HMS ''Charon'' was a 44-gun
fifth rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a fifth rate was the second-smallest class of warships in a hierarchical system of six " ratings" based on size and firepower.
Rating
The rating system in the Royal ...
in service with the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
. Constructed in 1778, the ship took part in several conflicts in the Americas before being destroyed during the 1781
Siege of Yorktown
The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...
. Her wreck lies in the
York River.
Construction and career
''Charon'' was laid down as a 44-gun Fifth-rate in 1778 in
Harwich, England and was launched later that year. At launch, ''Charon''s design incorporated a number of technological advancements including
copper sheathing
Copper sheathing is the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat from the corrosive effects of salt water and biofouling through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by ...
on her hull and a ship-board
chain pump. She was built of English oak and elm fixed together with iron, and bore a figurehead of the
Charon, the ferryman of
Hades.
[''A FIFTH-RATE SHIPWRECK NAMED CHARON.'' Institute of Naval Archaeology, VOL 7 NO.4. Winter 1980-81. URL]
nauticalarch.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/INAQ-1980-07-41.pdf
/ref> Following her launch ''Charon'' departed for the Americas to take part in the widening American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
, which had seen France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...
join the nascent United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in a war against Britain. When the Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
joined France and the United States against Britain in the June of 1779, the Royal Navy began operations against Spanish colonial possessions in the Americas.
In October 1779, ''Charon'' – in the company of , , , and (several days later) – briefly laid siege to San Fernando Fortress in San Fernando de Omoa
The Fortaleza de San Fernando (also known as the Castillo de San Fernando de Omoa) is a colonial-era Spanish fortress in Omoa, Honduras. Built between 1756 and 1775, the fortress guarded Spanish interests in the-then Captaincy General of Guatemala ...
, Guatemala Captaincy. The British force captured the fort on 15 October, seizing a stash of Spanish bullion before withdrawing to Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.
In 1780 ''Charon'' was present in Britain, where Captain Thomas Symonds took command. In August of that year ''Charon'' participated in the action of 13 August 1780
The action of 13 August 1780 was a minor naval battle fought off the Old Head of Kinsale (County Cork, Ireland) in which the 64-gun French "private man of war" (privateer) ''Comte d'Artois'' fought two British Royal Navy ships, ''Bienfaisant'' an ...
, during which she and engaged and captured the 64-gun ''Comte d'Artois'', a former Indiaman
East Indiaman was a general name for any sailing ship operating under charter or licence to any of the East India trading companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. The term is used to refer to vesse ...
converted into a privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
.
By mid-1781, ''Charon'' was serving on the East Coast of the United States in support of British General Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, (31 December 1738 – 5 October 1805), styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as the Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army general and official. In the United S ...
' invasion of the American South. When Cornwallis and his army withdrew into the town of Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown is a census-designated place (CDP) in York County, Virginia. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while York Co ...
, ''Charon'' became one of around 70 ships trapped in the York River by an overwhelmingly superior French fleet under the compte de Grasse. Of the ships present with Cornwallis, ''Charon'' was the largest, with some sources referring to the ship as a flagship.
With her use as a warship limited in the York river, the besieged British garrison stripped ''Charon'' of her guns, leaving her tied up alongside smaller British ships. On either 9 or 10 October, the ship came under heavy French canon fire (described as heated or hot shot). Eventually a French shot landed in ''Charon''s sail locker, setting the ship on fire and causing her to burn to the waterline
The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. Specifically, it is also the name of a special marking, also known as an international load line, Plimsoll line and water line (positioned amidships), that indi ...
. In flames, ''Charon'' drifted into several nearby ships, or at least the transport "Shipwright" and another transport, setting them on fire.
In the days following the loss of ''Charon'', the British defenders of Yorktown continued to grow more desperate, eventually surrendering to allied Franco-American army on 19 October. As the senior Royal Navy officer present, Captain Symonds was one of the signatories of the articles of capitulation.[Morrissey, Brendan (1997). ''Yorktown 1781: the World Turned Upside Down''. London: Osprey. Pp. 73]
Wreck discovery
The wreck of ''Charon'' was discovered in the early 20th century, and in 1935 she was partially salvaged—though her identity was not known at the time. The still-unidentified wreck was examined by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA) and Texas A&M
Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, or TAMU) is a public, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of the Texas A&M University System in 1948. As of late 2021, T ...
in 1976, with INA returning to the site in 1980. Dives on the wreck confirmed the ship's dimensions matched that of ''Charon'' and recovered parts of the ship's chain pump.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charon (1778)
1778 ships
Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy