British ship of the line (1801?1807)
For other ships with the same name, see
HMS Ajax
.
|
History
|
![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fa/White_Ensign_of_Great_Britain_%281707%E2%80%931800%29.svg/51px-White_Ensign_of_Great_Britain_%281707%E2%80%931800%29.svg.png) |
Name
| HMS
Ajax
|
Ordered
| 30 April 1795
|
Builder
| Randall
,
Rotherhithe
|
Laid down
| September 1795
|
Launched
| 3 March 1798
|
Commissioned
| June 1798
|
Honours and
awards
| |
Fate
| Accidentally burnt, 14 February 1807
|
General characteristics
|
Class and type
| Ajax
-class
ship of the line
|
Tons burthen
| 1,943
46
⁄
94
(
bm
)
|
Length
|
- 182 ft 5 in (55.6 m) (gundeck)
- 149 ft
10
+
5
⁄
8
in (45.7 m) (keel)
|
Beam
| 49 ft 6 in (15.1 m)
|
Depth of hold
| 21 ft 3 in (6.5 m)
|
Propulsion
| Sails
|
Sail plan
| Full-rigged ship
|
Armament
|
- Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
- Upper gundeck: 30 × 24-pounder guns
- QD
: 12 × 9-pounder guns
- Fc
: 4 × 9-pounder guns
|
HMS
Ajax
was an
Ajax
-class
74-gun
third-rate
ship of the line
of the British
Royal Navy
. She was built by John Randall & Co of
Rotherhithe
and launched on the
Thames
on 3 March 1798.
Ajax
participated in the
Egyptian operation of 1801
, the
Battle of Cape Finisterre
in 1805 and the
Battle of Trafalgar
, before she was lost to a disastrous fire in 1807 during the
Dardanelles Operation
.
Egypt
[
edit
]
Captain
James Whitshed
had been in charge of the vessel during her later construction stages from January 1798, but she was eventually commissioned in June 1798 under Captain
John Holloway
.
A month later command passed to Captain
John Pakenham
, for Channel service.
After a brief spell under Captain John Osborn in April 1799,
Ajax
was placed in May 1799 under the command of Captain
Alexander Cochrane
, who was to command her for two years.
On 9 January 1800 she captured the French privateer
Avantageux
in the Channel.
[5]
In 1801, Cochrane and
Ajax
participated in the Egyptian operations. On 31 January
Ajax
anchored at Marmorice on the coast of Karamania.
On 1 March, some 70 warships, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in
Aboukir Bay
near
Alexandria
. Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week, but on the 8th, Cochrane directed a landing by 320 boats, in double line abreast, which brought the troops ashore. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive them back and by the next day
Sir Ralph Abercromby's
whole force was ashore.
[6]
Ajax
had two of her seamen killed in the landings.
The naval vessels provided a force of 1,000 seamen to fight alongside the army, with
Sir Sidney Smith
of the 74-gun
HMS
Tigre
in command. On 13 March,
Ajax
lost one man killed and two wounded in an action on shore; on 21 March she lost two killed and two wounded.
After the
Battle of Alexandria
and the subsequent
siege
, Cochrane in
Ajax
, with the
sixth rate
HMS
Bonne Citoyenne
,
sloop
HMS
Cynthia
, the brig-sloops
HMS
Port Mahon
and
HMS
Victorieuse
, and three Turkish corvettes, were the first vessels to enter the harbour.
[7]
Because
Ajax
had served in the Egyptian campaign between 8 March 1801 and 2 September, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the
Admiralty
authorised in 1850 to all surviving claimants.
[2]
[a]
Ajax
returned to Plymouth from Egypt on 8 June 1802 after the signing of the
Treaty of Amiens
.
1805
[
edit
]
In April,
Admiral
Lord Gardner
sent
Ajax
, together with
HMS
Malta
and
HMS
Terrible
to reinforce
Vice-Admiral
Sir Robert Calder's
squadron off
Ferrol
after a storm had reduced the squadron to only five ships of the line.
On 31 May 1805 Captain
William Brown
took command of
Ajax
. On 22 July, Calder's fleet of 15 sail of the line, two frigates, a cutter and a lugger was off
Cape Finisterre
when it encountered Admiral
Pierre-Charles Villeneuve
's combined Spanish-French fleet of 20 ships of the line, three large ships armed
en flute
, five frigates and two brigs.
Battle of Cape Finisterre, by
William Anderson
, c.1810
Calder sailed towards the French with his force. The
battle
lasted for more than four hours as the fleets became confused in the failing light and thick patchy fog, which prevented either side from gaining a decisive victory. Still, the British were able to capture two Spanish ships, the 80-gun
San Rafael
and the 74-gun
Firme
. The action cost
Ajax
two men killed and 16 wounded.
After undergoing repairs in Plymouth, on 18 September,
Ajax
and
Thunderer
, the latter under Captain
William Lechmere
, joined with Vice-Admiral
Horatio Nelson
in
HMS
Victory
and sailed from
Plymouth
for
Cadiz
on 18 September. Captains Brown and Lechmere were later called as witnesses at the court martial of Sir Robert Calder for his failure to resume the battle the next day in the action in July. As a result,
First Lieutenant
John Pilfold
commanded
Ajax
at the
Battle of Trafalgar
.
Ajax
was seventh in line in Nelson's column and she fired on both the French 74-gun
Bucentaure
and the Spanish 136-gun
Santissima Trinidad
. During the battle
Ajax
assisted
HMS
Orion
in forcing the surrender of the French 74-gun
Intrepide
.
Ajax
lost two men killed and nine wounded during the battle.
A storm followed the battle and
Ajax
rescued seamen from ships in danger of sinking. Lieutenant Pilfold received the Trafalgar medal and a direct promotion to
Post-captain
in December. Although he missed the battle, Brown was still the official captain and so too received the Trafalgar medal.
[b]
In 1847, the Admiralty awarded the
Naval General Service Medal
with clasp "Trafalgar" to all surviving claimants from the battle.
After Trafalgar,
Ajax
was at the blockade of Cadiz. On 25 November,
Thunderer
detained the
Ragusan
ship
Nemesis
, which was sailing from
Isle de France
to
Leghorn, Italy
, with a cargo of spice,
indigo dye
, and other goods.
[9]
Ajax
shared the prize money with ten other British warships.
[10]
Loss of
Ajax
[
edit
]
Duckworth's squadron forcing the Dardanelles
From January 1806
Ajax
was under the command of Captain
Henry Blackwood
.
On 1 February 1807
Ajax
joined Admiral
Sir John Duckworth's
squadron at
Malta
to participate in the
Dardanelles Operation
.
During the operation an accidental fire destroyed
Ajax
. The fire began on the evening of 14 February 1807 while
Ajax
was anchored off
Tenedos
. The fire began in the bread-room where the purser and his assistant had negligently left a light burning.
As the fire burned out of control, the officers and crew were forced to take to the water. Although 380 people were rescued, 250 lost their lives that night, including many of the crewmen who had been at Trafalgar.
Ajax
burned through the night and then drifted on to the island of Tenedos where she blew up the following morning.
Several theories for the cause of the fire were advanced including spontaneous combustion of the ship's coal and a spark falling into hay stored in the cockpit.
A court martial cleared Captain Blackwood.
Horsham Museum
[
edit
]
The Shelley Gallery
[14]
at
Horsham Museum
,
Horsham
,
United Kingdom
, displays a model of
Ajax
.
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
A first-class share of the prize money awarded in April 1823 was worth
£
34 2
s
4
d
; a fifth-class share, that of a seaman, was worth 3s 11½d. The amount was small as the total had to be shared between 79 vessels and the entire army contingent.
[8]
- ^
Brown was then made Commissioner, first of Malta dockyards and then of Sheerness dockyards, before being promoted to Rear-Admiral. Next, he became C.-in-C. Channel Islands. He died of yellow fever in 1814 while C.-in-C. Jamaica.
Citations
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- Allardyce, Alexander (1882)
Memoir of the Honourable George Keith Elphinstone, K.B., Viscount Keith, Admiral of the Red
. (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood)
- Brenton, Edward Pelham (1837).
The naval history of Great Britain, from the year MDCCLXXXIII. to MDCCCXXXVI
. Vol. 2. H. Colburn.
- Gosset, William Patrick (1986).
The lost ships of the Royal Navy, 1793-1900
. Mansell.
ISBN
0-7201-1816-6
.
- Hepper, David J. (1994).
British Warship Losses in the Age of Sail, 1650?1859
. Rotherfield: Jean Boudriot.
ISBN
0-948864-30-3
.
- Winfield, Rif (2008).
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793?1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates
. Seaforth Publishing.
ISBN
978-1-86176-246-7
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Shipwrecks
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Other incidents
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