“HMS Porcupine (1777)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

HMS Porcupine was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy built in 1777 and broken up in 1805. During her career she saw service in the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars.

Construction and commissioning

Porcupine cost £5,443.0.11d to build, plus £4,604.13.8d for fitting and coppering. She was commissioned under her first captain, William Finch, in December 1777.

Service

War with France

On 29 September 1778, Porcupine, Captain William Clement Finch, captured the French East Indiaman Modeste in the Bay of Biscay. Modeste, of 1000 tons, 26 guns and 95 men, was returning from China and richly laden. Her cargo was valued at £300,000, half of which was insured with English underwriters. Modeste became the East Indiaman {{ship||Locko|1780 EIC ship|2}}, which later made three voyages for the British East India Company.

On 15 March 1779, the British warships Apollo, Porcupine, and {{HMS|Milford|1759|2}} captured the French privateer cutter {{HMS|Tapageur|1779|2}}.^[1] The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.

She came under the command of Captain Sir Charles Knowles around February 1780 and fought an action against two 36-gun xebecs off Valencia on 22 July 1781.^[2] On 30 July 1780 she and the xebec {{HMS|Minorca|1779|6}} engaged the French frigate Montréal, the former British frigate {{HMS|Montreal|1761|6}}, off the Barbary coast. The two-hour engagement was indecisive and the British broke off the engagement.^[2]^[3]

On 13 and 14 September and 11 October, the garrison destroyed a number of floating batteries. In December 1784 there was a distribution of £30,000 in bounty money for the batteries and the proceeds of the sale of ships stores, including those of San Miguel.^[5] A second payment of £16,000 followed in November 1785.^[6] A third payment, this of £8,000 pounds, followed in August 1786.^[7] June 1788 saw the payment of a fourth tranche, this of £4,000.^[8] Porcupine{{'}}s officers and crew shared in all four.

Between the wars

In 1788, Porcupine took part in commemorations marking the hundredth anniversary of the siege of Derry.^[10]

French Revolutionary Wars

In August Captain John Draper replaced Dixon.^[9] On 26 September Porcupine and {{HMS|Minotaur|1793|2}} recaptured the {{ship||Walsingham|1795 ship|2}} Packet. The French corvette brig Insolent, of 18 guns and 90 men, had captured Walsingham Packet on 13 September as Walsingham Packet was sailing from Falmouth to Lisbon. Insolent narrowly escaped being herself captured at the recapture of Walsingham Packet, getting into Lorient as the British ships came into range.^[13]{{refn|Insolente may be a vessel of Bordeaux "often be described as a brig, but listed as a corvette". She had a crew of 120 men and was armed with fourteen to eighteen 6-pounder guns. The British captured her at Port-Navalo.^[14]|group=Note}}

On 20 March 1796 Porcupine captured the French privateer Coureur. Porcupine was about three or four leagues SSW of The Lizard when the revenue cutter Fox informed Porcupine that a French privateer had just captured an English brig. Porcupine set out in chase and quickly recaptured Diamon, of Aberdeen, George Killer, master. Draper sent a prize crew aboard with orders to take Diamon into the nearest port, and then set out after the privateer. The privateer put on such a press of sail that she lost her maintopmast, which enabled Porcupine to come up. Coureur, of 144 tons (bm), was pierced for 14 guns but only carried eight. She and her crew of 80 men had left Saint-Malo the day before. In addition to the brig Coureur had captured, Coureur was in chase of another merchant ship as Porcupine came on the scene, and there were other merchant vessels in sight as well that the privateer might have taken.^[15]{{refn|Coureur was 85-tonne privateer commissioned in Saint-Malo in 1795 under François Galais with 67 to 80 men and 10 guns.^[16]|group=Note}}

Between November to December 1796 Porcupine captured the Spanish vessels La Merced, St Ignacio, Nostra Senora de la Rigla, Monserrat, Trinidad, and Santa Eulatia.^[17]

In July 1797 Captain Charles Pater replaced Draper. Pater sailed her to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the next month.^[9]

Captain Andrew Evans assumed command in October 1798.^[9] Porcupine and {{HMS|St Albans|1764|2}} shared in the capture on 8 November of the brig Molly.^[18]

On 6 April 1801 Porcupine left Portsmouth as one of the escorts for a convoy to the West Indies.^[20] She returned on 22 September 1802; she was paid off on 13 October at Plymouth and laid up in ordinary.^[21]

Fate

Notes, citations, and references

1. ^{{London Gazette|issue=12016|page=4|date=21 September 1779}}
2. ^¹{{cite book |last=Winfield |title=British Warships of the Age of Sail|page=190}}
3. ^Henry G. Bohn, "Battles of the British Navy", Joseph Allen, ESQ. R.N., Volume 1, 1853, pp.307
4. ^Drinkwater (1905), p.246.
5. ^{{London Gazette|date=16 November 1784|issue=12596|page=3}}
6. ^{{London Gazette|date=12 November 1785|issue=12699|page=523}}
7. ^{{London Gazette|date=1 August 1786|issue=12774|page=347}}
8. ^{{London Gazette|date=7 June 1788|issue=12997|page=278}}
9. ^¹²³⁴⁵Winfield (2008), p228.
10. ^Carlo Gebler "The siege of Derry", pp.324
11. ^{{London Gazette|date=15 September 1801|issue=15407|page=1145}}
12. ^{{London Gazette|page=367|issue=15248|date=15 April 1800}}
13. ^{{London Gazette|date=29 September 1795|issue=13818|page=1022}}
14. ^Demerliac (2004), n°468, p.81.
15. ^{{London Gazette|date=26 March 1796|issue=13878|page=291}}
16. ^Demerliac (2004), n°2055, p.243.
17. ^{{London Gazette|date=2 May 1797|issue=14006|page=402}}
18. ^{{London Gazette|date=12 October 1802|issue=15523|page=1097}}
19. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 4, p.524.
20. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 5, p.373.
21. ^Naval Chronicle, Vol. 8, p.347.