British fifth rate 18 pounder Frigates.

[Bligh]

HMS Flora (1780)

HMS Flora was a 36 gun Flora Class frigate designed by Sir John Williams and approved by the Admiralty on the 6th of November 1778. Flora was built by M/shipwright Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard. Ordered on the 6th of November, 1778, and laid down on the 21st of that month, she was launched on the 6th of May 1780 and completed on the 21st of June in that same year at a cost of £19,788.15.10p including fitting and coppering.

History
GREAT BRITAIN
Name:	HMS Flora
Ordered:	6th of November, 1778
Builder:	Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard
Launched:	6th of May 1780
Fate:	Wrecked 18,1,1808
General characteristics
Class and type:	Flora class, 36 gun fifth rate Frigate
Tons burthen:	868 53⁄94 (bm)
Length:	137ft 0 in (gundeck)
Beam:	38ft 0in
Depth of hold: Draught:	13ft 3in 1ft 3in x 14ft 0in.
Propulsion:	Sails
Sail plan:	Full rigged ship
Armament:	Gundeck: 26 × 18 pdr guns QD: 8× 9 pdr guns+ 4 x18 pdr Carronades Fc: 2 × 9 pdr guns + 4 x18 pdr Carronades and 12 x 1⁄2 pdr swivels

Service.

HMS Flora was commissioned by Captain William Williams in the May of 1780. On the 10th of August Flora was patrolling off Ushant when she sighted sails in the haze about four miles away. These turned out to be French, a topsail cutter and a frigate. The topsail cutter made off, but Flora soon overhauled the French frigate, which turned out to be La Nymphe, a 12 pdr 32 gun frigate, under Captain Le Chevalier Du Rumain. The French hoisted their colours, and opened fire. Flora retaliated and the two ships fought an artillery duel at a range of about two cables, After an hour, HMS Flora had had her sails and rigging much cut up, so Captain Williams ordered that the range be closed to point blank. At this range, the increased short-range firepower offered by the newly-introduced carronades carried by her began to tell and although Flora's steering wheel was destroyed and one of her forecastle carronades ended up being manned by only her Boatswain and a boy, terrible damage and casualties were being wrought on La Nymphe. Her captain was mortally wounded by four musket shots, then a gunpowder cartridge being carried by one of her boys exploded. At 18:15, the French attempted to board the British frigate, but their attack was driven off and the French boarders were followed onto their own decks by the wildly yelling British. The fighting now became hand-to-hand fighting with pistols, bayonets, knives, boarding axes, pikes, tomahawks and clubs, it was kill or be killed with no quarter asked or given. By the time the French finally surrendered, they had suffered 55 dead with 81 wounded, whilst HMS Flora's casualties came to 9 dead and 17 wounded. La Nymphe was dispatched to Portsmouth with a prize crew and was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Nymphe. is widely reputed to be the first ship to use carronades in anger.


The action between HMS Flora and La Nymphe by Dominic Serres


On the12th of April, 1781, Flora was part of a fleet of 29 ships under Vice Admiral George Darby escorting a fleet of 100 store ships bound for Gibraltar during the Seige. The fleet entered Gibraltar Bay unopposed by the enemy and once the supplies had been unloaded, evacuated the civilian population.

Flora in company with the 28 gun frigate HMS Crescent were ordered to escort a convoy to Minorca. On the return leg, the two British frigates were chased by a Spanish squadron which drew close enough to open fire. HMS Flora suffered casualties of one man killed and another wounded After shaking off their pursuers, the two British frigates made it to Gibraltar on the 29th of May where they received intelligence about two large enemy warships which had been seen in the area earlier that day. On receiving the news, the two British frigates headed to Cueta, a Spanish possession on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar where they discovered that the two enemy vessels were in fact 36 gun Dutch frigates Castor and Briel. Approaching the enemy in deteriorating weather, the British were forced to abandon their attack because of the rising storm. The following day, the weather had calmed down and the British moved into the attack. Flora engaged Castor and Crescent took on the Briel. Although Flora was much more heavily armed than Castor, the Dutch resisted for two hours before they were forced to capitulate. The Castor had 22 killed and 41 wounded whilst Flora suffered 9 men killed, including her Lieutenant of Marines and 32 wounded. HMS Crescent was not so fortunate. Outgunned by her Dutch opponent, she quickly had all her quarterdeck guns and four of her main deck nine-pounders put out of action. Her upper yards and sails were quickly shot away by the Dutch and disaster struck when her main mast, mizzen mast and all their associated rigging fell into the waist area amidships. This put all the guns forward of the main mast out of action and rendered the ship unmanageable. The Dutch ship being upwind, Captain Packenham of the Crescent was unable to close the range and board the Dutchman, who then manoeuvred his ship across Crescent's stern and mercilessly raked the smaller British ship. Unable to bring any guns to bear and with his ship dismasted, Captain Packenham ordered the colours to be struck and the ship surrendered. Fortunately, they had sufficiently damaged the Briel to prevent it coming alongside and boarding. With the approach of the victorious HMS Flora, the Briel made off towards Cadiz. Briel had suffered 12 killed and 40 wounded, whilst Crescent had sustained casualties of 26 dead and 67 wounded. This action is now known as the Battle of Cape St Mary.


The Battle of Cape St Mary

A little under three weeks later, as Flora, Crescent, and the now HMS Castor were heading back to England, making repairs as best they could during a squall, they sighted a French privateer. Leaving the two other ships, Flora pursued the privateer, but the squall suddenly cleared revealing with two French 32 gun Frigates, Gloire and Friponne. The three damaged Frigates were in no condition to fight the three French ships. Captain Williams decided that it was too dangerous to fight and ordered his ships to scatter and make the best of their way back to England. Castor was quickly caught by the Friponne. With only her prize crew of 75 men aboard she had no choice but to surrender as soon as the Friponne opened fire. Crescent, sailing under a jury rig, could not outrun the Gloire, and also with insufficient men to man the guns effectively, she too was forced to surrender after giving some resistance to the French. Only HMS Flora managed to escape.


In the December of that year, Captain Williams was replaced in command by Captain Samuel Marshall, who was another experienced Frigate commander. On the 15th of January 1782, HMS Flora sailed for the West Indies where The French had a fleet under the Compte de Grasse, and on her arrival, she joined the fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney. She was assigned to the Vanguard division of Rodney's fleet, commanded by his Second in Command, Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Hood.

De Grasse planned to take his fleet of 35 ships of the line and 100 transport ships, join forces with a Spanish fleet of 12 ships of the line, and more importantly, pick up 15,000 Spanish troops to attack Jamaica. Rodney knew that if this force were successful, the British would be hard put to defend their remaining possessions. Flora was charged with the task of patrolling the area around the main French base at Martinique, looking for signs that De Grasse was about to put to sea.
On the 7th of April in that year, De Grasse and his fleet were sighted leaving the anchorage at Martinique the news reaching Rodney at St Lucia on the following day. Rodney immediately ordered the entire fleet to sea to search for the French and bring them to battle. On the following day the French were sighted, and De Grasse ordered his convoy of transports to make for Guadeloupe whilst he covered them with his fleet. Hood swiftly took his vanguard sweeping into the attack. His force of 12 ships of the line fought an inconclusive action against the French in which both sides suffered considerable damage.



Conclusions came at the Battle of The Saints on the 12th of April.



The moment of victory - De Grasse's flagship, the Ville de Paris (with the white flags on the right) strikes her colours in surrender to HMS Barfleur (with the red flags to the left of her

Shortly after this action peace negotiations started with the French, and the British began to reduce their naval forces in the Caribbean. Toward the end of the year Captain Marshall received orders to take his ship back to England where she was paid off.

Her war was over until 1783. She was then recommissioned under Captain George Bowen in the May of that year. He was duly replaced in July by Captain Robert Montagu, and on the 6th of November Flora sailed for the West Indies, where Captain Montagu remained in command until the June of 1784, and Flora then came under the command of Captain George Stoney, remaining in the Caribbean until the summer of 1786 when she returned to England and was paid off at Deptford in the September of that year to undergo a Great repair carried out by Perry at Blackwall at a cost of £18,241, between the August of 1890 and the January of 1793.She was then recommissioned and fitted at Deptford in the February of that year under Captain John Borlase Warren who had been placed in command of a squadron of Frigates operating out of Falmouth tasked with patrolling the Western Approaches and the Bay of Biscay to protecting British shipping against French naval units and privateers In addition to HMS Flora, the squadron also comprised the Frigates HMS Arethusa HMS Melampus, HMS Concorde and Flora's former prize, HMS Nymphe. On the 23rd of January, 1794 off Cape Clear, Flora captured the 12 gun French Privateer Brig Le Vipere which was then taken into the Royal Navy and commissioned as HMS Viper. Then on the 23rd of April off Ile Bas, together with her squadron, she captured the French 44 gun La Pomone and the 20 gun Le Babet. Flora suffered one seaman killed and three wounded during the Action.



The taking of La Republique Francaise and
Le Phoenix

In the June of that year she captured the 16 gun French Privateer La Republique Francaise and 12 gun Le Phoenix
By August, the squadron had been joined by the Frigates HMS Diamond, HMS Artois and HMS Diana together with the Ex Spanish 36 gun HMS Santa Margarita.

On the 7th of August, Captain Warren led the squadron to sea in search of cruising French frigates and on 23rd off the Penmarks they intercepted the 36 gun French Frigate Le Volontaire, which had been cruising the English Channel seeking prizes. After a 12 hour chase, the Volontaire was run to ground by HMS Diamond, HMS Artois, HMS Diana and HMS Santa Margarita, and driven onto the rocks, where she was left to her fate.



The Falmouth squadron at sea sometime in 1794, by Derek Gardner. The frigate in the foreground is HMS Diamond and judging by the older-style stern, HMS Flora is the frigate ahead of her.

On the 23rd of August Flora was in company with Arethusa off the Pointe du Raz when they sighted the French 16 gun Corvettes L'Espion and L'Alert, both vessels recently captured from the British. The British frigates immediately gave chase and followed the French vessels into Audierne Bay where they were deliberately run ashore under the cover of shore batteries. The French managed to recover both ships and put them back into service, although both were eventually recaptured by the British later on.

In the September of the year Warren was promoted to Commodore and Flora came under Captain William Otway, followed by Captain Thomas Drury, and then Captain Lidgbird Hall.

In the October of 1795, Captain Robert Gambier Middleton took command and on the 27th of November Flora sailed for the Med to join a squadron commanded by Nelson on the Riviera.

On the 15th of May 1796, Flora took, with others, the two gun French Privateer Lugger L'Epervier.
At the start of 1797 Flora made a trip to Newfoundland but was back off Portugal by April, where on the 13th, in company with the Frigate HMS Pearl, she captured the 24 gun French Privateer Frigate L'Incroyable.

On the 2nd of May, 1798, back in the Med and off Sardinia, temporally under the command of Captain Alexander Wilson, HMS Flora cut out, the 16 gun French Corvette La Corcyre, which had formally been the British privateer Cornish Hero, taken by the French earlier that year.Later in the month, Flora was operating in the Ionian Islands off the southern tip of Greece where on the 13th; she chased the 18 gun French, Venetian built, Brig-corvette Mondovi into the port of Cerigo, Now known as Kythira on the island of the same name. Now back in command, Captain Middleton was determined to destroy or capture the enemy vessel, but a direct frontal attack was not possible owing to the powerful shore battery overlooking the harbour, so he decided instead on a boat action. The raid was to be led by the First Lieutenant, Mr William Russel, assisted by the third Lieutenant, Mr William Hepenstall and Marine Lieutenant Richard Parry, plus Masters Mate Mr. Morton, the ships gunner Mr. Tancock, Midshipmen Petley and Hawkins. Under heavy fire but undeterred, they boarded the Mondovi and took her, with a loss of 1 Marine private killed, plus Mr Parry, Mr Morton, Mr Tancock and 5 seamen wounded.

By the 1st of August, Flora was back off the coast of Portugal, where she recaptured the Portugese Brig Nostra Senora del Monte previously taken by the French Privateer L'Abeille, and carrying a cargo of baled goods which Captain Middleton sent into Madeira under a prize crew.From the end of August, in company with Caroline, Flora cruised off the Azores taking even more Privateers. On the 12th of October came the 12 gun Le President Parker, followed by the 20 gun L Intrepide off Lisbon on the 25th of January, 1799. In the following month her victims were the 14 gun L Aventure and the Spanish Diligente.

April witnessed the taking of the 14 gun La Legere on the 28th, and on the 25th of July the Le Rhuiter.
In 1800, on the 2nd of March Flora captured the 16 gun Spanish ships Corunesa, followed by the 10 gun San Antonio y Animas in April, and the 4 gun Cortez in June.

Between the March and September of 1801, Flora supported the British campaign in Egypt where a British army under General Lord Abercrombie eventually defeated the French army which had been stranded there after Vice Admiral Lord Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile a few years earlier.

Because of the end of The French Revolutionary War on the 25th of March, 1802 with the Treaty of Amiens, in April Flora returned to Deptford and paid off into the Ordinary. With the collapse of the treaty, war began again in the May of 1803. HMS Flora was taken into the Dockyard at Deptford in the December of 1804 for repairs which were completed in the April of 1805. She was then recommissioned under Captain Loftus Otway Bland. As part of her refit, the ship's armament had been slightly modified. She was now armed with 26x 18 pdr long guns on her gundeck, and 8x 32 pdr Carronades on her quarterdeck with two more on her forecastle alongside 2x 9 pdr long guns, plus a dozen half-pounder swivel guns on her upper deck handrails and in her fighting tops.

Assigned to the North Sea Fleet in 1806, Flora was active in maintaining the blockade of the Dutch coast, capturing a great number of enemy blockade runners.

In 1806 she had another spell in the Med where on the 25th of November she captured the 6 gun Privateer El Esperarte.

Fate.

Flora then returned to the North Sea where on Monday the 18th of January, 1808, she was driven ashore in a storm at Terschelling on the Dutch coast and was wrecked with the loss of 9 men. Captain Bland was kept in a damp prison cell, where he contracted Consumption or TB. On his release under a prisoner exchange deal, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing in the loss of his ship. The Court Martial board found that he had been caught on a lee shore and was unable to prevent his ship being driven ashore in the atrocious weather. He was appointed to command the 64 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Africa and was sent to the Baltic, where the cold damp weather played havoc with his health and he was forced to retire sick from the Royal Navy. He died in Exeter in 1810 and is buried in the nave of Exeter Cathedral.

Special thanks in this particular post must go to Stuart Waters of the Kent History Forum for his article on HMS Flora, on which I have heavily drawn.