HMS Hermione (1782)

HMS Hermione was the lead ship of the , a six-ship class of 32-gun fifth-rate frigates of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 9 September 1782, at Bristol. Hermione was commissioned and then paid off a number of times during the 1780s. She underwent repairs between October 1790 and June 1792, followed by a period spent refitting at Chatham Dockyard until January 1793. She was recommissioned in December 1792, before sailing to the Jamaica in March 1793. Hermione served in the West Indies during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars, participating in the British attack on Port-au-Prince, where she led a small squadron that accompanied troop transports.

In February 1797 — the year of the Spithead and Nore mutinies — Captain Hugh Pigot took command of Hermione. She saw action in 1797, under Pigot including leading a squadron that cut out nine ships at the Battle of Jean-Rabel without suffering any casualties. Pigot was a cruel officer who meted out severe and arbitrary punishments to his crew. This treatment of the crew led to the bloodiest mutiny in British naval history in September 1797, which saw Pigot and most of the ship's officers murdered. The mutineers then handed the ship over to the Spanish on 27 September 1797, who renamed her Santa Cecilia. On 25 October 1799, boats from under Captain Edward Hamilton, cut her out of Puerto Cabello harbour. She was returned to Royal Navy service under the name Retaliation and the British Admiralty later renamed her Retribution on 31 January 1800. She returned to Portsmouth in 1802, and in October 1803, she was fitted for service for Trinity House. She was broken up at Deptford in June 1805.

Early years

HMS Hermione was the lead ship of a six-ship class of frigates designed by Edward Hunt and termed the Hermione class. She was long with a keel, a beam of , a draught of , and a hold depth of . She was 714 (bm) tons burthen. She was ordered 20 March 1780, and the keel was laid down in June 1780. She was launched on 9 September 1782 from Teast's of Bristol, having cost £11,350.14s.4d to build, with a further £4,570.2s.2d spent on dockyard expenses, and £723.16s.9d on fitting out.

Hermione was commissioned initially under Captain Thomas Lloyd, who commanded her until she was paid off in April 1783. She recommissioned that same month under Captain John Stone, who sailed her to Nova Scotia on 17 October,

Hermione served in the West Indies during the early years of the French Revolutionary Wars. On 2 June 1794, under Hills, the ship participated in the British attack on Port-au-Prince, where she led a small squadron that accompanied troop transports. Hermione had five men killed and six wounded in the attack. thumb|HMS Hermione muster 1797, listing 145 & 149 two seamen killed by a bursting cannon on 2 June 1794The British captured the port and its defences, and in doing so captured a large number of merchant vessels. Hermione was also among the vessels that shared in the capture on 17 July, of the Lady Walterstasse."Many of the Hermione crew came down with yellow fever or malaria during the course of 1794. Of these, some 40 died." In late August, Hills himself fell ill, first with dysentery and then yellow fever. He died at Port Royal on 4 September 1794. Captain Philip Wilkinson replaced Hills and was himself replaced in February 1797 — the year of the Spithead and Nore mutinies — by Captain Hugh Pigot. Pigot was a cruel officer who meted out severe and arbitrary punishments to his crew. During a nine-month period, as captain of his previous command he ordered at least 85 floggings, the equivalent of half the crew; two men died from their injuries.

Mutiny

The disrating of Midshipman David O'Brien Casey, an experienced junior officer who had served competently under Captain Pigot during the previous months, was one of the primary triggers to the mutiny. About a week before the mutiny, Casey was at his station on the main top, and Pigot noticed that a gasket, one of the ties that held the sail securely, had not been tied by one of the sailors under Casey's supervision. Brought before Pigot, Casey apologized and took responsibility for the oversight. Pigot demanded that Casey apologize on his knees, an unacceptable and debasing demand of a gentleman. When Casey twice refused to be humiliated in such a way, the captain ordered that he receive 12 lashes (more commonly a sailor's punishment than that of a junior officer), and he was disrated, which would effectively end his career as a naval officer. Her husband was murdered during the mutiny, and Mrs. Martin, on 16 February 1798, swore out a deposition against some of the mutineers. As a prosecution witness, however, Mrs. Martin was a mixed blessing, having by then blamed Captain Pigot's cruelty for the mutiny in a widely printed newspaper story. In 1803 though, Mrs. Martin was granted a pension by the Court of Navy Commissioners.

On the evening of 21 September 1797, a number of the crew, drunk on stolen rum, rushed Pigot's cabin and forced their way in after overpowering the marine stationed outside. They hacked at Pigot with knives and cutlasses before throwing him overboard. The mutineers, probably led by a core group of just 18 men, went on to murder another eight of Hermiones officers: the first lieutenant, Samuel Reed; the second lieutenant, Archibald Douglas; the third lieutenant, Henry Foreshaw; the marine commander, Lieutenant McIntosh; boatswain William Martin; purser Stephen Turner Pacey; surgeon H.T. Sansum; and the captain's clerk. Two midshipmen were also killed, and all the bodies were thrown overboard.

Subsequent court-martial testimony by a surviving midshipman describes the behavior of the mutineers as "truly savage and brutal". Pigot and a number of other victims were still alive when they were thrown overboard, while the marine officer McIntosh was dying of yellow fever when the mutineers dragged him from his bunk. Third Lieutenant Foreshaw had fallen on a mizen chain whaler platform extending from the side of the ship, but was hacked to death when he regained the deck. The majority of the crew emerged leaderless from their sleeping quarters to a scene of chaos. No effort was made to oppose those actively involved in the mutiny, even by the sailors whom Pigot had brought with him from his previous ship and generally favoured. While the half-dozen remaining were too outnumbered and taken by surprise to fulfill their role of shipboard police and oppose the mutineers, they remained under the leadership of a sergeant and insisted on being treated as prisoners of war by the Spanish authorities. The marines were accordingly exchanged six months later, along with the surviving warrant officers. later captured some of the mutineers on a French privateer, Petite Magicienne.

Santa Cecilia, under the command of Captain Ramón Echalaz, had meanwhile sat in Puerto Cabello, heavily manned, with around 400 Spanish crewmen on board. The ship lay under the guns of two shore batteries, together mounting some 200 guns. Captain Edward Hamilton, aboard , cut her out of the harbour on 25 October 1799. Hamilton led a boarding party to retake Hermione and, after an exceptionally bloody action, sailed her out of danger under Spanish gunfire. The Spanish casualties included 119 dead; the British took 231 Spaniards prisoner, while another fifteen jumped or fell overboard. Hamilton had eleven men injured, four seriously, but none killed. Hamilton himself was severely wounded.

For his daring exploit, Hamilton was made a knight by letters patent, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (2 January 1815), and eventually became a baronet (20 October 1818). The Jamaica House of Assembly awarded him a sword worth 300 guineas, and the City of London awarded him the Freedom of the City in a public dinner on 25 October 1800. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded Hamilton a gold medal for the recapture of Hermione, and the Naval General Service Medal with the clasp, "Surprise with Hermione", to the seven surviving claimants from the action.

Return to British service

Parker renamed Santa Cecilia Retaliation. In late 1799 or early 1800, Retaliation captured four vessels. These were the two American brigs Gracey, sailing from Trinidad bound for Baltimore with a cargo of sugar, honey, and hides; Peggy, sailing from Cartagena to New York with a cargo of sugar, coffee, cotton, fustick, and hides; and the Danish sloop Sisters, which was sailing from Jamaica to Baltimore with a cargo of sugar, and which had just left St Thomas.

The Admiralty then renamed her Retribution on 31 January 1800. She was recommissioned in September 1800, at Jamaica under Captain Samuel Forster. Apparently before that she detained an American schooner sailing from Port Republic with a cargo of coffee and logwood. In early 1801, Retribution detained the Spanish schooner La Linda, which was sailing from Campeachy to Havana, and the American schooner Sea Horse, which was sailing from Porto Cavello to New York. Retribution sent both into Jamaica. On 1 October, , , and Retribution were in company when they captured Aquila.

Fate

Retribution arrived at Portsmouth on 20 January 1802, and sailed for Woolwich on 6 February, to be paid off from the Navy. She was subsequently fitted out at Woolwich in October 1803 for a brief service for Trinity House at a cost of £484, equal to £ today; she sailed on her first voyage for Trinity House on 16 October. She arrived at Deptford on 8 June 1804, docked in August 1804, to have her copper sheathing removed, and was finally broken up there in June 1805.

Notes

Citations

References

Long, William H. (1895) Medals of the British navy and how they were won: with a list of those officers, who for their gallant conduct were granted honorary swords and plate by the Committee of the Patriotic Fund. (London: Norie & Wilson).

External links

Audio of a talk on HMS Hermione mutiny by Niklas Frykman for Bristol Radical History Group