User:Pickersgill-Cunliffe/sandbox2

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other ships with the same name, see HMS Diamond.

Design of HMS Artois, name ship of Diamond's class
History
Great Britain
NameHMS Diamond
Ordered28 March 1793
Cost£22,168[1]
Laid downApril 1793
Launched17 March 1794
CommissionedApril 1794
FateBroken up June 1812
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeArtois-class fifth-rate frigate
Tons burthen99559⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 146 ft (44.5 m) (gundeck)
  • 121 ft 6 in (37 m) (keel)
Beam39 ft 3 in (12 m)
Draught
  • 10 ft 7 in (3.2 m) (forwards)
  • 15 ft 8+1⁄2 in (4.8 m) (aft)
Depth of hold13 ft 9 in (4.2 m)
PropulsionSails
Complement270 (later 315)
Armament
  • Gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 12 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 9-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades

HMS Diamond was a 38-gun

fifth-rate Artois-class frigate of the Royal Navy
.

Construction

Diamond was a 38-gun, 18-pounder,

weatherly enough to be able to stay at their posts no matter the weather type.[6]

Diamond was ordered on 28 March 1793 to be built at

tons burthen.[1] The fitting out process for Diamond was completed at Deptford on 9 June.[1] On 19 November eight 32-pound carronades were added to the Artois-class ships by Admiralty Order, leading some to describe them as 44-gun frigates in the future.[7] No further changes to the armament of Diamond are recorded, but on 26 March 1796 she was supplied with shells sized for 24-pound guns, suggesting that for at least some of her service she carried guns of this calibre.[8] On 20 June another Admiralty Order saw the ship's crew complement increase from 270 to 284.[7] At a later point in her service this was again increased, this time to 315.[1]

Service

1794-1795

A drawing of Captain Sidney Smith with Diamond depicted in the background.

Diamond was commissioned in April 1794 with Captain Sidney Smith as her first commanding officer.[1] She was then ordered to form part of Commodore John Borlase Warren's Western Squadron in the English Channel, based mostly around Audierne Bay.[1] On 23 August Diamond and the squadron destroyed the French 36-gun frigate La Volontaire on the Penmarks and then chased and destroyed the 12-gun L'Alerte in the nearby Audierne Bay.[9]

On 4 January 1795 Diamond completed a daring reconnaissance of the French harbour of Brest.[10] The British government had received word that the fleet of Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse had possibly sailed on a cruise and Warren selected Diamond for the role of investigating the harbour itself for signs of the French fleet.[11] Having disguised her as a French ship on 3 January, the next day Smith sailed Diamond into Brest roads behind the French ship-of-the-line Caton and, navigating by moonlight, managed to pass Caton and two other French warships.[12] By the morning of 5 January the rest of the roads were visible to Diamond and having ascertained that there were no more French warships anchored there she turned to leave, still undetected.[12] As Diamond again passed Caton, which was at the time jury rigged, a French corvette raised the alarm about her true identity.[12] Captain Smith moved Diamond closer to Caton and spoke to her captain in French, convincing him that Diamond was actually a frigate of the French Norway Squadron and having him call off the other French ships that were readying to close on Diamond.[12] Successfully avoiding further discovery, Diamond was able to freely sail from the area.[12]

By May she was serving in the squadron of Captain

Treguier but wrecked herself on one of them in attempting such, and while Smith sent his ship's boats to assist in rescuing the crew twenty Frenchmen were killed and the ship quickly destroyed by the rough seas.[14]

1796

On 17 March 1796 a French convoy consisting of the 16-gun corvette L'Etourdie, three luggers, four brigs, and two sloops was chased in to

marines from Diamond were sent in to silence the battery so that further progress could be made and the French countered this by deploying soldiers to protect the entrance of the battery.[12] To avoid a frontal assault on the battery Lieutenant Pine of Diamond had his men climb the precipice at the front of the battery, thus avoiding the soldiers and quickly taking the guns with this unexpected attack.[12] With the battery no longer attacking the British, Liberty and Aristocrat began to attack the convoy which in turn beached itself in an attempt to avoid destruction.[12] Smith observed that the crew of L'Etourdie had abandoned her and ordered boarding parties in; heavy enemy fire meant that little could be done to capture other vessels of the convoy and L'Etourdie and one of the brigs were burned.[12][10] Later on Diamond's boats came in to shore again and under the cover of Aristocrat's guns burned the rest of the convoy where it lay.[12] Pine was badly wounded in the attack and the leader of the marines, Lieutenant Carter, died of his wounds and two more seamen were killed.[14]

The capture of Captain Sidney Smith on 18 April 1796

On 17 April Diamond attempted to

gun boats and a larger lugger.[15] A fight between the two luggers ensued and after four of Smith's men were killed and another seven wounded, he was forced to surrender.[16] With Smith gone Diamond continued to serve off St Marcou, now an official Royal Navy station.[17] Captain Thomas Le Marchant Gosselin was appointed as a temporary replacement for Smith on 22 April and in the same month Diamond took the French 10-gun privateer Le Pichegru off Cherbourg, while in company with the sloop HMS Rattler.[10][17] Gosselin left Diamond on 25 July and was replaced in December by Captain Sir Richard Strachan, under whose control Diamond had been in 1795.[10][12][17] She ended the year successfully, taking the French privateers L'Esperance, a brig, on 24 December and the 14-gun L'Amaranthe, a corvette, on 31 December, both off Alderney.[10][18]

1797-1800

In 1797 Diamond continued to serve in the same area of the Channel, taking the privateer cutter L'Esperance off Le Havre on 27 April.[10] In the same location she destroyed a privateer lugger on 23 September.[10] Strachan left Diamond in February 1799 to take command of the ship of the line HMS Captain.[19]

Captain Edward Griffith took command of Diamond in April 1799 and she continued her Channel activities, participating in operations at Quiberon in June before escorting a convoy to the Cape of Good Hope in July.[10] Having returned shortly afterwards the frigate resumed her activities assisting land operations with the unsuccessful Ferrol Expedition in August 1800.[20] In this period the frigate was again detached in a squadron commanded by Captain Sir Edward Pellew.[20]

1801

On 20 August 1801 the boats of Diamond and the frigates

Corunna.[10]

1802-?

Diamond became the

flag ship of Admiral Mark Milbanke, still in the Channel, in 1802, with Captain Thomas Elphinstone assuming command in June of the same year.[10]

She took the Spanish 16-gun Infante Don Carlos on 7 December 1804.[10]

Captain Elphinstone was replaced by Captain George Argles in July 1806 and from the Channel she escorted a convoy to the coast of Africa on 21 May 1807.[10]

Diamond sailed for Jamaica on 23 May 1808.[10]

Fate

Diamond was paid off and put in ordinary in 1810 and was broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in June 1812.[10]

Prizes

Vessels captured or destroyed for which Diamond's crew received full or partial credit
Date Ship Nationality Type Fate Ref.

Notes and citations

Notes

  1. ^ John Marshall states that L'Assemblee Nationale was of 22 guns.[14]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Winfield (2008), p. 346.
  2. ^ a b c Winfield (2008), p. 345.
  3. ^ a b Winfield (2008), p. 344.
  4. ^ Gardiner (1994), pp. 54–55.
  5. ^ Wareham (1999), p. 178.
  6. ^ Gardiner (1994), p. 56.
  7. ^ a b Gardiner (1994), p. 33.
  8. ^ Gardiner (1994), p. 102.
  9. ^ Winfield (2008), pp. 346–347.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Winfield (2008), p. 347.
  11. ^ a b c d e Marshall (1823c), p. 295.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Phillips, Diamond (38) (1794). Michael Phillips' Ships of the Old Navy. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
  13. ^ a b Marshall (1823d), p. 287.
  14. ^ a b c d Marshall (1823c), p. 296.
  15. ^ Marshall (1823c), pp. 296–297.
  16. ^ Marshall (1823c), p. 297.
  17. ^ a b c Marshall (1823a), p. 418.
  18. ^ Marshall (1823d), p. 291.
  19. ^ Marshall (1823d), pp. 287–288.
  20. ^ a b Marshall (1823b), p. 557.

References

  • Gardiner, Robert (1994). The Heavy Frigate: Eighteen-Pounder Frigates. Vol. 1. London: Conway Maritime Press.
    ISBN 0 85177 627 2
    .
  • Marshall, John (1823a). "Gosselyn, Thomas Le Marchant" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 2. London: Longman and company. pp. 671–2, 416–9.
  • Marshall, John (1823b). "Griffith Colpoys, Edward" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 2. London: Longman and company. pp. 548–59.
  • Marshall, John (1823c). "Smith, William Sidney" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 1. London: Longman and company. pp. 291–322.
  • Marshall, John (1823d). "Strachan, Richard John" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 1. London: Longman and company. pp. 284–91.
  • Winfield, Rif (2008). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Seaforth.
    ISBN 1-86176-246-1
    .

Sources not yet implemented

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:Pickersgill-Cunliffe/sandbox2&oldid=1043677164"