All at Sea - Bob's British Squadron Launched and Ready for Sea Trials

 

This post is a follow up to my previous one looking at my building of the Warlord Games, Black Seas, Royal Navy Fleet starter box set of 1:700th model ships for a friend of mine Bob who wants to get his own collection of these very nice models going.

JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, On the Stocks in JJ's Dockyard

I built this starter box for my own collection about a couple of years ago as my 'Lockdown Project' and a search through the All at Sea post from back then will reveal the history behind the ships that are created with these models and so rather than repeat the exercise I will content myself with showing you the look of those I've just built which I've painted slightly differently to reflect an earlier Revolutionary War look to some of them

The Warlord Box Sets are a really great way to start a collection with a selection of models that will enable you to build a squadron of ships ready to start playing lots of smaller actions. If you check out my tutorials, I have put together a set of videos and downloads to show how I've gone about painting and rigging these kits.

For this project, started just before New Year, I just built the first-rate, the three named third-rates (Mars, Ajax and Colossus) and the three named fifth-rates (Naiad, Euryalus and Indefatigable).

British 100-Gun First-Rate

This powerful British first rate represents the largest ships in the British fleet weighing in over 2,100 tons, carrying one hundred plus guns and capable of consuming over 6,000 trees in their construction.

A typical armament would consist of 28-30 x 32 pounder long guns on the lower deck, 28 x 24-pdr guns on the middle deck, 28-30 x 12-pdr guns on the upper deck and 14 x 12-pdr guns, or occasionally 6-pdrs on older ships, on the forecastle and quarterdeck with HMS Victory carrying a couple of 68-pdr carronades on her forecastle to add to the mix.

HMS Colossus, 74-gun Middling Third-Rate

The HMS Colossus represented here is the ship launched at Gravesend in 1787 and wrecked off the Isles of Scilly on the 10th December 1798.

At 1,703 tons she was a larger middling class of 74-gun third rate and before her loss is credited with the battle honours Groix and Cape St Vincent.

HMS Colossus carried 28 x 32 pounder long guns on her gun deck, 28 x 18-pdrs on her upper deck, and 18 x 9-pdrs on her quarterdeck and forecastle.

HMS Ajax 74-gun Large Third-Rate

HMS Ajax was launched in 1798 at Rotherhithe on the River Thames and at 1943 tons was a large class of 74-gun third-rate.

She was a stalwart of the Mediterranean Squadron and is credited with the battle honours, Egypt 1801, Cape Finisterre 1805 and Trafalgar before her unfortunate loss by fire in 1807. 

HMS Ajax carried 28 x 32 pounder long guns on her gun deck, 30 x 24-pdrs on her upper deck and 16 x 9-pdr guns on her quarterdeck and forecastle.

HMS Mars 74-gun Third-Rate

HMS Mars was launched at Deptford in 1794 and at 1842 tons would also be classed as a large 74-gun third-rate.

Much of her service was with the Channel Squadron where she fought and won a single ship duel with the French 74-gun Hercule off the Pointe du Raz near Brest on 21st April 1798, later seeing action at Trafalgar and seeing out the rest of her career in the Channel, off Portugal and in the Baltic before being put in ordinary in 1813.

HMS Mars was armed with 28 x 32 pounder long guns on her gun deck, 30 x 24-pdrs on her upper deck and 16 x 9-pdr guns on her quarterdeck and forecastle.

HMS Euryalus 36-gun Fifth-Rate

HMS Euryalus was a 36-gun Apollo class frigate launched at Bucklers Hard in Hampshire in 1803.

Her battle honours include Trafalgar and The Potomac 1814.

HMS Euryalus carried 26 x 18 pounder long guns on her upper deck and 14 x 32pdr carronades along with 4 x 9-pdr guns on her forecastle and quarterdeck.

HMS Indefatigable 44-gun Razee Fifth-Rate

HMS Indefatigable was launched originally as an Ardent Class 64-gun third-rate at Bucklers Hard in 1784, but, with 64's being made redundant for service in the line of battle, was one of several of these ships razeed to a 44-gun fifth-rate between 1794-95.

In this role she was to prove one of the more successful conversions most notably under the command of Sir Edward Pellew, perhaps the greatest of frigate commanders of his era.

HMS Indefatigable as a fifth-rate was armed with 26 x 24 pounder long guns on her gun deck, 12 x 12-pdr guns and 6 x 42-pdr carronades on her forecastle and quarterdeck.

HMS Naiad 38-gun Fifth-Rate

HMS Naiad (pronounced 'Niad') was an Amazon Class frigate built and launched at Limehouse on the River Thames in 1797.

Naiad was very active throughout the Revolutionary and Napoleonic War attacking French and Spanish commerce raiders under her aggressive commander Captain William Pierrepoint, which reached a high point in October 1799 when in company with HMS Ethalion 38-guns, Alcemene 32-guns and Triton 32-guns she helped in the capture of the two 34-gun Spanish frigates Thetis and Santa Brigida off Vigo.

The two Spanish frigates were carrying spicie together with a rich cargo of sugar, cocoa, cochineal and other valuable commodities that produced a treasure worth more than £600,000 and included 877 boxes of Spanish dollars.

The division of prize monies saw the captains of the four British frigates receiving sums in excess of £40,000.

Later in the Napoleonic War, Naiad would also add Trafalgar to her laurels before her long years of service were ended with her breaking up in 1898.

HMS Naiad was armed with 28 x 18 pounder long guns on her upper deck and 4 x 32pdr carronades along with 2 x 9-pdr guns on her forecastle and quarterdeck.

Bob's British Squadron mustered and ready for action.

All packed and ready for delivery at club in February

Sources consulted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Colossus_(1787)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Ajax_(1798)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Mars_(1794)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Euryalus_(1803)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Indefatigable_(1784)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Naiad_(1797)

Next up: Planning and Preparation has been a lot of fun putting the Cape St Vincent project together for the 12th February at the Devon Wargames Group and in the next posts I take a look at what I've done to create this game.

All at Sea - Spanish Third Rates of Renown (Monarca)

Monarca, in the foreground, strikes her colours at Trafalgar to HMS Tonnant - Nicholas Pocock

The Monarca 74-gun ship of the line begins this series of posts looking at the Spanish third rates of renown.

Another design by the Spanish naval architect, Romero Landa, as part of the four ship Montanes class, and covered in my posts looking at the Montanes and Neptuno.

Montanes
http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/07/all-at-sea-on-stocks-in-jjs-dockyard_15.html

Neptuno
http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/07/all-at-sea-on-stocks-in-jjs-dockyard_31.html

Monarca was ordered in 1791 and built and launched at El Ferrol on the 17th March 1794, undergoing proving trials in the autumn of that year alongside her sister ship Montanes under her first commander Captain Don Jose Justo Salcedo y Arauco who took command of the ship in July.

Captain Don Jose Justo Salcedo y Arauco

The trial comparison cruises conducted with Montanes between the Azores and Cadiz, escorting Atlantic convoys would see Monarca refitted with new masts and sails before joining Admiral Juan de Langara's squadron in December 1794 in support of the fortified Catalan town of Roses on the Costa Brava then under siege by the French, until it surrendered the following February but not before the garrison of three-hundred men were successfully evacuated by the Spanish navy, with the Peace of Basle ending the war with France signed in July 1795.

With war declared against Britain on the 19th August 1795 and the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso allying herself with France, Monarca would be assigned to escorting treasure convoys from Havana and Vera Cruz to Cadiz, until returning to El Ferrol in 1798 for much needed repairs.

Sunset in Ferrol - Carlos Parilla Penagos
https://www.carlosparrillapenagos.es/pintura-naval/
With the castle of San Felipe seen on the right, a Spanish 3rd rate ship enters El Ferol, the port where the similarly rated Monarca was launched and from where she operated from for much of the time from 1798.

El Ferrol would become the base of operations for Monarca from 1798 to the Peace of Amiens in 1802 coperating with the French squadrons operating out of Rochefort and Brest when able to avoid the British blockade and with the peace, Monarca would end the French Revolutionary War in the port, careened and disarmed, not returning to operations until November 1804 with the declaration of war against Britain on the 14th December.

On the 13th August 1805, Monarca left El Ferrol bound for Cadiz as part of Vice Admiral Pierre Villeneuve's Combined fleet and under the command of Captain Don Teodoro de Argumosa, who had seen action at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in command of the San Isidro 74-guns, where he had exchanged fire with Captains Nelson and Collingwood commanding HMS Captain and Excellent respectively.

Thus it was that after a short stay in Cadiz, Monarca sailed with the Combined fleet on the 20th October in spite of enemy frigates seen the previous day as half the fleet struggled to get out of the harbour leaving the other half to exit the next morning in worsening weather, heavy seas, rain squalls and a wind veering to south-south-west, rising to almost gale force as the fleet headed into the Straits of Gibraltar.

Originally part of the van squadron under Vice Admiral Alava in the flagship Santa Anna 112-guns along with Indomptable 80-guns, Forgeux  and Pluton 74-guns, the squadron would be the rear as Villeneuve reversed the course of the fleet back to Cadiz as the British bore down on his line of battle ensuring she would be in the centre of the action with Vice Admiral Collingwood's lee column.

The Battle of Trafalgar 1805, just after noon, showing the approximate position of Monarca in rear squadron.

The first British ship to engage the Monarca was HMS Mars under Captain George Duff who attempted to pass between her and the stern of the French 74-gun Forgueux, but soon found the gap closed by the French 74-gun Pluton, that had increased sail to pass Monarca and close the gap on Mars not before the British ship fired a close range broadside into the Monarca  which bore away under the fire

HMS Mars covered in my post from April
http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/04/all-at-sea-on-stocks-in-jjs-dockyard_19.html

The next British ship to come up behind HMS Mars was Captain Charles Tyler's HMS Tonnant which managed to pass the Monarca and pour in her double shotted port broadside before stern raking the Pluton and bow raking the 74-gun Algeciras.

HMS Tonnant covered in my post from October
http://jjwargames.blogspot.com/2020/10/all-at-sea-british-third-rates-of_10.html

The first broadside from Tonnant was quickly followed by a second and appears to have been a crippling blow, badly damaging her fore and crossjack yards, bringing down her mizzenmast and causing Captain Argumosa to order his crew to cease fire and to haul down his colours earning the dubious honour of being the first Allied ship to surrender at Trafalgar.

However as the Tonnant sailed on and no attempt was made to board Monarca and take possession of her, Argumosa raised his colours again, but it seems likely that, with the extensive damage and heavy casualties suffered, the fight had been knocked out of Monarca and she surrendered later in the battle after receiving further hits from HMS Bellrophon which sent across a party of Royal Marines to take control of the ship.

HMS Bellerophon, centre exchanges broadsides with the already battered Monarca to left and the Montanes, to right as the French Aigle hoves into range ahead.

The Monaraca had suffered one of the highest total fatalities of any ship in the Combined Fleet with 101 killed together with a further 154 wounded, one of only eight ships to have fatalities into three digits, but it was perhaps the extensive damage caused to her hull and rigging that convinced Vice Admiral Collingwood that the ship could not be saved as a prize and she was thus burnt and deliberately wrecked on the 26th October.

At Trafalgar, the Monarca was armed with 28 x 24-pounder long guns on the lower deck, 30 x 18-pdrs on the upper deck, 12 x 8-pdrs on the quarterdeck and 4 x 8-pdrs on her forecastle.

She had an over strength crew of 667 men which included 370 naval personnel, 253 infantry (45% of the men onboard) and 54 marine artillery.

Sources consulted for this post:

The Trafalgar Companion - Mark Adkins

The Battle of Trafalgar - Geoffrey Bennett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_ship_Monarca_(1794)

https://threedecks.org/index.php?display_type=show_ship&id=2711

Next up: I have a review of A History of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars by Martin Robson, the next Spanish third rate of renown, San Justo and a look at Unhappy King Charles the most recent game Steve M and I have been playing on Vassal.