HMS Southampton was the name ship of the 32-gun Southampton-classfifth-ratefrigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and served for more than half a century until wrecked in 1812.
George III in HMS Southampton reviewing the fleet off Plymouth, 18 August 1789
In 1772, Southampton – at the time commanded by the capable John MacBride, destined for a distinguished naval career – was sent to Elsinore, Denmark, to take on board and convey to exile in Germany the British Princess Caroline Matilda, George III's sister, who had been deposed from her position as Queen of Denmark due to her affair with the social reformer Johan Struensee.[1]
Sometime in 1777, under command of Will Garnier, she captured sloops Swift and Speedwell, schooners Sally, Tryall, and Hope, and one unknown. Before 18 October she captured another schooner Sally. Before 11 November she captured snow Washington. On 7 December she captured schooner Hazard. On 19 December she captured brig Lark. On 22 December she captured ship Speculation. On 17 January, 1778 she captured schooner Unity. She captured Brig Henry on unknown date.[2] On 1 April, 1778 her tender captured sloop "John & Milsey" off Montie Christi.[3]
On 3 August 1780, Southampton captured the French privateer luggerComte de Maurepas, of 12 guns and 80 men, under the command of Joseph Le Cluck. She had on board Mr. Andrew Stuart, Surgeon's Mate of HMS Speedwell, "as a ransomer."[4]Comte de Maurepas had suffered shot holes between wind and water and sank shortly thereafter. Southampton shared the head money award with Buffalo, Thetis, and Alarm.[5]
Southampton took part in the action of 9 August 1780, when a convoy she was escorting fell prey to a Franco-Spanish squadron. 55 merchantmen were captured, but she managed to escape.[6]
On 10 June 1796, Southampton captured the French corvetteUtile at Hyères Roads, by boarding. Utile was armed with twenty-four 6-pounder guns and was under the protection of a battery. She had a crew of 136 men under the command of Citizen François Veza. The French put up a resistance during which they suffered eight killed, including Veza, and 17 wounded; Southampton had one man killed.[7] The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Utile. Gorgon, Courageux, and the hired armedcutterFox were in company at the time,[8] and with the British fleet outside Toulon. They shared with Southampton in the proceeds of the capture, as did Barfleur, Bombay Castle, Egmont, and St George.[9]
On 2 December 1796 Southampton encountered the Spanish naval brig El Corso off Monaco as El Corso was on her way from Genoa to Barcelona. Southampton captured El Corso by boarding. She was armed with eighteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 136 men under the command of Don Antonio Oacaro.[10] The Royal Navy took the brig into service as HMS Corso.
In September 1789 Richard Goodwin Keats was appointed her captain. She was engaged on two cruises of observation in the chops of the Channel and a voyage to Gibraltar conveying Prince Edward to his new command. Southampton was readied as part of Lord Howe's fleet to respond to the Nootka sound incident, but was not required to put to sea. Keats had written to the Admiralty concerned at the state of his new command, which had not been in the docks for three years, during which she had grounded several times, and in 1790 she was paid off.[11]
Lloyd's List reported that Southampton and the sloop-of-warHMSBrazen had run aground and lost their masts on the coast of Mississippi during a great hurricane on 19 and 20 August 1812, but that the crews were saved.[12] Both vessels were refloated, repaired, and returned to service. Brazen arrived at New Providence; Southampton arrived at Jamaica on 6 October.[13] Although neither vessel was lost in the hurricane, Southampton was lost about a month later when she hit an uncharted rock.
On 22 November, Southampton, under the command of Captain James Lucas Yeo, captured the American brigUSSVixen. Vixen was armed with twelve 18-pounder carronades and two 9-pounder bow chasers, and had a crew of 130 men under the command of Captain George Reed. She had been out five weeks but had not captured anything.[14]
Fate
A strong westerly current wrecked Southampton and Vixen on an uncharted submerged reef off Conception Island[15] in the Crooked Island Passage of the Bahamas on 27 November. There were no deaths.[16]
Plan showing the elevation and plan for the steering apparatus as fitted to Southampton
Citations
↑ The relevant chapter of Norah Lofts' "The Lost Queen", a biography of Caroline Matilda, takes place on board the Southampton and is told from the point of view of the ship's Captain, John MacBride.
HMS St Albans was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 September 1764 by Perry, Wells & Green at their Blackwall Yard, London.
Eleven ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Hawk after the bird of prey, the hawk:
HMS Badger was a brig rigged Sloop-of-War in service with the Royal Navy in the late eighteenth century. Badger is notable as being the first Royal Navy ship to be commanded by Horatio Nelson.
HMS Ambuscade was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, built in the Grove Street shipyard of Adams & Barnard at Depford in 1773. The French captured her in 1798 but the British recaptured her in 1803. She was broken up in 1810.
HMS Glasgow was a 20-gun sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1757 and took part in the American Revolutionary War. While under command of Capt. William Maltby she ran onto rocks at Cohasset, Massachusetts on 10 December 1774. Refloated and arrived in Boston on the 15th for repairs. Capt. Maltby was relieved of command at a Court Martial and replaced by Tyringham Howe some time between 8–15 January 1775. She is most famous for her encounter with the maiden voyage of the Continental Navy off Block Island on 6 April 1776. In that action, Glasgow engaged a squadron of 6 ships of the Continental Navy, managing to escape intact. Under the command of Tho. Pasley she captured sloop Juliana on 1 April, 1777. She captured sloop Unity on 2 April, 1777. She captured the sloop Betsy & Ann on 4 April. She captured sloop Volante on 5 April. She captured the brig Aurora on 10 April. She captured sloop Sally on 16 April. She captured American privateer sloop Henry on 19 April. She captured schooner Providence on 2 May. She captured schooner Nancy, probably in early May. She captured schooner Betsy 27 June. She captured brig Dolphin on unknown date. She captured sloop Rover on 24 July. She captured sloop Antonio on 21 July. She captured sloop Tryall on 25 July. She captured an unknown schooner on an unknown date. She captured schooner Gen. Thompson on an unknown date. She captured sloop Industry at an unknown date. She captured schooner Betsy & Ann on 4 November. She captured brig Sally on 8 December. She captured sloop Defiance and schooner Success on 9 December. She captured brig Minerva on 19 December. She captured schooner Happy Return on 22 December, 1777. On 28 February, 1778 she captured sloop Abigale 5 leagues east north east of the Tiburon Peninsula. On 9 March, 1778 she captured schooner Nancy 6 leagues off Mayaguana, Bahamas. She captured sloop Lucy on 12 March off the south east end of Mayaguana. She captured a prize in April, 1778, but it sprang a leak and sank.
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 Winchelsea was a 32-gun fifth-rate Niger-class frigate of the Royal Navy, and was the sixth Royal Navy ship to bear this name. She was ordered during the Seven Years' War, but completed too late for that conflict. She cost £11,515-18-0d to build.
HMS Carysfort was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She served during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars in a career that spanned over forty years.
Tyrannicide was a 14-gun brigantine-rigged sloop of the Massachusetts State Navy. The ship was built for the American Revolutionary War and participated in commerce raiding until destroyed in the Penobscot expedition.
HMS Solebay was a Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy which saw active service between 1766 and 1782, during the latter part of the Seven Years' War and throughout the American Revolutionary War. After a successful career in which she captured seven enemy vessels, she was wrecked ashore on the Caribbean Island of Nevis.
HMS Boreas was a modified Mermaid-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was first commissioned in August 1775 under Captain Charles Thompson. She was built at Blaydes Yard in Hull to a design by Sir Thomas Slade at a cost of £10,000. She was fitted out at Chatham Docks.
HMS Venus was the name ship of the 36-gun Venus-class fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and served for more than half a century until 1809. She was reduced from 36 to 32 guns in 1792. She was sold in 1822.
HMS Maidstone was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1758 and taken to pieces in 1794.
HMS Milford was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. She was built at Milford by Richard Chitty and launched in 1759. She was sold for breaking at Woolwich on 17 May 1785.
HMS Galatea was a 20-gun Sphinx-class sixth-rate post-ship of the Royal Navy. She was designed by John Williams and built by Adam Hayes in Deptford Dockyard being launched on 21 March 1776. She served during the American War of Independence.
HMS Niger was a 32-gun Niger-class fifth rate frigate of the Royal Navy.
HMS Ceres was an 18-gun sloop launched in 1777 for the British Royal Navy that the French captured in December 1778 off Saint Lucia. The French Navy took her into service as Cérès. The British recaptured her in 1782 and renamed her HMS Raven, only to have the French recapture her again early in 1783. The French returned her name to Cérès, and she then served in the French Navy until sold at Brest in 1791.
HMS Diligence was a 10-gun Alderney-class sloop of the Royal Navy which saw active service during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Launched in 1756, she was a successful privateer hunter off the coast of France before being reassigned to North American waters in 1763. Fifteen years later she was briefly refitted as a receiving ship for press ganged sailors brought into Sheerness Dockyard, before being re-registered in August 1779 as the fireship Comet.
Experiment was a 50-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy. Captured by Sagittaire during the War of American Independence, she was recommissioned in the French Navy, where she served into the 1800s.
HMS Aeolus (1758) was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. In 1800, she renamed as HMS Guernsey.
References
Demerliac, Alain (1996) La Marine De Louis XVI: Nomenclature Des Navires Français De 1774 À 1792. (Nice: Éditions OMEGA). ISBN2-906381-23-3
Gardiner, Robert (1992) The First Frigates. (London: Conway Maritime Press). ISBN0-85177-601-9.
Gossett, William Patrick (1986) The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793–1900. (London: Mansell). ISBN0-7201-1816-6
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