HMS Phoebe was a 36-gun fifth rate of the Royal Navy. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Overall, her crews were awarded six clasps to the Naval General Service Medals, with two taking place in the French Revolutionary Wars, three during the Napoleonic Wars and the sixth in the War of 1812. Three of the clasps carried the name Phoebe. During her career, Phoebe sailed to the Mediterranean and Baltic seas, the Indian Ocean, South East Asia, North and South America.
Once peace finally arrived, Phoebe was laid up, though she spent a few years as a slop ship during the 1820s. She was then hulked. The Admiralty finally sold her for breaking up in 1841.
Construction She was one of four frigates that the Admiralty ordered on 24 May 1794 to a design by Sir John Henslow, Surveyor of the Navy, to be a faster version of the 1781 s. The contract for the first ship was placed with the Thames-side yard of John Dudman, where the keel was laid in June 1794. She was named Phoebe on 26 February 1795 and was launched on 24 September 1795 at Deptford Wharf on the Thames. She then moved to Deptford Dockyard, where she was completed on 23 December.
French Revolutionary Wars Phoebe was first commissioned in October 1795 under Captain Robert Barlow, for the Irish coast and Edward Pellew's squadron. On 10 January 1797, after an eight-hour chase, she captured the 16-gun , under the command of Lieutenant Dordelin, off the Isles of Scilly. Atalante had a crew of 112 men. She was a three-year-old brig with a coppered hull and an keel. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name.
In 1797 Phoebe was off Brest as part of an inshore squadron of frigates under Sir Edward Pellew in . The squadron included , and the hired armed lugger .James (1837), Vol. 2, p.6
On 22 December 1797 Phoebe captured the French 36-gun , Captain Antoine Canon. Phoebe sighted the Néréide at 10am; the pursuit started at 11:30am and ended at 10:45pm with Néréides surrender. During the chase Néréide fired her stern guns at Phoebe and the two vessels exchanged broadsides shortly before the Néréide surrendered. Phoebe lost three men killed and 10 wounded; Néréide lost 20 men killed and 55 wounded. Part of the reason for the disparity in casualties was that the ratio of the weight of the broadsides was to .James (1837), Vol.2, pp.92-93. In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the Naval General Service Medal with clasp "Phoebe 21 Decr. 1797" to all remaining members of her crew who had participated in the action.
On 11 October 1799, Phoebe captured the French privateer Grand Ferrailleur. Grand Ferrailleur was armed with sixteen brass 6-pounder guns and had a crew of 121 men. She was 16 days from Bordeaux but had not taken any prizes.
On 21 February 1800, Phoebe captured the French privateer Bellegarde (or Belle Garde) of Saint-Malo. Bellegarde carried 14 guns and a crew of 114 men. She had been out 16 days and had captured Chance, of London and sailing from Martinique, and the brig Friends, of Dartmouth, sailing from St. Michael's to Bristol. Later, on 24 February, recaptured Chance.The Naval chronicle, Volume 3, p.320.
Heureux On 5 March, Phoebe captured the privateer Heureux in the English Channel off Bordeaux. Heureux had intended to cruise the West Indies. Instead, she arrived at Plymouth on 25 March.
Heureux, of 22 long brass 12-pounders and 220 men, mistook Phoebe for an East Indiaman, and approached her. Heureux did not discover her mistake until she had arrived within point-blank musket-shot. Heureux fired on Phoebe in an "Act of Temerity to be regretted". Her hope was that well-directed fire would disable Phoebes masts, rigging, and sails, and thereby enable Heureux to escape.James (1837), Vol. 3, pp.33-4. Phoebe returned fire and Heureux was forced to strike her colours. Phoebe had three seamen killed or mortally wounded, and three slightly wounded. Heureux had 18 men killed and 25 wounded, most of whom lost limbs. She had been out 42 days but had captured only a small Portuguese sloop that the wind had pushed out to sea while the sloop was sailing from Limerick to Galway with a cargo of wine.
Barlow described Heureux as "the most complete flush Deck Ship I have ever seen, coppered, Copper fastened, highly finished and of large Dimensions... The Accounts given of her Sailing are very extraordinary; she will be considered as a most desirable Ship for His Majesty's Service." The British took her into service as .
Africaine On 19 February 1801, about east of Gibraltar, Phoebe sighted a French ship off Ceuta, also sailing eastwards. Barlow chased the French vessel for two-and-a-half hours before he could bring her to a close action. After about two hours the French vessel struck her colours; she had of water in her hold and was almost a wreck. Phoebes fire had dismounted her guns and left her decks strewn with hundreds of casualties.
She proved to be , of twenty-six 18-pounders and eighteen 9-pounders; she had sailed from Rochefort on the 13th. She was under the command of Capitaine Majendie and she flew the broad pennant of Commandant de Division Saunier. She had a crew of 315 men, but also was ferrying 400 troops under General Desfourneaux to reinforce the French invasion force in Egypt.
The French reported that they had suffered 200 killed in the action, including Saunier, the Chef de Brigade and two army captains, and 143 wounded, the later including Desfourneaux and Majendie, who was wounded in two places. The heavy casualties were the result of French troops crowding the upper deck despite their small arms fire contributing little or nothing in the dark to her defense. The troops had refused shelter below deck on the basis of mistaken valour.James (1837), Vol. 3, pp.139-41.
Phoebe lost one man killed, and 12 men wounded. Her masts, sails and rigging were badly damaged but she was able to limp to Port Mahon. Weak winds resulted in the voyage, in company with Africaine, taking two weeks. The British took Africaine into service under her existing name.
Barlow received a knighthood. Phoebes first lieutenant, John Wentworth Holland, who had been wounded, received a promotion to commander. In 1847 the action earned Phoebes crew the clasp "Phoebe 19 Feby. 1801" to the Naval General Service Medal (1847). Captain Thomas Baker subsequently took command of Phoebe in May 1801.
Napoleonic Wars In June 1802 Capt. James Shephard took command. Captain The Hon. Thomas Bladen Capell followed him and recommissioned Phoebe in September. She then sailed for the Mediterranean on 28 September.
In 1803 Phoebe was sailing out of Malta. At some point, perhaps during the summer, her boats participated in a disastrous attack on two French privateers off Civitavecchia. The privateers repulsed the British, who lost eight men killed and wounded.The fireside book; a miscellany. (Philadelphia), Vol. 1, p.397. On 1 August, Phoebe captured two settées, which a French squadron recaptured. In recapturing the settees, the French squadron involved lost an opportunity to capture Phoebe, though they did capture the schooner and a transport.
arrived at Gibraltar in March 1804 and then sailed from there to join Admiral Nelson off Toulon in company with Phoebe,Nelson and Nicholas (1845 - 1846), p.330. but the vessels became separated during a gale in the Gulf of Lyons. Shortly thereafter Hindostan caught fire and was totally destroyed.
On 13 June Phoebe and Amazon made ready to engage two French frigates anchored under the guns of the north-most fort at Toulon. The fort fired at Phoebe, but she was out of range. When the French fleet sortied, the British vessels rejoined their squadron, however the French fleet returned to port without engaging.James (1837), Vol. 2, p.237-8.
On 24 August 1804 Phoebe and captured Venscab.
On 10 November Phoebe captured Cacciatore. Then Phoebe and Hydra shared the proceeds from the capture between 9 and 15 November of the vessels Paulina and Sesostris.
was passing the island of Toro (off Mallorca; ) on 4 April 1805 when Phoebe brought the news that the French fleet under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve had escaped from Toulon. While Nelson made for Sicily to see if the French were heading for Egypt, Villeneuve entered Cádiz to link up with the Spanish fleet.
Then, while Nelson was pursuing the French fleet from Toulon to the West Indies, Capel, in Phoebe, was in charge of a small squadron of five frigates and two bomb vessels with the mission of covering Sicily, Sardinia and the route to Egypt. Phoebe joined the blockade of Cádiz later in the summer.
Trafalgar The arrival of the additional frigates Phoebe, , , , and off Cádiz allowed Nelson to detach them to disrupt local shipping supplying provisions for the Franco-Spanish Combined Fleet in Cádiz.
In October, the frigate squadron was acting as the eyes of the British fleet. When the Combined Fleet put to sea on 19 October, Phoebe was first in line, followed by Naiad and the third-rate . Capel spotted the Combined Fleet's exit and notified Nelson. As the combined fleet approached the British over the next couple of days, the frigates shadowed it, reporting on its movements.
During the subsequent Battle of Trafalgar, Phoebe relayed Nelson's signals to the rest of fleet, and remained close to the action although she did not actually engage the enemy. In the gale that followed a few days later and Phoebe assisted two of the prizes, and Bahama, with the result that they were saved.
North Sea and Baltic In January 1806 Captain James Oswald took command. Phoebe then served in the North Sea and the Channel. On 9 July Phoebe, and were deployed to the Shetland Islands to find a French squadron reported to be destroying British and Russian fishing and merchant vessels in the Arctic.James (1837), Vol. 2, p.249. Although Phoebe met with no success, Blanche encountered and captured . Phoebe then sailed to the West Indies.
On 18 January 1808, Phoebe sailed for the Mediterranean. In April 1809 Captain Hassard Stackpoole took command for the Baltic. Between 7 and 12 July, Phoebe captured the Russian vessels Saint Nicholas 1 and Saint Nicholas 2, and another vessel, name unknown. In August Captain James Hillyar replaced Stackpoole. On 6 January 1810 Phoebe sailed from Torbay for off the Île de Batz. Later she was in the Gulf of Livonia where her boats took numerous prizes.
Between March and July 1810 Phoebe underwent repairs at Plymouth. She then sailed for the East Indies on 18 July.
Indian Ocean By 21 November Phoebe was off the island of Rodrigues preparing for a joint naval and military expedition to take the Île de France. The expedition arrived on 28 November and the French signed the capitulation on 3 December.
In March 1811, Phoebe survived two major hurricanes in the Indian Ocean. Phoebe the participated in the Battle of Tamatave, where she fought another Néréide, under Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier. In the severe action the British captured Renommée; Néréide surrendered subsequently on the 25th at Tamatave. The British took both vessels into service, Néréide as and Renommée as . Phoebe suffered seven dead and 24 wounded. Néréide suffered some 130 men dead and wounded. In 1847 this battle earned Phoebes surviving crew the clasp "Off Tamatave 20 May 1811" to the Naval General Service Medal.
Java On 3 August 1811, Phoebe joined the fleet involved in the invasion of Java. Lieutenant-general Sir Samuel Auchmuty was the military commander-in-chief, and Commodore William Robert Broughton of the 74-gun third rate was the naval commander-in-chief. Later, Rear-Admiral Robert Stopford took charge of the naval forces.