HMS Amphion

“ She was lashed to the hulk; and the Yarmouth, an old receiving ship, was lying on the opposite side, quite close to her, and both within a few yards of the Dock-yard jetty. The midshipman said, that the Amphion suddenly appeared to rise altogether upright from the surface of the water, until he nearly saw her keel; the explosion then succeeded; the masts seemed to be forced up into the air, and the hull instantly to sink. ”

“ At Christmas 1809, while the Amphion and a sloop dominated the Adriatic, there were at Ancona and Venice four French frigates, several brigs and schooners, and numerous gunboats, besides a Russian squadron of four ships of the line and two frigates at Trieste. ‘The truth is,’ Hoste wrote, ‘they are afraid of the weather, and are very badly manned; we are well manned, and do not care a fig about the weather.’ In January the Amphion was joined by the Active of 36 guns [see Gordon, Sir James Alexander] , and in February by the Cerberus, a 32-gun frigate ”

“ Amphion was a Theban, who, if he did not perform all the wonderful things attributed to him, certainly softened, by the sound of his lyre, the savage manners of the first inhabitants of Greece, and engaged them to build towns. ”

“ Schulemberg, for Vera Cruz, with an assorted cargo, consisting of singers, fiddlers, and, as aforesaid, of Mynheer Van Holland's fine linens. The voyage was as prosperous as was due to such an argosy. If a single Amphion could not be drowned by the utmost malice of gods and men, so long as he kept his voice in order, what possible mishap could befall a whole ship-load of them? ”

“ The mine-layer had evidently been at work on the English coast, possibly even before the declaration of war; for at 6.35 on the following morning, August 6, the Amphion struck a mine. There was a violent explosion under the fore bridge. Every man on the fore mess-decks was killed, as were eighteen out of the twenty German prisoners in the ship. Captain Fox and the four officers on the bridge were stunned and badly burnt on hands and face. The Amphion now began to settle down by the head, and her sides [19] forward were turning black as the result of the internal fires. ”

“ Our ship being found to be in a defective state, Lord Collingwood sent her for a short cruise off Cape San Sebastian, with orders then to repair to Malta, and take the April convoy to England.
On our arrival at Malta, I was overjoyed to find the Amphion. My old friend, Lieutenant Jones, came to inform me that my friend and old shipmate, Charles George Rodney Phillott, the first lieutenant, had been promoted for distinguished services, and, with his usual zeal and friendship, he expressed his hope that I might be appointed to fill his vacancy. ”

“ Having veered to a whole cable, he then commenced a smart fire, within point-blank shot, upon the ship, the fort, and the other batteries: this fire they all returned, and presently cut away the Amphion’s jib-stay. At about 30 minutes past noon, her starboard quarter hammocks and main-top-mast-stay-sail were set on fire by the enemy’s hot shot; and at 1 p.m. a small explosion took place in the marines’ arm-chest, but fortunately injured no one. At 1-30, the Baleine herself caught fire abaft, and a part of her men began leaping overboard and swimming to the rocks. ”

“ On the 8th Feb. 1809, the boats of the Amphion and Redwing brig, under the command of Lieutenant Phillott, landed at the island of Melida, in the Adriatic, brought off three guns, and destroyed two large stores of oil and wine. The Amphion and her consort had previously taken possession of a French brig, mounting six guns, and an armed trabacolo, both employed in conveying troops from Zara to Ancona. ”

“ Our object therefore was to trade chiefly with the natives, from whom we were more likely to learn something about the wreck of the “Amphion” than from the Dutch, for it was considered that if they had had any communication with the survivors of her crew, means would have been found to send home an account of the occurrence. ”

“ Shall I ever forget our exploits in scaling ramparts, eluding the vigilance of sentinels and guards, and all the hairbreadth ’scapes we had to encounter, from the time we got clear of the fortress of Bitche, until you had been hoisted up in a chair, with your disabled arm (which I fear you will lose) , on board the Amphion? That, my good friend, was a severe conflict, and one which I shall never forget. It was the first time I had ever set my foot on board of a British ship-of-war’s boat ”

“ At about half-past twelve, or noon, we got alongside my good old ship, towed by her launch, which they sent out on noticing from the mast-head our disabled state. We were hoisted on board in a chair, with the utmost care, the captain and officers evincing much anxiety towards us, and vieing with each other in offices of kindness. The other two worthy lieutenants of the Amphion, Messrs. Bennet and Phillott, had been on board of her in my time, and thus was I at home amongst old friends and shipmates. ”

“ Amphion, off the coast of Friul, Aug. 28, 1809. “Sir,– I beg leave to inform you of a most gallant and successful attack made by the boats of this ship and a detachment of seamen and marines on the enemy’s force at Cortelazzo, consisting of 6 gun-boats, and a convoy of merchant trabacolos, moored in a strong position under a battery of four 24-pounders, at the mouth of the Piavie, and in sight of the Italian squadron at Venice. ”

“ In September of this year, the Amphion frigate, of 32 guns, commanded by Captain Pellew, lay refitting at Plymouth. Her captain and two other officers were in the cabin at dinner, when a rumbling noise was heard. The captain, followed by his lieutenant, rushed into the quarter-gallery—the instant afterwards the ship blew up; the greater number of persons on board, amounting to nearly 300, perished, they and forty others only escaping with their lives, many of them being severely injured. Great as was the explosion, it had but a trifling effect on the ships near her. ”

“ When the English had turned, two French vessels assailed the Amphion, Hoste’s frigate, which was now the rear ship of his line. But the English officer shot from between them, and crossed the bows of the vessel on his lee quarter. Superior mobility and quality more than counterbalanced advantages of number and position or ingenuity of plan of attack. ”

“ I have the honour to inform your Lordship, that being with the Amphion and Mercury off the town of Pesaro, on the 23rd instant, I observed a number of vessels lying in the mole, and thought it practicable to take possession of them; for which purpose, the ships were anchored with springs upon their cables, within half a mile of the town. The boats formed in two divisions, the first consisting of launches with carronades, and other boats carrying field pieces, under the orders of Lieutenant Phillott, first of the Amphion, took a station to the northward of the town ”

“ The Amphion and Volage were in a most helpless state; the hull of the Cerberus was a perfect riddle, though less damaged in masts, spars, and rigging than her consorts. At about four o’clock the Favorite blew up; the explosion caused a terrible shock, which was felt by the whole squadron; and we, on board the Bellona, were most thankful for our having so providentially escaped the same fate, by Captain Duodo being wounded.
At about nine P.M. the Corona was in imminent danger, having caught fire in the maintop, when in tow by the Active; she was, of course, instantly cut adrift. ”

“ On 29th September we discovered that the ships at Chiozza, near Venice, under Commodore Dubourdieu, had sailed; and Captain Hoste, in the Amphion, accompanied{292} by the Active, Captain J. A. Gordon, immediately pushed for Ancona. Here we found the enemy, consisting of three large frigates, two corvettes, two brigs, one schooner, and a gunboat. Some of them were under sail outside the port, whilst others within appeared to be getting under weigh. We concluded they would immediately give us chase, but in the evening, to our great vexation, they all returned into port. ”

“ The following particulars were, however, collected from the examination of several persons before Sir Richard King, the port-admiral, and the information procured from those, who saw the explosion from the Dock.
The first person known to have observed any thing was a young midshipman in the Cambridge guard-ship, lying not far distant from the place where the Amphion blew up; who having a great desire to observe every thing relative to a profession into which he had just entered, was looking through a glass at the frigate, as she lay along side of the sheer-hulk, and was taking in her bowsprit. ”

“ In 1895 the cruisers Amphion and Arethusa proved themselves able to exceed their designed speed of seventeen and a half knots, and thence onwards the increase in speed has been continuous, until we have the Invincible in the British [Pg 254] Navy capable of exceeding twenty-nine knots under service conditions and in only moderately fine weather, and the Von der Tann, in the German navy, possessing a speed of twenty-eight knots under the most favourable conditions of weather and lightness of stores. ”

“ We lay our hearts before thee evermore—
We sing and we adore!"
Keats.
He obtained Amphitrite, daughter of Ocean, in marriage, through the skill of a dolphin, although she had made to herself a vow of perpetual celibacy; and had by him, Triton, one of the sea deities. To the story of Neptune, may be attached the beautiful fable of Arion, the illustrious rival of Amphion and Orpheus.
This famous lyric poet and musician, having gone into Italy, with Periander, tyrant of Corinth, he obtained immense treasures through his profession. ”

“ Captain Hoste’s force consisted of the Amphion, Cerberus, Active, and Volage, mounting in the whole 156 guns, and carrying only 879 men. To those four ships were opposed six frigates, one brig, and four smaller vessels, numbering in guns 284, and in men 2655 [3] ! The enemy were totally discomfited, after a conflict of six hours: two frigates being captured, another destroyed, and the remainder obliged to fly from the scene of action. The British sustained a joint loss of 50 killed and 150 wounded ”

“ This officer served his time as midshipman on board the Amphion frigate, under the auspices of the present Rear-Admiral Samuel Sutton and the late Captain Sir William Hoste; was promoted from that ship into the Bulwark 74, Captain (now Vice-Admiral) the Hon. Charles Elphinstone Fleeming, Sept. 22d, 1807; and soon afterwards removed to the Astraea 32, Captain Edmund Heywood, in which frigate he suffered shipwreck, near the island of Anegada, in the West Indies, May 24th, 1808. ”

“ Amphion: “His skill in music was so great that the very stones were said to have been wrought upon by his lyre, and of themselves to have built the walls of Thebes”—Carey (see Abt Vogler) ; Zethos, brother of Amphion; Euboia, the largest island in the Ægean Sea, now Negroponte. p. 149, Minuai, the Argonauts, companions of Jason. p. 150, Taphian town, Taphiæ, islands in the Ionian Sea. p. 153, peplos, a robe. p. 154, Hellas == Greece; Nemeian monster, the lion slain by Hercules. p. 156, Kentaur race, a people of Thessaly represented as half men and half horses ”

“ With what degree of success this new opening or submarine phase in naval warfare has been attended is shown by the sinking, during the first few weeks of the war, of the British cruiser Amphion, a vessel of 3,440 tons displacement, completed in 1912, and 15carrying ten 4-inch guns, with a loss of 131 men, by contact with a German mine; the destruction of the German submarine U.15 by the British cruiser Birmingham; the sinking of an Austrian torpedo-boat by a mine off Pola ”

“ One of the important events was the adding to the commissioned fleet of the coast-defence monitor "Amphitrite," whose keel was laid in 1874. The work of remodelling her was begun in 1889, under the appropriation made by Congress in 1887. The "Amphitrite" is in some respects an old-fashioned type of vessel, but is nevertheless capable of important service. Her displacement is 3,990 tons. Her armor and armament are heavy, although not so powerful as that of the battle-ships. Her main advantage, as with all of the monitors, is that she presents a comparatively small target for the enemy's fire. ”

“ The Dolphin had a good crew, not fighting men, or boarding sailors, but good working men, and that was all she wanted. These brave, determined fellows were all, more or less, merchants; they sought a fortune rather than glory; they had no flag to display, no colours to defend with cannon; in fact, all the artillery on board consisted of two small swivel signal-guns.
The Dolphin shot bravely across the water, and fulfilled the utmost expectations of both builder and captain. Soon she passed the limit of British seas; there was not a ship in sight ”

“ The Dolphin, is the first vessel, whether for naval or commercial purposes, that is built entirely of steel of domestic manufacture, and is the pioneer representative of other similar industries which will be developed as the rehabilitation of the navy proceeds. She has proved herself eminently successful, and is the fastest sea-steamer of her displacement built in the United States, with perhaps the exception of the steam-yacht Atalanta. ”

“ The engines had been so placed as to be exposed above water-line, which was condemned as a serious mistake in a war-vessel without armor-protection. It was realized, too, that the essential characteristic in an unarmored cruiser is great speed. The function she is expected to perform is to destroy commerce; and if she is slower than the merchant-vessels it is useless for her to go to sea; and if she is slower than the iron-clads, and consequently cannot escape from them, she could not long continue her service. ”