HMS Hermione (1782)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Hermione and French ship Hermione.

A print by Thomas Whitcombe, depicting the Santa Cecilia, the former HMS Hermione, being cut out in Puerto Cabello by boats from Edward Hamilton's HMS Surprise in 1799
History
Royal Navy EnsignGreat Britain
NameHMS Hermione
Ordered20 March 1780
BuilderSydenham Teast, Bristol
Laid downJune 1780
Launched9 September 1782
Commissioned
  • January 1783 (at builder)
  • Between 7 April and 28 June 1783 at Sheerness
Out of service
  • Taken by mutineers on 21/22 September 1797
  • Handed over to the Spanish on 27 September
Spain
NameSanta Cecilia
Acquired27 September 1797
CapturedBy the Royal Navy on 25 October 1799
Great Britain
NameHMS Retaliation
AcquiredRecaptured on 25 October 1799
CommissionedSeptember 1800
In service1782-1805
RenamedHMS Retribution on 31 January 1800
FateBroken up in June 1805
General characteristics [1]
Class and type32-gun
fifth rate
Tons burthen714 70/94(bm)
Length
  • 129 ft 0 in (39.3 m) (gun deck)
  • 106 ft 10+1⁄2 in (32.6 m) (keel)
Beam35 ft 5+1⁄2 in (10.8 m)
Draught
  • 9 ft 2 in (2.8 m)
  • 15 ft 3 in (4.6 m) (loaded)
Depth of hold12 ft 8 in (3.9 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Complement220
Armament
  • Upper deck: 26 × 12-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 6-pounder guns + 4 × 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 6-pounder guns + 2 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Hermione was the lead ship of the Hermione-class, a six-ship class of 32-gun fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 9 September 1782 at Bristol. Hermione was commissioned and then paid off a number of times during the 1780s. She underwent repairs between October 1790 and June 1792, followed by a period spent refitting at Chatham Dockyard until January 1793. She was recommissioned in December 1792 before sailing to the Jamaica in March 1793. Hermione served in the West Indies during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, participating in the British attack on Port-au-Prince, where she led a small squadron that accompanied troop transports.

In February 1797 — the year of the

Hugh Pigot took command of Hermione. She saw action in 1797 under Pigot including leading a squadron that cut out nine ships at the Battle of Jean-Rabel without suffering any casualties. Pigot was a cruel officer who meted out severe and arbitrary punishments to his crew. This treatment of the crew led to the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history in September 1797 which saw Pigot and most of the officers killed. The mutineers then handed the ship over to the Spanish Empire on 27 September 1797 and the Spanish renamed her Santa Cecilia. On 25 October 1799, Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard HMS Surprise, cut her out of Puerto Cabello harbour. She was returned to Royal Navy service under the name Retaliation and the Admiralty later renamed her Retribution on 31 January 1800. She returned to Portsmouth in 1802, and in October 1803 she was fitted for service for Trinity House. She was broken up at Deptford
in June 1805.

Early years

HMS Hermione was the lead ship of a six-ship class of frigates designed by Edward Hunt and termed the Hermione class.

£11,350.14s.4d to build, with a further £4,570.2s.2d spent on dockyard expenses, and £723.16s.9d on fitting out.[1]

Hermione was commissioned initially under Captain Thomas Lloyd, who commanded her until she was

Spanish Armament of 1790, though this is uncertain.[3] She did, however, undergo a repair between October 1790 and June 1792, followed by a period spent refitting at Chatham Dockyard until January 1793. She was recommissioned in December 1792 under Captain John Hills, under whom she sailed to Jamaica on 10 March 1793.[3]

Hermione served in the

Hugh Pigot.[1]

Pigot was a cruel officer who meted out severe and arbitrary punishments to his crew. During a nine-month period, as captain of his previous command HMS Success he ordered at least 85 floggings, the equivalent of half the crew; two men died from their injuries.[8]

Hermione was sent to patrol the

packet ship with troops on board.[11]

Mutiny

The disrating of

topmen began to plot mutiny.[8]

Pigot had also developed the practice of frequently flogging the last sailor down from working

master, Mr. Southcott. Pigot ordered their bodies thrown into the sea with the words "throw the lubbers overboard"; a particularly offensive insult in the seaman's vocabulary. He then instructed two boatswain's mates to flog some of the topmen when they complained. Other topmen were flogged the next morning.[8][14][b]

The combination of the humiliation of Casey, the deaths of the three topmen, and the severe punishment of other sailors, appears to have driven some of the crew to mutiny. These immediate factors were however also the final events in a series of harsh and brutal punishments by Pigot. Dudley Pope, in his book The Black Ship, argues that it was not Pigot's cruelty that drove the men to mutiny but his showing favouritism to some crewmen while inflicting overly harsh punishment on others. Had Pigot been more even-handed in his discipline, the mutiny might have been avoided.[15]

The last surviving muster book, July 1797, reflects the Hermione had a diverse crew, with about half of the crew born in England, and a fifth in Ireland. The remaining sailors were from Germany, Norway, America, Canada, Denmark, and Portugal.Two of the men were of African descent.[16] At least twenty of these seaman were Americans, "among them mariners from Charleston, Norfolk, Philadelphia, New York and Nantucket. " Of the twenty Americans aboard the Hermione a slight majority appear to have received bonuses for "enlisting" with a distinct likelihood that the remainder had been pressed."[17] As he had when in command of the Success Captain Pigot continued to impress seamen. Many of these men were "pressed" or forcibly conscripted from merchant vessels. For example six Americans were impressed on 4 July 1795 from the American merchant ship,Two Brothers. This led to a diplomatic incident and the intervention of the American Consul, Silas Talbot with their eventual release.[18] Seaman John Farrel of New York and Bosun's Mate, Thomas Nash, of Waterford, Ireland would both take significant leadership roles during the mutiny.[19]

On the evening of 21 September 1797, a number of the crew, drunk on stolen rum, rushed Pigot's cabin and forced their way in after overpowering the marine stationed outside. They hacked at Pigot with knives and cutlasses before throwing him overboard.[20] The mutineers, probably led by a core group of just 18 men, went on to murder another eight of Hermione's officers: the first lieutenant, Samuel Reed; the second lieutenant, Archibald Douglas; the third lieutenant, Henry Foreshaw; the marine commander, Lieutenant McIntosh; boatswain William Martin; purser Stephen Turner Pacey; Surgeon H.T. Sansum; and the captain's clerk. Two midshipmen were also killed, and all the bodies were thrown overboard.[8][21][22]

Subsequent court-martial testimony by a surviving midshipman describes the behavior of the mutineers as "truly savage and brutal".[23] Pigot and a number of other victims were still alive when they were thrown overboard, while the marine officer McIntosh was dying of yellow fever when the mutineers dragged him from his bunk.[24] Third Lieutenant Foreshaw had fallen on a mizen chain whaler platform extending from the side of the ship but was hacked to death when he regained the deck.[25] The majority of the crew emerged leaderless from their sleeping quarters to a scene of chaos. No effort was made to oppose those actively involved in the mutiny, even by the sailors whom Pigot had brought with him from his previous ship and generally favoured.[23]

Three

Master's Mate Turner.[8]

Fearing retribution for their actions, the mutineers decided to navigate the ship toward Spanish waters. One reason the master's life was spared was that Turner could not navigate the ship properly without his help. The Hermione sailed to La Guaira, where the mutineers handed the ship over to the Spanish authorities. The mutineers claimed they had set the officers adrift in a small boat, as had happened in the mutiny on the Bounty some eight years earlier.[26] The Spanish gave the mutineers just 25 dollars each in return, and presented them with the options of joining the Spanish colonial army, heavy labour, or being employed in refitting their ship.[13] The Spaniards took Hermione into service under the name Santa Cecilia; her crew included 25 of her former crew, who remained under Spanish guard.[26]

Only one of the small detachment of marines on board participated in the mutiny.[27] While the half-dozen remaining were too outnumbered and taken by surprise to fulfill their role of shipboard police and oppose the mutineers, they remained under the leadership of a sergeant and insisted on being treated as prisoners of war by the Spanish authorities. The marines were accordingly exchanged six months later, along with the surviving warrant officers. HMS Valiant later captured some of the mutineers on a French privateer, Petite Magicienne.[27]

Recapture and renaming

See also: Cutting out of the Hermione
British sailors boarding the Hermione in Puerto Cabello by John Augustus Atkinson

Meanwhile, news of the fate of HMS Hermione reached Admiral Sir

gibbetted, one was transported, and eight were acquitted or pardoned.[13] To Parker's fury, Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh[c] had issued pardons to several crew members. These included Pigot's elderly servant and the servant's twelve-year-old son, who Bligh concluded could not reasonably have been expected to resist armed mutineers. Acting against regulations, Parker forced Bligh to resign his command and return to Britain in the summer of 1799.[30][31]

Santa Cecilia, under the command of Captain Don Ramon de Chalas, had meanwhile sat in Puerto Cabello until Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard HMS Surprise, cut her out of the harbour on 25 October 1799.[32] Hamilton led a boarding party to retake Hermione and, after an exceptionally bloody action, sailed her out of danger under Spanish gunfire.[33][34] The Spanish casualties included 119 dead; the British took 231 Spaniards prisoner, while another fifteen jumped or fell overboard. Hamilton had eleven men injured, four seriously, but none killed.[35] Hamilton himself was severely wounded.[36]

For his daring exploit, Hamilton was made a

Admiralty awarded Hamilton a gold medal for the recapture of Hermione,[37] and the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp, "Surprise with Hermione", to the seven surviving claimants from the action.[38]

Return to British service

Parker renamed Santa Cecilia the Retaliation. In late 1799 or early 1800, Retaliation captured four vessels. These were the two American brigs Gracey, sailing from Trinidad bound for Baltimore with a cargo of sugar, honey, and hides; the Peggy, sailing from Cartagena to New York with a cargo of sugar, coffee, cotton, fustick, and hides; and the Danish sloop Sisters, which was sailing from Jamaica to Baltimore with a cargo of sugar, and which had just left St Thomas.[39]

The Admiralty then renamed her Retribution on 31 January 1800.

Campeachy to Havana, and the American schooner Sea Horse, which was sailing from Porto Cavello to New York. Retribution sent both into Jamaica.[42] On 1 October Melampus, Juno, and Retribution were in company when they captured the Aquila.[43][e]

Fate

Retribution arrived at Portsmouth in the third week of January 1802.[44] She was subsequently fitted at Woolwich in October 1803 for service for Trinity House at a cost of £484, equal to £47,022.46 today. She was broken up at Deptford in June 1805.[1]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The initial design was modified after the first two ships to raise the waist, and all were officially referred to as the Andromeda Class.[1]
  2. ^ However, Casey's account to the Admiralty does not contain this detail.[14]
  3. ^ Admiral Bligh was a cousin to Captain William Bligh of Bounty mutiny notoriety.[30]
  4. ^ While Hamilton was on his way back to England in April 1800, a French privateer captured the packet in which he was sailing; however, he was soon exchanged for a French officer. Later, a court-martial would dismiss Hamilton from the Navy for having administered excessive and illegal punishment to the gunner and gunner's mates on Trent, which he captained. Hamilton was later reinstated.[36]
  5. ^ Head money was paid in 1829. A first-class share was worth £33.18s.3½d; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 2s 4¼d.[43]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f Winfield (2007), pp.208–9.
  2. ^ Winfield (2008) link
  3. ^ a b c "NMM, vessel ID 368485" (PDF). Warship Histories, vol i. National Maritime Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  4. ^ HMS Hermione muster April 1792 to 7 July 1797, p.8, British National Archives, ADM 36120117
  5. ^ "No. 13684". The London Gazette. 17 July 1794. pp. 724–725.
  6. ^ "No. 15249". The London Gazette. 19 April 1800. p. 379.
  7. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine (1850). Vol. 188, p.662.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Woodman 2005, pp. 124–133
  9. ^ Clowes et al., (1897-1903), pp. 334-5.
  10. ^ James (1837), Vol. 2, p.100-1.
  11. ^ "No. 14067". The London Gazette. 21 November 1797. p. 1113.
  12. ^ Lieutenant David O’Brian Casey (1775 - 1853), Royal Museums Greenwich https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-14075
  13. ^ a b c d e Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 294.
  14. ^ a b c Miller. Dressed to kill. p. 80.
  15. ISBN 0-436-37753-5
    .
  16. ^ Frykman, Niklas, The Bloody Flag: Mutiny in the Age of Atlantic Revolution (University of California Press, Oakland, 2020), pp.170,248, n.13
  17. ^ Ekirch, A. Rodger, American Sanctuary Mutiny, Martyrdom and National Identity in the Age of Revolution, (Vantage Books, New York, 2017), pp.17, 20.
  18. ^ Pope, pp. 89,90,283
  19. ^ Pope, pp.186, 345, and 347
  20. ^ Guttridge. Mutiny. pp. 77–8.
  21. ^ a b Dye. The Fatal Cruise of the Argus. pp. 203–4.
  22. ^ Guttridge. Mutiny. pp. 78–80.
  23. ^ a b Woodman 2005, p. 130
  24. ^ Woodman 2005, pp. 128–130
  25. ^ Woodman 2005, p. 131
  26. ^ a b Grundner. The Ramage Companion. pp. 96–7.
  27. ^
    ISBN 9781843838371
    .
  28. ^ Guttridge. Mutiny. p. 80.
  29. ^ Pyle. Extradition. p. 29.
  30. ^ a b Tracy. Who's who in Nelson's Navy. p. 44.
  31. ^ The Naval Chronicle. p. 427.
  32. ^ "No. 15223". The London Gazette. 18 January 1800. pp. 61–62.
  33. ^ Lavery 1994, p. 74
  34. ^ Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 162.
  35. ^ Jeans. Seafaring Lore and Legend. p. 170.
  36. ^ a b c d Stephen & Lee (1890), Vol. 24, pp.145-6.
  37. ^ "No. 20741". The London Gazette. 4 June 1847. p. 2051.
  38. ^ "No. 20939". The London Gazette. 26 January 1849. p. 239.
  39. ^ "No. 15253". The London Gazette. 29 April 1800. p. 421.
  40. ^ Colledge (2006), p.162.
  41. ^ "No. 15295". The London Gazette. 20 September 1800. p. 1083.
  42. ^ Lloyd's List, no. 4149,[1] - Retrieved 27 May 2014.
  43. ^ a b "No. 18590". The London Gazette. 3 July 1829. p. 1246.
  44. ^ Lloyd's List, no.4223,[2] - Retrieved 27 May 2014.

References

External links

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