HMS Achates

H.M.S. Achates
Rating: Fourth Rate Ship of the Line

Class: Macedon Hunter's Fourth Rate

Date of Commission: September 21, 1721

Shipyard: Deptford, Launched as HMS Canterbury, 18 December 1693.

Rebuilt Portsmouth Naval Shipyard according to 1719 Establishment, relaunched on June 1, 1721. Renamed HMS Achates on her re-commissioning on September 21, 1721.

Guns: 64

Crew: 500

Status: In Commission - At Sea

Background:
Originally named HMS Canterbury, this ship was launched in December 1693 as a 60 gun Fourth Rate Ship of the Line at the Royal Dockyard in Deptford. Her first major action was in the joint Anglo-Dutch Squadron commanded by Admiral Sir George Rooke which attacked the Danish capital of Copenhagen in conjunction with a Swedish fleet during the opening stages of the Great Northern War. In 1704, HMS Canterbury was once again under the command of now Admiral of the Fleet Sir George Rooke as part of the fleet that destroyed the Spanish Treasure fleet in the Battle of Vigo Bay and then successfully seized Gibraltar. After suffering damage in the battle with the French off of Malaga, HMS Canterbury returned to Portsmouth for repairs. She then saw service in American and West Indian waters before returning to the Channel Fleet in 1714.

As part of the 1719 Establishment, a number of Fourth Rate ships of the line underwent major rebuilding and refitting in order to meet the specifications of the new Establishment. HMS Canterbury entered the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard in early 1720 where she was nearly completely rebuilt. She was relaunched from the Royal Dockyard and recommissioned by Admiral James Keen on August 12, 1721 when she was renamed HMS Achates. To her crew, she is known by the nickname 'Old Katie'. Her first duty station in this commission is the Caribbean station where she has seen considerable action in both 'The Queen's Own' and the 'Saint George Squadron of the White'. She is considered a lucky and happy ship - one that is quite fast - faster than she was prior to the rebuild in Portsmouth.

Engagements:
On April 21, 1722, HMS Achates was part of the British fleet that assaulted the Pirate port of Cabo Raphael to disrupt the increasing levels of pirate activity coming from that lawless town. While nearly equal in numbers, the British fleet had a substantial advantage in guns. The pirate forces attempted to manuever to gain wind from the British fleet but while attempting to manuever to counter the enemy, an entire squadron of 6 British vessals missed the signal from the Flag and found themselves in a very vulnerable position. The pirates charged this group and quickly isolated them. Before being hidden behind the smoke of cannon fire, all six ships signaled for assistance. HMS Achates and the remainder of the fleet immediately turned to engage the pirate vessals at close range. While this unfortunate British squadron lost 4 of their number before the main fleet could engage, they gained so much attention and focus of the pirate forces, that the rest of the fleet cleaved into the enemy force quickly sinking 10. This caused the enemy force to break and attempt to disengage. HMS Achates, under General Chase orders from the flag, contributed to the crippling of 2 enemy ships which were sunk by the slower members of the fleet. Only 3 Pirate vessals were able to escape and Cabo ceased to be an effective base for the Brethern.

On May 22, 1722, HMS Achates was part of a quickly assembled relief force sent to try to defend Cayenne from Spanish attack. Captain Allday, one of the most senior officers present, was appointed the Acting Commodore of the Heavy Division. Arriving off Cayenne, Captain Allday and his ad-hoc fleet of Fourth Rates and Frigates were immediately hard pressed by over double their number of Don's. The smallest ship in the British fleet (Stralsund Mastercraft frigate), unexplicitedly, unable or unwilling to reply to signals, was cut off and sunk by the Don's while the remainder of the fleet was forced to take cover under the guns of the fortress. The Dons then split their fleet, sending the bulk of the fleet to land soldiers and sailors to take the town by land, leaving a rearguard to prevent our forces from trying a relief of the town. Suspecting that the Don rearguard would be their skirmish vessals, primarily Hercules Mastercraft and Hercules Heavy frigates, and our forces being unable to force entry to the town, the decision was made to do as much damage as possible to the rearguard ships. A Trinidad class frigate made the initial break and the Spanish forces broke their formations to try to chase the British ship down. As they did, they were shocked to see another 8 British ships leave the protection of the fort and fall upon the group of Hercules Mastercraft frigates and Hercules Heavy frigates. In a running fight, the outnumbered British gained a tactical advantage and sunk 3 of the Hercules Mastercrafts for the cost of the Trinidad and 2 Fourth Rates before the battle ended. While Cayenne fell, it was an more expensive victory for the Dons than they had counted on.

June 5, 1722 saw HMS Achates as part of the full group of Saint George Squadron of the White that was at the fore of the fleet trying to defend the port of West End from a major Brethern attack. The official After Action Report is filed here: Battle_-_1722_-_June_05_-_Defending_West_End

On June 26, 1722, 'Old Katie' was once again part of a major effort by Saint George Squadron of the White to support the fleet operations defending West End from a major Brethern assault. The British fleet took its primary defensive positions near the Town Defense Gun and positioned to run quickly towards the town if the Brethern would attempt to place the port under seige. The fast Fourth Rate group from the Saint George Squadron of the White held position upwind of the main defense line while the British Skirmish group were the van of the fleet. Seeing this position, the Brethern charged the back third of the primary defense line seeking to isolate the main body and create a melee that they could dominate. Just as the Brethern started to breach the British line, the Saint George Squadron of the White group decisively blocked the breakthrough attempt with several ships boarding the leading Pirate vessals while the rest of the group raked several Pirate ships sinking 3 very quickly. Turning 180 degrees to double back on the Pirate forces, the group, assisted by the Skirmish group, sank the 2 ships being boarded in addition to 3 others breaking the Pirate charge. While most of the remaining Pirate vessals attempted to break contact, three isolated a British third rate which signalled for assistance. Our group moved as quickly as possible to assist the third rate, but unfortunately, the massed fire of the pirate ships left her sinking by the head before we could close the range. We did manage to catch 2 of those ships and dispatch them before returning to the general chase against the pirate survivors. While their heaviest vessal and 3 others were able to escape, 16 pirates were sunk to only 3 British ships lost.

5th October, 1722, 'Old Katie' was the flagship for the White Squadron underway to intercept a Pirate force that was attacking the critical British port of St. Johns. As the British fleet formed, we counted the pirate frigates and captured 4th rates approaching us - finding their fleet only comprised of 11 ships. Signals rapidly rose on the halyards of the Flagship, 'General Chase'. We acknowledged and our squadron tacked to starboard to close on the enemy. As our fleet turned to face them, the Pirate fleet went about and started to run to the south. Fearing a flanking effort, Flag ordered my squadron, along with 2 fast heavy frigates, to take up a southern course and to deny the enemy entry into the Cauldron from the southern approaches. Making all sail, the White Squadron's 4 Macedon class Fourth Rates and 2 Mont Blanc refit Merchantmen, quickly moved to the south accompanied by a Heavy Hercules and Hercules Mastercraft. Old Katie and another 'Mace' made excellent time and clearing the Southern approach, changed course to due East. Minutes later, 2 Pirate frigate were seen dead ahead. They were trying to force the Southern approach. I ordered 'General Chase' followed by 'Engage the Enemy Closely' and we continued on our course towards the enemy. Barely a minute later, signal flags were seen on the leading Pirate vessel. Both ships turned to the Southeast, away from us, and made all sail to exit the area - clearly unwilling to fight and ending the Pirate attack on St. Johns.

7th November, 1722, HMS Achates was part of the 'Black Squadron', one of 4 Squadron's that was closing on the French port of Tampa. Facing us, 19 Frenchmen, including some lesser ships. As our Fleet entered the main bay, the majority of the French closed on their primary fortification while a single scout ship moved to the south. After a slight pause to reorder our lines, we moved to engage the main French fleet on both the north and south sides of their protective fortress. After some light fire, the French fleet withdrew to safety under the fort guns. The British fleet then formed position within 500 yds of the French fortress and in position to hopefully block any effort to crash the town. After some delay, the French made their move to rush the port entrance. These 14 ships lost 8 of their number on their rush to the town - with 2 being boarded and captured, and the other 6 being sunk from the massed fire of Black, White, and Red squadrons. France only managed to get the compliments of 7 ships, 6 survivors of the charge and a single scout vessel, into the town to augment the town defensive forces. Once the last rushing Frenchman was sunk, we started our landing operations. We held off our approach into the town for operations and supplies to be also landed. As this took place, 4 more French ships made sail from under the fortification, one 4th rate and one Merchantman flute were able to escape, while 2 frigates were chased down and sunk by 3 British fast frigates which remained at sea to protect our landing efforts and prevent any further French reinforcements.

Once our forces successfully landed and organized, we moved in a methodical manor and were very ready for the inevitable 'surprise' French counterattack. When the 7 remaining French Captain's charged, our 21 Captain's and Marines were easily able to defeat their counterattack and take the port without the loss of a single British ship or Captain.

On January 5, 1722, HMS Achates was part of the British fleet that approached the captured port of Bartica in order to seize it back from the Don's. Assigned to an ad-hoc squadron of Fourth Rates, Sir John Allday led 'Old Katie' into action against the Spanish fleet. While the initial lines generally failed to remain as organized as the Flag requested, we continued to move forward and engage the van of the Spanish fleet. While some our ships were split off from the group, 'Old Katie' reformed into the primary line behind the Fleet Flagship and gained kill shots on 2 Spanish 4th rate vessels during the running fight. Ultimately, the British tactics to use the bulk of our forces selectively against parts of the Spanish line created a position where the Spanish were seriously outnumbered. After forcing the surviving Don's to seek refuge in the primary Fort, Sir John and HMS Achates was part of the initial landing team which started to assault the militia positions defending the town. As the Don fleet attempted to force a relief effort towards the town, the HMS Achates regrouped with the other ships off the town dock. Holding this position, we were reinforced by the remainder of the British fleet. Once this reinforcement was complete, the entire British invasion force re-landed and quickly overran the remaining Don defenders in their defensive positions despite the reinforcements they received from 6 surviving Spanish ships.

The Fourth of March, 1723, found HMS Achates as a member of a full group of St. George Squadron of the White warships defending the captured port of Puerta del Plata. Leading the group was Acting Commodore Beers, who also was the Acting Admiral of the Fleet sailing in the his flagship Mont Blanc. In addition to Admiral Beers, the group also contained Sir Sebastian Bach in a Mont Blanc, and Captain's Maxwell, Amat, and Howe in their Macedon Fourth Rates. Our fleet took a close hauled course to the south, with 12 on the east side of an island, and the other two groups on the west side of the island. The Don's appeared on the west of the island and immediately moved aggressively to engage the western ships before the eastern ships could tack across the southern coast of the island. Our group had to 'dirty turn' through the wind which created challenges as Achates and another Macedon were in irons for several long minutes. From it's position near the van of the group, I held the Achates to the back of the group in order to be able to support any other groups ships that might be in trouble. We unloaded several broadsides on the charging Spanish 18 ships. We URR'ed a leading Macedon and immediately destroyed the bowsprit, foremast, and left it down significantly by the head as 90% of it's structural integrity was gone.

Most of group cleared the area of the charge and turned to the north to run with the charge, but the Achates was primaried as the target of much of the Don line. As we turned to the north, we took a rake, but started engaging the enemy from both the starboard and larboard batteries. Several Don's turned to the west to try rakes, but our damage control teams were ready quickly working to repair damage, employing final defense and experts, while we were confident of our invincibility. With others from the group, a ship to the larboard disintegrated from our mass fire in a huge explosion and our starboard fire, combined with the enemies fixation on trying to sink the Achates, let the Eastern elements of our fleet fall upon the Don's. Severely damaged, the Achates pulled to the NW to disengage for additional repairs, with Captain Bach providing a well-timed reinforce ally to help with the repairs. As we disengaged, the Don's turned to the East to try to disengage. Admiral Beers signaled 'General Chase', and the Achates turned to the east to run pursuit as we repaired the damage to the starboard hull. We successfully chased down 2 Don's contributing to their striking of their colors. Only 2 Don's managed to escape while the rest were run down. Our fleet only lost 2 ships - and despite being encircled by 8 Spanish ships, the Achates was not one of them. That night, we hove to off Puerta and celebrated with the other St. George ships the 6 kills our group were credited with - all without a loss. St. George Squadron once again was a dominant force in the battle defending Puerta del Plata.

British Captains:
1721-Present: Captain John Allday, 1st Viscount St. Kitts, KCMG, DSC, MC, CCB