HMS Juno (1780)
| Career (UK) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | HMS Juno |
| Ordered: | 21 October 1778 |
| Builder: | Robert Batson & Co, Limehouse |
| Laid down: | December 1778 |
| Launched: | 30 September 1780 |
| Completed: | 14 December 1780 |
| Fate: | Broken up in July 1811 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type: | 32-gun Amazon-class fifth rate |
| Tons burthen: | 689 bm |
| Length: |
126 ft 6.5 in (38.6 m) (overall) 104 ft 7.5 in (31.9 m) (keel) |
| Beam: | 35 ft 2.25 in (10.7 m) |
| Draught: | 8 ft (2.4384 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 12 ft 1.5 in (3.70 m) |
| Sail plan: | Full rigged ship |
| Complement: | 220 |
| Armament: |
|
HMS Juno was a Royal Navy 32-gun Amazon-class fifth rate. This frigate served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Contents
Construction and commissioning
Juno was ordered on 21 October 1778 and laid down in December that year at the yards of the shipbuilder Robert Batson & Co, of Limehouse.[1] She was launched on 30 September 1780 and completed by 14 December 1780 that year at Deptford Dockyard.[2] £8,500.1.5d was paid to the builder, with a further £8,184.18.1d being spent on fitting her out and having her coppered.[1]
Early years
Juno was commissioned under the command of her first captain, James Montagu, in September 1780.[1] Montagu commanded her for the next five years, initially in British waters and the Atlantic. On 10 February 1781 Juno and the sloop HMS Zebra captured the 18-gun privateer Revanche off Beachy Head.[1] Montagu then sailed the Juno in early 1782 to join Richard Bickerton's squadron operating in the East Indies.[1] She was present at the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783, and returned to Britain to be paid off in March 1785. After fitting out the following month Juno was placed in ordinary.[1] She spent the next five years in this state, with the exception of a small repair at Woolwich Dockyard in 1788 at a cost of £9,042.[1]
French Revolutionary Wars
Juno returned to active service in May 1790, now under the command of Captain Samuel Hood.[1] Hood sailed to Jamaica in mid-1790, but had returned to Britain and paid off the Juno in September 1791. Hood however remained in command, and the Juno was fitted out and recommissioned, undergoing a refit at Portsmouth in January 1793.[1] Hood initially cruised in the English Channel after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, capturing the privateers Entreprenant on 17 February, Palme on 2 March and, together with HMS Aimable, Laborieux in April.[1]
Hood was then transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1793. On 8 January 1794 Juno and the 74-gun HMS Fortitude carried out an attack on a tower at Mortella Point, on the coast of Corsica.[3] The design of the tower allowed it to hold out against the British for several days, and inspired the design of the subsequent Martello Towers constructed in Great Britain and other British possessions.[4]
Juno was at Toulon during its period of British control under Samuel Hood, Juno's captain's cousin once removed. Unaware that Toulon had fallen to French republican forces, Hood made the mistake of sailing into the port on 11 January 1794, several days after the evacuation of the British forces.[3][5] Juno came under point-blank fire from French batteries, but was able to escape with only light damage.[5] Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk succeeded Hood, who returned to Britain with a convoy in October 1795, and paid her off in January the following year.[3]
Juno spent the next two years being repaired and refitted at Deptford for the sum of £20,442. She was recommissioned in August 1798 under the command of Captain George Dundas.[3] She operated with a British squadron in the Helder in August 1799 that resulted in the surrender on 13 August, without firing of a shot, of a Dutch squadron of one small 74, six 64s, two 50s, and six 44s, five frigates, three corvettes, and one brig. (From 7 November to 30 December 1802 prize money resulting from the expedition to Holland became due for payment.) In early 1800 Juno sailed for Jamaica.
Napoleonic Wars
Captain Isaac Manley took command in 1802, paying off Juno in the middle of the year.[3] A further refit followed, with Juno returning to sea under the command of Captain Henry Richardson. Richardson took Juno to the Mediterranean in April 1803, where he captured the 4-gun privateer Quatre Fils on 8 September 1803.[3]
In 1805 Juno and several other frigates and sloops arrived at Gibraltar where Nelson employed them to harass coastal shipping that was resupplying the Franco-Spanish fleet at Cadiz.
In 1806 Juno was then active in the Bay of Naples, supporting Sidney Smith's operations there.[3] lSmith Richardson in command off Gaeta, together with the Neapolitan frigate Minerva, Captain Vieugna, and 12 Neapolitan gun-boats. The French had erected a battery of four guns on the point of La Madona della Catterra. The Prince of Hesse ordered 60 men from the garrison to be embarked in four fishing-boats and on the night of 12 May Captain Richardson, with the armed boats of the two frigates, landed the troops undiscovered in a small bay in the rear of the enemy's works. The French abandoned the fort as the boats reached the shore. The landing party spiked the guns and destroyed the carriages before reembarking without having sustained any losses. On 15 May the garrison at Gaeta made another successful sortie, supported in the attack and retreat by two divisions of gun-boats, one of them under the command of Captain Richardson, and by the armed boats of the Juno under the direction of Lieutenant Thomas Wells, assisted by Lieutenant of marines Robert M. Mant. Juno's boats sustained the allies' only loss, which consisted of four seamen killed and five wounded.[6]
Fate
Captain Charles Schomberg succeeded Richardson in February 1807. Captain Granville Proby replaced Schomberg in July that year, with orders to sail Juno back to Britain. She was placed in Ordinary at Woolwich after her arrival, and was broken up there in July 1811.[2][3]
Notes & References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail. p. 203.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 181.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail. p. 204.
- ↑ Sutcliffe. Martello towers. p. 20.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Forczyk & Hook. Toulon, 1793. p. 83.
- ↑ James (1902), Vol. 4, 216.
- 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.
- Forczyk, Robert A.; Hook, Adam (2005). Toulon 1793: Napoleon's First Great Victory. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1841769193.
- James, William (1902) The Naval History of Great Britain from the declaration of war by France in 1793 to the accession of George IV. Vol. 4. (London).
- Sutcliffe, Sheila (1973). Martello Towers. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. ISBN 0838613136.
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 1-86176-295-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.
