by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 8, 2023 | 1796, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
A Disappointing Frigate Action off the Pointe du Raz – 20 March 1796 On 15 March, Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren’s crack Channel-raiding frigate squadron, on this occasion consisting of his pennant ship the 24-pounder Pomone 44, the 24-pounder Anson...
by Richard Hiscocks | Nov 8, 2022 | 1796, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Sir Edward Pellew and the Wreck of the Dutton – 26 January 1796 There was not one other officer in the Navy who was the equal in practical seamanship of Captain Sir Edward Pellew of the Indefatigable 44, and there were few that could match his personal...
by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 13, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Overview 1795 The year opened with such bitter January weather that the Brest Fleet of thirty-five ships under the command of Vice-Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret-Joyeuse was scattered shortly after putting to sea, with three vessels subsequently foundering and...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 9, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Sir William Sidney Smith and the Brest Fleet’s Winter Cruise – January 1795 On Christmas Eve 1794, after several false starts, the Brest fleet of thirty-five sail of the line, thirteen frigates and sixteen smaller men of war under the command of...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 26, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Blanche v Pique – 5 January 1795 Having undergone a refit at Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the late summer of 1794, the frigate Blanche 32, Captain Robert Faulknor, returned to her station in the Leeward Islands. Here she was ordered to cruise off the French...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 17, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Battle of Genoa 13/14 March 1795 On 3 March, the Toulon fleet under Rear-Admiral Pierre Martin, consisting of the flagship Sans Culotte 120, three sail of 80 guns, and eleven of 74, accompanied by six frigates and five thousand troops, put to sea. Adhering...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 1, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Lively v Tourterelle – 13 March 1795 The command of the new eighteen-pounder frigate Lively 32 was one that was coveted by many officers, and it was to the good fortune of Commander George Burlton that he was able to hold it in an acting capacity for...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 22, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Navy Conveys Princess Caroline of Brunswick to England – March 1795 Captain John Willett Payne had long been a friend and confidant of George, the Prince of Wales, enjoying riotous times with him throughout the 1780’s and earning the dubious honour of...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 18, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Astraea v Gloire -10 April 1795 On the afternoon of 17 March 1795, a squadron of five sail of the line and three frigates under the command of Rear-Admiral John Colpoys got under way from Portsmouth and dropped down to St. Helens, prior to departing for a...
by Richard Hiscocks | Aug 7, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Boyne is destroyed by fire at Spithead – 1 May 1795 At 11 a.m. on the gloriously sunny spring morning of 1 May 1795, a group of soldiers from the 86th Regiment, acting as the marines aboard the Boyne 98 at her Spithead anchorage, were engaged in...
by Richard Hiscocks | Sep 28, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Capture of a Dutch East Indiaman Fleet – 14 June 1795 On 25 May 1795 the Sceptre 64, Captain William Essington, arrived at St. Helena from England in order to convoy home the East India Company trade. She brought with her news that the French invasion...
by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 31, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Cornwallis Retreat – 17 June 1795 In early May 1795, the newly promoted Rear-Admiral Richard Bligh was released from imprisonment in Brest where he had been incarcerated since the capture of his command, the Alexander 74, in the previous year. A...
by Richard Hiscocks | Nov 25, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Battle of Groix – 23 June 1795 On 12 June, Admiral Lord Bridport’s Channel Fleet of fourteen sail of the line, including eight three-deckers, five frigates, two fireships, a hospital ship, and a lugger, sailed from Spithead. Two of Bridport’s...
by Richard Hiscocks | Dec 19, 2021 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Dido and Lowestoffe v Minerve and Artemise – 24 June 1795 The British frigates Dido 28, Captain George Towry, and Lowestoffe 32, Captain Robert Gambier Middleton, had been in passage for only one day from Minorca for the Hyères Islands, having been...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 19, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Battle of the Hyeres Islands – 13 July 1795 Having made good their escape from the British Mediterranean fleet in March following the Battle of Genoa, the French Toulon Fleet was supplemented on 3 April by six sail of the line and three frigates from...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 12, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Navy at the Capture of Malacca – 17 August 1795 Upon receiving intelligence of the newly formed Batavian Republic’s declaration of War against Britain in May 1795, the commander-in-chief in the East Indies, Rear-Admiral Peter Rainier, immediately took...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 8, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Navy at the Capture of Trincomale – 26 August 1795 On 21 July Commodore Peter Rainier, the commander-in-chief of the British Navy in the East Indies, sailed from Madras with his flagship Suffolk 74, Captain Robert Lambert, the Centurion 50, Captain...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jun 10, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Capture of the Cape Colony – 16 September 1795 Following the French subjugation of the Netherlands, but prior to the new Batavian Republic’s declaration of war against Britain, Rear-Admiral Sir George Keith Elphinstone was summoned from his...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 19, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Court-Martial of Captain Walker of the Trusty – 26 September 1795 Throughout the summer of 1795, tensions increased in the Mediterranean as the allegiance of Spain to the coalition against France deteriorated in its resolve. The British government was...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jul 20, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Captain Bligh and the Mutiny on HMS Defiance – 19 October 1795 The Defiance 74, Captain Sir George Home, which formed part of Rear-Admiral Thomas Pringle’s northern-based squadron from Admiral Adam Duncan’s North Sea Fleet, was at anchor in the Leith...
by Richard Hiscocks | Sep 11, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Admiral Richery’s recapture of the Censeur – 7 October 1795 On 24 September, the Censeur 74, Captain John Gore, which had been captured from the French at the Battle of Genoa six months previously, departed Gibraltar Bay with an easterly wind in the...
by Richard Hiscocks | Sep 27, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Rear-Admiral Christian’s Convoy – 18 November 1795 In accordance with their aspiration of bankrupting the French economy and enriching its own, the British government attached great importance to the capture of the enemy’s West Indian dependencies,...
by Richard Hiscocks | Oct 10, 2022 | 1795, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Wreck of the Amethyst on Alderney – 29 December 1795 33-year-old Captain Thomas Affleck came from a prominent naval family, being the nephew of two admirals and the first cousin of two late captains. Sadly, his career was not to end in the glory that...
by Richard Hiscocks | Jan 26, 2021 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
1794 Overview At the beginning of the year Britain had eighty sail of the line in commission, and with Parliament voting to pay for eighty-five thousand men it ensured that the equivalent of roughly one per cent of the population would be available for...
by Richard Hiscocks | Feb 24, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Admiral Jervis’ Leeward Islands Campaign – January – December 1794 Amongst the many disappointing campaigns undertaken by British arms in 1793, that in the Leeward Islands had been conspicuous for its failure to achieve anything of note...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 7, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Captain Hood and the Juno escape from Toulon – 11 January 1794 On 3 January the twelve-pounder frigate Juno 32, Captain Samuel Hood, left Malta having embarked one hundred and fifty supernumeraries made up of forty-six officers and marines from the Romney...
by Richard Hiscocks | Mar 20, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Captain Durham’s Hind escapes from five French Frigates – 13 January 1794 The frigate Hind 28, Captain Philip Durham, was returning from Guernsey on 13 January having escorted a fleet of transports delivering the 80th Regiment to that island from...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 9, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
The Corsican Campaign – February to August 1794 Following the loss of Toulon to the French Republican forces in December 1793, there was an urgent need for the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, Vice-Admiral Lord Hood, to find a base forward...
by Richard Hiscocks | Apr 16, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Warren’s Squadron take the Pomone, Engageante and Babet – 23 April 1794 On 15 April a force of five frigates from Rear-Admiral John MacBride’s squadron, led by Commodore Sir John Borlase Warren, left Plymouth on Admiralty orders for its cruising...
by Richard Hiscocks | May 2, 2020 | 1794, The French Revolutionary War 1793-1802
Orpheus v Duguay-Trouin – 5 May 1794 Towards the end of November 1793, the busy frigate Orpheus 32, flying the broad pennant of Commodore Henry Newcome, set sail from Portsmouth for the East Indies in company with the Centurion 50, Captain Samuel Osborn,...
