Naval/Maritime History - 20th of August - Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History (2025)

Today in Naval History - Naval / Maritime Events in History
Other events on 13 April

1617 April 13 - Spanish under Ribera vs Venetians

1716 – Death of Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington, English admiral and politician (b. 1648)

Admiral Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Torrington (c. 1648 – 13 April 1716) was an English admiral and politician. Dismissed by King James II in 1688 for refusing to vote to repeal the Test Act, which prevented Roman Catholics from holding public office, he brought the Invitation to William to the Prince of Orange at The Hague, disguised as a simple sailor. As a reward he was made commander of William's invasion fleet which landed at Torbay in Devon on 5 November 1688 thus initiating the Glorious Revolution.

1731 – Launch of HMS Buckingham, a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard to the 1719 Establishment,

HMS Buckingham

was a 70-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built at Deptford Dockyard to the 1719 Establishment, and launched on 13 April 1731.
Buckingham served until 1745 when she was broken up.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Buckingham_(1731)

1733 – Launch of spanish África (San Jose) 60 (launched 13 April 1733) - Scuttled 1741

África class, 60 guns
África (San Jose) 60 (launched 13 April 1733) - Scuttled 1741
Europa (Nuestra Señora del Pilar) 60 (launched May 1734 at Havana) - Scuttled 1762
Asia (Nuestra Señora de Loreto) 60 (launched 18 December 1735 at Havana) - Stricken 1746
América (Nuestra Señora de Bethlehen) 60 (launched 21 January 1736 at Havana) - Captured by Britain 1762, released?

1769 Captain Cook arrives at Tahiti

1778 HMS Victory (100), Cptn. Jonathan Faulknor, sailed on first commissioned voyage

1805 – Launch of Streatham was launched in 1805 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC).

Streatham was launched in 1805 as an East Indiaman for the British East India Company (EIC). She made seven voyages for the EIC. On her second voyage the French captured her, but the British Royal Navy recaptured her some months later. She was broken up in 1821.

1809 April 13–17 - British capture French battleship near Porto Rico

1812 – Launch of HMS Nymphe, Lively class were a successful class of sixteen British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates

The Lively class were a successful class of sixteen British Royal Navy 38-gun sailing frigates.

HMS Macedonian (left) of the Lively class, painting of its engagement with USS United States, 1812, by Thomas Birch

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lively-class_frigate

1816 – Launch of HMS Pallas, an Apollo-class sailing frigates were a series of twenty-seven ships that the British Admiralty commissioned be built to a 1798 design by Sir William Rule.

The Apollo-class sailing frigates were a series of twenty-seven ships that the British Admiralty commissioned be built to a 1798 design by Sir William Rule. Twenty-five served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, two being launched too late.
Of the 25 ships that served during the Napoleonic Wars, only one was lost to enemy action. Of the entire class of 27 ships, only two were lost to wrecking, and none to foundering.
The Admiralty ordered three frigates in 1798–1800. Following the Peace of Amiens, it ordered a further twenty-four sister-ships to the same design between 1803 and 1812. The last was ordered to a fresh 38-gun design. Initially, the Admiralty split the order for the 24 vessels equally between its yards and commercial yards, but two commercial yards failed to perform and the Admiralty transferred these orders to its own dockyards, making the split 14–10 as between the Admiralty and commercial yards.

The inscription on this print lists 'Apollo' as a frigate of 44 guns. However, she is listed, and apparently shown in the picture, as a 5th rate of 38 guns. She is depicted fully rigged in port broadside view. Another naval vessel sits on the horizon in the far distance to the left of the composition. 'Apollo' served in the French Revolutionary Wars, capturing two French ships during 1798. She was wrecked off the coast of Holland on 7 January, 1799, while pursuing a Dutch vessel. Hand-coloured; technique includes roulette work.

1816 – Launch of HMS Pitt was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1816 at Portsmouth.

HMS Pitt

was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 13 April 1816 at Portsmouth.
Pitt was hulked in 1853, and was broken up in 1877.

Scale: 1:48. Contemporary copy of a plan showing the body plan, sheer lines, and longitudinal half-breadth for 'Conquestadore' (1810), 'Armada' (1810), 'Vigo' (1810), 'Cressey' (1810), 'La Hogue' (1811), 'Vindictive' (1813), 'Poictiers' (1809), 'Vengeur' (1810), 'Edinburgh' (1811), 'Dublin' (1812), 'Duncan' (1811), 'Indus' (1812), 'Rodney' (1809), 'Cornwall' (1812), 'Redoutable' (1815), 'Anson' (1812), 'Agincourt' (1817), 'Ajax' (1809), 'America' (1810), 'Barham' (1811), 'Benbow' (1813), 'Berwick' (1809), 'Blenheim' (1813), 'Clarence' (1812), 'Defence' (1815), 'Devonshire' (1812), 'Egmont' (1810), 'Hercules' (1815), 'Medway' (1812), 'Pembroke' (1812), 'Pitt' (1816), 'Russell' (1822), 'Scarborough' (1812), 'Stirling Castle' (1811), 'Wellington' (1816), 'Mulgrave' (1812), 'Gloucester' (1812), all 74-gun Third Rate, two-deckers. The plan includes alterations for a rounded bow and circular stern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Pitt_(1816)

1904 - Death of Stepan Osipovich Makarov (Russian: Степа́н О́сипович Мака́ров; 8 January 1849 [O.S. 27 December] – 13 April [O.S. 31 March] 1904) was a Russian vice-admiral

Stepan Osipovich Makarov

(Russian: Степа́н О́сипович Мака́ров; 8 January 1849 [O.S. 27 December] – 13 April [O.S. 31 March] 1904) was a Russianvice-admiral, a highly accomplished and decorated commander of the Imperial Russian Navy, an oceanographer, awarded by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and author of several books. Makarov also designed a small number of ships. The town of Shiritoru on Sakhalin island was renamed Makarovin 1946 in his honor.

1941 - HMS Rajputana – On 13 April 1941, four days after parting company with convoy HX 117, the British armed merchant cruiser was torpedoed by U-108 in the Denmark Strait west of Reykjavík, Iceland. She sank over an hour later with the loss of 42 men and 283 of her crew were saved by the destroyer HMS Legion.

SS Rajputana

was a British passenger and cargo carrying ocean liner. She was built for the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company at the Harland and Wolff shipyard at Greenock on the lower River Clyde, Scotland in 1925. She was one of the P&O R-class liners from 1925 that had much of their interiors designed by Lord Inchcape's daughter Elsie Mackay. Named after the Rajputana region of western India, she sailed on a regular route between England and British India.

She was requisitioned into the Royal Navy on the onset of World War II and commissioned in December 1939 as the armed merchant cruiser HMS Rajputana. The installation of eight six-inch guns gave her the firepower of a light cruiser without the armoured protection. She was torpedoed and sunk off Iceland on 13 April 1941, after escorting a convoy across the North Atlantic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Rajputana

1942 USS Roper ended with the sinking by artillery fire of German submarine U-85 (1941) U-85,

USS Roper (DD-147) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy, later converted to a high-speed transport and redesignated APD-20.
She was named for Lieutenant Commander Jesse M. Roper, commanding officer of Petrel, who died in 1901 while attempting to rescue a member of his crew. As of 2016, no other ships in the United States Navy have borne this name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Roper_(DD-147)

1942 - USS Grayling (SS 209) sinks the Japanese freighter Ryujin Maru off southest tip of Shikoku, Japan.

1944 - USS Harder (SS 257) sinks the Japanese destroyer Ikazuchi, 180 miles SSW of Guam.