![]() HMS Inconstant (left) fighting Ça Ira | |
History | |
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Name | HMS Inconstant |
Ordered | 8 December 1781 |
Builder | William Barnard, Deptford |
Laid down | December 1782 |
Launched | 28 October 1783 |
Honours and awards | Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt" [1] |
Fate | Broken up in November 1817 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth rate |
Tons burthen | 890 (bm) |
Length | 137 ft 9 in (41.99 m) |
Beam | 38 ft 3 in (11.66 m) |
Draught | 9 ft 6 in (2.90 m) |
Propulsion | Sails |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement | 260 (270 from 25 April 1780) |
Armament |
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HMS Inconstant was a 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had a successful career serving in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing three French warships during the French Revolutionary naval campaigns, Curieux, Unité, and the former British ship HMS Speedy. [2]
Inconstant was ordered on 8 December 1781 and laid down at the yards of William Barnard, Deptford, in December 1782. She was launched on 28 October 1783, and was immediately fitted out for ordinary, a process completed by 22 March 1784. She was moved to Woolwich in October 1788 and there fitted out for sea between June and November 1790. She had cost a total of £16,226.0.1d (including the work to fit her for ordinary, with a further £6,627 spent in 1790 to prepare her for sea. [2]
Inconstant was commissioned in August 1790 under Captain George Wilson. Wilson commanded her for just over a year before she was paid off in September 1791.
Inconstant returned to Woolwich and was fitted out again between January and February 1793 at a cost of £7,239. She was recommissioned under Captain Augustus Montgomery and joined the fleet under Richard Howe. She sailed to the West Indies in April, and captured the 14-gun Curieux there on 3 June 1793. [2]
Inconstant returned to England in July that year, sailing again in November bound for Toulon to join Samuel Hood's fleet. She was briefly commanded by Captain George Cockburn in 1794, who was succeeded by Thomas Fremantle in January 1795. Under Fremantle, and as part of the fleet under Admiral William Hotham, she fought against the 80-gun ship of the line Ça Ira on 10 March 1795. Ça Ira's superiority in firepower soon forced Fremantle to fall back. As he did so, HMS Agamemnon, commanded by Captain Horatio Nelson, surged past to continue the fight. [3] This was a prelude to the Naval Battle of Genoa, fought over the next few days.
On 25 March Inconstant recaptured HMS Speedy from the French, and went on to form part of Nelson's squadron in August. [2] On 20 April 1796 she captured the French Unité. Unité was taken into service as HMS Surprise. Inconstant was then present at the evacuation of Leghorn on 26 June 1796. On 5 February, 1797 she and HMS Blanche captured American merchantman "Fortune" 4 leagues off Marseilles bound for to Genoa. She was seized for suspected trading with France and suspicious papers. [4] After an active period in the Mediterranean, she was paid off in September 1797. She was refitted at Woolwich between March and June 1798, returning to service as a 20-gun troopship. [2] She was commanded by Commander Milham Ponsonby until being paid off in October 1799, after which she was refitted and recommissioned as a fifth-rate under Commander John Ayscough. Inconstant was initially operating in the North Sea, before receiving orders to move to support operations in Egypt in 1801. Because Inconstant served in the navy's Egyptian campaign (8 March to 8 September 1801), her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty authorised in 1850 for all surviving claimants. [Note 1]
She came under the command of captain Richard Byron in October 1802, who was succeeded by Captain Edward Dickson by December. [2]
Inconstant was fitted out as a troopship again in late 1803, and was present at the capture of Gorée in March 1804. [2] She was restored to a frigate between 1805 and 1806, and spent the period between 1806 and 1808 as the flagship of Vice-Admiral James Saumarez. [2]
On 6 May 1807 the boats of Inconstant captured the French ship Julia. Albacore and Jamaica shared in the proceeds of the capture. [6]
Inconstant underwent a large repair between 1808 and 1809, after which she sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. She was paid off in 1810, and refitted at Portsmouth. She recommissioned again in October that year, under the command of Captain John Quilliam, who was succeeded by Captain Edward Owen by December. [2] Owen remained in command until 1812, and was succeeded by Sir Edward Tucker. On 19 December 1812 HMS Rolla recaptured the whaler Frederick. Rolla shared the salvage money for Frederick with HMS Dublin and Inconstant. [7]
Tucker sailed Inconstant to South America.
On 18 March 1815, Inconstant and Albacore recaptured Acorn and her cargo. [8]
In August 1815 Inconstant was serving as Captain James Lucas Yeo's flagship. [2]
HMS Inconstant was broken up at Portsmouth in November 1817. [2]
HMS Leander was a Portland-class 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy, launched at Chatham on 1 July 1780. She served on the West Coast of Africa, West Indies, and the Halifax station. During the French Revolutionary Wars she participated in the Battle of the Nile before a French ship captured her. The Russians and Turks recaptured her and returned her to the Royal Navy in 1799. On 23 February 1805, while on the Halifax station, Leander captured the French frigate Ville de Milan and recaptured her prize, HMS Cleopatra. On 25 April 1805, cannon fire from Leander killed an American seaman while Leander was trying to search an American vessel off the US coast for contraband. The resulting "Leander affair" contributed to the worsening of relations between the United States and Great Britain. In 1813, the Admiralty converted Leander to a hospital ship under the name Hygeia. Hygeia was sold in 1817.
HMS Neptune was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She served on a number of stations during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
HMS Hannibal was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 15 April 1786, named after the Carthaginian general Hannibal. She is best known for having taken part in the Algeciras Campaign, and for having run aground during the First Battle of Algeciras on 5 July 1801, which resulted in her capture. She then served in the French Navy until she was broken up in 1824.
HMS Thames was a 32-gun Richmond-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy built by Henry Adams and launched at Bucklers Hard in 1758. She served in several wars, including for some four years in French service after her capture. She was recaptured in 1796 and was broken up in 1803.
HMS Pompee was a 74-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. Built as Pompée, a Téméraire-class ship of the French Navy, she was handed over to the British at Spithead by French royalists who had fled France after the Siege of Toulon by the French Republic, only a few months after being completed. After reaching Great Britain, Pompée was registered and recommissioned as HMS Pompee and spent the entirety of her active career with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1817.
Vestale was a Blonde-class 30-gun frigate of the French Navy. The Royal Navy captured her in 1761, but had to scuttle her in 1778 to avoid having the French recapture her. She was refloated and sold to the French in 1784. She returned to wartime service in 1794 as a privateer. The British recaptured her in 1798 and broke her up thereafter.
HMS Amphion was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate, the lead ship of her class, built for the Royal Navy during the 1790s. She served during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Iphigenia was a Royal Navy 36-gun Perseverance-class fifth-rate frigate. She was built at Chatham Dockyard by Master Shipwright Robert Seppings.
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 Eurydice was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1781 and broken up in 1834. During her long career she saw service in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She captured a number of enemy privateers and served in the East and West Indies, the Mediterranean and British and American waters.
HMS Castor was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French briefly captured her during the Atlantic Campaign of May 1794 but she spent just 20 days in French hands as a British ship retook her before her prize crew could reach a French port. Castor eventually saw service in many of the theatres of the wars, spending time in the waters off the British Isles, in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as the Caribbean.
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HMS Daedalus was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1780 from the yards of John Fisher, of Liverpool. She went on to serve in the American War of Independence, as well as the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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.
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