HMS Camilla (1776)
| 300px The Penobscot Expedition naval battle, by Dominic Serres | |
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Camilla |
| Ordered: | 15 April 1773 |
| Builder: | Chatham Dockyard |
| Laid down: | May 1774 |
| Launched: | 20 April 1776 |
| Completed: | 9 July 1776 |
| Commissioned: | May 1776 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | Sphinx-class post ship |
| Tons burthen: | 432.6 bm |
| Length: |
108 ft 1.25 in (32.9502 m) (gundeck) 89 ft 10.375 in (27.39073 m) keel |
| Beam: | 30 ft 1 in (9.17 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 9 ft 8 in (2.95 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement: | 140 (134 from 1794) |
| Armament: |
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HMS Camilla was a Royal Navy 20-gun Sphinx-class post ship. Camilla was built in Chatham Dockyard to a design by John Williams and launched in 1776. She served in the American Revolution, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, before being sold in 1831.
Service during the American Revolution
In late 1776, Camilla captured the Massachusetts Navy privateer schooner Independence, Captain John Gill, of 6 carriage guns, eight swivels, and 50 men. She also captured the sloop Admiral Montague, sailing from Hispaniola to Rhode Island.
On 23 January 1777, 12 twelve miles north of Charlestown, South Carolina, Camilla, under Captain Charles Phipps, captured the American sloop Fanny, which was heading to that port from Cap François, Hispaniola, with a cargo of molasses.
On 20 February 1777, Camilla and Perseus, Captain George Keith Elphinstone, captured the 170-ton snow, Adventure. They captured her 99 miles northeast of Antigua, British West Indies as she was going from Newburyport, Massachusetts to St. Eustatius, Netherlands West Indies with a cargo of lumber and fish. Camilla fired eleven shots before the Adventure would stop. Still, the prize was awarded to Perseus.
April 1777 was a busy month for Camilla. On 6 April she captured the brig Willing Maid, bound from St. Thomas, Danish West Indies to Ocracoke Inlet, North Carolina with a cargo of sugar, rum, and salt. However, the brig sprang a leak and sank. On 11 April 1777, Camilla was patrolling with 44-gun frigate Roebuck near the mouth of the Delaware River, just north of the Cape Henlopen lighthouse when they came upon the American merchantman Morris. Gunfire from the two British vessels drove Morris ashore, where she suddenly blew up with such force that it shattered the windows on the British vessels.[1] Reports indicate that Morris was carrying 35 tons of gunpowder and that the captain and six crewmen still on the vessel were laying a train of gunpowder to blow her up, when things went wrong. It is not clear whether the powder train burnt too quickly or a shot from Camilla or Roebuck set it off. What is clear is that the vessel disintegrated and all aboard her died in the explosion. Much of her cargo of arms was, however, salvageable and Americans onshore were able to get it.[2] On the 17 and 20 April Camilla took two more prizes, but there are no details available. On the 21 April, she captured the Perfect, bound from Môle Saint-Nicolas, Hispaniola with a cargo of molasses. Then on the 25 and 26 April she took two more unknown vessels.
When Philadelphia fell to the British in 1777, several American vessels found themselves trapped between the city and the British fleet further down the Delaware River. The Americans launched some three fire ships towards the British, but gunfire from Roebuck, Camilla, and other British vessels caused the Americans to set their ships on fire too soon, and to abandon them. British boats were able to pull the fire ships on shore where they could do no harm.
On 29 May 1779, Camilla participated in the British expedition up the Hudson River that captured Stony Point, two months later the site of the American victory in the Battle of Stony Point. Amongst other services, she exchanged fire with Fort Lafayette.
That summer, the British Fleet moved north and Camilla participated in the battle that on 15-16 August destroyed the American Penobscot Expedition . [3]
In December Camilla sailed from New York to Charleston, South Carolina with Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot's squadron. Thus, Spring 1780, found Camilla, Captain Charles Phipps, participating at the Siege of Charleston. The city capitulated on 11 May.
Later service
In 1783, a mutiny aboard Camilla on the Jamaica station resulted in five men receiving 800 lashes.[4]
After receiving promotion to post-captain on 31 October 1795, Richard Dacres was appointed to command Camilla, which formed part of Richard Strachan's squadron in the English Channel.[5]
On 19 April 1797, Diamond, Minerva, Cynthia, the hired cutter Grand Falconer and Camilla (under Captain Stephen Poyntz) captured the American ship Favourite. When Robert Larkan took command of Camilla, in September 1797, he brought with him Richard Spencer, who would go on to become an admiral, be knighted, and become Government Resident in Albany, Western Australia.
On 4 May 1799, after a three week voyage from Philadelphia, Camilla arrived at Cap-Français, Haiti, with the British General, Thomas Maitland on board. The British government had empowered him to pledge its support to General Toussaint Louverture.[6]
During the evening of 29 January 1801, off Le Havre, Camilla captured the 3-gun French privateer lugger Vigoureaux.[7] Later that year she lost her mainmast in a storm while accompanying a convoy from Newfoundland to Britain. Though the storm scattered the convoy, Camilla arrived in Portsmouth, having found and escorted six vessels to Weymouth and Poole.
On 15 August 1805, Camilla pursued the French brig-corvette Faune. The 74-gun, third rate Goliath joined the chase and helped Camilla to capture the Frenchman, before sailing off to capture the French ship-corvette Torche.
Between 1807 and 1808 Camilla was in the Leeward Islands under the command of Captain John Bowen. On 2 March 1808, a party of about 200 marines and sailors from Cerberus, Circe, and Camilla, all under the command of Captain Pigot of Circe, landed near Grand Bourg on the island of Marie-Galante. The militia on the island quickly surrendered, together with their 13 guns, plus small arms and gunpowder.[8]
In late 1809, Camilla, under temporary captain William Henry Dillon, encountered a ship from Norway under a Danish master and with a cargo of timber. On her deck there were a number of wooden trucks for gun-carriages and therefore war materiel. The master stated that he was taking his cargo to Britain so Dillon let him proceed. After two hours, the merchant vessel was plainly heading toward the Dutch coast so Dillon caught up with the vessel and seized it. The master explained that he was sailing toward Holland only to avoid "the Lemon and Oar, a dangerous reef in the North Sea." Dillon knew that the master’s explanation was inconsistent with the vessel’s position and so sent the vessel to Britain as a prize.[9]
Final years
Camilla was laid up in Ordinary at Sheerness in 1809, and then used as a floating breakwater. From 1814 to 1825 she served as a receiving ship until she was “laid aground for the protection of the waters”. She was sold on 13 March 1831.
References
- ↑ Harold M. Hahn. 1988. Ships of the American Revolution and their models. (Annapolis, Md : Naval Institute), p.19.
- ↑ Donald Shomette. 2007. Shipwrecks, sea raiders, and maritime disasters along the Delmarva coast, 1632-2004. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins), pp. 62-5.
- ↑ Gardner Weld Allen. 1913. A naval history of the American Revolution. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin), Vol. 2, pp.
- ↑ Terry Breverton. 2004. The Pirate Dictionary. (Gretna, La.: Pelican), p. 108.
- ↑ Winfield. British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817. p. 226.
- ↑ Jacques Nicolas Léger. 1907. Haiti, Her History and Her Detractors. (New York: Neale), p.98.
- ↑ The Scots magazine, or, General repository of literature, history, and politics. (Edinburgh, 1794-1803), vol. 62, p. 212.
- ↑ The Naval chronicle. (London: J. Gold, 1799-1818), 1808, pp.428-9.
- ↑ William Henry Dillon & Michael Arthur Lewis. 1956. A Narrative of My Professional Adventures. (London : Navy Records Society, 1953-1956), vol. 2, pp. 143-144.
- Colledge, J.J. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of All Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy From the Fifteenth Century to the Present. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1987. ISBN 0-87021-652-X.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
- Ships of the Old Navy
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