HMS Orestes (1781)
Encyclopedia
HMS Orestes was an 18-gun Dutch
-built brig-sloop of the Royal Navy
. She was originally built as the privateer
Mars, and was captured by the British in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
and the French Revolutionary Wars
.
The privateer was one of two captured in the North Sea
in November 1781, both of which were taken into the Navy. Orestes became an effective anti-privateer vessel, taking several enemy vessels while serving off the British coast. She divided her time between a number of the Royal Navy's stations, serving in the West Indies and departing for the East Indies
after time spent on the French coast. Her career in the Indian Ocean was short-lived, as she disappeared at sea in 1799, and is presumed to have foundered in a hurricane with the loss of her entire crew.
in 1781, to prey on British shipping during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
. On 30 November she sailed from the Texel
with another large privateer, the Hercules
. The vessels were commanded by a father and son team, by the name of Hogenboome; the father had been active as a privateer operating out of Flushing
during the Seven Years' War
under the alias John Hardapple. The two vessels were estimated to have cost upwards of 20,000 l. Their career as privateers was short-lived, and they managed to capture only a single British fishing smack
before the 40-gun frigate
, under the command of Captain
John MacBride
sighted them off Flamborough Head
at 10 o'clock in the morning on 3 December.
approved their purchase for service with the Royal Navy, and she was registered as the sloop HMS Orestes on 16 February 1782.
between February and August 1782, with her armament consisting of 18 short nine-pounders and ten ½-pounder swivel guns. The cost for her to be fitted and coppered
came to £3,961.19.11p. Orestes was commissioned in July 1782 under her first captain, Commander John Bowers, and on 30 November that year she captured the privateer Complaissance. Command of Orestes passed to Commander James Ellis in November the following year. In 1784 she was involved in a skirmish, the Battle of Mudeford
with South Coast smugglers, during this fight her master William Allen was fatally wounded. Ellis remained as captain for the next two and a half years, being succeeded by Commander Manley Dixon in June 1786. Commander Thomas Shivers took over in June 1789, and in December 1790 Commander Sir Harry Burrard
was Orestess new captain. While he was in command Orestess main armament was reduced from nine-pounders to six-pounders. Burrard sailed her to the West Indies in 1792, where in January 1793 Commander Lord Augustus Fitzroy took over as captain. Orestes and Fitzroy returned to Britain in April 1793, during the first few months of the French Revolutionary Wars
.
s on 26 August 1794. Parker captured the privateer Furet in the English Channel
on 3 September 1797, and relinquished command in February the following year to Commander William Haggitt. Orestes served in the Channel and was one of the ships watching the Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf
on 7 May 1798, reduced to a spectator owing to the calm weather.
in August 1798, remaining on that station until disappearing in the Indian Ocean
in November 1799. She is presumed to have been caught in a hurricane that struck the area and to have foundered on or about 5 November.
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
-built brig-sloop of the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
. She was originally built as the privateer
Privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship authorized by a government by letters of marque to attack foreign shipping during wartime. Privateering was a way of mobilizing armed ships and sailors without having to spend public money or commit naval officers...
Mars, and was captured by the British in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
and the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
.
The privateer was one of two captured in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
in November 1781, both of which were taken into the Navy. Orestes became an effective anti-privateer vessel, taking several enemy vessels while serving off the British coast. She divided her time between a number of the Royal Navy's stations, serving in the West Indies and departing for the East Indies
East Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
after time spent on the French coast. Her career in the Indian Ocean was short-lived, as she disappeared at sea in 1799, and is presumed to have foundered in a hurricane with the loss of her entire crew.
Dutch service
Mars was built at AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
in 1781, to prey on British shipping during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War
The Fourth Anglo–Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, tangentially related to the American Revolutionary War, broke out over British and Dutch disagreements on the legality and conduct of Dutch trade with Britain's enemies in that...
. On 30 November she sailed from the Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
with another large privateer, the Hercules
HMS Pylades (1781)
HMS Pylades was an 18-gun Dutch-built brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was originally built as the privateer Hercules, and was captured by the British in 1781. She went on to serve during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War and the subsequent years of peace.The privateer was one of two captured in the...
. The vessels were commanded by a father and son team, by the name of Hogenboome; the father had been active as a privateer operating out of Flushing
Flushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
during the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
under the alias John Hardapple. The two vessels were estimated to have cost upwards of 20,000 l. Their career as privateers was short-lived, and they managed to capture only a single British fishing smack
Smack (ship)
A smack was a traditional fishing boat used off the coast of England and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century, and even in small numbers up to the Second World War. It was originally a cutter rigged sailing boat until about 1865, when the smacks became so large that cutter...
before the 40-gun frigate
Frigate
A frigate is any of several types of warship, the term having been used for ships of various sizes and roles over the last few centuries.In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built"...
, under the command of Captain
Captain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
John MacBride
John MacBride (Royal Navy officer)
John MacBride was an officer of the Royal Navy and a politician who saw service during the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars, eventually rising to the rank of Admiral of the Blue.MacBride entered the navy after serving on merchant vessels and...
sighted them off Flamborough Head
Flamborough Head
Flamborough Head is a promontory of on the Yorkshire coast of England, between the Filey and Bridlington bays of the North Sea. It is a chalk headland, and the resistance it offers to coastal erosion may be contrasted with the low coast of Holderness to the south...
at 10 o'clock in the morning on 3 December.
Capture
The two Dutch vessels initially approached Artois, apparently appearing 'confident'. The action began at 2pm, with one privateer standing off Artoiss bow, while the other attacked her quarter. MacBride concentrated his fire on the ship on his quarter, forcing her to break away, while MacBride turned his attention to the ship off his bow. After thirty minutes this ship surrendered, while the other attempted to escape. MacBride wore around and chased her down, at which she struck her colours. MacBride wrote in his report that the two ships mounted '24 nine-pounders and ten cohorns each.' He described them as 'perfectly new, and alike; sail as fast as the Artois, and are the completest privateers I ever saw.' Mars was described as carrying 146 men, of whom nine were killed and fifteen were wounded. Artois had one man killed and six wounded in the whole engagement. Impressed by MacBride's report, the AdmiraltyAdmiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
approved their purchase for service with the Royal Navy, and she was registered as the sloop HMS Orestes on 16 February 1782.
Royal Navy service
Orestes was fitted out at DeptfordDeptford
Deptford is a district of south London, England, located on the south bank of the River Thames. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne, and from the mid 16th century to the late 19th was home to Deptford Dockyard, the first of the Royal Navy Dockyards.Deptford and the docks are...
between February and August 1782, with her armament consisting of 18 short nine-pounders and ten ½-pounder swivel guns. The cost for her to be fitted and coppered
Copper sheathing
Copper sheathing was the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by the Royal Navy during the 18th century.-Development:...
came to £3,961.19.11p. Orestes was commissioned in July 1782 under her first captain, Commander John Bowers, and on 30 November that year she captured the privateer Complaissance. Command of Orestes passed to Commander James Ellis in November the following year. In 1784 she was involved in a skirmish, the Battle of Mudeford
Battle of Mudeford
The Battle of Mudeford was a skirmish fought between smugglers and Customs and Excise officers which occurred in 1784 on what is now a car park at Mudeford Quay, Mudeford, Christchurch, England near the entrance of Christchurch Harbour...
with South Coast smugglers, during this fight her master William Allen was fatally wounded. Ellis remained as captain for the next two and a half years, being succeeded by Commander Manley Dixon in June 1786. Commander Thomas Shivers took over in June 1789, and in December 1790 Commander Sir Harry Burrard
Sir Harry Burrard-Neale, 2nd Baronet
Admiral Sir Harry Burrard-Neale, 2nd Baronet GCB, GCMG, born Harry Burrard, was a British officer of the Royal Navy, and Member of Parliament for Lymington....
was Orestess new captain. While he was in command Orestess main armament was reduced from nine-pounders to six-pounders. Burrard sailed her to the West Indies in 1792, where in January 1793 Commander Lord Augustus Fitzroy took over as captain. Orestes and Fitzroy returned to Britain in April 1793, during the first few months of the French Revolutionary Wars
French Revolutionary Wars
The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of major conflicts, from 1792 until 1802, fought between the French Revolutionary government and several European states...
.
French Revolutionary Wars
Fitzroy was replaced in May 1794 by Commander Thomas Orrock, who was in turn superseded in September 1796 by Commander Christopher Parker. Orestes had been fitted with two eighteen-pounder carronadeCarronade
The carronade was a short smoothbore, cast iron cannon, developed for the Royal Navy by the Carron Company, an ironworks in Falkirk, Scotland, UK. It was used from the 1770s to the 1850s. Its main function was to serve as a powerful, short-range anti-ship and anti-crew weapon...
s on 26 August 1794. Parker captured the privateer Furet in the English Channel
English Channel
The English Channel , often referred to simply as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates southern England from northern France, and joins the North Sea to the Atlantic. It is about long and varies in width from at its widest to in the Strait of Dover...
on 3 September 1797, and relinquished command in February the following year to Commander William Haggitt. Orestes served in the Channel and was one of the ships watching the Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf
Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf
The Battle of the Îles Saint-Marcouf was an engagement fought off the Îles Saint-Marcouf near the Cotentin peninsula on the Normandy coast of France in May 1798 during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1795 a British garrison was placed on the islands, which operated as a resupply base for Royal...
on 7 May 1798, reduced to a spectator owing to the calm weather.
Fate
Orestes sailed for the East IndiesEast Indies
East Indies is a term used by Europeans from the 16th century onwards to identify what is now known as Indian subcontinent or South Asia, Southeastern Asia, and the islands of Oceania, including the Malay Archipelago and the Philippines...
in August 1798, remaining on that station until disappearing in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
in November 1799. She is presumed to have been caught in a hurricane that struck the area and to have foundered on or about 5 November.