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38-518: HMS  Pompee Commissioner Jamaica Dockyard HMS  Glory HMS  Sampson HMS  Diadem Cape of Good Hope Station Charles Stirling (28 April 1760 – 7 November 1833) was a vice-admiral in the British Royal Navy . Charles Stirling was born in London on 28 April 1760 and baptised at St. Albans on 15 May. The son of Admiral Sir Walter Stirling , he

76-456: A midshipman . James Stirling would remain under his uncle's command until 1808, and would be enormously influenced by his uncle, both professionally and personally. On 22 July 1805, Stirling took part in the Battle of Cape Finisterre under Sir Robert Calder , during which his squadron attacked the combined French and Spanish fleets off Cape Finisterre . In July 1806 he was given command of

114-699: A prison hulk between September 1810 and January 1811. She was finally broken up at Woolwich in January 1817. The acquisition of Pompée allowed the British to design a copy of the Téméraire class, the Pompée class . The Portsmouth nickname Pompey may have originated from HMS Pompee , which served as guard ship and prison hulk within Portsmouth Harbour. The northern England slang for prison

152-515: A strong French squadron arrived at the Îles des Saintes , south of Guadeloupe. There they were blockaded until 14 April, when a British force under Major-General Frederick Maitland and Captain Philip Beaver in Acasta , invaded and captured the islands. Pompee was among the naval vessels that shared in the proceeds of the capture of the islands. Pompee was fitted out for service as

190-478: A character in the book Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian . The following sources were not consulted in the writing of this article: HMS Pompee (1793) HMS Pompee was a 74-gun ship of the line of the British Royal Navy . Built as Pompée , a Téméraire -class ship of the French Navy , she was handed over to the British at Spithead by French royalists who had fled France after

228-521: A successful attack on Montevideo . He was later praised in both Houses of Parliament and in the British press for his good judgement. Shortly after the capture of Montevideo, Stirling was relieved and ordered to take up the office of naval Commander-in-Chief at the Cape of Good Hope Station . He was recalled to London after about five months. On 31 July 1810, he was promoted to vice admiral , and given

266-468: A three-masted (ship) rig. The third mast afforded the sloop greater mobility and the ability to back sail. In the 1770s, the two-masted sloop re-appeared in a new guise as the brig sloop , the successor to the former snow sloops. Brig sloops had two masts, while ship sloops continued to have three (since a brig is a two-masted, square-rigged vessel, and a ship is a square-rigger with three or more masts, though never more than three in that period). In

304-472: Is Pompey , possibly derived from criminals who may have served time aboard the prison ship Pompee . The ship's career as Portsmouth guard ship and prison hulk may have led to the ship becoming nationally associated with Portsmouth itself, although the ship's original French name becoming anglicised from Pompée to Pompey . Sloop-of-war In World War I and World War II , the Royal Navy reused

342-632: The Grimsby and Kingfisher classes, were built in the interwar years. Fleet minesweepers such as the Algerine class were rated as "minesweeping sloops". The Royal Navy officially dropped the term "sloop" in 1937, although the term remained in widespread and general use. During World War II , 37 ships of the Black Swan class were built for convoy escort duties. However, the warship-standards construction, propulsion and sophisticated armaments of

380-674: The Battle of Algeciras Bay in 1801. In 1807 the ship, under the command of Captain Richard Dacres served in the Mediterranean squadron under Rear-Admiral Sir Sydney Smith , as part of the Vice-Admiral Duckworth's Dardanelles Operation and later the Alexandria expedition of 1807 . Pompee was on her way to Barbados on 20 October 1808 when she encountered Pylade . After a chase of 18 hours, Pompee

418-612: The Bermuda area. In June 1813 Stirling was relieved and ordered to return to London. On arriving in London late in 1813, he learned that he had been recalled to face charges of accepting payment for protecting foreign seamen. The specific charges were contained in a letter written by Commissioner Wolley at Jamaica, who claimed "that His Majesty's Naval Service had been brought into disrepute in consequence of it being spoken of publicly that ships of war were hired out to convoy vessels going to

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456-584: The Bermuda sloop , both as a cruiser against French privateers , slavers, and smugglers, and also as its standard advice vessels, carrying communications, vital persons and materials, and performing reconnaissance duties for the fleets. Bermuda sloops were found with gaff rig, mixtures of gaff and square rig, or a Bermuda rig . They were built with up to three masts. The single masted ships had huge sails and harnessed tremendous wind energy, which made them demanding to sail and required large, experienced crews. The Royal Navy favoured multi-masted versions, as it

494-770: The Channel Fleet after a period of refitting. The ship retained its original French spelling of the Pompey name and not the anglicised form. From August 1795 she was under Captain James Vashon , and she was later one of the ships involved in the Spithead mutiny in 1797. Leviathan , Pompee , Anson , Melpomene , and Childers shared in the proceeds of the capture on 10 September of Tordenshiold . Under Captain Charles Stirling , she fought at

532-879: The Freedom of the City of London. He also received a sword with "gallant and meritorious conduct at the capture of the Fortress of Monte Video" inscribed on the hilt . Stirling took an extended period of leave, but in October 1811 returned to active service to take up an appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Jamaica Station . When war broke out with America, he was placed under the command of Admiral Sir John Borlase Warren in September 1812, and led his squadron in harassing American shipping and conducting coastal raids in

570-526: The Hunt class of "minesweeping sloops", those intended for minesweeping duty. The Royal Navy continued to build vessels rated as sloops during the interwar years. These sloops were small warships intended for colonial " gunboat diplomacy " deployments, surveying duties, and acting during wartime as convoy escorts. As they were not intended to deploy with the fleet, sloops had a maximum speed of less than 20 knots (37 km/h). A number of such sloops, for example

608-588: The Siege of Toulon (September–December 1793) by the French Republic, only a few months after being completed. After reaching Great Britain, Pompée was registered and recommissioned as HMS Pompee and spent the entirety of her active career with the Royal Navy until she was broken up in 1817. During the Siege of Toulon , Captain Poulain, her commanding officer, joined the British. Pompée fled Toulon when

646-425: The 18th century, most naval sloops were two-masted vessels, usually carrying a ketch or a snow rig. A ketch had main and mizzen masts but no foremast. A snow had a foremast and a main mast immediately abaft which a small subsidiary mast was fastened on which the spanker was set. The first three-masted, i.e., " ship rigged ", sloops appeared during the 1740s, and from the mid-1750s most new sloops were built with

684-563: The French had in these Seas." The Navy took Pylade into service as HMS  Vimiera . Pompee shared with Captain , Amaranthe , and Morne Fortunee in the prize money pool of £ 772 3 s 3 d for the capture of Frederick on 30 December 1808. This money was paid in June 1829. Pompee participated in the capture of Martinique in January 1809. Later, she and D'Hautpoul took part in an action on 17 April 1809 . In April 1809,

722-675: The Napoleonic period, Britain built huge numbers of brig sloops of the Cruizer class (18 guns) and the Cherokee class (10 guns). The brig rig was economical of manpower – important given Britain's chronic shortfall in trained seamen relative to the demands of the wartime fleet. When armed with carronades (32-pounders in the Cruizer class, 18-pounders in the Cherokee class), they had

760-516: The Spanish Main." Wolley cited a specific incident, when Stirling was said to have received $ 2000 for the hire of His Majesty's sloop Sappho . Aspects of the charge were dismissed, but the verdict that was handed down in May 1814 was "that the charge had been in part proved." Although it was agreed that Stirling's actions were excusable on humanitarian grounds, he had acted against regulations. He

798-541: The city fell to the French Republicans and sailed to Britain under the temporary command of Lieutenant John Davie. She arrived at Portsmouth on 3 May 1794, and was registered on the navy list under an Admiralty order dated 29 October 1794. Pompée was recommissioned as HMS Pompee under her first commanding officer, Captain Charles Edmund Nugent , in May 1795 and entered service with

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836-597: The classifications of sloops, corvettes and frigates. Instead a classification based on the intended role of the ship became common, such as cruiser and battleship . During the First World War , the sloop rating was revived by the British Royal Navy for small warships not intended for fleet deployments. Examples include the Flower classes of "convoy sloops", those designed for convoy escort, and

874-474: The equivalent of British post-ships. The Americans also occasionally used the French term corvette. In the Royal Navy , the sloop evolved into an unrated vessel with a single gun deck and three masts, two square rigged and the aft-most fore-and-aft rigged (corvettes had three masts, all of which were square-rigged). Steam sloops had a transverse division of their lateral coal bunkers in order that

912-446: The highest ratio of firepower to tonnage of any ships in the Royal Navy, albeit within the short range of the carronade. The carronades also used much less manpower than the long guns normally used to arm frigates. Consequently, the Cruizer class were often used as cheaper and more economical substitutes for frigates , in situations where the frigates' high cruising endurance was not essential. A carronade-armed brig, however, would be at

950-693: The lower division could be emptied first, to maintain a level of protection afforded by the coal in the upper bunker division along the waterline. During the War of 1812 sloops of war in the service of the United States Navy performed well against their Royal Navy equivalents. The American ships had the advantage of being ship-rigged rather than brig-rigged, a distinction that increased their manoeuvrability. They were also larger and better armed. Cruizer- class brig-sloops in particular were vulnerable in one-on-one engagements with American sloops-of-war. In

988-465: The mercy of a frigate armed with long guns, so long as the frigate maneuvered to exploit its superiority of range. The other limitation of brig sloops as opposed to post ships and frigates was their relatively restricted stowage for water and provisions, which made them less suitable for long-range cruising. However, their shallower draught made them excellent raiders against coastal shipping and shore installations. The Royal Navy also made extensive use of

1026-409: The second half of the 19th century, successive generations of naval guns became larger and with the advent of steam-powered sloops , both paddle and screw, by the 1880s even the most powerful warships had fewer than a dozen large calibre guns, and were therefore technically sloops. Since the rating system was no longer a reliable indicator of a ship's combat power, it was abolished altogether and with it

1064-596: The ship HMS  Sampson and order to convoy General Samuel Auchmuty 's troops to Buenos Aires , where he would relieve Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham , who, with troops under William Carr Beresford , had captured Buenos Aires in the first of a series of British invasions of the River Plate . By the time he arrived, Buenos Aires had been retaken by the Spanish, so after relieving Popham and transferring to Popham's ship, HMS  Diadem , Stirling aided Auchmuty in

1102-531: The sixth rate of the British Navy). The name corvette was subsequently also applied to British vessels, but not until the 1830s. American usage, while similar to British terminology into the beginning of the 19th century, gradually diverged. By about 1825 the United States Navy used "sloop-of-war" to designate a flush-deck ship-rigged warship with all armament on the gun deck; these could be rated as high as 26 guns and thus overlapped "third-class frigates,"

1140-414: The sloop of that time shared bottlenecks with destroyers and did not lend themselves to mass production on commercial shipyards, thus the sloop was supplanted by the corvette , and later the frigate , as the primary escort vessel of the Royal Navy. Built to mercantile standards and with (initially) simple armaments, these vessels, notably the Flower and River classes, were produced in large numbers for

1178-549: The term "sloop" for specialised convoy -defence vessels, including the Flower class of the First World War and the highly successful Black Swan class of the Second World War, with anti-aircraft and anti-submarine capabilities. They performed similar duties to the destroyer escorts of the United States Navy , and also performed similar duties to the smaller corvettes of the Royal Navy. A sloop-of-war

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1216-541: Was (by virtue of having too few guns) outside the rating system . In general, a sloop-of-war would be under the command of a master and commander rather than a post captain , although in day-to-day use at sea the commanding officer of any naval vessels would be addressed as "captain". A ship sloop was generally the equivalent of the smaller corvette of the French Navy (although the French term also covered ships up to 24 guns, which were classed as post ships within

1254-475: Was able to catch Pylade , which struck . Pylade was under the command of lieutenant de Vaisseau Cocherel. She was eight days out of Martinique but had not made any captures. Captain George Cockburn of Pompee described Pylade as "only Three Years old, in perfect good State, and in every Respect fit for His Majesty's Service." Her officers had also told him that she was "the fastest sailing Vessel

1292-537: Was appointed Commissioner at Jamaica Yard. Stirling was recalled to England in late 1804, and on arrival was promoted to rear admiral and hoisted his flag in the 98-gun HMS  Glory , which had been one of the famous ships involved in the Glorious First of June battle, and was now the flagship of the Rochefort squadron. Stirling immediately arranged for his nephew James to transfer to his ship as

1330-478: Was born into a family with a long and proud naval tradition. Stirling joined the Royal Navy and was promoted to captain in 1783. On 11 August 1789 he married Charlotte Grote at Greenwich , London . He was involved in the capture of Seine at the action of 30 June 1798 during which he was wounded, and took part in the July 1801 Battle of Algeciras as captain of the 74-gun HMS  Pompee . Later that year he

1368-473: Was perennially short of sailors at the end of the 18th century, and its personnel received insufficient training (particularly in the Western Atlantic, priority being given to the continuing wars with France for control of Europe). The longer decks of the multi-masted vessels also had the advantage of allowing more guns to be carried. Originally a sloop-of-war was smaller than a sailing frigate and

1406-468: Was quite different from a civilian or mercantile sloop , which was a general term for a single-masted vessel rigged in a way that would today be called a gaff cutter (but usually without the square topsails then carried by cutter-rigged vessels), though some sloops of that type did serve in the 18th century British Royal Navy , particularly on the Great Lakes of North America. In the first half of

1444-708: Was retired on half pay, and barred from further promotion. Stirling appealed in July and won a number of concessions: a restoration to flag officer status and the right to continue to be addressed as "senior vice admiral of the white". The Admiralty , however, refused to return him to active service. Stirling's wife died on 25 March 1825 at Woburn Farm, Chertsey , Surrey . Stirling was reported as seriously ill in September 1833, and he died at Woburn Farm on 7 November 1833. His only daughter Charlotte Dorothea Stirling married her cousin Charles Stirling of Muiravonside House on 1 May 1827. Charles Stirling appears as

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