HMS ''Sibyl'' was a 28-gun

sixth-rate In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works an ...

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and maneuvera ...

of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. ''Sibyl'' was renamed HMS ''Garland'' in 1795.

Service history

''Sibyl'' was first commissioned in October 1778 under the command of

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

Thomas Pasley Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley, 1st Baronet (2 March 1734 – 29 November 1808) was a senior and highly experienced British Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, who served with distinction at numerous actions of the Seven Years' War, America ...

. In February 1781 ''Sybil'' was part of a three ship fleet that gave chase to a 30 ship Dutch convoy, laden with valuable supplies, under escort by Admiral Krull that had departed from

Sint Eustatius Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a Caribbean Netherlands, special municipality (officially "Public body (Netherlands), public body") of the Netherlands. The island is in the northern Leeward Islands ...

, a

neutral port ''Neutral Port'' is a 1940 British war comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yvonne Arnaud, and Phyllis Calvert, with a supporting role for Wally Patch. It was produced and distributed by Gainsborough Pict ...

in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

. The fleet intercepted the convoy and after a brief battle, Krull was mortally wounded where his flag ship surrendered to Reynolds. In 1783 ''Sibyl'', Captain Vashon, was in company with and ''Tobago'' when they encountered the American frigate ''Alliance'', which was escorting . An inconclusive engagement developed between ''Sibyl'' and ''Alliance'' that proved to be the last battle of the American Revolutionary War. ''Alarm'' and ''Tobago'' neither participated in the engagement nor captured ''Duc de Lauzun''. ''Sibyl'' was renamed HMS ''Garland'' in 1795.

Loss

In February 1798 Captain J. C. Searle sailed ''Garland'' for the

Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( ) is a rocky headland on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A List of common misconceptions#Geography, common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Afri ...

. There Captain

James Athol Wood Sir James Athol Wood CB (1756 – July 1829), was an officer of the Royal Navy. After serving on merchant ships for the East India Company from a young age, he entered the Royal Navy in 1774. Wood served in the navy for almost his whole life, a ...

replaced him. Wood received information that a large French ship was anchored off Port Dauphiné,

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

.Hepper (1994), p. 87. He sailed ''Garland'' to investigate but as she approached the vessel on 26 July 1798, ''Garland'' struck a rock and sank before she could be run onshore. Still, the crew was able to take to the boats. Wood then decided to capture the French ship, which turned out to be a

merchantman A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are us ...

armed with 24 guns and carrying a crew of 150 men. The French crew had run their ship ashore at ''Garland''s approach and abandoned her. However, when they saw ''Garland'' run ashore, they tried to retrieve their own vessel. Wood and his boats had the wind and reached the merchantman first. Wood was able to convince the natives to hand most of the Frenchmen over to the British. It was five months before the

sloop-of-war During the 18th and 19th centuries, a sloop-of-war was a warship of the Royal Navy with a single gun deck that carried up to 18 guns. The rating system of the Royal Navy covered all vessels with 20 or more guns; thus, the term encompassed all u ...

arrived to rescue Wood, his crew, and his

prisoners-of-war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. ''Star'' took the prisoners to

Île de France Ile or ILE may refer to: Ile * Ile, a Puerto Rican singer * Ile District (disambiguation), multiple places * Ilé-Ifẹ̀, an ancient Yoruba city in south-western Nigeria * Interlingue (ISO 639:ile), a planned language * Isoleucine, an amino aci ...

. Wood and his men returned to the

Cape Colony The Cape Colony (), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope. It existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when it united with three ...

in their

prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.

, a small boat of 15 tons burthen that they had built, and some small vessels that were prizes to the Cape squadron.Marshall (1823), Vol. 1, Part 2, pp. 791–2. Wood returned to England, where on 15 December 1798 he and his officers were acquitted at the

court martial A court-martial (plural ''courts-martial'' or ''courts martial'', as "martial" is a postpositive adjective) is a military court or a trial conducted in such a court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the mili ...

for the loss of their ship.

Citations

References

* Robert Gardiner, ''The First Frigates'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. . * * David Lyon, ''The Sailing Navy List'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. . * * * Rif Winfield, ''

British Warships in the Age of Sail ''British Warships in the Age of Sail'' is a series of four books by maritime historian Rif Winfield comprising a historical reference work providing details of all recorded ships that served or were intended to serve in the (British) Royal Nav ...

, 1714 to 1792'', Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sibyl (1779) 1779 ships Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy Maritime incidents in 1798 Ships built on the Beaulieu River Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean