HMS Resistance (1801)

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

Resistance's sister ship HMS Aigle
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Resistance
Ordered28 January 1800
BuilderGeorge Parsons, Bursledon
Laid downMarch 1800
Launched29 April 1801
Completed21 June 1801
CommissionedMay 1801
FateWrecked 31 May 1803
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeFifth-rate Aigle-class frigate
Tons burthen9758⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 146 ft 1+1⁄4 in (44.5 m) (upper deck)
  • 122 ft 1 in (37.2 m) (keel)
Beam38 ft 9 in (11.8 m)
Draught
  • 10 ft 5 in (3.2 m) (forward)
  • 15 ft 7 in (4.7 m) (aft)
Depth of hold13 ft 0+1⁄2 in (4 m)
PropulsionSails
Complement264
Armament
  • UD: 26 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 9-pounder guns + 8 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 4 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Resistance was a 36-gun

French Revolutionary War. Having returned to England at the end of the year, the frigate resumed service in the English Channel, with Captain Philip Wodehouse replacing Digby. On 31 May 1803 Resistance was sailing to the Mediterranean Sea when she was wrecked off Cape St. Vincent
; the crew survived.

Design and construction

Resistance was a 36-gun,

French Revolutionary War British frigate designs were frequently lengthened so that they could reach sailing speeds comparable to French frigates.[2][3] The Aigle class followed this trend, being close in dimensions to the Penelope class which the naval historian Robert Gardiner describes as the "apogee" of the lengthening trend.[2] The Aigle class did not, however, have the same shallow depth in the hold that the Penelope class did, in fact being known as "very roomy".[2][4]

The Aigle-class frigates were the first to be designed with solid barricades on their forecastle, but their initial designs were changed considerably as they underwent construction. Most notably the barricades were adapted to have access openings in them on 15 November 1798, and the location of the head was raised on 6 June 1800. In 1817 Aigle received further changes during a refit, including the addition of a circular stern, but Resistance did not survive to receive these more impactful additions.[2]

Resistance was designed with a crew complement of 264, and held twenty-six 18-pounder guns on the

gunports to accept the larger guns. The order was reversed on 15 October 1801, and Resistance had the 9-pounder guns returned to her.[2][5]

Resistance was ordered on 28 January 1800 to be built at

Portsmouth Dockyard on 21 June.[Note 1][1][2]

Gardiner describes Resistance's sister Aigle as a "good all-round performer under sail", but says that the ship was not quite the fastest of its type.[2] The class was, for example, outclassed in sailing capabilities by the Apollo class that had been designed around the same time and was "generally similar".[2][4] Despite this the Aigle class was recorded as fast, weatherly, and manoeuvrable, capable of reaching between 10 knots (19 km/h) and 12 knots (22 km/h) in the most favourable of conditions.[4]

The 1798 design of the Aigle class

Service

Having been appointed to Resistance on 21 April 1801, Captain

North America Station as escort to a convoy heading to Quebec.[1][10][11] While acting in this role Resistance captured the French 8-gun privateer Elizabeth on 22 August, as the latter attempted to sail from Cayenne to Bourdeaux.[12][13] This was the last ship taken during the French Revolutionary War.[14][15] Digby brought Elizabeth with him to Quebec, where the privateer was sold for around £6,000–7,000.[12]

Resistance returned to Britain towards the end of the year, arriving back at Portsmouth on 30 November.

West Indies Station, and on 6 January 1802 was storing ship for the journey at Gosport. Lieutenant Henry Thomas Lutwidge was sent ashore with the ship's launch, and by the evening was ready to return to Resistance. His boat crew however had become intoxicated while ashore, and one seaman named Fagan was incapable of using the oar he was holding. Worried that they would miss the tide and not make it back to Resistance, Lutwidge ordered another man to take over from Fagan. When Fagan refused to release his oar to the man, Lutwidge came forward and hit each of them on the arm with the tiller, and then struck Fagan on the head with it. Fagan released the oar and fell into the bottom of the boat.[16]

Having been dragged on board by his shipmates Fagan did not report the injury, and died the following morning.

Haslar Naval Hospital the injury was discovered, and Lutwidge reported himself to Digby, requesting an investigation.[17] On 13 March Lutwidge was brought to trial at Winchester, accused of murdering Fagan.[16] He received favourable testimonies of his character from several naval officers and seamen, and was acquitted of murder but found guilty of manslaughter, punished with three months imprisonment and a fine of £100.[Note 3][22]

The ship in the meantime resumed her role as a cruiser, leaving Portsmouth on 28 January on anti-

paid off.[26][27] After a brief pause in service the ship was recommissioned in the same month, and on 31 October returned to Portsmouth from patrolling "eastward".[1][28]

Resistance sailed from Portsmouth to Lymington on 2 November, there taking on board Captain Sir Harry Neale and his family.[28] The frigate took the Neales to Naples where they looked to recuperate their failing health.[29] Having completed this, on 31 May 1803 Resistance was returning to the Mediterranean Sea when the frigate was wrecked off the Portuguese coast a few miles north of Cape St. Vincent. The entire crew survived.[1][30]

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. Lord St Vincent, was untrusting of civilian shipyards and Parsons was one of very few such shipwrights to continue receiving orders for Royal Navy vessels. In reward for completing and launching Resistance on schedule he was given the order for the 36-gun frigate HMS Tribune.[7]
  2. Horatio Nelson's chief surgeon at the Battle of Trafalgar, left Resistance in January 1802.[19][20]
  3. ^ Lutwidge continued in the navy and was promoted to commander on 26 November 1830, dying at that rank on 30 January 1861.[21]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Winfield (2008), p. 374.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Gardiner (1994), p. 60.
  3. ^ Gardiner (2012), p. 76.
  4. ^ a b c Gardiner (1994), p. 89.
  5. ^ a b Gardiner (1994), p. 103.
  6. ^ Gardiner (1994), p. 69.
  7. ^ Gardiner (2000), p. 10.
  8. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011a), p. 374.
  9. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011b), p. 82.
  10. ^ Tracy (2006), p. 114.
  11. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011b), p. 169.
  12. ^ a b c Clarke & McArthur (2011b), p. 514.
  13. ^ Brockliss, Cardwell & Moss (2005), p. 77.
  14. ^ Hore (2015), p. 127.
  15. ^ a b Broadley & Bartelot (1906), p. 267.
  16. ^ a b c Clarke & McArthur (2011c), p. 251.
  17. ^ a b c Clarke & McArthur (2011c), p. 254.
  18. ^ a b Brockliss, Cardwell & Moss (2005), p. 76.
  19. ^ Brockliss, Cardwell & Moss (2005), p. vii.
  20. ^ Brockliss, Cardwell & Moss (2005), pp. 76–77.
  21. ^ Syrett & DiNardo (1994), p. 286.
  22. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011c), p. 257.
  23. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011c), pp. 178–179.
  24. ^ White (2005), p. 53.
  25. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011c), p. 530.
  26. ^ a b Clarke & McArthur (2011d), p. 175.
  27. ^ Clarke & McArthur (2011d), p. 263.
  28. ^ a b Clarke & McArthur (2011d), p. 437.
  29. ^ Jolly (2021), p. 78.
  30. ^ Grocott (2002), p. 150.

References


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