HMS ''Siren'' (or ''Syren''
[Spelling during the period was not fixed.]) was a 28-gun
sixth-rate
In the rating system of the Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a sixth-rate was the designation for small warships mounting between 20 and 28 carriage-mounted guns on a single deck, sometimes with smaller guns on the upper works and ...
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 ...
. ''Siren'' was first
commissioned in August 1775 under the command of Captain
Tobias Furneaux, her only commanding officer.
Service
She took part in the
Battle of the Rice Boats
The Battle of the Rice Boats, also called the Battle of Yamacraw Bluff, was a land and naval battle of the American Revolutionary War that took place in and around the Savannah River on the border between the Province of Georgia and the Province ...
on 2–3 March 1776 on the border between the
Province of Georgia
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outs ...
and the
Province of South Carolina and in the
Battle of Sullivan's Island of 28 June 1776 upon
Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...
.
Fate
''Siren'', escorting a convoy in poor visibility, ran aground at about 6:00 am on 6 November 1777 near
Point Judith
Point Judith is a village and a small Cape (geography), cape, on the coast of Narragansett, Rhode Island, on the western side of Narragansett Bay where it opens out onto Rhode Island Sound.
It is the location for the year-round ferry service that ...
, along with two other ships. Efforts were made to bring her off, but American forces ashore brought up field artillery and prevented salvage operations. ''Siren'' was abandoned with the loss of 2 killed and 5 wounded.
[Winfield (2007)]
Post script
The sloop ''Mary Ann'', which had a diving machine, arrived at Newport, Rhode Island on 24 July 1815. She had retrieved ''Syren''s best bower anchor and a quantity of iron knees.
[5 August 1815, ''Providence Patriot, Columbian Phenix'' (Providence, RI, United States), Volume: 13 , Issue: 30.]
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
* Robert Gardiner, ''The First Frigates'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1992. .
* David Lyon, ''The Sailing Navy List'', Conway Maritime Press, London 1993. .
* Rif Winfield, ''
British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714 to 1792'', Seaforth Publishing, London 2007. .
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siren (1773)
1773 ships
Sixth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Chatham