HMS Superb was a 74 gun "Middling" Type 3rd rate ship of the line of the Pompee Class, built under contract for the Navy Board by Thomas Pitcher at his shipyard at Northfleet.
The Pompee Class was a pair of large 74 gun ships of the line, both of which were built in Kent shipyards. The Pompee Class were so-called because they were direct copies of the 80-gun French ship of the same name handed to the Royal Navy by French Royalists during the Toulon Campaign of 1793. At this time, the First Lord of the Admiralty was the George John, the Second Earl Spencer. He favoured copying French designs and under his leadership in 1795, eight 74 gun ships were ordered and only two of them were home grown designs. The other six included HMS Superb and her sister-ship, the Gravesend-built HMS HMS Achille.
The contract for the construction of HMS Superb was signed at the offices of the Navy Board on 30th April 1795 and her keel was laid in Northfleet in August of that year. She was launched into the River Thames on 19th March 1798 and was towed to the Royal Dockyard at Chatham for fitting out. At the time, the 74 gun 3rd rate ship of the line was the largest type of ship built in commercial shipyards for the Royal Navy. On completion, she was a ship of 1926 tons, so was one of the largest ships of her type in service. She was 182ft 4in long on her upper gundeck and 49ft 2in wide across the beam. She was armed with 28 x 32 pdr long guns on her lower gundeck, 30 x 18 pdr long guns on her upper gundeck, 4 x 9 pdr long guns and 10 x 32 pdr carronades on her quarterdeck with 2 x 9 pdr long guns and 2 x 32 pdr carronades on her forecastle. She was manned by a crew of 650 men, officers and marines.
Pompee Class PlansOrlop Plan:
Lower Gundeck Plan:
Upper Gundeck Plan:
Quarterdeck and forecastle plan:
Framing Plan:
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The ship was fitted out at Chatham between 19th and 30th June 1798 and sailed for the Mediterranean under Captain John Sutton. He was replaced in command by Captain Richard Goodwin Keats some time before 12th July 1801 and it was under his command that the ship took part in the actions for which she became famous in her time.
On 6th July 1801, a British squadron of ships of the line under Rear-Admiral Sir James Saumarez had engaged a French squadron in the close confines of Algeciras Bay off Gibraltar. The British force, becalmed in the Bay, had been battered by both the French ships and the guns of the shore battery on the Spanish side. HMS Hannibal (74) had been seriously damaged and had been forced to surrender to the enemy and both forces withdrew to make repairs and await reinforcements. HMS Superb had missed the First Battle of Algeciras but joined Saumarez's squadron immediately afterwards.
On 12th July, Saumarez received intelligence that the French, reinforced by several Spanish ships of the line were setting sail. At 15:00, the British force set sail in pursuit. Saumarez, flying his command flag in HMS Caesar (80) was accompanied by HMS Superb, HMS Spencer (74), HMS Venerable (74) and HMS Audacious (74). At 19:00, the British force rounded the Rock of Gibraltar after having been delayed by the wind and found the Franco-Spanish force still assembling off Cabrita Point. On sighting the British squadron, the enemy decided to make a run for Cadiz. At 20:00, as night was falling, the French and Spanish ships were disappearing from sight, so Saumarez ordered his ships to break formation and attack the rear of the enemy force as best they could. As HMS Superb was the fastest ship in the squadron, Saumarez ordered Captain Keats to set all sail and engage the Spanish rearguard, consisting of the massive Spanish ships Real Carlos (112) and Hermenegildo (112) and the French ship Saint Antoine (80). The two Spanish giants were sailing alongside each other. Although vastly outgunned, Captain Keats decided to gain the element of surprise in the darkness by darkening his ship and came up on the Real Carlos on the opposite side to the other Spanish ship. HMS Superb opened fire on the Real Carlos from 350 yards. The Spaniard returned fire, but in the darkness, failed to hit HMS Superb. HMS Superb's gunnery was however, far more accurate and brought down the Real Carlos' fore topmast. The Spaniard's fore-topsail fell across the guns and caught fire. Some of the shots fired by HMS Superb's three broadsides went past the Real Carlos and struck the Hermenegildo. The Hermenegildo's captain, thinking the shot had come from an enemy ship alongside, ordered his gunners to return fire, not realising that the ship alongside was actually one of their own. The wind then carried HMS Superb beyond the two Spanish giants, who in the darkness and confusion, continued to pour broadsides into each other. Hermenegildo crossed the Real Carlos' stern and fired a full broadside in through it, causing carnage on her gundecks, before coming alongside to board. By now, however, the fire on the Real Carlos was out of control and spread to the Hermenegildo. Both ships then exploded in flames, killing about 1,700 Spanish sailors. The fires and the resulting explosions were so severe, they could be seen and heard in Gibraltar. HMS Superb then got stuck into the Saint Antoine, coming alongside at 23:50. The two ships fought it out at point blank range for some 30 minutes, before the French ship attempted to surrender to HMS Superb. Unfortunately, her flags had become entangled in the rigging and although she had surrendered, the Saint Antoine appeared to the British ships now coming up as though she was still in action and as a result, she was fired upon by them as they passed. Despite this, HMS Superb claimed the Saint Antoine as a prize. The rest of the action continued as a running battle almost all the way to Cadiz. The battle, now known as the Second Battle of Algeciras or the Battle of the Gut of Gibraltar, restored Saumarez's reputation after his defeat in the First Battle and secured the blockade of Cadiz for the rest of the war. HMS Superb's First Lieutenant was rewarded with a command of his own. HMS Superb's casualties in the battle were Lieutenant Waller killed in action plus 14 men wounded.
HMS Superb leaves the Real Carlos and the Hermengildo to fight amongst themselves as she makes off after the Saint Antoine.
Such was the confusion amongst the enemy that they were unaware of the fates of their own ships. The Saint Antoine was still expected to arrive in Cadiz as late as 16th July, four days after the battle.
In December 1805, a French squadron under Vice-Admiral Corentin Urbain Leissègues had broken out of Brest with the intention of raiding British convoy routes. Sailing for the Caribbean, the French force was forced to put into Santo Domingo in the modern day Dominican Republic after suffering damage in a storm off the Azores. The British Vice-Admiral Sir John Duckworth, flying his command flag in HMS Superb, abandoned his station blockading Cadiz and pursued the French across the Atlantic. Running short of supplies, Duckworth's force put into St Kitts to resupply. Once this was completed, they sailed to Santo Domingo and found the French there on 6th February 1806. The French force comprised the massive 120 gun ship Imperial in addition to five other ships of the line. The French force formed a line of battle and sailed to meet the approaching British force. Keeping a tight formation, Duckworth's ships successfully engaged the leading ships of the French line, targeting the Imperial. Under pressure, the French line fragmented, with the British isolating and capturing three of their ships before Duckworth ordered his ships to concentrate on the Imperial. To avoid being captured, the Imperial and another French ship, the Diomede, were driven ashore. Although most of the crews of the French ships got away, British boarding parties successfully captured both ships and set them on fire.
Vice Admiral Duckworth had incurred his commander-in-chief's anger at abandoning his station. It was only his victory at the Battle of San Domingo which pursuaded Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood not to order his Court Martial. The battle was the last time that British and French ships met in a set-piece naval battle. The Royal Navy's total blockade of French ports and the seemingly inevitable French defeat made the French stay in their ports for the rest of the war.
In July 1806, Captain Keats was promoted to Commodore but remained with the ship until July 1807 when he was replaced in command by Captain Donald McLeod. In January 1808, it became clear that France intended to force Denmark to end it's neutrality and join in the war against Britain. In order to avoid this, the British assembled an army under Sir Arthur Wellesley and sent them in a fleet of 30 ships including HMS Superb. The plan was that Wellesley would take Copenhagen supported by an artillery bombardment from the Royal Navy ships. After landing, Wellesley defeated the Danes at the Battle of Koge, south of Copenhagen. Denmark rejected British demands to surrender, so the British fleet under Admiral Gambier proceeded to bombard the city of Copenhagen from 2nd to 5th September 1807, killing more than 2,000 civilians and destroying some 30% of the city. HMS Superb alone fired more than 4,000 rounds into the city in the four-day bombardment. This had the desired effect and Denmark surrendered on 5th September.
The attack on a neutral country had become necessary because if Denmark had been forced to join the French, they would have closed the Baltic Sea to British shipping. At the time, the Royal Navy was dependant on timber imported from the Baltic region to build and maintain it's ships.
HMS Superb remained in the Baltic until December 1809 when she was recalled to Portsmouth and paid off for a refit. The refit included the fitting of 6 18 pdr carronades to her poop deck, further increasing her already substantial firepower. The work was completed and the ship recommissioned in November 1812. By this time, war had broken out with the USA and the ship was sent to the Caribbean to reinforce the fleet there. While operating out of Bermuda, HMS Superb captured the 6 gun privateer USS Star on 9th February 1813 and the 6 gun privateer USS Viper on 15th April. The ship spent the year of 1814 on the North America Station, but when the war with the Americans ended in 1815, she was recalled to Plymouth. After refitting in Plymouth in July 1816, she was again sent to the Mediterranean.
After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British no longer needed the Barbary States for supplying the fleet and were no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to the enslavement of Europeans. Admiral Lord Exmouth was sent on a diplomatic mission to pursuade the Deys of Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli to end the practice and to a large degree this worked. However, the Dey of Algiers was reluctant to bow to British interference and Algerian troops massacred 200 Corsican, Sardinian and Sicilian fishermen supposedly under British protection. Exmouth was sent back to Algiers to finish the job and put to sea with a squadron of 5 ships of the line including HMS Superb. On arrival at Gibraltar, they were joined by 5 Dutch ships and the forces departed for Algiers.
After arriving off Algiers on 27th August 1816, the ships were anchored into position and began a prolonged bombardment of the city. Although Algerian shore batteries returned fire, these were silenced by 22:15. The ships left the anchorage and withdrew out of range. The following day, Lord Exmouth sent a letter to the Dey which read as follows:
"
Sir, for your atrocities at Bona on defenceless Christians, and your unbecoming disregard of the demands I made yesterday in the name of the Prince Regent of England, the fleet under my orders has given you a signal chastisement, by the total destruction of your navy, storehouse, and arsenal, with half your batteries.
As England does not war for the destruction of cities, I am unwilling to visit your personal cruelties upon the unoffending inhabitants of the country, and I therefore offer you the same terms of peace which I conveyed to you yesterday in my Sovereign's name. Without the acceptance of these terms, you can have no peace with England."
Lord Exmouth's letter went on to warn that if the Dey did not accept the terms, the ships would return the following day to continue the ferocious bombardment and would continue with it until he did accept the terms. The Dey was unaware that the ships had actually run out of ammunition and fell for the bluff. He signed a treaty on 16th September 1816 and all the remaining European slaves were freed.
HMS Superb was serving on the South America station in 1818 and was guardship at Plymouth in January 1822. After service in the Caribbean until 1823, HMS Superb finally paid off for the last time in December 1825 and was broken up at Portsmouth in April 1826.
