HMS Phoebe (1795)

HMS ''Phoebe'' was a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Overall, her crews were awarded six clasps to the Naval General Service Medals, with two taking place in the French Revolutionary Wars, three during the Napoleonic Wars and the sixth in the War of 1812. Three of the clasps carried the name ''Phoebe''. During her career, ''Phoebe'' sailed to the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, North and South America.

Once peace finally arrived, ''Phoebe'' was laid up, though she spent a few years as a slop ship during the 1820s. She was then hulked. The Admiralty finally sold her for breaking up in 1841.

Construction

She was one of four frigates that the Admiralty ordered on 24 May 1794 to a design by Sir John Henslow, Surveyor of the Navy, to be a faster version of the 1781 s. The contract for the first ship was placed with the Thames-side yard of John Dudman, where the keel was laid in June 1794. She was named ''Phoebe'' on 26 February 1795 and was launched on 24 September 1795 at Deptford Wharf on the Thames. She then moved to Deptford Dockyard, where she was completed on 23 December.

French Revolutionary Wars

''Phoebe'' was first commissioned in October 1795 under Captain Robert Barlow, for the Irish coast and Edward Pellew's squadron. On 10 January 1797, after an eight-hour chase, she captured the 16-gun , under the command of Lieutenant Dordelin, off the Isles of Scilly. ''Atalante'' had a crew of 112 men. She was a three-year-old brig with a coppered hull and an keel. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

In 1797 ''Phoebe'' was off Brest as part of an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew in . The squadron included , and the hired armed lugger .

On 22 December 1797 ''Phoebe'' captured the French 36-gun , Captain Antoine Canon. ''Phoebe'' sighted the ''Néréide'' at 10am; the pursuit started at 11:30am and ended at 10:45pm with ''Néréide''s surrender. During the chase ''Néréide'' fired her stern guns at ''Phoebe'' and the two vessels exchanged broadsides shortly before the ''Néréide'' surrendered. ''Phoebe'' lost three men killed and 10 wounded; ''Néréide'' lost 20 men killed and 55 wounded. Part of the reason for the disparity in casualties was that the ratio of the weight of the broadsides was to .James (1837), Vol.2, pp.92-93. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 21 Decr. 1797" to all remaining members of her crew who had participated in the action.

On 11 October 1799, ''Phoebe'' captured the French privateer ''Grand Ferrailleur''. ''Grand Ferrailleur'' was armed with sixteen brass 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 121 men. She was 16 days from Bordeaux but had not taken any prizes.

On 21 February 1800, ''Phoebe'' captured the French privateer ''Bellegarde'' (or ''Belle Garde'') of Saint-Malo. ''Bellegarde'' carried 14 guns and a crew of 114 men. She had been out 16 days and had captured ''Chance'', of London and sailing from Martinique, and the brig ''Friends'', of Dartmouth, sailing from St. Michael's to Bristol. Later, on 24 February, recaptured ''Chance''.

''Heureux''

On 5 March, ''Phoebe'' captured the privateer ''Heureux'' in the English Channel off Bordeaux. ''Heureux'' had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth on 25 March.

''Heureux'', of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook ''Phoebe'' for an East Indiaman, and approached her. ''Heureux'' did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. ''Heureux'' fired on ''Phoebe'' in an "Act of Temerity to be regretted". Her hope was that well-directed fire would disable ''Phoebe''s masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby enable ''Heureux'' to escape.James (1837), Vol. 3, pp.33-4. ''Phoebe'' returned fire and ''Heureux'' was forced to strike her colours. ''Phoebe'' had three seamen killed or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. ''Heureux'' had 18 men killed and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs. She had been out 42 days but had captured only a small Portuguese sloop that the wind had pushed out to sea while the sloop was sailing from Limerick to Galway with a cargo of wine.

Barlow described ''Heureux'' as "the most complete flush Deck Ship I have ever seen, coppered, Copper fastened, highly finished and of large Dimensions... The Accounts given of her Sailing are very extraordinary; she will be considered as a most desirable Ship for His Majesty's Service." The British took her into service as .

''Africaine''

On 19 February 1801, about east of Gibraltar, ''Phoebe'' sighted a French ship off Ceuta, also sailing eastwards. Barlow chased the French vessel for two-and-a-half hours before he could bring her to a close action. After about two hours the French vessel struck her colours; she had of water in her hold and was almost a wreck. ''Phoebe''s fire had dismounted her guns and left her decks strewn with hundreds of casualties.

She proved to be , of twenty-six 18-pounders and eighteen 9-pounders; she had sailed from Rochefort on the 13th. She was under the command of Capitaine Majendie and she flew the broad pennant of Commandant de Division Saunier. She had a crew of 315 men, but also was ferrying 400 troops under General Desfourneaux to reinforce the French invasion force in Egypt.

The French reported that they had suffered 200 killed in the action, including Saunier, the Chef de Brigade and two army captains, and 143 wounded, the later including Desfourneaux and Majendie, who was wounded in two places. The heavy casualties were the result of French troops crowding the upper deck despite their small arms fire contributing little or nothing in the dark to her defense. The troops had refused shelter below deck on the basis of mistaken valour.James (1837), Vol. 3, pp.139-41.

''Phoebe'' lost one man killed, and 12 men wounded. Her masts, sails and rigging were badly damaged but she was able to limp to Port Mahon. Weak winds resulted in the voyage, in company with ''Africaine'', taking two weeks. The British took ''Africaine'' into service under her existing name.

Barlow received a knighthood. ''Phoebe''s first lieutenant, John Wentworth Holland, who had been wounded, received a promotion to commander. In 1847 the action earned ''Phoebe''s crew the clasp "Phoebe 19 Feby. 1801" to the Naval General Service Medal (1847). Captain Thomas Baker subsequently took command of ''Phoebe'' in May 1801.

Napoleonic Wars

In June 1802 Capt. James Shephard took command. Captain The Hon. Thomas Bladen Capell followed him and recommissioned ''Phoebe'' in September. She then sailed for the Mediterranean on 28 September.

In 1803 ''Phoebe'' was sailing out of Malta. At some point, perhaps during the summer, her boats participated in a disastrous attack on two French privateers off Civitavecchia. The privateers repulsed the British, who lost eight men killed and wounded.''The fireside book; a miscellany''. (Philadelphia), Vol. 1, p.397. On 1 August, ''Phoebe'' captured two settées, which a French squadron recaptured. In recapturing the settees, the French squadron involved lost an opportunity to capture ''Phoebe'', though they did capture the schooner and a transport.

arrived at Gibraltar in March 1804 and then sailed from there to join Admiral Nelson off Toulon in company with ''Phoebe'', but the vessels became separated during a gale in the Gulf of Lyons. Shortly thereafter ''Hindostan'' caught fire and was totally destroyed.

On 13 June ''Phoebe'' and ''Amazon'' made ready to engage two French frigates anchored under the guns of the north-most fort at Toulon. The fort fired at ''Phoebe'', but she was out of range. When the French fleet sortied, the British vessels rejoined their squadron, however the French fleet returned to port without engaging.

On 24 August 1804 ''Phoebe'' and captured ''Venscab''.

On 10 November ''Phoebe'' captured ''Cacciatore''. Then ''Phoebe'' and ''Hydra'' shared the proceeds from the capture between 9 and 15 November of the vessels ''Paulina'' and ''Sesostris''.

was passing the island of Toro (off Mallorca; ) on 4 April 1805 when ''Phoebe'' brought the news that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve entered Cadiz to link up with the Spanish fleet.

Then, while Nelson was pursuing the French fleet from Toulon to the West Indies, Capel, in ''Phoebe'', was in charge of a small squadron of five frigates and two bomb vessels with the mission of covering Sicily, Sardinia and the route to Egypt. ''Phoebe'' joined the blockade of Cadiz later in the summer.

Trafalgar

The arrival of the additional frigates ''Phoebe'', , , , and off Cadiz allowed Nelson to detach them to disrupt local shipping supplying provisions for the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet in Cadiz.

In October, the frigate squadron was acting as the eyes of the British fleet. When the Combined Fleet put to sea on 19 October, ''Phoebe'' was first in line, followed by ''Naiad'' and the third-rate . Capel spotted the Combined Fleet's exit and notified Nelson. As the combined fleet approached the British over the next couple of days, the frigates shadowed it, reporting on its movements.

During the subsequent Battle of Trafalgar, ''Phoebe'' relayed Nelson's signals to the rest of fleet, and remained close to the action although she did not actually engage the enemy. In the gale that followed a few days later and ''Phoebe'' assisted two of the prizes, and ''Bahama'', with the result that they were saved.

North Sea and Baltic

In January 1806 Captain James Oswald took command. ''Phoebe'' then served in the North Sea and the Channel. On 9 July ''Phoebe'', and were deployed to the Shetland Islands to find a French squadron reported to be destroying British and Russian fishing and merchant vessels in the Arctic. Although ''Phoebe'' met with no success, ''Blanche'' encountered and captured . ''Phoebe'' then sailed to the West Indies.

On 18 January 1808, ''Phoebe'' sailed for the Mediterranean. In April 1809 Captain Hassard Stackpoole took command for the Baltic. Between 7 and 12 July, ''Phoebe'' captured the Russian vessels ''Saint Nicholas 1'' and ''Saint Nicholas 2'', and another vessel, name unknown. In August Captain James Hillyar replaced Stackpoole. On 6 January 1810 ''Phoebe'' sailed from Torbay for off the Île de Batz. Later she was in the Gulf of Livonia where her boats took numerous prizes.

Between March and July 1810 ''Phoebe'' underwent repairs at Plymouth. She then sailed for the East Indies on 18 July.

Indian Ocean

By 21 November ''Phoebe'' was off the island of Rodrigues preparing for a joint naval and military expedition to take the Île de France. The expedition arrived on 28 November and the French signed the capitulation on 3 December.

In March 1811, ''Phoebe'' survived two major hurricanes in the Indian Ocean. ''Phoebe'' the participated in the Battle of Tamatave, where she fought another ''Néréide'', under Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier. In the severe action the British captured ''Renommée''; ''Néréide'' surrendered subsequently on the 25th at Tamatave. The British took both vessels into service, ''Néréide'' as and ''Renommée'' as . ''Phoebe'' suffered seven dead and 24 wounded. ''Néréide'' suffered some 130 men dead and wounded. In 1847 this battle earned ''Phoebe''s surviving crew the clasp "Off Tamatave 20 May 1811" to the Naval General Service Medal.

Java

On 3 August 1811, ''Phoebe'' joined the fleet involved in the invasion of Java. Lieutenant-general Sir Samuel Auchmuty was the military commander-in-chief, and Commodore William Robert Broughton of the 74-gun third rate was the naval commander-in-chief. Later, Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford took charge of the naval forces.

On 31 August Stopford detached the frigates , ''President'', and ''Phoebe'', and the sloop to take Cheribon, a seaport about east of Batavia. They arrived at dark on 3 September and the fort surrendered the next morning without a shot being fired.James (1837), Vol. VI, pp.38-9.

On 11 September, all squadron re-embarked the seamen and marines that had landed, together with about 700 prisoners, including 237 Europeans. At 4am ''Nisus'' and ''Phoebe'' weighed and steered for Taggal, a port about further to the east. The next day ''Phoebe'' arrived off the harbour. Together with a landing party of seamen, marines, and some sepoys, Captain Hillyar took quiet possession of the fort and public stores.

''Phoebe'', ''Nisus'', ''President'', and joined Stopford with and on 14 September. The next day they sailed for Surabaya. On 17 September they anchored off Ledayo on the Java shore where three transports with 450 men joined them. There they learned that the Dutch and French had surrendered the day before. The troops landed two days later and took possession of the place on 20 September under the general terms of the capitulation.

In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issuance of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Java" to all remaining survivors of the campaign. ''Phoebe'' arrived at Plymouth Dock on 18 January 1812 with dispatches from the East Indies.

War of 1812

On 9 April 1812 ''Phoebe'' sailed with a convoy for Quebec. She returned to Deal on 2 August. On 30 September she was in Plymouth, having brought dispatches from Halifax. She then underwent a refit.

In late December 1812, ''Phoebe'' captured two American schooners. One was the ''Vengeance'', an American letter of marquee 12-gun schooner from New York, bound to Bordeaux, laden with sugar and coffee. ''Vengeance'' arrived in Plymouth on 8 January. The Royal Navy took ''Vengeance'' into service as . ''Vengeance'' was closely followed by ''Hunter'', a privateer schooner, of 14 guns and 100 men. The capture of ''Hunter'' occurred on 23 December after a chase during which she threw 12 of her guns overboard. Earlier, ''Hunter'' had captured a transport and a brig from a convoy under the escort of hired armed cutter .

A few days later, ''Phoebe'' was sailing off the Azores in the company of the 74-gun third rate , under the command of Francis Austen, the brother of the acclaimed novelist Jane Austen, together with . On 27 December they captured the American privateer schooner ''Swordfish'' of Gloucester, John Evans, master. ''Swordfish'' was 16 days out of Boston and had a crew of 82 men, and originally twelve 6-pounder guns. However, she had thrown 10 overboard during the chase, which took 11 hours and covered more than 100 miles.

On 18 March 1813 ''Phoebe'' left Portsmouth with a convoy for Brazil and the East Indies. On 6 July ''Phoebe'', the sloop-of-war , and sailed from Rio de Janeiro around Cape Horn to the Juan Fernández Islands. There, ''Racoon'' continued on to the fur trading outpost of Fort Astoria. ''Phoebe'' and ''Cherub'' remained to search for the 36-gun . Hillyar was under orders to capture the ''Essex'' "at all costs".

USS ''Essex''

On 8 February 1814 ''Phoebe'' and ''Cherub'' arrived at Valparaíso, a neutral port, where ''Essex'' and her prizes were anchored. Having trapped ''Essex'' in the harbour, Hillyar waited six weeks for her to come out and thwarted all of the efforts of her captain, David Porter, to escape. Eventually, on 28 March, Porter attempted to break out of the harbour. A squall took off his main topmast and he attempted to return to harbour but ''Phoebe'' and ''Cherub'' drove ''Essex'' into a nearby bay and defeated her in a short engagement. ''Phoebe'' and ''Cherub'' also captured ''Essex''s tender, , the ex-British whaler ''Atlantic''.

In the engagement with ''Essex'', ''Phoebe'' had four men killed, including her first lieutenant, and seven men wounded. ''Cherub'' had one killed and three wounded, including her captain. The British reported that ''Essex'' had 24 killed and 45 wounded, though the Americans reported higher casualties. In 1847 the then surviving crew members of ''Phoebe'' and ''Cherub'' were awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasps "Phoebe 28 March 1814" and "Cherub 28 March 1814".

On 31 May ''Phoebe'' and ''Essex'' set sail for England, with Lieutenant Pearson of ''Phoebe'' commanding the prize crew on ''Essex''. On the way they stopped for some time in Rio de Janeiro. The two ships finally anchored in Plymouth sound on 13 November. The Admiralty promoted Pearson to commander, and repaired ''Essex'', taking her into service as HMS ''Essex''.

On 19 June, ''Cherub'' recaptured near the Sandwich Islands. ''Sir Andrew Hammond'' was a whaler that Porter had captured and left at Nuka Hiva, together with other captured vessels, including the ''Greenwich'' and the former British letter-of-marque whaler, USS ''Seringapatam'', the whole being under the command of Lieutenant John M. Gamble USMC. When Gamble made preparations to leave the island, many of his party mutinied. Gamble and seven men (four unfit for duty) escaped and sailed ''Sir Andrew Hammond'' before they had the misfortune to meet up with ''Cherub''.Mooney (1976), Vol. 6, p.517.

Fate

''Phoebe'' was paid off in 1814 and laid up at Plymouth in August 1815. Between January 1823 and October 1826 she was a receiving ship and slop ship. She became a hulk in 1826 at Plymouth. ''Phoebe'' was sold for breaking up to Joshua Crystall for £1,750 on 25 May 1841.

Notes

Citations

References

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* Nelson, Horatio & Nicholas Harris Nicolas (ed.) (1845-6) ''The Dispatches And Letters 2''. London: Colburn.
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External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060304034536/http://www.treeforall.org.uk/trafalgar/TrafalgarWoods/Otherwoods/Phoebe/

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phoebe (1795)
Frigates of the Royal Navy
War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom
Ships built in Deptford
1795 ships