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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1666 - Four Days Battle
First day of The Four Days Battle, off the North Foreland between the English fleet of 56 ships, under George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, and the Dutch fleet of 84 ships, under Lt.-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter.



The Four Days' Battle was a naval battle of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Fought from 1 June to 4 June 1666 in the Julian or Old Style calendar then used in England off the Flemish and English coast, it remains one of the longest naval engagements in history.

The Dutch inflicted significant damage on the English fleet. The English had gambled that the crews of the many new Dutch ships of the line would not have been fully trained yet, but were deceived in their hopes: they lost ten ships in total, with around 1,500 men killed including two vice-admirals, Sir Christopher Myngs and Sir William Berkeley, while about 2000 English were taken prisoner. Dutch losses were four ships destroyed by fire and over 1,550 men killed, including Lieutent Admiral Cornelis Evertsen, Vice Admiral Abraham van der Hulst and Rear Admiral Frederik Stachouwer.

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Background
In June 1665 the English had soundly defeated the Dutch in the Battle of Lowestoft, but failed to take advantage of it. The Dutch Spice Fleet, loaded with fabulous riches, managed to return home safely after the Battle of Vågen. The Dutch navy was enormously expanded through the largest building programme in its history. In August 1665 the English fleet was again challenged, though no large battles resulted. In 1666, the English became anxious to destroy the Dutch navy completely before it could grow too strong and were desperate to end the activity of Dutch raiders as a collapse of English trade threatened.

On learning that the French fleet intended to join the Dutch at Dunkirk, the English decided to prevent this by splitting their fleet. Their main force would try to destroy the Dutch fleet first, while a squadron under Prince Rupert was sent to block the Strait of Dover against the French—who however did not appear.

At the start of the battle the English fleet of 56 ships commanded by George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle who also commanded the Red Squadron, was outnumbered by the 84-strong Dutch fleet commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter. The battle ended with an English flight into a fog bank after both fleets had expended most of their ammunition.

Battle
First Day

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Battle council on the De Zeven Provinciën by Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1666

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HMS Swiftsure, Seven Oaks and Loyal George captured and flying Dutch colours, by Willem van de Velde the Younger

On the first day Monck, sailing in the van with George Ayscue's white squadron behind him and Thomas Teddiman's blue squadron forming the rear, surprised the Dutch fleet at anchor near Dunkirk. Despite disadvantageous weather conditions Monck decided to attack the Dutch rear under Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Tromp hoping to cripple it before the Dutch centre and van could intervene. After sending a message to Rupert to join him if possible, Monck aggressively attacked Tromp who fled over the Flemish shoals. Monck then wore to the northwest, to meet the Dutch centre (under De Ruyter) and van (commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Elder). Tromp again turned, but his ship Liefde collided with Groot Hollandia. Vice-Admiral Sir William Berkeley saw this and closed in with HMS Swiftsure. Immediately Callantsoog and Reiger came to the rescue of their commander, destroying the rigging of the English ship with chain shot; the Reiger then managed to board the Swiftsure.

Berkeley challenged the Dutch sea soldiers, shouting: You dogs, you rogues, have you the heart, so press on board! but was fatally wounded in the throat by a musket ball, after which the Swiftsure was captured. In the powder room the constable was found with his throat cut; he had tried to blow up the ship but his own crew killed him first and drenched the powder, claiming afterwards the man had cut his own throat from pure frustration. The damaged HMS Seven Oaks (the former Sevenwolden) was captured by the Beschermer while HMS Loyal George tried to assist the Swiftsure but this only resulted in the capture of both ships. The embalmed body of Berkeley, after being displayed in The Hague, was later returned to England under a truce, accompanied by a letter of the States General praising the Admiral for his courage. HMS Rainbow, one of the two scouts who had first spotted the Dutch fleet, got isolated and fled to neutral Ostend, chased by twelve ships from Tromp's squadron while the other, the Kent, left the battlefield in search of Rupert's squadron.

Both fleets bombarded each other in a line of battle. The Hof van Zeeland and the Duivenvoorde were hit by fire shot and burnt. The Dutch didn't know of the existence of this type of ammunition, consisting of hollow brass balls filled with a flammable substance, so they were greatly surprised. Luckily for them the English had only a small supply because of the high cost of production.

Monck retreated for the night, but the ship of Rear-Admiral Harman, HMS Henry, drifted to the Dutch lines and was set aflame by two fireships. The parson asked Harman what could save them; when the latter sarcastically replied that the good parson could always jump overboard, to his horror the panicked clergyman at once followed his advice together with a third of the crew. All drowned. Harman made an end to the panic by threatening with a drawn sword to run through anyone showing the slightest inclination to abandon ship. Evertsen now closed in and inquired whether Harman would perhaps like to surrender; it came as no surprise to him the renowned fighter respectfully declined, yelling "I'm not up to it yet!". Despite repeated Dutch attacks and the loss of two masts, one in its fall crushing Harman's leg, the fire was put out and the Henry escaped, with its last shot shooting Evertsen in two.


A detailed listing of all ships "Order of Battle" involved in this battle you can find at Threedecks




Michiel de Ruyter (Dutch pronunciation: [miˈxil də ˈrœy̯tər]) is a 2015 Dutch film about the 17th-century admiral Michiel de Ruyter directed by Roel Reiné. The film had its world premiere in the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseumin Amsterdam on 26 January 2015 and has been released in cinemas in the Netherlands on 29 January 2015. On the English promotional website, the film has the title Admiral.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Days'_Battle
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1676 - Battle of Öland
Danish-Dutch fleet of 25 ships-of-the-line, 10 frigates and some minor ships, under Dutch General Admiral Tromp and Admiral Niels Juel, defeats a Swedish force of 27 ships-of-the-line, 11 frigates and some minor ships, under Admiral Lorentz Creutz,.off Oland, Sweden



The Battle of Öland was a naval battle between an allied Danish-Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea, off the east coast of Öland on 1 June 1676. The battle was a part of the Scanian War (1675–79) fought for supremacy over the southern Baltic. Sweden was in urgent need of reinforcements for its north German possessions; Denmark sought to ferry an army to Scania in southern Sweden to open a front on Swedish soil.

Just as the battle began, the Swedish flagship Kronan sank, taking with it almost the entire crew, including the Admiral of the Realm and commander of the Swedish navy, Lorentz Creutz. The allied force under the leadership of the Dutch admiral Cornelis Tromp took full advantage of the ensuing disorder on the Swedish side. The acting commander after Creutz's sudden demise, Admiral Claes Uggla, was surrounded and his flagship Svärdet battered in a drawn-out artillery duel, then set ablaze by a fire ship. Uggla drowned while escaping the burning ship, and with the loss of a second supreme commander, the rest of the Swedish fleet fled in disorder.

The battle resulted in Danish naval supremacy, which was upheld throughout the war. The Danish King Christian V was able to ship troops over to the Swedish side of the Sound, and on 29 June a force of 14,500 men landed at Råå, just south of Helsingborg in southernmost Sweden. Scania became the main battleground of the war, culminating with the bloody battles of Lund, Halmstad and Landskrona. Danish and Dutch naval forces were left free to raze Öland and the Swedish east coast all the way up to Stockholm. The Swedish failure at Öland also prompted King Charles XI to order a commission to investigate the fiasco, but in the end no one was found responsible.

Background
Main articles: Denmark–Norway and Swedish Empire
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A map of Sweden's territorial gains and losses 1560–1815. After 1660, Sweden was at its peak as a Baltic Sea power, holding the coast along the entire northern Baltic and strategic possessions in the southwest.

In the 1660s, Sweden reached its height as a European great power. It had recently defeated Denmark, one of its main competitors for hegemony in the Baltic, in the Torstenson War (1643–45) and the Dano-Swedish War (1657–58). At the Treaties of Brömsebro (1645) and Roskilde (1658), Denmark was forced to cede the islands of Gotland and Ösel, all of its eastern territories on the Scandinavian Peninsula, and parts of Norway. In a third war, from 1658 to 1660, King Charles X of Sweden attempted to finish off Denmark for good. The move was in part due to bold royal ambition, but also a result of Sweden's being a highly militarized society geared for almost constant warfare, a fiscal-military state. Disbanding the Swedish forces meant settling outstanding pay, so there was an underlying incentive to keep hostilities alive and let soldiers live off enemy lands and plunder. In the end, the renewed attack failed with interventions by the leading naval powers of England and the Dutch Republic. Charles' plans to subdue Denmark were thwarted and Trøndelag and Bornholm were returned to Denmark in the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 while Sweden was allowed to keep the rest of its recent conquests.

Charles X died in February 1660 and was succeeded by a regency council—led by the queen mother Hedvig Eleonora—that ruled in the name of Charles XI who was only four at the time of his father's death. Sweden had come close to almost complete control over trade in the Baltic, but the war revealed the need to work against the formation of anti-Swedish alliances that included Denmark, especially with France, the most powerful state in Europe at the time. There were some successes in foreign policy with the anti-French 1668 Triple Alliance of England, Sweden, and the Dutch Republic.

While the Swedish policy was to avoid war and to consolidate its gains, Danish policy after 1660 was to seek an opportunity to regain its losses. Under the Oldenburg King Frederick III, the foreign policy was aimed at isolating Sweden while setting itself up in a favorable position in future wars. Denmark attempted to position itself in the alliances among the 17th century Europe great powers. Bourbon France and the Habsburg-dominated Holy Roman Empire competed for continental domination while the Dutch Republic and England fought several wars over naval hegemony. At the same time, Denmark sought to rid itself of the generous toll treaties it was forced to grant Dutch merchants after the Republic's assistance in the wars against Sweden. Attempts were made to ally with both England and France, but without success. In the Second Anglo-Dutch War(1665–66) Denmark had to side with the Dutch at the Battle of Vågen, souring its relations with England. In 1670 France allied with England against the Republic. Sweden's relations with France had improved greatly and in 1672 it joined the Anglo-French coalition, pushing Denmark into the Dutch camp.

In 1672, French King Louis XIV launched an attack on the Dutch Republic, igniting the Franco-Dutch War. The attack was opposed by the Holy Roman Empire led by Leopold I. In 1674, Sweden was pressured into joining the war by attacking the Republic's northern German allies. France promised to pay Sweden desperately needed war subsidies only on the condition that it moved in force on Brandenburg. A Swedish army of around 22,000 men under Carl Gustaf Wrangel advanced into Brandenburg in December 1674 and suffered a minor tactical defeat at the Battle of Fehrbellin in June 1675. Though not militarily significant, the defeat tarnished the reputation of near-invincibility that Sweden had enjoyed since the Thirty Years' War and emboldened its enemies. By September 1675, Denmark, the Dutch Republic, the Holy Roman Empire and Spain were all joined in war against Sweden and its ally France.

Scanian War
Main article: Scanian War
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Sailing order for the Swedish fleet in late 1675. The illustration shows that the Swedish navy had not adapted to the realities of the line of battle. It still followed the patterns of "melee tactics" where small groups of ships acted individually, aiming for close combat and boarding.

With the declaration of war against Sweden on 2 September 1675, Denmark saw a chance to regain its recently lost eastern provinces. The southern Baltic became an important strategic theatre for both Denmark and Sweden. Denmark needed the sea lanes to invade Scania, and Sweden needed to reinforce Swedish Pomerania on the Baltic coast; both stood to gain by taking control of the Baltic trade routes. As war broke out between Denmark and Sweden a strong naval presence also became essential for Sweden to secure its interests at home and overseas.

In October 1675 the Swedish fleet under Gustaf Otto Stenbock put to sea, but sailed no further than Stora Karlsö off Gotland before it had to turn back to Stockholm after less than two weeks, beset by cold and stormy weather, disease, and the loss of vital equipment. Stenbock, held personally responsible for the failure by King Charles XI, was forced to pay for the campaign out of his own pocket. During the winter of 1675–76 the Swedish fleet was placed under the command of Lorentz Creutz, who attempted to put to sea in January to February 1676, but was iced in by exceptionally cold weather.

State of the fleets
The First Anglo-Dutch War (1652–54) saw the development of the line of battle, a tactic where ships formed a continuous line to fire broadsides at an enemy. Previously, decisive action in naval engagements had been achieved through boarding and melee, but after the middle of the 17th century tactical doctrine focused more on disabling or sinking an opponent through superior firepower from a distance. This entailed major changes in military doctrines, shipbuilding, and professionalism in European navies from the 1650s onwards. The line of battle favored very large ships that could hold the line in the face of heavy fire, later known as ships of the line. The new tactics also depended on the ability of strong, centralized governments to maintain large, permanent fleets led by a professional officer corps. The increased power of the state at the expense of individual landowners led to the expansion of armies and navies, and in the late 1660s Sweden embarked on an expansive shipbuilding program.

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Detail of engraving of Stockholm from Suecia antiqua et hodierna by Erik Dahlberg and Willem Swidde, printed in 1693. The view shows the Swedish capital as a bustling port, and in the foreground the peak of Kastellholmen next to the royal shipyards on Skeppsholmen.

In 1675, the Swedish fleet was numerically superior to its Danish counterpart (18 ships of the line against 16 and 21 frigates against 11), but it was older and of poorer quality than the Danish fleet, which had replaced a larger proportion of its vessels. The Swedes had problems with routine maintenance, and both rigging and sails were generally in poor condition. Swedish crews lacked the professionalism of Danish and Norwegian sailors, who commonly had valuable experience from service in the Dutch merchant navy, and the Swedish navy also lacked a core of professional officers. The Danish had seasoned veterans like Cort Adeler and Niels Juel. The Danish fleet was also reinforced with Dutch units under the command Philip van Almonde and Cornelis Tromp, the latter an experienced officer who had served under Michiel de Ruyter, famous for his skilled command in the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

Prelude
Main article: Battle of Bornholm (1676)
A Danish fleet of 20 ships under Admiral Niels Juel put to sea in March 1676, and on 29 April his forces landed on Gotland, which surrendered. The Swedish fleet was ordered out on 4 May with 23 warships of over 50 guns, 21 of less than 50 and 16 minor supporting vessels manned by about 12,000 men, but encountered adverse winds and was delayed until 19 May. Juel had by then left Visby, the main port on Gotland, to join up with a smaller Danish-Dutch force at Bornholm, between the southern tip of Sweden and the northern coast of Germany. Together they intended to cruise between Scania and the island of Rügen to stop Swedish troops from landing on the island and reinforcing Swedish Pomerania. On 25–26 May the two fleets fought the indecisive battle at Bornholm. The Swedish force was superior in numbers but was unable to inflict any serious losses, and two of the fleet's fireships were captured, one by the allies and the other by a Brandenburg squadron headed for Copenhagen.

Several Swedish accounts say that Creutz argued with his officers after Bornholm. Major Taube of the Mars testified that after the battle, the officers had been "scolded like boys" and that Creutz, "without regard for guilt or innocence, accused them almost all alike". The army captain Rosenberg told a later inquiry that Creutz "almost had a paroxysm in the night" over the conduct of Johan Bär (one of his flag officers) at Bornholm, and that he swore "never to go to serve at sea with such rascals". Maritime archaeologist Lars Einarsson has concluded that the relationship between Creutz and his subordinates had hit rock bottom before the battle.

After the unsuccessful action the Swedish fleet anchored off Trelleborg, where King Charles was waiting with new orders to recapture Gotland. The fleet was to refuse combat with the allies at least until they reached the northern tip of Öland, where they could fight in friendly waters. After the Swedish fleet left Trelleborg on 30 May, the allied fleet soon came in contact with it and began pursuing the Swedes. By this time the allies had been reinforced by a small squadron and now totaled 42 vessels, with 25 large or medium ships of the line. The reinforcements also brought with them a new commander, Admiral General Cornelis Tromp, one of the ablest naval tacticians of his time. Tromp, who also was a Lieutenant-Admiral in the Dutch navy, was made Admiral-General of the Danish navy on 8 May 1676. The two fleets sailed north and on 1 June passed the northern tip of Öland in a strong gale. The rough winds were hard on the Swedish ships. Many lost masts and spars. The Swedes, forming a barely cohesive battle line, tried to sail ahead of Tromp's ships, hoping to get between them and the shore, thus putting themselves on the allied fleet's windward side and gaining the tactical advantage of holding the weather gage. The Dutch ships of the allied fleet managed to sail closer to the wind and faster than the rest of the force, and slipped between the Swedes and the coast, snatching the weather gage. Later that morning the two fleets closed on each other, and were soon within firing range.

Battle
Around noon, as a result of poor coordination and signaling, the Swedish line unexpectedly turned toward the allied fleet. When the flagship Kronan came about in the maneuver it suddenly heeled over and began to take in water. According to master gunner Anders Gyllenspak, the sails were not reefed and the ship leaned over so hard that water flooded in through the lower gunports. As the ship was leaning over, a gust of wind pushed the ship on her side, bringing her masts and sails down in line with the surface of the sea. Shortly afterwards, the gunpowder store exploded and ripped the forward section of the starboard side apart. Kronan quickly lost buoyancy and sank, taking most of her 850-man crew with her.

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A contemporary depiction that divides the battle into three phases: (1) the two fleets sailing northwards along the coast of Öland, just passing the southern tip of Öland, (2) Kronan exploding and Svärdet surrounded, and (3) the Swedish fleet fleeing in disorder, pursued by allied ships. Copper engraving by Romeyn de Hooghe, 1676.

The sudden loss of the flagship and the fleet admiral threw the already scattered Swedish line into confusion and sapped morale. Four ships from Creutz's and Uggla's squadrons immediately fled when they saw that the flagship was lost. Claes Uggla was next in command after Creutz and became the acting commander of the Swedish fleet. When the line came about, Uggla and his ship Svärdet came on a collision course with the still floating wreckage of Kronan, and were forced to jibe (turn the stern into the wind direction) to avoid it. Svärdet's second turn was interpreted by many ships as a signal to turn again; others interpreted it as the beginning of a general retreat, leading to major disorder. Uggla reduced speed in an attempt to gather his forces, but instead was separated from his squadron.

Tromp on Christianus Quintus, Vice Admiral Jens Rodsten on Tre Løver and Niels Juel on Churprindsen took advantage of the chaos. They quickly surrounded Svärdet and three supporting ships (Hieronymus, Neptunus and Järnvågen, an armed merchantman) and began to hammer them into submission. Several other Swedish vessels attempted to assist Uggla, but they were in a lee position and could not provide effective support. After about an hour-and-a-half to two hours of hard fighting Svärdet's mainmast went overboard and Uggla had to surrender to Tromp. Despite this, Svärdet was ignited by accident or misunderstanding by the Dutch fireship 't Hoen. The second largest Swedish ship after Kronan sank in the blaze and took with it 600 out of a crew of 650, including Admiral Uggla himself. Only Hieronymus escaped the assault by the allied admirals, though badly damaged, and the others were captured by Juel on Churprindsen together with one of his lieutenants on Anna Sophia.

By six o'clock in the evening the Swedes had lost two flagships along with two fleet admirals, including the supreme commander of the navy. The entire force now began a disorderly retreat: the smaller ships Enhorn, Ekorren, Gripen and Sjöhästen were outsailed and captured and the rest of the ships sought shelter in friendly harbors. Most set course for Dalarö, north of Stockholm; others tried for Kalmar Strait, between Öland and the Swedish mainland. The allied fleet tried to capitalize further on its victory by giving chase, but the dash up the coast had scattered its forces and there was disagreement among the Danish commanders on how far they should pursue the Swedish ships.

Aftermath
Charles XI pointing to the spot of the new main naval base of the Swedish navy, what would later become the town of Karlskrona; painting by Pehr Hilleström
The Swedish fleet had suffered a major blow by losing its two largest ships, its commander-in-chief and one of its most experienced admirals. Even after the battle, the misfortunes continued. Äpplet came off its moorings at Dalarö, went aground and sank. Around fifty survivors were picked up by pursuing Danish ships and taken as prisoners to Copenhagen. The battle gave Denmark undisputed naval supremacy and the Swedish fleet did not dare to venture out for the rest of the year. The army that had been amassed in Denmark could now be shipped to Scania to take the war to Swedish soil and on 29 June 1676, 14,500 troops were landed at Råå south of Helsingborg. The Battle of Öland was the first major Swedish defeat at sea to Denmark and was followed by further Swedish defeats at Møn and Køge Bay in 1677. The latter was a resounding success for Admiral Niels Juel and has become the most celebrated victory in Danish naval history.

The Battle of Öland was the first of several major Swedish defeats at sea that ended in complete Danish dominance over the southern Baltic for the duration of the Scanian War. That the main naval base in Stockholm was locked in ice during the winter of 1675–76 showed the necessity of an ice-free harbor that was closer to Danish home waters. In 1679, King Charles personally chose the site for a new base at what would later become Karlskrona. The lessons from the war also led to improvements in Swedish naval organization under the guidance of Hans Wachtmeister (1641–1714) which included better funding and maintenance, increased readiness for mobilization in the southern Baltic and permanent recruitment of skilled personnel through the allotment system.




 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1773 – Wolraad Woltemade rescues 14 sailors at the Cape of Good Hope from the sinking ship De Jonge Thomas by riding his horse into the sea seven times.
He drowned on his eighth attempt.



Wolraad Woltemade (c.1708 – 1 June 1773) was a Cape Dutch dairy farmer, who died while rescuing sailors from the wreck of the ship De Jonge Thomas in Table Bay on 1 June 1773. The story was reported by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg who was in South Africa as a surgeon for the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (known in English as the Dutch East India Company) at the time.

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18th century drawing depicting Wolraad Woltemade's rescue of 14 sailors

Early life
Woltemade was born in Schaumburg, part of present-day northwestern Germany. He migrated to the Dutch settlement at Cape Town (Kaapstad) and worked for the Dutch East India Company as a soldier and after retirement as keeper of the menagerie of the company or as a dairyman. Many of the earliest European colonies were established by commercial companies, rather than through the direct intervention of the governments of European nations. For example, note the history of the British South Africa Company.

Shipwreck
On the morning of 1 June 1773, near mid-winter in the southern hemisphere, a sailing ship named De Jonge Thomas was driven ashore in a gale onto a sand bar at the mouth of the Salt River in Table Bay. Many lives were lost as the ship started to break up but a substantial number of survivors were left clinging to the hull. The stricken ship was not too far from dry land and many sailors attempted to swim ashore. Most of those who did so perished; the water was cold and the current from the nearby Salt River too great. Except for the very strongest swimmers, those who headed for the shore were carried out to sea.

A crowd of spectators stood on the beach. Some came to watch, others to try to help and yet others were hoping to loot the cargo that was being washed ashore. A detachment of soldiers was in attendance to keep order among the spectators. Corporal Christian Ludwig Woltemade, the youngest son of the elderly Wolraad, was among those standing guard. As daylight came, Wolraad left his home, Klein Zoar on horseback, taking provisions to his son.

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Rescue
As he reached the beach, Wolraad was filled with pity for the sailors marooned aboard the wreck. Seeing that nothing could be done by those on the beach, he mounted his horse, Vonk*, and urged the animal into the sea. As they approached the wreck, Woltemade turned the horse and called for two men to jump into the sea and grasp the horse's tail. After a moment of hesitation, two men threw themselves into the water and did so, whereupon Woltemade urged the horse forward and dragged them to shore. Wolraad rode out seven times, bringing back fourteen men. By this time he and his horse were exhausted, but at that moment, as they rested, the ship began to collapse. Wolraad once more urged his horse into the water but by now the desperation amongst the sailors was tremendous. Seeing this as probably their last chance to escape before the ship was destroyed, six men plunged into the sea, grabbing at the horse. Their weight was too much for the exhausted steed; all were dragged below the waves and drowned.

Woltemade's body was found the next day, but the horse was not found.

Of the 191 souls on board, only 53 survived and of these 14 were saved by Woltemade.

(* No empirical record of the name of the horse has been found to date. "Vonk" (Afrikaans/Dutch for "Spark") is the name attributed to the horse in a statue by I. Mitford-Barbeton of the tragic event. The statue is located in the foyer of the OLD Mutual head office in Pinelands, Cape Town, South Africa.)

Honour
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Statue depicting Wolraad Woltemade near Woltemade train station, Cape Town.

Woltemade (did not*) immediately became a hero. The Dutch East India Company provided amply for his widow and children and named a ship Held Woldemade, taken by the British fleet as prize during the battle in Saldanha Bay on 4 July 1781. A railway station in Cape Town is named after him. The Union of South Africa King's Medal for Bravery, instituted in 1939, bore a depiction of Woltemade's heroic act on its obverse. In 1970 the Woltemade Decoration for Bravery was instituted as the highest civilian decoration for bravery in South Africa. This was replaced in 1988 by the Woltemade Cross for Bravery. The Woltemade Cross was discontinued in 2002, as part of the move towards establishing a new South African honours system, following the advent of majority rule.

The name also was given to the S.A. Wolraad Woltemade, one of a pair of salvage tugs built in 1976, which at the time were the most powerful tugs in the world.

(* The Captain (van Lammeren) of de Jonge Thomas was given an official funeral, but there was nothing so grand for Woltemade. The general opinion at the Castle seems to have been that he was an officious fool who had lost his life unnecessarily. In the first report to Holland, his name is not even mentioned - though considerable space is devoted to the eighteen boxes of money providentially saved. This gold was the reason the flotilla had been allowed into Table Bay in the first place, as transporting it by land from Simons Town to The Castle would have been too dangerous given the poor roads, made worse (impassable) by the storm. However, Karl Thunberg, who had witnessed the event, did not forget Woltemade; nor did the formers countryman, Anders Sparrman, when he wrote his famous book "A Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope" in 1775." The VOC (Dutch East India Company) did eventually compensate his dependants, but it took a few years of public outcry to do so.)

The name
Wolraad is a version of the German name Vollrad (from "Volkrat"), sometimes also spelled Wolrad, and means "councillor of the people". Woltemad(e) is the spelling variation used by Thunberg for the Low German family name Woltemate ("Wohlgemut" in High German, meaning "light-hearted", or more literally "of a good disposition"), and a familiar connection with the Woltemate family of artists from the same region in Germany in which the name "Wolrad" occurs is a possibility.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1780 – USS Trumbull engages the British privateer Watt; both ships withdraw


The second Trumbull was a three-masted, wooden-hulled sailing frigate and was one of the first of 13 frigates authorized by the Continental Congress on 13 of December 1775. They were superior in design and construction to the same class of European vessels in their day. Its keel was laid down in March or April 1776 at Chatham, Connecticut, by John Cotton and was launched on 5 September 1776.

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Troubled Launch
After the frigate had been launched, her builders discovered that her deep draft would make it extremely difficult to get the ship across the bar at the mouth of the Connecticut River into Long Island Sound. The following spring, as Trumbull lay in the river at Saybrook awaiting assistance in getting out to deep water, her safety became a matter of great concern to Continental naval authorities. In April General Howe ordered General Tryon — the Royal Governor of New York — to lead a raid into neighboring Connecticut. Tryon's forces landed at Fairfield, Connecticut, marched inland, and burned Continental public stores at Danbury, Connecticut. A small force of Americans harassed the British troops as they marched back to their ships. Fortunately, Tryon did not attack the berth on the Connecticut River where Trumbull — protected by neither gun nor warships — lay virtually defenseless.

After three years of inactivity, Trumbull was finally freed in 1779. Capt. Elisha Hinman suggested that casks of water be lashed with stout ropes running beneath the keel, along the port and starboard sides. When the casks were pumped out, they rose and lifted the ship just enough so as to permit passage over the bar. Trumbull then was fitted our for sea at New London, Conn. under the direction of Nathaniel Shaw. On 20 September 1779, Capt. James Nicholson received command of the frigate.

Combat Action

USS Trumbull depicted on the 1781 Granary Burying Ground grave of Jabez Smith, a sailor killed on the ship, labeled "anchored in the haven of rest"

Nicholson did not receive his cruising orders until the following spring. Late in May 1780, Trumbull sailed for her first foray into the Atlantic. Action was not long in coming. At 1030 on 1 June 1780, Trumbull's masthead lookout sighted a sail to windward. In order to remain undetected for as long as possible, the frigate furled her sails until 1130. Then, upon ascertaining the strange ship's size, Trumbull then made sail and tacked towards, what soon proved to be the British letter-of-marque Watt, of 32 guns.

Nicholson delivered a short exhortation to his men who "most chearfully (sic) decided to fight". By noon, Nicholson noted that his ship seemed to "greatly outsail" the enemy and determined to utilize this advantage by moving to windward of the enemy.

Watt challenged Trumbull, running up the Cross of St. George and firing a gun. Trumbull, in order to keep her true identity cloaked until the last possible moment, also ran up the British colors. Watt's commanding officer, Capt. Coulthard, initially mistook Trumbull "for one of his Majesty's cruising frigates" but soon became suspicious of the its movements and closed to windward. His suspicions were confirmed when Trumbull failed to respond to a "private signal".

The Watt gave "three cheers and a broadside" to commence what historian Gardner W. Allen considered "one of the hardest fought naval engagements of the war". Trumbull soon ran up Continental colors and returned the first broadside at a range of 80 yards (73 m). For two-and-a-half hours, the two ships traded shot in a fierce action. The range — never wider than 80 yards (73 m) — most of the time was under 50 yards (46 m); and once the ships' yards nearly became locked together. Watt twice set the frigate aflame; Trumbull's shot caused fires on board Watt that proved impossible to extinguish until the British ship had cut away much of her rigging. Most of the men in Watt's tops were either killed, or wounded, or driven below. The Trumbull lost 30 killed or wounded, including two Lieutenants. The battle proved to be the most severe naval duel of the war.

The British ship's hull, rigging, and sails were shot to pieces. Holed below the waterline, the letter of marque took on water at an alarming rate, and her danger was compounded by the fact that the American guns had left her with only one operable pump. Trumbull fared little better. Captain of Marines Gilbert Saltonstall subsequently noted: "We were literally cut all to pieces; not a shroud, stay, brace, bowling, or other rigging standing. Our main top must mast shot away, our fore, main mizzen, and jigger masts gone by the board...".

Nicholson's crew lost eight killed and 31 wounded; Watt suffered 13 killed and 79 wounded. Both badly battered, Trumbull and Watt separated and retired. Nicholson eagerly wanted to continue to pursue his adversary until his officers convinced him that — even if he managed to repair his only surviving mast — the condition of his crew would not permit another engagement.

Trumbull weathered a gale while struggling back to Connecticut and reached Nantasket on 14 June, three days after Watt limped into New York. Nicholson subsequently reported that "was I to have my choice...I would sooner fight any two-and-thirty gun frigate...on the coast of America, then to fight that ship over again...".

Return to Philadelphia
In the meantime, the Continental Board of Admiralty, after congratulating Nicholson on the "gallantry displayed in the defense" against Watt urged him to speed the outfitting of his ship for further service. Lack of money and scarcity of men combined to keep the frigate inactive at Philadelphia for the first part of the year 1781.

Capture
On 8 August 1781, Trumbull — the last remaining frigate of the original 13 authorized by Congress in 1775 — eventually departed from the Delaware capes in company with a 24-gun privateer and a 14-gun letter-of-marque. Under their protection was a 28-ship merchant convoy. On 28 August 1781, lookouts on the American ships spotted three sails to the eastward; two tacking to give chase to the convoy.

At nightfall, a rain squall struck with terrific force and carried away Trumbull's fore-topmast and her main topgallant mast. Forced to run before the wind, the frigate separated from the convoy and their escorts, and soon found herself engaged with the frigate Iris (the former Continental frigate Hancock), and the 18-gun ship General Monk (the former Continental privateer General Washington). Even with the "utmost exertion," the wrecked masts and sails could not be cleared away. Knowing he could not run, Nicholson decided to fight.

Trapped, Trumbull beat to quarters, but three-quarters of the crew failed to respond, and instead fled below. Undaunted, Nicholson bravely gathered the remainder. For one hour and 35 minutes, Trumbull and Iris remained engaged; General Monk soon closed and entered the contest as well. "Seeing no prospect of escaping in this unequal contest," Nicholson later wrote, "I struck...". Eleven Americans were wounded and five killed during the engagement before Trumbull surrendered. Iris reported that she had lost one man killed and six wounded, while Trumbull had two men killed and 10 wounded.

Trumbull, by this point almost a wreck, was taken under tow by the victorious Iris to New York. However, because of her severe damage, the British did not take the frigate into the Royal Navy; and details of her subsequent career are lost or unknown.





 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1787 - Launch HMS Orion, a 74-gun Canada-class third rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy, at Deptford to the design of the Canada-class, by William Bately.


HMS Orion was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy, launched at Deptford on 1 June 1787 to the design of the Canada-class, by William Bately. She took part in all the major actions of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars under a series of distinguished captains.

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Model of HMS Orion at the Vancouver Maritime Museum

In 1794 she fought at the Glorious First of June under Captain John Thomas Duckworth.

In early 1795, Captain James Saumarez was appointed in command. Under Saumarez, Orion took part in the defeat of the French fleet at the Battle of Groix off Lorient on 22 June.

In early 1797 she was sent to join the Mediterranean Fleet and distinguished herself at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent on 14 February. She then took part in the blockade of Cadiz from March 1797 to April 1798, when she was sent into the Mediterranean as part of a small squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. In August, Nelson finally caught up with the French fleet, resulting in the Battle of the Nile, where Captain Saumarez was wounded.

Between 31 March 1801 and 10 July 1802 the Surgeon's First Mate on board the Orion was Henry Plowman. On 15 January 1802 whilst still on board the Orion (which was anchored at Spithead and under the command of R Cuthbert) Henry Plowman wrote his will which is signed by the Captain.

In October 1805, now under Captain Edward Codrington, she took part in the Battle of Trafalgar where, with Ajax, she forced the surrender of the French 74-gun ship Intrépide.

After Trafalgar, Orion continued in the blockade of Cadiz. On 25 November, Thunderer detained the Ragusan ship Nemesis, which was sailing from Isle de France to Leghorn, Italy, with a cargo of spice, indigo dye, and other goods. Orion shared the prize money with ten other British warships


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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for Majestic (1785), Orion (1787), and Captain (1787), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The design for these three ships was taken from the draught of the Canada (1765)


The Canada class ships of the line were a series of four 74-gun third rates designed for the Royal Navy by William Bateley. The name ship of the class was launched in 1765.

Design
During this period in British naval architecture, the 74-gun third rates were divided into two distinct groupings: the 'large' and 'common' classes. The Canada class ships belonged to the latter grouping, carrying 18-pounder guns on their upper gun decks, as opposed to the 24-pounders of the large class.

Service
HMS Captain, made famous for Nelson's actions at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, belonged to this class of ships.

Ships
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Launched: 17 September 1765
Fate: Broken up, 1834
Builder: Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 23 August 1781
Launched: 11 December 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1816
Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 2 October 1782
Launched: 1 June 1787
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Launched: 26 January 1787
Fate: Burned and broken up, 1813



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Orion_(1787)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1789 - Venus, a Swedish frigate designed by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, was captured by the Russians in Oslofjord.


Venus was a Swedish frigate, designed by Fredrik Henrik af Chapman. Venus was captured by the Russians in 1789 in Oslofjord. The frigate retained the same name in Imperial Russian service until 1807, when she was sold to the Kingdom of Naples.

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Capturing of Swedish 44-gun frigate Venus by Russian 22-gun cutter Merkuriy of June 1, 1789.


Design
The Swedish Bellona class were the first 'super-heavy frigates' in the world, armed with 24-pounder long guns, with the lead ship being built in 1782. Because of a shortage of ships-of-the-line, the Swedes wanted these frigates to be able to be able to stand in the battle line in an emergency.

Service history
Venus was launched on July 13th of 1783 in Karlskrona. In 1786 she sailed to Gothenburg where she was to be subordinated the local naval station, which was commanded by Adolf Ulrik Sheldon. Three years later, on 1 June 1789, while she was under the command of Major Magnus Hansson, and belonged to the Gothenburg Squadron, she was conquered by the Russians in a complicated action that created an interesting legal and diplomatic aftermath.


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Capture by the Imperial Russian Navy
On 1 June 1789, Venus was patrolling the waters outside the Norwegian coast, Norway at this time was ruled by Denmark and considered neutral. On 31 May the lookouts reported a Russian squadron of four frigates and a cutter, the report was soon corrected to two ships of the line, two frigates and a cutter.

Relying on his ships excellent sailing abilities Commander Hansson expected to be able to stay ahead of the Russian ships, until a change in the wind suddenly deprived him of the possibility of reaching the open sea. Cornered by the Russians, the ship escaped into the entrance of the fjord of Christiania (now Oslo), expecting the protection of a neutral nation. However, the Russian ships followed and went into action, the cutter Merkuriy was the first to reach Venus and both ships opened fire. The larger ships then followed, positioning themselves to be able to fire along the length of Venus.

Hansson had prepared his ship with spring on the anchor cable to enable to train his ship's broadside guns over a wide arc, and initially he managed to damage the first-arriving Russian ships. However, when the capital ships were in place and also opened fire, Commander Hansson, after consultation with his senior officers, concluded that nothing more could be achieved by further bloodshed and hauled down his colours. According to a testimony from the Danish/Norwegian pilot, Commander Hansson, right after hauling down his flag, boarded the Russian flagship claiming the attack as a crime of war.

The hard feelings among Swedish officers was also obvious in other official reports. The squadron commander A.F. Rosensvärd mentioned in his official report about the loss of Venus that his ships had respected the neutrality versus Russian ships in Danish harbours, "...ships that I with my superiour force easily could have captured if it had been within legal practice...".

The Russian newspapers and authorities made the outmost of the capture spreading the news that Venus had hauled down her colours to the 22-gun cutter Merkuriy. The imprisoned Commander Hansson reacted furiously claiming his honour as officer had been questioned and wrote a letter to the commander of the Russian squadron asking him as a gentleman to testify about the events.

Commander Jenkins of the cutter Merkuriy answered the call from his enemy colleague. In a letter that can still be found of the Swedish court protocols he not only confirmed that Commander Hansson did actually haul down his flag to the squadron, but also claims his ship suffered severe damages and would have been sunk if the larger ships had not come to his assistance.

Upon returning from captivity Commander Major Hansson was placed on trial at the royal court in Stockholm in July 1791 for the loss of his ship. The relatively mild sentence of loss of a half year salary for positioning his majesty’s frigate Venus into a position where he could not escape to the open sea indicated that the court not considered the loss itself as a crime and accepted the fact that Major Hansson should have been able to expect a safe heaven on neutral waters, and that his defence of the ship had been sufficient until the point of the arrival of the full Russian squadron.

Service with Russia and Naples
The ship was taken over by the Russian Navy and participated in the battle of Reval and in the battle of Vyborg Bay in 1790 under the command of the Scottish-born Russian Admiral Roman Crown. Venus visited Holland in 1795 and Great Britain in 1795–1797 and 1799–1800. She served in the Adriatic Sea between 1805 and 1807 and in the Aegean Sea in 1807. She was sold to the Kingdom of Naples in Palermo to avoid capture by the British.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1794 - The Glorious First of June - Part I
British fleet defeats French fleet in North Atlantic but French grain convoy makes it through to Brest
It is the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars.


The Glorious First of June (also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant or, in France, as the Bataille du 13 prairial an 2 or Combat de Prairial) of 1794 was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars.

The action was the culmination of a campaign that had criss-crossed the Bay of Biscay over the previous month in which both sides had captured numerous merchant ships and minor warships and had engaged in two partial, but inconclusive, fleet actions. The British Channel Fleet under Admiral Lord Howe attempted to prevent the passage of a vital French grain convoy from the United States, which was protected by the French Atlantic Fleet, commanded by Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. The two forces clashed in the Atlantic Ocean, some 400 nautical miles (700 km) west of the French island of Ushant on 1 June 1794.

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During the battle, Howe defied naval convention by ordering his fleet to turn towards the French and for each of his vessels to rake and engage their immediate opponent. This unexpected order was not understood by all of his captains, and as a result his attack was more piecemeal than he intended. Nevertheless, his ships inflicted a severe tactical defeat on the French fleet. In the aftermath of the battle both fleets were left shattered; in no condition for further combat, Howe and Villaret returned to their home ports. Despite losing seven of his ships of the line, Villaret had bought enough time for the French grain convoy to reach safety unimpeded by Howe's fleet, securing a strategic success. However, he was also forced to withdraw his battle fleet back to port, leaving the British free to conduct a campaign of blockade for the remainder of the war. In the immediate aftermath both sides claimed victory and the outcome of the battle was seized upon by the press of both nations as a demonstration of the prowess and bravery of their respective navies.

The Glorious First of June demonstrated a number of the major problems inherent in the French and British navies at the start of the Revolutionary Wars. Both admirals were faced with disobedience from their captains, along with ill-discipline and poor training among their shorthanded crews, and they failed to control their fleets effectively during the height of the combat.

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Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June
Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg, 1795

Background
Since early 1792 France had been at war with four of its neighbours on two fronts, battling Austria and Prussia in the Austrian Netherlands, and the Austrians and Piedmontese in Italy. On 2 January 1793, almost one year into the French Revolutionary War, republican-held forts at Brest in Brittany fired on the British brig HMS Childers. A few weeks later, following the execution of the imprisoned King Louis XVI, diplomatic ties between Britain and France were broken. On 1 February France declared war on both Britain and the Dutch Republic.

Protected from immediate invasion by the English Channel, Britain prepared for an extensive naval campaign and dispatched troops to the Netherlands for service against the French. Throughout the remainder of 1793, the British and French navies undertook minor operations in Northern waters, the Mediterranean and the West and East Indies, where both nations maintained colonies. The closest the Channel Fleet had come to an engagement was when it had narrowly missed intercepting the French convoy from the Caribbean, escorted by 15 ships of the line on 2 August. The only major clash was the Siege of Toulon, a confused and bloody affair in which the British force holding the town—alongside Spanish, Sardinian, Austrian and French Royalist troops—had to be evacuated by the Royal Navy to prevent its imminent defeat at the hands of the French Republican army. The aftermath of this siege was punctuated by recriminations and accusations of cowardice and betrayal among the allies, eventually resulting in Spain switching allegiance with the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso two years later. Nevertheless, the siege produced one major success: Sir Sidney Smith, with parties of sailors from the retreating British fleet, accomplished the destruction of substantial French naval stores and shipping in Toulon. More might have been achieved had the Spanish raiding parties that accompanied Smith not been issued with secret orders to stall the destruction of the French fleet.

The situation in Europe remained volatile into 1794. Off northern France, the French Atlantic Fleet had mutinied due to errors in provisions and pay. In consequence, the French Navy officer corps suffered greatly from the effects of the Reign of Terror, with many experienced sailors being executed, imprisoned or dismissed from the service for perceived disloyalty. The shortage of provisions was more than a navy problem though; France itself was starving because the social upheavals of the previous year had combined with a harsh winter to ruin the harvest. By this time at war with all her neighbours, France had nowhere to turn for overland imports of fresh provisions. Eventually a solution to the food crisis was agreed by the National Convention: food produced in France's overseas colonies would be concentrated on board a fleet of merchant ships gathered in Chesapeake Bay, and augmented with food and goods purchased from the United States. During April and May 1794, the merchantmen would convoy the supplies across the Atlantic to Brest, protected by elements of the French Atlantic Fleet.

Fleets
Further information: Order of battle at the Glorious First of June
The navies of Britain and France in 1794 were at very different stages of development. Although the British fleet was numerically superior, the French ships were larger and stronger, and carried a heavier weight of shot. The largest French ships were three-decker first rates, carrying 110 or 120 guns, against 100 guns on the largest British vessels.

Royal Navy

Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe
mezzotint engraving by R. Dunkarton, after the painting by John Singleton Copley

Since the Spanish Armament of 1790, the Royal Navy had been at sea in a state of readiness for over three years. The Navy's dockyards under First Lord of the Admiralty Charles Middleton were all fully fitted and prepared for conflict. This was quite unlike the disasters of the American Revolutionary War ten years earlier, when an ill-prepared Royal Navy had taken too long to reach full effectiveness and was consequently unable to support the North American campaign—which ended in defeat at the Battle of Yorktown due to lack of supplies. With British dockyards now readily turning out cannon, shot, sails, provisions and other essential equipment, the only remaining problem was that of manning the several hundred ships on the Navy list.

Unfortunately for the British, gathering sufficient manpower was difficult and never satisfactorily accomplished throughout the entire war. The shortage of seamen was such that press gangs were forced to take thousands of men with no experience on the sea, meaning that training and preparing them for naval life would take quite some time. The lack of Royal Marines was even more urgent, and soldiers from the British Army were drafted into the fleet for service at sea. Men of the 2nd. Regiment of Foot - The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and the 29th Regiment of Foot served aboard Royal Navy ships during the campaign; their descendant regiments still maintain the battle honour "1 June 1794".

Despite these difficulties, the Channel Fleet was possessed of one of the best naval commanders of the age; its commander-in-chief, Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, had learned his trade under Sir Edward Hawke and fought at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. In the spring of 1794, with the French convoy's arrival in European waters imminent, Howe had dispersed his fleet in three groups. George Montagu, in HMS Hector, was sent with six ships of the line and two frigates to guard British convoys to the East Indies, West Indies and Newfoundland as far as Cape Finisterre. Peter Rainier, in HMS Suffolk and commanding six other ships, was to escort the convoys for the rest of their passage. The third force consisted of 26 ships of the line, with several supporting vessels, under Howe's direct command. They were to patrol the Bay of Biscay for the arriving French.

French Navy

Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse, painted by Jean-Baptiste Paulin Guérin

In contrast to their British counterparts, the French Navy was in a state of confusion. Although the quality of the fleet's ships was high, the fleet hierarchy was riven by the same crises that had torn through France since the Revolution five years earlier. Consequently, the high standard of ships and ordnance was not matched by that of the available crews, which were largely untrained and inexperienced. With the Terror resulting in the death or dismissal of many senior French sailors and officers, political appointees and conscripts – many of whom had never been to sea at all, let alone in a fighting vessel – filled the Atlantic fleet.

The manpower problem was compounded by the supply crisis which was affecting the entire nation, with the fleet going unpaid and largely unfed for months at times. In August 1793, these problems came to a head in the fleet off Brest, when a lack of provisions resulted in a mutiny among the regular sailors. The crews overruled their officers and brought their ships into harbour in search of food, leaving the French coast undefended. The National Convention responded instantly by executing a swathe of senior officers and ship's non-commissioned officers. Hundreds more officers and sailors were imprisoned, banished or dismissed from naval service. The effect of this purge was devastating, seriously degrading the fighting ability of the fleet by removing at a stroke many of its most capable personnel. In their places were promoted junior officers, merchant captains and even civilians who expressed sufficient revolutionary zeal, although few of them knew how to fight or control a battle fleet at sea.

The newly appointed commander of this troubled fleet was Villaret de Joyeuse; although formerly in a junior position, he was known to possess a high degree of tactical ability; he had trained under Admiral Pierre André de Suffren in the Indian Ocean during the American war. However, Villaret's attempts to mould his new officer corps into an effective fighting unit were hampered by another new appointee, a deputy of the National Convention named Jean-Bon Saint-André. Saint-André's job was to report directly to the National Convention on the revolutionary ardour of both the fleet and its admiral. He frequently intervened in strategic planning and tactical operations. Shortly after his arrival, Saint-André proposed issuing a decree ordering that any officer deemed to have shown insufficient zeal in defending his ship in action should be put to death on his return to France, although this highly controversial legislation does not appear to have ever been acted upon. Although his interference was a source of frustration for Villaret, Saint-André's dispatches to Paris were published regularly in Le Moniteur, and did much to popularise the Navy in France.

The French Atlantic fleet was even more dispersed than the British in the spring of 1794: Rear-Admiral Pierre Vanstabel had been dispatched, with five ships including two of the line, to meet the much-needed French grain convoy off the American eastern seaboard. Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly had sailed from Rochefort with five ships of the line and assorted cruising warships to rendezvous with the convoy in the mid-Atlantic. This left Villaret with 25 ships of the line at Brest to meet the threat posed by the British fleet under Lord Howe.

Convoy
By early spring of 1794, the situation in France was dire. With famine looming after the failure of the harvest and the blockade of French ports and trade, the French government was forced to look overseas for sustenance. Turning to France's colonies in the Americas, and the agricultural bounty of the United States, the National Convention gave orders for the formation of a large convoy of sailing vessels to gather at Hampton Roads in the Chesapeake Bay, where Admiral Vanstabel would wait for them. According to contemporary historian William James this conglomeration of ships was said to be over 350 strong, although he disputes this figure, citing the number as 117 (in addition to the French warships).

The convoy had also been augmented by the United States government, in both cargo and shipping, as repayment for French financial, moral and military support during the American Revolution. In supporting the French Revolution in this way, the American government, urged especially by Ambassador Gouverneur Morris, was fulfilling its ten-year-old debt to France. Friendly relations between the United States and France did not long survive the Jay Treaty which came into effect in 1796; by 1798 the two nations would be engaged in the Quasi War









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

 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1794 - The Glorious First of June - Part II


May 1794
Further information: Atlantic campaign of May 1794
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Map of the Atlantic Ocean showing the position of the naval battle on 1 June 1794

The French convoy, escorted by Vanstabel, departed America from Virginia on 2 April, and Howe sailed from Portsmouth on 2 May, taking his entire fleet to both escort British convoys to the Western Approaches and intercept the French. Checking that Villaret was still in Brest, Howe spent two weeks searching the Bay of Biscay for the grain convoy, returning to Brest on 18 May to discover that Villaret had sailed the previous day. Returning to sea in search of his opponent, Howe pursued Villaret deep into the Atlantic. Also at sea during this period were the squadrons of Nielly (French) and Montagu (British), both of whom had met with some success; Nielly had captured a number of British merchant ships and Montagu had taken several back. Nielly was the first to encounter the grain convoy, deep in the Atlantic in the second week of May. He took it under escort as it moved closer to Europe, while Montagu was searching fruitlessly to the south.

Despite Howe's pursuit, the main French sortie found initial success, running into a Dutch convoy and taking 20 ships from it on Villaret's first day at sea. For the next week Howe continued to follow the French, seizing and burning a trail of French-held Dutch ships and enemy corvettes. On 25 May Howe spotted a straggler from Villaret's fleet and gave chase; Audacieux led Howe straight to his opponent's location. Having finally found Villaret, on 28 May Howe attacked, using a flying squadron of his fastest ships to cut off its rearmost vessel Révolutionnaire. This first rate was at various times engaged with six British ships and took heavy damage, possibly striking her colours late in the action. As darkness fell the British and French fleets separated, leaving Révolutionnaire and her final enemy, HMS Audacious, still locked in combat behind them. These two ships parted company during the night and eventually returned to their respective home ports. By this stage Villaret knew through his patrolling frigates that the grain convoy was close, and deliberately took his fleet to the west, hoping to decoy Howe away from the vital convoy.

Taking the bait, the following day Howe attacked again, but his attempt to split the French fleet in half was unsuccessful when his lead ship, HMS Caesar, failed to follow orders. Much damage was done to both fleets but the action was inconclusive, and the two forces again separated without having settled the issue. Howe had however gained an important advantage during the engagement by seizing the weather gage, enabling him to further attack Villaret at a time of his choosing. Three French ships were sent back to port with damage, but these losses were offset by reinforcements gained the following day with the arrival of Nielly's detached squadron. Battle was postponed during the next two days because of thick fog, but when the haze lifted on 1 June 1794, the battle lines were only 6 miles (10 km) apart and Howe was prepared to force a decisive action.

First of June
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The British and French fleets on the morning of 1 June 1794

Although Howe was in a favourable position, Villaret had not been idle during the night. He had attempted, with near success, to distance his ships from the British fleet; when dawn broke at 05:00 he was within a few hours of gaining enough wind to escape over the horizon. Allowing his men to breakfast, Howe took full advantage of his position on the weather gage to close with Villaret, and by 08:12 the British fleet was just four miles (6 km) from the enemy. By this time, Howe's formation was strung out in an organised line parallel to the French, with frigates acting as repeaters for the admiral's commands. The French were likewise in line ahead and the two lines began exchanging long-range gunfire at 09:24, whereupon Howe unleashed his innovative battleplan.

It was normal in fleet actions of the 18th century for the two lines of battle to pass one another sedately, exchanging fire at long ranges and then wearing away, often without either side losing a ship or taking an enemy. In contrast, Howe was counting on the professionalism of his captains and crews combined with the advantage of the weather gage to attack the French directly, driving through their line. However, this time he did not plan to manoeuvre in the way he had during the two previous encounters; each ship following in the wake of that in front to create a new line arrowing through his opponent's force (as Rodneyhad done at the Battle of the Saintes 12 years earlier). Instead, Howe ordered each of his ships to turn individually towards the French line, intending to breach it at every point and rake the French ships at both bow and stern. The British captains would then pull up on the leeward side of their opposite numbers, cutting them off from their retreat downwind, and engage them directly, hopefully forcing each to surrender and consequently destroying the French Atlantic Fleet.

British break the line
Within minutes of issuing the signal and turning his flagship HMS Queen Charlotte, Howe's plan began to falter. Many of the British captains had either misunderstood or ignored the signal and were hanging back in the original line. Other ships were still struggling with damage from Howe's earlier engagements and could not get into action fast enough. The result was a ragged formation tipped by Queen Charlotte that headed unevenly for Villaret's fleet. The French responded by firing on the British ships as they approached, but the lack of training and coordination in the French fleet was obvious; many ships which did obey Howe's order and attacked the French directly arrived in action without significant damage.

Van squadron
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HMS Defence at the Battle of the Glorious 1 June 1794,
Nicholas Pocock

Although Queen Charlotte pressed on all sail, she was not the first through the enemy line. That distinction belonged to a ship of the van squadron under Admiral Graves: HMS Defence under Captain James Gambier, a notoriously dour officer nicknamed "Dismal Jimmy" by his contemporaries. Defence, the seventh ship of the British line, successfully cut the French line between its sixth and seventh ships; Mucius and Tourville. Raking both opponents, Defence soon found herself in difficulty due to the failure of those ships behind her to properly follow up. This left her vulnerable to Mucius, Tourville and the ships following them, with which she began a furious fusillade. However, Defence was not the only ship of the van to break the French line; minutes later George Cranfield-Berkeley in HMS Marlborough executed Howe's manoeuvre perfectly, raking and then entangling his ship with Impétueux.

In front of Marlborough the rest of the van had mixed success. HMS Bellerophon and HMS Leviathan were both still suffering the effects of their exertions earlier in the week and did not breach the enemy line. Instead they pulled along the near side of Éole and America respectively and brought them to close gunnery duels. Rear-Admiral Thomas Pasley of Bellerophon was an early casualty, losing a leg in the opening exchanges. HMS Royal Sovereign, Graves's flagship, was less successful due to a miscalculation of distance that resulted in her pulling up too far from the French line and coming under heavy fire from her opponent Terrible. In the time it took to engage Terriblemore closely, Royal Sovereign suffered a severe pounding and Admiral Graves was badly wounded.

More disturbing to Lord Howe were the actions of HMS Russell and HMS Caesar. Russell's captain John Willett Payne was criticised at the time for failing to get to grips with the enemy more closely and allowing her opponent Téméraire to badly damage her rigging in the early stages, although later commentators blamed damage received on 29 May for her poor start to the action. There were no such excuses, however, for Captain Anthony Molloy of Caesar, who totally failed in his duty to engage the enemy. Molloy completely ignored Howe's signal and continued ahead as if the British battleline was following him rather than engaging the French fleet directly. Caesar did participate in a desultory exchange of fire with the leading French ship Trajan but her fire had little effect, while Trajan inflicted much damage to Caesar's rigging and was subsequently able to attack Bellerophon as well, roaming unchecked through the melee developing at the head of the line.

Centre
The centre of the two fleets was divided by two separate squadrons of the British line: the forward division under admirals Benjamin Caldwell and George Bowyer and the rear under Lord Howe. While Howe in Queen Charlotte was engaging the French closely, his subordinates in the forward division were less active. Instead of moving in on their opposite numbers directly, the forward division sedately closed with the French in line ahead formation, engaging in a long distance duel which did not prevent their opponents from harassing the embattled Defence just ahead of them. Of all the ships in this squadron only HMS Invincible, under Thomas Pakenham, ranged close to the French lines. Invincible was badly damaged by her lone charge but managed to engage the larger Juste. HMS Barfleur under Bowyer did later enter the action, but Bowyer was not present, having lost a leg in the opening exchanges.

Howe and Queen Charlotte led the fleet by example, sailing directly at the French flagship Montagne. Passing between Montagne and the next in line Vengeur du Peuple, Queen Charlotte raked both and hauled up close to Montagne to engage in a close-range artillery battle. As she did so, Queen Charlotte also became briefly entangled with Jacobin, and exchanged fire with her too, causing serious damage to both French ships.

To the right of Queen Charlotte, HMS Brunswick had initially struggled to join the action. Labouring behind the flagship, her captain John Harvey received a rebuke from Howe for the delay. Spurred by this signal, Harvey pushed his ship forward and almost outstripped Queen Charlotte, blocking her view of the eastern half of the French fleet for a time and taking severe damage from French fire as she did so. Harvey hoped to run aboard Jacobin and support his admiral directly, but was not fast enough to reach her and so attempted to cut between Achille and Vengeur du Peuple. This manoeuvre failed when Brunswick's anchors became entangled in Vengeur's rigging. Harvey's master asked if Vengeur should be cut loose, to which Harvey replied "No; we have got her and we will keep her". The two ships swung so close to each other that Brunswick's crew could not open their gunports and had to fire through the closed lids, the ships battering each other from a distance of just a few feet.

Behind this combat, other ships of the centre division struck the French line, HMS Valiant under Thomas Pringle passing close to Patriote which pulled away, her crew suffering from contagion and unable to take their ship into battle. Valiant instead turned her attention on Achille, which had already been raked by Queen Charlotte and Brunswick, and badly damaged her before pressing on sail to join the embattled van division. HMS Orion under John Thomas Duckworth and HMS Queen under Admiral Alan Gardner both attacked the same ship, Queen suffering severely from the earlier actions in which her masts were badly damaged and her captain John Hutt mortally wounded. Both ships bore down on the French Northumberland, which was soon dismasted and left attempting to escape on only the stump of a mast. Queen was too slow to engage Northumberland as closely as Orion, and soon fell in with Jemmappes, both ships battering each other severely.

Rear
Of the British rear ships, only two made a determined effort to break the French line. Admiral Hood's flagship HMS Royal George pierced it between Républicain and Sans Pareil, engaging both closely, while HMS Glory came through the line behind Sans Pareil and threw herself into the melee as well. The rest of the British and French rearguard did not participate in this close combat; HMS Montagu fought a long range gunnery duel with Neptune which damaged neither ship severely, although the British captain James Montagu was killed in the opening exchanges, command devolving to Lieutenant Ross Donnelly. Next in line, HMS Ramillies ignored her opponent completely and sailed west, Captain Henry Harvey seeking Brunswick, his brother's ship, in the confused action around Queen Charlotte.

Three other British ships failed to respond to the signal from Howe, including HMS Alfred which engaged the French line at extreme range without noticeable effect, and Captain Charles Cotton in HMS Majestic who likewise did little until the action was decided, at which point he took the surrender of several already shattered French ships. Finally HMS Thunderer under Albemarle Bertie took no part in the initial action at all, standing well away from the British line and failing to engage the enemy despite the signal for close engagement hanging limply from her mainmast. The French rear ships were no less idle, with Entreprenant and Pelletier firing at any British ships in range but refusing to close or participate in the melees on either side. The French rear ship Scipion did not attempt to join the action either, but could not avoid becoming embroiled in the group around Royal George and Républicain and suffered severe damage.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1794 - The Glorious First of June - Part III


Melee
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The dismasted ship Vengeur du Peuple in the aftermath of battle.
Lithograph after Auguste Mayer.

Within an hour of their opening volleys the British and French lines were hopelessly confused, with three separate engagements being fought within sight of one another. In the van, Caesar had finally attempted to join the fight, only to have a vital spar shot away by Trajan which caused her to slip down the two embattled fleets without contributing significantly to the battle.[64] Bellerophon and Leviathan were in the thick of the action, the outnumbered Bellerophon taking serious damage to her rigging. This left her unable to manoeuvre and in danger from her opponents, of which Eole also suffered severely. Captain William Johnstone Hope sought to extract his ship from her perilous position and called up support; the frigate HMS Latona under Captain Edward Thornbrough arrived to provide assistance. Thornbrough brought his small ship between the ships of the French battleline and opened fire on Eole, helping to drive off three ships of the line and then towing Bellerophon to safety. Leviathan, under Lord Hugh Seymour, had been more successful than Bellerophon, her gunnery dismasting America despite receiving fire from Eole and Trajan in passing. Leviathan only left America after a two-hour duel, sailing at 11:50 to join Queen Charlotte in the centre.

Russell had not broken the French line and her opponent Témeraire got the better of her, knocking away a topmast and escaping to windward with Trajan and Eole. Russell then fired on several passing French ships before joining Leviathan in attacking the centre of the French line. Russell's boats also took the surrender of America, her crew boarding the vessel to make her a prize (although later replaced by men from Royal Sovereign). Royal Sovereignlost Admiral Graves to a serious wound and lost her opponent as well, as Terrible fell out of the line to windward and joined a growing collection of French ships forming a new line on the far side of the action. Villaret was leading this line in his flagship Montagne, which had escaped from Queen Charlotte, and it was Montagne which Royal Sovereign engaged next, pursuing her close to the new French line accompanied by Valiant, and beginning a long-range action.

Behind Royal Sovereign was Marlborough, inextricably tangled with Impétueux. Badly damaged and on the verge of surrender, Impétueux was briefly reprieved when Mucius appeared through the smoke and collided with both ships. The three entangled ships continued exchanging fire for some time, all suffering heavy casualties with Marlborough and Impétueux losing all three of their masts. This combat continued for several hours. Captain Berkeley of Marlborough had to retire below with serious wounds, and command fell to Lieutenant John Monkton, who signalled for help from the frigates in reserve. Robert Stopford responded in HMS Aquilon, which had the assignment of repeating signals, and towed Marlborough out of the line as Mucius freed herself and made for the regrouped French fleet to the north. Impétueux was in too damaged a state to move at all, and was soon seized by sailors from HMS Russell.

Dismasted, Defence was unable to hold any of her various opponents to a protracted duel, and by 13:00 was threatened by the damaged Républicain moving from the east. Although Républicain later hauled off to join Villaret to the north, Gambier requested support for his ship from the fleet's frigates and was aided by HMS Phaeton under Captain William Bentinck. As Impétueux passed she fired on Phaeton, to which Bentinck responded with several broadsides of his own. Invincible, the only ship of the forward division of the British centre to engage the enemy closely, became embroiled in the confusion surrounding Queen Charlotte. Invincible's guns drove Juste onto the broadside of Queen Charlotte, where she was forced to surrender to Lieutenant Henry Blackwood in a boat from Invincible. Among the other ships of the division there were only minor casualties, although HMS Impregnable lost several yards and was only brought back into line by the quick reactions of two junior officers, Lieutenant Robert Otway and Midshipman Charles Dashwood.

The conflict between Queen Charlotte and Montagne was oddly one-sided, the French flagship failing to make use of her lower-deck guns and consequently suffering extensive damage and casualties. Queen Charlotte in her turn was damaged by fire from nearby ships and was therefore unable to follow when Montagne set her remaining sails and slipped to the north to create a new focal point for the survivors of the French fleet.[68] Queen Charlotte also took fire during the engagement from HMS Gibraltar, under Thomas Mackenzie, which had failed to close with the enemy and instead fired at random into the smoke bank surrounding the flagship. Captain Sir Andrew Snape Douglas was seriously wounded by this fire. Following Montagne's escape, Queen Charlotte engaged Jacobin and Républicain as they passed, and was successful in forcing the surrender of Juste. To the east of Queen Charlotte, Brunswick and Vengeur du Peuple continued their bitter combat, locked together and firing main broadsides from point blank range. Captain Harvey of Brunswick was mortally wounded early in this action by langrage fire from Vengeur, but refused to quit the deck, ordering more fire into his opponent. Brunswick also managed to drive Achille off from her far side when the French ship attempted to intervene. Achille, already damaged, was totally dismasted in the exchange and briefly surrendered, although her crew rescinded this when it became clear Brunswick was in no position to take possession. With her colours rehoisted, Achille then made what sail she could in an attempt to join Villaret to the north. It was not until 12:45 that the shattered Vengeur and Brunswick pulled apart, both largely dismasted and very battered. Brunswick was only able to return to the British side of the line after being supported by Ramillies, while Vengeur was unable to move at all. Ramillies took Vengeur's surrender after a brief cannonade but was unable to board her and instead pursued the fleeing Achille, which soon surrendered as well.

To the east, Orion and Queen forced the surrender of both Northumberland and Jemmappes, although Queen was unable to secure Jemmappes and she had to be abandoned later. Queen especially was badly damaged and unable to make the British lines again, wallowing between the newly reformed French fleet and the British battleline along with several other shattered ships. Royal George and Glory had between them disabled Scipion and Sans Pareil in a bitter exchange, but were also too badly damaged themselves to take possession. All four ships were among those left drifting in the gap between the fleets.

French recovery
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Villaret's Montagne breaking loose to reform the French forces. Drawing by Antoine Morel-Fatio.

Villaret in Montagne, having successfully broken contact with the British flagship and slipped away to the north, managed to gather 11 ships of the line around him and formed them up in a reconstituted battle squadron. At 11:30, with the main action drawing to a close, he began a recovery manoeuvre intended to lessen the tactical defeat his fleet had suffered. Aiming his new squadron at the battered Queen, Villaret's attack created consternation in the British fleet, which was unprepared for a second engagement. However, discerning Villaret's intention, Howe also pulled his ships together to create a new force. His reformed squadron consisted of Queen Charlotte, Royal Sovereign, Valiant, Leviathan, Barfleur, and Thunderer. Howe deployed this squadron in defence of Queen, and the two short lines engaged one another at a distance before Villaret abandoned his manoeuvre and hauled off to collect several of his own dismasted ships that were endeavouring to escape British pursuit. Villaret was subsequently joined by the battered Terrible, which sailed straight through the dispersed British fleet to reach the French lines, and he also recovered the dismasted Scipion, Mucius, Jemmappes, and Républicain—all of which lay within reach of the unengaged British ships—before turning eastwards towards France. At this stage of the battle, Howe retired below and the British consolidation was left to his Captain of the Fleet, Sir Roger Curtis. Curtis was subsequently blamed by some in the Navy for not capturing more of the dismasted French ships, and was also accused of dissuading Howe from attempting further pursuit.

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The sinking of the Vengeur du Peuple, engraving by P. Ozanne.

This depiction is somewhat fantastical, as the French ensign flown by Vengeurwas in all likelihood the white flag with a canton of three equal columns of red, white, and blue, and not the tricolour which, even though it had been officially introduced, was flown only by the flagship Montagne due to a lack of appropriate fabric in Brest. Furthermore, Vengeur is seen listing on the wrong side.
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The sinking of the Vengeur du Peuple, haut relief by Léopold Morice, Monument to the Republic, Paris, 1883.

In fact, the British fleet was unable to pursue Villaret, having only 11 ships still capable of battle to the French 12, and having numerous dismasted ships and prizes to protect. Retiring and regrouping, the British crews set about making hasty repairs and securing their prizes; seven in total, including the badly damaged Vengeur du Peuple. Vengeur had been holed by cannon firing from Brunswick directly through the ship's bottom, and after her surrender no British ship had managed to get men aboard. This left Vengeur's few remaining unwounded crew to attempt to salvage what they could—a task made harder when some of her sailors broke into the spirit room and became drunk. Ultimately the ship's pumps became unmanageable, and Vengeur began to sink. Only the timely arrival of boats from the undamaged Alfred and HMS Culloden, as well as the services of the cutter HMS Rattler, saved any of the Vengeur's crew from drowning, these ships taking off nearly 500 sailors between them. Lieutenant John Winne of Rattler was especially commended for this hazardous work. By 18:15, Vengeur was clearly beyond salvage and only the very worst of the wounded, the dead, and the drunk remained aboard. Several sailors are said to have waved the tricolor from the bow of the ship and cried "Vive la Nation, vive la République!"

Having escaped to the east, Villaret made what sail his battered fleet could muster to return to France, and dispatched his frigates in search of the convoy. Villaret was also hoping for reinforcements; eight ships of the line, commanded by Admiral Pierre-François Cornic, were patrolling near the Ushant headland. Behind him to the west, the British took the whole night to secure their ships and prizes, not setting out to return to Britain until 05:00 on 2 June.

Casualties in the battle are notoriously hard to calculate exactly. With only one exception (Scipion), records made by the French captains of their losses at the time are incomplete. The only immediately available casualty counts are the sketchy reports of Saint-André and the records made by British officers aboard the captured ships, neither of which can be treated as completely reliable. Most sources accept that French casualties in the campaign numbered approximately 7,000, including around 3,000 captured, but these figures are vague and frequently do not agree with each other on details.[80] British casualties are easier to confirm but here, too, there are some discrepancies; overall British casualties are generally given as around 1,200.

The convoy arrives
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Although a tactical British victory, Admiral Howe failed to achieve the broader strategic aim of intercepting a vital grain convoy bound for the famine-ridden French populace.

With a large portion of his fleet no longer battleworthy, Howe was unable to resume his search for the French convoy in the Bay of Biscay. The Admiralty, though unaware of Howe's specific circumstances, knew a battle had taken place through the arrival of HMS Audacious in Portsmouth, and was preparing a second expedition under George Montagu. Montagu had returned to England after his unsuccessful May cruise, and was refitting in Portsmouth when ordered to sea again. His force of ten ships was intended to both cover Howe's withdrawal from Biscay, and find and attack the French grain convoy. Montagu returned to sea on 3 June, and by 8 June was off Ushant searching for signs of either the French or Howe; unknown to him, neither had yet entered European waters. At 15:30 on 8 June Montagu spotted sails, and soon identified them as the enemy. He had located Cornic's squadron, which was also patrolling for the convoy and the returning fleets. Montagu gave chase and drove Cornic into Bertheaume Bay, where he blockaded the French squadron overnight, hoping to bring them to action the following day. However, on 9 June, Montagu sighted 19 French ships appearing from the west—the remnants of Villaret's fleet. Hastily turning his ships, Montagu sailed south to avoid becoming trapped between two forces which might easily overwhelm him. Villaret and Cornic gave chase for a day before turning east towards the safety of the French ports.

Howe benefited from Montagu's withdrawal, as his own battered fleet passed close to the scene of this stand-off on 10 June, pushing north into the English Channel. With Villaret and Cornic fortuitously pursuing Montagu to the south, Howe was free to pass Ushant without difficulty and arrived off Plymouth on 12 June, joined soon afterwards by Montagu. Villaret had anchored with Cornic in Bertheaume Bay the day before, but Saint-André refused to allow him to enter Brest until the republican attitudes of the town's population had been assessed. On 12 June, the convoy from America finally arrived off France, having lost just one ship in passage during a storm.





 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1794 - The Glorious First of June - Part IV


Aftermath

Both Britain and France claimed victory in the battle: Britain by virtue of capturing or sinking seven French ships without losing any of her own and remaining in control of the battle site; France because the vital convoy had passed through the Atlantic unharmed and arrived in France without significant loss. The two fleets were showered by their respective nations with both praise and criticism – the latter particularly directed at those captains not felt to have contributed significantly to the fighting. The British fleet in Spithead was treated with a Royal visit by King George III and the entire royal household.

France
In France the revolutionary principles of égalité precluded extensive awards, but Villaret was promoted to vice-admiral on 27 September 1794 and other minor awards were distributed to the admirals of the fleet. In addition the fleet's officers took part in a celebratory parade from Brest to Paris, accompanying the recently arrived food supplies. The role of Vengeur du Peuple was mythified by Bertrand Barrère, giving birth to an exalted legend. Opinion in France concerning the battle's outcome was divided; while many celebrated Saint-André's exaggerated accounts of victory in Le Moniteur, senior naval officers disagreed. Among the dissenters was the highly experienced but recently dismissed Admiral Kerguelen. Kerguelen was disgusted by Villaret's failure to renew the battle after he had reformed his squadron, and felt that the French fleet could have been successful tactically as well as strategically if only Villaret had made greater efforts to engage the remains of Howe's fleet. The French Navy had suffered its worst losses in a single day since the Battle of La Hogue in 1692.

Ultimately the revolutionary excesses of the period would prove disastrous for the French Navy. Poor leadership, conflicting and arbitrary orders and the decimation of the experienced seamen in the ranks promoted a negative attitude in the French officer corps. The French battlefleet did not contest British dominance in Northern European waters again, and their raiding operations repeatedly ended in failure at the hands of more confident British squadrons and the unforgiving Atlantic weather. By 1805, when the last great French fleet to take to the sea was crushed at the Battle of Trafalgar, poor training and low investment in the Navy had reduced its efficiency to levels unthinkable 20 years earlier.

Britain
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The celebrated victory obtained by the British Fleet under the Command of Earl Howe, over The French Fleet on The Glorious First of June, 1794,
Daniel Orme, 1795.

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1802 engraving commemorating the Glorious First of June.


French cannon, captured by Lord Howe, now on display at Royal Arsenal, Woolwich

In Britain, numerous honours were bestowed on the fleet and its commanders. Admiral Howe, already an earl, refused any further elevation, and one of Howe's political opponents dissuaded King George III from making him a Knight of the Garter. Vice-Admiral Graves was elevated to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Graves, while Vice-Admiral Hood was made Viscount Bridport. Rear-Admirals Bowyer, Gardner, Pasley and Curtis (the last-named was promoted from captain on 4 July 1794) were all made baronets, and Bowyer and Pasley also received pensions of £1,000 a year to compensate them for their severe wounds. All first lieutenants were promoted to commander and numerous other officers were promoted in consequence of their actions. The thanks of parliament were unanimously passed to all who fought at the action and various other gifts and awards were distributed among the fleet. A memorial to Captains John Hutt and John Harvey, both of whom had died of their wounds on 30 June, was raised in Westminster Abbey.

There was, however, a bitter consequence of the awards, rooted in Howe's official dispatch to the Admiralty concerning the battle, which according to some accounts was actually written by Curtis. Howe had appended a list to his report containing the names of officers whom he believed merited special reward for their part in the battle. The list included Vice-Admirals Graves and Hood, Rear-Admirals Bowyer, Gardner, and Pasley, and Captains Seymour, Pakenham, Cranfield-Berkeley, Gambier, John Harvey, Payne, Henry Harvey, Pringle, Duckworth, Elphinstone, Nichols, and Hope. Also mentioned were Lieutenants Monkton and Donnelly. The list had omitted a number of officers who had served in the battle, and the justice of their omission was a highly controversial issue in the Navy.[94] Rear-Admiral Caldwell was the sole British flag officer present not to receive a hereditary honour, although he was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 4 July (as were Bowyer and Gardner). After studying the ship's logs and reports of the battle, the Admiralty minted a medal to be awarded to the living captains on the list only (although Captain William Parker of HMS Audacious was awarded one as well). The captains excluded from the list were furious, and the furor from this selective commendation lasted years: in 1795 Vice-Admiral Caldwell quit the service in anger as a result, while Cuthbert Collingwood, flag captain of Barfleur, refused all awards for future service until the Glorious First of June medal was presented to him as well. He eventually received it after the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797. Over five decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by a clasp attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British participants still living in 1847.

Bitterest of all was the whispering campaign directed at Anthony Molloy, captain of HMS Caesar. Molloy was accused of cowardice by fellow officers for his failure to follow Howe's orders on both 29 May and 1 June. Molloy's request for an official court-martial to clear his name failed, and although his personal courage was not called into question, his professional ability was. Molloy was dismissed from his ship.

Of the captured ships, several were purchased and enjoyed long careers in the Royal Navy, in particular the two 80-gun ships HMS Sans Pareil, which was decommissioned in 1802 but not broken up until 1842, and HMS Juste, which was a popular command until her decommissioning in 1802 at the Peace of Amiens. Of the four 74-gun prizes, Achille and Northumberland (both 74s built in the late 1770s) were broken up as unserviceable soon after arrival in Britain, while Impétueux was destroyed in a dockyard fire on 24 August 1794 while undergoing repairs. America, the final prize, was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS America but renamed HMS Impetueux in July 1795 and remained in service until 1813. The combined prize money for these ships was £201,096 (the equivalent of £23,000,000 as of 2019), divided among the ships under Lord Howe's command.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1794 - The Glorious First of June - Part V - Some french ships


Vengeur du Peuple – In the
battle named the Glorious First of June on 1 June 1794 the ship of the line was disabled after a fierce duel with HMS Brunswick and surrendered after losing hope of rescue by a French ship. After a few hours, as British ships were beginning rescue operations she listed and foundered taking almost half her crew with her. Of the 723 aboard 356 were lost in the battle and sinking.

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Vengeur du Peuple ("Avenger of the People") was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the chamber of commerce of Marseille, she was launched in 1762 as Marseillois.

She took part in the naval operations in the American Revolutionary War in Admiral d'Estaing's squadron, duelling Preston in a single-ship action on 11 August 1778, taking part in the Battle of the Chesapeake where she duelled HMS Intrepid, and supporting the flagship Ville de Paris at the Battle of the Saintes. She also took part in the Battle of Saint Kitts.

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Model of Vengeur du Peuple as Marseillois, on display at the Musée de la Marine et de l'Économie de Marseille.

After the French Revolution, she was renamed Vengeur du Peuple and took part in the Glorious First of June. There, she was disabled after a furious duel with HMS Brunswick and surrendered after losing hope of being rescued by a French ship. After a few hours, as British ships were beginning rescue operations, she listed and foundered, taking almost half her crew with her.

The sinking of Vengeur du Peuple was used as propaganda by the National Convention and Bertrand Barère, who gave birth to the legend that the crew had gone down with the ship fighting, rather than surrender. The Scottish historian Thomas Carlyle repeated the tale in his The French Revolution: A History, yielding a rebuttal by Rear-Admiral John Griffiths, who had witnessed the events. Although discredited in naval history circles, the legend lived on as a folk tale, inspiring numerous representations and a fictional account by Jules Verne in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.



HMS Sans Pareil ("Without Equal") was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French ship Sans Pareil, but was captured in 1794 and spent the rest of her career in service with the British.

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French service
Sans Pareil was built at Brest as a Tonnant-class ship of the line, to a design by Groignard. She was launched on 8 June 1793, but spent less than a year in service with the French navy. She sailed into the Atlantic in May 1794, under the command of Captain Courand, as part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Joseph-Marie Nielly. She was Nielly's flagship for the operation, which aimed to meet a corn convoy inbound from North America, under Pierre Jean Van Stabel. Neilly initially failed to make contact with the French convoy, but on 9 May 1794 the squadron came across a British one, escorted by HMS Castor, under the command of Captain Thomas Troubridge. The squadron attacked and captured Castor, and a number of the convoy's ships. Castor was only briefly in French hands before HMS Carysfort retook her on 29 May. However, Troubridge remained a prisoner on Sans Pareil until the battle of the Glorious First of June.

In May, Sans Pareil captured a number of British merchantmen: Gordon, Boyman, master, sailing from Antigua to London; Irton, Wikinson, master, sailing from Cork to Jamaica; Edward, of London, sailing from Naples to Hull; and Active, sailing from Civita Vechia to Lieth. The same report credits Sans Pareil with capturing HMS Alert, though the actual captor was Unité.

Having made contact with the approaching convoy, the squadron began the return voyage. During this, a French fleet under Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was intercepted by a British fleet under Lord Howe, and a series of sporadic actions took place on 28 and 29 May. Neilly brought some of his larger ships, including Sans Pareil, to join Villaret, sending the convoy on ahead under the escort of frigates.

The fleets eventually clashed in force at the Glorious First of June, where Sans Pareil formed part of the French rear. During the battle HMS Royal George, flagship of Vice-Admiral Alexander Hood, broke the French line ahead of Sans Pareil, bringing down her fore and mizzen masts with a broadside. HMS Glory then passed across her stern, shooting away her main mast. Disabled and unmanageable, Sans Pareil drifted out of the line until HMS Majestic captured her. Aboard her were found Troubridge and 50 men and officers of the Castor. They were released and helped to bring the damaged Sans Pareil into Spithead. Sans Pareil had possibly lost as many as 260 of her crew killed, with another 120 wounded.

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

British service
Sans Pareil was commissioned into the Royal Navy, and was initially commanded from March 1795 by Captain Lord Hugh Seymour, who was promoted to Rear-Admiral on 1 June 1795, the first anniversary of the Glorious First. He was succeeded in the command by Captain W. Browell in August 1795, but she continued to serve as Seymour's flagship, with the Channel Fleet. She was then present as part of a fleet under Admiral Hood at another engagement with Villaret, the Battle of Groix on 22 June, where she engaged the French ships Formidable and Peuple, losing ten killed and two wounded. Formidable was subsequently taken, joining the Royal Navy as HMS Belleisle. Seymour left the ship after this, being appointed to the Board of Admiralty in autumn 1795.

Sans Pareil continued to sail off the French coast, using her French build to her advantage by flying the French ensign and luring privateers to come within range. Seymour returned on a number of occasions, retaining her as his flagship for several cruises. By January 1799 Captain Atkins had taken command of Sans Pareil, but by August Captain Charles Penrose had replaced him. She then sailed to the West Indies, again as Seymour's flagship.

At some point in 1800 or 1801, Sans Pareil captured Guachapin, which the British took into service under that name. The London Gazette reports that on 9 April 1800, Sans Pareil captured the Spanish trader Guakerpin, of 165 tons burthen (bm), ten guns and 38 men. She belonged to Saint Andero, and was sailing from there to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron, porter, and linens.

On 27 March, Sans Pareil captured two small French privateer schooners. One was Pensee, of four guns and 65 men. She was from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when she was captured. The second was Sapajon, of six guns and 48 men. Both were from Guadeloupe and had set out on cruise from Pointe-à-Pitre when they was captured.

Seymour contracted a fever and died on 11 September 1801. Penrose too became ill and had to return to Britain. Sans Pareil then came under the command of Captain William Essington, and served as the flagship of Admiral Richard Montague. She returned to Plymouth on 4 September 1802.

Fate
After her return to Plymouth the Lords of the Admiralty wished immediately to recommission her as a guardship, but then she was put into ordinary instead because she was so in need of repair. In 1805 she was ordered repaired. The subsequent major refit lasted for 18 months and cost £35,000. This turned her into a prison hulk, and by 1807 she was used to hold French prisoners-of-war. She was reduced to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in October 1810, and spent another 32 years in service. Sans Pareil was finally broken up in October 1842


America was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1794 at the Battle of the Glorious First of June. She then served with the British under the name HMS Impetueux until she was broken up in 1813. She became the prototype for the Royal Navy America-class ship of the line.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'America' (1794), a captured French Third Rate, prior to fitting as a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker at Portsmouth Dockyard. Note that by Admiralty Order 14 July 1795 her name was changed to 'Impetueux'. Signed by Edward Tippet [Master Shipwright, Portsmouth Dockyard, 1793-1799]

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This print is one of a series depicting the six French ships captured by the British fleet under Admiral Lord Howe at the Battle of the First of June, 1794, which took place 400 (nautical) miles west of the French island of Ushant. This plate, the first in the series, portrays L'Amerique ('America'), left, and Le Juste from their stern quarter at anchor at Spithead, the port to which Howe returned with his six prizes after the battle. 'America' was take into service by the Royal Navy and enjoyed a long career as Impetueux (renamed in 1795) before being broken up in 1813. The Glorious First of June, as the battle became known in Britain, was the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the Revolutionary War. Inscribed: "A Splendid Record of British Bravery displayed in the Six French Ships of the line captured the first of June 1794, as they appeared on their arrival in Portsmouth Harbour / Plate I. Le Juste & L'America / Britannia thus, her dreadful thunder hurls / Rides o'er the waves sublime, and now, / Impending hangs o'er Gallia's humbled coast. / She rules the circling deep, and awes the world." The present print has been cut down. However, the other prints in the series are inscribed: "R Livesay London & Portsmouth and J Norman No 144 Strand, 10 March 1796." Mounted aquatint and etching. Portfolio


Deux Frères (literally Two Brothers) was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

She was funded by a don des vaisseaux donation from the two brothers of King Louis XVI. The ship was laid down at Brest in July 1782, and launched on 17 September 1784, based on a design by Antoine Groignard, and built by Jacques-Augustin Lamothe. On 29 September 1792, she was renamed Juste.

HMS Queen Charlotte captured Juste at the battle of the Glorious First of June in 1794. Captain William Cayley commissioned her in the Royal Navy as HMS Juste in August 1795. In October Captain the Honourable Thomas Pakenham replaced Cayley and commissioned Juste for service in the Channel. Captain Sir Henry Trollope replaced Pakenham in June 1799. In 1801 she was commanded by Captains Herbert Sawyer, Richard Dacres — under whom she took part in Rear-Admiral Robert Calder's pursuit of Honoré Ganteaume's fleet to the West Indies — and Sir Edmund Nagle.






 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1800 - Cruelle was a schooner-cannoniere (gun-schooner), launched in 1793.
The British captured her in June 1800 and commissioned her as HMS Cruelle.



Cruelle was a schooner-cannoniere (gun-schooner), launched in 1793. The British captured her in June 1800 and commissioned her as HMS Cruelle. She spent a little over a year in the Mediterranean, serving at Malta and Alexandria before the Royal Navy sold her in 1801.

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French service and capture
Cruelle was one of seven Vesuve-class brick-canonniers, though she herself was described as being schooner-rigged. However, her captors described her as a brig.

In late 1794 she sailed from Brest to Guadeloupe to alert the French there that a naval squadron under the command of Capitaine de Vaisseau Duchesne was on its way with supplies and reinforcements. At some point thereafter, Cruelle was converted to a bomb vessel.

On 1 June 1800 about 12 leagues southward of Les HièresMermaid captured Cruelle when Cruelle was only eight hours out of Toulon. Captain R. Dudley Oliver of Mermaid described Cruelle as a brig of six guns, four of which she had thrown overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 43 men under the command of Ensigne de vaisseau Francis Xavier Jeard. She was a bomb vessel but had left her mortar at Toulon as she was carrying supplies for Malta.

The British took Cruelle into service under her existing name. All subsequent British accounts refer to Cruelle as a cutter of ten guns.

British service
Cruelle was present at the surrender of the island of Malta on 5 September 1800. As a result, she was entitled to share in the prize money for the island.

Cruelle was registered on 3 October 1800 and commissioned in February 1801 under Lieutenant Charles Inglis for the Mediterranean.

On 8 March she was at Abu Qir Bay under the command of Lieutenant David M'Gie (or McGhie), Cruelle protected the left flank during the landing of troops in Aboukir Bay, together with the cutter Janissary and the gun-vessel Dangereuse. The cutter Entreprenante, schooner Malta, and the gun-vessel Negresse covered the right flank.

Also in March Lieutenant Edward (or Edmond or Edmund) Boger was appointed to command her. On 9 May Cruelle, Kent, and Hector unsuccessfully chased the French corvette Heliopolis, which eluded them and slipped into Alexandria.

In 1850 the Admiralty authorized the award of the Naval General Service medal with clasp "Egypt" to all naval officers and men who had served there between 8 March and 2 September. In the medal listing Boger is listed as Cruelle's captain. Apparently he personally also received the Turkish gold medal for the gallantry he displayed there.

Fate
Cruelle was sold in 1801 at Alexandria. She was deleted from the lists on 13 May 1802


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1800 - Operation in Quiberon Bay, 1st June 1800 - 6th June 1800


Description

On June 1st 1800... Captain Sir Edward Pellew, in the Impetueux, 78, with the Ramillies, 74, Captain Richard Grindall; Ajax, 80, Captain the Hon. Alexander Inglis Cochrane; Canada, 74, Captain the Hon. Michael de Courcy, Terrible, 74, Captain William Wolseley; Captain, 74, Captain Sir Richard John Strachan; Fishguard, 74, Captain Thomas Byam Martin; Amelia, 44, Captain the Hon. Charles Herbert, Amethyst, 38, Captain John Cooke, Diamond, 38, Captain Edward Griffith; Doris, 36, Captain Viscount Eanelagh; Thames, 32, Captain William Lukin; and Cynthia, 16, Commander Micajah Malbon; together with the Diadem, 64, Captain Sir Thomas Livingstone, Bart.; Europa, 50, Captain James Stevenson; Inconstant, 36, Commander John Ayscough; Thisbe, 28, Commander John Morrison; and Cyclops, 28, Commander John Fyffe, armed en flute, and having on board the 2nd, 20th, 36th, 82nd, and 92nd regiments, and two hundred artillerymen under Major-General Maitland.

This squadron was directed to co-operate with the insurgent French Royalists in the Morbihan; and with that object it anchored in Quiberon Bay on June 2nd. On the 4th, the Thames and Cynthia attacked and silenced some forts, which were afterwards destroyed by a landing party, the Cynthia losing two killed and one wounded; and early on the 6th, a body of troops, acting with a division of boats under Lieutenant John Pilfold, of the Impetueux, burnt the Insolente, 18, carried off several small craft and about one hundred prisoners, destroyed some guns, and blew up a magazine, only one seaman being killed. It was intended to attack Belle Isle; but the garrison of that island was found to be very strong, and the idea was therefore abandoned. The troops from the squadron were eventually landed on the island of Houat, whence they were re-embarked later and conveyed to the Mediterranean.


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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1808 - HMS Unite (38), Cptn. Patrick Capmbell, captured Nettuno and Teulie in the Adriatic.




Nettuno was a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice and launched in June 1807. HMS Unite captured her a year later off Zara.
The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Cretan. She served in the Mediterranean. She was sold in 1814. Between 1815 and 1831 she made five voyages as a whaler.

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Nettuno/HMS Cretan. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheerlines with inboard detail and scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth, as taken off at Sheerness Dockyard. Drawing from August-early September 1809.

French brig
Nettuno was launched in April 1807 with Eugène de Beauharnais in attendance. She was at Venice in November, and Lesina and Ancona in May 1808.

Capture
Unite took shelter from a gale between 28 and 31 July under Lusin on the Dalmatian coast. Late in the afternoon of the 31st, near Premuda, she sighted three enemy naval brigs. Captain Campbell set out in chase and around 3am found himself with in two miles of two of the brigs. Suddenly he sighted he saw the third; Unite steered to pass by the third and while within pistol-shot, gave the brig a broadside, which caused the brig to surrender without a shot being fired, her crew having taken refuge below decks. Unite sent boats that secured the brig and then set out after her two companions. There was little wind so the brigs made use of their sweeps and it was only around 7a.m. that Unite was able to catch up with the larger, and more laggardly of the brigs. This vessel, seeing no chance to escape, fired a broadside, struck her colours, and ran onto the shore, where Unite took possession. The third brig escaped. The two captured brigs turned out to be Nettuno and Teulié, both of sixteen "Thirty-Two-Pounders, Brass Carronades", and 115 men each. The brigs had been sent to find and take Unite, the French having heard that she had so many men sick that she would be easy prey. Although Unite had no casualties, the two French brigs were less fortunate. Nettuno had seven men killed, two drowned, and 13 wounded; Teuliè had five men killed and 16 wounded.

HMS Cretan
The Royal Navy commissioned Nettuno in the Mediterranean as Cretan, under Commander Charles F. Payne. He would remain her commander throughout her service.

Between 13 July and 1 December 1809 Cretan was at Sheerness, undergoing repairs.

Cretan participated in the unsuccessful Walcheren Campaign, a British expedition to the Netherlands in 1809 intended to open another front in the Austrian Empire's struggle with France during the War of the Fifth Coalition. Around 40,000 soldiers, 15,000 horses together with field artillery and two siege trains crossed the North Sea and landed at Walcheren on 30 July. This was the largest British expedition of that year, larger than the army serving in the Peninsular War in Portugal. The campaign involved little fighting, but heavy losses from the sickness popularly dubbed "Walcheren Fever". Over 4,000 British troops died (only 106 in combat) and the rest withdrew on 9 December 1809. During the withdrawal operations, Commodore G.W.C.R. Owen, who was in actual command, shifted his pennant to Cretan the better to oversee the operations.

After the Walcharen Campaign Cretan served in the North Sea and Baltic.

On 28 October 1810 Cretan captured the Danish privateer Neptune. Neptune was armed with five guns, had a crew of 24 men, and had left Schelling the day before; she had taken no prizes before Cretan captured her. Neptune arrived at Dover on 7 November. Cretan and Desiree shared in the proceeds of the capture, on 25 December 1811, of the Vrow Alida.

Between 29 July and 4 August 1812, Musquito captured several Dutch fishing boats: Gute Verwagting, Tobie Maria, Jonge Maria, Jeannette, Femme Elizabeth, Hoop (alias Esperance), and the Rondwich. By agreement, Musquito shared the prize money with Desiree, Banterer and Cretan.

On 17 September Indefatigable, Hearty, Desiree, Drake, Primrose, and Cretan shared in the capture of the Dankbarheide. When the gun-brig Hearty detained the Prussian vessel Friede on 29 September, Indefatigable, Desiree, Primrose, Cretan, Drake, were either in company or sharing by agreement.

Cretan captured two fishing boats, the Harmonie and the Stadt Embden on 16 January 1813.

Then on 28 February Cretan captured the Erineron, Nessen, master, which had been sailing from Bergen to Stettin, and sent her into Yarmouth.

Cretan and Leveret were in company on 12 March and so shared in the proceeds of the capture of the Danish vessel Aurora. Two days later, Cretan captured the Anna Brauer. That same day Prospero captured the Najaden, and later Cretan and Raven shared in the proceeds by agreement.

On 1 March 1814, Antelope and a Russian frigate forced the channel between Flushing and Cadsand, but Antelope then grounded off the Hoogplaat. She was stuck for 41 hours,. For 36 of those hours Nymphen, Banterer, and Cretan protected her and worked to free her. Eventually, a tide floated Antelope off.

Disposal
Commander Payne received promotion to post-captain on 7 June 1814.[19] The Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy offered the "Cretan sloop, of 344 tons", lying at Deptford for sale on 29 September 1814.[20] Cretan sold on that day for £1,020.

Whaler
Alexander Birnie purchased Cretan and she made five voyages between 1815 and 1831 as a whaler.

Fate
Lloyd's Register (1834) still listed Cretan but with no information beyond her burthen and location (London). She was no longer listed in 1835.




Teulié was a French Illyrien or Friedland-class brig built at Venice and launched in April 1808. HMS Unite captured her some two months later off Zara. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Roman.

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Capture
Unite took shelter from a gale between 28 and 31 July 1808 under Lusin on the Dalmatian coast. Late in the afternoon of the 31st, near Premuda, she sighted three enemy naval brigs. Captain Campbell set out in chase and around 3am found himself with in two miles of two of the brigs. Suddenly he sighted he saw the third; Unite steered to pass by the third and while within pistol-shot, gave the brig a broadside, which caused the brig to surrender without a shot being fired, her crew having taken refuge below decks. Unite sent boats that secured the brig and then set out after her two companions. There was little wind so the brigs made use of their sweeps and it was only around 7a.m. that Unite was able to catch up with the larger, and more laggardly of the brigs. This vessel, seeing no chance to escape, fired a broadside, struck her colours, and ran onto the shore, where Unite took possession. The third brig escaped. The two captured brigs turned out to be Nettuno and Teulié, both of sixteen "Thirty-Two-Pounders, Brass Carronades", and 115 men each. The brigs had been sent to find and take Unite, the French having heard that she had so many men sick that she would be easy prey. Although Unite had no casualties, the two French brigs were less fortunate. Nettuno had seven men killed, two drowned, and 13 wounded; Teuliè had five men killed and 16 wounded.

HMS Roman
Roman, circa April 1809, was under the command of Commander Samuel Fowell, late of the sloop Fara Numa.

The Royal Navy commissioned Teulié in the Mediterranean as Roman, under Commander William Whorwood (or Whoreood) in 1810. He sailed her to Portsmouth, leaving Gibraltar on 11 October, escorting 17 merchant vessels. The convoy put in at Lisbon on 17 October.

Roman arrived at Portsmouth on 28 November. She left on a cruise on 8 December, and returned on 29 December. During that cruise she assisted Diana. Diana had participated in an attack on a French frigate squadron anchored at Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue at the Action of 15 November 1810, which ultimately led to the destruction of the Elisa. On 24 December Diana sent in her boats, which succeeded in setting Elisa, which had run ashore, on fire. Roman's contribution to the event was to provide "Two Kegs of the combustible Matter".

Fate
Roman was paid off in January 1811, and then went into ordinary, where she remained in 1812-13. The Principal Officers and Commissioners of the Navy offered "Roman, of 333 tons", lying at Portsmouth for sale on 1 September 1814. Roman sold there on that day for £500



The Impérieuse was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1793 and she served first as HMS Imperieuse and then from 1803 as HMS Unite. She became a hospital hulk in 1836 and was broken up in 1858.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1813 - Battle of Boston Harbor - Capture of USS Chesapeake - Part I
HMS Shannon, commanded by Capt. Philip Broke, captures USS Chesapeake, commanded by Capt. James Lawrence off the coast of Boston, Mass.

During the battle, Capt. Lawrence is mortally wounded, but as he is carried below deck, he orders the iconic phrase: "Tell the men to fire faster! Dont give up the ship!"



The Capture of USS Chesapeake, or the Battle of Boston Harbor, was fought on 1 June 1813, between the Royal Navy's frigate HMS Shannon and American frigate USS Chesapeake, as part of the War of 1812between the United States and Great Britain. The Chesapeake was captured in a brief but intense action in which over 80 men were killed. This was the only frigate action of the war in which there was no preponderance of force on either side.

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At Boston, Captain James Lawrence took command of Chesapeake on 20 May 1813, and on 1 June, put to sea to meet the waiting HMS Shannon, commanded by Captain Philip Broke, the frigate whose written challenge had just missed Chesapeake's sailing. Chesapeake suffered early in the exchange of gunfire, having her wheel and fore topsail halyard shot away, rendering her unmanoeuvrable. Lawrence himself was mortally wounded and was carried below. The American crew struggled to carry out their captain's last order, "Don't give up the ship!", but the British boarding party overwhelmed them. The battle was notably intense but of short duration, lasting ten to fifteen minutes, in which time 252 men were killed or wounded. Shannon's captain was severely injured in fighting on the forecastle. Chesapeake and her crew were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where the sailors were imprisoned; the ship was repaired and taken into service by the Royal Navy. She was sold at Portsmouth, England, in 1819 and broken up. Surviving timbers were used to build the nearby Chesapeake Mill in Wickham and can be seen and visited to this day. Shannon survived longer, being broken up in 1859.

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The Brilliant Achievement of the Shannon ... in boarding and capturing the United States Frigate Chesapeake off Boston, 1 June 1813 in fifteen minutesby W. Elmes.

Prelude
Philip Broke and his naval gunnery

Captain Philip Broke

During his long period in command of Shannon, Captain Philip Broke of the Royal Navy introduced many practical refinements to his 'great guns', which were virtually unheard of elsewhere in contemporary naval gunnery. He had 'dispart sights' fitted to his 18-pounder long guns, which improved aiming as they compensated for the narrowing of the barrels from the breech to the muzzle. He had adjustable tangent sights that would give accuracy at different ranges. He had the elevating 'quoins' (wedge-shaped pieces of wood placed under the breech) of his long guns grooved to mark various degrees of elevation so that his guns could be reliably levelled to fire horizontally in any state of heeling of the ship under a press of sail. The carronades were similarly treated, but the elevating screws on these cannon were marked in paint. As the decks of contemporary ships curved upwards towards the stern and bows, he cut down the wheels on the "up-slope" side of each cannon's carriage in order that all guns were level with the horizon. He also introduced a system where bearings were incised into the deck next to each gun; fire could then be directed to any bearing independent of the ability of any particular gun crew to see the target. Fire from the whole battery could also be focused on any part of an enemy ship.

Broke drilled his crew to an extremely high standard of naval gunnery; he regularly had them fire at targets, such as floating barrels. Often these drills would be made into competitions to see which gun crew could hit the target and how fast they could do so. He even had his gun crews fire at targets 'blindfold' to good effect; they were only given the bearing to lay their gun on without being allowed to sight the gun on the target themselves. This constituted a very early example of 'director firing'.

In addition to these gunnery drills, Broke was fond of preparing hypothetical scenarios to test his crew. For example, after all hands had been drummed to quarters, he would inform them of a theoretical attack and see how they would act to defend the ship. Though the use of cutlasses in training was avoided a method of swordsmanship training called 'singlestick' was regularly practised. This was a game employing roughly similar cuts, thrusts and parries as were used with the cutlass, but as it was played with wooden sticks with wicker hand guards; hits, although painful, were not often dangerous. It soon developed quickness of eye and wrist. Many of the crew became very expert.

James Lawrence

Captain James Lawrence

Commander Lawrence of the United States Navy returned from a successful war cruise having defeated the sloop HMS Peacock. He was promoted to captain for his victory, and received orders to take command of USS Chesapeake. It was not a command that he particularly wanted. He had hoped for the larger frigate USS Constitution instead. Lawrence travelled to Boston. He found that most of the former crew of Chesapeake had left over a dispute over prize money and had since been replaced. Lawrence's prior experience of the British Navy worked against him. In his former battle with HMS Peacock, the warship had been bravely fought, but the British gunnery had been nothing less than atrocious. His crew was laden with good seamen; however, they lacked the time working together that was needed to change a collection of good seamen into an efficient fighting crew. Lawrence's assumptions concerning the poor quality of the opposition would leave him over-confident in facing the adversary he was about to encounter.

Issuing a challenge
Eager to engage and defeat one of the American frigates that had already scored a number of victories over the Royal Navy in single-ship confrontations, Broke prepared a challenge. USS President had already slipped out of the harbour under the cover of fog and had evaded the British. Constitution was undergoing extensive repairs and alterations and would not be ready for sea in the foreseeable future. However, Chesapeake appeared to be ready to put to sea. Consequently, Broke decided to challenge Chesapeake, which had been refitting in Boston harbour under the command of Captain James Lawrence, offering single ship-to-ship combat. Whilst patrolling offshore, Shannon had intercepted and captured a number of American ships attempting to reach the harbour. After sending two of them off to Halifax, he found that his crew was being dangerously reduced. Broke therefore resorted to burning the rest of the prizes in order to conserve his highly trained crew in anticipation of the battle with Chesapeake. The boats from the burnt prizes were sent into Boston, carrying Broke's oral invitation to Lawrence to come out and engage him. Broke had already sent Tenedosaway in the hope that the more favourable odds would entice the Americans out, but eventually began to despair that Chesapeake would ever come out of the harbour. He finally decided to send a written challenge.[9] In this he was copying his adversary. Lawrence had earlier in the war, when captain of the sloop of war Hornet, sent a written invitation to the captain of the British sloop of war Bonne Citoyenne to a single-ship contest. Lawrence's offer had been declined.

As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her maindeck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarterdeck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here.
— Philip Broke, original message edited by James and Chamier 1837
Captain Lawrence did not in fact receive Broke's letter and, according to author Ian W. Toll, it would not have made the slightest difference; Lawrence intended to sail USS Chesapeake at the first day of favourable weather. The fact that it was not in his nation's interests at this point in the war to be challenging British frigates seems to have not entered into his reasoning. When USS President had slipped out of harbor, it was to embark on a commerce-raiding mission, which was deemed in the U.S. national interest. Half of the officers and up to one quarter of the crew were new to the ship. In the short time he was in command of the Chesapeake, Lawrence had twice exercised his crew at the great guns, walking the decks and personally supervising the drill. He also instigated a signal, a bugle call, to call on his crew to board an enemy vessel. Unfortunately the only crew member able to produce a note on the bugle was a "dull-witted" 'loblolly boy' (surgeon's assistant) called William Brown. Lawrence believed that he would win the battle and wrote two quick notes, one to the Secretary of the Navy pronouncing his intentions, and another to his brother in-law asking him to look after Lawrence's wife and children in event of his death.

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HMS Shannon, depicted in 1855 near the end of her working life.

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USS Chesapeake, modern painting by F. Muller.

Bostonians and their neighbours anticipated great results from the celebrated Lawrence and his crew. Local authorities reserved a space at the docks in expectation of accommodating the captured British man-of-war. Also plans were set in motion for a gala victory banquet. As the American warship moved down the harbour, citizens raced to vantage points to witness the fight. Crowds gathered on available heights from Lynn to Malden and from Cohasset to Scituate. A diarist likened the Salem crowds to swarms of bees. The more daring took to boats to follow the Chesapeake. A Boston newspaper reported the bay being covered with civilian craft of all kinds.

HMS Shannon had been off Boston for 56 days and was running short of provisions, whilst the extended period at sea was wearing the ship down. She would be at a disadvantage facing USS Chesapeake, fresh from harbour and a refit. A boat was despatched carrying the invitation, manned by a Mr Slocum, a discharged American prisoner. The boat had not reached the shore when Chesapeake was seen underway, sailing out of the harbour. She was flying three American ensigns and a large white flag at the foremast inscribed 'Free Trade and Sailor's Rights'. Shannon carried 276 officers, seamen and marines of her proper complement, eight recaptured seamen, 22 Irish labourers who had been 48 hours in the ship, of whom only four could speak English,[18] and 24 boys, of whom about 13 were under 12 years of age. Broke had trained his gun crews to fire accurate broadsides into the hulls of enemy vessels, with the aim of killing their gun crews, rather than attempting to disable the enemy ship by firing at the masts and rigging. This was, however, the standard Royal Navy practise of the time, only Broke's efficiency in gunnery training distinguished him in this regard. Lawrence, meanwhile, was confident in his ship, especially since she carried a substantially larger crew. Previous American victories over Royal Navy ships left him expectant of success. Just before the engagement, the American crew gave three cheers.

The two ships had in one another about as close a match in size and force as was possible, given the variations in ship design and armament existing between contemporary navies. USS Chesapeake's (rated at 38 guns) armament of 28 18-pounder long guns was an exact match for HMS Shannon. Measurements proved the ships to be about the same deck length, the only major difference being the ships' complements: Chesapeake's 379 against the Shannon's 330

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* Broke shipped the smaller calibre guns (6-pounder, and 12-pounder carronade) in order that the younger midshipmen and ship's boys had light-weight ordnance that they could practise all aspects of gun laying and firing with.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1813 - Battle of Boston Harbor - Capture of USS Chesapeake - Part II


Battle

Gunnery duel
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Chesapeake, left, shortening sail as she bears down on Shannon, who has backed her main topsail to await the American ship. Aquatint by Robert Dodd, London, 1813.

As the American ship approached, Broke spoke to his crew, ending with a description of his philosophy of gunnery, "Throw no shot away. Aim every one. Keep cool. Work steadily. Fire into her quarters – maindeck to maindeck, quarterdeck to quarterdeck. Don't try to dismast her. Kill the men and the ship is yours."

The two ships met at half past five in the afternoon, 20 nautical miles (37 km) east of the Boston Light, between Cape Ann and Cape Cod. Shannon was flying a weather-worn blue ensign, and her dilapidated outside appearance after a long period at sea suggested that she would be an easy opponent. Observing the Chesapeake's many flags, a sailor had questioned Broke: "Mayn't we have three ensigns, sir, like she has?" "No," said Broke, "we've always been an unassuming ship." HMS Shannon refused to fire upon USS Chesapeake as she bore down, nor did USS Chesapeake attempt to rake HMS Shannon, despite having the weather gage. Lawrence's behaviour that day earned him praise from the British officers for gallantry.

The two ships opened fire just before 18:00 at a range of about 35 metres (115 ft), with Shannon scoring the first hit, striking Chesapeake on one of her forward gunports with two round shot and a bag of musket balls fired by William Mindham, the gun captain of the aftmost of Shannon's starboard 18-pounders. Chesapeake was moving faster than Shannon, and as she ranged down the side of the British ship, the destruction inflicted by the precise and methodical gunnery of the British crew moved aft with the American's forward gun crews suffering the heaviest losses. However, the American crew were well drilled and, despite their losses, returned fire briskly. As Chesapeake was heeling, many of their shots struck the water or waterline of Shannon causing little damage, but American carronade fire caused serious damage to Shannon's rigging. In particular, a 32-pound carronade ball struck the piled shot for the Shannon's 12-pounder gun that was stowed in the main chains; the shot was propelled through the timbers to scatter like hail across the gundeck.

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The commencement of the action, with the two frigates exchanging gunfire at close range. Lithograph by L. Haghe, London, 1830.

Captain Lawrence realised that his ship's speed would take it past Shannon and ordered a 'pilot's luff'. This was a small and brief turn to windward which would make the sails shiver and reduce the ship's speed. Just after Chesapeake began this limited turn away from Shannon, she had her means of manoeuvring entirely disabled as a second round of accurate British fire caused more losses, most critically to the men and officers manning Chesapeake's quarterdeck. Here the helmsmen were killed by a 9-pounder gun that Broke had ordered installed on the quarter deck for that very purpose, and the same gun shortly afterwards shot away the wheel itself. Surviving American gun crews did land hits on Shannon in their second round of fire, especially American carronade fire which swept Shannon's forecastle, killing three men, wounding others and disabling Shannon's forward 9-pounder gun while one round shot demolished Shannon's ship's bell.

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The crisis-point of the engagement – Chesapeake(right) has run ahead of Shannon and is 'luffing up' out of control, and presenting her stern quarter to Shannon's broadside. If the image is entirely accurate it must represent the moment after Chesapeake's helm had been destroyed, but before her fore-topsail halyard was shot away.

At almost the same time as Chesapeake lost control of her helm, her fore-topsail halyard was shot away, her fore-topsail yard then dropped, and she 'luffed up'. Losing her forward momentum, she yawed further into the wind until she was 'in irons', her sails were pressed back against her masts and she then made sternway (went backwards). Her port stern quarter (rear left corner) made contact with Shannon's starboard side, level with the fifth gunport from the bow, and Chesapeake was caught by the projecting fluke of one of Shannon's anchors, which had been stowed on the gangway. Chesapeake's spanker boom then swung over the deck of the British ship. Mr Stevens, Shannon's boatswain, lashed the boom inboard to keep the two ships together, and lost an arm as he did so.

Trapped against Shannon at an angle in which few of her guns could fire on the British ship, and unable to manoeuvre away, Chesapeake's stern now became exposed and was swept by raking fire. Earlier in the action Shannon's gunnery had devastated Chesapeake's forward gun crews; this destruction was now inflicted on the gun crews in the aft part of the ship. The American ship's situation worsened when a small open cask of musket cartridges abaft the mizzen-mast blew up. When the smoke cleared, Broke judged the time was right and gave the order to board. Captain Lawrence also gave the order to board, but the frightened bugler aboard Chesapeake, William Brown, failed to sound the call, and only those near Lawrence heard his command. By this time Lawrence was the only officer left on the upper deck, as Lieutenants Ludlow and Ballard had been wounded. Lieutenant Cox, who had brought up men from the lower deck to form a boarding party, reached the quarterdeck only to find that his captain had been badly, indeed mortally, wounded by musket fire. Lawrence was clinging to the binnacle in order to stay upright; Cox, who had served all his sea life with Lawrence, carried him down to the cockpit with the help of two sailors. As he was being taken down Lawrence called out "Tell the men to fire faster! Don't give up the ship!"

The British board


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Broke leads the boarding party aboard Chesapeake. In reality Broke wore a 'round hat' not a cocked hat in action.

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George Cruikshank portrayed the Americans as hapless and cowardly.


In contrast to the confusion and loss of leadership aboard the American vessel, the British boarding party was being effectively organised. A number of small-arms men rushed aboard Chesapeake, led by Broke, including the purser, Mr G. Aldham, and the clerk, Mr John Dunn. Aldham and Dunn were killed as they crossed the gangway, but the rest of the party made it onto Chesapeake. Captain Broke, at the head of not more than twenty men, stepped from the rail of the waist-hammock netting onto the muzzle of the port-side carronade of Chesapeake closest to the stern, and from there he jumped down to her quarterdeck. As the British boarded there were no American officers left on the quarterdeck to organise resistance.

The maindeck of Chesapeake was almost deserted, having been swept by Shannon's gunfire; the surviving gun crews had either responded to the call for boarders or had taken refuge below. Two American officers, Lieutenant Cox (who had returned from carrying Captain Lawrence down to the surgeon) and Midshipman Russell saw that the aftmost 18-pounders on the port side still bore on Shannon. Working between them, they managed to fire both.

Lieutenant Ludlow, who had been slightly wounded and had gone down to Chesapeake's cockpit for treatment, now returned to the upper decks, rallying some of the American crew as he did so. Lieutenant Budd joined him with a band of men he had led up the fore-hatch. Ludlow led them in a counter-attack which pushed the British back as far as the binnacle. However, a wave of British reinforcements arrived, Ludlow received a mortal wound from a cutlass, and the Americans were again thrown back. James Bulger, one of Shannon's Irishmen, charged into the Americans wielding a boarding pike and shouting Gaelic curses - "And then did I not spit them, beJaysus!" Lacking officers to lead them (Lieutenant Budd had also been wounded by a cutlass) and lacking support from below, the Americans were driven back by the boarders. American resistance then fell apart, with the exception of a band of men on the forecastle and those in the tops. A number of the Americans driven from the upper decks jostled each other to get down the main hatchway to the comparative safety of the berth deck. Seeing this, Lt. Cox called to them, "You damned cowardly sons of bitches! What are you jumping below for?" When asked by a nearby midshipman if he should stop them by cutting a few down, Cox replied, "No sir, it is of no use."

Fighting had also been ongoing between the tops (platforms at the junction of mast and topmast) of the ships, as rival sharpshooters fired upon their opponents and upon sailors on the exposed decks below. While the ships were locked together, the British marksmen, led by midshipman William Smith, commander of the fore-top, stormed Chesapeake's fore-top over the yard-arm and killed all the Americans there. Following this, the wind tore the two ships apart, and Chesapeake was blown around the bows of Shannon. This left the British boarders, about fifty-strong, stranded. However, organised resistance aboard the American ship had almost ceased by this time.

Broke himself led a charge against a number of the Americans who had managed to rally on the forecastle. Three American sailors, probably from the rigging, descended and attacked him. Taken by surprise, he killed the first, but the second hit him with a musket which stunned him, whilst the third sliced open his skull with his sabre, knocking him to the deck. Before the sailor could finish Broke off, the American was bayoneted by a British Marine named John Hill. Shannon's crew rallied to the defence of their captain and carried the forecastle, killing the remaining Americans. Broke sat, dizzied and weak, on a carronade slide, and his head was bound up by William Mindham, who used his own neckerchief. One of Shannon's lieutenants, Provo Wallis, believed that Broke's three assailants were probably British deserters. The desperate and violent attempt on Broke's life made by these men may have been motivated by the fact that they faced the death penalty under the Royal Navy's Articles of War as deserters. Meanwhile, Shannon's First Lieutenant, Mr George T. L. Watt, had attempted to hoist the British colours over Chesapeake's, but this was misinterpreted aboard Shannon, and he was hit in the forehead by grapeshot and killed as he did so.

Chesapeake is taken
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An 1830 representation of HMS Shannon leading the captured American frigate Chesapeake into Halifax, Nova Scotia, in June 1813.

The British had cleared the upper decks of American resistance, and most of Chesapeake's crew had taken refuge on the berth deck. A musket or pistol shot from the berth deck killed a British marine, William Young, who was guarding the main hatchway. The furious British crewmen then began firing through the hatchway at the Americans crowded below. Lieutenant Charles Leslie Falkiner of Shannon, the leader of the boarders who had rushed the maindeck, restored order by threatening to blow out the brains of the next person to fire. He then demanded that the Americans send up the man who had killed Young, adding that Chesapeake was taken and "We have three hundred men aboard. If there is another act of hostility you will be called up on deck one by one – and shot." Falkiner was given command of Chesapeake as a British prize-vessel.

Shannon's midshipmen during the action were Messers, Smith, Leake, Clavering, Raymond, Littlejohn and Samwell. Samwell was the only British officer other than Broke to be wounded in the action; he was to die from an infection of his wounds some weeks later. Mr Etough was the acting master, and conned the ship into the action. Shortly after Chesapeake had been secured, Broke fainted from loss of blood and was rowed back to Shannon to be attended to by the ship's surgeon.

The engagement had lasted just ten minutes according to Shannon's log, or eleven minutes by Lieutenant Wallis' watch. Broke more modestly claimed fifteen minutes in his official despatch. Shannon had lost 23 men killed, and had 56 wounded. Chesapeake had about 48 killed, including four lieutenants, the master and many other of her officers, and 99 wounded. Shannon had been hit by a total of 158 projectiles, Chesapeake by 362 (these figures include grapeshot). In the time the batteries of both ships were firing, the Americans had been exposed to 44 roundshot, whilst the British had received 10 or 11 in reply (these are figures for shot which would have produced casualties or material damage; some of Chesapeake's shot was fired low, bouncing off Shannon's side at waterline level). Even before being boarded, Chesapeake had lost the gunnery duel by a considerable margin.

A large cask of un-slaked lime was found open on Chesapeake's forecastle, and another bag of lime was discovered in the fore-top. British sailors alleged the intention was to throw handfuls into the eyes of Shannon's men in an unfair and dishonourable manner as they attempted to board, though that was never done by Chesapeake's crew. Historian Albert Gleaves has called the allegation "absurd," noting, "Lime is always carried in ship's stores as a disinfectant, and the fact that it was left on the deck after the ship was cleared for action was probably due to the neglect of a junior, or petty, officer."

Aftermath
After the victory, a prize crew was put aboard Chesapeake. The commander of the prize, Lieutenant Falkiner, had a good deal of trouble from the restive Americans, who outnumbered his own men. He had some of the leaders of the unrest transferred to Shannon in the leg-irons that had, ironically, been shipped aboard Chesapeake to deal with expected British prisoners. The rest of the American crew were rendered docile by the expedient of a carpenter cutting scuttles (holes) in the maindeck through which two 18-pounder cannon, loaded with grapeshot, were pointed at them.

Shannon, commanded by Lieutenant Provo Wallis, escorted her prize into Halifax, arriving there on 6 June. On the entry of the two frigates into the harbour, the naval ships already at anchor manned their yards, bands played martial music and each ship Shannon passed greeted her with cheers. The 320 American survivors of the battle were interned on Melville Island in 1813, and their ship, taken into British service and renamed HMS Chesapeake, was used to ferry prisoners from Melville Island to England's Dartmoor Prison. Many officers were paroled to Halifax, but some began a riot at a performance of a patriotic song about Chesapeake's defeat. Parole restrictions were tightened: beginning in 1814, paroled officers were required to attend a monthly muster on Melville Island, and those who violated their parole were confined to the prison.

As the first major victory in the naval war for the British, the capture raised the shaken morale of the Royal Navy. After setting out on 5 September for a brief cruise under a Captain Teahouse, Shannon departed for England on 4 October, carrying the recovering Broke. They arrived at Portsmouth on 2 November. After the successful action, Lieutenants Wallis and Falkiner were promoted to the rank of commander, and Messrs. Etough and Smith were made lieutenants. Broke was made a Baronet that September. The Court of Common Council of London awarded him the freedom of the city and a sword worth 100 guineas. He also received a piece of plate worth 750 pounds and a cup worth 100 guineas. Captain Lawrence was buried in Halifax with full military honours, six British Naval Officers served as pall bearers. Chesapeake, after active service in the Royal Navy, was eventually sold at Portsmouth, England, for £500 in 1819 and broken up. Some of the timbers of Chesapeake were used in the construction of the Chesapeake Mill in Wickham, Hampshire. Shannon was reduced to a receiving ship in 1831, and broken up in 1859.

In the US, the capture was seen as a humiliation, and contributed to popular sentiment against the war. Many New Englanders, now calling the conflict "Madison's war" after James Madison, demanded that he resign the presidency.

In a war that reached new lows for historical accuracy sacrificed in the name of patriotic fever, accounts of Shannon's victory would be ascribed to many reasons. Very few of these took into account that Lawrence had rushed into a fight with an untrained and unprepared crew for what awaited him. Theodore Roosevelt would later state this plainly, lambasting former American "history writers" while doing so. In less than 2 minutes Shannon's crew had taken horrible losses and did not break, while Chesapeake's crew did. Unfortunately for Lawrence, he did not meet an average British frigate of this point in the long wars, undermanned and with many men aboard who were not real seamen, but a frigate with a crew at the highest pitch of training, led by an expert in naval gunnery. It has been said of Shannon, that "a more destructive vessel of her force had probably never existed in the history of naval warfare".

Broke never again commanded a ship. The head wound from a cutlass blow, which had exposed the brain, had been very severe accompanied by great blood loss. Therapeutic bleeding, routinely employed at the time, was not performed by Shannon's surgeon Mr Alexander Jack, which was to Broke's advantage. The report of the surgeon described the wound as "a deep cut on the parietal bone, extending from the top of the head ... towards the left ear, [the bone] penetrated for at least three inches in length". Broke survived the wound into moderate old age (64 years), though he was debilitated. He suffered, to a greater or lesser extent, from headaches and other neurological problems for the rest of his life. The casualties were heavy. The British lost 23 killed and 56 wounded. The Americans lost 48 killed and 99 wounded. Between the wounded of the ships' two companies, another 23 died of their wounds in the two weeks following the action. Relative to the total number of men participating, this was one of the bloodiest ship-to-ship actions of the age of sail. By comparison, HMS Victory suffered fewer casualties during the whole of the Battle of Trafalgar. The entire action had lasted, at most, for 15 minutes, speaking to the ferocity of the fighting




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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1878 - clipper Loch Ard, launched 1873 for the Loch Line, ran aground on a reef


Loch Ard was a sailing vessel which was wrecked at Mutton bird Island just off the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria, Australia in 1878. The name was drawn from Loch Ard, a loch which lies to the west of Aberfoyle, and to the east of Loch Lomond. It means "high lake" in Scottish Gaelic.

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Loch Ard, 1620 Tons. Built at Glasgow 1873. Twice dismasted on first voyage, and totally lost 1878 at Curdie's inlet, Victoria. Only 2 saved.

Loch Ard belonged to the Loch Line, a major shipping line operating between Great Britain and Australia. It was a three-masted clipper ship, of 263' in length, with a tonnage of 1693 tonnes, and was constructed by Barclay, Curdle & Co. of Glasgow.


Final voyage and wreck
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Loch Ard with Thames tugboat Robert Bruce

Loch Ard
departed England on 1 March 1878, bound for Melbourne, commanded by Captain Gibb and with a crew of 37 men. It was carrying 17 passengers and assorted cargo (total of 54 people). On 1 June, the ship was approaching Melbourne. The crew expected to sight land but encountered heavy fog. The inquest determined that, unable to see the Cape Otway lighthouse; having faulty chronometers on board; and not having been able to take a reading to establish his exact position due to bad weather conditions over the previous few days, the captain was unaware how close he was running to the coast. The fog lifted around 4am, revealing breakers and cliff faces. Captain Gibb quickly ordered sail to be set to come about and get clear of the coast, but they were unable to do so in time, and ran aground on a reef. The masts and rigging came crashing down, killing some people on deck and preventing the lifeboats from being launched effectively. The ship sank within 10 or 15 minutes of striking the reef.

The widespread popular belief that Captain Gibb mistook the opening of the nearby Loch Ard Gorge for Port Phillip Heads has no basis in fact or probability: there is no physical or cartographic resemblance whatsoever; ships are obliged to stop outside the Heads to take on a pilot; and the Loch Ard never entered the Gorge at all.

The only two survivors of the wreck were Eva Carmichael, who survived by clinging to a spar for five hours, and Thomas (Tom) R. Pearce, an apprentice who clung to the overturned hull of a lifeboat. Tom Pearce came ashore first, then heard Eva's shouts and went back into the ocean to rescue her. They came ashore at what is now known as Loch Ard Gorge and sheltered there before seeking assistance. Coincidentally, Tom Pearce was the step son of James Pearce, captain of the SS Gothenburg.


The Loch Ard Peacock, from the Loch Ard disaster, now at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum

Loch Ard's cargo included a range of luxury goods, including a grand piano which washed up in the Gorge, and a large decorative porcelain peacock made by Minton in England, intended to be displayed in the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880. The peacock was recovered intact and was eventually able to be displayed a century later for the Victoria Pavilion at the Brisbane 1988 World Exposition. It is now on display at the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Museum in Warrnambool, along with a number of other relics of the wreck.


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1895 – Launch of Sevastopol (Russian: Севастополь), the last of three ships in the Petropavlovsk class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s.


Sevastopol (Russian: Севастополь) was the last of three ships in the Petropavlovsk class of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1890s.

Named for the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, the ship was commissioned into the First Pacific Squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet and was stationed at Port Arthur (today Lüshunkou District, Dalian, Liaoning, China), a Russian naval base acquired from China in 1898 as part of the Kwantung Leased Territory. One of the first ships to use Harvey nickel-steel armor and Popov radios, she displaced 11,854 long tons (12,044 t) at full load and was 369 feet (112.5 m) long overall, and mounted a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns in two twin turrets. She was laid down in May 1892, launched on 1 June 1895 and completed in 1899. Her sea trials lasted until 1900.

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The Imperial Russian battleship Sevastopol in Port-Arthur, 5 Mai 1904.

Sevastopol saw service in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05. Slightly damaged during a surprise attack on Port Arthur in early February, the ship later participated in several attempts to break out from the besieged port. The most notable of these was the Battle of the Yellow Sea, where she was damaged by several shells but managed to make it back to port with the remnants of the Russian Fleet, leaving one crewman dead and 62 wounded. Immediately after the surrender of Port Arthur, Sevastopol was scuttled to prevent her capture by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The Japanese never raised her. The remains of the ship still lie outside the entrance to the port.

Design and description
The design of the Petropavlovsk-class ships was derived from the battleship Imperator Nikolai I, but was greatly enlarged to accommodate an armament of four 12-inch (305 mm) and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns. While under construction their armament was revised to consist of more powerful 12-inch guns and the 8-inch guns were replaced by a dozen 6-inch (152 mm) guns. The ships were 376 feet (114.6 m) long overall, with a beam of 70 feet (21.3 m) and a draft of 28 feet 3 inches (8.6 m). Designed to displace 10,960 long tons (11,140 t), Sevastopol was almost 1,000 long tons (1,000 t) overweight and displaced 11,842 long tons (12,032 t) when completed. The ship was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one shaft, using steam generated by 16 cylindrical boilers. The engines were rated at 10,600 indicated horsepower(7,900 kW) and designed to reach a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph), but Sevastopol only reached a speed of 15.3 knots (28.3 km/h; 17.6 mph) from 9,368 indicated horsepower (6,986 kW) during her sea trials. She carried enough coal to give her a range of 3,750 nautical miles (6,940 km; 4,320 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph). She had a crew of 662.

The Petropavlovsk-class ships' main battery consisted of four 12-inch guns mounted in two twin-gun turrets, one each forward and one aft of the superstructure. Designed to fire one round per 90 seconds, the actual rate of fire was half that. Their secondary armament consisted of twelve Canet six-inch quick-firing (QF) guns. Eight of these were mounted in four twin-gun wing turrets and the remaining guns were positioned in unprotected embrasures on the sides of the hull amidships. Smaller guns were carried for defense against torpedo boats, including ten QF 47-millimeter (1.9 in) Hotchkiss guns and twenty-eight Maxim QF 37-millimeter (1.5 in) guns. They were also armed with six torpedo tubes, four 15-inch (381 mm) tubes above water and two 18-inch (457 mm) submerged tubes, all mounted on the broadside. They carried 50 mines to be used to protect her anchorage.

The Russians could not manufacture the Harvey armor used by Sevastopol, so the ship's armor was ordered from Bethlehem Steel in America, although only her waterline armor belt was made from Harvey armor and the rest was nickel steel. The armor belt was 10–14.5 inches (254–368 mm) thick. The main gun turrets had a maximum thickness of 10 inches (254 mm) of armor and her deck armor ranged from 2 to 3 inches (51 to 76 mm) in thickness.

Construction and career
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Sevastopol at Kronstadt in 1900

Sevastopol, named for the siege of Sevastopol during the Crimean War, was laid down at the Galernii Island shipyard in Saint Petersburg on 7 March 1892. Construction was led by two engineers, E. P. Andruschenko and N. I. Afanasyev, and began on 7 May 1892, about the same time as the battleship Sissoi Veliky was laid down. The ceremony was attended by Alexander III of Russia and then-Tsesarevich Nicholas II. Sevastopol was launched on 1 June 1895 and, after the completion of her hull and decks in 1898, was transferred to Kronstadt where her armor and guns were installed. Sevastopol was finished in 1899 and Nikolai Chernishev became her captain, a post which he would retain until 17 March 1904, when Nikolai Essen assumed command.

Sevastopol began her sea trials on 16 October 1899, and was commissioned after their conclusion into the Imperial Russian Navy. She and her sister ships were transferred to Port Arthur, which was then the base of the First Squadron of the Russian Pacific Fleet. In September 1900, Popov radios were installed on Sevastopol and her sister Poltava, the first Russian battleships to have them. They were also painted white, the same color as the other ships in the First Pacific Squadron. She then left for Port Arthur, arriving on 13 April 1901. As Russia was not at war with any Far East countries at that time, Sevastopol stayed in port, inactive.

Battle of Port Arthur
Main article: Battle of Port Arthur
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Sevastopol (rear center) and her sisters

After the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, both Russia and Japan had ambitions to control Manchuria and Korea, resulting in tensions between the two nations. Japan had begun negotiations to reduce the tensions in 1901, but the Russian government was slow and uncertain in its replies because it had not yet decided exactly how to resolve the problems. Japan interpreted this as deliberate prevarication designed to buy time to complete the Russian armament programs. The situation was worsened by Russia's failure to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in October 1903 as promised. The final straws were the news of Russian timber concessions in northern Korea and the Russian refusal to acknowledge Japanese interests in Manchuria while continuing to place conditions on Japanese activities in Korea. These actions caused the Japanese government to decide in December 1903 that war was inevitable. As tensions with Japan increased, the Pacific Squadron began mooring in the outer harbor at night in order to react more quickly to any Japanese attempt to land troops in Korea.

In early February 1904, the Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. Sevastopol was hit by one shell, either six or eight inches in diameter, that wounded two men on her bridge. She soon turned in pursuit along with other ships of the Russian fleet, all firing their forward guns, but she failed to score any hits. On 26 March 1904, Sevastopol was accidentally rammed by Peresvet, damaging a propeller. After the attack on Port Arthur, the First Pacific Squadron tried to break out several times. During one attempt on 23 June, Admiral Wilgelm Vitgeft, commanding the Pacific Fleet, retreated after encountering the Japanese fleet. Approaching the harbor, Sevastopol moved slightly out of formation and hit a mine that killed 11 and caused severe flooding, but managed to get inside the harbor and drop anchor. She was under repair for six weeks, during which time a fire broke out on deck, killing two and wounding 28. The Russian battleships were too big to fit into the dry dock at Port Arthur, so large caissons were built to provide access to the ships' hulls. On 9 August, with the Japanese Third Army assaulting the outer defenses of Port Arthur, the First Pacific Squadron sortied from its base. Even though Sevastopol was not fully repaired, she sailed with the rest of the fleet with one gun in her aft turret remaining inoperable. They later engaged the Japanese fleet in what would become the Battle of the Yellow Sea.

Although in the center of the Russian line during the battle, Sevastopol was only slightly damaged during the day. In the evening, the Russians massed their fire on the Japanese flagship Mikasa, at that time 11 kilometers (6.8 mi) away. The Japanese battleships returned fire and Sevastopol suffered several shell hits to her superstructure, which killed one man and wounded 62 others. A few minutes later, Mikasa was hit by two 12-inch (305 mm) shells and one 6-inch (152 mm) shell from Retvizan and Sevastopol, which caused 40 casualties. Soon after that, when it seemed that the Russians would be able to escape to Vladivostok, two 12-inch shells from Asahi penetrated the conning tower of the Russian flagship Tsesarevich, killing Vitgeft and the helmsman, severely wounding the captain, and causing the ship to come to a dead stop after executing a sharp turn. Thinking that this was a maneuver planned by Vitgeft, the Russian line started to execute the same turn, causing all of the ships directly behind Tsesarevich, including Sevastopol, to maneuver wildly to avoid hitting the stationary flagship. Prince Pavel Ukhtomski, second in command of the squadron, who was on the Peresvet, proceeded to signal the other Russian ships via semaphore to steam back to Port Arthur, although the signals were only gradually recognized by Pobeda, Poltava, Pallada and Sevastopol. Sevastopol had one 6-inch (152 mm) and two 47-millimeter (1.9 in) guns knocked out during the battle.

Returning to Port Arthur on 10 August, the squadron found that the city was already under siege by the Japanese Third Army led by Baron Nogi Maresuke. On 23 August, Sevastopol bombarded a Japanese battery in an effort to escape along with nine smaller ships, but after she neutralized the battery, she returned to port after a Japanese lookout spotted the approaching ships. As she was maneuvering back into Port Arthur, she struck another mine and required repairs. On 5 December the Third Army captured 203 Meter Hill, a crucial position that overlooked the harbor. From there, the Japanese were able to fire on Sevastopol and other ships of the First Pacific Squadron that had survived the Yellow Sea battle. The ships at that time were about 5.7 kilometers (3.5 mi) away from the hill, placing them within range of Japanese shore artillery. By 9 December four battleships and two cruisers had been sunk by the Japanese. Sevastopol, although hit five times by 11-inch (279 mm) shells, managed to move away from the western harbor and out of range of the guns to the minor harbor of White Wolf, where she could be defended by torpedo nets and booms. Within the defensive surroundings of White Wolf, Essen started to plan a sortie through the blockade to Vladivostok or a rendezvous with the Second Pacific Squadron, at that time coaling at Madagascar. At the same time, the commanding admiral of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Tōgō Heihachirō, as instructed by Emperor Meiji in Tokyo, ordered the destruction of the battleship by six waves of destroyers, along with some torpedo boats that were launched from the Fuji and Mikasa.

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A view of the scuttled Russian ships at Port Arthur; Sevastopol is not visible.

The torpedo boat and destroyer attacks lasted three weeks, during which 80 torpedoes were launched at Sevastopol. Of these, four hit. The four successful torpedoes were launched on 18 December. Three of them hit the torpedo nets that had been placed around the ship, while the other hit one of the ship's propellers. Although severely damaged, Sevastopol remained afloat and sank two destroyers and damaged six others, killing 35 sailors and five officers. A Japanese cruiser attempting to attack Sevastopol was sunk by a mine in the harbor. When he received news of the surrender of the land fortifications on 2 January 1905, Essen decided to surrender, but scuttled the ship in 55 meters (180 ft) of water by opening the seacocks on one side so that the ship could not be salvaged by the Japanese. His other option, a run to Vladivostok, had already been eliminated due to the damage to his propellers by the torpedo. For the act of scuttling Sevastopol, Essen was awarded the Order of St. George. Nevertheless, a dispatch from Tokyo reported that it sank as a result of a Japanese torpedo attack.

Due to the depth of water in which she had sunk, and her position, Sevastopol was the only battleship that was not salvaged by the Japanese at Port Arthur. What remains of her is still outside the entrance to Port Arthur. Poltava, one of her sister ships, was also scuttled at Port Arthur and re-floated as the Japanese Tango.



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 1939 - HMS Thetis – A T-class submarine that sank in Liverpool Bay on 1 June 1939 after inadvertent opening of both doors of a torpedo tube to the sea whilst diving.
99 people were lost, including shipyard workers who were aboard for sea trials. Raised and refitted, as HMS Thunderbolt the boat was later sunk by Italian anti-submarine forces in the Mediterranean in March 1943.



HMS Thetis (N25)
was a Group 1 T-class submarine of the Royal Navy which served under two names. Under her first identity, HMS Thetis, she commenced sea trials on 4 March 1939. She sank during trials on 1 June 1939 with the loss of 99 lives. She was salvaged, repaired and recommissioned as HMS Thunderbolt serving in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres until she was lost with all hands on 14 March 1943. This makes Thetis one of the few military vessels that have been lost twice with their crews in their service history.

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HMS Thetis
Thetis was built by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, England and launched on 29 June 1938. After completion, trials were delayed because the forward hydroplanes jammed, but eventually started in Liverpool Bay under Lieutenant Commander Guy Bolus. Thetis left Birkenhead for Liverpool Bay to conduct her final diving trials, accompanied by the tug Grebe Cock. As well as her normal complement of 59 men she was carrying technical observers from Cammell Laird and other naval personnel, a total of 103 men. The first dive was attempted at about 14:00 on 1 June 1939. The submarine was too light to dive, so a survey of the water in the various tanks on board was made. One of the checks was whether the internal torpedo tubes were flooded.

Lieutenant Frederick Woods, the torpedo officer, opened the test cocks on the tubes. Unfortunately, the test cock on tube number 5 was blocked by some enamel paint so no water flowed out even though the bow cap was open. Prickers to clear the test cocks had been provided but they were not used. This combined with a confusing layout of the bow cap indicators — they were arranged in a vertical line with 5 at the bottom (2,1,4,3,6, and then 5) and the "Shut" position for tube 5 on the dial was the mirror image of tube 6 above it — led to the inner door of the tube being opened. The inrush of water caused the bow of the submarine to sink to the seabed 150 ft (46 m) below the surface. How the outer door (bow cap) to Tube 5 became open to the sea is a question that will probably never be answered: Woods maintained that until at least 10 minutes before he opened the tube all the indicators were at "Shut".

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Mersey Docks & Harbour Board salvage vessel Vigilant and sunken Thetis's raised stern

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The stricken Thetis, surrounded by rescue boats

An indicator buoy was released and smoke candle fired. By 16:00, Grebe Cock was becoming concerned for the safety of Thetis and radioed HMS Dolphin submarine base at Gosport. A search was immediately instigated. Although the stern remained on the surface, only three RN personnel (Lieutenant Frederick Woods, Captain Harry Oram and Leading Stoker Walter Arnold) and one Cammell Laird man (Fitter Frank Shaw) escaped before the rest were overcome by carbon dioxide poisoning caused by the crowded conditions, the increased atmospheric pressure and a delay of 20 hours before the evacuation started. Ninety-nine lives were lost in the incident: 51 crew members, 26 Cammell Laird employees, 8 other naval officers, 7 Admiralty overseeing officers, 4 Vickers-Armstrong employees, 2 caterers and a Mersey pilot. The crew waited before abandoning the vessel until she had been discovered by the destroyer Brazen, which had been sent to search for her and which indicated her presence by dropping small explosive charges into the water.

In order to effect an escape from the stricken vessel, the escaping crew were required to enter the submarine’s only escape chamber, which could only accommodate one person at a time. As the pressure outside the submarine was greater than the pressure inside, this had to be equalised before the outer door of the escape chamber was opened. The escape chamber was flooded with the occupant having to wait until the chamber was completely full of water. Only then would the pressure within the escape chamber be equal to the outside sea pressure.

In the case of HMS Thetis, 4 members of the ship’s company, three RN personnel (Lieutenant Woods, Captain Oram and Leading Stoker Arnold) and one Cammell Laird’s employee (Fitter Shaw) successfully used the escape chamber. During the 5th attempt to escape the occupant of the chamber panicked and tried to open the outer escape hatch before the chamber had completely flooded. As a result, the increased pressure outside the submarine caused an in-rush of sea water, thus drowning the escapee. Because the outer escape hatch remained partially open it rendered the escape chamber inoperative, preventing the escape of any other crew members.

The incident attracted legal action from one of the widows, who brought a claim of negligence against the shipbuilders, for not removing the material blocking the valve. Unfortunately for her the Admiralty successfully invoked Crown Privilege (now termed Public Interest Immunity) and blocked the disclosure of, amongst other items, 'the contract for the hull and machinery of Thetis as evidence in court, on the basis that to do so would be 'injurious to the public interest'. The case is one of interest in English law, as the judges in this case accepted the Admiralty's claim at face value with no scrutiny, a ruling later overturned.

The Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association were commissioned to salvage the sunken submarine. On completion of the salvage operation the bell from Thetis was presented to the Liverpool & Glasgow Salvage Association by the Admiralty. One further fatality occurred during salvage operations, when Diver Petty Officer Henry Otho Perdue died from "the bends" on 23 August 1939. On Sunday 3 September, Thetis was intentionally grounded ashore at Traeth Bychan, Anglesey. It was the same day that war was declared. Human remains that had not already been removed by the salvage team were now brought out to a Naval funeral, with full honours.

The loss went beyond that of a submarine's crew. Among the dead were two naval constructors and several of the submarine team from Cammell-Laird. These were experienced designers and builders of submarines who would have been needed during the war.

The Thetis disaster was in marked contrast to the successful rescue of the survivors of USS Squalus, which had sunk off the coast of New Hampshire just a week previously. The Squalus however, unlike the Thetis, sank on an even keel allowing a diving chamber to be used.

Frederick Woods remained in the Royal Navy as an officer in the surface fleet. He was killed in a car accident in 1947.

The Thetis clip
The torpedo tubes on British and Australian submarines were afterwards equipped with a "Thetis clip", one of the modifications introduced as a result of the accident. This is a latch which allows a torpedo tube door to be opened no more than a small amount in case it is open to the sea at the bow end. Once it is clear that no flooding will occur the latch can be released and the door fully opened.

HMS Thunderbolt
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The crew of Thunderbolt and their 'Jolly Roger' flag, after a patrol in the Mediterranean

The submarine was successfully salvaged and repaired, being commissioned in 1940 as HMS Thunderbolt under the command of Lt.Cdr. Cecil Crouch.

During the next 18 months, she saw service in the Atlantic: In December 1940 she was on patrol in the Bay of Biscay and on 15 December she encountered and sank the Italian submarine Capitano Raffaele Tarantini.

In the autumn of 1942, Thunderbolt was converted with her sister ships Trooper and P311 to carry two "Chariots" (a type of manned torpedo) and their crews for operations against Axis shipping in harbour, and was transferred with them to the Mediterranean in December 1942.

Their first mission, Operation Principal, was undertaken in December 1942, the three boats taking their charges to targets around the Mediterranean. Thunderbolt's objective was shipping in Cagliari, but the operation was not a success, and P311 was lost at La Maddalena, her intended target.

A second operation against Palermo harbour in January 1943 was more successful. On 2–3 January, the manned torpedoes entered the harbour and mined the ships there, sinking the light cruiser Ulpio Traiano and the freighter SS Viminale.

A further mission to Tripoli harbour took place on 18 January. This was to prevent the Axis using blockships to neutralize Tripoli harbour, which was about to be occupied by the British Eighth Army.

On 20 February 1943, Thunderbolt shelled the Albanian sailboat Villanzen Veli off Bari. The British submarine was forced to dive and escape by the combined fire of the Italian auxiliary cruiser Brindisi and a coastal battery, while the sailboat only received light damage.

Thunderbolt was sunk on 14 March 1943 off Sicily by the Italian corvette Cicogna, which had detected her and attacked with depth charges. All hands were lost and Thunderbolt sank in 1,350 m of water.

Appearance in the media
The cause of the loss of Thetis was used in the 1968 film Ice Station Zebra, where the character played by Patrick McGoohan describes a method of sabotaging a submarine by blocking the tube test cocks, allowing the inner door to be opened with the outer door also open.

The loss of the Thetis was the inspiration for part of the "Railway station" episode (episode 2) of British science fiction television series Sapphire & Steel.

In 1997, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a radio play about the Thetis disaster. The play was called Close Enough To Touch and was written by Liverpool writer Fred Lawless. The play was also broadcast on BBC Radio Merseyside and the BBC World Service. In 1999, a play entitled HMS Thetis by Mark Gee in association with David Roberts, was performed at the Liverpool Bluecoat Chambers and at Birkenhead's Pacific Road Theatre. The play starred John McArdle and also the newly employed First Year Apprentices from Cammell Laird Shipyard, (Paul Gillies, Dave Gill, Alan Lane, Chris Motley, Mike Jebb, Steve Taylor, Ollie Dodson, Stuie Dicken, Mark Poland, Ben McDonald, Tony Cummins, Barry Hayes, Chris Hall, Martin King, Graham Crilly, Billy Coburn, Matty Brassey).

In 2000 the documentary "Death in the Bay", produced by BBC Northwest, was broadcast in the UK. It covered the loss of the vessel and the subsequent enquiry, together with interviews with relatives of two of the men lost in the tragedy and the son of a survivor, Leading Stoker Arnold



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
1 June 2015 - the Chinese river cruise ship Eastern Star capsized on an overnight voyage after being hit by a tornadic waterspout during severe weather while in the Damazhou waterway section of the Yangtze River.


MV
Dongfang zhi Xing
(Chinese: 东方之星; pinyin: Dōngfāng zhī Xīng; translated as Oriental Star or Eastern Star) was a river cruise ship that operated in the Three Gorges region of inland China. On 1 June 2015, the ship was traveling on the Yangtze River in Jianli, Hubei Province with 454 people on board when it capsized in a severe thunderstorm. On 13 June, 442 deaths were confirmed, with 12 rescued. It is the deadliest peacetime maritime disaster in China's history, and the worst maritime disaster (including wartime disasters) since the steamer Taiping sank in 1949, killing more than 1,500.

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A typical cruise ship similar to Dongfang zhi Xing used to tour the Three Gorges rivers

Sinking
Around 9:28 pm on 1 June 2015, Dongfang zhi Xing was making a 1,500 km (930 mi) trip from Nanjing to Chongqing via the Yangtze River. When the ship was near Jingzhou, it was caught in a storm and sank in approximately 15 m (49 ft) deep waters. The captain and the chief engineer said that the ship was hit by a tornado, and the China Meteorological Administration confirmed that a tornado occurred in Jianli County with wind-speeds reaching EF1 strength, or approximately 138–177 km/h (86–110 mph).[8][9] It was once widely believed that the tornado struck the river near the ship's location, but later investigation suggested that the tornado struck a location 8 km away and did not affect the ship; instead, based on Doppler radar data and other evidence, the official report found that a massive downburst in the thunderstorm, with gusts over 118 km/h (73 mph) (12–13 on the Beaufort scale), was the likely cause of the capsizing.

Passengers and crew
Initially, the Chinese authorities reported 458 people were aboard the ship, but later reduced this figure to 456. This included 405 passengers, all of whom were Chinese and mostly elderly, 46 crew members and five tour guides. According to crew members that were rescued, the storm hit and capsized the ship quickly while most of the passengers were asleep. One rescued passenger stated that the ship had become flooded with water, and with the turbulent river conditions, capsized after experiencing a list greater than 45 degrees. Seven survivors were able to swim to shore and alert authorities about two and a half hours after capsizing. On 13 June, the Chinese authorities updated that 454, not 456, people were on board and 442 bodies had been found with 12 rescued.

Analysis of the incident
Severe weather reports were issued for the area, which should have subsequently been sent to all vessels on the river in the area for them to take necessary precautions. There is no confirmation that Dongfang zhi Xing had been properly notified, though at least one other vessel travelling nearby was shown to have taken precautions due to the weather warning. The ship's captain and chief engineer, two of the rescued persons, were taken into custody for questioning.

The Chinese government censored news and discussion about this accident, while tightly controlling media coverage. Chinese journalists were told to focus on the "positive part" of the story only. The Politburo Standing Committee attempted to control public opinion about the disaster response, by issuing an order to both "understand the sorrow of the families" and "concretely preserve social stability". Some foreign journalists were also blocked from the rescue site in Hubei province where a police cordon was set up with checkpoints.

On 30 December 2015, the Chinese government issued the investigation report of the incident. The report said that heavy storms caused Dongfang zhi Xing to capsize; it also found that the shipping company and local authorities had flaws in their daily management and suggested that 43 people be punished accordingly.

Ship
MV Dongfang zhi Xing was constructed in February 1994. In 1997 the ship's length was extended by 11 metres (36 ft 1 in). It underwent another retrofit in 2008 that cut its capacity from 584 to 534 people. As of 2015, the ship was 76 metres (249 ft 4 in) long with a beam of 14 metres (45 ft 11 in). It was owned by the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation and operated by Xiehe Travel, where it made cruises within the Three Gorges area of inland China.

Dongfang zhi Xing, as well as other Yangtze River cruise ships, had come under increasing government scrutiny in recent years due to the growing tourist industry in China. In 2013, Dongfang zhi Xing and five other ships were cited for safety violations by the Nanjing maritime bureau, though the Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corporation did not comment on the nature of these infractions.

Rescue
Rescue efforts were made immediately to save the passengers and crew, reaching full scale about twelve hours after the capsizing. 82 people had been confirmed dead by 4 June, with some bodies having washed ashore 50 km (31 mi) downstream from the wreck. Fourteen people were rescued in the immediate aftermath, including the ship's engineer and captain.

According to a tweet from China Central Television (CCTV), rescuers were able to hear the sound of people trapped inside. CCTV reported that search teams heard people yelling from within the ship. 1,000 police officers from the Hubei Armed Police Corps were sent to the site with 40 inflatable boats. Authorities reported that the search and rescue effort included 3,000 people and 50 boats. Crews used both underwater approaches with diving apparatus, and above-water approaches through holes cut through the inverted hull.

Additional search efforts were made to locate survivors or bodies up to 220 kilometres (140 mi) downstream of the wreck. The Three Gorges Dam upriver was instructed to cut water flow rates by half in order to lower the river levels for the rescue effort.

On 5 June, the inverted ship was fitted with cables and nets, and the holes cut in the hull sealed, in order to right the ship and resume the search for survivors or bodies. The search yielded only bodies. The search range was subsequently expanded to 1,000 km (620 mi) downstream on 5 June.

The highest levels of the government were involved in the search coordination. Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang ordered rescue efforts. Premier Li Keqiang, Vice Premier Ma Kai and State Councilor Yang Jing traveled to the site itself.

Mourning
On 7 June, more than 500 rescue workers and government officials at the site mourned during a three-minute silence, after an announcement from Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang. According to Chinese tradition, the seventh day is a key occasion to mourn the passing of the dead (头七).

To mourn the victims, all Chinese satellite television channels suspended entertainment programs from 7 to 8 June



 
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