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The third HMS ''Shannon'' was a 36-gun frigate of the British Royal Navy built at Frindsbury on the River Medway on the Thames Estuary. She was completed on 3 September 1803 during the Napoleonic Wars. Her name was changed from ''Pallas'' to ''Shannon'' shortly before construction, traditionally an omen of bad luck for a ship. In her case, she was wrecked within three months of her being launched. ==Wreck== She was attached to the Channel fleet and spent the next few months under her captain, Edward Leveson-Gower, on patrol off the Cape La Hogue searching for French coastal shipping and privateers attempting to slip out of the Normandy port of Cherbourg. The 18-gun brig HMS ''Merlin'', under Edward Pelham Brenton, accompanied her. At 8pm on 10 December, just three months after she was completed, the ship was lost on Tatihou Island, near Barfleur, directly under an enemy battery. There was a heavy gale blowing and in the darkness, Leveson-Gower lost his position after losing sight of the Barfleur lighthouse. Assuming he had sea room, he attempted to wear around; a lee tide caught ''Shannon'' and crashed her straight onto the rocks.〔Hepper (1994), p. 103.〕 ''Merlin'' spotted land thanks to a bolt of lighting and was able to wear off in time. Efforts overnight to lighten ''Shannon'' succeeded in that eventually she floated, but she was so full of water that she grounded again and it was evident that she was lost. During these efforts, a French battery fired on ''Shannon'', striking her with some 60 shots and killing three men wounding eight.〔 At 8:30p.m. ''Shannon'' struck.〔 The surviving crew were able to scramble ashore unharmed, where the French troops garrisoning the battery above the wreck captured them. Some French fishing boats led by Ensign Lacroix took possession of ''Shannon'', and saw that her hull was so damaged that she would be impossible to refloat.〔Troude, p.306〕 ''Merlin'' stood back into shore on the 16th and at 11.30am dispatched two boats of marines and sailors to destroy ''Shannon'' to prevent the French from salvaging her guns and stores. Despite heavy fire from the island's batteries the boarders were able to burn and destroy the frigate without suffering a single casualty.〔Troude (p.306) states that the burning of ''Shannon'' occurred in the night of 16 December, while salvaging operations were proceeding.〕 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 Shannon (1803)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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