HMS Argo was a 44-gun fifth-rateRoebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781 from Howdon Dock. The French captured her in 1783, but 36 hours later the British recaptured her. She then distinguished herself in the French Revolutionary Wars by capturing several prizes, though she did not participate in any major actions. She also served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was sold in 1816.
Argo was commissioned in March 1781 under Captain John Butchart.[3] On 29 October Argo sailed for the Baltic with Albemarle, under the command of Captain Horatio Nelson and Enterprise, arriving at Elsinor on 4 November.[4] On 8 December the squadron, now under the command of Captain Douglas in Sampson, escorted a convoy of 280 vessels to Britain, arriving on 22 December.
In 1782 Argo was on her passage to the West Indies under Captain Butchart when she captured the French ship Dauphin, nominally of 64 guns but armed en flute and so sailing with only 26 guns mounted. Dauphin had a cargo of military stores and provisions, some brass cannons and mortars, and two hundred soldiers, all bound for Martinique.[7]
Battle between the French frigates Nymphe, Amphitrite, and the 44-gun two-decker HMS Argo, 17 February 1783, by Auguste-Louis de Rossel de Cercy.
Governor Thomas Shirley of the Leeward Islands had Argo carry him to Tortola where he had official business. Argo stayed there three weeks until Shirley was ready to return to Antigua. The French found out about this and sent the 36-gun French frigateNymphe and the 32-gun Amphitrite to intercept him.[7]
On 16 February 1783, Argo and the two French frigates met. After a five-hour action they captured her. Not only did they out gun Argo, but the sea was so rough that she could not open her lower ports. Argo had lost thirteen men killed and had suffered a number of wounded, as well as having suffered damage to her masts and rigging. Governor Shirley had stayed on deck throughout the engagement.[7]
About 36 hours later, the 74-gun third rateHMSInvincible, under Captain Charles Saxton was coming from Jamaica when she encountered the two French frigates and their prize, Argo.[7] The frigates fled, leaving Invincible to recapture Argo.[8] Captain J. Douglas briefly took command.[3]
After a court martial acquitted her officers, Admiral Sir Hugh Pigot reappointed them. Then Captain J. Douglas briefly took command.[3] She returned to England after the Peace of Paris (1783) and was paid off in April 1784.[1]
Argo underwent repairs at Sheerness between July 1785 and October 1786. She then was fitted as a troopship at Chatham from about June 1790 to April 1791.[1] She was recommissioned in February 1791 under Commander Sandford Tatham, who sailed her for Halifax on 11 May. Argo was paid off in June 1792.[1]
French Revolutionary Wars
Captain William Clarke recommissioned Argo in May 1793. Captain Richard Rundle Burgess (or Burges) replaced him in February 1795.[3][1]
In September 1795, Argo was part of the force escorting 63 merchants of the Levant convoy from Gibraltar. The other escorts were the 74-gun ships HMSFortitude and HMSBedford, the 32-gun frigates HMSJuno and HMS Lutine, the fireshipHMSTisiphone, and the recently captured Censeur.[9] The convoy called at Gibraltar on 25 September, at which point thirty-two of the merchants left that night in company with Argo and Juno.[9] The rest of the fleet sailed together, reaching Cape St Vincent by the early morning of 7 October. At this point a sizeable French squadron was sighted bearing up, consisting of six ships of the line and three frigates under Rear-Admiral Joseph de Richery.[10] Eventually Censeur had to strike, and the remaining British warships and one surviving merchant of the convoy made their escape.[9] On 17 October Argo and Juno brought in their convoy of 32 vessels from Gibraltar.[11]
Captain John Stevens Hall took command of Argo in June 1796.
1798
In March 1798 Captain James Bowen took over command of Argo. On 5 May she encountered Captain Sir Sidney Smith, who was in an open boat in the Channel, having escaped via Havre de Grace from "the Temple" in Paris.[12]
Argo sailed for the Mediterranean in September 1798. Argo, HMS Pomone, and HMS Cormorant convoyed a large fleet of merchantmen and transports to Lisbon. The convoy included the East IndiamenRoyal Charlotte, Cuffnells, Phoenix, and Alligator. On 25 September the convoy encountered a French fleet of nine sail, consisting of one eighty-gun ship and eight frigates. The convoy commander signalled the East Indiamen to form line of battle with the Royal Navy ships, and the convoy to push for Lisbon. This manoeuvre, and the warlike appearance of the Indiamen, deterred the French admiral from attacking them; the whole fleet reached Lisbon in safety.[13]
Argo remained in the Mediterranean, serving with Commodore Duckworth. On 29 September Argo captured the Nostra Seniora de la Aldea.[14]
In November Argo participated in the reduction of Menorca. Argo supported the landing of British troops.[15] When four or five Spanish vessels were spotted, the British squadron sailed to catch them. The Spaniards consisted of four frigates and a sloop. The four Spanish frigates - the Flora, Casilda, Proserpine and Pomona - had been on their way from Barcelona to Mahon with the payroll of eight million reales for the troops there when they encountered sloop-of-warPeterel and captured her on 12 November. The Spanish frigates escaped their pursuers and sailed back to Cartagena, Spain.[15]
Duckworth detached Argo to pursue the sloop and on 13 November she retook Peterel and her 72-man Spanish prize crew under the command of Don Antonio Franco Gandrada, Second Captain of Flora. Bownen put his own prize crew of 46 officers seamen and marines aboard.[16]
On 22 November Argo captured the Spanish ship Virgin Solidad at sea. The Virgin Solidad was carrying a cargo of rags to Barcelona.[17] At some point Argo also captured the Madona del Rosario.[18]
1799
On 6 February 1799, Argo and Leviathansurprised two Spanish frigates at anchor near the south point of the Bahia de Alcudia on Majorca.[19] The Spanish set sail with the British in pursuit. A violent westerly gale came up that took away Leviathan's main top-sail. After dark the Spanish frigates separated but Leviathan had fallen behind and saw neither the separation nor Argo's signal that she chase the one to port. Leviathan had nearly caught up with Argo when Argo got alongside the Santa Theresa about midnight. Argo fired a broadside that wounded two men and badly damaged Santa Theresa's rigging.[19] At this point the Spaniard surrendered. She was of upwards of 950 tons burthen, carrying 42 guns plus coehorns and swivel guns. In addition to her crew of 280 seamen and marines under the command of Don Pablo Perez, she had 250 soldiers on board.[19]Santa Theresa had recently been completely refurbished and provisioned for a four-month cruise. Her consort Proserpine, which had escaped, though smaller, was equally well-armed.[19]
Then on 16 February Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrelles. Once the defenders had abandoned their battery, the boats went in. The British dismounted the guns, burnt five settees and brought out another five settees or tartans laden with wine and wheat. One tartan, the Velon Maria, was a letter of marque, armed with one brass and two iron 12-pounders and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 14 men.[20]
In May Argo sailed to Algiers to arrange with the Dey for a supply of fresh provisions for the British forces in Menorca. While there Bowen achieved the release of six British subjects that the Algerians had held as slaves for more than 14 years.[21]
In July 1799, Argo carried Admiral the Earl StVincent home from Gibraltar at the end of his time in command of the Mediterranean fleet.
On 6 August Argo captured the Spanish sloop Infanta Amelia off Portugal.[22] She was a packet ship,[23] which the Royal Navy took in as Porpoise.[22] After her capture, Infanta Amelia took Earl St Vincent, who had been aboard Argo after resigning his command of the Mediterranean station, to Portsmouth, arriving there on 18 August.[24]
1800
In early 1800 Argo captured three privateers: Independente (1 March), San Antonio (2 March) and Arlequin (1 May).[25] On 18 March, the French privateer Vengeance, of 16 guns and 135 men, captured at Lat. 42° 16' Long. 16°, the packet Jane, which was sailing from Falmouth to Barbados and Jamaica. A week later Argo recaptured the Jane and sent her back into Falmouth.[26]
On 19 August 1800 Argo captured the Spanish lugger St Antonio in ballast. Argo sent her in to Plymouth.
On 21 October, after a 15-hour chase, Argo captured the Spanish letter of marqueSan Fernando, which was pierced for 22 guns but carried twelve long 6-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men. San Fernando was five days out of Santander and sailing to Vera Cruz with a cargo of iron bars and bale goods that belonged to the Royal Philippine Company. She was also carrying government dispatches but had thrown them overboard before the British boarded her.[27]
Bowen also reported, but without giving further details, that during the same cruise he had captured four merchant vessels, two of which he sent in to port as prizes and two of which he sank. The two sent in were the French brig Maria Louisa, in ballast, and the Spanish barque Vincento, carrying iron ore. The vessels that he sank were also Spanish barques carrying iron ore.[27]
1801
On 14 January 1801 Argo was off Ferrol serving as escort for Mornington, Exeter, and Eliza Ann, which were bound for India, and a whaler. They encountered a small Spanish ship that Argo captured.[28]
Then in March, Argo brought into Plymouth the Spanish ship Bolientorio, which had been sailing from Havana to Tenerife.[29]
Argo and Carysfort escorted five transports carrying the 85th Regiment of Foot and forty artillerymen from Cowes on 24 June. They arrived in Portsmouth on 28 June and then sailed again on a "secret mission". They had to put back into Torbay on 11 July.[30]
Later in 1801 the East India Company gave Bowen 400 guineas for the purchase of plate in gratitude for his having escorted from St Helena to England ten vessels either belonging to the company or carrying its cargo. Then in January 1802 the British merchants of Madeira gave Captain Bowen a sword for his services.[31]
Napoleonic Wars
Captain Benjamin Hallowell commissioned Argo in August 1802,[3] and in November sailed to the African coast,[1] returning the next year. Next, she sailed to the West Indies where she participated in the captures of St Lucia and Tobago.[32][33]
On 12 September 1803 Argo captured the French privateer cutter Oiseau. Oiseau was armed with ten guns and had a crew of 68 men under the command of Enseigne de Vaisseau Nicholas Brune Daubin. Fire from Argo killed Oiseau's second lieutenant during the pursuit. Oiseau was nine days out of Rochfort and taken nothing.[34] That same month, on the 24th, Argo recaptured the brig Rover,[35] which the privateer Adventure, of Bordeaux, had captured as Rover was sailing from Bristol to Newfoundland.[36]
On 25 December a tremendous gale hit Portsmouth and several outward-bound West Indiamen drifted from their anchors. One of them, the Matthew, bound to Jamaica, ran into Argo. In doing so, she carried away Argo's top mast and yards. Other West Indiamen came on shore.[37] Captain Thomas Le Marchant Gosselin commanded her briefly in 1804 before taking command of Ville de Paris in February 1804.[38][lower-alpha 2]
Captain Edward Codrington took command in July 1804 and Captain George Aldham replaced him in May 1805.[39][lower-alpha 3] A Captain Rickets briefly took command in July 1806 only to have Captain Stephen Thomas Digby replace him within the month.[39]
In 1806 Digby again sailed Argo to the coast of Africa. In 1808 she was at Jamaica. In 1809, Argo and the brig-sloopSparrow were blockading the town of Santo Domingo while a Spanish force invested it from the landward side. The British and Spaniards agreed a joint attack. The two British vessels came in close to the detached fort of St. Jerome and silenced it with their guns while losing only two men wounded. However the Spanish land attack failed.[42]
On 9 March 1809, Argo's boats cut out the French navy feluccaJoseph. Joseph was armed with a brass 9-pounder gun and two 3-pounders. She had a crew of 53 men under the command of Enseign de Vaisseau Jean Botin. Joseph was anchored under the guns of several shore batteries at St. Domingo. Her crew put up a strong resistance that, together with the fire from the batteries, wounded seven of Argo's men. However, most of the French crew then fled ashore with the result that Argo only captured 19 of them.[43]Joseph arrived at Jamaica on 5 April.[44]
On 8 July 1809 Argo was off Havanah, escorting the fleet from Jamaica.[45]
In January 1810 Captain Frederick Warren became captain of Argo,[39] after serving as acting captain of Melpomene. He sailed her for St. Helena and from there he convoyed a large fleet of East Indiamen to England.[46]
On 28 November he faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth. The charge was that he had failed to follow orders to proceed to Quebec to bring home a convoy. He argued that the reason he had not sailed was that it was late in the year and that the weather was bad. The court accepted his reasoning and acquitted him.[47]
Early in 1811 Argo carried Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke to Portugal, together with reinforcements for the British army there. Argo then took out an Algerine Ambassador.[46] Lastly, she sailed for Constantinople with Sir Robert Liston and his suite on 6 April 1812.[1][46]
Between 22 and 29 August 1812, Argo detained the Eliza, Leslie, master, sailing from Malta, and sent her into Gibraltar.[48]
Captain Cornelius Quinton replaced Warren in October 1812. Argo then served as the flagship for Vice-Admiral Charles Stirling. Argo sailed for Jamaica on 22 January 1813.[1]
In April 1813 Captain William Fothergill took command of Argo.[39] She then served as Rear-Admiral W. Brown's flagship on the Jamaica station.[1]
On 1 June Argo recaptured Cantonada. Cantonada had been sailing from Cadiz to Havana when a Carthaginian privateer captured her. The recaptured Cantonada reached Jamaica on 24 June.[49] On 4 June Argo captured the Fly, which had been sailing from Jacmel to Wilmington. Fly arrived at Jamaica on 17 April.[50] In September Argo was to escort a convoy to Bermuda.[51]
In 1815 Captain Donald M'Cloud took command. Argo then served on the Downs station as flagship for Rear-Admiral Matthew Scott.[1]
↑ John Gover designed a new type of gun-carriage in the late 1790s or early 1800s that enabled smaller gun crews to handle the guns and the guns to be stored alongside the rails rather than perpendicular to them.[2]
↑ The Naval Chronicle reports that Gosselin took command in May.[39]
↑ Marshall provides contradictory information in the same volume. In one place he reports that Codrington served on Argo,[40] and then later reports that Codrington declined the appointment.[41]
↑ United service magazine, Vol. 1870, Issue 3, p.520.
↑ "List of factory records of the late East India Company: preserved in the Record Department of the India Office, London (1896) - accessed 6 December 2014.
HMS Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.
HMS Arethusa was a 38-gun Minerva-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built at Bristol in 1781. She served in three wars and made a number of notable captures before she was broken up in 1815.
HMS Bedford was a Royal Navy 74-gun third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 27 October 1775 at Woolwich.
HMS Phoenix was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. The shipbuilder George Parsons built her at Bursledon and launched her on 15 July 1783. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was instrumental in the events leading up to the battle of Trafalgar. Phoenix was involved in several single-ship actions, the most notable occurring on 10 August 1805 when she captured the French frigate Didon, which was more heavily armed than her. She was wrecked, without loss of life, off Smyrna in 1816.
Franchise was launched in 1798 as a 40-gun Coquille-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1803 and took her into the Royal Navy under her existing name. In the war on commerce during the Napoleonic Wars she was more protector than prize-taker, capturing many small privateers but few commercial prizes. She was also at the battle of Copenhagen. She was broken up in 1815.
Pomone was a 40-gun frigate of the French Navy, launched in 1785. The British captured her off the Île de Batz in April 1794 and incorporated her into the Royal Navy. Pomone subsequently had a relatively brief but active career in the British Navy off the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts of France before suffering sufficient damage from hitting a rock. Due to this, the ship was taken out of service and then broken up in 1803.
HMS Active was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate launched on 14 December 1799 at Chatham Dockyard. Sir John Henslow designed her as an improvement on the Artois-class frigates. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, capturing numerous enemy vessels. Her crews participated in one campaign and three actions that would later qualify them for the Naval General Service Medal. She returned to service after the wars and finally was broken up in 1860.
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 Lowestoffe was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built during the latter part of the Seven Years' War, she went on to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War, and served often in the Caribbean. A young Horatio Nelson served aboard her shortly after passing his lieutenant's examination.
HMS Prince William was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Guipuzcoano, an armed 64-gun ship of the Spanish (Basque) mercantile Guipuzcoan Company of Caracas. She was also known by the religious name of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.
HMS Aurora was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, that saw service during the American and French Revolutionary wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. Designed to carry a complement of 200 men, she was armed with a main battery of twenty-four 9-pound guns.
HMS Sprightly was a 10-gun cutter of the Royal Navy, built to a design by John Williams, and the name ship of her two-vessel class of cutters. She was launched in 1778. The French captured and scuttled her off the Andulasian coast in 1801.
General Goddard was an East Indiaman launched in 1782 that made six voyages to the East Indies for the Honourable East India Company. After she was sold, she made one journey to the West Indies, where the Spanish captured her in November 1799. Her most notable exploit occurred on her fifth voyage, when she participated on 15 June 1795 in the capture of seven Dutch East Indiamen.
HMS Galgo was a Jamaican privateer that the Spanish Navy captured in 1797 and named Galgo Inglés, and that the British captured in November 1799. In her brief career she detained, took, or destroyed a number of small prizes before October 1800, when she foundered, with the loss of most of her crew and passengers.
Etna was a French naval Etna-class ship-sloop launched in 1795 that the Royal Navy captured in November 1796. She was taken into service as HMS Aetna and renamed to HMS Cormorant the next year. She captured several merchant vessels and privateers before she was wrecked in 1800 off the coast of Egypt.
Royal Charlotte was launched in 1789 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made two trips to China for the EIC and on the second of these, after the outbreak of war with France in 1793, assisted at the British capture of Pondicherry. Then, the Admiralty, desirous of quickly building up the Royal Navy, purchased a number of commercial vessels, including nine East Indiamen, to meet the need for small two-decker fourth rates to serve as convoy escorts. The Admiralty purchased Royal Charlotte in 1795 and renamed her HMS Malabar. She made a trip to the West Indies where she was the lead ship of a small squadron that captured some Dutch colonies. She foundered in 1796 while escorting a convoy in the North Atlantic.
The French corvette Bacchante was launched in 1795 as one of the four Serpente-class corvettes built for the French Navy. She served for almost two years as a privateer, before returning to the service of the French Navy. After HMS Endymion captured her in 1803, the Royal Navy took her in under her existing name as a 20-gun post ship. Bacchante served in the West Indies, where she captured several armed Spanish and French vessels before the Navy sold her in 1809.
HMSEmerald was a 36-gun Amazon-class fifth rate frigate that Sir William Rule designed in 1794 for the Royal Navy. The Admiralty ordered her construction towards the end of May 1794 and work began the following month at Northfleet dockyard. She was completed on 12 October 1795 and joined Admiral John Jervis's fleet in the Mediterranean.
Ann and Amelia was a three-decker merchant ship launched in 1781. The British East India Company (EIC) twice employed her as an "extra ship", first when she went out to India to sail in trade in that market, and again in 1803 when she sailed back from India to Britain. On her return to Britain the Admiralty purchased her in June 1804 and converted her to a 44-gun fifth rate with the name HMS Mediator. The Navy converted her to a storeship in 1808, but then expended her as a fireship at the battle of the Basque Roads in April 1809.
HMS Sylph was a 16-gun Albatross-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy designed by William Rule and launched in 1795 at Deptford Dockyard. Her namesake was the air spirit sylph. She commissioned in August 1795 under Commander John Chambers White, who would have her until the end of 1799. She was later commanded by Charles Dashwood.
de Tousard, Louis (1809). American Artillerist's Companion: Or Elements of Artillery. Treating of All Kinds of Firearms in Detail, and of the Formation, Object, and Service of the Flying Or Horse Artillery, Preceded by an Introductory Dissertation on Cannon ... C. and A. Conrad and Company.
Ellis, Alfred Burdon (1893). A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa. Negro Universities Press.
Grant, James (1897) Recent British battles on land and sea. (London: Cassell).
John Sykes, Historical Register of Remarkable events, vol 1, p.320., Newcastle upon Tyne 1833.
Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas J Spence Lyne, Something About A Sailor, Jarrolds Publishers, London 1940.
Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-86176-246-7.
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