USS Confederacy-- Part 4: Captured By the British

Captain Nicholson replaced Seth Harding on 20 October 1780.

The Confederacy was homeward bound on  from Cape Francois in the West Indies in 1781 with military stores and other supplies and escorting a fleet of 37 merchantmen on 14 April when she encountered the HMS Roebuck (44 guns) and HMS Orpheus (32 guns) off the Delaware Capes.

The British ships forced the Confederacy to strike her colors.

Most of the merchantmen she was escorting escaped.  Many of her crew were sent to the old prison hulk ship Jersey, though some ended up in Mill and Forton prisons.

The Royal Navy took her into service as the HMS Confederacy, under the command of Captain James Cumming.  He paid her off in September 1781.  She was broken up at Woolrich in March 1782.

--Cooter

USS Confederacy-- Part 2: General Characteristics

 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

959 tons

153 feet

35 feet 6 inches beam

Complement:  260 officers and men

Armament:

Twenty-eight 12-pdr. guns

Six 6-pdr. guns

She was launched  8 November 1778 at Chatham (Norwich), Connecticut, and towed to New London to be prepared for sea.

--Brock-Perry

USS Confederacy?

From Wikipedia.

I came across this name while doing research for something else and the name just sort of jumped out at me for some reason.  Exactly why would the U.S. Navy name a warship after the hated Confederates?  Well, as it turns out, there was a story.

The definition of confederacy is a league or alliance.  Turns out, that was what the Americans had going during the American Revolution.

The Confederacy was a  36-gun sailing frigate on the Continental Navy during the American Revolution.  The British Royal Navy captured her  in Match 1781 and took her into their service as the HMS Confederate for a half year before breaking her up in 1782.

Betcha Never Heard of This Ship.  --Cooter

There Was a USS Montgomery in the American Revolution

Earlier this month, I wrote about the current USS Montgomery (LCS-8).  I found out there were also USS Montgomerys in the War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War II.

I will write about them in my blogs.

From Wikipedia.

USS MONTGOMERY (1776)

Was a three-masted, wooden sailing frigate and one of the first 13 ships authorized by the Continental Congress on 13 December 1775.  

She was built by Lancaster Burling at Poughkeepsie, New York, and launched late in October 1776.  But because the British captured New York City after the Battle of Brooklyn, the Hudson River was closed.  Because of this, the ship was never completed and later destroyed.

It was probably built to the standards of Joshua Humphry's design for a 24-gun frigate mounting twenty-four 9-pounder guns.

It was named in honor of fallen general Richard Montgomery, who had been a British soldier but sided with  the Americans and was appointed  a brigadier general by George Washington  he was later killed in a failed assault on  Quebec,  31 December 1775.

To prevent capture by the British,  the USS Montgomery was burned on 6 October 1777.

--Cooter

Five Famous Shipwrecks Waiting to Be Discovered-- Part 2: Griffon, Endurance and Bon Homme Richard

From the April 30 History Mysterious History.

3.  THE GRIFFIN

The first sailing ship on the Great Lakes.  The Griffin (or Le was a three-masted vessel built by French explorer LaSalle during his exploration of the lakes.  It disappeared in 1679.  It is considered the "Holy Grail of the Great Lakes" shipwrecks.

4.  SHACKLETON'S ENDURANCE

In 1914, Ernest Shackleton set sail for his expedition to Antarctica and the South Pole.  But the Endurance got caught in the ice and had its hull cracked.  Shackleton and the crew escaped by making an 800 mile voyage in a lifeboat, but the whereabouts of his Endurance are not known.

5.  BON HOMME RICHARD

A French donation to the American cause under command of John Paul Jones.  In 1779, it captured 16 British vessels off the coast of England.  On September 23 it fought the British frigate HMS Serapis.  Jones had not yet begun to fight and won, but the Bon Homme Richard sank and no one has been able to find it.

--Cootship

Ships By the Name Missouri in the U.S. Navy-- Part 1: CSS Missouri

From the June 18, 2018, News Tribune  "Perspective:  A History of the Missouri Navy" by Sam Bushman.

I wrote about the CSS Missouri in my Running the Blockade Civil War Navy blog earlier today.

These ships had the name USS Missouri in the United States Navy:

1st.  USS Missouri was a paddlewheel frigate built in 1841 at a cost of $570,000.  In 1843, while a part of the Mediterranean Squadron, the ship caught fire and blew up in Gibraltar.

2nd  CSS Missouri.  See today's Running the Blockade blog.

--CooterMo

The USS Simpson (FFG-56)-- Part 1

From Wikipedia.

This is a follow up to the last post I did.

The USS Simpson, (FFG-56) was an Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided missile frigate named for Rear Admiral Rodger W. Simpson who fought in World War II.

It was commissioned 21 September 1985 and decommissioned 29 September 2015.  The ship was 453 feet long and had a 45-foot beam and crew of 205.

Soon after commissioning it took part in the search and rescue effort after the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion.

--Cooter

Navy Retires Last Ship to Sink Enemy Ship in Action, the USS Simpson-- Part 2: Served in Waning years of the Cold War

Continued from May 4, 2017.

The USS Simpson was built and commissioned in the waning years of the Cold War

It searched for and escorted submarines and fought narcotics traffickers and pirates.  Its most recent security missions were in the Mediterranean Sea but were classified.

So, now it is for sale.  Pakistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey and Poland have purchased the Navy's decommissioned frigates.

They aren't state-of-the-art technological wonders.  They had crews of 230.

The ship was named for Rear Admiral Rodger Whitten Simpson and several family members were at the decommissioning.

--DaCoot

The Navy Retires Its Last Modern Vessel To Sink An Enemy Vessel in 2015-- Part 1: The USS Simpson

From the October 12, 2015, Navy Times by Andrew Pantazi.

"The United States Navy decommissioned its last Perry-class frigate, reducing the Navy's number of ships that have sunk an enemy vessel to just one.  (More on the last remaining U.S. navy ship to have sunk an enemy ship in battle later.)

"The end of the Navy's frigates marks a new era of naval warfare where ships are less likely to go to battle in the open sea.

"The frigate Simpson removed its weapons, covered its windows, and, on September 29, it lowered its flags.  Now the ship will travel to Philadelphia until a foreign nation buys it.

"After 30 years of service -- including an April 1988 battle where it fired missiles at and sank an Iranian oil platform and an Iranian navy vessel -- the ship's service came to an end with a ceremony at Mayport Naval Station.

Now, the only Navy ship that has sunk an enemy is the USS Constitution, which did so during the War of 1812.

--Cooter

A Look at Some of Hampton Roads' Most Famous Ships-- Part 1: USS Chesapeake

From the January 10, 2014, Stars and Stripes by Mark St. John Erickson of the Hampton Roads Daily Press.  Like I said before, he sure gets the good articles to write.

Two of the most famous shipyards are located in Hampton Roads, Virginia, area: Norfolk Naval Shipyard which launched its first U.S. Navy warship in 1799 and the Newport News Shipbuilding which was founded in 1886.

In 1798, the USS Chesapeake, the fourth and smallest of the original "Super Frigates."  (The USS Constitution was one of them.)  The ship and country were greatly embarrassed when it was boarded by the HMS Shannon off of Cape Henry and the famous "Don't Give Up the Ship" quote came about because of it.

The CSS Virginia, built on the hull of the USS Merimack and fought the famous Battle of Hampton Roads against the USS Monitor.

--Cooter

Interesting Histories to Former Ships By the Name HMS Looe

From Wikipedia.

There were seven ships in the British Navy of this name.  Of them, were wrecked, two became breakwaters, one was a former privateer and one was captured by the Japanese in 1941 and became a Japanese ship.

1st:  32-gun fifth rate launched 1696, wrecked 1697

2nd:  32-gun fifth rate launched 1697, wrecked 1705

3rd:  42-gun fifth rate launched 1707, reduced to harbor service 1735, sunk as breakwater 1737

4th:  44-gun fifth rate launched 1741, wrecked 1744  (Our HMS Looe)

5th:  44-gun fifth rate launched in 1745, sunk as breakwater 1759

6th:  30-gun fifth rate, formerly privateer Liverpool, purchased 1759, sold 1763

7th:  To have been a Bangor-class minesweeper.  Laid down 1941, renamed HMS Lyemun while still on stocks, but captured that year by the Japanese who completed it and launched it as the Nan Yo in 1943, lost later that year.

Wreck Me, Break Me.  --Cooter

HMS Looe-- Part 2: Runs Aground

In 1743, Captain Ashby Utting took command.  It was lost in the early morning of 5 February 1744 after having captured a Spanish merchant ship just after midnight when it struck a reef, soon followed by the merchant ship.

The crew had to escape in three small boats and were worried about being captured by a Spanish warship.  The three boats were unable to save the entire crew.  Just as things were looking particularly bleak, they spotted a nearby Spanish sloop and captured it.

The two grounded ships were salvaged of provisions and then set afire.  .  the crew escaped in the small boats and sloop.  The sloop got to Port Royal, South Carolina and two of the boats made it to safety.  Utting was court-martailled, but acquitted.

The key was named after the Looe and the wreck is now part of the Looe Key National Marine Sanctuary.

--DaCoot

HMS Looe-- Part 1: Fifth Rate Frigate

From Wikipedia.

44-gun fifth rate frigate grounded on Looe Key on 5 February 1744 during the War of Jenkins' Ear.  Ordered 22 December 1740 from Thomas Snelgrove to the design of the 1733 Establishment.  It was the fourth Royal Navy ship of that name, named for Looe, Cornwall, England.

Completed 3 April 1742 at Deptford Dockyard.  Commissioned January 1742.

124 feet long with 35.8 beam, 250 crew.  Armament:  Lower deck twenty 12-pdrs., Upped deck twenty 9 pdrs. and Quarterdeck six 6-pdrs.

Frist commander was Captain George Carnegie.

Along with HMS Deal Castle, went looking for privateers from Ponta Nova in 1742.

--CooterLooe

Cannons in Fort Came from a Sunken British Ship-- Part 1: HMS Looe

March 30, 2016, Chicago Tribune "Project confirms N.Y. fort guns from Fla. shipwreck" by Chris Carola.

Research has determined that nine cannons displayed for the past 60 years at a re-created French and Indian War fort in upstate New York were originally aboard a British warship that sank in the Florida Keys in the 18th century.

Joseph Zarzynski said a study of all 68 cannons at Fort William Henry found that some, if not all, of the nine iron cannons likely came from the HMS Looe, which sank after hitting a reef in 1744.

He said  that when the fort originally opened in 1954 on the southern end of Lake George that some of the cannons came from a British shipwreck in the Keys.  The HMS Looe was a 44-gun frigate built in England in 1741.

--DaLooeCoot

The Battle of Cape Santa Maria-- Part 2

The Spanish fleet had four frigates loaded with the payment treasure. They were attacked by four British ships. Upon sighting each other, the fleets got into line of battle. Within ten minutes of the start of the battle, the magazine of the Mercedes blew up, destroying the vessel and killing all but 40 of its crew.

A short time later, two other Spanish ships surrendered and another was captured trying to get away.

Spain declared war on Britain December 14, 1804.

The Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes mounted 36 guns.

I imagine the Mercedes could be considered a war grave as I am sure there are remains aboard it.

--DaCoot

The Second USS New York

Built in 1800, it was a three-masted, wooden-hulled, sailing frigate built by the state for the federal government through public subscription by the citizens of New York.

It was 145 feet long and participated in the Quasi War with France. It had a crew of 340 and mounted 26X18-pdr. guns and 20X32-pdr carronades.

Served in the Caribbean and then sent to the Barbary Coast in 1802. From 1803 to 1814 it was in ordinary in Washington Navy Yard and burned by the British when they captured Washington D.C. in the War of 1812.

--Cooter

US Ships By the Name New York-- Part 1

Back in 2009, the US Navy commissioned a new ship, the USS New York (LPD-21), the 8th ship to bear the name. They had to get special designation since state names now go to submarines.

This is an attack ship specially built to fight terrorism. What's even better, it also has metal recycled from the World Trade Center buildings. Kind of a payback.

Other ships bearing the name:

1st-- Armed gondola 1776, burned to prevent capture.

2nd-- 34-gun frigate built 1800. Operated Mediterranean Sea. Burned by British.

3rd-- Ship-of-the-line, laid down 1820, but never launched. Burned to prevent capture by Confederates at Norfolk Navy Yard 1861.

4th-- Screw sloop started 1863, but never launched and later sold.

More to Come. --Cooter

Some More on the USS Constellation

The 1797 USS Constellation was one of the six original frigates authorized by Congress. It was the first to put to sea, engage, defeat, and capture an enemy vessel. A fine beginning for the US Navy under the Constitution.

In 1853, it was broken up for scrap in the Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard in Virginia. The second USS Constellation was started at the same time, which has led to the confusion as to whether Baltimore's current ship is the 1797 or 1853 Constellation.

There is the possibility that the 1853 one was built out of material from the 1797 one. Perhaps all that was done was to rebuild the original.

Who's to Know, Who's to Know? --Cooter