HMS Medea (1778)

HMS ''Medea'' was a 28-gun sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. ''Medea'' was first commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain William Cornwallis. She was sold for breaking up in 1805.

Career

In July 1778, ''Medea'' started to cruise in the North Sea and the Channel. Off Cape Finisterre on 20 October 1778, being in company with the ship-of-the-line ''Jupiter'' under Captain Francis Reynolds, she met ''Triton'' under Captain Comte de Ligondès, but ''Medea'' got so badly damaged that she was forced to break off the action with the loss of one man killed and three wounded. She later, with HM hired armed ship , shared in the capture, on 17 June 1779, of the French privateers ''Compte de Maurepas'' and ''Duc de la Vauguyon''. ''Medea'' captured ''Duc de la Vauguyon'' (or ''Duc de Lavaugnon'') of Dunkirk, a cutter of 14 guns and 98 men, after a fight of an hour. The fight cost the French four men killed and ten wounded; ''Medea'' had no casualties. The Royal Navy took her into service under the name or ''Duc de la Vaugignon''.

''Duc de la Vauguyon'' had captured and ransomed a lobster smack sailing from Norway to Britain. The master of the smack informed Captain James Montagu (Royal Navy officer) of ''Medea'' that the privateer had had a consort. ''Medea''s rigging was too cut up for her to pursue the consort, so Montague sent ''Countess of Scarborough'', Captain Thomas Piercy, after her. Piercy caught up with ''Compte de Maurepas'', of Dunkirk, after a few hours and the privateer struck without resistance. She was armed with fourteen 4-pounder guns and had a crew of 87 men.

On 5 May 1781 ''Medea'' assisted the fifth-rate in the capture, off Sandy Hook, of ''Protector'', a 28-gun frigate of the Massachusetts State Navy.Winfield p. 272 The prisoners were taken off to the prison hulk ''Jersey''.

On 7 September 1781 ''Medea'' captured ''Belisarius'', "a fast sailing frigate of 26 guns and 147 men, belonging to Salem". ''Medea'' captured her off the Delaware River. and shared in the capture. The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth rate HMS , but then sold her in 1783, after the end of the war.

''Medea'' made a number of other captures in summer 1781. These included the ship ''Phoenix'' (1 June), the ship ''Rover'' (20 June), the schooner ''Neptune'' (30 July; with ''Amphitrite'' and ''General Monk''), and the brig ''Marianne'' (13 August).

From October 1781 to January 1784 ''Medea'' was commanded by Captain Erasmus Gower serving in the final stages of the American War of Independence being fought in India. Sailing in company with 64 guns near the Cape of Good Hope ''Medea'' captured a rich French store ship, ''La Concorde'', after a brief engagement. After reaching Madagascar, Gower was forced to use ''Medea'' to tow his prize all the way to Madras, taking two months. ''Medea'' then came under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.

On 15 January 1783 ''Medea'' captured the French corvette ''Chasseur'', carrying dispatches that revealed that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre André de Suffren had returned to the Coromandel coast while Vice-Admiral Hughes was still refitting at Bombay. ''Chasseur'' had been the British sloop HMS Chaser (1778 ship), captured by the French on 14 February 1782, and was now sent to Bombay under the command of ''Medea''s Lieutenant Thomas Campbell to advise Admiral Hughes.

Ten days later ''Medea'' cut out and captured a large Dutch ship – ''Vrijheid'' – from Cuddalore road after taking fire from a fort on the beach and the enemy ship. The Honorable East India Company (HEIC) offered Captain Gower a fortune for the hull and furniture of ''Vrijheid'' but he refused to sell, intending to have the ship converted to a 64 gun warship in the Royal Navy. Some months later the ship was lost in the surf at Madras while under attack by a French squadron.

When rumours of preliminary peace negotiations in Europe reached India in June 1783, Captain Gower was instructed to remove his guns from ''Medea'' and proceed under a flag of truce to Cuddalore to negotiate a cease fire with Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau and Admiral Suffren. Hostilities were soon concluded and it is probable this was the very last military action of the American War of Independence.

Captain Gower then sailed in ''Medea'' with dispatches for the Admiralty and, despite being dis-masted near the Azores, ''Medea'' returned to Spithead in only four months, where she was paid off in February 1784.Bates. pp. 149–153.

Citations

References

*
* Beatson, Robert (1804) ''Naval and military memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783''. Vol 4. (Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme).
* Gardiner, Robert (1992) ''The First Frigates''. (London:Conway Maritime Press). .
* Lyon, David (1993) ''The Sailing Navy List''. (London:Conway Maritime Press). .
*

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Medea (1778)
1778 ships
Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy