British Fifth Rate 24pdr Frigates 1793-1817

IIn 1783 Britain posessed no 24pdr Frigates but the capture of the very large Frigate La Pomone in 1794 gave the Navy Board a chance to experiment with and introduce Frigates of this calibre based roughly on her design. Later that year work began on converting three 64's namely, Indefatigable,Anson and Magnanime to 24 pdr 38 gun Frigates. Following on from this a British prototype Frigate was built to her design, to be shortly followed by five more albeit to a slightly modified design. This was done to deliver a much needed answer to the American large Frigates being employed by them in the War of 1812.

French Frigate Pomone (1787)
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Pomone was built to a one off design by Baron Charles-Etienne Bombelle as an 18pdr Frigate, but by the time of her capture was rearmed with 24pdrs.She was reduced to carry 18pdrs in 1799, but her design had already been adopted for the prototype of a British 24 pdr Frigate. Built by Hubert Pennevert & Henri Chevillard at Rochefort, she was ordered on the 13th of April, 1782. She was laid down on the 20th of February of 1783 and launched on the 16th of November, 1785, but not completed until the May of 1787

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=51937&stc=1 Pomone
History
FRANCE
Name:	Pomone
Ordered:	13 April 1782
Builder:	Hubert Pennevert & Henri Chevillard, Rochefort.
Laid down:	20 February 1783
Launched:	16 November 1785
In service:	May 1787
Captured:	23 April 1794
https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=51936&stc=1 HMS Pomone off Greenwich, by Thomas Luny GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	Pomone
Acquired:	23 April 1794
Fate:	Sold in 1802
General characteristics
Class and type:	40 gun frigate
Displacement:	1400 tons (French)
Tons burthen:	1238 ​67⁄94
Length:	159ft 23⁄8in (48.7 m)
Beam:	41ft 113⁄8in (12.2 m)
Draught:	12 ft 4in (5.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Armament:	French service: Battery: 26 (later 28) × 18 pdr guns Battery at capture: 26 × 24 pdr guns Fc and QD: 6 (1794 - 12) × 8 pdr and 4 × 36 pdr obusiers British service: Battery: 26 × 24 pdr guns Battery 1799: 26 × 18 pdr guns QD:14 × 32 pdrs Fc: 4 × 32 pdr + 2 × 9 pdr guns

.

French service.

Between the 17th of February and the 28th of August, 1793, Pomone was stationed at Rochefort under the command of captain de vaisseau Dumoutier. She cruised along the coasts of the Vendee and then arrived at Brest. Dumoutier continued in command until late September. From the 26th of February, 1794, Pomone was at Cherbourg under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Étienne Pévrieu. He sailed her from Cancale, and during an action which took place on the 23rd of April in that year she was taken by the Arethusa and Flora of Warrens Squadron. Also captured were Babet and Engageante, off the Ile Bas.

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Capture of Pomone, Engageante and Babet

British service.

She was recommissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Pomone and fitted at Portsmouth for £14,253 between the 1st of May and the 24th of September 1794, during which month her commissioning took place. The Endymion Class of Frigates was inspired by her lines, but with the more robust British practice of framing and fastening.

Between the 6th and 17th of January, 1795, Pomone, under Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren, accompanied by Arethusa, Diamond, Concorde, and Galatea, captured the French vessels David and Ormontaise, and recaptured the Phoenix. Then on the 31st of January Pomone was in a squadron which took the Dutch East India Ship Ostenhuyson.

On the 12th of February, Pomone sailed with a squadron comprising the frigates Anson, Artois, and Galatea, plus the Lugger the Duke of York. Anson lost her topsail mast in bad weather on the 14th consequently she was sent her back to Plymouth.

On the 18th of February the British squadron spotted three French transports. Warren pursued them and on the 21st caught up with a convoy of 20 vessels under the escort of a frigate which he believed to be the Nereide. Warren chased the convoy from the lighthouse on Île d' Oleron halfway up the Pertuis De Antioche, capturing or destroying several of the vessels, before forced to break off.

Then on the 26th just off the Île de Groix, the squadron captured an 8 gun American built schooner the Coureuse which was escorting a convoy of three Brigs and two Luggers sailing between Nantes and Brest carrying clothing for the Army.

All in all, between the13th and 26th of February, Warren's squadron captured and sent to England the following vessels: the sloop Petit Jean, the brig St. Pierre, the brig Deux Frères, the ship Petite Magdalène, the packet boat De Cayene, the schooner Curieuse (Coureuse), the lugger Liberté, the lugger Gloire, and the brig transport Biche. The squadron burned seven vessels: the schooner brig Désirée, the brig Three Friends, the brig Trois Frères, the brig Guerrier, the brig Liberté, the brig Espérance, and the lugger Patriote. The British scuttled four brigs:Graley, Jean et Marie, Pierre, and Anne. The grand total amounting to nine prizes taken and a further 11 vessels destroyed.

Two months later on the15th of April off the Ile de Re, Warren and his squadron ran down the 26 gun French privateer Jean Bart, although Artois made the actual capture. On the day following Pomone, Artois, Anson and Galatea took two vessels. Galatea captured the 16 gun Corvette Expedition, which had at one time been a British packet ship. The British also captured the Maria François Fidelle. Off Belle Ile, the squadron then caught up with a French convoy. The squadron burned and sank a Brig and a Sloop which were sailing in ballast

In June, Pomone participated at the landing of the ill conceived and ill fated Royalist expedition to Quiberon. Pomone shared in the prize money for the capture, on the 23rd of June, of the French men of war, Alexander, Formidable and Tigre.
On the 2nd of September, Pomone caught the 12 gun Rude, in Bourneaux Bay and burnt her.

During September she came under the command of Captain Thomas Eyles who would remain her captain until 1797.

On the 15th of October, Pomone and the 74 gun Thunderer took the 18 gun Eveillé. Warren's squadron returned to England in December with the remnants of the expedition to Quiberon Bay.

On the 6th and 7th of March 1796, the squadron captured Sultana and Nancy. Then on the 11th and 13th they took Harmony, Sans Peur and Agréable, off the coast of France. On the 15th, Pomone captured the 22 gun Corvette Robuste, sailing between Brest and L’Orient. The Royal Navy later took Robuste into service as HMS Scourge.

Then on the 20th of March, Pomone, Artois, Anson, and Galatea engaged a French squadron escorting a convoy near the Bec du Raz. They managed to cut out four Brigs from the convoy; the Illier, Don de Dieu, Paul Edward, and Félicité. Warren then issued instructions to the captain of the Lugger Valient to escort the prizes to the nearest port.

The British squadron then proceeded to engage the French warships escorting the convoy but were unable to bring them to a full battle before the onset of darkness obliged them to give up the chase due to that and the dangerous location in which they found themselves. Galatea was the only vessel in the British squadron to take casualties, losing 2 men killed and 6 wounded. The store ship Etoile, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Mathurin-Théodore Berthelin, was forced to strike, but 4 French Frigates, a Corvette, a Brig and the remainder of the convoy were able to escape.

On the 7th of April the squadron captured four Brigs and a sloop One of the Brigs was scuttled, but the remaining four ships, Marie, Union, Bonne, and an unnamed Brig were dispatched to England. All had been transporting cargoes of flour and corn. One Sloop managed to escape along with the 16 gun Aviso Voltigeur, escorting the convoy. On the 18th of April the squadron also took the Jean Marie.
Following a lull of just over a month, on the 25th of May close to Morlaix, Pomone captured the 14 gun French Privateer Fantaisie which had left port on the previous day.

On the 23rd of August, Commodore Warren's squadrons scored its next success when it forced the 44 gun French Frigate Andromaque to run ashore close to the mouth of the river Gironde. Boats from Galatea and Artois then boarded her. Amongst those rescued by the squadron were the ship’s captain, several officers and crew members, plus some Portuguese prisoners taken from two ships previously captured by the French. The Brig Sylph was then employed in finishing off the Andromaque with gunfire.

Between 9 August and 10 September Warren's squadron had also succeeded in capturing or destroying a number of small merchant vessels at the mouth of the Garonne,comprising: two Gabarres, the Jean Porte and Jean de Blaignal, plus four Chasse marees, Liberté, Catherine, Marie Anne, and St. Pierre, which were burnt. Those captured being the chasse mares Charlotte, andVéronique.
On the 2nd of November, Thalia and Artois, joined by the Pomone, took part in the pursuit of the 12 gun Franklin, which Artois finally ran to earth about 11 leagues off Ushant, concluding their exploits for that year.

Between the 24th of January and the 7th of March 1797, Warren's squadron sank or burnt four French and two Spanish vessels. The French vessels being the Sloops Providence and Intrépide, the Brig Jenée, and another Brig, name unrecorded. The Spanish ships were the Brigs St Jago de Compostella and the Santa Theresa.

On the 16th of July in Hodierne, Pomone and Warren's squadron intercepted a convoy comprising 14 cargo vessels with a Frigate, a ship, a Corvette, and a Brig as escorts. The British drove the French 36 gun Frigate Calliope onshore near the Penmarcks and holed her hull with gunfire, Sylph being particularly aggressive. The Brig was also sunk by gunfire. They also burnt, a large British-built ship ,Freedom which was armed en flute and laden with squared timber. Her crew had run her onshore and then made good their escape using the ships boats. The squadron also captured eight other vessels: the transport Thalia, 3 Brigs, names unknown, and the Chasse Maree St. Rene, plus 3 Chasse Marees, also of unknown names. A few days following this action, again operating in Hodierne Bay, the squadrons ships’ boats sank two more French merchant ships, the Brig Fidele and the Sloop Henri, and on the following day they captured Boston.

During early August, the squadron destroyed one French vessel and captured another and followed this up on the 28th by running down and capturing several more vessels in a French convoy. In the November of that year command was assumed by Captain Robert Carthew Reynolds. Under his command, on the 5th of January, 1798, off Ushant Pomone’s lookouts observed a large ship to which she gave chase. Due to the mist, the French privateer Cheri opened fire, mistaking Pomone's for a smaller vessel. Both ships then exchanged several broadsides before Pomone's superior firepower of 26 × 24 pdr guns forced the Cheri’s surrender, as she was only carrying, a combination of 26 x 12, 18 and 24 pounder guns. In the engagement Pomone suffered only 1 man killed and 4 wounded whilst Cheri lost 12 men killed and a further 22 wounded. Captain Reynolds took her in tow and sent over his carpenter to plug the holes when she started to sink. He also dispatched Pomone's boats, and before she sank, they were able to rescue the whole of Cheri’s, crew, including the wounded. A mere six days later in the Channel, Pomone took the 2 gun French privateer Le Emprunt Fosse, followed shortly afterwards with the 18 gun Le Argus off Finisterre

In September, Pomone,in company with HMS Argo and HMS Cormorant were escorting a large convoy of merchantmen and transports to Lisbon. Notable amongst the convoy were the Indiamen Royal Charlotte, Cuffnells, Phoenix, and Alligator. On the 25th of September the convoy encountered a French squadron of nine vessels, comprising one 80 gun ship and 8 frigates. The convoy commander signalled the Company's ships to take up position in line with the Royal Navy ships as if in battle formation to mislead the French into thinking that they were a Royal Naval squadron. The ruse worked in fooling the enemy commander and the convoy was allowed to proceed to Lisbon unmolested.

On the 18th of March 1781 Pomone recaptured the West Indiaman Minerva, which had been taken by the 18 gun French Privateer Brig Argus. Only 16 days later Pomone had the good fortune to run in with and capture Argus itself, after a pursuit of 108 miles. In addition to Minerva, Argus had previously taken two Brigs out of Teignmouth, whose masters and crews were still aboard her as prisoners.

On the 9th of April Pomone recaptured an American schooner sailing between Caracas and Corunna with a cargo of cocoa and indigo. She had been captured on the 1st by the French Privateer Gironde. Earlier, Pomone had also captured a French Privateer the Mucius Scaevola, and a Spanish coaster just off Cattagena.

Toward the end of the month, following the escorting of three ordnance transports to Minorca, Pomone returned to England for a refit at Plymouth.

In the January of 1801 Pomone was commissioned under Captain Erasmus Leverson Gower and sailed for the Med escorting a convoy.
On the 3rd of August, while cruising off Elba during the Siege of Porto Ferrajo, Pomone, took yet another prize, the 40 gun ship La Carriere. During the action Pomone suffered 2 men dead and a further 3 wounded, one of whom succumbed to his wounds shortly afterwards.

On the 2nd of September, Pomone accompanied by the Frigates Phoenix, and Minerva recaptured the 32 gun Success, taken by the French in the February of that year, and in the process sank the 46 gun Frigate Bravoure. Later that month, a contingent from Pomone was also involved in operations ashore at Portoferraio on Elba.Pomone also took the 30 gun L’Emile off Raz de Fontenay and also la Redoute.

On the 2nd of October the Bella Aurora was also taken and Pomone shared the prize money for this capture with the Vincejo and Pigmy.
In the April of 1802, Pomone and Kangaroo escorted a convoy to the Med. Having returned to Portsmouth on the 16th of July, on the 23rd,she sailed again for Lymington and Jersey in company with a group of other ships to embark Dutch troops destined for Cruxhaven.

Fate.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=51940&stc=1
A plan taken off at Portsmouth Dockyard, illustrating the damage sustained to the hull framing after having been wrecked at St. Aubin's Bay, Jersey

On the 23rd of September in that same year, whilst making a nightime attempt to enter St Aubin’s Bay Guernsey, Pomone struck a rock and grounded. Although she was successfully refloated and towed back to Portsmouth Dockyard in the following month, an inspection showed that she was not worth repairing.

A courts martial was convened aboard HMS Neptune in Portsmouth Harbour on the 27th, to try John Geram, who was piloting the ship. The ruling of the court stated that he should not have attempted to enter the bay at night as he could have safely waited at sea until daylight. He was fined all pay and allowances due for his service as pilot on Pomone, and also sentenced him to three months in the Marshalsea prison.

Pomone was broken up at Portsmouth in the December of 1802/ January 1803.

HMS Endymion (1797)

HMS Endymion was copied from a design of La Pomone. The prototype was built from oak but 18 years later the design was revived for a further five Frigates built in fir. Endymion was claimed to be the swiftest Frigate in the British Navy.
Built by John Randall & Co at Rotherhithe, she was ordered on the 30th of April, 1795, laid down in the November of that year, and launched on the 29th of March, 1797. She was completed on the 12th of June at Deptford Dockyard at a cost of £18,012 to build plus £11,652 for fitting.

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HMS Endymion (right) exchanges broadsides with USS President

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	Endymion
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	John Randall & Co, Rotherhithe
Laid down:	November 1795
Launched:	29 March 1797
Commissioned:	12 June 1797
Reclassified:	Re rated as 50 gun fourth rate in 1817
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasps: "8 April Boat Service 1814", "Endymion wh. President"
Fate:	Broken up in Plymouth, 18 June 1868
General characteristics
Class and type:	Endymion class Frigate
Tons burthen:	1,277 45⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 33⁄8 in (48.5 m)
Beam:	42 ft 73⁄8 in (13.0 m)
Draught:	10ft 3in x 15 ft 8 in (4.8 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Armament:	1797: Upper deck: 26 × 24 pdr guns QD: 6 × 32 pdr Carronades + 8 × 9 pdr long guns Fc: 2 x 32 pdr Carronades + 4 × 9 pdr guns From Nov 1803 to 17 May 1813: Upper deck: 26 × 18 pdr guns QD:14 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 4 × 32 pdr Carronades, + 2 × 9 pdr guns From 17 May 1813: Upper deck: 26 × 24 pdr guns QD:16 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 1 × 18 pdr brass long gun + 4 × 32 pdr Carronades

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Service.

HMS Endymion was commissioned by Captain Sir Thomas Williams in the April of 1797 for the Channel and Irish station. In the October of that year she joined the North Sea fleet with orders to pursue the scattered Dutch ships in the aftermath of the Battle of Camperdown. Within hours and close inshore, Endymion encountered the Flagship of Rear Admiral Johan Bloys van Treslong, the 74 gun Brutus, but the protected anchorage prevented Williams from successfully attacking the Dutch ship and she was able to escape.
For the next three years, Williams was employed off Ireland and on convoy to the island of St. Helena. In early 1798 Endymion captured four privateers whilst cruising off the Irish coast. On the 12th of April she took the 12 gun French Schooner Revanche, provisioned for a three month cruise, she had been out 21 days but had not succeeded in taking any prizes. Then during May came three captures. The first was taken on the 10th was the 20 gun French Privateer Huit Amis, She had been purpose built for privateering and was quite new. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Bonetta. Next came the namesake of the 74 she had failed to capture after Camperdown. This was the 6 gun French Privateer lugger Brutus. Provisioned for a two months cruise, she had been out of port for 15 days, and had captured two neutral ships. This was followed on the same day by the 6 gun Spanish schooner St. Antonia, She was sailing out of Havana, carrying dispatches. Her crew had thrown the dispatches overboard, tied to one of her anchors, but Endymion's boat crew were able to retrieve them.

On the 5th of September in that same year, whilst sailing in company with Amaranthe, Williams reported capturing or recapturing three more ships.

These were, the Britannia, which whilst sailing between Bengal and London on behalf of the HEIC had been taken by The French Privateer Huron.
Next she captured the 10 gun French Privateer La Sophie, which the Royal Navy took into service as HMS Sophie, and Endymion's final prize for the day was the May Flower, of New York, which was on passage from Lisbon to London when the French privateer cutter Telemaque had captured her.

In the January of 1799, Endymion captured the 6 gun La Casualidad and also the1 gun La Prudentia.
In the May of 1800, whilst on passage to the Med Endymion was lucky enough to fall in with and take the 1 gun La Prudentia This was shortly followed by the Spanish 4 gun Privateer Lugger Saint Joseph, 2 gun Privateer Intripido, and the French 10 gun Paix. Then came the 18 gun Privateer Scipio, which took some time to run down, Finally when a gale blew up and all looked lost, Lieutenant Charles Austin set out in one of the ships boats with four other men, and succeeded in boarding and taking her, keeping control until the next morning when Endymion could come up and secure the capture.

In the November of that year Endymion was acting as escort to a convoy which was returning to England from India via St Helena when a gale sprang up in the Channel scattering the convoy. Endymion reached Plymouth, but on the 12th the merchantman Bhavani was wrecked on the French coast near Boulogne losing 24 of her crew members.
A short time later Endymion accompanied by the sixth rate HMS Champion, escorting a convoy for the Mediterranean, encountered a heavily laden Portuguese ship from Brazil, totally dismasted and abandoned. The British, after a considerable amount of work, were able to restore her to a navigable state, and Champion then towed her into Gibraltar.


In 1801 Endymion came under the command of Captain Philip Charles Durham and on the 13th of May captured the 14 gun privateer La Furie just 10 months before the Peace of Amiens was signed in the March of 1802. During the peace, in the May of that year Captain John Larmour took command of Endymion.

The Napoleonic Wars.

When war broke out once more in the May of 1803, Endymion was recommissioned under Captain Charles Paget, and joined with the blockading squadron off Brest until 1805. During these years of service, Endymion took a number of French and Spanish prizes, mainly comprising merchants and Privateers, but also several warships. On the18th of June off Ushant, Endymion in tandem with the 74 gun HMS Dragon took the French 16 gun "National Corvette" Le Colombe, 40 days out of Martinque, bound for Brest, under the command of lieutenant de vaisseaux Caro. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Colombe.

Seven days later, in the Atlantic, after a chase lasting eight hours, Endymion captured the French 18 gun Corvette Bacchante, which was returning to Brest after a three month voyage to Santo Domingo. She was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Kerimel who attempted to escape. This resulted in Bacchante suffering eight dead and nine wounded, whilst her return fire caused no casualties on Endymion. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Bacchante.

On the 16th of July Endymion encountered the East Indiaman Culland’s Grove, which was returning to Britain from Bengal. An officer was dispatched to aboard the Indiaman to press 12 seamen. Culland's Grove's captain and second officer protested vehemently that this would leave them short-handed, but Captain Paget was acting within the law authorizing the pressing of men out of homeward bound ships as The Royal Navy was short of men.

Also on the 16th of July Endymion fell in with and took the French 16 gun L’Adour
One month after this incident, on the 16th of August, it was the turn of the 16 gun Privateer Le General Moreau to fall into the hands of the Endymion.

By the end of that year the ship was in need of an overhaul and docked in Plymouth for defects to be made good between the December of 1803 and the May of 1804 at a cost of £9,619.

On her return to sea, still under Captain Paget, on the 21st of January, 1805, Endymion captured the treasure ship Brilliante, and on the 27th she took another valuable Spanish prize and then even more on the 4th and 10th of February, amounting to 12 captures in all. In the April of that year she had a change of commander to Captain Durnford King, and in the autumn of that year, Endymion joined the squadron of Rear Admiral Louis off Cadiz as part of Vice Admiral Nelson’s Fleet's fleet, blockading the allied Franco-Spanish force under Admiral Villeneuve. On the 2nd of October, Nelson ordered Louis's five SoL. together with Endymion to Gibraltar for water and provisions; in consequence, Endymion missed the Battle of Trafalgar on the 21st.

From 1806 until 1810 she came under the command of Captain Thomas Capel in the Med. In the February of 1807, she joined Duckworth’s squadron and took part in the Dardanelles Operation, from where she was detached to Constantinople with the British ambassador for negotiations with the Ottoman Empire. The mission was a failure and when the squadron sailed back through the, Dardanelles Turkish shore batteries attacked the British, with Endymion suffering three killed and nine wounded. From 1808 on, Endymion served again in home waters, where she took a number of French privateers. From the May to October of that year she was at Chatham Dockyard undergoing repairs costing £13,834.

In the January of 1809 she was at Corunna and then sailed to the Irish station before sailing with a convoy for Cape St. Vincent on the 21st of March.
From 1810 to 1811 Endymion was under Captain Sir William Bolton, and under him on the 11th of November, 1810, she captured the 14 gun Privateer Le Milan.

The War of 1812.

On the 9th of March, 1812, Endymion paid off at Plymouth where she underwent a large repair from the May of that year until the July of 1813 at a cost of £35,809.During her repairs she was recommissioned under Captain Henry Hope who would retain command until 1815. Also during her refit two more 32 pdr Carronades were added to her armament and her ships complement was increased to 340. She was then dispatched to North America, where she captured several US.Privateers.

On the 6th of December, 1813, as the John and James, was returning from Chilli with 1000 barrels of oil, Pomone intercepted her and diverted her to Bermuda under a prize crew. Pomone shared prize money for John and James with Endymion who was also in sight. On the 1st of January, 1814, Endymion captured the American merchant ship Felicity in the Atlantic, set her afire, and sank her. On the 18th she also apprehended the US 3 gun Privateer Meteor.

On the 7th of March, Endymion, the 5th rate Belvidera and Sloop Rattler captured a 15 gun US Privateer Mars. Between the 7th and 8th of April, the boats of Hogue, Endymion, Maidstone and Borer attacked Pettipague Point. The ships anchored in Long Island Sound, 6 miles up the Conneticut River, and the ships boats progressed past the unmanned fort in Old Saybrook, arriving at the boat launch at the foot of Main Street in Essex close to 4 A.M. The boats were armed with Swivel guns loaded with grape, the officers armed with swords and pistols, the marines with "Brown Bess" muskets, and the sailors with torches and axes. They responded to the single cannon fired by the town's surprised defenders with a massive volley, neither side incurring any casualties. They quickly commandeered the town, eliciting a promise of no resistance from the Essex Militia in return for promising not to harm the townspeople or burn their homes. Their main targets, however, were the newly constructed Privateers in the harbour, ready or nearly ready for sail, which they burned. Within 6 hours, their mission accomplished, the British returned downstream with two captured ships in tow, including the Black Prince, a vessel that may well have primarily inspired the raid.

In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "8 Apr Boat Service 1814" to all surviving claimants from the action.

On the 15th of August, together with Armide, Endymion captured the 17 gun American privateer Herald.
On the following day, Endymion and Armide had been joined by Pique when Armide captured the American privateer Invincible Napoleon.
Later in August, Endymion took part in an expedition up the Penobscot River in Maine. The first ships to go were Endymion, Bacchante, Dragon, Peruvian, and Sylph, escorting several transports. Bulwark, Pictou, Rifleman, and Tenedos joined on the 31st. During that evening Sylph, Peruvian, and the transport Harmony, accompanied by a boat from Dragon, embarked marines, foot soldiers and a detachment from the Royal Artillery, to move up the Penobscot under the command of Captain Robert Barrie of Dragon. The objective was the 26 gun American Frigate Adams, which had taken refuge some 27 miles upstream at Hampden Maine. Here Adams had landed her guns and fortified a position on the bank with fifteen 18 pdrs commanding the river. Moving up the river took two days, but eventually, after the “Battle of Hampden”, the British were able to capture the American defenders at Bangor, though not until after the Americans had succeeded in burning the Adams. The British also captured 11 other ships and destroyed a further six, losing only one man killed, a sailor from Dragon, and having several soldiers wounded.

In late 1814, Endymion joined the blockading squadron off New York.

Engagement with USS President.
On the 14th of January, 1815, the USS President under the command of Commodore Stephen Decatur left New York for a mission in the Indian Ocean. She then fell in with the British blockading squadron, consisting of the 56 gun Majestic under Commodore John Hayes) and the frigates Endymion, the 38 gun Pomone under Captain John Richard Lumley) and the 38 gun Tenedos of Captain Hyde Parker.
The British squadron gave chase Immediately with Majestic leading, and by noon, with Endymion being the much better sailer she overhauled her squadron and left them behind. At 2 pm she closed with the President and took position on her quarter, firing on the President as she tried to evade. Endymion was in a position to successfully rake President on three occasions doing considerable damage to her, whilst Presidents return fire was primarily directed at Endymion's rigging and masts in an effort to slow her down. Finally at 7:58 pm, President ceased fire and hoisted a light in her rigging, assumed by the British to be a signal that she had struck. Endymion's foresails had been damaged in the engagement and she hove to for repairs to her rigging, being unable to take possession of her prize due to a lack of boats that would "swim". Whilst Endymion was thus engaged in repairs Commodore Decatur took full advantage of this fact and, despite having “struck” made off in an attempt to escape at 8.30 pm. Endymion, still being engaged in repairs could not immediately pursue and did not resumed the chase until 8.52 pm. However, at 9.05 pm Pomone and Tenedos came up with the heavily damaged President. Unaware that the enemy had already “struck” Pomone fired two broadsides into the President, following which Decatur again struck his ship and hailed the British to say that he had surrendered. Shortly afterwards, Captain Lumley of Pomone took possession of President.
According to British accounts, President had lost 35 men killed and 70 wounded, including Decatur. American sources give their losses as 24 killed and 55 wounded. Endymion had 11 killed and 14 wounded.

In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue to any still surviving crew from Endymion of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Endymion wh. President".

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USS President (left foreground) having surrendered, HMS Endymion (right foreground) is shown without her fore topmast, due to damage she sustained during her duel with the American ship.

Post 1815.

On her return to Plymouth following the end of hostilities, Endymion went into Ordinary. Between the January of 1820 and the February of 1822 she underwent repairs for £31,090, but was not fitted for sea there until the June to September of 1833. She then visited the Med during the rest of that year. On her return she was fitted as a Flagship at Portsmouth between the January and February of 1834.
In 1837 she had a small repair at Plymouth for £15,271 and was fitted for sea in the May of that year. She was then deployed to the East Indies and China under Captain The Hon Frederick Grey, and from 1840 to 1842, she served in the fleet commanded by Sir William Parker in the First Anglo-Chinese War (1839–42), known popularly as the First Opium War, including operations on the Yangtze river during the July of 1842.

On her return to Plymouth she was again refitted for sea between the September and December of 1845, at a cost of £6,261, and sailed for North America and the West Indies under Captain George Lambert.
On the 8th of December, 1846, she rescued eight crew of the USS Somers, which was wrecked off Vera Cruz, whilst blockading that port.
She returned to England and went iunto Ordinary in 1848.

Fate.

In 1859, she became a receiving ship at Devenport, and was finally broken up at Plymouth by Admiralty Orders in the June of 1868

HMS Cambrian (1797)

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HMS Cambrian was a Sir John Henslow designed 40 gun fifth rate Frigate, built by George Parsons at Bursledon. Ordered on the 30th of April, 1795, she was laid down in the September of that year, and launched on the 13th of February, 1797. The ship was completed on the 16th of June in that same year at Portsmouth for a cost of £17,592, plus £11,974 f0r fitting. She represented the first attempt to design a Frigate that would carry 24 pounder guns, and was one of several designs the Admiralty ordered to find a counter to the French 24 pounder Frigates. For her design, Henslow essentially simply scaled up an earlier design. However, she was still too small to carry 24 pounder long guns comfortably and so the Admiralty replaced these first with lighter 24 pounders in April 1799, and then with 18 pounders in 1805.


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View of the hull of Cambrian

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Deck, quarter and forecastle of Cambrian

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Cambrian
Ordered:	30 April 1795
Builder:	Parsons, Bursledon
Laid down:	September 1795
Launched:	13 February 1797
Completed:	By 16 June 1797
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Navarino"
Fate:	Wrecked on 31 January 1828
General characteristics
Class and type:	40 gun fifth rate Frigate.
Tons burthen:	1,161​14⁄94 (bm)
Length:	154 ft (46.9 m) (gundeck) 128 ft 31⁄2 in (39.1 m) (keel)
Beam:	41 ft 3 in (12.6 m)
Draught: Sail plan:	10ft 9in x 15ft 10in Full rigged ship
Armament:	As built Gundeck: 28 x 24 pdr guns QD: 8 x 9 pdr guns + 6 x 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 4 x 9 pdr guns + 2 x 32 pdr Carronades From 1799 6 × 9 pdr guns replaced by 32 pdr Carronades 24 pdrs replaced by lighter version From 1805 24 pdr guns replaced by 18 pdr guns From 1807 Gundeck: 28 x 18 pdr guns QD: 2 x 9 pdr guns + 12 x 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 x 9 pdr guns + 2 x 32pdr carronades

Service.

HMS Cambrian was commissioned under Captain Sir Thomas Williams in the April of 1797, for service on the Irish station which she commenced in the following month under the command of Captain Arthur Legge until 1801. She went on to serve in the Channel with Sir Edward Pellew’s squadron.

On the 11th of January, 1798, in company with HMS Indefatigable and Childers, she captured the French 12 gun Privateer Schooner Vengeur, eight days out of Ostend she had not taken any prizes. Sir Edward immediately dispatched her to Falmouth under a prize crew.
On the evening of the 16th, the squadron took the French 8 gun Privateer Inconcevable. 10 days out of Dunkirk with no prizes to show for it. Prize money for her capture was paid to Indefatigable, Cambrian and Success.

Next, on the 28th, Indefatigable and Cambrian, assisted by the hired cutter Duke of York captured the 22 gun Privateer Heureuse Nouvelle. 36 days out of Brest, but during that time she had capture only one ship, a large American vessel named Providence, carrying a cargo of cotton and sugar. Pellew then dispatched the Cambrian in pursuit of Providence, and that same day Cambrian recaptured her.
After a gap of a month with no further victories, on the 21st of March Cambrian accompanied by the 5th rate HMS Cleopatra had recaptured the merchant ship William Pen of Philadelphia.

Only six days later, on the 27th of March, Cambrian intercepted Le Cæsar, a French 16 gun Privateer out of Saint-Malo, 35 days into a cruise out of Brest. Three days after capturing Le Cæsar, Cambrian took the French 16 gun Privateer Le Pont de Lidi, which was five days out of Bordeaux, on her maiden cruise, and had as yet taken no prizes. Captures then dried up, until the 19th of October when she captured the Le Ravanche. On the 8th of December, Cambrian captured the French 14 gun Privateer Brig La Cantabre. Legge stated that she was a very fine quite new ship on her first Cruise. The dearth of prizes were now broken, as only four days later, Cambrian recaptured the Dorothea, a Danish brig sailing from Amsterdam to Tangiers with a cargo of bale goods which had been taken three days earlier by the French Privateer Brig Rusee.

Around the 20th of January, 1799, Cambrian encountered a tremendous gale in the Channel, with thunder and lightning. A fireball hit her forecastle, killing two men and wounding seventeen, of whom two were struck blind, and one of whom became "raving mad". All those aboard expected immediate destruction, but the storm passed and she was able to effect repairs to the ship.
Some months later, on the 9th of March, Cambrian in company with the Triton, St. Fiorenzo, and Naid effected the captured the French merchant ship Victoire.

On the 9th of October, Cambrian was among the several vessels that shared in the capture of the Spanish brig Nostra Senora de la Solidad. Then on the 23rd of October, Cambrian recaptured Sarah. Cambrian also shared in the capture of the Spanish brig San Joachim by Triton.
Ten days later off the entrance to the Garonne, Cambrian was in company with the Stag when they spotted two vessels, to which they immediately gave chase. Stag captured the !0 gun Heureux Premier, sailing from Cayenne to Bordeaux with a cargo of red dye, cotton, cocoa, coffee, and sugar, whilst Cambrian perused the second vessel, but did not catch it. Stag did, however, share the proceeds from Heureux Premier.

At the end of the month, on the 30th, the American ship Sally sailed into Plymouth. Cambrian had recaptured her after she had been taken by the French privateer Vengeance. Cambrian sailed in pursuit of Vengeance, but again was unsuccessful in capturing her.
On 23 April 1800, Cambrian was in company with Fisgard when, in the Channel, they captured the French schooner Emelie. Four days later the two vessels were still sailing together when on the 5th of May they intercepted the 14 gun French Brig Le Dragon, under the command of Lieutenant de Vaisseau Lachurie. She was two days out of Rochefort with dispatches for Guadeloupe which her Captain had been unable to dispose of in time to prevent their capture.

Eleven months later, on 5th of April, 1801, Cambrian recaptured the letter of marque Nancy, which the French privateer Braave had captured three days earlier. On the following day she captured the 14 gun French Privateer Lugger Audacieux. On passage to St Helena, Audacieux had left Bordeaux on the 30th of March and while at sea had captured one vessel, an American. Cambrian also shared the prize money for Audacieux with Venerable and Superb. Finally, on the 28th of July in that year Cambrian captured the Danish ship Kron Prinz.
In the November of 1804 there was a distribution of a £7000 advance on the prize money for her cargo.

In the May of 1802 Captain William Bradley replaced Legge, serving as such for eight years. That same month Cambrian became the flagship of Admiral Mark Milbanke, and then from the July to March of 1803 Vice Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell, whilst serving on the North American and West Indian stations.

The Napoleonic Wars.

In the March of 1804, Cambrian still under Bradley was on her way to Bermuda when she captured two French privateers. On the 22nd she captured the 6 gun schooner Tison under the command of Joseph Kastique. She finally struck after a chase of 25 hours. She had been cruising out of Guadeloupe for 11 days but had not captured anything. Four days later Cambrian captured the eight gun Schooner Alexandre under the command of Charles La Marque. She had also been cruising for 11 days but had not taken anything. Head for the ship money was paid in the June of 1827.

In the October of that year Cambrian came under the temporary command of Captain John Beresford at a time when from June to November, Cambrian and Leander had blockaded two Frigates in the port of New York. However, In the November, the pair succeeded in escaping. The two vessels concerned being the President and reputedly the Revolutionnaire.

In the May of 1805, Cambrian was transferred to the Halifax station, where she harassed French and Spanish shipping and captured several privateers and merchantmen. On the 13th of June her boats, under the command of Lieutenant George Pigot, cut out the Spanish 14 gun Privateer Schooner Maria, Somewhat uncharacteristically for privateers, the Spanish resisted, with the result that Cambrian suffered casualties of 2 dead and 2 wounded.

Next, on the 3rd of July, Cambrian captured the French 20 gun Privateer Schooner Matilda, after a chase of 22 hours. She surrendered in shoal water and if not for the efforts of Lieutenant Pigot in one of Cambrian's boats, Matilda's entire crew might have been lost. Matilda had earlier captured the Clyde, which had been on her way to Liverpool.

Then, on the 7th of July, Lieutenant Pigot again distinguished himself. He arrived off the inlet on the 6th and took the Matilda twelve miles up the St Mary’s River to attack three vessels purported to be lying there. En route, Matilda suffered constant harassment from the fire of militia and riflemen sniping at her crew. Eventually the British reached the vessels, which were lashed in a line cross the river. They consisted of a six gun Spanish Privateer Schooner and her two prizes, the ship Golden Grove and a British Brig the Ceres, which she had captured some two months earlier. The Spaniards had armed Golden Grove with eight 6 pounder guns and six swivels. The brig too was armed with swivels and small arms.

Pigot engaged the vessels for an hour, and after Matilda had grounded, took his crew in her boats and captured Golden Grove. The British then captured the other two vessels. Lastly, Pigot fired on a group of 100 militia and a field gun, successfully dispersing them, the British suffering 2 men killed, and 14 wounded, including Pigot, who had received two bullet wounds to his head and one to a leg. Spanish casualties were reportedly 25 men killed, including five Americans, and 22 men wounded. A crowd of Americans on the Georgia side of the river watched the entire battle. Pigot was unable to extricate himself and his prizes from the river until the 21st of July, but during the entire period he remained in command except when he was getting his wounds dressed. For his efforts Pigot received a promotion to commander, and the Lloyd’s Patriotic Fund awarded him a medal and a plate worth £50.

To round off the year, on the1st of November, Cambrian captured Adeline.

The Leander affair.

In 1806, Cambrian came under the acting command of Captain John Nairne. Whilst under him, she, along with Leander and the Ship-Sloop Driver, was engaged in searching American vessels coming from foreign ports, for enemy property and contraband. This gave rise to the so called “Leander affair” with the result that on the 14th of June President Thomas Jefferson issued a proclamation ordering Leander, Driver, and Cambrian immediately to quit US waters, and forbidding them ever to return. He extended the same prohibition to all vessels that their respective captains might command. On the 26th of April, the day after the affair, Leander, Cambrian, and Driver captured the American ship Aurora.

Cambrian continued to cruise inside American waters, including sailing to Charlestown in order to lift a blockade of the port by three French privateers. Later, Nairne sailed Cambrian back to Britain in order to be a witness at the court martial of Captain Henry Whitby of Leander for the murder of John Pierce, the American supposedly killed by a shot from Leander, which was the substance of the affair. Whitby was acquitted.

Between the April and June of 1807 Cambrian was at Portsmouth for a refit which cost £13,483. Captain the Honourable Charles Paget took command during her refit, and recommissioned the ship. Cambrian then participated in the Expedition to Copenhagen. During the October of that year her acting captain was James Deans, while Paget took up Admiral Gambier’s offer to let him return to Britain in Nightingale bearing duplicate despatches announcing Denmark's capitulation. Paget later resumed command. On the 14th of January 1808, Cambrian was under Paget's command when she captured the French ship Aeleon. On the 9th of May in that year Paget sailed Cambrian for the Mediterranean. The next month he transferred to HMS Leviathan and his successor was Captain Richard B. Vincent.

Captain Francis William Fane replaced Vincent in 1809 and on the 5th of September in that year Cambrian sailed from Tarragona with General Doyle and two xebecs carrying Spanish soldiers and several cannon. Their objective was the fort on Meda Gran in the Medes islands, Bay of Rosas, near the mouth of the river Ter. On the following day the Spanish frigate Flora joined them. When it was realized that an assault on the fort was impossible, on the 10th, Doyle led a landing party of soldiers and marines from the frigates to attack a battery of four 24 pounder guns at Bega. The attack was successful with the attackers capturing 36 men without suffering casualties. Then on the14th boats from Cambrian assisted the Spanish in their attack on Palamos. However, this attack cost Cambrian 3 men wounded and the loss of a launch to fire from a French battery. On the 17th, Cambrian left Palamós with the French cannon and prisoners that had been captured, together with Spanish General O’Donnel, who had been wounded in the leg during the battle. Cambrian returned him to Tarragona on the same day. General O'Donnell later had the Spanish Government strike a gold medal for the British officers involved in the two actions, and a similar medal in silver for the Royal Marines who were at Bagur, and also for the sailors in the boats at Palamós.
On the13th of December in that same year, a British contingent of 350 sailors and 250 marines from Cambrian, the 74 gun Kent and Ajax again attacked Palamós, whilst the sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel covered the landing. The landing party destroyed six of eight merchant vessels with supplies for the French army at Barcelona, as well as their escorts, a national ketch of 14 guns and two 3 gun xebecs. At the time the vessels were lying inside the mole under the protection of 250 French troops, a battery of two 24 pounders, and a 13" mortar on a commanding height. Although the attack was successful, the withdrawal was not. The British lost 33 men killed, 89 wounded, and 86 taken prisoner, plus one seaman who took the opportunity to desert. Cambrian alone lost one man killed, seven wounded, and four men missing, among them Captain Fane, who had been taken prisoner. To replace him Captain Charles Bullen of Volontier took command of Cambrian on the 1st of January, 1811.

Cambrian continued to support the Spanish in operations along the Catalan coast. On the14th of April boats from Cambrian cut out a Settee carrying grain from Port Vendee to Barcelona which had sheltered under the protection of batteries on the Medes Islands. More importantly, on the12th and the 14th of April, Cambrian and Volontaire took possession of St. Philion and Palamos. Whilst in possession they destroyed the batteries and took out their guns. This, together with the Spanish capture of Figueras, gave the Spanish control of almost the whole of Catalonia, save for Barcelona.

Returning to the Bay of Rosas, Bullen captured 19 merchant vessels off Cadaques, six of which were loaded with wine and grain that he dispatched to Tarragona for the use of the garrison. In June, whilst serving in a battery ashore at Selva, Bullen was badly wounded, and quit Cambrian on the 9th of December in order returned to England invalided.

Cambrian refitted at Gibraltar and then sailed to Malta. From there she convoyed a large number of French prisoners to Britain. On the 20th of November, 1811 Cambrian arrived in Portsmouth. She was then paid off at Plymouth in December. She underwent substantial repair at Plymouth between May 1813 and September 1814, at a cost of £33,728, but was then laid up.

Post war.

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Gawen William Hamilton

In the July of 1820 Cambrian was recommissioned by Captain Gawen Hamilton, she was refitted for sea, at a cost of £7,310. Cambrian then sailed for the Med in order to convey Lord Strangford to become the new ambassador to the Ottoman court at Constantinople.
By the October of 1821, as a result of piracy in the region, Cambrian was being employed as an escort to merchant shipping between the islands off Smyrna. Hamilton, though an advocate for the cause of Greek independence, was widely respected by Greeks and Ottomans for his impartiality in the conflict. After the Greeks captured Nauplia on the 12th of December in that year, they were still in negotiation for the surrender of the Ottoman troops in the fortress above the town when Cambrian arrived on the 24th. Hamilton then arranged for the evacuation of the Ottoman troops with Theodoros Koloktronis and the other Greek leaders. Cambrian herself took 500 on board, with another 900 going on board ships that Hamilton insisted the Greek government charter. Unfortunately, 67 of the Ottomans died of typhus on board Cambrian and several of the ships company also succumbed. Nevertheless, by his timely intervention, Hamilton had prevented a bloodbath.

On the18th of March, 1824 Naiad took the Quattro Fratelli the prize money for which was shared with Cambrian. In that same year, Hamilton conducted a mission to Tunis, and then sailed Cambrian back to Britain where she was paid off, but in the July of that year he recommissioned her, once more destined for the Med.

In 1825 Cambrian was the lead vessel of a small squadron in anti piracy operations in the Alexandrian Archipelago, and along the coast of Syria where on the 31st of January and the 9th of June she shared in the destruction of two Greek pirate vessels. On the 27th of July, 1826, Cambrian’s boats captured a pirate bombard and burnt a Mistico on the Cycladic island of Tinos. In the action 5 pirates were killed and several more wounded. Next, in early September, Cambrian's marines landed on Andros where they burnt a pirate vessel and captured a bombard. During this period Alacrity and Seringapatam also succeeded in destroying several pirate vessels.

On the 27th of June, 1827, boats from Cambrian and Rose destroyed another pirate vessel.


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Navarino Bay

On the14th of October in that same year, Cambrian, still under Captain Hamilton, joined the allied fleet’s British squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Coddrington, just outside the Bay of Navarino. On the 20th, she entered the bay with the rest of the fleet, where she took part in the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian's casualties were light; having only 1 crew member killed and 1 wounded.

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Glasgow and Cambrian at the Battle of Navarino, 20 Oct 1827, by George Philip Reinagle.

For his role in the battle, Hamilton received the medal of the second class of the order of St. Anne of Russia, and was made a member of the French order of St. Louis. In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuing of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Navarino" to all surviving claimants from the action.

Fate.

In the January of the following year, Cambrian was again involved in the suppression of piracy as part of a squadron under Commodore Sir Thomas Staines who took a small squadron comprising Cambrian, Cameleon, Isis, Pelican, Rattlesnake, and Zebra, plus two French Corvetts to the island of Grabusa, to deal with a nest of Greek pirates who had taken possession of the harbour there after the Greeks had captured the Port early in the war against the Turks in Crete. In the harbour were 14 Greek vessels, together with an Austrian and an Ionian merchantman which the pirates had taken. After summoning the pirates to surrender, their refusal had resulted in the squadron opening fire and destroyed a number of the vessels. Marines from Pelican and Isis then landed and captured the fortress guarding the harbour. However, as the successful squadron left the port, Isis collided with Cambrian, causing her to strike rocks bordering the narrow channel. Cambrian settled in shallow water, and as the strong swell was breaking her up, the entire crew were forced to abandon the stricken ship.

HMS Severn (1813)

HMS Severn was a revised Endymion Class Frigate, originally ordered as a Leda Class of 38 guns, which was to have been named Tagus. She was reclassified as a 50 gun 4th rate in 1817. Built by Wigram, Wells, & Green at Blackwall, she was ordered on the 4th of May,1812, laid down in the January of 1813, and launched on the 14th of June in that year. She was completed between the 1st of July and the 11th of September at Deptford Dockyard and became yet another of the five heavy frigates built to match the powerful American ones.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52136&stc=1 History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Severn
Ordered:	4 May 1812
Builder:	Wigram, Wells & Green, Blackwall yard.
Laid down:	January 1813
Launched:	14 June 1813
Completed:	11 September 1813
Honours and awards:	Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers"
Fate:	Sold for breaking up, 20 July 1825
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revived Endymion Class Frigate
Tons burthen:	1,254​87⁄94 (bm
Length:	159 ft 25⁄8 in (48.530 m) 132 ft 2 in (40.28 m)
Beam:	42 ft 3 in (12.57 m)
Draught:	9 ft 9 in (2.97 m) unladen; 12 ft 8 in (3.86 m) (laden)
Depth of hold: Draught:	12 ft 4 in (3.76 m) 9ft 9in x 12ft 8in
Propulsion:	Sail
Speed:	14.4 knots
Armament:	UD: 28 × 24 pdr guns QD: 16 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 × 9 pdr guns and 4 × 32 pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Severn was commissioned under Captain Joseph Nourse in the June of 1813. Severn initially saw service in the North Atlantic, but on the18th of January, 1814 she was escorting a convoy from England to Halifax when she encountered the French 40 gun frigates La Sultane and L’Etoile, which she enticed away from the convoy, thus saving it from capture. After a long stern chase, the French frigates abandoned the effort and made off.

Later the same year, on the 1st of May, Severn in company with HMS Surprise captured the 9 gun American privateer schooner Yankee Lass, 20 days out of Rhode Island without any captures to her credit. On the 2nd of July in that year, Severn was also amongst the several British warships who shared in the proceeds of the capture of the American schooner Little Tom, and then on the 10th the Eliza, Emmeline, Union, and William.

In the late summer and autumn of 1814, Severn became an important participant in the War of 1812, as she was stationed in the Chesapeake blockading the Patuxent River. It was from here that the British launched their invasion of Maryland, leading to the Battle of Bladensburg and the subsequent burning of Washington and the White House. On the 2nd of July Severn, in combination with the ex French prize Loire, captured two schooners, two gun-boats, and a sloop. They also destroyed a large store of tobacco.
On the 20th of August Severn, this time accompanied by the Frigate Hebrus and the Gun Brig Manley, sailed up the Patuxent to follow the ships boats as far as possible. Admiral Alexander Cochrane and his force of seamen and marines entered Washington on the night of the 24th and then burnt the White House, Treasury, and War Office. The campaign cost the Navy one man killed and six wounded.. During the attack on Baltimore, Admiral Sir George Cockburn raised his flag on Severn. Although the navy contributed seamen and marines to the land attack, and took casualties, Severn did not suffer any losses.

Between the 1st of October, and the 25th of March, 1815, Severn captured thirteen mostly small American merchant vessels, but with several armed vessels among them. These were, the Schooners Amelia, Brant, Nonsuch, Resolution, Speedwell, and Virginia. The Brig May Flower, and ships Anna, Anna Marie, Betsy, Buonaparte, Necessity and Virginia.

On the 20th of December, Severn also captured the American 4 gun Letter of Marque Schooner Banyer.
On the 10th of January, 1815, Cockburn landed on Cumberland Island in an attempt to tie down American troops and prevent them joining other units of the American Army defending New Orleans, and the Gulf Coast. The naval squadron comprised Severn, the 74 gun HMS Dragon, 44 gun Regulus, 56 gun Brune, 36 gun Hebrus, 38 gun Rota, 18 gun Primrose, and the 8 gun Bomb Ketches Terror and Devastation, plus the 10 gun Schooner Canso and 12 gun Whiting.

Five days later a British force bombarded and then landed near Fort Peter near the town of St. Marys. The British attack took the fort with no casualties, and they then traversed the St. Mary's River and captured the town after a skirmish with a small American force. The British also took two American gunboats and 12 merchantmen, including the captured prize East Indiaman Countess of Harcourt, which had been seized by an American whilst on her way from India to London. The British ended their occupation of St. Marys after about a week and withdrew to Cumberland Island.

On the 26th of February, Severn also recaptured the merchantman Adventure, which she dispatched to Bermuda. This last, earned Severn salvage money for the vessel and her cargo.

Lastly, on the 3rd of March, Severn destroyed the American privateer Ino although American accounts report that Ino grounded outside of Charleston on the 7th. As her crew was attempting to free Ino, Severn came on the scene and launched her boats to board Ino whose crew, unaware that the war had ended on the 15th of February in that year, fired grape shot and small arms at the British boats, causing them to shear off. Ino's crew then set fire to her and took to their boats and some improvised rafts. A schooner that put out from Charleston rescued most. Ino's crew believed that Captain Nourse of Severn had been aware for some days that the war had ended. The delay of payment of the head money may have been due to the need to adjudicate the case.

Post-war.

Having returned to England following the cessation of hostilities, between the February and July of 1816, Severn was fitted at Chatham for Foreign Service under Captain Frederick Aylmer. She was then dispatched to Gibraltar to assist in the bombardment at Algiers on the 27th of August.

During the action the British also succeeded in destroying four large frigates, five large corvettes, plus numerous gunboats, and merchant vessels. British casualties were heavy, although those of the Algerines were much more severe. Severn herself suffered 3 men killed and 34 wounded. As a result of the attack, the Dey agreed to abolish, in perpetuity, the enslavement of Christians, and the freeing of all slaves then residing in Algiers. King Ferdinand of the Two Sicilies bestowed on Aylmer the cross of a Commander of the Royal Sicilian Order of St. Ferdinand and of Merit. Other captains and officers received similar awards. In the May of 1818 the participants in the battle were granted an award of £100,000, and in 1847 the Admiralty issued the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Algiers" to the 1328 surviving claimants from the battle.

Severn remained in the Mediterranean for some time, first under Captain James Gordon and then under Captain Robert Spencer. From the May of 1817, under Captain William M’Culloch, Severn saw service off the Kent and Sussex coasts in the Royal Naval Coast Blockade for the Prevention of Smuggling, where on the 6th of August, she seized a boat laden with foreign spirits and also five other empty boats. Three weeks later she seized the Mary, manned by four smugglers, and carrying a quantity of tea. She also seized two more empty boats. On the15th of December Severn seized Po, which was carrying a cargo of foreign spirits. In the following year, on the 29th of March, 1818, Severn seized Linot, conveying foreign spirits, plus two smugglers.

Fate.

Severn was placed into Ordinary at Portsmouth in 1822, but by 1824 had been transferred to Deptford, where She was put up for sale in the June of 1825, and subsequently sold to John Small Sedger of Rotherhithe for £3,610 on the 20th of July in that year.

HMS Liffey (1813)

HMS Liffey was another of the revised Endymion Class, built by Wigram, Wells, & Green at Blackwall.Ordered on the 26th of December, 1812 as the Eridanus she was renamed Liffey on the 7th of January, 1813. Laid down in the following month, she was launched on the 25th of September in that year, and completed on the 10th of June, 1814 at Deptford Dockyard.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Liffey ex Eridanus
Ordered:	4.5.1812
Builder:	Wigram, Wells,& Green, Blackwall
Launched:	25.9.1813
Fate:	BU. 7.1827
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Endymion Class fourth rate Frigate
Tons burthen:	1260 23⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159ft 11⁄2 in (gundeck)
Beam:	42ft 5in
Depth of hold: Draught:	12ft 4in 9ft 6in x 12ft 6in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 24 pdr guns Upper gundeck: 22 × 12 pdr guns QD: 16× 32 pdr Carronades FC: 2× 9 pdr guns + 4× 32 pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Liffey was commissioned by Captain John Hancock in the April of 1814, and on the 26th of July sailed down the river and passed through the Downs en route for Portsmouth where on the 22nd of August she was assigned, with the Brig-sloop Raven, to escort a convoy departing from Spithead destined for Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. Due to adverse winds the convoy was delayed until the 1st of September. They arrived at Halifax on the 14th of October, and Liffey arrived back in Portsmouth on the 1st of December in that same year. She was paid off in the April of 1815, and laid up at Chatham in the August of that year.

She was recommissioned in the February of 1816 under Captain Sir John Lewis until 1817 when she underwent a small repair and refit at Chatham from the February of 1818 until the January of 1819 at a cost of £4,682. Having been recommissioned under Captain Henry Duncan in the June of that year, he was to remain her commander until 1821.

On the 10th of Jan, 1819 Liffey departed from Deal for Portsmouth to prepare for a passage to Leith, on which she embarked on the 26th of September. By the 30th of December she was back at Spithead where, having inspected some new sights for the cannon on board HMS Leander, the Duke of Clarence, with his son, Capt. FitzClarence, boarded Liffey, prior to returning to Portsmouth harbour. On the 14th of September, 1820 she departed Portsmouth for Lisbon, and from thence to the Med. On the 6th of Oct, 1821 she entered Portsmouth from Spithead, to be paid off, and immediately re-commissioned under Commodore Charles Grant for service on the East Indies station. Her departure was delayed until 1824 when she sailed to take part in the Burmese War. On the 5th of May Liffey, Larne, and Sophie sailed from Port Cornwallis for Rangoon, which was designated to be the principal point of attack, in the first instance, with four of the company's cruisers, under Captain Henry Hardy and other vessels, including the steam-vessel Diana, where they arrived on the 10th of that month, the attack being launched on the 11th. On the 31st of the month Commodore Grant was taken ill and left Rangoon. Captain Marryatt immediately assumed command of Liffey.

During August the naval force in India comprised the following vessels:- the 28 gun Alligator, 18 gun Arachne, the 20 gun ships Larne, and Slaney plus the 26 gun Tees, and 18 gun Sophie, in addition to Liffey, which was being commanded temporally by Lieutenant George Tincombe. Of this force only the Larne was currently at Rangoon, the Sophie having been despatched to Bengal for provisions. In the July of that year Commodore Grant had died, and in 1825 Liffey was placed under Captain Thomas Coe for the return journey to England.

The 1824 – 1826 Burmese War Medal was later awarded to surviving officers, seamen, and marines - "India, No. 1" that decoration, with clasp for "Ava".

Her return journey from India was not without incident, and although from the 17th of October she had been expected to round the Cape of Good Hope on her passage from India she was in fact delayed by the loss of her three top masts in a gale in the Mozambique Channel. She finally arrived on the 14th of November assisted by the Isabella, not finally arriving home until the January of 1826.

Fate.

Liffey spent the next 18 months at Sheerness before being broken up in the July of 1827.

HMS Liverpool (1814)

HMS Liverpool was yet another revised Endymion Class Frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate, built by Wigram, Wells, & Green at Blackwall. Ordered on the 26th of December 1812, laid down in the May of 1813, she was launched on the 21st of February, 1814, and completed at Woolwich on the 30th of June. Like her siblings she was also built of pitch pine to speed up the construction at the expense of durability.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52240&stc=1
Ship's plan for Liverpool

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Liverpool
Builder:	Wigram, Wells & Green, Blackwall Yard
Laid down:	May 1813
Launched:	21 February 1814
Commissioned:	May 1814
Fate:	Sold at Bombay, 1822
General cacteristics.
Class and type:	Revised Endymion Class Frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate.
Tons burthen:	1246​86⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 2in (48.5 m) (overall)
Beam:	42 ft 11⁄2 (12.5 m)
Draught:	9ft 7in x 12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Upperdeck: 28 x 24 pdr guns QD: 16 x 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 x 9 pdr guns + 4 x 32 pdr Carronades

Service.

Liverpool was commissioned under Captain Arthur Farquhar in the May of 1814. Her first commission was very brief, though. She escorted convoys to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Quebec. She then served at the Cape of Good Hope before, on the 21st of October 1815, capturing the French Schooner Circonstance carrying 67 slaves. During her return voyage to England, on the5th of Match 1816, she was driven ashore and severely damaged off Dover, being later refloated and taken in to Deptford to be paid off on the 3rd of April. In 1817 she was laid up at Deptford and then underwent a small repair at Chatham between the October of that year and the June of 1818 at a cost of £5,697.

In the February of that year, Liverpool had been Recommissioned under Captain Francis Augustus Collier, who sailed her to the East Indies via Mauritus and Ceylon. Whilst based at Port Louis she took four slave vessels and on the 29th of July,1819, also captured the Deux Amis followed by the Constance on the 17th of August and Jenny on the 24th. In all cases a bounty was paid for the freed slaves.

The Persian Gulf campaign 1819.

Later in the year Rear Admiral King appointed Collier to command the naval portion of a combined forces punitive expedition against the Al Qasimi at Ras Al Khaimah in the Persian Gulf. The naval force comprised the Liverpool, Curlew and Eden, plus a number of gun and mortar boats. The Bombay Marine of the HEIC contributed six armed vessels to the expedition. These were the 16 gun Teignmouth under the command of Captain Hall who was the senior captain, the 16 gun Benares, the two 14 gunned ships Aurora, and Nautilus, and the12 gunned ships Ariel, and Vestal. Later two frigates and a contingent of 600 men provided by the Sultan of Muscat joined the expedition. The British troops, conveyed in transports, were under the command of Major General Sir William Keir and comprised some 3,000 men from the 47th and 65th Regiments of Foot, the 1st Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of Native Infantry, the flank companies of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of Native Infantry and of the Marine Battalion, and half a company of Pioneers. In all, there were 1,645 European and 1,424 Indian sepoys and marines taking part in the expedition.

The fleet anchored off Ras Al Khaimah on the 2nd of December, landing troops two miles south of the town on the 3rd. Collier placed Captain Walpole of Curlew in charge of the gun boats with an armed Pinnace to protect the landing, which was, however, unopposed. The bombardment of the town was commenced on the 6th of December by disembarked batteries of 12 pounder guns and mortars, as well as from seaborne ordinance. On the following day, two 24 pounder cannon from Liverpool were added to reinforce the land batteries. When the troops stormed the town on the 9th they discovered that the inhabitants had fled. The result of the siege, cost the British was that they suffered 5 dead and 52 wounded. The Al Qasimi perportedly had lost 1,000 in dead alone.

Following the capture of Ras Al Khaimah, three ships were dispatched to blockade the nearby harbour at Rams, further to the North, where they landed a force on the 18th of December, which fought its way inland through a series of date plantations and on the 19th surrounded the hilltop fort of Dhaya. There, under continuous fire,398 men and 400 women and children resisted for three days, without water or effective cover from the sun, until the two 24 pounder cannon from Liverpool were once again pressed into service. After enduring two hours of bombardment from the heavy guns, which succeeded in breaching the fort's walls, the last of the Al Qasimi surrendered at 10.30 on the morning of the 22nd.

The expeditionary force then demolished the town of Ras Al Khaimah and then established a garrison of 800 sepoys supported by artillery, before moving on toJazirat Al Hamra, which they discovered to be deserted. They then destroyed the fortifications and larger vessels at Umm Al Qawain, Ajman, Fasht, Sharjah, Abu Hail, and Dubai. 10 vessels which had taken shelter in Bahrain were also destroyed. During this action The Royal Navy suffered no casualties.

The result of the campaign was the signing of the General Maritime Treaty of 1820, between the British and the Sheikhs of what was formerly known as the Pirate Coast and was destined to become the Trucial Coast, known today as the United Arab Emirates.

Fate.

Liverpool continued serving in the East Indies, and also undertook a voyage to China, still under Collier until he transferred to the Seringapatam. In the August of 1821 Liverpool returned to the Persian Gulf where several of her crew succumbed to heat stroke. In the January of 1822 she was paid off at Bombay, and on the 16th of April she was sold for £3,780, the buyer apparently being a Persian Prince who wished to employ her in undertaking the suppression of piracy around the Persian Gulf.

HMS Glasgow. (1814)

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52259&stc=1

HMS Glasgow was another revised Endymion Class Frigate, reclassified as a fourth rate, built by Wigram, Wells, & Green at Blackwall. Ordered on the 26th of December 1812, laid down in the May of 1813, she was launched on the 21st of February, 1814, and completed at Woolwich on the 26th of August at a total cost of £18,934. Like her siblings she was also built of pitch pine to speed up the construction at the expense of durability.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52260&stc=1
Glasgow figurehead.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Glasgow.
Ordered:	26.12.1812
Builder:	Wigram, Wells, & Green, Blackwall.
Launched:	21.2.1814
Fate:	BU.24.12.1828.
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Endymion Class 40 gun fifth rate ship
Tons burthen:	125973⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 21⁄2 in (gundeck)
Beam:	42 ft 11⁄2 in
Depth of hold: Draught:	12 ft 4 in 9 ft 7 in x 12 ft 6 in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 24 pdr guns QD: 16 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 × 9 pdrs + 4 x 32 pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Glasgow was commissioned by Captain Henry Duncan in the July of 1814 for service in Home Waters until she was paid off in the September of 1815.

Between the April and July of 1816 she was fitted for Foreign Service at Chatham costing £16,704. Having been recommissioned under Captain Anthony Maitland in the February of that year, she sailed for the Med in time to join in at the bombardment of Algiers on the 27th of August. Following this action she returned to home waters and was paid off in the November of that same year.

Between the March and November of 1817 Glasgow underwent a small to middling repair at Deptford costing £19,408. She was recommissioned again in the August of the year still under Captain Maitland, but in the March of 1821 command passed to Captain Bentinck Doyle for service in the East Indies. She was next paid off in the March of 1823 and between then and the September of that year underwent a refit at Portsmouth at a cost of £6,314.

In the February of 1825 she came under Captain James Maude and was in the Med once again in 1827 for the Battle of Navarino on the 20th of October where she suffered two injuries.

Fate.

HMS Glasgow was paid off in the September of the following year, and broken up at Chatham between the December of that year and the 29th of January 1829.

HMS Forth (1813)

HMS Forth was another revised Endymion Class 50 gun fifth rate Frigate, built by Wigram, Wells, & Green at Blackwall. Ordered on the 7th of January, 1813, she was laid down in the following month and launched on the 14th of June in that year. She was completed between the 14th of July and the 7th of September in that same year at Deptford Dockyard.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52287&stc=1

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Forth
Ordered:	7.1.1813
Builder:	Wigram, Wells, & Green, Blackwall
Launched:	14.7.1813
Fate:	BU. 10. 1819
General characteristics
Class and type:	Revised Endymion Class 50 gun fourth rate Frigate
Tons burthen:	12516⁄94 (bm)
Length:	159 ft 31⁄8 in (gundeck)
Beam:	42ft 21⁄2 in
Depth of hold: Draught:	12ft 4 in 9ft 10 x 12ft 7in
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 28 × 24 pdr guns QD: 16 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 × 9 pdrs + 4 x 32 pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Forth was commissioned under Captain Sir William Bolton in the June of 1813. His command would last from this time until 1815. She was ordered to service in the Downs and later in that year in the North Sea off the Scheldt estuary, with a spell under Sir Edward Codrington. Between 1814 and 1815 she saw service off North America in the latter stages of the War of 1812. On the 19th of September 1814, still under the command of Captain Bolton, Forth took the American 5 gun Privateer Brig Regent in Little Egg Harbour.

Fate.

On her return to England she was fitted as a Flagship for Foreign Service at Chatham between the March and August of 1816, and was recommissioned under Captain Sir John Louis, and subsequently served until the July of 1819, after which she was paid off, and broken up at Deptford in the October of that year.

HMS Princess Charlotte (1814)

HMS Princess Charlotte, originally built as the Vittoria, but renamed Charlotte before being launched was 42 gun fifth rate Frigate built by M/shipwright John Goudie under private contract Kingston Royal Dockyard Ontario Canada. Ordered in 1813, she was launched on the 14th of April, 1814.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52291&stc=1 Drawing showing the body plan, sheer lines with inboard detail, and longitudinal half-breadth for Princess Charlotte, 1815
History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	Princess Charlotte
Ordered:	1813
Builder:	Kingston Royal Dockyard Ontario Canada.
Launched:	14 April 1814
Commissioned:	5 May 1814
Renamed:	Built as Vittoria Renamed Burlington on 9 December 1814
Fate:	Put up for sale in January 1833 Later scuttled
General characteristics
Type:	42 gun fifth rate Frigate
Tons burthen:	755 ​90⁄94 (bm)
Length:	121 ft 0 in (36.9 m) (overall)
Depth of hold:	8 ft 8 1⁄2 in (2.7 m)
Draught:	14 ft 4 in x 16ft 4in (4.4 m)
Armament:	Upper deck: 24 × 24 pdr guns QD/ Fc: 16 × 32 pdr Carronades + 2 × 68 pdr Carronades

Service.

HMS Princess Charlotte was commissioned under Captain William Mulcaster. at Oswego in 1814 for service on Lake Ontario.

She took part in the British attack on Fort Oswego as part of Commodore Yeo's Lake Ontario squadron which arrived on the 5th of May, and it was decided that Mulcaster should lead a naval detachment of 200 men ashore to assault the fort from its western flank. Princess Charlotte remaining offshore, carrying reserve troops for the battle. At 06:00 am on the 6th, the battle commenced and by 09:00 am, Mulcaster had positioned Princess Charlotte where she could bombard the fort using her 24 pounder long guns. The frigate opened fire at 1.00 pm and covered by the naval bombardment, the landing were begun. In the storming of the main shore battery with his force, Mulcaster was severely injured being shot through the leg. Lieutenant John Scott of Princess Charlotte then assumed command of the attack on the western flank. Fort Oswego fell under this onslaught and the reserves aboard Princess Charlotte were landed to secure the perimeter around the fort and town. Supplies and goods were then appropriated before the squadron’s return to Kingston on the 8th of May.

On the 11th of May, the squadron sailed along the south shore of Lake Ontario and began a blockade of the main United States naval base on the lake at Sackets Harbour. Owing to Mulcaster's severe injuries, command of Princess Charlotte came under Captain Edward Collier, who stationed the ship off Stony Island. On the 29th of May, British landing forces under Captains Stephen Popham and Francis Spilsbury were defeated at Sandy Creek by the American units which they had been sent to neutralize. The defeat led to the lifting of the blockade on the 5th of June and the return of the squadron to Kingston. For the rest of the summer, Princess Charlotte remained immobilized in Kingston harbour.

On the 1st of October, command of Princess Charlotte passed to Captain Richard O'Connor On the 16th of October, serving under the new Flagship HMS St. Lawrence, and accompanied by the rest of the squadron, the Charlotte transported infantry reinforcements and supplies to General Gordon Drummond in the Niagara area, arriving on the 20th of October. With the arrival of St Lawrence on Lake Ontario, the American squadron abandoned their attempt to wrest control of the lake from the British.

Fate.

On the 9th December, Charlotte was renamed Burlington. Following the war, the vessel remained in commission and in the June of 1816 came under the command of Captain Nicholas Lockyer. Later that year, the frigate was laid up in Ordinary. Burlington was put up for sale in the January of 1833, but finding no buyers, was towed away and scuttled in Deadmans Bay on Lake Ontario.

HMS Confiance (1814)


https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52337&stc=1
Bone ship model of HMS Confiance
Images courtesy of the Naval War College Museum

HMS Confiance was a fifth rate Frigate constructed at the Ile aux Noix Naval Shipyard, having been ordered in 1813 and she was launched on the 25th of August, 1814. To this day she remains the largest warship ever to have sailed on Lake Champlain. The British built her in answer to the American commander Thomas Macdonough’s ambitious shipbuilding program, itself designed to curb a British incursion into Vermont and New York State via the lake. She was described as having a gun deck corresponding to that of a heavy frigate, with thirty long twenty fours upon it. Supposedly, on the forecastle were to be a long twenty four on a turntable, plus four heavy Carronades. A further two heavy Carronades were to be mounted on the poop." Such was the urgency of the need for her to be in service that she sailed into battle whilst still fitting out, and the reality was somewhat less than envisioned.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52338&stc=1 Confiance
History
Great Britain
Name:	HMS Confiance
Builder:	Ile aux Noix Naval Shipyards, Quebec, Canada
Launched:	25 August 1814
Fate:	Captured at the Battle of Plattsburg, 11 September 1814
General characteristics
Type:	Fifth rate Frigate
Tons burthen:	1,200 (bm) ?
Length:	147 ft 5 in (44.93 m)
Beam:	37 ft 2 in (11.33 m)
Depth of hold:	7 ft (2.1 m)
Propulsion:	Sail
Proposed Armament:	UD: 26 × 24 pdr guns QD: 6 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 4 32 pdr Carronades + 1 24 pdr gun on pivot mount In reality as captured: 16 x 12 pounder guns

HMS Confiance was commissioned under Captain Peter Fisher and soon after her launching came under the command of Captain George Downie, serving as his Flagship at the Battle of Plattsburg on the 11th of September 1814.

Downie had difficulty obtaining men and materials from Commodore James Lucas Yeo on Lake Ontario, especially as Macdonough had intercepted several spars and other materials sold to Britain by unpatriotic Vermonters. Downie could only promise to have his ship complete by the 15th of September, and even then neither the ship nor her crew would have been worked up.

However, Sir George Prevost, Governor in Chief of British North America, and overall commander of the invasion forces, was anxious to begin his campaign as early as possible, to avoid the bad weather of late autumn and winter. He continually pressurized Downie to complete Confiance’s fitting out for battle with more alacrity. Although the British sloops and gunboats were already on the Lake, it took a further two days to tow the frigate up the Richelieu River from Ile aux Noix, fighting against both the wind and current, Downie eventually not joining the squadron with his flagship until the 9th of September.

The Battle of Plattsburgh.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52339&stc=1
View of the Battle of Plattsburg on the 11th of September 1814, from Cumberland Head on Lake Champlain.

For all intents and purposes, the vessel was still unfinished at the time of the battle, with some workmen, including riggers and carpenters, still labouring on her completion right up to the previous day. According to one source, at the time of the battle, the Confiance mounted 37 guns, but in actuality carried only 16 12 pounders, with two additional cannon aboard still awaiting mounting. Her crew was made up of a large number of untrained provincials with a company of the 39th Foot augmenting the incomplete crew.

Shortly before 8 am, as the British squadron approached the northern tip of Cumberland Head, Downie ordered the guns of his ship fired. This was a pre-arranged signal to the British land forces announcing his presence and his intent to engage the American fleet, basically informing them they could begin their offensive operations. At about 9 am, the British squadron rounded Cumberland Head close hauled in line abreast with the large ships to the north initially in the order Chubb, Linnet, Confiance flying a White Ensign, Finch, and the gunboats to the south.

Macdonough had cleverly anchored his vessels in a line, each bow to stern, across the entrance of Plattsburgh Bay from Cumberland Head at the north, to Crab Island at the south. This forced Downie either to engage his vessels in the confusing winds of the Bay, or try to sail south around Crab Island, risking being caught between the guns of the American fleet and the guns of the United States held Fort Scott on the shore. The wind was light, and Downie was unable to manoeuvre Confiance across the head of Macdonough's line. As Confiance suffered increasing damage from the Americans fire, he was forced to drop anchor between 300 and 500 yards from Macdonough's flagship, the Corvette USS. Saratoga. Downie then proceeded deliberately, securing everything before firing a broadside that killed or wounded one fifth of Saratoga's crew. It was at this point, within a mere fifteen minutes after the opening of the engagement, that Commodore Downie was killed. He had been standing behind one of his vessel's 24 pounders, sighting it, when a round shot fired from the Saratoga struck the muzzle. This in turn had dismounted the 2,000-pound cannon from its carriage and sent it somersaulting end over end before landing on top of the commanding officer, killing him instantly.

Both flagships then fought each other to a standstill. After Downie and several of the other officers had also been killed or injured, Confiance's fire became steadily less effective. Also, almost all the starboard side guns had been dismounted or put out of action aboard the Saratoga.

At this critical moment, Macdonough ordered the bow anchor cut, and he hauled in the kedge anchors he had laid out earlier to spin Saratoga around. This allowed Saratoga to bring its undamaged port battery into action. The British flagship withered in the face of the renewed American fire, with one shot smashing a gaping 7 foot hole in her hull below the waterline. The Confiance began to list badly to starboard. Below decks, crewman scrambled to move weight to the port side in hopes of keeping the damaged planking above water. Likewise, men scurried to move her already amassing wounded to prevent them from being drowned by the rising water. Mr. Cox, the ship's carpenter, was later praised for having "drove in sixteen large shot plugs under the water line" during the action. The vessel's surviving Lieutenant, James Robertson, tried to haul in on the springs to his only remaining anchor that hadn't been shot away to make a similar manoeuvre, but succeeded only in presenting the vulnerable stern to the American fire. Helpless, and now being raked by fresh broadsides from the American ship, the only option left was for Confiance to surrender. She was forced to strike after a fierce two hour long gun duel, during most of which she had been engaged with Macdonough's flagship. The last vestige of the British Squadron, HMS Linnet, itself barely a floating hulk, continued to fire defiantly for an additional fifteen minutes following the flagship's surrender. Macdonough simply hauled in further on his kedge anchors to bring his broadside to bear on the Linnet, which could then also only surrender, after being pummelled almost to the point of sinking.

In his after action report to Secretary of the Navy William Jones, Commodore Macdonough estimated that during the battle the Confiance had sustained at least 105 hits from round shot. Daniel Records, assigned by Macdonough as the Confiance's prize master, later reported the extent of the damage to be:-

"250 to 300 cannon shot in the hull and grape without number."

41 of Confiance's crew were lost, including Downie, and another 83 wounded. The loss of their commanding officer so early in the battle, had no doubt greatly improved the odds of an American victory.

Fate.

Following the battle, the battered American ships and their equally battered prizes, many of which were in danger of sinking, including Confiance, were hastily repaired and the following month taken to the southernmost port on Lake Champlain, Whitehall, New York State, where Confiance was placed into Ordinary. Following extensive repairs, she was taken into the U.S. Navy and served as Commodore Macdonough's headquarters during the winter of 1814 to 1815. When the war ended, the ships of the ragtag fleet were stripped of their guns, rigging, and equipment, their decks were housed over to protect them from the elements, and the ships were anchored in a line along the main channel below town. Understandably rot quickly spread through the green-timbered ships, and in 1820 they were towed into the nearby mouth of the Poultney River, known as East Bay, and formally abandoned. At their new moorings, the vessels were allowed to sink; the Confiance was the first of the five larger ships to settle into the river.

French Frigate Egyptienne (1799)

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52441&stc=1

The only Prize taken in this class which performed any notable service was the Egyptienne.
Égyptienne was a Francois Caro designed as one of a pair of two ship Forte Class Frigates. She had been originally ordered on 15th of June, 1798 as a 74 gun ship of the line. Laid down on the 26th of September, 1798, during building she was modified to a Heavy Frigate. She was launched on the 17th of July 1799, and completed and armed at Toulon on 23 September 1800. The foremost maindeck port was found too curved in the bow to house a gun, and thus Égyptienne received only 48 cannon instead of the intended 50.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52442&stc=1

Portrait of Egyptienne by Jean-Jacques Baugean
History
FRANCE
Name:		Egyptienne
Builder:		Built at Toulon
Laid down:		July 1798
Launched:		17 July 1799
Completed:		November 1799
Captured:		2 September 1801, by the Royal Navy
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	Egyptienne
Acquired:	2 September 1801
Fate:	Sold for breaking up 30 April 1817
General characteristics
Type:			40 gun Fifth rate Frigate
Tonnage:			1,434 ​4⁄94 (bm)
Length:			169 ft 8 in (51.71 m) (overall) 141 ft 4 3⁄4 in (43.1 m) (keel)
Beam:			43 ft 8 in (13.31 m)
Depth of hold:			15 ft 1 in (4.60 m)
Sail plan:			Full rigged ship
Armament:			French service UD:28 × 24 pdr guns QD:12 × 8 pdr guns + 2 × 36 pdr brass Obusiers Fc:4 × 8 pdr guns + 2 × 36 pdr brass Obusiers British service UD:28 × 24pdr guns QD:2 × 9 pdr guns + 12 × 32 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 × 9 pdr guns + 4 × 32 pdr Carronades

French service.

HMS Egyptienne was originally a French Frigate Commissioned in the November of 1799.
In 1801 Napoleon required reinforcements for the Army of Egypt and the Frigates Egyptienne and Justice, both carrying troops and munitions, were dispatched from Toulon. On the 3rd of February the vessels anchored in the port of Alexandria.
The British discovered Causse, Egyptienne, Justice, Regeneree and two ex Venetian frigates in the harbour there at its capitulation on the 2nd of September of that year following the capture of Alexandria. The British took Egyptienne into service on the 27th of September, and in the January of 1802 Captain Thomas Stephenson took command of her for the voyage to Britain. Aboard she had Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner tasked with conveying of the Rosetta Stone to England. As Egyptienne approached the Downs she collided with the HEIC ship the Marquise Wellsley, and finally arrived safely at Woolwich on the 13th of February.

British service.

The Admiralty inducted her into the Royal Navy as HMS Egyptienne, and between the October and December of 1802 she was fitted out at Woolwich, at a cost of £12,625. During this period she was under the command of Captain Charles Ogle.

Egyptienne was commissioned under Captain Charles Fleeming in April 1803 for service in the English Channel and off the coast of France. Here, on the 27th of July, she captured the 16 gun French Brig-sloop Epervier carrying dispatches from Guadaloupe to Lorient. The Royal Navy later took Épervier into service under her existing name.

On the 30th of August Egyptienne captured the 16 gun Privateer Chiffonette. 26 days out of Bordeaux, and had captured a Brig from Jersey which the HMS Endymion had already recaptured. Chiffonette had been in the process of attacking another British Brig when Egyptienne approached, an attack which the French Privateer then abandoned. Fleming remarked in his report that she was an extremely fast vessel that had several times eluded British frigates, including Egyptienne herself on one occasion.
Egyptienne’s next mission was to to St Helena as escort to a convoy. On the 13th of February, 1805 Egyptienne captured the Dichoso, under the command of F. Caselins.

Egyptienne was present at the Battle of Cape Finisterre, and did not participate in the engagement, but whilst reconnoitring in advance of the fleet she captured a Danish Merchant Brig. After the battle she took the disabled Spanish 74 gun Firme in tow. Following the battle, Admiral Sir Robert Calder requested a court-martial to review his decision not to pursue the enemy fleet after the engagement, and Captain Fleming was called as one of the witnesses. The court martial ruled that Calder's failure to pursue was an error of judgment, not a manifestation of cowardice, and awarded him a severe reprimand.

In the August of that year Egyptienne came under the command of Captain Charles Elphinstone.
On the 2nd of October in that year, off Rochefort, Egyptienne captured the 16 gun French Brig-sloop Acteon, under Capitaine de frégate Depoge. Acteon had aboard a Colonel and body of recruits, as well as carrying arms and clothing for a regiment in the West Indies. The Royal Navy took Acteon into service under her own name.

In the following month Egyptienne captured several ships, the first of which on the 20th, was the 12 gun Spanish Paulina out of Pasaia Spain, on her way to cruise in the West Indies, this was followed by the French Lugger Edouard, then Maria Antoinette, under the command of J. Heget, and the French sloop Esperance.
In the December of 1805, Captain Charles Paget took command of Egyptienne until 1807, and on the 8th of March 1806 her boats cut out the privateer L’Alcide from Muros.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52439&stc=1
HMS Egyptienne in pursuit of a Spanish schooner in 1806

On the 2nd of October off Rochfort, and accompanied by Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland’s HMS Loire, she captured the 40 gun La Libre, commanded by Capitaine de Frégate Deschorches. In a fight which lasted half an hour, the French lost 20 men killed and wounded out of a crew of 280 men. Loire had no casualties but Egyptienne had 8 wounded, one of which was mortal. Libre was badly damaged and had lost her masts so Loire took her in tow and reached Plymouth with her on the 4th of January, 1807.

https://sailsofglory.org/attachment....id=52440&stc=1

Fate.

Egyptienne was paid off at Plymouth and put into Ordinary on the 5th of May, 1807. Soon after she was fitted out and served as a receiving ship there. She She went back into Ordinary between1812 and 1815. On the 30th of April 1817 she was sold to John Small Sedger for £2,810 to be broken up.

This concludes my section on the 24 pounder Frigates of the Royal Navy which saw service in our time scale, so I am now moving on to the Fifth Rate 18 pdr Frigates built during the period 1793 to 1815.

For the work just completed on the 24 pounders my work is again indebted to the reference sources indicated below:-

Wikipedia.

Rif Winfield's British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817

The Maritime Museum, Greenwich,

and also once more for this particular series of ships:-

The Historic shipping website.

Whose information has been the only other source in filling in the gaps and cross checking for disparity of information several of the texts.

As usual any mistakes are solely down to me.

Rob.