HMS Alpheus

Alpheus was a 36-gun, 18-pounder fifth-rate Scamander-class frigate. The class was constructed as part of the reaction of Lord Melville's Admiralty to the beginning of the War of 1812. This new theatre of operations, with the Napoleonic Wars ongoing, was expected to put a strain on the existing fleet of Royal Navy frigates, and so more were needed to be built. Designed by the Surveyor of the Navy, Sir William Rule, the Scamander class was one of those put into construction to fill this need.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=173}} The class was a variant of the existing Apollo-class frigate, which had been the standard design for 36-gun frigates in the Royal Navy for over a decade.{{sfnp|Gardiner|1999|p=48}}{{sfnp|Gardiner|2001|p=57}} The class was particularly copied from the lines of the 36-gun frigate HMS Euryalus.{{sfnp|Gardiner|1999|p=52}}

The war was expected to only be a short affair, and so ships built specifically for it were not designed for long service lives. As such Alpheus{{'}}s class was ordered to be constructed out of the soft but easily available "fir". This meant the use of red and yellow pine.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=173}} Using pine for construction meant that the usually long period of time between keel laying and launching could be dramatically decreased to as little as three months. Pine-built ships could usually be differentiated from those of oak by their flat "square tuck" stern, but as copies of oak-built ships the Scamander class did not have this feature.{{sfnp|Gardiner|1999|p=52}} The naval historian Robert Gardiner describes the class as an "austerity" version of the Apollos.{{sfnp|Gardiner|1999|p=48}}{{sfnp|Gardiner|2001|p=57}}

Pine was a lighter material than oak which allowed the ships to often sail faster than those built of the heavier wood, but this in turn meant that the ships required more ballast than usual to ensure that they sat at their designated waterline. Based on an oak-built design but with more ballast than that design was expected to carry, Alpheus and her class were designed with a distinctly shallower depth in the hold. This ensured that the frigates were not aversely affected by the excess ballast, which could cause them to sail overly rigidly and without much give.{{sfnp|Gardiner|1999|p=52}}

The first seven ships of the Scamander class, six of which were ordered in May before the war had begun, were built with red pine. The final three, of which Alpheus was the last, received yellow pine. All ships of the class were ordered to commercial shipyards rather than Royal Navy Dockyards, with the navy providing the pine for their construction from its own stocks.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=173}} Alpheus was ordered on 7 December 1812, to be built by the shipwright William Wallis at Blackwall, London. The frigate was laid down in July the following year, and launched on 6 April 1814 with the following dimensions: {{convert|143|ft|4+3/4|in|m|1}} along the upper deck, {{convert|120|ft|2+3/8|in|m|1}} at the keel, with a beam of {{convert|38|ft|6+1/2|in|m|1}} and a depth of hold of {{convert|12|ft|4|in|m|1}}. The ship had a draught of {{convert|9|ft|m|1}} forward and {{convert|12|ft|8|in|m|1}} aft, and measured 949 tons burthen.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=174}}

The fitting out process for Alpheus was completed at Woolwich Dockyard on 11 July.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=174}} The frigate originally had a crew complement of 274, but this was increased to 284 for the entire class on 26 January 1813, while she was under construction. Alpheus held twenty-six 18-pounder long guns on her upper deck. Complimenting this armament were twelve 32-pounder carronades on the quarterdeck, with two 9-pounder long guns and two additional 32-pounder carronades on the forecastle.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=173}}

Alpheus was commissioned under Captain George Langford on 14 May 1814, by which time the Bourbon Restoration in France had occurred.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=174}}{{sfnp|Admiralty|1816|p=52}} She was ordered to join the East Indies Station, one of the ships assigned to keep the station at war establishment levels.{{sfnp|O'Byrne|1849|p=114}}{{sfnp|Admiralty|1816|p=84}} The frigate formed part of the escort to a convoy of merchant ships as she made her way to the station, doing so alongside the 18-gun brig-sloop HMS Penguin and 12-gun brig HMS Swinger. They departed from Portsmouth on 1 September.{{cite news|date=3 September 1814|page=4|work=The Morning Chronicle|location=London|title=Ship News}}

Having reached Calcutta Alpheus sailed on to Ceylon, arriving there on 4 May 1815.{{cite news|title=Ceylon Arrivals|date=30 September 1815|page=2|work=Java Government Gazette|location=Batavia}} By July the frigate was serving at Macao, from where she transported the East India Company employee Thomas Pattle to Manila so that he could recover from dropsy.{{sfnp|Addams|1825|p=55}}{{sfnp|Asiatic Journal|1816|p=184}} Pattle's condition in fact worsened at Manila, and in August Langford conveyed him back to Macao before returning to the Philippines to be again stationed at Manila.{{sfnp|Addams|1825|p=55}}{{cite news|title=Government Gazette|work=Java Government Gazette|page=3|date=23 December 1815|location=Batavia}}{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=357}} About this time the Spanish authorities at Manila caught Langford using his ship's barge to smuggle dollars. The barge was captured by several armed launches, after which Langford was known to the Spanish as "the Captain of the Dollars".{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=359}}

While sailing off Luzon on 13 November Alpheus encountered the 38-gun frigate HMS Horatio, whose crew was beset with sickness.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=357}} The two ships raced to test their capabilities, and found Horatio to be the faster vessel. Langford then guided Horatio in to Manila where the Spanish provided hospital treatment to the crew.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|pp=358–359}} Alpheus continued in Manila Bay through the next month, during which time the frigate was surveyed and found to be in poor condition. Langford decided to refit the ship and then return to England, as the war establishment in the East Indies was coming to an end.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=365}}{{cite news|date=9 December 1816|page=4|work=Hampshire Telegraph|location=Portsmouth|title=Portsmouth}}

Alpheus received her refit at Bombay, and began her passage to England on 12 May 1816. She then spent some time at Mauritius weathering storms off the coast of Africa, as her rotten timbers would have made sailing through them very dangerous.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=407}}{{sfnp|Asiatic Journal|1816|p=608}}{{sfnp|Asiatic Journal|1817|p=89}}{{cite news|date=27 February 1817|page=2|title=London|work=Louisiana State Gazette|location=New Orleans}} The frigate left the island on 14 August and made for the Cape of Good Hope. While doing so she encountered Horatio on 20 August, whose commander Captain William Henry Dillon described Alpheus as "in a very crazy state" despite the refit. The two ships chose to sail together to the Cape. Alpheus{{'}}s hull was in a bad state, and while making the journey Langford kept the ship at a slow pace to avoid damaging it further, as a result of which Horatio sailed on alone on 27 August.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=407}} Alpheus arrived at Simon's Town on 7 September, a day after Horatio. She spent the next twenty days there.{{sfnp|Asiatic Journal|1817|p=89}}{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=408}}

From the Cape Alpheus transported 150 sheep to the garrison at Saint Helena, arriving on 13 October.{{sfnp|Watson|1912|p=249}} While there some of Alpheus{{'}}s passengers were allowed a meeting with Napoleon.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=413}} She departed four days later, taking despatches with her.{{sfnp|Watson|1912|p=249}} Alpheus arrived at Spithead on 5 December before sailing to Deal, Kent, four days later.{{sfnp|Dillon|1956|p=414}}{{cite news|date=11 December 1816|page=3|work=The Morning Chronicle|location=London|title=Ship News}} She was subsequently paid off at Sheerness Dockyard on 31 December.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=174}}{{sfnp|O'Byrne|1849|p=114}} Amongst the cargo brought from the East Indies by the ship was part of a Persepolis relief, wall stones from Babylon, a portrait of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, an Arabian horse, and a tortoise.{{cite news|date=12 December 1816|page=2|work=The Caledonian Mercury|location=Edinburgh|title=London}} Alpheus was surveyed and ordered to be either sold or broken up.{{cite news|date=6 September 1817|page=1|work=Jackson's Oxford Journal|location=Oxford|title=London}} The frigate was put up for sale by the Admiralty on 19 August 1817 and sold for £2,320 to Bailey & Co. on 10 September.{{sfnp|Winfield|2008|p=174}}{{London Gazette|page=1808|issue=17279|date=23 August 1817}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Addams|first=J.|year=1825|title=Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Ecclesiastical Courts at Doctors' Commons and in the High Court of Delegates|volume=2|location=London|publisher=S. Sweet|oclc=940443652}}
• {{cite book|author=Admiralty Office|date=September 1816|title=The Navy List|location=London|publisher=John Murray|oclc=871874019|ref={{harvid|Admiralty|1816}}}}
• {{cite book|last=Dillon|first=William Henry|author-link=William Henry Dillon|year=1956|title=A Narrative of my Professional Adventures|volume=2|editor=Lewis, Michael A.|location=London|publisher=Naval Records Society|oclc=459244063}}
• {{cite book|last=Gardiner|first=Robert|year=1999|title=Warships of the Napoleonic Era|location=London|publisher=Chatham|isbn=1-86176-117-1}}
• {{cite book|last=Gardiner|first=Robert|editor=Robert Gardiner|year=2001|chapter=Ships of the Royal Navy: The 18pdr Frigate|title=Fleet Battle and Blockade|location=London|publisher=Caxton Editions|isbn=184067-363X}}
• {{cite NBD1849 |wstitle=Bradby, Thomas|page=114}}
• {{cite book|title=The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register|year=1816|volume=1|location=London|publisher=Black, Parbury, and Allen|ref={{harvid|Asiatic Journal|1816}}|oclc=426828317}}
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• {{cite book|last=Watson|first=G. L. de St. M.|year=1912|title=A Polish Exile with Napoleon|location=London|publisher=Harper & Brothers|oclc=570061}}
• {{cite book|last=Winfield|first=Rif|year=2008|title=British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates |location=Barnsley, South Yorkshire|publisher=Seaforth|isbn=978-1-78346-926-0}}

{{Scamander class frigate}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alpheus}}

Category:1814 ships

Category:Scamander-class frigates

Category:Ships built in London

Category:Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy