HMS Danae (1779)
| History | |
|---|---|
 France | |
| Name | La Danae |
| Builder | Antoine Groignard |
| Laid down | September 1762 |
| Launched | 22 October 1763 |
| In service | 1763–1779 |
| Captured | 13 May 1779 |
| Fate | Commissioned into Royal Navy |
.svg){kind=small} Great Britain | |
| Name | HMS Danae |
| Acquired | By capture 13 May 1779 |
| Commissioned | December 1779 |
| Decommissioned | February 1783 |
| In service | 1779–1797 |
| Fate | Sold out of service, October 1797 |
| General characteristics | |
| Class and type | 28-gun sailing frigate |
| Tons burthen | 688 77⁄94 bm |
| Length | |
| Beam | 34 ft 9 in (10.6 m) |
| Depth of hold | 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement |
|
| Armament | |
HMS Danae was a 32-gun
Paid off
in 1783, she was retained for harbour service in England until 1797 when she was sold into private hands.
French service
Danae was
hold depth of 10 ft 6 in (3.2 m). Her armament comprised 32 8-pounder guns located along her gun deck, quarterdeck and forecastle.[1] Her crew numbered 250 men.[2]
Placed back in active service for the Anglo-French War in 1779, she was selected to lead the naval escort for 1500 French troops in an attempted
British service
Danae remained at anchor for the next six months while
Admiralty contemplated her potential reuse. There were obstacles to returning her to service. First, her 8-pounder guns were considered a relic of previous wars in an era where 12- and 18-pounder naval cannons were common. Second, recent advances in frigate design had left Danae slower and less seaworthy than her contemporaries in British service, being more than 100 tons burthen larger than similar vessels without notable improvements in durability. Eventually she was recommissioned for convoy escort duties to British Quebec, making her first voyage as a Royal Navy vessel in May 1780 and remaining in active convoy service between England, Newfoundland[5] and the West Indies,[6] until the end of the war three years later.[1] In late 1780 she overhauled and captured The Jack, a 14-gun American privateer which was brought into port in Quebec as a prize.[7]
Paid off in February 1783, Danae returned to England via Woolwich Dockyard to undergo minor repairs. There she was left at anchor with a skeleton crew as part of a nominal harbour service fleet. Never refitted for sea, the ageing vessel was finally decommissioned and sold at auction in October 1797.[1]
Notes
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g Winfield, p.216
- ^ "A list of the enemy's ships and vessels taken and destroyed". The Scots Magazine. Dundee, Scotland: D.C. Thompson and Company. 3 May 1779. p. 52. Retrieved 19 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ a b c Clowes, p.25
- ^ Clowes, p.114.
- ^ "London, November 28". Saunder's News Letter. London: J. Poris. 4 December 1782. p. 1. Retrieved 19 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Thursday's Post: Naval Affairs". Aberdeen Press and Journal. Aberdeen: J. Chalmers and Company. 4 February 1782. p. 2. Retrieved 19 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- ^ "Captures by British Men of War". The Scots Magazine. Dundee: D.C. Thompson and Company. 1 October 1780. p. 52. Retrieved 19 June 2020 – via British Newspaper Archive.
Bibliography
- Clowes, William Laird (1899). The Royal Navy: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. 4. London: Sampson, Low, Marston and Company.
- Winfield, Rif (2014). British Warships of the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, United Kingdom: Seaforth. ISBN 9781844157174.