HMS Orpheus (1809)
{{short description|Frigate of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Orpheus}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
| {{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=File:American Privateer Holkar being Captured by HMS Orpheus May 1813 (48170795086).jpg |Ship caption=Holkar under attack from HMS Orpheus }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=United Kingdom |Ship flag=File:Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg |Ship name=HMS Orpheus |Ship ordered=27 February 1808 |Ship builder=Deptford Dockyard |Ship laid down=August 1808 |Ship launched=12 August 1809 |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship completed=By 21 September 1809 |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate=Broken up in August 1819 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= {{sclass|Apollo|frigate}} |Ship tons burthen=947{{small|{{frac|28|94}}}} (bm) |Ship length={{convert|145|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} (gundeck); {{convert|121|ft|8+3/4|in|m|1|abbr=on}} (keel) |Ship beam={{convert|38|ft|3|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship draught= |Ship hold depth={{convert|13|ft|4|in|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship sail plan=Full-rigged ship |Ship complement=264 |Ship armament=
|Ship notes= }} |
File:EURYALUS 1803 RMG J5673.jpg
HMS Orpheus was a 36-gun Apollo-class fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy launched in 1809 from Deptford Dockyard. She was broken up in 1819.
Construction
Ordered on 27 February 1807 and laid down in August 1808 at Deptford Dockyard. Launched on 12 August 1809 and completed on 21 September 1809.
Service
Pigot was the ship's captain, in which he spent the next four years stationed in the West Indies and at Halifax. In her, during the War of 1812 against the United States, he destroyed the 8-gun letter of marque Wampoe on 28 April 1813, and the 20-gun privateer Holkar on 11 May 1813. On 20 April 1814 he captured the {{USS|Frolic|1813|6}}, of twenty 32-pounder carronades, two long 18-pounder guns, and 171 men. From the end of 1814 he commanded the 50-gun {{HMS|Diomede|1798|2}}, and then the frigate {{HMS|Nymphe|1812|2}},Letter dated 9 October 1814 within [https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C17023991 ADM 1/2347 - Letters from Captains, Surnames P: 1814] stating 'the Commander in Chief has already appointed Captain Hugh Pigot to the command of that ship. [Nymphe]' on the coast of North America, before returning to England in August 1815.{{sfnp|O'Byrne|1849|p=905–906}}
Orpheus also saw service in the War of 1812. While in Long Island Sound, she chased the American privateer Holkar and ran her aground, before destroying Holkar by cannon fire.Maclay, p.441-442.
Orpheus was part of the British patrolling squadron in Long Island Sound. When the British fleet encountered an American fleet, commanded by Stephen Decatur it chased them to New London where the American fleet escaped. The British squadron there formed a blockade, confining the American fleet until the end of the war.Tucker, 2012 pp.293-304
On 27 April Orpheus chased the American ship Whampoa on shore near Newport, Rhode Island. Whampoa had been sailing from Lorient. The British took possession of Whampoa but then abandoned her due to fire from the shore.Lloyd's List [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015005785830?urlappend=%3Bseq=103 №4778.]
On 20 April 1814 the schooner HMS Shelburne (1813), with the frigate Orpheus closing, captured the US sloop Frolic.{{sfn|James|1902|p=290}}
During May 1814, accompanied by the schooner Shelburne, the Orpheus was moored off Spanish Florida. It hosted a meeting of the Chiefs of the Creek Nation, who were being courted by the British as allies in the War of 1812. Subsequent to this meeting, weapons and other gifts were provided by the British.{{sfn|Hughes|Brodine|2023|pp=822-832}}
As of 5 July 1814, she arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her prize, the late US ship Frolic. On 20 September 1814, she arrived in Portsmouth, having departed from Halifax on 22 August 1814. She was reported to have moored in Plymouth and Portsmouth on 5 December 1814.{{cite web |title=Orpheus, 5th rate of 36 guns |last=Benyon|first=Paul |url=https://sites.rootsweb.com/~pbtyc/18-1900/N/03341a.html |access-date=18 July 2024 |via=RootsWeb}}
Fate
She was broken up at Chatham Dockyard in August 1819.
Citations
{{reflist|30em}}
References
- {{cite wikisource |first=William Richard |last=O'Byrne |chapter=Pigot, Hugh |title=A Naval Biographical Dictionary |year=1849 |publisher=John Murray}}
- {{Cite Colledge2006}}
- Gardiner, Robert; The Heavy Frigate, Conway Maritime Press, London 1994.
- {{cite book |editor-last1=Hughes |editor-first1=Christine F. |editor-last2=Brodine |editor-first2=Charles E.|title=The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Vol. 4 |date=2023 |publisher=Naval Historical Center (GPO) |location=Washington |isbn=978-1-943604-36-4 }}
- {{cite book |last=James |first=William |year=1902 |orig-year=1837 |title=The naval history of Great Britain (1813–1827) |edition=New six volume |volume=6 |location=London |publisher=Macmillan |url=https://archive.org/details/navalhistoryofgr06jameuoft/page/n7/mode/2up}}
- Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif; The Sail and Steam Navy List, 1815–1889, Chatham Publishing, 2004. {{ISBN|1-86176-032-9}}.
- {{Citation| title=A history of American privateers / by Edgar Stanton Maclay |author1=Maclay, Edgar Stanton, 1863-1919| year=1924| publisher=Appleton}}
- {{cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer C. |title=The Encyclopedia Of the War of 1812 |ref=Tucker2012 |publisher= ABC-CLIO |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VljA5QEI9_wC&q=%22embargo+act%22|year=2012 |pages=1034 |isbn=9781851099573 }}
- Winfield, Rif; British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, 2nd edition, Seaforth Publishing, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-84415-717-4}}.
{{Apollo class frigate}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Orpheus (1809)}}
Category:Ships built in Deptford
Category:Apollo-class frigates