HMS Glatton (1795)

HMS ''Glatton'' was a 56-gun fourth rate of the Royal Navy. Wells & Co. of Blackwell launched her on 29 November 1792 for the British East India Company (EIC) as the East Indiaman ''Glatton''. The Royal Navy bought her in 1795 and converted her into a warship. ''Glatton'' was unusual in that for a time she was the only ship-of-the-line that the Royal Navy had armed exclusively with carronades. (Eventually she returned to a more conventional armament of guns and carronades.) She served in the North Sea and the Baltic, and as a transport for convicts to Australia. She then returned to naval service in the Mediterranean. After the end of the Napoleonic Wars the Admiralty converted her to a water depot at Sheerness. In 1830 the Admiralty converted ''Glatton'' to a breakwater and sank her at Harwich.

East India Company service

In 1793-4 ''Glatton'' made one round trip to China for the East India Company (EIC). Her captain was Charles Drummond and her first lieutenant was William Macnamarra. Drummond had commanded an earlier ''Glatton'' and would command a later one too; Macnamarra too would go on to command a later ''Glatton'' on a trip to China for the EIC.

''Glatton''s letter of marque was dated 22 August 1793. The letter of marque permitted her, while under Drummond's command, to assist in the capture of the French brig ''Le Franc''. It was issued after ''Glatton'' had left Portsmouth on 22 May 1793. ''Glatton'' was part of a convoy that also included the East Indiamen ''Prince William'', ''Lord Thurlow'', ''William Pitt'', , ''Earl of Oxford'', , ''Fort William'', ''London'', , , ''Marquis of Landsdown'', , , and ''Earl of Abergavenny'', amongst numerous other vessels, merchant and military, most of the non-Indiamen travelling to the Mediterranean.

From Portsmouth, ''Glatton'' reached Manilla on 10 November, and then Whampoa two weeks later. On her return voyage, she crossed Second Bar on 17 February 1794, reached St Helena on 18 June, and Long Reach by 12 September.National Archives - ''Glatton'' (3)
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Fitting out for Royal Navy service

Captain Henry Trollope commissioned her in April 1795 and he was responsible for arranging that her original armament consisted entirely of carronades instead of the standard mix of long guns and carronades that other warships carried. His previous command, some eight years earlier, had been the 44-gun ''Rainbow'', which too had been armed entirely with carronades. With her Trollope had in 1782 taken the ''Hébé'', which the British would go to use as the model for the ''Leda''-class frigates.

Carronades had short, relatively thin barrels and so were half the weight of the equivalent cannon. They did not need as large gun crews and could also fire much heavier shot for their weight than a gun of the same overall weight, but at the cost of the accuracy, velocity and range of the shot. This extremely heavy armament meant that the fourth rate ''Glatton'' could discharge a heavier broadside than the first rate ''Victory''. But, in combat ''Glatton'' would have to endure the fire of the enemy's long guns while closing the gap to point-blank range before she could effectively return fire — if indeed the enemy would allow her to approach so close.

''Glatton'' was originally armed with twenty-eight 68-pounder carronades on the lower deck and twenty-eight 42-pounder carronades on her upper deck. All were non-recoil, which is to say that they were fixed to the deck. Within a month 32-pounder carronades replaced the 42-pounders. However, ''Glatton's'' ports were too small to allow the larger guns to traverse properly, and she had no bow or stern chasers. Her guns therefore could only be pointed straight out the side. The month after the action in July 1796 (see below), she received two 32-pounders and two 18-pounder carronades for her forecastle. Later, the Navy replaced the twenty-eight 68-pounder carronades on the lower deck with twenty-eight 18-pounder long guns, ending the experiment.

Trollope was extremely happy with ''Glatton''s seaworthiness, handling and general fitting out. He wrote to John Wells, the shipbuilder and her former owner, "I sincerely hope... we may meet with a seventy four in the Glatton...she would either take her or sink her in twenty minutes."

North Sea and Baltic

Under Trollope, ''Glatton'' first served in the English Channel where she engaged a French squadron on 15 July 1796. The French squadron consisted of a 50-gun ship, five frigates (two of 36 guns and three of 28), a brig, and a cutter. ''Glatton'' drove the French vessels into Flushing, having lost only two men wounded, one of whom died later, and despite having at times been surrounded by the enemy and exchanging fire at less than 20 yards. The French vessels may have included ''Brutus'' (a 74-gun cut down to 46-50 guns), ''Incorruptible'' (50 guns), ''Magicienne'' (32 guns), and ''Républicaine'', and one French vessel apparently sunk in Flushing harbour. (It was in this action that Captain Strangeways of the Royal Marines sustained the wound of which he died shortly thereafter, and which the illustration above commemorates.)

In March–April 1797, Trollope kept ''Glatton''s crew from joining the Nore mutiny. By threatening to fire on the 64-gun and the 40-gun , which were in open mutiny, he convinced their crews to return to duty. In August Captain Charles Cobb took command.

In April and May 1798 ''Glatton'' participated, with many other vessels, in the capture of sundry Dutch doggers, schuyts, and fishing vessels. On 4 and 5 May ''Glatton'' was among the vessels that captured 12 outward-bound Greenland ships. The other vessels included the hired armed cutters ''Fox'' and ''Marshall Cobourg'', though most were much larger and included , , , , among others. On 28 May ''Glatton'', , ''Ganges'', ''America'', , , ''Director'', , the hired armed cutters ''Fox the First'', and ''Rose'' when they captured ''Janus''.
All the British vessels were part of the fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Duncan. Next, many of the same vessels, including ''Glatton'', , ''Fox the First'' and ''Rose'', captured several more Dutch vessels:
*''Hoop'' (6 June);
*''Stadt Embden'' (11 June);
*''Neptune'' (12 June);
*''Rose'' and ''Endrast'' (14 June);
*''Hoop'' (15 June); and
*''Vrow Dorothea'' (16 June).

On 18 August 1798, ''Glatton'', ''Veteran'', ''Belliqueux'', ''Monmouth'', , ''Ganges'', , , the sloop , and the hired armed cutter ''Rose'' captured ''Adelarde''.

''Glatton'' was with other ships from Duncan's fleet, including , , , the hired armed lugger ''Rover'', and cutters ''Liberty'' and ''Hazard'', when they captured ''Harmenie'' on 21 April 1799. ''Glatton'' was in company with ''Kent'', , and when they captured the Dutch hoy ''Johanna'' on 16 May 1799.

Then in August 1799, ''Glatton'' participated in the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. The expedition was under the command of Admiral Adam Duncan and the Duke of York. Some 250 craft of all sizes transported 17,000 troops from Margate Roads and the Downs across the Channel on 13 August. Due to bad weather it was 21 August before they anchored off Kijkduin. The next day Vice Admiral Mitchell sent a summons to Vice Admiral Samuel Story, calling on him to surrender his fleet. When he declined, the Duke of York landed his army near Den Helder on 27 August under covering fire from the fleet. Den Helder was occupied the following day when the garrison evacuated the town. The expedition then took possession of 13 old warships laid up in ordinary. On 30 August, ''Glatton'', , , ''Veteran'', , ''Belliqueux'', ''Monmouth'' and ''Overyssel'', the Russian ship ''Mistisloff'' and the frigates, anchored in line ahead in the Vlieter and Mitchel again summoned Story. This time Story agreed to surrender his squadron of 12 modern warships. The Royal Navy purchased 11 of these. The Dutch surrender, without any resistance, became known as the Vlieter Incident. As a result of the surrender, Duncan's fleet was awarded prize money, in which ''Glatton'' shared.

On 15 January 1800 a court martial on board ''Glatton'', in Yarmouth Roads, tried Lieutenant James Watson, and the surviving officers and crew for the loss on the Cockle Sands of the 12-gun brig as she left Yarmouth Roads via the Northern Passage for Leith. Eight of the crew had been lost in the incident. The court absolved Watson, his officers, and men for the loss of the vessel, and praised their conduct after the wrecking.

In November, Captain George Stephen took command of ''Glatton'', followed in 1801 by Captain William Bligh, formerly of HMS ''Bounty''. Bligh was only captain for about a month, but during that month he sailed her to the Baltic where ''Glatton'' participated in the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. The battle cost her 17 killed and 34 wounded. In 1847 the Admiralty would award the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Copenhagen 1801" to all surviving claimants from the action.

''Glatton'' was next under Captain William Nowell and then under Captain William Birchall. In August 1801 she was fitted at Sheerness for a guardship in protected waters. Captain John Ferris Devonshire took command that same month.

Convict transport to Australia

Captain Nathaniel Portlock recommissioned her in May 1802 as a convict ship. Next, Commander James Colnett assumed command and on 23 September ''Glatton'' left England, carrying over 270 male, and 135 female prisoners; of these, seven men and five women died on the journey. She also carried some 30 Free Settlers. A family from the Royal Household boarded the ''Glatton'' - this was one of the reasons a Royal Navy vessel was used, to ensure a safe passage. She sailed via a resupply stop at Rio de Janeiro to the penal settlement at Sydney, where she arrived on 13 March 1803. When ''Glatton'' arrived about 100 of the people on board her were suffering to varying degrees from scurvy.

She then returned to England, arriving on 22 September 1803, that is, after an absence of 364 days. Because she returned via Cape Horn, she had circumnavigated the world; her actual time at sea for this transit was 277 days.

''Glatton'' was one of only two Royal Navy ships used to transport convicts to Port Jackson.

Return to naval service

Between November and December 1803 she was refitted at Woolwich for service as a man-of-war. Still under Colnett's command, she then served briefly as flagship for Rear Admiral James Vashon.

In 1804 ''Glatton'' was reduced to a 44-gun fifth rate. On 11 November she, together with , , , , ''Africiane'', , , the hired armed cutter ''Swift'', and the hired armed lugger ''Agnes'', shared in the capture of ''Upstalsboom'', H.L. De Haase, Master.

Captain Thomas Seccombe recommissioned ''Glatton'' in March 1806 and sailed for the Mediterranean on 22 November. On 19 February 1807, ''Glatton'' captured the Turkish vessels ''San Giovanni Pidomias'' and ''Codro Mariolo''. That same day ''Glatton'' and captured the ''San Michelle''. Four days later, ''Hirondelle'' captured ''Madonna'', with ''Glatton'' sharing by agreement. On 26 February ''Hirondelle'' captured the ''San Nicollo'', and ''Glatton'' again shared by agreement.

On 1 March, boats from ''Glatton'' cut out a former French corvette in Turkish service from the port of Sigri on the island of Mitylene. The vessel was pierced for 18 guns but only 10 were mounted. The British boarding party lost five officers and men killed and nine men wounded. provided support.

The next day ''Glatton'' and ''Hirondelle'' captured three other Turkish vessels, names unknown but with masters, Statio, Constantine, and Papeli. Prize money for these vessels, and ''San Michelle'', was paid in October 1816.

On 4 March ''Glatton'' and ''Hirondelle'' captured another Turkish vessel. One week later, ''Glatton'' captured yet another Turkish vessel, name unknown, Ibrahim, master.

Then on 29 November ''Glatton'' captured several transports off Corfu that were transferring troops from Otranto to Corfu. ''Glatton'' removed some 300 troops before she destroyed the nine vessels they had been on. Two vessels escaped back to Otranto.

''Glatton'' and the brig-sloop had received information that the French had captured four Sicilian gunboats and taken them into Scylla, near Reggio, Calabria. On 31 January 1808, as ''Delight'' approached the port, a strong current pushed her towards the shore and she grounded. Seccombe went on board ''Delight'' to supervise the recovery effort. As they were trying to free ''Delight'', her boats and those of ''Glatton'' came under intense fire from the shore. The boats were unsuccessful in freeing ''Delight'', and ''Delight''s captain, Commander Phillip Crosby Handfield, late of ''Egyptienne'', and many of his crew were killed. Although the crew took to the boats, not all were able to escape and a number of the men on her, including Seccombe, became prisoners of war. The French paroled Seccombe, who had been severely wounded, to Messina, where he died on 3 February 1808.

''Glatton'' came under the command of Commander Henry Hope (acting) and in March 1808 under Commander Charles Irving (acting). Captain George Miller Bligh then took command around December. He brought a convoy home from Malta in July and then sailed her to Sheerness for laying up in October. She sailed briefly to the Baltic in 1811.

Fate

From 1812 to 1814 ''Glatton'' was under R. G. Peacock (master) at Portsmouth. In 1814 she was converted to serve as a water depot at Sheerness. Between April and June 1830 she was fitted at Sheerness as a breakwater, and in October 1830 ''Glatton'' sailed for the last time, to Harwich, where she was subsequently scuttled to serve as a breakwater.

Notes, citations, and references

Notes

Citations

References
*Brenton, Edward Pelham (1837) ''The naval history of Great Britain, from the year MDCCLXXXIII to MDCCCXXXVI''. (London: Henry Colburn), vol. 2.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Glatton (1795)
Ships of the line of the Royal Navy
Ships of the British East India Company
Convict ships to New South Wales
Maritime incidents in October 1830
Age of Sail merchant ships
Merchant ships of the United Kingdom
Scuttled vessels of the United Kingdom
Ships sunk as breakwaters