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ENDYMION
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Built in 1797, Rotherhithe.
Hospital ship in 1860. |
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- 1797 Capt. Sir Thomas WILLIAMS, 07/1797, Portsmouth.
In June 1800 she brought home the Straits convoy. - 1801 Capt. P. C. DURHAM.
On 13 April 1801 ENDYMION captured the French privateer cutter LE FURLE of 14 guns and 64 men.
The privateer was about to attack part of the Portuguese Brazil convoy which had been dispersed in a gale and was totally unprotected. - 1803 Capt. Hon. Charles PAGET, fitting out at Portsmouth.
During the morning of 25 June he captured after an 8 hour chase 300 miles south west of Cape Clear, the French corvette BACCHANTE.
Armed with eighteen 12-pounders and commanded by Lieut. Vaisseau with a crew of 200 men, she was returning to Brest from San Domingo to which she had been sent with dispatches three months earlier.
During the chase her second captain and seven men were killed and nine wounded by ENDYMION's guns. - 1805 Capt. Edward Durnford
- KING was appointed acting captain April during the absence of Capt. PAGET and was employed off Cadiz.
In October ENDYMION fell in with the combined Franco/Spanish fleet of 26 sail of the line and nine frigates off Cape St. Mary.
Since he was unable to pass ahead of them to inform Ad. COLLINGWOOD, who was inshore with four line-of-battle ships, Capt. KING took up station astern and made signals which led Villeneuve to suppose that he was in communication with a fleet over the horizon.
As a result the combined fleet put into Cadiz.
Capt. KING remained in ENDYMION until the end of the following year.
In the spring of 1807 he was appointed to MONMOUTH. - 1806 Capt. Hon. T. B. CAPEL, Mediterranean.
At the the year she was with the fleet in the Dardanelles.
CANOPUS, Rear Ad. LOUIS, ENDYMION and another frigate were stationed directly opposite the Grand Seignior's seraglio.
On 19 January 1807 the whole squadron of nine sail of the line and two mortar vessels passed the Dardanelles exposed to fire from the forts on either side. - Near a redoubt on Point Pesquies a Turkish squadron of one 64, four frigates and eight other vessels was attacked by POMPEE, THUNDERER, STANDARD, ENDYMION and ACTIVE, under Sir Sidney SMITH.
- when they fired on the British vessels.
All the enemy vessels were run ashore, except for a corvette and a gunboat which were taken, and the 31 heavy guns in the redoubt were spiked by POMPEE's marines.
Out of a total of 4 killed and fourteen wounded ENDYMION lost one marine wounded.
The whole fleet anchored eight miles short of Constantinople and ENDYMION was sent on to anchor nearer the town with the Ambassador's dispatches to the Sublime Porte but Capt. CAPEL found it impossible to get within 4 miles.
After several weeks of time wasting and pointless negotiations, it was decided to retreat. - On 3 March the squadron sailed through the strait with ACTIVE in the lead followed by ENDYMION towing METEOR.
When ROYAL GEORGE saluted the Castle of Abydos with blanks the Turks responded with real shot.
29 men were killed and 138 wounded in the British ships, all of whom except POMPEE were damaged WINDSOR CASTLE was hit by a stone shot weighing 800 pounds and STANDARD by one of 770 pounds ENDYMION had 3 men killed, Lieut. John LANGDON badly wounded and eight seamen and one marine wounded. - A midshipman and five seamen from ENDYMION who had been taken in her jolly boat by the Turks in the Sea of Marmora were found in a Turkish ship captured by the Russians.
The Russian Admiral sent them on board KENT at Skiro. - 1808 Ditto, Nore.
- 1810 Capt. William BOLTON.
On 11 November 1810 he gave chase to a brig off Cape Clear.
The following morning the enemy managed to escape by using his sweeps and, with a lucky breeze, was hull down by noon but by midnight ENDYMION got within range and brought the brig to after three hours.
Because it was now blowing a gale it was 11 o'clock at night on the 14th. before he could take possession. She was the privateer MILAN of St. Malo, with 14 guns and 80 men, and had made no captures in the 18 days she had been out. - 1813 Capt. Henry HOPE, 05/1813.
ENDYMION was fitting out at Plymouth to counter the big American 44-gun frigates.
On 3 December, while sailing to join VALIANT and the squadron blockading New London, he captured the American letter of marque schooner PERRY after a hard chase of eight hours.
Of 230 tons she was a fine copper-fastened vessel just off the stocks. - On 8 April a detachment of seamen and marines in boats from La HOGUE, MAIDSTONE, ENDYMION and BORER, attacked vessels lying in the Connecticut River.
They arrived off Pettipague Point early in the morning and, despite opposition from some militia, they destroyed all 27 vessels afloat or on the stocks within three miles of the place.
Three of them were large privateers ready for sea.
The Americans collected troops and militia to oppose their return and summoned them to surrender, but the boats dropped down the river without using oars during the night and only lost two men killed and two wounded.
The expedition was commanded by COOTE of BORER and the senior captain was the Capt. CAPEL of La HOGUE who once commanded ENDYMION. - ARMIDE, with ENDYMION in company, captured the American privateer schooner HERALD, Capt. Miller, after a chase of four hours on 15 August.
Two of the schooner's 17 guns were thrown over board. - Rear Ad. Edward GRIFFITH sailed from Halifax on 26 August in DRAGON, with ENDYMION, BACCHANTE and SYLPH in company, escorting ten transports with troops on board.
At Metinicus Island on the 31st. they were joined by BULWARK, TENEDOS, RIFLEMAN, PERUVIAN and PICTON, and learned that the US frigate ADAMS had gone 27 miles up the Penobscot River to Hamden where her guns had been landed to build batteries.
The fleet sailed between the Fox Islands and Owl's Head and the troops occupied Castine.
PERUVIAN and SYLPH, accompanied by the armed boats of the squadron ENDYMION's detachment under Lieut. ORMOND went up the river and destroyed the ADAMS. - The American brigantine privateer PRINCE DE NEUFCHATEL was discovered off Nantucket at midday on 11 October and ENDYMION gave chase.
The wind dropped as darkness fell so Capt. HOPE sent off his boats under the first lieutenant, Abel HAWKINS, to carry her.
Although the privateer had only forty men left on board, they rigged the boarding netting and loaded all her guns with grape. - The British attempted to board and a number managed to cut through the netting but they were killed as soon as they reached deck.
The boats were repulsed and returned to make another attack but then retreated back to the frigate when the launch was captured.
The Americans lost 17 killed and 34 wounded, 15 of them badly.
ENDYMION lost 28 officers and men killed, including Lieut. HAWKINS, and 37 badly wounded.
The 28 men in the launch were taken prisoner. - The privateer had on board prize goods to the value of 300.000 dollars and 37 prisoners in the hold from the many prizes she had sent in.
- ENDYMION had her numbers made up by a draft at Halifax before joining MAJESTIC, TENEDOS and POMONE off Sandy Hook in January 1815 to prevent the escape of the USS President and other vessels ready for sea at Staten Island.
They were repeatedly blown off shore by gales and, when this happened during a snow storm on the 14th., the PRESIDENT and the MACEDONIAN, armed brig, put to sea. - Capt. HAYES of MAJESTIC placed his squadron on what he judged to be the enemy's track.
At 5 o'clock the following morning the American ships passed them about 2 miles to the northward and the squadron gave chase.
When the wind fell light ENDYMION out-sailed the rest and gained on the PRESIDENT, soon bring her to action.
Musket fire from the enemy tops began to do execution on the ENDYMION's decks before the later passed under the PRESIDENT's stern and fired two raking broadsides.
The ENDYMION's lower and main-topgallant studding sails were shot away and later the main-topmast studding sail was brought down by the American chain and bar shot.
The enemy then hauled to the wind and ENDYMION, pouring a raking fire into her stern, followed in pursuit. - POMONE then fired a broadside into her and the PRESIDENT hailed to say that she had surrendered but a second broadside was fired before this was understood.
Boats from TENEDOS then took possession of her. - The PRESIDENT was completely riddled from stem to stern with 6 feet of water in the hold.
Several of her guns were disabled and, out of a crew of about 477 she lost three lieutenants and 32 men killed, and her commander, Commodore Decatur, master, two midshipmen and 66 men wounded. - By comparison ENDYMION was principally damaged in her sails and rigging.
Eleven men were killed and 14 wounded out of 346 persons on board.
The inferior force of the ENDYMION is highlighted not only by the difference in manpower but by the fact that her broadside was only 664 pounds against the American 828 pounds. - On 17 January ENDYMION and PRESIDENT were caught in a violent storm while sailing for Bermuda.
The former lost her bowsprit, fore and main-masts and had to throw her carronades overboard.
PRESIDENT lost all her lower masts and was near foundering when her prize master, Lieut. William Thomas MORGAN brought her head to sea by using a form of sea anchor or 'umbrella'.
When the sea abated jury masts were rigged and the two ships arrived safely at the island where the captain was presented with a piece of plate and the wardroom with a goblet.
ENDYMION and her prize arrived at Spithead on 28 March 1815. - ENDYMION remained out of commission at Plymouth until 1833 when, on 13 June, she was commissioned by Capt. Sir Samuel ROBERTS and she sailed to the Mediterranean. She returned to Plymouth in 1838 and was out of commission until October 1840 when Capt. Hon. Frederick William GREY took command and set sail for China.
- ENDYMION took part in the advance on Nankin July 1842 when Sir William PARKER took his fleet of nearly eighty sail 200 miles up the Yang-tze-kiang.
They all got under weigh on 6 July and ENDYMION, with the company steamer SESOSTRIS, escorted 13 transports carrying the 55th. regiment, the 2nd and 3rd. Madras Native Infantry and the Madras Rifle Company.
An attack on the city of Chin-Keang-Foo on the 16th. and the detention of large numbers of trading junks persuaded the Emperor that peace was the only answer.
It was 4 August before the wind changed to allow the fleet to stem the current and the transports arrived on the 9th.
The peace treaty was signed on CORNWALLIS on the 29th. - She returned to Devonport from the Far East in 1844 and was commissioned by Capt. George R. LAMBERT in March 1845 for the North America and West Indies station.
- On 4 February 1847 ENDYMION was anchored off Sacraficios Island near Vera Cruz.
During the night, which was very dark, Mr WEST, master's mate, lost his footing on the gangway and fell into the sea and was immediately swept away by the strong current.
Lieut. W. R. SMITH, who already held the Royal Humane Society's medal for lifesaving on the SERINGAPATUM, plunged in and swam until he found Mr WEST floating with his head under water and held him up until a boat answered his calls.
As they were carried back on board, one of the crew missed his footing in the rigging and fell overboard, so Lieut. SMITH went straight back into the water, but this time he found that the man could keep himself afloat. - In Ordinary from 1848.
Harbour service at Devonport from 1860 and broken up there in 1868.
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