HMS Pactolus (1813)

Last updated

PACTOLUS 1813 RMG J5397.jpg
Drawing of the profile of the Pactolus, from the archives of the Royal Museums Greenwich
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
NameHMS Pactolus
Ordered16 November 1812
BuilderMrs Frances Barnard, Deptford
Laid downJanuary 1813
Launched14 August 1813
CompletedBy 30 October 1813
FateSold to be broken up in January 1818
General characteristics [1]
Class and type Cydnus-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen1,06588⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 150 ft 2+3⁄4 in (45.8 m) (overall)
  • 125 ft 6+1⁄8 in (38.3 m) (keel)
Beam39 ft 11+1⁄2 in (12.2 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 9+1⁄2 in (3.9 m)
Sail plan Full-rigged ship
Complement315
Armament
  • Upper deck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 14 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Pactolus was one of eight 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy, that served in the Napoleonic wars and the War of 1812. She was one of the warships that bombarded Stonington, Connecticut from 9 to 12 August 1814. Pactolus was paid off in August 1817 and sold in 1818.

Contents

Construction

Cydnus-class frigates such as Pactolus were actually Leda-class frigates, but built of red fir (pine). Pine was cheaper and more abundant than oak and permitted noticeably faster construction, but at a cost of a reduced lifespan. The motive for the use of red pine – an inferior material for shipbuilding [2] – was speed of construction. It was much quicker to build a ship with this material than one of oak; the drawback was that these fir-built ships were less durable than oak-built ships.

Like all the 38-gun British frigates of the late Napoleonic wars period, she carried twenty-eight 18-pounder guns on the upper deck, fourteen 32-pounder carronades on the quarter deck, and two 9-pounder guns and another two 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle. Under the re-classifications in February 1817, this resulted in her being re-classed from 38 to 46 guns.

Service

Pactolus was commissioned in September 1813 under Captain Frederick William Aylmer. He would remain her captain to the end of 1815. [1] On 24 March Pactolus recaptured the Swedish ship Maria Christina while in company with Seahorse and another warship. [lower-alpha 1]

On 8 August 1814 Pactolus was part of a small squadron made up of herself, the brig Dispatch and the bomb vessel Terror, all under the command of Captain Sir Thomas Hardy in Ramillies. [4] Together, the vessels attacked Stonington, Connecticut. Stonington was known for preparing and harbouring "torpedoes", that is naval mines, and for supporting American attempts to destroy British warships off New London. [4]

Action commenced on 9 August, when Dispatch anchored within pistol shot of a battery on shore and opened fire, which the battery answered. The water was too shallow for Pactolus to follow, so Dispatch withdrew, having suffered casualties of two men dead and twelve wounded. [4] On 11 August Terror lobbed shells into the town. Ramillies and Pactolus then anchored as close to the town as they could and opened fire, doing a great deal of damage. As they started their bombardment, the Americans withdrew their guns from the battery to the outskirts of town where a large force of militia had gathered. Hardy then withdrew. [4]

Pactolus was one of some seven ships that shared in the capture of the Spanish brig Patriota on 6 September. [lower-alpha 2] On 6 November Pactolus was in company with Telegraph and Majestic when they recaptured the brig Recovery. [6]

On 7 December 1814 Pactolus captured the schooner Armistice, of 3 guns, 15 men and 143 tons. A privateer later recaptured Armistice, but then Junon re-recaptured the schooner. [7] Two days later, Pactolus captured the schooner Post Bay of 8 men and 73 tons. [7]

Pactolus returned to Britain and on 9 July 1815 sailed up the Gironde, together with Hebrus and Falmouth. [7] Pactolus was on a mission to treat with the authorities in Bordeaux over the reestablishment of the monarchy in France. Though the British squadron was under a flag of truce, the fort at Verdon opened fire on them, but without effect. The next day the French evacuated the fort and a British landing party dismantled and destroyed the guns. Over the next few days they destroyed several more French forts in the area. [8] The British took possession of the forts of Verdon, Royan, de Lotisac, and Miche, which they completely dismantled. They took nearly 70 pieces of heavy artillery (mostly French thirty-six-pounders), including many mortars, all of which they completely spiked and whose carriages they rendered useless. On 22 July Bordeaux declared for the monarchy as French troops, which Hebrus had brought with her on two transports, took control. [9]

In January 1816 Captain William Hugh Dobbie took command of Pactolus for the Halifax, Nova Scotia, station. [1] She sailed in May. In July 1816 Pactolus returned to Portsmouth.

Fate

Pactolus was paid off in August 1817 as being no longer seaworthy due to dry rot. [10] The Admiralty sold her to Mr. Maund for £2,790 on 29 January 1818. [1]

Notes

  1. ↑ The prize money for Aylmer was £187 3s 3+3⁄4 d; the prize money for an ordinary seaman was £2 2s 4+1⁄2d. [3] For an ordinary seaman, this would have amounted to about six weeks' wages.
  2. ↑ A captain's share of the prize money was £6 2s 4d; an ordinary seaman's share was 1s 1+3⁄4d. [5] For an ordinary seaman this was about one day's pay.

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Winfield (2008), pp. 186–7.
  2. ↑ "The Canadian Sea Scout Manual" (PDF). p. 13.
  3. ↑ "No. 17017". The London Gazette . 30 May 1815. p. 1024.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "No. 16941". The London Gazette . 1 October 1814. p. 1963.
  5. ↑ "No. 17772". The London Gazette . 7 July 1821. p. 1418.
  6. ↑ "No. 17496". The London Gazette . 20 July 1819. p. 1280.
  7. 1 2 3 "No. 17722". The London Gazette . 16 May 1815. p. 922.
  8. ↑ "No. 17044". The London Gazette . 25 July 1815. pp. 1513–1515.
  9. ↑ "No. 17050". The London Gazette . 12 August 1815. p. 1644.
  10. ↑ Gentleman's magazine, Volume 100, p.182.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>Tonnant</i> 80-gun ship of the line

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 <i>Starr</i> (1805) Sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Starr was a 16-gun Merlin-class ship sloop of the Royal Navy. She was built by Tanner, of Dartmouth, to plans by Sir William Rule, and launched in July 1805. As a sloop she served on convoy duty, though she also participated in the invasion of Martinique in early 1809. She was rebuilt as a bomb vessel in May 1812 and renamed Meteor. As Meteor she served in the Baltic and then off the United States, participating in attacks on up the Potomac and on Baltimore and New Orleans. She was sold in October 1816.

HMS <i>Hydra</i> (1797) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Hydra launched in 1797 was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. From 1813 to 1817 she served as a troopship. She was sold in 1820.

HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 July 1785 at Rotherhithe.

HMS <i>Garland</i> (1807)

HMS Garland was a 22-gun Royal Navy Laurel-class post ship. She was built by Richard Chapman at Bideford and launched on 5 May 1807. She saw action in the War of 1812 and was sold in 1817.

HMS <i>Belle Poule</i> (1806) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Belle Poule was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate, formerly Belle Poule, a Virginie-class frigate of the French Navy that had been built by the Crucy family's shipyard at Basse-Indre to a design by Jacques-Noël Sané. She was launched on 17 April 1802, and saw active service in the East. In 1806 a British squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren captured her off La Palma in the Canary Islands. The Admiralty commissioned her into the Royal Navy as HMS Belle Poule. She was sold in 1816.

French frigate <i>Néréide</i> (1779)

Néréide was a Sibylle-class, 32-gun, copper-hulled frigate of the French Navy. On 22 December 1797 HMS Phoebe captured her and she was taken into British service as HMS Nereide. The French recaptured her at the Battle of Grand Port, only to lose her again when the British took Isle de France, in 1810. After the Battle of Grand Port she was in such a poor condition that she was laid up and sold for breaking up in 1816.

HMS Cydnus was one of eight Royal Navy 38-gun Cydnus-class fifth-rates. This frigate was built in 1813 at Blackwall Yard, London, and broken up in 1816.

HMS Telegraph was built in 1812 in New York as the American letter of marque Vengeance. The Royal Navy captured her in 1813 and took her into service as the 14-gun schooner or gunbrig Telegraph. Over a period of only about two years she took numerous small prizes and caused the destruction of a French 16-gun brig. A gale caused the wrecking of Telegraph in 1817.

HMS Shelburne was the American letter of marque schooner Racer, built in Baltimore in 1811 and captured by the British in 1813. She served on the American coast, capturing the American brig Frolic. She also captured some merchantmen and was sold in Britain in 1817.

HMS <i>Emulous</i> (1806) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Emulous was a Royal Navy 18-gun Cruizer-class brig-sloop, built by William Row at Newcastle and launched in 1806. She survived an inconclusive but bloody battle with a French frigate during the Napoleonic Wars and captured a number of prizes, including two privateers, on the Halifax station during the War of 1812 before she was wrecked in 1812.

HMS <i>Severn</i> (1813)

HMS Severn was an Endymion-class frigate of the British Royal Navy, launched in 1813 as one of five heavy frigates built to match the powerful American frigates. The shortage of oak meant that she was built of "fir", which meant a considerably shortened lifespan. Nonetheless, the ship saw useful service, especially at the bombardment of Algiers in 1816, before being broken up in 1825.

HMS <i>Seahorse</i> (1794) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Seahorse was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1794 and broken up in 1819.

HMS Canso was the American letter of marque schooner Lottery, launched in 1811, that a British squadron captured in 1813. The Royal Navy took Lottery into service as HMS Canso and she served during the War of 1812 and briefly thereafter. The navy sold her in 1816.

HMS <i>Moselle</i> (1804) Brig-sloop of the Royal Navy

HMS Moselle was a Cruizer-class brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1804. She served during the Napoleonic Wars in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and the North American station. She was sold in 1815.

Admiral Frederick Whitworth Aylmer, 6th Baron Aylmer was a British Royal Navy officer who fought in the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, eventually rising to the rank of admiral. He was born on 12 October 1777 in Twyford, Hampshire, into a naval family which included his great-great-grandfather, Admiral Matthew Aylmer.

French frigate <i>Trave</i> (1812)

The French frigate Trave was a Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched at Amsterdam in 1812. After the Royal Navy captured her in 1813 in the North Sea, it took her into service as the troopship HMS Trave. She served in the Potomac and her boats participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne during the War of 1812. She was sold on 7 June 1821.

HMS <i>Thistle</i> (1812) Brig of the Royal Navy

HMS Thistle was a 12-gun Bold-class gun-brig built by Mary Ross at Rochester, Kent. She was launched in 1812 and broken up at Portsmouth in July 1823.

HMS Nymphe was a 38-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1812 at Woolwich Dockyard, and commissioned later that month. She was a Lively class of 18-pounder frigates, designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule. It was probably the most successful British frigate design of the Napoleonic Wars, to which fifteen more sister ships would be ordered between 1803 and 1812.

HMS <i>Hebrus</i> Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate

HMS Hebrus was a 36-gun Scamander-class frigate of the Royal Navy. Constructed in response to the start of the War of 1812, Hebrus was commissioned in October 1813 under Captain Edmund Palmer. Serving initially in the English Channel, on 27 March 1814 the frigate fought at the Battle of Jobourg during which she captured the French 40-gun frigate Étoile in a single-ship action. Hebrus was subsequently transferred to serve in North America. She participated in the expedition up the Patuxent River in August which resulted in the destruction of the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, and Palmer was also present at the Battle of Bladensburg.

References

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.