HMS Alcmene (1794)
Encyclopedia
HMS Alcmene was a 32-gun Alcmene-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy
. This frigate served during the French Revolutionary
and Napoleonic Wars
under the command of several notable officers. Alcmene was active in several theatres of the war, spending most of her time cruising in search of enemy vessels or privateer
s, and escorting convoys. She fought at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and served in the blockade of the French coasts during the later Napoleonic Wars until she was wrecked on the French coast in 1809.
on 14 February 1793, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She was laid down there in April that year and launched on 8 November 1794. The ship was completed at Chatham Dockyard
by 12 April 1795 and had commissioned under her first commander, Captain William Brown, in January that year. Joining the Alcmene on 26 March was surgeon William Beatty, who later served aboard at the Battle of Trafalgar
, and attended the dying Lord Nelson
. Beatty would spend most of the next five years aboard Alcmene, his longest period on a single ship.
station from August. Alcmenes main tasks involved escorting convoys to and from Oporto and Lisbon, some numbering upwards of 200 merchants; and cruising off the coast in search of enemy warships and privateer
s.
On 5 November 1796, Alcmene was in company with , and when they captured the Spanish ship Adriana. Alcmene took the 14-gun privateer Rochelleuse off Cape Finisterre
on 6 March 1797, while the privateers Bonaparte and Légère were taken on 8 January and 22 August 1798 respectively. Alcmene had been refitting at Spithead
when the naval mutiny
broke out there. Her crew did not join the mutineers, though there were rumblings of mutiny later in the year aboard her, and several seaman were tried and punished. Captain George Johnstone Hope
took command in August 1798 and Alcmene went out to the Mediterranean. She took part in the Mediterranean campaign of 1798
, carrying supplies to the British fleet, and raided enemy shipping. On 23 June 1799 she captured the 28-gun Courageux and the Deux Amis on 1 August that year. Earlier in the year Alcmene had helped Horatio Nelson to evacuate the Neapolitan Royal family
from Naples
ahead of the advancing French armies. She returned to the Lisbon station in August.
Triton, the fastest of the three British frigates, led the chase. The next morning she struck some rocks as she tried to prevent her quarry from reaching port. Triton got off the rocks and resumed the chase despite taking on water. She and Alcmene then exchanged fire with the Spanish frigate, which surrendered before Naiad could catch up. Four large Spanish ships came out from Vigo
but then retreated when the three British frigates made ready to receive them. Alcmene had one man killed and nine wounded, and Triton had one man wounded; Santa Brigida had two men killed and eight men wounded.
The vessel that Ethalion captured turned out to be the Thetis, under the command of Captain Don Juan de Mendoza. She was homeward-bound from Vera Cruz
(Mexico) with a cargo of cocoa, cochineal
and sugar, and more importantly, specie worth 1,385,292 Spanish dollars (£312,000). The vessel that Triton, Alcmene and Naiad captured was the Santa Brigada, under the command of Captain Don Antonio Pillon. She was carrying drugs, annatto
, cochineal
, indigo
, sugar and some 1,500,000 dollars. Prize money was paid on 14 January 1800.
Alcmene then returned to Plymouth
in November 1799.
Hope's successor, in 1799, was Captain Henry Digby
, and Alcmene joined the squadron blockading the French coast. Captain Samuel Sutton
took command in January 1801, and she went at first to Lisbon and then to the Baltic
with Sir Hyde Parker's expeditionary force in March 1801. She was present at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April that year, as part of Edward Riou
's frigate squadron, and suffered five men killed and 19 wounded in the battle. In 1847 The Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to any remaining survivors of the battle.
Sutton moved to after Riou's death during the battle. Alcmene then appears to have come under the command of either Captain Charles Pater or Captain John Devonshire, though Devonshire returned to Britain with dispatches on in June 1801.
Captain Robert Lambert took command in August 1801 and Alcmene went out as a convoy escort to Newfoundland, before returning to British waters and joining the Channel Fleet
. Captain John Stiles took command in August 1802, and Alcmene spent between 1804 and 1805 on the Channel Islands
station. Captain James Brisbane
succeeded Stiles in November 1805 and sailed Alcmene to the Irish station.
Here she took the privateer Courier on 4 January 1806. Courier was the former His Majesty's hired armed
cutter
Alert. Courier was pierced for 14 guns but mounted only seven, of mixed calibers that included 42 and 24-pounder carronades. She had a crew of 70 men, was four days out of Morlaix
, and had not captured any prizes.
Alcmene came under her last commander, Captain William Tremlett, in January 1808. Tremlett commanded her in the English Channel
.
on 29 April 1809. She was following the 44-gun frigate Amelia
to reconnoiter the French forces when her pilot's ignorance resulted in her striking Blanche Rock, off Nantes. The ebbing tide made it impossible to get her off and at low tide she broke her back and bilged. Fortunately, Amelia was able to rescue both the entire crew of Alcmene and her stores. Her crew then set fire to Alcmene. She burnt to the water's edge, leaving little of use to the French.
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. This frigate served during the French Revolutionary
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
and Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
under the command of several notable officers. Alcmene was active in several theatres of the war, spending most of her time cruising in search of enemy vessels or privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s, and escorting convoys. She fought at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and served in the blockade of the French coasts during the later Napoleonic Wars until she was wrecked on the French coast in 1809.
Construction and commissioning
Alcmene was ordered from the yards of Joseph Graham, of HarwichHarwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
on 14 February 1793, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. She was laid down there in April that year and launched on 8 November 1794. The ship was completed at Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard
Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...
by 12 April 1795 and had commissioned under her first commander, Captain William Brown, in January that year. Joining the Alcmene on 26 March was surgeon William Beatty, who later served aboard at the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
, and attended the dying Lord Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, KB was a flag officer famous for his service in the Royal Navy, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. He was noted for his inspirational leadership and superb grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics, which resulted in a number of...
. Beatty would spend most of the next five years aboard Alcmene, his longest period on a single ship.
Career
Alcmene went out as a convoy escort to the West Indies in November 1795, returning in January the following year and serving on the LisbonLisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
station from August. Alcmenes main tasks involved escorting convoys to and from Oporto and Lisbon, some numbering upwards of 200 merchants; and cruising off the coast in search of enemy warships and privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
s.
On 5 November 1796, Alcmene was in company with , and when they captured the Spanish ship Adriana. Alcmene took the 14-gun privateer Rochelleuse off Cape Finisterre
Cape Finisterre
right|thumb|300px|Position of Cape Finisterre on the [[Iberian Peninsula]]Cape Finisterre is a rock-bound peninsula on the west coast of Galicia, Spain....
on 6 March 1797, while the privateers Bonaparte and Légère were taken on 8 January and 22 August 1798 respectively. Alcmene had been refitting at Spithead
Spithead
Spithead is an area of the Solent and a roadstead off Gilkicker Point in Hampshire, England. It is protected from all winds, except those from the southeast...
when the naval mutiny
Spithead and Nore mutinies
The Spithead and Nore mutinies were two major mutinies by sailors of the Royal Navy in 1797. There were also discontent and minor incidents on ships in other locations in the same year. They were not violent insurrections, being more in the nature of strikes, demanding better pay and conditions...
broke out there. Her crew did not join the mutineers, though there were rumblings of mutiny later in the year aboard her, and several seaman were tried and punished. Captain George Johnstone Hope
George Johnstone Hope
Rear-Admiral Sir George Johnstone Hope, KCB was a British naval officer, who served with distinction in the Royal Navy throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, including service at the Battle of Trafalgar...
took command in August 1798 and Alcmene went out to the Mediterranean. She took part in the Mediterranean campaign of 1798
Mediterranean campaign of 1798
The Mediterranean campaign of 1798 was a series of major naval operations surrounding a French expeditionary force sent to Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French Republic sought to capture Egypt as the first stage in an effort to threaten British India, and...
, carrying supplies to the British fleet, and raided enemy shipping. On 23 June 1799 she captured the 28-gun Courageux and the Deux Amis on 1 August that year. Earlier in the year Alcmene had helped Horatio Nelson to evacuate the Neapolitan Royal family
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
from Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
ahead of the advancing French armies. She returned to the Lisbon station in August.
Capture of Thetis and Santa Brigada
On 15 October 1799 sighted two Spanish frigates. She gave chase and before dawn joined the pursuit. At 7.00am the two Spaniards parted company so Naiad followed Santa-Brigida, together with Alcmene and , which too had joined the chase, while directing Ethalion, to pursue the other frigate. By 11.30am, Ethalion had caught up with her quarry and after a short engagement the Spanish vessel struck her colours.Triton, the fastest of the three British frigates, led the chase. The next morning she struck some rocks as she tried to prevent her quarry from reaching port. Triton got off the rocks and resumed the chase despite taking on water. She and Alcmene then exchanged fire with the Spanish frigate, which surrendered before Naiad could catch up. Four large Spanish ships came out from Vigo
Vigo
Vigo is a city and municipality in north-west Spain, in Galicia, situated on the ria of the same name on the Atlantic Ocean.-Population:...
but then retreated when the three British frigates made ready to receive them. Alcmene had one man killed and nine wounded, and Triton had one man wounded; Santa Brigida had two men killed and eight men wounded.
The vessel that Ethalion captured turned out to be the Thetis, under the command of Captain Don Juan de Mendoza. She was homeward-bound from Vera Cruz
Veracruz, Veracruz
Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most...
(Mexico) with a cargo of cocoa, cochineal
Cochineal
The cochineal is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colour dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and...
and sugar, and more importantly, specie worth 1,385,292 Spanish dollars (£312,000). The vessel that Triton, Alcmene and Naiad captured was the Santa Brigada, under the command of Captain Don Antonio Pillon. She was carrying drugs, annatto
Annatto
Annatto, sometimes called roucou or achiote, is a derivative of the achiote trees of tropical regions of the Americas, used to produce a yellow to orange food coloring and also as a flavoring...
, cochineal
Cochineal
The cochineal is a scale insect in the suborder Sternorrhyncha, from which the crimson-colour dye carmine is derived. A primarily sessile parasite native to tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico, this insect lives on cacti from the genus Opuntia, feeding on plant moisture and...
, indigo
Indigo
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
, sugar and some 1,500,000 dollars. Prize money was paid on 14 January 1800.
Alcmene then returned to Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
in November 1799.
Hope's successor, in 1799, was Captain Henry Digby
Henry Digby (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral of the Blue Sir Henry Digby GCB was a senior British naval officer, who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in the Royal Navy...
, and Alcmene joined the squadron blockading the French coast. Captain Samuel Sutton
Samuel Sutton
Samuel Sutton was an officer in the Royal Navy. He entered the service shortly after the start of the American War of Independence, and spent most of his early career serving with Captain and later Admiral Joshua Rowley. He saw action at several engagements with the French fleets in the West...
took command in January 1801, and she went at first to Lisbon and then to the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
with Sir Hyde Parker's expeditionary force in March 1801. She was present at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April that year, as part of Edward Riou
Edward Riou
Edward Riou was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary Wars under several of the most distinguished naval officers of his age and won fame and honour for two incidents in particular....
's frigate squadron, and suffered five men killed and 19 wounded in the battle. In 1847 The Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to any remaining survivors of the battle.
Sutton moved to after Riou's death during the battle. Alcmene then appears to have come under the command of either Captain Charles Pater or Captain John Devonshire, though Devonshire returned to Britain with dispatches on in June 1801.
Captain Robert Lambert took command in August 1801 and Alcmene went out as a convoy escort to Newfoundland, before returning to British waters and joining the Channel Fleet
Channel Fleet
The Channel Fleet was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1690 to 1909.-History:The Channel Fleet dates back at least to 1690 when its role was to defend England against the French threat under the leadership of Edward Russell, 1st Earl of...
. Captain John Stiles took command in August 1802, and Alcmene spent between 1804 and 1805 on the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
station. Captain James Brisbane
James Brisbane
Captain Sir James Brisbane, CB was a British Royal Navy officer of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Although never engaged in any major actions, Brisbane served under both Lord Howe and Horatio Nelson and performed important work at the Cape of Good Hope, prior to the Battle of...
succeeded Stiles in November 1805 and sailed Alcmene to the Irish station.
Here she took the privateer Courier on 4 January 1806. Courier was the former His Majesty's hired armed
Hired armed vessels
right|thumb|250px|Armed cutter, etching in the [[National Maritime Museum]], [[Greenwich]]During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the Royal Navy made use of a considerable number of hired armed vessels...
cutter
Cutter
A cutter may refer to several types of nautical vessels. When used in the context of sailing vessels, a cutter is a small single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. The cutter features a mast set farther back than on a sloop...
Alert. Courier was pierced for 14 guns but mounted only seven, of mixed calibers that included 42 and 24-pounder carronades. She had a crew of 70 men, was four days out of Morlaix
Morlaix
Morlaix is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Leisure and tourism:...
, and had not captured any prizes.
Alcmene came under her last commander, Captain William Tremlett, in January 1808. Tremlett commanded her in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
.
Fate
Alcmene was wrecked at the mouth of the LoireLoire (river)
The Loire is the longest river in France. With a length of , it drains an area of , which represents more than a fifth of France's land area. It is the 170th longest river in the world...
on 29 April 1809. She was following the 44-gun frigate Amelia
HMS Amelia (1796)
Proserpine was a 38-gun Hébé-class frigate of the French Navy captured by on 13 June 1796. The Admiralty commissioned Prosperine into the Royal Navy as the fifth rate, HMS Amelia...
to reconnoiter the French forces when her pilot's ignorance resulted in her striking Blanche Rock, off Nantes. The ebbing tide made it impossible to get her off and at low tide she broke her back and bilged. Fortunately, Amelia was able to rescue both the entire crew of Alcmene and her stores. Her crew then set fire to Alcmene. She burnt to the water's edge, leaving little of use to the French.