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

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 September 1798 - Launch of HMS Temeraire, a 98-gun ship of the Neptune-class


HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar, but became so well known for her actions and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as The Fighting Temeraire.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Neptune' (1797), and later for 'Temeraire' (1798) and 'Queen' (1805) prior to the latter's lengthening. Alterations dated 1796 illustrated on the plan only apply to 'Neptune' and 'Temeraire', as 'Ocean' was ordered to be lengthened by 11ft 6 inches in July 1797.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/80116.html#kwB0B1EJHURurBTq.99


Built at Chatham Dockyard, Temeraire entered service on the Brest blockade with the Channel Fleet. Missions were tedious and seldom relieved by any action with the French fleet. The first incident of note came when several of her crew, hearing rumours they were to be sent to the West Indies at a time when peace with France seemed imminent, refused to obey orders. This act of mutiny eventually failed and a number of those responsible were tried and executed. Laid up during the Peace of Amiens, Temeraire returned to active service with the resumption of the wars with France, again serving with the Channel Fleet, and joined Horatio Nelson's blockade of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Cadiz in 1805. At the Battle of Trafalgar on 21 October, the ship went into action immediately astern of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory. During the battle Temeraire came to the rescue of the beleaguered Victory, and fought and captured two French ships, winning public renown in Britain.

After undergoing substantial repairs, Temeraire was employed blockading the French fleets and supporting British operations off the Spanish coasts. She went out to the Baltic in 1809, defending convoys against Danish gunboat attacks, and by 1810 was off the Spanish coast again, helping to defend Cadiz against a French army. Her last action was against the French off Toulon, when she came under fire from shore batteries. The ship returned to Britain in 1813 for repairs, but was laid up. She was converted to a prison ship and moored in the River Tamar until 1819. Further service brought her to Sheerness as a receiving ship, then a victualling depot, and finally a guard ship. The Admiralty ordered her to be sold in 1838, and she was towed up the Thames to be broken up.

This final voyage was depicted in a J. M. W. Turner oil painting greeted with critical acclaim, entitled The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838. The painting continues to be held in high regard and was voted Britain's favourite painting in 2005.

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The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 by J. M. W. Turner, 1838

Construction and commissioning

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Admiralty plan for a 98-gun ship of the line of the Neptune class. This represents the design for HMS Dreadnought, drawn up by the Navy Office and dated 22 July 1789.

Temeraire was ordered from Chatham Dockyard on 9 December 1790, to a design developed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir John Henslow. She was one of three ships of the Neptune class, alongside her sisters HMS Neptune and HMS Dreadnought. The keel was laid down at Chatham in July 1793. Her construction was initially overseen by Master Shipwright Thomas Pollard and completed by his successor Edward Sison. Temeraire was launched on 11 September 1798 and the following day was taken into the graving dock to be fitted for sea. Her hull was fitted with copper sheathing, a process that took two weeks to complete. Refloated, she finished fitting out, and received her masts and yards.

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Scale 1:48. Plan showing the bow inboard side elevation, stern quarter inboard elevation, a section through the bow at Station 24, and a section through the stern at Station Q for 'Temeraire' (1798), and later for 'Neptune' (1797), and 'Dreadnought' (1801), all 98-gun Second Rate, three-deckers. The plan also related to 'Ocean' (1805), prior to being lengthened 11 feet in 1797 to accommodate larger calibre cannon. A version of this plan with alterations in green ink was dispatched to the various royal yards in March 1792. The plan illustrates the proposed (and approved with alterations) manner of erecting a roof over the fore and aft part of the ship to protect it from the weather during construction.

She was commissioned on 21 March 1799 under Captain Peter Puget, becoming the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Temeraire. Her predecessor had been the 74-gun third-rate HMS Temeraire, a former French ship taken as a prize at the Battle of Lagos on 19 August 1759 by a fleet under Admiral Edward Boscawen. Puget was only in command until 26 July 1799, during which time he oversaw the process of fitting the new Temeraire for sea. He was superseded by Captain Thomas Eyles on 27 July 1799, while the vessel was anchored off St Helens, Isle of Wight.

Battle of Trafalgar
Temeraire duly received orders to join the Cadiz blockade, and having sailed to rendezvous with Collingwood, Harvey awaited Nelson's arrival. Nelson's flagship, the 100-gun HMS Victory, arrived off Cadiz on 28 September, and he took over command of the fleet from Collingwood. He spent the next few weeks forming his plan of attack in preparation for the expected sortie of the Franco-Spanish fleet, issuing it to his captains on 9 October in the form of a memorandum. The memorandum called for two divisions of ships to attack at right angles to the enemy line, severing its van from the centre and rear. A third advance squadron would be deployed as a reserve, with the ability to join one of the lines as the course of the battle dictated. Nelson placed the largest and most powerful ships at the heads of the lines, with Temeraire assigned to lead Nelson's own column into battle. The fleet patrolled a considerable distance from the Spanish coast to lure the combined fleet out, and the ships took the opportunity to exercise and prepare for the coming battle. For Temeraire this probably involved painting her sides in the Nelson Chequer design, to enable the British ships to tell friend from foe in the confusion of battle.

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An 1848 plan of the fleet positions at the Battle of Trafalgar. Temeraireforms part of the weather column, and is depicted abreast of the Victory, racing her for the Franco-Spanish line.

The combined Franco-Spanish fleet put to sea on 19 October 1805, and by 21 October was in sight of the British ships. Nelson formed up his lines and the British began to converge on their distant opponents. Contrary to his original instructions, Nelson took the lead of the weather column in Victory. Concerned for the commander-in-chief's safety in such an exposed position, Henry Blackwood, a long-standing friend of Nelson and commander of the frigate HMS Euryalus that day, suggested that Nelson come aboard his ship to better observe and direct the battle. Nelson refused, so Blackwood instead tried to convince him to let Harvey come past him in the Temeraire, and so lead the column into battle. Nelson agreed to this, and signalled for Harvey to come past him. As Temeraire drew up towards Victory, Nelson decided that if he was standing aside to let another ship lead his line, so too should Collingwood, commanding the lee column of ships. He signalled Collingwood, aboard his flagship HMS Royal Sovereign, to let another ship come ahead of him, but Collingwood continued to surge ahead. Reconsidering his plan, Nelson is reported to have hailed the Temeraire, as she came up alongside Victory, with the words "I'll thank you, Captain Harvey, to keep in your proper station, which is astern of the Victory". Nelson's instruction was followed up by a formal signal and Harvey dropped back reluctantly, but otherwise kept within one ship's length of Victory as she sailed up to the Franco-Spanish line.

Closely following Victory as she passed through the Franco-Spanish line across the bows of the French flagship Bucentaure, Harvey was forced to sheer away quickly, just missing Victory's stern. Turning to starboard, Harvey made for the 140-gun Spanish ship Santísima Trinidad and engaged her for twenty minutes, taking raking fire from two French ships, the 80-gun Neptune and the 74-gun Redoutable, as she did so. Redoutable's broadside carried away Temeraire's mizzen topmast. While avoiding a broadside from Neptune, Temeraire narrowly avoided a collision with Redoutable. Another broadside from Neptune brought down Temeraire's fore-yard and main topmast, and damaged her fore mast and bowsprit. Harvey now became aware that the Redoutable had come up alongside the Victory and swept her decks with musket fire and grenades. A large party of Frenchmen now gathered on her decks ready to board the Victory. Temeraire was brought around; appearing suddenly out of the smoke of the battle and slipping across Redoutable's stern, Temeraire discharged a double-shotted broadside into her. Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas, captain of the Redoutable, recorded that "... the three-decker [Temeraire] – who had doubtless perceived that the Victory had ceased fire and would inevitably be taken – ran foul of the Redoutableto starboard and overwhelmed us with the point-blank fire of all her guns. It would be impossible to describe the horrible carnage produced by the murderous broadside of this ship. More than two hundred of our brave lads were killed or wounded by it."

Temeraire and Redoutable

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The Battle of Trafalgar, 1836 oil on canvas by Clarkson Frederick Stanfield. Stanfield shows the damaged Redoutable caught between the Victory (foreground) and the Temeraire (seen bow on). The Fougueux, coming up on Temeraire's starboard side, has just received a broadside.

Temeraire then rammed into the Redoutable, dismounting many of the French ship's guns, and worked her way alongside, after which her crew lashed the two ships together. Temeraire now poured continuous broadsides into the French ship, taking fire as she did so from the 112-gun Spanish ship Santa Ana lying off her stern, and from the 74-gun French ship Fougueux, which came up on Temeraire's un-engaged starboard side. Harvey ordered his gun crews to hold fire until Fougueux came within point blank range. Temeraire's first broadside against Fougueux at a range of 100 yards caused considerable damage to the Frenchman's rigging, and she drifted into Temeraire, whose crew promptly lashed her to the side. Temeraire was now lying between two French 74-gun ships. As Harvey later recalled in a letter to his wife "Perhaps never was a ship so circumstanced as mine, to have for more than three hours two of the enemy's line of battle ships lashed to her." Redoutable, sandwiched between Victory and Temeraire, suffered heavy casualties, reported by Captain Lucas as amounting to 300 dead and 222 wounded. During the fight grenades thrown from the decks and topmasts of Redoutable killed and wounded a number of Temeraire's crew and set her starboard rigging and foresail on fire. There was a brief pause in the fighting while both sides worked to douse the flames. Temeraire narrowly escaped destruction when a grenade thrown from Redoutable exploded on her maindeck, nearly igniting the after-magazine. Master-At-Arms John Toohig prevented the fire from spreading and saved not only Temeraire, but the surrounding ships, which would have been caught in the explosion.

After twenty minutes fighting both Victory and Temeraire, the Redoutable had been reduced to a floating wreck. Temeraire had also suffered heavily, damaged when Redoutable's main mast fell onto her poop deck, and having had her own topmasts shot away. Informed that his ship was in danger of sinking, Lucas finally called for quarter to the Temeraire. Harvey sent a party across under the second lieutenant, John Wallace, to take charge of the ship.

Temeraire and Fougueux
Lashed together, Temeraire and Fougueux exchanged fire, Temeraire initially clearing the French ship's upper deck with small arms fire. The French rallied, but the greater height of the three-decked Temeraire compared to the two-decked Fougueux thwarted their attempts to board. Instead Harvey dispatched his own boarding party, led by First-Lieutenant Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, which entered Fougueux via her main deck ports and chains. The French tried to defend the decks port by port, but were steadily overwhelmed. Fougueux's captain, Louis Alexis Baudoin, had suffered a fatal wound earlier in the fighting, leaving Commander François Bazin in charge. When he learned that nearly all of the officers were dead or wounded and that most of the guns were out of action, Bazin surrendered the ship to the boarders.

Harvey_of_the_Temeraire_at_Trafalgar.jpg
The Battle of Trafalgar. Captain Harvey of the Temeraire ... clearing the deck of the French and Spaniards ...

Temeraire had by now fought both French ships to a standstill, at considerable cost to herself. She had sustained casualties of 47 killed and 76 wounded. All her sails and yards had been destroyed, only her lower masts remained, and the rudder head and starboard cathead had been shot away. Eight feet of her starboard hull was staved in and both quarter galleries had been destroyed. Harvey signalled for a frigate to tow his damaged ship out of the line, and HMS Sirius came up to assist. Before Sirius could make contact, Temeraire came under fire from a counter-attack by the as-yet unengaged van of the combined fleet, led by Rear Admiral Pierre Dumanoir le Pelley. Harvey ordered that the few guns that could be brought to bear be fired in response, and the attack was eventually beaten off by fresh British ships arriving on the scene.

Storm
Shortly after the battle had ended, a severe gale struck the area. Several of the captured French and Spanish ships foundered in the rising seas, including both of Temeraire's prizes, the Fougueux and the Redoutable. Lost in the wrecks were a considerable number of their crews, as well as 47 Temeraire crewmen, serving as prize crews. Temeraire rode out the storm following the battle, sometimes being taken in tow by less damaged ships, sometimes riding at anchor. She took aboard a number of Spanish and French prisoners transferred from other prizes, including some transferred from the Euryalus, which was serving as the temporary flagship of Cuthbert Collingwood, who was now in command as Nelson had been killed during the battle. Harvey took the opportunity to go aboard the Euryalus and present his account of the battle to Collingwood, and so became the only captain to do so before Collingwood wrote his dispatch about the victory.

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Etched view of the stern and port side of the 'Temeraire' (1798) in September 1838, moored at John Beatson's Rotherhithe wharf at the start of being broken up, her bows pointing downstream. She had been towed there from Sheerness, over two days (5-6 September) at the top of the spring tides by the steam tugs 'London' and 'Samson'. Described as a ship of 104 guns, she is shown here disarmed and stripped of her masts (taken out at Sheerness), the ports of all three gun decks lying open. Behind the vessel are the large buildings of the wharf (the warehouse on the left with the letters 'JB' on the parapet) and, in the right foreground, the bows of two small craft are shown, one being a Thames barge with a seaman standing above an open hatch. Moored further along the quay is a two-masted vessel. A small boat is being rowed along the length of the Temeraire, one of the passengers pointing at the hull. The image is signed 'Drawn by Wm. Beatson', who was John's younger brother and dated 'September 1838'.


The Neptune-class ships of the line were a class of three 98-gun second rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir John Henslow. All three of the ships in the class took part in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.

Ships
  • HMS Neptune
Builder: Deptford Dockyard
Launched: 28 January 1797
Fate: Broken up, 1818
  • HMS Temeraire
Builder: Chatham Dockyard
Launched: 11 September 1798
Fate: Sold out of the service, 1838
  • HMS Dreadnought
Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard
Launched: 13 June 1801
Fate: Broken up, 1857


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Temeraire_(1798)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-353282;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=T
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 September 1809 – Launch of HMS Manilla, a 44 gun Apollo-class frigate


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


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Scale: 1:48. A model of one of the nine ships of the 'Artois/Apollo' class of 38-gun frigates designed by Sir John Henslow and built between 1793 and 1795. Seven were built conventionally in private shipyards and two more were constructed experimentally in fir in the Royal Dockyards at Chatham and Woolwich. Four of the conventional ships were wrecked between 1797 and 1799, and the fir-built ships deteriorated rapidly. The model shows the hull of the ship fully planked and set on a launching cradle, though without the rails on which it will run, as is common on models of this period. The stern decoration and figurehead are carefully carved and some features such as decorations and the steering wheel are made in bone. The figurehead is of Diana the huntress, which identifies the ship. Two other models of this ship are in the Museum collection.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66533.html#RzcRHXyxjC8a7Fto.99


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

Apollo class.jpg

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

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Ships in class
  • HMS Apollo
    • Builder: John Dudman, Deptford Wharf
    • Ordered: 15 September 1798
    • Laid down: November 1798
    • Launched: 16 August 1799
    • Completed: 5 October 1799 at Deptford Dockyard
    • Fate: Wrecked off Portugal on 2 April 1804.
  • HMS Blanche
    • Builder: John Dudman, Deptford Wharf
    • Ordered: 18 January 1799
    • Laid down: February 1800
    • Launched: 2 October 1800
    • Completed: 17 January 1801 at Deptford Dockyard.
    • Fate: Captured and burnt by the French 19 July 1805.
  • HMS Euryalus
    • Builder: Balthazar and Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard.
    • Ordered: 16 August 1800
    • Laid down: October 1801
    • Launched: 6 June 1803
    • Completed: 9 August 1803 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Sold to be broken up 16 August 1860 at Gibraltar.
  • HMS Dartmouth
    • Builder: Mr Cook, Dartmouth (originally Benjamin Tanner, at same yard, but he became bankrupt in February 1807)
    • Ordered: 17 March 1803 originally; re-ordered 2 June 1809
    • Laid down: July 1804
    • Launched: 28 August 1813
    • Completed: 20 September 1813 at Plymouth Dockyard
    • Fate: Hulked 1830 for quarantine service. Broken up November 1854.
  • HMS Creole
    • Builder: Plymouth Dockyard (originally Benjamin Tanner, but he became bankrupt in February 1807)
    • Ordered: 17 March 1803 originally; re-ordered 23 December 1810
    • Laid down: September 1811
    • Launched: 1 May 1813
    • Completed: 20 August 1813 at Plymouth Dockyard
    • Fate: Broken up August 1833.
  • HMS Semiramis
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 25 March 1806
    • Laid down: April 1807
    • Launched: 25 July 1808
    • Completed: 6 September 1808
    • Fate: Broken up November 1844.
  • HMS Owen Glendower
    • Builder: Thomas Steemson, Paull (near Hull)
    • Ordered: 1 October 1806
    • Laid down: January 1807
    • Launched: 19 November 1808
    • Completed: 22 March 1809 at Chatham Dockyard
    • Fate: Prison ship 1842; sold for break-up 1884.
  • HMS Curacoa
    • Builder: Robert Guillaume, Northam (Southampton)
    • Ordered: 1 October 1806
    • Laid down: January 1808
    • Launched: 23 September 1809
    • Completed: 23 January 1810 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Fate: Cut down into 24-gun sixth rate 1831. Broken up March 1849.
  • HMS Saldanha
    • Builder: Simon Temple, South Shields
    • Ordered: 1 October 1806
    • Laid down: March 1807
    • Launched: 8 December 1809
    • Completed: 1810
    • Fate: Lost at sea with her entire crew 4 December 1811.
  • HMS Hotspur
    • Builder: George Parsons, Warsash
    • Ordered: 1 October 1806
    • Laid down: August 1807
    • Launched: 13 October 1810
    • Completed: 9 February 1811 at Portsmouth Dockyard
    • Fate: Broken up January 1821.
  • HMS Havannah
    • Builder: Wilson and Company, Liverpool
    • Ordered: 1 October 1806
    • Laid down: March 1808
    • Launched: 26 March 1811
    • Completed: 29 July 1811 at Plymouth Dockyard
    • Fate: 1860 "Ragged School Ship", Cardiff; sold for breaking up in 1905.
  • HMS Malacca
    • Builder: "Prince of Wales Island" (Penang), Malaya
    • Ordered: 19 February 1807
    • Laid down: February 1808
    • Launched: 6 March 1809
    • Completed: 28 October 1810 at Woolwich Dockyard
    • Fate: Broken up in March 1816.
  • HMS Orpheus
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 27 February 1807
    • Laid down: August 1808
    • Launched: 12 August 1809
    • Completed: 21 September 1809.
    • Fate: Broken up at Chatham Dockyard in August 1819.
  • HMS Leda
    • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
    • Ordered: 23 March 1808
    • Laid down: October 1808
    • Launched: 9 November 1809
    • Completed: 8 December 1809.
    • Fate: Sold to be broken up on 30 April 1817.
  • HMS Theban
  • HMS Manilla
    • Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
    • Ordered: 29 December 1806
    • Laid down: October 1807
    • Launched: 11 September 1809
    • Completed: 18 October 1809.
    • Fate: Wrecked 28 January 1812
  • HMS Astraea
    • Builder: Robert Guillaume, Northam (Southampton)
    • Ordered: 26 September 1808
    • Laid down: December 1808
    • Launched: May 1810
    • Completed: 24 September 1810 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Broken up at Plymouth Dockyard in April 1851.
  • HMS Belvidera
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 28 September 1808
    • Laid down: December 1808
    • Launched: 23 December 1809
    • Completed: 16 February 1810.
    • Fate: Sold to be broken up in July 1906.
  • HMS Galatea
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 12 May 1809
    • Laid down: August 1809
    • Launched: 31 August 1810
    • Completed: 18 October 1810.
    • Fate: Hulked in 1836; coal hulk (Jamaica) in 1840; broken up in 1849.
  • HMS Maidstone
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 8 January 1810
    • Laid down: September 1810
    • Launched: 18 October 1811
    • Completed: 13 December 1811.
    • Fate: Coal hulk 1838. Broken up in January 1867.
  • HMS Stag
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 17 October 1810
    • Laid down: January 1811
    • Launched: 26 September 1812
    • Completed: November 1812.
    • Fate: Broken up in September 1821.
  • HMS Magicienne
    • Builder: Daniel List, Binstead, Isle of Wight
    • Ordered: 14 December 1810
    • Laid down: April 1811
    • Launched: 8 August 1812
    • Completed: 24 October 1812 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Broken up in March 1845.
  • HMS Pallas
    • Builder: Portsmouth Dockyard (originally Robert Guillaume, Northam, Southampton, but he became bankrupt in 1813)
    • Ordered: 19 March 1811 originally; re-ordered 10 December 1813
    • Laid down: May 1811 by Guillaume; re-laid April 1814 at Portsmouth
    • Launched: 13 April 1816
    • Completed: 27 April 1816 at Portsmouth Dockyard.
    • Fate: Sold to be broken up on 11 January 1862.
  • HMS Barrosa
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 4 April 1811
    • Laid down: October 1811
    • Launched: 21 October 1812
    • Completed: 10 December 1812.
    • Fate: Sold to be broken up on 27 May 1841.
  • HMS Tartar
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 6 January 1812
    • Laid down: October 1812
    • Launched: 6 April 1814
    • Completed: 6 May 1814.
    • Fate: Broken up in September 1859.
  • HMS Brilliant
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 11 December 1812
    • Laid down: November 1813
    • Launched: 28 December 1814
    • Completed: 5 March 1815.
    • Fate: Training ship 1860, renamed Briton 8 November 1889. Sold to be broken up on 12 May 1908.
  • HMS Blonde – re-ordered to a radically new design from 1816.
    • Builder: Deptford Dockyard
    • Ordered: 11 December 1812
    • Laid down: March 1816
    • Launched: 12 January 1819
    • Completed: 1824.
    • Fate: Receiving ship in November 1850, renamed Calypso on 9 March 1870. Sold to be broken up on 28 February 1895.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo-class_frigate
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 September 1861 – Launch of USS Kearsarge , a Mohican-class sloop-of-war


USS Kearsarge, a Mohican-class sloop-of-war, is best known for her defeat of the Confederate commerce raider CSS Alabama during the American Civil War. Kearsarge was the only ship of the United States Navy named for Mount Kearsarge in New Hampshire. Subsequent ships were later named Kearsarge in honor of the ship.

USS_Kearsarge_(1861).jpg

Hunting Confederate raiders
Kearsarge was built at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine, under the 1861 American Civil War emergency shipbuilding program. The new 1,550 long tons (1,570 t) steam sloop-of-war was launched on 11 September 1861; she was sponsored by Mrs. McFarland, the wife of the editor of the Concord Statement, and was commissioned on 24 January 1862, with Captain Charles W. Pickering in command. Soon after, she was hunting for Confederate raiders in European waters.

Kearsarge departed Portsmouth on 5 February 1862 for the coast of Spain. She then sailed to Gibraltar to join the blockade of Confederate raider CSS Sumter, forcing the ship's abandonment there in December of 1862. However, Sumter's commanding Captain, Raphael Semmes, having returned to England for reassignment, was soon recommissioning off the Azores, in international waters, the newly built British sloop Enricaas CSS Alabama. From there, Alabama went on to become the most successful commerce raider in naval history.

From Cádiz in November of 1862 until March 1863 Kearsarge prepared for her engagement with Alabama; she searched for the raider ranging along the coast of Northern Europe all the way to the Canaries, Madeira, and the Outer Hebrides. The following year, on 14 June 1864, Kearsarge arrived at Cherbourg and found Alabama in port; the raider had returned there for much needed repairs after a very long, multiple ocean cruise at the expense of 65 Union merchant ships. Kearsarge took up station at the harbor's entrance to await Semmes' next move.

Battle of Cherbourg
Main article: Battle of Cherbourg (1864)

On 19 June, Alabama stood out of Cherbourg Harbor for her last action. Mindful of French neutrality, Kearsarge's new commanding officer, Capt. John A. Winslow, took the sloop-of-war clear of territorial waters, then turned to meet the Confederate cruiser.

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The deck of Kearsarge after her engagement with CSS Alabama

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A photo of naval officers on board Kearsarge, including Captain John A. Winslow (foreground, third from the left), shortly after the sinking of CSS Alabama.

Alabama was the first to open fire, while Kearsarge held her reply until she had closed to less than 1,000 yd (0.91 km). Steaming on opposite courses, the ships moved in seven spiraling circles on a southwesterly course, as each commander tried to cross his opponent's bow to deliver deadly raking fire. The battle quickly turned against Alabama due to her poor gunnery and the quality of her long-stored and deteriorated powder, fuses, and shells. Unknown at the time to Captain Semmes aboard the Confederate raider, Kearsarge had been given added protection for her vital machinery by chain cable mounted in three separate, vertical tiers along her port and starboard midsection.

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Painting of CSS Alabama

This hull armor had been installed in just three days, more than a year before, while Kearsarge was in port at the Azores. It was made using 720 ft (220 m) of 1.7 in (43 mm) single-link iron chain and covered hull spaces 49 ft 6 in (15.09 m) long by 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) deep. It was stopped up and down in three layers to eye-bolts with marlines and secured by iron dogs. This was then concealed behind 1 in (25 mm) deal-boards painted black to match the upper hull's color. This chain cladding was placed along Kearsarge's port and starboard midsection down to her waterline, for the purpose of protecting her engines and boilers when the upper portion of the cruiser's coal bunkers were empty. This armor belt was hit twice during the fight: First in the starboard gangway by one of Alabama's 32-pounder shells which cut the chain armor, denting the hull planking underneath, then again by a second 32-pounder shell that exploded and broke a link of the chain, tearing away a portion of the deal-board covering. Even if the shells had been delivered by Alabama's more powerful 100-pounder Blakely pivot rifle, the impacts were more than 5 ft (1.5 m) above the waterline and would therefore have missed her vital machinery.

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Captain Raphael Semmes, Alabama's commanding officer, standing aft of the mainsail by his ship's aft 8-inch smooth bore gun during her visit to Cape Town in August 1863. His executive officer, First Lieutenant John M. Kell, is in the background, standing by the ship's wheel.

One hour after she fired her first salvo, Alabama was reduced to a sinking wreck by Kearsarge's more accurate gunnery and its powerful 11 in (280 mm) Dahlgren smoothbore pivot cannons. Alabama went down by the stern shortly after Semmes struck his colors, threw his sword into the sea to avoid capture, and sent one of his two remaining longboats to Kearsarge with a message of surrender and a rescue appeal for his surviving crew. Kearsargefinally sent ship's boats for the majority of Alabama's survivors, but Semmes and 41 others were rescued instead by the nearby British yacht Deerhound and escaped to the United Kingdom.

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"The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama" by Édouard Manet

Home for repairs
Kearsarge then sailed along the French coast in an unsuccessful search for the commerce raider CSS Florida, then proceeded to the Caribbean before turning northward for Boston, Massachusetts, where she was decommissioned for repairs on 26 November. She was recommissioned four months later on 1 April 1865 and sailed for the coast of Spain on 14 April in an attempt to intercept CSS Stonewall; the Confederate ram eluded Federal warships and surrendered to Spanish authorities at Havana, Cuba on 19 May. After cruising the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel south to Monrovia, Liberia, Kearsarge was decommissioned on 14 August 1866 in the Boston Navy Yard.

Post War service
Kearsarge was recommissioned on 16 January 1868 and sailed on 12 February to serve in the South Pacific operating out of Valparaíso, Chile. On 22 August, she landed provisions for destitute earthquake victims in Peru. She continued to watch over American commercial interests along the coast of South America until 17 April 1869. Then she sailed to watch over American interests among the Marquesas, Society Islands, Navigators Islands, and Fiji Islands. She also called at ports in New South Wales and New Zealandbefore returning to Callao, Peru on 31 October. She resumed duties on the South Pacific Station until 21 July 1870, then cruised to the Hawaiian Islands before being decommissioned in the Mare Island Navy Yard on 11 October 1870.

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A replica of Kearsarge was on display at the 1893 GAR National Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana

Kearsarge was recommissioned on 8 December 1873 and departed on 4 March 1874 for Yokohama, Japan, arriving there on 11 May. She cruised on Asiatic Station for three years, protecting American citizens and commerce in China, Japan, and the Philippines. From 4 September to 13 December, she carried Professor Asaph Hall's scientific party from Nagasaki, Japan, to Vladivostok, Russia, to observe the transit of Venus. She departed Nagasaki on 3 September 1877, and via the Suez Canal, she visited Mediterranean ports before returning to Boston on 30 December. She was decommissioned at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 15 January 1878.

Kearsarge was recommissioned on 15 May 1879 for four years of duty in the North Atlantic ranging from Newfoundland to the Caribbean Sea and the coast of Panama. The warship took part in dedication ceremonies for the Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883. She departed New York on 21 August 1883 to cruise for three years in the Mediterranean, then Northern European waters, and finally along the west coast of Africa. She returned to Portsmouth on 12 November and was decommissioned in the Portsmouth Navy Yard on 1 December 1886.

Wrecked

The sternpost of USS Kearsarge, with a 100-pound round embedded within it.


A cannon from Kearsarge stood in West Park in Stamford, Connecticutfrom Memorial Day, 1901 until 1942, when it was hauled away as scrap metal during World War II. Cast at West Point in 1827, it had also been used on the USS Lancaster.

Kearsarge was recommissioned on 2 November 1888 and largely spent her remaining years protecting American interests in the West Indies, off Venezuela, and along the Central Americas. On President Harrison's orders, she sailed to Navassa Island in 1891 to investigate labor conditions there. She departed Haiti on 20 January 1894 for Bluefields, Nicaragua, but she wrecked on a reef off Roncador Cay on 2 February; her officers and crew made it safely ashore.

Congress appropriated $45,000 to tow Kearsarge home, but a salvage team of the Boston Towboat Company found that she could not be refloated. Some artifacts were saved from the ship, including the ship's Bible. The salvaged items, along with a damaged section of her stern post with an unexploded shell from CSS Alabama still embedded in it, are now stored or on display at the Washington Navy Yard. According to the US Naval Academy Museum, after the battle with the Alabama the shell was removed and the stern post was replaced. Kearsarge was struck from the Naval Vessel Register in 1894


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Kearsarge_(1861)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Alabama
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 September 1919 – Launch of RMS Arundel Castle, British Ocean Liner


RMS Arundel Castle was a British ocean liner and Royal Mail Ship which entered service in 1921 for the Union-Castle Line. A previous vessel of the same name was built in 1864 by Donald Currie & Co. (a predecessor to Union-Castle) and sold in 1883, whereupon it was renamed Chittagong. Originally laid down as the Amroth Castle in 1915, building was delayed by the First World War. She was eventually launched on 11 September 1919.

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SS Arundel Castle at Cape Town, South Africa

Her sister ship was RMS Windsor Castle and they were the only four-funneled liners not built for transatlantic service. She received a refit in 1937, with her four funnels being reconfigured into two, with new Babcock-Johnson boilers, her hull lengthened, and her bow remodelled from a blunt chisel-style into a more modern, angular design. She served in the Second World War as a transport in the Mediterranean.

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Arundel Castle after being fitted with a more raked bow and her four funnels reduced to two

Arundel Castle made her 211th and final voyage in 1958, leaving Cape Town on 5 December and arriving in Southampton on 19 December. On 30 December she left for Kowloon on her way to Chiap Hua, the ship breakers in Hong Kong.[4] When the ship arrived in Hong Kong harbour, Chiap Hua organised a lavish cocktail party on board the vessel with many of Hong Kong's dignitaries including government officials and bank executives. The ship’s furnishings and accessories—including the chronometers, captain’s armchair, steering wheel, crockery and sterling silver cutlery—were offered as gifts.

In her career she had steamed 2,850,000 miles in peace-time service and 625,565 as a troopship.

Colour film of Arundel Castle in Hong Kong can be seen in the Look At Life film, "Ticket to Tokyo," released in April 1959.

Remark: Starting at 8:03



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Arundel_Castle
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
11 September 1943 - During the Salerno, Italy operations, USS Savannah (CL 42) is hit by a German guided bomb.
The explosion kills nearly 200 of her crew, but she remains under her own power to return to the U.S. for repairs.



USS Savannah (CL-42) was a light cruiser of the Brooklyn-class that served in World War II in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres of operation.

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USS Savannah (CL-42) photographed from a blimp of squadron ZP-11, while underway off the New England coast on 30 October 1944.

Savannah conducted Neutrality Patrols (1941) and wartime patrols in the Atlantic and Caribbean (1942), and supported the invasion of French North Africa in Operation Torch (November 1942). She sought German-supporting blockade runners off the east coast of South America (1943), and supported the Allied landings on Sicily and at Salerno (1943). Off Salerno on 11 September 1943, a German radio-controlled Fritz X glide-bomb caused extensive casualties aboard and serious damage to Savannah, requiring emergency repairs in Malta and permanent repairs at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. After repairs and upgrades, she served in the task force that carried President Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in early 1945.


Invasion of Salerno

Savannah returned to Algiers on 10 August 1943 in order to train with U.S. Army troops for the Operation Avalanche amphibious landings to be made at Salerno, Italy. Leaving Mers-el-Kebir Harbor, Algeria, on 5 September, her Southern Attack Force entered Salerno Bay a few hours before midnight of the 8th.

Savannah was the first American ship to open fire against the German shore defenses in Salerno Bay. She silenced a railroad artillery battery with 57 rounds, forced the retirement of enemy tanks, and completed eight more fire support missions that day. She continued her valuable support until the morning of 11 September 1943, when she was put out of action.

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USS Savannah (CL 42) Is hit by a German radio-controlled bomb, while supporting Allied forces ashore during the Salerno operation, 11 September 1943. The bomb hit the top of the ship's number three 6"/47 gun turret and penetrated deep into her hull before exploding. The photograph shows the explosion venting through the top of the turret and also through Savannah's hull below the waterline. A motor torpedo boat (PT) is passing by in the foreground. Courtesy of the Naval Historical Foundation. Collection of Admiral H. Kent Hewett, USN. / U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph NH 95562.

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A radio-controlled Fritz X PGM gravity bomb had been released at a safe distance by a high-flying German warplane and it exploded 49 ft (15 m) distance from Philadelphia. Savannahincreased her speed to 20 kn (23 mph, 37 km/h) as a KG 100 Dornier Do 217 K-2 bomber approached from out of the sun. The USAAF's P-38 Lightnings and Savannah's anti-aircraftgunners, tracking this warplane at 18,700 ft (5,700 m), failed to stop the Fritz X bomb, trailing a stream of smoke. The bomb pierced the armored turret roof of Savannah's No. 3 gun turret, passed through three decks into the lower ammunition-handling room, where it exploded, blowing a hole in her keel and tearing a seam in the cruiser's port side. For at least 30 minutes, secondary explosions in the turret and its ammunition supply rooms hampered firefighting efforts.

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Savannah's crew quickly sealed off flooded and burned compartments, and corrected her list. With assistance from the salvage tugs Hopi and Moreno, Savannah got underway under her own steam by 1757 hours and steamed for Malta.

Savannah lost 197 crewmen in this German counterattack. Fifteen other sailors were seriously wounded, and four more were trapped in a watertight compartment for 60 hours. These four sailors were not rescued until Savannahhad already arrived at Grand Harbor, Valletta, Malta on 12 September.

After emergency repairs were completed, Savannah departed Malta on 7 December 1943, bound for the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard by way of Tunis, Algiers, and Bermuda. She arrived at the Naval Yard on 23 December and underwent heavy repair work for the next eight months.[4] During this period her forward superstructure was remodeled, 4 dual mount 5"/38 caliber turrets replaced her eight single open-mount five-inch naval guns and a new set of up-to-date 20 mm and 40 mm antiaircraft guns were installed. In addition to the new gunnery fit she also received new air-search and surface-search gunnery radars. After this refit she more resembled her half sister St Louis, than her Brooklyn-class sister ships.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Savannah_(CL-42)
https://www.navsource.org/archives/04/042/04042.htm
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 11 September


1655 – Launch of HMS Norwich, 22 guns at Chatham Dockyard based on the designs by Phineus Pett as a Vessel of 1653-1656 Programme.

She was involved at Battle of Lowestoft, Battle of Vagen, Battle of Nevis and Battle of Martinique. Freed and run aground at 26. June 1682 where she was abandoned.

1670 – Launch of french Rouen 52 guns (designed and built by Jean Esnault for the French East India Company, purchased from them in February 1668 and launched 8 February 1666 at Brest) - wrecked 11 September 1670 off Le Havre

1696 - HMS Sapphire (1675 - 32) sunk by the French off Bay of Bulls, Newfoundland

HMS Sapphire was a 32-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was designed and built by Sir Anthony Deane at Harwich in 1675, at a cost of £4,175.

In 1677 Sapphire was the first command of Cloudesley Shovell, who later became Admiral of the Fleet and eventually died in the Scilly naval disaster of 1707. Sapphire took the unrated Ship Date Tree (28) at 30.8.1677 and was in action with the Algerian Golden Horse (1677 - 46) at 10.9.1677, in 1681 she took the 32-gun Half Moon (which become the Fourth Rate HMS Half Moon in 1681).
Sapphire was cornered in Bay Bulls Harbour, Newfoundland, by a French squadron in August–September 1696. Her master, Captain Thomas Cleasby, in fear that the French would capture the ship, scuttled her and escaped across land to the colony of Ferryland.

In popular culture
In the video game Assassin's Creed Rogue the HMS Sapphire's wreck could be visited by the Protagonist Shay Cormac at the North Atlantic. Once Shay collects all 24 Templar artifacts, he could claim an armor belonging from the original Knights Templar of the 11th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sapphire_(1675)


1726 – Launch of Spanish San Felipe 70 (launched 11 September 1726 at Guarnizo) - Scuttled 1741

Remark: She was the successor of the San Felipe, launched in 1690, which was the basis for the Panart-kit in scale 1:75


1751 - HMS Fox (1746 - 24) foundered during a hurricane off Jamaica, all on board were saved

Originally as 1741 Establishment 20-Gunner designed by Jacob Avkworth, launched at Bursledon as a Purpose Built. Fitted with 24 guns.

1782 - HMS Warwick (1767 - 50) and HMS Lion (1777 - 64) took L'Aigle (40) French frigate.

HMS Warwick (1767) was a 50-gun fourth rate launched in 1767, converted to a receiving ship in 1783 and sold in 1802.
HMS Lion was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, of the Worcester class, launched on 3 September 1777 at Portsmouth Dockyard.

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HMS Warwick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Lion_(1777)


1787 – Loss of Duke of York

Duke of York was a fir-built ship of 500 tons (bm), built in 1780 at Archangel. In 1787 her owner was "Hitchie", her master "Jn Wolff", and her trade London—South Seas, indicating that she was a whaler. More accurately, her master was John Wolfe, Woolf, or Wolf, and her owner Richard Cadman Etches. She sailed on 21 April 1787 for the South Seas.

Etches had received a license from the South Sea Company to sail around Cape Horn into the Pacific. He dispatched her to reinforce the settlement at New Years Harbour (now Puerto Ano Nuevo) on Staten Island (now Isla de los Estados), off Tierra del Fuego. Seal hunters established a factory there in 1786, which was also well-located for vessels rounding Cape Horn to refresh and replenish their water.

On 4 June, Duke of York sailed from St Jago, "all well". By August, she was at the Falkland Islands, "all well".
On 11 September, shortly after she arrived at New Years Harbour, Duke of York was lost. Her crew, however, was saved.
The loss of Duke of York ended the factory. The people took to their boats and left the island.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_of_York_(1780_ship)

1809 - Cutter HMS Diana (10), Lt. William Kempthorne, captured Dutch brig Zephyr (14) off the island of Celebes.

1810 - Boats of HMS Africaine (1801 - 38), Cptn. Robert Corbett, engaged a French schooner (dispatch vessel No.23) up a small creek on the Ile Ronde, Mauritius Although they boarded her, she had to be abandoned when soldiers on the banks killed two men and wounded sixteen.

1813 – Launch of HMS Sirius, a Lively-class frigate

Origins of the class
The Lively class were a series of sixteen ships built to a 1799 design by Sir William Rule, which served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The prototype and name ship of the class was HMS Lively of 1804. In contemporary usage the class was referred to as the 'Repeat Lively class'. As such the prototype ship was not considered to be part of the class at the time.

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They were considered the most successful British frigate design of the period, much prized by the Navy Board; after the prototype was launched in 1804 (by which time four more frigates had already been ordered to the same design), a further eleven sister-ships were ordered to her design, although this was slightly modified (in 1805) to have the gangways between forecastle and quarterdeck more integrated into the upperworks, a step towards the final enclosure of the waist. This was reinforced in 1809 by the abandonment of breastworks at the break of the quarterdeck and forecastle and in 1810 by the narrowing of the waist by the addition of gratings inboard of the gangways. At the same date, 'top riders', angled reinforcing timbers for the upperworks, were discontinued.

Characteristics and performance
The captain's reports on the performance of this class were remarkable for their absence of serious criticism. The vessels of the class were fast, recording 13kts large and 10-11kts close-hauled, weatherly and manoeuvrable. They were excellent heavy-weather ships, perfectly able to cope with a "head sea." They stowed their provisions well; they were capable of stowing provisions and freshwater for up to six months of cruising. Indeed "riding light," after a substantial proportion of fresh water and provisions had been consumed, affected their sailing qualities adversely, so that most captains filled any emptied freshwater stowage capacity with seawater.

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Thomas Birch - Engagement between the "United States" and the "Macedonian" a sistership of the Sirius

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lively-class_frigate

1814 - In Battle of Lake Champlain, American squadron under Commodore Thomas Macdonough, USS Saratoga (26), USS Eagle (20), USS Ticonderago (17), USS Preble (7) and 10 gun boats defeats a British Squadron, of HMS Confiance (36), Cptn. George Downie (Killed in Action) , HMS Linnet (16), Cptn. Daniel Pring, HMS Chubb (10) and HMS Finch (8) all taken.

See “6 September 1814 - Beginning of Battle of Plattsburgh (6 – 11 September 1814)” at:
https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...ime-events-in-history.2104/page-25#post-39078

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

1840 - Attack on castle of Gebail by HMS Carysfort (26), Cptn. Byam Martin, and consorts.

1844 - The first Napier was a 445-ton iron river gunboat built at Bombay Dockyard, launched 11 September 1844, and in the records until 1858.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1711 - The Battle of Rio de Janeiro (12. - 22. September 1711)


was a raid in September 1711 on the port of Rio de Janeiro in the War of Spanish Succession by a French squadron under René Duguay-Trouin. The Portuguese defenders, including the city's governor and an admiral of the fleet anchored there, were unable to put up effective resistance in spite of numerical advantages.

Four Portuguese ships of the line were lost, and the city had to pay a ransom to avoid destruction of its defences.

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Entrada da esquadra francesa em porto do Rio de Janeiro

Background
Further information: France Antarctique
There were multiple reasons for the French to plan an attack on Rio de Janeiro. Firstly, the commander Duguay-Trouin had a personal reason: he was almost bankrupt. The second reason was political. The War of the Spanish Succession had not gone well for France. After the defeat in the Battle of Malplaquet, the enemy was on French soil and French morale was low. A military success was urgently needed. The third reason was a question of honour. The previous year another buccaneer, Jean-François Duclerc had attempted an attack on Rio, but this expedition had ended in disaster; Duclerc and 600 of his soldiers were captured and held in unacceptable conditions. The Portuguese refused to exchange these prisoners as was stipulated in a Franco-Portuguese treaty from 1707; furthermore, Duclerc was killed in prison under mysterious circumstances in May 1711. The French wanted to liberate these prisoners, and possibly conquer some Brazilian territory.

Preparations
In December 1710 King Louis XIV approved Duguay-Trouin's plan and provided him with a fleet of 17 ships, carrying in total 738 cannons and 6,139 men. The French treasury couldn't finance the armament of the squadron and therefore Duguay-Trouin had to search private financiers in Saint Malo and on the Royal Court; he received significant support from the Count of Toulouse.

Finally the ships could be prepared and to fool the British Navy, allied to the Portuguese, the ships were prepared in different harbours, left at different times, and reassembled at sea off La Rochelle on June 9, 1711. British intelligence, however, were aware of Duguay-Trouin's goal, and had dispatched a packet to warn the Portuguese, both in Portugal and at Rio. They also dispatched a fleet under John Leake to blockade Duguay-Trouin before he sailed from Brest; they arrived two days too late.

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Plan of the French attack on Rio de Janeiro in 1711 by the squadron of Duguay-Trouin. General plan of the attack dated 1711, but probably later because the return was only in February 1712. War of Succession of Spain.

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The battle
In spite of the British warning, the French appearance in Rio's harbour on 12 September was a surprise. The British news, when it arrived in August, had led Governor Francisco de Moraes de Castro to call out his militia and increase preparedness, and rumours of sails off Cabo Frio in early September had again raised the alert. However, on 11 September the governor ordered the militia to stand down, just as Duguay-Trouin was preparing his approach to the harbour.[3] The commander of Le Lys, Courserac, led the squadron directly in the Bay of Rio, between the forts lining the harbour entry, and straight at seven Portuguese warships that were anchored there. The Portuguese fleet commander, admiral Gaspar da Costa, could do nothing but cut the cables in hopes of getting his ships moving. Three of battleships grounded and were destroyed by the Portuguese to prevent their capture; the fourth was taken by the French and burned. Fire from the forts, undermanned after the order to stand down, did some damage to the French fleet, inflicting 300 casualties before the ships passed out of range.

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Entrée de l'escadre de Duguay-Trouin dans la baie de Rio lors de l'attaque de 1711. Entry of vessels Duguay Trouin in the Bay of Rio during the attack of 1711.

After 3 days of bombardments, the French landed 3,700 men to attack the city. The governor of Rio, Castro-Morais, had fortified the city after French attacks in previous years, but very feebly commanded the defense, which buckled under the French bombardment. After a council on 21 September in which Moraes ordered the city's defenders to hold the line, militia began deserting that night, after which there began a general flight from the city that included the governor. Under the disorganised circumstances, the French prisoners from Duclerc's expedition broke out of prison.

Aftermath
Duguay-Trouin, who had been preparing to storm the city, was alerted to the flight of the defenders by the arrival of one of Duclerc's men. Over the next few days, the French gained control of all of the bay's strong points, but the city's gold supply eluded him. Warned that reinforcements from São Paulo under command of António de Albuquerque were on their way, he threatened Moraes with the destruction of the city's defences if a ransom was not paid, which Moraes agreed to do. When the French left the city, it was with loot of estimated at 4 million pounds, including a shipment of African slaves, which Duguay-Trouin later sold in Cayenne.

The fleet arrived back unmolested in Brest in February 1712. The expedition was a military success for the French, and a financial success for its investors. The French Navy had proven it was still capable to strike at large distances.

This action would trouble Franco-Portuguese relations for many years to come.


French Ships invloved in the Line of Battle:

Le Magnanime - 74 guns
Le Brillant - 66 guns
L´Achille - 66 guns
Le Lis - 74 guns - flagship of Duguay Trouin
Le Glorieux - 66 guns
Le Fidele - 66 guns
Le Mars - 56 guns
L´Argonante - 46 guns
L´Aigle - 40 guns
Le Chaneelier - 40 guns
L´Amazone - 36 guns
La Bellone - 36 guns
La Glorieuse - 30 guns
L´Astrée - 22 guns
La Concorde - 20 guns
La Francaise
Le Patient



René_Duguay-Trouin.jpg
René Trouin, Sieur du Gué, usually called René Duguay-Trouin, (10 June 1673 in Saint Malo – 1736) was a famous Breton corsair of Saint-Malo.[1] He had a brilliant privateering and naval career and eventually became "Lieutenant-General of the Naval Armies of the King" (i.e. Vice admiral) (French:Lieutenant-Général des armées navales du roi), and a Commander in the Order of Saint-Louis. Ten ships of the French Navy were named in his honour.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Rio_de_Janeiro
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Duguay-Trouin
 
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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1764 – Launch of HMS Saint Albans, a 64 gun St Albans-class Ship of the Line


HMS St Albans was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 September 1764 at Blackwall Yard, London. She served in the American War of Independence from 1777 and was part of the fleet that captured St Lucia and won victories at Battle of St. Kitts and The Saintes. She was converted to a floating battery in 1803 and was broken up in 1814.

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Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth proposed (and approved) for 'Saint Albans' (1764), and 'Augusta' (1763), and with pencil modifications for 'Director' (1784), all 64-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. Signed by Thomas Slade [Surveyor of the Navy, 1755-1771].

Career
Captain Richard Onslow took command of St Albans on 31 October 1776. He took a convoy to New York City in April 1777 and joined Lord Howe in time for the repulse of d'Estaing on 22 July 1777 at Sandy Hook. Onslow sailed for the West Indies on 4 November 1778 with Commodore Hotham, and took part in the capture of Saint Lucia and its defense against d'Estaing that December at the Cul-de-Sac. In August 1779, he brought a convoy from St Kitts to Spithead.

On 10 December 1780, St Albans, in company with Vestal, Monsieur, Portland and Solebay captured the Comtess de Buzancois.

Captain Charles Inglis took command of St Albans in November 1780. On 13 March 1781 he sailed in with Vice-Admiral George Darby's fleet to the relief of Gibraltar. He was with Admiral Robert Digby's squadron later that year, before being sent to the Leeward Islands to join Sir Samuel Hood at Barbados.

St Albans was with Hood during the Battle of Saint Kitts, when Hood attempted to relieve the island and repulsed several attacks by the Comte de Grasse on 25 and 26 January 1782. Inglis was again in action with the French on 9 April, when Hood's fleet clashed with de Grasse's in the Dominica Channel, and fought at the Battle of the Saintes on 12 April, where the main British fleet under Inglis's old captain, now Admiral Sir George Rodney, decisively defeated de Grasse. St Albans had six men wounded during this engagement.

St Albans sailed to North America in late July 1782 with Rodney's successor, Admiral Hugh Pigot. She was back in the West Indies by November, where Inglis was given command of a squadron of four ships cruising independently there. The squadron, consisting of St Albans, the 64-gun Prudent, the 74-gun Magnificent and the sloop HMS Barbados, was sent from Gros Islet Bay on 12 February to investigate reports of a French squadron, consisting of Triton, Amphion and several frigates, having sailed from Martinique.

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Admiral Pigot's return from the West Indies on board H.M.S. Formidable in the company of other Royal Naval warships including H.M.S. St. Albans

On 15 February 1783 the 74-gun Magnificent, under Captain Robert Linzee. was on a cruise in company with Prudent and St Albans. Magnificent sighted a strange sail and gave chase. She was close enough to identify the mysterious ship as a frigate by 18:00, and by 20:00 as darkness fell the quarry opened fire on her pursuer with her stern guns. Magnificent overhauled the French ship by 21:15, and after fifteen minutes forced her to strike her colours. Magnificent took possession of Concorde, of 36 guns and 300 men under the command of M. le Chevalier du Clesmaur. Shortly after surrendering, Concorde's maintopsail caught fire, forcing the crew to cut away the mainmast to extinguish it. Prudent and St Albans came up two hours later and Magnificent towed Concorde to St. John's, Antigua.

On 26 November 1794 she rescued the crew of HMS Actif which had developed leaks and was foundering.

St Albans and HMS Porcupine (1777 - 2) shared in the capture on 8 November of the brig Molly.

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The St Albans-class ships of the line were a class of three 64-gun third rates, designed for the Royal Navy by Sir Thomas Slade.

Design
Slade based the St Albans draught on that of his earlier 74-gun Bellona-class.

Ships
Builder: Perry, Blackwall Yard, London
Ordered: 13 January 1761
Launched: 12 September 1764
Fate: Broken up, 1814
Builder: Wells and Stanton, Rotherhithe
Ordered: 13 January 1761
Launched: 24 October 1763
Fate: Burned, 1777
Builder: Clevely, Gravesend
Ordered: 2 August 1780
Launched: 9 March 1784
Fate: Broken up, 1801



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_St_Albans_(1764)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Albans-class_ship_of_the_line
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-293599;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=A
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1806 – Launch of french brig Cygne, a 16-gun Abeille-class brig - Part 1 - Naval Event


Cygne was an Abeille-class 16-gun brig of the French Navy, launched in 1806.

1024px-Cygne-IMG_8828.jpg
1/36th scale model of Cygne, on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.
Size of model: Length: 141 cm (55.5 in); Height: 106 cm (41.7 in); Width: 34 cm (13.3 in)

Career
On 10 November 1808, under Lieutenant Menouvrier Defresne, Cygne departed Cherbourg, part of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Hamelin also comprising the frigates Vénus, Junon, Amphitrite and the brig Papillon. bound for Martinique. The next day, the ships of the squadron were scattered. On 13, Cygne captured the Portuguese ship Miliciano and set her ablaze.

Arriving near Martinique, Cygne was chased by the frigate HMS Circe (Augustin Collier), the corvette Stork (George Le Geyt), the brigs HMS Morne Fortunee (John Brown), Amaranthe (Pelham Brenton), Epervier (Thomas Tudor) and the schooner Express (William Dowers). On 12 December, Cygne passed the Northern cape of Martinique; seeing that he would be overhauled by the British squadron before reaching Saint-Pierre, Menouvrier Defresne decided to drop anchor under a shore battery at Anse Céron.

Brig_Cygne.jpg
Battle of Cygne against the British division

Two of the British brigs then dropped anchor in positions that cut Cygne′s retreat to Saint-Pierre, while the other ships launched boats to attempt a cutting out boarding. Cygne sank three before they reached her. Circe approached with her crew ready for boarding, but was repelled by a grapeshot broadside, while the surviving boats reached Cygne′s stern; the British party was repelled and 17 men were taken prisoner.

Fight_of_Cygne_against_a_British_division-Mayer.jpg
Fight of the French brig Cygne against a British boat party

The next day, Cygne found herself becalmed; Defresne attempted to move his ship by having her hauled from the shore by infantrymen and by using her oars, and progressed towards Saint-Pierre, under fire from Amaranthe. But due to a navigation error, Cygne ran aground and started taking water. As the other British ships closed within range, Defresne ordered Cygne abandoned and scuttled by fire. Defresne was offered a sword of honour by the city of Saint-Pierre for his defence. As a token of esteem, Brenton gifted him a sword belt, and Lieutenant Hay, a dagger.

The wreck was discovered in 1991 and was explored the next year.

A 1/36th scale model of the ship is on display at the Musée national de la Marine in Paris.



The Abeille class was a type of 16-gun brig-corvette of the French Navy, designed by François Pestel with some units refined by Pierre-Jacques-Nicolas Rolland. They were armed with either 24-pounder carronades, or a mixture of light 6-pounder long guns and lighter carronades. 21 ships of this type were built between 1801 and 1812, and served in the Napoleonic Wars.

The four first ships were ordered in bulk on 24 December 1800, but two (Mouche, Serin) could not be completed due to shortags of timbers. As the forerunner of the series, Abeille, is not always identified as such in British sources, the type is sometimes referred to as the Sylphe class, after Sylphe, which served as model for subsequent constructions.

Ships of the class:
Launched: 24 June 1801
Fate: Hulked in 1844, renamed Molène and used as an achor depot in Brest in 1865
Launched: 24 December 1801
Fate: Captured by HMS Hydra on 27 February 1806
Launched: 8 July 1804
Fate: Captured by HMS Goliath on 2 August 1805 and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Fawn
Launched: 27 April 1804
Fate: Captured by HMS Niobe on 28 March 1806.[9]
Launched: 10 July 1804
Fate: Captured by HMS Comet on 18 August 1808, commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Seagull
Launched: 18 August 1806
Fate: Broken up in 1823 [11]
Launched: 12 September 1806
Fate: Ran aground and scuttled by fire to avoid capture
Launched: 12 May 1810
Fate: Seized by the British in 1814 with the capitulation of Genoa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_brig_Cygne_(1806)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeille-class_brig
https://ancre.fr/fr/monographies/35-monographie-du-cygne-brick-1806.html
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1806 – Launch of french brig Cygne, a 16-gun Abeille-class brig - Part 2 - Monographie Jean Boudriot

There is a very good monographie with a booklet of 92 pages and 19 drawings in scale 1:48 available from ancre

Cygne.jpg

Taken from the ancre page:

This monograph of the brig LE CYGNE (The Swan) represents a ship's type of the imperial navy. Armed with two 8-pdr guns and fourteen 24-pdr carronades, construction of LE CYGNE was begun in Le Havre at the end of April 1806. She was launched on 12 September of the same year by the builder Jamez, based on the engineer Pestel's plans. 90 feet in length, with a midship beam measuring 26 feet, 6 inches, a depth of 13 feet, 6 inches, this ship is one of the most representative of the brig called a 24-pdr in the French Navy (the caliber of the carronades in the main armaments). Approximately 60 such ships were built during the period 1801-1813.
A very fine model of LE CYGNE in the Musée de la Marine in Paris (MG13) enabled us to illustrate our work with vivid details that only a period ship's model could provide.
Moreover, we were able to choose from the extremely rich documentation (plans of the hull, superstructure and rigging).
We are able to relive the adventures of Le Cygne, although her career was brief, through the reports of her captain ship's lieutenant TROBRIAND.
These powerful engines of war (the weight of Le Cygne's broadside guns was superior to the celebrated Belle-Poule's broadside) would slip through the British blockade on stormy nights to disturb English commercial activities or carry supplies to the French colonies. As is the case in our other monographs, the directions given allow the ship's model builder to choose between constructing a model of Le Cygne or one of her sister ships.

COMPOSITION OF THE MONOGRAPH
92 p. booklet, 24x31cm format, including :
- The history of the brig in the French Navy with several period illustrations
- List of 197 brig-rigged ships that appeared in the lists of the French Navy during the period 1755-1850
- Separate list of fifty-seven 24-pdr brigs whose characteristics are identical or similar to those of Le Cygne.
- Commentary and analysis of seventeen photographs of the model of Le Cygne in the Musée de la Marine in Paris
- History of the expeditions of the brig Le Cygne
- Detailed commentary with all necessary explanations of the 19 plates at 1:48 scale and on the drawings of details at 1:24 scale.
- Complete glossary of terms for elements of fitting and rigging.

Set of 19 plates on cartographer's paper at 1:48 scale including

1 Shape of the hull, longitudinal plans, vertical sections of the ribs
2 Shape of the hull, drawings of the planking
3 Construction of the stern and quarter-galleries
4 Construction of the head
5 Full vertical sections on the ribs
6 Full vertical sections with planking
7 Drawing of the coppering - Front view
8 Plan of the deck - rear view
9 View of the hull, longitudinal sections
10 Details of fitting
11 Boats
12 Artillery, detail of the rudder
13 Anchors
14 Elements of masting, detail of the masthead
15 Fitting for masts
16 Longitudinal sails and standing rigging
17 Installing the square sails to the foremast
18 Installing the square sails to the mainmast
19 Rigging of the yards
Photos du modèle de M. Buchaillard (Photographe : Olivier Gatine)

It is a highly recommended planset - I have it also in my shelf

https://ancre.fr/en/monograph/35-monographie-du-cygne-brick-1806.html

The beautiful model from Buchaillard (photos taken from ancre page, where you can find some more):

monographie-du-cygne-brick-1806 (1).jpgmonographie-du-cygne-brick-1806 (3).jpgmonographie-du-cygne-brick-1806 (4).jpg

monographie-du-cygne-brick-1806 (5).jpg


Take also a look at our SOS - media area, in which you can find a beautiful model of the Cygne built by our member @Charlesmetz

here is one photo of his model - more you can find via https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/index.php?media/le-cygne-1-48.551/
9D765C63-C446-4587-8013-991D6406285D.jpeg
 

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Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1814 - The Battle of Baltimore (12. - 15. September 1814)


was a sea/land battle fought between British invaders and American defenders in the War of 1812. American forces repulsed sea and land invasions off the busy port city of Baltimore, Maryland, and killed the commander of the invading British forces. The British and Americans first met at North Point. Though the Americans retreated, the battle was a successful delaying action that inflicted heavy casualties on the British, halting their advance consequently allowing the defenders at Baltimore to properly prepare for an attack.

The resistance of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry during bombardment by the Royal Navy inspired Francis Scott Key to compose the poem "Defence of Fort McHenry", which later became the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America.

Future President James Buchanan served as Private in the defense of Baltimore.

Ft._Henry_bombardement_1814.jpg
The caption reads "A VIEW of the BOMBARDMENT of Fort McHenry, near Baltimore, by the British fleet taken from the Observatory under the Command of Admirals Cochrane & Cockburn on the morning of the 13th of Sept 1814 which lasted 24 hours & thrown from 1500 to 1800 shells in the Night attempted to land by forcing a passage up the ferry branch but were repulsed with great loss."

Background
Until April 1814, Great Britain was at war with Napoleonic France, which limited British war aims in America. During this time the British primarily used a defensive strategy and repelled American invasions of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada. However, the Americans gained naval control over Lake Erie in 1813, and seized parts of western Ontario. In the Southwest, General Andrew Jackson destroyed the military strength of the Creek nation at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.

Although Great Britain was unwilling to draw military forces from the war with France, it still enjoyed a naval superiority on the ocean, and vessels of the North America and West Indies Squadron, based at Bermuda, blockaded American ports on the Atlantic throughout the war, strangling the American economy (initially, the north-eastern ports were spared this blockade as public sentiments in New York and New England were against the war). The Royal Navy and Royal Marines also occupied American coastal islands and landed military forces for raids along the coast, especially around the Chesapeake Bay, encouraging enslaved blacks to defect to the Crown and recruiting them into the Corps of Colonial Marines.

Following the defeat of Napoleon in the spring of 1814, the British adopted a more aggressive strategy, intended to compel the United States to negotiate a peace that restored the pre-war status quo. Thousands of seasoned British soldiers were deployed to British North America. Most went to the Canadas to re-enforce the defenders (the British Army, Canadian militias, and their First Nations allies drove the American invaders back into the United States, but without naval control of the Great Lakes they were unable to receive supplies, resulting in the failure to capture Plattsburgh in the Second Battle of Lake Champlain and the withdrawal from US territory), but a brigade under the command of Major General Robert Ross was sent in early July with several naval vessels to join the forces already operating from Bermuda. The combined forces were to be used for diversionary raids along the Atlantic coast, intended to force the Americans to withdraw forces from Canada. They were under orders not to carry out any extended operations and were restricted to targets on the coast.

An ambitious raid was planned as the result of a letter sent to Bermuda on 2 June by Sir George Prévost, Governor General of The Canadas, who called for a retaliation in response to the "wanton destruction of private property along the north shores of Lake Erie" by American forces under Colonel John Campbell in May 1814, the most notable being the Raid on Port Dover. Prévost argued that,

...in consequence of the late disgraceful conduct of the American troops in the wanton destruction of private property on the north shores of Lake Erie, in order that if the war with the United States continues you may, should you judge it advisable, assist in inflicting that measure of retaliation which shall deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages.
The letter was considered by Ross and Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane (who had replaced Sir John Borlase Warren earlier that year as the Commander-in-Chief of the North America and West Indies Station of the Royal Navy, headquartered at Admiralty House in Bermuda) in planning how to use their forces. Cochrane's junior, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, had been commanding ships of the squadron in the operations on the Chesapeake Bay since the previous year. On 25 June he wrote to Cochrane stressing that the defenses there were weak, and he felt that several major cities were vulnerable to attack. Cochrane suggested attacking Baltimore, Washington and Philadelphia. On 17 July, Cockburn recommended Washington as the target, because of the comparative ease of attacking the national capital and "the greater political effect likely to result".

Chesapeake_Campaign_Map.jpg
Map of Chesapeake Campaign in War of 1812 from The fall of Fort Washington and the Battle of White House Landing, Fort Washington Park, Maryland

On 18 July, Cochrane ordered Cockburn that to "deter the enemy from a repetition of similar outrages...." You are hereby required and directed to "destroy and lay waste such towns and districts as you may find assailable". Cochrane instructed, "You will spare merely the lives of the unarmed inhabitants of the United States".

In August, the vessels in Bermuda sailed from the Royal Naval Dockyard and St. George's to join those already operating along the American Atlantic coast. After defeating a US Navy gunboat flotilla, a military force totaling 4,370 (composed of British Army, Royal Marines, and Royal Navy detachments for shore service) under Ross was landed in Virginia. After beating off an American force of 1,200 on the 23rd, on the 24th they attacked the prepared defenses of the main American force of roughly 6,400 (US Army soldiers, militiamen, US Marines, and US Navy sailors) in the Battle of Bladensburg. Despite the considerable disadvantage in numbers (standard military logic dictates that a three-to-one advantage is needed in carrying out an attack on prepared defences) and sustaining heavy casualties, the British force routed the American defenders and cleared the path into the capital (President James Madison and the entire government fled the city, and went North, to the town of Brookeville, Maryland). The Burning of Washington took place that night before the force returned to the ships.

The British also sent a fleet up the Potomac to cut off Washington's water access and threaten the prosperous ports of Alexandria, just downstream of Washington, and Georgetown, just upstream. The mere appearance of the fleet cowed American defenders into fleeing from Fort Warburton without firing a shot, and undefended Alexandria surrendered. The British spent several days looting hundreds of tons of merchandise from city merchants, then turned their attention north to Baltimore, where they hoped to strike a powerful blow against the demoralized Americans. Baltimore was a busy port and was thought by the British to harbor many of the privateers who were raiding British shipping. The British planned a combined operation, with Ross launching a land attack at North Point, and Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane laying siege to Fort McHenry, which was the point defensive installation in Baltimore Harbor.


Naval Forces for the Bombardment with different Squadron and Ship names
Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, RN

Bomb Vessels
Rocket Ship
HMS Erebus was originally built as a Royal Navy fireship, but served as a sloop and was re-rated as such in March 1808. She served in the Baltic during the Gunboat and Anglo-Russian Wars, where in 1809 she was briefly converted to a fireship, and then served in the War of 1812. In 1814 she was converted to a rocket vessel to fire Congreve rockets. While serving off America, Erebus participated in the sack of Alexandria, Virginia, and launched the rockets that bombarded Fort McHenry in Baltimore on 13 September 1814. In March 1815, off Georgia, she fired the second-to-the-last-shot of the war. She was laid up in 1816 and sold for breaking up in 1819.

Firing_Congreve_Rockets_PAH7444.jpg
Fireships firing rockets and details of storage and launch (Misc 34) Plate to The Details of the Rocket System, back and watercolour pen & ink by Colonel Congreve, 1814

Erebus was one of the ships involved in the bombardment of Fort McHenry in the Battle of Baltimore. She was equipped with a battery of 32-pound Congreve rockets installed below the main deck, which fired through portholes or scuttles pierced in the ship's side. This was an improved version of the design that Congreve had first installed in HMS Galgo.

Erebus, Meteor, Ætna, Terror, Heron, and Devastation moved up the Patapsco River on 12 September 1814 in preparation for an attack on Baltimore. They commenced their bombardment on Fort McHenry and the water batteries on 13 September, but were ordered to withdraw the next day.[28] It was fire from Erebus that provided the "rockets' red glare" that Francis Scott Key described in The Star-Spangled Banner.

The_Star-Spangled_Banner.JPG
The Star-Spangled Banner

Frigates
Schooners
  • HMS Cockchafer
  • HMS Wolverine
  • HMS Rover

Battle
North Point

Main article: Battle of North Point
The British landed a force of 5,000 troops who marched toward Baltimore and first met heavy resistance at the Battle of North Point which was fought about 5 miles (8 km) from the city. The city’s defense was under the overall command of Major General Samuel Smith, an officer of the Maryland Militia. He dispatched roughly 3,000 men under the command of General John Stricker to meet the British in a forward engagement. General Stricker was to stall the British invasion force in order to delay the British advance long enough for Major General Smith to complete the defenses in Baltimore. The land invasion force for the British was led by Ross, who would be killed in the second shift of the American defense by an American sharpshooter (It has been suggested that either Daniel Wells or Henry McComas of Captain Aisquith's rifle company, of the 5th Maryland Militia regiment, were responsible, and both killed shortly afterwards). With Ross's death the British army came under the command of Colonel Arthur Brooke. However, the Americans had already begun to form an organized retreat back to the main defenses of Baltimore, where they awaited a British assault.

Hampstead Hill
Rodgers Bastion, also known as Sheppard's Bastion, located on Hampstead Hill (now part of Patterson Park), was the centerpiece of a 3-mile-wide earthworks from the outer harbor in Canton, north to Belair Road, dug to defend the eastern approach to Baltimore against the British. The redoubt was assembled and commanded by U.S. Navy Commodore John Rodgers, with General Smith in command of the overall line. At dawn on September 13, 1814, the day after the Battle of North Point, some 4,300 British troops advanced north on North Point Road, then west along the Philadelphia Road (now Maryland Route 7) toward Baltimore, forcing the U.S. troops to retreat to the main defensive line around the city. British commander Col. Arthur Brooke established his new headquarters at the Sterret House on Surrey Farm (today called Armistead Gardens), about two miles east-northeast of Hampstead Hill.

When the British began probing actions on Baltimore's inner defenses, the American line was defended by 100 cannons and more than 10,000 regular troops, including two shadowing infantry regiments commanded by general officers Stricker and Winder as well as a few thousand local militia and irregulars. The defenses were far stronger than the British anticipated. The U.S. defenders at Fort McHenry successfully stopped British naval forces but a few ships were still able to provide artillery support. Once the British had taken the outer defences, the inner defences became the priority. The British infantry had not anticipated how well defended they would be so the first attack was a failure; however, Brooke's forces did manage to outflank and overrun American positions to the right. After a discussion with lower ranking officers, Brooke decided that the British should bombard the fort instead of risk a frontal assault and, at 3:00 a.m. on September 14, 1814, ordered the British troops to return to the ships.

Fort McHenry

800px-WilliamCharlesJohnBullAndTheBaltimoreans.jpg
John Bull and the Baltimoreans(1814) by William Charles, a cartoonpraising the stiff resistance in Baltimore
By William Charles (1776-1820)
Source: "HarpWeek Explore History" Web site (accessed October 23, 2006


At Fort McHenry, some 1,000 soldiers under the command of Major George Armistead awaited the British naval bombardment. Their defense was augmented by the sinking of a line of American merchant ships at the adjacent entrance to Baltimore Harbor in order to further thwart the passage of British ships.

The attack began on September 13, as the British fleet of some nineteen ships began pounding the fort with Congreve rockets (from rocket vessel HMS Erebus) and mortar shells (from bomb vessels Terror, Volcano, Meteor, Devastation, and Aetna). After an initial exchange of fire, the British fleet withdrew to just beyond the range of Fort McHenry’s cannons and continued to bombard the American redoubts for the next 27 hours. Although 1,500 to 1,800 cannonballs were launched at the fort, damage was light due to recent fortification that had been completed prior to the battle.

After nightfall, Cochrane ordered a landing to be made by small boats to the shore just west of the fort, away from the harbor opening on which the fort’s defense was concentrated. He hoped that the landing party might slip past Fort McHenry and draw Smith’s army away from the main British land assault on the city’s eastern border. This gave the British a good diversion for half an hour, allowing them to fire again and again. On the morning of September 14, the 30 ft × 42 ft (9.1 m × 12.8 m) oversized American flag, which had been made a year earlier by local flagmaker Mary Pickersgill and her 13-year-old daughter, was raised over Fort McHenry (replacing the tattered storm flag which had flown during battle). It was responded to by a small encampment of British rifleman on the right flank, who fired a round each at the sky and taunted the Americans just before they too returned to the shore line.

Originally, historians said the oversized Star Spangled Banner Flag was raised to taunt the British. However, that is not the case. The oversized flag was used every morning for reveille, as was the case on the morning of September 14.

Brooke had been instructed not to attack the American positions around Baltimore unless he was certain that there were less than 2,000 men in the fort. Because of his orders, Brooke had to withdraw from his positions and returned to the fleet which would set sail for New Orleans.

BombingFtMcHenry.jpg

Aftermath
Colonel Brooke’s troops withdrew, and Admiral Cochrane’s fleet sailed off to regroup before his next (and final) assault on the United States, at the Battle of New Orleans. Armistead was soon promoted to lieutenant colonel. Much weakened by the arduous preparations for the battle, he died at age 38, only three years after the battle.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baltimore
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Erebus_(1807)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star-Spangled_Banner
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1857 – The SS Central America sinks

about 160 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning a total of 426 passengers and crew, including Captain William Lewis Herndon. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California Gold Rush.


SS Central America, known as the Ship of Gold, was a 280-foot (85 m) sidewheel steamer that operated between Central America and the eastern coast of the United States during the 1850s. She was originally named the SS George Law, after Mr. George Law of New York. The ship sank in a hurricane in September 1857, along with more than 420 passengers and crew and 30,000 pounds (14,000 kg) of gold, contributing to the Panic of 1857.

SSCentralAmerica.jpg

Sinking
On 3 September 1857, 477 passengers and 101 crew left the Panamanian port of Colón, sailing for New York City under the command of William Lewis Herndon. The ship was heavily laden with 10 short tons (9.1 t) of gold prospected during the California Gold Rush. After a stop in Havana, the ship continued north.

1920px-1857_North_Carolina_hurricane_track.png
Map plotting the track and intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale

On 9 September 1857, the ship was caught up in a Category 2 hurricane while off the coast of the Carolinas. By 11 September, the 105 mph (170 km/h) winds and heavy seas had shredded her sails, she was taking on water, and her boiler was threatening to fail. A leak in one of the seals between the paddle wheel shafts and the ship's sides sealed its fate. At noon that day, her boiler could no longer maintain fire. Steam pressure dropped, shutting down both the bilge pumps. Also, the paddle wheels that kept her pointed into the wind failed as the ship settled by the stern. The passengers and crew flew the ship's flag inverted (a distress sign in the US) to signal a passing ship. No one came.

wreck-central-america-sinking.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg
A depiction of the sinking

A bucket brigade was formed, and her passengers and crew spent the night fighting a losing battle against the rising water. During the calm of the hurricane, attempts were made to get the boiler running again, but these failed. The second half of the storm then struck. The ship was now on the verge of foundering. Without power, the ship was carried along with the storm and the strong winds would not abate. The next morning, September 12, two ships were spotted, including the brig Marine. Among her passengers, 153 passengers, primarily women and children, made their way over in lifeboats. The ship remained in an area of intense winds and heavy seas that pulled the ship and most of her company away from rescue. Central America sank at 8:00 that evening. As a consequence of the sinking, 425 people were killed. A Norwegian bark, Ellen, rescued an additional 50 from the waters. Another three were picked up over a week later in a lifeboat.

Aftermath
In the immediate aftermath of the sinking, greatest attention was paid to the loss of life, which was described as "appalling" and as having "no parallel" among American navigation disasters. At the time of her sinking, Central America carried gold then valued at approximately US$8,000,000 (modern monetarily equivalent to $292 million, assuming a gold value of $1,000 per troy ounce). The loss shook public confidence in the economy, and contributed to the Panic of 1857. The valuation of the ship itself was substantially less than those lost in other disasters of the period, being $140,000 (equivalent to $3,680,000 in 2017).

Commander William Lewis Herndon, a distinguished officer who had served during the Mexican–American War and explored the Amazon Valley, was captain of Central America, and went down with his ship. Two US Navy ships were later named USS Herndon in his honor, as was the town of Herndon, Virginia. Two years after the sinking, his daughter Ellen married Chester Alan Arthur, later the 21st President of the United States.

Search and discovery
The ship was located by the Columbus-America Discovery Group of Ohio, led by Tommy Gregory Thompson, using Bayesian search theory. A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) was sent down on 11 September 1988. Significant amounts of gold and artifacts were recovered and brought to the surface by another ROV built specifically for the recovery. The total value of the recovered gold was estimated at $100–150 million. A recovered gold ingot weighing 80 lb (36 kg) sold for a record $8 million and was recognized as the most valuable piece of currency in the world at that time.

15072819006_39df81b2a6.jpggold-coins-wreck.jpg.838x0_q80.jpgwheel-ss-central.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg

Thirty-nine insurance companies filed suit, claiming that because they paid damages in the 19th century for the lost gold, they had the right to it. The team that found it argued that the gold had been abandoned. After a legal battle, 92% of the gold was awarded to the discovery team in 1996.

Thompson was sued in 2005 by several of the investors who had provided $12.5 million in financing, and in 2006 by several members of his crew, over a lack of returns for their respective investments. Thompson went into hiding in 2012. A receiver was appointed to take over Thompson's companies and, if possible, salvage more gold from the wreck, in order to recover money for Thompson's various creditors.

In March 2014, a contract was awarded to Odyssey Marine Exploration to conduct archeological recovery and conservation of the remaining shipwreck.[9] The original expedition had only excavated "5 percent" of the ship.

Thompson was located in January 2015, along with assistant Alison Antekeier, by US Marshals agents, and was extradited to Ohio to provide an accounting of the expedition profits.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Central_America
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/w...gs/gold-shipwreck-ss-central-america-for-sale
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1869 – SS Carnatic wrecked


SS Carnatic was a British steamship built in 1862-63 by Samuda Brothers at Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs, London, for the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. She operated on the Suez to Bombay run in the last years before the Suez Canal was opened.

f692247533ae2946db50e5b5e4a22020c0160925.jpeg

Ship history
The ship was laid down in early 1862, and was originally to be named Mysore. She was launched as Carnatic on 12 June 1862, and completed on 25 April 1863. The iron-framed wooden-planked hull was fitted with square-rigged sails, and also had a 4-cylinder compound inverted steam engine by Humphrys & Tennant, providing 2,442 hp (1,821 kW) to a single propeller.

SS_Carnatic.png

Grounding
On 12 September 1869, she ran aground on Sha`b Abu Nuhas coral reef near Shadwan Island at the mouth of the Gulf of Suez in the Red Sea. Having assessed the ship to be safe and the pumps intact, Captain P. B. Jones denied passengers' repeated requests to abandon ship, and reassured them that the ship was safe and that the P&O liner Sumatra was due to pass by and would rescue them. There was a general air of calm and normality on board until about 2 a.m. on the 14th, when the rising water engulfed the ship's boilers and the ship was left without power or light. At 11 a.m. the following morning, after 34 hours on the reef, Captain Jones had just given the order to abandon ship and the first four passengers had taken their seats in one of the lifeboats when Carnatic suddenly broke in half. Thirty-one people drowned. The survivors made it to barren island of Shadwan, where the next day the Sumatra rescued them.

Carnatic_1869.jpg
Print of the wreck of the Carnatic, 1869

Carnatic was carrying £40,000 worth of gold (well in excess of £1,000,000 in modern terms), so the wreck was the subject of a salvage operation two weeks later. All the gold was reported recovered, but persistent rumours of remaining treasure have added to the romance of the ship.

Captain Jones was recalled to England to face an official Board of Enquiry, which labelled him "a skilful and experienced officer." However, they also found "it appears there was every condition as regards ship, weather and light to ensure a safe voyage and there was needed only proper care. This was not done, and hence the disaster." Although Jones's Master’s certificate was suspended for only nine months, he never returned to sea.

Rediscovered in May 1984, the wreck of the Carnatic is now a popular scuba diving site.

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In fiction
In Jules Verne's 1872 novel, Around the World in Eighty Days, Phileas Fogg intends to take a steamer named Carnatic to travel from Hong Kong to Yokohama, but misses it. His valet, Passepartout, catches the ship, however.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Carnatic
http://www.alfadivingteam.com/lokacije/EG/ss-carnatic
http://www.soldiersofthequeen.com/India-CaptRobertPopeRoyalArtillery.html
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1882 – HMS Phoenix, a Doterel-class sloop wrecked


HMS Phoenix was a Doterel-class sloop launched in 1879. She was wrecked off Prince Edward Island, Canada on 12 September 1882.

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Design
The Doterel class was designed by Nathaniel Barnaby as a development of William Henry White's 1874 Osprey-class sloop. The graceful clipper bow of the Ospreys was replaced by a vertical stem and the engines were more powerful. The hull was of composite construction, with wooden planks over an iron frame.

Power was provided by three cylindrical boilers, which supplied steam at 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) to a two-cylinder horizontal compound-expansion steam engine driving a single 13-foot-1-inch (3.99 m) screw. This arrangement produced 1,128 indicated horsepower (841 kW) and a top speed of 11 1⁄2 knots (21.3 km/h).

Ships of the class were armed with two 7-inch (90 cwt) muzzle-loading rifled guns on pivoting mounts, and four 64-pounder muzzle-loading rifled guns (two on pivoting mounts, and two broadside). Four machine guns and one light gun completed the weaponry.

All the ships of the class were provided with a barque rig, that is, square-rigged foremast and mainmast, and fore-and-aft sails only on the mizzen mast.

Crew
Phoenix would have had a normal complement of 140–150 men.

Construction
Phoenix was ordered from Devonport Dockyard and laid down on 8 July 1878. She was launched on 16 September 1879 and commissioned on 20 April 1880.[1]

Service
Sloops of her type were designed for patrolling Britain's extensive maritime empire, and were normally sent to foreign stations for extended periods. Typically the crews would serve commissions of several years before handing their ship over to a newly arrived crew and returning home in another ship. Phoenix was sent to the North America and West Indies Station.

Wreck
Phoenix left Gaspé, Quebec on the morning of 12 September 1882 under the command of Commander Hubert Grenfell. In company with Northampton, she was on her way to Canso, Nova Scotia. The wind was a north-east gale and the sea was thick with rain squalls. As she approached East Point from the north-west, under short sail and in the dark, the distance to East Point Light was judged to be 4 or 5 miles. In fact, the distance was deceptive, and with the tidal stream carrying the ship towards East Point at as much as 6 knots (11 km/h), the ship was swept onto the East Point Reef in an approximate position of 46°28.5′N 61°58′WCoordinates:
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46°28.5′N 61°58′W.

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The Wreck of H.M.S. Phoenix Off East Point, Prince Edward Island, North America, Morning of Septr 13th 1882 (PAF8181)
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/103008.html#HTebHiuqTtLIHwue.99

“The water-tight doors were immediately closed, and all hands were summoned to save ship. The sailors worked calmly and without confusion. As she was bumping heavily on the reef steam was got up, when suddenly the sternpost was smashed, and the screw propeller dropped into the sea. There upon the captain ordered part of the men to construct a raft, the remainder being engaged on pumping, as sea had by this time forced its way through the bottom, and flooded the engine-room and cabins.”— The Graphic, London, 21 October 1882

The whole of 13 September was spent trying to save the ship, but the sea was too rough for boats to travel between the ship and the land. By 14 September 4 local fishermen were able to take a boat to Phoenix, which by now was sitting upright on the reef and flooded to the deck. Grenfell ordered the boats and rafts to make for the shore, and everybody on board was landed safely.

HMS_Phoenix_(1879)_wreck.jpg

Northampton was recalled by telegram from Halifax and brought with her Rear Admiral Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, the commander-in-chief of the North America and West Indies Station. The weather remained poor, and it was not until 19 September that the ship's company of Phoenix could be embarked. With the help of two small vessels, Foam and Charger, Phoenix's guns and heavy equipment were salvaged, but it was clear that the ship could not be refloated, and the salvage rights to the wreck were sold for £3,000.

The board of enquiry found that insufficient efforts had been made to establish the range of the light, and that the courses steered had been hazardous. Commander Grenfell was given a severe reprimand and dismissed ship,[Note 1] Lieutenant John Hill, the navigating officer, forfeited a year's seniority, and the gunner was reprimanded.

By December 1883 there were only a few ribs to be seen at low water, and the scattered remains of the wreck now lie in less than 30 feet (9.1 m) of water. The wreck can be dived, although strong tidal streams make the area dangerous for all but the most experienced.


The Doterel class was a Royal Navy class of screw-driven sloops. They were of composite construction, with wooden hulls over an iron frame. They were a revised version of an 1874 design by the Royal Navy's Chief Constructor, William Henry White, the Osprey-class sloop. Two of the class were lost, one to an explosion off Chile and one wrecked off Canada. Gannet is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.

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HMS Doterel

Ships
Name - Launching Date - Fate
HMS Dragon - 30 May 1878 - Sold for breaking 24 September 1892
HMS Pegasus - 13 June 1878 - Sold for breaking 11 August 1892
HMS Gannet - 31 August 1878 - Training ship 16 May 1903, renamed President, then in 1913 became training ship Mercury. In 1971 was turned over to the Maritime Trust, on display in Chatham Historic Dockyard
HMS Phoenix - 16 September 1879 - Wrecked off Prince Edward Island, Canada on 12 September 1882
HMS Miranda - 30 September 1879 - Sold for breaking 24 September 1892
HMS Kingfisher - 16 December 1879 - Training ship 10 November 1892, renamed Lark, then on 18 May 1893 training ship Cruiser. Sold in 1919
HMS Doterel - 2 March 1880 - Exploded by accident and sank off Punta Arenas, Chile on 26 April 1881, with loss of 143 men
HMS Mutine - 20 July 1880 - Became boom defence vessel 1899, renamed HMS Azov in March 1904. Sold for breaking 25 August 1921
HMS Espiegle - 3 August 1880 - Became boom defence vessel 1899, renamed HMS Argo in March 1904. Sold for breaking 25 August 1921


HMS Gannet was a Royal Navy Doterel-class screw sloop launched on 31 August 1878. She became a training ship in the Thames in 1903, and was then lent as a training ship for boys in the Hamble from 1913. She was restored in 1987 and is now part of the UK's National Historic Fleet.

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HMS Gannet in her dock in Chatham, 2005

Preservation
Back in Royal Navy stewardship, the ship was turned over to the Maritime Trust so that she could be restored. In 1987 the Chatham Historic Dockyard chartered Gannet from the Maritime Trust and started a restoration programme to return the ship to its 1888 appearance — the only time she saw naval combat. In 1994 ownership of the vessel was passed to the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust, where, listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, she remains today on display as a museum ship.

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One of Gannet's 64-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns

In the news, March 2009
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown, on his first visit to President Barack Obama in the White House in March 2009, gave the US President a gift of a pen holder made from the wood of Gannet, reflecting her role in Victorian anti-slavery efforts. This gift was reciprocated with 25 DVDs of classic US feature films.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Phoenix_(1879)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doterel-class_sloop
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Gannet_(1878)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1905 - japanese battleship Mikasa sinks after accidentally explosion


Mikasa (三笠) is a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the late 1890s. Named after Mount Mikasa in Nara, Japan, the ship served as the flagship of Admiral Tōgō Heihachirōthroughout the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, including the Battle of Port Arthur on the second day of the war and the Battles of the Yellow Sea and Tsushima. Days after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Mikasa's magazine accidentally exploded and sank the ship. She was salvaged and her repairs took over two years to complete. Afterwards, the ship served as a coast-defence ship during World War I and supported Japanese forces during the Siberian Intervention in the Russian Civil War.

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After 1922, Mikasa was decommissioned in accordance with the Washington Naval Treaty and preserved as a museum ship at Yokosuka. She was badly neglected during the post-World War II Occupation of Japanand required extensive refurbishing in the late 1950s. She is now fully restored as a museum ship and can be visited at Mikasa Park in Yokosuka.

Mikasa is the last remaining example of a pre-dreadnought battleship anywhere in the world

Background
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Plans showing Mikasa as originally built, from Jane's Fighting Ships 1906–07

Combat experience in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 convinced the Imperial Japanese Navy of weaknesses in the Jeune Ecole naval philosophy, which emphasized torpedo boats and commerce raiding to offset expensive heavily armoured ships, and Japan embarked on a program to modernize and expand its fleet in preparation for further confrontations. In particular, Japan promulgated a ten-year naval build-up programme, with the construction of six battleships and six armoured cruisers at its core. These ships were paid for from the £30,000,000 indemnity paid by China after losing the First Sino-Japanese War.

As with the earlier Fuji and Shikishima-class battleships, Japan lacked the technology and capability to construct its own battleships, and turned again to the United Kingdom for the four remaining battleships of the programme. Mikasa, the last of these ships, was ordered from the Vickers shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness in 1898 at the cost of £880,000 (8.8 million yen at that time). Although she closely resembled several of the other ships ordered in this program, she was the only ship in her class.

Design and description
The design of Mikasa was a modified version of the Formidable-class battleships of the Royal Navy with two additional 6-inch (152 mm) guns. Mikasa had an overall length of 432 feet (131.7 m), a beam of 76 feet (23.2 m), and a normal draught of 27 feet 2 inches (8.3 m). She displaced 15,140 long tons (15,380 t) at normal load. The crew numbered about 830 officers and enlisted men.

The ship was powered by two vertical triple-expansion steam engines, each driving one propeller, using steam generated by 25 Belleville boilers. The engines were rated at 15,000 indicated horsepower (11,000 kW), using forced draught, and designed to reach a top speed of 18 knots (33 km/h; 21 mph) although Mikasa proved to be faster during her sea trials in December 1901. The ship reached a top speed of 18.45 knots (34.17 km/h; 21.23 mph) using 16,341 indicated horsepower (12,185 kW). She carried a maximum of 2,000 tonnes (2,000 long tons) of coal which allowed her to steam for 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi) at a speed of 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

Mikasa's main battery consisted of the same four Elswick Ordnance Company 40-calibre twelve-inch guns used in all of the preceding Japanese battleships. They were mounted in twin-gun barbettes fore and aft of the superstructure that had armoured hoods to protect the guns and were usually called gun turrets. The hydraulically powered mountings could be loaded at all angles of traverse while the guns were loaded at a fixed angle of +13.5°. They fired 850-pound (386 kg) projectiles at a muzzle velocity of 2,400 ft/s (730 m/s).

The waterline armour belt of Mikasa consisted of Krupp cemented armour that had a maximum thickness of 9 inches (229 mm) over the middle of the ship. It was only 4 inches (102 mm) thick at the ends of the ship and was surmounted by a six-inch strake of armour that ran between the barbettes.[6] The barbettes were 14 inches (356 mm) thick, but reduced to six inches at the level of the lower deck. The armour of the barbette hoods had a thickness of 8–10 inches (203–254 mm).[13] The casemates protecting the secondary armament were 2–6 inches (51–152 mm) thick and the deck armour was 2–3 inches (51–76 mm) in thickness. The forward conning tower was protected by 14 inches of armour, but the aft conning tower only had four inches of armour.

Mikasa, like all the other Japanese battleships of the time, was fitted with four Barr & Stroud FA3 coincidence rangefinders that had an effective range of 7,300 metres (8,000 yd). In addition the ships were also fitted with 24-power magnification telescopic gunsights.

Career

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Admiral Tōgō on the bridge of the Mikasa, before the Battle of Tsushimain 1905

Mikasa, named after Mount Mikasa, was laid down by Vickers at their Barrow-in-Furness shipyard on 24 January 1899. She was launched on 8 November 1900 and completed on 1 March 1902. After a visit to Devonport, she left Plymouth on 13 March 1902, bound for Yokohama, under the command of Captain Hayasaki.

At the start of the Russo-Japanese War, Mikasa, commanded by Captain Hikojirō Ijichi, was assigned to the 1st Division of the 1st Fleet. She participated in the Battle of Port Arthur on 9 February 1904 when Admiral Tōgō Heihachirō led the 1st Fleet in an attack on the Russian ships of the Pacific Squadron anchored just outside Port Arthur. Tōgō had expected his surprise night attack on the Russians by his destroyers to be much more successful than it actually was and expected to find them badly disorganized and weakened, but the Russians had recovered from their surprise and were ready for his attack. The Japanese ships were spotted by the cruiser Boyarin which was patrolling offshore and alerted the Russian defences. Tōgō chose to attack the Russian coastal defences with his main armament and engage the Russian ships with his secondary guns. Splitting his fire proved to be a bad idea as the Japanese 8-inch (203 mm) and six-inch guns inflicted very little significant damage on the Russian ships who concentrated all their fire on the Japanese ships with some effect. Although a large number of ships on both sides were hit, Russian casualties numbered only 17 while the Japanese suffered 60 killed and wounded before Tōgō disengaged. Mikasa was hit by two ten-inch shells during the engagement that wounded seven crewmen.

The ship participated in the action of 13 April when Tōgō successfully lured out a portion of the Pacific Squadron, including Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov's flagship, the battleship Petropavlovsk. When Makarov spotted the five battleships of the 1st Division, he turned back for Port Arthur and Petropavlovsk struck a minefield laid by the Japanese the previous night. The Russian battleship sank in less than two minutes after one of her magazinesexploded, Makarov one of the 677 killed. Emboldened by his success, Tōgō resumed long-range bombardment missions, which prompted the Russians to lay more minefields which sank two Japanese battleships the following month.

During the Battle of the Yellow Sea on 10 August, Mikasa was at the head of the column of Japanese battleships and was one of the primary targets of the Russian ships. She was hit twenty times, two of which knocked out her aft 12-inch gun turret, and suffered 125 casualties among her crew. In turn, she concentrated most of her fire upon the battleships Poltava and Tsesarevich although both ships were only lightly damaged by the Japanese shells which generally failed to penetrate any armour and detonated on impact.

Battle of Tsushima
Main article: Battle of Tsushima

Japanese_battleship_Mikasa.jpg
Mikasa as she appeared in 1905

At the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905, Mikasa again led the 1st Fleet into combat, this time against the Second and Third Pacific Squadrons detached from the Baltic Fleet. The ship opened fire at the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, the Russian flagship, at 14:10, and was joined by the battleship Asahi and the armoured cruiser Azuma shortly afterwards. Within an hour the Japanese ships had started a serious fire aboard the Russian ship, badly wounded the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Zinovy Rozhestvensky, knocked out her rear twelve-inch gun turret, and jammed Knyaz Suvorov's steering so that she fell out of formation. During this time, Mikasa was the focus of the Russian fire as the leading ship in the Japanese column and was hit by 6 twelve-inch and 19 six-inch shells. They did very little damage and Tōgō was able to cross the T of the Russian squadrons. Knyaz Suvorov's steering was later repaired, but she blundered between the Japanese and Russian fleets several times later in the battle and Mikasa fired three torpedoes at her to no avail. Later in the battle, the ship appears to have fired mostly on the battleship Borodino although Fuji fired the shots that caused the Russian ship's magazines to explode and sink her. At 18:04, a twelve-inch shell detonated prematurely in the barrel of the right gun of the forward turret, disabling the gun and knocking out the left gun until 18:40. Another twelve-inch shell had exploded in that same barrel almost two hours earlier, but had not damaged the gun. One six-inch gun jammed after firing 19 rounds, but the only other damage to any of the ship's guns was one six-inch gun that was disabled by a Russian shell of the same size that entered through the gunport. She fired 124 twelve-inch shells during the battle, more than any other ship except Asahi's 142. In total, Mikasa was hit more than 40 times during the battle, including 10 twelve-inch and 22 six-inch shells, but none of them seriously damaged her. While Mikasa's casualties are not precisely known, the entire Japanese force combined only lost 110 men killed and 590 wounded to all causes during the battle.

MIKASAGUNS.jpg
The new 45-calibre 12-inch guns added during the reconstruction

Six days after the Treaty of Portsmouth that ended the war was signed, Mikasa sank at her moorings after a fire and magazine explosion at Sasebo on the night of 11/12 September 1905 that killed 251 crewmen. She was refloated on 7 August 1906, reconstructed and repaired at Sasebo Naval Arsenal. The navy took the opportunity to upgrade her existing armament with more powerful 45-calibre twelve-inch and six-inch guns during the two years it took to repair the ship. Mikasa was restored to active service on 24 August 1908. During World War I, she served on coast-defence duties, based at Maizuru, during 1914–15 and was then assigned to the Second and Fifth Squadrons, in that order, for the rest of the war. The ship supported the Japanese intervention in Siberia during the Russian Civil War during 1921 and was reclassified on 1 September 1921 as a first-class coast-defence ship. On 17 September, Mikasa ran aground near Askold Island off Vladivostok, but was not seriously damaged.

Preservation
The ship was decommissioned on 23 September 1923 following the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and scheduled for destruction. However, at the request of the Japanese government, each of the signatory countries to the treaty agreed that Mikasa could be preserved as a memorial ship with her hull encased in concrete. On 12 November 1926, Mikasa was opened for display in Yokosuka in the presence of Crown Prince Hirohito and Tōgō. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, the ship deteriorated under control of the occupation forces. In 1955, Philadelphia businessman John Rubin, formerly of Barrow, England, wrote a letter to the Japan Times about the state of the ship, which was the catalyst for a new restoration campaign. With the support of the Japanese public, and also Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the restored battleship reopened in 1961. On 5 August 2009, Mikasa was repainted by sailors from USS Nimitz.

Mikasa is remembered in Barrow-in-Furness, the town of its construction, by Mikasa Street on Walney Island.

It has also now been commemorated by the Biggar Brewing Co-operative, also of Barrow-in-Furness, with the creation of a real ale to commemorate its building.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_battleship_Mikasa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikasa_Park
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
12 September 1942 – Ocean liner RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks with a heavy loss of life


The second RMS Laconia was a Cunard ocean liner, built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson as a successor of the 1911-1917 Laconia. The new ship was launched on 9 April 1921, and made her maiden voyage on 25 May 1922 from Southampton to New York City. At the outbreak of World War II she was converted into an Armed Merchant Cruiser, and subsequently a troopship. Like her predecessor, sunk during the First World War, this Laconia was also destroyed by a German submarine. Some estimates of the death toll have suggested that over 1,649 people were killed when the Laconia sank. The U-boat commander Werner Hartenstein then staged a dramatic effort to rescue the passengers and the crew of Laconia, which involved additional German U-boats and became known as the Laconia incident.

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Cunard Line postcard of the RMS cira 1921

Description
Laconia was 601 feet 3 inches (183.26 m) long, with a beam of 73 feet 7 inches (22.43 m). She had a depth of 40 feet 6 inches (12.34 m) and a draught of 32 feet 8 inches (9.96 m). She was powered by six steam turbines of 2,561 nhp, which drove twin screw propellors via double reduction gearing. The turbines were made by the Wallsend Slipway & Engineering Company, Newcastle upon Tyne. In addition to her passenger accommodation, Laconia had 54,089 cubic feet (1,531.6 m3) of refrigerated cargo space.

Early career
Laconia was built by Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson Ltd, Wallsend, Northumberland. Launched on 9 April 1921, she was completed in January 1922.[3] Her port of registry was Liverpool. The code letters KLWT and United Kingdom Official Number 145925 were allocated. As a Royal Mail Ship, Laconia was entitled to display the Royal Mail "crown" logo as a part of its crest. In January 1923 Laconia began the first around-the-world cruise, which lasted 130 days and called at 22 ports.

On 8 September 1925, Laconia collided with the British schooner Lucia P. Dow in the Atlantic Ocean 60 nautical miles (110 km) east of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. Laconiatowed the schooner for 120 nautical miles (220 km) before handing the tow over to the American tug Resolute. In 1934, her code letters were changed to GJCD. On 24 September 1934 Laconia was involved in a collision off the US coast, while travelling from Boston to New York in dense fog. It rammed into the port side of Pan Royal, a US freighter. Both ships suffered serious damage but were able to proceed under their own steam. Laconia returned to New York for repairs, and resumed cruising in 1935.

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An early postcard depicting the Lounge, the Garden Lounge, the Dining Salon, and the Smoking Room on the Laconia

Drafted into war service
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Australians manning a 6-inch gun, 22 March 1942

On 4 September 1939, Laconia was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. By January 1940 she had been fitted with eight six-inch guns and two three-inch high-angle guns. After trials off the Isle of Wight, she embarked gold bullion and sailed for Portland, Maine and Halifax, Nova Scotia on 23 January. She spent the next few months escorting convoys to Bermuda and to points in the mid-Atlantic, where they would join up with other convoys.

On 9 June, she ran aground in the Bedford Basin at Halifax, suffering considerable damage, and repairs were not completed till the end of July. In October her passenger accommodation was dismantled and some areas filled with oil drums to provide extra buoyancy so that she would stay afloat longer if torpedoed.

During the period June–August 1941 Laconia returned to St John, New Brunswick and was refitted, then returned to Liverpool to be used as a troop transport for the rest of the war. On 12 September 1941, she arrived at Bidston Dock, Birkenhead and was taken over by Cammell Laird and Company to be converted. By early 1942 the work was complete, and for the next six months she made trooping voyages to the Middle East. On one such voyage the ship was used to carry prisoners of war, mainly Italian. She travelled to Cape Town and then set a course for Freetown, following a zigzag course and undertaking evasive steering during the night.

Final moments

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Laconia "Saloon Passenger List" 7 August 1926

Main article: Laconia incident

On 12 September 1942, at 8:10 pm, 130 miles (210 km) north-northeast of Ascension Island, Laconia was hit on the starboard side by a torpedo fired by U-boat U-156. There was an explosion in the hold and many of the Italian prisoners aboard were killed instantly. The vessel immediately took a list to starboard and settled heavily by the stern. Captain Rudolph Sharp, who had also commanded another Cunard liner, RMS Lancastria when she was sunk by enemy action, was gaining control over the situation when a second torpedo hit Number Two hold. At the time of the attack, the Laconia was carrying 268 British soldiers, 160 Polish soldiers (who were on guard), 80 civilians, and 1,800 Italian prisoners of war.

Captain Sharp ordered the ship abandoned and the women, children and injured taken into the lifeboats first. By this time, the ship's stern deck was awash. Some of the 32 lifeboats had been destroyed by the explosions and some surviving Italian prisoners tried to rush the lowering of the ones that remained. The efforts of the Polish guards were instrumental in controlling the chaotic situation on board and saved many lives.[citation needed] According to Italian survivors, many of the POWs were left locked in the holds, and those who escaped and tried to board lifeboats and liferafts were shot or bayoneted by British and Polish soldiers.[8] While most British and Polish troops and crew survived, only 415 Italians were rescued, out of 1,809 who had been onboard.

At 9:11 pm Laconia sank, stern first, her bow rising to be vertical, with Sharp himself and many of the Italian prisoners still on board. The prospects for those who escaped the ship were only slightly better; sharks were common in the area and the lifeboats were adrift in the mid-Atlantic with little hope of rescue.

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Boiler installation of the Laconia in 1922.

However, before Laconia went down, U-156 surfaced. The U-boat's efforts to rescue survivors of its own attack began what came to be known as the Laconia incident.

When Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein, commanding officer of U-156, realized civilians and prisoners of war were on board, he surfaced to rescue survivors, and asked BdU (the U-Boat Command in Germany) for help. Several U-Boats were dispatched; all flew Red Cross flags, and signalled by radio that a rescue operation was underway.

The next morning, a U.S. B-24 Liberator plane sighted the rescue efforts. Hartenstein signaled the pilot for assistance, who then notified the American base on Ascension Island of the situation. The senior officer on duty there, Robert C. Richardson III, unaware of the Germans' radio message, ordered that the U-boats be attacked. Despite the Red Cross flags, the survivors crowded on the submarines' decks and the towed lifeboats, the B-24 then started making attack runs on U-156. The Germans ordered their submarines to dive, abandoning many survivors. After the incident, Admiral Karl Dönitz issued the Laconia Order, henceforth ordering his commanders not to rescue survivors after attacks. Vichy French ships rescued 1,083 persons from the lifeboats and took aboard those picked up by the four submarines, and in all around 1,500 survived the sinking. Other sources state that only 1,083 survived and an estimated 1,658 persons died (98 crew members, 133 passengers, 33 Polish guards and 1,394 Italian prisoners).

Amongst the French ships involved in the rescue were Annamite, Dumont-d'Urville and Gloire.


The Laconia incident was a series of events surrounding the sinking of a British troopship in the Atlantic Ocean during World War II and an attack on the subsequent rescue attempts. On 12 September 1942, RMS Laconia carrying some 2,732 crew, passengers, soldiers and prisoners of war (POWs), was torpedoed and sunk by the German U-boat submarine U-156 off the coast of West Africa. Operating partly under the dictates of the old prize rules, the U-boat commander, Korvettenkapitän Werner Hartenstein, immediately commenced rescue operations. U-156 broadcast their humanitarian intent on open radio channels to all Allied forces in the area, and were joined by the crews of several other U-boats in the vicinity.

After surfacing and picking up survivors, who were accommodated on the foredeck, U-156 headed on the surface under Red Cross banners to rendezvous with Vichy French ships and transfer the survivors. En route, the U-boat was spotted by a United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) B-24 Liberator bomber. The aircrew, having reported the U-boat's location, intentions, and the presence of survivors, were then ordered to attack the sub. The B-24 killed dozens of Laconia's survivors with bombs and strafing attacks, forcing U-156 to cast their remaining survivors into the sea and crash dive to avoid being destroyed. The pilots of the B-24 mistakenly reported that they had sunk U-156, and were awarded medals for their 'bravery'.

U-156_37-35_Laconia_1942_09_15.jpg
Shuttle service for shipwrecked persons from the Laconia between U156 (foreground) and U507 (background) See also: Spraul, G.: "Vom Fähnlein zur Fahne in den Tod", ISBN 978-3-86634-502-7, pp. 637

Rescue operations were continued by other vessels. Another U-boat, the U-506, was also attacked by US aircraft and forced to dive. A total of 1,113 survivors were eventually rescued, whilst 1,619 died (mostly Italian prisoners).

The event changed the general attitude of Germany's naval personnel towards rescuing stranded Allied seamen. The commanders of the Kriegsmarine (German navy) were shortly issued the "Laconia Order" by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, which specifically forbade any such attempt, thus helping to usher in unrestricted submarine warfare for the rest of the war. Neither the US pilots nor their commander were punished or investigated, and the matter was quietly forgotten by the US military.

During the later Nuremberg Trials, a prosecutor attempted to cite the Laconia Order as proof of war crimes by Dönitz and his submariners. The ploy backfired badly, causing embarrassment to the US when the full story of the incident emerged. The incident has been the subject of a bestselling book (One Common Enemy: The Laconia incident: A survivor's memoir by Jim McLoughlin and David Gibb, Wakefield 2006), numerous articles and a 2011 television film, The Sinking of the Laconia.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Laconia_(1921)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other Events on 12 September

490 BC – Battle of Marathon: The conventionally accepted date for the Battle of Marathon. The Athenians and their Plataean allies, defeat the first Persian invasion force of Greece.

According to Herodotus, the fleet sent by Darius consisted of 600 triremes. Herodotus does not estimate the size of the Persian army, only saying that they were a "large infantry that was well packed". Among ancient sources, the poet Simonides, another near-contemporary, says the campaign force numbered 200,000; while a later writer, the Roman Cornelius Nepos estimates 200,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, of which only 100,000 fought in the battle, while the rest were loaded into the fleet that was rounding Cape Sounion;[68] Plutarch and Pausanias both independently give 300,000, as does the Suda dictionary. Plato and Lysias give 500,000; and Justinus 600,000.

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A picture reconstructing the beached Persian ships at Marathon before the battle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marathon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Persian_invasion_of_Greece#Size_of_the_Persian_force


1609 – Henry Hudson begins his exploration of the Hudson River while aboard the Halve Maen.

Halve Maen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɑlvə maːn]; English: Half Moon) was a Dutch East India Company vlieboot (similar to a carrack) which sailed into what is now New York Harbor in September 1609. She was commissioned by the VOC Chamber of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic to covertly find a western passage to China. The ship was captained by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the service of the Dutch Republic.

In 1909, the Kingdom of the Netherlands presented the United States with a replica of Halve Maen in order to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Hudson's voyage; the replica was destroyed in a 1934 fire. Fifty years later, the New Netherland Museum commissioned a second replica.

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19th-century illustration Halve Maen in the Hudson River in 1609

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


1758 - HMS Shrewsbury (1758 – 74 – Dublin-class), Cptn. Hugh Palliser, drove French frigate Calypso ashore off Brest.

HMS Shrewsbury was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 February 1758 at Deptford Dockyard.[1]
In 1783, she was condemned and scuttled.[

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Shrewsbury_(1758)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin-class_ship_of_the_line


1780 - HMS Vestal (1779 – 28 – Enterprise-class), Cptn. George Keppel, accompanied by HMS Fairy (1778 – 14 – Swan-class) took American privateer Phoenix (16).

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Painting of an fictional model of the HMS Enterprise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Vestal_(1779)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise-class_frigate

1781 - Recapture of Savage by HMS Solebay (1763 – 28 – Mermaid.class)

Capture of Savage “6 September 1781 - HMS Savage (1778 - 14), Charles Stirling, taken by American privateer Congress (1781 - 24), Cptn. Gedded, off Charleston”

https://www.shipsofscale.com/sosfor...ime-events-in-history.2104/page-25#post-39058
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Solebay_(1763)


1791 – Launch of French Themistocla, a 74 gun Temeraire class

Thémistocle was a Téméraire-class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.

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Built in Lorient, Thémistocle was transferred to the Mediterranean soon after her commissioning to reinforce the squadron under Admiral Truguet. Seized by the British at the surrendering of Toulon by a Royalist cabale, she was used as a prison hulk during the Siege of Toulon. At the fall of the city, Captain Sidney Smith had her scuttled by fire, along with Héros.

The wreck was refloated in 1804 to be broken up

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_ship_Thémistocle_(1791)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Téméraire-class_ship_of_the_line

1792 - Trial of some of the Bounty mutineers at Portsmouth

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


1804 - In the First Barbary War, the frigates USS Constellation (1797) and USS President (1800) capture two ships while attempting to enter the harbor during the blockade of Barbary ports, while the brig USS Argus, and USS Constellation later capture a third vessel attempting to enter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_(1797)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_President_(1800)


1855 - Marines and Sailors from the frigate USS John Adams land at Nukulau, Fiji Islands to seek owed debt to Americans from the King of Fiji, Cakobau. Refusing, he appeals to the American Ambassador in Australia. After years of refusal, Fiji becomes a British possession in 1874 instead.

1918 - The ocean liner Galway Castle was torpedoed and damaged in the Atlantic Ocean 160 nautical miles (300 km) south west of the Fastnet Rock (48°50′N 10°40′W) by SM U-82 (Kaiserliche Marine). She was taken in tow but sank on 15 September with the loss of 143 lives

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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galway_Castle

1944 - USS Noa (APD 24) and USS Fullam (DD 474) collide off the Palau Islands. Despite this, USS Fullam, not only rescues all of USS Noa's men, but she also carries out daily shore bombardment and night harassing fire, as well as underwater demolition.

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USS Noa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Noa_(DD-343)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Fullam_(DD-474)
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 September 1653 – English 200-ton warship Swan / HMS Swann (1641 - 12) sunk in storm


Swan was a 200-ton warship of the English navy, launched as a Royalist vessel in 1641 but captured by the Commonwealth of England when her crew revolted in 1645. She carried twelve cannons, which were cast by John Browne.

The warship was a part of Oliver Cromwell's fleet of six vessels which attacked a Royalist stronghold at Duart Castle in Mull, UK, during the English Civil War. She sank in storm on 13 September 1653 off the west coast of Scotland.

A naval diver found the remnants of the Swan in 1979 and important items from the wreck were recovered during the 1990s in an excavation led by maritime archaeologist Colin Martin from the University of St Andrewsin Fife, Scotland. Items recovered at that time included a corroded pocket watch which appeared to look like "...little more than a lump of rock from the outside", many silver coins, iron guns and other military artifacts. The items were deposited with the National Museum of Scotland.

History
Capture
In 1645, whilst anchored at Dublin, and with Swan's captain absent from the ship, the disgruntled crew were persuaded by the captain of a Parliamentary frigate to change sides upon promise of payment of wages regularly. Thus the ship became part of the Cromwellianfleet.

Sinking
In September 1653, a Cromwellian task force anchored off Duart Castle, a staunch Royalist stronghold of the Maclean's, who had already fled to Tiree. On 13 September 1653, a violent storm blew up from the north west, which resulted in two commandeered merchantmen, Martha and Margaret of Ipswich and Speedwell of King's Lynn being sunk, along with Swan. The wreck of Swan was discovered in 1979.

Protection of the wreck
The Duart Point historic marine protected area, which covers the probable wreck site, was designated on 1 November 2013.

Recovered artifacts
Cannon
In 2003, one of the cannons from the ship was recovered. It turned out to be an iron 'Drake' cast by John Browne, and is believed to be the only survivor of this type of cannon. It has a mass of 3 cwt 2 qtrs 23 lb, or 415 lb (188.2 kg), and had a 3½" (89mm) muzzle and fired shot weighing 4 pounds (1.81 kg). Another ship of the era, Sovereign of the Seas, had bronze cannons that were also cast by Browne.

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The largest Wealden iron works Horsmonden was one of the centres of the old Wealden ironworking region and Furnace Pond is one of the largest and finest of the artificial lakes made to provide water power for the great hammers.

A very interesting article about Horsmonden Furnace and the production, market etc of the guns produced by John Browne you can find here:
http://www.horsmonden.co.uk/history/furnace/



Watch
A barely recognizable, severely corroded and barnacle-covered pocket watch was recovered from the wreck in 1979. It was transferred to the National Museum of Scotland, where researchers Lore Troalen, Darren Cox and Theo Skinner decided to try to analyze the watch's interior components by utilizing a state-of-the-art computed tomography (CT) X-ray scanner, originally developed by X-Tek Systems of Tring, Hertfordshire, U.K. The same type of CT scanner had been previously used to create a finely detailed 3D virtual reconstruction of the Greek Antikythera Mechanism recovered from the 2,200-year-old sunken Antikythera wreck in the Aegean Sea.

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Imaging from the CT scans of the watch was used to produce equally fine-detailed three-dimensional views of its interior, depicting beautifully preserved delicate brass components which included cogwheels, studs, pins, Egyptian-style pillars supporting the watch's top and bottom plates, as well as the watchmaker's personal identification (Niccholas Higginson of Chancery Lane in Westminster, London). Among the decorative markings discerned were floral designs engraved on some of its parts, plus Roman numerals and fleur-de-lis on its watchface, with an English rose at its centre.

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Take a look at this püage with a X-Ray-film of the watch:
https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-c...ce-and-technology/pocket-watch-from-the-swan/

Television programme
The story of the ship was featured in Channel 4's programme Wreck Detectives.


John Browne’s Drake relic found off Mull (taken from: http://www.horsmonden.co.uk/history/furnace/drake-cannon-off-mull-scotland/)
A small iron gun recovered from the wreck of the Caroline warship Swan has been identified as a drake, a lightweight tapered-chamber design dating from the 1620s. It is the only known cast-iron example of such a piece made by Hormonden’s John Browne, gunfounder to Charles I, who was the leading figure in its development and manufacture in England. The gun was found together with an associated carriage, port-lid, and case shot appropriate to its calibre.

Archaeologists found a 17th-century iron cannon, thought to be the only one of its kind still in existence.
It was recovered from the wreck of the Swan, a small Cromwellian warship lost off Mull while attacking the Royalist stronghold of Duart Castle in 1653.
Dr Colin Martin of the University of St Andrews said the cannon had the initials of John Browne, King Charles I’s royal gunfounder, on it.

“In the 1620s Browne developed a completely revolutionary new type of gun – one which was much lighter for the weight of shot it fired, allowing more to be carried on the king’s ships,” said Dr Martin.

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“These stronger and lighter new guns were called ‘Drakes’, and the secret of their success was a tapered end to their bores, where the pressure of the gunpowder explosion was greatest.”

St Andrews University said conservationists hope to find out soon whether the cannon is indeed a drake. Work is expected to reveal that it is probably the only iron example of this type of gun known to have survived into modern times.

Update on the Drake Cannon
The cannon from the Duart wreck – the ship we now believe to be the ‘Swan’ – was unveiled at the National Museum in Edinburgh on Jan 10th 2010 following its restoration.

The 415lb iron cannon is one of several items retrieved from the wreck by the underwater archaeology unit from St. Andrew’s University, led by Dr Colin Martin.

The ‘Swan’ was built in 1641 for Charles I, but was later captured by Cromwellians in Dublin. It was part of a small flotilla sent in 1653 to admonish the Macleans, who were staunch Royalists. The clan had decamped to the island fortress of Karnaburg, so the castle was empty. While the 1,000 strong force wondered what to do, they were hit by a violent storm that lasted for 16 to 18 hours. Three of the ships sank – one of them the ‘Swan’.

Several hundred years later, the wreckage was discovered by one John Dadd who was searching for a lobster for his supper! Subsequently, the wreck has been explored, and excavated, by a team from St. Andrew’s University, with funding from Historic Scotland, and the National Museums of Scotland.

The cannon turns out to be a very rare find. Following the restoration – the gun was encrusted and rusted when found – the mark of John Browne, the Royal Gunfounder, was discovered. The bore of the cannon is tapered at the end, and could therefore be made much lighter than previously. This enabled ships to carry more guns, and allowed the guns to have a greater range.

It is thought to be the only one in existence, and will shortly be on view at the National Museums of Scotland.

Learn more: HMS Swan
HMS Swan was a 200 ton warship of the English Royal Navy, launched in 1641. She was the last ship to be built for Charles I. She carried a number of iron cannon, which were cast by John Browne of Horsmonden.

In 1645, whilst anchored at Dublin, and with Swan’s captain absent from the ship, the disgruntled crew were persuaded by the captain of a Parliamentary frigate to change sides upon promise of payment of wages regularly. Thus the ship became part of the Cromwellian fleet.

In September 1653, a Cromwellian task force anchored off Duart Castle, a staunch Royalist stronghold of the Maclean’s, who had already fled to Tiree. On 13 September 1653, a storm blew up from the north west, which resulted in two commandeered merchantmen, the Martha and Margaret of Ipswich and the Speedwell of Kings Lynn being sunk, along with Swan. The wreck of HMS Swan was discovered in 1979.

The story of the ship was featured in Channel 4’s programme Wreck Detectives.

Keyfacts
Type: Drake
Cast: 1620s
Material: Cast Iron
Weight: 3cwt, 2qtrs, 23lbs (415 pounds (188 kg))
Muzzle: 3½”
Shot: n/a
Destinctive Markings: IB initials
Ship: The Swan
Discovered: Wreck discovered 1991 of Isle of Mull, Scotland
Current Location: National Museums of Scotland
Photo: Murdo Macleod

Useful Links
Resurrecting the Swan: Archaeology of a Cromwellian Shipwreck, 1653


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_ship_Swan_(1641)
https://www.arc.id.au/Cannon.html
http://www.horsmonden.co.uk/history/furnace/types-of-cannon/
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 September - Launch of several french ships


1742 – Launch of French Trident, 64-gun Third Rate Ship of the Line at Toulon
designed and built by Pierre-Blaise Coulomb) – captured by the British in the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747

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Scale: 1:48. A plan showing the body plan with stern board outline, sheer lines with inboard detail and some figurehead detail, and the longitudinal half-breadth for 'Trident' (1747), a captured French two-decker, prior to fitting as a 64-gun Third Rate two-decker. 'Trident' arrived at Portsmouth Dockyard in late October 1747, and was surveyed in November 1748. She was resurveyed in January 1749 and November 1750, prior to being fitted in December 1750.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/385543.html#xVMuOiuGC8kfQWPr.99


Service History

In french Navy
11.2.1743/44 - Battle of Toulon
14.10.1747 - 2nd Battle of Cape Finisterre

Trident.jpg
Monarque, Fogeaux and Trident, 14. Oktober 1747

as HMS Trident
29.10.1747 - Arrived at Portsmouth
30.9.1748 - Purchased at Portsmouth Dockyard at a cost of £10064.15
25.11.1748 - Ordered to be surveyed
28.1.1748/49 - Surveyed
8.1750 - Began small repair at Portsmouth Dockyard
8.11.1750 - Surveyed
12.1750 - Completed small repair at Portsmouth Dockyard at a cost of £6624.2
6.4.1756 - Sailed for the Mediterranean with Byng
20.5.1756 - Battle of Minorca
3.5.1757 - Took the Privateer L'Ardencourt (14)
5.5.1757 - Took the Privateer Le Difficile (8)
29.6.1757 - Sailed for the Leeward Islands
14.2.1759 - Sailed for North America
4.6.1761 - Expedition against Belle-Isle
8.1.1763 - Surveyed
15.3.1763 - Sold at Chatham for £790

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=7206


1744 – Launch of French Galathée, 24 gun Galathée-class frigate at Brest,
Galathée class (24-gun design of 1744 by Mathurin-Louis and Jean Geoffroy, with 24 x 6-pounder guns)
captured by British Navy 1758, but not added to the RN.


1753 – Launch of French Le Capricieux, 64-gun Ship of the Line at Rochefort,
designed and built by François-Guillaume Clairain-Deslauriers)
burnt by the British in the siege of Louisbourg in July 1758


1756 – Launch of French Danaé, 38-gun frigate at Le Havre
one-off 38-gun design of 1756 by Jean-Joseph Ginoux, with 30 x 12-pounder and 8 x 6-pounder guns
captured by British Navy 1759, becoming HMS Danae.
 
Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
13 September 1799 - HMS Arrow (1796 - 28) and HMS Wolverine (1798 - 16) captured Batavian Draak (24) and Gier (14), two days later Dolphin (1799 - 24)
anchored under the island of Ulie at the entrance to the Texel. Draak turned out to be a sheer hulk so Cptn. Bolton burnt her.


On 9 September Vice-Admiral Mitchell detached Arrow and Wolverine to attack a ship and a brig belonging to the Batavian Republic and anchored under the Vlie at the entrance to the Texel. Arrow had to lighten ship and the following day they crossed over the Flack abreast of Wieringen and saw the enemy in the passage leading from Vlie Island towards Harlingen. On 12 September Wolverine, commanded by William Bolton, anchored within 60 yards of the brig and only had to fire one gun before the brig hauled down her colours. She proved to be Gier, armed with fourteen 12-pounders. Next, Arrowexchanged broadsides with the ship Draak, of 24 guns (six 50-pound brass howitzers, two 32-pounder guns, and sixteen long 18-pounder guns), which surrendered when Wolverine came up. Draak turned out to be a sheer hulk, so Bolton burnt her. The British also captured two schooners, each of four 8-pounder guns, and four schuyts, each of two 8-pounder guns. The Dutch prisoners numbered 380 men. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Arrow 13 Sept 1799" and "Wolverine 13 Sept. 1799" to any survivors of the two crews that claimed them.

HMS Dart - a sistership of HMS Arrow
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The plate represents the sloop 'Dart', commanded by Captain P. Campbell in the act of boarding and taking the French frigate 'La Desiree'. 'Dart' is in the centre of the picture. Inscribed: "Capture of La Desiree - July 7th 1800."
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/109789.html#oYGU1kIZDBYcS1hm.99


Arrow and Wolverine weighed on 15 September and near Vlie Wolverine went to take possession of a Batavian ship, the 24-gun Dolphin (Dolfijn), which hoisted Orange colours as soon as the English came up. Two hundred and thirty prisoners were put aboard her and the command given to Lieutenant M'Dougall of Wolverine. Command of the Gier, a brand new vessel, went to Lieutenant Gilmour, First lieutenant of Arrow. Gilmour would receive promotion to the rank of Commander for his part in the action.


The Ships

HMS Arrow was a sloop in the Royal Navy that the Admiralty purchased in 1796. during the French Revolutionary Wars she participated in many actions, including one that resulted in her crew qualifying for the Naval General Service Medal. On 3 February 1805 she and Acheron were escorting a convoy from Malta to England when they encountered two French frigates. Arrow and Acheron were able to save the majority of the vessels of the convoy by their resistance before they were compelled to strike. Arrow sank almost immediately after surrendering, and Acheron was so badly damaged that the French burnt her.

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Design of HMS Arrow and her sister ship HMS Dart
were "Two experimental vessels designed by Samuel Bentham, Esq., at that time inspector-general of his majesty's naval works. They were in shape much sharper than vessels of war in general, and projected or raked forward, at each end like a wherry. Their breadth increased from the water-line upwards ; whereby it was considered that they would be stiffer, and less liable to overset than ordinary vessels. The decks were straight fore and aft, and the frames or ribs of less curvature than usual. They were constructed to carry twenty-four 32-pounder carronades upon the main deck, and were afterwards fitted to receive two more carronades of the same nature on each of their two short decks, which we may call the quarterdeck and forecastle. All these carronades were fitted upon the non-recoil principle. It is believed that both the Arrow and Dart subsequently took on board, for their quarterdecks, two additional 32s. They proved to be stiff vessels and swift sailers, but it was found necessary to add some dead wood to their bottoms, in order to make them stay better. Not knowing exactly what characteristic designation to give the Arrow and Dart, we have merely named them: they must be considered, especially when their force is compared with that of the two or three classes next above them, as extraordinary vessels for sloops of war, but as such only they ranked."


HMS Wolverine (or Wolverene, or Woolverene), was a Royal Navy 14-gun brig-sloop, formerly the civilian collier Rattler that the Admiralty purchased in 1798 and converted into a brig sloop, but armed experimentally. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and participated in one action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. A French privateer captured and sank Wolverine on 21 March 1804 whilst she was on convoy duty.

HMS_Wolverine_1798.jpg

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Scale: 1:36. A Georgian full hull model of the ‘Wolverine’ (1798), a 12-gun sixth-rate sloop. The model is decked. This vessel was used to demonstrate a system devised by Captain John Schank by which the carriages of her lower deck guns ran in grooves in the deck. The model shows the hull with some external detail, and part of the deck planking aft is left off to show how the guns are fitted. Built as the merchant ship ‘Rattler’ of London, the ‘Wolverine’ was purchased by Captain John Schanck and converted to a small warship. Schanck fitted powerful carronades along the centre line, fitted in grooves so that they could be swung from one side to the other and thus double her armament for a given weight. This proved unsuccessful in practice, as the weight on one side caused it to heel so much that the gunports could not be opened except in calm weather. The ‘Wolverine’ had some success despite its faults, until a French privateer captured then sank it in 1804.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66557.html#r2sUp8wWGYHStwgf.99


Armament of HMS Wolverine
Unusually for a brig-sloop, she was virtually a two-deck vessel as the waist between forecastle and quarterdeck was filled in to form a continuous flush deck. The upper deck below this flush deck carried six 24-pounder carronades and two 18-pounder long guns, all mounted on centreline pivots. The gun crews could fire their weapons to either side of the vessel by rotating the carriages along grooves set into the deck firing through the eight gunports on either side to accommodate these guns. On the flush deck above she additionally carried six 12-pounder carronades (two forwards and four on the quarterdeck). The crews could also shift the carronades on her upper deck from side to side as required.

Captain John Schank, who was responsible for several other nautical innovations, devised this method of arming Wolverine.



HMS Dolphin was the Dutch 7th Charter Dolfijn, launched in 1780 at Amsterdam. In 1781 she was under the command of Captain Mulder when she participated in the battle of Dogger Bank.

HMS Wolverine and HMS Arrow captured her on 15 September 1799 off Vlie Island. The Royal Navy took her into service and commissioned her in November as the sixth-rate HMS Dolphin under the command of Lieutenant R. M'Dougall. She became a transport in 1800, and a storeship in 1802. She was broken up in 1803.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Arrow_(1796)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-306359;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Wolverine_(1798)
http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collec...el-364538;browseBy=vessel;vesselFacetLetter=W
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Dolphin_(1799)
 
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