Action Of 21 October 1794
The action of 21 October 1794 was a minor naval engagement between Great Britain and France fought off the Breton coast of France during the second year of the French Revolutionary Wars. French frigates had been raiding British Atlantic trade routes with considerable success since the outbreak of the war, and in response the Admiralty had formed a frigate squadron to patrol the French Channel and Atlantic coasts in search of French raiders. On 13 October 1794, the large, modern and powerful 40-gun French frigate ''Révolutionnaire'' under the command of Captain Antoine René Thévenard sailed from Le Havre for a raiding cruise against British trade routes in the Atlantic. Eight days later, while rounding the Breton headland of Ushant about 25– out to sea, ''Révolutionnaire'' encountered the British frigate squadron, commanded by Commodore Sir Edward Pellew, which had secured a number of victories over French raiding frigates during the previous two years. Pellew ordered his s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain, Habsburg monarchy, Austria, Kingdom of Prussia, Prussia, Russian Empire, Russia, and several other monarchies. They are divided in two periods: the War of the First Coalition (1792–97) and the War of the Second Coalition (1798–1802). Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension. After a decade of constant warfare and aggressive diplomacy, France had conquered territories in the Italian Peninsula, the Low Countries and the Rhineland in Europe and abandoned Louisiana (New France), Louisiana in North America. French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. As early as 1791, the other monarchies of Europe looked with ou ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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French Frigate Gracieuse (1787)
''Gracieuse'' was a 32-gun ''Charmante''-class frigate of the French Navy. Renamed to ''Unité'' in 1793, she took part in the French Revolutionary Wars. The Royal Navy captured her in 1796 off Île d'Yeu and brought her into British service as HMS ''Unite''. She was sold in 1802 French service ''Gracieuse'' was re-commissioned in Rochefort in April 1793 under ''captaine de vaisseau'' Chevillard. She transported troops between the Basque Roads and Sables-d'Olonne, and then returned to Rochefort. She transferred to the naval division on the coasts of the Vendée. There she escorted convoys between Brest and Bordeaux. ''Gracieuse'' took part in the War in the Vendée, capturing the British privateer ''Ellis'' on 11 July. In September 1793 ''Gracieuse'' was renamed ''Unité''. She was to be named ''Variante'' in April 1796, but the Royal Navy captured her before the name change took effect. On 14 May 1794, ''Unité'' captured the ship-sloop after a short fight that left ''Ale ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HMS Galatea (1794)
HMS ''Galatea'' was a fifth-rate 32-gun sailing frigate of the British Royal Navy that George Parsons built at Bursledon and launched in 1794. Before she was broken up in 1809 she captured numerous prizes and participated in a number of actions, first in the Channel and off Ireland (1794–1803), and then in the Caribbean (1802–1809), including one that earned her crew the Naval General Service Medal. Service history Channel Fleet, 1794–1803 ''Galatea'' was commissioned in May 1794 under the command of Captain Richard Goodwin Keats. She then joined the Channel Squadrons under Sir Edward Pellew and Sir John Borlase Warren. ''Galatea'' took part in the capture or destruction of a number of French warships. On 23 August, the squadron ran the French ships ''Volontaire'', ''Espion'', and ''Alerte'' on to the shore along the coast of France and destroyed them. ''Galatea'', , , and shared in the capture of the French cutter ''Quartidi'' on 7 September. They also shared i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sir Sidney Smith
Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith (21 June 176426 May 1840) was a British naval and intelligence officer. Serving in the American and French revolutionary wars and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of Admiral. Smith was known for his offending character and penchant for acting on his own initiative, which caused a great deal of friction with many of his superiors and colleagues. His personal intelligence and enterprise led to his involvement in a variety of tasks which involved diplomacy and espionage. He became a hero in Britain for leading the successful defence of Acre in 1799, thwarting Napoleon's plans of further conquest in the Sinai. Napoleon Bonaparte, reminiscing later in his life, said of him: "That man made me miss my destiny". Early life and career Sidney Smith, as he always called himself, was born into a military and naval family with connections to the Pitt family. He was born at Westminster, the second son of Captain John Smith of the Guards and his ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HMS Diamond (1794)
Several Royal Navy ships have been named HMS ''Diamond''. * , a 50-gun ship launched at Deptford in 1652 and captured by France in 1693. * , a fifth-rate 50 gun ship launched at Blackwall Yard in 1708 and rebuilt at Deptford Dockyard in 1722, sold in 1744. * , a fifth-rate launched at Limehouse in 1741 and sold in 1756. * , a fifth-rate launched at Hull in 1774 and sold in 1784. * , a fifth-rate launched at Deptford in 1794 and broken up in 1812. * , a fifth-rate launched at Chatham in 1816 and broken up following a serious fire at Portsmouth in 1827. * , a sixth-rate frigate launched in 1848. She was used as a training ship and renamed ''Joseph Straker'' between 1866 and 1868, and sold in 1885. * , a 14-gun launched in 1874 and sold in 1889. * , a built by Cammell Laird, launched in 1904 and scrapped in 1921 * , a D-class destroyer launched in 1931 and lost in action in 1941. * , a destroyer launched in 1950 and sold in 1980. * , a Type 45 destroyer which began construct ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HMS Artois (1794)
HMS ''Artois'' was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir John Henslow and launched in 1794 at Rotherhithe as the lead ship of her class. She served for the majority of her career in the English Channel under the command of Edmund Nagle in the squadrons of Edward Pellew and John Borlase Warren, notably taking part in the action of 21 October 1794 where she captured the 44-gun frigate ''La Révolutionnaire'' almost singlehandedly. She participated in a number of other actions and events including the attempted invasion of France in 1795. ''Artois'' continued to serve actively on the coast of France in blockade and patrolling roles, taking a large number of ships as prizes, until she was wrecked with no loss of life off Île de Ré on 31 July 1797 while attempting to reconnoitre the harbour of La Rochelle. Construction ''Artois'' was a 38-gun, 18-pounder, fifth-rate ''Artois''-class frigate designed by Sir John Henslow. She and her class were ordered soon ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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HMS Arethusa (1793)
Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Arethusa'' after the Greek mythological nymph Arethusa who was transformed by Artemis into a fountain. * was a 32-gun fifth-rate ship captured from the French Navy in 1759 and wrecked in 1779. Its Action of 17 June 1778 is the subject of the ballad: The Saucy Arethusa. * was a 38-gun fifth-rate launched in 1781 and broken up in 1814. * was a 46-gun fifth-rate launched in 1817, and renamed HMS ''Bacchus'' in 1844 upon her conversion into a hulk; she was broken up in 1883. * was a 50-gun fourth-rate launched in 1849. She was fitted with screw propulsion in 1861 and became a training ship in 1874. She was broken up in 1934. * was a ''Leander''-class protected cruiser launched in 1882 and scrapped in 1905. * was an ''Arethusa''-class light cruiser launched in 1913 and wrecked after being damaged by a naval mine in 1916. * was an ''Arethusa''-class light cruiser launched in 1934 and scrapped in 1950. * was a ''Leander''-c ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Action Of 23 April 1794
The action of 23 April 1794 took place between a British squadron of five frigates under the command of Sir John Borlase Warren and three frigates and a corvette under the command of Chef d'escadre F. Desgarceaux during the French Revolutionary Wars. Three of the French ships were captured. The battle On 21 April the frigate sighted four distant ships in the English Channel. The next morning ''Minerva'' met Warren's squadron, and passed this information on. Warren promptly set off in pursuit, and at dawn the next day, around 4 a.m., sighted three frigates and a corvette about seven or eight leagues (24.5–28 nautical miles) south-west of Guernsey. The French formed a line of battle, and Warren signalled his squadron to engage, with his own flagship in the lead, supported by . Taking advantage of the weather gage the British were able to force the French into a close action which lasted for nearly three hours, before the and surrendered at around 11 a.m. The and attempted ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sir John Borlase Warren
Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, 1st Baronet (2 September 1753 – 27 February 1822) was a British Royal Navy officer, diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1774 and 1807. Naval career Born in Stapleford, Nottinghamshire, he was the son and heir of John Borlase Warren (died 1763Stanford University ) of Stapleford and . He entered Emmanuel College, in 17 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Channel Fleet
The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history there had been different squadrons stationed in home waters. One of the earliest known naval formations to be based at Plymouth was called the Western Squadron which was the forerunner of the Channel Squadron that was later known as the Channel Fleet. In 1650 Captain William Penn, Commander-in-Chief, was charged with guarding the Channel from Beachy Head to Lands End with six ships. This system continued following the Restoration. It was the start of what was to become a Western Squadron. From 1690 the squadron operated out of Plymouth Dockyard during wartime periods, which was for most of the 18th century and early 19th century. In 1854 The Channel Squadron, sometimes known as the Particular Service Squadron, was established. The Channel Squ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Glorious First Of June
The Glorious First of June (1 June 1794), also known as the Fourth Battle of Ushant, (known in France as the or ) was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. The action was the culmination of a campaign that had criss-crossed the Bay of Biscay over the previous month in which both sides had captured numerous merchant ships and minor warships and had engaged in two partial, but inconclusive, fleet actions. The British Channel Fleet under Admiral Lord Howe attempted to prevent the passage of a vital French grain convoy from the United States, which was protected by the French Atlantic Fleet, commanded by Rear-Admiral Villaret-Joyeuse. The two forces clashed in the Atlantic Ocean, some west of the French island of Ushant on 1 June 1794. During the battle, Howe defied naval convention by ordering his fleet to turn towards the French and for each of his ves ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brest, France
Brest (; ) is a port city in the Finistère department, Brittany. Located in a sheltered bay not far from the western tip of the peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon. The city is located on the western edge of continental France. With 142,722 inhabitants in a 2007 census, Brest forms Western Brittany's largest metropolitan area (with a population of 300,300 in total), ranking third behind only Nantes and Rennes in the whole of historic Brittany, and the 19th most populous city in France; moreover, Brest provides services to the one million inhabitants of Western Brittany. Although Brest is by far the largest city in Finistère, the ''préfecture'' (regional capital) of the department is the much smaller Quimper. During the Middle Ages, the history of Brest was the history of its castle. Then Richelieu made it a military harbour in 1631. Brest grew around its arsenal unti ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |