HMS Antelope 1703

zoly99sask

Administrator
Staff member
Administrator
Forum Moderator
Joined
Apr 13, 2015
Messages
7,793
Points
738

Location
Saskatoon,Canada
HMS Antelope was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Rotherhithe on 13 March 1703. She was rebuilt once during her career and served in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War.

HMS Antelope 1703.jpg
Scale: 1:48. Plan showing the body plan from midships to bow, body plan from midships to stern with stern board decoration, sheer lines with some inboard detail and figurehead, and longitudinal half-breadth with some lower deck detail for Antelope (1703), a 50-gun Fourth Rate two-decker. This may be the ship as she was when in Plymouth Dockyard in 1713. An attached letter (not scanned) lays out the dimensions of the ship, as taken at Plymouth on 7 March 1713.
Read more at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/81491.html#x0QzKvlTWq8Mf7K1.99

Orders were issued on 9 January 1738 for Antelope to be taken to pieces and rebuilt according to the 1733 proposals of the 1719 Establishment at Woolwich, from where she was relaunched on 27 January 1741.

On 16 June 1756, she sailed from England for Gibraltar with Vice Admiral Sir Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke and Rear Admiral Charles Saunders. She arrived there on 3 July with an order to supersede Admiral John Byng. Antelope returned to England with Byng, sailing on 9 July and arriving at Spithead on 26 July, where Byng was arrested before being landed on 19 August. His trial started on board St George on 27 December.

On 30 April 1757, Captain Samuel Hood took command of Antelope. On 15 May, after a short action off Brest, France, the French Aquilon, 50, was driven on to the rocks in Audierne Bay where she was wrecked. Then, on 31 October 1758, in the Kingroad off Portishead, Antelope took Belliqueux, 64, one of a French squadron returning from Quebec, that had anchored off Ilfracombe, Antelope opened fire but the French ship surrendered without having fired a shot in return.

Not every action was a success. In 1759, under the command of Captain James Webb, Antelope was attached to Commodore William Boys' squadron, which had been blockading François Thurot in Dunkirk throughout the summer and early autumn. On 15 October, when the squadron had been driven off station during a gale, Thurot made his escape with six frigates and corvettes carrying 1300 troops and sailed to Gothenburg.

In 1762, Antelope was stationed in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, under the command of Commodore Thomas Graves, who was the Colony's Naval Governor. A French fleet from Brest, under M. de Ternay, with 1500 troops commanded by the Comte d'Haussonville, sailed into St. John's and captured the town on 24 June. Captain Graves immediately sent word to Commodore Lord Colville at Halifax who joined him in blockading the French, and brought troops over from Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island on 11 September. During a gale on 16 September de Ternay evaded the blockade and, abandoning the troops, sailed back to France.

On her way home to England Antelope encountered Marlborough, under Captain Thomas Burnett, which had sailed from Havana as part of the escort of a convoy of prizes and transports, but had become separated in very heavy weather. She was leaking so badly that her guns had to be thrown overboard and the pumps kept working. Antelope took all her people off on 29 November when she started to founder and she was allowed to sink.

Later, in 1780, Antelope was again patrolling the Labrador coast and intercepted the American ship Mercury. As the vessels came to close quarters, a package was thrown overboard from the latter. One of the sailors on Antelope dived from the deck and rescued the package, which contained details of secret negotiations then being conducted between the United States and the United Provinces. Antelope Harbour, Labrador, is named for this incident.

Antelope was sold out of the service on 30 October 1783.

General characteristics as built
Class and type: 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 68480⁄94 (bm)
Length: 131 ft 5 in (40.1 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 34 ft 4 1⁄2 in (10.5 m)
Depth of hold: 13 ft 9 in (4.2 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 50 guns of various weights of shot

General characteristics after 1741 rebuild
Class and type: 1733 proposals 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 86044⁄94 (bm)
Length: 134 ft (40.8 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 38 ft 6 in (11.7 m)
Depth of hold: 15 ft 9 in (4.8 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • 50 guns:
  • Gundeck: 22 × 18-pounders
  • Upper gundeck: 22 × 9-pounders
  • Quarterdeck: 4 × 6-pounders
  • Forecastle: 2 × 6-pounders



Belliqueux was a 64-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1756.

She was captured on 2 November 1758 by HMS Antelope in the Irish Sea. She was found by Antelope anchored off Ilfracombe, Antelope opened fire but the French ship surrendered without having fired a shot in return. The crew of 500 was captured. She was taken into the Royal Navy and commissioned as the third rate HMS Belliqueux.

The captains were:
  • from November 1758: captain Thomas Saumarez (fr), in the West Indies (quit due to ill health)
  • from 1761: captain Richard Edwards, in the Mediterranean.
Belliqueux was broken up in September 1772.

Class and type: 64-gun third rate ship of the line
Tons burthen: 137180⁄94 (bm)
Length: 157 ft 10 1⁄2 in (48.1 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 10 1⁄2 in (13.7 m)
Depth of hold:1 9 ft 10 in (6.05 m)
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament: 64 guns of various weights of shot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Antelope_(1703)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Belliqueux_(1758)

 
Back
Top