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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 May 1904 – Launch of USS Rhode Island (BB-17), the last of five Virginia-class battleships built for the United States Navy


USS Rhode Island (BB-17)
was the last of five Virginia-class battleships built for the United States Navy, and was the second ship to carry her name. She was laid down in May 1902, launched in May 1904, and commissioned into the Atlantic Fleet in February 1906. The ship was armed with an offensive battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns, and she was capable of a top speed of 19 knots(35 km/h; 22 mph).

The ship's career primarily consisted of training with the other battleships of the Atlantic Fleet. Rhode Island took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–1909, and thereafter largely remained in the Atlantic. In late 1913, she cruised the Caribbean coast of Mexico to protect American interests during the Mexican Revolution. After the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Rhode Island was assigned to anti-submarine patrols off the east coast of the US. Starting in December 1918, after the end of the war, the ship was used to repatriate American soldiers. She carried over 5,000 men in the course of five trips. She was briefly transferred to the Pacific Fleet in 1919 before being decommissioned in 1920 and sold for scrap in 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

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Design
Main article: Virginia-class battleship
Rhode Island was 441 feet 3 inches (134.49 m) long overall and had a beam of 76 ft 3 in (23.24 m) and a draft of 23 ft 9 in (7.24 m). She displaced 14,948 long tons (15,188 t) as designed and up to 16,094 long tons (16,352 t) at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 19,000 indicated horsepower (14,000 kW) and twelve coal-fired Babcock & Wilcox boilers, generating a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph). As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were quickly replaced by cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 812 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch/40 caliber Mark 4 guns in two twin gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of eight 8-inch/45 caliber guns and twelve 6-inch (152 mm)/50 caliber guns. The 8-inch guns were mounted in four twin turrets; two of these were superposed atop the main battery turrets, with the other two turrets abreast the forward funnel. The 6-inch guns were placed in casemates in the hull. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried twelve 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull and twelve 3-pounder guns. She also carried two 1-pounder guns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, Rhode Island carried four 21 inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

Rhode Island's main armored belt was 11 in (279 mm) thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and 6 in (152 mm) elsewhere. The main battery gun turrets (and the secondary turrets on top of them) had 12-inch (300 mm) thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had 10 in (250 mm) of armor plating. The conning tower had 9 in (230 mm) thick sides.

Service history
Early career and the Great White Fleet

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Rhode Island in 1907

Rhode Island was laid down at the Fore River Shipyard in Massachusetts on 1 May 1902 and was launched on 17 May 1904, to little fanfare due to a worker strike at the shipyard. Upon launching, the ship became stuck on a mud bank where she remained before being towed afloat two days later. The ship was completed a year later, and on 19 February 1906 commissioned into the fleet. The ship conducted an extensive shakedown cruise and sea trials before steaming to Hampton Roads, where she was assigned to the 2nd Division of the 1st Squadron, Atlantic Fleet on 1 January 1907. She left Hampton Roads on 9 March 1907, bound for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There, she and the rest of the 1st Squadron conducted maneuvers and gunnery training. After the conclusion of these exercises, she returned to the east coast of the United States for a cruise to Cape Cod Bay.

On 8 December, Rhode Island returned to Hampton Roads, where she and fifteen other battleships held a naval review at the start of the cruise of the Great White Fleet. The battleships were joined by transports and a squadron of torpedo boats. On 16 December, President Theodore Roosevelt reviewed the fleet before it departed on the first leg of the trip. The fleet cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice. The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco and Seattle before crossing the Pacific to Australia, stopping in Hawaii on the way. Stops in the South Pacific included Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland.

The fleet then turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama. Three weeks of exercises followed in Subic Bay in the Philippines in November. The ships passed Singapore on 6 December and entered the Indian Ocean; they coaled in Colombo before proceeding to the Suez Canal and coaling again at Port Said, Egypt. The fleet called in several Mediterranean ports before stopping in Gibraltar, where an international fleet of British, Russian, French, and Dutch warships greeted the Americans. The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles (86,542 km; 53,775 mi). There, they conducted a naval review for Theodore Roosevelt.

1909–1923
After the conclusion of the review, Rhode Island steamed to New York for an overhaul at the New York Navy Yard. During the overhaul, on 8 March, the ship was assigned to the 3rd Division, 1st Squadron. After emerging from the dry dock, she resumed her normal peacetime routine of maneuvers with the rest of the squadron, gunnery practice, and training cruises. In February 1910 she was sent on a cruise in the Caribbean. The ship was reassigned to the 4th Division, 1st Squadron on 20 October, and two weeks later she and the rest of the squadron held a naval review in Boston for President William Howard Taft on 2 November. The ships then crossed the Atlantic to visit European ports; Rhode Island went to Gravesend. During the cruise, the fleet conducted large scale battle and reconnaissance training. Rhode Island and the rest of the ships recrossed the Atlantic and stopped in Guantanamo Bay on 13 January 1911.

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Rhode Island in the Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal

The ship then resumed her peacetime routine, which lasted for the next three years, punctuated only by a cruise to Key West, Florida and Havana and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba in June – July 1912. Upon her return, she was reassigned temporarily as the flagship of the 3rd Division on 17 July. This duty was short-lived, and on 1 August the divisional commander transferred his flag to her sister ship New Jersey. On 28 June 1913, Rhode Island again became the divisional flagship, and this stint lasted until 18 January 1914. In late 1913, the US Navy began to become increasingly involved in the Mexican Revolution; in late 1913, Rhode Island cruised off Veracruz, Tampico, and Tuxpan to protect American nationals in the country. In February 1914, the ship left the area and stopped in Guantanamo Bay for two weeks before continuing on to the United States to return to her normal routine.

The ship went on two cruises to show the flag in the Caribbean, the first from October 1914 to March 1915, and the second from January to February 1916. During this period, she served as the flagship for the 4th Division, 1st Squadron, from 19 December 1914 to 20 January 1915. On 15 May 1916, she was reduced to the fleet reserve at the Boston Navy Yard, and formally removed from the Atlantic Fleet the following day. From 24 June to 28 September, she served as the flagship of the Commander in Chief, Reserve Force, Atlantic Fleet. Rhode Island was placed back in commission on 27 March 1917, as tensions with Germany rose dramatically as the result of the German unrestricted submarine warfare campaign that had been launched earlier in the year. The United States declared war on 6 April, and on 3 May, the ship became the flagship of Battleship Division 3, Atlantic Fleet. The ship's crew underwent extensive training to bring the ship up to combat readiness before she was assigned to anti-submarine patrols off Tangier Island, Maryland. She was based out of Hampton Roads into 1918.

In April, Rhode Island was transferred to Battleship Division 2, and in June, she conducted torpedo proving trials. At the end of the war in November, the ship was assigned to the operation to transport American soldiers back from France. The first trip started on 18 December; Rhode Island and Virginia steamed to Brest, France, where they arrived on 30 December. The two ships took on 2,043 men between them during a three-day stay in the port. Over the course of four further trips, the last of which ended on 4 July 1919, she carried more than 5,000 men to Boston. On 17 July, she was assigned as the flagship of Battleship Squadron 1, Pacific Fleet. She left Boston five days later and cruised down to Balboa, at the entrance to the Panama Canal. After transiting the canal, Rhode Island steamed north, to Mare Island Navy Yard, where she remained through 1920. On 30 June, she was decommissioned and placed in reserve. According to the terms of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, Rhode Island was sold for scrap on 1 November 1923 and broken up. The ship's bell is preserved on display at the Rhode Island State House.


The Virginia class of pre-dreadnought battleships were built for the United States Navy in the early 1900s. The class comprised five ships: Virginia, Nebraska, Georgia, New Jersey, and Rhode Island. The ships carried a mixed-caliber offensive battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) and eight 8-inch (203 mm) guns; these were mounted in an uncommon arrangement, with four of the 8-inch guns placed atop the 12-inch turrets. The arrangement proved to be a failure, as the 8-inch guns could not be fired independently of the 12-inch guns without interfering with them. Additionally, by the time the Virginias entered service, the first "all-big-gun"battleships—including the British HMS Dreadnought—were nearing completion, which would render mixed battery ships like the Virginia class obsolescent.

Nevertheless, the ships had active careers. All five ships took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–1909. From 1909 onward, they served as the workhorses of the US Atlantic Fleet, conducting training exercises and showing the flag in Europe and Central America. As unrest broke out in several Central American countries in the 1910s, the ships became involved in police actions in the region. The most significant was the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution during the occupation of Veracruz in April 1914.

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During the American participation in World War I, the Virginia-class ships were used to train sailors for an expanding wartime fleet. In September 1918, they began to escort convoys to Europe, though Germany surrendered two months later, ending the conflict. After the war, they were used to bring American soldiers back from France and later as training ships. The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which mandated major reductions in naval weapons, cut the ships' careers short. Virginia and New Jersey were sunk in bombing tests in 1923, and the other three ships were broken up for scrap later that year.

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USS Virginia (BB-13) battleship, circa 1910-1913

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USS Nebraska painted with experimental camouflage c. 1918



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
17 May 2006 – The aircraft carrier USS Oriskany is sunk in the Gulf of Mexico as an artificial reef.


USS Oriskany (CV/CVA-34)
– nicknamed Mighty O, and occasionally referred to as the O-boat – was one of the few Essex-class aircraft carriers completed after World War II for the United States Navy. The ship was named for the Battle of Oriskany during the Revolutionary War.

The history of Oriskany differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Originally designed as a "long-hulled" Essex-class ship (considered by some authorities to be a separate class, the Ticonderoga class) her construction was suspended in 1946. She eventually was commissioned in 1950 after conversion to an updated design called SCB-27 ("27-Charlie"), which became the template for modernization of 14 other Essex-class ships. Oriskany was the final Essex-class ship completed.

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USS Oriskany (CVA-34) near Midway Atoll c. 1967

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Oriskany (foreground) and her sister Bonhomme Richard conducting operations in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1970

She operated primarily in the Pacific into the 1970s, earning two battle stars for service in the Korean War, and five for service in the Vietnam War. In 1966, one of the worst shipboard fires since World War II broke out on Oriskany when a magnesium flare was accidentally ignited; forty-four men died in the fire.

Oriskany's post-service history also differs considerably from that of her sister ships. Decommissioned in 1976, she was sold for scrap in 1995, but was repossessed in 1997 because nothing was being done. In 2004, it was decided to sink her as an artificial reef off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. After much environmental review and remediation to remove toxic substances, she was carefully sunk in May 2006, settling in an upright position at a depth accessible to recreational divers. As of 2008, Oriskany is the largest vessel ever sunk to make a reef.




2004 – artificial reef

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Oriskany arrives at Pensacola in December 2004. The original intention was for the ship to be sunk in the summer of 2005, but an EPA assessment meant that more work was required to make her environmentally safe for disposal.

The Navy announced on 5 April 2004 that it would transfer the former aircraft carrier to the State of Florida for use as an artificial reef. In September 2003 the Navy awarded a contract to Resolve Marine Group/ESCO Marine Joint Venture for the environmental remediation work necessary for sinking the ship as an artificial reef. The contractor towed the ship to Corpus Christi, Texas in January 2004 and completed the environmental preparation work in December 2004.

Oriskany was the first United States warship slated to become an artificial reef, under authority granted by the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act (Public Law 108-136). Oriskany was towed to Pensacola in December 2004 and was originally scheduled to be sunk with controlled charges 24 mi (39 km) south of Pensacola by June 2005. Exhaustive ecological and human health studies were conducted by Navy scientists in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to demonstrate no adverse impact from reefing the ship. Failure to gain EPA approval caused a delay, so Oriskany was then towed back to Texas in June to ride out the 2005 hurricane season. Completion and peer review of a complex Prospective Risk Assessment Model developed in consultation with EPA, the first for any ship reefing project, was necessary to support EPA's February 2006 decision to issue a risk-based PCB disposal approval for the estimated 750 lb (340 kg) of polychlorinated biphenyls contained in solid form, mostly integral in the insulation layers of the electrical cabling throughout the ship.

Based on the EPA's approval, after a public comment period, the ship was towed to Pensacola in March 2006 for final preparations for sinking. A team of Navy personnel accomplished the sinking of the ship on 17 May 2006, supported by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Escambia County Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Pensacola Police Department, and several sheriff departments of Escambia County and surrounding counties. A Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team from Panama City, FL detonated C-4 explosive charges of approximately 500 lb (230 kg), strategically placed on 22 sea connection pipes in various machinery spaces. The ship sank stern first 37 minutes after detonation in 210 ft (64 m) of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

As was intended, the ship came to rest lying upright. The flight deck was at a depth of 135 ft (41 m), and its island rose to 70 ft (21 m). Following Hurricane Gustav in 2008, the ship shifted 10 feet deeper leaving the flight deck at 145 feet (44 m).[15] The island structure is accessible to recreational divers, but the flight deck requires additional training and equipment. It is now popularly known as the "Great Carrier Reef", a reference to Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The Times of London named the Oriskany wreck as one of the top ten wreck diving sites in the world. The New York Times Web video Diving the U.S.S. Oriskany explored the Oriskany wreck two years after its sinking.

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Oriskany leaves port for the last time, bound for the Gulf of Mexico to become an artificial reef.

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Detonations aboard Oriskany

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 17 May


1641 - May 17 and 18 - Spanish defeat French near Pensacola

1667 - Action of 1667-05-17


Two of the Dutch ships, the Faisant and Harderinne, had fought on May 17th 1667 a brisk action with the English ship Princess 52, near Marstrand on the Swedish coast; both sides had suffered considerable losses both in men and gear, and they had parted by mutual consent after about three hours' fighting. Dawes, captain of the Princess, and Van Dprt, captain of the Faisant, were among those killed.



1684 - Bombardment of Gènes begins (17th May 1684 - 28th May 1684)

Duquesne with 13 ships , 10 Bomb Vessels , 20 galleys , 2 fireships , 20 flutes and 26 tartanes
After the 28 may , Tourville stay with a squadron of 5 ships and 4 galleys to blockade the port



1704 - May 17 - Small-ship action between Sweden and Russia on Lake Peipus


1783 – Launch of Charon, Roebuck-class ship 44-gun sailing two-decker of the Royal Navy.




1800 - HMS Railleur (20), Cptn. J. Raynor, and HMS Lady Jane (8), William Bryer, foundered in the English Channel.

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=6056


1806 - Launch of HMS Magpie, a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe of Newcastle built

HMS Magpie
was a Royal Navy Cuckoo-class schooner that William Rowe of Newcastle built and launched on 17 May 1806. Like all her class, she was armed with four 12-pounder carronades and had a crew of 20. She had been in British service for less than a year when she grounded on the coast of France, which led to her capture. She then served in the French navy until 1828, including a few years as a prison ship.

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



1809 HMS Goldfinch (10) engaged Mouche.

On May 17th 1809, the Goldfinch, 10, Commander Fitzowen George Skinner, gave chase to the French corvette Mouche, 16, in lat. 44 6 ! N., long. 11 20' W. The Mouche, though greatly superior in force, attempted to avoid an action. She was overtaken on the 18th, but, firing high, inflicted so much injury upon the Goldfinch's masts and sails that she was able to escape. On the 21st, she exchanged some broadsides with the hired armed lugger Black Joke, Lieutenant Moses Cannadey, and entered the Spanish port of Santander, where she was captured on June 10th by the British frigates Amelia, 38, and Statira, 38.

HMS Goldfinch (1808) was a 6-gun brig launched in 1808 and disposed of in 1838.



1813 Boats of HMS Apollo (38), Cptn. Bridges W. Taylor, and HMS Cerberus (32), Cptn. Thomas Garth, took a vessel near Brindisi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Apollo_(1805)


1817 – Launch of HMS Tess was a Conway-class 28-gun sixth rate post ship,

HMS Tess
was a Conway-class 28-gun sixth rate post ship, launched in 1817. She was sold in 1872.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines and longitudinal half breadth proposed and approved, for Fowey / Towey (1814), Mersey (1814), Conway (1814), Eden (1814), Tyne (1814), Tanmar (1814), Tees (1817), Menai (1814), Wye (1814), Dee (1814), all 26/28-gun Sloops to be built by contract in private yards. Note alterations to back stay, main channel, fore channel and hawse pipes for Tamar in 1817. Annotation at top: "Chatham Officers were directed to fit the fore backstay stool further aft and Mizzien backstay stool 3ft further aft, on board the Tamar, and to fit her with Trysail Mast Pr Warrant dated 26 February 17."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Tees_(1817)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway-class_post_ship


1823 – Launch of French Marie Therese, (launched 17 May 1823 at Toulon) – renamed Calypso 9 August 1830; deleted 23 April 1856.

Marie Thérèse class (58-gun type, 1820 design by Gustave-Benoît Garnier, comprising 30 x 24-pounder and 2 x 18-pounder guns, and 26 x 36-pounder carronades):
Marie Therese, (launched 17 May 1823 at Toulon) – renamed Calypso 9 August 1830; deleted 23 April 1856.
Syrène, (launched 25 July 1823 at Toulon) – deleted 20 July 1861.


1942 - USS Tautog (SS 199) sinks Japanese submarine I-28; USS Triton (SS 201) sinks the Japanese submarine (I 64), and USS Skipjack (SS 184) sinks a Japanese army transport ship.


1943 - Destroyers USS Moffett (DD 362) and USS Jouett (DD 396) sink German submarine U 128, which was credited with sinking 12 Allied merchant vessels, including 4 American ships.


1944 - USS Gleaves (DD 423), USS Hilary P. Jones (DD 427), USS Hambleton (DD 455), USS Rodman (DD 456), USS Emmons (DD 457), USS Macomb (DD 458) and USS Nields (DD 616) and RAF Wellington (No.36 Squadron) sink German submarine U 616 off the coast of Algeria.


1987 - USS Stark (FFG-31) is struck by two Iraqi Exocet Missiles in the Persian Gulf, killing 37 Sailors and wounding 21.


USS Stark (FFG-31)
, 23rd ship of the Oliver Hazard Perry class of guided-missile frigates, was named for Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark (1880–1972). Ordered from Todd Pacific Shipyards in Seattle, Washington, on 23 January 1978, Stark was laid down on 24 August 1979, launched on 30 May 1980, and commissioned on 23 October 1982 with CDR Terence W. Costello commanding. In 1987, an Iraqi jet fired two missiles at Stark, killing 37 U.S. sailors on board. Decommissioned on 7 May 1999, Stark was scrapped in 2006.

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Stark listing following two hits by Exocet missiles.

 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1757 - HMS Unicorn captured french privateer Invincible


the British 28 gun frigate HMS Unicorn, Captain John Rawlings, cruizing off the coast of Ireland, gave chase to the French privateer Invincible, of 24 guns and 286 men. An action ensued, in the early part of which Captain Rawlings was mortally wounded in the head, and the command of the ship devolved on Lieutenant Michael Clements, who conducted the fight with great skill, and compelled the privateer to surrender. The Unicorn sustained a loss, besides her captain, of the boatswain and two men killed and five men wounded. The Invincible lost a great many men, killed and wounded, before she struck. Having obtained information from some of the prisoners respecting another privateer, which had been cruizing in company with the Invincible, Lieutenant Clements, after seeing his prize into Kinsale, went in pursuit of the other, and had the good fortune to fall in with and capture her. She proved to be a privateer, of 18 guns and 143 men, belonging to Bourdeaux.

Lieutenant Clements was, for his gallantry, deservedly promoted.


HMS Unicorn was a 28-gun Lyme-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was originally ordered as a 24-gun ship to the draft of the French privateer Tyger. The third vessel of the Royal Navy to bear the name, Unicorn, as well as HMS Lyme which was a near-sister, were the first true frigates built for the Royal Navy. They were actually completed with 28 guns including the four smaller weapons on the quarterdeck, but the latter were not included in the ship's official establishment until 22 September 1756. The two ships differed in detail, Unicorn having a beakhead bow, a unicorn figurehead , two-light quarter galleries and only five pairs of quarterdeck gunports, while Lyme had a round bow, a lion figurehead, three-light quarter galleries and six pairs of quarterdeck gunports.

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Unicorn was first commissioned in March 1749 under Captain Molyneaux Shuldham, under whose command she spent her first commission in the Mediterranean until returning home to pay off at Deptford in June 1752. After repairs, she was recommissioned in January 1753 under Captain Matthew Buckle, and sailed for the Mediterranean again in April 1753. In February 1756 command passed to Captain James Galbraith; in September Captain John Rawling replaced Galbraith.

Unicorn captured the French frigate Vestale on 8 January 1761. Vestale, under the command of M. Boisbertelot, had been part of a squadron of five ships that had left the Vilaine river for Brest under the cover of a heavy fog. When Unicorn encountered Vestale off the Penmarks a two-hour engagement ensued until Vestale struck. Hunt received a wound at the third broadside and died of his injuries an hour after the action ended. The British had five killed and ten wounded, the majority of them dangerously. The French had many killed and wounded, among them Captain Boisbertelot, who lost a leg and died of his wounds the next day. Lieutenant John Symons, who took command of Unicorn on Hunt's death, described Vestal as having twenty-six 12 and 9-pounder guns on her lower deck, and four 6-pounders on her quarterdeck; she also had a crew of 220 men. The Royal Navy took Vestale into service as HMS Flora.

The next day a French frigate approached Unicorn, but then sailed away. The day after that Unicorn came upon Seahorse engaging the same French frigate. Although Unicorn chased the French vessel, which later turned out to be L'Aigrette, she escaped. Unicorn was hampered in her sailing by the damage to her masts and rigging from the battle with Vestale.

Fate
After active and continuous service during the Seven Years' War, Unicorn finally paid off in late 1763, and was broken up in 1771.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for Coventry (1757), Lizard (1757),Liverpool (1757), Maidstone (1758), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757), Levant (1757), Coberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Hussar (1757), all 28-gun, Sixth Rate Frigates, based on the plan for Lowestoft (1756) and Tartar (1756, which were the same as Unicorn (1748) and Lyme (1748). Maidstone (1758), Cerberus (1757), Griffin (1757), Acteon (1757), Shannon (1757),Bureas (1757) and Trent (1757) had the House holes moved to the upper deck. There are construction amendments for the first built Frigates. Annoted in the top right: " Body, same as the Lestaff and Tartar, except one havng a Beakhead and the other a round bow, withou the least alteration below the surface of the water - and the Tartar and Leostaff are exactly the same Body as the Unicorn and Lime. "

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of the sixth-rate sloop 'Guadeloupe' (1763), 28 guns, built in the Georgian style. The model is decked and equipped. The unfinished appearance of the head and stern suggests that the model was built for design purposes but the measurements are correct for the frigate ‘Guadeloupe’ of 1763. The deck layout is typical of the early frigates. The raised forecastle shows the position of the foremast with bitts either side and the galley funnel and belfry at the break of the forecastle. Below, in the waist, are the riding bitts, the hatchways and by the mainmast position, the gallows bitts, freshwater and bilge pumps. The quarterdeck carries the main capstan and steering wheel. The mizzenmast was situated just abaft the wheel. Built at Plymouth Royal Dockyard, the ‘Guadeloupe’ measured 118 feet along the lower deck by 34 feet in the beam, displacing 586 tons burden. It was armed with twenty-four 9-pounders on the upper deck and four 3-pounders on the quarterdeck. The ‘Guadeloupe’ was one of the smallest class of 18th-century frigates. The first of the ‘true’ frigates of this class were actually the ‘Tartar’ and ‘Lowestoft’, built in 1756, but the ‘Unicorn’ and ‘Lyme’ of 1748 had been almost similar in design. The ‘Guadeloupe’ was sunk by American batteries near Yorktown in 1781. Frigates were fifth or sixth rate ships and thus not expected to lie in the line of battle. With the advantage of superior sailing qualities over the larger ships of the line, they were used with the fleet for such tasks as lookout or, in battle, as repeating ships to fly the admiral’s signals. They also cruised independently in search of privateers



 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1759 - HMS Thames (32) and HMS Venus (32) took french Arethuse (36), Marquis Vandrenil, near Audierne Bay


Aréthuse was a French frigate, launched in 1757 during the Seven Years' War. She was captured by the Royal Navy in 1759 and became the fifth-rate HMS Arethusa. She remained in Royal Navy service for twenty years until she was wrecked after being badly damaged in battle.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail, longitudinal half breadth for Arethusa (1759), a captured French Frigate, prior to fitting as a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate at Plymouth. There are pencil amendments to the after part of the lower deck and platform - see zaz3154 for the plan detail. Signed Thomas Buchnall (Master Ship Wright Plymouth Dockyard, 1755 to 1762). Annotation in top left: "Cabbins on the Quater Deck taken away and made under the Quater Deck , it being much complained of." NMM, Progress Book, volume 2, folio 271, states that 'Arethusa' was docked at Plymouth Dockyard on 20 June 1759 and undocked on 25 June 1759 having been surveyed. She was docked again on the same day for one day, and sailed on 8 October 1759 having been fitted. 'Arethusa' was susequently reftted at Plymouth Dockyard intermittently between May-June 1760, and August 1761 and January 1763

French service
The ship was constructed at Le Havre for privateer warfare as Pélerine. Soon after her launch, she was purchased by the King and commissioned as Aréthuse on 21 January 1758.

In June, under captain Vauquelin, she sailed through the British blockade of Louisbourg. She helped defend the site before departing, again forcing the blockade.

On 18 May 1759, she was in transit from Rochefort to Brest, under the command of the Marquis Vandrenil, when she was intercepted near Audierne Bay (Baie d'Audierne (in French)) by three Royal Navy ships – Thames, Venus and Chatham. She attempted to escape but after two hours, she lost her top-masts and was overtaken by her pursuers. Thames and Venus engaged her with heavy fire, causing 60 casualties before she surrendered.

Royal Navy service
She entered service with the Royal Navy. For the rest of the war, she was in service in British home waters and was responsible for the capture of several French, privateer cutters.

In 1777, a Scotsman James Aitken, widely known as John the Painter, was hanged from her mizzenmast for burning the Rope House at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard on 7 December 1776, to aid the cause of American independence. The mast was struck from the ship and re-erected at the dockyard entrance so as many people as possible could watch the execution. This was the only execution for arson in royal dockyards.

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The battle between HMS Arethusa and the Belle-Poule, painting by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy

Main article: Action of 17 June 1778
On 17 June 1778, she fought a famous duel against the French, 36-gun frigate, Belle Poule. Belle Poule was on a reconnaissance mission, along with the 26-gun Licorne, the corvette Hirondelle and the smaller Coureur when she encountered a large British squadron that included Arethusa at a point 23 miles (37 km) south of The Lizard. Admiral Keppel, commanding the British fleet ordered that the French ships be pursued.

The captain of Belle Poule refused the order to sail back to the British fleet. The British fired a warning shot across his ship's bow, to which he responded with a full broadside. This began a furious, two-hour battle between the two ships that resulted in the deaths of the French second captain and 30 of the crew. However, Arethusa was crippled by the loss of a mast and withdrew, allowing Belle Poule to escape.

This battle was the first between British and French naval forces during the American Revolutionary War and took place around three weeks before the formal declaration of war by France.

The battle was widely celebrated in France as a victory, even inspiring a hair-style in court circles that included a model of Belle Poule. It was also viewed as a victory in Britain and became the subject of a traditional Sea shanty, The Saucy Arethusa (Roud # 12675). Arethusa is also the subject of a song on the Decemberists' album Her Majesty the Decemberists.

On 18 March 1779, under captain Charles Holmes Everitt, Arethusa engaged the French Aigrette, sustaining considerable damage in the fight. Arethusa was wrecked the next day off Ushant, at a point 48°27′4″N 5°4′4″W.[6]

It was apparently the fame of this Arethusa which induced the Royal Navy, during the following two centuries, to bestow the name on a further seven consecutive individual ships (see HMS Arethusa) and two consecutive classes of cruisers (see Arethusa-class cruiser).

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Bow view sketch, with figurehead, of the French frigate Arethusa, with details of the stern, and inscription, 'The side much the same as the Flora' (on reverse of page 26 which has manuscript annotations) (PAE9586)



HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service (as Tamise) after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.

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Scale: 1:48. A contemporary full hull model of a ‘Richmond’-class 32-gun frigate (circa 1757), built in the Georgian style. The model is decked. Taken from the model, the vessel measured 129 feet along the gun deck by 34 feet in the beam, displacing 660 tons burden. It was armed with twenty-six 12-pounders on the upper deck, four 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and two 6-pounders on the forecastle. This type of vessel, an early ‘true frigate’, is similar to SLR0496. Although not identified with a particular ship, the dimensions represented are very close to those of the ‘Tweed’ (1759), but that ship probably had a round bow. A noticeable feature is the new style of figurehead. The familiar lion, which had been the standard form of bow decoration for smaller warships since about 1600, began to disappear after about 1750. It was commonly replaced by a human figure in classical dress. Frigates were fifth- or sixth-rate ships and so not expected to lie in the line of battle. With the advantage of superior sailing qualities over the larger ships of the line, they were used with the fleet for such tasks as lookout or, in battle, as repeating ships to fly the admiral’s signals. They also cruised independently in search of privateers


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

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Lines & Profile (ZAZ2625) of HMS Brilliant (1757) - sistership

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Action between HMS Venus (left) and French frigate La Sémillante, 27 May 1793.




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Thames_(1758)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1775 - Col. Benedict Arnold captures a British sloop at St. Johns in Quebec, Canada and renames her USS Enterprise, the first of many famous ships with that name.


USS
Enterprise
was a Continental Navy sloop-of-war that served in Lake Champlain during the American Revolutionary War. She was the first of a long and prestigious line of United States Navy ships to bear the name Enterprise.

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Service history
Built in St. Johns, Quebec
Enterprise was originally a British topsail schooner (classified as a "sloop-of-war" by the Royal Navy, not to be confused with an actual sloop, which has only a single mast) named George, built at St. Johns (now Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu) in Quebec, Canada.

Raid on St. Johns
In May 1775, a small American force under Colonel Benedict Arnold sailed up the Richelieu River on the recently captured Liberty. At 07:00 on 18 May, Arnold and 35 raiders captured the fort and shipyards at St. Johns, along with the newly launched George, with no loss of life. The unlaunched schooner Royal Savage was also at the shipyard, and would be captured by the Americans later that year. Two hours later Arnold's raiders left with the newly captured sloop, which was later armed with 12 guns and renamed Enterprise.

Siege of St. Johns
Main article: Siege of Fort St. Jean
Enterprise was, at first, the most significant warship in the Lake Champlain squadron — which was charged with maintaining American control of the lake early in the war — and at times she acted as flagshipfor Colonel Arnold. Control of Lake Champlain and the adjoining Hudson River would have enabled the British to cut off vital supply routes between New England and the other colonies, and it would have allowed British troops to cross and attack Albany.

On 28 August 1775, Enterprise and other vessels embarked with more than 1,000 troops as part of an expedition against St. Johns, Montreal, and Quebec. Though St. Johns and Montreal were captured, and Quebec was besieged, the arrival of strong British reinforcements forced the Americans to withdraw from Canada in the spring of 1776. Enterprise and the other craft sailed to Île aux Noix in the Richelieu River, where they waited while Arnold directed the building of a fleet at Fort Ticonderoga and Skenesboro (now Whitehall).

Battle of Valcour Island
Main article: Battle of Valcour Island
The battle was finally joined in the Battle of Valcour Island on 11 October 1776 at Valcour Island, near Plattsburg, New York, a site of Arnold's choosing. Markedly inferior in firepower, much of Arnold's fleet was sunk or damaged by nightfall. However, he managed to slip the remaining ships, including Enterprise, past the British fleet that night towards Fort Crown Point. A running battle took place over the next two days, and resulted in the loss of all but five of the American ships. Enterprise and four others escaped to Crown Point, then sailed on to Ticonderoga.

Aftermath of the Battle of Valcour Island
Although a tactical defeat, the battle was a strategic victory for the Americans. Arnold and his little fleet had disrupted the British invasion into New York such that it couldn't be mounted before the onset of winter. It was nearly a year before the advance could be renewed. In that interval American troops were recruited and trained, and on 17 October 1777, under General Horatio Gates, defeated the British decisively at Saratoga, New York. This victory was a primary factor in bringing about the alliance with France, and bringing the powerful French navy to the aid of the Colonies.

Siege of Fort Ticonderoga
Main article: Siege of Fort Ticonderoga (1777)
During the British advance prior to the Battle of Saratoga, Enterprise was one of five vessels assigned to duty convoying bateaux in the evacuation of Ticonderoga. The small American force was no match for the British fleet on Lake Champlain, and after two ships had been captured, Enterprise and the other two were run aground on 7 July 1777, and burned to prevent their capture.




 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1776 - Launch of HMS Culloden, a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard, England,


HMS Culloden was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard, England, and launched on 18 May 1776. She was the fourth warship to be named after the Battle of Culloden, which took place in Scotland in 1746 and saw the defeat of the Jacobite rising.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board decoration and name on the counter, sheer lines with inboard detail and stern quarter decoration and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Culloden' (1776), a 74-gun, Third Rate, two-decker as built at Deptford Dockyard


She served with the Channel Fleet during the American War of Independence, seeing action at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, before being sent out to the West Indies. Her stay there was brief, sailing for New York City with Admiral Rodney in August 1780 to join the North American station. The ship's specific duties were to blockade the French at Newport, Rhode Island where a French army of 6,000 had disembarked in July 1780.

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Diorama of Culloden wreck at the Marine Museum

On 23 January 1781, while trying to intercept French ships attempting to run the blockade at Newport, Rhode Island, Culloden encountered severe weather and ran aground at North Neck Point (Will's Point) in Montauk. All attempts to refloat the vessel were unsuccessful, but all the crew were saved, and Culloden's masts were taken aboard HMS Bedford. The area is today known as Culloden Point.


Salvage operations
The British conducted salvage operations on the ship throughout March, retrieving all 28 eighteen-pounder guns from the upper deck, and all 18 nine-pounders from the quarterdeck. The larger cannons were pushed into the sea and the ship was then burned to the waterline and abandoned.

On 24 July 1781, Joseph Woodbridge of Groton, Connecticut sent a letter to George Washington offering to sell him sixteen 32-pounders from the wreck, and on 14 July 1815, Samuel Jeffers arrived in Newport, Rhode Islandwith 12 tons of pig iron and a 32-pounder from the wreck.

In 1971 Henry W. Moeller, an undersea archaeologist associated with Dowling College, discovered the keel and large wooden beams resting in between 10 ft (3.0 m) and 15 ft (4.6 m) of water 150 ft (46 m) off Culloden Point. A gudgeon imprinted with the name Culloden was recovered. Subsequent recovery efforts brought up another 32-pounder cannon as well as copper sheathing. A sketch of the outline of the ruins showed the ship resting on a large boulder.[citation needed]

National Register of Historic Places
Since 1979 the wreck site has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, which prohibits SCUBA divers from taking artifacts from, or otherwise disturbing the wreck.[6] The designated area is a 'circle with a radius of approximately 200 feet (61 m) and a centre at the point formed by UTM co-ordinates 19/2 51 370/45 50 810.[5]

The application notes that in addition to Revolutionary War connections, the shipwreck is important for showing the British state-of-the-art copper sheathing of the ship as well as the possibility that it may reveal problems about corruption in the British shipyards at the time. The application notes:

Finally, the Culloden shipwreck site may provide material insight into the political conditions existent in the British Admiralty during this period. James [1926:7-18) has written describing the strength and organization of the Royal Navy at the end of the Seven Years' War (1755–1762) and its subsequent dissipation between 1771 and 1778 through mismanagement and corruption under Lord Sandwich's control of the Admiralty. Construction of the Culloden occurred during the period that Admiralty corruption was at its height. Therefore, the Culloden may reflect in material terms corrupt practices plaguing England's shipyards at the time. Construction shortcuts and the manufacturing of parts that do not meet specifications have long characterized the defense industry of all nations. The Culloden shipwreck site may provide data illustrating this activity.


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

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Ships
Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Ordered: 30 November 1769
Launched: 18 May 1776
Fate: Wrecked, 1781
Builder: Wells, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 23 August 1781
Launched: 13 November 1783
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Perry, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 9 August 1781
Launched: 19 April 1784
Fate: Wrecked, 1804
Builder: Wells, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 13 December 1781
Launched: 28 March 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1836
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 28 December 1781
Launched: 27 April 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1803
Builder: Randall, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 19 June 1782
Launched: 12 July 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1850
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 19 June 1782
Launched: 15 April 1786
Fate: Captured, 1801
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard
Ordered: 11 July 1780
Launched: 25 September 1786
Fate: Broken up, 1814

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



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Culloden_(1776)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1787 – Launch of French Gracieuse, a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate of the French Navy.


Gracieuse was a 32-gun Charmante-class frigate of the French Navy. Renamed to Unité in 1793, she took part in the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796 off Île d'Yeu and brought her into British service as HMS Unite. She was sold in 1802

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French service
Gracieuse was re-commissioned in Rochefort in April 1793 under captaine de vaisseau Chevillard. She transported troops between the Basque Roadsand Sables-d'Olonne, and then returned to Rochefort. She transferred to the naval division on the coasts of the Vendée. There she escorted convoys between Brest and Bordeaux. Gracieuse took part in the War in the Vendée, capturing the British privateer Ellis on 11 July.

In September 1793 Gracieuse was renamed Unité. She was to be named Variante in April 1796, but the Royal Navy captured her before the name change took effect.

On 14 May 1794, Unité captured the ship-sloop HMS Alert after a short fight that left Alert with three men killed and nine wounded before Alert struck. The French Navy took Alert into service as Alerte.

Unité then undertook a crossing from Port Louis to Rochefort under commander Durand. On 13 April 1796 Indefatigable, under the command of Captain Sir Edward Pellew was in pursuit of a French frigate. Pellew signaled to his squadron mate HMS Révolutionnaire to sail to cut the frigate off from the shore. Revolutionnaire then captured Unite after having fired two broadsides into her. Unite had nine men killed and 11 wounded; Revolutionnaire had no casualties. The Royal Navy took the frigate into service as HMS Unite.

Unite_(1796)_RMG_J6091.jpg
Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with sternboard decoration and name in a cartouche or stern counter, sheer lines with inboard figurehead detail and longitudinal half breadth for for Unite (1796) a captured French Frigate fitted at Plymouth Dockyard prior to fitting as a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed J. Marshall. (Master Shipwright)


British service
She was then captained by Ralph Willett Miller and Sir Charles Rowley.

On 9 October 1797 Unite captured the French Navy brig Decouverte, of 14 guns and 91 men. She was three days out of Nantes, on her way to Guadaloupe with secret dispatches that she managed to throw overboard before the British took possession of her. During the chase her crew threw 10 of her guns overboard in an attempt to lighten her. Decouverte arrived at Plymouth on 15 October.

On 4 March 1799 Unite and the sloop Gaiete left Portsmouth as escorts to a convoy for the West Indies.

Fate
Unite was paid off at Sheerness in April 1802. She was sold there in May 1802.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the Inboard profile plan for Unite (1796) a captured French Frigate fitted at Plymouth Dockyard for a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed J. Marshall. (Master Shipwright)

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the quater deck and forecastle, upper deck, lower deck, fore and aft platforms for for Unite (1796) a captured French Frigate fitted at Plymouth Dockyard prior to fitting as a 32-gun, Fifth Rate Frigate. Signed J. Marshall. (Master Shipwright)



Charmante class, (32-gun design by Jean-Denis Chevillard, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).

Charmante, (launched 30 August 1777 at Rochefort) – wrecked 1780.
Junon, (launched March 1778 at Rochefort) – wrecked 1780.
Gracieuse, (launched 19 May 1787 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1796.
Inconstante, (launched 8 September 1790 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1793.
Hélène, (launched 18 May 1791 at Rochefort) – captured by Spanish Navy 1793


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_frigate_Gracieuse_(1787)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1800 – Launch of Foudroyant ("Lightning"), a Tonnant class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy


The Foudroyant ("Lightning") was a Tonnant class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

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sistership
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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


She was started in Rochefort from 1793, and renamed to Dix-huit fructidor in 1798 in honour of the Coup of 18 fructidor an V, as she was still on keel. She was eventually launched as Foudroyant.

She took part in cruises in the Caribbean under Villaret de Joyeuse.

On 15 September 1806, while under jury rig some 15 miles off Havana, she encountered HMS Anson, under Captain Charles Lydiard. Anson, mistakenly believing Foudroyant distressed, attacked, and was driven off.

She took part in the Battle of the Basque Roads.

She was eventually broken up in 1834.


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Sans Pareil was built at Brest as a Tonnant-class ship of the line,

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline for Canopus (1798), a captured French Third Rate, as taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 25 January 1839. Note that at one time this was attached to ZAZ0600

The Tonnant class was a series of eight 80-gun ships of the line designed in 1787 by Jacques-Noël Sané. From 1802 a new group (the Bucentaureclass) was begun of slightly modified design, of which more than 24 were begun.

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Ships:
Builder: Toulon
Begun: December 1787
Launched: 24 October 1789
Completed September 1790
Fate: Captured 2 August 1798, added to Royal Navy as HMS Tonnant, broken up 1821
Builder: Brest
Begun: September 1788
Launched: 20 December 1790
Completed: February 1791
Fate: Ran aground after the Battle of Trafalgar October 1805
Builder: Brest
Begun: October 1790
Launched: 8 June 1793
Completed: September 1793
Fate: Captured 1 June 1794 by the Royal Navy, broken up October 1842
Builder: ToulonBegun: August 1794Launched: 17 March 1795Completed: October 1795Fate: Captured 3 November 1805 during Battle of Cape Ortegal, renamed HMS Brave, broken up April 1816
Builder: Toulon
Begun: September 1794
Launched: 21 October 1795
Completed: July 1796
Fate: Captured 30 March 1800, renamed HMS Malta, broken up August 1840
Builder: Toulon
Begun: November 1794
Launched: 25 June 1797
Completed: March 1798
Fate: Captured 2 August 1798 in the battle of the Nile, renamed HMS Canopus, broken up October 1887
Builder: Brest
Begun: May 1793
Launched: 8 July 1799
Completed: October 1799
Fate: Renamed Alexandre 1802, captured by Britain 1805, broken up May 1822
Builder: Rochefort
Ordered: December 1793
Launched: 18 May 1799
Completed: August 1800
Fate: Broken up 1834

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The Canopus is shown surrounded by smaller vessels. Signed by artist.; Stored in portfolio with PAF5103-PAF5119 entitled Shipping, coast scenes and Antiquities of Sussex and dated 1876, the date of the collection

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the midship section, and midship profile illustrating the knees, beams and spaces between the frames for Sans Pareil (captured 1794), a captured French 80-gun ship, as later altered to a sheer hulk at Plymouth in 1810. The plan was taken off at Plymouth Dockyard per Admiralty Order dated 26 September 1842 prior to being broken up. Signed by Thomas F. Hawkes [Master Shipwright, Plymouth Dockyard 1837-1843] and W. Spiller [Not in Navy List, possibly Assistant to Master Shipwright?]

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No scale. Plan showing a part section of the upper deck for Armada (1810), a 74-gun Third Rate, two-decker; and a part section of the deck (for both upper and lower) for Canopus (1798), a captured French Third Rate, now fitted as a 80-gun Third Rate, two-decker. Both sections are illustrating the fitting of scuppers. NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 85 states that 'Armada' (1810) arrived at Plymouth Dockyard on 13 September 1814 and sailed on 14 November 1814. NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 53 states that 'Canopus' (1798) arrived at Plymouth Dockyard on 23 March 1814 and sailed on 14 March 1816 having had "large repairs"



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Foudroyant_(1800)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonnant-class_ship_of_the_line
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1803 – Britain declared war against France - and -
HMS Doris captures the French lugger Affronteur on the first day of the war, off Ushant.



The French lugger Affronteur was launched in 1795 and in 1796-7 participated in the Expédition d'Irlande. In 1803, HMS Doris captured her and she subsequently served the Royal Navy either as a commissioned vessel or, more probably, as His Majesty's hired armed brig Caroline. In 1807 she was either broken up, or became a letter of marque.

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Design and French service
Affronteur was the name ship of her two-vessel class. Boadicea captured her sister ship Vautour in November 1803. The vessels were probably built to a design by Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait.

In 1796 she was under the command of Enseigne de vaisseau non entretenu Catelain. Between December 1796 and January 1797 she participated in the Expédition d'Irlande, Republican France's attempt to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republicangroup, in their planned rebellion against British rule. Weather and events conspired to render the expedition ineffectual; most of the French vessels returned to France, having accomplished nothing. Between 23 September 1800 and 14 November 1801 Affronteur was at Brest, being refitted.

Capture
On 18 May 1803, Doris, under the command of Captain Richard Harrison Pearson, captured the lugger Affronteur, off Ushant. Affronteur was armed with fourteen 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 92 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau M. Morce André Dutoya. Affronteur resisted capture in an engagement during which Doris suffered one man wounded, while Affronteur lost Dutoya and eight other men killed, and 14 men wounded, one of whom died shortly thereafter.

Affronteur had sailed to demand of Doris why she was in the area. The capture took place on the very day that Britain declared war, and before the news had reached France. The French complained that the British had struck, in effect, before declaring war. Histories also consider Lieutenant Dutoya the first casualty of the Napoleonic Wars, at least as they involved England.

Service as Caroline

Affronteur became Caroline. This is something all authors agree on. All British authors also agree that she was of about 158 tons burthen (bm). There is, however, ambiguity in the accounts about whether Caroline was a lugger or a brig, and whether she was a vessel belonging to the Royal Navy or a hired vessel serving the Royal Navy under contract.

Norie agrees with Winfield that Affronteur became the hired lugger Caroline, which served the Royal Navy from 14 September 1804 to 26 October 1807. She was armed with twelve 12-pounder carronadesand had a burthen of 156 tons (bm). Confusingly, Colledge, Roche, and also Winfield report that Affronteur became HMS Caroline, which Colledge and Winfield describe as a brig of 14 guns. However, the National Maritime Museum lists Caroline as a hired brig.

A newspaper account in September 1804 reports from Plymouth that "... the Caroline, a beautiful lugger of 16 guns, late Affronteur, is now fitting as a hired armed lugger, to be taken into service." Winfield and the National Maritime Museum both report that Caroline was commissioned for the Irish Sea under Lieutenant J(ohn) Derby. From that point on, all mentions of Caroline refer to her as a brig, and generally a hired brig.

The Naval Chronicle reported on 22 November 1804 that

"That beautiful Vessel the Caroline Brig, of 16 guns, and 60 men, is taken into the service, and it is supposed, when fitted for sea, will carry out dispatches for the West Indies, as she is so fast a sailer; she was the first French National Corvette taken in this war by the Doris".
This suggests that Caroline was converted from a lugger to a brig between September and November. The Naval Chronicle reported that on 16 December 1804, "Caroline, hired armed brig of 14 guns, Lieutenant Derby, sailed from Plymouth with a convoy." On 5 January 1805, "Caroline brig of 14 Guns, Lieutenant Derby" had arrived safely at Plymouth after having experienced "very terrible gales of Wind, but owing to her being so clever, tight, and well-found a vessel, she did not strain a spun-yarn. ... She is a beautiful, fast-sailing Vessel of her class." Three days later, Caroline was back in Plymouth from Milford Haven, having convoyed a very large, leaky South Sea whaler to Dartmouth. On 19 January Caroline sailed again.

Two days later, "His Majesty's hired armed brig Caroline, Lieutenant John Derby, Commander", captured Magdalena and Alida.[Note 4] Then five months later, on 27 May, Derby and "His Majesty's Armed Brig Caroline" captured the Prussian smack Fortuna and her cargo.

On 9 March 1806, Caroline captured Zwey Freunden. Lloyd's List credited the capture of Twee Vriends, Flercken, master, to the privateer Happy Return and the armed ship Caroline. They sent their captive into Dartmouth.

A week or so later, the armed ship Caroline sent into Plymouth Harmony, Poole, master, which had been sailing from Lisbon to Amsterdam. Then in late April, the armed brig Caroline and the privateer British Tar sent into Plymouth Catherine and Elanor, of Bremen, which had been sailing from Nantes to Altoona. However, Catherine and Elanor was liberated and left Plymouth on 30 June for her original destination. At the end of November, Caroline sent into Plymouth the Danish vessel Elkin, Cornelius, master, which had been sailing from Havana to Tonningen.

Fate
British Admiralty records have Caroline being broken up in 1807.

However, she may have become a privateer instead. On 24 November 1807, one month after the hired armed brig Caroline went off contract, the brig Caroline, of 155 tons, two 6-pounder guns and twelve 12-pounder carronades received a letter of marque. This brig had a crew of 60 under the command of Charles Campion Jones. On 16 April 1808, the Spanish privateer Prince of Austurias captured the privateer Caroline, of Plymouth, and sailing from Madeira. In the engagement Prince of Asturias killed Caroline's captain, lieutenant, and several crew members


The Affronteur class consisted of two 16-gun luggers that Michel Colin-Olivier laid down at Dieppe in August 1794 and that he launched in 1795 for the French Navy. The designer was probably Pierre-Alexandre-Laurent Forfait.

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HMS Doris was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.

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Service
She entered service in November 1795, operating as part of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. Her first captain was the Hon. Charles Jones, who in 1797 became Lord Ranelagh.

In June 1796, Doris and Apollo captured the French corvette Légère, of twenty-two 9-pounder guns and 168 men. Légère had left Brest on 4 June in company with three frigates. During her cruise she had captured six prizes. However, on 23 June she encountered the two British frigates at 48°30′N 8°28′W. After a 10-hour chase the British frigates finally caught up with her; a few shots were exchanged and then Légère struck. The Navy took into her service as HMS Legere.

In January 1797 Doris shared with Druid and Unicorn in the capture of the French privateer Eclair. Unicorn was the actual captor. Eclair was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 120 men.

On 15 July, Doris took the privateer Duguay Trouin. Duguay Trouin had been armed with twenty 6-pounders and two 12-pounders but had thrown them overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 127 men and was out four days from Nantes, but had not taken any prizes. On her previous cruise she had taken the Sandwich Packet of Falmouth. Galatea shared in the capture.

On 19 July 1797, Doris and Galatea recaptured the Portuguese ship Nostra Senora de Patrocinio e Santa Anna. At some point they also recaptured the Portuguese ship Nostra Senora de Conceiçao e Navigantes.

In 1798 Doris was engaged in the hunt for Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart's French squadron that culminated in the Battle of Tory Island, although Doris was not present during the action. In 1800 and 1801, Doris under the command of John Holliday participated in the capture of six French merchant brigs and prizes.

On 21 July 1801, the boats of Doris, Beaulieu, Uranie and Robust succeeded in boarding and cutting out the French naval corvette Chevrette, which was armed with 20 guns and had 350 men on board (crew plus troops placed on board in expectation of the attack). Also, Chevrette had anchored under the batteries of Cameret Bay. The hired armed cutter Telemachus placed herself in the Goulet de Brestand thereby prevented the French from bringing reinforcements by boat to Chevrette.

The action was a sanguinary one. The British had 11 men killed, 57 wounded, and one missing. Also killed was Lieutenant Burke (who was a relative of Walter Burke- purser of HMS Victory), who was wounded in the fight, and died after boarding the French ship. Chevrette lost 92 officers and men, including her first captain, and 62 seamen and troops were wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "21 JULY BOAT SERVICE 1801" to surviving claimants from the action.

In 1803 following the Peace of Amiens, Doris took two more French privateers. On 18 May Doris, under the command of Captain Richard Harrison Pearson, captured the French naval lugger Affronteur, off Ushant. Affronteur was armed with fourteen 9-pounder guns and had a crew of 92 men under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau M. Morce André Dutoya. Capturing Affronteur required an engagement during which Doris suffered one man wounded, while Affronteur lost Dutoya and eight men killed, and 14 men wounded, one of whom died shortly thereafter. Affronteur became the hired armed vessel Caroline.

Fate
In 1805, while under the command of Captain Patrick Campbell, Doris was lost on a rock off Quiberon Bay. She had arrived there on 11 January to bring news of a French squadron that was preparing to set sail, but when she arrived the British fleet was no longer in the bay. On the morning of the 12th, as Doris set sail, the weather worsened. Campbell returned to the bay to take shelter, at which time Dorishit the Diamond Rock in Benequet Passage. She took on water but the crew was able to get her nearly clear of water, in part by stretching a sail over the hole in her side and then pumping the accumulated water out. However, that afternoon the schooner Felix arrived with news that the Rochefort Squadron had sailed. Campbell felt it imperative that he get the news to the blockading squadron. As he set sail, it now being 15 January, the holes in the hull opened and despite her crew's efforts to save her she began to sink rapidly. Campbell anchored her eight miles north-east of Le Croisic and evacuated the crew to Felix and a passing American merchant schooner. He then set the ship on fire to prevent her use by the enemy. He later took passage to Britain aboard HMS Tonnant. The subsequent court martial reprimanded the pilot, Jean Le Gall, for his lack of skill







https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Doris_(1795)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1808 - HMS Rapid (12) ,Lt. Henry Baugh, sunk by batteries in the River Tagus while attempting to cut out two merchantmen.


HMS Rapid
was an Archer-class (1804 batch) gun-brig of 12 guns, launched in 1804. She took part in 1808 in one action that in 1847 the Admiralty recognized with a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. One month later cannon fire from a shore battery sank her.

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Career
Lieutenant Thomas Gwillim commissioned Rapid in November 1804. During the blockade of Brest, on 30 May 1805 Rapid was near the Penmarks where Gwillim observed several small vessels anchored under the protection of a battery. Gwillim sent in a boat that was able to cut out the chasse maree Paix Désirée, which was carrying a cargo of salt. The other French vessels moved closer to the battery, which kept firing at Rapid's boat.

Lieutenant Henry Baugh replaced Gwillim on 2 January 1806. In May Rapid sent into Plymouth the Prussian vessel Edward, Drawse, master, which had been sailing from St Andero. On 26 October Pilchard was in sight of Rapid as she captured the brig Conductor.

In late February or early March 1807, the Spanish schooner St Domingo, carrying fish, arrived at Falmouth. She was a prize to Rapid. In mid-December Rapid sent the Spanish vessel San Pedro Pascual into Plymouth. San Pedro Pascual was carrying a cargo of salt.

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

Loss
On 18 May Rapid was cruising off Cape St. Vincent in company with Primrose. They saw and chased two merchant feluccas that took shelter under the protection of a shore battery. Fhe British decided to try to cut the feluccas out nonetheless, with Rapid leading the way. Unfortunately, fire from the battery struck Rapid, opening two holes in her bow so that she filled quickly with water. Still, that evening Primrose was able to save Rapid's entire crew. The subsequent court martial praised Bough for his zeal and gallantry.


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Sale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Hardy (1804), a 12-gun Brig. This plan may actually relate to any of the Archer Class Gunbrigs as the plan is unassigned

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile, upper deck, and lower deck for the 58 ships of the Archer class (1800), 12-gun Gunbrigs built by contract. Reverse is annotated with a list of the builders and the ships names


Archer class (1801 batch)
As in 1797, the two Surveyors were asked to produce alternative designs for the next batch of gun-brigs, which were lengthened by 5 feet from the previous classes. Ten vessels were ordered at the close of 1800 to Sir William Rule's design. One, Charger, received an 8" brass mortar in 1809.

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Archer class (1804 batch)
Most of the early gun-brigs were sold or broken up during the short-lived Peace of Amiens. Consequently, in the first half of 1804, the Admiralty ordered a further batch of forty-seven gun-brigs to the 1800 William Rule design - 25 on 9 January, seven on 22 March and 15 during June - with an additional one ordered from Halifax Dockard, Nova Scotia on 1 October. Many reused the names of gun-brigs that had been disposed of or lost before 1804.

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1809 - HMS Standard (74), Cptn. Askew Hollis, and HMS Owen Glendower (36) captured the island of Anholt.


The Gunboat War (Danish: Kanonbådskrigen, Norwegian: Kanonbåtkrigen; 1807–1814) was the naval conflict between Denmark–Norway and the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The war's name is derived from the Danish tactic of employing small gunboats against the conventional Royal Navy. In Scandinavia it is seen as the later stage of the English Wars, whose commencement is accounted as the First Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

The British 64-gun third rate HMS Standard, under Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis, and the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate HMS Owen Glendower captured the island of Anholt on 18 May 1809. A party of seamen and marines under the command of Captain William Selby of Owen Glendower, with the assistance of Captain Edward Nicolls of the Standard's marines, landed. The Danish garrison of 170 men put up a sharp, but ineffectual resistance that killed one British marine and wounded two before the garrison then surrendered and the British took immediate possession of the island. The principal objective of the mission was to restore the lighthouse on Anholt to its pre-war state to facilitate the movement of British men of war and merchantmen navigating the dangerous seas there.


HMS Standard was a 64-gun Royal Navy third-rate ship of the line, launched on 8 October 1782 at Deptford. She was the last of the 15 Intrepid class vessels, which were built to a design by John Williams.

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Early career
She was commissioned in September 1782 under Captain William Dickson, and recommissioned in March 1783 as a guardship at Plymouth. She was recommissioned in September 1786 under Charles Chamberlyane, still as a guardship, and paid off in February 1788.

In April 1795 she was recommissioned under Captain Joseph Ellison, for Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron for the Quiberon operation. Standard sailed for the East Indies on 28 February 1796, temporarily under the command of Captain Lukin. By October she was in the North Sea. In February 1797 she was under Captain Thomas Parr, and then in September under Captain Thomas Shivers.

From mid-April to mid-May, Standard was one of the many vessels caught up in the Nore Mutiny. On 5 May the crew had taken over the ship and trained cannon on officer’s country over the issue of pay in arrears. After the mutiny collapsed, one of the leaders on Standard, William Wallis, shot himself to avoid trial and hanging. William Redfern, her surgeon's mate, was sentenced to death for his role in the mutiny, later commuted to transportation for life to the colony of New South Wales.

She was recommissioned in February 1799 as a prison ship at Sheerness under lieutenant Thomas Pamp. In November she was fitted as a convalescent ship at Chatham. One month later she was recommissioned under Lieutenant Jacques Dalby as a hospital ship at Sheerness.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board detail, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Standard' (1782), a 64-gun Third Rate, two-decker, as built at Deptford Dockyard. Signed by Adam Hayes [Master Shipwright, Deptford Dockyard, 1755-1785 (died)]

Mediterranean
Between March and May 1801 Standard was re-fitted at Chatham as a 64-gun ship, being commissioned in April under Captain Charles Stewart, for the North Sea. She was paid off, repaired, fitted at various times, and recommissioned in August 1805, Standard was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Harvey. She then sailed to the Mediterranean to join Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Louis's squadron.

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Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles

While in the Mediterranean she served during Vice Admiral Sir John Duckworth's unsuccessful 1807 Dardanelles Operation. On 19 February, Standard suffered three wounded while forcing the Dardanelles. Near a redoubt on Point Pesquies the British encountered a Turkish squadron of one ship of 64 guns, four frigates and eight other vessels, most of which they ran aground. Marines from Pompee spiked the 31 guns on the redoubt. Standard and Thunderer destroyed three Turkish frigates that had run ashore. On 27 February Standard had two men wounded assisting a Royal Marine landing party on the island of Prota.

On the way out, the Turkish castle at Abydos fired on the British squadron. Granite cannonballs weighing 7-800 pounds and measuring 6'6" in circumference hit Windsor Castle, Standard and Active. The shot itself killed four men on Standard. It also started a fire and explosion that led four seamen to jump overboard, where they drowned. In all, Standard lost four dead, 47 wounded, and four missing (believed drowned). In all, the British lost 29 killed and 138 wounded. No ship was lost.

On 26 March 1808, she and the 38-gun frigate Active captured the Franco-Italian brig Friedland, which they took to Malta as a prize. Captain Richard Mowbray of Active took possession of Friedland after a chase of several hours. The brig might have escaped had she not lost her topmast. She was one year old and was armed with 16 French 12-pounder guns. Active took her prize to Malta, together with the prisoners, who included Commodore Don Amilcar Paolucci, commander in chief of the Italian Marine, and Knight of the Iron Crown.

On 16 June, Standard was sailing off Corfu when she encountered the Italian gunboat Volpe, which was armed with one iron 4-pounder, and the French dispatch boat Legera. When the wind fell, Harvey sent his pinnace, his cutter and his yawl in pursuit. The British caught up with their quarry after having rowed for two hours. They captured Volpe despite facing stiff resistance and ran Legera aground about four miles north of Cape St. Mary. The French crew took to the rocks above their vessel and kept up a continuous small arms fire on the British seamen who took possession of the vessel and towed her off. They then burned both vessels. Despite the resistance and small arms fire the British had suffered no casualties.

Last years
In 1809 she was in the Baltic under Captain Aiskew Hollis as part of the Gunboat War. On 18 May a squadron consisting of Standard, the frigate Owen Glendower, and the vessels Avenger, Ranger, Rose, and Snipe captured the island of Anholt. A landing party of seamen and marines under the command of Captain William Selby of Owen Glendower, with the assistance of Captain Edward Nicolls of the Standard's marines, landed. The Danish garrison of 170 men put up a sharp but ineffectual resistance that killed one British marine and wounded two; the garrison then surrendered. The British took immediate possession of the island.

Hollis, in his report, stated that Anholt was important in that it could furnish supplies of water to His Majesty's fleet, and afford a good anchorage to merchant vessels sailing to and from the Baltic. However, the principal objective of the mission was to restore the lighthouse on the island to its pre-war state to facilitate the movement of British men of war and merchantmen navigating the dangerous seas there.

On 19 December 1810 Standard sailed for the Mediterranean again. In February 1811 she was on the Portugal station, temporarily under Captain Joshua Horton. In May she was under the temporary command of Captain Charles Fleming.

Fate
She was paid off into ordinary in 1813. Standard was broken up in 1816.


HMS Owen Glendower (or Owen Glendour) was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate Apollo class frigate launched in 1808 and disposed of in 1884. In between she was instrumental in the seizure of the Danish island of Anholt, captured prizes in the Channel during the Napoleonic Wars, sailed to the East Indies and South America, participated in the suppression of the slave trade, and served as a prison hulk in Gibraltar before she was sold in 1884.

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She was named for "Owen Glendower", Shakespeare’s Anglicization of the Welsh Owain Glyndŵr (c.1359-c.1416), the last Welsh Prince of Wales, and a leader of the Welsh against the English. She was the only Royal Navy vessel to bear that name.

Active duty
Captain William Selby, late of Cerberus, took command of Owen Glendower in January 1809.

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HMS Owen Glendower, c. 1820s, from the collection of the Royal Naval Museum.

The Gunboat War
Main article: Gunboat War
Early in May 1809, Vice-admiral Sir James Saumarez, the British commander-in-chief in the Baltic, sent a squadron, consisting of the 64-gun third rateStandard, Owen Glendower, three sloops (Avenger, Ranger and Rose), and the gun-brig Snipe. The commander of the squadron was Captain Aiskew Paffard Hollis, captain of Standard. Their objective was to capture the Danish island of Anholt. Anholt was small and essentially barren; its significance rested in the lighthouse that stood on its easternmost point. The Danes had extinguished it at the outbreak of hostilities between Britain and Denmark; the point of capturing the island was to restore the lighthouse to its function to assist British men-of-war and merchantmen in the Kattegat.

The task force landed a party of seamen and marines, under the command of Selby, assisted by Captain Edward Nicolls of the Standard's Royal Marines. The Danes put up a short, sharp resistance that killed one British marine and wounded two. Still, on 18 May the Danish garrison of 170 men surrendered, giving the British immediate possession of the island.

........ read about her further career in wikipedia ......

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Scale: 1:24. A contemporary plank-on-frame full hull model. It is finished with original painted surfaces and supported in a launching cradle together with keel blocks within a slipway base


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Standard_(1782)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1886 – Launch of Chesma (Russian: Чесма, sometimes transliterated as Tchesma), the second ship of the Ekaterina II-class battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s.


Chesma (Russian: Чесма, sometimes transliterated as Tchesma) was the second ship of the Ekaterina II-class battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s. When the ship was completed she proved to be very overweight which meant that much of her waterline armor belt was submerged. Russian companies could not produce the most advanced armour and machinery desired by the Naval General Staff, so they were imported from the United Kingdom and Belgium. Chesma spent her career as part of the Black Sea Fleet.

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When the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in June 1905,[a] the ship's crew was considered unreliable and she did not participate in the pursuit of the Potemkin. Chesma did, however, escort Potemkin as Sinop towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța, Romania, where Potemkin had sought asylum. Chesma was turned over to the Sevastopol port authorities before being stricken on 14 August 1907. Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full-scale armour trials. She was re-designated as Stricken Vessel Nr. 4 on 22 April 1912 before being used as a gunnery target. Afterwards the ship served as a torpedo target for the destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet. During these attacks Chesma settled to the bottom of the Bay of Tendra and was eventually scrapped during the mid-1920s.

Design and description
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Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1896

Chesma was 331 feet 8.5 inches (101.1 m) long at the waterline and 339 feet 3 inches (103.4 m) long overall. She had a beam of 68 feet 11 inches (21.0 m) and a draft of 28 feet 10 inches (8.8 m) more than 28 inches (710 mm) than designed. She displaced 11,396 long tons (11,579 t) at load, over 1,200 long tons (1,200 t) more than her designed displacement of 10,181 long tons (10,344 t).

Chesma had two 3-cylinder vertical compound steam engines imported from the Belgian Cockerill company. Fourteen cylindrical boilers, also imported from Cockerill, provided steam to the engines. The engines had a total designed output of 9,000 indicated horsepower (6,700 kW), but they produced 9,059 ihp (6,755 kW) on trials and gave a top speed of almost 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). At full load she carried 900 long tons (910 t) of coal that provided her a range of 2,800 nautical miles (5,200 km; 3,200 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph) and 1,367 nautical miles (2,532 km; 1,573 mi) at 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph).

She differed from her sister ships mainly in her main armament. She had six 12 in (305 mm) Model 1886 35-caliber guns mounted in twin barbettemounts, two forward, side by side, and one aft. Each of the forward mounts could traverse 30° across the bow and 35° abaft the beam, or a total of 155°. The rear mount could traverse 202°. They had a range of elevation from −2° to +15°. Chesma's guns were mounted on unbalanced turntables and they caused her to list when the guns were trained to one side. Traversing all the guns as far as they could go to one side produced a list of 7.6° and made it very difficult for the turntable machinery to rotate the guns back to the fore-and-aft position. This problem had been anticipated and water tanks had been added to counteract the list, but they proved to be virtually useless because they took up to two hours to fill. The problem was partially cured in 1892 when the equipment was rearranged on the turntable to improve their balance, but more thorough solutions to the problem were either deemed too expensive or inadequate. Their rate of fire was reportedly one round every fifteen to seventeen minutes, including training time. Sixty rounds per gun were carried. The main guns were mounted very low, (only 4 feet 6 inches (1.37 m)) above the main deck, and caused extensive damage to the deck when fired over the bow or stern. They fired a 'light' shell that weighed 731.3 lb (331.7 kg) or a 'heavy' shell that weighed 1,003 lb (455 kg). The 'light' shell had a muzzle velocity of 2,090 ft/s (640 m/s) while the 'heavy' shell could only be propelled at a velocity of 2,000 ft/s (610 m/s). The 'light' shell had a maximum range of 11,600 yards (10,600 m) when fired at an elevation of 15°.

The seven 6-inch (152 mm) 35-caliber guns were mounted on broadside pivot mounts in hull embrasures, except for one gun mounted in the stern in the hull. The eight 47-millimeter (1.9 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns were mounted in small embrasures in the hull to defend the ship against torpedo boats. Four 37-millimeter (1.5 in) five-barreled revolving Hotchkiss guns were mounted in the fighting top. She carried seven above-water 14-inch (356 mm) torpedo tubes, one tube forward on each side, able to bear on forward targets, two other tubes were mounted on each broadside forward and aft of the central citadel; the seventh tube was in the stern.

History
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Chesma serving as a target ship

Chesma was named after the Russian victory at the Battle of Chesma in 1770. She was built by the Russian Steam Navigation Company (RoPIT) at Sevastopol. She was laid down in late June 1883, launched on 18 May 1886, and completed on 29 May 1889.[6] She served with the Black Sea Fleet until 1907. She was inactive in 1895, probably for mechanical problems. Chesma conducted trials in 1902 with towing spherical observation balloons and she was re-boilered the following year.Plans were made for a radical reconstruction to be done while her boilers were being replaced. The rebuilding involved cutting her down by one deck and replacing her armament with two twin-gun turrets equipped with 12-inch 40-caliber guns and ten 6-inch 45-caliber guns between the turrets in an armoured citadel that used Krupp armor. This proved to be too expensive and it was cancelled, but not before the armor and turrets had been ordered. Her turrets were used to equip the pre-dreadnought Ioann Zlatoust, then under construction.

When the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in June 1905, Chesma's crew was considered unreliable, and she did not participate in the pursuit of Potemkin. She escorted Potemkin as Sinop towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța, Romania, where Potemkin had sought asylum.

The ship was turned over to the Sevastopol port authorities before being stricken on 14 August 1907. Before she was fully dismantled the Naval Ministry decided to use her hull for full-scale armour trials. She was re-designated as Stricken Vessel Nr. 4 on 22 April 1912. Chesma was fitted with a replica of the armour system used in the Gangut-class battleships to test its effectiveness.[7] She was towed into position and given a 7° list to simulate the descent angle of shells fired at long range. Ironically her own guns were used against her as Ioann Zlatoust anchored 750 meters (2,460 ft) away and fired 12-inch, 8-inch (203 mm) and 6-inch shells with reduced charges to simulate shells fired from approximately 16,000–18,000 yards (15,000–16,000 m) away. These revealed significant weaknesses in the support structure for the armour plates and in the deck protection, but the Gangut-class ships were too far along in construction to incorporate fixes. Afterwards she served as a torpedo target for the destroyers of the Black Sea Fleet. During these attacks she settled to the bottom of the Bay of Tendra and was eventually scrapped during the mid-1920s.


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Chesma, showing both forward barbettes

The Ekaterina II class were a class of four battleships built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the 1880s. They were the first battleships built for the Black Sea Fleet. Their design was highly unusual in having the main guns on three barbettes grouped in a triangle around a central armored redoubt, two side-by-side forward and one on the centerline aft. This was intended to maximize their firepower forward, both when operating in the narrow waters of the Bosphorus and when ramming. Construction was slow because they were the largest warships built until then in the Black Sea and the shipyards had to be upgraded to handle them.

All four ships were in Sevastopol when the crew of the battleship Potemkin mutinied in June 1905. Ekaterina II's crew was considered unreliable and she was disabled to prevent her from joining the mutiny. Chesma's crew was also considered unreliable, but she did escort Potemkin as Sinop towed her back to Sevastopol from Constanța, Romania, where Potemkin's crew had sought asylum. Sinop and Georgii Pobedonosets both pursued Potemkin to Odessa, but the crew of the latter mutinied themselves in sympathy with the crew of the Potemkin. However loyal members of the crew regained control of the ship the next day and grounded her.

A number of proposals were made in the 1900s to reconstruct them and replace their obsolete armor and guns, but none of these were carried out. Ekaterina II and Chesma were both eventually sunk as target ships after being decommissioned in 1907, but both Sinop and Georgii Pobedonosets were converted into artillery training ships before becoming guardships at Sevastopol before World War I. There they spent most of the war and were captured by the Germans in 1918, who eventually turned them over to the British who sabotaged their engines when they abandoned the Crimea in 1919. Immobile they were captured by both the Whites and the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. Sinop was abandoned when Wrangel's fleet sailed for Bizerte, but Georgii Pobedonosets was towed there. Sinop was scrapped beginning in 1922 by the Soviets while Georgii Pobedonosets was eventually scrapped in Bizerte beginning in 1930 by the French.

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Ekaterina II in 1902


 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1897 – Launch of Takasago (高砂), a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by the Armstrong Whitworth shipyards in Elswick, in the United Kingdom.


Takasago (高砂) was a protected cruiser of the Imperial Japanese Navy, designed and built by the Armstrong Whitworth shipyards in Elswick, in the United Kingdom. The name Takasago derives from a location in Hyōgo Prefecture, near Kobe.

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Background
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As depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1902

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8-inch main armament

Takasago was an improved design of the Argentine Navy cruiser Veinticinco de Mayo designed by Sir Philip Watts, who was also responsible for the design of the cruiser Izumi and the Naniwa-class cruisers. The Chilean Navy cruiser Chacabuco was the sister ship to Takasago; the Japanese cruiser Yoshino was sometimes also regarded as a sister ship to Takasago, due to the similarity in their design, armament and speed, although the two vessels were of different classes.

Takasago was laid down in April 1896, as Elswick hull number 660, as a private venture by Armstrong Whitworth, and was sold the Japan in July 1896. Launch occurred on 18 May 1897 and she was completed on 6 April 1898.

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Design
Takasago was a typical Elswick cruiser design, with a steel hull, divided into 109 waterproof compartments, a low forecastle, two smokestacks, and two masts. She made use of Harvey armor, which was intended to be able to protect against the impact of even an 8-inch armor-piercing shell. The prow was reinforced for ramming. The power plant was a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine with four cylindrical boilers, driving two screws. In this aspect, the design was almost identical to that of Yoshino, however in terms of armament, Takasago was more heavily armed.

The main armament of Takasago were two separate 20.3 cm/45 Type 41 naval guns behind gun shields, which were placed on bow and stern. Secondary armament consisted of ten Elswick QF 6 inch /40 naval gun quick-firing guns mounted in casemates and in sponsons near the bridge. Takasago was also equipped with twelve QF 12-pounder 12 cwt naval guns, six QF 3-pounder Hotchkiss guns and five 457 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes.

Service record
The first overseas deployment of Takasago was in 1900, to support Japanese naval landing forces which occupied the port city of Tianjin in northern China during the Boxer Rebellion, as part of the Japanese contribution to the Eight-Nation Alliance.

On 7 April 1902, Takasago and Asama were sent on a 24,718 nautical miles (45,778 km; 28,445 mi) voyage to the United Kingdom, as part of the official Japanese delegation to the coronation ceremonies of King Edward VII, and in celebration of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. After participating in a naval review held at Spithead on 16 August 1902 (originally scheduled from 24–27 June), Takasago and Asama visited numerous European and Asian ports (Singapore, Colombo, Suez, Malta, Lisbon on the way, Antwerp and Cork during their stay, and Gibraltar, Naples, Aden, Colombo, Singapore, Bangkokand Hong Kong on the way back). The ships returned safely to Japan on 28 November 1902.

Russo-Japanese War
With the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, Takasago participated in the bombardment of the Port Arthur naval base on the morning following the pre-emptive strike by Japanese destroyers against the Russian fleet in the opening stages of the naval Battle of Port Arthur, serving as flagship for Admiral Dewa Shigeto. The Japanese attack set fire to a portion of the town, and damaged a number of ships in the harbor, especially the cruisers Novik, Diana and Askold, and the battleship Petropavlovsk. While participating in the subsequent blockade of the Russian fleet within the confines of the harbor, Takasago captured the Russian Far East Shipping Company merchant ship Manchuria, which was accepted into Japanese service as a prize of war and renamed Kantō Maru.

On 10 March 1904, Takasago participated in an attack on the Russian cruiser Bayan. On 15 May, she participated in the rescue of survivors from the battleships Yashima and Hatsuse, which had struck naval mines. Takasago was also in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August.

She returned to Japan for overhaul in October 1904. On returning to station on the night of 13 December 1904 after a reconnaissance mission during which it provided cover for a squadron of destroyers, Takasago struck a naval mine 37 nautical miles (69 km; 43 mi) south of Port Arthur, which triggered a massive explosion in her ammunition magazine. The flooding could not be controlled, and her life boats could not be launched at night under blizzard conditions and heavy seas. Takasago sank in position 38°10′N 121°15′ECoordinates:
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38°10′N 121°15′E, with the loss of 273 officers and crew. Some 162 survivors were rescued by the accompanying cruiser Otowa. Takasago was the last major Japanese warship lost in the Russo-Japanese War. Future Russian Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak, then a minesweeper captain at Port Arthur with the Russian Pacific Squadron, was credited with having placed the mine, and was awarded the prestigious Order of St Anna and Sword of St George for the action.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_cruiser_Takasago
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1898 – Launch of USS Alabama (BB-8), an Illinois-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy.


USS Alabama (BB-8)
was an Illinois-class pre-dreadnought battleship built for the United States Navy. She was the second ship of her class, and the second to carry her name. Her keel was laid in December 1896 at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard, and she was launched in May 1898. She was commissioned into the fleet in October 1900. The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13-inch (330 mm) guns and she had a top speed of 16 knots(30 km/h; 18 mph).

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Alabama off New York City in 1912

Alabama spent the first seven years of her career in the North Atlantic Fleet conducting peacetime training. In 1904, she made a visit to Europe and toured the Mediterranean. She took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet until damage to her machinery forced her to leave the cruise in San Francisco. She instead completed a shorter circumnavigation in company with the battleship Maine. The ship received an extensive modernization from 1909 to 1912, after which she was used as a training ship in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet. She continued in this role during World War I. After the war, Alabama was stricken from the naval register and allocated to bombing tests that were conducted in September 1921. She was sunk in the tests by US Army Air Service bombers and later sold for scrap in March 1924.

Description
Main article: Illinois-class battleship
Alabama was 374 feet (114 m) long overall and had a beam of 72 ft 3 in (22.02 m) and a draft of 23 ft 6 in (7.16 m). She displaced 11,565 long tons (11,751 t) as designed and up to 12,250 long tons (12,450 t) at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW) and eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers, generating a top speed of 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph). As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were replaced by cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 536 officers and enlisted men, which increased to 690–713.

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 13 in (330 mm)/35 caliber guns[a] in two twin-gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of fourteen 6 in (152 mm)/40 caliber Mark IV guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried sixteen 6-pounder guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull and six 1-pounder guns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, Alabama carried four 18 in (457 mm) torpedo tubes in deck mounted launchers.

Alabama's main armored belt was 16.5 in (419 mm) thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and 4 in (102 mm) elsewhere. The main battery gun turrets had 14-inch (356 mm) thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had 15 in (381 mm) of armor plating on their exposed sides. Armor that was 6 in thick protected the secondary battery. The conning tower had 10 in (254 mm) thick sides.


Service history
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Alabama in 1904.

Alabama was laid down at the William Cramp & Sons shipyard in Philadelphia on 2 December 1896 and was launched on 18 May 1898. She was commissioned on 16 October 1900, the first member of her class to enter service. The ship's first commander was Captain Willard H. Brownson. Alabama was assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron, though she remained at Philadelphia until 13 December, when she made a visit to New York, where she remained through January 1901. On the 27th, Alabama steamed south for the Gulf of Mexico, where she joined the rest of the North Atlantic Squadron for training exercises off Pensacola, Florida. For the next six years, she followed a pattern of fleet training in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean during the winter, followed by repairs and then operations off the east coast of the United States from the middle of the year onward. The only interruption came in 1904, when she, the battleships Kearsarge, Maine, and Iowa, and the protected cruisers Olympia, Baltimore, and Cleveland made a visit to southern Europe. During the trip, they stopped in Lisbon, Portugal, before touring the Mediterranean until mid-August. They then recrossed the Atlantic, stopping in the Azores while en route, and arrived in Newport, Rhode Island on 29 August. Toward the end of September, Alabama went into dry dock at the League Island Navy Yard for repairs, which were completed by early December. On 31 July 1906, the ship was involved in a collision with her sister Illinois.

Alabama's next significant action was the cruise of the Great White Fleet around the world, which started with a naval review for President Theodore Roosevelt in Hampton Roads. On 17 December, the fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads and cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice. The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco, where Alabama was detached from the rest of the fleet. The ship could not keep up with the fleet due to a cracked cylinder head, which necessitated repairs at the Mare Island Navy Yard. The battleship Maine also left the fleet, as her boilers had proved to be badly inefficient, requiring excessive amounts of coal.

On 8 June, Alabama and Maine began their crossing of the Pacific independently, via Honolulu, Hawaii, Guam, and Manila in the Philippines. They then cruised south to Singapore in August and crossed the Indian Ocean, stopping in Colombo, Ceylon, and Aden on the Arabian peninsula on the way. The ships then steamed through the Mediterranean, stopping only in Naples, Italy, before calling at Gibraltar and then proceeding across the Atlantic in early October. They stopped in the Azores before arriving off the east coast of the United States on 19 October; the two ships then parted company, with Alabama steaming to New York, while Maine went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Both ships arrived the following day. Following her arrival, Alabama was reduced to reserve status on 3 November. She remained in New York, and on 17 August 1909, she was decommissioned for a major overhaul that lasted until early 1912.

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Alabama in Philadelphia in 1919

Alabama returned to service on 17 April 1912 in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet, under Commander Charles F. Preston. The ships of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet—which included eight other battleships and three cruisers—were kept in service with reduced crews that could be fleshed out with naval militiamen and volunteers in the event of an emergency. There were enough officers and men in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet to fully man two or three ships, which allowed them to take them to sea in rotating groups to ensure that the ships were in good condition. On 25 July, Alabama was temporarily placed in full commission for service with the Atlantic Fleet during the summer training exercises, before returning to reserve status on 10 September. In mid-1913, the Navy began to use the Atlantic Reserve Fleet to train naval militia units. Alabama operated off the east coast of the United States and made two training cruises to Bermuda that summer to train men from the naval militias of several states. These operations ended on 2 September, and on 31 October she was again laid up.

The ship remained largely inactive in Philadelphia for the next three years. On 22 January 1917, she became a receiving ship for naval recruits. Alabama was transferred to the southern Chesapeake to begin training recruits in the middle of March. Shortly thereafter, on 6 April, the United States declared war on Germany. Two days later, Alabama became the flagship of the 1st Division, Atlantic Fleet, and for the rest of the war she continued her training mission of the east coast of the United States. During this period, she made one cruise to the Gulf of Mexico from late June to early July 1918. On 11 November, Germany signed the Armistice that ended the fighting in Europe; Alabama continued training naval recruits, though at a reduced level of intensity. She took part in fleet maneuvers in February and March 1919 in the West Indies before returning to Philadelphia in April for repairs. A summer training cruise for midshipmen from the US Naval Academy followed; Alabama departed Philadelphia on 28 May bound for Annapolis, where she arrived the next day. After taking on a contingent of 184 midshipmen, she steamed out of Annapolis on 9 June. The cruise went to the West Indies and passed through the Panama Canal and back. By mid-July, the ship was cruising off the coast of New England. She returned south in August for maneuvers, and at the end of the month she returned the midshipmen to Annapolis before docking in Philadelphia.

Bombing tests
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Alabama struck by a white phosphorus bomb

Alabama was decommissioned for the final time on 7 May 1920, having spent the previous nine months inactive at Philadelphia. The ship was transferred to the War Department for use as a target ship on 15 September 1921, and she was stricken from the naval register. She was allocated to bombing tests conducted by the US Army Air Service on 27 September 1921, under the supervision of General Billy Mitchell. In addition to Alabama, the old battleships New Jersey and Virginia were to be sunk in the tests. The first phase of the testing began on 23 September, and included tests with chemical bombs, including tear gas and white phosphorus, to demonstrate how such weapons could be used to disable command and control systems and kill exposed personnel. That night, another test with 300 lb (136 kg) demolition bombs took place, the purpose of which was to determine whether flares could sufficiently illuminate a target for precise bombing. The second phase took place the next morning, and it was a much larger operation. The 1st Provisional Air Brigade took part in the tests, which were to simulate a combat scenario. A group of eight Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5s, armed with 25 lb (11 kg) bombs attacked first; their bombs and machine gun fire were intended to simulate clearing the decks of anti-aircraft gunners in preparation for the heavy bombers. Four Martin NBS-1 bombers attacked next, with 300 lb (136 kg) bombs at an altitude of 1500 ft (457 m). Two of the bombs hit the deck toward the bow. Three more NBS-1s followed with 1100 lb (499 kg) armor-piercing bombs, though none of these hit.

On 25 September 1921, the last round of tests took place. Seven more NBS-1s attacked the ship; three carried 1,100 lb (499 kg) bombs, while the other four carried one 2,000 lb (910 kg) bomb each. One of the 2,000 lb (907 kg) bombs landed close to the ship on the port side; the mining effect caused considerable damage,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_(BB-8)#cite_note-11 and Alabama began listing to port. The bombers scored two more near-misses with the 2,000 lb (907 kg) bombs, followed by a direct hit and two near misses with the 1,100 lb (499 kg) bombs. The last bomb, a 2,000 lb (907 kg) weapon, struck the ship at her stern. The blast broke her anchor chains, and the battered ship began to drift toward the wrecks of San Marcos and Indiana, the latter having been sunk in bombing tests earlier that year. The ship remained afloat for another two days before finally sinking in shallow water on 27 September 1921. Mitchell attempted to use the sinking as evidence of the predominance of the bomber in his efforts to secure an independent air force, though the Navy pointed out that the ship was stationary, undefended, unmanned, and was not protected with the latest "all or nothing" armor scheme. The sunken wreck was sold for scrap on 19 March 1924

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Alabama_(BB-8)
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1901 – Launch of USS Ohio (BB-12), a Maine-class battleship pre-dreadnought battleship, was the third ship both of her class and of the United States Navy to be named for the 17th state.


USS Ohio (BB-12)
, a Maine-class battleship pre-dreadnought battleship, was the third ship both of her class and of the United States Navy to be named for the 17th state. She was laid down at the Union Iron Works shipyard in San Francisco in April 1899, was launched in May 1901, and was commissioned into the fleet in October 1904. She was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and could steam at a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph).

Ohio initially served in the Asiatic Fleet, from 1905 to 1907, when she returned to the United States. In December that year, she joined the Great White Fleet for its world cruise, which lasted until early 1909. She served with the Atlantic Fleet for the next four years conducting a peacetime training routine. In 1914, she was sent to Mexico to protect American interests in the country during the Mexican Revolution. She served as a training ship during America's involvement in World War I from 1917 to 1918. Thoroughly obsolete by that time, Ohio was decommissioned in July 1919, and was ultimately sold for scrap in March 1923 under the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.

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Description
Main article: Maine-class battleship
Ohio was 393 feet 11 inches (120.07 m) long overall and had a beam of 72 ft 3 in (22.02 m) and a draft of 24 ft 4 in (7.42 m). She displaced 12,723 long tons (12,927 t) as designed and up to 13,700 long tons (13,900 t) at full load. The ship was powered by two-shaft triple-expansion steam engines rated at 16,000 indicated horsepower (12,000 kW) and twelve coal-fired Thornycroft boilers, generating a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph). As built, she was fitted with heavy military masts, but these were quickly replaced by cage masts in 1909. She had a crew of 561 officers and enlisted men, which increased to 779–813.

The ship was armed with a main battery of four 12-inch/40 caliber[a] guns in two twin gun turrets on the centerline, one forward and aft. The secondary battery consisted of sixteen 6-inch (152 mm)/50 caliber Mark 6 guns, which were placed in casemates in the hull. For close-range defense against torpedo boats, she carried six 3-inch (76 mm)/50 caliber guns mounted in casemates along the side of the hull, eight 3-pounder guns, and six 1-pounderguns. As was standard for capital ships of the period, Ohio carried two 18 in (460 mm) torpedo tubes, submerged in her hull on the broadside.

Ohio's main armored belt was 11 in (279 mm) thick over the magazines and the machinery spaces and 8 in (203 mm) elsewhere. The main battery gun turrets had 12-inch (300 mm) thick faces, and the supporting barbettes had the same thickness of armor plating on their exposed sides. Armor that was 6 in thick protected the secondary battery. The conning tower had 10 in (250 mm) thick sides.

Service history
Ohio, the final member of the Maine class of pre-dreadnought battleships, was the second ship of the three to be laid down. She was built at the Union Iron Works in San Francisco, with her keel being laid on 22 April 1899. She was launched on 18 May 1901 and was commissioned on 4 October 1904. After she entered service, Ohio was assigned as the flagship of the Asiatic Fleet. She left San Francisco on 1 April, bound for Manila in the Philippines. After the new battleship arrived, the party of then-Secretary of War William Howard Taft came aboard for a tour of East Asia, including stops in Japan and China. Ohio returned to the United States in 1907 and was transferred to the Atlantic Fleet. She and the rest of the Atlantic Fleet battleships held a naval review for President Theodore Roosevelt in Hampton Roads, Virginia to mark the start of the cruise of the Great White Fleet on 16 December 1907. The following day, the fleet steamed out of Hampton Roads and cruised south to the Caribbean and then to South America, making stops in Port of Spain, Rio de Janeiro, Punta Arenas, and Valparaíso, among other cities. After arriving in Mexico in March 1908, the fleet spent three weeks conducting gunnery practice.

The fleet then resumed its voyage up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping in San Francisco and Seattle before crossing the Pacific to Australia, stopping in Hawaii on the way. Stops in the South Pacific included Melbourne, Sydney, and Auckland. After leaving Australia, the fleet turned north for the Philippines, stopping in Manila, before continuing on to Japan where a welcoming ceremony was held in Yokohama. Three weeks of exercises followed in Subic Bay in the Philippines in November. The ships passed Singapore on 6 December and entered the Indian Ocean; they coaled in Colombo before proceeding to the Suez Canal and coaling again at Port Said, Egypt. The fleet called in several Mediterranean ports before stopping in Gibraltar, where an international fleet of British, Russian, French, and Dutch warships greeted the Americans. The ships then crossed the Atlantic to return to Hampton Roads on 22 February 1909, having traveled 46,729 nautical miles (86,542 km; 53,775 mi). There, they conducted a naval review for Roosevelt.

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Ohio transiting the Panama Canalon 16 July 1915 during a midshipmen training cruise

Following the conclusion of the ceremonies, Ohio proceeded to New York, where she was based for the following four years. This time was spent conducting normal peacetime training with the fleet and assisting in the training of the New York Naval Militia. By 1914, the worsening conditions during the Mexican Civil War prompted the United States to begin intervening in the conflict. Ohio was sent to Mexican waters early that year to protect American interests in the country. In mid-1914, she returned to the east coast of the United States to conduct a training cruise for midshipmen from the US Naval Academy. After completing the cruise, Ohio was transferred to the Reserve Fleet based at Philadelphia. She returned to service only to conduct additional midshipmen cruises in the summers of 1915 and 1916.

The United States had initially remained neutral during World War I, but by early 1917, tensions between it and Germany rose as the latter's unrestricted submarine warfare campaign began to sink American merchants ships. On 6 April 1917, the United States declared war on Germany, and on the 24th, Ohio was recommissioned. She was based in Norfolk and tasked with training crews for the rapidly expanding wartime fleet. This service included gunnery training; on 1 June 1918, she was involved in a significant accident during gunnery practice with two other battleships, New Hampshire and Louisiana. Gunners aboard New Hampshire accidentally began firing at a pair of submarine chasers. Ohio issued a "cease fire" warning, though it was not immediately received aboard New Hampshire before one shell struck Louisiana. While the ships stopped to assess the damage, lookouts aboard Ohio reported an enemy submarine, prompting several salvos from the secondary batteries of Ohio and New Hampshire, though the submarine chasers found no evidence of a submarine upon investigating the scene.

Following the German surrender in November 1918, most of the battleships of the Atlantic Fleet were used as transports to ferry American soldiers back from France. Ohio and her sisters were not so employed, however, owing to their short range and small size, which would not permit sufficient additional accommodations. Instead, she was sent to Philadelphia on 28 November and remained inactive there until 7 January 1919, when she was placed back in reserve. On 17 July, the ship was reclassified as BB-12. Following the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, which mandated significant reductions in naval armaments, Ohio was stricken from the naval register on 31 May 1922 and sold for scrap on 24 March 1923.


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Maine in 1916

The three Maine-class battleshipsMaine, Missouri, and Ohio—were built at the turn of the 20th century for the United States Navy. Based on the preceding Illinois class, they incorporated several significant technological advances over the earlier ships. They were the first American battleships to incorporate Krupp cemented armor, which was stronger than Harvey armor, smokeless powder, which allowed for higher-velocity guns and water-tube boilers, which were more efficient and lighter. The Maines were armed with four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and sixteen 6-inch (152 mm) guns, and they could steam at a speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph), a significant increase over the Illinois class.

The three Maine-class battleships served in a variety of roles throughout their careers. Maine and Missouri remained in the Atlantic Fleet for their careers, though Ohio initially served with the Asiatic Fleet from 1904 to 1907. All three ships took part in the cruise of the Great White Fleet in 1907–1909, though Maine's excessive coal consumption forced her to proceed independently for most of the voyage. Missouri was used as a training ship for much of the rest of her career, and Ohio took part in the American intervention in the Mexican Revolution in 1914. All three ships were employed as training ships during World War I. After the war, all three ships were withdrawn from service between 1919 and 1920 before being sold for scrap in 1922 and 1923 and broken up.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Ohio_(BB-12)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1912 – Launch of Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō), a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II.


Kongō (金剛, "Indestructible Diamond", named for Mount Kongō) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. She was the first battlecruiser of the Kongō class, among the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Her designer was the British naval engineer George Thurston, and she was laid down in 1911 at Barrow-in-Furness in Britain by Vickers Shipbuilding Company. Kongō was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan. She was formally commissioned in 1913, and patrolled off the Chinese coast during World War I.

Kongō underwent two major reconstructions. Beginning in 1929, the Imperial Japanese Navy rebuilt her as a battleship, strengthening her armor and improving her speed and power capabilities. In 1935, her superstructure was completely rebuilt, her speed was increased, and she was equipped with launch catapults for floatplanes. Now fast enough to accompany Japan's growing carrier fleet, Kongō was reclassified as a fast battleship. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Kongō operated off the coast of mainland China before being redeployed to the Third Battleship Division in 1941. In 1942, she sailed as part of the Southern Force in preparation for the Battle of Singapore.

Kongō fought in a large number of major naval actions of the Pacific War during World War II. She covered the Japanese Army's amphibious landings in British Malaya (part of present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942, before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Throughout 1943, Kongō primarily remained at Truk Lagoon in the Caroline Islands, Kure Naval Base(near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga Roads, and deployed several times in response to American aircraft carrier air raidson Japanese island bases scattered across the Pacific. Kongō participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944 (22–23 October), engaging and sinking American vessels in the latter. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion while transiting the Formosa Strait on 21 November 1944. She was the only Japanese battleship sunk by submarine in the Second World War.

Design and construction
See also: Kongō-class battlecruiser
Kongō was the first of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Kongō-class battlecruisers, which were almost as large, costly and well-armed as battleships, but which traded off armored protection for higher speeds. These were designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston and were ordered in 1910 in the Japanese Emergency Naval Expansion Bill after the commissioning of HMS Invincible in 1908. These four battlecruisers of the Kongō class were designed to match the naval capabilities of the battlecruisers of the other major naval powers at the time, and they have been called the battlecruiser versions of the British (formerly Turkish) battleship HMS Erin. Their heavy armament of 14-inch naval guns and their armor protection (which took up about 23.3% of their approximately 30,000-ton displacements in 1913) were greatly superior to those of any other Japanese capital ship afloat at the time.

The keel of Kongō was laid down at Barrow-in-Furness by Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering on 17 January 1911. Under Japan's contract with Vickers, the first vessel of the class was constructed in the United Kingdom, with the remainder built in Japan. Kongō was launched on 18 May 1912, and then transferred to the dockyards of Portsmouth, England, where her fitting-out began in mid-1912. All parts used in her construction were manufactured in the U.K. Kongō was completed on 16 April 1913.

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Drawing of IJN battleship Kongo in her 1944 configuration.

Armament
Kongō's main battery consisted of eight 14-inch (36 cm) heavy-caliber main naval guns in four twin turrets (two forward and two aft). The turrets were noted by the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence to be "similar to the British 15-inch turrets", with improvements made in flash-tightness. Each of her main guns could fire high explosive or armor-piercing shells 38,770 yards (19.14 nmi; 35.45 km) at a firing rate of about two shells per minute. In keeping with the Japanese doctrine of deploying more powerful vessels before their opponents, Kongō and her sister ships were the first vessels in the world equipped with 14-inch (36 cm) guns. Her main guns carried ammunition for 90 shots, and they had an approximate barrel lifetime of 250 to 280 shots. In 1941, separate dyes were introduced for the armor-piercing shells of the four Kongō-class battleships to assist with targeting, with Kongō's armor-piercing shells using red dye.

The secondary battery of Kongō originally consisted of sixteen 6-inch (15 cm) 50 caliber guns in single casemates located amidships ("50 calibre" means that the lengths of the guns were 50 times their bore, or 300 inches),[8] eight 3-inch (7.6 cm) guns, and eight submerged 21-inch (53 cm) torpedo tubes. Her six-inch naval guns could fire five to six rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 500 rounds. The 6-inch/50 calibre gun was capable of firing both antiaircraft and antiship shells, though the positioning of these guns on Kongō made antiaircraft firing mostly impractical. During her second reconstruction, the older three-inch guns were removed and then replaced with eight 5-inch (13 cm) 5-inch/40 calibre dual-purpose guns. These guns could fire from eight to 14 rounds per minute, with a barrel lifetime of about 800 to 1,500 rounds. Of Kongō's guns, the 5-inch guns had the widest variety of shell types: antiaircraft, antiship, and illumination shells. Kongō was also armed with a large number of 1-inch (2.5 cm) antiaircraft machine guns. By October 1944, Kongō's secondary armament was reconfigured to eight 6-inch (15 cm) guns, eight 5-inch (13 cm) guns, and 122 Type 96 antiaircraft rapid-fire cannons.

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Kongō in 1931, following her first reconstruction


The Kongō-class battlecruiser (金剛型巡洋戦艦 Kongō-gata jun'yōsenkan) was a class of four battlecruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) immediately before World War I. Designed by British naval architect George Thurston, the lead ship of the class, Kongō, was the last Japanese capital ship constructed outside Japan, by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. Her sister ships Haruna, Kirishima and Hiei were all completed in Japan.

During the late 1920s, all but Hiei were reconstructed and reclassified as battleships. After the signing of the London Naval Treaty in 1930, Hiei was reconfigured as a training ship to avoid being scrapped. Following Japan's withdrawal from the London Naval Treaty, all four underwent a massive second reconstruction in the late 1930s. Following the completion of these modifications, which increased top speeds to over 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), all four were reclassified as fast battleships.

The Kongō-class battleships were the most active capital ships of the Japanese Navy during World War II, participating in most major engagements of the war. Hiei and Kirishima acted as escorts during the attack on Pearl Harbor, while Kongō and Haruna supported the invasion of Singapore. All four participated in the battles of Midway and Guadalcanal. Hiei and Kirishima were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in November 1942, while Haruna and Kongō jointly bombarded the American Henderson Field airbase on Guadalcanal. The two remaining Kongō-class battleships spent most of 1943 shuttling between Japanese naval bases before participating in the major naval campaigns of 1944. Haruna and Kongō engaged American surface vessels during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Kongō was torpedoed and sunk by the submarine USS Sealion in November 1944, while Haruna was sunk at her moorings by an air attack in Kure Naval Base in late July 1945, but later raised and scrapped in 1946.

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Haruna at Yokosuka, 11 September 1916



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Kongō
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1912 – Launch of USS Texas (BB-35), the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Texas, is a New York-class battleship.


USS Texas (BB-35)
, the second ship of the United States Navy named in honor of the U.S. state of Texas, is a New York-class battleship. The ship was launched on 18 May 1912 and commissioned on 12 March 1914.

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USS Texas (BB-35), off New York City, c. 1919

Soon after her commissioning, Texas saw action in Mexican waters following the "Tampico Incident" and made numerous sorties into the North Sea during World War I. When the United States formally entered World War II in 1941, Texas escorted war convoys across the Atlantic and later shelled Axis-held beaches for the North African campaign and the Normandy Landings before being transferred to the Pacific Theater late in 1944 to provide naval gunfire support during the Battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Texas was decommissioned in 1948, having earned a total of five battle stars for service in World War II, and is now a museum ship near Houston, Texas. In addition to her combat service, Texas also served as a technological testbed during her career, and in this capacity became the first US battleship to mount anti-aircraft guns, the first US ship to control gunfire with directors and range-keepers(analog forerunners of today's computers), the first US battleship to launch an aircraft, from a platform on Turret 2, and was one of the first to receive the CXAM-1 version of CXAM production radar in the US Navy,

Among the world's remaining battleships, Texas is notable for being the first US battleship to become a permanent museum ship, and the first battleship declared to be a US National Historic Landmark., and is the only remaining World War I–era dreadnought battleship, though she is not the oldest surviving steel battleship: Mikasa, a pre-dreadnought battleship ordered in 1898 by the Imperial Japanese Navy is older than Texas. She is also noteworthy for being one of only seven remaining ships and the only remaining capital ship to have served in both World Wars.

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Texas in World War I (after July 1916 and before October 1917): The two large steel towers are her lattice masts, which were replaced with a tripod version during her modernization overhaul in 1925–1926.

Construction
The United States Congress authorized the construction of Texas on 24 June 1910. Bids for Texas were accepted from 27 September to 1 December with the winning bid of $5,830,000—excluding the price of armor and armament—submitted by Newport News Shipbuilding. The contract was signed on 17 December and the plans were delivered to the building yard seven days later. Texas' keel was laid down on 17 April 1911 at Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 18 May 1912, sponsored by Miss Claudia Lyon, daughter of Colonel Cecil Lyon, Republican national committeeman from Texas. The ship was commissioned on 12 March 1914 with Captain Albert W. Grant in command.

Texas's main battery consisted of ten 14-inch (356 mm)/45 caliber Mark 1 guns, which could fire 1,400 lb (635 kg) armor-piercing shells to a range of 13 mi (11 nmi; 21 km). Her secondary battery consisted of twenty-one 5-inch (127 mm)/51 caliber guns. She also mounted four 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes for the Bliss-Leavitt Mark 8 torpedo, one each on the port side bow and stern and starboard bow and stern. The torpedo rooms held 12 torpedoes total, plus 12 naval defense mines. Texas and her sister New York were the only battleships to store and hoist their 14-inch ammunition in cast-iron cups, nose-down

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Texas, photographed in 2014 in her berth at the San Jacinto Battleground, near Houston. She is wearing Measure 21 camouflage as she did in 1945.


The New York class of battleship was a class of ships designed and constructed by the United States Navy between 1908 and 1914. The two ships of the class, New York and Texas, each saw extensive service beginning in the occupation of Veracruz, World War I, and World War II.

Designed as a more heavily armed improvement over the previous Wyoming class, the New York class was the first battleship to feature the 14-inch (356 mm)/45 caliber gun, but was one of the last battleship classes designed with several features, including a five-turret layout and coal for fuel. The class also suffered several deficiencies such as a lack of anti-aircraft weaponry and armor layout, which were addressed with the subsequent Nevada class. Because of these deficiencies, both ships saw several extensive overhauls over the course of their careers which greatly changed their profiles.

Both New York and Texas entered service in 1914 and immediately served in the occupation of Veracruz, and service reinforcing the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet in the North Sea during World War I, during which time New York is believed to have sunk a U-boat in an accidental collision. Both ships undertook numerous training exercises and overhauls during the interwar era, and joined the Neutrality Patrol at the beginning of World War II. Outmoded by more advanced battleships in service, both ships served primarily as convoy escorts and naval artillery during the war. New York supported Operation Torch in North Africa, undertook convoy patrols and training in the Atlantic, and supported the Battle of Iwo Jima and the Battle of Okinawa. Texas supported Operation Torch, Operation Overlord, the bombardment of Cherbourg, Operation Dragoon and the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Following the war, New York was used as a target ship in Operation Crossroads and sunk as a target in 1948, while Texas was converted into a museum ship, and remains permanently moored in San Jacinto State Park today.

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USS New York, the lead ship of the class, shortly after entering service in 1915.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Texas_(BB-35)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York-class_battleship
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
18 May 1916 – Launch of HMS Terror, an Erebus-class monitor built for the Royal Navy in 1915-1916 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.


HMS Terror
was an Erebus-class monitor built for the Royal Navy in 1915-1916 at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

She served in the Dover Patrol during the First World War and operated mainly off the coast of Belgium. She participated in the Zeebrugge raid of April 1918 and provided gunnery support for the Fourth Battle of Ypres in September of the same year.

After the war she was attached to HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's gunnery school in Portsmouth and participated in gunnery trials in the 1920s. In January 1934 she became the base ship at Sembawang Naval Base in Singapore where she remained for the rest of the decade.

In 1940 she served in the Mediterranean where she defended Malta from Italian air raids before supporting the land-based assault of Italian positions in North Africa. In January 1941 she assisted with the capture of Bardia and Tobruk before she attempted to defend Benghazi from German air attacks in February. Suffering damage from two air attacks and two mines on 22 and 23 February she sank off the coast of Libya in the early hours of 24 February. The crew were evacuated to HMS Fareham and Salvia prior to her sinking.

HMS_Terror_(I03).jpg
Royal Navy monitor HMS Terror underway in Plymouth Sound

Design and construction
Terror was built for the Royal Navy at Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Northern Ireland between 1915 and 1916.

The Erebus-class monitors were of 7,200 long tons (7,300 t) displacement, 405 ft (123 m) long, with a maximum speed of 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) produced by reciprocating engines with two shafts, and a crew of 223. The ship's main armament consisted of two, BL 15 inch Mk I naval guns in a single forward turret. Terror's turret had belonged to the earlier Marshal Ney, which had fared badly in its sea trials and been rearmed with smaller guns. Learning from the earlier experience with Ney, the turrets were adjusted to increase elevation to 30 degrees, which would add greater firing range.

Terror's original secondary armament of two 6 in (152 mm) mounts was soon replaced by eight 4 in (102 mm) guns in single mounts and two 3 in (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns, also in single mounts. Between the wars, the 4 inch low angle guns were replaced by anti-aircraft mounts and the 3 inch guns by eight 0.50 in (12.7 mm) anti-aircraft Vickers machine guns in two quadruple mounts.

The class mostly served in the Naval Gunfire Support role.

Terror was launched on 18 May 1916.

HMS_Terror_15_inch_guns_1915_IWM_SP_1612.jpg
The turret and main armament of Terror, 1915

The Erebus class of warships was a class of 20th century Royal Navy monitors armed with a main battery of two 15-inch /42 Mk 1 guns in a single turret. It consisted of two vessels, Erebus and Terror. Both were launched in 1916 and saw active service in World War I off the Belgian coast. After being placed in reserve between the wars, they served in World War II, with Terror being lost in 1941 and Erebus surviving to be scrapped in 1946.

Ships
  • Erebus was built by Harland and Wolff, Govan. She was laid down on 12 October 1915, launched on 19 June 1916 and commissioned in September 1916. After seeing service in both World Wars, Erebus was scrapped in 1946.
  • Terror was built by Harland and Wolff, Belfast. She was laid down on 26 October 1915, launched on 18 May 1916 and commissioned in August 1916. She saw extensive service in both World Wars. Terror was lost in the Mediterranean on 23 February 1941, after being damaged by Luftwaffe Ju 88bombers the previous day.
Service
The class was to see most of its service in the naval gunfire support (or "NGS") role. During World War I, they operated off the German-occupied Belgiancoast bombarding naval forces based at Ostend and Zeebrugge. Erebus was damaged by a remote controlled explosive motor boat and Terror was torpedoed by motor torpedo boats.

Both ships were placed in reserve between the wars but returned to service in World War II, when they were again used to provide fire support to British troops.

Erebus participated in the D-Day invasion as part of Task Force O off Omaha beach.

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British monitor HMS Erebus at a buoy in Plymouth Sound.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_(I03)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 18 May


1499 – Alonso de Ojeda sets sail from Cádiz on his voyage to what is now Venezuela.

Alonso de Ojeda
(Torrejoncillo del Rey, Cuenca 1468 (some sources state 1466) – Santo Domingo 1515) was a Spanish navigator, governor and conquistador. He travelled through Guyana, Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Curaçao, Aruba and Colombia. He is famous for having named Venezuela, which he explored during his first two expeditions, for having been the first European to visit Guyana, Colombia, and Lake Maracaibo, and later for founding Santa Cruz (La Guairita).

AlonsoDeOjeda.jpg



1657 - Venetians under Lazaro Mocenigo defeat Turks and Algerines at Suazich - Battle of Suazich

This battle took place on 18 May 1657 and was a victory for the Republic of Venice over the main Ottoman Navy and the fleet of the Ottoman province of Algiers. Not many details are known.

Ships involved
Venice

Capitana d'Algeri (ex-Algerian Perla, captured earlier that year)
Arma di Midelborgo
Pomerlan
Arma di Colognia


Ottomans
14 saiks - Captured

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_18_May_1657


1661 - Venetians defeat Turks in minor skirmish


1709 HMS Falmouth (50), Cptn. Walter Ryddell, defended a convoy against 4 French vessels off Scilly


HMS Falmouth
was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built for the Royal Navy in the first decade of the 18th century. The ship participated in several battles during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–15) and the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–48).



1710 – Launch of HMS Pembroke, a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Plymouth Dockyard to the 1706 Establishment

HMS Pembroke
was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Plymouth Dockyard to the 1706 Establishment, and launched on 18 May 1710.
Pembroke served until 1726, when she was broken up.



1777 - HMS Beaver (14), Cptn. Jones, took American privateer Oliver Cromwell (24), Cptn. Harman, off St. Lucia.

HMS Beaver
(1761), 14, a sloop launched in 1761 and sold in 1783.



1791 – Launch of french Hélène was a 34-gun Charmante class frigate of the French Navy.

The Hélène was a 34-gun Charmante class frigate of the French Navy. In 1793 she was captured by the Spanish Navy whilst endeavouring to make her escape, and was renamed Sirena. She was broken up in 1807.

Charmante class, (32-gun design by Jean-Denis Chevillard, with 26 x 12-pounder and 6 x 6-pounder guns).
Charmante, (launched 30 August 1777 at Rochefort) – wrecked 1780.
Junon, (launched March 1778 at Rochefort) – wrecked 1780.
Gracieuse, (launched 19 May 1787 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1796.
Inconstante, (launched 8 September 1790 at Rochefort) – captured by British Navy 1793.
Hélène, (launched 18 May 1791 at Rochefort) – captured by Spanish Navy 1793.



1795 – Launch of The French brig Colombe for the French Navy.

The French brig Colombe was launched in 1795 for the French Navy. She had a minor role in the mutiny on HMS Danae. The British captured her in 1803. She never served on active duty in the Royal Navy but instead was immediately laid-up. She was broken up in 1811.



1799 – Launch of Detroit was a 6-gun brig launched in 1798 as Adams in the United States.

Detroit was a 6-gun brig launched in 1798 as Adams in the United States. During the War of 1812 the British captured her, renamed her, and took her into the Provincial Marine. She served on Lake Erie during the War of 1812, giving the British control of the lake. The Americans briefly recaptured her, but she grounded and came under heavy fire. The Americans had to abandon her. The vessel was set afire and burnt.

Prize_brig__Adams__in_Lake_Erie,_Ontario,_in_1812_(JRR_1153).jpg
Adams shortly after she was captured by British forces at Detroit.

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


1799 – Launch of HMS Amazon was a frigate of the Royal Navy.

HMS Amazon
was a frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars under several notable naval commanders and played a key role in the Battle of Copenhagen under Captain Edward Riou, when Riou commanded the frigate squadron during the attack. After Riou was killed during the battle, command briefly devolved to First-Lieutenant John Quilliam. Quilliam made a significant impression on Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson who appointed him to serve on the flagship HMS Victory, and Amazon passed to William Parker, who continued the association with Nelson with service in the Mediterranean and participation in the chase to the West Indies during the Trafalgar Campaign. She went on to join Sir John Borlase Warren’s squadron in the Atlantic and took part in the defeat of Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois's forces at the Action of 13 March 1806. During the battle, she hunted down and captured the 40-gun frigate Belle Poule.

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HMS Amazon pursuing unnamed French vessel, possibly the Belle Poule, by Nicholas Pocock

Amazon continued in service for several more years, being active in combating raiders and privateers, before being withdrawn from active service in late 1811. She was retained in ordinary until several years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, when she was broken up.



1808 - Seige of Sveaborg ended

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_battle&id=629


1837 – Launch of USS Fulton was a steamer that served the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War, and was recommissioned in time to see service in that war.

USS Fulton was a steamer that served the U.S. Navy prior to the American Civil War, and was recommissioned in time to see service in that war. However, her participation was limited to being captured by Confederate forces in the port of Pensacola, Florida, at the outbreak of war.

The second ship to be named Fulton by the Navy, a side wheel steamer, her build commenced in 1835, and she was launched 18 May 1837 by Brooklyn Navy Yard; and commissioned 13 December 1837, Captain M. C. Perry in command. She was often called Fulton II. Fulton I was the renamed United States floating battery Demologos.

USS_Fulton_(1837).jpg
Drawing of Fulton as originally built in 1837

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Fulton_(1837)


1898 - During the Spanish-American War, boat parties from USS St. Louis and USS Wompatuck, under Capt. Caspar F. Goodrich, cut communication cables at Santiago, Cuba.


1944 - USS Wilkes (DD 441) and USS Roe (DD 418), carrying the 1st Battalion 163rd Infantry, land on Wakde, off Dutch New Guinea, securing the island and setting up airstrip for the Southwest Pacific offensive.
 
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