HMS Orestes (1781)

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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Orestes.

Orestes
History
Batavian Republic
NameMars
Launched1781
FateCaptured 3 December 1781
Great Britain
NameHMS Orestes
Launched1781
Acquired3 December 1781
FateDisappeared November 1799
General characteristics
Class and type18-gun
brig-sloop
Tons burthen396 40⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 94 ft (28.7 m) (overall)
  • 81 ft (24.7 m) (keel)
Beam30 ft 4 in (9.2 m)
Depth of hold12 ft 1 in (3.68 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail plan
brig-sloop
Complement125
Armament
  • 18 × short 9-pounder guns (reduced to 6-pounder in 1792)
  • 12 × ½-pounder swivels
  • 2 × 18-pounder carronades added in 1794

HMS Orestes was an 18-gun

brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally built as the privateer Mars, which the British captured in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and the French Revolutionary Wars
.

The privateer was one of two captured in the North Sea in November 1781, both of which were taken into the Navy. Orestes became an effective anti-privateer vessel, taking several enemy vessels while serving off the British coast. She divided her time between a number of the Royal Navy's stations, serving in the West Indies and departing for the East Indies after time spent on the French coast. Her career in the Indian Ocean was short-lived, as she disappeared at sea in 1799, and is presumed to have foundered in a hurricane with the loss of her entire crew.

Dutch service

Mars was built at

Flushing during the Seven Years' War under the alias John Hardapple.[3] The two vessels were estimated to have cost upwards of £20,000.[3] Their career as privateers was short-lived, and they managed to capture only a single British fishing smack before the 40-gun frigate HMS Artois, under the command of Captain John MacBride sighted them off Flamborough Head at 10 o'clock in the morning on 3 December.[2]

Capture

The two Dutch vessels initially approached Artois, apparently appearing 'confident'.

Admiralty approved their purchase for service with the Royal Navy, and she was registered as the sloop HMS Orestes on 16 February 1782.[1][5]

Royal Navy service

Orestes was fitted out at

Sir Harry Burrard was Orestes's new captain. While he was in command Orestes's main armament was reduced from nine-pounders to six-pounders.[1] Burrard sailed her to the West Indies in 1792, where in January 1793 Commander Lord Augustus Fitzroy took over as captain. Orestes and Fitzroy returned to Britain in April 1793, during the first few months of the French Revolutionary Wars.[1]

French Revolutionary Wars

Fitzroy was replaced in May 1794 by Commander Thomas Orrock, who was in turn superseded in September 1796 by Commander Christopher Parker.[1] Orestes had been fitted with two eighteen-pounder carronades on 26 August 1794.[1] Parker captured the privateer Furet in the English Channel on 3 September 1797, and relinquished command in February the following year to Commander William Haggitt.[1] Orestes served in the Channel and was one of the ships watching the Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf on 7 May 1798, reduced to a spectator owing to the calm weather.[7]

Fate

Orestes sailed for the East Indies in August 1798, remaining on that station until disappearing in the Indian Ocean in November 1799.[1] She is presumed to have been caught in a hurricane that struck the area and to have foundered on or about 5 November,[1] with the loss of her 120-man crew.[8]

See also

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Winfield. British Warships of the Age of Sail. p. 328.
  2. ^ a b c d Charnock. Biographia Navalis. p. 561.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g The Naval Chronicle. p. 270.
  4. ^ Campbell. Naval History of Great Britain. p. 279.
  5. ^ Colledge. Ships of the Royal Navy. p. 251.
  6. ^ "Smuggling in Hampshire and Dorset: The New Forest, Bournemouth & Poole".
  7. ^ Clowes. The Royal Navy, A History. p. 340.
  8. ^ Grocott (1997), p. 83.

References

External links
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