HMS Triton was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy designed by James Gambier and launched in 1796 at Deptford. Triton was an experimental ship and the only one built to that design; she was constructed out of fir due to wartime supply shortages of more traditional materials and had some unusual features such as no tumblehome. Her namesake was the Greek god Triton, a god of the sea. She was commissioned in June 1796 under Captain John Gore, with whom she would spend the majority of her active service, to serve in the Channel in the squadron of Sir John Warren.
Triton was a successful ship, serving throughout the majority of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars in several capacities. She took a large number of warships and traders as prizes in the Channel and Mediterranean Sea during her service as a blockade ship and cruiser. Triton also played a prominent role in several small-scale battles, including the action of 16 October 1799 where she assisted in the capture of two powerful Spanish frigates and earned her captain one of the largest sums of prize money of the war. Her unique design was ultimately flawed, limiting her sailing abilities, and Triton only served at sea for seven years before being converted into a hulk in 1803. She served as a receiving ship and guard ship before being either sold at Plymouth in 1814 or broken up in Newfoundland in 1820.
Construction
Triton was a 32-gun, 12-pounder frigate. She was a 'one-off' ship, built to the designs of the First Naval Lord James Gambier.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 She was unusually constructed of fir instead of oak due to financial and operational necessity.Wareham, Frigate Captains, p. 15Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 54 As per her nature as a 'one-off' experimental ship, she had a number of unique features, being described as 'the most singular frigate design of the period'.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 53 She was wall-sided instead of incorporating a tumblehome, had almost no sheer, and had a sharply overhanging bow.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 These uniquely squared off elements of the ship came about because of the difficulties the Royal Navy had in obtaining naturally curved pieces of wood and as an experiment for improving sailing qualities.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 115 Triton was also fitted with 'air pipes' which ran to the lower deck to assist in ventilating the usually stuffy area. Triton was ordered on 7 April 1796 and completed with the following dimensions: along the gun deck, at the keel, with a beam of 36 ft 2 in (11 m) and a depth in the hold of . She measured 855 tons burthen.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478Colledge and Warlow, Ships of the Royal Navy, p. 416.
Triton was launched on 5 September 1796 and fitted out between 6 September and 31 October at Deptford.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 She had originally been intended to hold 18-pound guns rather than the 12-pounders she actually had; this was changed because of fears that the power of the larger guns would have been too much for the ship to withstand when firing.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 While 32-gun 12-pounder frigates had been the standard of the Royal Navy for years prior, the advent of larger French 38-gun frigates meant that by the time of Tritons construction her armament was a rarity, and she was the only such example built until 1804.Lavery, Nelson's Navy, p. 49 Worries over Triton would continue, with later proposals looking to downgrade her further to 9-pounders.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 The experimental vertical sides and the very limited sheer meant that Triton was not a weatherly ship, while her peculiar bow caused her to slam heavily into waves.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 49 She required a very large amount of ballast, as she was also the shallowest frigate of the period, which made the ship roll greatly.Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 73 Furthermore, her steering issues would have been exacerbated by her being designed to float on an even keel, rather than with more weight to the stern as was traditional.
In March 1797 Triton was slightly adapted; her fore mast was moved forward by and her rudder was narrowed, greatly improving the responsiveness of the ship.Gardiner, First Frigates, p. 79Gardiner, Heavy Frigate, p. 88 Gambier was keen to learn about his personal design, and had the ship's first captain, John Gore, report the qualities of Triton to him. While Gore noted the difficulties with rolling and the bow he was pleased with the speed of the ship, saying that ‘we have fore-reached on everything we have met with’. The ship's surgeon was also pleased with the new 'air pipes', reporting that they had a positive effect on the health of the crew and rid the ship of the ‘thick noxious foul air’ that could usually be found on lower decks. Despite these benefits provided by Gambier's design, the timbers of the ship were put under considerable wear by Triton'''s abnormal sailing qualities, directly impacting her length of active service.
ServiceTriton was commissioned in September 1796 by Captain John Gore, who would command her almost unbrokenly until 1801.Wareham, Frigate Captains, p. 282 Gore had recently returned from French captivity after he had been forced to surrender his command of the newly captured Le Censeur in 1795.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, Vol. 2 Part 1, p. 610 From the launching of Triton until March 1797, the brother of Jane Austen and future Admiral of the Fleet Francis Austen served on board as a lieutenant.Poplawski, Jane Austen Encyclopaedia, p. 62Austen-Leigh, Jane Austen, p. 91
Sir John Warren's squadronTriton began active service in early 1797 by joining the blockading squadron of Sir John Warren in the English Channel.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478 On 10 February she captured the French 14-gun privateer cutter Recovery, which was recently out of Le Havre and with a crew of forty-six had already taken a British smuggler and the American trader Atlantic which was retaken the same day. On 11 February she took the 10-gun privateer brig Jeune Emilie, which was forty days out of Saint-Malo and had taken the sloop Friendship as well as the 10-gun letter of marque .Schomberg, Naval Chronology, p. 122 Continuing her string of successes, Triton took the 18-gun privateer La Difficile only a day after this.Duncan, British Trident, p. 111
Resistance and Constance On 9 March 1797 the British frigates HMS St Fiorenzo and HMS Nymphe spotted two French ships while returning from a reconnoitre of Brest.James, Naval History, Vol. 2, p. 91 These ships were the 40-gun frigate Résistance and 22-gun corvette Constance.Clowes, The Royal Navy, Vol. 4, pp. 506-7 The two ships were attempting to return to France after participating in the landing of French troops at Fishguard on 22 February.James, Naval History, Vol. 2, p. 91 St Fiorenzo and Nymphe quickly engaged the ships, despite the French Brest fleet being just over the horizon, first attacking Résistance which soon surrendered, followed around ten minutes later by Constance. At the close of the action, which would see Résistance purchased into the navy as Fishguard, Triton hove into sight alongside the ship-of-the-line HMS Robust; it has been suggested that the arrival of Triton and Robust facilitated the quick capture of the two French ships, however they did not play any part in the action itself. Triton was more successful in reaching action after this, capturing the trader La Zoes on 12 June while sailing with a number of Warren's ships, and Boston on 25 July, now with a different part of the squadron.
Convoy attacks
On 11 August Triton was sailing under Warren, with the frigates HMS Pomone and HMS Jason, and the brig-sloop HMS Sylph, off the coast of La Vendée.James, Naval History, Vol. 2, p. 96 There, the squadron encountered a French convoy of brigs and chasse-marées protected by the 20-gun corvette Réolaise and a number of gun-boats.Clowes, The Royal Navy, Vol. 4, p. 508 Upon seeing the threat, the convoy ran towards the Les Sables-d'Olonne river. The mouth of the river was protected by a fort which the convoy hoped would deter the squadron; however, Commander John Chambers White of Sylph volunteered to go in and attack the anchored ships, and was followed by Pomone and Jason half an hour later. The bombardment from the three ships sank the gun-boat guarding the river and heavily damaged Réolaise; Triton meanwhile had been chasing other ships of the convoy away. The attack on the convoy heavily disrupted the supplying of the naval base at Brest. The next day, the four ships took the trader Admiralitat.Triton continued as part of the same squadron, and on 27 August discovered another French convoy around the mouth of the river Gironde. The squadron chased the convoy overnight; Triton and Jason were the fastest of the British and were able to capture five of the ships, which were likely Trois Soeurs, Egalité, St. Peter, St. Ann, and Dauphin. The convoy was carrying ship timbers, rosin, and tar, intended to help fit out new French privateers.
Blockade and Channel work
After these convoy actions Triton continued to patrol the Channel as a part of Warren's squadron, which for a brief period of time from March 1798 was commanded by Commodore John Willett Payne.Clarke, Naval Chronicle Vol. 3, p. 36 The independent nature of the squadron had by this time been curtailed by the arrival of Admiral Lord Bridport to command the Brest blockade, with Triton now involving herself more in close blockade work.Saxby, 'The Blockade of Brest', p. 29 On 14 October 1797 while in company with the brig-sloop HMS Childers, she took the 4-gun privateer Le Furet near Île de Batz which was twenty-three days out of Tréguier and had fifty-three men on board. Near the end of the year she also took the privateer La Helene.Winfield, British Warships, p. 478Schomberg, Naval Chronology, p. 136
Action of 30 June 1798
On 24 April 1798 the French 40-gun frigate Seine sailed from Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, with 280 garrison troops onboard after being recalled from the Indian Ocean.James, Naval History, Vol. 2, pp. 247-9 At 7 a.m. on 29 June, Seine was sighted by Jason and the frigates HMS Pique, and HMS Mermaid off Brittany. At around 1:35 a.m. a long chase by the three frigates was concluded when Jason, Pique, and Seine all grounded on rocks off La Tranche-sur-Mer; dismasted, Seine surrendered as Mermaid approached. At this time Triton was serving in a small blockading squadron commanded by Captain Robert Stopford and consisting of Stopford's frigate HMS Phaeton alongside St Fiorenzo and Triton; all part of Warren's larger squadron.Marshall, Royal Naval Biography, Vol. 1 Part 1, p. 355 The squadron was called in by signal gun by Jason, as a force of French ships including two large frigates and a brig were leaving Rochelle with the intent of attacking the captors of Seine.Duncan, British Trident, p. 130 The arrival of Stopford's squadron saved them from French attack, with William James arguing that without the intervention of Triton and the squadron, the situation 'would have been extremely critical'.