HMS Gorgon (1785)
_RMG_J3678.jpg) Gorgon
| |
| History | |
|---|---|
 Great Britain | |
| Name | HMS Gorgon |
| Namesake | Gorgon |
| Ordered | 19 June 1782 |
| Builder | Perry & Hankey, Blackwall Yard |
| Laid down | December 1782 |
| Launched | 27 January 1785 |
| Completed | 15 December 1787 at Portsmouth Dockyard |
| Honours and awards | Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Egypt"[1] |
| Fate | Broken up, February 1817 |
| General characteristics [2] | |
| Tons burthen | 896+54⁄94 tons bm (as designed) |
| Length |
|
| Beam | 38 ft 3 in (11.66 m) |
| Depth of hold | 16 ft 10 in (5.13 m) |
| Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
| Complement | 300 (294 from 1794) |
| Armament |
|
HMS Gorgon was a 44-gun fifth-rate two-decker ship of the Adventure class of 911 tons, launched at Blackwall Yard in 1785 and completed as a troopship. She was subsequently converted to a storeship. She also served as a guardship and a hospital ship at various times before being broken up in 1817.
Troopship
Gorgon was fitted as a troopship at Portsmouth at a cost of £5,210, the work being completed on 15 December 1787.[2] Lieutenant Charles Craven commissioned her in October 1787. She then was paid off one year later.[2] One year after that, she was fitted for foreign service at an additional cost of £5,200 and recommissioned under Lieutenant William Harvey in October 1789.
New South Wales
Under Commander John Parker (c1749–1794),
On 18 December 1791 Gorgon left
Gorgon also carried samples of animals, birds, and plants from New South Wales. At the Cape of Good Hope Gorgon took on board William Allen, Samuel Broom, Mary Bryant, her daughter Charlotte, Nathaniel Lillie, and James Martin, the survivors of a party of convicts who absconded from New South Wales in March 1791 and made it all the way to Kupang in West Timor. She also took on board ten of the mutineers from HMS Bounty that HMS Pandora had seized in Tahiti and who had survived the wreck of that vessel. During the voyage many of the children on board, including Charlotte Bryant, died of heat and illness. Gorgon arrived at Portsmouth on 18 June 1792,[5] discharging her mixed passenger list of marines, escaped convicts, and mutineers.
French Revolutionary Wars
Between March and July 1793 Gorgon was fitted as a 20-gun storeship at Woolwhich, for a cost of £5,709.[2] She then was recommissioned under Commander Charles Patterson, who sailed her for the Mediterranean on 15 October 1793.
In February 1794 Gorgon was part of the fleet under Vice-Admiral Lord
At some point in 1794 Commander James Wallis replaced Patterson in command. However, in March 1795 Gorgon was paid off.[2]
Commander Edward Tyrell recommissioned her in May 1795 and sailed her to the Mediterranean on 11 November 1795.[2]
On 10 June 1796, Gorgon was in company with Courageaux and the hired armed cutter Fox. They were with the British fleet outside Toulon and were present when Southampton captured the French corvette Utile at Hyères Roads.[7] Later that month Gorgon was at the evacuation of Leghorn.[8]
In September 1796 Gilbert Elliot, the British viceroy of the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom, decided that it was necessary to clear out Capraja, which belonged to the Genoese and which served as a base for privateers. He sent Lord Nelson in Captain, together with Gorgon, Vanneau, the cutter Rose, and troops of the 51st Regiment of Foot to accomplish this task in September. On their way, Minerva joined them. The troops landed on 18 September and the island surrendered immediately.
In April 1797 Captain John W.T. Dixon took command. Captain John Williams replaced him in October 1797.[2] Gorgon sailed for the Leeward Islands in January 1798.
On 13 January 1798 Gorgon was 70
The newcomer turned out to be the French privateer Henri, from Nantes. She carried 14 guns, five of which she had thrown overboard. She also had a crew of 108 men. She had been cruising for five days but had taken nothing. Captain Richard Williams put a prize crew aboard and took her with him into Lisbon. The prize crew consisted mostly of men from Aigle, which had captured a prize and taken her to Lisbon.[9]
Between 1799 and 1800 Gorgon continued to serve as a storeship under Commander
Napoleonic Wars
Commander William Wilkinson recommissioned Gorgon in May 1803 on the Irish station. In 1805, she served as a floating battery or guardship on the River Shannon. In October 1805 she was under Commander Francis Stanfell, with Commander Charles Ryder replacing him in May 1806.[2]
Lloyd's List reported on 14 February 1806 that Rosina, M'Kinley, master, had foundered on her return journey to England from Surinam. Gorgon rescued the crew and took them into Milford.[10]
Between November 1806 and July 1808 Gorgon was back in Woolwich, where she underwent a large repair and was fitted as a victualler. Commander Robert Brown Tom recommissioned her in May 1808 and sailed her to the Baltic where she again served as a storeship.[2]
Even so, on 12 May 1809, she captured the Danish vessel Petrena.[11] Then on 21 May she was in company with the gun-brig Strenuous when they captured the Danish boat Helden.[12]
By November 1809 she was a hospital ship under Commander Charles Webb. Still, on 24 October 1810, Gorgon, Victory, Alonzo, and the gun-brig Martial were present at the capture of the brig Hoppet.[13][a]
Commander Alexander Milner had replaced Webb by April 1811.[2] He sailed Gorgon to the Mediterranean on 10 March 1812. She came under the command of Commander Rowland Mainwaring in September. She then served as the flagship for Vice Admiral Francis Pickmore off Toulon. Commander Claude de Crespigny replaced Mainwaring at Port Mahon in 1813, but he died in July.[2] Commander John Cornish replaced de Crespigny and in turn Commander Richard Booth Bowden replaced him in 1814.[2]
War of 1812
Bowden then sailed Gorgon to America where she was Cochrane's British fleet's hospital ship, moored off the coast while the Battle of New Orleans was being fought on land.[2] Before that battle her boats participated in the Battle of Lake Borgne on 14 December 1814. Gorgon had one master's mate slightly wounded.[15][b] In 1847 the Admiralty authorized the issue of the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "14 Dec. Boat Service 1814" to all surviving claimants from the action.[c]
Fate
Gorgon was finally broken up in 1817.[2]
Notes
- ^ The prize money for an ordinary seaman was 7s 10+3⁄4d; the amount for a captain was £34 12s 9+1⁄4.[16]
- ^ The 'Names of Ships for which Claims have been proved' are as follows: warships Tonnant, Norge, Royal Oak, Ramillies, Bedford, Armide, Cydnus, Trave, Seahorse, Sophie, and Meteor; troopships Gorgon, Diomede, Alceste, and Belle Poule.[17]
Citations
- ^ "No. 21077". The London Gazette. 15 March 1850. pp. 791–792.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Winfield (2008), p. 130.
- ^ Deirdre Coleman, 'Parker, Mary Ann (1765/6–1848)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, OUP, 2004
- ^ Parker, 1795
- ^ Edwards, Edward
- ^ "No. 13631". The London Gazette. 11 March 1794. p. 221.
- ^ "No. 15557". The London Gazette. 8 February 1803. p. 165.
- ^ "No. 13924". The London Gazette. 23 August 1796. pp. 802–803.
- ^ a b "No. 14088". The London Gazette. 3 February 1798. p. 111.
- ^ LL 14 February 1806, No. 4297.
- ^ "No. 16330". The London Gazette. 2 January 1810. p. 26.
- ^ "No. 16456". The London Gazette. 16 February 1811. p. 319.
- ^ "No. 16562". The London Gazette. 14 January 1812. p. 92.
- ^ "No. 16965". The London Gazette. 13 December 1814. p. 2452.
- ^ "No. 16991". The London Gazette. 9 March 1815. pp. 446–449.
- ^ "No. 17730". The London Gazette. 28 July 1821. p. 1561.
- ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 247.
References
- OCLC 3778075.
- Gillen, Mollie, The Founders of Australia: a biographical dictionary of the First Fleet, Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1989, pp. 433.
- Parker, Mary Ann (1795), A voyage round the world in the Gorgon man of war, Captain John Parker, Printed by John Nichols
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.