HMS Phoebe (1795)
Encyclopedia
HMS Phoebe was a 36-gun fifth rate of the British Royal Navy
. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars
, the Napoleonic Wars
and the War of 1812
. Overall, her crews were awarded six clasps to the Naval General Service Medals, with two taking place in the French Revolutionary Wars, three during the Napoleonic Wars and the sixth in the War of 1812. Three of the clasps were for single-ship action
s and carried the name Phoebe. During her career, Phoebe sailed to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, North America and South America.
Once peace finally arrived, Phoebe was laid up, though she spent a few years as a slop ship during the 1820s. She was then hulked. The Admiralty finally sold her for breaking up in 1841.
. She then moved to Deptford Dockyard, where she was completed on 23 December.
.One of Barlow's officers was Samuel Pechell
, the future Rear-Admiral and Lord of the Admiralty. Pechell served aboard Phoebe for four years and participated in the capture of both Néréide and Africaine. On 10 January 1797, after an eight-hour chase, she captured the 16-gun , under the command of Lieutenant Dordelin, off the Isles of Scilly
. Atalante had a crew of 112 men. She was a three-years old brig with a coppered hull and an 80 foot keel. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
In 1797 Phoebe was off Brest as part of an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew
in . The squadron included , and the hired armed
lugger
Duke of York
.
On 22 December 1797 Phoebe captured the French 36-gun Néréide
, Captain Antoine Canon. Phoebe sighted the Néréide at 10am; the pursuit started at 11:30am and ended at 10:45pm with Néréide's surrender. During the chase Néréide fired her stern guns at Phoebe and the two vessels exchanged broadsides shortly before the Néréide surrendered. Phoebe lost three men killed and 10 wounded; Néréide lost 20 men killed and 55 wounded. Part of the reason for the disparity in casualties was that the ratio of the weight of the broadsides was 407 pounds to 268 pounds. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 21 Decr. 1797" to all remaining members of her crew who had participated in the action.
On 11 October 1799, Phoebe captured the French privateer Grand Ferrailleur. Grand Ferrailleur was armed with sixteen brass 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 121 men. She was 16 days from Bordeaux but had not taken any prizes.
On 21 February 1800, Phoebe captured the French privateer Bellegarde (or Belle Garde) of Saint-Malo
. Bellegarde carried 14 guns and a crew of 114 men. She had been out 16 days and had captured the Chance, of London and sailing from Martinique, and the brig Friends, of Dartmouth, sailing from St. Michael's to Bristol.ref> Later, on 24 February, recaptured Chance.
off Bordeaux. Heureux had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth on 25 March.
Heureux, of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook Phoebe for an East Indiaman, and approached her. Heureux did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. Heureux fired on Phoebe in an "Act of Temerity to be regretted". Her hope was that well-directed fire would disable Phoebe's masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby escape. Phoebe returned fire and Heureux was forced to strike her colours. Phoebe had three seamen killed, or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. Heureux had 18 men killed, and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs. She had been out 42 days but had captured only a small Portuguese sloop that the wind had pushed out to sea while she was sailing from Limerick to Galway with a cargo of wine.
Barlow described Heureux as "the most complete flush Deck Ship I have ever seen, coppered, Copper fastened, highly finished and of large Dimensions... The Accounts given of her Sailing are very extraordinary; she will be considered as a most desirable Ship for His Majesty's Service." The British took her into service as .
, also sailing eastwards. Barlow chased the French vessel for two-and-a-half hours before he could bring her to a close action
. After about two hours the French vessel struck her colours; she had five feet of water in her hold and almost a wreck. Phoebes fire had dismounted her guns and left her decks strewn with literally hundreds of casualties.
She proved to be the Africaine, of twenty-six 18-pounders and eighteen 9-pounders, and had sailed from Rochefort on the 13th. Her was under the command of Capitaine Majendie and she flew the broad pennant of Commandant de Division Saunier. She had a crew of 315 men, but also was ferrying 400 troops under General Desfourneaux to reinforce the French invasion force in Egypt
.
The French reported that they had suffered 200 killed in the action, including Saunier, the Chef de Brigade and two army captains, and 143 wounded, the later including Desfourneaux and Majendie, who was wounded in two places. The heavy casualties were the result of French troops crowding the upper deck despite their small arms fire contributing little or nothing in the dark to her defense. The troops had refused shelter below deck on the basis of mistaken valour.
Phoebe lost one man killed, and 12 men wounded. Her masts, sails and rigging were badly damaged but she was able to limp to Port Mahon
. Weak winds resulted in the voyage, in company with Africaine, taking two weeks. The British took Africaine into service under her existing name.
Barlow received a knighthood. Phoebes first lieutenant
, John Wentworth Holland, who had been wounded, received a promotion to commander. In 1847 the action earned Phoebe's crew the clasp "Phoebe 19 Feby. 1801" to the Naval General Service Medal (1847). Captain Thomas Baker
subsequently took command of Phoebe in May 1801.
The Hon. Thomas Bladen Capel
l followed him and recommissioned Phoebe in September. She then sailed for the Mediterranean on 28 September.
In 1803 Phoebe was sailing out of Malta. At some point, perhaps during the summer, her boats participated in a disastrous attack on two French privateers off Civitavecchia
. The privateers repulsed the British, who lost eight men killed and wounded. On 1 August, Phoebe captured two settées, which a French squadron recaptured. In recapturing the settées, the French squadron involved lost an opportunity to capture Phoebe, though they did also capture the schooner and a transport.
On 13 June Phoebe and Amazon made ready to engage two French frigates anchored under the guns of the north-most fort at Toulon
. The fort fired at Phoebe, but she was out of range. When the French fleet sortied, the British vessels rejoined their squadron, however the French fleet returned to port without engaging.
was passing the island of Toro on 4 April 1805 when Phoebe brought the news that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve entered Cadiz to link up with the Spanish fleet.
Then, while Nelson
was pursuing the French fleet from Toulon to the West Indies, Capel, in Phoebe, was in charge of a small squadron of five frigates and two bomb vessels with the mission of covering Sicily
, Sardinia
and the route to Egypt
. Phoebe joined the blockade of Cadiz later in the summer.
The arrival of the additional frigates Phoebe, , , , and off Cadiz allowed Nelson to detach them to disrupt local shipping supplying provisions for the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet in Cadiz
.
In October, the frigate squadron was acting as the eyes of the British fleet. When the Combined Fleet put to sea on 19 October, Phoebe was first in line, followed by Naiad and the third rate . Capel spotted the Combined Fleet's exit and notified Nelson. As the combined fleet approached the British over the next couple of days, the frigates shadowed it, reporting on its movements.
During the subsequent Battle of Trafalgar
, Phoebe relayed Nelson's signals to the rest of fleet, and remained close to the action although she did not actually engage the enemy. In the gale that followed a few days later the and Phoebe assisted two of the prizes, the and Bahama, with the result that they were saved.In later life, Cappel would sit on the committee that would issue the Naval General Service Medal, one of the clasps of which read "Trafalgar".
to find a French squadron reported to be destroying British and Russian fishing and merchant vessels in the Arctic. Although Phoebe met with no success, Blanche encountered and captured . Phoebe then sailed to the West Indies.
In April 1809 Captain Hassard Stackpoole took command for the Baltic. Between 7 and 12 July, Phoebe captured the Russian vessels Saint Nicholas 1 and Saint Nicholas 2, and another vessel, name unknown. In August Captain James Hillyar
replaced Stackpoole. On 6 January 1810 Phoebe sailed from Torbay
for off the Île de Batz
. Later she was in the Gulf of Livonia
where her boats took numerous prizes.
preparing for a joint naval and military expedition to take the Île de France
. The expedition arrived on 28 November and the French signed the capitulation on 3 December.
In March 1811, Phoebe survived two major hurricanes in the Indian Ocean. Phoebe the participated in the Battle of Tamatave
, where she fought another Néréide, under Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier. In the severe action the British captured Renommée; Néréide surrendered subsequently on the 25th at Tamatave. The British took both vessels into service, Néréide as and Renommée as .
Phoebe suffered seven dead and 24 wounded. Néréide suffered some 130 men dead and wounded. In 1847 this battle earned Phoebe's surviving crew the clasp "Off Tamatave 20 May 1811" to the Naval General Service Medal.
of the 74-gun third rate was the naval commander-in-chief. Later, Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford took charge of the naval forces.
On 31 August Stopford detached the frigates , President
, and Phoebe, and the sloop to take Cheribon
, a seaport about 35 leagues east of Batavia
. They arrived at dark on 3 September and the fort surrendered the next morning without a shot being fired.
On 11 September, all squadron re-embarked the seamen and marines that had landed, together with about 700 prisoners, including 237 Europeans. At 4 a.m. Nisus and Phoebe weighed and steered for Taggal, a port about 20 or 25 leagues further to the east. The next day Phoebe arrived off the harbour. Together with a landing party of seamen, marines, and some sepoy
s, Captain Hillyar took quiet possession of the fort and public stores.
Phoebe, Nisus, President, and joined Stopford with Scipion and on 14 September. The next day they sailed for Surabaya
. On 17 September they anchored off Ledayo on the Java shore where three transports with 450 men joined them. There they learned that the Dutch and French had surrendered the day before. The troops landed two days later and took possession of the place on 20 September under the general terms of the capitulation.
In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java" to all remaining survivors of the campaign. Phoebe arrived at Plymouth Dock on 18 January 1812 with dispatches from the East Indies.
on 2 August. On 30 September she was in Plymouth, having brought dispatches from Halifax
. She then underwent a refit.
In late December 1812, Phoebe captured two American schooners. One was the Vengeance, an American letter of marquee 12-gun schooner from New York, bound to Bordeaux, laden with sugar and coffee. Vengeance arrived in Plymouth on 8 January. The Royal Navy took Vengeance into service as . Vengeance was closely followed by Hunter, a privateer schooner, of 14 guns and 100 men. The capture of Hunter occurred on 23 December after a chase during which she threw 12 of her guns overboard.
A few days later, Phoebe was sailing off the Azores
in the company of the 74-gun third rate , under the command of Francis Austen
, the brother of the acclaimed novelist Jane Austen
, together with . On 27 December they captured the American privateer schooner
Swordfish of Gloucester
, John Evans, master. Swordfish was 16 days out of Boston
and had a crew of 82 men, and originally twelve 6-pounder guns. However, she had thrown 10 overboard during the chase, which took 11 hours and covered more than 100 miles.
On 18 March 1813 Phoebe left Portsmouth with a convoy for Brazil and the East Indies. On 6 July Phoebe, the sloop-of-war
, and sailed from Rio de Janeiro
around Cape Horn
to the Juan Fernández Islands
. There, Racoon continued on to the fur trading outpost of Fort Astoria
. Phoebe and Cherub remained to search for the 36-gun . Hillyar was under orders to capture the Essex "at all costs".
, a neutral port, where Essex and her prizes were anchored. Having trapped Essex in the harbour, Hillyar waited six weeks for her to come out and thwarted all of the efforts of her captain, David Porter
, to escape. Eventually, on 28 March, Porter attempted to break out of the harbour. A squall took off his main topmast and he attempted to return to harbour but Phoebe and Cherub drove Essex into a nearby bay and defeated her in a short engagement.
Phoebe and Cherub also captured Essex's tender, Essex Junior, the ex-British whaler Atlantic. In the engagement, Phoebe had four men killed, including her first lieutenant
, and seven men wounded. Cherub had one killed and three wounded, including her captain. The British reported that Essex had 24 killed and 45 wounded, though the Americans reported higher casualties. Lieutenant Pearson of Phoebe commanded the prize crew that sailed Essex back to Britain, where he was promoted to Commander. In 1847 the then surviving crew members of Phoebe and Cherub were awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 28 March 1814".
On 31 May 1814 Phoebe and Essex set sail for England. On the way they stopped for some time in Rio de Janeiro
. The two ships finally anchored in Plymouth sound on 13 November.
in 1826 at Plymouth. Phoebe was sold for breaking up to Joshua Crystall for £1,750 on 25 May 1841.
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...
. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars
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...
, the 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...
and the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. Overall, her crews were awarded six clasps to the Naval General Service Medals, with two taking place in the French Revolutionary Wars, three during the Napoleonic Wars and the sixth in the War of 1812. Three of the clasps were for single-ship action
Single-ship action
A single ship action is a naval engagement fought between two warships of opposing sides, excluding submarine engagements; called so because there is a single ship on each side...
s and carried the name Phoebe. During her career, Phoebe sailed to the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, North America and South America.
Once peace finally arrived, Phoebe was laid up, though she spent a few years as a slop ship during the 1820s. She was then hulked. The Admiralty finally sold her for breaking up in 1841.
Construction
She was one of four frigates that the Admiralty ordered on 24 May 1794 to a design by Sir John Henslow, Surveyor of the Navy. The contract for the first ship was placed with the Thames-side yard of John Dudman, where the keel was laid in June 1794. She was named Phoebe on 26 February 1795 and was launched on 24 September 1795 at Deptford Wharf on the ThamesRiver Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
. She then moved to Deptford Dockyard, where she was completed on 23 December.
French Revolutionary Wars
Phoebe was first commissioned in October 1795 under Captain Robert BarlowRobert Barlow (Royal Navy officer)
Admiral Sir Robert Barlow GCB was a senior and distinguished officer of the British Royal Navy who saw extensive service in the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. He made his name in small ship actions, especially fighting French frigates, or which...
.One of Barlow's officers was Samuel Pechell
Samuel Pechell
Rear-Admiral Sir Samuel John Brooke Pechell, 3rd Baronet CB, KCH, FRS was a prominent British Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century...
, the future Rear-Admiral and Lord of the Admiralty. Pechell served aboard Phoebe for four years and participated in the capture of both Néréide and Africaine. On 10 January 1797, after an eight-hour chase, she captured the 16-gun , under the command of Lieutenant Dordelin, off the Isles of Scilly
Isles of Scilly
The Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of Great Britain. The islands have had a unitary authority council since 1890, and are separate from the Cornwall unitary authority, but some services are combined with Cornwall and the islands are still part...
. Atalante had a crew of 112 men. She was a three-years old brig with a coppered hull and an 80 foot keel. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
In 1797 Phoebe was off Brest as part of an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew
Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth
Admiral Sir Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, GCB was a British naval officer. He fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary, and the Napoleonic Wars...
in . The squadron included , and the 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...
lugger
Lugger
A lugger is a class of boats, widely used as traditional fishing boats, particularly off the coasts of France, Scotland and England. It is a small sailing vessel with lugsails set on two or more masts and perhaps lug topsails.-Defining the rig:...
Duke of York
Hired armed lugger Duke of York
The Hired armed lugger Duke of York served the Royal Navy from 14 October 1794 to 2 January 1799 when she foundered in the North Sea. She was of 57 44/94 tons burthen and was armed with eight 4-pounder guns....
.
On 22 December 1797 Phoebe captured the French 36-gun Néréide
French frigate Néréide (1779)
The Néréide was a Sybille class 32-gun, copper-hulled, frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 HMS Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Île de France in...
, Captain Antoine Canon. Phoebe sighted the Néréide at 10am; the pursuit started at 11:30am and ended at 10:45pm with Néréide's surrender. During the chase Néréide fired her stern guns at Phoebe and the two vessels exchanged broadsides shortly before the Néréide surrendered. Phoebe lost three men killed and 10 wounded; Néréide lost 20 men killed and 55 wounded. Part of the reason for the disparity in casualties was that the ratio of the weight of the broadsides was 407 pounds to 268 pounds. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 21 Decr. 1797" to all remaining members of her crew who had participated in the action.
On 11 October 1799, Phoebe captured the French privateer Grand Ferrailleur. Grand Ferrailleur was armed with sixteen brass 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 121 men. She was 16 days from Bordeaux but had not taken any prizes.
On 21 February 1800, Phoebe captured the French privateer Bellegarde (or Belle Garde) of Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo
Saint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
. Bellegarde carried 14 guns and a crew of 114 men. She had been out 16 days and had captured the Chance, of London and sailing from Martinique, and the brig Friends, of Dartmouth, sailing from St. Michael's to Bristol.ref> Later, on 24 February, recaptured Chance.
Heureux
On 5 March, Phoebe captured the privateer Heureux in the English ChannelEnglish 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...
off Bordeaux. Heureux had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth on 25 March.
Heureux, of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook Phoebe for an East Indiaman, and approached her. Heureux did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. Heureux fired on Phoebe in an "Act of Temerity to be regretted". Her hope was that well-directed fire would disable Phoebe's masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby escape. Phoebe returned fire and Heureux was forced to strike her colours. Phoebe had three seamen killed, or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. Heureux had 18 men killed, and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs. She had been out 42 days but had captured only a small Portuguese sloop that the wind had pushed out to sea while she was sailing from Limerick to Galway with a cargo of wine.
Barlow described Heureux as "the most complete flush Deck Ship I have ever seen, coppered, Copper fastened, highly finished and of large Dimensions... The Accounts given of her Sailing are very extraordinary; she will be considered as a most desirable Ship for His Majesty's Service." The British took her into service as .
Africaine
On 19 February, about six miles east of Gibraltar, Phoebe sighted a French ship off CeutaCeuta
Ceuta is an autonomous city of Spain and an exclave located on the north coast of North Africa surrounded by Morocco. Separated from the Iberian peninsula by the Strait of Gibraltar, Ceuta lies on the border of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Ceuta along with the other Spanish...
, also sailing eastwards. Barlow chased the French vessel for two-and-a-half hours before he could bring her to a close action
Action of 19 February 1801
The Action of 19 February 1801 was a minor naval battle fought off Ceuta in Spanish North Africa in February 1801 between a French Navy frigate and British Royal Navy frigate during the French Revolutionary Wars...
. After about two hours the French vessel struck her colours; she had five feet of water in her hold and almost a wreck. Phoebes fire had dismounted her guns and left her decks strewn with literally hundreds of casualties.
She proved to be the Africaine, of twenty-six 18-pounders and eighteen 9-pounders, and had sailed from Rochefort on the 13th. Her was under the command of Capitaine Majendie and she flew the broad pennant of Commandant de Division Saunier. She had a crew of 315 men, but also was ferrying 400 troops under General Desfourneaux to reinforce the French invasion force in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
The French reported that they had suffered 200 killed in the action, including Saunier, the Chef de Brigade and two army captains, and 143 wounded, the later including Desfourneaux and Majendie, who was wounded in two places. The heavy casualties were the result of French troops crowding the upper deck despite their small arms fire contributing little or nothing in the dark to her defense. The troops had refused shelter below deck on the basis of mistaken valour.
Phoebe lost one man killed, and 12 men wounded. Her masts, sails and rigging were badly damaged but she was able to limp to Port Mahon
Mahon
Mahón is a municipality and the capital city of the Balearic Island of Minorca , located in the eastern part of the island. Mahon has the second deepest natural harbor in the world: 5 km long and up to 900m. wide...
. Weak winds resulted in the voyage, in company with Africaine, taking two weeks. The British took Africaine into service under her existing name.
Barlow received a knighthood. Phoebes first lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
, John Wentworth Holland, who had been wounded, received a promotion to commander. In 1847 the action earned Phoebe's crew the clasp "Phoebe 19 Feby. 1801" to the Naval General Service Medal (1847). Captain Thomas Baker
Thomas Baker (Royal Navy officer)
Sir Thomas Baker KCB, KWN was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars...
subsequently took command of Phoebe in May 1801.
Napoleonic Wars
In June 1802 Capt. James Shephard took command. CaptainCaptain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
The Hon. Thomas Bladen Capel
Thomas Bladen Capel
Admiral Sir Thomas Bladen Capel GCB RN was an officer in the British Royal Navy whose distinguished service in the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 earned him rapid promotion and great acclaim both in and out of the Navy...
l followed him and recommissioned Phoebe in September. She then sailed for the Mediterranean on 28 September.
In 1803 Phoebe was sailing out of Malta. At some point, perhaps during the summer, her boats participated in a disastrous attack on two French privateers off Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia
Civitavecchia is a town and comune of the province of Rome in the central Italian region of Lazio. A sea port on the Tyrrhenian Sea, it is located 80 kilometers west-north-west of Rome, across the Mignone river. The harbor is formed by two piers and a breakwater, on which is a lighthouse...
. The privateers repulsed the British, who lost eight men killed and wounded. On 1 August, Phoebe captured two settées, which a French squadron recaptured. In recapturing the settées, the French squadron involved lost an opportunity to capture Phoebe, though they did also capture the schooner and a transport.
Trafalgar
arrived at Gibraltar in March and then sailed from there to join Nelson off Toulon in company with Phoebe, but the vessels became separated during a gale in the Gulf of Lyons. Shortly thereafter Hindostan caught fire and was totally destroyed.Fortunately, all but three of the 259 people on board were saved.On 13 June Phoebe and Amazon made ready to engage two French frigates anchored under the guns of the north-most fort at Toulon
Toulon
Toulon is a town in southern France and a large military harbor on the Mediterranean coast, with a major French naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur region, Toulon is the capital of the Var department in the former province of Provence....
. The fort fired at Phoebe, but she was out of range. When the French fleet sortied, the British vessels rejoined their squadron, however the French fleet returned to port without engaging.
was passing the island of Toro on 4 April 1805 when Phoebe brought the news that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve was a French naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. He was in command of the French and Spanish fleets defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar....
had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve entered Cadiz to link up with the Spanish fleet.
Then, while 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...
was pursuing the French fleet from Toulon to the West Indies, Capel, in Phoebe, was in charge of a small squadron of five frigates and two bomb vessels with the mission of covering Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
and the route to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
. Phoebe joined the blockade of Cadiz later in the summer.
The arrival of the additional frigates Phoebe, , , , and off Cadiz allowed Nelson to detach them to disrupt local shipping supplying provisions for the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet in Cadiz
Cádiz
Cadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
.
In October, the frigate squadron was acting as the eyes of the British fleet. When the Combined Fleet put to sea on 19 October, Phoebe was first in line, followed by Naiad and the third rate . Capel spotted the Combined Fleet's exit and notified Nelson. As the combined fleet approached the British over the next couple of days, the frigates shadowed it, reporting on its movements.
During the subsequent 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 ....
, Phoebe relayed Nelson's signals to the rest of fleet, and remained close to the action although she did not actually engage the enemy. In the gale that followed a few days later the and Phoebe assisted two of the prizes, the and Bahama, with the result that they were saved.In later life, Cappel would sit on the committee that would issue the Naval General Service Medal, one of the clasps of which read "Trafalgar".
North Sea and Baltic
In January 1806 Captain James Oswald took command. Phoebe then served in the North Sea and the Channel, before sailing for the Mediterranean. On 9 July Phoebe, and were detailed to the Shetland IslandsShetland Islands
Shetland is a subarctic archipelago of Scotland that lies north and east of mainland Great Britain. The islands lie some to the northeast of Orkney and southeast of the Faroe Islands and form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total...
to find a French squadron reported to be destroying British and Russian fishing and merchant vessels in the Arctic. Although Phoebe met with no success, Blanche encountered and captured . Phoebe then sailed to the West Indies.
In April 1809 Captain Hassard Stackpoole took command for the Baltic. Between 7 and 12 July, Phoebe captured the Russian vessels Saint Nicholas 1 and Saint Nicholas 2, and another vessel, name unknown. In August Captain James Hillyar
James Hillyar
Admiral Sir James Hillyar KCB KCH was a prominent British Royal Navy officer of the early nineteenth century, who is best known for his service in the frigate HMS Phoebe during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812...
replaced Stackpoole. On 6 January 1810 Phoebe sailed from Torbay
Torbay
Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Part of the ceremonial county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998...
for off the Île de Batz
Île de Batz
The Île de Batz is an island off Roscoff in Brittany, France. Administratively, it is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.-Population:...
. Later she was in the Gulf of Livonia
Livonia
Livonia is a historic region along the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It was once the land of the Finnic Livonians inhabiting the principal ancient Livonian County Metsepole with its center at Turaida...
where her boats took numerous prizes.
Indian Ocean
By 21 November Phoebe was off the island of RodriguesRodrigues
Rodrigues is a common surname in the Portuguese language. It was originally a Patronymic, meaning Son of Rodrigo or Son of Rui. The "es" signifies "son of". The name Rodrigo is the Portuguese form of Roderick, meaning "famous power" or "famous ruler", from the Germanic elements "hrod" and "ric" ,...
preparing for a joint naval and military expedition to take the Île de France
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
. The expedition arrived on 28 November and the French signed the capitulation on 3 December.
In March 1811, Phoebe survived two major hurricanes in the Indian Ocean. Phoebe the participated in the Battle of Tamatave
Battle of Tamatave
The Battle of Tamatave was fought off Tamatave in Madagascar between British and French frigate squadrons during the Napoleonic Wars...
, where she fought another Néréide, under Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier. In the severe action the British captured Renommée; Néréide surrendered subsequently on the 25th at Tamatave. The British took both vessels into service, Néréide as and Renommée as .
Phoebe suffered seven dead and 24 wounded. Néréide suffered some 130 men dead and wounded. In 1847 this battle earned Phoebe's surviving crew the clasp "Off Tamatave 20 May 1811" to the Naval General Service Medal.
Java
On 3 August 1811, Phoebe joined the fleet involved in the invasion of Java. Lieutenant-general Sir Samuel Auchmuty was the military commander-in-chief, and Commodore William Robert BroughtonWilliam Robert Broughton
William Robert Broughton was a British naval officer in the late 18th century. As a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, he commanded HMS Chatham as part of the Vancouver Expedition, a voyage of exploration through the Pacific Ocean led by Captain George Vancouver in the early 1790s.-With Vancouver:In...
of the 74-gun third rate was the naval commander-in-chief. Later, Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford took charge of the naval forces.
On 31 August Stopford detached the frigates , President
French frigate Président
The Président was a 40-gun frigate of the Gloire Class in the French Navy, built to a 1802 design by Pierre-Alexandre Forfait. She served with the French Navy from her completion in 1804 until late 1806 when the Royal Navy captured her...
, and Phoebe, and the sloop to take Cheribon
Cirebon
Cirebon is a port city on the north coast of the Indonesian island of Java. It is located in the province of West Java near the provincial border with Central Java, approximately 297 km east of Jakarta, at .The seat of a former Sultanate, the city's West and Central Java border location have...
, a seaport about 35 leagues east of Batavia
History of Jakarta
The history of Jakarta begins with its first recorded mention as a Hindu port settlement in the 4th century. Ever since, the city had been variously claimed by the Indianized kingdom of Tarumanegara, Hindu Kingdom of Sunda, Muslim Sultanate of Banten, Dutch East Indies, Empire of Japan, and finally...
. They arrived at dark on 3 September and the fort surrendered the next morning without a shot being fired.
On 11 September, all squadron re-embarked the seamen and marines that had landed, together with about 700 prisoners, including 237 Europeans. At 4 a.m. Nisus and Phoebe weighed and steered for Taggal, a port about 20 or 25 leagues further to the east. The next day Phoebe arrived off the harbour. Together with a landing party of seamen, marines, and some sepoy
Sepoy
A sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier in the service of a European power. In the modern Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Bangladesh Army it remains in use for the rank of private soldier.-Etymology and Historical usage:...
s, Captain Hillyar took quiet possession of the fort and public stores.
Phoebe, Nisus, President, and joined Stopford with Scipion and on 14 September. The next day they sailed for Surabaya
Surabaya
Surabaya is Indonesia's second-largest city with a population of over 2.7 million , and the capital of the province of East Java...
. On 17 September they anchored off Ledayo on the Java shore where three transports with 450 men joined them. There they learned that the Dutch and French had surrendered the day before. The troops landed two days later and took possession of the place on 20 September under the general terms of the capitulation.
In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java" to all remaining survivors of the campaign. Phoebe arrived at Plymouth Dock on 18 January 1812 with dispatches from the East Indies.
War of 1812
On 9 April 1812 Phoebe sailed with a convoy for Quebec. She returned to DealDeal, Kent
Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...
on 2 August. On 30 September she was in Plymouth, having brought dispatches from Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
. She then underwent a refit.
In late December 1812, Phoebe captured two American schooners. One was the Vengeance, an American letter of marquee 12-gun schooner from New York, bound to Bordeaux, laden with sugar and coffee. Vengeance arrived in Plymouth on 8 January. The Royal Navy took Vengeance into service as . Vengeance was closely followed by Hunter, a privateer schooner, of 14 guns and 100 men. The capture of Hunter occurred on 23 December after a chase during which she threw 12 of her guns overboard.
A few days later, Phoebe was sailing off the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
in the company of the 74-gun third rate , under the command of Francis Austen
Francis Austen
Sir Francis William Austen, GCB was a British officer who spent most of his long life on active duty in the Royal Navy, rising to the position of Admiral of the Fleet.-Background:...
, the brother of the acclaimed novelist Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...
, together with . On 27 December they captured the American privateer schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
Swordfish of Gloucester
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
, John Evans, master. Swordfish was 16 days out of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and had a crew of 82 men, and originally twelve 6-pounder guns. However, she had thrown 10 overboard during the chase, which took 11 hours and covered more than 100 miles.
On 18 March 1813 Phoebe left Portsmouth with a convoy for Brazil and the East Indies. On 6 July Phoebe, the sloop-of-war
Sloop-of-war
In the 18th and most of the 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship with a single gun deck that carried up to eighteen guns. As the rating system covered all vessels with 20 guns and above, this meant that the term sloop-of-war actually encompassed all the unrated combat vessels including the...
, and sailed from Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
around Cape Horn
Cape Horn
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island...
to the Juan Fernández Islands
Juan Fernández Islands
The Juan Fernández Islands are a sparsely inhabited island group reliant on tourism and fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, situated about off the coast of Chile, and is composed of three main volcanic islands; Robinson Crusoe Island, Alejandro Selkirk Island and Santa Clara Island, the first...
. There, Racoon continued on to the fur trading outpost of Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria
Fort Astoria was the Pacific Fur Company's primary fur trading post in the Northwest, and was the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. After a short two-year term of US ownership, the British owned and operated it for 33 years. It was the first British port on the Pacific coast...
. Phoebe and Cherub remained to search for the 36-gun . Hillyar was under orders to capture the Essex "at all costs".
USS Essex
On 8 February 1814 Phoebe and Cherub arrived at ValparaísoValparaíso
Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...
, a neutral port, where Essex and her prizes were anchored. Having trapped Essex in the harbour, Hillyar waited six weeks for her to come out and thwarted all of the efforts of her captain, David Porter
David Porter (naval officer)
David Porter was an officer in the United States Navy in a rank of commodore and later the commander-in-chief of the Mexican Navy.-Life:...
, to escape. Eventually, on 28 March, Porter attempted to break out of the harbour. A squall took off his main topmast and he attempted to return to harbour but Phoebe and Cherub drove Essex into a nearby bay and defeated her in a short engagement.
Phoebe and Cherub also captured Essex's tender, Essex Junior, the ex-British whaler Atlantic. In the engagement, Phoebe had four men killed, including her first lieutenant
First Lieutenant
First lieutenant is a military rank and, in some forces, an appointment.The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations , but the majority of cases it is common for it to be sub-divided into a senior and junior rank...
, and seven men wounded. Cherub had one killed and three wounded, including her captain. The British reported that Essex had 24 killed and 45 wounded, though the Americans reported higher casualties. Lieutenant Pearson of Phoebe commanded the prize crew that sailed Essex back to Britain, where he was promoted to Commander. In 1847 the then surviving crew members of Phoebe and Cherub were awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 28 March 1814".
On 31 May 1814 Phoebe and Essex set sail for England. On the way they stopped for some time in Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
. The two ships finally anchored in Plymouth sound on 13 November.
Fate
Phoebe was paid off in 1814 and laid up at Plymouth in August 1815. Between January 1823 and October 1826 she was a receiving ship and slop ship. She became a hulkHulk (ship)
A hulk is a ship that is afloat, but incapable of going to sea. Although sometimes used to describe a ship that has been launched but not completed, the term most often refers to an old ship that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed, retaining only its flotational qualities...
in 1826 at Plymouth. Phoebe was sold for breaking up to Joshua Crystall for £1,750 on 25 May 1841.
External links
- http://www.treeforall.org.uk/Trafalgar/TrafalgarWoods/Otherwoods/Phoebe/