Plan showing a part midship section for Rippon
History
Royal Navy EnsignUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Rippon
Ordered1 January 1808
BuilderRichard Blake & John Scott, Bursledon
Laid downOctober 1808
Launched8 August 1812
FateBroken up 1821
General characteristics [1]
Class and typeArmada-class ship of the line
Tons burthen1770 bm
Length
  • Overall:176 ft 4 in (53.7 m)
  • Keel:145 ft 1+3⁄4 in (44.2 m)
Beam47 ft 10+1⁄2 in (14.6 m)
Depth of hold21 ft 0+1⁄2 in (6.4 m)
PropulsionSails
Sail planFull-rigged ship
Armament
  • Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
  • Upper gundeck: 28 × 18-pounder guns
  • QD: 4 × 12-pounder guns + 10 × 32-pounder carronades
  • Fc: 2 × 12-pounder guns + 2 × 32-pounder carronades
  • PD: 6 × 18-pounder carronades

HMS Rippon was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 8 August 1812 at Bursledon. She was broken up in 1821.

Career

Capture of Weser: On 30 September 1813, the French frigate Weser, under the command of capitaine de vaisseau Cantzlaat, Chevalier de l'Ordre Impérial de la Réunion, sailed from the Texel for the North Sea. There she captured two Swedish ships before a gale on 16 October took away her main and mizzen mast. Two days later HMS Scylla, Commander Colin Macdonald, captain, encountered her 60 leagues west of Ushant, making her way towards Brest under jury main and mizzen masts. Rather than engage her and risk being crippled and so unable to follow her given the weather, Macdonald decided to follow her.[2]

Fortuitously, on 20 October, HMS Royalist, Commander J.J. Gordon Bremer, captain, arrived and Macdonald and Bremer decided to attack Weser. They engaged her for about an hour and a half before they had to withdraw to repair their rigging. At about this time a third British vessel, Rippon, Captain Christopher Cole, came up. Bremer joined Cole and informed him of the situation while Scylla remained with Weser.[2]

The next morning, as Rippon and Royalist sailed towards Scylla to renew their attack, Weser sailed towards Rippon and struck, after first firing two broadsides towards Scylla. Scylla suffered only two men wounded in the entire engagement. Royalist suffered more heavily, having two men killed and nine wounded. Weser lost four men killed and 15 wounded.[2]

Rippon took Weser's crew on board as prisoners and towed her into port. The Royal Navy took her into service as HMS Weser.[2][a]

In 1814 Rippon sailed with troops to North America.[1]

Fate

Rippon was paid off into Ordinary in August 1814. Two years later she was roofed over. She was broken up in March 1821.[1]

Notable crew members

Notes

  1. ^ A first-class share of the prize money was worth £190 1s 3+3⁄4d; a sixth-class share, that of an ordinary seaman, was worth £1 11s 3d.[3]

Citations

  1. ^ a b c Winfield (2008), p. 82.
  2. ^ a b c d "No. 16793". The London Gazette. 23 October 1813. pp. 2119–2120.
  3. ^ "No. 17041". The London Gazette. 18 July 1815. pp. 1462–1463.

References

  • 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.


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