![]() Apollo at Sheerness, December 1850, by Captain George Pechell Mends | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | HMS Apollo |
Ordered | 7 November 1803 |
Builder | George Parsons, Bursledon |
Cost | £34,601 |
Laid down | April 1804 |
Launched | 27 June 1805 |
Commissioned | July 1805 |
Fate | Broken up, 16 October 1856 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Class and type | Lively-class fifth-rate frigate |
Tons burthen | 108577⁄94 (bm) |
Length |
|
Beam | 39 ft 8 in (12.1 m) |
Depth of hold | 13 ft 6 in (4.1 m) |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement |
|
Armament |
|
HMS Apollo, the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of the Lively class, carrying 38 guns, launched in 1805 and broken up in 1856.
Apollo was commissioned in July 1805 under Captain Edward Fellowes, who sailed her for the Mediterranean on 26 January 1806. [1] In 1806 she operated off southern Italy. On 5 June boats from Apollo brought out a French brig near Agie Finucana, in the Gulf of Taranto, where the brig had run aground. The brig was transporting six 24-pounder guns, together with their carriages. The cutting out party had to work through the night under small-arms fire from the shore, as well as fire from a field piece. Still, they managed to retrieve the vessel while suffering only one man wounded. The guns were intended for a new battery opposite the lighthouse. [2]
On 6 July Captain Fellowes was at the Battle of Maida, having been ordered to join the troops by Rear-Admiral Sir Sidney Smith to act as liaison with the Navy should the Army have had to retire. General James Stuart remarked in his account of the battle that Fellowes had been helpful in every way. [3] On 8 July 1806, 400 Polish soldiers surrendered at Tropea Castle to the captain of HMS Apollo. [4]
In October Apollo came under the command of Captain Alexander Schomberg. [1] In 1807 she took part in the Alexandria expedition of 1807 in the squadron under the command of Admiral Benjamin Hallowell. However, she and the 19 transports (out of 33) that she was escorting got separated from the rest of the expedition and arrived at Abu Qir Bay too late to participate meaningfully. [5] Seven-and-a-half years later, in October 1814, Apollo, Tigre and Wizard would share in prize money for the capture of the Turkish frigates Houri Bahar and Houri Nasaret, and the corvette Feragh Nouma as well as the stores captured on 20 March. [lower-alpha 1]
In 1808, Captain Bridges Taylor took command of Apollo. Under Taylor, she raided French convoys in the western Mediterranean.
On 3 June 1808, Rear Admiral Thornbrough sent Sir Francis Laforey in Apollo to negotiate with the Supreme Junta of the Balearic Isles. the citizens of Mallorca had declared their allegiance to Ferdinand II and wished to begin talks with the British. [7] At the end of the year Apollo returned to Britain.
Between 30 and 31 October 1809, in the Battle of Maguelone [8] boats from Apollo participated in the attack by Hallowell's squadron on vessels of a French convoy that had taken refuge in the Bay of Rosas where they hoped that an armed storeship of 18 guns, two bombards and a xebec would provide them protection. On 30 October Tigre, Cumberland, Volontaire, Apollo, Topaze, Philomel, Tuscan and Scout sent in their boats. By the following morning the British had accounted for all eleven vessels in the bay, burning those they did not bring out. However, British losses were considerable, numbering 15 killed and 44 wounded overall, with Apollo alone suffering three dead and five wounded. [9] The French vessels captured were the warships Grondire and Normande, and the transports Dragon and Indien. The boats also destroyed the Lemproye and Victoire. [10] A court declared Invincible a joint captor. [lower-alpha 2]
In 1811 Apollo returned to the Mediterranean, fighting a large number of small-scale actions and raiding various French-held islands.
On 16 November 1811, after a nine-hour chase, Apollo captured the French polacre privateer Edouard. She was pierced for 14 guns, but only had six mounted, four of which she threw overboard during the chase. She had a crew of 123 men under the command of Jean F. Mordeilles, an Imperial knight. Edouard was eight days out of Marseilles. [12]
On 13 February 1812, Apollo took the French frigate Merinos while operating off Cap Corse. Merinos was a relatively new frigate-built storeship of 850 tons, pierced for 36 guns but carrying only 20 eight-pounders. She had a crew of 126 men under the command of Captain de fregate Honoré Coardonan, holder of the Legion d'Honour. She was on her way to Sagone, Corsica for timber. The French lost six killed and 20 wounded; the British, despite also coming under fire from the shore, suffered no casualties. The French corvette Mohawk , accompanying Merinos, did not come to her aid and escaped. According to Taylor Mohawk had a crew of 130 men and some conscripts, and was a British ship by the same name that had been captured in 1799. [13]
On 24 April Apollo, Eagle and Havannah landed Lieutenant-colonel George Duncan Robertson, his staff and a garrison at Port St. George on Lissa. [14] The British had defeated a French naval force on 13 March at the Battle of Lissa and wanted to establish a base there with Robertson as its first Governor.
On 17 September Apollo captured the 6-gun privateer xebec Ulysse. She had a crew of 56 men under the command of Monsieur Oletta, commander of a division of gun-boats at Corfu. [15] [lower-alpha 3]
On 21 December Apollo was in company with the brig-sloop Weazel when the two vessels chased a trabaccolo under the protection of the tower of San Cataldo, the strongest such on the coast between Brindisi and Otranto. [17] The tower was armed with three guns and three swivel guns. A landing party from the two vessels captured the tower and blew it up. [17]
Between 18 January and 3 February 1813, Apollo, together with the privateer Esperanza and four gunboats, and some 300 troops under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel G. D. Robertson, captured Augusta and Carzola Islands. At Augusta, a party of seamen from Apollo spiked the guns of one battery. [18] On 1 February Taylor sailed Apollo, the brig-sloop Imogen, under the command of Lieutenant Charles Taylor, and Gunboat No. 43, under the command of Mr. Antonio Pardo, to Carzola. There Captain Taylor commanded a landing party that silenced several sea batteries. When the town capitulated the British captured a privateer that had "molested the trade of the Adriatic", and two of her prizes. That day the British also captured seven vessels in the Channel, sailing to Ragusa and Cattaro, principally with grain, which was in short supply there. The action at Carzola cost Apollo two men dead, one of whom drowned, and one man wounded. [19] [lower-alpha 4]
On 19 March, boats from Apollo and Cerberus destroyed several vessels, a battery and a tower three miles northwest of the port of Monopoli near Bari. [21] Then on 11 April, Apollo and Cerberus took Devil's Island, near the north entrance to Corfu, and thereby captured a brig and a trabaccolo bringing in grain. [21] On 14 April the boats chased a vessel into Merlera. They then suffered three men wounded before Apollo arrived and captured the island. The British found eight vessels with flour and grain that the enemy had scuttled. [21] Ten days later, Apollo's boats chased a felucca into St Cataldo that had troops aboard. A landing party of marines killed one Frenchman, wounded another, and captured 26. (The rest of the troops and the crew of the felucca fled.) Apollo's boats brought out the felucca. [21]
On 17 May boats from Apollo and Cerberus took a vessel that ran aground near Brindisi. She was armed with a 9-pounder gun in the bow and a swivel gun. She was sailing from Otranto to Ancona. [22] The next day the boats also brought off a gun from a Martello tower a little further to the south. [22] Then ten days later the boats captured three gunboats at Fano that were protecting a convoy. The gun-boats each mounted a 9-pounder in their bows and two 4-pounders abaft. They were under the command of an Ufficiale di Vascello, carrying troops for Corfu. The British also captured four vessels from the convoy. British losses amounted to two men killed and one wounded. [22]
On 15 June Taylor positioned Apollo's boats to intercept four vessels heading into Corfu. They drove one ashore, but then had to turn their attention to a French gunboat that appeared, which they captured. She mounted both a 12 and a 6-pounder gun. In the engagement the French suffered nine men wounded, was the commander and a captain of engineers, Monsieur Baudrand. The gunboat also carried the colonel and chief of engineers of Corfu, (reportedly men of great ability), who were returning after having been to Parga and Pado to improve the fortifications there. Laurel was in company and took the captured gunboat to St. Maura while Apollo landed the wounded at Corfu. This caused a delay during which Apollo's boats remained near Morto, in Albania. At daylight the following morning six gun-boats, a felucca, and smaller row-boat, all full of troops attacked the boats. Lieutenant W. H. Nares, who had been in charge of the boats in all the above actions, ran them ashore near Parga. From the shore he and his men used their small arms to repel four attacks, during which Apollo's boats were destroyed. However, the British lost only one man, who was taken prisoner. [23]
On 6 February 1814, Apollo and Havannah were at anchor outside Brindisi while the French frigate Uranie was inside the port, on fire. Cerberus had chased her into the port some weeks earlier while awaiting the action of the officials of the port, which belonged to the Kingdom of Naples, to the presence of the French vessel. When Apollo appeared on the scene and made signs of being about to enter the port, Uranie's captain removed the powder from his ship and set her on fire. [24] [lower-alpha 5]
On 13 February 1814, the island of Paxos, in the Adriatic, surrendered to Apollo and a detachment of 160 troops. The troops moved so rapidly through the island that the enemy did not have time to organize resistance. As a result, the British force, which included inter alia men from the 2nd Greek Light Infantry from Cephalonia, from the Royal Corsican Rangers, the 35th Regiment of Foot, and marines and seamen from the Apollo, captured 122 enemy troops as well as a small, well-designed fort of three guns. [26]
Captain Taylor drowned in early 1814, [27] when his gig capsized as he was returning to Apollo from a reconnaissance at Brindisi. [lower-alpha 6] On 24 April Apollo was among the vessels at the capture of the fortress and town of Savona. [lower-alpha 7]
After Taylor's death, Apollo had several commanders in short order. E.L. Graham took command in June, and was followed by A.B. Valpy (acting), in August. Then W. Hamilton followed him. [30]
Apollo then returned to England, where she was placed in ordinary at Portsmouth the following year. [1]
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars Apollo served as a troopship for many years, including during the First Opium War. From February 1828 to 1838 she was under the command of Alexander Karley. Then in November 1841 C. Frederick took command. [30]
In December 1837 she was fitted at Portsmouth, for £11,402, as a troopship. At this time her armament was reduced. In March 1840 she carried the main body of the 56th (West Essex) Regiment of Foot to Canada, where they reinforced the garrison there during the Northeastern Boundary Dispute. [31] Then in November 1841 C. Frederick took command and sailed her to the Far East where she participated in the Yangtze operation in July 1842. On 20 June 1844, during a voyage from Quebec City, Province of Canada, British North America, to Sheerness, Kent, she ran aground on the Grain Spit, off the coast of Kent; [32] she was refloated the next day and taken in to Chatham, Kent. [33] By March 1845 Apollo was back at Portsmouth and under the command of W. Raddiff. [30] In June 1845, Apollo was reported to have been wrecked at St. Shott's, Newfoundland with the loss of 60 to 80 lives. [34]
In June 1856, the 1st Battalion, The Rifle Brigade embarked on Apollo at Balaclava at the end of the Crimean War for their return to England. She was broken up at Portsmouth on 16 October 1856. [1]
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Glatton was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. Wells & Co. of Blackwell launched her on 29 November 1792 for the British East India Company (EIC) as the East Indiaman Glatton. The Royal Navy bought her in 1795 and converted her into a warship. Glatton was unusual in that for a time she was the only ship-of-the-line that the Royal Navy had armed exclusively with carronades. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and as a transport for convicts to Australia. She then returned to naval service in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty converted her to a water depot at Sheerness. In 1830 the Admiralty converted Glatton to a breakwater and sank her at Harwich.
HMS Starr was a 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Tanner, of Dartmouth, to plans by Sir William Rule, and launched in July 1805. As a sloop she served on convoy duty, though she also participated in the invasion of Martinique in early 1809. She was rebuilt as a bomb vessel in May 1812 and renamed Meteor. As Meteor she served in the Baltic and then off the United States, participating in attacks on up the Potomac and on Baltimore and New Orleans. She was sold in October 1816.
HMS Belvidera was a Royal Navy 36-gun Apollo-class frigate built in Deptford in 1809. She saw action in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 and continued a busy career at sea into the middle of the 19th century. In 1846 she was reduced to harbour service, in 1860 she became a receiving ship, and she was finally disposed of in 1906.
HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Havannah was a Royal Navy 36-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was launched in 1811 and was one of twenty-seven Apollo-class frigates. She was cut down to a 24-gun sixth rate in 1845, converted to a training ship in 1860, and sold for breaking up in 1905.
HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy that had been built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East. In 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Weazel was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, launched in 1805 at Topsham, Devon. She saw active service in and around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic Wars resulting in her crews earning three clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, was decommissioned in 1815, and was sold for breaking in 1825.
HMS Topaze was a Royal Navy 32-gun frigate, originally completed in 1791 as a French Magicienne-class frigate. In 1793 Lord Hood's fleet captured her at Toulon. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. She was broken up in 1814.
HMS Sheldrake was a Royal Navy 16-gun Seagull-class brig-sloop. She was built in Hythe and launched in 1806. She fought in the Napoleonic Wars and at the Battle of Anholt during the Gunboat War. She was stationed in the mouth of the river Loire in 1814 after Napoleon's abdication to prevent his escape to America. She was sold in 1816.
HMS Circe was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, built by Master Shipwright Joseph Tucker at Plymouth Dockyard, and launched in 1804. She served in the Caribbean during the Napoleonic Wars, and participated in an action and a campaign for which in 1847 in the Admiralty authorised the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasps. The action, off the Pearl Rock, near Saint-Pierre, Martinique, was a debacle that cost Circe dearly. However, she also had some success in capturing privateers and a French brig. She was sold in 1814.
The trabàccolo, trabaccalo, trabacalo or trabakul, is a type of Adriatic Sea sailing coaster. The name comes from the word trabacca, which means tent, which in turn recalls the vessel's sails. The trabàccolo was a typical Venetian boat-form that dates back to the first half of the 15th century and that spread throughout the Adriatic. Built of oak and larch, trabàccoli were slow but reliable cargo vessels ranging between 50 and 200 deadweight tons. They had round bows and sterns, and were wide, compact, and with good stowage. Other characteristics included a large rudder that extended below the depth of the keel, two masts with lug sails and rigging, a bowsprit, and a carved and colorfully painted stern. The usual such vessel was about 20 metres long, with a breadth equal to about a third of the length. Typically a trabàccolo would have a crew of 10 to 20 sailors.
Armide was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, lead ship of her class, and launched in 1804 at Rochefort. She served briefly in the French Navy before the Royal Navy captured her in 1806. She went on to serve in the Royal Navy until 1815 when she was broken up.
HDMS Brev Drageren was a Danish let brigger, launched in 1801 for the Royal Danish Navy. She was one of the many vessels the Danes surrendered to the British after the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807. She was subsequently added to the Royal Navy as HMS Brev Drageren, and was involved in two notable actions while in British service. She was sold in 1825.
HMS Severn was an Endymion-class frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1813 as one of five heavy frigates built to match the powerful American frigates. The shortage of oak meant that she was built of "fir", which meant a considerably shortened lifespan. Nonetheless, the ship saw useful service, especially at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, before being broken up in 1825.
HMS Comus was a 22-gun Laurel-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1806. In 1807 she took part in one notable single-ship action and was at the capture of Copenhagen. In 1815 she spent six months with the West Africa Squadron suppressing the slave trade during which time she captured ten slavers and freed 500-1,000 slaves. She was wrecked in 1816 with no loss of life.
HMS Piercer was a Royal Navy Archer-class gun-brig launched in 1804. She served against the French, Danes and Dutch in the Napoleonic Wars and was assigned to the Downs station. She participated in a number of operations in the Bay of Biscay, the English Channel, and the North Sea. In 1814 the British government transferred Piercer to the Kingdom of Hanover for use as a guard ship. Hanover decommissioned her in 1850.
HMS Redwing was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the British Royal Navy. Commissioned in 1806, she saw active service in the Napoleonic Wars, mostly in the Mediterranean, and afterwards served off the West Coast of Africa, acting to suppress the slave trade. She was lost at sea in 1827.
HMS Imogen was a Royal Navy 16-gun brig-sloop of the Seagull class launched in July 1805. She served primarily in the Adriatic campaign before the Navy sold her in 1817.
HMS Saracen was launched in 1812 at Portsmouth for the British Royal Navy. She had an active, though brief, naval career during which she captured a number of enemy-held islands and enemy vessels. The navy sold her in 1819 and new owners employed her as a whaler for two voyages between 1819 and 1826. She was apparently wrecked in 1828 off the coast of Chile, but with little or no loss of life.
This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.