HMS Anson (1781)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Anson.
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HMS Arethusa and HMS Anson capture the Pomona off Havana, depicted by Thomas Whitcombe
History
Royal Navy EnsignUK
Name: HMS Anson
Ordered: 24 April 1773
Builder: Plymouth Dockyard
Laid down: January 1774
Launched: 4 September 1781
Honours and
awards:
Fate: Wrecked, 29 December 1807
General characteristics [1]
Class & type: Intrepid-class ship of the line
Tons burthen: 1369 bm
Length: 159 ft 6 in (48.62 m) (gundeck)
Beam: 44 ft 4 in (13.51 m)
Depth of hold: 19 ft (5.8 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Armament:
  • 64 guns:
    • Gundeck:
      • 26 × 24-pounder guns
    • Upper gundeck:
      • 26 × 18-pounder guns
    • QD:
      • 10 × 4-pounder guns
    • Fc:
      • 2 × 9-pounder guns
  • 44 guns:
    • Gundeck:
      • 26 × 24-pounder guns
    • QD:
    • Fc:
      • 2 × 12-pounder guns
      • 2 × 42-pounder carronades

HMS Anson was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched at Plymouth on 4 September 1781[1] by Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire.[citation needed]

History

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Main article: Battle of the Saintes

She fought at the battle of Les Saintes on 9 April 1782 under the flag of Admiral Sir George Rodney against Admiral de Grasse. She was in the rear division, which was undeer the command of Rear-Admiral Francis Samuel Drake. In this engagement, Captain William Blair was one of the two Royal Navy post captains killed. In all Anson lost three men killed (including Blair), and 13 men wounded.[2]

In 1794, Anson was razéed to a large frigate of 44-guns by removing her prior forecastle and quarterdeck and altering the former upper deck (now weather or spar-deck) to give her a new forecastle and quarterdeck.

Leviathan, Anson, Pompee, Melpomene, and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture on 10 September of the Tordenshiold.[3]

At the Action of 16 July 1797, Anson and Sylph drove the French corvette Calliope on shore, where Sylph proceeded to fire on her. When Pomone checked a week later, Calliope was wrecked; her crew were camped on shore trying to salvage what stores they could. Pomone confirmed that the flute Freedom and a brig that had also been driven ashore too were wrecked.[4]

On 29 December 1797 Anson recaptured Daphne, which the French had captured three years earlier in December 1794 and taken into service under her existing name. Daphné was under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Latreyte and transiting between Lorient and Bordeaux on her way to Guadeloupe when Anson captured her at the mouth of the Gironde.[5] Anson fired several shots before Daphne struck. She was armed with 30 guns and had 276 men aboard, including 30 passengers. Two of the passengers were Civil Commissioners Jaiquelin and La Carze, who succeeded in throwing their dispatches for Guadeloupe overboard.Daphne had five men killed and several wounded.[6]

On 7 September 1798, after a 24-hour long chase, Anson and Phaeton captured the Flore.[7] Captain Stopford, of Phaeton, in his letter described Flore as a frigate of 36 guns and 255 men. She was eight days out of Boulogne on a cruise.[8] She had also served the Royal Navy in the American Revolutionary War.

On 18 October 1798 under the command of Captain Philip Charles Durham, in company with Kangaroo, Anson captured the French frigate Loire, this after having earlier lost her mizzen mast, main lower and topsail yards during the pursuit of a French squadron off Ireland.

She sailed from Plymouth on 26 January 1799, and on 2 February, in company with Ethalion, captured the French privateer cutter Boulonaise, 14, from Dunkirk which had been harassing shipping in the North Sea.

On 9 September 1799 Captain Durham hosted a fête for King George III. During the course of the evening, the king was found on the low deck surrounded by the ship’s company talking to an old sailor.

On 10 April 1800, when north-west of the Canary Islands, Anson detained the Catherine & Anna bound for Hamburg, Holy Roman Empire, from Batavia with a cargo of coffee.

In 1801 Captain W. E. Cacraft assumed command and the ship was placed on the Channel station, cruising from Portsmouth. In 1802 she was in the Mediterranean, and in November she sailed from Malta for Egypt. She went in for repairs in 1805 at Portsmouth.

On the morning of 23 August 1806 Captain Charles Lydiard along with Arethusa made a successful attack near Moro Castle in Cuba.

On 15 September 1806, she encountered the French Foudroyant, 84, under jury rig some 15 miles off Havana. Assuming that she had been damaged in action Captain Charles Lydiard attacked but then after half an hour found that the French ship had only suffered from bad weather and retained all her firepower. He was forced to haul off after two men had been killed and 13 wounded, his sails and rigging had been badly damaged and the ships were drifting fast in shore.

File:Capture of Curacoa.jpg
The capture of Curaçao, depicted by Thomas Whitcombe

On 1 January 1807 Anson, Latona, Arethusa, Fisgard, and Morne Fortunee captured Curaçao.[9] The Dutch resisted and on Anson seven men were wounded; in all, the British lost three killed and 14 wounded. On the ships alone, the Dutch lost six men killed, including Commandant Cornelius J. Evertz, who commanded the Dutch naval force in Curaçao and seven wounded, of whom one died later. With the colony, the British captured the frigate Kenau Hasselar, the sloop Suriname (a former Royal Naval sloop), and two naval schooners. In 1847 the Admiralty authorised the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Curacoa 1 Jany. 1807" to any surviving claimants from the action; 65 medals were issued.[10]

Shipwreck

'Loss of the Anson Frigate, off Cornwall', in an 1808 depiction by William Elmes
HMS Anson monument at Loe Bar

Anson was wrecked off Loe Bar, Cornwall, on 29 December 1807. The previous day she had been driven onto a lee shore by a gale while attempting to return to Falmouth. She had anchored, but the first anchor cable snapped at 4 am. Anson's smaller anchor cable broke at 7 am and now with no anchor the Captain attempted to beach her but she hit the rocks broadside. The mainmast broke and fell onto the beach and some men managed to get ashore.[11] Estimates of the number of lives lost vary from sixty[12] to 190.[11] Captain Lydiard was among the casualties, his body being recovered on 1 January 1808 and taken to Falmouth for burial with full military honours.[13] Most of the other victims were buried in pits dug on unconsecrated ground on the cliffs with no burial rites. The death toll is uncertain as some of the survivors had been press ganged and took the opportunity to desert.[11]

Post script

The loss of the Anson caused controversy at the time, because of the treatment of the dead sailors washed ashore. In those days it was customary to bury unceremoniously drowned seamen without shroud or coffin in unconsecrated ground, with bodies remaining unburied for long periods of time. This controversy led to a local solicitor, Thomas Grylls, drafting a new law to provide drowned seamen more decent treatment. This law was introduced to parliament by John Hearle Tremayne, Member of Parliament for Cornwall, and was enacted as the Burial of Drowned Persons Act 1808. A monument to the drowned sailors, and to passing of the Grylls Act, stands near the entrance to the harbour of Porthleven.[14][15]

Henry Trengrouse, a Cornish resident of the area, witnessed the wreck of the Anson. Distressed by the loss of life caused by the difficulties in attaching lines to the wreck, he developed a rocket apparatus to shoot lines across the surf to shipwrecks, to take off survivors in cradles. This was an early form of the breeches buoy.[16] An example of his life-saving apparatus is on display at Helston Folk Museum, as is a cannon salvaged from Anson. A carved figure from the stern of HMS Anson was sold at auction for £19,975 and is currently displayed on the Holland America cruise liner MS Noordam outside the Level 10 Observation Lounge.

Citations and references

Citations

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lavery, Ships of the Line, vol. 1, p. 181.
  2. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 12396. pp. 3–4. 1782-10-12.
  3. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 15704. p. 652. 22 May 1804.
  4. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 14031. p. 697. 25 July 1797.
  5. ↑ Fonds, p.194.
  6. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 14084. p. 61. 20 January 1798.
  7. ↑ James (1837) Vol. 2, p.239.
  8. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 15061. p. 879. 15 September 1798.
  9. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 16003. pp. 241–243. 22 February 1807.
  10. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 20939. p. 241. 26 January 1849.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Ships of the Old Navy, Anson.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

References

  • Gardiner, Robert (2006) Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars. (London: Chatham Publishing). ISBN 1-86176-292-5
  • Fonds Marine. Campagnes (opérations ; divisions et stations navales ; missions diverses). Inventaire de la sous-série Marine BB4. Tome deuxième : BB4 1 à 482 (1790-1826) [1]
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lavery, Brian (2003) The Ship of the Line – Volume 1: The development of the battlefleet 1650–1850. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-252-8.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Michael Phillips. Anson (44) (1781). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 3 November 2008.

External links

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