HMS Amphion (1780)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Amphion |
| Builder: | Royal Dockyard, Chatham |
| Launched: | 1780 |
| Honours and awards: | Participated in: |
| Fate: | Blew up, 22 September 1796 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | fifth rate frigate |
| Length: | 126 feet (38 m) |
| Beam: | 35 feet (11 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 215 |
| Armament: | 32 guns |
HMS Amphion was a Royal Navy 32-gun fifth-rate ship built in Chatham in 1780 that blew up on 22 September 1796.
Service
On 10 September 1781, a small squadron under the command of the Amphion's captain John Bazely, in conjunction with General Benedict Arnold, completely destroyed the town of New London, Connecticut, together with stores and shipping in the harbour.
Sinking
On 22 September 1796, Amphion was completing repairs at Plymouth, England. She was lying alongside a sheer hulk close to the dockyard jetty. Being due to sail the next day, she had more than a hundred relatives and visitors on board in addition to her crew.
At about 4 p.m. she exploded without warning, killing 300 out of the 312 aboard. Among the few survivors was her captain, Israel Pellew, who went on to command a ship at the Battle of Trafalgar and ended the Napoleonic Wars as a Rear-Admiral. Pellew had been dining in his cabin with Captain Swaffield of the Overyssel and the First Lieutenant of the Amphion when they were all thrown about by the explosion; Pellew managed to rush to the cabin window before a second explosion blew him into the water from which he was rescued.
Apart from Pellew, two lieutenants, a boatswain, three or four seamen, a marine, one woman, and a child were the only survivors.
The cause of the disaster was never fully proven, but it was thought that the ship's gunner had accidentally spilled gunpowder near the fore magazine which had accidentally ignited and set off the magazine itself. The gunner had been suspected of stealing gunpowder, and on the day of the disaster he was reported to have been drunk and probably as a result less careful than usual.
References
- Gilly, William O. S. (1850). Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849. John W. Parker, West Strand. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15301.
- Gardiner, Robert (1996). Fleet Battle and Blockade. Chatham Publishing. ISBN 1-84067-363-X. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15301.
