Naval/Maritime History 27th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1901 – Launch of HMS Duncan, the lead ship of the six-ship Duncan class of Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleships.


HMS Duncan was the lead ship of the six-ship Duncan class of Royal Navy pre-dreadnought battleships. Built to counter a group of fast Russian battleships, Duncan and her sister shipswere capable of steaming at 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph), making them the fastest battleships in the world. The Duncan-class battleships were armed with a main battery of four 12-inch (305 mm) guns and they were broadly similar to the London-class battleships, though of a slightly reduced displacement and thinner armour layout. As such, they reflected a development of the lighter second-class ships of the Canopus-class battleship. Duncan was built between her keel laying in July 1899 and her completion in October 1903.


A 1905 postcard depicting HMS Duncan, painting by William Frederick Mitchell

Duncan served with the Mediterranean Fleet until 1905, at which she was transferred to the Channel Fleet. During this period, she was damaged in a pair of accidents, the first a collision with HMS Albion in late 1905 and the second when she ran aground off Lundy Island the following year. Duncan served with the Atlantic Fleet from 1907 to late 1908, when she was transferred back to the Mediterranean Fleet. In 1912, she was transferred to the Home Fleet when the Mediterranean Fleet was reorganized into a squadron of it, and the next year she became a gunnery training ship. After the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Duncan was being refitted; once she returned to service in September, she joined her sister ships on the Northern Patrol.

In 1915, Duncan was transferred to the 9th Cruiser Squadron based in the central Atlantic. Later that year, she was reassigned to the 2nd Detached Squadron to support the Italian Royal Navy, and in 1916 she was sent to Salonika, Greece. There, she took part in operations against Greek royalists who opposed entering the war on the side of the Allies. Duncan returned to Britain in February 1917 and was converted into a barracks ship before being broken up for scrap in 1920.


Design
Main article: Duncan-class battleship


Right elevation and deck plan as depicted in Brassey's Naval Annual 1915

The six ships of the Duncan class were ordered in response to the Russian Peresvet-class battleships that had been launched in 1898. The Russian ships were fast second-class battleships, so William Henry White, the British Director of Naval Construction, designed the Duncan class to match the purported top speed of the Russian vessels. To achieve the higher speed while keeping displacement from growing, White was forced to reduce the ships' armour protection significantly, effectively making the ships enlarged and improved versions of the Canopus-class battleships of 1896, rather than derivatives of the more powerful Majestic, Formidable, and London series of first-class battleships. The Duncans proved to be disappointments in service, owing to their reduced defensive characteristics, though they were still markedly superior to the Peresvets they had been built to counter.

Duncan was 432 feet (132 m) long overall, with a beam of 75 ft 6 in (23.01 m) and a draft of 25 ft 9 in (7.85 m). The Duncan-class battleships displaced 13,270 to 13,745 long tons (13,483 to 13,966 t) normally and up to 14,900 to 15,200 long tons (15,100 to 15,400 t) fully loaded. Her crew numbered 720 officers and ratings. The Duncan-class ships were powered by a pair of 4-cylinder triple-expansion engines that drove two screws, with steam provided by twenty-four Belleville boilers. The boilers were trunked into two funnels located amidships. The Duncan-class ships had a top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) from 18,000 indicated horsepower (13,000 kW). This made Duncan and her sisters the fastest battleships in the world for several years. At a cruising speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph), the ship could steam for 6,070 nautical miles (11,240 km; 6,990 mi).

Duncan had four 12-inch (305 mm) 40-calibre guns mounted in twin-gun turrets fore and aft. The ships also mounted twelve 6-inch (152 mm) 45-calibre guns mounted in casemates, in addition to ten 12-pounder 3 in (76 mm) guns and six 3-pounder 47 mm (1.9 in) guns. As was customary for battleships of the period, she was also equipped with four 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo tubes submerged in the hull.

Duncan had an armoured belt that was 7 in (178 mm) thick; the transverse bulkhead on the aft end of the belt was 7 to 11 in (178 to 279 mm) thick. Her main battery turrets' sides were 8 to 10 in (203 to 254 mm) thick, atop 11 in (279 mm) barbettes, and the casemate battery was protected with 6 in of Krupp steel. Her conning tower had 12-inch-thick sides. She was fitted with two armoured decks, 1 and 2 in (25 and 51 mm) thick, respectively.


HMS Duncan in 1914


The Duncan class was a class of six pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1900s. The six ships—HMS Duncan, HMS Albemarle, HMS Cornwallis, HMS Exmouth, HMS Montagu, and HMS Russell—were ordered in response to Russian naval building, specifically the fast second-class battleships of the Peresvet class, which they were specifically to counter. The foremost design consideration was a high top speed to match the rumoured (and incorrect) top speed of 19 knots (35 km/h; 22 mph) of the Russian ships while maintaining the same battery of 12-inch (300 mm) guns and keeping displacement from growing. This forced significant compromises in armour protection, though the ships adopted a revised system of protection for the bow, which was copied in other designs like the London class.


HMS Albemarle

All members of the class served in the Mediterranean Fleet after completion, thereafter joining the Home, Channel, and Atlantic Fleets over the next ten years. In 1906, Montagu was wrecked off Lundy Island and could not be salvaged. The period passed largely uneventfully for the other members of the class. Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, the ships were sent to reinforce the Grand Fleet, where they were used on the Northern Patrol to help blockade Germany. In November, Russell and Exmouth bombarded Zeebrugge, but otherwise the Duncans saw no action in the first months of the war.

Cornwallis participated in the Dardanelles campaign beginning in early 1915, and most of the other members of the class joined her there over the course of the year. Duncan instead served in the Atlantic and later in the Adriatic Sea and Albemarle remained with the Grand Fleet and later went to Murmansk, Russia, to guard the port. Russell and Cornwallis were sunk by German U-boats in April 1916 and January 1917, respectively. The three surviving members of the class saw little activity in the final two years of the war, though Duncan and Exmouth were involved in the Allied intervention in Greece. All three ships were ultimately sold for scrap in the immediate post-war reduction in naval strength and were broken up in 1920.


Launch of Cornwallis, 17 July 1901




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Duncan_(1901)

Duncan-class battleship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1901 - Launch of RRS Discovery, a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research


RRS Discovery is a barque-rigged auxiliary steamship built for Antarctic research, and launched in 1901. She was the last traditional wooden three-masted ship to be built in the United Kingdom. Its first mission was the British National Antarctic Expedition, carrying Robert Falcon Scott and Ernest Shackleton on their first, and highly successful, journey to the Antarctic, known as the Discovery Expedition. After service as a merchant ship before and during the First World War, Discovery was taken into the service of the British government in 1923 to carry out scientific research in the Southern Ocean, becoming the first Royal Research Ship. The ship undertook a two-year expedition - the Discovery Investigations - recording valuable information on the oceans, marine life and being the first scientific investigation into whale populations. From 1929 to 1931 Discovery served as the base for the British Australian and New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Douglas Mawson, a major scientific and territorial quest in what is now the Australian Antarctic Territory.

On her return from the BANZARE, Discovery was moored in London as a static training ship and visitor attraction until 1979 when she was placed in the care of the Maritime Trust as a museum ship. After an extensive restoration Discovery is now the centrepiece of a visitor attraction in the city where she was built, Dundee. She is one of only two surviving expedition ships from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, the other being the Norwegian ship Fram.



Design
With increasing scientific and political attention being turned to the uncharted continent of Antarctica during the late 19th century, there were numerous proposals for a British-mounted expedition to the continent. The Royal Navy had been something of a pioneer with Antarctic exploration, mounting the Ross expedition in 1839 which discovered the Ross Ice Shelf. Attention had then turned northward to the Arctic and attempts to reach the North Pole. The RN mounted the British Arctic Expedition in 1874. Towards the turn of the century there was increasing pressure for a similar expedition to the southern polar region. The British government and the Admiralty stopped short of organising a government expedition but agreed to partially fund a project led by the two main interested scientific organisations, the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society. The Admiralty would provide practical support in designing and crewing a purpose-built ship for the expedition, while the ship itself would be owned by the RGS.



Early discussions on building a dedicated polar exploration ship considered replicating Fridtjof Nansen's ship Fram but that vessel was designed specifically for working through the pack ice of the Arctic, while the British ship would have to cross thousands of miles of open ocean before reaching the Antarctic so a more conventional design was chosen. In charge of her overall design was W.E. Smith, one of the senior naval architects at the Admiralty, while the ship's engine, boilers and other machinery were designed by Fleet Engineer Philip Marrack.



The ship borrowed many aspects of her design (as well as her name) from the Bloodhound, a Dundee-built whaling ship taken into Royal Navy service as HMS Discovery for the Arctic Expedition. By 1900 few yards in the United Kingdom had the capability to build wooden ships of the size needed - only two shipbuilders submitted bids for the contract - but it was deemed essential that the ship be made from wood, both for strength and ease of repair and to reduce the magnetic interference from a steel hull that would allow the most accurate navigation and surveying. The main compass was mounted perfectly amidships and there were to be no steel or iron fittings within 30 feet (9.1 metres) of this point - to the extent that the original cushions for the wardroom (just aft and below the main bridge) were changed when it was found they included steel-backed buttons. For the same reason the boilers and engine were mounted towards the stern of the ship, a feature which also provided maximum space for equipment and provisions. A special laboratory for taking magnetic field measurements was provided below the bridge.


Discovery in Australia.

The ship was almost built in Norway by Framnæs, the yard which would later build the Endurance but it was thought that the British government's money should be spent at a British yard and the Discovery was built by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company, which primarily made smaller vessels such as trawlers, tugboats and steam yachts. The yard was previously owned by Alexander Stephen and Sons and had built the Terra Nova (purchased in 1910 by Scott for his last expedition) in 1884. The committee responsible for the ship's construction offered a separate tender for her boilers, engine and auxiliary machinery in an effort to reduce costs, but Dundee Shipbuilders also won that contract.

The ship cost £34,050 to build, plus another £10,322 to be fitted with engines and machinery and more than £6000 for other equipment and fittings: The total cost for the Discovery was £51,000, equivalent to £4.1m in modern currency. Much of the detail work of fitting out the ship's interior spaces, scientific equipment and provisions was overseen directly by Scott and the ship's newly-appointed engineer Reginald Skelton.

Discovery was fitted with a 450-horsepower coal-fired triple expansion steam engine, but had to rely primarily on sail because the coal bunkers did not have sufficient capacity to take the ship on long voyages. At her economical cruising speed of 6 knots (6.9 mph, 11.1 km/h) she only carried enough coal for 7700 miles of steaming; the voyage to New Zealand covered over 12,000 miles. At 8 knots (9.2 mph, 14.2 km/h) she could steam only 5100 miles. The ship was seen as a sailing vessel with auxiliary steam propulsion - when first registered in 1900 Discovery was classified as a sailing ship. Her legal owners were the Royal Geographical Society the president of which, Sir Clements Markham, was a member of the Royal Harwich Yacht Club - Discovery was thus registered as a private sailing yacht of the RHYC and carried the official name and prefix 'S.Y. Discovery'. She flew the RHYC's burgee and the Blue Ensign throughout her first expedition.

She was rigged as a barque (the fore- and mainmasts being square rig and the mizzen mast carrying a fore-aft sail) and the total maximum sail area was 12,296 square feet (1142 square metres). Following the practice of the most modern sailing ships of the time, the windjammers, she carried split topsails to reduce the size of the deck crew needed to handle them. Her spars and sails on the foremast and mainmast were identical to reduce the amount of spares carried and allow easier repairs. The ship was rigged to carry several large staysails and the funnel was hinged at the base so it could be laid on the deck when the mizzen staysail was rigged once at sea. The Discovery was marginally faster under sail than she was under engine - her record for distance travelled in 24 hours is 223 nautical miles (358 km), equivalent to 9.2 knots (10.5 mph, 17 km/h).

The ship has a massively built wooden hull designed to withstand being frozen into the ice and resist crushing. At the time of her launch Discovery was widely held to be the strongest wooden ship ever built. The hull frames, placed much closer together than was normal, were made of solid sections of oak up to 11 inches (27.9 cm) thick. The outer hull was formed from two layers - one 6 inches (15.2 cm) thick and an outer skin some 5 inches (12.7 cm) thick. A third lining was laid inside the frames, forming a double bottom and skin around almost the entire hull. The gap between the outer and inner hulls was packed with salt to just above the waterline. Since this space was otherwise inaccessible, the salt dried up the inevitable minor water leaks in the wooden hull and acted as a preservative for the timbers. Apertures in the inner hull were provided to allow the salt to be topped up or changed at intervals. This meant that in places the hull was over 2 feet (60 cm) thick, providing not only formidable strength but excellent insulation against the cold. The construction meant that it was impossible to install portholes (and fitting them would have weakened the hull) so the crew relied on 'mushroom vents' on the deck to allow air and light into the interior.

The wood used for the planking varies depending on where in the ship it is laid and what structural purpose it serves: The inner layer is Scots pine while the 6-inch skin is made of pitch pine, Honduras mahogany or oak. The outer hull is made of English Elm and Greenheart. Oak beams run across the hull forming three decks - the lower deck beams are 11 inches (27.9 cm) square in cross-section and are placed less than three feet (0.9m) apart along the ship's length. Seven transverse bulkheads, also of wood, provide additional strength and ensured that any ice damage would not flood the entire ship. To prevent damage from ice floes or crushing the two-blade propeller could be hoisted out of the way and the rudder could be easily detached and stored aboard. A second rudder and spare propeller blades were carried, and the ship could be steered by use of her sails if her rudder or steering gear was completely disabled. Iron-shod bows were severely raked so that when ramming the ice they would ride up over the margin and crush the ice with deadweight. The coal bunkers on each side contained a steel compartment, each of which could hold 60 tons of fresh water. These would be filled on the long ocean trip to and from New Zealand but for the Antarctic expedition the extra coal capacity was more important as ice and snow could be melted each day to provide water, so the tanks would be filled with coal. The metal tanks also contributed to the strength of the lower hull around the boiler and engine spaces.

On 16 March 1900, in the context of significant donations to the approaching expedition by patrons Llewellyn W. Longstaff and the British Government, construction on the Discovery began in Dundee, Scotland, by the Dundee Shipbuilders Company. She was launched into the Firth of Tay on 21 March 1901 by Lady Markham, the wife of Sir Clements Markham, President of the Royal Geographical Society.


RRS Discovery, in Dundee in 2009.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRS_Discovery
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Discovery_(ship,_1901)
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica fact file/History/antarctic_ships/discovery.htm

Discovery Point - Dundee Heritage Trust

Dive into history on the RRS Discovery in Dundee. Experience Captain Scott & Shackleton's Antarctic journey at this top attraction in Dundee.

www.rrsdiscovery.com

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1912 – Launch of SMS Tegetthoff (His Majesty's Ship Tegetthoff), the second of four Tegetthoff-class dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy


SMS Tegetthoff (His Majesty's Ship Tegetthoff) was the second of four Tegetthoff-class dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Tegetthoff was named for the 19th-century Austrian Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, most notable for defeating the Italian Regia Marina at the Battle of Lissa in 1866. the ship was armed with a main battery of twelve 30.5 cm (12.0 in) guns in four triple turrets. Constructed shortly before World War I, she was built at the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste, where she was laid down in September 1910 and launched in March 1912.



Tegetthoff was a member of the 1st Battleship Division of the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the beginning of the war alongside the other ships of her class, and was stationed out of the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pola. First saw action during the Bombardment of Ancona following Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915, but saw little combat for the rest of the war due to the Otranto Barrage, which prohibited the Austro-Hungarian Navy from leaving the Adriatic Sea. In June 1918, in an bid to earn safer passage for German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats through the Strait of Otranto, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to break the Barrage with a major attack on the strait, but it was abandoned after Tegetthoff and her sister ship, Szent István were attached by Italian motor torpedo boats on the morning of 10 June. Tegetthoff was unharmed during the attack, but Szent István was sunk by torpedoes launched from MAS-15.

After the sinking of Szent István, Tegetthoff and the remaining two ships of her class returned to port in Pola where they remained for the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in the war in October 1918, the Austrian government decided to transfer the bulk of her navy to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allies.[2] This transfer however was not recognized by the Armistice of Villa Giusti, signed between Austria-Hungary and the Allies in November 1918. Under the terms of the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Tegetthoff was handed over to Italy. She was subsequently moved to Venice before being shown as a war trophy by the Italians. During that time period she starred in the movie Eroi di nostri mari ("Heroes of our seas"), which depicted the sinking of Szent István. Following the adoption of the Washington Naval Treaty in 1922, she was broken up at La Spezia between 1924 and 1925.


A line drawing of the Tegetthoff class


The Tegetthoff class (also called the Viribus Unitis class) was a class of four dreadnought battleships built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Named for Austrian Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, the class was composed of SMS Viribus Unitis, SMS Tegetthoff, SMS Prinz Eugen, and SMS Szent István. Construction started on the ships shortly before World War I; Viribus Unitis and Tegetthoff were both laid down in 1910, Prinz Eugen and Szent István followed in 1912. Three of the four warships were built in the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino shipyard in Trieste; Szent István was built in the Ganz-Danubius shipyard in Fiume, so that both parts of the Dual Monarchy would participate in the construction of the ships. The Tegetthoff-class ships hold the distinction for being the first and only dreadnought battleships of the Austro-Hungarian Navy.

Viribus Unitis and Tegetthoff were commissioned into the fleet in December 1912 and July 1913, respectively. Prinz Eugen followed in July 1914. The smaller shipyards in Fiume resulted in a slower construction which was further delayed by the outbreak of the war, with Szent István commissioned into the fleet in December 1915. This was too late for her to take part in the Bombardment of Ancona in which the remaining ships in the class saw action immediately following Italy's declaration of war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915.


Viribus Unitis, the lead ship of the Tegetthoff-class battleships, in 1912

All of the Tegetthoffs were members of the 1st Battleship Division at the beginning of the war and were stationed out of the naval base at Pola. Following the Bombardment of Ancona and the commissioning of Szent István, the four ships saw little combat due to the Otranto Barrage which prohibited the Austro-Hungarian Navy from leaving the Adriatic Sea. In June 1918, in an attempt to earn safer passage for German and Austro-Hungarian U-boats through the Strait of Otranto, the Austro-Hungarian Navy attempted to break the Barrage with a major attack on the strait, but it was abandoned after Szent István was sunk by the motor torpedo boat MAS-15 on the morning of 10 June.

After the sinking of Szent István, the remaining three ships of the class returned to port in Pola where they remained for the rest of the war. When Austria-Hungary was facing defeat in the war in October 1918, the Austrian government decided to transfer Viribus Unitis to the newly formed State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs in order to avoid having to hand the ship over to the Allied Powers. Renamed Yugoslavia, the ship was destroyed by an Italian mine in the Raid on Pola a day later. Following the Armistice of Villa Giusti in November 1918, Prinz Eugen was ceded to France where she was sunk as a target ship in 1922, while Tegetthoff was handed over to Italy and scrapped between 1924 and 1925. The wreck of Viribus Unitis was salvaged from Pola harbor and broken up between 1920 and 1930.




Model of Viribus Unitis in the Museum of Military History, Vienna



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Tegetthoff_(1912)

Tegetthoff-class battleship - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 1942 – Launch of RV Calypso is a former British Royal Navy minesweeper converted into a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research.


RV Calypso is a former British Royal Navy minesweeper converted into a research vessel for the oceanographic researcher Jacques-Yves Cousteau, equipped with a mobile laboratory for underwater field research. It was severely damaged in 1996, and was planned to undergo a complete refurbishment in 2009-2011. The ship is named after the Greek mythological figure Calypso.



World War II British minesweeper (1941–1947)
Calypso was originally a minesweeper built by the Ballard Marine Railway Company of Seattle, Washington, United States for the United States Navy for loan to the British Royal Navy under lend-lease. A wooden-hulled vessel, she is built of Oregon pine.

She was a BYMS (British Yard Minesweeper) Mark 1 Class Motor Minesweeper, laid down on 12 August 1941 with yard designation BYMS-26 and launched on 21 March 1942. She was commissioned into the Royal Navy in February 1943 as HMS J-826 and assigned to active service in the Mediterranean Sea, based in Malta, and was reclassified as BYMS-2026 in 1944. Following the end of World War II, she was decommissioned in July 1946 and laid up at Malta. On 1 August 1947 she was formally handed back to the US Navy and then struck from the US Naval Register, remaining in lay-up.

Maltese ferry (1949–1950)
In May 1949 she was bought by Joseph Gasan of Malta, who had secured the mail contract on the ferry route between Marfa, in the north of Malta, and Mġarr, Gozo in 1947.[4] She was converted to a ferry and renamed Calypso G after the nymph Calypso, whose island of Ogygia was mythically associated with Gozo, entering service in March 1950. After only four months on the route, Gasan received an attractive offer and sold her.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau's Calypso (1950–1997)


See-through bulbous bow of Calypso

The British millionaire and former MP, Thomas Loel Guinness bought Calypso in July 1950 and leased her to Cousteau for a symbolic one franc a year. He had two conditions, that Cousteau never ask him for money and that he never reveal his identity, which only came out after Cousteau's death. Cousteau restructured and transformed the ship into an expedition vessel and support base for diving, filming and oceanographic research. One of the more unusual expeditions involving the vessel was a survey of Abu Dhabi waters conducted by Cousteau on behalf of British Petroleum(BP) in 1954 - the first and last time it was used for an oil survey.

Calypso carried advanced equipment, including one- and two-man mini submarines developed by Cousteau, diving saucers, and underwater scooters. The ship was also fitted with a see-through "nose" and an observation chamber 3 metres (9.8 ft) below the waterline, and was modified to house scientific equipment and a helicopter pad. The Calypso underwater camera is named after this ship.

On 8 January 1996, a barge accidentally rammed Calypso and sank her in the port of Singapore. On 16 January, she was raised by a 230-foot (70 m) crane, patched, and pumped dry before being put in shipyard.

The next year, Jacques-Yves Cousteau died on 25 June 1997.

Restoration (1997–present)


Calypso at La Rochelle (1999)


Calypso's bow extending from the Piriou shipyard's hangar in which she is stored (January 2014)

Calypso was later towed to Marseille, France, where she lay neglected for two years. Thereafter she was towed to the basin of the Maritime Museum of La Rochelle in 1998, where she was intended to be an exhibit.

A long series of legal and other delays kept any restoration work from beginning. Francine Cousteau, the widow of Jacques Cousteau, managed to organise the ship's restoration. A dispute arose between Francine Cousteau and Loel Guinness, grandson of the original owner.

When this dispute was discovered by the sponsoring Mayor of La Rochelle, it added to the air of uncertainty and hesitancy over funding the restoration. When the mayor subsequently died, the city of La Rochelle withdrew as a source of funding for the restoration. Calypso remained in disrepair.

In 2002, Alexandra, Cousteau's granddaughter from his first marriage, stepped in to help organise the restoration. The Cousteau Society, controlled by Francine Cousteau, reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend Francine's exclusive use of the name, and to prevent Alexandra's participation in the restoration of Calypso.

In July 2003, Patrick Schnepp, director of the La Rochelle maritime museum, expressed his frustration at the inability to restore the ship to fit condition: "The whole affair disgusts me... Everything that's not broken is rotten, and everything that's not rotten is broken." The Guardian reported that he desired to see the ship towed off the Île de Ré and scuttled, as Jacques-Yves Cousteau had envisioned would have been the ship's original fate had he not been granted its use.

On 30 November 2004 it was erroneously reported Calypso had been sold by Loel Guinness, to Carnival Cruise Lines. Carnival stated they intended to give the vessel a 1.3 million dollar (1 million euro) restoration, and then likely moor her in the Bahamas as a museum ship.

In late 2006, Loel Guinness transferred ownership of Calypso to the Cousteau Society for the symbolic sum of one Euro. The transfer was part of a plan of restoration led by Francine Cousteau. Legal proceedings between COF (Campagnes Océaniques Françaises) and the Cousteau Society over ownership of the vessel were concluded by the Court of Cassation in Paris with a judgement in favor of the latter in December 2007. The restoration project then resumed.

On 11 October 2007, the transfer of the ship to Concarneau started, where she was to be restored at the Piriou Shipyard and transformed into a permanent exhibit.

On 4 October 2008, Swiss watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen produced a new luxury chronograph, sold to raise proceeds for the restoration of Calypso.

Restoration work on Calypso stopped in February 2009 after the delivery of Calypso's new engines built by Volvo, because of the non-payment of bills by Francine Cousteau. Piriou sued, claiming to be owed over €850,000, of the estimated total €1,737,000, for work already done on the ship. The ship was stored in one of the ship builder's hangars.

The Cousteau Society filed a counter-suit for defective work. As of March 2009 the Cousteau Society reported that Francine Cousteau was directing the restoration of Calypso as an "ambassador for the seas and oceans". The restoration was to be a complete refurbishment making Calypso a self-powered mobile "ambassador".

In June 2010 the BBC reported that Calypso was to be relaunched to mark the centenary of Jacques Cousteau's birth. However, this 2010 centenary passed without progress.

In September 2013, a petition was launched on change.org that requested that the ship be saved and be added to the French patrimoine national (national heritage). Within three weeks the petition collected 6000 signatures. The Cousteau Society had made a similar request of the French government in 2010. As of October 2013 the Piriou shipyard stated that they expected a resolution from the tribunal de commerce (commercial court) in Quimper within a few weeks, setting the stage for the restoration of the ship by Piriou or another shipyard.

In March, 2015, after a long legal battle, a French court has ordered Francine Cousteau, the second wife and widow of Jacques Cousteau, to settle outstanding yard bills of €273,000 and remove Calypso from a Brittany shipyard or the shipyard will be allowed to sell the vessel. On 6 January 2016 the Cousteau Society announced that a solution had been found to allow the ship to return to service, complete with the new Volvo engines.

In September 2017 a fire damaged the Calypso at the shipyard near Istanbul, Turkey where her refitting has been in progress since April 2016. Only the newly fitted wooden parts of the ship were affected, not the original historical structural elements.

Heritage Malta announced on 21 February 2019 that a selection of objects will be loaned by the Cousteau Foundation for an exhibition at the Malta Maritime Museum in 2021. A wooden rib taken from the original vessel, included in this exhibition, will subsequently be donated to Malta's national collection.

RV Calypso - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
21 March 2003 – Launch of RMS Queen Mary 2 (also referred to as the QM2), a transatlantic ocean liner.


RMS Queen Mary 2 (also referred to as the QM2) is a transatlantic ocean liner. She is the largest ocean liner ever built, having served as the flagship of the Cunard Line since succeeding the Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2004.[10] As of 2019, Queen Mary 2 is the only passenger ship operating as an ocean liner.

The new ship was named Queen Mary 2 by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 after the first RMS Queen Mary of 1936. Queen Mary was in turn named after Mary of Teck, consort of King George V. With the retirement of Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2008, Queen Mary 2 is the only transatlantic ocean liner in line service between Southampton, England, and New York City, United States, operating for a part of each year. The ship is also used for cruising, including an annual world cruise.

She was designed by a team of British naval architects led by Stephen Payne, and was constructed in France by Chantiers de l'Atlantique. At the time of her construction, Queen Mary 2 held the distinctions of being the longest, at 1,131.99 ft (345.03 m), and largest, with a gross tonnage of 148,528 GT, passenger ship ever built. She no longer held this distinction after the construction of Royal Caribbean International's 154,407 GT Freedom of the Seas (a cruise ship) in April 2006, but remains the largest ocean liner ever built.

Queen Mary 2 was intended for routine crossings of the Atlantic Ocean, and was therefore designed differently from many other passenger ships. The liner's final cost was approximately $300,000 US per berth. Expenses were increased by the high quality of materials, and having been designed as an ocean liner, she required 40% more steel than a standard cruise ship. Queen Mary 2 has a maximum speed of just over 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph) and a cruising speed of 26 knots (48 km/h; 30 mph), much faster than a contemporary cruise ship. Instead of the diesel-electric configuration found on many ships, Queen Mary 2 uses integrated electric propulsion to achieve her top speed. Diesel engines, augmented by gas turbines, are used to generate electricity for electric motors for propulsion and for on-board use.

Some of Queen Mary 2's facilities include fifteen restaurants and bars, five swimming pools, a casino, a ballroom, a theatre, and the first planetarium at sea.


Queen Mary 2 passing through the Suez Canal, 2 April 2009.

Queen Mary 2 - Wikipedia

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 21 March


1666 – Launch of Sweepstakes

Fifth-rate frigates 1660 to 1688
Charles Galley was an early galley-frigate with a bank of sweeps above the waterline, the last of these types (Royal Anne Galley) being launched in 1709.

Vessels of 1665 Programme:
Little Victory – launched 1665
Sweepstakes – launched 21 March 1666
Falcon – launched 1666


An English fourth-rate seen from before the port beam with, on the broadside, nine guns on the gun deck, ten on the upper deck (square decorated ports) and three in wreathed ports on the quarterdeck. There are eight sweep ports between the guns on the gun deck. This is a pen and brown ink drawing with a wash over the preliminary work in pencil. It has been signed by the Younger, ‘W.V.VJ’. The ship may be one of the 42-gun fourth-rates which in 1677 were armed with twenty guns on the gun deck, eighteen on the upper deck and four on the quarterdeck. They were the ‘Assurance’ (1646) ‘Constant Warwick’ (1646, rebuilt 1666) ‘Falcon’ and ‘Sweepstakes’ (1666), ‘Nonsuch’ (1668) and ‘Phoenix’ (1671). Other drawings and the small number of gun-deck ports led Robinson to suggest the ‘Assurance’ as most probable, but she was sold in 1698 and he considered it unlikely she would have been drawn as late as 1701, which the style here suggests. By the style and paper he related this drawing to PAH5024, which shows the ‘Seahorse’ of 1694 and could be more certainly dated to about 1701. Both are very accurate drawings in pen and brown ink and the early features here, such as the square decorated ports, might be accounted for if it is this drawing is based on an offset from an earlier example. Robinson, however, fails to say whether the ‘Assurance’ of 1646 was rebuilt in 1675, the date he ascribes to the ship as shown.

Portrait of an English fourth-rate of about 42-guns, and built about 1675. - National Maritime Museum

1691 – Launch of HMS Chester was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched 21 March 1691 at Woolwich Dockyard.

HMS Chester was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched 21 March 1691 at Woolwich Dockyard.
She was captured by the French at the Battle at The Lizard on 21 October 1707.

HMS Chester (1691) - Wikipedia

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1796 HMS Leviathan (74), Cptn. J. T. Duckworth, HMS Swiftsure (74) and HMS Africa (64), Cptn. Robert Home, bombarded Leogane, San Domingo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Leviathan_(1790)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Swiftsure_(1787)

HMS Africa (1781) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1805 – Launch of HMS Haddock was a Royal Navy schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20.

HMS Haddock was a Royal Navy schooner of four 12-pounder carronades and a crew of 20. The prime contractor for the vessel was Goodrich & Co., in Bermuda, and she was launched in 1805.
Haddock only sailed for some three to four years before the French captured her in 1809 in the English Channel. This schooner was the only Royal Navy ship ever to use the name.


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).

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

Ballahoo-class schooner - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1806 – Launch of HMS Belette (or Bellette) was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806.

HMS Belette (or Bellette) was an 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by King at Dover and launched on 21 March 1806.[3] During the Napoleonic Wars she served with some success in the Baltic and the Caribbean. Belette was lost in the Kattegat in 1812 when she hit a rock off Læsø.

HMS Belette (1806) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1807 Alexandria capitulated to British.


1813 Boats of HMS Blazer (14), Lt. Francis Banks, and HMS Brevdrageren, Lt. Thomas Baker Devon, took Danish gunboats Jonge Troutman (5), Lt. Lutkin, and Liebe (5), Lt. Writt, in the River Elbe

HMS Blazer (1804) was a 12-gun gun-brig launched in 1804 and sold in 1814.


1883 – Launch of HMS Rapid was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard

HMS Rapid was a Satellite-class composite screw sloop of the Royal Navy, built at Devonport Dockyard and launched on 21 March 1883. She was later reclassified as a corvette.
Initially on service with the Cape of Good Hope and West Africa Station, Rapid commenced service on the Australia Station in 1886. She was recommissioned three times in Sydney before leaving the Australia Station on 1 December 1897. In March 1902, it was announced that she would be sold out of service owing to defects in her machinery. Six months later, she was instead posted to Gibraltar where she arrived for dockyard work in September 1902.[5] Hulked in 1906, she was converted into a coal hulk in 1912 and was renamed C7. She became an accommodation ship in 1916 and was renamed Hart. She was sold at Gibraltar in 1948



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Rapid_(1883)

Satellite-class sloop - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1898 – Launch of Asama (浅間) was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN)

Asama (浅間) was the lead ship of her class of armored cruisers built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. As Japan lacked the industrial capacity to build such warships herself, the ship was built in Britain. She served in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05 during which she participated in the Battle of Chemulpo Bay and the Battle of the Yellow Sea without damage, although her luck did not hold out during the Battle of Tsushima. Early in World War I, Asama unsuccessfully searched for German commerce raiders until she was severely damaged when she ran aground off the Mexican coast in early 1915. Repairs took over two years to complete and she was mainly used as a training ship for the rest of her career. The ship made a total of 12 training cruises before she was crippled after running aground again in 1935. Asama then became a stationary training ship until she was broken up in 1946–47.



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

Asama-class cruiser - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1905 – Launch of SMS Leipzig ("His Majesty's Ship Leipzig"), the sixth of seven Bremen-class cruisers of the Imperial German Navy,

SMS Leipzig ("His Majesty's Ship Leipzig")[a] was the sixth of seven Bremen-class cruisers of the Imperial German Navy, named after the city of Leipzig. She was begun by AG Weser in Bremen in 1904, launched in March 1905 and commissioned in April 1906. Armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, Leipzig was capable of a top speed of 22.5 knots (41.7 km/h; 25.9 mph).
Leipzig spent her career on overseas stations; at the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, she was cruising off the coast of Mexico. After rejoining with the East Asia Squadron, she proceeded to South American waters, where she participated in the Battle of Coronel, where the German squadron overpowered and sank a pair of British armored cruisers. A month later, she again saw action at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, which saw the destruction of the East Asia Squadron. Leipzig was chased down and sunk by the cruisers HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent; the majority of her crew was killed in the battle, with only 18 survivors.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Leipzig_(1905)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bremen-class_cruiser


1912 – Launch of HMS Ajax was the third of four King George V-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s

HMS Ajax was the third of four King George V-class dreadnought battleships built for the Royal Navy in the early 1910s. After commissioning in 1913, she spent the bulk of her career assigned to the Home and Grand Fleets. Aside from participating in the failed attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in late 1914, the Battle of Jutland in May 1916 and the inconclusive Action of 19 August, her service during World War I generally consisted of routine patrols and training in the North Sea.

After the war, Ajax was assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet, where she took part in the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War in the Black Sea in 1919–1920. The ship was deployed to Turkish waters during the Chanak Crisis of September–October 1922. Ajax was placed in reserve in 1924 before being sold for scrap two years later in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ajax_(1912)

King George V-class battleship (1911) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1917 - Loretta Walsh becomes the first woman Navy petty officer when sworn in as chief yeoman.

Loretta Perfectus Walsh (April 22, 1896 – August 6, 1925) became the first American active-duty Navy woman, the first woman to enlist in the U.S. Navy, and the first woman allowed to serve as a woman in any of the United States armed forces, as anything other than as a nurse, when she enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on March 17, 1917. Walsh subsequently became the first woman U.S. Navy petty officer when she was sworn in as Chief Yeoman on March 21, 1917.

Loretta Perfectus Walsh - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1924 – Launch of French Lamotte-Picquet was a French Duguay-Trouin-class light cruiser

Lamotte-Picquet was a French Duguay-Trouin-class light cruiser, launched in 1924, and named in honour of the 18th century admiral count Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cruiser_Lamotte-Picquet

Duguay-Trouin-class cruiser - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

1943 - USS Herring (SS 233) sinks the German submarine U 163 off the Bay of Biscay. The sub was responsible for sinking USS Erie (PG 50) on Nov. 14, 1942.


1945 - USS Baya (SS 318) sinks the auxiliary netlayer Kainan Maru off Cam Ranh Bay.

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1185 - Battle of Yashima - Battle off the coast of Shikoku


The naval Battle of Yashima took place on March 22, 1185. Following a long string of defeats, the Taira clan retreated to Yashima, today's Takamatsu, just off the coast of Shikoku. Here they had a fortress, and an improvised palace for Emperor Antoku and the imperial regalia, which they had taken earlier in the war.



On the 18th, a Minamoto force tried to cross the sea but many of the boats were damaged in a storm. Kajiwara Kagetoki then suggested adding "reverse oars" to the boats, which prompted an argument from Minamoto no Yoshitsune. Finally after the boats were repaired and despite the high winds, Yoshitsune departed with only five of the 200 boats carrying about 150 of his men. After arriving Tsubaki Bay, in Awa Province. Yoshitsune then advanced into Sanuki Province through the night reaching the bay with the Imperial Palace at Yashima, and the houses in Mure and Takamatsu.

The Taira were expecting a naval attack, and so Yoshitsune lit bonfires on Shikoku, essentially in their rear, fooling the Taira into believing that a large force was approaching on land. They abandoned their palace, and took to their ships, along with Emperor Antoku and the imperial regalia.

In a memorable account in the Heike monogatari, a "very beautiful lady" in a Heike boat, placed a fan atop a pole, and dared the Minamoto to knock it off. In one of the most famous archery feats in all of Japanese history, Nasu no Yoichi rode out into the sea on horseback, and did just that in one shot. The Minamoto were victorious, but the majority of the Taira fleet escaped to Dan-no-ura, where they were defeated one month later in the Battle of Dan-no-ura.


Nasu no Yoichi firing his famous shot at a fan atop the mast of a Taira ship. From a hanging scroll, Watanabe Museum, Tottori Prefecture, Japan.

Battle of Yashima - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1781 – Launch of french Poulette, a French Coquette-class corvette built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb


Poulette was a French Coquette-class corvette built to a design by Joseph-Marie-Blaise Coulomb and launched in March 1781. She served the French navy until 1793 when the British captured her at Toulon in 1793. She served briefly in the Royal Navy, including at the battle of Genoa in 1795, until she was burned in October 1796 to prevent her falling into French hands.





French career
On 18 December 1782, she departed Toulon with the frigates Précieuse and Prosélyte to escort a convoy to the Caribbean, comprising the fluyts Gracieuse, Rhône and Durance.

In 1784, she sailed for a mission to the Middle East under Pierre-Dimas Thierry, Marquis de la Prévalaye, and in 1789 she was sent to Martinique.

In November - December 1790, she was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, who sailed from Toulon to Algiers with M. Vallière, France's consul general in Algeria. She also carried dispatches for the naval station and French consuls in the Levant.

Between January and July 1793, she was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Farquharson-Stuart. She sailed from Villefranche to Calvi via Toulon. She then escorted a convoy of troop transports from Calvi to the Gulf of Palmas via Ajaccio before returning to Villefranche. She next cruised the Ligurian coast while escorting convoys between Genoa and Marseilles. The British captured her at Toulon in 1793.

British service
The British took her into service as a 28-gun sixth rate. Initially she remained under Farquharson-Stuart's command, in the French Division under Rear-Admiral Trogoff de Kerlessy.

On 1 July 1794 Commander Ralph Miller became her captain. Miller had volunteered to lead an assault on the French ships moored at Golfe Jouan, and Admiral Samuel Hood appointed him to command Poulette and fit her as fireship, with the intention of setting fire to the anchored French fleet. Miller eventually made five attempts to take her into the anchorage, but the wind prevented him on each occasion. Hood then abandoned the project.

Poulette was in the van division under Vice-Admiral Samuel Goodall at the naval battle of Genoa on 14 March 1795. The battle, between British and Neapolitan warships under Vice-Admiral William Hotham and a French fleet under Rear-Admiral Pierre Martin, ended in a British-Neapolitan victory. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp 14 March 1795 to all surviving claimants from the action.

On 12 January 1796 Miller was next assigned to command Mignonne, but Admiral Sir John Jervis instead moved him to HMS Unite. Captain Jeremiah Edwards replaced Miller on Poulette.

Fate
The British burnt Poulette and her sister ship Belette on 20 October 1796 at Ajaccio in the face of the advancing French troops. The two sloops were not seaworthy enough for use in evacuating the island of Corsica.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_corvette_Poulette_(1781)

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1783 – Launch of HMS Rattler, a 16-gun Echo-class sloop of the Royal Navy.


HMS Rattler was a 16-gun Echo-class sloop of the Royal Navy. Launched in March 1783, she saw service in the Leeward Islandsand Nova Scotia before being paid off in 1792 and sold to whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons. She made two voyages as a whaler and two as a slave ship before she was condemned in the Americas as unseaworthy in 1802.





Construction
Rattler was one of six Echo-class sloops constructed in the early 1780s, principally for service in the imperial colonies. She was ordered in December 1781, to be constructed at Sandgate by shipwright Francis C. Willson, and launched on 22 March 1783.

Construction costs were £7,211, comprising £3,572 in builder's fees, £3,182 for fittings and £457 in dockyard expenses.

Rattler was built to the same technical drawings as the five other Echo-class ships, namely Brisk (1784), Calypso (1783), Echo(1782), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785). The class was designed to be 16-gun ship sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles.

All the Echo-class used the same plans for frame, inboard profile, lines, stern, and upper and lower decks

Caribbean service
Rattler was commissioned in April 1783 for service in the British Leeward Islands under Commander Wilfred Collingwood, assisting in enforcement of Great Britain's Navigation Acts against American trading vessels. On arrival in the Caribbean, Rattler joined the British fleet under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson, and including HMS Mediator which was captained by Wilfred Collingwood's brother Cuthbert.

In 1787 she was laid up to remove her copper bottom and replace it with wooden sheathing, despite the weaker protection this offered against infestation by shipworm. While the ship was being refitted Commander Collingwood was taken ill and died en route to a Grenada hospital on 21 April 1787. Rattler returned to sea later in April under Lieutenant James Wallis. After six months service returned to Britain for further refit and repair she was paid off.

Rattler was recommissioned in October 1789 under Lieutenant William Hope. He sailed her for Nova Scotia on 26 March 1790. In June 1790 Commander Jeremiah Beale replaced Hope.

Disposal: Rattler was paid off in 1792. She was sold at Woolwich to Messrs. Enderby & Sons on 6 September 1792.

Mercantile service
Rattler underwent refitting in Perry's Blackwall Ship Yard.

1st whaling voyage (1792–1794): Captain McCowen sailed from London on 12 November 1792. She left Portsmouth on 2 January 1793, bound for waters off Peru. Captain James Colnett replaced McCowen at some point. Rattler returned to England on 18 November 1794. Rattler returned with a poor cargo of only 48 tuns of sperm oil but with a detailed chart of the western side of South America and the Galapagos.

Enderby's sold Rattler and new owners sailed her as a slave ship.

1st slaving voyage (1795–1796): Captain Robert Bibby sailed from London on 27 April 1795. Rattler arrived at the Gold Coast on 3 July 1795. She loaded slaves at Cape Coast Castle and Anomabu and left Africa on 9 April 1796. She arrived at Kingston on 18 June. There she landed 468 slaves. She arrived back at London on 16 October.

2nd whaling voyage (1798–1800): Captain Sinclair Halcrow acquired a letter of marque on 23 December 1797. He sailed from England in 1798. He returned to London on 24 June 1800.

2nd slaving voyage (1800–1801): Captain Thomas Wilson acquired a letter of marque on 17 November 1800 He sailed from England on 25 December, bound for the Gold Coast. He returned to Falmouth after having been chased on 1 February 1801 off Finisterre and having been forced to separate from his convoy and escort, HMS Fly/

Rattler arrived there on 1 April 1801. She loaded slaves at Cape Coast Castle and Accra and delivered them to Demerara, where she arrived in October. She landed some 280-300 slaves. Rattler, late Wilson master, sailed from Demerara for London but around the end of January 1802 had to put into Grenada leaky. There she unloaded her cargo.

Fate
Rattler was condemned at Grenada as unseaworthy. The Register of Shipping for 1802 carries the annotation "Condemned" by her name.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines with gallery decoration and figurehead for Echo (1782) and Calypso (1783), and later for Rattler (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles. Signed by Edward Hunt [Surveyor of the Navy, 1778-1784]


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the inboard profile, upper deck, and lower deck for Echo (1782), and later for Rattler (1783), Calypso (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the framing profile (disposition) with alterations to the quarterdeck and cathead for Echo (1782), Rattler (1783), Calypso (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the stern board with some structural decoration detail, including the name in a cartouche on the counter, for Echo (1782), and later for Rattler (1783), Calypso (1783), Brisk (1784), Nautilus (1784), and Scorpion (1785), all 16-gun Ship Sloops with quarterdecks and forecastles.

HMS Rattler (1783) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1808 - HMS Aigle (36), Cptn. George Wolfe, engaged off Ile de Croix by batteries forced 1 of 2 frigates, Furieuse (40), ashore.


Action off Groix
Aigle was in action again on 22 March 1808 against two large, French frigates; Italienne of 40 guns and the 38-gun Sirene. A squadron comprising Aigle, the 32-gun frigate Narcissus, the two seventy-fours Impétueux and Saturn, and two or three smaller vessels were anchored between the Glénan islands, whilst being resupplied by a transport convoy. At 15:45, two French frigates to the south-east were simultaneously seen from Aigle's masthead and by the British schooner Cuckoo, which was stationed midway between the squadron and the island of Groix. Aigle immediately gave chase, and coming within hailing distance at 19:30, Wolfe directed Cuckoo to relay to Impétueux and Narcissus, now following two miles behind, his intention to cut off the French ships by sailing between Groix and the mainland.

An hour later, having endured the fire of the guns on both shores, Aigle was in a position to attack the rear-most frigate of the pair as they emerged from the western side of the island. This frigate sought the shelter of Groix' batteries, so Aigle set off in pursuit of the other which was now making for Lorient. As it was now dark, Aigle displayed a blue light to indicate her position to the closing Impétueux, and at 21:00, coming within 50 yards, exchanged fire with the Frenchman. To prevent a boarding, which Wolfe was determined upon, the frigate came about and, shortly after the British had broken off their attack for lack of sea room, ran aground on the Pointe de Chats on the eastern edge of Groix.

Saturn, Narcissus and Cuckoo joined Aigle and Impétueux during the night and the following morning at dawn, the five British returned to the island but no further attempt was made on either of the French frigates. Six days later the stranded ship was re-floated and both vessels arrived safely in Lorient.

Early in 1809, Aigle was back chasing merchantmen, securing five in January and February.



lines & profile This is the captured French Frigate. Not found in Progress Book. Something to do with July 1790, possibly at Sheerness Dockyard.

HMS Aigle was a 36-gun, fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Ordered on 15 September 1799 and built at Bucklers Hard shipyard, she was launched 23 September 1801. More than fifty of her crew were involved in the Easton Massacre when she visited Portlandin April 1803 to press recruits. Much of her career as a frigate was spent in home waters where she fought the Battle of Basque Roads in 1809; initially providing support to the crews of the fireships, then forcing the surrender of the stranded French ships, Varsovie and Aquilon. Later that year she left The Downs to take part in the Walcheren Campaign where she carried out a two-day long bombardment of Flushing, leading to its capitulation on 15 August.



In October 1811, Aigle was sent to the Mediterranean where she and her crew raided the island of Elba before being asked to provide naval support during the invasion and occupation of Genoa. Refitted in January 1820, her square stern was replaced with a circular one, giving her a wider angle of fire and improved protection at the rear. Converted to a corvette in 1831, she returned to the Mediterranean under Lord Paget. From 1852, she became a coal hulk, then a receiving ship before being used as a target for torpedoes and broken up in 1870.




outboard works, expansion of This is Aigle (1801). NMM, Progress Book, volume 6, folio 314, states that 'Aigle' was at Plymouth Dockyard between January 1804 and May 1805; again between July and August 1805; again from October to November 1807; and again between December 1809 and February 1810 for defects to be rectified.

HMS Aigle (1801) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1808 - Battle of Zealand Point


The Battle of Zealand Point was a naval battle of the English Wars and the Gunboat War. Ships of the Danish and British navies fought off Zealand Point on 22 March 1808; the battle was a British victory.




HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik is in the middle. (Motif from the Battle of Zealand Point)

Prelude
The Danish ship of the line HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik was stationed in Kristiansand, Norway from 7 August 1807, patrolling waters between Norway and Denmark where Britain had imposed a blockade. In February 1808, Prins Christian Frederik pursued the British ship HMS Quebec into hiding. Having learned of the Danish ship, the British admiralty sent a squadron consisting of HMS Nassau (the former Danish ship-of-the-line Holsteen, taken during the Battle of Copenhagen), HMS Stately, HMS Vanguard, and two brigs, HMS Constant and HMS Kite, to secure the waters. While this was going on Prins Christian Frederik became frozen in at Fredericksværn, near Kristiansand. She therefore did not set sail for Denmark until 4 March.

By the time Prins Christian Frederik reached Denmark, epidemic typhus had broken out among her crew. Ice in the Danish harbours prevented her from docking, and crew were replaced over the ice. On 17 March morale deteriorated further when news arrived that King Christian had died. She was ordered into the Great Belt (Storebælt) strait to provide cover for a crossing of a French armycorps consisting of Spanish soldiers ordered by Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (later King of Sweden) to attack Skåne. Having been alerted to the Danish plan, the British ships give chase. The British ships intended to outmanoeuvre, corner, and overpower Prins Christian Frederik; Captain Carl Jessen, after conferring with his officers, decided to take a stand in order to gain enough of a tactical advantage to move into familiar waters and within the protective range of the cannon at Kronborg.

On Friday 18 March 1808 the crew of HMS Stately was employed cutting passages through the sea ice from their Swedish anchorage to allow Stately and Nassau to go to sea. Their Swedish pilots were discharged the next day when the squadron, comprising the three ships-of-the-line Nassau, Stately, and Vanguard, the frigate HMS Quebec, the two sloops Falcon and HMS Lynx), and the gunbrig Constant, formed up and live bullocks were transferred from Stately to Quebec and to Lynx. The smaller ships patrolled the northern approaches to the Great Belt and the Øresund, within sight of the squadron or separately, investigating any strange sail. Quebec and Lynx were in company late on 21 March, then parted company early on 22nd before Quebec identified Prins Christian Frederik near Sejerø. Lynx, and later HMS Falcon, joined with Quebec in Sejerø Bay.

Course


Danish Commemorative stone for the Battle of Zealand Point

In the hours before the battle Prins Christian Frederik was within sight of Quebec and Lynx. At 2 [pm] the sloop, Falcon, who recorded the signal from Quebec "Danish Line-of-battle-ship to windward", joined them and cleared for action. During the afternoon the Danish ship had reversed course and sailed northward round the reef at the west of Sjællands Odde (that long tongue of land at the northwest of Zealand), and was now headed eastward again, to the north of the land Shortly after 4 [pm] Stately and Nassau were sighted to the North East, and the signal, "inforced with a (signal) gun", of the presence of the enemy led to all ships making "all sail, in chace".

Falcon and Nassau's logs record that at 7:50pm Prinds Christian Frederik fired the first shots when she fired her stern chasers at Nassau, the foremost of her pursuers. By 8:05pm Nassau had drawn level and began returning broadsides, but forty minutes later she was in danger of blocking Stately's field of fire. Nassau made more sail and moved ahead out of the way as Stately entered the fray. Action continued with the two British ships-of-the-line alternating their attacks until Prinds Christian Frederik struck. At this point Prinds Christian Frederik was aground 300 meters from the shore.

Throughout the morning of 23 March the squadron's boats transported prisoners, and the ships' companies knotted, spliced, and ran new rigging. At noon, orders were sent to set fire to Prinds Christian Frederick as soon as all the wounded had been removed. The fire was set between 7:30 and 8:00pm and Prinds Christian Frederik blew up shortly before 9:00 pm.

Stately had four men killed, and 31 officers and men wounded. Nassau lost one man killed, 17 officers and men wounded, and one man missing. Prins Christian Frederik lost 55 men killed and 88 men wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medalwith clasps "Stately 22 March 1808" and "Nassau 22 March 1808" to any still surviving crew members of those vessels that chose to claim them.

Consequences
Prins Christian Frederik was the last of the Danish ships of the line during the Napoleonic Wars.



A model of this ship hangs in da:Odden Kirke, near the scene of the battle


HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik was a ship of the line in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy. The ship was built at Orlogsværftet on the islet of Nyholm off Copenhagen and was launched in October 1804.





In 1806 and parts of the following year, the ship operated as a training vessel in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

In the second half of 1807 the HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik was patrolling in Danish-Norwegian waters alongside the ship of the line HDMS Lovise Augusta. On September 18, a British naval force attacked the Eastern Port of Kristiansand where one of the intentions was to embark and capture the HDMS Prinds Christian Fredrik that was anchored there. After massive firefighting from the Christiansholm Fortress, the attack was reversed.

At the beginning of 1808, HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik was in Norway to carry supplies to the Royal Dano-Norwegian Army. In March of the same year, the ship was commanded to protect the transfer of troops by the Storebælt.

On March 21, the ship was captured by a major British naval force during the Battle of Zealand Point.

On March 23, the captured HMS Prinds Christian Frederik was set on fire when the hostile fire reached the gunpowder depot and the ship was sprinkled into the air. 64 people died and 126 were injured.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Zealand_Point

HDMS Prinds Christian Frederik - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Danish Third Rate ship of the line 'Prinds Christian Frederik' (1804)

Danish Third Rate ship of the line 'Prinds Christian Frederik' (1804). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1810 - Start of campaign by HMS Magnificent (74), Cptn. G. Eyre, HMS Montagu (74), Cptn. Moubray, HMS Belle Poule (38), Cptn. James Brisbane, HMS Leonidas (36), Cptn. Anselm John Griffiths, and HMS Imogene (16), William Stephens, which captured Santa Maura.


The Action
The British, having decided to capture the island of Saint Maura, north of Corfu, Commander William Stephens and Imogen became part of a squadron that also included Magnificent, under the command of Captain George Eyre, who was the naval commander, Belle Poule, three gunboats, and five transports carrying troops. When the squadron arrived on 21 March 1810, Eyre ordered Stephens to take the gunboats and to anchor as close to shore as possible to cover the landing of the troops and to silence two small shore batteries there. The next day the operations began. The batteries fired on Imogen and the gunboats, but were soon silenced. Stephens went ashore and was wounded in the foot storming the redoubts that protected the citadel. Even so, on 25 March he sailed with Imogen, Belle Poule, and the gunboats to the north of the island to prevent the enemy from landing reinforcements. The citadel finally capitulated on 15 April. The only casualty on Imogen was Stephens.


HMS Imogen (or Imogene) was a Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in July 1805. She served primarily in the Adriatic campaign before the Navy sold her in 1817.



Career
Commander Thomas Garth commissioned Imogen in August 1805 for the North Sea. In November she towed Friendship, of Inverness, Brimmer , master, into Yarmouth. Imogen had found Friendship at sea with no one aboard.

On 18 April 1806 she captured the Prussian galliot Broderlusde, and on 23 August the Bergitta.

Garth sailed for the Mediterranean on 26 June 1807. On 13 September Imogen captured the Danish vessel Commandant van Scholten.

On 27 January 1808 Imogen captured the brig William Tell and her cargo. In March Commander William Stephens replaced Garth.

The British, having decided to capture the island of Saint Maura, north of Corfu, Stephens and Imogen became part of a squadron that also included Magnificent, under the command of Captain George Eyre, who was the naval commander, Belle Poule, three gunboats, and five transports carrying troops. When the squadron arrived on 21 March 1810, Eyre ordered Stephens to take the gunboats and to anchor as close to shore as possible to cover the landing of the troops and to silence two small shore batteries there. The next day the operations began. The batteries fired on Imogen and the gunboats, but were soon silenced. Stephens went ashore and was wounded in the foot storming the redoubts that protected the citadel. Even so, on 25 March he sailed with Imogen, Belle Poule, and the gunboats to the north of the island to prevent the enemy from landing reinforcements. The citadel finally capitulated on 15 April. The only casualty on Imogen was Stephens.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with midship framing and scroll figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth for Seagull (1805), Nightingale (1805), Oberon (1805), Imogen (1805), Savage (1805), Electra (1806), Paulina (1805), Delight (1806), Satellite (1806), Sheldrake (1806), Skylark (1806), Orestes (1805) and Julia (1806), all 14 (later 16) gun Brigs. Signed by John Henslow [Surveyor of the Navy, 1784-1806] and William Rule [Surveyor of the Navy, 1793-1813].

Imogen shared in the prize money for the Franco-Italian 10-gun brig Carlotta, captured on 10 December 1810. Imogen shared the prize money with the actual captor, Belle Poule, and two other vessels.

On 30 January 1811, Leonidas, Victorious, Belle Poule and Imogen destroyed the Italian man-of-war schooner Leoben. Leoben was sailing along the Albanian coast from Venice to Corfu with a cargo of ordnance stores when the British caught her. She was armed with ten guns and a crew of 60 men. Her own crew set her on fire and she subsequently blew up.

In February 1813 Imogen was still in the Mediterranean and under the command of Lieutenant Charles Taylor (acting). Apollo, Imogen, and troops captured Augusta and Carzola Islands. On 1 February Apollo, Imogen, and Gunboat No. 43, under the command of Mr. Antonio Pardo, sailed to Carzola. There Imogen and the gunboat supported an attack by Captain Taylor of Apollo, who commanded a landing party that silenced several sea batteries. When the town capitulated the British captured a privateer that had "molested the trade of the Adriatic", and two of her prizes. That day the British also captured seven vessels in the Channel, sailing to Ragusa and Cattaro, principally with grain, which was in short supply there.

Commander William Bamber was appointed to Imogene on 7 October 1813, on the Clyde. In 1815 Lieutenant John Gilmore replaced Bamber.

Fate
Imogen was placed in ordinary in July 1815. The Navy offered her for sale on 3 April 1817 at Plymouth. She was sold there that day for £690 to a Mr. Ismay


HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy, which was built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East, but in 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.






Capture of the 'Gypsy', 30 April 1812: left to right: HMS Belle Poule, Gypsy, and HMS Hermes, by Thomas Buttersworth


Lines & Profile (ZAZ2722)


The first HMS Leonidas (1807), launched in 1807, built by John Pelham of Frindsbury was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate, used as a powder hulk from 1872 and sold in 1894.


Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Leda' (1800), and later with alterations for 'Pomone' (1805), 'Shannon' (1806), 'Leonidas' (1807), 'Surprise' (1812), 'Lacedemonian' (1812), 'Tenedos' (1812), 'Lively' (1804), 'Trinocomalee' (1817), 'Amphitrite' (1816), 'Hebe' (1826), and 'Venus' (1820), all 38-gun Fifth Rate, Frigates. The draught was prepared from that of the captured French ship 'Hebe' (captured 1782). The plans for 'Amphitrite' and 'Trincomalee' were resent in 1813 on the 'Stirling Castle' after the capture of 'Java' by the US Frigate 'Constitution' in 1812. A duplicate set were dispatched on the Hon East India Company ship 'Tigris' in 1814. This plan was sent to Devonport, arriving on 20 January 1875. The plan was later sent to Chatham, arriving 8 July 1893, for making a half-model of 'Shannon' for the museum in the R. N. College, Greenwich.


HMS Magnificent was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 30 August 1806 at Blackwall Yard, captained by Rear-Admiral William Lloyd Towns.
She was hulked in 1825, and eventually sold out of the service in 1843.




Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for building 'Magnificent' (1806), 'Valiant' (1807), 'Elizabeth' (1807), 'Cumberland' (1807), and 'Venerable' (1808), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers, similar to the 'Repulse' (1803), 'Sceptre' (1802), and 'Eagle' (1804).




https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Magnificent_(1806)

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belle_Poule_(1806)

Collections - National Maritime Museum

HMS Imogen (1805) - Wikipedia

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Collections - National Maritime Museum

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1810 – Launch of HMS Decoy, she participated in the capture of several small French privateers,
22 March 1814 - Exactly 4 years later HMS Decoy was taken by the French while grounded off Calais


HMS Decoy was launched in 1810. She participated in the capture of several small French privateers, captured or recaptured a number of merchant vessels, and captured a number of smuggling vessels. The French captured her in 1814.



Career
Lieutenant John Pearce (or Pearse) commissioned Decoy in May 1810 for the Channel.

On 6 November 1810 Decoy, recaptured Lord Boringdon, which was an old, 194 ton (bm), Danish-built vessel that normally sailed between Plymouth and Lisbon. The salvage money notice referred to Decoy as "His Majesty's hired Cutter", an erroneous assumption based on the fact that most of the cutters serving the navy at the time were hired armed vessels.

As with the revenue cutters, Decoy also captured smugglers. On 23 May she captured the boat Dart, and on 4 June, the boat Bee.

On 30 December Decoy recovered some 25 bags of cotton, some marked "W. Hampton". A week or so later two fishing boats and HMS Kangaroo also brought in similar bales of cotton. The bales may have come from a vessel that had foundered. Decoy and her crew later received salvage money for those bales and also for some retrieved on 14 April 1811.

On 26 July 1811, Decoy and Pigmy ran a French privateer lugger on shore between Gravelines and Dunkirk, and destroyed her.
On 11 September HMS Bermuda captured the French privateer lugger Bon Genie, that the cutters Pigmy and Dwarf were chasing. Bon Genie was pierced for 16 guns but only had four mounted. She had a crew of 60 men, and did not strike until she had lost three men killed and 16 wounded, most severely. Decoy may have been in sight as she shared in the prize money.
On 24 November Decoy captured the smuggling smack Henry, which was carrying spirits.
On 21 December, Decoy ran foul of Dove, of Colchester, Dye, master. The accident happened near Dover as Dove was sailing to Little Hampton. Dove lost her bowsprit and mast, and had her bows stove in.
On 28 December Decoy seized smuggled spirits.

On 2 January 1812 Decoy recaptured Olive Branch.
On 5 April, Decoy seized smuggled spirits and lace. This may have been in connection with the capture of a smuggling boat.
On 10 May Decoy and Pioneer captured the French privateer lugger Infatigable. She was six hours out of Boulogne and had made no captures. Of her crew of 29 men her captain was killed and 9 men were wounded before she struck.
On 13 May 1812 a French row boat privateer, of 29 men, prize to Decoy, arrived at Dover.
Decoy was at Portsmouth on 31 July 1812 when the British authorities seized the American ships there and at Spithead on the outbreak of the War of 1812. She therefore shared, with numerous other vessels, in the subsequent prize money for these vessels: Belleville, Aeos, Janus, Ganges, and Leonidas.

Decoy captured three Prussian brigs in 1813: Den Frieden (11 May), Courier (23 June), and Hoop (24 June). Defender was in sight at the capture of Hoop.
On 29 July Decoy captured the smuggler Lark.
On 7 September 1813 Decoy recaptured the English brig William.
On 13 November Decoy captured the smuggler Fox.


Lines (ZAZ6392)

Fate
Decoy grounded off Calais on 22 March 1814, enabling the French to capture her. Lloyd's List reported that she had got under the batteries and that in the ensuing engagement two of her crew were killed.

The courtmartial of Pearce and his men found that she had grounded in a dense fog, Pearce and the officer of the watch, a midshipman, believing that she was eight miles off shore. All efforts to lighten her and get her off failed and as the water receded she was revealed to be lying on the Waldram Flats. A party of French soldiers approached and opened fire with small arms, wounding a seaman on Decoy. Decoy returned fire with her guns and with small arms and drove them off. Efforts to prop her up to await the next tide failed and she fell on her side. A larger party of soldiers arrived under a flag of truce and offered good terms of surrender so Pearce struck. The courtmartial admonished Pearce to be more careful in the future. It ordered the midshipman who had been on watch to forfeit all his outstanding pay and to be ineligible for promotion for three years. Lastly, it ordered the two pilots to lose all pay due them and sentenced one to six months in the Marshalsea Prison



Lines & Profile (ZAZ6391)

The Decoy class was a class of three cutters of the Royal Navy. William Rule designed the class. Two were lost in wartime; they grounded, enabling the French to capture them. One was lost to bad weather.

• HMS Decoy (1810) participated in the capture of several small French privateers, captured or recaptured a number of merchant vessels, and captured a number of smuggling vessels. The French captured her in 1814.
• HMS Dwarf (1810) was wrecked on 3 March 1824.
• HMS Racer (1810) stranded on the French coast on 28 October, which enabled the French to capture her.

HMS Decoy (1810) - Wikipedia

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Decoy-class cutter - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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British cutter 'Decoy' (1810)

British cutter 'Decoy' (1810). Dates of service, name changes, previous and next incarnations, dimensions, armament, commanders, officers and crewmen, actions, battles, sources

threedecks.org

 

[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1813 - 74-gun ship of the line HMS Captain, in harbour service, caught fire in the Hamoaze, Plymouth and sank the next day after burning to the waterline.


HMS Captain was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 26 November 1787 at Limehouse. She served during the French revolutionary and Napoleonic Warsbefore being placed in harbour service in 1799. An accident caused her to burn and founder in 1813. Later that year she was raised and broken up.



French Revolutionary Wars
At the start of the French Revolutionary War, she was part of the Mediterranean fleet which occupied Toulon at the invitation of the Royalists in 1793 before being driven out by Revolutionary troops in an action where Napoleon Bonaparte made his name. During this operation Captain was deployed in the Raid on Genoa. In June 1796, Admiral Sir John Jervis transferred Captain Horatio Nelson from HMS Agamemnon into Captain. Jervis appointed Nelson commodore of a squadron that was first deployed off Livorno during Napoleon's march through northern Italy.

In September 1796, Gilbert Elliot, the British viceroy of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, decided that it was necessary to clear out Capraja, which belonged to the Genoese and which served as a base for privateers. He sent Nelson, in Captain, together with the transport Gorgon, Vanneau, the cutter Rose, and troops of the 51st Regiment of Foot to accomplish this task in September. On their way, Minerva joined them. The troops landed on 18 September and the island surrendered immediately. Later that month Nelson oversaw the British withdrawal from Corsica.

In February 1797, Nelson had rejoined Jervis's fleet 25 miles west of Cape St. Vincent at the southwest tip of Portugal, just before it intercepted a Spanish fleet on 14 February. The Battle of Cape St Vincent made both Jervis's and Nelson's names. Jervis was made Earl St Vincent and Nelson was knighted for his initiative and daring.


Drawing with grey wash entitled "St Vincent. Nelson in the Captain engaging "Santissima Trinidad", "San Josef". The medium includes pen and black ink and is heightened with white. The drawing is signed and dated by the artist.

Nelson had realised that the leading Spanish ships were escaping and wore Captain to break out of the line of battle to attack the much larger Spanish ships. Captain exchanged fire with the Spanish flagship, Santísima Trinidad, which mounted 136 guns on four decks. Later Captain closely engaged the 80-gun San Nicolas, when the Spanish ship was disabled by a broadside from Excellent and ran into another ship, the San Josef of 112-guns. With Captain hardly manoeuvrable, Nelson ran his ship alongside San Nicolas, which he boarded. Nelson was preparing to order his men to board San Josef next when she signalled her intent to surrender. The boarding of San Nicolas, which resulted in the taking of the two larger ships was later immortalised as 'Nelson's Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates.'

Captain was the most severely damaged of the British ships as she was in the thick of the action for longer than any other ship. She returned to service following repairs and on 6 May 1799 sailed for the Mediterranean, where she joined Captain John Markham's squadron.

After the Battle of Alexandria, the squadron under Contre-Admiral Jean-Baptiste Perrée, consisting of the 40-gun Junon, 36-gun Alceste, 32-gun Courageuse, 18-gun Salamine and the brig Alerte escaped to Genoa.

On 17 June 1799 the French squadron, still under Perrée, was en route from Jaffa for Toulon when it encountered the British squadron under Markham in Centaur. In the ensuing Action of 18 June 1799, the British captured the entire French squadron, with Captain capturing Alerte. Markham described Alerte as a brig of 14 guns and 120 men, under the command of Lieutenant Dumay.


HMS Captain capturing the San Nicolas and the San Josef at the Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February 1797

Napoleonic Wars
In 1807 it had been one of the escorts for the expedition leaving Falmouth that would eventually attack Buenos Aires. Turned back north once the expedition reached the Cape Verde Islands.

Captain shared with Amaranthe, Pompee, and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £772 3s 3d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829.

Captain took part in the capture of Martinique in 1809. In April 1809, a strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes, south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland invaded and captured the islands. Captain was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands.

Fate
Later that year, Captain was put into harbour service. On 22 March 1813, she was accidentally burned in the Hamoaze, off Plymouth, Devon. At the time, she was undergoing conversion to a sheer hulk. When it was clear that the fire, which had begun in the forecastle, had taken hold, her securing lines were cut and she was towed a safe distance away from the other vessels so that she could burn herself out. Even so, orders were given that she be sunk. Ships' launches with carronades then commenced a one-hour bombardment. She finally foundered after having burned down to the waterline. Two men died in the accident. The wreck was raised in July and broken up at Plymouth.


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


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

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

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

Ships

• HMS Canada

Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Ordered: 1 December 1759
Launched: 17 September 1765
Fate: Broken up, 1834

• HMS Majestic

Builder: Adams & Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 23 August 1781
Launched: 11 December 1785
Fate: Broken up, 1816

• HMS Orion

Builder: Barnard, Deptford
Ordered: 2 October 1782
Launched: 1 June 1787
Fate: Broken up, 1814

• HMS Captain

Builder: Batson, Limehouse
Ordered: 14 November 1782
Launched: 26 January 1787
Fate: Burned and broken up, 1813

HMS Captain (1787) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Canada-class ship of the line - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

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[Uwek]

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1820 - Commodore Stephen Decatur was mortally wounded in a duel with Capt. James Barron at Bladensburg, Md.,
over criticism Decatur had when Barron lost his ship, USS Chesapeake, to HMS Leopard in 1807.


Stephen Decatur Jr. (January 5, 1779 – March 22, 1820) was a United States naval officer and commodore. He was born on the eastern shore of Maryland in Worcester County, the son of a U.S. naval officer who served during the American Revolution. His father, Stephen Decatur Sr., was a commodore in the U.S. Navy, and brought the younger Stephen into the world of ships and sailing early on. Shortly after attending college, Decatur followed in his father's footsteps and joined the U.S. Navy at the age of nineteen as a midshipman.



Decatur supervised the construction of several U.S. naval vessels, one of which he later commanded. Promoted at age 25, he is the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy. He served under three presidents, and played a major role in the early development of the American navy. In almost every theater of operation, Decatur's service was characterized by acts of heroism and exceptional performance. His service in the Navy took him through both Barbary Wars in North Africa, the Quasi-War with France, and the War of 1812 with Britain. He was renowned for his natural ability to lead and for his genuine concern for the seamen under his command. His numerous naval victories against Britain, France and the Barbary states established the United States Navy as a rising power.



During this period he served aboard and commanded many naval vessels and ultimately became a member of the Board of Navy Commissioners. He built a large home in Washington, known as Decatur House, on Lafayette Square, and was the center of Washington society in the early 19th century. He became an affluent member of Washington society and counted James Monroe and other Washington dignitaries among his personal friends.


Decatur Boarding the Tripolitan Gunboat, by Dennis Malone Carter

Decatur's career came to an early end when he was killed in a duel with a rival officer. Decatur emerged as a national hero in his own lifetime, becoming the first post-Revolutionary Warhero. His name and legacy, like that of John Paul Jones, became identified with the United States Navy.


Stephen Decatur by Alonzo Chappel

Duel between Perry and Heath
In October 1818, at the request of Oliver Hazard Perry, a very close friend, Decatur arrived at New York to act as his second in a duel between Perry and Captain John Heath, commander of Marines on USS Java. The two officers were involved in a personal disagreement while aboard that ship, that resulted in Heath challenging Perry to a duel. Perry had written to Decatur nearly a year previously, revealing that he had no intention of firing any shot at Heath. After the two duelists and their seconds assembled the duel took place. One shot was fired; Heath missed his opponent while Perry, keeping his word, returned no fire. At this point Decatur approached Heath with Perry's letter in hand, relating to Heath that Perry all along had no intention of returning fire and asking Heath if his honor had thus been satisfied. Heath admitted that it had. Decatur was relieved to finally see the matter resolved with no loss of life or limb to either of his friends, urging both to now put the matter behind them.

Death

James Barron, officer who killed Decatur in a duel, March 22, 1820

Decatur's life and distinguished service in the U.S. Navy came to an early end when in 1820, Commodore James Barron challenged Decatur to a duel, related in part to comments Decatur had made over Barron's conduct in the Chesapeake–Leopard Affair of 1807. Because of Barron's loss of Chesapeake to the British he faced a court-martial and was barred from command for a term of five years. Decatur had served on the court-martial that had found Barron guilty of "unpreparedness". Barron had just returned to the United States from Copenhagen after being away for six years and was seeking reinstatement. He was met with much criticism among fellow naval officers, among whom Decatur was one of the most outspoken. Decatur, who was now on the board of naval commissioners, strongly opposed Barron's reinstatement and was notably critical about the prospect in communications with other naval officers and government officials. As a result, Barron became embittered towards Decatur and challenged him to a duel. Barron's challenge to Decatur occurred during a period when duels between officers were so common that it was creating a shortage of experienced officers, forcing the War Department to threaten to discharge those who attempted to pursue the practice.

Barron's second was Captain Jesse Elliott, known for his jaunty mannerisms and antagonism toward Decatur. Decatur had first asked his friend Thomas Macdonough to be his second, but Macdonough, who had always opposed dueling, accordingly declined his request. Decatur then turned to his supposed friend Commodore William Bainbridge to act as his second, to which Bainbridge consented. However, according to naval historian Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Decatur made a poor choice: Bainbridge, who was five years his senior, had long been jealous of the younger and more famous Decatur.

The seconds met on March 8 to establish the time and place for the duel and the rules to be followed. The arrangements were exact. The duel was to take place at nine o'clock in the morning on March 22, at Bladensburg Dueling Grounds, near Washington, at a distance of only eight paces. Decatur, an expert pistol shot, planned only to wound Barron in the hip.

Decatur did not tell his wife, Susan, about the forthcoming duel but instead wrote to her father asking that he come to Washington to stay with her, using language that suggested that he was facing a duel and that he might lose his life. On the morning of the 22nd the dueling party assembled. The conference between the two seconds lasted three-quarters of an hour. Just before the duel, Barron spoke to Decatur of conciliation; however, the men's seconds did not attempt to halt the proceedings.

The duel was arranged by Bainbridge with Elliott in a way that made the wounding or death of both duelists very likely. The shooters would be standing close to each other, face to face; there would be no back-to-back pacing away and turning to fire, a procedure that often resulted in the missing of one's opponent. Upon taking their places the duelists were instructed by Bainbridge, "I shall give the word quickly – 'Present, one, two, three' – You are neither to fire before the word 'one', nor after the word 'three'. Now in their positions, each duelist raised his pistol, cocked the flintlock and while taking aim stood in silence. Bainbridge called out, 'One', Decatur and Barron both firing before the count of 'two'. Decatur's shot hit Barron in the lower abdomen and ricocheted into his thigh. Barron's shot hit Decatur in the pelvic area, severing arteries. Both of the duelists fell almost at the same instant. Decatur, mortally wounded and clutching his side, exclaimed, "Oh, Lord, I am a dead man." Lying wounded, Commodore Barron (who ultimately survived) declared that the duel was carried out properly and honorably and told Decatur that he forgave him from the bottom of his heart.

By then other men who had known about the duel were arriving at the scene, including Decatur's friend and mentor, the senior officer John Rodgers. In excruciating pain, Decatur was carefully lifted by the surgeons and placed in Rodgers' carriage and was carried back to his home on Lafayette Square. Before they departed Decatur called out to Barron that he should also be taken along, but Rodgers and the surgeons calmly shook their heads in disapproval. Barron cried back "God bless you, Decatur" – and with a weak voice Decatur called back "Farewell, farewell, Barron." Upon arrival at his home Decatur was taken in to the front room just left of the front entrance, still conscious. Before allowing himself to be carried in he insisted that his wife and nieces be taken upstairs, sparing them the sight of his grave condition. A Dr. Thomas Simms arrived from his home nearby to give his assistance to the naval physicians. However, for reasons not entirely clear to historians, Decatur refused to have the ball extracted from his wound. At this point Decatur requested that his will be brought forward so as to receive his signature, granting his wife all his worldly possessions, with directives as to who would be the executors of his will. Decatur died at approximately 10:30 pm that night. While wounded, he is said to have cried out, "I did not know that any man could suffer such pain!"

Washington society and the nation were shocked upon learning that Decatur had been killed at the age of forty-one in a duel with a rival navy captain. Decatur's funeral was attended by Washington's elite, including President James Monroeand the justices of the Supreme Court, as well as most of Congress. Over 10,000 citizens of Washington and the surrounding area attended to pay their last respects to a national hero. The pallbearers were Commodores Rodgers, Chauncey, Tingey, Porter and Macdonough; captains Ballard and Cassin; and Lieutenant Macpherson. Following were naval officers and seamen. At the funeral service a grieving seaman unexpectedly came forward and proclaimed, "He was the friend of the flag, the sailor's friend; the navy has lost its mainmast." Stephen Decatur died childless. Though he left his widow $75,000, a fortune at the time, she died virtually penniless in 1850.

Decatur's body was interred in the Barlow family vault at Kalorama in accordance with Susan's request. It was later moved to Philadelphia, where he was buried at St. Peter's Churchyard in 1846, alongside his mother and father.

After the funeral, rumors circulated of a last-minute conversation between the duelists that could have avoided the deadly outcome of the duel, moreover, that the seconds involved might have been planning for such an outcome and accordingly made no real attempts to stop the duel. Decatur's wife Susan held an even more damning view of the matter and spent much of her remaining life pursuing justice for what she termed "the assassins" involved.

Decatur's widow, Susan, tried for several years to receive a pension from the U.S. Government. By an act of Congress on March 3, 1837, she was granted a pension retroactive to Decatur's death.

Stephen Decatur - Wikipedia

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James Barron - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1900 – Launch of SMS Prinz Heinrich, a unique German armored cruiser built at the turn of the 20th century for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), named after Kaiser Wilhelm II's younger brother Prince Heinrich.


SMS Prinz Heinrich was a unique German armored cruiser built at the turn of the 20th century for the German Kaiserliche Marine (Imperial Navy), named after Kaiser Wilhelm II's younger brother Prince Heinrich. The second vessel of that type built in Germany, Prinz Heinrich was constructed at the Kaiserliche Werft (Imperial Shipyard) in Kiel, being laid down in December 1898, launched in March 1900, and commissioned in March 1902. Prinz Heinrich's design was a modification of the previous armored cruiser, Fürst Bismarck, and traded a smaller main battery and thinner armor for higher speed. All subsequent German armored cruisers were incremental developments of Prinz Heinrich.


Prinz Heinrich in port in 1902, probably while fitting-out

Prinz Heinrich served with the German fleet in home waters for just four years, from 1902 to 1906, when she was withdrawn from front-line service. During this period, she served as the flagship of the fleet's scouting forces, and she was primarily occupied with fleet training. The ship was out of service from early 1906 to mid-1908, when she was reactivated for use as a gunnery training ship, a role she filled until late 1912. Prinz Heinrich underwent modernization and conversion into a dedicated training ship in 1914, and the work was completed just before the outbreak of World War I in July that year.

After the outbreak of war, the ship was reactivated for active service, initially with III Scouting Group with the High Seas Fleet. Prinz Heinrich was used for coastal defense in the North Seaand she participated in the fleet sortie that supported the Raid on Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby in December 1914. After the naval command determined that Prinz Heinrich was too old to serve in the North Sea against the powerful British Royal Navy, she was transferred to the Baltic Sea in early 1915. She supported offensive minelaying operations and patrolled the central Baltic for Russian forces, but never encountered hostile forces. She provided gunfire support during the attack on Libau in May 1915 and shelled Russian positions during the Battle of the Gulf of Riga in August. In the face of severe crew shortages in late 1915, Prinz Heinrich had her crew reduced and was ultimately decommissioned and disarmed in March 1916. She thereafter served in a variety of secondary roles for the rest of the war, before being broken up in 1920.


Design


Fürst Bismarck, Germany's first armored cruiser; note the heavy military masts and dispersed secondary battery guns, both not repeated for Prinz Heinrich

Prinz Heinrich, the second armored cruiser built in Germany, was authorized under the 1898 Naval Law, the first naval construction program begun under the direction of Alfred von Tirpitz, the State Secretary of the Reichsmarineamt (Imperial Naval Office). The design for Prinz Heinrich was prepared in the late 1890s while construction of the first vessel, Fürst Bismarck, was still underway. Some older naval historians, including Hugh Lyon and John Taylor, writing in 1979 and 1969, respectively, have stated that Prinz Heinrich was intended for overseas service, but Aidan Dodson points out that the ship's hull was not sheathed with wood and copper or zinc layers, which would have been necessary for any ship deployed overseas where shipyard facilities would not be readily available. Dodson also noted that the ship never actually went abroad on an extended deployment.

The design staff based the new vessel on the basic design of Fürst Bismarck, but for budgetary reasons the new ship's size was reduced by about 1,500 metric tons (1,500 long tons). Weight reduction was achieved in part by thinning the ship's armor layout, though advances in steel technology meant this was not actually a compromise and her armor layout was in fact significantly more effective than Fürst Bismarck's. Krupp had recently developed cemented armor plate, which was considerably stronger than earlier Harvey armor, so less of it could be used to achieve the same level of protection. In addition, the belt could be made taller, extending up to the main deck level, which protected more of the ship's interior. The ship's deck armor sloped down on the sides, where it was connected to the lower edge of the belt, which considerably strengthened the protection system by providing another layer of armor that would need to be penetrated before the ship's vitals could be damaged.



The armament was also significantly reduced to save weight and cost, from four heavy guns in two twin-gun turrets to two guns, each in single turrets; she also received two fewer secondary guns compared to Fürst Bismarck. But rather than spreading the secondary battery along the length of the hull in casemates and sponsons, they were concentrated in a battery amidships, which reduced the amount of the hull that needed to be protected with armor, further saving weight and allowing thicker armor to be concentrated in the battery. Further weight savings were achieved by adopting a smaller superstructure and discarding heavy military masts in favor of lighter pole masts. Her engines, however, were some 2,000 metric horsepower (2,000 ihp) more powerful, which produced a faster vessel.

The ship proved to be an influential design, and all subsequent German armored cruisers were developments of Prinz Heinrich. In fact, the armor layout pioneered in Prinz Heinrich provided the basis of all German capital ships designed over the next forty years, including the final battleships of the Bismarck and H-classes.[5] Nevertheless, she was not without critics; Vizeadmiral (VAdm—Vice Admiral) Albert Hopman referred to the ship as "cheap, but bad" in his memoirs Logbuch eines Seeoffiziers (Log of a Sea Officer). The naval historians Hans Hildebrand, Albert Röhr, and Hans-Otto Steinmetz regard Hopman's criticism as an exaggeration, pointing out that Prinz Heinrich compared well to foreign contemporaries like the French Desaix, the Russian Bayan, and the Italian Giuseppe Garibaldi, though she was inferior to British designs. She nevertheless spent only four years in active service in peacetime before being replaced with newer, more powerful cruisers.


Prinz Heinrich passing through the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal

SMS Prinz Heinrich - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1911 – Launch of SMS Kaiser, the lead ship of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy.


SMS Kaiser was the lead ship of the Kaiser class of battleships of the Imperial German Navy. Kaiser was built by the Imperial Dockyard at Kiel, launched on 22 March 1911 and commissioned on 1 August 1912. The ship was equipped with ten 30.5-centimeter (12.0 in) guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of 23.4 knots (43.3 km/h; 26.9 mph). Kaiser was assigned to the III Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of World War I.



In 1913, Kaiser and her sister König Albert conducted a cruise to South America and South Africa. The ship participated in most of the major fleet operations during the war. She fought at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, during which she was hit twice and suffered negligible damage. The ship was also present during Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in September and October 1917, and at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917.

During peace negotiations after the end of the war in 1918, she was interned with other ships of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow. On 21 June 1919 the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. The wreck was raised in 1929 and broken up in Rosyth in 1930.


Construction


The shaded areas represent the portions of the ship protected by armor.

Ordered under the contract name Ersatz Hildebrand as a replacement for the obsolete coastal defense ship Hildebrand, Kaiser was laid down at the Imperial Dockyard in Kiel in September 1909. The hull was completed by 22 March 1911, when the ship was launched; this date was specifically chosen, as it was the birthday of Kaiser (Emperor) Wilhelm I. His grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II, attended the launching ceremony, where German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg gave a speech while Kaiserin (Empress) Augusta Victoria christened the ship. Fitting-out work then began, which was completed by the end of July 1912. On 1 August, the ship was commissioned for sea trials. These were concluded by 7 December; the following day Kaiser joined the fleet as the flagship of V Division. Her crew consisted largely of men who had been transferred from the recently decommissioned battleships Elsass and Braunschweig.

The ship was 172.40 m (565 ft 7 in) long overall and displaced a maximum of 27,000 metric tons (26,570 long tons). She had a beam of 29 m (95 ft 2 in) and a draft of 9.10 m (29 ft 10 in) forward and 8.80 m (28 ft 10 in) aft. Kaiser was powered by three sets of Parsons turbines, supplied with steam by 16 coal-fired boilers. The powerplant produced a top speed of 23.4 knots (43.3 km/h; 26.9 mph). She carried 3,600 metric tons (3,500 long tons) of coal, which enabled a maximum range of 7,900 nautical miles (14,600 km; 9,100 mi) at a cruising speed of 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph).

Kaiser was armed with a main battery of ten 30.5 cm SK L/50 guns in five twin turrets. The ship disposed with the inefficient hexagonal arrangement of previous German battleships; instead, three of the five turrets were mounted on the centerline, with two of them arranged in a superfiring pair aft. The other two turrets were placed en echelon amidships, so that both could fire on the broadside. The ship was also armed with fourteen 15 cm (5.9 in) SK L/45 guns in casemates amidships, eight 8.8 cm (3.5 in) SK L/45 guns in casemates and four 8.8 cm L/45 anti-aircraft guns. The ship's armament was rounded out by five 50 cm (20 in) torpedo tubes, all mounted in the ship's hull.


The Kaiser class was a class of five battleships that were built in Germany prior to World War I and served in the Imperial German Navy during the war. They were the third class of German dreadnoughts, and the first to feature turbine engines and superfiring turrets. The five ships were Kaiser, Friedrich der Grosse, Kaiserin, Prinzregent Luitpold, and König Albert. As was usual for German battleships of the period, the Kaiser class mounted main guns that were smaller than those of their British rivals: 30.5 cm (12.0 in), compared to the 34.3 cm (13.5 in) guns of the British Orion class.

All five ships saw action in the North Sea during the war; they served together as the VI Division of the III Battle Squadron. Four were present during the Battle of Jutland; König Albert was in dock at the time. Of the four ships that took part in the battle, only Kaiserwas damaged, being struck by two heavy-caliber shells. The ships also took part in Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea; during the operation they were reorganized as the IV Battle Squadron, under the command of Vice Admiral Wilhelm Souchon.

At the end of the war, all five ships were interned at the British naval base in Scapa Flow. On 21 June 1919, they were scuttled to prevent their seizure by the Royal Navy. The ships were subsequently raised and broken up for scrap between 1929 and 1937.





SMS Kaiser at Kiel Week festivities in June 1913. The imperial yacht Hohenzollern lies in the background


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Kaiser_(1911)

Kaiser-class battleship - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
22 March 1942 - Second Battle of Sirte
Italian fleet obstacles a British convoy to Malta, hit escorts, but failed to sink the cargo ships. Delay of the convoy led to the loss of four freighters by air attack


The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina (Italian Navy) squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers. The Italian force comprised a battleship, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and eight destroyers. Despite the initial British success at warding off the Italian squadron, the battle delayed the convoy's planned arrival before dawn, which exposed it to intense air attacks that sank all four merchant ships and one of the escorting destroyers in the following days. The battle occurred on 22 March 1942 in the Mediterranean, north of the Gulf of Sidra and southeast of Malta, during the Second World War.



Background
Malta had long been a major factor in British successes against Italian convoys to North Africa, and in return became the target of an increasing number of heavy Axis air raids. By early 1942 the Allies lost the initiative in the central Mediterranean as Italian and German forces gained the upper hand in their attempts to isolate Malta and made plans to remove it as a threat. After a series of Allied setbacks, the Italians achieved naval superiority over their enemies by spring 1942. As Malta was running short of aircraft, antiaircraft guns, fuel, food and ammunition, convoy MW10 sailed from Alexandria on 21 March.

The British expected opposition from German and Italian aircraft as well as Italian surface units. In December 1941, the two battleships (Queen Elizabeth and Valiant) stationed in the eastern Mediterranean had been disabled by an attack by Italian frogmen, and so their Alexandria squadron consisted only of cruisers and destroyers. Meanwhile, a diversion was organized from Gibraltar: on the morning of 20 March, the battleship Malaya—with the aircraft carriers Eagle and Argus, supported by the cruiser Hermione and eight destroyers—set sail from "The Rock". The next day, the squadron aborted the operation and returned to port – the carriers were unable to fly off aircraft reinforcements to Malta due to defective long-range fuel tanks.

The escort of convoy MW10 relied heavily on destroyers—including lighter-built destroyer escorts—to provide anti-submarine protection and included the anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle to bolster the convoy's anti-aircraft capability. Additional destroyers and another light cruiser were also sent from Malta.



British defensive plan
Admiral Sir Philip Vian, commanding the convoy, organised his ships into six divisions plus a close escort for the convoy of five Hunt-class destroyers.

• 1st Division: destroyers Jervis, Kipling, Kelvin and Kingston
• 2nd Division: light cruisers Dido and Penelope with the destroyer Legion
• 3rd Division: destroyers Zulu and Hasty
• 4th Division: light cruisers Cleopatra (flagship) and Euryalus
• 5th Division: destroyers Sikh, Lively, Hero and Havock
• 6th Division: anti-aircraft cruiser Carlisle and Hunt-class destroyer Avon Vale

In case of an Italian surface attack, the first five divisions were to stand off from the convoy to face the enemy while the sixth division laid smoke across the wake of the convoy to obscure it from the enemy. The first five divisions would act as a rearguard to lay smoke and delay the enemy while Carlisle and the Hunt-class destroyers proceeded with the cargo ships to Malta.

The battle


British cruisers Cleopatra (making smoke) and Euryalus (foreground) moving into action

At 14:30 the next day, the British were faced by a pair of heavy cruisers and escorting destroyers. Admiral Vian immediately implemented his plan; the cargo ships and escorts turned away to the south while the light cruisers and remaining destroyers laid smoke and charged the Italians. After an exchange of fire, the two Italian heavy cruisers backed off in an attempt to lure the British toward the incoming main Italian squadron, and at 16:37 they returned to attack with the battleship Littorio, a light cruiser and their screening destroyers.


The Italian cruiser Gorizia firing her 203 mm (8.0 in) guns on the British destroyers during the battle

The battle raged for two and a half hours, with the British ships leaving the safety of their huge smoke screen to fire a few volleys and then returning to it when the Italian salvos got too close. During one of these exchanges, Havock suffered heavy damage from a near-miss when fired at by the Italian battleship, and was ordered to withdraw from the battle line and join the convoy. At 18:34, Vian decided to send his destroyers in to launch torpedo attacks from about 5,000 yd (4,600 m), the closest the Italians would allow the British to approach. None of the torpedoes found their target, but as Kingston turned she was hit hard by a round which penetrated her boiler room, ignited a fire and temporarily brought her to a halt. The battle began with a 25 kn (29 mph; 46 km/h) wind blowing to the North-west, with the wind continuing to increase during the day; a factor which favoured the gunnery of the larger Italian ships throughout the battle, but the direction of the wind aided the laying of smokescreens by Vian's ships.

Lively was also struck by shell splinters from the battleship's main guns that pierced a bulkhead, causing some flooding but no casualties.


The Italian light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere. During the battle, she landed a 152 mm (6.0 in) round on the cruiser HMS Cleopatra′s bridge with her second salvo, disabling the radar and radio.

Right at the end of the action, at 18:55, Littorio had been hit by a 4.7 in (120 mm) shell, with negligible damage. Her floatplane caught fire from the blast from a salvo of her after turret at the same time. This led to the claim by the British that one of the torpedoes struck home.

At dusk, about 19:00, the Italians gave up and turned for home. Without radar, they would have been at a significant disadvantage in a night action, as in the Battle of Cape Matapan. The Italians outgunned their British counterparts but they appeared unwilling to close for a decisive blow, perhaps wary of the torpedo threat from the numerically superior British destroyer force.

Battle damage
According to British reports, "HMS Cleopatra was struck on the after part of the bridge at 16:44...", by a 152 mm (6.0 in) hit from the light cruiser Giovanni dalle Bande Nere; 16 seamen were killed. Admiral Iachino in his memories attributes the damage to the secondary armament of Littorio. Cruisers Euryalus and Penelope were also damaged, with Euryalus straddled by Littorio at 16:43 and at 18:41. Kingston was hit amidships by a shell from Littorio that killed 15 men of her crew. and left the destroyer dead in the water, with her starboard whaleboat torn apart, her anti-aircraft guns, searchlight tower and torpedo launchers shattered by the explosion. Some sources claim that she was hit by the guns of the heavy cruiser Gorizia. Although Kingston had an engine in flames and a flooded boiler, she managed however to recover speed, reaching Malta the next day. Havock was also badly damaged in a boiler by a Littorio near miss at 17:20, suffering eight deaths. Lively was forced to retreat to Tobruk for repairs at 18:55, after a near miss from Littorio′s aft turret holed her hull, resulting in some flooding. Three more destroyers—Sikh, Legionand Lance—suffered lesser damage from 8 in (203 mm) cruiser fire. The Italian fleet expended 1,511 rounds of all calibres upon the British squadron; the only Italian destroyer to open fire was Aviere. The British cruisers had replied with 1,553 rounds and the destroyers with about 1,300 rounds as well as 38 torpedoes. Axis aircraft made continual attacks, mainly against the convoy, throughout the naval action and Royal Navy AA gunners claimed the destruction of seven Axis aircraft and damage to several more.

Follow-up actions
Most of the escort force, now short of fuel and ammunition due to the protracted engagement and unable to find the convoy, turned back for Alexandria. The damaged destroyers and the cargo ships were sent on to Malta, with Carlisle, Penelope and Legion. The next day, they were subjected to continuous air attacks. The cargo ship Clan Campbell was sunk twenty miles from harbour, and the oil tanker Breconshire was too damaged to reach Valletta. Nonetheless, the other two merchantmen, Talabot and steamer Pampas, reached Malta's Grand Harbour virtually unharmed. Pampas had been hit by two bombs but these failed to explode. Penelope attempted to tow Breconshire, but the tow parted in heavy seas. She anchored short of the protective minefields and the destroyer Southwold attempted to take her in tow, hitting a mine in the process. She was eventually towed into Marsaxlokk Bay by tugs.

Intense Axis air raids against Malta on 24–25 March failed to damage the three surviving convoy ships. However, on 26 March, German dive bombers scored bomb hits on all three ships, sinking Talabot and Pampas that day with Breconshire capsizing on 27 March. Much of Breconshire′s oil was salvaged through the hole in her hull. Only about 5,000 short tons (4,500 t) of cargo had been unloaded, of the 26,000 short tons (24,000 t) that had been loaded in Alexandria.


Destroyer HMS Kingston suffered heavy damage from Littorio's main guns during the battle, and while in drydock at Malta she was successively attacked by German bombers which further damaged her, this time beyond repair.

The Italian fleet units were no more lucky after the battle. After failing to destroy the convoy by themselves, they were caught en route to their bases by a severe storm that sank the destroyers Sciroccoand Lanciere.

While under repair in dry dock at Malta, Kingston was attacked a few days later by German aircraft and suffered further damage, this time beyond repair. She was scrapped in situ in the following months.

Assessments
Almost all sources with an opinion on the matter have assessed the battle as a British victory, credited to the escort of light cruisers and destroyers which successfully prevented the Italians from inflicting any damage whatsoever on the convoy by staving off an Italian squadron, composed of a battleship and two heavy cruisers, while fending off heavy Axis air attacks. On the other hand, some authors while generally acknowledging the British success, write of the battle as a partial Italian achievement in delaying and turning the convoy aside.

Nearly all sources acknowledge the Italian fleet inflicted significant damage and several casualties on the British squadron while suffering minimal damage and no casualties in return. The action, however, represented a failure on the Italians' part to exploit their advantage and destroy the convoy. Indeed, they were unable to sink or cripple a single cargo ship. This was due to Admiral Vian's vigorous and skillful defence in the face of a superior adversary. The overwhelming strength of the Italian fleet was not fully exploited by Admiral Iachino also because bad weather and lack of radar prevented him from continuing the pursuit of the convoy at dusk.

But when the main objective, to re-supply Malta, is included in the assessment, the outcome is different. The British intention to reach Malta before dawn with a substantial escort was disrupted by the intervention of the Italian Navy. This left the cargo ships exposed to Axis air supremacy.

Thereafter, Italian and German aircraft caught the British convoy at sea and chased the surviving steamers to the harbour; more than 80% of the supplies were lost. The British convoy operation was, therefore, a strategic failure

Order of battle





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

 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 22 March


1769 – Launch of French Bien-Aimé 74 (launched 22 March 1769 at Lorient)

Bien-Aimé class - designed by Antoine Groignard
Bien-Aimé 74 (launched 22 March 1769 at Lorient)
Victoire 74 (launched 4 October 1770 at Lorient)


1797 HMS Hermione (32), Cptn. Pigot, destroyed vessels at Porto Rico.

HMS Hermione was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was notorious for having the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history, which saw her captain and most of the officers killed. The mutineers then handed the ship over to the Spanish, with whom she remained for two years before being cut out and returned to Royal Navy service under the names Retaliationand later Retribution.


A print by Thomas Whitcombe, depicting the Santa Cecilia, the former HMS Hermione, being cut out in Puerto Cabello by boats from Edward Hamilton'sHMS Surprise in 1799

HMS Hermione (1782) - Wikipedia

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1798 HMS Canada (38), Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren, HMS Phaeton (38), Cptn. Robert Stopford, and HMS Anson (38) engaged Charente (36) off the Gironde


1801 Boats of HMS Andromache (32), Cptn. Robert Laurie,and HMS Cleopatra (32), Cptn. Israel Pellew, attack a convoy of 30 vessels protected by 3 gun vessels in the Bay of Levita, Cuba.

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

HMS Cleopatra (1779) - Wikipedia

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1813 Two French vessels taken at Vasto by boats of HMS Havannah (36), Cptn. Hon. George Cadogan.

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

HMS Havannah (1811) - Wikipedia

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1902 – Launch of SMS Frauenlob ("His Majesty's Ship Frauenlob")[a] was the eighth member of the ten-ship Gazelle class, built by the Imperial German Navy.

SMS Frauenlob ("His Majesty's Ship Frauenlob") was the eighth member of the ten-ship Gazelle class, built by the Imperial German Navy. She was built by the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, laid down in 1901, launched in March 1902, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet in February 1903. Armed with a main battery of ten 10.5 cm (4.1 in) guns and two 45 cm (18 in) torpedo tubes, Frauenlob was capable of a top speed of 21.5 knots (39.8 km/h; 24.7 mph).

Frauenlob spent her entire career in the reconnaissance forces of the High Seas Fleet. She saw action during World War I at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914, where she badly damaged the British cruiser HMS Arethusa, and at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. There, in a chaotic night engagement, Frauenlob was hit by a torpedo launched by HMS Southampton, which caused the ship to capsize and sink with the vast majority of her crew. The wreck was discovered in 2000, and is in remarkably good condition, sitting upright on the ocean floor.


Frauenlob passing under the Levensau High Bridge in the Kiel Canal

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


1905 – Launch of Kashima (鹿島 (戦艦) Kashima (senkan)) was the second ship of the two Katori-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN)

Kashima (鹿島 (戦艦) Kashima (senkan)) was the second ship of the two Katori-class pre-dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the first decade of the 20th century, the last to be built by British shipyards. Ordered just before the start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, the ship was completed a year after its end. She saw no combat during World War I, although the ship was present when Japan joined the Siberian Intervention in 1918. Kashima was disarmed and scrapped in 1923–24 in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922.


Newly completed Kashima at anchor, 1906

Japanese battleship Kashima - Wikipedia

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Katori-class battleship - Wikipedia

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1915 - "Naval Aviator" replaces the title "Navy Air Pilot" for officers who become qualified as aviators.


1929 - Destroyers USS Robert Smith (DD 324), USS Moody (DD 277), and USS Selfridge (DD 320) protect Americans and their property during the Mexican Cristero uprising.


1943 - USS Gudgeon (SS 211) attacks a Japanese convoy 30 miles north Surabaya, Java, sinking an army cargo ship while surviving the depth charge attack by her escort vessels. Also on this date, USS Tambor (SS 198) damages a Japanese transport in the Sulu Sea, off Negros, Philippines.


1973 - MV Norse Variant was a Norwegian combined bulk and car carrier, which sank off the coast of New Jersey during a storm on 22 March 1973.

MV Norse Variant was a Norwegian combined bulk and car carrier, which sank off the coast of New Jersey during a storm on 22 March 1973.



The ship was constructed by the Uddevallavarvet AB shipyard at Uddevalla, Sweden, for Odd Godager & Co. of Oslo, and was delivered on March 1965. Norse Variant could carry 1,500 cars and sailed between Europe, the US east and west coasts, and Japan, with cars and bulk cargoes. She sailed from Newport on 21 March 1973 with a cargo of coal bound for Glasgowand sank in a late winter storm the next day. The last radio message from the ship was received at 13:49 on 22 March. Of the crew of 30 only one man, the oiler Stein Gabrielsen, survived, having spent three days on rafts before being rescued by MT Mobile Lube.

Another Norwegian combined bulk and car carrier, MV Anita, which passed Cape Henry only an hour after Norse Variant, disappeared with its crew of 32. Nothing was ever found of this vessel.

MV Norse Variant - Wikipedia

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
23 March 1654 - Colombo / Ceylon - Skirmish between Dutch and Portuguese


The Action of March 23, 1654 is the name given to a naval battle which took place near Colombo, Ceylon, when a force of 5 Portuguese galleons which were escorting 5 merchant galliots to Colombo, fought its way through a Dutch blockading squadron of 3 ships. 2 of the Dutch ships were captured, but the Portuguese in the confusion of having their 2 top officers killed, these ships were recaptured. They ran aground but were refloated.



Ships involved
Portugal

• Nazaré 42 (flag, António Pereira)
• São João 38 (second flag, Álvaro de Novais)
• Santo António de Mazagão 36 (António Sottomaior)
• São José 34 (Francisco Machado Deca)
• São Filipe e Santiago 24 (António de Abreu)

Netherlands

• Windhond (flag?)
• Renoçer (Rhinoceros) (second flag?)
• Drommedaris (yacht)

Renoçer and probably Windhond were the captured ships.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_of_23_March_1654