HMS Medea (1778)

HMS Medea was a 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Medea was first commissioned in May 1778 under the command of Captain William Cornwallis. She was sold for breaking up in 1805.

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

Plan of Medea dated 1778
History
Great Britain
Name: HMS Medea
Ordered: 14 May 1776
Builder: James Martin Hillhouse, Bristol
Laid down: June 1776
Launched: 28 April 1778
Completed: 15 September 1778 (at Plymouth Dockyard)
Commissioned: May 1778
Fate: Sold to break up 1805
General characteristics
Class and type: 28-gun Enterprise-class sixth-rate frigate
Tons burthen: 604 ​77⁄94 (bm)
Length:
  • 120 ft 9 1⁄2 in (36.817 m) (overall)
  • 99 ft 4 in (30.28 m) (keel)
Beam: 33 ft 10 in (10.3 m)
Depth of hold: 11 ft 0 1⁄2 in (3.366 m)
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Complement: 200 officers and men
Armament:
  • Upper deck: 24 × 9-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 x 6-pounder guns + 4 x 18-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 x 18-pounder carronades
  • 12 × swivel guns

Career
The engagement with Triton on 20 October 1778

In July 1778, Medea started to cruise in the North Sea and the Channel. Off Cape Finisterre on 20 October 1778, being in company with the ship-of-the-line Jupiter under Captain Francis Reynolds, she met Triton under Captain Comte de Ligondès, but Medea got so badly damaged that she was forced to break off the action with the loss of one man killed and three wounded. She later, with HM hired armed ship Countess of Scarborough, shared in the capture, on 17 June 1779, of the French privateers Compte de Maurepas and Due de la Vauguyon.[1] Medea captured Due de la Vauguyon (or Duc de Lavaugnon) of Dunkirk, a cutter of 14 guns and 98 men, after a fight of an hour. The fight cost the French four men killed and ten wounded; Medea had no casualties. The Royal Navy took Duc de la Vauginon into service under her existing name.

Duc de la Vauguyon had captured and ransomed a lobster smack sailing from Norway to Britain. The master of the smack informed Captain James Montague of Medea that the privateer had had a consort. Medea's rigging was too cut up for her to pursue the consort, so Montague sent Countess of Scarborough, Captain Thomas Piercy, after her. Piercy caught up with Compte de Maurepas, of Dunkirk, after a few hours and the privateer struck without resistance. She was armed with fourteen 4-pounder guns and had a crew of 87 men.[2]

On 5 May 1781 Medea assisted Roebuck in the capture off Sandy Hook of Protector, a 28-gun frigate of the Massachusetts State Navy.[3] The prisoners were taken off to the prison hulk Jersey.[4]

On 7 September 1781 Medea captured Belisarius, "a fast sailing frigate of 26 guns and 147 men, belonging to Salem". Medea captured her off the Delaware River. Amphitrite and Savage shared in the capture.[5] The Royal Navy took her into service as the sixth rate HMS Belisarius, but then sold her in 1783, after the end of the war.

Medea made a number of other captures in summer 1781. These included the ship Phoenix (1 June), the ship Rover (20 June), the schooner Neptune (30 July; with Amphitrite and General Monk), and the brig Marianne (3 August).[5]

From October 1781 to January 1784 Medea was commanded by Captain Erasmus Gower serving in the final stages of the American War of Independence being fought in India. Sailing in company with HMS Sceptre (1781) 64 guns near the Cape of Good Hope Medea captured a rich French store ship, La Concorde, after a brief engagement. After reaching Madagascar, Gower was forced to use Medea to tow his prize all the way to Madras, taking two months. Medea then came under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes.[6]

On 15 January 1782 Medea captured the French sloop Chaser, carrying dispatches which revealed that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre André de Suffren had returned to the Coromandel coast while Vice-Admiral Hughes was still refitting at Bombay. Chaser had been a British sloop, captured by the French and was now sent to Bombay under the command of Medea's Lieutenant Thomas Campbell to advise Admiral Hughes.[7]

Ten days later Medea cut out and captured a large Dutch ship – Vrijheid – from Cuddalore road after taking fire from a fort on the beach and the enemy ship. The Honorable East India Company (HEIC) offered Captain Gower a fortune for the hull and furniture of Vrijheid but he refused to sell, intending to have the ship converted to a 64 gun warship in the Royal Navy. Some months later the ship was lost in the surf at Madras while under attack by a French squadron.[8]

When rumours of preliminary peace negotiations in Europe reached India in June 1783, Captain Gower was instructed to remove his guns from Medea and proceed under a flag of truce to Cuddalore to negotiate a cease fire with Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau and Admiral Suffren. Hostilities were soon concluded and it is probable this was the very last military action of the American War of Independence.[9]

Captain Gower then sailed in Medea with dispatches for the Admiralty and, despite being dis-masted near the Azores, Medea returned to Spithead in only four months, where she was paid off in February 1784.[10]

See also

Citations
  1. "No. 12061". The London Gazette. 26 February 1780. p. 2.
  2. Beatson (1804), Vol. 4, p. 558.
  3. Winfield p. 272
  4. (Boston Gazette, 5, 19 March, 30 April, 14 May, 2 July 1781; Independent Chronicle, 4 May 1781; Massachusetts Mag., July, October, 1910, January, 1911, January, 1912; Mass. Court Rec., 14 February, 3, 6, 7 March, 19 May 1781 ; Mass. Rev. Rolls, xxxix, 45; Mass. Archives, clviii, 212; Fox, pp. 79–88.)
  5. "No. 12227". The London Gazette. 22 September 1781. p. 1.
  6. Bates. Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814) Sage Old Books 2017. ISBN 9780958702126. pp. 130–136.
  7. Bates. p. 140.
  8. Bates. pp. 140–143
  9. Bates. pp. 146–149.
  10. Bates. pp. 149–153.

References
  • Bates, Ian M (2017) Champion of the Quarterdeck: Admiral Sir Erasmus Gower (1742–1814) (Pomona, Queensland:Sage Old Books). ISBN 978-0-95870-212-6.
  • Beatson, Robert (1804) Naval and military memoirs of Great Britain, from 1727 to 1783. Vol 4. (Longman, Hurst, Rees and Orme).
  • Gardiner, Robert (1992) The First Frigates. (London:Conway Maritime Press). ISBN 0-85177-601-9.
  • Lyon, David (1993) The Sailing Navy List. (London:Conway Maritime Press). ISBN 0-85177-617-5.
  • Winfield, Rif (2007) British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792. (London: Seaforth Publishing). ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
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