|
} |} HMS ''Cameleon'' (or ''Camelion'') was a Royal Navy ''Diligence''-class brig-sloop, launched in 1795. She was built of fir (pitch pine), which allowed for rapid construction, but at the expense of durability. She captured some small vessels and a privateer, and served in the Mediterranean before being laid up in 1805, and broken up in 1811. ==French Revolutionary Wars== ''Cameleon'' was commissioned in November 1795 under Commander Richard Bennet. Commander Richard Boyer replaced Bennet in February 1796. Boyer sailed ''Cameleon'' for the Mediterranean on 22 February.〔 On 5 November 1796 ''Camelion'' captured the ''Gustaf Frederick'' and eight days later the ''Nostra Senora del Carmen''. On 24 February 1797, ''Cameleon'' captured the French vessels ''Elizabeth'' and ''Trois Enfants''. Two days later ''Cameleon'' captured the ''By Geval''. Between May and September, Lieutenant Viscount Falkland was acting captain of ''Cameleon''. Boyer returned to command in November,〔''Naval Chronicle'', Vol. 3, p.573.〕 and on 1 March 1798 was 10 leagues north of Guernsey when he sighted a cutter. ''Cameleon'' gave chase, but the wind was slight and the cutter's crew was able to row her to the safety under the guns on the Île de Batz. Boyer stated in his letter reporting the action that if he had had three more leagues he would have captured the cutter. Still, the next day, ''Cameleon'' was more fortunate. At 3am she sighted another cutter, gave chase, and an hour later captured the privateer ''Souffleur''. ''Souffleur'' was armed with four guns, two swivel guns, and had a crew of 40 men. She was 13 days out of Cherbourg and had captured four British vessels, the masters of three of which were aboard.〔 The four British merchant vessels were: *Sloop ''Peggy'', of Cardigan, James Prichard, master, which had been sailing from Dover to Penzance, with wheat and barley; *Brig ''Camilla'', John M'Kenzie, master, which had been sailing from Hull to Plymouth with cod; *''Delaval'', Charles Mann, master, which had been sailing from Sunderland to Plymouth with coals; and *''Betsey'', of Guernsey, Thomas Townsend, master, which had been carrying wine to Plymouth. Bowyer sent his prisoners into Portsmouth,〔''Lloyd's List'',() - accessed 25 January 2014.〕 and set off in chase of the privateer's prizes.〔 In June 1798 Commander John Stiles became captain of ''Cameleon'',〔 〕 replacing Bowyer.〔 ''Cameleon'' spent the year cruising and escorting convoys.〔 Around October 1798, ''Cameleon''s boats cut the sloop ''Four Friends'' out of the Havre roads. ''Four Friends'' had been sailing from Portsmouth to Deptford when the French captured her. Unfortunately, ''Four Friends'' was lost in a gale off Beachy Head.〔''Lloyd's List'',() - accessed 25 January 2014.〕 Stile sailed ''Cameleon'' to the Mediterranean on 4 March 1799.〔 ''Cameleon'' arrived at Gibraltar on 5 May, having passed through a French squadron some eight or nine leagues west of Cape Spartel. The next day ''Cameleon'' departed for Malta to inform Captain Alexander Ball, who was in charge of the naval blockade at the siege of Malta, that the French fleet was in the Mediterranean. She was then to go on to Alexandria to also inform Sir Sidney Smith.〔Brenton (1823), p.358.〕 Smith, in a later letter to Earl Spencer, alludes to mutinous conduct aboard ''Cameleon'', and hopes that Stiles has rendered "His dissatisfied ship's company ashamed of ''their'' late conduct."〔Barrow )1848), Vol. 2, pp.26-27.〕 Shortly thereafter, on 14 June, Stiles was promoted to post captain on .〔Marshall (1824), Vol. 2, Part 1, p.228.〕 (Captain Ralph Miller, her previous captain, had died in an explosion on board on 14 May.〔Nelson (1845), Vol. 3, p.461.〕) Lord Nelson had intended to appoint Commander Edward Canes, first lieutenant of , to command ''Cameleon''.〔Nelson (1845), Vol. 3, pp.455 & 461.〕 However, when Lieutenant Frederick Lewis Maitland returned from captivity shortly after the Spanish captured his command, the hired armed cutter ''Penelope'' in the Action of 7 July 1799, Earl St Vincent promoted Maitland to commander, the promotion being backdated to 14 June, and gave him command of ''Cameleon''. Maitland commanded her off the coast of Egypt, under Sir Sidney Smith until the signing of the convention of al-'Arish on 24 January 1800. Maitland was sent home overland with dispatches, but quickly returned to his command until Lord Keith moved him to the command of the storeship . By April 1800 ''Cameleon'' was under the command of Lieutenant Samuel Jackson (acting).〔 Between April and mid-May, ''Cameleon'' was part of a three-vessel naval squadron that, at the behest of Admiral Lord Keith, supported the Austrian force besieging the fortress of Savona. The naval force was under the command of Captain Hugh Downman in the frigate , and also included the Neapolitan brig ''Strombolo'', under Captain Settimo. The little squadron's boats rowed guard off the harbour's mouth for 41 nights; the famished garrison surrendered to the allies on 15 May.〔James (1837), Vol. 3, p.9.〕 Although ''Cameleon'' was committed to the blockade, she managed to share in a number of captures by other vessels. On 14 April and captured the ''St. Rosalia''. ''Cameleon'' was among the five vessels with which ''Phaeton'' had to share her share of the proceeds due to a prior agreement. Next, ''Cameleon'' was among the vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture off Genoa, on 28 April, of the ''Proteus''. On 3 May, captured eight vessels in Anguilla Bay: *''Stella de Nort''; *''Santa Maria''; *''Nostra Senora del Carmine''; *''Fiat Volantes Deus''; *''Nostra Signora del Assunta''; *''Nostra Signora de Sonsove''; *''San Nicolas''; and *''San Joseph'' (''San Giuseppe''). ''Phaeton'' and ''Cameleon'' shared in the capture. ''Mutine'', ''Phaeton'' and ''Cameleon'' also shared in the capture five days later of eleven Genoese vessels.〔 The first eight were captured at St Remo:〔 *Polacre ship ''St. Giovanni'', which was sailing in ballast from St Remo; *Polacre brig ''Achille'', which was sailing from Marseilles to Genoa with a cargo of corn and wine; *Polacre barque ''St. Antonio'', which was sailing from Cette to Genoa with a cargo of wine; *Polacre brig ''Santa'' (''Assunta''), which was sailing from Ard to Port Maurice with a cargo of wine; *Polacre ship ''Conception'', sailing in ballast to Port Maurice; *Polacre ship ''Madona del Carmine'', sailing from Cette to Genoa with a cargo of wine; *Settee ''Signora del Carmine'', which was sailing from Marseilles to Genoa with a cargo of corn; *Settee ''St. Giuseppe'', which was sailing from Marseilles to Port Maurice with a cargo of corn; *Settee ''Immaculate Conception'', which was sailing from Cette to Genoa with a cargo of wine; *Settee ''Amina Purgatorio'', which sailing from Cette to Genoa with a cargo of wine; and *Settee ''Virgine Rosaria'', which was sailing from Cette to Genoa with a cargo of wine. ''Camelion'' was among the 19 vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of sundry boats of unknown name that carried corn into Genoa between 7 June (the day the city fell after a siege of some 60 days), and 16 June. By 14 June ''Cameleon'' was under the command of Commander the Honourable George Dundas as she and ''Salamine'' shared in the capture on that day of the Genoese brig ''Anima Purgatoria'', which was sailing from Bastia to Saleolight (). On 4 August ''Cameleon'' captured the Genoese boat ''St. Antonio di Padova''. On 4 August Maitland was again in command of ''Camelion''. On that day he was captain of ''Cameleon'' when she captured the Corsican privateer felucca ''Providence''. ''Providence'', of Bastia, was armed with two guns and carried a crew of 23 men. Sixteen days later, ''Camelion'' drove a Spanish ketch, name unknown, on shore off the mouth of the Rhone. Maitland burnt the ketch, which had been armed with six guns. By December, ''Cameleon'' was under the command of Commander James Dalrymple (acting).〔 Maitland, however, had again returned to command her by the time of the British expedition to Egypt. On 1 March 1801, some 70 British warships under the command of Admiral Lord Keith, ''Cameleon'' among them, together with transports carrying 16,000 troops, anchored in Abu Qir Bay near Alexandria. The objective of the operation was the defeat of the French expeditionary force that had remained in Egypt after Napoleon's return to France. Bad weather delayed disembarkation by a week but, on 8 March, Captain Alexander Cochrane of HMS ''Ajax'' gave the signal and deployed 320 boats, in double line abreast, to bring the troops ashore. French shore batteries opposed the landing, but the British were able to drive them back. During the landing ''Cameleon'' was anchored as near as possible with her broadside to the shore, and suffered one seaman wounded in the operation. By the next day, all of Sir Ralph Abercromby's British army was ashore. The British then defeated the French army at the Battle of Alexandria. The Siege of Alexandria followed, with the city falling on 2 September 1801. Because ''Cameleon'' served in the navy's Egyptian campaign between 8 March and 2 September 1801, her officers and crew qualified for the clasp "Egypt" to the Naval General Service Medal that the Admiralty issued in 1847 to all surviving claimants. ''Cameleon'' was among the nine vessels (one of the them the Turkish vessel ''Zephyr''), that shared in the proceeds of the capture on 29 June of the ''St Antonio di Padua''. In September ''Cameleon''s cutter and jolly boat commanded by Lieutenant Richard Spencer and master's mate Charles Royer brought off from the beach near Tarragona a Spanish felucca mounting two 6-punder guns and two swivels, one of three that had run ashore at the approach of the boats. The British threw overboard the guns on the other two feluccas when they were unable to get the vessels off due to small arms fire from soldiers on the beach.〔Marshall (1829), Supplement, Part 3, pp.40-44.〕 On 15 May 1802, Keith promoted Lieutenant Thomas Staines to Commander and command of ''Cameleon'' in the Mediterranean. The appointment was confirmed on 24 July. During the short peace, ''Cameleon'' served by maintaining communications between Malta and Naples.〔Marshall (1827), Supplement, Part 1, pp.83-86.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Cameleon (1795)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|
