Terpsichore v Mahonesa – 13 October 1796
Spain, previously allied to Britain in the First Coalition, declared war on her late ally on 5 October 1796. One week later the Royal Navy captured its first major Spanish warship, the frigate Mahonesa, taken by one of the Navy’s rising stars, Captain Richard Bowen in the frigate Terpsichore 32.
At daybreak on 13 October the Terpsichore was cruising off Cartagena in the Mediterranean. Although Bowen would have been unaware of the outbreak of war a few days before, he knew tensions had been growing for several months and that the opening of hostilities was imminent. In a light west south-westerly wind Bowen discovered a strange sail in sight – by 8 o’clock it was evident that she was seeking battle. The vessel would prove to be the Spanish twelve-pounder frigate Mahonesa 34, Captain Don Tomas Ayaldi. She had been sent from Cartagena with six pilots to assist the Spanish fleet commanded by Admiral Don Juan de Langara., which was cruising offshore.
The Terpsichore captures the Mahonesa
The Terpsichore had been patrolling to the east of Gibraltar for some months, and her crew had been worn down by fever to such an extent that some thirty men had been hospitalised, and a similar number were inactive below decks on the sick list. Adding to Bowen’s problems, the Spanish fleet had been in the vicinity just two days previously, and even as he observed the approach of the Mahonesa, an enemy tender could be seen steering a course for Cartagena, suggesting that reinforcements could soon be summoned. Under such circumstances Bowen might have preferred not to accept a battle, but conscious of his duty and the fighting spirit of his men, he decided to engage the enemy frigate.
Although launched in 1785, the Terpsichore (named after the Greek muse of dance) was only commissioned in 1793, several months into the French Revolutionary War. She had subsequently seen service in the Leeward Islands during the campaign of 1794, where the recently posted Captain Bowen had joined her. She carried an armament of twenty-six 12-pounder cannons on her gun deck in addition to six 6-pounder cannons and six 18-pounder carronades on her quarterdeck and forecastle, giving her a broadside weight of metal of 228 pounds. On this day her crew numbered 182 men, 40 less than her assigned figure. Her commander was an experienced officer in his mid-thirties, one of three Bowen brothers from Ilfracombe in Devon who would all reach post rank despite their humble origins.
The Terpsichore’s prospective opponent, the Mahonesa, had been built at Minorca for the Spanish Navy in 1789. She was a large vessel for her rating and carried an armament of twenty-six 12-pounder cannons on her gun deck and eight 6-pounder cannons on her quarterdeck, as well as several small mortars and swivel guns, giving her a broadside weight of metal of 180 pounds. Her crew numbered 275 men, and her officers were evidently very proud of their ship. They claimed she was both the most handsome frigate in their navy (she sported a red band along her gunports and a yellow stripe above at the deck edge) and a fast sailer of excellent construction.
Coming up with the wind, at 9:30 the Mahonesa hauled to on the Terpsichore’s weather beam within hailing distance, leading Bowen to surmise that she was seeking an advantageous position before opening fire. He fired one shot to determine what the Spanish captain intended — the Terpsichore received an instant reply and then a full broadside in return. A full-scale action immediately ensued, during which the Terpsichore wore ship twice, dominating the Spaniard with her exemplary gunnery. Bowen soon realised that he was winning the battle, and that Spanish resistance was waning, despite the valiant attempts by Captain Ayaldi to keep his ship in the contest.
After eighty minutes, the Mahonesa’ s booms came crashing down, rendering the guns in her waist unusable. Almost every rope had been sliced through, and the standing rigging supporting the lower masts had been shot away, so that any significant ocean swell would have almost certainly brought down all three masts. She tried to make good her escape, but the brief lull in the action allowed the Terpsichore to effect rudimentary repairs to her own damage aloft, and after twenty minutes Bowen brought his frigate alongside the enemy ship, ready to fire a full broadside. Even then, despite having few men left to continue the action, Ayaldi did not feel inclined to surrender, and as Bowen later reported ‘It was nevertheless with great difficulty that I prevailed upon the Spanish commander to decline receiving such a broadside by submitting’.
Casualties numbered four men wounded on the British side and thirty killed or fatally wounded and a similar number injured aboard the Mahonesa. Despite the low casualty count, the Terpsichore had sustained significant damage: all three masts, the rigging and sails had been damaged; her spare spars and boats had been riddled with shot; and two of her anchors had been badly battered.
John Devonshire, the Terpsichore’s first lieutenant (who had just recovered from an illness) commanded the Mahonesa while she was being towed to Gibraltar. There she was patched up, and Devonshire commissioned the prize as a Royal Navy vessel, sailing her to Lisbon where she was based for some months, before being sent home with a convoy. Despite her impressive construction, it was decided that the wounds she had suffered in the engagement with the Terpsichore were fatal, and in July 1798 she was broken up at Deptford. Meanwhile the Terpsichore, refitted at Gibraltar, was soon back to sea. Captain Bowen would seize another opportunity for distinction by defeating the French frigate Vestale on 12 December.
Bowen’s letter to Admiral Sir John Jervis, the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, advising his capture of the Mahonesa was sent from Gibraltar Bay on 23 October and a copy was released to the newspapers by the Admiralty on 21 November. The Terpsichore’s captain paid great tribute to Captain Ayaldi in his missive, complimenting the Spaniard’s ‘personal courage, conduct and zeal’ through the course of the action and stating that he had the highest admiration of his enemy’s character, and that the Mahonesa’ s honourable defence had been sustained beyond that which was justifiable. Bowen praised Lieutenant Devonshire for his role both during the battle and in commanding the battered prize; the lieutenant was promoted commander in honour of the capture of the Mahonesa, later achieving both flag rank and a knighthood. Bowen also diffidently mentioned his second lieutenant, George Bowen (his brother), for his part in the action and for undertaking the challenging task of bringing the damaged Terpsichore to anchor at Gibraltar. The two lieutenants were not among the three Terpsichores who survived to 1847 to claim the newly-established Naval General Service Medal with the clasp ‘Terpsichore 13 Octr. 1796’.
The Terpsichore’s active service continued until 1809 when she came home from an arduous tour of duty in the East Indies. Without doubt her greatest years were under Captain Bowen’s command, for after capturing the Mahonesa and defeating the French frigate Vestale 32 two months later, she even attacked the giant Spanish four-decker Santissima Trinidad 136 during the aftermath of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in February 1797. Sadly, the brilliant Captain Bowen did not survive another year, for he was killed in Commodore Sir Horatio Nelson’s rash attack on Santa Cruz, Tenerife, in July 1797.