HMS Flamborough (1707)

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Flamborough.
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Flamborough
Ordered: 30 July 1706
Builder: Woolwich Dockyard
Laid down: 1706
Launched: 29 January 1707
Decommissioned: 1748
Fate: Sold out of service, 10 January 1749[1]
Notes:
General characteristics as originally built[1]
Class & type: 24-gun Sixth rate
Tons burthen: 261 49⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 94 ft 0 in (28.65 m) (gundeck)
  • 79 ft 8 in (24.28 m) (keel)
Beam: 25 ft 0 in (7.62 m)
Depth of hold: 10 ft 8 in (3.25 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 115 (85 in peacetime)
Armament:
  • 20 × 6-pounder guns on upper deck;
  • 4 × 4-pounder guns on quarter deck
Notes: Rebuilt, 1727
General characteristics after 1727 rebuild[1]
Class & type: 20-gun Sixth rate
Tons burthen: 377 41⁄94 bm
Length:
  • 105 ft 11 in (32.28 m) (gundeck)
  • 87 ft 10.5 in (26.784 m) (keel)
Beam: 28 ft 5 in (8.66 m)
Depth of hold: 9 ft 3 in (2.82 m)
Propulsion: Sails
Sail plan: Full rigged ship
Complement: 140
Armament: 20 x 6-pounder guns
Notes: Sold 10 January 1749

HMS Flamborough was a Royal Navy post ship, launched in 1707 with 24 guns. She was the first Royal Navy vessel to be stationed in South Carolina, holding that position from 1719 to 1721. She was rebuilt as a considerably larger 20-gun vessel in 1727, and was employed during the following decade off Ireland and later on the Jamaica station. After a period in New York she returned to the Carolinas in 1739, patrolling the coast and playing a minor role in the War of Jenkins' Ear. She returned to England in 1745. After undergoing a major repair she recommissioned under Captain Jervis Porter in April 1746, and served in the North Sea for the following two years. She was sold out of naval service in 1749.

Construction and early service

Flamborough was laid down in Woolwich Dockyard as a 24-gun post ship in 1706, and she was launched on 29 January 1707.[1] Her earliest recorded service was in 1707 for the protection of Yarmouth fisheries, commanded by Commander William Clarke, and in 1708 she was in the Channel with Byng's fleet. In 1710 under Capt. Charles Vanburgh she captured two French privateers in the North Sea, the Trompeuse on 22 May and the St François on 5 June. In 1711, now under Commander Thomas Howard, she was assigned to escort merchant convoys and intercept French privateers in English waters between Newcastle and Leith.[2] In late 1711 she captured a French privateer in a brief action off Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth; the privateer's Scottish captain was subsequently convicted of high treason and executed in London.[2]

Following service in the North Sea from 1718 to 1719, from 5 October 1719 to 14 July 1721 Flamborough was stationed off South Carolina under the command of Captain John Hildesley; the first Royal Navy vessel to be assigned to these waters.[3][a] In 1727 she was rebuilt at Portsmouth as a 20-gun vessel. Ten years later she was again posted to the Americas, sailing for New York in March 1738 under Captain Vincent Pearce.[b]

War with Spain

By the late 1730s hostilities appeared imminent between Britain and Spain and the British Admiralty had concerns regarding the security of settlements along the Carolina and Georgia coasts. On 11 June 1739 Admiralty orders were issued for a six-vessel squadron, including Flamborough, to "protect the said settlements ... by taking, burning or otherwise destroying the ships, vessels or boats which the Spaniards may employ thereon."[4][c] Flamborough thereupon left her New York station for the Carolinas, arriving ahead of the declaration of war with Spain in October.

Her first wartime service was in May 1740 when she anchored in the mouth of the St Johns River to protect the disembarkation of British troops assigned to the Siege of St. Augustine.[5] In 1742 she came under the command of Captain Joseph Hamar, with orders to patrol between Georgia and the Bahamas.[6] In June she briefly engaged Spanish vessels near St. Augustine, Florida, driving several enemy vessels aground before being forced to retreat towards St. Simons Island. The engagement cost Flamborough seventeen of her crew.[7]

Returning in August she was part of a five-vessel squadron under the overall command of Sir Thomas Frankland, assigned to lure the Spanish into battle off St. Augustine, but was never directly engaged.[8] In October she returned to British waters off the Carolinas, anchoring off Hobcaw alongside HMS Rose. While in Hobcaw she lost three men to desertion, replacing them with seamen impressed from local merchant craft.[8]

Flamborough was out of service for the first half of 1743 after being struck by lightning in the first week of January. An examination showed heavy damage to her fore and main masts and she was put in dock in Charleston, during which fourteen of her crew were transferred to HMS Rye under the command of Captain Charles Hardy.[8] By mid-year she was fit to return to sea, proving her capacity with the capture of French privateer La Vendre off the South Carolina coast on 14 October.[8]

In late October 1743 she was joined in Charleston by the larger and more heavily armed HMS Looe, whose captain Ashby Utting assumed overall command of the Carolinas naval squadron.[8] Hamar remained aboard Flamborough as commander and the ship stayed in service off South Carolina until 1 June 1745, when she returned to England.[9] Hamar was assigned to the command of her replacement, the 40-gun HMS Adventure but died before that ship arrived in Charleston harbour on 10 July 1747.[10][1]

On arrival in England Flamborough was transferred to Woolwich Dockyard for major repairs. Works began in January 1746 and lasted for five months at a cost of £4,624. She was recommissioned in April 1746 under Captain Jervis Porter and put back to sea in May for cruising and patrol along the English coast. After an uneventful twelve months, Flamborough″s patrol duties paid off; throughout 1747 she engaged and captured five French privateers - Le Chasseur in June, Le Roi David and Le Louis Quinzième in July, L'Alexandre in October and Le Ricaud in December.[1] Both Le Roi David and Le Loius Quinzième were subsequently purchased by Admiralty, with prize money paid to Flamborough's crew.[11]

Decommission

The ageing Flamborough was sold out of naval service on 10 January 1749.

Notes

Footnotes

^ [a] Royal Navy vessels had previously been stationed at New York and along the coasts of New England, Maryland and Virginia.[12]
^[b] The 1742 trial of a man named Robert Rhodes on charges of forgery refers to a sailor, John Thompson, who had previously lived in London but "in March 1737, he enter'd on board His Majesty's Ship the Flamborough" and died aboard the vessel in Turtle Bay, New York in August 1739. A witness statement reads in part: "I remember when he first went to Sea; it was about four Years ago last January, in the Year thirty-seven. He never was a Seaman before that, by what I have heard him say, and he work'd with me within a Day or two before he went to Sea. He has apply'd to several People who had been at Sea to inform him about the Business, for he was going ... to Captain Pierce of the Flamborough."[13]
^[c] The other Royal Navy vessels ordered to patrol Carolina waters from this date were Phoenix, Hector, Squirrel, Tartar and Spence.[14]

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714-1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Rif Winfield, Seaforth Publishing, 2007. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
  2. 1 2 Graham, Eric J. (April 1992). "In Defence of the Scottish Maritime Interest, 1681-1713". The Scottish Historical Review (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press) 71 (191/192): 106–107. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  3. ↑ May, W.E. (July 1970). "His Majesty's Ships on the Carolina Station". The South Carolina Historical Magazine (South Carolina Historical Society) 71 (3): 163. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  4. ↑ Admiralty Correspondence 1739, cited in Reese, Trevor R. (1 March 1959). "Britain's Military Support of Georgia in the War of 1739-1748". The Georgia Historical Quarterly (Georgia Historical Society) 43 (1): 5. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  5. ↑ Baine, Rodney E. (2000). "General James Oglethorpe and the Expedition Against St. Augustine". The Georgia Historical Quarterly (Georgia Historical Society) 84 (2): 215. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Robson, John (2009). Captain Cook's War and Peace. University of New South Wales Press. p. 20. ISBN 9781742231099.
  7. ↑ Cate, Margaret Davis (June 1943). "Fort Frederica and the Battle of Bloody Marsh". The Georgia Historical Quarterly (Georgia Historical Society) 27 (2): 134. Retrieved 6 December 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 May, W.E. (January 1969). "Capt. Charles Hardy on the Carolina Station, 1742-1744". The South Carolina Historical Magazine (South Carolina Historical Society) 70 (1): 1–19. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  9. ↑ May, W.E. (July 1970). "His Majesty's Ships on the Carolina Station". The South Carolina Historical Magazine (South Carolina Historical Society) 71 (3): 164. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  10. ↑ Pringle, Robert (April 1925). "Journal of Robert Pringle, 1746-1747". The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine (South Carolina Historical Society) 26 (2): 105. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  11. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 8733. p. 2. 2 April 1748. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
  12. ↑ May, W.E. (July 1970). "His Majesty's Ships on the Carolina Station". The South Carolina Historical Magazine (South Carolina Historical Society) 71 (3): 162. Retrieved 8 October 2013.
  13. ↑ "April 1742, trial of Robert Rhodes (t17420428-33)". Old Bailey Proceedings Online. April 2013. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
  14. ↑ Reese, Trevor R. (1 March 1959). "Britain's Military Support of Georgia in the War of 1739-1748". The Georgia Historical Quarterly (Georgia Historical Society) 43 (1): 5. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
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