At the request of Nelson's father, Suckling entered the young Horatio Nelson as midshipman into the ship's books, though Nelson did not embark until a couple of months after this (it was not uncommon practise to rate sons of relatives or friends several months before they entered the ship, though Admiralty orders expressly forbade this), on 15 March 1771. Raisonnable had been in the process of commissioning at this time, in response to an expected conflict with Spain. However, the war never developed, and Raisonnable remained in the Medway as a guard ship. At this time, Suckling took command of the 74-gunHMSTriumph, and took Nelson with him.
The ship re-commissioned on 25 May 1771 under Captain Henry St. John, a mere 10 days since paying off as a guard ship, and joined the Channel Fleet. St John was succeeded by Captain Thomas Greaves on 23 January 1773, and Raisonnable paid off at Plymouth on 23 September 1775.
American Revolutionary War
She was again re-commissioned on 25 February 1776 under Captain Thomas Fitzherbert, and despatched to the North American Station. On the 24th December 1776 she captured the American Brig Dalton capturing all hands which it delivered to Plymouth as Prisoners of War. On 19 February, 1778 she captured schooner Williams off the St. Georges Bank.[3] On 24 May 1778 she, with HMS Diamond, captured and burned American schooner "Fly" off Cape Cod.[4] On 27 May she, with HMS Diamond, captured American brig "Sally" off Cape Cod.[5] On 28 May she, with HMS Diamond, captured Connecticut privateer "General McDougall" off Cape Cod.[6] In July 1778, Raisonnable formed part of Lord Howe's squadron, which was lying off Sandy Hook. The French Admiral d'Estaing was nearby with a large fleet, and the two opposing sides were only prevented from engaging in battle by the weather and sea conditions, which forced the two fleets to disperse.
Raisonnable seen here in the far left background firing into Hunter on the Penobscot Expedition
Captain Henry Francis Evans took command of Raisonnable on 5 December 1778, and in May of the following year, took part in an assault on Hampton Roads, as part of Commodore Sir George Collier's squadron. On 1 June Raisonnable was in action on the Hudson River, during which two forts were captured. In August, with Collier embarked, Raisonnable sailed to Penobscot, where British forces were under heavy siege. Immediately after arriving, Collier's squadron of 7 ships engaged a rebel fleet of 41 vessels, of which 2 were captured, and the rest were either sunk or destroyed to prevent capture.
In January 1780, Raisonnable was part of Vice AdmiralMariot Arbuthnot's squadron which took part in the siege of Charleston, South Carolina, although Raisonnable, along with the 5 other third rates in the squadron, was sent back to New York before the siege began. Captain Evans left the ship on 14 May 1780.
Captain Sir Digby Dent assumed the command on 30 August, and returned the ship to England. Dent transferred to Repulse on 16 December, and Raisonnable paid off in January the following year. On 11 May 1781 she went into dock, during which time she had her bottom coppered. She was re-launched on 14 January 1782 and placed under the command of Captain Smith Child on 15 May, until 29 August when he shifted to HMSEuropa.
She was commissioned again on 8 January 1782 under Captain Lord Hervey, but brought back to Chatham in August for decommissioning. Her crew were to be discharged to other vessels, but there were delays in finalising their departures and they became mutinous. Captain Hervey made an unsuccessful appeal to the crew to return to their stations, and then had the ringleaders of the mutiny arrested at gunpoint. The mutiny promptly collapsed, and Raisonnable was sailed to Sheerness Dockyard where she was placed under guard. Four mutineers were sentenced to death for their part in the uprising.[7]
The American war at this stage was coming to an end, and Raisonnable was no longer required by the Navy, and so was laid up in ordinary – a state in which she remained for some ten years.
French Revolutionary War
When war with France broke out in 1793, Raisonnable, along with many other vessels, was brought out of ordinary, and made ready for service once more. On 31 January she was re-commissioned under Captain James, Lord Cranstoun. She joined with the Channel Fleet in April, but was back in dock, in Portsmouth this time, on 14 January 1794. She put to sea again in March, but returned to dock in Portsmouth in September so as her copper might be replaced. She once more re-joined the Channel Fleet on 1 November, and remained on active service until 14 October 1796, when she was docked at Plymouth for re-coppering. She returned to duty in January 1797, and during 1799, Captain Charles Boyles took over the command, and left the ship again, when Raisonnable returned to Chatham on 21 January 1800, for HMSSaturn. She was dry docked on 2 April for re-coppering and other repairs, and sailed again on 19 August.
Captain John Dilkes became Raisonnable's commanding officer on 21 January 1801, and the ship joined the North Sea Squadron. 1801 saw the creation of an alliance between Denmark, Norway, Prussia and Russia, which cut Britain off from the supplies relied upon from the Baltic. Raisonnable joined Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's fleet sent to attack the Danes at Copenhagen. On 2 April, she took part in the Battle of Copenhagen. After the battle, she was attached to a squadron under Captain George Murray in Edgar, which included one of Raisonnable's sister ships, HMSAgamemnon, to watch the Swedish Navy at Karlskrona. Once the situation in the Baltic was resolved, Raisonnable returned to the North Sea, before paying off.
When the Treaty of Amiens was signed in March 1802, Raisonnable was docked at Chatham in July and her copper repaired. She was on station at Sheerness once again by the end of December.
Napoleonic Wars
War broke out again with France in March 1803, and Raisonnable was by this time under the command of Captain William Hotham. She joined Admiral William Cornwallis and the Channel Fleet, and participated in the blockade of Brest.
Raisonnable remained on blockade duty until sailing from Cork in late 1805 with Commodore Sir Home Riggs Popham's squadron, consisting of 9 vessels, including another of Raisonnable's sister ships, Belliqueux, for the Cape of Good Hope. The following campaign saw British troops drive the Dutch out of Cape Town, and the subsequent peace terms handed the Cape dependencies to the British crown. In April 1806, after receiving news that the people of Buenos Aires were unhappy with Spanish rule, and would welcome the British, Popham sailed with his squadron to the Río de la Plata. Popham was replaced by Rear Admiral Murray, and following a disastrous second attempt to take Buenos Aires, Raisonnable returned to the Cape.
A view showing Raisonnable attacking Saint Paul's Island 21 September 1809. The advanced British Frigate, is the Sirius Capt. Pym raking the French frigate La Caroline.
In 1809, Captain Rowley commanded a squadron that blockaded Mauritius (the Isle of France) and Réunion (the Isle of Bourbon). On 20 September, Rowley, commanding the squadron from HMSNereide, succeeded in taking the town of Saint-Paul, the batteries, a 40-gun frigateCaroline, a 16-gun brig, and 2 merchantmen, as well as rescuing two ships of the East India Company (Streatham and Europe). Captain Rowley transferred to HMSBoadicea during March 1810, and Captain John Hatley took over the command, paying the ship off in Chatham at the end of July.
Fate
In November 1810, Raisonnable was hulked and converted into a receiving ship, and towed to Sheerness. In March 1815, she was finally broken up.[1][2]
Admiral of the Red James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez, GCB was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, known for his victory at the Second Battle of Algeciras.
HMS Agamemnon was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. She saw service in the American Revolutionary War, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and fought in many of the major naval battles of those conflicts. She is remembered as being Nelson's favourite ship, and was named after the mythical ancient Greek king Agamemnon, being the first ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name.
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 Polyphemus, a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 27 April 1782 at Sheerness. She participated in the 1801 Battle of Copenhagen, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Siege of Santo Domingo. In 1813 she became a powder hulk and was broken up in 1827.
Captain Maurice Suckling was a British Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, most notable for starting the naval career of his nephew Horatio Nelson and for serving as Comptroller of the Navy from 1775 until his death. Suckling joined the Royal Navy in 1739 and saw service in the English Channel and Mediterranean Sea during the War of the Austrian Succession. With the support of relatives including Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, Suckling was promoted quickly and received his first command in 1754. At the start of the Seven Years' War in 1756 he was promoted to captain and given a command on the Jamaica Station. There he played a major part in the Battle of Cap-Français in 1757 and fought an inconclusive skirmish against the French ship Palmier in 1758 before returning to Britain in 1760.
HMS Pegasus was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth rate. This frigate was launched in 1779 at Deptford and sold in 1816. Pegasus had a relatively uneventful career and is perhaps best known for the fact that her captain from 1786 to 1789 was Prince William Henry, the future King William IV. By 1811 Pegasus was a receiving ship at Chatham; she was sold in 1816.
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Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer who was the fourth son of Admiral Sir William Rowley. Sir Joshua was from an ancient English family, originating in Staffordshire (England) and was born on 1 May 1734. Rowley served with distinction in a number of battles throughout his career and was highly praised by his contemporaries. Unfortunately whilst his career was often active he did not have the opportunity to command any significant engagements and always followed rather than led. His achievements have therefore been eclipsed by his contemporaries such as Keppel, Hawke, Howe and Rodney. Rowley however remains one of the stalwart commanders of the wooden walls that kept Britain safe for so long.
William Mounsey CB was a British officer of the Royal Navy. He served during the American Revolutionary, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, rising to the rank of Captain.
The Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811 was a series of amphibious operations and naval actions fought to determine possession of the French Indian Ocean territories of Isle de France and Île Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. The campaign lasted from the spring of 1809 until the spring of 1811, and saw both the Royal Navy and the French Navy deploy substantial frigate squadrons with the intention of disrupting or protecting trade from British India. In a war in which the Royal Navy was almost universally dominant at sea, the campaign is especially notable for the local superiority enjoyed by the French Navy in the autumn of 1810 following the British disaster at the Battle of Grand Port, the most significant defeat for the Royal Navy in the entire conflict. After their victory, the British used the original Dutch name of Mauritius for Isle de France. In 1814, Île Bonaparte was returned to France, who eventually renamed it La Réunion.
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HMS Lowestoffe was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Built during the latter part of the Seven Years' War, she went on to see action in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary War, and served often in the Caribbean. A young Horatio Nelson served aboard her shortly after passing his lieutenant's examination.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Martin was an officer of the Royal Navy who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. During his long naval career he took part in several significant battles, for which he was awarded a number of honours and promotions; he commanded ships at Cape St Vincent and Cape Finisterre.
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HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She was ordered in 1758, laid down in 1759, and launched in 1765. With 245 years of service as of 2023, she is the world's oldest naval vessel still in commission.
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Captain Henry Francis Evans was a British Royal Navy officer who fought with distinction in the American Revolutionary War. He fought in the Penobscot Expedition, the Siege of Charleston and the Battle of Cape Breton, where he was killed in action and later buried in St. Paul's Church (Halifax).
William Cuming (1760–1824) was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American and French Revolutionary Wars. He was the captain of HMS Russell at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, where his men captured the Danish ship of the line Prøvesteenen. In 1805, as flag captain aboard HMS Prince of Wales, he returned to England for Robert Calder's court martial, following perceived inaction at the Battle of Cape Finisterre. Cuming, therefore, missed the Battle of Trafalgar.
References
Clowes, William Laird (1898). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol.3. Sampson Low, Marston and Company. OCLC913559331.
Michael Phillips. Raisonable (64) (1768). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 1 September 2008.
Goodwin, Peter (2002) Nelson's Ships – A History of the Vessels in which he Served, 1771-1805. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN978-0-85177-742-9
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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