HMS Braak (1795)

Career (Dutch Republic)
Name:	De Braak
Captured:	By the British in February 1795
Career (United Kingdom)
Name:	HMS Braak
Acquired:	February 1795
Fate:	Capsized on 23 May 1798
General characteristics
Class and type:	14-gun brig-sloop
Tons burthen:	255 long tons (259.1 t)
Length:	84 ft (26 m)
Beam:	28.9 ft (8.8 m)
Depth of hold:	11.2 ft (3.4 m)
Sail plan:	brig-sloop
Complement:	86
Armament:	14 × 24 pounder carronades

For other ships of the same name, see HMS Braak.

HMS Braak was a 14-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She initially served with the Dutch Republic, but was seized in Britain after the Dutch entry into the French Revolutionary Wars, and was taken into the Navy. She served briefly with the British before capsizing off the North American coast. She was subsequently the focus of a number of salvage efforts.

Dutch career

The cutter De Braak (the Dutch word for Beagle) was probably built in Britain. She was part of the Dutch Navy in the 1780s, and was part of a Mediterranean fleet based at the French port of Toulon. By the 1790s she was in the Caribbean, and was present at the defence of Willemstad, part of the Dutch colony at Curaçao, against the French in 1793. By late 1794 she was ordered to escort a convoy of East Indiamen to Batavia. En route she called at the English port of Falmouth, unaware that the French had since invaded the Netherlands and proclaimed the Batavian Republic, as a client state, compelling them to declare war on the British. On their arrival at the port the 26 merchantmen, and six warships including the De Braak, were seized by the authorities. Officials from the sloop HMS Fortune took over the De Braak.

British career

The De Braak was taken into service as HMS Braak, re-rigged as a brig-sloop, and armed with 24 pounder carronades. She was initially commissioned under the command of James Drew on 13 June 1797, but was caught in a storm at the end of the year and dismasted. On the completion of repairs, she returned to service in February 1798 and was assigned to escort a convoy to the Virginia Capes. On 2 April, whilst off the Azores however she became separated from the rest of ships, but towards the end of the month she fell in with and captured a Spanish ship, reportedly worth some £160,000 of prize money. The Braak duly arrived in Delaware Bay on 25 May, and took on a pilot from Cape Henlopen. Shortly after this a strong and sudden squall blew up and before action could be taken, the ship capsized. Drew and 35 of his crew were drowned, as were 12 Spanish prisoners.

Salvage and controversy

The wreck lay on the bottom of Delaware Bay, but soon became the subject of rumours concerning the amount of treasure the Braak was purported to have been carrying when she sank, with estimates of the value reaching $500 million. A number of artefacts were raised during the 1980s, but these efforts were later criticised by maritime archaeologists for their disregard for proper archaeological methods, and for their discarding of anything not considered inherently valuable. The hull was eventually raised but in such a way that considerable damage was done to both it and the surrounding archaeology. The hull was eventually placed in a museum, as were many of the artefacts recovered. Only a small amount of coin was recovered, worth considerably less than the cost of the large number of salvage attempts that had been undertaken over the years. The treatment of the wreck of the Braak, and of many others like it, was a contributing factor to the decision to draw up and pass the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act of 1987.

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. 
• Paine, Lincoln (2000). Warships of the World to 1900. Houghton Mifflin Books. ISBN 0395984149. 

External links

• Details of an unsuccessful salvage attempt in the 1880s