Action between Amazone and HMS Santa Margarita – cutting the prize adrift, 30 July 1782 | |
History | |
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Spain | |
Name | Santa Margarita |
Launched | 1774 |
Captured | 11 November 1779, by the Royal Navy |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Santa Margarita |
Acquired | 11 November 1779 |
Fate | Sold on 8 September 1836 |
General characteristics [1] [2] | |
Class and type | 36-gun fifth-rate frigate |
Tons burthen | 992 bm |
Length | 145 ft 6 in (44.3 m) |
Beam | 38 ft 11 in (11.9 m) |
Depth of hold | 11 ft 9 in (3.6 m) |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement | 240 (255 from 21 December 1780) |
Armament |
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HMS Santa Margarita was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She had been built for service with the Spanish Navy, but was captured after five years in service, eventually spending nearly 60 years with the British.
Santa Margarita was built at Ferrol in 1774. In the action of 11 November 1779 Captain Alex Graeme of HMS Tartar brought her to battle off Lisbon and captured her. [1] [2] She was taken into Royal Navy service by an Admiralty order of 16 March 1780; she was then repaired and refitted at Sheerness between February 1780 and June 1781. [1]
Santa Margarita was commissioned in March 1781 under Captain Elliot Salter, who sailed her to North America where she formed part of George Johnstone's squadron in June 1781.
Bounty for Taking L'Amazone Act 1784 | |
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Act of Parliament | |
Long title | An Act for authorizing the Treasurer of the Navy to pay to the Officers and Men belonging to His Majesty's Ship Santa Margaretta, the like Bounty for taking the French Frigate called L'Amazone, as is allowed to the Officers and Men on board any of His Majesty's Ships of War, taking or destroying Ships of War belonging to the Enemy. |
Citation | 24 Geo. 3. Sess. 2. c. 28 |
Dates | |
Royal assent | 13 August 1784 |
Other legislation | |
Repealed by | Statute Law Revision Act 1871 |
Status: Repealed |
On 29 July 1782 she captured the 36-gun Amazone off Cape Henry, but the next day the squadron under Vaudreuil intervened, recapturing Amazone. [3]
Two months later, on 30 September, Santa Margarita captured the American privateer Hendrick. [1]
Santa Margarita was repaired at Bucklers Hard between 1790 and 1793, followed by a period fitting out at Portsmouth.
Santa Margarita was recommissioned under Captain Eliab Harvey in 1793, and sailed to the Leeward Islands in December that year. She then formed part of the fleet in the West Indies under John Jervis, and was present at the capture of Martinique in February 1794. [1] By August 1794 she was in Sir John Borlase Warren's squadron, and was present at the destruction of Volontaire on the Penmarks on 23 August 1794, and the capture of Espion and the destruction of Alerte in Audierne Bay on that day. [1]
On 29 March 1795 she was sailing with HMS Cerberus when the two engaged and captured the 18-gun Jean Bart in the English Channel. [1] Jean Bart was subsequently taken into service as HMS Arab. [4] A few days earlier the squadron to which Cerberus and Santa Margarita belonged shared in the capture of Jean Bart and the recapture of Caldicot Castle. [5] [6]
In April 1795 Santa Margarita came under the command of Captain Thomas Byam Martin.
In September 1795 a French squadron captured Hibberts, Chisolm, master, as she was sailing from Jamaica to London, but Santa Margarita recaptured her. [7]
At the action of 8 June 1796 she captured the French Tamise, which had previously been HMS Thames. Santa Margarita had two killed and three wounded in the action. [1] She went on to capture two French privateers, the 16-gun Buonoparte on 24 October 1796, and the 18-gun Vengeur the following day. [1] Buonoparte was the former British packet ship King George, and Santa Margarita sent both into Cork. [8] Vengeur was armed with 18 guns and had a crew of 110 men. She was nine days out of Brest, France when Santa Margarita captured her. Vengeur had previously captured the ship Potomah, which had been sailing from Poole to Newfoundland with a cargo of merchandise; the British recaptured Potomah. [9]
Captain George Parker assumed command of Santa Margarita in December 1796. On 21 June 1797 she captured the Spanish privateer San Francisco off the Irish coast. San Francisco was pierced for 14 guns and had a crew of 53 men. She was from San Sebastián and had cruised between Scilly and Cape Clear for 20 days without having captured anything. She was apparently quite new and sailed well. Parker observed that with better luck she might have done some mischief. [10]
Parker went on to have further success against privateers. He captured the 16-gun Adour off Cape Clear on 10 July 1797 and the 16-gun Victorine on 8 August in the same area. [1]
Santa Margarita sailed to the Leeward Islands again in March 1798, and at the end of the year captured the 14-gun privateer Quatorze Juillet. [1]
Lloyd's List (LL) reported on 28 May 1799 that the West Indiaman Juno, Watkins, master, had been captured. However, Santa Margarita had recaptured her and sent her into Martinico. [11]
Santa Margarita sailed to Jamaica in August 1801, coming under the command of Captain Augustus Leveson-Gower in April 1802, followed by Captain Henry Whitby in 1803.
Santa Margarita was on the Irish station in 1804, followed by a period in the Channel between 1804 and 1807 under Captain Wilson Rathbone. [1] She was re-coppered at Plymouth in 1805 and again in 1806, and laid up in ordinary there between 1812 and 1813.
She was fitted as a lazarette in April 1814 and moved to Pembroke. She became a quarantine ship at Milford between 1814 and 1825, and was fitted out between 1824 and 1826 to allow her to be sailed to Liverpool. She was probably sold there on 8 September 1836 for the sum of £1,710. [1]
Thirteen vessels of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Mohawk, after the Mohawk, an indigenous tribe of North America:
HMS Indefatigable was one of the Ardent-class 64-gun third-rate ships-of-the-line designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1761 for the Royal Navy. She was built as a ship-of-the-line, but most of her active service took place after her conversion to a 44-gun razee frigate. She had a long career under several distinguished commanders, serving throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She took some 27 prizes, alone or in company, and the Admiralty authorised the issue of four clasps to the Naval General Service Medal in 1847 to any surviving members of her crews from the respective actions. She was broken up in 1816.
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 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.
Jean Bart may refer to one of the following ships of the French Navy or privateers named in honour of Jean Bart, a French naval commander and privateer.
Jean-Baptiste Philibert Willaumez was a French Navy officer and nobleman who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Willaumez joined the French navy at the age of 14, and proved to be a competent sailor. Having risen to the rank of pilot, he started studying navigation, attracting the attention of his superiors up to Louis XVI himself. Willaumez eventually became an officer and served under Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux in his expedition to rescue Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse and explore the Indian Ocean and Oceania.
HMS Donegal was launched in 1794 as Barra, a Téméraire class 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. She was renamed Pégase in October 1795, and Hoche in December 1797. The British Royal Navy captured her at the Battle of Tory Island on 12 October 1798 and recommissioned her as HMS Donegal.
Révolutionnaire, was a 40-gun Seine-class frigate of the French Navy, launched in May 1794. The British captured her in October 1794 and she went on to serve with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1822. During this service Revolutionnaire took part in numerous actions, including three for which the Admiralty would in 1847 award clasps to the Naval General Service Medal, and captured several privateers and merchant vessels.
HMS Doris was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched on 31 August 1795. which saw service in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Doris was built by Cleveley, of Gravesend.
HMS Cerberus was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, and even briefly in the Baltic against the Russians. She participated in one boat action that won for her crew a clasp to the Naval General Service Medal (NGSM). She also captured many privateers and merchant vessels. Her biggest battle was the Battle of Lissa, which won for her crew another clasp to the NGSM. She was sold in 1814.
HMS Eurydice was a 24-gun Porcupine-class post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1781 and broken up in 1834. During her long career she saw service in the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars. She captured a number of enemy privateers and served in the East and West Indies, the Mediterranean and British and American waters.
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 Daedalus was a 32-gun fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1780 from the yards of John Fisher, of Liverpool. She went on to serve in the American War of Independence, as well as the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
HMS Jason was a 38-gun Artois-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the French Revolutionary Wars, but her career came to an end after just four years in service when she struck an uncharted rock off Brest and sank on 13 October 1798. She had already had an eventful career, and was involved in several engagements with French vessels.
HMS Blanche was a 32-gun Hermione-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She was ordered towards the end of the American War of Independence, but only briefly saw service before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793. She enjoyed a number of successful cruises against privateers in the West Indies, before coming under the command of Captain Robert Faulknor. He took the Blanche into battle against a superior opponent and after a hard-fought battle, forced the surrender of the French frigate Pique. Faulknor was among those killed on the Blanche. She subsequently served in the Mediterranean, where she had the misfortune of forcing a large Spanish frigate to surrender, but was unable to secure the prize, which then escaped. Returning to British waters she was converted to a storeship and then a troopship, but did not serve for long before being wrecked off the Texel in 1799.
HMS Drake was a 14-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was bought from a commercial builder during the early years of the American War of Independence, and went on to support operations in the English Channel and the Caribbean. At one stage she assisted an attack on a French-held island, an expedition commanded by a young Horatio Nelson. Laid up for a time after the end of the American War of Independence, she returned to service shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars. Drake spent most of her time in Caribbean waters, until being declared unfit for service in 1800 and deleted from the navy lists.
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Tarleton was a 14-gun brig launched in 1780 at Glasgow. She was a letter of marque that made one capture. The French captured Tarleton in October 1782 in the Caribbean. They took her back to France in 1783 and she was subsequently stationed at Brest, where she served in the Mediterranean. The British recaptured her at Toulon in 1793 and she then served in the Mediterranean until no later than 1798 when she disappears from the lists.
Numerous French privateers have borne the name Vengeur ("Avenger"):
The action of 29 July 1782 was a minor naval engagement that took place towards the end of the American War of Independence. The British Royal Navy frigate HMS Santa Margarita captured the 36-gun French frigate Amazone off Cape Henry, but the next day the squadron under Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil intervened and recaptured the frigate.