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HMS Mediator (1782)
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HMS Mediator (1782)
HMS Mediator was a 44-gun Roebuck-class fifth-rate warship of the Royal Navy. She was built and served during the American War of Independence, but was reduced to a storeship and renamed HMS Camel in 1788. She spent the French Revolutionary and part of the Napoleonic Wars in this capacity before being broken up in 1810.
Built as the revival of a design that had fallen out of favour as naval architecture developed, Mediator was intended to operate in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. Her first significant action was fought off the European coastline however, when her captain, James Luttrell attacked and defeated an American and French convoy off Ferrol, taking two ships as prizes. Resisting an attempt by his prisoners to seize his ship, Luttrell returned home to public applause and praise from King George III. Mediator's next commander, Cuthbert Collingwood, was a close friend of Horatio Nelson, and served with him in the West Indies. There he helped Nelson to enforce the Navigation Acts, causing controversy with the local civil and naval authorities. In 1788 she left front-line service for good, and was converted into a storeship, being renamed Camel.
Camel saw important service in the French Revolutionary Wars, making several voyages to the fleets in the Mediterranean and serving under several officers who would becoming prominent in the navy. She also made trips further afield, returning to the West Indies on occasion, as well as making voyages to the Cape of Good Hope to deliver supplies to the armies there. While making one such trip, she was attacked at anchor by a powerful French frigate. Her crew, together with that of a sloop also anchored in the bay, mounted a strong defence, and despite being damaged, forced the French ship to withdraw. She spent her last days making voyages to the various hotspots around the globe, before being finally withdrawn from service and broken up in 1810.
Small two-decked warships, usually classed as fourth rates had largely fallen out of favour by the second half of the eighteenth century, and by the end of the century even the smaller third rates of 64 guns were being phased out. The American War of Independence led to a revival in the concept of the smaller two decked designs, as their shallow draught but comparably heavy armament compared to frigates, made them suitable for coastal warfare in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. The Roebuck class was a revival of a 1769 design by Sir Thomas Slade, with nineteen ships ordered to the design during the war, and classed as fifth rates, but not as frigates, as they carried their main armament on two decks, rather than one. Mediator was ordered from the commercial shipbuilder Thomas Raymond, of Northam, on 3 December 1779. She was laid down there in July 1780 and was launched on 30 March 1782.
Mediator was then taken into Portsmouth Dockyard on 7 April that year for fitting out and having her bottom copper sheathed. The work was completed by 15 June, Mediator having cost £12,133.4.5d to build, with a further £137.15.1d spent on extra works, which together with the costs for fitting her for service came to a total of £22,412.12.0d. She was commissioned in April under the command of Captain James Luttrell.[a]
On 12 December Luttrell was cruising off Ferrol when a convoy of five sails was sighted, which stood to when Luttrell approached and formed a line of battle. The force consisted of several American and French privateer frigates, storeships and transport vessels under the command of Nicolas Baudin, intending to deliver reinforcements and supplies to America. Baudin, commanding from the 36-gun Aimable Eugénie, had at his disposal the former 64-gun ship Ménagère, now armed en flute and mounting 34-guns, the Dauphin Royal of 28 guns, and two American vessels, the 24-gun Alexander under Stephen Gregory, and the 14-gun brig American. Together the five ships had nearly 600 men and considerably more guns than the Mediator. Luttrell closed the ships, and exchanged fire with them, eventually breaking their line and forcing them to flee. Luttrell then cut off the Alexander and forced her to surrender, before pursuing the remaining ships. By the evening he had caught up with the Ménagère and after an exchange of fire, forced her to surrender.
The surviving ships were still in sight on the morning of 13 December, but Luttrell had a large number of prisoners to guard, and with the hostile Spanish coast nearby, decided to head for a British port with his prizes. He had taken 340 prisoners, and only had 190 men to guard them. Six men had been killed and four wounded on Alexander, while Ménagère had four killed and eight wounded. There were no casualties on Mediator, their opponents having been aiming at their masts and rigging in an attempt to disable the British ship. The captured prisoners made an attempt to seize the Mediator during the voyage to Britain, but prompt action by the ship's officers quashed the rising without bloodshed. Captain Gregory was shown to be the main instigator of the plot, and he and several accomplices were placed in irons for the remainder of the voyage. Luttrell was later praised by King George III, who wrote to Lord Keppel, the First Lord of the Admiralty, that "The skill as well as bravery shown by Captain Luttrell ... deserve much approbation." Marine artists Thomas Luny and Dominic Serres created depictions of Mediator attacking the convoy. Luttrell remained in command towards the end of the American War of Independence, until May 1783 when Captain Cuthbert Collingwood succeeded him. Collingwood spent the next three years as Mediator's captain.
Collingwood, a close naval friend of Horatio Nelson, had previously commanded the 64-gun HMS Sampson. He received orders to go out to the West Indies, there to protect British interests in the Caribbean and to enforce the Navigation Acts which now applied to American ships trading with British colonies. Collingwood sailed in late September for Antigua, carrying John Moutray, the new commissioner for English Harbour, and his wife Mary. Also aboard his ship as Collingwood's servant was Jeffrey Raigersfeld, the son of Baron Raigersfeld, the secretary and chargé d'affaires to the Austrian ambassador to London.[b] Collingwood was joined by Nelson, now commanding the 28-gun HMS Boreas in July 1784, with Nelson becoming the senior officer on the station.[c] Together with Collingwood's younger brother Wilfred, who had arrived on the station in command of the 14-gun sloop HMS Rattler, the officers decided to take a firm stance on implementing the Navigation Acts, despite the apparent unwillingness to do so by the more senior officers, such as Moutray, the station's commander Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, and the Governor of the Leeward Islands, Thomas Shirley. Hughes and Shirley were both making money from the trade.
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HMS Mediator (1782)
HMS Mediator was a 44-gun Roebuck-class fifth-rate warship of the Royal Navy. She was built and served during the American War of Independence, but was reduced to a storeship and renamed HMS Camel in 1788. She spent the French Revolutionary and part of the Napoleonic Wars in this capacity before being broken up in 1810.
Built as the revival of a design that had fallen out of favour as naval architecture developed, Mediator was intended to operate in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. Her first significant action was fought off the European coastline however, when her captain, James Luttrell attacked and defeated an American and French convoy off Ferrol, taking two ships as prizes. Resisting an attempt by his prisoners to seize his ship, Luttrell returned home to public applause and praise from King George III. Mediator's next commander, Cuthbert Collingwood, was a close friend of Horatio Nelson, and served with him in the West Indies. There he helped Nelson to enforce the Navigation Acts, causing controversy with the local civil and naval authorities. In 1788 she left front-line service for good, and was converted into a storeship, being renamed Camel.
Camel saw important service in the French Revolutionary Wars, making several voyages to the fleets in the Mediterranean and serving under several officers who would becoming prominent in the navy. She also made trips further afield, returning to the West Indies on occasion, as well as making voyages to the Cape of Good Hope to deliver supplies to the armies there. While making one such trip, she was attacked at anchor by a powerful French frigate. Her crew, together with that of a sloop also anchored in the bay, mounted a strong defence, and despite being damaged, forced the French ship to withdraw. She spent her last days making voyages to the various hotspots around the globe, before being finally withdrawn from service and broken up in 1810.
Small two-decked warships, usually classed as fourth rates had largely fallen out of favour by the second half of the eighteenth century, and by the end of the century even the smaller third rates of 64 guns were being phased out. The American War of Independence led to a revival in the concept of the smaller two decked designs, as their shallow draught but comparably heavy armament compared to frigates, made them suitable for coastal warfare in the shallow waters of the North American coastline. The Roebuck class was a revival of a 1769 design by Sir Thomas Slade, with nineteen ships ordered to the design during the war, and classed as fifth rates, but not as frigates, as they carried their main armament on two decks, rather than one. Mediator was ordered from the commercial shipbuilder Thomas Raymond, of Northam, on 3 December 1779. She was laid down there in July 1780 and was launched on 30 March 1782.
Mediator was then taken into Portsmouth Dockyard on 7 April that year for fitting out and having her bottom copper sheathed. The work was completed by 15 June, Mediator having cost £12,133.4.5d to build, with a further £137.15.1d spent on extra works, which together with the costs for fitting her for service came to a total of £22,412.12.0d. She was commissioned in April under the command of Captain James Luttrell.[a]
On 12 December Luttrell was cruising off Ferrol when a convoy of five sails was sighted, which stood to when Luttrell approached and formed a line of battle. The force consisted of several American and French privateer frigates, storeships and transport vessels under the command of Nicolas Baudin, intending to deliver reinforcements and supplies to America. Baudin, commanding from the 36-gun Aimable Eugénie, had at his disposal the former 64-gun ship Ménagère, now armed en flute and mounting 34-guns, the Dauphin Royal of 28 guns, and two American vessels, the 24-gun Alexander under Stephen Gregory, and the 14-gun brig American. Together the five ships had nearly 600 men and considerably more guns than the Mediator. Luttrell closed the ships, and exchanged fire with them, eventually breaking their line and forcing them to flee. Luttrell then cut off the Alexander and forced her to surrender, before pursuing the remaining ships. By the evening he had caught up with the Ménagère and after an exchange of fire, forced her to surrender.
The surviving ships were still in sight on the morning of 13 December, but Luttrell had a large number of prisoners to guard, and with the hostile Spanish coast nearby, decided to head for a British port with his prizes. He had taken 340 prisoners, and only had 190 men to guard them. Six men had been killed and four wounded on Alexander, while Ménagère had four killed and eight wounded. There were no casualties on Mediator, their opponents having been aiming at their masts and rigging in an attempt to disable the British ship. The captured prisoners made an attempt to seize the Mediator during the voyage to Britain, but prompt action by the ship's officers quashed the rising without bloodshed. Captain Gregory was shown to be the main instigator of the plot, and he and several accomplices were placed in irons for the remainder of the voyage. Luttrell was later praised by King George III, who wrote to Lord Keppel, the First Lord of the Admiralty, that "The skill as well as bravery shown by Captain Luttrell ... deserve much approbation." Marine artists Thomas Luny and Dominic Serres created depictions of Mediator attacking the convoy. Luttrell remained in command towards the end of the American War of Independence, until May 1783 when Captain Cuthbert Collingwood succeeded him. Collingwood spent the next three years as Mediator's captain.
Collingwood, a close naval friend of Horatio Nelson, had previously commanded the 64-gun HMS Sampson. He received orders to go out to the West Indies, there to protect British interests in the Caribbean and to enforce the Navigation Acts which now applied to American ships trading with British colonies. Collingwood sailed in late September for Antigua, carrying John Moutray, the new commissioner for English Harbour, and his wife Mary. Also aboard his ship as Collingwood's servant was Jeffrey Raigersfeld, the son of Baron Raigersfeld, the secretary and chargé d'affaires to the Austrian ambassador to London.[b] Collingwood was joined by Nelson, now commanding the 28-gun HMS Boreas in July 1784, with Nelson becoming the senior officer on the station.[c] Together with Collingwood's younger brother Wilfred, who had arrived on the station in command of the 14-gun sloop HMS Rattler, the officers decided to take a firm stance on implementing the Navigation Acts, despite the apparent unwillingness to do so by the more senior officers, such as Moutray, the station's commander Admiral Sir Richard Hughes, and the Governor of the Leeward Islands, Thomas Shirley. Hughes and Shirley were both making money from the trade.
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