HMS Thames (1758)
The Action of 24 October 1793 between Uranie and HMS Thames
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History | |
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Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Thames |
Ordered | 11 January 1757 |
Builder | Henry Adams, Bucklers Hard |
Laid down | February 1757 |
Launched | 10 April 1758 |
Completed | 29 May 1758 at Portsmouth Dockyard |
Commissioned | April 1758 |
Captured | 25 October 1793 |
France | |
Name | Tamise |
Acquired | 25 October 1793 |
Captured | 8 June 1796 |
Great Britain | |
Name | HMS Thames |
Acquired | 8 June 1796 (recaptured) |
Commissioned | December 1796 |
Fate | Taken to pieces at Woolwich September 1803 |
General characteristics | |
Class and type | frigate |
Tons burthen | 65646⁄94 bm |
Length |
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Beam | 34 ft 4 in (10.5 m) |
Depth of hold | 11 ft 9 in (3.6 m) |
Sail plan | Full-rigged ship |
Complement | 210 officers and men |
Armament |
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HMS Thames was a 32-gun
British service
Thames was commissioned in April 1758. On 30 July, Thames encountered the 30-gun French frigate Rose, under Sade de Vaudronne. In the ensuing battle, Sade beached Rose and scuttled her by fire to prevent her falling into British hands. Triton rescued Sade and his crew.[1] On 18 May 1759, Thames assisted in the capture of the French frigate Aréthuse, which the Royal Navy commissioned as HMS Arethusa.[2]
Thames captured the privateer Bien Aimé on 26 September 1760.[3]
Thames was deployed in the Mediterranean from August 1763 and paid off in March 1766 after wartime service.
She was repaired and recommissioned in October 1770 for the Falkland Islands dispute. She participated in the Spithead Review of 22 June 1773, and in a mission to Morocco in 1774. Paid off in July 1775, she was recommissioned in August 1776, and then paid off again in September 1782 after wartime service.
After several repairs at various times, she was recommissioned under Captain Thomas Troubridge in June 1790. The China fleet left Macao on 21 March. HMS Leopard and Thames escorted them as far as Java Head.[4]
She was later again paid off, repaired, and refitted.
Capture
At the action of 24 October 1793, while sailing to Gibraltar under Captain James Cotes, she met Jean-François Tartu's Uranie, off Gascony. In the ensuing engagement she lost her rigging and most of her starboard battery, yet killed Tartu and forced Uranie to disengage. The next day the frigate Carmagnole, under Zacharie Allemand, and accompanying vessels captured Thames, which was essentially a defenseless hulk. She was brought into French service as Tamise.[a]
French service and recapture
Tamise was entrusted to Captain
Under the command of Captain Fradin, Tamise took part in the disastrous campaign of "
On 8 June 1796 Tamise was cruising with the
British service again
Thames was recommissioned in December 1796 under Captain William Lukin and in June sailed for Jamaica. In April–May 1797 she was caught up in the Spithead and Nore mutinies. However, Lukin managed her well during this period and she was one of the first vessels to sail after the suppression of the mutiny. In the second half of 1797, Thames captured a small barge of one gun, name unknown, on the Jamaica station.[7]
On 16 January 1801, Thames recaptured Eliza, Brown, master, which the French privateer Uncle Thomas had captured. Thames sent Eliza into Plymouth.[8][9]
On 12 May 1800, Thames,
On 26 October Thames encountered a French privateer at about 9:30 in the morning. Thames pursued her quarry for five hours. During the pursuit they came upon
On 26 or 29 October, Thames and Immortalite chased a French letter of marque schooner all day. They finally captured her and found that she had been sailing from Guadaloupe to Bordeaux with a cargo of coffee.[13] She was the schooner Unique.[14]
A little over a month later, on 30 November she captured another French privateer in the Bay of Biscay after a six-hour pursuit. The prize, Actif, was armed with fourteen 6-pounder and two brass 12-pounder guns. She had a crew of 137 men and this was the first day of her first cruise. From her, Captain Lukin learned that in the previous three months only two British prizes had come into French or Spanish ports, one into Rochelle and one into Passage.[13] The Royal Navy trook Actif into service as Morgiana.
On 18 January 1801, Thames captured the French navy corvette Aurore in the English Channel. Aurore was armed with 16 guns and was under the command of Lieutenant de vaisseau Charles Girault. She had as a passenger the governor of Mauritius's
Captain
Three days later Thames was part of Saumarez's squadron, which left Gibraltar to chase a Franco-Spanish squadron observed sailing from Algeciras. Thames took a minor part in the subsequent
In subsequent months, assisted by the sloop-of-war Calpe, which had also participated in the battle, she destroyed a number of the enemy's coasters in the bay of Estepona.[17]
Fate
Thames was paid off in January 1803 and broken up at Woolwich in September.
See also
Notes
- ^ Caramagnole was a 42-gun Hébé-class frigate.[5]
Citations
- ^ Roche (2005), p. 386.
- ^ "Extract of a letter from Captain Lockhart". The London Chronicle. 29 May 1759.
- ^ "No. 10116". The London Gazette. 23 June 1761. p. 3.
- ^ Lloyd's List №2326.
- ^ Demerliac (2004), p. 58, #343.
- ^ see: André Di Ré: La Tamise, une frégate légère dans la campagne de Prairial, in Chronique d'Histoire Maritime n°61, décembre 2006
- ^ "No. 14067". The London Gazette. 21 November 1797. p. 1113.
- . Retrieved 29 June 2021.
- ^ "No. 15410". The London Gazette. 26 September 1801. p. 1186.
- ^ "No. 15487". The London Gazette. 8 June 1802. p. 601.
- ^ James (1837), Vol. 3, pp. 5–6.
- ^ "No. 15308". The London Gazette. 4 November 1800. p. 1256.
- ^ a b "No. 15320". The London Gazette. 16 December 1800. p. 1413.
- ^ "No. 15410". The London Gazette. 26 September 1801. p. 1186.
- ^ "No. 15334". The London Gazette. 3 February 1801. p. 149.
- ^ Winfield (2008), p. 268.
- ^ Obituary: Vice Admiral Hollis. The Gentleman's magazine (1844), 428–30.
References
- Demerliac, Alain (2004). La Marine de Louis XVI: Nomenclature des Navires Français de 1774 À 1792 (in French). Éditions Ancre. ISBN 2-906381-23-3.
- James, William (1837). The Naval History of Great Britain, from the Declaration of War by France in 1793, to the Accession of George IV. R. Bentley.
- Robert Gardiner, The First Frigates, Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
- David Lyon, The Sailing Navy List, Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
- Roche, Jean-Michel (2005). Dictionnaire des bâtiments de la flotte de guerre française de Colbert à nos jours. Vol. 1. Group Retozel-Maury Millau. OCLC 165892922. (1671-1870)
- Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1844157006.
- Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth. ISBN 978-1-86176-246-7.
External links
- Media related to HMS Thames (ship, 1758) at Wikimedia Commons
- Naval database