View source for HMS Superb (1798)

{{short description|Ship of the line of the Royal Navy}}
{{other ships|HMS Superb}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2017}}
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{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=La Marine-Pacini-118.png
|Ship caption=HMS ''Superb'' sails away from the Spanish fleet at Algeciras Bay, while the ''Hermenegildo'' and ''Real Carlos'' explode in the background after mistakenly firing on one other. Drawing by [[Antoine Léon Morel-Fatio]].
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country=[[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]]
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|United Kingdom|naval}}
|Ship name=HMS ''Superb''
|Ship ordered=10 June 1795
|Ship builder=Pitcher, Northfleet
|Ship laid down=August 1795
|Ship launched=19 March 1798
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=
|Ship decommissioned=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship notes=*Participated in:
*[[Second Battle of Algeciras|Battle of Algeciras]]
*[[Battle of San Domingo]]
*[[Bombardment of Algiers (1816)]]
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=[[Ship breaking|Broken up]], 1826
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=<ref name="Lavery, SoLv1 p185">Lavery, Ships of the Line vol.1, p185.</ref>
|Ship class={{sclass|Pompée|ship of the line}}
|Ship tons burthen=1,919 [[Builder's Old Measurement|bm]]
|Ship length={{convert|182|ft|2|in|m|abbr=on}} (gundeck)
|Ship beam={{convert|49|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught=
|Ship hold depth={{convert|21|ft|m|abbr=on}}
|Ship sail plan=[[Full-rigged ship]]
|Ship complement=
|Ship armament=*74 guns:
*Gundeck: 28 × 32-pounder guns
*Upper gundeck: 30 × 18-pounder guns
*[[Quarterdeck|QD]]: 12 × 9-pounder guns
*[[Forecastle|Fc]]: 4 × 9-pounder guns
|Ship notes=
}}
|}
'''HMS ''Superb''''' was a 74-gun [[third-rate]] [[ship of the line]] of the [[Royal Navy]], and the fourth vessel to bear the name. She was launched on 19 March 1798 from [[Northfleet]], and was eventually broken up in 1826.<ref name="Lavery, SoLv1 p185" /> ''Superb'' is mostly associated with [[Richard Goodwin Keats]] who commanded her as captain from 1801 until his promotion in 1806. Keats famously spent only one night (in Algiers) out of the ship during four and a half years out of a home port.<ref>Hannah p.112</ref> She also served as his [[flagship]] from early 1808 until she was [[Ship commissioning#Ship decommissioning|paid off]] in 1809.
Keats's captain's orders for the ship were comprehensive and used by the fledgling US navy, being found on USS Philadelphia in 1803 and the USS President a decade later.<ref>Hannah p.81</ref>
==Battle of Algeciras Bay==
In July 1801 the ''Superb'' was stationed off [[Cadiz]] and took part in the second [[Second Battle of Algeciras|Battle of Algeciras Bay]]. During the French and Spanish retreat Admiral [[James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez|Sir James Saumarez]] hailed the ''Superb'' and ordered Keats to catch the allied fleet's rear and engage. The ''Superb'' was a relatively new ship and had not been long on blockade duty. As a consequence she was the fastest sailing ship-of-the-line in the fleet. As night fell on 12 July, Keats sailed the ''Superb'' alongside the 112-gun {{ship|Spanish ship|Real Carlos|1787|2}} on her starboard side. Another Spanish ship, the 112-gun {{ship|Spanish ship|San Hermenegildo|1789|2}},  was sailing abreast, on the port side, of the ''Real Carlos''. Keats fired into the ''Real Carlos'' and some shot passed her and struck the ''San Hermenegildo''. The ''Real Carlos'' caught fire and Keats disengaged her to continue up the line. In the darkness the two Spanish ships confused one another for British ships and began a furious duel. With the ''Real Carlos''  aflame the captain of the ''Hermenegildo'' determined to take advantage and crossed the ''Real Carlos''’ stern in order to deal a fatal broadside that would run the length of the ship through the unprotected stern. A sudden gust of wind brought the two ships together and entangled their rigging. The ''Hermenegildo'' also caught fire and the two enormous three-deck ships exploded. The ''Superb'' continued on relatively unscathed and engaged the French 74-gun {{ship|French ship|Saint Antoine||2}} under [[Commodore (rank)|Commodore]] Julien le Roy. The ''Saint Antoine'' [[Striking the colors|struck]] after a fierce exchange of broadsides.<ref name="LG11">{{London Gazette|issue=15392|date=3 August 1800|page=946}}</ref><ref name="ABO46">{{Cite book | last = Longman |author2=Rees |author3=Orme |author4=Brown |author5=Green |author6=Longman| title = The Annual Biography and Obituary 1835, Volume 29 | publisher = Fisher, Son and Jackson | year = 1837 |page=46}}, Hannah 63-84.</ref>
Following the treaty of Amiens she was stationed in the Mediterranean keeping watch over the French in Toulon. On renewal of the wars Nelson took command of the Mediterranean fleet, including Keats and the Superb. They accompanied Nelson in the pursuit of Villeneuve to the West Indies and back.  The ''Superb'', now three years out of home port, was in a poor state, giving rise to the poem "The Old Superb" by [[Henry Newbolt]] (set to music in 1904 by [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]] in his ''[[Songs of the Sea (Stanford)|Songs of the Sea]]'').<ref name="ReferenceA">Hannah p.109</ref>  As early as May 1804 Nelson wrote "the Superb must be sent to England before that period [winter] arrives, as her stem and the knees of her head are loose and broke—nothing but the great exertions of Captain Keats has kept her at sea this last season".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> On their return to Cadiz the ''Superb'' was ordered home for a refit—which resulted in the ship, captain and crew missing Trafalgar.<ref>Hannah p.123–5</ref>
==Battle of San Domingo==
She was the flagship of Admiral [[John Thomas Duckworth]], with [[Richard Goodwin Keats]] her captain when they reached Cadiz after Trafalgar and were ordered to maintain the blockade of the remaining French fleet.
Duckworth abandoned the blockade in pursuit of a French squadron reported to have been in the Atlantic near Madeira. Duckworth came across another squadron in the West Indies which lead the [[Battle of San Domingo]], (the last fleet battle of the age of sail on the open sea) in which the English destroyed or captured nearly the entirety of the French squadron, the frigates only escaping.<ref name="ABO47">{{Cite book | last = Longman |author2=Rees |author3=Orme |author4=Brown |author5=Green |author6=Longman| title = The Annual Biography and Obituary 1835, Volume 29 | publisher = Fisher, Son and Jackson | year = 1837 |page=47}}, Hannah, 127-140</ref>
==Copenhagen and the Baltic==
On 26 July 1808, ''Superb'', {{HMS|Monkey|1801|2}}, and {{HMS|Baltic|1808|2}} captured ''Falck and Kline Wiloelm''.<ref>{{London Gazette|date=31 July 1810|issue=16392|page=1148}}</ref>
''Superb'' was commissioned in December 1809 under the command of Captain Samuel Jackson. She went out to the Baltic as Keats's flagship, and was part of the squadron there under Admiral Sir James Saumarez. There she was engaged in convoy duties in the Sound and Great Belt protecting British merchants from the predation of Danish gun-boats.<ref>Hannah p.162–7</ref>
The squadron under Keats's command, including the Superb successfully undertook the [[evacuation of La Romana's division]] of the Spanish northern army from the Danish islands, taking the port of Nyborg, commandeering 57 small boats in the harbour and transferring the men to nearby Langeland before forming a convoy upwards of 70 craft taking the 9,000 men to Gothenburg.<ref>Hannah p.169 et. seq</ref>
Superb returned to Portsmouth, and underwent repairs between September 1811 and November 1812, before commissioning in September 1812 under Captain [[Charles Paget (Royal Navy officer)|Charles Paget]].
==War of 1812==
Paget was appointed to command ''Superb'' as part of the Channel Fleet, and during a cruise in the [[Bay of Biscay]] he took several prizes.
On 13 February 1813 {{ship||Star|1812 ship|2}}, which had been sailing from New York to Bordeaux, arrived at [[Bideford]]. She was a prize to ''Superb''.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.c2735022?urlappend=%3Bseq=317|title=The Marine List|work=Lloyd's List|issue=4747|date=16 February 1813|hdl=2027/uc1.c2735022?urlappend=%3Bseq=317 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref> Captain Paget described the prize as "the fine
American brig Star, of three hundred and fifty tons, six guns, and thirty-five men."<ref name=LG16705>{{London Gazette|date=20 February 1813|issue=16705|page=377}}</ref>
In 1814 ''Superb'' was employed on the coast of [[North America]] under the orders of Sir [[Alexander Cochrane]] and took part in an attack upon [[Wareham, Massachusetts]] during the [[War of 1812]].<ref name=gent>Obituary of Vice Admiral Sir Charles Paget in [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZuoIAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA658&dq=%22charles+paget%22+admiral&ei=6GckR6mLLYv07gLanu3qBw#PRA1-PA657,M1 The Gentleman's Magazine] 1839, p 657-8, accessed 28 October 2007</ref>
==Citations==
{{reflist|30em}}
==References==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book | last=Hannah| first=Peter | title=Treasure to the Service | publisher=Green Hill Publishing | date=2021 | isbn=1-922629-73-1 | oclc=1286142765}}
* {{cite book | last=Lavery | first=Brian | title=The ship of the line | publisher=Conway Maritime Press | publication-place=London | date=1983 | isbn=0-85177-252-8 | oclc=10361880}}
{{refend}}
==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline|HMS Superb (ship, 1798)}}
{{Pompée class ship of the line}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Superb (1798)}}
[[Category:Ships of the line of the Royal Navy]]
[[Category:Pompée-class ships of the line]]
[[Category:1798 ships]]
[[Category:War of 1812 ships of the United Kingdom]]