Fireship

C. Northcote Parkinson’s Richard Delancey novel, Fireship, opens in the shadow of the mutinies at Spithead and The Nore.

Delancey is a lieutenant on the frigate HMS Medusa, which is just returning from Spain and bound for the dockyard at Chatham to be paid off. Delancey, with no interest and few friends in the service, anticipates a long period on half pay as he scrambles to find a new billet.

Spoilers follow.

Captain Sir Henry Trollope

Sir Henry Trollope was the son of the Reverend John Trollope of Bucklebury, Berkshire. He was born on Apri 20, 1756. His father was a younger brother of the minor nobility and had the family connections to get Henry posted to the flagship of Rear Admiral John Montagu when he was sent to sea in April 1771. Montagu remained his patron. He returned home in 1774 and immediately joined HMS Asia under Captain George Vandeput which was returning to North America.

HMS Glatton Takes On All Comers

Captain Henry Trollope with the moratlly wounded Marine Captain Henry Ludlow Strangeways on the deck of HMS Glatton

We’ve observed on several occasions that many of the incidents in novels set during the Age of Sail are heavily influenced by actual events. In most cases, the novel’s protagonist expands on the accomplishments of the actual character. In Ramages’s Diamond, Lord Ramage manages to turn the battery later known as HMS Fort Diamond into a combat multiplier that enables his mini-squadron consisting of his frigate, a prize frigate, and a prize sloop to snap up a French convoy and its escorts.

Alexander Kent, on the other hand, perhaps feeling that the actual event was too improbable, actually downplays Nelson’s use of one Spanish ship of the line as a bridge to board and take a second, larger Spanish ship of the line and has Richard Bolitho use a friendly brig as a bridge to board and take a French frigate.

Every once in a while, though, the novel’s protagonist makes out worse than the actual character.

Introducing the Carronade: All Carronades All the Time

In the aftermath of Nymphe’s being taken by Flora, the Navy Board quickly became enamored of the carronade and the weapon’s effectiveness in combat had silenced naysayers. By January 1781, 604 carronades were mounted on 429 ships. This is probably a record for a new weapon being adopted.

The next step in the experiment was an all-carronade frigate. For this project the HMS Rainbow (44) under Captain Henry Trollope was chosen. Rainbow exchanged her 20 long 18-pounders and 22 long 12-pounders for 20 68-pounder, 22 42-pounder, and 6 32-pounder carronades. Then went out hunting.

On 2 September 1782 Ile de Bas she encountered the French frigate Hebe (40). The ships maneuvered for position and Captain Trollope engaged Hebe with the 32-pounders on his forecastle. One or more of the shots hit killing five Frenchmen. The captain of Hebe examined the fragments of the hollow carronade shot and concluded that if she was firing 32-pounders as chase pieces she was actually a ship of the line in disguise. He fired one broadside, “pour l’honneur de pavilion,” and struck his colors.

Rainbow lost only one man. The French lost five killed, including the second captain, and several wounded out of a crew of 360 men.