HMS Euryalus (1803)
| Career (Great Britain) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Euryalus |
| Ordered: | 16 August 1800 |
| Builder: | Balthazar & Edward Adams, Bucklers Hard |
| Laid down: | October 1801 |
| Launched: | 6 June 1803 |
| Commissioned: | June 1803 |
| Decommissioned: | 1825 |
| Reclassified: | Prison hulk, 1825 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1860 |
| General characteristics | |
| Tons burthen: | 946 16/94 tons |
| Length: |
145 ft 2 in (gundeck) 121 ft 11.75 in (keel) |
| Beam: | 38 ft 2.25 in |
| Complement: | 264 men |
| Armament: |
36 guns comprising:
Forecastle 2 x 9-pounder guns and 4 x 32-pounder carronades |
| Honours and awards: |
Participated in: |
HMS Euryalus was a Royal Navy Apollo Class frigate of 36 guns, which saw service in the Battle of Trafalgar and the War of 1812. During her career she was commanded by three prominent naval personalities of the Napoleonic and post-Napoleonic period, Henry Blackwood, George Heneage Dundas and Charles Napier. She was named for one of Argonauts - the mythical band of heroes who accompanied Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece.
Euryalus was built by Henry Adams's firm at Bucklers Hard, and launched in 1803. Her first action was in October 1804 when, captained by Henry Blackwood, she took part in an assault on French vessels off Boulogne pier.[1]
Battle of Trafalgar
In 1805 she led a squadron of four other frigates in watching Cádiz to report the movements of the combined French and Spanish fleets anchored there.[2] The combined fleet sailed from Cádiz on 20 October and was shadowed through the night by the Euryalus and others which reported its position to the Royal Navy fleet on the horizon.
With battle imminent the following morning, Captain Blackwood proposed that Admiral Horatio Nelson transfer from HMS Victory to the faster Euryalus, the better to observe and control the engagement. Nelson declined the offer. Euryalus - being too small to play a major role - stood off until the late afternoon when she took the badly damaged HMS Royal Sovereign in tow and turned her to engage the French ship Formidable.
Following the death of Admiral Nelson, Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood transferred his flag from Royal Sovereign to Euryalus which became for the next ten days the flagship for the remaining Royal Navy fleet.
After the battle Euryalus took on survivors from the French ship-of-the-line Achille, as well as the captured French Admiral Pierre de Villeneuve. Blackwood also received the surrender of the Spanish ship Santa Ana, after two raking broadsides to the stern by Royal Sovereign and Belleisle had caused her to strike her colours.
Euryalus again took Royal Sovereign in tow but the two ships collided during a sudden squall, badly damaging the frigate's masts and rigging. Once repairs were completed, Euryalus went into Cádiz Harbour to allow Blackwood to negotiate an exchange of prisoners and the repatriation of French and Spanish wounded.
On 31 October, Euryalus set sail for England with Admiral Villeneuve as a prisoner.
Post-Trafalgar
In 1806 George Heneage Dundas took command of Euryalus and sailed with Ocean and other warships as escorts to a large convoy bound for Oporto, Lisbon and the Mediterranean. Towards the end of 1807 Euryalus returned to England with Niger as escort to a convoy of several thousand troops under Sir John Moore from Gibraltar. She went into dock at Plymouth for a refit and was then stationed in the North Sea. She carried the Duke d'Angouleme from Yarmouth to Gottenburg and escorted the Baltic convoys through the Great Belt.
After seeing one convoy clear on 11 June 1808, she and another vessel discovered several vessels at anchor at the entrance of Nakskov close into the shore. Dundas anchored and sent four boats from the two ships to destroy them. They burnt two large troop transports and captured a gun-vessel armed with two 18-pounders and carrying 64 men. The enemy lost seven men killed and twelve wounded, as well as many drowned; the British had one man slightly wounded.
During the same year Dundas went to Elbing, a small port in West Prussia about 60 kilometers east of Dantzig (now in Poland) to embark Princess Marie Josephine Louise of Savoy (the consort of Louis XVIII), the Duc du Berry and other members of the French royal family. He took them to Carlscrona in southern Sweden and, after re-embarking them at Gottenburg, finally to Harwich.
On July 30, 1809, a British armed force of 39,000 men landed on Walcheren in what became the Walcheren Campaign. Dundas and Euryalus took part in the disastrous expedition where, under the orders of Captain Lord William Stuart in Lavinia, she joined the squadron which forced the passage of the Scheldt between the batteries at Flushing and Cadsand on 11 August. Euryalus had no casualties although two men were killed and nine wounded in the other ships.
Later she was stationed off Cherbourg under the orders of Capt. Sir Richard King, and in November captured the French privateer lugger Etoile of 14 guns and 48 men.
In the spring of 1810 Euryalus escorted a large convoy from Spithead to Portugal and the Mediterranean and was then attached to Captain Blackwood's inshore squadron off Toulon. This consisted of Warspite, Ajax, Conqueror, Euryalus and Shearwater. A strong gale from the north-west on 15 July forced the fleet to take shelter behind the Île du Levant and drove the commander-in-chief's ship, San Josef, as far to the east as Villefranche.
On 20 July a division of the French fleet consisting of six sail-of-the line and four frigates came out from Toulon. Their aim was to enable a frigate and her convoy to escape from Bandol where they had been forced to take refuge. Because the wind was now light and variable, Capt. Blackwood was unable to prevent the junction with the frigate and, while he was trying to concentrate his squadron, Euryalus and Shearwater were obliged to cross ahead of the French ships. When the wind failed it seemed certain that the enemy, which still had wind, would be able to capture them. Blackwood, in the absence of the admiral, resolved to risk action.
He brought to with Conqueror and Ajax astern of him and exchanged broadsides with the enemy ships as they hauled up in succession. When the French tacked, the British line followed their example. Euryalus and Shearwater made their escape and the squadron stood a little way to the south but the French did not take advantage of their superiority. Instead, they returned to harbour. During the action, Shearwater received three broadsides from one of the French line-of-battle ships and a frigate without actually being struck.
Early in 1811 Dundas temporarily took command of the 74-gun Third Rate Achille until relieved by Capt. Askew Paffard Hollis, who had transferred from Standard. He then returned to Euryalus. On 7 June 1811 the boats of Euryalus and Swallow captured the French privateer Intrepide off Corsica after a long chase. She had a crew of 58 and was armed with two 8-pounders.
War of 1812
After serving in minor roles in a number of theatres, Euryalus was in the Mediterranean when Captain (later Admiral) Charles Napier took command early in 1813. She took part in successful commerce raiding and the blockade of Toulon. On 23 December she drove the storeship Baleine, of 22 guns and 120 men, bound from Toulon to Ajaccio ashore near Calvi.
On 21 April 1814, in company with Undaunted she entered the harbour where her captain was advised of the defeat of Napoleon; Undaunted then transported him to Elba.
Napier next took Euryalus across the Atlantic for service in the War of 1812, including the expedition up the Potomac (August-September 1814), in which he was second in command of the squadron under James Alexander Gordon. On the second day of the expedition Euryalus went aground on an oyster-bank at Kettle Bottoms and took several hours to be floated off. On 25 August the whole squadron was struck by a vicious squall that temporarily put Euryalus almost on her beam ends and cost her her bowsprit and the heads of all her topmasts. Only 12 hours were needed for refit, however, and she subsequently took part in the bombardment and reduction of the forts defending the town of Alexandria. With the rest of the squadron she then descended the Potomac, running the gauntlet of fire from enemy batteries; during this latter stage Napier was wounded by a musket-ball in the neck and in all Euryalus lost three killed and ten wounded. She returned to her anchorage at the mouth of the river on 9 September. On 13 September she was present at the bombardment of Fort McHenry preparatory to an expedition against Baltimore.[3]
Following these operations, on 28 January 1815 Napier issued a challenge to the captain of US frigate Constellation to meet Euryalus in single-ship combat.[4] The Constellation's captain, Charles Gordon, accepted, but Euryalus was first required for the naval operations preceding the Battle of New Orleans and then peace was signed before the engagement could take place. Napier wrote to Captain Gordon that he was glad they were at peace, but should that situation change 'I trust we shall have an opportunity of being better acquainted'.[5]
During Napoleon's 'Hundred Days' Euryalus was engaged in landing troops at the mouth of the River Scheldt.
Fate
From 25 August 1818 to April 1819, Euryalus was under the command of Capt. Thomas Huskisson, in the West Indies. From about June 1821 to August she was under the command of Wilson Braddyll Bigland.
Captain Sir Augustus Clifford was appointed to Euryalus on 22 October 1821 and sailed her from St. Helen's with W.J. Hamilton, the British ambassador to the Neapolitan court. She would spend from 1822 to 1825 relatively uneventfully in the Mediterranean. In 1824 she did participate in the blockade of Algiers. Then in late in 1824 or early in 1825, she rendered assistance to the American brig Charles and Ellen at the island of Milo. Euryalus stayed for a week, lending some 70 to 80 men to the brig to effect repairs, a kindness acknowledged her Captain, P.R.Bing and two Boston insurance companies by posting a notice in the National Intelligencer of 23 March 1825.[6] Euryalus was paid-off in Deptford in 1825.
After her return to England she was converted to a prison hulk. From 1825 to at least 1843, she was a prison for boys, the youngest being nine years old.[7][8]
In 1847 Euryalus was moved to Gibraltar. In 1859 she was renamed Africa but was sold to a Mr. Recanno for breaking up in 1860.
References
- Rif Winfield (2008) British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1816: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84415-717-4.
- ↑ "Euryalus (36)". Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. 2007. http://www.ageofnelson.org/MichaelPhillips/info.php?ref=0863. Retrieved 2009-06-25.
- ↑ Tim Clayton & Phil Craig (2004). Trafalgar: the men, the battle, the storm. Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 9780340830277. http://nla.gov.au/anbd.bib-an26376559.
- ↑ Edward Elers Napier, The Life and Correspondence of Admiral Sir Charles Napier K.C.B., Volume I, pp. 76-90.
- ↑ http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2007/spring/diplomacy.html
- ↑ Edward Elers Napier, op. cit., pp. 91-92.
- ↑ Marshall, John (1829) Royal Naval Biography; Or Memoirs Of The Services Of All The Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired Captains, Post-Captains And Commanders: Supplement, Part III, p.81. (Republished 2007 by Kessinger). ISBN 978-0548244272.
- ↑ Ives, George (2003) History of Penal Methods: Criminals, Witches, Lunatics (Kessinger), 126. ISBN 978-0766178625
- ↑ Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons.Parliamentary papers, Volume 42, 704.
