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SUCCESS
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(32) |
5th rate
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Built in 1781, Liverpool.
Convict ship in 1814.
Broken up in 1820. |
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- 1782 Capt. Charles Maurice POLE. On the 16th. March, with the VERNON storeship under his convoy, bound for Gibraltar, then being about 18 leagues from Cape Spartel, discovered a Spanish frigate in chace of him. At six in the morning Capt. POLE brought him to close action, which continued until nearly half past eight when the enemy's main and mizzen masts went over the side; and she struck aground proved to be the SANTA CATALINA of 34 guns and 300 men, commanded by Don Jacen. He was the commodore of six frigates, from whom he had separated only two days before, and had 30 men killed and and 8 wounded. The SUCCESS had 1 killed and 4 wounded. Capt. POLE had just managed to get the two ships into a state were they could both carry sail, when at daylight on the 18th., he saw six sail of large ships, and was chased by two frigates. He ordered the VERNON to proceed under all sail and took his Officers and crew out of the prize, and set her on fire.
- 1793 Capt. ROBERTS.
- 1794 Capt. PIGOT.
- 1797 Capt. WILKINSON.
- 1799 Capt. Shuldham PEARD, Mediterranean.
On 9 June She was employed in the blockade of Malta under Rear Ad. the Marquis of Niza.
On 13 February 1801 SUCCESS was captured near Toulon by Rear Ad. Gantheaume's squadron which had escaped from Brest during a gale on 23 January. With other frigates she had been keeping observation but was cut off when the French made a signal for a general chase. A letter from one of officers dated Alice, 13 March stated that they had been plundered by the French seamen but that they were comfortable and had written for assistance to Capt. COTES, the British commissary in France. - SUCCESS, which had been taken into the French navy as LE SUCCES, was recaptured by POMONE, PHOENIX and MINERVE off Vado on 2 September 1801. She returned to Portsmouth from Malta on 29 March 1802.
- 1803 On 13 March orders came down to place Portsmouth Dockyard on a war establishment. SUCCESS, DECADE, TOPAZ, SEAHORSE, GALATEA and ANDROMEDA were ordered to be fitted for commission as fast as possible with the artificers in the dockyard working extra time.
- 1804 Capt. George SCOTT, 08/1804. From STATELY.
SUCCESS went out of harbour on 7 September and later sailed for her station in the Windward Is. - 1806 Capt. John AYSCOUGH, 03/1806, Jamaica station.
On 20 November 1806 he dispatched his barge and the yawl with Lieuts. William DUKE and Charles SPENCE, act Lieut. Dowel O'REILLY, and Master's-mate William Rand HUGHES, in pursuit of a small felucca which was running into Hidden Port near Cumberland Harbour, Cuba. The crew of the felucca had landed with their small-arms and their single long gun and received the boats with grape and musketry from a small hill. Lieut. DUKE was killed by the first volley but Lieut. SPENCE continued the action for an hour and twenty minutes until seven of the boats crews, including Mr O'REILLY, were wounded. Since the barge was shot through in many places Lieut. SPENCE contented himself with carrying off the felucca but the enemy used their gun with such effect that she sank soon after. Her journal showed that she was the privateer LE VENGEUR which had sailed from San Domingo on 1 October. Mr O'REILLY was wounded in the leg and four seamen, John FREDERICK, James CLEWER, Henry BIBBY and John HORNSBY, were badly wounded. Daniel BURNS and marine Jasper WHEELER were slightly wounded and able seaman Anthony PASCAL was assumed to have deserted. The wounded were treated by the surgeon, Mr Thomas DEAR. - At the end of 1806 SUCCESS escorted a large homeward bound convoy of merchantmen and, after a refit, was employed blockading Le Havre.
In November 1807 Sir Samuel HOOD asked for SUCCESS to be placed under his orders for an expedition to occupy Madeira. When the island surrendered peacefully she returned to England with Sir Samuel's dispatches and was then stationed off Greenland for fishery protection.
In August 1808 SUCCESS was senior escort of a large convoy to the Mediterranean with the Turkish Ambassador and his suite among her passengers. The Ambassador was taken first to Albania, and then, on 28 November, to the Dardanelles.
In March the following year she made the passage from Malta to Portsmouth in 23 days carrying two Austrians with important dispatches. She returned to the Mediterranean in April with another convoy. - On 24 June she took part in the expedition under Rear Ad. MARTIN against the islands of Ischia and Procida in the Gulf of Naples. Capt. AYSCOUGH landed with the troops but, finding little to do on shore, returned to his ship which was engaged in silencing three enemy batteries.
On the 26th. gunboats under his direction assisted CYANE in the capture and destruction of 15 armed vessels which were attempting to reach Naples from Gaeta. - SUCCESS then moved to the Greek Archipelago and on 30 July she captured two French privateers off the island of CERIGO, one mounting nine carriage-guns and four swivels with 78 men, the other one gun and 20 men. She continued in the islands until the following November when she took the Persian Ambassador from Smyrna to Malta on the first stage of his passage to England.
- While running along the coast of Calabria on 4 April 1810 Capt. AYSCOUGH saw three vessels being loaded on the beach at Castiglione. He despatched his boats under Mr George Rose SARTORIOUS, his third lieutenant, and Mr Richard PEARCE, master's mate, accompanied by the boats of the sloop ESPOIR under Lieut. Robert OLIVER. Three boats struck a sunken reef and were swamped, drowning two seamen from ESPOIR. Because their ammunition was wet the officers and men swam ashore with their cutlasses in their mouths. They came under fire from two long 6-pounders hidden behind rocks but soon forced the enemy to retreat, first to some houses, and then into the mountains. The guns were destroyed and two of the vessels, which were loaded with oil, were set on fire. William NEWBY, a private marine from SUCCESS was killed.
Later in the month two small sloops were scuttled off Ischia. - Capt. Jahleel BRENTON in SARTAN now succeeded Capt. AYSCOUGH as senior officer off that part of the coast and SUCCESS and SPARTAN chased a French squadron into the Port of Naples on 1 May 1810. The enemy consisted of a 42-gun frigate, a 28-gun corvette, an 8-gun-brig and a 10-gun cutter. SUCCESS being faster than SPARTAN at one time getting close enough to the enemy frigate to have a fair chance of bringing her to action. Supposing that the enemy would never leave their refuge while there were two British frigates outside, Capt. BRENTON ordered Capt. AYSCOUGH to remain well to the south-west of the Isle of Capri where she was becalmed while SPARTAN continued in the Bay. The French came out on the 3rd. and SPARTAN severely crippled the frigate and the corvette and captured the brig, the SPARVIERE. Capt. BRENTON was severely wounded by a grape shot during the action. Although SUCCESS and SPARTAN had agreed to share prize money, Capt. AYSCOUGH and his people relinquished any claim to the brig as they had taken no part in the action.
- With Sicily under threat of invasion by Murat, SUCCESS was now stationed off Messina with two frigates and several sloops under Capt. AYSCOUGH's command. SUCCESS was moored to the northward of the Faro ready for instant action. Murat was forced to abandon his attempts after his supply convoys were destroyed by attacks such as that by THAMES, PILOT and WEAZLE on 25 July. The boats of SUCCESS and other vessels destroyed two of the enemy's gunboats and 34 troop vessels off Naples on 4 and 6 October.
- While cruising off Candia SUCCESS received so much damage in a gale that she had to be sent home.
Cables had to be passed under the keel to keep the ship's sides together and all the after guns had to be dismounted because the stern had separated from the stern-post. She paid off at Chatham on 12 August 1811. - She was repaired at Chatham and later used as a convict hulk.
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