HMS Centurion was a 60-gun fourth rateship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Portsmouth Dockyard by Joseph Allin the younger and launched on 6 January 1732.[1] At the time of Centurion's construction, the 1719 Establishment dictated the dimensions of almost every ship being built. Owing to concerns over the relative sizes of British ships compared to their continental rivals, Centurion was ordered to be built 1ft (0.3m) wider across the beam than the Establishment prescribed. HMSRippon was similarly built to non-Establishment dimensions at the same time.[2]
Centurion was commissioned in 1734 under the command of Captain Francis Dansays.[3] She served in the Channel Fleet, and took part in Sir John Norris's expedition to Lisbon in 1736, under the command of Captain George Proctor. On the outward voyage she carried John Harrison, who was trialling his first marine timekeeper 'H1'.[4] Proctor died at Lisbon on 4 October 1736, and was succeeded as commander by Captain John Durell.[3]
Captain George Anson took command in December 1737, and led a small squadron to the African coast, then to Jamaica, before arriving back in England in late 1739.[3] She then underwent a refit at Portsmouth, at a cost of £4,791.4.8d, between August 1739 and January 1740 to prepare for a special mission to harass Spanish shipping along the coast of South America and interdict the Manila galleons.[3]
With the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, Anson was placed in charge of a squadron of six ships, consisting of the Centurion, Gloucester 50, Severn 50, Pearl 40, Wager 28, and the sloop Tryall 8, plus two store ships Anna and Industry, and instructed to sail to Manila and capture the Spanish colony.[5] Another squadron was to be despatched under Captain Cornwall, which would sail to Manila via Cape Horn. The two squadrons would intercept Spanish shipping as they sailed, and on their rendezvousing at Manila, would refit, replenish and await further orders.[6]
Despite problems manning the ships, Anson sailed on 18 September 1740, with the Centurion as his flagship.[3][5] The squadron called at Madeira, Brazil, Port St Julian and Argentina, eventually reaching Cape Horn by March 1741. By now the Spanish had been alerted to the planned attempt on Manila and had despatched a squadron of their own.[5] A series of gales dispersed the ships of the fleet, and the crews were greatly reduced by disease.[5] Anson pressed on, capturing several Spanish merchants, including the Nuestra Señora del Monte Carmelo and the Nuestra Señora del Arranzazú. The squadron continued to raid Spanish settlements, and intercept Spanish merchants, before Anson sailed the Centurion and the Gloucester to China.[5] The Gloucester was in a state of such disrepair that Anson ordered her scuttled, transferring her crew to the Centurion, and finally landing at Tinian on 15 August.[5] Anson and a number of his crew landed, but on 21 September a typhoon blew the Centurion out to sea. Fearing her lost, Anson made preparations to sail to China in a modified Spanish bark, but the Centurion had survived the gale, and her crew were able to sail her back to rejoin Anson.[5]
Centurion's battle with the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la CovadongaCenturion capturing the Covadonga
The Centurion reached Macau with 200 scurvy-ridden crew on 12 November 1742, and underwent a refit. Anson decided to cruise off the Philippines in the hope of intercepting Spanish treasure galleons, and on 20 June the galleonNuestra Señora de Covadonga, carrying 36 guns, was sighted.[5] The Centurion overhauled her and brought her to battle. After a brief engagement that left 67 Spanish dead and a further 84 wounded, to just two of the Centurion's crew killed and another 17 wounded, the Covodonga was taken.[3][5] Anson commissioned her into his fleet the following day, placing her under the command of Captain Philip Saumarez.[3] The two ships sailed into Canton on 11 July, where Anson sold the Covodonga, and after re-provisioning, sailed for England aboard the Centurion on 15 December 1743.[5]
The Centurion arrived back at Spithead on 15 June 1744, the only ship of the original squadron to have survived the entire voyage.[3] She was declared totally worn out, and on 10 April 1744 the Admiralty ordered the construction of a replacement ship.[3] This was never carried out, and instead a new order on 1 December 1744 instructed that Centurion was to undergo a Middling Repair at Portsmouth. This took place between September 1744 and September 1746, and saw her reduced to 50 guns.[1][3] She was briefly renamed Eagle on 15 December 1744, but this was reverted to Centurion on 15 November 1745.[3]
Centurion was recommissioned in September 1746, and placed under the command of Captain Peter Denis.[3] She was present at the Battle of Cape Finisterre on 3 May 1747, as part of fleet under her old commander, now Rear-Admiral George Anson.[3] She played a significant role, as described in a topical song of the time:
She became part of Sir Peter Warren's fleet in 1748, and came under the command of Captain Augustus Keppel in August that year.[3] She underwent further work in September 1748, having her quarterdeck lengthened, after which she sailed to the Mediterranean.[3]
Centurion was paid off in 1752, and underwent another Middling Repair, this time at Chatham, between October 1752 and August 1753. She was recommissioned in October 1754 under the command of Captain William Mantell, this time serving as the flagship of her old commander, Commodore Augustus Keppel.[3] She sailed to Virginia in 1754, and then to Nova Scotia in 1756, before returning to Britain.
Centurion at the Battle of Beauport, 31 July 1759. The scene as witnessed by Captain Hervey Smith, Wolfe's aide de camp.
She sailed again for North America in April 1757, and was present at the Siege of Louisbourg in 1758, followed by the assault on Quebec in 1759.[3] She underwent another survey in 1760, before passing that year under the command of Captain James Galbraith. She sailed to Jamaica in 1760, where she spent time as the flagship of Sir James Douglas.[3] She was active in the operations against Havana in the summer of 1762, after which she was again paid off.[3]
A further repair at Woolwich followed, after which Centurion was commissioned in May 1763 under the command of Captain Augustus Hervey.[3] She was present in the Mediterranean until 1766, spending the period between 1764 and 1766 as the flagship of Commodore Thomas Harrison.[3] She was paid off for the final time in September 1766. She was surveyed in May 1769, after which she was broken up by Admiralty Order at Chatham, with the work being completed by 18 December 1769.[3]
Legacy
The Anson Ward at Greenwich Hospital
The figurehead of the Centurion, a 16-foot-tall (4.9m) lion, was presented to the Duke of Richmond by George III when the ship was broken up. It was used for a while as an inn sign at Goodwood, but William IV asked for it from the Duke, and used it as a staircase ornament at Windsor Castle. The King later on presented it to Greenwich Hospital, with directions to place it in one of the wards, which he desired should be called the Anson Ward. It remained there until 1871 when it was removed to the playground of the Naval School, where owing to the action of the weather it unfortunately crumbled to pieces.[7] All that remained was a four-foot high lion's paw which was eventually recognised as a piece of significant historical interest and returned to Shugborough Hall during the 1920s. Today it adorns a wall in the mansion house's Verandah Passage.[8]
At one time the following lines were inscribed beneath it:
In addition to eyewitness accounts of Anson's circumnavigation, Patrick O'Brian's novel The Golden Ocean is an accurate, though fictional, account of the voyage.[5]
Galleons were large, multi-decked sailing ships developed in Spain and Portugal and first used as armed cargo carriers by Europeans from the 16th to 18th centuries during the Age of Sail and were the principal vessels drafted for use as warships until the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the mid-17th century. Galleons generally carried three or more masts with a lateen fore-and-aft rig on the rear masts, were carvel built with a prominent squared off raised stern, and used square-rigged sail plans on their fore-mast and main-masts.
Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, was a British Royal Navy officer, politician and peer from the Anson family.
The Golden Ocean is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1956. It tells the story of a novice midshipman, Peter Palafox, who joins George Anson's voyage around the world beginning in 1740. The story is written much in the language and spelling of the mid-18th century. Palafox is a Protestant Irish boy from the west coast of Ireland, schooled by his father, a churchman, and eager to join the Royal Navy. He learns naval discipline and how to determine his ship's position at sea as part of a large berth of midshipmen on HMS Centurion. His friend Sean O'Mara joins with him, considered his servant initially by officers and put among the seamen, rising in rank as he shows his abilities, to bosun's mate.
Vice-Admiral John Campbell (1720–1790) was born in the parish of Kirkbean in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Campbell was a British naval officer, navigational expert and colonial governor.
HMS Swiftsure was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She spent most of her career serving with the British, except for a brief period when she was captured by the French during the Napoleonic Wars in the action of 24 June 1801. She fought in several of the most famous engagements of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, fighting for the British at the Battle of the Nile, and the French at the Battle of Trafalgar.
While Great Britain was fighting the War of Jenkins' Ear with Spain in 1740, Commodore George Anson led a squadron of eight ships on a mission to disrupt or capture the Pacific Ocean possessions of the Spanish Empire. Returning to Britain in 1744 by way of China and thus completing a circumnavigation of the globe, the voyage was notable for the capture of the Manila galleon, but also for horrific losses from disease with only 188 men of the original 1,854 surviving. An account of the voyage was published in 1748 which being widely read by the general public was a great commercial success and "is still esteemed as the story of a remarkable voyage extremely well told."
Admiral Sir Peircy Brett was a Royal Navy officer. As a junior officer he served on George Anson's voyage around the world and commanded the landing party which sacked and burned the town of Paita in November 1741. During the Jacobite rising Brett saw action on 9 July 1745, when as captain of the fourth-rate HMS Lion he exchanged fire with the French ships Elizabeth and the Du Teillay: the Du Teillay at the time was carrying Charles Edward Stuart to Scotland with supplies and funds to support his cause. Brett also commanded the third-rate HMS Yarmouth at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in May 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He commanded HMS Cambridge on the North America and West Indies Station during the Seven Years' War and later became Senior Naval Lord. He was also a Member of Parliament, representing the constituency of Queenborough from 1754 until 1774.
Warspite was a great ship of the English Tudor navy. The vessel was built at Deptford Dockyard by the master shipwright Edward Stevens and launched about 1 March 1596. She carried a crew of 300 when at sea, of whom 190 were classed as "mariners", manning the guns and fighting the ship; 80 as "sailors", working the sails and ancestors of present-day seamen and 30 "gunners", the armament specialists.
HMS Neptune was a 90-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was built under the 1677 "Thirty Great Ships" Programme and launched in 1683 at Deptford Dockyard.
HMS Essex was a 70-gun third rate built by Sir Henry Johnson of Blackwall in 1678/79. During the War of the English Succession she fought in the last major action. She was rebuilt in 1699/1700. During the War of Spanish Succession she fought at Vigo Bay, the Capture of Gibraltar and Velez Malaga. She also fought at the Battle off Passero in 1718. She was rebuilt again in 1736-40. She was in action off Toulon in 1744. She was active in the Channel and against French ports during the Seven Years War. She fought at Quiberon Bay in 1759. She was wrecked in Quiberon Bay in November 1759.
HMS Kent was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line built by Sir Henry Johnson of Blackwall in 1677/79. She served during the War of English Succession 1699 to 1697, participating in the Battle of Barfleur. She was rebuilt in 1697/99. She served during the War of Spanish Succession 1702 to 1712 and partook in the Battles of Vigo and Velez-Malaga. She partook in the Battle of Passaro then served during the short war with Spain, December 1718 to February 1720. She was rebuilt in 1722/26. She spent the next thirteen years as a guard ship at Portsmouth. In the 1740s, she was off Cape Finisterre then in the West Indies. She returned home and was finally broken in 1744.
HMS Eagle was a 58-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy built at King's Yard in Harwich by John Barnard and launched in 1745.
The Battles of La Naval de Manila or Battle of Manila Bay were a series of five naval battles fought in the waters of the Spanish East Indies in the year 1646, in which the forces of the Spanish Empire repelled various attempts by forces of the Dutch Republic to invade Manila, during the Eighty Years' War. The Spanish forces, which included many native volunteers, consisted of two, and later, three Manila galleons, a galley and four brigantines. They neutralized a Dutch fleet of nineteen warships, divided into three separate squadrons. Heavy damage was inflicted upon the Dutch squadrons by the Spanish forces, forcing the Dutch to abandon their invasion of the Philippines.
The raid on Manila of January 1798 was a Royal Navy false flag military operation during the French Revolutionary Wars intended to scout the strength of the defences of Manila, capital of the Spanish Philippines, capture a Manila galleon and assess the condition of the Spanish Navy squadron maintained in the port. Spain had transformed from an ally of Great Britain in the War of the First Coalition into an enemy in 1796. Thus, the presence of a powerful Spanish squadron at Manila posed a threat to the China Fleet, an annual convoy of East Indiaman merchant ships from Macau in Qing Dynasty China to Britain, which was of vital economic importance to Britain. So severe was this threat that a major invasion of the Spanish Philippines had been planned from British India during 1797, but had been called off following the Treaty of Campo Formio in Europe and the possibility of a major war in India between the British East India Company and the Kingdom of Mysore.
Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño, nicknamed Desengaño, was a Manila galleon which plied the trade routes between the Viceroyalty of New Spain and the Spanish Philippines. The ship was captured on 22 December 1709 by a British privateering expedition led by Woodes Rogers and renamed Bachelor.
Captain Philip de Saumarez (1710–1747) was a British naval officer, notable for his role as captain of HMS Nottingham in capturing the French ship Mars and as the first lieutenant of George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, in his voyage around the world. He designed what would eventually be the first uniforms for the Royal Navy.
Rear-Admiral George Murray, 6th Lord Elibank was a British naval officer. He joined the Royal Navy in the early 1720s and fought in the Battle of Porto Bello in 1739 as a lieutenant on board the ship of the line HMS Hampton Court. Murray was promoted to commander in 1740 and given command of the sloop HMS Tryall to take part in George Anson's voyage around the world. A series of illnesses and deaths in Anson's squadron meant that by early 1741 Murray had been promoted to post captain and given command of the frigate HMS Pearl. Pearl and another ship lost contact with Anson in April of that year and after taking heavy damage and casualties through storms and sickness, sought safety in Rio de Janeiro before sailing for England.
Captain Matthew Michell was an English politician and Royal Navy officer. He served in the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Westbury from 1748 until his death.
Adam Hayes (1710–1785) was an 18th-century shipbuilder to the Royal Navy. A great number of his models survive.
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