Naval/Maritime History 22nd of March - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1798 - HMS Pomone (44), Cptn. Robert Carthew Reynolds, sank privateer Cheri (26), Cptn. Chassin, off Ushant


On 5 January, HMS Pomone was 94 leagues off Ushant when she encountered a large ship which she pursued. In the haze, the quarry underestimated Pomone's size and armament and opened fire. The two vessels exchanged several broadsides before the quarry struck. She was the French privateer Chéri, from Nantes, and was armed with a mix of twenty-six 12, 18 and 24-pounder guns. She had a crew of 230 men under the command of Mons. Chaffin. The engagement cost Pomone one man killed and four wounded, plus damage to masts and rigging. Chéri had 12 men killed and 22 wounded, and had lost her mizzen mast and all sails, and had taken several holes to her hull as well. Reynolds took her in tow and sent over his carpenter to plug the holes when she started to sink. He sent over Pomone's boats and they were able to get everyone off Chéri, including the wounded, before she sank.


Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. HMS Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock to warrant being taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.

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Lines & Profile (ZAZ2277)

Class and type: 40-gun frigate
Displacement: 1400 tons (French)
Tons burthen: 1238 67⁄94
Length: 48.7 m (160 ft);
Beam: 12.2 m (40 ft)
Draught: 5.1 m (17 ft)
Complement:
  • French service: 325
  • British service: 300
Armament:
  • French service:
  • Battery: 26 (later 28) × 18-pounders
  • Battery at capture: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Forecastle and quarterdeck: 6 (1794 - 12) × 8-pounder guns and 4 × 36-pounder obusiers
  • British service:
  • Battery: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Battery 1799: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • Fc: 4 × 32-pounders + 2 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD:14 × 32-pounders
Pomone was built to a one-off design by Baron Charles-Etienne Bombelle. After her capture, her design inspired that of the Royal Navy's Endymion-class frigates.

French service
Pomone was built to a one-off design by Baron Charles-Etienne Bombelle. After her capture, her design inspired that of the Royal Navy's Endymion-class frigates.

Between 17 February and 28 August 1793, Pomone was stationed at Rochefort under the command of captain de vaisseau Dumoutier. She cruised along the coasts of the Vendéeand then arrived at Brest. Dumoutier continued in command in late September. From 26 February 1794 Pomone was at Cherbourg under the command of lieutenant de vaisseauÉtienne Pévrieu. He sailed her from Cancale.

The British captured her, along with Babet and Engageante, off the Île de Batz during the Action of 23 April 1794.

Capture_of_Engageante_Babet_and_Pomone_131144.JPG
Capture of Pomone, Engageante and Babet

British service
She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Pomone and the Endymion-class frigates were built to her same lines, but by the British practice of fastening.


The Endymion-class was a class of six Royal Navy 40-gun fifth-rate frigates, with the prototype launched in 1797 and five slightly amended versions built of fir launched from 1813 to 1814.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Liffey (1813), Forth (1813), Severn (1813), Liverpool (1814), and Glasgow (1814), all fir-built 40-gun Fifth Rate Frigates to be built at Blackwall by Wigram, Wells & Green. The plan records that the body was similar to that of Endymion (1797), a 40-gun Fourth Rate Frigate.

Design
In 1794, a frigate squadron under the command of Captain Sir John Borlase Warren captured the French 40-gun frigate Pomone. Surprisingly to her captors, the ship was armed with 26 × 24-pounder long guns, a main armament that was relatively uncommon for frigates in the 18th century. Furthermore, the Pomone impressed the British with outstanding sailing qualities in every variation of the wind, and being capable of sailing more than 13 knots.

On 30 April 1795, the Admiralty ordered three frigates — with 36 guns, 38 guns and 40 guns — the first and third built to the lines of the captured French frigate and the second to a new design by the Surveyors (the ship designers of the Royal Navy). The 40-gun French design was copied from the Pomone, and in November 1795 the keel was laid down at the Rotherhithe shipyard of John Randall & Company for the new ship, which on 14 November 1795 was named as the HMS Endymion. She was launched on 29 March 1797 and towed to Deptford Dockyard, where she was commissioned in April 1797 and completed on 12 June 1797.

The Endymion was not an exact copy of the Pomone, being built to British design standards with stronger construction. Surprisingly, Endymion sailed even better than Pomone, reaching 14.4 knots, the highest recorded speed during the Age of Sail. Reclassified as a 48-gun fourth-rate frigate in February 1817, then as 50-gun, and finally as 44-gun in February 1839, Endymion's fine qualities were such that she continued to be praised for nearly half a century. She was finally broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in June 1868.

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A draught for building a frigate.Each plan of the set ZAZ224-30 are in good condition and accommodation, ladders, portholes etc are all well marked. Made by Messrs Randall, Brent and Sons, Rotherhithe, for the Admiralty.

The 1812 Programme
Early in 1812, war with the United States seemed inevitable. To cope with the heavy American 24-pounder frigates of the Constitution-type, the Admiralty decided to build a batch of new 24-pounder frigates. During the long war with France, the standard British frigate was of about 1000 tons and armed with a main battery of only 18-pounders, no match for the big US ships. The only proven design for a suitable 24-pounder frigate was that of Endymion, and in May 1812 two ships were ordered from Wigram, Wells & Green of Blackwall Yard, who were to construct all five ships eventually built. They differed from the prototype by being constructed of "fir" (actually, pitch pine) rather than oak, and mounted an extra (fourteenth) pair of 24-pounder guns on the upper deck forward. All would be reclassified as 50-gun fourth-rate frigates in February 1817; however, the use of softwood in their construction was such that they were only intended for a short lifetime, and indeed all five were taken to pieces after a few years' service.

The first pair were originally ordered on 4 May 1812 as the Tagus and Eridanus of the 18-pounder armed Leda class, but were renamed on 7 January 1813 as the Severn and the Liffey. The War broke out in June, and on 26 December two further ships were ordered, becoming the Glasgow and Liverpool. The final ship was the Forth, ordered on 7 January 1813. These five new ships were of a slightly modified design, having ports for 28 instead of 26 × 24-pounders and were built of softwood, to speed up the construction. The ships were launched from June 1813 to February 1814.

Principal characteristics
There were small variations in the dimensions of the different ships:

Type: 40-gun fifth-rates, rerated as 50-gun fourth-rates in 1817
Tons burthen: 1,468 11/94 (as designed)
Length: 159 ft 2 in (48.51 m) on gundeck
Beam: 41 ft 2 in (12.55 m)
Draught: 12 ft 4 in (3.76 m)
Speed: 14.4 knots (16.6 mph; 26.7 km/h)
Complement: 300 (later 340)
Armament:
  • UD: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • 28 x 24-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 (later 16) × 32-pounder carronades
  • FC: 2 × 9-pounder guns and 4 × 32-pounder carronades
Unbenannt.JPG

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Frame plan of Ship Endymion. Made by Messrs Randall, Brent and Sons, Rotherhithe, for the Admiralty.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Pomone_(1787)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endymion-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-310436;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=E
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1800 - HMS Mastiff, Gun-boat No.35, Lt. James Watson, wrecked on Cockle Sands, Yarmouth Roads.

HMS Mastiff was launched at Leith, probably in 1797, as Herald. The British Royal Navy purchased her in 1797 and named her GB №35, and then Mastiff. She served as a convoy escort in the North Sea until she wrecked in 1800.

Tons burthen: 163 77⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • Overall: 71 ft 7 in (21.8 m)
  • Keel: 57 ft 10 1⁄4 in (17.6 m)
Beam: 23 ft 0 in (7.0 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 1 1⁄4 in (3.1 m)
Complement: 50
Armament:
  • 1797:2 × 18-pounder guns + 10 × 18-pounder carronades
  • 1810:10 × 18-pounder carronades


Career
After the onset of war with France Britain's merchant fleet provided French, and later Dutch privateers with a target-rich environment. The British Royal Navy needed escort vessels and a quick fix was to buy existing merchant vessels, arm and man them, and then deploy them. Between March and April the Admiralty purchased 10 brigs at Leith, Herald among them. The Royal Navy initially designated these as GB №__, but then gave them names before they actually sailed.

Herald, unlike some of the other vessels the Navy purchased, does not appear in Lloyd's Register, which suggests that she never sailed commercially before the navy purchased her.

The Royal Navy commissioned GB №35 in April under Lieutenant John Clements, for the North Sea. It renamed her Mastiff on 7 November 1797.

Loss
In January, Mastiff was under the command of Lieutenant James Watson. As she was sailing from Great Yarmouth on 5 January 1800, bound for Leith via the Northern Passage, she rounded the Cockle Buoy. As she did so, the wind died down. A strong ebb tide with a swell then carried her on to the Cockle Sands, wrecking her.

Two fishermen from Winterton, in Norfolk, Abel King and William Pile, volunteered to go out and try to rescue the crew. Other fishermen from Winterton joined them. In all, and at great risk to their own lives, the fishermen rescued upwards of 30 of the crew.

The navy convened a court martial on 15 January aboard HMS Glatton in Yarmouth Roads to try Lieutenant Watson for Mastiff's loss. The court exonerated Watson, his officers, and crew of the loss. It further praised Watson for his truly meritorious conduct after the wrecking, and also that of his officers and crew.

On 7 April, the Lords of the Admiralty gave 25 guineas each to King and Pile, and another 100 guineas to be distributed to the other volunteers, in recognition of their efforts to save Mastiff's crew.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mastiff_(1797)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gun-brigs_of_the_Royal_Navy
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1809 - HMS Pigeon (or Pidgeon), a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four12-pounder carronades, wrecked off Kingsgate Point near Margate


HMS Pigeon (or Pidgeon) was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner of four12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. Custance & Stone built and launched her at Great Yarmouth in 1806. Like many of her class and the related Ballahoo-class schooners, she succumbed to the perils of the sea relatively early in her career.

Class and type: Cuckoo-class schooner
Tonnage: 75 1⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 56 ft 2 in (17.1 m) (overall)
  • 42 ft 4 1⁄8 in (12.9 m) (keel)
Beam: 18 ft 3 in (5.6 m)
Draught:
  • Unladen: 5 ft 1 1⁄2 in (1.6 m)
  • Laden: 7 ft 6 1⁄2 in (2.3 m)
Depth of hold: 8 ft 6 in (2.6 m)
Sail plan: Schooner
Complement: 20
Armament: 4 x 12-pounder carronades

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth of 'Haddock' (1805), a four to six gun schooner, as taken off in October 1805 and modified on her refit. This plan was used for the subsequent Cuckoo class of gun schooners (1805) consisting of 'Magpie' (1806), 'Jackdaw' (1806), 'Cuckoo' (1806), 'Wagtail' (1806), 'Woodcock' (1806), 'Wigeon' (1806), 'Sealark' (1806), 'Rook' (1806), 'Landrail' (1806), 'Pigeon' (1806), 'Crane' (1806), 'Quail' (1806).

Service
Pigeon was commissioned in June 1806 under Lieutenant Richard Cox.

Pidgeon was at the surrender of the Danish Fleet after the Battle of Copenhagen on 7 September, Pidgeon also shared, with many other ships in the British fleet at Copenhagen in August-September 1807, in the prize money for several captures other captures: Hans and Jacob (17 August), and Odifiord and Benedicta (4 and 12 September).

Fate
Pigeon was wrecked off Kingsgate Point near Margate on 5 January 1809. At 5pm while cruising with Calliope off Flushing the two vessels parted company in a heavy gale and snowstorm. Pigeon sighted a light that her crew took to be the North Sand Head but 15 minutes later she grounded. The grounding parted her rudder post; within minutes the water was above her hold and the sea was breaking over her. The crew lashed themselves to the rigging and awaited the dawn. Unfortunately, two of her crew died of exposure during the night. The following morning local people and the Sea Fencibles rescued the survivors.


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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing upper deck, and hold and platforms for 'Haddock' (1805), a four to six gun schooner, as fitted at Portsmouth in October 1805. This plan was used for the subsequent Cuckoo class of gun schooners (1805), consisting of 'Magpie' (1806), 'Jackdaw' (1806), 'Cuckoo' (1806), 'Wagtail' (1806), 'Woodcock' (1806), 'Wigeon' (1806), 'Sealark' (1806), 'Rook' (1806), 'Landrail' (1806), 'Pigeon' (1806), 'Crane' (1806), 'Quail' (1806). Initialled by Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Portsmouth, 1803-1823].


The Cuckoo class was a class of twelve 4-gun schooners of the Royal Navy, built by contract in English shipyards during the Napoleonic War. They followed the design of the Bermuda-designed and built Ballahoo-class schooners, and more particularly, that of Haddock. The Admiralty ordered all twelve vessels on 11 December 1805. A number of different builders in different yards built them, with all launching in 1806.

Operational lives
Nine of the twelve vessels were lost or disposed of during the war, the survivors being sold in 1816. Enemy forces took four, of which the British were able to retake two. Seven wrecked or foundered with a loss of about 22 crew members in all.

William James wrote scathingly of the Cuckoo- and Ballahoo-class schooners, pointing out the high rate of loss, primarily to wrecking or foundering, but also to enemy action.[2] He reports that they were "sent to 'take, burn, and destroy' the vessels of war and merchantmen of the enemy". The record suggests that none seem to have done so successfully. In the only two (arguably three) cases when they did engage enemy vessels, in each case the enemy force was much stronger and the Cuckoo-class vessels were overwhelmed.

James also remarks that:

Their very appearance as "men of war" raised a laugh at the expense of the projector. Many officers refused to take the command of them. Others gave a decided preference to some vessels built at the same yard, to be employed as water-tanks at Jamaica. Moreover, when sent forth to cruise against the enemies of England...these "king's schooners" were found to sail wretchedly, and proved so crank and unseaworthy, that almost every one of them that escaped capture went to the bottom with the unfortunate men on board.​

Unbenannt.JPG



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pigeon_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo-class_schooner
 
Uwe,
The Pigeon seems like she would be an interesting build. Are there any photos of how this ship may have appeared to include masts and/or sails. Any details would be greatly appreciated.

Ray
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1809 - British Fifth Rate frigate HMS Loire (1798 – 40) (ex French Fifth Rate frigate 'Loire' (1795 – 44), Cptn. Alexander Wilmot Schomberg, captured French Sixth Rate corvette 'L'Hébé' (1808 - 20) off Lisbon.


Loire was a 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. She was captured following the Battle of Tory Island by a Royal Navy frigate squadron and subsequently taken into British service as HMS Loire.

Displacement: 1,350 tons (French)
Length: 46.3 m (151 ft 11 in)
Beam: 12 m (39 ft 4 in)
Draught: 5.8 m (19 ft 0 in)
Armament:
  • UD:26 × 18-pounder guns
  • Spardeck: 12 × 8-pounder guns

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This hand-coloured aquatint depicts the 'Anson' fighting broadside to broadside with the French ship 'Loire', with the 'Kangaroo' offering support from her stern quarter. 'Loire' was captured by the two Royal Navy vessels. The print is inscribed: "Capture of La Loire: Octr 18th 1798."


French service and capture
She took part in the Expédition d'Irlande, and in the Battle of Tory Island, where she battled Kangaroo, Robust, and Anson. After the battle, Loire and Sémillante escaped into Black Cod Bay, where they hoped to hide until they had a clear passage back to France. However, late on 15 October, a British frigate squadron under James Newman Newman rounded the southern headland of the bay, forcing the French ships to flee to the north. Pressing on sail in pursuit, Newman ordered Révolutionaire to focus on Sémillante whilst he pursued Loirein Mermaid, accompanied by the brig Kangaroo under Commander Edward Brace. Loire and Sémillante separated to divide their pursuers; Mermaid and Kangaroo lost track of Loire in the early evening, and Sémillante evaded Révolutionaire after dark. Mermaid and Kangaroo eventually found Loire on 17 October, but after an inconclusive fight that left the British unable to pursue, Loire broke off the engagement and escaped. The next day Loire again engaged Kangaroo and Anson, and was forced to strike after she ran out of ammunition. Out of the 664 men, including three artillery regiments and their Etat-Major, carried on board Loire, 48 were killed and 75 wounded. She was also found to be carrying a large store of clothing, weapons, ammunition and tools for her troops' intended operations. Anson had two men killed and 13 wounded, while the Kangaroo appears to have suffered no casualties.

Loire_img_3184.jpg
Capture of Loire

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The Anson taking the Loire, 18 October 1798 (BHC4240)

British service
HMS Loire was commissioned by Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland at Portsmouth in October 1802.

On 27 June 1803 Loire's boats captured the French navy brig Venteux while she was anchored close to shore batteries on the Île de Batz. Venteux had a crew of 82 men under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Gilles-François Montfort and was armed with four 18-pounder guns and six 36-pounder brass carronades. Loire lost her boatswain and five men badly wounded; the French lost their second captain and two men killed, and all five remaining officers, including Montfort, wounded, as well as eight other men wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty recognized the action with the clasp "27 June Boat Service 1803" to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded to all surviving claimants from the action. The Royal Navy brought Venteux into service as Eagle, and next year renamed her HMS Eclipse.[5]

On 17 March 1804 Loire sighted a strange vessel on the Irish station and made all sail in pursuit. She came up with and captured what proved to be the French privateer Braave, of 14 guns and 110 men.

On 16 August 1804 Loire gave chase to a suspicious-looking sail. After a chase of 20 hours, including a running fight of a quarter of an hour, during which the British had one midshipman and five men wounded, and the French lost two men killed and five wounded, the latter hauled down her colours. She proved to be French privateer Blonde, of Bordeaux, mounting 30 guns, eight-pounders on the main deck, with a crew of 240 men under François Aregnaudeau; the same ship that, about five months earlier, had captured the Wolverine. Loire took the prize in tow to Plymouth where the prisoners were disembarked on 31 August.

On 2 June 1805 boats from Loire captured the Spanish privateer felucca Esperanza alias San Pedro in the Bay of Camarinas, east of Cape Finisterre. She was armed with three eighteen-pounders, four four-pounder brass swivels and a crew of 50 men. Loire had only three men slightly wounded. The captured Spanish crew had lost 19 of their 50 men, mostly killed by pike and sword; some however jumped overboard.

On 4 June 1805 Loire made an attack on Muros. Two French privateer vessels were discovered lying in the bay, one of them being Confiance, pierced for 26 guns, 12 and 9-pounders, although not having them on board. A landing party of 50 men from Loire under first lieutenant James Lucas Yeo stormed the town's fort, which was firing its twelve 18-pounder guns at Loire. The landing party killed the fort's commander and many of the defenders, including some crew members from the privateers, and forced the remainder to surrender. Yeo hoisted the British colours, spiked the guns, and rendered the carriages unserviceable. Loire had six men slightly wounded in the shore party (including Yeo), with a further nine injured on the ship, one dangerously so. The Royal Navy took Confiance into service under Yeo's command.[8] Maitland deemed the second vessel, the brig Belier, pierced for twenty 18-pounder carronades, too unseaworthy to carry away and so burnt her. The action led to promotion to Commander for Lieutenant Yeo. Lloyd's Patriotic Fund awarded a sword worth 150 guineas to Maitland, and two swords, each worth 50 guineas, to lieutenants Yeo and Mallock.[9] In 1847 the Admiralty awarded Naval General Service Medal with clasp "4 June Boat Service 1805" to the surviving claimants from the action.

On 24 December off Rochefort, Loire and Egyptienne captured the 40-gun Libre, Capitaine de Frégate Deschorches commanding. Libre was armed with twenty-four 18-pounders, six 36-pounder carronades and ten 9-pounder guns. In the fight, which lasted half an hour, the French lost 20 men killed and wounded out of a crew of 280 men. Loire had no casualties but Egyptienne had 8 wounded, one mortally. Libre was badly damaged and had lost her masts so Loire took her in tow and reached Plymouth with her on 4 January 1806. Libre had sailed from Flushing on 14 November in company with a French 48-gun frigate but the two vessels had parted in a gale on 9 November off the coast of Scotland. The Admiralty did not purchase Libre into service.

On 22 April 1806, Loire captured the Spanish privateer Princess of Peace, 14 guns, 23 men. Loire was paid off at Deptford in October 1806.

In early 1808, while under command of Alexander Wilmot Schomberg, Loire and the frigate HMS Success (Captain John Ayscough), sailed to Greenland on fishery protection duties, venturing as far as 77° 30' North.

On 21 June 1810 Loire and Erebus escorted 100 vessels through the Great Belt into the Baltic. In September 1812 Loire was escorting the East Indiamen Lord Eldon, Dorsetshire, Scalaby Castle, Batavia, and Cornwall from Saint Helena to England.

War of 1812
On 4 December 1813 Ramillies and Loire recaptured the whaler Policy, J.Bowman, master, which the United States Navy had captured in the South Pacific. Her captors sent Policy into Halifax, Nova Scotia.

On 10 December, Loire, commanded by Thomas Smith, captured the Baltimore privateer Rolla, of five guns and 80 men, and less than a day out of port. On 18 February 1814, Loire encountered USS President off New York. Loireescaped once she realized President was a 44-gun frigate. Loire was part of the squadron patrolling the Chesapeake, joining Rear Admiral George Cockburn on 28 April 1814.

Cockburn's Chesapeake squadron, consisting of Albion, Dragon, Loire, Jasseur, and the schooner St Lawrence, took part in a series of raids. After the British failed to destroy the American Chesapeake Bay Flotilla at the Battle of St. Jerome Creek, they conducted a number of coastal raids on the towns of Calverton, Huntingtown, Prince Frederick, Benedict, and Lower Marlborough. On 15 June 1814, a force of 30 Colonial Marines accompanied 180 Royal Marines, all in 12 boats, in a raid on Benedict. Nine days later, on 24 June, a force of 50 Colonial and 180 Royal Marines attacked an artillery battery at Chesconessex Creek, although this proved unsuccessful in preventing the escape of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, which departed from St. Leonard's Creek two days later. Five Royal Marine casualties, from the ship's detachment, were suffered during June 1814.

On 7 July, Loire and Severn were ordered to cruise the upper Chesapeake, to harass American boats in general, and to attack a steamboat in particular. Although the steamboat was not intercepted, Loire returned on 14 July with ten prizes in tow. The arrival on 19 July of a battalion of Royal Marines, which had left Bermuda on 30 June, enabled the squadron to mount further expeditions ashore. On the morning of 19 July, the battalion landed near Leonardtownand advanced in concert with ships of the squadron, causing the US forces to withdraw. The battalion was deployed to the south of the Potomac, moving down to Nomini. The battalion subsequently landed at St Clements Bay on 23 July, Machodoc creek on 26 July, and Chaptico, Maryland on 30 July. The first week of August was spent raiding the entrance to the Yeocomico River, which concluded with the capture of four schooners at the town of Kinsale, Virginia. Further casualties were suffered in an engagement on 3 August 1814.

Loire sailed to Halifax, arriving on 24 October 1814. She departed Halifax as part of a convoy and arrived in Plymouth on 12 December 1814.

Fate
On 14 October 1817 the Navy Commissioners gave notice in the London Gazette that the Loire (among other ships), then lying at Plymouth, would be offered for sale at their offices from the 30th. She was eventually broken up in April 1818.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Loire_(1796)
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=5155
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=22394
 
Uwe,
The Pigeon seems like she would be an interesting build. Are there any photos of how this ship may have appeared to include masts and/or sails. Any details would be greatly appreciated.

Ray
Hallo Ray,
you are right - a very interesting hull form - something for a big scale model!

sorry I did not find until now any paintings of the ships of this class.
But the Ballahoo-class is very similar.....so maybe searching all of these ships at NMM could bring some results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballahoo-class_schooner

Jotika / Caldercraft has an 1:64 model of this class in their program:

Ballahoo_Lrg.jpg

http://www.jotika-ltd.com/Pages/1024768/Nelson_9.htm
 
Thank you so much Uwe. I think it would be interesting at 1:48. At this size, her beam would only be 4 9/16" wide and keel length of 10 19/32" long. it was just a little bigger then the HMS Victory's life boat. ;)
Ray
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1814 - Fortress of Cattaro, Adriatic, taken by HMS Bacchante (1811 - 38), Cptn. William Hoste, and HMS Saracen (1812 - 18), Cptn. John Harper - The capitulation was signed


The Siege of Cattaro was fought between a British Royal Naval detachment and Montenegrin forces under Captain William Hoste, John Harper and Petar I Petrović-Njegošrespectively and the French garrison under command of Jean-Joseph Gauthier of the mountain fortress of Cattaro (now Kotor, Montenegro). The siege lasted from 14 October 1813 to 3 January 1814 during the Adriatic campaign of the Napoleonic Wars when the French surrendered. The engagement was fought in the Adriatic Sea for possession of the important fortress of Cattaro.

Background
Further information: Adriatic campaign of 1807–1814
As part of Venetian Albania, Cattaro had belonged to the Republic of Venice from 1420 to 1797, when it passed to the Habsburg Monarchy with the Treaty of Campo Formio. In 1805, it was assigned to the French Empire's client state, the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy by the Treaty of Pressburg, but occupied by Russian troops under Dmitry Senyavin until they left after the Treaty of Tilsit in 1807. Three years later it was incorporated into the French Empire's Illyrian Provinces. Austria declared war on France in August 1813 and by the Autumn the Royal Navy enjoyed unopposed domination over the Adriatic sea. Working in conjunction with the Austrian armies now invading the Illyrian Provinces and Northern Italy, Rear Admiral Thomas Fremantle's ships were able to rapidly transport British and Austrian troops from one point to another, forcing the surrender of the strategic ports, Zara for example had been liberated in December.

Meanwhile, Royal Naval Captain William Hoste with his ship HMS Bacchante (38 guns) and a brig-sloop HMS Saracen (18 guns), under Captain John Harper had been given orders for the swift expulsion of the French in the region.[4] They took part in an attack that seized the islands of Hvar and Brač and moved along the coast. Cattaro was next on the target for the British; a body of Montenegrin troops under Petar I Petrović-Njegoš a popular spiritual and military leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church from the Petrović dynasty had surrounded the place. Saracen arrived first just outside Cattaro Bay but it was impossible to sail direct to the main fortress so Harper called on the local inhabitants to tow her along the rocky shore for 3 miles. Hoste in Bacchante arrived soon after with three Sicilian gunboats carrying fifty soldiers and assumed command. The British and Sicilians forced the passage between Herceg Novi and Fort Rosa and secured an anchorage some three miles inside the outer bay.

Blockade and Siege
On the evening of the 14th Harper left with two gunboats, the launch and barge of Bacchante and the boats of Saracen entered the inner bay where he was fired on from the Island of St George. Afterwards heading four miles towards Cattaro he found four gunboats in a state of revolt and took possession of them. He then landed at various places where the local inhabitants were arming themselves against the French and collected volunteer crews for his new captures.

1280px-Montenegro,_Kotor_01.jpg
The Northern walls of the Cattaro fortress

At Perast Hoste found that the locals had taken possession of a French fort with 3 guns which they placed at his disposal, hoisting the English and Austrian colours. At 6am he used these guns, those of his gunboats and the newly acquired gunboats to bombard the island of St. George. Then within fifteen minutes the Royal marines and the Sicilians under Captain Harper in several smaller craft attacked a French gunboat force off the island seizing all four. The following day the boats of the squadron attacked the island itself and captured it, stationing a garrison to blockade Cattaro.[6] The prize gunboats each had a long 24-pounder in the bow and two of them each carried a 12-pounder carronade.


Captain William Hoste who famously ordered guns to be hauled up the mountain to besiege Cattaro

By now only the main fortress of Cattaro was left and Hoste, Harper and his assortment of allies - British, Croats, Montenegrins and Sicilians - surrounded the area. With the help of Montenegrins and the pro-Austrian natives of the liberated shores of the Bay of Kotor, Hoste found himself in an unpleasant position between the Montenegrins and their support on the one hand, and on the other the pro-Austrian population who were unwilling to submit themselves to Montenegrin domination. Hoste made sure to remain neutral as his main objective was the defeat of the French in the region. However, he knew that politics would eventually play a role if and when the area was under allied control and therefore also had to try to satisfy the British commissioner in the region Lord Aberdeen by ensuring that the Austrians were the ones to end up with the spoils. Hoste meanwhile had been ordered to attack elsewhere leaving Harper with the Saracen in charge. Hoste in the next month helped to take Split with troops of the 35th Foot and for the next month a close blockade was made on Cattaro with the hope of the arrival of Austrian troops. Bad weather had not helped the situation and after capturing Cavtat further north Hoste soon returned to the bay but found no Austrian troops.

By early December the local French commander, General Gauthier, had retired to Fort St. John with 600 men. This fort lay on the side of the hill protecting the Western side of the fortified town of Cattaro. Hoste and Harper both agreed that use would be made of the local armed populace for the final stages of the siege. Preparations were made to place batteries all around Cattaro including the use of the top of the hill of St John as a primary position, right above the fortress itself. Hoste and Harper led their men in the difficult task of scattering batteries down the forbidding slopes of the Cattaro hills using block and tackle. In an "unmilitary manner" after 3 weeks of great exertion by Bacchante and Saracens seamen in continuous rain an 18-pounder was hoisted to the summit on 23 December, a height of nearly 3,000 feet. Meanwhile, Bacchante and the rest of her crew mounted further pieces of ordnance; two batteries of 18 and 32-pounders were added. Hoste, despite being ill, personally helped the men get the equipment up the slopes of the mountain but further North and South respectively of the fort and the main battery on the slope.

On Christmas Day, with all guns in position and with the return of good weather, Hoste ordered the commencement of the bombardment. Fire was opened up from four different points, with the 18 pounder above the St John fortress being particularly effective. Saracen and Bacchante stayed out of range of the fort's guns until the bombardment started but then opened up with all they had. Hoste on the 2nd ordered Harper to lead a surprise night time assault. This was not necessary, however, as on 3 January 1814, when Harper was about to lead an assault, Gauthier offered to surrender. After ten days of shelling and no hope of relief the French surrendered to Hoste under honourable conditions and the British and Montenegrins took control of the fort and the town. After a ten-day siege, the French garrison had no alternative and surrendered on 5 January 1814.

CattaroMedal.jpg
Medal commemorating HMS Bacchante's bombardment of Cattaro 1814

Aftermath
The loss on the British, amounting to only one seaman killed, and Lieutenant of marines slightly wounded. In the course of the twenty-day siege, Hoste had counted on the support of Austrian infantry which failed to show up. Hoste signed the articles of capitulation and the remaining French and Italian troops marched out in surrender, after which British troops marched in along with the Montenegrins. Hoste gave the town to the Montenegrin commission under Peter which aggravated Lord Aberdeen but Hoste argued that he had no choice in the matter.

Hoste with Bacchante and Saracen after a short rest and recuperation left Cattaro to sail to the fortress of Ragusa where they laid siege to the place in a very similar manner to Cattaro and on the 28th it surrendered. By the end of March all of the towns and cities had surrendered to the British or the allied rebels that had risen in revolt, leaving the Adriatic in complete allied control with the exception of Corfu. Cattaro was restored to the Habsburg Monarchy of the Austrian Empire by the Congress of Vienna.


HMS Saracen
was launched in 1812 at Portsmouth for the British Royal Navy. She had an active, though brief, naval career during which she captured a number of enemy-held islands and enemy vessels. The navy sold her in 1819 and new owners employed her as a whaler for two voyages between 1819 and 1826. She was apparently wrecked in 1828 off the coast of Chile, but with little or no loss of life.

Type: Cruizer class brig-sloop
Tonnage: 386 60⁄94, or 402 (bm)
Length:
  • 100 ft 1 in (30.5 m) (overall)
  • 77 ft 3 1⁄2 in (23.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 30 ft 8 in (9.3 m)
Draught:
  • 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) (unladen)
  • 11 ft 0 in (3.35 m) (laden)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)
Sail plan: Brig
Complement: 121
Armament:
In November Harper proceeded to move an 18-poudner gun to the summit of Mount Theodore, overlooking Cattaro, finally succeeding on 23 December. Bacchante returned and the British were able to establish four batteries with which to bombard Fort St John at Cattaro. They commenced firing on Christmans Day. On 1 January 1814 two more batteries werre brought into action. The British were preparing for an assault on 3 January when General Baron Gauthier, the French commander, offered to capitulate. The capitulation was signed on 5 January.[3] In all, Bacchante and Saracen captured 130 guns and 900 men at Cattaro.


HMS Bacchante (1811) – 38-gun fifth rate launched in 1811 at Deptford. She was converted to harbour service in 1837 and scrapped in 1858.

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The frigate HMS 'Bacchante' off the Royal Dockyard at Deptford. During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars the demand for new warships and for repair work kept the yard very busy. Inscribed: "The Bacchante off Deptford 1811". Unidentified artist.

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Lines (ZAZ2316)


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Saracen_(1812)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Cattaro
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-294025;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=B
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1913 - First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.

The Battle of Lemnos (Greek: Ναυμαχία της Λήμνου, Turkish: Mondros Deniz Muharebesi), fought on 18 January [O.S. 5 January] 1913, was a naval battle during the First Balkan War, which defeated the second and last attempt of the Ottoman Empire to break the Greek naval blockade of the Dardanelles and reclaim supremacy over the Aegean Sea from Greece.

Ottoman_vs_Greek_fleet,_1913.png
Comparison between the Ottoman and Greek fleets during the First Balkan War, 1912-13

Prelude
Following the loss of a number of Aegean Islands to Greece during the first phase of the war in 1912, and its first defeat at the Battle of Elli, the Ottoman Navy sought to check Greek progress by destroying the Greek fleet docked at the port of Moudros, Lemnos. However, it faced the problem of countering the Greek flagship, the Georgios Averof, which had already defeated them at Elli. The Ottomans developed the plan to slip a fast cruiser through the Greek patrols for a raiding mission in the Aegean, hoping to draw off some Greek ships, possibly even the Georgios Averof itself, in pursuit, leaving the remainder weakened for the Ottoman fleet to attack. Indeed, the cruiser Hamidiye evaded the Greek lookout ships on the night of 13/14 January 1913, and sunk a Greek transport ship at Syros the next day, also bombarding the island's harbour. This action caused concern in Athens, and an order was sent to the Fleet, commanding it to "sail immediately in pursuit". Admiral Kountouriotis refused to obey, suspecting an Ottoman trap, and instead prepared for the inevitable exit of the Ottoman Fleet from the Dardanelles Straits.

On the Ottoman side, efforts were made to uplift the morale of the crews, including the hoisting of the original banner of the great corsair and admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa on the flagship, Barbaros Hayreddin, which was named after him.

Battle

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The Greek flagship, Pisa-class armoured cruiser Georgios Averof. as a floating museum in Palaio Faliro, Athens

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The Ottoman flagship, the Brandenburg-classpre-dreadnought battleship Barbaros Hayreddin.

The Greek fleet, led by Rear Admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis was composed of its 9,960 ton armored cruiser flagship Georgios Averof, the three old ironclad battleships Spetsai, Hydraand Psara and seven destroyers, while the Ottoman flotilla, led by Captain Ramiz Bey included the pre-dreadnought battleships Barbaros Hayreddin, Turgut Reis and Mesûdiye and the cruiser Mecidiye, and five destroyers. The battleship Âsâr-ı Tevfik remained in the Dardanelles and did not participate in the battle.

At 08:20 on the morning of January 5, the Greek patrols signalled that the Ottoman fleet had appeared. At 09:45, the Greek fleet sailed from Moudros Bay. The two fleets met some 19.3 kilometers (12 miles) SE of Lemnos, sailing southeast in converging columns, with their flagships in front. The gunnery exchange commenced at 11:34, when the two fleets were at a distance of 8400 meters (9186 yards). Immediately the Greek column turned left, further diminishing the distance. Soon after, the Mecidiye and the accompanying destroyers turned northeast towards the Dardanelles, followed by the Mesûdiye at 11:50, after it had suffered heavy damage from the combined fire of Hydra and Psara. At 11:54, a successful salvo from the Georgios Averof hit the Barbaros Hayreddin, destroying its middle tower, forcing it to withdraw towards the Dardanelles, along with the Turgut Reis at 12:00. As at Elli, the Georgios Averof commenced independent action, using its superior speed, and maneuvering so that it could use the artillery of both its sides, to pursue the Ottoman ships, while the older battleships followed as fast as they could. The pursuit ended finally at 14:30, as the Ottoman ships were nearing the Dardanelles.

Aftermath
Throughout the battle, the Ottoman ships achieved an excellent rate of fire, firing about 800 shells, but with dismal accuracy. Only two hits were registered on the Georgios Averof, causing one injury and minor damages, while the other battleships escaped unscathed. The Ottoman ships suffered far more. Barbaros Hayreddin was hit by over 20 shells, which destroyed much of its artillery, and suffered 32 dead and 45 wounded. Turgut Reis suffered a major leak and other minor damages from 17 hits, and 9 dead and 49 wounded. Mesûdiyealso suffered several hits, but the main damage was caused by a 270mm shell which destroyed the central 150mm gun platform, and caused 68 casualties. This, the final naval battle of the First Balkan War, forced the Ottoman Navy to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war, thus ensuring the dominion of the Aegean Sea by Greece.

For the Greeks, the withdrawal of the Ottoman fleet within the Dardanelles was confirmed by 1st Lieutenant Michael Moutoussis and Ensign Aristeidis Moraitinis on January 24, 1913. They conducted a naval aviation mission, flying their Maurice Farman hydroplane over the Nagara naval base, where they spotted the enemy fleet. During their sortie, they accurately drew a diagram of the positions of the Ottoman fleet, against which they dropped four bombs. Moutoussis and Moraitinis travelled over 180 kilometers (111.8 miles) and took 140 minutes to complete their mission, which was extensively reported in both the Greek and international press.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lemnos_(1913)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_cruiser_Georgios_Averof
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Kurfürst_Friedrich_Wilhelm#In_Ottoman_service
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1945 - Kamikaze attacks continued against the U.S. Navy force bound for the Lingayen Gulf. Eight ships were hit and Rear Admiral Theodore E. Chandler was among those who were killed.


Theodore Edson Chandler (December 26, 1894 – January 7, 1945) was an Rear admiral of the United States Navy during World War II, who commanded battleship and cruiser divisions in both the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets. He was killed in action when a Japanese kamikaze aircraft struck his flagship Louisville on January 6, 1945 in Lingayen Gulf, Philippine Islands. He died the next day January 7, 1945 from severely scorched lungs.

Theodore_E._Chandler.jpg

World War II
Atlantic campaigns

Chandler relieved Capt. P. P. Powell as commanding officer of the light cruiser Omaha on October 15. Shortly over three weeks later, an event occurred that highlighted Chandler's tour in command of the light cruiser.

On the morning of November 6, 1941, Omaha, in company with the destroyer Somers, came across a darkened ship that acted suspiciously when challenged. That ship—although bearing the name Willmoto and purportedly operating out of Philadelphia—proved to be the German blockade runner Odenwald, bound for Germany with 3,857 metric tons of raw rubber in her holds. Scuttled by her crew, the German ship began to sink; but Capt. Chandler sent a party on the German vessel that controlled the flooding and salvaged the ship. It proved to be the last time that American sailors received prize money.

For most of the next 18 months, Omaha cruised the waters of the South Atlantic in search of German blockade runners and submarines. That tour of duty ended in April 1943, when Chandler was selected to command United States naval forces in the Aruba-Curaçao area. On May 3, 1944, he was promoted to rear admiral. In July 1944, Rear Admiral Chandler took command of Cruiser Division 2 (CruDiv 2), Atlantic Fleet. In that capacity, he participated in Operation Dragoon, the invasion of southern France in mid-August, and commanded the "Sitka-Romeo" force which captured the Iles d'Hyeres just off the coast of Provence.

Pacific campaigns
Shortly thereafter, Rear Admiral Chandler was given command of Battleship Division 2 (BatDiv 2) of the Pacific Fleet.

He reported for duty on October 2 in time to command his ships — part of Rear Admiral Jesse B. Oldendorf's bombardment group — during the Leyte invasion and helped to repulse the Japanese southern attack group—Vice AdmiralsShoji Nishimura's Force "C" and Kiyohide Shima's 2d Striking Force—in the Surigao Strait phase of the Battle for Leyte Gulf.

On December 8, 1944, Rear Admiral Chandler was shifted to command of CruDiv 4 and flew his flag above USS Louisville. During the voyage from Leyte to Lingayen for the invasion of Luzon, Chandler's cruisers came under heavy Japanese air attacks—mostly by kamikazes.

USS_Louisville_(CA-28)_is_hit_by_a_kamikaze_in_Lingayen_Gulf_on_6_January_1945_(80-G-363217).jpg
USS Louisville attacked 6 January 1945

Late in the afternoon of January 5, 1945, a group of sixteen kamikazes swooped in on the force then about 100 miles (200 km) from Manila Bay. One of the four successful kamikazes crashed into Rear Admiral Chandler's flagship USS Louisville at her number No. 2 main battery 8-inch 55 caliber gun knocking it completely out of commission, but continued her bombarding mission and downed several planes. On January 6, 1945 the cruiser suffered more severely during a repeat performance. At 17:30, another kamikaze plunged into the cruiser's starboard side at the signal bridge where explosives wrought havoc. Rear Admiral Chandler jumped from the bridge to the signal bridge though horribly burned by gasoline flames, Chandler helped deploy fire hoses alongside enlisted men to stop the flames and then waited his turn for first aid with those same ratings. The admiral, his lungs scorched very severely, was beyond help. He died the next day January 7, 1945 in spite of the efforts of the medical department. Admiral Chandler is listed on the Tablets of the Missing at the Manila Philippines National Cemetery



Lingayen Gulf
Despite the Americans' success in driving out the Japanese army encamped at the Gulf, the Americans suffered relatively heavy losses, particularly on their convoys due to Japanese kamikaze suicide attacks. From 4 through 12 January, a total of 24 ships were sunk and 67 damaged by kamikaze planes, including the battleships USS Mississippi and Colorado (accidentally hit by friendly fire), the heavy cruiser USS Louisville (CA-28), the light cruiser USS Columbia, and the minesweepers USS Long and Hovey.


USS Louisville (CL/CA-28), a Northampton-class cruiser, was the third ship of the United States Navy to be named for the city of Louisville, Kentucky. She was active throughout the Pacific War. USS Louisville was the first large warship to be built in a drydock.

1920px-USS_Louisville_(CA-28)_visiting_Australia,_2_February_1938.jpg
USS Louisville in 1938

Louisville was launched on 1 September 1930 at the Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington, sponsored by Miss Jane Brown Kennedy, and commissioned on 15 January 1931, Captain Edward John Marquart in command. Louisville since commissioning day has carried, on the prominent bulkhead, a shoe of the great stallion, Man o' War, as a talisman against evil.

Originally classified as a light cruiser, CL-28, because of her thin armor. Effective 1 July 1931, Louisville was redesignated a heavy cruiser, CA-28, because of her 8-inch guns in accordance with the provisions of the London Naval Treaty of 1930


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_E._Chandler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Louisville_(CA-28)
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
5 January 1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.


The Tasman Bridge disaster occurred on the evening of 5 January 1975, in Hobart, the capital city of Australia's island state of Tasmania, when a bulk ore carrier travelling up the Derwent River collided with several pylons of the Tasman Bridge, causing a large section of the bridge deck to collapse onto the ship and into the river below. Twelve people were killed, including seven crew on board the ship, and the five occupants of four cars which fell 45 m (150 feet) after driving off the bridge. This severed Hobart from its eastern suburbs, and the loss of the main road connection had a social and economic impact.

View_of_the_Tasman_Bridge_from_Kalatie_Road_Montague_Bay_looking_toward_the_Powder_Jetty_over_...jpg
Tasman Bridge from east following collision, 1975

Collision and collapse

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Model showing the scene on the bottom of the Derwent River

TasmanBridgeDisaster1.PNG
The collision occurred at 9:27 p.m. (Australian Eastern Summer Time UT+11) on Sunday 5 January 1975. The bulk carrier Lake Illawarra, carrying 10,000 tonnes of zinc ore concentrate, was heading up the Derwent River to offload its cargo to the Electrolytic Zinc Company at Risdon, upstream from Hobart and about 3 km from the bridge. The 1,025m long main viaduct of the bridge was composed of a central main navigation span, two flanking secondary navigation spans, and 19 approach spans. The ship was off course as it neared the bridge, partly due to the strong tidal current but also because of inattention by the ship's master, Captain Boleslaw Pelc. Initially approaching the bridge at eight knots, Pelc slowed the ship to a 'safe' speed. Although the Lake Illawarra was capable of passing through the bridge's central navigation span, the captain attempted to pass through one of the eastern spans.

Despite several changes of course, the ship proved unmanageable due to its insufficient speed relative to the current. In desperation the captain ordered 'full speed astern', at which point all control was lost. The vessel drifted towards the bridge midway between the central navigation span and the eastern shore, crashing into the pile capping of piers 18 and 19, bringing three unsupported spans and a 127 m section of roadway crashing into the river and onto the vessel's deck. The ship listed to starboard and sank within minutes in 35 m of water a short distance to the south. Seven crew members on the Lake Illawarra were trapped and drowned. The subsequent marine court of inquiry found that the captain had not handled the ship in a proper and seamanlike manner, and his certificate was suspended for six months.



As the collision occurred on a Sunday evening, there was relatively little traffic on the bridge. While no cars were travelling between the 18th and 19th pylons when that section collapsed, four cars drove over the gap, killing five occupants. Two drivers managed to stop their vehicles at the edge, but not before their front wheels had dropped over the lip of the bridge deck. One of these cars contained Frank and Sylvia Manley.

Sylvia Manley: "As we approached, it was a foggy night ... there was no lights on the bridge at the time. We just thought there was an accident. We slowed down to about 40 km/h and I'm peering out the window, desperately looking to see the car ... what was happening on the bridge. We couldn't see anything but we kept on travelling. The next thing, I said to Frank, "The bridge is gone!" And he just applied the brakes and we just sat there swinging.[3] As we sat there, we couldn't see anything in the water. All we could see was a big whirlpool of water and apparently the boat was sinking. So with that, we undid the car door and I hopped out."​
Frank Manley: "[Sylvia] said "The white line, the white line's gone. Stop!" I just hit the brakes and I said "I can't, I can't, I can't stop." And next thing we just hung off the gap...when I swung the door open, I could see, more or less, see the water...and I just swung meself towards the back of the car and grabbed the headrest like that to pull myself around. There's a big automatic transmission pan underneath [the car] – that's what it balanced on."​
The other car contained Murray Ling, his wife Helen and two of their children. They were driving over the bridge in the east-bound lanes when the span lights went out."I knew something bad must have happened so I slowed down". Ling then noticed several cars ahead of him seemingly disappear as they drove straight over the edge and slammed his foot on the brakes. He stopped the car inches from the drop. A following car, caught unaware by the unexpected stop, drove into the rear of Ling's car, pushing its front wheels over the breach. He, too, eased himself and his young family out of the car, then stood there horrified as two other cars ignored his attempts to wave them down, raced past, one of which actually swerved around to avoid him, and hurtled over the edge into the river. A loaded bus full of people swerved and skidded slamming into the side railings after being waved down by Ling.

1280px-Tasman_Bridge.jpg

Emergency response
Private citizens living nearby were on the scene early, even before the ship had sunk. Three of these were Jack Read in his H28 yacht Mermerus, David Read in a small launch, and Jerry Chamberlain, who had their boats moored in Montagu Bay close by. These and others, and many shore-based residents, were responsible for saving many of the crewmen from the Lake Illawarra. Those in small craft acted alone in very difficult circumstances with falling cement, live wires, and water from a broken pipe above, until the water police arrived on the scene. A large number of other organisations were involved in the emergency response, including police, ambulance service, fire brigade, Royal Hobart Hospital, Civil Defence, the Hobart Tug Company, Marine Board of Hobart, Public Works Department, Transport Commission, HydroElectric Commission, Hobart Regional Water Board, the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Navy. At 2:30 am, a 14-man Navy Clearance Diving Team flew to Hobart to assist Water Police in the recovery of the vehicles which had driven off the bridge. Two vehicles were identified on 7 January; one was salvaged that day and the second three days later. Another vehicle was found buried under rubble on 8 January.

A comprehensive survey of the wreck of the Lake Illawarra was completed by 13 January. The divers operated in hazardous conditions, with little visibility and strong river currents, contending with bridge debris such as shattered concrete, reinforced steel rods, railings, pipes, lights, wire and power cables. Strong winds on the third day brought down debris from the bridge above, including power cables, endangering the divers working below.

A total of 12 people died in the disaster: seven crew of the MV Lake Illawarra and five motorists.

A divided city

Geography of Hobart, showing the main part of the city on the west (green), and outer suburbs (blue)

Facilities
The collapse of Tasman Bridge isolated two sides of the city which had heavily relied upon it for most daily activities.[7] 30% of Hobart's residents lived on the eastern shore and were effectively isolated. The day after the incident, as 30,000 residents set out for work, they found that the former three-minute commute over the bridge had turned into a 90-minute trip.[8] Within an hour of the incident, the Sullivans Cove Ferry Company started services across the river, and continued its services throughout the night.

Three private ferries and a government vessel were in place the next day. People on the eastern shore quickly became isolated, as most schools, hospitals, businesses and government offices were located on the western shore. Prior to the disaster, many services on the eastern shore were severely lacking.[9] Access to medical services in particular posed problems for residents in the east, as services consisted only of local clinics. Hobart's hospitals—the Royal Hobart Hospital and the Calvary Hospital—were located on the western shore. What was previously a short drive across the river became a 50 km (31 mi) trip via the estuary's other bridge in Bridgewater. Most of Hobart's cultural activities, such as theatres, cinemas, the museum and art gallery, restaurants, meeting places, lecture theatres and the botanical gardens, were located on the western shore.


Social effects
The disaster caused a variety of social and psychological difficulties. Although comparatively minor in loss of life and damage, it presented a problem beyond the capacity of the community to resolve. The disaster had unique characteristics and occurred at a time when the effects of disasters on communities were not well understood. "Opportunities for the community to be involved in the response to the disaster and the physical restoration of infrastructure were minimal because of the nature of the event. It is likely that this lack of community involvement contributed to the enduring nature of the effects of the disaster on a number of individuals."

A study of police data found that in the six months after the disaster, crime rose 41% on the eastern shore, while the rate on the city's western side fell. Car theft rose almost 50% in the isolated community, and neighborhood quarrels and complaints rose 300%. Frustration and anger was directed towards the transport services. Visible progress on restoration of the bridge was slow because of the need for extensive underwater surveys of debris and the time required for design of the rebuilding. "The ferry queues did however provide some assistance by providing a forum where people with much in common could vent their frustration." A sociological study described how the physical isolation led to debonding (the setting aside of bonds that constitute the fabric of normal social life). The loss of the Tasman Bridge in Hobart disconnected two parts of the city and had far-reaching effects on the people separated.

The disaster was a major contributor to ferry services being the lifeline for people needing to cross the river for daily work. Bob Clifford was the major operator of ferries at the time, and quickly built more of his small aluminium craft, using his company Sullivans Cove Ferry Company. He later went on to become the major Tasmanian shipbuilder with a firm which continues today, called Incat.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 5 January


1709 HMS Arrogant (60), Cptn. George Nichols, foundered in a storm while taking naval stores from Lisbon to Port Mahon.

HMS Arrogant (1705) was a 60-gun third rate captured from the French in 1705. She was carrying naval stores between Gibraltar and Port Mahon when she foundered in 1709; there were no survivors


1776 - The first Continental Navy squadron is ordered to sea by Congress to seek the British off coasts of the Carolinas and Rhode Island and in the Chesapeake Bay.


1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.

In 1775, Patrick Henry delivered his famous "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech in St. John's Church in Richmond, crucial for deciding Virginia's participation in the First Continental Congress and setting the course for revolution and independence. On April 18, 1780, the state capital was moved from the colonial capital of Williamsburg to Richmond, to provide a more centralized location for Virginia's increasing westerly population, as well as to isolate the capital from British attack. The latter motive proved to be in vain, and in 1781, under the command of Benedict Arnold, Richmond was burned by British troops, causing Governor Thomas Jefferson to flee as the Virginia militia, led by Sampson Mathews, defended the city.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richmond,_Virginia


1795 HMS Blanche (32), Cptn. Robert Faulknor (Killed in Action), captured the French frigate Pique (36), Cptn. Conseil, off Guadeloupe

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


1795 – Spanish Triunfante 70/74 (launched 1 February 1756 at Ferrol) - Wrecked 5 January 1795


1806 British operation to capture the Cape of Good Hope bugun by a squadron under Commodore Sir Home Popham


1807 HMS Nautilus (18), Edward Palmer, wrecked off the Island of Pora.

HMS Nautilus (1804) was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1804 and wrecked in 1807. It took six days for help to arrive and 62 of the 122 men aboard died


1809 - The Treaty of the Dardanelles (also known as the Dardanelles Treaty of Peace, Commerce, and Secret Alliance, the Treaty of Çanak, the Treaty of Chanak or Turkish: Kale-i Sultaniye Antlaşması) was concluded between the Ottoman Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at Çanak, Ottoman Empire.

The treaty ended the Anglo-Turkish War. The Porte restored extensive British commercial and legal privileges in the empire. The United Kingdom promised to protect the integrity of the Ottoman Empire against the French threat, both with its own fleet and through weapons supplies to Constantinople. The treaty affirmed the principle that no warships of any power should enter the straits of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus. The treaty anticipated the London Straits Convention of 1841, by which the other major powers committed themselves to this same principle.

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


1814 Fortress of Gluckstadt on the Elbe captured, in co-operation with the Crown Prince of Sweden, by a British squadron under the command of Cptn. A. Farquhar of HMS Desiree (36) with HMS Shamrock schooner (10), J. Marshall, HMS Hearty brig (12), J. Eose, HMS Blazer brig (14), Lt. Francis Banks, HMS Piercer brig (14), Lt Joshua Kneeshaw, HMS Redbreast brig (12), Sir George Mouat Keith, and eight gun boats.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Désirée_(1796)


1855 USS Plymouth (22) crew skirmish with Chinese troops

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Plymouth_(1844)


1875 - Cmdr. Edward Lull leaves New York to begin the Panamanian Expedition to locate the best ship canal route across Panama. The route mapped is followed 30 years later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_P._Lull


1944 - USS Omaha (CL 4) and USS Jouett (DD 396) were summoned to engage the German blockade runner Burgenland under the guise of SS Rio Grande. Gunfire and scuttling charges, sank the German runner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Omaha_(CL-4)#Sinking_of_Rio_Grande_and_Burgenland


1970 - USS Starlight (AP-175) was a United States Navy Storm King-class auxiliary transport in commission from 1944 to 1945. She was designed as a troop carrier. After her naval service she became the civilian cargo ship SS Badger State. She sank in January 1970 after her an explosion of a cargo of munitions on December 26, 1969, with the loss of 26 of her crew of 40

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Starlight_(AP-175)


1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Braer
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1760 - HMS Mermaid (24), Cptn. James Hackman, wrecked off the Bahamas


HMS Mermaid was a 24-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy, built in 1748-49, which served in the Seven Years' War.

Construction and commissioning
Mermaid was ordered on 4 February 1748, with the contract being awarded to Henry Adams, of Bucklers Hard, with the keel being laid on 2 April. She was built to a design by the Surveyor of the Navy Joseph Allin, named Mermaid on 6 December, launched on 22 May 1749 and completed on 7 August 1749 at Portsmouth Dockyard, having cost £4,211.16.7d to build, and with a further £3,829.3.11d spent on fitting her out.

Class and type: Sixth-rate post ship
Tons burthen: 533 tons
Length:
  • 114 ft 10.5 in (35.014 m) (overall)
  • 96 ft 10 in (29.51 m) (keel)
Beam: 32 ft 2 in (9.80 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 2.5 in (3.112 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 160
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 22 × 9 pdrs
  • Quarter deck: 2 x 3 pdrs
large.jpg Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines, and the longitudinal half-breadth 'Mermaid' (1749), a 24-gun Sixth Rate. Note that while this plan is unnamed, the dimensions correspond to Joshua Allin's design for 'Mermaid' (1749). Signed by Joseph Allin [Surveyor of the Navy, 1749-1755].

Career
Her first commander was Captain John Montagu, who commissioned her in June 1749, and sailed her to New York in August 1749. Montagu was succeeded by Captain Edward Keller in 1750, then later that year by Captain Elias Bate. On 15 September 1752, she was driven ashore in a hurricane at Charles Town, South Carolina, British America. In 1753, command was taken by Captain John Hollwall. Mermaid served this first commission in North American and Caribbean waters, and was decommissioned in July 1753. She refitted and underwent repairs over the next few months, and recommissioned in January 1754 under Captain Washington Shirley, sailing for New England in July 1754. Captain Alexander Innes took command in 1756, and was succeed by Captain James Hackman in 1758. She bilged on a sandbank off Big Grand Cay in the Bahamas on 4 December 1759 and was abandoned as a wreck on 6 January 1760.

large (1).jpg
Lines & Profile (ZAZ3742)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mermaid_(1749)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-330785;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=M
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1762 - HMS Venus (1758 - 32) Cptn. Thomas Harrison, took French Merchantman east indiaman 'Le Boullongne' (1758 - 26).


From: The Gentleman's magazine. v. 32 (1762).

Capt. Harrison of the Venus frigate, brought into Plymouth, the Boulogne from the Isle of France, laden with coffee and pepper, M. de St. Romaine, commander. She was taken after an hours engagement, in which time she had 7 men killed and 20 wounded. She had been about 3 months from the Isle of France and left M. de Apobe's squadron there.


HMS Venus (renamed HMS Heroine in 1809) was the name ship of the 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and served for more than half a century until 1809. She was reduced from 36 guns to 32 guns in 1792. She was sold in 1822.

lossy-page1-1280px-Action_between_HMS_Venus_and_the_Semillante,_27_May_1793_RMG_BHC0463.tiff.jpg
Action between HMS Venus and the Semillante, 27 May 1793
An incident from the beginning of the French Revolutionary Wars, 1793-1815. The British ship ‘Venus’ commanded by Captain Jonathan Faulkner, sighted a strange sail at 03:00 when 120 miles south-west of Cape Finisterre. About 07:00 the ship put out blue colours and the ‘Venus’ answered by signalling a private code to which the other ship made no reply. The first shots were fired about 07:30 and then a close action from 08:00 to about 10:00. By this time the French frigate ‘Semillante’ was almost silenced, her captain and first lieutenant were killed and she had five feet of water in her hold. The ‘Venus’ was trying to close her to take possession when she bore away towards another ship that had appeared and which proved to be another French frigate. The sails, rigging and spars of the British frigate had taken the brunt of the enemy fire and were extremely cut up so that a further engagement was inadvisable. Indeed she was lucky to escape an encounter with a fresh opponent.
In the right centre foreground, both frigates are shown starboard quarter view, with the ‘Semillante’ on the right. Most of her port lids have fallen shut, her main topgallant mast seems about to fall, and her colours are being struck. The ‘Venus’ is shown still firing although she is shot through and there are gaping holes in her main topsail. A seaman on the gunwhale of the quarter-deck can be seen putting out a small fire. In the left background of the painting is another French frigate, highlighting the precarious plight of the ‘Venus’. The painting is signed ‘T Elliott Pinxt’.



Class and type: Venus-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 722 29⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 128 ft 4 1⁄2 in (39.1 m) (gundeck)
  • 106 ft 3 in (32.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Depth of hold: 12 ft 4 in (3.8 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 240 officers and men (215 from 1792)
Armament:
  • As built:
  • Upperdeck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 8 × 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns
  • From 1792:
  • Upperdeck: 24 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 6 × 6-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns

large (2).jpg large (3).jpg
Lines & Profile (ZAZ2625)

Construction:
The Venus class of 36-gun frigates were designed by Thomas Slade, the Surveyor of the Navy and former Master Shipwright at Deptford Dockyard. Alongside their smaller cousin, the 32-gun Southampton class, the Venus-class represented an experiment in ship design; fast, medium-sized vessels capable of overhauling smaller craft and singlehandedly engaging enemy cruisers or privateers. As a further innovation, Slade borrowed from contemporary French ship design by removing the lower deck gun ports and locating the ship's cannons solely on the upper deck. This permitted the carrying of heavier ordinance without the substantial increase in hull size which would otherwise have been required in order to keep the lower gun ports consistently above the waterline. The lower deck was instead used for additional stores, enabling Venus-class frigates to remain at sea for longer periods without resupply.

Sir_Thomas_Slade.jpg
Sir Thomas Slade, naval architect for Pallas in 1756

Armament
Venus' principal armament was 26 iron-cast twelve-pound cannons, located along her upper deck. The guns were constructed with shorter barrels as traditional twelve-pound cannons were too long to fit within the frigate's narrow beam. Each cannon weighed 28.5 long cwt (3,200 lb or 1,400 kg) with a gun barrel length of 7 feet 6 inches (2.29 m) compared with their 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m) equivalent in larger Royal Navy vessels.

The twelve-pound cannons were supported by ten six-pounder guns, eight on the quarterdeck and two on the forecastle, each weighing 16.5 long cwt (1,800 lb or 800 kg) with a barrel length of 6 feet (1.8 m). Taken together, the twelve-pound and six-pound cannons provided a broadside weight of 189 pounds (86 kg). She was also equipped with twelve 1⁄2-pound swivel guns for anti-personnel use. These swivel guns were mounted in fixed positions on the quarterdeck and forecastle.

Crew
Her designated complement was 240 men, comprising four commissioned officers – a captain and three lieutenants – overseeing 50 warrant and petty officers, 108 naval ratings, 44 Marines and 34 servants and other ranks. Among these other ranks were five positions reserved for widow's men – fictitious crew members whose pay was intended to be reallocated to the families of sailors who died at sea.

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Lines (ZAZ2623)

Career
On 18 May 1759, Venus, HMS Thames, and HMS Chatham, were in company when Venus intercepted the French frigate Arethuse near Audierne Bay (Baie d'Audierne (in French)). After a two-hour chase, Arethuse lost her top masts and was overtaken. Thames and Venus engaged her with heavy fire, causing 60 casualties before she surrendered. Arethuse subsequently had a lengthy career as HMS Arethusa.

French Revolutionary Wars
On 27 May 1793, Venus, Captain Jonathon Faulkner, encountered the French frigate La Sémillante south-west of Cape Finisterre which resulted in close action.[2] "The sails, rigging and spars of the British frigate had taken the brunt of the enemy fire and were extremely cut up so that a further engagement was inadvisable. Indeed she was lucky to escape an encounter with a fresh opponent."

On 17 July 1801, Tromp, Circe, and Venus left Portsmouth with a convoy to the West Indies.

Napoleonic Wars
On the morning of 10 July 1805, Venus encountered the French privateer brig Hirondelle. After a chase of 65 miles, during which Hirondelle threw two of her 6-pounder guns overboard, Venus succeeded in capturing her quarry. Hirondelle, of Dunkirk, was armed with four 6-pounder guns and twelve 3-pounder guns, and had a crew of 90 men. She left Gigeon, Spain, on 27 June, but had not captured anything. However, on prior cruise, she had captured several vessels, most notably the Falmouth packet Queen Charlotte, which had resisted for some two hours before striking her colours.

On 18 January 1807 Venus captured the French privateer brig Determinée of Guadeloupe, one hundred leagues east of Barbados after a chase of 16 hours. Determinée had a crew of 108 men and was pierced for 20 guns but carried only 14. The British took her into service as Netley.

Venus was paid-off and put into Ordinary in July 1807 at Woolwich. On 14 July 1807 she was renamed Heroine after the capture of the Danish vessel Venus.

Between March and May 1809 she was fitted for Baltic service. Captain Hood Hanway Christian recommissioned Heroine in March and commanded her until November 1809.[9]Heroine participated in the reduction of Flushing in 1809 during the Walcheren Campaign. In this engagement Heroine was part of a squadron of ten frigates under the command of Captain Lord William Stuart. On 11 August 1809 this squadron sailed up the western Scheldt under a light wind, suffering minor damage from the shore batteries of Flushing and Cadzand. Two men were wounded on Heroine.

Fate
Heroine was paid off and laid up at Sheerness between November 1809 and December 1823. Between 1817 and 1820 she served as a receiving ship. Then between December 1823 and June 1824 she underwent fitting at Woolwich to serve as a temporary convict ship. The "Principle Officers and Commissioners of His Majesty's Navy offered "Heroine, of 32 guns and 722 tons", lying at Deptford, for sale on 22 September 1828. She was sold on that date to John Small Sedger for £1,170.


The Venus-class frigates were three 36-gun sailing frigates of the fifth rate produced for the Royal Navy. They were designed in 1756 by Sir Thomas Slade, and were enlarged from his design for the 32-gun Southampton-class frigates, which had been approved four months earlier.

The 36-gun frigates, of which this was to be the only British design in the era of the 12-pounder frigate, carried the same battery of twenty-six 12-pounders as the 32-gun predecessors; the only difference lay in the secondary armament on the quarter deck, which was here doubled to eight 6-pounders. Slade's 36-gun design was approved on 13 July 1756, on which date two ships were approved to be built by contract to these plans. A third ship was ordered about two weeks later, to be built in a royal dockyard.

The Venus-class were faster than their Southampton-class predecessors, making up to 13 knots ahead of strong winds and ten knots while close-hauled compared with Southampton-class speeds of 12 and 8 knots respectively. Both Venus- and Southampton-class frigates were highly maneuverable and capable of withstanding heavy weather, in comparison with their French counterparts during the Seven Years' War

Unbenannt.JPG



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Venus_(1758)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-357285;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=V
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus-class_frigate
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=7302
https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=16503
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1783 – Launch of HMS Dictator, a 64-gun Inflexible-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, at Limehouse.


HMS Dictator was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 6 January 1783 at Limehouse. She was converted into a troopship in 1798, and broken up in 1817

Class and type: Inflexible-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1379 (bm)
Length: 159 ft (48 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 18 ft 10 in (5.74 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Armament:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building Dictator (1783), and in February 1779 for Sceptre (1781), both 64-gun, Third Rate, two-deckers. The design was similar to the 74-gun Albion (1763). Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784] and Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784].

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Dictator (1783), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker. The plan may represent her as built in 1783.

French Revolutionary Wars
At the "Reduction of Trinidad" in 1797 Dictator participated in the later stages, not having arrived until 18 February, the prize money awarded reflecting this late arrival.

On 8 March 1801, whilst disembarking the army at the Battle of Aboukir during the French campaign in Egypt, one seaman was killed and a midshipman, Edward Robinson, fatally wounded.
Prize money for the capture of enemy ships was usually shared with other warships in the squadron between 1801 and 1806.

Because Dictator served in the 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 issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants.


large (7).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers.


Napoleonic Wars
In the late summer of 1807, Dictator was part of Admiral Gambier's fleet in the Øresund at the Battle of Copenhagen where she shared prize money with some 126 other British naval ships. She was again in Danish Waters the following year, in Admiral Hood's squadron of four ships-of-the-line together with some smaller vessels, tasked with maintaining the blockade between Jutland and Zealand. Her captain, Donald Campbell, ordered the sloop HMS Falcon to proceed on her successful patrols to Samsø, Tunø and Endelave.
In August 1809 Dictator was tasked with the occupation of the Pea Islands to the east of Bornholm but ran aground en route and had to be towed back to Karlskrona for repairs.

In early July 1810, during the Gunboat War with Denmark-Norway, Dictator, in company with Edgar and Alonzo, sighted three Danish gunboats commanded by Lieutenant Peter Nicolay Skibsted, who had captured Grinder in April of that year. The gunboats (Husaren, Løberen, and Flink) sought refuge in Grenå, on eastern Jutland, where a company of soldiers and their field guns could provide cover. However, the British mounted a cutting out expedition of some 200 men in ten ships’ boats after midnight on 7 July, capturing the three gunboats.

In 1812 Dictator led a small squadron consisting of three brigs, the 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop Calypso, 14-gun brig-sloop Podargus and the 14-gun gun brig Flamer. On 7 July they encountered the Danish-Norwegian vessels Najaden, a frigate finished in 1811 in part with parts salvaged from a ship-of-the-line destroyed in earlier battles, and three brigs, Kiel, Lolland and Samsøe. Najaden was under the command of Danish naval officer Hans Peter Holm (1772–1812) In the subsequent Battle of Lyngør Dictator destroyed Najaden and the British took Laaland and Kiel as prizes but had to abandon them after the two vessels grounded. The action cost Dictator five killed and 24 wounded. In 1847 the surviving British participants were authorized to apply for the clasp "Off Mardoe 6 July 1812" to the Naval General Service Medal.

Main article: Battle of Lyngør

War of 1812
HMS Dictator was among Admiral Alexander Cochrane's fleet moored off New Orleans at the start of 1815.

large (8).jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile for Inflexible (1780), and later for Africa (1781), Dictator (1783), and Sceptre (1781), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 1765-1784].

The Inflexible-class ships of the line were a class of four 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade. The lines of this class were based heavily on Slade's earlier 74-gun Albion-class.

Ships
Builder: Barnard, Harwich
Ordered: 26 February 1777
Launched: 7 March 1780
Fate: Broken up, 1820
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 11 February 1778
Launched: 11 April 1781
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 21 October 1778
Launched: 6 January 1783
Fate: Broken up, 1817
Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 16 January 1779
Launched: 8 June 1781
Fate: Wrecked, 1799


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dictator_(1783)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections.html#!csearch;searchTerm=Dictator_1783
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inflexible-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1801 - Boats of HMS Mercury (1779 - 28), Cptn. T. Rogers, captured French convoy of fifteen sail.



HMS Mercury was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.

lossy-page1-1024px-HMS_Mercury_cuts_out_the_French_gunboat_Leda_from_Rovigno,_1_April_1809_RMG...jpg
HMS Mercury cuts out the French gunboat Leda from Rovigno, 1 April 1809
One of a pair commemorating actions in the Adriatic by the frigate 'Mercury', 28 guns, under Captain the Hon. Henry Duncan: the other is BHC0592. On the evening of 1 April 1809, Duncan sent in his ship's boats commanded by Lieutenant Watkin Owen Pell, under heavy fire, to cut the French gunboat 'Leda' out of the French-held harbour of Rovigno, on the Istrian peninsula 40 miles south-south-west of Trieste. Five men were killed in the action. This picture shows the boats of the 'Mercury' under sail, headed by her launch, rounding the mole enclosing the harbour as they make their way with their prize back to the 'Mercury'. The 'Leda' is shown under her courses (lower sails) only, with her topmasts sent down. At the peak of the gaff she flies English colours over an indeterminate white flag with a red central element. French fire from batteries to the left, on the landward side of the harbour, pursues the escaping convoy. The lateen yards of local boats can be seen above the mole behind, with two others on the far right under the shore where there is also another French fort or major building. The painting is signed in black, lower right, and was originally on stretched canvas. It has been removed from the stretcher and mounted on a grey softboard, with the tacking edges trimmed off, perhaps as an alternative to lining to repair a tear in the canvas, left centre. The process, fairly common at the time the picture was acquired in 1954, is no longer widely used. The blue crayon inscription of the acquisition number and the event on the back in Teddy Archibald's hand suggests this was probably done in the Museum. [PvdM 7/08]



Construction and commissioning
Mercury was ordered from Peter Mestaer, at the King and Queen Shipyard, Rotherhithe on the River Thames on 22 January 1778 and was laid down there on 25 March. She was launched on 9 December 1779 and was completed by 24 February 1780 after being fitted out at Deptford Dockyard. £6,805 7s 0d was paid to her builder for her construction, with the total including fitting and coppering subsequently rising to £13,603 8s 0d. Mercury entered service in 1780, having been commissioned in October 1779 under Captain Isaac Prescott.

Class and type: 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 605 12⁄94 (bm)
Length:

  • 120 ft 9 3⁄4 in (36.8 m) (overall)
  • 99 ft 10.5 in (30.4 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 9 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 0 1⁄2 in (3.4 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 200
Armament:

  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades
  • 12 × swivel guns
large (9).jpg Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth for Pomona (1778), then Pegasus (1779), then Mercury (1779), and wih pencil alterations for Hussar (1784), Rose (1783), Dido (1784), Thisbe (1783), Alligator (1787), Circe (1783), Lapwing (1785), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates. Signed by John Williams [Surveyor of the Navy, 171765-1784]. The top ship is not 'Laurel' as listed in the annotation on the right, as this plan predates her ordering by over one year.

American War of Independence and the interwar years
Prescott sailed Mercury to Newfoundland in April 1780. On 23 July she returned from a cruise, having, on the 19th, retaken the ship Elizabeth, which the 32-gun American privateer Dean had taken a few days earlier. Elizabeth was of 240 tons burthen, armed with 14 guns but with only 10 crewmen. When first taken she had been sailing from London to Newfoundland with a cargo of salt

Mercury joined George Johnstone's squadron the following year. Captain William Carlyon took command in May 1781 and sailed Mercury to Hudson Bay. There, on 17 May, he recaptured the cutter HMS Sprightly. On 30 September, Mercury, Rattlesnake and Jupiter captured the French ship Philippine. The prize money was remitted from Jamaica, suggesting the capture took place in the Caribbean. French records have the capture occurring in the Antilles.

In March 1782, Mercury and Jupiter captured the French privateer Bologne. Captain Henry Edwyn Stanhope succeeded Carlyon in September 1782, and paid Mercury off later that year. She was recommissioned under Stanhope in April the following year, and went out to Nova Scotia in June. Commodore Herbert Sawyer took command of the North American Station's base at Halifax in June 1785, and authorized Mercury to escort a merchant vessel to the American port of Boston to collect a shipment of cattle. This marked the first free visit of a British warship to the port since March 1776.

Mercury was again paid off in July 1786 and spent the period between August 1787 and January 1788 undergoing a small repair at Woolwich. After being fitted out there she was recommissioned in May 1788 under Captain Augustus Montgomery, and sailed to the Mediterranean. She returned to Britain and was paid off in 1790.

French Revolutionary Wars
Mercury was not immediately returned to service following the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France, but after being fitted at Portsmouth, re-entered service in early 1796, under the command of Captain George Byng. After time spent at Newfoundland command passed to Captain Thomas Rogers in April 1797. Rogers captured three privateers while serving on the Lisbon station, Benjamin on 5 January 1798, the 16-gun Trois Sœurs on 15 January 1798, and the 12-gun Constance on 25 January 1798.

Benjamin was 20 leagues off the Rock of Lisbon when Mercury finally captured her after a chase of 36 hours. Benjamin was pierced for 20 guns, but carried sixteen 4 and 6-pounders, ten of which she threw overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 132 men. Alcmene, Lively and Thalia joined the chase and shared in the capture. Benjamin was a new vessel on her first cruise, during which she had captured the English brig Governor Bruce, on her way to Faro, and a Portuguese schooner. However, a British letter of marque had driven Benjamin off.

Next, Rogers was some 40 leagues off Cape Finisterre when he spotted two armed vessels and gave chase. As Mercury got close they separated and he was only able to capture one of them and that after a chase of eight hours. The quarry fired a few shots and then struck. She was the French privateer brig Trois Sœurs. She was pierced for 18 guns but carried sixteen 6-pounders. She was five days out of port on her first cruise.

Lastly, Mercury encountered Constance some 42 leagues off the Burlings. Mercury captured her after a chase of five hours. Constance was pierced for 18 guns but carried only twelve 6 and 9-pounders, and had a crew of 96 men. She was ten days out off Nantes on a cruise of the Western Islands.

Rodgers then took Mercury to Newfoundland in June 1798. After returning to Portsmouth for a refit in early 1799, she went back there in 1799. On 6 October she captured San Joce. On 16 December 1799 she captured Hosprung.

On 24 January 1800, Mercury was 28 leagues off Scilly when she recaptured the ship Aimwell. Aimwell, of Whitby, had been sailing from Quebec to London when the French privateer Arriege, of Bordeaux, had captured her on 9 January. On 29 March, Mercury was among the ships that shared in the capture of Courageux. The other captors were Renown, Dragon, Gibraltar, Haerlem, Alexander, Athenian and Salamine.

Mercury captured the French privateer brig Egyptienne on 5 February 1800 off the Isle of Wight. Egyptienne mounted 15 brass guns and had a crew of 66 men. She had sailed from Cherbourg the evening before and had not yet taken any prizes. As she was striking her colours her crew suddenly discharged a volley of small arms fire that slightly wounded one man on Mercury. Apparently Topaze was in company or perhaps in sight at the time.

After spending a period in the English Channel, Mercury then sailed for the Mediterranean in May 1800. She was briefly part of Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron off Cadiz, after which she went on to Alexandria, arriving there on 31 July 1800.

On 5 January 1801, Mercury captured a French tartan, of unknown name, sailing from Marseilles to Cette in ballast. Then the next day, Mercury had greater luck when with her boats she captured 15 vessels of a convoy of 20 vessels. The captures included two ships, four brigs, three bombards, two settees, and four tartans. The convoy was sailing from Cette to Marseilles when Mercury captured three quarters of it off Minorca. The gunboats escorting the convoy fled as Mercury approached, so she suffered no casualties.

The vessels included the:

  • Genoese ship Rhone, with a cargo of salt, brandy, wine, and fruit;
  • Genoese ship St. John, with a cargo of wine;
  • French brig Maria Josephine, with a cargo of brandy, wheat, and sugar;
  • French brig Solide, with a cargo of brandy and wheat;
  • French brig Cheri, with a cargo of salt;
  • Genoese brig St Carola, with a cargo of wine and brandy;
  • Genoese bombard Compte de Grasse, with a cargo of wheat and stock fish;
  • French bomb Paste, with a cargo of wine and brandy;
  • Genoese bombard St Andre, with a cargo of wheat and sugar;
  • French settee Bone, with a cargo of wine;
  • French settee Republican, with a cargo of wine;
  • French tartan Croisette, with a cargo of wheat;
  • French tartan St Ivado Pierre, with a cargo of wheat and staves;
  • French tartan Rosaria, with a cargo of wine and bread; and
  • French tartan Madona, with a cargo of wheat.
On 20 January 1801, the day after Rogers had safely delivered his prizes to Port Mahon, he was some 40 leagues off Sardinia when Mercury captured the French corvette Sans Pareille after a chase of nine hours. She was a French navy corvette under the command of Citoyen Gabriel Renault, Lieutenant de Vaisseau. She carried 18 long brass 9-pounders and two howitzers. The reason she did not resist was that she had a crew of only 15 men. She had sailed from Toulon the day before and was carrying a cargo of shot, arms, medicines, and all manner of other supplies for the French army at Alexandria, Egypt. The Admiralty took Sans Pareille into service as HMS Delight.

On 17 February 1801, Mercury detained the Swedish brig Hoppet, which was sailing in ballast from Tunis to Marseilles, in violation of the British blockaded of France. The next day, Mercury, in company with Mermaid, captured the ship Esperance, which had sailed from Tunis with a cargo of silk, cotton, and other merchandise. Then on 15 May, Mercury and Loire captured the French ship Francois.

Mercury then made an attempt to recapture the 18-gun bomb vessel HMS Bulldog at Ancona on 25 May 1801. The cutting out party was able to get Bulldog out of the harbour, but then the winds died down just as enemy boats started to arrive. The cutting out party were too few in numbers both to guard the captured prisoners and resist the approaching enemy, and were tired from the row in to board Bulldog. Mercury had drifted too far away to come to the rescue either. The cutting out party therefore abandoned Bulldog. Mercury lost two men killed and four wounded in the attempt; Rogers estimated that the enemy had lost some 20 men killed, wounded and drowned.

On 23 June 1801 boats from Mercury and Corso also destroyed a pirate tartan, Tigre, of eight 6 and 12-pounder guns and a crew of 60 French and Italians, in the Tremiti Islands. The Royal Marines landed and captured some of the pirates, who had mounted a 4-pounder gun on a hill. Meanwhile, the cutting out party brought out Tigre, together with bales of cotton and other goods that she had taken from vessels she had robbed.

Though the first attempt to capture Bulldog had failed, a second effort on 16 September 1801, carried out in company with Champion and HMS Santa Dorothea, succeeded in retaking the vessel. Rogers had received intelligence that Bulldog had left Ancona and was escorting four trabaccolos and a tartan that were carrying cannons, ammunition and supplies to Egypt. He set out with Champion and they discovered Santa Dorothea already in chase. The British chased the convoy, which took refuge under the guns of batteries at Gallipoli, Apulia. Even so, Champion was able to get close to Bulldog, which struck after enduring several broadsides. Champion was then able to extricate her from under the batteries. In the meantime, Mercury captured one of the trabaccolos, which was carrying brass mortars, field pieces, and the like. In the engagement, Champion suffered one man killed.

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The Mercury of 28 guns, on a larboard tack (PAF7960)

Napoleonic Wars
Mercury was fitted out as a floating battery at Deptford in May 1803, under the command of Captain Duncombe Pleydell-Bouverie. She went on to operate against Spanish shipping in the Eastern Atlantic and captured the Fuerte de Gibraltar on 4 February 1805. Fuerte de Gibraltar was a Spanish lateen-rigged gun-vessel armed with two long 12-pounders, two 16-pound carronades, several swivel guns and a large quantity of small arms and cutlasses. She and her crew of 59 men were under the command of Signor Don Ramon Eutate, Lieutenant de fregate, and had sailed the morning before from Cadiz bound for Algeciras.

Captain Charles Pelly succeeded Bouverie in August 1805 and Mercury returned to Newfoundland in May 1806. On 3 January 1806 HMS Starr recaptured the ships Argo and Adventure, and shared in the recapture of the Good Intent. Starr was off Villa de Conde, Portugal, when she intercepted the vessels, which had been taken from a convoy that Mercury had been escorting from Newfoundland to Portugal, and both of which had been carrying cargoes of fish. Starrsighted Good Intent and signaled Mercury, which recaptured her too. On 5 February, Curieux captured the Baltidore, which was the privateer that had captured Good Intent.

In June 1807 James Alexander Gordon took command and sailed Mercury into the Mediterranean to operate off the Southern Spanish coast. In the Action of 4 April 1808, Mercury, in company with HMS Alceste and HMS Grasshopper, attacked a Spanish convoy off Rota, destroying two of the escorts and driving many of the merchant vessels ashore. They captured seven more vessels subsequently, which the marines and sailors of the British ships sailed back out to sea.

In November 1808, command passed to Henry Duncan, who took her into the Adriatic Sea to participate in the Adriatic campaign of 1804–1814. On 30 December, Mercury and Alceste captured the Hereux and the Spirito Santo.

Mercury was in action with HMS Spartan and HMS Amphion at Pesaro on 23 April and at Cesenatico on 2 May. In the attack on Pesaro, which the British bombarded after the commandant refused to surrender, the British captured 13 small coasting vessels. Due to the lack of resistance the British suffered no casualties. One civilian died by accident. Mercury grounded during the attack on Cesenatico but in a position where she could bring her guns to bear on the town. She was floated off without injury. In the attack the British captured and spiked the two 24-pounder guns of a battery that had fired on them and captured 12 vessels, all without suffering any casualties.

In June Mercury sent in her boats to destroy a number of trabaccolos and other vessels on the beach at Rotti, near Manfredonia.

On 7 September Mercury cut out the French schooner-of-war Pugliese from Barletta. Pugliese was armed with seven guns and had a crew of 37 men. The boats, under the command of Lieutenant Pall, accomplished this despite the schooner being under the protection not only of her own armament but also two armed feluccas, a castle, and small arms fire; the British suffered no casualties. This was Mercury's last action before she was paid off in early 1810.

Mercury was fitted out as a troopship at Woolwich in mid-1810 and commissioned in May that year as a 16-gun troopship under Lieutenant William Webb. Commander John Tancock succeeded Webb in mid-1810 and Mercury spent most of 1811 on the Lisbon station. Commander Clement Milward took over in November 1811 and went out to the Leeward Islands. Mercury's last commanding officer was Commander Sir John Charles Richardson, who took over while she was still in the Leewards.

On 29 July 1813, Mercury was among the British vessels that shared in the capture of the American ship Fame. (Coquette was another.) Fame, under the command of Captain Job Coffin, had been out since August 1811 and was on her return from whaling in the Pacific when captured. She had a cargo of 1200 barrels of sperm oil.

Fate
Mercury was finally broken up at Woolwich in January 1814



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mercury_(1779)
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1806 - HMS Favourite (16), Cdr. John Davie, captured by French squadron under Cptn. L'Hermite off Cape de Verd Islands


HMS Favourite (or Favorite) was a 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. The French captured her in 1806 and renamed her Favorite. However, the British recaptured her in 1807 and renamed her HMS Goree. She became a prison ship in 1810 and was broken up in Bermuda in 1817.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with midship framing, and longitudinal half-breadth for Cormorant (1794) and Favourite (1794), both 16-gun Ship Sloop (with quarter deck & forecastle), building at Rotherhithe by Messrs Randall & Brent.

Class and type: 16-gun Cormorant-class sloop
Tons burthen: 426 88⁄94 bm
Length:

  • 108 ft 5 in (33.0 m) (overall)
  • 90 ft 8 1⁄4 in (27.6 m) (keel)
Beam: 29 ft 9 in (9.1 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft (2.7 m)
Sail plan: Sloop
Complement:

  • British service:121
  • French service:150
Armament:
  • Originally: 16 x 6-pounder guns + 12 x ½-pounder swivel guns
  • French capture: 18 x 6-pounder guns + 11 x 12-pounder carronades
  • British capture: 16 x 6-pounder guns + 13 x 12-pounder carronades

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the quarterdeck and forecastle, inboard profile, and upper deck for Hornet (1794), Cormorant (1794), Favourite (1794), Lynx (1794), Hazard (1794), Lark (1794), and Stork (1796), all 16-gun Ship Sloops. The plan was later altered in 1805 and used to build Hyacinth (1806), Herald (1806), Sabrina (1806), Cherub (1806), Minstrel (1807), Blossom (1806), Favourite (1806), Sapphire (1806), Wanderer (1806), Partridge (1809), Tweed (1807), Egeria (1807), Ranger (1807), Anacreon (1813), and Acorn (1807), Rosamond (1807), Fawn (1807), Myrtle (1807), Racoon (1808), and North Star (1810) all modified Cormorant class 16-gun Ship Sloops. The plan was altered again in 1808 while building Hesper (1809). The design for this class is 'similar to the French Ship Amazon' - the French Amazon (captured 1745).

French Revolutionary Wars
Commander James Athol Wood
Favourite was commissioned in March 1794 under Commander Charles White. In September of the next year Commander James Athol Wood took command and sailed her for the Leeward Islands.

Favourite's first task was to assist in the quelling of insurrections on Grenada and St. Vincent. In support of these operations, Captain Robert Otway of Mermaid had Wood patrol the waters to intercept vessels carrying provisions to the insurgents.

On 5 February 1796 Favourite captured two French privateers and ran one ashore within the Bocas Islands between Trinidad and Venezuela. The largest privateer was the Général Rigaud, of eight guns and 45 men, mostly Italians and Spaniards. The second privateer was the packet ship Hind, which the Général Rigaud had taken off St. Vincent's. Her crew escaped before Favourite could take possession. The vessel that ran ashore was the Banan.

Less than a month later, on 1 March, Favourite, the armed transport Sally, and two large sloops that Wood commandeered, evacuated 11-1200 British troops from Sauteurs, where an insurgent force had trapped them. The next day Woods delivered the troops safely to St. George's.

A week later, on 9 March, Favourite encountered three vessels windward of Grenada. They were two French privateer schooners, one of 10 guns and one of 12, and a ship of 14 guns. After an all-day chase, Favourite was able to capture the ship without a fight; the two schooners escaped. The ship turned out to be the Susanna, of Liverpool, which the privateers had captured a few days earlier and manned to also serve as a privateer. In all, Favourite ended up with 70 prisoners. Wood distributed most of them in two or three-man groups to the transports and merchant vessels of a convoy heading for Britain. The officers he put aboard Charlotte.

On 22 July Mermaid and Favorite recaptured the sloop Two Sisters. In November Favourite was enforcing a blockade of the port of Paramaribo.

In January 1797, Wood reconnoitered Trinidad for General Sir Ralph Abercromby. Admiral Sir Henry Harvey, commander-in-chief for the Navy in the Leeward Islands then had Wood draw up a plan for an attack. The result was that in February, Favourite was at the capture of Trinidad. The flotilla sailed from Carriacou on 15 February and arrived off Port of Spain on the next day. At Port of Spain they found a Spanish squadron consisting of four ships of the line and a frigate, all under the command of Rear-Admiral Don Sebastian Ruiz de Apodaca. Harvey sent Favourite and some of the other smaller ships to protect the transports and anchored his own ships of the line opposite the Spanish squadron. At 2am on 17 February the British discovered that four of the five Spanish vessels were on fire; they were able to capture the 74-gun San Domaso but the others were destroyed. Later that morning General Sir Ralph Abercrombie landed the troops, with Wood, together with Captain Wolley of Arethusa, superintending the landing. The Governor of Trinidad, José Maria Chacón, surrendered the next day. Favourite shared with the rest of the flotilla in the allocation of £40,000 for the proceeds of the ships taken at Trinidad and of the property found on the island. On 27 March Wood received his promotion to post captain and command of San-Damaso. He then sailed her to England as escort to a large convoy.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the starboard profile for Cormorant (1794), Favourite (1794) and Hornet (1794), 16-gun Ship Sloop (with quarterdeck and forecastle), illustrating the external planking layout.

Lieutenant Lord Camelford
Wood's replacement, in May 1797, was Commander S. Powell. Some months later, in July, Commander James Hanson assumed command. Then Thomas Pitt, Lieutenant Lord Camelford, took command, replacing Hanson, who had taken ill. Although Camelford was apparently appointed in January, he had been acting captain for some time. On 13 January 1798, Camelford shot and killed Lieutenant Charles Peterson, acting captain of Perdrix for mutiny, in a dispute over which of them was senior to the other. At the time, both vessels were in English Harbour, Antigua, serving as guardships. What triggered the dispute was the departure from the harbour on the previous day of HMS Babet, whose captain, Jemmet Mainwaring, had previously been the senior officer in the port. Peterson had been first lieutenant under Camelford for three months when Camelford had taken over Favourite, even though Peterson was senior on the lieutenants list and represented Captain Fahie of Perdrix, who was away in St. Kitts. The two ships' companies almost fired on each other when Camelford shot Petersen. Captain Henry Mitford of Matilda arrived that evening and put Camelford under arrest. Mitford put Lieutenant Parsons of Favourite in command of Perdrix and sent her out to sea. The subsequent court martial acquitted Camelford.

Commander Joseph Westbeach
In May 1799, Commander Joseph Westbeach took command and in July/August sailed her home with the trade. She then sailed in the North Sea.

On 15 January 1801, Favourite captured a cutter off Flamborough Head, after a seven-hour chase. The cutter proved to be the French privateer Voyageur, of 14 guns and 47 men, under the command of Egide Colbert. Colbert was four days out of Ostend and the day before had captured the merchant vessel Camilla, of Sunderland, which had been sailing in ballast

Two months later, on 13 March, Favourite chased a lugger for eleven hours from Scarborough before losing her. She then saw another sail, which she pursued and captured. She was the French privateer schooner Optimiste, of Dunkirk, armed with 14 guns and had a crew of 47 men under the command of Jean Baptiste Corenwinder.

Then on 17 April, Favourite captured a French privateer lugger off Plymouth after a four-hour chase. The lugger was the Antichrist, armed with fourteen 2 and 9-pounder guns. She had a crew of 60 men under the command of Henry Alexandre Scorffery. She was 15 days out of Dunkirk and Favourite recaptured her sole prize, the ship Brotherly Love, of South Shields, which had been sailing to London when she was captured.

Between May 1803 and June 1804, Favourite underwent repairs at Sheerness.

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Lines (ZAZ4625)

Napoleonic Wars
Commander Charles Foote commissioned Favourite in May 1804. On 1 August she then participated in a bombardment of Le Havre, Favourite was among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 15 September of the Flora de Lisboa.

On 12 December 1804, Favorite encountered two French privateer luggers and gave chase. They were in possession of a brig and were boarding a bark as Favorite approached. Foote signaled to a cutter that was in sight, which he believed was the hired armed cutter Countess of Elgin, to chase the merchant vessels, and set out after the privateers, which however separated. After three hours Favorite caught up with Raccrocheuse, which was under the command of Captain Jacques Broquant. She was armed with fourteen 4-pounder guns and had a crew of 56 men. She was one day out from Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The privateer that escaped was the Adolphe, which too carried fourteen 4-pounder guns, which however she had thrown overboard during the chase. Foote believed that she had returned to Saint-Valery-en-Caux.

In December 1804 John Davie became captain of Favourite. On 22 September 1805 she left St Helens, Isle of Wight. She arrived at Funchal Roads on 12 October, having with Arab, convoyed the slave ship Andersons and some other vessels. Favourite and Andersons left there on the 18th; they reached Gorée on 5 November, where Andersons delivered some cargo. They left on the 12th, and arrived at Bance Island on the 22nd. There Andersons would gather slaves to take on to Kingston, Jamaica.

In December 1805 Favourite was at the Îles de Los, searching for a privateer at the behest of Captain Keith Maxwell of Arab. Having received intelligence there that the privateer was at the Pongo River, to the south, Davie sailed there. Near there he spotted two vessels, which the pilot believed were the privateer's prizes. Still it took three days during which the ship's crew had to man the sweeps and boats to tow her through water that was no more than three fathoms deep to reach entrance of the river. Once there, on 28 December Favourite sighted the privateer sailing out and attempting to escape. Favourite sailed towards her and when within half-a-gunshot, fired his bow chasers at her. The privateer raked Favourite with her guns, leading Davies to reply with a broadside. The captain of the privateer "had the Temerity to continue to engaging us for Twenty Minutes" before striking.

The privateer was General Blanchard, of sixteen guns and a crew of 120 French and Spaniards. The engagement had cost her 11 men killed, including the captain, and 25 wounded. Favourite's only casualty was one man lightly wounded, a passenger, Lieutenant Odhum of the Royal African Corps.

Unbenannt.JPG

Capture and re-capture
While Favorite was sailing under Commander John Davie, L'Hermite's squadron captured her on 6 January 1806. During the night before she had been sailing off Cape Verde, towing a prize, when the watch spotted some vessels. Favourite cast off her tow and attempted to move to windward of the strangers but lost track of them. Next morning Favourite saw what appeared to be three large East Indiamen with a brig as escort, sailing towards her. As they closed, Davie realized that the strange vessels were a ship of the line, two frigates, and a sloop. He tried to sail away but eventually had to surrender when he found himself trapped between Régulus and Président. The French brought their prize into service as Favorite.

The French put Favourite's crew aboard Trio a British slave ship they had captured before she could load any slaves. They then sent Trio as a cartel back to England. Trio arrived at Falmouth on 7 April.

On 20 June 1806, Favourite reached Cayenne, where she was re-armed with Lieutenant de vaisseau Le Marant de Kerdaniel as captain. She sailed from there on Christmas Eve 1806, along with the 16-gun brig Argus.

On 27 January 1807 the British 32-gun frigate Jason intercepted Argus and Favorite. Favorite stayed behind and battled for one hour to allow Argus to escape but was forced to strike. At the time, Favorite was armed with sixteen 6-pounder guns and thirteen 12-pounder carronades, and had a crew of 150 men. In the action she lost one man killed and one man wounded; Jason only had one man wounded. Wolverine was in sight at the time of the capture but did not join the engagement. The British brought Favorite into service as HMS Goree, though it took some time for the name change to register in the West Indies.

Favourite participated in the second British invasion of the Danish West Indies, which took place in December 1807. A British fleet captured the Danish islands of St Thomas on 22 December and Santa Cruz on 25 December. The Danes did not resist and the invasion was bloodless.

HMS_Blossom_(1806).jpg
His Majesty's ship Blossom (sisterhip) off the Sandwich Islands

HMS Goree
On 22 April 1808, Goree, under Commander Joseph Spear, engaged the French brigs Palinure and Pilade in an inconclusive action. The schooner Superieure was at anchor a few miles to the NW while refilling her water casks. When the Governor of Marie-Galante, which the British had just occupied a month earlier, informed him that Goree was engaged, Captain William Robillard immediately came to Goree's assistance. Superieure then prevented the French brigs from reaching Guadeloupe and kept up a running fight with Pilade until they reached the Saintes. A little while later the frigate Circe and the brig-sloop Wolverine arrived, but too late to engage. Goree had one man killed and the French lost eight men killed and 21 wounded. On 31 October Circe captured Palinure.

In January 1809, Goree participated in the invasion of Martinique. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Martinique" to all surviving claimants from the campaign. In October, Goree came under the command of the newly promoted Commander Henry Dilkes Byng, formerly of Bream.

From 1810 to 1813 Goree was on the Halifax station. That year Byng and Goree intercepted the schooner USS Revenge under Lieutenant Oliver Hazard Perry. Fortunately, no more dramatic incident ensued. After the Little Belt Affair on 16 May 1811, Goree encountered and escorted the damaged Little Belt to Halifax. Also in 1811, Byng intercepted and took into Nassau the San Carlos, after determining from an inspection of her papers that she was "An American ship engaged in the African Slave Trade under Spanish Colours." The court in Nassau released the San Carlos back to her owners as she had no slaves aboard and the charge rested only on Byng's belief that she had forged documents.

After the start of the War of 1812, on 2 October, Goree captured the American ship Ranger, which was sailing from the Pacific to Nantucket with a valuable cargo. In March 1813 Goree became a prison hulk and Byng transferred to Mohawk.

Goree moved to Bermuda where from July 1814 she was under Commander Constantine Richard Moorsom. Goree shared with Euryalus in a grant of £3988 19s 9d for the capture of the ship St. Nicolay on 30 November 1814.

Lieutenant Edward Stone Cottgrave became acting commander in April 1815. Lieutenant John Boulton replaced him in June 1815, only to have Commander John Wilson replace him in turn within the month.

Fate
Goree was broken up in Bermuda in 1817



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Favourite_(1794)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormorant-class_ship-sloop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L'Hermite's_expedition
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1813 - Boats of HMS Havannah (1811 - 36) ,Cptn. Hon. George Cadogan captured 3 vessels and a gunboat in a creek off the Adriatic.


HMS Havannah was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was launched in 1811 and was one of twenty-seven Apollo-class frigates. She was cut down to a 24-gun sixth rate in 1845, converted to a training ship in 1860, and sold for breaking up in 1905.

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Lines (ZAZ2786)

6 January 1813
In early 1813 Havannah was detached to the Northern Italian coast where she conducted a five-month campaign against the shipping and shore facilities of Vasto and its environs. On 6 January 1813 Havannah's boats cut out Gunboat No. 8, armed with one long 24-pounder gun. She had a crew of 35 men under the command of M. Joseph Floreus, enseigne de vaisseau. Despite meeting a superior force and coming under small arms fire from the shore, the boats, under Lieutenant Hamley, captured the gunboat and three merchant vessels, their original target, as well. The British had one man killed and two men wounded in the operation. In May 1821, prize money for the gunboat, the three merchant vessels St Antonio No. 1, St Antonio No. 2 and St Antonio No. 3 was awarded, as well as prize money for two other vessels taken that day, Madona del Rosario and the settee Euphemia.

Class and type: Apollo-class frigate
Tons burthen: 948 64⁄94 bm (as designed)
Length:
  • 145 ft 0 1⁄2 in (44.2 m) (gundeck)
  • 121 ft 9 1⁄4 in (37.1 m) (keel)
Beam: 38 ft 3 1⁄4 in (11.7 m)
Draught: 13 ft 3 3⁄4 in (4.1 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 264
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 4 × 32-pounder carronades


War service
Havannah's first captain was George Cadogan, who commissioned her into the Channel Fleet. Havannah was rapidly involved in operations against French coastal shipping off the Channel Islands.

On 6 September 1811, the boats of Havannah, under the command of her first lieutenant, William Hamley, landed a party that spiked the three 12-pounder guns of a battery on the south-west side of the Penmarks. They then brought out several coasting vessels that had taken refuge under the guns, all without taking any losses.

  • Schooner Aimable Fanny, laden with wine and brandy, and several chasse marees:
  • St. Jean, laden with salt;
  • Petit Jean Baptiste, laden with wine and brandy;
  • Buonaparte, laden with wine and brandy;
  • Voltigeur, laden with wine and brandy; and
  • lastly, one of unknown name, laden with wine and brandy, dismantled and set on fire but later extinguished.
On 25 December Havannah sailed for the Mediterranean. In 1812, Cadogan took Havannah to join the squadron operating in the Adriatic from the island of Lissa. On 24 April 1812 Apollo, Eagle and Havannah landed Lieutenant-colonel George Duncan Robertson, his staff and a garrison at Port St. George on Lissa. The British had defeated a French naval force on 13 March at the Battle of Lissa and wanted to establish a base there with Robertson as its first Governor.

Wexford_St._Iberius_Church_Memorial_of_Edward_Percival_2012_10_03.jpg
Memorial dedicated to Late Masters Mate Edward Percival who fell during the operation on 6 January 1813

In early 1813 Havannah was detached to the Northern Italian coast where she conducted a five-month campaign against the shipping and shore facilities of Vasto and its environs. On 6 January 1813 Havannah's boats cut out Gunboat No. 8, armed with one long 24-pounder gun. She had a crew of 35 men under the command of M. Joseph Floreus, enseigne de vaisseau. Despite meeting a superior force and coming under small arms fire from the shore, the boats, under Lieutenant Hamley, captured the gunboat and three merchant vessels, their original target, as well. The British had one man killed and two men wounded in the operation. In May 1821, prize money for the gunboat, the three merchant vessels St Antonio No. 1, St Antonio No. 2 and St Antonio No. 3 was awarded, as well as prize money for two other vessels taken that day, Madona del Rosario and the settee Euphemia. On 14 January Havannah and Milford captured two small trabaccolos.

Three weeks later, on 7 February, Havannah destroyed four gunboats at Manfredonia. In numerous actions, she seized dozens of ships and destroyed coastal batteries. For instance, on 22 March 1813 the ship's boats captured at Vasto one trabaccolo, armed with three 9-pounder guns and destroyed another. Then on 26 March, her boats brought out five armed trabacolos and five feluccasladen with salt that had been run up on the beach near the town of Fortore. In both actions the enemy lost at least one man killed, while the British had only two men wounded in all. In May 1821 prize money for ten trabaccolos, one parenza, five feluccas, and their cargoes, captured between 22 March and 5 May, was paid.

On 18 July, while off Manfredonia, Havannah, with the sloop Partridge, attacked a small convoy and captured or destroyed all the vessels. They captured one Neapolitan gunboat armed with one 18-pounder gun, and burnt another. They also destroyed a pinnace armed with one 6-pounder gun. Lastly, they captured two trabaccolos armed with three guns each and laden with salt, and destroyed two others of the same strength and cargo.

Further information: Siege of Zara (1813)
In November 1813, Havannah was attached to Thomas Fremantle's squadron that blockaded and besieged Trieste. She was then detached to take the port of Zara with the assistance of Weazel (or Weazle). Cadogan used the ships' guns to establish batteries armed with two 32-pounder carronades, eight 18-pounder guns and seven long 12-pounder guns. He then attacked the city and captured it with the aid of some Austrian troops. In all, they captured 110 guns and 18 howitzers, 350 men, 100 dismounted guns and 12 gunboats. Cadogan was later instructed to hand over all prizes and spoils of war to the Austrians. (This order cost the crews of Havannah and Weazle an estimated £300,000 in prize money.) The Emperor of Austria, however, awarded Lieutenant Hamley the Imperial Austrian Order of Leopold for his services at Zara.

On 9 December Havannah and Weazel destroyed 17 gunboats.

In 1814 Havannah came under the command of Captain James Black (acting. On 6 February 1814, Apollo and Havannah were anchored outside Brindisi while the French frigate Uranie was inside the port, on fire. Cerberus had chased her into the port some weeks earlier while awaiting the officials of the port, which belonged to the Kingdom of Naples, to respond to the presence of the French vessel. When Apollo appeared on the scene and made signs of being about to enter the port, Uranie's captain removed the powder from his ship and set her on fire.

On 15 April 1814, days before the end of the war, Havannah, under the command of (temporary) Captain Edward Sibly, captured the French privateer schooner Grande Isabelle off Corfu, together with the schooner's prize. The schooner carried four guns and 64 men and had sailed from Corfu on 9 April, before capturing a vessel sailing from Trieste to Messina.

Captain Gawen Hamilton recommissioned Havannah in April 1814 at Portsmouth. On 19 July 1815, Havannah was in company with Sealark, Rhin, Menelaus, Fly and Ferret when they captured the French vessels Fortune, Papillon, Marie Graty, Marie Victorine, Cannoniere, and Printemis. One was a naval brig of 12 guns and one a cutter of ten guns; two were schooners and three were chasse marees.

Havannah also shared in the prize money for the ship Abeona and the schooners Franklin and Saucy Jack, which other ships had captured between 21 October and 6 November in the Chesapeake. Similarly Havannah shared in the prize money for the schooner Mary and the goods from the transports Lloyd and Abeona, captured in the Chesapeake between 29 November and 19 December.

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Peacetime service
In 1815 Havannah sailed for North America, but by 12 August 1815 she was part of the squadron accompanying Northumberland, which was carrying Napoleon to exile in Saint Helena. In 1816 Havannah sailed to the Cape of Good Hope.

By 1819 Havannah was laid up at Sheerness. She underwent repairs between April 1819 and October 1822. From November 1821 she was again in commission and then was based in the Mediterranean. In 1830 she was in Sheerness again.

Hat_Island_Vigors.png
Sketch of Eretoka Island (Hat Island), Vanuatu, drawn by Philip Doyne Vigors, while serving in Havannah

In 1845 she was cut down to a 24-gun sixth rate corvette carrying 32-pounder (40cwt) guns.

In February 1848 Captain J.E. Erskine took command. She then served on the New Zealand station between 1848 and 1851. She anchored twice in the sea between Efate, Lelepa, and Moso in Vanuatu, called Havannah Harbour after the ship.

She returned to Britain via Rio de Janeiro. She arrived at Devonport from Portsmouth on 7 December 1851. While approaching Britain, on 2 December she rendered assistance to the French ship Celine. Almost two years later her crew received an award of money for their services.

Captain T. Harvey took command in August 1855. Under him, Havannah served with the Pacific Station from 1855 to 1859.[25] Havannah Channel in those waters is named for the ship, Port Harvey for its captain.

Fate
In 1860 Havannah was sent to Cardiff to serve as a "ragged school ship". She was sold for breaking up in 1905.


The Apollo-class sailing frigates were a series of twenty-seven ships that the British Admiralty commissioned be built to a 1798 design by Sir William Rule. Twenty-five served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, two being launched too late.

Of the 25 ships that served during the Napoleonic Wars, only one was lost to enemy action. Of the entire class of 27 ships, only two were lost to wrecking, and none to foundering.

The Admiralty ordered three frigates in 1798–1800. Following the Peace of Amiens, it ordered a further twenty-four sister-ships to the same design between 1803 and 1812. The last was ordered to a fresh 38-gun design. Initially, the Admiralty split the order for the 24 vessels equally between its yards and commercial yards, but two commercial yards failed to perform and the Admiralty transferred these orders to its own dockyards, making the split 14–10 as between the Admiralty and commercial yards.

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section, midship (ZAZ2678)

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Scale: 1:24. Plan showing the alterations proposed for fitting the iron tiller to Euryalus (1803), a 36-gun Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed Nicholas Diddams [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, March 1803 - January 1823].

Apollo class, 27 ships, 36-gun fifth rates 1799–1819, designed by William Rule.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Havannah_(1811)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo-class_frigate
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-292019;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1860 – Launch of HMS Espoir (1860), a Philomel-class gunvessel, and armed with one 68-pounder and four 24-pounder howitzers.
In 1869 she was converted to a dredger with the designation YC19. She was broken up in Bermuda in June 1881.


The Philomel-class gunvessel was a class of wooden-hulled screw-driven second-class gunvessels built for the Royal Navy between 1859 and 1867, of which 26 were ordered but only 20 completed. They had a mixed history, with some serving for as little as 5 years, and others surviving into the 1880s. Two of the class were sold and used as Arctic exploration vessels, both eventually being lost in the ice.

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Jeanette (the former HMS Pandora) at Le Havre in 1878

Type: Wooden screw gunvessel
Displacement: 570 tons
Length:
  • 145 ft (44.2 m) oa
  • 127 ft 10.25 in (39.0 m) pp
Beam: 25 ft 4 in (7.7 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft (3.96 m)
Installed power: About 325 ihp (242 kW)
Propulsion:
  • Single 2-cyl. horizontal single-expansion steam engine
  • Single screw
Sail plan:
Speed: About 9.5 knots (18 km/h)
Complement: 60
Armament:
  • One 68-pdr muzzle-loading smooth-bore gun
  • Two 24-pdr howitzers
  • Two 20-pdr breech-loading guns


Design
The Philomel-class gunvessels were an enlargement of the earlier Algerine-class gunboat of 1856. The first pair of the class were ordered as "new style steam schooners" on 1 April 1857, another three were ordered on 27 March 1858 and a sixth on 8 April 1859; all were built in the naval dockyards. All six were re-classified as second-class gunvessels on 8 June 1859.

With this new classification, a further twelve of the class were ordered by the Admiralty on 14 June 1859, receiving their names on 24 September the same year. They were constructed of wood in contract yards and then fitted out at naval dockyards. Another six of the class were ordered on 5 March 1860 for construction in naval dockyards, with a final pair ordered in 1861. Of these final eight, six were subsequently cancelled, and one, Newport was suspended for 4 years.

Propulsion
The Philomel class were fitted with a two-cylinder horizontal single-expansion steam engine and a single screw (Ranger had a single-trunk engine). The engine, which was produced by a range of contractors, including George Rennie & Sons and Robert Napier and Sons, was intended to produce a notional horsepower of 80nhp, which equated to about 325 indicated horsepower (242 kW). This was sufficient for a speed under steam alone of about 9.5 knots (17.6 km/h).

Sailing rig
The class were fitted with a barque-rigged sail plan.

Armament
Ships of the class were armed with a 68-pounder 95 cwt muzzle-loading smooth-bore gun, two 24-pounder howitzers and two 20-pounder breech-loading guns. All ships of the class later had the 68-pounder replaced by a 7-inch/110-pounder breech-loading gun.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philomel-class_gunvessel
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
6 January 1901 – Launch of SMS Wettin ("His Majesty's Ship Wettin"), a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy).


SMS Wettin ("His Majesty's Ship Wettin")[a] was a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Wittelsbach class of the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy). She was built by Schichau Seebeckwerft in Danzig. Wettin was laid down in October 1899, and was completed October 1902. She and her sister shipsWittelsbach, Zähringen, Schwaben and Mecklenburg—were the first capital ships built under the Navy Law of 1898. Wettin was armed with a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) guns and had a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

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SMS Wettin in 1907

Wettin saw service in I Squadron of the German fleet for most of her career, along with her sister ships. She was occupied with extensive annual training, as well as making good-will visits to foreign countries. The training exercises provided the framework for the High Seas Fleet's operations during World War I. The ship was decommissioned in June 1911 as dreadnought battleships began to enter service but was reactivated for duty as a gunnery training ship between December 1911 and mid-1914.

After the start of World War I in August 1914, the Wittelsbach-class ships were mobilized and designated IV Battle Squadron. She saw limited duty in the Baltic Sea, but the ship played a minor role in the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August 1915, though Wettin saw no combat with Russian forces. By late 1915, crew shortages and the threat from British submarines forced the Kaiserliche Marine to withdraw older battleships like Wettin from active service. For the remainder of the war, Wettin served as a training ship for naval cadets and as a depot ship. The ship was stricken from the navy list after the war and sold for scrapping in 1921. Her bell is on display at the Militärhistorisches Museum der Bundeswehr in Dresden.


Description
Main article: Wittelsbach-class battleship

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Line-drawing of the Wittelsbachclass

After the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy) ordered the four Brandenburg-class battleships in 1889, a combination of budgetary constraints, opposition in the Reichstag (Imperial Diet), and a lack of a coherent fleet plan delayed the acquisition of further battleships. The Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Navy Office), Vizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Friedrich von Hollmann struggled throughout the early and mid-1890s to secure parliamentary approval for the first three Kaiser Friedrich III-class battleships. In June 1897, Hollmann was replaced by Konteradmiral (KAdm—Rear Admiral) Alfred von Tirpitz, who quickly proposed and secured approval for the first Naval Law in early 1898. The law authorized the last two ships of the class, as well as the five ships of the Wittelsbach class,[1] the first class of battleship built under Tirpitz's tenure. The Wittelsbachs were broadly similar to the Kaiser Friedrichs, carrying the same armament but with a more comprehensive armor layout.

Wettin was 126.8 m (416 ft 0 in) long overall, with a beam of 22.8 m (74 ft 10 in), and a draft of 7.95 m (26 ft 1 in) forward and 8.04 m (26 ft 5 in) aft. She displaced 12,798 t (12,596 long tons) at full load. The ship was powered by three 3-cylinder vertical triple expansion engines that drove three screws. Steam was provided by six Thornycroft boilers and six cylindrical boilers, all of which burned coal. Wettin's powerplant was rated at 14,000 metric horsepower(13,808 ihp; 10,297 kW), which generated a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). The ship could steam for 5,000 nautical miles (9,300 km; 5,800 mi) at a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 30 officers and 650 enlisted men.

Wettin's armament consisted of a main battery of four 24 cm (9.4 in) SK L/40 guns in twin gun turrets,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wettin#cite_note-7 one fore and one aft of the central superstructure.[6] Her secondary armament consisted of eighteen 15 cm (5.9 inch) SK L/40 guns and twelve 8.8 cm (3.45 in) SK L/30 quick-firing guns, all in individual mounts in casemates in the ship's hull and superstructure. The armament suite was rounded out with six 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, all submerged in the hull; one was in the bow, another in the stern, and two on each broadside. The ship was protected with Krupp armor plate. In the central portion that protected her magazines and propulsion machinery spaces, her armored belt was 225 millimeters (8.9 in) thick, tapering to 100 mm (3.9 in) toward the bow and stern. The deck armor was 50 mm (2.0 in) thick. The main battery turrets had 250 mm (9.8 in) of armor plating

Service history
Construction – 1905
Wettin's keel was laid on 10 October 1899, at the Schichau-Werke in Danzig, under construction number 676. She was ordered under the contract name "D", as a new unit for the fleet. Wettin was launched on 6 June 1901. King Albert of Saxony, a member of the House of Wettin, gave a speech at the ceremony. In August 1902, a crew of 60 men took the ship to Kiel for sea trials, which were supervised by KAdm Hunold von Ahlefeld. On 10 August, while at Swinemünde during the trials, Kaiser Wilhelm II reviewed Wettin from his yacht Hohenzollern. Wettin was commissioned on 1 October 1902, the first member of her class to enter service. Further sea trials were completed by January 1903 and she joined I Squadron, replacing the battleship Weissenburg. That year, the squadron was occupied with the normal peacetime routine of individual and unit training. This included a training cruise in the Baltic Sea followed by a voyage to Spain from 7 May to 10 June. In July, she embarked on the annual cruise to Norway with the rest of the squadron. The autumn maneuvers consisted of a blockade exercise in the North Sea, a cruise of the entire fleet to Norwegian waters, and a mock attack on Kiel ending on 12 September. The year's training schedule concluded with a cruise into the eastern Baltic that started on 23 November and a cruise into the Skagerrak that began on 1 December.

Wettin and I Squadron participated in an exercise in the Skagerrak from 11 to 21 January 1904 and a further squadron exercise from 8 to 17 March. A major fleet exercise took place in the North Sea in May. In July, I Squadron and I Scouting Group visited Britain, including a stop at Plymouth on 10 July. The German ships sailed for the Netherlands on 13 July. I Squadron anchored in Vlissingen the following day, where they were visited by Queen Wilhelmina. The squadron remained in Vlissingen until 20 July, when it departed for a cruise in the northern North Sea with the rest of the fleet. The squadron stopped in Molde, Norway, on 29 July, while the other units went to other ports. The fleet reassembled on 6 August and steamed back to Kiel, where it conducted a mock attack on the harbor on 12 August. During its cruise in the North Sea, the fleet experimented with wireless telegraphy on a large scale and with searchlights for night communication and recognition signals. Immediately after returning to Kiel, the fleet began preparations for the autumn maneuvers in the Baltic, which began on 29 August. The fleet moved to the North Sea on 3 September and took part in a major landing operation. The ships then embarked IX Corps ground troops that had participated in the exercises, transporting them to Altona for a parade before Wilhelm II. On 6 September, the ships conducted their own parade for the Kaiser off the island of Helgoland. Three days later, the fleet returned to the Baltic via the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, where it participated in further landing operations with the IX Corps and the Guards Corps. On 15 September, the maneuvers came to an end. I Squadron went on its winter training cruise, this time to the eastern Baltic from 22 November to 2 December.

Wettin took part in training cruises with I Squadron from 9 to 19 January and 27 February to 16 March 1905. Wettin was sent to assist her sister ship, Mecklenburg, which had run aground in the Great Belt on 3 March.[8] Individual and squadron training followed, with an emphasis on gunnery drills. On 12 July, the fleet began a major training exercise in the North Sea. It then cruised through the Kattegat and stopped at Copenhagen and Stockholm. The summer cruise ended on 9 August. The autumn maneuvers would normally have followed shortly thereafter but were delayed by a visit from the British Channel Fleet that month. The British fleet stopped in Danzig, Swinemünde, and Flensburg, where it was greeted by units of the German Navy. Wettin and the main German fleet were anchored at Swinemünde for the occasion. The visit was strained by the Anglo-German naval arms race, and the 1905 autumn maneuvers were shortened considerably, to just a week of exercises in the North Sea in early September. The first exercise presumed a naval blockade in the German Bight; the second envisioned a hostile fleet attempting to force the defenses of the Elbe. In October, I Squadron went on a cruise in the Baltic. In early December, I and II Squadrons went on their regular winter cruise, this time to Danzig, where they arrived on 12 December. On the return trip to Kiel, the fleet conducted tactical exercises.


The Wittelsbach-class battleships were a group of five pre-dreadnought battleships of the Imperial German Navy. They were the first battleships produced under the Navy Law of 1898. The class was composed of the lead ship, Wettin, Zähringen, Schwaben, and Mecklenburg. All five ships were laid down between 1899 and 1900, and finished by 1904. The ships of the Wittelsbach class were similar in appearance to their predecessors of the Kaiser Friedrich III class, however, they had a flush main deck, as opposed to the lower quarterdeck of the Kaiser Friedrich class, and had a more extensive armor belt. Their armament was almost identical, though more efficiently arranged.

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Lithograph of Zähringen in 1902

The ships were commissioned into the German fleet between 1902 and 1904, where they joined the I Squadron of the battle fleet. They were rapidly made obsolete by the launch of HMS Dreadnought in 1906. By the outbreak of World War I in 1914, they were no longer fit for front-line service, though they saw some limited duty in the Baltic Sea against the Russian Navy. In 1916 the five ships were disarmed and employed in secondary roles. Wittelsbach, Wettin, and Schwaben became training ships, Mecklenburg was used as a prison ship and later as a floating barracks, and Zähringen became a target ship. All of the ships save Zähringen were broken up in 1921–22. Zähringen was rebuilt as a radio-controlled target ship in the mid-1920s. During World War II, she was badly damaged in a bombing raid in 1944 and scuttled in the final days of the war. She was eventually broken up in situ in 1949–50.

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Lithograph of Mecklenburg in 1902

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Wettin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittelsbach-class_battleship
 
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