HMS ''Racehorse'' was an 18-gun ship-rigged (i.e. three-masted) sloop 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 ...

. Originally the French ship ''Marquis de Vaudreuil,'' she was captured by the Royal Navy in 1757 and refitted as a

survey vessel A survey vessel is any type of ship or boat that is used for underwater surveys, usually to collect data for mapping or planning underwater construction or mineral extraction. It is a type of research vessel, and may be designed for the pur ...

for the

1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole The 1773 Phipps expedition towards the North Pole was a British Royal Navy expedition in which two ships under the commands of Constantine John Phipps and Skeffington Lutwidge sailed towards the North Pole in the summer of 1773 and became stuck i ...

. Renamed ''HMS Thunder'' in 1775, she was captured back by the French in 1778.

Early Royal Navy service, 1757 to 1763

''Racehorse'' was originally the 18-gun French

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 ...

''Marquis de Vaudreuil'', captured from the French in 1757 during the

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (175 ...

, and purchased for the British Navy on 28 April 1757. As she was a three-masted vessel, she was described as a "frigate", but as she mounted just 18 guns, she was actually registered as a sloop. In this role, she served her first commission (from June 1757 to 1758) under Commander Francis Burslem in home waters. She was reclassed and refitted as a

fireship A fire ship or fireship, used in the days of wooden rowed or sailing ships, was a ship filled with combustibles, or gunpowder deliberately set on fire and steered (or, when possible, allowed to drift) into an enemy fleet, in order to destroy sh ...

(re-armed with just eight 6-pounders), and then as a bomb vessel (with the addition of one 13-inch and one 10-inch mortars) and was recommissioned under Commander Francis Richards for service in North American waters. By 1760 she was re-armed as a "frigate" again, with 16 guns, under Commander James Harmood and later under Commander John Macartney until

paid off Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to placing a warship in ...

in 1763.

1773 North Pole expedition

After a refit at Sheerness, ''Racehorse'' was recommissioned in 1771 under Commander St John Chinnery, until paid off in early 1773. She was then refitted for Arctic exploration, and was part of a voyage of exploration in 1773, commanded by Commander Constantine John Phipps, that unsuccessfully attempted to sail to the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. A young Horatio Nelson served as a midshipman aboard the second ship of the small squadron, under captain

Skeffington Lutwidge Admiral Skeffington Lutwidge (13 March 1737 – 15/16 August 1814) was an officer of the Royal Navy, who saw service during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He had a particular connection w ...

, second in command of the Phipps expedition. The expedition left the Nore on 10 June and passed along the western coast of Svalbard and advanced to

latitude In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...

80°50'N before reaching impenetrable ice front. They came in sight of

Sjuøyane Sjuøyane (English: ''Seven Islands'') is the northernmost part of the Svalbard archipelago north of mainland Norway, and some 20 km north of the eastern major island Nordaustlandet. The islands are the northernmost landmass reachable by normal ...

off Svalbard's north coast and midshipman John Walden, along with two pilots, landed on the westernmost island on 5 August of the same year. The island later known as

Waldenøya Waldenøya (anglicized as Walden Island) is a small, rocky island just north of Nordkapp, Nordaustlandet on Svalbard. It is the westernmost part of Sjuøyane in the Svaldbard archipelago. The island is named after John Walden, who was a midshi ...

(''Walden Island''). Other islands named after expedition members are

Phippsøya Phippsøya (anglicized as Phipps Island) is the largest island in Sjuøyane, an archipelago north of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard in Arctic Norway. It is located some 22 km north of Nordkapp on Svalbard proper and 8.5 km south of Rossøya, ...

and

Nelsonøya Nelsonøya (anglicized as Nelson Island) is a small island, part of Sjuøyane, north of Nordaustlandet. The island is named after the well known englishman Horatio Nelson, who served as midshipman aboard , under Captain Skeffington Lutwidge. The ...

. Additionally, Cummingøya is named after watchmaker

Alexander Cumming Alexander Cumming FRSE (sometimes referred to as Alexander Cummings; 1733 – 8 March 1814) was a Scottish watchmaker and instrument inventor, who was the first to patent a design of the flush toilet in 1775, which had been pioneered by Sir ...

, who made the

pendulum A pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward th ...

used by Phipps' expedition. According to

Gerard De Geer Baron Gerard Jacob De Geer (20 November 1858 – 24 July 1943) was a Swedish geologist who made significant contributions to Quaternary geology, particularly geomorphology and geochronology. De Geer is best known for his work on varves. In 1890 D ...

's 1913 Spitzbergen map, this is the island where Phipps tried to make a pendulum observation.

Later Navy service as ''Thunder''

Returning to Deptford from this voyage in October 1773, she was

until recommissioned in January 1775 under Commander James Orrok; she was again refitted as a bomb vessel and – now renamed ''Thunder'' and reclassed as

bomb vessel A bomb vessel, bomb ship, bomb ketch, or simply bomb was a type of wooden sailing naval ship. Its primary armament was not cannons (long guns or carronades) – although bomb vessels carried a few cannons for self-defence – but mortars mounted ...

on 24 October 1775 – passed under the command of Commander James Reid, sailing on 23 February 1776 for service in North America. Commander Anthony Molloy took over command from Reid in June 1776, and he was succeeded in April 1778 by Commander

James Gambier Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier, (13 October 1756 – 19 April 1833) was a Royal Navy officer. After seeing action at the capture of Charleston during the American Revolutionary War, he saw action again, as captain of the ...

. The French 74-gun ships ''Hector'' and ''Vaillant'', part of the squadron under the

Comte d'Estaing Jean Baptiste Charles Henri Hector, comte d'Estaing (24 November 1729 – 28 April 1794) was a French general and admiral. He began his service as a soldier in the War of the Austrian Succession, briefly spending time as a prisoner of war of the ...

, captured ''Thunder'' off

Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...

on 14 August 1778.

References

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Early Royal Navy service, 1757 to 1763

1773 North Pole expedition

Later Navy service as ''Thunder''

References

External links

Further reading