With three other frigates and 13 ships-of-the-line, Romulus chased a smaller French squadron into Gourjean Bay in August 1794. Kept away by the batteries on the shore, Hood returned to Corsica with four ships, leaving Romulus, three other frigates and nine ships-of-the-line, to form a blockade. This ultimately failed due to bad weather and the French ships escaped. Following the Battle of Genoa on 14 March 1795, boats from Romulus assisted in the recovery of stores and crew from HMSIllustrious, which had been badly damaged during the action and subsequent storm.
In January 1797, Romulus was in the small squadron, under CommodoreHoratio Nelson that evacuated the island of Elba. While the escaping convoy was escorted to Gibraltar, Romulus, with Nelson's ship HMSMinerve, carried out a surveillance of the enemy ports and coast. On 24 May, in a ruse de guerre, Romulus captured a Spanish 20-gun corvette. Approaching under false colours with a second British frigate, the Spanish vessel was taken without a shot being fired.
Romulus was converted to a troopship in mid-1799 and served in the Egyptian campaign, landing troops for the battle of Aboukir on 8 March 1801. She was paid off at the end of the war in 1802. When hostilities resumed in May 1803, Romulus was converted into a floating battery, standing guard first at Woolwich, then Hollesley Bay near East Anglia and finally Leith. During the later half of 1810, Romulus was converted to a troopship once more and in 1812 was back in the Mediterranean. In July 1813 she had a short-lived appointment as a hospital ship in Bermuda. She paid off that December, was recommissioned a final time, and was eventually broken up on the island in November 1816.
Romulus was 137feet 2inches (41.8m) along the gun deck, had a beam of 38feet 3inches (11.7m) and a depth in hold of 13feet 3+1⁄2inches (4.1m). She was 87937⁄94tons burthen and drew between 9feet 5+1⁄2inches (2.9 metres) at the bow and 13feet 6+1⁄2inches (4.1 metres) at the stern. When fully manned, she would carry a complement of 270.[1]
Launched on 21 September 1785, Romulus was taken down the Thames to Deptford Dockyard, where work began on 11 October to have her sheathed in copper and rigged for sailing to Portsmouth. The works cost £1,736.[1] With a further £2,333 spent finishing the fitting-out at Portsmouth, Romulus had cost the Admiralty £15,3455/4d.[1]
Flora-class frigates were designed in an attempt to counter the threat of the heavier frigates being built by the other great naval powers of the time. They were originally constructed to carry a main battery of twenty-six 18-pounder (8.2kg) guns on the upper deck, with a secondary armament of eight 6-pounder (2.7kg) guns on the quarterdeck and two on the forecastle. By the time Romulus was ordered however, the armament had twice been increased with the addition of eight 18-pounder carronades and twelve 1⁄2-pounder (0.23kg)swivel guns in September 1799 and the upgrading of the 6-pound long guns with 9-pounders in April 1780.[3]
In August 1793, Romulus was blockading the port of Toulon with Admiral Lord Hood's fleet and was among the vessels that shared in the capture, on 5 August, of the Prince Royal of Sweden.[4]Romulus took a polacca on 20 August, while in the company of the 64-gun HMSAgamemnon, the 74-gun HMSRobust and the 50-gun HMSRomney and on 28 August she took part in the occupation of Toulon, receiving a share of the prize money for the ships captured there.[5] With the 32-gun HMSMeleager, she captured a French gunboat on 16 November[6] and during the evacuation in December, Romulus provided covering fire while Robust and the 74-gun HMSLeviathan removed allied troops from the waterfront.[7]
The British fleet under Hood was laying off Bastia in early June 1794 when word was received that seven French ships-of-the-line and five frigates had broken out of Toulon. Setting off in pursuit, with 13 ships-of-the-line and four frigates, including Romulus, the British spotted their quarry on 10 June, and by dawn the next day had closed the distance to 12 nautical miles (22km). Wishing to avoid conflict with a superior force, the French sought shelter in Gourjean Bay.[9] When they arrived at the anchorage at about 14:00, the only British ship close enough to engage was the 28-gun frigate HMSDido which was beaten off by the fire from the rearmost French vessels and the two forts guarding the entrance. A plan was formulated to capture or destroy the French fleet with Romulus, Dido, Juno, Meleager and the 74-gun HMSIllustrious, attacking the four enemy frigates. The scheme was delayed by contrary winds and tides and then cancelled after the French fortified their position by landing guns and establishing batteries on the shore.[10]
Hood returned to Corsica, arriving at Calvi on 27 June with Victory, Princess Royal and two 74s, having left the remainder of the fleet under Hotham. The force, comprising nine ships-of-the-line and four frigates, including Romulus was supposed to blockade the bay, but was blown off station during a storm, and the French escaped back to Toulon.[10][11]
Later in August 1794, Captain George Hope was appointed to Romulus, and in November Hood left for England, leaving Hotham as the Commander-in-Chief.[1][10]Romulus was one of seven frigates which, together with 13 ships-of-the-line, two sloops and a cutter, were anchored in the roads of Livorno on 8 March 1795. The following day, a British scout, the 24-gun sloop HMSMoselle, brought news that a French fleet of 15 ships-of-the-line, six frigates and two brigs, had been seen off the islands of Sainte-Marguerite.[12] Hotham immediately ordered his ships to sea and on 10 March the advanced British frigates spotted the French fleet at some distance. Making their way back to Toulon against the wind, the French had with them the recently captured 74-gun HMSBerwick, which had been undergoing repairs at Corsica and was sailing under a jury rig when taken on 8 March.[13]
The British had been in pursuit for two days when on the night of 12 March a storm developed. Two French ships of the line, Berwick and Mercure, were damaged and had to be escorted to Gourjean Bay by two frigates, leaving the opposing fleets roughly equal in strength and number. Seeing that the French were intending to avoid battle, the next morning Hotham, who had hitherto been trying to form line, ordered a general chase, and at 08:00 the 80-gun Ça Ira at the rear of the French fleet, collided with the 80-gun Victoire and its fore and main topmasts collapsed overboard.[14] The leading British ship was the 36-gun frigate, HMSInconstant under Captain Thomas Fremantle, which reached the damaged Ça Ira within an hour of the collision and opened fire at close range, causing further damage. Seeing the danger, the French frigate Vestale fired upon Inconstant from a distance before taking the limping Ça Ira in tow.[15]
The chase continued throughout the day and night with the British van sporadically engaging with the French rearguard. Ça Ira dropped further and further behind the main body of the French force; to better protect the damaged ship, Vestale was replaced with a ship of the line, the 74-gun Censeur.[16] By morning the fleets were 21 nautical miles (39km) south-west of Genoa with the British rapidly gaining on the French. Ça Ira and Censeur had fallen a long way back from the French fleet, and Hotham sent his two fastest ships after them. Captain and the 74-gun HMSBedford did not arrive simultaneously however, and were both repulsed, although further damage was inflicted on the French stragglers in the process. As more British ships arrived, the French fleet broke off the engagement and left Ça Ira and Censeur to their fate. Hotham was content with the capture of these prizes and made no attempt to pursue the fleeing French.[17]
Romulus in a storm
After the action, the British fleet anchored in the Gulf of La Spezia to make repairs, but on 17 March was struck by a heavy gale. The badly damaged Illustrious, which had been taken in tow by Meleager, broke free and grounded near Avenza.[18] On 20 March, the weather had abated sufficiently to effect a rescue. Romulus, Tarleton, Lowestoffe, and teams of ship's boats, successfully removed all of the crew and most of the ship's stores without casualties but were unable to save the irreparably damaged ship. Once the wreck had been cleared, it was set on fire and abandoned.[19]
Following temporary repairs to the battle and storm damaged British Fleet, Romulus and her compatriots left Spezia bay on 25 March and arrived the next day at San Fiorenzo, where further work was carried out to the afflicted ships. Upon completion on 18 April, Hotham's ships, minus the two prizes, Ça Ira and Censeur, set sail for Livorno and anchored in the roads there on 27 April.[19]
Escort duties and cruising
On 26 September 1794, in company with HMSDiadem of 64 guns, Romulus captured an enemy ship, Aballata, loaded with specie.[20] She took another prize in January the following year, and a further vessel in July 1796.[21]Romulus was also in sight when the 32-gun HMSLively captured the Danish ship, Concordia on 27 February 1796, and was therefore entitled to a share of the spoils.[22]
In January 1797, Romulus assisted in the evacuation of the island of Elba along with 40-gun HMSMinerve under CommodoreHoratio Nelson, Dido and 32-gun HMSSouthampton; the storeships HMS Dromedary and HMSDolphin, and two sloops. On 29 January the squadron left Portoferraio, with 12 transports bound for Gibraltar but on that evening, Minerve and Romulus left the convoy to carry out a surveillance of the enemy ports and coast.[23] The two frigates travelled first to Corsica, evacuated by the British in October the previous year. Finding nothing of any consequence in San Fiorenzo Bay, Nelson decided to investigate Toulon. Arriving on 1 February, two days were spent in the roads and looking into the port but there was no sign of the enemy fleet, and the few ships that were there were not in a seaworthy condition. The frigates subsequently sailed to Barcelona, where they flew French colours in the hope of tempting out any ships within. This ruse de guerre was not successful however, and with the wind being contrary for Minorca, the two British vessels sailed instead for Cartagena. Finding it empty also, Nelson surmised that the combined Spanish and French fleet had gone west and was operating outside the Mediterranean. Minerve and Romulus therefore, rejoined the rest of the squadron at Gibraltar on 10 February.[23][24]
With the 36-gun HMSMahonesa, Romulus captured the 20-gun corvetteNuestra Senora del Rosario off Cadiz on 24 May 1797.[25] The two British ships approached under false colours and did not reveal their true identity until they were alongside; at which point the Spanish vessel struck, without a shot being fired.[26]Romulus and Mahonesa made a further capture on 10 September when, this time with the assistance of Romulus' sister ship, the 36-gun HMSThalia, they took the French brig, Espoir.[27][28] In February 1798, Romulus sailed for England, under Captain Henry Heathcote, where she paid off.[29]
During mid-1799, Romulus was recommissioned as a troopship and sent to the Mediterranean under Commander John Culverhouse.[29] Even in this lightly-armed state she was still an effective warship, capturing a Danish brig out of Livorno on 14 June 1800.[30] On 30 September, Romulus was in sight when a privateer took a Swedish brig, and was therefore entitled to a share of the prize money.[31] She served in the Navy's Egyptian campaign, landing troops at Aboukir bay on 8 March 1801, where she came under fire, which killed one of her crew and wounded another.[32] On 3 December, while Culverhouse was recovering from an illness, LieutenantThomas Staines was appointed to the command of Romulus to ferry the 64th Regiment of Foot from Alexandria to Malta.[33]Romulus paid off at the end of the war in 1802.
Later service and fate
In March 1803, Romulus was converted into a floating battery, with 32 18-pound long guns[Note 2] and recommissioned under Commander Woodley Losack in April. She guarded the Thames near Woolwich until June, when, hostilities with France having resumed in May, she was transferred to Hollesley Bay, off East Anglia, a popular anchorage for the Royal Navy at that time.[29] Command passed to Commander Charles Pelly in January 1804, then Lieutenant Thomas Burton in May, when she transported troops to the mouth of the Elbe before sailing to the Firth of Forth to stand sentry at Leith.[29][35]
Romulus was laid up at Chatham from 1807 until some point in 1809. Between June and October 1810 she was converted to a lightly-armed troopship with fourteen 9-pounders on the upper deck, two on the forecastle and six 18-pound carronades on the quarterdeck. Commander Lord Balgonie joined her in September. In March 1812, under Lieutenant George Knight, she transported troops to Lisbon, Catalonia and North America, and assisted in the capture of Ocracoke and Portsmouth, North Carolina, in July 1813. She was after taken to Bermuda where she was used as a hospital ship.[36][29] This was a short-lived appointment, and she paid off in December. She was later recommissioned while still in Bermuda but was eventually broken up there in November 1816.[29]
Notes
↑ The gun-rating of a vessel was the number of long guns it was designed to carry and did not always match its actual armament. Before 1817, carronades were not counted at all unless they were direct replacements for long guns.[2]
↑ The Heavy Frigate (Robert Gardiner) lists Romulus' armament as 24 × 18-pound long guns and 8 × 18-pounder carronades following her conversion.[34]
Courageux was a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1753. She was captured by the Royal Navy in 1761 and taken into service as HMS Courageux. In 1778 she joined the Channel Fleet, and she was later part of the squadron commanded by Commodore Charles Fielding that controversially captured a Dutch convoy on 31 December 1779, in what became known as the Affair of Fielding and Bylandt. On 4 January 1781, Courageux recaptured Minerva in a close-range action west of Ushant that lasted more than an hour. That April, Courageux joined the convoy under George Darby which successfully relieved the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
The Couronne was an 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy.
The Battle of Genoa was a naval battle fought between French and allied Anglo-Neapolitan forces on 14 March 1795 in the Gulf of Genoa, a large bay in the Ligurian Sea off the coast of the Republic of Genoa, during the French Revolutionary Wars. The French fleet was led by Contre-amiral Pierre Martin and comprised 14 ships of the line while the British Royal Navy and Neapolitan fleet, under Vice-Admiral William Hotham mustered 13 ships of the line. The battle ended with a minor British-Neapolitan victory and the capture of two French ships.
HMS Tartar was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
Minerve was a 40-gun Minerve-class frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her twice and the French recaptured her once. She therefore served under four names before being broken up in 1814:
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 Bedford was a Royal Navy 74-gun third rate. This ship of the line was launched on 27 October 1775 at Woolwich.
Fénix was an 80-gun ship of the line (navio) of the Spanish Navy, built by Pedro de Torres at Havana in accordance with the system laid down by Antonio Gaztaneta launched in 1749. In 1759, she was sent to bring the new king, Carlos III, from Naples to Barcelona. When Spain entered the American Revolutionary War in June 1779, Fénix set sail for the English Channel where she was to join a Franco-Spanish fleet of more than 60 ships of the line under Lieutenant General Luis de Córdova y Córdova. The Armada of 1779 was an invasion force of 40,000 troops with orders to capture the British naval base at Portsmouth.
HMS Meleager was a 32-gun Amazon-class frigate' that Greaves and Nickolson built in 1785 at the Quarry House yard in Frindsbury, Kent, England. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars until 1801, when she was wrecked in the Gulf of Mexico.
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.
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.
Censeur was a 74-gun Pégase-class ship of the line of the French Navy, launched in 1782. She served during the last months of the American War of Independence, and survived to see action in the French Revolutionary Wars. She was briefly captured by the British, but was retaken after a few months and taken back into French service as Révolution. She served until 1799, when she was transferred to the Spanish Navy, but was found to be rotten and was broken up.
The French frigate Mignonne was a one-off design by Jean-Baptiste Doumet-Revest; she was launched in 1767 at Toulon. Some notable French captains commanded her before the British captured her at Calvi in 1794 and took her into the Royal Navy as HMS Mignonne. She was burnt in 1797 as useless.
HMS Success was a 32-gun Amazon-class fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy launched in 1781, which served during the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. The French captured her in the Mediterranean on 13 February 1801, but she was recaptured by the British on 2 September. She continued to serve in the Mediterranean until 1811, and in North America until hulked in 1814, then serving as a prison ship and powder hulk, before being broken up in 1820.
The action of 8 March 1795 was a minor naval engagement in the Mediterranean theatre of the French Revolutionary Wars. The action was part of series of battles fought in the spring of 1795 between British and French fleets for control of the Ligurian Sea and thus the blockade of the French naval base of Toulon. The engagement was the first significant action of the year and was fought principally between the damaged British 74-gun ship of the line HMS Berwick and the French 32-gun frigate Alceste, with the later assistance of the frigate Vestale and the 74-gun Duquesne, distantly supported by the rest of the French Mediterranean Fleet.
The action of 24 June 1795 was a minor naval engagement fought in the Western Basin of the Mediterranean Sea on 24 June 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. During 1795 the Royal Navy and French Navy Mediterranean Fleets were vying for supremacy in the region, the French operating from the fortified port of Toulon and the British from the allied Spanish base of Port Mahon on Menorca. A minor British victory at the Battle of Genoa in March had not resolved the conflict, both sides suffering damage. The British, under Admiral William Hotham, subsequently withdrew to Menorca to meet a squadron of reinforcements while the French, under Contre-amiral Pierre Martin at Toulon, suffering from ill-discipline, had also been reinforced. By June, both fleets were ready to return to the Ligurian Sea.
The Battle of the Hyères Islands was a naval engagement fought between a combined British and Neapolitan fleet and the French Mediterranean Fleet on 13 July 1795 during the French Revolutionary Wars. Since the start of the war in 1793 the French fleet had suffered a series of damaging defeats and was restricted to limited operations off the French Mediterranean Coast in the face of a determined allied blockade. The French fleet, commanded by Pierre Martin, had sought to test the blockade during 1795, and in March had been caught by the British, under William Hotham, in the Gulf of Genoa. At the ensuing Battle of Genoa two French ships were captured before Martin was able to retreat to a safe anchorage.
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.
The Battle of the Levant Convoy was a naval engagement of the French Revolutionary Wars fought on 7 October 1795. During the battle, a powerful French squadron surprised a valuable British convoy from the Levant off Cape St Vincent on the coast of Portugal. The convoy was weakly defended, and although the small escort squadron tried to drive the French back, they were outmatched. In the ensuing action one of the British ships of the line and almost the entire convoy was overrun and captured. The French commander, Commodore Joseph de Richery, then retired to the neutral Spanish port of Cádiz, where he came under blockade.
HMS Melpomene was a 38-gun frigate of the Royal Navy. Originally a French vessel, she was captured at Calvi on 10 August 1794 and first saw British service in the English Channel, where she helped to contain enemy privateering. In October 1798, she chased a French frigate squadron sent to find the French fleet under Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart, that was routed at the Battle of Tory Island and in August 1799, she joined Andrew Mitchell's squadron for the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland.
References
Clowes, William Laird (1996) [1900]. The Royal Navy, A History from the Earliest Times to 1900, Volume I. London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN1-86176-010-8.
Davies, David (1996). Fighting Ships. Fulham Palace Road, London.: Constable and Robinson Limited. ISBN1-84119-469-7.
Gregory, Desmond (1985). The Ungovernable Rock: A History of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom and its role in Britain's Mediterranean Strategy During the Revolutionary War (1793–1797). London & Toronto: Associated University Presses. ISBN978-0-8386-3225-3.
Gardiner, Robert (1994). The Heavy Frigate: Eighteen-Pounder Frigates: Vol I, 1778-1800. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0 85177 627 2.
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