Author Topic: HMS Flora (1780 - 1808)  (Read 2865 times)

Offline stuartwaters

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Re: HMS Flora (1780 - 1808)
« Reply #2 on: September 06, 2020, 09:46:34 PM »
Restored...
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.

Offline stuartwaters

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HMS Flora (1780 - 1808)
« Reply #1 on: September 30, 2019, 10:35:37 PM »

HMS Flora was an 18pdr armed, 5th rate, 36 gun frigate built for the Royal Navy at the Deptford Royal Dockyard, then in the County of Kent. She was the lead ship of a class of four large frigates and was the only one of the class built in a Kent shipyard. She was to go on to have a long and action packed career.


HMS Flora and her sister-ships were early examples of the type of frigate which would come to dominate the Royal Navy's frigate force later on in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the 18pdr armed frigate. They were built at a time when shipyards in the UK were still building large numbers of the smaller and less powerful 12pdr armed 32 gun frigates.


HMS Flora was built to a draft designed by Sir John Williams, Co-Surveyor of the Navy. The class was designed in response to large numbers of similarly armed and sized frigates being built by the French at the time.


HMS Flora was ordered from the Deptford Royal Dockyard on 6th November 1778 and her first keel section was laid at Deptford fifteen days later on Saturday 21st November. In view of this timescale, the work in the Mould Loft in expanding the 1/48 scale drawings to full size and building the moulds must have been going on concurrently with the sawyers cutting the full size timbers and the shipwrights steaming and bending them into shape. Also with this in mind, the Royal Dockyard at Deptford must have had large stocks of timber seasoned and ready to be worked in place when the order came in. Her construction was overseen by Mr Adam Hayes, Master Shipwright in the Kings Dockyard at Deptford. He had first been appointed to the post way back in 1755 and prior to that had spent two years in the position of Master Shipwright at Chatham. Under his direction, the Royal Dockyard at Deptford had become a virtual production line for warships, with an average of three new vessels being launched each year.


At the time HMS Flora was ordered, the American War of Independence was at it's height and had escalated from being an armed rebellion in Britain's American colonies to a full-scale global war, once Spain, France and Holland had intervened on the side of the American rebels. The ship was launched into the great River Thames on Saturday 6th May 1780 and she was fitted with her guns, masts and rigging at Deptford. The ship commissioned into the Channel Fleet under Captain William Peere Williams straight away.


On completion, HMS Flora was a large and powerful frigate for her day. She was a ship of 868 tons, she was 137ft long on her gundeck and 113ft 1in long at the keel. She drew 10ft 3in of water at the bow and 14ft at the rudder. Her hold between the orlop and her bottom was 13ft 3in deep and she was 38ft wide across her beams. On completion, she was armed with 26 18pdr long guns on her gundeck, 8 9pdr long guns and 4 18pdr carronades on her quarterdeck with 4 9pdr long guns and 2 18pdr carronades on her forecastle. In addition to these, she carried a dozen half-pounder swivel guns attached to her upper deck handrails and in her fighting tops. She was manned by a crew of 260 officers, men, Royal Marines and boys. Despite being classed as a 36 gun frigate, she actually carried 44 guns. Her construction and fitting out had cost the nation £19,788, 15s, 10d.


Plans of HMS Flora


Framing Plan:





Orlop Plan:





Berth or Lower Deck Plan:





Upper or Gundeck Plan:





Quarterdeck and Forecastle Plan:





Inboard Profile and Plan:





Sheer Plan, Lines and details of stern:





Captain William Peere Williams was a skilled and experienced commander and had first held a command before the war started. Posted, or promoted to Captain in January 1771, all his previous commands in the rank of Captain had been in frigates, so he was the ideal candidate to command a brand-new and particularly large and powerful frigate.


On 10th August 1780, HMS Flora was patrolling off Ushant when she sighted sails in the haze about four miles away. These turned out to be French, a topsail cutter and a frigate. The topsail cutter made off, but HMS Flora soon overhauled the French frigate, which turned out to be La Nymphe, a 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate, under Captain Le Chevalier Du Rumain. At 17:45, the French hoisted their colours, indicating an intention to fight and opened fire. HMS Flora did the same and the two ships fought an artillery duel at a range of two cables, or about 1,200 feet. After about an hour, HMS Flora had had her sails and rigging much cut up, so Captain Williams ordered that the range be closed to point blank. At this range, the increased short-range firepower offered by the newly-introduced carronades carried by HMS Flora began to tell. Although HMS Flora's steering wheel was destroyed and one of her forecastle carronades ended up being manned by only her Boatswain and a boy, terrible damage and casualties were being wrought on La Nymphe. Her captain was mortally wounded by four musket shots, a gunpowder cartridge being carried to her guns by one of her boys exploded. At 18:15, the French attempted to board the British frigate, but their attack was driven off and the French boarders were followed onto their own decks by the wildly yelling British. The fighting now became up close, hand-to-hand. Fighting with pistols, bayonets, knives, boarding axes, pikes, tomahawks and clubs, it was kill or be killed with no quarter asked or given. By the time it was over and the French had surrendered, the enemy frigate's upper decks were strewn with bodies and body parts and there were pools of blood everywhere. In the battle, the French had suffered 55 dead with 81 wounded, while HMS Flora's casualties came to 9 dead and 17 wounded. La Nymphe was sent into Portsmouth with a prize crew and was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Nymphe. After being refitted for British service, the ship had a long and distinguished career with the Royal Navy, before being wrecked as a result of a navigational error in the Firth of Forth in 1810. She participated in the Battle of Chesapeake Bay and the Battle of the Saintes. At the beginning of the French Revolutionary War in February 1793, she commissioned under Captain Edward Pellew and on 18th June 1793 scored the first victory for the Royal Navy over the French in that war when Pellew, his ship and men captured the French 40 gun frigate Cleopatre, an action which earned the Kent raised Cornishman a knighthood. In the action against La Nymphe, HMS Flora is widely regarded as being the first ship to use carronades in anger.


The action between HMS Flora and La Nymphe by Dominic Serres:





On 12th April 1781, HMS Flora was part of a fleet of 29 ships under Vice-Admiral George Darby which was escorting a fleet of 100 store ships bound for Gibraltar, which at the time was enduring the so-called "Great Seige" by the French and Spanish. The fleet entered Gibraltar Bay unopposed by the enemy and once the supplies had been unloaded, evacuated the civilian population. At three years and seven months, the Great Seige of Gibraltar remains the longest seige ever endured by British forces.


After taking part in the Second Relief of Gibraltar, HMS Flora in company with the 9pdr armed 28 gun frigate HMS Crescent were ordered by Vice-Admiral Darby to detach from the fleet to escort a convoy to Minorca. On the return journey, on 23rd May off the south-east coast of Spain, the two British frigates were chased by a Spanish squadron which drew close enough to open fire. HMS Flora suffered casualties of one man killed and another wounded when one of her main guns was loaded before it had been sponged out and had exploded. The reason this happened was that, as part of the gun-drill, once the gun has been fired, it should have been sponged out; that is that a wet sponge on a pole is thrust down the barrel of the gun to extinguish any remaining burning materials before a new gunpowder cartridge is loaded. After shaking off their pursuers, the two British frigates made it to Gibraltar on 29th May where they received intelligence about two large enemy warships which had been seen in the area earlier that day. On receiving the news, the two British frigates headed to Cueta, a Spanish possession on the African side of the Straits of Gibraltar where they discovered that the two enemy vessels were in fact the 12pdr armed 36 gun Dutch frigates Castor and Briel. Approaching the enemy in deteriorating weather, the British were forced to abandon their attack because of the rising storm. The following day, the weather had calmed down and the British moved into the attack. HMS Flora was to engage the Castor and HMS Crescent the Briel. HMS Flora was a much more heavily armed ship than the Castor, but the Dutch resisted for two hours before they were forced to strike their colours and surrender. The encounter, as were all battles between the Dutch and the British, was particularly bloody and HMS Flora suffered casualties of nine men killed, including her Lieutenant of Marines with 32 wounded. The reason for this was that the Dutch followed the British practice of firing into the enemy's hull at close range in order to maximise damage and casualties. The Castor had 22 killed and 41 wounded. HMS Cresent was not so fortunate. Outgunned by her Dutch opponent, she quickly had all her quarterdeck guns and four of her main deck nine-pounders put out of action. Her upper yards and sails were quickly shot away by the Dutch and disaster struck when her main mast, mizzen mast and all their associated rigging fell into the waist area amidships. This put all the guns forward of the main mast out of action and rendered the ship unmanageable. The Dutch ship was upwind of him, so Captain Thomas Packenham of HMS Cresent was unable to close the range to board the Dutchman, who manoeuvred his ship across HMS Crescent's stern and mercilessly raked the smaller British ship. Unable to bring any guns to bear and with his ship dismasted, Captain Packenham ordered the colours to be struck and the ship surrendered. Fortunately for HMS Crescent, they had damaged the Briel sufficently to prevent the enemy from coming alongside and boarding and with the approach of the victorious HMS Flora, the Briel made off towards Cadiz. Briel had suffered 12 killed and 40 wounded, but HMS Crescent had sustained casualties of 26 dead and 67 wounded. This action is now known as the Battle of Cape St Mary.


The Battle of Cape St Mary:





A little under three weeks later, as HMS Cresent, HMS Flora and the now HMS Castor were heading back to the UK, making repairs as best they could, they were sighted during a squall by a French privateer. Leaving the two other ships, HMS Flora chased the privateer, but the squall cleared and Captain Williams' ship suddenly found herself confronted with two French 12pdr armed 32 gun frigates, Gloire and Friponne. This left Williams with a problem. Between the three damaged frigates, there were not more than three hundred uninjured seamen. To fight his three ships, Captain Williams required upwards of seven hundred men. He decided that it was too dangerous to attempt to fight the pair of French frigates, so ordered that his group of ships scatter and make their own way back to the UK. HMS Castor was quickly caught by the Friponne. She only had her prize crew of 75 men aboard and they were all working the pumps and handling the ship with insufficient men to man the guns. She had no choice but to surrender as soon as the Friponne opened fire. HMS Cresent, sailing under a jury rig, was caught by the Gloire. Again, with insufficient men to man the guns effectively, she too was forced to surrender after giving some resistance to the French. Only HMS Flora managed to escape.


In December 1781, Captain Williams was replaced in command by Captain Samuel Marshall. Captain Marshall was another experienced frigate commander who had commanded two frigates, HMS Arethusa and HMS Emerald, both 12pdr armed 32 gun frigates, before his appointment to HMS Flora. Prior to those two frigates, he had commanded the 50 gun fourth rate ship HMS Portland and the 80 gun three-decked third rate ship of the line HMS Princess Amelia.


Captain Williams did not receive another appointment and went on half-pay in April 1782. In 1784 he inherited the family estate at Hoddeston in Hertfordshire. He died on 11th February 1832.


Meanwhile, on 15th January 1782, HMS Flora sailed for the West Indies. The French had a fleet under one of their best commanders, the Compte de Grasse, operating in the waters off North America and in the Caribbean. De Grasse had already caused a major disaster for the British when he had brought about the surrender of General Lord Cornwallis and his army at the seige of Yorktown in October 1781 by his tactical victory over a British fleet led by Vice-Admiral Thomas Graves at the Battle of Chesapeake Bay in the previous September. This had left the British position in North America untenable and Parliament had voted to end offensive operations in North America and to seek peace. The Royal Navy was throwing all it's available resources at defending Britain's now vulnerable possessions in the Caribbean.


On arrival, she joined the fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, flying his command flag in the Chatham-built 98 gun second-rate ship of the line HMS Formidable. She was assigned to the Vanguard division of Rodney's fleet, commanded by his Second-in-Command, Vice-Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, flying his command flag in another Chatham-built 98 gun second-rate ship of the line, HMS Formidable's sister-ship, HMS Barfleur.


By this time, the Compte de Grasse had successfully taken the British possessions of St Kitts and Nevis. He had set his sights on expelling the British from Jamaica, the richest and most important British possession in the Caribbean. De Grasse's plan was to take his fleet of 35 ships of the line and 100 transport ships, join forces with a Spanish fleet of 12 ships of the line and more importantly, pick up 15,000 Spanish troops and attack Jamaica. Rodney knew that if this force took Jamaica, the British would be hard put to defend their remaining possessions and the end of the British presence in the Caribbean would be pretty much inevitable. Failure was not an option. On joining the British fleet, HMS Flora became involved in patrolling the area around the main French base at Martinique, looking for signs that De Grasse was about to put his plan into action.


On 7th April 1782, De Grasse and his fleet were sighted leaving the anchorage at Martinique and the news reached Rodney at St Lucia the following day. On receiving the news, Rodney ordered the entire fleet to sea to search for the French and bring them to action. It should be noted at this time, that most if not all of Rodneys ships had been coppered. This kept their bottoms clean and gave the British a significant advantage in speed. The French had not yet caught on to this, so their ships were still sheathed in timber over their hulls and after a year away from their bases in France, had significant growths of weed and coral which slowed them sigificantly. After only a day, the French were sighted. Surprised at the sheer speed of the British fleet, the Compte de Grasse ordered the convoy of transport ships to head to Guadeloupe while he covered them with his fleet. Hood took the vanguard division into the attack as soon as he could. His force of 12 ships of the line fought an inconclusive action against the French in which both sides suffered damage. This encounter saw Captain William Bayne of HMS Alfred (74) killed in action and HMS Royal Oak and HMS Montagu (both of 74 guns) badly damaged.


HMS Flora, in common with the rest of Rodney's frigates would not have taken an active part in the Action off Dominica on 8th April 1782. Her role would have been to take possession of any prizes or to tow damaged ships of the line away from the action if so ordered, to rescue men in the water and to repeat signals. It was usually safe for frigates like HMS Flora to enter areas where the big ships of the line were tearing chunks out of each other. A frigate would be seriously damaged if not destroyed if she received a broadside from a ship of the line, so there was an unwritten rule that a ship of the line must not fire on a frigate unless first fired upon.


The next two days saw the British follow parallel to the French, but with both sides keeping their distance as they made repairs. On 12th April, Hood's vanguard force was still making its repairs, so Rodney ordered Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Samuel Drake and his rearguard force to take the lead. The two fleets were passing through the passage between the Iles des Saintes and the northern end of Dominica. By 07:40, HMS Marlborough (74) of Drake's rearguard was leading the fleet and was approaching the centre of the French line. It looked as though the action was going to be a typical fleet action of the time, with both fleets in lines of battle, sailing in opposite directions along each others lines. At about 8am however, as HMS Formidable was engaging the French flagship, the enormous Ville de Paris of 104 guns, the wind changed. This enabled Rodney's fleet, starting with HMS Formidable to sail through the French line of battle, raking enemy ships through their bows and sterns and inflicting terrible damage and casualties. By 13:30, HMS Barfleur had come up and had begun a gunnery duel with the French flagship. This went on until about 16:00 when the Ville de Paris, having suffered horrific casualties, struck her colours and surrendered to HMS Barfleur. The French admiral was the only unhurt officer aboard the Ville de Paris. The French flagship had had over 400 of her crew killed. In fact, the casualty figures for the Ville de Paris alone were more than those for the entire British fleet. It is estimated that French casualties in the Battle of the Saintes came to more than 3,000 killed or wounded and more than 5,000 captured. The British suffered 243 killed and 816 wounded across the fleet. The British had not lost any ships and had captured four French ships of the line and another, the Cesar of 74 guns had blown up after having caught fire.


The fleets at the Battle of the Saintes:





"Breaking the French Line during Lord Rodney's Action on 12 April 1782" by William Elliot, painted in 1784. William Elliot was a serving Lieutenant in the Royal Navy as well as an established marine artist and this painting was one of a number by him exhibited at the Royal Academy. Two of his paintings are part of the Royal Collection at Hampton Court Palace:





The moment of victory - De Grasse's flagship, the Ville de Paris (with the white flags on the right) strikes her colours in surrender to HMS Barfleur (with the red flags to the left of her):





Again, HMS Flora would have been an onlooker to the Battle of the Saintes. The remaining French ships withdrew towards Guadeloupe. On 17th, Rodney sent Hood and his vanguard division including HMS Flora after the remaining French ships and they caught up with them in the Mona Passage, between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Rodney had sent Hood after he criticised Rodney for not having pursued the retreating French after the Battle of the Saintes and completing his rout of the enemy. The only members of Hood's force to actually engage the enemy at the Battle of Mona Passage were the large 74 gun ship HMS Valiant, which captured the French 64 gun ships Caton and Jason, while the 74 gun ship HMS Magnificent captured the French frigate Aimable of 32 guns.


With the Compte de Grasse now a prisoner of war and his fleet destroyed, Britain's possessions in the Caribbean were now secure. Rodney and Hood were the heroes of the day and both men were richly rewarded by a grateful nation. That stated, back in London, political support for the already unpopular war evaporated and the Government of Lord North fell. In late April 1782, Parliament voted to end the war, recognise American Independence and open peace negotiations with France, Spain and Holland. The negotiations resulted in the Treaty of Paris, which was signed by all the parties in September 1783 and was effective from March 1784. The last major British possession in mainland North America, New York City, was finally evacuated in November 1783. The Loyalist communities in North America and those Native American tribes who had been allied to the British and the Loyalist cause were left to their fate. As soon as the peace negotiations started, the British began to draw down their naval forces in the Caribbean and in late 1782, Captain Marshall received orders to take his ship back to the UK and pay her off and by the end of that year, HMS Flora's war was over.


HMS Flora wasn't laid up for long. In May 1783, the ship recommissioned under Captain George Bowen. During the war, Captain Bowen had commanded the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Montagu and the 20 gun ex-Dutch post-ship HMS St. Eustacius.He was only appointed to recommission the ship and prepare her for sea and he was replaced in July 1783 by Captain Robert Montagu. Captain Montagu was an experienced and skilled commander who had served under Admiral Sir Richard Hughes during his campaign against the Baillie de Suffren in the East Indies during the war. In that campaign, he had commanded the 64 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Exeter and the 24 gun sixth-rate post-ship HMS Seahorse. On Thursday 6th November 1783, HMS Flora sailed for the West Indies. The war in the Caribbean was over, despite the fact that the peace treaty was not yet signed. The reason a large and powerful frigate like HMS Flora would have been sent to the Caribbean in peacetime was that the end of the war brought it's own problems. In addition to warships, naval campaigns were also fought with privateers. Up to about 1850, the vast majority of merchant vessels were armed to some degree or other. In time of war, a ship-owner could apply to a Government for a document known as a 'Letter of Marque'. This was, in effect, a license to attack the enemy's commercial shipping and sell both cargoes and captured vessels for a profit. It was a kind of legalised piracy and could not only be very profitable, but was also seen as a patriotic and honourable thing to do. When the war ended, the Letters of Marque became void and the privateering trade disappeared overnight, along with the incomes of a great many people. A war's end also brought about an economic slump and many privateers would have been tempted by the easy option and gone into piracy. For that reason, the Royal Navy and other navies for that fact, needed to maintain a strong presence in an area like the Caribbean where there were rich cargoes of sugar, spices and other luxury goods in abundance. Rich pickings for any potential pirate.


Captain Montagu remained in command of HMS Flora until June 1784, when he was appointed to command the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Fox with orders to return to the UK and pay the ship off. He was replaced in command of HMS Flora by Captain George Stoney, previously in command of HMS Fox. HMS Flora remained in the Caribbean until the summer of 1786 and paid off at Deptford in September of that year.


The American War of Independence had been a disaster for the British. They had lost their American Colonies but they had managed to recover from it economically very well. They had continued to expand trade in Canada, the Caribbean and India and had founded new colonies in what is now Australia. The French had not been so fortunate. The Seven Years War which had ended way back in 1763 had bankrupted the country and their involvement in the American War had been a huge gamble which had not paid off and had left them in an even worse state than they had been in before they got involved in it. Up to 1789, more than half of the French government's income was being spent on servicing their debts. This meant that the economic downturn which affected all the combatant nations at the end of the war was even more of a disaster than it otherwise would have been. The coming of famine in France, particularly in Paris in the late 1780's was something the Government was unable to deal with. The situation continued to deteriorate, with people starving to death all over the country, until the French people had had enough. In July 1789, they rose up and overthrew the absolute monarchy which had ruled France for centuries in what is now known as the French Revolution. It was replaced by a Constitutional Monarchy along the lines of our own where the power of the King was limited by an elected assembly, the National Convention. The French King, Louis XVI was not going to take this laying down and a power struggle developed between the King and the National Convention which became more bitter and violent as time went by, so that by 1790, the country was sliding towards civil war. Civil War had actually broken out in the Vendee Region, along the French Biscay Coast.


During 1790, Britain and Spain were on the brink of war in what is now known as the Spanish Armaments Crisis. This was because the British had established a trading settlement at Nootka on what is now Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada. This was in defiance of a Spanish Territorial claim over the entire western coastline of both American continents. As two superpowers drifted towards war, the Spanish government approached the National COnvention and asked for help should war break out. The National Convention decided that they had enough problems on their place without getting embroiled in a long and expensive war with the British and declined to get involved. This forced the Spanish to negotiate and the two sides eventually came to a peaceful settlement where the British would recognise overall Spanish sovereignty while being allowed to develop their settlement and trade in Western Canada.


As part of the naval buildup in preparation for the seemingly inevitable war with Spain, HMS Flora was surveyed and was found to be in serious need of Dockyard attention. In August 1790, the ship was taken into Deptford Royal Dockyard to undergo a 'Great Repair'. This would have entailed the replacement of any components found to be rotten or worn out and she would have eventually emerged from it in an 'as new' condition. The work was completed in January 1793 at a cost of £18,214, or almost as much as it had cost to build the ship in the first place.


Meanwhile, in France, things had gone from bad to worse. The National Convention had come under the control of the republican Jacobin movement and had started wars against pretty much all their neighbours in an attempt to distract the people's attention away from their comtinuing economic problems. The British had been quietly supporting the Royalist side in the ongoing civil war in the Vendee region and this had not gone unnoticed by the National Convention. In December 1792, the Jacobins had abolished the French Monarchy and in January 1793 had tried the King and Queen for treason and on being convicted, had had them guillotined in January 1793. In response to this act of regicide, the British had expelled the French ambassador and on 1st February, the National Convention responded by declaring war. The Royal Navy had been quietly preparing for the outbreak of was since the abolition of the French Monarchy and in February 1793, HMS Flora was prepared for sea. She commissioned into the Channel Fleet under Captain John Borlase Warren. Warren had been placed in command of a squadron of frigates operating out of Falmouth and had been tasked with patrolling the Western Approaches and the Biscay coast, protecting British shipping against French naval units and privateers as well as shutting down French merchant shipping. In addition to HMS Flora, the squadron also comprised the 18pdr armed frigates HMS Arethusa (38), HMS Melampus (36) and the 12pdr armed frigates HMS Concorde (36) and HMS Flora's former prize, HMS Nymphe (36).


On 23rd January 1793, HMS Flora captured the French privateer brig Le Vipere of 12 guns off Cape Clear. This vessel was taken into the Royal Navy and was commissioned as HMS Viper. She served until 2nd January 1797 when she was wrecked and lost with all hands in the Shannon Estuary.


On April 23rd 1794, the squadron was patrolling off the Channel Islands, about 20 miles north-east of Guernsey when at about 04:00, they sighted strange sails approaching from the south-east. The coming of daylight enabled them to identify the strangers, which turned out to be a squadron of French warships, the 24pdr armed frigate La Pomone of 44 guns, the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigates L'Engageante and Resolue and the 8pdr armed ship-corvette La Babet of 24 guns. On sighting each other, both squadrons formed lines of battle; the British led by HMS Flora followed by HMS Arethusa, HMS Melampus and HMS Concorde. HMS Nymphe was too far astern to be able to take part. The French were led by Engageante, followed by Pomone and Resolue with Babet bringing up the rear. HMS Flora tacked to follow the French and by 06:30 was in a position to open fire on the Babet. Overtaking Babet, she engaged Resolue and Pomone in succession. At 07:30, HMS Flora's main topmast was shot away and by this time, her main topsail (the largest sail on the ship) had been cut to ribbons and the rest of her masts and yards had all been badly damaged. This caused her to drop astern and her place in the British line was taken by HMS Arethusa. The French attempted to set all sail and escape, but HMS Arethusa, HMS Melampus and HMS Concord were all able to keep up and at 08:30 the Babet, having had her fore topmast shot away and being badly damaged in her hull, surrendered and was taken possession of by HMS Flora. By this time, the Engageante and the Resolue had managed to make off, leaving the Pomone to fight the British force alone. Pomone had already been badly damaged by her fight against HMS Flora and it wasn't long before her main and mizzen masts fell and the sails, falling over the now red hot (literally) gun barrels caught fire. The French crew managed to put the fire out before it engulfed the ship and after putting up a brave and fierce resistance to the British, were forced to surrender to HMS Arethusa at 09:30. HMS Melampus and HMS Concorde, followed at some distance by HMS Nymphe were ordered by Captain Warren to pursue the remaining two French ships. HMS Concord managed to catch and bring to action the Engageante, which surrendered at 13:30 after a firefight lasting an hour and a half. The remaining enemy ship, the Resolue, escaped into Morlaix. HMS Flora suffered one seaman killed and three wounded in the Action of 24th April 1794. All three prizes were taken into the Royal Navy. The Pomone in particular was a fine and powerful new frigate, built to a new design, which proved to have superb sailing qualities. Babet was taken into the Royal Navy as HMS Babet, a 24 gun post-ship and the Engageant was used as a hospital ship after being found to be old and rotten.


The Action of 24th April 1794 by Thomas Luny:





In June 1794, she captured the French privateers Le Republique Francaise (16) and Le Phoenix (14).


By August 1794, the squadron had been joined by more ships, the brand new 18pdr armed 38 gun frigates HMS Diamond, HMS Artois and HMS Diana together with the ex-Spanish 18pdr armed 36 gun frigate HMS Santa Margarita.


The Falmouth squadron at sea sometime in 1794, by Derek Gardner. The frigate in the foreground is HMS Diamond and judging by the older-style stern, HMS Flora is the frigate ahead of her:





On 7th August 1794, Captain Warren led the squadron to sea in search of cruising French frigates and on 23rd at 04:00, off the Penmarks, they found one. The 12 pdr armed 36 gun French frigate Volontaire had been cruising the English Channel looking for targets. After a 12 hour chase, the Volontaire was cornered by HMS Diamond, HMS Artois, HMS Diana and HMS Santa Margarita, was engaged and driven onto the rocks, where she was left to her fate.


On 23rd August, HMS Flora was in company with HMS Arethusa off the Pointe du Raz when they sighted the French 16-gun ship-corvettes L'Espion and L'Alert, both vessels recently captured from the British. The British frigates immediately gave chase and followed the French vessels into Audierne Bay where they were deliberately run ashore under the cover of shore batteries. The French managed to recover both ships and put them back into service, although both were eventually recaptured by the British later on.


On 2nd January 1795 the squadron was sent from Falmouth to investigate rumours that the French Brest fleet had sailed. On the 3rd, HMS Diamond was sent into Brest and after entering the port and investigating, left on 4th confirming that the French fleet had indeed left the port and was at sea.


In October 1795, Captain Warren was appointed to command HMS Pomone and was replaced by Captain Robert Gambier Middleton. Captain Middleton's previous appointment had been in the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Lowestoffe. On 27th November 1795, HMS Flora sailed for the Mediterranean and joined a squadron commanded by Captain Thomas Troubridge in the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Culloden. In addition to HMS Culloden, the squadron also comprised the 64 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Diadem, HMS Lowestoffe and the 18pdr armed 36 gun frigate HMS Inconstant. On 27th December, the squadron chased the 28 gun French frigate Badine off Cape Matapan.


On 15th May 1796, HMS Flora captured the French privateer lugger L'Epervier of two guns.


By 1797, HMS Flora's area of operations had changed and she was now operating off the coast of Portugal. On 13th April, in company with the 12pdr armed 32 gun frigate HMS Pearl the ship captured the French frigate-built privateer ship L'Incroyable of 24 guns.


On 2nd May 1798, HMS Flora captured the French corvette La Corcyre of 16 guns. This vessel was previously the British privateer Cornish Hero and had been taken by the French earlier in the year.


Later in the month, the ship was back in the Mediterranean, operating in the Ionian Islands off the southern tip of Greece. On 13th May, HMS Flora chased the French, Venetian-built brig-corvette Mondovi of 18 guns into the port of Cerigo, now known as Kythira on the island of the same name. Captain Middleton was determined to destroy or capture the enemy vessel, but a direct frontal attack was not possible owing to the powerful shore battery overlooking the harbour, so he decided instead on a boat action. The raid was to be led by the First Lieutenant, Mr William Russel, assisted by the third Lieutenant, Mr William Hepenstall, Marine Lieutenant Mr Richard Parry, Masters Mate Mr Morton, the ships gunner, Mr Tancock and Midshipmen Mr Petley and Mr Hawkins. That evening, the boats departed HMS Flora and headed straight into the harbour, under heavy fire from the battery, the Mondovi and other vessels in the harbour. Undeterred, they boarded the Mondovi and took her, with a loss of one Royal Marine private killed, Mr Parry, Mr Morton, Mr Tancock and five seamen wounded. The French loss was one seaman killed in action and four more drowned when they jumped overboard, with eight seamen and soldiers wounded.


On 1st August, the sip was back off the coast of Portugal, where they recaptured the Portugese brig Nostra Senora del Monte with a cargo of baled goods, which had previously been taken by the French privateer L'Abeille and which Captain Middleton sent into Madeira with a prize crew.


Over the course of the next two years, HMS Flora played an active part in protecting British shipping from the depradations of the many French privateers active in the tlantic Ocean between the Portugese coast and the Azores and captured a great number of them. Between March and September 1801, the ship supported the British campaign in Egypt where a British army under General Lord Abercromby eventually defeated the French army which had been stranded there after Vice Admiral Lord Nelson had destroyed the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile a few years earlier.


The French Revolutionary War ended on 25th March 1802. The warring sides had negotiated a peace treaty, the Treaty of Amiens. In April 1802, HMS Flora returned to Deptford and paid off into the Ordinary there. By now, the ship was over 20 years old and her many years of hard service in all weathers had taken its toll on the old ship's hull. HMS Flora remained secured to a mooring buoy in the River Thames off Deptford with her guns, masts and rigging all removed. She was under the care of a skeleton crew consisting of a Boatswain, a Carpenter, a Cook, an Assistant Purser, their respective servants plus ten seamen. Any work which may have been required on the ship would have been done by gangs of labourers from the Dockyard who would have come out to her.


The Peace of Amiens fell apart for a number of reasons and the Napoleonic War began in May of 1803. The French were actively preparing to invade the UK and had an 83,000 strong army encamped around Boulogne for this purpose. The Royal Navy was desperately short of ships, especially frigates, so HMS Flora was taken into the Dockyard at Deptford in December 1804 and repaired. The repairs were completed in April 1805 and the ship recommissioned under Captain Loftus Otway Bland. He was an experienced commander whose previous appointment had been in command of the 74 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Blenheim. Prior to that he had commanded the 22 gun ex-French post-ship HMS Heureux and the ex-French 80 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Tonnant, so HMS Flora was his first appointment in command of a frigate. As part of her refit, the ship's armament was changed slightly. She was now armed with 26 18pdr long guns on her gundeck, 8 32pdr carronades on her quarterdeck with two more on her forecastle with 2 9pdr long guns, plus a dozen half-pounder swivel guns on her upper deck handrails and in her fighting tops.


HMS Flora was assigned to the North Sea Fleet and was active in maintaining the blockade of the Dutch coast, capturing a great number of enemy blockade runners.


On Monday 18th January 1808, HMS Flora was driven ashore in a storm at Terschelling on the Dutch coast and was wrecked with the loss of nine men. Captain Bland was kept in a damp prison cell, where he contracted Consumption or TB. On his release under a prisoner exchange deal, he was acquitted of any wrongdoing in the loss of his ship. The Court Martial board found that he had been caught on a lee shore and was unable to prevent his ship being driven ashore in the atrocious weather. He was appointed to command the 64 gun third rate ship of the line HMS Africa and was sent to the Baltic, where the cold damp weather played havoc with his health and he was forced to retire sick from the Royal Navy. He died in Exeter in 1810 and is buried in the nave of Exeter Cathederal.
"I did not say the French would not come, I said they will not come by sea" - Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl St Vincent.