Monmouth was originally being built as an East Indiaman for the East India Company under the name Belmont. In 1796 the Navy purchased five ships being built or serviced in commercial dockyards along the River Thames and had them completed as warships.[4] Alongside Belmont, then being built at Rotherhithe by Randall & Company, the Navy acquired the merchantmen Royal Admiral, Princess Royal, Earl Talbot and Pigot; they became HMSYork, HMSArdent, HMSAgincourt and HMSLancaster respectively.[4]Belmont was registered and named Monmouth on 14 July 1795 and was launched on 23 April 1796, being completed by 31 October 1796 at Deptford Dockyard.[4]
French Revolutionary Wars
HMS Monmouth was commissioned in September 1796 under the command of the Captain William Carnegie, Earl of Northesk.[5] She was initially assigned to serve in the North Sea, and in May 1797 was one of the ships involved in the Nore mutiny. The crew took her first lieutenant, Charles Bullen, prisoner and threatened to execute him. Northesk intervened and Bullen was able to carry messages from the crew that are said to have helped end the mutiny.[6] After the mutiny Northesk resigned his commission. Order was restored in a matter of weeks, and Monmouth was placed under Commander James Walker, in an acting captaincy. Walker had been planning to attack the mutinous ships at anchor with a squadron of gunboats only a few weeks previously.[7]
Before the battle Walker addressed his crew, saying:
"Now, my lads, you see your enemy before you. I shall lay you close on board, and thus give you an opportunity of washing the stain off your characters with the blood of your foes. Go to your quarters, and do your duty."[8]
Monmouth engaged in heavy combat with the Dutch ships Delft and Alkmaar, capturing both, although Delft sank on the way back.[8][9][lower-alpha 1] In the battle Monmouth had five men killed and 22 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Camperdown" to all surviving claimants from the action.
In March 1798, Robert Deans became captain. Monmouth was among the seven vessels of Lord Duncan's fleet that shared in the prize money for the privateer Jupiter, captured on 27 April.[11]
In January 1799 Vice-Admiral Archibald Dickson raised his flag in her, but she then went into Sheerness in March for repairs.[4] Next month, Captain George Hart, who retained the command until 1805, replaced Deans. Then Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the prize money from sundry Dutch doggers, schuyts, and fishing vessels, taken in April and May.[12]Monarch was also part of a squadron that in May captured Roose (12 May), Genet, Polly, American, Forsigtigheid, and Bergen (all 14 May), Des Finch (21 May), and Vrow Dorothea (30 May).[13]
That summer, Monmouth took part in the Helder expedition, a joint Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland under the command of Vice-Admiral Andrew Mitchell.[5] At the Neiuw Diep the British captured seven warships and 13 Indiamen and transports.[lower-alpha 2] Then Mitchell obtained the surrender of a squadron of the navy of the Batavian Republic in the Vlieter Incident.[15] The Dutch surrendered twelve vessels ranging down in size from the 74-gunWashington to the 16-gun brig Galathea.[16][lower-alpha 3] Next, Monmouth was among the vessels sharing in the capture on 17 August of Adelarde.[18] On 15 September Monmouth, several other British vessels and two Russian, arrived at Sheerness as escort to five Dutch ships of the line, three frigates and one sloop.[19]
Monmouth sailed for the Mediterranean in June 1801.[4] She therefore came to share in the proceeds of the capture of Almas di Purgatoria off Alexandria on 28 July.[20] Because Monmouth 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.[lower-alpha 4]
Napoleonic Wars
Monmouth (1797) modified for the Royal Navy
In 1803 Monmouth, still under Hart's command, was at Gibraltar. There Hart received the report of Captain John Gore of Medusa of his capture of one French felucca-rigged privateer in the Strait, Esperance, and destruction of another, the Sorcier.[22] In July Monmouth was with the Mediterranean squadron blockading Toulon. After his promotion to rear admiral in April 1804 Thomas McNamara Russell raised his flag in Monmouth for the North Sea.[4]
Captain Edward Durnford King commissioned Monmouth again in March 1807.[4] Rear-Admiral William O'Bryen Drury raised his flag in her on 7 September and then eight days later sailed her with a convoy of nine Indiamen to the East Indies, seven for the coast and two for Bombay.[23] The convoy was reported well on 28 November at 30°10′S5°20′W / 30.167°S 5.333°W / -30.167; -5.333. The vessels she was convoying included Northampton, Sarah Christiana, Ann, Union, Diana, Sir William Pulteney, and Glory.[24]
During the voyage, on 25 January 1808 she captured the Danish ship Nancy.[25] Then on 12 February she arrived off the Danish possession of Tranquebar just in time to observe the landing of troops of the 14th Regiment of Foot and the Honourable East India Company's artillery by Russell. The British immediately went on to capture the settlement and fort, which capitulated without resistance.[26][lower-alpha 5]
The Windham an East India Man with the Fleet sailing from St Helena, under convoy of His Majesty's ship Monmouth in 1808
Monmouth returned to Britain in September 1808, having escorted another convoy of Indiamen.[28] She was put out of commission on 24 September.
In August 1809 Monmouth was at the Walcheren Expedition, the aim of which was to demolish the dockyards and arsenals at Antwerp, Terneuzen, and Flushing. In August Admiral Sir Richard Strachan sent her back to England for water.[29] In October she was commissioned again under Commander Michael Dod, but as a victualing ship in the Downs.[4]
His successor on 7 November 1810 was Captain Francis Beauman.[30] At the time Monmouth was the flagship of Vice-Admiral George Campbell, Commander-in-Chief of the Downs station. In March Beauman presented a sword (worth 100 guineas) to Campbell on behalf of all the captains and commanders on the Downs station on the occasion of Campbell's being relieved of his command.[31] In April 1811 Captain Hyde Parker took command of Monmouth.[4]
From 1812 to 1813 she was under the command of Captain William Nowell. His successor was Captain William Wilkinson.[4] Throughout this time she was also the flagship for Vice-Admiral Thomas Foley, Campbell's successor.
She received payment for smuggled goods seized on 1 March 1814.[lower-alpha 6]
Fate
Monmouth was laid up in ordinary at Woolwich in 1815.[5] She then was hulked, becoming a sheer hulk at Deptford dockyard.[5] She was broken up in 1834.[3]
Notes
↑ Delft sank in British waters but is being rebuilt now (2011) in the Netherlands.[10]
↑ Prize money to a seaman for these vessels amounted to 6s and 8d.[14]
↑ A distribution in June 1805 for a minor portion of the prize money for this incident netted a seaman 1s 10d.[17]
↑ A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth £34 2s 4d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11+1⁄2d. The amount was small as the crews of 79 vessels and the entire army contingent shared the total.[21]
↑ In February 1824 prize money was paid to the troops, artillerymen, and the crews of both Royal Navy vessels. A first-class share for Monmouth was worth £254 16s 11+1⁄2d; a fifth-class share was worth 18s 11+1⁄2d.[27]
↑ A first-class share was worth £43 10s 4+1⁄2d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 1s 8+3⁄4.[32]
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She had previously been Tonnant of the French Navy and the lead ship of the Tonnant class. The British captured her in August 1793 during the Siege of Toulon but the French recaptured her when the siege was broken in December. Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson captured her at Aboukir Bay off the coast of Egypt at the Battle of the Nile on 1 August 1798. She was taken into British service as HMS Tonnant. She went on to fight at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, during the Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Ajax was an Ajax-class 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She was built by John Randall & Co of Rotherhithe and launched on the Thames on 3 March 1798. Ajax participated in the Egyptian operation of 1801, the Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1805 and the Battle of Trafalgar, before she was lost to a disastrous fire in 1807 during the Dardanelles Operation.
HMS Astraea was a 32-gun fifth rate Active-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Fabian at E. Cowes launched her in 1781, and she saw action in the American War of Independence as well as during the Napoleonic Wars. She is best known for her capture of the larger French frigate Gloire in a battle on 10 April 1795, while under the command of Captain Lord Henry Paulet. She was wrecked on 23 March 1808 off the coast of Anegada in the British Virgin Islands.
HMS Glatton was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. Wells & Co. of Blackwell launched her on 29 November 1792 for the British East India Company (EIC) as the East Indiaman Glatton. The Royal Navy bought her in 1795 and converted her into a warship. Glatton was unusual in that for a time she was the only ship-of-the-line that the Royal Navy had armed exclusively with carronades. She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and as a transport for convicts to Australia. She then returned to naval service in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty converted her to a water depot at Sheerness. In 1830 the Admiralty converted Glatton to a breakwater and sank her at Harwich.
HMS Apollo, the fifth ship of the Royal Navy to be named for the Greek god Apollo, was a fifth-rate frigate of the Lively class, carrying 38 guns, launched in 1805 and broken up in 1856.
HMS Zebra was a 16-gun Zebra-class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1780 at Gravesend. She was the second ship to bear the name. After twenty years of service, including involvement in the West Indies campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars, she was converted into a bomb vessel in 1798. In this capacity she took part in attacks on French ports, and was present at both battles of Copenhagen. The Navy sold her in 1812.
HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 July 1785 at Rotherhithe.
HMS Intrepid was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 4 December 1770 at Woolwich. She was sold in 1828.
HCS Bombay, later HMS Bombay and HMS Ceylon, was a teak-built fifth rate, 38-gun wooden warship built in the Bombay Dockyard for the Honourable East India Company (HEIC) and launched in 1793. The Royal Navy purchased her in 1805 and renamed her HMS Bombay. She served with the Royal Navy under that name until 1 July 1808, when she became HMS Ceylon. She was sold at Malta in 1857 and broken up in 1861.
HMS Hind was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
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.
HMS Cormorant was a 16-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant class in the Royal Navy, launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe. She captured four French privateers before an accidental fire destroyed her in 1796.
HMS Circe was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1785 but not completed or commissioned until 1790. She then served in the English Channel on the blockade of French ports before she was wrecked in 1803.
HMS Cambrian was a Royal Navy 40-gun fifth-rate frigate. She was built and launched at Bursledon in 1797 and served in the English Channel, off North America, and in the Mediterranean. She was briefly flagship of both Admiral Mark Milbanke and Vice-Admiral Sir Andrew Mitchell during her career, and was present at the Battle of Navarino. Cambrian was wrecked off the coast of Grabusa in 1828.
HMS Incendiary was an 8-gun fireship of the Royal Navy. She was present at a number of major battles during the French Revolutionary Wars, and captured, or participated in the capture, of several armed vessels. In January 1801 she was in the Gulf of Cadiz where she encountered Admiral Ganteume's squadron. The 80-gun French Navy ship of the line Indivisible received the credit for the actual capture.
Ceres was an East Indiaman launched in 1787. She made three trips to China for the British East India Company (EIC). After the outbreak of war with France in 1793, the Admiralty, desirous of quickly building up the Royal Navy, purchased a number of commercial vessels, including nine East Indiamen, to meet the need for small two-decker fourth rates to serve as convoy escorts. The Admiralty purchased Ceres in 1795 and renamed her HMS Grampus. In 1797 the Admiralty converted her to a storeship. That year her crew participated in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. Grampus grounded in January 1799 and was destroyed.
HMS Thais was built for the British Royal Navy in 1806 and was the name-vessel of her class of fire ships. Between 1811 and 1813 she served in the West Africa Squadron, which was attempting to suppress the slave trade. During this service she captured several slave traders and an American privateer. She made one voyage to the East Indies. Thais was sold in 1818. She then became a merchantman. She was last listed in 1826.
Quatre frères was either an American or Bermudian-built vessel. She was commissioned in 1796 at Bordeaux as a French privateer. The Royal Navy captured her in April 1797 and took her into service as HMS Transfer. The Royal Navy sold her at Malta in 1802 to Ottoman Tripolitania. The U.S. Navy captured her in 1804 and took her into service as USS Scourge. The U.S. Navy sold her in 1812.
HMS Princess of Orange was launched in 1796 by the Amsterdam department of the Dutch Navy. In 1799 the British Royal Navy captured her during the Vlieter incident. From 1800 to 1811 she served on the North Sea, Channel, and Irish stations frequently serving as a flagship for various British admirals. Between 1811 and 1820 she served as a powder hulk; she was sold for breaking up in 1822.
El Corso was launched in Spain in 1791 as a naval brig. the British Royal Navy captured her in 1796 and took her into service as HMS Corso. She then served in the Mediterranean where she captured numerous small vessels, the great majority of which were merchant vessels. In 1802 she sailed to England. From July 1802 to her sale in September 1814 she served as a receiving ship.
References
Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-252-8.
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