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For other ships with the same name, see HMS Regulus.

Regulus's sister ship HMS Argo
History
United Kingdom
NameHMS Regulus
NamesakeRegulus
Ordered20 October 1780
BuilderThomas Raymond, Northam
Cost£16,223
Laid downJune 1781
Launched10 February 1785
Completed10 March 1785
CommissionedFebruary 1793
FateBroken up March 1816
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeRoebuck-class fifth-rate
Tons burthen888 77⁄94 (bm)
Length
  • 140 ft 1 in (42.7 m) (gun deck)
  • 115 ft 8+5⁄8 in (35.3 m) (keel)
Beam38 ft (11.6 m)
Depth of hold16 ft 4 in (5 m)
PropulsionSails
Complement155
Armament

HMS Regulus was a 44-gun fifth-rate Roebuck-class ship of the Royal Navy launched in 1785.

Design

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Regulus was a 44-gun, 18-pounder Roebuck-class ship. The class was a revival of the design used to construct the fifth-rate HMS Roebuck in 1769, by Sir Thomas Slade. The ships, while classified as fifth-rates, were not frigates because they carried two gun decks, of which a frigate would have only one. Roebuck was designed as such to provide the extra firepower a ship of two decks could bring to warfare but with a much lower draught and smaller profile. From 1751 to 1776 only two ships of this type were built for the Royal Navy because it was felt that they were anachronistic, with the lower (and more heavily armed) deck of guns being so low as to be unusable in anything but the calmest of waters.[a][3] In the 1750s the cruising role of the 44-gun two deck ship was taken over by new 32- and 36-gun frigates, leaving the type almost completely obsolete.[4]

Plan of the Roebuck-class ships

When the American Revolutionary War began in 1775 a need was found for heavily armed ships that could fight in the shallow coastal waters of North America, where two-decked third-rates could not safely sail, and so the Roebuck class of nineteen ships, alongside the similar Adventure class, was ordered to the specifications of the original ships to fill this need.[3][4][5] The frigate classes that had overtaken the 44-gun ship as the preferred design for cruisers were at this point still mostly armed with 9- and 12-pounder guns, and it was expected that the class's heavier 18-pounders would provide them with an advantage over these vessels. Frigates with larger armaments would go on to be built by the Royal Navy later on in the American Revolutionary War, but these ships were highly expensive and so Regulus and her brethren continued to be built as a cheaper alternative.[4]

Construction

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Ships of the class built after 1782 received an updated armament, replacing small upper deck 9-pounder guns with more modern 12-pounders. All ships laid down after the first four of the class, including Regulus, had the double level of stern windows Roebuck had been designed with removed and replaced with a single level of windows, moving the style of the ships closer to that of a true frigate.[b][3]

All but one ship of the class were contracted out to civilian dockyards for construction, and the contract for Regulus was given to Thomas Raymond at Northam in Devon. The ship was ordered on 20 October 1780 and laid down in June the following year. Raymond became bankrupt in November 1783 while the ship was still under construction, but continued the work on behalf of his creditors. Regulus was launched on 10 February 1785 with the following dimensions: 140 feet 1 inch (42.7 m) along the gun deck, 115 feet 8+5⁄8 inches (35.3 m) at the keel, with a beam of 38 feet (11.6 m) and a depth in the hold of 16 feet 4 inches (5 m). She measured 888 77⁄94 tons burthen. The fitting out process for Regulus was completed on 10 March at Portsmouth Dockyard. Her construction and fitting out cost in total £16,223.[6]

Regulus, not immediately commissioned upon her completion, was armed in August 1793 as a troop ship. Her lower deck was left unarmed, with twenty 12-pounders on the upper deck. These were complemented by four 12-pounders on the quarterdeck and two 6-pounders on the forecastle. The ship was to have been crewed by 300 men, but as she was put into service as a troop ship her complement was lowered to 155.[1] She was named after the bright star Regulus.[7]

Service

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The American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, while Regulus was still under construction. With the wartime necessity of using the obsolete ships as frontline warships now at an end, most ships of Regulus's type were taken out of service. While lacking modern fighting capabilities, the design still provided a fast ship, and so the Comptroller of the Navy, Sir Charles Middleton, pressed them into service as troop ships.[4] Regulus spent five years in ordinary at Portsmouth before receiving a refit in June 1790. Nothing more was done to her until February 1793 when, with the French Revolutionary Wars beginning, the ship was commissioned by Commander James Hewett to serve as a troop ship.[6]

Regulus joined the Channel Fleet, briefly serving in March as flagship to Rear-Admiral John Macbride who commanded a squadron of frigates in the Downs.[6][8] Two months later Hewett was replaced in command by Commander Edward Bowater, under whom Regulus spent time serving on the Halifax Station.[6][9] Captain George Oakes took command of the ship in January 1795, and in March Regulus sailed to the Jamaica Station.[6]

The ship returned to Britain from Jamaica in May 1796 and spent the next three months in refit at Plymouth Dockyard, costing £8,729. At this point Captain William Carthew replaced Oakes in command, sailing Regulus to return to Jamaica on 23 October.[6][10] She was armed en flute throughout this period.[11] The ship captured the Spanish 18-gun corvette San Pio in the Atlantic Ocean on 2 November whilst making her journey.[12] Having joined the Jamaica Station, on 6 April 1797 boats from Regulus and the 36-gun frigate HMS Magicienne raided Cape Roxo, Hispaniola. The harbour there was a haven for French privateers, and without taking any casualties the boats destroyed two gun batteries and captured or burned a group of thirteen ships.[6][13][11]

Joined by the 18-gun sloop HMS Fortune, on 22 April Regulus and Magicienne rounded the Tiburon Peninsula into Carcasse Bay, where they discovered a French privateer sloop and four merchant schooners. Hearing an alarm bell sound and believing that the French were about to attack the nearby British-held Les Irois on the Peninsula, the ships sailed into the bay. Being fired upon by a French gun battery near the shore, Regulus and Magicienne returned fire and forced the French to abandon their guns and flee inland. The squadron then captured the four merchant ships, laden with supplies for a siege. The British loss was four killed and ten wounded, all from one of Magicienne's boats that had attempted to tow the privateer sloop away from the battery.[14]

Captain George Eyre assumed command of Regulus at some point after this engagement. Beginning a period of successful prize taking, on 7 July 1798 Regulus captured the French 4-gun privateer Pouline. Four days later the ship was patrolling off Puerto Rico when she came across five ships in Aguada Bay. They were anchored under the protection of several gun batteries. Eyre sent in Regulus's boats under the command of two lieutenants, supported by a schooner he had already captured, to attack the ships. As the boats went in Eyre found that the wind was so poor that neither Regulus nor the schooner could sail in to support the assault. The boats made the attack despite this, and captured all five ships whilst under enemy fire. The lack of wind forced the crews to abandon two of their prizes, bringing the other three out of the bay at the cost of one man who was killed by grapeshot.[15][16] The vessels captured were a ship, brig, and armed schooner.[16]

In June the following year the ship's boats captured a small privateer at Riohacha. Regulus returned to Britain in October, conveying Vice-Admiral Richard Rodney Bligh.[6][17] The ship was then fitted again as a troop ship at Woolwich Dockyard. The work was started in December, with Regulus paid off in January 1800 and the work completed in March. It cost £7,543 and included the addition of a poop deck.[6]

Regulus was recommissioned by Commander Thomas Pressland in February. With the Napoleonic Wars having begun, the ship formed part of the fleet of transports sailing to Egypt for the Egypt Campaign in October, participating in those operations in 1801 before returning to Britain in the following year. Commander Nicholas Kempe was in temporary control of Regulus between February and July 1802, before ceding command back to Pressland. The ship was then refitted at Chatham Dockyard between December 1803, when Pressland left Regulus for a final time, and April 1804. Her armament was then changed in June, being replaced by twenty 24-pounder carronades on the lower deck alongside two 12-pounder guns, with twenty-four 18-pounders on the upper deck. There were four 6-pounders on the quarterdeck and two more on the forecastle. Having been recommissioned under Captain Charles Boys, the ship then served in the North Sea and English Channel until 1807 when she was transferred to the Channel Islands.[18]

Boys left Regulus in May the same year, after which the ship was placed in ordinary at Chatham. In May 1808 she was converted into a provisions depot, armed with eighteen 9-pounders on her upper deck and four 6-pounders on the quarterdeck. From August Regulus went under a large repair, being converted back into a troop ship. Work was completed in June 1810 with the ship recommissioned by Commander John Hudson, who was replaced by Commander John Tailour in November.[6] Under Tailour Regulus conveyed troops to Lisbon in 1811 and in the Mediterranean Sea in 1813. Tailour was promoted out of the ship on 26 October that year and replaced in November by Commander Robert Ramsay.[18][19]

After initially serving in the North Sea under Ramsay, in April 1814 Regulus sailed to North America to participate in the War of 1812.[18][20] The ship first travelled to Bermuda, conveying a party of Royal Marines there. Regulus then joined the command of Rear-Admiral George Cockburn, who was employed in attacks in Chesapeake Bay.[20] Commander John Curran possibly took temporary command of the ship for part of the year.[20] Under Ramsay, the ship's boats participated in several operations, including on 22 August when he commanded a division under Cockburn which, travelling up the Patuxent River, forced the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla to destroy itself.[20]

Working to support the British Army advance towards Washington, D.C., the next day Ramsay took his boats up the Patuxent to Upper Marlboro, Maryland. From there he provided supplies to the army, and on 12 September commanded a division of seamen in the defeat at the Battle of Baltimore. In the following year between 10 January and 1 March Regulus was employed off the coast of Georgia. Ramsay commanded the force that captured St. Simons and Fort Frederica during this period.[21] Promoted on 9 April, he was replaced in Regulus by Commander George Truscott.[18][21] With the War of 1812 and Napoleonic Wars over, Regulus was returned to Britain where she was broken up at Sheerness Dockyard in March 1816.[18]

Notes and citations

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Notes

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  1. ^ This problem was demonstrated in a sister ship of Regulus, HMS Argo, which two French frigates captured in 1783 because the weather was so bad she was not able to open her lower gun ports during the battle.[2]
  2. ^ While the earlier ships of the class had two levels of stern windows, there was only ever one level of cabins behind them.[3]

Citations

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  1. ^ a b Winfield (2007), pp. 453, 464. Cite error: The named reference "FOOTNOTEWinfield2007453, 464" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ Winfield (2007), p. 461.
  3. ^ a b c d Winfield (2007), p. 453.
  4. ^ a b c d Gardiner (2001), p. 85.
  5. ^ Winfield (2001), p. 57.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Winfield (2007), p. 464.
  7. ^ Manning & Walker (1959), p. 368.
  8. ^ Partridge (2008).
  9. ^ Marshall (1824a), p. 272.
  10. ^ Marshall (1824c), p. 9.
  11. ^ a b James (1837a), p. 101.
  12. ^ Clowes (1899), p. 560.
  13. ^ Clowes (1899), p. 335.
  14. ^ James (1837a), p. 102.
  15. ^ Ralfe (1828), p. 389.
  16. ^ a b James (1837a), p. 225.
  17. ^ Marshall (1824b), p. 718.
  18. ^ a b c d e Winfield (2007), p. 465.
  19. ^ Marshall (1829), p. 160.
  20. ^ a b c d O'Byrne (1849), p. 951.
  21. ^ a b O'Byrne (1849), p. 952.

References

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  • Clowes, William Laird (1899). The Royal Navy A History from the Earliest Times to the Present. Vol. 4. London: Sampson Low, Marston and Company. OCLC 13028028.
  • Gardiner, Robert (2001). "Ships of the Royal Navy: the 44-gun two-decker". In Robert Gardiner (ed.). Nelson against Napoleon. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 978-1-84067-361-6.
  • James, William (1837a). The Navy History of Great Britain. Vol. 2. London: Richard Bentley. OCLC 1252141709.
  • James, William (1837b). The Navy History of Great Britain. Vol. 6. London: Richard Bentley. OCLC 1252141709.
  • Knight, Rodger (2022). Convoys: The British Struggle Against Napoleonic Europe and America. London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-24697-1.
  • Mackesy, Piers (2010). British Victory in Egypt: The End of Napoleon's Conquest. London: Tauris Parke. ISBN 978-1-84885-472-7.
  • Manning, T. D.; Walker, C. F. (1959). British Warship Names. London: Putnam. OCLC 213798232.
  • Marshall, John (1824a). "Bowater, Edward" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 1. London: Longman and company. p. 272.
  • Marshall, John (1824b). "Eyre, George" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 1, part 2. London: Longman and company. pp. 718–720.
  • Marshall, John (1824c). "Carthew, William" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. 2, part 1. London: Longman and company. p. 9.
  • Marshall, John (1829). "Tailour, John" . Royal Naval Biography. Vol. sup, part 3. London: Longman and company. pp. 155–160.
  • O'Byrne, William R. (1849). "Ramsay, Robert (a)" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. pp. 951–952.
  • Partridge, Michael (2008). "Macbride, John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Ralfe, James (1828). The Naval Biography of Great Britain. Vol. 4. London: Whitmore & Fenn. OCLC 843050993.
  • Winfield, Rif (2007). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. London: Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-84415-700-6.
  • Whitehorne, Joseph A. (1997). The Battle for Baltimore 1814. Baltimore, Maryland: The Nautical & Aviation Publishing Company of America. ISBN 1-877853-23-2.
  • Winfield, Rif (2001). The 50-Gun Ship. London: Caxton Editions. ISBN 978-1-84067-365-4.
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