HMS Lively (1756)

Last updated

Aldborough (1756); Flamborough (1756); Lively (1756); Scarborough (1756); Kennington (1756); Mercury (1756) RMG J4377.jpg
A plan of the Lively
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Lively
Ordered20 May 1755
BuilderMoody Janverin, Bursledon, Hampshire
Laid downc. June 1755
Launched10 August 1756
CommissionedAugust 1756
DecommissionedAugust 1781
Captured10 July 1778
Flag of the Kingdom of France (1814-1830).svg France
Acquired10 July 1778
Captured29 July 1781
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svgGreat Britain
Acquired29 July 1781
FateSold 11 March 1784
General characteristics [1]
Tons burthen43864⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • Overall:108 ft 0 in (32.9 m)
  • Keel:89 ft 0+1⁄4 in (27.1 m)
Beam30 ft 5+1⁄4 in (9.3 m)
Depth of hold9 ft 8 in (2.9 m)
Complement160 officers and men
Armament
  • British service: 20 × 9-pounder guns
  • French service: 22 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 4-pounder guns [2]
Lively participates in the Battle of Bunker Hill AttackBunkerHill.jpg
Lively participates in the Battle of Bunker Hill

HMS Lively was a 20-gun post ship of the Royal Navy, launched in 1756. [1] During the Seven Years' War she captured several vessels, most notably the French corvette Valeur in 1760. She then served during the American Revolutionary War, where she helped initiate the Battle of Bunker Hill. The French captured her in 1778, but the British recaptured her in 1781. She was sold in 1784.

Contents

Seven Years' War

Lively was commissioned in July 1756 under Captain Francis Wyatt. In November 1756 she captured the French privateer Intrépide, of Nantes, and her prize, Charming Molly, which had been sailing from Malaga to Bristol. Intrépide was armed with eight guns and 10 swivel guns, and had a crew of 75 men. Lively brought the two vessels into Plymouth. [3] Around this time she also recaptured the merchant vessel Pike, of Liverpool. [4]

Lively sailed for Jamaica on 31 January 1757. [5] In March 1759 she was under the command of Captain Frederick Maitland, at Jamaica.

On 17 October 1760 she was with Hampshire and Boreas when they intercepted five French vessels in the Windward Passage. The French vessels had sailed from Cape Francois and were carrying sugar and indigo.

The next day Lively, using her sweeps, caught up with the sternmost enemy vessel, the French 20-gun corvette Valeur. Valeur had a crew of 160 men under the command of a Captain Talbot. In the hour-and-a-half fight before Valeur struck, Lively had two men killed but no wounded; Valeur had 38 killed and 25 wounded, including her captain, master, and boatswain. At the same time, Boreas captured Sirenne, and Hampshire chased the merchant frigate Prince Edward on shore where her crew set fire to her, causing her to blow up.

The day after that, on 19 October, Hampshire, with Lively and Valeur, cornered the French frigate Fleur de Lis in Freshwater Bay, a little to leeward of Port-de-Paix; her crew too set her on fire. The merchant frigate Duc de Choiseul, of 32 guns and 180 men under the command of Captain Bellevan, escaped into Port-de-Paix. [6]

In March 1762 Captain J. Jorer took command of Lively from Maitland. [5] Captain Keith Stewart replaced Jorer later that year, and cruised her in home waters. In June 1763 he sailed her to the Mediterranean and remained in command into 1764. [5]

In April 1769 Captain Robert Fanshawe recommissioned Lively for the Channel. [5] Fanshawe apparently commanded her through 1770, and in 1771 was superseded by Captain G. Talbot. In early 1771 Lively served at Plymouth as the flagship of Admiral Richard Spry. Then on 18 June 1771 Talbot sailed her to North America. [5] In 1773 Captain William Peere Williams took command of Lively on 11 October 1773, sailing her back to Britain and paying her off in December. [5] Captain Thomas Bishop recommissioned Lively in January 1774. [5] On 16 April he sailed her for North America. She was in the area of Salem & Marblehead, Mass. on 1 January 1775. [7]

American Revolutionary War

On 13 May 1774, Lively arrived in Boston. She brought with her General Thomas Gage, commissioned as governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. [8] Lively was part of the British fleet that blockaded the port of Boston to enforce the Boston Port Act, a punishment of that city for the Boston Tea Party. On 22 March 1775 she seized a schooner off Cape Ann for violation of the Acts of Trade. [9] Following the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in April 1775, she remained part of the British presence during the Siege of Boston. On 6 May 1775 she seized $23,000 from a ship at Marblehead, Massachusetts, that had salvaged the money from a dismasted Spanish ship on the Grand Banks after rescuing her crew. [10] She was the first ship to fire at the fortifications the American colonial militia had erected, helping to spark the Battle of Bunker Hill. [11]

In 1776 she cruised off Marblehead. She captured a number of vessels off Cape Ann: in February the schooner Tartar; in May an unknown sloop (unknown because the crew abandoned her and fled, taking all her papers with them); on 26 June, Lively, Milford and Hope took the schooner Lydia, bound for the West Indies. [12] The Vice-Admiralty Court at Halifax, Nova Scotia, ruled all three to be prizes.

Lively also escorted the victualler Levant to New York, Delaware, Cape Fear and St. Augustine. [13]

Capture and re-capture

In March 1777 Captain Robert Biggs recommissioned Lively. On 10 July 1778 Lively, having escorted an ordnance sloop to Guernsey, then proceeded to sail to meet Admiral Keppel's fleet off Ushant. [14] In the morning, as the fog lifted, she found herself near the French fleet, under Louis Guillouet, comte d'Orvilliers. The French cutter Curieuse, of 10 guns and under the command of Captain Trolong du Rumain, chased Lively and ordered her to lie to, which order Biggs declined. However, the 32-gun Iphigénie, Captain Kersaint de Coëtnempren, came up and ordered Biggs to sail Lively to the French admiral. Biggs was still arguing when Iphigénie fired a broadside. The broadside killed 12 British sailors; [14] thereupon, Biggs struck. [15]

The French Navy took Lively into service. In January–February 1779 she was part of a squadron, together with Résolue, under Admiral Vaudreuil, that captured Fort St Louis in Senegal from the British. The troops were under the command of the Duc de Lauzun.

Lively then sailed to the Caribbean. In June 1779 she was the lead ship in a small flotilla sent from Martinique to capture British-controlled Saint Vincent. [16]

On 29 July 1781, Captain Skeffington Lutwidge's Perseverance recaptured Lively, [5] which was under the command of Lieutenant de Breignon. [17] Lively put up a short, desperate defense during which she had six men killed and 10 wounded, [18] one of whom died later. [2] Lively was on her return from Cayenne, had been at sea for 53 days, and ten days earlier had captured Rosemount and Katherine, which had been sailing from Cork. In capturing Lively, Perseverance recaptured the two brigs. Lively had also been in company with the corvette Hirondelle, which however escaped. [19] Thirty-two vessels of the British fleet shared the prize money, which was declared on 17 August 1782. [20]

By September 1781 Lively was off Sandy Hook, with Admiral Robert Digby's squadron. [21] By 14 November Lively, under Captain Manley, had returned to Britain with dispatches from Rear-Admiral Thomas Graves. [22]

On 3 October 1782, Lively captured the sloop Charles, laden with stock and sailing to Turks Island. [23]

Fate

She was sold in March 1784. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Winfield (2007), p. 263.
  2. 1 2 Demerliac (1996), p. 68, #425.
  3. ↑ Gentleman's Magazine, vol. 26, p.593.
  4. ↑ The general magazine of arts and sciences: philosophical, philological, mathematical, and mechanical, p.440.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "NMM, vessel ID 370238" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol ii. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  6. ↑ "No. 10077". The London Gazette . 7 February 1761. p. 2.
  7. ↑ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 1 AMERICAN THEATRE: Dec. 1, 1774–Sept. 2, 1775 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Dec. 6, 1774–Aug. 9, 1775" (PDF). United States government Printing Office. Retrieved 9 December 2021– via American Naval Records Society.
  8. ↑ Alden (1948), p. 204.
  9. ↑ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 1 AMERICAN THEATRE: Dec. 1, 1774–Sept. 2, 1775 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Dec. 6, 1774–Aug. 9, 1775" (PDF). United States government Printing Office. Retrieved 29 December 2021– via American Naval Records Society.
  10. ↑ "Naval Documents of The American Revolution Volume 1 AMERICAN THEATRE: Dec. 1, 1774–Sept. 2, 1775 EUROPEAN THEATRE: Dec. 6, 1774–Aug. 9, 1775" (PDF). United States government Printing Office. Retrieved 2 March 2022– via American Naval Records Society.
  11. ↑ Brooks (1999), p. 127.
  12. ↑ Essex Institute historical collections, Volume 45, 228, 321, 331.
  13. ↑ Neeser (1913), p. 250.
  14. 1 2 Hepper (1994), p. 52.
  15. ↑ Clowes (1897–1903), Vol. 4, p. 16.
  16. ↑ Guérin (1851), p. 71.
  17. ↑ Guérin (1851), p. 92.
  18. ↑ Clowes et al. (1897–1903), Vol. 4, p. 72.
  19. ↑ "No. 12214". The London Gazette . 7 August 1781. p. 6.
  20. ↑ "No. 12322". The London Gazette . 13 August 1782. p. 4.
  21. ↑ "No. 12239". The London Gazette . 3 November 1781. p. 4.
  22. ↑ "No. 12242". The London Gazette . 13 November 1781. p. 1.
  23. ↑ "No. 12388". The London Gazette . 12 November 1782. p. 3.

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Boston</i> (1777)

The second USS Boston was a 24-gun frigate, launched 3 June 1776 by Stephen and Ralph Cross, Newburyport, Massachusetts, and completed the following year. In American service she captured a number of British vessels. The British captured Boston at the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, renamed her HMS Charlestown, and took her into service. She was engaged in one major fight with two French frigates, which she survived and which saved the convoy she was protecting. The British sold Charlestown in 1783, immediately after the end of the war.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental Navy</span> American navy of the Revolutionary War (1775–1785)

The Continental Navy was the navy of the Thirteen Colonies during the American Revolutionary War. Founded on October 13, 1775, the fleet developed into a relatively substantial force throughout the Revolutionary War, owing partially to the substantial efforts of the Continental Navy's patrons within the Continental Congress. These Congressional Patrons included the likes of John Adams, who served as the Chairman of the Naval Committee until 1776, when Commodore Esek Hopkins received instruction from the Continental Congress to assume command of the force.

USS <i>Hancock</i> (1776)

The second Hancock was one of the first thirteen frigates of the Continental Navy. A resolution of the Continental Congress dated 13 December 1775 authorized her construction; she was named for the patriot and Continental congressman John Hancock. In her career, she served under the American, British and French flags.

HMS <i>Rose</i> (1757) Seaford-class Royal Navy vessel

HMS Rose was a 20-gun Seaford-class post ship of the Royal Navy, built at Blaydes Yard in Hull, England in 1757 and in service until 1779. Her activities in suppressing smuggling in the colony of Rhode Island provoked the formation of what became the Continental Navy, precursor of the modern United States Navy. She was based at the North American station in the West Indies and then used in the American Revolutionary War. A replica was built in 1970, then modified to match HMS Surprise, and used in two films, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

HMS <i>Asia</i> (1764) Third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Asia was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Thomas Bucknall and launched on 3 March 1764 at Portsmouth Dockyard. She participated in the American Revolutionary War and the capture of Martinique in 1794. She was broken up in 1804.

HMS Preston was a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard by Adam Hayes to the draught specified in the 1745 Establishment, and launched on 7 February 1757.

HMS Ariel was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. The French captured her in 1779, and she served during the American Revolutionary War for them, and later for the Americans, before reverting to French control. Her French crew scuttled Ariel in 1793 to prevent the British from recapturing her.

HMS Amphitrite was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She served during the American Revolution primarily in the economic war. On the one hand she protected the trade by capturing or assisting at the capture of a number of privateers, some of which the Royal Navy then took into service. On the other hand, she also captured many American merchant vessels, most of them small. Amphitrite was wrecked early in 1794.

HMS Boreas was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built by Israel Pownoll at Woolwich Dockyard and launched in 1757, she was one of five frigates of the class built of fir rather than oak. Boreas saw service during the Seven Years' War and took part in two actions at sea. She assisted in the capture of the 36-gun French frigate Diane in April 1758, and her most famous engagement was the capture of the French frigate Sirène in October 1760. She was sold out of the service in 1770.

HMS Valeur was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, initially launched in 1754 as the Valeur for the French Navy, and classified by them as a corvette. The British captured her in 1759. In Royal Navy service she captured several merchant vessels and privateers before she was sold in 1764.

HMS <i>Centurion</i> (1774) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Centurion was a 50-gun Salisbury-class fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS <i>Romney</i> (1762) British 50-gun fourth rate

HMS Romney was a 50-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned forty years. Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Romney. The origins of the name are from the town of New Romney, although it may be that the name entered the Royal Navy in honour of Henry Sydney, 1st Earl of Romney.

French frigate <i>Iphigénie</i> (1777)

Iphigénie was a 32-gun Iphigénie-class frigate of the French Navy, and the lead ship of her class. She was briefly in British hands after the Anglo-Spanish capture of Toulon in August 1793 but the French recaptured her December. The Spanish captured her in 1795 and her subsequent fate is unknown.

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 <i>Surprise</i> (1774) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

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.

Tarleton was a 14-gun brig launched in 1780 at Glasgow. She was a letter of marque that made one capture. The French captured Tarleton in October 1782 in the Caribbean. They took her back to France in 1783 and she was subsequently stationed at Brest, where she served in the Mediterranean. The British recaptured her at Toulon in 1793 and she then served in the Mediterranean until no later than 1798 when she disappears from the lists.

HMS <i>Kingfisher</i> (1770) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Kingfisher was the second ship in the 14-gun Swan class of ship sloops, to which design 25 vessels were built in the 1760s and 1770s. She was launched on 13 July 1770 at Chatham Dockyard, and completed there on 21 November 1770. She took part in the American Revolutionary War, enforcing the blockade of the Delaware Bay, and served in the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet, near Cape May, New Jersey. While under the temporary command of Lieutenant Hugh Christian, she was burnt by her own crew to avoid capture on 7 August 1778 in Narragansett Bay during the Battle of Rhode Island.

HMS Resolution was a cutter that the Royal Navy purchased in 1779. She captured two French privateers in 1781 and a Dutch privateer in 1783 after a single ship action. Resolution captured one more small French privateer in June 1797; later that month Resolution went missing in the North Sea, presumed to have foundered.

HMS <i>Pearl</i> (1762) Royal Navy frigate, in service 1762–1832

HMS Pearl was a fifth-rate, 32-gun British Royal Navy frigate of the Niger-class. Launched at Chatham Dockyard in 1762, she served in British North America until January 1773, when she sailed to England for repairs. Returning to North America in March 1776, to fight in the American Revolutionary War, Pearl escorted the transports which landed troops in Kip's Bay that September. Much of the following year was spent on the Delaware River where she took part in the Battle of Red Bank in October. Towards the end of 1777, Pearl joined Vice-Admiral Richard Howe's fleet in Narragansett Bay and was still there when the French fleet arrived and began an attack on British positions. Both fleets were forced to retire due to bad weather and the action was inconclusive. Pearl was then despatched to keep an eye on the French fleet, which had been driven into Boston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholson Broughton</span> American captain (1724–1798)

Captain Nicholson Broughton (1724–1798) of Marblehead, Massachusetts was the first commodore of the American Navy and, as part of the Marblehead Regiment, commanded George Washington’s first naval vessel USS Hannah. Broughton set sail from Beverly, Massachusetts on 5 September 1775 in Hannah. He also led the first American expedition of the war, which went to interrupt shipping British armaments off Nova Scotia. On the expedition, Broughton participated in the Raid on Charlottetown. As a result of Broughton's expedition to Nova Scotia, the Governor of Nova Scotia Francis Legge declared martial law throughout the colony.

References

This article includes data released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported UK: England & Wales Licence, by the National Maritime Museum, as part of the Warship Histories project.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.