#hms phoenix

[ltwilliammowett]

H.M.S. 'Phoenix', 'Talbot' and 'Diligence' passing a remarkable iceberg, by Inglefield, Edward Augustus, c. 1853

[ltwilliammowett]

Three ladies in the arctic, 1854

HMS Phoenix (1832), HMS Talbot (1824) and HMS Diligence (1814) at anchor, Holsteinbor, under the command of Captain Sir Edward Belcher, 1854. The aim was to collect stranded crews from a previous expedition to Beechey Island and bring them back to England.

[thisdayinwwi]

May 14 1918 British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Phoenix sunk in the Adriatic Sea off Vlorë, Albania with a loss of two of her 72 crew. At 9:18 on 14 May 1918, while patrolling the Otranto Barrage, the Phoenix was torpedoed by Imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy U-boat SM U-27. She didn’t sink right away and was almost towed to safety by HMAS Warrego but she sank within sight of the Albanian port at 13:10, 40°23.5′N 19°14′E.

Only British warship ever to be sunk by the Imperial Austro-Hungarian Navy.

[ltwilliammowett]

Captain Augustus John Hervey (1724–1779), Later 3rd Earl of Bristol, in the 'Phoenix', Taking 14 French Ships at Argentiera, 9 November 1756, by Dominic Serres 1769

HMS Phoenix, a 24-gun post ship (used here as a term for a smaller sixth rate frigate), which was launched in 1743, served as a hospital hull after 1755 (this may not be entirely true if she was still able to made prizes in November 1756) and was sold in 1762

[ltwilliammowett]

"HMS Phoenix and the Breadalbane at the moment when the latter was crushed and sunk. The field of ice, easing off from the Phoenix passed astern to the Breadalbane, and entering her bow, she filled and sank in less than 15 minutes, in 30 fathoms of water." by Edward Augustus Inglefield, ca. 1855

In the spring of 1853, the Royal Navy called the Breadalbane a  three-masted merchant barque, into service to transport coal and other supplies to the North Star, a depot ship. She left the Thames River in 1853, accompanied by HMS Phoenix, a 6-gun steam paddle vessel, and arrived at a rallying point at Beechey Island later that year.

Her new mission would be to carry supplies to Sir Edward Belcher's high Arctic search expedition in the Resolute Bay area (now part of Nunavut). Since 1852, Belcher's expedition had been searching for the Franklin Expedition. The ship and crew had gone missing while searching for a passage through the Arctic seas. Belcher's expedition both the largest, and the last sent by the Royal Navy.

On 21 August 1853, Breadalbane was anchored to an ice floe half a mile south of Beechey Island in Lancaster Sound, approximately 500 miles north of the Arctic Circle.  It had become surrounded by slow-moving ice. Shortly after midnight, a slab of ice penetrated the starboard bow.

About ten minutes past four a.m., the ice passing the ship awoke me, and the door of my cabin from the pressure opened: I immediately hurriedly put on my clothes, and on getting up found some hands on the ice, endeavoring to save the boats, but they were instantly crushed to pieces; they little thought, when using their efforts to save the boats, that the Breadalbane was in so perilous a situation. I went forward to hail the Phoenix, for men to save the boats, and whilst doing so, the ropes by which we were secured parted, and a heavy nip took the ship making every timber in her creak, and the ship tremble all over. I looked in the main hold, and saw the beams given away; I hailed those on the ice and told them of our critical situation, they not for one moment suspecting it. I then rushed to my cabin, hauled out my portmanteau on the deck, and roared like a bull to those in their beds to jump out and save their lives. The startling effects on them might be more easily imagined than described. On reaching the deck those on the ice called out to me to jump over the side, that the ship was going over ( Fawckner, W. H. (22 October 1853))

The crew quickly salvaged as many supplies and personal items as possible. The 21-man crew then abandoned the ship. Within fifteen minutes, the vessel sank to the floor of Barrow Strait. The crew was rescued by HMS Phoenix.

[alineuponthewind]

H.M.S. Phoenix - Derek G.M. Gardner

[thisdayinwwi]

May 14 1918 in WWI

HMS Phoenix (1911) at 9:18 on 14 May 1918, while patrolling the Otranto Barrage, the Phoenix was torpedoed amidships by the Austro-Hungarian submarine SM U-27, at position 40°12′30″N 18°52′12″E. HMAS Warrego made an unsuccessful attempt to tow her to Valona (now Vlorë in Albania),[15] but she sank within sight of the port at 13:10 in position 40°23.5′N 19°14′ECoordinates: 40°23.5′N 19°14′E. The crew had been taken off before she capsized, and there were only two fatalities; a Leading Stoker and an Engine Room Artificer.

[ltwilliammowett]

Fireships on the Hudson River by Geoff Hunt

On 12 July 1776 the British sent a small squadron of warships into the Hudson River in order to attack the flanks of General Washington’s forces. The ships were the Phoenix, 44 guns, the Rose, 20 guns, the schooner Tryal, and two small tenders, the Charlotte and the Shuldham. They were to operate as far up river as Peekskill. They found themselves in an uneasy situation, with Washington’s army in unknown force on both shores.

After a month of inconclusive skirmishes, the ships were anchored off ” Colonel Philip’s Farm” on the night of 16 August. Just before midnight two vessels were sighted nearby, closing in. Their crews were seen setting fires and abandoning ship – the American rebels were using fireships, the most feared form of attack against combustible wooden warships. While the British hurriedly tried to cut their cables and set sail, the first fireship hit the Charlotte and both vessels burned out. The second fireship narrowly missed the Rose, and then crashed into the bows of the flagship Phoenix. It took twenty desperate minutes before the Phoenix’s crew managed to fend off the blazing hulk. Literally overnight, the situation had become far more dangerous than the British imagined. Next day the squadron retreated downriver, taking some damage while passing the American batteries, and anchored off Staten Island – where they found that Vice-Admiral Lord Howe had arrived with the main fleet and army.