Crescent was first commissioned in about September 1779 under the command of Captain Charles Hope.
On 2 October 1779, Jupiter captured two French cutters, Mutin and Pilote, each of 14 guns and 120 men. The Royal Navy took both into service essentially under their existing names. Jupiter shared the prize money with Apollo,[3]Crescent,[4] and Milford.[5]
On 16 March 1781, Crescent, under the command of Captain Thomas Packenham, was one of over 40 warships in a fleet under the command of Admiral John Darby, in Britannia, that left Portsmouth that day for Gibraltar.[6] One day later, there arrived at Falmouth a French privateer and a brig, her prize, that Crescent had sent in.[7] A prize money notice from 31 December 1781 reported that the vessels in Darby's fleet would share in the prize money for Duc de Chartres, brig Trois Amis, and the Spanish frigate Leocadia, which the fleet had captured on its way to Gibraltar.[8][lower-alpha 1]
From numeral(s): This is a redirect from a title that includes the mathematical symbol of a number (or numbers) to an article with the word form of the number, or any other name of the number.
Less than a month after she had left Portsmouth, on 12 April 1781 Crescent and Flora, Captain William Peere Williams, left Gibraltar as escorts to 13 vessels sailing to Minorca.[10] They arrived at "Mahone" on 19 April.[11] On 3 May Flora, and Crescent left Port Mahon, intending to pass the Gut of Gibraltar as quickly as possible.[12]
On the morning of 23 May they saw eight Spanish vessels, a 74-gun ship, four xebecs, an armed ship, and two bomb vessels. The Spanish commodore set his squadron in chase, before sending all but his vessel and two xebecs, each of 36 guns, back to Spain. One of the xebecs caught up with Crescent and a three-hour running fight ensued during which Crescent sustained no casualties. Flora came up and fired some broadsides at the xebec, which fell back to repair damage. Flora had one man killed and one wounded due to poor gun-handling. The Spaniards resumed their chase in the evening but Flora and Crescent were able to elude them in the night. The engagement had driven the British vessels close to Cape Palos so they cruised there for two days in case to ensure that the enemy were not in the vicinity. They then sailed for the North African coast and were off Gibraltar on 29 May.[12]
The next morning they advised General Elliot of the presence of the Spanish squadron, and then sailed towards Ceuta. They sighted two large Dutch frigates, but were unable to bring them to action until the next morning. At daybreak on 31 MayFlora engaged one of the Dutch frigates, and Crescent the other. After two and a quarter hours, the Dutch frigate struck to Flora. The Dutch frigate was the Castor, of twenty-six 12-pounder guns and ten 6-pounders, and a crew of 230 men under the command of Captain Pieter Melvill.[12]
The action between Crescent and the Dutch frigate Brill continued a little longer. She was the same rate as Castor, mounting twenty-six 12-pounder guns, two 6-pounder guns, and four 4-pounder guns. A shot from Brill brought down Crescent's main and mizzen masts on to her decks, rendering her guns inoperable and the ship unmanageable. Packenham was forced to strike his colours.[12]
Flora came up and recaptured Crescent before Brill could take possession. Brill then left. Captain Williams was unable to pursue as both Castor and Crescent were badly holed and taking on water, forcing their crews to man the pumps. At this point Packenham asked Williams to appoint one of his officers to command Crescent pending Packenham's court-martial for his surrendering his ship. Williams sent over his First Lieutenant, John Bligh, while retaining the rest of Crescent's existing officers.[12]
The battle had been sanguinary. Flora had nine men killed and 32 wounded, of whom eight died subsequently and at least one more was not expected to live. Crescent had 26 men killed and 67 wounded, some of whom died later. Lastly, Castor had lost 22 men killed and 41 wounded, 11 of whom subsequently died.[12]
The three vessels then spent five days effecting repairs, before setting out again. On 19 June Flora was chasing a privateer brig that had been dogging the British ships when Flora sighted two larger vessels approaching. Flora then rejoined her consorts, hoping that the sight of three warships would ward off the approaching vessels. However, the two vessels, seeing the bedraggled state of Crescent and Castor, continued their approach. Each of the three British ships then set off on a different course. Flora observed one of the frigates hoist French colours as she captured Castor. The other set off after Crescent. Casualties, and the necessity of putting 38 men from Flora and a like number from Crescent on Castor to man the pumps and serve as a prize crew had left all three too weak to sustain combat.[12]
Capture
The French captured Crescent on 20 June 1781 off Ushant. At 4am Gloire and Friponne caught up with Crescent and after an exchange of fire, Crescentstruck.[13]
Fate
The French took Crescent into service. She was wrecked on the reefs off Petit-Goâve, San Domingo, in January 1786.[14]
HMS Latona was a 36-gun, fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served during the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolutionary Wars, and the Napoleonic Wars. Shortly after her launch in 1781, she participated in the Battle of Dogger Bank against a Dutch squadron in the North Sea. In September 1782, Latona took part in the relief of Gibraltar and was the first ship in the convoy to pass through the Straits, when Richard Howe sent her ahead, to spy on the condition of the Franco-Spanish fleet in Algeciras Bay.
HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.
HMS Fly was a Swan-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 September 1776. She performed mainly convoy escort duties during the French Revolutionary Wars, though she did capture three privateers. She foundered and was lost with all hands early in 1802.
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.
Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Viper, or HMS Vipere, after the members of the Viperidae family:
HMS Mercury was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built during the American War of Independence and serving during the later years of that conflict. She continued to serve during the years of peace and had an active career during the French Revolutionary Wars and most of the Napoleonic Wars, until being broken up in 1814.
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 Hind was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Stag was a 32-gun Niger-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the first Royal Navy ship to bear this name. She was ordered during the Seven Years' War, and saw service during that conflict and also during the American War of Independence.
HMS Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.
L'Espoir was a French brig-sloop that served for 9½ years in the French Navy before HMS Thalia captured her in September 1797. In her subsequent short career in British service as HMS Espoir she captured three prizes, with the capture in 1798 of the more heavily armed Genoese pirate Liguria earning her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal. Espoir was laid up in 1799 and sold in 1804.
HMS Monsieur was the former 40-gun French privateer Monsieur, built at Le Havre between July 1778 and 1779, then armed at Granville. The Royal Navy captured her in 1780 and subsequently put her into service as a 36-gun Fifth Rate. This frigate was sold in 1783.
HMS Surprise was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, which served throughout the American Revolutionary War and was broken up in 1783.
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.
Salamine was originally the Spanish Navy's Infante 18-gun brig, built in 1787 at Cadiz. The French Navy captured her at Toulon in December 1793 and recommissioned her; they renamed her on 10 May 1798 as Salamine, for the battle of Salamis. On 18 June 1799, HMS Emerald captured her and she was brought into Royal Navy service as HMS Salamine. She served briefly in the Mediterranean, where she captured two French privateers and several merchant vessels before the Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens ended the war with France.
HMS Crescent was a 36-gun Flora-class frigate of the British Royal Navy. Launched in 1784, she spent the first years of her service on blockade duty in the English Channel where she single-handedly captured the French frigate, La Reunion. In 1795, Crescent was part of a squadron commanded by George Elphinstone, that forced the surrender of a Batavian Navy squadron at the capitulation of Saldanha Bay. After serving in the West Indies, Crescent returned to home waters and was wrecked off the coast of Jutland on 6 December 1808.
HMS Perseverance was a 36-gun Perseverance-class frigate of the British Royal Navy. She served on the North American station until 1787, after which she returned to England, where she was refitted at Portsmouth. In 1789 Perseverance was sent to the East Indies; she returned to Portsmouth in 1793, when she was laid up before finishing her career there as a receiving ship. She was sold and broken up in May 1823.
The French brig Duc de Chartres was built between 1779 and 1780 at Le Havre as a 24-gun privateer. As a privateer she captured one British warship before in 1781 the Royal Navy captured her. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Duc de Chartres. She then captured several American privateers and armed merchant vessels, and one French naval corvette in a noteworthy single-ship action. The Navy sold Duc de Chartres in 1784.
HMS Pilote was a cutter launched for the French Navy at Dunkirk in 1778. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1779 and took her into service under her existing name. It sold her in 1799.
HMS Gibraltar was a Royal Navy brig, formerly the American brig Virginia. The Royal Navy acquired Gibraltar in 1779 and in May commissioned her under Lieutenant Almerick Brown. The Spanish captured her in the Mediterranean in 1781 and named her San Salvador.
Gardiner, Robert (1992) The First Frigates.(London: Conway Maritime Press). ISBN0-85177-601-9.
Hepper, David J. (1994). British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650-1859. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot. ISBN0-948864-30-3.
Lyon, David (1993) The Sailing Navy List. (London: Conway Maritime Press). ISBN0-85177-617-5.
Winfield, Rif (2007). British warships of the age of sail, 1714-1792: design, construction, careers and fates. Seaforth. ISBN978-1-84415-701-3. OCLC181928479.
Winfield, Rif; Roberts, Stephen S. (2015). French warships in the age of sail, 1786-1861: Design Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-204-2. OCLC951147333.
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