 April Grasshopper and the gun-brig Rapid encountered two Spanish vessels from South America, sailing under the protection of four gunboats. After a short chase, the convoy anchored under the guns of a shore battery near Faro, Portugal. Searle anchored Grasshopper within grapeshot (i.e., short) range of the Spanish vessels and commenced firing. After two and a half hours, the gun crews of the shore battery had abandoned their guns, and the British had driven two gunboats ashore and destroyed them. The British also captured two gunboats and the two merchant vessels. Grasshopper had one man killed and three severely wounded. Searle himself was lightly wounded. Rapid had three men severely wounded. Spanish casualties were heavy, numbering some 40 dead and wounded on the two captured gunboats alone. Searle put 14 of the wounded on shore at Faro as he did not have the resources to deal with them as well as his own casualties. Searle estimated the value of the cargo on each of the two merchant vessels at £30,000. This action also resulted in the Admiralty awarding clasps to the Naval General Service Medal marked "Grasshopper 24 April 1808" and "Rapid 24 April 1808".

Lieutenant Henry Fanshawe received promotion to Commander and the appointment to command of Grasshopper on 2 May 1808;[14] in June 1808 he took command. She remained in the Mediterranean in 1808 and 1809.

Between 4 and 11 August 1809, the merchant vessel Thetis, Clark, master, arrived at Gibraltar. As she was sailing from Cagliari, a French privateer had captured Thetis, but Grasshopper had recaptured her.

Grasshopper escorted a convoy to Quebec, sailing on 21 June 1810. She then escorted another convoy, of 25 vessels, back from Quebec, arriving in British waters around mid-October.

Grasshopper served in the North Sea in 1811

Capture
Grasshopper, together with the 74-gun Hero, the ship-sloop Egeria, and the hired armed ship Prince William left Göteborg on 18 December 1811 as escorts to a convoy of 15 transports and a fleet of merchantmen, some 120 sail or more. Four or five days later Egeria and Prince William separated, together with the vessels going to the Humber and Scotland, including most of the merchant vessels. The transports and a handful of the merchantmen proceeded with Hero and Grasshopper.

On 24 December Hero wrecked off the Texel in a storm with the loss of all but 12 men of her 600 man crew. Grasshopper observed Hero ground, but too late to avoid also grounding. Grasshopper was able to get over the sandbank into deeper water, where she anchored, though striking ground repeatedly. She was unable to go to the assistance of Hero and within 15 minutes the distress signals from Hero ceased. Next morning Grasshopper observed Hero completely wrecked. Neither she nor the Dutch schuyts could get to Hero.

Grasshopper, though herself safe about a mile away, found herself trapped. She had no loss of life among her crew, though the pilot was killed.[20] On 25 December Fanshawe saw no option but to surrender. He sailed Grasshopperto the Helder and there struck to the fleet under the command of Vice-Admiral De Winter.

Apparently, she surrendered to the French frigate Gloire and gunboat Ferreter, and her crew were taken prisoner. Among her crew was the future penal reformer Alexander Maconochie

Ten of the transports of Hero's convoy were also lost. One of them was Archimedes, whose crew, however, was saved.

Dutch naval service
In June 1810 France had disbanded the Kingdom of Holland, annexing the Netherlands to France, a situation that lasted until 1813. Grasshopper became part of the Nieuwediep Squadron of the Dutch Navy, which was not amalgamated into the French Navy. The British blockade prevented the Dutch from putting Grasshopper to extensive use immediately and she essentially sat until the end of the Napoleonic wars, though as a result of one pursuit she received the reputation of being the best sailer in the squadron.

On 11 December 1812, the Minister of Marine mandated that the Dutch transfer Grasshopper to the French Navy. The Dutch had intended to transfer a small, 6-gun brig named Irene. Instead, they sold Irene and transferred Grasshopper. On 2 January 1813 Grasshopper was renamed Irene when the French Navy took possession of her. Dutch partisans captured Irene in December 1813, during the Dutch uprising.

After the Netherlands regained its independence in 1814, Irene returned to active duty. She convoyed ships to the Dutch colonies in the West Indies (1815–16), and Spain and the Mediterranean (1816–18). She then served in the East Indies between 1819 and 1821.

In October 1819 Irene took part in the first expedition to Palembang, which the Dutch mounted against insurgents in Sumatra. She sailed up the Palembang River in company with the frigate Wilhelmina (44 guns), sloops Eendracht (20 guns) and Ajax (20 guns), and several smaller ships. However, the squadron had to withdraw after suffering heavy losses and then restricted its efforts to coastal blockade. A second expedition to Palembang in 1821 was more successful, though it did not involve Irene.

Fate
In 1821, Irene returned to the Netherlands. The next year she was broken up in Vlissingen (Flushing)



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Grasshopper_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruizer-class_brig-sloop
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
24 December 1811 - HMS St George (98), Cptn. Guion, and bearing the flag of Admiral Reynolds, and HMS Defence (74), Cptn David Atkins, ran aground off Torsminde at the west coast of Jutland and were lost.
1.300 seamen lost their life.


HMS St George was a 98-gun second rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 October 1785 at Portsmouth. In 1793 she captured one of the richest prizes ever. She then participated in the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands in 1795 and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. She was wrecked off Jutland in 1811 with the loss of almost all her crew.

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Le HMS Saint-George, portant le pavillon d'un vice-amiral de l'escadre rouge, accompagnés d'autres vaisseaux, par Dominic Serres. Peinture de 1787.

Service
In 1793 Captain John Gell was appointed to be a Rear-Admiral of the Blue and raised his flag on the St George. Whilst in the Mediterranean with his division of the fleet, Gell was able to seize a French privateer and its Spanish-registered prize the St Jago. These ships were said to be one of the most valuable prizes ever brought to England. The ownership of the St Jago was a matter of some debate and was not settled until 4 February 1795, when the value of the cargo was put at £935,000 (equivalent to £88,650,000 in 2016). At this time all the crew, captains, officers and admirals could expect to share in this prize. Admiral Hood's share was £50,000 (equivalent to £4,740,000 in 2016). The ships that conveyed St Jago to Portsmouth were St George, Egmont, Edgar, Ganges and Phaeton.

In October 1793 Gell was able to obtain the surrender of the French frigate Modeste, which had abused the neutrality of the port of Genoa. After this Gell had to return to England for the last time due to ill health.

St George was present at the Naval Battle of Hyères Islands in 1795, and took part in the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, Flying Nelson's Flag. Her captain was Thomas Masterman Hardy, future captain of HMS Victory under Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Captain Sir William Bolton earned his promotion to Commander after his service on the St George in this battle, on 2 April 1801. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to all remaining survivors of the battle.

Fate
HMS St George was wrecked near Ringkøbing on the west coast of Jutland on 24 December 1811. She narrowly escaped wrecking on a shoal (Rødsand) south of Zeeland on 15 December, while returning from the Baltic Sea. Under jury masts and a temporary rudder she had got a considerable distance out of the Sleeve when a gale came up. This, combined with a heavy sea, resulted in St George being wrecked at Nazen, about three miles from Ringkøbing, together with Defence.

Only seven of her 738 crew were saved.[6] Among the dead were Rear-Admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds and Captain Daniel Oliver Guion. Most of the bodies that came ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Men's Dunes".

Post script
St George's ship's bell was recovered in 1876 and served as church bell in the church of No near Ringkøbing until May 2011. In May the church renovated its bell tower and consequently presented the bell to the Strandingsmuseum St. George in Thorsminde.

Following the exposure of the wreck of St George by a storm in 1981, thousands of artifacts have been recovered from the wreck, many of which are on display at the Strandingsmuseum St George.


HMS Defence was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 March 1763 at Plymouth Dockyard. She was one of the most famous ships of the period, taking part in several of the most important naval battles of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. In 1811 she was wrecked off the coast of Jutland with the loss of almost her entire crew.

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HMS Defence at the Battle of the Glorious First of June1794, dismasted and with severe injury to the hull, by Nicholas Pocock

Service
During the American War of Independence, Defence served with the Channel Fleet, seeing action at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1780. She was sent out to India in early 1782 as part of a squadron of five ships under Commodore Sir Richard Bickerton, arriving too late for the battles of that year. But in 1783 she took part in the last battle of the war, at Cuddalore. She returned to England at the end of 1785. She was then laid up during the years of peace until the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars.

Recommissioned into the Channel Fleet under Captain James Gambier, she fought at the Glorious First of June in 1794, distinguishing herself in action against Mucius and Tourville, and becoming one of only two British ships to be completely dismasted in the battle. After repairs, she was sent to the Mediterranean, joining Admiral William Hotham in time to take part in the Battle of Hyeres in July.

In 1798 she returned to the Mediterranean under Captain John Peyton, taking part in the Battle of the Nile in August.

On 1 July 1800, Defence, Fisgard, Renown and the hired armed cutter Lord Nelson were in Bourneuf Bay when they sent in their boats to attack a French convoy at Île de Noirmoutier. The British destroyed the French ship Therese (of 20 guns), a lugger (12 guns), two schooners (6 guns each) and a cutter (6 guns), of unknown names. The cutting out party also burned some 15 merchant vessels loaded with corn and supplies for the French fleet at Brest. However, in this enterprise, 92 officers and men out of the entire party of 192 men, fell prisoners to the French when their boats became stranded. Lord Nelson had contributed no men to the attacking force and so had no casualties.

In 1801, Defence sailed to the Baltic under Captain Lord Henry Paulet with Admiral Hyde Parker's fleet. She was present at the Battle of Copenhagen, but did not see action as she was part of the reserve under Parker.

In 1805 she saw action again at the Battle of Trafalgar, where under Captain George Johnstone Hope, she captured the San Ildefonso and fought the Berwick, suffering 36 casualties.

Loss

The beach near Thorsminde

She ran aground on 24 December 1811 off the west coast of Jutland, Denmark. She was under the command of Captain D. Atkins and in the company of St George, under Rear-admiral Robert Carthew Reynolds, and Cressy, when a hurricane and heavy seas came up. St George was jury-rigged and so Atkins refused to leave her without the Admiral's permission. As a result, both were wrecked near Ringkøbing. Cressy did not ask for permission and so avoided wrecking.

Defence lost all but 14 of her crew of 597 men and boys, including her captain. St George too lost almost her entire crew, including the admiral. Most of the bodies that came ashore were buried in the sand dunes of Thorsminde, which have been known ever since as "Dead Mens Dunes".






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_George_(1785)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Defence_(1763)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 24 December


1370 - Treaty of Stralsund ended the war between the Hanseatic League and the kingdom of Denmark.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Stralsund_(1370)


1744 - Merlin class sloop HMS Swallow, Cptn. Andrew Jelfe, wrecked in the West Indies

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin-class_sloop


1777 – Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is discovered by James Cook.

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


1804 - HMS Mallard Gun-boat (12), Lt. George William Miles,due to the neglect of her captain and master grounded near Calais and was captured.

HMS Mallard (1801) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1801. The French captured her after she ran aground in 1804. The French Navy converted her to a gunboat in 1811, renamed her Favori in 1814, Mallard in 1815, and then Favori again later in 1815. She was struck at Brest in 1827, but was a service craft there on 17 September 1831.


1814 - The Treaty of Ghent ends the War of 1812.
Great Britain agrees to relinquish claims to the Northwest Territory, and both countries pledge to work toward ending the slave trade. America, in turn, gains influence as a foreign power.

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


1859 – Launch of French Astrée, 28, launched 24 December 1859 at Lorient

Sail frigates converted to steam on the stocks while building

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


1886 - Annie C. Maguire was a British three-masted barque wrecked

Annie C. Maguire was a British three-masted barque sailing from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 24 December 1886 when she struck the ledge at Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Lighthouse Keeper Joshua Strout, his son, wife, and volunteers rigged an ordinary ladder as a gangplank between the shore and the ledge the ship was heeled against. Captain O'Neil, the ship's master, his wife, two mates, and the nine-man crew clambered onto the ledge and then, one by one, crossed the ladder to safety.

The cause of the wreck is puzzling since visibility was not a problem. Members of the crew reported they "plainly saw Portland Light before the disaster and are unable to account for same."[citation needed]

Today, letters painted on the rocks below the lighthouse commemorate the wreck and the Christmas Eve rescue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_C._Maguire


1914 – World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.

The Christmas truce (German: Weihnachtsfrieden; French: Trêve de Noël) was a series of widespread but unofficial ceasefires along the Western Front of World War Iaround Christmas 1914.

1280px-Illustrated_London_News_-_Christmas_Truce_1914.jpg
An artist's impression from The Illustrated London News of 9 January 1915: "British and German Soldiers Arm-in-Arm Exchanging Headgear: A Christmas Truce between Opposing Trenches"

The Christmas truce occurred during the relatively early period of the war (month 5 of 51). Hostilities had entered somewhat of a lull as leadership on both sides reconsidered their strategies following the stalemate of the Race to the Sea and the indecisive result of the First Battle of Ypres. In the week leading up to the 25th, French, German, and British soldiers crossed trenches to exchange seasonal greetings and talk. In some areas, men from both sides ventured into no man's land on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to mingle and exchange food and souvenirs. There were joint burial ceremonies and prisoner swaps, while several meetings ended in carol-singing. Men played games of football with one another, giving one of the most memorable images of the truce. Peaceful behaviour was not ubiquitous; fighting continued in some sectors, while in others the sides settled on little more than arrangements to recover bodies.

The following year, a few units arranged ceasefires but the truces were not nearly as widespread as in 1914; this was, in part, due to strongly worded orders from the high commands of both sides prohibiting truces. Soldiers were no longer amenable to truce by 1916. The war had become increasingly bitter after devastating human losses suffered during the battles of the Somme and Verdun, and the use of poison gas.

The truces were not unique to the Christmas period, and reflected a mood of "live and let live", where infantry close together would stop overtly aggressive behaviour and often engage in small-scale fraternisation, engaging in conversation or bartering for cigarettes. In some sectors, there would be occasional ceasefires to allow soldiers to go between the lines and recover wounded or dead comrades, while in others, there would be a tacit agreement not to shoot while men rested, exercised or worked in full view of the enemy. The Christmas truces were particularly significant due to the number of men involved and the level of their participation—even in very peaceful sectors, dozens of men openly congregating in daylight was remarkable—and are often seen as a symbolic moment of peace and humanity amidst one of the most violent events of human history.

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


1941 - The Arcadia Conference takes place in Washington, D.C., between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, establishing the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the eventual 26 nations forming the United Nations for Allied war planning against Germany.

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


1942 – Death of François Darlan, French admiral and politician, 122nd Prime Minister of France (b. 1881)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François_Darlan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Bonnier_de_La_Chapelle


1943 - USS Griswold (DE 7) sinks Japanese submarine, I-39, off Koli Point, Guadalcanal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Griswold_(DE-7)


1943 - USS Schenck (DD 159) sinks German submarine, U 645. Previously, U-645 sank two American merchant vessels: Frederick Douglass and Yorkmar.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Schenck_(DD-159)


1943 - USS Leary (DD 158) is torpedoed and sunk by U-275 and U-382, 585 miles west-northwest of Cape Finisterre, Spain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Leary_(DD-158)



1957 – Launch of RMS Pendennis Castle was a Royal Mail Ship, passenger and cargo liner operated by the Union-Castle Line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Pendennis_Castle
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1492 – The carrack Santa María, commanded by Christopher Columbus, runs onto a reef off Haiti due to an improper watch.


La Santa María de la Inmaculada Concepción (Spanish for: The Holy Mary of the Immaculate Conception), or La Santa María, originally La Gallega, was the largest of the three ships used by Christopher Columbus in his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. Her master and owner was Juan de la Cosa.

Type: Carrack
Displacement: est. 150 metric tons of displacement
Tons burthen: est. 108 tons BM
Length:
  • est. hull length 19 m (62 ft)
  • est. keel length 12.6 m (41 ft)
Beam:est. 5.5 m (18 ft)
Draught: est. 3.2 m (10 ft)
Propulsion: sail
Complement: 40
Armament: 4 × 90 mm bombards, 50 mm culebrinas
Notes: Captained by Christopher Columbus


History
Santa María was built in Pontevedra, Galicia, in Spain's north-west region. Santa María was probably a medium-sized nau (carrack), about 58 ft (17.7 m) long on deck, and according to Juan Escalante de Mendoza in 1575, Santa Maria was "very little larger than 100 toneladas" (about 100 tons, or tuns) burthen, or burden, and was used as the flagship for the expedition. Santa María had a single deck and three small masts.

The other ships of the Columbus expedition were the smaller caravel-type ships Santa Clara; one particular ship sailed for 46 years and was remembered as La Niña ("The Girl"), and La Pinta ("The Painted"). All these ships were second-hand (if not third- or more) and were not intended for exploration. Niña, Pinta, and the Santa María were modest-sized merchant vessels comparable in size to a modern cruising yacht. The exact measurements of length and width of the three ships have not survived, but good estimates of their burden capacity can be judged from contemporary anecdotes written down by one or more of Columbus's crew members, and contemporary Spanish and Portuguese shipwrecks from the late 15th and early 16th centuries which are comparable in size to that of Santa María. These include the ballast piles and keel lengths of the Molasses Reef Wreck and Highborn Cay Wreck in the Bahamas. Both were caravel vessels 19 m (62 ft) in length overall, 12.6 m (41 ft) keel length and 5 to 5.7 m (16 to 19 ft) in width, and rated between 100 and 150 tons burden. Santa María, being Columbus' largest ship, was only about this size, and Niña and Pinta were smaller, at only 50 to 75 tons burden and perhaps 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) on deck (updated dimensional estimates are discussed below in the section entitled Replicas).

Shipwreck

Santa_Maria_Anchor.JPG
One of Santa María's alleged anchors on display at Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien

With three masts, Santa María was the slowest of Columbus' vessels but performed well in the Atlantic Ocean crossing. Then on the return trip, on 24 December (1492), not having slept for two days, Columbus decided at 11:00 p.m. to lie down to sleep. The night being calm, the steersman also decided to sleep, leaving only a cabin boy to steer the ship, a practice which the admiral had always strictly forbidden. With the boy at the helm, the currents carried the ship onto a sandbank, running her aground off the present-day site of Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. It sank the next day. Realizing that the ship was beyond repair, Columbus ordered his men to strip the timbers from the ship. The timbers were later used to build a fort which Columbus called La Navidad (Christmas) because the wreck occurred on Christmas Day, north from the modern town of Limonade (see map, and the photograph).

Santa María carried several anchors, possibly six. One of the anchors now rests in the Musée du Panthéon National Haïtien (MUPANAH), in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

On 13 May 2014, underwater archaeological explorer Barry Clifford claimed that his team had found the wreck of Santa María. In the following October, UNESCO's expert team published their final report, concluding that the wreck could not be Columbus's vessel. Fastenings used in the hull and possible copper sheathing dated it to the 17th or 18th century.

Crew

1024px-Fort_San_Cristóbal_(Puerto_Rico)_-_IMG_0207.JPG
Ship model at Fort San Cristóbal, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Columbus' crew was not composed of criminals as is widely believed. Many were experienced seamen from the port of Palos in Andalusia and its surrounding countryside, as well as from the region of Galiciain northwest Spain. It is true, however, that the Spanish sovereigns offered an amnesty to convicts who signed up for the voyage; still, only four men took up the offer: one who had killed a man in a fight, and three friends of his who had then helped him escape from jail.

Despite the romantic legend that the Queen of Spain had used a necklace that she had received from her husband the king as collateral for a loan, the voyage was principally financed by a syndicate of seven noble Genovese bankers resident in Seville (the group was linked to Amerigo Vespucci and funds belonging to Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de Medici). Hence, all the accounting and recording of the voyage was kept in Seville. This also applies to the second voyage, even though the syndicate had by then disbanded.

The crew of Santa María is well-known, albeit in many cases, there are no surnames and the crewman's place of origin was used to differentiate him from others with the same given name.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_María_(ship)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1742 – French Royal Louis 118 (built from 1740 at Brest but never launched) – burnt by an act of sabotage while still on the stocks


Royal Louis was a First Rank ship of the line of the French Royal Navy, but was never completed. Launch was scheduled to be in 1743, but on 25 December 1742 she was set alight while still on the stocks, and burnt. It was claimed that this was an act of sabotage by a Señor Pontleau, who was tried and executed for the offence.

Royal_Louis_1745_Caffieri-img_3169.jpg
French ship Royal Louis (1743)

Class and type: First Rankship of the line
Tonnage: 3,000
Displacement: 4,834
Length: 185 French feet
Beam: 50 French feet 8 inches
Draught: 23¼ - 24¾ French feet (estimated)
Depth of hold: 22 French feet 2 inches
Decks: 3 gun decks
Complement: 1,200 (intended, wartime) + 18 officers
Armament:
  • 118 guns (intended)
  • 32 x 36-pounder guns on lower deck
  • 34 x 24-pounder guns on middle deck
  • 34 x 12-pounder guns on upper deck
  • 18 x 8-pounder guns on quarterdeck and forecastle

In the period of Louis XV (1715 to 1774)
(Great-grandson of Louis XIV) As Louis XV was only 5½ years old when he succeeded to the French throne, the first eight years of this reign were under the Regency of Philippe of Orléans, Duke of Chartres, the nephew of Louis XIV. While the five Rangs theoretically remained in existence, the construction by 1715 had crystallised around a number of distinct types, based on the number of carriage guns which they each carried.

Scale_model_of_Royal_Louis-MnM2_13_MG_32-IMG_8632.jpg
Scale model of Royal Louis-MnM2 13 MG 32-IMG 8632

First Rank ships ("vaisseaux de Premier Rang") in the Louis XV era
Only four three-decker ships were completed during this reign of nearly sixty years; a fifth was destroyed before completion.
  • Foudroyant 110 (launched April 1724 at Brest) – condemned 1742 and taken to pieces 1742-43.
  • Royal Louis 118 (built from 1740 at Brest but never launched – burnt by arson while still on the stocks there on 25 December 1742).
  • Royal Louis 116 (launched May 1759 at Brest) – condemned September 1772 and taken to pieces 1773.
  • Ville de Paris 90 (launched 19 January 1764 at Rochefort) – laid down as Impétueux in 1757, renamed January 1762. Enlarged to 104 guns in 1778-70, captured by the British at the Battle of the Saintes in April 1782, sank in a storm on 19 September 1782.
  • Bretagne 100 (later 110) guns. Designed by Antoine Groignard. (launched 24 May 1766 at Brest) – renamed Révolutionnaire in October 1793, conmenned and taken to pieces in 1796.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Royal_Louis_(1743)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_line_of_France
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1799 - HMS Ethalion (38), Cptn. John Clarke Searle, wrecked on the Saintes


HMS Ethalion was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built by Joseph Graham of Harwich and launched on 14 March 1797. In her brief career before she was wrecked in 1799 on the French coast, she participated in a major battle and in the capture of two privateers and a rich prize.

Class and type: 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 992 8⁄94 (bm)
Length: 146 ft 1 in (44.5 m) (gundeck) 121 ft 7 in (37.1 m)
Beam: 39 ft (11.89 m) (Unladen) 15 ft 0 in (4.57 m) (Laden)
Draught: 10 ft 3 in (3.12 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 9 in (4.19 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 270
Armament:
  • Upper Deck: 28 x 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 X 9-pounder guns + 12 x 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 9-pounder guns + 2 x 32-pounder carronades

1280px-Ethalion_with_Thetis.jpeg
HMS Ethalion in action with the Spanish frigate Thetis off Cape Finisterre, 16 October 1799

Service
Ethalion entered service in 1797, operating in the English Channel as part of the Channel Fleet. Soon after commissioning in April under Captain George Countess, Ethalion was engaged in chasing a French squadron under Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart intent on invading Ireland during the Rebellion of 1798. Countess kept the French fleet in sight for several days and was able to signal for assistance. This brought a significant force under John Borlase Warren to the region and the French were defeated at the Battle of Tory Island. Ethalion, with Melampus, took the 40-gun Bellone, which the Royal Navy took into service. Ethalion had one man killed and three wounded; the French lost 20 men killed. In 1847 the Battle of Tory Island earned for any still surviving crew members the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "12th October 1798".

On 2 February 1799, Ethalion was operating with Anson when together they captured a 14-gun privateer Bayonnaise cutter. She was the Boulonnoise, out of Dunkirk, and had been "greatly annoyed the trade in the North Sea".[4] She had a crew of 70 men and had been the revenue cutter Swan. Swan had been captured some two years earlier off the Isle of Wightin an action that cost the life of Captain Sarmon, her commander.

On 6 March Ethalion captured the 18-gun privateer Infatigable in the Channel after a 10-hour chase. Infatigable was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men. She was only one day out of Nantes, provisioned for a four-month cruise.[6] Later that year Captain James Young took command.

Capture of Thetis and Santa Brigada
Main article: Action of 16 October 1799
In 1799 Ethalion was operating with four other frigates off Vera Cruz against Spanish shipping. The British frigate Naiad, Captain William Pierrepont, was patrolling off the coast of Spain when she sighted two Spanish 34-gun frigates, Santa-Brigida and Thetis. On 15 October 1799 the British frigate Naiad sighted two Spanish frigates. Captain Pierrepont of Naiadgave chase and before dawn Ethalion spotted them and joined the pursuit. At 7.00am the two Spaniards parted company so Pierrepont followed one frigate, together with Alcmene and Triton, which too had joined the chase, while directing Ethalion, to pursue the other frigate. By 11.30am, Ethalion had caught up with her quarry and after a short engagement the Spanish vessel struck her colours. Ethalion had no casualties though the Spaniard had one man killed and nine wounded.

Triton, the fastest of the three British frigates, led the chase of the second frigate. The next morning Triton struck some rocks as she tried to prevent her quarry from reaching port. Triton got off the rocks and resumed the chase despite taking on water. She and Alcmene then exchanged fire with the Spanish frigate, which surrendered before Naiad could catch up. Four large Spanish ships came out from Vigo but then retreated when the three British frigates made ready to engage them. Alcmene had one man killed and nine wounded, and Tritonhad one man wounded; Santa Brigida had two men killed and eight men wounded.

The vessel that Ethalion had captured turned out to be the Thetis, under the command of Captain-Don Juan de Mendoza. She homeward-bound from Vera Cruz with a cargo of cocoa, cochineal and sugar, and more importantly, specie worth 1,385,292 Spanish dollars (£312,000). The vessel that Triton, Alcmene and Naiad had captured was |Santa Brigida, under the command of Captain Don Antonio Pillon. She was carrying a cargo of drugs, annatto, cochineal, indigo and sugar, and some 1,500,000 dollars. Prize money was paid on 14 January 1800.

In December Ethalion, by then under Captain John Searle, was engaged in the blockade of the French Atlantic Coast.

Loss
On 25 December she was wrecked on a reef off the Penmarks. Attempts were made to save the stricken ship but the damage was too severe. Danae, Sylph and the hired armed cutter Nimrod assisted in rescuing the crew; Ethalion's first lieutenant then set the remains on fire. Searle, the first lieutenant, and the master's mate were the last to leave. The subsequent court martial honourably acquitted Searle and his officers for the loss. The board ruled that the accident was due to unusual tides against which the skill and zeal of the officers and ship's company were unavailing.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ethalion_(1797)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artois-class_frigate
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1803 - HMS Suffisante wrecked


The French brig Suffisante was launched in 1793 for the French Navy. In 1795 the Royal Navy captured her and took her into service under her existing name. HMS Suffisante captured seven privateers during her career, as well as recapturing some British merchantmen and capturing a number of prizes, some of them valuable. She was lost in December 1803 when she grounded in poor weather in Cork harbour.

Class and type: Amarante-class
Displacement: 288 tons (French)
Tons burthen: 286 4⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 86 ft 1 in (26.2 m) (overall)
  • 67 ft 4 5⁄8 in (20.5 m) (keel)
Beam: 28 ft 3 1⁄4 in (8.6 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 7 3⁄4 in (3.9 m)
Complement:
  • French service:6 officers and 110 men
  • British service:86
Armament:
  • French service:
    • 2 x 8-pounder and 10 x 6-pounders
    • in 1795: 10 x 6-pounders and 4 x 4-pounders
    • 12 x 12-pounder guns
  • British service: 14 x 6-pounder guns
large.jpg Lines & Profile (ZAZ4771)

French service
Suffisante was built with copper sheathing, including the pegs. By 30 November 1793 Suffisante was under the command of enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Berrenger and stationed at Le Havre. From there she cruised to protect the fishermen working between Dieppe and Cap d'Antifer, Between 9 February 1794 and 3 August now sous-lieutenant de vaisseau Berrenger sailed Suffisante on cruises, escorted convoys between Dieppe and Cancale, sailed into the Atlantic, returning to Rochefort, and then sailed from Rochefort to Brest.

Between 27 April 1795 and her capture, Suffisante was stationed at Flessingue and under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Nosten.

Capture
On 25 August 1795 the squadron under Admiral Adam Duncan captured two French Navy brigs off the Texel. One was Suffisante, of fourteen 8 and 6-pounder guns, and the other was Victorieuse, of fourteen 12-pounder guns. They were heading into the North Sea on a cruise.

French records state that Suffisante's actual captors were the 74-gun third-rate Mars, the frigate Venus, and the lugger Speedy. The French reports further state that Suffisanteexchanged fire with the 20-gun lugger Speedy, but the arrival on the scene of Mars and Venus rendered further resistance futile.

Victorieuse's captain was lieutenant de vaisseau Salaun. The captors of Victorieuse were Duncan's flagship Venerable, Mars, and a frigate. Victorieuse too joined the Royal Navy, becoming HMS Victorieuse and serving until broken up in 1805. Courts martial acquitted both Nosten and Salaun of the loss of their vessels.

large (1).jpg
No Scale. Plan showing the upper deck, and fore & aft platforms for Suffisante (1795), a captured French Brig, as taken off prior to being fitted as a 16-gun Brig Sloop. Signed by Thomas Pollard [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1795-1799].

British service
The Royal Navy commissioned HMS Suffisante for the North Sea in November under Commander Nicholas Tomlinson, who had been promoted commander into her.

On 25 May 1796 Suffisante achieved the first of many captures. After a chase of eleven hours and a half-hour engagement, she captured the privateer brig Revanche in a single-ship action. The Bermuda-built Revanche was armed with twelve 4-pounder guns, and had a crew of 85 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau George Henri Dravemen. She had lost two men killed and seven wounded; Suffisante had only one man wounded. Revanche was five days out of Le Havre but had taken nothing. The capture required able seamanship as it took place among the rocks on the lee shore between Ushant and The Main.

In April she captured the American brig Maggy. This may have been an American vessel with contraband on board. Next, on 9 June Suffisante captured the privateer Patriote, a 12-ton ship with 12 men, Dupont, master.

On 25 June Suffisante captured the Danish brig Christian Severin, J. C. Lund, master. On 22 August Suffisante captured two vessels, the Lucia, Boey Boeyson, master, and the dogger Jonge Pieter, Albert Jochems, master.

On 27 August Suffisante intercepted and recaptured two British merchant ships near the Île de Batz. They reported that they had been sailing from Oporto when a privateer of 16 guns and 10 swivel guns had captured them. When last seen the privateer had been north of Scilly in chase of some other merchant vessels. Tomlinson immediately sent the recaptured vessels to Plymouth and sailed Suffisante to the French coast between Ushant and the Île de Batz in the hopes of intercepting the privateer on her return, or any prizes that she might have taken on their way to Morlaix or Brest.

The next morning Tomlinson sighted the privateer and four prizes. He was able to capture the privateer by 1pm; Suffisante fired some small-arms fire at her and she did not fire back, but instead struck. Tomlinson then put a prize crew on board the privateer, after taking off her captain and officers, and captor and ex-privateer set off after the prizes.

The privateer turned out to be the Morgan, a 210-ton brig, previously captured from the British in March 1796, with 100 men and 10 guns. Suffisante recaptured not only the four prizes she had seen, but two others as well. The six merchant vessels were:

  • Draper, 200 tons (bm), of Dublin, sailing from Oporto to Dublin, carrying 400 pipes of wire and 11 bales of cotton (Draper's master was Maddock, or Maddox);
  • Brothers, 180 tons (bm), of Liverpool, sailing from Oporto to Liverpool, carrying 350 pipes and 30 hogsheads of wine and 72 bales of cotton;
  • Mary Ann, 70 tons (bm), of Dublin, sailing from Oporto to Dublin, carrying 272 pipes of wine, 11 bales of cotton, and five casks of vinegar;
  • Ann, 170 tons (bm), of Dublin, sailing from Oporto to Dublin, carrying 303 pipes of wine, 15 boxes and 10 baskets of lemons;
  • Vine, 110 tons (bm), of Lancaster, sailing from Oporto to Lancaster, carrying 108 pipes and four hogsheads of wine, 175 bags cotton, and three-and-a-half tons of cork, lemons, etc.; and
  • Eliza, 160 tons (bm), of Dublin, sailing from London to Dublin, carrying 250 chests of tea, 250 barrels of porter, a quantity of steel, and other dry goods.
At the time these captures were considered highly important. The Committee for Encouraging the Capture of French Privateers etc. and the Court of Directors of the Royal Exchange Assurance, each voted Tomlinson a piece of plate valued at 50 guineas.

At some point while Tomlinson was captain of Suffisante she captured the brig Bernon, and was involved in some capacity with the Spanish brigs San Joseph y Animas and San Rogue for which she "received money out of the registry of the High Court of Admiralty by virtue of His Majesty's warrant".

Tomlinson received promotion to post captain on 12 December 1796, whereupon Commander Josiah Wittman replaced him.

On 22 March 1797 Wittman and Suffisante set out to cruise off the Start. The next day they chased an armed brig to eastward of Peveral Point before she out-distanced them. As Suffisante was heading back to the west she encountered and captured a small French privateer cutter, the Bonaparte (or Buonapartie). Bonaparte was armed with 14 guns and was three days out of Saint-Malo without having captured anything.

A month or so later, on 21 April, Suffisante chased and captured Petite Hélène, (or Petit Helena), a French privateer lugger of two guns and 33 men. She belonged to Brest, but was last from Île de Batz and had not taken anything. Suffisante brought her into Plymouth.

On 20 May 1799 Suffisante and Harpy were in sight when Savage captured the ship Johanna Maria, Kroyer, master.

The French privateer Providence, captured the Guernsey brig May on 3 December 1799, but Suffisante recaptured May off the Île de Batz. Suffisante then set off after Providence; however, there is no record indicating that Suffisante was successful in her quest. Next, Suffisante recaptured Giraldina, May, master, of Guernsey, and carrying a cargo of wines, that a French privateer had captured and that arrived at Plymouth on 19 December.

On 29 January 1800, Suffisante and Havick were in the Channel together when Suffisante signaled to Havick to chase north. There Havick observed a ship, a cutter, and a lugger fleeing to the southeast. Havick captured the ship, which was the American vessel Strafford, of 16 guns and carrying a cargo of tobacco from Baltimore to London; she had been a prize to the two fleeing vessels, and Captain Bartholomew of Havick believed that her cargo was worth £30–40,000. Suffisante captured the lugger Courageux and the cutter Grand Quinola. Courageux was armed with four 4-pounder guns and one 18-pounder carronade, and had a crew of 42 men. Grand Quinnola was armed with 8-pounder brass carronades, two 2-pounder brass guns, two 2-pounder iron guns, and swivel guns; she had a crew of 47 men. The two privateers had left Saint-Malo together three days earlier. Havick and Suffisante shared the prize money with Centaur and the hired armed brig Fanny.

Suffisante captured the privateer Joséphine (or Josephina), on 13 March. Joséphine, of four guns and 20 men, was under the command of John Francis Froment. She was two days out of Morlaix and had taken nothing. Joséphine sank after her capture.

On 25 March the Danish brig Maria, came into Plymouth. She had been sailing from Morlaix for Corunna, with linen and paper when Suffisante detained and sent her in.

In May Suffisante ("Sufficiante") detained three Dutch vessels: Anna Maria, Jusfrow Anna Catherina, and Seeks Geswisters.

On 3 September Suffisante and Havick encountered a French flotilla of 14 vessels carrying provisions and stores to the French fleet at Brest, and under the escort of the 18-gun fluyt (or corvette en flute) Salamandre, under Captain Conseil, and the gunboat Protectrice, under Guégun. The British engaged the French and drove them under the protection of shore batteries at Locquirec, near Morlaix. Fire from the batteries killed two men on Havick, and wounded two.

The Harriet, Atkins, master, of Boston, from Isle de France via Boston, arrived at Plymouth on 23 July. She was carrying a valuable cargo for Rotterdam when Suffisante detained her.

On 12 September Suffisante came into Plymouth with a Danish galliot that had been sailing from Bordeaux to Embden with wines and brandies.

Suffisante, Renard, Spitfire, and cutter Swift (2) shared in the recapture on 13 December 1800 of the Defiance. Defiance had been sailing from Penzance to London when she was captured. Another prize money notice gave the name of Suffisante's captain at the recapture as Jonas Rose. If not a reporting error, Rose may have been temporary while Wittman was on leave.

On 18 January 1801, the Duke of Kent, of Dartmouth, came into Plymouth. She had been returning from Newfoundland with a cargo of fish and cod oil when a French privateer had captured her. Suffisante recaptured Duke of York as she was going into Brest. Then on 4 February the Mont Blanc, a prize to Suffisante, came into Plymouth.

Suffisante and Spitfire shared the proceeds of the recapture of the brig Honduras Packet. Honduras Packet (or Honduras Planter), of eight guns and 16 men under the command of Captain J. Goodwin, had been sailing from London to New Providence. A French privateer, of fourteen guns and 125 men, captured her after an action of one hour and a quarter. Spitfire recaptured Honduras Packet on 18 February 1801 off Abervrac and she arrived at Plymouth four days later. Spitfire arrived the next day.

On 25 February Suffisante went into Barnpool to refit.

During 20 to 21 March a hurricane blew in the Channel. Even so, Suffisante, Spitfire, and Renard arrived safely in Jersey.

Suffisante shared with Garland and Renard, in the recapture on 3 April 1801, of the brig Swan. Suffisante also shared in the recapture around that same day of the William. William was a Newfoundland brig under the command of Wadland, master, that the French privateer Renard had captured. A boat from Dasher had cut her out from under the guns of battery at Île de Batz.

At some point while Wittman was still her captain, Suffisante captured the Maria Elizabeth, Anna Maria, and Seeks Ges Wisten.

On 13 April 1801 Christopher John William Nesham was promoted to Commander and captain of Suffisante, replacing Wittman, whose ill-health prevented him from continuing in command of Suffisante.

On 19 July Suffisante left Plymouth as escort to a convoy carrying livestock and vegetables to the Royal Navy squadron off Le Havre.

One month later, on 19 August, the cartel Betsey came into Plymouth with wounded men from Suffisante. A cutting out party from Suffisante had attempted to take an armed cutter in Morlaix roads when a Danish brig had given the alarm. Heavy fire ensued that forced the party to return to Suffisante with casualties. Betsey had sailed from Plymouth on 15 July with French prisoners that she was to deliver to Morlaix.

On 17 September a Danish vessel came into Plymouth. She had been sailing from Stralsund to Bordeaux when Suffisante had detained her. Four days later the Gustavus Vasa, of Stockholm, arrived. She had been sailing from "Underwold" to Bordeaux when Suffisante had detained her.

In early January 1802 gales of wind had caused Suffisante to ship several heavy seas, nearly swamping her. One seaman was washed overboard and Nesham had been knocked down, but was unhurt. She had been obliged to batten down for 48 hours, with the result for that entire period the officers and crew had remained on the main and quarter-deck.

On 17 April Suffisante was back at Plymouth. She had carried discharged Irish seamen to Cork, landed them, and returned to Plymouth, all in three days and 14 hours. She then left for Dublin with another batch of discharged Irish seamen.

On 29 April 1802 Nesham was advanced to post captain. That same day, Gilbert Heathcote received a promotion to commander. He would later replace Nesham.

On 16 May Suffisante, still under Nesham's command, escorted into Plymouth the "Old Chatham", of 50 guns, from Falmouth. There she had served as a receiving and convalescent ship. She was in such poor condition that Suffisantewas assigned to escort her for safety's sake. Old Chatham was sent up to Hamoaze to be paid off and broken up.

On 3 July Nexham sailed Suffisante into the Hamoaze where she was to be laid up in ordinary. still, that month she may have undergone refitting while under the command of Commander A.R. Kerr.

After the resumption of hostilities between Britain and France in 1803, Suffisante was commissioned in July, under Gilbert Heathcote. She then underwent refitting at Plymouth.

On 30 October she captured the Navigation, which came into Plymouth on 17 November. Navigation was a Dutch East Indiaman, sailing from Batavia to Amsterdam. She was said to be worth £16,000, and the richest ship yet captured from that settlement.

Fate
One report states that she wrecked on 25 December 1803 in a violent gale off Spike Island, Queenstown, Cork. Seven of the crew drowned, and a falling mast killed another three. However, the court martial of Heathcote, his officers, and his crew, told a different story.

On 25 December Suffisante was in Cork harbour, waiting for wind and weather to change to permit her to sail. A local pilot came aboard and he moved her closer inshore. Heathcote permitted the pilot to leave; the pilot was to return the next day and take her out. Heathcote then went below. At 5pm Suffisante hit ground, increasingly strongly. The crew fired distress guns and boats from nearby vessels came, but the choppy seas prevented cables or anchors from being let out. The pumps were managing to keep the water that was entering from rising until sand clogged them. Water began rising rapidly and the crew was barely able to get the sloop's cutter overboard before she fell on her beam ends and sank.

Although the officers blamed the pilot for having left Suffisante in a poorly-chosen location, the officers had mishandled the situation. Lieutenant John Forbes should have taken the watch, but remained below, leaving a midshipman in charge. The master, John Coleman, had gone below for his dinner and left the pilot in charge of the positioning; Coleman stated that he was unaware that the pilot had gone ashore. Heathcote was below dining with his officers and unaware of the developing situation. The court martial found him partly to blame for the loss and reprimanded him but did not punish him. It also reprimanded Coleman, and sentenced Forbes to the loss of one year's seniority

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Suffisante_(1793)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Amarante_(1793)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1813 - USS Vixen was a brig in commission in the United States Navy captured by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Belvidera while sailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Newcastle, Delaware without her armament or stores


USS Vixen was a brig in commission in the United States Navy in 1813.

Vixen was purchased by the U.S. Navy at Savannah, Georgia in 1813. She was captured at sea by the Royal Navy frigate HMS Belvidera on 25 December 1813 while sailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Newcastle, Delaware without her armament or stores.

large (2).jpg
Oil painting . Nine days after the outbreak of the American War of 1812, the British ship 'Belvider'a, commanded by Captain Richard Byron, was off New London, Connecticut. She was waiting for the French privateer 'Marengo' to come out, when at daybreak she saw the sails of five vessels to the south-west. They were the American frigates 'Presiden't, the 'Congress', the 'United States' and the sloops 'Hornet' and 'Argos', effectively the entire American navy in commission at the time. The Americans gave chase and the 'Presiden't closed on the 'Belvidera'. Commodore Rodgers of the 'President', himself fired the first shots. When a bow gun on her gun-deck was fired for the second time it blew up wrecking the fo’c’sle deck and killing and wounding sixteen people, including the commodore, who broke a leg. Captain Byron moved his guns so he could fire through the stern windows and aft from the quarter-deck. Although the 'President' could easily have moved to close action she chose instead to fire her broadside repeatedly at the 'Belivdera’'s retreating stern to little effect. Captain Byron meantime lightened his ship by cutting away his anchors, ships’ boats and dumping 14 tons of fresh water. Gradually the 'Belvidera' drew away from the 'President', which had lost much ground by repeatedly bearing up. On the left of the picture the 'Belvidera' runs on a very broad reach. She has shot holes in her sails and can be seen firing her stern guns. Astern of her the 'President' can be seen repeatedly firing her starboard broadside. To the right of her, and in pursuit, are the 'Congress', 'United States', 'Hornet' and 'Argus'. There is a French lithograph of this action by Auger.

HMS Belvidera was a 36-gun Royal Navy Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate built in Deptford in 1809. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and continued a busy career at sea into the middle of the 19th century. In 1846 she was reduced to harbour service, in 1860 she became a receiving ship, and she was finally disposed of in 1906.

Type: Apollo-class fifth-ratef rigate
Tons burthen: 943 53/94 (as designed)
Length:
  • 145 ft (44 m) (gundeck)
  • 121 ft 9 3⁄8 in (37.119 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 38 ft 2 in (11.63 m)
Draught: 13 ft 3 in (4.04 m)
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 264
Armament:
  • Rated at 36 guns:
  • Upper deck:26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades


large (4).jpg
Lines (ZAZ2552)

Service
Belvidera was commissioned in January 1800 under Captain Charles Dashwood. In March, Captain Richard Byron replaced Dashwood.

On 22 July 1810, Belvidera and Nemesis, Captain William Ferris, were sailing close to the shore of Studtland, Norway. That evening a boat from Belvedera sighted three Danish gun-vessels in a large bay. Next day, seven boats from the two frigates attacked the Danes. Two of the Danish vessels, Balder and Thor, commanded by Lieutenants Dahlreup and Rasmusen, were schooner-rigged. Each mounted two long 24-pounders and six 6-pounder howitzers and had a crew of 45 men. The third gun-vessel carried one long 24-pounder and a crew of 25 men. The British captured both Balder and Thor without suffering any casualties, though the Danes lost four men killed. The remaining vessel, Gunboat No. 5, ran up a fiord where her crew abandoned her; the British then burnt her.

Main article: Battle of Silda
In 1811, Belvidera became the flagship of Admiral Herbert Sawyer on the Halifax station in Nova Scotia.

Belvidera and USS Constitution
Belvidera took part in one of the earliest actions of the War of 1812 when she encountered the American frigates USS President, USS Congress and USS United States on 23 June 1812, five days after the war had started. Belvidera had been shadowing Marengo captained by French privateer John Ordronaux. The British were not aware that war had been declared and after returning fire they managed to evade their pursuers during the night. Belvidera's course during the fight had led the Americans away from a British convoy from Jamaica, allowing the convoy to escape attack. Belvidera arrived in Halifax on June 27 with three prizes that she captured on the way.

On 16 July 1812, Belvidera was part of a British squadron that gave chase to USS Constitution, another of the United States' heavy frigates, which was on her way from Chesapeake Bay to New York. In the very light winds, both sides put out boats to tow the ships. Constitution gained an advantage by using her anchors to pull herself about four miles ahead of Belvidera. Captain Byron then copied the manoeuvre of Constitution and managed to bring the two ships within gunshot. They exchanged fire as a light breeze came up, and by daylight on 19 July Constitution, being newly out of port, was able to escape.

large (3).jpg
Combat soutenu le 23 Aout 1812 par la Fregate le President des Etats-Unis d' Amerique, et la Fregate Anglais le Belvedere (PAD5816)

Prize-taking
For the remainder of the war, Belvidera was active in the blockade of the American coast, capturing many American merchant ships and privateers. Between 1 June 1812 and 14 December 1812, Belvidera captured a number of merchant vessels:

  • brig Malcolm, of 197 tons, sailing from Madeira to Portland, carrying dollars and wine (24 June);
  • ship Fortune, of 317 tons, sailing from Cape de Verde to Newbury Port, carrying salt (25 June).
  • brig Minerva, of 256 tons, sailing from Liverpool to Boston with coals and salt (6 July; with Africa, Aeolus and Shannon);
  • ship Oronoko, of 427 tons, sailing from Lisbon to New York, in ballast (11 July; with Africa, Shannon, Aeolus and Guerriere);
  • brig Hare, of 246 tons, sailing from Naples to Boston, with brandy, silks, oil, &c. (1 August); and,
  • schooner Friendship, of 98 tons, sailing from Charleston to New York, carrying cotton (11 September). Also, they captured the
  • ship Eleanor (23 July).
Belvidera, Aeolus, Africa, Shannon and Guerriere were among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of USS Nautilus on 16 July. At the time of her capture she mounted 16 guns, had crew of 106 men and was under the command of Lieutenant William M. Crane.

On 21 August Belvidera captured the U.S. privateer 7-gun schooner Bunker's Hill, with 72 men. On 10 September Belvidera detained Citizen.[9] Two days later Belvidera captured the American schooner Hiram.

On 8 February 1813, nine boats and 200 men of Maidstone, Belvidera, Junon and Statira, which were at anchor in Lynhaven Bay, chased and captured the letter of marque schooner Lottery, of 225 tons, and pierced for 16 guns though only carrying six 12-pounder carronades. She had a crew 28 men and was sailing from Baltimore to Bordeaux with a cargo of coffee, sugar, and logwood. In the engagement the British had six men wounded, one of whom later died, but Belvidera herself suffered no casualties. The Americans suffered 19 men wounded, including their captain, John Southcomb, before they struck. Southcomb died of his wounds and his body was taken ashore.

A week later Lottery convoyed several prizes to Bermuda. The British took Lottery into service as the 16-gun schooner Canso.

Belvidera was among the numerous British warships that shared in the capture of the American ship St. Michael on 10 February. On 25 September 1813, Belvidera, Statira and Morgiana were in company when they captured Ambition.

On 19 December Jaseur and Niemen captured Rising States. Belvidera and Narcissus shared in the proceeds of the capture by agreement with Jaseur. Then on Christmas Day, Belvidera captured the schooner USS Vixen, which was attempting to get from Wilmington, North Carolina, to Newcastle, Delaware. The US had purchased Vixen at Savannah, Georgia, in 1813 but when Belvidera captured her she had not yet received her armament of 14 guns nor naval stores.

On 7 March 1814, Belvidera, Endymion and Rattler captured the American privateer Mars. Mars was armed with 15 guns and had a crew of 70 men. A later report has them destroying her on 10 March. Belvidera was also among the vessels sharing in the proceeds of the capture of the brigs Christina and Massasoit on 3 and 14 March.

On 21 April 1814, Belvidera captured the US ship New Zealander, of 256 tons, armed with six guns and with a crew of 17 men. She was sailing from the Marquesas to Philadelphia carrying a cargo of spermaceti oil. New Zealander, a prize to USS Essex, had departed Valparaiso for the United States and was only one day out of New York when Belvidera captured her. In addition Belvidera captured the following American vessels:
  • schooner Nancy and Polly, carrying shingles (19 June);
  • sloop Alonzo (22 June);
  • sloop Hunter, of 60 tons and nine men, sailing from New Burn to New York, carrying tar and turpentine (24 June).
Post-war
At the end of 1814, Belvidera was decommissioned at Portsmouth. She was relaunched on 26 September 1817, having been refitted. She made numerous cruises to the Mediterranean, Portugal, Madeira, and the West Indies. In 1834 she took troops to St Kitts and then on a second trip, to Trinidad. On 17 May 1835 she was reported to be at Puerto Rico, where she was attempting to recover either escaped slaves, or slaves that had been improperly sold.

In October 1846 Belvedera was fitted at Portsmouth as a store depot.

Extract from Tobermory, Isle of Mull Old Parish Records dated 23 August 1847 :- Robert Kerslake Royal Marine on board H M Ship Belvidera at Tobermory Bay and Ann McQuarrie servant or nurse to a Captain Wellington of H M Ship Belvidara Stationed at Tobermory were married by Revd David Ross Minister of Tobermory.

Fate
Belvidera was fitted as a receiving ship in between August and November 1852, and she served in that role at Portsmouth until 1890. She was sold on 10 July 1906 to J.B. Garham for £1,800.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Vixen_(1813)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belvidera_(1809)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
25 December 1844 - HMS Pelorus, an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy, wrecked the second and final time


HMS Pelorus was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. She was built in Itchenor, England and launched on 25 June 1808. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and in the War of 1812. On anti-slavery patrol off West Africa, she captured four slavers and freed some 1350 slaves. She charted parts of Australia and New Zealand and participated in the First Opium War (1839–1842) before becoming a merchantman and wrecking in 1844 while transporting opium to China.

HMS_Pelorus.JPG
HMS Pelorus, as a ship-sloop, ca. 1830

Tons burthen: 38460⁄94(bm)
Length:
  • 100 ft (30.5 m) (overall)
  • 77 ft 3 3⁄4 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 6 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 9 in (3.9 m)
Complement: 121
Armament:

Napoleonic Wars
Pelorus was commissioned in July 1808 under Commander the Honourable James William King, and sailed for the Leeward Islands on 15 December. In January 1809 Commander Thomas Huskisson was appointed commander of Pelorus, but did not find out until May. Therefore he was not her commander at the capture of Martinique in February. (Some accounts have her under the command of Captain Francis Augustus Collier; however, he was commander of Starr.) Under Huskinson she then took part in enforcing the blockade of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to any surviving crewmen from that campaign that wished to claim it.

On 16 October Pelorus and Hazard were in company when they came upon the French privateer schooner Général Ernouf moored under the guns of the battery of St. Marie on the east coast of the southern part of Guadeloupe. Hazard and Pelorus attempted to send in a cutting out party during the night, but the boats could not find a channel. The British went in again in the daylight despite fire from the battery and the schooner's long 18-pounder pivot-gun and two swivels.[6] Fire from Hazard and Pelorus silenced the batteries but as the British came alongside the French crew, an estimated 80-100 men, fled ashore. There two field guns joined them in firing on the cutting-out party. Because the schooner was aground and chained to the shore the boarding party could not bring her out; instead, they set fire to her. However, a premature explosion injured some of them. In all, Hazard lost three men killed and four wounded; Pelorus lost three killed and five wounded.

In February 1810 Pelorus participated in the capture of Guadeloupe. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Guadaloupe" to any surviving crewmen from that campaign that wished to claim them. Later the same year, under Commander Alexander Kennedy, Pelorus patrolled the Leeward Islands. In May, command transferred to Commander Joshua Rowley. In late December 1811 and early 1812, Pelorus was cruising off Plymouth. On 22 and 23 December 1811 she captured Marianne and Deux Freres. On 6 January 1812, she sent in a French chasse maree that she had taken. On 5 April Rowley sailed her for the Mediterranean. In September 1812, Commander Robert Gambier took command of Pelorus.

By 1814, her captain was Commander Robert Stow. On 7 March boats from Endymion, Rattler, and a third British vessel, destroyed the American privateer Mars, of 15 guns and 70 men, off Sandy Hook. Some accounts name Pelorus as the third British vessel, but the prize money notices and most other accounts give the name of the third vessel as Belvidera. Then by September, Pelorus was under the command of Commander John Gourly. A year later she was paid off at Plymouth where she underwent a Middling Repair before she was laid up.

Return to service
She was fitted for sea from April–August 1823, Commander William Hamley having recommissioned her in April. In 1824, she was at Cork on coast guard duties. On 19 May she captured the smuggling vessel Good Hope. On 9 October, she captured a small smuggling lugger, the Phoenix, which was carrying a cargo of tobacco and a small amount of tea. Over a period of three years, Hamley captured more smuggling-vessels than any other vessel. On 30 October 1823, a ship ran into Pelorus during the night, and then sailed on. The crash destroyed the bowsprit and sent the foremast over the side; both of which had to be cut away despite the heavy seas and otherwise bad weather. The crew rigged a jury-mast and bowsprit and Pelorus was able to get back to Plymouth. Had the ship struck Pelorus a few inches further aft the sloop would almost certainly have foundered.

Pelorus was paid off in July 1826. In all, Hamley had seized more than 62,000 weight of tobacco.

From July–October 1826, she underwent alteration from a brig-sloop to a ship-sloop via the addition of a third mast.

Mediterranean
Then in October, Commander Peter Richards recommissioned her. In January 1827, Pelorus was employed in the Mediterranean protecting British trade in the Archipelago, at Alexandria, and around the coasts of Syria and Caramania. Commander Michael Quinn took command from September 1828. In December 1829, she struck a rock at the entrance of Port Mahon, Menorca. Isis came from Gibraltar to retrieve her officers and crew. By 9 May 1830, Pelorus was back in Portsmouth. From December 1830-December 1831, she underwent repairs and an alteration back to a brig.

Anti-slavery
Yacht_Xarifa.jpg
Yacht Xarifa, ex-Segunda Theresa, 1835, by Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton, after a sketch by Nicholas Matthew Condy, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

In 1831, William Wilberforce's anti-slavery law was passed. In September, Captain Richard Meredith recommissioned Pelorus and she joined the West Africa Squadron. Here she patrolled the west coast of Africa to suppress the slave trade. On 9 May 1832, she was at Sierra Leone having brought in the Spanish slaving vessel Segunda Theresa, which was carrying 459 slaves.

On 18 October 1832 Pelorus sailed from the Cape of Good Hope for Simon's Bay. In May 1833 she was back at the Cape, and on the 16th she sailed for Mauritius. She arrived there on 3 June. A month later, on 6 June, she left Mauritius for Colombo with specie to pay the troops in Ceylon. From there she returned to the Cape, from whence she sailed for St Helena, where she arrived on 7 December. She then sailed to Ascension and the west coast of Africa.

On 16 June 1834, Lieutenant Philip de Sausmarez of Pelorus came before a court martial. The charge was that on 18 April 1832, while in command of the prize crew on the Segunda Theresa, Sausmarez had the boatswain's mate of Lynx administer 24 lashes to Francis Brown for neglect of duty. Meredith preferred the charges because he had forbidden the lash in written orders. The court supported Suasmarez, who had been under arrest for 18 months before his exoneration.

On 30 June, boats from Pelorus captured the Spanish slaver Pepita. At the time of her capture, Pepita had no slaves aboard. Under the terms of the treaty with Spain, the Royal Navy could only seize vessels actually carrying slaves. The boarding party manufactured evidence by putting three slaves aboard Pepita after boarding her. They then brought another 176 slaves that were on shore waiting to be loaded. Meredith accepted responsibility for the manufacturing of evidence. The Court in Sierra Leone therefore had to order Pepita returned to her master. Pepita's master then sued for damages. The Court found against Meredith and charged him £1092 in damages.

Pelorus continued to patrol the Bight of Benin and the vicinity of Princees Island.

On 17 December, Pelorus captured the two-gun slaver Sutil. She had 307 slaves aboard, of whom 91 died of dysentery and disease before they could be freed in Sierra Leone.

On 5 January 1835, boats from Pelorus captured the Spanish polacca-bark Minerva, which armed with two 18-pounder and two 8-pounder guns. The boats had sailed 60 mi (97 km) up the Calabar river and laid in ambush. Skillful handling resulted in the capture of the slaver with no casualties to the boarding party although the vessel's guns were double-shotted and the crew and the boarding party exchanged small arms fire. The vessel had a crew of 37 men, two of whom were cut down. The boarding party consisted of 22 men. The slaver had some 650 slaves aboard, and after her capture, the master arrived with 25 more. In sum, she had 676 aboard, of whom 206 died of disease before they could be freed in Sierra Leone.

On 24 February 1835 she was off Princes Island where Midshipman Judd died.

On 26 September, Pelorous was paid off at Portsmouth. A bounty was paid on both Sutil and Minerva in June 1836.

Far East and Antipodes
On 31 January 1837, Pelorus was recommissioned under Captain Francis Harding who had taken command on 21 January. She then sailed for the Cape of Good Hope on 9 April, having received specie from London that she was to take to Mauritius via the Cape. She arrived at the Cape on 1 June.

Pelorus — under Commander Harding — called at the Cocos (Keeling) Islands on 16 December, and stayed for six days. Captain John Clunies-Ross — the "King of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands" — had asked for a visit from a naval vessel to forestall a possible revolt by the inhabitants.

In mid-September 1837, Pelorus sailed to Rangoon to deliver an ultimatum to the mutinous King Tharyarwaddy from the Governor-General of India, Lord Auckland.

Next, she sailed for Western Australia and Van Diemen's Land. On 9 January 1838, she arrived at Fremantle from Calcutta, departing on 19 March for King George Sound carrying a party including Governor of Western Australia Captain James Stirling. While there a boatcrew, under master's mate Charles Forsyth, surveyed the nearby Tor Bay for a potential new anchorage. She returned Stirling to Fremantle, arriving on 9 April, then departing on 7 May for Adelaide, Launceston and Sydney, arriving on 22 June. On 5 July she sailed for New Zealand.

Then in August Pelorus sailded to New Zealand to conduct a survey of the Marlborough Sounds region. On 22 August, Pelorus sailed into Port Underwood, New Zealand, and cast anchor in Oyster Cove. She was under the temporary command of Lt. Phillip Chetwode while Commander Harding was ill. From here, Chetwode surveyed and named Pelorus River and Pelorus Sound in New Zealand in honour of his ship. He also named the Chetwode Islands, off Pelorus Sound.

Lt. Augustus Leopold Kuper was nominated acting commander of Pelorus on 27 July 1839. On 26 August, Pelorus and HMS Herald attempted to scuttle the British merchant ship Lucretia, which had caught fire off Kyardbilly's point, Sydney. The attempt was unsuccessful and the ship exploded and sank.[28]

Wrecked in New South Wales

HMS_Pelorus_(1808)_aground_at_low_water.jpg
HMS Pelorus at low water, 1840, by Owen Stanley

On 25 November 1839, while anchored off Port Essington, Australia, a hurricane struck Pelorus, wrecking her. She lost 12 of her crew; a whaleboat from Britomart, under Captain Owen Stanley, rescued the survivors. According to Kuper, "Pelorus was buried 9 feet (2.7 m) in the mud for 86 days."

Opium War
On 5 March 1840, Kuper was promoted to command of Alligator, then on 26 December, Lieutenant Kuper was promoted to the rank of commander, his commission being back-dated to when he took command of Pelorus.

After repairs, in late July 1840, Pelorus sailed from Sydney with Herald to take part in the First Opium War. On 23 April 1841, she arrived at Singapore. One month later, Lieutenant W. W. Chambers, of Wellesley, was appointed and promoted to be acting commander of Pelorus. At the time, Wellesley was at Canton (now Guangzhou) in China.

Disposal and final loss
On 6 July 1841, Pelorus was laid up at Singapore and Lieutenant Chambers returned to Britain. The officers and crew transferred to the steam paddle and sail survey cutter Bentinck, which Commodore Sir J.J.G. Bremer had just purchased and which went on to operations in China. An Admiralty Order of 16 October specified that Pelorus was to be sold, which took place in 1842.

The purchasers may have been Pybus Brothers. On 27 1843, under Captain Triggs, she arrived in Hong Kong with a load of opium.

Pelorus sank on 25 December 1844 when she struck a shoal at 8°8′30″N 115°30′0″E off the coast of Borneo in the South China Sea. Captain Triggs took her gig and two passengers and sailed 100 mi (160 km) to Singapore. From there he led the steamer Victoria to the wreck. Victoria was able to rescue 20 of the crew and save 70 chests of opium


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pelorus_(1808)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 25 December


1689 - HMS Centurion (34) wrecked on Mount Batten in Plymouth Sound

HMS Centurion was a 40-gun fourth rate frigate of the English Royal Navy, originally built for the navy of the Commonwealth of England by Peter Pett I at Ratcliffe, and launched in 1650. By 1677 her armament had been increased to 48 guns.

Centurion was wrecked in 1689

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Centurion_(1650)


1692 – Launch of French Prompt 70, later 76 guns (Designed and built by René Levasseur) at Dunkirk – captured by the English in the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702


1709 - HMS Solebay (24) wrecked on Boston Rock of Lyme Regis

HMS Solebay (1694) was a 24-gun sixth rate launched in 1694. She was wrecked in 1709 on Boston Rock, Lyme Regis.


1807 - St. Croix taken from the Danes by British squadron under Rear Ad. Sir Alexander Cochrane.


1810 - HMS Monkey Brig (12), Lt. Thomas Fitzgerald, wrecked on rocks at Bell Isle, France.

HMS Monkey (1801) was a gun-brig of 12 guns, built 1801 in Rochester and wrecked 25 December 1810 near Brittany

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gun-brigs_of_the_Royal_Navy


1848 - the brig Charlotte ( Sweden) out of Gothenburg for Montevideo with deals and balk timber foundered on Melledgan where the master, mate, two crew and a passenger lost their lives. Ten survivors erected a rough tent on the rock and were rescued the next day


1863 - Confederate batteries on Johns Island attack the gunboat Marblehead near Legareville, S.C. in the Stono River and sustain 20 hits as the sloop Pawnee and mortar schooner C. P. Williams add firepower to the return bombardment. After more than an hour, the Confederates break off the engagement and withdraw. Medals of Honor are given to Boatswains Mate William Farley and Quartermaster James Miller for their actions during the engagement, while Contraband Robert Blake, an escaped slave, also receives a Medal of Honor for bravery while manning the rifle gun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pawnee_(1859)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_C._P._Williams_(1861)


1874 – Launch of SS Lake Champlain was built in 1874 at Glasgow by the shipbuilders London & Glasgow Co. Ltd.

SS Lake Champlain was built in 1874 at Glasgow by the shipbuilders London & Glasgow Co. Ltd., she was launched on Christmas Day 1874 and sailed for a mere 13 years. On 13 April 1875 she departed on her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Quebec and then to Montreal. Until 1884 her regular run was between Liverpool and Quebec. On 23 November 1885, near Matane, she collided with the SS Bentholme which sank as a result. On 30 June 1886, she ran aground on the Antrim coast, but was refloated, sold, and renamed Lismore. On 8 June 1888 she was wrecked at Porto Plata in the Dominican Republic.

SS_Lake_Champlain00.jpg
Engraving of steamship Lake Champlain from The Illustrated London News 17 April 1875

This iron screw-steamer was the first of the Beaver Line steamships and was set to sail between Liverpool, Quebec, and Montreal when navigation of the Saint Lawrence River was ice-free. In the winter she would run between Liverpool and any American port.

Lake Champlain's hull and 250-horsepower engines were constructed by the London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Company at Govan. Owned by the Canada Shipping Company of Montreal and Liverpool, she was registered in Montreal, the first Clyde-built steamer under the Dominion flag. Measuring 321 ft. with a 35 ft. beam and 26 ft. deep hold, she was rated at 2207 tons gross. She had three decks, the upper deck being a spar deck and the others designed for carrying passengers. Barque-rigged, and equipped with steam steering-gear, steam windlass for raising anchors and four steam winches, she was a state-of-the-art ship.

Her design was intended to withstand the worst weather of the Atlantic, and her hull had been specially strengthened for any contact with ice. On her sea trial from Greenock, she ran between the Cloch and Cumbrae lighthouses, a distance of 13.666 nautical miles (25.309 km; 15.727 mi), in under seventy-one minutes.

Lake Champlain had two sister-ships named Lake Nepigon (1875-1896) and Lake Magantic (1875-1878).

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


1941 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz arrives at Pearl Harbor to assume command of the U.S. Pacific Fleet

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

Fleet_Admiral_Chester_W._Nimitz_portrait.jpg

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

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


2004 – Death of Antony Preston (26 February 1938 – 25 December 2004) was an English naval historian and editor, specialising in the area of 19th and 20th-century naval history and warship design

Antony Preston was born in 1938 in Salford, Lancashire, the son of the 16th Viscount Gormanston and Miss Julia O'Mahony. After becoming a wartime evacuee, he was educated in South Africa at King Edward VII School, Johannesburg, and the University of Witwatersrand. On his return to England he spent some years at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, before becoming Editor of the periodical "Defence". During the 1970s he was employed by a specialist publisher, Conway Maritime Press, as editor of their Warship annual. He also produced the specialised newsletter Navint. In the early nineties he took over as chief-editor of the magazine Naval Forces at the German editorial group Mönch. He left to resume as editor of Warships in 1996. Antony Preston lived in London until his death in 2004. His son Matt Preston (born 1961 and the eldest of Preston's four children) has gained celebrity as a TV judge on MasterChef Australia and as a restaurant critic-columnist for the Melbourne Age & Herald-Sun newspapers.

Work
Antony Preston was a prolific author both of books and articles, and published on subjects ranging from the American Revolution to modern seapower; the bibliography given below illustrates the breadth of his expertise. He wrote on general military history, as well as most aspects of naval history and modern-day naval matters. He was a pugnacious writer and was usually willing to take up one side of a controversy, even in a work of referen

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


2011 - MV Vinalines Queen was a bulk carrier Capsized and sunk

MV Vinalines Queen was a bulk carrier of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, or Vinalines. On its last voyage the ship was travelling from Indonesia to China with more than 54,000 tonnes of nickel ore. The ship disappeared on 25 December 2011 and its fate was initially unknown. On 30 December 2011 a single survivor of its 23-member crew, Dau Ngoc Hung, was found by the British ship London Courage, after floating with a rescue vest for 5 days. He reported that the ship sank quickly in the early hours of the morning after capsizing to the left. It sank after passing the island of Luzon in very bad weather conditions in waters up to 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) deep.

Vietnamese-owned-Cargo-Ship-Vinalines-Queen-Sinks-22-Dead.jpg

The circumstances leading to the sinking of the vessel are still under investigation. It is thought that the probable cause of sinking was liquefaction of her nickel ore cargo resulting in the shifting of cargo in the holds, which destabilised the vessel causing her to sink.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Vinalines_Queen
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1799 - HMS Viper (12), Lt. Pengelly, captured privateer Furet (14), Louis Bouvet, south of the Dodman.


HMS Greyhound was a cutter that the British Admiralty purchased in 1780 and renamed Viper in 1781. Viper captured several French privateers in the waters around Great Britain, and took part in a notable engagement. She was sold in October 1809.

Type:CutterTonnage: 148 (bm)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 60
Armament:

Anglo-French War
Greyhound was commissioned in June 1780 under Lieutenant Richard Bridge for the Scilly Isles and Irish Sea. As Viper, she was in company with Nemesis on 3 January 1781 when they captured the Dutch vessel Catherine. Viper was under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Dickinson. Then in August, Stag and Viper were in company when they recaptured the sloop Peggy and the cutter Hope.

On 16 April 1782, Viper captured the French privateer Brilliant. Later that month, on 28 April, Viper and the brig Antigua brought into Waterford a French privateer lugger and her prize. The prize was a sloop that had been sailing from London to Cork with merchandise when the privateer took her.

Lark and Viper were in company on 22 June when they sighted a cutter off Land's End. They gave chase and by 1 p.m. they caught their quarry. She proved to be the Dutch privateer Sea Lion (or Zeuwsche Water Leuw), of Flushing, but out of Cherbourg. Sea Lion had a crew of 50 men, and was pierced for 12 guns, but was only carrying eight 3-pounders. During this cruise she had taken a sloop between Lyme and Weymouth.

Viper was paid off in June 1783, but immediately recommissioned again under Lieutenant Arthur Webber for the Irish Sea. Lieutenant John Crymes took command in 1784 for Land's End and the Irish Sea. In 1785-86 Viper was off Milford on Sea. She was paid off in August 1786. In January of the next year she was again recommissioned for the Irish Sea, again under Crymes's command, and in July was at Lundy. From 1788 to 1789, she was under the command of Lieutenant S. Rains.

She was recommissioned in November 1791 under Lieutenant Robert Graeme for the Irish Sea, and he remained in command until late 1793. In June Viper and Graeme were at Plymouth.

French Revolutionary Wars
In October 1793 Lieutenant John Pengelley (or Pengelly) assumed command.

France invaded the Netherlands in January 1795. On 19 January 1795, one day after stadtholder William V of Orange fled to England, the Bataafse Republiek (Batavian Republic) was proclaimed, rendering the Netherlands a unitary state. From 1795 to 1806, the Batavian Republic designated the Netherlands as a republic modelled after the French Republic. On 20 January 1795, the Royal Navy seized several Dutch war and merchant vessels then at Plymouth. The British position was that the ships were not prizes, but were being held in trust for the stadtholder. until formally seized a year or so later. The naval vessels were the Zeeland (64 guns), the Brakel (54 guns), the Tholen (36 guns), the brig Pye, the sloop Mierman, and the cutter Pye. In addition, there were seven homeward and two outward bound Dutch Indiamen, and from 50 to 60 merchant vessels, all lying in Plymouth Sound. The ships were ordered round to Hamoaze where, after landing their powder, they were allowed to keep their colours flying. In time, the vessels became prizes. All the British vessels at Plymouth on 20 January 1795, including Viper, shared in the prize money arising from the seizure.

In October 1796 Dryad captured the French privateer Vautour. The letter transmitting Captain Beauclerk's letter remarked that Viper and Hazard had twice chased Vautour off the coast.

Nuestra Señora de la Piedad
On 13 March 1797, Pengelley and Viper were about seven leagues north-west from Alboran, as they were returning to Gibraltar from Algiers when she sighted a Spanish privateer. As they approached, Pengelley fired a gun, which the Spaniard answered, first with a shot and then a broadside after he hove to. At half-past one Viper closed alongside the brig. The ensuing action lasted until 3:10 p.m., when the Spaniard hauled down his colours. During the action, the Spanish several times attempted to start fires on Viper by throwing over flasks filled with powder and sulphur.

The Spanish brig was Nuestra Señora de la Piedad. She was armed with six 4-pounder and four 6-pounder guns, and eight swivels, and had a crew of 42 men. The two vessels were thus relatively evenly matched. Nuestra Señora de la Piedad had one man killed and seven dangerously wounded, one of whom died; Viper suffered no casualties.

In 1799, Viper visited Sierra Leone, leaving on 1 April in company with Triton, and returning on 3 August. Pengelly reported that he had run down the coast and found the settlements very healthy.

Viper and Furet
On 26 December 1799, at 10:15 a.m. Viper was seven or eight leagues south of the Dodman, serving as escort to a convoy of three merchant vessels, a sloop, a brig, and a three-masted ship, when she sighted a suspicious vessel sailing towards her. Realising that the approaching vessel was an enemy, Pengelley sailed towards him. The French captain thought that Viper was maneuvering with such timidity that he could prevail. The engagement commenced at 10:45 a.m. The close action continued for three-quarters of an hour, when casualties on board the privateer caused the majority of the crew of the privateer to panic, forcing the captain of the enemy vessel to take flight. A running fight of an hour and a half ensued as Viper pursued her opponent. Eventually, Viper got close enough to be able to pour two broadsides into her enemy, who then struck his colours.

The enemy turned out to be the French privateer Furet, of fourteen 4-pounder guns and 57 men under the command of Citizen Louis Bouvet. Furet was two days out of Saint Malo and had earlier that day put a seven-man prize crew aboard a vessel that she had taken. In the battle with Viper, Furet had four men killed and her first and second captains and six men wounded, four dangerously; Viper had one man wounded, with Pengelley also being slightly injured. Because both captor and captive were much damaged in their sails and rigging, Pengelley put into Falmouth, from where he intended to sail to Plymouth as soon as he could. The French wounded were transferred to the hospital of Mill Prison. Some weeks later the British paroled Bouvet and sent him in the cartel John to Morlaix.

This was a sufficiently notable single-ship action that in 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Viper 26 Decr. 1799" to the one surviving claimant from the action.

Morbihan
In March 1800 Lieutenant Matthew Forester replaced Pengelley. Viper joined Sir Edward Pellew's squadron at Morbihan on 5 June,. Then on 6 June, the boats of the squadron attacked Morbihan itself. The British were able to cut out five brigs, two sloops, and two gun vessels, and to capture 100 prisoners. The British burned the corvette brig Insolente, of 18 guns, as well as several small craft. They also destroyed the guns there and blew up the magazine. On 27 June Viper was in company with Excellent when they recaptured Lord Duncan.

Because Viper was part of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, her crew was entitled to share in the proceeds from the squadron's recapture of Lancaster on 28 June. Similarly, Viper shared in the proceeds of Vigilant, Menais, Industry (salvage for recapture), wreck of a vessel sold, Insolent, and Ann. Lastly, she shared in the squadron's capture of the French privateer Guêppe on 30 August.

Cerbère
At some point in mid-1800, Lieutenant Jeremiah Coghlan (acting) assumed command. In July 1800, Coghlan, who had been watching Port-Louis, Morbihan, proposed to Pellew that he, Coghlan, take some boats into the harbour to cut out one of the French vessels there. Pellew acceded to the proposal and gave Coghlan a cutter from Impetueux, Midshipman Silas H. Paddon, and 12 men. Coghlan added in six men and a boat from Viper, and a boat from Amethyst. On 29 July the boats went into the port after dark, targeting a brig. During the run-up to the attack the boats from Viper and Amethyst fell behind, but Coghlan in the cutter persisted.

Coghlan's initial attempt at boarding failed and he himself received a pike wound in the thigh. The French repelled a second attempt too. Finally, the British succeeded in boarding, killing and wounding a large number of the French brig's crew, and taking control. The two laggard boats came up and the British then brought the brig out of the harbour and back to the fleet.

The brig was Cerbère, of three 24-pounder and four 6-pounder guns, with a crew of 87 men, 16 of them soldiers, all under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Menagé. The attack cost the British one man killed (a seaman from Viper), and eight men wounded, including Coghlan and Paddon. The French lost five men killed and 21 wounded, including all their officers; one of the wounded men died shortly thereafter.

The Royal Navy took Cerbère into service under her existing name. Pellew's fleet waived their right to any prize money as a gesture of admiration for the feat. Pellew also recommended Coghlan's promotion to Lieutenant, which followed, though Coghlan had not served the requisite time in grade. Earl St. Vincent personally gave Coghlan a sword worth 100 guineas, in order to "prevent the city, or any body of merchants, from making him a present of the same sort". In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp, "29 July Boat Service 1800" to the four then surviving claimants from the action.

On 1 November Viper recaptured Diamond.

On 1 February 1801, Viper captured the Mont Blanc. Next, Viper and Brilliant captured Petit Felix on the 15th of the month. That same day Viper captured Jupiter.

On 1 April, Viper was in company with Atalante when they encountered four French privateers off Land's End. Three of the privateers escaped. Nevertheless, Atalante pursued one and after a chase of 17 hours captured her. She turned out to be the brig Héros, of Saint Malo. She was armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 73 men under the command of her master, Renne Crosse.

Viper shared in the proceeds of the capture of Adelaide and a brig on 8 August as part of Pellew's squadron. Viper was then paid off in October 1801.

Napoleonic Wars
In September 1803 Lieutenant Robert Jump assumed command of Viper. On 8 May 1806, Viper detained and sent into Plymouth the ship Hercules. In 1806 Lieutenant Daniel Carpenter replaced Jump. Viper, under Carpenter, detained Hetty on 6 August and Diana on 27 August.

Fate
The Commissioners of the Royal Navy put Viper up for sale on 13 October 1809 at Plymouth. She was sold that year.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Greyhound_(1780)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1837 – Birth of George Dewey, American admiral (d. 1917)


George Dewey (December 26, 1837 – January 16, 1917) was Admiral of the Navy, the only person in United States history to have attained the rank. He is best known for his victory at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish–American War.

GeoDewey.jpg

Born in Montpelier, Vermont, Dewey entered the United States Naval Academy in 1854. He graduated from the academy in 1858 and was assigned as the executive lieutenant of the USS Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil War. He participated in the capture of New Orleans and the Siege of Port Hudson, helping the Union take control of the Mississippi River. By the end of the war, Dewey reached the rank of lieutenant commander.

After the Civil War, Dewey undertook a variety of assignments, serving on multiple ships and as an instructor at the Naval Academy. He also served on the United States Lighthouse Board and the Board of Inspection and Survey. He was promoted to Commodore in 1896 and assigned to the Asiatic Squadron the following year. After that appointment, he began preparations for a potential war with Spain, which broke out in April 1898. Immediately after the beginning of the war, Dewey led an attack on Manila Bay, sinking the entire Spanish Pacific fleet while suffering only minor casualties. After the battle, his fleet assisted in the capture of Manila. Dewey's victory at Manila Bay was widely lauded in the United States, and he was promoted to Admiral of the Navy in 1903.

Dewey explored a run for the 1900 Democratic presidential nomination, but he withdrew from the race and endorsed President William McKinley. He served on the General Board of the United States Navy, an important policy-making body, from 1900 until his death in 1917.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Dewey
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1861 – Launch of French sail frigate converted to steam frigate Magicienne, 28, at Toulon


Magicienne class (50-gun type, 1845 design by Prix-Charles-Jean-Baptiste Sochet):

Magicienne, (launched 26 December 1861 at Toulon as a steam frigate) – deleted 19 April 1886.
Thémis, (launched 29 April 1862 at Toulon as a steam frigate) – deleted 7 November 1882.

Class and type: Magicienne class frigate
Propulsion: Sails, steam
Sail plan: Ship
Armament: 46 guns



1024px-Lancement_de_la_frégate_Thémis.jpg
Launch of Thémis on 29 April 1862
Lancement de la frégate Thémis à Toulon en 1862

2910.jpg

The Thémis was a 46-gun Magicienne class frigate of the French Navy.

The keel of Thémis was laid in 1847, but she took 15 years to complete: as her design would have been obsolete before completion, she was lengthened and fitted with a steam engine, and launched as a steam frigate. She took part in the French intervention in Mexico, and was one of the ships escorting the SMS Novara, carrying Emperor Maximilian to Mexico. From 29 July 1865 to the first of January 1866, she cruised the off Terre-Neuve under captain Amédée Ribourt.

In 1874, she was redesigned as a first class cruiser, and in 1878, she became the flagship of the Southern Atlantic division. She later cruised the South China Sea, until she was decommissioned in 1882, and struck in November of that year.

Until 1929, she was used as a mooring hulk in Toulon harbour. In 1930, she was sold for scrap, and eventually burnt off Lorient on 1 July 1931


Sistership
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Thémis_(1862)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1862 – Four nuns serving as volunteer nurses on board USS Red Rover are the first female nurses on a U.S. Navy hospital ship.


USS Red Rover (1861) was a 650-ton Confederate States of America steamer that the United States Navy captured. After refitting the vessel, the Union used it as a hospital shipduring the American Civil War.

USS_Red_Rover.jpg

Red Rover became the U.S. Navy's first hospital ship, serving the Mississippi Squadron until the end of the American Civil War. Her medical complement included nurses from the Catholic order Sisters of the Holy Cross, the first female nurses to serve on board a Navy ship. In addition to caring for and transporting sick and wounded men, she provided medical supplies to Navy ships along the Western Rivers.

Service under the Confederacy
Red Rover was a side-wheel steamer built in 1859 at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Confederacy purchased her on 7 November 1861, and initially put her to use as a barracks shipfor the floating battery at New Orleans, Louisiana. Serving from 15 March 1862, at Island No. 10, near New Madrid, Missouri, she was holed by Union fire during a bombardment of that island sometime before 25 March, leading the Confederates to abandon her as a barracks ship.

Captured by the Union Army
When the island fell to Union forces on 7 April, the Union gunboat USS Mound City captured Red Rover. The Union forces repaired her, fitting her out as a summer hospital ship for the Army's Western Flotilla. Her role was to augment the limited Union medical facilities, to minimize the hazards to sick and wounded in fighting ships, and to facilitate delivery of medical supplies to and evacuation of personnel from forward areas.

Civil War care of the sick and wounded

Hospital_ward_on_Red_Rover.jpg
Hospital ward on Red Rover

At the time of Red Rover's commissioning as a hospital ship, the Union was already using steamers such as the City of Memphis as medical transports to carry casualties upriver. However, these transports lacked necessary sanitary accommodations and medical staff, and thus were unable to prevent the spread of disease. Barges, housed over or covered with canvas, were ordered for the care of contagious diseases, primarily smallpox, and were moored in shady spots along the river.

Rapid mobilization at the start of the Civil War had vitiated efforts to prevent the outbreak and epidemic communication of disease on both sides of the conflict. Vaccination was slow; sanitation and hygiene were generally poor. Overworked military medical personnel were assisted by voluntary societies coordinated by the U.S. Sanitary Commission founded in June 1861. But by 1865, typhoid fever, typhus, dysentery, diarrhea, cholera, smallpox, measles, and malaria would claim more lives than gunshot.

Conversion to hospital ship
Red Rover, serving first with the Union Army, then with the Union Navy, drew on both military and voluntary medical personnel. Her conversion to a hospital boat, begun at St. Louis, Missouri, and completed at Cairo, Illinois, was undertaken by the Western Sanitary Commission with both sanitation and comfort in mind. A separate operating room was installed and equipped. A galley was put below, providing separate kitchen facilities for the patients. The cabin aft was opened for better air circulation. A steam boiler was added for laundry purposes. An elevator, numerous bathrooms, nine water closets, and gauze window blinds " ... to keep cinders and smoke from annoying the sick" were also included in the work.

Civil War service
Mound City hospital service
On 10 June 1862, Red Rover was ready for service. Her commanding officer was Captain McDaniel of the Army's Gunboat Service. Assistant Surgeon George H. Bixby became Surgeon in Charge.

On 11 June, Red Rover received her first patient, a cholera victim and American Union seaman from the gunboat USS Benton named David Sans who became the first patient taken aboard the first hospital ship in American history.[2] By the 14th, she had 55 patients. On the 17th, Mound City exploded during an engagement with Confederate batteries at St. Charles, Arkansas. Casualties amounted to 135 out of a complement of 175. Red Rover, dispatched to assist in the emergency, took on board extreme burn and wound cases at Memphis, Tennessee, and transported them to less crowded hospitals in Illinois.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, hospital service
From Mound City, Illinois, the hospital ship moved down-stream again and joined the Western Flotilla above Vicksburg, Mississippi. Through the summer, she treated the flotilla's sick and wounded while the Ram Fleet engaged at Vicksburg and along the Mississippi River to Helena, Arkansas. While off Helena, Red Rover caught fire, but — with assistance from the gunboat Benton — she extinguished the blaze and continued her work.

Transferred to the Union Navy's Mississippi operating area
In September 1862, Red Rover — still legally under the jurisdiction of an Illinois prize court — was sent to Cairo, Illinois, to be winterized. The Navy purchased her on the 30th. The next day, the Union transferred the vessels of the Western Flotilla, with their officers and men, to the Navy Department to serve as the Mississippi Squadron under acting Rear Adm. David Dixon Porter. The Navy Medical Department of Western Waters was organized at the same time under Fleet Surg. Edward Gilchrist.

In December Red Rover, used during the fall to alleviate crowded medical facilities ashore, was ready for service on the river. On the 26th, she was commissioned under the command of Acting Master William R. Wells, USN. Her complement was 47, while her medical department, remaining under Assistant Surgeon Bixby, was initially about 30. Of that number, three were Sisters of the Order of the Holy Cross, later joined by a fourth member of their order and assisted by lay nurses' aides. These women were the forerunners of the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. The Western Sanitation Commission, which also donated over $3,000 worth of equipment to the ship, coordinated the work of these and other volunteers.

In December 1862, Fleet Surg. Ninian A. Pinckney relieved Fleet Surg. Gilchrist. Pinckney imposed such strict standards on the department's day-to-day activities and ran them so well run from his headquarters in Red Rover that by 1865, he was able to claim

there is less ... sickness in the Fleet than in the healthiest portion of the globe.​
Supporting the White River expedition
On the 29th, Red Rover headed downstream. During January 1863, she served with the expedition up the White River. While the expedition took the Port of Arkansas (Fort Hindman), she remained at the mouth of the river to receive the wounded. On her departure, she was fired on and two shots penetrated into the hospital area, but caused no casualties.

From February to the fall of Vicksburg early in July, she cared for the sick and wounded of that campaign and supplemented her medical support of Union forces by provisioning other ships of the Mississippi Squadron with ice and fresh meat. She also provided burial details and sent medical personnel ashore when and where needed.

Red Rover continued her service along the river, taking on sick and wounded and delivering medicine and supplies until the fall of 1864. In October of that year, she began her last supply run. After delivering medical stores to ships at Helena and on the White, Red, and Yazoo Rivers, she transferred patients to Hospital Pinckney at Memphis, Tennessee and headed north.

Post-war decommissioning
Arriving at Mound City, Illinois on 11 December, she remained there, caring for Navy patients, until she was decommissioned on 17 November 1865. Having admitted over 2,400 patients during her career, she transferred her last 11 to Grampus on that date. On 29 November, she was sold at public auction to A. M. Carpenter.

Legacy
When accessioned recruits to the United States Navy arrive at Recruit Training Center, Great Lakes, Illinois, the first Branch Medical Clinic they visit is named BMC Red Rover. It is there that recruits get their first inoculations, immunizations, optometry screenings, female examinations, and dental screenings.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Red_Rover_(1859)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisters_of_the_Holy_Cross
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_Nurse_Corps
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1903 – SS Kiowa, a steam cargo ship built in 1903, sank


Kiowa was a steam cargo ship built in 1903 by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia for Clyde Steamship Company with intention of operating between New England and southern ports of the United States

Design and Construction
In 1901 Clyde Steamship & Co. following an increase in their freight business placed an order for two steamers of approximately 3,000 GRT to serve on their East coast route between Boston and Jacksonville. Kiowa was the second of these vessels and was laid down at the William Cramp & Sons' Kensington Yard in Philadelphia (yard number 321) and launched on 9 May 1903, with Miss Elizabeth Milne, niece of B. Frank Clyde, a general agent and vice-president of Clyde Steamship Company, serving as the sponsor. The ship was of the three-deck type, designed specifically for cargo trade, and had all the modern machinery fitted for quick loading and unloading of heavy cargoes, including a large number of derricks and modern cranes similar to her sister-ship SS Huron.

Following an inspection and the successful completion of sea trials, the steamer was transferred to her owners and departed for New York on June 14.

As built, the ship was 291 feet 2 inches (88.75 m) long (between perpendiculars) and 43 feet 1 inch (13.13 m) abeam, a depth of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). Kiowa was assessed at 2,953 GRT and 2,256 NRT and had deadweight of approximately 4,500. The vessel had a steel hull, and a single 188 nhp triple-expansion steam engine, with cylinders of 21-inch (53 cm), 34-inch (86 cm) and 56-inch (140 cm) diameter with a 36-inch (91 cm) stroke, that drove a single screw propeller, and moved the ship at up to 11.0 knots (12.7 mph; 20.4 km/h).

Operational history
Upon delivery Kiowa sailed from Philadelphia for New York on June 14, 1903. After loading, she departed on her maiden voyage on June 17, arriving at Charleston on June 20.[4][5]The vessel then continued down to Jacksonville for loading, and left it on June 24 for her return trip. After stopping at Charleston to take on more cargo, she arrived at New York on June 27, thus ending her maiden voyage.

Kiowa continued serving the same route for the rest of her career, connecting Charleston and Jacksonville with Boston and New York, with occasional stops at Brunswick. The steamer carried a variety of general cargo from the southern ports, mostly lumber, cotton, naval stores, vegetables and fruit.

In the evening of September 15, 1903 Kiowa was proceeding on her trip from Boston to Charleston, and while between Cape Poge and Cross Rip Shoal in hazy weather struck the port bow of schooner Howard B. Peck on her way from Norfolk for Calais with a cargo of coal. As a result, the schooner had her bowsprit and flying jibboom carried away together with all sails and rigging, and had a 20 feet wide gap was open in her hull. Kiowa took the schooner in tow and brought her into Vineyard Haven at around 21:00 on the same day. The steamer suffered little damage and was able to continue on her voyage.

Sinking
Kiowa left Jacksonville on the return leg of her 14th coastal trip on December 18, 1903, bound for New York and Boston. She was under command of captain Ira Ketcham Chichester, had a crew of 31 men and was fully loaded. The vessel stopped at Charleston to embark more cargo and departed from port on December 21. After calling at New York on December 23 where she discharged a portion of her load, she continued to Boston. The bulk of her cargo consisted of nearly 200,000 feet of hard pine lumber, in addition to cotton, rice, rosin, turpentine, iron and oranges and pineapples.[8][9] The vessel passed the Highland Light around 07:15 on December 26 and soon after encountered a snowstorm. The seas became rougher and the wind got stronger and when the ship arrived at the entrance to the Boston harbor the snow squalls were so thick it was nearly impossible to see anything. Under those circumstances, captain Chichester decided to anchor the ship just off the entrance to the harbor, about two miles off the Boston Light and in line with Thieves Ledge to the east. Due to heavy snowstorm, Kiowa only had one lookout and a watch officer on deck ringing the bell periodically, with the rest of the crew being below or in their quarters.[9] At about 10:00 on the same day United Fruit Company's freighter Admiral Dewey, under command of captain F. S. Israel, departed Boston carrying some cargo, mails and 35 passengers to Port Antonio and Puerto Limón. While it was snowing at the time of her departure, it was possible to see the buoys and other navigational guides, and captain Israel had no problem slowly sailing out of the harbor and through the narrows. By the time the ship arrived by Boston Light, the weather suddenly changed for the worse, with heavy snowfall reducing visibility to practically nothing. At around 11:20, about a mile south of Boston Light, one of the lookouts on board the fruiter suddenly spotted a ship lying across her course, and the captain pulled the helm hard aport and ordered the engines to be reversed, but due to very short distance between the vessels, Admiral Dewey smashed straight into Kiowa' port side nearly cutting her in half.

The ships soon separated opening a gaping hole in injured steamer's hull, and water started to rush in. Captain Chichester immediately ordered the watertight bulkhead doors closed and a distress calls were blown while Admiral Deweyremained nearby trying to figure out her damage. The distress calls were heard by the health department towboat Cormorant which happened to be about a quarter mile away from the place of the collision, towing a scow on her return trip to the city. Cormorant swung towards the vessels and as she closed in, Admiral Dewey started to move away, apparently only slightly damaged, and satisfied that Kiowa was getting attended to. Members of Kiowa's crew were mostly grouping on her bow, as her stern was slowly sinking, and were transferred one by one to the towboat. Once that was accomplished, Cormorant started toward the harbor and was soon after met by two tugs, Pallas and Storm King, sent to the rescue. 16 men were transferred to them from Cormorant and all three vessels proceeded to Boston arriving in port around 14:30.

After filing his report with Clyde Steamship Co., captain Chichester returned aboard tug Storm King to the place of the accident to evaluate prospects of salvage work. However, by the time of his arrival, the bulkhead doors that apparently kept the steamer's bow up above the water, gave in and the ship went to the bottom, sinking in approximately 6 fathoms (36 ft; 11 m) of water. The only things that could be seen were Kiowa' two masts and her smoke-stack.

The wreck was examined by divers the next day to evaluate the damage sustained by the vessel, to assess the possibility of patching the hole in her hull, and prospects of raising the ship and possible unloading her cargo. Since the condition of the steamer's hull was not fully known it was decided first to remove as much cargo as possible before further evaluation could be performed. The work on discharging cargo started right away and continued for several days while the weather was still good, with cargo being transferred to lighters and carried to port. On January 2, 1904 a storm swept through the area and possibly damaged Kiowa as a lot of wreckage came ashore afterwards, including barrels of turpentine, cases of oranges, bales of lumber and cotton. Large quantities of timber came ashore in Nantasket destroying several wooden breakwaters in the process, while many cases of oranges and barrels of oil and turpentine were washed on shore and picked up by local residents. Following the storm, the weather remained stormy for about a week and no more cargo removal was done, and in the meantime, the wreck was marked with a bell buoy to warn ships entering and exiting the harbor. Another storm came on January 11, and considerable amount of timber was seen floating around the wreck in the ice afterwards. A few more storms went through the area preventing the wrecking company from being able to do any further work on the wreck. Some of the cargo that was washed up, and collected from the sea was sold locally at auctions netting the wrecking company a few thousand dollars, while some of the timber was found washed up on the beach as far away as Chatham.

On June 8, 1904 it was announced that the wrecking company decided to abandon the work on trying to raise Kiowa. On July 16 U.S. Engineer Office gave a notice that unless the wreck of Kiowa was removed within 30 days it would be destroyed by the United States government. Another company stepped in at the end of July in an attempt to remove as much cargo as possible, and was able to clear one of the hatches and pull out some of the steamer's cargo, but all attempts to raise the vessel did not succeed. The vessel was finally abandoned on August 31, and on September 8 the Boston Towboat company, who made the original attempt to remove the cargo and raise the ship, started preparations for blowing up the wreck. On September 19 it was reported that the deck was blown up and approximately 50,000 feet of lumber was secured from the steamer's hold.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Kiowa_(1903)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1905 – Launch of Japanese Tsukuba (筑波), the lead ship of the two-ship Tsukuba class of armoured cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy.


Tsukuba (筑波) was the lead ship of the two-ship Tsukuba class of armoured cruisers in the Imperial Japanese Navy. She was named after Mount Tsukuba located in Ibaraki prefecture north of Tokyo. On 28 August 1912, Tsukuba was re-classified as a battlecruiser.

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Colorized photo of Tsukuba at anchor at Kure, after 1913

Background
Construction of the Tsukuba-class cruisers was ordered under the June 1904 Emergency Fleet Replenishment Budget of the Russo-Japanese War, spurred on by the unexpected loss of the battleships Yashima and Hatsuse to naval mines in the early stages of the war.[2] These were the first major capital ships to be designed and constructed entirely by Japan in a Japanese shipyard, albeit with imported weaponry and numerous components. However, Tsukuba was designed and completed in a very short time, and suffered from numerous technical and design problems, including strength of its hull, stability and mechanical failures. The ship was reclassified as a battlecruiser in 1912.

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Right elevation and plan of the Tsukuba-class cruisers from Brassey's Naval Annual 1915; the shaded areas represent armor.

Design
The Tsukuba-class design had a conventional armored cruiser hull design, powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, with twenty Miyabara boilers, yielding 20,500 shp(15,300 kW) design speed of 20.5 knots (38.0 km/h; 23.6 mph) and a range of 5,000 nautical miles (9,000 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph). During speed trials in Hiroshima Bay prior to commissioning, Tsukuba attained a top speed of 21.75 knots (40.28 km/h; 25.03 mph).

In terms of armament, the Tsukuba-class was one of the most heavily armed cruisers of its time, with four 12-inch 41st Year Type guns as the main battery, mounted in twin gun turretsto the fore and aft, along the centerline of the vessel. Secondary armament consisted of twelve 6-inch (152 mm) guns and twelve 4.7-inch 41st Year Type guns, and four QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns.

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Service record
Tsukuba was laid down on 14 January 1905, launched 26 December 1905 and commissioned on 14 January 1907 at Kure Naval Arsenal, with Captain Takenouchi Heitaro as her chief equipping officer and first captain. Shortly after commissioning, and with Admiral Ijuin Gorō on board, Tsukuba was sent on a voyage to the United States to attend the Jamestown Exposition of 1907, the tricentennial celebrations marking the founding of the Jamestown Colony. She then traveled on to Portsmouth, England and returned to Japan via the Indian Ocean, thus circumnavigating the globe.

After her return to Japan, Tsukuba was assigned to Captain Hirose Katsuhiko (the brother of the war hero Takeo Hirose) and escorted the United States Navy’s Great White Fleet through Japanese waters on its around-the-world voyage in October 1908. Captain Isamu Takeshita was captain of Tsukuba from July through September 1912, followed by Captain Kantarō Suzuki to May 1913, and Captain Kanji Kato from December 1913 to May 1914.

Tsukuba served in World War I, initially during the blockade of the German port of Tsingtao in China during the Battle of Tsingtao from September 1914 as part of Japan's contribution to the Allied war effort under the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. After the fall of the city, Tsukuba was sent out as part of the search for the German East Asiatic Squadron in the South Pacificuntil the destruction of the German squadron in the Battle of the Falklands in December 1914. Tsukuba remained in Japanese home waters in 1915 and 1916.

On 4 December 1915, Tsukuba was in a fleet review off of Yokohama, attended by Emperor Taishō in which 124 ships participated. A similar fleet review was held again off Yokohama on 25 October 1916.

On 14 January 1917, Tsukuba exploded while in port at Yokosuka. Some 200 crewmen were killed immediately, and over 100 more were drowned as the cruiser sank in shallow waters within twenty minutes, with a total loss of 305 men. The force of the explosion broke windows in Kamakura, more than twelve kilometers away. At the time of the disaster, more than 400 crewmen were on shore leave, which is why so many survived. The cause of the explosion was later attributed to a fire in her ammunition magazine, possibility through spontaneous combustion from deterioration of the Shimose powder in her shells.

The masts, bridge and smokestacks of the vessel remained above water, and afterwards, her hulk was raised, and used as a target for naval aviation training. It was formally removed from the navy list on 1 September 1917 and broken up for scrap in 1918.


The Tsukuba-class cruisers (筑波型 巡洋戦艦 Tsukuba-gata jun'yōsenkan) were a pair of large armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century. Construction began during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 and their design was influenced by the IJN's experiences during the war. The British development of the battlecruiser the year after Tsukuba was completed made her and her sister ship Ikoma obsolete, as they were slower and more weakly armed than the British, and later German, ships. Despite this, they were reclassified in 1912 as battlecruisers by the IJN.

Both ships played a small role in World War I as they unsuccessfully hunted for the German East Asia Squadron in late 1914. They became training ships later in the war. Tsukuba was destroyed in an accidental magazine explosion in 1917 and subsequently scrapped. Her sister was disarmed in 1922 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty and broken up for scrap in 1924.


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Colorized photo of Ikoma at anchor at Kure, 1908

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Tsukuba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukuba-class_cruiser
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1943 - The Battle of the North Cape


The Battle of the North Cape was a Second World War naval battle which occurred on 26 December 1943, as part of the Arctic Campaign. The German battleship Scharnhorst, on an operation to attack Arctic Convoys of war matériel from the Western Allies to the USSR, was brought to battle and sunk by Royal Navy (RN) forces—the battleship HMS Duke of Yorkplus several cruisers and destroyers—off Norway's North Cape.

The battle was the last between big-gun capital ships in the war between Britain and Germany. The British victory confirmed the massive strategic advantage held by the British, at least in surface units. It was also the second-to-last engagement between battleships, the last being the Battle of Surigao Strait in October 1944

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Members of HMS Duke of York's gun crews at Scapa Flow after the Battle of North Cape

Background
Operation Ostfront was an attempt by the German Kriegsmarine to intercept the expected Arctic convoys. In late December 1943, these would be the Russia-bound convoy JW 55Band the Home-bound convoy RA 55A.

On 22 December 1943, a Luftwaffe aircraft sighted JW 55B and commenced shadowing. Three days later, on 25 December, Scharnhorst (under Captain Fritz Hintze) with the Narvik-class destroyers Z29, Z30, Z33, Z34 and Z38 left Norway's Altafjord under the overall command of Konteradmiral Erich Bey.

JW 55B consisted of 19 cargo vessels under the command of the Commodore, retired Rear-Admiral Maitland Boucher, accompanied by a close escort of two destroyers, including HMCS Huron,[2] and three other vessels, and an ocean escort of eight Home Fleet destroyers led by the destroyer HMS Onslow.

Also in the area was convoy RA 55A, returning to the United Kingdom from Russia. RA 55A consisted of 22 cargo ships, accompanied by a close escort of two destroyers and four other vessels, and an ocean escort of six Home Fleet destroyers led by the destroyer HMS Milne.

Escorting the convoys to Russia was the responsibility of the Home Fleet and its Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Bruce Fraser. Fraser wished to neutralise Scharnhorst, a major threat to the convoys, and planned a confrontation over Christmas 1943 in which convoy JW 55B would be used to draw the enemy out. The previous convoy, JW 55A, had arrived safely at Murmansk with its normal escorts and additional protection from Force 1 commanded by Vice Admiral Robert Burnett in his flagship light cruiser HMS Belfast with the cruisers HMS Norfolk and Sheffield.

Fraser expected and hoped that Scharnhorst would attempt to attack JW 55B. At a conference of the captains of the ships in his force Fraser described his plan to intercept Scharnhorst at a position between the convoy and the enemy's Norwegian base before approaching the enemy within 12,000 yd (11,000 m) in the Arctic night, illuminating with star-shell, and opening fire using fire-control radar.

Convoy JW 55B had left Loch Ewe on 20 December, and by 23 December it was clear from intelligence reports that it had been sighted and was being shadowed by enemy aircraft. Fraser then put to sea with Force 2 consisting of his flagship the battleship HMS Duke of York, the cruiser HMS Jamaica and S-class destroyers HMS Savage, Scorpion, Saumarez, and HNoMS Stord of the exiled Royal Norwegian Navy. Fraser was anxious not to discourage Scharnhorst from leaving its base, so did not approach before it was necessary to do so.

As JW 55B and its escorts approached the area of greatest danger on the same day, the 23rd, travelling slowly eastward 250 mi (220 nmi; 400 km) off the coast of north Norway, Burnett and Force 1 set out westward from Murmansk while Fraser with Force 2 approached at moderate speed from the west. Scharnhorst sailed from its base at Altenfjord on the evening of 25 December and set course for the convoy's reported position as a south-westerly gale developed.[3]

Battle

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Contemporary map of the battle.

The following day, in poor weather and heavy seas and with only minimal Luftwaffe reconnaissance to aid him, Rear Admiral Bey was unable to locate the convoy. Thinking he had overshot the enemy, he detached his destroyers and sent them southward to increase the search area. Admiral Fraser, preparing for a German attack, had diverted the returning empty convoy RA 55A northward, out of the area in which it was expected, and ordered JW 55B to reverse course, to allow him to close. He later ordered four of the destroyers with RA 55A; Matchless, Musketeer, Opportune and Virago, to detach and join him.

The now unescorted Scharnhorst encountered Burnett's Force 1 shortly after 09:00. At a distance of nearly 13,000 yd (12,000 m), the British cruisers opened fire and Scharnhorst responded with her own salvoes. While no hits were scored on the cruisers, the German battleship was struck twice, with one shell destroying the forward seetakt radar controls and leaving Scharnhorst virtually blind in a mounting snowstorm. Without radar, gunners aboard the German battleship were forced to aim at the enemy's muzzle flashes. This was made more difficult because two of the British cruisers were using a new flashless propellant, leaving Norfolk the relatively easier target. Bey, believing he had engaged a battleship, turned south in an attempt to distance himself from the pursuers and perhaps draw them away from the convoy.

Once he had shaken off his pursuers, Bey turned northeast in an attempt to circle round them. Burnett, instead of giving chase in sea conditions that were limiting his cruisers' speed to 24 kn(28 mph; 44 km/h), positioned Force 1 so as to protect the convoy. It was a decision that he had some personal doubts about and which was criticised in some quarters but supported by Fraser, and to Burnett's relief, shortly after noon, Scharnhorst approached the cruisers once more. As fire was again exchanged, Scharnhorst scored hits on Norfolk, disabling a turret and her radar. Following this exchange, Bey decided to return to port, while he ordered the destroyers to attack the convoy at a position reported by a U-boat. The reported position was out of date and the destroyers missed the convoy.

Scharnhorst ran south for several hours. Burnett pursued, but both Sheffield and Norfolk suffered engine problems and dropped back, leaving Belfast dangerously exposed for a while. The lack of working radar aboard Scharnhorst prevented the Germans from taking advantage of the situation, allowing Belfast to reacquire the German ship on her radar set.

Meanwhile, the battleship Duke of York, with her four escorting destroyers already pressing ahead to try to get into torpedo launching positions, had been informed of Belfast's contact and they themselves soon picked up Scharnhorst on radar at 16:15 and were manoeuvring to bring a full broadside to bear. At 16:17 Scharnhorst was detected by Duke of York's Type 273 radar at a range of 45,500 yards (41,500 m) and by 16:32 Duke of York's Type 284 radar indicated that the range had closed to 29,700 yards (27,700 m).

At 16:48, Belfast fired star shells to illuminate Scharnhorst. Scharnhorst, unprepared with her turrets trained fore and aft, was clearly visible from Duke of York. Duke of York opened fire at a range of 11,920 yd (10,900 m) and scored a hit on the first salvo disabling Scharnhorst's foremost turrets ("Anton" and "Bruno") while another salvo destroyed the ship's aeroplane hangar. Bey turned north, but was engaged by the cruisers Norfolk and Belfast, and turned east at a high speed of 31 kn (36 mph; 57 km/h).

Bey was able to put some more distance between Scharnhorst and the British ships to increase his prospects of success. Two 11" shells from one of her salvoes passed through the masts of the Duke of York, severing all the wireless aerials, and more serious still, the wires leading from the radar scanner to the Type 284 gunnery control radar set. Lt H. R. K. Bates RNVR climbed the mast and managed to repair the broken wires, but these hits could not have been known to Bey, and his ship's fortunes took a dramatic turn for the worse at 18:20 when a shell fired by Duke of York at extreme range pierced her armour belt and destroyed the No. 1 boiler room. Scharnhorst's speed dropped to only 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h), and though immediate repair work allowed it to recover to 22 kn (25 mph; 41 km/h), Scharnhorst was now vulnerable to torpedo attacks by the destroyers. Five minutes later, Bey sent his final radio message to the German naval command: "We will fight on until the last shell is fired."

At 18:50 Scharnhorst turned to starboard to engage the destroyers Savage and Saumarez, but this allowed Scorpion and the Norwegian destroyer Stord to attack with torpedoes, scoring one hit on the starboard side. As Scharnhorst continued to turn to avoid the torpedoes, Savage and Saumarez scored three hits on her port side. Saumarez was hit several times by Scharnhorst's secondary armament and suffered eleven killed and eleven wounded.

Due to the torpedo hits, Scharnhorst's speed again fell to 10 kn (12 mph; 19 km/h), allowing Duke of York to rapidly close the range. With Scharnhorst illuminated by starshells "hanging over her like a chandelier", Duke of York and Jamaica resumed fire, at a range of only 10,400 yd (9,500 m). At 19:15, Belfast joined in from the north. The British vessels subjected the German ship to a deluge of shells, and the cruisers Jamaica and Belfast fired their remaining torpedoes at the slowing target. Scharnhorst's end came when the British destroyers Opportune, Virago, Musketeer and Matchless fired a further 19 torpedoes at her. Wracked with hits and unable to flee, Scharnhorst finally capsized and sank at 19:45 on 26 December, her propellers still turning, at an estimated position of 72°16′N 28°41′E. She was later identified and filmed at 72°31′N 28°15′ECoordinates:
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72°31′N 28°15′E. Of her total complement of 1,968, only 36 were pulled from the frigid waters, 30 by Scorpion and six by Matchless. Neither Rear Admiral Bey nor Captain Hintze were among those rescued, although both were reported seen in the water after the ship sank, nor were any other officers. Scorpion tried to rescue Bey but he foundered. Fraser ordered the force to proceed to Murmansk, making a signal to the Admiralty: "Scharnhorst sunk", to which the reply came: "Grand, well done".

Aftermath

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Blindfolded Scharnhorst survivors come ashore at Scapa Flow on 2 January 1944

Later in the evening of 26 December, Admiral Fraser briefed his officers on board Duke of York: "Gentlemen, the battle against Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that if any of you are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, you will command your ship as gallantly as Scharnhorst was commanded today" .

The loss of Scharnhorst demonstrated the vital importance of radar in modern naval warfare. While the German battleship should have been able to outgun all of her opponents save the battleship Duke of York, the early loss of radar-assisted fire control combined with the problem of inclement weather left her at a significant disadvantage. Scharnhorst was straddled by 31 of the 52 radar-fire-controlled salvos fired by Duke of York. In the aftermath of the battle, the Kriegsmarine commander, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz remarked, "Surface ships are no longer able to fight without effective radar equipment."

Stord and Scorpion fired their torpedoes from an easterly direction. Stord fired her eight torpedoes as she was about 1,500 yd (1,400 m) from Scharnhorst, while also firing her guns. After the battle Admiral Fraser sent the following message to the Admiralty: "... Please convey to the C-in-C Norwegian Navy. Stord played a very daring role in the fight and I am very proud of her...". In an interview in The Evening News on 5 February 1944 the commanding officer of HMS Duke of York, Captain Guy Russell, said: "... the Norwegian destroyer Stord carried out the most daring attack of the whole action...".


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_North_Cape
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
26 December 1943 - The Battle of the North Cape - German battleship Scharnhorst sunk by HMS Duke of York


Scharnhorst was a German capital ship, alternatively described as a battleship or battlecruiser, of Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. She was the lead ship of her class, which included one other ship, Gneisenau. The ship was built at the Kriegsmarinewerft dockyard in Wilhelmshaven; she was laid down on 15 June 1935 and launched a year and four months later on 3 October 1936. Completed in January 1939, the ship was armed with a main battery of nine 28 cm (11 in) C/34 guns in three triple turrets. Plans to replace these weapons with six 38 cm (15 in) SK C/34 guns in twin turrets were never carried out.

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Scharnhorst and Gneisenau operated together for much of the early portion of World War II, including sorties into the Atlantic to raid British merchant shipping. During her first operation, Scharnhorst sank the auxiliary cruiser HMS Rawalpindi in a short engagement (November 1939). Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Weserübung (April–June 1940), the German invasion of Norway. During operations off Norway, the two ships engaged the battlecruiser HMS Renown and sank the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious as well as her escort destroyers Acasta and Ardent. In that engagement Scharnhorst achieved one of the longest-range naval gunfire hits in history.

In early 1942, after repeated British bombing raids, the two ships made a daylight dash up the English Channel from occupied France to Germany. In early 1943, Scharnhorst joined the Bismarck-class battleship Tirpitz in Norway to interdict Allied convoys to the Soviet Union. Scharnhorst and several destroyers sortied from Norway to attack a convoy, but British naval patrols intercepted the German force. During the Battle of the North Cape (26 December 1943), the Royal Navy battleship HMS Duke of York and her escorts sank Scharnhorst. Only 36 men were rescued, out of a crew of 1,968.

Construction and characteristics

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Scharnhorst in her 1943 configuration

Scharnhorst was ordered as Ersatz Elsass as a replacement for the old pre-dreadnought Elsass, under the contract name "D." The Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven was awarded the contract, where the keel was laid on 16 July 1935. The ship was launched on 3 October 1936, witnessed by Adolf Hitler, Minister of War Generalfeldmarschall Werner von Blomberg, and the widow of Kapitän zur See Schultz, the commander of the armored cruiser Scharnhorst, which had been sunk at the Battle of the Falkland Islands during World War I. Fitting-out work followed her launch, and was completed by January 1939. Scharnhorst was commissioned into the fleet on 9 January for sea trials, which revealed a dangerous tendency to ship considerable amounts of water in heavy seas. This caused flooding in the bow and damaged electrical systems in the forward gun turret. As a result, she went back to the dockyard for extensive modification of the bow. The original straight stem was replaced with a raised "Atlantic bow." A raked funnel cap was also installed during the reconstruction, along with an enlarged aircraft hangar; the main mast was also moved further aft. The modifications were completed by November 1939, by which time the ship was finally fully operational.

Scharnhorst displaced 32,100 long tons (32,600 t) as built and 38,100 long tons (38,700 t) fully loaded, with a length of 234.9 m (771 ft), a beam of 30 m (98 ft) and a maximum draft of 9.9 m (32 ft). She was powered by three Brown, Boveri & Cie geared steam turbines, which developed a total of 159,551 shp; 118,977 kW and yielded a maximum speed of 31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph) on speed trials. Her standard crew numbered 56 officers and 1,613 enlisted men, augmented during the war to 60 officers and 1,780 men. While serving as a squadron flagship, Scharnhorst carried an additional ten officers and 61 enlisted men.

She was armed with nine 28 cm (11.1 in) L/54.5 guns arranged in three triple gun turrets: two turrets forward, one superfiring—Anton and Bruno—and one aft—Caesar. The design also enabled the ship to be up-gunned with six 15 inch guns which never took place. Her secondary armament consisted of twelve 15 cm (5.9 in) L/55 guns, fourteen 10.5 cm L/65 and sixteen 3.7 cm (1.5 in) SK C/30 L/83, and initially ten 2 cm (0.79 in) C/30 anti-aircraft guns. The number of 2 cm guns was eventually increased to thirty-eight. Six 53.3 cm (21.0 in) above-water torpedo tubes, taken from the light cruisers Nürnberg and Leipzig, were installed in 1942

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Battle of the North Cape
Main article: Battle of the North Cape
With the rapidly deteriorating military situation for the German Army on the Eastern Front, it became increasingly important to interrupt the flow of supplies from the Western Allies to the Soviet Union. By December 1943, the German Army was forced into continuous retreat. The Luftwaffe had been seriously weakened by four long years of war, and increasing Allied anti-submarine capabilities were steadily degrading the effectiveness of the U-boats. The only effective weapon at the disposal of the Germans in Norway was Scharnhorst—Tirpitz was badly damaged, and the four remaining heavy cruisers were committed to the Baltic. During a conference with Hitler on 19–20 December, Großadmiral Karl Dönitz decided to employ Scharnhorst against the next Allied convoy that presented itself. Erich Bey, by now promoted to Konteradmiral, was given command of the task force.

On 22 December Dönitz ordered Bey to be ready to go to sea on a three-hour notice. Later that day, reconnaissance aircraft located a convoy of some 20 transports escorted by cruisers and destroyers approximately 400 nautical miles (740 kilometres; 460 miles) west of Tromsø. The convoy was spotted again two days later, and it was determined that the course was definitively toward the Soviet Union. A U-boat reported the convoy's location at 09:00 on 25 December, and Dönitz ordered Scharnhorst into action. In his instructions to Bey, Dönitz advised him to break off the engagement if presented with superior forces, but to remain aggressive. Bey planned to attack the convoy at 10:00 on 26 December if the conditions were favorable for the attack. At this time of year, there was only 45 minutes of full daylight and six hours of twilight, which significantly limited Bey's operational freedom. The Germans were concerned with developments in Allied radar-directed fire control, which allowed British battleships to fire with great accuracy in the darkness; German radar capabilities lagged behind those of their opponents.

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Duke of York in the Arctic escorting a convoy

Scharnhorst and her five destroyers left port at around 19:00 and were in the open sea four hours later. At 03:19, Bey received instructions from the Fleet Command that Scharnhorst was to conduct the attack alone if heavy seas interfered with the destroyers' ability to fight. Unbeknown to the Germans, the British were reading the radio transmissions between Scharnhorst and the Fleet Command; Admirals Robert Burnett and Bruce Fraser were aware of Bey's plan for the attack on the convoy and could position their forces accordingly. At 07:03, Scharnhorst was some 40 nautical miles (74 kilometres; 46 miles) southwest of Bear Island when she made a turn that would put her in position to attack the convoy at 10:00. Admiral Burnett, commanding the three cruisers Norfolk, Belfast, and Sheffield escorting Convoy JW 55B, placed his ships between the convoy and Scharnhorst's expected direction of attack. Fraser in the powerful battleship Duke of York, along with the cruiser Jamaica and four destroyers, moved to a position southwest of Scharnhorst to block a possible escape attempt.

An hour after making the turn, Bey deployed his destroyers in a line screening Scharnhorst, which remained 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi) behind. Half an hour later, Scharnhorst's loudspeakers called the crew to battle stations in preparation for the attack. At 08:40, Belfast picked up Scharnhorst on her radar. The Germans were unaware that they had been detected, and they had turned off their radar to prevent the British from picking up on the signals. At 09:21, Belfast's lookouts spotted Scharnhorst at a range of 11,000 m (12,000 yd). The cruiser opened fire three minutes later, followed by Norfolk two minutes after. Scharnhorst fired a salvo from turret Caesar before turning and increasing speed to disengage from the cruisers. The battleship was hit twice by 20.3 cm (8 in) shells; the first failed to explode and caused negligible damage, but the second struck the forward rangefinders and destroyed the radar antenna. The aft radar, which possessed only a limited forward arc, was the ship's only remaining radar capability.

Scharnhorst turned south and attempted to work around the cruisers, but the superior British radar prevented Bey from successfully carrying out the maneuver. By 12:00, Scharnhorst was to the northeast of the convoy, but Belfast had reestablished radar contact; it took the cruisers twenty minutes to close the range and begin firing. Scharnhorst detected the cruisers with her aft radar and opened fire with her main battery guns before turning away to disengage a second time. Shortly before 12:25, Scharnhorst hit Norfolk twice with 28 cm shells. The first shell hit the forward superstructure and disabled Norfolk's gunnery radar. The second 28 cm round struck the ship's "X" barbette and disabled the turret. Scharnhorst then turned again and increased speed, in the hopes of escaping the cruisers and finding the convoy. Burnett chose to keep his distance and shadow Scharnhorst with radar while Fraser made his way to the scene in Duke of York. Meanwhile, the five German destroyers continued searching for the convoy without success. At 13:15, Bey decided to return to base, and at 13:43, he dismissed the destroyers and instructed them to return to port.


Survivors from Scharnhorstdisembarking in Scapa Flow

At 16:17, Duke of York made radar contact with Scharnhorst; thirty minutes later, Belfast illuminated the German battleship with star shells. At 16:50, Duke of York opened fire at a range of 11,000 m (12,000 yd); Scharnhorst quickly returned the fire. Five minutes after opening fire, one of Duke of York's 14 in (35.6 cm) shells struck Scharnhorst abreast of her forward gun turret. The shell hit jammed the turret's training gears, putting it out of action. Shell splinters started a fire in the ammunition magazine, which forced the Germans to flood both forward magazines to prevent an explosion. The water was quickly drained from turret Bruno's magazine. The ship was now fighting with only two-thirds of her main battery. Shortly thereafter, another 14 inch shell struck the ventilation trunk attached to Bruno, which caused the turret to be flooded with noxious propellant gases every time the breeches were opened. A third shell hit the deck next to turret Caesar and caused some flooding; shell splinters caused significant casualties. At 17:30, shells struck the forward 15 cm gun turrets and destroyed them both.

At around 18:00, another 14 in shell struck the ship on the starboard side, passed through the thin upper belt armor, and exploded in the number 1 boiler room. It caused significant damage to the ship's propulsion system and slowed the ship to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph). Temporary repairs allowed Scharnhorst to return to 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph). She managed to add 5,000 m (5,500 yd) to the distance between her and Duke of York, while straddling the ship with several salvos. Shell splinters rained on Duke of York and disabled the fire-control radar.

"Gentlemen, the battle against the Scharnhorst has ended in victory for us. I hope that any of you who are ever called upon to lead a ship into action against an opponent many times superior, will command your ship as gallantly as the Scharnhorst was commanded today."
Admiral Bruce Fraser

At 18:42, Duke of York ceased fire, after having fired 52 salvos and having scored at least 13 hits, but Scharnhorst was pulling away. Many of these hits had badly damaged the ship's secondary armament, which left her open to destroyer attacks, which Fraser ordered. The destroyers Scorpion and HNoMS Stord launched a total of eight torpedoes at 18:50, four of which hit. One torpedo exploded abreast of turret Bruno, which caused it to jam. The second torpedo hit the ship on the port side and caused some minor flooding, and the third struck toward the rear of the ship and damaged the port propeller shaft. The fourth hit the ship in the bow. The torpedoes slowed Scharnhorst to 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph), which allowed Duke of York to close to 9,100 m (10,000 yd). With only turret Caesar operational, all available men were sent to retrieve ammunition from the forward turrets to keep the last heavy guns supplied. Fraser then ordered Jamaica and Belfast to move into range and finish the crippled ship off with torpedoes. After several more torpedo hits, Scharnhorst settled further into the water and began to list to starboard. At 19:45, the ship went down by the bow, with her propellers still slowly turning. British ships began searching for survivors, but were soon ordered away after just a few were pulled out of the water even though voices could still be heard calling for help from the darkness. Of the crew of 1,968 officers and enlisted men, only 36 men survived.

Wreck discovery

Memorial for Scharnhorst's crew, at Wilhelmshaven

In September 2000, a joint expedition to find the sunken battleship conducted by the BBC, NRK, and the Royal Norwegian Navy began. The underwater survey vessel Sverdrup II, operated by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, was used to scan the sea floor. After locating a large submerged object, the research team then used the Royal Norwegian Navy's underwater recovery vessel HNoMS Tyr to examine the object visually. The wreck was positively identified by an ROV on 10 September, which located armament consistent with that of Scharnhorst. The ship sank in approximately 290 m (950 ft) of water. The hull lies upside down on the seabed, with debris, including the main mast and rangefinders, scattered around the wreck. Extensive damage from shellfire and torpedoes is evident; the bow was blown off, presumably from a magazine explosion in the forward turrets, and lies in a tangled mass of steel some distance from the rest of the hull



HMS Duke of York was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Laid down in May 1937, the ship was constructed by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 4 November 1941, subsequently seeing combat service during the Second World War.

In mid-December 1941, Duke of York transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the United States to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Between March and September 1942 Duke of York was involved with convoy escort duties, but in October she was dispatched to Gibraltar where she became the flagship of Force H.

The_Royal_Navy_during_the_Second_World_War_A12958.jpg
Duke Of York leads Nelson, Renown, Formidable, and Argonaut during the occupation of French North Africa

In October 1942, Duke of York was involved in the Allied invasion of North Africa, but saw little action as her role only required her to protect the accompanying aircraft carriers. HMS Duke of York stopped the Portuguese vessel Gil Eannes on 1 November 1942 and a commando arrested Gastão de Freitas Ferraz. The British had picked up radio traffic indicating naval espionage, possibly compromising the secrecy of the upcoming Operation Torch.

After Operation Torch, Duke of York was involved in Operations Camera and Governor, which were diversionary operations designed to draw the Germans' attention away from Operation Husky, the invasion of Sicily. On 4 October, Duke of York operated with her sister ship Anson in covering a force of Allied cruisers and destroyers and the American carrier Ranger, during Operation Leader, which raided German shipping off Norway. The attack sank four merchant ships and badly damaged a further seven.

On 26 December 1943 Duke of York was part of a task force which encountered the German battleship Scharnhorst off the North Cape of Norway. During the engagement that followed, Scharnhorst hit Duke of York twice with little effect, but was herself hit by several of Duke of York's 14-inch shells, silencing one of her turrets and hitting a boiler room. After temporarily escaping from Duke of York's heavy fire, Scharnhorst was struck several times by torpedoes, allowing Duke of York to again open fire, contributing to the eventual sinking of Scharnhorst after a running action lasting ten-and-a-half hours.

In 1945 Duke of York was assigned to the British Pacific Fleet as its flagship, but suffered mechanical problems in Malta which prevented her arriving in time to see any action before Japan surrendered.

After the war, Duke of York remained active until she was laid up in November 1951. She was eventually scrapped in 1957.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_battleship_Scharnhorst
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Duke_of_York_(17)
 
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