HMS Alcmene (1794)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Alcmene |
| Ordered: | 14 February 1793 |
| Builder: | Joseph Graham, Harwich |
| Laid down: | April 1793 |
| Launched: | 8 November 1794 |
| Completed: | By 12 April 1795 |
| Fate: | Wrecked on 29 April 1809 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 32-gun Alcmene-class fifth rate |
| Tons burthen: | 803 bm |
| Length: |
135 ft 3 in (41.2 m) (overall) 112 ft 8 in (34.3 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 36 ft 7.5 in (11.2 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 241 (254 from 1796) |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Alcmene was a 32-gun Alcmene-class fifth rate of the Royal Navy. This frigate served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars under the command of several notable officers. Alcmene was active in several theatres of the war, spending most of her time cruising in search of enemy vessels or privateers, and escorting convoys. She fought at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801 and served in the blockade of the French coasts during the later Napoleonic Wars until she was wrecked on the French coast in 1809.
Construction and commissioning
Alcmene was ordered from the yards of Joseph Graham, of Harwich on 14 February 1793, shortly after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars.[1] She was laid down there in April that year and launched on 8 November 1794.[1][2] The ship was completed at Chatham Dockyard by 12 April 1795 and had commissioned under her first commander, Captain William Brown, in January that year.[1] Joining the Alcmene on 26 March was surgeon William Beatty, who later served aboard HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, and attended the dying Lord Nelson.[3] Beatty would spend most of the next five years aboard Alcmene, his longest period on a single ship.[3]
Career
Alcmene went out as a convoy escort to the West Indies in November 1795, returning in January the following year and serving on the Lisbon station from August.[1] Alcmene's main tasks involved escorting convoys to and from Oporto and Lisbon, some numbering upwards of 200 merchants; and cruising off the coast in search of enemy warships and privateers.[4] Alcmene took the 14-gun privateer Rochelleuse off Cape Finisterre on 6 March 1797, while the privateers Bonaparte and Légère were taken on 8 January and 22 August 1798 respectively.[1] Alcmene had been refitting at Spithead when the naval mutiny broke out there. Her crew did not join the mutineers, though there were rumblings of mutiny later in the year aboard her, and several seaman were tried and punished.[5] Captain George Johnstone Hope took command in August 1798 and Alcmene went out to the Mediterranean. She took part in the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, carrying supplies to the British fleet, and raided enemy shipping. On 23 June 1799 she captured the 28-gun Courageux and the Deux Amis on 1 August that year.[1] Earlier in the year Alcmene had helped Horatio Nelson to evacuate the Neapolitan Royal family from Naples ahead of the advancing French armies.[6] She returned to the Lisbon station in August, and went from there back to Plymouth in November.[1]
Hope's successor, in 1799, was Captain Henry Digby, and Alcmene joined the squadron blockading the French coast.[1] Captain Samuel Sutton took command in January 1801, and she went at first to Lisbon and then to the Baltic with Sir Hyde Parker's expeditionary force in March 1801.[1] She was present at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April that year, as part of Edward Riou's frigate squadron, and suffered five men killed and 19 wounded in the battle.[1] Alcmene then appears to have come under the command of either Captain Charles Pater or Captain John Devonshire, after Sutton was moved to take over HMS Amazon after Riou's death during the battle.[1] Captain Robert Lambert took command in August 1801 and Alcmene went out as a convoy escort to Newfoundland, before returning to British waters and joining the Channel Fleet. Captain John Stiles took command in August 1802, and Alcmene spent between 1804 and 1805 on the Channel Islands station. Stiles was succeeded by Captain James Brisbane in November 1805 and moved to the Irish station. Here she took the privateer Courrier on 4 January 1806.[1] Alcmene came under her last commander, Captain William Tremlett, in January 1808. Tremlett commanded her in the English Channel.
Fate
She was wrecked at the mouth of the Loire on 29 April 1809.[1][2] She was following the 44-gun frigate Amelia to reconnoiter the French forces when she struck Blanche Rock, off Nantes, due to the ignorance of the pilot. The ebbing tide made it impossible to get her off and at low tide she broke her back and bilged. Fortunately, Amelia was able to rescue both the entire crew of Alcmene and her stores. She was then burnt to the water's edge to deny her to the enemy.[7]
Notes
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail. p. 135.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 10.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Brockliss. Nelson's Surgeon. p. 65.
- ↑ Brockliss. Nelson's Surgeon. p. 66.
- ↑ Brockliss. Nelson's Surgeon. pp. 67–8.
- ↑ Brockliss. Nelson's Surgeon. p. 71.
- ↑ Grocott (1997), p. 278.
References
- Brockliss, L. W. B.; Cardwell, John; Moss, Michael; Moss, Michael S. (2005). Nelson's Surgeon: William Beatty, Naval Medicine, and the Battle of Trafalgar. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199287422.
- Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
- Grocott, Terence (1997), Shipwrecks of the revolutionary and Napoleonic eras, Chatham, ISBN 1-86176-030-2
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1794–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
