HMS ''Pallas'' was a 32-gun fifth rate ''Thames''-class

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

of 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 F ...

, launched in 1804 at

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

History

''Pallas'' was one of the seven ''Thames'' class frigates ordered for the fleet in early 1804. Her keel was laid at Plymouth Dockyard in June 1804 and she was launched on the afternoon of 17 November the same year along with her sister-ship HMS ''Circe''. ''Pallas'' entered service in January 1805, under the command of Lord Cochrane and proceeded to cruise in the vicinity of the

Azores ) , motto =( en, "Rather die free than subjected in peace") , anthem= ( en, "Anthem of the Azores") , image_map=Locator_map_of_Azores_in_EU.svg , map_alt=Location of the Azores within the European Union , map_caption=Location of the Azores wi ...

. Here, ''Pallas'' captured three Spanish merchant ships and a Spanish 14-gun

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 ...

A view of HMS Pallas passing under the batteries of the Île-d'Aix on 14 May 1806

Cochrane was given orders to cruise off the

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

coast in 1806. During the evening of 5 April 1806, Cochrane sailed ''Pallas'' into the

Gironde estuary The Gironde estuary ( , US usually ; french: estuaire de la Gironde, ; oc, estuari de aGironda, ) is a navigable estuary (though often referred to as a river) in southwest France and is formed from the meeting of the rivers Dordogne and Gar ...

and captured the French 14-gun ''Tapageuse'', and drove ashore and wrecked three other corvettes. The corvettes Cochrane drove ashore were one of 24 guns, one of 22 guns, and ''Malicieuse'', of 18 guns. Earlier, while on the station, ''Pallas'' had captured two chasse marees, ''Dessaix'' and ''L'Île Deais'', and wrecked a third, and captured one brig, ''Pomone'', and burnt a second. In 1807, command passed to George Miller. Later that year she passed to

George Cadogan General Sir George Cadogan (2 December 1814 – 27 January 1880) was a general in the British Army. Life The fifth son of George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan and Honoria Louisa Blake (and thus the younger brother of the 4th earl). He joined the ...

and took part in the evacuation of the British Army from

Walcheren Walcheren () is a region and former island in the Dutch province of Zeeland at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Eastern Scheldt in the north and the Western Scheldt in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus. The two ...

. In 1808,

George Francis Seymour Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Francis Seymour, (17 September 1787 – 20 January 1870) was a Royal Navy officer. After serving as a junior officer during the French Revolutionary Wars, Seymour commanded the third-rate under Admiral Sir John ...

took command and operated in the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

as part of the

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 the ...

. Captain the Hon.

took command of ''Pallas'' on 16 September 1809, having transferred from . In 1810, ''Pallas'' was ordered to the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

and was given a cruise off the coast of Norway where she captured four Danish privateer

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. One 13 December her boats captured two, one of four guns and one of two, both in the Cove of Siveraag.

Fate

''Pallas'' was under the command of Captain G.P. Monke when she was wrecked in the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

near

Dunbar Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and gave its name to an ecc ...

on the night of 18 December 1810. The

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

mistook the light on a lime kiln at Broxmouth for that kept burning on the Isle of May,Gossett (1986), p.77. and the light on the island for that on the Bell Rock. Dunbar Lifeboat saved 45 men from HMS ''Pallas'' in two trips and, in attempting a third, was 'upset and drowned nearly all'. ''Pallas'' lost 11 men in the sinking. The subsequent court martial severely reprimanded Monke and the pilot, James Burgess, for the loss. It also dismissed the master, David Glegg, and ordered that he never serve as master again.Hepper (1994), p. 134. ''Pallas'' had been in company with ''Nymphe'', which also wrecked that night, though without loss of life. ''Nymphe'' wrecked on a rock called the Devil's Ark near Skethard on Tor Ness Dunbar.

Citations

References

* * Gossett, William Patrick (1986) ''The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900''. (London: Mansell). * * O’Byrne, William R. (1849) ''A naval biographical dictionary: comprising the life and services of every living officer in Her Majesty's navy, from the rank of admiral of the fleet to that of lieutenant, inclusive''. (London: J. Murray), vol. 1. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pallas, HMS Frigates of the Royal Navy Ships built in Plymouth, Devon 1804 ships Maritime incidents in 1810 Shipwrecks of Scotland