What do we know about the squadron that evacuated Moore's force after Corunna?
score:10
The Naval Chronicle (Vol 21) gives some additional information on the rescue fleet (that gives a significantly larger value for the number of transports).
Plymouth, Jan. 23.
Arrived this morning the Barfleur, of 100 guns, Rear-admiral Hood; Tonnant, of 80 guns, Rear-admiral de Courcy; Victory, of 100 guns; Implacable, Resolution, Norge, Elizabeth, and Zealous, of 74 guns each; Amazon, Unicorn and Endymion frigates; Mediator store-ship; and Parthian sloop of war, from Corunna; whence they sailed on Wednesday last, with about 400 sail of transports under convoy: nearly 100 of the latter have arrived here in the course of the day, with troops; the remainder are in the channel, under convoy of four sail of the line, and the greatest part will probably put in here.
So in addition to the ships mentioned in KillingTime's answer, it would appear that the following ships were also present in the operation at Corunna:
HMS Tonnant was an 80-gun third rate under Captain Richard Hanc**k and carrying the flag of Rear-Admiral Michael de Courcy (Captured from the French at the battle of the Nile).
The following were 74-gun third rates:
HMS Implacable under Captain George MacKensie (also a former French vessel captured after the battle of Trafalgar).
HMS Resolution under Captain George Burlton.
HMS Norge under Captain Edmund Boger (A former Danish ship captured at Copenhagen in 1807)
HMS Elizabeth under Captain Henry Curzon.
HMS Zealous under Captain Thomas Boys.
The Fifth rate frigates were:
HMS Amazon which was rated as 38-gun.
HMS Unicorn which was rated as 32-gun.
HMS Endymion which was rated as 44-gun (and went onto become famous for the capture of USS President).
The Mediator was originally constructed as an East Indiaman and had been converted initially as a 44-gun warship but only served as a store ship at Corunna (under Commander George Blamey).
The Parthian was a Cherokee class sloop of 10 guns under Commander Richard Harward.
Neither the Amazon nor the Unicorn mention Corunna in their service logs so these may have joined the returning fleet in the Channel.
While it's not mentioned in the quoted passage above, it appears that the Audacious (a sister ship of the Zealous) was also present at Corunna, under the command of Captain Thomas le Marchant Gosselin. This would bring the count of "two-deckers" to seven matching the number given in the earlier answer.
While the bulk of the army was taken on board the transports, the naval warships took their share too:
The Barfleur crammed in 819 soldiers, small groups of officers and men from as many as twenty-three different regiments. Together with the crew of 500 seamen, a remarkable total of 1,371 men were on board. The larger, 110-gun Ville de Paris had a crew of 600 but embarked 743 soldiers, making a total of 1,343, among them General Sir David Baird and his staff, 40 soldiers' wives and 7 children. The boats of the 74-gun Audacious destroyed the beached transports and took off General Hope, his staff and stragglers, taking a total of 308 soldiers to Portsmouth. Among the rescued on this ship were 13 wives and children and 33 French prisoners.
Britain Against Napoleon, R.Knight (Allen Lane, 2013) pg. 204
Upvote:8
I'm not sure that I've the depth of information that you require but the following might be of use as a pointer for others.
Transportation of troops (and all their supplies) during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars was the responsibility of the appropriately named Transportation Board.
The commencement of the Peninsular War vastly increased the commitment of the Transportation Board to provide for 'the hiring and appropriating of ship's and vessels for the conveyance of troops and baggage, victualling, ordnance, barrack, commissariat, naval and military stores of all kinds'. By 1810 the tonnage employed on this service amounted to about 980 vessels amounting to 250,000 tons burthen, about a tenth of the British merchant marine.
The Victory of Seapower, R. Woodman (Chatham, 1998), pg 158
It was principally vessels of the Transport Service, under the command of Captain James Bowen, that were responsible for the evacuation of Moore's army at Corunna (for which he received the thanks of both Houses of Parliament).
Unfortuately, histories of the Royal Navy tend to concentrate on the warships and details of the other vessels employed by it are scant.
Regarding the evacuation at Corunna,
[Moore's] army reached Coruña on 11 January 1809, seeing the masts of 140 ships 'with indescribable feelings'. These however, turned out to be hospital and store ships, Commissioner Bowen's transports being wind-bound at Vigo, where it had been supposed Moore would go and whither he had sent Craufurd's Light Brigade. Fortunately Soult was delayed in bringing up his guns and Moore prepared to wait, embarking his sick and filling the storeships.
...On the 13th the British rearguard were dislodged from their position and fell back on the town: the battle of Coruña had begun.
The following evening 110 transports, escorted by the Ville de Paris, Victory, Barfleur, seven two-deckers and two frigates, stood into the bay. Moore retained a handful of guns and began the embarkation at once with Soult now forcing the pace...So tightly packed were many of the transports, ships of no more than 200 tons, that in one an officer was posted with sword drawn to prevent the packed men from moving about as the ship heaved in the heavy weather. Some of the exhausted infantry were still asleep when Bowen arrived at Portsmouth and their condition shook the public, but seapower had extricated a force of 28,000 men.
The Victory of Seapower, R. Woodman (Chatham, 1998), pg 163
So the British 'squadron' consisted of over 260 ships, of which just 12 were warships. Of the warships;
HMS Ville de Paris was a 110-gun first rate under the command of Captain John Carden.
HMS Victory was a 98-gun second rate under the command of Captain John Searle (she had been reduced from a first rate in January 1808)
HMS Barfleur was also a 98-gun second rate under the command of Captain Samuel Linzee, carrying the flag of Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood.
The "two-deckers" would have been third rates of 80- or 74- guns.
Ref: British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817, R.Winfield (Seaforth, 2005)
More post
- 📝 Is there evidence that Harald Bluetooth died from an arrow to the rear?
- 📝 What happened to the census records kept in the Atrium Libertatis?
- 📝 No speed limit on German highways - why?
- 📝 At what date did the Ostrogoths formally stop ruling as Roman tributaries?
- 📝 What happened to all the notable Roman families?
- 📝 Were there trains to anonymous concentration camps?
- 📝 Why was the Roman Empire considered an empire rather than a kingdom (again)?
- 📝 Purple in Roman History
- 📝 Popularity of knight-robbery in the 15th century in Germany, Poland and Silesia
- 📝 What factors enabled the New York Journal to survive the yellow journalism wars?
- 📝 Were there many instances when an "overaged" commander was at odds with a much younger second in command?
- 📝 What are some other celebrated military failures, besides Gallipoli?
- 📝 Why did the French sell Louisiana?
- 📝 What were the names of the spy rings besides Culper during the Revolutionary War?
- 📝 Was there ever an occurrence of diplomatic communication using food?
- 📝 Has there been a war in which the South conquered the North?
- 📝 How did currency exchange work in the Middle Ages, especially if the coins are not recognized?
- 📝 How did modern border security and crossing bureaucracy develop?
- 📝 What was the banquet of chestnuts?
- 📝 How many people lived in the Mexican territories annexed by the US?
- 📝 What is the origin of the subdivisions of Heaven and Hell?
- 📝 What historical evidence do we have for the Prophet Muhammed?
- 📝 Are stories passed down from generation to generation considered primary sources?
- 📝 Why were fragments of the Mongol empire named after colors?
- 📝 What is the meaning behind this Panama joke published in a 1914 newspaper?
- 📝 When did the Egyptians stop wrapping their dead in bandages?
- 📝 Has any losing general in history tried to save his mens' lives by offering to disband, rather than surrender, his army?
- 📝 How young were children left alive in Auschwitz?
- 📝 How did women give birth in middle ages?
- 📝 How was the safety of allied leaders ensured in transportation for conferences during WW2?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What do we know about the squadron that evacuated Moore's force after Corunna?
- 📝 What disruptions were brought about by Islam that the Arabians saw so many victories?
- 📝 What historical evidence is there for the existence of Jesus Christ? What do we know about him?
- 📝 What did the average German citizen know about the war?
- 📝 What is the reason that not all roman emperors named a month after them?
- 📝 What did the Soviets know about the Hunger Plan during WWII?
- 📝 What do I need to know about Syria's history to understand the 2011-2012 uprising?
- 📝 What do we know about the organizational structure of the Library of Alexandria?
- 📝 Considering what was known about Hitler in 1933, why would German bishops declare that Catholics could cooperate with the new State?
- 📝 After World War II, what happened to the Soviet industrial facilities that had been evacuated?
- 📝 What did the Jews during the First Jewish-Roman War know about other anti-Roman revolts?
- 📝 What do we know about the location of Islamic schools in pre-colonial Africa?
- 📝 How does finding a Franklin ship change what we know about the expedition?
- 📝 At what point did mapmaking begin to accurately reflect what we now know about the earth?
- 📝 What did the English people during the Peasants' Revolt know about the Ciompi Revolt?
- 📝 What did Kennedy know about Soviet missiles during the Cuban missile crisis?
- 📝 What was the first major technological advancement that occurred after the fall of the Roman Empire?
- 📝 What do we currently know about the ethnic origins of Jews?
- 📝 What did Russia do about Caucasus oil after the collapse of the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What do we know about the character of William Adelin, son of Henry I?
- 📝 What do we know about the !Kung "major gatherings" (up to 200 peoples)?
- 📝 Does the expansion of the U.S federal government after 1865 support the argument that U.S civil war itself was about states' rights?
- 📝 Did Adolf Hitler ever address the fact that his own appearance was almost an exact opposite of what he considered the ideal Aryan appearance?
- 📝 What are the factors that caused the new world civilizations to be less technologically advanced than the old world?
- 📝 What is the significance behind "40 days" that often appears in the Bible?
- 📝 What did Germany do in World War II about the different rail gauge in the Soviet Union?
- 📝 What led some people to (correctly) believe that there was no land under the ice cap at the North Pole?
- 📝 What is the origin of the stereotype that Polish people lack intelligence?
- 📝 What did people in 13th century England know about Greek mythology?
- 📝 What is the oldest authentic example of people complaining about modern times and the young?