HMS Sirius (1797)

HMS ''Sirius'' was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Between 1797 and 1805, the ''Sirius'' was engaged in maintaining the blockade of Napoleonic Europe. She was lost in 1810 when her crew scuttled her after she grounded during the Battle of Grand Port.

Design

The Admiralty ordered her construction on 30 April 1795, and the keel was laid at the Dudman's yard at Deptford Wharf in September of that year. She was launched on 12 April 1797. The ''Sirius'' class of 1795 was established following the taking of the ''San Fiorenzo'' from the Spanish in 1794, upon whose lines this frigate was based.

French Revolutionary Wars

''Sirius'' was commissioned in May 1797 under the command of Captain Richard King. In the action of 24 October 1798, ''Sirius'' captured two Batavian Navy warships, the frigate ''Furie'' and corvette ''Waakzaamheid'' in the Texel. ''Waakzaamheid'' was under the command of Senior Captain Meindert van Neirop, and was armed with twenty-four 9-pounder guns on her main deck and two 6-pounders on her forecastle. She had 100 Batavian sailors and officers as well as 122 French soldiers aboard her, and was carrying 2,000 stands of arms as well as other ordnance stores. ''Waakzaamheid'' put up no struggle. The sloop shared in the capture.

''Furie'' was under the command of Bartholomeus Pletz and armed with twenty-six 12-pounders on her main deck and ten 6-pounders on her quarter-deck and forecastle. She had a crew of 153 Batavian sailors and officers augmented by 165 French troops. She was carrying 4,000 stands of arms as well as other ordnance stores. ''Furie'' did exchange fire with ''Sirius'' for about half an hour. ''Sirius'' had only one man wounded. ''Furie'' had eight men killed and 14 wounded. The sloop and the hired armed cutter ''Diligent'' shared in the proceeds of the capture.

''Sirius'' was among the vessels that shared in the capture on 25 and 28 November of a French brig and sloop. The British vessels included , , and , as well as the hired armed cutters ''Joseph'', ''Fowey'' and ''Dolly''.

Then on 6 January 1800 ''Sirius'' shared with , , and ''Stag'' in the capture of the French brig ''Ursule''.

On 12 June ''Sirius'' and captured the French privateer ''Vengeur''. She was armed with six long 4-pounders and ten 18-pounder carronades, and carried a crew of 102 men. She was two days out of Bordeaux and sailing for the coast of Brazil. ''Vengeur'' was sailing in company with three letters of marque – a ship, a brig and a schooner – that were bound for Guadeloupe. On 11 June ''Vengeur'' had captured the Jersey-privateer lugger ''Snake''.

On 3 July ''Sirius'' recaptured the brig ''Cultivator''. ''Indefatigable'' and were in company at the time of the capture. ''Cultivator'', Smith, master, had been sailing from Demerara to London when the French privateer ''Minerve'', of Bordeaux, had captured her.

The next day, ''Sirius'' and ''Indefatigable'' captured the French ship ''Favori''. Eleven days later, ''Bordelais'' captured the French vessel ''Phoenix''. ''Sirius'' was among the vessels sharing in the prize money by agreement. ''Sirius'' shared in the capture of the French privateer schooner ''Revanche'' on 28 July. The actual captor was ''Uranie''. ''Revanche'' was armed with fourteen 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 80 men. She was 19 days out of Vigo and had already captured and sent in the English brig ''Marcus'', a Portuguese ship, and a Spanish brig that had been a prize to .

On 11 December ''Sirius'' captured the Spanish merchant brig ''Melchora'', some three miles off Sifarga (Illas Sisargas, some 20 miles west of A Coruña). The brig was 24 hours out of A Coruña on her way to Montevideo when ''Sirius'' captured her. Captain King reported the capture in order to draw attention to the fact that she was the only vessel to have left A Coruña since August. shared in the proceeds of the capture.

On 26 January 1801, the British frigate ''Oiseau'' encountered the French frigate ''Dédaigneuse'' and gave chase. ''Sirius'' and ''Amethyst'' joined the next day. On the 28th ''Oiseau'' and ''Sirius'' effected the capture while unfavorable winds kept ''Amethyst'' from joining the action. ''Dédaigneuse'' was brought into the Royal Navy as HMS ''Dedaigneuse''. The next day ''Sirius'' was in company with ''Amethyst'' when they captured the Spanish letter of marque ''Charlotta'' of Ferol, 16 hours out of Ferol on her way to Curaçao. The capture took place about six or seven leagues from Cape Belem in Galicia. The hired armed cutter Earl of St Vincent shared in the capture.

On 29 January captured and destroyed the Spanish privateer ''Intrepido Cid''. ''Sirius'' and ''Amethyst'' shared, by agreement, in the bounty-money.

''Sirius'' shared by agreement in the proceeds of the capture of the ''Temeraire'' (30 May) and the ''Bien Aimé'' (23 July). In July ''Sirius'' was under the temporary command of Captain J.B. Edwards. In July Commander John Edwards took command temporarily.

In July–August 1802, ''Sirius'' was under the command of Captain King, who further had command of a small squadron on anti-smuggling duties. The other vessels in the squadron were , , , and .

In August 1802, Captain William Prowse took command of ''Sirius''.

Napoleonic Wars

After the resumption of hostilities with France, ''Sirius'' took part in the blockade of Brest.

On 18 May 1803, ''Sirius'' and captured ''Mere de Familie''. Ten days later ''Sirius'' captured the French ship ''Achille'' and then on 8 June ''Trois Freres''. The capture of ''Aigle'' on 30 May resulted in a preliminary allotment to ''Sirius''s crew of £6200 in prize money. Two days earlier ''Sirius'' had captured ''Zephyr''. ''Sirius'' shared with ''Nemesis'' the proceeds of the capture of ''Trois Freres'' and ''Aigle''.

''Sirius'' then was among the vessels sharing in the salvage money from the recapture of ''Lord Nelson'' on 27 August. Similarly, ''Sirius'' shared in the salvage money for , recaptured on 28 October.

On 15 February 1805, ''Sirius'' recaptured ''Spring''. On 22 July ''Sirius'' participated in Calder's Action (Battle of Cape Finisterre (1805)). She shared in the prize money for the Spanish ships ''St. Raphael'' and ''Firme'', and possibly other vessels as well.

Trafalgar

On 21 October, ''Sirius'' joined the British fleet under Vice Admiral Lord Nelson at Trafalgar. Entering battle to the north of the weather column, her station placed her only a few cable lengths from HMS ''Victory''.

Parliament voted a grant of £300,000 to be distributed in September 1806 among the participants of the battle. Other distributions of prize money followed. In 1847 the Admiralty would issue surviving claimants from the battle the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Trafalgar".

On 25 November, ''Sirius'', and ''Swiftsure'' captured ''Nemesis''.

''Sirius'' vs. ''Bergère''

In January 1806, ''Sirius'' and the 64-gun were escorting a convoy from Gibraltar when they encountered a French squadron under Admiral Willaumez. The French succeeded in capturing two of the merchant vessels and four of the French fleet unsuccessfully chased ''Sirius'' for two hours, but forcing her to separate from the convoy.

From then until 1808 ''Sirius'' served in the Mediterranean. On 17 April 1806 at 2pm ''Sirius'' was five or six leagues off Civitavecchia when Prowse received intelligence that a French force had sailed that morning for Naples. He immediately set out and succeeded in catching up with them just after sunset two leagues from the mouth of the Tiber River. The force consisted of a ship, three corvettes, and five heavy gun-vessels, and they were deployed in line of battle near a dangerous shoal, awaiting ''Sirius''s attack. The action commenced at 7pm and lasted for two hours before the French ship leading the flotilla struck. The water had been calm so the French had been able to fire well and ''Sirius'' herself was too damaged to pursue when the remainder of the French flotilla withdrew; Prowse was also concerned about the risks of pursuit at night in water with shoals.

The captured vessel was the ''Bergère'', which was under the command of ''capitaine de frégate'' Charles-Jacques-César Chaunay-Duclos, commodore of the flotilla and member of the Legion of Honor. She was armed with eighteen 12-pounder guns and one 36-pounder ''obusier'', and had a crew of 189 men. Prowse described her as "remarkably fine Vessel, sails well, and is fit for His Majesty's Service." Prowse omitted mention of French casualties, but ''Sirius'' lost nine men killed, including Prowse's nephew, and 20 men wounded, nine dangerously so. This action too qualified the surviving claimants for the Naval General Service Medal, this time with the clasp "Sirius 17 April 1806".

Between April 1808 and January 1809 ''Sirius'' was at Chatham, undergoing repairs. In November 1808 Captain Samuel Pym assumed command of ''Sirius''. On 24 February 1809 he sailed for the Cape of Good Hope and the Indian Ocean.

Indian Ocean

On 2 March 1809 ''Sirius'' captured the French schooner ''Mecontent'', and her cargo. In August ''Sirius'' joined a squadron under Commodore Josias Rowley and on 21 September participated in an attack on Saint-Paul, Réunion.

''Sirius'' and HMS ''Raisonnable'' captured the French frigate ''Caroline''. She was taken into British service as HMS ''Bourbonaise'', there already being an HMS ''Caroline''. The British also recaptured several East Indiamen that ''Caroline'' had captured, and the East India Company's brig ''Grappler''. The land attack succeeded in capturing a number of shore batteries and guns. ''Sirius'' suffered the loss of two marines killed, two marines wounded, and one sailor missing.

The summer of 1810 saw a campaign against the French Indian Ocean possessions. The British captured the Île Bourbon (Réunion) in July. In August, they turned their attention to Mauritius, where they attempted to land troops to destroy coastal batteries and signals around Grand Port. The attempt turned sour, however, when two French forty-gun frigates, ''Bellone'' and ''Minerve'', the 18-gun corvette ''Victor'', and two East Indiaman prizes entered the harbour and took up defensive positions at the head of the main entrance channel. The French also moved the channel markers to confuse the British approach.

On 23 August 1810 the British squadron entered the channel. ''Sirius'' was the first to run aground, followed by ''Magicienne'' and ''Néréide''. ''Iphigenia'' prudently anchored in the channel some distance from the action. The French vessels concentrated all their gunfire first against ''Néréide'' and then against ''Magicienne''.

The battle continued without interruption all night and on 24 August the French boarded the defenceless ''Néréide''. Once the French flag was hoisted on what was left of the foremast of the ''Néréide'', ''Magicienne'' and the ''Sirius'' began an intense cross fire against their enemies. Still, in the evening her crew had to abandon ''Magicienne'', setting her on fire as they left her.

Loss

Every effort to kedge ''Sirius'' off failed; she was firmly aground, taking on water, and unable to be freed. Pym ordered the transfer of her stores and provisions to ''Iphigenia''. When this was complete the men left, the last of the crew leaving on the morning of 25 August 1810. As they left they set fire to her; ''Sirius'' exploded at about eleven o'clock, with her hull then briefly drifting off the reef before sinking.

The Battle of Grand Port was an important victory for the French. With two British frigates captured (''Iphigenia'' and ''Néréide''), and two others scuttled (''Sirius'' and ''Magicienne''), as well as 1,600 prisoners taken against 150 French dead or wounded, this battle marks the worst British naval defeat of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Post script

''Sirius'' lies in some of water. The wreck has been broken up, as much by salvors as by her scuttling. Still, the site is of archaeological interest and many of her cannon rest exposed.

Notes

Citations

References

The Wreck of the 5th Rated British Frigate H.M.S. Sirius (1797) in Mauritius (Yann Von Arnim)
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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sirius (1797)
Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean
Maritime incidents in 1810
Ships built in Deptford
1797 ships
Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy