HMS Magnanime (1780)

Last updated

Intrepid class (approved 1765) - Intrepid (1770); Monmouth (1772); Defiance (1772); Nonsuch (1774); Ruby (1776); Vigilant (1774); Eagle (1774); America (1777); Anson (1781); Polyphemus (1782); Magnanime (1780); Sampson RMG J3629.jpg
Magnanime
History
Naval Ensign of Great Britain (1707-1800).svg Great Britain
NameHMS Magnanime
Ordered16 October 1775
Builder Deptford Dockyard
Laid down23 August 1777
Launched14 October 1780
CommissionedOctober 1780
FateBroken up at Sheerness Dockyard, July 1813
NotesRazeed to a 44-gun fifth rate, 1795
General characteristics [1]
Class and type Intrepid-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1369+5194 bm
Length
  • 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) (gundeck)
  • 131 ft 6 in (40.08 m) (keel)
Beam44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold19 ft (5.8 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail plan Full-rigged ship
Complement500 (as 64-gun ship); 310 officers and men (as frigate)
Armament
  • As third rate:
  • Gundeck: 26 × 24-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 10 × 4-pounder guns
  • Forecastle: 2 × 9-pounder guns
Magnanime 'Magnanime' (1780) RMG J7596.png
Magnanime

HMS Magnanime was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 14 October 1780 at Deptford Dockyard. She belonged to the Intrepid-class designed by Sir John Williams [1] and later was razeed into a 44 gun frigate.

Contents

Career

Commissioned in October 1780 under Captain Charles Wolseley, Magnanime sailed in 1781 with the Relief Expedition to Gibraltar, and subsequently to the Indian Ocean, where she participated in several of the series of battles against French forces off India – including those of Providien, Negapatam and Trincomalee in 1782 and Cuddalore in 1783. She returned to the United Kingdom and paid off into ordinary in June 1784.

From 1794 to 1795, she was cut down into a 44-gun razee fifth-rate frigate and recommissioned in November 1794 under Captain Isaac Schomberg.

On 16 March 1798 Magnanime was escorting a small convoy when she spied a privateer lurking about, seeking an opportunity to pick off a prize. Captain The Hon. Michael de Courcy set Magnanime in chase. Twenty-three hours and 256 miles later, he captured Eugénie at Latitude 42 and Longitude 12. She was armed with 18 guns, eight of which she had thrown overboard during the chase, and had a crew of 107 men. She was coppered and appeared completely new. The Royal Navy took her into service under the name HMS Pandour, but never commissioned her. [2]

On 1 April Magnanime was again involved in a successful chase. This time one of 180 miles in 18 hours. The captured privateer was the Audacieux, of 20 guns, though pierced for 22, and carrying a crew of 137 men. She too was coppered and new. de Courcy remarked that Audacieuz was so fast that if her captain had done a better job of steering she would have escaped. [2] She was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Audacieux but apparently was never commissioned. [3]

Magnanime at the Battle of Tory Island, 12 October 1798 Tory Island, 1798 RCIN 735074.b.jpg
Magnanime at the Battle of Tory Island, 12 October 1798

Magnanime passed under the command of Captain William Taylor in spring 1799, and commanded her on African coast. [4] [5] He took part in the capture of Gorée from the French in April 1801, while cruising with a squadron under the command of Captain Sir Charles Hamilton. Hamilton, in command of the 44-gun HMS Melpomene had received intelligence that there were three French frigates at anchor there. [6] Hamilton sailed to investigate, taking with him Taylor in Magnanime, and Captain Solomon Ferris, in command of the 64-gun HMS Ruby. The frigates were not there, so Hamilton summoned the governor and ordered him to surrender. The governor agreed, and Hamilton and his force took possession on 5 April. [6] [7] Magnanime was later in the Leeward Islands, where she remained for the rest of the French Revolutionary Wars, paying off into ordinary again in 1802. [8]

During the Napoleonic Wars she served in a variety of ancillary capacities – as a floating battery, then as a hospital ship.

Fate

Magnanime was eventually broken up in July 1813. [1]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p181.
  2. 1 2 "No. 15006". The London Gazette . 10 April 1798. p. 305.
  3. "NMM, vessel ID 380364" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol v. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  4. The Gentleman's Magazine. 1842. p. 545.
  5. Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail 1793–1817. p. 89.
  6. 1 2 Young. A History of the late war between Great Britain and France. p. 433.
  7. Norie. The Naval Gazetteer, Biographer, and Chronologist. p. 134.
  8. Annual Biography. p. 450.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Bellona</i> (1760) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Bellona was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, she was a prototype for the iconic 74-gun ships of the latter part of the 18th century. "The design of the Bellona class was never repeated precisely, but Slade experimented slightly with the lines, and the Arrogant, Ramillies, Egmont, and Elizabeth classes were almost identical in size, layout, and structure, and had only slight variations in the shape of the underwater hull. The Culloden-class ship of the line was also similar, but slightly larger. Thus over forty ships were near-sisters of the Bellona." Bellona was built at Chatham, starting on 10 May 1758, launched on 19 February 1760, and commissioned three days later. She was the second ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name, and saw service in the Seven Years' War, American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars.

HMS <i>Africa</i> (1781) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Africa was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched by William Barnard at Barnard's Thames Yard in Deptford on 11 April 1781.

HMS Surprise was the name the Royal Navy gave to the French Navy's corvette Unité after Unité's capture in 1796. Unité was launched on 16 February 1794. Surprise gained fame in 1799 for the recapture of HMS Hermione. In 1802 Surprise was sold out of the service.

HMS <i>Hannibal</i> (1786) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

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 <i>Fortitude</i> (1780) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Fortitude was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by John Randall & Co. and launched on 23 March 1780 at Rotherhithe.

HMS <i>Resolution</i> (1770) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Resolution was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Thomas Slade and built by Adam Hayes at Deptford Dockyard and launched on 12 April 1770. The ship had a huge crew of 600 men. As one of the Royal Navy's largest ships she took part in seven major naval battles.

HMS <i>Montagu</i> (1779) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Montague was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 28 August 1779 at Chatham Dockyard.

HMS <i>Dido</i> (1784) Enterprise-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Dido was one of the twenty-seven Enterprise class of 28-gun sixth-rate frigates in service with the Royal Navy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Dido was commissioned in September 1787 under the command of Captain Charles Sandys. She participated in a notable action for which her crew would later be awarded the Naval General Service Medal; her participation in a campaign resulted in the award of another. Dido was sold for breaking up in 1817.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Sutton</span> Royal Navy officer (1760–1832)

Rear-Admiral Samuel Sutton was an officer in the Royal Navy. He entered the service shortly after the start of the American War of Independence, and spent most of his early career serving with Captain and later Admiral Joshua Rowley. He saw action at several engagements with the French fleets in the West Indies, and ended the war as a lieutenant. Left without active employment by the following years of peace, Sutton briefly returned to service during the Spanish Armament in 1790, but the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793 brought him steady work. After serving in a number of ships and being present at Cornwallis's Retreat in 1795, Sutton received command of a sloop, and with it the opportunity to render a service to a member of the French aristocracy, and the future Charles X of France. Promoted for his good service, Sutton served as a flag captain to several admirals, including Horatio Nelson. He briefly commanded HMS Victory, before surrendering her to Thomas Hardy, who would go on to command Victory at Trafalgar, and be present at Nelson's death. Sutton instead took command of a frigate, and in 1804 was involved in a controversial action that saw the capture of three Spanish frigates and the destruction of a fourth. Made wealthy from the spoils, Sutton nevertheless remained in the navy, taking part in the chase of the French fleet to the West Indies in 1805. His health declined during this period, and he went ashore in October that year. He retired from active service, and served as a magistrate and local official for his community, being promoted to rear-admiral in 1821 and dying in 1832.

HMS <i>Decade</i> (1798) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Decade was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was formerly the French 'Galathée-class frigateDécade, which the British had captured in 1798. She served with the British during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and was sold out of the service in 1811.

Solomon Ferris was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Saint Lucia was a brig-sloop, the former French Navy schooner Enfant Prodigue, which the British captured in 1803 and took into service with the Royal Navy. Under the British flag she captured three small French privateers and several prizes in the Leeward Islands before two French privateers recaptured her in 1807.

Three, and possibly five, vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Sultana, for a female sultan or wife of a sultan:

Eugénie was a French 16-gun privateer ship-sloop launched in 1793. The French Navy requisitioned her in March 1794 for coastal escort and patrol purposes. After the navy returned her to civilian ownership at Nantes in February 1796 she returned to privateering.

William Taylor was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

HMS Actif was supposedly the British privateer Active that the French captured in 1793 and that became the French privateer Actif. Iphigenia recaptured Actif on 16 March 1794. The Royal Navy took her into service but she foundered on 26 November. All her crew were saved.

HMS <i>Hyaena</i> (1778)

HMS Hyaena was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post-ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1778. The French captured her in 1793, took her into service as Hyène, and then sold her. She became a privateer that the British captured in 1797. The Royal Navy took her back into service as Hyaena and she continued to serve until the Navy sold her in 1802. The shipowner Daniel Bennett purchased her and renamed her Recovery. She made seven voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery and was broken up 1813.

The action of 7 December 1804 was a minor naval action that took place at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Royal Navy ship-of-the-line HMS Polyphemus (64) under the command of Captain John Lawford, and the frigate HMS Lively (38) under the command of Captain Graham Hamond captured the Spanish frigate Santa Gertrudis off Cape Santa Maria.

<i>Thames</i>-class frigate Frigate class of the Royal Navy

The Thames-class frigate was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate class of eight ships of the Royal Navy based on the Richmond-class frigate designed by William Bately. The ships were ordered to the older design, which was of a smaller type of ship compared to more modern designs, so that they could be built quickly and cheaply in time to assist in defending against Napoleon's expected invasion of Britain. The class received several design changes to the Richmond class, being built of fir instead of oak, with these changes making the class generally slower and less weatherly than their predecessors, especially when in heavy weather conditions. The first two ships of the class, Pallas and Circe, were ordered on 16 March 1804 with two more ordered on 1 May and the final four on 12 July. The final ship of the class, Medea, was cancelled on 22 October before construction could begin but the other seven ships of the class were commissioned between 1804 and 1806.

HMS <i>Jason</i> (1800) Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate

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.

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.