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A guard ship is a warship assigned as a stationary guard in a port or harbour, as opposed to a coastal patrol boat, which serves its protective role at sea.
In the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century, peacetime guard ships were usually third-rate or fourth-rate ships of the line. [1] The larger ships in the fleet would be laid up "in ordinary" with skeleton crews, the spars, sails and rigging removed and the decks covered by canvas – the historic equivalent of a reserve fleet. By contrast the guard ships would carry sails and rigging aboard, be cleaned below the waterline to increase their speed under sail, and be manned by at least one quarter of their normal crew. [1]
A port or major waterway may be assigned a single guardship which would also serve as the naval headquarters for the area. Multiple guardships were required at larger ports and Royal Dockyards, with the largest single vessel routinely serving as the Port Admiral's flagship. [1]
If war was declared, or an enemy fleet was sighted, the guard ships could become fully manned and ready for sea in a matter of hours or days, as opposed to the months it could take to recommission a ship "in ordinary". This was of greatest utility to the British prior to the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear against Spain. On 10 July, 1739 King George II authorised preparations for a maritime assault on Spanish colonies. For this purpose, Admiral Edward Vernon was able to assemble a fleet of eight fully armed and provisioned guardships within ten days of the Royal Command. [2] The fleet was so quickly assembled that it reached the Spanish West Indies on 22 October, one day before war was formally declared.
However, in the modern age, recently the Royal Navy has deployed many ships to guard the Falkland Islands from the threat of Argentine invasion, HMS Clyde guarded the islands for her whole active service life, replaced by HMS Forth in 2020, a role she holds to this day.
In Soviet terminology, a guard ship (сторожевое корабль, storozhevoj korabl') was a small, general purpose patrol and/or escort vessel. [3] It corresponds to frigate-type ships.
A guard-boat is a boat which goes the round of a fleet at anchor to see that due watch is kept at night. [4] [5]
Standing Royal Navy deployments is a list of operations and commitments undertaken by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy on a worldwide basis. The following list details these commitments and deployments sorted by region and in alphabetical order. Routine deployments made by the Navy's nuclear-powered submarines and their location of operations is classified.
HMS Liverpool was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Launched in 1758, she saw active service in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. She was wrecked in Jamaica Bay, near New York, in 1778.
HMS Hannibal was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1786, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal. She is best known for having taken part in the Algeciras Campaign, and for having run aground during the First Battle of Algeciras on 5 July 1801, which resulted in her capture. She then served in the French Navy until she was broken up in 1824.
In ordinary is an English phrase with multiple meanings. In relation to the Royal Household and public officials more generally, it indicates that a position is a permanent one. In naval matters, vessels "in ordinary" are those out of service for repair or maintenance, a meaning coming over time to cover a reserve fleet or "mothballed" ships.
HMS Edgar was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, that saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Launched in 1779, she fought in the battles of Cape St Vincent and Copenhagen, two of the major naval engagements of the wars.
HMS Bedford was a Royal Navy 74-gun third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 27 October 1775 at Woolwich.
HMS Spencer was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 10 May 1800 at Bucklers Hard. Her designer was the French émigré shipwright Jean-Louis Barrallier. She served in two major battles, Algeciras Bay and San Domingo, and in a number of other campaigns. She was broken up in 1822.
HMS Salisbury was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Richard and James Herring at Baileys Hard on the Beaulieu River in Hampshire, England and launched on 18 April 1698.
HMS Cambridge was an 80-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Deptford Dockyard on 21 December 1695. A combination of poor sailing qualities and a top-heavy structure kept her in reserve for many years. Finally brought into active service during the War of Jenkins' Ear, she played an undistinguished part in Sir John Norris' 1740 expedition to the Bay of Biscay, and at the Battle of Toulon in 1744.
HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
John MacBride was a British officer of the Royal Navy and a politician who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral of the Blue.
The action of 7 April 1800 was a minor naval engagement fought between a British squadron blockading the Spanish naval base of Cádiz and a convoy of 13 Spanish merchant vessels escorted by three frigates, bound for the Spanish colonies in the Americas. The blockade squadron consisted of the ships of the line HMS Leviathan and HMS Swiftsure and the frigate HMS Emerald, commanded by Rear-Admiral John Thomas Duckworth on Leviathan. The Spanish convoy sailed from Cádiz on 3 April 1800 and encountered Duckworth's squadron two days later. The Spanish attempted to escape; Emerald succeeded in capturing one ship early on 6 April. The British captured a brig the following morning and the British squadron divided in pursuit of the remainder.
A ship's boat is a utility boat carried by a larger vessel. Ship's boats have always provided transport between the shore and other ships. Other work done by such boats has varied over time, as technology has changed. In the age of sail, especially for warships, an important role was the collection of drinking water. The use of radio, followed by telex, e-mail, etc. has reduced and then replaced the need for written communications to be delivered. A large enough boat may be needed to carry an anchor to some distance away from the ship, so as to kedge out of a harbour or away from a hazard – and also to recover such an anchor afterwards. Warships have always used their boats as an extension to their military role. This includes the provision of a means of escape for the crews of fireships, the landing of troops, or the "cutting out" raids that were used by the Royal Navy, especially during the Napoleonic Wars. All these requirements competed with the need to be able to stow the boats on board in a way that did not interfere with the normal operation of the ship.
HMS Sibyl was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Sibyl was renamed HMS Garland in 1795.
HMS Lizard was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, in service from 1757 to 1828. Named after the Lizard, a peninsula in southern Cornwall, she was a broad-beamed and sturdy vessel designed for lengthy periods at sea. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns. Despite her sturdy build, she was plagued with maintenance problems and had to be repeatedly removed from service for repair.
HMS Actaeon was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns.
Impressment by the Royal Navy in Nova Scotia happened primarily during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Guard boats patrolled Halifax harbour day and night and they boarded all incoming and outgoing vessels. The Navy always struggled with desertion in Nova Scotia, and it often threatened to use impressment as a punishment for communities that harboured and assisted deserters. The Navy used guard boats as floating press gangs, conscripting every fiftieth man out of ships entering the harbour. It even pressed Americans from cartels and prison hulks. Warships shot at vessels to bring them to, damaging their sails and rigging, and at least one fisherman was pressed while checking his nets.
HMS Anne Galley was an 8-gun fire ship of the Royal Navy, launched in 1739 and in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession against Spain and France. Employed against the Spanish Fleet in 1744 off Toulon, she was destroyed while engaging the Spanish flagship Real Felipe.
HMS Weazel or Weazle was a 16-gun ship-sloop of the Royal Navy, in active service during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1745, she remained in British service until 1779 and captured a total of 11 enemy vessels. She was also present, but not actively engaged, at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747.
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