![]() Experiment's sister ship HMS Argo | |
History | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Name | HMS Experiment |
Ordered | 13 July 1780 |
Builder | Robert Fabian, East Cowes |
Cost | £17,364 [1] |
Laid down | June 1781 |
Launched | 27 November 1784 |
Completed | 11 January 1785 |
Commissioned | January 1793 |
Fate | Sold 8 September 1836 |
General characteristics [2] | |
Class and type | Roebuck-class fifth-rate |
Tons burthen | 890 35⁄94 (bm) |
Length |
|
Beam | 38 ft 0+1⁄2 in (11.6 m) |
Draught |
|
Depth of hold | 16 ft 4 in (5 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Complement | 300 (155 from 1798) |
Armament |
|
HMS Experiment was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1784. The ship spent her entire career serving as a troop ship, store ship, or lazarette. Initially stationed in the West Indies, Experiment participated in the Battle of Martinique and Invasion of Guadeloupe in 1794. While travelling to Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1797, the ship captured several high-value Spanish merchant ships, and subsequently returned to Britain. In 1801 she travelled to the Mediterranean Sea where she participated in the Egypt Campaign, with her boats serving as landing craft at the Battle of Abukir.
From 1803 onwards Experiment only served within British waters, initially as a guard ship at Lymington, and then as a harbour store ship at Falmouth. In 1815 the ship was converted into a lazarette, being stationed at Liverpool from 1817 until 1834. The ship was sold two years later.
Experiment was a 44-gun, 18-pounder Roebuck-class ship. The class was a revival of the design used to construct the fifth-rate HMS Roebuck in 1769, by Sir Thomas Slade. The ships, while classified as fifth-rates, were not frigates because they carried two gun decks, of which a frigate would have only one. Roebuck was designed as such to provide the extra firepower a ship of two decks could bring to warfare but with a much lower draught and smaller profile. From 1751 to 1776 only two ships of this type were built for the Royal Navy because it was felt that they were anachronistic, with the lower (and more heavily armed) deck of guns being so low as to be unusable in anything but the calmest of waters. [lower-alpha 1] [4] In the 1750s the cruising role of the 44-gun two deck ship was taken over by new 32- and 36-gun frigates, leaving the type almost completely obsolete. [5]
When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 a need was found for heavily armed ships that could fight in the shallow coastal waters of North America, where two-decked third-rates could not safely sail, and so the Roebuck class of nineteen ships, alongside the similar Adventure class, was ordered to the specifications of the original ships to fill this need. [4] [5] [6] The frigate classes that had overtaken the 44-gun ship as the preferred design for cruisers were at this point still mostly armed with 9- and 12-pounder guns, and it was expected that the class's heavier 18-pounders would provide them with an advantage over these vessels. Frigates with larger armaments would go on to be built by the Royal Navy later on in the American Revolutionary War, but these ships were highly expensive and so Experiment and her brethren continued to be built as a cheaper alternative. [5]
Ships of the class built after 1782 received an updated armament, replacing small upper deck 9-pounder guns with more modern 12-pounders. All ships laid down after the first four of the class, including Experiment, had the double level of stern windows Roebuck had been designed with removed and replaced with a single level of windows, moving the style of the ships closer to that of a true frigate. [lower-alpha 2] [4]
All but one ship of the class were contracted out to civilian dockyards for construction, and the contract for Experiment was given to Robert Fabian at East Cowes. The ship was ordered on 13 July 1780, laid down in June 1781 and launched on 27 November 1784 with the following dimensions: 140 feet 0+1⁄2 inch (42.7 m) along the gun deck, 115 feet 8 inches (35.3 m) at the keel, with a beam of 38 feet 0+1⁄2 inch (11.6 m) and a depth in the hold of 16 feet 4 inches (5 m). Her draught, which made the class so valued in the American Revolutionary War, was 9 feet 5 inches (2.9 m) forward and 13 feet 9 inches (4.2 m) aft. She measured 890 35⁄94 tons burthen. The fitting out process for Experiment was completed on 11 January 1785 at Portsmouth Dockyard. [1]
Experiment, being one of the later ships of the class, received an armament of twenty 18-pounder long guns on her lower deck, with twenty-two 12-pounders on the upper deck. These were complemented by two 6-pounders on the forecastle; the quarterdeck was unarmed. The ship was to have a crew of 300 men. [4] Her name was a historical one of Royal Navy use, originating in about 1667. [7]
Work on Experiment continued slowly after her completion; she received her copper sheathing in September 1790. The ship was eventually put into commission seven years after her completion. [1] With the wartime necessity of using the obsolete ships as frontline warships now at an end, most ships of Experiment's type were taken out of service. While lacking modern fighting capabilities, the design still provided a fast ship, and so the Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Charles Middleton, pressed them into service as troop ships. [5] She was commissioned as an en flute troop ship under the command of Commander Simon Miller in January 1793. [1] [8] As a troop ship, vessels of the Roebuck class had their crew decreased to 155. [4]
Experiment was then fitted as a troop ship at Portsmouth, completed on 12 February. The ship sailed for the Leeward Islands Station on 26 February as part of a convoy. She carried on board 300 members of the Royal Artillery, stopping first at Gibraltar before arriving in the West Indies on 26 November. There she served as an armed store ship. [1] [9] [10] In this role, in 1794 Experiment participated in operations to capture Martinique and Guadeloupe. [8] She continued to transport troops as well, taking soldiers from Guadeloupe to Jamaica on 28 May. [11]
The Guadeloupe expedition was unsuccessful after several months of fighting. As part of the withdrawal, on 19 June Experiment and a transport ship took the greatly depleted British garrison of St Lucia away from the embattled island. [9] [12] The historian William Laird Clowes picks out Lieutenant John Barrett, the commander of Experiment at the time, as one of the naval officers who distinguished themselves during this period. [12] The naval historian Rif Winfield, however, only records Barrett as joining the ship in August the following year. Winfield says that Experiment's next commanding officer was Commander Lancelot Skynner in January 1795, only then followed by Barrett. [1]
On 11 March 1797 Experiment escorted ten vessels carrying 2,348 deported Caribbeans from St Vincent to the Spanish island of Roatan. Arriving thirty-one days later, the small Spanish garrison was attacked and subdued, but one of the ships protected by Experiment was sunk during the engagement. The deportees were then landed on the island. [13] Having finished at Roatan, Experiment sailed for Halifax, Nova Scotia. While en route she came across a Spanish fleet of merchant ships sailing from Cartagena, capturing eight of nine. Barrett unloaded three of these into the other vessels, and took the remaining five on to Halifax. Barrett's share of the prize money for these was estimated to be £800,000. Having reached Halifax by 8 July, Experiment's masts were all condemned and the ship underwent considerable repairs. [14] [15]
The ship returned to Britain as escort to a convoy in November, where at Deptford Dockyard she was again refitted as a troop ship. [1] [15] At this time she was also re-armed, receiving instead sixteen 9-pounders on the upper deck and four 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. This work was completed in May 1798, prior to which the ship was recommissioned under the command of Commander John Saville in February. [1] Experiment was one of three troop ships that conveyed the Royal Lancashire Militia from Plymouth to Ireland on 6 September. [16] After the British victory at the Battle of Tory Island, Experiment was then employed in taking 2,000 French prisoners of war from Plymouth to Portsmouth on 31 October. [17] On 21 July the following year the ship was part of a squadron that arrived at Elsinore in preparation to sail to Reval to take on board Russian troops for the Anglo-Russian Invasion of Holland. [18]
Experiment sailed to the Mediterranean Sea in February 1801, where she participated in operations of the Egypt Campaign as part of Admiral Lord Keith's fleet. [1] [19] Experiment carried part of the expeditionary army, but was not one of the ships involved in the initial landings at the Battle of Abukir on 8 March. Several of Experiment's small boats were however used as landing craft for the operation, embarking soldiers from another troop ship. [20] Saville served on land with the army during these operations. [21] Continuing in the Mediterranean, Commander George Mackenzie took over from Saville in January 1802, and in November 1803 sailed Experiment back to Britain. [1]
From December Experiment served, still en flute, as the guard ship at Lymington. She continued in that role until January 1805. [22] In May Lieutenant Robert Yule assumed command of Experiment, which was then refitted as a harbour store ship between July and October for service at Falmouth. Yule did not staying long with the ship, being replaced by Lieutenant William Stewart in August, before the end of the work. [23]
While serving at Falmouth Experiment underwent several more changes in command, with Lieutenant Bennett Fellowes arriving in November, before being replaced by Lieutenant James Fegen in April the following year. Fegen was the longest serving commander of Experiment, staying with the ship until 1810 when Commander James Slade came on board. Slade commanded Experiment until 1814, when her term at Falmouth ended and she was put in ordinary at Portsmouth. In July the following year the ship underwent another change, being converted into a lazarette. In this new role she was stationed at Liverpool from 1817 until 1834. Finally out of service, Experiment was sold for £1,420 on 8 September 1836. [23]
HMS Amazon, was a 36-gun Amazon-class frigate, built at Rotherhithe in 1795 to a design by Sir William Rule. Carrying a main battery of 18-pounder long guns, she was the first of a class of four frigates. She had a short but eventful career during the French Revolutionary War, which she spent in the Channel and Western Approaches, part of a frigate squadron under Sir Edward Pellew. She was wrecked in Audierne Bay in 1797, following an action on 13 January with the French ship-of-the-line, Droits de l'Homme.
HMS Vengeance was originally the 48-gun French Navy frigate Vengeance and lead ship of her class. She engaged USS Constellation during the Quasi-War, in an inconclusive engagement that left both ships heavily damaged. During the French Revolutionary Wars, HMS Seine hunted Vengeance down and captured her after a sharp action. She was recommissioned in the Royal Navy as the 38-gun fifth rate HMS Vengeance, but the British apparently never returned her to seagoing service. Accounts are divided as to her eventual fate. She may have been broken up in 1803 after grounding in 1801, or continued as a prison ship until 1814.
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 Venus was the name ship of the 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and served for more than half a century until 1809. She was reduced from 36 to 32 guns in 1792. She was sold in 1822.
HMS Pallas was one of the three 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and initially served in Sir Edward Hawke's fleet blockading the coast of France where she fought at the Raid on Cherbourg and in the Battle of Bishops Court. She later served for a number of years in the Mediterranean Sea before moving to serve off the coast of Africa between 1774 and 1776 where she protected the isolated British colonies. In 1778 she joined the Newfoundland Station and participated in the attack on Saint Pierre and Miquelon. Pallas returned to the English Channel after this and assisted in destroying a French invasion force intended for the Channel Islands in 1779 before briefly serving on the Jamaica Station. In 1783 she was beached on São Jorge Island after she was found to be heavily leaking; she was burned there on 24 February.
HMS Newcastle was a 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy which saw service in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
HMS Dolphin was a 44-gun fifth rate ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1781. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, she carried her armament on two decks and had a main battery of 18-pound long guns. She made an appearance at the Battle of Dogger Bank in 1781. The rest of her 36-year career was uneventful, much of it being spent as a transport or hospital ship, armed only with twenty or twenty-four, 9-pounders. She was broken up at Portsmouth in 1817.
HMS Roebuck was a 44-gun, fifth-rate sailing warship of the Royal Navy which carried a main battery of twenty 18-pounder (8.2 kg) long guns. Launched on 21 December 1743, she first served in the English Channel during the War of the Austrian Succession, which Britain entered the following March.
HMS Roebuck was a fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy which served in the American and French Revolutionary Wars. Designed in 1769 by Sir Thomas Slade to operate in the shallower waters of North America, she joined Lord Howe's squadron towards the end of 1775 and took part in operations against New York the following year. She engaged the American gun batteries at Red Hook during the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, and forced a passage up the Hudson River in October. On 25 August 1777, Roebuck escorted troopships to Turkey Point, Maryland, where an army was landed for an assault on Philadelphia. She was again called upon to accompany troopships in December 1779, this time for an attack on Charleston. When the ships-of-the-line, which were too large to enter the harbour, were sent back to New York, Admiral Marriot Arbuthnot made Roebuck his flagship. She was, therefore, at the front of the attack, leading the British squadron across the shoal to engage Fort Moultrie and the American ships beyond.
HMS Romulus was a 36-gun fifth rate frigate of the Flora class, built for the Royal Navy and launched in September 1785. At the outbreak of the French Revolutionary War, Romulus was despatched to the Mediterranean where she joined a fleet under Admiral Lord Hood, initially blockading, and later occupying, the port of Toulon. She played an active role during the withdrawal in December, providing covering fire while HMS Robust and HMS Leviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.
Velters Cornewall Berkeley (1754–1804) was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served in both the American and French Revolutionary Wars but never rose above the rank of Captain. He died at his home in Oxford in 1804, aged 50.
HMS Danae was a 32-gun sailing frigate built for the French Navy in 1763 and captured by the British in the action of 13 May 1779, during the Anglo-French War. Following her capture she was commissioned into the Royal Navy as a convoy escort for merchant vessels sailing between England and Quebec. Paid off in 1783, she was retained for harbour service in England until 1797 when she was sold into private hands.
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.
HMS Resistance was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1782. Based on the design of HMS Roebuck, the class was built for use off the coast of North America during the American Revolutionary War. Commissioned by Captain James King, Resistance served on the West Indies Station for the rest of the war. She captured the 24-gun corvette La Coquette on 2 March 1783 and then went on in the same day to participate in the unsuccessful Battle of Grand Turk alongside Horatio Nelson. Resistance then went for a refit in Jamaica, during which time King fell ill and was replaced by Captain Edward O'Bryen. O'Bryen commanded Resistance until March 1784 when she was paid off. In 1791 she was recommissioned as a troop ship, but was converted back into a warship in 1793 at the start of the French Revolutionary War, under Captain Edward Pakenham.
HMS Jason was a 36-gun fifth-rate Penelope-class frigate, launched in 1800. She served the entirety of her career in the English Channel, mostly in the frigate squadron of Commodore Charles Cunningham. Serving off the coast of France, especially around Le Havre and Cherbourg, she captured several French privateers and recaptured a British merchant ship in a cutting out expedition. Having only been in commission for around fifteen months, Jason was wrecked off the coast of St Malo on 21 July 1801. Her crew were saved and later exchanged, and in August her wreck was burned to prevent the French from rescuing it.
The Perseverance-class frigate was a 36-gun, later 42-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate frigate class of twelve ships of the Royal Navy, constructed in two batches. Designed by Surveyor of the Navy Sir Edward Hunt the first iteration, consisting of four ships, was constructed as a rival to the similar Flora-class frigate. Strongly built ships, the Perseverance class provided favourable gunnery characteristics and was highly manoeuvrable, but bought these traits with a loss of speed. The name ship of the class, Perseverance, was ordered in 1779 and participated in the American Revolutionary War, but her three sister ships were constructed too late to take part. The class continued in service after the war, but soon became outdated.
HMS Chichester was a two-deck, fifth-rate ship of the Royal Navy. One of the Adventure-class ships designed by Edward Hunt, she was built to carry 44 guns but for her entire career she served as a troopship, never carrying more than 22. In 1803, she was part of the squadron under Samuel Hood that captured the French held islands of St Lucia and Tobago, and the Dutch colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice.
The Amazon-class frigates of 1795 were a set of four 36-gun sailing frigates built for the Royal Navy and designed by William Rule. The first pair were constructed from oak and launched in July 1795. A second pair had already been ordered in January that year, to be made from pitch pine, one launched in February and the other in March of 1796. All four carried a main battery of twenty-six 18-pounder (8.2 kg) long guns. They served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars although the first of the class, HMS Amazon, only lasted until 1796, being sank in an action on 13 January with the French ship-of-the-line, Droits de l'Homme. HMS Emerald on the other hand was not broken up until 1836.
HMS Assurance was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1780. Commissioned in the same year, the ship served throughout the remainder of the American Revolutionary War on the North America Station. Her service there included capturing the American privateer Rattlesnake on 17 June 1781 and coordinating the evacuation of Savannah, Georgia, in July 1782. Having briefly served as a troop ship during the subsequent peace, Assurance was recommissioned in 1793 for the French Revolutionary Wars. Operating in the West Indies, she served in Sir John Jervis' fleet that captured Martinique, St Lucia, and Guadeloupe in March and April 1794, also playing a part in the capture of the French frigate Bienvenue on 17 March.
HMS Actaeon was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. Commissioned in the same year, the ship served throughout the remainder of the American Revolutionary War. After initially serving in the North Sea and in the defence of the Channel Islands, in 1779 Actaeon joined the Jamaica Station, participating in the capture of Goree on 8 May as she travelled there. She spent time guarding Saint Lucia and Tobago, going to Britain to be repaired before returning to Jamaica in 1781. The ship formed part of a squadron that supported Edward Despard in his capture of the Black River settlement at the Battle of the Black River on 30 August 1782, and then returned to Jamaica to spend the rest of the war patrolling the West Indies.