HMS Juno (1780)

HMS ''Juno'' was a Royal Navy 32-gun ''Amazon''-class fifth rate. This frigate served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Construction and commissioning

''Juno'' was ordered on 21 October 1778 and laid down in December that year at the yards of the shipbuilder Robert Batson & Co, of Limehouse. She was launched on 30 September 1780 and completed by 14 December 1780 that year at Deptford Dockyard. £8,500 1 s 5 d was paid to the builder, with a further £8,184 18s 1d being spent on fitting her out and having her coppered.

Early years

''Juno'' was commissioned under the command of her first captain, James Montagu, in September 1780. Montagu commanded her for the next five years, initially in British waters and the Atlantic.

On 10 February 1781 ''Juno'' and the sloop captured the American privateer ''Revanche'' (or ''Revenge'') off Beachy Head. Montagu then sailed the ''Juno'' in early 1782 to join Richard Bickerton's squadron operating in the East Indies.

She was present at the Battle of Cuddalore on 20 June 1783, and returned to Britain to be paid off in March 1785. After fitting out the following month ''Juno'' was placed in ordinary. She spent the next five years in this state, with the exception of a small repair at Woolwich Dockyard in 1788 at a cost of £9,042.

French Revolutionary Wars

''Juno'' returned to active service in May 1790, now under the command of Captain Samuel Hood. Hood sailed to Jamaica in mid-1790, but had returned to Britain and paid off the ''Juno'' in September 1791. Hood however remained in command, and the ''Juno'' was fitted out and recommissioned, undergoing a refit at Portsmouth in January 1793. Hood initially cruised in the English Channel after the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars, capturing the privateers ''Entreprenant'' on 17 February, ''Palme'' on 2 March and, together with , ''Laborieux'' in April.

Hood was then transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1793.

''Juno'' was at Toulon during its period of British control under Samuel Hood, ''Juno''s captain's cousin once removed. Unaware that Toulon had fallen to French republican forces, and desiring to deliver 107 Maltese and 46 Marines embarked in Malta to reinforce Lord Hood's forces, Captain Hood sailed into the port at night on 11 January 1794, several days after the evacuation of the British forces. After anchoring, ''Juno'' was boarded by 13 armed men. On being informed that British forces had left and that he and his ship's company were now prisoners of war, Captain Hood ordered cables to be cut and immediately set sail with the 13 French officials aboard as prisoners, whereupon ''Juno'' received a broadside from a nearby brig and came under point-blank fire from French batteries, but was able to escape with only light damage.

On 7 February 1794 ''Juno'' and the 74-gun carried out an attack on a tower at Mortella Point, on the coast of Corsica. The design of the tower allowed it to hold out against the British for several days, and inspired the design of the subsequent Martello Towers constructed in Great Britain and other British possessions.

Captain Lord Amelius Beauclerk succeeded Hood, who returned to Britain with a convoy in October 1795, and paid her off in January the following year.

''Juno'' was repaired and refitted at Deptford for the sum of £20,442. She was recommissioned in August 1798 under the command of Captain George Dundas. She operated with a British squadron in Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in August 1799 that resulted in the surrender on 13 August, without firing of a shot, of a Dutch squadron of one small 74, six 64s, two 50s, and six 44s, five frigates, three corvettes, and one brig.

Schiermonnikoog

On 11 August 1799, the 16-gun sloop , under Captain Adam Mackenzie, the 16-gun brig-sloop , under Captain James Boorder, the 12-gun hired cutter ''Courier'', and ''Juno'' and , which sent their boats, mounted an attack on , which was moored between the island of Schiermonnikoog and Groningen.

''Pylades'' and ''Espiegle'' engaged ''Crash'', which surrendered after a strong resistance. MacKenzie immediately put ''Crash'' into service under Lieutenant James Slade, ''Latona''s first lieutenant. In the attack, ''Pylades'' lost one man killed and three wounded. ''Juno'' lost one man killed when the boats attacked a gun-schooner.

The next day the British captured one schyut and burnt a second. MacKenzie put Lieutenant Salusbury Pryce Humphreys of ''Juno'' on the captured schuyt after arming her with two 12-pounder carronades and naming her the ''Undaunted''.

On 13 August the British attacked the Dutch schooner ''Vengeance'' (or ''Weerwrack'' or ''Waarwrick''), of six cannons (two of them 24-pounders), and a battery on Schiermonnikoog. The British were able to burn the ''Vengeance'' and spike the battery's four guns. They also captured a rowboat with 30 men and two brass 4-pounder field pieces, and spiked another 12-pounder. The ''Courier'' grounded but was saved. Including ''Undaunted'', the British captured three schuyts or galiots, the ''Vier Vendou'', the ''Jonge Gessina'' and one other. The battle would earn those seamen who survived until 1847 the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Schiermonnikoog 12 Augt. 1799".

On 12 February 1800 ''Juno'' and sailed for Jamaica as escorts to a convoy of 150 merchant vessels.

On 2 June ''Juno'' and , were in company when they captured ''Volante''. On 1 October ''Juno'', ''Melampus'', and ''Retribution'' were in company when they captured the ''Aquila''.

Napoleonic Wars

Captain Isaac Manley took command in 1802, paying off ''Juno'' in the middle of the year. A further refit followed, with ''Juno'' returning to sea under the command of Captain Henry Richardson. Richardson took ''Juno'' to the Mediterranean in April 1803.
Between 1 and 3 August 1803, ''Juno'' and captured three vessels: ''Santissima Trinita'', ''Parthenope'', and ''Famosa''. Then on the 21st, ''Juno'' and ''Morgiana'' captured ''San Giorgio''.

On 8 September ''Juno'' was eight leagues off Cape Sparivento when she captured the French bombarde privateer ''Quatre Fils'', of Nice. ''Quatre Fils'' was armed with four guns (12 and 9-pounders), and had a crew of 78 men.

In 1805 ''Juno'' and several other frigates and sloops arrived at Gibraltar where Nelson employed them to harass coastal shipping that was resupplying the Franco-Spanish fleet at Cadiz.

In 1806 ''Juno'' was then active in the Bay of Naples, supporting Sidney Smith's operations there. When Smith had arrived in Palermo on 21 April 1806 he found that Gaeta still held out against the French even though the Neapolitan government had had to cede the capital. Smith had immediately sent two convoys to Gaeta with supplies and ammunition and landed four 32-poundeer guns from . Smith also stationed ''Juno'' off Gaeta, where she was in a flotilla together with the Neapolitan frigate ''Minerva'', Captain Vieugna, and 12 Neapolitan gun-boats.

Next, the French erected a battery of four guns on the point of La Madona della Catena. The Prince of Hesse-Philipstad put 60 men from the garrison at Gaeta in four fishing-boats and on the night of 12 May Richardson took them and the boats from ''Juno'' and ''Minerva'' to a small bay in the French rear. As the boats reached shore, the French signaled the attack and abandoned the battery. The landing party spiked the guns and destroyed the carriages unopposed. It then re-embarked, having sustained no losses.

On 15 May the garrison at Gaeta made another modestly successful sortie. Two divisions of gunboats supported the operation. Richardson commanded one division. ''Juno''s boats, under the command of Lieutenant Thomas Wells, assisted by Lieutenant of marines Robert M. Mant joined the attack. ''Juno''s boats sustained the allies' only loss, which consisted of four seamen killed and five wounded.James (1837), Vol. 4, 216.

On 18 July 1806 the French under André Masséna captured Gaeta after an heroic defence. In 1809 it became a duché grand-fief in the Napoleonic Kingdom of Naples, but under the French name "Gaete", for finance minister Martin-Michel-Charles Gaudin.

Fate

Captain Charles Schomberg succeeded Richardson in February 1807. Captain Granville Proby replaced Schomberg in July that year, with orders to sail ''Juno'' back to Britain. She was placed in ordinary at Woolwich after her arrival, and was broken up there in July 1811.

Notes

Citations

References

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* James, William (1902) ''The Naval History of Great Britain from the declaration of war by France in 1793 to the accession of George IV.'' Vol. 4. (London).
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Juno (1780)
Fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Limehouse
1780 ships