HMS Argo (1781)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Argo |
| Ordered: | 26 February 1779 |
| Builder: | John Baker & Co, Howden Pans, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
| Laid down: | 18 August 1779 |
| Launched: | 7 June 1781 |
| Completed: | 15 October 1781 |
| Fate: | Sold on 11 January 1816 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 44-gun Roebuck Class Fifth Rate |
| Tons burthen: | 892 21/94 bm |
| Length: |
140 ft 8 in (42.9 m) (overall) 115 ft 8 in (35.3 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 0.75 in (11.6 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 16 ft 4.5 in (4.99 m) |
| Propulsion: | Sails |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 280 (300 from 1783) |
| Armament: |
As built:
After April 1793:
After November 1793:
After September 1809:
|
HMS Argo was a 44-gun Fifth Rate Roebuck class ship of the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1781 from Howdon Dock. She was the largest vessel that had been launched on the River Tyne.[citation needed] After having served for 36 hours under the French flag, she returned to British service, distinguishing herself in the French Revolutionary Wars when she captured several prizes, though she did not participate in any major actions. She also served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was sold 1816.
Contents
Gold Coast
Early in 1782, Argo joined Captain Thomas Shirley in the 50-gun ship Leander and the sloop-of-war Alligator off the Dutch Gold Coast. Britain was at war with The Netherlands and before Argo arrived Shirley captured the small Dutch forts at Mouri (Fort Nassau - 20 guns), Kormantin (Courmantyne or Fort Amsterdam - 32 guns), Apam (Fort Lijdzaamheid or Fort Patience - 22 guns), Senya Beraku (Berku or Fort Barracco - 18 guns), and Accra (Fort Creve Cour - 32 guns).[1] Argo provided a landing party of 50 men that assisted Governor Mills to take Komenda Fort .[2]
Capture and recapture
In 1782 Argo was the West Indies under Captain Butchart. In the early summer she captured the French ship Dauphin, nominally of 64-guns but armed en flute and so sailing with only 26 guns mounted.
While Argo was on passage from Tortola to Antigua on 16 February 1783, she encountered the French 36-gun frigate Nymphe and the 32-gun Amphitrite. After a five hour action they captured her. Not only did they outgun Argo, but the sea was so rough that she could not open her lower ports. About 36 hours later, the 74-gun Third Rate Invincible recaptured her.[3] After a court martial acquitted her officers, Admiral Sir Hugh Pigot reappointed them. She returned to England at the peace of 1783 and was taken out of commission.
French Revolutionary Wars
In 1793 Captain William Clarke sailed Argo to the North Sea where she provided protection to the Baltic trade.
In March 1798 Capt. James Bowen took over command of Argo. She was with Commodore Duckworth in the Mediterranean. There on 13 November she retook the sloop-of-war Peterel. Four Spanish frigates had captured Peterel and was trying to escape around Majorca. The frigates out-sailed their pursuers back to Cartagena, Spain, each throwing overboard 50,000 dollars to prevent it falling into British hands.
In November Argo participated in the reduction of Minorca.
On 6 February 1799, Argo and Leviathan chased the Spanish 34-gun frigate Santa Theresa off Majorca. A violent westerly gale came up that took away Leviathan's main top-sail. She fell behind but had nearly caught up when Argo got alongside Santa Theresa about midnight. Argo fired a broadside that wounded two men and badly damaged Santa Theresa's rigging, at which point the Spaniard surrendered. She was carrying 42 guns plus swivels and had 530 seamen and soldiers on board.
Then on 16 February Centaur, Argo and Leviathan attacked the town of Cambrelles. After the Spaniards had abandoned their battery, the boats went in, dismounted the guns, burnt five settees and brought out another five laden with wine and wheat.
In May Argo sailed to Algiers to arrange with the Dey for a supply of fresh provisions for the army and navy in Minorca. While there she managed to arrange the release of six British subjects who had been held in slavery for more than 14 years.
On 6 August she captured Infanta Amelia, a Spanish royal packet ship. The Royal Navy took the packet in as Porpoise.
On 19 August 1800 she captured the Spanish lugger St Antonio in ballast. Argo sent her in to Plymouth.
On 21 October, after a 15 hour chase, Argo captured the Spanish letter of marque San Fernando, which was armed with 12 long 6-pounders. San Fernando was five days out of Santander bound for Vera Cruz with iron bars and a valuable cargo of silks belonging to the Royal Philippine Company. She was also carrying government dispatches but had thrown them overboard before being boarded.
During the same cruise Argo captured the French brig Maria Louisa, in ballast, and the Spanish barque San Vincento, with iron ore. She also sank two Spanish barques laden with iron ore.
At the beginning of July 1801, Argo and Carysfort escorted five transports with the 85th Regiment of Foot and forty artillerymen through the Channel. They sailed from Cowes on 24 June and put into Torbay on 11 July.
In January 1802 he British merchants of Madeira gave Captain Bowen a sword and a testimonial were for his defense of British property. Argo returned to Portsmouth from the coast of Guinea on 19 March.
Napoleonic Wars
In 1803, under Capt. Benjamin Hallowell, Argo visited the coast of Africa and took part in the reduction of St Lucia and Tobago. However, at the end of December she was in Portsmouth for repairs after a West Indiaman had run foul of her.
In 1806 Capt. S. T. Digby sailed Argo to the coast of Africa. In 1808 she was at Jamaica. In 1809, Argo and the brig-sloop Sparrow, Commander Burt, were blockading the town of Santo Domingo while a Spanish force invested it from the landward side. The British and Spaniards agreed a joint attack. The two British vessels came in close to the detached fort of St. Jerome and silenced it with their guns while losing only two men wounded. However the Spanish land attack failed.[4] At some point Argo captured the Joseph, of three guns.
At the end of 1809 Capt. Frederick Warren was appointed to Argo after acting as captain of Melpomene. In 1810 he sailed for St. Helena to convoy home a large fleet of East Indiamen. However, on 28 November he faced a court martial on board Gladiator at Portsmouth. He was charged with not following orders to proceed to Quebec to bring home a convoy. The court accepted his evidence that it was late in the year and that the weather was bad as sufficient reason for not sailing and acquitted him.
Early in 1811 Argo was placed under the orders of Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, who was sailing with reinforcements for the British army in Portugal. She subsequently took out an Algerine Ambassador and carried Sir Robert Liston and his suite to Constantinople.
Capt. Warren resigned his command in October 1812. In 1814 Argo was in Jamaica under the command of Captain William Fothergill, and serving as flagship to Rear Admiral W. Brown.
Fate
In 1815 she Argo became a guardship at Plymouth, still under Fothergill. She was sold on 11 January 1816.
References
- 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.
- Crooks, John Joseph (1973) Records Relating to the Gold Coast Settlements from 1750 To 1874. (London: Taylor & Francis). ISBN 9780714616476
- Ellis, A.B. (1893) A history of the Gold Coast of West Africa. (London: Chapman and Hall).
- Grant, James (1897) Recent British battles on land and sea. (London: Cassell).
- John Sykes, Historical Register of Remarkable events, vol 1, p. 320. , Newcastle upon Tyne 1833.
- Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas J Spence Lyne, Something About A Sailor, Jarrolds Publishers, London 1940.
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1794–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1861762461.
